“Well, here it is.” Mr. Osborn presents, gesturing to a wall.
Valerie looks over, and only sees an ordinary wall until a small compartment in the wall opens up and a cylindrical pod slides out from it, containing a red and yellow suit, complete with the black finishing Hayden mentioned.
“Wow…” she awed, placing her hands against the glass casing.
“And it comes with a compact storage unit.” he presses a button on his desk and the suit jolts to life, packing itself into a thin metal case.
The glass covering opens, and Valerie picks up the case, finding it much lighter than anticipated. She slides it into her bag with her sweatshirt, “Mr. Osborn, thank you so much for this but, why are you giving this to me?”
He pauses, holding his hands in his lap, his eyes glossy and having much less energy than usual, “While my main pursuit has always been for finding a cure for myself, or at the very least prolonging my lifespan, I’ve realized in recent days I must also look ahead, for the future.” he cues up a couple of keys on his computer, before a hologram appears in the middle of the room, “Do you see this? It’s a security camera of a secret Oscorp weapons storage. I’ve been collecting these through the years. In some form, they were all meant to save my life, but when they failed they had to be put to some kind of use. So they were weaponized, but I could never find anyone right to harness them, and I certainly couldn’t sell them. And now, I add the final piece to my collection.”
With the press of a button, he pans to an empty display case, “This is where the final product will rest when it’s finished. I’ve sent the specific measurements to your partner Mr. Gull. This suit, with the combination of the built-in life support system, will save many lives.”
“Yes, yes it will.” Valerie smiles, before realizing, “Hang on...if you intend on using the suit, why are you keeping it in storage?”
Mr. Osborn chuckles, “...it’s not for me. The suit can’t support someone so far gone. Besides, my time is done, I’m sick of the constant attempts. Ever since my late teens, endless experimental drugs, surgeries, the works. I spent so much time trying to save my life I never got to enjoy it. But now, he’ll never have to experience that.”
“...he?”
“My son.” he explains, “My disease is genetic, and as soon as he begins seeing symptoms, I’ll give him access to this suit. He’ll have a full life then, free of early death or the chains of endless experiments.”
She sees him begin to droop in his chair, “Well, thank you for sharing this with me Mr. Osborn, I’m honored to be given this-”
Suddenly, VP Menken and Felicia enter, “Ms. Osborn, your vitals are dropping.”
“It’s okay fellas. I, I was just getting a little excited.” he grins, laughing a little.
“Normie, are you okay?” Felicia coos, rushing to kneel at his side and moving his hair out of his face, “Do you need anything?”
Normie? It’s a rather affectionate name to use for your boss.
“I’m fine Felicia. I was just talking to Valerie here. Could you see her out?”
She gets up and stares at Valerie, her friendly visage faltering for just a second, “I’d love to Normie.”
Valerie begins walking to the door even before Felicia forcefully pushes her the rest of the way, her singular hand being much stronger than Valerie expected,
“On a first name basis with Mr. Osborn, are we?” she questions accusingly.
“I didn’t realize you referred to Mr. Osborn as ‘Normie’.”
They reach the elevator, and Felicia jabs the elevator button, “I have a special relationship with Mr. Osborn.”
“Well, I’ll have you know I have no intention to interfere with your special relationship.” she assures her, as the elevator opens on the ground floor.
“Good.” she mumbles, “Because to be honest, I do like having you as a friend.”
Resisting the urge to recount the “with friends like these who needs enemies” line, Valerie keeps quiet as Felicia walks her around the building to the main Oscorp entrance.
“Well, I suspect you can make it the rest of the way by yourself?” she asks.
She nods, “Yes, thank you.”
Valerie makes her way through the crowded New York streets until she finds a quiet alley to change. Feeling self-conscious about changing in semi-public, she opens the case to reveal the sleek outfit. On the top also included a mask, which she instinctively puts on first. It fit like a second skin, but even better, it’s like a mini computer, giving her access to vitals, heat signatures and an automatic nine-one-one call.
Transferring into the costume took a lot less time than expected, and as Valerie stands up for the first time in the costume, she feels a new sense of freedom, similar to the feeling she had when hopping down the stairs or defeating those thugs in the apartment building. But as she puts her normal clothes into the silver case, she realizes that she needs a place to hide her normal clothes. Grabbing the case, she begins climbing the walls of a nearby building until she reaches the roof. Looking down, her heart drops as she realizes how far up the building actually is. She decides to turn her attention instead to finding a place to hide her clothes, which she finds in-between two skylight panels.
