Chapter 15

*Alarm clock ringing *

"Uhh," a lazy hand slowly reached out, groping aimlessly for the alarm. Gwen groggily sat up & blinked the sleep away from her eyes.

Gwen took a quick glance at the alarm clock, and let out a deep sigh before getting up slowly. "Oh man," she pulled a face as she noted the crooked bells on her alarm clock. "Great," she groaned to herself before heading towards the bathroom.

As she reached the sink and started washing her face, she instinctively reached out for the glasses on her face.

'Eh?' Gwen thought to herself as she realised that she was groping at air, as she wasn't wearing her glasses.

Gwen blinked in surprise for a few moments, snapping herself out of her drowsiness. "Ah, dammit," Gwen cursed silently, as she concluded that she had fallen asleep with her contacts on.

Letting out a sigh of frustration, Gwen held her eyes open as she attempts to pinch the contacts out of her eyes.

"ARGHH!"

Flailing around aimlessly as she tried to blink away the pain from stabbing herself in the eyes, Gwen tried to hold on to the shower knob, only to accidentally break the knob as well, and causing the shower to start spraying water on her.

"Are you kidding me?!" Gwen cursed in frustration, completely drenched from the water, still unable to open one of her eyes from the pain.

A split second later, Gwen was alerted by the rushing footsteps clambering up the staircase. Before she could process why she could hear them, the sound of loud banging on her bedroom door caused her to flinch in surprise.

"Gwen? Are you okay?" George's voice rang out from behind the door, as he kept banging on the door.

"Dad?!"

"Gwen? You're awake?" George replied in surprise, as the banging intensified. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"No-YES! Everything's fine dad!" Gwen exclaimed as she tries to make sense of the sudden influx of abnormalities happening around her.

"Are you hurt? Open the door Gwen," George demanded, his voice tinged with worry.

"N-No! I'm showering right now!" Gwen immediately replied.

"Oh," George paused for a moment.

Gwen pinched her nose in frustration. "Just, just wait downstairs dad, I'll come down in a bit,"

"Oh, uh, yeah, okay. Sure," George mumbled softly from behind the door, eventually slowly making his way back down the stairs.

Gwen frowned to herself as she stared back at her reflection. "What. Is. Going. On,"

Gwen quickly made her way down the stairs and into the living room.

"Oh, hey," her dad greeted her from the kitchen. "I'm making breakfast," he smiled sheepishly.

Gwen blinked in surprise for a few moments before making her way to the kitchen. "What are you doing here dad?" Gwen asked, slightly confused by her dad's presence in the house.

"Oh, I uh, took the day off," George offered, while poking the pancakes in the pan with a spatula.

Gwen quickly put on her apron before heading over to her dad's side. "Come on, let me handle that," she said firmly as she calmly took the spatula & took over the cooking from her dad.

"Thanks honey," George smiled sheepishly at her daughter.

Gwen grunted in acknowledgement as she flipped the pancakes over,

She continued to brew the coffee & serve the pancakes in silence, eventually taking out a nearby plate to serve the pancakes on.

George smiled at her as she sat down opposite of him, whilst Gwen focused more on her plate of food instead of his gaze.

"Uhm, so, uh, how are you feeling?" George cleared his throat.

"Me?" Gwen replied, not looking at her dad.

"Yeah," George said, a look of concern plastered across his face. "Do you remember what happened?"

Gwen blinked back at her dad in confusion.

"You were involved with an attack at your uncle's lab, remember?" George offered slowly, trying not to dismay his daughter.

Suddenly, the memories of last night's events came flooding back into Gwen's mind. The attack by the green monster, Spider-Man, the extinguisher blowing up…

"Uggh," Gwen winced in pain, as her head started throbbing in pain.

"What's wrong?" George asked worriedly.

Gwen shook her head. "No, just, some lingering headache," she quickly said.

"Last night's events…," Gwen started to frown as her memories of the night becomes blurrier at the end. "I… remember the teacher's coming in, but I can't remember what happened after that,"

George nodded thoughtfully at her remark. "Well, that's probably around the time that you fainted,"

"Huh?" Gwen looked back at her dad in confusion.

