Chapter Text
Peter walks into his house, he closes the door behind him and looks around. He knows Aunt May won’t be home for a while so he needs to wait till then. He scratches his hand, the trip was fun until that weird spider bit him. He should probably look to find out what species that was, as the bite area is now very itchy and he feels a bit woozy. He places his book bag down and grabs a band aid and disinfectant from underneath the bathroom sink. He applies them then goes onto his school laptop, googling ‘red and blue spiders’. The first response was the Red-Headed Mouse Spider, but they are from Australia, and their colors are in a different pattern than the spider that bit him. The only other one appearing is the Brazilian Blue Dwarf Beauty Tarantula, and Peter knows that the spider wasn’t a tarantula, also the colors are off. Maybe it was a rare version of the mouse spider, and the lab could have had them for something. Peter goes back over to the first tab and does more research on the spider, ‘Bites can cause symptoms like numbness, tingling, sweating, headache, and nausea, but severe envenomation is rare’ that’s accurate with what he has. So maybe it was just a different looking one. He sighs and closes his laptop, then he flops onto his bed. Only to fall asleep a few seconds later.
Peter wakes up with an aching in his body, he sighs and gets up, he heads toward the kitchen. He opens the door and looks inside, nothing inside looks appetizing. He looks over to the meat section. Maybe he could get a small beef stick, though his eyes land on May’s salmon. That was gonna be dinner this weekend, but Peter’s eyes wouldn’t leave it. Before he can think he snatches the fish and rips open the packaging with his nail. He rips off the lower half of the fish, (everything except the head was still on when it was packaged). And shoves the fish, scales and all, into his mouth. The flavor and texture was satisfying to Peter. It seemed to calm his aching for a moment, until a scale scratched the inside of his mouth when he swallowed reality came back to him. He gasps and backs away from the last of the fish on the counter. Covering his mouth. Now he’s had raw fish before, as he likes sushi. But he’s never eaten the whole thing. Especially since he ate it like an animal. He runs to the bathroom and washes the blood off his hands, his mind flashing back to the last time he had this much blood on his hands, that was almost a month ago. When his family of three became a family of two. His breathing picks up as he keeps panicking. Only for everything to suddenly freeze. He can barely hear the sound of water rushing as his ears start ringing.
Peter collapses to the ground, miraculously somehow not hitting himself on the sink. He screams out then moves to get up. Probably out of pure adrenaline he dashes from the bathroom to his room. He collapses down onto his floor, the carpet feeling soft in his now delirious state. He screams again as his body feels like it’s on fire. He had felt his temperature rising earlier but he had just thought it was one of the symptoms of what he read before, honestly he didn’t fully pay attention to the severe reactions as they were labeled to be rare, though the symptoms did say muscle spasms, difficulty breathing and speeding heart rate. That’s his luck that he gets the rare symptoms. He lays on the ground for what feels like hours, but was probably only 20 minutes. He’s sweated a pool by now and his body buzzed. He wonders how longer it will last, or how long he will last. Suddenly his haze is cut by a pain rearing through his spine. He lets out a blood curdling scream. His eyes blur up and feel like someone’s pushing them out of his head. His legs feel like they are gonna burst. He suddenly smells the metallic smell of blood. He’s bleeding. He starts to cry, though his tears only hurt him more, he begs that Aunt May will walk in soon, he cries out for her. Between his sobs he feels his ribs rip apart. He screams again. He didn’t remember this as a symptom! Was it due to the fish?! “P-please stop!” He mutters out as if it was a person doing this to him, but it wasn’t so the pain continues.
There is a bursting sound and suddenly Peter couldn’t feel his legs, all he felt was a heavy pain in his waist. He screams again. The smell of blood is stronger in the air and he can’t open his eyes. He shudders as blood enters his mouth, some dripping in from his face and some from inside his mouth where more pain is starting. He lets out a painful sob, his whole body stinging with each shake of fear. “PETER!!” He barely hears a voice scream. The sound of the front door shaking at failed attempts to open it. The door swings open and running is heard as his Aunt rushes in. Peter feels a bit guilty for scarring her like this. Then he hears her scream.
