I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet

Kitty Pryde could feel the loathing coming off them, could note their spiteful glares. The people she passed in the street spat at her, flashed obscene gestures at her, occasionally yelled at her. Their hate was directed at anyone who, like her, was cursed with what modern geneticists called the "X-gene", a particular gene that caused humans to spontaneously develop superhuman powers. They were referred to as "mutants", beings with abilities that no ordinary human could replicate.

Kitty was a mutant, and her particular curse allowed her to become intangible and pass through solid objects, including people. She considered it to be completely useless, aside from those rare occasions when she'd locked herself out of her car or home and needed to pass through the door to unlock it from the inside. While she'd been contacted by both the mutant heroes known as the X-Men and the Acolytes of Magneto, she'd refused both their invitations to join, wanting nothing to do with mutant politics and preferring to simply live her own life the way she wanted to.

Now, however, mutant politics had found her again, after a sleazy tabloid calling itself the Daily Globe had publicly revealed her as a mutant and associated her with the mass-murdering supervillain Jack O'Lantern, who had turned out to be her uncle, Steven Mark Levins. She'd received threatening letters in the mail, her mother's workplace had been picketed, and her aunt's house had been vandalized.

All because she was a mutant.

Now she saw the true faces of so many of the people around her, saw how they reacted when they'd learned she was a mutant.

She was so lost in her reverie that she couldn't react in time to avoid bumping into the short, chubby man who deliberately blocked her path. Stumbling back in alarm and dropping her books, she scrambled to pick them up but ended up falling on her face as someone kicked her from behind. Grunting in pain as she landed on the sidewalk, she rolled onto her back and rose to a sitting position in time to see two large hulking young men grinning at her.

"I'll be damned," one of the men grinned at the other. "Kick a mutie and she falls over."

"Now let's see what happens if we stick a mutie," the other man grinned sadistically, as he pulled a switchblade out of his pocket. "Think she'll bleed?"

Kitty felt a chill run through her as she saw the other man pull out a switchblade of his own, and they began advancing on her. The evil looks in their eyes, hate mixed with a perverse pleasure in what they were doing, would have spelled their intentions out clearly to Kitty even without their sadistic laughter.

All because she was a mutant.

SPIDER-WOMAN #35

"I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE UNDER MY FEET"

"Leave me alone!" Kitty spat, fear turning to anger. "What did I ever do to you?" she demanded.

"You were born," one of the thugs sneered. He lunged at Kitty with his knife, only to find himself stumbling right through her as she focused her intangibility powers. The other thug lunged in too, but Kitty phased through him too and began running.

"Nice try, cunt!" one of the thugs shouted, as he and his buddy began running after her. "You don't stop with the mutant crap and face us, we payin' your relatives a visit! Think they'd like that?"

Anger turned back to horror as Kitty paled at the thought. She stopped running and turned around, deactivating her intangibility powers as she stepped into a fighting stance. Her friend and roommate Gwen Stacy had taught her a number of basic self-defense techniques, but they hadn't gotten very far in their lessons yet and Kitty wasn't sure how effective her basic training would be against two men at once.

As the two men advanced on her, a pair of silvery-grey strands shot down from above and entangled their legs, tripping them so they landed face down on the ground. Shouting in alarm, they were suddenly pulled into the air as the strands began to withdraw, hauling the men upwards so they hung upside down in the air. Comically, their pants were pulled down around their knees by the force of the effort, exposing their underwear to Kitty and the rest of the passersby, who'd all been too intimidated to step in.

Looking up in surprise at the silvery strands, Kitty realized that they were in fact spider webbing, tied to the top of the lamppost above her. Kitty then saw the source of the weblines, who was standing on top of the lamppost and had just finished tying her webbing to the light. The new arrival was a stunning young woman with long, rich black hair and a gorgeous, svelte figure, clad in a costume of red and gold, which Kitty immediately recognized as belonging to the spectacular Spider-Woman, one of New York City's newest costumed superheroes.

Spider-Woman sprang off the top of the lamppost, twirling through the air and making a perfect three-point landing on her feet, a disgusted glare on her face as she considered the two thugs she'd just strung up.

"Wow, even smaller than I thought," Spider-Woman quipped as she looked the two men over. "Aren't you two guys the big, brave tough men, picking on a girl half your size when there's two of you and just one of her?"

"Let us go, you fucking bitch!" one of the men shouted, his face red with anger and humiliation.

"Now, why would I do that?" Spider-Woman rolled her eyes. "I think the gene pool could use a little chlorine here," she continued dryly, turning back to Kitty.

Kitty couldn't help but snicker in spite of herself.

"No, here's what we're going to do," Spider-Woman smiled, as she tied both men up with another stream of webbing and gagged their mouths shut for good measure, "this nice young lady is going to call the police, and you two are, I'm sure, going to end up getting more action from your cellmates than you ever would from an actual woman."

