...Before a Fall: Part 2 A Pretty Samy/Spider-Man crossover Pretty Sammy, Misao, Ramia, Ryo-ohki, etc. belong to Pioneer/AIC. Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jamerson, Carnage, etc. belongs to Marvel Comics. Please do not sue. For those that follow Spider-man, I'm going by the comic book with some of the TV series. That's why Flash hasn't change by the time Carnage shows up. Part 2: No Need for Magical Girls ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New York City Aunt May answered the knock on the door. It was Tenchi and Sasami Kawii and Flash Thompson. Tenchi had in his hand a folder with several sheets of papers stuffed in it. "Hello Mrs. Parker. I'm Tenchi Kawaii, and I'm here to see to give Peter his homework." Aunt May welcomed them into the house. There, on the couch waiting for them was Peter. His forearms and hands had stitches where he was bitten the night before by a 'stray dog'. "Boy, Peter," said Tenchi "that must have been some dogs to have done that to you." "Knowing Parker he was mauled by a dachshund," Flash snidely remarked. Peter flicked at the irony of Flash's insult. He didn't need any reminder last night. Well, this is as good as of a time as any to ask Tenchi about the magical girls. "Say Tenchi. Have you heard on the news yesterday about the fight between Spider-Man and that girl Pixy Misa." Peter saw Tenchi's face turn pale despite his dark complexion. Tenchi closed his eyes and shivered. "I've met her on three occasions. None of which I want to remember." "I don't believe this," yelled Flash "Don't you bozos know that all propaganda made up by J. Jonah Jamerson to make Spidy look bad. NO way he could of lost to no magical girls." "Uh... Flash. Pixy Misa is pretty dangerous. I mean she..." Tenchi was abruptly halted when Flash got into Tenchi's face again. "I SAID no magical girl could beat Spider-Man." Boys, Sasami thought to herself, no matter what age they were, they always thought they were better than girls. The day after his encounter with Misa and Samy, Peter Parker spent the whole day looking over transcripts made by Daily Bugle reporters stationed in the Far East in the hopes he could find any mention of Pixy Misa or Pretty Samy. Peter had phoned his professors at ESU and told them that he had to stay home because of bite and could not make it to class. Peter hated to lie to everyone, but he had to find Pixy Misa, defeat her, and restore his reputation as Spider-Man or what little of a reputation he had before. Parker wasn't familiar with Japan but he knew he was humiliated by the biggest joke in the superhero community: the magical girl. The badly dressed (even by superhero standard) Japanese magical girls were considered even bigger losers than the Great Lake Avengers (for those unfamiliar to Marvel Comics, the Great Lake Avengers are a superhero team of bunglers with lame powers). It was said the source of their powers were cheap dollar store jewelry, and the spells they recited was composed of phrases that made no sense. They were nothing more than little girls living in out their dreams of being some sort of princess. All those years since he first became Spider-Man trying to gain the respect and acceptance of the world went up in smoke all in one night. No! All those years since he could remember trying to gain the respect and acceptance of the world went up in smoke. Peter remembered being the school nerd and butt end of Flash Thompson's pranks, then becoming Spider-Man and believing he wouldn't be a high school loser anymore. Instead he led a hellish existence of costumed freaks, love ones like Uncle Ben and his true love Gwen Stacy dying and all for a city of ingrates with his boss J. Jonah Jamerson leading the mob which may someday lynch Spider-Man. And what little chance of being taken seriously as a super hero was lost because he was caught off guard and defeated by a magical girl. Worse, he owed his life to a magical girl also. Peter Parker caught himself in mid-thought. He OWED his life to a magical girl. Pretty Samy saved his life from Pixy Misa, and he cursed her out. He acted liked a jerk. Peter began to feel guilty for violent outburst. But then he recalled Pixy Misa said she was looking for Pretty Samy. A part of Peter Parker told him this never would have happened if Pretty Samy would have never came here. Parker's guilt faded as fast as it appeared. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Titan In the ruins of one of cities of the devastated moon of Saturn stood three figures in the fog. One of them, an adult woman, was venting her anger and frustration on the two children. "... and once again Pixy Misa makes a fool of herself by letting Pretty Samy chalk up another point for Tsunami and bringing her another step closer to the throne of Juraihelm," yells Ramia in Pixy Misa's face who looks at Ramia nonchalantly. "NO!!! I take that back. She screws up even more so than usual. In addition to everything I just mentioned, she brings in a complication to my plans. She alerts the local authorities and makes an enemy out of one of the local costumed psychos." Ramia then turns to Rumiya who, unlike Pixy Misa, backs away from Ramia. "And to make matters worst, none of this would of happen have a certain relative of mind brought her straight to me in the first place." "No one brings me anywhere," Misa