Spider-Iida; Chapter 2
With Great Power
It was late when they got home. Tenko took the key out of the ignition and Tenya opened his door. She took a step out of the car and he was already by her side. There had been no word on Tensei's condition, all night. They couldn't stay, Tenko knew she would have to send Tenya to school the next morning.
When they walked through the door, Tenta was sat at his seat at the dining room table. "How is Tensei?" He asked, he barely looking up from his meal. Tenya went up to his room, not being able to stand the indifference on his fathers face this time.
He got to his bed and just sat. What was he supposed to do now? The house was no more quiet than usual but it felt wrong. The security in knowing that Tensei was only a bathroom away was gone in the matter of seconds.
He'd be back. It wasn't permanent, Tensei always bounced back. He pulled himself up off his bed and towards his desk. If Tensei knew he was sat waiting for him he'd never let him live it down.
He sat and started to read his textbook. He went to flip the page and it stuck to his fingers. He tried to pull back and ripped a piece of the paper away from the book. He tried to place the book down, only for that to be stuck to his other hand. He stood and tried to rip the book off of him, only getting it stuck to his other hand. He slammed the book down onto the desk to try and force it off.
The slam apparently catching Tenko's attention as she pushed open his door. He hid the book behind his back and she walked up to him, she cradled his face in her hands before she pulled him into a hug. "Tensei is strong. He'll be back." She pulled back from the hug to look him in the eyes. "My Love. Try to get some rest." She brushed her thumb over his cheekbone before pulling away and heading out the door, closing it behind her.
Once she was gone, he relaxed and the book had become unstuck. He closed the book and decided just to sleep it off. Maybe it was just in his head, a lot happened and he definitely needed some time to process it all.
The next morning, he got dressed and went to school. He decided it must have just been a weird dream or something his brain made up. His classes went as normal and he decided to walk home instead of waiting to get picked up. His brother normal was the one to drop him off and pick him up but he really didn't want to think about him not being there.
On his walk home, he bumped into a deshelved looking guy. He turned for a second and felt something was off about him. He couldn't place just what it was but he could sense something was wrong. He went to reach out for the guy and a loud car alarm went off. He instinctively looked over and when he looked back the man was gone.
He shook it off and made it into his neighborhood, it was usually incredibly quiet but it felt eary this time around. He took extra notice of the empty sidewalks and the dark houses.
He then heard screaming and darted towards the noise. A younge boy was screaming out for help as he was kicking and flailing in the arms of a hooded man. Tenya rushed over and reacted without thinking, he extended his hand and a web like substance shot out of his wrist. It stuck to the man by the side of his cheek and Tenya yanked it towards him, making the man fall and release the child.
The boy ran off as soon as his feet touched the floor again. Tenya tried to apprehend the man but he had jumped up and sped off in his van. He slowed his run into a full stop and hunched over to catch his breath. He was glad that at least the child was safe.
He looked down at his hands in confusion. What had he done? He pulled his sleeves up and touched the spot on his arm where the string like thing came out of. There seemed to be a small hole in his wrist. He extended his arm again and it shot out, sticking to the ground. Tenya quickly pulled it off and put it into his pocket.
He could not deal with this now. His brother was just hospitalized and he had a huge test coming up, he needed his focus elsewhere. He made it to his house and greeted Tenko before heading up to his room.
He tried to keep the strange occurrence as far from his mind as possible but he kept drifting back. He pulled out one of his medical books and started reading through some of the symptoms and diagnoses but none seemed to be describing what happened to him. He then decided to search it instead but all he got was spider fun-facts.
He was about to give up and never think of it again, until he found himself on a website reading over a man complaining about being infected with something and starting to be able to do things that wasn't humanly possible. The comments were all people calling him a real life superhero. Tenya was quick to assume that man's story to be fake or hyperbolic, though it was the only thing that seemed to make sense to him, annoyingly enough.
He returned to the fun-facts about spiders since their webs were the only thing he could attribute to his sticky string. He then remembered how a spider had bit him recently, he pondered for a moment before deciding this all had to be ridiculous and there was no way he could just randomly become superhuman, nonetheless a superhero.
He let go of his silly delusion and went on to studying. He could not let himself fail this test, any destractions could wait until a better time. He crammed all night until he was falling asleep rereading the same paragraph over and over again, it had started to look blurry even with his glasses on.
