Chapter 51: Bad feelings and signs, part 2

Her forearm tugged with a viscous pain with each heartbeat, reminding her of the wound she'd received in the fight, but it was a pleasant pain. A physical sign that Gwen was moving forward. Thanks to their actions today, Tuco and her whole gang have been caught, and maybe the police can find evidence leading up the crime chain. It may not be the case of the century, but it may very well be the first steps toward undermining the wall of legal immunity of the real queen of the underworld, Quinpin. It's all in the hands of the police now, and if there's anything worthwhile in this case, Jane Stacy is the one who can see it. Gwen wanted to believe she'd given her mother the chance she'd been waiting for fifteen years, ever since her father died.

Still, the uneasy feeling she'd had upon entering the club never went away. At first Gwen thought it had something to do with that blond girl, Daisy, who'd pushed her in the entrance and then nearly died at the hands of a criminal. But Daisy survived, and her spidey sense just won't let up.

"Do you think they can do it?" asks Bobby, watching from the roof of the building as the cops, led by Jane Stacy, pack up the drug ring.

"There could be some serious evidence there. It's a chain that can be untwisted, I'm sure the captain will do his best. The problem has always been that no one talks. Petty criminals fear Fisk far more than they fear prison... and also, that Murdoch, as soon as the language appears, Devilface immediately takes over his "protection" and that's it, the informant is shut up. But now the police have a real chance of success..." the girl voiced her thoughts, at the same time treating the wound with the hemostatic gel that appeared in her belt at Parker's suggestion.

Bobby looked at her companion from a new angle - she's pretty good at this, much better than you'd expect from a girl her age. Either she and the symbiote were wrong to assume that the Spiderwoman was very young in real life, or she had something to do with the police. Which, by the way, might be indirectly evidenced by her willingness to involve the police in this case.

And yet, well aware of the power and danger of the Mafia Queen, Barbara had some doubts on this issue, it seemed to her that her friend said all this not in order to convince her, but because she herself needed convincing. Bobbie took note: to follow up on the case. Who knows what dirty tricks Fisk might fall for to avoid jail?

"At least she's not as hostile to Spider-Woman anymore, you're on the plus side, no matter how you look at it," Bobby decides not to challenge Gwen's opinion just yet.

"Yes, thank you... I could never have made it go this smoothly on my own," Stacy puts her hand on Barbara's shoulder confidentially.

The girl was no longer frightened or repulsed by the creature lurking in her body. Bobby... no, they were both Venom, proving that they deserved to be treated with an open mind. Now Gwen was even feeling a little ashamed of herself for thinking redemptive thoughts toward the girl the first time they'd met.

"That's what we do - we help each other," Bobby replies with unexpected insight, "and I've been sitting in the lab too long. It's all fascinating, of course, but sometimes you need a break!"

After saying goodbye to her new friend, Gwen went home. Since Jane Stacy clearly wasn't going home tonight, the entire apartment was at the girl's disposal, allowing her to fix her costume without too much fuss. When she was done, Stacy tossed her superhero outfit into the washing machine and, with a mug of hot coffee, waited in front of the TV to finish the laundry, where she unexpectedly fell asleep.

She was brought back to reality by the alarm on her phone, which went off even though she hadn't turned it on after last night. Realizing she'd left her suit in the washer all night, Gwen woke up instantly, but lucky for her, Jane Stacy never came home, and the friendly neighbor's secret was never solved.

Hastily concealing the evidence, Stacy headed off to her studies, on her way to the university she read Mary Jane's angry messages prompted by her leaving rehearsal yesterday, until she suddenly received a new text message from her friend.

"Shit! Shit! You gotta see this!" along with that short message, MJ sent out a link to the online video to everyone.

"Another Tony Stark feat," the girl hummed as she opened the link.

"Why all the excitement? The redhead had never been an avid Iron Lady fan, had she?" Gwen pondered while Tony Stark landed in the video outside some diner with an unconscious body on her shoulder. The picture was of pretty good quality, though the footage was clearly taken by someone who had been in the diner.

The body, which turned out to be a Hispanic woman in her forties, was thrown directly on the ground. It was probably the perpetrator, and the police were on their way, while the superheroine herself danced her way inside the building. Her metal boots tapped the rhythm she knew so well on the tiles, the same rhythm she'd beaten on her drums when recording their recent song. As she approached the counter, Stark removed her helmet to place her order, and it finally became clear what had caused Mary Jane to react so violently. As soon as the Iron Lady's helmet opened, the melody that played inside the superheroine's costume spilled through the diner. From their song, the tune.

"Check out our channel! A million views on YouTube, almost a thousand purchases on BandCamp, and that's in just a couple of days!"

At first Stacey was excited about the sudden success of their group, but then she realized that from now on, Red's pain in the ass would get even bigger, and she already didn't have enough time to combine superhero activities with her old hobby. And soon she'd have to answer to Connors about her new job. If she'd had the job offer a few months ago, she wouldn't have hesitated, but she wasn't Spiderwoman yet.

Suddenly every one of her hobbies became something more. Performing on a TV show turned into a full-fledged... uh, superhero thing, their band's second song was an unexpected success, and an internship at the Connors lab suddenly led to an offer of a high-paying position at a firm that Karen said had every chance of becoming one of the most advanced in the world.

