I cursed, struggling to hold her upright from the awkward position. We fell to the floor, crashing against the desk. It screeched as it skidded across the floor and my heart shot into my throat. I looked up to the door frozen but was met with silence. I glanced back down to Jess, the blood soaking into her mask spreading further.
“Jess? Jess?!” I whispered panicked. She didn’t respond. Shit. Oh shit. I looked around frantically. This was the worst possible scenario. I needed to get out of here now. But I couldn’t just leave Jess, could I? I mean I’d seen what was in those documents; if they caught her again they might even begin to experiment on her. And the fact that it referenced the Mulholland project? That was all I needed to know. But how the hell did I get out of this room with Jess?
No way I could reach the vents on the chair if I was trying to carry her. Dammit. I’d have to use the web shooter and somehow climb up. But what if someone came in. I shook my head. There was no point thinking about this.
With shaky hands I frantically wrestled a web shooter off her wrist and snapped it tight onto mine. I tried to fire a web, but my hands shook so badly I tapped the trigger and fired a glob of web up at the vent, a metal clang. Shit. I looked to the door, trying to be as silent as possible. Idiot. Come on get a fucking grip. I grabbed my right forearm with my left hand steadying it before firing a web up into the vent. I winced at the sound it made, but continued on anyway. I disconnected the first web and fired another up the vent, hands still shaking. As I tried to disconnect the second, hands still shaking I tripled tapped the trigger rather than double tapping it and shot upwards, pulled by my wrist. I let out a small gasp and with a quick double tap instantly cut the web off and I fell back down, landing awkwardly, rolling and smashing my head against the table.
The sound of the books crashing to the floor made me jump, nearly loosing a scream. I sat up quickly, looking to the door, then turning to Jess. Half the boxes had fallen to the floor, spilling tons of documents and papers across the floor, some a top Jess. Crap. I scrambled to her, checking her over. She was fine. Except for the bloody nose and the fact that she was completely unresponsive, she was fine. I looked to the ceiling. Ok. I could do this. It might be a bot risky, but at this point I just wanted to get out of here. Quickly I grabbed up the masks, stuffing them into my pockets.
Then I fired the web up at the vent and grabbed a hold of Jess. This would be faster. With a triple tap the web retracted, and we lurched upwards, crashing into the vent with a thud. I winced but held Jess and steadied myself. Slowly pushing Jess aside, I reached down and lifted the vent back up securing it.
Ok. I somewhat remembered the way back to the bathroom. I could get us there. I could. I put my arms under. And shimmied backwards, trying to make as little noise as possible. As I shuffled backwards through the vent I couldn’t, help but think about how absurd this situation was. I definitely wasn’t getting home before Ms Stone called Dad. Jess groaned suddenly, shifting under my grip.
“Jess? Jess?” I said. She didn’t respond, only looking up to me before slumping back down again. Crap. I shook my head. I could deal with that later, right now I had to focus on getting us out of here.
Finally, I reached the vent over the bathroom. I pushed open the vent then awkwardly shimmied out, balancing against the wall. My feet went out from under me and I fell, crashing to the ground with Jess landing atop me.
Ow. Ow, ow, ow. That hurt. That really hurt.
“Hey! I heard that! Are you two gonna come out now or what?” a gruff voice shouted on the other side of the door. Crap,
“Give us a sec”
“Give us a sec my ass! You’ve been in there five minutes!” the voice shouted. I ignored them, standing and taking in Jess. I needed to wake her up. I pulled the mask from her face, then wiped the blood off with tissues.
“Jess? Jess?” I said, shaking her. Nothing. I rushed over to the tap, cupped cold water in my hands and splashed it across her face.
She awoke with a start, gasping. Thank god.
“Hey! Hey! You two will be banned from here for this you know?!”
Jess looked around confused.
“You passed out. I brought us back. Dry your face”
“Wait we have to go back”
“We can just wait round the back, at the parking lot for Bella or whatever. They heard us, we need to go”
“I- ok” she said, blinking water out of her eyes.
I stood up, wincing slightly, then opened the door. An extremely angry security guard and Eric stood outside.
“S-sorry” I said laughing awkwardly.
“Damn right you’ll be sorry” the security guard said dragging me and Jess out the toilet. “Don’t try to make excuses, we’ve already called the police. The two of you are about to have a very very long evening”
-
We sat in an alley way in the middle of Brooklyn, dejected. They’d escorted us to the main entrance and were going to take our names, ban us permanently for inappropriate activities and keeping us in holding till the police got there. Fortunately, we’d been able to run whilst waiting for the head security guy to come, thanks to Jess kicking our guard in the balls. Unfortunately, security would probably recognise our faces and we’d likely never be allowed back in.
Still, we hadn’t left empty handed. We had the dossier. Sure it wasn’t Spider-Man, but it felt like a catch just as big. Glancing down at it, I shuddered. It felt ridiculously heavy in my hands, but Jess had told me to keep it because it had been hurting her head. She sat next to me massaging her temples. She’d been mostly silently since we’d left Alchemax. Well, I had said much either. Neither of us knew what to do.
