Chapter Text
Peter stared at the door for a long time, his brain refusing to believe it. 100%. He was going to turn into a monster if they didn’t find a cure. He could stop being human. The words got stuck somewhere between his ears and heart, repeating the conversation over and over again like a broken record.
He looked down at his hands, they looked normal enough. Maybe his nails were a little shaper looking but that could be his mind playing tricks on him, trying to get him to spiral. The joints of his fingers were sore, exactly the same as growing pains. He tugged the sleeves of his sweatshirt, his arms itchy, before he continued to stare at his hands.
Sure they looked a little off but they were still hands.
Still Peter’s.
His stomach twisted, questions piling up on his tongue, making it feel like he was choking.
Will I grow more legs? Will my face change? Will I forget May? Tony? Will I stop thinking like myself?
Mumbling to himself, he pulled his knees to his chest, desperately trying to calm himself down.
Maybe Bruce was wrong. Even the smartest scientist could be wrong, right? Maybe it wouldn’t get worse, maybe 23% is the most I can mutate. Maybe-
The door opened and Peter jerked his head up, staring at Bruce and Tony as they both entered. Tony had a very relaxed expression on his face, but his entire body was tense. Peter couldn’t stop as tears welled in his eyes, threatening to spill.
Tony looked between Bruce and Peter, before realization dawned on him.
“Pete?” Tony took a step forward, “You heard us, didn’t you?”
A traitor tear fell, “Am I gonna die?”
Tony’s heart dropped as he rushed forward, sitting on the edge of the bed, “What? No,”
“Dr. Banner said I’m gonna stop being human,” Peter’s voice cracked, “He said I could fully become a spider,”
“Pete listen-”
“He said it like it was a fact,”
“It isn’t, there is a chance-”
“A chance?!” Peter shouted, his voice on the edge of hysteria, “I chance I won’t be me anymore!”
Bruce stepped closer, but was still meters away, “Peter, we don’t know what will happen,”
“But you said my DNA is changing!”
“It is,” Bruce replied honestly.
“And it’s getting worse,” Peter finished for him.
Bruce hesitated, “Well I wouldn’t it call it worse,”
“It’s more spider!” Peter screamed, “How is it not worse?!”
More tears fell and Peter buried his face in his knees.
“Roos, look at me,”
Peter didn’t.
“Please,”
Slowly Peter looked up, resting his chin on his knees. Tony inched closer, placing a supportive hand on Peter’s foot.
“You’re still you,”
Peter whimpered, “What if I’m not me later?”
“Then we will deal with it later,”
“What if,” Peter took a deep breath trying to calm himself, “What if Mr. Banner can’t fix it?”
“Then I’ll find someone else,”
“And what if that person can’t either?” Peter countered.
“Then I’ll fix it,” Tony replied, opening his arms invitingly.
Peter launched himself in the older man’s arms. The younger boy buried his face in Tony’s shoulder’s, his t-shirt fisted in his hands. Tony rubbed soothing circles on Peter’s back. While doing so, something was itching Tony’s arms. First he thought it was Peter’s sweatshirt, but when he looked down he realized it wasn’t. Peter’s sweatshirt sleeves were no longer fully covering his forearms, probably accidently rolled up when Peter lunged for the hug. On his forearms Tony saw long, wiry, black hair. They were spaced apart but each hair was a few millimetres too thick to be normal.
“I don’t wanna be a spider,” Peter mumbled, breaking Tony’s concentration about the “hair”.
“You won’t,” Tony hesitated before adding, “Whatever happens you’ll still be my kid,”
Peter stilled and Tony cursed himself inwardly for going too fast.
My kid? What were you thinking, Stark?! Tony thought.
“Thanks, Mr. Stark,” Peter replied, relaxing into Tony’s arms but still buried his face deeper into his shoulder.
They both breathed together, before hearing a small sniffle. Together they turned their heads to see Bruce crying.
“Can’t handle some emotion Brucie?” Tony teased.
“Oh shut up, Tones,” Bruce laughed wetly, making Peter chuckle.
The three of them heard a sob echo, they were all confused before Friday told them that Clint was in the vents. They all laughed as they heard him swear and quickly crawl away.
“I swear one day I’m gonna burn the vents while Clint is in them,” Tony announced.
“Maybe the vents are actually nice, who knows?” Peter said.
