Chapter Text
It was one thing for Grace to be put into situations where he was needed but didn't want to be in.
It was another when he has no choice but to be there all at once.
The noise of screaming people and explosions are enough to overwhelm his senses, specifically his spider sense which currently are screaming at him as well. There is so much going on and too many thing to be done as well.
Grace takes a deep breath as he figures out his plan, though most are made up as he goes from what he has learned from the past four month he's been Star Spider.
One would think he was used to this by now or has some sort of understanding but like anything else in his life, that completely falls apart on him as well. He sees the cars slightly tilting more off this burning bridge which is enough to make him act now.
He shoots his bright red web to the truck and pulls it towards him, enough to pull it back from the ledge which gives enough time for the people inside the car to run and get out.
"Go to the West side of the bridge!" He yells at them as he swings towards the North part of the bridge.
He can see where the bridge is starting to fall apart and knows he has no other option but to try and string the bridge together long enough for people to get off the bridge.
Looking at the state and tidied rope that held the bridge together start to break apart concluded of geometry and nature.
Spiders were good at making web structures stay together, thats what they are known for.
With that he ends up making a triangle webbed lining from different weak points and connecting them with the still attached thread of iron wires keeping the structure together and made them combine into whole webbed rope keeping the bridge slightly stable.
Its enough to hold, for now but not forever. He sees as more rushed scared people are either running or trying to escape their vehicles. He swings down and gets to work on getting the people out of there.
Dr. Ryland Grace had been through a hectic life as it was, losing his parents at a young age and having to go live with his grandparents with his twin Colt.
The twins were not only related by blood but by understanding of one another for beyond what blood binned them together. However, it seemed back in those days people didn't see their shared connection and rather their differences.
Grace wasn't naive, he knew he wasn't all that stronf nor brave as a kid. No, that was Colt, Colt and his ability to take on whatever thing scared Grace and helped him face it as best he could.
However bullies made sure Grace knew how different he was from his brother. Picking and teasing him he was easy prey and he knew it. Colt did his best to keep Ryland safe, but when he wasn't there Grace would wish his brother was.
He was tiny compared to the practical giants he went to school with.
So he decided if he couldn't beat people in strength then he would go with his brain, which is what he ended up doing once high school ended. Studying his butt off in college and becoming his family's first with a Doctorates.
He was proud, his grandparents were, Colt was as well. But all that had gone downhill too, one argument that went sideways and soon his entire life flipped on its side.
The backlash and criticism was hard and he felt deep within him that he had done that to himself. Whatever pride he had died inside him and was nothing more than a tiny flickering flame now. Luckily he had a good support system at least.
After a long conversation with Colt seemed to have led him into the position of teaching, he was always good at explaining concepts to others, Colt said so himself.
So with that landed him as a middle school science teacher for three years now. Trial and error but he wasn't afaird of that, that was the fun part of being a teach is adapting and understanding.
He had fun, explain concepts and watch the shine of boys and girls eyes when they understood what he was teaching them. He saw wonder and creativity in a world that destroys it, so he would do his best to preserve it and strengthen it.
All was fine, but of course him being who he was would haunt him back in the most unexpected way possible.
Stratt had found him.
She had come out of nowhere and soon Grace was part of a program he didn't even really know existed, Petrova Labs is what it was called. He became a part time scientist for the program after Stratt had seen his paper that got him kicked out of the science community entirely.
But he couldn't say he wasn't slightly happy she had because that is where his best friend works at, Rocky.
A intelligent and brutally honest engineer who worked with his partner Adrian who also worked on science with Grace. The three were a trio and constantly were working together on small projects that needed to get done.
How good things would have been if it hadn't been for the fact that Stratt hadn't just looked for Grace for his paper or knowledge, no. It was later obvious the women had something else in mind for Grace than he had suspected.
The bite.
A single bite was all it took.
