The Amazing Spider-Girl

Chapter 6

BECA POV

"B-Beca?" He stuttered as his eyes widened at me. I laughed bitterly at him as I walked further into the room. It smelled stuffy, moldy and the room hadn't been redesigned since the 70's judging by the wooden panels on the walls.

"Holy shit you actually know my name? Impressive." I walked around the room and looked at the various framed degrees that hung on the walls. Everything was perfectly straightened and cleaned up, not a pen out of place.

"What're you doing here?"

"Good to see you too 'dad'." I added sarcasm to let him know that he anything but that.

"You know what I mean Bec."

"It's Beca, we're not friends." I seethed at him. "And I think it's time you answered the questions here, don't you think?" He sighed as he combed his hand through his thinning hair and adjusted his glasses.

"You're right." He nodded in agreement. "But not here."

"No. You don't get to decide when it comes to what I do anymore, you lost that right when you walked out on me 14 years ago!" I could feel the anger and resentment starting to boil up inside me the longer I stood there staring at him.

"Maybe that wasn't the best way for me-"

"Maybe?! Are you fucking kidding me?! You left me dude!" I shouted at him. I could feel my chest rising and falling to keep up with my increasing heart rate. My palms ached from my nails digging into them from clenching my fists.

"I LEFT TO PROTECT YOU!" He screamed back at me, his voice booming through the small room. He huffed in frustration, his face turning a shade of red. "I understand your resentment towards me, I really do. I hate myself for what I did to you Beca. The night I left you with your Aunt and Uncle was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, that I am 100% sure off. It was not my brightest moment, but I had to do it. For your protection."

"PROTECT ME FROM WHAT?!" I wasn't going to buy into his act yet, I needed to know for sure that he meant what he was saying, that I could eventually trust the man that I once called my dad. I leaned against the mahogany desk and tapped my fingers on the side panels anxiously. I began to feel a tickling feeling at the back of my head. The sensation was like someone was taking a feather and tickling me with it. The feeling of wanting to swat and stopped whatever was causing the itch. I cocked my head behind me as I heard footsteps getting closer towards us.

He looked towards the door, following my gaze, as a shadow was present through the crack between the floor and the door and I could just make out the outline of a person through the privacy glass. Just as soon as we had looked at the door, whoever was on the other side vanished immediately and silently. I huffed and rubbed the back of my head annoyed, if I kept getting more of those feelings, a migraine was no doubt going to appear like yesterday.

"Look, I promise I will answer any questions you have okay? But this is not the place for them." He grabbed his briefcase off the floor and began to fill it with papers from his filing cabinet. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I shook my head.

"So where then? So help me God if you fucking leave-"

"I'm not." He cut me off as he looked me dead in the eye. "I need to run to the bank really quick to take care of something. Meet me outside this building in one hour. Here, grab some lunch or anything you need. One hour, I promise." He thrust a fifty dollar bill into my hand as he forced a brief smile on his face and just like that he was out the door. Just like that it felt like the night he left, the same similar fashion…rushing, apologizing, promising.

xxx

"Hey Chloe! Wait up!" Chloe looked over her shoulder and saw Jesse jogging behind her on the sidewalk. He matched her pace as they walked across the quad and towards the student parking lot. It was three o'clock in the afternoon and when the final bell rang for the day, students flocked the fields, soaking up the May sunshine.

"Did you need a ride home?" Chloe asked him as she fished in her purse for her keys. She smiled triumphantly when she felt the familiar cool metal of the keychain.

"Um no actually." Jesse scratched the nape of his neck. "I wanted to talk to you real quick…about Beca." This caused Chloe to momentarily pause her movements as she looked to him skeptically.

"What about Beca?"

"Well more of about you and Beca." He clarified, adding the extra emphasis. Chloe saw the look he was giving her and saw through it almost immediately. It was the same look from lunch.

