Chapter 1
“NO!! Stay with me Miguel…please. I need you”
“Sooooo…whatcha planning on doin’ with all that money once you make it outta here.” I jokingly asked. Today’s villain was a bank robber. Startled, he looked over at me. “What the-” I quickly cut him off with some webbing to the mouth. He reaches for his mouth in a futile attempt to remove the webs from his mouth and I took the chance that he was distracted and quickly stuck him to the wall. I looked over at the bank teller, who was hiding behind the massive desk. I gave her a quick thumbs up, and she mouthed “Thank you.” I started hearing the sirens wailing in the distance and I took that as my cue to leave.
Yknow, swinging through Manhattan is always fun, especially if I’m not chasing after some bad guy of course. It also helps that this is where my apartment is. I quickly swung through the window I had left open and my feet landed on the floor with a soft thud. I took my mask off and massaged my scalp. I looked at my face in the mirror and noticed faint red lines forming on my face from the seams, at that point I reconsidered having my whole face covered . As an aspiring designer…well ex aspiring designer since being Spider-Girl took up a lot of my time, I really tried to make my suit as comfortable as humanly possible. But why I made the mask so damn tight was beyond me. I changed into something more comfortable, grabbed my sketchbook, and sat on my bed to redesign my mask. When suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing.
“Pero nena, te estado llama y llama y no contestas! Where the hell were you” My cousin, Marisol, practically yelled through the phone. “Ay nena I’m sorry I was busy stopping a bank from being robbed.” I replied laying down. Marisol is the only person I’ve told about my secret. “Okay, okay fine, fair enough excuse.” She chuckled out.
“So what’s up?”
“Oh nothing much, just calling to let you know if you don’t leave any time soon you’re gonna be late for the party.” I immediately shot up from my bed, “Shit I forgot that today was your sister's grad party!” I said whilst rummaging through my closet trying to find something nice to wear.
“Bueno Nena, ¡te apuras!” Marisol said from where I left my phone on my bed. “Yep yep yep, hurrying up. I'm just boutta leave!” I say struggling to shove my foot into my shoe and hang up the phone. I grab my suit and stuff it at the bottom of my bag and head out to the train station.
I arrived at Marisol’s house just in the nick of time. I knocked and Marisol’s sister, Luna, opened the door. “Hey there’s the grad girl! Congrats on getting valedictorian!” I proudly say while giving her a hug. “Haha, thanks Arabella. Oh mami is in the kitchen by the way.” I made my way to the kitchen while saying hi to all of my other aunts and uncles that were nearby.
“Bendición titi, ¿cómo estás?” I say while giving her a big hug. “Ay bendicion, Arabella. I'm good mija. Y tú, ¿cómo vas en el trabajo?” she asks. “Ah, work is y'know work.” She smiles softly, “Ay that’s good.” Marisol pops her head into the kitchen, “Oye ma, I know you like talking to Arabella and all, but I’m stealing her.” My aunt rolls her eyes. “Ta bien, I’ll call you girls when the foods ready.”
Marisol flops onto her bed, belly first, and I just sit at her desk. “God, I’m really reconsidering having my whole face covered.” Marisol chuckles, “How come?”
“Dude, every time I take off my mask I have seam scars!” I said while chuckling. Marisol tilts her head, “Well what’d ya have in mind?” I shrug, “I dunno. I still want something that keeps my identity a secret.” She hums in response then snaps her fingers, “Oh what if you made a mask that’s kinda like the phantoms!” I raise a brow, “The phantom?” Marisol nods excitedly, “Yeah you know The Phantom of The Opera?” She asks while motioning to the poster of the aforementioned musical. “Yo actually, that's not a bad idea.” I said followed by my aunt calling us down for dinner.
We were sitting together laughing and enjoying the food. My aunt started playing her favorite bachata and grabbed her husband and started dancing with him. Soon enough everyone else followed suite to the dance floor. I was having a grand old time until I peered out the window and saw a strange orange flash of light followed by a tingle down my back. There was a disturbance in the force. I go over to my aunt, “By titi, I gotta go. I have work early in the morning.” she gives me a kiss on the cheek, “Okay, que dios me la bendiga. Get home safe okay.” I slipped away and into the guest bathroom to put on my suit, and I swung out the window.
“Central park? What an odd place to attack.” I thought to myself as I gracefully landed on the soft grass. “You there Spider-man, we meet again!” yelled a strange Italian voice. I looked over to where it came from and I pointed to myself. “Who me? Yknow that’s kinda sexist to assume I’m a guy. Also, we’ve never met.” He swoops at me and I skillfully dodge and I take a good look at him. Wait, was he made of…paper? He tries swooping in again followed by an awful screeching noise. Dodging again, this time using my webs to get up onto the tallest rock, “Yknow, I’m missing a sick ass party cause I’m over here dealing with you.” The paper guy swings at me and I lose my footing and fall flat on my ass. “Shit that hurt.” I looked around while getting up off the floor. There weren’t any buildings close enough in range but, there were a ton of trees. I swung into a tree and perch myself onto a branch. I wanted to try to get a feel for his movements when he suddenly…glitched and cried out in pain. I figured I wouldn’t get any other chance, so I took it. I stuck some webbing to him and used the momentum from the tree and spun him in my web like a real spider would to it’s prey. It was really simple, and I decided to take my leave before the cops arrived.
