Quinten stirred in his bed as his alarm clock went off. Lazily, he got up and stopped it. He was feeling aches and pains everywhere for about a few moments before he finally got out of bed to go to the bathroom. After a brief break at the toilet, he had managed to regain enough focus to see himself in the mirror and he flinched at what he saw.
"What the heck?", he asked himself.
He was wearing a shirt so he lifted it up to reveal a set of rock-hard abs. He flexed an arm to reveal he had biceps of a professional football player which made his mind panic at first, but then a sense of wonder and inspiration took its place.
"Quinten?"
Quinten snapped out of his daze to look out of the bathroom door to see Theo and Stephanie both looking concerned.
"You okay?", Stephanie asked.
Quinten quickly put his shirt down again before thinking of an excuse.
"Uh..yeah, I'm..I'm okay."
A few minutes later, Stephanie was seated in a chair while Quinten sat on the couch and Theo alongside him.
"You sure gave us a scare yesterday.", Theo stated, "You sure you're okay?"
Quinten felt better as he started recalling what happened.
"Yeah, I was just upset and not thinking.", Quinten said before catching himself on the detail of using the untested spider material on himself, "But I'm feeling good now."
Stephanie raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm down the hall if you change your mind.", she said as she got up and started toward the door.
"Don't worry Stephanie.", Theo assured her, "We'll let you know if anything bad comes up."
Quinten was quiet until Stephanie was out the door and after waiting a few minutes to make sure she was out of earshot before he came up to Theo who was closing the door all excited.
"Can you believe this?", he asked tearing off his shirt to reveal his new physical upper body, "Why do I have muscles?"
Theo looked concerned.
"Hey, hey, just take it easy there."
Quinten however clearly wasn't listening as he posed in front of a mirror.
"Look at me! I can't believe I-"
He paused as a line shot out of his chest and encased the Arachnid Avenger figurine he got yesterday in a thick spider web. Theo came forward and observed Quinten's chest with Quinten following and they both discovered some kind of small dent directly in the middle of Quinten's now burly pecs only Theo knew better.
"Quinten, I think you have spinnerets."
Quinten was in awe.
"Papa Nick, I finally got something special."
/
Ted by now had recovered from his daze and was now feeling more than a little bit angry. Unfortunately, the voice that had been directing him had contacted him again.
"Nice to know you wasted a day taking a nap."
"I was out cold!", Ted snapped, "When am I going to get my fangs on Theo?!"
"You will. But for now, I have someone else making Theo's latest dice retrieval more difficult."
Ted's expression grew darker and his blood boiled.
"Maybe I should just go into that city, hunt him down and-"
"You will only get yourself killed. You lack vision and by now, my new employ is receiving his new array of power. Allow me to show you."
Ted tensed as a winged serpent landed on his shoulder and bit into the back of his head. Instantly, his view changed to that of viewing what looked like a grocery store, but the screaming of a woman caught his attention before seeing one cocooned in cobwebs and clearly looking scared to death before the serpent took its bite off Ted's head and his view returned to the outskirts of the city. Still he was not happy, but the voice seemed to read his thoughts.
"Don't get any ideas. If you don't do as you're told, I promise you that it will not go well."
The serpent flew off and Ted felt a bit of concern, but his animal instincts got the better of his reason.
"Who does he think he is?", he growled, "I'm forced to shift into a monster every night and he chooses some punk who has a murder streak to be Theo's killer? Well, I'm not about to let that happen."
Luckily for him, he spotted a moving car obviously heading into the city and he managed to get the driver's attention enough to make them stop.
"Something wrong mister?", the driver asked.
Ted managed to hid his animal side enough to make himself presentable.
"Yeah, I need a ride into town. I'm kind of in a hurry."
The driver opened the passenger's side and Ted got in and closed the door behind him before the driver started driving again.
"Just wait Theo.", he thought as a smile came to his face, "The more you get away, the more thrilling the hunt is to play."
As the car approached the city, he noticed that it would be a while before the sun set and he'd revert to his beast form again, but he could wait a while longer.
