Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey Peter, are you ready yet? Your Uncle Ben is going to be late if you don’t hurry up.” Aunt May called from downstairs.

“Coming Aunt May!” I eagerly responded from my room. Today was my first day of senior year and I couldn’t have been more excited. I couldn’t care less about returning to Midtown, my excitement was for my first day as an assistant with Dr. Curtis Connors at ESU. I had worked hard all junior year to be given a shot to work as a high school intern and it had paid off. Putting on my glasses I caught a look at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a white collared shirt with a grey sweater over it and some navy-blue dress pants. It was a bit much for high school, but I needed to make a good first impression with Dr. Connors. 

“Looking sharp there Peter '', Uncle Ben said as I came down the stairs. He was standing by the door with his work boots laced up and a coffee already in hand. “There’s a bagel with some cream cheese in the truck for you already but we gotta get going otherwise we both are going to be late.”

“Sure thing Uncle Ben,” I replied with a grin, “I just need to grab my shoes and I will be ready to go”. I laced up a pair of brown shoes and headed to the door. Before leaving I called out “Aunt May, remember I’m starting at the ESU lab tonight, so I won’t be home until 7 or 8”.

“Ok sweety,” she called back from the kitchen, “have fun on your first day of school, and make sure to say hi to your friend Eugene for me”.

And there went my happy mood. Eugene “Flash” Thompson was the bane of my existence. Once upon a time we were best friends; we grew up together and spent all our time together until high school. Once we hit high school, Flash grew, put on muscle, and became the star of the football team, and I became “Puny Parker”. The only time I have spent with Flash in the last 3 years has involved him torturing me for existing; him and his friends even have a point system for the type of punishment they can inflict onto me. Last year's biggest points getter involved them figuring out which seat I was going to be in for our last final and loosening the screws causing the chair to collapse when I sat down. 

“Alright Aunt May, I’ll make sure to say hi for you.” I lied as I walked out the front door.

Uncle Ben looked over at me as I got into the truck. I was finding it difficult to hide my sudden mood change, and he could tell something was not right.

“So, Peter, only one more year of high school. You must be excited for your senior year?” Uncle Ben asked.

“Yea I guess you could say that.” I responded half-heartedly. Truthfully, I was excited for my last year of high school. But that had more to do with finally getting out of Midtown and away from Flash. Once I got to ESU, I would be surrounded by people who cared more about my intelligence, and less about how scrawny I was. 

Uncle Ben sighed as we pulled out of the driveway, “I don’t know if I ever told you this Peter, but I was picked on a lot in high school.”

“You were?” I was surprised, I never thought of Uncle Ben as someone who would be picked on. He was always so sturdy and solid both mentally and physically; it didn't seem possible that someone would see him as a target.

“Sure, I did. You know that I was never the smartest kid in the classroom; all the brains in the family went to your father. I struggled so much during high school that I failed my senior year twice, and eventually your dad and I were in the same year of school. I became a pretty easy target for the other kids in school and they made my life pretty hard.

“I didn’t know you failed high school. Why didn’t you drop out when you failed twice? Especially if kids were making your life hard?” I replied.

“I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. College was never in the plan for me like it was your father. As soon as I finally graduated, I joined up with the military and spent a few years there. I could have just decided not to bother going through my senior year a third time, I was already eligible to join the service. But I needed to prove to myself and everyone else that no matter what they said, no matter how many times they beat me up, I would always get back up and keep moving onward. 

I sat in silence for a minute, absorbing what Uncle Ben had said. I never knew that he failed high school, let alone failed it twice. I knew that book smarts were never his strength; he struggled to help me out with my homework starting about halfway through middle school. But he was always so intelligent in other ways that I never considered that he could fail. We had gotten to the drop off area in front of Midtown High. Students were reuniting with each other in front of the school after a long summer.

“Peter,” Uncle Ben said as he handed me my bagel, “the point of what I’m saying is that you have had a rough go in high school, and it isn’t going to get easier this year. You are the smartest kid in that school Peter, maybe the smartest in Queens, and unfortunately, that puts a target on your back. But the strength of a person doesn’t lie in their ability to take punishment, it lies in their ability to get back up and keep moving forward. You have already been hit with much more trauma than any kid deserves, and you’ve never let that stop you from pursuing your dreams. I want to make sure that no matter what happens this year, that you are going to be able to get back up and keep on moving. Can you do that for me, Peter?"

“I think I can do that Uncle Ben.” I replied as the first bell rang out alerting everyone to head inside. 

“Good. Make sure you enjoy your first day in the lab, I love you kiddo”.

“I love you too, Uncle Ben.” I said, closing the door of the truck behind me. I hustled to catch up to the crowd of people fighting to get through the main entrance.

Chapter Text

I followed the crowd into the school and was met with an immediate blast of stale air. Midtown was one of the oldest high schools in New York, and it looked and smelled like it. Water damage covered the ceilings, lights buzzed and flickered in some classrooms, and the ventilation system made it seem like you were constantly breathing dirt. 

            “Hey Pete,” I turned around to see Charles Weiderman standing behind me with a big smile, and a bright glint in his blue eyes. He was wearing white collared shirt and tan slacks, his thin blonde was cut into a buzz cut. I was surprised to see him looking so chipper after what had happened at the end of last year. 

“Oh, hey Charlie, how are you feeling?” I asked.

“What do you mean, ‘how am I feeling?’, don’t I look like I’m doing great?,” Charlie asked me with a big laugh.

“Well after what happened at the end of last semester, we were all pretty worried about you.” 

“I’m sure you were more worried about having to go back to being Flash’s number one target again.” Charlie said his tone suddenly shifting from playful to serious.

I froze, Charlie wasn’t entirely wrong. He came into Midtown at the start of last winter semester, and he had a pretty rough go of it. Charlie identified me as a possible friend pretty early on, we had most of the same classes and we were both the scrawny, nerdy types. But him being the new guy around school put him at a major disadvantage, and he quickly became Flash’s new target. As soon as Charlie took over my spot in Flash’s bullying rotation, I decided that I should keep to myself and avoid Charlie and everyone else as much as I could. There were days when he showed up to school with a black eye telling everyone that he encountered some wild animal on the way home from school and had to fight it off, over the course of the semester he claimed he fought a coyote, a mountain lion, and a grizzly bear. Some people thought Flash had given him the black eye, but I knew better. Flash didn’t give any visible damage; he did his best to keep everything to hidden areas of the body so he could avoid any punishment that would keep him off the field. Those were the hardest days when I knew deep down I wasn’t doing the right thing and that I should go and talk to him and try to be a friend to him. But instead I kept my head down and avoided as much socialization at Midtown that I possibly could; and Charlie did his best to stay out of Flash’s way but the bullying only got worse as the semester progressed. It all came to a head with about a week to go in the semester when in a chemistry lab, Charlie collapsed at his lab bench and was rushed to the hospital. Pictures of his notebook that was left open at his bench made their way around school and it seemed as though Charlie tried to create his own super-soldier serum to get revenge on Flash and possibly his dad. I felt ashamed after I heard what happened, but not because I knew that I could have prevented him from potentially killing himself; I felt ashamed because my first feeling was fear that I was going to become the target again.

“No that wasn’t even a thought at all,” I lied, “you were in the hospital man, everyone was super worried about you”. 

Charlie looked at me deeply for a second, and then let out a big laugh. “I’m just playing around Peter,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “I appreciate your concern though, but as you can see, I am doing just fine”. He said as he gestured across his lanky frame. “What class do you got first?” He asked.

“I got physics with Mr. Warren,” I replied.

“Sweet, me too, I’ll walk with you.” He said, taking the lead down the hallway towards our first class of the day.

The morning went by pretty quick. Charlie and I had our first class together, but after comparing our schedules, we found we didn’t have anything else together. I had chemistry next, which was pretty uneventful, and then soon enough it was lunch. Lunch had loomed over me all morning, it was going to be the first time all day that I would likely run into Flash. Midtown had an archaic policy that all students had the same lunch break and every student had to eat in the cafeteria. My strategy was to get into the cafeteria as late as I could, which would likely make it less likely for Flash to get up from his table to come and find me. Luckily, my chemistry class was essentially on the other side of campus which allowed me to get into the cafeteria almost last; just in time to see Flash sticking his foot out as Charlie walked by causing him to fall flat on his face and slam his food into his shirt.

“Watch your step there Weinerman,” Flash said stifling his laughter.

Before I knew it Charlie was on his feet and had gotten right up into Flash’s face. His glasses were still on the floor smashed, and one of the lenses had cut him right above his eye lid, blood was starting to seep down his face.

“You better leave me alone Flash, or else,” Charlie said threateningly. Normally I would have stayed away and let the teachers handle this, but there was a look in Charlie’s eyes that I didn’t like. He looked determined, fearless, and like he was hiding something. Blood had begun to drop down his neck and saturate the collar of his buttoned up shirt. I slowly began to make my way towards Charlie and Flash. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do but I knew I had to find a way to get Charlie away from Flash before he got himself hurt.

“Or else what Weinerman,” Flash said as he said standing up, he towered over Charlie, “you’re gonna go all super soldier on me?”

That was when I noticed Charlie reach into his pocket and begin to pull something out. I wasn’t sure what it was, but then I saw a glint of light reflect off of the item in Charlie’s hand and I decided I needed to act. I had already gotten myself close to Charlie and Flash, I was only a few steps away so I quickened my pace and dropped my shoulder into Charlie. Charlie lost his balance just enough for him to bobble what was in his hand and it fell to the floor and landed with a metallic pang. Charlie quickly recovered his balance and turned around quickly to see who had knocked him over, surprise ran across his face as he looked into my eyes.

“What the hell Peter?” He asked me with anger flashing in his eyes. His face was dripping with blood, I wasn’t sure if he realized how bad the cut above his forehead had gotten,

“Sorry Charlie, I guess I mis-stepped. Jeez man your face is covered in blood.” I replied. I looked around Charlie and over to Flash and saw him looking down at the object on the floor, I followed his eyes and saw a black handled pocketknife with the blade showing. Just then a loud voice boomed across the cafeteria.

“What is going on here!” The lunchroom supervisor yelled out as he began making his way across the room. I looked back to Charlie and saw the anger in his eyes quickly replaced by fear; the supervisor’s shoes were only getting louder, he had to have been only a few steps away, there was no time to pick up the knife. I quickly turned around to face the supervisor, I saw his eyes dart between myself, Flash, and finally rested on Charlie.

“Oh my gosh son, you’re bleeding like crazy. What happened to you?” He said as he stepped around me and approached Charlie who was standing between myself and Flash.

“He tripped,” Flash quickly replied in an attempt to free himself from any blame, “I tried to help him up and he went all psycho on me.” Flash’s words tumbled out of his mouth too fast, and the supervisor looked at him skeptically. It was then that Flash’s eyes quickly darted to the floor to rest on the knife, I could only see the back of the supervisor’s head, but I saw it slightly tilt down to follow Flash’s gaze. Time seemed to freeze as I looked over into Charlie’s eyes, the bright glimmer from this morning was gone, the anger from only seconds ago had passed, all I could see was fear.

“Alright boys, right now someone needs to tell me who this belongs to.” The supervisor said in a slow calm voice as he stepped aside to be able to look at all three of us. I had expected yelling, but something about the slow way he was speaking was even scarier.

“Its mine,” I said, Charlie and Flash both looked at me with shock in their eyes, “Well its not mine, its my uncles. His birthday is coming up and I wanted to surprise him by getting it sharpened. I had planned on taking it to a shop after school.” The words just tumbled out of my mouth, I was surprised at how easily the lie came to me. The supervisor stared into my eyes and nodded at me.

“Alright, you are going to sit back down and not make another peep,” he said while gesturing at Flash. He then looked over at Charlie, “You are going to come with me to the nurses office to get that cut looked after.” His eyes finally rested on me, “and you are going to take yourself down the principal’s office right now and tell the principal exactly what happened here. I will be there right after I drop off this young man. If the story does not line up exactly, and I mean exactly, with what you have just told me and I have just witnessed, you are going to be in a whole lot more trouble than you currently are, do you hear me?”

“Yes,” I replied in a low voice.

“Good, well you better get a move on then.” The supervisor said as he began to walk with Charlie out of the cafeteria. Flash quickly sat back down, and I stood frozen in shock before taking my first steps towards the principal’s office. I had never been sent to the office before, aside from the times that I needed to be picked up from school because I was sick. I couldn’t believe I had taken the blame for Charlie, especially for something as serious as bringing a knife into the school. I could be suspended, I could get something on my permanent record, I could get kicked out of Dr. Connor’s lab, and I would have to face up to Uncle Ben about why I had a knife and why I lied about it being his. The world seemed to crash around me as I found myself stepping into the principal’s office.

“Peter,” Principal York said with a frown, “I just got off the phone with Mr. Jones the lunchroom supervisor. He called me from the nurses’ office and told me to expect you. Why don’t you step into my office, and we can talk things over.”

I slowly took a few steps forward and followed Mr. York into his office.

Chapter Text

Time had gone by very quickly I realized as I sat down in the waiting area in the front office. I told Mr. York the version of what had happened that the lunch supervisor believed. Charlie fell, Flash got up to help him, I stumbled into Charlie and dropped the knife onto the floor. I was then ushered out of the office and into the waiting area as Mr. Jones, the supervisor, went into the office to check his story against mine. The principal then came out and told me that he had phoned Uncle Ben and that he was currently on his way down to the school. And now I sat waiting for Uncle Ben and the principal to finish their conversation. After what had felt like hours I finally saw the door open and Uncle Ben stepped out with the principal following closely behind him.

