A bright red blur streaks across the side of the New York streets. A web shoots, and the figure swings to the structure opposite. Another shot, and the figure is swinging building to building with speed and grace that would have Tarzan seething with jealousy. The civilians on the sidewalk below could barely turn their heads to see as the red and blue smear fly off towards the looming Wescorp Tower.
Reaching the end of the line, the figure clung to the side of the concrete structure beside its destination, and let itself slide towards the ground. Turning, the costumed form leapt into the bushes below and disappeared.
After a few short seconds, a teenaged redhead emerged from those same bushes, hastily shoving her red and blue costume into the backpack she had left there that morning.
It's not like there's a better use for it, after all, Anna thought as she zipped the pack up and dropped it back in its concealed location. Graduation had been just yesterday; thirteen years of education had reached its close, with Anna's costumed escapades managing to make her both fashionably late and perfectly on time, waltzing onto the stage just as her name was called.
Anna wasn't straying too far in the coming months, however; through some miracle of nature, she had managed to keep her grades high enough to earn her a decent-sized scholarship to NYU, and she would be attending in the fall with Chris. So close, and yet so far, she giggled to herself.
Walking up the steps to Wescorp Tower, Anna marveled at the size of the doors in front of her. She had been coming to the building more than once a week by this point, but yet the doors still managed to intimidate her. The irony of her climbing up the sides of skyscrapers yet being concerned by a big door did not escape her. But it was more than simply the doors themselves.
It was who was on the other side.
There was always a door between her and Elsa, even when they were in the same room. She had never understood why. There was always something in the way, some business, some problem, something that Elsa tried to say was the reason she couldn't deal with Anna at the moment. Anna knew better - it didn't take spider powers to see Elsa's anxiety issues – but everyone else acted like they were in denial. Their father had always balked at the idea of getting Elsa therapy, always insisting there was nothing wrong with either of the girls. Whether he was truly blind to Elsa's issues or simply ignoring them she never knew, but they certainly got worse after he was gone.
Anna had been visiting Wescorp for nearly 8 months now, ever since Elsa got the job as an electrical engineer. Her visits tended to begin with finding Elsa and end less than a minute later with Elsa faking a reason not to deal with her. She used to impose, to try and watch from outside Elsa's office and lab, and also used to wander around the building pretending she had a reason to be there. She had been very intrigued upon learning about Wescorp's expansive biological programs and had snuck into the spider room at one point; of course, how was she to know that there was no glass separating her from the not-so-friendly genetically altered mutant arachnids? You'd think OSHA had never once paid the company a visit.
Anna wasn't dumb enough to not realize that continued snooping would, more often than not, result in death rather than super spider-powers, and so she now simply left after she failed to get Elsa's attention. Wasn't going to stop her from coming, though.
So why did she keep returning? By this point Anna almost didn't know. It was an instinct, a driving force pushing her to reach out and grab Elsa, to bring her back, to connect like she knew they could and should. But even as one part of the brain forced her to keep coming back, the rest of her was well aware of the futility of her endeavors.
She pushed the doors open and entered.
-scene shift-
Harry Weselton stared at his father, dying in his bed. He couldn't quite believe what he saw.
Norman was green, a sickly green the color of vomited grass, the hair on his head and moustache falling off onto the sides of his face. His hands, violently shaking, were claws, with daggers for fingernails. His breath came in ragged gasps.
He pressed a small drive into Harry's hands. He told him it contained all of his work, all his research in fighting the disease, everything he had spent years on, trying and failing to develop a successful cure.
And then he dropped the bombshell.
The disease is hereditary. And Harry was just at the age where he would start to see the effects.
-scene shift-
Elsa stashed her tray on the cafeteria counter and tossed her soda can in the recycling. She mused, as she pressed the up arrow for the elevator, that it almost felt degrading to be eating like this. Wasn't college supposed to be the end of eating like this? Couldn't she go out to get her own meals?
Well I could, she thought, if the rent wasn't so damn high. And everything else.
She heard the ping of the elevator arrows, and turned to face the doors about to open. She soon wished she hadn't.
"Elsa! Hi!"
Elsa squirmed at the sight of her sister, looking so excited that one would guess she had drunk enough coffee to kill a lab monkey. She looked around. People were looking in her direction. She couldn't not get on. Reluctantly she stepped into the elevator, saw that Anna had already pressed her floor number (nearly twenty-five floors up), and withdrew to the side, pretending to watch the news feed on the convenient TV monitor on the panel in front of her.
After staring briefly at the blonde, with her lab coat and spectacles, Anna peered over her shoulder as the doors closed. "Oooooh, what's on? Is that the news or something?"
"…Anna… you know I'm not comfortable with you coming here…"
"I'm just asking cause I wonder if they're actually talking about something interesting for once. Every time the news is on around here it's always about that Spider guy or whatever…"
Elsa seemed to perk up inexplicably. "The Spider?"
"Yeah, you know, that costumed real-life superhero that can like shoot webs and stuff…"
Elsa seemed offended Anna was talking to her like that. "I know who the Spider is. I've seen him. He was…"
"Him?" Anna interjected.
"I think it's a him, it sounds like a guy trying to do a girly voice or something, anyway…"
Even though Anna intentionally did a more masculine voice in costume, and intentionally shielded her gender, she still felt a little annoyed at Elsa mistaking her identity like that. "I dunno, most people I know think he's a she."
"Anyway, I saw him or her or whatever swoop down and stretch a web across the street to stop a big pileup when a car broke down in an intersection. It was amazing. Everyone started to get up and cheer and he gave a little speech about how we needed to keep being the good people we are, how important we are… and he looked right at me when he said it."
Anna remembered the incident, and the speech, but she didn't remember Elsa being there. At all. She certainly didn't remember looking at her. But she smiled and beamed at Elsa. "Wow. That must have been so exciting!"
"Yeah... it was…." Elsa said as she seemed to drift into a trancelike state. Anna was in shock. That was the first time Elsa had described an event to her in years. Certainly the longest conversation in months. And the first where Elsa wasn't trying to force her away.
The ping of the elevator seemed to snap Elsa out of it. "Oh no," she breathed. "Oh no no no…"
"Elsa, what's wrong?"
"Anna, I'm busy, I'm really really busy, I'm working on this power plant project and if I don't have something to show by tonight I could get a big pay cut and oh no no no…"
"It's okay, Elsa, I won't bother you, I can just watch and…"
"No, Anna," she said, rushing out of the elevator and down the hallway. Anna didn't bother to chase her. This behavior wasn't new.
But as the doors closed behind her, Anna noted the progress she'd made. She certainly hadn't expected anything like Elsa's little story on the ride up. Elsa had talked to her. Truly, unequivocally talked to her.
Although Anna could tell that even for Elsa, that little obsession with her alter-ego was strange. I hope she's not in love, she thought to herself as the elevator reached the bottom.