The Superhero's Sister

"I'm gonna be honest, it doesn't look great."

Emory studied the angry red mark on her brother's arm. Or at least it was red. By now it had started to turn a kind of witchlike purple around the edges. Definitely not your usual bite, but what did she know, anyway?

Will narrowed his eyes at her. "Well, Em. If it looked like it had gotten better I wouldn't be asking for your help, now would I?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you're an independent person who's about to die from a bug bite. How did this happen again?"

"I told you. Physics internship, went into a hazardous material research center, had the bite by the time I left."

Oh. Right. A totally normal situation. Will had come back three days ago with the bite, electing to ignore it until one sudden bout of pain left him motionless for an hour when he finally decided to tell Emory what was happening.

"Okay," Emory started, having absolutely no idea what to say in this situation, "I'm no entomologist-"

"That's for sure."

"-But I think you're dying. Or getting superpowers. One of the two."

Will sighed at that, rolling his eyes. "Are those really my two options?"

Emory felt her eye twitching, while she tried to contain her annoyance. "Well if you would just go to a doctor about it-"

"Nope, I will sooner die than have to wait in those dang lines again. You know I've been standing in lines all week, right? I will just figure it out mys-," Just then, Will was hit with yet another wave of unbearable pain. He started writhing on the ground and Emory watched in horror, unsure of what to do.

The ring of purple around the bite started slowly expanding out until it covered his entire left arm. The skin started to change into what looked like some kind of hard shell or exoskeleton, as it then started segmenting into a dozen separate joints. Emory looked at the process, speechless, as the unusual segmentation then rolled up, forming a spiral at the base of her brother's arm.

"Oh my god," Emory breathed, "Of all the things that could have happened. You had to get bitten by a radioactive pillbug?"

She then burst into uncontrollable laughter as Will stared at his arm in awe, then paused to look at her.

"I'm glad you're making light of my horrible deformity," Will said, though even he looked a little impressed with the whole ordeal. He looked at his arm again, willing it to unroll and roll up at will, which only made Emory laugh harder.

"What are you gonna do with your newfound power?" Emory said, starting to regain her composure, "Improve your parkour skills with just your arm?"

"I don't know, I'm open to suggestions if want to do something helpful for once!"

"I'm your younger sister, that's not in my job description. What are you even gonna call yourself? The Rolly-Polly? But like... angsty?" Emory asked, poking at the segments and watching them move.

"Hey," Will said, batting her away with his non-insect hand, "Hands off."

"At least I have two," Emory said, continuing to mess with the segments with her other hand before they turned and rolled up holding her arm.

"Hey, that's actually pretty useful. I gotta test this out." Will said, satisfied. He started to walk out the door before Emory cleared her throat.

"My arm, please," She said, as the segments unshuttered, releasing her arm.

Will walked out, leaving Emory to process what on earth just happened on her own. She wandered over to the window and pushed it open to get some fresh air. She stayed there by the windowsill just long enough to look at the alley across the street, where a young woman walked out and towards a guy who eyed her bag suspiciously. Emory looked around, seeing that Will was on the street just below her. The guy grabbed the woman's bag, just as Emory shouted at Will, "Across the street! Do something!"

Immediately, Will sprung into action, at least, as best the could. He ran in front of the man and leaped for the bad, extending his weird bug arm and- totally missing it. He landed hard on the ground, but the man stopped running. He looked down at Will, then his eyes slowly drifted to his arm.

"What- what are you?" The man said, fear strong in his voice. Will saw the opportunity there and took it. He rolled up the bag's handle while he was distracted and stood up to return it to the woman.

"Thank you, you are incredible!" The woman said, hugging her bag to her chest. The guy who stole it was still standing there, stunned, and now a small crowd started to form around Will. Phones flashed with pictures, people asked him questions, and within the next ten minutes, yes, he was there for ten minutes, a reporter had shown up to ask him questions.

Emory turned away from the window, "Well then, I guess I live with a superhero now. If that's what you can even call that."