Chapter 07: Spider-Girl!?
Creepie's head snapped up and she let out a gasp when she heard the doorknob of the private office begin to jiggle. On the other side of the cracked window she could see a shadow moving and hear the sound of the doctor mumbling something about false alarms. Creepie's heart leapt in her throat for a moment and she whirled to exchange a quick, terrified glance with Skipper. As if reaching the same conclusion at the same time, they both whirled on the door, raising their hands to fire the web spinners attached to their wrists.
The door had just begun to open when the double mass of webs slammed into it, knocking it shut again and holding it there. "What the…? Hey, is someone in there!?" They heard the doctor yell from the other side of the door as one fist began banging on the window.
"I think it's time to get out of here." Skipper looked around quickly. "We just need a way out."
"The vent." Creepie instantly pointed up toward an air vent positioned on the other side of the room from the desk. Skipper immediately rushed to the wall, his six sticky hands easily bearing him up the wall to the ceiling, where he shoved the cover up into the vent and slipped inside of it. He turned around a moment later and fired a web from his spinner into the floor, where it landed with a splat and stuck like a jiggling ladder.
"Come on, this one isn't sticky. Get up here!" Skipper exclaimed.
Creepie slipped the folder under her arm and began to climb the web. She was normally an excellent climber, but it was hard with one arm and progress was a lot slower than she was used to. She was only halfway up when suddenly the webs on the door gave out and ripped apart with a sudden impact that flung the door wide open. Dr. Jeddah looked up at her in surprise for a moment, before his eyes flitted to the file clutched under her arm.
"Hey! Get back here, thief!" The doctor rushed toward her, but Creepie leaned back a bit, then launched herself up with all the strength she could muster in her legs. Her arm flailed upward, but missed the side of the vent. Her heart leapt when she started to fall, but one of Skipper's arms swiftly arched out to snatch her wrist and yank her into the vent right before the doctor reached the web below and jumped for them. "What are you doing!? Give that back!"
Creepie turned toward Skipper, who looked back with frantic eyes. "Run." Creepie hissed. The two of them whirled to skitter through the vest as fast as they could, their hands and knees sliding through the carefully polished air vents. In the hallways below them they could hear frantic, muffled shouts of alarm and warning as people hustled this way and that. The two of them turned down various vents with no clue where they were going but a powerful drive to get there anyway.
They made their way through the vents until they came to an opening in the bottom, which looked down over another room. They started past it, but Creepie stopped when she heard Dr. Jeddah's voice through the vent.
"They have to stop her! She has the file! If any of that gets out then we're both finished!"
"Relax!" A second, more powerful voice replied. Creepie leaned down next to the vent cover to try to peer through, but the second speaker remained out of sight, though Dr. Jeddah looked very nervous. "Security has already blocked all of the exits, and they're currently locating all of the external holes for the ventilation shafts. Besides, she's still just a child. Who would believe anything she says?"
"If she breathes so much as a word of it…" Dr. Jeddah shuddered and clenched his fists in front of him. "I thought we were finished with this! I thought it was over!"
"Calm down." The second man said firmly. "We know who she is, there's nowhere she can go where we can't find her. We'll deal with Miss Creecher one way or the other. Besides, this may be just the opportunity we've been waiting for all this time…"
Creepie leaned down, trying to get a look at the second man, but she gasped when she felt a pair of hands grab her by the shoulders and drag her away down the vent. For a moment she thought she'd been caught, but then she looked up and saw that it was Skipper pulling her away, down the rest of the ventilation shaft toward a strange dull gray light at the end. Creepie finally regained her senses enough to crawl with him, moving up to the end of the vent and peering out to see the rain-slick streets below them.
Creepie narrowed his eyes when she noticed two police officers standing on the sidewalk, looking around the back alley with sharp eyes. They had the police looking for her? Well, she supposed she was technically stealing, but it was from a criminal, and it was for a good cause.
She blinked when Skipper grabbed the vent cover and grunted, trying to push it off. Creepie put her hands on the metal sides and pushed with him, straining her muscles to pry it off the wall. Finally they managed to shove it loose and Skipper stuck it to the wall with a shot from his web spinner before slinging himself out onto the wall. Creepie jumped after him, grabbing him around the neck and hanging onto his back with her knees while he skittered up the wall to the wide open roof.
