The alarm clock blasted its waking sound through the bedroom, so loudly it felt the whole room was shaking from the sound of it, Angel kicked off the blanket off him, he tried to open his bloodshot eyes, only to be able to open them slightly from the tiredness and the sun's rays hitting him in the face through the window, he turned to the side and tapped his hand down on the alarm clock multiple times until he was able to push down the top button, finally shutting the alarm clock, he sighed in relief once he heard the silence, you can't hear silence, but that was what it made it so special.
Angel looked at the alarm clock, seeing it was 6:00 am. Even though he didn't sleep much last night, he set the alarm early so he wouldn't miss out on the bus today, then he thought about it for a bit, why did he try to pull an all-nighter? Then he remembered, there was a science trip this morning instead of the usual classes, that meant one thing; it was skippable.
Angel brought back the blanket on top of him as he went to sleep catching up the hours he skipped. Only two hours though, as his father opened the door and saw him still sleeping on his bed.
"Angel." His father called him out, loud enough to wake him up, "You're late."
Angel groaned, not bothering to open his eyes, "I've got a trip this morning, useless stuff."
His father wasn't convinced, "That's not an excuse. Get off the bed, before I drag you to your trip myself."
Seeing there was no way he would be able to convince his father, Angel sat open, "Fine. I'm going."
His father nodded, "Okay. Hurry up then." Then he walked away from the door as he went back downstairs.
After sitting on the bed for a bit, Angel decided to finally leave it, he prepared himself a bit quickly like usual, putting on whatever acceptable clothes he could find, comb his hair to the side, grab his backpack and go downstair towards the entrance of the house, since he was too late to take breakfast, he waved goodbye at his parents as they did the same, then he got out of the house and closed the door behind him.
He took in the outside world, a nice breeze hitting his body, he could look up at the blue sky without going blind since the clouds were covering the sun, what a nice day. But he was still late, so he had to run to the nearest bus stop. He saw he had just missed out on the bus, but he was still able to catch it on the road.
Angel was tapping on the bus' side, running as fast as he could trying to not get distanced by the bus, "Hey! Stop the bus!" He shouted towards the bus driver, trying to make him stop the bus. But still the bus continued.
The people inside the bus were enjoying the show, looking out through the windows and sarcastically encouraging him to continue, even the bus driver was getting good chuckles from him. But the girl with black hair, Jessie Marsh, wasn't as thrilled as everyone else from this display. She got up from her seat and walked up to the bus driver's side.
"Stop! Seriously, is this really that thrilling to you?" Jessie asked for the bus driver to stop and let Angel in.
The bus driver sighed, as he nodded to Jessie agreeing to stop the bus as he pressed on the brake pedal. The bus slowly stopped as Angel had finally reached the bus' doors, they opened as he quickly went inside the bus.
"Thanks." Angel thanked the bus driver with a bit of bitterness considering he didn't stop sooner.
The bus started up again as Angel walked avoiding the stares of the other students and ignoring the occasional paper ball thrown at him, he already made a fool of himself once today might as well not add another one to the list. He sat down to the seat by the side of Jessie, nodding his head at her to greet her.
"You're late again." Jessie spoke up.
"Yeah, well, I wanted to skip this trip but my parents didn't let me." Angel explained why he was late.
"Why would you?" Jessie asked Angel, she didn't want to miss this trip and was curious as to why Angel would think otherwise.
Angel waved his arms up a bit, "I mean, we're going to waste our morning looking at spiders that do spider things."
Jessie hunched her head back, leaning the back of her head to top of the seat, "Oh come on, spiders are cool."
"No they're not, they're hideous small beasts ready to tear you up." Angel disagreed with Jessie about spiders.
"No, they're chill unless they have to defend themselves." Jessie corrected Angel.
"When I kill one it's self defense too." Angel pointed out.
"You're the beast then." Jessie retorted.
Angel looked to the side, "I wish."
Jessie chuckled from Angel's attitude, "You're grumpy today, you know that?" Jessie asked Angel.
"More like sick of life." Angel corrected Jessie, still looking away.
"Well, I've got the perfect thing for you." Jessie told Angel, getting out a mp3 player from her black vest pocket, showing it off to Angel, even though he wasn't looking, "Linkin Park."
Angel closed his eyes and groaned, he wasn't in the mood to listen to music. Especially Linkin Park.
"C'mon, it's good." Jessie wasn't discouraged by Angel's lack of motivation to listen to music, she pulled out the earbuds and put one in Angel's right ear, he didn't try to stop her since he knew it would be to no avail, she put the other one to her left ear, she put herself close to him, nearly leaning on his body, because, you know, the earbud's wire wasn't that big and all. She played the Linkin Park song ''In The End'' as she waited for a positive response from Angel, "So?"
Angel groaned again, still not convinced music would do him right at this moment.
Jessie lightly tapped her elbow onto his, "It's good, right?" She asked for Angel's opinion again.
Angel groaned but much more dismissivelly than before, getting a bit caught on in the song.
"Right?" Jessie asked again.
Angel turned his head back to Jessie, "Alright it's fine." He admitted.
A proud smile appeared on Jessie's face, "I told you so."
For the rest of the bus trip, they listened to Jessie's music playlist, which was composed mostly of Linkin Park's songs. Minutes later the bus had stopped in front of Columbia university, the school trip would be held at their research facility. Everyone got off the bus as the teacher made sure to remind them of the importance of the trip.
"Midtown High seniors." The teacher spoke up loud enough for every student to hear, "No wandering. Proceed direct-" He caught the ball a student was throwing around, "Knock it off. Remember, it is a privilege to be here. So behave accordingly. Let's not have a repeat of our trip to the planetarium."
After his speech, they followed the teacher to the university as a guide was waiting for them to arrive. She brought them to the research facility, the facility had a circular theme, the insides were surrounded by large pillars that formed a circle and a round large telescope right in the middle of the room.
The guide was explaining to the students about their research on spiders, "There are over 32 000 known species of spider in the world. They're in the order Araneae, divided into three suborders. Arachnids from all three groups possess varying strengths to help them search for food." She stopped showing the students a spider in a glass cage jumping from a log to another, "For example, the Delena spider, family Sparassidae has the ability to jump to catch its prey."
