“Do you have Shrek 2? I can only find the first one,” a young mother asked as she struggled to keep her youngest in her arms.

Mattie had been dreading the question; the woman had been dragging her bratty kids all over the children’s section for the last hour and so Mattie knew that they were looking for something that was just not there.

“Let me check the return bin,” Mattie answered with a polite smile. She walked over to the bin and began to rummage through.

She knew they didn’t have it. She had checked for someone else earlier, she was just thankful to even have the illusion of something to do.

“When you’re done with that customer the bathroom needs a cleaning,” her manager Lissy snapped.

“Will do,” Mattie answered with a roll of her eyes.

She wanted something to do but that was definitely not it. That bathroom made Calcutta look sanitized.

“Any luck?” the customer called out as Mattie continued to rummage.

“No I’m sorry; I guess they’re all checked out.”

“Well thanks for nothing.” The woman turned and left in a literal huff, half her kids screaming as they ran after her.

Mattie hated the cliché of this job; the rude customers, the rude managers. Though the checks cashed as good as any, she supposed.

As she made the long walk to the bathroom, she couldn’t help but wish she was fighting a super villain at this very moment. At least that was tolerable.

It was an odd feeling; fantasizing about being assaulted by super-powered terrorists. Dusting off the adult section, really didn’t have the same excitement.

She could almost picture herself, in any one of her several costumes, battling the full roster of the Sinister Six. Now that would be a fun time.

She needed to remind herself that she gave up her superhero life for the right reasons. She wanted to protect the Jamesons, She wanted to protect them…it didn’t necessarily change the fact that she also wanted to psi-web Lissy’s mouth shut, run out that door and fly into the night.

It was a process.

It had been a long night. She stayed and extra hour after she was supposed to leave because, like always, Lissy was on the phone with the boyfriend all night rather than preparing for closing.

She wrapped her coat tighter around her as the wind picked up and she fought the urge to just fly the three blocks to her house. She couldn’t wait till her car was out of the shop.

Suddenly she heard a rustling from the nearby bushes.

She tried to ignore it. It was just some cat or something she figured. She kept walking only this time she decided to hum a little tune to distract from the ever increasing noises.

“Hey Jude…” she sang off-key as a newer whispering noise picked up.

“Oh God this is every slasher movie, I’ve ever watched.” She sighed as she tried to get a better look at what was making the noise.

“Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly…” a high-pitched whiny voice said from the shadows in the opposite direction.

Mattie whirled to take a look behind her but saw no one. She tried, in vain, to summon a psychic vision but that aspect of her powers was so unpredictable.

“Look, whoever you are I’m warning you right now that you don’t want to mess with me.” She kept twirling as the rustling sounds seemed to surround her. She charged up her hands with her bio-electric venom blasts.

“Oh don’t we?” a new, almost familiar, voice said.

“Who…?” But before she could finish her question she cried out as a something hard slammed into the back of her head. She fell forward and hit the ground with a crash. Her eyesight was blurry but as she reached for what assaulted her she could definitely make out that is was a large rock…that had been painted to look like a Jack O’ Lantern.

Her eyesight faded into darkness as she passed out, the last thing she heard: was laughter.

“Isn’t she awake yet?” Mattie heard a female voice hiss as she groggily began to come to.

“Shh, she’s waking up!” the familiar voice spat back.

Mattie struggled to move but found that she was not only bound by several ropes but she seemed to have trouble even getting up the energy to move.

She had been drugged.

“Well, well, well…” the whiny high-pitched voice said, she turned to see a lanky boy in black and purple rags with a corny hobgoblin-like Halloween mask.

“Ah, Spider-Woman, you’re finally back with us,” the familiar voice said as its owner walked forward. He wore a more convincing green goblin mask under a black hood; he was covered in ragged black clothing and brandished a sword.

“Who are you people?” Mattie spat.

“We are the Goblin Court,” the familiar sounding leader said pompously.

“It’s almost time for your trial!” a young woman in mismatched clothing all in different shades of blue said from under monster mask.

“I know you…” Mattie said weakly, trying to point at the leader.

“How soon they forget,” a rough sounding voice said from behind her but soon its owner-a man in a brown leather jacket and a hobgoblin mask and another boy in a green generic monster mask with green clothes-came to stand in front of her.

“You know us all…” the boy in green said, sounding like he was pouting.

“Well, we are wearing masks,” the girl giggled.

“Still…I’m insulted,” the one clad in the brown leather jacket said. He was juggling another rock, painted to look like a jack o’ lantern, just like the first one.

“Rumplegoblin please…” the leader chided. “This isn’t about what she remembers or who; it’s about justice.”

“Can we get on with this?” the short one in green spat.

“Patience Dark-Green. Indigo Imp, would you like to read the charges?” the leader said, turning to the girl in blue.

“One Martha Franklin is hereby accused of gross betrayal of friendship, narking, being a stuck up bitch and ruining the lives of her former pals!” the girl said with a laugh.

“You forgot being a criminal waste of space…” the whiny one in purple rags added.

“Thank you, Boojum,” Indigo Imp said, patting him on the shoulder like he was a dog.