"How many times do I have to tell you Jesse? There is no me and Beca." Chloe's throat tightened as her own words hit her hard.

"Yeah see that's where I'm lost. You do all the coupley stuff, there's even kids at school that think you're together and yet neither one of you can step up to plate and just admit that you have feelings for each other." Jesse ended his speech, looking at Chloe expectantly. He was hoping to see some sort of flicker in her eyes that maybe his words would help her figure her feelings out.

"Jesse, were not- it's not that simple, it's-"

"Complicated. Of course it is, it's Beca. Everything's complicated with her." Chloe opened her mouth, ready to defend her best friend. She didn't like how this was sounding. Jesse held up his hand, asking Chloe to let him finish.

"But that's why she needs you." Jesse looked at her seriously as she looked away, taking in his words. "To uncomplicated things…to make her choices clear." He put his hands in his jean pockets as he leaned up against Chloe's car.

"What if it doesn't work out? What if we do try giving us a shot and we end up breaking up? I can't not have her in my life Jesse. I can't risk that." Chloe rambled as the various scenarios played out in her head. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, she couldn't do this right now, not in front of everybody at school.

"I've seen the way you two look at each other Chloe. It's not going to end up that way. You can't be scared of the 'what if' or you'll never end up happy. You just need to let go. Let go and let yourself be happy. With Beca." He finished as he took a deep breath and waited to gage her reaction to his meddling. He had to do this. For Beca and Chloe. Enough was enough, if the two weren't going to step up, then he was. It was becoming painfully obvious that the two needed each other and who better to play their match maker right? Chloe smiled shyly at him before unlocking her car. She tossed her backpack in the passenger side before turning to the brunette. She rested her left hand on the door and her right against the side of the car.

"I'll see you later Jesse." Chloe ducked and got into her car, pulling her seatbelt on and pulling out of Midtown High School, leaving Jesse and his words behind her.

xxx

"I want to know everything. No bullshit. Why you left, the name change, Oscorp, working at the University…everything." Beca locked eyes with her father who stood in front of the window of his kitchen sipping his tea. Beca was seated at the island counter, her hands fiddling with one of her bracelets. They'd been sitting in silence for around 5 minutes when Beca had grown restless. She needed answers. She deserved answers. Years of inner turmoil and blaming herself for her parents disappearance had finally simmered over and Beca was in no mood for lies or excuses. The ride to her father's house was filled with an awkward silence, neither of them knowing what to say to the other, both figuring it'd be better to wait.

"Where do you want me to start?" He breathed out as he sat down on the bar stool, opposite of Beca.

"Oh I don't know…how about why you fucking left?!" Beca fumed as she clenched her jaw and tensed her body.

"I just want you to know that leaving was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Your mother and I, we had to leave. To protect you."

"What-"

"Let me finish this okay? And then you can ask any questions you want." He pleaded with his daughter whose curious eyes matched his own. Beca nodded and leaned back in the chair, allowing him to go on. He sighed as he struggled to find the words.

"Oscorp was a world leader in genetic research when Dr. Rajit Ratha and I were working together. We were trying to develop a serum that could, if injected, allow the human body to regenerate itself. Much like how a starfish can regrow limbs or how a lizard can regrow its tail. We wanted to save people, create a world without weakness." He looked out the side window at the blue jay that was perched on one of the tree limbs.

"The serum would allow humans to have superhuman characteristics. Re-growing limbs, self-healing, super strength and reflexes. Our job was basically to create a super human. With the vials of serum that Ratha and I had created, we injected the formula into spiders to test out the reactions. " Beca's throat tightened and her palms grew sweaty as she listened to the side effects from the serum. Shit. Shit. Shit. Of course, it had to be the fucking spiders.

"It was only once we had created a few test subject spiders when I found out that Ratha had struck a deal with a foreign military organization to continue funding my research. He went behind Dr. Osborn's back, as well as my own for his own personal gain and profit."

