"We need to celebrate!" Aunt May says when she opens the door to her apartment.
I'm sharing a room with Peter now. Yes, a sixteen year old boy. But it's a huge upgrade from my hospital room.
"Do you have a piece of paper and a pen?" I ask.
"Yeah," Peter says. "What for?" He asks as he hands me the materials. I ignore him and write down my experience.
I write what it was like to be there. How it felt, how it looked, how it smelled. I write down everything I remember about the white room and how it turned into the beautiful ocean soon afterwards. I write about my hair and dress, my father and the bridge. I write about the choice I had to make, how it felt to run away from such a thing.
I filled the whole paper up with my descriptions and put it in my pocket.
"What was that?" Peter asks.
"I'll tell you someday," I say.
"You've been through a lot," Peter says.
I smirk. "I only died," I say.
"Only died," he mutters.
"How about we order pizza and eat ice cream?" Aunt May suggests.
I grin. "Sounds great."
After I finished my cheese pizza and chocolate ice cream, Peter pull me into our room to talk.
He sits on the bottom bunk next to me.
"How do you feel?" He asks.
"Fine..." I sigh.
He sighs. "How do you really feel? Weird? Stronger? The latter?"
"Uh, I don't know. I feel weird, yeah. But I just figured that's because I died."
Peter looks like he's trying to figure out a way to say something.
"Just say it. Don't sugarcoat, don't do anything. Just, flat out, say it."
He takes a deep breath.
"I injected you with spider venom," he says quickly.
"You what?" I say, standing up.
He stands up next to me.
"I didn't want you to die! I didn't know what to do," he defends.
"Do nothing!"
"Seriously? You can't expect me to do that," he says.
I take a deep breath. "Alright, fine."
Then I smile widely.
"Oh my god I have super powers!"
He rolls his eyes but laughs.
"You're welcome?" He says.
I jump onto the ceiling and hang upside down.
"Oh my god! This is amazing!" I say.
He opens the window.
"Wanna go for a test run?" He asks. He throws me one of his web shooters and I jump out the window behind him.
I shoot webs across the outsides of the buildings, swinging from side to side.
I laugh and shout to Peter. He laughs and shouts back.
I hit a window and fall, screaming.
Peter swings by and catches me.
"You need to work on that," he says.
I grin and we stop at a rooftop.
"How'd you even get the venom?" I ask.
"I broke into Oscorp."
"What?"
He shrugs. "Gotta do what I gotta do."
I roll my eyes.
"Guess I need a suit now, huh?" I say.
"I probably should've thought about having a sidekick before I injected you," he says.
"Woah, we're partners. If anything, you're my sidekick."
He grins. "Fine, let's get back before Aunt May notices we're gone and people see two figures flying in the sky."
I nod and we make our way back to the apartment.
"And for the record you'd be my sidekick," he adds.
"Whatever let's you sleep at night, Spider-Boy."
We reach the apartment building and we climb through the window into the bedroom we now share.
"Alright, Spider-Girl. You probably need to sleep. Your cells have been through a lot today," Peter says as I close the window.
"You mean Spider-Woman?"
He chuckles. "That's for the press to decide."
I climb onto the top bunk and close my eyes, drifting into a peaceful and needed sleep.
I yawn and get out of bed. I grab a sweatshirt and throw it over my t-shirt and sleeping shorts. I put my glasses on and head to the bathroom.
I gasp when I look in the mirror.
My arms were more muscular. I look down and see my calves were as well. I lift up my shirt-
"Yes!" I exclaim.
"Ugh, what?" Peter mumbles from his bunk. He walks in and roll his eyes when he sees me admiring my new abs.
"Hair!" I say.
He smiles. "I guess when the venom made you muscly it made your hair grow as well. You'll probably have a full head in a week."
I grin and admire the spikes sticking out of my skull.
Peter and I walk to the kitchen together and sit down.
"Thank, Auntie," Peter says and grabs a pancake.
"You're welcome. I figured I'll be extra nice today then back to make your own breakfast tomorrow," she says while flipping pancakes.
I grin. "Thanks!"
"You're welcome, sweetie. Also, I registered you both for school."
Peter groans. "I want to enjoy my summer without any mentions of school," he says.
"School? I've never been to a real one. Just online," I say.
"It sucks. Everyone tries to be popular. Also if people offer you drugs walk away," Peter says.
I roll my eyes. "Thanks. I think I can handle myself."
"You kids behave, okay? I've gotta head to work. I'll be back around five," Aunt May says. She grabs her purse and walks out the door.
"We need to make you a suit," Peter says.
"Okay, yeah. We've gotta do it quick though. I want to see who was paying for my treatment."
Peter nods and rushes to our room. I stuff the remains of my pancake in my mouth and follow him.
I grab a pair of denim shorts and a pink t-shirt that the hospital gave me. It read:
I'm a fighter.
