Tarantula and Spider-Man rest on their usual building after a long night of non-stop crime-fighting.
“I never realized how much crime actually happens in Manhattan.” she comments.
“Well, that’s why we’re here to stop them, right?” he replies, casually stretching out his arms.
“I don’t know to be honest.” she confesses, “I mean, who came first, us or them?”
“Woah, you’re asking some deep questions there Tar.”
She raises an eyebrow, “Tar? Like the roofing material? That’s your idea of a nickname?”
“Hey, people call me Spidey, you should have some kind of nickname. It’s only fair.” he points out.
“I don’t need a nickname, besides, people don’t know me as well as they know you, you’re more visible in the media, and more likable too.” she argues.
“Hey, hey, you’re likable too. And besides, the only real media coverage I get is getting slandered by the Daily Bugle.”
She sits on the edge of the roof, swinging her legs over the edge, “True, but then again, who still reads the newspaper?”
They notice a train approaching, riding up the rise that goes above the city streets.
“Looks like my ride is here.” Spider-Man notes, “See you tomorrow, Tar.”
He swings off of the building, and launches himself so that he makes a perfect landing onto the top of the train. Tarantula rolls her eyes at the thought of Spidey’s new nickname for her, but she notices the train he’s taking. It’s the same route she takes to school everyday. Then again, New York is a big city, but could he be heading for Midtown? She’s slowly learning more about the mysterious Spider-Man.
Valerie arrives at school feeling tired but satisfied from the previous night’s escapades. She opens her locker and organizes her books as well as take out the ones she’ll need for the day. She closes her locker door to reveal Liz practically beaming at her,
“Hey, I saw you on TV last night!” she cries excitedly, “I didn’t know you did all that cool stuff.”
She shrugs, avoiding eye contact with her, “It’s a living.”
“I can see why you hang out with Gwen and Peter. You guys probably all talk about all that smart stuff, right?”
Valerie doesn’t give her a response. She slings her backpack over her shoulder and starts walking, but Liz follows her,
“Hey...I’m sorry about yesterday. I, I got out of hand.”
Valerie sighs, “It’s cool.” she mumbles.
“It’s just...have you ever really felt like...like someone belongs to you?” she asks, “I mean, not in a creepy way, but like, in a romantic way, and I can’t...ugh, words!”
She stops and thinks about that. Has she ever felt that way? Her immediate answer would be no, but then she remembers how jealous she was when Felicia was flirting with Hayden. And while Hayden didn’t belong to her by any stretch of the imagination, she does certainly care about him.
“Yeah, I think I know what you’re talking about.” she tells her.
“You do?” she asks hopefully, “Thanks Val...for understanding, you know?”
Just as she walks into the classroom she feels her phone vibrating in her pocket. Who’d be calling her at this hour? Probably just a telemarketer, but just to be sure, she takes it out and sees that the person calling her is Mr. Torger, her assistant. If he’s calling, this has to be important. Stepping outside the classroom, she answers her phone,
“Mr. Torger, you do realize I’m in school right now?”
“I know Dr. Polina, but, but, you gotta understand. You ne…nnneed to come back.” his speech sounds even quieter and disconnected than usual, and that’s saying something.
She checks the time, only two minutes until class starts, she better make this fast, “What’s wrong? Isn’t Mr. Gull the one in charge?”
“That’s...that’s the problem.” he states, “He can’t...he doesn’t know what he’s doing. The Oz...Oscorp representatives are getting impatient with him.”
“You do know I can’t return unless I get consent from my parents.” she reminds him.
“You’d just, just have to organize some...stuff. That’s all.”
The bell rings and the teacher gestures from inside for me to come back inside, “Fine, I’ll drop by today after school. Now, I have to go, good day Mr. Torger.”
She hangs up before he can give a response and returns to the classroom. Hayden has never been very good at the business and managing portion of running a company, that’s why Valerie took the position despite being so much younger. But now she can’t officially return, and Oscorp is probably layering on more work than the company is used to. She’ll just go in quickly, get whatever needs to be done done, and be on her way. She’s been missing work anyway.
She exits her first class uneventfully, and she spots Gwen and Peter running up to her from down the hall.
“Hey, I saw you on the Betty Brant show last night. That’s so amazing, congrats.” Gwen celebrates, high-fiving her.
