Gwen hits the bull's eye

Gwen had fought enough super-villains in her brief life to recognize almost automatically the type of body language used for an imminent attack. Indeed, it was only the fact that she recognized that the mysterious figure in red was going to attack way before he actually did so that saved her life.

By the time he hurled the first lawn dart, Gwen was already using her spider webbing to move one of the patio tables in front of her. As a result, a lawn dart that should have pierced her heart ended up stuck in the middle of a table top instead.

The man in red threw three more lawn darts but each time Gwen managed to block them with another piece of patio furniture.

Then Gwen got tired of playing defense. She had no idea who this guy was but he obviously was to up to no good and needed to be taken down quickly before he harmed someone.

She used her spider webbing to immobilize the man's arms and when he tried to break the webbing, she used the webbing again to hit the man over the head with a chair.

The man immediately collapsed and Gwen found herself breathing a sigh of relief.

Then she ran over to check on Vanessa.

"Are you hurt?" Gwen asked.

"No," said Vanessa. "But thank you for saving my life. If you had not been here, that man would have killed me."

"Who is he anyway?" asked Gwen. "If you don't mind me asking."

"He's a former associate of my husband," said Vanessa. "Apparently they had a falling out."

"Well, in that case," said Gwen, "I guess it's a good thing your husband isn't here."

"Who says he isn't here?" asked Vanessa.

It was then that Gwen felt the earth tremble just a little bit as a large man -- a very large man -- with a bald head and a white suit walked out onto the patio.

"Vanessa," he said as he glanced at Gwen, "it seems that we have a visitor. Or more specifically, an uninvited guest. And I for one do not care for uninvited guests."