Behind her, Kitty had just finished dialing the police on her cell phone.

"Are you okay?" Spider-Woman asked Kitty gently, ignoring the uncertain looks and occasional catcalls from the passersby who had seen everything happen.

"…Whatever," Kitty muttered, turning away.

"I guess that means no, huh?" Spider-Woman asked.

Kitty didn't reply.

Spider-Woman opened her mouth as if to say something else, but then she turned around and glared at the rest of the passersby, many of whom were still standing and watching the scene.

"Where the hell were the rest of you, huh?" she demanded.

Some of the bystanders looked ashamed, others scowled at Spider-Woman, and still others just walked away.

"…Ingrates," Spider-Woman muttered in disgust, before she turned back to Kitty.

"Mind if I stick around until the police get here?" Spider-Woman asked. "You might need me to back up your story when they arrest Beavis and Butt-Head over there," she pointed out, gesturing to the two thugs who still hung from the lamppost.

"…Do whatever the hell you want," Kitty muttered.

Spider-Woman tried to say something else, but the words just wouldn't come.

That bothered her by itself, but it wasn't nearly as unnerving as the look she saw in Kitty's eyes.

Gwen Stacy shook her head as she tried to concentrate on her homework, unable to get what had happened with Kitty out of her mind. It hadn't taken long for the police to come and arrest the two thugs, and Kitty's and Spider-Woman's statements had been backed up by several of the bystanders who'd watched it happen. After Spider-Woman had intervened to help Kitty, many of the other people had clearly been shamed into speaking up, and the video footage one of them had filmed on their camera phone would be more than enough to send the two thugs up the river.

Although Kong had taken to escorting Kitty to and from home on a number of occasions, today he'd been called into work on short notice and wasn't able to look after her. Even then, Gwen still felt better shadowing them as Spider-Woman in case they were faced with a threat Kong couldn't handle-as she'd seen with the Constrictor, people would send superhuman assassins after their victims for the most insane reasons.

Unfortunately, all the time she'd spent shadowing Kitty as Spider-Woman had taken up quite a bit of her time, even though she hadn't had to deal with any supervillain activity since her fight with Joystick at the start of the academic year. In between working at the coffee shop and staying up later at night to try and stay on top of her studies, Gwen hadn't been getting as much sleep at night as she did during the summer. The grades she'd gotten in her first few assignments had been good enough, although she knew she could have done better if she could have spent more time on them.

Kitty stomped into the living room, an angry glare on her face. She sat down next to Gwen and began poring through a textbook, whispering under her breath the whole time.

"How's it going, Kitty?" Gwen asked gently.

Kitty just shook her head and sighed.

"Not good, huh?" Gwen persisted.

"No, unless you consider being attacked by a pair of knife-wielding thugs to be a good thing," Kitty replied snidely.

"What?" Gwen asked in horror. She knew all about the attack, of course, but Kitty didn't know that she knew.

"I'm just glad that Spider-Woman saved me," Kitty shook her head. "I'm amazed she' be willing to do that after everything my…uncle…put her through," she finished, forcing herself to say the word 'uncle' with considerable effort.

"I'd be more amazed if she didn't," Gwen replied. "She wouldn't have deserved to be called a hero if she hadn't helped you. Besides, it's like I told you before-Steven Mark Levins did all that stuff, not you!"

"…I know," Kitty finally sighed. "It's just…oh God," she finally trailed off.

"Kitty?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Gwen," Kitty said, tears in her eyes. "My life's gone to shit ever since the Globe outed me as a mutant. I can hardly go out anymore without people staring and shouting at me. Now I have people attacking me. What if…what if they…"

"…Go after your family, or your friends?" Gwen asked, taking Kitty's hand in her own.

"...Yeah," Kitty finally nodded. "I just…I couldn't live with myself if something like that happened."

"Kitty, you can't blame yourself for this," Gwen tried to point out to her.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" she asked miserably. "I'm a mutant and there's nothing I can do about it."

"So what are you going to do, then?" Gwen asked, a sharper tone in her voice now. "Cut yourself off from your friends and your family? Cut yourself off from your life? How's that going to stop the bigots from going after the people who care about?"

"I…" Kitty trailed off, not sure how to answer.

"That's what can happen if you let those people define who you are," Gwen pointed out. "Whatever happens, they're going to try to do what they intend to do. And if there's anything I can do about it, they're going to regret it," she smiled widely.

"Gwen…" Kitty trailed off again.

"Like I told you before, you're not alone in this," Gwen reminded her. "Harry Osborn and I might not be mutants, but we've felt that same way you do now-angry, helpless, alone. Liz Allan reminded Harry that he's not alone, and you helped me realize that, too. I just want to do the same for you."

Once again, Gwen stared into Kitty's eyes, hoping that she'd made an impact.

