Web of Insanity

“Oscorp Trip Today!” read Professor Houtaling’s announcement on the classroom’s door. Hero smiled, him and Mari being incredibly excited for what the trip had in store. It’s not every day that someone gets to tour the biggest tech company out there, or at least a branch of theirs. Good thing his professor worked part-time at Oscorp, and that the company even let this happen.

Even better, the Oscorp building was just across the street from Closeby University, which meant no need for a bus ride or an Uber.

“Someone’s excited, eheh.” Mari said, noticing the shine in Hero’s eye.

“How could I not be?! I know I’m majoring in psychology and doing some cooking lessons on the side, but this is too incredible to pass up!” Hero said, looking around at all the machinery in the building, when an alarm blared into his ears.

“Huh?!”

“Sector 12’s spider experiment escaped. We’re cleaning them up as we speak.” responded a man in an Oscorp uniform.

“SPIDERS?! WHERE?!”

“C-calm down! We’re locating and re-capturing them at the moment, don’t worry. Hey, pretty sure your group’s up at the Sector 11 experiments. Don’t wanna miss those, that’s the new stuff.”

Taking a few deep breaths, Hero (and Mari, sticking back with Hero to help him calm down) continued onward.

Hero, having been looking everywhere before, had settled his gaze onto a small round object in a glass case.

“‘A generous donation by Stark Industries, as a joint study on further improving their famous Arc Reactor.’ Huh, cool!”

What wasn’t cool, however, was what happened next. A spider, having hidden on the other side of the case, suddenly leapt from its hiding place and onto Hero’s wrist, quickly biting down like a crazed pitbull.

“¡SANTO CIELO, ¿QUÉ DIABLOS FUE ESO?!”

He couldn’t help but swear as his wrist flared up in pain and his head started pounding, like someone put his brain in the microwave and hit the popcorn button.

Mari looked over at him in concern. "Yeesh, what happened?" 

Hero paused. Was he going to tell her he most likely killed a highly important, most likely expensive spider? 

"...u-uh, I think some of the equipment burnt me or something, haha." He brings up his wrist, hoping the bite passes off as a burn. 

…will it? 

Mari frowned. "Well, you seem a little off either way. You're kind of…staggering. If you're not well, you could just go back, I'll take some videos or photos…something like that." 

“I was planning that.” he responded, the headache flaring up harder.

"Alright. Get some rest, I'll tell the professor that you went back." Mari says, waving Hero goodbye. 

Clutching his head, he stumbled back out the doors toward the university, wanting nothing more than to patch up his wound and pass out for half an hour…maybe the rest of the damned day.

“I don’t feel so well… Was that spider venomous? AM I GONNA DIE?! Just calm down, Hero. Breathe in and out, you’ll be fine. The clinic has anti venom, they’ve had to ever since a few years back…damn freshmen. They’ll probably have something for this. I just gotta cross the street and-GAH!”

His thoughts were interrupted by a harsh feeling in his head, like every neuron up there had gone into overdrive to tell him one thing.

“JUMP!”

Pushing himself off the ground, he somehow made the jump over a speeding car that would’ve sent him on a one way trip to the hospital otherwise. 

“Did…did I just jump five feet straight up?”

Disregarding the impressed passerby, he rushed towards the university and slammed the door shut as he entered his dorm.

“Ok, Henry, calm down.” he said to himself, pacing around the room. “You know the human body’s incredibly strong under extreme stress. Maybe it’s just you being stressed out from that bite, plus the headache. Sure, it felt like an early warning for the car you didn’t see coming, but you’re fine now-”

Tink

Tuning back into reality, Hero had one more question awaiting him.

“HOW AM I WALKING ON THE FUCKING CEILING?!”

As soon as he thought that, he felt his legs suddenly detach from the surface and he lands against the ground of his dorm. 

“...What the hell happened to me?!”

Hero looked down at his hands, his feet, he could feel himself getting dizzy and sick. 

This all didn't make sense. None of this could actually be real, right? 

It's unheard of. It's impossible. Only in someone's wildest dreams. 

…and yet, he had jumped over a speeding car today. He had felt himself walk onto the ceiling. 

“Maybe this is all some crazy nightmare. I-if I close my eyes, I’ll wake up and none of THIS would’ve happened! Except you can’t actually feel pain in dreams or nightmares…”

…what was happening to him? Hero didn't make sense of it. This all happened because of that awful, terrifying, eight-legged monster that bit him. 