Tenko then knocked on the door, she gently pushed it open. "I brought you a snack." She motioned the tray she was carrying. She placed it on the desk beside him. "It seems like you've done enough studying for tonight, eat and then get some rest. I'll wake you for dinner." He closed his textbook which was enough for her to assume he would listen, she left the room and he opened his book again. He ate and drank while he studied, the cold orange juice being enough to wake him back up again. He loved a mid evening second rush.
He knew Tenko was probably right, cramming this much the night before was never guaranteed to help him remember but he couldn't help it. He wasn't the type that was ever very good at doing nothing. He could relax sure; if there was others around, mostly just his brother. Anything else felt lazy and/or undeserved.
Tenko did as she said she would and came to get him once dinner was ready. He brought the tray down with him and he sat with his parents. He hated doing this without Tensei. Not that he made it particularly better, but doing it alone felt so much worse. The strained silence, the uncomfortable looks around the table. He was glad it was over quickly.
He complimented Tenko's cooking and helped her clean up the table while Tenta went to his study. He was drying the dishes as she was washing them when she turned to him with a smile, "Oh, I got a call from the hospital earlier but I didn't wanna disturb your resting. Tensei should be able to come back home fully in a couple weeks." Good news, finally! She didn't give him any specific details but all that matter was that he was coming back home.
Tenya slept easier that night. His superhero nonsense floating out of his mind as easily as it entered. The was until the next morning, when he woke to find webs flung about all over his room. He definitely couldn't let his parents see this and he definitely needed to not let this happen again, but only after his test.
He cleaned his room and got ready for school. On his walk there, everything felt loud. Louder than it usually was. Sure his high school was in the middle of a busy city, of course there was noise but never this much. He felt like he could hear tvs playing from third floor apartments with the windows closed. He tried his best to tune it out, hoping as soon as he had something to focus on his brain would fix itself.
He got to his class a little later than he normally would, he apologized to his teacher, Aizawa and he waved him off. He got to his seat and Momo Yaoyorozu leaned over to him. "Did you stay up ungodly late again? You know this subject like the back of your hand, you'll do fine." He sighed, "Fine is not good enough, YaoMomo." She placed her hand on his shoulder "You know what I meant." He relaxed and Aizawa started instructing them.
He was right, as soon as the test paper was placed in front of him, all other noise seemed to disappear. He did just as well as he normally did on a test, which of course was as close to perfection as a one could get without having writing the test. YaoMomo as well, telling from her peppier attitude after the fact.
He looked around to the rest of his class, noticing the same reactions as usual after a test, especially one this important. He always found himself pleasantly surprised time and time again when Katsuki Bakugo placed high on their tests. Of course, it was common knowledge at this point that he was amoung the smartest in their class but the reminder was always encouraged.
He decided he could now worry about wether he was a superhuman or not after his web-incident. It wasn't that he believed something like that could ever even remotely be possible but it was the only explanation that didn't seem like he was reaching into hypochondriac territory.
That night he decided to snoop through some of Tensei's comic books. He studied them and came to the conclusion that most of these "heros" just put on a costume and started doing it. He wasn't sure if he was really the type of person who would do something like that.
Then he remembered what Tensei had been trying to teach him before he was shot, about protecting and serving, about being in a community. It didn't seem like the kind of message you just ignore, so he figured he'd at least give it a shot.
He would need a disguise. He didn't have anything that looked similar to the comic books, so he decided just covering any identiting body parts would have to do for now. He wasn't much of a hands on person in those crafty aspects, so sewing was out of the question.
He had an old black bodysuit from when his mother wanted him to try out gymnastics, he was surprised it even still fit. He put a black hoodie and black basketball shorts on top to try to conceal his body type more. He then put a black face mask meant for winter on, it was long and thin but it covered everywhere from his nose to his neck. He looked himself over in the mirror, feeling a little silly but then again he thought all superhero costumes looked a little silly. So he must be on the right track at least.
He put a couple pillows under his covers and left his books open, he put a pare of spare glasses on his bedside table to try and sell the bit more. Once he thought it'd look good enough if Tenko were to peek in on him, he turned the light off and went over to his window. He suddenly felt a lump in this throat.
Superhero's sneak out all the time, it's a part of the job but sneaking out of his own home, alone, felt wrong. He was debating taking everything off and actually heading to bed until he heard Tenko's voice in the hallway. She definitely couldn't catch him about to sneak out, that was almost worse. He climbed out of his window and used a web to hang from his roof, his hand sticking him to the side of his house. She opened the door and sighed at the fake Tenya asleep in bed. She came over to the window and closed it.
