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***
Parker house. The night after the bite.
In the middle of the night, I felt extremely hungry, and without a moment's hesitation, braiding my trousers, I rolled down to the kitchen on the ground floor. The fridge had been subjected to severe repression, and the food in it had been cleaned out. Lazily picking at my salad with a fork, I was surprised to realise that the voice that had been nudging me and my misguided life for weeks had disappeared. While that was true of me, yep, I was gone too. Mm-hmm... That sounds kind of silly. Why disappear, though? Just expanded! That's right! Yesterday I was Peter Parker, with progressive schizophrenia, and now I'm... Let's put that aside for now, it's too complicated.
What I can tell you now is that it wasn't schizophrenia. It was me too, but my name was... Mm... Vladimir! I remember! How could I forget such a lovely name, and my own?! Yeah. I think I had a memory problem, I just remember being in Peter's head at one point. I still have some memories from before, so to speak. In particular, a few days after the Incident, I remembered a comic book in which Peter Parker was the main character! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...head ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
Shovelling the rest of the salad into myself, I put the dishes in the sink with a pained expression on my face and went to sleep. My sleep was anxious and sensitive, I woke up often, I was both freezing and hot at the same time.... The night turned out to be fun, and only in the morning I fell asleep more or less peacefully. When I woke up, I was glad to note that my headache was gone. I lay down for a long time and digested everything that had happened to me. For some reason, I didn't feel any excitement or fear. There was a slight joy, but... kind of mutual. Peter would probably be happy about the prospect of becoming a superhero, Vova would be happy that he hadn't completely and irrevocably dissolved into a more coherent mind. Well, I was feeling their slightly skewed joy now. Here we go again, back to the question of self-identity. No, this would not do! My head again anxiously signalled that it was not yet ready for such a heavy load. All right, let's leave it out for now, let's take it as a given that right now it's best for me to respond to the name Peter. We'll see.
Sitting up on the bed, I reached for my glasses. I twirled them around, scrutinised the glasses, and put them back on. I opened the first book I could find, then looked out the window. My eyesight had definitely improved. Thank you, gene spider! Yesterday I didn't even have the energy to undress. After throwing off my wrinkled shirt, t-shirt and dirty trousers, I walked over to the wardrobe. There was a tall mirror screwed to the door. For ten minutes I spun around in front of it, looking at my new body. The spider helped me here too, I never liked physical training, that's why I was rather puny. Now, in principle, not much has changed, and I didn't look like a heavyweight wrestler. But at least I had some muscle!
After taking a shower, I got dressed in clean clothes and was about to go downstairs when my eyes fell on the clock. It was ten to ten o'clock. Mother of anarchy, I'm late for school! Although I've already finished it... It's hard.....
When I went downstairs, I found no one. My aunt and uncle had gone to work. They left a note on the table in the kitchen. From it I learnt that they couldn't wake me up in the morning, so they let me rest at home today. Unexpected, but even better. The first thing I did was to completely empty my home food supplies. Even what was stashed in the freezer, I looked like a predator for a while. I barely managed to talk myself out of eating frozen meat. It's so weird, where did I get all this food?!?
'After a small snack, I began to think, hehehe, what to do next. Apparently, if I was excused from school today, it would be a good idea to take advantage of it. Quickly running to my room, I rummaged through my things and found some discreet and old things. On second thought, I should have changed my wardrobe altogether, apparently my tastes had changed. I didn't want to wear things that were a few sizes too big for some reason. Old Pete had little regard for what shirts he wore, or whether those jeans were fashionable or not. Nevertheless, I put on an old cap, found some sunglasses I'd gotten from my father, and put on dark semi-sporty trousers, a T-shirt, and a dark green checked shirt. I also threw my rucksack on my shoulder.
That's how I left the house. I had to wander around the city for a few hours, looking for a suitable object. Finally, something caught my eye. It was an abandoned, unfinished car park, isolated enough not to attract too much attention. To be sure, I circled around it, but found no extra eyes. Since the construction site was enclosed by a two metre high fence and the gates were locked, I found the most convenient place to break in. I assume that I had become much stronger, more agile, and so on, and could probably jump that fence in no time. But I planned to experiment on the other side of the fence to avoid unnecessary risk. So I climbed over a pile of crates and landed softly, barely bouncing my feet, in the car park. Countless graffiti confirmed the fact that it had been abandoned for a long time, but also warned of the possible appearance of their authors. I took my headscarf out of my rucksack and tied it around my face, then carefully looked around the construction site.