            “Alright Peter,” Mr. York said, “your uncle confirmed that the knife is his. But, I need you to understand that no matter what the intention of your having the knife was, you cannot bring something like that to school. Do you understand me?”

            “Yes, I understand,” I said looking straight into the principal’s eyes.

            “Good,” Mr. York said with a sigh, “you’re a good kid Peter, and this is your first offence of any kind since you’ve been a student at midtown so I’m only giving you a half-day suspension. But if we catch you with a weapon at the school again, you better believe that the punishment will be much much heavier.”

            I looked at Mr. York and tried to hide the shock that I found spreading across my face. Only a half-day suspension. No expulsion, no permanent record, just a half-day suspension. I could hardly believe that I would receive that little punishment.

“Alright Peter, we better go then. There’s a lot we need to talk about.” Uncle Ben quickly said, snapping me out of my trance.

“Oh, yea sure Uncle Ben,” I said realizing that I now had to deal with him. He put his arm on my shoulder and began guiding me out the door. We didn’t speak on the way to his truck, and Uncle Ben didn’t say his first word to me until the engine started and we were pulling out of the parking lot.

“Alright Peter, now you have one chance to tell me the truth about what happened in the cafeteria today. If you lied about that knife being yours there better have been a damn good reason for it. And if you truly brought a knife to the first day to school and on the first day of working in the lab, then we have a whole other problem to deal with”. Uncle Ben turned to look at me, the wrinkles in his face exaggerated the seriousness of his expression. I did what I had always done with Uncle Ben: I told him the truth. I told him about what happened with Charlie last year and how I had avoided being around him and the shame I felt about that, and I told him how without even thinking I took responsibility for the knife being mine because I didn’t want Charlie to face the consequences of a stupid mistake. The truck fell silent for a while after I finished, it was almost suffocating sitting in the quiet unsure what Uncle Ben was thinking. I couldn’t tell if he was angry, or disappointed, or thought I was plain stupid for taking the blame for someone else’s mistake. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Uncle Ben pulled the car to the side of the road and turned to face me. The former serious expression on his face had melted away, the warmness in his eyes that I was so used to growing up had returned.

“I’m proud of you Peter. I’m proud of you for being honest with me. And I’m proud of you for what you did today with Charlie and the knife, even though it was a stupid thing to do. You saved that poor kid from doing something he would have regretted for the rest of his life, and although I don’t agree with being dishonest, you did the right thing by taking the fall for him.” Uncle Ben paused for a second and then continued. “You’re so much like your parents Peter, you have your father’s intelligence and your mother’s heart. I continue to be impressed with the young man you are growing up to become, and I can’t wait to see what you are going to achieve in your future. I just wish your parents were around to see it too.”

Silence returned to the truck for a second.

“I don’t remember much about my parents, whenever I think about them, I can only imagine you and Aunt May. Both of you sacrificed so much to take me in and raise me…” Before I could finish the sentence Uncle Ben cut me off.

“Peter, since we took you in, never have me or your Aunt May felt burdened by you. You’ve been the best thing that has happened to either of us. We are here by the way,” Uncle Ben said gesturing out the window.

We had pulled over right outside the sciences building of ESU. I was so wrapped up in the moment with Uncle Ben that I hadn’t even noticed where we were heading.

“Dr. Connors isn’t expecting me for another couple of hours, why are we here?” I asked.

“I phoned him on my way to the school to let him know you would be coming by a few hours early today,” Uncle Ben said as he reached across me and opened the door. I stepped out of the car stunned. I had lied about bringing a knife to school and somehow had gotten a reward for that.

“But how’d you know that I didn’t actually bring a knife to school, or that I had pulled it on Flash and just lied about it?” I asked.

“Because I know the young man that your aunt and I raised,” he said with a proud smile, “now you better get going Peter, enjoy your day. I’ll see you tonight”. I closed the door to the truck and Uncle Ben pulled away from the drop-off area. I stood in silence on the sidewalk watching the old Ford pickup make its way down the street and turn out of sight. I truly had the best Uncle, the best father that I could ask for.

I turned around and faced the sciences building. The grand entrance to the building loomed ahead of me. Most of the school, including the sciences building were constructed in 1773 and took on some similar architecture to Harvard and MIT, containing large stone pillars and brick foundations. Being an Ivy school, it had graduated many students who went on to become successes; the most notable of which was Norman Osborn, founder and CEO of Oscorp. Oscorp had become one of the largest technological companies in the United States, let alone the world. They are mostly known for their consumer technology, but they also have  military contracts and divisions in biotechnology, and it all started with one ESU student. If Norman was able to create something that massive, maybe I’d be able to as well.

I took a deep breath and began making my way up the stairs and through the front entrance. Natural light poured through a large glass sunroof illuminating the white stone archways around the perimeter of the main foyer. Students were sitting at desks and study spaces located around the room and a buzz of overlapping conversation enveloped the space. I had only seen the campus during the summer when I had come in for my interview with Dr. Connors, it had been quiet with only a couple of students around that were taking summer classes; now the campus was packed. I made my way to the stairwell that would take me downstairs to Dr. Connor’s lab. I had made special note to remember how to find his lab because I had gotten lost trying to find it for my interview and ended up 10 minutes late, which was out of character for me; I was almost never late. I exited the stairwell and took a series of right and left turns that eventually led me directly to Dr. Connors’s office. I looked inside the lab and saw him sitting at a lab bench with a coffee in one hand, and his phone in the other. His straw blond hair was styled in a comb over to cover up his fading hairline, black square glasses framed ocean blue eyes which were staring focused onto his phone. I lightly knocked on the door, causing him to look up.

“Peter! Welcome, welcome. Please come in, I’m so glad you were able to come in earlier than planned today.” Dr. Connors said with a smile. His face was bright, there was hardly a sign of his age and he appeared to be almost 5 years younger than he was. “We will be able to work you through all of your orientation today which will allow us to attend a colleague’s demonstration on Friday. Tuesdays and Fridays after school are still alright for you right?”

“Hi Dr. Connors. Yes, those days are still great for me. What type of demonstration are we going to see?” I asked as I looked around for a place to put my backpack. The lab and joining office was lit with fluorescent light bars, multiple of which were burnt out creating patches of darkness across the lab space. The lab itself consisted of two large lab benches in the centre of the room with assorted lab materials on the tops of the bench, a chemical supply closet, and a large collection of lizard enclosures on the opposing wall. Dr. Connors was a world leader in the fields of genetics and herpetology which explained the large number of lizards that were located in the lab.

“Oh you can put your backpack in my office,” he said noticing me trying to find a suitable spot for my bag, “just hang it up on the hooks on the door. And also, please call me Curt.” I quickly went into Dr. Connors’s office and hung my bag up on the door.

“Well then, we better get started on your orientation.” Curt said as I stepped back out of the office and into the lab.

Chapter Text

The bus jostled me back awake as it drove through a large puddle causing water to spray up along the side of the bus. It had started raining pretty heavily I double checked the time on my watch, 8:30. Orientation had taken almost 6 hours to get through, I got to the lab at around 2:00 and didn’t end up leaving until around 7:45. The first half of orientation was the worst part, most of it being spent getting setup in the ESU systems and watching some of the standard lab safety videos that contained most things I already knew. The second half however, felt like it went by almost instantly. I learned that the specifics of Curt’s research at ESU was centered around the combination of human and lizard genetics with the end goal of giving humans the ability to regrow lost limbs. My role at the lab was analyzing mammalian cells that Curt had spliced lizard DNA into to find abnormalities and defects; with my added help Curt will be able to hopefully begin mammalian trials in a year or so.

            The bus brakes squealed in protest as the bus slowed down for the next stop. I looked at the sign for the stop to see how much of the journey I had slept through. My stop wasn’t for another 15 minutes and then the walk home was about 5 minutes from there. I was practically the only person on the bus aside from two people who were passed out in the back row, so I was curious to see what kind of person was getting onto this route. The bus doors opened, and I saw some wet blonde hair crest the top of the stairs, followed by ice blue eyes, a button nose, and perfect lips. My heart leaped as I registered that Liz Allen had gotten onto the bus; her eyes searched around until they met mine. My heart managed to jump even further up my throat as she flashed me a quick smile and began walking towards me. Liz had been my crush for as long as I could remember; much like Flash and me, Liz and I had been friends up until around middle school when she decided that I was hurting her reputation around school. But unlike Flash, Liz always stayed nice to me, she just made sure to do it in places where no one would see her slumming it with Puny Parker.  

            “Hi Peter, this seat taken?” She chirped as she gestured to the seat next to mine.

“Um, no, I mean yes, no wait I mean no, no it isn’t.” I awkwardly sputtered. The rain had caused her blonde hair to tape itself to her forehead, and splatters of rain were overing her light blue jeans.

“I’ll take that as a yes for me to sit down next to you.” She said with a chuckle as she sat herself down next to me. “So, I heard about your little escapade in the lunchroom today, I unfortunately missed it, but I would have killed to see you whip out a knife in front of Flash. Pretty stupid move though if you ask me, you could have been expelled.”

“Yea it was pretty stupid.” I half-heartedly responded. I wasn’t sure if I should tell her that the knife wasn’t actually mine. On one hand she might think I’m finally standing up to myself, albeit in a really stupid way, and on the other she might hate that I pulled a knife on her boyfriend.

“I’m actually surprised to see you out and about; I would have thought your Aunt would have grounded you when she heard that her frail little Peter had brought a knife to school.” She said looking into my eyes, her expression was quizzical even though she wasn’t grilling me about anything, I quickly looked down to avoid her gaze. I also hadn’t even thought about Aunt May. Did Uncle Ben tell her the whole story? Would she agree with Ben about how I handled the incident?

“Oh, and the rumours around school,” she continued, “everyone was talking about you all day. Someone said that you told them you planned on stabbing Flash and then taking the principal hostage afterwards”. Rumours, I hadn’t even thought about what people might be saying around school. I didn’t really have much of a reputation right now to destroy anyway, in fact the rumours going around might even help my reputation. But it still wasn’t good that people were just making random stuff up about me.

“Listen Liz, the knife wasn’t actually mine. It was Charlie’s.” I said with a sigh.

“Oh, I know,” she responded with a chuckle, “everyone knows. I was just joking about that rumour stuff, basically everyone knows that the knife wasn’t actually yours. Charlie was very fast to tell people that the knife wasn’t yours. He was almost doing it in a bragging sort of way, there was no remorse from him or thanks to you either. In the span of about 3 hours, he managed to tell practically everyone aside from the teaching staff that he brought the knife.”

I sat in disbelief; Charlie just undid what I had done for him. I had expected Flash to let leak that the knife wasn’t mine, considering he was the one that Charlie had pulled the knife on. But I hadn’t expected that Charlie himself would let that get out, especially to brag about it. Why’d I help him out in the first place? I could have just sat back in the cafeteria and let himself get expelled for pulling a knife and threatening another student; instead, I put myself on the line and although I got off easy, in another situation I might not have.

Liz sensing my anger starting to rise gave me a shot in the arm that broke me out of my spiral. “Pete, you did the right thing you know. After what happened at the end of last year, Charlie deserved a break, and you gave him one. It was up to him to choose what to do with it, and unfortunately, he did the wrong thing People would have found out eventually that the knife wasn’t yours, and this would have caught up to Charlie eventually anyway. You bought him some time, and he disposed of it. But that’s on him, not you, ok?”

“I guess so, it just feels pointless I guess.” Silence fell over Liz as she looked down between her legs. The bus started to slow down for the upcoming stop.

“This is where I’m getting off Pete,” she gently nudged my chin upwards and looked me in the eyes, “only the best people do good things without the need for recognition.” Before standing up she kissed me on the cheek, I thought for a moment that my heart was going to erupt from my chest. I watched her get off the bus and step outside back into the dark night and soft rain. I wondered if she was going to see Flash, he lived only about a block or two from this stop.

The bus let out a groan as it set back into motion, luckily my stop was coming up next, then only about a 5 minute walk and I could go home and crash. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts wander for a few minutes until I heard the brakes start to screech as the bus slowed down. I stood up and made my way to the front of the bus. As the doors opened in front of me, I noticed that the rain had stopped; the autumn air seemed to stand still as I set off on my way back home.

I kicked my shoes off as I came inside, the main floor of the house was mostly dark aside from the flickering of the TV in the family room where Aunt May and Uncle Ben were watching TV together, and the light in the kitchen. Our house was open concept with the kitchen, eating area, and family room all within the same space as soon as you walked through the front door. Stairs for the basement and the upper floor of the house were to the left and right of the stairs respectively. Aunt May poked her head around the couch and paused the TV.

“So, how was your first day at the lab? Also, you don’t need to tell me about what happened at school, Ben told me all about and I’m sure you don’t want to have to think about it” She said with a smile, her face was framed by grey and brown hair. She was transitioning her hair from brown to grey as she had been dying it for a few years now. Her brown eyes reflected the light of the TV as I stepped behind the couch.

“It was really good, long though; I spent half of it just getting set up with the ESU system. Once I was done that we got to the good stuff, and he walked me through what we were going to be doing; I won’t bore you with the details though And on Friday he’s taking me to watch a colleague’s demonstration.”

“Thank you, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway,” she replied with a laugh, “sounds like you had a nice time. I won’t bug you anymore though, you’ve had a long day and I’m sure you just want some quiet time. We had a beef stir fry for dinner, there are some leftovers in the fridge for you.”

“Sweet, thanks. And I actually would like to spend some time with my favourite aunt and uncle, as long as I’m not crashing your party.” I said as I made my way to the fridge.

