Spider-Gwen || Caught in a Web

Walkthrough || Gwen Stacy

"I have scaled these city walls, these city walls, only to be with you"

-I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, U2

Smile... don't. Stop. Smiling.

Gwen Stacy kept her lips curled and her eyes attentive as she followed the small crowd, clutching the packet given to her by Oscorp employees upon arriving at the main building. This was the first step towards the beginning of her dream... a career pushing the limits of her mind and science in unison. She could hardly keep herself from outright shaking in excitement-but the pressure to capitalize on this moment kept her still, even if she was geeking out on the inside.

After years of fighting for excellent grades, making connections with people in the city's scientific community, and waiting for this walkthrough of Oscorp's main building, Gwen was finally here-it was really happening!!

"Now, you should all pay close attention to this section-we're containing several of our latest developments in this laboratory." The Oscorp tour guide said, scanning her card and causing the laboratory door to click as it unlocked itself. "If you came here looking for inspiration, this is the room for you!"

Oh, man... after hearing that, Gwen wasn't smiling to fake composure anymore. 

As she entered the lab, her eyes drinking in the rows of indescribably ingenious, wacky, and incredible projects still being developed, Gwen could almost imagine a choir of angels singing in the background. Oscorp really had it all... and she could only assume that this was a very, very tempered down picture of what all they were really working on. And she had a shot to be a part of this.

"Now, I know that most of you are probably interested in seeing Dr. Curtis Connors's groundbreaking serum he developed with our scientists..." The tour guide spoke, making Gwen snap out of her science daydreaming and pay attention. "...But we also wanted you to see some of our lesser-known projects while you were here as well!"

Gwen took her time observing everything-she saw several devices with wires jutting out everywhere that she could only assume were next-generation energy generators, scientists testing out neural implants that were transmitting basic movement orders to androids, and much more-projects that went beyond technology and mechanics and involved organic material.

One of them stood out to her... she stopped and tilted her head as she saw one glass case with something dark inside. Gwen made her way closer, beginning to see the object much more clearly-something black and oozy, slowly slithering around every corner of the glass case in a rather mindless fashion. As she studied its movements, she saw someone approaching out of the corner of her eye-Gwen looked up, and smiled upon recognizing who it was.

"Pete, what are you doing??" Gwen asked in a hushed voice. "Aren't you supposed to be helping somewhere-" "I had time to sneak away for a while." Peter Parker answered with a chuckle, flashing a smile at Gwen. "You want to know what that thing is?" He asked, and Gwen nodded at first, then paused. "Wait, Pete..." She began to frown, noticing a small cut on Peter's chin-some bruising was visible on his neck and under his left eye. "...Flash? Again??" Gwen asked, outrage evident in her voice even as she kept her tone low.

"No, Gwen-" Peter said, trying to dismiss what she was saying, but the blonde knew better. She'd thought that her friend group had dealt with Flash Thompson's antics for the last time after she'd knocked his teeth out at the food fight, but this seemed like his doing. "-Just... I don't... I don't want to talk about it." Peter sighed, but Gwen shook her head. "No, Pete-he can't just keep doing this to you!! I thought I'd given him a taste of his own medicine-" "Gwen." Peter cut her off, his eyes meeting hers, with an oddly stern look in them. He didn't want to talk about it.