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Worm is a web serial written and owned by John C. "Wildbow" McCrae.
Spider-Man (Comics) is owned by Marvel.
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Issue #2: Big Changes
May 9, 2008
Brockton Bay General Hospital
Brockton Bay, Maine
When Peter finally woke up, he opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. He was in a large white room. He heard the sound of a beep and his hand had a large white bandage on it attached to a drip. Peter knew what that meant. He was in a hospital room. He managed to make himself sit up and look around.
"Ah, Mr. Parker," a doctor said as he walked over to where Peter was just resting, "are you feeling alright?"
Peter's entire body still felt like Hookwolf had stabbed him over and over and ran him down with a truck, but he managed to look at the doctor, "I'm… I'm fine."
"It's good to hear that you're feeling good, Mr. Parker," the doctor said with a small smile. He read his clipboard before he tried to talk again, "it seems that you were bitten by a spider. While you did have some venom in your blood, it looks like there was no trace of any poisonous substance as well. You should be fine."
"Really," Peter said in shock, before regaining his composure, "that's… wow." Peter didn't know what to say. He was bitten by a spider and there wasn't anything serious? Peter began to remember the events that had transpired earlier before. He was at Arcadia High, Armsmaster introduced a new Ward, Vegas or something similar like that, he couldn't remember. He was bitten by the spider and passed out, someone must've called 911 or maybe one of the Protectorate drove him to the hospital.
While his mind was focused on what brought him to the hospital, the door leading to his room opened.
His Aunt May and Uncle Ben stepped out and rushed over to him, worry written over both their faces, "Peter? Are you okay?"
"Uh…. yeah," Peter said, "the doctor said that I'll be fine."
"Are you sure you're feeling okay, Peter? You look-" Aunt May tried to speak out.
Peter cracked a smile, "It's fine, Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The doctor said that I'll be fine. Besides, I'm feel like I'm feeling better already."
"As you can see, Mr and Mrs Parker, Peter is feeling quite alright. The only thing that he should do is get lots of rest. However, don't hesitate to call us back if he does experience any more symptoms."
"Don't worry, doctor," Uncle Ben said, putting a hand on Peter's shoulder, "we'll make sure that he gets his test and we won't hesitate to call you back if there are any more problems."
May 10, 2008
Parker Residence
Brockton Bay, Maine
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
"Wazat…"
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
"Uhhhhh…"
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
It was the day after the Wards presentation in the auditorium at Peter's school and it was the morning.
Right now, Peter was grumbling about where the noise was coming from and his discovery lead him to his alarm clock which sat on the table next to his bed. He was still too tired to do about it so he just closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
Peter couldn't take it anymore, "Oh my god…"
He reached out and slammed his hand on the alarm clock as he had always done to turn it off, only this time he had heard a large crack and when he looked at his alarm clock, he found that it had been smashed to pieces.
Peter thought nothing of it as his alarm clock was old anyways and it was a long time coming. It was gonna break sooner or later.
Peter then reached for his glasses to put them on like he always did but when he put them on, he noticed something different this time. For some reason, his eyesight was blurry with his glasses on. Unless Aunt May and Uncle Ben paid for laser eye surgery, there's no way that he could see without his glasses. But it was unlikely, as they could barely afford the surgery anyways.
Maybe someone else did? The PRT? But why would they? It made no sense, he wasn't a cape. He was just a normal kid. A normal kid with no powers whatsoever.
A cape? But there was no cape that he knew of which could heal.
Whatever, it didn't really make any kind of sense to him. Besides, he wanted to see his Aunt and Uncle.
So he tried to get up from his bed and go downstairs. Tried as in his hands seemed to drag the covers along with him. He tried to let go of the covers but for some reason, his hands didn't seem to want to let go. Was he still dreaming?
Peter tried to kick his covers off only for them to stick to his feet like they did his hands.
What the hell is going on? Peter thought in shock. Why were his hands and feet sticky? It's like someone superglued them in his sleep.
He began to twist and turn in an effort to get his covers off of him, rolling on his bed and the floor.
Okay, you know what? Screw it.
With an irritated grunt and all of his strength, he ripped his hands from the covers, so fast that he made a hole in his hall. The good news? Least his hands were free. Bad news was bits of his sheets were stuck to his fingertips.
"Peter? Are you all right up there? I heard a noise," He heard his Aunt May call out from downstairs.
After waiting for about a second, Peter shouted back, making his own excuse, "I just tripped, Aunt May! I'm all right!"
He would need to hide this from Aunt May, she couldn't see him like this. Otherwise, one thing would lead to another, his Aunt forcing him to join the Wards for his and her own safety.
But for now, he didn't need to worry about that, what needed to do was find a way to control his newfound powers.
If he could stick to them without even realizing, could he control the sticking? Peter thought about his hands and feet not sticking the the fabric, and was shocked when the pieces fell off his fingertips.
So I think about not sticking to whatever, and I don't stick to it anymore? Peter panicked in his mind, internally.
