Chapter Text
Golden Weaver — The Consequences of Power
Chapter 1 — Sandstorm
Suletta was having a good day until she was hit on her face by a pile of sand.
It didn’t matter that she had finally been able to arrive at school on time — the last time was two weeks ago, after a day in which the only crime was a simple purse-stealing —, or that she was able to fight against her anxiety and have a few words with Miorine Rembran, the prettiest and richest girl on Asticassia (she had to endure a lot of teasing from Chuchu about her “crush”); she was even able to avoid being targeted by Guel’s bullying tendencies. At the end of the day, she was able to finish a school day without any problem whatsoever. She was actually happy when she was able to put on her mask and start swinging through the buildings of New York; her white, black, and gold costume being recognizable by the civilians on the streets as she swung above them.
The moment she put on her mask, she wasn’t Suletta anymore. She was Golden Weaver, the Spider-Woman, the Friendly Neighborhood Superhero. Weaver was everything that Suletta wasn’t: Confident, charismatic, and courageous. Weaver was a hero, a symbol of hope, while Suletta was a nobody, a girl with no self-confidence who was always stuttering and couldn’t form a proper conversation without making a fool of herself. She loved being the Golden Weaver; she was able to feel weightless and with no worries when she glided through the dense concrete forest that her city was composed of, and she felt accomplished when she helped people that needed her with the power she was been given. Being the superheroine of New York gave Suletta a feeling of freedom that nothing in her entire world ever did. It was like-
She was stopped mid-swing by a giant fist made of pure sand.
“ Weaver?! ” She heard the shout from her earpiece as she fell from the high and tried to recover from the disorienting sensation of falling to her death.
“Fuck!” She quickly shot out a web to the nearest building and swung herself out of the way of her death, and saw through her periphery the sand flying in her direction. Weaver had to react as fast as she could to dodge the pile of sand that was flying at her at a deadly velocity. She flung herself to a high altitude to avoid the sand blade it transform into. The heroine glided to the nearest building and crouched on the edge of the roof while she waited for Sandman to approach her. She needed to respond to the voice in her ears that was desperate before she made her partner worry even more. “Aerial? I’m fine, I was just caught off guard by Sandman.”
“Thank god! ” Her sister, Eri, exclaimed in her ears as the sand started to form itself into a figure on the other edge of the roof. “ I will try to fly one of my drones to your location. Just keep his attention on you. ”
“That will be easy, he already has.” She whispered as the sand formed itself into a humanoid form and the silhouette formed itself into the appearance of Elan Ceres, the Sandman.
“Hello, Golden Weaver,” Elan said, his arm shifting and reforming itself into a blade. “Are you ready to die?”
“Not really, no,” Weaver answered, her arms pointed to the threat as he started to slowly walk towards her, probably anticipating her attack. “Hey, Elan, can you tell me how did you escape the statue that I turned you into? You know, the one made out of pure concrete that shouldn’t let sand particles escape?”
“Ah, you mean that hell you put me into?” He growled as he extended his arm in her direction, the sand blade almost touching her before her spider-sense made her avoid it at the last second. “I had some help to break out of it, and after I escaped, I came straight here. You will pay for the hell you put me through! I will have my rightful revenge against the annoying babble mouth that won’t leave me alone!”
“Now that’s just rude!” She exclaimed as Elan reformed himself into a bunch of arms that continued to attack her. Weaver felt as if there was something off about Sandman’s statement but she couldn’t grasp it, and, by the way in which the arms morphed into a more lethal form, she wouldn’t have time to think about it. Weaver did a backflip to avoid the sand arms and she did a kick to break the sand. Sandman grunted as his body lost its definition and color, becoming fully sand. She jumped off the building and knew that Sandman was following her through the air. “Um, Aerial? Are you online?”
“I’m here! One of my Drone-Bits is near you, I can see the cloud of sand pursuing you. ” As Weaver dodge another attack from Elan, she saw one of her sister’s stolen drones at the edge of her enhanced vision, flying far away enough to not be easily targeted by Sandman if he saw it. “ He is somehow speeding up!”
Weaver made herself fall by letting go of her web, avoiding Sandman catching up to her by her free falling. She shot a web to a nearby park and slingshotted herself there, trying to put herself in a better field to fight on. She arrived at the park and hid on the top of a tree as Sandman followed behind her, landing and forming his body, immediately looking around for her.