"I discovered what they were going to use it for…weapons, biologically weapons. So I refused, I wanted to part in their sick games. To eliminate me from the picture, Dr. Ratha falsified evidence against me in order to take control of my work, evidence that if it got into the wrong hands, would put the whole family in danger. He wanted me out of the picture completely."

Francis Mitchell looked to his daughter, desperately hoping that she was understanding the gravity of the situation he was in. Beca sat silent, trying to process the newest revelations as to her parents' disappearance. She sat in shock and awe, how the hell had this managed to happen to her? To her family?

Beca felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and then the notification sound. She used the distraction momentarily to gather her thoughts.

1 new message from Chloe: 'Call me when you can.' 4:04 p.m.

Beca frowned at the text. No emoji. No little 'x' at the end. Vague and short.

"What happened next?" The only question that Beca could muster up at the moment.

"I did something to the experiments that Ratha didn't know about. The human DNA that I implanted into the spiders…was my own. Which means that without me, without my bloodline…" He gave a pointed look at Beca who gulped, "Oscorp can never replicate or continue my experiments. I destroyed as much as I could from the archives, but I didn't have time to kill-"

"All the spiders." Beca whispered, finishing his thought. She put her head in her hands as everything was laid out on the table. It all made sense now. As much as Beca hated to admit it, he had a pretty damn good reason to want to leave.

"We had to leave to protect you. If Ratha knew that you existed…he would have come after us and he would have come after you. So we left, dropped anything that could be traced back to us, we changed our names, Dr. and Mrs. Connors…everything. It was as if the Mitchell's never existed."

"What happened to my mom?" Dr. Mitchell looked down as he exhaled.

"You're mother died in a car accident. She was coming home from the hospital, she hadn't been feeling very well and it was pouring down the rain. She was going through an intersection and was hit head on by another car…the paramedics said she died instantly."

A few moments of silence passed between the two, each of them waiting patiently for the other. Beca ran her tongue over her teeth, a habit she did when she was nervous or timid. She laughed sadly as she shook her head.

"This is so fucked up. Everything." Beca shook her head as she leaned her chin on her hand. Dr. Mitchell reached his hand out to try and comfort her but in the process his arm hit the telephone off of the receiver and it began to tumble to the ground. Beca's eyes widened as she threw her left arm out and caught it mid drop.

"Impressive reflexes…" Dr. Mitchell said in awe.

"You don't even know the half of it dude." Beca set the phone back on the receiver. "Why didn't you take me with you? When you left?"

"Because I wanted to let you have the chance at a normal life."

"Right because growing up with no mom or dad or explanation as to where they are is totally normal! Having to explain to everyone why you don't have parents! Having a father who ran out on you when you were only four! Getting bitten by fucking mutant spider is normal?!" Beca finished her yelling as her chest heaved. She took a deep breath and clenched her jaw. "My life is anything but fucking normal, thanks to you!"

"Bitten? What do you mean bitten?" Dr. Mitchell's eyes widened as he leaned forward.

"Yeah about that…" Beca trailed off and bit her lip. "I may or not have been bitten by one of those spiders that you created…and now I may or not be able to do everything a spider can…" Beca laughed nervously, rubbing her arms before she played with her spiked earring.

"What? I don't understand? How did you manage to get bitten?" He stood up abruptly as Beca raised her eyebrows at his hastiness.

"I went to Oscorp to see if I could find anything there about you, about why you left. I – I followed Ratha through a set of doors, something about 'Biocable' I think. Anyway, I couldn't find him and I went into this one room, and there were these grids and white spiders and they fell on me and one bit me on the hand." Dr. Mitchell rubbed his eyes as Beca rambled aimlessly. "How was I supposed to know that this would happen?"

"Alright, what side effects have you been experiencing since you were bitten?"

"At first I got really sick, I passed out in my room the same night. But when I woke up the next morning…everything was different. I got more toned, more agile, faster. I don't know how to describe it." Beca told him honestly, Dr. Mitchell listening intently, occasionally nodding. "And as weird as it sounds…I can even stick to walls."

