Home-made Spider Suit

I exited the bathroom and made my way back to class where Gwen was still downtrodden, a state in which she remained for several lessons before eventually, as I predicted, getting over it as the end of the school day approached. The prospect of trying out her powers more was getting closer and closer.

As for me, I followed my own conviction of not worrying about things I can't affect. During lunch, when I saw Scott, Jean, Rogue and several other assumed X-Men members sitting together, whispering and stealing glances at me, I did not shy away and instead waved at them with the biggest shit eating grin on my face.

That's right. You guys know there is something special about me, and I know you tried to look into my head to find out. What are you going to do about it?

Safe to say, after I pretty much openly declared I figured them out, there was a brief moment of panic on their faces before they stopped looking at me for the rest of the lunch break. Gwen was none the wiser to anything that was happening. I imagine we will both be getting some uninvited visitors soon.

The rest of the school day was uneventful, and I didn't even see Scott or Jean at their lockers after classes finished. Not that it mattered in the least to Gwen or me, who just grabbed our bags and set out to Williamsburg, a section of Brooklyn that still hosts many taller buildings useful for Gwen's practice but not in Manhattan where god knows she will run into her first super villain within minutes of putting on the costume.

Speaking about her costume…

"What the fuck am I looking at."

"Look, I didn't have a lot of options, okay!" Gwen cried out at my criticism. We had pushed our way into an unpopulated alleyway out of people's way, so Gwen could change into the suit she had prepared. I was expecting her Ghost Spider Suit from the comics, but that was absolutely not what I got.

Instead, her idea of a 'costume' ended up being her hoodie turned inside out, taking off her skirt and instead putting on long pink pants and wearing pink gloves. Oh, and cover her face with a ghost mask she once used for Halloween when we went trick and treating. At least the color scheme of pink, white and black is there but nothing else really…

"Are you trying to be a superhero or scare children? Because you're going to have to choose one of those two." I stare at her with blank eyes. To be honest, the more I look at her, the more it's starting to grow on me by the second. It gives off a mark 1 homemade suit feel… yeah, let's go with that.

"There wasn't much I could do in one day. I have sketches for a better design, but it will take time."

"Could have delayed then, getting some actual training in wouldn't hurt you either way." I say, but Gwen just puts her hands behind her head and stares up at the sky, pretending to not hear me. "Well, I kept up my end of the promise and made something for you. Take a look."

I throw down my backpack and fish out two metallic objects as Gwen looks on in curiosity.

"What are those?" She tilts her head, trying to make heads or tails of what I was holding. The best way to make her understand, was to demonstrate, not to explain.

In one swift motion, I equip one of the shooters on my right-hand wrist and use two of my fingers to press the trigger, shooting forward a string of white thread at a nearby dumpster.

"Whoa…" Gwen involuntarily takes a step back after seeing the device suddenly shoot out. I let her observe it for a few seconds before she speaks again. "So, what's that supposed to be?"

"Why don't you try it out?" I grin. "Come, give it a pull."

I can't see her face due to the mask covering her, but just from years of experience, I can tell she's narrowing her eyes at me in doubt right now. 

"It's just going to break but okay… I will play your game." She steps forward and grabs hold of the webbing before giving it a violent yank. Unlike her expectations, though, the web does not break, and instead the heavy dumpster is pulled toward her by several feet. "WHA-?"

"Like it? I made these bad boys last night after hours of struggle and tinkering around. What do you think?" I can't stop grinning right now as the genius in front of me looks perplexed by what she was seeing.

"How? How can you make those in one night? Where is the string stored? That device is too small for all of it to fit inside. And for that matter, how is it so strong, I pulled it with almost all my strength…" 

"The web shooters themselves were not that hard to make, they are just metal bracelets with a trigger and a canister for the web fluid. A chemical which forms the webbing you are seeing right now with extreme efficiency that is near indestructible and only dissolves by itself after a few hours."

Gwen grabs her head as if getting a headache and crouches down. "Yeah, I can believe that it exists, but not the part where YOU were the one to make those. I mean, you would have failed chemistry last year if I hadn't helped you study every day for several weeks straight. How could you have ma-"

I cut her off with a smug grin. "The fluid's base is a tetrahydrofuran polymer suspension, crosslinked with dimethylsiloxane to enhance its elasticity and prevent premature solidification on launch. I used a trifunctional isocyanate as the core bonding agent to promote rapid polymerization upon exposure to atmospheric moisture. Add to that a fluorocarbon emulsifier for improved flow through the nozzle and a custom cellulose acetate additive to keep it lightweight but strong post-expansion. The tensile strength clocks somewhere around 130,000 megapascals under lab conditions, that's more than twenty times the yield strength of Kevlar."

