Getting The Spiders and Running...To the Spider Cave!

"Get in the canister, you jumpy little bastard...!" I gave a harsh whisper as I watched the Jumping Spider inside the glass containment just looking at the exit for it's glass and plastic prison.

Doing the complete opposite of what it's name was! Jumping Spider, my ass. More like 'Sit-and-look-at-the-exit-for-my-cage' Spider. Ha. Got 'em.

...Sure, it could probably understand the metal canister I had held over the exit was just another prison--But I wasn't gonna keep it in such a small canister forever, you know!? I'm all about animal ethics. Except, you know, about parts that actually matter. I think what vegans are doing is very admirable...buuut I can't give up hotdogs and meat feast pizzas, so I'm cursed to forever be a meat eater.

"Goddammit" I cursed under my breath before reaching behind myself and toward the back of my utility belt, "I didn't want to do this because it might effect the Spider itself...but you've left me no choice you little twat," I grabbed the small tube placed there and held it above the small space still left uncovered by the canister.

Cracking it open in the way I designed it to, the gas inside hissed out and into the small area the Spider was in.

The gas quickly filled the container and the Jumping Spider twitched around a bit before curling up into a ball.

Don't worry, it ain't dead. Just been knocked out by super special Spidey tranquilizer gas.

Genius pays off, huh?

I opened the container up fully when I was sure the spider was knocked out and carefully picked it up before slowly moving it into the canister I'd brought. Luckily, I brought extras otherwise I'd have had to either leave some spider's behind or put them all in the same canister.

...I'd rather not do either, honestly.

Locking the canister, I placed it back into it's holder on my chest - I was covered in pockets, by the way, because you can never have enough of them, you know? - and getting onto the last spider's containment box.

Yet I quickly abandoned that. Why? Because there wasn't a spider in there. It was empty. The exit for the container was already open and whatever had lived in the container was long gone. Looking to the label on the side of the container, it said 'Eratigena atrica'...Eratigena atrica...Ah! Giant House Spider, right? Well, ain't this quaint? Wouldn't this have been the spider that bit the original Peter?* Must be.

(*A/N - I know that most sources say he got bit by a Jumping Spider or don't even give the spider a species and just say 'It was an irradiated spider' with nothing else to go on, but I'm changing that up. Giant House Spider fits most of the original Peter's powers anyway.)

Some lucky fellow or gal out there just got Spider powers. Well, or unlucky. I don't know if they'd survive the spider bite like me.

So, uhh, RIP, I guess? If they aren't dead I'll see them soon anyway.

Securing everything on my person, I signaled for Karen to set off the second round of charges on the upper floors of the building.

It was pretty close to night and looking out a nearby window, I saw the rapidly darkening sky just as I felt the building shake again but this time much more intensely because of how close I was to the explosion - I actually heard this one. Oh and don't worry about civilian deaths - I put the charges in places where there'd be no human presence at this time. Oscorp protocol is to evacuate in reply to a power outage, after all. I mean, there shouldn't be anyone here anyway. God, I really hope not.

Not because of some misplaced morality but because...isn't this exactly how you get yourself a nemesis? And no matter how I looked at it, wouldn't that make me the villain? Oh, the humanity~!

Jokes aside, I made sure I had everything I needed before running off, but not before speaking to Karen again, "Honey, I need a way home," I cheekily said as I ran through the halls toward the east side of the building.

In reply, a slightly emotionless voice spoke in my right ear, [The package is on the east side of the building. It should allow you to escape under the cover of night.]

Saying thanks, I picked up in speed.

While I might not be powered, yet, I was still in remarkable physical shape. Enough to probably be seen as a possible Olympic athlete candidate. Of course, I was limited by my age - I was 14, after all - but I was still stronger and faster than the average athlete. Much more so.

Why? Well because I didn't like being weak and I couldn't just wait until I got the serums and spider venom, so I put the effort in now to gain some level of ability. But also because I had a theory:

The higher my physical standard is before I undergo the combination of the serum and the spider venom, the higher the end result. I might even see an improved potential for my spider powers due to the physical standard being higher originally. It's all theory at this point and I won't know until I actually have the powers but I've done the calculations and I'd say there's about a 73% chance that this is the case.