Only after all this did I decide to start. Probably the first thing a future Spider-Man should test is his ability to crawl on walls and ceilings. So I found what I thought was a suitable wall and put my hand on it. At first it didn't work, but when I started to get a little angry, I felt my fingers sticking a little. For about ten minutes I tried to learn to control it, until finally I was able to pull my hand off the wall. I had to move on, so, looking sceptically at my trainers, I took them off. Beforehand, of course, I tried to stick my foot through them, but I failed miserably. I didn't take off my socks, why go to such extremes? Pulling myself up on my hands, as if I had done it thousands of times before, I climbed up! Oh, it was cool, it took my breath away! I guess I got some of that spider's reflexes, too. All I have to do is thank that biting thing. I didn't stay on the wall for long and climbed to the ceiling. Despite my misgivings, I was comfortable there, and the gravity didn't bother me much. I took my hands off the surface and squatted, then I stood up and began to run circles around the ceiling. The nerd in me was beating his head against the wall in ecstasy and trying in every way to kill himself with the broom!
Soon I got used to this way of travelling. I walked around the walls some more, and decided to start the rest of my training. Without wisecracking, I quickly realised that I could easily jump to the ceiling, and that's just ... little things. Of course, I couldn't jump to the roof of the construction site from the street, but somewhere on the level of the third floor - easily! After a few laps around the car park, I decided to stop, as I felt I could keep up my sprinting pace at least until tomorrow. I tested my physical, brute strength easily too - the rebar bent amazingly well!
I fooled around for about two more hours, imagining I was a parkourist, jumping, tumbling, climbing walls, breaking boards and all that. Until something in my head started to itch insistently. The body itself hid behind a corner and froze there. After a minute, people started jumping over the fence in the same place as me. Looking carefully, I realised they were teenagers, the same or close to the same age as me. When everyone had climbed over, they talked to each other for a while and then started warming up. Thinking that they were real parkour enthusiasts, I jumped the fence and went home. I was starving, and as evening was approaching, I thought I could make it in time for dinner. I didn't have enough pocket money to eat properly anyway. So on the way I bought a can of cold soda and quenched my thirst.
When I got home, I decided to check the garage first. The old Ford had broken down a lot lately, and my uncle had to repair it. We didn't have enough money for a new car. We were barely making ends meet, my uncle didn't earn much and my aunt didn't earn much at all. But there were needs, and not enough for all the dead presidents. In fact, even the smallest repairs required spending.
Uncle was exactly where I expected him to be. He was busily tinkering with the engine and humming some cheerful tune to himself. Uncle Ben was still a sturdy man, but he had a few strands of grey on his head. He was about ten years older than his father; unfortunately, he and Aunt May had no children. That's why they were always happy when my parents left me in their care. And without even thinking about it, they took custody of me after the plane crash that killed my parents.
- Uncle, what's up, what's broken again? - I threw my rucksack in the corner and came closer.
- You're back, Peter. We were getting worried! - Uncle pulled away from the car and looked at me intently.
- It's all right! I was just out for a walk.
- Walking? Usually I can't keep you away from your books and your lab. Are you sure you're okay? You slept so soundly this morning.
- I'm telling you, I'm fine! I was just too tired last night, I was too busy working on a project. Today, since I had the day off, I thought I'd get some air. Don't worry.
- Well, okay,' the worry in his eyes faded a little and he walked back to the car. - Fortunately,' he grinned, 'nothing's broken, I decided to do a little cleaning under the bonnet as a precaution.
- You don't need my help?
- Not really. Go take a bath, Mei was bragging about cooking something delicious, so I'll be finishing up now too.
- Copy that! - I called out cheerfully.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I made it to the kitchen just in time to see my aunt pulling a cake out of the oven.
***
The Parker house. The morning of the next day.
