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※ Itsy Bitsy Spiders ※
※ Ch. 01: Wands, Spiders and Redheads, Oh My ※

※※※※※

It was a bright sunny day in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York, and several students from Midtown High School were gathered around the front door of a brand new Café that would be having its grand opening in a week's time. Most of these students were hoping to be hired as part time workers at the small restaurant, as the location was absolutely perfect for those among them who wanted to earn substantial tips from their classmates, since the diner was located right across the street from the school.

"This sucks!" a young redhead exclaimed as she watched another classmate leave the building with a downcast expression on their face. "Why is this jerk turning everyone away? It's like he doesn't want his business to succeed!"

"Calm down, Em Jay," a blonde girl soothed her best friend as she raised an eyebrow when an attractive young woman with naturally tan skin, and wavy brown hair walked up from further down the street and forced her way through the crowd, opened the door and walked into the café like she owned the place. "Seems like the guy already has an employee."

The crowd outside the building soon dispersed after they seemingly came to the same conclusion, even while Mary Jane Watson threw her hands up in the air while releasing a small scream of frustration, before standing up, and saying, "I'm gonna get a job at that café if it kills me."

Gwen Stacy sighed as she watched her friend walk towards the building with as much confidence as she could put into her stride. "This won't end well."

※※※※※

Inside the café, a young man with jet black hair and vibrant green eyes looked up as another young woman stepped through the front door of his café. He quickly took note of the confidence in her, and the fact that she was dressed in a women's business suit, and said, "I take it you aren't a student at the neighboring high school?"

The woman smirked and said, "I just graduated from a private high school located in Westchester. However, I will be taking classes at Queen's College from this semester going forward."

"Well, that's definitely better than what I've been dealing with all morning. It seems the students at Midtown High School are a bit greedy." The young man admitted.

"Of course they are." the woman agreed with a nod. "I suppose introductions are in order. My name is…"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off as the door was pushed open by another young woman, only her appearance elicited a surprised gasp from the café's owner. The brunette woman turned to look at her and frowned when she realized that this girl and her prospective employer had virtually identical eyes.

The redhead placed her hands on her hips, and boldly started lambasting the young man, "Look, I don't care what you do with the tips, or if I even get more than minimum wage for working at this shop. All I care about is that working here will provide me with a reference on future job applications, and I know for a fact that you can't run a cafe of this size with only two employees!"

The brunette woman smirked as she looked back at her prospective employer and asked, "You didn't really turn away every single student who asked for a job did you?"

"Er, no. There was this one fellow, Parker I believe his name was. He had a similar opening spiel to Miss Copper Top." the young man.

"Parker?" the redhead inquired. "You don't mean Peter Parker, do you?"

"Yep, that was the name he gave me."

"Not gonna lie," the redhead interrupted, "But that boy is an absolute clutz. You're likely going to spend everything we make in tips replacing whatever he breaks on any given night."

"That won't be a problem," the black haired man admitted. "Now, I believe we were at the point of introductions before you interrupted us, Red. So I'll start. My name is Harry Potter, and I am the proprietor and sole owner of the Thinking Cup Café, which means I am your prospective employer."

"Right, I'll go next. My name is Sofia Mantega. I am a graduate of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters…"

"Does that mean you're really smart?" the redhead inquired from the chair she had claimed after realizing she wasn't being dismissed out of hand.

Sofia frowned for a moment, and then said, "Yes, let's go with that."

Harry smirked, as he immediately recognized that response for what it actually was. "And what are you planning to study at Queens College, Miss Mantega?"

"Sofia's fine, and I plan to study political science, since it was the core emphasis of my education at Xavier's. I would have stayed in Westchester, but the Headmaster and I had a difference of opinion, and I needed some room to grow on my own."

"I have a similar history with my old Headmaster back home in bonny old England." Harry agreed. He then looked at his other prospective employee and said, "Now it's your turn."