Two people came out of the portal, “Miguel, the anomaly has been taken care of,” the one on the right said, “What?” the voice, Miguel, replied astonished, “The spiderperson is nowhere to be seen either.” An exasperated sigh came from Miguel, “Alright take it to the Go Home Machine and report back”
It had been a few days since I had that encounter with that weird paper guy. Nonetheless, I was sitting on my bed finalizing my new mask design. I decided to go with Marisol’s idea and made it very Phantom of The Opera-esc. It was actually coming along pretty good, when suddenly I was interrupted by a knock at my door. “Coming!” I shout out. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a beautiful black woman. “Hey, I’m looking for an Arabella Monroe.” I furrowed my brows, “Who’s asking?” she smiled politely. “I’m Jessica Drew, may I come in?” I nodded and moved to the side allowing her to enter. I motioned her to my couch, letting her sit. “So…Jessica Drew was it? Who’s looking for me?” She chuckles, “My boss, he heard about what you did with the anomaly the other day in Central Park. He was impressed, and wants you to join our team of other spider-people such as yourself.” I choked back a laugh, “I’m sorry a team of other spider-people? Is this some sort of fan club?” She looked over to my bag, which was sitting by the door. She stretched out her hand and out came, very much to my surprise, webs. With my bag in hand, a smirk comes across her face, “Believe me now?” I was at a loss for words. Could there really be more people out there like me? Jessica looks at me expecting a response, and I just silently nod, frozen in shock. She tosses me my bag, “Put your suit on, I want you to follow me.” I go to my room and quickly change. I come out of my room and see her waiting in front of this portal. She jerks her towards the portal and goes through, and I quickly follow behind.
To call this place amazing would be an understatement. There were so many people and they were all like me. Jessica turned to me and slipped something onto my wrist, “Here keep this on. It’ll prevent you from glitching.” I must’ve had a very confused look on my face, “I’m not sure if you saw it when you fought that anomaly, but you’ll glitch out if you’re in the wrong universe. Trust me it’s not pleasant.” I didn’t hear much after that. Only thing I really picked up on was that we were going to Miguel’s office. There was too much to take in for me to really listen to what she was saying. We stop at a set of doors and she nudges me forward, “Ready kiddo?” We walk in together, and the amazement just keeps on coming. This place was huge. There were all types of computers and such advanced tech that I’ve never seen before. “Miguel! I brought her!” Jessica yells out.
My eyes immediately went to the giant platform floating above with…were those hologram computers?! “Thank you Jessica, you’re dismissed.” A masculine voice came from that very platform. Jessica turns to leave and places a hand on my shoulder, “Don’t be too intimidated by Miguel.” she said as she left. That did not come off comforting at all if that was her intent. The man turned and became a little more visible, and my god he was massive. When he finally came into view, lord have mercy was he beautiful. I never really believed in love at first sight, but I did believe in I wanna fuck you at first sight. Gods his skin was a beautiful olive shade, his hair was swept back and was a lovely shade of coffee brown. “I’m Miguel O’Hara. This is the Arachno Humanoid Poly Multiverse.” I barely caught what he said, I was so focused on those full lips of his. He had the body of a greek god, and a small waist. It was the kind of waist that my friends and I called ‘slutty’. “Good work with the anomaly.” I damn near missed what he said. “Thanks, all in a day's work of being Spider-Girl,” I said sheepishly. “Jesus, fuck Arabella stop thinking about what it would be like to dig your nails into this mans back and focus on what he has to say.” I mentally scolded myself, which was actually futile because I kept thinking about such unholy thoughts about a man I literally met five minutes ago. I was able to pick up what he was putting down. Basically, they were a group of spider-people that were in charge of keeping the multiverse intact, and he asked if I wanted in. Said I’d make a good addition to the team with how efficient I was last time. At this point my mouth was dry from being lost in thought, but managed to get a reply out, “I’d love to join, but uhm just one teensy problem. What of where I’m from? Do I just permanently live here now or do I get to go back?”
“You’d get to go back, but just letting you know this isn’t for the faint of heart. You’ll practically be on call all the time.” I gave it a bit of thought. Being Spider-Girl back home was fun and all but, it was getting repetitive. All I was ever able to stop were the occasional mutated psycho, which was maybe once or twice, and thefts. Being a part of this poly-arachno whatever Mr.gorgeous said would give me that excitement I’ve been wanting. I look at him and we lock eyes. His scarlet eyes just cut into me, “I’m in.” I responded with the biggest smile on my face. He tossed me a watch thingy, “Welcome to the team Arabella.”