Chapter Text
Sometimes you just know it's gonna be a bad day.
I was on my way to class, just minding my own business, when the police interceptor in my mech's cockpit lit up, "-bzzt- Robbery in progress at Bellevue Hospital. Suspect is armed and dangerous. Exercise maximum caution. I repeat, the suspect is-"
"Ugh," I sighed, "of course this happens on my first day back."
Luckily the hospital was en route to my school. I had to be quick though: even without interruptions I was only just gonna make it to class on time.
Who even robs a hospital anyway?
The answer, apparently, was a guy in a black-and-blue biker outfit, complete with a faux stormtrooper safety helmet. I crashed down in front of him as he tried to punch his way into a red hovercar.
"There are easier ways to get into a car, man…"
He looked over his shoulder, "Huh? Who are- oh no!"
"…you could just use your keys?"
He frantically knocked out the windshield's glass and tumbled into the front seat.
"Seriously? You know you can't outrun me, right?"
I heard the car start up. I took a step closer and leaned my big, metallic foot on its hood, "Don't make me web you!"
Then suddenly the car began to expand, going from bright red to pitch black. Every part of it got bigger, and more angular too. Even the windshield's glass seamlessly slid back into place.
"What the-!?"
Before I could process what was going on the now super-sized road machine rocketed into me, launching me over the top. I clunked face down in the street, dangling from my chair by the thin strap of my safety belt. The neural amplifiers, which enabled me to become one with SP//dr (the mech's co-pilot), were barely clinging to my ears as gravity tried its best to pry them loose. I realigned them and picked myself up off the ground.
"Guess I'm gonna be late for school, huh?"
I had no choice. The thief had to be stopped. I started running down the road. The skyscrapers of First Avenue loomed over me as I picked up speed. Then I saw a bridge up ahead connecting two especially tall tower blocks. I jumped, webbed its beam-covered underside, swung forward and for a moment I was suspended in the air over the road, level with the mag-lanes overflowing with floating cars. In the distance was another bridge, higher than the first. I webbed it, reeled myself in and shot over the traffic like a bullet. Now I had a birds-eye view of the robber. His car was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Not even the road gangs had wheels as tricked out as this guy's.
But it was a normal car before…
A green reticule locked onto him on my virtual touchscreen. SP//dr brought up a map of Manhattan, made charts predicting the robber's next move. I saw them in my mind's eye as I closed in on my target. Closer… closer… then-
Contact! My feet, his roof. Somehow it didn't even buckle under my mech's intense weight.
"I get it," I said as he swerved through traffic, "You like Fast and Furious. Doesn't mean you're allowed to-"
Suddenly he took a hard right. I slid across the roof. My feet were dangling out onto the sidewalk. I dug my claws into the car and pulled myself back into place.
He growled, "Buzz off, bug! This doesn't concern you!"
"I'm not gonna let you steal from a hospital!"
He rose up into the air. A mag-lane full of commuter traffic was sitting right above us.
"Hey! Stop!" I yelled, "You're gonna-"
But he didn't care. We plowed through the traffic, scattering cars everywhere. He did a barrel roll then plunged back down, shooting straight for another high-rise.
He's not seriously gonna drive into that, is he? Is he…?
I didn't have time to find out. Holding on for dear life with one hand, I began punching the roof, trying to bust a hole in it, but all I left were dents.
"Damn it!"
Now the building was here. The robber tipped the vehicle onto its side and swooped in, dragging me across the reinforced concrete walls. Warning sirens started going off in my cockpit.
Gotta stop him gotta stop him gotta stop him-
I activated the condensed light saw embedded in my right hand.
"Alright mister, you asked for it!" I cried, jamming the super-sharp blade into the car's roof. It ripped straight through the black metal. Within seconds I'd carved out a jagged hole, wide enough for me to reach in and pull out the driver.
"This stops now!"
He flipped me the bird. I reached in, opened my steel claws, then-
Huh!?
My spider-sense went off too late. My whole mechanical body slammed into the reinforced fullerite plating of a broadcast tower. The force ripped me out of my seat, tearing the neural amplifiers off of my ears completely. My mind was kicked out of the mech just in time for me to feel my cheek hit the cockpit's enormous glass window.
"Ow…"
I slid to the floor. Now we were in freefall. In a daze, I reached my human arm out and tried to fire a web. Of course, nothing happened.
Gotta get back in the pilot's seat.
"SP//dr!" I cried, "Activate thrusters!"
The SP//dr mech is a biomechanical marvel that requires two pilots to function. My dad's original design was completely non-functional without both pilots plugged in to the system. After he died I made a few improvements, the biggest one being the new sync engine, designed by my buddy and partner, the best pet in the whole world: SP//dr. With the new design he can operate the mech even when I'm not in my pilot's seat. It's slower with just one pilot, and not as powerful, but sometimes (like when you're plummeting to your death from a great height) you just need your partner to take the reins for a bit.
