Title: Amazing
Author: Elizabeth Ann Lewis, lizbet@rhiannon.dreamhost.com
Rating: G
Character: Pete
Summary: Radioactive glowy green rocks. Spiders raised in Smallville. And a character named Peter. My brain went somewhere with this.
Likelyhood of being continued: Nil. Sorry. This is a one-shot joke.
Archive: Ask.

Amazing
by Elizabeth Ann Lewis
lizbet@rhiannon.dreamhost.com

Pete ignored the tickle at first.

The entire biology class had gone on the field trip. Most of the guys and more than a few of the girls were pressed up against the aquariums that held every exotic spider known to an eccentric collector in Smallville. The creatures in cages were every size from tiny pinpricks to fuzzy tarantulas the width of a hand. Many of them, it was claimed, could only be seen in captivity here. They'd been bred for dozens of spider generations, right here in Smallville.

After about the fifteenth spider, Pete agreed: Spiders had eight legs. The corollary to that a lot of chicks really hated spiders, and a lot of guys were taking advantage of that. Lana had stuck it out near the spider-habitats as long as she could, and had finally retreated to the back of the room. Clark had gone with her, hovering over her protectively. Well, not *literally* hovering, Pete snickered to himself.

When the back of his neck began to tickle, Pete carefully schooled his features into impassivity. He'd annoyed the heck out of Chloe by repeatedly trying to freak her out, touching her arm or her leg or her cheek, trying to get her to jump. She finally glared at him and put the length of the room between them.

The tickle at the back of his neck came again. Pete's arm twitched with the desire to swat at it, but resisted. Instead, he turned his head -- casually -- from side to side, trying to catch Chloe getting back at him.

Apparently, that was enough to piss off the spider on his neck.

"Yeeeeeeeow!" Involuntarily, Pete jumped, shook, and clobbered the back of his neck, all of the same time. Everyone turned to look at him, and he shrugged. "Something bit me," he explained, and everyone looked away.

Later -- much later -- Pete was going to remember the smeared spider-guts on his hand and neck. Swinging through the city fighting for truth and justice, he'd really like to have known if that spider had glowed green before he'd smashed it.

He figured it was a given, but some things you'd like to know for sure.

The End