“Come out, Spider-Woman! I’m not done with you!” He yelled, his body forming a dozen arms that went out in all directions, trying to find her.
“Weaver! We have a big problem! ” Eri yelled in her ear, desperation in her voice. “ There’s another villain! Someone is attacking Benerit Corp!”
“That’s bad,” Suletta whispered to herself, only realizing that Elan had found her when she felt a strong grip pulling her to the ground, a giant leash of sand around her body.
She cursed as she was pulled to Elan, her arms immobilized against her torso. Sandman smirked as she approached him. She finally realized why the whole situation felt off, the Elan she fought against wasn’t one to be moved by revenge, he would rather keep out of her way than attack her unprovoked if he didn’t have an ulterior motive. “You aren’t going after me just for revenge. You’re a distraction.”
“Bingo!” Elan said, a smile on his face as the leach morphed onto his arm, and started to squeeze her. Weaver hated how strong he was when his body was literally made of sand, the sand was as solid as concrete, and combined with her immobilization and how her spider-sense was overloading her senses, warning of the danger of the lack of air, Weaver was completely helpless against Sandman. “The lady who so graciously freed me also promised to cure me if I kill you. You couldn’t help me before, and now you will never do.” The air was starting to leave her lungs as the sand started to become more and more condensed, the arm becoming thicker and thicker as the air started to leave her body quicker. Sandman’s whole body was being used to strengthen the hold on Weaver, making her unable to move and escape her situation. “I will enjoy squishing you, annoying bug.”
“ Weaver! Are you there? Keep tight, I will try to help you!” As black spots started to appear in her vision, she saw Elan smiling as he swatted the drone that was approaching them with a single swap with his other arm. “ No! Weaver! Stay awake! Weaver! SULETTA!” Eri was frenetic in her ears, and as her vision started to darken and her senses went silent.
“Goodbye, Golden Weaver. I will see you in hell.”
VRWOOSH!
“ARGHH!”
Out of nowhere, the arm that was squeezing the life out of Weaver was destroyed by a blast that made the sand fall apart. Sandman yelled in surprise and Suletta fell to the ground, coughing and trying to inhale air, by lifting the mask to expose her nose and mouth. She desperately started to cough and inhale air, her vision returning slowly as she watched Sandman trying to reform himself before the sand particles exploded out of his body, as the shockwaves disrupted the connections between the sand particles. Suletta recognized the way in which the air distorted with the shockwaves, the characteristic signature of Shocker’s powerful and stolen gauntlets. But Shocker was in prison, locked behind bars. So how…?
“You don’t look so good, Goldy.” A costume-clad girl jumped out of a nearby tree, her right arm sprouting the Shocker Gauntlet which shot out another wave that forced Sandman back, his body falling apart while he retreated. Weaver fixed her mask and stared at her savior, who turned to her with a smirk on her face, the domino mask obstructing her face. She had long white hair that fell around her face, complementing the black and white costume she wore, and a smirk on her lips as she turned to the spider heroine. “Do you want a kiss to make it feel better?”
“Thank god you’re okay!” Eri exclaimed in her ears, relief clear by the tone of her voice. Suletta felt a little guilty about worrying her sister, but regardless of how she made Aerial feel, she had a more pressing matter, she would apologize later after Elan was dealt with.
“White Cat? What are you doing here?” Weaver stumbled to her feet, staring at her unexpected savior. White Cat rolled her eyes and pointed out at the nearby sand cloud that was forming over the park, Elan seemingly not over with his attack. Sandman could control as much sand and rock particles as he wanted, making him stronger and denser the more he absorbed; it was a bad sign that Sandman had decided to strengthen himself before returning to the battle, it signified that he was not done with Weaver or with his distraction plan.
“What it seems like? I am helping you. There’s an attack on Benerit HQ, and Sandman just so happens to miraculously escape from the statue you turned him into. It’s not hard to put two and two together.”
“I never thought I would be glad for White Cat to be here, but there’s a first for everything. ” Suletta agreed with Ericht for the most part; while she didn’t have as much of a problem with White Cat as Eri had (something about “rubbing her the wrong way” with the way she acted), she did feel a little embarrassed with how much White Cat liked to flirt and tease her. Regardless, the fact that the cat vigilant had saved Suletta made her appreciate the thief a little more.
“How do you have Shocker’s Gauntlet?” Weaver asked, a frown hidden behind her mask, but it seemed like the cat vigilant could read her body language by the way she flinched at the words.
