Chapter 1
Because of a scheduling conflict at the arena, there was five days in between Hannah Montana concerts in Boston. Miley (out of costume, of course) and Lilly were staying at the luxurious Tipton Hotel. The first concert was on Sunday night; before leaving the hotel for the concert, Miley and Lilly decided to buy some candy at the counter inside the hotel. The girl working behind the counter was about their age and was a very pretty blonde. Her nametag read "Maddie".
Miley struck up a conversation. "Hey, we're stuck here all week. I was wondering if you could tell us what we could do to have fun?"
"I'm sorry you consider staying at Tipton as being ÔstuckÕ but I have to work and go to school and do my homework so I don't really know what to tell you to do," Maddie replied.
Miley winced. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. You look to be about our age and I thought you would have an idea what we could do while we're in town."
"Well, you could come to school with me. Whenever one of the girls has a friend or relative in from out of town, the sisters let them come to school to see how it is. The only thing is that you have to wear a uniform."
Lilly got excited. "You get to wear a school uniform? I always wanted to."
"Well it's not really that exciting, but rules are rules."
"Is it your sister that lets the other kids come to school?" Miley asked.
Maddie laughed. "No, not that kind of sister. The Nuns. They run the school."
"Oh, it's a Catholic school." Lilly replied, nodding her head.
"Yep. Our Lady of Perpetual Helplessness"
The girls were interrupted by a commotion headed their way. A very pretty Asian girl, who looked vaguely familiar, came up to the counter. Right behind her was a bellhop, carrying loads of shopping bags.
She spoke to Miley and Lilly. "Sorry girls. Candy counter's closing. Maddie has to come tell me how pretty I look in my new clothes."
Miley and Lilly now recognized the girl as London Tipton, teen-age heiress to the Tipton Hotel chain and famous socialite.
"Hey you two are dressed fashionably. And you're kind of pretty. You can come too."
Lilly and Miley were still a little shocked at meeting London Tipton and started following the entourage to the elevator.
Maddie spoke up. "Hey London, they're going to come to school with us tomorrow."
London stopped and smiled at them. "Great, then you can come shopping with us."
Lilly asked. "You go to that school too?"
"My daddy got mad at me for not doing well in private school so he sent me there. I don't know why I have to go to school since I'm already rich, and their uniforms are so drab."
Lilly and Miley rolled their eyes at each other as Miley asked what the uniform looked like.
Maddie answered. "Well, it's a white blouse with a navy blue sweater over it. A navy blue pleated skirt. And you can wear either navy blue nylons, tights or knee socks."
"You're right London, that does sound drab," Miley answered.
"Are you kidding me," Lilly gasped. "I can hardly wait to wear it."
Maddie smiled back at Lilly. "That's the spirit, I can hardly wait to see you wearing it."
Chapter 2
The next morning Lilly and Miley woke up early to start getting ready for their school visit. Maddie had brought them their uniforms the night before.
Lilly decided to wear navy blue nylons with her uniform. She also put a white headband over her dark blonde hair.
When Miley finished combing her light brown hair and putting it in to a long ponytail, she sat on the bed. She took out the pair of navy blue knee socks she had gotten the night before and started to pull them on her long California tanned legs. "Wow these are long." She pulled the socks up over her knees and then cuffed them down. She then pulled the cuff back up so that the top of the knee socks went right to her kneecap.
Pretty soon Maddie and London were at the door as it was time to leave for school. Of course they rode in a limousine to school because that's the only way London travelled. Maddie picked up the newspaper that was lying on the seat.
"Wow look at this, someone broke in to the Butterfly Garden and let all of the Butterflies out," she commented.
"What's the Butterfly Garden?" Miley asked.
"Oh, it's in the park across the street from school. There were hundreds of butterflies there from all over the world. We go over there at lunch time once in a while." London answered.
"The paper says there was spray paint on the walls, saying 'Anthropods unite. Humans will pay for their crimes'. Who would do something like that?" Maddie wondered.
"Probably some crazy environmentalist," Lilly answered.
"Yeah real cuckoo," Miley added.