“You wouldn’t be crashing anything Peter.” May responded with a smile and turned her head back to the TV. I heated up the meal and sat down at the table to get a good view of the TV. They were watching a Mets game; Uncle Ben had been a Mets fan his entire life, he liked to joke that his only two happy memories in life were watching the Mets win in 69’ and 86’. He had been taking me to a Mets game once a year since my parents passed, it was one of the first memories I had with Uncle Ben. Although I didn’t really care too much about baseball, I always tried to care for Uncle Ben’s sake, he was always so happy watching the game with me and that made me happy.

Once I finished eating, I sat down on the couch with May and Ben and watched the rest of the game. The Mets ended up blowing a 3-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, which was “typical Mets” according to Uncle Ben. Throughout the end of the game, aunt may and me would sneak glances at each other and try to avoid laughing as Uncle Ben kept on getting himself more and more worked up.

“Alright well hopefully our game next weekend will be a whole lot better than that terrible performance.” Uncle Ben said as he turned off the TV.
            “Who are they playing again?” I asked, standing up and heading for the stairs.

“The Phillies, good divisional game. Must win for the Mets, it’s coming right down the line for them to make the playoffs.”

“Well then it should be a fun time. I’m going to head to bed now. Goodnight, love you both.” I said as I started up the stairs. The upstairs of the house consisted of two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. One bathroom which was just across the hall from my room and the other bathroom was an on-suite for May and Ben. I opened the door to my room and hung my bag up on my door. Everything was exactly how I had left it that morning, my bed was made, and my desk was perfectly organized. I plopped down onto my bed and loaded up YouTube with the intention of watching a few videos before falling asleep, but before I knew it I was passed out still in my clothes.

Chapter Text

I stepped off the bus that had dropped me off in front of the sciences building at ESU. Friday came around crazy fast. School honestly had become a bit of a blur around me as I was essentially just biding time until I could get myself back into the lab. My little incident with Charlie seemed to have given me a break from Flash’s torment, he hadn’t bothered me all week despite us crossing paths almost daily. Charlie wasn’t seen around school for the rest of the week. A lot of rumours went around about what happened to him, but none of them really held any water. What I guessed happened was his parents heard about the knife incident and figured out that Charlie himself had brought the knife, and they pulled him out of Midtown; but I’d never really know. I opened the door to the building and made my way to the entrance to the basement.

            The basement was incredibly crowded, the last two times I had been here it was extremely quiet, but now bodies swarmed the hallways. I fought through the crowds and eventually made my way into Dr. Connor’s lab. I peered inside the door to find the lab in an absolute wreck, his lizards were nowhere to be found, and materials were all haphazardly thrown in a corner of the room.

“Hey Curt,” I said as I lightly tapped on the door, “what’s going on around here. The hallways were jam packed, and where are your lizards?”

“Oh Peter,” he said with wild eyes, “Forgive me I had forgotten you were going to come in today. There has been a mishap around here and everyone is in a panic. One of the spiders that was the main focus of todays demonstration somehow managed to get out of its enclosure. I was asked to remove my lizards from the area until the spider was found so that they wouldn’t eat it.” He sounded exhausted and exasperated.

“I can’t imagine all of the people running around will help find the spider, someone would have stepped on it.”

“Yes, I know, everyone is just very worked up. If the university finds out that this has happened, let alone that the spider exists, we are all losing our funding. I shouldn’t have even offered to take you to the demonstration in the first place.” He said with a sigh. I still was struggling to understand the significance of what was likely just a house spider, what made it so special. I felt a small itch on my upper right wrist, like something was crawling on me; I made a quick move to scratch at it but found nothing there.

“What makes this spider so special? Why does the university not even know about it?” I saw fear flash across his eyes as he registered my question. I continued to feel like something was moving up my right arm.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he put his hands up to his eyes and then rubbed them with the palm of his hands, “I guess the cats out of the bag now. I won’t give you specifics, but the spider is a very special experiment that has been ongoing for some time. All of us down here have had some hand in experimenting with it; to what extent others tampered with it, I’m not totally sure. I was asked to work to introduce some DNA from a species of spider that was able to heal at a faster rate, I’m sure other people here have been asked to make similar changes to it. God knows how much its been changed; I never should have gone through with it, I should have reported it when I heard what was happening. But I knew that if this genetic altering was a success with the spider it would mean that my future experiments trying to splice genes across species would be more likely to work.” He took a deep breath; his face was concerned and scared. “Peter, you must promise me that you won’t tell anyone. We all could lose so much if the university found out, please don’t tell anyone.” His eyes pleaded with me.

“I promise, I promise I won’t tell anyone”. The words rushed out of my mouth before I could even think about what my answer should have been. Relief flashed across Curt’s face as he let out a sigh. The crawling sensation continued up across my neck.

“Thank you, Peter, I appreciate that. Us men of science must be willing to take risks in the face of possible breakthroughs. Today you have taken your first risk as a scientist. But you should probably be going. As I’m sure you can guess; the experiment won’t be happening today. And,” he gestured across the messy lab, “there’s not much you’d be able to do anyway.” He stood up and began walking me out the door to the lab. “I’ll send you a message about your scheduled time on Tuesday,  but I’m sure everything will be fine by then.”

“Are you sure you don’t need my help with anything?” I asked as Dr. Connors’s had walked me out the door to his lab.

“No, no there’s nothing you could do really. Unless the spider is on you.” He said with a slight chuckle, he quickly turned around and headed back into the lab.

I turned around and started heading for the exit. The hallways were still extremely crowded, I was pushing my way through two large men in lab coats when the crawling sensation returned on my neck. I quickly moved to try and swat at the feeling but before my hand made contact with my neck, I felt an excruciating pain radiating from the same spot where the crawling sensation a moment ago. My hand came down on my neck and something crunched beneath my palm, I quickly closed my fist around it without thinking.

“Ow”. I let out a small moan in pain, both men in lab coats looked down at me inquisitively.

“Stubbed my toe,” I said with a shrug and quickly walked past them and into the fray of people hurriedly moving around.

Stubbed my toe, what an idiotic thing to say, there’s nothing even here to stub my toe on. Whatever I had just killed was starting to feel wet in my palm, and my neck was starting to radiate warmth. I needed to get out of here fast so I can see what that was. I had never felt pain like that before from what I assumed to be some type of bug bite.

I quickly came to the stairwell and rushed outside of the building, I moved quickly to a bench just to the right of the doors. Throbbing pain began to ebb and flow out of the spot on my neck, along with the continued feeling of warmth.

I uncurled my hand to see a spider just about half an inch in size, dead in my hand. Despite its relatively small size, I could make out its fangs that looked like they were almost dripping.

I have never seen a house spider with fangs like that, I have never even noticed fangs on a spider before. There was no way this was the missing spider; it couldn’t have been the missing spider. What if it was the missing spider?

“Fuck me.” I quickly said under my breathe, I had potentially just killed what could have been an illegal genetic experiment. Why was it even on me? How did it get on me? Why did it bite me? The pain in my neck changed from a slow throbbing to a continuous ache.

I got to get this spider out of here; if this really was the spider that everyone was looking for then I needed it to not be associated with me.

I stood up and began making my way to a storm drain I spotted on the side of the street. I put the spider down on the side of the road and stomped on it, before kicking it down into the drain.

Chapter Text

I felt like I was going to puke. The bus back to queens was jam packed, the pain in my neck was sweltering, and a wave of nausea had just washed over me. I could feel the spot on my neck where the spider bit me and it had welled up to what felt like roughly the size of a grape.

Where can I go? I can’t go to the hospital because I’m sure they won’t know what kind of spider just bit me. And if they do know that it was genetically modified then I will become a lab rat. But if I don’t go somewhere then I might die or face permanent effects.

I felt a bead of sweat drip down my neck, my skin felt like an inferno. Was it this hot in here, or was this just me? The bus began to slow down, we had crossed over the Queensboro bridge a while ago, so I at least was in the right borough and probably close enough to my house. I fought through the crowded bus and stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

Ok where I am I? I tried to look at the sign by the stop, but I couldn’t make anything out. My vision was fine a moment ago on the bus, and now I can hardly see anything. Was the bite changing my eyes? Maybe the lenses are just smudged. I took my glasses off and the world came into focus.

I put my glasses back on and everything became blurry again. Maybe I don’t need my glasses anymore. I took them off and stuffed them into my pocket. I looked at the bus stop and saw that I was about 2 stops away from where I normally got off; would be approximately a 20 minute walk to get home.

I winced as a sharp pain split through my head, almost sending me to my knees. I staggered to the bench near the bus stop to catch my balance and try to recover from what felt like an ice pick being jammed through my skull. I sat down on the bench and closed my eyes; the throbbing began to slowly subside. I have to get home and get some rest, maybe this is something I can sleep off; I’ll wake up in the morning and everything will be perfectly fine. I took another deep breath, closed my eyes, and got to my feet. I took a couple of steps and opened my eyes, and everything was upside down; my balance felt fine, but my eyes were telling my brain that I was upside down. I closed my eyes again, taking another deep breath, I opened them once more and everything was the right way up again. You’re losing it Parker; you are absolutely losing it.

I took a few steps and felt the nausea start to return, I needed to get home though, there would be no more stopping. I continued to walk for what felt like 15 minutes, but I honestly had no clue. My head was pounding, my skin was on fire, I could hardly get my head up to look around, so my eyes were glued to my feet just making sure I didn’t trip over anything. The people around me stopped moving so I stopped with them; I took a moment to look around and see where I was. I scanned the area and recognized the bus stop that I normally got off at. Alright, I’m so close just a few more minutes. Without thinking I turned right to cross the street, the way I would usually go home. I was about halfway through the intersection when I felt a vibration in my left temple, it cut through the headache and completely silenced it. Time almost seemed like it slowed down, the intensity of the vibration continued to grow and grow and then I felt the overwhelming urge to leap forward. In the background I heard a horn blaring and felt a rush of wind moving towards me. Acting on instinct I leaped across the rest of the intersection, somehow getting across it in one bound. I landed and tumbled forward onto my knees; my head pounded in my skull.

“Hey! Are you ok?” Someone grabbed me by the arms and pulled me to my feet. “You almost just got ran over in the street.”

“What, what do you mean ran over. What just happened?” I said stunned.

“You crossed the street on a don’t walk sign and a car almost flattened you. You managed to leap out of the way, but the car was practically on top of you when you jumped. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast before.”

The words jumbled around in my head; I could hardly make sense of what was going on. God my head was pounding.

“I gotta go, thank you, sorry.” I sputtered out, as I broke out of the person’s grasp. I started to run, I needed to get home right away. I didn’t have the mental capacity to think about everything that was going on, my body was in overdrive. My head throbbed, the nausea had returned, and it felt like every muscle in my body was on fire.

The edges of my vision were starting to go black as I continued to force myself to run. I just needed to get home, once I was home everything would be okay. I sprinted across an intersection with my eyes glued to my feet; I felt the same vibration in my head as earlier, but this time there was no urge to jump or react. In the back of my mind, I registered a horn blaring as my feet reached sidewalk on the other side of the intersection. I looked up and fought through the black tunnel that was continuously encroaching on my vision and recognized the turn for the street that my house was on.

Time seemed to warp as I found myself standing on my front porch with my house keys in my hand. I didn’t have time to worry about my seeming loss of consciousness right now; I missed the entrance to the lock twice before finally unlocking the door.

“Peter?” Aunt May called out from upstairs. “What are you doing home? I thought you were supposed to be at the lab until at least after 7 tonight?”

I tried to respond to May, but my headache prevented me from being able to come up with a coherent thought or even attempt to speak; and to make matters worse my house key was stuck to my hand. I grabbed onto the key with my left hand and tried to rip the key away, but it wouldn’t budge.

What is happening to me?

“Peter? Are you alright?” May said as she appeared from the stairs. I quickly tucked my hand into my pocket so she couldn’t see the key that felt like it was superglued between my fingers. “You look terrible dear; did you catch a cold?”

I weakly nodded as May came forward and put her hand on my forehead. I saw shock and a little bit of fear strike her eyes. “Peter, you are absolutely burning up. I don’t think I’ve felt a fever that hot in my life. We should get you to a hospital.”

“No, no I’m fine,” I managed to squeak out, “Sleep, I need sleep”.

“Alright fine, but you’re taking a Tylenol to try and lower that fever.” She said as she closed the door behind me and started ushering me upstairs.

Time warped again and I found myself in bed with Aunt May standing over me with a Tylenol and a glass of water. I grabbed the pill and began to eagerly chug down the water; I hadn’t realized how dehydrated I had gotten. May grabbed the cup from me and then everything went black.

Chapter Text

            I wasn’t sure if it was the hunger, or the cold of my sweat-soaked bed sheets that rose me out of sleep but both sensations hammered into me as I slowly regained consciousness. The events of what I assumed to be the previous day trickled back to me, the spider bite and the ensuing fever. Had I almost been hit by a car or was that some form of fever hallucination?

My eyes opened to my dark room, no light came in through the windows, but I could see light coming in from under the door. I sat up, feeling the cold wet bed sheets peel away from my back; my stomached churned as the hunger sensation doubled. My headache was gone, but my muscles felt like they were on fire. I stood up and began to make my way to my closet, grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie before making my way out of my room. 

I winced as I stepped out of my room into the lit hallway; the house was quiet except for the sound of the muffled TV downstairs. The pang of hunger returned; my stomach felt like it was starting to eat itself. I took my first step down the stairs and put all of my weight onto my left leg causing my leg to almost buckle under my own weight; pain shot through my glutes and quads, almost as if I had done a heavy workout earlier in the day. I took a second to catch my balance before taking my next step down the stairs; knowing what to experience with each step made it easier to find my way down the stairs, but by the time I reached the bottom my legs felt like they had been dipped into boiling water.

