The last of the fires had died out on the towering heights of Oscorp Tower. Whitish grey smoke billowed through streams of webs into the air above, growing thinner and thinner each second as more groups gathered around the building in the streets below. Fire fighters, cops, other emergency response and civilians. But the atmosphere was calmer now, the worst of the chaos over, and everyone evacuated from the buildings. Only the perpetrator was missing. Gone without a trace.

  “Ow” I mumbled, looking away from the streets below as my forearm cramped.

  “What’s wrong?” Pete asked.

  “Cramp”

  “Is it bad?”

  “No. It’s fine” I mumbled.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah”

  Peter stood over me with a scanner, the others only a few feet away.

  “He was just- like, crazy. And wearing a weird kind of mask. Like a goblin. He looked so angry as well. It was creepy”

  “You’re okay though”

  “I don’t know. I think so” Miles said.

  “I did tell him to stay back” Lucas said. “We need to get better at you listening to listening to us in the heat of battle.”

  “But I did stay back”

  “Until he nearly blew me up”

  “Well, I couldn’t just leave you”

  “You didn’t get hit, did you?” Jess said. “Either of you”

  “Nope”

  “No. I’m good”

  “You sure? Your suits burned” Jess said.

  “He used a different bomb on Yu. A kind of greenish gas thing” Lucas said. “It was weird. He used them after too when Yu was fighting him alone. But Yu was just ignoring them then.”

  I looked away from them, frowning before I caught Peter’s expression.

  “Uh, is everything ok?”

  “Well… your NE readings are higher. That shouldn’t be the case, but it’s stable so you’re not in any immediate danger.”

  “Not in immediate danger? That doesn’t sound good”

  “It isn’t. It wouldn’t- I’m not sure actually. It shouldn’t be good but the symbiote might be affecting things. Still don’t understand entirely how it works”

  “Wait I’m confused. It’s not bad?”

  “It’s difficult to say. People generally don’t just jump in NE level. It’s gradual, and it’s almost never stable. Only rare cases like Lucas, Miles, and I. And an incident I had with Jess when our powers got hindered a few years back, but that’s besides the point” he said.

  “Then why’s the jump bad?”

  “It’s not really. Just… I thought the symbiote was at max NE level before. I assumed anything that got caught directly in the explosion we were in would be. I was operating on that whole principle when running your checks. But I was wrong. So, yeah, could be bad or good, either because of this or because I’ve been missing something. No biggie, just the whole focus of my research for the past six months” he said, his tone coloured slightly by tiredness and sarcasm.

  “Oh” I mumbled. “So, it could be good?”

  “Maybe. I hope so” he said. “At the very least something good could come from it.”

  “That sounds a little ominous. I’ll be okay right. You’re not gonna run tests on me, are you?” I said, a shiver running down my spine.

  “I’ll make sure you’ll be ok Yu. It’s my first priority. And you won’t be a lab rat or anything. They’ll just be the regular scans. With a few adjustments it’ll probably be enough anyway.”

  “So, were all good then?”

  “Yep”

  “Well, the longer scans are still a bit miserable” I joked.

  His watch buzzed and he glanced to it before freezing.

  “Pete?”

  He remained motionless staring at the watch, then stepped back bringing the screen closer to his face.

  “Peter? What’s wrong?” Lucas said. “Is Yu ok?”

  “I- yeah. I have to go”

  “What? Where?” Jess said.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “It’s- I sorry. I’ll be quick. Really quick” he started for the roof edge before skidding to a stop. “Uh- Jess take Yu back to HQ. Do a full scan with our device and the Li array. But change the code for the max principle. We don’t need it”

  “What? What’s going on?”

  “Just- I’ll tell you later” Peter said, looking to the face off the Oscorp building, then off into the distance.

  “Is everything alright?” Lucas asked. “Do we need to do something?”

  “No, no it’s, it’s fine” Peter said. “Jus- I’ll be back quickly. Just go. All of you”

  “What about patrols?” Lucas said.

  “We can sort them out later” he said, before leaping from the building and swinging away.

  “What was that about?” I said looking to Jess. She didn’t respond, just staring off into the distance.

  “Jess?”

  “Huh? Oh sorry. I- let’s go. It’ll be good to get you checked quickly”

  I nodded.

  -

  The full scan was a nightmare.

  I’d thought at first it was just the first type of scan Peter had done to make sure the symbiote was safe, but no. It was a combination of what I’d thought were three separate ones all at once. The number of wires, tubes and tabs just made us feel like a test subject.

  I guess Pete’s definite of labrat was a little loose. Well at least it wasn’t anything insane. Still it was uncomfortable.

  “Just plain uncomfortable” I muttered.

  “Quit whining” Jess said, stabbing me with the last of the drips connected to a weird bag of liquid.

  “How long is this thing supposed to take again?”

  “An hour or two”

  “Crap” I mumbled. “Could I get like my phone or something?”

  “No”

  “But the TV’s broken, what am I gonna do?”

  “You can listen to the radio or something. It’ll be fine”

  “Says the girl who thinks hanging from the ceiling is fun. Can I at least get some chocolate?”

  “What was the first thing I told you?”

  “Uh… I can’t remember. Oh right. No eating.”

  Jess stepped over to the machine and began pressing at a few of the buttons on its surface as it made a series of beeps. I watched her with a growing anxiety, my fingers tapping away at my leg. Two hours? I couldn’t sit here that long. I’d be bored out of my mind just listening to the radio and staring at the wall. I might even fall asleep. Oh god, Jess was probably refusing my phone so she could force me into learning about stuff on the homework.