And take the reins he did. Without any help from me whatsoever my eight-legged savior turned the thrusters on the mech's feet up to max. We went from falling, to stalling, to soaring straight up alongside the broadcast tower. It was a big building. Enormous. This one was so big it had its own special name, 'Sky Needle', and it was just what we needed to catch the runaway thief.
I climbed back into my seat. The seatbelt was totally busted, but it's not like I needed it anyway. I looked out of the window at the tower rushing by, then I took the amplifiers in my hands. I cupped them to my ears, and the warmth of my flesh-and-bone body was replaced by the intense rush of air against my cold mechanical limbs.
I deactivated the thrusters and gripped one of the Sky Needle's many support pylons. SP//dr scanned the streets below us. New York City was a jungle, a maze of spire-like towers and bridges, with river upon river of cars flowing between them, all layered on top of one another. A human eye could never pick out one vehicle from the swarm. A spider's eye, however…
A target appeared on screen. A black car. The thief's black car. He was still storming down First Avenue. All I had to do was catch up to him.
"Alright SP//dr, time to test out those new web wings."
The mech had always had gliders, but they were made of carbon alloy, which was inflexible and hard to replace when damaged. The web wings, on the other hand, were organic, made of the same synthetic silk used in SP//dr's webshooters. It was malleable, retractable, sticky, and most importantly, wind resistant. Fully deployed, the web wings were like a couple of mini-parachutes. I checked my web-fluid levels.
"Still got plenty in the tank. Let's do it."
Bracing my human feet against the control panel in my cockpit so that I didn't smack my face into the window again, I leapt off of the Sky Needle. I let myself pick up some speed, then-
"Here we go!"
-I ejected spider silk from my arms and stuck each little strand to my legs. Within seconds I had a pair of white, sticky wings. The wind was kind. A huge gust lifted the mech into the air and down First Avenue. I activated my thrusters again. Now I was really starting to pick up speed.
"We only have one shot at this. Have to get it right…"
I felt SP//dr's idea in my mind. It was simple: crash into the speeding car. Doesn't matter how good a driver you are if your vehicle is smooshed into the road. But I had to be careful. Too much force and I could kill the thief, or kill a civilian.
SP//dr adjusted our trajectory. We were right above him now. All that was left was to dive down. I took a deep breath. Then I enabled the airbags hidden inside the control panel. I was gonna need them this time.
Gotta remember to land feet-first. I don't wanna replace the window again.
I brought my mechanical arms and legs together and turned off the thrusters. We started to fall, and fast. I felt my butt begin to levitate above the pilot's seat and grabbed the arms to keep myself in place. Sensors flashed in warning as we neared the ground. IMPACT IMMINENT filled the screen in doomsday red, then-
CRASH!
I flew up into the ceiling just in time for the airbags up there to punch me into the airbags below.
"Hgghhhgh…"
That wasn't worth it.
I felt SP//dr stirring within the mech's metal frame. I let him take control as the airbags slowly deflated. After doing a scan to confirm that we hadn't sustained any system damage, he stepped into the road and examined the scene. I saw in my mind's eye that the thief's car had been totaled. As SP//dr webbed it up the black started receding and the car shrunk, returning to its original tomato red.
The air bags shriveled up and I flopped back into my seat with a sigh. I could see now with my own two eyes that we had him. I opened the mech's glass front panel and stepped out. SP//dr flashed an angry emoji face at the crushed car as I said in my most intimidating voice, "You're not getting away this time! Come out with your hands up and maybe I'll ask the police to go easy on you."
He didn't stir. I couldn't see him from where I was, so I carefully crept closer to the car. The driver's seat looked empty.
He's not dead… is he? Oh god… please say he isn't dead.
He wasn't dead. In fact, he wasn't there, at all. The car was empty.
"But I saw him! You saw him, right!?" I asked SP//dr. He nodded.
I tried pulling the doors open, "They're all jammed shut! There's no way he coulda got out of there after we hit him."
Unless he got out before the impact.
"SP//dr, access Oscorp's satellites and scan traffic in the area. He's gotta be around here somewhere."
SP//dr's face became a 'loading' bar. After a few minutes his normal emoji face returned, but he was frowning.
"Nothing!? I can't believe it! There's no way he got away on foot!"
That's when I became aware of the huge traffic jam piling up behind us.
"Hey, asshole!" screamed one angry driver, "Some of us have to go to work!"
I was about to give him a piece of my mind when the police showed up. Six car's worth of them. The guy in charge didn't look happy.
"What the hell do you think you are doing!?" he growled.
That was my cue to get the heck outta there.
