(The following is a nonprofit work of fanfiction and is outside of the original canon. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, and/or incidents of any kind depicted within this story are being used for entertainment purposes only.)
(The Loud House and all related characters were created by Chris Savino and all rights belong to Nickelodeon. Spider-Man and all related characters were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and all rights belong to Disney)
- Issue #03 -
Along Came a Spider
The next day...
This was not how Lincoln had pictured himself at the start of the day of the trip.
His heart pounded greatly in his chest, and his aching lungs burned furiously beneath his ribs as he raced after the school bus just up ahead of him. He ran so hard like a track runner, which was really saying something considering that the Loud teen never worked out a day in his young life. When you were desperate to reach somewhere, the first thing that came to your mind was to try and hall it as fast as your physical limits would allow.
And that was exactly what Lincoln found himself doing at this very moment.
It all happened when his science class were heading outside for the school bus. Lincoln had realized something, and he told Clyde and their friends that he had to get that very something real fast. He quickly went back inside of the school to get it, went for his own locker, and drew out a simple freshly-sharpened pencil and a notebook from within his backpack. Lincoln just had to bring it along. For all he knew, the teacher could decide to have him take important notes on the subject.
The subject being the aforementioned super spiders over at the genetics lab at Royal Woods University.
He succeeded in grabbing his pencil and notebook, and then re-locked his locker. But as soon as he made it back outside the front doors, the bus had already started to drive away. Realizing that there were no other possible option for him, Lincoln was forced to begrudgingly suck it up and he started after the departing school bus. He never ran so hard and determinedly in his whole life before. Not like this one or the day before, anyway.
He gave chase after that bus for a while now, waving his arms desperately to try and get a hold of their attention. The muscles within his legs burned fiercely, but he tried really hard to ignore the growing pain. After he and the bus went passed a couple blocks down, he was starting to feel pretty sure that his legs were now just mere moments away from giving out and him collapsing to the pavement.
Please stop! Please stop! Please stop!
As the bus was about a few seconds in from rounding the next corner, one teenager on the left of the bus noticed him. Lincoln saw him and he pleadingly yelled for him to tell the driver to stop. But instead, the teenager had done the opposite, and started to laugh and point at his misfortune. And then eventually, all the other students had done the same thing. All they did was laugh like stupid hyenas and pointed at his sprinting Loud boy, a few of them even going to far as to record him on their cellphones.
Well, except for Lynn, Clyde, and their other friends.
"Come on, Loud!" one teen shouted from an opened window, cheering him on. "Don't give up, man! Feel the burn!" Lynn could not believe these people, choosing to taunt her brother's predicament instead of trying to lend out a hand to help. It made her viciously sick to her stomach to even ride in the same bus with these heartless jerks. And here she thought humanity would have known better by now.
"Smile for the camera, Loud! You're gonna be on the internet" one teen, none other than Chandler McCann, shouted at Lincoln, holding his cellphone up, a mocking grin on his face. Hearing that prompted Lynn, who sat close to the back of the bus directly behind Clyde, to turn her gaze over at the red-headed Chandler, and she shot him a very furious look, causing him to quickly stop and cower fearfully in his seat.
"Stop the bus!" Lincoln shouted beggingly, huffing and puffing as the capacity of his lungs could allow. "Hey, stop the bus, please!" While that was going on, Clyde and Lynn ran up forward to the bus driver, who sat in the driver seat munching on a jelly filled donut in one hand and holding tightly on the steering wheel with the other.
"Ernie, stop the bus right now!" Clyde pleaded to the man. Ernie simply shook his cap-wearing head at the two of them.
"No can do, kid," he stated uncaringly after wiping off some of the powdered sugar from his lips. Lynn and Clyde looked at the man with an appalling face.
"Dude, that's my brother out there!" she shouted at him. "It will only take you one minute!" The driver shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
"Hey, sorry kid. If he missed his bus, that's his problem." At hearing that, Lynn's hands turned into tightened balls of fists, and her face began to change red with rage. Before Clyde could even have the chance to get a single word out of his mouth, the sports-loving Loud girl instantly grabbed Ernie tightly by the sleeve of his neon-blue shirt. Before she could even say anything, a middle aged man's voice was heard.