Uncle Ben turned his head over the couch as I entered the room. “Peter? What are you doing up this late. May said you came home with an awful fever.”

“Fever? Oh right, yea I guess it broke already. Do we have any leftovers in the fridge?” I asked as I began moving towards the kitchen.

“Peter its 3 am. You really shouldn’t eat at this hour, you’ll get heartburn.” Uncle Ben said as he stood up from the couch.

I had already opened the fridge and was scanning around by the time Ben had responded. “Huh, when did we have this meatloaf?” I asked pulling the Tupperware out of the fridge and completely ignoring what Ben was saying.

“Um, 3 days ago,” he said as he moved into the kitchen, “I guess if you're hungry you're hungry. But the meatloaf, really? We both know that isn’t your Aunt May’s best dish.”

I grabbed a fork and sat down to start eating before Ben had even finished his sentence. Normally he was right, Aunt May really did not make a good meatloaf. But right now, even cold, it was the best meal I’d eaten in my entire life. Uncle Ben moved over to me and put his hand over my head, seemingly to check if my fever had broken.

“Well, your fever is gone, which explains why you have an appetite to begin with. But are you okay kiddo?”

“Just hungry.” I replied through a mouthful of ground beef. “You think you could grab me a big glass of milk? I’m super thirsty too.”

“Milk,” Uncle Ben replied as he moved to fulfill my request, “you never drink milk. For as long as I can remember you have hated milk.”

“I dunno, it just is what I’m craving right now.” I replied through another mouthful of meatloaf. I had polished off about half of the leftover meatloaf by the time Ben put the glass of milk in front of me. I took a break from shoving food in my mouth to guzzle down the glass. As soon as the cup hit the table, I got back to work and polished off the rest of the meatloaf. After getting me the milk, Ben sat down next to me and watched me eat in awe.

“Alright well I’m cutting you off now. I’m not letting you eat anything else after you just polished off what was ¾ of a loaf of meatloaf. Terrible meatloaf at that.” Uncle Ben said as he grabbed the Tupperware and fork from in front of me and headed to put them into the dishwasher.

I didn’t protest, I was starting to feel full as the meatloaf and milk combo settled down into my stomach.

“Now we should both get to bed. You still need some rest to kick whatever virus you got.” Ben said as he ushered me back up the stairs.

“Peter,” Aunt May’s voice started to break through my sleep, “Peter, its 2 in the afternoon, are you alright sweety?” My eyes fluttered open as I batted the sleep away from them; I opened them to find myself stuck to the ceiling of my room. Why am I on the ceiling? How am I on the ceiling? WHY AM I ON THE CEILING!? My heart started to thunder in my chest and my breathing became increasingly shallow.

Aunt May knocked on the door, “Peter, I’m coming in.” She sounded frightened and I didn’t blame her, it must have been terrifying to see me come home like I did yesterday. My heart began to pound even faster. She can’t see me up here, she will lose her mind and probably take me to the hospital; I don’t want to become a lab-rat. I gotta get down from here. I was in a crawling position with my hands and feet attached to the roof. I tried to yank my hands away, but they felt like they were super glued to the ceiling. I could hear Aunt May put her hand on the doorknob and the sound of the knob starting to click as it began to rotate. Why can’t I unstick? I put one more full effort pull at my hands to try and get them off the ceiling; the pads of my fingers didn’t release from the ceiling itself, but they broke away from the roof with small pieces of plaster attached to them. Luckly the force of my upper body swinging away from the roof was enough to separate my toes; but like my fingers they pulled away some plaster with them. I had been positioned right above my bed, but the rotation of coming off the roof sent my head down to the footboard. I yanked my blankets over me which sent something flying off them and into the corner of my room, it landed with a soft thud onto the carpet.

“Peter?” Aunt May asked as she came into the room. I shut my eyes shut and curled up into a ball so that my still plaster covered fingers and toes wouldn’t stick out. Please don’t look up, please don’t look up. I felt her hand gentle rub my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up to see a smile break through her worried expression.

“Oh Peter, thank god. I don’t know how you didn’t hear me at the door, I guess you must have really needed your sleep. Sorry for waking you up.”

“Ugghhh, what time is it?” I let out in a low grumble doing my best to pretend like she had just woken me up and that I hadn’t been stuck to the ceiling seconds ago.

“Its 2pm. You’ve practically slept for 24 hours; excluding your little venture into the kitchen last night. Ben told me your fever had broken which was good to hear because you were absolutely burning up when you got home yesterday. What are you doing lying on your bed like this?”

“Ughhhh,” I let out another low grown. I needed her to get out of my room so I could figure out what exactly was happening to me.

“Alright Peter, I’ll let you go back to sleep. I just wanted to make sure that you were still alive in here.” She turned around to make her way back out the door. Don’t look up, please don’t look up. She grabbed the handle to the door but before leaving something seemed to catch her eye. She turned and moved to the corner of my room where whatever had flung off my bed had landed.

“Huh, what is your housekey doing here? You always leave them by the door when you get home.” She said as she bent down and picked up the key. My keys! My house key was stuck to my finger yesterday when I came home. It must have come off when I got into bed yesterday or while I was asleep.

“Weird.” I responded in a low grumble. May walked back to my bed and put the key down on the bedside table before kissing me on the forehead and leaving back out of the room.

I waited a few seconds until I could hear her footsteps travelling downstairs before I tried to untangle myself from the covers. It was harder than usual because I found that the pieces of ceiling had come off, and that my fingers had stuck themselves to the bedsheets. I stood up from the bed and started thrashing around the sheets to try to get them to unstick themselves but found no luck in that. What is happening to me? What if I can’t touch anything again without getting stuck to it? I thrashed my bed sheets around in a burst of frustration hoping that somehow that would remove them from being stuck to me. Alright relax Pete, it’s going to be alright. Just take a deep breath and relax. My breathing began settle out, and my heart rate slowed to a more normal rhythm. A wave of calm very slowly began to push down the panic that had risen up into my chest.

After a few minutes of continued deep breathing I felt my fingers release themselves from the bed sheets. Yes yes yes. Oh thank god I am not going to be stuck to everything I touch forever. I backed away from my bed slowly, careful not to touch anything that I didn’t need to; I didn’t want to have to do deep breathing exercises every time I touched something. I turned away from my bed and towards my closet when my eyes caught my reflection in my mirror. The person standing in the mirror had actual muscle; I was a pretty scrawny and skinny guy. You could usually wrap your pointer finger and thumb around the entire diameter of my bicep. But now there was some actual definition there; I didn’t look big or anything, but now instead of being just scrawny I could pass for athletic. I took a deep breath and attempted to process everything. Alright so yesterday I was bit by a genetically altered spider, and then proceeded to get the worst fever of my life, dodged a car that was moments away from hitting me, woke up in the middle of the night and ate practically a whole loaf of meatloaf, woke up stuck to the ceiling, and gained what looked to be 5 lbs of muscle. The spider seemed to be the common denominator of what caused the rest of the events. If the spider bite somehow gave me some of the traits of a spider, I wonder what other traits I’ll get, or how much spider I could eventually become. I felt my breathing start to pick up again as I thought of myself turning into some gross human-spider hybrid, like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.

I’m gonna be fine, I’m gonna be fine. I need to figure out what all has changed with and then I can find out if any of these new abilities change.

I moved past my mirror and towards my closet, where I went to go and grab a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. Alright let’s not stick to anything here. Sticking is bad, let’s just put on sweatpants like a normal human would. I felt my self-tense up as I grabbed the sweatpants; I tried to unfold them but found that I was once again glued to an object. Okay Pete, deep breaths. Just relax, you are just putting on a pair of sweatpants. You don’t need to stick to sweatpants.

I took a few deep breaths and felt my fingers relax away from the fabric, allowing me to put the sweats on. Alright, maybe it’s like learning a new skill. I don’t need to be doing it all of the time. There are sticky times and there are non-sticky times, although I can’t imagine when I’d need sticky times. I reached for my hoodie next. It’s just a hoodie, you are always able to pick up your hoodie and put it on. It’s just another very normal action. I slid the hoodie easily without my fingers grabbing the fabric at all.

I moved back across the room trying to keep my mindset on what I normally am able to do. I moved across the room and sat down at my desk chair without my fingers or toes grabbing onto anything. I opened up a web browser and considered searching up something about spider traits in humans but decided that this probably wasn’t a common enough occurrence. I closed the browser and opened up a notes app to document what changes had occurred. My fingers seemed to have gotten the hint that because I didn’t normally stick to keyboards in the past, I didn’t need to stick to keyboards now. I need to figure if there are any other random changes I should know about. I can’t do a full test in this room. There’s a construction site a few blocks away that would be ideal but there’s no way I can test my abilities during the day. I’ll wait until tonight to go and do a full test.

Having decided to wait until night to do a full test I headed back towards my bed to try and get some more sleep. A heavy wave of exhaustion had washed over me; my body probably was under a large amount of stress right now trying to deal with what was happening to me. I collapsed onto the bed with my clothes still on and felt sleep overtake me.

Chapter Text

            The autumn air was cool on my skin as I walked through the streets of Queens towards the construction site that was nearby. This was my first time ever sneaking out of the house and it was a pretty harsh reality check of what the last 36 hours had been like. Normally teenagers snuck out on Saturday nights to go to parties, instead I was sneaking out to go figure out how much of a genetic freak I had become.

            Getting out of the house hadn’t been too hard. It actually provided me with a way to test how my stickiness worked when I actually wanted to stick. I had crawled out of the window and onto the side of the house, and then crawled down to ground level. I had discovered that while I was crawling down the house my equilibrium had shifted so that it felt as though I was just crawling on regular flat ground. The sensation was extremely odd, I wouldn’t have even noticed the pull of gravity if my clothes hadn’t kept falling down into my face.

            The construction site was a planned demolition. Originally there was going to be an apartment building there, but whatever company owned the land went under before it could be finished. So, standing in the lot was the skeleton of a small apartment building; rusted steel reinforcements rose out of a concrete foundation and climbed to a height of 16 stories. Aunt May had been petitioning the city for years to purchase the land to actually do something with it. Her prayers were answered, not by the city, but from Wilson Fisk.

            Fisk was one of New York’s largest real estate moguls, rumoured to own up to one-third of all buildings in New York. I didn’t know much about him aside from what I had overheard from conversations between Aunt May and Uncle Ben or seen in passing on the news. From what I knew he grew up in a troubled family; his dad was abusive, and his mom was an alcoholic. No one knew exactly where his wealth came from, but it seemed like no one cared. Aside from his real estate empire, Fisk donated a seemingly endless stream of wealth into multiple charities and supported public schools through supply donations. Without Fisk, Midtown High wouldn’t have computer labs or any science equipment.

            I approached the edge of the construction site where a chain link fence with a large “Fisk Construction” banner stopped me. The fence stood about 8 feet tall and barbed wire coiled around the top of the chain links.  Alright barbed wire poses a problem. But also, a possible way to see if my new muscle is just for show or not. I knew that it was very unlikely that in the span of one night I had gained enough strength to jump over 8 feet in the air. But on the other hand, in the span of one night I had gained the ability to stick to walls, so anything seemed possible.

            I took a step back from the fence. First things first, lets do a test jump. I got into a deep squat and tensed my leg muscles, focussing on my glutes and quads to power myself upwards. I drove my feet down into the hard dirt and sprang up into the air. The ground fell away as my eyeline passed the top of the fence and I continued upwards until my feet were about half of a body length above the top of the fence. It felt like I was never going to come back down again, almost like I could keep on going up and up forever. But then I felt the pull of gravity.

            I hadn’t considered having to actually land the jump, and I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. The ground was beginning to rush up at me as I accelerated closer to the earth. Just brace yourself and try not to land with your knees locked. My legs cushioned the blow as I came back down to the ground, but my weight was too far forward causing me to fall forward onto my hands. I took a second on the ground to let my mind process what I had just done. Holy hell. I just jumped 12 feet in the air. 12 FEET IN THE AIR. I guess the muscle wasn’t just for show. Time to figure out what else I can do.

I dusted my hands off as I got back onto my feet. Now time for the real deal. I took a few steps back away from the fence to give myself a little more room for the jump. On the other side of the fence was a large pile of dirt, so at least if I messed up I wouldn’t hurt myself too bad. I took a deep breath. Ok Peter, you got this. I closed my eyes and took a few steps forward and then pushed off.

Once again, the ground fell away from me as I rose through the air. This time I managed to go even higher, eclipsing the fence by almost double its total height. I passed over it harmlessly but now I had the issue of the dirt pile. At the time it seemed like a good idea to have a large mound of dirt to land in, but now that some large chunks of cement and rock were visible in the pile it became much less appealing. I was only moments away from colliding with a large cinderblock when some type of instinct took over. Without thinking, I rotated backwards and pushed my feet out towards the dirt pile. I felt myself come into contact with the cinderblock, my knees bent under the force of the landing and then I pushed off again; now flying backwards away from the pile, my body did a backflip to allow me to land perfectly upright. Before I knew it, I was standing on flat aground about 10 feet away from the dirt pile.

            What in the hell just happened? How did I do that? I didn’t consciously think to do any of what just happened. It was like some sort of instinct took over; I didn’t even have to think about what I needed to do, my body just did it. After taking a couple of deep breathes I looked around the construction site. About 20 feet in front of me the skeleton building rose out of the building’s foundation, to the left of the building were some steel girders neatly stacked on one another, and just behind them was a large stack of concrete blocks, a bulldozer and an excavator were positioned to the right side of the structure. Well, I guess this will have to do.