The girls arrived at school. It was decided that Miley would follow London around to her classes and Lilly would follow Maddie. The girls met back up at lunch time.
Maddie spoke first. "Sister Enchilada wants me to write a story for the school newspaper on the break in at the Butterfly Garden."
"Don't you mean break out?" Miley said, smiling. "Maybe the butterflies were sick of being cooped up and flew away themselves."
They all laughed.
"Hey Lilly" Maddie said, "We have study hall next period. Maybe we can do a little research and try to figure out who might be responsible for this."
Lilly winked at Miley. "Ewww, a mystery to solve, I love it," she respnded.
Chapter Three
In study hall Lilly showed how to log in to a database of arrests made. They searched for people arrested for disturbing the peace, damage to property and unlawful assembly. They tried different key words associated with Eco-Terrorism and also any one protesting mis-treatment of animals, although butterflies weren't technically animals. Their hour was almost up when they came finally narrowed the list to two possible suspects.
"Ok, so are we going to give these names to the police?" Lilly asked.
"No, we're going to go talk to them ourselves," Maddie answered, "I have to write the article for the school paper and we'll just tell them this gives them a chance to tell their side of the story."
Lilly pointed to the last known addresses for the two. "Are these close together?"
"No, not really. But maybe we can split up. We'll get Miley and London to go to one and we'll go to the other. Or do you think Miley won't want to go?
"You'd be surprised. She's got a little Nancy Drew in her."
"OH MY GOD. Me too. And London,Ó Maddie piped up. ÒWe're always looking for mysteries to solve. That is when London isn't shopping."
Just then the bell rang, ending their study hall. The girls went to their next class, excited to be doing a little snooping after school.
After the final bell, Maddie hurriedly found London and Miley and told them about their discovery. It was decided that London and Miley would go to the residence farther away since they would get a ride there in London's limousine. The suspect Maddie and Lilly were going to look for lived just a few blocks from the school, an easy walk.
The two blondes covered the three blocks quickly. They were going to 345 Ashland Lane, the last known address for Freida Carpenter, age 28. She had been arrested numerous times for damage to property. She had done this at various research laboratories that used animals and/or insects in their testing. When they reached the address, they were surprised to see a plain white building that looked to be abandoned.
Maddie told Lilly that there used to be a beauty shop on the main floor of the building, she remembered going there with her mother.
"Well there doesn't look to be anything here now." Lilly answered. "Maybe there's apartments on the 2nd floor, let's look for a door bell." The girls did that but only found a couple of wires sticking out of the wall.
"Crap, dead end." Lilly said.
"Wait, look at that building out back by the alley. It's supposed to be a garage but let's go look anyway." Maddie said, determinedly walking across the back lawn.
The girls found a door in the narrow strip in between the building and the garage next to it. As they were about to go in, Lilly's phone rang. It was Miley. Maddie heard Lilly tell her that they were going to look around the garage and to meet them there. Lilly closed her phone and turned to Maddie. "That was Miley. Hector Ramirez moved out 6 months ago. The landlady thought he went to New Mexico, so I told them to come meet us here."
Maddie and Lilly both put their shoulders on the door and pushed hard, opening it to a dusty unkempt area with boxes strewn about and broken glass on the cement floor.
"Nothing here", Lilly said.
"Wait." answered Maddie. "In the corner, there's a stairway."
Sure enough, in the corner of the room was a stairway heading down. The girls made their way over and quietly crept down the stairs. When they got to the bottom, there was a narrow hallway. Lilly and Maddie almost giggled as, at the same time, they both pulled out pocket flashlights. Have to be prepared to be a good girl detective, they each thought. They tiptoed down the passageway as quietly as they could. It was very dark so they both kept their flashlights trained in front of them.
They started hearing a buzzing sound that led them to an opening on the left. They both tiptoed and tried to be very quiet but that ended when they both let out screams as the floor beneath them gave way. The floor turned in to a ramp and as the girls fell on their backsides, they slid down the ramp to the darkness below.
Chapter 4
The startled girls, now breathing hard with fear, scrambled to their feet. As they did, the ramp suddenly jolted upward, going back to its original place as the floor for the level above. Just then, the strange buzzing noise got louder. Maddie and Lilly turned around to see thousands of tiny red lights in the darkness. The buzzing stopped, the lights went out and the girls relaxed. But not for long.