I present some, but not all the information the Inventor skill had given me for making the web fluid and see her head practically smoking in disbelief as she quietly yet scarily quickly runs through the information I had given her before she was forced to nod after a few seconds, agreeing that everything seemed to be perfect in theory.

"Umm… makes sense… yeah that checks out… hmm…" She considers all the information before getting up with a sigh. "By my calculations it wouldn't reach a full 130,000 megapascals from your recipe, but it makes sense you wouldn't reveal the whole thing. I never imagined that you are actually smart too, it's kind of scary how you hid it for so long."

No, well, I cheated with my system skill... You are the scary one here for understanding all that mambo jumbo I just spat out at you.

Suddenly something seems to click in her head, and before I even get the chance to say anything her eyes which I can barely see through the eye wholes in the mask widen, and she points at me. "Wait, that means all those times you asked me to help you study, you just wanted to spend time with me! I mean, it's kind of cute, but you could have just said that, and we could have done something more fun than studying chemistry!"

I'm speechless by the thought process. It makes sense from her perspective, but… please don't come to such a conclusion, I still need your help!

"Uh, well yeah, I guess." There wasn't much other than that which I could say right now. Maybe I will just keep playing the role of a shy friend that can only ask her to help me study, to spend time together. "Anyway… wanna get started?"

If nothing else, I am good at redirecting conversations into the direction I want them to go, and that is no different here as Gwen immediately forgets about that whole debacle and refocuses on the superhero stuff we came here for.

"Oh yeah! Wait, give me those, please. I have so many ideas on how to make use of them. I could swing from building to building, almost like I'm flying. I could tie up bad guys from a distance or pull weapons out of their arms… so many options. You are a genius for making these."

To her enthusiasm I take off the web slinger I had on my wrist and throw the both of them over to Gwen who quickly puts them on. She imitates the gesture I had done with my middle and ring finger to press the trigger while aiming her hand upwards. The webbing shoots out and attaches to the wall, a few stories up.

"HA!" With a shout, she pulls violently and goes flying upwards.

'Now this is some real Spider-Man move!' Is what I would say if the following scene hadn't happened in front of my eyes.

Apparently she was too concerned with going up quickly and didn't think too far ahead after that step. This unplanned action resulted in her trying to stop herself from hitting the wall in a panic yet simply hitting the brick wall head-first, leaving a Gwen-shaped dent and her falling back down to the ground onto her back.

"Ow… I may have gotten too eager." Gwen mutters while lying on the ground. It seems the increased durability and healing factor are still there for her, as the nearly three story fall did little damage to her, and she was back up on her feet seconds later.

"Going to have another try?" I ask monotonously. This is surprisingly fun to watch.

"Of course. I'm not gonna give up after a single fall." Gwen says, stretching a bit while staring up at the wall, ready for round two. Before she does, though, she remembers something. "Oh yeah, I wanted to give you these!"

She quickly retreats to her backpack, which will be left in my care while she goes out to try her powers. From inside, she takes a small box. "Here, these are a pair of Bluetooth earphones I found in a drawer at home, I also got a pair so we can stay connected in a call while we are apart. I also took apart a GoPro and installed the camera in my mask so you can look at what I'm seeing through your phone if I share my video."

"That's pretty neat." I quickly put the earphones in my ears and the two of us start up a call on our phones. Honestly, the prospect of me just standing around while she was out testing her powers was pretty boring, so I'm glad she thought about this.

"Alright, I'm off now!" She says excitedly, once again shooting out a web at the wall, high up. And just like before, she pulled herself up and failed to follow it up with anything, subsequently hitting the wall and falling back down a few feet away from me. This is going to take a while…

***

And a while it did take. Several hours in fact, as by the time I could see her webbing around from building to building semi competently the sun was already setting, and it was getting dark outside. By now, most people were either already home or on their way from work to home. Depending on his work hours today, George might also be getting home soon.

"Think we should call it a day for today?" I ask Gwen, while staring down at my phone to see her zipping from building to building, occasionally even being brave enough to mix a flip in the middle. 

She was getting the hang of it quickly, but was still nothing compared to the speed at which Peter Parker could go in the comics, games or movies. It's alright though, it's just her first day. The lack of speed also had the side effect of making recording videos of her much easier for the people down on the streets. 

While other masked vigilantes like Daredevil were still considered myths by many as they only came out in the darkness of night, Gwen was swinging around in broad daylight. It was no wonder people stopped to take videos of the weird scene of a girl swinging from building to building without a care in the world. Naturally, there were also several videos out there of her face-planting into buildings or the middle of the street.

