Chapter 4

Burr-drrnnnnnn… Burr-drrrrnnnn…

"Hrrnfh…?"

Burr-drrnnnnnn… Burr-drrrrnnnn…

"Ehhhhrrh…"

Burr-drrnnnnnn… Burr-drrr-

It was the day after the presentation and the fair and it was sometime in the afternoon. Yesterday, when we got home, Uncle Ben was able to tide me over with some stomach medicine before Aunt May got home, flipped out, and took over taking care of me. Just before I went to bed, they told me I was sick enough that I should stay home tomorrow, so I have.

And that noise there that woke me up? That was my phone alarm going off on my sidetable. I was honestly too tired to care, so I just closed my half-open eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

Burr-drrnnnnnn… Burr-drrrrnnnn…

I frowned, "Ah… Jesus Christ…"

So I finally bit the bullet and tried to raise my hand to reach out of the covers and grab my phone. And I started to, but I began to pull the covers with me. I must be really tired and was holding the covers or something, but for some reason, my hand was not letting go. I consciously tried to release my grip on the covers, but it was sticking to it.

Man, this sleep must have helped a lot. I must have sweated all the sickness away or however that works. However… I don't remember my sweat being this sticky. Or sticky at all, for that matter.

I tried to pull my other hand out, but it was in the same position. My fingers are stuck to the sheets. Literally. Like I can't take them off. Is this a dream?

I tried to kick my covers off, but I found my feet were in the same position as my fingers. Why the hell is my body sticking to my covers?

I began to writhe as my phone continued to blare my alarm. I started to roll over to the edge of my bed, inching my head over to my sidetable. I can't believe I'm actually in a position like this. This is really, really weird.

Finally, on the final ring of the third time my alarm was going off, I stuck my nose onto my phone, turning it off with a few failed attempts. But as I did, I nearly fell off the bed, so I was able to wriggle my way back on.

Okay, you know what? Screw it.

With an annoyed grunt and all of my strength, I ripped my hands out from the covers, pulling them out so fast that they dented my headboard behind me. I turned and looked, my eyes widening, then looked at my hands, seeing bits of my sheets stuck to my fingertips.

My headboard is made out of metal with a wooden overlay to make it look fancy. Nothing I could do would dent that stuff even if I took an afternoon just to punch it repeatedly. And I just made two HUGE dents in it with my hands and barely felt it. Hell, I only felt the impact. And now my fingers and feet are sticking to everything.

"Peter? Are you okay? I heard a noise." I heard my Aunt May's voice yell from downstairs.

It took me a second, but I yelled back, "Yeah! Yeah, I'm okay! Sorry!"

Aunt May didn't respond, so I took this opportunity to rip my feet out from the covers as well, bits of my sheets sticking to it as well. I was then able to push my sheets off the bed my pushing it with my elbows and chin, trying my best to not have my feet or hands touch anything.

With some effort, I was able to swing my feet around so they were hanging off my bed, and I had my elbows on my knees, holding my hands up.

I need to get a drink of water. Or at least wash my face. Or something.

So, I rocked back on my elbows and pushed off of them to stand up, but my own strength betrayed me, and I pushed off of the bed so hard as to make myself fly forward a bit, lying straight in the middle of the room on my ass.

I put my hands down instinctively to push off of them, but I found that I couldn't, because of my damn sticky thing going on. I kept trying to push off of them, but only succeeded in literally holding myself up in the air from the ground with literally zero to no effort whatsoever. I could barely do a sit up yesterday and now I can do this?

What the hell is going on?

So I let myself sit back down on the ground and I took a moment. All right. Apparently my hands and feet can cling to things now. And if they can do that, there's gotta be a way to make them stop. Like if I just think about it, it should happen. I think. Hopefully.

By the time I finished thinking about thinking about it, I was already burying my face in my hands. Oh. Oh wait. I did it. Damn. I'm good at this.

And with conscious thought, I was able to stand up and walk around without sticking to the floor or anything like that. So at least I can do that.

Burr-drrnnnnnn… Burr-drrrrnnnn…

Burr-drrnnnnnn… Burr-drrrrnnnn…

But then, my phone's alarm went off again. I must have pressed snooze or something. So I turned back and looked at my sidetable, where I'd have to make a very small jump over my bag and a plate of food to get over there. So I tried.

As you could expect, it didn't end very well. In fact, not well at all. I tried to do a little hop over the items and I flew forward. I leaped over the sidetable, knocking over my lamp as I swung my hand through the air, knocking my phone across the room too. Then I smacked into the wall and fell down onto my bed.