May walks into the apartment building, sighing after a long day at work. She hits the elevator buttons and waits as it rises, she’s a bit excited as Peter just went on a school trip to some lab. And she expects to get an excited rundown from her nephew. Even though half the stuff he says doesn’t make sense to her, his excitement was worth listening. The elevator opens and she steps out with a smile, only to freeze as she hears a scream, not just any scream, she immediately recognizes it as Peter’s. A few of her neighbors were out of their rooms and at her door, they looks over at her when she leaves the elevator. Her eyes widen as she hears another scream. She rushes over and pulls out her keys, “PETER!!!!” She yells out in concern hoping that he responds, in her panic she struggles to get the door open. To her rescue one of the neighbors grabs the key and opens the door. She slams the door open as she looks around the apartment. She notices the fish on the counter half eaten and bloody, she also notices the strong smell of blood filling the apartment. “What the hell?!” She hears one of the neighbors mutter. She looks over and notices their calling the police and ambulance. She hears a sobbing sound and immediately runs over, she runs to Peter’s room, why she didn’t immediately go there she doesn’t know. The smell of blood is nearly unbearable, she gags as she enters the room, only to scream. Blood and flesh is splattered everywhere, she looks down at Peter- HIS LEGS ARE GONE!!! She backs up, tears filling her eyes, hislegsaregonehislegsaregone! She realizes with horror, his legs exploded. She looks up to his face and notices his eyes are open, her breath hitches. His eyes are glossy….. she lets out a sob, he’s dead isn’t he, no one could survive this. His head is also bleeding and his shirts soaked in blood. She kneels down and reaches towards her nephew, only to freeze in surprise when his eyes follow her. He’s alive?! She looks over and notices though small he is breathing. “Peter?!” She says and rushes closer to him. He lets out another sob, she carefully turns him over onto his back and lets out a gasp. The blood on his forehead is from another pair of eyes growing! She runs her hand through Peter’s hair, muttering words of comfort. She feels Peter lean into her, shaking like crazy. “I’m here I’m here” she whispers. She looks up to see the neighbors, (at least some of them, as the others couldn’t stand the blood, though no one blames them) standing in the door way. Two of them run over to help treat his wounds, one having found the first aid kit in the bathroom. “He’s mutating” May whispers to the crowd. How is this possible?! She knows that Peter isn’t a mutant. Benjamin had no mutant DNA in his family. Unless it came from Peter’s mother. But they should have told her this! Peter is obviously fading in and out of consciousness. “The hospital won’t know what to do” one of the neighbors say with concern. May pauses then reaches her hand out begging for someone’s phone. One neighbor hands it to her, she dials. “Hello this is stark industry customer service, how may we he-?” A chipper voice asks, “My Name is May Parker! My nephew is mutating can you please get Mr. Stark!” She all but yells at the poor man on the other side of the phone. The man could tell by the pain in her voice and immediately calls up to his boss’s boss’s boss. “Please remain calm, I am getting him” the man says with all the chipperness gone.
Tony Stark was eating dinner with Pepper when he gets an emergency alert from Friday. “What is it?” He says, Pepper looks at him, “it better be worth missing this” he quickly adds. “There is a woman who called the help desk in a panic saying that her nephew is mutating, and that he is losing a lot of blood, as you know most hospitals are not equipped for mutations so she called you for your medical team.” Friday responds, and Tony can almost hear panic in her voice. “What is happening to him?” He asks, “I will play her message” Friday responds. A beep is heard and Tony looks over at Pepper, who has gained a bit of a worried expression. A voice goes over the speaker loud panicked and crying. “Please hurry! He’s- ohmygod!- his legs are gone! They exploded! He’s unconscious! He-he-he’s growing more eyes and their’s blood everywhere! To- to much blood, howishealive?! Please! Please help!” Tony freezes, “I sent the location the call is coming from to you” Friday’s robotic voice makes Tony jump after hearing that. “Get the medical transport team there asap. And inform the medical team! I am going there too.” Tony says, Pepper grabs his arm. He glares at her, “I’m not saying to not help, I am asking why you specifically should go.” She asks, he continues to look at her. “To help the people who are there, specifically his family.” He says, Pepper nods and lets go as Tony runs over to get his suit (just in case).
May holds onto Peter as she hears the sirens get closer. She knows they are outside. Why is this happening to Peter?! He’s a good kid, smart, kind, everything! He doesn’t deserve this pain! “I looked over him, to the best of my knowledge he’s gaining many new limbs, most likely more eyes and another pair of arms, I’m not sure why he’s lost his legs though” the one neighbor says, trying to remain calm for May’s sake. May nods. The EMT’s rush into the room and are shocked with the view. “He’s mutating, I’m not sure what you can do. But we also called Stark industry to get help” the neighbors explain. The EMTs approach Peter, it’s true they can’t do much, but they can at least give him sedatives and painkillers, as well as tend to his wounds. So they do. All while May refused to let him go. She knows as a nurse she should let them work but she can’t let him go, she doesn’t want to lose him.
Tony hurries up the elevator by quickly hacking the computer and making it go faster. In a second he and his team are on the right floor. He lets his team rush out and he follows, he notices the neighbors seem to all be in shock, he looks around and reassures them. Though some seem to go into more shock when they realize they are looking at the Tony Stark. He walks into the apartment and scrunches his nose at the smell of blood. He hears his team yelling out demands to the EMTs who had arrived a bit more earlier than them. He walks into what he is guessing is the kid’s bedroom and is shocked by the blood everywhere. In the middle of the room on the ground is the person who called him who is holding the hand of the kid. His aunt, Tony thinks. As much as he knows that she probably wouldn’t leave her nephews’ side the medics need her to. He goes over and kneels next to her, “can you hear me?” He asks in a soft tone, she looks up at him, “the medics need to work with him, but you can stay next to him.” The medic next to her slowly gets the kid out of her grip. Her eyes were blank except for fear. Tony hesitates, he would be lying if he didn’t say that he is using Friday’s guidance on what to say. As emotions were never his thing. The medics quickly get the kid out of the room.
May watches as her kid leaves the room. She stays on the ground for a second, why! Why him! She stands up and runs after her nephew, not hearing the words of the billionaire next to her.
The ambulance ride to Stark industry, hell in a truck. May kept her hand around Peter’s, even as his new eyes fully form and lumps appear on his side, new arms. Whatever happens to him, he’s still her nephew. To her and the transfer team’s shock Peter’s eyes open, though half conscious. He looks around panicking, obviously in pain. May grips his hand tighter, “…..May?” Peter mutters weakly. May moves even closer, “I’m here, I’m here!” She tells him. He looks over at her before fading out of consciousness again. One of the medics places a hand on May’s shoulder. After a few more seconds then they are there. The medic team rushes Peter out of the ambulance and into the tower. May runs along with them. The doctors there meet them and take Peter away, May stares on in shock.