“Yeah...I watched it too.” Peter chimes in, but something in his tone tells Valerie that he’s not telling the truth.
Gwen rolls her eyes, “Only because you have a major crush on Betty Brant.”
Peter’s face flushes red, “Hey, that was our secret.”
“Good luck keeping that secret with your tomato face. And besides, it’s Valerie. We can trust her, right?”
Valerie smiles. These are her real friends, the ones she can trust.
Just then, there’s a crashing noise from far off on the other side of the school. The three shift their heads around towards the sound. The rest of the school has frozen in place as well, just for a moment, before the first screams sound out.
The students collapse into chaos and start bolting for the exits, obscuring whatever actually caused the explosion, but loud stomping noises can be heard in the distance.
Valerie and Peter both react at once, charging through the rushing crowd toward the source. Neither of them notices the other through the throes of other students, but they run practically parallel to each other, and then split off to the different gendered bathrooms.
Spider-Man bursts out first, crawling up on the ceiling to avoid the crowds, who’re too panicked to notice him anyway. Tarantula gets out a little bit later, and by then, the hallways have cleared out completely. She charges toward the disturbance, where she skids to a stop. She’s just behind the hallway corner, where she peers out and sees Spider-Man facing a now much larger Lizard, who in a low voice growls,
“Peter.”
Peter?
The Lizard lurches for him, just barely missing him and allowing Spidey time to shoot his webs to entrap the Lizard.
He breaks out of these bonds all too easily, and Spidey retreats back down the hallway rather clumsily.
“Hey, what’re you doing here?!” he realizes, spotting Tarantula.
“I could ask you the same thing.” she counters. Should she mention she knows his identity?
“Well, now that you are here, how about helping me take down this Lizard guy?”
“Sounds like a plan!”
They both start running even farther ahead of the Lizard, turning a corner and disappearing. The Lizard stomps after them, turning the corner and slamming straight into a thick wall of webbing, with both Tarantula and Spider-Man on either side.
“Ready…” each of them grab one end of the web and start pulling back,
“Aim…” the net stretches farther back into the hallway, pulling the Lizard with it,
“...fire!” simultaneously, they both let go, sending the Lizard flying straight down the hallway and crashing into a row of lockers, scattering dust and papers everywhere.
They both high five each other, and Spidey runs over to the creature lying defeated on the ground,
“Woh, yeah! You don’t mess with Midtown High, or you’ll get a visit from the Spider Squad! Or uhm...the Spider Clan? ...the Dynamic Duo? No, I think that’s taken. The name’s a work in progress, okay?”
The Lizard lurches out from under the rubble, snatching Spider-Man and hurling him through a wall.
“Spidey!” Tarantula cries, running to his aid.
The Lizard disappears through the hole in the wall, with Tarantula hot on his trail. The wall leads to the library, where Spider-Man lies dazed in a pile of disheveled books.
Tarantula snaps a web onto the Lizard and uses it to jump up, sweeping down onto him with a fierce kick. She lands onto the ground right in front of him, and this gives him an opportunity to grab her. Holding her entire body, he squeezes her, cutting off her breathing. Small white sparks begin to shoot off of her fingers, but she can’t move her arms or hands. Spider-Man gets up, and charges straight for the Lizard, but just as he nears him, the Lizard squeezes Tarantula just a little too tight, and the charge building in her hands releases itself. There’s an explosion of bright white light, sending all three of them hurling in different directions.
Tarantula blinks her eyes open and sees that her blast has destroyed the entire library, charred pages of books floating in the air. There’s a clear indentation as to where the explosion happened, as marked by the black markings of practically everything in the room. Nearly all of the books have been damaged in one way or another, some of them completely singed, and the windows have been smashed out.
“Hey...you alright?” it’s Spider-Man, hobbling on one leg.
He helps her up, “That...that never fails to impress.”
“I...I ruined everything.” she confesses, looking to the hole where the Lizard had flown out of.
“Accidents happen, you can’t let it get to you.” he tells her.
“But, I can’t control my powers. You saw what I did, how’s the school going to deal with the damages?”
He places a firm hand on her shoulder, “What matters is that everyone at school is safe.”
She smiles, “...thanks Peter.”
His mask flexes out at the sound of his name, but the sound of police sirens approach them. They both run for the windows and jump out, diving out of sight.