I Ate the Spider

Just as May pushed open the door and prepared to enter the room, a blinding green flash struck her, making her instinctively close her eyes.

The light came and went quickly. May opened her eyes uncomfortably and saw Ben lying on the bed, the blanket bulging as high as if an elephant were hiding beneath it, with only his head exposed.

"Hi, May." Ben greeted her as naturally as he could.

"Are you... all right?" May had plenty of questions she wanted to ask.

For example, what had that flash of light been? What was that sound coming from inside the room? And had he stuffed a two-hundred-pound pig under his blanket...

But in the end, she said nothing. Children always needed a little privacy.

May merely walked to Ben's bedside with a hint of concern and placed her weathered hand against his forehead.

"You don't seem to have a fever, but I'd better take you to the hospital to have you checked." May looked ready to pack up immediately and drag Ben out the door.

But Ben clutched the blanket tightly and shook his head hard. "Wait, Aunt May, I'm fine. There's no need to go to the hospital."

The hospital?

In this free country, seeing a doctor was not cheap.

Ben did not want to add any unnecessary burden to Aunt May and Uncle Ben because of himself.

"You've already taken several days off school, Benny," May said sternly, worried. "Ever since the day you and Peter came back from Osborn, neither of you has seemed quite right. At least Peter recovered quickly, but you... Ben and I are both worried about you."

"I just... didn't want to go to school, so..." Ben gripped the blanket even tighter.

"Didn't want to go to school?" Aunt May could not help raising her voice. She was both shocked and angry, ready to give him a proper lecture, but at that moment, the sound of Uncle Ben's car came from downstairs.

It was an old Rust Bucket RV. Whenever it started or stalled, it inevitably made some racket that did not belong in this era.

"Uncle Ben's back? I thought he had work today." Ben hurriedly changed the subject.

"Peter got into a fight at school," Aunt May said sadly.

Then she sighed, walked to the door, and turned back to look seriously at Ben. "I need to go check on Peter now. Later, Ben and I will talk to you again, all right?"

Ben nodded obediently. Only then did Aunt May close the door and leave.

Ben waited until he heard her footsteps fade away before breathing a sigh of relief and throwing back the blanket.

His body still retained some Spider Monster traits. The Omnitrix had not immediately repaired his genes completely, which was why Ben had hidden himself under the blanket.

[Omnitrix energy insufficient. Recharging... Gene therapy estimated to require another 1:37.]

"Unbelievable. It only needs a few days of charging to destroy the universe through its self-destruct program, yet it can run out of energy?" Ben stared incredulously at the still-spinning watch while feeling the mutations in his body gradually fade away.

Once the genetic repair was complete, he probably would not retain Spider-Man's abilities either.

But Ben did not care. "As long as the Little Broken Watch can activate, Spider-Man's Superpowers are nothing special."

Among the Omnitrix's million alien genetic samples, countless Alien Heroes possessed abilities similar to Spider-Man's. The most representative was the Arachna alien, also known as Spider Monkey.

A minute and a half passed quickly.

Ben could no longer feel anything abnormal about his body, but before he could examine himself carefully, the Omnitrix on his wrist automatically shifted from green to blue. Countless bizarre black shadows rapidly flickered across its face.

[Entering Calibration Mode]

"Calibration Mode? Could the Little Broken Watch have successfully reconnected with Primus?" Ben immediately grew excited!

The first-generation Little Broken Watch did not directly store over a million alien genetic samples. Like a cloud service, it needed to download them from Primus in order to transform. After entering Calibration Mode, the watch would randomly acquire ten alien genetic samples.

"I wonder which alien genes I'll get."

Among more than a million alien genetic samples, the strongest was naturally the omnipotent Celestialsapien—Alien X!

But Ben did not particularly want to get that species' genes. Alien X came with too many restrictions, and if he was not careful, he could easily end up trapped in the mindscape universe by the two personalities.

In the instant Ben was thinking, the Omnitrix had already completed its calibration.

The initial calibration did not seem to have changed its appearance, but there really were several new icons inside the watch.

Ben pressed the two buttons on the side of the watch. Its core popped up, and the two hourglass-shaped triangular pieces overlapped, becoming a square frame with a humanoid black silhouette inside.

"Heatblast?"

Ben recognized it at a glance as the icon of a Pyronite. After turning the watch core, familiar silhouettes such as Wildmutt and Diamondhead appeared before him as well.

"The original ten heroes."

Most of the original ten Alien Heroes had powerful Superpowers, and together, the ten of them could handle an incredibly broad range of situations. Not to mention that among them was Grey Matter!

Grey Matter's genes came from a Galvan.

The same species as Azmuth, the Omnitrix's creator and one of the five smartest beings in the Milky Way.

In theory, Grey Matter's intelligence could crack every restriction program in the Omnitrix. Of course, that still required a certain foundation of knowledge. In the cartoon, Benny initially had trouble even repairing the Rust Bucket RV's air conditioner.

Ben did not immediately try transforming. Instead, he pulled down his sleeve to cover the watch, because he heard someone coming upstairs again.

"Sounds like Peter." Ben immediately pictured Peter climbing the stairs.

Then he froze. "Strange, when did my hearing get so good?"

Before he could wonder further, the door opened again.

"Hey, Ben, are you feeling better..." Peter walked in and greeted him, but his words caught in his throat before he could finish. The instant their eyes met, a strange feeling surged from the depths of their souls.

It was as though both their heads had gained a ring of radiating lines, like individual hairs standing on end.

"Wait, you too!" Peter's eyes widened!

"Don't tell me you got bitten by a spider too!"

A few days ago, Peter had been bitten by a spider at Osborn. After one night, he had discovered that he was no longer ordinary. And now, some instinct told him that his dear cousin seemed to possess the same abilities.

Ben was actually a little surprised as well. He had thought the Omnitrix had completely removed the Spider Gene, but it had somehow been preserved. Now, even without the Little Broken Watch, he had some ability to protect himself.

But after thinking about Peter's question, Ben still answered:

"More accurately, I bit the spider."

Peter: ???

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