"Ernie, just do it," the voice said in an annoyed tone. Sitting directly behind Ernie was Lincoln's, and all of the other students', high school science teacher, Mr. Glendoveer. Not wanting to further have an argument, Ernie immediately did exactly what he was told. When he had spotted an upcoming curb, he turned the steering wheel over to the side and drove up close to the sidewalk and they slowed down to a steady halt. A hopeful smile grew across Lincoln's face.
Thank the Lord, Lincoln mentally stated, feeling greatly reprieved. The bus doors had slid open, and Lincoln's now worn-out legs struggled to climb up the steps until he was finally inside of the bus. All of the other students sat in their respective seats, snickering and glancing at him, and a few of them still had their phones out to record him.
"This is so going on YouTube," one of them had whispered with a huge grin. Lincoln breathed very hard; his tired lungs exhausted from such a hard run. Not bad, for someone who barely worked out.
"Thanks, guys," the white-haired teen heaved, feeling like he was going to faint any time now. Lynn smiled at her fifteen-year-old brother.
"Anytime, bro," she said, roughly patting him on the shoulder. After Lincoln had given Clyde a fist bump, the bus started to get back on track and drove down the road again to their destination. This action had lightly thrusted the trio forward, almost causing them to fall down. Thankfully, they had found their footing. Lincoln noticed Mr. Glendoveer, who eyeballed him with a very unamused countenance upon his wrinkled face.
"Uh, h-hey, Mr. Glendoveer," Lincoln lightly stammered smiling nervously, still heaving a little bit. "S-Sorry I'm late."
"Just take a seat, Loud," Mr. Glendoveer grunted, turning to gaze down at his clipboard, and he wrote a large X next to Lincoln's name with an ink pen. Lincoln frowned upon seeing that. Whatever he just did can't be good. Lynn, on the other hand, shot her science teacher an unamused look of her own.
Yeesh, looks like someone forgot to have their coffee this morning.
And with that, Lincoln followed after Clyde and Lynn towards the back of the bus, walking passed seats of the other teenagers, who still snickered from earlier and fiddled on their phones watching their recorded videos of him. The only ones who did no such thing were their own group of friends, who also sat closely to the back; These friends consisted of Rusty Spokes, Liam Hunnicutt, Zach Gurdle, Stella Zhau, and then finally, the new addition to their group, Conner Pingrey, the younger brother of his sister Lori's friend, Carol Pingrey.
"Hoo-wee!" Liam cried in a southern accent. "That was some find runnin' ya did there, Linc,"
"I've never seen somebody run that fast before in my life, dude," Rusty added, quite impressed.
"Just ignore these jerks, Lincoln!" Conner said. "They don't have the same dedication you've got, man."
"I don't think I could be able to match up to that level of speed," Stella stated, an amazed glint in her eyes.
"You go, man!" Zach included.
Hearing such kind things said to him by his friends brought a small smile to Lincoln's face, the feeling of his own spirits beginning to brighten up... only for it all to come crumbling down—literally—when he felt something being caught against his right foot, causing him to fall forward. Lynn and Clyde tried to catch him, but it was already too late, and Lincoln found himself tumbling down to the floor of the bus. This caused another roar of laughter throughout the bus from all the other teenage students.
Candy and gum wrappers were scattered all over the place, not to mention that Lincoln got a good look at some of the aged gum that were stuck on the underside of the seats. Great, now he had to worry about washing his hands. Lincoln swiftly whirled his head around and saw a single foot sticking out at the end of the seat. And the owner of that foot, Chandler McCann, looked at the Loud boy with a mischievous smirk on his face.
Lynn noticed this and she glared white hot daggers at her brother's arch-rival.
"I'm gonna make you wish you hadn't done that, McCann!" she snarled, grabbing the collar of his green button-up flannel shirt.
"Not funny, McCann!" Conner chided the redhead with an unhappy frown of his own. "Not even a little bit."
One would think that after four years of growing up, he would have fallen out of being an annoying little pill, that he would have become a lot wiser and more mature by now in this point in time. But nope, Chandler McCann was still doing the same juvenile nonsense that he had been doing ever since elementary. How in the world was this kid even considered popular at their school anyway? A big mystery that probably won't ever be solved in no time, or any other time for that matter.
"Yeah, dude! That was not cool!" Rusty added. Chandler put his hands up defensively.
