Organic Webbing
“So,” Peter-Three said, crouched in a standard Spiderman pose on top of a water tower and staring so hard at Peter-Two that it was unnerving.
The older Peter continued to stretch as he always did before battle, but he eyed his younger self with suspicion. He knew that tone. “So…?”
“When are you gonna tell us about your webbing?”
Peter-Two rolled his eyes so hard under his mask, it almost hurt. “You’re never going to let this go, are you?”
“He’s definitely never going to let it go,” Peter-One agreed, flipping elegantly over the edge of the rooftop with a pizza box in hand. They were relaxing in between patrols and -as is often the case- their super-stamina made them hungry, so he had wandered off to get food while the other two recuperated on the skyscraper nearby.
“We’ve got some time,” Peter-Three reasoned, with innocence that fooled none of them. “Besides, we’ve seen you naked, there’s very few secrets left.”
“Ouch,” Peter-Two snorted, unable to help himself.
Opening the pizza box and sitting down with it in his lap, Peter-One rolled up the bottom of his mask so he could take a large bite out of a slice. “I wanna know, too,” he said in between bites, looking back and forth between them with a wide grin., “We just want to learn more about our big brother, that’s all.” Oh boy, and he was laying down the sweetness extra thick today. He knew that as the youngest (by far) of the three, he could get away with some crap they couldn’t, and they were prone to indulging him more than they probably should.
Peter-Two sighed and walked over to the water tower, offering his hand to his taller counterpart. “Spar with me?”
“Oh heck yeah,” Peter-Three answered, jumping down and eager to do so. It was hard for the three of them to practice moves on anyone else as their powers could easily hurt a regular human, but they enjoyed tussling with each other. It kept their skills on their feet and often led to them learning different techniques from each other as they all had something to bring to the table.
The moment Peter-Three took the other’s hand, however, the whole world suddenly spun.
“Didn’t your Aunt May ever teach you that curiosity killed the cat?” Peter-Two mused as he used his strength to spin Peter-Three like a top and immediately wrapped him in thick webbing as he did so.
Peter-One tried to laugh and eat at the same time and choked on his bite of pizza.
“This wasn’t what I meant,” Peter-Three grumbled as he stumbled to a stop and stood there like a giant cocoon. He looked down at himself in confusion and embarrassment. The webbing was now many layers thick, and he had -surprisingly- never been in this boat before. It wasn’t like any of them had a need to wrap themselves in webbing before.
He strained his arms and tried to break out of it, then grunted when he found that he couldn’t. Oh. He looked up at Peter-Two with growing alarm. “You didn’t.”
The oldest of the trio leaned back casually on a large pipe, shrugging. He was grinning, but they couldn’t see it. “You asked,” he said serenely. “I can modify the thickness of the webbing, makes it stronger or weaker depending on what I need it to do.”
Swallowing his stuck bite, Peter-One looked back and forth between the other two with shock and growing amusement. “No effing way.”
He put down his half-finished pizza slice and jumped to his feet, coming over to poke at Peter-Three’s cocooned form. The webbing bounced a bit like dough under his touch, which made him more curious. He pressed a whole hand against the soft webbing and pushed, harder this time. It briefly indented under his fingertips before Peter-Three let out a yelp of alarm and toppled over, bouncing once before rolling to a stop.
Peter-One immediately broke into gleeful giggles and Peter-Two crossed his arms as he looked down at his fallen brother. “Comfortable down there?”
“It is pretty soft,” Peter-Three admitted. It didn’t feel much like how rope-y his own webbing felt. It almost felt like being cocooned in jello.
“Yeah, I do that to robbers sometimes,” Peter-Two answered. “I assume they’re not hurt but I don’t exactly stop to ask.”
“Har har, cool, good to know. Now lemme out,” Peter-Three grumbled, rolling to his back and sitting up using just his core strength. The webbing pulled awkwardly at his spandex suit and he felt all sorts of gross now. Plus it was getting hot, like really really really hot under all the webbing. He didn’t expect this stuff to be such good insulation.
“No no, wait, before you do-,” Peter-One laughed, waving his arms to stop Peter-Two from helping their fallen brethren. (Looking up at him, Peter-Three sent him a look of utter betrayal, although no one could see it under his mask.) “-I want to see what else you can do.”
Peter-Two gave a light shrug as if to say ‘okay’ and reached into the sky with both arms. He could be simultaneously efficient and artistic with his web-shooting, and his skills definitely shown like a beacon in this particular instance. He made a huge web, spanning the distance between the two taller buildings on either side of them.
Peter-One’s eyes were wide under his mask. He had seen Peter-Three make a giant web before (and he showed him how to read the vibrations on them), but he had yet to see Peter-Two do the same.
There was something beautifully imperfect -and therefore organic- about Peter-Two’s web. Peter-Three’s giant webs looked symmetrical, practiced and calculated, but Peter-Two’s had some variety in it. There were some tighter zig-zags on one side, some looser ones on another, some tighter rungs near the middle and even a segment pointing downward that looked like it was conveniently shaped like a ladder.
I guess it helps if you never run out of webbing, the younger Spiderman thought.
Peter-Two reached out, shot a string of webbing to the lowest run of the web ‘ladder’ that he had made, and pulled himself up to the web with dainty poise. Once he was situated comfortably on the web, he looked down and shot another string of webbing at the cocooned body of Peter-Three, hitting him right on the feet.