"Yeah, you were already passed out by the time I got there," George continued, as he took a bite out of his pancake. "Seems Peter brought you to the Nurse's office,"

Gwen frowned as she struggled to recollect the events of the night. "Oh yeah, I guess Peter was there as well…,"

"The nurse said that you had a fever, but that it was probably due to the shock of what happened yesterday," George nodded casually. "Then me & Peter brought you back here, & left you in your room,"

Gwen nodded off-handedly as she processed the information given to her. Suddenly, Gwen choked on her food in surprise, eyes widening in disbelief. "Peter was here?" she managed after clearing her throat.

George smirked to himself behind his cup of coffee. "Yes, he was. I gave him a lift back,"

"Oh, I see," Gwen nodded to herself. "Cool, cool,"

"Things working out between you & him?" George asked casually.

Gwen restrained herself from glaring at her father, her face heating up & the blood rushed onto her cheeks. "We're friends,"

"Sure, sure," George shrugged his shoulders. George continued to eye his daughter, as he waited for a comeback from her, but it was clear Gwen wasn't interested in continuing the conversation.

"Uhm, so, do you want to tell me what happened last night?" George cleared his throat, attempting to dispel the awkwardness between them.

Gwen continued to eat her pancakes silently for a while, eventually turning to her father to answer. "I was going to Uncle Miles's lab to invite him over for dinner," Gwen explained, frowning slightly as she recollects the events. "Then there was this…, green creature that attacked us out of nowhere,"

"Us?" George frowned.

"Oh yeah, Spider-Man was there as well," Gwen explained. "But yeah, there was this weird huge green creature that was attacking us,"

Her father's brows furrowed deeper in worry as he considered the possibilities. "Yes, your professors did say that you told them you were attacked by a green creature," he mulled to himself. "The police dogs also found some footprints leading away from there. Did you see wrongly maybe? Maybe it's a bear or something?"

Gwen shook her head. "No, it was dark, but it's definitely not… normal," Gwen said slowly. "The monster, it talked. I think…, it actually knew who I was," Gwen said, her voice quivering with uncertainty.

"What do you mean?" George asked, his brows furrowed with concern.

Gwen paused for a moment, before answering. "It called me by my name,"

George sat in silence as he processed the information. "We need to find your uncle, he might be in danger," George said as he got up from his seat. "I've been trying to call him since last night, but I couldn't reach him,"

Gwen nodded silently as she thought back to what she found in her uncle's labs. Recalling the events reminded her of the conclusion that she arrived at yesterday.

"D-dad?"

"Hmm? Yes honey?" George looked over his shoulders towards Gwen.

"Wh-what if uncle Miles is inv-,"

*Doorbell ringing*

Gwen stopped mid-sentence, slightly startled by the doorbell.

"Are you expecting anyone?" Gwen asked her father.

George furrowed his brows as he grabbed his gun & holster it at his waists. "No. You stay there Gwen," he said, before making his way towards the front door.

Disregarding her father's advice, Gwen followed him as they sneaked towards the front door.

Glaring at her daughter, George eventually took a quick peek through the peephole.

Gwen saw her father relax significantly as he put away his gun & casually opened the door. From behind the door, a pair of young teenage girls stood at her porch, staring wide-eyed in surprise at her.

"GWEN!" Liz suddenly rushed in and hugged Gwen.

Gwen & George blinked in surprise at each other, surprised by Liz's sudden reaction. Eventually, the second girl politely bowed towards George as she stepped into their house.

"Morning Mr. Stacy, I'm one of Gwen's friend, Mary Jane Watson. Nice to meet you,"

"Woah," Liz exclaimed in awe as she listened to Gwen's story.

George stood, leaning over their kitchen counter, also listening in on them. "Wait, you didn't say anything about fighting the creature before," he frowned towards his daughter.

Gwen shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry,"

"And this extinguisher business, that was extremely dangerous!" George admonished his daughter. "People have died from these kinds of accidents; you could've been seriously hurt!"