interrupted. Ramia turns to Pixy Misa in surprise. She didn't expect this blatant defiance from Misa. "I can defeat Samy without help from anyone. So I decided to go on my own and..." Ramia met Misa's rebuke with a slap to her face. "Listen up and listen good," ordered Ramia as she held Pixy Misa by her leather blouses with one hand. "I want you to train Carnage in attaching a magically endowed opponent. Then I want you to assist Carnage in defeating Pretty Samy. Now if you don't, I'll change you back to Misao and leave you as Misao permanently." The defiant look on Pixy Misa's face melted off the instant Ramia mentioned leaving her as Misao with a look of fear and disgust all at the same time. Then, she turned to Rumiya who was watching and spat blood from her mouth in Rumiya's direction. Cletus Cassidy stepped though the portal opened by Ramia. He looked around the new world he was in. "I LOVED what do did with the place. Think I can move to Juraihelm after I plug off what's her name," said Cassidy in admiration of the destruction he saw before him. "This isn't Juraihelm," corrected Ramia, "but a territory recently acquired when the inhabitants were killed off by one of their own. "Now Pixy Misa will you teach Carnage how to attack a magical opponent." "Hey Ramia, has Pixy Misa been a bad little magical girl 'cause it looks like you just knocked the crap outta her?" asked Cassidy with grin on his face. Ramia's face turned red and became twisted for second before she calmed down. "If you keep asking stupid questions, I'm going to give you stupid answers WITH A VOICE MAGNIFICATION SPELL!" screamed Ramia. Cassidy's demonic smile melted away with the thought of going though the experience of Ramia's sound-based spells again. Cassidy decided to let the matter go. Besides, it best to let Misa answers his questions and allowed Ramia to think that he's in the dark about the descent in the ranks. Cassidy hated having someone pull his strings. It defeated the whole purpose of murder, the freedom it brought. He tried consoling himself by consist reminders he would be killing an innocent and gaining the alliance with a sorercess in finishing off Spider-Man. But now, even the thought of that was not enough to fight off the urge to gut Ramia and use her intestines for a jumprope. He was considering the possibly of having Pixy Misa as an ace up his sleeve in case Ramia try to welch on her part of the deal or if Carnage simply got tired of her. Cassidy's clothing took its real form, and Cassidy became Carnage. Pixy Misa looked upon her replacement, that she was certain of. She knows abandonment when she sees it. She saw it as Amano Misao from her father first and then her mother. She has hoped the abandonment would stop when she became Pixy Misa. But it didn't. Ramia has found her a new champion. And Rumiya. That coward just stood there the whole time and let Ramia manhandle her she thought to herself. It was as well. Everyone leaves me in the end thought Misa. Only if Spider-Man didn't interfered in the first place. It was his fault Samy wasn't defeated. Misa, then, had an ideal. "Ramia," said Pixy Misa politely, "I know a way to keep Spider-Man out of the way of your plans, with your permission, of course...." As Misa was speaking to Ramia, one of the Titans was spying on them with one of the many eavesdropping devices left over from the war. The Titan addressed his companion: a woman with reddish brown hair and green spike-shaped markings running from the base of her neck to her cheekbones on each side of her face. "My soul is revived by the comedy of these ranked amateurs of the art of intrigue." A fowl look fell on her the woman's face. "Just think. I actually thought the girl would make something of herself. It was a mistake to leave those two on their own." The woman turns to a third person, a man bound in chains that glowed red. He was dressed in a highly elaborate shirt, blue pants and red cape. His hair was parted in a V and was turning gray on the sides. "I'm a neglectful parent, am I not." The man kept silent, not even looking up at the woman. "How rude of you not to answer the young woman's question,""," said the Titan, disdameful of the man's sulking. "Still unset over your abduction? You actually should be flattered. Of all the people in the universe to chose to help us fulfill our glorious cause, I would pick you." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New York City It has been two days after their first encounter, and Sasami was anxious to meet Spider-Man again. She was upset at the treatment she received from Spider-Man and she wanted answers. And it wouldn't be long. Sasami, as Pretty Sammy, was the firescape of a building that he would pass by on his patrols. Or that was what Tenchi told her. He said he saw Spider-Man twice before in that location. Sammy already came there yesterday and didn't see him. "Forget it Sasami, he's not even worth it," said Ryo-ohki. He was asleep when the incident took placed. Sasami was watching a latenight movie when she heard the screams on the other side of street. Ryo-ohki wished he hadn't decided on letting Sasami keeping the baton herself. She should have woke him up instead of going to battle with Pixy Misa without at least telling him. "But I have to know why he was so upset with me," replied Sammy. "Listen Samy, I've heard some bad things about