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Peter woke up the next day, his hands feeling stiff and sore. He slowly sat up. Even though it was Wednesday he wasn’t at school, Tony called the school, putting him on extended leave. He changed from his sweatshirt to a math-pun t-shirt (there is a fine line between a numerator and a denominator, only a fraction of people will understand). The minute he put on the shirt he noticed how hairy his arms were. There were more hairs than yesterday, much thicker and longer. He wasn’t allowed to shave them off but he didn’t want them to be visible. Considering his options he settled on putting on a hoodie.
He took a calming breath, knowing that Tony called May and he would have to explain everything. Tony offered to explain the mutations together but Peter wanted to do it by himself.
Entering the kitchen he saw May and Tony having coffee, having a hushed conversation Peter could easily listen to but decided against it.
“Mini Boss has entered the kitchen,” Friday announced.
Both the adults spun around.
“Morning, bambino,” Tony greeted.
“Morning Mr. Stark,” Peter smiled before nervously turning to May, “Morning May,”
“Hey sweetie,” May came and hugged the boy, and Peter found himself melting into her hold, “Now will someone please tell me what’s going on?”
Peter stepped back and looked at Tony, who had an expression on his face silently asking if he changed his mind about his presence. The boy mulled over it for a second before settling on doing it by himself.
“Uhh May, wanna come to my room,” Peter asked, already walking backwards to his room.
“Course,”
They walked in silence before settling on his bed, Peter nervously fiddling with his blanket.
“You okay?” May asked, noticing Peter’s nervousness.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” Peter said too fast, and dropped the blanket from his hold, making May raise an eyebrow, “Alright, maybe not,”
“What’s wrong sweetie?”
“We’ll nothing is wrong wrong,”
“Peter-”
“It’s fine,” Peter’s voice was a little too sharp, “Sorry,”
“It’s alright, take your time,”
Peter rubbed his arms, the hair on his arms making everything so itchy, “Dr. Banner said my DNA is sort of, kinda, maybe changing a little bit?” His voice grew higher making it sound like a question.
May’s expression softened, “Changing how?”
Peter swallowed, “I’m becoming more spider, it was first 10% and now it’s uhh 23%,”
“Oh…”
“And Dr. Banner said that if it keeps progressing I could… stop being… human,”
“Oh, no my poor baby,” May wrapped her arms around Peter, making him feel even more itchy.
“I don’t want that May, I really don’t want that,” Peter mumbled, hugging her back.
“I know, sweetie, I know,”
“I don’t want,” Peter’s breath hitched, “I don’t want Mr. Stark to look at me and see some freak,”
“Hey,” May pulled back, “Don’t say that. Tony doesn’t see you as a freak because you aren’t one,”
“But what if I actually become one?”
“You won’t-”
“You don’t know that!” Peter screamed, standing up, “EVERYONE keeps saying that but nobody FUCKING knows what will happen, OKAY?!”
Peter began pacing, “I heard them talking! They were scared! The fucking Hulk was scared, May! And Tony too! Those two are supposed to know everything!”
“Pete-”
“What the hell am I supposed to do? Just sit here and wait until I wake up one morning with eight legs?!”
“Peter,”
His breathing quickened, “I could lose my mind! What if I forget you or Mr. Stark? What if I forget who I am?!”
May stood, “Peter look at me,”
She waited until he did to continue, “Right now you’re Peter, and that’s all you have to worry about right now,”
Peter laughed wetly, the anger still boiling underneath his skin but much less than before, “That’s a really terrible motivational speech.... I'm sorry,”
“Yeah well, I’ve never been in this situation before,” May sighed, pulling him into another hug, "And it's okay"
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May left to talk to Tony in the kitchen. Peter heard her tell him about his mood swings and asked if it was due to the mutation. Peter chose to ignore it and opened his phone to call MJ and Ned, both of them leaving many messages questioning his two day absence.
He called the group chat and both of them picked up on the first ring.
“Hey loser,” MJ greeted.
“Peter!” Ned yelled over the phone, “You’re alive!”
“Last time I checked,” Peter replied, smirking.
“I thought Mr. Stark put you in an underground lab or something!” Ned explained, “I was about to hack into the Avengers Tower to see where you were!”
“There’s no need- wait can you do that?” Peter asked intrigued.
Ned shrugged, “Not sure,”
Peter smiled before growing solemn again, “Guys I have to tell you something,”
“What’s wrong, Peter?” MJ asked, and the use of his name made his heart flutter.
“Dr. Banner ran some tests on me,”
Ned leaned into the camera, “What kind of tests?”
“DNA tests and-”
“Ohh sweet,”
“And?” MJ pressed.
“And, my DNA is changing,"
MJ frowned, “What do you mean?”
“I’m becoming more spider,”
“More spider?” Ned blinked, “How?”