I opened to the first page, seeing the pictures and names of the all the scientists. The list was long. At least thirty names. But there were three under assistant leads and two under project leads. Dr Giovanni Samuels, Dr Lauren Pearson, and Dr Kieran Henly. I pulled out my phone. I might as well do something. I searched up their names. Just their staff pictures on the Alchemax website. Nothing about the project under work.
I looked to the lead scientists. Dr Jack Kale and Dr Otto Octavius.
I searched there names. Jack Kale? Nothing. His name wasn’t coming up anywhere, not even for Alchemax. Just some random twitter account and some news article about a math genius. Weird. What about Dr Otto Octavius? I paused at the search results. He was a respected scientist. A really respectable scientist? What the hell? Why would he do something like this? Maybe Dr Kale had always been involved in criminal circles, but Dr Octavius was supposedly a household name in the biology world. Holy shit he was one of the founders of Oscorp? This didn’t make any sense. I scrolled, all news stories about him dated back to 2023 when he’d been fired from Oscorp. Interesting.
The nokia buzzed in my bag, and Jess flinched turning to me.
“Sorry. It’s probably my Dad”
“Two phones?”
“Ah, technically I’m grounded. I shouldn’t have my regular phone, so the Nokia’s a replacement” I said. I turned back to my phone, frowning. The normalness of the conversation felt out of place. I glanced back to Jess.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“You ok?” I asked. She furrowed her brow then looked to me.
“I don’t know.”
“Well… not to be weird, but if you ever need someone to talk to or something I could get you a burner phone or something and we could… talk”
“Thanks” she mumbled, nodding to herself. I turned back to the document and furrowed my brow. This was enough waiting around.
“Ok, what now? Do we go to the police or d-”
Suddenly her eyes widened. She grabbed the document from me and began tearing the card folder.
“What the hell?!”
She ignored me and then stopped, before pulling out a piece of wire connected to a small chip. She crushed the chip in hand and cursed.
“Dammit! I don’t know how I didn’t sense it before. We need to go. Now”
“What? What was that?”
“It had to be some kind of tracker. No way they let research like this just get stolen. It probably wasn’t even supposed to be in that room”
My body grew cold.
“Yu? We have to move. Quick”
I didn’t wait for her to say more, moving away from our spot as quickly as I could. I looked around, instantly paranoid again as Jess stepped next to me, pulling on a mask and throwing up her hood.
“Wait, let’s go high. Get on a roof or something. You put on the mask and I’ll cover my face”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you”
“Why? Can’t we just hide? Or go to the police?”
“No way. They’ll get us before we even make it halfway” she said, her face suddenly darkening.
“What? How do you know that?”
“If they’ve sent someone they’ve probably checked the CCTV. Mr Banks was a cheapskate, so I doubt it’s good enough to catch our faces clearly, but they’ll recognise our clothes. If you want to go off alone, go. But you’ll be dead in an hour”
“Shit. Can’t we just change clothes or something? I’ve got… twenty dollars?”
She turned to me, glaring. I stepped back, surprised. What was with the sudden shift in personality? I shook my head. She was probably just angry I was being stupid.
“Ok. That was stupid. But I’m just- there has to be a different way right?” I said.
“No. If it’s who I think it is, this is my chance to take him out. I want to see him before he sees me”
I blinked staring at her. What? She wanted to fight? No, take out sounded more sinister.
“Kill him?”
“If it comes to it”
“…but Spider-Man doesn’t kill”
“I’m not Spider-Man” she said, staring at me with cold eyes.
I stopped walking for a second and she grabbed me, dragging me forwards.
“I’m not dying because you fucked things up for me” she snarled, her grip like iron. In that moment she didn’t look like a regular fourteen-year-old, she looked dangerous. It felt like she was completely different from before, like something had shifted after whatever had happened back at Alchemax. Or maybe she’d always been like this. I’d been overly friendly because she’d been Spider-Man’s clone, but I didn’t know her. I didn’t know her at all.
“This one” Jess said, looking up. I didn’t argue.
We stopped, turning into an alley before making our way up a fire escape. I took the mask out of my bag pulling it on, and Jess covered the lower part of her face in web. Quickly we reached the roof of the building. I looked around at the open sky, feeling uneasy. Was this really the right decision? No. No it wasn’t.
“Hey I think we shoul-”
Jess turned suddenly and I froze in fear. A manhole cover flew up, crashing against the lip of the building beside the alley we’d been in a few moments ago.
“Shit” I mumbled. She’d been right. People cried out as it crashed down into the street and then a tall hulking figure of metallic green stepped out. Instantly I crouched down, breathing heavily. Scorpion. He was out for me, for us. Something slapped against my back and I jerked to the side.
“Hold these” Jess said, dropping the document into my lap. Then she ran, jumping from the edge of the building and firing a web.
I scrambled up, peering over the edge of the building as Jess slammed into the Scorpion with an inhumane screech. They slammed into the floor and began battling it out in the middle of the street. I pulled away from the edge of the building pressing myself to the floor as people screamed. Crap. Holy crap. I needed to get away from here. I needed to get as far away as I possibly could.