“How does the defendant plead?” the leader said, his sword waving absent-mindedly through the air.

“Not fucking guilty…” Mattie groaned through the drugs.

“Now is that anyway for a superhero to talk?” the leader chided, causing them all to laugh.

“You tell her Alpha-Goblin!” one of the others cheered.

“…I’m not a…” Mattie tried to struggle for the words, but they just weren’t coming.

“But of course you are,” Alpha-Goblin said, as if was smiling though she couldn’t see through his mask. “That’s why you did it,” he continued, “Why you betrayed us…”

“I don’t even know you…” Mattie got out before she faded back into unconsciousness.

“Great, what about our trial?” Indigo Imp whined.

“She’ll wake up again soon. I say it’s time we go get the surprise witnesses anyways.

Mattie felt something cool against her lips; she briefly opened her eyes to see that the short one called “Dark-Green” was lifting a cup of water to her lips.

“Thank you…” she said groggily as she drank.

“Don’t thank me. Don’t talk to me at all,” he said morosely as he let her finish drinking before storming off to tell the others she was awake.

For the moment that she was alone, Mattie once more tried to use her powers to break the ropes, but the drugs were too strong.

Suddenly, she heard the laughing again but this time no one was around. The room began to spin and she could hear them all talking but couldn’t understand what they were saying.

“Was it good for you Matt?” someone said to her…someone she thought she cared about…

She was having a vision.

“What?” she called out as the drugs seemed to grow stronger.

She no longer felt her bonds or the hard chair beneath her, she was lying on someone. Their firm body beneath hers.

She could barely open her eyes.

Music was playing from somewhere, music she remembered and she could smell marijuana.

“Where am I?”

“Safe with me, baby…”

“Denny?” she called out hazily.

Just as soon the vision ended. Her head was clearer again, and she was back in the “trial” room. She was still bound in the chair, a little drool falling from her mouth.

“Did you say something?” the leader, Alpha-Goblin said as he sauntered into the room.

“I said your name; Denny…Denny Haynes.”

“Ooh, very clever.” He clapped mockingly.

“You should be in jail.”

“Oh really…?” He laughed.

“You’re only going to make things harder on yourself Denny,” Mattie moaned.

“No, no. no!” he snapped, manic hatred suddenly replacing cool passivity. He got right up in her face. “The fun is just beginning!”

“It’s because of you! You were right there with us. You supplied the MGH!” Indigo Imp snapped.

So that’s what this all had to do with, the Mutant Growth Hormone…the drug her ex-boyfriend Denny had made from Mattie’s own flesh.

“Yeah I don’t remember you having too much of a problem with it,” Rumplegoblin said in a snarling tone.

“I was drugged…I am drugged…God is that all you people know how to do…” She sighed.

“You see, after you learn your lesson we can start all over again,” Boojum said in his nasal tone.

“That’s never going to happen.” Mattie tried again to break the cords but Dark-Green was right there with a syringe and injected God knows what straight into her arm.

“Don’t…” But she could already feel it taking effect.

“Hopefully you didn’t give her a full dose; I want her well aware for the trial. She needs to learn from the error of her ways.” Denny sneered from under his mask.

“Got to Hell…” Mattie sighed.

“On that note: Call the surprise witnesses!” Denny shouted happily.

Out of the corner of her eye Mattie saw Rumplegoblin and Boojum dragging in two struggling figures with burlap sacks over their heads. They were forced into two chairs, away from where Mattie sat, and bound by ropes. Boojum unmasked them with a laugh and to Mattie’s horror she saw it was her Uncle Jonah and Aunt Marla.

“No!”

“Oh yes Matt, two more people hurt by you and your selfishness.”

They were clearly drugged and out of it.

“Let them go Denny, you’ve got me. They don’t need to be a part of this,” Mattie pleaded sincerely. “I’ll do anything, I’ll let you start making the MGH again…anything.”

“Now, now we are getting ahead of ourselves but don’t worry precious, we’ll get there.”
Mattie once again struggled against her bonds but it was no use.

“Now come on we didn’t go to all the trouble of breaking out of jail to have you just slip away, don’t take us for fools.” Indigo Imp laughed.

“This is pathetic, if you think you can actually convince me that it’s my fault you all ended up where you did then you’re crazier than you look!”

“It is your fault!” Boojum snapped.

“You took our lives away from us because things got a little too real!” Indigo Imp backed him up.

“My parents practically disowned me!” Dark-Green said, more sadly than angry.

“I didn’t force you to take drugs or to make them!” Mattie said angrily.

“She’s twisting it all around again Denny.” Rumplegoblin crossed his arms.

Denny walked up to Jonah Jameson and slashed him across the waist with his sword. A shallow cut, though he began to bleed profusely.

“Stop it!” Mattie screamed.

“Whoa man, no one said anything about cutting them…” Indigo Imp backed up.

“She needed a learning experience. Since when do you question me? He’s not going to die or something…” Alpha-Goblin snapped, waving his sword for effect.

“Yeah shut your trap, Mallory…” Rumblegoblin stood behind Denny.

“Don’t go using my real name, Henry!”

