Chapter 3: Residence

(4 months later.)

Spider-man's P.O.V

As rare as they were, I had become accustomed to dealing with bullets, burns, bone injuries, concussions, cuts and even a couple of still rarer illnesses all by myself. As well as the inconsistent headaches. After all, who would want to help a monster?

Nobody, obviously. I had tried my best to avoid people at all times, but needless to say there were a few encounters that could have gone substantially better. 'Better' meaning not happening in the first place seeing as I usually scare the living daylights out of people and in turn they either attack me or run screaming in terror.

I pulled myself from my thoughts, focusing on the next district. I leapt across rooftops and avoided detection, heading towards Queens to search for the house from my spotty memories. Aunt May's house; my former home.

Something about Queens sounded right now that I was finally back in New York. Despite the numerous mistakes on my route here, I had found my way back to my city.

I looked down at the people and cars below, pausing just to watch for a moment before moving on. It was weird seeing in multiples, but at least I had somewhat adjusted to the new angles it provided. At least I could see my city…the people just couldn't see me.

Another jump, another rooftop, and another scan of the buildings to see if I was home yet. Most urgently, I needed to see the only two living people I remember and care about the most. They just…couldn't see me.

It took another half hour of searching as quickly as I could without stopping for me to find it. If there had been a crime I would have intervened from above, but Queens is a…pretty friendly neighbourhood. That rung right as well, somewhere.

"Friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man? Is that where I got it from?"

Hm. The thought was easily cast aside as I positioned myself on the roof of the house across the road from Aunt May's. I pressed as close to the tiles as I could to peer through the large front window, squinting at the glare of sunlight to newly sensitive red eyes.

There was a couch, a television – fairly standard for a living room – and beyond a doorway there were stairs. I frowned, thinking past the mild pangs in my head. "My room was upstairs. Aunt May's too." The only other visible opening on the bottom floor was the entrance to what looked like a kitchen. It had to be – never mind the layout of a house, that table was where I sat to eat cookies when I was a kid; that oven has a rattling knob that falls off when it's twisted too quickly. Uncle Ben never did manage to fix it. Near the back door, I think, is where I always put my wellingtons before they were replaced by proper boots as I grew up. Aunt May taught me that lesson well when I accidentally trailed mud across her tiles after…

I frowned. After what? "Where was I?"

My headache abated slightly as the trickle of memories slowed, but movement from inside her house pinned my attention to the present.

"Aunt May!"

My heart leapt as my eyes roved over her, drinking in the details. She looked thinner than what I remembered, and there was a mournful expression on her face that was wrong. The only other time I had seen that was at Uncle Ben's…oh. Uncle Ben's funeral. The brief joy at seeing her dwindled abruptly.

"This is because of me."

That look of mourning… The atmosphere around the entire house was tainted with it now. "How didn't I notice it before?" Here I am enjoying returning memories from my childhood – from when we were a family – while my last relative and practical mother figure is grieving over the loss of her nephew.

Her nephew who doesn't really exist anymore. There was nothing I could do. I had no way of writing anything and no access to resources; even if I somehow had a phone, I can't even talk! Unless I want to count being able to communicate with other arachnids. What use is that when my family is human?

The wind picked up in a sudden gust, rushing through my fur which hastened itself to flatten down. I shivered, eyes returning to Aunt May's house just in time to see the lights turn off. It was an early night.

"I wonder how common those are now."

My chest heaved another sigh as I reminded myself that there was nothing I could do.

Although, now she was in bed, Aunt May wouldn't be making any more appearances today. I sat up to think more comfortably, glancing at the sky. Evening was slowly approaching and I needed to find a place to stay, but I hadn't seen MJ. I also didn't have anything to go on for finding her, memory-wise.

"She should be a local though."

We were close enough for me to remember her with Aunt May in any case. After some thought, I decided to see if I could find her in the area. I cast one last glance at my old home and hopped from my perch, moving to the next block in Queens with my head on a swivel.

The number of people lessened the deeper the sun sank behind the buildings, and after nearly an hour I forced myself to give up. MJ would either be home in bed already like Aunt May, or she could be out in the city.

"I think we had a late dinner at some point," I reckoned, nodding to myself. "Now you have to find a warmer place for the night, Spidey. You can try again another time."

As much as I wanted to stay and watch over this neighbourhood, the temperatures were not very forgiving out in the open after dark. Having spider endurance meant that I could go without sleep for far longer than an ordinary human and easily be more active at night, like some spiders, but the cold temperatures still hurt. "Maybe there's somewhere nearby?" I had slept in a park once before, but all I could see from here were houses. Although…maybe I could try and smell if there were any grassy areas nearby. "Can't hurt to try." Decision made, I sat up on my haunches and relaxed, inhaling deeply through all six of my nostrils.

"Gah! Bad idea, very bad idea."

Even though I was in Queens it was still part of the city. The acrid scents were overpowering thanks to the recent traffic.

"Further afield it is."

I shot a web from my top-right arm (my web-shooters being unneeded now. I probably smashed them when I mutated anyway) and swung towards the outskirts of town, avoiding the noisier areas of New York. Flexing my inner ear muscles took some getting used to, but it helps me cope with the noise levels my new hearing experiences.

It still has its limits, but a positive thing is that I can somewhat control my webs now – I'm able to retract them back into my arm to conserve the energy required to produce new ones. When using the home-made machines, I could only shoot webs and leave them where they stuck. The natural sticky webbing still degrades rapidly within a couple of hours, but only if I sever it and leave it behind.

It was still the best way to travel, but rooftop hopping suited my purposes for tonight.

Around another half hour later, I was still searching. The temperature was dropping slowly, but steadily. My spider-sense was urging me to get away from the city, where so many things could go wrong, but I wanted to stay as close as I could.

