"Crossroads"
———
A day had flown by since Jason's run in with the Spider-Girl—now thursday afternoon—but the encounter was still fresh on his mind. After that day Jason continued his vigilante activity, however there was still a bad taste in his mouth. He felt like a cheap copy. Though the Spider-Girl popped up out of no where—possibly even newer to the vigilante life than Jason—she seemed more refined. Even if he wasn't quite the fan of her, the boy could admit she seemed like the real deal. The suit, the skills, the efficiency. Jason who watched it first hand couldn't deny that she was the spitting image of the Spider-Man, whereas he was still clumsy and raw. Though hat didnt stop Jason from trying to better himself.
"Jesus, how does she do it?"
He landed in a crouched position on the edge of a rooftop after a rather clumsy swing. Compiling all of his experience after the week, Jason knew one thing. His tentacles were extremely inefficient for swinging. Besides their abysmal range, there was also the problem of mobility and lack of control. Originally, the tentacles were controlled independently by the suit, though that often caused an issue of communication. Two separate minds meant there were often mishaps during swinging. However recently Jason noticed that he himself could control the tentacles without the suits input. Infact, he was gaining more autonomy over the suit in general with each day, but he wasn't truly sure why.
'I guess practice really does make perfect.'
This newfound autonomy presented a new problem. Controlling the tentacles himself meant more thinking than Jason was prepared for. The tentacles were much like extra limbs, meaning that he had to actively command them like with his own appendages. This was problematic, as Jason found it quite hard to think for any new limbs while he had to worry about his original four mid air. A solution was needed for this problem.
'That girl...she had those things on her wrists that shot webs right?'
He took a seat and started brainstorming.
'They shot her webs, meaning they aren't organic but man-made. If I had something like that, swinging would probably be much easier.'
He placed a thumb on his chin.
'How could I make that though? It would involve chemistry...and the parts. I bet I could find some spare parts in my uncle's shop.'
The idea was coming together. With a small smile Jason took out his phone and dialed his uncle's number.
["What's up Jay?"]
"Hey, are you at the shop right now?"
["Nah, I'm at home. Why?"]
"I was planning on swinging by the shop. I need materials for that project I mentioned before. Is that alright?"
["Yeah, that's fine. You have your key right?"]
Jason rooted around in his bag for a moment and thankfully found the key in one of the pockets.
"Yeah I have it. Alright, thanks."
["Whatever you need kid."]
After that, Jason hung up and put his bag back on. Another light stretch,and he quickly hopped off the roof and started swinging towards his uncle's shop.
———
———
Jason walked into the shop and immediately turned on the light. It looked weird without his uncle sitting at the counter, strangely enough all of the charm seemed to be gone without him. He went behind the counter and entered the room in the back, but what he saw made him chuckle dryly. It was a storage room, with many boxes and packages scattered across the shelves. Only a few of them were titled, but none of them seemed to be in correct order. The entire room looked like a hurricane had passed through.
"He really needs to work on keeping things tidy..."
Jason walked over to one of the shelves and grabbed a box. Inside there was a bunch of miscellaneous parts—remnants of failed repairs. He took out its contents and laid them across a small desk in the back, looking for anything he could use.
"I'm making something that can shoot webs, like her cuffs, so I guess I need some sturdy parts."
He immediately got to separating what was beyond repair and what could be of using, leaving the latter on the table. Jason went through many more boxes and was a bit disheartened when there wasn't a lot he could use.
"Okay Jay, you're smart. You can work with this."
He rubbed his head as he looked at the small pile.
"There should be a tool kit around here somewhere..."
After a few more minutes of searching, Jason found the tools and got to work.
'I'm thinking something small. Don't want it to stick out too much.'
He carefully broke off the end of one of the materials.
'Also it's gonna need some pressure if I want the webs to reach far.'
His ideas were coming together, and after a few hours of work, and a few too many failures and accidents, he was done.
"Looking pretty good if I do say so myself."
On his wrists were two devices, each about the size of a wristwatch. They were black and silver, and there was a small pad on each which acted as a trigger, that extended from his wrist onto his palm. Jason tapped the trigger a few times, feeling a small burst of air escape from the nozzle. It seemed to be working fine. He was impressed by his invention for a moment, however, another issue soon presented itself.
'Wait...how the hell am I gonna make webs?'
