Marvel's Spider-Man Season 2

'I've Felt These Presents Before...'

Scott was worried. It might have been just him, but it seemed as though Anya, Gwen, Peter, Miles, and even Liz were ignoring him. None of his friends had spoken to him at all for the past two days, even though he worked the counter at TV Shed with Liz and sat next to Anya in one of his classes. Something was going on, and he didn't know what.

Of course, his friends didn't know it was his birthday today. He simply hadn't told them. All five of the Horizon students already had way too much on their plates, what with the constant villain attacks and the upcoming Horizon Open House Projects. He didn't want to bother them during the second-busiest time of the year (after Finals).

His family, however, was a different story entirely.

First thing this morning, his grandparents had called (especially impressive when you thought about the one hour time difference and their old age) to wish him a happy birthday, saying their present was in the mail. Several minutes later, his parents had called to do the same, followed by his sister, and then his brother. Apparently, they had also ordered a cake that had been delivered to his apartment while he was at school.

At the moment, he was finishing up some homework during a free hour before going to TV Shed and filling in for another employee. It sucked that it was on his birthday, but the other employee had filled in for him while he was Shock Spider-ing, so Scott was honor-bound to fill in for him.

The bell rang, so Scott finished up the complex calculations he'd been working on for his and Peter's upcoming Horizon Open House Project before exiting his lab and locking the door behind him. He passed Gwen, Peter, and Miles in the hall, and none of them even so much as looked his way. Deciding to see for certain, Scott took a detour to Anya's locker and asked, "So what's going on?"

Without saying a word, Anya closed her locker and walked away, acting like she hadn't heard. Okay, something was definitely going on here.

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Three Days Earlier...

"So his birthday is Thursday and he didn't tell us?" Anya asked, indignantly. Miles shrugged, "His mom called me to make sure we knew. She guessed he wouldn't tell us so we wouldn't do anything for him."

"That does sound like Scott," Gwen agreed. The three Horizon students (and Peter) had been working on projects in the lab on this cold, snowy Monday morning, until Miles had gotten a call out of the blue. After hanging up, Miles had explained that the caller had been Scott's mom, who'd explained how her son's birthday was coming up.

"Definitely," Peter agreed, "Which is exactly why we're going to do something for him."

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Present Day...

Crouching on the edge of Horizon High's tallest building, Shock Spider slipped on his backpack and tried not to think about what had happened here almost four weeks ago. This was where Taskmaster had almost killed three of his friends on New Year's Eve, dropping them from the top and almost splattering them across the concrete hundreds of feet below. The hero shuddered at the image, shaking it out of his head. Speaking of his head, he really needed to clear it.

Going invisible (to hide where he went and came from everyday) Shock Spider leapt off the roof, dropping briefly before firing a web that stuck to the building and swinging back up into the air. He turned toward his work and began swinging there, taking time to enjoy the rush of flying through a massive city. After a minute or two, he went visible again (holding his invisibility took a lot of concentration, especially after a bit of time) and continued on his way.