Which is why, in preparation, I've been making workout machines that could actually push me once I have super strength. It's honestly quite hard and a gravity chamber is still years off but I have one device that should allow me to at least test my strength.

It always bothered me that Spider-Man, or rather the original me, didn't work out or try to expand his powers.

Sure, he's a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and doesn't really act on world-wide threats and mainly works around New York...but in the Marvel Universe, just being Spider-Man isn't enough to secure your existence. Even in the MCU, where everything's been nerfed to high hell, it isn't enough. You need strength. I need strength.

In my last life, I played as the second in command. It gave me perspective my boss didn't have.

Power is vital. But for different reasons depending on the person. Some people have people they want to protect. Others want it to protect themselves. Me? I want it for freedom. Or rather to secure my freedom.

I won't lie - I wouldn't say I'm a traditionally good person. I'd compare myself to Deadpool if anything. I'm somewhere between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good. I believe in good and righteous causes...but I also have very little use for actual laws and regulations. Sometimes you need to break 'em to actually get shit done.

I want power, so I can have the freedom to act upon my conscience and do what I think is right. Plus, I wouldn't mind having a shot at that superhero business.

I played the bad guy quite a bit in my last life, so playing it in this life as well would just be boring.

Hmm but I guess I'll be more like the Punisher, huh? Honestly sounds pretty cool. The Punisher with Spidey's powers or a Punisher-like Spidey. Sounds like a lethal combo.

Smiling to myself, I finally reached the side of the building. Like most buildings near Oscorp, the pane of glass separating the outside from the inside was basically a full-body window. Just that it doesn't open.

Not traditionally anyway.

Bringing my foot up and planting my remaining foot into the ground, I gave a small huff before I sent out my foot and kicked the glass. Obviously, it was reinforced - Oscorp had a dirty amount of money and they'd made sure their HQ building was reinforced to high hell. Especially this floor - the R&D of Oscorp.

Though it wasn't bullet proof glass. So when my foot hit it, instead of it shattering like normal glass or rebounding my foot easily like bulletproof glass would, it cracked. Seeing this, I smiled before humming a little more and looking around before stopping my gaze on what I was looking for.

A vent.

Pulling the cover off with a bit of hassle, I felt around inside it and felt the package inside, "Nice~" I muttered to myself. Pulling it out of the vent, I opened the package before beginning to set up what was inside it:

A portable zip line, of course! How did it get here? Anomalously giving 15 grand to a janitor can pay dividends.

It functioned how you'd expect it to. There was a tripod that would plant and secure itself in the ground and atop the tripod was a tube filled with about 1000 feet of super thin and durable rope. On each end of the tube were two barrels. The one at the front to shoot the majority of the rope and hook at wherever I'd be travelling. The one at the back, however, would only use about 50 feet of rope and it would add an extra level of secure-ness to the portable zip line.

When I'd set it up, I input the commands and the barrel at the back whirred to life before two pieces of rope, each ripped with barbed hooks, shot out of the back and into the wall about 20 feet behind me.

Properly stable wall as well. Not plaster but a foundational wall. One of many that holds the floor above it and keeps it from collapsing.

An extra bit of weight aka me, won't hurt it too much.

The barbed hooks shot through the wall and I got doing what I had to do before I could fire off the front hook.

Pulling out the very same high-intensity laser I used to cut through the metal vent before, I walked to the reinforced glass. Aiming at where I'd made one of the cracks, I cut through the glass and worked my way outwards just enough before I began cutting a circle out of the window. One big enough for me to easily fit through.

It took about 5 minutes with the tool I was using but it was more than quick enough. Stepping through the hole with one of my legs, I looked down at the city and people below.

Police, the fire department, multiple ambulances - practically everyone in the city was out looking for whatever was causing this to happen to the ever noble Oscorp.

Chuckling to myself, I felt a distinct shiver go down my spine as I looked at how high up I was but I pushed it back down, "Spider-Man can't be afraid of heights, after all~" I joked to myself before getting back into the safety of the building and firing the front barrel's load.

