Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 6: Luck of the Draw

Gwen Stacy slowly opened her eyes as she awoke from sleep, her long blonde hair flowing around her as she sat up in bed. Glancing over her body, she found that most of her burns and injuries from yesterday's battle with Firebrand had healed, although her feet were still a little tender. She turned around and groaned as she noticed the time on her clock radio-5:37 AM.

I slept…all evening and through the night? she realized. Damn, a night of studying completely wasted…

A long, cool refreshing shower restored Gwen's spirits, before she set about making herself breakfast. After eating and finishing her meal, she went to the door of her apartment and gathered up the Daily Bugle, to which she had begun subscribing, mostly to see Kitty's work in the paper. Although she took little interest in politics or sports, or much of anything else the Bugle had to say besides its editorials on mutant rights, Gwen found herself enjoying Kitty's work in the paper's Arts and Entertainment Section.

Any excitement she may have felt at reading the A&E section was spoiled as she flipped through the paper and stumbled across the article. Headlined FIRE TRAP, the article detailed her fight with Firebrand, complete with Eddie Brock's pictures of the flaming wreckage. Disgust turned to anger as she read the article.

…It appears that Spider-Woman is at least partially responsible for the damage inflicted by Firebrand, as her interference with the work of the police and fire crews hindered their efforts at rescuing trapped civilians and bystanders and increased Firebrand's anger, strengthening his flames and increasing the damage wrought by the villain. In a trend that has become distressingly common in New York over the past decade, Spider-Woman's battle with Firebrand caused further property damage and ruin for many city residents, even as innocent citizens were endangered…

It was all Gwen could do to avoid breaking her kitchen table in two. All the frustration and anger of the past few weeks seemed to return as she took several deep breaths, as her hands trembled and shook. Finally, as she calmed down, tears appeared in her eyes.

They soon disappeared, however, when she recalled the crowd of people trapped in the bus that she had saved upon smothering the bus's flames before they could reach the gas tank, and then smashing it open so they could flee the scene. She recalled the people who had clung desperately to her as she carried them out of the burning buildings, how the parents had made her carry out their children first, before she ran back in to retrieve them, and then taking off to battle Firebrand once again.

Gwen had done it all as if by reflex, without even thinking about it.

That realization caused her to lean back in her chair, anger fading as it became replaced by confusion and…relief?

SPIDER-WOMAN #6

"LUCK OF THE DRAW"

Shaking her head, Gwen left her apartment and made her way to Empire State University, trying to force herself to concentrate on other things as she made her way to her first class for the day, arriving some twenty minutes before it began-she preferred to get there early to prepare for anything that might come up.

She was snapped out of her reverie by a sudden voice calling her name. Looking around, she saw Randy Robertson, grandson of the legendary journalist Joe Robertson, who had become famous as J. Jonah Jameson's second-in-command at the Daily Bugle in the turbulent days of the 1960s, leading the way in the Bugle's fight for integration and the Civil Rights Movement…and incidentally making the Bugle the most popular newspaper among New York's Black community.

Gwen didn't know Randy all that well, having only met him a couple of times when Kitty had introduced them, as she shared Randy's admiration of his grandfather. She raised an eyebrow as he came towards her, seemingly flustered and nervous, his hands clenching and unclenching nervously.