Aunt May chimed in too, "Peter? Are y-"

"Yep! Peachy."

Okay, now I know for a fact that I am really, really strong too.

I groaned, looking over to see that I had swung my phone all the way over across the room, under my desk.

So, of course, being the optimist that I am, I pushed myself out of bed, then after using all of my energy to walk over and not stick to things as well, I didn't even want to risk my hands being stuck to the floor again while I'm like, trying to crawl under it to get my phone. I grabbed my desk with one of my hands and tried to pull it out of the way, but being me and not realizing my own strength again, I pulled my desk so hard that it flipped through the air and landed on the other side of my room. Goddammit.

At least I got my phone. Although it won't turn on.

It's great being me, isn't it?

I walked over and grabbed my desk, finding that I could lift it with one hand. Virtually without effort as well. I set it back to the way it was, on the right side of my room, before hearing Aunt May's voice again.

"Peter? Are you absolutely sure you're okay? I keep hearing noises up there…"

Her yelling surprised me and I spun around, bumping into my wall. The shelves on my wall shook for a moment before an old collectible, a pot I made in ceramics, and a photo fell off of them. And then suddenly, something my brain rang and I knew exactly where the falling objects were, where they were going, and how to catch them.

With lightning-fast speed, I reached my hand backwards, catching the collectible, and then with my other arm, caught the picture in the crook of my elbow and the pot in my hand.

"Okay, I'm coming up!" I heard her yell, followed by loud footsteps.

Oh. Oh no.

I panicked, knowing I needed to get back into my bed so she wouldn't know anything is up, and with some kind of vibration in my head that almost told me what to do, I tossed the three items back on their respective spots on the shelves almost perfectly, but that wasn't good enough. I could hear she was only like five seconds away from my door.

So instinctively, I leaped backwards, doing a full on backflip from one end of my room, straight back into my bed quickly and smoothly, even being able to grab my blanket and drape it over myself before she pushed open my door.

"Peter, are-oh," She saw me in bed with a blanket over my body, curled up, "Ahem, are you all right?"

I nodded my head, sitting up, "Yup. All good. Feeling a bit better, really."

"Good, Peter. Good," She came and sat on the edge of my bed, "You need anything?"

I sighed, "Yeah. Yeah, I could use a hug."

She smiled wistfully at me, leaning over and giving me a hug. I held her close for a moment and then tried to pull away, but couldn't.

God. Dammit. I was stuck to her.

She tried to pull away, but I held her close so I could unstick my hands, "No no, just for a second longer."

Aunt May obliged me before I pulled my hands off of her and she stood up, kissing me on the forehead, then walked out of the room. She closed the door behind her.

Oh man. That could've gone… very oddly. Or extremely badly. One of the two.

I swung my feet over my bed, burying my head in my hands.

Okay, now, let's review. My hands and feet are sticking to everything they touch. And apparently, I'm so strong, I was able to make a dent in wood and metal, flip my desk over with one hand, and carry my weight with no leverage at all without even really trying to. And not only that, but I'm so fast, that I can catch three falling items before they hit the ground, using some weird vibration and ringing sensation in my head to do so. To top it all off, for some reason, I feel it's now almost instinctive to just use acrobatics to get to place to place. My go-to movement to get to my bed was a backflip. And it worked! I've never been able to backflip in my life! Not even front flip. Now I can leap over teen feet without it even being a problem.

Woofh. Okay. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, the question is, why?

And I don't know why I'm asking myself that, because I think I already know the answer to that. That damn little spider from yesterday did this.

Dr. Smythe mentioned the spider was radioactive and was genetically modified to make webs strong enough to carry fifty plus tons. Thankfully, I don't have webs coming out from my ass, so maybe someone's looking out for me. But regardless, that spider was jacked up with stuff. Its bite must have given me spider genetics or something like that, cause that's the only thing that makes sense.

However, I have spider powers. There's no denying that. Spiders can stick to walls, they're strong, agile, and they're quick. I'm all of those things now. Just… proportionate to a human.

I actually have super powers. I… I actually have powers. You'd think that'd be cool, but it's really just… scary. And shocking. It might be cool in the future or whatever, but it's really screwed up now.

I looked at my wrist, seeing a red bite mark from the spider. It was odd, that something so small literally changed my entire life overnight.

"Agh…" I groaned, running my hands through my hair.