him, like he's really a criminal." "He was in a fight with Pixy Misa. That must mean we're on the same side." Ryo-ohki had no answer to rebuke Sasami's argument. He just felt like killing the wall-crawler for speaking to Sasami in such a manner. Then Ryo-ohki caught sight of him. He was a block away swinging ten stories high on gossamer webs running down the surrounding skyscrapers. Ryo-ohki tapped Sasami on the legs pointed in Spider-Man's direction when Sammy looked down at him. Spider- Man swung onto the firescape where Pretty Sammy and Ryo-okhi was waiting. Parker was staring down at Sammy. Sasami could tell that Spider-Man's ego was bruised and that he wanted to redeem himself. She could feel his emotions. There was some distasteful to Spider-Man about being involved with not just Pixy Misa but her as well. She would not probe any further into Spider-Man's minds than his emotional state and not use her powers for eavesdropping into one's thoughts. Besides, she wants Spider-Man to explain himself to her. "Well, well, well," Spider-Man said. "We still haven't learned not to butt-in other peoples business." "Pixy Misa is my problem, not yours. So who's the one butting-in other people's business, now?" retorted Sammy. "Since you brought Pixy Misa here, she's become my problem." "What do mean 'I brought Pixy Misa here'?" "She said she was here to end your rivalry her" "I can't help it if Pixy Misa followed me here to New York City to pick a fight with me. If you want someone to blame for Pixy Misa, then blame Ramia." This intrigued Spider-Man to discover that there is a third party involved. He decided to question Sasami about Ramia. "Who's Ramia, and what does she has to do with Pixy Misa?" "She's a sorceress from the planet Juraihelm. I can't prove it, but she's trying to keep its chosen queen Tsunami from taking the throne. Tsunami chose me to be her champion on Earth so she can prove that she is worthy of the throne. Ramia must have sent Pixy Misa to make trouble so she can be chosen queen instead." "So let me get this straight: Tsunami and Ramia are using Earth as a battlefield and almost killing innocent people like that security guard the night before last just for some stupid test." Ryo-ohki's temper suddenly flared upon hearing the accusation, and he could no longer be silent. "You're twisting all of the facts. Pretty Samy was given her powers to make the Earth a better place. It was Ramia and Pixy Misa that turned this into a war." Spider-Man jumped back at disbelief and looked down at Ryo-ohki. "Is it possible? Did that rabbit... err...." "Cabbit. I'm a cabbit." "I don't believe it. These magical girl animal sidekicks really do talk, and I thought it was just a rumor. Just like the ones that said you get your powers from cheap jewelry and wear gaudy outfit." Spider-Man's last words got Samy's attention. He got two out of three of his insults right. Was it the fact that she was a magical girl has to do with the ill feeling between Spider- Man and her? "Listen Samy, I don't need you and your friend Misa destroying what little of a reputation that I have left. So why don't you stop playing superhero for once and let me deal with Pixy Misa. Face it Samy, you, Misa, and the rest of you magical girls are just comic relief to anyone outside of Japan and over 12." Spider-Man stood up and tapped Samy on the back and said, "But if it makes you feel any better, when you're older, you can make a great magician at kids' birthday parties. You even have the rabbit for the hat trick. Well, you can pass him off as a rabbit." Samy knocked Spider-Man's hand off her back and gave him an angry glance. "So that's it. You think you're better than I all because I'm a magical girl. Just remember who it was that saved your life, who fought and defeated Pixy Misa before, and who going to beat her again and show you that I'm just as much of a hero as you," Samy swore as she pointed and waved her baton at Spider-Man. She turned around and stormed down the firescape with Ryo-ohki, never noticing the tracking device shaped like a spider on her back... Peter Parker chuckled to himself. It was easy to plant a spider-tracer on the kid. All he has to do now is to follow the signal on his GPS positioner and and find her base of operations. And since Pixy Misa is looking for Pretty Samy he may get lucky and find her. He removed the GPS positioner from his belt which has the appearance of a palmtop. Its screen gave distance, direction, and the coordinates of the tracer. The spider-tracer was accurate enough so that he would not need to follow Pretty Samy. He looked at the blimp on the tracker's screen for a few minutes before it disappeared. "She found the spider-tracer," he thought to himself. Spider-Man called up the last location of tracer signal and swung two blocks away to an alley. Spider-Man looked around for a crusted spider-tracer but found none. "There were no man-hole covers to lead underground to shield the tracer, and it wouldn't have stopped transmitting unless destroyed. She may be able to teleport like Pixy Misa." Then something caught Peter's attention. The building across the street was the same building where he first met the magical girls. "It was no coincidence that the tracer's signal led me here," Spider-Man mumbled to himself. With no other leads to go on, he began searching the area from above for the