“Stay up there, Lucidity!” I shouted, hoping the mist had cleared enough for the sound to carry. No luck, I watched as the green light of the hoverboard grow brighter overhead.
“Stop!” I tried again.
“What!?” A muffled voice made it through the mist.
“Spiders down here! I got caught by the web!”
There was an immediate high pitched tone that made it through the mist. “No! Not spiders. I hate Spiders! Wait- did you fall!?”
Not for the first time, I cursed my power, fully aware of each moving leg attached to web. “Yeah, but not far. They must have predicted someone would use the elevator shaft.” Why anyone would use this measure, I couldn’t guess. “I’m like, three metres below you! I don’t see myself going anywhere!”
“Metres! I don’t know metres! Hold on. I’ll be right back with something to help!” Lucidity assured me with a shudder in her voice
I rapidly did the math in my head. “Six feet!” I guessed. “Go up first!”
Unfortunately my warning came too late. Lucidity’s hoverboard got caught on something and stopped, propelling her forward instead and into the air where her body suddenly snapped backwards, pivoting in midair and leaving her hanging upside down. I winced, having felt it through the web. A strand of the material had caught her on the waist and stopped her instantly.
The activity from the spiders below suddenly went into overdrive now there were two of us stuck in the web. I felt dozens of tiny impacts as several spiders began ascending from the group of them a few floors down. Even more impacts made themselves known as the mass of spiders begin writhing within itself.
“So uh, do you have any plans?” I shouted.
“Close your eyes!” Lucidity warned as something fell past me.
Remembering what Lucidity had on her bandolier, I shut my eyes and began counting. When I got to three there was a muffled bang that left my ears ringing despite the fog and caused several spiders to fall from the webbing. I was treated to a mental image of the bodies hitting the web as they fell down the floors. The attack had affected six of the spiders climbing towards us, and had barely touched the mass further below.
“Bad news. That only got half of them!” I announced, generously rounding up. “Do you have any more of those?!”
“Just this!” Lucidity called back as another flashbang fell past me. This time I shut my eyes just moments before the explosion went off. It got seven this time, but more spiders were still coming. It was difficult to tell, the conglomerate mass of spiders was distracting me. They were spinning more web, slowly expanding my range of “sight”.
“Did I get them?” Lucidity called quietly, barely breaking through the damping mist.
The first spider walked into my field of view. “No.” I muttered. Given the mist, the word probably didn’t reach the twelve year old hero, but the absence of an answer would tell her the same thing.
A second, then a third spider appeared in my vision. They were each the size of a tarantula. My sixth sense told me they were walking on the web, but the white mist left over from Cloud obscured the strands against a white backdrop. The spiders had yellow fur that stood on end and bristled with each movement. They darted a short distance, stopped and surveyed me, then darted closer, and stopped. Repeating the process and getting closer and closer..
“No! No! Go away!” Lucidity shrieked as four more spiders darted up to her. “Get off me-ee!” The web heated up against my skin. Her voice raised an octave. Then she slumped, unmoving.
I was aware of this through the spider’s web as I kept my eyes on the closest spider. It skittered from place to place, not getting any closer. As did the other two which had moved to surround me. Below the entirety of the swarm of spiders stopped moving. All except a small number of them, which began tapping the web repeatedly in a pattern. If I arranged it in my head, it almost appeared like a pulsing constellation.
“Hold on.” The dots were beginning to connect in my head. “How could you-”
Then there were four furry spider legs on my hand. My head snapped around to see the yellow spider on my entrapped limb, its fur bristling unnaturally. Energy arced between the legs and the hair on my arm stood on end. It discharged. I had the pleasure of perceiving an acute electric shock right before my body jumped and the world went black.
~~~
I woke up quietly. With my eyes still closed I sorted through the events I could remember just before going to sleep. Scratch that, before I blacked out, as well as the place I was waking up in. There was a sheet covering me, as well as a mattress and pillow underneath me. My clothes were unchanged, and that was all I could tell with my eyes closed.
