Designation: [Remnant-1962]

Status: Overall stable. Various abnormalities detected throughout, effect unknown. Lingering energy trails indicate the possible presence of an alternate network of timelines.

Condition: Green

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Have you ever just had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? I mean, things start out well enough...at first. But then you trip while getting out of bed, forget your bus pass and have to swing your way to school, have to ignore your Spider-Sense during a food fight to protect your secret identity (and get pelted with Mystery Meat as a result), and now you're running late to meet up with your mom because some psycho with a mechanical scorpion tail decided to crash the convention in Time Square where his favorite actress was signing autographs and is now chasing you through a nearby hotel.

...no? Just me then, huh?

"Dude, I know standing in line sucks, but you're guaranteed at least 2 minutes with her if you do!"

Slam!

"No one gets between me and my goddess!"

Did I mention I also got a C on my history test earlier today?

Oh, right; this guy. He apparently calls himself "The Pincerman"- I know, much cringe- and I guess he found that crazy tail of his from one of the numerous scientific think-tanks in the city.

He's a bit sensitive about his "goddess" as well.

"Dude! You really need to see a counselor or something!" I dodged out of the way before the big ass spike at the end of his tail before it made a new home in my ribcage, though the potted plant on the lobby floor behind me wasn't so lucky.

Poor thing...it only had 2 days left before retirement…

"So tell me, 'penny pincher'; how'd you break out of The Vault this time? You didn't tunnel your way into the sewage line using a Salem Taylor poster to hide the hole, right? Cuz that would be really clich- WHOA!" I quickly dropped down in a split, Pincerman's tail just barely scraping my mask.

Aw, crapbaskets, now there's probably a hole there; Mom's gonna kill me when she finds out!

Like I said, worst day ever!

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...so then I had to spend the rest of lunch rinsing the pudding out of my hair. I mean have you seen what kinds of frizz my hair gets in this humidity? Had to go the whole rest of the day looking like I stuck my toe in a wall socket…"

"Lindsay…"

"And then! Because I couldn't concentrate during the History test that was happening today, I ended up missing the deadline and got a C!"

"Lindsay-"

"Meanwhile, little miss Katie Sustrai makes a big deal about how she got a perfect grade on it without-"

"Lindsay Rose!"

"Eep! ...yes, Mom?"

"I asked how your suit got so cut up, young lady."

"Oh, uh...that… Soooooooooooo, um...you remember that guy with the big scorpion tail?"

"Oh, sweet Budha, my hair's going to turn prematurely grey…"

"He was trying to attack a bunch of people at a convention! I couldn't just sit by and do nothing!"

"I understand that, Lindsay, but he's...not well in the head. And those kinds of people don't have the same kind of restraint as someone like a pickpocket or even a bank robber."

"*sigh*, I know, Mom…"

"Even if you were trying to save someone, you have to be careful!"

"I know, Mom…"

"I just...I don't want to lose you, OK?"

"...I know, Mom. Hug time?"

"Hug Time."

"..."

"..."

"...but you're still not going anywhere until we fix your suit up, understand?"

"Aw, come on!"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

5:43 pm, two days later.

Lindsay and Kara were sitting at one of their favorite restaurants, sharing a plate of french fries as they waited for Arryn to get there.

Lindsay took a tentative sip from her soda. "...she's coming, right?"

"Of course she is!" the white-haired girl said, "We made these plans weeks ago, right? She wouldn't just bail on us without a good reason."

"I guess so...but she has been a little distant lately...you know? Like last week when she canceled on us when we were going to see that new Spruce Willis movie?"

"It was her father's birthday and he'd just returned from a business trip. If my old man were anything like Mr. Travis, I'd want to spend time with him then."

"And how she always leaves early from school?"

"Mrs. Tara's been feeling under the weather, so she helps out at home. And before you ask, I was taking Arryn some homework; her mom answered the door and confirmed it."

Lindsay pouted. "...stop making good points."

"Hey, I can't help it if you've been too busy with being a superhero to notice." When the younger brunette glared at her, Kara backpedaled. "I'm not saying you shouldn't help people, just pointing out what would take most of your attention up at any given moment."

"Well, you could have said it nicer…"

"In any case," the pale girl sighed, "she hasn't been Juicing. Her withdrawal already happened, so now she's trying to readjust back to being normal."

