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The school bell rang.
'Fucking finally,' Jabber thought to himself as he closed his Chromebook and packed it into his bag.
Thankfully, it was Friday, and on top of that, a half day, one of God's greatest blessings that he had bestowed on mankind as a whole.
The whole week for him felt like a stretch. You see, Jabber isn’t an ordinary student—at least not anymore. Ever since freshman year, when they went to Nijiku Corp and a radioactive spider bit him, he had undergone a lot of significant changes.
The main one being gaining spider powers instead of radioactive poisoning.
At first, like every teenager, he used his newfound powers for fun: climbing on walls, shooting random webs, and using his biological neurotoxin for testing.
But one night, everything changed. His uncle Bundus got shot by a criminal he had failed to stop that night, his last words being, “With great power comes great responsibility,” to his nephew before he died in Jabber's arms.
From there, Jabber was set on getting revenge, but once he tracked down the criminal and almost beat him to death, he realized that killing this man wouldn’t change anything.
It wouldn’t bring Bundus back or make him feel any better. What happened happened, and there was no amount of power in the world that could change what happened in the past.
Yet Jabber held the power to change the future. From then on, he found his alter ego: Spider-Man.
In the daytime, he rolled around as Jabber Wonger, but as night arrived, he swung around the city as the masked menace vigilante.
But today, he hoped that he could spend the day for himself. After all, he was still a teenager, and who in their right mind was finna give up a half day just to hunt some dumbass criminals down the street? It was definitely NOT gonna be him.
“Yo, Jab, you coming over later?” Hii asked as he walked out of class with Jabber.
“Yeah, what time does movie night start again?”
“Zodyl said around 8, and Moma also wanted you to stop by McDonald’s beforehand.”
“Alright, got it. Safety,” he said, dapping up Hii before going downstairs to his homeroom.
“Safety, bro.”
When he reached homeroom, his eyes instantly locked onto blue. A smile subconsciously grew on his face at the sight.
“Alright, everyone, take a seat until 12:40 PM,” their homeroom teacher said as she opened the phone box, allowing students to grab their phones and sit down.
Jabber grabbed his and his boyfriend's phones and then made his way to sit next to his boyfriend.
“Heyyyy, bad attitude~.” he greeted Zanka as he handed him his phone.
“I told ya ta stop callin’ me that shit,” Zanka scoffed.
“And I told you I'll stop calling you it once you drop the attitude, baby,” Jabber said teasingly, leaning into Zanka’s space even more.
Zanka playfully rolled his eyes, pushing Jabber back with a finger on his forehead. “I’ll drop it once ya stop being a dumbass.”
Jabber laughed. “Yeah, that ain’t happenin’, Zan.”
“I guess the attitude stays then.”
Before Jabber could quip back, the bell rang, breaking their attention from each other real quick.
“You guys are dismissed. Have a nice weekend,” the teacher said as students rushed out the door.
“Come on, baby,” Jabber said, grabbing Zanka’s hand and pulling him along.
...
“Is your sister picking you up today?” Jabber asked once they made it outside the school, his and Zanka’s hands intertwined as always.
“Nah, she’s got a case today, and Goka’s busy training.”
“So nobody’s home?”
“Not today.”
A mischievous smirk grew on Jabber’s face at the information. “Sooo, what I’m hearing is that I can drop you off.”
“Jabber, ya don’t got a car,” Zanka said plainly.
“You know I don’t need a car to drop you off back home, Zan~.”
Zanka stared at him, confused for a moment, but then his expression changed to slight fear as the puzzle pieces in his brain started to work out Jabber’s random riddle.
“Hell no.”
Jabber laughed. “Come on, baby, you know I won’t let you fall.”
“I’m not swinging through Brooklyn like a damn maniac, Jabber.”
“Well, technically, imma be the one that's swinging-”
“The point still is, ‘No.’”
Jabber wrapped his hand around Zanka’s waist and pressed his forehead against his, putting on his best puppy-dog eyes.