"Whoa, easy there, guys! It was just a joke!" he excused nervously. Lynn's glare deepened and her teeth clenched until they ached.
"Knock that off, the two of you!" Mr. Glendoveer ordered in a firm tone. "Unless you want to spend an entire week's worth of detention, Miss Loud, I would strongly advise you to return to your chosen seat." All but hesitantly, Lynn conceded to the teacher's command and she let go of Chandler's shirt and then went over to help her brother up from the floor. Just like Lynn, Lincoln glared at his arch-rival.
Chandler smiled, thinking that he had won, until Mr. Glendoveer turned his sharp eyes over to the teenaged redhead.
"The same thing goes for you, McCann," he warned. "Any more tomfoolery from you, and I will call your parents after the trip is over. Am I clear?" Begrudgingly, Chandler did what he was told, sitting there on his seat, his arms crossing against his chest. He let out a grumbled, "Transparently, sir."
"He is such a jerk," Lincoln whispered to Clyde, who nodded his head in agreement with his friend. Before getting comfortable, Clyde handed him a container of Lysol wipes for Lincoln's hands.
Someday, Chandler, the white-haired teen thought scornfully. Someday, you will be sorry! Sorry that you and everyone else laughed at me.
And with that, Lincoln and the rest of the gang remained silent, sitting closely near the back of the bus as they all continued onward to their main destination.
Royal Woods University was quite a large building, measuring up to be at least the average length of one hundred and twenty yards, the exact length of a football stadium, and standing at three stories, placing it somewhere between thirty to thirty-five feet in height. A large-looking dome was seen at the very center of the building, making it appear as if it were a smaller version of the White House in DC, but with the art deco-like design like the Empire State building from New York.
When Lincoln, Lynn, Clyde, and the rest of the gang offboarded from the school bus in a line, they all stared up at this marvelous edifice, completely stricken with awe and wonder at everything they saw out in front of them. In all of their years of living here in Royal Woods, how did they not get the chance to see this place until now? Quickly grabbing his phone, Lincoln made a quick snapshot of the front of the building and the dome itself. Clyde had done the same, having the same idea as Lincoln.
"Boy, oh boy, oh boy," Rust Spokes muttered. "What a place."
"I'll say," Zach concurred. "I wonder if they're hiding an alien spacecraft inside that dome?"
"Well, I think I know where I might be going after I graduate," Conner Pingrey commented. Lynn could not help but whistle in amazement. As all of the other teens from the bus gathered into a group, Mr. Glendoveer was the last to emerge from the vehicle, and he addressed them all with a loud throat-clearing grunt that got all his students' attention.
"Alright, class" he began in a clear and audible voice. "Before we begin, let's lay down some ground rules first; do not wonder off, do not mess around, stay together as a group, and proceed direct—Knock it off, McCann!" Upon hearing his name spoken in a sharp tone, Chandler immediately stopped what he was doing—impersonating the no-nonsense science teacher in a jesting manner—and obediently remained silent. Everybody snickered humorously, as did Lincoln and his friends, until Mr. Glendoveer cleared his throat one more time to grab their attention.
Once that was over, the science teacher continued from where he left off.
"As I was saying," he said to his group, "proceed directly to the front door entrance in an organized fashion. And remember, it is an honor to be here. All of us are guests of Royal Woods University's science department, so please be on your best behavior and do not speak during the presentation. And most importantly, do not touch anything or cause any kind of trouble. We do not want to repeat what happened on our last trip at the Royal Woods Planetarium. Is that right, McCann?"
Mr. Glendoveer shot Chandler a very warning glance when he said that last part. The redhead shrugged his shoulders, feigning innocence, as if he were saying, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"So anyway, let's all stay together," Mr. Glendoveer continued, "proceed up the steps, and into the building. When we get back, the lot of you will be given a test of what you all learned from this trip." Half of the students groaned from hearing that last part. Boy, Lincoln was very glad that he had brought his pencil and notebook.
"Oh, and one last thing." Mr. Glendoveer went on, "There will be no messing around on your cellphones either. No texting, no tweeting, no social media-ing, nothing. The point of coming here on this field trip is so you all can learn a thing or two about the powers of science and what it can do. Now, does any one of you have a question before we begin...? Nobody...? Okay then, let's get to it."
