Chapter 3

Jen Farrel was stupefied.

She had known Kendrick Durham since sixth grade, and, as far as she knew, never worked out a day in his life. That's why it surprised her when she went to his dorm to get him for breakfast, she was surprised to see he had suddenly gotten full on abs.

Full. Abs.

She had thought Kendrick was cute before, but damn. He was a stud. Like, a black Channing Tatum. Okay, maybe not that far.

After sitting down with her tray at a table, Jen looked up and saw Kendrick entering the cafeteria with Marshall. Instantly, she saw a difference with the girls in the school. The second Kendrick walked in, the very second, every girl turned and looked at Kendrick.

Holy shit. Jen thought.

It was actually pretty weird. Like something you'd see in Paranormal Activity. She had to admit, something was...alluring about him. Something just...different. Kendrick didn't seem to notice, like his mind was somewhere else. Marshall, on the other hand, seemed to think the girls were looking at him.

"Yo," he said, his hand in the air. "Who said Skittles don't get bitches?!"

"Skittles" looked to his left, and saw the principal standing by the other entrance, motioning for him to follow. Jen smirked to herself as Marshall walked after the principal.

Kendrick got his tray and sat in front of Jen, oblivious to the women staring him down, and the angry look of guys. After seeing him sit down by Jen, the girls finally looked away, although she received angry glares from other girls.

"Hey," Kendrick said. "What's wrong?"

Jen found herself looking at Kendrick's arms, where she could see his finely toned muscles. She could picture his arms around her, making her feel safe and secure...

Jen blinked. She was starting to sound like those girls in those old romance novels her mother was obsessed with.

She looked up and saw Kendrick was still waiting for an answer.

"Yes," she said quickly.

"Huh," Kendrick asked confused.

"I mean, no," Jen said mentally kicking herself. This was Ken. She's known him for years. Why was she tripping like this? "Nothing's wrong."

Kendrick gave her a curious look, then went back to eating.

"So," see said. "I heard you were in the hospital. What happened?"

Kendrick turned stiff.

"Uhh nothing," he said. "Just gettin' a check up."

"Okay," Jen said reading his body language. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Kendrick said eating faster.

Jen put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, and she suddenly felt self-conscience. But, it was too late to back out now.

"Hey," she said as sincerely as she could, which wasn't that hard. "It's me. You can tell me anything, you know that."

Kendrick looked at her for a minute, then opened his mouth like he was about to say something. Before he could though, Marshall came bumbling back with a large smile on his face.

"Now can I get bitches, or can I get bitches," he said.

Well crap, she thought.

Kendrick blinked, like he just came from a dream.

"You must," Kendrick said. "All those chicks were looking at you like you were Denzel."

"Actually," Jen said without thinking. "They were looking at you, Kendrick."

Kendrick and Marshall looked at her quizzically.

"How do you know that," Kendrick asked.

Marshall elbowed Kendrick and smiled.

"She's saying you look hot," Marshall said slyly.

"I do not," Jen said, feeling herself blush.

"Oh," Kendrick said with a teasing smile. "So you think I'm ugly."

"I didn't say that," Jen said losing control of the situation.

"But, you were thinking it," Kendrick said.

...

"I think I know why the girls were all over you," Marshall said.

Kendrick looked up, or rather, looked down, at Marshall from the ceiling, closing his book.

"Is it because of my amazing looks," Kendrick asked.

"No Frodo," Marshall said. "Spiders emit a smell that attract the opposite sex. It's not your looks, it's your smell."

"Wow," Kendrick joked. "Screw Old Spice, I'm just gonna put my smell in a bottle."

Kendrick willed his feet to become unadhesive and fell to the ground.

"But, isn't it the females that attract the mate," Kendrick asked.

"Maybe you were bit by a female spider," Marshall said shrugging.

"That'd be just my luck wouldn't it," Kendrick said.

"Yeah, we're gonna start calling it the Durham Luck," Marshall said.

"Absolutely," Kendrick said shaking his head.

Kendrick looked down and saw that the fly was on his hand.

"You just never learn," Kendrick said.

Quickly, Kendrick slammed his left fist into his right palm, trying to squash the spider. The fly escaped, but that's not what caught the boys' attention. What did was, a gooey white substance oozing from his wrist.

"Webs," they both said at the same time.

Kendrick pokes it to see what happens.

Nothing.