"Can I? For the school paper?" Angel asked the guide for permission to take pictures in the research facility.
The guide nodded, as Angel grabbed his camera and positioned himself to take the picture of the spider, after finding the right position he clicked on the button to snap a picture, but the moment he clicked on the button he got pushed forward by Flash, missing his shot. He looked back at him as Flash chuckled alongside his two buddies as they followed the guide. Jessie gave him a comforting pat on the back as they then continued walking.
"Next, we have the net web spider, family Filistatidae genus Kukulcania. Spins a funnel-shaped web whose strands have a tensile strength proportionately equal to the high-tension wires used in bridges." The guide showed a spider in a glass cage that was filled with web as the spider was dragging up dead insects inside his web string.
Angel was about to take a picture of the spider, until he was pushed forward again by flash's friend, Angel looked back at him as the other just shrugged at him as if he didn't do anything to get a rude stare from Angel.
"Leave him alone." Jessie told him.
"Or what?" Flash's friend asked Jessie.
Flash appeared to Jessie's side as he replied in a sarcastic tone, "Or her mother will tell the principal how you've been bullying her sweet daughter."
The two buddies laughed and high-fived each other from Flash's joke.
Until they quickly shut themselves down as soon as the teacher appeared to Flash's side, not happy with all the noise from them, "What is going on?" The teacher asked them, "The next person who talks will fail this course. I kid you not." He waved his head to the guide, "Let's go."
Angel and Jessie waited for Flash and his group to go first before following right behind them.
The guide continued the exposition, showing a spider in a glass cage making a web on a log's branches, "This spider hunts using reflexes with nerve-conduction velocity so fast that some researchers believe it borders on precognition. An early awareness of danger." The guide paused before continuing dramatically, "A spider-sense."
Angel put his hands into his pant's pockets, "Just don't listen to them, those jerks just want your attention."
"I just wanted them to leave you alone." Jessie told Angel why she intervened.
"C'mon we're both on their target list, I just let them have their fun and move on, I'm fine with it, but if you can't deal with it, just know I'm here for you." Angel said.
Jessie lightly pushed Angel as she chuckled a bit, "Get outta here with your sappy shit."
Angel smiled, "Just saying." He stopped as he noticed an unmoving spider in a small glass cage surrounded by web. The spider had caught his attention because he had a hole right in the middle of its abdomen, "God, this one's hideous and weird."
"It's blending into the environment. It's a defense mechanism." Jessie explained to Angel.
Angel nodded, "So interesting..." Then he turned his head to Jessie, "But it still looks hideous."
"You just don't have any taste." Jessie told Angel as she started joining back to the guide's tour.
"Says the one that likes Linkin Park." Angel retorted to Jessie, walking right behind her.
"You listen to it too." Jessie pointed out.
"You force me to." Angel pointed back.
The guide showed a glass cage containing 15 spiders, all with each of their own containment, "Over five painstaking years, Columbia's genetic research facility has worked hard to decipher the three previous spider's DNA. Armed with these DNA blueprints we have now begun what was once thought impossible. We combined the genetic information from all these three spiders into these 15 genetically designed super-spiders."
"There's 14." Jessie told the guide, looking at the only empty glass cage.
"I beg your pardon?" The guide asked Jessie.
Jessie pointed to the cage, "One's missing."
"Uh." The guide approached the guide and saw there was no spider in it, "I guess the researchers are working on that one."
After that the guide continued the tour as the students followed her except Angel and Jessie who stayed behind watching on the spiders in the cages.
"You think they're gonna be working long on that spider?" Angel asked Jessie.
Jessie turned her head to Angel, "How should I know that?"
"I don't know, I'm just wondering." Angel shrugged, "15 cases, 15 spiders, it would look for a one picture summary of this trip."
"Oh right." Jessie looked back at the cage, "But I think you're missing something."
"What?" Angel asked Jessie.
"A student." Jessie replied turning over to Angel, "If you want the summary for the school trip you need at least one student on the trip, right?"
Angel nodded, agreeing with Jessie's point. "Yeah, right."
"A student like me." Jessie pointed to herself.
Angel chuckled, used to Jessie asking him to take pictures of her, "Fine, I'll take a picture of you if that's what you want."
"Damn right." Jessie said.
Angel walked backwards and lightly waved his hand to the left, "Just go to the left side."
"Alright." Jessie moved to the left, being close to the edge of the cages, "Don't you dare make me look bad in it."
"I won't." Angel told Jessie to not worry about looking bad in the pictures.
He grabbed on his camera, positioned himself and started taking pictures. While he was taking the pictures, he didn't notice a spider webbing down to him, the same spider that had somehow left its cage. Distracted on taking the pictures, Angel didn't feel the spider landing down on his right hand, he crawled a bit in his hand as it then brought his body down and plunged its teeth into Angel's skin. Feeling the jolt of pain in his hand, Angel grunted as he quickly waved his hand around, the spider fell down to the carpeted floor and started crawling away, hiding in a steel mobile table.
Jessie walked towards Angel, wondering what happened to him, "What happened?"
"A spider bit me." Angel replied, looking down at his hand and seeing a bite mark on it.
"Really?" Jessie asked Angel to be sure.
Angel nodded, "Yeah."
Jessie looked down at Angel's hand and saw the bite mark, "It bit you good."
"Yeah, it did. What kind of defense mechanism is this?" Angel asked Jessie.
Jessie tapped on Angel's back, smiling to her, "You should be proud of it, the spider saw you as a threat."
"Then it should have fled." Angel didn't enjoy getting bit by the spider.
"Does it hurt?" Jessie asked Angel.
Angel admitted, "Yeah, but it's fine. Just a spider's bite."
"Maguire, Marsh. Let's go." They both heard the teacher call out for them.
They moved on from what just happened and got back into the group of students following the guide, forgetting what just happened, at least Jessie did, as throughout the whole day Angel was feeling tired and a bit dizzy. He thought that it was because he nearly put on an all-nighter.
After finishing all of their classes, Angel and Jessie went home together since they were neighbors. On that trip home she did notice how silent Angel was, much more than usual. In the bus he was leaning on his seat, forcing himself to keep his eyes open. She figured he might be just tired.