Gwen nodded silently, acknowledging her father's worries, sitting in silence as she stared at her cup of coffee.

Mary Jane eventually broke the awkward silence after a while. "So how did Spider-Man know you were in trouble? Did he came crashing in through the window?" she questioned.

Gwen started to answer, before pausing momentarily as she recalled the events from last night. "Huh, now that you mention it, no. He was, just there,"

George furrowed his brows further as he listened. "You mean, he was already inside?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Gwen mulled to herself, only now realising the weirdness of the events leading up to the confrontation with the green creature.

"Maybe he was hunting for that monster?" Liz offered.

"Maybe," Gwen nodded. "But how does he know the monster was going to be there to begin with?"

"I don't know, superhero intuition I guess," Liz shrugged her shoulders.

As they sat in silence, thinking up of possible explanations, MJ eventually shrugged her shoulders and brushed off the question.

"Well, I guess that's not important right now. We know he's the good guy here, coz he was trying to protect you from the creature yeah?" MJ argued.

"Yeah, I feel like we should be more worried on what that green creature is," Liz remarked.

"I… don't know, he escaped out of the window mid fight," Gwen explained, concealing the conclusion that she came to earlier regarding her uncle's involvement.

The three girls eventually looked over towards George, as they hoped for an explanation.

George shrugged his shoulders as he lets out a deep sigh. "We've received…, some, sightings of something along the lines of what you described just now," George explained. "But there has never been any case of an attack though,"

Gwen nodded thoughtfully as she considers the situation.

Eventually, George came up to the three girls. "Gwen, I think we should go & make a police report about this," he explained. "If what you said is true, we might need to put more units on this,"

"Y-yeah, sure," Gwen replied.

Suddenly, his phone rang, and his face lit up as he saw the caller ID. "Miles! My god, where were you?!" George said, as he went into the garage to continue his call in private.

The three girls sat down, looking at each other in silence as he left them.

"So, you feeling okay now?" Liz asked out of concern. "No sore bones or muscles?"

"Surprisingly no," Gwen rubbed the back of her head involuntarily. "You'd think I'd be sorer after crashing into the desk,"

"High metabolism?" MJ offered.

"That's got nothing to do with muscle recovery," Liz rolled her eyes.

George eventually came back into their house from inside the garage. "Gwen, I'm sorry, but I need to go see your uncle," George explained hurriedly. "He's been in hiding, seems like the attack on his lab was done intentionally,"

Gwen nodded in silence, keeping her suspicions to herself, as she wasn't fully sure of her own conclusions herself.

"You stay here. We'll go over to the station once I got back, okay?" George said firmly.

"I can go by myself," Gwen shrugged. "You'll be busy with uncle Miles anyway,"

"What? No! You're still recovering, it's not safe," George protested.

Seeing Gwen's defiant face, staring back at her father, Liz quickly chimed in to diffuse the situation.

"I can go with her," Liz offered. "It's just a few blocks away. I'll make sure she stays safe,"

Gwen flashed her a grateful smile, before turning back to her father, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

George lets out a deep sigh, before relenting. "Fine, you two go & lodge a report," he agreed. "But no detours. I want you back here straight away, do you understand?" he said firmly towards his daughter.

"Yes sir," Gwen shrugged her shoulders, brushing off her father's concern.

"Don't worry Mr. Stacy, I'll keep her extra safe," Liz said chirpily. "You wanna come with us MJ?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, sorry," MJ shook her head in apology. "I'm going to go & meet up with Harry & Peter after this,"

"Oh, okay. Is he okay?" Liz asked.

"I… guess… so?" MJ offered weakly. "I mean, I'm not sure, he says he's fine. He's good enough to be working on the video we asked him to,"

"The promotional vid?" Gwen asked, slightly surprised.

"Yeah. I told him to get some rest first, but he insisted on working on it with Harry today," MJ shrugged her shoulders. "I thought I'd drop by & help them a bit,"

Gwen nodded in understanding. "I see,"

"By the way, Gwen, I've been meaning to ask you this since I got here. Did you change your contacts?" Liz asked.

