Chapter Text
An eclectic assortment of white stone permeated on the walls, blooming from the cascading light which jumped through the broad and beaming windows. Lining the long hallways were misconstrued beams, filled with Spider-people who seemed to use them as an abstract walkway. A folly of ‘thwips’ could be heard thrumming by the side of the Spider-Society cafeteria.
Peter B. Parker, having been one of the original first members of the glorified spider club, had gotten used to the noise, delegating it to just an ambiance now. Even as he was eating, it was never something he paid attention to anymore. He couldn’t count on his fingers how many missions he has been on since then, and just how many times he's sat at this same exact cafeteria table. Eating the same exact meal, with the same exact person.
“-id you hear?” Somebody had piped up. Peter’s head buzzed at the noise, being pulled out of his thoughts and back into the conversation.
“Huh? What was that?” His eyes jumped up, surprised that he was literally sitting here and eating lunch with Jessica Drew. Spider-woman. As if he hadn’t done this almost every week.
“I said…” She pulled her head down. Raising her eyebrows in judgment over Peter's daydreaming, “we’re having some new recruits, Miguel wants you up there to stand in as supervisor for the initiation.” The 'up' in question being Miguel's lab. Jessica lowered the wrapper on her burger, her eyebrows stayed raised as if to ask ‘well?’
Peter never really went inside the lab, anything that Miguel would send them on was always away from the Spider-camp. Not knowing what to expect from this he dropped his head onto the table, his palm resting on the back of his neck. He went to mumble something but poked one eye out instead, peeking up at Jess from the cafeteria table. Her face still held the same expression, and that was enough to make Peter curl his head back into the darkness of the table. A low ‘mmm’ was heard and he shot up from the chair. Mocking a stretch, Peter looked back at Jessica, as if in an attempt to spur some sort of reaction out of her stone frozen face.
“Miguel seems to be a hot topic these days.” His tone was rash. Miguel had been making them do nonstop missions lately, he couldn’t help but feel exhausted. Peter leaned his head onto his palm, and gestured with an expressionless face as he dipped his grease stained hands back into the basket of fries.
Jess lowered the burger from her mouth, letting out a long sigh.
“Yea well…regarding us I’m sure.” Her face made a downcast expression. Peter couldn’t help but tinge with regret at the younger woman's sudden tonal shift. “Nobody really has any idea of it but us…” Jess couldn’t seem to stomach reaching for her food, “...just us.”
Peter had stopped eating, he knew his snarky comment had crossed a line. A threshold the two never dared to cross again. Anything regarding Miguel was touchy information these days, as the resident leader seemed to never be around. Peter wasn’t even sure if he was around anymore. The only idea the two even had were the random comm messages Jess or Peter would get sporadically from Lyla. The messages would always detail some random information about a mission or assignment that ‘Miguel’ would task upon them. Never any information about where he was, what he was doing, or if he was even still alive. The two could only guess, as they were too nervous to even go up there in the first place. What they knew of that spider when they did interact, was that he was unpredictable. Even before everything had happened, Miguel was never a friendly type. And now they could only imagine how much worse it’s gotten. They couldn’t help but share expressions, as the two members had been thinking the same thing. There was an absence of guilt when Miguel suddenly disappeared, they thought it was harmless. But when things started to return back into monotony, they accidentally disregarded Miguel all together. And that guilt that was gone had come back tenfold, and they both knew it. He knew that Jess never pondered on Miguel much after that incident; neither did he really. Even after Miguel had nobody else to go to…
Peter knew he had to make up for his mistakes. There was no reason for him to sit around any longer.
“Alright…” Peter wiped his hands in the cheap cafeteria napkins. And grabbed what was left of his lunch, “...let Lyla know I’ll be up in 5.” Tossing his tray into the adjacent adorned ‘Spiderman-trash-bin,’ Peter went to put on his mask. His eyes took one last glance over at Jess as he snapped his web shooters into place. He watched her press send on the comm, before jumping off and being swallowed into a wave of ‘thwips.’ Shadowing the cafeteria through the cacophony of sound, Peter made one last attempt to look back at Jess. Only to see she had gone up and left, being drawn away by something else.