And with that, the science teacher led the way into the building, opening the front doors as wide as they could go, and all of the teenage students walked right inside in a single filed motion.
The inside of the building was almost just as grand as it was on the outside. The group found themselves now standing in the middle of the lobby, where a tall rotunda stood high above them, the smooth thick alabaster columns protruding down from above, and the floor was a polished marble, so clean and clear that someone could easily make out their own reflection.
The echoing sound of the acoustics could be heard from all around them, the sound of work shoes clipping and clapping reverberated from almost all directions. Heck, even a whisper could actually be heard, no matter how quiet one could try to make their voice be. That kind of thing was very fun to the minds of a young and imaginative teenager, but a complete nightmare for adults and chaperones, like Mr. Glendoveer, who had to deal with that kind of thing when it came to kids having too much fun.
The science teacher and his group approached the front desk located in the middle of the towering rotunda. A young, black-haired, thirty-year-old woman, the receptionist, within the front desk noticed them approaching to her direction and she smiled at them warmly.
"Why, hello there," she said to the group. "You must be the guests for the tour."
"Yes, ma'am. That is us," Mr. Glendoveer said formally.
"I'll be with you in a minute," she said, before moving over to one part of the desk. She pressed down on a button and spoke into the intercom that had stuck out from bellow the desk.
"Attention, Professor Warren," she spoke, her clear voice ringing throughout the building, "Paging Professor Warren. Your guests from Royal Woods High have arrived for the tour." After that, she whirled back around to face Mr. Glendoveer and his hodgepodge of science students.
"He'll be with you in a short moment," she said to him. The science teacher nodded in understanding. After about five minutes of waiting, a grown man wearing a white laboratory coat approached the front desk from one direction and then found himself facing the group of science students closely by. He smiled at them and addressed them with an inclined nod of his head.
"Nice to meet you all," the man said, introducing himself in a deep-sounding voice. "You must be the tour group. I am Professor Miles Warren, head of Royal Woods University's genetics lab, and it is an honor to meet you all."
Miles Warren was a tallish man, appearing to be approximately the same height as Mr. Glendoveer. He looked to be at least close to his middle age, with darkish gray hair and green eyes. Just above his lips was a thick bushy moustache that looked like it had been neatly groomed and taken care of, which was a whole lot more than what people could say about how he took care of his hair.
"Thank you all so much for coming," Warren continued with a proud smile on his face. "Now, if you will just kindly follow me, we can begin the tour immediately." And so, Professor Warren beckoned the group to follow after him through the main hallway across from the lobby.
"Today, you all will be shown something quite extraordinary," he told the science class as he led them all through another room. "Something that was thought to have been quite impossible to do so and could only be found in the realm of fantasy, that no living man has seen before since the dawn of time itself; cross-species transmutation."
Right after he said this, they approached a pair of double doors to one part of the building, and the doors had words that were largely printed on the front. Lincoln and the gang knew this to be none other than the genetics lab itself. After Professor Warren opened the doors, he led the group inside for everybody to see. What they all saw caused them to stare in awestruck at the size of the room, even Mr. Glendoveer found himself becoming quite impressed.
The ceiling reached up to be about the same height as the rotunda back at the lobby. The layout of the laboratory was like a giant perfect circle, completely matching with the rotunda in this room. Ten alabaster columns towered above to the ceiling, and there were two circular balconies right above them.
All around the room, there were other scientists and researchers of different ages and races, examining through microscopes and large monitors of what appeared to be neon-colored imagines of spider DNA. There were tables, display cases, steel pushcarts, and laboratory equipment neatly placed around tables and such. And finally, protruding upward in the center of the lab was a giant device that had large computer monitors and keyboards circling around it.
Professor Warren swiftly whirled his gaze around back over to the tour group.
"It is a known fact that there are forty thousand species of spiders across the world," Professor Warren explained. "They all can be found under the word, 'Aranae', which is divided into three subgroups; Mesothelea, Orthognatha, and Labidognatha. All spiders are meat eaters, feasting on massive quantities of protein, which are found within the natural juices of their prey." As Warren went on and on with his words, as the group continued to follow after the scientist, Clyde nudged Lincoln and pointed at the towering device with the computer screens.
"Look at that, Linc," the African American teen muttered, so low that no one could hear them. "That has to be the most advanced electron microscope I have ever seen. It's so unreal." Lynn heard this and she rolled her eyes.