"I can explain," I said, walking back to the mech, "everything you need to know is right in here…"
I hopped in and closed the front panel. The officer folded his arms across his chest. He looked like he was ready to book me on the spot.
He's really not gonna like this part.
I placed the neural amplifiers over my ears.
"SP//dr, are the thrusters still good to go?"
I felt my feet heat up in affirmation.
"Perfect."
I gave the police officer a wave (that he didn't seem to notice) then I blasted off into the air.
"Hey!" he yelled, "Get back here!"
"Sorry! I can't be late for school!"
I was already late for school. Nine minutes late, to be precise. When I finally arrived outside the doors of Mason Banks Middle School I was almost fifteen minutes late.
I went to park the mech beside the bicycle rack when my phone lit up. I answered it.
"Aunt May?"
"Peni!? Are you all right?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"We got a warning message at Oscorp saying the mech was under attack."
"Ahhh, yeah… I kinda had to stop a robbery."
"Couldn't the police handle it?"
"Not really."
"Well I'm glad you're okay."
"I'm also late for class. Talk to you later Aunt May!"
"Take ca-"
I hung up, escorted SP//dr out of his mini cockpit, then ran through the school doors.
The halls were empty, which was nice. Usually I'd get bumped and bashed about on the way to class. Getting to my locker was a nightmare - not that there was much in it. I always took my school tablet with me, in my backpack. My locker did have one thing though: my candy stash. Aunt May refused to buy me the candy I needed, so I made up for it by using my allowance on nothing but candy. You can't hide anything from Aunt May, but school was the one place she never set foot in - mostly cos she was busy. I looked either side of me, keyed in the code for my locker, then-
Suddenly a deep feeling of unease, like a stomach ache, cascaded down through my entire body.
Spider-sense? But why now?
"Well, well, well, if it ain't Puny Parker!"
Oh no…
Flash Thompson loomed over me, his square jaw locked in an mischievous grin. His friend, Kenny 'Kong' McFarlane stood beside him, looking pleased with himself. They couldn't have been more different from each other. Flash was a blonde sports hero, a modern day Adonis, whereas Kong was big, bald, and goofy. At first only Flash called him Kong, but then somehow he began to take a liking to the nickname. Now everyone called him Kong, even some of the teachers.
What is it with Flash and making fun of people's appearances?
"Ooooh," he cooed, barging me out of the way and peering into my locker, "what do we have here?"
"Don't touch that!" I yelled.
"Looks like candy."
Kong budged up to Flash, "What kind?"
"Nothin' you'd like," he replied. He looked over at me, "You got any Atomic Bombs in here?"
"Is that a World War Two joke? For real? Didn't know you were into ancient history, Flash."
"What the hell are you talking about? I obviously meant the candy, idiot! You sure get butthurt easy, don'tcha!"
He held the box of candy in front of his face, then dropped it unceremoniously to the floor. All the different sweets spilled out into the hall.
"Whatever," he said, "there's nothing good in there anyway."
He turned his back and started walking away. In my mind I ran up to him and dropkicked him to the floor, legsweeping his buddy Kong off of his feet too for good measure. In reality I knelt down and started reassembling my scattered collection of candy.
From the other end of the hall I heard his voice mocking me, "See ya later, loser!"
"Ugh…"
I grabbed a sweet strawberry jelly bomb from my box and popped it in my mouth. Immediately I felt better.
Candy solves all problems.
Except for being late for class. Candy didn't have a hope in heck of solving that.
Somehow my homeroom teacher wasn't annoyed at me.
"Twenty minutes late - you must be Peni Parker," she joked as I dragged my heels through the door to my new class for the year, class 3-3.
"Sorry Miss-…"
Crap! Her name! I didn't look up her name!
"Drew. Jessica Drew. Now if you could take your seat please."
Everyone was snickering as I did the walk of shame. I ignored them, and took my seat next to my only friend in the whole room: Cindy Moon.
"Don't worry, you didn't miss much," she whispered as the teacher marked my name off on the register.
"Well that's a relief."
She leaned closer, "… is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"That you're dating Dustin Lieber?"
"No!" I yelled, instinctively recoiling from the mental image. The class fell dead silent. Miss Drew was looking at me. My mouth was hanging open.
She cleared her throat, "Well...now that everyone's here, let's take lunch orders. Tell me if you have any allergies. Don't want the cafeteria killing you during lunch break now, do we?"
I turned to Cindy, "Where did you even hear such a stupid story? No wait, I can already guess."
"It's not like I go out of my way to read it or anything-"
"I know."
"Everyone was talking about it. I just kinda overheard."
"I don't know why Gene Pop is so obsessed with me."
"On the bright side, you always look pretty in the photos they use."
"That's cos the photos aren't real, Cindy. I don't think they've ever taken a real photo of me in my entire life."
Miss Drew walked up to my desk with a tablet in hand, "It says here you always have tomato pasta?"