It was dark enough for them to not see a thing of me - I was on one of the upper most floors and all the lights up here were out. At most they'd see what they thought to be a bird. A giant, human-shaped bird.

...Y-yeah, it should be fine, right?

The zip line shot out of the front barrel, travelling through the air quick enough that my eyes couldn't even track it, and before long, the line stopped travelling and the machine pulled the line as taut as possible.

Balancing on the thick glass of the hole I'd cut, I clipped a device onto the line and pat the canisters on my chest, "Okay boys and gals, get ready because we're outta here!" I gave a laugh before pushing off of the glass and pressing a button on the handheld device that was fully connected to the zip line.

Once pressed, the machine whirred and my speed instantly increased. I flew across the sky while looking down.

Good.

Nodding my head to myself, I looked to where I was going, feeling lucky that no one had seen me exiting the building. Before long, after a pretty long distance, I was at my destination - some small apartment building that was in a not so good area. Which played to my needs. My needs being that I needed low-levels of surveillance and CCTV.

Dropping down onto the building, I spoke to Karen, "Release the barbs and pull the hook back in. Should make it harder to find me even they even get this far," I said before walking to the fire escape ladders off to the side. I heard the hook clatter to the ground, coming loose with a few bricks before I heard it split the air as it zoomed off again.

God, I love it when a plan comes together~!

. . .

It'd been a few days since I raided Oscorp and well...things are going well. I've extracted as much venom and blood from the Spiders as I can but sadly, they had to die for the betterment of the procedure I wanted to undergo.

I needed to know everything about their enhanced biology if I wanted to use their venoms to make some sort of super serum that could be merged with the Oz Serum.

Luckily, their sacrifice wasn't in vain and I was well on my way to understanding how to put it all together.

Anyway, speaking of the Oz Serum...it's a real piece of work. Both from a 'it'll be revolutionary' point of view and also a 'holy shit, whoever was trying to make this work was batshit fucking crazy' point of view. Like seriously, the Oz Serum is amazing - the way it interacts with cells and enhanced them, bringing out the hidden potential deep within is brilliant.

Buuut the way this potential excavation also mutates the cells and turns them into something akin to defunct cells or cancer cells means that whatever they were trying to achieve was well out of their arms' reach.

Again, luckily enough for me, the guys they had working on the Oz Serum weren't as good as yours truly. I am well on my way to figuring out how to fix the defects along with the help of Karen.

Karen being the A.I I brought to 'life' about 7 months ago after years of funding and research into A.I. I say 'life' because I'm still trying to work out a few kinks. Right now Karen is just a rapidly learning and ever adapting A.I but she's still held back by the laws of robotics that I implemented to keep myself and the world safe. Don't want a Skynet situation, you know? Another problem is Karen's lack of ability to understand emotions and more sarcasm heavy phrases and wording.

I'm making progress on the sarcasm issue but emotions are still a mystery to her. Though she's still learning, so I have hope for the future.

She was called a she purely because that's how I made her. It'd feel a bit disingenuous to call her an 'it'. I want her to know she's accepted so when she finally does gain emotions and sapience, she doesn't make human-killing robots and try to wipe out the world.

Okay, okay, enough Terminator jokes...for now.

Everything was on it's way to being ready. Even the machinery needed to properly perform the Burstein Process. Or at least that's what I'm calling it anyway.

You know, the thing that gave Luke Cage his powers? Well, Oscorp wasn't the only thing I've raided.

Stole a lot of stuff over the years. Mainly research and information. I've been perfecting peoples experiments and their craft for a few years now - so I was getting pretty damn good at it.

[Boss, we've got an intruder in the base. Do you want me to activate the turrets?] I heard Karen's voice over the speakers in my lab, the slightly emotionless voice ringing through the small but very echo-y place.

Sighing, I shook my head, "No, it's fine, Karen. It's probably only her anyway," I muttered before standing up and picking up my casual glasses and taking off the specialized goggles I usually wore when doing work, I put the glasses on and affixed them to the place they always were and had been for the majority of my life.

Ah~ No rest for the wicked, huh? Especially when it concerns women.

"Karen, have the turrets on stand-by in case she tries anything, will you?"

[Will do, boss.]