A MARVELOUS night

The moment the Invisible Woman stepped out of her home and cut into an alleyway, what came out was Lady Anti-Venom swinging out through the skyscrapers of New York and cheering out loud like she was riding a roller coaster. Susan’s smile reached ear to ear, feeling the rush of excitement pass through her when she got higher and higher up in the air. She could feel the wind blow in her hair as she performed flips and summersaults 100 stories above the ground and shot out a black web line to bank into a turn and do it all over again.

“ALRIGHT NEW YORK, SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT FOR ME TODAY!”

Swinging between a trio of apartment buildings and spraying web lines across every surface until they tangled and laced together, the act took merely 2 seconds as she spun upside down gracefully, pulling and connecting lines together as she did so. When she was done, Susan landed in the center of a cobweb of her own making, looking down at the traffic and pedestrians below as she looked around for anything to catch her attention.

She loved the view, loved the powers that granted her the ability to see this view, but most of all she loved having the power to help people, to save people, HEAL people. She did love her time as the Invisible Woman but in the last month alone she had saved so many people, it made her time with the Fantastic Four seem like she had been sitting on her hands the whole time. She was never idle, not for a second after she had been wearing the anti-venom symbiote. She almost blamed all the chocolate she had been eating for the sugar rush. She was starting to feel antsy sitting in her web looking for trouble to fix, she was hoping for something to start the day.

She didn’t have long to wait when she heard a fire engine sound off 3 blocks away, making her smile as she shot a line out and swung in the direction of the disturbance.

“There ain’t no rest for the wicked!”

Chasing after the fire trucks and paramedics heading into the deeper parts of the city, Susan’s smile never left her when she found where they were heading and the plume of smoke coming from a 20-story apartment building. Before the trucks could even set up and start putting out fires, Susan was already sling shooting herself into the window of one of the floors 20 stories high. A few minutes later, the firemen looked up to a surprise when they found eight thin, insectoid legs reach out that same window with Lady Anti-Venom attached to them, scurrying out with a family in her arms down the side of the wall until they reached the ground and were let go to be taken by the paramedics.

“There you go, I’ll be right back kids.” She winked with her mask, keeping her arms and legs tucked in as her arachnid set of legs helped her crawl back up the wall of the burning building to find more people.

“THANK YOU, MOMMY LONG LEGS!”

*

Meanwhile at a therapy session downtown…

“Congratulations on the baby announcement Mrs. Jones, does anyone else have any progress on their lives they wish to share?” Asked the doctor who looked around the therapy group, finding that out of everyone clapping for the happy and blushing Jessica Jones, Matt was looking up at a can shaped toy using the light from the window to look through.”

“Mr. Murdock?”

“I can’t believe I’ve never looked into a kaleidoscope before in my life!” Chuckled Matt Murdock, looking up at the cylindrical toy and turning it to see the patterns and colours change. “Heh, the colours children, the COLOURS!”

Staring back at the formally blind man having the time of his life, everyone else at the therapy circle shrugged or shifted in their seats, feeling almost jealous that the man was having so much fun with so simple a contraption. Eventually, to break the moment, the doctor at the center of the group pointed over to Peter.

“Mr. Parker, you’ve been coming to our meetings for over a month now, anything you’d like to share.

Shrugging and sipping from a water bottle he brought with him. Peter Parker looked to the eager crowd of people waiting to listen to one of his stories.

“Well… Things have been getting better… I’ve reconciled with some friends, I’m dating again.”

A clap or two echoed out over the group as Peter nodded and waved a thank you to those that did. “Her name is MJ; we’ve hit it off well. So much so she offered for me to move in with her.”

“Congratulations old chap, I hope she’s the one for you.” Nodded Steve, his face twitching as he leaned back in his chain and grinned, switching to a thick Brooklin accent. “If I were you buddy, I’d put a ring on that finger uh hers while you’z got the chance.”

“Thanks… Jake, was it?”

“Nah, its Mark now.”

“Oh, well thanks Mark.”

“Nope, Steve.”

“Oh, well thanks again Steve.”

“Nah, I’m fucking with you now, it’s been Jake the whole time.”

Narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms, Peter gave the man a dirty look, just as Jake chuckled with a grin.

*

7 hours later…

Swinging her way through the skyline of New York city, Susan felt proud of herself over her achievements of the day. She rescued families out of a burning building, stopped three muggings, rescued someone having a heart attack, and she still wanted to do MORE! It was like a ****; she just couldn’t get enough of it. Landing on the side of an office building, Susan sat upside down from a water drain and looked down at her wrist where a portion of the symbiote receded to show the time off a wristwatch.

“Hmm… Getting close to eight o clock. I can either keep up the patrol, or I can head home for an early night to help the kids bake some treats for the bake sale.”

Crossing her arms and tapping her chin, Susan thought hard on that. She didn’t want to disappoint her kids… Or miss out on chocolate fudge brownies, but she also wanted to squeeze a few more hours of patrolling the streets for the safety of others. Eventually the quiet grumble in her stomach made the decision for her.

“Early night it is… Shame really, I was hoping for some action just before I…”

An airburst erupted out in the distance, not so much an explosion so much as an airburst or sonic boom that caught Susan’s attention. Looking around for the source, she heard it again and spotted something out in the dead of night. At first, she thought it was a high-flying plane up in the air, but it left a streak of light behind it like a comet. But this one seemed to course correct, darting to the left… And heading straight for Susan.

“And the night was going SO well too...”

Bracing herself for the impact, the collision nearly knocked the wind right out of her as she was shot from her perch and taken for a ride on something that was on fire and giving off yellow and blue flames that didn’t burn. She could feel the air shift and change as the flight trajectory changed with it, only coming to a dead stop when Susan felt her back collide with a water tower and blast right through it like a canon ball. Dropping like a stone and feeling a deluge of stored water splash over her and flood the roof of the building she had crashed over.

Slowly rolling onto her knees and hands, Susan felt dazed, shaking her head as she felt the symbiote repair what it could. Getting to her feet she nearly lost her footing until she managed to get her wits about her.

“Did anyone else get the license plate of the driver? Because NO ONE should drive like that…”

A hiss filled the air, catching her attention to look up when she felt the same fiery light illuminate the sky above her. When she did, her eyes went wide. Hovering above her was a massive arachnid engulphed in cosmic flames, its fur was a blonde colour, with three sets of eyes giving off a red fiery glow. But what REALLY caught her attention was the tattered ruins of a blue costume with a red scarf tied around its thorax between its third and forth let of legs. Twitching her mandibles, Captain Marvel hissed at the now battle-ready Susan, who raised her fists with a worried look.

“Okay… Something tells me sleep is going to have to wait…”