There was someone moving around in the room with me. Considering the circumstances of my unconsciousness, I waited for the footsteps to move away from me before opening my eyes. The room was clinical, there were several machines around the bed I was lying in, though none of them were in use, and there was a curtain between me and most of the room.
Sitting up brought attention to bandages on my arm and neck. I absentmindedly pressed on one as I pushed the sheets off me with the other, wincing as pain flared from underneath the white bandage. Looking at it, I realised the bandage covered a long and thin portion of my skin, and wrapped loosely around the length of my arm.
As I was about to get off the bed, the curtain opened, revealing an older man with salt and pepper hair and a five o’clock shadow. He was wearing shorts and a shirt with a cartoon bunny on it, with a white coat over it.
“Hello M-” He cut himself off and checked over his shoulder, then closed the curtain behind him. “I’m Dr. Louis Grath. You were found knocked out and were taken here for treatment.”
His explanation made sense. “I figured.” I acknowledged, then stood. A sudden pain in my leg took me off guard as I put weight on it, and had to catch myself before I fell.
“Steady there. You should sit down.” He gestured to the bed. “We’ll do a check up, see what you need, if anything, then send you on your way. Turn your mask off while you’re at it.”
I shrugged and obliged. The doctor picked up a clipboard hanging from the foot of the bed.
“So: you have first degree burns on your arm and neck. Nothing too serious. We’ve applied some ointment and wrapped up the affected area. You’ll need to keep them on until tomorrow morning. After that, you can take them off and there shouldn’t be anything too visible left.”
“You make it seem like it’s going to scar.” I observed.
“It will.” Dr Louis confirmed without missing a beat. ”You were knocked unconscious by the shock of pain from electricity passing through your body and out into a spider’s web. I don’t entirely understand the phenomenon, it’s not my field of expertise. But I do understand how to treat it because it’s just a burn. Some ointment, bandages, and time. The first two have already been taken care of. Make sure you take painkillers if and when the pain flares up, and come see me again if it does. As for the burns, there will be visible scar tissue, but only under scrutiny. After six months, you might not even be able to pick it out in bad lighting.”
Louis paused, giving me some time to comprehend what he’d just told me.
“You’ve encountered this before.” I said. It made sense. The Sentry and Sentinel were constantly engaged in matters relating to supervillains. The likelihood that I was the first person to get done in this way was low by my take. I even had a reasonable guess as to which supervillain had been the one to set up the trap.
“Yes.” Dr Louis confirmed my suspicion. “The one responsible for the web, Spinnerette, has been active for just under two years. While this particular breed of spider was only first sighted six months ago, it’s quite an effective one. Most of the Sentrys have come through this infirmary because of it.”
“Hence the six months.” I commented with dark mirth.
“Indeed.” The corner of Dr Louis’ mouth curled a fraction.
Spinnerette had a unique status among the villains of Graceland. While each had their own claim to fame, or infamy as it were, none of them quite matched the creepiness of the Spinnerette. She appeared to have the ability to command a swarm of spiders that followed her around and obeyed her silent commands. If that weren’t enough, her personal swarm consisted of rare species that weren’t found anywhere else.
Consequently, Spinnerette was an internet sensation. When I was researching the superheroes and villains of the area, most of what I found were forums relating to her. Each with its own theory as to what her powers were. Each as preposterous and radical as the last, and ironically meant that despite there being a lot of coverage on the villain, there wasn’t much information I could consider reliable.
“What is Spinnerette’s power anyway?” This was the time to ask.
Dr Louis took a moment to think. “I think she’s down as a Smart Monarch in the database. Meaning she’s a psychic that can control other creatures.” He elaborated when I looked confused. “It explains how she can control the swarm. Though, that doesn’t explain the variety in spiders. I’m not the first to admit that we don’t know much.”
“Smart Monarch?” I echoed. It was a phrase I’d encountered several times in my research. But I hadn’t been able to pin down exactly what it meant.
“Part of the Metafore standard the Regulation uses to classify transhumans.” Dr Louis quickly rattled off. “You’ll become familiar with all that if you stick around. Anyway, we’re not done yet. You have multiple bruises covering your torso and arms, and I found blood above your ear. Putting that plaster there was a hassle when you still had your mask on.”
