Stalking Charges

He usually left his victims in despair or shock, when he didn't just leave them dead. Most of them weren't able or willing to face him at his various murder trials, although it didn't matter since he always pleaded guilty anyway. While other criminals on trial expressed remorse or insisted they were innocent, he was all smiles. His smile was especially ghastly, given that it came from reshaping the mouth hole in the half-melted slag that covered his face. That same red and orange slag covered the rest of his body in a broken, jagged pattern. While the power-dampening shackles around his wrists prevented him from using his flamethrowing powers, everyone else in the courtroom could see how he fantasized about burning them alive when he looked at them.

His name was originally Harvey Russell Broxtel, but he was now better known by his supervillain codename of Firebrand.

Gwen Stacy knew about Firebrand's murderous flaming rampages better than anyone else. In her superhero identity as the spectacular Spider-Woman, she'd repeatedly battled Firebrand. While Gwen won most of her battles against Firebrand, those battles left her seriously injured and dozens of innocent bystanders dead by the time they were over. Gwen's latest fight with Firebrand came when he attacked the wedding rehearsal of her friends Harry Osborn and Liz Allan. Gwen defeated Firebrand, but not before he'd killed four people and hospitalized several others including Gwen herself. The injuries Gwen suffered during the battle were the worst yet, and she'd been asleep for two days before she'd finally woken up.

Gwen was the only victim of Firebrand's rampage who wasn't too injured or too upset to attend the trial. She'd also helped Liz, Harry and a few of the other victims with their impact statements, and she'd volunteered to read them in court. She'd justified doing it as a way to spare her friends and their families the pain of having to see Firebrand in court, and that was true.

It wasn't the only reason Gwen wanted to do it, though.

She needed to see Firebrand put away with her own eyes.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-WOMAN #99

STALKING CHARGES

Firebrand's trial lasted most of the morning, and most of that time consisted of Gwen and others reading their victim impact statements. A part of Gwen came to regret doing that, since Firebrand smirked all through their readings. When her turn came, she shuddered at the way Firebrand leered at her. It reminded her all too much of Supercharger, another one of her enemies who had a twisted crush on her as Spider-Woman. He'd gotten electrical superpowers to murder her critics, but when she expressed her disgust and horror at what he'd done he became just as eager to kill her too.

Once Gwen finished reading the statements her friends prepared, she left the witness box and returned to sit in the gallery. As she did, Firebrand stood up, pushing his lawyer away when he tried to stop him.

"I thought I recognized you," Firebrand said as Gwen passed by his desk. "Long time no see, Gwen," he continued, finishing in a crackling raspy voice.

"I have nothing to say to you," Gwen said without looking at him.

"Really?" Firebrand said, as Gwen turned to sit on one of the gallery benches. "Wondering what might have been between us? Or are you still the same cocktease you were in high school?"

Gwen's eyes flared with anger and she turned around, her fists cocked to attack Firebrand, before she forced herself to calm down.

"Maybe I missed the boat going after Liz Allan," Firebrand said, his leering smile growing even wider. "Is that why you're here? Are you jealous…or are you guilty?"

"Order!" the judge shouted, slamming his gavel to emphasize his point. The bailiffs quickly came up and forced Firebrand to sit back down, before Gwen sat down again.

It took all her effort to blink away the tears in her eyes.

Firebrand was sentenced to life in prison for his latest killing spree. It seemed pointless to Gwen, given that Firebrand had already been sentenced to life in prison the last three times she'd defeated him as Spider-Woman. When the trial finally adjourned, she left the court and went to try and find something to eat, desperate to get away from Firebrand and everything to do with him.

Soon, Gwen was sitting in the Gaian Food Experience, a vegetarian place her cousin Jill Stacy recommended. Eating a veggie burger and a dressed-up salad helped relieve some of Gwen's stress, but she knew she still had work to do. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out her ClarkePhone and dialled Liz.

"Hi Gwen," Liz said once she picked up. "How'd it go?"

"About as well as you could expect," Gwen said. "That sick bastard got a life sentence, and he was smiling like he'd just won the goddamn lottery."

