Gwen's point of view
For the first time ever. Everything was so well defined and distinct. Sharp and crystal clear.
It was like every dust mote that floated beside her in her room, screamed with the innumerable blemishes.
And everything that she was, it felt to her like light itself had a separate spectrum.
Gwen was enjoying every single bit, as every one by one her senses unfolded, revealing them to her.
Smell, sight, taste, touch.
And she became more intrigued to see the world as the way she thought Peter used to see.
So this is it, every time Peter sees the world. This is how everything opens up to him … and now to MJ.
She stared out of the glass window of her car, as she saw a whole new part of the world entirely.
It was ecstatic, it was overwhelming, it was speechless.
She continued her way up to her school grinning a little child.
And during the entire time there was this weird sensation inside his chest, like it was being emptied, hollowed.
She needed something. But she didn't know what she wanted.
But still she moved on.
What could actually go wrong right now, right?
She was ready to take on the world, now more than ever.
She leaped out of the car.
"Careful Gwen, you might fall." said her Mrs Stacy.
"Oh no mom, I don't think I will ever fall down," came back a perky reply from Gwen.
Mrs Stacy shook her head as Gwen leaped off and went to her school, the spring in her step undeniable.
Gwen on the other hand, felt like jumping, rushing, like her legs been sleeping for so long. She longed to run right now. Seeing her feet move across the pavement with quickness, she didn't even realize that she was actually running.
She knew that if she could right now, she could lift herself several feet of the ground and that won't be a big deal for her. It felt like she could hear her feet.
She could tear the streets and the asphalt if she wanted to.
And she wanted to do so, so very bad.
She knew that she couldn't.
She had to hold on to these temptations a bit longer now.
She had time with her.
She had could try so many things now.
The uncanny sense of clarity had suddenly had left her completely baffled.
She felt like she could know things, think of things. Like a part of her mind was unused, dormant. Like a completely separate part of her mind could process and slow the time to her needs.
She could see people slow down around her. Her actions were slow too but that was all up to her now.
She could move them and control the speed of her movement all up to her own accord and there was nothing stop her now.
The day was a breeze for her.
She could answer questions and could do her homework at the same time.
Like her mind was running on a completely different level and best of all it would always crank up with perfect ease to adjust, just to her needs.
Information retention and concept grasping was a joke to her.
When she saw the meaning to all this, there was one thing that was missing. Everything had been perfect except one small thing.
What was it?
Peter hadn't been to school that day.
Was that it?
She knew that something obviously off about him. Other than all the obvious facts that she knew.
She feel a link, a broken chain, left wild to move around, all rusty and dusty trying to clamp itself onto someone.
Was that Peter?
She had to figure it out. But she did not know how.
Maybe things were finally beginning to clear up now.
Maybe it was the sense that Peter had in him, the sense that he called the spider sense.
She was scared a bit. She was honest about that with her, but she was ready to take it all in.
Just at the end of the day, there was an alleyway up at the Midtown High.
Gwen quietly snuck herself out and stood there at the end of the wall, facing it and thinking about the time when she heard Peter tell her about the things the stuff that he had first felt when the spider bit him.
As she thought about them she could now relate the sensation that Peter might have felt and the sensation that she now felt, was like a lot lighter, almost synchronous to keeping her feet on the air, almost floating. The itchy feeling at the back of her waist and backbone had started to recur all over again.
But this time, she let it out.
She embraced it, wholly.
She wanted to take it all in, all at the same time.
So the arms manifested out of her but this time the time it took for complete manifestation was much less and quicker.
It tore the back of her black tank top thereby almost ripping her top to shreds but it came clean off this time out of her that left behind holes.
Once again the three pairs of hands came out flying out of her back. They were limp. Like senseless. Most of the time they were involuntary, like she was unable to completely control them to her wish, like it had a mind of its own.
She looked at the arms lying behind, limp, moving around here and there. It just felt like she was being subjected to a very high dosage of morphine at her back and hence her inability to sense anything other than that. There was this weird sensation right there, like her head trying to figure out a way to move the new limbs that had just suddenly come out.
She concentrated this time. Putting in just a fraction of her will to see if there was something that she could do to move them on her own accord.
It was difficult in the beginning.