"Pfft, yeah," the sporty Loud girl muttered unenthusiastically, "unrealistically boring."
"Arachnids, from all three groups," Professor Warren continued, "possess varying forms of strength which help them in their ever-constant search for food. To give you all an example..."
The scientist pointed to a large square-shaped container all made out of glass, which held inside two pieces of wood. Standing on the tip of a thick-looking branch that pointed upward was a single fuzzy dot that was as size and length as a grown fingernail. It was they all realized that it was a spider. The spider held the front of its legs up, and with tenacious velocity and grace, it made a great leap for it towards another branch across the other side.
"This is what is commonly known as the jumping spider," Warren informed. "As you all have just witnessed, as its given namesake implies, it possesses the innate ability to make great jumps in order to capture its pray, leaping up to about fifty times its own body length, using its powerful strength that is greatly superior to that of a human being." Seeing this as an opportunity, Lincoln pulled out his cellphone from pants pocket. But before he could do so, he quickly had another thought and then raised his hand up to grab the attention of their tour guide.
"Yes, young man?" Warren asked, acknowledging him.
"I'm sorry for interrupting, but is it okay with you if I take maybe a picture or two of this?" Lincoln inquired. "You know, for the school yearbook?" Warren smiled at the white-haired teen.
"Sure, absolutely," he said cheerily with a nod. And with that, Lincoln held up his cellphone and took a quick snapshot or two of the jumping spider within its respective container.
Continuing onward from there, the group moved over to another part of the laboratory and saw a second glass container. Inside this container was a large multi-branched tree piece, and what made it more interesting, if not creepy at the same time, was that about close to seventy percent of the container was covered in thick layers of webs that interconnected with each other through the branches.
"And over here, we have the American black widow spider," Warren introduced. "It is one of the deadliest, most venomous, of arachnids in the world, capable of spinning an intricate web, whose silk strands have a very malleable strength identical to the type of high-tension cables that are used in bridge building." Spider webs? Strong as bridge cables? Lincoln thought with bewilderment. An impressed whistle escaped his lips. Warren caught this and he smiled delightfully.
"I agree, it is quite extraordinary, isn't it?" he said.
"I'll say," Liam whispered in astonishment. And sure enough, the black widow, almost the size of a marble, was seen climbing up on a single strand of webbing from its abdomen, flashing its red hourglass that displayed itself from its belly, all the while carrying its prey trapped within its web. Just by looking at this thing made Lincoln's skin crawl. Taking out his cellphone, he snapped a quick shot of it once after the lenses were in proper focus. Lucy and Lisa are so gonna love these.
"And finally, over here, we have this crab spider," Professor Warren went on, pointing to a third container. "Though this creature possesses no ability to produce a web like its eight-legged brothers and sisters, what it can do to make up for it is that it hunts for its prey by using a set of incredible reflexes with nerve conduction velocities that is so vast, that some researchers believe that it almost borders on precognition. An early awareness of danger, in other words."
Conner Pingrey raised his left hand up.
"Yes, young man?" Warren asked, pointing at the teen's direction.
"So basically, that means it's able to sense when danger's nearby right before it even happens?" Connor questioned, trying to get a clear understand of what the professor had just explained.
"Yes, that is indeed correct," Professor Warren said proudly, with a slight nod. "Basically, it behaves a lot like a radar system, able to pinpoint where the danger is coming from, giving them enough time to react. It behaves very much like that of a sixth sense. Or in this case, a spider-sense, if you will pardon my saying."
Spider-sense, Lincoln thought with great fascination. Now that in of itself sounded pretty cool. What I would give to have something like that. Could be really useful for when April Fool's Day rolls around. The look on Luan's face would have been priceless. As they continued to follow along after their tour guide, Conner joined up with Lincoln.
"Hey, Linc," he whispered to the white-haired Loud boy, trying to grab his attention. "Did you know that there are some species of spiders that can change color to blend into their environment?" Lincoln looked at him curiously.
"For real?" he asked very quietly. "What for?" Conner thought about it for a second and he massaged the back of his neck.
"Huh, I honestly don't remember," he quietly admitted. "I think it's some kind of defense mechanism or something." Well, fancy that. Spiders that have the ability to camouflage themselves, just like a lizard or a chameleon. Who knew? Lynn shot the Pingrey teen an uninterested look.