“Oh heck no, I didn’t ask for thiiiiiiiis-” Peter-Three cried as he was pulled, helpless and upside-down, toward the giant web in the sky.
“Yeah, but I asked for this.” Peter-One’s bright, clear laughter filled the air once again as he shot a web into his brother’s web and elegantly pulled himself up.
Peter-Two was still busy pulling Peter-Three into the web, so the youngest Spiderman shot above him, climbing the web ‘ladder’ easily. He continued higher and higher up on to the web, looking around with wide-eyed curiosity. “How big can you make these?”
“As big as I need, I guess, but it takes a lot-Wait no, don’t go there!” Hands full, Peter-Two did a double-take on his younger brother.
Peter-One froze. Like, literally, he suddenly couldn’t move. He looked down at his hands and feet and found them stuck to the thick webbing. He jiggled them in confusion; they only stuck harder. “Oh,” he said to himself, rather dumb-founded. Of course Peter-Two’s web would be sticky; all of their webbing was sticky to some degree, but his own web fluid’s stickiness faded over time when exposed to air. This level of stickiness was… new.
“You could have asked,” Peter-Two sighed as he finished tying the webbing that held Peter-Three upside down to his web and elegantly climbed up to his stuck younger brother. He gingerly wrapped an arm and a leg around some of his own webbing and used his spare arm to help free the younger Peter.
“How come you’re not stuck?” Peter-One demanded, although his tone came out as more of a whine.
“Because I made the web, I know which lines are sticky and which aren’t,” Peter-Two answered with exasperated fondness.
Peter-One stared at him, more out of curiosity and awe than anything else. “You can do that? Control the stickiness of each strand?” His left arm was freed and he shook it out of habit, realizing -with chagrin- that the spandex was now sticky and there wasn’t much he could do about it.
“Mm-hmm,” Peter-Two worked on freeing the boy’s other hand. “I draw the map of the web in my head and I can just… kind of… make it. I don’t have to think that much about it.” He seemed a little shy and nervous disclosing this information, like he always was when they discussed their unique… differences.
Peter-One, however, had nothing but praise for the other. “That’s so cool,” he gushed, balancing carefully on his two feet in the middle of the web. “I’d give my left kidney for that level of control over my web-fluid.”
“You think it’s cool until you realize what else can affect your webs,” Peter-Two sighed, climbing down a bit to help free the younger Spiderman’s feet. “Alcohol, medication, just name it. Anything I consume can have an impact.”
“Not greasy food though?”
“No,” Peter-Two chuckled, “Thankfully not greasy food.”
“This is great and all, I’m glad you guys are having a lovely chat up there, but this sucks. I feel like someone’s gonna eat me.” Peter-Three complained loudly from down below. He was wriggling in his cocoon like a stuck insect and his movements were jiggling the entire web. He managed to free his left arm but it was taking him significantly longer to free his other limbs.
As if on cue, the police scanner they left down by the rooftop began to buzz to life. “All units, be advised, there’s been a break-in at the Tiffany store on 5th avenue. The perps are heading down 5th avenue, going southbound. I repeat, 5th avenue going southbound.”
Peter-Three froze in mid-struggle. On top of the web, Peter-Two and Peter-One shared a knowing look.
“You go first, we’ll catch up,” Peter-Two said, rapidly freeing the boy’s two feet.
“Got it,” Peter-One said, leaping off the web as soon as he was free and shooting his own webbing into the sky to swing away.
Carefully making his way down to his stuck brother, Peter-Two leaned over the other’s wriggling form. “Learned your lesson?”
“Yes, Dad, I did,” Peter-Three snorted. He only called the other ‘Dad’ if he was trying to be annoying, so he didn’t seem too mad.
“I could just leave you here,” Peter-Two mused, even as his hands were beginning to unravel his cocoon.
“But then who would provide commentary for our patrols?” Peter-Three demanded dramatically, pressing his free hand to his heart as if he was truly wounded, “Besides, I need my arms, it’s my turn to be the photographer today. Who else would get your cool superhero landings on film, hm?”
“This is the kid’s universe, you’re getting pics of him,” Peter-Two sighed, but he was smiling through his words. “Don’t make me cut you loose and drop you.”
“Eh, I’ll just break an arm, no biggie,” Peter-Three snorted, but stopped his wriggling so his elder could unravel him properly. “We didn’t get to eat though.”
“The pizza will be here when we come back,” Peter-Two reasoned as if talking to a 5 year-old. With flourish, he spun Peter-Three one final time and pulled yards upon yards of his own webbing away from him.
Peter-Three dropped from the web and pivoted in mid-air like a cat, landing lightly on his feet. He shot a web at their duffle bag, pulled a large, black DSLR camera out of it, and then began to run for the edge of the roof.
Peter-Two followed, dropping into a low crouch before he also sprinted in the same direction. He did a double-take at his taller self, who paused for a brief second to shoot a web into the pizza box and pull out a slice. “What are you doing?” he hissed as he leapt into the air and pulled away from the roof.
Peter-Three lifted his mask, stuffed the pizza slice into his mouth, then cradled the precious DSLR against his chest as he followed the other into the sky. “‘M HUMGRY,” he mumbled around his mouthful over the screaming wind.
“You really are a child,” Peter-Two berated, although it was hard for him to keep a laugh from bubbling out of his chest.