Whimsical Webslinging by Pent Ghelsburg
Disclaimer: The characters depicted in this work are purely fictional. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is purely coincidental. They are the original and rightful intellectual property of their creators. I use them with permission and respect. This work involves underaged characters. You have been warned.
The end of Friday had come…the auspice of the weekend was all too real. The thoughts of school and other responsibilities had fallen to the wayside, at least for now. Instead of thinking of what might be on the horizon for the weekend. The possibilities were endless and there was not nearly enough time to do everything they might come up with.
Such was the dilemma for young Nelson. The 9-year-old Dalmatian pup was a boy of boundless imagination. A cub who had more going on in his life than most cubs his age. He was an active cub who enjoyed doing social things like clubs and extracurricular activities. While he didn't enjoy sports, he did enjoy the idea of having a chance to hang out with his friends. However, for him, the weekend was sometimes a time for him to play video games.
But…this weekend was different. Marty, his older brother was on break from college. The young adult had come home for a while with the promise of spending time with his family. With their parents out of the home, Marty found himself babysitting. Nelson had no idea that his older brother would be home that day. So when he got home that day from school, he was in for a bit of a surprise.
Nelson got off the school bus with a spring in his step. He had been looking forward to getting a chance to play some online games with his friends. Promising that he'd catch them online so they could play the latest craze. The Dalmatian looked around the yard and to the parking area to see if his parents were home yet. Of course, there was nothing there as they were still working that day and hadn't come home just yet. His older brother had taken the bus and so there was no indication that he'd be there.
The young cub opened the door with his house key. He could hear what he heard to be the sound of the television running. He was certain that someone had left the television on. Nelson shut the door behind him and shuffled off his shoes before heading inside. The sound of the door made was enough to attract the attention of the older male who kneeled over the sofa and waved to his younger brother.
Nelson's eyes lit up as he saw the older male poke his head up. "Marty?..."
The younger boy burst forward and pounced over the side of the chair and hugged his brother tightly.
"Hiya, little guy. Been a while, huh?" The older brother ruffled his brother's head fur.
The younger cub nodded. "Uh-huh. Do Mom and Dad know your home?"
"Yeah, they know. How's school going?" The two broke off their hug and looked at one another.
The smaller dog shrugged. "It's good. Is college fun?"
"It has its pros and cons. Ya know…normal school stuff. I'm sure you understand." Marty smiled widely at his younger brother.
Nelson rolled his eyes. "It's boring sometimes…"
"Sometimes but I promise it will be worth it in the end. Keep up the good work and you can go to Unifursity too.." The older dog leaned back in the chair so there was a bit more space between them.
The younger boy nodded. "Uh-huh. What are you going to school for?"
"I want to be a digital designer. You know…someone who makes graphic designs and websites and stuff." He tried to explain it as simply as possible.
The smaller cub perked up a bit. "That sounds neat. You should show me sometime."
"Sure…but for now…I need a break…haha. Do you want to watch some movies with me? Mom and Dad won't be home til later so it's just us tonight." Marty got up from the chair and headed towards the kitchen.
Nelson's tail wagged behind him softly. "Heck, yeah. That sounds fun."
"Cool. Be right back. I'll make us some popcorn." The older dog disappeared into the kitchen.
The younger boy got up and followed his brother. "Can I have candy?"
"Nope. Mom and Dad so no candy until after dinner." The bigger dog waved his finger at the boy.
The smaller cub whined a bit. "Aw…okay."
"I promise to give you some candy after dinner, alright? I even brought your favorite down with me. You still like crunch bars right?" He asked as he had stopped by the store on the bus on the way to his parent's home.
The cub perked up a bit. "Yeah!"
"Alright…but only if you are a member of the clean plate club tonight. Fair?" The young man folded his arms expectantly.
The boy licked his lips. "Yup!"
Marty headed over to the pantry and grabbed a bag of popcorn before popping it into the microwave. The kitchen began to smell like the stuff before long. It only took a few minutes before the thing beeped.
"Can you grab a bowl?" The older male asked the younger one.
Nelson nodded and smiled as he padded over to one of the counters. Climbing on top of it before pulling one of the bowls down and throwing it over to his brother. The young adult caught the thing with ease and gave him a thumbs up. Marty broke open the bag and allowed it to steam out a bit before pouring it out into the bowl. He shielded his face from the steam as it billowed up from the heated-up snack.
"You want salt or butter?" The bigger male asked as he liked his plain.
Nelson's tail wagged behind him. "Butter!"
