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"Pete," I call my boyfriend, "any chance you can track down where Arcade is?"

"I've been working on it," Peter responds. Of course he is. He's the best. "But he's good. I'll need a bit more time."

"Copy."

It doesn't take me long to get to Central Park. When I reach the destination Arcade sent me to, I find another group of civilians trapped in a force field just like the one in Times Square. It's smaller, and seems to be a small box over the top of them. I land on it, and can hear them calling for me. 

Which seems weird if these things are supposed to be airtight. 

Searching the side of the box, I see there are small gaps allowing air in and out. If he's not trying to suffocate these people, then why did he trap them in a box?

"Spider-Woman! Welcome to the arena!" Arcade's voice explodes above me, drawing my attention above. There I see a swirling spiral of his drones coming down from the night sky like the New Years fireworks I should be watching right now. "I didn't expect you to get here so quickly. I would have had things set up already."

"Why do you have these people in a cage, Arcade!?" I yell to the villain. "Let them go and deal with me. I'm the one you want!"

"Oh no, that wouldn't be any fun!" the criminal titters with laughter. "What I want is entertainment. And I want to see if you can save the people from the space invaders! Get ready for the challenge of your life, hero!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I mutter to no one, knowing that there's no way he'd respond to me even if he heard me. 

Suddenly, the drones above me snap into attention, and begin moving down towards me. They begin to dance, almost. But it's in a completely straight line coming directly for me. Suddenly, the line closest to me breaks off from the rest and streaks towards me and the box the civilians are in. My Spider Sense warns me of the coming danger, and allows me plenty of time to get out of the way of the dive-bombing drones. But as I flip out of the way, I find that the drones don't follow me. They simply head down and swipe against the cage he has his prisoners in. Below me, the cage shrinks, causing the people inside to lose some of the little room they have.

And that's when it hits me.

It's literally space invaders. He said it right there in his taunt to me before the game began. I need to play a giant, real life game of Space Invaders to save a bunch of innocent people on New Years Eve night. You know, I say this a lot, but my life is really, really weird. I wonder if Batman ever has to deal with this kind of stuff. I bet he doesn't. 

The same line of drones breaks rank yet again and comes our way, but now I'm ready for them. I web one of them up and decide to use it as a ball and chain to take the rest of the drones out. While the craft is fast and nimble, it's not strong enough to get out of my grasp. I wrangle it in towards me, before spinning it around my head. 

The first enemy drone that comes near me and my unwilling partner is knocked off course before slamming into the ground a few yards clear of the box.

"Oh yea, this one is gonna be much more fun," I smile under my mask. Who says fighting evil masterminds can't be fun too?

I ninja my way through the next few rows of drones, but from the looks of things, there's plenty more coming. Still, my improvised mace is doing its job, knocking its friends away with relative ease. I don't know if Arcade planned for me to do this or what, but if he didn't he had a serious design flaw with this one.

Of course, just as I think that, the speed from the drones starts increasing exponentially after every dive bomb.

"You just had to get cocky, didn't you?" I ask myself.

Before long, the drones are too fast for me, and they break through my defenses. They begin slamming into the force field, shrinking it each time. I can see the people inside begin to panic, and I can't blame them. If this keeps going on, they'll be crushed by not only the force fields, but by the other people trapped in with them. I can already seen some of them climbing on top of the others in order to relieve the pressure growing around them.

It's clear my strategy isn't going to cut it. I search desperately for something that can take out a large amount of the drones at once, and come to one conclusion.

I'm going to throw a Central Park tree at them.

In order to do that, I have to leave the box completely unprotected, unfortunately. I don't have any choice, but it still kills me that these people are going to see me desert them, even if it's only for a time.

I find a suitable tree, and summon all the strength I can muster. I know I'm strong, but I can only hope I've got enough strength to uproot this giant and use it as a weapon. The tree strains under the force I apply to it, and can hear the roots start to give way. Suddenly, it gives way, and I'm able to swing it in a large arc. I gain momentum and toss it like an Olympic hammer towards the drones. It cuts through them like a hot knife through butter, and in a blink of an eye they're gone.

The force field disappears, and the innocent people are released. Some of them hug their loved ones. Some of them look to the heavens in appreciation. Some look to me and merely wave weakly, thanking me for the help.

"Impossible!" Arcade's voice rages over a surviving drone. "Completely impossible!"

"Okay, Arcade," I growl at him. "I've played your game. It's time to end this."

"No! No it's not! I'll think of another game! You'll never beat Arcade!" the villain rants.

"Gwen...I have him. He's in the Paramount Building," Peter comes over the comms. "You've got him."

"Okay, Arcade," I say to him. "If you don't want to come to me, I'll come to you. See you soon."