"You're Spider-Man!!!"
Felicia's voice trembled a little in the wind.
She had just been pulled back from the edge of the fifteen-meter-high water tower, and half her body was still pressed against Peter's chest, her tangled blond hair spilling over his plaid shirt.
Her left hand braced against the sheet-metal floor, but her right clutched the white strand of webbing stuck to her wrist.
The webbing was still trembling faintly.
Peter's face went white in an instant.
No, that wasn't right.
More accurately, it went white first, then rapidly flushed red all the way to his ears. Finally, like an old computer with its cooling system ripped out, he began spewing a string of utterly meaningless nonsense.
"What Spider-Man? Where's Spider-Man? Aren't we the only two people here? I'm Peter, Peter Parker, a freshman in Empire State University's Biophysics Department. I take photography electives, do photography part-time, occasionally help Aunt May fix the plumbing, and I can make pasta. Sure, I burned through the bottom of the pot last time, but that was the pot's fault, not mine."
Felicia said nothing.
She merely glanced down at her wrist.
As she peeled the webbing off her skin, it stretched into a thin white strand. She pinched it between two fingers, and it stuck to her fingertips, refusing to come off no matter how hard she shook them.
The corner of Peter's mouth twitched.
"Th-this isn't what you think it is."
"Oh?" Felicia lifted her head.
Her green eyes were inches away.
Peter could even see a tiny fleck of rust caught on her eyelashes.
"It's actually a new kind of... biological fiber launcher."
"A biological fiber launcher?"
"Right." Peter nodded very, very quickly.
"A cutting-edge materials science experiment. In theory, it's made of high-strength protein polymers, combining flexibility, adhesion, and tensile