Tarantula (Spider-Man)

Partners In Danger

 

   He places her on the flat rooftop of an apartment building. He rests against a nearby AC unit, also exhausted.

For a couple of minutes, neither of them speaks, surrounding themselves in the sounds of the city, and their rapid breathing. Tarantula looks up at Spider-Man. She can’t tell if he’s looking down at her, or if he’s lost in his own thoughts, his mask covering his entire face.

Her breath returning to a more normal pace, she sits up, “Hey...where were you?”

He snaps to attention, “Wha! Oh...oh, I was getting the people out of those cars...you know...the cars up on the bridge?”

“Oh, I see.”

“But...but you went after that monster thing, right? Did you get him?” he asks, his usual energy slowly returning.

She shakes her head, “No, he went down into the sewers just before I collapsed.”

“The sewers? Sounds about right.”

They both chuckle a little bit. Tarantula looks over his shoulder and see the bright moon peeking just behind a tall building, “Wow...look at that.”

Spider-Man turns around and sees it as well, “Hey, you can see the moon. That’s pretty rare. Some building’s usually blocking your way.” he slowly gets up on his feet, “Can you stand? I wanna show you something.”

She cautiously stands up, but finds that her body is now free of the aches and pains that plagued her minutes ago. Spider-Man slings down the building and she follows. He swings up, latching and crawling up the taller building. He runs across the building before diving off again. He makes a straight shot for the tallest building in New York City, the Oscorp building. They reach the top, and Spider-Man quickly covers Tarantula’s mask just as she reaches the top,

“Don’t look, just, just trust me.”

Her first instinct is to snatch his hand away, at this angle he could easily pull her mask off. But, something tells her that isn’t his intent. With his other hand, he guides her to the edge of the building. With her enhanced hearing, she can hear the noisy streets below come closer with each step.

“Okay...now!” and he swipes his hand away.

Her mask still on, she now only sees the full view of the midnight moon, large and up close. It’s as if she could reach out and touch it, “Oh my gosh...this is amazing.”

“Pretty cool, huh?”

She nods as they both sit on the edge of the roof. Tarantula suddenly chuckles a little.

“What’s so funny?” Spider-Man asks.

She tucks her legs in and hugs them with her arms, “I think I’m starting to like this whole superhero thing.”

“Who said we’re superheroes? For all you know we could be the bad guys.” he says jokingly, energetically using his arms to express himself.

She laughs some more, “Oh yeah, a bad guy saves people from suspended cars. It’s right there in the job description.”

“Hey, you gotta admit, I’d make a great villain.” he gets up, “I could go into a bank and be like, nobody move ! Then I’d shoot my webs at all of them, so they literally couldn’t move!”

“I can just imagine you walking out of there carrying a bag of money with a huge dollar sign over your shoulder.” Tarantula joins in, “Explosions in the background.”

“And I’d have a different outfit too. Maybe...how about all black?”

“And you’d be dark and depressing and totally edgy .” she parodies with a mock-gravelly voice.

They both fall to the floor laughing, Tarantula nearly tipping off of the building, but catching herself just in time. She looks over the edge, just to make sure she’s still secure. She then turns back to see Spider-Man right in front of her face. They stare at each other for a couple of moments, but then he backs off,

“Uhm...look, I’m sorry I...I have a girlfriend.”

“I wasn’t suggesting anything.” she tells him, sitting back up.

“Look it’s getting late...I...it’s been great you know? We...we should do this more often...but...but not...you know...like that-”

Tarantula jumps up from her spot, firing herself right at Spider-Man, and pulling him into an embracive hug before whispering in his ear,

“It’s okay Spidey, I don’t mind the friend zone.”

She releases herself from him and jumps off of the building. Spider-Man looks down from up-top, watching her wave goodbye, a melancholy smile on her lips, before spinning in mid-air, unfurling her wings, and soaring off into the night.