[A few days later, Oscorp]
"What do you mean by 'They didn't approve', Otto?"
Curtis was... shocked to say at least. After testing over and over again, he thought the result was enough for human testing. But Otto just gave him news of disapproval.
"I mean, the higher-ups didn't approve your serum for human testing," Otto sighed, standing up from his seat. "I wish I could do anything to change their decision, but I can't."
He walked up to Curtis, giving his shoulder a sympathetic pat, "I'm sorry."
Curtis, on the other hand, just stood in where he was and froze. "You've got to be kidding me..." He trailed off, and anger slowly crept onto his face. "This is outrageous, unfair!"
"It is," Otto murmured, nodding and opening the door for him. "But we can't change anything. After all, we don't have any actual power here."
"...Right," Curtis nodded, leaving Otto's room to his lab.
Once he was back in his lab, Martha was sitting on a chair near the door. "Curt, what did they say?" She asked as soon as he came in.
"They didn't approve," He answered, tightening his remaining hand to a fist. "Those higher-ups... We did like hundreds of testing already!"
"They didn't approve it, right?" Seeing a frustrated nod from him, she sighed and crossed her arms. "Goddammit..."
"Martha, what should we do now?"
"I don't know..." trailing off, Martha looked down at her shoes. "I think I'll go get Billy first. It's been a week..."
"You're right..."
With that said, the room fell into an uncomfortable silence. Both of them were unsure of what to say. However, their silence was interrupted as the door suddenly opened, revealing Gwen in her lab uniform.
"Excuse me, is this Dr. Connor's roo-"
Interrupting herself, the blonde startled at the sight of the two. "Oh, am I interrupting something, Dr. Connor?"
Snapping back to reality, Martha quickly changed into a smile. "Gwen! Why are you here?"
"Internship," Shrugging, Gwen noted Curtis' furious look. "Uh... What happened to Dr. Connor?"
"His project just got rejected by the higher-up," The older woman answered, glancing at him with worry. "By the way, why are you looking for us?"
"...Billy got sick," The blonde replied, causing the two to widen their eyes. "Mom just drove him to the hospital, but both of you should be there."
Widening their eyes in shock, both Curtis and Martha glanced at each other before looking back to Gwen. "Just go, Martha," Curtis murmured, "I need a minute to get myself together."
Even though she wanted to stay with him, but Martha reluctantly nodded in the end, "Just... don't do anything stupid, Curt."
Seeing a faint nod from him, Martha followed Gwen and exited the room. Now only with himself, Curtis turned around and walked to the serums. Taking a single dose from it, he stared at it thoughtfully.
On the other hand, Gwen and Martha rushed to the parking lot and got into the older woman's car. Gwen was sitting at the passenger seat while Martha drove. Without another word, she stepped on the gas and rush to the hospital.
"Ms. Connor, is Dr. Connor going to be fine..."
"I don't really know," Sighing, Martha shook her head and focus on driving. "But Billy's more important right now."
"Yeah..." Nodding, Gwen kept her silence and focused on the road ahead.
However, she didn't notice a white spider crawling out from her shoulder bag to her hand. Before anyone could realize anything, it bit down hard.
"Ouch!" Squealing at the sudden pain from the bite, Gwen hastily shook the Spider off her hand. However, the white Spider only crawled into the shadow, disappearing from her sight.
"Gwen, you're OK?" Hearing Gwen's yelp, Martha asked while looking at the mirror.
"I'm fine, Mrs. Connor," The blonde replied with a faint smile, glancing at the back of her hand.
However, her hand looked perfectly fine, as the Spider never bit her. 'What the hell?' Raising an eye in pure confusion, she shook her head and cleared her thought.
The two continued their ride in silence until they reached a bridge. For some odd reason, it was unusually congested with other cars. The air was filled with car horns from all kinds of vehicles, and more and more people started to walk out of their cars.
Narrowing her eyes at sight forward, Martha groaned in frustration. "Gwen, are there any other ways to the hospital?"
"I don't think so..." Trailing off, Gwen sighed and leaning further into the backseat. "Why everyone decided to pass through here now?"