———
———
"Then, mix the contents of your two beakers into the flask..."
The monotone voice of the man at the front made every student present want to hurl themselves out the window. It was Thursday afternoon—about 12:30—meaning Jason had chemistry, however that wasn't an issue. The boy didn't mind the class—it certainly wasn't his passion however he still had a love of the sciences. Though today he was enjoying the class a bit more due to the opportunity it presented. After yesterday's exploits, Jason came across a bit of a roadblock in regards to the actual creation of his webs. Initially he planned to make them using basic ingredients he found in his apartment, though he had no idea if he could make webs out of bleach.
Instead he decided he would make an attempt in his chemistry class, where he had a ready access to higher grade materials and ingredients. So, while the teacher droned on at the front, and the rest of the class followed along with the basic experiment, Jason opted to multi task and work on his own little experiment in his desk. While his knowledge was limited—he was far from an aspiring chemist—Jason believed he had enough of a grip on the subject to atleast try. So that he did. He poured the contents of the final beaker into the large flask hidden in his desk. Immediately there was a loud fizzing sound and he rushed to stir the flask with his stylus.
Nervously he glanced over at a well hidden flask at the back of his desk. It was overflown with a white foam that had hardened around the glass. His previous failed attempt at making the web formula from the start of the class. The boy hoped this attempt would be different. He stirred it quickly, and he noted that slowly it became harder and harder to stir. Finally, he could no longer move the stylus and tried pulling it out. A wide smile spread across his face as the cloudy concoction stretched under the force, refusing to let go of the stylus. He had made a successful web formula.
"Please pay proper attention to the color changes Mr. Thompson."
The hulking teen clicked his tongue as he took a closer look at his flask. The professor moved down the line, now approaching Jason's desk. Luckily, he noticed in time, and after hiding his personal project returned to his school work. The man stood above the boy, looking at his flask then the observations recorded on his tablet.
"Hm, good work Mr. Reeves."
After that, he moved on. Jason sighed in relief as he heard the man move on to the next student.
"Ms. Moon. What did I say about using our phones during class time."
Jason turned back to look at who the man was addressing. It was a girl with pale skin and black hair styled in a bob. He recognized her as one from the group who often hung around May. The girl—Cindy Moon—quickly hid away her phone and chuckled nervously.
"Hehehe...Sorry teach."
Jason returned to his own work, still giddy at his success. However the next issue was replicating it later. He had planned to only perform a trial run with the chemicals in the lab, and redo it with what he had at home if successful. Though he did not have any materials from his formula lying around the apartment.
'I shouldn't....but this is the only way...'
So, Jason opted for the only option he could think of. He stole it. Before class let out—discreetly, away from the eye of his teacher and peers—Jason stored all of the solution into some small vials he brought just in case. He had about thirty full vials from the single batch, so he quickly disposed of all evidence and returned to being a normal student. While a small part of him did feel bad for stealing what was essentially school property, he decided in the end to value necessity over morality.
'For the greater good.'
———
———
The neon lights of the city and the dazzling moonlight fought to reflect off of the glossy black suit. He stood tall, posing near the edge of the rooftop as he gazed down at the buzzing city below. His new webshooters were attached to his wrists, each containing a vial of his new web fluid. Jason took deep calming breaths, his chest rising and falling in a rhythm. It was always like this. The anxiety always built up before a swing. However it was worse now. This time he had to put his faith in his artificial webs, hoping they could hold him. Even if he could survive the fall, the boy wasn't too keen on taking that risk.
"You got this Jay..."
Another deep breath as he reaffirmed himself. With a leap, he left the comfort of the rooftop and fell into the city. A quick gesutre—tapping the trigger—and a stream of web shot from his wrist and attached to a nearby building. A strong pull, and Jason was sent flying through sky. It was a success. Behind the mask the boy displayed the largest smile in his life as he swung through the air. This was the first time he had been so efficient in swinging. No longer did he have to worry about controlling what was essentially a fifth appendage. Now, he only had to focus on making in the moment calculations to ensure he didn't splatter against a wall. Sure, he wasn't perfect, but he was getting better.
A complicated maneuver, and Jason finally landed. With another press of the trigger he had detached the web and fallen onto a random roof. He grunted softly at the landing—the pressure on his knees was quite the discomfort. Still, things were going better than he had expected. Another jump and he was back at it. He couldn't describe it—the freedom of swinging. It made him forget about everything for a moment, though eventually he always had to touch back down on the earth.