Now he could jump ridiculously high, apparently walk onto ceilings…

Almost as if he was some sort of…

…no. That was a horrible thought. An even worse mental image. That kinda crap only happened in old-school films and comic books Kel showed him when his little bro was five. The same year he kept running into street lamps for fun.

Maybe the venom was getting to him and making him hallucinate. Maybe none of this was actually happening. 

…that's a lie. His mind wasn't as hazy as it had been a while ago. This was definitely real. 

He stared at his hands, then at the wall in front of him.

“...just to be sure.” Hero said to himself, reaching toward the wall.

There was an odd, weird sensation against his fingers. He moved one hand up, and then the next. 

Soon he found himself off the ground and climbing the wall, with nothing but the odd force between his fingers and the surface. 

This was incredible, wasn't it? He couldn’t believe he even had this kind of power. It was remarkable, but also extremely gross. It was fascinating, but Hero always felt sick. It was-

"Hey, how you feeling?"

Hero felt his fingers lose their grip as he hit the floor and Mari opened his dorm door. 

"Why do you even have the key to my dorm room?!" 

"Your roommate Arron dropped it during the tour." 

"...his name is Jake." 

"...would you be mad if I said I didn't know your roommate's name and I actually nicked it off him."

“...just give it back to him. I’m doing better now, stopped by the clinic before I got back. Ice packs don’t help as much when it’s just a bag of ice…that’s nearly melted.”

Mari snickered. “The same clinic that has precautions for snake bites and whatnot can’t get half decent ice packs. Figures.”

Hero sighs and laughs. "I mean, I guess they had to cut costs somewhere. If more people who get bitten by snakes don't die, I guess I'll make do with poor ice packs." 

“There’s not even any snakes here! Well, not since last year.”

“Damn freshmen…” Hero says with another laugh. "Anyways, uhm, I'm better now, so you can go, really." 

"I think I'll stick around for a little longer. Though…" Mari says with a frown looking around. "I guess we always hang out outside or at my dorm room, but this place is kind of messy, isn't it?" 

"U-uhm, most of this is Jake's! Well, except that desk, and that coffee mug is mine, and uh that…rattled stack of papers and…yeah, I'm…haha."

Mari gave him a silent eyebrow raise. 

“To be fair, I’ve spent more time cleaning up the ridiculous amount of energy drink cans he leaves on the floor than on my own stuff. You should’ve seen him the night before the exam!” Hero says, trying to save face. 

Mari continues to stay silent. 

"...I'll uh, clean it up? I promise?" 

"Good to hear. I'm not your mom, but that doesn't mean I can't hate messy spaces." Mari responds. "Let me help out, I don't know how 'well' you're feeling, considering what happened last time." 

"That was one time!" 

"Yeah, in my dorm room, which I share with 3 other girls. Cleaning the smell of vomit isn't easy, you should've just told me you had a damn fever." Mari says with a laugh. 

“…fair.” Hero says, walking over to the desk and starts arranging his folders. 

"...uhm, did they say anything about that spider escaping thing at Oscorp? "

“Yeah. The whole reason I’m here early is because of that. They couldn’t find one of ‘em, so they kicked us out just to search for it!” Mari replies, her back turned to Hero as she neatly stacks the papers. 

Good, because she would most likely have been able to read Hero's face and know something was wrong. 

“That’s…not good.”

"Not good is a major understatement. Like, those uptight scientist dudes were actually panicking. Apparently whatever spider they were missing must've been SUPER important." 

Hero started internally screaming, but on the outside kept his cool.

“Geez, you weren’t kidding about those energy drinks.” Mari said, having found an empty can behind the ac unit. "Maybe you should ask for a new roommate." 

"Haha, uh, Jake is uh, he's okay, so I don't mind." 

"There's no way someone who drinks like this is okay. But then again, I think you know Linda from my side. The second she turned 18 last year, she came back with a bag full of beer cans and blacked out after 3 hours." 

“…like a grocery bag?”

“Like a backpack for The Hulk.”

“…holy shit.”

"Yeah, you should be lucky you only gotta share this room with one other guy. Cause a drunk in a cramped space with three others is nothing but a recipe for disaster." 

Hero gave a small laugh.

This was good. Less talk about spiders. Take his mind off whatever he just went through. 

That was a fleeting good feeling though. 

"Oh." Mari looks down at her watch as she disposes the can. "Gotta run, I signed up for an extra lecture for business and it's in about…20 minutes. You can take care of yourself?" 

"...sure." Hero said, giving a nervous thumbs-up. "No problem." 

"Great!" Mari says, walking up to the door before stopping momentarily, turning around and giving Hero a peck on the cheek and immediately running out, closing the door behind her.

