Clone Saga, Part Two: Heir Apparent

Helen Lieber-Stacy was jolted awake by her daughter Gwen Stacy's horrified scream. She felt sick with worry as she ran towards Gwen's bedroom, knowing how fragile Gwen was right now.

Gwen made many enemies in her superhero identity as the spectacular Spider-Woman. The most dangerous of them all was likely the psychotic supervillain Jack O' Lantern, who'd developed a sick obsession with Spider-Woman for interfering with his crimes. Jack somehow learned Gwen's secret identity, and he'd exploited it to threaten and harass her even in her own home.

According to Gwen, Jack not only knew who she was, but also where she was at any given time. He could strike any time he wanted, endangering not only Gwen but her loved ones. Although Gwen had defeated him multiple times as Spider-Woman, out of all her enemies he was the one who frightened her the most. Aside from nearly killing her, he'd also nearly destroyed her sense of self. Gwen was already upset at his stalking and threatening her, and Helen was afraid she was close to her breaking point. She'd already suffered one panic attack, and Helen was afraid of what another one might do to her.

Gwen, still dressed in her pajamas, was collapsed on her bedroom floor in a dead faint. She looked ghastly pale, and her breathing was shallow. As Helen knelt down next to Gwen, screaming for her sister-in-law Nancy Stacy and niece Jill Stacy to call 911, she looked up and saw the reason for Gwen's despair.

The large, bloody message written on Gwen's bedroom wall simply read:

NOWHERE TO RUN, NOWHERE TO HIDE!

SEE YOU SOON, GWEN!

SPIDER-WOMAN #108

CLONE SAGA, PART TWO

HEIR APPARENT

Gwen felt a throbbing headache as she slowly woke up and looked around. She was lying on the couch in the Stacys' living room, her mother Helen and a paramedic hovering over her with concern.

"Oh, sweetie…" Helen said, hugging Gwen. "Thank God you're alright."

"The writing…" Gwen said, returning her mother's hug. "It was…real?"

The paramedic interrupted before Helen could answer.

"Don't think about that," the paramedic said, shaking her head. "You really need to take it easy. This is the second shock you've had in a really short time."

"But-" Gwen said, before the paramedic interrupted her again.

"No buts," the paramedic said, her expression insistent. "You're suffering from acute stress disorder, sweetie. You're in no condition to be doing anything right now."

"Aunt Nancy and Jill," Gwen said, not seeming to hear anything the paramedic said. "Are they-"

"They're taking care of everything with the police," Helen said, "and they're going to clean everything up. Please, honey…just relax."

Gwen didn't argue, as her headache suddenly got worse. She slumped back down onto the couch, her stress making her feel worse than ever.

"And none of you heard anything?" the police detective asked Nancy and Jill.

"No, of course not!" Nancy said, as Jill shook her head. "We would have reacted if we had!"

"And no one else has access to this place? You haven't made any spare keys for anyone?" the detective asked.

"Again, no," Nancy said. "You can't even tell how he got in?"

The detective didn't answer, but his expression spoke volumes.

He wondered what he was going to tell Captain Jean DeWolff, head of the New York Police Department's Superhuman Activities Unit. There was no sign of forced entry, no potential footmarks or fingerprints, no sign that any of the doors or windows had been tampered with, and the crime scene techs weren't even sure what Jack O' Lantern used to write the bloody message on the wall.

Apparently Jack O' Lantern had somehow magically gotten into the Stacys' house, made his way to Gwen's bedroom, written the message on the wall right above where she slept, and then left again without anyone ever hearing or otherwise noticing him.

How the hell was that even possible?

Entry #5:

I should think the star of my masterpiece is at her wits' end trying to determine how I entered her room and wrote my message to her. The knowledge that I was seemingly so close to her and could have murdered her in her sleep will no doubt further terrify her.

In truth, of course, I was never there myself. One of my new creations, the mechanical gremlins who've proven themselves such useful assistants, in fact wrote the message. These loyal minions-and what monster worth the name doesn't have a following of loyal minions?-are equipped with a phasing ability similar to that of my spoiled, coddled brat of a niece Kitty Pryde, as well as invisibility cloaks that make them all but undetectable. It was mere child's play for one of them to enter Gwen's bedroom and write the message…

…but it was so much more pleasurable to make her think I visited her in person.

