Douglas never noticed as the spider fell onto his shoulder as he lay back on the tree in the dark forest. He was too busy processing all the events as so many things had changed for him all at once. Becoming some kind of God, (Or goddess even) and now he was alone in a world not of his own...
A moment later and the bite pierced the 'skin' he wore, and into the very essence of his being.
...the essence of Gaia.
Normally a spider bite is harmless to a being as Gaia. Indeed, they are her children as much as any other creature, and could not harm the powerful goddess. But this was not a normal spider by any means... and this was not a normal universe. Gaia was as Doug here, the person he was trying to be and thus, susceptible to the spell.
Douglas felt strange as this new 'thing' flowed inside him. A strange power and he felt himself drifting to sleep. It was almost welcoming. Slowly the spider got to work, cocooning him in a strange silvery web.
Arachne approached, stepping away from the trees to look upon Douglas. "You made this... too easy Gaia." Could this be some kind of trick? She had put so many back up plans in place, and yet... here was the key to the Earth itself, helpless and in her power.
Douglass' eyes opened, as he looked in confusion. "I... you got... the wrong person," he said a little lost.
Arachne looked annoyed a moment as she leaned into the goddess. One of the magical beings that were her most hated of enemies... "You honestly think that story will work? I only have to look at the sky to see who you are... you brought Earth itself to the meta-verse... you can not be anything other then the earth! In a mortal-man disguise no less..."
Douglas tried to speak but the web moved onto his mouth.
Arachne pointed a sharp finger nail at her. "Do not even consider using any of your magics... I have spent a thousand lifetimes working out how a mere mortal can kill a god, until I realised the truth... one does not kill a god, but re-shape them. Morgana knew that too..."
Douglas struggled as he felt the strange venom affect him. He felt strange. "... I will bring my age... back. I will undo the age of technology, and return things to as they should be. My child... will live again."
Douglas tried to move again, only for Arachne to carefully outstretch her hand as the little spider crawled back to it's mistress. "Ariadne," she said with a smile. "Good work. All we need now is the Magic Number... For now... sleep Gaia... sleep forever, and dream the dream that I wish you to have."
Doug was... now back at work. He had drifted off to sleep? What a crazy dream that was! He looked at his computer trying to work out what he was doing. He hoped his boss didn't notice him drifting off- and found himself tensing. His boss the cat-girl was there. She looked at him with a far less intimidating look then she usually had. In fact she looked downright pleased and happy with him.
"Doug? Good work in sorting that report out... I also have good news. You're going to be promoted."
"What?" Doug blinked. "R-really?"
"Yes. We have overlooked the potential of humans... things are going to be a little different for you. I hope you feel up for it. You'll be working with Michelle from now on. Do you accept?"
"Yes! Of course!" Then his phone rang. The picture of his wife was there. She looked like... that Harpy-girl he always liked but never talked to- that is until, he obviously had and found out her name was Janine. "H-Hello? Janine? Yes- oh I got the promotion! Tell the twins, its all going so well!"
Life was perfect... he was enjoying his job, he had a twin boy and girl to look after, and a lovely wife.
He frowned slightly as he saw a spiderweb in the corner of the office, with a very 'familiar' looking spider... at the centre.
... no everything was fine.
Shana was now in a fight... a fight she had absolutely no chance to win. These were magical guardians and she was just a spider girl. She had broken into the temple of numbers, and was holding the power of magic-girl three in her hand.
... the power of three in her hand.
"I need to use this power," she said. "Please... work, get me out of here!"
She held the triangle to her body with a quiet prayer in her voice. Slowly the mystical energy started to glow, as Shana felt a strange energy going into her form.
The guardians tensed as the energy of the power seemed to 'merge' itself into Shana...
The spider girl felt incredible pain in her chest. It hurt so much! The power... the sheer power of a magical girl was forcing itself into Shana. Twisting and changing her, with relentless torment.
