Spider-Man's Arc

Chapter 5 of 10

Spider-Man cupped the goggled dog's wand again. The light flickered, then sank to a weak spark. His hands were warm, but not warm enough. The cold down here ate every bit of heat he gave. He rubbed the dog's shoulders. The wand held for a breath, then dimmed. His spider-sense fuzzed and went quiet. Twenty-three spiders clung to him, but the dark wall ahead stayed hidden. He needed light that the cold could not kill. Footsteps echoed from behind. Gwen Stacy dropped from a strand of web and landed in a crouch. She was another Spider, hooded in white, quick where he was tired. She looked at the dying wands and shook her head. "You keep breathing on them. That's a losing game." She had a way of naming the problem before he could argue. He felt half glad, half stung. "They die in the cold," he said. "My warmth brings them back, but only for a minute." "Then stop warming the wands." Gwen knelt by the goggled dog. "Warm the dog." She pulled off her white hood and tugged it over the shivering animal like a coat. Then she unhooked a small heat pack from her belt and pressed it against the dog's chest. "Iron Man gave me these. Keep the dog warm, and the dog keeps the wand lit. The wand runs off the dog, not off your breath." Spider-Man stared. He had been fighting the wand. The dog was the real source. He grabbed the second dog and wrapped his own jacket around it. He pressed his gloves flat against its ribs. The dog stopped shaking. Its wand caught, held, and grew. No sputter. No slow death. Just steady blue light spreading down the tunnel. His spider-sense flooded back, sharp and wide. The far wall lit up, crawling with spiders all the way into the deep curve. He reached out. One dropped to his glove. Then another climbed his arm. He held at twenty-three, his limit, and felt the strain press against the edge of his bond. Gwen watched the swarm crawl over him. "That's your cap, right? Twenty-three?" She stood the warmed dog on its feet. "Light won't matter if you can't hold more than you've got." She was right, and he knew it. The wands would stay lit now. The dogs would stay warm. The tunnel opened before him, bright and full of spiders he could finally see. But his bond was full. Every spider past twenty-three slid off his mind like water off glass. "I beat the cold," he said. "Now I have to beat myself again." Gwen tossed him a spare heat pack. "Then we go deeper. And you find out how far you can stretch before you snap." The two dogs padded ahead, wands steady, light pouring into the dark. Spider-Man followed, warm and lit at last, carrying a full bond toward a wall he could not yet hold.