My ear was bleeding? I touched a hand to my ear to find nothing amiss. Then I moved above that to find yet another plaster.
“That makes me a concussion risk, right?” I checked.
“It puts you at risk of concussion.” Dr Louis technically corrected. “Look here.” He put the clipboard down and swiftly produced a light. He shined in my eye, then switched to the other. The checks done, he stowed everything away and returned to the clipboard.
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“You seem fine right now, but I’m going to advise you not to fall asleep before midnight tonight.” He noted, writing on the clipboard. “Get someone to watch you and don’t fall asleep if you feel queasy. Now for the symptom I haven’t seen before. Roll up your pants, right hand side only.”
Knowing what this was about, I pulled my pants up above my knee. What I saw made me suck in a breath through clenched teeth. The back half of my leg was a myriad of unhealthy colours that were beginning to spread around towards the front of limb.
“I’ve seen bruises before, but to be bruised to this extent is this way...” Dr Louis shook his head. “Can you explain how this happened?”
“Uh, sure.” I searched my memories of what happened. “It was Zipline. She got me twice. The first time she got me around the leg, so I pushed it down. It hit the floor and I walked away.”
“How hard did you push Zipline’s wire?”
“Very. She tried it again and I put her in the ceiling.”
“Hm. Normally strength of that calibre is coupled with durability.” Louis commented, completely brushing over my radical statement.
“No super strength here, just telekinesis.” I corrected.
“I see.” He pondered for a moment. “I’ve already done an examination, and didn’t find anything wrong with the bone. The rest seems fine as well. Tell me how bad this hurts.” He pressed down on my bruised skin.
“Ah!” I winced. “It hurts, but I’m not going to scream. You said you examined me. With an X-ray?”
“Yes.” Louis didn’t miss a beat. “This particular injury is not of lasting concern. Don’t go running for, let’s say three days and see how it feels. Try and avoid injuring it further, and you may find it in your best interest to wear long pants until this clears up.”
“Yup.” That last point was fine. Long pants were all I wore anyway.
“Though, that leads us to two bruises in the forms of rings around your arm and other leg.”
“Zipline got me again, and Cloud tackled me before I could get out.” I supplied, guessing where he was going.
“I suspected as much. You’ll likely find yourself wanting painkillers over the next few days, in which case you’ll want a prescription. Try walking around a little while I get one printed out for you. If it turns out to be something bad, we’ll do something about it. If not, booyah...” He gave a small fist pump and left the bedside, leaving me bemused by the dry humour of his closing statement.
Walking was fine after I got into it. There was a twinge of pain each time my injured leg lifted off the ground, but I’d walked places in more painful situations. I walked out into the infirmary proper to find three other beds, one of which was occupied. There were two exits from the room. One presumably lead to the rest of the tower, while Dr Louis’ office was through the other one. The man himself was just waiting for the printer to finish.
“Here.” He handed me the still warm prescription. “There’s an in house pharmacy on floor one. Take two when the pain becomes disruptive, but no more than four every eight hours. Oh, and make sure to take those bandages off before you head to school.”
“Got that. Thanks.” I stood there awkwardly. “So…”
“That’s right, you’re new.” A comforting expression crossed Dr Louis’ face. “Things here have to move quickly. So don’t expect too much bedside banter from me until you become bedridden. I can have up to four heroes in here at a time, and then more asking for all kinds of things, so it can be quite hectic in here. Today it was just you, Lucidity, and a request for painkillers from Satellite. Normally it’s worse than that. Now, I believe the rest of the Sentry are debriefing right now in the recreation room. Do you know where that is?”
“I’ve been there.” I answered, stressing the operative word.
Given that I didn’t know exactly where I was, Dr Louis gave me directions and sent me on my way. I wanted to say hi to Lucidity, but she was still knocked out. While I walked down the halls, I caught my reflection in one of the glass doors and realised my mask was off, which I quickly fixed. The mask I’d put on earlier in the day had still been active, which was a pleasant surprise. I had honestly thought that the mask would fail when I got knocked out, but it was good to know it didn’t. That meant it wouldn’t fail in the future.