"…Thanks for attending for me, Gwen," Liz said after a few moments. "I just couldn't bring myself to face-"

"It's fine," Gwen said. "It was something I needed to do too."

"Are you sure you should have done it, though?" Liz asked. "You didn't need to see him again, and we probably could have gotten someone else to read-"

"No, Liz, no," Gwen interrupted her. "I needed to do this. If someone else was going to try to read it, I would have come with them. You and Harry didn't need to put yourselves through this."

"But why you?" Liz persisted. "You sound really upset."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Gwen said. "Don't worry about me, though. I'll be alright. How's Harry holding up?"

"Better than I would have expected," Liz said. "He's better than he was after that Squid and Fortune lady went after him," she continued, referring to the Squid and Ms. Fortune, two revenge-crazed villains that Gwen had defended Harry from as Spider-Woman.

"That's something, at least," Gwen said. "Did you guys want to get together later? Maybe not today, but-"

"Sure, I'd love to," Liz said. "We could probably all use a drink or two after this."

"Don't I know it," Gwen said. "Take care, Liz."

"Bye, Gwen," Liz said, before they hung up.

Liz stared at her phone for several long moments after hanging up. Despite Gwen's assurances, she was still confused about why Gwen was so insistent on being the one to read their victim impact statements at Firebrand's hearing. She didn't recall Gwen having any real interaction with Harvey Broxtel at Midtown High, and yet Gwen had immediately volunteered to take Liz's place at Firebrand's trial.

Thinking about it made Liz recall about an incident well over two years ago, when she'd been threatened by Firebrand and saved by the heroic Spider-Woman. Liz had later run into Gwen at the hospital, where she was up and about despite having suffered injuries Liz knew would never have let Gwen be let out of bed. At the time, Gwen said something about being caught too close to one of Firebrand's burning buildings, but that explanation had nagged at Liz for some reason she couldn't quite discern.

Then there was also the time that Liz had been saved by Spider-Woman when she was kidnapped by Tarot. Gwen had fallen out of the grip of one of Tarot's creatures, and when Liz met Gwen later she was covered in cuts and scratches. Gwen said that she'd landed in a tree when Tarot's creature had released her, but that bothered Liz for some reason.

Over the next two years, Liz had many other things to occupy her thoughts, and she'd mostly forgotten about her nagging doubts. Now, though, the recent incident with Firebrand-and finding Gwen badly burned and passed out after fleeing through another part of the burning church that no one else escaped from-brought them all back to her mind.

The memories nagged at Liz, and she wasn't sure what to make of the implications.

Working as a psychiatrist at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane was seen as an exercise in futility by most of the medical profession. The place held some of the most infamous supervillains in the entire country, villains like the Abomination, the Brothers Grimm, Sabertooth, Speedfreek, the Hobgoblin and Supercharger, whose names and reputations terrified the public. They, and the rest of the institution's inmates, were renowned for being untreatable lost causes.

The federal Justice Department briefly took it over directly, intending to scuttle the psychiatric treatment aspect of the place altogether, but prisoners' rights activists forced them to back off. As a result, Ravencroft stayed in legal limbo, its inmates unable to be legally prosecuted for their crimes and unable to be executed due to their not having technically been found guilty for their crimes, until the bureaucrats could figure out what to do with it.

A few of Ravencroft's more naïve and idealistic psychiatrists continued to try to treat their patients, but their determination was matched only by their lack of success. Most of Ravencroft's psychiatrists now only showed up to collect their paychecks, knowing that nothing would ever change.

Dr. Bart Hamilton was one of those psychiatrists. When he wasn't going through the motions of treating his patients, he was studying the college and professional sports scores. Dr. Hamilton was renowned for cheering the New York Giants and Yale's varsity team, but most people didn't know how heavily he bet on college and professional football alike. Most people didn't know just how bad Dr. Hamilton was at picking winners either, to the extent that he'd run up over $70,000 in gambling debts.

The crime syndicates that ran sports betting in most of the United States weren't known for their patience or mercy towards debtors.