I went to bed right after dinner last night, no energy left for homework or anything else. I woke up early this morning, laid down for half an hour, and decided I need to start running in the mornings. I'm not sure if it's necessary and if it will do any good, but I need to work on my new image, and on the reasoning behind the dramatic increase in my physical strength. Dressed in a tracksuit, I jumped outside and spent half an hour faithfully swinging my legs around the track.
- Have you taken up the physical development of the body? - my uncle asked me cheerfully when I got home.
- Sort of,' I replied, feigning shortness of breath.
After tidying up, I put my rucksack down and went downstairs. I poured myself some milk and washed down a slice of apple pie. It turned out that yesterday my aunt had baked two dishes. Delicious bastard!
- Peter, don't you wear glasses?
Glasses? That's right, before the spider bite, I hardly ever left them on. But now my eyesight's better than the healthiest person in the world.
- I got myself some lenses. Of course, quality lenses cost a lot, but I'd scraped together some pocket money.
- Oh, Peter, you should have told me you wanted to buy lenses! We would have thought of something sooner! - Aunt May began to lament.
- Come on,' I shrugged, finished my milk, and said goodbye. - Auntie, Uncle, I'm off! I'm already late for the bus!
I picked up my rucksack and went to the bus stop. I got there just in time, the school bus was half-empty, so I jumped in and sat near the end. I should get myself a player, or at least headphones for my phone. To listen to music. I should buy a new phone, too, because mine is outdated by several generations. But where would I get the money for all that? Hmm.
Burying my forehead in the glass, I looked at the street with glassy eyes and thought. In general, this harmful function in humans, to think. Only a free minute is given out, and a man immediately start thinking, who needs it? So I, like all other people, thought a lot and for a long time. For example, I was very interested in why I was so phlegmatic about recent events. After all, practically and did not worry! No, what's the big deal, two consciousnesses merged in one head, so what? So what if I was bitten by a genetically modified spider, so who cares? The rational part of me told me that it was strange, and it shouldn't be like that. But it was, and it wasn't so bad. I don't scream in a scary voice, I don't get hysterical, so what's the big deal? That's why I didn't think much about it.
About halfway to school, at another stop, a stranger got on the bus. Everyone noticed it, and so for a moment the noise in the cabin disappeared, which actually distracted me from the cold glass. When I looked up, I saw a tall blonde woman walking down the aisle, light blue jeans, appetisingly tight around her ass, a light jumper, and big headphones around her neck. She was very pretty, and all my type. Although I didn't realise I had such taste until just now. Still, it's hard sometimes with me, even myself...
After staring at her ass for a few more moments, I grimaced and banged my head against the glass with a thud. Damn hormones, having to endure all this again! What a lucky guy Pete had been last year, stuck in a book and not giving a damn about the rest of the world! Someone sat down next to me, anticipating the worst, I slowly turned my head. It was a blonde girl, when I looked at her she was smiling. Drowning in her blue eyes, I felt myself smiling stupidly. When I realised this, I grimaced again, as if I'd been kicked in the throat. The bus sped off, and it helped me to jerk my head back to the window in an almost natural way. That's how the rest of the journey went. I was the last one to get off the bus, not wanting to see her.
We had computer science first. But just as the teacher began to explain the topic of the class and what we had to do today, the door to the classroom opened. Mrs Davies, the Vice Principal, walked in with the new girl.
- Hello to the class, Mr Wright, - this is our teacher's nickname, - let me introduce you to a new student, - Davis continued in a stern voice, not tolerating objections, - Miss Gwendolyn 'Gwen' Stacey, she and her family just moved to New York, and will study with you. I hope you will help your new acquaintance to settle in quickly. Oh, yes!' she exclaimed at the door, 'Mr Thompson, would you be so kind as to come to my office after class?
I mentally banged my head on the tabletop, 'Why did I have to do that? And why is she looking at me so strangely?! After calming down, I recalled the teacher's assignment from memory and did it quickly. I reported back, got the expected highest grade, and then I was allowed to surf the internet or play a shooting game. Legitimately choosing the first option, I sat until the end of the lesson in front of the monitor, trying not to look at the blonde, although maybe she is dyed... well let her, I'll call the girl by her name.
