Something is out of place.
It's Monday, around mid-afternoon. A high school tour is being given at an Oscorp research facility today.
In one of the sub-level rooms, a small brown spider crawls across a lab table.
It's usually trapped in a small clear box, but now it's free, due to the carelessness of a young intern. The girl clumsily knocked the box over, and its lid popped off, resulting in the specimen's escape.
Instead of trying to re-cage the spider-which was valuable Oscorp property-the intern ran away. Her only concerns were to avoid facing any personal consequences for her mistake.
That was five minutes ago. Now the spider is roaming, reveling in its freedom and exploring the world.
A hand, pale and fleshy, rests on the table, and the spider clambors onto it without much trouble. The spider doesn't know any better. It doesn't know the hand is a hand. It only sees the hand as a strange extension of the table it was crawling on previously.
The spider does realize that the hand is different. Certainly a softer texture than that of the table.
The spider wonders if this new surface is edible. But before it can taste and see-
SLAP
"Hey!" Peter yelps when his friend, Michelle Jones, slaps his hand. Hard. Now it's stinging and they have the attention of the entire tour group.
"There was a spider on you," Michelle explains, pointing to the table where the unfortunate arachnid fell off.
Peter shudders and moves away from it.
"Eww..."
Flash Thompson laughs and calls Peter a wuss, though if the roles were reversed, he'd be screaming bloody murder like the drama queen he is.
The tour guide gasps suddenly. "No, no no... Did you say a spider?"
She goes over to check, hoping it Isn't the irreplaceable experiment spider.
But of course, it is that spider. And it's dead now, poor thing.
"Don't you realize what you've done?!" shrieks the woman in horror.
"No," Michelle admits.
"That was an irreplaceable experiment!"
Peter is about to apologize, but his friend stops him.
"Irreplaceable, huh?" she questions the tour guide composedly.
"Yes! Irreplaceable! The man who developed it is dead, and most of his research is gone! Now all of it is, thanks to you!"
"Was the spider dangerous?"
"Yes! It's extremely radioactive and it bites! Who knows what could've happened if it had sunk its fangs into your reckless friend?!"
Peter turns pale. Michelle turns angry.
"So you had a dangerous spider running loose-while you're giving tours. Lady, you're the fool in this situation."
"That spider was safely contained!"
"No it wasn't."
"Well, your friend must've set it free!"
"I didn't set it free," Peter inputs, hurt that someone would accuse him of such a thing. "Spiders give me the creeps." He shudders again as if to prove his point.
"What's your name?" the tour guide asks him sternly. "You will be held responsible for this."
"What's your name?" Michelle counters. "His parents might wanna sue after they hear how their kid was almost bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip."
The teacher supervising the class decides it's about time he interfered.
"Here's what we can do," he says to the tour guide. "You can stop threatening my students, as none of this was their fault. We'll end this tour early and, only since Peter seems to be okay, no one will be suing you. Sounds good?"
Without giving the tour guide any time to reply, he quickly herds his students upstairs and out of the lab.
As they are herded out, Peter gives Michelle a gentle hug from the side. "Thanks MJ. You might've saved me from certain death."
She shoves him away. "Or I might've saved you from getting spider powers and becoming the masked vigilante of Queens."
Peter laughs. "That sounds equally unpleasant."