They climbed up onto the roof and looked around. Creepie felt three of his arms wrap around her and pull her up against his stomach as he turned away from the building. "You ready, Creepie? I'm gonna get us out of here. You might want to close your eyes."
"I'm fine." Creepie leaned her head back against his chest. "Go for it." Skipper nodded and tightened his arms around her while his top right arm lifted and fired a web at the top corner of a nearby roof. Creepie stepped up on the edge of the roof in front of the building with him, looking down at the people going on about their way. She spotted Chris-Alice hiding out in one of the nearby alleys with a worried expression on her face.
Creepie didn't have time to see more or signal her friend, because Skipper jumped from the top of the building, sending them flying through the air. For an instant they were plummeting straight toward the ground, but in a moment the web went taught and they were swinging forward through the air. They heard people gasp from below, a few shouting 'It's Tarantula Boy' while the tourists began to yell in surprise and terror. It was easy for Creepie to forget that Skipper was such a celebrity.
She stopped breathing when she noticed they were coming up on the corner of the nearby roof, but Skipper kicked them off to the left, narrowly avoiding it. However, the web snagged on a flagpole sticking out of the side of the building, kicking them into a sharp upward curve without warning just before she heard the loud snap of the web breaking. Creepie's eyes went wide when she felt Skipper's grip on her loosen and her small body floated freely into the air.
For an instant her body hovered in the air, then began to plummet the three stories toward the ground. The drop wasn't even long enough for her to think of screaming as her body spun head-first and she could look up to see the slick pavement rapidly approaching. "Creepie!" She heard Skipper scream just before one hand grabbed her ankle, yanking her in to a tight, six-armed embrace that spun them both around just before impact. Skipper hit the ground on his side, but didn't let go of her this time, sending them rolling across the sidewalk until they finally came to a stop.
Skipper groaned and rolled to his back while Creepie pushed herself up to her knees, grabbing his face. "Skipper? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine…" Skipper groaned. "The costume's pretty padded. Just give me a second."
"Creepie! Look out!" Chris-Alice shouted from across the street, running toward them. Creepie looked back toward the hospital to see two police officers running toward them.
"Stop right there!" One of the officers yelled loudly.
"You can rest later, come on." Chris-Alice reached them quickly and helped Creepie heft Skipper off the ground before they both turned to run from the officers with their arachnid friend dangling between them. The police officers were fast, but Creepie and Chris-Alice were faster, quickly ducking into an alley before the officers came around the last corner and watching them run right past without stopping.
Chris-Alice panted, leaning back against the wall with three of Skipper's arms draped around her. "Are you two okay? What happened?"
"The doctor saw me." Creepie panted. "But we got something…" Creepie reached down the front of her dress and pulled out the file she'd snatched from the desk, looking down at it.
"What does it say?" Chris-Alice asked curiously.
"Not here. We should get somewhere safe first." Creepie replied.
"My house. My mom will be home soon, we won't be safer anywhere else." Skipper suggested.
"Your mom? Is she a cop or something?" Chris-Alice asked. Creepie and Skipper exchanged a glance, and Skipper nodded.
"Not quite, but we'll explain later. Come on." Creepie turned to leave the alley.
They rushed down the sidewalk, looking over their shoulders nervously as if they were being stalked by the CIA. Creepie half-expected them to be jumped on the way, but she was relieved when they were able to rush up to Skipper's door without incident and slip inside, locking it securely behind them. The three of them leaned against the door, panting from the exertions of their mad dash through the small city.
"Wow." Chris-Alice pushed herself off the door and looked around. "This is a pretty nice place. But then, I guess I should expect that since you're famous." She flashed Skipper a smile.
"Not THAT famous." Skipper blushed slightly through his white makeup. Creepie's eyes went wide when she realized Chris-Alice was heading toward the living room where the egg sack was still hanging up against the wall.
Creepie pushed off from the door and grabbed her friend's hand to stop her and draw her attention. "Let's go hang out in the den, I like it better in there." So Creepie pulled her friend the other direction, into the smaller den, which still had enough chairs to be comfortable for the three of them.
Soon the three of them were settled and at last, with a shaking hand and a fluttering heart, Creepie opened the file for Project Spider-Man, moving past the first page with her picture and physical description on it into a page titled 'Project Plan'. She set the first page on the arm of her chair and began to read while Chris-Alice and Skipper leaned forward in their seats to listen.