"I know...I just wish she'd let us know how she's doing more."

"I do," Arryn said, suddenly appearing behind Lindsay (which caused the girl to yelp and almost leap onto the wall next to them), "Kara can show you the texts to prove it."

"STOP DOING THAT!" Lindsay pouted again, using her patented "puppy dog eyes", "You almost gave me a heart attack…"

"Speaking of which, where were you?" Kara asked, "We've been waiting here for 20 minutes."

"I got distracted doing some window shopping," the dark-haired girl explained, taking her seat at the table. She took a bite out of one of the fries, "Anyway, what's on the agenda today?"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

As any cop will probably tell you, going on patrol is pretty boring most of the time; you drive (or swing, in my case) down the same old streets, basically confirming that nothings happening. It's not the most glamorous job, but it's better than letting things potentially build up without you knowing.

If I had to guess, I'd say at least 95% of patrol is just the boring parts.

Which does have its good points, like being able to have a conversation with the rooftop gargoyles while you're taking five after making a dude doing a B&E rethink his life choices.

"...and I know she isn't using Juice anymore, but then why is she being so aloof still? We're her friends, you know? You'd think she'd tell us if something was actually going on still, right?"

As usual, the stone monster said nothing.

"I just can't shake the thought that she's still hiding something from us, but I don't know how to say that without sounding like a total-"

So, my Spider powers didn't give me "super sight" or anything, I just have naturally good eyes. (The glasses make me look smarter, OK; is there really anything wrong with that?)

I mention this because I just happened to notice some motion out of the corner of my eye. Which, considering that I'm over a hundred feet above the ground, is a little unusual.

I quickly pulled my mask back down and called out "Who's there?".

No one responded.

The gargoyle stayed where he was.

A quick glance around revealed nothing else appeared out of the ordinary.

Huh...guess I must've been imgin-

OOOF!

OK, SUDDENLY FALLING THROUGH SPACE NOW; I'LL GET BACK TO YOU IN A MINUTE!

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"...and you're sure you didn't actually see what knocked you off?"

"100%! I was just minding my own business when something knocked me off the building from behind; I never saw what it was."

"And your Spider-Sense didn't trigger at all?"

"Nope! At first, I thought Jimmy might've suddenly come to life and attacked me-"

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Oh, Jimmy's what I called the gargoyle. But yeah, it's a total mystery to me."

"Hmm...this isn't good."

"Thanks, Mom. Totally didn't know that already."

"Lindsay…!"

"...sorry."

"If something could sneak up and attack you without your Spider-Sense getting triggered, then you'll need to be extra careful from now on until I can figure out a way to reliably detect the Symbiote and fend it off."

"Wait...what? But...I thought I dealt with that thing already!"

"At the time, I thought you had as well. My best guess that part of the entity got separated from the main body and grew into its own being."

"Aw, grapes…"

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Two days later and social media didn't reveal any new information about some mysterious whatchamacallit pushing people off buildings. Which, on the one hand, meant that no one else had been attacked by the Symbiote Spawn. But on the other hand, that meant I still had no clue where it was hiding and no idea where to start looking for it.

Which is why I'm sitting on top of this building, in the middle of the night, in the rain (freezing my butt off, mind you!), waiting for a certain someone to show up with some answers.

Though honestly, I'll just be happy if they show up at all at this point. I mean, it's not like I enjoy being up soaked to the bone or anything!

Fortunately, whoever was running things "up there" decided to show some mercy on poor, little old me, since it wasn't too much longer before the Tiger Queen showed up, leaping gracefully up onto the roof and landing with practiced ease. Despite the cat motif she had, the impression she gave off was less "Pusheen" and more "Sheer Khan", especially with how the lenses on her mask seemed to glow in the dim light.

She's kinda badass like that…!~

"I'll admit," she said, standing back upright, "that was a creative way to set up this meeting...if somewhat less than subtle how you used a billboard to convey the message."

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "Yeah, I kinda had to improvise when I realized I didn't actually have your contact info...but it worked, right?"

"Yes, it did." She leaned up against one of the heating vents. "Now what's so important? 'Hey Tiger Queen, need intel. Meet me above Tony's' wasn't exactly the most informative message."

"Yeah, fair." I took a deep breath, then basically gave a brief summary of the events that lead up to the situation I found myself in now. "I'd normally try to handle this myself, since it's kinda indirectly my fault why that little bugger's running around the city in the first place and everything, but my Mo- ...I mean, my technical support is still working on a way to track it. So…?"