/
Theo clearly wasn't feeling any less stressed as Quinten was clearly not settling down.
"Man, I always dreamed about being a superhero and now I am one!"
"Hey, hey, take it easy champ.", Theo cautioned, "We still have our work cut out."
Quinten wasn't listening as he was already cleaning up his Arachnid Avenger figure of the cobweb and paused.
"Man, I need a costume like-"
"No way.", Theo said cutting him off, "You're not going out to fight criminals wearing a crimson skin-tight outfit like that."
Quinten just looked a bit annoyed.
"Hey, I need something, and I would like that outfit right now."
Theo rolled his eyes.
"Fine, one set of crimson tights coming up."
Theo waved a finger and Quinten's pajama bottoms instantly got replaced with a crimson outfit with pitch black underwear with a mask that had a set of eyes like his figurine, but as Quinten noticed the underwear and matching boots and gloves, he looked a confused.
"What is this?", he asked.
"What's what?", Theo countered, "I thought I'd give the Arachnid Avenger look an update so it won't look like you're running around undressed."
Quinten quickly got over his confusion and slipped his new mask over his head before looking at himself in the mirror again.
"Wow, I look good."
"Don't get attached.", Theo said firmly, "Just cause you look the part doesn't mean you're in the super crowd. That outfit doesn't provide powers in case you're wondering. It's just a fancy Halloween costume."
Quinten raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, how did you do that anyway? Are you a superhero too?"
"No.", Theo answered, "But I'm willing to let you keep this outfit provided you help me find something."
At that moment, a scream rang out grabbing both Quinten and Theo's attention.
"Hero time.", the both said in unification.
/
Quinten and Theo dashed to Stephanie's apartment and opened the door to find the place torn upside down and some webs in most places.
"Looks like another spider got here.", Theo stated.
Quinten looked around through his mask's eyes.
"Okay, what do we know?"
Theo looked thoughtful.
"Well, Stephanie was here and we know there's a murderer on the loose. Where would he take her?"
Quinten and Theo both noticed the busted window and hurried over there to see some homeless people hurry out of a nearby abandoned building across the street. Quinten jumped out and let Theo get on before he scaled down the wall with ease.
"I could get used to this.", Quinten said in awe.
"Less talk, more saving.", Theo coached, "And try to disguise your voice more often."
They had just gotten down when a police cruiser came up and stopped as Detective Grillo got out.
"Who are you?", he asked Quinten as he noticed the duo.
"He's a friend.", Theo answered, "We think the kidnapped woman is in that building."
"Kidnapped?", Grillo asked as the trio made their way over, "We've been getting calls about murders and webs in the past few hours. You guys wouldn't be behind it would you?"
"No way.", Quinten said firmly before realizing his voice sounded a bit deeper, but ignored it, "We just save people."
As the trio got to the door, Grillo got out his gun and Quinten got up on the wall. Cautiously, they went in. It was dark and dreary, but the further they went in, the more frightening it became with the large cobwebs and cocooned bodies that Grillo could identify a few of.
"Officer Williams?!", he gasped as he noticed one of the more recent bodies.
"Shh!", Theo hushed, "We'll lose the element of-"
Then a wall gave way as Quinten crawled on it revealing a huge room with a huge spiderweb in the center of it all and Stephanie in the center of it.
"Stephanie!", Quinten said as he came in with Grillo and Theo right behind him.
/
Before any of the trio could do anything, Grillo gripped his gun as Theo tensed.
"Guys, I think we got company."
Quinten tensed as a shadow crawled from a wall giving off an inhuman screech making the trio tense.
"Nice to see you."
The shadow crawled into the light and Theo almost passed out as well as Grillo. What came out was hard to describe, but I 'll do what I can. It looked like a horrifically twisted version of a human being with six large spider legs sticking out of his back, a set of large black orbs for eyes, large mandibles in his mouth, large clawed hands and torn pants that came down to clawed feet. Quinten then looked firm and Grillo looked more horrified.