“…it’s official, my life’s gone insane.” Hero says to nobody as he turns back to his folders. 

As he places his hand on one, he feels it stick to his hand and sighs as he tries to shake it off desperately. 

"What am I going to do…" 

Suddenly, his head flared up again like it had during his stumble back to the dorm, only this time something told him to dodge. Like clockwork, a rock flew through his window, the laughs of the ever annoying rich kid freshman filling the area.

“YOU COULDA HURT SOMEONE, JACKASS!” Hero shouts. 

He groans as he looks down at the rock and broken glass. 

…did all spiders have a premonition to danger? 

Maybe he was right to be afraid of them after all. Little creepy monsters. 

Then again, he probably shouldn't say that, considering he's slowly becoming one.

Nope, bad mental image. Don’t think about that. For now, though…maybe he should try and figure out how all of this even worked.

Oh, and clean up all the broken glass currently sitting on the floor. 

“…and people wonder why I hate freshmen.” Hero says with a sigh as he puts on his shoes and grabs the broom with the dustpan. 

He needs to talk about getting the window repaired. Again. 

"So, yeah. I'll go down tomorrow and get someone to repair our window." Hero says, sitting on the bed looking at Jake.

"They're just jealous. Look at you, with your handsome looks, and my awesome buff muscles. Although, maybe they're just troubled and take pleasure in chaos and problems." 

"Sometimes I can't tell whether you wanna be a jock or philosopher." Hero replies. 

“Hey, there’s folks who’ve been both! Like Plato! Not jokin, look it up.” Jake says with a laugh. 

"I'll uh, remember to do that." 

“Seriously, Plato wasn’t even his real name, just a wrestling nickname! It means broad-shouldered, and honest to god that’s hilarious.”

Hero couldn’t help but laugh.

"Anyways, you need to take better care of your key. Cause if it was that easy to take it off you…" 

“Hey, when a scientist says he’s gonna show everyone a gamma-fueled laser, you try focusing on anything but the laser.” Jake says in absolute confidence. 

“You’re sounding like my girlfriend’s little brother. Didn’t I tell you about how he spent an entire night asleep in a cardboard box?”

"That reminds me. How's the dating life for you? Bet it must be real nice you don't get any girls chasin’ after you anymore, aye?" 

Hero gives a small laugh and thinks. 

"It's nothing…extra ordinary? Feels like we're just…taking our time, you know?" 

“Fair, fair. Besides, you two knew each other for…what, a decade or so? I’m still out here hoping anyone’s interested in me!”

He paused for a minute.

“You think Steve’s into me?”

“Yeah.” Hero said, recalling the countless times he caught Steve bright red looking at his roommate. “You alright with that?”

“Hell yeah! I’d ask him out…if I wasn’t broke as fuck.”

“I keep telling you: just get a better sleep schedule so you don’t blow your cash on energy drinks!” Hero picks up one of his empty cans in gesture. "Money management, my man. That's all." 

“Not my fault I have insomnia!”

"I don't doubt you might have caused that yourself, but then again, maybe you didn't. Either way, can't you just drink coffee like everyone else?" Hero asks. 

"Hey, take a sip of this and tell me it's not better than coffee." Jake says, holding up a half-empty can. 

"...I'd rather not." 

“What? Cmon!”

“I’ve got an issue with energy drinks. Could be worse though, considering what my brother has.” Hero replies. 

More importantly, whatever he was going through, it could not be safe to make him unnaturally energetic and awake. 

"...uh, Jake. Do strong people…climb walls often?" 

"What, like, jumping and getting over a wall?" 

“…sure.”

“Some of ‘em! Though, uh…what kinda crap does that lunatic bro of yours even drink that’s worse than…I dunno, Beast Energy?”

“Orange Joe. Some psycho thought it’d be a good idea to sell orange soda mixed with coffee, and it tastes even worse than it smells.”

"Yeesh, sounds freaking rancid. I mean, alcohol and coffee together is dangerous, but orange soda and coffee together should be illegal!” Jake says in disgust. 

"Maybe we can slip that into the freshmen's lunches and see how they react." 

"Good boy turned dark, aye? What's up with you today?" 

“Burned my hand on some equipment during the Oscorp trip.”

“Doesn’t look like it, but yikes. You aight?"

"I'm fine. I think."

"Good for you! What's a four letter word for not moving?" 

"Uh…Idle? Wait, what are you doing?" 

Hero stands up and looks over at the desk. "Are you doing the daily crossword?! I thought you were studying." 

