Hey everyone, happy Friday and time for an update. I usually never have anything to say in the beginning of these updates, oh well. Enjoy.
Chapter 4: Bitten
Jay gazed around in slightly fear to the large laboratory area with various lab tables and glass containers that housed thousand of different species of spiders. Each table was filled with various computers and others had the small glass dome containers and even others had large glass cages. He felt a bit scared at first, but was more curious. What were they doing here anyway? He heard ragged breathing quiver behind him and glanced over to the grey ninja as he looked pale and clammy. "You alright man?" he wondered for his arachnophobia.
Lucas glanced around to feel like he was going to collapse to the spiders near. Some large and some small. Hairy or slim. And even deadly. It all brought him back his childhood fear. "It's like being seven again." he muttered under his breath and started taking deep breaths. He felt something skitter on his sleeve to jump with a quiet yelp to hear someone snicker and turned to his cousin as he knew that snicker from anywhere. "Lloyd!" he shouted. "Not funny!"
The auburn teen laughed at the water ninja to his small scare as it was only a joke. Like from this morning. "Oh lighten up." he smirked. "It was only his hands. Not the real deal."
"But still." Lucas retorted harshly. "You know how much I hate spiders and are scared of them."
"I'm sorry if I didn't know you had arachnophobia." Jay's uncle apologized. He should've noticed the signs when they all stepped inside and hearing his ragged breathing. "You think you can go on or need to step out?"
The grey ninja shook his head in response and slowly caught his breath to ease his heart. The small rush of adrenaline past in his veins and recollected his posture. "I-I'll be fine." he replied. "As long they remain sealed away and not on me, we're good. Otherwise this lab will be flooded. Or my cousin doesn't perform the same stunt again." He was received with a nervous laugh from the small ninja as he gave him a death glare for the prank and fixed his sweatshirt.
Ben smiled softly to the determination on his face but could see the glint of fear in his hazel grey eyes to slowly nod. "Alright then, if you're sure." he said concern. "Feel free to browse around. My assistants will be happy to show you our research here." He heard soft heels clicking on the tiled floor approaching near the group and turned to smile. "Why here she comes now even."
Jay shifted his eyes toward the sound to feel his heart stop and began beating rapidly to the girl. She was around their age group with snow white blond hair resting on her shoulders. Eyes were a light shade of crystal blue and skin was pale and soft from the eyes of other saw. Underneath her white lab coat, she wore a light blue sweater and black skirt with long black socks that hiked up on her calves. The lightning ninja couldn't stop himself blushing as he felt his cheeks become warm and blinked to a familiar fragence wafted into his nose. Lilacs. he guessed.
"Doctor Walker," she spoke softly and quiet. "Who are these people? Are we suppose to have new interns in on your day off? They don't look like the kind for science, especially the boy in the back."
"Hey!" Lloyd remarked.
"And who are you calling interns?" Kai rebutted. "Do you know who we are?"
"Calm down, calm down, there's no need to start a fight." Ben said calmly while motioning his hands down. He turned to the girl to softly chuckle. "And no Gwen, these aren't the new interns. Dawn is taking care of that after lunch. This is my nephew, Jay." He pulled Jay over to him and the girl was received with a slight blush, a shy smile and wave. "He and his friends are the Ninja of Ninjago." Gwen crystal eyes became slightly wide in surprise to see the Ninja in front of her and in regular clothes than their normal attire. "Everyone, this is my second lab assistant for genetic research, Gwen Stacy. She's one of the best and brightest students I have here. She's also the chief of police's daughter. So I watch out if I were you. He-he."
Jay felt struck with awe to the sight of the girl in front of him. He couldn't stop blushing as the girl smiled at him. He never felt this way before to the sight of a cute girl. Almost like when he first laid eyes on Nya. Blushing, eyes drooping, clammy hands, and ask the question of color with a cracked voice. But he then pulled himself back from his trance as he remembered he was dating Nya. He hoped she wasn't seeing the blush to the girl in blue or even Kai catching him falling in love with another girl. He would be dead before he knew it. The blue ninja shook his head more and looked at his uncle. "So ca-can we now look around?" he asked sheepily to be away from Gwen and closer to Nya.
His uncle raised a grey brow at his nephew weirdly to nod. Jay gulped a little now. He was hooped now. "Alright then." he said. "Gwen, can you take the lead of our subjects."
The lab assistant smiled softly while bowing her head in a sincere nod. "As you wish, Doctor Walker." she said and began leading the way with the Ninja looking at her confused and followed after her, but Jay. "We will now begin with out first subject..."
Jay breathed a sigh of relief as he could not look like an idiot finally. What was that all about back there with Gwen. He couldn't facade the scenario. Was he...in love!? No, he was with Nya. The samurai he loses focus on when training with her or watch her train alone. Fixes mechanics on the ship and vehicles. Watches romantic movies in the game room on stormy nights. And even loves the color blue. He had to shake his head to rub his temples to fix everything like it was a difficult puzzle.
