The system's response came not as words but as a visceral surge of energy—Kai's morpher glowing white-hot as tendrils of gold light lashed out from his bracer, wrapping around Gwen's wrist in a braided helix.
The nanites shrieked, their corrosive edges dissolving where the morphin grid's light touched them, but Gwen's spider-sense flared again, her free hand clamping down on Kai's forearm. "Wait," she gasped, her fractured violet eyes locking onto his. "I can *feel* them—they're not just corrupt, they're *scared*
The nanites twisted in Gwen's grip, their movements less like aggression now and more like the panicked thrashing of drowning animals.
Kai's morphin grid thrummed in response, its golden energy softening to a low hum as Gwen's Dino Gem pulsed violet—a wavelength that seemed to calm the corrupted tech. The system's voice crackled inside Kai's skull like a corrupted radio transmission: **[Nanite Sentience Detected. Trauma Response: Oscorp Containment Protocols. Proposing Symbiotic Integration...]
With a sound like shattering porcelain, the writhing black mass split apart—each half cocooning itself in strands of morphin energy until two smooth, pulsating eggs hovered between them.
One gleamed pearl-white streaked with gold veins, its surface shifting like liquid mercury; the other was a softer pink-and-white spiral that emitted faint chimes when Gwen's fingers brushed it.
Kai's HUD flickered: [Primary Zord Cores Stabilized. Designation: White Dragon Mech (Gold Variant) and Pink Mongolarachne Drone (Basic). Upgrade Requirements: 200+ Hostile Nanite Clusters or Equivalent Morphin Energy.\]
The white dragon zord uncoiled from its egg with a sound like a thousand swords being unsheathed at once, scales the color of fresh snowfall catching the dim light as it arched its serpentine neck toward Kai.
Gold veins pulsed beneath its armored hide, each movement leaving behind faint afterimages that smelled of ozone and something ancient—like the first lightning strike on primordial earth. The spider zord unfolded next, segmented legs clicking together like polished obsidian, its carapace shimmering between translucent pink and violet as Gwen's fractured irises.
Kai exhaled sharply as the dragon's slit-pupiled eyes locked onto his, a growl reverberating through his bones like the morphin grid had learned to speak.
"Holy shit," he breathed, watching the dragon's wings flex—not leathery membranes, but overlapping plates that chimed like wind chimes with every motion
Gwen's fingers twitched instinctively as the spider-zord scuttled up her forearm, its eight articulated legs moving with eerie precision across her Dino Gem-lit veins.
"Kai," she breathed, watching the creature's carapace ripple between translucent pink and violet like living stained glass, "what *are* these?"
The dragon-zord coiled around Kai's biceps in response, its gold-veined scales humming against his skin like a live wire wrapped in silk.
They're called zords," Kai muttered, his HUD flickering with half-comprehensible schematics—blueprints for something massive unfolding behind his retinas. The dragon nipped playfully at his thumb, its diamond-sharp fangs leaving no mark but sending a shock of morphin energy up his spine. "And right now, they're in standby mode." The system pinged, overlaying Gwen's confused expression with a holographic projection—two palm-sized zords suddenly exploding outward into towering, mechanized beasts, their combined forms twisting into a single gargantuan silhouette. "But when we need them? They get *real* big."
Gwen staggered back as the holographic dragon-zord roared silently, its pixelated wingspan engulfing the entire ruined apartment in shadow. "This is *way* too much for one day," she breathed, her voice cracking between exhilaration and sheer terror.
The spider-zord bristled on her wrist in response, its legs tapping an anxious rhythm against her pulse point.
"Meet me at school tomorrow—*normal* school, where people don't turn into fucking power rangers before homeroom."
She yanked her sleeve down over the glowing morpher, but the violet fractals still peeked from her collar like bioluminescent tattoos
The system interface pulsed in Kai's vision, overlaying the wrecked apartment with shimmering grids and damage assessments—cracked support beams, compromised electrical lines, a neighbor's muffled sobbing through the thin drywall.