Out of nowhere, there arms were suddenly entangled by something and pinned to their sides. Then the same thing happened to bind their legs, causing them to both topple to the ground.
"Lilly!"
"Maddie???"
"What happened?"
"I don't know, It's too dark to see anything."
Just then a spotlight came on the room. The girls turned and saw thousands of spiders on the other side of the room, scrambling into cracks in the wall, avoiding the light.
"EEEWW" Lilly screamed, obviously afraid of spiders.
"Oh my god Lilly, we're tied up in spider webs," Maddie said, now that they could see their predicament.
Then there was another shock; a woman came in to view. She was wearing a black Lycra body suit that had red spider web design on it. She had long black hair and her face painted in a spider web design. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
"Hey, let us out of here," Lilly said, struggling with the web.
"Are you Freida Carpenter?" Maddie asked.
The woman's voice got deeper and angrier. "Never use that name again. That is no longer my name. Freida Carpenter was a weak minded human. I will now be addressed as the Black Widow."
"Wawawa," Lilly stammerred. "Miss Black Widow, will you let us go? We made a mistake coming here. We just wanted to get an interview for the school paper, so you could tell your side of the story; but we'll leave you alone, we promise."
Just then Maddie's phone started ringing. But of course, with her arms pinned to her sides, she couldn't get it out of her pocket. London and Miley had just been dropped off by the limo. London told the driver that they'd walk back to school and she'd call for a ride later.
London hung up the phone. "Maybe they don't get reception in the garage. Let's go find them."
When Maddie's phone stopped ringing, the Black Widow leered at her two captives. "I assume that was your friends who were looking for Hector. And now they're here"
"What? How'd you know?" Maddie replied.
"I heard you on the phone out back."
"You know Hector?" Lilly asked.
The Black Widow nodded slightly. "You're right, you did make a big mistake coming here. And now, so too have your friends."
Chapter 5
Maddie and Lilly continued struggling in their bonds as the Black Widow left them, apparently to go and "greet" London and Miley.
Those two had just entered the garage and also noticed the stairway. They quickly started towards it but didn't make it all the way. Just before the stairs, they were suddenly stuck to the floor. They could move their feet a little bit but it was like they had walked onto glue. Suddenly they heard laughter behind them.
They were shocked at their first look at the Black Widow. "If you're looking for your two friends, they are down in the subterranean level. It looks like you'll be sticking around here for a while as well."
Miley yelled, "What kind of glue is this? Let us go."
"It's not glue, missy, it's human paper."
"Human Paper?" London asked, confused.
"You and your kind have always called it 'Fly Paper' because you caught flies with it. No more. Now it's called 'Human Paper' and I am going to use it to catch any humans who try to stop my plans."
"What kind of crazy plans are those?" London asked.
The Black Widow took a couple of steps closer to London. "You. I know you. You're London Tipton. Ha ha ha. Your daddy is one of our biggest enemies. All of his developments have destroyed the habitats of my friends around the world. In addition, he is one of the richest men in the world. Hmmmm. You asked about my plans. Well they just changed a little. Your daddy is going to spend a lot of money to get you back."
Chapter 6
Just then the Black Widow was interrupted by a loud buzzing sound. The girls gasped as some kind of mutant half-human half-bee came in to view. It had human legs that it walked on, a bee's yellow and black striped body, a stinger protruding out the rear, and a mostly human head but with antennae.
The girls gasped.
"You girls wanted to meet Hector? Well he is no longer, but instead is now King Bee, my partner in our war to take back the world for it's rightful owners,Ó Black Widow explained. ÒAhh, look at what I've trapped, King Bee. This one here is London Tipton, wealthy socialite. She is worth a lot of money to us. And that one," she said, pointing at Miley, "I don't much care who she is. But she'll pay for her race's evil ways. And there's two more just like them down below. I suppose we should get you two down there as well. Perhaps my ant friends will carry you down there."