  “Wait!” I cried out.

  “What?”

  “Do we really have to do this again?” I grumbled.

  “Yes” Jess said, the mixture of frustration and concern on her face evident.

  “But I feel fine.”

  “You didn’t ten minutes ago. And you said you were literally hallucinating. We need to know you’re ok.”

  “Yeah, but what if you… messed up the code or something?”

  “Seriously? I know what I’m doing.”

  “Sorry I ju-”

  “It’ll be fine Yu” Lucas said.

  “Yeah” Miles added. “I don’t know how it works, but Jess knows her stuff. You’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks guys” I mumbled. “It’s really comforting to know that the people with no technical knowledge think I’ll be ok.”

  “They’re just being nice Yu” Jess said, stepping over to me as she turned on the machine. “Quit being annoying.”

  “Yeah, yeah” I said, before yawning.

  Suddenly a rush of panic took me. The anxiety that’d sat in my gut suddenly built up into a crescendo, and a sudden pressure formed in my head and chest. It wasn’t bad. It was good. Something about this was new and good. Better than ever.

  I’d gotten more power than ever. Just from this fight alone. So much I could barely even sustain my form. The core was changing. I was changing. We were changing.

  I frowned, pausing for a moment.

  “What?” I mumbled. I looked down at my hands, as they trembled the cramp returning slightly. What had just happened?

  “Yu?” Jess said.

  “Eh?”

  “What’re you doing?” Jess said, setting my hands back down as she checked over the mess of wires and tubes, securing them once again.

  “Sorry” I said.

  “It’s fine”

  I shifted in my seat slightly, uncomfortable as I tried to get rid of the strange feeling in my chest and small pressure in my head.

  “You really think you can’t me get any chocolate?”

  “No” Jess said.

  “Not like even a tiny piece?”

  “Just stop, moving” she said. “One of the stickers is about to come loose”

  I frowned glancing at myself as I looked down then over my shoulder at the other wires.

  “Yu dammit” Jess said annoyed. “I told you to stop moving.”

  “Sorry, sorry I was just trying to find it.”

  “Leave that to me. Now just hold still and we c-”

  “Ow” I winced, glancing back at Jess.

  “I haven’t even touched you yet.”

  “Well… the air from you moving around is hurting me.”

  “Quit being stupid and hold still.”

  “Ow” I winced, glancing back to her again. “Have you got needles for fingers or something?”

  “It’s cause you keep moving. Just hold still.”

  “But it hurts.”

  “What’re you a child? They’re regular needles, and there’s barely any of them. It shouldn’t even be that painful”

  “I told you, it’s the air from you fussing over me.”

  “Just shut up and hold still.”

  “Ow” I cried flinching away from her.

  “Yu?”

  “This isn’t working. Let me try fix” I said twisting in my seat. “I might be able to fix this better than you.”

  Instantly a light on the machine began flashing red. Whoops.

  “Yu! Other wires are coming loose!”

  “D-don’t shout at me”

  “Are you two gonna bicker all day?” Lucas said from the corner looking over to us. “Yu stop moving and just listen to her. This is important.”

  “Sorry” I mumbled. “She is hurting me though”

  “Can you not?” Jess said as she fixed the last of the tubes

  “I mean you could stand to be a bit gentler. Being Spider-Man’s all about grace you know?”

  “How did the hallucinations make you more annoying?”

  “Just turn on the machine”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do you idiot?”

  “Geez, someone’s moody”

  Lucas glared at both of us, then continued to parse over the map on the wall and jot down more notes on a scrap of paper. Jess restarted the machine and slowly it came to life with a soft but low whirring. Stepping back over, she circled me, double checking the wires.

  “You see that glare?” I whispered to her. “Guess your moodiness is infectious.”

  “Yu”

  “What?”

  “Stop”

  “I’m just saying” I responded. “Hey, maybe it wasn’t even you. Maybe it’s just his own life. I mean can you even blame him if he is moody? College must suck without a social life. And seeing your ex-girlfriend enjoying life after breaking up with you every other time you do go in? I’d snap at everyone too.”

  “I can hear you, you know?” Lucas said, staring back at me now.

  “Uh… sorry?” I mumbled back.

  Lucas paused, then muttered to himself shaking his head as he made for the door. It closed shut a little harder than usual.

  “Uh… I’m gonna go train with Lucas” Miles said awkwardly before excusing himself. Jess simply stared at me.

  “What?”

  “What the hell was that?” she said.

  “Uh… I don’t know” I said, frowning. “Guess I’m just thinking out loud?”

  Jess raised an eyebrow as she looked to me, her expression difficult to read.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing”

  “It’s not nothing, you’re looking at me funny. What is it? Tell me.”

  “I don’t know… it’s. You’re just being a bit… strange? Childish and weird. I don’t know”

  “I’m fine” I replied. Jess nodded dismissively. “Hey. I’m fine”

  “Right, right, now hold still so I can reattach the pads and everything”

  “They came loose again?” I said, raising my arms to look.

  “I told you to stay still”

  “Yeah, but I’m starting to think this is a problem with the equipment.”

  "Yeah, yeah. Just stay still so we can get this over with."

  "Get this over with?" I said. "You make it sound like the two hours will just fly by."

  "It will when we're going over Mr Garland's worksheet."

  Crap.