SPIDER-GIRL 9: End Times

 

***

“It just hit me yesterday,” Bruce said quickly, looking around edgily. May didn’t entirely see why he was acting so nervous; they stood in the shadow of a rooftop water tower, after all, which was not exactly the place you expected to find eavesdroppers. Maybe it was just doing solo work like this without the Defenders’ knowledge – Mayday was pretty sure that all his previous excursions had been known to them, and equally sure that Doc Magus and Cloak wouldn’t be too happy about him allowing himself this trip.

Whatever hold Cloak had on him, anyway, it evidently wasn’t that strong.

“Shoot,” she invited.

“You said you webbed up his jetpack,” Bruce said. “But the flames kept coming, right? The webs didn’t seem to have had any effect, right?”

“Right,” she said. “So?”

“You know, given the number of illusionists your dad went up against, it’s taken you a while to figure it out yourself,” he said. “The jetpack’s a fake, designed to draw attention. The real propulsion systems must be somewhere else.”

“Like… where?”

Bruce shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t ‘watching’ via telekinesis for exhaust trails when I ran into him, I was trying to stop that arm-cannon of his blasting the hell outta me. My psi-senses aren’t the best in the world, anyway…” He sighed. “Mum’s psionics were pretty much all on a subconscious level, too.”

“Look, that’s been bugging me,” Mayday said. “Your pop was Doc Samson, and that’s fine, but I don’t know much about the Hulk’s circle. Who the hell was your mother?”

Bruce laughed, once. “She wasn’t one of the Hulk’s little extended family,” he said, simply. “She was Dagger.”

***

“Let’s do this,” Mayday said.

“You gotta teach me to use this Spider-Sense thing… I thought it just let you dodge bullets.”

“Or follow a tracer… I don’t get it, but Dad figured out how to do this while he was a teen.”

Bruce looked at her for a long moment. “No offence, May, but your dad was a geek.”

“I know,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact. “He’s pretty proud of it.”

“Proud?”

“One geek, aged fifteen, was one of five people who kickstarted the heroic age. One geek befriended the Human Torch. One geek saved the world four or five times, joined the Avengers, married a supermodel…” She shrugged, a surprisingly expressive movement in unstable molecules. “He sees himself as a more accurate representation of the geek made good than Bill Gates.”

“Well, Gates never met the Human Torch, I’ll give him that…”

Mayday shot him a glance over her shoulder. Even through her mask, Bruce could tell what she meant. He laughed. “Ahh… you were right. Let’s do this.”

“Right.”

May jumped off the roof.

***

Having a five-foot-three-inch woman, even if she keeps herself in trim, fall fifty feet and slam into your back feet-first makes somewhat of an impact. The fact she’s got mutant arachnid genetics mixed in there (Christ, Mayday, don’t you sound like a ‘50s B-Movie) is, in this instance though in surprisingly few others, neither here nor there.

Killshot was surprised. The problem with surprised people is that they tend to look in the direction of whatever just surprised them.

This isn’t always a problem, of course, but it is when it earns you webfluid all over the front of your helmet, blocking your vision.

But Killshot found himself with something else to look at almost immediately afterwards; the violet HUD graphics flashing up.

Suit Integrity Holding. Damage Minimal. Self-Repair initiated.

“You not learned yet, little girl?” Killshot called, as soon as he got a hold on himself once more.

Something popped open in his shoulder, twisted. Mayday saw a nozzle, glass –

And kicked off, jumping clear away from the laser’s blast as it struck.

“Because I did,” he said. “I’ve got the funds to be afford to improve my armour when someone points a weakness out to me. Targeting’s improved, I’ve got the weaponry to deal with people who jump on my back…”

Electricity crackled across his helmet. “I’ll give you this, I don’t know how to shake your webs yet, but I’ll learn. And until then… well, I’d best be going, don’t you think?”

An arm curled out lazily. “Sonar,” he said, by way of explanation. The energy weapon lying parallel to his forearm pulsed blue. But Mayday was already kicking off the building, arm outstretched, webline launched across the street…

…path taking her right by Killshot, who received a sharp kick to the head for his troubles. He spun slightly, just for a second, before righting himself – Bruce, watching, figured internal gyroscopes, and took a note.

“Problem with those scanning things of yours, babe, is they ain’t too sharp for telling you the future.

And that’s what you need to connect with the stunning Spider-Girl.”

“The stunning Spider-Girl?” Bruce muttered to himself. “What the hell way to talk is that?”

A manic cackle from behind him. “Oh, tell me you don’t find her stunning, Bruce. I’d love a reason to laugh in your face.”

“That’s not the point, Darkdevil,” Bruce said levelly. “Now piss off before I decide to shatter your corporeal form into its component atoms again.” He paused, thought about it. “On second thoughts, stick around. I’m gonna need someone to get me mad and boost my power levels.”

Darkdevil laughed. “I’ll have to take your first answer, sonny boy… No Brucie Bonus for you.”

Bruce felt the world shudder behind him, and knew the figure was gone.

He sighed, and stepped out into space. It generally took his TK a couple of storeys before adrenaline woke it up from passive and stopped him falling, but it was the best way of getting the damn power to fire up reliably.

And with the fastest course between two points infallibly being a straight line (unless you could teleport) it was also the most sensible way to get into the fight.

***

“Something bugging me, Killy, - can I call you that?” Mayday remarked, sidestepping another shot. “What do you do, aside from property damage and fly around waiting for me to come hit you?”

