Ghost Spider: Origins

Chapter 1: Friendly Neighborhood Gwen Stacy

Gwen closed her lap top and leaned back in her chair. Finally she was done with her bio-engineering homework. Her class was currently studying the behavior of chemically altered arachnids. In the small glass box on her desk was a living spider that had been subject to small doses of radioactive chemicals at school.

She looked out her dorm window. The sky was darkening behind the silhouette of the New York skyline.

Gwen got up from her desk chair and laid down on top of her bed, her long blonde hair fanning out around her head.

She was so tired, but she couldn't slow down. She was lucky to be there at all. At eighteen, she was starting her first semester at Oxford and continuing her ballet training at one of the best and most demanding studios in the country. She honestly didn't know how she had gotten accepted. Sure, she had impeccable grades and test scores, but so did almost everyone else who had applied. The only thing that separated her from the herd was her essay.

The previous spring, Gwen's father, Officer Stacy, had been killed while on duty. She hadn't really allowed herself to mourn. Instead she threw herself into her studies and training. She improved so much in her ballet classes that her teachers had come to her about pursuing a dancing career, but she had her mind set on Oxford. It's where her dad had wanted to go before he decided to be a cop, and there she could learn what she needed to make sure no one else would get hurt as far as she was concerned, hence the bio-engineering homework.

Gwen assumed she had been admitted into the university based mainly on her essay about her dad. How he inspired her to be her best self in order to help and protect others. Her mourning process- how she loved dance because it gave her a chance to forget her pain for a moment. It was just a few moments where there was nothing but her striving to control every inch of her being.

Gwen got up and headed to her bathroom. She needed to shower tonight because she had ballet rehearsal in the morning before school. She started the shower and then went back into her room to gather her things.

She had just collected the last of her bathroom products when she saw an unusual flash of light out of her window. She set her things down and walked over to get a better view.

The window shattered into a million shards as the bomb struck the building, sending Gwen sailing backwards and smacking her head against the floor.