"I was! Then I finished studying.” 

Hero can't help but laugh. 

"You're alright, Jake. You're alright." 

…if he told Jake, would the secret be safe? 

…maybe he shouldn’t. 

"...uhm, want any help?" Hero asks, looking down at the paper. 

"Sure, I'm trying to think of what electronic devices are used for mixing." Jake says, pointing at the paper. 

“Mixer. It’s kinda obvious when you say it out loud.”

"Hey you're right! Man, this is gonna be a breeze with you around."

Hero hits his head against the top of the bed as the alarm goes off abruptly. 

As he rubs his head, he turns to find Mari holding back the urge to laugh. 

"...rise and shine."

“Did you-”

“Nope. Jake let me in this time.”

Hero gets up slowly, still rubbing his head. "Uhm, great. I need to…get dressed. Could you…go for a second?" 

“Gotcha! Everyone needs their privacy-LINDA NO!”

With that, Mari rushed out of the room, though not before hearing Jake say something about “didn’t know that had alcohol in it!”

He bought Four Loki by mistake again, didn’t he. Well, not the important thing right now.

He touches the wall slowly. 

The odd, sticking sensation from yesterday is felt again on his fingers. 

“Mierda.”

He groans and gets dressed. He'll worry about it later. Right now, he's got lectures to attend. And a girlfriend to be with. 

He puts on a white t-shirt with the words "YOU'LL BE A STAR TODAY" on the right of his chest, along with a thin blue jacket. Those lecture halls could be really cold sometimes. He checked his hair to make sure it wasn't messy. 

It was. Bed hair. He sighs and gets a bit of water to smooth it out. That, and some hair gel.

…should he put on some insect repellant? But he was with Mari today, so maybe the cheap cologne he bought instead?

“You done yet? I still need to shave, man!” Jake shouts from behind the bathroom door. 

"Cologne or insect repellant?" Hero quickly asks. 

“The lecture hall’s completely indoors! That tell ya anything?”

…cologne it is.

Hero walks out and lets Jake in, and leaves the dorm with his bag of materials, finding Mari waiting outside. 

"I sent Linda back to our room-" Mari sniffs the air a little and laughs. "Is that cologne?" 

“What? The lecture hall’s inside, and it’s gonna be a short lecture.”

"Right. Whatever you say, handsome." Mari says, continuing to laugh. "Bet everyone is going to love how you smell." 

"Haha, let's get going." Hero says, pushing a madly giggling Mari down the hall. 

“…and that concludes today’s lecture. I’ll see you all in class tomorrow.”

"I can't believe you started laughing again in the middle of the lecture!" Hero says, keeping his voice down. "I had to put my hand over your mouth because of that." 

"I'm sorry." Mari says. Clearly, by the fact she's still grinning, she isn't sorry at all. "But cologne? Really?" 

“It was cheap, alright? Plus, Jake didn’t tell me he’d used up the deodorant.”

"Okay okay. I'm sorry. I'm hoping you're still in the mood for dinner tonight?" Mari asks. 

"Yeah, I am. But we still haven't figured out where we're going." 

"I'll call you about it later, don't worry."

"Just…don't laugh in front of any professors today, okay? It looked like I was stabbing you and I was keeping you from screaming about it, especially since we were sitting alone." 

"Yeah yeah, I know." Mari reassures. "No laughing. Got it, don't laugh about- I'm sorry." Mari starts to burst into giggles again. 

"Is it really that funny?" Hero sighs. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just…it smells like freaking pineapple! How’s nobody else noticing?!”

“…that explains the price. Well, I’ve gotta study up for tomorrow. My next professor’s out today anyway.”

"Alright then. Like I said, I'll call you, okay? I've still got lectures today, so stay near that phone just in case." Mari says with a charming grin. "Bye now!" 

"Yeah, see you." 

With that, she walks off, and so does Hero. 

Hero, however, doesn’t head back to his dorm. He had some experimenting to do.

He knows there's an alley near the university. Usually empty, away from any other students. Seems like a good place to try out…whatever he's going through. 

He steps into the alley, making sure there's no one around. 

"Okay, okay…let's do that wall climbing thing again."

He slowly puts his entire right hand against the dirty brick wall. The odd, sticking feeling emerges once again. 

He puts his left hand. Same feeling. He slowly starts to climb up the wall using his hands. It holds him up perfectly. He isn't falling in the slightest. It's miraculous, amazing. 

It's like he's a lizard of some kind. Or an insect. 

He slowly begins to climb down and looks down at his hands, curious at what else he can do. 