Peter wasn’t too sure where she could be going, he could all but get lost in that inquiry. Just to be pulled back by the constant thrum of his web shooters, connecting with every other beam. Throttling him in a not so unfamiliar motion, one which has been ingrained into his head, and has followed him through everything. He knew the thrum of the webs being spit would always be there, it was the one thing he could count on. And even as he approached the height of the building, Peter was sure the ‘thwip’ would follow him.
Scaling the giant headquarters of Spider-Society was anything but hard; Miguel designed this place to be the perfect environment for a spider’s webs. Each and every wall was decorated in a way for a spider's convenience; Some places even being locked away unless you crawl to them. Peter always found sanctum when he traversed through here, he felt accommodated. He couldn’t think of a better place to be swinging. Even as he approaches the dark carnivorous hole of Miguel’s lab, he can’t help but sense a calm feeling wash over him as the warmth of the sun cascades with his body. This might be the only sun he feels in a while anyway; Standing right at the entrance, Peter dares his foot inside. Taking each step at a slow and feverish pace.
“Just here for some recruits.” Peter sputtered in an attempt to puff his chest, throw back his shoulders and march forward. And for a moment it had worked, his legs were actually moving this time. What looked like a dorky smile adorned his face, accentuating the man's age as he giggled inward. He knew Miguel, at least for a bit. And what he knew of the man was nothing to act a fool by. Peter let the fear go, claiming it to be just a symptom of separation. Of course, -Peter had stopped himself- he hadn’t seen Miguel in quite a while. And to be frank, Peter wasn’t sure he was going to see him anyways, all Jess had said was ‘supervising an initiation’. There wasn’t any evidence the man of question would even be at the event. He just had to hope that as he took this last and final step into the dormant of the lab, he would be able to answer that question.
“Heyo!” Peter clapped his palms, the fabric thistles on his suit rubbing together; evidently muffling the noise. “ m’ready for those recruits!” Peter -knowing he had an image to sell- made his hands into little finger guns, pretending to shoot them off in the direction where Lyla had digitized. Her form flickered, and a tiny scoff could be heard. Peters arms lowered to his sides, and stared up at the hologram as she hovered a bit over his head. The eyes on his mask widened in anticipation as he waited for her instructions. Peter could feel a scratch in his throat, hesitating on clearing it as the A.I went searching for something, suddenly disappearing once more, leaving Peter alone in the midnight of Miguel’s lab; being illuminated only by the assortment of monitors which decorated the space.
Not having any idea what Lyla was doing, Peter just retreated to rocking back and forth on his heels. His hands decorated his waist as he sat there in expectancy. He wasn’t too sure how long Lyla had been gone for, but the humming from Miguel's monitors was so consistent the sound had ingrained itself into Peter's head. He found himself focusing on it, and it felt as if the whole world drained away. Caught in the motion of the noise, he didn’t notice the pinprick feeling of his body hairs rise; In an attempt to warn him early-
Something was in here with him.
The droning monitors swallowed the fuzz on his skin, distracting him and his brain. Peter wasn’t sure how much longer this would take; his feet were getting achy. Even if he wanted to stand here forever and wait for Lyla to appear again, his age was telling him otherwise. The sound was blocked, all Peter could focus on now was the soreness in his feet and how much he needed to find a chair. Drawing himself away from the buzzing, he walked around the vacant lab; eventually spotting a small lounge chair situated in the far left of the space. As he sat down he could feel the literal decompression of his bones.
“Ahhh…” Peter could feel just how old he’d gotten, even with enhanced spider abilities there's no escaping that. He titled his head back and flexed his toes a bit, finding that a sudden alarm of drowsiness flooded his senses. He tried to swat it away by readjusting his position, confirming the effort to be fruitless as his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
with
each.
passing…
Second…
Time kept ticking while Peter slept. A new era of sounds trickled into Peter's dream riddled brain, playing on his ear drums. Cuddled in this chair he could still hear the world funnel into his consciousness. The sound of something peeked his ears. Slowly pulling him out of his exhaustion induced nap.
“PETER!”