Combat Analysis Complete: Structural Collapse Probability 68%. Civilian Casualty Projection: 12-24 Individuals Within Blast Radius. The numbers burned behind his eyelids, but beneath them, something deeper pulsed: Gwen's terrified grip on his arm, her Dino Gem energy flickering in sync with his own morphin grid like twin distress beacon.
Then—silence. The apartment trembled, not with destruction, but with something unseen knitting reality back together at the seams.
Kai blinked as shattered glass flowed upward like reversed rainfall, each shard slotting perfectly into the window frame. The splintered floorboards smoothed over, fresh wood grain spreading like liquid underfoot.
Even the lingering stench of burnt plastic and symbiote rot dissipated, replaced by the faint lavender detergent Gwen always used on her sweaters. The system's voice chimed, almost smug: *[Hostile Aftermath Neutralized. Civilian Safety Protocols Engaged: Time-Localized Reality Reversion Activated. Duration: 17 Seconds Pre-Impact
Kai's knees hit the newly restored floorboards with a thud that reverberated up his spine—not from exhaustion, but from the sheer absurdity of watching physics itself crumple like bad origami under the Morphin Grid's whims.
His apartment smelled of nothing but pizza and Gwen's fading lavender shampoo now, the only evidence of catastrophe being the twin zords coiled around their wrists like living jewelry. The dragon-zord yawned against his pulse point, its golden eyelids drooping as the adrenaline crash hit Kai like a freight train wrapped in
velvet.
The next morning at Midtown High, Gwen nearly spilled her coffee when Kai's fingers brushed against her wrist in the crowded hallway—not flirtation, but a silent check-in as their zords stirred beneath their sleeves.
"Christ, where do we even *hide* these things during AP Bio?" she hissed under her breath, watching the violet fractals under her skin pulse in time with the spider-zord's skittering movements.
Kai smirked, tapping his morpher discreetly; the holographic display shimmered between them, showing twin gemstones rotating lazily in what looked like a pocket dimension filled with floating training dummies and neon-lit obstacle courses.
"Dino Gems double as VIP lounges," he murmured, leaning close enough for his breath to ghost over her ear. "Think Tamagotchi meets Jurassic Park—they've got whole ecosystems in there."
MJ's Doc Martens scuffed against linoleum as she shoulder-checked through the sophomore crowd, her riot of red curls catching the fluorescents like coiled copper wire.
"Chambers," she snapped, fingers digging into Kai's bicep hard enough to make his dragon-zord stir beneath his sleeve. "Where the hell have you—" Her breath hitched mid-sentence, brown eyes flicking between the still-glowing fractals peeking from Gwen's collar and the way Kai's pupils briefly flashed amber.
The hallway noise dimmed around them as MJ's grip tightened. "You two look like you got hit by the ugly end of a sci-fi cosplay convention.
Kai's fingers twitched toward his morpher—not to transform, but to activate the privacy dampeners humming at the edge of his HUD.
The dragon-zord's tail lashed under his cuff as the system whispered *[Civilian Deception Protocol Suggested: Cover Story Engaged]* into his auditory cortex. He forced a lazy grin, lifting his left wrist where Gwen's matching morpher peeked from beneath her sweater sleeve.
"Ancient family heirlooms," he lied smoothly, watching MJ's nostrils flare at the ozone-and-metal scent clinging to them. "Turns out Grandma Chambers was into underground lucha libre. Had a spare, so
The morphers pulsed subtly against their wrists—Kai's appearing as nothing more than an antique gold cuff bracelet with draconic filigree that caught the fluorescent lights just wrong, making the engraved scales shimmer like living things when he turned his wrist.
Gwen's had morphed into a delicate silver-and-violet charm bracelet, its centerpiece a white-pink gemstone carved with an almost invisible spiderweb pattern that only revealed itself when light hit it at precise angles.
MJ squinted, her fingers twitching toward Gwen's wrist before abruptly pulling back as if burned—the spider-zord's hidden fangs had grazed her subconscious with a psychic warning she couldn't explain.
Kai's dragon-zord bracelet flashed gold as the second bell's echo died in the hallway, its scales rippling against his wrist like a living metronome counting down their tardiness.
Gwen's spider-zord skittered up her forearm beneath her sleeve, its tiny legs tapping Morse code panic against her veins—*late-late-late*.
