Chapter Text
Cyrus is terrified of heights. So terrified, in fact, that when he was a kid and he'd go to the playground for recess he couldn't even swing higher than a foot off the ground without sweating from sheer panic.
So it's really unfortunate that he's currently standing halfway off the edge of the roof of the 10-story building he lives in.
How did he get here? He isn't entirely sure. In a metaphorical sense, anyway. He knows how he got here in a literal sense; he just took the stairs to the top floor (three floors directly above his apartment, to be specific) and then walked out onto the roof like it didn't immediately make him hyperventilate. Like he isn't still hyperventilating as he looks out at the city skyline, listening to the cars rushing below him. God, he's so high up.
The why he ended up here is a lot more confusing. Long story short, he landed this amazing internship at a prestigious research facility downtown, and it was super fun and he learned a lot, not to mention it'll look great on college applications, but that's not the important part. The thing that actually changed his life happened on the last day of the semester, his last time stepping foot in the lab.
Up to that point, they hadn't actually let him handle any of the specimens, mostly because they were afraid of letting some high school kid mess with stuff and accidentally ending up with a contaminated vial or something. But, on the last day, Cyrus was taking a picture with his attending researcher for their website, and he begged their supervisor to let him hold one of the spiders he'd been helping monitor for the past four months. The supervisor agreed after a lot of heckling, as long as they kept the spider contained in one of the little glass boxes they use to transport the specimens.
Except the dumb thing got out of its fucking box. Cyrus has no idea how, but one second it was safe in its tiny glass prison and the next it was sinking its stupid sharp fangs into the webbing of his hand between his thumb and pointer finger. Obviously he didn't let anyone know what happened, just shook it back into the box and held it closed tighter, but at this moment he's kind of wishing he would've made a bigger deal out of it because that spider bite has prompted some really concerning changes in his body.
And like, he knows correlation does not equal causation, okay? He literally just got done shadowing one of the best researchers in the country, and even before that he had enough common sense to realize that just because it looks too straightforward to be a coincidence doesn’t mean it isn’t. Sometimes weird shit just happens.
But not shit this weird. He woke up the next day considerably taller than he was before (which really just means he's average height now, because he's always been on the small side) and way more athletic than his level of physical activity could ever account for. He has actual biceps now, what the fuck. He isn't entirely sure why a spider bite would suddenly turn him into a jock (at least physically, anyway) but, well. Here he is.
And if that wasn't convincing enough, there's also the fact that he basically turned into a human spider. He doesn't have eight limbs, or anything, but he's definitely a lot better at climbing walls than physics should allow and suddenly he can shoot webbing out of his wrists. He doesn't really get why it comes out of his wrists, of all places, but that particular detail is pretty low on his list of priorities right now.
He also gets this weird tingly feeling every now and then, almost like a hunch but so much stronger, like his brain just knows when something bad is going to happen, even if nothing seems awry at the time. Like he doesn't have enough anxiety as it is. It’s kind of freaking him out.
Fast forward two weeks, and here he is, standing on top of his building in the least form-fitting hoodie he could find in an attempt to hide as much of himself as possible. His logic for doing this is - well, he doesn't really know. Maybe it's that stupid sixth sense he has that told him to jump off a building. In hindsight he's never been sure he should listen to it, but right now he's wondering if it's actively trying to get him killed. Can hunches get people killed? Is this even comparable to a hunch? Maybe he's hearing shit, maybe he needs to ask his shrink parents about this.
His (quickly derailing) train of thought is interrupted by a soft thump off to his right, and when he turns he sees some dude in spandex walking toward him. He’s wearing a red suit, with a ripped up blue hoodie over it, and a big black spider on his chest. The sleeves of the hoodie are cut off, but the hood is still intact and flipped up over the guy’s head. Cyrus doesn't know why he bothered with the hood, really, because he's wearing a mask anyway so it's not like it's doing anything to hide his face like Cyrus hopes his own hood is. He's also got a belt wrapped around his waist and matching cuffs on his wrists, plus little pouches strapped to his ankles, and Cyrus doesn't know how to feel about that one. He could have anything in there.
By the time Cyrus is done ogling him and trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, the guy is standing right in front of him. “Hey, dude, you don't wanna do this,” he says softly. “Or I mean, you do, I guess, but you shouldn't.”
Cyrus looks at him like he's insane, which he probably is, all things considered. “Who even are you?” he asks, instead of addressing any of the larger issues at hand. Like what this guy thinks he's doing on a roof. Or why he's wearing so much spandex. Or where he came from.
“Oh, fuck, my bad. I’m the Scarlet Spider.” He sticks his hand out, which Cyrus takes tentatively. The Scarlet Spider uses this opportunity to pull Cyrus off the edge and into his arms.
Cyrus huffs. “Could you please let me go?” he asks as he struggles to get out of the Scarlet Spider’s grip. It's a futile attempt. The dude is way stronger than he looks.
“Nope,” he says, popping the “p” like the annoying little shit he seems to be. “Not till you promise you won't jump.”
That's when it clicks. Cyrus rolls his eyes. “Oh my god, you think I’m trying to kill myself?”
The Scarlet Spider hesitates for a half a second before going back to normal. Or what Cyrus guesses is normal for him, anyway. “Aren't you?” His eyes get wide as he realizes how that sounds. “Awh shit - no, wait, I didn't mean it like that! I just, I heard there was someone up here trying to jump, and I don't know why else somebody would want to jump off a fucking building so I thought -”
Cyrus rolls his eyes again. He’s starting to think the Scarlet Spider might be an idiot. “I’m not trying to commit suicide, god. I was just -” He cuts himself off, realizing how delusional he'll sound if he tells the truth. “And wait, even if I did want to kill myself, you did a horrible job of trying to talk me down.”
