Well? What do you think?
I think... that this is about the opposite of how I like to do things?
Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) (Main story and flashback)
- Mary Jane Watson (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Belasco (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- The Screaming Tower's Trapped
Other Characters:
- Owen (Mentioned)
- Stephanie "Romy" (Mentioned)
- Magik (Illyana Rasputina) (Mentioned)
- Thief Army (First appearance)
- Heven's Devils (First appearance)
- Hydra
- Hydra Expeditionary Force Agares (First appearance)
- S'ym
- Peter Parker (Mentioned)
- Lydia Hardy (Mentioned)
- Jim Henson (Mentioned)
- Thing (Ben Grimm) (Referenced)
- God (Invoked)
Races and Species:
- Demons (Main story and flashback)
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Unicorns (Mentioned)
- Ducks (Mentioned)
- Elder Gods of Limbo (Mentioned)
- Angels of Heven
- Guardian Angels (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Limbo (Otherplace) (Main story and flashback)
- Castle Belasco (Main story and flashback)
- Belasco's Dining Hall
- The Screaming Tower (First appearance)
- Bottomless Pit
- Castle Belasco (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Mentioned)
- United States of America (Mentioned)
- New York (Mentioned)
- New York City (Mentioned)
- New York (Mentioned)
- United States of America (Mentioned)
- Hell (Mentioned)
Items:
- Mary Jane's Power Slots Device
- Soulsword (Only in recap)
- Black Cat's Grappling Hook
Synopsis for 1st story
While "Hell goes to New York City," the Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) and Mary Jane Watson are having a job interview with Belasco to steal something. As Mary Jane politely declines more servings of grotesque food, Belasco promises to return them to Earth for their retrieving a sword for him. A Limbo is ruled by swords, such as the Soulsword Belasco needs help to retrieve. As he elaborates, Felicia tries talking Mary Jane out of helping as she was a pudding woman upon their arrival, while Mary Jane argues she can pull her weight needing to return to the kids back on Earth. Belasco concludes his story that when his Soulsword was created, those who helped him forge it hid it away and left a reminder of their dominance. When Limbo was usurped by "a poppet," Belasco couldn't stop it without his sword. Now the opportunity presents itself with her attention elsewhere,[1] but Mary Jane asks why he didn't get the sword when he could have. Belasco reveals it was hidden where he could not find it, The Screaming Tower, driven through Limbo by Gods from another universe, populated with horrors and traps to prohibit Belasco from reclaiming his sword. With the barriers between the two realities weakened, the spells hiding the tower are vulnerable, and so he skinned himself in a ritual to summon a thief to infiltrate the tower. If the tower is vulnerable, Felicia deduces that others are also after the sword, which Belasco confirms. Their opposition includes the Thief Army, the Heven's Devils, the Hydra Expeditionary Force Agares, and S'ym.
Felicia asks what is to keep them from taking the power for themselves, Belasco knows they won't, as they have loved ones on Earth. As a playful Mary Jane tries to gossip about who Felicia loves, she counters that the demon meant her mother. When asked what makes Belasco so confident in their success, he retorts that he has Earth Girls in his employ, and Earth Girls have always swayed Limbo. A short while later, Felicia and Mary Jane reach the Screaming Tower, Felicia is dismayed, given this heist is operating exactly the opposite to how she goes about. Mary Jane tries to lighten the mood by equating this to The NeverEnding Story and Labyrinth, and to think of the demons as Jim Henson creations to make things easier. While Felicia wants to tell Mary Jane about her and Peter but holds off as they're on a job as the revelation would distract them. Asking how Mary Jane is so calm, the redhead explains that otherworldy adventures are no longer outside her wheelhouse, and Felicia can understand as she was gone for six months,[2] to which Mary Jane awkwardly agrees. They enter through the front door, with the whole heist making Felicia quietly uncomfortable as she normally makes preparations. Still, they have Mary Jane and her indeterminate powers and a mystic compass Belasco gave them... made from a fragment of what can be considered his soul. Because they seek his Soulsword, the compass will guide them to it as they both originate from him.
Traversing the interior, Felicia asks if Mary Jane will charge up her powers and is shocked to hear her reply no. Mary Jane reminds Felicia of the Skull icon when she got the pudding power, then elaborates that one skull is bad enough as it indicates a weak power. But two Skulls are far worse, and that only happened once before, but Mary Jane is hesitant to consider three Skulls, not knowing the meaning and not wanting to find out. That is a 1 in 343 chance given the odds with her powers, but Mary Jane refuses to chance such a possibility with two kids expecting her return. Soon, they are beset by past invaders of the tower, trapped by a curse to not die of their thirst and hunger but devolve into rabid cannibals upon seeing anyone, including the two Earth girls. Mary Jane activates her powers while Felicia protects her and gets Horse Shoe, Seven, and Skull-- earning the power to shoot gentle feathers from her hands. Escaping, Mary Jane wished she had pudding again as she could feed the pursuers and tame them, but they come upon a bottomless pit in their flight, forcing Felicia to catch Mary Jane as she sends her grapnel, hoping it catches. Felicia ponders to herself how a bottomless pit could exist within a tower or how an army of cannibals could live within eternal darkness, or even how she still couldn't tell Mary Jane the truth even as they are likely to die. In a timely save, Felicia's grapnel catches, but Mary Jane realizes she didn't know that would happen, and Felicia confesses. As a sliding grapnel is a frightful thought, Felicia is thankful they had a guardian angel but finds their rescue was by S'ym, who tells them not to mention it.