“Interesting you should ask,” he said. “I’m hired to protect the city, so I guess you could see that as being a prime concern.” Another shot shattered a nearby gargoyle.

“This is protecting the city?”

“It will be if you stay goddamn still!”

Mayday laughed. “What’s the problem? And speaking of problems, how am I a danger to New York?”

“Don’t you read the papers?”

“Actually, I think they’re a tad unfair on her.” This voice came from above the combatants; Mayday glanced up and saw Bruce standing directly above Killshot, arms folded, looking down on him with a supercilious expression.

“You got him, Titan?”

“Think so.” Looking back at Killshot, Mayday could see, just about, faint green glows emanating from two or three points on his armour. Then they intensified.

May fired her weblines just in time to catch the armoured mercenary as, mysteriously, his exhaust jets failed to keep him buoyant.

“Want some help there?”

“All you have to do is take the helmet off,” Bruce said. He pulled a small digital camera out of his pocket. “Then look up and say cheese.”

Killshot swore, loudly, bitterly, and surprisingly eloquently.

His hands reached up, rested on his helmet.

Mayday got that itch again.

He fired a split-second after she released the webbing.

***

It was lucky; she decided with hindsight, that she’d chosen to copy her pop’s old legs-wide stance when standing on walls. The superheated window shrapnelled, but didn’t take either leg with it, the beam having passed between them. Only a couple of cuts. Superficial ones, she thought.

Another two weblines, and Killshot was suspended again. Bruce’s telekinetic blocks hadn’t missed a beat. And now more green flared, this time along the arms and shoulders of Killshot’s armour.

The weapons sparked, then exploded outward, parts flying everywhere. “Let’s try that again, shall we?” Mayday called cheerfully. “Your identity or your life!”

Killshot looked up for a second, pointlessly; the webbing still firmly obscured his view. Ostentatiously, he shrugged.

An audible click sounded, his helmet seemed to bounce maybe a quarter-inch higher above his neck, and he reached up again.

Lifting the helmet off, Mike McGee scowled upward.

Bruce clicked the button. The camera flashed.

“An… interesting… scam,” Mayday said thoughtfully. “Let me see if I’ve got it right. You moonlight as Killshot, that’s fine. What the hell you’re doing being a journalist as well I have no idea. But anyway, you land this city-protection racket, and you find yourself someone you’re reasonably sure won’t take you apart you can mount a decent smear campaign against. Namely me and the legacy I represent. Then all you gotta do is convince people I’m a naughty girl they should send to my room with no supper, and you’ve got a year or two of easy fights for the full pay and thanks of a grateful populace.”

McGee nodded, slowly. “Take away the sarcasm, and you’re pretty close.”

“Care to fill in the blanks?”

“No,” he said, simply. “Go screw yourself.”

“I’ve got something altogether better planned,” she said. “But first, we’re dropping you off with your employers, Mr Killshot…”

***

“Well, uh… I guess we won,” Bruce said awkwardly.

“Mmm… Go change.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to change, and then I’m going to the Greasy Kath diner,” Mayday said. “Not in the work clothes. You’re going to be there too. And then we’re going to have a talk.”

“A… talk?”

“It’s the one you wanted,” Mayday said, laughing. “Quit complaining.”

***

Bruce looked somewhat ill-at-ease as he stepped into the diner, but at least he was dressed for his surroundings.

“Hi,” May greeted him. “I’ve ordered, so, y’know, whenever…”

“Uh,” he said. “Yeah.”

She favoured him with a sympathetic look, head on one side. “I’m guessing you haven’t done this very often?”

He nodded, uncomfortably.

“I think my folks did the right thing, keeping it all from me,” she said. “I wasn’t too happy with it at first, but, y’know… it did let me get my hand in at dating, that sort of thing. Now, I’m kinda guessing this was where you wanted to go, yes? The kiss was a clue.”

“Yeah,” he acknowledged, forcing a nervous smile.

“Cool,” she said. “Because, frankly, you’re cute and you understand the situation I’m in. This puts you two major points up on my last ex.” She frowned momentarily, studying his expression. “You weren’t expecting me to come out and say stuff like this, were you?”

“Uh, no…” Bruce said. “I, uh… Like you said, I haven’t done this much.”

“At all?” An eyebrow rose.

“Uh…” Bruce drew in a deep breath. A bead of sweat had formed on his forehead over the course of the conversation. He looked like a hunted animal. “No.”

Mayday’s foot hooked around his ankle under the table. She smiled. “Then I guess I’m gonna have to be careful not to give you the wrong impression on your first outing, huh?”

Bruce nodded, his face seemingly no more at ease.

May pouted. “Aw… don’t look at me like that. It’s just too sweet. C’mere…”

She leaned forward across the table, slid an arm around his head, and pulled him in for a kiss. “My mom has a line she recommends for moments like this,” she said, as they broke. “Something about tigers…” She looked into his eyes for a moment, saw life starting to return to them after the panic, smiled in what she fondly imagined to be a ravishing manner, and shrugged.

“Ah, what the hell. Wanna finish dinner and go somewhere private?”

Bruce nodded, not trusting himself enough to speak.

Mayday laughed.

***
END

That’s it for me, folks. That was all the Spider-Girl stories I turned out to have in me. Hope you enjoyed them, because if Mayday comes back to MV1 she won’t be written by me…

Thanks to anyone who stayed with me through this (McGee and Megan, to the best of my knowledge) and I hope to see you on my other projects – there are seven other current ongoings with my name on them, for a start.

Tom Lynch