            I spent the rest of the night performing a wide array of tests on my strength, speed, and agility. I discovered that I was able to lift most of the objects around the site with little to no effort. I was able to swing a steel girder around like a baseball bat, and clean and jerk both the excavator and the bulldozer. Unfortunately, because everything on the site was pretty easy to lift there wasn’t a way to test the upper limits of my strength. I then went to work testing my balance and agility. I confirmed that my equilibrium was able to shift so that no matter what angle I was at, or what surface I was on, I felt like I was upright and perfectly balanced. My balance and equilibrium had become so good that I was able to walk sideways along the flange of a girder, a width that I estimated to be only about 1 inch, with no trouble or loss of control. I found that I had also gained some newfound acrobatic skills and heightened agility. I treated the building like a jungle gym and found that I was able to quickly move through the maze of beams without any effort; it was almost like I had an extra sense of the world around me, telling me exactly where every obstacle was and guiding my path around them.

            I was sitting on a beam up on the top story of the building when the sun started to peak above the horizon, painting shades of orange and purple across the New York Skyline. Should probably head home, don’t want anyone to see me out here. I gazed off the edge of the building to the drop below me; another thing I had noticed was that heights weren’t an issue for me at all. They weren’t a huge issue before, but when Uncle Ben and Aunt May took me to the top of the Empire State Building for the first time a few years ago I felt uneasy being up that high. And now I was sitting on a steel beam 16 stories high without feeling any fear or discomfort. I stood up, dusted off the bottom of my pants, and leapt down to the beam below me. I landed perfectly balanced, something I had grown accustomed to over the last few hours of practice. I continued down the structure until I was about 1 story off the ground. I was about to take my last jump when a sharp vibration split through my forehead, throwing off my balance and sending me tumbling down to the ground.

            I landed flat on my back with my breath knocked out of me. The vibration continued to hammer at my head; however, it had moved from my forehead to the crown of my head. What was that? That was similar to the feeling I got when I almost got pancaked by that taxi. I managed to catch my breath and was about to get on my feet when I heard the sound of an automated gate opening, and a truck pulling into the construction site. The truck drove around the perimeter of the site, and the locus point for the vibration in my head followed the movement of the truck until it finally stopped. I quickly rolled onto my stomach as the doors to the truck opened. Luckily, I had landed in the pit where the foundation was constructed so I was about 10 feet below ground level, and not fully visible to whoever had just gotten out of the truck.

            “Alright let’s make this quick. The boss wants us in and out of here before the regular crew shows up.” A voice cut through the morning air.

            “I don’t get why he’s so paranoid about a motion detector going off’. It was probably just another bird for the millionth time. And not to mention that this is a legit construction site.” Another voice responded.

Motion detectors. I didn’t even think about motion detectors. What if there are security cameras too? What if they have video of everything I did here? My heart rate began to elevate as I heard footsteps crunching in the dirt. Ok Pete you gotta relax. Let’s get out of here first and then you can panic. I army crawled to the side of the pit where the vibration in my head told me the truck had stopped. It was still fairly dark out and I could use that to my advantage.

            “Maybe this time it isn’t a bird. His paranoia is what keeps him out of trouble. Maybe if the two of us were a little more paranoid we would have his job.”

            “Yea right. Me and you, kingpins of New York,” the second man scoffed, “let’s just do our lap and get out of here.”

            “Agreed.” The first man replied.

The footsteps moved away from the truck and towards the large dirt pile that I had vaulted off of when I entered the construction site.

“You see these footprints here; the tread isn’t from a work boot. Looks like a sneaker or something.” One of the men commented.

“Keep your eyes open. I don’t think it was a bird this time.”

My heart froze, it was only a matter of time before they looked in the pit and saw me. Ok you gotta move Pete. If you move fast enough, they won’t see your face. The footsteps carried around until they were close to the machinery. Ok here’s my chance. They are on the other side of the lot; they won’t be able to catch me if I go now. I quickly got my feet and jumped up to the top of the pit. The truck was parked right in front of the girders, making my escape more difficult than I was expecting; I would need to use the truck to jump the fence. I quickly turned around to gauge where the men were, only to make eye contact with one of them. We looked at each other across the lot for a moment before he registered what was happening. The vibration in my head amplified as I saw the man reach behind his back.

Alright time to go. I moved to jump over the fence when the vibration in my head turned into a jackhammer, screaming at me to move to the side. Listening to the instinct, I sidestepped and felt air rush past the side of my head. A loud bang hammered through the morning air, followed by the sound of glass breaking as what I could only guess was a bullet broke the driver-side window that I was standing in front of moments ago. My body continued to act on instinct as I jumped into the truck bed and then leapt over the fence and onto the street.

            I sprinted home as fast as I could; the further away from the construction site I got, the less intense the vibration in my head got, until eventually it diminished into a low consistent hum. It didn’t take me long to get home and back inside my room. I stood in my room, my heartbeat pounding through my ears, my breathing uneven as I tried to fight away a panic attack. Shot at. I was just shot at. Bullet shot at me. A real bullet was shot at me. WHO SHOOTS AT A KID?!?!?!? I guess they didn’t know I was a kid but who’s first instinct is to shoot at a trespasser. No warning, no nothing just bang. I could have died tonight. I could have died right there, just suddenly my whole life is over. I only went there in the first place because of that stupid spider bite. I am not going to let some weird genetically altered spider ruin my life. I didn’t need these “powers” before, and I definitely don’t need them now; all they’ve given me is a near death experience. What would I use them for anyway? Become a professional wrestler or something, that’s a stupid way to get more attention put on me. No, I just need to live my life like I normally would; regardless of what changes that stupid spider caused. The vibration in my head calmed to a slow buzz in the back of my brain as I stripped off my clothes and got into bed. How am I going to live with a constant buzzing in my brain. What if it never shuts off? I closed my eyes, determined to fall asleep and wake up again to a normal life; but sleep never came.

Chapter Text

The cold snapped at my ears as I stepped off of the bus and began making my way home. It had been a long day at the ESU laboratories; I had gotten to the lab at around 9 in the morning and was just heading home at the same time in the evening. Dr. Connors and I were continuing to attempt to get a successful splicing of lizard DNA into rat DNA. In the few months that I had been working with him, we had one good breakthrough early on with the host cells accepting the transfer of DNA. However, the sample eventually deteriorated when the rat host cells were completely taken over by new lizard cells. This was the common theme since the initial success, and we had been unable to find a way to prevent a complete takeover of the lizard DNA.

            I shivered as a cool breeze cut through the night air. God I can’t wait for winter to be over. At least Christmas is soon. I quickened my pace through the streets of Queens, my ears burning in the crips night air. Luckily my bus stop was close by, but in the cold weather it felt like I had to cross the continental U.S. to get home. I was walking past a small gas station and convenience store only about 2 blocks away from my house when the vibration in my head which I had begun calling my “spider-sense” began to kick up a notch. After a couple of weeks, I had eventually gotten used to the consistent vibration and it had become almost like white noise in the back of my mind; I had noticed that the intensity of it only increased when some form of danger was around me. My senses went onto alert, and I felt my heart rate kick up a notch. I couldn’t see anyone in front of the convenience store which was well lit by neon lights that wrapped around the outside of the roof. I peered past the signs that were posted on the windows of the shop, only to see a bored looking employee sitting behind the counter scrolling on his phone. I instinctively moved to go look around the back of the store where a small alley separated it from an apartment building but stopped myself before continuing. Why am I looking for the danger? I should be moving away from it. I quickened my pace determined to get away from the store and whatever danger was nearby as fast as possible. Which unfortunately meant crossing in front of the alley where I was guessing the trigger for my spider-sense was coming from. The alley would only take me about 10 seconds to cross through, if I just kept my head down and kept to myself then nothing could go wrong.

            I was about two steps across the mouth of the alley when I heard the cry for help.

“STOP THAT GUY, HE STOLE MY WALLET!” A person called out from down the alley. Instinctively I turned to look and saw a pot-bellied man chasing down another lean and athletic looking man. I froze, the vibration in my head began to jackhammer; screaming at me to do something, anything. But I held myself back; in my mind I was replaying the gunshot that almost hit me on the night I tested my powers fully. The man was right in front of me, his features had become illuminated in the neon lights of the store. He had light blonde hair, cold blue eyes, sharp cheekbones that reminded me of someone of Scandinavian descent, and a large nose that was bent off to one side like it had been broken in the past. The man looked at me with a smirk as he ran past and turned down the street heading back the way I had just come. The pot-bellied man hobbled up to me. His nose was cut, and his face had turned pink from exhaustion.

            “Thanks for the help,” he said sarcastically, “You couldn’t have stuck a leg out or something?”

            Guilt washed over me as I attempted to stumble out a response. “I… I… I don’t know. I’m sorry.” I mustered out.

            “Well did you at least get a good look at him? He got me while I was having a smoke, I couldn’t make out anything.”

            “No sorry I didn’t.” Why did I just lie? I could have told him what he looked like, and he could have gone to the cops and gotten him.

            The man sighed. “Well, that’s New York for ya. Everyone always out for themselves.” He turned and walked towards the convenience store, presumably to see if the worker saw anything.

            I could have stopped him. I easily could have just stuck a leg out. Or, with my strength I could have laid him out flat. And then I lied right to his face right after he got mugged. Why didn’t I do anything? I knew the answer to my own question, but I couldn’t face it. I was just afraid. I was afraid that if I did something then I would get hurt or killed, I was afraid that if I did something I would reveal what had happened to me and my life would be turned into a series of tests like I was some lab rat. I continued to walk home, feeling my adrenaline slowly fading away leaving me with just guilt. I tried to put the event behind me, but it continued to nag at my me.

            By the time I got to the front doorstep I was distraught. The guilt had gone into overdrive. I took a deep breath before sliding my key into the front door. I can’t let Uncle Ben and Aunt May know what’s going on. I don’t need them to be worried about me or asking questions. I opened the door, kicked off my shoes and hung up my coat. Aunt May and Uncle Ben were sitting on the sofa watching TV.

            “Hey kiddo how was your day.” Uncle Ben called out from the couch.

            “It was fine. I’m tired though so I’m going up to bed.” I said as I headed up the stairs.

            “Have you eaten dinner Peter?” Aunt May questioned. “There are leftovers in the fridge if you are hungry.”

            I had closed my door by the time she finished speaking. I flopped down onto my bed and looked up at the ceiling. If I know what I am doing is the right thing for me, then why am I feeling so guilty about it? I was mulling the question over when I heard a knock at the door.

            “Hey Pete, are you alright?” Uncle Ben asked through the door.

            I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what to say back; I just knew that I wasn’t fine.

            “You mind if I come in?”

            “Sure.” I responded softly.

            The door creeped open, and Uncle Ben stepped through into my room. His worry lines that had set in deep after years of fatherhood were creasing more than usual, and his eyes were soft but inquisitive. I sat up on my bed to give him room to sit. He let out a small grunt as he placed himself down at the foot of my bed.

            “Alright kiddo. What’s wrong? And don’t try to tell me that nothing is going on. You aren’t exactly very subtle at hiding your emotions. Storming into the house and going upstairs hardly saying a word has been your move since you were 6 years old.” He said with a bit of a chuckle before letting his face set back into a look of concern.

            I sighed and let out a deep breath. “I’m not really sure how to explain it.”

            “Do you think you could try?” He prodded.

            I responded with a nod. How can I word this? How can I try to get him to understand without telling him that I was bit by a genetically altered spider which somehow gave me superhuman abilities which I have chosen not to use out of fear and self-preservation?

            “If you had a gift, or a special ability. Would it be wrong to choose not to use it?”

            “How do you mean?”

            “Let’s say one day you woke up and suddenly you were the smartest person on earth. You know that you have been given a great gift, but you are afraid of how that will change your life. Is it alright to continue onwards and pretend like nothing ever changed?”

            “I was hoping this was just girl trouble.” Uncle Ben said with a laugh. I cracked a small smile in response. “Change is scary Peter. It probably is the most terrifying thing we encounter day in and day out. I remember the day you came to live with us. Me and your aunt were terrified. We had no experience raising a child, especially a child who had just lost his parents. Our lives were going to be changed forever, but we knew that we had to accept the change and try to do our best to make the most of it. Thank God we did, because being able to raise you and seeing you turn into such an incredible young man has been the most rewarding experience of my life.”

I sat in silence for a moment. “Weren’t you afraid of how taking me in would impact your life?”

“Well of course I was. Suddenly there was someone else who was relying on me to provide for him. But that didn’t mean that my life changed for the worse or that I had to give up my career or goals. I just had to work harder to keep myself on the path that I had set while ensuring that I was caring for you.”

            We sat quietly for a few moments.

            “I don’t know if you know this Peter, but your father didn’t want to go to college at first. I remember one day early during my final senior year and your fathers first and only we went out and grabbed lunch together at a mall near our high school. It was around the end of college applications and your father hadn’t applied anywhere yet. He had almost perfect grades and he could have gotten a full-ride scholarship anywhere he wanted to go, but it seemed like he didn’t want to. So, we are out at lunch talking about what we are going to do at the end of senior year, I was telling him how I was planning on joining the military. And he told me that he was going to enlist alongside me. I remember starting to laugh so hard that I spit out my food. He thought I was making fun of him, which I was a little bit; your father wouldn’t have lasted one day in the military. He asked my why I was laughing, and I told him that if I had only a percentage of his brains that I would be doing anything but joining the military. He said that he didn’t know if college was right for him, and he didn’t want to be a deadbeat, so the military seemed like the best option for him. I said that ultimately it was up to him, but it would be a waste of his brain to not go and figure out a good way to use it to help others. Then I had said something to him that I have lived every moment of my life by. I said, ‘with great power there must also come great responsibility’. Do you know what that means Peter?”

