MORE POWERSTONES đź’Žđź’Ž Lacking PS this week.Â
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[Next evening] [Titan HQ NY – Alex's office]
The lights in the rest of the floor had already dimmed to that soft after-hours blue, leaving only Alex's office glowing. He dropped into the chair behind his desk with the kind of full-body slump that said the day had wrung him out and left him damp. He placed the coffee cup on the table.
Today's shoot ran longer than planned: extra takes on Green Goblin flying across the city, and there was a technical glitch with one of the new cameras, so he had to reshoot the entire perfect shot again. Luckily, Alex had extra prepared for situations like this. His shoulders ached, his eyes felt gritty. It was basically mental exhaustion.
He rubbed the back of his neck and exhaled through his nose. Worth it, though. Every frame had felt alive.
The door opened without a knock. Rachel walked in. She wore the same black blouse and pencil skirt from the morning, sleeves pushed up, hair pulled into a loose knot. In her hand, she held a silver pen drive.
"Editing team just finished the first teaser," she said, voice low and a little excited despite the late hour. "One minute flat. Everything is just as you'd explained."
Alex sat up a fraction. "Already?"
"They pulled an all-nighter after yesterday's dailies. Said they couldn't sleep until they saw how it breathed." She walked around the desk, plugged the drive into his laptop, and hit play.
...
Black screen...
Then the sound of a breath, which turned to heavy breathing, slightly echoing.
The screen snapped into motion from a first-person perspective. Running across a rooftop. Shoes hitting gravel. A quick leap over a vent. Hands grabbing a ledge. Pull up and climb the wall before a high jump.
The city blurred past.
Parkour across the brick. Vault over a gap. Climb straight up a wall like gravity was optional.
Peter's voice layered in, calm but thoughtful.
"We all have secrets."
The camera lunged forward as Spider-Man sprinted across a rooftop edge.
"The ones we keep…"
A fast turn into a narrow alley. A slide under scaffolding. A web shot upward.
"…and the ones that are kept from us."
Spider-Man jumped.
The camera followed him into the open sky. For half a second, it was just air and distant buildings. Then the perspective pulled back smoothly into third person.
Spider-Man arced across the skyline, the city stretching endlessly beneath him.
The red and blue suit caught the sunlight.
Then it zoomed in on the spider symbol on his back.
Music hit one final note.
Cut to black.
Title card.
Custom white webby texts faded in.
TITAN STUDIOS PRESENTS
SPIDER-MAN
COMING SOON
...
The video ended.
Alex didn't move for a solid five seconds. Then he let out a slow breath that sounded half laugh, half prayer.
"That's it," he said. "That's the one."
Rachel leaned against the edge of his desk, arms folded, watching his face. "You sure? We could sit on it another month, build more mystery."
"No." He shook his head. "Mystery's good, but hunger's better. Let them taste it now. Let them start asking questions before they even know what to ask."
He reached for his laptop, already opening the Titan Pictures YouTube channel and the official socials dashboard. Rachel slid onto the arm of his chair so she could see the screen too.
He uploaded the teaser.Â
Then he uploaded it to his official web page.
After that, he pushed it live across Titan's official site and social media accounts.
They both stared at the screen.
Ten seconds.
Nothing.
Then the views started ticking.
1,203
4,891
12,440
Rachel blinked. "That's… fast."
Alex refreshed.
38,000.
A notification dinged. Then another. Then five at once.
Within three minutes, the teaser was trending.
By minute five, Titan's servers were taking a beating.
Rachel grabbed her phone. "It's already exploding."
...
On Twitter, the hashtag #TitanSpiderMan appeared in trending within twenty-three minutes, climbing fast. People who had followed Titan's slow-burn announcement for months suddenly had something real to scream about.
@MarvelFanatic92: WAIT WHAT??? Alex just dropped a SPIDER-MAN teaser out of nowhere??? That POV run had me holding my breath. This is happening. THIS IS HAPPENING!!!!
@WallCrawlerDaily: The spider emblem zoom at the end… chills. Actual chills. You see the details? That's insane. Titan's been sitting on this for months and they just served it like that? No warning?
...
A thread from a popular comic-news account exploded:
1/ The first live-action Spider-Man under Titan just got its ignition teaser. No cast reveal, no date, just pure kinetic energy. Peter's narration line is already living rent-free in my head.
2/ That pull-back to the third-person swing? Chef's kiss. The suit looks comic-accurate without feeling costumey. My only question is, who is the villain?
Replies poured in:
"I wasn't ready for this tonight. I need to lie down."
"We all have secrets… bro is that a multiverse tease already???"
"The REAL Spider-Man movie we've always wished for is upon us."
One of the biggest entertainment accounts posted:
"WE WERE NOT READY. Titan just dropped the first Spider-Man live-action teaser out of nowhere."
...
Website comments:
"POV SWINGING IS INSANE. THIS IS DIFFERENT."
"THE SYMBOL SHOT GAVE ME CHILLS."
"Peter's narration??? Who is playing him?"
"Did anyone else notice the subtle breathing detail? That's attention to craft."
"Bro dropped it on a random Tuesday night like it's nothing."
...
YouTube views ticked past 700,000 in the first hour. Comments scrolled so fast the page lagged.
"THE SWING FEELS SO FREAKIN' REAL."
"Peter's voice… who is that? Is Alex launching a new talent? Or, someone famous?"
...