...it was burning her mind and heart... just burning her poor body to near oblivion until she almost begged for it to stop.
A third breast had formed on her torso, nestling itself between her two other breasts, and still the pain continued. She writhed on her spider body as a magical pulse of light shredded the clothes that Arachne had given her.
Slowly the uniform of a magic girl appeared. A special kind of cloth armor, that could protect her from any attack. A curious dress rested on her waist, slightly adapted for her spider lower body.
Trident looked wide eyed. "Impossible..."
Shana was now a... magic girl? Magic girl three... she held out her hand as if 'practised' in doing it, and brought out the special wand with three pronged ends on it without even thinking. It looked... ancient. Older. The weapon of another time...
She pointed it at the guardians. "Get... back..." she whispered. The magical light glowed, and all the guardians were forced into their strange pictures and statued state.
Trident was locked in a state of perpetual shock in a marble prison.
Shana looked at the guardian a little sadly. "I'm sorry... I... I don't have a choice. It's my destiny..."
Anezza and Astra were on the computer struggling to make sense of what happened to Lucas. "She's at minus 5 HP!" cried Astra. It was dropping. Lucas was about to die unless they did something!
"Pause the universe." Shouted Aneeza. if anything it would give them more time to work out what was going on.
The other younger space girl worked on the computer. "I'm trying, but I'm getting resistance- from within the system! Somone inside is pushing events forward. I can't stop it!"
Anneza frowned. They had to think out of the box. "Okay, if we can't stop time, slow it down. Slow it down around Lucas. We need to get her some help."
Slowly the two worked on the new program... The number three seemed to be in all their calculations... that couldn't be coincidence. They placed the time-field around Lucas, to keep her frozen... though still surrounded by spiders.
This was not looking good.
A lonely cat-girl wondered around the forest, trying to get help. She wasn't sure what she would stumble upon... until she found the strange ship of her new mistress, Lucas. The ship known as wings. She looked at the door, and slowly used her claws to try and get herself inside.
The ship seemed to resist for a while, but yielded.
The cat girl wagged her little tail happily as she saw the strange contraption that could take her to the world of her creator. She could now go to meet her god! Or... goddess?
"Can you take me to my creator?" she asked she ship.
The strange console of the bridge seemed to dim.
"Oh... well... could you bring her here?" At those words A curious crystal rose out of the controls. It had a single card on it... an invitation card? "I have to invite her? Of course I invite her! Please creator, help me... help Lucas."
Cliff was back in class.
he had hidden his 'shadow' as best he could, hoping that nobody would notice. People didn't really see anything amiss, and for a while he even forgot that anything was different about him. The only one that did act a bit odd was their teacher... Mary Summers.
Mary was a transformed, but appeared human. The extent of her change though, was a mystery. What was known is how great a teacher she was, as if she could reach into what was really bothering her students... and help them through it. She had an uncanny sense that most people assumed she had to by psychic.
Cliff didn't like the idea of someone poking around his head and he hoped it was just a stupid rumour. But the way Mary was looking at him now... with concern, surprise and even curiosity, it was unsettling. However whatever it was, she just continued as if nothing was wrong at all.
Finally class was dismissed and It was time for PE. Something he actually enjoyed. This one involved a bit of rope climbing. It might be a bit juvenile, but he did enjoy it ever since kindergarten.
He grabbed onto the rope, and was suddenly acutely aware of his shadow being cast as he held the rope. "Please don't let anyone notice," he said.
He glanced down to see some of the fellow students looking oddly. One pointed around and... Oh god no! someone had noticed! Maybe... maybe they thought the tail was just a part of the rope? He wasn't sure...
He just had to climb up, he kept climbing and climbing, pushing himself as far as he could until he got to the roof of where the rope was attached to... his shadow now cast on that roof. The rope seemed to be going 'inside' the shadow...
Cliff just kept climbing up, until...
... he disappeared.