"It never lets me down."
"We have one of the best chefs in New York in this building-"
"Harry says he's one of Mr. Osborn's personal chefs."
"-yet you don't wanna try anything different? You could have Moroccan vegetable tagine."
"I don't like vegetables."
"But you're vegetarian…"
"Tomato's a fruit."
With a smile on her face she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Cindy, what would you like?"
"I could go for some tomato pasta myself, if that's all right?"
She laughed in disbelief, "You're gonna make the chef cry."
"Send him my apologies. For both of us."
I put on a mock angry expression, "Hey, there's nothing wrong with knowing what you like!"
Miss Drew started walking away, "I'll tell him that."
Classes were about as interesting as you'd expect. When I first joined Oscorp I was promised special tuition, one-to-one and on a level that'd really push me. They delivered on their promise, assigning one of their best scientists, Anna Maria Marconi, to be my teacher. But then Mr. Osborn fired her. It's a long story but basically her greatest invention tried to kill the whole company. It was my fault, but she took the blame. I was in an educational dead zone for a while after that, seeing Anna on weekends and evenings when she had the time, till one day we received a message from Mr. Osborn telling us that he'd built a whole school just for Oscorp employees. 'Finally!' I thought to myself. Unfortunately the reality was… disappointing. I mean yeah, it was a LOT better than my old school, but it was still school. I wanted to be in the lab making things, doing experiments. I wanted to be manipulating spacetime like the people in Oscorp's Experimental Science Division - not stuck learning about how cell division works.
At first they put me with kids my own age, but me and people my age don't get along. It's like talking to an alien species - and the feeling is mutual. So, of course, in my first semester I got moved up a year, then another. I entered the middle school branch of the building at ten years old, and now at twelve I was learning with a bunch of fourteen year-olds, some even older. But it didn't matter how much they moved me up, or how much extra homework they gave me - classes were still mind-numbingly slow. It's not like I didn't learn anything in them, but what they taught in a week I could learn in a day. Honestly the only useful thing school ever taught me was how to pretend you aren't daydreaming.
"Peni?"
I looked up from my book. The English teacher, Mrs. Winterhalter, was staring at me from the other end of the room.
"Page nine, if you don't mind. The last two paragraphs."
I gently coaxed SP//dr off of the school tablet sitting on my desk and swiped over to page nine.
"But time passes and gradually the idea of leaving him - never fully articulated to begin with - slips away as the knowledge of a rational waking world slips away in sleep; gradually there is no world for her but the world of the dream in which she lives, a dream like the ones she had as a girl, where she ran and ran as if in a trackless wood or a shadowy maze, with the hoofbeats of some great animal behind her, a fearful insane creature which drew ever closer and would have her eventually, no matter how many times she twisted or turned or darted or doubled back.
The concept of dreaming is known to the waking mind but to the dreamer there is no waking, no real world, no sanity; there is only the screaming bedlam of sleep…"
When the lunch bell rang, Cindy went off to hang out with her long-time friends Lola and Rafferty, and I went to hang out with mine: Harry Osborn.
"You're still studying?" I asked as I sat down next to him at an extra long cafeteria table.
"This new biology teacher is gonna be the death of me."
"There's a new one?"
"She just started today."
"What happened to Mr. DiPaolo?"
"I dunno. I was still getting e-mails from him till a couple weeks ago, then they just stopped."
"I thought he was on paternity leave or something."
"Yeah, well…"
I leaned over his book, "Senescence, huh?"
"I was the only person who didn't get it."
I stabbed my tomato pasta with a fork, "I can help you if you want."
He looked at me, "Will you ever eat pasta with a spoon?"
"Will you ever learn the meaning of senescence?"
"I could teach you, you know."
"About spoons?" I asked as I jammed a clump of pasta in my mouth.
He smirked, "Yeah, about spoons."
The pasta was way too hot.
I can't just spit it out now. Gotta bear with it.
I heard my phone buzz in my backpack. I ignored it.
"I've got biology next," I said, trying to get cool air onto my hot tongue, "so I guess I'll be having this new teacher too."
The phone buzzed again. I swallowed the pasta down and incinerated my throat, "Really need to let that cool down more before I chow down on it."
"You've been saying that for weeks!"
I unzipped my backpack and pulled out my phone, "It's not my fault pasta is so tasty!"
There were two text messages, both from the same unknown number. I opened them up.
[I'm watching you] read the first one. The second sent a chill down my spine.
[Don't ignore me, Peni]
Harry must've seen the expression on my face cos he asked, "Everything okay?"
I dropped the phone back in the backpack, "Yeah… Just some weirdo. Couple of random messages. You know, nothing… nothing I haven't had before."
Except it wasn't like anything I'd had before. Usually the randos who messaged me did it through chatbubble or spacebook. No one had ever sent a message directly to my phone.