            “I’m not sure.” I replied.

            “It means that in this world we all have a power. Some have more obvious ones like you and your father’s intelligence. We have a responsibility to use that power for the good of everyone. If we don’t then we aren’t living our life to the fullest potential. After that lunch your father understood that. As soon as he got home from school that night, he did about every application he could to every science program on the Eastern seaboard. He got into ESU for biomedical research, got his masters, his doctorate, met your mother, and eventually had you. I don’t think for a second he regretted choosing to go to college because he knew that he had a responsibility to use his intelligence to help others.”

            “Great power, great responsibility.” I muttered under my breath.

            “I’ll let you digest that, Peter. If you get hungry later there is some sawdust, sorry chicken, in the fridge for you.” He said with a wink before getting up with a grunt and stepping out of the room.

            I looked back up at the ceiling. With great power there must also come great responsibility. I let the words rattle around in my head for a while. I wasn’t sure how long I stared up at the ceiling thinking, but long enough to hear a set of footsteps heading upstairs for bed. It was my spider-sense sending alarm bells through my head that finally broke my train of thought.

            I jolted upright in bed. My spider-sense has never triggered like this at home before. I got up and crept towards my door listening to the sounds of the house. I couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary; the house was quiet and calm. My spider-sense intensified further, jackhammering into my brain telling me that something bad was coming. It was then that I heard a loud crack coming from downstairs. I opened my door and stepped into the hallway. Aunt May had stepped out into her room.

            “Peter, you heard that too?” She whispered.

            “Yeah, I did. Where’s Uncle Ben?” I asked.

            “He fell asleep downstairs while we were watching TV, so I let him stay asleep down there.” I could feel her panic through her whispered voice.

            “Alright, I’ll go check it out. Maybe he woke up and decided to grab a snack before coming to bed and dropped something. You stay here, if you hear anything out of the ordinary call the police.” My spider-sense told me that Uncle Ben hadn’t just dropped something. But I didn’t need to panic Aunt May any further.

            I began to silently creep down the stairs. No time for fear Peter. My spider-sense intensified the further I got down. When I was about halfway down the stairs the lights turned on. I could see most of the main floor. Uncle Ben was standing by the front door with his hand on the light switch. He was looking towards the back door which I couldn’t see from my angle.

            “Money, jewelry, everything right now.” A mans voice said. My heart rate skyrocketed as I realized what was happening. I took a few steps back up the stairs to try and signal to Aunt May to call the cops. She was already on the phone, her eyes shining with fear.

            “Listen, I have my wife and nephew sleeping upstairs. Please don’t do this.” Uncle Ben pleaded.

            “I don’t care who is doing what and where. I want all the money you have on hand and all of your wife’s jewelry in a bag right now.” The man demanded.

            Uncle Ben put his hands in the air. “Alright, alright. Just give me a second. It’s all upstairs I will go get it.”

            “Not without me you won’t. I don’t need you calling the cops.”

            “Ok fine, just please leave my wife and nephew alone.” Uncle Ben’s voice shook with fear.

I could hear the man’s footsteps as he crossed the room into my line of sight. My heart stalled as I saw him. His blonde hair reflected the kitchen lights, his cheekbones were distinct and sharp, and although I could only see his side profile, I could tell his large nose had been broken before. It was the mugger from earlier that night. He was aiming a gun at Uncle Ben; the arm he was holding the gun in was shaking lightly, and his finger was resting on the trigger.

            Maybe I can get the jump on him. If I can get back upstairs, I can get on the ceiling and drop down on him as they come up. I already let him go once tonight, I can’t let him hurt Aunt May or Uncle Ben. I took one step backwards so I could still see what was going on. But I put too much weight onto my foot causing the step to creak underneath me. I froze as the sound radiated through the house.

            Uncle Ben’s head quickly turned to the stairwell. His face went white with fear. The man also turned to look towards me, swinging his gun away from Uncle Ben. As soon as the gun was no longer pointed at him, Uncle Ben made a move. He lunged forward and attempted to grab the gun from the man’s hands. The man was startled by the move and tripped backwards causing Uncle Ben to fall on top of him. The two wrestled for the gun on the kitchen floor.

            I had jumped down the stairs to help Uncle Ben when a loud bang cut through the kitchen. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, my bare feet burning on the cold granite. Uncle Ben went stiff; he had his back to me which was obscuring my view of the gun and the man. The man was pushing his heels against the floor trying to get traction and push away from Uncle Ben. He stood up, his black sweater looked wet. Oh no, oh no, please no. Please not Uncle Ben. No. A siren blared in the distance. I met the mugger’s eyes and only saw regret in them. He turned and sprinted out of the backdoor.

            I rushed towards Uncle Ben. He had slumped face first down onto the floor, blood was pooling around his chest. I got down onto the floor and rolled him onto my thighs, while cradling his head with one of my arms.

            “Uncle Ben, can you hear me Uncle Ben?!” I called out to him.

            His blue eyes met mine. “Pete.” He said weakly.

            “Yea I’m here Uncle Ben, I’m here. You’re going to be ok. Help is coming, you just need to hold on for me, alright?” A hot tear streamed down my right cheek and mixed into the blood that was gushing out of the wound. I balled up the bottom of Uncle Ben’s shirt and pushed it firmly onto the bullet hole. I could feel the heat of the blood seeping into the white cotton with each progressively weaker heartbeat. The sirens were getting louder but they still weren’t very close. C’mon hurry up. Please hurry up. His breathing was shallow and ragged, each breath a battle to resupply his body with the oxygen it desperately needed. I looked back into his eyes, the bright sparkle that I was used to looking at was fading rapidly. Blood had completely saturated the balled-up shirt and was starting to flow out of it like an overfilled sponge. 

            “Uncle Ben please hold on. Please you have to hold on.” His eyes were turning to an almost sickly grey as the life continued to flow out of them. He let out a breath and I waited for the next one to start, but there was no next breath. His body twitched as the last electrical signals fired from his brain.

            “Uncle Ben! Please Uncle Ben wake up please!” I wailed as I felt tears pour down my face. “You can’t die yet. I need you.” I dropped my head into his upper chest and let out a muffled scream. I looked up from his chest and saw Aunt May standing at the foot of the stairs. Her eyes were glazed over in shock, she still had her phone to her ear.

            I could faintly hear the 911 operator on the line. “Ma’am? Are you still there ma’am? We have first responders arriving now.”  I hadn’t noticed the sound of the sirens getting louder but now they were blasting in my ears. Too late. You were too late.

Chapter Text

My feet were starting to go numb on the stone floor. Uncle Ben’s body had already been taken, leaving a pool of dark blood that was starting to dry. Multiple different officers had taken statements from me and Aunt May about what had happened. I rattled off what I could, but my mind wasn’t there. It’s my fault. I let him get away. I could have stopped him the alley, it would have been so easy.

            I felt a hand gently rest on my shoulder. “Peter, we can’t stay here tonight.” Aunt May said in an empty voice. “The Watson’s said we could stay at their place while the police finish up here.”

            “The who?” I questioned.

            “Our next-door neighbours dear. They moved in a couple of weeks ago; I suppose you have been too busy with school and the lab to have met them. Very nice people, Anna and her niece Mary Jane. They have a guest room that you can use. Anna offered her room to me, and she will sleep in Mary Jane’s who is out of town for the weekend.”

            “Oh alright. Can I just go upstairs and grab some clothes?”

            She nodded. “Be quick please.” Her face was steady and reserved. But her eyes were painted with heartache. She was holding it together the best she could.

            I stood up and walked around the periphery of the room and past the back door. It was still open, resting in the same position that it was when the police arrived. The cool air bit at my ears and goosebumps rose up my arms as a chill passed through me. A small group of forensic scientists were surveying the area and looking for any evidence they could find.

            I stepped onto the soft carpet of the stairs and was suddenly overwhelmed with guilt. I trudged up the stairs, each step feeling like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. I could have stopped all of this. It would have been so easy for me. I moved into my room and closed the door behind me, my grip crushing the metal knob like a ball of paper. My knees trembled as I grabbed a bag off the floor and started to fill it up with whatever clothes were nearby. I reached to grab my phone off the nightstand when I saw imprint of where Uncle Ben had sat hours ago on my bed. He’s gone. He’s gone and it’s my fault. I dropped my bag and sat on my bed. My chest felt like a whirlpool of guilt, anger, and anguish; the emotions swirling around in a violent fashion. He was just here. I spoke to him only a few hours ago. How can he be gone? I turned my face into the pillow and let out a deep muffled scream, the whirlpool released from its tight spiral and sent all of my emotions flooding through every inch of my body. “AUGGHHHHHH!”

Hot tears poured out of my eyes and saturated the fabric. Why? Why? Why? Why did this have to happen? I tried to scream but no sound came out this time. I laid there in a puddle of my own tears, dragging in raspy breath after raspy breath trying to understand how Uncle Ben could be gone. Somewhere in the far reaches of my mind I registered a small knock on the door.

“Peter? Are you ready? We should be going now.” Aunt May said bleakly.

I wiped the tears away from my eyes and took a deep breath. “Yea Aunt May, I’ll be right down in just a minute.”

“Ok Peter, just hurry alright?”

“Sure, Aunt May.” I replied. Silence fell between us. I could see the shadow of her feet underneath my door, unmoving, waiting. Tension filled the air as if she wanted to say something. Then I heard her sigh, and her shadow moved away from the bottom of the door.

I stood up and looked into my mirror. My eyes were puffy and inflamed. Red blotches on my cheeks and nose reflected the lights. I have to be strong for her. I need to be there to support her. I can’t do that if I am an emotional wreck. Get it together Parker. I rubbed the tears away from my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt my body relax as the whirlpool of emotion settled into a more controllable spiral.

I grabbed my bag off the floor and finished packing what I would need for the night. I moved over to the door and saw the door handle. My fingers left well defined ridges along the surface of the handle leaving it looking like I had squeezed a ball of playdoh in my hand. I gently grabbed the handle and took another deep breath before stepping into the hallway and going down the stairs.

The guest room of the Watson’s was a mirror into my emotional state. The room was themed with dark grey walls, dark brown furniture, and brown-grey laminate floors. The white ceiling was the only spot of warmth in the room. It was this white ceiling speckled with a popcorn texture that I had been staring at for the last few hours. Guilt and sorrow shared the bed with me, making it impossible for me to rest. Part of me wanted to go and talk with Aunt May, but I knew that wasn’t an option; she needed her rest more than ever.

I looked out the window into the dark night. It called to me, offering an escape from the suffocation I was feeling. I rose out of the bed and threw on the warmest clothes I had packed and opened the window. The winter air bit at my cheeks as I crawled out of the window onto the side of the house. The guest room was on the second floor, so I crawled up onto the roof and looked out over the city. The openness of the night cleared my mind as I felt comfort in the quiet darkness. My mind had cleared but my body was still tense; an instinct inside me was calling for me to move. Listening to the instinct I leapt off the Watson’s roof onto my own, feeling for the first time in a while the power that I had within my legs. A small smile spread across my face as I took a second to revel in the power that I had. I had almost forgotten how strong I am. I’ve spent the last few months pretending that these powers didn’t exist, that the spider bite never happened. If I had used them maybe Uncle Ben would still be here. Guilt crashed back onto me; guilt that my inaction caused the death of Uncle Ben and guilt that I could feel any amount of happiness on the night he died. But a memory with Uncle Ben bubbled at the front of my mind.

It was after my parents’ funeral. Up until then their deaths didn’t really feel real; I kept on expecting them to walk through the door and pick me up from Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s like the plane crash never happened. It took me seeing their empty caskets being lowered into the ground that I finally realized they weren’t coming back. As soon as we got back to the house I ran upstairs and didn’t leave my room for hours. I just remember crying and crying until Uncle Ben came into my room. He held me for a while until he told me that dinner was ready and that I should come down to eat. I refused, even though Aunt May had decided to make her wheat cakes for dinner as a special treat. Uncle Ben told me he understood and that he was going to leave me alone, but before that he did the ‘pull my finger’ bit. Maybe it was the fact that I was so young, or that the joke was so stupid, but I started to laugh, and I continued to laugh until my stomach hurt. The happiness I felt in that moment cut through the sadness like a knife and brought me a little bit of joy despite the grief I was experiencing. Uncle Ben laughed with me until I stopped and then gave me a moment to decide if I wanted to have dinner or not. I ended up going down for dinner where Uncle Ben continued to do his best to make me laugh or smile everything was alright with the world for a little while.

Uncle Ben would want me to smile. He would want me to find a way to feel a little bit of joy. Nothing will change the guilt of his death, but I shouldn’t feel guilt for feeling happiness.

The urge to move, to run, and to jump was still there so I continued to listen to it. I jumped across the street onto the opposing neighbours house, letting out a small laugh as I landed on their chimney. From there I leapt from house to house and then across smaller apartment buildings and offices. Eventually I found myself looking out over the East River. Both sides of the river were encrusted with ice, but water still flowed through the center.