On their walk back home, Jessie asked if Angel was feeling fine, just to be sure he was well, he waved it off, telling her that he was fine just tired, then they parted ways each going to their house. Angel entered his house, seeing from the other end of the house, his parents in the kitchen, cooking dinner together.
"Hi Angel." His mother, Holly, greeted him.
"Hey." Angel greeted her back, but with less enthusiasm than her.
"You come right in time to set up the table." Holly told Angel.
Angel walked to the kitchen and leaned against the counter, trying to make it look like a casual action, but really he just needed to lean on something, "If you don't mind, can I skip dinner tonight?" He asked his parents.
"Why, what's wrong?" Holly asked Angel.
"I just feel tired today." Angel replied.
"At least tell us how the trip was." His father, Jacob, spoke up, "Was it worth it?"
Angel nodded, "Totally." Even though he lied.
"You sure you don't wanna eat?" Jacob asked Angel if he was sure.
"Nah, I already took a bite there." Angel replied, then he walked upstairs going directly to his bedroom.
Jacob and Holly watched Angel go, wondering what had just happened to him, he never did this before.
Holly turned to Jacob, "What was that about?"
Jacob shrugged, "Teenager thing?" Jacob supposed.
Holly looked back upstairs, "I hope so."
Angel closed the door of his bedroom, he turned to the mirror and looked at his reflection. He was so pale, this was definitely something much worse than being tired, but he was feeling too weak to think about it, he just wanted to lay down.
He fell face first to his bed, laying there for a bit before rolling away from the edge of the bed and falling to the carpeted floor, suddenly he started feeling cold, he grabbed the blanket and brought it down with him, putting the blanket on top of him as his body shook from the cold he was feeling. Shortly after he was able to go to sleep.
Hours later the rays of the rising sun hit Angel right in the face, he woke up slowly putting his head up as he opened his eyes with some difficulty the light of the sun was hitting his eyes, he wondered why the sun was hitting him so hard, he remembered he slept on the bed's side opposite of the window, so how could the sun's rays hit him so hard in the face? And he still felt dizzy, like his head was upside down, then he looked up and saw the carpeted floor, hold on, the floor wasn't on the top, he was hanging upside down the ceiling.
He looked up and saw his feet seemingly glued to the ceiling, this couldn't be real, could it? This must be a lucid dream or a sort of variation of it since he was pretty sick last night. He decided to look in the mirror in his dresser, the messed-up reflection would be enough of a confirmation that this was a dream. He saw himself hanging in the same position and nothing felt out of the ordinary when he looked at his body, his shirt was down to his chest but then he saw his abs, they were well built and defined.
"Since when did I get such a defined six-pack?" He thought to himself. But he didn't mind that one change.
He looked away from the mirror and back to it, multiple times, noticing that his view wouldn't change, confirming this was real and not a dream. But then what happened? How did he get stuck in the ceiling without knowing? Whether or not he would find those answers he had to somehow get off the ceiling first. He couldn't just get his feet of the ceiling since he would fall head first to the floor, he looked down to the bed, it would a safe landing spot he started swinging his body back and forth ready to jump down to the bed as he removed his feet from the ceiling, it was a bit difficult like trying to remove two paper sheets glued together.
Then he fell down landing his upper body on the edge of the body and the lower part to the floor. He got his head from the bed sheet looking back up to the ceiling as he thought about how he could have gone up there and gotten stuck there. But still, he couldn't think of a logical explanation for it, then he felt a weird sensation in his nose, he wanted to sneeze, he put the back of his hand in front of his face as he sneezed. He shuddered as right after the sneeze a small web string came out of his wrist, his wide eyes saw the web string landing down to the floor.
Okay, he wasn't just sick, this was something much worse.
Then he felt another weird sensation, he felt something coming behind him, he looked back and saw the door's knob was turning about to open the door. Whoever they were, he couldn't let them see him like this.
He pushed himself backwards as he pressured his back into the door, not letting the person behind the door open it.
"Angel? What's going on?" Jacob asked Angel, worried about the sound he heard in Angel's bedroom.
Angel cleared his throat, "I just fell from the bed."
"Oh. Are you okay?" Jacob asked Angel.
Angel didn't answer immediately, thinking of how he could tell his condition to his father without giving the details of it, "Uh, yeah. But I'm a bit sick."
"Well, if you're just a bit you shouldn't miss out on your classes." Jacob told Angel, as he then reminded him, "You're late again."
"I think I shouldn't go today. I think what I have is contagious." Angel told Jacob he wanted to skip classes.
"Are you trying to skip classes?" Jacob asked Angel, suspecting that he wasn't sick.
"No. I have never skipped classes, dad. Why start now?" Angel asked back.
Jacob thought about it for a bit, Angel was right, he never tried to skip classes, just the trips, "I suppose you're right." Jacob let go of the door's knob, "Then rest up and let's hope whatever you have is gone by tomorrow."
Angel slightly nodded, looking somberly down, "Yeah, I hope so."
Angel heard Jacob walking away from his bedroom to downstairs. He leaned the back of his head to the door as he cursed himself, wondering how he would get out of this situation. He looked at his wrists, web got out from one of them, how? Why? Then he remembered, he turned to his right hand to look at the back of it, seeing the bite still present on it. The spider bite could be the cause of this; sticking to the walls and ceiling, web and that sensation he felt when his dad tried to open the door, spider-sense was what the scientist called it. So, he had spider-like abilities while staying human, he knew the existence of spiders with human-like intelligence but never the other way around.
He started pacing around the room in circles thinking on how he would be able to hide this, he thought about it for hours as the carpeted floor had the prints of his steps, he was dreading what would happen to him if people found out his condition, they would totally start doing experiments on him, no they wouldn't it was inhuman, but they could use the excuse that he wasn't human anymore therefore it was right to experiment on him, they were smart, whoever these strawmen were.
Then that weird sensation...spider-sense came back, again, the door knob was turned about to open the door, Angel was on the opposite far end of the room so he had no time to forcibly close the door as it got slightly opened. He saw leaning her head out of the door, she was already back from the classes, Angel was surprised at how fast time went by.
"Hey, what's up?" Jessie asked Angel, entering the room.