The Scarlet Spider squints at him for a good thirty seconds before he says anything. “Look, dude, I don't do this a lot. Usually I just beat up muggers and shit, I don't know how to keep people from hurting themselves.”
“Well clearly you should learn, because if you ever meet anyone who's actually suicidal, talking to you is only gonna make them want to jump more.”
“Damn, you're sassy. I like that.” The Scarlet Spider finally lets him go, and Cyrus considers bolting right then and there but he thinks that would probably be really conspicuous. The Scarlet Spider takes a couple steps back, giving Cyrus some space, and folds his arms. “So tell me, what were you trying to do?”
Cyrus still doesn't know how to answer that. He weighs his options, glancing from the Scarlet Spider to the edge of the rooftop and back again. He takes a deep breath. “I think I might be like you.”
He can actually see the Scarlet Spider’s eyebrows shoot up underneath his mask, which should be impossible but there it is. “Like me? You’re gonna have to be more specific.”
Something dawns on Cyrus then. “Is that hoodie from Jefferson?” It's the exact same blue as Cyrus’ high school’s colours.
The Scarlet Spider takes a step closer, frowning. “Why?”
Cyrus shrugs. “If it is, then we go to the same school.”
“So?”
“So, we have a lot more in common than you may think.”
The Scarlet Spider sighs, tapping his foot against the gravel. “You're being really cryptic. Just tell me what you mean. How are you like me? And how the fuck would you know that anyway? You don't even know me.” He's getting defensive. Whoops. Maybe Cyrus shouldn't have pried so much.
Cyrus decides the best way to clear things up is to show him, so he runs to the edge of the roof and jumps.
He’s not even a foot in the air before the Scarlet Spider is tackling him, shooting a web and swinging them both back to safety on the roof of a different building. “I thought you said you didn't wanna jump!” He's clearly distressed, and refuses to let Cyrus go despite his struggling.
“I never said that, I said I didn't wanna die.”
“That's the same thing!” the Scarlet Spider protests, exasperated. Cyrus figures he probably doesn't have this much trouble convincing people to let him save them, for the most part.
“No, it really isn't. Just let me go and I'll show you.”
The Scarlet Spider eyes him, searching Cyrus’ face for any hint at what the fuck is going on. Eventually, he nods. “Fine. But I’m gonna save you, so brace yourself.”
Cyrus rolls his eyes again, moving the Scarlet Spider’s arms out of the way so he can walk to the edge of the roof. This building is taller than his apartment building, and he's stressed as all fuck, but if he doesn't do this now then he never will. He has the Scarlet Spider to save him if anything goes wrong, so now is the best time to be reckless.
Cyrus jumps. And for a split second, he thinks he might actually die. He's so high up, and the street below is so far away, and if he fell from this height there would be no coming back from that. But then he looks up, and he sees the endless sky, the lights of the city sparkling above him, and he thinks maybe this isn't so scary. Especially not when he locks eyes with the Scarlet Spider, who looks about a nanosecond away from jumping out to catch Cyrus and save him again.
It's now or never. Cyrus’ eyes dart around, searching for anything to aim at, and his gaze lands on a building off to the left that's about the same height as the one he just jumped off of. He sees the Scarlet Spider in his periphery, leaping off the roof to come save him, but Cyrus is already shooting a web at the building in front of him and swinging through the air right at the roof ahead.
He hears the Scarlet Spider whooping in surprise, and he can't make out the words but that's mostly because he's too busy laughing from the sheer adrenaline of it all. He's never felt this free. He's never let himself be this free before.
Unfortunately, that becomes pretty obvious once he realizes that he isn't going to clear the rooftop. He didn't get the angle of his swing right, or maybe he didn't shoot the web high enough, but either way he's headed straight for a window. He braces himself for impact.
“Underdog!” he hears the Scarlet Spider yell, and suddenly he’s pushing Cyrus up higher as he swings in from behind.
He flies up, and the Scarlet Spider shouts at him to shoot a new web. He aims higher this time, and it connects, and then Cyrus is landing lightly on his feet on a new rooftop and taking a deep breath and he can see the whole city and it's absolutely magical.
“That was exhilarating!” he yells as the Scarlet Spider lands beside him. Cyrus almost wants to hug him, but he doesn't.
“So that's what you meant when you said you're like me?” the Scarlet Spider asks, and Cyrus nods, beaming at him. “You wanna be a hero?”
Cyrus purses his lips in thought. “I mean, I didn't really plan on trying it, but...I didn't really plan on any of this.”
The Scarlet Spider shrugs, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie, which are uneven. “You don't have to, but you might as well use it. This shit will make you restless real fast if you don't channel it somehow.”
Cyrus cocks his head, and he really looks at the Scarlet Spider for the first time. Maybe he does want to know more about him. “Will you teach me?” isn't what he plans to say, but his brain is too adrenaline flooded to really filter his thoughts properly.
“Of course I will, Underdog.” The Scarlet Spider sounds almost fond when he says it.
Cyrus shakes his head. “My name's Cyrus. Cyrus Goodman, maybe you know me from school?”
The Scarlet Spider freezes for a second, then he's walking toward Cyrus with a weirdly determined stance and Cyrus is stressed out again because what the fuck is he about to do?
He's definitely not expecting the Scarlet Spider to throw back his hood, pull his mask off and say, “Hey, Cyrus. I’m TJ Kippen. You might know me as captain of the basketball team.”
This night really could not get any weirder.