"It feels weird," Kendrick said. "Like, it's chalky, but still gooey."

Kendrick held his hand out, motioning for Marshall to touch it.

"I'm not touching that," he said backing away.

"Why not?"

"It's a sticky white goo that comes from your body," Marshall stated. 'Why would I want to touch that?"

"Just do it," Kendrick said.

Reluctantly, Marshall puts his finger to the white substance.

"Ew," Marshall said. "It does feel weird."

Marshall attempts to take his finger off, but finds that it's stuck.

"Oh shit," Marshall said.

"What," Kendrick asks.

"I'm stuck," Marshall said.

"What the hell do you mean, 'you're stuck,'" Kendrick said shaking.

"As in, I can't pull my hand away!" Marshall said panicking.

"Well you can't stay stuck forever!"

Both teens shuddered at the thought of walking to the alter on their wedding day with the other stuck to the other, hand.

"Okay," Kendrick said. "Okay okay okay, this isn't a problem. I have the proportionate strength and speed of a spider..."

"What does your speed have to do with this," Marshall asked.

"Nothing, I'm just bragging," Kendrick stated. "But, seriously, I could just pull this apart."

"Do it!"

Kendrick starts to pull. Annnnd nothing happens.

"What about that middle finger thing," Marshall asks agitated.

"You mean my bone claw?"

"Whatever!"

Kendrick holds up his middle finger, and his bone claw comes out, covering the finger. Kendrick starts cutting the webs with his middle finger. Eventually, he cuts all the way through, without cutting either of them.

"Jeez," Marshall said. "That was embarrassing."

"Don't be melodramatic," Kendrick said tossing the web aside.

"How're you not getting stuck to that stuff," Marshall asked.

"I guess spiders don't get stuck in their own webs," Kendrick said.

"How did you do that anyway," Marshall asked.

"I just hit my hand and it came out," Kendrick said rubbing the palm of his hand. "Oh, I see. I can feel a little pad in my hand."

On his right hand, Kendrick pushed his middle and ring finger on the pad in his hand, and a line of webbing came out of his wrist, faster and more forceful than before and hits the ceiling with a thwap.

"We are so screwed," Marshall said.

Unlike with the last web, this web line disconnected itself from his wrist. Kendrick grabbed the web, and tried to pull it off, but was surprised when a large chunk of the roof came off, landing on the floor with a large THUMP.

"Shit," the boys said in unison.

...

Drake Durham was pissed.

Royally.

Again, he was treated like freakin' Casper by his parents, and he still didn't understand why.

He had hoped one day that they would accept him, and treat him with love, or, at the very least, attention. He now saw that that wasn't going to happen.

So, Drake thought. I guess I gotta shake things up.

Drake walked into his abandoned warehouse and walked to the back. Behind the crate, was a large assault rifle, ready to be used.

...

"Amazing," Tyler said. "Simply amazing."

Tyler was looking up at Kendrick sticking to the ceiling above him.

They were at a secret lab owned by Farroway Enterprises. Here, Kendrick could test his abilities, without worrying about people seeing him.

Kendrick jumped down to the ground in front of Tyler.

"Thanks," Kendrick said.

"You said you had webs?"

"Uh, yeah," Kendrick said. He pushed his two inner fingers to the center of his palm, and a long web line came from his wrist, sticking to the wall.

"Can it support your weight?"

Kendrick lifted himself into the air with the web and hanged off of it.

Tyler didn't know what to think. On one hand, he'd turned this child into a freak. On the other, he had revolutionized the human system and created a super human. Like those mutants that were popping up, except he did this. He did.

"Hey, Doc, you're staring at me like a petefile," Kendrick said.

Tyler blinked. He had been staring. He was just so...amazed.

"Sorry," Tyler said embarrassed. "Hey, come down here. I have something for you."

Kendrick fell to the ground in a crouching position.

"Please don't take off your pants."

"Ha ha," Tyler said pulling a needle out of his pocket that contained a red and gold substance.

"Whoa whoa," Kendrick said backing away. "I don't want you experimenting on me."

"This isn't an experiment," Tyler said. "This is to help you."

"Help me?"

"In case you're ever caught using your powers in public," Tyler said. "Your body, thanks to the spider, has the capability to contain a exoskeleton."

"That's an exoskeleton," Kendrick asked warily.

"Yes," Tyler replied.

Kendrick held out his arm, closing his eyes.

