12 Spider Bites and Nirvana Posters

Well, majority rules. And as of me writing this chapter, the majority chose Spider-man powers. But don't get me wrong, I have no intention of making Elijah just another Spider-man OC. His Spider powers will not be the focus of his fighting style, but more of a supplement to his military training. And the way he uses them will vary greatly from the other Spider-people (mostly)

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(Oscorp Building Lobby)

(Elijah's POV)

Oscorp was massive. The Avengers tower was bigger, but that didn't take away from the grandeur of this giant building. The class entered the lobby after exiting the buses. While we were all standing around staring at the size of it all, the teachers went up to the receptionist to inform them of our arrival. I looked at Gwen to see her seeming standoff-ish. As if she was on edge just being here.

"Hey, you alright?"

She seemed surprised by me, my voice suddenly catching her off guard. She turned towards me alarmed, which did nothing to quell my belief that something was definitely up with her.

Gwen: "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit nervous"

"Uh-huh. Well, if you need anything, I'm always here."

Gwen: "Yeah. Thanks, Elijah" She replied, flashing my that adorable smile yet again.

A teacher came to the front of our group and clapped to get out attention.

Teacher: "Alright, class. We're starting the tour. Stay close, don't get lost, and for the love of God, don't break anything"

We chuckled at the pure despair in his voice. It seems that might have happened before. After all, rules are usually made because someone did something similar before. Like a "No pissing on the animals" sign at a zoo. It's probably there because someone already pissed on the penguins. Not me, of course, I would never. 

We all got into the elevators, one group at a time. We went up about 50 floors, stepping out into a giant ecosystem of multiple labs.

"Woah. Guess Oscorp doesn't cheap out on their labs"

???: "Well, we wouldn't be nearly as successful if we did"

We all turned around to see where the voice came from. Behind all of us, by another elevator that wasn't connected to the lobby, stood a man in a business suit, with a researcher on either side of him. He had brown, slicked back hair, and a glint of pride in his eye.

???: "Peter, Mary Jane, Gwen, Miles. How are you kids doing? Still getting along with Harry, I hope"

Gwen: "Of course, Mr. Osborne. Harry's still annoying as ever"

Mr. Osborne(?): "Haha, he must get it from his old man. And please, I told you to call me Norman. Speaking of, where is Harry?"

Peter: "He must be in the other group, still downstairs"

Norman: "Ah, I see. Well, anyway, I heard you recently got first place in the science fair, Peter."

Peter: "Oh, it was nothing, really"

Norman: "Well, I wouldn't call it nothing, my boy. Building a model vacuum chamber from scratch at your age? You remind me of myself when I was younger. You know, I'm something of a scientist myself" He chuckled along with Peter. He then turned his gaze towards me.

Norman: "And who might this be?"

Gwen: "Ah, this is Elijah, Mr. Osborne. He's a new transfer student, and a friend of ours"

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Elijah" he said, shaking my hand.

"You too, Mr. Osborne" I replied, making sure to shake his hand firmly.

Norman: "Well, I should go meet the other groups. Hope you enjoy your tour, everyone" He said before walking away, the two researchers at his side scuttling off after him.

After that exchange, the researcher assigned to our group took us around to look at the different projects. They had all sorts of projects going on, ranging from Clean Energy solutions to medical machinery. At the end of the tour of this floor, they took us back towards the elevators, but before we could get there, a student pointed out a small glass cage filled with some spiders.

Student: "Excuse me, what's that?"

The researcher turned to see the glass cage, and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Uh, that's another experiment of ours. That's not supposed to be out for the tour, though. Maybe there was a change in plans. I'll explain it anyway"

She walked up towards the cage and began to explain. I looked towards Gwen, only to see a lock of shock on her face.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Gwen: *whispering* "The label on that cage says 14 spiders, right?"

I looked to where she pointed, and, sure enough, it said 14.

"Right. So?"

Gwen: "So why do I count 11?"

I shot my head back towards the cage, and counted. She was right. There was only 11.

"Uh, maybe some got taken for testing?"

As I said that, I turned to Gwen only to see pure horror on her face.

"What?"

She didn't reply. Instead, she just pointed at my shoulder.

"...It's on me, isn't it?"

*sink*

"SON OF A BITCH!"

I grabbed the spider and threw it at the wall, killing it instantly.

I turned back around to see the whole group staring at me.

"Mosquito." I wasn't going to tell them I just killed their probably very expensive project, was I?

Gwen: "Oh my god, are you okay?!" She looked at the group that was now staring at her.

Gwen: "What? Mosquitoes can be deadly. Ever heard of dengue?" Once the class looked back away she turned to me.

Gwen: "Did it bite you!?"

"Yeah, right on the neck"

Gwen: "Oh god. Well, are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just hope it wasn't venomous" I said, chuckling.

Gwen still looked worried, but she eventually let me continue the tour with the group. She kept glancing at me, probably out of worry. We were another 5 minutes into the tour when I started to feel dizzy. Like, really dizzy. I walked over to Gwen as best as I could without tripping over myself. My body was starting to heat up with an intense fever, and I was sweating. I walked up to Gwen with a dopey grin on my face.

"This is Elijah Cole, signing off" I said with a salute before immediately falling forward. I felt Gwen grab me before I hit the ground, and the world went dark.

(???, night-time)

I woke up facing an un-familiar ceiling. I was in a bed, but it wasn't mine. I sat up and took a look around. There were rock band posters on the pink walls of the room, and there was a drum kit in the corner of it. 

"Okay. Where am I? Did I forget to cover my drink at a bar?"

Then it suddenly came back to me. The Oscorp visit, the spider bite. Me passing out in Gwen's arms. I am never going to live that last one down. I got up from the bed and walked to the door. I opened it to see Gwen sitting on a couch. She heard the door open and looked towards me, before jumping up and running up to me and hugging me tight.

Gwen: "You're awake!"

"Not for long if you keep hugging me like that"

She giggled and let go of me.

"Where are we?" I asked, looking around the moderately sized apartment.

"My place. After you passed out, I got really worried, so I told the teacher I would take you home and brought you here because, well, I don't really know where you live" she replied, chuckling nervously.

I smiled at her before saying "Thank you, Gwen. I have no idea what came over me all of a sudden. I started to heat up and get dizzy. Could've ended badly if you weren't there to catch me before I hit the ground"

"No problem, Elijah" she replied with a smile that radiated the warmth of the sun. 

Gwen: "Oh, I should get you some water. Give me a moment"

She walked out of what I assumed to be the living room and into the kitchen. While she was gone, I looked around the room. I saw a picture of her and someone who must be her father in a frame on a table. I picked it up and looked at it. I found myself smiling. She looked so genuinely happy in that picture that her smile was contagious. I put the picture back down. Or, at least, I tried to.

"What the shit? It won't come off" I said shaking my hand around, the picture refusing to leave my grasp. Eventually I stopped trying to flick it off and instead breathed deeply and focused on relaxing my muscles. The picture then fell out of my hand onto the table.

"Huh, weird."

End of Chapter 12~