Chapter Text
Being bit by a radioactive spider surprisingly came with a lot of perks. The start not so much though, waking up in a cold sweat and having no clue whats going on, sticking to everything and accidentally pulling his door of the hinges wasn't very fun. Having to explain all of that to his parents was the most awkward conversation hes ever had like, ever.
The fear of not knowing whats happening to him, why his body is changing, if it was for the worse or the better. He thought he was dying for a good few days.
But looking past all of that, it really did have quite the benefits, for now he's counted five total.
The first perk came when he woke up and was suddenly just really fit, like muscles and all. Wemmbu had never really been a person to enjoy physical activity much, his life consists of going to school, hanging out with Egg, and then going home, usually with Egg too.
A few days after realising his DNA had been altered, he was still coming down from that rollercoaster of emotions, when he noticed how toned his chest and arms had gotten. In his defence waking up and suddenly sticking to things kinda took the majority of his attention. So when one night as he was brushing his teeth he noticed the flex in his arms, it made him stop for a second just staring into the mirror, toothbrush hanging from his mouth. Huh, well that wasn't there yesterday he thinks.
He just stares at his way too muscular arms for second longer, not really knowing how to continue from here. He he decides to take his shirt off too check the rest, and lo and behold he had abs, like actual abs. No wonder why is body was sore as fuck after waking up from the whole ordeal.
Not so surprisingly his first thought to having his body altered with was, would Egg like it? He must right, like everyone likes abs, right? He didn't know what he'd do if Egg didn't like it, it wasn't really his choice to get them, so how the fuck was he supposed to lose it?
Luckily, after going to school and acting like an awkward mess, he suddenly blurted out that hes been 'working out' to Egg, it didn't seem like he was too opposed to the new look. Asking how he manged to build muscle that quickly and then quietly adding that it looks good on him.
He said it looked good, Egg said that he looked good!! Wemmbu rode the euphoria of that one complement for weeks. He'd stand in his bathroom mirror flexing his arms playing Eggs words over and over in his head, he said he looked good!
So having his entire life thrown upside down, having powers he had no idea how to control and having his body altered really wasn't that bad if Egg thought it made him look good.
Another perk was being able to help people, to be useful to the world around him. It doesn't beat being complemented by Egg but it was an amazing feeling putting on that mask, swinging around the city trying to make a difference, and actually succeeding.
Figuring out that he now has super human strength, the ability to climb on walls and the web shooting was also a feat in it self. However figuring all tree things out at once was not fun, it was a panic filled frantic morning and an even more frantic clean up of it all.
After many experiments and limit testing he was ready to take on the streets! His first night out was a mess, like a total complete mess. He was trying to stop a mugging and accidentally sent the mugger flying serval feet away and on top of that he broke a part of the women's purse, she was not very happy about that, like at all.
But! After that things went smoother, he started to figure out how to control his strength more and getting more fluid in his movement. He started having more successful experiences, actually achieving stopping petty crime and he even once stopped a shop robbery!
What makes this perk rank number two could probably be that one day when he was sitting down for lunch with Egg at their usual table, trying to hide his expression of pain from the bruises that hadn't quite healed yet.
Egg asks "Yo bro, have you seen that anything bout that new hero? Spider something i think"
It takes everything in him not to choke on his food, trying his hardest to keep a straight face, keep calm, keep calm man. "A little i think, what uhm. What do u think about him?" He tries to subtly asks.
"Hmm, I don't know" He says, taking a bite of his food, leaving Wemmbu in an anxious suspense, he'd bounce his leg if it didn't hurt too much at the moment. "I think, i think he's pretty cool, saving the normal everyday people, that's pretty cool i feel"
Pretty cool, he called him pretty cool! Well technically he called spiderman pretty cool, not him, but that technically him so Wemmbu will take it and hold on to it forever.
Wemmbu clears his throat remembering he has to answer. "Oh yea yea, i feel you. Sometimes the big heroes kinda only focus on the world ending stuff, which is like fair enough but still y'know" He ends in a mumble, trying to keep his smile to a normal amount. Eggchan called him cool, pretty cool at that, god he's never letting go of that
So yea, maybe that has a part in this being perk two, just maybe.
