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The day started normal, albeit a little slow, and that was fine, Scarlet Spider preferred slow days, but that was all before he’d gotten to the training room.
There was the usual noise of fighting and the crunching of metal, and of course, the heartbeats of those who were fighting.
Scarlet was the only one who could hear the heartbeats, he’d learned very early on that having such good, but sensitive hearing wasn’t normal. I was useful though. He could hear the heartbeat of an approaching enemy, listening to find the location of villains while everyone else had to rely on sight alone.
But along with the usual noise of training, there was music blaring over the speakers, turned up to what must’ve been a hundred, and for Scarlet, who’s hearing was almost two or three times better than the average persons, just nearing the room was an instant migraine. That wasn’t even mentioning the flashing lights, the incessant beeping sound that was coming from somewhere, and additional obstacles. He could hear all of it through the supposedly ‘soundproof’ walls.
“Today is going to test your ability to make it through this obstacle course while there are distractions all around you. You can’t always control your battle field, you just need to learn to overcome it.”
The noise stopped as a group of teen heroes came out of the training room, panting, but smiling and congratulating each other.
Scarlet now knew why Venom had been given the day off. He and the other spiders were ushered into the training room, and Scarlet cringed as the ear piercing screech of random, very painful noises filled the room.
He really did try to get through the course, but the lights kept blinding him, and he couldn’t rely on his hearing because of the infernal noise, and his spider sense was always ringing because it was way too loud. Then a high pitched noise, like a dog whistle, began, and Scarlet collapsed to his knees, hands over his ears, which were now bleeding, the blood dripping down from his ears to the floor. And as suddenly as it had begun, the noise stopped, though Ben’s ears were still ringing, and he had a splitting headache as spots covered half his vision.
He scrambled to a shaky stand, his blood still leaking onto the floor, people were rushing over to him, surrounding him, he dashed, running as quickly as he could down the corridors of the triskelion. His vision was still blurry, but he could still see enough to know if he was about to hit anything. After he was far enough from the training room, he darted for the nearest vent, planning to hide until he could see and hear properly again. Being without his key senses was both overwhelming, and absolutely terrifying.
—
Scarlet Spider had fallen asleep in the vents, still bleeding, but safe. The silence allowing him to recover his hearing, and the darkness was easy on his eyes. He woke with a soft groan, yawning as he uncurled from the tight ball he’d been in. His vision was clear again, and his ears had stopped ringing, but he still had a nasty migraine and his ears were still bleeding a little. He carefully made his way out of the vents, dropping to the floor and into a crouch, his mask had been off, and he rubbed at his eyes, pulling the mask over his face as slowly made his way down the corridor. He realized that he’d probably alarmed his team when he ran off, but he’d desperately needed somewhere dark, cold, and quiet.
When Scarlet made it back to the main corridor, he was suddenly surrounded by people, all of whom wore worried expressions.
Maybe he would’ve felt guilty if he weren’t so tired, but right now all he wanted to do was sleep until the next century. Scarlet slid past them, making it into the dorms and wall crawling straight to the ceiling. He settled in the corner with a light out, which had yet to be replaced after the indoor game of baseball Powerman and Nova had played, and created an enclosed web nest, curling up on the webbing and falling asleep.
—
Scarlet woke up to find himself cuddled in a blanket, still in his little web nest.
Weird. He hadn’t brought a blanket up to his nest.
But was very warm and comfortable, and his migraine still wasn’t gone… he might as well sleep it off.
—
The students of the academy were worried about Scarlet, especially after he’d run off, but after he’d returned, all he seemed interested in doing was sleeping. He’d curled up in his web nest hours ago, and he hadn’t even peeked out since he’d hidden himself away. Everyone had to admit the web nest was preferable to wherever he’d hidden before, but they still wanted to be sure that he was okay. And the growing red spot in the webbing sure didn’t help to ease anyone’s minds. Spider-Man had been concerned that the web would dissolve before Scarlet woke, but they had quickly learned that Scarlet’s webs lasted longer than the artificial webbing the other spiders used.
The other spiders would crawl up to the nest every once in a while, just checking to make sure Scarlet was okay, each time they came down saying he was fine, just asleep. Venom had even wrapped the red spider in a blanket the last time he’d gone to check on him.
Connors and the Web Warriors walked into the dorm room, Spider-Man pointing out Scarlet’s web nest.
“He’s been up there for hours.” Spider-Man said.
“He’s bleeding.” Kid Arachnid said, pointing to the growing red spot in the webbing.
Connors nodded. “Bring him to the infirmary, I need to check him over, find out what happened in the training room.”
Venom nodded, wall crawling up to the little web nest, poking his head in as he squeezed into the tiny space. It was a very tight fit. His hand went to Scarlet’s shoulder, rubbing. “Hey… Ben, you need to wake up.”
—
Scarlet cracked his eyes open, rubbing his face, realizing he was still wearing his mask.
“Connors needs to look at you, he wants to make sure you’re okay.” Venom’s voice filtered through his ears, he was talking softly, probably trying to keep from startling the red spider.
Scarlet shifted as the blanket was pulled away from his face, Venom’s hand carefully massaging his shoulders.
“Come on, time to go to the infirmary.” Venom gently reminded, careful not to be too pushy.
Scarlet moved slowly, sluggishly, like he was still tired, even after all the sleep he’d already gotten. Venom, noticing the others lack of energy, helped Scarlet out of the web nest, guiding the half asleep spider to the infirmary with a hand on the small of his back. The Web Warriors surround him and Scarlet, keeping all others away and clearing the path to the infirmary, where Scarlet was told to sit on a hospital bed.
No one asked any questions when Venom sat behind Scarlet, allowing the red spider to lean back. Connors had Scarlet remove his mask as he began to examine the red spider. It was obvious Scarlet was uncomfortable with the prodding, judging by the way he squirmed and tensed, though Venom held his mostly still.
Connors cleaned the dried blood from Scarlet’s ears, the Web Warriors waiting patiently to know what had caused Scarlet’s freak out.
As Connors finished, he handed back Scarlet’s mask, the red spider slipping it back on.
Then Connors turned to Agent Venom.
“Agent Venom, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like you to bring Scarlet back to the dorms and get him settled in bed.”
Venom nodded, guiding Scarlet from the infirmary, returning a few minutes later. “He’s in the web nest.” Venom reported.
Connors gave a slight nod. “There’s nothing seriously wrong, though we are fortunate his hearing wasn’t permanently damaged, he is overstimulated, hence his running off, but he’ll be fine. I would suggest speaking softly around him for awhile.”
And what a relief that statement was to the Web Warriors.
Ben was brought to May’s house the next day, Peter hoping that the quieter environment would allow Ben to finally relax.
The End.