“Pleaseeee, Zanny. Come on, man, just this once! Wait, Zan... don’t tell me you're scared.” Jabber said with a teasing smirk and a raised eyebrow
Zanka scoffed right in front of his face and pushed him back a little in retaliation, “I ain’t scared of shit.”
“So lemme drop you off.”
Zanka moved his head slightly, trying to avoid Jabber’s intense gaze.
“Zanka~”
“…”
“Come on, I know you want to…”
“…”
“I’ll pay for Wingstop next time we stop by.”
Zanka sighed, and his eyes returned to meet Jabber’s. He could swear he could see sparkles shining pleadingly within his magenta eyes.
“…Fine. Just this ONCE, okay.”
Jabber’s eyes perked up instantly. He grabbed Zanka’s hand, excitedly pulling him along to a nearby alleyway.
“Trust me, baby, you're gonna love it.”
...
“I'M GOING TO FUCKIN’ KILL YA!” Zanka screams as he grips harder onto Jabber's neck than should be physically possible.
Jabber laughs as he shoots off another web. “I love you too, Zanny!”
Zanka just squeezes his eyes shut in return, refusing to look down below them for his own sanity (it was already lost atp.).
“Why do I ever entertain ya dumbass ideas?”
“'Cause you love me.”
“Not for long.”
“Chill, we almost there anyways-”
Then something sharp hits Jabber and his senses, a sharp and very familiar vibration.
But before he can finish, a big crash interrupts his sentence, making both boys look down.
Security alarms blast throughout the streets. People around the area start to run off while others pull out their phones and start recording the situation unfolding right in front of their eyes.
A bank robbery was taking place.
*BOOM*
Not even a second later, the front doors open with a bang. Smoke fills the air as two men hustle out, holding garbage bags filled with stolen cash, jewels, and gold.
Spider-Man watches from above as they land down on a perch on the building in front of the bank, his eyes narrowed.
The guys' costumes look mad familiar... could it be?
Then an ear-piercing sound catches his attention as metal tails scrape against the pavement.
He knows exactly who it is.
Scorpion.
“You have to be fucking kidding me right now…” Jabber says under his breath.
“I wish,” Zanka says.
Jabber then grabs Zanka again, shooting off a web, swinging and landing by a nearby deli, dropping off Zanka. “I’ll be right back.”
“Please try to be careful.” Zanka said, taking Jabber bookbag from his hands.
“Keyword: I’ll try.”
“Jabber.”
Jabber smiles underneath the mask, his hands coming up to softly caress Zanka’s cheeks. “Trust me.”
Zanka sighs but leans into the touch anyway. “I better not be patching your ass up later.”
“You won’t,” he replies with a soft laugh. Another boom from the distance breaks their moment.
“I’ll be back, promise,” he says before shooting off a web and heading back to the crime scene.
“Lord, help me...” Zanka mutters, watching him swing away in the distance, subconsciously clenching Jabber's book bag in his hand a little tighter.
...
“COME ON! WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS WAITING FOR?! GO, NOW!” Scorpion screams, pointing to the car.
“Y-yes, boss!” both of the goons say, dropping the money bags into the trunk and the back seat, while one of them goes to the driver's seat and the other heads to the back seat to watch over their stolen goods.
“START DRIVING NOW!” Scorpion yells as he gets into the getaway car.
The engine roars at his command, but before they can drive off—
*BAM*
The car shakes for a second. Something, or rather someone, landed on top of the vehicle.
“W-what the hell was that?” the driver asks.
“WHO CARES! GO-”
The car roars up again, but before the criminal can press on the gas to drive off-
*RIPPPPP*
The whole top of the car gets pulled away, exposing the three criminals inside. Everyone freezes for a second.
As they look up to see the culprit, their faces turn white as ghosts.
“Don’t tell me y’all heading out now?” Spider-Man jokes.
“S-Spider-Man?!”
*THWIP*
The driver says before getting shut up with a web.
“That's my name. Try not to wear it out, yeah?”
“Tch. YOU WON'T GET IN THE WAY THIS TIME, SPIDER! SHOOT HIM!” Scorpion yells as his other goon pulls out a gun and starts firing.