Reddit lit up in every relevant subreddit. r/Marvel, r/Spiderman, r/TitanPictures, even r/movies. A megathread hit 8,000 upvotes.
Top comment: "Alex dropping this unannounced is the most Peter Parker thing ever. Just casually changing the trajectory of superhero culture while everyone's eating dinner."
...
By midnight Eastern, the teaser had crossed 2.1 million views. Twitter trends showed #SpiderManTeaser at number one globally, bumping everything else down. News sites scrambled to embed the video.
Variety headline: "Titan Studios Drops Surprise Spider-Man Teaser, Internet Loses Collective Mind."
The Hollywood Reporter: "Alex's Live-Action Wall-Crawler Arrives Without Warning: Here's Why Fans Are Already Obsessed..."
...
[Midnight] [Titan HQ – Private bedroom]
Takeout containers from the Thai place down the block sat stacked on the nightstand: green curry, pad see ew, spring rolls already half-demolished. The king bed took up most of the room, sheets rumpled from where they had collapsed onto it an hour earlier after a quick shower.
Alex lay on his back, laptop balanced on his stomach, scrolling through the fresh wave of comments. Rachel curled against his side, head on his shoulder, phone in hand. Her legs tangled with his under the thin blanket. She smelled faintly of lemongrass and the vanilla lotion she always kept in her bag.
She laughed softly at something on her screen. "Listen to this one. 'If this is the quality of the teaser, I'm ready to sell my kidney for opening night tickets.' Someone already replied with a kidney emoji and the words 'same but I only have one left.'"
Alex snorted. "People move fast."
He tapped a reply to a particularly excited comment asking about the narration voice. He typed quickly: "Glad the breathing hit right. Voice is new talent we're keeping under wraps for now. More soon."
Rachel watched him send it, then nudged his ribs with her elbow. "You're enjoying this way too much."
"Guilty." He tilted the laptop so she could see better. "Look at the Reddit thread. Someone posted a frame-by-frame breakdown of the suit texture. They caught the subtle weave pattern we added to make the red pop under different lighting. That's the level of obsession I live for."
She scrolled her own feed and read aloud in a dramatic voice. "'Alex dropping this on a random Tuesday is peak chaotic good energy. Man really said 'hold my coffee' and changed cinema forever.' But, I'm not that surprised. He always does that... Ok. Maybe a little surprised."
Alex grinned. "Chaotic good. I'll take it."
Rachel's thumb paused over a negative one. She tilted the phone toward him. "Here's the other side. 'Teaser looks cool but no cast reveal? No date? Feels like bait. Titan's just farming engagement.'"
He read it, then shrugged. "Fair. Some people need the full menu before they'll sit down. We're serving appetizers tonight."
She tapped out a reply anyway. "Short and sweet: 'Appetizer's free. Main course is coming. Promise it's worth the wait.' Sent."
Alex leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "You're nicer than me. I would've just dropped a shrug emoji."
They kept going like that for a while, trading screens back and forth, laughing at the memes already cropping up. Someone had slapped Peter's narration line over a clip of a raccoon falling off a trash can. Another edit synced the rooftop run to a viral dance track. A very dedicated fan had already made a looping GIF of the emblem zoom with dramatic violin stings added.
Rachel set her phone on the mattress and rolled onto her side so she could look at him properly. "Be honest. How are you actually feeling right now?"
He closed the laptop, set it on the floor beside the bed, and turned to face her. One arm slid around her waist, pulling her closer.
"Exhausted," he said. "And wired. Like I just ran a marathon and then drank six espressos. Today was long, the reshoot sucked, but dropping that teaser… it feels like we finally lit the fuse."
She traced a lazy circle on his chest with her fingertip. "The comics, the slow teases, the casting calls. Tonight, you actually showed the suit in motion. People are losing their minds because they finally believe it's real."
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. And the second they believe it, the pressure starts. Every frame from here on has to match what they just felt in that one minute."
Rachel propped herself up on one elbow. "You worried?"
"A little." He met her eyes. "Not about the movie. About keeping the soul of it intact. Peter's supposed to feel like someone you could run into on the subway. Not a billionaire. Just a guy who's trying really hard not to let the mask eat him alive."
She smiled softly. "You'll protect that. You always do."
He reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I've got good help."
They stayed quiet for a minute, just breathing together.
Rachel leaned in and kissed him slowly. Her lips brushed his at first, soft and unhurried, then pressed firmer as she shifted her weight to settle half across his chest. One hand slid up to cradle the side of his face, thumb resting along his jawline. The kiss deepened naturally, warm and familiar, tasting faintly of green curry and the mint she had popped after dinner.
Alex responded without hesitation. His fingers threaded into her hair, loosening the knot until strands spilled free over his shoulder. He pulled her closer, rolling them so she ended up beneath him, her back against the rumpled sheets.
"I can barely keep my eyes open," Rachel said, putting her arms around his neck.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"Good night."
"Good night," She kissed him once more before he slid beside her.Â
Then, they fell asleep...
---[SPOILERS: Upcoming chs names][1]
---[MORE POWERSTONESđź’Žđź’Žđź’Ž]---
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[5 advance chs] [All chs available for all tiers] [No double billing.]
[1] Ch: 259 [Goodbye and Time Skip] Ch: 260 [Spider-Man: Into the Venomous Hunt] Ch: 261 [Trial by Spotlight] Ch: 262 [The Next Move] Ch: 263 [Between Wrap and Reshoot]