A Web's Embrace

Training Day

The day went by fast that it became 5pm already, signifying that 'class' is over and we need to head back to our dorms but for me, I'll be training with Y/N later. I was so excited while packing my things before I leave Hawks' agency.

"Hey kid!" he called out "Sorry to burst your bubble but Spiderwoman just sent a text that she had a sudden errand to run tonight" my heart kind of sank from the sudden change of schedule. "She was wondering if you're free Saturday morning" he continued. I nodded to his question which he then text back to Y/N.

He then hands me a post-it note, "Details of Y/N, her number, where you can stalk her-"

"Hawks!??" he just laughed at my reaction. We then hear a ping from his phone which he then checks , "She says: 'Great! Meet up at the tallest tower you can climb'. Sounds like you have to climb before you meet her" I nodded and bowed in thanks for letting him be my point-person to Y/N for today. I'll be sending her a message later so she can take note of my number.

I gathered my things and left Hawks' agency with Tokoyami.

- - -

[Saturday 7:00am]

My alarm clock in my phone started to ring, I set an hour earlier since my classmates wake up at around 8 am during the weekends. Upon stretching my arms, I grabbed my phone and inputted Y/N's number, I then typed: 'Hello, this is Shoji' and hit send. After a few seconds it my phone pinged, Text: 'Noted. Remember meet up at the tallest tower'.

She didn't send any time on when to meet up but I just assume that after I eat breakfast I have to leave the dorm. I just jumped out of bed and stretched further my arms, I head towards the boy's bathroom to wash my face.

I head outside of the dorm and started jogging out of campus.

- - -

While I was in the train station to go to the heart of city, my phone then buzzed. I opened the text message from Y/N: 'Tick Tock hon, where u at?'
'Train station going to city'
'4 real? I thought u'd be running' , I didn't thought that I need to run from school to the city...she IS going to train me. Even though my mouth is covered I still covered my mouth on trying not to make myself smile from this excitement and happiness going through me right now.
. . .
As soon as I got out of the train, I started to jog through the streets seeing which of these buildings is the highest, then I saw it. Luckily the side of the building has an emergency staircase, I was trying to reach the end of the ladder but I'm still a few feet short, I thought to myself...maybe I should do a bit of a parkour, good thing the walls of this building and the building next to it is close enough. I started at the wall of the other then dashed towards the building with the emergency staircase, I did my best to jump as high as possible, landing on the wall then jumping back to the other building, then back to the other to reach the ladder.

I failed on the first attempt that I hit my face on the other building. I did it again, and again, and again,....and again...until I extended a tentacle and coiled it around the ladder as soon as I got close to it, now I'm dangling from the ladder. Due to my weight, the ladder suddenly unlatches from its locks and zoomed towards the ground, luckily I climbed up enough that my legs weren't going to get crushed by the sudden impact.

. . .

I reached the roof and saw that Y/N isn't there, I grabbed my phone and called her number, the phone then rings...she picks up. "HEY!" she yelled through the phone along with this like...roaring sound in the background, "WHERE ARE YOU!?" she asked.
"on the tallest tower?"
"What landmark?" Landmark..?
"Just a building-" she cuts me off, "Oh hon, that ain't the highest, I can see you as a speck from where I'm at!" ...me as a speck? "What did I say the other day?" she asked
"Meet at the tallest...tower" she was pertaining on an actual tower..., "Ya have a hint on where I'm at hon?" I turned my head to look for the tower, I just noticed that the clouds were becoming gray...it'll rain soon. "Where...am I...at hon?" she asked again slowly, probably thinking that she's choppy on my end.
"You're at Tokyo Tower..."
"BINGO! 330m of Paris-like beauty!" I couldn't breath from the sight of that tower... "From where you at right now...I'd say...I'd give ya 20 mins to come here. If not...training's over hon..so! Your time starts n-" even before she finishes her sentence, she ends the call. She's really seriously on this...

- - -

I was jogging towards the tower as if my life depended on it. I was sweating like crazy! I checked and saw that there's about 7 mins. left. I was starting to see a small black dot on top of the tower, it was moving...it's her. I forced myself to do a sprint after every 20 steps I made.

