Chronicles of the Spider

The Accident

15 Years Ago

Earth Prime

Josh Spaken woke slowly. He was lying on the ground on one side of the radiation chamber. He looked around and noticed his friends lying on the ground around him. He urged his brain to snap out of its daze to remember what happened.

The radiation chamber was located at the bottom of the lab. It was underneath the earth, deep underground to prevent the radiation from escaping. It was built to act as a last resort in the case of an accident in the particle accelerator.

Josh dimly remembered the last memories before he lost consciousness. He, Kim Landry, her younger brother Sam, and Toby Keller had all rushed downstairs to halt the accelerator when they noticed some curious readings in the system. Jeff, Josh's father, had been quite worried. The accelerator was more unstable than they had ever predicted, and some external factor had interfered. Josh suspected that it was a hacker, and the very thought made him burn with rage. Someone had interfered in his father's life's work to sabotage it. Someone would pay.

He felt something weird, and that's when he noticed it. His hand was grasping the door handle. That itself wouldn't have been a problem, but he was across the room from the door, slumped against the opposite wall. His eyes widened as he noticed his arm had extended further than it had any right to. He let go of the door and moved his hand to the other arm. With a little bit of effort, he gasped in horror as his other arm lengthened as well.

Looking around again, he noticed Toby, his best friend, buried under some rocks. It appeared that the impact against the wall had broken even the strengthened radiation chamber, and dirt was leaking in from outside. He watched as Toby seemed to be consumed by the rock around him.

"Toby!" he screamed, rushing towards the site. His arms flapped uselessly around him, but without his noticing, they shrunk back down to regular size, allowing him to dig through the rubble. "Toby! Can you hear me!"

There was a large groan, and the entire rocky mass shifted. Josh jumped backwards in fright when the rock seemed to be standing up. It was twice as large as he was, and he wasn't a small man.

"Josh?" a deep voice asked.

"Toby?" Josh gasped. "Where are you?"

"What're you talkin' about? This is me!" he declared, before one of the rocky extensions moved to touch his chest. "WHAT! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!"

"Toby," Josh soothed in a forcibly calm voice. "Calm down, alright? We'll figure it out."

While Toby took a few moments to gather himself, Josh looked at his other friends. He screamed when his eyes caught sight of them. Sam Landry was on fire. He could hear him groaning and waking up, but his entire body seemed to be caught aflame. Kim Landry, Josh's other friend (and crush, though he'd never admit it) was drifting in and out of sight. Different parts of her body were turning invisible, leading to some gruesome sights, like her brain and muscles being clearly shown, despite the skin they still had on top of them.

After they both woke up, Josh resumed calming them down. It was essential that they get out of this alive, and that was what he explained to them slowly. After a while, they all seemed to understand that they couldn't afford to panic, and so they calmed down. Sam was able to control his flames, and experimented with turning them on and off. Kim, too, was slowly turning herself invisible and back, looking at her arms in horror as they faded from sight. Toby, meanwhile, was sitting on the floor, completely defeated. Josh managed to open the door, leading all four of them through the halls.

The lab was completely wrecked. There was no power, and sparks flew everywhere. The four of them stumbled through the destroyed laboratory, finding injured people lying unconscious everywhere. A woman was impaled by a piece of rebar, and Kim rushed to help her.