Spider-Man: Issue #4: Clearing Things Up (Patreon)

Gwen Stacy was my friend. Hell, she was more than that. We were in love, at least for a time. 

“Ew.” Gwen said as Peter shot her a glance before continuing his story. 

She didn’t know I was Spider-Man, she actually hated Spider-Man. Her father had been killed and I couldn’t save him; she blamed this part of me.  

The Green Goblin kidnapped her and........ 

She died. 

Peter brought his hand up to his eyes, wiped the tears that had started to form. No one spoke. None of the other spider people had known. Miles put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. They all waited for Peter to calm down before it was Gwen’s turn to speak. 

Her story wasn’t that different. 

Peter Parker was my friend. 

Yes, he was a nerd. A geek. A dork. But he was also kind, funny and smart. He wasn’t the most popular guy. Getting pantsed in gym classes, wet willies in history and wedgies in math class. And that was just from me, his friend. Didn’t even count the bullies. 

All he ever wanted to do was help people. 

When I became Ghost-Spider. 

“I’m sorry, Ghost-Spider?” Peter asked with a chuckle. It was Gwen’s turn to give him a glare. 

“Yeah, sorry it isn’t as creative as Spider-Man.” She said doing a voice to mock Peter. 

He was my friend and I inspired him as Ghost-Spider. He made a formula to try and gain superpowers. It went wrong. 

He became an uncontrollable monster. A giant reptilian creature that only wanted revenge on those that had wronged him and to eat.  

We fought. 

He died in my arms, thinking his hero Ghost-Spider, had killed him. He passed away before I could even take my mask off. 

Gwen said finishing the somber part of her story before moving on to how she got here. 

As you can guess, from where I am from I am the protector of the city. I was fighting The Hand, a criminal organization. They were trying to steal a red stone that Roxon from my world was touting as the future of energy. It looks exactly like the one your Roxxon has. Something happened during the fight, the gem exploded, and I got sent here.  

“And then we met after she helped me take down some thugs.” Cindy added. 

“So, the gem has a lot of power. Enough to cross the universal boundaries?” Peter asked himself, scratching his chin. 

“The device housing it also came with me, so I was hoping popping it back in there again would, I don’t know trigger a way to get home.” Gwen said, taking a seat on an AC unit on the roof. 

“Why didn’t you go ask the Fantastic Four for help? They are like super smart.” Miles asked. 

“Reed could figure something out.” Peter agreed. 

“I told her that, but she didn’t want to.” Cindy said as Gwen looked at the trio. 

“There is no Fantastic Four in my world and uhhh.” Gwen tried to find the right words to describe her issues with going to the FF. “Certain members of that team aren’t heroic in my world. I’ve had some bad run ins.” 

Peter nodded like he understood.  

“Well, I can reach out to Reed and get the ball moving on this. If anyone can get you home, it’ll be him. But we still have to get that stone back from the woman in the purple mask.” Peter said getting nods of agreement. 

“Plan?” Miles asked. 

“I’m going to call Johnny, you  guys should head home.” Peter said pulling out his phone from an inner pocket inside his costume shirt. 

Cindy’s jaw dropped as Peter called Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. 

“Hey, Johnny.” Peter said into the phone and Cindy squealed. 

“Are you talking to Johnny Storm? The Johnny Storm? You know Johnny Storm?” She asked in one long run on-sentence. Peter gave her an incredulous look but she was oblivious. 

“What Johnny? No, I’m not using you to pick up chicks. Is Reed around, I need to talk to Reed.” Peter said waving Cindy off, who took a step back, but was still giddy. “Hold on.” 

Peter covered the phone with his hand. 

“Do you mind?” He looked at Gwen. “Can you keep her calm for a minute.” 

“Come on, give him a second.” Gwen pulled Cindy away as Miles tried not to laugh. Every straight woman in the city loved Johnny Storm and since he was always on the most eligible bachelors list, they all thought they had a shot.  

“Yeah, can you have Reed call me. I have a quantum mechanics problem. Yes, yes, nerd stuff. Can you just get him to give me a call back or an email if he’s that busy.” Peter waited a moment, listening. “Thanks.” 

Peter hung up the phone and joined the other three spiders. 

“I’m going to stand watch.” He said, referring to watching over the hospital where Jennifer Walters, the sensational She-Hulk, was currently unconscious and injured after a brutal weapon made by the helmet wearing woman. The others nodded in agreement. 