“Shut up the both of you!” Denny shouted angrily, “Court will be at recess for ten minutes.” He stormed out of the room followed by Rumplegoblin. “Dark-Green…clean that up!” Denny called back as his disappeared through the doors.

Indigo Imp wavered and even with a mask on it looked like she might throw up.

Dark Green grabbed some rags and wiped away as much blood as he could before wrapping them around Jonah’s wound.

“I need a smoke…” Indigo Imp said before leaving the room as well with Boojum, who was making gagging noises, in fast pursuit.

“Thank you for taking care of my uncle…” Mattie offered weakly to a retreating Dark-Green.

“I’ve told you not to thank me,” he said before he too vanished through the doors.

It seemed like hours of silence.

Mattie struggled in the dark to make out if her aunt and uncle had come around yet, or even just if her uncle was still breathing.

“The trial will be starting again soon.” Dark-Green entered, throwing a still glowing cigarette to the ground.

“I remember you too, you know,” Mattie said softly.

“Don’t,” Dark-Green said, darkly.

“You’re Ben…right? Ben Lockman?”

“No, I was Ben Lockman, till my parents found out I was involved in a drug ring and never mind when they found out their only son would be doing jail time!”

“What about when they find out that their only son is also into kidnapping and murder?” Mattie countered.

“No one is getting killed here.”

“Tell that to Denny…you know how he gets…he’s not going to stop. He’s enjoying himself too much.”

“He knows where to draw the line.”

Mattie laughed.

“That’s a lie and you know it,” she spat back at him as he pulled out a syringe.

“You have no idea…what we’ve been through because of--”

“Yourselves,” Mattie interrupted him, “Because of the choices you made.”

“Now you listen to…” But his voice faded as the sounds of the others coming rose. He looked at her and than back at the door and quickly emptied the syringe.

“Did you give her another shot of the stuff?” Denny asked as he entered, tightening his mask.

“…Yeah, she’ll be all set for the trial to start again.” Ben sighed.

“Good. Let’s begin!”

“So once more for the court, Martha Franklin how do you plead?” Denny asked loudly.

“However you want me to,” she said casting a wary look at her aunt and uncle.

“Guilty it is, then!”

Denny paced back and forth, scratching the chin of his green goblin mask.

“Indigo Imp, Rumplegoblin, if you would please alert our two witnesses?” He said smugly.

The two in question walked over to Jonah and Marla and pulled out items that almost looked like toy guns, but Mattie recognized them as electric tasers.

“Don’t!”

But Mattie’s plea was two late as they jammed the weapons into Jonah and Marla’s sides and shocked them awake.

They both screamed and reached out for the other.

“Where are we?” Marla asked groggily as she gripped Jonah’s hand.

“Mattie? What have they done to you?” Jonah said looking at his ward concerned.

“Oh nothing,” Denny smarmed.

“Just get on with it Alpha…” Indigo Imp said, clearly not having as much fun as she was originally.

“Don’t you ever talk to me like that!” Alpha-Goblin snapped grabbing her arm roughly.

“Listen we don’t have a lot of money, but-” Jonah started but Rumplegoblin threw one of his pumpkin rocks at his wound, causing him to cry out.

“STOP IT!” Mattie shouted, her arms finally breaking through the ropes that held her.

“NO!” Denny screamed.

“Quick, drug her!” Boojum shouted as he backed away.

“No I don’t think so!” Mattie reached out her arms and ethereal pink strands of webbing began to jump from her fingertips into the air where it bound each member of the Goblin Court.

“Who was responsible for her last injection?” Rumplegoblin struggled against the psi-webbing.

“BEN!” Denny shouted and they all looked at Dark Green who had removed his mask.

“She’s right, Dennis…we brought this on ourselves.”

“TRAITOR!” Denny snarled angrily.

“Mattie what’s going on, who are these people?” Marla asked as her niece quickly untied the two of them.

“I’ll explain later, just give me one sec. I need to try something…”

Mattie stood in the center of the room and tried to reach out with her mind, she had some telepathy thanks to Madame Web and if she could just connect that power to her psi-Webs there was a chance that she could pull this off.

She knew she had done it when the memories of all who were trapped in her webs came flooding into her mind.

“There we go.”

She reached out and ensnared her aunt and uncle in her webs as well.

“Mattie?” Jonah asked dumbfounded.

“Just trust me Unc, this for the best.” She said closing her eyes and picturing the memories of her secret identity and connection to Spider-Man as little flies caught in her web and she mentally pictured herself as a great spider eating at each of these memories.

One by one everyone in her webs began to pass out.

“That should do it…” Mattie whispered to herself as she let the psychic webs dissolve.

“Now to clean up this mess.”

Mattie was pretty sure that everyone was a little bit happier with her secret actually being a secret. All the Court members remembered is that they had a grudge against Spider-Woman but they couldn’t tell you who she really was and her aunt and uncle worried a lot less now that they too were in the dark.

In other good news Lissy had gotten fired for stealing from the cash register, so Mattie was promoted to manager of ‘The Film Scene’.

All’s well that ends well, Mattie supposed and now that she had her little secret again…maybe retirement wasn’t all it was cracked up to be after all...