I've come to understand the true achievement of terror lies not so much in endless brutality and gore, but in the psychological torment of the victim. Blood and viscera provide a temporary shock to the victim, but drawing her fear out over a longer period of time provides much greater pain and more conducive to the final shattering of who she is.

I am pleased with the progress of my masterpiece. The star is likely close to unraveling from her fear and stress, the deuteragonist has proven her skill in combat by besting Spider-Man, and as the monster I eagerly await the moment when I can finally take the stage.

And I shall finally have my heir.

Randy Robertson was in low spirits as he walked through the streets of Harlem. He'd heard about the latest threat Jack O' Lantern made against Gwen, and his feelings were caught between frustration and anger. It wasn't the first time being a superhero had left Gwen an emotional wreck. Besides the first threat Jack O' Lantern made against her, there was also her despair over her failure to stop Firebrand kill several of her fellow Empire State University students and the time Jack O' Lantern had nearly beaten her to death.

If Gwen didn't have bad luck, she'd have no luck at all, Randy thought as he checked the addresses of the buildings he was walking past. Out of all the heroes in this city, why'd she have to be the one to run into Jack O' Lantern?

I wish I could just tell her to quit and give it up, but she'd never do it, Randy thought as he realized he was getting close to his destination. Besides, I'd probably be doing and feeling all the same things she is if I was the one with super-powers.

Randy ended that train of thought as he came to the address he was seeking, the office of the Heroes For Hire. Unlike other superheroes, the Heroes For Hire hired out their services as everything from bodyguards to detectives to rescuers to various wealthy patrons. They also made a point of offering pro bono services to many disadvantaged New Yorkers, particularly the Harlem community, and re-invested most of the money they charged their rich clients into things like community centers, lunch programs, night classes and other things that helped the people help themselves.

The Heroes For Hire were also unlike other superheroes in that they didn't wear costumes or use codenames, preferring to work openly with their community. The super-strong and durable Luke Cage, the machine-manipulating Misty Knight, the ki-focusing martial artist Danny Rand and the super-fast Colleen Wing were pillars of the community, both for what they gave back to it and the efforts they made to protect it.

As he walked into the Heroes' office, Randy thought about what he'd say to get the Heroes to work for him. He probably didn't have the money to pay their fees, and he wasn't sure if they'd act on behalf of Gwen since she wasn't really from the community. He'd considered saying that Jack O' Lantern might endanger Harlem, but that didn't necessarily distinguish Jack from most of the city's other supervillains and criminal organizations.

To Randy's delight, Luke Cage was typing at the front desk when Randy walked in. Luke looked up at the sound of the door opening, and a smile crossed his face as he met Randy's gaze.

"Hi there," Randy said, waving his hand in greeting. "Do you have a moment?"

"Always got time for a brother," Luke said as he gestured for Randy to sit down. "Care for some coffee?"

"Sure, thank you," Randy said, as Luke poured him a cup and he added the cream and sugar he liked. Taking a sip of it, he soon felt more at ease as Luke sat back down, linking his hands on top of his desk.

"You look like you've got trouble," Luke said before Randy even opened his mouth. "Anything we can help you with?"

"Two and a half words," Randy said, encouraged by Luke's affable smile. "Jack O' Lantern."

The smile vanished from Luke's face.

"Damn," Luke said, shaking his head. "He threatening your family too?"

"Sort of," Randy said, before he briefly described how Jack O' Lantern threatened Gwen.

"The hell does Jack want with your woman?" Luke said, confusion clearly evident.

Randy was expecting this question, and he knew how to answer it.

"Her father was some guy who apparently had dealings with Jack," Randy said. "Jack killed him and beat her to within an inch of her life."

"…Damn," Luke repeated himself. "So did your woman have anything to do with her old man's shit?"

"Not a chance," Randy said. "She hated him for all the crap he put her through."

"So why're you here?" Luke asked. "Y'all want us to try and run Jack O' Lantern down?"