She felt for her limbs first, tried to reach them like a pair of tentacles, shackling them, ensnaring them with her mind, to keep them under control, bend them to her will.
It took sometime but soon they were just like any other limb on her body. She moved her limbs and looked at every inch of her new limb, as Gwen twisted them around half expecting them to mutate into something else again.
She was on the cusp of mutation. Who knew that they would stop right there.
She tried to feel her hands this time with her own arms.
She felt like there was something inside her grow, like a protective shield around her. Her left and right hand moved and cusped her own new hands and squeezed it lightly. The feeling was of course completely different. But something about it, made her feel strangely soothing.
It was like a touching her back, but she was the person was her and the feeling was very faint..
Nice.. So what more can I do right now other take out extra limbs.
That was when her new hands went berserk. They almost felt like she was trying to mock them.
And in reply to her mocking, they pulled her. And they flung her body across at the wall.
The sudden movement and the ferocity with which she was thrown scared her.
She gritted her teeth and her hands and feet balled up, bracing in to take in the impact.
But only there was no impact.
Gwen slowly opened her eyes..One eye at a time.
Where ever she was hanging was rough, like bricks that made the wall that made the wall in front of her that she was looking at it.
Her heart skipped a beat when she realized when exactly what happened.
She was looking at an horizontal wall, like she was standing at it and it made no difference to her in any way.
She looked behind.
The broken pavement where she had been standing previously lay in front of her like a wall.
God, finally this is happening.
Gwen had been expecting this to happen anytime now.
"WHOWOHO". She screamed with excitement as the exhilaration was proving to be bit more to her.
She willed her arms this time to carry her forward. Her feet and her primary fore limbs complementing her thoughts and actions at the same time.
Her arms flowed along with the walls.
She was fast.
Her hair moved around wildly, along the direction of the wind.
Her eyes were wide with excitement.
Seemed to her like her speed increased with every pace.
Like every blink of her eyes were slow, the bricks moved past her, leaving behind only blurry outlines.
She reached the terrace of the building that she was on.
Her mind calculated side by side, clocked and imagined how much time would it take to reach the top floor.
It would have taken her not more than four seconds.
She was quick and so much fast.
Taking a mere four seconds to climb up to a terrace which was six floors was something was something.
She breathed in the air, the buildings lined up side by side.
Could she just leap off, just like Peter does? Those awesome jumps, long and quick that allows him to almost leap of from one building to the next without even using his web.
Could she do it?
The doubt and confusion toned her and deep within it conjured up something else.
It was almost like doubting her, rejuvenated her.
The adrenaline rush was what she needed to warm her up.
It tore her innards, the confidence was surging inside her.
She could do it.
She ran. Her feet almost covering two the three meters with every step she took. Felt almost like flying.
She reached the edge of the building and leaped off the edge.
She pushed herself.
Her legs and arms moved, tearing through the air. Like a streamlined body.
Almost like grasping the wing or rather, the wind carried her.
She plummeted down. The next building was already below her.
She lost altitude and her feet made the touch down, double rolling up to absorb the impact.
It was too easy for her.
Like she was born into it.
She smiled at herself.
Again she ran, leaped off the next building. It was a breeze for her. It almost felt like normal running to her.
She was going to enjoy even more.
It was more like a promise that she made to herself.
Peter was busy, she could handle herself.
She was independent. She could do it.
She leaped off building to building, trying to understand the magnitude of strength that she has now. The strength that she had on her fore and hind limbs.
Like they had remained latent for so long, aching to emerge out.
There was something going on with her wrists with all the four pairs of them.
Just then it had begun to itch violently, like a fungal infection but only this time it was something, a substance of great elasticity sticking out of her wrists and on top of that like several mosquito bits all together at once.
Gwen quickly paced to a complete halt. She started to itch her wrists like crazy.
She wanted to rip her wrists off.
The other pair of arms were somehow managing to keep the itchiness at bay but she had a very difficult time controlling the two primary arms of hers.
Gwen was getting really pissed right now.
Curse this itchiness.
It almost felt like something was trying to pry open her wrists to get out. Like tear through her flesh to get out.
After a few seconds of rigorous scratching she inspected the affected area that had been bothering her so bad, her wrists had become swollen and inflamed.
A whitish like fluid, a bit like a net like structure patch had developed on her wrists.
