[Later that night, Gwen's house]

"So... You got a younger sister?" Gwen asked through the phone, looking out to the window. "Um... Right, since I'm the only one who has any brother or sister, so you come to me for advice?"

"Y-Yeah, and I really need one," Ethan said.

"Uh... You know, Philip won't come home until the holiday... and I don't have a lot of experience..." The blonde trailed off, pinching her nosebridge before continuing. "But I'll try my best. Um..."

"Thank god, you're the best Gwen!"

"Uh... your sister is adopted, right?"

"Yeah, she's adopted."

"OK," Gwen nodded, shifting her eyes to the night sky. "So, since she's adopted, she's probably not from a good place or a place with a lot of love. I can't speak for everyone, but try to let her open up and accept you and Catherine as a family."

"...Right, I noted it down."

"Do you really need to note that down?" She deadpanned, but quickly sighed and shook her head. "Nevermind, just do your job as a step-brother and give her love and care. She'll be alright."

"Well... I hope so." With that said, Ethan ended the call and Gwen was back to the comfort of her room.

However, just as she ended the call, her mother's calling suddenly rang through the door. "Gwen, I need you here!"

Sighing in slight frustration, she replied with the same volume. "Yeah, I'm coming!"

Opening the room's door, a young boy, who's about ten years old, suddenly rushed toward her. "Big SIS!" The boy yelled in joy, hugging her tightly.

Even though surprised by the boy's sudden action, Gwen quickly regained her composure and smiled. "It's been a while, Billy." She said, patting his head.

"It seems that he's eager to see you, Gwen." Hearing her mother's teasing, the blonde girl perked up and deadpanned.

"Mom!"

"Just leave her alone, Helen." George Stacy, A.K.A Gwen's dad, sighing and nudging her shoulder. "By the way, how's Curtis?"

"Just like how it used to be," Helen shrugged. "He and Martha are basically living in their lab in Oscrop right now, saying that they're close to a discovery."

Gwen widened her eyes in realization. "...Oh, so that's why Billy's here." She crouched down to face Billy, trying her best to reassure him. "hey, Billy. Don't worry about your parents. They'll be fine."

"I know." Billy smiled in response. "But mommy and daddy are working on something great!"

"Yeah, they're working on something great." She nodded with a smile.

But then, the voice of her mother took her attention. "Dinner's ready, Gwen."

"Coming!" Gwen replied, cupping Billy's cheeks with a smile. "OK Billy, let's have some dinner, shall we?"

With a nod from the young boy, they came to the table and had their dinner together. However, they didn't notice a white spider crawling out from Billy's backpack, slipping into Gwen's room.


[Meanwhile, Oscorp]

In a small office in Oscorp, Curtis Connor and Martha Conner were doing a presentation. "...And this is our breakthrough in body regeneration." Martha said, playing a video of a test they did a little while ago.

The video was about a mouse who only had three legs, after injecting the serum, the fourth leg regenerated at an exceptional rate.

"As you can see, our serum has been performing well in animal tests," Curtis explained, opening a 3d render of the mouse. "There's no side effect or any mutation for the test subject, and from our observation today, the subject is healthy and fine."

The man, who was in his mid-forties and wearing a round-edged glasses, nodded in response. "Splendid result, Dr. Connor."

"Thank you, Dr. Octavius," Curtis smiled at his approval, glancing at Martha for a second. "Now, I would like to proposal human testing for the serum."

"Human test?" Dr. Octavius widened his eyes in shock, shifting his glasses. "Curt, I know why you want to get the serum done... But it's still too dangerous to test on humans."

"Bu-but the test result already showed that it's ready-"

"We need to be sure-"

Before Octavius could finish, Curtis suddenly slammed the table in anger, startled everyone else in the room. "NEED TO BE SURE?!" He yelled, staring straight into his eyes. "Every sign showed that it's ready!"

"Calm down, Curt," Martha said, giving him a concerned glance. "If we need to do more tests, it'll only take us a few more days."

Curtis stayed silence for a moment, biting his lips to control his rage. "...You're right, Martha," He nodded. "We'll take a few more tests before proposing for a human test."

Octavius nodded. "Yeah... You two can go now."

With that said, the two left the office. Once the door closed and Octavius was alone, he sighed in frustration. "You're only going to do something bad to yourself, Curt..." He trailed off, suddenly wincing as the pain caught him.