"The Infiltration Experiment, unofficially known as Project Spider-Man, officially begins tomorrow, so it's time for me to lay down a project plan. The physical properties of insects for their size and mass are extraordinary, and it's the hope of this research team that those properties can be given to soldiers on a field of battle, or operatives infiltrating terrorist cells. If successful, this project could revolutionize warfare, law enforcement, and reaffirm the United States as the world's greatest superpower. It's a lot of pressure, but it's worth trying."
"The best doctors and geneticists in the world have already prepped their workstations to receive the data that will begin flowing once the genetic materials arrive. Attempting to precisely replace certain traits within a developing embryo with those of other animals, especially insects, has never been attempted before. I anticipate many failures, but out of those failures will come a triumph that will shape the world."
"The woman who will carry the embryo to term has already been selected from the healthiest scientists we have on record, to prevent natural human flaws from interrupting the process. The first step is to discover which genes directly relate to which physical traits. It will require years of study, and much trial and error, but I remain confident that we can make this work. Signed, Dr. Eugene Gerald."
"You think he's talking about making YOU on that paper?" Skipper's eyes were wide.
"No way, you think so?" Chris-Alice's eyes went wide. "Though I guess being spliced with bugs explains… um…" She blushed and lowered her head when Creepie shot her a venomous glare. "Nevermind. Hey!" She snapped up just as quickly and slapped her palms together brightly. "If they are talking about you, the woman who carried the embryo would be…"
"My mother…" Creepie looked down at the folder and began to turn the page. Instantly Chris-Alice and Skipper were on either side of her, their heads pressed against Creepie's to get a good look at the paper that was slowly revealed in front of them. It was another profile, this one accompanied by a picture of a beautiful woman with slightly darkened skin and a bright, enthusiastic smile underneath a pair of thick round-rimmed glasses that magnified her deep brown eyes. Her silky brown hair was held behind her back in a ponytail, visible only because she was giving the camera a sly sideways look.
As Creepie pulled the picture out of the folder, Chris-Alice patted her shoulder. "I told you your mom would be beautiful."
"She doesn't look anything like you, though," Skipper commented. Creepie looked up at him out of the corner of her eye with a sly smirk. "Not-not that you're not beautiful too Creepie! You are! It's just… anyone else want a drink?" Skipper whirled to retreat into the kitchen.
"I'll take chocolate milk!" Chris-Alice called after him.
Creepie ran her fingers down the front of her mother's picture. According to the profile, her name was Maria Suarez, one of the top scientists of the facility where these experiments had taken place.
Further examination of the contents of the folder didn't reveal much else. Wherever these tests had happened, it wasn't addressed here, and most of the language on the rest of the papers was written in some kind of nonsensical babble that faintly reminded Creepie of certain episodes of Star Trek Budge had shown her. There was one more piece of information to be gained from it though. At the end of the folder, the day the embryo had been born was recorded right here as plain as day…
"Exactly 14 years ago!" Chris-Alice exclaimed. "That means you're 14, not 13! Oh man, I should have used more candles on your cake."
"That's okay, Chris-Alice. I don't mind." Creepie put one hand to her chin. "But this means I wound up in front of Dweezwold exactly one year after I was born. If this is me, how did I get from there to here? The folder doesn't say anything about that, it stops right after the embryo is born."
"Weird…" Chris-Alice stood up straight to stretch out her back. "What is taking Tarantula Boy so long? I'm thirsty."
Creepie looked up from the folder. It had been a while since he'd run into the kitchen. "Maybe he decided to change out of his costume." She slid off of the chair and slipped the picture of Maria down the front of her dress for safekeeping while she turned to head into the kitchen, leaving the folder sitting on the chair behind her. Chris-Alice followed her through the house into the kitchen, where she let out a surprised yell.
"Skipper!?" Creepie exclaimed as she rushed toward her boyfriend, who was lying on the countertop across the kitchen, struggling against ropes that bounds his arms and legs together, and trying to yell through the gag that covered his mouth. Creepie pulled herself up the counter to the countertop, where she knelt beside him to pull the gag off of his mouth. Skipper opened his mouth, but fell silent as his eyes looked right past her head.
Slowly Creepie turned to look behind her. Two men were towering over her and Chris-Alice, already standing within arm's reach of them with their arms crossed over their chests. One of them was already very familiar by now.
"I hate it when science experiments go bad." Dr. Jeddah shook his head, then suddenly his arms lashed out for her.
TOMORROW: Chapter 8: Chasing the Dream