Harry sighed, "Another crazy fan, huh? I don't know how you handle it. Honestly when I see the crap Gene Pop writes about you it makes me glad I'm a nobody."
I forced a laugh, "I don't let it get to me."
I heard the phone buzz again. SP//dr, who had been resting calmly on my shoulder, leapt up in the air at the sound of it. Harry got busy with his lunch, which looked like a hamburger with salad, but without the bun. I picked up my fork. Before I so much as tickled the pasta the phone made its presence known yet again in my bag.
"Dude doesn't wanna let up, huh?" Harry commented.
I didn't dare check the messages. I needed to start on my lunch or else I'd never finish it before class.
Gotta ignore it.
I felt it vibrate in the bag one last time, then I yanked it out and switched it to silent without reading any of the messages. Harry stared at me.
I glared back at him, "What?"
He shook his head, "Nothing."
"Sorry… I-"
"It's fine, I get it."
I watched the tomato sauce on my pasta trickle around the plate. My appetite had completely disappeared.
I need to calm down. Just cos they have my phone number doesn't mean I'm in danger. I can just change it. It's nothing. I can deal with this.
SP//dr stroked the top of my hand with his little legs. A drop of relief trickled down through my chest.
That's right, I'm one half of the most awesome pilot team in the city. I can handle anything. Whoever this is, they have nothing on me.
I shouldn't have checked the messages on the way to class.
[How's the pasta, Peni?]
[Wondering how I got this number?]
[Your mech looks like it's in good condition]
After I put the phone on silent they'd sent one more:
[Nice house, too]
Beneath the message was a picture of my aunt and uncle's house, taken right outside the front door.
I felt sick.
How did they find the house?
Even as I asked the question the answer was obvious: the mech. I always parked it in the back yard like an idiot.
This person found them because of me, and now…
I needed to do something, and fast. Tapping the 'call' button on Aunt May's number, I dashed down the hall.
Need to get to the mech.
SP//dr clung onto my neck for dear life as I sprinted as fast as my legs would take me. I dashed round the corner, past the lockers, then-
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
I didn't recognize the woman in front of me.
"I'm sorry but I really need to take this call outside!"
"Haven't you got class now?"
"I'm not late yet. Just, please, I only need a minute-"
"What's your name?"
"Please, lady!"
"Your name."
"Peni, Peni Parker."
"You're in my class."
"Your class? Biology?"
She's the new teacher!
The phone went through to voicemail. I didn't waste any time, "Hey Aunt May, just checking to see if you're alright! If you're at work then that's great, stay there and have a nice day, and uh, call me?"
The new teacher raised her eyebrows as I hung up, "Is there something I should know?"
I could feel the sweat dribbling down my forehead, "Nope. Nothing. Just gotta… check my mech! Superhero things, you know."
"Can it wait?"
"Uh, well, I mean-"
"The mech looked fine when I came in just now."
"Didn't you just finish teaching Harry?"
"When you have lunch, I have lunch. How do you know Harry?"
She wrapped an arm round my shoulder and started marching me back the way I came.
"We're friends," I replied.
"Of course. He seems like a nice boy, and a good student too. Very attentive."
SP//dr bristled on my cheek as the teacher forced us back through the school. He kept staring at her with his forelegs raised. I didn't like her either, but he really didn't like her.
What's wrong SP//dr? What are you seeing that I'm not?
My phone lit up in my hand. Another message from the mysterious stranger. I didn't open it, and the teacher didn't mention it. A short stroll later I was back in class 3-3, sitting next to Cindy by the window.
She didn't mince her words, "You look terrible."
I slumped forward on my desk, "I feel terrible."
"Was lunch that bad?"
"It's nothing to do with the food."
SP//dr scuttled up my forearm.
"Your spider seems grumpy too," she said, then lowering her voice, added, "do you wanna talk about it?"
"Maybe later, after class. With this teacher around… I dunno, it's like she can read my mind."
"Read your mind?"
"I can't explain it. There's just something weird about her."
As I said that the biology teacher got behind her desk and clapped her hands, "Hello everyone! As you probably gathered, I'm new here. My name is Ashley Kafka and I'm your new biology teacher. You can call me Ashley or Miss Kafka, whichever you prefer."
Someone must've raised their hand because Miss Kafka pointed to the back of the class and said, "Yes, go ahead."
"What happened to Mr. DiPaolo?"
"He's taking a break for now. I can't say any more."
Kafka… where do I recognize that name from? Isn't she from-
"-the Ravencroft Institute For the Criminally Insane…"
She smiled at me, "That's right, Peni."
Wait… I said that out loud?
I felt my cheeks heat up.
"I was a psychiatrist there," she continued, "I like helping people. So when I saw your school needed a biology teacher, I thought I'd step in."