He looked down and saw his hand, shaking uncontrollably.


On the other hand, once both Martha and Curtis were back into their lab, he slammed his fist to the table. "Dammit!" He exclaimed in rage.

"Curt..." Martha trailed off, hesitated for whether to take a step forward or not. "I know you're urgent to finish this, but it's not the end of the world-"

"Like that battle with the Avenger in New York." He finished for her, turning around to show his pained look. "Martha, I know you're worried for me... But we were so close to finishing this!"

"I'm concerned for you because you're obsessed with regrowing your arm since that battle," she said, taking a step closer and hugged him tightly. "It's been seven years, seven years of non-stop researching and testing..."

"...I'm sorry," Curtis whispered, a single teardrop trailed along his cheek. "I..."

"You lost your arm to save us from those aliens, remember?"

"Y-yes..."

"Then you lost your arm for our lives, Curt." She smiled, burying her face into his embrace. "Please, don't go too far. Promise?"

He nodded, hugging her close with his only arm. "I promise."

The two stayed in silence for a while, before Martha suddenly opened her mouth again. "...I made an antiserum for it, as a failsafe."

"OK..." Curtis nodded again, tightening his embrace.

"...And I need to give Helen an apology, always taking care of Billy for us..." She sighed. "I felt bad for her, she's been cleaning our mess since college..."

"Right, maybe we can give them an apology after this project."

"Maybe..."


[A few days later, Midtown High]

It was Mr. Harringtion's lesson, again. Even though he's a good leader (kind of) for the Decathlon team and a good teacher, but to just teaching... He's boring at best.

Normally, Peter would just take all his attention to talk with Ethan, trying to kill time. However, he's not in school today. He's helping Catherine to get Rachel settled and found her a school and stuff.

"...An hour left..." Peter murmured to himself, collapsing down to the table. "Ethan, you lucky bastard..."

And at another seat behind Peter, Gwen was about to fall asleep to her table, only to be supported by her hands on the cheeks. "Pete looks bored as well." She whispered to herself, her eyes unintentionally stuck into his back.

"On second thought, he's kinda good looking..." She continued. "Wait, why am I thinking about him right now?"

Shaking her head to clear h the thought about Peter, Gwen tried to concentrate on anything but him. She tried to write some notes from the blackboard, but it quickly spiraled into thought about Peter again.

"I've never been to his house, even though we're friends for two years by now..." Snapping out from her thought, she hastily shook her head. "Not again..."

Her notebook was filled with scramblings about Peter, like what he's wearing or how many times he'd fallen asleep.

"Great... another page used..." Sighing, Gwen flipped through the pages, reading the old scramblings she wrote.

'He's very good at sport! For some odd reason.'

'Two minutes late than usual... Is something bothering him?'

'He told us that he wants the new album from that band... Maybe I could buy it for him!'

"...What the hell was I thinking?" She cringed at them, closing the notebook and sighed again. 'You have problems, Gwendolyne Stacy...'

Fortunately, the bell rang at the exact moment when she was about to slump on the table, signaling the end of the lesson.

"Finally..." Peter groaned in exhaustion, turned around to face her. "Gwen, you're ready for the chemistry quiz?"

Head perked up, Gwen widened her eyes in horror. "Wait, we have a chemistry quiz?!"

"Yeah, Mr. Cobbwell told us like... a week ago."

"Oh no... I forgot to study!" Now in full-on panic mode, the blonde scrambled her bag and took out her chemistry textbook. "Uh... what is the quiz about?"

"Periodic table, group of elements and such." Peter shrugged, walking up to her side. "Need some help?"

"Uh... yeah!"

"OK, I'll try my best," Giving her a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, he took the seat and sat beside her. "So, uh... you're OK with me sitting next to you?"

"...Y-yeah, I'm OK with that," Gwen shrugged with a faint blush, avoiding his glance. "W-well, we still got about ten minutes left..."

Peter nodded, flipping through the textbook to the page with the periodic table. "Trust me." He said, a faint smirk crept onto his face.

"Uh... Yeah."


A little while later, the bell finally rang, signaling the lunch period. Sighing to themselves, Gwen collapsed to her table while Peter stretched his arms to the air.

"I'm going to fail this quiz..." Gwen murmured to herself, remembering all those answers she thought was right.

