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spyderschaos · 5 months

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GUYSS

CHAP 2!!

Chapter 2 - The Spider

“No this can’t be!” - a metal leg crashes into concrete, another one against a desk, sending its contents overboard. -“No, no, no, where is it?!”- glass shatters hitting the floor, and sheets of paper scatter everywhere. Impossible! Impossible, he says! It was right there, right on his screen, a glowing dot indicating the location of his spider. His last spider, the only one that wasn’t destroyed in that “lab accident” not two days ago. Yes, “lab accident” in quotations, he refuses to believe it was fully an accident, he does not make mistakes like that! Something else must’ve been at play! Sabotage! Had to be!

No, stop. No use in thinking of that, he’s getting off track.

The spider. The spider was his only chance to recover at least something from his wrecked research. At the start of his project, he had made sure to tag every single one of his subjects, along with a tracker in case any was ever misplaced or happened to escape. Just that morning he had tracked it to Midtown High and didn’t think much before heading out to find it… and maybe he destroyed the place a bit in the process but details, details, that’s irrelevant! What’s relevant is that he was not able to find it, and when he made it back to his super secret underground lab lair hideout, – better name in the works – the tracker on the spider was gone. The bright, green, flashing dot had just vanished entirely, leaving an empty map behind.

He spends hours searching for it, looking everywhere in New York, typing in new codes in case the old one was faulty, restarting his program to see if that blasted dot appeared again. But it was no use. There were only two potential scenarios he believes could’ve been the cause of this: either the spider was dead, or somehow its tracker was damaged. However, a scientist like him would not accept a simple answer like the former, no, he knows that arachnid was out there. He stands up straight, staring daggers into the computer screen. He raises a mechanical arm holding a glass terrarium in front of his face.

“And I’m going to find that pesky spider, if my name isn’t Doctor Octopus!”

Glass shards litter the floor.

—————

“So.. you have no idea how this happened.”

Immediately, Amber lets out a very very over-the-top dramatic sigh as she throws herself face-up on the bed next to Gwanda - “No, Gwendolyn I do not know what happened, I woke up like this, no explanation to go along with this.. fabulous new bod.

Gwanda pushes Amber off the bed.

“That is not my name and you know it!”

“That’s what you’re caught up with?” - says Pete, spinning around in Amber’s desk chair - “...Ok, so, what do we know?” - he questions after a few moments - “Your hands are sticky and you’re really strong?”

“That’d be about it, yeah…” - This wasn’t going anywhere. What did she expect them to do? Just magically know what happened to her? Amber sighs again, rolling onto her stomach on her spot on the floor. She turns her face to the side, her gaze falling under her bed, when she spots it. - “Oh my god, it’s my favorite hoodie!” - She bolts up holding the piece of clothing in both of her hands - “Wow, I thought I had lost it! Hadn’t seen it since…”- A small something falls out of the hoodie, stopping Amber in her tracks. She bends back down and picks it up, wondering what it could be.

“It’s a spider.”

“No shit, captain obvious.”

“Ok, well, no need to be like that, Gweny, it was simply an observation.” - Amber snarks back. She stares at it in her hand for a bit, turning it around, and poking it at, her thoughts coming to a stop when she realizes.

“The spider.”

“Yes, we went through this, it’s a spider.”

“No, no, no, the spider, it was the spider. Remember? I felt something bite me when we were in my uncle’s classroom. It was the spider. That’s why it was on my hoodie, I took it off the second I got home and hadn’t pulled it out since. Last week this spider bit me at school.” - She rambles franticly, like she doesn’t know how to explain what’s going through her head at the moment.

“Wait” - It’s Pietro who realizes next - “Are you suggesting it’s the spider that… did this to you?”

“Yes! Yes, that’s exactly it! Think about it. I’ve felt sick ever since that day, but I haven’t left my house all week, and now my hands are sticky, and then this falls out of my hoodie. It has to be that!” - She stares back down at the spider sitting on her hand, finally realizing she doesn’t know what to do with this newfound information. No but really, what do you do in this situation? They have no idea where this spider came from, or what else it could’ve done to her. Amber’s kind of freaking out, she’s not going to lie. She hears Gwanda and Pete argue over the chance of it even being true but she doesn’t care. She knows this is what happened, it makes sense in her head… in a way. Got bit by a spider and now she’s a spider mutate with freaky spider-powers. Of course.

Outside of the room, a jingle of keys in the front door’s lock can be heard. Amber’s dad just got home from work.

“Look” - Gwanda stands from her spot on the bed and takes a step towards the door - “How about we go to your dad? He’s an adult, maybe he can help ‘cause frankly, I don’t got a clue of what we could do. So let’s just- “

Her dad? No way! This is the kind of thing people keep secret, like in shows, and books, and movies. What kid’s first thought is “let’s look for the adult”?

Before Gwanda gets to finish her sentence, Amber lets out a quick “No!” and extends her arm towards Gwanda with her palm facing up and her middle and ring fingers bending towards her. She doesn’t know why she did it like that, call it a reflex or instinct maybe, but her fingers touch her palm and with a “thwip” a weird, light yellow string shoots out of a tiny hole in her wrist she hadn’t noticed before. The substance — a web maybe? —, lands on Gwanda’s hand, gluing it to the doorknob.

The room falls silent, everyone shocked. Jaws dropped all over the room.

Gwanda’s the first to snap out of it - “How the actual hell did you just do that?!?”- she whisper-yells, as to not signal Amber’s dad, because maybe now really isn’t the time.

“Bro… no tengo ni la más puta idea!” - Amber states unhelpfully.