During the summer the sun would have just been rising, but now there was at least another hour or two before the sun started to poke above the horizon. The river and the wind combined into a soft whisper that hummed in the cool morning air; it was peaceful and calm. But now the calm didn’t offer comfort, it offered silence. Silence that brought back pain and guilt. This night has been too long. I’ve lost so much since the sun went down, and I’m still so far away from it rising again. Maybe it will never rise for me again, I’m not sure if I even deserve to see another sunrise. I let fear control me and it cost Uncle Ben his life, it cost Aunt May the love of hers, and it cost me the only father figure I can remember. It’s my fault he died; I had the power to do something, I had the power to stop all of this, but I was too afraid to take on the responsibility that was required of me.

I noticed some commuters fighting through the early morning darkness to make their way to work. A man and a woman were walking beneath me. The woman was dressed in warm business wear and was about 20 feet ahead of the man. The man was dressed casually, not looking professional but also not looking like a slob. His pace was faster than the woman’s and he was gaining on her with each step he took. My spider-sense started to thrum as he continued to close the gap on her. Uh oh. This doesn’t look good. He got alongside her and interlinked his arm with hers and whispered something into her ear, she nodded sharply and continued walking with him. They were approaching the alley between the building I was perched on and the one next to it; the man started to pull the woman towards the entrance. She looked around panicked and tried to fight him for a moment; she almost broke free before he grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth and dragged her into the alley.

My heart rate rose, and I felt my body freeze as the weight of the situation settled onto me. There’s no one else here Pete. It’s just you. She needs your help. You know what happens when you don’t act. She has friends and family that love her and are waiting for her. Don’t let them experience the loss you already have. Don’t make the same mistake twice. You have the power, and you must accept the responsibility that comes with it. I took a deep breath, regaining control over my body. I can do this. I have to do this.

I moved along the edge of the building until I was overlooking the alleyway below. The man had one hand covering the woman’s mouth and was using that force to push her into the brick wall opposing me. His other hand was trying to grab hold of her purse while she was fighting against his body weight to push him off her. I could hear her muffled gasps and attempts to call for help beneath his large hand.

“Why did you have to make this difficult? This should have been so easy, but you had to try and fight against me.” The man said. His voice was nasally and there was a hint of panic behind his words.

I took another breath and felt my muscles tighten and my spider-sense kick up a notch. Here goes nothing. I took a step off the building and dropped down its 5-story height and landed behind the pair. Both heard me land, but the woman registered me first; her eyes flashing with confusion. The man turned his head, while keeping pressure on the woman beneath him.

“Where did you come from?” The man asked in a confused tone, his eyes darting around the area trying to figure out where I could have appeared from. I felt fear well up in my chest once more. What am I doing? I shouldn’t be doing this, I’m just a kid. I took a step backwards, feeling my heart almost pound out of my chest. No. You can do this. You must do this. For Uncle Ben. I took a deep breath and readied myself.

“Aww is someone trying to play hero?” The man said with a light chuckle. He lifted the woman off the wall just far enough to slam her back into it. Her head snapped back into the brick wall with a thud, and she slumped onto the ground.

The man turned around and looked at me. His eyes were cold and lifeless. He had he same emptiness as the man who had taken Uncle Ben from me. He had nothing and was willing to do anything to survive. I looked past him to the woman crumpled on the frozen asphalt. I could see her chest rising and falling slowly.

The man followed my eyes to the woman on the ground. “I wouldn’t worry about her. Worry about yourself. You interrupted something and I’m going to make you pay for that.”

He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small black object. I heard a mechanism unlocking and the glint of a metal knife shimmering against what little light was available in the dim alley. My spider-sense intensified. The man pressed forward, holding the knife straight in front of him. I took a few steps back and bumped into the wall of the narrow alley.

The man was only a few feet ahead of me, close enough that he could try to attack. My spider-sense flared as his right shoulder moved back to initiate a thrust motion with the knife. The man drove forward with the knife, but the speed of my heightened reflexes allowed me to sidestep the blade with ease. The knife collided with the wall and fell to the ground with a metallic clang.

The man let out a grunt and grabbed his hand in pain. “How’d you move so fast?” He said with frustration.

He turned to face me and lunged forward to try and tackle me to the ground. My spider-sense flared again before his movement started. This time it was different though; like usual it told me that there was danger coming, but it also told me how to avoid it. It was like a map was laid out to me and all I had to do was follow it. I sidestepped once again, and the man flew past me and face planted on the icy pavement.

He let out a groan and slowly got back to his feet. I moved between him and woman and prepared myself for another attack. A cut had opened on his forehead and blood was trickling down his face into his eyes which were mad with anger.  He moved towards me again, this time loading up a punch with his right fist. My spider-sense reacted once again, telling me to move my head backwards. I easily dodged the punch which caused the man to go off balance and fall into me. I instinctually caught him but quickly dropped him to the pavement. He landed on his hands and knees near where his knife was. He reached out to grab it, but I was faster. I stepped onto his hand and felt the crunch of bone underneath my foot. The man let out a howl and fell onto his stomach. He writhed in pain for a few moments before getting to his feet. I moved to put myself between him and the woman again. The cut on his forehead had started to gush and blood was falling into his eyes which were now filled with pain and fear.

“Screw this.” The man muttered before dashing out of the alley and heading out into the dark morning.

I turned to the woman and knelt next to her to investigate if she had been cut anywhere or had any major wounds to her head. Everything looked alright from the outside, but she was likely concussed. Her eyes fluttered open and she started to take in her surroundings. Her eyes filled with fear when she saw me kneeling right next to her.

“Get away from me you creep!” She yelled out as she kicked out her legs to push me away from her.

“Woah, I’m just trying to help you out.” I responded, hoping to calm her down.

The panic in her eyes calmed and she let out a sigh. “You aren’t the guy that dragged me in here. But I saw you before he knocked me out. You appeared out of nowhere.” She said with a hint of wonder in her voice. “Where’d you even come from?”

“It doesn’t matter where I came from. All that matters is that you are alright. Can you stand?” I asked while trying to help her to her feet. She stumbled as she stood up but got her bearings quick. “There’s a police station a few blocks away. I’ll walk you there.” I continued.

“No, no I need to get to work. I’m probably late enough as it is,” she said while checking her watch, “besides it’s New York; muggers are a dime a dozen.”

I stood in shock for a moment as she pulled away from me and started to walk to the end of the alleyway. “At least go to the hospital or the doctor later.” I called out after her. 

“Only if I really need to. My company’s insurance is shit.” She replied in a jokey tone. She turned around before exiting the alleyway and looked at me inquisitively.

“Y’know, you could have gotten yourself badly hurt, or even killed. Why’d you risk that to help me? You don’t even know me.” She asked curiously.

“Because I can.” I said with a shrug. She nodded and took one last look before turning and heading down the street.

I climbed back up to the building where I had been resting not even 5 minutes earlier. The sky was still dark, the night still long, but I felt renewed. There was a small amount of warmth in my chest that was eating into the darkness.

I looked up into the black night. “Uncle Ben, I hope you can hear me, wherever you are. I was given a great gift, the gift of power. I tried to run away from it, to pretend like it wasn’t there. I know now that when I don’t act, when I don’t use my power, people get hurt. I’m the reason you died, and I’m not sure I will ever be able to forgive myself for that. But you left me with something that I will carry forward with me. Something you lived your life by and something I will live mine by. With great power there must also come great responsibility.”

I sat there for a while, waiting. Waiting for the sun to rise and start me down my new path.

Chapter Text

I look like such a clown. I mean c’mon, what was I thinking with red and blue, it’s so bright. There are no red and blue spiders out there; I should have gone with a black suit and a red spider emblem, now that would have been sweet. Maybe it’s not too late, maybe I can still change the costume. Nope no more stalling, I am getting out there tonight. But also, mental note to remember red and black for when I can put together a real suit and not blue sweatpants with a red hoodie. Stepping away from the mirror I moved towards the window and grabbed the red balaclava that I had glued an old pair of ski goggle lenses to and put it on. I opened my window and climbed out onto the side of my house; using my foot I pulled the window shut behind me.

I crawled up to the roof of my house to make sure I wasn’t going to be crossing past Aunt May’s window or into any sightlines of the neighbours. I silently moved onto the roof and then onto the chimney and shifted into a squat so I could look out into the night and figure out where I was needed. A cool breeze rippled through the January night trying to bite at me, but I wasn’t paying any attention to it. My mind was focussed on the night ahead of me; it was quiet, no honking, and no distant sirens. I guess I’ll just go patrol around and see if anything happens.

I double checked the barrels of my web-shooters, making sure that they hadn’t gotten clogged up. Last thing I want is to be remembered as the weird kid who was found in the form of street pizza outside his house dressed as a wannabe superhero. The barrels seemed clean, but there was only one way to find out for sure. I leapt off the chimney towards the streetlight in front of my house, using the lamp as a vault I pushed off it and fired a web across onto the next lamp post. For a brief second, I was weightless before I started falling to the ground, and then the web picked up slack and started to tighten. Alright this is it, lets hope it holds. It wasn’t like I hadn’t tested my webbing many times before tonight. I had spent hours testing the strength of my synthetic webs, but now I would fall a whole lot more than 2-3 feet if the web-line failed. I reached the bottom of the swing and let out the breath of air that I was holding in, as the web-line held me and started accelerating me upwards. I released the web-line and allowed my spider-sense to fire the next web onto a safe point.

            I had only swung a few blocks out of Forest Hills before my spider-sense flared. I zipped onto a nearby building and looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but my spider-sense flared telling me to check the alley to my left. I moved across the top of the building and peered down the alley where I saw someone dressed like a stereotypical gangster out of a mob movie.  

On the street below, a man wearing a green adidas jumpsuit was trying to jam a crowbar into a door on the side of the building across from me. What is he even trying to break into? I moved back to the front of my building to get a better angle on the storefront. My view wasn’t great, but I could see enough of the sign to figure out that it was a jewelry store.

I moved back to overlooking the alley and leapt off the side of the building and landed in a position where I would be looking down onto him. I crawled down the wall further to where I would be visible in the dimly lit alley. His hair was slicked backwards with grey coming in on his temples, he had scars across his cheeks and forehead. He grunted with frustration and put a strong final push of effort into the crowbar, which broke the lock with an audible snap. A lump started to form in my throat, and I could feel my heart rate starting to pick up. Am I really gonna do this? How do I even start this? Maybe I can talk him out of it before he goes inside?”

”Erm erm.” I cleared my throat loudly expecting the guy to get startled and jump back but instead he dropped the crowbar and started digging in his pockets, “ERM ERM” I repeated again, even louder this time.

“I heard you the first time.” The guy said, glancing up at me.

“Oh, I guess I thought you’d be surprised to see a guy sticking to a wall right above your head.”

“Not really, New York is a weird place. I’ve seen weirder things,” He said with a shrug as he was still fishing around his pants pocket, “Aha found it!” He had pulled out a small flashlight.

“Huh, well I don’t know how to say this. But could you like maybe walk away from the jewelry store?”

“How old are you?” He said as he took a step back to get a better look at me.

“Is that relevant?”

“Well, I mean it’s a little relevant. I’ve been busted by the cops more times than I can count. Not once has a cop tried to make conversation with me before taking me down. So, I assume you’re not a cop, maybe a...”

“The way I was dressed didn’t give that away first?” I interrupted. He looked up at me with a frown.

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you not to interrupt people. Sheesh kids these days. Anyway, I ask cause if you are a kid and I kick your ass, I don’t want to be hit with some assaulting a minor charge or anything like that. I’ve done a lot of bad stuff, seen a lot of bad stuff, but Frankie doesn’t hit kids.”

“What a lovely moral conscious you have. Would you like me to stick around so I can be your character witness?”

“I’m not sure the police would take the word of some kid dressed up like… What are you dressed like? What is the theme here? Are you supposed to be some sort of poisonous frog?”

“Frog what? No, I’m a spider sort of. I’m a human with the powers of a spider. You can call me Spider-Man.” As soon as I uttered the name, Freddie started to cackle.

“Spider-Man? Your name is Spider-Man? What was the ‘Human Spider’ taken? And what’s with the colour scheme, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red and blue spider before.”

“Can we get back on track here? I’m not the one that was breaking and entering.” I said as a little bit of anger rose through my chest.

“Sorry, sorry. Yes of course, Spider-Man”. He said, breaking out in laughter once more.

“Alright enough of this,” I said as I fired a web at his mouth. He stared at me stunned for a second before I saw panic flash in his eyes.

My spider-sense started to thrum in my temple as he moved what I thought was a small flashlight up to point at me. The thrumming turned into a roar as his thumb flexed on the small device. What should have been the bulb on the flashlight flicked open and a small wire shot out. I let my spider-sense take over my reflexes and time seemed to almost slow down as I pushed up off the wall, allowing the wire to pass harmlessly beneath me. It connected to the brick wall behind me with a spark. Airborne, I shot off a web at the hand Freddie was using to hold what I guessed to be a single use taser. The webbing connected with Freddie’s hand causing him to recoil back, snapping the wire away from the faux flashlight. I then fired two web-lines behind Freddie, straightened my legs with my heels leading the way, and pulled myself into his chest. I made sure to flex my knees as my feet connected with Freddie to ease the blow and make sure that I wouldn’t cause too much extra damage with my kick.

The force from the kick was enough to send him flying back into the brick wall behind him. He connected with a loud thud and slumped down to the ground. Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead. I thought to myself as I rushed over to where Freddie was barely holding himself upright. I put two fingers onto the side of his neck and felt a small pulse beating. Okay pulse is good, pulse is good. Don't want to kill someone out here.

“I’m not dead dumbass,” Freddie wheezed out, “but goddamn you pack a big hit in such a small frame”. His eyes slowly closed as he faded away into unconsciousness, I doubled checked his pulse again and felt it beating against my fingertips.

