Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 45: Puppet Dance, Part 3: Master Of Puppets

The Sleepwalker gazed out over the New York skyline, his face a mask of determination. Normally he would have enjoyed the sight of the beautiful city lights glimmering against the night sky, which evoked memories of his home in the Mindscape, the otherworldly dimension that connected the minds of all living creatures in existence. Tonight, however, it only served to remind Sleepwalker of how vast New York City truly was, and how ultimately futile his search for the villainous Moonstone was.

For over a week and a half, Sleepwalker's human host Rick Sheridan had been lying in a coma, badly injured by one of Moonstone's rampages at Empire State University. Rick's unconsciousness had released the Sleepwalker from his mind, and the alien warrior had sought to avenge his human friend and bring Moonstone to justice, but she'd managed to escape when Sleepwalker had been forced to help the victims of her attack. Since that time, Sleepwalker had been searching for Moonstone, in between conducting his regular patrols to protect the innocent people of New York from criminals. While Sleepwalker hadn't been able to track down Moonstone, he had rescued several hundred people who were being held hostage by the Brothers Grimm, a psychopathic showman that was in effect two people in one, and who had been forcing his hostages to watch the warped "performances" he put on with his magical creations.

Sleepwalker had been badly injured in the aftermath of that fight, and the simple strain of being in the physical world for so long had taken its toll on him. His race needed mental energy to sustain itself and heal its wounds, and Sleepwalker typically got what he needed when he rested in Rick's mind by absorbing energy through Rick's connection to the Mindscape. Normally Sleepwalker would be pulled back into Rick's mind whenever Rick woke up from sleep or otherwise regained consciousness, but that was before he'd been put into a coma. Sleepwalker had been forced to draw the mental energy he needed from Rick's friends while they slept, using their connections to the Mindscape, over and above what they took for themselves.

Frustration was evident in Sleepwalker's features as he pondered his next move. He hated the way he had to hover over Rick's friends while they slept so he could absorb mental energy from the Mindscape through them, even though they'd been the ones to encourage him to do it. He felt a growing sense of anxiety over Rick's condition-he didn't know how long humans could or would be able to survive in a coma, or what kind of condition Rick would be in if and when he finally woke up. He felt a growing sense of hopelessness that he was ever going to find Moonstone, who had apparently gone to ground after her last set of rampages.

The Sleepwalker simply couldn't figure out what to do next.

Across town, a beautiful young woman with long, blonde hair and bright blue eyes was laying in bed, her mind racing as she tried to get to sleep. Ever since she'd begun fighting crime as the spectacular Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy had been confronted with all kinds of complications in both her civilian and her costumed life, and it was just as true today as when she'd started over a year ago.

Her relationship with her boyfriend Randy Robertson had hit a rough patch ever since New Year's Eve when she'd had to run out on him to fight a supervillain as Spider-Woman, and he clearly hadn't believed the feeble excuses she'd tried to make. Now, there was a serious tension between them as Randy suspected Gwen of hiding something from him, although so far they'd been dancing around the question. Gwen might have told Randy about her dual identity, but he'd been rather blunt in his dislike of costumed superheroes and she was afraid of how he'd react if she told him about being a costumed heroine herself.

Things weren't much better for her as Spider-Woman, either. After the maniacal, electrically-charged supervillain stalker who called himself Supercharger had murdered several of Spider-Woman's critics as a way of proclaiming his sick "love" for her, the brother of one of those victims had started an online hate campaign against her. That was bad enough by itself, but several of the contributors to the campaign had used rather disgusting sexual language and bragged about what they'd have liked to do to her if they got the chance, something Gwen doubted they'd have said if they'd displayed their hatred of a male hero like Daredevil or Darkhawk.