The Black Widow put her fingers on her temples and closed her eyes. Soon, an army of thousands of ants appeared. King Bee grabbed each of the girls by their shoulders and lowered them to the ground. Then the army of ants, with their amazing strength, lifted and carried the girls to the subterranean lair. King Bee and Black Widow followed.
"Now, how do we get you off of that sticky paper. Perhaps King Bee can pull you out of your shoes."
That's what he did, grabbing each girl by their shoulders and tugging them back so that their feet slide out of their loafers, which where left on the "human paper". Once back on her feet, London pulled up her knee socks, which had sagged slightly. Miley's socks were still nice and tight around her kneecaps.
"Now, it's time to put you all to good use."
Black Widow turned to London and held out her arm towards the rafters. Suddenly, from her wrist sprang out a spider web that wrapped itself around a beam and then came down and wrapped around LondonÕs wrists. The web then pulled her arms up high above her head. Then another web was dispensed that wrapped itself tightly around London's ankles.
London screamed. "You'll never get away with this. Let me go!!"
With that the Black Widow sent another thicker web spinning into London's mouth and around her head, gagging her.
"You'll have plenty of time to talk when you and I make a video to send to your father. But that will have to wait until we finish with your friends.
She turned towards Maddie. "You're going to become our ally in this war. I'll have my caterpillar friends wrap you up in a cocoon, and after the metamorphosis is complete, you'll break out as a beautiful butterfly, ready to lead the rest of the butterflies in taking back their rightful place."
Maddie tried to plead with her. "Please, please just let us go. I promise we won't tell anyone what's going on."
"Silence !!" With that, the Black Widow shot out a web gag for Maddie, silencing her.
Next she turned to Lilly. "You, with the honey blonde hair. We will turn you in to a giant honeycomb for all of the bees to feed off of. Your human form will slowly melt away until you are completely made of wax."
Lilly tried to scream, but no sound came out, as the fear and shock took away her vocal cords. But the Black Widow gagged her anyways.
"And you," she said, turning to Miley, "You'll simply be something for my spiders to eat."
Miley, the only girl not bound, lunged at the Black Widow. But before she could knock her down, the Widow had dug a fingernail in her neck, releasing a small amount of spider venom that was enough to temporarily paralyze the teen crime fighter. Miley fell to the ground, but could not move.
Black Widow summoned the ants again who picked up Miley and moved her to another room. In the room was a St. Andrew's Cross. King Bee lifted up the helpless teen and attached her wrists and ankles to the X shaped apparatus. "We'll be back after your paralysis has wore off and I've dealt with your friends."
Miley could not move a muscle or change her expression but still tears streamed down from her blue eyes.
Next, Maddie was brought to another room that was very hot. Still, bound by the spider webs, she was surrounded by caterpillars that started the job of wrapping her up in a cocoon. It wasn't long before the young blonde was covered from feet to head in the cocoon. There was a small opening at the top from which she could breathe. Black Widow sprayed some substance into that opening.
"Let the metamorphosis begin!" she said triumphantly.
Then Lilly was taken to a third room and placed upright inside a tight glass tube. Soon, a sticky yellow substance started coming into the tube at the bottom. Her feet became covered, then her navy blue nylon clad legs. The substance formed a shell in the shape of her body. Satisfied that the operation was well under way, the Black Widow and King Bee returned to Miley.
She had recovered from the temporary paralysis but was bound too tightly in a spread-eagle position to escape.
"Now it's time to rid the world of this human. My spiders are very excited to meet and eat you. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
Miley strained with her bonds but it was useless. Suddenly five spiders appeared. They were like most spiders, but only bigger, actually the size of a hamster. Black Widow came over and applied some substance right above Miley's knees. She looked up at her teary eyed captive.
"This is where they will start their feast. HAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHA."
With that, she and King Bee left the room. All Miley could do was watch as the big hairy spiders approached her.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? IS THIS THE BIZZARE END FOR OUR THREE INTREPID DETECTIVES? WILL THE BLACK WIDOW REALLY RANSOM LONDON BACK TO HER FATHER? OR DOES SHE HAVE A SINISTER PLAN FOR THE HEIRESS AS WELL?
Continued?