“We’ll get some rest, see what we can find and reconvene here tomorrow night.” Gwen said with Cindy nodding in agreement. When the traveler from another came here, she was originally very worried about making it home but seeing the familiar, yet not her, Peter Parker. She got a sense of calm and hope that she hadn’t felt for a while.  

“Sounds like a plan.” Miles said before pulling his mask on and webbing away. Cindy did the same and fired off a strand heading back to her house, not waiting for Gwen. 

The blonde stood on the roof for a second waiting for the other two to get just out of ear shot. 

“It is really good to see you.” She said, and before she could stop herself, she leaned over and gave Peter a quick hug. He blushed slightly and gave her a pat on the back. 

“It’s good to see you too.” He said. Their embrace broke, and Gwen pulled her own mask on before swinging off. 

Peter was left alone on the roof. He pulled his own mask back on and stood watch over his friend’s hospital room. It was going to be a long night.  

Gwen and Cindy headed home in silence, which only took a little over a half hour. 

The pair swung to the roof of the Moon residence, a brown stone. Sneaking out had been easy even before Cindy had powers, now with abilities it was super easy. They landed on the roof before stealthily crawling down the back side towards the window to Cindy’s room.  

Cindy opened the window and the pair moved inside her room. Gwen landed on her feet with her friend right behind her when they both heard the scariest sound on the planet. 

The sound of Cindy’s mom. 

“Honey, you two good in there?” Nari Moon asked as she reached for the door handle. The middle-aged Korean mom in jeans and a blouse had no idea her daughter and the “exchange student” who had moved in with them were just coming back from a battle. 

“Crap.” Cindy said as her mother was slowly opening the door. 

“Quick.” Gwen said as the pair quickly disrobed.  

As Nari Moon opened the door, she saw Cindy lying in bed in a white sports bra and white hipster underwear and white ankle socks with her laptop on her lap. Gwen was sitting cross legged on the floor looking at note cards wearing a tanktop, teal boyshorts, and black ankle socks. 

“So, the tectonic plates were discovered in what year?” Gwen asked before both girls looked at the mother in the doorway. 

“Uh, do you girls need anything?” The elder Moon asked. 

“No, mom we’re fine.” Cindy answered, getting a nod of agreement from Gwen. 

“Okay.” Nari said, looking at them both again for a moment before closing the door. The mother of one stood there for a moment wondering if she should talk to Cindy about keeping some clothes on but decided against it. 

“That was close.” Gwen said, falling back from her seated position to lying down on the floor now. 

“Yeah, I have to figure out a better way to do this.” 

“That’s a problem for tomorrow.” 

Deep in the heart of the city, in an abandoned underground gargae the Tinkerer and her remaining gang members entered. While her crew fled into the back rooms to heal their wounds and get some rest, she marched towards her workstation. 

“Damn it.” The Tinkerer shouted as she tossed the remains of her grand weapon on the floor. The power source was intact, but the gun was not. She had spent months building it and after one fire, it was fried. It had taken down She-Hulk, but now it was done. 

“Move.” She shouted at her underlings who jumped out of the way as she went to her work bench and began to plan. There must be a way to rebuild her weapon bigger and better before. After a half hour a new plan began to form. One that would make sure she got exactly what she needed, and her super weapon would never fail again. She pulled out her laptop and began scrolling through her list of contacts. There was a lot to plan and a lot of money to be moved. 

But after a few moments of searching she found exactly the person she was looking for. The Tinkerer made the call and negotiated a price. She had some muscle on the way.

At the Morales home, Miles had just snuck through his window and pealed off his Spider-Man suit. He was still workshopping names as Peter was Spider-Man, but he couldn’t think of any good ones yet. Citizens hadn’t helped as so far, the only other thing he’d been called besides Spider-Man was Spider-boy and one group of catty teens had called him Temu Spider-Man. Neither of which was good. 

He was correct in assuming his parents weren’t home as his father had taken a night shift for the overtime on the force, and his mother was working a double at the hospital. That was for the best as he was still a little emotional after what happened to Jen. It was a lot for him to deal with, especially as it was an attack meant for him. He strode out of his room in just his black boxers with surfing cat designs to find a basket of laundry and a note from his mom. 

It was his turn to fold the laundry. He shrugged and grabbed it. Chores were a part of life. His phone buzzed and Miles grabbed it while balancing the laundry. It was Phin, so he answered. 

“Hey, Phin.” He said putting the phone on speaker. 

“Hey.” She sounded just as disappointed as he did. 

“Everything okay?” He asked, taking his mind off his own night would help immensely. 