"Bad luck, I guess," The older woman shrugged, noting the sudden wave of people frantically ran from behind. "Uh... What happened?"
Gwen was about to open her mouth to answer. However, a voice suddenly rang inside her head, warning her.
Behind you!
Startled at the voice, she turned around to see... a silhouette of a monster.
[In the meantime]
(Ethan's POV)
"Noir! Where are you?" Spidey asked through my new earbud. "I'm almost there."
"I'm almost there too," I said, leaping through another huge gap and landed on the bridge's ledge. "You know, I was going to continue on my investigation on Dead-Bridges."
"And I was going to have a pizza."
"Hey, at least you won't need to face Cat afterward," Shrugging, I noted the silhouette in front of me. "I saw it. Let me do the opening shot."
"Got it."
With that said, I fired a web bullet and pinned its tail on the ground. "Yo, Lizard!" I yelled, jumping up and fired two lines of webbing on each side. Curt Connor... or now what left of him turned around and stared at me with wide eyes.
Well, it looked like a human-Aligator instead of that... monstrosity in the movie. At least now I won't need to face a better-looking monster, that's a plus.
With no other word said, I pulled myself into a hard kick right into its head. With the element of surprise on my side, my legs landed on its head and knocked him back.
Landing on the ground with a roll, I quickly turned around and glanced at the crowd around us. "It's dangerous, just go!"
They hesitantly nodded and rushed to Manhattan, leaving only the Lizard and me on the bridge. Remember, Ethan... he didn't become this by choice-
Before I could even finish my thought, a bone-chilling roar suddenly rang through the deck, grabbing my attention. Oh great, it's angry.
With a roar, it rushed toward me with fury, knocking the cars in his way to the ocean below. And for some reason, there are still people in those cars!
"Shi-"
"I'll get the cars, keep it away from me!" Before I could say anything, Spidey rapidly fired multiple web-lines and attached them to the bridge.
"Copy that!" Sighing in relief, I nodded and dashed at the Lizard. But unlike that fight with Rhino, there's nothing for me to use, and I bet my fists wouldn't do too much damage.
Well, I need to be more creative with my web, fast.
In the meantime, Gwen just recovered from her short concussion, staring at the cold sea below. "W-what just happen-"
Her grunt was interrupted as she noticed the motionless Martha in front. "Mrs. Connor!" Yelling in panic, Gwen grabbed her shoulder and took a closer look.
She had been hit against the steering wheel from the shock, blood dripping down her forehead and onto the steering wheel. Widening her eyes in fright, the blonde girl scanned around to see if there's anything to help them escape.
However, her hand didn't get off from Martha's shoulder, no matter how hard she tried. "Get off!" Pulling the hand off with all her might, Gwen panicked. "C'mon! Why won't you get off!"
Left! Someone's coming!
Hearing the voice in her head, she perked up and followed the voice's direction. "It's Spider-Man." She murmured, hastily glanced around and tried to open the door on her left.
Thankfully, Gwen was able to open the car door with her other hand. However, she was stuck with the door handle. "You've got to be kidding me."
Shaking her head, she quickly yelled at Spidey's direction. "HELP!"
Snapping his head toward her direction, Spider-Man quickly helped a little girl to get back on the bridge and swung toward her direction. Landing on the car's side in one fluid motion.
"OK, it's going to be fin-" His words were interrupted as he noted the blonde in front of her, his eyelid widening in shock. "No way..."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"N-nothing," Quickly clearing his throat, Spidey noted Martha in the driver seat. "Is she OK?"
"I... I'm not sure," Shaking her head, Gwen tried to take her hand off again but failed. "A-and my hand just won't get off from her shoulder, for... for some reason."
Raising an eye in slight confusion, he opened the driver's door and narrowed his eyes. "Karen, how's she?"
"Minor concussion and some bleeding on the head," Karen replied. "Other than that, she's fine."
"Got it," Nodding, the Webhead turned back to Gwen. "Ma'am, can you help me to take that lab coat off?"
Nodding, the two quickly took off Martha's lab coat, and Spidey used some webs as bandages, stopping the bleeding on her head. "OK, ma'am," He said to Gwen, carrying the older woman on his back. "I'll get her to safety, just stay here for a moment."