After calming his mind down, Peter realized two things. One, he has powers. Spider powers. Only proportionate to a human. Two, he's a cape. A parahuman. Whatever you want to call them.
He looked at his wrist, seeing the red bite mark from the spider. What was a big red bite mark before was now a tiny red dot on his hand.
With that whole thing seemingly over with, he got out of his bed and walked over to his closet to look for what to wear. He settled on a green shirt with a no smoking sign and brown cargos, and walked downstairs to see Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
"Morning, kiddo," Uncle Ben said as he saw Peter coming from down the stairs, "how're you feeling?"
"Great," Peter replied, "I feel really great. Much better."
"Oh Peter," Aunt May said, her face written with concern and worry, "are you feeling alright? I heard some noises from upstairs and you're not wearing your glasses anymore."
Peter forgot that he had taken off his glasses, "I'm… okay, Aunt May. I just… fell out of my bed. I'm fine. Also, I bought contacts recently because… I needed an upgrade."
Aunt May seems satisfied with that answer and she gave Peter a smile, "Oh alright then, Peter. In my opinion, I think you look better without your glasses."
"Same here," Uncle Ben, chipped in.
"Uh… thanks," Peter said, then headed for the door.
"Wait Peter, where are you going? Don't you need to rest, dear?" Aunt May said as she saw him head for the door.
"Oh… um…. You don't have to worry," Peter said, trying to make an excuse, "I was just going to check with Harry, MJ, and Gwen. I just want to talk with them about something.
"Are you sure you don't want a bite to eat, son?" Uncle Ben said as he referred to Peter's plate that was sitting on the kitchen table.
"No, no," Peter said, wanting to get out of the house as soon as possible, "I'm fine for now. I just need some air." And with that, he ran out of the house, hearing his aunt's shouts that he should be careful, and began to run not to Harry, Gwen, or MJ's place, but to an old place of his.
The Docks
Downtown Brockton Bay
Brockton Bay, Maine
Peter ended up running to an abandoned warehouse, near the Docks. Luckily, the area was located was protected by the PRT. Unfortunately, there was a rumour going around that the ABB were near this area and the Marche had been trying to claim this area as well.
Using his newfound abilities, he managed to make his way into the building.
He normally came to the warehouse whenever he needed some time alone, to do his homework or just to think.
He also found out another aspect of his powers. His hearing and smell was better. And he used those senses in order to check his surroundings. So far, nobody seemed to be coming or was here. But still, he had to be careful. He couldn't be too loud.
The first thing that Peter started off with was his agility. He wanted to know how nimble he was now.
He leaped as high as he could onto the ceiling, his hands and feet sticking to it.
Then, he jumped down from the ceiling, landing back on the ground.
Next, he flipped from the ground, front flipping and back flipping in the air, as well as twisting and flipping sideways. Until he landed back down again. The whole thing felt…. really fluid and smooth.
Ohhh, this was awesome.
He wanted to test out his strength next.
After going through what he could use, he settled on using a car.
It was a beat up car, one that was scratched and had its engine in the front removed.
Peter walked over to the car and using his hands, he grabbed it from the front, lifting it over his head, like he saw Alexandria lift a car over her head that one time on live TV.
"Hrrnghh…!"
He struggled a bit with it a first, but he managed to lift it completely.
Growing a bit cocky, he removed a hand from the car and looked on in awe that it was still standing. Then he removed a couple more fingers. His pinkie, thumb and ring finger. All that was left was his pointer and middle finger.
He was still holding the car. Peter was struggling a lot, but he could still lift it. Finally after about a minute, he let the car down as slow as he could, after all, he didn't want to alert anyone.
Peter raised his hands up into the sky and smiled. The spider bite turned him into a god. He wasn't weak anymore. He loved that freaking spider.
After testing out his abilities, Peter sneaked out of the warehouse, making sure to be very, very careful and made it back to his house.
However, he took the door to the basement instead. Was that all of his abilities? Was there more that he was gonna gain later on? He didn't know. He had to make sure.
So, he pulled up his own computer and researched what he could about spiders.
It turns out that many people thought that spiders were insects, but they were not insects, no, they were arachnids.
Spiders belonged to the phylum arthropoda (arthropods) in the Animal kingdom. He found out that they could lift hundreds of their own bodyweight and some spiders silk was bulletproof. And they had developed something described as a good feeling mechanism that made them capable of detecting movements from other predators.
Peter wanted to experiment further. He pricked his finger with a thumbtack, drawing some blood. He put the blood on the microscope slide and put it under his microscope.
He inspected his blood. It was cool but weird at the same time. What did this mean? Was he going to die? If he died, that would suck. His Aunt and Uncle left to survive in Brockton Bay alone.
Is it taking its time? He needed answers and he needed them fast.
But it could wait until after dinner, he could smell his Aunt making…. was that meatloaf?
Oh, how he wishes that it could've been pizza instead.
So sorry this chapter took forever to get out. I'll admit I struggled a bit with this part. Hopefully, it is still good. If you have any constructive criticism to comment, please do so. And with that, I will see you in the next chapter.