Her smile was so warm and genuine I didn't even question why she'd give up being a psychiatrist to become a substitute teacher.
"Anyway, we'd better get started," she said as she turned on the smartboard, "or the principal won't be happy with me!"
The end of class couldn't come fast enough. I practically leapt out of my seat when the bell finally rang.
"Peni, where are you going?" Cindy called out. At Mason Banks you don't change rooms for different classes. The teachers come to you.
"I uh…"
Miss Kafka smiled at me.
"…really need to pee!"
Before either my teacher or my friend could complain I hurried down the hall and out of sight.
Need to get to the mech. I can access the satellites from there, and with the satellites I'll know if anyone's hiding outside the house.
I saw the school entrance up ahead, along with the security desk, which was surrounded by screens connected up to security cameras throughout the building. The guard would know I wasn't meant to be there.
It's not like they don't know who I am. I'll just tell them I'm going off to fight crime or something.
Except they got notified of crime reports. I had a similar app on my phone for when Oscorp needed me to protect their 'assets'. I'd managed to prevent them installing trackers in my mech, but in the end it didn't matter. After all, I took my phone with me everywhere anyway, and that tracked my movements as standard without any meddling from Mr. Osborn and his cronies.
I unlocked my phone and swiped open the stranger's latest message.
[Tell them, and they die]
Is he talking about Aunt May and Uncle Ben? Or does he mean… anyone? Everyone?
Whoever was sending the messages needed to be stopped. They were more than just some random stalker. No one had ever gone so far as to stake out my house before. I watched the security guard lazily observe his plethora of screens, then I walked towards the main doors. I expected him to say something as I walked past his desk, but he didn't. It wasn't until the automatic doors opened for me that he called out,
"Hey, kid! Where do you think you're going?"
I froze, "I uh, well, I've gotta go stop crimes, you know, as SP//dr."
He checked his computer, "Oscorp haven't sent out an alert."
"I know that, but not every crime is an 'Oscorp Alert' level crime, you know? Does that mean no one should stop it?"
"That's what the police are for, kid."
"I disagree."
"You can disagree all ya want, but I ain't letting you skip school."
"I'm not skipping!"
He pointed down the hall, "Class is that way."
I dragged my heels back past his desk, "Can I least use the bathroom first?"
His eyes burned with distrust, "Alright, the bathrooms are," he pointed away from my class, "that way. But don't make me come in there and get you."
"Yeah, yeah."
I did as I said I would, and went into the bathroom. All the bathrooms at school were unisex, a mixture of normal and 'squat' toilets, which were like fancy holes in the ground. The stalls stretched from floor to ceiling, so you couldn't peek on people using them, and were totally soundproof. Sensors in the floor detected how many students were occupying a given stall at any one time. If more than one student went into a stall at once, a silent alarm would notify the guard. The principal said it was to stop 'canoodling'.
The sensors didn't detect spiders, though.
"I'm gonna need you to do some solo piloting for me, SP//dr," I said, cupping my eight-legged friend in my hands.
The ground floor bathroom near the entrance was unusual in that it had an enormous frosted window. The very top of it could open out wide - useful on hot days to help vent the humid air. It also doubled up as an emergency fire escape. Normally the air conditioning was enough to keep things cool, so the window stayed locked. But because it was an emergency escape route (and needed to be totally failsafe) it was locked manually, with a proper old-fashioned key. What the guards didn't know was that I'd cloned the key shortly after the first time I'd been turned away at the exit.
I could've just gone to the bathroom in the first place - it would've saved me the hassle with the guard. But as I opened the window and the stench of the school's food recycling vats assaulted my nose, I was reminded once again of why I preferred to leave through the front door.
If I'd just gone straight to the bathroom I could've gone to my mech directly, but now the guard would be on the lookout. The only way to get to the spot where I parked the mech was to go past the main entrance. Obviously that was out of the question.
"Go get the mech and meet me back here," I said as I guided SP//dr onto the wall outside. This wasn't the first time SP//dr had to activate the mech by himself. There was a tiny hole in the plated armor that led to an equally tiny door, a door that would only open when SP//dr's active bioelectric signal was detected nearby. It'd saved my butt on more than one occasion when fighting NYC's never-ending stream of crooks, and it also came in handy for situations like these.
I bet they wish they'd never taught me about biomagnetism.
I squeezed myself through the bathroom window and tumbled onto the lids sealing the recycling vats.
"Ugh! This is so gross…"
But worth it. No sooner had I clambered down the vats than SP//dr was standing before me with a huge, pixellated winky face. The front hatch popped open with a slight hiss, and SP//dr lowered the mech so I could easily step in. As I sat in the pilot's chair I tried to fasten my seatbelt, but then I remembered - I broke it on the way to school.
"Need to fix that."
