Ben Riley POV
School ended at two and I hurriedly ran out off the campus, way faster then I had ever done before.
Now here I was standing in the middle of an alleyway about to do something that may make me look incredibly stupid.
Looking at my fingers I could see their tips at a finer detail. So much so that I could see steel like nails grow out from it.
Considering how I was bitten by a spider I could only guess these little things would allow me to climb walls.
I pressed my hand flat against the alley wall.
Nothing happened.
I pressed harder, really concentrating still nothing.
"Come on," I muttered.
I tried leaning my weight into it.
My hand slipped and I face-planted into the brick.
"Ow fuck!"
I straightened up, rubbing my nose. Behind me a pigeon observed this from a skip lid with an expression I can only describe as deeply unimpressed.
"Oh screw you man," I said flatly.
It blinked once and then flew away.
Sighing I tried thinking of a different way to do this.
I took a deep breath "God I can't believe I am about to do this," I murmured.
I ran straight at the wall.
My hands caught the brick, then my feet, and for approximately one and a half genuinely miraculous seconds I was climbing.
"Hahaha hell yeah I got this!" I cheered at my success.
But it wasn't meant to last as my focus momentarily slipped and found myself falling down sideways and crashing ito the bin.
The lid snapped shut over me.
There was a long pause from inside the bin.
"...Ow," I groaned, my voice muffled, "okay we are not going to mention that one."
I climbed out with whatever dignity remained and stood back in the alley dusting crisp packets off my school shirt.
"Alright," I spoke to no one, "alright. New approach then."
That was when I suddenly heard it.
A soft and very amused sound.
Laughter.
I turned slowly, leveling the owner of said voice with a hard stare.
Ereshkigal was perched on a fire escape above me, red eyes glowing faintly, chin resting delicately in one hand like she was watching a particularly entertaining theatre production from a box seat.
"How long have you been up there?" I demanded.
"Long enough," she pleasantly replied with a hand covering her giggles.
"How much did you see?!"
She tilted her head "...I arrived around the time you ran directly into the wall face-first."
The tips of my ears went hot.
"That was just a test, try nothing else," I said stiffly.
"Of course it was," she agreed without a shred of sincerity, "and what were the findings?"
"That brick is hard," I said after a pause, "really hard."
She pressed her lips together firmly against what I suspect was a smile threatening to become something much more embarrassing for me.
I turned back to the wall.
"Right, again."
"Perhaps," Ereshkigal said, descending from the fire escape with effortless grace, "the issue is that you are thinking about it too much."
"I'm not thinking about it at all, which is the problem."
"No," she corrected calmly, coming to stand beside me, "you are thinking about the idea of sticking and willing it to happen. That is not how it works."
"Then how does it work?" I asked.
She considered this "do you think about breathing?"
"No."
"Do you think about balancing when you walk?"
"Not really."
"Then stop thinking about your hands and follow your instinct Benjamin" she said simply.
I stared at her "...that's it? That's your divine guidance? Instinct"
"I am a goddess, not a trainer of heros," Ereshkigal said with great dignity.
I turned back to the wall, took a breath, and stopped trying to concentrate entirely.
Then I walked up to it and pressed my palm flat against the surface.
It stuck.
"Hm," I hummed.
"Hm," Ereshkigal agreed from behind me, sounding mildly satisfied.
I put the other hand up.
That stuck too.
Carefully, slowly, I brought one foot off the ground and pressed it against the brick.
It held.
I climbed.
Inch by inch I made my way up the alley wall while the sounds of London traffic roared completely indifferently below me.
I made it to the top of the two-storey building and sat on the ledge, looking out over the rooftops.
"Ha," I said quietly.
Then louder "HA!"
Then at full volume because there was genuinely nobody up here to stop me "HAHAHA YEAH THAT'S WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! TAKE THAT!"
"Your enthusiasm is deeply undignified," Ereshkigal remarked, flickering beside me, "although admittedly it's quite cute how men always react to such simple things."
"Not really simple if its something impossible to human standards," I replied.
"Hmm I suppose you have a point," she conceded.
"It's only mildly impressive, nothing to gloat about," she admitted with her arms crossed over together.
I looked down at my hands again, turning them over.
"Okay," I said, "what else do you think I can do Goddess?"
Ereshkigal shrugged, "I am not quite sure exactly, anyone who becomes one of my champions has a unique power that is awakened in them. My bite typically gives incredible strength, speed, agility, a danger sense, and the ability to shoot webs. Anything else you may potentially have or awaken all depends on you," she explained wagging her finger.
I blankly stared at her for a moment.
Ereshigal blinked "huh what's wrong Benjamin?"
"Nah it's nothing just. You sounded like a really good teacher for a second. Also, don't call me by my first name. Just Ben will do," I replied.
A blush formed on her cheeks before she quickly turned around with a cough mumbling to herself "I should have just kept him with me in the underworld."
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"Ahh nothing," she hurriedly shook her hands, "I mean very well I shall call you Ben from now on."
"Weird could have sworn I just heard you say something about keeping me somewhere but I guess I was wrong," I murmured in suspicion.
