Nathan woke up to the gentle hum of machinery and a blinding white light above his head. The sterile scent in the air and the steady beep of a heart monitor told him one thing.
Hospital.
He groaned, shifting slightly. Every muscle in his body screamed like it had been steamrolled by a fire truck. Which… wasn't that far from the truth.
His vision cleared enough to make out the clean, futuristic design of the medbay. Sleek white walls, glowing panels, soft blue lights. This wasn't your average ER. This place was fancy.
Then the door opened.
A small robot, barely the size of a backpack, rolled in with smooth little wheels, bright LED eyes, and a chirpy voice that sounded like a mix between a customer service rep and a cartoon chipmunk.
"Oh! Spider-Man! You're awake. I'm glad! Oh, where are my manners? I am a Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics, or H.E.R.B.I.E. for short!"
Nathan blinked.
Then screamed.
"TERMINATOR! IT'S GONNA KILL ME! HELPPPP!!"
He scrambled backward, leapt off the bed, and latched onto the ceiling like a panicked cat. Bandages wrapped around his torso, and to his horror, his mask was nowhere in sight. A mirror across the room confirmed it that it was just his messy brown hair, a pair of sweatpants, and gauze taped to his chest.
"Oh no… my secret identity!" he gasped.
Laughter echoed behind him.
"'Terminator gonna kill me!'" came the mocking voice between fits of laughter. "Man, you're even funnier in person."
Nathan looked down to see a teenager with blonde hair and a smirk that could light up a stadium. He wore a shirt with flames across it and looked entirely too confident.
"Wait…" Nathan said slowly. "Am I… am I in the Baxter Building?"
Johnny Storm grinned. "Ding ding ding. Give the rookie a prize."
Nathan's jaw dropped. "I'm in the Fantastic Four's headquarters?!"
He nearly passed out from excitement, wobbling on the ceiling. "Oh man, Peter's gonna lose his mind…"
Johnny waved him down. "C'mon, the others wanna meet you. I promised I wouldn't let you leave before shaking hands with the coolest superhero team on Earth."
Nathan dropped from the ceiling and landed with a thud. He reached out a hand.
"Since you already saw my face… Nathan Drake."
Johnny clasped it with a grin. "Johnny Storm. But you already knew that. Because I'm awesome."
As they walked down the corridor, Nathan couldn't help gawking at the futuristic tech lining the walls—gravity stabilizers, floating monitors, what looked like an actual time machine (he hoped not).
Johnny pushed open a set of double doors into the lounge. It was casual, cozy, but still filled with high-tech touches. And sitting on the couch—
"Yo, Ben! Rookie's awake!" Johnny called.
The man on the couch stood up. Or rather, the mountain stood up.
A massive figure of orange stone turned and offered a huge rocky hand. His voice was gruff but kind.
"Yo, Spider-Man. Nice to meet ya. Name's Ben Grimm."
Nathan stepped forward and shook the boulder-sized hand, jaw slack.
"You… you look way cooler in person."
Ben chuckled. "Thanks, kid. You ain't half bad yourself."
Then the door to the lab hissed open and in walked a man in a lab coat with a neat beard and kind eyes, arm linked with a beautiful woman with blonde hair and confident posture.
The man spoke first. "Ah, Spider-Man. You're awake. I'm glad to see you're okay."
He extended a hand. "Reed Richards."
Nathan tried to process the fact he was shaking hands with Mr. Fantastic.
"Nathan Drake," he said, almost in a daze.
The woman beside him smiled. "Drake? Is your mother Cassandra Drake, by chance?"
Nathan blinked. "Yeah… that's my mom."
She lit up. "We were roommates in college!"
She extended her hand warmly. "Sue Storm-Richards."
Nathan shook it, still reeling. "It's really nice to meet you."
Reed stepped closer. "So, Nathan… how did you get your powers?"
Nathan scratched the back of his neck. "Oh. I, uh… got bitten. By a spider."
A pause. All four members of the Fantastic Four stared at him.
Johnny blinked. "And…?"
Nathan shrugged. "That's it. I was just tagging along with my friend Peter for a Stark Industries internship. Got curious, wandered off, found a room full of spiders, and boom. One bit me. Powers."
Reed raised an eyebrow, nodding slowly. "Fascinating. Would you allow me to study a sample of your blood?"
Nathan hesitated for all of half a second. "Sure."
Reed led him and Sue into a pristine lab. Nathan sat down while Reed expertly drew a small vial of blood. He placed it into a device that immediately began scanning the sample.
As data loaded, Reed gestured Sue over. "Take a look at this."
She leaned in, peering through a magnified viewer.
The DNA appeared ordinary at first: human, teenage, slightly low iron, high metabolism.
But then, something twisted.
A shimmering filament branched across the helix. Sue adjusted the magnification and gasped.
"This isn't just a mutation… It's a biological integration."
Reed tapped a few keys, bringing up a 3D model of Nathan's DNA structure.
"The spider's DNA didn't just fuse with yours, Nathan it rewrote entire cellular systems."
He pointed to glowing areas.
"Neurons wrapped in super-conductive myelin. Mitochondria pulsing with double the energy of an Olympic athlete. Muscle fibers with bio-elastic tension that is strong enough to bend rebar, yet soft and agile. And these neurological anomalies…"
Nathan raised a hand. "That's probably my spidey sense. Like a sixth sense. I just feel danger coming."
Reed nodded, visibly impressed.
"Nathan… you are evolution's answer to chaos."
Nathan tilted his head. "What does that mean?"
Reed looked at him gravely.
"You're not just enhanced. You're self-sufficient. A complete, functional predator. Designed for verticality, evasion, precision. An apex organism honed by accident."
Sue whispered, "He really is incredible."
Nathan blushed, glancing at the clock on the wall.
"Oh crap! I've gotta get back to school! Where's my suit?!"
Reed smiled. "Still in the medbay. Nathan come back tomorrow. There's much more I want to study."
Nathan nodded eagerly and sprinted back toward the medbay. As he left, he overheard Sue whisper:
"He really is a cute kid."
Nathan turned bright red, tugged his mask on with a stunned look, and muttered under his breath while leaping out the window:
"One of the most beautiful women I've ever seen just called me cute…"
He dove into a graceful swing between the buildings, laughter echoing behind his mask.
Elsewhere…
The room was dark. Sleek. Powerful.
On the massive wall-mounted television, a news anchor gushed over footage from Pier 19.
"—and there he was again. This mysterious new Spider-Man saving workers and civilians from what experts are calling a 'water elemental' attack. Authorities have no clue where this masked teen came from, but witnesses say—"
Click.
The screen went black.
A figure sat behind the desk, face obscured by shadows, only the faint green light of his desk lamp illuminating a sharp jawline and predatory eyes.
He pressed a button on his intercom.
"Bring me Gargan."
A voice answered immediately. "Yes, sir. Right away, Mr. Osborn."
The man leaned back in his chair.
A slow, sinister smile crept across his face.
"Let's see what the spider's really made of."