MJ opened her mouth, but Gwen was already yanking both of them into motion with Dino Gem-enhanced strength, their sneakers squeaking against linoleum as lockers blurred past. "Move your ass, Chambers," Gwen hissed, the violet fractals around her eyes flaring as her spider-sense pinpointed the exact nanosecond Principal Morita would round the corner ahead
The Bunsen burner flames flickered blue as Gwen's spider-sense pinged—0.8 seconds before Peter Parker's tray of sulfuric acid slipped from his trembling fingers.
Kai moved without thinking, his dragon-zord flaring gold beneath his sleeve as he caught the beaker mid-air, the glass freezing against his palm with a crystalline chime only enhanced senses could hear.
"Easy there, Parker," Kai murmured, watching Peter's dilated pupils' contract in shock—not at the near-disaster, but at Kai's unnatural reflexes.
Ned's jaw dropped behind his Stark Industries tablet, his fingers freezing mid-swipe on schematics that looked suspiciously like old Power Rangers toy blue prints.
Peter's fingers twitched toward his own wrist—where no morpher hid beneath his sweater cuff, but where Kai's enhanced vision caught the faint red welts of web-shooter prototypes digging into pale skin.
"Whoa, nice reflexes," Peter stammered, his pulse jumping visibly in his throat as Kai casually righted the beaker with millimeter precision.
The dragon-zord uncoiled beneath Kai's sleeve in response, tasting the electrostatic crackle of Parker's latent spider-essence like predator scenting kin.
Gwen's spider-zord reacted faster, skittering up to her collarbone and vibrating at a frequency that made the Bunsen burner flames stutter—their first silent warning that Peter Parker wasn't just some clumsy nerd.
Ned's tablet clattered onto the lab table, his hastily minimized screen still displaying a crude blueprint of the original Mastodon zord's leg hydraulics. "Dude, you into Power Rangers too?" Ned blurted, oblivious to the way Peter flinched at the volume. Kai's smirk widened as he traced a finger over the tablet's edge, letting his morphin grid flicker gold just enough to make Ned's Stark Industries password prompt glitch into Cyrillic. "Used to have all the toys," Kai lied smoothly, watching Ned's pupils dilate with nostalgic glee. "Especially the Blue Ranger's—what was it, the Triceratops zord?" The dragon-zord coiled tighter around his wrist, scales prickling at the irony
Peter's breath hitched as Gwen's spider-zord suddenly bristled against her collarbone, its tiny fangs sinking into her skin just enough to inject a pulse of Dino Gem energy—her spider-sense flared violet, projecting a 0.8-second glimpse of Peter's own latent abilities kicking in: tendons tensing to leap, pupils dilating to absorb every micro-expression. The Bunsen burner's flame flickered green for half a heartbeat as their combined energy signatures collided, sending a shockwave through the lab's electromagnetic field that made the lights hum
The lights died with a wet pop—not the clean snap of overloaded circuits, but the visceral sound of glass bulbs rupturing from within as black ichor oozed down the fixtures.
Kai's dragon-zord flared gold beneath his sleeve an instant before the system's alarm shredded through his skull.
[WARNING: HOSTILE NANITE CONTAMINATION DETECTED. OSCORP ORIGIN: PROTOCOL 7. EVACUATE CIVILIANS IMMEDIATELY.]** Gwen's spider-sense shrieked in tandem, her violet fractals igniting like live wires as she whirled toward Peter—just as the first tendrils of inky corruption erupted from the vents above his lab station.
.
The nanites hit Peter like a swarm of starving piranhas—black tendrils enveloping his flailing limbs in milliseconds, fusing his nerdy sweater into a grotesque second skin of writhing circuitry.
Gwen moved faster than thought, her spider-sense fractals burning violet as she lunged, but the 0.8-second forecast betrayed her: every possible trajectory ended with Peter's transformation accelerating under her touch.
His scream gurgled into something wet and chittering as chitin plates erupted along his spine, his fingers elongating into barbed hooks that tore through the lab table like wet
cardboard.
"EVERYONE RUN!" Kai's voice shredded through the chaos, morphin energy crackling gold in his throat as he vaulted over desks—not to attack, but to bodily hurl Ned and three other students toward the emergency exit.
