Spiderman Legacy

Chapter 5

      Peter sat, solemn, on his living-room sofa. Snacks and empty soda cans lay in disarray across the living room floor, Pete having just waved the other three out the door, promising to meet them at the blood lab. He needed time to think. He looked up at the dark TV screen across from him, his reflection showing distorted in the shadowy world that image portrayed. He thought back to last night. When he was telling his mom about all the stuff with spiders and Norman Osborn. She'd been... dodgy. At best. She didn't share many secrets, but it was still fairly easy to tell when she was hiding one. So what was it? What about Spiderman and the origin of his powers did Mayday Rogers not want her son to know? And was it connected to the strange abnormalities in the Spider-Formula? What was happening? Why didn't anything make sense?               Pete sighed and started cleaning up the mess on the floor, scooping cheese balls into a bowl and chips into empty bags. He tossed them in the trash nearby, and stood, stooping to grab a can he'd missed. He went to toss it in the garbage, but when he let go, it didn't drop. The cool, smooth metal didn't part from the skin of his hand as it should have, due to gravity. Pete turned his hand, curiously, inspecting the can. He didn't feel any sticky soda on the outside, just the smooth, bent aluminum. He tried to drop it again, but it stuck once more. "Wha...?"                                      He shook his hand, then tried to pry it off. His other hand stuck, and he tried desperately to separate himself from the can, pulling and wiggling, till suddenly the can tore in half. Pete didn't even feel the resistance as it happened; it was just like pulling a tuft of cotton apart. Easier. He stared back and forth at the halves of the aluminum can stuck to his hands, bewildered, confused, scared... What was happening to him? What did this mean?                                                                 The two scraps dropped from his hands, and he turned about quickly, rushing for the door. His mom appeared in the entrance to the front room, stopping him promptly. "Well, you're in a rush." Pete nodded shakenly and glanced at his watch. "I-I'm, uh, late." He brushed past his mom, who tossed out an admonition to drive safe, then stood in silence for several seconds, thoughtful.                                                                                                                                                                                        She strode into the living room, purposefully walking to the garbage and peering inside. She grabbed out the two pieces of aluminum and looked them over. The metal had been stretched, not torn. Like someone had pulled it with such tremendous force that it had separated, leaving wisps of aluminum along the edges. And the sides of the halves were elongated, small beveled bumps stretching from the can in the shape of fingers. As if someone's hands had been stuck to it so firmly that they'd pulled it apart. But the kind of strength to exert that much force that quickly... was enormous. Not even John Rogers, the star-spangled supersoldier could do this. No, this was the work of a Spider. One whose powers were beginning to manifest, spotty and fritzy, acting up here and there until the child became a full-on superhuman. And that child... May covered her mouth... that child was her son.