Dr. Hamilton considered himself lucky to receive a way to have his debt forgiven. He didn't know why HYDRA wanted to pour the powder he'd been given into the heating duct in his office, and he didn't really care, either. The HYDRA people he'd talked to had already paid off his debt to the crime syndicate. They made it clear that if he didn't cooperate, anything the crime syndicate would have done to him paled in comparison to what HYDRA would.

"So please don't go, don't leave me here," the creature sang to himself as he lay alone in his cell. "I get ever so lonely from time to time, I'll find you…Anywhere you go, I'll be right behind you, right until the ends of the earth, I'll get no sleep till I find you to tell you that you take my breath away…"

'You Take My Breath Away' was one of the creature's favorite Queen songs. He was fond of classic rock, ranging from Paul Anka to Electric Light Orchestra to Eric Clapton to the Police, finding that many of their lyrics reflected his outlook on life. It was unlikely that any of the creature's idols would have been flattered by his attention, though. His skin was a deep blue except for the bright red streak passing down the middle of his face and torso, and the matching streaks along the middle of his arms. His hair was a light white-blue that stood on end, and his entire body was threaded with wires that went into and out of his skin like gruesome stitching.

Once, the creature was named Ronald Hilliard. He was more popularly known as Supercharger these days, gaining his notoriety from the killing sprees he'd committed. Supercharger originally gained his powers to murder the critics of the spectacular Spider-Woman, who he had a major crush on. Once she'd rejected his sick claims, his crush turned into a murderous rage as he became determined to kill her for 'leading him on', as he put it. They'd fought several times since, although she managed to defeat him before he was imprisoned at Ravencroft.

Supercharger could have escaped from his cell if he had access to his electricity-controlling superpowers. Unfortunately, he and all the other inmates were bound by special restraining shackles that prevented them from using their abilities to escape. He was forced to stew in his cell, fuming over the unfairness of it all and how he would kill Spider-Woman once he got out.

Supercharger was distracted from his musings by a strange sight that seemed to come from the duct in the corner of the room. Crawling over to look at it, Supercharger saw that it was a strange sort of powder floating in the air. He backed away warily, unsure of what it would do to him, but the dust almost seemed to follow him. Faster than Supercharger expected, the floating powder coalesced around his power-restraining shackles. The glow the shackles emanated turned from a red to a bizarre gold, before everything around Supercharger went dark.

Looking around in alarm, Supercharger saw his surroundings change to the side of a road, the lights of a city visible in the distance. He heard a strange clicking sound, and his shackles suddenly opened and fell to the ground, utterly inert.

At first, Supercharger didn't realize what was going on, but then it all made sense to him. He recognized the lights as New York City, and as he concentrated his hands lit up with the golden glow of electricity.

An evil smile crossed Supercharger's face as he realized what that meant.

HYDRA and the technocratic terrorist organization AIM were enemies, but AIM was always ready to make money selling its technological marvels to other organizations. One of their latest inventions was a new type of remote-controlled nanotechnology that could disable other technology and teleport targets to different places. AIM originally designed it for sabotaging and infiltrating enemy installations, but HYDRA had another use for it. As a way to distract law enforcement from some of the activities they were planning in New England, HYDRA used AIM's nanotech to release all of Ravencroft's inmates, freeing them from their power-restraining shackles and transporting them to random places outside the asylum.

Villains like the Brothers Grimm, the Abomination, Jack O' Lantern, Deadpool, Supercharger and Speedfreek suddenly found themselves free, and it didn't take long for them to take advantage of it.

It's the sort of thing that is going to make us all explode one day, Timothy Danson typed, still shaking angrily from the memory of it. It's all going to come down, either because women's folly finally catches up to them or because we destroy shit and rape every woman we can find for denying us our sexual rights.

Timothy was still enraged over the humiliation he'd endured at the New York Comic Con several weeks ago. He'd kissed some blonde cunt who was dressed up like the Tales of Phantasia character Arche Klaine, and she'd called security on him. The beta male who backed her up had hidden behind the security guards who'd thrown him out of the building. That humiliation was the last straw for Timothy, who'd spent much of his time since then venting about it to his fellow incels.