"Yeah, I guess it's getting late n- hold on a second." Gwen stops herself mid-sentence and swings onto the wall of a building, which she sticks onto. Through the camera on her mask, I can see two men with baseball bats cornering a third man in the alleyway she is looking into.

Gwen stayed crouching on the wall, staring down at the alley where none of the men had yet to notice her. One of the two jabbed the third guy in the gut with his bat, sending him tumbling to his knees.

"You're late with payment again." He growled. "I told you that next time, we would collect the debt in broken bones, and unfortunately for you, next time is now here."

"Oi!" Gwen yelled out, her voice laced with nervousness that would make it hard for anyone to take her seriously. "That's enough."

The two men with bats turn around, squinting upward, while the guy on the ground also stared up hopefully. 

"The hell are you supposed to be? The ghost of Christmas past?" One of the two, a guy with a grizzly and greasy looking beard, laughs.

Gwen kicks off the wall she was sticking onto and lands right in front of the two men, just a few feet away from them. Not the most graceful landing but not the most terrible either, I'd rate it a solid 4/10.

"Look," she says, hands raised, trying to keep the situation from escalating. "You don't wanna do this. You can still walk away from this and nobody gets hurt."

The two men look at each other before breaking out in laughter, not taking Gwen seriously in the least. Without saying a word, the first of the men, the one who originally hit down their victim, winded up his bat and aimed for Gwen's head.

Gwen ducked, barley, and backed up further into the alley wall. The second thug moved in with surprising speed considering the size of his belly and winded up his own bat for a hit.

"Dodge!" I shout into the mic, hoping the audio didn't cut for her, not realizing it was a pretty useless thing to say at that moment. No shit, she should dodge the bat flying at her.

It was of no use either way, as the bat made contact with her ribs, and the camera in her mask jerked violently. I could almost see stars through her own head as she stumbled.

"Gwen? You alright?"

"Fine." She coughed. "But gonna have a bruise tomorrow."

The two had stupidly given her a moment of respite after the successful hit and let her gather her wits. Without hesitation, Gwen reached out her left hand and shot a web in the first guy's Bat before violently yanking it out of his hand and into the wall next to her.

The second guy rushed in again, swinging his bat, but Gwen did not sit still and dashed forward as well, aiming to meet the man in the middle. Just as the bat was about to make contact with her head and subsequently the camera she suddenly transitioned into a slide and in the middle of that shot webs at the man's feet which she pulled out from under him, making him stumble to the ground.

He was not given the opportunity to get up again, as he quickly found a web on the back of his head, sticking him to the ground.

The first guy who Gwen had disarmed seconds earlier sensed danger and without a moment of thought opted to abandon his buddy and bolt out of there. Something Gwen did not allow as she shot several more webs in quick succession. The first few webbed the guy's feet together, making him fall to the ground while the rest stuck his hole body to the ground.

Not bad. I couldn't help but praise how quickly she managed to pick up on the web slingers and make use of them in the fight. 

"Are you okay?" While I was praising her fight in my head, Gwen had decided to check up on the man who had been knocked down by the thugs. 

The man hesitated for a second before nodding frantically. "Y-yeah, thank you, thank you so much. What… Who are you?"

"I am uh…" Gwen stopped, realizing she hadn't figured out a name for herself yet. "You can call me… Spider-Woman?"

The way Gwen said it almost felt like she was asking for confirmation if that sounded like a good name.

"Sound great to me." I say through our call, and she visibly nods as the camera moves up and down.

"Spider-Woman? I thought it would be something ghost related with that mask." The man says, looking up at Gwen with admiration and stars in his eyes. "Thank you for saving me, Spider-Woman. My name is Maxwell, Maxwell Dillon. You can consider me your first fan."

"Well Maxwell, happy to help. You make your way home safely now, alright?" Gwen says, quickly casting a glance at the two thugs still stuck to the ground before shooting out a web and pulling herself back to the main street, not waiting for another answer.

"That was… nerve-racking." She said, now swinging between buildings again.

"Went pretty well though." I say.

"Yeah, not terrible for my first fight, if I do say so myself." Gwen said, her smugness audible. "Hey, I kind of want to swing a little more… do you think you can bring our backpacks home while I swing back myself?"

"Not a problem by me. Just make sure you aren't caught by anyone when you crawl in through the window."

"Oh! Shit, I forgot to leave my window open…" Gwen swears, realizing she wouldn't be able to get into her apartment. Thankfully, I know her well enough to have predicted this outcome.

"Don't worry, I left my window open. If your dad is home, then you being at my place will be a good explanation for why you weren't home too."