Manchester, England.
A light thudding made its way through an airshaft in a facility, and metal creaked every couple of moments. Light breathing could be heard in one shaft, and a shadow crossed the wall. A shapely woman with dark-brown hair tied back in a ponytail and light-brown eyes sporting a lavender leotard and brown boots passed a shaft, moving at a slow, steady pace.
Lara Croft kept herself calm, making sure she made slow, easy breaths while moving carefully to ensure that her presence didn't attract attention. The famous Tomb Raider inched herself towards a vent, seeing a flickering light illuminating the room she was approaching.
'Well, Lara. This may be it...' The voluptuous leotard-clad archeologist thought.
Closer, closer, and closer. Sweat beaded her forehead just a little, Lara reached out, and pushed against the vent. The grate opened, and she crawled over the edge, positioning herself behind a large box as a light flickered on the wall.
Attractive Tomb Raider Lara Croft had come to this facility for a very important reason, the legendary Arachne Totem from ancient Greece was said to be here, and the legend said it let off a light while in a lit room. Lara was determined to get it, but she knew, as usual, there were parties who would not make the job easier for the Tomb Raider.
She drew the gun from the pocket upon her belt around the lower rim of her leotard, prepared for action, and stepped out from behind the box. Lara saw the first pair of guards, and opened fire. The bullets impacted, cutting through their uniformed bodies like knives through butter, and the guards fell one at a time.
Lara's eyes fell upon her prize, waiting upon a dais, surrounded by red beams. She stepped towards the middle of the room, shooting another guard, and walked over the first beam, then she crouched and crawled under the second, and jumped over the third. Now, the totem was within reach.
Unbeknownst to Lara Croft, a spider was dangling from a web close by, its sights set upon her, and it was letting off an odd glow. The totem was said to have the power to summon spiders, and it was being kept in a place where odd radioactive experiments were conducted. Lara lowered her gun, and her arm reached out, her fingers closing around the treasure.
Just like before, just like with every treasure, the intrepid Tomb Raider was successful and the artifact was in her possession. And like every adventure, when she got the treasure, it was time to leave before more trouble came.
The spider leaped into her pocket.
Her hand grasping the totem as hard as possible, Lara ran for it, and gunshots screamed out as her finger squeezed the trigger, the bullets flying and wiping out the guards that came to keep Lara from stealing the treasure. She raised a closed hand, hitting one uniformed man across the side, and knocking him into the nearby wall, rendering him out like a light.
Lara ducked through a hall, illuminated by flashing red siren lights, and she made a dive for the window. The archeologist's body mass broke through the glass, and the window's shards streaked past Lara, missing every inch of her body. She hit the soft, grassy ground, running like the wind with her ponytail flowing while the alarms still screamed into her ears.
And she still had the totem, but the spider was ready to move, and she never saw it coming.
When she thought herself safe to breathe, Lara came to a stop and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her hand moved to place the gun back into her pocket, the spider slowly crawled up her body, and leaped onto her bare elbow. And she didn't feel its legs.
Chills ran through her, and Lara breathed again. The spider moved towards her hand, passing over the wrist, and she was starting to feel something odd on her skin. The spider inched closer to the edge of her hand, oozing radiation into Lara. Its mandibles were twitching, in near sync with its moving legs, and the spider crawled to a stop.
It looked at the human flesh it stood upon, its mouth opening, and the spider blinked. Its twitching mandibles twitched once more, then the spider lowered itself without hesitation and sank its fangs into the flesh of Lara Croft.
Pain streaked through her knuckles, through every nerve-ending in Lara's hand. She gasped and held up her wrist, turning the hand around to see the spider. Peeved, and hurt by the bug bite, she shook her wrist and swatted the spider off her hand. The spider fell to the ground, landing at Lara's feet. Her boot-covered foot came up, and she squished it hard.
As it saw the foot before the impact, the spider thought of survival, then the darkness came down and the arachnid thought of nothing else. The boot came up, leaving behind nothing but a crushed black body with dark liquid that oozed into the dirt.