Gwen was already in motion, her spider-sense fractals mapping escape vectors in pulsing violet as she herded the remaining classmates out with Dino Gem-enhanced speed.
The nanite swarm recoiled from their morphin-charged movements, hissing like steam against hot metal before doubling down on Peter's convulsing form. Kai's HUD bled crimson as the system roared: **[EVAC CONFIRMED. MORPH SEQUENCE ENGAGED.]**
"DINO THUNDER, POWER UP!" Their voices fused mid-shout—Kai's deep timbre tangled with Gwen's higher pitch as twin morphers flared violet-gold. The dragon-zord erupted from Kai's wrist in a helix of living armor, plates locking over his body with the sound of a thousand swords unsheathing while Gwen's spider-zord unfolded into sleek carapace that clung to her curves like liquid obsidian.
Peter's transformation hit critical mass—his spine arched unnaturally as chitinous legs burst from his ribs, his scream dissolving into a sound like grinding gears. The nanites had rewritten him into something between man and monstrous spider, his once-human eyes now clusters of pulsing red sensors.
Kai's armored boot cracked the floor tiles as he lunged, not at Peter but at the ventilation shaft still vomiting nanite swarms—his dragon-zord's tail whipped out, severing the metal conduit with a spray of sparks and black ooze. Gwen moved in perfect sync, webbing the ceiling above Peter's thrashing form with violet energy strands that hardened into a containment net. But the nanites weren't finished; the remaining swarm coalesced into a single barbed tendril that stabbed toward Gwen's exposed throat—only to be intercepted mid-air by Peter's own mutated forearm, the chitin plates there splitting open to reveal glowing blue veins.
T-TARANTULAS!" The name tore from Peter's distended jaw in a voice that was half his own, half something with too many teeth.
His thorax pulsed with sickly light as the nanites rewired his vocal cords into something capable of harmonics that made the lab equipment shriek in feedback.
Gwen barely dodged the first strike—a scythe-like leg that sheared through three lab tables like wet paper—but Kai wasn't fast enough to avoid the follow-up; Peter's mutated abdomen twisted unnaturally to spray a web of black nanite filaments that wrapped around Kai's morpher, the corrosive strands hissing as they burned toward his skin
"SYSTEM!" Kai roared, watching his HUD glitch violently as the corruption spread. **[Failsafe Activated. Non-Physical Combat Protocols Engaged.]** The dragon-zord's tail lashed out in response, not to attack but to fuse with Kai's morpher—and with a sound like a lightning strike hitting a sword forge, his entire right arm erupted in golden-white light.
The glow condensed into a shimmering dragon-headed spear longer than he was tall, its blade humming with the same primordial frequency as the morphin grid itself. Across the room, Gwen's spider-zord reacted instinctively; her morpher unfolded into a sleek blaster with barrel vents shaped like fangs, the entire weapon pulsing violet as it siphoned energy directly from her Dino Gem core.
The dragon-headed spear pulsed in Kai's grip like a living thing, its golden energy resonating with Gwen's violet blaster in harmonic vibrations that made the shattered lab equipment tremble.
Their weapons didn't just recognize each other—they *craved* connection. Gwen's spider-sense flared with premonition half a second before the morphin grid forcibly yanked their arms upward, weapons crossing in a shower of prismatic sparks
. The resulting energy whip lashed outward in a helix of gold-and-violet lightning, shearing through Peter's nanite webbing with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel—yet leaving his mutated flesh untouched beneath.
The severed nanite tendrils writhed on the floor like decapitated snakes—until they suddenly *flowed* back toward Peter's twitching form in perfect synchronization, fusing into his mutated spine with an audible squelch.
His thorax ballooned grotesquely, chitin plates cracking apart as new limbs erupted in a spray of black ichor—eight segmented legs now, each ending in barbed hooks that tore through concrete when he moved.
Gwen backpedaled as the ceiling groaned above them, entire sections of plaster collapsing under Peter's—no, *Tarantulas'*—expanding mass, his human face now just a screaming mask embedded in a nightmare of pulsating spider-flesh