Kitty hugged Gwen tightly once again, and when she leaned back, the angry light was gone from her eyes.

Life in the Raft, the superhuman wing of Riker's Island Penitentiary, was very good for Steven Mark Levins. Publicly known as the mass-murdering supervillain Jack O'Lantern, Levins had gained considerable prestige among his professional colleagues for organizing the Tomorrow Legion, which he intended as a crime syndicate run by and for supervillains, one that could challenge the established crime lords for control of the city. While Levins himself had been defeated by Spider-Woman and subsequently imprisoned in the Raft, the Tomorrow Legion lived on under the new leadership of Doctor Octopus.

Every time he sat in the prison cafeteria, Levins was perfectly at home, chatting amiably with his fellow criminals and murderers as if he'd prepared for it all his life. Today he was having lunch with Max Dillon, better known as Electro, who'd joined the Tomorrow Legion and had recently been defeated by Spider-Man while carrying out one of the missions Octopus had given him as part of the evil doctor's larger plot.

"So, how's the Legion faring?" Levins asked Dillon, as he took a drink of coffee.

"There's been a lot of grumbling," Dillon frowned. "People are getting angry about the way Doctor Octopus has been treating them. He acts like the rest of us are just tools for whatever it is he's planning to accomplish."

"That's not what the Tomorrow Legion was meant for!" Levins spat, his anger rising. "The leader's job is to coordinate the activities of the other villains for greater profit and effect, not give them blunt orders! Octopus should be listening to what the other villains are saying, incorporating their ideas into his plans!"

"Try telling him that," Dillon shook his head. "The only thing bigger than Octopus's intelligence is his ego. He was like that when he ran the Sinister Six, too."

"How could you stomach dealing with him?" Levins asked curiously.

"All any of us really cared about was killing Spider-Man," Electro replied, "and we all figured that Octopus was the guy who could come up with the best plan to do it. Besides that, he paid really well-and for the money we were making then, it was more than worth the price. We knew we were just there to help Octopus out, and it didn't bug us. But now…"

"Doctor Octopus seems to think he's leading the Masters of Evil," Levins scowled, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his chin. "He seems to have forgotten that I specifically mentioned that, if the members of the Legion didn't like what the leader was doing, they could simply abandon them."

"It's looking like they might just do that," Dillon pointed out.

Levins didn't reply, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and staring at the ceiling, pondering the consequences of Octopus's arrogance.

A wide smile crossed J. Jonah Jameson's face as he looked over the reader feedback he'd gotten from his editorials attacking the people who'd been attacking Steven Mark Levins' relatives in retaliation for the loved ones the pumpkin-headed lunatic had killed. He'd received almost 2,500 replies of one type or another, whether e-mails, comments on the Daily Bugle website, snail mail letters or phone calls, and the majority of them had viciously attacked him. Not that Jameson cared-he'd been called worse things by better people many times before.

Lighting up a fresh cigar, Jameson opened his word-processing program and prepared to write a follow-up editorial replying to the feedback he'd received. While the fires had begun to be directed at him rather than Kitty, he knew that he hadn't succeeded in fully shifting their wrath away from her and onto him, what with that attempted knifing she'd nearly suffered last week.

An angry rage welled up inside Jameson as he thought of what that poor girl had been going through the last several weeks, ever since the Daily Globe, that rag that could barely be called a tabloid, had publicly revealed her as a mutant. It reminded him of the lynchings black people had faced in the Deep South, the horrors inflicted on the Jews in the Holocaust, the beatings inflicted on gay and transgendered people, the harassment and the hate directed at American Muslims.

Terrorists are openly walking in the streets these days. They pose a threat to our way of life, their evil undermines the freedoms our forefathers shed blood to protect, and their evil poisons our community.

You want to know who those terrorists are?

Try looking in the mirror.

The terrorists I'm talking about are the people who hate and attack mutants, who make their lives miserable because of something they can't control. The people who support monsters like the Friends of Humanity and the bombings and the murders they've committed. The people who give mutants a reason to believe in people like Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Kitty Pryde's just the most recent example. If you're one of the people who's harassed her family, you're just as much of a terrorist as anyone in HYDRA or the Secret Empire.

The editorial continued in that vein, and Jameson smiled as he realized that he'd just poured a nice tank of gasoline on the anger that was already directed at him over his previous comments regarding Kitty.

Let the games begin, Jameson chuckled, puffing away contentedly at his cigar.

"I'm so sorry I haven't been in to visit you lately, Tarot," Gwen apologized to Marie-Ange Colbert, also known as Tarot, as they spoke during visiting hours at the Raft. "I've just had so much going on…"

"It's okay," Tarot nodded. "I understand."

"How are things going otherwise?" Gwen asked.

"Good enough, considering," Tarot smiled somewhat ruefully. "It gets lonely in here, though."

"Lonely?" Gwen asked.