Her thought immediately moved to the one thing that she wanted so bad along with the rest of her powers, just like MJ had.
Her own biological webbing and that she no longer had to depend on any external device like the ones Peter had.
Only then she would show Peter that she is a force to reckon with.
She was going to show it.
Although she hated to say it, but to her it was more of personal vengeance for her.
After what that has ever happened, after everything that has happened…
That was it.
She would be the best there is.
The determination that flowed within her was like iron.
Unbreakable and infrangible by nature and for some reason, her resolve had become more iron clad now..
She pointed her wrists up in the air. She had to get this done.
She had to get this done absolutely right.
She focussed on the next building. She concentrated hard.
Brought her right wrist and aimed at the small edge of the wall.
She willed her webs to fly away.
No.
It was not going away.
She removed her focus and looked back, stared at her right and left wrist.
How will I ever get them to work?
She thought hard.
Gwen pinched her wrists hard, trying to pull out the web strands from her wrists but to no avail.
It remained right in its place.
Like a small pool of silvery fluid.
She jerked her hands hard.
But that did not help her.
She sat down.
Right on the floor, a bit dejected but what could she do?
Suddenly she looked at the three pairs of arms that had erupted from her side, the ones that bore large holes on her tank top.
They had the same small pool of silvery fluid.
Organic webbing that was derived from her blood itself. That her body created.
She took a very good look at her wrists and saw a small puncture with an even smaller holes, like spinnerets on it, all of them held together by muscles.
If this was the case, she had to find a way for her muscles to contract and expanded so that holes might just open up.
She quickly moved her wrists, twisted it at awkward angles trying to finds a way out, any position that would allow her to open up those small holes spinneret holes.
Moved her fingers, bent her thumb, even curled up her middle and ring finger but stretched her fore and pinky finger out stretched it, moved it up and down.
Nothing was helping her.
Now by some very crude and futile attempt, she felt like something spoke to her in an unconscious manner, call it the way of the spirits or simply fate, Gwen felt like someone picked her hands up and straightened it up such that this time her middle and ring finger was faced up, the fore and pinky fingers were outstretched as usual but this time they were just inverted.
Keeping that position, she involuntarily put pressure on the two fingers right at the small of her wrist.
She could see why.
This action pulled the tendons ion her system, forcing the muscles to expand and stretch out vertically, that left behind a small void which ultimately opened up the spinnerets.
Web shot out, like a high powered water gun.
The force was so large that the stream of web travelled past the adjacent building just before falling down after maintaining the trajectory for some time.
"Whoa"
She knew that this was real.
She looked back. Her extra limbs were limp, just awaited for her command.
They looked tamed, for now. Just almost dead, it was almost like mocking her.
The extra pair of hands that she had, were a pinnacle. Like they had a separate conscious of their own but with only one exception.
She could force her will on them but other than that they were basically wild, like the children of the night.
She concentrated and reached for the hidden consciousness, that lay deep within, embedded somewhere deep inside her spinal cord, the involuntary reflexes that triggered such movements inside her, that controlled her arms.
She placed them and tried to force her will on them.
They the consciousness bended and folded on her will.
She did the same for them, put thoughts into her involuntary senses, the way she found out the means to shoot webs.
The way Peter shot webs.
The it struck her. That was it..
That had been the missing link all along.
That was the very way Peter shot webs, the way Peter and Gwen had helped him develop his shooters.
That was the way he could vary the size of the nozzle that opened up the spinnerets that were attached and cone ted to his web pellets.
It had to be it.
It was just like the link Peter had told her about once MJ was injected with the engineered version of his venom.
She had grown quite once again.
Peter.
She loved him.
Crap.
She couldn't get over him.
That was the same thought once again.
She felt bad once again.
Gwen pretended to be strong. Like she could easily get over him but the fact was that it was impossible for her.
She loved him.
She sat down once again.
Her feelings had become intensified and this time it was so overwhelmingly intensified that thwre was nothing she could do except cry her eyes out.
The sun shone upon her golden head, as sparkling tear drops fell from her eyes, like small diamonds that caught the sunlight and reflected it with all its might.
A piercing shriek snapped her out of the mental agony that she was in, raising her head quickly and brought her to the stunning reality that she was in.
