Chapter 11
*School bell ringing*
"All right everyone, I want to see those drafts on 'Van der Waals' forces presentations next week," Anna-Maria announced, to the collective groan of her class, as they were packing their stuff to leave. "If you have time to complain, you have time to work on that presentation. At least some of you didn't have to be reminded like a child, every single time," she added, giving her nod of approval towards Liz & Gwen.
Liz smiled smugly as the class lets out a disgruntled groan. Gwen couldn't help but smile, as she shook her head in disbelief at Liz's smug attitude.
"Hey, wait up," Liz called out to Gwen as she started to walk away.
As they walked down the corridor, Liz phone started beeping inside her bag.
"Great, that's just typical," Liz sighed in annoyance.
"What's up?" Gwen asked.
"It's Peter," Liz rolled her eyes in annoyance. "He couldn't make it to practice today. Again," Liz said, emphasizing her last words.
Gwen momentarily blinked in surprise before regaining her composure. "You guys are texting each other now?" she asked with a straight face.
"Hmm? Yeah. It's easier for me to round up my minions for the decathlon that way," Liz said off-handedly, before noticing Gwen's face. "Relax, it's just for the competition. I'm not coming onto your little 'Petey'," she teased.
"What? I didn't say anything," Gwen said, feigning innocence.
"Sure you didn't," Liz said while pinching her cheeks affectionately. "You guys are so cute you know that?"
Gwen brushed her hands off and rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Shut up," she replied as they continued making their way down the hall.
"Well, since he's 'busy' apparently," Liz remarked sarcastically. "You wanna join us for practice? It'll be fun," she offered.
"I can't," Gwen shook her head apologetically. "I have to go see my uncle, my dad wants him over tonight for dinner,"
"Bummer," Liz sighed. "Want me to come with you? I've got time before practice starts," she offered.
Gwen shook her head as she faced Liz. "Nah, it's okay. I've got this,"
"Fine," Liz rolled her eyes, as she flashed her a smile before turning away. "Text you later then!" she exclaimed chirpily before walking away towards her destination.
Gwen smiled to herself, before she herself turned & headed towards her destination.
"Hello? Uncle Miles?" Gwen said slowly as she peeked in the doorway to her uncle's lab. She did note that it was weird for the door to be left unlocked, her uncle was a very meticulous person in her mind.
She shrugged the thought off mentally as she slowly made her way into the lab. She waited for a few moments for a response, but there was none forthcoming.
She looked around the now dark, empty lab, slightly creeped out by the ambience with everyone gone. Charts & books about evolution, Darwinism, DNA Splicing, etc. were littered around the lab. She always found her uncle's interest in human evolution & biology admirable. At times, it has been pretty disconcerting, but even then, it had always fascinated the scientist side of her that she inherited from her mother.
As she was occupying herself with the models & exhibits in the lab, a creaking sound, made much louder due to the deafening silence, from inside her uncle's office snapped her back to reality.
'I guess he was in his office then,' Gwen thought to herself as she made her way towards the adjoining office behind the teacher's table. As she approached the door, a sudden realization caused her to hesitate slightly, thinking back to her father's words & warning prior.
'It's nothing right? He said it's nothing,' Gwen hesitated, stopping in her tracks, a few meters away from the office. 'Come on Gwen, scientifically, there's no such thing as ghosts. Or monsters. No such things. Don't be stupid Gwen, you got this,' Gwen continued to psych herself up in her mind.
As she steeled herself, she slowly continued making her way towards the office.
"Uncle Miles?" Gwen said as she knocked the door to his office.
*smash*
Gwen was startled by the sound of glass breaking from inside the office. She waited nervously for a few moments, hoping for a reply from her uncle.
"U-uncle Miles? Are you in there?" she whispered timidly from outside the door. After there was no reply coming from inside the office, her heart started to beat crazily in panic.
Gwen's first thought was to run away and call for help from a teacher, but the stubborn side of her that she got from her father pushed her to investigate, worried that something might've happened to her uncle.
