Status: In Progress. Updated every Monday and Thursday.

Make Way for the Spiders

Nineteen

-_-_-_-Peter's POV-_-_-_-

I was running late, and should've been at Rayne's house ten minutes ago. By the time I finally made it to her door, I was breathing heavily - the elevator was down, and I'd had to sprint up the stairs.

I knocked lightly, and waited a few minutes, but no one answered. I checked my phone to make sure the girls hadn't tried to contact me, and saw that I had no new messages. I knocked again, louder this time, and I could faintly hear the sound of shuffling, and a couple bangs.

The door flew open, and I was greeted by Rayne and Gwen, both rubbing their eyes, and in their pajamas. Rayne's hair looked like a rat's nest, and Gwen's was in loose braid, with fly aways hovering around her head.

"What?" Rayne mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

I raised my eyebrows at them. "Did you two just wake up or something?" I asked them.

Gwen nodded, her eyes drooping. They moved out of the way, and I stepped through, chuckling at them.

"Gwen stayed a little later than expected last night," Rayne explained, closing the door, and trudging over to the couch. "So I convinced Mom to let her stay the night."

I looked at the two girls dead on their feet, and smiled. "How late did you stay up?"

"I don't know," Gwen sighed. "Maybe four? We were looking at some of the video diaries, and lost track of time."

"Anything I should know about?" I asked, sitting down on the recliner.

"No," Rayne huffed. "It's nothing but equations and stuff. Some tests on animals, but nothing to do with Tempest."

Rayne and Gwen were both sitting on the couch now, and were falling back asleep. I rolled my eyes, and made my way to the kitchen. I grabbed two cups and filled them with water, before coming back and tossing them on the girls. They sprung awake, gasping and soaked.

"What was that for?" Gwen demanded, wiping her eyes.

"How else were we supposed to get anything done today?" I asked, only to be hit over the head with a pillow.

"Meanie," Rayne griped, still clutching her weapon. "Now we have to go change."

Both of them glared daggers at me, before shuffling out of the room and down the hall. I just rolled my eyes, and plopped myself down on the recliner, flipping on the tv.

It took a while, but I finally heard a door open, and the two came back down the hall in sweat pants and baggy t-shirts. Gwen had a laptop in her hands, and Rayne held an armful of files and papers.

"This is everything I could get access to," Gwen informed me, sitting down at the coffee table. She opened her laptop, and went through some files, while Rayne thumbed through the papers in her hands.

"Gwen said you worked with Dr. Connors," Rayne said, pulling out some papers. "So we assumed you would recognize some of these notes. Like the mice and lizard combination."

She handed me a small stack of papers, and I went through them. "I wrote some of them," I noted, glancing over my own (admittedly messy) handwriting.

"There are some emails here, too," Gwen added, turning the screen around so I could see. They were all to or from Dr. Connors.

"When I was doing my intern, Kim was always texting people," Rayne sighed. "I wish we could get a hold of her phone." She stood up, and made her way to the kitchen, and started pulling pans and mixing bowls out.

"We're lucky we have this stuff," Gwen told her, glancing up. "Aunt Kim brought a huge box with her, but it was impossible to go through it without raising suspicion."

"Didn't you say that she was going to business meetings and stuff all week?" I asked, looking up from the papers.

She nodded, and we both jumped when we heard crashing from the kitchen. We jumped up, spun around, and saw Rayne covered in flour. She was staring out the window behind us, her jaw agape.

"Rayne?" Gwen called, standing up. "Are you okay?"

"Did you see that?" she asked, pointing at the window.

I turned, but saw nothing.

"The sky... it was green," she stated, squinting.

"Are you feeling alright? You've been acting strange all night," Gwen chuckled, and grabbed a towel to help clean up all the flour. "Go take a shower, we'll keep going through this stuff."

Rayne absently nodded, and with one last look out the window, left down the hall.

"What did you mean, all night?" I asked, walking into the kitchen to help.

"She started seeing things," Gwen sighed. "Lightning, rain. At one point, we were both asleep, around midnight. But she had a nightmare, and refused to go back asleep - which explains the almost all-nighter."

"But there wasn't a cloud in the sky last night," I pointed out. "You don't think Kim-"

"No," Gwen stated. "She was out with Mom all night. And wouldn't Rayne's spidey senses go off if she was close?"

I nodded. "That box your aunt brought," I said, changing the subject. "I could go get it. Just tell me where it is."

"They're staying in my room, so you can just go through my window," she told me, and with one last wipe on the table, all traces of flour were gone.

I nodded, and climbed out the window.

-_-_-_-Rayne's POV-_-_-_-

What was wrong with me? The sky really was green. Honestly. It was yucky, murky green. It reminded me of a video I saw in science once, when I was little. It was about tornados and other natural disasters.

The steamy water splashed on my face, and I stood there for a bit, unwilling to move. Maybe Gwen was right. It was all in my head; I was probably just freaked out about all that's happened. I was letting Kim get to me. I shouldn't let her get into my head, but she keeps worming her way in. Did my father know that he married a monster? Couldn't he tell what an awful person she was?