"The Midtown Murderer.", he said in awe, "What happened?"
The spider monster just lunged forward and Quinten jumped too and the two met in the air as a fight began to break out. Theo pulled Grillo aside before they got caught up in the struggle.
"We have to get Stephanie free.", Theo whispered.
Grillo nodded.
"Cover me."
As they came out and drew close to Stephanie, Theo noticed a familiar feeling he had back on the ship with Lillie and looked over in the corner and among the trash and junk, a faint glimmer made him pause.
"Theo!"
Theo barely ducked as Quinten was tossed to the side clearly losing, but Grillo was able to get near Stephanie.
"Quinten, you okay?", Theo asked quickly.
Quinten sounded like he was in a daze.
"Feeling…faint."
That was when the other spider came up on top of them looking fierce and ready to pounce while smiling ghoulishly.
"Die!"
He dropped, but Theo managed to get Quinten out of the way and close enough to the pile he was eying to shift through it and pull out a black six-sided dice with sparkly red numbers. Unfortunately as he turned he saw Quinten pinned to a wall with the other spider holding him ready to deliver a death blow. Grillo got out and got to Stephanie before he put his gun away and got out a jackknife to start cutting the threads that bound her. As the spider monster's jaws opened and came forward, a second arm burst from Quinten's left shoulder and held it off. The spider then tried an arm, but a second right arm came out and grabbed that too. Then a third arm came out of each shoulder and gave the spider a push towards Theo who threw the dice at it. As it hit the monster, it landed on a four, and then a large explosion went off making him, Quinten, Grillo, and Stephanie close their eyes for a moment and cautiously open them again to reveal a large cloud of dust.
"That's the end of the Midtown Murderer.", Theo sighed as he came forward and got his new dice, "A dice that makes explosions? That might come in handy."
/
"Theo, do you really have to go?", Quinten asked.
Theo had gotten to the edge of town with Stephanie, Grillo, and Quinten with the evening sun setting. Quinten had taken his mask off and still pretty battered, but he was still alive. Grillo had driven the group to the city limits where Theo would be heading out.
"Quinten, I can't stay. I got places to go and five more dice to find.", Theo sighed, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you be a better hero."
Quinten looked interested.
"And then what happens?", he asked, "Where will you go after you leave the realm?"
"Wherever Subspace takes me I guess.", Theo shrugged before turning to Grillo, "Detective, you wouldn't mind keeping this little thing between us would you?"
Grillo raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going to have to file it.", he said, "But I'll leave out a few things if you keep your nose clean.
Stephanie didn't say anything, but her smile said she was grateful for the rescue. After a farewell, Theo started to walk off, but then Quinten then stepped forward and gripped Theo's arm.
"Wait.", he said, "Theo, can I come with you?"
Theo raised an eyebrow.
"Quinten, are you serious?"
Quinten smiled and nodded eagerly.
"You helped me become my favorite superhero, maybe I can help you with your dice."
Theo smiled and pulled out a blank capture card.
"The road will be rough, there's no going back, we'll be going into the very heart of evil with death and danger at every turn."
Quinten didn't flinch.
"I have spider powers, I'll roll with the punches, and I would follow you to the ends of the realm."
Theo's smile broadened.
"Welcome aboard."
Quinten turned to Stephanie and gave her a hopeful look.
"Steph, you mind taking care of Thor while I'm gone?"
Stephanie nodded which ment she would and Quinten put his mask back on before Theo held out the card. He touched it and in three seconds, Quinten's picture appeared on the card.
"Best of luck Theo.", Grillo said as he and Stephanie returned to his car, "I'll get her back safely."
Theo gave a salute and was soon on the road again.
"One more adventure, one more new friend.", Theo thought to himself, "But there's four more creatures to find and four more dice waiting for me."
With his head held high, Theo continued on the road before a truck almost passed, but paused near Theo as the driver who looked like an outdoorsman leaned out with a raised eyebrow.
"Want a lift?", he asked.