There were a lot of things that needed sorting out, but only one was on my mind in that moment. I pulled out my phone.
"Alright SP//dr, let's find out who this guy really is."
SP//dr accessed my phone remotely and started tracing the messages. The first was sent near my house, the second near the school. But then the third, which came right after the second, was seemingly sent from all the way out in Brooklyn.
"That's impossible."
The more we searched the more nonsensical the results became. I realized then that the sender had scrambled the message's path, hiding which communication towers it'd visited.
"But it'd have to leave a trace… right? One of those towers would have to point to the right cell phone."
Even then, it could easily have been a burner phone, or even something emulating a phone. By the time I found it, it could be dumped on the floor or in the river.
Suddenly my phone started buzzing in my hands. I dropped it in shock. It buzzed again, rumbling along the floor. Then I saw the name of the caller. I leaned over and snatched it up.
"Aunt May?"
"Peni, is everything alright?"
"Uh, yeah, everything's fine! Why do you ask?"
"Are you sure? You didn't sound fine in your message."
I thought about what the stranger said. [Tell them, and they die].
"Oh yeah, the message! Don't worry about that. I just got the urge to call," I lied, "You know, just, wanted to check in!"
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Okay, well I'm on my way home now, so if you need me-"
"No! Wait! I mean-"
"What?"
"Nothing. I… I have to get to class. It's gonna start any minute."
"Peni are you sure-"
"Bye Aunt May!"
I turned the phone off and threw it in my backpack.
"We have to get back home now!"
SP//dr fired up the mech's thrusters while I placed the neural amplifiers over my ears. I felt my body melt away as I (mentally) sank into the mech. I could feel the heat building up in my legs, feel the web fluid stored in the cartridges embedded in my arms. I could feel every ping from every comms tower in range and sense every satellite zooming overhead.
Time to catch a stalker.
I launched into the air. The city stretched out before me. Towers of metal and glass, rising up from the earth like stalagmites, glittered in the midday sun. The mag-lanes were clear, as clear as they ever were in New York, but I had no need for them. The only way to get back to Ditmars-Steinway before Aunt May was over the river.
My school was about mid-height in the city. Back before the climate crisis cities only really had one level: the ground level. Sure you had skyscrapers, but everything was accessed first and foremost from the natural land beneath your feet. After the oceans rose, though, people didn't wanna live in the flood zones (i.e. ground level buildings) anymore, so they started building streets way up high. Then those got busy, so the really fancy neighborhoods got their own special streets built even higher than that. Yorkville, where my school was, happened to be one of those fancier neighborhoods. Why does any of that matter, you ask? Because right at the tippy top, on East End Avenue where the old Stark building used to be, was an enormous viewing platform built specially for those extra-classy residents. I'd never actually been up there before, but I often saw it on the way to school. It's not something you could miss; the gold plating all over it was practically blinding when you swung up really high - really high being the operative phrase. The thing was so high that with a single jump off the top you could glide right down to Astoria Park.
Which is exactly what I intended to do.
With my eyes on the prize I swung up and up between the buildings till I got a clear shot at the viewing platform. Then, with a single line of web, I thwipped myself towards it and flipped over its twenty-four carat railing. The rich folk enjoying the view nearly jumped out of their designer jackets as my huge mechanical feet stomped down in front of them.
"Don't mind me, just passing through!" I explained, trying not to laugh. They didn't find it so funny.
"AAAAHHH!" screamed one old lady.
"I take it you're not a fan of spiders?"
When she fainted on the spot I decided it was time to make my getaway. With a horde of angry rich people forming behind me I hopped onto the golden railings once again, giving them a friendly neighborhood dent in the process, then leapt into the air.
"WOOHOOOOOO!"
I activated my web wings and soared over the East River. The leafy trees of Astoria Park rippled invitingly in the distance as I began to make my descent. I dodged past Hallets Point Watchtower and dipped under the Manfredi Bridge just in time… to fall out of my seat and land face-first on the mech's window again.
"Stupid broken seatbelt," I mumbled.
I hadn't turned on the airbags this time, so a crash landing for the mech meant a crash landing for me too. Recognizing the danger, SP//dr immediately did what he needed to in order to keep me safe.
He opened the window.
I fell into the sky, face-to-face with the green-blue river. Then I felt SP//dr's mechanical hands grab me. He slung me back in the mech and webbed me to the chair.
"Good thinking, SP//dr!" I said as the whole world span before my eyes. I managed to find the presence of mind to re-attach the neural amplifiers just in time to feel the mech morph into its ball form as we slammed down into the remains of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. We rolled through the park: green grass, blue sky, green grass, blue sky, till finally a tree killed our momentum.
I started laughing, "Wow! That was AMAZING! I'm definitely doing that again!"