I don't' even know what to think. I don't know if I hate this or if it's okay or anything. I just feel confused and almost a little bit sad. My entire life has been about trying to blend into the background, trying to stay out of the limelight and now suddenly, this comes into my life. How am I ever going to be normal? I don't want to be weird or different from all these other people.

Okay, I need to calm down. I'm panicking for nothing. I can learn to control this, right? It'll take some practice and stuff, but I know I can figure out how to make sure my abilities don't make me stand out.

After resolving the issue in my head, I decided to take my hands off of my hair… to no avail.

Okay, yeah, this'll take some work.

I began trying to think about letting go, but for some reason, my hands wouldn't come off of my hair. I stood up, trying to pull them off again, but I couldn't.

Screw it; I'm pulling my hands off. If I take some of my hair with them, so be it. I'll wear a beanie.

I whispered to myself, "Okay… one… two… three!"

I lifted my hands as hard as I could, and thankfully, my fingers stopped sticking to my hair when I did. But, my fingers immediately hit the ceiling of my room and then decided to stick to there instead. I began to pull and pull, trying to get them off without damaging the ceiling. And in my stupidity, I placed a foot onto the ceiling, trying to use it to push off and gain leverage, only for my foot to stick to it as well, followed by the other one.

Oh my God… I'm literally clinging to my ceiling. I am looking down at the floor as I'm hanging here.

On pure instinct, I tried something out, calming myself down as I take one of my hands off from the ceiling and move it, along with the rest of my limbs, beginning to crawl forward. I moved slowly but surely, yet, it felt so natural. As if I was walking on the ground. It was… amazing.

For maybe about ten minutes, I crawled all across the ceiling in my room, trying out different positions as well. I could hang from two feet, from both of my hands, I could have one hand on the ceiling and pull myself up in a one handed pull-up with no problem at all, I could face downward and have my back to the ceiling, I could do anything as long as one limb was stuck there.

Okay… yeah. I think I should maybe test out my new… abilities. All for the good of science, of course.

The next day, I decided to head to an old hangout of mine. It was an old landfill about a mile away from my home. I always used it to do homework or play games when I wanted to be alone. Sometimes I'd just come here to think. Sounds all broody and sad, I know, but I don't think it was. I don't even know if it's used anymore.

I found a benefit to my powers this morning… I don't need my glasses anymore. Or contacts. At all. Like, if anything, they kind of hurt my vision. On top of my vision, my hearing is better too. I could even smell my neighbor's breakfast when I woke up. It was french toast, I think.

But today… well today is all about learning how to use my new powers. I've gotten to the point now where I've learned not to stick to everything I touch, it's now almost something I control unconsciously. Easy learning curve, to be honest, it just started off a bit rocky.

Now… well… let's see what I can do.

Let's start off with strength. The landfill has a lot of old stuff to lift, so I have quite the selection to choose from. The only problem is, I have to choose something where there is no risk of contracting a disease of some sort. So… toilets are off the table.

After going through the place a bit, I lined up a whole selection of things to lift. A mostly full metal trashcan, an old thrown-out couch, and a full metal dumpster as well.

I walked forward, cracking my knuckles before grabbing the underside of the trashcan and lifting it straight into the air. No problem at all. I moved over to the couch and was able to lift that as well, again with no struggle. Now the real test was here, which was the dumpster. I grabbed its underside, and with little to no effort, I lifted that over my head as well. My God. This is… this is actually pretty cool. I felt like Mr. Universe, but with garbage instead of weights.

After conquering those measly makeshift weights, I searched the whole lot to find something heavier than that. And I got my wish. A mostly still-intact minivan that had the ceiling torn off and its wheels were gone. I hesitated for a bit, not knowing if I could even try and lift it. I know I'm now strong… but am I that strong? I could hurt myself if I'm not. Even if I do get it over my head, what if I can't hold it there? There goes Peter Parker, bodybuilder extraordinaire. Hrmm…

Well… I guess I should probably at least try.

So, I shuffled over some trash to get to the wreckage of the minivan. I rubbed my hands together for a moment, looking at it. Oh man… all right, let's do this.

I bent down and grabbed the underside of it, testing out if my fingers were able to move it at all. I found they could, tipping it up ever so slightly. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my hands upward, tipping the car upwards. I then took one of my hands, with the other one holding the edge, crouched down, and grabbed the other edge of the car.

"Hrrngh…!"