Lara held the totem, which she'd stuffed into her pocket before swatting off the spider. The artifact seemed to glow, and Lara looked around, wondering if more spiders were being summoned. A shout made her remember she still had to get out of here, then she ran for it, ducking through the metal fence before a gunshot rang out.
'I'll live, I'll live.' Lara thought, inspecting the spider bite on her hand.
She wiped some sweat from her forehead, and then the archeologist noticed she was starting to feel feverish. Unbeknownst to Lara, despite her years of knowledge, the glowing spider had injected venom into her body right when it bit her. And at this very second, the irradiated substance was flowing deep into Lara's DNA, changing her body slowly.
Strands of DNA became rearranged, atoms shifted, and body cells slowly morphed into new ones. The effects prompted a slight dizziness in Lara's head, which started in the base of the skull, and it slowly transformed into something that would be very different.
A half-weary Lara reached her motorcycle, made sure the totem was safe in her possession, and kicked the engine to life. She rode away from the area where the facility was located, even as she heard the guards yelling for her to stop. Alarms wailed, and the intrepid adventurer rode through Manchester, riding away to safety.
"Blimey, core blimey..." Lara muttered, blinking and struggling to stay awake, "It was just a bite, there's nothing else to it, it was just a spider's bite and I'm going to be okay."
The archeologist rode on until she'd driven into Prestwich, then she parked the bike into the nearest parking lot of the motorcycle renting store, and walked away to find a place to rest before getting the totem to the museum. Lara leaned against a lamp post, fighting to shake off the dizziness that, unbeknownst to her, had been spurred on by the spider bite.
"Put some pants on, woman!" A man scoffed at her, unamused to see her in a leotard.
"Yo, acrobat. Save your show for the circus." Another man told Lara.
The leotard-clad Lara Croft ignored the remarks, she was free to where whatever costume she wanted in public, except for swimsuits or the birthday suit. She composed herself, then she walked across the street towards a bench by a building. A moment later, Lara heard a honk and saw a van barreling towards her.
Instincts kicked in, and Lara leaped out of the way before the ride hit her. However, the jump was way different from the other jumps. Lara found herself leaping high, and her fingers touched the side of the nearest building, surprising herself in an instant. Half-confused, half-intrigued, Lara began to think how this was happening.
It was that spider, wasn't it?
Yes, the bite had changed her. Lara became more curious, and she climbed up the building, climbing higher, higher, and higher until she'd reached the rooftop. Lara looked around, aware she was alone, wondering what other spider powers she was having.
Lara inspected her wrist, seeing a bump akin to a mosquito bite. And then, she noticed a small hole in it. The archeologist recalled a comic she had read a few years ago, one where a boy had been bitten by a radioactive spider. That had been an interesting story there.
No way, this was possible here?!
She thought about spider behavior and her face blushed as Lara recalled another major detail about spiders; they shot webs from their butts. The archeologist closed her eyes, then she thrusted backwards with her rump, and nothing happened. Perhaps her spider power was different, she flicked her wrist...
FWIP! A white sticky line shot out of Lara's wrist, going all over the ground in front of her. Lara gasped, then she flicked her wrist again, forming more webs. With each web she formed, the Tomb Raider was starting to think of all the things that could happen from here. For instance, she could use these powers while exploring ancient ruins.
Or maybe, she could use them to apprehend criminals, take down her worst enemies. Lara placed her hands upon her womanly hips and chuckled, near-amused by what had happened today. And then, she recalled that she had an item to deliver to the museum, she would worry about the spider superhero thing later.
Blimey, maybe she could do some web-swinging to a museum to deliver the totem there. Lara chuckled. She found an empty paper bag that someone left on the roof and put it on her head, using it as a sort of a mask. Thankfully, the bag was clean.
With her face covered up, Lara dove off the roof and flicked her wrist, forming a line of web that latched onto the building. And with the totem still in hand. Lara swung through Manchester, heading to the nearest museum for an important artifact delivery, and nobody paid any attention to the shapely leotard-clad woman with the paper bag on her head.
And the wildest part, Lara was wishing she could thank the spider for these very fascinating powers, especially since guns were no longer her only tool at this point in her life...
The End