Angel ignored her question, "What are you doing here?" He asked Jessie
"Well, you didn't come to school today so I came to check on you." Jessie replied, noticing how uneasy he was feeling.
"Listen, I appreciate it, but I'm sick so you can't stay here, alright?" Angel told Jessie as he walked over to her, then waved his hands to get her off his room, "C'mon get out."
But Jessie had no one of it, she crossed her arms, "Wait, hold on. You kicking me out?"
Angel quickly nodded, continuing to try and force Jessie out of the room, "Yeah, yeah. Just go."
Jessie stood firm, not wanting to go before knowing what was going on with Angel, "Seriously, what do you have?"
"It's just...like a cold or whatever." Angel lied.
"A cold has never stopped you from going to school." Jessie reminded Angel, "I know you're not sick, you're just trying to avoid something. You can tell me."
Angel sighed, well, there was no way to escape to her now, "Damn it." He walked over to the door and closed it, before turning back to Jessie, "Listen, I'm about to show you something that you won't expect at all, so do not freak out, okay?"
Jessie nodded, she wasn't sure what Angel was about to show her, but she definitely wanted to know, seeing as it did made Angel feel uneasy, "Sure, you can trust me."
"Okay..." Angel said, then he stood in place, back straightened up as he put his right hand in front of him and then he waited, for some time, a lot of time. Jessie just watched with a raised brow, not understanding what he was trying to do.
"So...What are you trying to show?" Jessie asked Angel.
Angel put a finger up, "Just wait a bit, I'm waiting for a sneeze to come."
A sneeze? Why was a sneeze needed for whatever he wanted to show her? She was confused by his actions, she was starting to wonder if he wasn't just on some kind of influence, "I don't get it."
Then Angel felt a sneeze was about to come off, finally! He put his left hand in front of his face as he sneezed and a small web string came off of his right wrist, falling down to the floor.
Jessie looked down at the web, eyes and mouth agape, not expecting this at all.
"See?" Angel asked Jessie, hoping that now she would understand his distress.
Jessie slowly turned to Angel, trying to regain her composure, "I see it."
Angel sighed as he looked down, "It's so..."
"Amazing!" Jessie finished his phrase as she clapped her hands on her face in excitement.
"What?" Angel didn't expect this positive reaction from Jessie, "No it's not!"
"How can you say otherwise?" Jessie asked Angel, not understanding why he wouldn't feel excited about getting these spider abilities.
"It was that spider's bite from yesterday, there's no other explanation. This is not the only thing I've got from it, I can stick my hands and feet to the wall and ceiling, I got a six-pack now and sometimes I move out of instinct and I don't even know how." Angel explained his condition.
Then Jessie remembered that spider bite from yesterday, that did explain why Angel was feeling so bad that day, "But that's good, right?" Jessie repeated her question.
Angel started pacing around the room again, explaining his doubts to Jessie, "Jessie, nobody else in the world has what I have right now, imagine what people would do once they find out about my condition, the government would kidnap me and make all sort of inhumane experiments out of me to find out how to replicate my condition and-"
When Angel came back close to her, she put her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to stop, "Angel, calm down. It's okay. No one is gonna hurt you."
Angel looked worried at Jessie, "You think?" He asked Jessie.
"Well, if you don't show your abilities then there's no reason to kidnap and experiment on you." Jessie told Angel to keep his abilities secret for the moment.
Angel nodded, "Right. I just have to know how to use them so I don't use them."
"You could do something like that." Jessie agreed that Angel needed to learn to use his abilities, "But whatever happens I will be by your side."
"I know you will, which is why I told you about this." Angel told Jessie why he trusted her with this secret.
Jessie was happy that Angel trusted her, and only her, with this, a smile escaped her lips, "Thank you for trusting me."
"Just promise me you won't tell anyone about this." Angel asked Jessie to keep his abilities a secret.
Jessie nodded and promised, "I promise that your secret is safe with me."
"Thank you." Angel thanked Jessie, feeling much less uneasy than before now that he shared his doubts.
Since he was feeling better, Jessie offered Angel to go out for a walk, just for helping him understand there was nothing to fear with going outside with his new condition, nothing else. Angel accepted it and they spent most of the rest of the day together.
The next day, Angel decided to not skip the classes for today, all he had to do was act as usual and not show his newly obtained abilities and everything would be fine. He prepared himself and when he was done with his morning routine he quickly got downstairs, seeing his parents sitting near the table eating breakfast.
"Hi guys." Angel greeted them as he went straight to the door to exit the door.
They greeted him back, "Good morning Angel. How are you feeling? Any change?" Holly asked Angel if he felt better.
"Change?" Angel looked down on himself for a bit, before looking up with a proud smile appearing on his face, "Big change."
"Well, you know what doesn't change?" Jacob asked Angel. Angel looked back at Jacob and saw him pointing to the watch on his arm, he quickly understood what he meant. He was late.
"Oh shit." Angel said in realization, he opened the door and waved at his parents, "Bye, I'll see you later." Before closing the door behind him, he started sprinting to the nearest bus stop, hoping he wouldn't be late.
But like usual, he missed the bus. He saw it driving away from the bus stop, but it wasn't too far yet so he ran towards the bus, since it was just starting to accelerate he had enough time to catch it. He ran by the side of the school bus, tapping on the side of it trying to make it stop, but it didn't as he got his hand glued to the poster on the side of the bus and as the bus took distance from him the poster got tore in half as it got stuck in Angel's hand.
Angel stopped running and looked at the bus fading away in the distance, well, he had to walk to school now. But then he looked at his hand with half the poster stuck on the palm of his hand, that got him thinking back how he was able to stay on the ceiling. He looked to his left and saw the row of buildings, maybe he could take a shortcut.
He shuddered a bit when he heard a car's horn behind him, he walked away from the street and waved his hand to the car's driver apologizing to them, he grabbed the poster and took it out from his hand as he walked to an alleyway, stopping near the brick wall of a building as he looked around to see if anyone was watching him, no one was in the alleyway and the people didn't seem to care about the teen in the alleyway so he was out of anyone's view.