But Jess said, they knew what my clothes looked like. Shit. Had my stupidity finally caught up with me? No. She’d probably said it just to scare me. To stop me from running off, so she could hand me the documents and fight Scorpion. I could get down and run away. I'd be fine. I felt the street shudder as people screamed. Jesus. People were dying down there. They had to be.
I gripped my head tightly, trying not to panic. I couldn’t understand it. Even if she wasn’t Spider-Man, she was a Spider-Man clone. She had his memories. Just because he was scared Spider-Man wouldn’t just go out and fight to kill with no regard for people’s safety. Was it some mix of other memories or something else? I mean she’d been created as a metahuman clone in some kind of army, what if there was some trigger that set her to kill mode? I shook my head. I was just think stupidly. Right now it didn’t really matter why, it was happening. The building shook and I gripped the floor tighter, shaking. I glanced back over the edge of the building to see a car go flying and crash into a building. Shit. I couldn’t go down there. I’d die. But I couldn’t just do nothing. I mean I had a web-shooter, and the mask on right now. I could save people and it didn't seem like anyone else was going to. I cursed and leapt up, looking down to the streets. People were all fleeing in one direction, the fight still at the far end of the road. I spotted the car that had been thrown and quickly fired webs, extinguishing the fires on it. I continued looking around. Shit, what else could I do?
Suddenly something shot past and slammed into the building next to me. I glanced down. Jess lay unconscious, half hanging out of the front window. I turned down the road to see Scorpion leap closer, teeth bared as he began to jump from building to building. Holy shit!
I fired bursts of web repeatedly at Scorpion, covering his face. He roared out in anger. I was slowing him down, but Jess still hung from the window, unresponsive as he grew closer. If he got to me he’d kill me, and then he’d kill Jess. I had to get to her to wake up before he got to me. But how? I couldn’t run away from Scorpion. I froze. I could. But I’d need to swing. It was the only way to cover the gap from building to building.
I looked to Jess, then to Scorpion’s face as he ripped the last piece of web off. I fried another burst at him, then turned running for far end of the building.
“Shit!” I cried leaping from the edge. I fired a short web out to the building next to me and was instantly jerked to the side. Screaming loudly, I held the web with a firm grip, kicking frantically at the wall as I raced along it, the street dangerously far beneath. I grabbed Jess’ limp body, and with my heart in my mouth, let go of my first web and fired another. It shot out and latched onto the next building.
I swung less controlled this time with Jess’ added weight. But still, heart in my mouth, I swung. I double tapped and fired again. The force on my arm was ridiculous and the webs were barely two metres long. I wouldn’t be able to keep this up. I looked behind me, seeing Scorpion near, then looked down to Jess.
“Wake up!” I cried.
Scorpion leaped, to the building behind us, roaring as his claws cut through the brick.
“Wake up!!!”
Scorpion screeched out one final time, leaping towards us with a roar.
“WAKE UP DAMMIT!!”
Then, in the blink of an eye Jess was gone. Pain lanced through my shoulder, and then air shook with fury. I felt my hand slip from the web in surprise and I fell crying out. I fired another web upwards I managed to catch the top of a building and slowed, holding on for dear life. With a quick triple tap I shot upwards toward the roof. I grabbed onto the roofs edge and quickly pulled myself up with one arm, rolling onto the safety of the roof.
I let out quick breathes, tears in my eyes as I shook, adrenaline pumping so furiously around my body I could barely breathe. My left arm was done for. Dislocated. I clutched at it, gasping as I tried to hold back my tears Then the building shook. I cried out, gripping the concrete tightly, as screams echoed out from below. The shaking stopped and I hesitated but moved towards the edge, looking out below. My eyes widened. Part of the street below had imploded, falling into the sewers. Cars had been sprayed with pieces of debris some large and some small, but nonetheless everywhere. People cried out, screaming as they ran from the wreck. And then Jess and Scorpion emerged, battling it out with an impossible speeds and power.
I watched in awe as Jess dodged and weaved stabs and slashes from Scorpion with lightning reflexes before landing tremendous blows across his armour. Scorpion tanked the blows, seemingly unimpeded by the dents forming in his armour as blood sprayed from his mouth, twisted in a unhinged grin. And then the ground beneath them collapsed, more of the street falling into the sewers along with now empty cars. I watched for a second, waiting with bated breathed, before Jess emerged, web still covering her face. She looked around eyes wide then quickly fired a web searching around frantically. I stood, wincing but raised my arm waving for her. She spotted me and jumped up, pulling herself over with a web.
She landed on the side of the roof, and clambered over, hands shaking.
“A-are you okay?” she asked, stepping forward.
I walked over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“What the hell was that?! What the hell did you just do?!” I shouted. She blinked at me, eyes wide and .
“I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking straight”
“What? You just… you just killed a ton of people” I said, pulling away from her. She went to say something, then stumbled, clutching her side. I steadied her as she fell to one knee.
“I’m… sorry” she wheezed.
I didn’t say anything, gritting my teeth tightly as a bunch of emotions washed over me. She was out of control and dangerous, but I couldn’t just leave her here. I couldn’t just go home. I needed to end whatever the hell this situation had become before it got even more out of control. And first I needed to get these documents to the police.