There was an urge to drop the mask and inspect myself, which I resisted given I was in a public space. It wasn’t crowded, but I had spied a few men and women in smart clothes or combat gear as I made my way through the tower. That no one had seen my face so far was dumb luck. Soon enough I walked into the recreation room as the many superheroes there were standing up to leave.
The ones I recognised were Orcus and Zephyr, who were packing up reports at the head of the table. Collage, Slingshot, and Unshaken, who I found my eyes lingering on, were in an involved discussion. Mostly it was between Collage and Unshaken, with Slingshot only taking part when addressed. There was also Snowflake, now in costume, sitting near Muffle in the quiet space.
Her’s was a costume that was sleek and pale to the point where I couldn’t tell if it was white or very light blue. It was a one piece costume with plates of armour worked into the fabric, giving her a tougher air than she had out of costume, while still clearly showing a female shape. She also had a fur mantle over her shoulders, completing the look. There were a number of holes arranged in three vertical lines over her mouth and nose, and she had a visor that wasn’t that much different from Cloud’s. Above Snowflake was a small white cloud, swirling silently. Muffle nervously glanced at every now and then. I also recognised Voidling as they left through another door.
There was another hero I only caught a glimpse of that left ahead of Voidling. In addition to that there were four others still in the room. A young kid was sitting in the quiet space with Snowflake and Muffle. He was wearing an unzipped blue hoodie over a white shirt and had cargo pants that were a darker shade of blue than the hoodie. On top of that was a close fitting exoskeleton of intersecting metal that seemed to be part of each article of clothing he was wearing, and was attached to his metal helmet. The metal came to a point in two antennae that resembled pointed ears extending up and backwards from the head. Dr Louis had just mentioned him, he was Satellite.
At the table was another man in a close fitting yellow bodysuit. It covered everything except for the jaw and hands, which were wearing white fingerless gloves. The costume was very similar to Unshaken’s, although he didn’t have a jacket on and had a belt where Unshaked didn’t. There were two pale blue strips on each arm that started at the wrist, the turn backwards at the elbows, and his eyes were covered by similarly blue reflective lenses. There was another blue strip that started at each eye and made their way horizontally around his head, leaving the bridge between the eyes the yellow of the rest of the costume. He was Blinker, the Sentry I needed to establish good relations with the most. He was the captain of the Sentry.
Blinker was conversing with Orcus and Zephyr, as well as two other characters that were out of place, being the only ones not dressed up in a costume. There was a woman who looked around middle age. She had curly brown hair and was wearing a blue pencil dress, and had a white leather jacket hanging from her shoulders.
The last character was a man dressed in what must have been an expensive suit. The clothes were well fitted, yet the man carried himself with such confidence that even from across the room I got the impression he was dressing down today. Of the two, the man was considerably more engaged in the conversation with the heroes. The woman was leisurely glancing around the room, so she saw me as I entered and gave a pleasant smile. I responded in kind, realised my mask stopped anyone from seeing me do that, and then gave an awkward wave.
“Hey Placeholder!” Collage called from across the room.
“What happened to you?” I asked. The Sentry had left the conversation with Slingshot and Unshaken and cross the quiet space to reach me. Now that I’d taken a moment to really look at him, I could see there were a lot of torn pieces of what looked like… Paper? Hanging from parts of his body.
“Ran into a delivery for the printer.” Collage dismissively explained. The dots connected in my head.
“Oh, of course. Junk Mail.”
“You got it.”
Junk Mail had the ability to create matter from nothing in whatever shape he chose, with the stipulation that it had to be flat paper. Collage flicked his hand. “Though that’s nothing compared to what you went through I hear. Spiders in the elevator and ziplines gift wrapped in the ceiling. Who would’ve thought?”
“Who told you about that?” This question being my subtle way of finding out who had found me in the elevator.
“Whole buncha people.” Collage flippantly answered with a grin, then turned towards where the sentinels had gathered. “Oi Blinker! Rookie’s here when you’re ready.”
The hero in the yellow bodysuit looked towards us and nodded, then turned back.