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” - asked Gwanda as if this wasn’t also Amber’s first time dealing with this. She tries pulling her hand, but the yellow web doesn’t budge! Guess it’s official, it does, in fact, have something to do with the spider. Gwanda gives up, knowing her hand is not unsticking any time soon. She looks back at Amber, staring in silence for a few seconds, then - “Why wouldn’t you just let me tell him? Your dad is a nice dude, man.”

“¡Amber ya llegué!” - Her dad calls out from the other room, interrupting the conversation.

“Ok!”- Amber answers

“¿Están los amiguitos tuyos?”

“Sí!”

“¡Diles que se queden a comer!”

“Ok!”

The room falls silent again, and for what feels like the fiftieth time today, Amber sighs - “I know that, it’s just… you know how people treat mutates and mutants, people like… me now.”

“But your dad wouldn’t do that, you know that right?” - Gwanda insists.

“Yeah but… he’s terrible at keeping secrets. What if he slips up at work? Or tells a random barista at a café when ordering? He can’t know, he can’t, not yet at least.

They look at each other, gazing into each other’s eyes, and Gwanda gets it. This isn’t her choice to make, so she won’t. - “Ok.” - she stops before continuing - “Ok, I won’t tell him. But what now?” -

That’s the question, isn’t it? What now. Amber could just choose not to do anything. Accept her powers as part of her but just… not really do anything with them and move on with her life. She could do that, yes, but what if she could do more? She thinks this through, sitting back down on the bed. Amber looks down at her hands, tracing her thumb over the small scar-like bump on the inside of her wrist, where the webs came from. She thinks back on her uncle, on that day, on whoever did that to the school… Wait.

“Hey” - It’s quiet, barely audible. She’s still looking down, chewing the inside of her lip before looking up.

“Hmm?” - Gwanda looks away from the webs keeping her stuck to the door, she had distracted herself with it, trying to peel it off unsuccessfully. Pete looks up as well, he had also been staring at the webs Gwanda really wanted to get rid of, but not doing anything to help. They look at Amber, who, in turn, looks back at them, staying like that for a bit before finally speaking again.

‘Did they… did anyone find out who kil- destroyed the school?” - She decides not to mention her uncle, it’s not like it was a direct attack on him anyway.

“No.”- Both Gwanda and Amber turn to look at Pete - “They didn’t. They tried following him but the guy was fast. Ben has some friends at the station, says they last saw the guy running into the sewers, then they lost track of him there. There’s no security footage of him either, so he’s either really good at avoiding cameras, or he erased everything.”- While he speaks, Pietro takes his phone out of his pocket and opens the photo app - “It’s crazy, the only reason people think it might be real is cause some senior took a shitty pic of it and posted it.”- He lands on what he’s looking for and turns his phone around, showing a blurry, off-center, photo of a person with their back turned towards the camera, wearing a dingy lab coat with metal tentacles coming out of it, and that’s all you can tell from the photo.

“So he’s still out there.”- It’s said as a statement rather than a question. Amber gets this determined look in her eye, like she’s planning something. She opens her mouth to speak and-

“No” - Gwanda immediately shuts her down.

“What? I haven’t even said anything yet!”

“The answer is no.”

“But I can go after him!” - Amber stands up from her bed abruptly - “I can go after him.” - She says this like it’s a given, like there no other choice here.

“No, see, that’s why I said no, Amber, that’s stupid! Going after him? How would you even- Is there even a plan? You don’t even know where to find the guy. He destroyed the school! Sticky hands won’t save you from that!” - No, Gwanda refuses to go along with this, she already said it but it’s stupid, dangerous even. She can’t just go out there and… they’re not the X-men! Or any other superhero group! Or anything like that at all! However, this won’t stop Amber.

“Gwanda…”

“Amber.”

“No, listen to me! This- we- I, I could do something, I can help people, I can find the guy and let the police deal with him-”

“Then why not just let the police deal with him in the first place?!” - The two argue in a low voice, remembering that Amber’s dad is just a few doors away. Gwanda wishes she could walk closer to Amber and use her hands freely for emphasis, but alas she is still webbed to the doorknob.

“Because we know they wont be able to find him!”

“We don’t know that, Amber.”

“Yes we do.”

“No, we don’t. So why risk your life for someone else’s job?” - That quiets Amber, even if just for a bit. Because it’s true, it’s not her job. Gwanda, logically, is in the right.

“Because I have this power.” - And that’s the root of it all, isn’t it? It’s why the argument even started. Because she has these powers and she can do something with them so why wouldn’t she.

Gwanda doesn’t look convinced, Pietro is though. Honestly, he’s been convinced for a while, it’s why he hasn’t jumped in yet and just chose to observe from his spot in Amber’s desk chair. Gwanda looks up at the ceiling and closes her eyes, breathing deeply for just a moment before looking back down at Amber. She still has that determined look in her eye, and Gwanda knows this argument is going nowhere. There’s no convincing Amber, there’s no changing her mind, not from this. She’s going out there, either with their help or without it.

“You’re doing this either way.” - It’s not a question.

“Yeah.”

“I can’t stop you.”

“You can’t.”

“Then you’re going to need a suit”

“Wha-” Amber’s left dumbfounded, her eyes set on Gwanda. That’s it?

“Oh, fuck yeah!” - Their eyes snap towards Pietro.

#no beta read we die like amber's uncle in the first chapter #ive never written a chapter this long #i mean its not really long #just a bit over 2200 words #but ive never done one this long #so im proud of this #let me know what u guys think #if u wanna #earth 10367 #gold silk #gold silk: origins #oc #amber alvarez #gwanda williams #pietro peterson #doc ock #ooo i also like doc ocks part #ive never written him before or any other existing spider-man character actually #so pls tell me if he seems right

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