Even though she's not fully calm down, Gwen hesitatingly nodded.
With a nod in response, Spider-Man fired a web-line and pulled himself back to the bridge.
(Ethan's POV)
Well... The Lizard was more difficult to fight than I thought. No, a lot more complicated.
BOOM!
You know, being thrown into a car wasn't fun at all. "It hurt..." Grunting, I quickly got up from the car and dodged another strike.
Roaring, it trashed the car entirely before snapping its head at me, narrowing his eyes. Using my Spider-Wave to scan the environment, I saw Webhead coming back with someone else on his back.
"Noir! I have an unconscious woman here!" Before I could do anything, his voice suddenly rang through my earbud. "You can sense her, right?"
"Yeah, I sensed her," Nodding, I did a backflip to dodge another sweep from it. "I'll try my best to keep it away."
"There's only one more person down there. I'll join you after I got her."
"Just be ASAP," Finishing the call, I fired a web-bullet on its face and dropkicked it, knocking it back.
Shaking its head and tore my web off, The Lizard roared again and charged at me. Narrowing my eyes, I jumped and fired a line toward the ground next to it, pulling myself.
However, it suddenly gripped the web-line and pulled me, grabbing my head before I could do anything.
S-Shit! It's Rhino all over again!
Instantly firing a line directly below me, I gripped it with all my might and kicked its chest. Doing a backflip and released my grip, I landed back on the bridge and gained some distance between us.
"I hate to say it, but thank you Rhino," Murmuring to myself, I cleared my head and got up.
However, Lizard didn't charge at me again, only growled and opened its mouth. "S... st... Stay..."
...Wait, it's saying something.
Is the Curtis Connor part waking up again?
"S̴t̷a̴y̵.̶.̷.̶ ̶A̷w̶a̴y̶!̵."
"I wish the same thing, Dr. Connor," I said. "But you're endangering other's life."
"Š̵̤t̷̥̚a̴̝͗y̵̨͠.̴̼͠.̷̢̈.̷͈̄ ̶͍́à̴̤w̷̥͌a̴̟̾y̶̪͘.̸̠̒.̸͓̌.̶̬͝ ̶̠͛f̷̠͛r̴͕̓ŏ̵̠m̷̳͛ ̷̼͛m̸̝͝ė̶͔!̶̮̌" With its voice distorted more and more, the Lizard side got the better of him, and it roared. Was it going to charge at me?
Wait, it didn't.
Before I could do anything, the Lizard turned around and dashed away, crawling over the bridge and dropped to the sea below.
Widening my eyes under the mask, I rushed forward and looked over the ledges. It's gone, probably into the sewers.
...Dammit.
Well, how's Spidey doing?
Back to Spidey's side, he quickly jumped from the bridge and landed on the car's side. "You're back." Sighing in relief, Gwen leaned back into her seat. "How's Mrs. Connor?"
"She's going to be fine," Nodding, Spider-Man took a closer look into the hand which stuck on the car door. "OK, so how did you got stuck with it?"
"I don't know, it just stuck and didn't come off," She explained, trying again but failed.
"Weird... There shouldn't be anything to make you stuck on it..." Narrowing his eyelid, he grabbed the door's edge and her arm. "Take a deep breath and relax, ma'am."
"W-what are you going to do?"
"I'll try to pull you off, just relax-"
"No!" Gwen exclaimed in panic, frantically shaking her head. "W-what if it doesn't get off, and you ripped my arm apart!"
"Trust me, OK?" Webhead said, leaning closer to her. "Just take a deep breath and relax."
"I-I..." She trailed off, looking away before shaking her head. "I can't, l-like... I know you're kind and anything..."
Sighing, Spidey looked away whispered to Karen, "Karen, what should I do?"
"Just try our best to let her trust you."
"B-but I don't know how, that's why I'm asking you!"
"C'mon, Peter." The AI sighed. "You know what exactly to do."
Spider-Man didn't answer her, just looking down thoughtfully for a second. 'I'm going to regret this...' He thought, taking a deep breath before taking off his mask. "Just trust me."