"Conner, what makes you think we would be interested to know about that?" Conner responded with a simple shrug of his shoulders.
"Just thought I'd throw it out there."
Lincoln, on the other hand, had actually found this all to be very interesting. For as long as he was able to remember, he always thought spiders were nothing more but disgusting little creepy crawlies who made webs and scared the living daylights out of people. But after what he just seen and heard, there were a lot more to the eight-legged kingdom than he initially realized. But then, another thought came to him. Didn't they also come here to see super spiders?
As the group continued to follow after Professor Warren, the scientist eventually led the class over to the far right side location of the laboratory, closely next to one of the alabaster columns. He walked up to what appeared to be a display of twelve different square glass cases, carefully placed in an organized stack on top of each other inside of one giant container that prevented them from falling all over the floor. Lincoln quickly realized what was inside each one of those glass cases.
This was it. The finale. The main event that he and his friends, minus Lynn, were all waiting for. The entire reason for why they had wanted to go on the trip in the first place. Lincoln and his friends looked closely and examined every glass case with wonder. While the rest of the science class were practically bored out of their minds, wanting to do something other than listen to Warren going on and on, Lincoln, however, was quite pulled in by what he was seeing.
In each of these containers, these spiders were very unique in color and design. Each one of them had bright neon colors around their abdomens and opposite colors that contrasted with the other. One of them was green with yellow stripes, and another was yellow with green stripes, orange and black, the colors varied. These little critters were quite something to behold. Using this opportunity, Lincoln lifted his cellphone and took a few more snapshots of the spiders.
"Wow," Clyde whispered in astonishment. "Lincoln, isn't this exciting?" Before the Loud boy could even get the chance to open his mouth, another voice spoke up closely next to them.
"Pfft, sure, if you like things that can crawl out from under a rock." Lynn quipped with a bored frown, crossing her arms. Jeez, Lynn, Lincoln thought annoyedly. Can you be an even bigger buzzkill? Deciding to ignore her, Lincoln and Clyde turned over to Professor Warren, who remained alongside to the left of the display.
"In the last several years," Professor Warren had informed the guests, "this university's most excellent genetic research facility was able to fully map out the genetic coding from each of the three aforementioned spiders, and we were able to use them to create this collection of these new spiders."
"Armed with these DNA blueprints," Warren continued with his explanation, "we have now only begun what was thought to have been impossible. Of course, we cannot do such things to a human being just yet though. So, for now, we are using twelve of these super spiders as a show of our accomplishments."
Lincoln and Clyde smiled excitedly when they heard him actually say the word "super" in that sentence. However, their excitement were suddenly cut short, when Lincoln walked up closely and he noticed that something was very out of place. He closely examined and counted down each one of the containers, making sure that he did not miss anything. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven...
That was weird. Where was super spider number twelve? With this newfound knowledge, Lincoln glanced over to the scientist.
"Um, Professor Warren?" he called to, raising his hand to catch the man's attention. "I don't know if you've seen this yet, but there are only eleven spiders here." Miles Warren looked at the teen with a confused eyebrow. Even Mr. Glendoveer started to look concerned.
"I-I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" the professor asked, unsure if he had heard correctly.
"There's only eleven, sir," Lincoln repeated, before pointing at the empty case. "One of them is missing." Warren walked over to Lincoln's location and gazed closely at the glass case. To his surprise, the teen was correct. It was empty, and the only thing found inside was a small web and a long thorny twig. Warren furrowed his brows, now very perturbed by this new information. Clyde, Lynn, and the others felt the same way as well.
"That's strange. I could have sworn this one was in here about an hour ago." the scientist muttered aloud. Warren pondered on this notion for a moment until he had decided to shrug his shoulders. "Huh, I guess they must have removed it for further study. Oh well, no harm done."
As Warren eventually continued on with his talk and explanation to the tour group about the possibilities and wonders of genetic manipulation, Lincoln unconsciously rested his body up against the column that stood close by, crossing his left foot over the other. As he watched while the other students were looking at the display cases and taking some pictures, Lincoln decided to grab his phone again and tried to get a nice group shot.