I don't get it, one of his fellows wrote on their forum. I have money, I have taste, I have a car to die for, but all these women just date broke losers who don't treat them properly. I see happy couples at my college and it's all I can do not to kill them. I want to ruin their happiness and see them screaming for mercy. Is that really a bad thing?

I'm 25 and I'm still a virgin, another incel wrote. Those entitled sluts don't recognize that I'm a gentleman. When our rage goes legit, when it goes mainstream, they'll regret not giving me what's rightfully mine.

The problem is with modern society, yet another incel said. Women are being set up to be worshipped when all they really are is cum-dumpsters. Why can't we go back to the way things should be? Lucky women were given to suitable men in arranged marriages. The unlucky women would be spoils of war and made sex slaves. Much simpler than having to learn game, isn't it?

Timothy would have liked to return to those glory days too, but he wasn't really sure how to do it.

Needing a break, Timothy finished his latest post and logged out of the forum. He was about to shut off his computer when he saw something interesting on the news app.

Suddenly, he was re-energized.

If he couldn't go back to the glory days, he could make those bitches regret ever leaving them.

"Long day, dear?" Jamie Barton's mother Annie asked as Jamie walked past her towards the stairs.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Jamie said with a sigh. "Sometimes I wonder if it's really worth it…"

"You know that it is," Annie said. "How many women do you think have been waiting for an opportunity to speak out like this? They didn't feel like anyone would listen, or that they were alone. You were the one that told me that, remember?"

Jamie smiled at the reminder-she needed to hear that.

"Thanks, Mom," she said, coming over and hugging Annie before kissing her on the cheek.

Jamie went upstairs to lay down and do some reading, needing the time to relax. Everything was calm for about twenty minutes before she heard the scream and the loud crackling.

Jamie suddenly stood up, alarmed when she recognized Annie's cries. Running downstairs, she came into the living room and screamed in horror at the sights she saw awaiting her.

The first sight was of her parents' and sister's charred bodies on the floor in front of her. The second sight was of the monster that stood over them, glowing with his own electricity.

Looking up at her, the monster smiled.

"Moon appears to shine, and light the sky with the help of some fireflies…" the creature rasped. "I wonder how they have the power to shine, shine, shine…I can see them under the pine…"

If Jamie had stopped to think about it, she might have recognized the monster's singing as being a passage from one of Peter Frampton's most famous songs.

She didn't have time to ponder it, though, as the monster turned his electricity on her. Her horror gave way to terror and then to agony, and finally merciful death.

It's impossible, Liz thought to herself as she walked to her afternoon shift at the hospital. Gwen can't be Spider-Woman. How could she possibly be?

It simply didn't make any sense to Liz. She wondered if Gwen could possibly be a mutant, but she didn't think it likely. With all the pain their mutant friend Kitty Pryde had suffered from anti-mutant racism, Liz thought that Gwen probably would have told Kitty she was a mutant too as a way of supporting her.

And what would motivate Gwen to put on a costume and go out fighting crime anyway? Liz wondered, utterly baffled at the idea. I know Harry's dad did it, but he was a sick monster, she continued, thinking about her fiancé Harry Osborn and his father Norman, who was also the Green Goblin, a costumed supervillain.

It's ridiculous, Liz told herself as she walked through the hospital's front doors. There's no reason for Gwen to do it!

And yet the coincidences kept nagging at Liz. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't dismiss the possibility that she might be right and that Gwen really was a costumed superhero.

Liz didn't like being unable to shake the feeling, and she didn't like having to think about what to do with such knowledge either.

"I always wondered if we'd ever find someone we could look up to," Timothy said to Supercharger as they sat in comfortable chairs. They were on a raised platform in a private conference center meeting room they'd rented for the occasion, relaxing comfortably with drinks. Several of Timothy's colleagues sat at tables around them, also enjoying drinks. Supercharger was clad in a heavy trenchcoat, scarf and hat to disguise his bizarre appearance, allowing him to move around in public for brief periods of time.

"What can I say?" Supercharger said with a smile. "I never anticipated that so many other men would have the same issues with women leading them on the way I did with Spider-Woman."

