Chapter Text
The great outdoors, a wonderful place full of animals, plants, and interesting rocks. A place for humans looking for a nice outing. Which was exactly what Peter Parker's class had hoped for.
A few weeks ago, the teacher passed around papers for a camping field trip to investigate and learn the composition of rocks in the area. Peter had been quick to get Aunt May to sign the paper; after all, he shared the class with his two best friends: Ned and MJ.
The time between the papers being handed to them and the actual trip felt short to the boy who was constantly busy between school, Spider-Manning, and every other task he was responsible for. Regardless, once it arrived, Peter had been ready, bags-packed as he arrived at school an hour early as was required.
Convincing Daredevil to keep an ear out for anything crazy in Queens had been a task, but Peter was pretty confident nothing horrible would happen in his four day absence from the city.
Getting on the bus with Ned and MJ, attention was drawn away from their casual conversation when none other than Flash Thompson, the bully who hated him, arrived.
“Oh wow, didn't know they would let Mr. Skips-a-lot on a field trip.” Flash grinned at him with a hatred that Peter felt there was no cause for.
MJ rolled her eyes and glared at Flash until he backed down, which didn't take long when the people behind him complained about him standing in the aisle of the bus.
Leaning back into his seat, Peter sighed “Why do I have a feeling he's gonna make this trip insufferable?”
“I'm sure Mr. Lee wouldn't let him do that” Ned sent a quick glance at their teacher, an older guy with an oddly distinct look.
The trio knew, however, that teachers and supervisors tended to ignore the actions of bullies who had any kind of money or status at the school. This fact has been made obvious because Flash has only ever gotten in trouble once, and that was after giving Peter a concussion.
The bus ride to the campsite had been mostly uneventful, and soon enough they were all stumbling out of the bus into the green of the forest.
“This is what we call nature, Penis Parker” Flash smacked his shoulder, sending snickers through his small group of followers. Peter frowned at the action, but mostly ignored the bully, opting to wait for MJ and Ned to get off the bus instead.
MJ stepped off the bus, and immediately clocked his less than happy expression, “Couldn't have waited for me to grab my sketchbook, huh?” She sent a glare where Flash was laughing with his buddies, easily guessing the cause of his upset.
Ned was next to appear, “I overheard some kids talking about scary stories tonight.” He grinned, “So we should think one up” at that point he noticed Peter's frown, and Ned’s smile slightly dropped.
There was a few seconds of silence, before Peter decided he couldn't keep dwelling on Flash and his constant rudeness, “Scary stories, huh?” He cracked a sly look “I hope no one here is arachnophobic”
MJ smiled at that, “I like your way of thinking, Parker” she looked back at Peter and Ned, “Maybe we can do more than just a simple story?”
The trio laughed about the idea of spider-based horror, but Peter kept it clear they wouldn't be tormenting anyone with his powers. It was unlikely he'd even tell a story at whatever campfire would be made later.
They were eventually led to the campsite to assemble their tents, friend groups being allowed to set-up close to each other. Peter, Ned, and MJ put their tents in a small half circle, further away from the main area than most others.
Most of that day was simply setting up the tents and putting everything where it needed to be. That was until late afternoon, where the students were called over to the campfire in the center of the set-up area.
“Alright everyone! Since we are all settled in, I would like to go over how this trip will go for the next three days.” Mrs. Glass, the other teacher aside from Mr Lee on the trip, spoke up. “Tonight we will eat food and then go to sleep, tomorrow will be an early day. We will do our collection of rocks, you will all get about three hours to find whatever rocks you want to study during this trip.”
“Will that time be the only time we can collect specimens?” a student in the crowd piped up, somewhere to the left of Peter.
“Yes, unless you find more during our other activities. After the collection, you will have time to sort out the rocks based on physical properties, following that we will bring out the equipment to check different properties that would not be so easily observed.” Mrs. Glass explained, “We expect notes on the rocks you have collected, which will count towards the final grade of this trip. The next day will be focusing on a few specific rocks to do further research into them. Then the last day will be for packing and leaving. Any questions?”
A few hands shot up, including MJ’s, beside Peter. Mrs. Glass looked around at the crowd, “none, great!” Clearly having thought she would not have to answer anything.
MJ lowered her hand and scowled, “what's the point in asking if anyone has questions if she's not going to answer them?”