“He’ll be a while I bet, Zephyr loves her pep talks.” Collage muttered, then slapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, I owe you an apology about the beam thing.”
“Oh yeah.” I answered sarcastically. “What’s with this change of heart? You seemed pretty unapologetic about it before.”
“Look, when you’re running headfirst into danger while blind, you catch up to a man who can wrap you up like a present with a thought, and then a twelve year old girl blows up your ears to chastise you for breaking a promise, you take a look at yourself.” Collage sighed wistfully. “Shame I went up against Junk Mail. He’s my perfect counter. I wanted to hit both friends and foes with that beam today, but I guess I’ll settle for just friends.”
“You have issues.” I said.
Collage shrugged. “You think you’re better?”
“...” I didn’t answer. It was telling.
“First rule of being a transhuman: Almost everyone is broken, and the ones who aren’t are huge cunts. Example: Meretha over there is the only one of us not in costume. The guy doesn’t count because he’s Theo Chastain, the regulation boss of this place. But Meretha had a positive manifestation, and so she runs the books and also each of us.”
“Why isn’t she in costume?”
“Didn’t get a power suited for fighting. She’s worse. She a whisper.”
This was getting annoying. “Are you going to explain the classification thing? I have no idea what a whisper is.”
Collage laughed. “All in good time. Head’s up. Here comes the best of us.”
Blinker was making his way towards us. He stepped over the threshold of the quiet space and gave me an up and down before speaking. Mostly it was down and less down, he had several inches over me.
“Hello rookie, welcome to the Sentry.” His speech was measured and he spoke with intent. It reminded me of Orcus. “Today has been as good an initiation I could hope for anyone. What do I call you?”
“Lockdown.” I recalled what Lucidity had been calling me while we were fighting Zipline and Cloud. “Actually, just Lock.” I amended. “I think it rolls off the tongue better.”
“That doesn’t seem to match your… demeanour.” Blinker commented.
“I was hoping you’d stick with Placeholder.” Collage stated.
“Ask Orcus about his experience with my power.” I told Blinker. “He’ll agree with me. Lock fits.”
“Well, Lock, I’m going to ask for your version of events today.”
“Easy enough.” And I began to recount a succinct version of events starting from my arrival in the tower.
“That’s enough.” Blinker stopped me when I started describing the spider charging up and clicked a device I hadn’t realised he’d been holding. He’d recorded the whole thing. “Thank you Lock. Given that you aren’t educated about our protocol for events such as this, I’ll be in charge of handling your report. I’m impressed that you were able to fend off Cloud while also under assault from Zipline. Even with Lucidity running interference, you performed well.”
“Yeah, normally rookies freeze up in their first fight. Ruins everything for everyone.” Collage gave his two cents. Blinker barely moved, but I could feel his attention shifting to the colourful guy next to me. The atmosphere around us was suddenly icy.
“Right. I’ve overstayed my welcome.” Collage followed up, and took the opportunity to leave.
What he had said was clearly a jibe directed at Blinker, but it struck true for me. The first time I’d been in a fight, I’d frozen up and been walked all over. There was no way I was letting that happen again.
Blinker watched Collage go. “You took some damage today.” He said distractedly. “Don’t come in tomorrow. I want you in here for basic training after school the day after.”
“Right, uh, gotcha.” I awkwardly got out.
Blinker abruptly vanished, leaving a person shaped burn in my vision and was suddenly across the room initiating a conversation with the two people not in costume. I blinked rapidly to clear my retinas. It wasn’t like I was blinded or anything, the light that had shone when Blinker flexed his power wasn’t that powerful it seemed. The impressive part was the distance he moved, while not actually moving at all. He wore the costume of someone with superspeed, but was actually a teleporter it seemed.
In any case I had effectively been dismissed, and promptly left the building. I stopped once by the pharmacy to pick up Louis’ prescription. Today had been absolutely filled with all kinds of crises, and now I had questions. Two questions resounded in my head above all others.
One being how I was going to explain this to Sofiya. The promise she had me make this morning had effectively been shattered. The second being what the hell the spiders meant while tapping out “JMcM” on a spiderweb that I wasn’t even technically able to see.