Hostage Kidnapping

Gwen Stacy curled up on the cold floor, hugging her knees tightly. Her frightened, helpless green eyes stared blankly into the dead silence of the darkness before her.

She did not know how many hours she had spent staring into the darkness, but the fear had not dulled with time.

She did not know where she was, nor how she had gotten here. The last thing she remembered was leaving school and being squeezed out through the gates alongside a group of children when she felt a slight prick of pain in her neck. In an instant, she lost control of her body, and her hazy consciousness felt as though someone had roughly thrown it into water. She vaguely remembered someone catching her nearby, and then... then she ended up like this.

A pitch-black room, freezing cold. That was all she had seen upon waking.

Gwen Stacy was still only half-grown, so an experience like this had naturally terrified her. She had wailed in the darkness for a long while and pounded desperately on the icy iron door. But her strength soon ran out, and her tears dried up. She could only give up her futile struggle.

Now, she merely sat quietly in the darkness, blinking her beautiful wide eyes blankly as wild thoughts filled her head about the future, full of darkness and unknowns.

She was still too young to understand the malice that filled this world, but somewhere in her muddled mind, she understood that she might never be able to go home again or see her father and mother.

The thought terrified her beyond measure.

What Little Gwen did not know was that she had been missing for more than seven hours, and her family was nearly frantic with worry. She knew even less that her father had poured everything into finding her, practically turning the entire city upside down.

What she knew even less was that her savior was already close at hand.

An unusual sound came from outside the pitch-black door. Gwen froze and blinked. She saw the door slowly cave outward with a groan, and a sliver of white light pierced through the crack. A few seconds later, the heavy iron door crashed out of its frame, twisted into a crumpled sheet of metal and roughly tossed aside.

The sudden white light piercing the darkness made it impossible for her to open her eyes at first. Once she adjusted, she saw a strange person crouching before her in a white uniform. The person wore a white bodysuit, hood, and mask. The mask had two large eyes that Gwen found strangely familiar.

"Don't be afraid." The person extended a hand. Her voice was clear and pleasant, and she sounded like a woman, not very old judging by her voice.

"I'm here to get you out," she said.

The surroundings were pitch-black and eerie, with the only light coming from streetlamps outside filtering through dusty windows. In a situation like this, a masked stranger should have been deeply unsettling, but Little Gwen inexplicably found this person comforting.

Children's thoughts were always simple. They had little wariness and even less suspicion. Little Gwen instinctively felt that this was a good person, so she slowly reached out and took the other girl's white-gloved hand.

The girl in white took Little Gwen's hand and was about to lead her outside when she suddenly paused. The eyes on her mask narrowed, and without warning, she spun and kicked straight backward. The kick was swift and vicious, striking a shadowy figure who had been preparing to ambush her with a blade. The man flew backward, rolled several times across the floor, and only stopped after crashing into the grimy wall.

He was dressed like a Japanese-style ninja, with a red scabbard strapped to his back and a gleaming silver blade in his hand, reflecting a cold white glint beneath the light from outside.

If the girl in white had reacted even half a second slower, she would likely have been run through by that blade.

But she did not let her guard down, because this was far from over.

Without a sound, dark figures emerged one after another from the shadows around them. They were all dressed exactly like the ninja she had just kicked unconscious, clad in ninja garb with long swords on their backs, like mass-produced RPG grunts stamped from the same mold.

So many ninjas had been lying in wait here without making the slightest sound, as if none of them needed to breathe or had beating hearts, and as if they walked as silently as cats.

It was The Hand. They were all ninjas of The Hand.

Little Gwen could hear her own heart pounding wildly. She instinctively tightened her grip on the white-clad girl's hand, as though it were the only thing in the world that could make her feel safe.

"Don't stray too far from me," the girl in white whispered to her.

Little Gwen nodded obediently.

All the ninjas moved at once, like remote-controlled machines receiving the same command, their movements so synchronized they seemed almost unreal.

The girl in white held her breath and carefully watched the direction of their attack. She tilted her head slightly, dodging the first ninja's sword with the smallest possible movement. Then her left leg shot up, becoming a blurred white afterimage as it slammed into his jaw. Her kick was incredibly fast and tremendously powerful. The ninja took it full force, his entire body soaring into the air. He spun several times before crashing down and passing out.

The ninjas quickly spread into formation, surrounding her in an orderly staggered arrangement. Their flashing blades wove into a giant net, impenetrable on all sides.

Though the girl in white did not know swordsmanship, her reaction speed was extraordinary, and her physical abilities were so powerful they defied reason. Her body was flexible enough to perform all kinds of movements that should have been impossible for a human. On top of that, she could continuously fire sticky, strange webs and threads from her hands. The slightest mistake would leave the ninjas tangled in the stuff, bound in place and unable to move even half a step.

The girl in white darted about in a flurry of afterimages, like a slippery carp. After more than three minutes of fighting, several ninjas had already fallen, yet none had even touched the hem of her clothes. That was while she had to divide her attention to protect Little Gwen. Otherwise, this group of ninjas would likely have been wiped out in under a minute.

However, after failing to defeat her for so long, the ninjas began to change tactics. These people had no concern for honor and even less for any so-called bushido spirit. Unable to beat the girl in white, they began relentlessly directing their blades at the Little Gwen she was protecting.

Little Gwen was terrified and cried out repeatedly. Whenever someone swung a blade at her, the girl in white had no choice but to turn back and save her, immediately putting herself at a considerable disadvantage.

Then a loud BANG rang out through the space. The door was struck heavily from outside and flew straight into the room like a hidden weapon. The girl in white reacted quickly, grabbing Little Gwen and leaping back to evade it. The ninjas hurriedly withdrew their blades and scattered aside as well.

The door was violently kicked open, and Jessica Jones stood boldly in the doorway, rubbing her fists.

Yes, her boss had indeed told her not to get herself involved in any trouble.

But screw that.

Right now, she just wanted to beat the hell out of a few bastards.