Perk number three came when he figured out that on top of everything, he also has reflexes that are way better than normal. He can almost sense stuff before it even happens. That's saved his ass more times than he'd like to admit, more times than he'd like to think about.
It makes the fights way easier, being able to move fluidly around the bad guys attacks. It minimises the bruises he gets too, which is really nice.
But the thing that puts this perk in third place is that one day when him and Egg are walking home from school, some annoying idiots weren't paying attention while the were playing some ball game. The ball goes flying right towards them, more importantly it goes flying right towards Eggs head.
Without thinking he immediately moved to stand in between him and the ball, catching it with no issue in his hand. Moving to look at Egg asking if he's alright, not even feeling the burn that should've come with catching such a fast ball.
The way Egg looked at him really was something else, all wide eyed and mouth agape looking up at him. The guys yell to get their ball back but Wemmbus too busy with memorising every curve of that facial expressing, burning it into his head. Without thinking he throws the ball back at the group, harder than he should have. He puts a hand on Egg shoulder asking if hes okay once more.
Egg blinks at him before excitedly saying, "Brother. What was that! Are you okay? Is you're hand okay?" He moves to grab a hold onto Wemmbus hands to get a look at the redness that should've been there, but isn't. Wemmbu takes his hand back, "I'm fine, I'm fine don't worry" he says.
He starts walking again, hoping Egg will drop it, but he obviously doesn't.
"Brother, bro how did you do that! W catch like that was insane" He excitedly says, still looking at Wemmbu like, like that. Like he's looking at something special.
"I don't know bro, i just caught it i guess" He says, looking away from Egg, he doesn't think his heart can take the way he's looking at him
"It gotta be the working out, it's making you some typa superhero" Egg joked, grabbing into Wemmbus bicep giving it a squeeze. It makes Wemmbus face heat up right away, he felt it burning with the blush he knows is to obvious. His heart started beating out of his chest, he had to remind himself that Egg was just joking, that he doesn't know, hasn't clocked him and oh my god did he just squeeze his bicep?
He pushed Eggs hand away, putting his own arm over Egg shoulder instead, pulling him into himself, making Egg stumble giggling as he goes. Trying to pull himself away from Wemmbus grasp, but its futile, not only because of Wemmbu super strength but Egg has always just been weaker than him, even before.
"Shut up bro" He says, embarrassed but also way too close to be caught, he has to be more careful in the future.
Later that day, at night when he's laying in bed trying to fall asleep, the feeling his Egg squeezing his bicep keeps him up. He turned to lay on his side frustratingly, feeling the blush on his face, smiling involuntarily, burrowing his head into the pillow. Trying to keep his mind away from fantasising about more, about Egg maybe feeling more- no shut up brain, like actually shut up, but his brain wont shut up. It keeps going back to it, the way Egg looked at him. How pretty he looked with his eyes so wide open, eyelashes blinking so prettily at him, the sun framing his face so beautifully.
Wemmbu did not get a lot of sleep that night, or the night after that.
Perk four is a pretty boring one, but very important. His heightened healing ability.
The first real fight he got into was a bad one, his face littered with bruises. He had them everywhere too, maybe something worse but he couldn't even think about that. All he could think was fuck, how was he going to hide this from Egg, from his parents? Egg would worry way too much about him, asking way too many questions. The last thing he'd ever want to do was add unnecessary stress to him, he already worries way too much to begin with.
Limping home in the middle of the night with the only thing on his mind being curses and a deep rooted feeling of anxiety. When he gets home he doesn't even have the energy to keep worrying about it, when his head hits his pillow he's out like a light.
The morning after he woke up with a groan, still feeling the pain throughout his body, left arm still hurting like a bitch. He forced himself out of bed, the anxiety returning like a heavy weight on his chest. Maybe he can steal some of his mums makeup to hide the bruises? But as he enters the bathroom the bruises have almost completely faded. There's still a little left, especially around his one eye, but its still fading.
He looked at himself in the mirror, mouth slightly agape hes fully perplexed on how that's even possible. Now that he thinks about it he's pretty sure he broke his arm too, it looked all wrong last night. But now, as he looks at it, it's fine. Like completely fine, it hurts of course, but it's very clearly not broken.