Walking up to her with a faint smile, Peter crouched to her level and tapped her shoulder. "Gwen? You're OK?"

"No, I'm not." She grunted in response, leaning back into her chair. "I forgot everything you taught me."

"Oh, ten minutes might be too close..." Peter trailed off, giving her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and helped her to get up. "Anyway, let's have some lunch to forget about it."

"Hey, that's my line." Deadpanning, the blonde sighed again and swept her bangs aside. "...Whatever, let's get something to eat."

With a nod from Peter, the two walked to the canteen and got themselves some lunch to eat. Noting both Felicia and MJ were sitting at a table with two empty seats next to them, they sat down without a word.

"It feels weird," Felicia suddenly blurted out, gaining everyone's attention. "Ethan had never taken a day off from school... and he shouldn't have a reason to."

"Yeah," MJ shrugged. "I asked him about it, and he just said it's family business."

"But he only lives with Catherine, right?" Peter asked, tilting his head in slight confusion. "Just like how I'm with Aunt May..."

"Maybe Catherine found a boyfriend?" The redhead suggested, rubbing her chin in thought. "After all, she had been single since... that."

"It's a possibility," Gwen murmured, remembering the phone call they had a few days ago. "But I don't think it's about Catherine."

"Not about Catherine?" Felicia asked, raising an eye in question. "Then... who?"

Sighing and internally apologizing to Ethan, Gwen started to recall the phone call they had. "He called me a few nights ago, and he's asking for advice." She said. "I remember that he said he got a sister."

"Sister?!" The silver-blonde uncharacteristically yelped in horror, causing everyone to be taken back. "W-when did he get one!"

"How would I know?" Gwen shuttered, still hadn't recovered from the shock. "He only told me she's adopted-"

"ADOPTED?!"

Taken back by her outburst again, Peter hastily put his hands on her shoulder. "Jeez! Just calm down!" He exclaimed.

Taking a while to calm down, Felicia took a deep breath before saying anything again. "D-do you know, most step-brothers would give everything to let their sister blend in with their family..." She trailed off, hesitated on whether to continue or not.

"...Are you implying something, Felicia?" MJ asked, raising an eye in confusion. "It's normal for a family to do that."

"Y-yeah, it's normal..." Coughing, The silver-blonde decided to continue on. "But there's a thing... The sister might develop romantic feelings toward him..."

With that said, the group fell into an awkward silence, until Gwen suddenly connected the dot in her mind. "Oh wait, you are scared that Ethan's sister might fell for Ethan?"

Feeling her cheeks burning, Felicia avoided everyone's glance, looking out toward the window.

"C'mon, it's pretty obvious that you have feelings for Ethan." MJ sighed, finally taking a sip of her water. "If Ethan isn't as dense as he is right now, you two probably are dating already."

"O-obvious?"

"Yeah, it's obvious," Peter shrugged. "You probably never realized it, but every time we have lunch together, you always glanced or just stared at Ethan."

"And somehow, he never noticed it." Gwen finished for him, sighing heavily. "It's frustrating to watch you two dancing around the subject."

"Uh... It takes time..." Trailing off, Felicia narrowed her eyes at somewhere on the other side of the canteen, before suddenly widened in shock. "T-that's... Ethan!"

The group raised an eyebrow in question, following her direction.


[Ethan's POV]

Well, I should be at home and took care of Rachel's room. But, since she's going to transfer into here, it's the best that I gave her a tour around the Midtown High. And yes, the teachers were looking at me with 'Why the hell are you here?' look, but I had a good reason to come back.

Entering the canteen, I turned around and smiled at her. "Well, welcome to the canteen," I said. "It may look like nothing's special, but you'll grow to love it."

Rachel's only nodded in response, following me closely.

...Still not too interested in talking. Maybe she's not too fond of being in a place with too many people around, or not confident in her English. I didn't notice it at first, but her English was only around third-grader's level. I shouldn't force her to talk more, really shouldn't.

We walked around and I showed her the food counter, introducing her to the lunch lady. Rachel's still very shy, but she did give her a smile and wave.

"Ethan!"

But then, the voice of my friends caught us, more to Rachel than myself. Startling and almost jumped from the call. Turning around, MJ was enthusiastically waving at us while Peter and Gwen were focusing on Rachel. Felicia, on the other hand, wasn't even looking at us, just staring right into her.

And yes, I forgot that it was the lunch period.