I heard Peter and Gwen going through the papers and video diaries, and knew I should go and help, but I was honestly terrified.

The spider I was bitten with was an experiment. Others who had been guinea pigs like me didn't make it. What if delusions and insanity was a side affect? Was I, too, going to die? Or was Kim really finding some way to mess with me? The whole 'stress and overwhelming' thing was just a theory. Well, it all was, but still.

With a sigh, I shut the water off, and wrapped a towel around me. I stepped in front of the mirror, and just stared at myself. My eyes had dark rings about them, and my face was pale with red splotches. To put it bluntly, I looked like I had gone on a field trip to Hell and just got back from the gift shop.

I sighed, quickly put my clothes back on from earlier, started to comb out my hair. Something sparked in the mirror, and I leaned in closer in confusion.

The glass suddenly split down the middle, the shape strangely reminiscent of Harry Potter's scar. I screamed, falling back into the closed door behind me. It was silent for a few seconds, and then I heard two sets of feet running down the hall. The door flung open, and Peter and Gwen were standing there, looking breathless, and slightly scared.

"What happened?" Peter asked, staring at me.

"I... I don't know," I stuttered, taking Gwen's outstretched hand and standing up. "The mirror just... it just-" I looked at the mirror, and gasped. "No, no, no, it broke! I swear it did!"

The mirror looked completely fine. What was wrong with me?

Gwen and Peter shared a look, and I felt my cousins cool hand on my forehead. "You're burning up," she observed. "Come on, you just need to relax."

"What about breakfast?" I asked, and immediately felt stupid.

"Breakfast isn't really my top priority at the moment," Gwen sighed, and pulled me down the hall. Peter followed, looking concerned.

I was sitting in the middle of the couch, and felt the cushions sink beside me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see it was Peter. He draped an arm over my shoulder, and pulled me into his chest. He smelled like Axe, but not too much like most guys do.

"Maybe this was a bad idea," he muttered softly, and I felt a cool wash cloth being placed on my forehead.

"I agree," Gwen said, sitting next to me, so that I was squished.

"No," I stated, standing up. "I'll be in the hospital before I stop looking through these files. I want to know why she wants me. And we aren't going to learn anything by sitting here doing nothing." I pulled a box close to me, and started rifling through it. "And where did this come from?"

"Peter went up and got it while you were in the shower," Gwen told me, her eyes never leaving me. "We hadn't gotten a chance to go through it yet."

"Rayne, please, just sit down for a little bit," Peter begged, but I shook my head.

"I'm fine. Just sleep deprivation," I assured. "In an hour or so, I'll be fine."

I know they disapproved, but they let it go. Several times, I caught Peter sneaking glances at me, and Gwen too.

A couple of hours passed before any of us had found anything. Gwen had her earbuds in as she watched the video diaries, I was going through some old payments, and Peter was looking over the formulas.

"Guys," Gwen whispered, then said it louder. "Guys! Look at this."

Peter and I shared a look, before jumping up, and sitting on either side of the blonde. She took out the earbuds, turned up the volume on her laptop, and hit play.

Kim was on the screen, with a bright smile on her face. She was in her lab coat, like I had seen her so many times before. Her hair was in a ponytail, and her round glasses were in her hand. "I think this is it," the speakers said. "I just got a box of experimental spiders from Dr. Connors. He says he has reason to believe that this is the batch. I'm not sure what to think, but I have no choice but to trust him." Kim rubbed her face with her hands, and I noted how stressed she looked. "The program can't keep hiding the deaths. Sooner or later, the police will find out that it isn't accidents killing all the people. But we have one more test subject. If she survives, we can use her blood samples to make cures for the human race. We'll be bigger, and stronger than ever."

"Cures for the human race?" I asked, after Gwen had paused the video.

"Exactly like Doc Connors," Peter sighed, ruffling his hair.

"Well why me?" I asked. "Why not Peter?"

"Well, I doubt she thinks it'll be easy to get near Spider-Man," Gwen pondered. "She probably figures that since she's already so close to you, it won't be hard. She always does that. Assumes things will go her way. And when they don't, she makes them."

We fell silent, and I stood up, pacing to the window. "What if something was wrong with the formula?" I asked, voicing my fears. "What if the reason why I keep imagining things is because I'm-"

"No," Gwen and Peter interupted in sync.

"Don't think like that," Gwen ordered, walking over to me. "You're just sick, nothing major to worry about. It's just a fever."

"We know Kim's goal now," Peter added, taking my hand. "Everything will be fine, and you'll be able to relax. I promise, nothing bad is going to happen."

I tried to smile, and nod like I trusted them. But the bright flash of light I saw through the window told me otherwise.
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There's honestly no excuse except I was lazy and catching up on school :( I'm sorry guys. I should be back to my normal schedule though :)