“I may have stolen it from the black market.”
“Cat!”
“What? It’s better with me than with a random psycho that would try and follow in her footsteps.” White Cat murmured before looking at the sand cloud that was becoming bigger by absorbing the sand from the nearby lakes. That was a pretty bad sign, the last time that Elan had absorbed that much sand, he almost destroyed the entire city. That was not a pretty battle to witness. “That’s not important right now, Goldy. I have the perfect counter against Sandman. Let me deal with him. You, on the other hand, are clearly outmatched. You need to let Elan to me and go to Benerit Conglomerate, fast. It seems whoever is attacking there has access to the OCTO-ARMs.”
“WHAT?!” Eri and Suletta exclaimed at the same time. The OCTO-ARMs were the most dangerous technology that her mother had ever created, a metallic chest harness that possessed four giant tentacle-like appendages on its back which helped the doctors from the Vanadis Institute to move heavy objects or interact with dangerous substances with security. It had an Artificial Intelligence that controlled the arms of the employees, however, an accident when Elnora Samaya, Suletta’s and Eri’s mom, was using it, causing the AI to suffer a malfunction and take over Elnora’s body and mind, making her rename herself Doctor Octopus, and tried to destroy the city in the process. Weaver had defeated her mother, deleted the AI, and scrapped the device. It was supposed to be the end of the OCTO-ARMs. But it seemed like her bad luck caught up to her again, bringing Octopus back. “How? Who?”
“I don’t know how, but whoever it is, she is calling herself Lady Octopus. And it doesn’t seem like it is an AI in control. She is too emotive for it. She redesigned the arms if the new functions are something to go on about.”
Weaver tensed, hesitation and confusion consuming her. On one hand, she had to defeat Sandman before he became too powerful and started wreaking havoc on the city. On the other hand, Dr. Octopus was one of the toughest fights that she had ever fought (not only because it was against her own mind-controlled mother), but because the tentacles were tough, flexible, and hit like a truck. If that woman had somehow been able to reconstruct the OCTO-ARMs and had full control over them, she would be a big problem. She was afraid of what that ‘Lady Octopus’ could do while she was stuck trying to defeat Elan. White Cat seemed to take notice of Weaver’s hesitation so she, after she confirmed that Sandman was still busy strengthening himself, focused on the heroine, getting her attention and removing her from the mess that was her head.
“Weaver.” White Cat said, gently putting her hands on her shoulders and making the heroine stare at the thief, the way her platinum eyes were shining made Suletta feel as if the vigilant was cutting right through her soul. “You’re a hero, a good one at that, and you’re needed somewhere. Go and save those people on the Benerit HQ. They need your help. Let me take care of Sandman. I have the perfect weapon against him, and, no matter how incredible you are, you can’t be in two places at once. Someone needs to defeat Lady Octopus before she kills more people, and you are the only one strong enough to save this city from another supervillain. Can you do that to me?”
Suletta kept her eyes on White Cat’s for a few more seconds, the words warming her head and making her blush a little, but she realized that Cat was right; her father always told her and Eri about how people with power should have a responsibility great enough to match it. It was what she lived for, along with her mother's own mantra to move forward to gain two, and was the basis of why she was Golden Weaver. She had the power to save people, so she had the responsibility to do so. She was able to always move forward and help those in need and stop someone that was causing harm, so she did it instead of running away. White Cat had reminded her of that, which made her grateful to the platinum-blonde. She needed to make it up to her after the battle was over. So, after taking a deep breath and slapping her face to make her focus, she nodded at Cat, ready to do what was needed of her.
“Okay, I’ll do it. I trust you. But you have to be careful, Elan is dangerous.”
“Who do you think you’re speaking to?” White Cat said with a small smirk before tensing as the sand cloud started to go in their direction at a speed that she didn’t think Sandman was possible, he was flying at them at a velocity near a hurricane. She pointed the Shocker Gauntlet directly at the advancing sand and shouted at Golden Weaver: “NOW, GO! Before he closes you off!”
Weaver did as asked, sniping a web to a nearby building and launching off to the air, having to dodge a nearby sand tentacle. As she left the park and heard the sounds of the gauntlet going off in the background, she started to navigate the city in the direction of Benerit, Ericht’s drones appearing at her side, helping her traverse the labyrinth that was New York’s sky.
She had a single goal in mind: Stopping Lady Octopus and saving New York.
It was like every other day for the superhero.
🕷🕷🕷