Project Arachne

12/22/08

katiesparks

Shinichi crept quietly through the darkness, his eyes scanning every inch of his surroundings. Pure luck had led him to this place, an abandoned Black Organization base, full of nothing but spiders and the faded memories of the dead. He moved like a ghost from room to room, looking for a clue, a hint, the remnants of something, anything to help him in his investigation. But nothing was to be found. He was in the last room on the hallway when he found the book. The tomb had been left behind an old desk, it could've gotten there by any number of means; someone dropping it and forgetting to retrieve it or someone leaving it behind in hopes it would one day be discovered, he would didn't think he would ever know. It was leather bound and full of dust, but finally, he was able to wipe off the page enough to read the neat scrawl of its former owner.

Project Arachne
Day one
Project leader-Scotch
Report-Sherry

We took Arachne out of her tube today, she seems normal enough and her vital signs are as expected.

Hair color-brown
Eye color-changing constantly, currently blue, scratch that, black
All fingers and toes accounted for.

*Note: a fine web has formed on her skin several times. I have removed it three times in the past hour. Web resembles that of a normal, non-poisonous spider.

Perplexed, Shinichi flipped though the pages. Some of the entries were only days apart, others, weeks, even months. Finally, he found the last page that had writing on it.

No time to head entry.
Report-Sherry

Base of operations is being abandoned. I am being looked at closely for accounts of treason due to accusations from Brandy. We are leaving Arachne here, though I desperately wish to take her with us. She is merely a child. I wish to smuggle her out, but it will not be possible. I'm leaving behind this notebook; I pray someone finds it in time. If anyone is reading this, please look for Arachne, please-

The writing ended in a smear of ink and Shinichi assumed that the writer, Sherry, had been interrupted. Flipping through the pages again, a cloud of dust rose up and he sneezed and fell back against the desk behind him, knocking over a dusty lamp. But, instead of falling, the lamp bent like a lever and the wall behind him made a popping noise as a crack appeared in the corner. Curious, Shinichi stuck his fingers into the silt and pried the wall open. His fingers encountered more sticky cobwebs, but he brushed them aside as a gush of stale air greeted him.

"Who is there?" asked a faint voice from beyond the door and Shinichi looked up to find the most beautiful woman he had ever seen looking down on him from her place in the gigantic mass of webs near the furthest corner of the ceiling.

She had thin arms and legs and her muscles were visible as she twitched. Her hair hung long down her back and tangled with the web she was upon. Then most shocking feature was her eyes, when he entered, they had been the color of blood and had glowed in the darkness of the secret room. Now they were yellow and looked upon him curiously.

"I do not know you." She stated and moved fluidly down the web until she was only halfway up the wall. "Come closer, I won't hurt you......much. Any harm would not be fatal, it would not even hurt. I am too skilled for that, come closer, human, and let me see your face."

Shinichi desperately wished he had not come into this room as he moved forward, not of his own will, but under some sort of spell. Finally, when he was close enough, his feet stopped moving and the woman reached down to stroke his face. "You are a pretty sort of boy. Tell me, what is your name?"

Shinichi gulped but answered clearly. "Kudo Shinichi."

She nodded before pulling him closer to her. "They called me Arachne, but Sherry liked to call me Ran, I am unsure why. You may address me as you choose."

Shinichi found his voice after he was about five feet off the ground. "What are you? What happened here?"

Ran considered him for a moment. "I am a spider-humanoid crossbreed. I was born here from a tube on Day One. They wished to make a weapon out of me, but they said I was not dangerous enough. I would not allow them to dispose of me. I showed them how dangerous I could be. That was many years ago, when I was still of smallness. I have been here since then."

Shinichi flinched at her reassurance of how dangerous she was and it did not go unnoticed. "Do not be afraid of me, Kudo Shinichi, I don't wish to harm you. I have been alone for so long, you will stay with me now and we shall be happy." She pulled him against her chest and he felt her hand go to the back of his neck. Slowly, he felt the webs extending from her fingers and crawling through his hair and down the back of his neck.

"Are you afraid of me, Shinichi?" she asked, and distantly, he noticed how bad her manners were.

He decided the woman, if she could be called that, would be a very hard person to deceive and opted for the truth. "Yes, very much so. You are quite frightening."

She smiled and it was a kind smile, the kind that could win you over in an instant. "What is it that makes me frightening? Is there anyway I could be not frightening? If I could do that, could I leave this place and go where you are going?"

Shinichi thought for a moment before deciding that it would be okay, as long as he could keep an eye on her. "The webs are probably the scariest thing. And your eyes changing colors, but some contacts would fix that. And, if I let you come with me, you couldn't be touching all over people."

Ran nodded. "I can keep my eyes one color if I wish. What if I did this?" She set him on the ground before pulling herself out of the web, scraping off the stringy filaments until very few remained, leaving her looking a lot like Shinichi did at the moment, as if she had decided to take a tour of a very old house. She stood a foot or so away from him, her eyes stuck on blue, probably in an imitation of his own blue eyes, waiting for his reaction.

"You look alarmingly normal. If you promise to behave, I guess you can come with me. But one wrong move and I'm selling you to a research facility." Shinichi stated.

"I will behave myself. My first time outside, how exciting!" She cheered and Shinichi found himself looking at her fondly for a moment before shaking himself, he was only taking her with him because she would know a lot about the Organization, that's all.

At least that's what he told himself, even after she reached for his hand and he didn't resist.

'Oh well,' he thought to himself, 'normal was overrated anyways.'

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The idea for this one came from a very strange place. But I like it, it's very strange and out there, even more so than any of my other stories. It's very AU, though, don't you think? No flames please, you read it, I didn't make you!

-katiesparks