Spiderman Oneshots

Sticky fingers (1)

Stickyfingers was a new villain - one that would be low-level if it wasn't for enhancements that allowed the thief literally sticky fingers that allowed them to target several high-up businesses and get away unscathed.

They'd started out with minor robberies, nothing that made it past local news, but as they gained skill and confidence, they start attacking larger establishments, and made it onto Spider-Man's radar.

"There's nothing," he complained over the phone to Ned. "No footage of anything but their hands. I have no idea whether they're old, young, male, female, other, or even human!"

"They must look normal enough if nobody's noticed them," Ned reasoned. "Do you think they have similar powers to you?"

"No, they'd be doing a lot more than just nabbing valuables if they had my whole skillset, but it's similar... I just don't know what to do."

"Maybe this is a situation where you just have to warn large organisations to be on alert and hope for the best."

Peter didn't like it but Ned was right: until he found another solution, he had to tell big companies their belongings were in danger. "Yeah, okay. Let's make a list and start leaving anonymous tips."

Two weeks later, the students of Midtown Tech physics class were on their way to Stark Tower. It wasn't a trip - a guest speaker had come to New York from MIT and was being hosted in SI's lecture room. 

"So cool," Ned whispered to Peter, who could only agree as they approached the enormous building and were led into the foyer. 

"Before you go through to the lecture room there are just some security checks we need to do," a guard informed them. They stepped through some metal detectors and various other scanners, then were asked to press their hand against a metal plate. A queue began to form as the students took it in turns, and someone asked what it was for. "You may have heard of the thief by the name 'Stickyfingers'? This is a chemical precaution to ensure we're not unknowingly letting them in. It was designed by top scientists to react with the genes that make the thief sticky so we can identify them."

The students 'oh'ed and Ned and Peter shared a small smile - it was good to know that at least one of the companies they'd contacted was taking the threat seriously.

"So what happens if Stickyfingers touches it?"

"A reaction will occur and stick their hand to the plate - using their own power against them."

As the queue shortened, Peter felt his palms began to sweat and he did his best to stay calm. After all, his stickiness went haywire when he was stressed, and the last thing he needed was to stick to that plate accidentally. The thought only served to stress him out further, and Ned noticed.

"You okay man?"

Peter tilted his head from side to side noncommittally, eyes fixed on the nearing plate.

"You don't think the chemicals will work on you too, do you? That would be... that would be really bad."

"Not helping, Ned," Peter muttered. He hadn't even considered that.

"Next," a bored staff member said, gesturing for Peter to step up to the plate. He did so and, praying his hands would stay innocently non-sticky, he pressed his palm to the metal as briefly as possibly and pulled away.

Or tried to.

Everybody immediately went on alert as Peter tried to tug his hand away from the plate, where it was stuck fast.

Well, he was dead.

Within seconds, the highly trained SI staff had cleared the area of civilians and had him surrounded. Peter watched Ned being ushered away, panicked. He tried to remove his hand, to no avail. It was stuck firmly - so much so that he decided the chemical trap must have worked on him rather than it being purely down to stress.