“Yeah, just a rough night at work.” She hesitated around the word work, but he paid it no mind. He had a rough night too, and it was a lot of work involved.  

“You want to talk about it?” They hadn’t really had much of a chance to talk or hangout since Phin got back into town, but he had been so busy with the super heroing that he hadn’t been talking to Phin that much. Not that she was making much of an effort either. 

“Yeah, maybe we can hang out this week? I have somethings to handle tomorrow but I’ll have a lot more free time real soon.” She said, and he could just hear from the sound of her voice that she was smiling. 

“That would be great.” Miles said as they made plans for later that week. 

Peter stood watch over the hospital for a few more hours, checking in on Jen every so often. The doctors were extremely positive that while she was beaten up, this wouldn’t be a long-term thing. He still waited well into the night before leaving, after the second shift of cops who were guarding her room. 

Spider-Man swung back to his apartment. He was exhausted. Besides the emotional trauma, he was also sore from taking down thugs. He stumbled into the living room, slowly stripping off his costume. The one nice thing about living alone was he could leave his costume anywhere he wanted, something that wasn’t possible when he was living with Aunt May. 

He pulled off the costume shirt, tossing it onto a chair. Then the pants which just got left crumbled on the ground. Finally, Peter flopped into bed and pulled off the mask, leaving him in a pair of white trunks, right between briefs and boxer-briefs. 

While his body and mind were exhausted, sleep wasn’t going to come. He rolled over to fish his phone out of the pouch in his Spider suit’s pants and began seeing who was still up. 

His first attempt was to text Johnny, but his friend was always busy. Peter was lucky he was able to answer his phone call before, but now in the middle of some charity dinner Johnny might as well have been in another dimension.  

There was one person he could always call. She always made time for him. 

He called MJ.  

They had barely gotten through the back-and-forth pleasantries when he launched into all he now knew about the mysterious Spider-Women and what had happened to Jen. Mary Jane listened in stunned silence as not only is their friend in the hospital, but that Gwen Stacy or at least a version of Gwen is alive and swinging through their city. 

“Wow, that’s uhh rough buddy.” MJ said after Peter word vomited out his feelings. He gave a chuckle. 

“Really? That’s the best you got.”  

“I don’t know what else to say. That is crazy Gwen being back, this mystery woman’s weapons and Jen being in the hospital.” 

“Yeah.” He said as the conversation died down. They sat in awkward silence for a moment before he opened his mouth again. 

“So, uhhh, what are you wearing?” Peter asked. It was hard not to fall back into old habits now that they were talking again. He wasn’t the only one to do it, but this was the first time it was so overt.  

“Ha.” MJ said, laughing into the phone. “Let me guess. You are beat up and dirty, didn’t shower and now laying in your bed in your undies.” 

She was of course one hundred percent right. He was too tired to shower and had just stripped off his costume and flopped into bed to call her. He had attempted that once while they were dating, he had told her what he was going to do, and he had barely gotten his mask off before she was dragging him by the back of his underwear and tossing him into their shared bathroom.  

“You wouldn’t be wrong.” He said, blushing slightly at her, calling him out. She giggled. 

“You're lucky I’m not there.” The red head said, and he could imagine how she’d react. 

“I guess I should go wash up.” He spoke. 

“I think you should.” 

“I’ll talk to you later, then.” 

“Talk to you later.” Mary Jane said. “And Peter?” 

He stopped his finger from hitting the end call button.  

“A white tank top and blue and red panties.” She said seductively. Before Peter could even start to imagine it, she hung up. He got up and headed quickly for the shower. He cleaned up and fell asleep. While he didn’t have nightmares of what had happened to Jen, he kept feeling like he was being followed by some dark ooze. 

The next day the four Spiders spent their day tracking down leads for the mystery woman in the purple glowing helmet and her gang. The four met up on the rooftop of the hospital where Jen was recuperating. Peter had arrived first, checking on Jen who had just fallen to sleep. The doctors said her powers were helping her recover, but it would still be a few weeks before she was tossing cars again.  

Peter was waiting on the roof as Miles, Cindy and Gwen arrived in short order. The four heroes pooled their knowledge. 

“So, we have nothing?” Peter asked, generally confused as he had figured one of them would manage to find something out. 

“We have a name.” Miles said as it was the one piece of information they all had managed to get. “The Tinkerer.”  

“Yeah, I thought they were saying the Tinkler at first, so glad it isn’t that.” Cindy said. Gwen and Peter shook their heads.  