"You're the only one besides my parents who even comes to visit me anymore," Tarot explained. "All the other inmates in here…well…it's hard to really connect with them."

"I thought you said you were doing readings for them," Gwen scratched her head.

"Yeah, but half the time they don't believe me," Tarot replied. "The other half of the time, they treat me more like a mascot than a human being. It doesn't help that I'm a mutant," she finished bitterly. "They protect me from the bigots in here, but that's all they do. And then there are the supervillains."

"Supervillains?" Gwen asked in surprise.

"When I was first brought here, they put me in the Raft, the supervillains' wing," Tarot told her. "Most of them are sick, Gwen-all they do is brag to each other about the things they've done, or rant about how they're going to get revenge on Moon Knight or Sleepwalker. Some of Spider-Woman's enemies were interested in me at first, and then they just got angry when they found out that I didn't care about getting revenge on her. That's why I was transferred to the women's wing with the non-powered female prisoners."

"For your own safety," Gwen breathed. "Oh God, Tarot…I'm so sorry…"

"What for?" she asked bitterly. "You weren't responsible for my parents wrecking their lives, or for Felicia and Sally treating me like garbage. It's not your fault I'm a mutant."

"And it's not your fault, either," Gwen replied.

"What?" Tarot asked in surprise.

"Have you heard about what's been going on with my friend Kitty?" Gwen asked, before explaining about the Daily Globe and Kitty's being outed as a mutant. "I know how it must sound, but we know what you're going through. Some of it, at least."

Tarot didn't reply, and her expression seemed to project both appreciation and derision.

"My family life wasn't exactly the best, what with the way my Dad used my Mom as a punching bag," Gwen explained. "And as for Kitty, she nearly got stabbed last week."

"Your parents didn't get along either?" Tarot blinked in surprise.

"No," Gwen shook her head. "That's why I was always such a bitch in high school and when I started college. I know it might sound strange, coming from me, but I understand why you've felt the way you have. Really, I do…"

Tarot stared at Gwen and rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"…Looks like the tarot reading we had was even more accurate than I thought," Tarot said, more to herself than Gwen.

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked.

"Don't you remember the tarot reading I gave you the last time you were here?" Tarot asked.

"…Yeah, I do," Gwen nodded, as the memory came back to her. "How was it more accurate than you thought?

"Never mind," Tarot shook her head. "Do you also remember how, last time, you said you believed in me?"

"Yeah..." Gwen blinked.

"Do you still feel that way?" Tarot asked.

"Of course I do," Gwen said in surprise.

"I still feel that way about you, too," Tarot replied, "and about Kitty too. Tell her, for what it's worth, that she's got at least one fellow mutant who knows what she's going through, and who knows she'll pull through this."

Donald Gill's snow-white skin and hair, ice blue eyes and the power-restraining manacles around his wrists marked him as a super-powered criminal, as did the fact that he was on the prisoner's side of the visitor's divide. Although he'd been in and out of juvenile hall and adult prison all his life, as had just about every member of his extended family, Donald stood out from the rest of the infamous Gill clan by gaining superhuman powers and becoming a costumed villain. Known by the codename of Blizzard, Gill had committed all of one armored car robbery before he'd been defeated by Spider-Woman and sent back to prison. While he'd been released, brainwashed and forcibly conscripted into the supervillain army of the nightmarish freak that called itself Psyko, Blizzard had subsequently been freed of Psyko's control by Spider-Woman and later helped her save a number of people from the supervillain riots, before returning to jail.

Donald had been surprised to hear that Tarot had also been captured by Spider-Woman. From what he'd seen, most of Spider-Woman's rogues' gallery didn't get any visitors in prison, and in any event they weren't very sociable anyway. But now, overhearing the conversation between Tarot and her hot visitor, Donald couldn't help but feel bad for the poor girl.

Fortunately, his family members hadn't shown up for their regularly scheduled visit-chances are they'd all been arrested themselves after that grocery store robbery they'd been planning for the last two weeks-and when Tarot called for the guard and went back to her cell, Donald called for his own guard and went back at the same time.

"Didn't know you were one of Spider-Woman's enemies," Donald smiled at her as he followed a few feet behind.

"I'm not," Tarot muttered, not looking back at him. "I don't give a damn about Spider-Woman. If I never see her again, that's fine by me."

"You're the first person who's fought Spider-Woman who's ever said that," Donald pointed out.

That made Tarot stop in her tracks.

"What do you mean?" she asked, as she waited for Donald and his guard to catch up.

"My supervillain name was Blizzard, and I was actually the first villain Spider-Woman ever fought," Donald grinned proudly. "But aside from you, I'm probably the only one who doesn't hold a grudge against her. Firebrand, Supercharger, Will o' the Wisp, Polestar, Jack O'Lantern…there's just no talking to those guys. Either they hate Spider-Woman for wrecking whatever they had planned, or they swear that they'll kill her if they ever run into her again. Did they ever try to approach you?"