I know, they should have sent a poet.

"You need my resources to help locate this…'Symbiote spawn', is that it?"

"Yup!" I said, popping the "P" sound, "Queeny got it in one!"

"Don't call me 'Queeny'." She sighed. "...very well, I'll see what I can do." Then she took something out of her gauntlets and tossed it in my direction- Yoink! "I'll contact you with that if I come across any sign of this Symbiote Spawn of yours. And if there's an emergency, it's a more reliable way to contact me than a billboard."

Was...was that a hint of humor that I detected from her?

"Uh...y-yeah, sure thing! Hey, you know, maybe we get a Four Guys' burger together some...Tiger Queen?"

Huh...she seems to have disappeared.

...dang it, I hate it when people do that!

Well, since I accomplished what I needed to, I may as well go check in on Arryn and see how she's doing.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

The lights were out at the Belladonna's house when Lindsay arrived, which meant that everyone was most likely asleep. That was fine, Lindsay only wanted to peek in on Arryn to make sure she was doing well. She exhaled and went Small before she began climbing up the side of the duplex; no sense in frightening the neighbors.

After a short climb up the side of the building, she reached Arryn's window. Early on, after her friends learned up her abilities, they'd agreed to let her use their rooms if she needed to lay low briefly. As such, they usually left their windows open a crack so she could duck in while in Small mode and change to her civilian clothes. Luckily, Arryn had left her window open tonight, so Lindsay slipped inside and returned to her normal size.

"...Arryn?" she whispered, "You awake?"

A groan came from the bed on the far side of the room, the covers shifting around to reveal a disheveled head of dark brunette hair poking out from underneath. Lindsay tip-toed over, gently poking the mass under the covers.

"Aaaaaaaaaarryyyyyyyyyyyn…!"

"Mrrrrrrrg…," the other girl responded, lazily swatting at her friend in a drowsy haze, "No more med'cine…"

She must be dreaming, Lindsay realized. She abandoned her poking and switched to nudging the other girl, trying to wake her up. "Hey, Arryn, it's me; wake for a second, 'K?"

Her prodding seemed to do the trick, since Arryn started rubbing her eyes.

"Mmm…- Lindsay?!" she started, nearly propelling herself off the other side of her bed. She blinked a couple of times, "...wh-what're you doing here…?"

"Oh, you know, I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd swing by…," Lindsay shrugged, internally cringing at her unintentional pun, "You hanging in there?"

"Uh, yeah...yeah, everything's fine…" She sniffled a bit. "...I haven't been Juicing anymore, you know that…!"

"I do...but then why have you been so standoffish lately? You moved out of Kara's apartment back with your parents- which is totally fine and I'm totally not in a position to judge!- you basically disappear after School, flake out of our lunches, you don't answer your phone…so what's going on?"

Arryn looked off to the side, unable to meet her friend's gaze. "...it's complicated," was all she said on the matter.

"No duh it's complicated!" Lindsay snapped, "I can't figure out what's going on with you...but I want to; you're my friend, and if there's something I can do to help, I want to do it."

For a moment, Arryn said nothing, a veritable sea of emotions washing over her face in quick succession.

"...then could you hold me in Big Mode?" she asked, "I was having a bad dream before you woke me up, and...I think I just need some human contact."

Lindsay stood up and began pacing, sometimes walking straight up and down the walls as she did.

"...alright, I guess that's fair." The burgeoning superhero dropped back to the floor. "But only this once, OK? You're mom's nice, and I don't want to put her out having to renovate this place constantly." She then inhaled a breath, growing to roughly three times her normal size and sat on the floor. "This is as big as I'm willing to go."

"Alright then." Arryn scooted off the bed and curled up in a ball on Lindsay's lap.

Just like a cat…

Unable to help herself after making the comparison, the currently giant girl began stroking her normally stoic and glib friend's hair.

...she looked almost like a kitten now, though.

"Thank you…,~" Arryn mumbled.

"Yeah…," Lindsay whispered back, "anytime."

About five minutes and some clever breathing tricks later Arryn was out like a light, with a faint smile gracing her lips. Lindsay gently tucked her back into bed, then squeezed through the window again and began thwipping back home.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

My big break came the next day when the device Tiger Queen gave me received a message.