Jabber's Spidey Sense quickly locks in as he first webs the driver to the seat and dodges the bullets from the other criminal.
“Damn, Scorp, you gonna do me like that? Ain't we arachnids supposed to be brothers and shit?” he jokes while flipping off the car with enough force to break the hood.
“I would never be a brother to a disgrace like you!” Scorpion says, jumping out of the car and attacking him with a swipe of his mechanical tail.
Jabber barely dodges the first hit, earning a small tear in his costume as he tries to evade the other bullets being shot at him by the other goon.
“I’m a disgrace? Yet your broke ass is here robbing a bank at 1:00 PM on a Friday? Nah, man, you got your priorities messed the hell up.”
Scorpion grits his teeth and charges fully at him, making his goon stop shooting for a second-which is all the time Jabber needs.
Jabber flips over him, evading his attack, and midair, he shoots a web, taking the gun out first, and then another, webbing the goon to a nearby lamppost.
“Damn, Scorpy, your team is ass. I mean, seeing that you're the leader, I can see why-”
“ENOUGH TALK! YOU'RE DEAD, SPIDER!”
Scorpion attacks again with his tail.
Jabber jumps out of the way, landing on a nearby wall while Scorpion's tail completely demolishes a nearby fire hydrant.
“Man, you bugging, Scorp. What's the matter? Come on, talk to me, man. Don't tell me you're still tight about the last time I embarrassed you-”
“SHUT UP!” Scorpion lunges at Jabber, his tail trying to swipe at the hero again. Jabber backflips off the wall, evading the attack and causing Scorpion's tail and claws to slam into the brick.
*THWIP*
Webs catch onto the back of Scorpion as Jabber lands back on the ground, pulls Scorpion off the wall, and throws him harshly into the pavement, creating a small crater.
*CRASH*
Debris fills the air for a moment as Scorpion coughs up some blood but still gets back up on his feet weakly. Parts of his armor are cracked due to the force of the attack.
“You still getting up? Come on, man, save yourself the embarrassment for once.”
“Do you think I’m playing with you, Spider?” Scorpion says, gritting his teeth. Then his demeanor switches, and a malicious smile grows on his face.
“You think you're so tough. Big little superhero, beating up bad guys every second to protect this hellhole. But yet still failing to get even an ounce of support from said city.”
“Man, quit yapping. Come on and throw some hands, big guy.”
Scorpion lets out a hollow laugh and charges at him. Due to his injury, his movements are a bit slower, but nonetheless still lethal.
"Mommy?" A little girl cried out, turning Jabber's attention away from the villain for a second.
Scorpion takes his chance, raises his tail, grabs Spider-Man, and-
*BAM*
He chucks him hard into a nearby building. For once, in the first time in the fight, Spider-Man doesn't bounce right back up.
He hisses, clenching his broken ribs 'so much for being careful.' he thought to himself as he struggled to get up.
"Stay down, spider. I wouldn't want to break your spine next...or would I?"
Jabber doesn't reply and searches for the girl; she was still there, looking around, lost for her mother.
Scorpion catches his eye and turns to the girl. "Oh? You're distracted, aren't you? Why don't I help you focus a bit?" he raises his tail.
Jabber quickly shoots a web to a nearby mailbox. Getting up, he jumped up to the grown, then he yanked the mailbox free, wrapping it in webs before swinging it into Scorpion like a wrecking ball, knocking the villain down, now making him crash into a nearby building.
Once Scorpion was down, he quickly picked up the girl. "VANESSA! VANESSA!" he heard a woman yell as she frantically looked across the battle scene.
"MOMMY!"
Spider-Man quickly ran towards the woman, handing her her daughter. "Muchas gracias, muchísimas gracias."De nada. Ahora vete rápido, sal de aquí."
The woman nods and runs off with her daughter, then-
*CRASH*
"UGH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" Scorpion yelled, throwing the debris of the mailbox out of his way.
Spider-Man's attention turns full back onto the villain. "The fuck wrong with you, gang? You could have killed a child!" the hero says angrily.
