ARACHNE
A WORM/Spiderverse story
by Tangent

"Did you have a good sleep?" Taylor heard her dad ask as she carried her hamper downstairs. She was still wearing her flannel pajamas, not seeing the need to get dressed quite yet on a Saturday with no plans. Now that she was awake, she was already directing her tiny minions in the basement to resume their work on what would eventually be her main costume. She really should see about finding somewhere within easy access where she could gather more of her small allies so that she could perhaps speed up production times.

"It was alright, I guess." she replied, heading through the kitchen into the small backroom, where the washer and drier were located. She thought is was called a mud room, but she wasn't sure. She idly thought about maybe calling Bobbie to see if she wanted to go see either Tangled or How to Train Your Dragon later, in which case she would get dressed sooner rather than later, but for now she intended to work on ideas in her hero notebook until her laundry was done.

No need to risk outing herself to her father just because he might see her costume if he decided to do her a favor by finishing her laundry for her, right?

Aisha picked her costume up off the floor and sniffed it. "Eh, not too bad yet, I guess." she commented to herself. Not that she could put it in the wash anyway because of the leather spider she had sewn on to it. Maybe it was time to hunt down Brian and ask him how he took care of his leathers?

Or she could go out as Black Arachnia and have some fun. Maybe even show herself instead of staying invisible now that she actually had a costume to show off.

Aisha's stomach grumbled audibly.

But first, breakfast! That was the most important meal in a young supervillain's day, right?

Greg woke to someone shaking his shoulders, and blinked groggily at his mother who was looking at him with a concerned expression. "If you're this tired, Greg, you should go back to bed. You don't want to get sick again, do you?"

"Alrigh…" Greg half-spoke, breaking out into a huge yawn before standing up. Gulping down the remainder of his now cold soup, he set the measuring cup in the sink and went up to his bedroom. Double checking to make sure that his costume was safely stowed away and hidden (in a box in the corner of his closet), he took a whiff of himself and decided to take a shower before actually getting into his bed.

Webb entered the meeting room, picked a seat, and sat down at the table, Eddy and Harry taking spots behind him as his PRT escort (selected because they knew him best and presumably would know when his behavior deviated enough for them to confoam him). Director Piggot sat at the head of the table, the rest of what would be his new teammates in the Protectorate ENE (come next month, if everything went well) took up most of the other seats, plus Triumph as the current leader of the local Wards.

Nobody was glaring at him, Assault was grinning like a loon, and Triumph was looking at him curiously. Most likely because this would be the first time he'd ever even been in the same room as Webb. So, all in all, he counted it as a good sign and decided that, at the very least, he himself wasn't in trouble.

"Now that everyone is here," Piggot began, "let's begin. Armsmaster, if you would?"

Armsmaster stood up (Webb had found out from Assault that Armsmaster had, at one point, reinforced every chair in the meeting rooms of both this building and the Rig to be able to handle exceptionally heavy loads) and moved to stand beside the presentation screen, where three images appeared side by side. The first was of a female parahuman of indeterminate age in a well put together full body costume (mostly black and white with red accents and some blue web detailing). The middle picture showed a lanky kid, presumably in his mid to late teens, wearing what looked like a thrown together costume consisting of sports gear and a custom hoodie (Over all, mostly red and black, with blue accents and a huge white spider icon taking up most of the front of the hoodie). And the last picture, looking like it came from some sort of security footage, showed what appeared to be a wall or floor safe floating in mid air in the middle of what looked like either a gun shop or sporting goods store.

"Last night marks the debut of two more parahumans becoming active in Brockton Bay," Armsmaster stated. The screen changed to show several images of the female in black and white, as well as several different people (and things) stuck to the ground or walls in something that looked an awful lot like Webb's own webbing. "Arachne, operating from roughly twenty-three hundred to oh-three hundred, covering a wide area and reportedly stopping five muggings, three drug deals, and one break in. It should be noted that while Arachne did call in each of these incidents, she did so from a different phone each time, either that of a victim she had rescued or one belonging to a perpetrator she had captured. There is no indication that she applied excessive force during any of these incidents, and in each case in which she deployed her webbing, it was reported to dissolve on it's own in about an hour."

"Just like my formulas," Webb commented, cocking an eyebrow, which he was sure was mirrored on one of the lenses of the test helmet he was wearing.

"Indeed," was all Armsmaster said on the subject for now, although Webb was sure that it would be brought up again later in the briefing.

The screen changed again to show several images of the male teen parahuman, who was obviously posing for the camera. "This one, tentatively referred to as Spider-Guy in the reports before you, is thought to have been active from roughly oh-zero hundred, with incidents reported about him until the late into the dawn hours. He has been reported to have stopped two muggings, performed roadside assistance five separate times, and stopped in to purchase hot chocolate and beef sticks in two different all night convenience stores. Like Arachne, their is no indication that excessive force was used at any time. There is, however, no evidence that he has any sort of webbing at this time, despite his choice of costume colors and obvious spider theme."