"Just do it before I change my mind," he said.

"Actually Kendrick..." Tyler started.

"No!" Kendrick said. "You are not pumping anything into my ass!"

"No," Tyler said startled. "It goes in your neck!"

"Oh," Kendrick said. "Hurry up."

And with that, Tyler injected the substance into Kendrick's neck, Kendrick flinching. Suddenly, a red and gold goo sprouted from Kendrick's skin, wrapping itself around him, and hardening.

"What happened," Kendrick said.

"Look in the mirror," Tyler said.

In the back of the room, a mirror hung on the wall. Not wanting to walk over there, Kendrick sprayed a web line that wasn't interfered with from the exoskeleton. Tyler nodded to himself. Kendrick was getting more used to his abilities. Kendrick pulled the mirror to him and looked at himself in it.

"Whoa," Kendrick said.

Kendrick was in a mostly gold suit, with a red torso over the front and more red on the mask that had two black lenses over Kendrick's eyes, and two more smaller black lenses over his eyes. He had a yellow spider symbol on his read torso and his fingers were red with a black web design and the same thing on his feet. (Just look at the cover photo, I'm tired of describing this.)

"What do you think," Tyler asked. "I designed it myself. I was an art major."

"What're the extra eyes for," Kendrick asked.

Tyler smiled, "I thought they looked cool."

Under his mask, Kendrick was smiling.

"Well," he said. "They do look pretty cool."

...

Kendrick sat on the top of the gargoyle smiling. He had scaled the top of the building with ease. It was becoming even more natural for him.

And now he was about to do the dumbest thing of his life.

He concentrated, then felt the exoskeleton forming itself around him. He had to admit, he looked pretty bad ass. He stood on the head of the gargoyle, looking out at the city. Few people saw the city as he was right then. With the sunset hitting the edge of a skyscraper so it gave the city an orange glow. Doing it before he changed his mind, which he found himself doing a lot these days, he jumped, spinning sideways in the air.

The adrenaline hit him fast.

Oh God, he thought remorsefull. What have I done?

Calm down, he told himself. The webs could support his weight. He did it back at the lab.

But at this speed, he pondered.

Again without thinking, he pushed his two inner fingers to the pad in his palm, the white substance firing from his wrist. He really hoped it would hit something, considering his eyes were closed.

That would be cruel wouldn't it, Kendrick thought. After gaining these great abilities, and about to start a new chapter in my life, I die because I have no aim.

Then, felt the webbing in his hand go taunt, as it hit something.

Yes!

Kendrick felt himself changing direction, and held his breathe, praying that the web held. Kendrick felt himself rocket high into the air. It held!

His instincts taking over, Kendrick fired another web, this time looking at what he was doing. The web hit the side of a building, and Kendrick felt himself arc and shoot in the air, finding himself back flipping, then shooting another web.

The adrenaline was like a drug to him, as he swung through the air. No feeling on Earth could possibly match this. Not even the Superman at Six Flags, which Kendrick had been on numerous times. Kendrick felt free for the first time in his life. No tests, no pressure from his parents to be worthy of their gifts, no girls (okay, maybe he would've taken that) that he had to stress over, no brother that he felt sorry for. It was just him, the air, the city, and the peace.

He became aware of the people on the street looking up at him in wonder. He didn't care. But that made him think. If he had to, what would he call himself? What was it that Marshall called him? It wasn't Spider-Jesus. He had a feeling some people wouldn't seem the humor in that. Then he remembered and smiled. It was a name that perfectly described him, although it was a little corny. He thought to himself as he completed another arc in his swing.

I Am Spider-man.

...

First off, I just wanna thank you guys who read this and kept reading this garbage.

Secondly, I know I said this was garbage, but come on, only 129 views?! When I wrote Spider-man: New World I got double that in, like two days! Jesus, you guys. Now I how Brian Michael Bendis feels, having a Spider-man that's not Peter Parkeris not as rewarding. I can just see Stan Lee sitting on a throne shaped like Sue Storm in lingerie laughing his ass off.

"Ha! My creations are better than yours! Excelsior bitches!"

Curse you Stan Lee!

You can't see it, but I'm shaking my hand towards the sky in anger.

I also just want to state that Kendrick is NOT a superhero. Not right now, anyway. He still has to learn that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. So, until next time.

(I just realized how much I say shit in this...)

-Brad.