"Huh?" Gwen blinked in surprise at the sudden question.

"I like this new one," Liz smiled warmly at her. "The blue looks a lot more natural on you,"

*Automatic door opening*

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Liz remarked. "The people there looked like they knew you,"

Gwen shrugged her shoulders as she brushed off the question. "Who knows," she answered flippantly. "Come on, let's go grab a drink or something,"

"Uhh, your dad said, and I quote, 'I want you back here straight away, do you understand?'," Liz said, doing her best impression of Gwen's dad.

Gwen chuckled softly at seeing her antics. "Meh, it's not like he'll know anyway. Besides, I really feel like I need a breather right now," Gwen sighed softly.

Liz raised an eyebrow at her, slightly concerned. "What's wrong? Last night's stuff finally kicking in?" Liz bit her lips out of concern. "Should we go see a doctor or something?"

Gwen shook her head softly. "No. No, I feel fine," she assured Liz. "I just feel… a bit weird, you know?"

"No comprende," Liz shook her head. "Come on, let's drop by Joe's Bodega, my treat,"

Gwen nodded slowly, before they both took a small detour to head to a nearby bodega.

"I don't know, I feel like…," Gwen paused for a few moments. "It feels like everything's slightly off, but its also kind of the same, you know?"

"You mean like a 'Mandela effect'?" Liz offered as they reached their destination. "You know, like how everything's a bit different than how you remember them?"

"Well, kind of, but also… no?" Gwen scratched the back of her head as she struggles to explain herself to Liz. "It's more like, I feel like my body's different, like puberty hitting all at once, it's really jarring," Gwen explained, picking up a drink from the cooler. "And I feel like I'm paranoid, or like my body's freaking out and picking up on all sorts of weird stuff,"

Liz nodded along as she paid the cashier for their drinks. "Maybe it's anxiety? Or like a mini-PTSD or something?" she offered, while taking a sip from her soda.

"Maybe. I don't know, it's very confusing right now,"

*tingle*

"…your corndog or your life,"

Gwen immediately stopped in her tracks, as her instincts kicks in, and she realises that something's feeling off. She quickly scanned her surroundings, as she tries to figure out what's causing these alarm bells ringing inside her head.

After a while, her attention eventually snapped back to the store they just left. She then sees a middle-aged man, holding up the cashier discreetly.

"Wait, what?" Gwen blinked in confusion.

The burglar immediately noticed that Gwen was looking back towards him, and quickly grabbed a nearby hotdog & made a beeline straight towards Gwen & Liz.

"Out of my way sweethearts!" he said, panicking.

*Tingle*

Before she herself realised what was going on, her body suddenly moved on its own as she somersaulted over the oncoming burglar & shoved him down, pinning him in the process.

Liz stood slack-jawed as she saw Gwen slowly getting up, her hand still planted on the burglar to keep him in place.

"What. Was. That?"

"I-I don't know," Gwen looked at her palms in confusion, slightly unsure of what had just happened. "That was an accident,"

"What?! No way you 'accidentally' pulled that off!" Liz exclaimed.

Slowly, the crowd around her started to murmur and stared at her in awe, as they witnessed Gwen's feat of acrobatics.

Suddenly, the burglar jumped & shoved Gwen, as he tries to run away, only for Gwen to pull him down with her as she was falling down.

"Let go of me!" the burglar exclaimed loudly as he struggles to push Gwen away from him.

Gwen blinked back in panic as she realises that she wasn't actually holding the burglar at all, her palms was inexplicably stuck onto his clothes.

All of a sudden, her hands decided to un-stuck itself from the burglar, and the burglar stumbled back on his ass, before scrambling away with his corn dog. "You haven't seen the last of the 'Bodega Bandit'!" he exclaimed loudly as he sprinted away into the alleyway.

Liz looked around at the crowd in disbelief, after they parted way for the man to sprint away.

"Seriously? No one wanted to take him down?" Liz asked, sounding annoyed, as she pulled Gwen back onto her feet.

The crowd continued to murmur as more people started to gather around the commotion.

