Spider-Man's Arc

Chapter 8 of 10

The pale swarm churned against Spider-Man's mind. He held a hundred cold spiders now, but holding was not commanding. Their weight pressed on him like water rising in his skull. He reached for them and found nothing to grip. There was no thread between his thoughts and theirs. He had swallowed the nest, but he could not steer it. He swayed. The spiders swayed with him, and the drag grew worse. "I feel you slipping," Gwen said. She stepped close, one gloved hand on his arm. Gwen had promised to anchor him. But anchoring meant pulling him back into his own body, and that was the problem. Every time she pulled, she pulled him away from the swarm. "I don't have a line to them," he told her. "I can hold them or let you hold me. Not both." Miles crouched nearby, watching the pale tide. He had fought beside Spider-Man since the dark first beat him. "You're both reaching the same way," Miles said slowly. "What if Gwen doesn't pull you out? What if she reaches in with you?" Gwen understood first. She closed her eyes and opened her own mind, the way she had learned her powers. She did not grab Spider-Man. She laid her thoughts beside his, steady where his shook. He felt her there, calm and solid. He stopped fighting the weight alone. He leaned his bond against hers. The link snapped into place. Not a rope she threw to him, but a shared floor under both their minds. Through it, her steadiness poured into the swarm. The hundred cold spiders stopped churning. They felt the second anchor and settled. "Now move them," Gwen said through her teeth. "I've got the weight. You aim." Spider-Man opened his eyes. He lifted his right hand. On the far wall, a hundred pale legs rose together. He curled his fingers, and the swarm flowed into a tight knot on the rock. He swept his arm, and the knot crawled where he pointed. For the first time the nest obeyed, clean and whole. He was not drowning in them. He was driving them. Miles let out a breath. "That's it. That's command." The effort still burned. Spider-Man's arms shook and his nose bled again. But the link held, because Gwen held it. He glanced at her. Sweat stood on her face. "How long can you carry it?" he asked. "Not forever," she said. "My mind isn't built for a hundred of these. A few minutes. Maybe less." The truth landed hard. He could command the pale swarm, but only while Gwen anchored him. The moment she let go, the weight would crush him again. He had won the link he needed. Now he had to learn to hold the swarm alone, before Gwen's strength ran out and the nest dragged them both under.