Chapter 14 - Spider-people (Part 1)

Tyler Riddle

Empty Warehouse

I'm currently in an unused warehouse next to the shipping docs. This place is owned by the city after they busted a small drug ring.

I've been using this place to practice my new spider abilities. My flexibility has greatly increased, and so has my durability. I had to test that one after I fell almost 40 ft while I was walking on the ceiling. I got a bit distracted thinking about how the stickiness worked. My running theory right now is some sort of complex hybrid between magnetism and London dispersion forces since it works though clothing. My subconscious seems to be constantly processing feedback from my senses so I don't have to focus on them all the time. I'm guessing that's how Spidey-Sense works. It hasn't gone off yet, so I don't have any other explanation.

But those are the boring, traditional powers. My biggest interest lies in the specific powers that spider-42 gives me. They all seem to revolve around electricity. Most of my body either produces or channels electricity, but the majority of it runs along my nervous system. My reaction speed has greatly increased and I can build up electricity to let it all out at once like an electric eel. I tried to see if I could shoot it out from a distance. I can but, it only goes about 7 feet before it loses momentum and heads to the ground or the nearest metal object. I'll have to build some part of mini transformer in my hands if I want to shoot farther.

On the subject of invisibility, my skin seems to emits a magnetic field using my electricity as a power source. It renders me invisible, but if I focus the same phenomenon on one part of my body, the. Instead of making me invisible, I can perform a pseudo telekwnosis on magnetic objects like Magneto, but I'm far less adept at it. It's not very useful for making other things move because of my little control over it, but it is very useful if I want to hurl myself to a magnetic object that weighs more than me. I can even hover using the roof as an anchor, but it's not the most efficient use of energy, so I think hovering is off the table unless I can produce more power.

The mitochondria present in my body is about 100 times more than before, which significantly increases the amount of energy I can output while also decreasing my rate of cellular degeneration. That's probably a courtesy of the OZ formula since it was designed to help the Osborn family live longer. And my muscle fibers are a lot denser than before, so while I look the same, my weight has actually increased by 50 lbs. Honestly I could've done pretty much all of this, but I would be unsure of it's success rate, not to mention that the process of mutating myself to this degree could take weeks. The enhancement of my senses was a simple process since I only had to deal with the nervous system as well as a few small clusters of cells. 

I'm still inspecting myself when I get a call from Peter. 

"Hey Tyler, can you come by? I need your help." Peter ask, in distraught voice.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a couple minutes. Just calm down and breath, alright."

"Alright."

"Ok, I'll be there in a few." I reasure him. Hanging up the phone, I take two minutes to fashion a glider staff like the one from Avatar. Then I cover my face and use one of the construction cranes nearby to launch myself in the air and get some height. 

=÷=

Peter's house

I knock on the door to Peter's house and Aunt May answer the door. She's a lady about 50 years old, but she's aged well.

"Hello Tyler. Come in." She says, beckoning me inside. "We haven't seen you in a while. Peter told us about the accident. I know that it's not much, but if you need someone to talk to, then we're always here."

"Thank you Aunt May. I'm handling it. Just trying to focus on other things. I just came by to go over a little engineering project that me and Peter are working on." I tell her, showing her the staff.

"Sure, he's in his room."

I leave Aunt May and enter Peter's room to find him stuck to the ceiling looking very distressed. I close the door before Aunt May can come in and spot him.

"Hey Tyler, calm down, I can explain."

"No explanation necessary Peter. I'm fine. You're the one who needs to calm down. Deep breaths in, deep breaths out. Now relax your body and just fall."

"Just fall???"

"Just fall. You'll be fine."

*Thump*

"See, easy."

"Yeah, easy."

*Silence*

"Come on Peter, let's get out the house. I have something to show and something to tell."

=÷=

Empty Warehouse

Peter and I made our way to the warehouse I was using earlier.

"Are you sure we should be in this place?"

"Relax Peter. The city confiscated the place a while back and hasn't sold it yet."

"If you say so Tyler. So what did you want to show me?"

"So a few weeks ago, I experienced something that change me. It wasn't just the death of my parents, it was something else. I can't really say exactly what, but I can tell you that as a result of that event, I know certain things, and I have a few abilities."

I give him a short demo of the different one and outs of my energy and matter based powers.

"Why are you telling me this Tyler? You could've lied to me and just told me about your powers, but it's like your trying to tell me something by miming it out."

"You're my best friend Peter. You're their when I needed you the most. You're one of the best things I or New York have ever gotten, and you deserve all the truth you can handle."

"So there's more you're not telling me."

"Yeah, a lot. But I'm in a position where I can't tell you or anyone a whole lot. Sure I could physically tell you, but the consequences for both you and a lot of other people are too much to bear."

"What do I say?" 

"Talk about it with Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They can handle a lot more than you think, and they're some of the wisest people I know. But first, let me show you how to to control your powers."

"...ok…"

"Well you  and one other person got bit by radioactive spiders during the field trip yesterday. I let myself get bit by a different spider when I went back to Oscorp with Gwen—"

"So did you know that I would get bit? And who is this other person?"

"...yeah Pete. Like I said, I'm not in much of a position to stop certain things from happening. You'll understand later. As for the other person, she is Cindy Moon, one of the asian girls in our class. Now our spiders all came with similar but different mutations. All of us have a mechanism to stick to surfaces. It's a mix between glue and magnetism. There's also an increase in our strength, speed, stamina, and future prediction abilities."

"So we've been mutated into some sort of spider-people?" 

"Yeah, spider-people. Cindy can actually shoot out spider threads and has even more flexibility than us. I have abilities based mostly on electricity and magnetism. It's fairly versatile. I can simply produce or store a lot of electricity and release it all at once, or I can go invisible." I tell him, turning my hand invisible and making sparks dance on my other to show him.

"So I'm the weakest one, basically."

"No Peter, you're the strongest spidy, because you have the heart of a hero." I tap his chest to make my point clear. "Now, let's start off with some basic wall and ceiling climbing to help you control yourself. After that, go talk to Aunt May and Uncle Ben. I have to go help Cindy soon."

"Ok."

"Good, well it's all about staying calm and focused. Panic will only make things worse, so……….."

=÷=

Peter already left, and I need to help Cindy before things get bad. But I don't know where she lives, so I whip out my phone to ask someone who might, Nia.

Tyler: "Do you know that girl in my class named Cindy Moon?"

Nia: "I know of her."

Tyler: "I need to know her address."

Nia: "What makes you think I would know that?"

Tyler: "Gwen said you might."

Nia: "...why do you need to go to her house?"

Tyler: "Please Nia. It's really important. We can even have movie night when I get back."

Nia: "888 Lucky Ridge."

Tyler: "Thank you Nia."

Nia: "OXXXXXXXXXXX"

÷=÷=÷