Dr. Mitchell stood from his bar stool as Beca copied his movements, her eye brows raised in question.

"Follow me." He said before walking out of the kitchen and down the hallway. Beca took in the various certificates that were hung on the wall. All of them were for some kind of Literature stuff and all of them were addressed as 'Dr. Curtis Connors'. She watched as he pushed opened a door and led them both into a study room. A whole bookcase lined the entire far wall and his desk sat in the opposite corner in front of the large, open windows.

Beca's phone began to ring as she quickly dug into her pocket. She flipped it around and saw that Uncle Ben was calling her. It was already 4:48 p.m. He was calling to let her know that he was on his way to pick her up. Beca bit her lip as she contemplated answering it. Part of her knew that she should, that it was the right thing to do. But the other, larger part of her was still angry at him for treating her like a child, like she was fragile.

"Do you need to take that?" Her dad asked as he motioned to the phone in her hand.

"No, it's fine." Beca said as she turned the ringer off and shoved it back into her pocket.

Dr. Mitchell walked over to the filing cabinet in the corner and pulled the drawer open, digging for a specific document. He pulled out a crimson colored folder and flipped through the pages that were trapped inside it. Beca watched as he sat down at his white metal desk, his eyes trained on the pages. She stole a glance at the page and noticed the same symbol that had been on her father's old notes: ØØ.

"Extraordinary." Dr. Mitchell said as he finally looked up at his daughter. "Your symptoms match every single difference that we found on the positive test spiders. Superhuman strength, reflexes, and balance; the ability to cling tenaciously to most surfaces…Has anything else changed in your behavior? Even in the slightest?"

Beca thought over his question carefully…hell, everything was different.

"There is this one thing. It's like a 6th sense almost…I can like, feel when something bad is about to happen. Everything, in a way, slows down and I can see everything playing out."

"Subconscious precognitive sense of danger, or 'Spidey-Sense' as we called it in the lab. When does it occur most often?"

"It's driving me nuts! I end up getting a migraine by the end of the day." Beca complained as Dr. Mitchell frowned and looked back at his old notes, seeing nothing written of headaches.

"That's odd...with all the animal test subjects, not once did we notice a change in mental state with what you're describing. And it hurts every time something triggers it?"

Beca nodded. "It like…depends on the severity of the situation. The bigger the 'threat', the bigger the tingle and the faster the headache comes." She explained as her dad scribbled down everything she said. He bit his lip and furrowed his brow in frustration before flipping the cover of the folder shut.

"So…what does all of this mean? Like how do I go back to being normal?" Beca asked as she eyed him carefully. "I can go back to being normal right?"

"I'm afraid that once a subject is injected with the serum and the spider venom gets into the bloodstream…there's no going back." Dr. Mitchell said grimly, his lips pursed.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Beca deadpanned as her mouth opened and closed in shock. "I'm gonna be stuck like this forever?!"

"It appears so. There was never a cure developed or tested-"

"Well then make one! You're a scientist for Christ's sake!" Beca argued as tone rose in frustration. Dr. Mitchell took a deep breath, preparing himself to explain what all this meant for his daughter.

"Beca, there's nothing to reverse the serum. The only thing you can do is to accept that you have these gifts and to-"

"Gifts?! I didn't fucking ask for this to happen!" Beca yelled as she slammed her hand down on the desk, effectively putting a whole through the center. Beca growled as she retracted her hand in frustration.

"You have the ability to right the wrongs in this city Beca! You can help stop all the evil and bad thing from happening, you have the power to do that! You can save people!" He yelled back just as frustrated. How could she not see what a gift this was?

"I can't help people! I can't even take care of myself or my friends, let alone the city!"