She slowly turned the doorknob, and swing open the door slowly, making her way in carefully & timidly.
"H-hello? Anybody there?" Gwen asked timidly, holding her phone's flashlight up to light up her way.
Once she's inside, she saw her uncle's office being in an orderly mess. Nothing to suggest there was any supposed break ins, or more importantly, to suggest there was another's presence within the room. The mess was an expected side of any scientists' work, and her uncle was no different.
Gwen lets out a small sigh of relief, as she lets her guard down, not detecting any immediate dangers within the room. As she walked towards her uncle's desk on the far side of the room, flickering shadows caught at the edge of her sight, immediately freaked her out.
"H-h-hello?!" Gwen stammered, her heart threatening to explode from inside her chest. "Just so you know, I-I'm not afraid of you," she said out loud, trying her best to convince herself. "I-I know martial arts, so you better not get any ideas!" she exclaimed (half-bluffing, as the martial arts she knew were mostly self-taught from martial arts movies she's watched since she was young.)
After a few moments of silence, Gwen slowly regained her composure. She resisted the urge to run away from the room, and turned back towards the desk, her mind fully wary of every little thing around her.
As she reached the desk, she noticed pieces of broken glass scattered to the side of it. She kneeled down and checked the pieces of broken vials. "Blood?" she mulled, as she touched the spilled liquid and brought it over to her nose. She then shined her flashlight on to the liquid and noticed a small label with the letters 'SM'.
Slightly creeped out by her findings, she stood back up and did another once over of the room, wary of any monsters that her dad warned her about.
As she spun back towards the desk, she notices there were several more vials of red liquid, presumably more blood, stored next to a shelf. There was also a large glass container, with several partitions containing half a dozen mice, all, she felt, looking at her suspiciously for breaking into her uncle's lab.
As she shrugged the thought away mentally ('They're mice, Gwen, get a grip,'), she noticed that the rats were all curiously, identical in pattern.
However, seeing as she was already on edge, she immediately pushed the thoughts away and turned back towards the desk. She picked up a report laid across the desk, assuming it's the current fascination her uncle's working on.
'Cross-Species Biological Enhancement Report #129
DNA doesn't match any of the 6 existing samples. Upon further testing, pattern shows similarity to 'Specimen #001 : '
Sample shows DNA integration, more wholistic + better compatibility with human host.
Conclusion : Initial hypothesis false.
New Hypothesis : Target power origin similar to 'Specimen #001'. High probability target obtained dominant genetic transplant.
Suspect to be prior victim to 'Specimen #001'
Henceforth, target label changed to 'Specimen #000.
Note : Sample 001 not the origin of Specimen #000 abilities. Location still unidentified.
Gwen was fully immersed with the report she has in her hands, letting her guard down as she focuses on connecting the info she has together.
In doing so, she fails to notice the gangly figure sneaking in through the door, silently creeping behind her, standing over her as its fangs gleamed in the dark menacingly.
"Look out!"
*thwip thwip thwip*
Suddenly Gwen was snatched off her feet. Her fight or flight response immediately triggered, and having no other choice, started flailing away at her captor as wildly as she can.
"Oww! Ouch! Gwen! Gwen! STOP!"
Gwen peeked opened her eyes slightly and saw Spider-Man's mask, directly above her.
"W-what? Spider-Man?" Gwen exclaimed in surprise, noticing she was cradled in his arms, and pushed him away in a blind panic.
Spider-Man quickly lets her go after Gwen's initial push back. "It's ok, it's ok. You're safe," he put his hand up, trying to calm Gwen down.
"Gwen," a grating voice snarled from where Gwen stood moments earlier.
Gwen turned her attention towards the source of the voice. To her dismay, a large, gangly, furry, green creature stood there (fortunately) trapped inside Spider-Man's webs.
"W-what the hell is that thing?" Gwen gasped in horror, as she backed away into Spider-Man.