Walking up to them with Rachel closely following me, I stepped aside and let her walk forward. "Well uh... she's Rachel." I awkwardly giggled, "Catherine adopted her a few days ago, and she's transferring to Midtown."

"You look so cute, Rachel!" MJ grinned, "I'm MJ, nice to meet you!"

"N-nice to meet you too..." The little girl greeted with a blush, awkwardly shifting around.

Following the redhead, Gwen gave her a short wave "I'm Gwen Stacy, just call me 'Gwen'."

Rachel nodded again in response.

Awkwardly coughing to clear her throat, Peter stood up and held out a hand. "I'm Peter Parker, you can call me Peter."

She took her hand with a shy smile. "Nice to meet you..."

Frowning, Felicia narrowed her eyes for a second before relaxing. And well, she looked not interested in introducing her.

Raising an eye, I sighed and gesturing at her. "And she's Felicia."

Nodding to herself, Rachel nervously smiled and waved. "Hi... Fe-fe-"

"Felicia," Sighing, Felicia finally opened her mouth to say something, while deadpanned. "You're not good at English?"

"A... a little."

Glancing between them, I hastily cleared my throat. "Felicia, You're acting weird..."

"I... Nothing." Shaking her head to clear her thought, the silver-blonde looked away. "Just some thought."

"Right..." I trailed off, turning to Rachel. "Uh... We should get going by now, we still have a lot of places to visit."

Even though she's obviously reluctant to the idea that she has to go, but she nodded and followed me. And once we disappeared, the group all glanced at each other in unison.

"... That's something," Peter was the first one to speak up, sinking into his chair. "Rachel looks to be a nice girl."

"Aside from very shy and not very fluent in English, she's perfectly fine." Gwen commented with a shrug.

"And a very cute one too!" MJ exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "I wish I would have a sister like her."

"But why would she not fluent in English?" Felicia asked in a sudden, grabbing everyone's attention. "She doesn't have an accent, but still not fluent on it..."

"That's weird..." Peter trailed off, but shrugged after a few moments of pondering. "But we should let Ethan do the explanation for us."

"Maybe," MJ nodded. "Then let's change the subject for now."

She turned to Gwen, who sat next to her. "So... time for practice today? Ethan said yes when I texted him."

"I'm sorry... but I've something to do today," Gwen said, shaking her head with an apologetic look. "Today is my first day om that internship."

Peter perked up, curiosity filled his eyes. "Internship? When? Where?"

"It's about... half a year ago, and I forgot to tell all of you about it." Tugging her bangs aside, the blonde paused for a second before continuing. "And it's Oscrop's internship."

"Oscorp?!" MJ and Peter yelled in surprise, a genuine smile crept onto her face. "That's awesome!"

"OK, that was really unexpected," Felicia murmured. "But congrats, Gwen."

"I know," Replying with a bright smile, Gwen stood up with the tray in her hands. "But lunch's about to end."

The group glancing at the clock in unison, widening their eyes and hastily ran off with trays.


So uh... sorry for the chapter is a bit of a filler, but this chapter is more like a set up to the first 'event arc' of this fic! Or two.

So, the whole 'Dead-Bridges arc' will be the overarching storyline of Ethan's story, but there will be different 'event arc' in the middle of the story. These 'event arcs' will mostly focus on a single villain or a single character.

And the first arc (Peter's side) was going to focus on a certain 'one-armed scientist', and the third spider-powered hero will emerge in this arc!

P.S. Since MCU was a part of it, I did some retcon about how Curt Connor lost his arm. Not only that, letting the Connor family and the Stacy family have a connection, so Gwen won't just found the antiserum for no reason.

Review Response:

Raidentensho: hmm... Ethan will definitely upgrade his arsenal, and his web-shooter was one of them! Maybe he can take inspiration from the Spider-Man PS4 with trip mine and impact web.

About Tombstone, he'll be one of the main villains of an 'event arc', especially on Ethan's side.

For Compound X, maybe Ethan will use it as a desperate attempt to win a hard fight. With Rachel as an example, he's not going to use it to empower himself that easily.

Finally, for other POV chapters... um... I can't just stick with Ethan's POV for the whole fic, and this chapter will be a starting point to use different POVs.

Lifelessman: Thank you!

Death Fury: Thank you for your support too!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story so far!

Reviews are welcome!