"Oh, well, my name is Mary Jane Watson, but please call me Em Jay. I'm the guitarist and lead singer for a band known as the Mary Janes…"

Harry snorted at that, but refrained from saying anything as the girl continued. "As I mentioned, I am acquainted with your other employee, and just have to hope you know what you're doing."

"Well then, ladies." Harry spoke up. "As soon as I have your resumes, and have a chance to check with your references, I'll get back to you with whether you are hired or not, but as it stands, I will say things are looking positive for you both." He then frowned at Em Jay and said, "The only problem I see is whether you will be able to fulfill all of your obligations or not."

"I'll figure it out," Em Jay agreed, before standing up and walking back to the door, "Tata."

Once she was gone, Harry turned to look at Sofia and asked, "When can you start?"

"Wait, what?" Sofia asked in a confused tone of voice. "I thought you needed to see my resume?"

"I know perfectly well who Charles Xavier is, and as such, I know exactly what he means when he calls his students Gifted. I'm gifted as well, but in an entirely different manner." Harry explained as he watched Sofia's reaction to his words.

Sofia frowned rather impressively due to her mounting confusion, "You know what I am, and still want to hire me?"

"Would you have left Xavier's school if you were a danger to the general public?" Harry countered her question with one of his own.

"That's not the point!" Sofia exclaimed. "Most of the time when someone discovers they have a mutant in their employ, they fire them and send word to the Purifiers. So for you to already know I'm a mutant is sending up all sorts of red flags."

Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair, while saying, "My parents were killed by a terrorist when I was only a year old, and sometimes I wish I joined them in death, because my childhood was nothing short of torturous. For the ten years following my parents demise, I slept inside a small cupboard underneath the stairs in my maternal aunt's home. I was forced to do manual labor that would break a grown man from sunrise to sunset from the time I was old enough to walk under my own power. And that's all before mentioning the fact that I was being set up as a martyr by the headmaster of my alma mater."

Sofia's eyes had begun widening in shock as her new employer spoke, since there was absolutely no way he could be faking the emotionally dead voice in which he was speaking about his personal history. It was like she was listening to Old Man Logan recounting one of his many war stories.

"In all honesty," Harry concluded, "I'm simply shocked that I managed to live through the hell that was my teenage years, and will not be able to inflict that sort of terror on anyone else."

Sofia took a few seconds to get over her shock, at which point she smiled warmly at Harry and said, "I'll tell you what, since I have prior experience working as a waitress, I'll rearrange my academic schedule so that I can be available on a more permanent basis, because we both know that neither of your other employees is going to work out in the long run."

Harry blushed as he looked away, "What can I say, I have a soft spot for hopeless cases."

"Uh huh," Sofia remarked as she arched an eyebrow. "You do realize that Em Jay is still in high school, right?"

"What?!" Harry blurted out as he turned to look at her with wide, horrified eyes, "That's not…"

"You couldn't take your eyes off her when she first got in here, Harry."

"Because she looks damn near identical to my mother!" Harry exclaimed.

Sofia blinked in confusion as she said, "That's a very odd coincidence, because I was thinking she looked darn near identical to Professor Jean Grey."

Harry sighed and said, "In any case, just because I couldn't avert my eyes, doesn't mean I find Em Jay to be at all attractive."

"Right; well in any case, I'll have to go so I can start rearranging my schedule. I'll see you in the next few days, Harry."

"Take care," Harry agreed as he watched her leave. He then walked to the door while pulling out his wand, and sealed the store up, having made his decisions on who he would employ, at least for now. With that done, he turned on his heel and was pulled into a swirling vortex of magical energy.

※※※※※

Gwen Stacy rolled her eyes as Harold Osborne flirted with her best female friend in front of a terrarium that contained several spiders with alleged genetic enhancements. The boy was merely regurgitating the words of his best friend, Peter Parker, in an attempt to look cooler than he actually was. The problem, as far as Gwen was concerned, is that Em Jay was eating it up, hook, line and sinker.