"That's why I ended up transferred into Riker's ladies wing, even though I've got powers," Tarot explained.

"Harsh," Donald said sadly. "How long are you in for?"

"Probably the rest of my life," Tarot frowned. "I committed multiple counts of felony kidnapping and attempted murder."

"Ouch," Donald frowned sympathetically. "Did you have any other plans while you were in here?"

"Like what?" Tarot demanded, an edge in her voice. "I just told you, I'm going to be stuck in here for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, but the thing with most costumed supervillains is that they plan," Donald explained. "Whenever they're in here, they spent a lot of their time planning their revenge on whichever hero captured them in the first place. Either that, or they're planning jailbreaks or their next evil schemes. The prison shrinks try to rehabilitate them, but it almost never works-most of us are lost causes. It's kind of sad, really-all that talent is completely, utterly wasted."

"So what about you, then?" Tarot blinked in surprise. "You're a supervillain too."

"Yeah, but I know that I'm a bum who'll never amount to anything," Donald explained. "We Gills actually like being in jail. The more times you've been arrested, and the more times you've broken your parole, the more the rest of the family admires you. We're not exactly Nobel Prize material, you know."

"…Huh," Tarot frowned.

"My family and I know we're a pack of losers, and we accept that," Donald continued, "but it doesn't mean that you have to. And you don't have to get caught in the same rut as the rest of the idiots in here, either-they're wasting their lives and their talents trying to get revenge on the heroes who locked them up. It's up to you what you do in here."

Tarot pondered on that, as they arrived at the main cell block and the guards separated them to return to their individual cells.

She recalled one of her previous visits with Gwen…

"There's a lot more to you than there appears," Tarot reflected. "There's so much you keep hidden from the world…but it complements what you do show to them. It comes out in different ways at different times, but it's all part of the same whole, as the different parts reflect and complement one another."

Gwen just sat there in mild astonishment, as Tarot gathered up her cards and looked back at Gwen with a new respect.

"…I don't know what to say," Gwen finally said after a few moments.

"And here I used to think you were just another flighty snob, like Felicia Hardy," Tarot mused. "Shows how much I knew."

"Well…thanks," Gwen replied, not sure what else to say.

"It's my pleasure," Tarot replied. "And for what it's worth, Gwen…I believe in you too."

Gwen only replied with an encouraging smile, a thumbs-up and a wink.

Gwen could have chosen to just leave her to rot, but she didn't.

Donald was right, Tarot realized as she thought on that. This is my choice to make.

Gwen took a deep breath as she stepped into the office building where Kingsley Cosmetics had its main New York office. She was dressed in a conservative but very classy tan brown pantsuit, accented with a short fawn-colored scarf that accented the rest of her clothes. Not only would she look professional in dealing with Roderick Kingsley, but her modest attire wouldn't give him much to look at and would probably keep his leering to a minimum.

She didn't have much trouble finding Kingsley Cosmetics' offices on the 29th floor of the building, nor did she have any problems getting into the office. She was punctually on time for her appointment, and was immediately shown into Kingsley's office, where the man himself was eagerly waiting.

The first thing Gwen noticed was the flash of disappointment in Kingsley's eyes when he saw what she was wearing. He hastily blinked to regain his composure and shook Gwen's hand warmly as she sat down. She merely smiled in welcome, doing her level best to keep her nervous tension from showing.

"I'm so glad you agreed to this meeting, Gwen," Kingsley smiled winningly. "I doubt I'm exaggerating when I say that your pictures were one of the main reasons that our Red Lavender campaign was such a hit. Now, with Satin Angel, we're ready to take it to the next level. You're going to love our campaign, believe me!"

"What did you have in mind?" Gwen asked, making sure to keep her voice even and level.

"Angels in satin," Kingsley chuckled. "I know, I know, it sounds so obvious, but most of the other cosmetics ads these days are just plugs by celebrities like Taylor Swift or Ellen Degeneres. Here, we're going back to inspiring a reaction in viewers with interesting characters, sort of like those 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' ads that Apple has going on right now. You'd be playing the role of the angel who provides the blessings of Satin Angel to the women who are looking for light in their lives."

"It sounds interesting, but how many commercials would there be?" Gwen asked. "I still have a lot to do with school, and midterm exams are coming up, too."

"But it's only the start of October," Kingsley blinked in surprise.

"Yeah, but they're in less than two weeks," Gwen shrugged sadly. "I really need to study for them."

"Don't worry, it's not a problem," Kingsley assured her. "Besides, we'd need a week or two to formalize the contract anyway. We're thinking of about two or three ads at the start, and then having them air for the next several weeks. We'd be filming another couple of ads in December as a reminder for the Christmas shopping season, too. So, what do you think?"