He felt a strong hand pat him on the back to almost cause him the loss of balance and looked over to see Cole with a smug grin on his face. What did he want now? "I saw that blush, Lover-boy." he smirked. The Ninja of Lightning hazel eyes then widen to gulp loudly to bob his throat. He felt hooped now. "But don't worry, I won't tell Kai about it. Nya will find out though on her own though. But now and for good, it's safe with me." and walked past him to join with the others. Jay felt nervous, but more relieved that the black ninja was on his side to smile a little. At least he had someone to trust him on. He drew in a deep breath and gingerly ran after to join them.
"As we know this special one known as the Jumping Spider," Gwen spoke to the gathering group. "It has the ability to jump in great lengths to capture its prey without the use of a web." Everyone watched the small brownish spider crawled on the end of a branch and waited. It's pinchers throbbed until it launched itself over a gap to a new branch which held a small cricket and carried it away. Everyone became amazed a little, but not Lucas. "Amazing right?"
"Until they're large in the Underworld and you're their next meal." Lucas grumbled.
Gwen rolled her eyes to pretend on ignoring the comment and the way to another cage. "Anyway, the next spider comes from the Hōa Forest as the Net Trap Spider." she continued. "This little spider can form special nets to loom over their prey and carry three times their own body weight. Such a strong little guy. He's my favorite." Jay watched closely as the small arachnid dangled on a thread of silk and started pulling itself up with a cocooned insect underneath being brought along. It reminded him of a Predators movie when the creature killed its prey and dangled them on wire. "Any questions so far?" Gwen asked.
Silence came from the group as neither had something to say, nor they wanted. Jay peeked his head around to find Nya looming over a small container filled with clear-ish webs and walked over to her side to give her a comforting smile. The samurai turned her head to give him a smile back and turned to the container to look for something carefully. "I can't find this one that made this." she murmured while tucking a strand of raven hair behind her ear. "Almost like it's invisible."
The lightning ninja raised his scarred eyebrow and gazed closer while squinting closer to his glasses. She was right. It was almost invisible to the mass of webs inside. His hazel eyes shifted around until he spotted eight black spots in the back to chuckle a little. "There he is." he pointed out the missing arachnid. Nya turned to where he was pointing at and saw the small thing twitch to stare in awe to look at Jay with an amazed look. "Spiders tend to become invisible when they see a predator so they wouldn't be the next ones eaten. Much more effective than Lucas' mist tricks. He-he." He was received with a small laugh back. "But it works out in many cases like the others."
Nya smiled softly to the auburn teen to see him blush and grabbed his hand to lead themselves back to the group before they got lost. She had to admit he was smart to know about spiders too than just mechanics and other things he told her about. "I gotta say though, it's impressive as you are." she complemented. Jay felt his cheeks burn more as they were with the group, but then flushed at the sight of Gwen to sigh.
Why does this have to be so hard? he wondered.
"And through the process of genetic transferring, we have taken some specific traits and genes of our subjects and created these new geneic developed super spiders." Gwen stated plainly and moved aside to reveal a glass wall with fifteen slots inside. The Ninja stared into each slot to see small red and bluish spiders inside their case and webs. A new species of arachnids. "Thanks to this process, we have determine now to know whether or not these little guys can survive in dangerous enviroments." she continued. "Such as the Toxic Bogs for example. And we even noticed that they have a special gene that they can self heal. These fifteen will be introduced into the wild to see if-"
"There's fourteen." Nya exclaimed.
The lab assistant became quiet and everyone near her turned to face her. Even Jay raised his scarred eyebrow curiously. How did she see only fourteen in there? "I beg your pardon?" she inquired.
In a quick reply, the samurai reached to point at the top row, middle square on the glass wall. Everyone peered closely to see what she looking at to see a small square only filled with webs inside; missing. "One's missing." she stated. Intrigued, the lightning ninja peered closely to see if any of the other squares had two of the red-bluish spiders inside, but each had one only. They had to wonder where it went.
Unbeknownst to the group, above the floor from the group nested a small web with a small red-bluish spider in the center. Its eight beady black eyes gazed around the small group to have its pinchers throb and attached a thin line of silk from its spinnets and slowly climbed down using its four back legs. Stealthily and quietly, the small genetic arachnid landed on the shoulder of a teen with burnet hair and a grey sweatshirt. It began to climb down on his sleeve.
"Good." Lucas huffed, not knowing the missing spider on his arm. "One less spider to deal with." A small rush of adrenaline pulsed through his veins as he felt something brush his neck to have him yelp in surprise and quickly stepped back while swatting the back of his neck to think of another spider on him. But unknown to him, he accidently bumped his back to a rather large tank than to the other ones to knock the lid off with his hood dangling inside. And for a rather large spider to look upward to. The water ninja labored his breathing to control his racing heart and heard the familiar snickering that turn to a laugh. He growled to the culprit. "Lloyd!" he growled. "When we get back home, you're in huge trouble and I will make you endure fear like you never seen before."
