Unstoppable Spiderlings

Episode 6: Aqua Spider

"Give me the heat! Uh-uh-uh, step right up just to get knocked off your feet! I wanna-wanna-take your shoulders and... daaaance, honey!" Julia sings in the cafeteria, not really caring about the other people around her. She has her black and red headphones on, bobbing her head to the beat as she looks at her computer. "Gimme, gimme, woaaaah!" She slides her finger across the table as if she was being a DJ.

There are a few clicks on the keyboard before she pulls up a blank document, scrolling the assignment over to the side so she can still read the directions. Blocking the music to the back of her mind, she reads out loud, "Write about a time in your life where you truly felt yourself. Describe what obstacles were keeping you from feeling this way and how you overcame them. Be detailed, but remember this is a fun assignment. Minimum of seven pages - due at the end of the semester. Wow, seriously? Seven?"

She decides that school is rigged, but knows she has to complete the assignment anyway so she doesn't end everything with a bad grade she can't fix later. Tapping her fingernail on her chin and staring at the blank document, she finds the right word to start off with and hovers her finger over the letter "T" on the keyboard. Suddenly, her spider sense goes off and she jumps as she turns around only to be tackled by one of her best friends. "AHH! G-Gwen, you scared me!"

"Ha ha! Mission successful!" the girl, Gwen, says, sliding off of Julia's lap. "You looked like you were in the zone so much I'm surprised you even turned around!"

"Yeah..." she chuckles nervously, not being able to explain her spider sense. "Must have gotten lucky. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I saw you through the window and wanted to apologize for not helping you move in. We had everything planned out and it was so dumb-"

"It's alright, girl. Maria and I were able to handle it ourselves, and some of the movers stayed back to help us with the heavier stuff," she lies, knowing that if she told Gwen the truth then she might think it weird the two girls were able to carry everything in themselves.

"That's nice of them! I bet you were starving afterward," Gwen says, sitting in the seat across from her and stealing one of her fries.

"We were, oh my goodness. We went to this new restaurant on campus to try it out, but then it was kind of destroyed by a giant piece of road," Julia explains.

"No way, you mean the Rhino fight? I saw it on the news; don't tell me you were in the square when that happened!" Gwen yells in a scolding tone.

"We were, just Maria and I. We stayed there and got people to safety, but we couldn't get everyone because of how badly Rhino trapped people from the debris he threw around."

"You two are going to give me a heart attack someday. It's bad enough my dad has to be there in the midst of all the action," Gwen says gloomily, looking down at her lap.

That's right, Gwen's dad is head of the NYPD and is usually the one who first jumps into the scene whenever us Spiderlings make a mess. I remember meeting him once, and he was really nice, Julia thinks to herself. She thinks of something to say quickly to make her friend feel better. "Well, the bad guys are usually aiming their fists at the Spiderlings anyway. Your dad has more backup than you think.

"You're right. Thank goodness Emmy Spider was able to outmatch that monster! He was so scary, mostly because of how strong he looked," Gwen says with a shiver.

"Eh, he wasn't that bad. Up close, those guys are just regular people if you think about it. But, there sure are a lot of them popping up around the city lately..." Julia contemplates that last part. It does seem a bit strange to her that more and more powerful villains are showing their faces. Why now? What kick-started this whole conundrum in the first place? First Jackal, then the Enforcers, the Rhino, and then I hear about this guy taking on Ollie yesterday. Maybe they're all linked, but my brain is too overheated to think of how.