He looked up at the wall, seeing how massive it was, then he looked back at his hand hoping that this trick would work, he placed his hand on the wall and tried to remove it, feeling how the hand stayed glued to the wall to get it off he had to force it, so his grip was pretty sturdy. He put his other hand on the wall, once again trying out its resistance to sticking to the wall, as he then forced out his other hand and moved it up the wall, then he started repeated that action, slowly and unsure at first, but when he looked down and saw he was halfway through the wall, a satisfied smile faded in as he looked back up and continued to climb up the wall, quicker each time he moved his hands up getting used to the climbing.
He reached the top of the building, he stood on the edge as he looked down at the alleyway, he clapped his hands together and turned away from the edge as he shouted proudly, "Oh hell yeah!" Maybe these abilities weren't so bad.
But now he had to find a way to get to the next building, maybe he could jump down to the other building's wall and climb on it, or he could simply just jump on the other side, right he he must have the jump ability from the spider that bit him, only one way to find out.
He positioned himself to run as he would need speed for the jump, he dragged his shoe back in the roof's gravels, then he started sprinting as fast as he could and when he reached the other edge of the building he pushed his legs up as he made a long jump to the other building, he landed on the building's roof on his knees and put his hands down on the floor to not completely fall down flat. But most importantly, he did it, he made the jump without dying.
He got up and walked up to the edge of the building, this time the distance separating this building from the next one was much longer, the streets and the road were separated the two buildings, even if he can jump much longer distances now, he knew he couldn't make that jump, he had to find something else.
Near the other building he saw a crane carrying large boxes, the crane was higher than the building, the crane was still at a long distance for a jump but maybe, he looked at wrist, maybe he could web it and use the web as a rope to swing on or something like that, that could work. But he couldn't wait for a sneeze to come and release the web, there must be something else he could do to release it.
He shot his arm forward, "Go, web!" But nothing happened.
He brought his arm forward much more docile this time, "Fly." But nothing happened.
He shot his arm forward again, this time making a fake cough, "Er, atchoum." But nothing happened.
He brought his arms together in the back and then shot them forward, "Kamehameha!" But nothing happened.
Then in a last desperate attempt, he started waving his arms forward like a maniac, trying to get the web out of his wrists, "Go, web, go!" But once again, nothing.
He sighed as he looked down at his hand, giving up on trying to find a way to use his web, oh well, he had to find an alternative route. He closed his hand, putting his middle and ring finger down to the palm first as the web came out of the wrist, he once again looked down on his hand then at the web that was falling down the street, he hoped nobody would notice that. He looked back at his hand, thinking that to get the web out he needed to make a sort of metal hand gesture.
He looked back up at the crane, brought his arm forward and put down his ring and middle finger to his palm as a string of web came out of his wrist, he stayed like this until the web made contact with the top of the crane, he stopped doing the hand gesture as he held onto the web string with both of his hands. He put his shoes into the ledge of the building then he jumped down on it using the web string as a swing as he swung to the other building, he was able to reach it but he wasn't able to stop the swing or just let go of the web string so his body got slammed into the wall of the building, letting go of the web he fell down to the gravel ground of the roof, he arrived at the building, but not without injury.
Some hours later, Angel was at the school's cafeteria, with the food's tray in his hands he found Jessie sitting alone on a table, he hadn't seen her all morning since they took different classes, he sat beside her.
"Hey...and what happened to you?" Jessie asked Angel, noticing the bandage on his nose.
"Mistakes." Angel answered as he put his tray down at the table.
"You tried to use your powers but you failed?" Jessie supposed.
Angel nodded, "Yeah."
"I'm sure you're gonna get the hang of it." Jessie tried to encourage Angel to continue practicing.
"The only thing I want to hang is me." But Angel wasn't convinced.
Jessie looked down at Angel's hands, "Or your fork."
Angel turned his head to Jessie, "What?" He asked Jessie what she meant.
"It's stuck on your wrist." Jessie pointed down at his right wrist.
Angel put his arm up, seeing the fork stuck on his wrist, "Oh yeah I didn't realize that."
Angel grabbed the fork with his left hand and pulled it out, the fork seemed to be stuck on the web produced on his wrist, he tore the web apart and put down the fork on the table, then he brought his face down onto the table and stayed for a while. Jessie looked down at him, wondering if he was fine.
After they finished their classes and got off the bus, Angel and Jessie walked to their homes together and like the other day, Angel was silent, but this time he wasn't sick, he was just sad sure the powers were cool and with a little practice he could control them correctly, but he never wanted this, everyone wants to be special, but Angel, he just wanted to be normal and he couldn't be that anymore.
Jessie couldn't bear to see him like this anymore, she stopped on her tracks as Angel stopped shortly after noticing that she wasn't by his side anymore, he turned back to her as they were near each side of the fence of their houses.
Jessie spoke up, "You know what? Forget about me standing by your side. I'm gonna help you."
Angel was perpexled by Jessie's offer, in what way could she help him, as far as he knew, she never got bit by a genetically modified spider, "How?" Angel asked Jessie, wanting to know more.
"Well, you got spider's abilities," Jessie pointed at both of them as she asked, "and between us two who is the spider expert?"
"You." Angel replied.
"Then I can help you." Jessie told Angel.
"Are you trying to insinuate I'm as tameable as a spider?" Angel asked Jessie, pointing to himself.
Jessie shook her head and chuckled a bit, "Nope. Spiders can't be tamed."
"Will you really help me?" Angel asked Jessie, wanting to be sure.
"Angel, we've been friends for over 10 years, of course I'm gonna help you." Jessie told Angel he would help him no matter what.
Angel smiled at knowing that Jessie wouldn't give up on him, sure, he knew he didn't to ask that question to know, but it felt nice to hear it from her, and to hell with it, he told himself, he might be 17 but he loved sappy shit, he walked over to Jessie and surprised her with a sudden hug, if they were separated by the fence then Angel would have went over it. Obviously, Jessie was surprised by the hug but she quickly gave into it, not wanting to waste this rare moment of Angel giving her physical affection, she brought her arms around his back, wanting this hug to last as long as possible, okay, maybe the sappy shit isn't that bad.
