In celebration of finally finding a beat up Spider Man 4 I could afford...

Ami Mizuno closed the book and stared at the cover. "But what if I don't

have

a great deal of cash?" Ami was just under five feet six inches and her
slender build made her seem even taller. Her dark hair was cut short and

her

large blue eyes appeared even larger behind her wire-rimmed reading

glasses.

"Then you rob a bank?" asked the girl sitting across the lunch table.

Blonde,

hyperactive, and possibly mad, Usagi Tsukino was the richest girl at

Juuban

Academy.

Ouch. Scary. Rich Usagi.

Willowy rather then slender, she appeared to be taller then

than

odangoes on her head adding to the illusion. Usagi, as the saying went,

was a

puzzle wrapped in an enigma. Her father headed up one of the largest
technology cartels in the world. Himself a highly regarded aerospace
engineer, Kenchi Tsukino was a philanthropist of huge proportions and

donated

generously to Juuban. Other then that, his contact with Usagi and her

younger

brother Shingo was minimal.

Good provider. poor parent. It happens. :P

With such a background, Usagi should be a prim and proper young lady,

perhaps

on the quiet side. What she had become instead was a jokester. Armed with

a

quip for every occasion, and a knack for engineering that bordered on

genius,

Smart Usagi. Scary.

Ami opened her mouth to reply when something warm, mushy, and wet smacked

her

in the back of the head. Followed by a loud, almost braying laughter.

Turning

her head to look, Ami saw a tall, amazonian brunette standing at a nearby
table. Her brown eyes were narrowed, and she was holding another meatball

in

her hand.

Now she looks just like Usagi. :)

"Put it down," Usagi shot back. Flash simply smirked and was about to take
aim when a tall, sinuous looking redhead sitting at a nearby table loudly
cleared her throat. Flash stared at the redhead for a moment. Something
silent seemed to pass between them and then Flash dropped the meatball to

the

floor and walked away. "That was odd," Usagi said thoughtfully. "I wonder

why

'her highness' stopped Flash?"

Lesbians. :)

"Beryl's not a queen, Usagi," Ami said, said, using napkins to get as much
tomato sauce out of her hair as she could.

A young Beryl? The mind boggles.

The disc was perhaps three inches wide and made of a sort of beige colored
stone. Small characters encircled a beautifully detailed painting of a red
and blue spider as seen from above against a background of stars. Ami over
the face,

Ami over the face? Sounds awkward.

 >

Ami nodded to herself, already compiling the words for her essay in her

mind

when she got a jolt of static electricity and then something slammed into

her

from behind, shoving her into the case sending it falling over. There was

a

sharp pain in her hand and then she hit the floor, a sensation followed
shortly by the plexiglass display stand smacking her in the back of the

head.

Ouch.

****
Ami lived with her aunt Mai.

Heh. Cute.

"That's barely an excuse," Mai replied,

Mai: You'd probably bleed if you were shot. Proper women never bleed, I'll
have you know. It contrasts badly with their pale skin.

And then she dreamed of spiders. Hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes,
circling her, waving their forelegs at her as though in welcome.

She's the Amazing Spider Youma. :)

Ami sat bolt upright in bed, blinking against the light streaming in from

her

curtains, breathing heavily, and then noticed the smell.

Nothing like the smell of soiled nightclothes, is there? :)

Her nightgown and bedding were sweat soaked, leaving behind an odor that
reminded her vaguely of the locker room.

Since sweat is farily predominate there, that makes sense.

What was she thinking? Somehow she had undergone some bizarre meatamorphis
overnight. If this ever got out...Turning away from the mirror, she donned
her robe, gathered her bathing things and marched down the hall to bathe.

By the time she sat down to breakfast, she had almost convinced herself

that

the episode in front of the mirror hadn't happened. Especially since her
school uniform hid the changes quite well. The problem was is

drop 'is'

 >

It happened without warning, a single word, both command and instruction

on

how to do so burned across her brain like a neon sign. "JUMP!"

Interesting variation of  spider sense.

Entirely on instinct, Ami jumped up and back landing on the top of the

wall

in a handstand and then followed through, landing on the other side in a
crouch. The roar of the car she had just avoided fade

faded

It took her several minutes to calm down before she could think clearly.
Somehow, she had just managed to defy the laws of physics by performing an
acrobatic feat that was beyond the limits of natural human ability.

Letting

her bag fall to the ground, she grabbed her head in her hands, trying to
fight off a surge of panic. Not only had she changed physically, but she

had

somehow acquired freakish abilities and--she took her hands from her head

and

stared at them, remembering the sharp pain in her hand right before she

had

been shoved. The stone tablet, the one with the spider, was it possible

that

it had somehow conferred the abilities of a spider upon her, abilities
proportionate to her size? That she had become a human spider? But did

that

mean she had

Yep. She's be shooting strands of webbing from her ass before all was said
and done.