"PETER?!" Gwen exclaimed, widening her eyes in shock. "N-no, this is not happening..."
"This IS happening, Gwen," Peter said reassuringly, cupping her cheeks so she's looking at him. "Just trust me, please."
Gwen gulped, eyes darting between her hand and Peter's face. After a few moments of thinking, she nodded and closed her eyes. "Just... please don't hurt me."
"Of course, I won't hurt you."
With that said, Peter took a deep breath and held her arms and the car door. Internally begging that she'll get off quickly, he pulled the two apart with surprising ease, as if she wasn't stuck in it in the first place.
Opening her eyes, Gwen was in disbelief for how easy it is. "How... I tried before."
"I'm wondering about it too," He said, grabbing her attention and put on his mask. "But let's just get you out of here."
"Yeah..." Nodding, she climbed out and held him close, eyes clutching shut.
Without another word, Spider-Man shot a line at the bridge and pulled themselves back, landing with a soft 'thud'.
However, the bridge was surprisingly quiet, and Noir quickly web-zipped to where they were, landing on a car next to them.
(Ethan's POV)
"It's gone," I said, sighing inward to myself. "Sorry about that."
Well, if we're following the movie, the next time we saw it would be at the sewers. Anyway, at least there's not that many people got hurt, that's a plus-
Wait, why's Gwen here?
Even though disappointed by the news, Spidey shook his head and smiled under the mask. "At least not that much people got hurt."
"Yeah..." I nodded. "But where's Ms. Watanabe? She should be here by now."
"She was going to handle the civilians with ambulances and such."
"OK..." Trailing off, I turned my attention to Martha behind them. "But there's still one more unconscious person."
Widening his eyes in realization, Spidey instantly rushed to her side and checked. "Thank god... She's fine." Sighing in relief, he quickly carried her over the shoulder. "Noir, Yuri is still around here?"
"I think she's still over there with the ambulances," I replied, pointing at the Manhattan side of the bridge. "But, there's still her right here..." Trailing off, I changed my attention to Gwen here.
"I'll go with Mrs. Connor," Gwen replied, narrowing her eyes at Spidey. "And you have a lot of explaining to do."
Um... Did something happen between them? Whatever, I should tell Cat I'm fine, but she's still gonna kill me, I'm sure about that.
And there's Catherine, right.
"Anyway, I have a few important calls to go through," I said, giving them a goodbye wave before shooting a line of web behind. "And I'm sure that thing will come back, so... stay sharp."
With that said, I pulled the web-line and launched myself to the top of the bridge. Then I quickly took out my phone and called Cat. "Please be calm..." I muttered to myself.
The call clicked almost instantly, and her voice followed. "You know, I was about to ask you why you didn't come, Noir." Oh shit, she's angry or seems so.
"W-well, there's something more urgent to handle."
"I know about that. The news is all about you and Spidey's doing on the bridge." She replied, rolling her eyes. "Leaving me hanging while saving the city, huh."
"U-Uh... I was forced to choose between you and the city. I wished I could just work with you tonight..." I trailed off, pinching my nosebridge. "Just..."
Before I could finish my word, she suddenly giggled. "Calm down. I was just playing with you."
Oh.
"I didn't say that I'm mad or anything," She continued. "You just can't leave Spidey to do this alone, right?"
"...Yeah, I just can't let him do this alone." I nodded.
"Knew it," Cat said. "By the way, I overheard that the 'Ivan' guy won't come back because of that trade we stopped."
"...Shit, there's go our leads."
"But they also mentioned someone with a red suit is crushing their hideout..." She trailed off, pausing for a brief moment before continuing. "Maybe we can investigate that."
Red suit? So there's someone else who's also aiming at Dead-Bridges?
"Of course, we'll check on them," I said. "And I'll do something to make up for tonight."
"You don't need to do anything to make it up, Noir."
"But I want to."
"...Fine, I'll call you when there's something about that 'red suit' guy." With that said, she cut the call, and I'm all alone again.