[I encountered that Symbiote Sawn of yours. It tried to attack me, but apparently it can't stand extreme cold. I currently have a sample of it and will let you know what I find out.]

...OK, so maybe it's not the biggest break, but it's still leagues better than just flailing around in the proverbial dark, waiting for the darn thing to make its next move.

And you should all be familiar with my feeling on "flailing" by now.

Of course, Mom was a bit shocked to learn that I basically had a direct line to the city's veteran Hero, but after promising that she wouldn't try to learn its secrets (professional courtesy between Heroes and the like) I let her take a quick look at it before sending TQ a message back with everything me and Mom already figured out about the Symbiote.

Anything to speed up the process.

For now, though, I was out on my normal patrol of the city to help kill time, talking with Kara through a snazzy, wireless headset Mom made to go in my mask.

"...and she didn't tell you anything? Just…'it's complicated'?"

"Basically…!" I grunted, swinging along, "I didn't really want to press the issue, considering it was the middle of the night." I pulled myself up into a rooftop gargoyle (How's it going, Jimmy?) so I could talk without accidentally swinging into a lamppost. "I'm sure she'll talk to us when she's ready, but it feels like she needs some time to think some things over herself."

"Well, that's better than nothing, I suppose."

"Yeah. ...on the plus side, she looks pretty adorable when she's curled up like a kitten in my lap.~"

"...Lindsay Rose, I hate you so much right now!"

"I know; love you too, Bestie.~" I made kissing noises over the line to her.

...ain't I a little stinker?~

"Anyway, how about you; is your dad still keeping you on a short leash?"

"Technically yes, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. He said six months, and there are only a few more weeks left of that time before I get access to my credit cards back."

"Then how about we celebrate with an all you can eat Four Guys' binge, your treat?"

I could practically hear her eyebrow twitch on the other end of the call.

"...I'll have something delivered."

"Just make sure there's lots of meat it, whatever you get," I said, ending the call. As much fun as it is to push Kara's buttons, I should probably get back on patrol.

Someone's gotta keep crime down around here, amiright?

A couple hours passed, lots of web-slinging, some punks who decided they liked a flashy car a little more than they probably should (I showed them the error of their ways), saying hi to Stan the Man, and a weird turn where I ended up chasing some dude's pigeons over half the city; I'll probably be picking feathers out of my suit for days after that!

I eventually ended up munching on a bag of churros just over the Vacuo District, not a care in the- ...with very few cares in the world right now: I've got people helping me look for the Symbiote Spawn, my bad guy catching record has gone up, Arryn seems to be doing better...everything's pretty much coming up Spider-Girl!

...until I got another message from Tiger Queen.

[I haven't learned much, but apparently these Symbiotes seem to be able to metabolize phenethylamine. If you plan on searching for them, start with places where that is concentrated.]

Cuz, you know, English is apparently a dead language nowadays…

OK, hold the phone a sec, Linds; maybe Mom covered what phenethylamine is at some point? That sounds like something she would've mentioned at some point, right? Now let's see here…no...not, not that either...geez, why didn't I pay more attention in biology class? I need some brain food or something...I know us girls liking chocolate is a cliché and all, but my brain could really use the sugar...rush…

"UGH, I'm so stupid!" Phenethylamine is found in processed chocolate (Mom tried to use different foods to help me remember info for a biology midterm), and there's a bunch of stores and warehouses and whatnot that are probably loaded with the stuff! The little bugger's probably holed up in one of those places: a steady supply of food and relative privacy.

Welp, so much for break time; duty calls.

Hehe, 'duty'...!~

...don't judge me! It's a coping mechanism, OK?

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

After a quick stop for a few supplies, I make my way to the warehouse district here in Vale. Since there haven't been any reports of people being attacked by the thing, and the police haven't been hanging around the supermarkets more than usual, it probably found a candy surplus in one of the warehouses where it could make a nest or something. Provided it didn't eat its whole supply at once, it could probably remain unnoticed for weeks, if not months.

So it's a good thing I was able to figure it out, or else someone less fortunate would've stumbled onto it and gotten an experience they'll never forget.

Like usual, sneaking into the place wasn't difficult: oversized air ducts, mother truckers! Nah, the hard part was going to be luring Spawny out into the open so I can freeze him good.

…"good"? "Well"? I can never remember which one is proper grammar.