The laughter stopped when I heard my phone buzz again in my backpack. I changed the mech back into its bipedal form and checked to see if I'd got another message from the creep. Sure enough, it was him.
[Too late]
Too late? Has he-
"No, there's no way he's got to Aunt May yet."
I don't even know if it's a 'he'. It could be anyone.
With shaking hands, I typed in a message of my own.
[Who are you?]
But the message didn't send. It couldn't find a number to be sent to.
"Ugh, of course he hid his number."
Still webbed to the chair and wired up to the mech, I extricated us from the tree and stomped out of the park. The locals were so used to seeing SP//dr and I in the mech that they didn't even stare as I webbed my way into the upper echelons of Ditmars-Steinway. Within a few minutes I was outside my aunt and uncle's house.
I stood in the driveway and scanned for heat signatures in the area. Sure enough, there were people around, but they were all in their houses. Unless one of my neighbors had suddenly decided to start harassing me, that meant the stalker wasn't here.
"SP//dr, check the satellites again…"
But they turned up empty too. My phone lit up.
[I see you]
At this point it wasn't even surprising. I was starting to suspect he was lying, cos I'd never seen camouflage so effective that it rendered you totally invisible. Well, I'd never seen it outside Oscorp, anyway.
Maybe this person works for Oscorp.
"Or maybe he's in my house."
Or someone else's house.
"Am I seriously being stalked by my neighbors?"
As soon as those words left my lips I got another message.
[No]
I froze.
"No…? No to what?"
Can he hear what I'm saying?
I was shaking now.
There's no way someone could bug the mech. I'm the only one who even knows how it works.
I took a deep breath.
Calm down, Peni. Let's just check the house before Aunt May gets back.
I launched myself over the roof and landed in the back yard. I did another infrared scan. Just like the first, it turned up empty. No unusual bioelectrical signals, no unusual heat signatures, nothing.
De-powering the mech had never been so nerve-racking, but it had to be done. SP//dr let himself out of his little cockpit and crawled onto my cheek. I stroked him with my index finger.
"Even if they bugged the mech, that doesn't mean they've bugged the house. It could even be my phone that's giving me away… hmm…"
I left my phone in my backpack, and left the backpack in the mech. With my keycard in hand I carefully walked up to the house's rear entrance. It was locked.
I breathed a sigh of relief, "That should mean that no one's been in here since Aunt May and Uncle Ben left for work this morning."
That didn't stop me from peeking into the hall before fully opening the door, though. It didn't ease my mind enough for me to walk straight in, either. Even knowing that no one could possibly have come in while the rest of us were out, I still felt compelled to listen for any little sounds, check for any signs of movement - but everything was just as it should be. Nothing was out of place. There was no noise. It was just me and SP//dr.
I almost wanted to cry in relief. Had I really been that stressed about it?
It's not like he's my first stalker.
I laughed at myself, "Probably just hacked my phone. I'm such an idiot."
The school was definitely gonna contact Aunt May about my absence after lunch, but it was worth it. I couldn't have known it was just some rando.
I started climbing the stairs, "He really had me going for a second there."
My bedroom door stared at me from across the landing. The ground floor had been totally normal - that didn't mean the first floor would be.
It will be.
I peeked into Aunt May and Uncle Ben's room: nothing. I peeked in the bathroom: also nothing.
There's no one here. I just need to relax.
But I couldn't relax. I still had my room left to check.
I cracked my knuckles, then as quick as I could I threw my bedroom door open and charged in.
"Come out you coward!"
But it was empty. Everything was in its right place. The only person home was me.
I flopped onto the bed and let my tension melt into the mattress.
"Stupid stalker."
I should've just told a teacher.
"How could I know he wouldn't actually kill someone if I did, though?"
SP//dr crawled down my arm and rested on my hand. Today really had been a terrible day.
"Maybe I should call Anna."
But my phone was still in the mech.
"Could use the holophone… pretty sure she wrote her number down at some point."
Yeah, I should call Anna. She'll understand.
I sat up and span around so I was sitting on the edge of the bed. Then something caught my eye, shining bright white by my pillow. As I looked closer I realized it was underneath my pillow. It seemed to be a sheet of paper.
"What the heck?"
I grabbed the edge and pulled it out. When I saw what was on it I nearly fainted.
"No…"
It was a handwritten message, scrawled in black ink. It read: THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM ME, PENI PARKER.
"That's not possible. How…? How could someone get in here without a key? Without setting off the alarm? Who…?"
I was wrong. This wasn't just some stalker. This person was dangerous. They got into my mech, my school, my house… and I had no idea how they did it.
"Why me!? Why!? What am I supposed to do!? How do you stop someone like this!?"
I desperately scoured my brain for an answer, but nothing was coming to me… and as I sat at the edge of my bed trembling in fear, panic rising in my chest, I began to think that maybe nothing ever would.