It was unsuspecting, he was asked to revive a test spider that Stratt had ask Grace to observe and study, apparently they had found something unique about the spider and wanted Grace to inspect it and tell them what made the species of spider special.
All he did was look away for once second. Everything changes in that one second.
Next thing he knows is a small pinch like sensation on his hand, looking back he should have closed the lid at least a bit more. How the spider got out was a mystery on it own.
The spider bite was fine, he didn't really care about it afterwards, it wasn't until later in the day when he cared about what made the spider so different. A call from Colt and being taken home after showing signs of nueasea, fever, dizziness, and dehydration that he was sent home.
His brother had left his apartment finally after much convincing from Grace that he would be fine and he would call if he needed anything else.
"I mean it Ry, you feeling any worse and you call me. We can go to the hospital together." The twin urged to his sick brother.
"I'm fine Colt, don't worry. I will call you if I feel any worse, I'm probably just feeling stress and it's finally catching up to me."
Colt didn't seem too convinced about his brother answer but was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
He was wrong, so very wrong.
Which lands him to now with a child in his arms as he swings back to the other side of the bridge. He could feel the way the kid grabbed at his suit, how close they were to his heart and hope the kid didn't hear how fast his heart was beating.
He was scared, but he knew he needed to be brave for someone else to not have to be. What both Colt and Rocky have been telling him to do.
The red rope finally let him land safely as he saw what seemed like the kids parents run towards the two. "Its okay, your safe now. Go with you parents and don't let go, okay?" Grace comments.
The kid nods as he slowly let's go of Grace and turn to see his parents running towards them.
Grace counted how many cars had been on the West side of the Bridge, he was lucky it was the early morning and most people hadn't gotten to work just yet.
"Thank you so much." A relieved voice had pulled him back from his thoughts as he looked at the parents of the child he just saved.
"Its nothing, I'm just glad he safe and you guys as well." Grace says back.
"You are our hero, we can never repay you for what you have done for us." Grace is glad he has mask on to hide his embarrassment, he can't a compliment for the life of him.
"Don't have to, just be safe and stick together. That's all I ask." With that final word of comfort to the family Grace was off yet again, swinging back onto the bridge.
The sound of sirens gave him relief and alarm. The last thing for him to do now was just to make sure to secure the bridge one last time.
A quick calculation and image and the red bright webs flicked from his wrist as he swung away from the scene. He didn't want to be caught by the cops, him already doing what he did was enough to send him into a heart attack.
Grace lands on an apartment complex as he switches from his suit to normal work clothes. It was summer so he was mostly working at Petrova labs at the moment. After finishing changing he looked at his watch, and now he was late.
Sugar. Honey. Ice. Tea.
He really needs better words for what he wants to say.
Now starts the rush of getting to work which was a bike ride all the way to the building. He managed to get there in just two minutes before his clock in time.
Grace is panting as he parks his bike and makes his way into the building, flashing his badge to security and scanning it to be let inside.
"Good morning Dr. Grace." A automatic womens voice greets him as Grace sighs, "Morning Mary."
"What happened to you, question?" The sound of someone behind him makes him jump and let out a squeak as he turns around to see who it was.
Low and behold none other than his best friend. Rocky with his gravity confusing hair with a single white streak and custom wheelchair was looking at him.
"Geez Rock your gonna give me a heart attack." Grace manages to get out as he puts his hands on his knees and let out a deep breath.
"Not my fault you get scared easily, wasn't even trying this time." The engineer responds as his one of his eyebrow quirks up.
Rocky wasn't wrong, his spider senses worked but only when Grace was in danger, Rocky isn't dangerous by any means to Grace. Maybe his honesty but thats about it.
"You ready to continue on our project?" Rocky asked as Grace nods once his slight panic slows down and the two talk to each other about anything new happening in their lives.
It was break time after about 5 hours of working, Adrian once again had to pull the two stubborn friends from their station to eat lunch.
