Spider Girl: Origin Story (Cimorelli)

Damsel In Distress

You sprint across the roof of the building, nearly stumbling right over the edge. You peer down to the sidewalk below.

It looks like Lauren was walking home when some guy decided to harass her. He's standing in front of her, preventing her from moving and getting way too close.

You don't really have time to think about it before there's a web shooting from your wrist and wrapping around a street light. You're yanked forward, clean off the roof, and swing right into the strange guy. Your feet knock him into a parked car, and then he stumbles to the ground.

He gets up to charge you, but you side step and he rams into the building behind you. It looks like he's drunk. This time when he comes at you, he's barely able to stay in a straight line. You allow your hand to fall on his arm, and urge a small shock to course through him.

It's a bit more than you intended, but he yelps and pulls away. He starts running down the street, nearly tripping about five times as he hurries across the road.

You turn your attention to Lauren, who is standing about five feet away from you. "Oh, um, are you okay.. miss?"

She tilts her head, scanning your covered face. "Looks like I am, thanks to you." She walks a bit closer, having to slightly look down at you since she is taller. "You're Spider Man."

"Spider Girl, actually." You tug your hood down a little more even though there's no way she can see your face. You step to the side, wanting to walk around Lauren and let her keep walking home.

"Where did you come from?"

"Oh, it's a long story." You've managed to walk behind her, but she turned around to keep facing you. "I would love to tell you, but I have some... spider things to attend to."

She smirks at you. "Oh, of course. Well, thanks for your help, Spider Girl."

"You're welcome." You just stand still for a few seconds, watching the brown eyed girl look at you.

Lauren quirks an eyebrow. "Isn't this the part where you swing away?"

"Oh. Yeah, yeah." You look at the street lights hanging about thirty feet above you. Spider Man would easily be able to swing from one to the other.

You decide to focus on the street light directly above you. You can pull yourself up to it, crawl on top, and jump to the building right beside it. That plan starts off rough, because your web snags around the light, put you aren't pulled up.

You have to tug on it twice before you're finally pulled off the ground. Lauren sees the whole thing, and your face flushes red when you hear her giggling. You just shake your head, jump to the building, and make a B line to the house.

*

At breakfast the next morning, Lauren brings up her encounter with you. Of course, she has no idea it was you.

"How could there be another Spider Man?" Christina asks.

"Maybe Spider Man never died?" Lisa adds. "Maybe he just faked his death or something?"

Lauren shakes her head. "No, this one was a girl. She was cute."

You look down at your cereal to hide your blush. You can feel Dani's eyes boring into you but you don't look at her for the entirety of breakfast.

After you eat, you hand Christina your sketchbook and Dani grabs your arm to pull you outside. She drags you an entire block before she says anything.

"Lauren could have figured out that it was you." She says.

You pull out of her grip. "What was I supposed to do? That guy could have hurt her."

Dani sighs. "I know. Just don't hang around to talk after when you save people, especially people that you know."

"I won't."

Dani stops walking suddenly, and you turn back to face her. She's looking at something above your head. You follow her gaze to the news building. There's a giant screen on the side and there's a sketch of you on display. Well, a sketch of you as Spider Girl.

Maybe that man from last night wasn't as drunk as you thought.

*

Lisa cautiously steps into the office of her boss, Dr. Gale. The office is on one of the top floors of the science buildings. Lisa keeps herself from looking out the giant windows and seeing just how high up she is.

"You wanted to see me?" Lisa asks.

Dr. Gale stands up to lean on his desk. He's only about thirty, with inky black hair and cold eyes. "I heard you had a run in with this new spider person that everyone has been talking about all morning?"

Lisa shakes her head. "I didn't personally. My sister did. I kind of thought she was making it up until I saw all the sketches."

Dr. Gale nods. "Well, I would appreciate any information you have."

"Well, Lauren didn't say too much. Just that Spider Girl saved her from some guy that was trying to harass her. She said it seemed like maybe she was new to the whole spider man thing."

Dr. Gale nods. "Lisa. I might need your help with something. I know you're just interning right now, but if you can help my team with this then we can start talking about your future career here."

Lisa perks up at the mention of that but she tries not to look too excited. "I'm sure I can do that."

"Good." Dr. Gale smiles and sinks back into his chair. "I want to meet this Spider Girl."

"How can I help you with that?"

"It looks like you're going to have to be our damsel in distress. One of them, at least."

"What?" Lisa takes a slight step back. "What do you mean?"

Dr. Gale gives her a small smile. "Don't worry. It'll be completely controlled. We just need to get Spider Girl here. You won't be in any actual danger."

"Can I ask why you need to get her here so badly?"

"Just to talk."

Lisa looks at the man for a few long seconds before she nods. "Fine. I'll help you."