The rest of the lessons went in a similar way, I did what we were told, and the rest of the time I was left to myself. Only, unfortunately, I didn't have a computer with an internet connection nearby. So, without a second thought, I took out a notebook and a pencil. No, not to draw a variety of monsters, as you might think. I was trying to theorise about my father's glue formula. My father was also an inquisitive and intelligent man. I inherited from him a whole biochemical (and not only) laboratory in the basement of the house. Of course, as I grew older, the equipment in it became somewhat outdated and the reagents deteriorated somewhat. But still, since the death of my parents, I spent all my free time there. I also found a few of my father's theoretical developments there. All of them were quite 'raw' and unfinished, but very interesting. Interesting to me, at least. For example, my father began to work on the creation of a special molecular glue. There were only sketches and the idea itself, I had to do all the calculations and practical tests myself. Not everything was smooth, and the final result was still far away.
But now that I know that I can create an artificial web, which will not differ much in properties from the natural one... Now I understand very well what can serve as a basis for it. Based on what I need to achieve, I can confidently say that by slightly changing the formula of the glue, I will get an excellent web. It will turn out to be quite a pretty thing. The rather small cartridges should hold hundreds of kilometres of finished web. All that remains is to construct the cartridge, and... what shall I call it... let there be 'starters'.
Finally, the lessons are over. I'm sick of this! All day long I've been looking at her. How can that be?! What does she want from me? She looks at me like I owe her a million dollars, and more than one. Just as I was making my way down the corridor, irritably shoving everyone with my shoulder, Flash came out of Mrs Davis's office. He looked scary, and he had a menacing look, but I didn't care, so I glanced at him and went on my way. Just as the bulk of the people had dispersed, I was able to breathe. But the blond finally spotted me, and blocked the way.
- Flash, get out of here. I'm not in the mood to coddle you.
Did I mention I was a little annoyed? Unfortunately, my words didn't affect the jock. Or rather, it did the exact opposite. He got even more pissed off. He grabbed me by the collar and started breathing in the not-so-fresh air.
- Parker! You're dead! Not only did I just get a beating from Davis, but you're sassing me!
- I don't care what she said to you,' I said coldly, 'Let me go and I won't break your arms.
- You four-eyed bastard! I've had it with her because of you, you see, you can't hurt little Pittie!
- Don't you care that we're standing a stone's throw from Mrs Davis's office? - I asked, closing my eyes tiredly, not really hoping for a reasonable answer.
- Are you a coward, Parker? - You're just as pathetic a coward as your father probably was! Genes are insidious, but you know that better than I do, don't you?
A wave of rage swept over me, and it took a lot of effort to keep from snapping the bastard's neck. Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes. Placing my hands on top of his, I took hold of his thumbs, didn't squeeze hard, and began to slowly wriggle my hands out. When he let go of my collar, I started to clench and unclench his hands, feeling like I could easily break them. But then I regretfully let go of the rake.
- Back off, Flash!
I passed the shocked football player and went on my way. The corridor was dead silent, and it wasn't because it was empty; on the contrary, people were watching our fight, and they weren't going to leave. Now I could feel the shock and disbelief in my gut, and everyone's eyes were so huge that I suspected the elves were related. When I was almost to the exit, my sense of danger, the proverbial spider's intuition, gave the second danger signal since its appearance. The first one had been at the abandoned car park, and it had been much weaker, but the situation there was different, and there was no danger to my body, so it was amazing that it had worked then! Now the feeling of danger was completely different, more acute, clear. Though not critical. It was as if I was being pushed to the side, and I didn't resist, slipping a little to the left. A second later, where I was, a Thompson carcass came whizzing by with little control. Failing to find a target, the carcass naturally flew onwards, straight into the closed door.
- Oh! Thank you, blondie! I didn't know if I could open such a big door.
My voice sounded exaggeratedly cheerful, but hopefully everyone noticed the falseness. Stepping over the football player sprawled on the floor, I stepped outside. I had two days of willpower ahead of me!
***
Bus stop. Still the same morning.