"And beat his pumpkin head in," Randy said. "I don't know if you'd call this a community thing, but…"

"…but it don't matter," Luke said, finishing for him. "We've already got a contract lined up to bring Jack in. Your woman ain't the only person Jack's been threatening. His relatives are scared outta their damn minds, like that Pryde family."

Randy suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

They flew through the dead of night, sniggering to themselves. Anyone who caught a glimpse of them, with their batlike wings, purple skin and demonic-looking faces, might have taken them to be particularly macabre toy gremlins. They were well-concealed, as much by the darkness as by the internal devices that kept them invisible. They took a long, roundabout route when they left their master's lair, making it all but impossible to trace them back to that master. Their master had entrusted them with the next part of his masterpiece, and they were determined to fulfill their part in his story.

Soon, at three o'clock in the morning, they converged on one particular suburban house whose inhabitants had earned their master's hatred. He hated them for how they'd corrupted their youth, how they felt shame at their connection to him, how they tried to deny the truth about this depraved world.

They made their way to the bedroom of Danielle Pryde, their master's sister, and her husband Allan. They were as silent as the shadows, doing well to keep their laughter silent until the time was right.

Finally, as they gathered in a group, nearly a score of them, they all started to laugh. It was a laugh their master had perfected long ago, a laugh that spelled death for many of the people who heard it and that made the survivors shudder at the memory of it.

Allan and Danielle Pryde screamed in horror at the sight of the gremlins surrounding them, and screamed all the louder at the sight of the grinning pumpkin bombs they carried.

Allan and Danielle were lucky to be killed in the initial explosion, but their daughter Kitty Pryde wasn't so fortunate. As her entire life burned down around her, Kitty frantically tried to escape the inferno that used to be her house by using her mutant phasing power.

While her phasing power protected her from most of the burning debris, it couldn't protect her from the smoke inhalation, the burns she suffered when she solidified to try and save her parents, or the trauma of seeing their charred bodies.

Nor could her phasing power save her from the nervous breakdown she suffered as she saw many of the most important people and things in her life burned to ashes…

…and heard that same malicious, haunting laughter in her mind.

Gwen was jolted awake by her spider-senses blaring. One of her spider-powers was to mark other people with her pheromones, which allowed her to track them and also alerted her when they were in a situation that would be of particular interest to her. Gwen took less than a minute to change into her Spider-Woman costume and go swinging out into the night. She trembled with fear, both in dread of Jack O' Lantern ambushing her and of what he might be doing to any of her friends or loved ones, but her head throbbed with her spider-senses' screaming at her to hurry.

Spider-Woman soon saw just what her spider-senses were trying to warn her about when she came upon the smoking ruin that used to be Kitty Pryde's house. Landing on the roof of one of Kitty's neighbors, concealed by the night shadows and unnoticed by the emergency crews going through the ruins, Spider-Woman stared in horror at the carnage she saw below her. Taking a risk, she crawled down the side of the neighbor's house to get a closer look.

Her worst suspicions were confirmed when she saw a police investigator carrying a plastic bag full of what looked like orange plastic shards. Spider-Woman recognized that type of plastic as the kind Jack O' Lantern used for his pumpkin bombs. She saw another investigator handling what looked like some sort of broken toy gremlin. While that was a new one to Spider-Woman, it still fit Jack O' Lantern's modus operandi.

Spider-Woman's fear and anxiety vanished when she looked away from the wreckage and saw Kitty being treated by some paramedics. She felt a boiling rage building up inside her at the sight of Kitty's injuries and the look of utter despair on her face. Kitty looked like she had nothing left to live for, losing her parents, most of her belongings, her home and all the cherished memories that came with them all in one horrific night. The despair Kitty felt at running away when Harry Osborn, Liz Allan and the rest of their friends were threatened by the Squid and Ms. Fortune was nothing compared to what Spider-Woman saw her suffering now.

As if on cue-and it wouldn't have surprised Spider-Woman at all if it actually was on cue-she felt her spider-senses start buzzing again. They shut off immediately before starting up again, constantly switching on and off. Spider-Woman remembered the last time Jack O' Lantern stalked and harassed her. He'd somehow not only figured out about her pheromones, but used them to upset her and eventually lure her to him.