For the next months, Jessie would help Angel train his abilities; check the durability and longitude of his webs by shooting at cans at varying distances. For his web-swinging, they waited for the days their parents weren't home so that he could try swinging from his bedroom's window to Jessie's window, which most of the first tries ended up with him colliding against the house's wall. He tested his physical abilities and reflexes by doing parkour around the streets, once he got aclimitated to them, he had to do the same parkour by having Jessie in his back.
While he hasn't completely mastered his abilities, he was able to control them, knowing how to use them and conceal them. With his powers in check, he felt so much confident with his powers that the next high school year, also his last year in high school, he started web swinging to school, people didn't seem to notice him swinging in the air, probably too busy in their lives to care about this unusual way of travel.
That was also the year when he met Diane, well, meet is an overstatement considering they never talked to each other over the whole time Diane was in New York, most of their interactions were sitting in the same table at the science class, nothing more. Except at the end of the first week of 2002.
Angel and Jessie were talking to each other as they walked in the hallway as they usually did in the breaks, until Angel felt his spider-sense rising up, he moved out of the way as he dodged an angry Flash stomping his way to the end of the hallway, he reached it and went behind Diane as she was closing her locker, Flash brought his arm back and then threw it forward aiming at Diane's head, she dodged the punch going to the side as she turned back to Flash as his fist slammed to Diane's locker, bending it back.
"Are you crazy?!" Diane asked Flash, shocked that he tried to punch her for no reason.
"You're the crazy one, you really think I wouldn't notice you stealing my necklace." Flash told Diane, turning to her.
Diane stole his necklace? She didn't remember ever doing that, "I didn't steal anything."
"A fox that doesn't steal? Yeah, sure." Flash didn't believe Diane.
"I swear, I really didn't steal from you." Diane continued to argue with Flash that he was wrong about his accusation.
"Only one way to get the truth outta you then." Flash said, cracking his knuckles.
The students that saw and heard the commotion were starting to make a circle around Flash and Diane, watching with interest the altercation between them. Flash's friends were filming the scene with a camera, encouraging Flash to beat Diane up as they chuckled together.
Diane put her arm forward, trying to calm the situation, "I don't wanna fight you."
"I wouldn't wanna fight me either." Flash retorted as he put himself in a fighting stance and put his fists up to his face.
But before he could get a hit on her, Angel intervened as he shouted at Flash, "Flash, stop!"
The mass of students made a surprised "ooh" sound from the unexpected interruption.
Flash looked at Angel, not expecting the interruption, "Excuse me?"
Angel pulled himself off the crowd of people as he walked towards Flash, "You heard me."
Jessie stopped Angel as she put her hand to his left arm, "Angel, what are you doing?" She asked Angel, worried that it wasn't a good idea to confront Flash.
Angel turned his head back at Jessie, "I've got this." He assured Jessie that he knew what he was doing. After hesitating a bit, she let go of his arm and hoped nothing bad would happen to him.
Flash saw Angel approaching him, "This doesn't concern you."
"It does now." Angel wasn't intimidated by Flash's warning.
Flash eyed Diane for a second before turning his glare back at Angel, "You're playing the white knight, is that it?"
"Call it whatever you want, I'm not letting you beat someone up for the hell of it." Angel explained why he intervened.
Flash firmly tapped on his chest, "Hey! I'm justified. I know she stole my necklace, it was a gift from my father." Flash explained his anger towards Diane.
"I missed the part where that's my problem." Angel retorted, staring Flash right in the eyes.
Flash snickered before throwing a sudden and quick punch towards Angel, he dodged the punch by moving his body slightly to the left with a surprising ease, the punch was quick but for Angel it seemed he had all the time in the world to dodge it, interesting on how he never found this months ago, but then again he never got punched before.
Flash didn't give up from the failed punch, he extends his right arm to the side and run towards Angel trying to hit him with his arm, but once again Angel dodged it by hunched his back back, Flash turned to Angel, wondering since when he had good reflexes as Angel straightened himself up and turned back to Flash.
Frustration started hitting Flash as he bit his lower lip drawing a bit of blood from it, he can't let this guy humiliate him, he may have dodged a few of his punches but he won't be able to punch in quick succession. So, Flash went back on the attack shooting his arms forward at Angel, hoping that one of his fists would connect, but none of them did, as Angel just casually dodged them, too casually, he grabbed Flash's right wrist, started to slowly twist it as Flash's bones cracking could be heard, he grunted in pain as he wanted to counter-attack but the pain he felt in his right wrist was too much to bear, and Angel enjoyed every moment of seeing Flash suffering.
With his free arm, Angel punched Flash's chest as he flew backwards before sliding his back on the floor then he stopped when he hit his head into a teacher's legs which made him lose balance and made him drop his tray of food on top of Flash, getting the cheap slimy food of the school's cafeteria all over Flash's face and shirt.
The students cheered for Angel, sure he may have gone overboard, but they were here to see an altercation go overboard, they got what they wanted and soon enough they started dispersing going back to their routine. With the job done, Angel turned his head to Diane, expecting gratitude coming from her, but he didn't exactly get that, she was looking back at Flash with a look of concern, why would she? He tried to punch her. Then she looked back at Angel with what looked like to be a look of pity, he was confused about her reaction, Diane just nodded at him, perhaps a way to thank him, as she then walked away from the scene.
He didn't expect that reaction, truth to be told it kind of bummed him, not that he was expecting her to act like a princess from a nes game that would kiss him in the cheek for saving her, but just some appreciation and not concern towards the one that tried to beat her.
His thoughts were interrupted when Jessie came in and lightly punched him in the shoulder, "Man, that was so cool! I would have never thought you would be able to do that." She then looked up as if pensive, "Seems like a lifelong dream of mine became reality."
"Jessie." Angel looked down, "You think Diane stole Flash's necklace?"
Jessie thought about it for a bit, then shrugged, "Eh. Considering it's Flash, I would say he just lost it somewhere."
Angel looked at Flash from afar, the teacher was helping him up and giving a napkin to help him clean from the food he had on him, that necklace, he always had it on him, considering he said it was a gift from his father that necklace must have been important to him, Flash may not be the smart person, but he wouldn't just lose something that important to him.