She quickly ran and looked down. There were four men, in shabby clothes dressed in rags and two of them had knives and the other two had a revolver.
They had cornered a lady.
It looked like she was in her early thirties.
The lady was undeniably just like her, a hand bag slung by her shoulders, just like the day when she had become the victim of the assault. That fateful day, her experience was still etched deep into her mind. Still ever so fresh.
And Peter was just in time to help her out.
Get her out of the sticky situation and helped her reach her apartment.
She was lucky that day.
The four men now completely surrounded her. The two of them, the ones with knives pulled her bag away from her and flung it away from her.
She screamed helplessly.
This is what New York has slumped to. These people didn't even wait for the dark.
It was still broad day light. The afternoon sun was shinning over their heads with ferocity.
She had to help her. She had to instill manners in theses rotten pieces of meat.
Thoughts came pouring out of her head like an untamed river, her flow of thoughts were dangerously fast.
What she would do after getting down there?
That was the first question that struck her mind.
The precognitive sense that Peter had told her about had not kicked in inside of her and the other two of them had guns.
How could she save herself when herself was so unsure?
She cursed herself. The fear was getting her.
Made her quiver and shake violently deep inside.
This made her want to bawl out.
So that was it. This was all she could do.
The woman down below had no means of protecting herself and she was getting taken down for this. She tried desperately to kick them out of her way but no.
These men were strong and burly.
They won't go down easy.
They ran back to her. Trailed her, followed her.
Gwen looked at all of this. The incident kept playing through her head.
A lady in her prime was going to be assaulted right before her and she was just not brave enough to stop them.
Why?
Just because she was too concerned about her own safety.
So this is what she had slumped to.
But Peter in the other hand looked out for the people. Even when hope was bleak, he would make it a point to find some, in the blackest of all nights and this was something she admire him for so very deeply and on the other hand there was something different about her.
She felt something that was so much synchronous to anger but there was something more to it.
The anger had come from deep within, the very inside of her which tried to break her down, had now become her driving force.
Gwen's eyes had grown serious now. No hint of anything scary, she was confident and she could do it.
She would break their bones just like Peter had done to her assaulter.
The anger that she felt for those assaulters now was impalpable.
The assaulters had already pinned her to a distant wall. One of them slashed his knife on her a twice, that cut the jacket that she was clad in and while the other rummaged through her roughly. Another one had placed his huge hands over her mouth that almost covered her entire face.
Her eyes were cringed up with fear and eyebrows arched up in the extreme pain she was being subjected to.
Something snapped inside Gwen. She couldn't wait a second longer.
She quickly pulled out her scarf had been tucked in her pocket and she turned it into a small mask that covered the lower portion of her face.
She leaped down.
Down the six floors and landed on her legs bending ever so slightly to absorb the impact.
A dull thus escaped her feet as soon it made contact with her feet.
The assaulters had not seen her drop by. They were completely oblivious to whatever was happening behind them.
The four of them were already busy pulling this and that from her.
Tearing up her clothes just like the assaulter had done the same in her case.
The women who had her mouth cupped and covered looked over at Gwen.
She was scared scared shitless.
Gwen could see the faint movement of her jaws and she could vaguely make out "Help me".
Seeing her diverted attention, one by one those assailants turned back to see her.
One of them ran up to her flicking his knife in his wrists.
Going for her face.
The cruel face that the man had looked so very bad that made Gwen want to bash his head into a pile of shit, plant him along the garbage where he deserved to be anyway.
The man had just come within her striking range.
Gwen stayed right there where she stood, she was just getting ready to try an upper cut that she had seen in the Rocky movie that was being screened a few days when she had been all alone, coped up in her bed, with nothing better to do.
She bend down and was just about to do it.
Something snapped behind her back.
Like a ballistic missile, it flew out from her sides and hit him square on the stomach.
The impact was so tremendous that his abdomen had a virtual cavity, a depression formed on it as he took off flying mid air doubling over as his body curled up as any human's desperate physique is to turn over and curl up to absorb the piercing pain that spread through its body like a million syringes poking him at the same time.
His face had put up the worst form of contortion that any human could ever make in history.
As he took flight, like a rag doll as he went and hit one of the assailants who was busy pointed a gun at the hostage, threatening to blow her brains off if she ever made any stupid move.
