ARACHNE
A WORM/Spiderverse story
by Tangent

Taylor... No. Arachne. Arachne examined herself in the bureau mirror. Over the past week since her five day stay in Brockton Bay General's infectious disease ward she had discretely hit several different thrift shops spread out across Brockton Bay in order to acquire a few "necessities." All duly paid for with her meager allowance, or using money her dad had given her for larger purchases (unlike the doctors, who had no way of knowing, Danny did actually notice that his daughter now needed larger bras than what she had been using - he just wasn't going to buy them himself), as she was going to be a hero, not a thief.

Her current costume, done up in the same over all design that she wanted to use for her eventual primary costume, was made from several black theater body stockings, a white hoodie, and a red shirt with a blue spiderweb design, all cut up and sewn together once again into the configuration she envisioned, using fingers far more nimble than they used to be.

As an after thought, she had added a pretty blue spider logo on the back to match the color of the shoe bits she had decided to use.

She wasn't sure why she wanted the blue shoe bits, but it just felt right to have them.

Sure, it wouldn't provide nearly as much protection as her primary costume would once it was finished, nor look as good, but to be fair, it probably looked better over thermal underwear than the her main suit would (her tiny allies were perfectly capable implementing the special defensive weaves she had thought up while under her direction). And it was ready now, with the caveat that she would be using the one piece of her main costume that was ready - the mask.

And the reason for all this rush was that she finally had a working set of the webshooter design she had thought up to go along with the web fluid formulas she had been writing down so meticulously since even before she had been released from the hospital.

And boy, wasn't jotting down and hiding those notes a mini-adventure in and of itself with all the doctors and nurses coming in and out at random times and Bobbie as a study buddie one bed over.

Yeah, Bobbie seemed to be becoming her first real friend since Emma betrayed her, unlike that faker, Julia. It helped that Bobbie hadn't actually shared any classes with either Taylor or her tormentors, and hadn't ever been part of Emma's 'In Crowd' either. And with Winslow still shut down due to so many of the faculty being under investigation, a lot of students were being transferred, at least temporarily, to the other schools. Both Bobbie and she had ended up being among those taken in by Arcadia, so they had come to an agreement to continue being study buddies in hopes of being able to qualify for staying there if and when Winslow was ever opened again.

That didn't mean that Taylor was going to trust her new friend with every little secret. Especially not with her cape identity.

It would probably be a long time before Taylor came anywhere even close to trusting anyone that much again, if ever.

Taylor huffed, and then did some preliminary stretches while she cleared her mind of such negative thoughts.

Tonight would be her first patrol as a hero

She was, perhaps rightfully so, a bit nervous. But also excited.

Carefully opening her bedroom window to sneak out, then shutting it quietly afterwards as she clung to the wall.

Yeah. New England coastal weather in January. The thermals had been a good idea. She was definitely going to keep this version of her costume to wear over her primary one on cold days, even after it was finished.

Now... where to go for her first patrol?

Aisha huffed in frustration.

Sure, the black leotard she had liberated while playing with her new invisibility power (along with all the other junk she had wanted in the spur of the moment) was sufficiently form fitting to showcase her new tits, but the white leather spider design cutout she has sewn over it turned out to be too stiff, totally defeating the effect she had been going for.

Okay, she had done her invisible streaker thing in all the other schools, a few stores, and the mall, just for kicks. And almost losing her stashed clothing more than once because she hadn't exactly stowed them in the best hiding spots when she had pulled those stunts, but really, who wouldn't do exactly that if they could turn invisible?

And it would totally drive Brian nuts once she got around to telling him about it, which was an added bonus. Not that she understood what the big deal was, since Narwhale, one of the big heroes up in Canada, went around naked all the time under her forcefields anyway and nobody ever gave her flack over it as far as she could tell.

She was totally going to call herself Black Arachnia once she finally made her big Brockton Bay debut! Both spider themed and already her PHO account name (selected in honor of the coolest Transformer ever, in any version of the show).

Still, too stiff or not, she wasn't about to redo the whole thing from scratch at this point. Her costume, consisting of mostly black everything, from boots to mask, was pretty much ready. All she had to do was get the stupid airsoft pistol she had stolen adjusted so that it could actually launch her impact webbing without setting the finicky things off again.

Hmmm... Maybe she should go out and get some glow in the dark paint to paint over the spider with while she was waiting for the ball of webbing to dissolve and free her glove and pistol?

Yeah, and maybe some spikes to add to her bracers and shin guards while she was at it! That would be cool. And a leather jacket option!

Oh, so many things to pick up, and no need to pay for any of it thanks to the power of invisible discount shopping...

Greg's grand costume was done on the cheep, consisting mainly of some sports gear, a red baclava with a spiderweb print, and a red, black, and blue hoodie he had added black webbing and a front and back giant white spider logo to.

Hey, it sort of matched the costume ideas that had come to him while he was sick, so he considered it to be good enough for his purposes. Besides, given his increased strength, jumping ability, and how he could now crawl across walls and ceilings, it fit the general theme of his powers as far as he could tell.

He also had some ideas for some sort of web formula and some obviously Tinkertech devices to use it with, but he wasn't even going to try making any of it until after he had established his reputation as a hero. Mostly because he didn't want to be known as a chemical Tinker in the same town the Merchants were in.

He didn't see the need to write down any notes. As a Tinker, he was sure everything would come to him once he actually needed the formulas and designs.

The one bit of Tinkertech he was building was the four armed waldo harness idea that had come to him, because it was just too damn cool not to use! It was maybe a quarter of the way done already, built from parts he had salvaged and scrounged up from the junkyard and various abandoned properties, and if he could get it to work right it would effectively make him his own three person team. Sort of.

Now if only he could think of a cool enough name...

Bug Man? The Human Arachnoid? Spider-Guy? The Brazilian?

So many good choices! How was he ever going to decide!?

"Thanks for helping me with the auto-emote lens frames for my helmet, Armsmaster."

"It was an interesting project, Webb, even if I do not really see an actual need for them."

"I had to do something in order to get the PR department to stop hassling me about my wanting to use a full helmet. I gotta have some way for the public to be able to relate to me after all. Not that I disagree completely, mind you, but I've kind of gotten used to full PRT field armor and like the idea of being generally damage resistant even with my increased ability to dodge."

"Did Director Piggot inform you of your debut date?"

"Next month, once they're sure that I'm clear of any Master influences from the Alchemax spider. I'm not even allowed to really build any of my Tinkertech without authorized supervision yet, which is why I asked you for help with the eye piece design I had."

"If you've made it this far, I'm sure you'll get cleared once the mandatory observation period is over with. I've seen no signs of your being mastered myself, and from what I understand, your friends Brock and Osborn have stated repeatedly that neither of them have noticed any undue changes in your personality."

"Thanks. Well, it looked like the actuators are working properly, so all we need to do now is test to see if it translates my facial expressions well enough."

"Proceed with test one..."