But what if she was seen--she was faster then

than

Ami held her breath. It was Flash and Nico, one of the four guys who hung
around with Beryl. She peered down through the leaves. Flash and Nico,

both

almost naked,

in what sense? They're only in their underwear?

Unbidden, she thought of using her abilities to beat Flash into pancake
batter and then that was wiped away by a surge of horror that she was even
thinking such things. 'I didn't ask for this, I don't want this, and I

don't

accept this. I'd sooner go through life bullied then be the freak I've
become.'

Oh yeah. Quite the change for the better there. :P

"I apologize for being so forward, but are you the same Ami Mizuno who

took

third in the Prefecture Chess Championship two years ago?"

Heh. He likes chess. :)

Ami stared at him. Chess, as Usagi had once remarked, was the closest

thing

Ami had to a hobby. In fact, fanatic was far to

too

The grin vanished from Usagi's face as though it had been wiped away with a

rag. "Beat it, Umino."

Poor Umino. :(

"But don't you want to know about him?" A short, skinny brown haired

brown-haired

 boy

stepped up next to Ami's desk, a pocket computer in his hand.   "Straight

A

student, member of the Kendo club at Furikan, and served as treasuar

treasurer (I think. Better look it up)

"Of course she would," Usagi said, sliding onto the bench next to

Shinohara.

"Wouldn't you, Ami?" Ami started to say that she didn't even like Harry
Potter but Usagi didn't give her a chance. "Great! It's settled." She

wrapped

an arm around Shinohara's shoulders and stared into his eyes. "You'll pick
her up at seven. Be sure you wear something nice, try something funny and
I'll kill you, she likes flowers, and you should bring your own candy, the
prices at the Grand are murder." She handed him a few bills. "Popcorn and
soda are on me. I'll leave the details to the two of you. Bye." And then

she

was gone.

Heh. That was rather manic.

Ami's taste in clothes ran to the practical. Almost all her clothes were

of

solid colors, mostly blue, pink, and white with some gray here and there.
There was no

were no

 logos, no identifying marks of any kind.

After selecting a handful of clothes, a plain white blouse, blue sweater

and

dark gray skirt, she once more planted Ami in aa

a

"As you wish." He was silent for a moment. "Have you ever been to the
chessimaniacs web site?"

"Yes," Ami replied. "In fact, I'm a moderator in the forum. Why?"

"Ah, then perhaps you could explain the checkmate in five moves example

game

posted last week. It was quite elegant, but I'm afraid I fail to see the

need

for the Black King's Side Rook." Ami blushed. "I'm sorry, was it something

I

said?"

He is almost too good to be true, isn't he?

****

By sheer luck, they managed to get center seats and had just sat down,

when

Usagi's head appeared between them and the head of her friend Naru

appeared

on the other side of Shinohara, their sudden appearance causing them to
almost drop the popcorn and soda.

You knew it would backfire somehow.

***
As the days turned to months, Ami managed to more or less to avoid using

her

powers with the exception of the strange instinct that seemed to be

triggered

by any threat. It made avoiding Flash easier, but it made it very

difficult

to forget about what else had come with it. At least those she could hide

by

not using them.

Hmm. INteresting length of time for nothing to happen.

"I don't like sports," Ami said, beginning to get angry with the coach.
"They're barbaric, noisy and messy.

Way to score points with a phys ed teacher, all right.

 I'm sorry, Miss Sasazi, but I must

request that you remove me from the team or else I shall be forced to

speak

with the principal about this...aberration of my choices."

"He's already approved it. Look, Mizuno, I'll level with you. You're built
for speed and we need that right now. We're barely managing to hang on to

our

unbroken victory record.

Oh, what a shame they might actually lose one.

****
"You said yes?" For once, Usagi seemed to be without a quip. "Are you
insane?" She

she

 asked. Naru just nodded.

"I don't know," Ami replied. "It's just that...no more phys ed."

"Ami," Shinohara said, laying his hand on her arm. "Hockey is a very
dangerous sport. Is staying away from the gymnasium really that important

to

you?"

Ami winced. They had been dating exclusively for nearly a month now and if

he

had one fault, it was that he tended to take everything personally. Such

as

the notion that Ami's desire to avoid the gym also meant she wished to

avoid

him.

Heh. Interesting.

Nice set up. Still have some ways to go, though. it was a nice way to kick
things off.

DB Sommer



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