The green creature started snarling menacingly as Gwen stood next to Spider-Man. He suddenly flexed his long gangly arms and ripped away the webbings like pieces of paper.
"Err, I was hoping you could tell me that," Spider-Man quipped. "He seems to know who you are," he offered jokingly, a slight nervousness in his voice.
"I don't know what that thing is!" Gwen exclaimed, trying her best to keep her calm. "Wait? You remember me?"
"Not sure if that's what we should be focusing on here," Spider-Man said hurriedly. "Stay behind me,"
"I can take care of myself," Gwen said shakily, as she grabbed one of the stools inside the office as a weapon.
"Stay away from my Gwen," the creature snarled towards Spider-Man, his furry arms suddenly growing claws.
"Your Gwen? Where I'm standing, she's my Gwen," Spider-Man fired back at him.
"Ehem. Excuse me?" Gwen asked incredulously, turning her glare towards Spider-Man.
"Coz you know, you're on my side of the room. And we're standing against him," Spider-Man explained hurriedly. "You know what, not important,"
Suddenly the creature lunged towards Spider-Man, but he deftly leapt over it, and fired his webbing at the creature's face as it turned towards him.
"Gwen! Get over here!" he insisted, seeing as Gwen stood still in panic, right next to the temporarily blinded monster. She quickly rushed over towards his side, the office door now directly behind them.
"What are you doing here Spider-Man?" the creature growled in anger, as it tears away the webbing on his face. "Snooping around? Being a nuisance?!"
"Hey, what can I say, I'm curious about my dad's workplace," Spider-Man joked, to Gwen's horror.
"W-wait, you're related to t-tha-,"
"No! No, I was…," Spider-Man lets out a small sigh. "That was a stupid joke, forget it,"
The creature suddenly (to Gwen's further surprise) started frowning, as he continued to glare towards Spider-Man. "A minor misjudgment," it spat towards Spider-Man. "But one that is no less beneficial to my research,"
"Oh man, and here I thought I was coming in for some family time," he quipped, before turning towards Gwen. "Just roll with it please," he pleaded.
The creature immediately lunged towards Spider-Man again, hoping to catch him off-guard, but again, Spider-Man deftly avoided the lunge by sliding in between its legs and sweeping its feet under from under it using his web-shooters.
"Gwen! Run! Now!" Spider-Man immediately yelled out at Gwen.
Gwen hesitated for a few moments before rushing out of the office door and into the labs.
Suddenly, the creature lunged at her, the webbings on its feet now shredded by the claws protruding from its toes.
Quick as a flash, Spider-Man jumped in and tackled the much larger creature and held it back. "I've got this! Go!" he said through gritted teeth as he held one of the creature's arms back.
Gwen hesitated again, before running away from the tussling pair. The creature, now with Spider-Man firmly in its grasp, lifted him up & tossed him over to one of the walls.
"Urgh!" Spider-Man groaned in pain as he got up from the impact.
The creature immediately leaped in front of him and grabbed him by the throat. "Bah, that all you've got, Spider?" the creature said as he started to choke the life out of Spider-Man.
*Wham*
Out of nowhere, a fire extinguisher slammed into its head, stunning it temporarily, causing its grip on Spider-Man to loosen.
Gwen stood there, panting, extinguisher in hand, as she saw Spider-Man kicking the creature in the chest and freeing himself from its grip.
"What are you doing?!" Spider-Man exclaimed in exasperation. "Leave! I got this!"
"Pfft, yeah right," Gwen scoffed, blood pumped full of adrenaline right now. "You clearly have this under control," she remarked sarcastically.
Spider-Man shrugged off the remark. "I would've figured something out. It's too dangerous," Spider-Man shook his head, while keeping an eye on the downed creature.
Suddenly, the creature leaped towards Gwen and swung his claw at her.
"GWEN! NO!" Spider-Man yelled out as he fired his web shooters at Gwen, as he tried to pull her out of harms way.