"The thing is we all thought we were alone," Timothy said, looking into his drink before looking around at the other men sitting at the tables watching their discussion. "We didn't realize that all the cunts were in on this together, trying to deny us our rights. All the Stacys, and all the sellout Chads who go along with them."

"But isn't that what feminism's about?" Supercharger said, as several of the men in the audience gave approving murmurs and nods. "Keeping us from enjoying our rights. That's why retribution is so important, like the retribution I've tried to take against Spider-Woman."

"And you'll get her soon enough," Timothy assured him. "In the meantime, though, we can't tell you enough how much it means to us that you're finally helping us get some revenge on the cunts," he said, as the audience resumed its approving murmuring and nodding. "Everyone from Jamie Barton to Letitia Morriss to Lindsay Cunningham," he continued, referring to some of the people Supercharger had murdered along with their families. Some of the women Supercharger killed had rejected members of the audience, while others were commentators and activists who'd angered members of the audience with their statements.

"I couldn't have done it without your help, of course," Supercharger said. Their vengeance had been a team effort. Some of the men tracked down their targets through social media and other electronic sources, and others drove Supercharger to and from their targets' homes in inconspicuous vehicles. Six women and their families, for a total of over twenty-seven people, had died at Supercharger's hands. Despite the best efforts of the police, Supercharger and his followers had managed to avoid detection.

"And we'll need you again," Timothy said. "There's one particular Stacy who humiliated me at the New York Comic Con. I tried to show my love for her, someone who might have actually deserved it, and she got me thrown out by security. I want her to suffer."

"Oh, she will," Supercharger said, his eyes gleaming a bright electric blue.

"You're not interested in that social media stuff?" Gwen asked Liz as they got off the bus and started walking towards Gwen's townhouse.

"No, and I don't understand why you would be," Liz said, shaking her head. "I'm barely on Facebook as it is. What's the point of this Twitter and YouTube stuff?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Gwen said as they walked up the front steps and Gwen unlocked the front door. "It helps build my profile to the world, and lets more people know about me. Justin Bieber first got noticed when he was performing songs on his YouTube channel, and look at him now!"

"So how many people do you actually have watching this stuff?" Liz asked as they sat down on the couch in Gwen's front room.

"I've got about 8,200 YouTube subscribers and 4,700 Twitter followers," Gwen said, smiling proudly as they activated the Hulu app on the TV. "All that in about seven months. I started just before Thanksgiving of last year."

"Well, whatever suits you," Liz said with a shrug. "Everything going alright otherwise?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Gwen said.

"Well, everybody's so busy these days," Liz said. "This was almost the only time you and I could get together, and nobody else was here. Where are Jill and your mom and aunt, anyway?"

"They're all out for the evening," Gwen said. "We've got the place to ourselves, and-"

"So you're really doing alright?" Liz persisted.

"What do you mean?" Gwen said. "Am I still supposed to be upset about something?"

"I was just worried about you at Firebrand's trial," Liz said.

"I thought we already talked about this," Gwen said. "After everything that bastard did, I thought you wouldn't want to-"

"But why you?" Liz asked, her expression seeming anxious and uncertain to Gwen. "Why did you say you needed to do it?"

"…What are you getting at, Liz?" Gwen asked in surprise.

"What I'm trying to ask…is…" Liz said, trailing off before she took a deep breath to steady herself.

Liz never got the chance to finish her sentence, as the door to the Stacys' townhouse exploded open and a loud crackling sound filled the air.

"I see a red door and I want it painted black," a crackling voice sang from outside, a voice that sent chills of dread down Gwen's spine. "No colors anymore I want them to turn black..." Supercharger continued as he strode into the foyer. He was dressed in a wide-brimmed fedora and long trenchcoat, under which he wore a long-sleeved shirt and pants streaked with lightning bolt designs.

If Gwen was able to think of it, she might have realized that Supercharger's unusual clothing explained how he was able to get around in public. All she could think about at that moment, though, was her horror at the realization that Supercharger had discovered her secret identity as Spider-Woman, and had come to kill her.