Just as Spider-Woman expected, her spider-senses began tingling steadily again, giving her a clear indication of where she'd be able to find her hated archenemy. Leaping into the air, she swung away from the horrific scene below her, letting her spider-senses guide her.

I've fought Jack O' Lantern several times, Spider-Woman thought to herself, but tonight's going to be the last time.

It ends here.

Tonight.

Spider-Woman's senses led her to a large dockside storage unit as a sickly gray fog started to roll in all around her. The city lights, already dim on the docks, were almost completely blocked out. Spider-Woman soon felt almost as though she was in a twisted dream, the fog and what few lights pierced the gloom turning her surroundings into an otherworldly ether. She felt no fear at her surroundings, though, her rage driving her to stride into the storage unit. Her hands glowed with the energy of her sting blasts, reflecting her determination to settle things with Jack O' Lantern once and for all.

The person waiting for her inside the storage unit was the last one Spider-Woman ever expected to see. It was another young woman with long black hair, dressed in a red and gold spandex costume, whose hands glowed with green energy. She might have been Spider-Woman's mirror image, as the intense look on her face perfectly matched Spider-Woman's.

Spider-Woman's anger vanished in an instant, replaced by shock and confusion.

"Who are you?" she asked her doppelganger, who stared back at her impassively.

"Who do you think?" the doppelganger asked, her voice eerily similar to Spider-Woman's.

"Why are you dressed like me?" Spider-Woman demanded.

"Why are you dressing like me?" the doppelganger demanded.

"I asked you first," Spider-Woman said with a scowl.

"I'm asking you second," the doppelganger said with a smirk.

"Fine then," Spider-Woman said. "I'm Spider-Woman. So who are you?"

"Who do you think?" the doppelganger said. "I'm you…a better you."

"What do you mean, a better me?" Spider-Woman said, her anger starting to rise again.

"I'm you, lived up to your full potential," the doppelganger said, her smirk growing wider. "I'm what you could be, if you actually let yourself live."

"I do live," Spider-Woman said, halfway between confusion and anger.

"No, you don't," the doppelganger said, "not when you waste so much time and energy protecting people too afraid to actually live their lives. There's so much you could do, and I'm going to do it…as you."

Those words were disturbingly familiar to Spider-Woman.

"Are you…do you work for…Jack O' Lantern?" Spider-Woman said. She still felt her rage, but now terror was replacing her confusion.

"Oh, so you remember," the doppelganger said. "He was quite upset after the last time you met him, you know. After everything he did, and all the trouble he went to, you refused his offer of becoming his heir. So he found a better one…namely, me."

"What about Kitty?" Spider-Woman asked. "Did you and Jack attack her family?"

"It's a pity," the doppelganger said, shaking her head in mock sadness. "Kitty might have gone places with her mutant powers, but she's too far gone. It was all her parents' fault, you know. Jack did what he had to do…and it looks like he'll have to do it again, given that Kitty survived."

Spider-Woman was eerily calm as she took it all in.

"Kitty might have survived," she said, her anger starting to boil over, "but you'll be lucky if you do."

With that, Spider-Woman sprang forward, firing a double shot of her sting blasts at her doppelganger. The doppelganger easily jumped out of the way, retaliating with a double shot of her own. The doppelganger's shot was of webbing, and Spider-Woman dove into a roll, coming forward as the web lines streaked overhead. Leaping to her feet, Spider-Woman struck the doppelganger with her sting blasts. As the doppelganger reeled, Spider-Woman caught up to her and struck her with a vicious punch.

The doppelganger grunted in pain as she took Spider-Woman's punch, but she recovered faster than Spider-Woman expected. She grabbed Spider-Woman's wrists, yanking her forward before viciously headbutting her and kicking her in the abdomen. As Spider-Woman staggered from the blasts, the doppelganger hit her with a double shot of her sting blasts, sending her flying back.