“Alright, we have to find her and her gang before they blow up something else.” Peter said. 

A few blocks away, an explosion went off. The four turned their heads in the direction. 

“It is never this easy.” Peter said as he fired off a webline heading towards the explosion. The other three followed. The closer the group got, the more chaotic the situation got. People were fleeing; luckily no more explosions went off. A few fires burned from chunks of what had once been the front of a bank littered the street. 

The four spiders landed to be met with a wave of the Tinkerer’s gang. The group of thugs, smaller than the group that had attacked the Roxxon building, charged the foursome with energy shields, clubs, guns and even a whip.  

“You know if being individuals wasn’t working for us, I think we’d make a great Fantastic Four knockoff.” Peter said, hitting one of the thugs in the face with a ball of webbing. 

“I’ll keep that in mind if I end up stuck here.” Gwen said as she dodged the energy whip.  

Miles threw himself through the hole in the front of the bank, landing among a few shocked clerks and tellers. No one was injured as Miles checked on them. 

“You should worry more about yourself.” The Tinkerer said as she stepped out of the bank vault. Slung across her back was a duffel bag but had the same purple energy like the rest of her gear. Its purpose to keep the bag and the piles of money she just stole secured. That left the Tinkerer’s hands free for a purple shield and sword. 

Miles barely had time to dodge as she swung the sword at him. His Spider-senses went off into overdrive as she launched strike after strike at him. Outside, her thugs pressed to keep the rest of the Spider-Squad out of the bank. They knew heads were going to roll for the gang, letting one of them inside.  

“Why don’t you let these people go?” Miles asked back flipping away from another sword strike. 

“Why don’t you just go back defending your corporate overlords?” The Tinkerer asked, the mask giving out an electronic hum with each word, drowning out the inflection. They engaged again with Miles being on the back step as the Tinkerer pressed her attack. 

Her helmet worked in overdrive telling her when to move, duck, dodge and attack. While the Spider-Peoples were all natural, the Tinkerer had to rely on machines, which slowly began to fail. 

Outside, the Tinkerer’s gang was almost fully taken out. Many had been webbed up, and the few remaining had been circled up just in time to get webbed together. Peter and Gwen knew what to do and Cindy managed to realize as the three hit the remaining group with webbing in on big blast. The thugs were knocked together and stuck together, leaving only the Tinkerer left standing in her gang. 

Her helmet’s last act before frying out was to tell her. She swung her energy sword in the direction of the few remaining clerks. The sword split open in the middle and purple energy began to charge. Miles stopped in his tracks. 

“What are you doing? Leave them alone.” He shouted. He had seen what her weapons could do against a Hulk and didn’t want to see what it would do to a normal person. 

“Fine.” The Tinkerer said raising her sword to aim at Miles. The blast fired, and he spun out of the way, jumping in midair as he did. Time slowed down as he fired a webline in the hopes of hitting her weapon to disarm her. Instead, he hit the forehead of her helmet. He pulled as he twisted in the air.  

With one hand on her sword, the Tinkerer couldn’t hold onto her helmet as it slid off of her head. Like many heroes and villains who wore a mask, she stopped firing to try and grab her helmet before it flew out of reach. Miles landed and looked up in shock. 

Standing on the other side of the bank, holding a sword in one hand and her helmet in the other was Phin Mason, his best friend. He could have yanked the helmet free from her grasp with the webbing, but he was in pure shock. She was in pure rage as she pulled it free from the webbing and Miles. 

“Phin?” Was all he could ask. She stopped for a second, the rage being replaced by confusion. 

“Miles?” She asked before her eyes darted to the gap in the front where Peter, Gwen and Cindy were about to enter. She was about to be out manned and out gunned. Her confusion went away as her sword collapsed into a more manageable size. She pulled her helmet on and produced grenades from her belt. She activated them and tossed them at Miles. 

His spider-sense exploded as he jumped back. The explosives weren’t deadly, but they were blinding and deafening. He was disoriented for a few moments and when it cleared, Phin was gone. 

He stood there in shock as it washed over him that his best friend was the Tinkerer. Not only that, but she had also recognized him. He was still in shock when Peter, Gwen, and Cindy entered the bank to see what had happened. Miles was still in shock as the four landed on a rooftop far away from the prying eyes of the city. 

He marched over to an airduct, pulled off his mask and sat down. 

“Miles?” Peter asked approaching his friend. The younger Spider-Man sat in stunned silence. He pulled out his phone, no missed messages from Phin. His finger hovered over the button to text or call her. 