"I see the girls walk by in their summer clothes, I have to turn my head until darkness goes!" Supercharger continued, citing the classic Rolling Stones song as he fired a wave of electricity at Gwen and Supercharger. Gwen reacted in an instant, grabbing Liz and rolling forward underneath Supercharger's blast. The blast tore through the Stacys' living room furniture as Gwen quickly tossed Liz aside and charged at Supercharger. Supercharger fired another electrical blast at Gwen, and she quickly ducked underneath it. Darting past Supercharger, Gwen ran out the broken front door, anticipating that her old enemy would focus on her first.

Thankfully, Gwen's prediction was correct, as Supercharger began running after her. Still singing the lyrics to Paint It Black, Supercharger fired one electrical bolt after another at Gwen. She managed to stay one step ahead of the bolts, but she knew she couldn't do that forever. Gwen wondered frantically how she could change costume without giving away her secret identity to the rest of the block, much less giving Supercharger the opportunity to blast her.

Gwen forgot who some of her neighbours were, including a retired couple who had both served in the U.S. Green Berets. They'd come out along with some of the other neighbors to see what was going on, and when they saw Gwen being chased by Supercharger they began firing at him with the guns they always carried.

Gwen's neighbors distracted Supercharger for a few seconds, but that was all the time she needed.

Quickly doubling back, Gwen leapt into her backyard and found a hiding place where she could hide her street clothes and her tote bag, which she was carrying her Spider-Woman costume in.

It took Gwen less than a minute to make the change.

It only took Supercharger a few seconds to magnetically deflect the bullets Gwen's neighbors shot at him and then to magnetically pull their guns out of their hands. He shot a wide arc of electricity at the neighbors below him, striking two of them down and causing the rest to scatter. Unfortunately, that was long enough for this Gwen girl to somehow find a hiding place.

Supercharger cursed his bad luck. Gwen had somehow managed to stay ahead of his blasts, allowing her to get out into the open where her neighbors saw what was going on. He'd managed to commit his previous murders without attracting too much attention by attacking his victims in the privacy of their homes, but Gwen had blown it all. Shaking his head, Supercharger decided to destroy her townhouse to send her a message, and resume the hunt later…

Supercharger whirled around when he heard an all too familiar voice call his name. His eyes flashed with rage as he saw the spectacular Spider-Woman swinging towards him, using one hand to grab her webline while she used the other to fire a sting blast at him. Suddenly forgetting all about Gwen, Supercharger deflected Spider-Woman's sting blast with a bolt of his own. He quickly followed up with a concentrated lightning blast, determined to kill the bitch who had personally humiliated him the way his friends had been hurt by the women they hated.

Spider-Woman swung around the lightning blast, which tore a gash in the street below. She sprayed a double shot of webbing at Supercharger spreading it out into a net that threatened to entangle him. Temporarily restrained by the webbing, Supercharger tried to burn it off but then Spider-Woman viciously kicked him in the chest. She struck him in a spot where the webbing covered his body, insulating her feet so she could hit him without hurting herself. Spider-Woman could secrete a solvent that kept herself from being stuck by her own webbing, so she easily fell away from Supercharger, landing on her feet as he crashed heavily to the ground.

It took Supercharger only a few moments to burn away the webbing Spider-Woman covered him with, but Spider-Woman struck him with a flurry of sting blasts before he could free himself. Screaming in a rage, Supercharger drew electricity from the streetlamps around them, causing energy bolts to fire at Spider-Woman from several different angles. She managed to dodge them with impressive speed, but she left herself open to another concentrated lightning blast from Supercharger himself. Spider-Woman cried out in pain, her hair dancing wildly as the electricity surged through her body. She spun a web shield to protect herself from Supercharger's next blast, but then she was struck from behind by the electricity from one of the streetlights.

Reeling, Spider-Woman barely managed to dodge Supercharger's next energy blast. He channeled blasts from all of the streetlights at once, and Spider-Woman knelt down underneath her shield, holding it overhead to guard against the blasts focusing on her spot. The shield was rapidly burning away, and it would only last for a few more seconds.