Then his attention shifted to the two buddies of Flash, who didn't seem that worried about their friend that got beat up just now, they were both looking at the camera, giggling like hyenas. Why would they bring a camera over this fight? They weren't part of the photography course and it was easy to tell they weren't into photography or filming either, then why would they have a camera readily available for a fight that came out of nowhere? Unless they knew about it, or, they made it happen.
His thoughts were once again interrupted when he heard a forced cough to his side, he looked up and saw the principal glaring down at him.
"My office. Now." The principal said, with the calm and yet authoritarian tone of a superior.
Angel nodded at the principal and then looked back at Flash's buddies. He could get himself in trouble if he tried to search for the truth, but well, what else he had to lose?
Rain was pouring down onto the streets, creating a few puddles scattered around the ground, the lights of the lamp posts reflecting down into the puddles, away from the rain the two friends of Flash were in a dark alleyway somewhat protected from the rain, the light of the camera's screen shined into their faces as they rewatched the video of Flash getting beaten by Angel, they were still unable to contain their laughter from watching their friend losing a fight.
The one with the spiky blond hair spoke up as he watched the moment Flash got thrown back by Angel's punch, "Bro, he got destroyed."
The other shoved his friend with his arm, agreeing with him, "Yeah, this is good shit, we gonna become rich with this video."
He nodded in agreement, "Damn right."
Then they heard a loud stomp sound in front of them, they looked away from the camera and saw a figure standing in the entrance of the alleyway as rain poured down onto him, they wondered who this person was with how dark the outside was they couldn't really see much in detail of his dark colored clothes, but they did noticed he wore a black ski mask over his head. They didn't know, this person was Angel.
"Who are you?" The spiky blond guy asked.
Angel didn't answer them, he just walked over to them, as his shoes stomped over the watered ground.
"Hey, my friend asked you a question." The other guy reminded Angel that his friend wanted to know who he was.
But still no answer from Angel.
"Is he deaf?" The guy asked his blond friend.
The blond shook his head, "Nah, he's stupid." He looked back at Angel, "Hey, buddy whatever you want from us you ain't getting it."
Angel stopped, still with some distance between him and the two guys, "The necklace." He spoke up, making sure to make his voice sound a bit deeper to not be recognizable by them.
"What?" The blond guy asked, not expecting this random person to ask him about a necklace.
"The necklace you stole from Flash, I want it back." Angel explained.
The other guy snickered a bit, lightly hitting his arm to his friend's chest, "Dude be careful, we've got the local hero asking for retribution."
The blond waved his hands in the air, saying a fake scared tone, "Aw man, we're so...so done for."
Angel was just waiting for the moment he would make them eat their words, "Next time, I want you to be a bit more convincing." He told them.
The blond guy chuckled, shaking his head, "Nah, there won't be a next time." Then he approached Angel.
Angel stood there, arms down, the blond guy was a bit weirded out, this guy clearly asked for a fight but he just stood there leaving himself open to get attacked, a trap maybe? Whatever, he would punch him first and be done with it. And that's what he did, once close enough to Angel, he brought his arm back ready to punch him in the face, but he never had time to do it, as Angel quickly put his left hand to the guy's head and slammed it to the brick wall to his side. The other guy shuddered as he backed away, shocked at the display of speed and violence from the stranger.
Angel removed the guy's head from the wall, having left a mark of his face to it then he pushed the guy down to the ground, laying down on the ground, he tried to stay conscious as the blood to the side of his head was dripping down, mixing him to the tiny puddle of water.
The other guy glared at Angel, "What the hell is wrong with you?!" He asked Angel.
Angel didn't bother to answer his question, he just looked down at the blond guy turning himself over to lay on his back, "The necklace." He turned his head back to the other guy, "Or I will make you beg for mercy."
The other guy barred his teeth, still glaring at Angel, "Fuck you." He got out a pocket knife, "I won't let you walk away from this."
He started running towards Angel, and once again Angel just stood there watching the guy approaching him, the blond guy got his head up glaring at Angel as he moved his left leg back, ready to kick Angel's legs and bring him down while he was distracted, but once again Angel was much faster than him.
Angel brought his right leg down to his knee, pinning his leg to the ground, then with his free leg Angel kicked the blond guy in the face as the other guy was close to Angel ready to stab him, so he turned back to the guy as he grabbed the knife by the blade then he started bending it as blood drew from the palm of his hand, the guy stared at Angel seeing no pain in his eyes, he didn't know who this guy was and now he wanted nothing to do with him, he let go of the knife starting to back away, wanting to get as far away as possible.
But Angel didn't let him, he shot a web string down to the guy's shoe and threw the other end of the web string up to the top of the set of stairs from the side of the building, the guy went upside down as the web was strong enough to leave him in the air, nothing knowing what was happening to him, the guy started hyper-ventilating.
"Wha-wha-what...what's going on?!" The guy asked as he was starting to fear for his life.
Once again, Angel ignored his question as he walked up to the guy, "The necklace." He repeated his request.
The guy didn't waste time to take the necklace out of his vest's pocket, "Fine! Take it! Please, take it!"
Angel took the necklace from the guy's hands and then he started walking away, as the guy watched him go away behind his back, out of his view as he couldn't turn himself back.
"Hey! You're not just gonna leave me here?" The guy asked Angel, wanting to get off the web stuck on his shoe.
Angel didn't answer him as he stopped and looked down at the camera on the ground, still playing the video of Flash's beatdown on a loop, Angel brought his shoe down at the camera, breaking it apart. After some effort the other guy was able to reach his hand towards the web, it was difficult to get it off as it was sticky and resistant but after long drawn seconds he was able to get his shoe off the web as he fall back to the ground, he got up and looked at the leftover pieces of the camera as Angel had completely disappeared.
Some time later, Flash was sitting on the pavel ground of the school's parking lot, leaning his back against the side of his car, not caring about the rain pouring down on him. He was soaking wet from sitting there for hours, but this was the least of his concerns.
"Flash." He heard someone call him out, probably one of the school's night guards trying to get him off the parking lot like they've been trying for the whole day.
He turned his head towards the sound of the voice, telling them firmly, "I will leave when I want-" He stopped when he realized it wasn't a night guard, it was Angel, well, he didn't know that was Angel, but the mask clearly indicate he wasn't a night guard, "Who are you?"