The remaining two of them stared at her, staring at her wildly with those blank eyes of theirs.
Gwen stood there for a moment, contemplating slowly, comprehensively and meticulously.
What had just happened?
She was going to hit that person but something else got to him.
It was not her fist that got the wind knocked out of his out of his lungs but the sweet feel of her fist connecting with the putrid stink flesh of his was something else entirely.
She was sure of it.
It felt to her like she had punched the first guy but she knew better. The truth was that that she never moved arms.
Her eyes did not betray her.
There was something up.
This time the other guy pulled out a revolver from the back of his overcoat and pointed it at Gwen, his hands were shaking horribly.
Who could blame him?
He was scared shitless.
Mustering all the courage that was left in him, he fired a few rounds at Gwen.
The sound of the bullet firing, the muzzle flash, the feeling of the bullet just barely missing her, pushed her adrenal glands pumping adrenaline into her system.
Intoxicated by the overwhelming amount of adrenaline rush, she took one step.
That was what it felt to her.
A single step was all Gwen needed to come around to him, get inside his circle.
Again right then something grabbed the gun and knocked him with the grip of the gun so hard that he fell down head first on the ground.
She felt the weird sensation again, like she had actually done that, like a physical memory.
The force that she would have felt when she would have actually done that.
Of course, it was her extra set of hands.
How could she have forgotten about them, the blinding speed movement that was almost unregister able by her own mind.
What was up with those freaky arms of her?
But Gwen was already drunk with the sudden surge of strength and confidence, like she was unstable, which she really was.
Guns or not. There was absolutely no chance that they could get her.
Freaked out by the sudden turn of events, the last remaining guy instead of turning back and running, he picked up a pistol, that lay on the ground beside him and without thinking he emptied the entire clip, all twelve of them.
The bullets made waves in the air. She could feel them, a sense tore her up, and once again this time, all her hands tore out and emerged from her tank top.
She dodged.
That was all she did.
Dodging like crazy, her arms twisted her, turned her around, her own sense and the involuntary actions from her spinal cord guided her.
Gwen felt the world spin, twist and turn at the same time.
She felt the webs fly out from her wrists as she made her way to her attacker.
Gwen now, stood just a few feet walking at a leisure pace, cracking her knuckles as she went on.
Still the attacker fumbled before her.
He desperately tried to press open the magazine release. His fat thumb kept moving away from the button, slipping every time.
He was scared.
His nose ran, tears rolled down his face.
Finally he fell down to his knees, as he let go of the gun.
The clanking sound was too distinct.
The surrounding had grown quiet.
It was very obvious. Late in the day, if anyone begins to shoot the people, it is bound to get noticed.
People had slowly began to flock the area.
Gwen let go of the man.
He was scared out of his wits.
Let that will be his lesson. Never to take on any women.
And as for the woman. She looked at Gwen as Gwen looked at her.
She looked like she was literally struck by lightning.
They were vaguely similar, except the fact that Gwen had a scarf that covered the lower region of her jaw.
The woman was just a few inches taller than Gwen.
She went and hugged her tight.
Gwen was suddenly taken aback by the sudden touch.
Her perceived notion was that Peter was always hated by people and there was a small fraction people that always cheered for him and maybe this girl fell within that same group.
"Thank you. I thank you, whoever you are beneath that scarf. But it will better if you go away right now. people have started to flock up now behind you." said the woman, now wiping the last tear drop that hung on her cheek.
Gwen was overjoyed.
This was the satisfaction that Peter felt whenever he saved some one.
It was like a drug to her.
It was made her so happy. Made her ecstatic.
Gwen crawled back to the sixth floor of the building, in a jiffy as the people now swarmed over the area as the police siren followed the commotion.
She leapt forward and back, trying to swing by zip lining across, although she failed in doing that, she was happy.
She realized that they society would do a lot good, if she could really lend a helping to the people of New York.
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So guys that is it. Hope that you liked the two chapters.
And I hope you have been able to take the hint of the next main villain.
The villain that has always challenged Peter every time, testing his resilience, strength and his presence of mind.
Anyway hope that I have been able to satisfy you.
And once again any doubts and queries feel free to leave a PM or a review.
:)