Suddenly her eyes widened as she felt a sharp pinch on her leg, prompting her to glance down at her stocking-clad leg as she gasped in pain, "The fuck?!"

Her eyes widened in horror as she saw a bright red and blue spider crawling along her leg, prompting her to begin shaking her entire foot in an effort to dislodge it, which worked surprisingly well, as the creature almost seemed to leap across the room, before landing who knows where.

As soon as it was gone, however, Gwen began to feel queasy, almost as if she just came down with a severe cold. It definitely wasn't the sort of symptoms she'd expect from a spider bite. That was when she heard a masculine gasp of pain coming from somewhere else in the room, and a similar series of frantic noises as someone else tried to get the spider off of them.

Gwen quickly excused herself to look for a bathroom, since she had no interest in being sick all over the floor of an advanced research lab. Things took a turn for the surreal when she reached the bathroom and blew the door off of its hinges as soon as she touched the thing. Rather than question this turn of events, Gwen immediately ran for one of the toilets and began divesting herself of everything that entered her stomach on this craptastic day.

※※※※※

Back in the lab, Peter Parker was experiencing a similar crisis, only in his case, he found himself stuck to a wall for no apparent reason. Fortunately, he had been leaning against the wall at the time, and thus his predicament didn't look as bizarre as Gwen's broken bathroom door. With that said, the boy was having a mild panic attack, since he couldn't figure out how to dislodge himself from the wall. Of course, that was all before mentioning how sick he was feeling.

"Urk…" Peter grunted as he began vomiting right there in the lab.

"That's so gross!" someone exclaimed as they took notice of what Peter was doing.

This was followed up by several other people laughing at him taunting him for being sick in front of everyone. Surprisingly, however, Em Jay came over and grabbed him by the shoulder and somehow managed to pull him off the wall. She then began guiding him out of the lab, while saying, "You really have a way with timing, don't you, Petey."

"Urk…" was all Peter could manage as the girl of his dreams guided him out of the lab and into the first men's room that she came across. Of course, they both ignored the fact that she entered the bathroom with him, as this was not the time or place to indulge in such activities.

"Want to tell me why you got sick all of a sudden, Petey?" Em Jay inquired.

"I… urk…" the boy started to say before vomiting again.

Em Jay scowled at this before standing up and walking over to the door, "I'll go find one of the chaperones."

And with that, the girl was gone, leaving Peter to suffer through this turmoil all on his own.

※※※※※

Gwen had only just recovered from her turmoil when one of her classmates found her in the lab's halls and told her that the bus was about to leave, which allowed her to arrive in time to watch as an ambulance pulled away from the lab. Walking up to her favorite redhead, Gwen asked the question of the day, "What happened?"

"Two people came down with a severe case of the flu or something like that; and one of them was your boyfriend." Em Jay admitted in an annoyed tone of voice. "But of course, you'd already know all of that if you actually bothered to participate in the tour that you wouldn't shut up about over the past two weeks, now wouldn't you?"

Gwen quickly fabricated a lie and said, "Something I ate must not have agreed with me, because I spent the entire trip vacating my stomach, but I feel perfectly fine now."

That wasn't entirely true, and Em Jay must have seen it because the girl scowled at Gwen as they boarded the bus and said, "Yeah, whatever."

※ Chapter End ※

Author's Note: First things first, the setting for this story incorporates elements from both the Earth-616 and Earth-65 universes, as well as Sam Raimi's Spider Man Movies, and should therefore be considered an Alternate Continuity to all three settings, especially since I meddled with the timeline for both the X-Men and Spider-Man series.

Next up, those of you who are fans of the Spider-Man franchise will most likely be able to guess who the other spider-bite victim was, but I unfortunately did not get around to introducing the character in this chapter, so if you want to share your knowledge in the comments, feel free.

Other than that, this story blurb was written as a response to Gabriel Herrol's challenge of the same name, and I would appreciate it if someone would try to find a way to continue the idea, since I would greatly like to see a story written along this premise.