The villian dosent waist another second; claws activated, lunging at the hero, clawing his back as Spider-Man quickly fights him off to avoid any more damage.
“You can’t protect everyone, Spider-Man, and you know it.” Scorpion says as he tries again to attack Spider-Man; the hero jumps back from his attack.
“True, but that doesn’t mean Imma quit, though,” Spider-Man says. Seeing an opening, he punches Scorpion in the face, making him stumble back.
The villain holds his jaw for a second, then lets out a huff of laughter. “Saw you swinging with that boy-cute little boyfriend you got there. Whadda say if I get my hands on him? You think you can prote-”
*THWIP*
A web instantly hits Scorpion directly in the face.
“MNNH-”
As he looks up at Spider-Man, his expression is different-darker, scarier. He stares down at the villain for a moment, his eyes narrowed, not saying anything.
Usually the hero would joke, troll, ragebait, or something! But this time he was dead silent, looking down on Scorpion like a true predator hunting its prey.
"If I were you, I would shut the fuck up," Spider-Man says dangerously.
Scorpion growls as he rips off the web, "Or what? What the matter, spider? No more jokes?"
"Not when it comes to him." Spider-Man's fingers twitch slightly; his demeanor changes like his body was preparing for something.
Scorpion notices the shift and moves straight in to attack again, but Spider-Man doesn't move. Not an inch.
As Scorpion's tail raises and aims straight for Spider-Man's head, his tail swings with enough force to shatter concrete, but Spider-Man doesn't dodge
Instead, he raises a hand, just one hand; for a quick second, the villain could see tiny black quills in the palm of his hand.
*BAM*
In the blink of an eye, the villain is knocked back onto the ground.
Immediate pain hits his chest as he struggles to get up. "Wha-the..."
As he looks down, tiny black quills penetrate his armor and down his arms, but even if he shifts an inch, each quill is covered in microscopic barbs that dug deeper and become more painful.
When he looks up, his tail is in Spider-Man's hand, dislocated from the rest of his suit.
"...What the hell did you do?" Scorpion struggles to say through the pain.
Then the hero finally speaks.
"Lil' new thing I picked up, still trynna come up with a name for it tho," he said, throwing the discarded tail away.
"Y-You poison me?!" Scorpion says, clawing at his arms.
"Not yet." Jabber said, holding up his hands, little black hairs on his palms extended up like a warning sign, "But I will if I have to."
Scorpion scoffed, "You ain't scaring me, spider; this city is MINE!" He lunged again, throwing a punch. Spider-Man quickly dodged it and pushed him back.
“I’ll protect everyone in this city, no matter the cost.” His voice is low but stern.
Scorpion, still refusing to lose, gets back up and lunges toward the hero.
“It doesn’t matter how the city or the people may feel about me.”
The villain throws constant punches at his face as the hero dodges them, then hits the villain with a punch to the gut.
“This is my home, and my people.”
Scorpion grits his teeth and roars as he lunges to attack. His attacks are relentless but sloppy, leaving him open.
“It’s my responsibility to my city.”
Jabber protracts his claws. He dodges the next two strikes and then attacks Scorpion's neck-his exposed area.
“And to myself. That's the difference between you and me. You use yours to take. I use mine to give back.”
The venom instantly seeps into his bloodstream, incapacitating him almost immediately. He falls to the ground within a second, his limbs too heavy to fight back or even move.
“Y-you…”
Spider-Man looks off into the distance for a second, staring at the deli. He smiles as he turns back to face the villain lying on the ground.
“It was nice beating your ass, Scorpy, but I got my man waiting,” Spider-Man says, webbing him to the ground.
“…thwis…is…n’t…over…”
Police sirens grow closer by the second.
“You're right, it ain't over... for me. Try not to drop the soap, yeah?” Spider-Man jokes before shooting off a web and swinging away.
“Fwuck...you…” Scorpion says before passing out.
...
“Zan?” Jabber asks, looking around for his boyfriend, who is nowhere to be seen where he left him.
Anxiety starts to build up inside him.