Kara'd probably know, cuz she's a nerd like that.

Anyway, focus! You've got an alien lifeform to find, Lindsay Rose, and dunking on Kara isn't going to help with that in this situation.

"...here, little abomination, abomination, abomination…!" I called out, moving into an open area of the warehouse, "I know we've had some rough spots in our friendship, but I'm willing to put all that behind us if you are…?"

...nada.

Alright, time to try Plan B.

I reached into my knapsack and pulled out a bar of some no-name brand of chocolate, King-sized.

"Would you let bygones be bygones for some...chocolate?~" I began unwrapping the chocolate, wafting it outward. "Mmm...delicious, delicious phenethylamine…!~" Now, normal people might feel a bit silly doing something like this.

But you forget, dear readers; I'm not normal.

I also may possibly be slightly insane, given everything that's happened to me over the past year, but let's put a pin in that for now.

"If you don't want this, then I guess I'll just have to eat this whole thing by myself…!~"

If Spawny has any sense of self-awareness or is able to understand human speech, then this is guaranteed to get him.

Sure enough, some boxes off to the side fall over, and I duck out of the way just in time for it not to hit me, chucking the chocolate bar away. Predictably, the little blob monster shot straight for the discarded chocolate, crawling all over it like the stuff was crack or something.

"OK, stay there for juuuuuuuust a second, little guy…!" I carefully took out the bottle of water and the fire extinguisher I got along with the chocolate, slowly unscrewing the cap on the former. Hopefully, if Spawny doesn't catch on to what I'm doing, I can nail him with the water, then freeze him with the Co2 in the extinguisher.

It might not permanently kill him, but hopefully, it'll immobilize him long enough for Tiger Queen to come and pick him up, since she apparently has a way to preserve whatever this thing is safely.

...wasn't really expecting the random laser blast to suddenly disintegrate it, though. That's a new one.

Also, WHERE THE FREAKING GRAPES DID THAT LASER COME FROM?

It wasn't followed by another one, so I'm 99% sure that whoever fired it was trying to get this thing as well, and considering my Spidey Sense didn't go off, I'd say that 1% of my mind telling me otherwise can go suck it. Needless to say, means notwithstanding, the end results are more or less what I was hoping for.

Though I should probably tell TQ to not get rid of that sample she has, considering…

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"You know, Lindsay, I probably could have whipped up an apparatus to launch something similar at…'Spawny', did you call it?"

"Yeah, that dawned on me too on my way back…"

"I mean, that wasn't a bad bit of improvising, all things considered."

"It was, wasn't it?~"

"Yes...but I'd rather you not have used yourself as bait to draw it out."

"Yeeeeaaaah…"

"But...what's done is done, and at the very least, we've finally seen the last of the Symbiote Spawn."

"So, about that...do you have any idea who has a laser that can vaporize alien goo monsters? Cuz I'm coming up a bit short in that regard."

"I wish I did, sweetie, but unfortunately, I don't run in the same circles as engineers, and I can't think of any of my peers that can replicate that biologically."

"Yeah, I figured as much…"

"...I can keep my ears open, though; something like that would definitely make some waves."

"Thanks, Mom."

"No problem, Linds. ...hey, how about we get some El Pizza Bandito's tonight? It's been a while since we've had a chance to just hang out together."

"...sure thing, Mom, sounds perfect!~"

"Hug time?"

"Hug time."

"..."

"..."

"...Lindsay?"

"Yes?"

"...why does your breath smell like chocolate, young lady?"

"It's a choice."

fin.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

And thus concludes another peek into the life of the one and only Spider-Girl.

Phew! I'm glad I was able to finish this up; it was a lot of fun to write, but I do have a couple other ongoing fics at present, so I'm glad I got this out of my system so I could get back to those.

That said, if you want more Spider-Ruby goodness, then go check out "Paradigm of the Rose" by AManwithaB0x (who came up with this version of the Spider-Ruby concept), where she's currently a cardinal player in the story. (I help out as a beta reader for the fic, so both he and I would love to know what you guys think of how things are going there.)

So yeah, keep an eye out for future chapters of "Resurrection" and "Burger Mistresses" from yours truly, give this fic a Favorite if you enjoy Spiderverse antics, leave a Review to let me know what you thought of this AU, and as always, stay safe & be Excellent to each other.