Angel stayed silent, he got the necklace out from his pocket and showed it to Flash.
Flash instantly got up as he looked at the necklace, he didn't expect to see it ever again, "You...you..." But then his sudden surprise turned to anger once he thought that maybe this guy stole his necklace, " You stole it!"
He charged towards Angel, but he quickly subdued Flash by grabbing his arm, pressuring it to make sure he knew he couldn't fight back against him, "I did, but not from you." Angel admitted.
"Then who did?" Flash asked Angel, wanting to know who stole his necklace.
"Your friends." Angel revealed.
Flash looked down as he thought for a bit, his friends? No, he didn't believe him at all, they were loyal to him, he looked back at Angel, "What? No way, they wouldn't do that to me."
Angel supposed it was logical Flash wouldn't believe him, betray his friends for a stranger? Well, his friends did betray him first, so he still had to convince him somehow, "C'mon Flash, you know your friends better than anyone else, you really think they've got any standards?" Angel explained to Flash.
Flash had to admit he was right about that, But still, internally he did wonder how this guy knew about his friends so well."So I just made a fool outta myself."
"And hurt people you shouldn't have." Angel told Flash.
"Not like it's the first time." Flash admitted.
"I know." Angel definitively didn't forget everything that Flash did to the students that he deemed worthy of bullying, "Which is why I'll give you your necklace back under a certain condition."
Flash knew where Angel was going with this, "Hold up, are you blackmailing me?" Flash asked Angel if this really was what he wanted to do.
Blackmail? That's not how blackmail works, Angel shook his head, it wasn't important right now, the conditions were, "Sure, whatever you wanna call if you want your necklace back, you apologize for everyone you bullied over the years and for fuck's sake get better friends. Can you do that?" Angel asked Flash if he was okay with the conditions.
Flash was quick to accept anything to get his necklace back, "Sure."
Angel let go of Flash's arm and grabbed the collar of his shirt instead, bringing his face closer to his, "I've got your word now. So, you better keep to it, because trust me, I will make you feel pain you never felt before."
Flash wanted to fight back, but he knew from today's experience this could be a losing battle, he just nodded with disdain, "I hear you."
Angel let go of Flash's collar and gave him the necklace, having the necklace at his hands felt heartwarming for Flash; he stared at it down for what felt like hours, promising himself he would never lose it ever again. But then he thought again about this mysterious stranger that knew about him, his necklace and his friends, he still didn't knew who this guy was, he looked back up about to ask who the guy was, but he quickly noticed he was gone, he looked at every direction and he still didn't see him, how could he have gone away so fast?
Angel had come back to his home, after a pretty much long and intense day some would think he would be able to rest for the rest of the day, and considering he was now suspended from going to school for a month for assault, he would have plenty of time to rest, but that also meant his parents would intervene in that situation. Which they did.
Once he was back home, his parents were quick to tell him to have the was sitting down on a wooden chair near the table, having his arm leaning on top of the table as he kept his other hand hidden in his pants' pocket, considering he didn't want to show them his bloodied hand.
"What were you thinking, Angel?" His father was the first to ask him to explain himself.
Which Angel did without hesitation, "I was thinking that since nobody was trying to prevent that, out of nowhere accusation, I would step in."
"So you think it's normal to step into a fight?" His father asked him.
"He wanted a fight, he got it and lost it. I'm sure he will never try and start one ever again." Angel explained why he thought he wasn't in the wrong.
"Well, I hope you will stop too." His mother spoke up, "I really hope this is your first and last time you get into a fight."
"Why should I stop?" Angel asked them, they didn't get him, he just explained to them he fought for good, there's nothing wrong in beating people that deserve it, right? Better than the other way around.
"Because you're not supposed to jump into those situations." His father replied.
"So I should have done nothing? Is that what you are trying to say?" Angel challenged his father for an answer.
But he didn't expect his father to answer quickly, "Yes!"
Then Angel was quick to tell he was still justified for fighting Flash, "You're wrong. I'm glad I did it, and I would do it again, I didn't do it for the fun of a fight, it was about helping someone that needed it."
"And what about you? Have you thought about yourself?" His father asked him.
"What do you mean?" Angel asked his father, wanting to know his point.
"This beat down you've done, whatever the context of it was, it doesn't matter. Say, you apply for a job you think the employer will pick you over someone else? They won't pick someone who goes into fights." His father explained to him.
That goddamn explanation related to his future job, he hated that so much. It was like someone that didn't have arguments anymore so they started comparing everything to Hitler.
Angel clicked his tongue in annoyance, "So, this is all there is, huh? All that matters in my future is just about money and jobs, nothing else does."
"That is not what I meant. You can do anything you want for your future, but you gotta understand that you must give priority to what's essential in your life and not ruin that opportunity, you do that if you wanna sleep with peace of mind." After trying to get Angel to see his point, his father calmed himself down, seeing he was starting to raise his voice too much, so then he continued in a much calmer tone, "Just think about it, okay? You've got a whole month to do so."
Angel sighed, then nodded without looking at his father, "Yeah."
And with that, the heated conversation died down leaving it with an unsatisfying silence from them, but still, none of them wanted to overdo it. With the scolding done Angel went straight up to his bedroom, closing the door behind him and going straight to his bed, laying his back on it.
He adjusted his head to his pillow then he put his injured hand up to look at it, seeing the bloody cut on his hand, he thought if he should treat it or not, but he decided against it, simply because he wasn't feeling pain coming from the cut and also he was just tired, today had been a long day and he just wanted to rest, he put his hand down to the side of the bed as he closed his eyes, ah yes, that's all he needed right now, a long rest.
His eyes opened instantly once he heard something hitting his window, he sighed knowing what this was.
He narrowed his tired eyes, "Jessie."
Wait, that's it? That's the chapter that needed three weeks to make?
Yes, but not exactly. This chapter was simply divided into two parts, so you will get the next part of this chapter tomorrow, it's not like I needed a lot of time to perfect this chapter, I will be honest, it was just pure laziness and I'm sorry for those who were waiting for this chapter to come. But at least it's done now, and I hope you will enjoy this chapter.
Anyway, I will see you back tomorrow with the second and last part of this chapter.
See ya!