Adrian being Adrian had brought food they made for dinner the day before and shared it between the trio.
"I'm just saying, the organism could be working against its organic coding just from its reaction with the heat." Grace commented as he spoke while eating the food Adrian had brought.
"It could be, but what about the way it immediately goes into Mitosis once that heat is gone?" Adrian replied back as they ate finished the last of their shared of their food.
Rocky listened to the two scientist trying to figure out the project assigned to them by Stratt a couple days back.
They had found a sort of black gooey organism a while back and had been put to the task to figure out how the organism worked. Rocky had built the enclosure the organism now lived in and had been checking up on any changes the organism could have on the enclosure.
They had a few close called here and there from the past couple of days, but had finally managed to find a material that kept the organism calm and at bay. For now at least.
"I mean we could try the other temperatures again and see if there was anything we could have missed?" Grace asked as Adrian hummed in agreement.
"Agree, could be good to check again and look for anything that could have slipped."
The two scientist nodded as Rocky saw the pair, he loved the two of them very much.
Rocky and Grace were best friends and a person he cared deeply about. He had helped him with a project that could have caused more damage then good.
Adrian had been sent to deal with another problem at another lab and couldn't be there when the incident had happened. But Grace was, he still remembers the way the two worked day and night to fix the problem.
It had taken a great deal out of the two and almost killed them if Rocky was being honest which he always is.
Grace. Grace and his bravery had saved him.
Grace never saw what Rocky saw but Rocky, Adrian, and Colt would always remind him when he doubted what they saw in him.
Soon a static from the intercom of the lunch room buzzed, the other staff stopped what they were doing and waited for whatever announcement the intercom would say.
"Could Dr. Grace and Engineer Rocky come to the main lab in sector 5 as soon as possible please?" Mary's voice echos out as the two looked at each other.
"Guess we gotta go, thanks Adrian for the food again." Grace says as he packs up the papers he had brought with him.
"Yes, very good. Thank you my muse for your wonderful cooking." Rocky says with that affection and devotion a person who is entirely in love with his partner could possibly say it in.
Adrian smiles and nods, "Always love, tell me what happen later."
"Always do, never hide anything from you."
Rocky gently takes Adrians hand and gives them a small kiss on the back of their hand. The scientist smiles softly as they urged their partner to get going.
Soon the two are off as the last goodbyes were made and to where they were called off to.
Getting to the sector took only a couple minutes as the duo made it there without a hitch. At that moment they were met with Stratt and Carl, the pair were looking over some data it seemed.
Once the pair had made their presence aacknowledge had Stratt and Carl looked at them.
"There you two are." Stratt starts off with as she looks down at her tablet.
"What did you need from us, question?" Rocky asked as the women pushed something on her tablet and showed the two an image.
"This was found two hours ago at a back alleyway about 2 miles from here. Reports have been saying an organism has been growing there that isn't any mold known." Stratt begins as she swiped to another photo.
"We have gathered that this new organism is spreading far faster than anybody had anticipated and our lab has been asked by the Mayor to figure out how to get rid of it." The women adds on as she turns the tablet back to herself and presses something on it.
"You two are assigned to figure out what this is and how to take care of it as of right now. Anything you need let me know and we will get it to you." Stratt commands as she turns the tablet off and hands it to Carl.
"What about the other organism you asked me to look into?" Grace asked in confusion after the absolute dump of information he and Rocky were just given.
"That will be handed completely over to Adrian and another engineer, this takes priority. You two are the best in your fields so I need you to take this." Stratt explains.
The confusion on the two workers was clear as day as Stratt sighs deeply. "I know this is a lot, but you two are smart. You will figure this out, you have four days." She ends the conversation with before she walks away as Carl walks behind the women.
Grace and Rocky look at the man in pure confusion. "You guys know who you are. You're gonna do great, let us know if you need anything to speed the process." The man reinstate as he caught up to Stratt.
What just happened!?