"I'd need to check out the contract details and the shooting schedule, but it looks pretty good," Gwen replied, forcing herself to smile.

"Great!" Kingsley said brightly. "I'm so glad you agreed to do this, Gwen-here's a little token of thanks," he finished, pushing an envelope over to her.

Opening it up, Gwen saw to her surprise that it contained an advance check from Kingsley Cosmetics, one that would more than cover the back tuition she still owed that would allow her to stay in school.

"…Thank you, Mr. Kingsley," she made sure to smile, as she put the check back in the envelope and put both of them in her pocket.

"It's my pleasure, Gwen," Kingsley smiled back, his grin taking on that crocodilian look that had made Gwen's skin crawl the first time she'd seen it.

They went over the details of the commercials, and by the time Gwen left she was deeply torn over the situation, although she was very careful not to show it.

On the one hand, the money she'd be getting from these commercials would be a huge help, and it would be a major boost for her career.

On the other hand, she'd seen that light appearing in his eyes again the more that it seemed like she was going to agree to appear in the commercials.

I need the money, Gwen reminded herself. I need the money, I need the money, I need the money…

She kept mentally chanting it to herself as she boarded the subway to return home for the afternoon.

That evening, Gwen got another call on her phone as she was doing her homework. At first inclined to ignore it, being too wrapped up in reviewing her notes from Dr. Connors' Biology class, but then the call display showed that it was from Derrick Deja, her director in the successful production of The Wiz that she'd starred in last summer.

"Hi, Mr. Deja!" Gwen replied brightly, surprised and pleased to hear from him. "What's up?"

"Not a whole lot," Derrick replied. "I've been taking a bit of a break from directing for now and focusing on my radio show," he explained, referring to Better In The Dark, the entertainment talk show that he hosted with his broadcast partner Tom Ferguson on radio station HABQ-FM. "Don't get me wrong, directing is fun, but I've just been so busy these last few months…"

"Welcome to my world," Gwen grinned. "How come you're calling? Were you looking for Randy, or something?"

"No, I was looking for you, actually," Derrick corrected her. "You a fan of Les Miserables?" he asked.

"If you're talking about the book, then no, but if you're talking about the musical, then absolutely!" Gwen enthused. "It's one of my all-time favorites! Colm Wilkinson, Lea Salonga-"

"They're preparing a new Broadway run," Derrick interrupted her, "and they're going to be making a casting call in a couple of weeks. I figured you'd be interested in auditioning."

"Would I!" Gwen exclaimed. "I mean, it's one of my all-time favorite shows!"

"I know one of the producers, so I might be able to get you an inside track," Derrick replied. "What part would you be interested in playing?"

"I've always loved Eponine," Gwen replied. "Lea Salonga was absolutely fantastic in the 10th Anniversary performance."

"Yeah, that's one of the best female roles," Derrick agreed. "They're still getting a lot of the funding together over the next couple of weeks, so you probably shouldn't have to worry about it getting in the way of studying for midterms. The pay's pretty good, too."

"Oh, Mr. Deja, you don't know how happy I am to hear about this," Gwen replied gratefully. "Is there any way I can repay you?"

"Hey, I'm the one paying you back for acing the role of Dorothy in The Wiz," Derrick chuckled. "You were half the reason we were such a hit to begin with!"

"That means a lot to me, Mr. Deja," Gwen said warmly. "Again, thanks a lot!"

"No problem, sweetie," Derrick assured her. "You take care now, alright?"

"You too," Gwen replied. "Bye now!"

As she hung up her phone, Gwen paused for a moment to bask in how well things were going right now.

Mom was all better, she would be able to pay off her back tuition, and she'd have both a major ad campaign and a Broadway production of Les Miz on her resume.

Grinning widely, Gwen set back to her homework with a renewed sparkle in her eyes.

Bruce McFarlane, nicknamed "Kong" for his massive frame and hairy, ape-like face, glared at the people who threw the occasional catcall and insult at Kitty as they walked home from school the next day. Fortunately, he'd noticed that Kitty had been getting a lot less attention over the last few days, ever since J. Jonah Jameson had published another inflammatory editorial in the Daily Bugle that compared the people harassing her to radical terrorists. Most of the public wrath that would normally have been directed at Kitty had since been shifted to the Daily Bugle, as anti-mutant hate sites and message boards were flooded with rage against Jameson. That suited Kitty and Kong just fine, given how much they preferred being left alone.

They were less than ten minutes away from Kitty's apartment building when they heard the voice.

"How does it feel?" they heard a mocking voice ring out behind them. Turning around, they saw a strange sight leaning against a lamppost. A tall, muscled man in shiny steel body armor scowled at them, his eyes shining with a strange light. His dark moustache and beard were scruffy and untrimmed, and he trembled with a restrained but almost palpable sense of anger.

"What , are you talking to us?" Kong demanded.