Gwen looked around in discomfort, feeling very unsure about her current situation.

"Liz, come on, let's just go," Gwen raised her hoodie & covered her face as some of the crowd started to take out their phone for a photo.

Liz managed to flash them the middle-finger as they pushed their way out of the crowd and headed straight to Gwen's home.

*Light rain pattering on window*

Gwen sat down in front of her computer, having already sent Liz back for the evening after they got home.

She immediately searched online for her symptoms for an explanation. After searching for more than an hour with no real success, Gwen eventually plunks herself down on her bed, the sound of rain on her window pane helping her to calm herself down.

She stared at her palms and noted how sweaty they've become, as she racks her brain for an explanation of what had just happened.

As she listed off the possibilities inside her brain, her attention eventually turned to the events of last night, and eventually, Spider-Man.

'Wait, is this like Spider-Man's sticky ability?' Gwen eyes widening in disbelief as she entertained the possibility. 'Maybe it's a mutant gene that's transferrable through contact?'

'No, that doesn't make any sense, he saves a ton of people every day,' Gwen argued with herself. 'But then again, maybe it's back-to-back exposure towards him…,'

'Wait, is he even a mutant in the first place?' Gwen continued to ponder. 'Am I… Infected? Is Spider-Man's powers spreading over to me?'

Gwen sat in silence for a few moments. 'No. No way. This doesn't make any sense,' she thought to herself, before eventually getting back up & turning towards her bedroom walls.

Slowly, she got up & approached the wall. Placing one of her hands on the wall timidly, Gwen took a big gulp & closed her eyes, as she tried pulling back her hand from the walls.

To her surprise, she felt no resistance at all from removing her hand from the wall. Blinking in surprise, Gwen tried multiple times to place her hands on the wall & pull it back.

'Huh, I guess it wasn't actually a thing huh?' Gwen thought to herself, relief flooding into her as she reasoned that she must've been mistaken.

*Thunderclap*

Distracted by her findings, Gwen yelped in surprise as she was startled by the sudden thunder noises from outside her window.

"Gwen?" George's voice rang out from the living room below.

"It's nothing!" Gwen yelled back from her room, trying her best to conceal the dismay in her voice, as she realises, she was hanging on her walls with just the tip of her fingers & the soles of her foot.

"Ugh, I'm sure this is how he did it…," Gwen muttered to herself as she repeatedly pressed her palm with her two fingers, and pointing it at one of the bedroom walls.

Sighing to herself, she silently opened her window & crawled out of it onto the nearby street, dressed in her white hoodie and black garments; her makeshift mask and goggles kept inside her pockets.

Crawling onto her roof, she perched on top of it as she looked around at the surrounding neighborhood. Blood pumped full of adrenaline for the last hour or so, she felt a mix of fear & excitement as she reconfirms the plan to herself.

"Ok Gwen, let's do this. Find Spidey, and have him explain. You got this," Gwen said to herself as she pumps herself up emotionally, and puts on the mask & goggles to hide her face in case she was seen.

Having already tested & realized her improved agility & strength earlier inside her room, Gwen made her way from rooftop to rooftop as she considers her strategy to find Spider-Man.

Noting to herself that there are multiple super-powered individuals in New York that she could've went to for help on this matter, Gwen preferred to find Spider-Man first, seeing as she suspected that he was responsible for this apparent mutation within her.

However, her initial worries were confirmed within a few minutes, as she realizes that there was no definite way to find the wall-crawler.

Undeterred, she quickly formulated a second plan; to find ongoing crimes & wait for him there. As she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, she reasoned to herself that Spider-Man would almost definitely come swinging if there was a crime happening.

However, this also eventually proved problematic, as there were no signs of any crime happening within her neighborhood.

Sighing to herself, she immediately hastened her speed, and headed towards the city, reasoning that crime was more likely to happen near the more urban area of the city rather than the rural ones.

After reaching an especially poorly lit alleyway that she found to her satisfaction, Gwen sat down on a nearby fire escape as she waits for her target to arrive.