'This feels nice.'
Something flashed in the corner of his eye. A bright blue light blinking somewhere below him. Jason didn't pay it any attention at first, though an odd sound soon caught his attention. It was rough, like clashing metal. It was coming from the same place as the light. His curiosity got the better of him, leading the boy to swing down closer to check it out. He wasn't expecting much, though what he found was all too surprising. Jason landed on top of a grocery store, looking down at the street which radiated the blue light. He took a closer look—the suit allowed him to see much further than normal—and saw a man, using some odd tool to saw into an ATM.
'Another thief. Let's get some practice.'
He dove down onto the street—his landing alerted the theif. The man turned towards Jason, squinting into the darkness to get a good look at the boy. Jason was feeling a bit confident today, as he walked up to the man and decided to make some light hearted jokes.
"Aren't we out a little late?"
The man visibly retracted as he caught a glimpse of the boy, but he quickly regained his composure. Jason got a good look at the tool in his hand, and raised a brow in confusion.
'Is that...a gun?'
In the man's hands was a weird device, with a vague resemblance to a rifle. It was mostly black, however it had many ridges that glowed bright blue in the dark. Thwre was also a dial on its side, near the trigger. It looked quite high-tech, unlike anything the average criminal was supposed to have. That put Jason on guard, but he still kept his composure. He had dealt with situations like this before.
"Why don't we just go on home? Neither of us really want this to be a whole thing, right?"
He was getting ready to rush the man if he needed to, but before he could, he noticed the man fiddling with the odd rifle.
"Hey, what're you-?"
The man turned the dial on the side, and the intensity of the blue light turned blinding. Jason quickly covered his eyes, bit this was a lapse of judgement.
A flash of blue light engulfed the entire street. Jason was left confused, until an intense heat hit him in the chest. He wasn't quite sure what hit him, but it sent him flying all the way across the street and crashing into the grocery store. He flew through the store, knocking over the stalls and produce, before he slammed into the ground. He remained motionless for a second, before releasing a loud groan and raising himself off of the cracked tiles. Placing a hand against his forehead, Jason tried to collect himself.
"What the hell just hit me?"
He moved his hand to massage his chest, though the new sensations alarmed him. Whatever had hit him was strong enough to peel away the suit—small tentacles were frantically trying to cover his chest once more.
"What the hell...?"
The store's alarm started blaring, it made it hard to think. Disoriented and confused. It took him a good minute to finally register the situation as he looked back outside the store with wide eyes.
"Shit!"
Quickly, he dashed outside hoping to stop the well armed thief, but to his dismay the man was gone. All he left behind was a destroyed and empty ATM. Jason groaned at the sight, massaging the bridge of his nose.
"Well shit."
The alarm was still blaring in the background—cops would probably arrive in a few minutes. With that in mind the boy quickly used his webs to swing away from the scene, the sense of defeat and pain were still fresh. However he was unaware that the security cameras of a nearby apartment caught the entire scene.
———
———
Jason quickly crawled into his apartment through his bedroom window. His uncle wasn't home yet, but he didn't feel like climbing all the way over to the fire escape again. After making his way inside and locking the window behind himself, he slumped onto his bed with a loud groan.
'Well, that was a total failure.'
He wasn't quite sure what was more embarrassing. Getting his ass handed to him on his first night with new gear, or getting beat by some common criminal. Though that issue raised another question.
'Why the hell was that guy carrying around a military grade gun?'
He rolled over and sighed loudly, the suit retracting. Honestly he felt like shit. It was quite disheartening to be beaten so badly, especially when he had so much confidence in himself.
'That was supposed to go so differently. It was supposed to go better.'
He cupped his face with his hands and groaned yet again.
'Like what was it thinking?! Making quips while the guy had a gun in my face? Ugh! If it was her, she would've kicked his ass.'
In measuring himself up to the Spider-Girl, Jason made himself feel worse. He truly didn't expect for things to be so tough. Maybe his idea of vigilantism wasn't realistic.
'I've been at this for nearly two weeks... I thought I would've gotten a little better.'
His failure was weighing heavily upon him. Then, a rather demoralizing thought found its way into the boys head.
'Maybe...maybe I'm not cut out for this...'