"How does it feel?" the armored man continued, staring directly at Kitty. "You saw their hate! You saw that they wanted to kill you! You saw that they wanted to lock you up and make you a prisoner, just because of who you are!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kong demanded, stepping into a fighting stance.

"Even when people like J. Jonah Jameson try to defend you, they end up being hated by the rest of humanity," the armored man kept talking, his voice rising into a frenzy. "And the hatred won't stop-once they deal with Jameson, they'll come back to you! They won't rest until you're dead!"

"Okay asshole, that's it!" Kong shouted, charging towards the armored man as he saw how increasingly alarmed Kitty was getting. "It's fucking showtime!"

As if noticing him for the first time, the armored man turned towards Kong and raised his arm. The ground between them erupted in a violent, cracking wave that smashed into Kong and sent him flying backwards to land on the pavement. The big man struggled to get up, but the man gestured again and the waves of earth and concrete struck him from every angle, finally leaving him bloodied and unconscious.

"KONG!" Kitty screamed in horror, as she ran towards her boyfriend. Kneeling down, she cradled Kong's badly bruised head in her arms and tried to revive him as the armored man stepped forward.

"Who the hell are you?" Kitty demanded. "Just take our damn money!" she continued, making to throw her purse to the armored man.

"You don't remember me?" the armored man asked in surprise. "My name is Avalanche…oh, you do remember me!" he continued as he saw Kitty pale.

Kitty remembered Avalanche, all right. He was the one who had tried to recruit her to join the Acolytes of Magneto, raving about how her "true heritage" as a mutant had made her one of the "rightful heirs" to the planet. The crazed look in his eyes and the manic edge in his voice had scared her off, and she'd flatly refused his offer to join the Acolytes. She hadn't heard from him after that, until the mutant terrorist group that called itself the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants had kidnapped several of Gwen's loved ones. Evidently, after he'd tried to make her a fellow Acolyte Avalanche had later joined the Brotherhood…and Kitty realized he must have fit right in.

"What do you want?" she demanded, real fear in her voice now.

"To remind you of who you are," Avalanche said coldly. "To remind you of who I am. You're betraying your own people, Kitty-you live in the humans' world, you let them tell you what to do, you let them have all the power! You're wasting your gifts, and for what? To let humans spit on you and call you a monster?"

"I don't give a damn what you think!" Kitty shouted back, her hackles rising now. "I just want to be left alone!"

"I offer you the chance to join the Acolytes, and this is how you repay me," Avalanche spat in disgust. "The Acolytes are a family, Kitty-we have a bond that no human could ever hope to know."

"I already have a family," Kitty spat in disgust. "I don't need Magneto, and I don't need you. You can both go to hell for all I care!"

Avalanche's eyes flared with anger, and the ground around him quaked as he prepared to crush Kitty and the unconscious Kong with it. With a frenzied gesture, he brought the earth and the concrete moving forward, screaming in rage all the while.

Kitty's heart pounded as she tried to drag the unconscious Kong away. While she might have been able to phase through the rocks, and she might even have been able to phase Kong while touching him, he was too heavy for her to move. Even if they managed to phase through the concrete, they'd be stuck…and if Kitty had to let go of Kong for any reason, he'd be crushed by the concrete.

A spray of webbing came up from behind Kitty, weaving a barrier that connected to the buildings on either side of the street. The rubble and debris piled into it and was stopped dead by the web barrier, forming a screen of concrete and asphalt that absorbed the rest of the debris as well. Looking around in surprise, Kitty saw the lithe red-and-gold clad figure of the spectacular Spider-Woman charging in and leaping over the web barrier as Avalanche shouted curses at her.

Kitty couldn't move Kong, but she refused to leave him, either. Whipping out her cell phone, Kitty frantically dialed 911 as she heard the sounds of fighting from the other side of the barrier.

"SPIDER-WOMAN?" Avalanche roared, sending another wave of debris at Spider-Woman as she rolled out of the way. "I might have known someone like you would interfere?"

"Still upset about my ruining your political stunt?" Spider-Woman scowled. She had marked Kitty with the pheromones that alerted her "spider senses" whenever someone she'd marked was in trouble or otherwise in a situation of interest to her, and had clearly arrived just in time. Rolling around Avalanche's wave of debris, she fired a pair of sting blasts from her hands that Avalanche deflected by raising a wall of earth to block them. Faster than Spider-Woman expected, Avalanche reshaped the wall into a surging wave of debris that crashed down on top of her. Her body wracked with pain from the falling pieces of concrete, Spider-Woman was unable to break free as Avalanche sent the pile of debris surrounding her surging forward. They crashed into another wall of asphalt that Avalanche raised behind Spider-Woman, causing her to shout in pain.