Cindy and Gwen watched as Peter crouched to talk to Miles. 

“What happened?” 

“It’s Phin.”  

Peter looked at him, confused. Miles looked up at Peter with a tear in his eye as the full weight of Phin’s crimes crashed down on him. She had stolen, hurt people and even tried to kill Jen.  

“The Tinkerer is Phin.” Miles said as Peter leaned back. 

“Whose Phin?” Gwen asked as Peter stood up to join the two Spider-Women. 

“My best friend.” Miles said, looking up at the group. His phone buzzed with a notification. He quickly looked at it. It wasn’t from Phin but from his father. 

Hope you are safe, bank robbery uptown and another industrial assault downtown. Keep safe. 

He quickly went to the internet to see what his father was talking about. The other spiders grouped up to game plan. 

“So, what do we do now? Do you know this Phin?” Gwen asked as it felt like her way home was slipping through her grasp. 

“If he knows her we can just go to her house and stop her.” Cindy offered. Peter opened his mouth but Miles had more to say. 

“Damn it.” Miles said as he put his head in his hands, managing not to drop his phone as he did. Peter, Cindy, and Gwen all looked at him. 

“It was a distraction.” He said, looking up at his fellow spiders. 

“What?” Peter and Gwen asked at the same time as Miles showed them his phone. Pulled up was the local news site and a video was playing. 

The news report flashed that an attack had taken place at OsCorp. A small video played, and the front doors of OsCorp exploded outwards, and a figure walked out. She was almost seven feet tall with flowing red hair that hung just below her shoulders. She wore purple boots, jeans, a black athletic shirt, and a purple spiked leather jacket. She was built like She-Hulk, a woman she had fought multiple times. 

“Oh, crap.” Peter said as Gwen looked at him. 

“Who is she?” 

“Mary MacPharron.” He looked up at her. “Better known as Titania, now that Jen is out of commission, she is the strongest woman on the planet.” 

Nothing good was going to happen if Titania was in town. Miles stood up and for a moment they all stood in silence. 

“We have to stop Phin and Titania before she can cause anymore harm.” Miles said and Peter smiled beneath his mask as his friend put his back on. 

“We will.” 

Across town, in Tinkerer’s workshop Phin waited for her prize. She knew if she made enough noise the whole Spider-Man patrol would show up. What she hadn’t expected was the voice of one of them to be her best friend. She was sure it was Miles in the black and red suit. She entered the code on the door and entered her hide out. 

The Tinkerer’s lair was empty. Most of Phin’s crew had either been arrested or fled when it was clear that she wasn’t the great crime boss she had been made out to be. Yes, she had technology and weapons few on the streets could compete with, but if you ended up in jail, it didn’t matter much. 

She threw her helmet to the ground and tried to ignore the feelings of abandonment, which was difficult. She was supposed to be akin to the Kingpin with her horde of loyal soldiers. Instead, she moved through her machine shop alone; the only solace the plan went off without a hitch. And now she knew the identity of one of the Spider-Men. Miles was her friend; she could reason with him and get him to stay out of her way. She didn’t want to get him hurt. He’d understand, he always understood. Even after everything with She-Hulk, he’d understand. He had to. She began thinking of how she’d word their interaction and when to reach out. He was probably just as shocked as she was.  

She sat around for a bit waiting in thought until the doors busted open and in walked her hired help. Titania looked like she had a much better time on her task than Phin had. The large muscular woman didn’t even have a speck of dirt on her, as opposed to Phin who was still dusted up from her earlier fight with Miles. 

“About time.” She said, trying to sound tough in front of the actual super villain, who just smirked a reply. She carried a large bag that had what Phin was after. OsCorp had a composite barrel that would be able to unleash the power her cannon had without destroying it. After the multiple break ins at Stark Industries and Roxxon, OsCorp had done the smart move of upping security to the point Phin’s crew hadn’t been up to the task. 

“Your money is over there.” She said, getting into her Tinkerer mode mindset, pointing to a duffel bag on the floor by her work bench. The larger woman looked at the money, smiled and held out the bag with Phin’s new barrel. Just as the smaller woman was about to take it, the giant pulled it back. 

“You know, I could give you this.” Titania said holding it just out of reach. 

“Or I take this and sell it to the highest bidder.” Titania said. Phin tried to grab it, but she was too short and too slow. 

“What? No, I got your money.” She said shocked at the larger woman turning on their deal. 