Gwen nodded off for the umpteenth time on her stakeout, having seen no signs of a crime, or Spider-Man for the past three hours.

Gwen lets of a deep sigh, slumping her shoulders in frustration as she rubbed the sleep off of her eyes.

"Where's a robber when you need one," Gwen muttered to herself, drumming her nails on the fire escape.

After a while, Gwen jumped down from the fire escape, using her newly found agility & strength to land safely onto the ground.

Smiling smugly to herself under the mask, Gwen made her way inside a nearby convenience store for some canned coffee.

The cashier eyed her suspiciously from behind the counter. "Kid, no mask," he exclaimed. "Store policy,"

"Oh right," Gwen immediately pulled off her mask & lowered her hoodie, and smiled awkwardly at the cashier, before picking up a drink & paying at the counter.

"$2.99," the cashier said monotonously as he took the money from Gwen. "You some kind of cheap knock-off Spider-Man wannabe?"

Gwen blushed slightly at the remark as she took her drink. "Sorry, it's been a weird day,"

"I bet," he said off-handedly.

As Gwen stepped back out of the store with her hot canned coffee, she started to shiver under the cold, post-drizzle weather of New York. Rubbing her hands together to generate heat, Gwen made her way back towards the fire escape, and made her way back up onto her previous perch.

Taking the occasional sips from her coffee to keep herself warm, she decided to herself that she was going to give up the hunt once she finished the coffee.

*tingle*

All of a sudden, her senses started to tingle as she looked down onto the alley and saw a mad getting mugged by a pair of muggers.

A sudden influx of adrenaline pumping through her veins, Gwen immediately perked up as she waited for her target to arrive & save the man.

As the seconds tick down, and the man getting beaten up & extorted for money, Gwen started to shift uncomfortably on her perch, as she realises, Spider-Man was taking too long.

A few seconds later, one of the muggers pull out a pocket knife and started to wave them in front of the victim's face.

As soon as she realised that there was a very likely risk that the man might be stabbed, Gwen immediately leapt straight onto the armed mugger & took him down with her signature 'Dynamic Entry!' kick.

Surprised by the sudden appearance of a young teenage girl, taking down his accomplice, the other man started to turn away & run, before Gwen deftly leapt over his head & tripped him down.

Breathing heavily from the rush of adrenaline, Gwen looked over in amazement at what she had just done.

A few moments later, the victim ran up to her & shook her hand vigorously. "Oh, bless you miss, thank you so much," he said, tears of relief forming in his eyes, slightly bruised having been beaten up.

Gwen smiled back sheepishly at him. "Oh, uh, no problem," Gwen said, feeling slightly guilty after seeing the bruises on the man's face. "Maybe you should get away from here, get that patched up you know?"

"Sure miss," the man nodded quickly. "You're very young to be doing this whole hero stuff, aren't you?" he said before turning away & leaving Gwen.

Gwen immediately reached out to her face & realised that she had left her mask inside her pocket.

Suddenly, a nearby groan from one of the knocked-out muggers alerted Gwen.

"I know your face now girlie. You'll pay for this!" he threated, still clutching his bloodied nose in his palms.

Gwen grimaced to herself, as she immediately raised her hoodie up to cover her face, before leaping back up onto the rooftops. As soon as she got up onto the roofs, she took out the mask & put them on with her goggles.

"That could've gone better," Gwen sighed to herself, pinching her nose in frustration at the mistakes she made.

*Tingle*

Before she could relax however, her senses blared again as her instincts kicks in and turned her attention towards a nearby alley.

As she leapt onto the opposing rooftop, she sees another man being mugged in one of the alleyways.

Not wanting to repeat the same mistake, Gwen immediately leapt towards them.

Using her speed & surprise to her advantage, she quickly took down the robbers & left them groaning in pain on the pavement.

*tingle*

To her surprise, as she looked down the alley, stood there, a man clad in red & blue was standing there, looking in awe at the scene before him.

As her heart made a small leap of excitement, Gwen turned towards the man she was seeking for the whole night.

"I finally found you Spidey. We need to talk,"