Spider-Woman's head throbbed both from being hit by her doppelganger and her doppelganger's strength. The doppelganger seemed to have double Spider-Woman's strength, on par with Jack O' Lantern himself. The doppelganger also had fighting skills to match Jack O' Lantern, leaping at Spider-Woman and attacking with a vicious flurry of punches and kicks. Spider-Woman, caught off balance, tried to block the doppelganger's attacks but missed as many parries as she caught and suffered several hits.

Finally, Spider-Woman turned the doppelganger's close proximity against her. As the doppelganger continued pressing her attack, Spider-Woman raised her hand as if to block but seemed to lift it too high. As the doppelganger leaned forward, her punch passing under Spider-Woman's hand, Spider-Woman fired a sting blast into her face at nearly point blank range. Screaming in pain, the doppelganger let up her attack. Spider-Woman didn't waste the opportunity, attacking the doppelganger with her own flurry of blows. As the doppelganger staggered, Spider-Woman started entangling her with her webbing.

Spider-Woman was astonished at how much the doppelganger resembled her. They weren't completely identical, as the doppelganger was slightly taller and had slightly shorter hair, and her build and facial structure were slightly different. The doppelganger could have easily passed for Spider-Woman's sister, though, and even Spider-Woman herself could only tell them apart after getting a close look at her.

Unfortunately, the doppelganger had one of her arms free long enough to reach into a hidden hip pocket and pull out a small device shaped like a toad. She threw it in the air, and the toad emitted a sonic screech that forced Spider-Woman to let up her attack. Crying out in pain, she shielded her ears with a layer of webbing to protect them from the sonic toad's screams.

As Spider-Woman released her doppelganger, the doppelganger freed herself from Spider-Woman's webbing. Too late, Spider-Woman realized that the doppelganger probably had the same ability she did to keep her webbing from sticking to her. Spider-Woman readied herself for the doppelganger's next attack, but then the doppelganger pulled something from her belt and threw it off to the side. To Spider-Woman's shock, she saw that it was a pumpkin bomb identical to the ones Jack O' Lantern used just before it exploded in a bright flash of strobe-like lights. Dazzled by the light bursts, Spider-Woman staggered and fell to her hands and knees as the doppelganger advanced on her.

"I could kill you right now," the doppelganger said, "but that would be a poor ending to the masterpiece. Jack O' Lantern has much bigger things planned for the both of us, and you'll be hearing from him soon. Just remember, Gwen," she said, using Spider-Woman's real name as a reminder that Jack knew her true identity, "no matter where you go, no matter what you do, Jack O' Lantern is watching you. He's always with you and always will be, right up until the day you die…and that's coming soon, Gwen. Very soon."

Despite the pain in her ears, Spider-Woman heard every word clearly.

"You wondered who I was," the doppelganger said. "Well, this might help you. You'd better hope you can handle the truth."

With that, the doppelganger cut her arm with a shard of her pumpkin bomb. Blood welled up from the cut, which she smeared on the sleeve of Spider-Woman's own costume.

With that, she leapt away, sadistic laughter in her wake. It was hauntingly familiar to Spider-Woman, reminding her of the depraved laughter she heard from Jack O' Lantern in her previous battles with him.

It was a laughter she still heard in her nightmares.

The pumpkin bomb's strobe lights faded away, and the sonic toad's screaming died out, but Spider-Woman hardly felt any better. She tried to focus her spider-senses to track her doppelganger, but got no response. She'd long thought that Jack O' Lantern had figured out some way to block her pheromones from being sensed, and her doppelganger clearly carried the same technology. There was no way Spider-Woman could find her, and almost nothing she could do until Jack O' Lantern or her doppelganger struck again.

Spider-Woman wanted to scream, but she wasn't sure if her desire to scream came from rage or from terror.

(Next Issue: Desperate for answers about her mysterious doppelganger, Gwen turns to her friend Peter Parker for help. At his advice, she takes the blood evidence the doppelganger gave her to Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four to analyze it. When he does, Gwen is stunned to learn the horrifying truth behind the doppelganger, her relation to Gwen, and Jack O' Lantern's plans for the both of them! All this and more in Spider-Woman 109: Clone Saga, Part Three: Blood Is Thicker Than Water!)