"Moving on, perhaps you should consider practicing how to release your webs from your wrists," Ereshkigal said changing the subject.
"Right my wrist," I whispered looking down at my dominant hand then over at the yellow crane that was a few distances away "um how should I do this Goddess?" I asked.
"I don't know try flicking your hands or something, it should work," she informed.
I nodded and shot my hand out "go web!"
"..."
Nothing happened.
"Flyyyy" I tried again, still nothing.
"....."
The deadpan expression on Ereshikgal's face only grew worse.
"Up, up and away web."
Nothing.
A palm thrust this time, "Shazam!"
"Go web!"
"Go web go!"
Finally on my next try I did a two finger press then with a "thwip!" sound a long thick white string of web shot out from my wrist and over across the crane.
I clutched it tightly already preparing for my next move.
"Ben…what are you doing?" Ereshikgal asked with hidden worry.
"Something that might be incredibly reckless but I'd say totally worth it," I responded with a grin.
Hoping on top of the ledge I nervously swallowed in some air, "here goes nothing!" I screamed swinging off the ledge.
The world lurched and London exploded into motion around me. The wind hit my face like a wall, the rooftops blurred past, and the ground swung dizzily below me as the string of the web carried me out over the gap between buildings in one enormous, stomach-dropping curve.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-"
I let go at the peak.
For one glorious moment I was genuinely, properly airborne, the city spread out beneath me in every direction, the Thames glittering in the distance and the faint silhouette of Big Ben rising through the grey afternoon haze.
"-HAHAHAHAAAA YEAH!"
Then I remembered one important critical thing…I hadn't planned a landing.
"Oh no," I whispered in horror.
"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" this time a scream of fear left my lips as I fell on top of a parked car and then bounced off of it.
"Oh my back," I groaned out in great pain.
I slowly tried to stand up only to hear a crack "ooh my back," I gritted my teeth while placing a hand over my back, "I am never doing that again," I muttered.
"Are you dead?" Ereshkigal's voice came from directly above me.
I craned my neck up painfully. She was standing on the roof of the car I had just dented, looking down at me with an expression that was trying very hard to be composed and failing at the edges.
"No," I wheezed out in pain.
"Good, what you did was incredibly stupid Ben" she scolded.
"Yeah I know"
"Especially, so."
"Yep."
"I watched you fall and did not intervene on purpose, just so you are aware," she informed me with great dignity, "it was a decision to allow you to experience the natural consequences of your stupidity."
"Right, right I heard you once Eresh," I grumbled trying to push myself up.
"I wasn't panicking."
"Of course you weren't."
"I am a sovereign deity. I do not panic over a mortal doing something idiotic," she continued, the words coming slightly faster than before.
"Ereshkigal."
"What?"
"Calm down already. I am perfectly fine so stop worrying already," I said.
Silence.
I finally pushed myself upright, vertebrae clicking in protest, and looked at the considerable dent I had left in the roof of what appeared to be a very expensive looking black saloon.
"I should probably not be here when the owner comes back," I observed.
"That would be wise," Ereshkigal agreed, her composure apparently somewhat restored now that I was fine.
I shot a web upward, caught the roof ledge of the building beside me, and hauled myself up with a grunt.
The pull came easier this time, the motion less panicked, and more instinctive. My back still ached but the pain was already dulling faster than it should have been.
I sat on the roof edge and rolled my shoulders experimentally.
"Huh," I murmured.
"The regeneration," Ereshkigal spoke, settling beside me, her hands folded neatly in her lap, "it works faster when you are not actively aggravating the injury."
"How fast are we talking?"
She tilted her head considering "minor injuries, minutes. Significant ones, hours perhaps. I would not recommend testing the upper limits anytime soon."
"Wasn't planning on it," I muttered, then paused "...intentionally at least."
Her red eyes cut to me sideways.
"I was joking of course," I clarified.
"You better," she huffed.
I leaned back on my palms and looked out over the rooftops.
The city was doing its usual thing, indifferent and enormous, all grey stone and distant sirens and pigeons going about their business.
"Hey can I ask you something?" I said.
"You just did but go on," Ereshkigal replied, with the tone of someone who was mildly bracing themselves.
"Why me specifically?" I asked, "like you said none of your spiders had ever successfully bitten someone before. So what was different about me?"
She was quiet for a moment.
"I am not entirely certain," she finally admitted and from the slight shift in her expression I could tell that admitting uncertainty cost her something "my spiders are drawn instinctively toward those with certain qualities. Strength of soul, I suppose one might call it. Resilience. The capacity to carry weight without breaking apart."
She looked down at her folded hands.
"When you entered Kur it was not because you died. You were dragged partway in by the venom and most souls that cross that threshold involuntarily simply... dissolve. The boundary is not gentle."
"But I didn't," I said.
"No," she agreed quietly, "you managed to hold yourself together. Quite strongly I might add."
I turned that over in my head for a second.
"Hmm doesn't really feel like a special power but I am thankful all the same. Dissolving is definitely not something I might want to experience," I said with a laugh.
-end of chapter four-
It's been awhile since I updated this but I've seen a bit of the new spiderman noir show with Nicholas Cage so that gave me some motivation to write this out.