“Feigned politeness?” Ned shrugged, Peter found himself nodding at that, since it really wasn't uncommon for someone to pull the politeness card and not follow through with their word.
Students started to disperse as Mrs. Glass turned away towards the other, nicer teacher, Mr. Lee. Peter, MJ, and Ned had started towards the campfire set-up, where many others had begun gathering.
Before they got there however, Flash stepped out in front of them, “oh?” He scoffed “are you there really trying to join us at the fire? We're gonna be telling stories and clearly none of you wimps would be able to handle them” he fake frowned, “so I guess you'll just have to run off now”
“I've seen more horror than your sorry ass probably has” MJ gave Flash a deadpan stare, daring him to push more.
Flash clearly ignored that memo, because he took a step forward, “you'd probably be fine, but Peter wouldn't last a minute. I mean he jumps at the littlest things” Flash shoved Peter back to try and emphasize his point.
Peter just accepted it, but MJ shoved Flash right back, grabbing Peter's arm and dragging him towards the fire with Ned following. Ned was also quiet, both him and Peter being used to the constant torment.
Flash glared at them the whole way to the fire before joining said campfire a moment later.
“He's more annoying than usual” MJ scowled, poking at her skewered hotdog.
Ned sighed, already cooking his hotdog, “we got the only two teachers who probably won't do anything, prime grounds for bullying”
Peter almost stabbed his own hand as he put his hot dog on the skewer, “not to mention he's around almost all of his squad so it's more of a show for them.” He breathed slowly through his nose, trying not to dwell on the annoyance that was Flash Thompson.
“We should get back at them” MJ grumbled as she looked back at her friends, shaking her head slightly. “Anyways, you two mentioned another one of your nerd comics coming out?”
“Oh! The next Star Gallery comic!” Peter grinned, the conversation continuing with rants and explanations of the upcoming comic.
The sunset slowly gave way to darkness, people finishing their food and switching to the much preferred marshmallows, and so began the horror stories.
The trio found their conversation quickly disappearing as the first story started, something about an evil murderer with a hook for a hand targeting couples.
Then once that was over, with no one scared, the next kid started, some guy named Johnny talking about a burnt man and some haunted cabin in these very woods.
Each story ended with minimal reaction, maybe some gasps during the duration for those really getting into it, but then Flash stood up with a grin that just made Peter feel like he wasn't going to like this.
“I have a perfect story!” Flash started, grin widening as Peter noticed two of his friends missing from the log they had settled on “it starts with a group of five kids. A strong guy, his four friends, and an awkward idiot”
It was there that Peter became disinterested as most of the horror was boring and there were some very pointed comments about the character called Pete Parking.
When it reached the big jumpscare about the killer jumping out of a tree, out came one of Flash's friends, resembling the bad guy, from the tree, electing a few screams. But the other friend was still missing.
As people laughed and clapped about the story, Peter felt his senses give a short warning right before something was splashed on him, getting him to gasp at the cold water dyed red.
Peter turned towards the grinning guy with a deadly glare as chuckles and gasps were sounding out from the group.
Something in his mind clicked on and he slowly turned towards the group, a small smile forming on his lips, “this actually reminds me of a legend I heard not long ago!”
Flash’s oh-so-mighty look fell at that, “what? A legend about unicorns and butterflies?” He nudged one of his friends, who looked at him unimpressed, no one found that insult creative.
“Ooooh. So close” Peter pinched his fingers together, tilting his head as he stood up “it's a story about spiders.” he turned towards Flash's friend behind him and motioned for him to go sit, watching the whole time.
“Heh, this better be good” Johnny piped up from where he sat.
The first story teller, Peter was pretty sure her name was Kate, laughed “yeah I'm arachnophobic, scare me to death!”
Peter's smile grew at the comments, slowly lowering back into his seat, “Well we're all here for research about rocks, right?”
“Yeah, or are you that forgetful” Flash kept a harsh tone, clearly angry his attempt to humiliate Peter didn't work.
“Okay, okay. So, the rocks here aren't all calcite and granite, there are some with radioactive chemicals in them, since a few years ago, only a few miles over in the town, there was a radiation facility that experienced a leak.” Peter pointed a thumb behind him where they had passed a town on the bus, “and the radiation settled into the ground for miles upon miles, more potent near the town.”
