Stories Focussed On Spider-Man

(USM) The Truth About Spider-Man P4

Info: fourth part to the 'Truth About Spider-Man" arc

"You have Flicky?" Spider-Man asked in disbelief. He was sitting on a sofa next to his teammate where they were preparing to play a round of video games. "I used to play Flicky all the time with my-my..." The vigilante sighed. It had been over a year and he still had issues discussing his uncle. "Sorry, I- He's a hard topic."

The alien stiffened. "I'm sorry for your loss, Webhead," Nova said after a moment.

"I should be moved on and all by now. It's been ages! I just..." Spider-Man sighed once again, shaking his head. He felt like he was doing that a lot lately. "I dunno. I just can't."

"Hey, it's okay man. Grieving is different for everyone."

"It wasn't like this my parents died," he sniffed. "Whatever, man. I'm blaming this conversation on the serum."

"If you, um, don't mind me asking," Nova gulped, "how-how did they die?"

"I was four when my parents' plane crashed. Ten years later, Uncle Ben got shot. I was there, too. I feel like I could've saved him."

"You've got survivor's guilt, dude. You ever talk to someone about this?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

"Not that I mind, but I'm not a professional."

"It-it's fine, Buckethead. Let's just play the game."

"Yeah okay," the shorter teen agreed, making a mental note to have a conversation with Fury about this later.

"Is it just me, or did the Webhead upgrade our gear again?" Luke grinned, fingering the stronger fabric with glee.

"He must be pretty bored. I can't imagine it was super interesting doing minor upgrades," Sam commented.

"There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people," Danny recited. "I'm sure he finds this work to be fulfilling and fun."

"Yeah, maybe. We should still head down to his lab area to check on him though. I feel kinda bad that he's not allowed to go out and live," Ava decided, selecting her mask from her suit and slipping it over her features.

Sam groaned as he grabbed his bucket. "I feel bad that we have to wear our stupid little masks around him. Like, I get that he wants to keep the ID on the down low, but why can't we show him who we are?"

"It's out of respect for his decision to remain private," Danny cleared up before tying the yellow fabric around his eyes.

"Yeah, dude, respect," Power Man agreed. "After all he does, this is the least we can do."

"What happened here?" White Tiger laughed as she walked into a room absolutely covered in webbing. She glanced around and noticed the vigilante stuck upside down to the wall on her left. She laughed again.

"Chemistry can be unpredictable at times," Spider-Man wheezed, obviously just as mirthful about the situation as she was. "Gosh, I'm an idiot."

"Nah, you're probably the smartest of all of us," Power Man chuckled, subtly noting how quick the genius was to put himself down. "Nova can't do Chem to save his life."

"Hey!"

"Do you, ah, mind grabbing my webshooters from that table over there?"

Iron Fist strided over, careful to not get stuck in any stray globs of webbing himself. "Sure thing." He gave them a quick inspection, glad that there wasn't much of the white substance attached to them. "These are pretty creative. Who invented them?" The team was sure they already knew the answer, even before the teenager confirmed it.

"Uh, I did. It was a while ago, actually. Fun times. There weren't any maniacs with four mechanical arms, a truth serum, and a vendetta against all things spider at the time."

"Sounds boring."

"It was nice. Things were much simpler back then. My first version of webbing I had created before I got my powers. I was going to get it patented, too! Then came along Spider-Man and all the responsibilities with the secret identity."

"So, if it weren't for being a superhero, you might already be rich and famous with your brain. That sucks," Nova noted.

"It's very noble," Iron Fist corrected.

"Well, I don't have much interest in all that, but we really could have used the money at the time. With the funeral bills, I took a job on top of school and May had to start working some extra shifts. We managed, but it would have made things so much easier. It's fine now, I guess. I've got something else up my sleeve that I'm about to apply to get it patented. It just needs a few more tweaks."

"So, school? What're you studying if you don't mind me asking?" Tiger wondered, taking the webshooter from Fist to examine it herself.

"I'm a junior in high school, so just some rudimentary Calculus, Physics, and Chem courses."

"Dang."

"Can you press that button to release the dissolvant catalyst? Just a few drops should do it, that stuff is pretty potent." She did as she was told and soon Spider-Man had righted himself. "I- yeah, thanks. I wonder what went wrong with the new formula? Karen?"

"My sensors are suggesting that you used a faulty ratio."

"Huh." He took his shooters and dabbed at his whiteboard so he could continue to work. "Re-run the simulation with a 3 to 1 and cross reference the new webbing with the last versions to see if there isn't an issue with the chemical components."

"Just a moment."

"Thanks, K. You're the best."

"Don't I know it."

"So," Power Man began, "an AI?"

"Uh, yeah. Karen's been a pet project for a while now. I'm glad to finally have some help with my research."

"How long has she been up and running?"

"Finished the last bit of coding a few days ago and got her all uploaded yesterday. Believe me, there'd be a much bigger mess if it weren't for her input. Her processing power outperforms my intelligence any day."

"Technically her intelligence is your intelligence. She's your brain child!"

"Eh, she's been learning ever since I brought her online. A lot of it's all her."

"And who has she been learning from?" Tiger smirked. "I mean, there's no way you'd just hook her up to the internet so soon. She probably hasn't quite mastered separating fact from fiction."

"Yeah, you got me there. She's still faster though."

"Well, yeah, but she's a literal machine!"

"A machine that can hear you," Karen chided with amusement lacing her tone.

"She sounds so lifelike," Iron Fist marveled.

"Thank you, Peter took great care when he programmed me."

The room froze. "Karen, remind me to create a protocol for hiding information later. I've got an identity to keep."

"My apologies."

"Nah, that one was my bad."