Spider-Man's Arc

Chapter 10 of 10

Spider-Man held the pale swarm alone for five seconds. That was the most he had. But the chamber's cold struck harder now. The two wizard dogs shivered in their hats and capes. Their wands flickered. If the light died, his spider-sense died too, and the rest of the nest would stay unbonded in the dark. He knelt by the dogs. Their clothes and heat packs had gone cold. The one with glasses whined. Its wand sputtered to a weak blue spark. "Hold on," Spider-Man said. He pressed both dogs against his chest. His own warmth was not enough. The light kept fading. Gwen dropped beside him. Her hands were already pulling heat packs from her belt. "They're freezing out," she said. "We don't have long." She shook a pack hard and tucked it under a cape. The wand brightened for a breath, then dimmed again. The cold in this chamber was deeper than anywhere before. Miles crouched at Spider-Man's shoulder. He had guided every pale-spider step with the same calm voice. "Light buys you seconds," he said. "The dogs won't last the whole nest. You have to bond them all now, in one push, before the wands go out." Spider-Man's stomach dropped. Hundreds of pale spiders still waited on the walls. He could hold a hundred for five seconds. The full nest was more. He had no anchor now. If he opened his mind that wide and the light died mid-bond, the weight would bury him. "That's everything at once," he said. "No net." "Then make the cold your clock," Miles said. "Go while there's still light to see them." Spider-Man wrapped both wizard dogs tight in his arms. Their wands sat against his ribs. Their shivering slowed. The light steadied, pale and thin, but steady. He had one window. He faced the chamber. The pale tide covered the rock, thousands of still legs. He opened his mind all the way. The nest poured in. Not one cluster now. All of it. The weight hit like the whole cave falling on him. His knees buckled. Gwen caught his arm, but she did not join the link. She just held him upright. The burden was his alone. He felt every pale spider at once, a roaring crowd inside his skull. He did not fight the weight. He had learned that in the dark, with Flash cutting the link on and off. He let the crowd settle. He found one thread, then ten, then a thousand. Blood ran from his nose. His five seconds came and went, and he was still standing. He stretched past them. Ten seconds. Twenty. The wands flickered. One dog's light guttered toward death. "Hurry," Gwen whispered. "We're losing it." Spider-Man gripped the last of the nest. The far spiders, the deepest ones, snapped into his mind like a door closing. The whole swarm was his. Every pale spider in the chamber waited on his command. He raised one shaking hand. The tide moved as one. Thousands of pale bodies flowed down the walls and gathered at his feet in a single living carpet. They climbed his legs, his arms, his shoulders, and went still. He felt no weight now. They were part of him. He held them without the anchor, without the light that was already dying. The last wand went out. The chamber fell black. Spider-Man did not panic. He did not need to see them anymore. The bond held in the dark, steady and his. "The dogs," he said. Gwen was already warming them, and a weak spark returned. In its glow he saw the swarm covering him, calm and obedient. Miles stood in the faint light, and a slow grin crossed his face. "You did it," he said. "All of them. Alone." He put a hand on Spider-Man's shoulder, careful not to crush the spiders there. "No link. No anchor. Just you." Spider-Man let out a long breath. The swarm breathed with him. He had come into this cave unable to find a single spider in the dark. Now every arachnid in it answered to his mind. He unwrapped the two tired dogs from his chest and set them down gently. They had carried the light this far. He wouldn't need it the same way again. He flexed his hand, and the pale tide rippled across the floor and back, loyal, complete. The nest was his. The swarm was his. And for the first time since he entered the dark, Spider-Man stood in the cave and felt it belonged to him.