“You paid me a few thousand. A.I.M or Hydra would pay millions for this.” Titania looked around the room. “And that’s just for this junk, not the rest of the stuff you got here.” 

Phin’s jaw dropped. Not only was Titania going back on their deal; she was threatening to take Phin’s work as the Tinkerer to sell off. She had just discovered her best friend was swinging around the city protecting corporations and banks, now her new crime partner was trying to back stab her. 

“You can’t.” Phin said. She was enraged as her techno-sword formed. Without thinking she swung it at the super powered woman. The Tinkerer had taken down She-Hulk, She-Hulk had often defeated Titania, by the law of transitive properties in Phin’s mind she should be able to defeat the titan woman. 

Titania caught between two of her fingers without looking. She held the blade there as Phin tried to pull it free to make another swing. Titania smiled, placed the bag with the weapon piece inside, and yanked the sword from Phin’s grasp.  

While the Tinkerer’s weapons were good and powerful, the massive red head was more powerful. She snapped the blade in half and tossed the remains to the floor. Phin raced to grab her helmet; the computing processers in there would surely find a way to defeat the giant.  

She didn’t get the chance, just as Phin had grabbed it to put it on her head, Titania’s massive hands ripped it away from her. 

“You’re a kid playing at being a crime boss, so I’ll treat you like one.” She said as she crushed Phin’s Tinkerer helmet in her hand. The metal was crushed like a paper cup in the powerful woman’s grip.  

Without any other option presenting itself, Phin threw a punch. Against a normal person, it might have been a good one. To Titania, it was worthless. The smaller woman’s knuckles slammed into the massive abs that didn’t move from the impact. Phin stifled a shout as she turned from Titania to cradle her injured hand. 

Phin held her hand from the pain of the impact on the super powered woman’s stomach. The taller woman placed her hand on Phin’s shoulder, putting just a little pressure keeping the tech genius in her place. With her other hand, Titania reached into the back of Phin’s jeans, grabbing the material sitting just out of sight.  

Phin let out a squeal as she was lifted off the ground by her underpants. Titania carried the Tinkerer by her waistband, like it was a suitcase handle. Phin could do little but kick her legs as her pink boyshorts with little rainbows were forced up her backside, the pain in her hand forgotten due to the pain in her rear. With one hand the dominate woman brought the Tinkerer to the chains that hung from the ceiling, once being used to hold up heavy equipment for Phin to work on. 

Now they hung uselessly with large hooks at the end. 

Phin knew what was coming and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. Titania lifted Phin to one of the hooks and hooked the waistband of her pink boyshorts with rainbows onto the back. The taller woman let go and the Tinkerer hung there by her undies kicking her legs as her face turned red. The polyester blend was now wedged between her cheeks and most of the way up her back. 

Titania let out a little chuckle before grabbing the technology she had stolen for Phin. Then she went for the duffel bag of cash that was to be her payment. Tinkerer could only watch as she was humiliated and left to rot. Titania began to leave walking by Phin before stopping to look at her former employer. 

“If I see you again, I’m going to do far worse than a little wedgie.” Titania said as she pushed Phin with her finger. The genius swung from the chain, her face a mix of rage and pain as the material was tight up her backside.  

The tall red head headed for the door and Phin saw her chance to make the world right slip through her fingers. She had to think fast, not that her mind was working well with how uncomfortable the situation had become. 

“Wait.” Phin cried as the woman opened the door to leave. Titania waited for a moment just to hear what Phin would say. 

“If you let me down, I can build you something worth ten times that.” She said, her voice clearly in discomfort. Titania walked back and waited for Phin to continue. 

“I managed to take out She-Hulk with some scraps.” Phin said, not letting Titania know about the power source that she had stolen. It currently sat in the wall safe behind her work bench, hidden from sight. It was currently powering the whole lair and was worth a lot to whomever Titania’s buyers would be. 

“I can build something real good, just need the muscle to do it.” 

Titania considered the offer. 

“Now, I’m not smart with technology but why would you do this after I did that?” The red head asked, referring to Phin’s current hanging predicament. 

“I want to be big time, like you. I figure if we make a good team maybe I will get there and I won’t end up in situations like this.” Phin said, her face still red.  

“Good answer. But here is the ground rule.” Titania said grabbing Phin by her shirt and swinging her to be nose to nose with the taller woman. 

“I’m in charge now.” Titania said holding Phin to look straight into her eyes. 

“Of course.” Phin said.  

But she reminded herself that Titania was in charge for now, but it wouldn’t last.