Small laughs and giggles fill the room from the small group. Lucas' cheek burned up with anger and embarassment to glare at them. They all, except for Jay's uncle, Gwen, and the surrounding scientists that worked around gave them odd looks, had to laugh for the water ninja's little jump scare to slowly stop from his death glare. Kai snorted. "Oh lighten up." he laughed to catch his breath. "Like it wasn't real though."
Anger burned through the burnet's body to shift his glare at the fire ninja. Jay had seen Kai's look drop more to a face of panic. "Not great though to have your worst nightmare crawling all over you." he retorted with a small hint of malice in his throat. "How would you feel if you had elves or gingerbread over you, Kai?" Jay had to think it over on that statement to gulp quietly on the thought of his phobia. Clowns surrounding him would have him screaming for mercy. Annoyed, the Ninja of Water sighed while running his finger through his shaggy hair. "I just need air for now. Being in here wasn't a good idea from the start." He turned on his heels to start his way out.
Panic rushed through Lloyd's eys as he noticed a large, hairy black spider crawled on the hood of his cousin's sweatshirt. It was much larger than a tarantula even. Everyone noticed and Jay's throat throbbed in fear as it crawled closer and closer to his shoulder with everyone stuttering to figure out how to break the news. "Uh...Lucas?" the lighting ninja squeaked.
The Ninja watched him stop in his tracks to hear him growl lowly. He was going to find out one way or another now. Anger began to bubble inside the grey ninja as he felt eight fingers dance on his left shoulder. He had had enough now. "Lloyd, I swear if it's you again, I will not hesistate to drown you." he threatened him without turning back. "You got me twice, but the third is enough!"
"Uh...Lucas?" Lloyd squeaked quietly. "That's not me."
Panic now rushed into his hazel grey eyes as he looked as he looked over his right shoulder to see his cousin was far back from him and slowly looked over his left shoulder. He was then greeted with eight black eyes and a hairy leg brushing his cheek. His heart stopped beating while turning pale as it felt real than this morning and screamed to have more adrenaline pump into his veins and start swinging his arms around and hazardly to hopefully dislodge the large hairy arachnid. But he instead swatted the small red-bluish from his arm and it landed on Jay's left jacket sleeve.
Jay snorted at first but then broke into a laughing fit as he watched the grey ninja dance around with the large spider clinging onto dear life. He had to stop to breath but continued to laugh as it was more amusing than the others did. This was better than this morning. However, the spider on his arm began to climb down on his sleeve while he clutch his stomach and climbed onto his wrist to have its pinchers throb until they broke skin and pinched. "Ow!" the blue ninja winced to jerk his hand close to him and moved his sleeve a little. He was greeted with a small white welt with two puncture wounds on his wrist and looked over to squint his eyes as a small red-bluish spider crawl away under a shelf rack.
Lucas stopped spinning around, realizing it wasn't going to help him remove his worst fears, and unzipped his sweatshirt to slip free and toss it away. The Ninja watched the bundle move until the large spider climbed out and stalked over to Lucas. And Jay shifted his eyes from the bite to watch Lucas conjure a spear made from water to a striking poise as it got closer. "Stop stop stop." he heard his uncle shout. Ben rushed over to kneel over and held his hand out. The rather than larger tarantula stopped but climbed onto his hand and was lifted up. "Nothing to be afraid of." he said. "The Goliath Bird Eater wouldn't harm you. He just scared that's all." He walked over to its cage to set it in and closed the lid. He then sighed. "I'm sorry if that happened. But maybe this wasn't a good idea. Best we leave now. Gwen, you mind showing them the way out? Jay, we'll have to do lunch another day, okay? I got other errands to take of and meet up with your aunt."
A bit of disappointment washed over the blue ninja as this would be their departure until another visit. And they haven't seen each other in months. But he had to agree by the way Lucas was shaking after enduring his fear up close and personal. He now felt bad for laughing at him. He took another peek to his bite to shrug as it was probably a normal bug bite and shifted his gaze away. "Jay, come on." he heard Laurie call after him and followed after them while snatching the grey ninja's sweatshirt from the floor to jog after them.
Unbeknownst to him, he never noticed the large computer screen behind him that displayed the different species of spiders. And a particular spider appeared on the screen. Small, red-bluish tint on its body. Genus Species: Unknown. Enviroment: Unknown. Venom Capibility: Possibly Deadly.
Possibly Deadly.
Possibly deadly, huh? Oops did Jay get bit by the wrong spider? Or did he get bitten by the right one for his...spider abilities? To Liliana Dragonshard, your waiting anticipation for Jay getting close to Spiderman is hopefully over. If not, you're gonna have to wait longer. I have some news to announce, next week I go back to classes so the updates may be slow depending what goes on for both classess and work. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the update, leave a review if you wish to and I hope to see you all next week. :)