Unfortunately, the creature was aiming at the extinguisher, and used his claw to slice through it, the sudden tear causing the extinguisher to explode and knock Gwen into one of the desks.
"GWEN!" Spider-Man exclaimed in panic.
Winded, Gwen groaned painfully as she shook off the impact. "I'm okay," she managed softly. "Just, give me a sec," she groaned, as she leaned over one if the shelfs.
*Crash*
The loud crash of a broken window from within the office grabbed their attention.
Spider-Man hesitated between going back in for the creature, or tending to Gwen first. Noticing this, Gwen waved him away, and gave him a thumbs up. "I'm fine, go catch that thing," she groaned softly.
Spider-Man hesitated for a few more moments, before turning towards her. "Just stay there. I'll be right back!" he assured her before he jumped right into the white smoke and into the office.
"Sure, just let me catch my breath," Gwen sat herself up, still winded from the impact. After a few seconds, the whole room returned back to silence, Spider-Man & the creature, seeming to have left the building.
As she laid there, leaning against the desk for a few minutes, a small chromatic spider, lowered itself from its web, and dropped onto her hands.
Still slightly dizzy from the adrenaline rush, Gwen didn't feel the spider crawling up onto the back of her palms, and sank its fang onto her.
"ARGH!" Gwen shrieked in pain, as she flung the spider away into the darkness. Suddenly, her hands started to throb in pain, as she bit her lips, trying to withstand the pain.
"Great," she groaned, lamenting the fight, and now the spider bite. "Greatest day of my fucking life,"
"Gwen?! Are you okay?" Peter Parker suddenly rushed into the lab, searching for Gwen.
The lab was now full of teachers, having made their way there after all of the noises that was made during the fight.
Gwen, now having recovered from her crash, was soothing her hands in one of the basins inside the lab.
"I'm fine," she assured him, blushing slightly at the amount of concern in Peter's voice. "What are you doing here?"
Peter blinked in surprise at the question. "I was, uhh, studying at the library," Peter offered, before brushing away the question. "That's not important. Are you hurt?!"
"N-no, I'm fine," Gwen assured him.
Peter's attention turned towards her throbbing hand that she's keeping under running water to soothe. "What happened to your hand?"
"It's nothing," Gwen brushed away the question, not wanting to bring further attention to herself.
Max Modell, one of the first to arrive after all the commotion, approached them. "Gwen, I've called your father, he's on his way to pick you up right now,"
"Oh, okay," Gwen nodded towards Max in acknowledgement. "Thanks, Mr. Modell,"
Max nodded back at her, before turning towards Peter. "Peter, would you mind taking Gwen to the infirmary while we wait for Captain Stacy to arrive,"
"There's no need for that. I'm fine," Gwen said defiantly, if a bit bullishly. In truth, a sense of vertigo was gradually building up inside her, and her head was feeling like it was splitting itself open at the seams. It was taking her all her strength to stand right now, but her stubbornness won't allow her to back down.
"Be that as it may, this is the safety protocol within this school, and you are expected to follow it Ms. Stacy," Max said firmly, before looking over worryingly at Gwen. "Are you sure you're okay Gwen? You look terrible," he asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," Gwen said defiantly.
Max started to frown at her continued insistence. "Peter, take care of her please," Max said, before turning back towards Miles Warren's office, and assessing the damage of the situation.
Peter slowly went over to Gwen and offered his hand to her. "Come on, let's get you to the infirmary,"
Gwen hesitantly accepted his hand, realizing that without support, her legs was likely about to give over from the vertigo she's currently feeling. "Thanks, Peter,"
As they made their way down the hall, towards the infirmary, Gwen's symptoms exponentially became worse with every step she took, until eventually, she couldn't stand it anymore, and collapsed towards Peter.
"Gwen…? Gw…en….?!" She heard Peter's voice waning, as she groggily, gradually slipped away out of her consciousness. The last thing she recalls (imagined?) is how wiry & firm Peter felt under his sweater, as she collapsed into his arms.