And both Catherine and Rachel should be sleeping, or I hope so. Sighing and shaking my head, I quickly fired my web and rushed to my apartment as soon as possible. Once I'm back at the building, I quietly opened the window in my room and sneaked in, taking off my mask and the rest of the costume to switch into my pajamas.
But then, the sound of something dropping onto the floor (and my Spider-Sense) startled me.
"No way..."
Sighing to myself, turning around, and... Rachel was staring at me with wide eyes, she opened her mouth but nothing came out.
Oh great, I forgot to lock my room door.
"Rachel, why are you still awake at this hour?" I awkwardly smiled, trying to play this situation as lighthearted as possible. "You're going to Midtown tomorrow, go get some rest-"
"I was just going to get some water..." She said, peeking over me toward the costume on my bed. "But... isn't that-"
"No! It's just my jacket." I said, covering it up with my body. "Just go to sleep, you have school tomorrow-"
"Not until you answer my question." Rachel deadpanned, crossing her arms and stepped into my room. "Why are you so nervous about me finding this costume?"
"U-uh... I'm just surprised."
"You don't look surprised," Narrowing her eyes, she shrugged and turned at the door. "Anyway, I'll ask Catherine what happened." She said, grabbing the doorknob.
Shit! Not Catherine!
Before she could turn the knob, I instantly fired a web-bullet and stopped her. "Please don't tell Catherine, I don't want her to worry."
Startled at the sudden action of mine, Rachel's eye darted between the webbed hand and me. "So I'm right... You're Noir."
"Yeah..." I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. "I'm Noir."
"And if you're Noir..." Trailing off, widening her eyes in realization. "That means you're the one who let me out..."
"Theodore got caught by that Noir guy..."
"Let you out?"
"Without you, I might still be in that basement..." Rachel said, nodding to herself with a faint smile. "I was going to find you and give a thank you..."
O...K? That escalated quickly.
"Well, I'm happy that I did help you to have a new life with us..." I awkwardly said, pointing at her webbed hand. "But first, please don't tell Catherine about my other life, and I should get you off from the web."
"I won't tell Catherine," She smiled, glancing at her hand. "And about that web..."
Trailing off, blue sparkles suddenly emerged from her hand, and my web glowed red before burning into ashes. Oh... so her mutant power is electricity, just like Electro.
"Uh... Remind me not to get to your bad side." I nervously giggled, taking off my web-shooters and put them on my table. "And it's about time to upgrade the formula..."
"I'll remember that." She said, suddenly pulling me into a tight embrace. "But... Thank you, Ethan."
Um... What should I do? I've never been hugged by a girl before.
Whatever, just hug her back. Maybe it'll do the work.
Even though hesitated at first, I put my arms around her and returned the embrace.
Sorry for taking this long to update, my real life took a lot of my time to finish this chapter (and Destiny 2).
Anyway, this whole arc will follow the first 'Amazing Spider-Man' movie, but there's going to have some difference (Of course.) First, Lizard won't have that stupid plan to change everyone in NY city to a lizard. And the crane scene will have some good reason to happen since Spidey did do good for the town.
Not only that, the third Spider themed hero's origin will be integrated with this arc.
Review response:
Guest: So about Gwen's note and their reactions to Rachel. Gwen had a crush on Peter for a while, and people would always look closer to the one they have a crush on. So those notes are mostly just her thought.
As for the feeling that there's something fishy, actually they just felt weird about the sudden appearance of a sister to Ethan. And I should choose something else than 'fishy'. (I'll change it after posting this chapter.)
Ethan would try to stop some villains from becoming 'the villains', but he won't be successful for a lot of time. And since this whole world isn't too much based on MCU and the movies, he couldn't just rely on his knowledge. (And the Butterfly Effect will happen.)
For his amnesia situation... They're just curious about Ethan's sudden break from school. And since they didn't know any reason for him to have a break, so they're just kinda surprised.
Anyway, thank you for the review!
Raidentensho: Well, you guessed it! This is going to be based on the first 'Amazing Spider-Man' movie.
And for a new suit for Ethan, I'm planning for a new suit after the school battle. And he's definitely going to upgrade to a kevlar-like suit! Or a certain someone else will make a new suit for him ;)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story so far!
Reviews are welcome!