“Well first I was only 10% spider,” Peter explained, “And now I’m… 23%”
Ned’s mouth fell open while Peter continued, “And it’s increasing,”
“Oh shit wow, that’s actually really concerning," Ned said.
“You think?” Peter gave him a tired look.
“No I think he means scientifically concerning,” MJ said, “If your body is going through changes that are specific to your species then it is not just your body getting used to things. Your cells could be changing what they are supposed to do. This could be happening in many parts of your body.”
Ned nodded, “Exactly, so if the amount of this change is getting bigger we need to find out why it is happening. Is the spider part of his DNA making copies of itself? Is it taking the place of your DNA? Is it turning on genes that were not being used before? Is there something that is causing this to happen? Is it because of something in the environment around you? Is it because of hormones in your body? Is it because of something in your brain?”
“Ned,” Peter muttered.
“And if it changes your human-”
“Ned!” Peter yelled, his face felt like it was on fire. It felt swollen and raw, “Sorry. But there’s more. Dr. Banner said that if it keeps going I could eventually become 100% spider,”
MJ’s face went pale, “No,”
“Yeah,” Peter rubbed his face, maybe I should get my pain meds.
“No, no, no, no, no, this isn’t how it is supposed to work,” Ned said.
“I know,”
“This isn’t some random genetic mutation. You were already bitten by a radioactive, genetically modified spider, there should be limitations on what the effects could be,”
“Aparently there isn’t,”
“We need to figure out exactly how the spider was modified. If we can identify the original genetic material, maybe we can reverse the changes,”
“Ned, Dr. Banner is already working on it,”
“Then we need to help him,” MJ announced.
“I know,”
“Peter, this could and should be reversible,”
“I know!” Peter suddenly snapped and immediately felt guilty. He wanted this conversation to end. He was so emotionally drained from today.
"Mr. Stark is calling me, I have to go,” Peter lied and clicked the red button, ignoring their protests.
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Tony had dragged Peter to the lab, after forcing him to eat some food. All food tasted and smelt gross, but Peter refused to satisfy his raw meat cravings.
Peter sat in front of Tony who was studying the hair on his arms while Friday scanned them and Dum-E took samples.
“I did some spider research," Tony said, “And it’s called setae,”
“Wow you must be a genius or something,” Peter grumbled, his hands pressing roughly onto his face.
“You good?” Tony asked.
“Yeah I’m splendid, y’know at the idea of becoming a fucking arachnid,”
“Peter-”
Peter sighed exasperatedly and stood up, seemingly done with the conversation. He walked over to the testing area, a small area with reinforced metal for them to test the Iron Man suits and Peter’s webs.
The lab was the noisiest place in the entire tower, at least for Peter. He could hear each whirl and hum of every machine, and could have sworn the Iron Man suits had their own heartbeat.
Another piercing wave of hot pain pulsated through his face. He buried his face with one hand, distantly hearing Tony call his name.
Everything was too much. The noise, the light, Tony’s breathing and heartbeat was too much. He could hear Bruce updating the rest of the Avenger on his condition, and there were dozens of floors above them. He could hear all their heartbeats, and their breaths. And Tony was still talking. Dum-E was whirling around and Friday was saying something. And the light was burning into his eyes making them dry, he wanted-
Peter’s face was in the most pain it has ever been, he clenched his fist and threw a punch at the nearest wall. His entire arm all the way to his shoulder was in the wall, metal creaking. He pulled his arm out and took a step back, looking at Tony’s shocked face. Peter could practically hear the older man’s thoughts, his strength is increasing too.
“Mr- FUCK,” Peter shrieked, falling to his knees and scratching at his face.
The pain wasn’t on the surface anymore, it was inside. He could feel something moving, he could hear something squelching.
“Peter!” Tony yelled, dropping next to him. His voice vibrated in Peter’s skull.
Tony opened his mouth again and Peter screamed at him, “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
Peter wailed and bent himself in half, his face pressing against the floor. He scratched the skin with his sharp nails, trying to relieve some pressure.
Then, he felt his skin split open to let whatever was bulging forward to be let out. His cheekbones and skull seemed to be reduced to dust, and the pressure increased. He could hear this skin stretching until it ripped, and the awful wet popping filled the air as whatever it was finally surged out.
The pressure subdued, and Peter closed his eyes and collapsed fully to the floor, exhausted.
“Peter…?”
He felt Tony turn him, so he was laying on his back. Peter heard Tony scream and opened his eyes.
Eight eyes blinked at Tony in unison.