"Okay, I'll put butter on your half but no eating mine." He was certain his brother would anyways.
Marty finished emptying the snack into the bowl and put some liquid butter on half of it. He touched Neson on the shoulder, goading him to follow. The two brothers made their way back to the living room. The younger cub could already smell the boil as it boiled from the heated-up popcorn. The older male hopped back over the sofa, and some of the snacks spilled out from within and onto the couch around him.
Nelson decided to follow suit but struggled to get over it as it was bigger than the side of the chair that he'd hurdled over before. Marty noticed and reached over to help him, hoisting his brother up with his strength. The bowl of popcorn fell all over the sofa, making a big mess. The older brother twirled around the younger boy in the air. Nelson couldn't help but smile before he was finally eased back onto the sofa.
"Oops…" Marty turned around and noticed the mess he made.
The younger cub chuckled. "It's okay we can just eat it off the sofa."
"Yeah, I'll just vacuum later. It's not a big deal." The older male said before shoveling some of it into a pile so they could share.
Nelson kicked back and put his socked paws on the coffee table. "Which movie?"
"Whatever you want, kiddo. Still like superhero flicks?" Marty asked certain that was the case.
The smaller boy chirped. "Yup."
"How about Spiderman then? The new Spiderverse animated film is supposed to be good." The bigger male hadn't seen it quite yet but had heard good things about it.
The younger boy began singing. "Spider Man…Spider Man….Does whatever a spider can."
"Haha…alright…alright." The older male turned on the television and onto one of the streaming channels.
Marty began scrolling through the films. He wasn't having much luck finding it manually so he decided to just search for it. Sure enough, he was able to find it without much of an issue. It had a price but he figured his parents wouldn't care since it was to occupy the younger boy. He put in the passcode, which strangely enough hadn't changed since he moved out of the place. The film started before long.
The Spider-verse film was an interesting endeavor with more spider men than either of them was even aware of. The whole concept of multiple universes was something that Marvel had dabbled in before but never to the level of this particular film. The animation was smooth and the effects were off the wall with flare and pizzaz. Nelson was so transfixed by it that by the middle of the movie, he had only eaten a single piece of popcorn.
Marty got up and decided to let the cub just watch the movie while he made a pizza. It was already dinner time and he figured that pizza was an easy favorite. Time had flown by pretty quickly and he knew his parents wouldn't be home until much later. He grabbed the only frozen pizza from the freezer and shoved it into the oven. Making his way back to the couch, he started to pick up the mess they'd made.
The older male had managed to clean up most of it by the time the preheating buzzer went off. Stuffing the bowl of popcorn back between them. The younger cub's gaze remained diligently focused on the movie in front of him. Spiderman was one of his favorite things and nothing was going to distract him from it now. Watching Spiderman and his several counterparts beat up on baddies was more than he could have ever hoped for.
Before long the timing buzzer of the oven sounded again. Matt got up again and headed back to the kitchen to finish things up. The older dog grabbed some paper plates and plastic cups once he was back inside. He delivered the pizza out of the oven and allowed it to cool a bit. He could hear some action scenes unfolding on the movie in the living room but he knew he needed to finish what he was doing no matter how much he wanted to see what was going on.
He finished serving up the pizza and grabbed the chocolate bar from the fridge where he'd placed it earlier and put it on Nelson's plate. Marty put one plate over the other and grabbed a singular carton of milk for them to share. The dog walked back in and eased his brother's paws off the table so he could place the food on it. Nelson's focus was finally distracted once he saw not just the pizza but also the chocolate bar.
"Thanks, bro!" He said with a wide smile on his face.
Marty gave a thumbs up to the boy and sat back down. Each of the two brothers grabbed their plates and began eating while watching the film. The rest of the film was pretty exciting. Plenty of action scenes and of course the penultimate big bad was felled by the collaborative effort of all the Spidermen. A. happily ever after for all of them just as the two brothers were about to finish their meals, Nelson finally bit into his candy bar without delay.
The
credits rolled on screen before long. Nelson began singing the song before long and so his brother joined along with him. The cub hopped and jumped around the couch, seeming unconcerned about injuring himself. Within seconds, he knocked over the bowl again, making yet another mess. The older male chuckled as he realized the cub was having a bit of a sugar rush from the candy bar
"Wanna play pretend big bro?" Nelson said with his tail wagging behind him.
The older male looked at him curiously. "Pretend to be what though?"
"Spiderman!" He said speeding around the couch in a circle.
