Chapter 71: Where Did That Big-Ass Spider Go?
Ethan tailed Peter Parker into the museum, passing his best friend Harry along the way — and, standing next to Harry, the man who hadn't yet become the Green Goblin: Norman Osborn.
Ethan felt for Harry. This version of Harry's story was as bad as it got — girlfriend stolen, father killed, face blown half off. The full package.
He also couldn't quite figure out why a rich kid like Harry would be best friends with a broke nobody like Peter Parker. Movie logic, he supposed. In the real world, those two don't cross paths.
Without meaning to, Ethan found himself drifting along with the tour group right into the exhibit hall.
"There are over thirty-two thousand identified species of spider in the world." A scientist was walking the students through the display, and Peter was eating it up.
"Wow — that is so cool!" Peter couldn't help himself.
He was taking photos between every other sentence of the lecture, thoroughly in his element.
Ethan leaned against a wall in the corner and waited for the main event.
Harry nudged Peter. "You wanna go talk to MJ? Now's your shot."
Peter went pink and shook his head. "No — no. You go talk to her."
He wasn't there yet. Courage-wise.
Harry shrugged and went up himself.
"Ugh, they're so gross," Mary Jane said, face bright, looking at the spiders through the glass. She did not, in fact, seem grossed out.
"Yeah, totally gross," Harry agreed, and slid right into step beside her.
Peter watched the two of them hitting it off from a few feet back, and felt something bitter and helpless crawl up his throat.
Worse — Harry was actively reciting spider facts to Mary Jane. The same spider facts Peter had just taught Harry ten minutes ago.
All Peter could do was lick his wounds in silence. If he'd had a little more spine, he'd be the one impressing her right now.
Ethan noticed what none of the students had: the spider cage that was supposed to contain fifteen specimens — only had fourteen.
The fifteenth was currently on the ceiling, in a corner, very much not caged.
At that moment, Harry's teacher pulled him aside for something, and suddenly Peter was alone with Mary Jane.
Peter was doing his signature deer-in-headlights routine. Ethan couldn't watch anymore. He walked up to the pair of them.
"Hey — want me to take a picture of you two? And then, Peter, you can get some solo shots of her after?"
Ethan gave Peter a quick wink.
"Would — would that be okay?" Peter turned to Ethan with naked gratitude, then looked at Mary Jane, barely breathing.
He couldn't believe Ethan had shown up again. He really couldn't believe Ethan had just done the one thing Peter had been too paralyzed to do himself. Getting a photo with Mary Jane was the stuff of his actual dreams.
Mary Jane glanced between Peter and the stranger with the camera. Odd timing, sure. But a photo wasn't a big deal.
She nodded.
Ethan didn't waste the opening. Click. Done.
Peter was, for one brief shining moment, the happiest person in New York City.
"Make the most of it," Ethan told him, handing the camera back, and walked away.
The System pinged.
「DING!」
「Congratulations, Host! Peter Parker (Tobey version) has been added as a friend!」
「Item Received: Pushover Glasses!」
「Friend Points: +10!」
Ethan looked at the glasses that had materialized in his hand.
[ Pushover Glasses: Wearing these increases hostility toward you from everyone nearby by 100%. Essential equipment for anyone running a "look weak, strike hard" play. ]
He stared at the description for a long moment.
Yep. Pre-Spider-Man Peter Parker really is just... absolutely useless.
Peter, meanwhile, had seized the momentum and asked Mary Jane if he could take a few more photos of her. Good for him.
Ethan circled back and settled in to watch — because this was the part he'd come for. The spider bite. The origin.
Peter was mid-photo, mid-smile, mid-happiness — when a spider began lowering itself from the ceiling on a silk thread, descending right toward Peter's exposed hand —
And Mary Jane's boyfriend spotted Peter laughing and talking with his girl.
Crack. One punch. Peter went down.
The spider — which had been about to land on Peter — dropped instead onto the boyfriend's arm.
"AAAGH!!"
The scream ripped through the exhibit hall.
Everyone rushed forward.
The spider had bitten Mary Jane's boyfriend. He was on the floor in seconds, convulsing, foaming at the mouth.
Mary Jane was frozen, too shocked to make a sound.
Peter was on the ground, bewildered, watching the scene unfold in front of him.
Ethan sipped his coffee.
The spider that was supposed to bite Peter Parker... bit an extra.
This was pretty clearly a guy who didn't have main-character armor. His body couldn't handle the venom. He was already going limp.
Ethan was keenly interested in what happened next — but he also needed to keep eyes on that spider.
If he had to, he could redirect it back to Peter and get the plot back on track. Otherwise he had no idea when he was getting home.
The spider, however, was apparently aware it had made a mistake. It bolted.
Ethan scanned the room. But the crowd was getting thicker, the scene more chaotic.
He closed his eyes and reached out with Observation Haki.
Security was already herding people toward the exits and locking down every spider cage in the building.
Harry and the teacher came running back to the exhibit, saw the aftermath, and reacted predictably: Harry completely ignored Peter still lying on the floor and rushed to pull Mary Jane into his arms, trying to comfort her.
Peter saw that. And something behind his eyes went hot.
His fists were trembling at his sides. There was a rage building in him that had nowhere to go.
Meanwhile, Ethan had found the spider. Corner of the room. It was lining up to bite another bystander.
Ethan froze it in place with a silent pulse of Chaos Magic before it could land.
He stood there, looking at the frozen spider, running options.
Option A: make the spider bite Peter. Get the story back on track.
Option B: ignore this universe entirely. Take the spider. Go home. Study it. Maybe mass-produce Spider-Men.
He glanced at the boyfriend on the floor, dying from a bite his body couldn't handle.
He dropped Option B.
What a garbage world. Ethan took in the full tableau — Peter facedown on the floor, Harry holding Peter's girl, a man dying from a spider bite meant for someone else — and sighed.
A wild thought crossed his mind. What if I made it bite Mary Jane instead?
He released the Chaos Magic from the spider. It didn't go for Mary Jane.
As if following some invisible command wired into the universe itself, the spider turned and went straight for Peter.
It bit him.
Ethan watched it happen and exhaled.
"Some things... really are just meant to be."
"So — mission complete, right? I can go home?"
He raised the Sling Ring, willed it to activate —
Nothing.
Not a thing.
Ethan frowned.
The crisis isn't over yet.
☆☆☆
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