6 6

Dawn rises over the Stark estate. Nearby, the clock tower strikes 7.

Galina Nemirovsky flies through the neighborhood in the Iron Man suit. She lands on the front lawn of the Stark estate. Her helmet vanishes. She takes a deep breath of the fresh-cut lawn, and lets her obsidian-colored hair down.

She drops the day's newspaper on Ms. Potts' doorstep, and knocks on the door. Inside, FRIDAY acknowledges this, and notifies Ms. Potts.

Galina smiles, and gives the house some space. From up above, her head is suddenly drenched in champagne.

"THIEF," Morgan shouts down at her. "You stole my father's suit, you Cossack!"

Galina sighs, and re-materializes the helmet around her head. "Make an appointment at the salon, FRIDAY."

"Ms. Stark's condition is likely temporary," FRIDAY says, in an Irish accent. "She will soon look back at this when she's older, and laugh."

"When borzois fly, no doubt." With that, Galina takes off, and leaves Morgan to wallow in her own selfish misery.

Inside, Ms. Potts stumbles to the front door, opens it, and gathers the paper. She's sipping coffee, and in her slip.

So is Peter. And indeed, Morgan's mom IS more mature-bodied. And her boobs are astoundingly much like Morgan's-if not adultly bigger. Seriously, it's almost as if there's no Tony Stark in Morgan at all...

For the time, Ms. Potts retires to the sofa in the parlor. She drops the paper on the coffee table.

Peter obsesses over the mountainous nature of Ms. Potts' boobs...until he sees the paper's headline far below. He puts on his mask, and asks KAREN, the AI in his suit, to resolve the headline's image.

She does. Peter can read it. It says, "SACRILEGIOUS SUPERVILLAINESSES MURDER MYSTERY SENIOR IN OREGON CITY." On Peter's command, Karen helps him read the rest of the article.

High above, Ms. Potts sets her coffee down, leans back, and reads the paper. She inadvertently causes many earthquakes for Peter that do little more than make him dizzy. But he's Spider-Man; he's stuck to her chest. Nothing can knock him from his perch...except maybe her body's perspiration if she gets too hot.

The old man's name, according to public records, was Isaac Kramer. Not much was known about him, other than his place of residence and his apparent dedication to the plants in his garden.

There was a witness. Alas, the press has refused to release her name, but has commented that she's in witness protection, and can't contact her family.

There was a boy there, who identified himself as Lowell. He didn't see it happen, but he's told the press that he was concerned about the witness when he heard it had.

The witness identified the first villainess as a woman who could turn into sand, shapeshift, and make herself bigger. The locals in Oregon City are calling her Sandgirl. She also identified the second villainess as a woman who's noticeably gifted with the kinds of firearms used in hunting, and seems to carry a utility belt stocked with all the gear a hunter would need to attend to her quarries after relieving them. The Oregon City locals are calling her Huntress.

A small photo of the victim is included within the article's text. KAREN helps Peter scan it. Peter notices the medallion hanging from the victim's neck. Peter can't tell, but from where he is, it looks like an identical match to the one the host at the pizzeria wore.

This is big. Peter would hate to leave the comfort of Ms. Potts's intimates. He's waited for them for so long, after all... But Peter's got to find out if there are more men like that, and figure out how to stop those crazy villainesses from killing the rest of them.

Hours pass. Morning becomes afternoon.

This is Stark Industries. Ms. Potts is its CEO. The company provided a lot of electricity to the United States and Canada during the Civil War...and still does. On a smaller scale, it also made weapons and gear for Iron Man's Avengers and their contracting allies.

The surrounding landscape would be reminiscent of the Buchanan estate in the Great Gatsby. If only this weren't three decades before Scott Fitzgerald's birth...

As usual, Mr. Hogan checks Ms. Potts at the front gate. He's really slipping; he doesn't detect Peter in her anywhere at all.

Mr. Stark would laugh out loud. He was always annoyed with how good his old chauffeur got at his new job of head of security. And all around the company, he was in good company. Ms. Potts herself was a part of that company...

Ms. Potts's office has a lot of space. She could probably play tennis in it, if she was up to it.

She sits at her desk, and embraces her mail. She trashes the junk, and starts reading the first letter that matters.

Peter thinks Ms. Potts looks better in a business suit than she does in intimates. He almost feels like stripping to his briefs and worshiping her. Except he already is. He'd swing down to her pumps, except then he'd have to miss her rack...

Peter notices the letter Ms. Potts is reading. It's from Maria Hill, a former agent of SHIELD. Peter commands Karen to help him better read it. Karen takes pictures, while she's at it.

The camera's flash initially blinds Peter, and causes him to swear. Lights are brighter for him, now that he has spider senses.

Up above, Ms. Potts hesitates, as if she heard Peter swore. She looks around. She shrugs, straightens her top, and keeps reading the letter. She causes earthquakes that make Peter want to vomit as she straightens her top.

Peter reads what he can of the letter before Ms. Potts drops it in a safe box and locks it. After that, Peter just takes a swing to the fountain pen on Ms. Potts' desk, perches atop it, and reads the rest of the letter via KAREN's photos.

Hill's been following the villainesses who allegedly killed Spider-Man. She's counted six, but she's not sure. Most of them are from Afroasia, but she thinks one or more might be from the Balkans. She's caught them counting a pair of necklaces, which they claim to have ripped off the victims' necks, which bear a strange pendant.

Both pendants match the description of the one Peter saw on both the victims before their murders. This is it. The villainesses are hunting for old men wearing these necklaces, and he and Hill already know that there's more than one. Peter's got to find out where the next victim is.

Fortunately, Hill said something about that in her letter too. She thinks she's found the next victim. Unfortunately, she and SHIELD aren't really talking now. But she knows some of Hawkeye's Avengers, and with luck, she'll have more than one big gun at the old man's house when the villainesses come shrieking.

Later in the day, Ms. Potts writes a reply letter to Hill's. She stuffs it in an envelope, and leaves it for Galina to deliver in secret.

Galina still wonders why Black Panther doesn't deliver secret mail; he's better with stealth, after all. Or even Dr. Strange; he can teleport. Ms. Potts only smiles, and reminds her that her husband wanted GALINA to be the next Iron Man; not T'Challa, Strange, or Walker. It's not that Mr. Stark believed in her; it's more like she needs redemption, and she's currently one of the few members of the East Coast Avengers who do.

Galina smiles, sighs, and promises to do her best. With that, she takes Ms. Potts's secret mail, and flies away with it.

Deep inside the letter Ms. Potts is sending to Hill, Peter's stowed away. With luck, Hill's hiding within range of where he'll need to be to protect target number three when the villainesses come shrieking.

The envelope smells nice. Peter's going to miss the scent of Ms. Potts's hands when it wears off the post...