He sighed in relief as he heard his door close again, his relief making him start to slip off the house before he shot out another web to catch himself on a nearby tree, swinging to land on the street next to his house. This all seemed much easier than he thought it would be. He had already snuck out now, so all he had to do was go try to find crime to stop.
He aimless wondered around his neighborhood before he seen a huge building off in the distance, he thought back to the comic books he had read. It seemed like there was usually a training montage of sorts during this phase of heroing. He latched a web onto the darker part of the building and started to climb up it, the heights were a little nerve wracking but overall it didn't seem as hard as he thought it would be.
He reached the top and played around with shooting angles before he got sick of that and sat off the ledge of the building. The sun had set by then and he was glad to have a hoodie on so high up. He shot out another web and it attached to another building. He was pretty high up, it seemed a dangerous thing to try so early but, he had to get down somehow. He jumped off the building swinging around and he tried to aim for another building. He over shot and slipped, he quickly caught himself on a fire exit before he fell into the alley below him.
He looked into it and noticed the man from before, he felt the same off feeling as he watched him walk back and forth through the alley way. He got a better look at him this time. He was tall and lanky, his clothes seemed dirty and torn. He was mumbling something to himself that he couldn't hear from all the way up there. He didn't seem to be waiting for anyone, just walking.
Tenya assumed he was probably just drunk or on some other kind of intoxicant. He was debating whether he should just leave him alone or try to get him to his house, or just somewhere for the night.
And I would love to tell you that Tenya dropped down and ushered this clearly distressed man to safety. But his legs wouldn't move out of the crouched position he had them in.
There seemed like there was something wrong with this man. Not just drugs or being tired. He had a knife, gently resting by his side as he walked. It could be for self defense, he could just be homeless. He wanted to believe it but when the man stopped walking, it made his blood run cold. He kept mumbling and slowly turned his head up to look at Tenya.
He immediately shot out a web and pulled himself out of the fire escape, he wasn't sure where he was aiming but it didn't matter as long as it was far away from that guy. Once he had gone a couple blocks and was sure he wasn't following him, he stopped to breath.
He huffed and puffed as he was doubled over on the roof top. "That was crazy, that was crazy" He muttered to himself as he held his stomach with one arm, the other keeping himself up by his bent knees.
His eyes, they were bloodshot and wide. He had never seen anyone look like that before. He's glanced at the occasional case file enough to know that he wasn't on drugs, or at least that's not what made him look like that.
That was enough, it didn't matter what kind of medical developments he had. He couldn't do this. He sucked in his last big breath and started to make his way back to his house. This was a stupid idea and he knew it when he had it, he shouldn't have let himself even entertain it.
He took a break from swinging to rest his arms, he watched the empty streets. It must be pretty late by now. He then seen a van driving down the street. It was a dark color and windows were tinted, it looked like the van that hoodie guy tried to stuff the kid into. He waited for the van to pass him and checked the license plate, it was the same.
He had just decided to give up 'heroing' but he was still a curious person at the end of the day. He followed behind the van, just to see what the guy or guys were up to. They took a few turns down different streets before coming to a stop. There was nothing around besides houses, similar to his neighborhood just a couple streets down. The van door opened but no one came out. It just sat there, with the lights turned off and no movement.
A girl came walking down the street, probably coming back home. She had a small bag and looked to be texting someone. She was walking a little funny, probably do to the heels she was wearing. She made a loud scoff sound and stopped to pull them off before she kept walking, both of her hands now being occupied. She got close to the van and Tenya moved in as well, trying to be ready incase they grabbed her.
She kept walking and once she was just before the open van door, she stopped. She took a couple steps back and looked into the van before stepping back further and crossing the street. Tenya kept watch on the van, in case they tried to go after her but it just stayed there.
He took his phone from his pocket and checked the time. It was very late by now. He still had school in the morning. He stood and decided that the van wasn't going to move but they probably wouldn't be able to take anyone this late since no one was around.
He made his way back home and landed in his back yard. He pulled the mask off and took a deep breath. He stuck a web to the roof for stability and climbed up to his window, he pushed it up and pulled himself through. He took off the makeshift suit and fell onto his bed. Falling asleep as soon as he did.