That was all the time Spider-Woman needed. Realizing she needed to take the offensive, Spider-Woman spun a webline with her free hand and caught Supercharger's ankle. Tugging on her webline, Spider-Woman pulled Supercharger off balance so he fell onto his back. The lightning bolts coming down at Spider-Woman finally let up, and she sprang to her feet. Catching Supercharger with a fresh webline, Spider-Woman flung him into a nearby fire hydrant and stuck him there with another double shot of webbing. Stunned from being thrown into the hydrant, Supercharger couldn't react in time to stop Spider-Woman from blasting the hydrant open with her sting blasts and drenching him with water.

Supercharger screamed in agony as he began to short circuit. He glowed brightly, causing the water exploding into steam around him to flash blue and gold. Thrashing desperately, Supercharger managed to free himself from Spider-Woman's webbing and get off the fire hydrant, but he lacked the strength to do much more. He crawled for several feet before he finally collapsed, groaning in pain as electricity sparked around him.

Spider-Woman stared impassively at the twitching Supercharger for several seconds, before she turned and leapt into the air to webswing away.

When Gwen ran out the door of the Stacy home with Supercharger in pursuit, Liz followed them out, her mind racing as to how she could help Gwen. When she saw some of Gwen's neighbors coming out to attack Supercharger, she realized the best thing she could do would be to hide and call 911.

Finally, when she heard Supercharger's scream, Liz emerged from the car she was hiding behind. Glancing around in surprise, she couldn't see Gwen anywhere, although she did see the unconscious Supercharger and the neighbors surrounding him. Liz suddenly felt sick with worry about Gwen, wondering if Supercharger might have killed her. The sight of the police showing up to arrest the unconscious Supercharger didn't reassure her, not when Gwen was nowhere to be seen. Liz asked some of Gwen's neighbors, but none of them had seen her either. All they could tell her was how Spider-Woman had defeated Supercharger before abruptly leaving.

Liz walked back towards the damaged front entrance of the Stacy home, praying that Gwen was alright. To her surprise, she saw Gwen staggering out the front door, clearly in pain.

"Gwen!" Liz said in amazement, quickly running up the steps to meet Gwen. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"I've been better," Gwen said, wincing as Liz led her back inside. "Some of my neighbors distracted that electric freak long enough for me to get away, but he still managed to hit me with some of his bolts."

"Alright, let's go," Liz said, her nursing training suddenly taking over. "Come on, we need to get the paramedics to take a look at you. Here, lean on me-"

"I'll be fine, Liz," Gwen said, gently pushing Liz away. "I just need to rest, and then-"

"Not until we make sure you're alright," Liz said, grabbing Gwen's arm again gently but firmly. "You could have worse injuries-"

"I said I'll be alright!" Gwen insisted. "Our first aid kit is-"

"Like you were when you were attacked by Firebrand?" Liz said, unable to contain herself any longer. "Or when we were both attacked by Tarot? You got better fast both times, didn't you?"

Gwen didn't reply. Instead, she simply stared at Liz with an amazed expression.

"What are you getting at, Liz?" she said.

"It's funny how you keep getting hurt by the same villains that keep getting into fights with Spider-Woman," Liz said. "That's what I'm getting at."

If Gwen was amazed a few moments before, now she was just stunned.

"You…I…Liz…" she stammered.

"And now Spider-Woman shows up right when some electric killer tries to murder you," Liz said.

"She's…a superhero…" Gwen said, trying frantically to think of an excuse.

"You do remember that you're a bad liar, right?" Liz said. "I'm not accusing you of anything bad, Gwen-I just want to know why."

Gwen's eyes flickered from side to side as she tried to think of what to do, but she realized she was cornered.

"...You really want to know?" Gwen said.

"Fine."

(Next Issue: Gwen explains the basis of her Spider-Woman identity to Liz, but the implications of Liz figuring out Spider-Woman's identity may pale in comparison to the fallout she later suffers when Supercharger's supporters are arrested for their role in his murders. And even that isn't Gwen's biggest worry, as the Brothers Grimm reinvents his perverted artistry in a new and depraved way! All this and more in Spider-Woman #100: Artist's Conception!)