I'm not at the foot of the tower and started to climb, I was using all of my tentacles to climb on the tower's bars but I'm still slow. I checked the time, "3 mins......ahhhhHHHHH!!!!", per tentacle I tried to create another, then another, trying to triple my pacing on climbing this thing. "Almost...there..." I was already near the edge of the 'viewing' part of the tower when...beep beep, beep beep, beep beep...my watch beeped...indicating that I had failed...I sigh out, trying to lessen some adrenaline out of my system, "Now I'll never improve..."

"Don't ever say that word in front of me"

I almost fell from the tower when I got startled by Y/N who was leaning over the bar, "You're just a few seconds late...now you're gonna give up?" I was just staring at her, "Aspiring to be a hero yet you're here...sulking over being late?" there was silence between us along with wind blowing pass through my hair and hers. "I'll give you the reality of what every hero will face at some point in their missions...we can't save everyone" my eyes widened from that realization "But that doesn't mean we stopped being heroes..." she rests her chin on the bar and lets out a heavy sigh "so...what you gonna do now hon?" Y/N asks.

. . .

I continued to climb up..., I see her starting to grin, "Good boy" was the last thing I heard as I pulled myself over the bars and flop down on the ground like a dead fish, gasping for air. She looked down on me, her shadow shielding me from the sun's light which were hurting my eyes, then drops a towel on my face, "You sweat a lot...eww". After I wiped my face, I was thinking of handing it back to her since...it's not mine, but before I did "Keep. It." she said firmly as if she knew what I was thinking.

"Stand up for me please" and so I did. She then circles around me, checking for something. She stops, "Pose for me please?" I gave her a questioned look, "Battle Pose, the stance you do before attacking an enemy". I opened my arms and stretched them as far as possible, the tension in my webs - extra skin between each arms - makes me look more intimidating. She circles around me once more then walked away from me by a few feet then stops, she crosses two of her arms, then another reaches towards me, "Reach me without moving out of that circle" I checked the ground in which she points to and saw that there was a circle drawn around me...how'd she do that...

I extended my arms at the most they can do, then 'added' tentacles at the end, then again, and again, until I was near to reaching her when spikes suddenly came out of her arm and slice one of my tentacles. "Ah!" it stung a bit which made me retract my arm and wait for it to regenerate. "Too slow!" she shouted from her spot, "Again!"

...Battle Pose...she wants me to attack her. A thunder then roared afar, it's going to rain...

I breathe in as much as I can and... "Ahhhh!!!" all of my tentacles start to extend towards her, I am still in my spot, two changing into hands, the other two changing into eyes, and the last two into spikes. I strike the spikes first which she manages to dodge by jumping into the air and landing on them, making them pierce into the ground. "I'm still in my same spot hon!" she chops off those arms but I managed to regenerate them fast enough to make new spikes and strike at her again. Y/N's widen, I crossed my arms, making the spikes attack from both her left and right side. She had a split second to dodge, and did it by bending backwards...such flexibility.

I hear her sigh out of relief then chuckles, "You almost got me there!". I got an opening, I strike my hands towards her legs but Y/N then was able to spring back up from the ground and crosses all her arms, my hands were able to grab all of them but she let out her spikes which then pierced through my hands. "Ow!" She let loose two of her arms just in time to parry the two spikes that were coming at her, all of her arms are in use, it's my chance...I changed my other two arms that were eyes into spikes then swung them towards her.

Lightning then struck, covering our battle field with flashy lights for a few seconds, when I was able to focus my gaze on her again...she had another set of appendages that pinned my other spikes to the ground. I see her smirk shinning from her shadowed face. The spikes that were pinned down...I couldn't feel them!

I did my best to lift them but they don't seem to follow, my spikes were becoming gray and it was crawling towards me, another flash of lightning and I saw Y/N that seemed to have pounced towards me with her spikes bared out. She sends a clean cut on my arm that was turning gray, with her momentum, she pushed me off balance making me stumble towards the bars and....fall off it.

I lost...