"You have to try-"

"Really? You can say that to me? I should try? Maybe you should've 'tried' to be a father!" Beca cried out as tears were now present in her eyes, making them a darker sapphire than normal. Beca huffed out a breath as she swiped at her tears furiously. She was not going to allow her 'father', a man she had just met, to see her weak like this. Beca Mitchell did not cry.

"I'm out of here." Beca mumbled as she turned out of the room and hastily headed for the door.

"Beca! Beca wait!" She heard him calling from behind her, felt the vibrations from his footsteps that were trailing behind her. She took off in a run out of the house, slamming the door shut behind her. This was all a mistake. She shouldn't have tried to figure out the secrets of her father, look where it landed her. She was basically a human spider for fuck's sake, a lot of good it did her to suddenly become interested in finding him. Beca let the tears fall as she continued to run, stride after stride. She thought about the drive to her dad's house and realized it would be faster to head straight home.

'Uncle Ben will be angry, he'll know I didn't go to the library.'

Beca slowed to a walk as she fished her phone out and swiped to unlock it. She dialed Aunt May's number to tell her she was on her way home.

xxx

BECA POV

I sat on the couch in the living room, my hands in my lap as I waited for Uncle Ben to get home. Aunt May was upset, knowing that I'd not gone to the library like I was supposed to know. She lectured me for about 10 minutes about how it wasn't safe for me to wander the streets in Queens by myself. She'd asked where I went instead of the library and I hadn't completely lied…I'd said I was visiting a friend in the city. She didn't need to know that said was my own father, who she'd assumed to be dead years ago. No, she didn't need to know that detail.

Instead she'd forced me to sit and wait on my Uncle to get home, leaving the discipline to him as always. I bounced my leg up and down as I looked at the clock on the wall 6:07 p.m.

Where the heck was he? We ALWAYS eat dinner at six and it was a basic house rule to never be late to dinner, even so much as a minute. As much as I hated to admit it, I could sense that something was up, something was wrong.

The doorbell rid me of my train of thought as I stood to get it. I frowned as I could see through the glass panel two policemen stood outside. I opened the door slowly as the cops turned to face me.

"Could we speak to a May Mitchell please?" The taller man asked, his tone strict, unwavering.

"Sure, just a sec." I turned away from the door and yelled for Aunt May who was cleaning up the kitchen.

"Yes? How can I help you?" She looked confused as the officers shared a quick look. The knot in my stomach tightened involuntarily.

"Mrs. Mitchell, we're here about your husband Ben Mitchell. This afternoon around 5: 15 p.m. he was involved in an armed robbery at the grocery store on Pike Street." I looked nervously to Aunt May whose expression I couldn't read immediately.

"A gunman had been attempting to rob the store with a handgun when your husband tried to stop him. Ma'am I'm sorry to say this but your husband was shot in the chest by the assailant. He's dead Miss."

I froze in place at the policeman's words.

Robbery? Gunman? Shot? Dead?

No. No, no, no. This was not happening! I'd misheard him, there was no way that Uncle Ben was dead…he couldn't be! I'd just seen him hours beforehand! He was supposed to pick me up, we were supposed to eat dinner!

Aunt May let out a sob from beside me as she fell to her knees at the news. I dropped beside her as she threw herself on me, sobbing uncontrollably onto my shoulder.

I felt numb. I stared straight ahead as I moved my arm around her, except I couldn't anything that was happening. I couldn't feel anything. Couldn't feel the way Aunt May's tears were drenching my shirt. Couldn't feel the pain in my arms from her tight grasp. Couldn't feel the breath leaving my lungs or my heart beating in my chest. I felt like throwing up, I felt light headed and I felt like I was dreaming a terrible nightmare that I couldn't wake up from.

Uncle Ben was dead. Uncle Ben was dead and I could have saved him. If I hadn't went to my dad's he wouldn't have been outside the grocery store, he wouldn't have tried to do the right thing.

If I had just listenedto his words, none of this would have happened.

This was all my fault.

I killed Uncle Ben.