Thus Comes the Spider

by Jeff Baker

“Okay,” Arn whispered. “Here it comes.”

“Yeah, I know,” Bryan said. “We’ve seen…”

“Shh!” Arn said, grinning and pointing at the screen.

The Old University Theater was showing “Bridge Across the Rhine,” a WWII movie from sixty years earlier. One of the movies they showed since the University had built the new theater, mainly for plays and live shows.

Arn’s Great Uncle had been a movie stuntman and was all over this movie in the action scenes although Arn and Bryan had only picked him out once, being blown out from behind a bunch of sandbags in a blast of movie pyrotechnics. But the scene they had come to was special: Arn’s Uncle was actually onscreen standing in a uniform behind a general who was outlining plans on a map spread on a table.

“There he is!” Arn said, squeezing Bryan’s arm. “This is so cool!”

They had seen the movie on DVD a dozen times in their little off-campus apartment but seeing it in a theater was special.

Impulsively Arn kissed Bryan and Bryan kissed him back and laughed, pointing at the screen.

“You wanna watch or neck?” Bryan asked.

There was a vibration from Bryan’s pocket. He sighed. He had it set especially for emergency bulletins on a Police App. He pulled it out and stared at the screen.

“Crap.” Bryan breathed and showed the screen to Arn.

On the screen a giant spider was climbing on the side of one of the buildings in Old Town.

“Oh well, at least we got a student discount on the tickets.” Arn said.

“And we know who won the war.” Bryan said.

Arn glanced around. There was nobody else in the theater in the middle of the week and he knew the kid who ran the old projector was probably taking a nap. He ducked into the shadows between the seats and pulled off his hoodie and sweatpants revealing a garish green costume and a masked hood he quickly pulled over his head.

Bryan ducked down and quickly began to shimmer and glow, his clothes melting into a full-body yellow outfit with a matching yellow mask.

He doused the glow and the two of them ducked out the side exit.

The Old University Theater was on the Western edge of the sprawling campus which was just a fifteen minute drive from the Old Town area (with traffic) in the center of the city. But Arn Agrai and Bryan Barusa were not using the highway. As Grasshopper, Arn leaped from the top of one building to another, briefly startling a young couple making out in a rooftop garden. As Lifewave, Bryan glided over the city, his glowing aura joining with the lights from the street in the early evening. He wasn’t as powerful as he was in the daylight but on the other hand, in direct sunlight his powers became harder to control.

“Look down there!” Grasshopper yelled as they approached the old brick warehouses that had become fashionable shops and bars with expensive parking.

“Yeah, I see it!” Lifewave said. On the side of a five story building, a shadowy figure was crawling up the side of the red bricks. A figure with a thin body close to the building on long spindly legs. Lifewave fired a beam of light revealing two large spiders crawling up the building.

“Spiders and a Grasshopper,” Grasshopper said. “Here goes nothing.”

Grasshopper aimed the trajectory of his next jump so he would slam his feet onto one of the spiders. There was a metallic “CLUNK” as one of the spiders fell off the wall slamming into the other one and dropping to the ground.

“Bulls-eye!” Grasshopper said. “Score one for the campus pool champ!”

“In your dreams,” Lifewave said, landing a yard in front of the spiders which were wriggling their legs on their backs on the ground. “Robots, definitely. Let’s see what this does.”

As Grasshopper kept an eye out for other spiders, Lifewave raised his arms and the yellowish glow around him expanded and there was a crackling of electricity from the spiders as blue sparks of power flew from the metal arachnids and joined the glow around Lifewave. In a few moments, the spiders weren’t moving anymore.

“Gimmie a minute,” Lifewave said. “I gotta spend some of this excess energy, and check for other spiders or the culprit who brought them here.

Lifewave was a blur as he zipped around the buildings casting a glow around the area. Meanwhile, Grasshopper gave the neutralized spiders a careful going over, ready to jump away at the slightest sign of movement.

“Nothing.” Lifewave said landing a few feet away. “And I sense no more power in those things.”

“And according to my grasshopper senses, there’s no poison or anything on these things,” Grasshopper said. “Just oil.”

“No news people around,” Lifewave said. “I’m wondering where that bulletin came from?”

As if in answer, their cellphones pinged. Pulling them out of their costumes, they checked the display. There was a picture of the spiders and a message:

HOW MANY OF YOU ARE AFRAID OF SPIDERS?

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF A REIGN OF TERROR UNLESS OUR DEMANDS ARE MET.

The message was unsigned.

“Terror,” Grasshopper said. “Sounds like Phobos at work.”

“Yeah, and Mechanical Man.” Lifewave said. “Working together.”

“But we’ll be ready.” Grasshopper said.

“Yeah.” Lifewave said.

The two of them jumped back into the dark sky, heading home to await the next move.

—end—