#nationalcancerfoundation
I pull on white converse and grab my Yankees hat. Peter walks out of the bathroom wearing jeans and a Mets t-shirt.
"Nice shirt. Also, Mets are better," I roll my eyes and we exit through the door this time like normal people.
"Okay so I was thinking yours could have a skirt-"
"No," I interrupt Peter.
"Okay. No skirt. It'd be mostly like mine but for the mask I was thinking you'd just have an eyepiece or maybe a hole for a ponytail."
"I don't have enough hair for a ponytail yet and I don't think that'll look good since we're making it. How about just a dark eyepiece?
"Alright. And we're sticking to red and blue, correct?"
"Yeah that sounds good."
We walk to Target and buy the items needed.
"Also, I need to get some materials for your web shooters," he says. I nod and we go and pay for the items.
Many, many, hours later
"Come on out!" Peter says.
I slowly walk out of the bathroom in my new suit.
"Perfecto," he says.
"It looks like shit," I say.
"Well neither of us are fashion designers. Here," he throws me my web shooters and I wrap them around my wrists.
"Now we're going to practice," he says, and climbs out the window. I follow him and stand on the fire escape with him.
"Then we're going to find out who payed for my treatment," I say.
He sighs and and jumps off the fire escape. I follow.
If your brother jumped off the fire escape would you do it as well?
At the last second I shoot a web and fling myself into the air.
I jump onto a side of a building and climb to the roof.
Peter shows me different ways to shoot the webs. He shows me different techniques to capture people.
"But you can figure out your own way as it goes."
I nod.
"Ready to go make a name for yourself, Spider-Girl?" He asks.
"If you mean Spider-Woman, then yes."
Peter and I are currently eating lunch in Chinatown.
"You're not as bad as I thought," Peter says, then shoves some Lo Mein noodles in his mouth.
I point my chopsticks at him. "Maybe I'm just fit for the job," I say, and eat another grain of rice.
He groans. "Please use a fork. We're going to be here all night if you keep eating grain by grain."
I grin. "Then sit tight, lil bro, you're going to be here a long time."
I sigh in defeat and grab a fork. I was getting hungry, and eating rice by the grain takes forever.
Peter grins, "I told you-"
"Shush!" I say, hushing him.
"Who's this new figure seen with Spider-Man? She was seen in Queens this afternoon wearing a similar costume as New York's already known web throwing hero. Is she another small town hero or an annoying criminal? More coming after the break."
"An annoying criminal?" I exclaim.
"Keep it down!" Peter warns. "They also said small town hero," he adds.
Peter leans in closer. "Breaking into a hospital won't help though," he whispers.
I ponder this. "We're still doing it. I have to know. Wouldn't you want to know the person who kept you alive?" I say.
"Yeah. But no offense, he didn't do a good job. You died. I helped for free. You're welcome," Peter says, sinking back down in his chair.
I sigh. "True. And thanks, I guess. Still, we're doing it. Tonight."
"Are you positively sure about this?" Peter says, for the fifth time tonight.
I groan. "Yes, Peter. There's no backing out now," I say, putting on my mask.
"Actually, we can easily take our masks off and go back to sleep."
We stuff pillows under our bed, just in case Aunt May comes in, and we jump out the window.
We web to the hospital and land on the roof.
We nod to each other and he heads down the stairs in the building, and I head through an open window.
Peter is supposed to web all the security cameras while I make my way to the office.
Each floor has an office that contains two file cabinets: one that contains info about current patients and the other contains info about deceased or discharged patients in the past week.
I wait for Peter's signal to enter the hallway. The hospital was still running at night of course, so I had to make sure no employees saw me.
We meet eye contact across the hall and I slowly make my way into the office.
After I'm in, Peter guards the door to make sure no one else enters the room.
I look through the files under P and stop at my name.
I hear footsteps and touch the file gingerly.
"C'mon! Grab the file and go!" Peter says, whispering harshly.
I open it quickly and look through the papers.
It contained all my test reports, x-rays, examinations, everything. I look for the page that contained personal information. I find it, and grab it.
"They're coming!" He hisses.
I quickly hide on the other side of the file cabinet and Peter goes on the roof near the door.
"-I could not believe my eyes!" The doctor says.
The other doctor laughs.
I watch as Peter skillfully moves out the door, leaving me and the two doctors.
"Well-" one of them starts. She grabs his collar and they lean in.
I try not to throw up as I watch them make out.
The doctor begins to unbutton the female doctor's shirt.
Peter peaks in and covers his mouth. He waves, telling me to come.
I quietly make my way over and close the door behind me.
"Ew," I say.
"Lets go!" Peter says, stifling his laughter and grabbing my arm.
I shake it off and we jump out the window. We make our way to the roof of our apartment building and sit on the edge.
We both take off our masks and I unfold the paper.
I gasp.
"Tony Stark."
1992 words
~~~
Author's Note
Plot twist ??