He looked back and forth between his face and arm in the mirror. He used his good arm to support himself on the sink, legs still wobbly from the exhaustion from the fight. God this is too confusing for him right now, too much to think about, too sciencecy.
He went back to bed again, passing out right away once again. The next time he woke up his face is fully healed. his body still has the lingerings of bruises, but his face was the most important thing. He'll just wear long sleeves too school and be careful of his facial expressions around Egg, this is so fine. He's so fine.
So not the most exiting perk, but probably the most important one. He'd probably hate himself if he made Egg waste worry on him.
Perk five is the last one for now, it doesn't have anything to do with Egg, which is probably why it's the last one on the list.
It's hard doing hero work alone, it's gruelling, exhausting and quite frankly lonely keeping such a deep secret from every single person he cares about. So finding people like himself, people that wont kill him on sight was rare, but god was it worth it when he found someone.
It happened in a way he'd rather not retell to anyone. Wemmbu might have bit of more than he could chew with this one. Surrounded in a dimly lit warehouse, bad guys on every side and no clear exit in his sight, he's already quite bruised, one of them having some sort of inhumane strength. He'd gotten stuff he didn't even know what was. His hurts way too badly for it to be safe staying here, he has to get out of here.
He could take the super strength and 1v how ever many people are here, he could take everything they were throwing it him. But guns, he couldn't take guns. He's slowly backing up to a corner he knows will stop him soon, trying his hardest to figure out a way out of this.
"Come on guys, can't we talk about this?" He tries, they don't seem to be wanting to talk about it though, they just keep walking towards him.
He looked around franticly trying to find literally anything to work with, when his spidey senses go of, somethings going to happen. He looked to the direction his body is telling him too, seeing a baton flying right towards one of the bad guys gun, knocking it out of his hand, distracting the rest.
Wemmbu immediately springs into action, shooting a web at the two other guys holding guns, rendering them useless, he shoots once more to bind their legs together so they can't just run. He shoots another web to the ceiling getting away from the super strength guy and getting a good view at whoever saved his ass.
Holy shit is that the Lion of hells kitchen? As he's having that thought a table is thrown right at him and he has to quickly web away, he still tries to get a look at the guy while being hunted down by random objects.
The lion goes right for the attack, dodging and weaving every hit in such a way that has Wemmbu mesmerised. 'Focus man, lock in' he tells himself as he flies down to give a powerful kick right on the big bad guys shoulder, webbing away after. He aims a couple of shots at the bad guys feet, making him stumble with The Lions strong hits, finally falling with the last hit. Wemmbu is on him in a second, webbing him up so he can't escape.
Perfect timing with the sirens in the background. The Lion tries to leave but Wemmbus right behind him.
"Bro, brother thank you! I was cooked there!" He says but The Lion doesn't respond, so Wemmbu continues.
"Like dam, that was a close one" he awkwardly laughs as they leave the building. "Like, you came at the perfect time, W bro" His rambles continue as he crawls up the side of the building The Lion is skilfully parkouring up.
When they're at the top of the building The Lion snaps towards him, the blind fold covering his eyes making it hard for Wemmbu to asses what The Lions feeling.
"What were you thinking. Taking on an underground criminal ring alone" He angrily says.
"Hey! You were alone too!" Wemmbu argues back gesturing with his hands, not letting the intimidating figure of the lion head staring down at him scare him.
"I've been doing this for years, you've just started, don't do this again" He says poking Wemmbu in the chest with his baton.
"Well. I'm not gonna stop trying to help people, so hey! maybe you can teach with your so called expertise you're bragging about!"
The Lion stares at him unmoving, but a defeated sigh leaves him and Wemmbu knows he's won.
"I'll help you, but only if you can keep up, and only so you don't mess up my operations like this again" This time he actually walks away, Wemmbu follows.
"Yesss let's go! hey! I didn't mess up, we killed that" The Lion just scoffs at him jumping away faster.
After that an alliance was formed between them. The Lion helping Wemmbu learn actual martial art technics and Wemmbu helping in bigger crime fighting situations where one person just doesn't cut it.
After a while of having this arrangement set in place they started relaying on each other more, speaking more casually, more openly with each other. It was nice for the both of them to finally have someone who understands the secret identity of it all. To have someone who understands something so deep about themselves that no normal person ever could.
It was nice, really nice.