Eventually I managed to find a cave in the side of a mountain on some person's estate, about an hour's travel northeast of Queens. The land stretched on for acres and acres and had a rapid river running through it – forming a waterfall along the way – until it ended in another waterfall falling into the sea. It also had a nice, large forest with plenty of tall trees and, of course, the mountain I was setting up residence in. There was another cave nearer the top, but I decided on the one at the base as it was closer to the river and it was deeper as well. Perfect for the unfortunate times I could succumb to now and again. "Learning curves." Overall, this place was great, especially with the sheer size of it. I got to work settling in.

First, I rolled a large boulder from the around side of the mountain into the cave and set up a web mechanism that allowed me to move it to cover and uncover the entrance to the deeper section while I was in that area. I had to create narrow tunnels for that to work, and air holes so I wouldn't suffocate in there, which meant that I had to use my acid, aura, and twine strands of structural webbing from my bottom set of arms until it was at the near-indestructible density. I was however pleased to note that I was getting faster at it.

There was – thankfully – a natural rock formation that could be used as a shelf at the far end of the right wall, close to the ceiling. I placed my clothes there, alongside a small web-pouch containing my spidey-tracers and their remote signal receiver. Nice to know that all of my belongings relating to my Spider-Man escapades alongside a few extra items of clothing could fit in a small web-bag. The suits were tight though, made for a humanoid body and not a monstrous giant spider. "I'll have to get new ones…"

The last addition to the shelf was a somewhat curved block of wood. I had discovered that I was quite good at carving with my chelicerae. The slow actions and focus it required was able to calm me down when I began thinking too much. After that though, I was officially finished setting up and stepped back to look around.

"That's a fairly good job if I do say so myself… Well, who else would say it? An alien from outer space?"

I shook my head with a snort, returning to the satisfaction of completing my work. Now, for a finishing touch, arguably the most important one for me nowadays…

I stretched my bottom set of arms out again and slowly released the fine, silky webbing, feeling it being tugged by the air. Then I spun myself a pleasant little nest on the ceiling at the back of the cave. It would be fine as it was nowhere near as dense as the mechanism webbing. At this soft, thin density it was easily destructible (all I had to do was spit acid on it), so if anyone ventured over here, it had a quick disintegration. Although I would rather not destroy it if I could help it, seeing as it is quite comfy and doesn't disintegrate quickly on its own, unlike my sticky webbing does after a couple of hours. It soothed me. Another side effect of the monster I am now, I'm guessing. But I did like to curl up somewhere soft when I was humanoid if I recall correctly… I shook my head. That didn't matter. Not tonight.

My bottom set of arms felt strangely empty when I stretched them out. "Well I did use a lot." I shrugged the feeling off and gave everything a last look over. Deeming everything sorted and being quite exhausted from my journey as well as using my acid, aura and webbing, I crawled up and settled for sleep, hoping that I could stay here a while and that the inhabitants of that mansion wouldn't cross paths with me.

I could just feel myself dozing off when it struck.

"The pain!"

I fell from the ceiling and writhed on the cave floor. I couldn't help but let out a pained shriek while thrashing wildly, clutching at various areas as the pain flared randomly, cutting the noise off quickly. It was as agonising as always, but it was so unexpected. When the fit passed, I just lay panting on the ground for a while. These pains had been occurring for the past two months, and were a major, well, pain. I sighed. The mutation pains still existed, to a slightly lesser extent albeit, after my mutation. Releasing a guttural groan, I decided a drink was required. Stumbling to the river on all eights, I gulped the water down greedily, relishing the feeling of the liquid sliding down my throat. Despite the fact that I hadn't heard anything, I glanced around cautiously seeing as I was right out in the open. During that glance, I saw it. That tree. It was an Uaman tree. Recognisable up close because of the unique shape of its trunk and leaves. A quick brush against its bark only confirmed that this was it. Smooth yet somehow grainy. I remembered reading about it in that survival book – it was almost extinct, and the reason why was its sap: one of the most powerful pain suppressors in the world. Researchers had stopped only because of their miscalculations with its properties and the fact that they were literally draining an entire species to extinction.

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I burrowed one of my chelicerae into this endangered and dangerously potent tree and struck a sap vein.

It was…nice, in a strange way. I sucked the sap through a tiny passage in my chelicera that I hadn't even known existed until my spider-sense warned me to stop. Somehow, I could sense that it was a good decision and that I wouldn't be getting those horrible pains for a while.

"… Good riddance."

It looked as if this place had everything I could need. With that, I began walking slowly back to my cave, already imagining being settled in the drapes of my web once again, my surroundings warming incrementally with my body heat. The brief scent of a rabbit reached me as I approached the entrance, and my stomach twisted.

"I'll have to hunt tomorrow…"

With that in mind, I entered my cave and cambered into my nest, falling gratefully into a light sleep with my inner ears almost completely wide open, wary for any danger during the night.

(Fifteen minutes earlier.)

Beast's P.O.V

I was in the lower lab when I heard it. That noise. I almost dropped the flask I was holding due to my surprise. It was such a wild and pained cry. I tried to match it to any animal calls I had heard but couldn't. However, it stopped as soon as it had begun and the animal within me did not appreciate that.

"Just what time is it?"

I looked at the clock.

"Quarter to one in the morning? I never thought time could go by so quickly."

Still puzzled by that noise, I tidied the lab and made my way to my room, only just beginning to realise exactly how tired I was. Certainly, I did not need sleep as much as some of the others, but I did still require a regular sleep pattern.

"I'll have to remember to ask if anyone else heard that noise in the morning."

That was my final thought as I fell asleep.

3rd Person P.O.V

He forgot.