Tarantula (Spider-Man)

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiders

“I’m going to sell them to the Daily Bugle. It’s sort of a part-time job.” he explains.

“They still give jobs to teens?” she asks, but then she realizes something even more perplexing, “Hang on, people still read the newspaper?”

He shrugs, putting the camera away, “I don’t know, maybe they have a website or something.”

“Well, I’m going home, I need to get some sleep, the Halloween dance is tonight.”

Peter yanks off his mask in disbelief, “Hang on, that’s tonight?!”

She nods, “You forgot, didn’t you?”

“I’ll...I’ll work something out.” he assures her, “So wait, are you gonna go with Eddie?”

“I don’t know honestly. He hasn’t brought it up. I’ll just go, hang out, have fun. It doesn’t need to a romantic outing, right?”

“I don’t know, it’s just that...Harry’s been asking about you.” he explains, sitting down on the concrete roof.

Valerie, taking off her mask, and letting her hair blowing in the morning wind, sits down with him, “What do you mean?”

“Oh, usual stuff a guy asks...when he’s into a girl, Val, I think Harry likes you.”

She snickers, “Right, and I’m a space cop.”

“No seriously, I know Harry, and when he’s crushing on a girl, he finds out everything about her.”

She laughs even more, “Look Peter, I don’t know what kind of joke you’re trying to pull here, but Harry is not interested in me. Guys, just don’t like me. End of story.”

Peter raises an eyebrow, “Alright, you deny it. But don’t say I wasn’t the first to tell you. I think you two would make a good couple.”

Valerie puts her mask back on, “Alright, I’m heading home, see you at school Pete.” she runs across the roof, and dives off, soaring into the early morning sky.

   Valerie arrives at school extremely tired. She’d barely gotten half an hour of sleep before her alarm clock alerted her that it was time for school. She barely even notices when Eddie taps her shoulder, having to do so a couple of times to get her attention,

“Val?”

She whips around, “Oh...hey Eddie, sorry, I...I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“I can tell.” he mumbles worriedly, “Would this be a bad time to ask you if we’re still on for the Halloween dance?”

Not giving much thought to it, she nods, “Yeah...yeah I’m going.”

He smiles, his grin stretching ear to ear, “I’ll...I’ll see you tonight then.”

“Mhm.”

The warning bell rings and Eddie waves goodbye as he heads off cheerfully to class. Valerie’s rubbing her eyes when she sees a distraught Harry standing in front of her,

“I’m assuming it’s too late to ask you to the Halloween dance then, is it?”

“Oh...Harry, yeah, Eddie just confirmed with me…” her head starts to hurt, this superhero stuff is really starting to take a toll on her.

He sighs disappointedly, “Oh...alright then.”

For a moment, she sees through her fog of sleepiness and places her hand on Harry’s shoulder, “For what it’s worth, I’ll save a dance for you.”

He smiles, nodding, “I’d like that very much.”

They start walking to class together, and Harry brings something up that jolts Valerie right awake,

“You know, I think I have the answer to my father’s sickness.”

“What?”

He elaborates, “Last night, I was saved by Tarantula and Spider-Man, but they were attacked right in front of me by this crazy guy in red-”

“Yeah, Wade Wilson or something like that right? I saw that on the news this morning, they arrested that guy, right?”

He nods, “Yeah, but he managed to hurt the both of them. He even threw Tarantula on the ground from the Oscorp building. And he sliced into Spider-Man’s arm with his sword. And they both recovered like it was nothing.”

“So...you think they’re the answer to your father’s illness?” she asks, her concern growing as to what this is leading up to.

“All I’m saying is that they have the ability to heal at phenomenal rates. If Oscorp could harness that kind of power...think of what we can do. And...and it’s not just his illness, it’s mine too, it’s hereditary.”

She chuckles nervously, “I'm aware, and I'm so sorry, but good luck finding them. You might see them all over the news, but actually predicting their next location is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.”

“I’ll find a way...I will.”