That's cut short as he hears someone approach him in the alleway. 

"Hands up. Pass yer wallet." The masked man says, holding up a knife. 

“I-I don’t have it on me!” Hero shouts, panickedly raising his arms up. Maybe a bit too close to the mysterious crook, as he accidentally smacks him in the jaw hard.

The crook rubs his jaw in pain. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Can't you just let me rob you properly?! That hurt!" 

“I already told you, I don’t have my wallet! I-I know self defense!”

"Then pass me that fancy looking watch! I bet it's real expensive!" 

"It's like, 5 dollars! I-I got it at the pawn shop!" Hero replies. "Look, I-if you don't stop, I'll seriously beat you up!" 

That wasn't true. Hero wasn't sure if he could actually take on a guy with a knife. 

The man just laughs, and before Hero feels his head throb in pain once more. 

As though on instinct, he dodges out of the way as the knife is thrusted in his direction.

He breathes in panicked pants. And quickly throws a punch of his own in retaliation. 

The masked mugger, who had been hit right in the side of his head by Hero's punch, goes down instantly, knocked to the floor. 

Woah. 

Has he always been that strong? That felt great. 

“Jesus! Y-you’ll regret that, I swear!” the robber says, dropping his knife, getting up and running off like a headless chicken.

Hero looks down at his clenched fist. That was awesome. He had taken self defense classes in the past, but he's never had the strength to pull them off. 

At least, until now. 

“So…sticking to walls, some sort of danger sense, and now super strength? Maybe this isn’t so bad after all.” He says to himself, cracking his knuckles.

It's almost like he's a superhero. 

Well, he's pretty sure most superheroes don't go to university, get bitten by the thing they fear the most, deal with weird roommates with energy drinking problems while struggling between their studies and dating life. Hyper-specific indeed.

Either way, he really needs to keep this to himself now, less Oscorp not only makes him pay for the spider, but dissect him and research his body. 

What was it with him and bad mental images? He shivered at the thought.

Perhaps these things would be good for his daily life. He just needs to make sure no one else knows. Unless he wants to be taken apart or hauled off into Area 51.

He should really stop thinking about things like that. 

“With this kinda power, I could probably make some serious money! I mean, student loans don’t pay themselves…except for the whole ‘keep this secret’ thing. Masks and weird costumes only go so far…”

That was a good improvement from the bad thoughts. Using his powers to pay off student loans, make money. 

See? It's not all bad to suddenly become like a… 

…Hero can't even think of it without feeling his face scrunch in disgust. 

Human Spider sounds more like a horror flick villain than a street performer. Eh, better to leave the names to the inevitable crowd for now. At the moment, though, he needed something to cover his face. The whole thing, not just most of it. Just a ski mask and goggles wouldn’t work well, but something prepped in the domestic arts classroom would work well.

…did he know anyone taking domestic arts? 

He thought about it as he walked towards the classroom, before deciding on a good excuse for it.

“Is it alright if I use the sewing machine here? I wanted to make something for my brother back in Faraway, part of a costume based on some obscure comic character he wanted to cosplay as. It’s a surprise for him.”

“...eh sure, go for it. Just don’t take too long, class is starting up again pretty soon.” The only person inside said, letting Hero in. 

As he reaches the sewing machine, he thinks about what he's gonna do. Specifically, what his mask is going to look like. 

“No, red’s not gonna look good…maybe…oh, that’ll work!” He says to himself, getting some blue fabric and a bit of white fabric.

"And maybe if I…just like this…" 

In a few minutes, Hero looks at his new mask. Simple eyeholes, with white lines around them, with the rest of the mask being a nice shade of blue. 

“Thanks for letting me in here, I’ll be off now. Have a good day!”

"Aye, you too pal." 

Hero leaves with his new mask in hand. 

Slipping it on as he leaves campus, he can’t help but grin underneath the blue mask’s refined edges. 

“Look out Closeby, here comes your newest streetside sensation!” Though he’d wanted to leave the naming to the crowds, he couldn’t help but picture one name in mind:

Spider-Man!

Ugh. Never again.

…actually it wasn't that bad. 

…was it? 

No, it was still pretty bad. But it worked…kinda well! Short and to the point, and easy to remember.

Alright. Look out world, the man who hates spiders, Spider-man. 

This was going to be good. Most likely. Probably. 

…Spider-Man. Kel would probably call that name ridiculous. Or amazing. More likely the latter.

Regardless, he hoped this day would take a turn for the profitable.

Not like he was going to do this forever. Just enough for his loans, and he's out. 

…and maybe some extra.