"I swear to Magneto, you'll pay!" Avalanche shouted, as Spider-Woman finally broke free of the asphalt and staggered to her feet. "You're just as bad as the X-Men!" Spider-Woman sprang into the air and spun a webline, intending to attack Avalanche with a swing kick, but the earthmoving mutant focused his vibrating powers on the webline itself and shook it so violently that Spider-Woman lost her grip on it. Falling towards the ground, she tried to spin another webline but was caught by a high-riding wave of debris that slammed her head on. Stunned from the impact, the wave reshaped itself into a jagged slide that Spider-Woman slid down. Bleeding in several places from the pointed edges of the broken concrete, Spider-Woman staggered to her feet once again as Avalanche laughed triumphantly.

"And to think, you actually managed to defeat Spiral!" Avalanche laughed mockingly. "Suffice to say that I'm not impressed!"

Spider-Woman didn't reply, merely shooting twin streams of webbing from her hands at Avalanche. The earthmoving mutant easily deflected them with his vibratory powers so the webbing flew wide and stuck to the debris on either side of him, just as Spider-Woman expected. Grinning wickedly, she brought her arms together, pulling the debris down on top of Avalanche and catching him completely off guard. Avalanche shifted his vibrations to free himself from the debris, but he left himself wide open to Spider-Woman striking him with her sting blasts.

The first blast staggered Avalanche, and the second one knocked him flat on his back. As he struggled to get up, Spider-Woman charged forward and blasted him a third time, this time causing him to fall flat on his face. Realizing that her blasts weren't hurting him very much due to his body armor, Spider-Woman lashed out at Avalanche and caught him in the jaw with a vicious right hook. Dizzy from the blow, Avalanche couldn't stop Spider-Woman from spinning around on one foot and using the other to deliver a vicious kick to the chest, which sent him flying back to crash heavily into the wall of debris behind him, where he slumped into unconsciousness.

Normally, Spider-Woman would have never kicked Avalanche with her full strength, but she knew his body armor would keep him from being too critically injured. As it was, Avalanche lay slumped down at her feet, and beyond him she could see the police officers trying to pick their way over the debris.

Nodding in satisfaction, she leapt into the air and swung away on a webline, knowing both that Avalanche was probably wanted for escaping from prison and that Kitty and Kong would almost certainly be able to provide further testimony to what Avalanche did to them.

Returning to her apartment, it was only a matter of minutes before Gwen had changed out of her costume and back into her street clothes, and had applied enough ointment to treat her injuries and enough strategically applied makeup to hide them. It was one of the ironies that all the experience Gwen had gotten using makeup to hide the wounds her mother had suffered at the hands of her father had proven a godsend when she'd needed to hide her own battle wounds and keep her secret identity.

Kitty had called the apartment from the hospital where they'd taken Kong, and Gwen needed less than an hour to get there on the subway. When she arrived, Kong's parents were talking with the doctor and Kitty was sitting in the hallway outside Kong's hospital room.

"Oh, Gwen!" Kitty leapt up and caught Gwen in a hug before she could react. Gwen did her best not to wince at the sudden pain she felt as Kitty squeezed her various bruises and sprains, but in any event she quickly forgot the pain as she saw the look of relief on Kitty's face. "I'm so glad you're here…"

"How's Kong?" Gwen asked in concern.

"He suffered a mild concussion, but he'll be alright," Kitty replied. "Thank God Spider-Woman came along when she did."

"Spider-Woman?" Gwen asked curiously. "What happened?"

Kitty relayed the story, but Gwen was less interested in what Kitty was saying than how she was saying it. Much of the anger and the stress she'd displayed over the past two weeks was gone, replaced with relief and serenity.

"I'm just glad Kong's alright," Gwen said when Kitty had finished.

"You know, when I saw Kong getting beaten by Avalanche, I realized something," Kitty realized.

"What's that?" Gwen asked.

"He didn't care that I was a mutant," Kitty explained. "He never cared that I was a mutant. To him, I was just his girlfriend."

"That's what I was trying to tell you before," Gwen smiled. "It doesn't matter to Kong, it doesn't matter to me, it doesn't matter to anyone who's really important to you. You want to know the only thing that matters?"

"What's that?" Kitty asked.

"That you're Kitty Pryde," Gwen explained, hugging her tightly once again.

'Cause you're everywhere to me

And when I close my eyes it's you I see

You're everything I know

that makes me believe

I'm not alone

I'm not alone

-Michelle Branch

(Next Issue: Things are looking up for Gwen in her personal life, as she begins preparing for the Satin Angel ad campaign with Kingsley Cosmetics and to audition for a part in Les Miserables. However, Gwen finds that she's confronted with a nemesis far more dangerous than any she's ever faced before-namely, the stress of midterm exams. Even that may not be the biggest of Gwen's problems, as Moonstone begins to put a twisted new psychological plot in motion! All this and more in Spider-Woman #36: Moonlight Shadow!)