Under the microscope, the picture was clear:
Two strands of web, nearly identical in structure—both resembling the silk of the black widow spider.
Peter remembered the research papers he'd devoured: scientists at UC Riverside had sequenced black widow silk, uncovering two key proteins, Masp1 and Masp2. Both were serine proteases, vital parts of the lectin pathway in immune response.
But what Peter and the Amazing Spider-Man produced?
Not just Masp-like proteins. Something deeper. Stranger. Almost… mystical.
Peter frowned. Could it be? Our powers aren't just science… but something else? Something bordering on magic?
He wanted to dive further, but Midtown's lab—solid as it was—just didn't have the tools for answers that big. For now, he shelved the thought.
---
Next stop: the single-fiber electronic tensile tester.
He grinned at the sight of it. At home, he had a clunky version—an old "fat-butt computer," as Tony Stark once teased. The bulk came from a hidden motor crammed into the base. That setup required Peter to clamp fibers manually and flex every muscle just right to get decent readings.
Tedious. Exhausting.
Here at school though? The machine was sleek. Pneumatic clamps. Adjustable airflow. Smooth grip and release. Near-perfect precision. No unnecessary strain on the samples—or on Peter.
It made him chuckle. Figures. Every Spider-Man eventually ends up studying webs. It's like… destiny.
Even the Amazing Spider-Man's DIY lab had one of these gadgets in the background—Peter had spotted it on film.
He loaded up his samples.
The results came fast.
The Amazing Spider-Man's webbing was stronger, tougher. Higher tensile strength.
His own webs? More elastic, stretching further before snapping.
In short:
Amazing Spider-Man's silk: hard-hitting, brute force, less give.
Peter's silk: flexible, springy, built-in shock absorption.
Both had their trade-offs. His elastic strands absorbed impact, reducing the force someone felt when hit or bound. The Amazing Spider-Man's strands didn't—captives would feel the full smack.
Not a game-changer, maybe. But a fascinating difference.
---
Peter didn't stop there. He ran density tests, comparing silk to Kevlar, steel, even silkworm thread. The results stunned him: spider silk density rivaled natural fibers, lighter than most high-performance synthetics, and way lighter than steel.
Translation? This could be the foundation for clothing. Real clothing. Stronger than Kevlar. Lighter than cotton. Biodegradable.
All it needed was a little tweaking—adjust stiffness, weave in additives, sacrifice a bit of raw performance in exchange for versatility. A new frontier in composite fibers.
Peter could practically hear Tony Stark smirking. "Kid, you just found my next billion-dollar patent."
---
The bell rang. Students packed up.
But Peter? He was still dismantling the school's tensile tester under the radar, memorizing its guts for a home upgrade. His clunky motorized rig would soon become pneumatic, no matter what.
Because this wasn't a one-off project.
Every new Spider-Man he met would have unique silk, unique science. And Peter Parker was determined to catalog them all.
---
The rest of the day was uneventful. Well, almost.
Flash Thompson still played his part: loud, cocky, desperate for attention. He heckled Peter at every turn. But outside of class? Flash was Spider-Man's biggest fanboy. Shirts, photos, posters—the whole shrine.
The irony never got old.
Sometimes, Peter was tempted to swing in, mask on, drop the act, then unmask right in front of Flash just to watch his brain explode.
Of course, he never did.
…But the thought always made him smile.
—End of chapter—
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