next hour before giving up. He began heading back home all the while being observed in Ramia's enchanted mirror. Sasami hid in the alley next to her apartment. There, she engulfed in an aura of light which transformed her Pretty Samy uniform into her regular clothes. "Maybe I should stay like this," Sasami lamented to her feeling of frustration. "You shouldn't pay attention to jerks like him," argued Ryo-ohki. "Why not, if that's the way the world feels about magical girls like me. Besides, I didn't want to be Pretty Samy anyway." "Besides, I thought you were going to show Spider-Man that you're just as good as he is." Ryo-ohki began getting thought of taking his humanoid form and educating Spider-Man on proper etiquette by beating it in his head. "I will capture Pixy Misa and make him eat every work he said about magical girls, but after that..." "You're going to quit?" "I don't know." "Listen, Sasami. Of all the people on Earth, Tsunami chose you to be her champion, and she did so because of your kind heart. On Juraihelm, that's more important than the size of your chest and biceps which is seems to be the other way around on this world. Just remember, the world needs you here and now to make it a better place whether it knows it or not." Ryo-ohki's pep talk had only a nominal effect on Sasami, but she forced a smile on her face anyway. She bent down and picked Ryo-ohki up. "Thank you Ryo-ohki," she said while patting his head. Ryo-ohki knew that he didn't convince Sasami to continue to be Pretty Samy. He only hoped that Sasami would calm down in a little while and forget what Spider-Man said to her. Although no one could blame her for quit, Ryo-ohki thought to himself, especially if the world didn't even care if you risk your life trying to defend it. Peter Parker returned from the grocery store with the items his Aunt May sent for in two plastic bags in his hands. As he walked in the door, he heard crying coming from the living room. There, sitting on Aunt May's lap, was a blond haired girl, about 10 or 11, in an old, slightly soiled blue dress. She buried her head in Aunt May's shoulder weeping. The girl lifted her head up and looked directly at Peter. He dropped the groceries in shock. Although when he saw her face it was night, the girl looked like Pixy Misa. "Please don't let it be her," Peter prayed in his mind. He stared at the weeping child in sheer terror, but not for himself, but for his elderly aunt. It was his Aunt May's life that was in danger. It was always Peter Parker's greatest fear: the enemies of Spider-Man would find out who he really was, and it would be his friends and family that would pay the price. He looked on at Aunt May and the young girl who threw a quick glance at Peter. "Peter, her name is Misao. She's been living alone since her parents left her two years ago," said Aunt May. Peter asked, "Eh...Aunt May, don't you think it's better for..." "Misao, dear," corrected Aunt May. "Yeah, Misao. Don't you think Misao would be better off at the shelter. Let me call the police and..." The girl screamed, "No, if you call the police, I'll runaway." Aunt May patted her on the back of her head and tighten her hold on her. "Don't worry, Misao. No one is going to take you away," she said trying to calm Misao. Misao stopped crying after a few minutes. Aunt May put her off her lap and took Peter to the kitchen to talk to him about their new houseguest. "Peter, I know we're suppose to take her to the shelter, but she says they abused her there." Peter retorted, "I don't think she's being abused." "Whether she is or not, she needs a place to stay, and she asked to stay here. Let her stay for a few days and gain her trust. Then, we'll call the police. Peter, you're not afraid of that little girl are you." Peter realized that he was pacing around the room, his voice was stressed, And he was sweating. "You heard on the news about those kids killing people." Peter leaned into the doorway and peeked into the living room to check on Misao. She wasn't there. Peter turned to his aunt and said, "Misao's gone." "She only went to your room to get one of your shirts to sleep in." "I'll go up there to help her find one." "I'm glad you're doing something nice for Misao." Peter walked up the stairs but ran down the hall once he was sure he was out of sight of Aunt May. When he opened the door to his room, he was shocked at the sight of the blond runaway wearing the shirt to his Spider-Man costume. The sleeves were too long for her arms, and the end of the sleeves hung loose as she held up her arms along her side and turned to the left and right posing for Peter. "Aunt May said I could sleep in one of your shirts, and I found this nice pair of pajamas in your draw," taunted the girl. Peter saw the same condescending look on the girl's face that he saw on Pixy Misa's. "Oh, look! Your pajamas comes with a nightcap." Misao, a.k.a. Pixy Misa, pulled the Spider-Man mask over her face. Peter snatched the mask off of her. "Now you behave Petey or I'll tell Aunt May, and while I'm at it, I'll invite all your friends like Carnage here and let'em see just who Spider-Man really is." End of Part 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send all criticism and suggestion to weaver_sas@yahoo.com or weaverta@email.uah.edu . Also, if I make some sort of mistake about a character or event, tell me also.