Marty grinned at him. "Sure…but I think spider dog is a more suitable name for you."
"Bark bark!" The smaller boy said as he was stopped by his brother.
The older boy picked up his brother and guided him around the room, holding him at his waist. The younger cub flung his arms forward, protracting and retracting each of them as if he were web-slinging. Even going far as to simulate the swinging motion as if he were doing it. The younger cub squealed in glee as he played with the older boy. Eventually, the smaller boy hopped out of his brother's grip.
"Let's play Spiderman the game together, bro!" Nelson suggested since it was on theme with what they just watched.
Marty looked at his watch. "Alright…just for a little thought."
The younger boy sped out of the room and towards his bedroom. Marty finished cleaning up and threw away the garbage and the remainder of the popcorn into the trash bin. He checked the living room one more time and turned off the television before finally heading back into his brother's room. He found Nelson already spinning around in an office chair, seemingly waiting for him. The impatient cub always needed something to do and the sugar wasn't helping at all.
"Alright come on the floor and try to relax." The older boy sat on the floor where he saw his brother's game system was set up.
Nelson stopped spinning around in the chair and jumped over to the older male. The two sat shoulder to shoulder on the ground. Within seconds the cub was feeling antsy and was fiddling his fingers. Marty flicked him playfully on the nose before turning on the gaming device. The thing didn't take very long to power on. Once it did the cub took over and began to choose a cooperative scenario for them to tackle.
They were to face the Green Goblin. Each of them chose a character and they began the level. Of course, Nelson had played the game much more than his brother had. He had played just about every level, so much to the point that he'd memorized many of them. As such, the star of the game was the younger boy. He felled every bad as they came out from the side of the screen. Hitting every single of them with a web sling or a swinging strike just as they entered on the side.
Marty was more than happy to let his brother steal the show. After all, he wasn't much of a gamer. The younger boy was enjoying himself and that's all that mattered to him. The older male simply went through the motions of playing through the level. Nelson knew all the tricks of the game and used all of the shortcuts and powerups, leaving none for his brother as the cub's score continued to rack up higher and higher.
The big finale was the fight against the Green Goblin. The enemy flew around on a hover disk throwing pumpkin grenades at the brothers. Marty was wholly unprepared for the ordeal but Nelson was able to pick up the slack and return many of the miniature bombs in the direction of their foe. Each time they hit it, the green goblin cackled at them with its flying disk smoking ever more profusely. By the end of though, when the score screen showed Nelson's character scored much higher than his brothers.
Yet, there was no celebration from the younger boy. He remained still silent compared to the earlier portions of the night where he was bursting with energy. Marty felt something on his shoulder. He noticed the younger cub had passed out on his arm. The bigger male gently nudged the smaller one and even then there was no response from him. It appeared that the sugar crash had finally hit the boy hard.
Marty slowly got up, while using one of his hands to keep the smaller cub wedged up. He figured Nelson was still small enough for him to pick up. The older dalmatian reached around his brother and eased him off the floor over his shoulder. The slumped frame of his brother slung against his body as he tried to wrangle the boy. As soon as he could, he laid the cub over his shoulder which made him easier to handle.
The young adult made his way over to the cub's bed, unconcerned about the game that was still playing in the background. He moved as slowly as he could, not wanting to wake his brother up. Easing him onto the bed once he was close enough, going from his legs up to his head. Marty fix's Nelson's pillows and pulled his sheets over his form. He decided the boy didn't need to shower that night and could do it in the morning.
The older brother leaned in and kissed the cub's forehead. "Good night."
Marty turned off the gaming device and followed with the light in the room. He made his way out, returning to the living room. He found his parents had just gotten back. When they asked him how it went, he told them about the night. The movie that they watched and the fun they had together. They were glad their older son had an easy time especially since Nelson sometimes gave babysitters a hard time.
His parents checked in on Nelson shortly after just to make sure he was indeed asleep. It wasn't like the younger cub to go to sleep early. Sure enough, the boy was already in his bed. Still in his clothing but resting soundly all the same. They shut the door and returned to Marty, spending the rest of their night together talking about his time at college and how it was going. He was all too happy to share with them the details of everything going on in his life.
Marty and his parents spent the rest of the night catching up. After all his parents hadn't seen their oldest son in some time. He even got a bit nostalgic about missing home and wanting to see Nelson and them more. A fact they were happy to hear as they were more than glad to have him back in their home. He promised that he'd be back more often. They even promised him a job when he was in town since he'd done so well babysitting that night.