Jabber hurriedly enters the deli, where he finds Zanka waiting for his chopped cheese on a roll and grabbing a bag of chips with an Arizona.
Relief fills his body instantly. “Shit, man, ya scared the fuck outta me for a second,” he says, making his way to Zanka.
“Why? Ya told me to wait here,” Zanka says, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah-outside.”
Zanka sucks his teeth. “I’m not staying outside for that long. You know that.”
Jabber laughs, but before he can answer back (again)-
“SPIDER-MAN!”
Both boys turn to see two middle school girls whose eyes are as wide as saucers.
“Omg, is it like really you?!”
Jabber laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. “As real as any other.”
Both of the girls start to giggle.
“Sorry... we’re just big fans!”
“Yeah, huge fans!”
“You don’t gotta apologize for that. Happy my reputation isn’t too far up in the gutter.”
Both girls start to giggle even more.
“You’re so funny!”
“I got two chop cheese!”
Zanka’s attention breaks from the sight for a moment and turns to the register.
“That’s me.”
“These too?” the cashier asks, packing the chips and drink into the bag.
“Yeah,” Zanka says, pulling out a $20 bill and handing it to the cashier.
“$16.35-HOLY SHIT, ARE YOU SPIDER-MAN?!”
“Yeah,” Jabber confirms as the girls continue to squeal in the back.
“Sorry, man-I just love what you do for the city. Do you mind if I get an autograph or something?”
Jabber’s eyes turn to Zanka. Though his eyes are covered by the mask, Zanka knows exactly what they hold. He gives Jabber a soft smile, answering his unasked question.
“You good,” Jabber says as he walks up and signs a magazine.
“Thanks, boss,” the man says gratefully.
“No problem.” Jabber turns back to the girls. “You guys want an autograph too?”
“Can we get a picture, please?”
“Sure.”
After a couple of photos, the girls thank him again.
“Is that your boyfriend?” one of the girls asks softly.
“Bev-” her friend quietly hisses.
Jabber laughs, putting a hand over his mouth as he murmurs, “Cute, right?”
“Very,” Bev says as all three of them giggle.
“Are ya gonna stand there gossiping all day, or are ya gonna keep your promise?” Zanka says teasingly.
“Chill, chill, I’m comin’,” Jabber says, giving the girls one last wink before saying his goodbyes again to the clerk and the girls.
“Bye, Spider-Man!”
“Thank you!”
He waves one last goodbye and heads out of the store. Once outside, he wraps his arms around Zanka’s waist protectively as Zanka’s hands instinctively wrap around his neck.
“You ready?”
“Unfortunately.”
Though he can’t see his boyfriend’s face, he knows the shit-eating grin waiting for him under the mask.
“Let’s get you home.”
..,
After a few more blocks, they reached Zanka's place. Luckily, Zanka had left his window unlocked, so with Jabber's help, he climbed in.
“You not comin’?” Zanka asked, walking back toward the window.
“Nah. The fam planned a movie night, plus I gotta stop and get some food.”
“Mhm. Tell them I said ‘hi.’” Zanka says, leaning down a bit to meet face-to-face with his boyfriend.
“Anything for you, baby,” Jabber says, nuzzling his mask nose against Zanka, making him laugh a bit.
Zanka scoffed softly. “Don’t you ever get tired of that corny shit?”
“Not with you, Zan.”
Zanka's eyes widened for a second, then turned soft and gentle. His hands came up to raise Jabber's mask slightly, only exposing his nose and lips, before pressing a soft kiss to his boyfriend's lips.
Once they parted, Jabber had to fight himself from leaning back in for more.
“Here...” Zanka said, handing Jabber the bag with the other sandwich.
“I love you so fucking much, you know that, right?”
Zanka pecked his lips one last time before answering, “You make it very obvious. Now go before someone catches you.”
Jabber smiled, pulled his mask back down, and grabbed his book bag from Zanka.
“Oh, and tiger-”
Jabber looked back at Zanka real quick.
“I want my lemon pepper by Wednesday.”
Jabber smiled, gave a salute, then shot a web and swung off.
Thank God for Fridays.
The End.