"Spider-Guy?" Assault prompted with a chuckle. "What, he couldn't think of a name?"

"On the contrary, he has apparently thought of several names, and has yet to decide between them. Among them are Spider-Boy, Spider-Guy, Kid Spider, Wolf Spider, the Brazilian, and the Human Arachnoid."

"The Brazilian? Sounds painful," Assault quipped, earning an elbow to his side from Battery.

"Well, the bite of the Brazilian wandering spider is reputed to be quite painful," Webb added drily.

Armsmaster continued as the screen changed to show the safe again, as well as several other images of apparently floating objects, and boot prints, both in what appeared to be the snow outside of a smashed out store front and along an outside wall heading upwards at an angle for an improbable distance. "This subject, who is believed to be the same one who had first became active on the sixth and has until now been tentatively referred to as Poltergeist, is now being referred to as Ghost Spider as he or she has now demonstrated traits similar to those of the other three spider themed parahumans currently known to be in Brockton Bay: Arachne, Spider-Guy, and Webb."

"I note that only Arachne had any pictures involving any sort of webbing, so I'm assuming you mean enhanced strength and wallcrawling?" Webb asked.

"Correct," Armsmaster confirmed. "It is believed that both Spider-Guy and Ghost Spider had been students present at Winslow High School during the incident on the third, while Arachne herself could be either a student or faculty member present at the time, or perhaps bitten by a different Alchemax spider in a separate, unreported incident."

"So our invisible pranking thief gave finally left enough clues to narrow down the age range?" Assault asked, prompting Armsmaster to change the image on the screen again to show several pictures taken from various store and business security cameras across Brockton Bay. Some depicted apparently floating objects, but all of them depicted a hazy, vaguely humanoid blur, similar to the personal cloaking special effects depicted in several movies and television shows.

"The subject has been determined to be roughly the size of a person in his or her early to mid teens, or a short adult," Armsmaster stated. "It is mostly the timing of her becoming active potentially tying her to the Alchemax incident that implies the youth of the subject, as none of the faculty at Winslow were that short. The cloaking effect, however it is accomplished, apparently becomes less effective whenever Ghost Spider moves too fast, causing the blurring effect shown in these pictures."

"Hey, Dad, I'm heading out to the library!" Taylor (having finally gotten dressed), called out as she headed for the front door. "I want to check a few things online."

"Hold on," Danny replied, "Let me get my coat and I'll drive you there."

"Okay?"

"Also, I was thinking that maybe it was time we did some shopping. I was thinking of getting a new computer for myself, as well as getting a decent internet connection. And how would you like a laptop as a late Christmas gift?"

"Um, wow! That'd be great! What brought this on?"

"The settlement check just came in the mail. A lot of it is going to your college fund, but I think we can afford to splurge a little."

"Okay!"

Greg's mother checked in on him, only to find him still sleeping spread awkwardly across his bed in a tangle of sheets and limbs. She then returned downstairs to the living room.

"He alright?" Mr. Veder asked his wife as she sat down.

"He's fine. Probably stayed up all night again playing that silly game of his."

"Well, as long as he doesn't do it when he has school the next day."

Black Arachnia couldn't stop grinning under her mask as she invisibly followed her brother, having changed her plans when she spotted him earlier. She was finally going to find out where Brian hung out and who his peeps were. All she had to do was follow him as he made way to wherever his secret lair turned out to be. Easy peasy lemon squeezey! With her powers, he'd never know she was there!

Oh, he was approaching a building! It looked like either a factory or warehouse, and had the name Redmond welding on the sign. Now to carefully slip inside before the door shuts...

Woah! No shit? A supervillain gang!?

"Yo, bro! Where do I sign up for this supervill gig!"

"AISHA!?" Brian Laborn could only stare up in shock at his little sister, who was standing upside down from one of the crossbeams of the Undersider's lair, wearing a mostly black costume with spikes, large white eye spots that she could presumably see through, and a huge-ass white spider logo which seemed to glow in the dim light.

Lisa seemed to be equally surprised (for a change), Rachel was shouting, and Alec, asshole that he was, wasn't any help as he was laughing his ass off.

"Not cool, Brian! You didn't introduce me to your friends yet! And I'm Black Arachnia!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"You are not naming yourself after a Transformer!"

"The hell I ain't!"

Lisa's shock transitioned to a wide grin as Rachel grew quiet at the realization that the intruder was apparently Brian's little sister (and thus technically part of the pack already), and Alec rolled off the couch, still laughing.