Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 60: Cold Heart

Randy Robertson took a drink of water from his bottle before he took several deep breaths. Ever since he'd stopped working at the warehouse and had taken a job with the HABQ-FM radio station, he'd taken to lifting weights in the morning before he had breakfast and washed up in the morning. He found that it was also an ideal time to fully wake himself up and think about his agenda for the day.

Normally that was how it would have worked, but today the main subject on Randy's mind was his girlfriend, the beautiful, blonde Gwen Stacy. Their relationship was a lot more complicated than those of many other couples, since Gwen was also the masked crimefighter known as the spectacular Spider-Woman. Being a superhero had caused Gwen no end of trouble ever since she'd first put on her costume, and her relationship with Randy wasn't spared the grief.

Randy had never been fond of masked superheroes, and his relationship with Gwen had been strained when she'd had to run off to fight one of her supervillain enemies and then lied to Randy about it. It didn't take Randy long to figure out the truth, though, and Gwen had eventually explained to him just why she fought crime as a superhero.

Randy had tried to be supportive of Gwen, especially when he realized that he'd probably have done the same things Gwen had if he had been in her shoes. He'd also tried to be supportive when he'd heard that Gwen had somehow let Jack O' Lantern, one of her most dangerous enemies, discover her secret identity. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop himself from bluntly criticizing Gwen for her carelessness, something that only added to her guilt and distress.

Gwen's old guilt and dismay over her carelessness had been dredged up again after Spider-Woman's battle with the darkness-manipulating hypnotist Black Mamba. Somehow, Black Mamba had made an illusion of Randy be the one to berate Gwen, which made it all the more painful for her. Gwen had begun feeling the stress once again, which Randy found out about after their tennis date two days ago.

Now, Randy wasn't sure what he ought to feel. A part of him was still angry with Gwen for her carelessness, especially now that apparently this Black Mamba women probably knew her secret identity too. That part of Randy also hated the way Gwen constantly put herself, and by extension the people she knew, in danger because of her being a superhero.

But Randy also recognized all the good Gwen had been able to do with her spider-powers, helping people when they needed it the most. He also knew full well that Gwen had very good reasons for fighting crime with her powers. Another part of him felt that he was being unfair to Gwen, especially since it probably wasn't her fault that her enemies found her secret identity. He'd seen how guilty she'd felt because of it and how much she berated herself, particularly when she still felt compelled to act as a superhero anyway.

I was just lying to myself, Randy sighed as he got out of the shower and dried himself off with a towel. I thought that Gwen and I put all that crap behind us…shows how much I know.

I just wish I knew what the hell to do…he thought to himself in frustration.

SPIDER-WOMAN #60

"COLD HEART"

Gwen herself had indeed been thinking about many of the same things that Randy had. However, today her mind was on something else, as she made the trip to Riker's Island Penitentiary to visit Marie-Ange Colbert, better known as Tarot. Formerly bullied by the likes of Felicia Hardy and Sally Avril, Tarot had used her mutant powers to try and get revenge on her tormentors until Spider-Woman had stopped her. Since then, Tarot had experienced a change of heart, helping Spider-Woman save a number of people from the murderous Bookworm. Gwen had visited her in prison on a number of occasions, and the two women had subsequently formed their own unique friendship.

"Hello, Tarot," Gwen greeted Tarot with a smile as they sat in the visitor's room. To her delight, she saw that Tarot was looking much better than before. Tarot was being abused by her fellow inmates for being a mutant, and when Gwen found out she'd informed the Daily Bugle newspaper in the hopes that its publisher J. Jonah Jameson, a passionate supporter of mutant rights, could do something about it.