Gwen was confused, she loved spending time with her friends, she sure as hell adored music, but it had always been just a hobby, she couldn't spend that much time on it, much less give up science for it. Something had to be done, and it had to be done now. How could Toni Stark manage to do everything at once?

But the shock of the sudden success of their song was only the first of a series that hit Gwen. Already at the university, her joy was somewhat dampened by the news that Connors had finally left her old job and they now had a different instructor. An old, dry woman, at the sight of whom, Gwen thought of autumn leaves, because, like leaves, it cost her nothing to break away from a branch. Her voice was thin and raspy, the way springs report their breakage. Stacy couldn't help thinking that the old woman wasn't talking to tell the students the material, but to hear evidence of her existence.

The fact that Connors had completely given up teaching signaled that it was time to make a decision about working with her. After class, Stacy tried to call Karen to talk to her about it, but the professor wasn't picking up.

"Probably too busy on her first day of work," Gwen decided and headed home.

Stacy Sr. returned immediately after her daughter, barely dragging her legs from exhaustion, but as content as a hound that had chased her prey.

"She's given me a lot of work to do," Jane complained to her daughter, "but I must admit she did do something useful this time."

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It turned out that the Tuco Salamanca case had not only given the police leads to the Mafia queen, but had brought Quinpin down with a barrage of incontrovertible evidence. According to Jane, the only way out of the puddle in which Wilma Fisk sat was to go to jail, and not even Devil Murdoch could ruin the coming case.

Of course, Gwen had known beforehand about Tuco's connection to Queenpine, but she hadn't dared hope for such a result even in her wildest dreams, so what had the cops found at that club?

But the best part wasn't even that, but the bottom line that Jane had summed up in their conversation:

"Maybe I was wrong: this Spiderwoman isn't so useless," Jane exhaled, draining half a carton of milk straight from the fridge.

Luckily the woman didn't notice the excitement flickering on her daughter's face at those words.

"Hey," Jane waved the empty carton toward the television, "turn it up, there's something about OzCorp again.

On "The Facts," the new brainchild of the up-and-coming Jamieson, there was indeed the sensational announcement this morning by the head of OzCorp, the notorious Norma Osborne. At a press conference specially assembled for the occasion, the woman announced that OzCorp was beginning a new program in collaboration with the newly formed ParkerIndustries. And then she talked about the main purpose of their collaboration. It was like a bomb blowing up all the news portals and newspapers. A cure for cancer.

It should be understood that it was the personality of the woman who made the announcement that played a major, if major, role in the uproar. It is one thing when an unknown company or scientist promises an unprecedented breakthrough in medicine or any other field of science. Everyone understands that the purpose of such high-profile announcements is to try to attract investors. But OzCorp is at such a high level of development that its head cannot afford to make careless remarks; if Norma Osborne says she is one step away from beating cancer, then there must be a reason.

Stacy understood it all at once. After all, she had never complained of a lack of intelligence. While others wondered why Norma needed to start a new subsidiary, disguising it as a partnership, Gwen already knew who was really behind it all. Even yesterday she doubted that Parker really had any chance of succeeding in his plans to cure Deadpool, but now...there was no way he could have instigated that kind of resonance without laying the groundwork for his confidence!

"Connors!" it suddenly dawned on the girl, "this is the job Karen was talking about, it all adds up: a new company, an innovative breakthrough!"

Stacy couldn't help but be amazed at the guy's scope and courage. Looking at the hype he made, she was no longer so sure Parker's ambitions were unreasonable. What's more, she almost believed in him, for he'd somehow managed to convince Karen to join his new venture. He could get Norma Osborne to do whatever he wanted, but Connors was thinking for himself.

"At least something useful," Jane concluded after watching the report, "apparently that terrorist attack was good for OzCorp, they'd rather make medicines than weapons."

Unlike her mother, Gwen knew exactly how the recent incident had affected the company's management. In fact, she still had her doubts about the rightness of their choices. Of course, the alternatives were no better-death or imprisonment for an otherwise innocent woman-but wasn't Parker going too far? Why on earth would he think he had the right to continue to exercise power over Norma's mind? Let his compulsions benefit the woman and those around her.

Here the girl's thoughts were interrupted by Jane's telephone.

"What is it again?" The tired woman exhaled irritably, but answered anyway. "Yes... good evening, Madam Mayor. Yes, well... of course, my department will take the case, of course, ma'am... well that's a rest..."

"Did something happen?" Gwen asked, figuring in her mind how long her mother had been awake, considering that she hadn't been home since Tuco had been detained last night.

"A school shooting, probably another terrorist attack," Jane threw in as she hurriedly started to get ready to go back to work.

At those words, the bad feeling, like a pesky insect that had been haunting Gwen since last night, increased dramatically, sounding the alarm.

"At school? Which school?" Gwen asked, alarmed.

Surprised by her abrupt tone, Jane was confused at first, but then a sympathetic expression appeared on her face.

"That's where those girls from your group go," Jane remembered, "Midtown High School."

"Did someone die?" Gwen asked, holding her breath.

"Yes," the policewoman answered quietly, "I don't know the details yet, but there was a firefight, and there were fatalities."

 

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