I raised both of my hands slowly over my head, struggling a little bit as I lifted what was probably about nearly three tons of metal over my head. I took a deep breath, breathing a little bit harder before looking up. I smirked, then set it down next to me. I ran off before returning with the dumpster, where I placed the couch and the trash can inside of it. I shoved it into the minivan's open ceiling before moving to its front. I gripped either side of its bumper, grunting as I heaved the car into the air in front of me, holding it in front of my waist. I then hefted it upwards, finding my way under the car and once again, holding it above my own head. I looked upwards at my hands, gripping the metal hard enough that it was slightly crushing it, and before I knew what I was really doing, I pulled one of my hands away. I was holding a dumpster, a couch, a full trashcan, and a minivan above my head. With one hand. With. One. Hand.

Growing a bit cocky, I went so far to begin taking fingers away from my grip on the car until the point where I was holding it with my pointer and middle finger. I couldn't believe what I was doing. At this point I was struggling, but I could still do it. I finally let the car down on its side, nearly dropping it.

I began to laugh. I'm not just really strong all of a sudden, no. I have super strength.

Ohhhh man.

I stood at where I started in the landfill, bouncing from one feet to another. Yesterday, I instinctively backflipped through the air and landed perfectly on my bed. It felt a lot like crawling on my ceiling did, natural. So I've decided to see if I've learned to do any other kind of tricks.

After continuing to bounce on my feet, I ran forward for a few steps and then took a small leap through the air. Immediately, I moved my body so I twisted, backflipped, than landed on my feet. I followed this up fluidly with a back handspring, then another, then another, until I leaped back through the air, flipping sideways.

This felt… smooth. I was flipping, twirling, spinning, and springing into the air. After a while, I didn't even know where the ground really was, and I didn't mind either.

I didn't need the ground anymore.

Not even realizing it, I kept leaping higher and higher, all the way to the point where I must have been fifteen, no, twenty feet in the air with each leap I took. I don't really know how to describe the feeling other than it felt smooth and natural. Which I've already said.

But suddenly, that vibration I felt yesterday went off in my head. I span my body around in the air and my brain told me to put my hands out to brace for impact. And the next thing you know, I land on the side of a telephone pole.

I expected to slam into it and fall, but my feet and hands gripped it then, and I was clinging onto the pole, about fifteen feet above the ground. After further inspection, I saw the telephone pole was old and it didn't seem to work anymore. The cables connected to the top of it were hanging off, nearly touching the ground. I looked ahead to see where the new telephone poles were located.

"This is insane…" I muttered to myself, looking to the ground before looking to the top.

If I'm judging this correctly, there's about fifteen more feet of this pole left. I could climb down… but for some reason, I didn't want to. My body felt comfortable up here. I liked it above the ground for some reason. I don't know why… but I wanted to keep going up. All the way up.

So I did. I moved my hands and feet up, instinctively in a spider-like fashion. I crawled up this pole, higher and higher into the air, eventually using the rungs on the side as leverage. It was all coming to me as if I was writing or riding my bike. I could climb. I could climb anything.

Eventually, I hit the top, holding onto the edge of the ten-inch wide end of it. I pulled myself up onto it, using my newfound sense of balance to crouch on the pole, looking out onto New York City.

Wow. This city is beautiful.

I took some time to look before my new sense warned me of something coming toward me. I looked to see a pigeon headed my way.

Uh oh.

I tried to move, but was so flustered by the bird and my position that I just tripped backwards, my tailbone hitting the edge of the pole as I fell.

"CRAP!" I screamed, falling backwards before reaching out, grabbing the end of one of the limp cables hanging from the top of it.

As I grabbed this cable, my momentum caused me to swing forward on it, all the way over the fence of the landfill and halfway over the sidewalk before I lost my grip on it in my anxiety.

Yeah, okay, I'm dead. It was nice having super powers while they lasted. See you guys later.

I flew through the air, putting my arms out to somehow soften my fall, but instead, I landed on the building next to the landfill, perfectly perched on the side of it.

Oh… uh…

I took one hand off of the wall and inspected myself. I was totally fine. I didn't die…

That almost felt like… you know how spiders would sometimes swing themselves to the side to continue making their web? It kinda felt like that. Or at least it looked like it. I think.

I… I want to do it again. Or… Something like that again. Maybe not with telephone poles but with… something else. I'll figure it out.

By the time, I finished thinking to myself, I looked around to see if anyone was around, thankfully no one was, and then climbed down. I made my way down the street, wondering if Aunt May had made dinner yet.