Oh yeah, this is so going to look nice for this coming yearbook. As he was busy taking a couple photos or more with his phone, making sure that the lens was perfectly in focus, he and everybody else were completely unaware that in the high arch of the rotunda, situated at the top base of the column, a largely magnificent spider's web displayed itself above, hidden where no one could notice it, glistening mildly in the light.
Positioned at the center of the web was what appeared to be a small, rounded marble shape that was colored blue with four stylized red stripes going along the sides. The spider crawled its way rather steadily across to one corner of its web. It had only recently devoured a fly. But it was still hungry, and it wanted more. It had sensed nearby pray, sensing movement located directly below it. A feeling of great hunger instantly took over its other senses. It wanted to eat, and it wasn't going to stop until it had its fill.
Moving even further to the corner of its web, it had used its spinnerets below its abdomen to create a strand of pearl-white silk. Gradually descending in a long vertical line that now glistened in the light, it spread out its long twiggy legs as it methodically hovered down its web strand, eagerly anticipating its impending feast, its small needle-sharp fangs salivating with impatient hunger. It was going to savor every last tasty morsel of its unwary prey and nothing, not even its arachnoid brothers and sisters in this world, was going to get in the way of what it wanted.
Still completely oblivious, Lincoln remained where he was, leaning against the column, putting away his cellphone, and watching his group listen to Warren's continued speech. As the spider inched even closer and closer, the mutant arachnid could already taste the sweet and juicy protein that flowed deliciously within Lincoln's veins. All it wanted was one tiny bite and that would be it. Just one bite to make it good and happy.
It dangled further down until it had finally landed on Lincoln's right shoulder. The spider felt its surrounding with its hairy legs and realized that it was not touching bare flesh. There had to be a better food source around here. And so, it traversed further down Lincoln's shoulder and passed the orange sleeve of his now crossed arm until it had finally reached the teen's unclothed left hand resting on his right bicep.
At last, it had found its sought-after meal. Now nothing else could claim it. With this, the spider wasted no time whatsoever as it bared its black fangs as wide as it could make it and it greedily pierced deep into the pink flesh of Lincoln's hand. But the spider had realized too late that it would be the last meal that it would ever have again.
"Ow!" Lincoln cried out lightly, feeling a small but terrible prick on his hand.
On instinct, he speedily swiped off whatever the source of that pain had come from. The spider had fallen down to the floor, landing very hard on its back. The impact caused it great pain, so much so that it had instantly given out and the spider's legs started to curl inward towards its belly. A clear sign that the spider had now met its untimely end, all life now gone from its being. Lincoln held his hand closely to himself, wincing a little bit from the small but irritable pain.
He raised his hand up and saw a very tiny dot of red just a quarter inch below the knuckle of his index finger. Blood... Lincoln looked at the ground and he squatted down to his knees to try and get a better look at the thing that had just bitten him. Upon seeing the red and blue abdomen and small hairy legs, he immediately realized what he was looking at.
It's you, he thought. The missing twelfth. Just how in the world did you get out?
"Is there a problem, Mr. Loud?" the voice of Mr. Glendoveer inquired suspiciously at his direction. Lincoln shot his head up to look at his science teacher. As much as he wanted to tell the truth, there was just something in the back of his brain that forced him to say something else than what he had originally wanted to say.
"Uh, no sir. I thought my shoe was untied for a second," the teen falsely informed, standing back up to his feet. As the teacher turned back to listen to Professor Warren, Lincoln gazed back down at his hand, and at the bite mark that had now just started to turn a dark shade of pink. Lincoln furrowed his black eyebrows. He then turned his eyes over to the dead spider near his feet.
I sure hope you weren't poisonous.
But unbeknownst to Lincoln, however, this was only just the beginning.
Here is a little fun fact that you should know about the tour guide; Professor Miles Warren is actually another one of Spider-Man's future enemies. He would go on to become the supervillain known as the Jackal. Pretty cool that I put him in this story, eh? Just like I did with Mac Gargan, the guy who would become the Spidey villain Scorpion, in the first chapter.
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering who this Conner Pingrey is, no I did not make him up. He is the Bratty Kid who appeared in the Loud House episode, "Cereal Offender". Conner's not really his name, it was given to him by the fans of the show. All you gotta know.
With all that now out of the way, don't forget to send me a review and tell me what you guys, think.
Have an awesome day. ;)