George and Gwen Stacey had moved to New York earlier in the week. George, unlike his daughter, immediately had to go to a new place of work, for he is practically a military man, and not under his own control. The man worked part-time as a police captain. Gwen for a few days alone dismantled things, and did the cleaning in the new flat. That's why she missed a few days of school. However, the girl was not particularly worried about it, she would not have minded and on Friday to lie on the bed, listen to music. Unfortunately, her father didn't share his daughter's life preferences.
- Tyrant! - she muttered quietly to herself as she stood at the bus stop, waiting for the school bus.
The girl even managed to freeze a little, but finally, from behind the corner slowly pulled out of the yellow transport of kings. Only getting inside, the girl noticed that the cabin was already full. Her gaze locked on the only empty seat, and she went deep inside. On the neighbouring seat sat a guy with thick brown hair. He looked at the girl with a sad gaze, then she noticed him lower his gaze below her waist. Gwen only hummed mentally. She was a beauty, and she knew it, just as she knew what kind of impression she made on the opposite sex. There was nothing unexpected in the guy's reaction, and that was a pity....
To Gwen's surprise, when she looked at him again, the guy was already staring out the window. When he realised someone had sat down next to him, he didn't react for a minute or so. Weird. But then still decided to see who had disturbed his peace. Gwen smiled at him, he was cute, and interesting... a little. The boy smiled back, but almost immediately soured, and stared out the window again, no longer responding to Miss Stacey. This fact discouraged the girl and made her angry! Trying not to show it, she put on her headphones and, to a cheerful tune, had a sad thought. She did not understand anything, but the fact remained. The guy reacted to the beauty clearly not shabbily, and though earlier she would have been only happy about it. But then she simply could not tolerate the enthusiastic, devoid of intelligence, and frankly undressing her looks of guys, and would be happy to any other. As it turned out not any...
At the school itself, first they had to run round the offices, sorting out all the formalities. Then they went with Mrs Davies to get acquainted with her new class. Gwen was not particularly worried, she knew how to make friends, and she was not afraid of new companies. Davis led her to the computer science class, and the girl immediately crossed her eyes with Nim. The fact that they would now be in the same class pleased her, and when she realised it, she was very angry. Why was it that she was excited about such a thing? Big deal! All day long she walked around angry, and tried to burn a hole in him. It didn't go unnoticed.
- 'Hi,' a red-haired new classmate approached her at one of the breaks. - My name is Mary Jane.
- Hi, you know my name, Mrs Davies introduced me. But just call me Gwen, I don't like the full name,' the blonde smiled.
- Listen,' Mary stepped closer, 'you keep looking at Peter. Do you two know each other?
- Peter? That's his name? - Gwen was a little confused, at the topic of conversation. - No, I don't. We sat on the bus together. He's kind of weird. And you know each other?
- Well, - the redhead smiled with relief, - our parents are friends. Well, my mum and his aunt.
- Aunt? - Gwen didn't understand.
- Yeah. Pete's parents died in a plane crash and he's been raised by his uncle and aunt since childhood.
Mary Jane was a cheerful and outgoing girl, so it was very easy for Gwen to talk to her, while asking for more information about Parker. The blonde didn't know why she wanted to know, but nevertheless she tried to find out as much as she could. For some reason, despite the general positivity coming from Jane's personality, Gwen felt that she was a rival.
According to the redhead, it turned out that Pete was a smart, modest and uncommunicative guy. Especially his friend singled out the schoolboy's intelligence. Peter won almost all existing scientific Olympiads. There came out this image of a pai-boy, who for all his life did not hurt a fly. Actually Gwen had nothing against science, even on the contrary. Her mother was a scientist-geneticist, and passed her love for this path to her daughter. But the girl also loved sports, her father was a policeman and managed to get his daughter hooked on some of his hobbies.
And at the end of the day there was an event that broke the already formed in the eyes of Gwen image of Peter as a nerd. When the guy was accosted by some jock, she and Mary were near, you can say in the front rows, and therefore all saw perfectly well. Parker, with a face almost as sour as the one on the bus, had a verbal spat, and then he did the punching with complete calmness.
- 'And he's got great reactions!' - Gwen remarked admiringly, watching the jock sprawled on the floor. - 'He could use some clothes and a haircut...'
Gwen didn't even notice how the anger at the guy that had been raging earlier in the day had transformed into something else entirely....