People were paying close attention, a few confused faces since this was clearly not about spiders yet.
“It affected the ground, but it also affected the plants and animals, but nothing more serious than birth defects, until a spider crawled into one of the potent patches and underwent rapid change.” Peter slowly stood as he continued “it's legs cracked, mandibles clicking, as its body snapped and popped, growing large and twisted.”
By that point he was fully standing, he pushed out of his arms “pain and suffering to have your entire body changed” he moved his arm in a way that clicked the bones before dropping it “through agony grew the anger of a monster, the rage of a creature that could only exist to crave blood.”
Peter stepped forward, “it began its everlasting search for prey, any unknowing human that would stumble into its path quickly devoured and webbed” he moved his wrist in a way that clicked his bones “snapping necks. Ripping off heads. Sending venom through their veins.”
“One of the only known survivors had gone out into the woods with one of their work buddies, and returned to town soaked in blood and covered in wounds, mumbling and screeching about the eight-legged beast, the giant webs, the horror.” Peter sent a glare towards Flash “the torn apart body of their colleague.”
“So… if you see any webs, hear any loud scuttling, or bare witness to the beast itself…” Peter sat back down “you'd better run. Run faster than a demon with eight legs.”
There was silence. Flash scoffed “oh that was barely scary-” but his voice had been silenced on the last word to whoops and cheers.
“My skin is crawling!” Kate yelled in delight “I will never sleep again!”
Peter kept a large grin on his face, especially when Ned nudged him with a quiet “that was horrifying.”
It had clearly left Flash pissed off because as the cheers died down, he stood and took large strides around the campfire to Peter. He took a quick look around “we are literally here to look at these rocks and there are none with radiation. That was the worst story ever.” He scowled before pulling the cooked marshmallow off his skewer, and throwing it at Peter.
His spider sense led his reaction to dodge, despite the assumed bad reflexes he was meant to have, Peter let himself dodge this, marshmallow was worse to clean off than most other things.
He had no idea how the Ghostbusters would have handled the marshmallow villain if the movie was real, because they would end up needing serious unstick spray.
Flash growled and turned away, walking off in a huff. MJ called after him. “Thanks for the marshmallow, idiot!”
Things finally started to calm down and people talked about the stories told around the fire, some even planning out stories for the following night.
As the night continued on, Peter got up and rolled his shoulders “I'm ready for some sleep” Ned and MJ nodded and got up, the three of them heading off through the darkness towards their tents.
“So. Spider monster, huh?” MJ smirked, “Can't imagine that'd be easy to replicate, what with all those webs, hm?”
Peter shook his head at the implication, “I am not going further to make people believe my story was actually true.”
Ned opened his mouth before stopping suddenly while squinting, suddenly his eyes widened, “hey!”
Peter followed Ned's gaze and saw someone by their tents, something sharp in their hand, in the darkness it took a second for Peter's eyes to adjust, but the person was unmistakable.
Flash was seconds away from cutting through their tents like some delinquent.
“Oh no you don't!” MJ picked up a rock and threw it with surprising accuracy at Flash, the latter only barely dodging by ducking. The rock was a clear warning though and Flash was quick to run off.
The trio quickly approached their tents, checking for damage, none of them found anything.
Peter felt like property damage was a bit much for Flash and his usually tame antics, and the fact he wasn't even just targeting him, ticked him off, he felt the same switch in his brain as before when he decided to tell a story.
Maybe the switch was revenge? Since he found himself saying something a little surprising to his own ears “A few webs wouldn't hurt anyone, am I right?” His tone was sly and angry.
“Maybe some skittering?” Ned nodded with a frown “I don't even own this tent, my family would panic if they saw it cut up.”
“Glad my rock almost hit Flash then.” MJ huffed, unzipping her tent and checking inside “I'd say we don't need to sleep quite yet” she pulled the tent closed again “let's set up a few webs.”
Peter's eyes glinted mischievously as he opened his own tent and rustled through his stuff until he had his web shooters, sliding them on quickly. “Yes, let's”
Darkness was their disguise as they moved through the forest, setting up three large webs and a few strands of web in-between trees. They worked mostly in silence with a few chuckles and little mentions of how loud people will scream finding the webs.
Once all of the webs were set up, they slid back into their campsite and grinned at each other before retiring to their tents.
Tomorrow will be quite a fun day of rock collecting and web finding.