It was in the late morning that Gwen decided to grace the world with her sunny presence. Having a good nights sleep had always helped her and nowhere was it better than at home. It had long stopped being odd to wake up in her own apartment. On paper Jessica Drew was the owner, which meant no rent for dear Gwendolyne! In fact, save for groceries, Gwen didn't have to pay for anything. She didn't know how Jessica arranged that, coming from another reality and all, but Gwen owed her big time for this.
Gwen didn't hurry as she got out of bed. Unlike Peter in the other reality, Gwen had massive trouble holding down a steady job and was once more unemployed. But she was hardly alone in that regard, because New York in general seemed a more dangerous place in her reality than in Peter's. Crime had a tighter grip and the Police had resorted to a tougher approach in return. It was, luckily, just a local phenomenon and she wouldn't call her reality any worse than his.
Dressed in nothing more than panties and a loose shirt, she got herself a bowl of cereal ready and on her way to the kitchen she checked on the symbiote. Its costume like body wasn't doing much beyond twitching every now and then. She wasn't short on money yet, so Gwen decided to order another three of her own Spider-Woman costumes, she had no spare anymore. As always, it was incredibly convoluted and required multiple physical and digital safeguards. That way, however, she got a very decent costume and her anonymity was secure.
Next on her agenda was looking for a job. Later she'd go out in person, too, but the internet was always a good starting point. While she was idly browsing the job ads Gwen also opened a tab to get the latest news. To the surprise of nobody, 'Spider-Woman' has managed to be a large headline once more.
"What have they now to complain about? I was barely even in this universe yesterday..." Gwen muttered with a tired expression.
Once she clicked on the headline, she was treated to a picture of her in a tattered costume with a black sports bag slung around her shoulders. She didn't even manage to read through the first half before planting her forehead onto the desk. Of course, someone had managed to get shot of her holding something, so she must have robbed someone of their valuables. The article also speculated that if that was how Spider-Woman appeared, all in rags, then how hurt must her victim be?
"Come on! That's insane! I'm back for only a few hours and already I'm accused of another crime!" Gwen shouted at her screen.
The irony that the article was basically correct in its assumptions was not lost on Gwen. She had beaten someone up and then robbed A.I.M.
After reading the comments to the article, which were typically scathing and hateful, Gwen had lost all motivation to look for a job. Another day (or seven) without a job wouldn't kill her. Instead she got up and wandered over to the symbiote. Taking the main part back to her bedroom she held it up in front of her like a dress. Wherever it brushed her skin Gwen could feel shivers spreading throughout her body, much like the head/mask had done on the day before.
Gwen pulled herself together and looked it over. The main body seemed to be made for an adult woman slightly taller than Gwen. Not to mention more curvaceous. Though it didn't really phase her. She had quite the admirable body, as she had been told many times. It was likely just the most prominent host or something.
What was going through her mind, was the question whether the symbiote would shift to fit her or make her body fit it. The mask had been somewhat in between, but it had seemed to change her face more than it changed the mask itself. After reading the A.I.M. reports, Gwen was quite sure that getting trapped inside a largely docile symbiote was the biggest problem she could face. Not that she was eager to let that happen. It would take weeks to get out and who knows what side effects A.I.M. didn't think were noteworthy enough to include in their files.
For a second there was this voice in her head, sounding suspiciously like her father, telling her to stop fooling around and look for a job. Like most in their late teens, Gwen was an old hand at ignoring that voice. She really wasn't in the mood, especially with something so interesting to figure out.
Gwen spread the symbiote across her bed and got the head part. If she couldn't create an opening on her own, it was best to get rid of the temptation before she did something really stupid. She placed the neck of the symbiote's head against the torso and saw how the two parts melted together, creating one seamless living symbiote costume.
Biting her lower lip, Gwen crawled closer to it and decided to try to separate one arm from the rest. She got a strong grip on that heavenly skin just bellow the shoulder preparing to pull while her other arm held the rest steady.
First she just tugged at it, using more strength than even an Olympic weightlifter could muster, but that wasn't even close to strenuous for her. Nothing. She tried again, steadily but cautiously increasing the force she used. Slowly she could see the gooey strands separate. They tried to reconnect but were every bit as sluggish as the rest of the symbiote. Gwen kept up and finally had the entire right arm of the creature in her hand.
Superhuman strength was right. Gwen could have tried harder, but what she used was already more than she needed to lift a light truck. Reading about it was one thing, but actually trying it? No wonder A.I.M. was unhappy! They might as well stick to piloted mechanized combat-suits before trying to use the cloned symbiotes. So close and yet so far from success! The smart blonde couldn't even imagine how much money they burned on this.
Well their loss was Gwen's gain. She could open it on her own. No reason to not try it out a bit more, right?