Her next goal is finding a means of transportation. Spider-Man already does the swinging with webs thing, might as well give that a try. She shoots a web, making sure it sticks to the next building across the street. Standing on the edge of the building, she tries not to look down, but can’t help it. She flicks one foot off, dangling it over the edge. She grasps her hand squeezing the webbing, and jumps. The wind whipping her hair, she watches as she falls towards the street, fast approaching the other building. She gets the sensation as a combination of being on a rollercoaster and a playground swing at full force. Soon, she nears the building and prepares herself for landing. Her feet gracefully plant themselves on the hard building surface, her heart racing as she realizes her hands aren’t supporting her. She looks down and realizes she’s come to a complete standstill, her feet alone allow her to cling to the building. She starts to feel dizzy, the blood rushing to her head as she stares down at the street at this sideways-downward angle.
Feeling more confident, she slings another web, this one further, and higher up, and swings from it, holding onto it with both hands. She then lets go of the web and free falls, while still traveling forward. She spreads her arms out and realizes that there’s now wing-like webbing completely from her elbows all the way to her waist. Playfully she flaps them, and they send her flying up. She rises even above the Oscorp building. She starts laughing uncontrollably, feeling like a bird in the sky. She starts doing flips in the air, like a circus acrobat. She hops from building to building, having way too much fun to stop now. She makes it to Time Square, which until now, she’s never seen before. The bright neon lights and signs illuminate her as she swings through the wide avenue. She’s equal parts surprised and relieved when she looks down and sees no one has noticed her. Guess the people of New York aren’t much for looking up.
“Hey, look, it’s Spider-Man!” she hears a young boy shout.
Valerie smiles awkwardly, great, she thinks to herself, this whole mistaken for Spider-Man thing isn’t going to let up, is it?
She’s suddenly hit with a tremendous force. She loses all of her momentum and begins falling to the ground. Her wild waving hair blinds most of her vision as she plummets to towards the street. Her first thought is that she hit a wall, but no, she swears she was in mid-air when...something hit her.
“Oh, shoot, I, am so sorry!” a familiar voice says, his tone sarcastic.
Regaining her focus, she flips herself so that she’s falling headfirst. With better momentum, she shoots a web and it throws her against a building, stopping just as she lands on the building window. Now at a full stop, she looks around for the person she crashed into. The bright lights disorienting her, she relies on her newly acquired senses...and...he’s coming in from the left!
She tears off just in time, as her assailant pounces on the spot she was just perched on moments ago, cracking the glass on the building. She lands on the building across the street, now in perfect view of her attacker, Spider-Man himself. Despite him being on the other side of one of the busiest streets in New York City, she can hear his witty antics just fine,
“Oh? A lady with copy-cat spider powers? Are you my sister? My cousin?”
He swings himself off of the building, this time far too fast for Valerie to dodge. He slams into her, causing her to lose her footing and fall, breaking more glass as she falls several stories. Forcefully, he grabs her costume with one hand, and shoots a web up with the other. As soon as they begin ascending, he slams her against the building, her head impacting the glass as he drives up,
“Up, up and away!”
Finally, they reach the building roof, and Spider-Man throws her onto the flat concrete surface. Valerie, her face battered and bruised, her vision blurring, has never felt so much pain in her life, and has never been more pissed.
“Who are you? Please don’t tell me you’re a copycat Spider-Man, did the Daily Bugle send you?” he asks, basking in his victory.
“I’m...I’m not from the Bugle.” she spits, blood coming out of her mouth.
“Don’t play games with me gir-” he stops, and his mask flexes slightly in realization as she coughs up more blood, “Oh...oh my god, oh, I’m so sorry. You, you’re not as durable as most of the guys I work with.” he spins around once, his hands pressed to his temples, “I get it, you’re here to enlist as my sidekick!”
Shaking, Valerie slowly stands up, as a bright white light begins building in both of her hands, “You...are a jerk!” the light releases in a burst, firing right at Spider-Man, hitting him square in the chest, knocking him so far he careens off the building.
Valerie runs and looks down as he falls. She jumps off after him, assuming a sky-diving position before snatching him. Finding him a lot lighter than expected, she shoots a web up and they zip back up to safety,
“Okay, I have to admit, that was cool. How did you do that?”
They reach the top, and as Valerie puts him down, her expression is unamused, “I don’t see any reason why I should tell you.”
“Well, I see that those scratches I gave you are gone.” he notes.
She presses her hand on her check, and notices that the injuries caused by the glass are already gone.
“I’m sorry, I think we got off to a rough start, literally.” he extends a spandex hand, “Spider-Man.”
She accepts it begrudgingly, “Is that what it says on your business card?”
“No, it says ‘The Amazing Spider Man’, very marketable. And you are?”
She remembers what the old man with the dark glasses and mustache called her, “...Tarantula.”
“Really? Not Spider-Woman? The name would suit you.”
She smirks, “Thanks, but I’m not interested in being a side-kick.”
Just then, sirens blare in the distance, and both of them turn towards the noise. They glance at each other for a brief moment before simultaneously taking off, Spider-Man on his webs and Tarantula on her webbed wings.