I fired a round of webbing across his body to seal him to the wall he was slumped against. The jewelry store probably has a silent alarm so the police will probably be here shortly. I’ll wait around and give them the whole story. I climbed up onto the wall opposite to Freddie and positioned myself into an Asian squat about 10 feet off the ground.

It was only about 2 minutes later when I started to hear police sirens, and another minute after that until the first squad car pulled up. Two officers got out of the car, a male and a female. The male took the lead and started to walk down the alley with his hand on his gun.

“Hey there!” I called out. “I got the guy. He’s over there.” I said while gesturing to Frankie. “I stopped him before he could get inside so nothing should be stolen.”

“Freeze!” The man yelled while pulling his weapon out of the holster and aiming it towards me.

“Woah man. I’m not the bad guy here. I just stopped the bad guy. You know the one that is dressed like a horrible Tony Soprano impersonator.”

“Get off the wall and get on your knees with your hands in the air.” He continued to walk closer to me down the alley. His gun shook lightly, and I could see a glimmer of fear in his eyes.

His partner had caught up to him, her eyes were calm and steady.  “Woah Stan take it easy. This gentleman is just trying to help us out. We should be thanking him.” She said as she moved around him and gently pushed his gun down. “Now we just need you to come with us to the police station and answer a few questions about what happened here.”

I shook my head. “I’m gonna pass on that one. A police station doesn’t seem like the best place for me. I’m sure you understand. But hey that webbing should dissolve in an hour or so, and then you can arrest Frankie here.”

The female officer’s eyes hardened a little and she took a step in-front of the other officer. “I’m going to have to strongly insist that you come with us. As I’m sure you know, vigilantism is illegal. And you seemingly assaulted a man tonight with no proof that he was the one attempting to break and enter. Now if you were to come with us, I’m sure we would find this was a big misunderstanding. Wouldn’t you agree…” She trailed off as an invitation for me to say my name.

I felt anger rise in my chest. Proof, what does she mean proof? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the guy dressed like a gangster is probably the one that committed a crime.  “Spider-man. And you are?”

“DeWolff. Officer Jean DeWolff. And this is Officer Stanley Carter.” She responded cooly.

Officer Carter jumped a little at the mention of his name, like he was scared that I knew it. His eyes were glued onto me and his hands were wrapped so tightly around his gun that his knuckles almost looked like bone. My spider-sense thrummed. Alright this is probably a good time to go. Don’t want to dig myself too big of a hole here, even if I don’t deserve it.

“Alright well. It’s been a pleasure, Officer DeWolff. A bit less of a pleasure Officer Carter.” I stood up on the wall and felt my spider-sense spike. Without consciously reacting I fired off a web. I looked over and saw that the web had connected with Officer Carter’s gun. He had stepped in front of Officer DeWolff and was in a ready to fire stance. Woah. My spider-sense took over there. I didn’t even have to think about how I would react, I just did it. I quickly fired a webline up to the top of the building and zipped myself up to the roof. I paused for a second, hearing DeWolff beneath me.

“You didn’t pull the trigger, did you?” She said, her voiced laced with venom.

“No. I can’t move my finger; this gunk is like super glue.” He replied with a frustrated tone.

“Good. We don’t need any more paperwork tonight. This is going to be hard enough to explain as it is. And what were you thinking even trying something like that? It was just a kid.” She barked.

“I don’t know about you Jean, but I haven’t met many harmless vigilantes. And normally they aren’t freaks who can crawl on walls, just guys with a savior complex. Thought it would be better to deal with it now before it starts killing people.”

“Bullshit. You were just scared.  And don't even start with your judge, jury, and executioner crap again. I've told you a million times that isn't how we operate.”

Silence fell through the alley. Alright better get moving before more cops show up. I like that Jean though. I ran across to the other side of the rooftop, dove off the building and started swinging away. Note to self, next time maybe just a leave a note.

I didn’t get back home until around 4am. I was both exhilarated and exhausted; in the time that I had been out I had stopped 2 attempted robberies, and 3 assaults. I crawled back into my room and tossed my outfit which was covered in sweat and dirt into the back of my closet. I collapsed onto my bed with only one thought in my mind as I drifted off to sleep. Thank god we get tomorrow off from school.

Chapter Text

I’m not sure if it was the light shaking or Aunt May yelling my name inches from my face that woke me up, but both were effective. I forced my eyes open to find her worried expression be wiped away with relief. Her face was tired, and her eyes bore a deep emptiness. They reminded me of the ocean; I knew there was life in there, but it was surrounded by darkness. 

“Peter, you have school in 30 minutes!” She exclaimed.

“What do you mean? It’s a PD Day today.” I replied, my groggy tone tinted with condescention. I felt guilt wash over me for a moment for my choice of tone. She had been so flighty since Uncle Ben died, and I did my best to be patient. But sometimes I accidentally let it slip. 

She sighed before responding. “No Peter, that’s next week. Friday the 24 th is the PD Day. Today is the 17 th .” She pulled up her phone and showed me the Midtown academic calendar which clearly showed the PD Day as being next week. Now I really felt bad about letting my tone slide. 

“I made your lunch for you and put in a banana for you to eat on the bus. If you hurry, you might only miss a little bit of first period. Oh, and remember to dress warmly. I wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.” She quickly stood up and walked out the door, closing it gently behind her.

“Ughh!” I groaned. How did I forget that today is a school day? I should have been able to sleep in all morning. I don’t even have to go to the lab after school. 

I flipped my covers open and felt the cold air bite at my body, eating at my grogginess. Sitting up I noticed that I didn’t really feel that tired, sore, or bad in general. I felt great. Huh, I guess I can recover quick. I was sore and exhausted last night. But today I feel like I can run a marathon.  

I quickly popped out of bed and opened my closet; my eyes were immediately drawn to where I had tossed my suit. The night before rushed back to me; the wind rushing through my ears as I swung through the streets, the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I could probably swing to school faster than the bus. Plus, I could do a little patrolling after school. I grabbed my suit and stuffed it into the bottom of my backpack. 

A brown paper bag sat on the counter near the front door, neatly folded over and prepared. May was sitting in the living room reading a book. 

“What time are you going to be home tonight? You are at the lab on Friday’s, right?” May asked as I tossed the bag into my backpack and began to slide on my shoes. 

“I’ll be home right after…” I caught myself mid sentence, remembering my stuffed costume at the bottom of my backpack. She doesn’t know that I’m not with Doc Connors tonight. I can get some Spidey time in after school. “Right after 9 or so. I have some extra work for Dr Connors that I have to do tonight so I will be later than usual.” 

I hated how easy it had become for me to lie to Aunt May. Since Uncle Ben died, I had been trying to be strong for her, which meant lying about how I was really doing. She was hardly supporting herself, so she didn’t need to be supporting me as well. The last two weeks while I finished developing my web shooters, I had begun to lie about why I was so tired every morning and why I was spending so much time in my room. I had told her it was because of school and stress with the lab. With every lie I told, the next became easier.

I unlocked the door but before I could step outside, I was stopped by Aunt May. 

“Where do you think you are going dressed like that?” She asked fearfully.

“It’s not even freezing out. I’ll be fine in a hoodie.” I complained. She huffed in response and went to the closet near the front door. She returned with a toque, mittens, and a big puffy winter coat. 

“I won’t have you catching a cold. You know how sensitive you are.”

This was another change since Uncle Ben died. Aunt May had become extra protective. She worried constantly about everything.

She stuffed me into the coat, shoved the toque on my head, handed me the gloves and guided me out the door. 

By the time I got to the bus stop I was overheating and starting to sweat. The stop was empty. Across the street two men were standing casually in front of a bodega. One was leaning against the glass store front flipping a quarter up and down, the other was smoking a cigarette. Who flips a quarter up and down? Is this guy out of a black and white mob movie? An old man came out of the store and looked at the two men and started hobbling down the street. My spider-sense tingled as the two men nodded at each other and entered the store. I instinctively took a step forward onto the street when my spider-sense spiked; out of the corner of my eye I saw the large fender of my bus bearing down on me. I quickly leapt backwards. Jesus! I almost got levelled. I was so distracted by those guys I didn’t even notice the bus coming. 

As the doors of the bus opened, I heard a muffled crash from across the street causing my spider-sense to kick up a notch. I shuffled slightly to peer over the front of the bus to see into the bodega, but all I could see was the glare of the sun reflecting back at me.

“Hey! Hurry up kid. We don’t got all day here.” The bus driver yelled down the stairs. I looked up at the bus driver and then peered over the front once again. I should just get on the bus. I’m sure there will be a cop around that can do something. I began to take a step onto the bus when I felt a pang of guilt at the back of my head. No Peter. You have the power; you have the responsibility. Even if it means being a little bit late. I’m already late to begin with.

I stepped back away from the bus and called out to the driver. “Wrong bus sorry. I’m supposed to grab the next one.” 

“But there’s only one route for this stop.” He called back as I darted in front of the bus and crossed the street. 

I darted into the nearest alleyway and climbed halfway up the wall. I quickly changed into my costume and while stuffing my clothes into my bag realized that the ridiculous puffy coat was not going to fit. I’ll just come back for it later. I thought to myself as I webbed my coat to the side of the building and slung my backpack over my shoulders. I leapt off the wall, swung around the front of the bodega and opened the door.

The door opened with a soft chime. The store was in a wreck; fruit and chips littered the ground from multiple displays that were knocked over, and the contents of the fridges had been spilled over the floor leaving a swirling puddle of milk and energy drinks. The two men were standing near the till. One of them had pinned the head of an elderly man who I assumed to be the store owner to the counter, and the other was grabbing money from the cash register. All three of them turned to look at me as I entered the store.

“Joey, I thought I told you to lock the door.” The man counting money chirped.

“Sorry, John. I got distracted. You know how hard it can be with ADHD.” The man who had the elderly man pinned responded.

“Jesus. You got diagnosed a week ago and now it's all you can talk about. Just take your fricken meds and shut up about it already.” The man counting the money turned to look at me. “Hey, listen pal, the shops closed for a little while. Why don’t you just turn around and pretend you didn’t see anything here. And I’ll do you a favour because clearly no one else did when you left the house this morning. But Halloween is in October, not January.” He said with a laugh.

“I can assure you the costume is temporary,” I said with a sigh. “But I’m not going to leave. I missed my bus to drop into this little party. So, what do we got here? A rambunctious robbery by the alliteration allies?” I jeered. 

The man behind the counter, who I determined was John, scowled. “Oh, we wouldn’t dare rob Irv here, would we Irv?” He asked coyly.

“Mmhmmm!” The elderly man tried to respond, but his face had been pressed deeper into the counter.

“Irv is a lesson for what happens when you mess with the wrong people. Irv forgot to pay us his insurance money. So, we paid him a little visit to remind him not to miss his payments.” The other man, Joey said cheekily. “This also is an early lesson to you not to get involved in this mess. We work for someone very powerful, someone you don’t want to play around with. Ever heard of To-OW!“ The man named John punched him in the arm, cutting off his sentence.

“We aren’t supposed to say his name, you know that.” John scolded. “Listen kid, we don’t have time for a wannabe hero. You got one last chance to walk away, or you and Irv are gonna get hurt bad.” The elderly man squirmed to look at me. His eyes pleaded with me to walk away.

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to keep your mystery boss waiting. But this area is now under new protection. My protection.” I paused for a second. “Did that come across confident? I practiced it all morning, but somehow, I don’t think that came across right. Let me try again.” I lowered my voice and repeated. “My protection.” The two men looked at me like I was crazy, and the old man sighed and rolled his eyes. “Ok well there is a blow to the old self esteem.” I said while shaking my head. 

“Last chance kid. Trust me you don’t want to get mixed up in this.” Joey said as he released the old man who quickly scurried away. 

“Well, I already picked a name for myself, and got a costume made. Albeit a pretty bad one, but I’m pretty committed to this hero thing.” I replied confidently and got into a ready position.

“And what name did you pick for yourself?” John teased.

“Spider-man.” I said.

“Jeez what a stupid…oompf” Joey was cut off by the web-line I had fired at his head and used to slam his face into the countertop. He let out a pained groan and stood back up with his hand cupping his face. Blood was gushing out of a cut on the bridge of his nose.

“You broke my nosthe!” He wailed and staggered backwards. 

John leapt over the counter and charged me. I easily slipped out of his path and stuck my foot out tripping him. He slammed onto the ground with a sickening thud. I took the opportunity to web him to the floor. Joey tried to use John as a distraction and burst past me and out the door. I quickly ran outside and jumped up onto a nearby lamp post. I shot a web-line at his feet causing him to faceplant into the pavement. A few moments later I had him hanging by the lamppost. 

I hung upside down with my head at the same level as John’s. His nose was leaking blood down his chin and onto the webbing.

“Ooh that nose looks really bad.” I said with fake concern.

“Shut up.” He replied with a bit of a lisp. 

“I will in just a moment. I just want to pass a message off to whoever your boss is. I’ll be right back.” I leapt off the light post and ran back into the store. 

The old man poked his head up from behind the counter and eyed me suspiciously.

“Irv right? Do you got a pen and some paper here?” I asked.

With shaky hands he placed a small notepad and a pen on the countertop. 

“Oh perfect.” I said and stepped towards the counter. Irv took a step back, fear dancing across his eyes. “Woah. I’m not going to hurt you dude. In case you missed it, I just stopped those guys from messing with your store.” 

“Yea well I know how this goes. You want me to pay you now to protect me.” He opened the cash register and began pulling money out. “I can give you what is in the register now. If you give me a few more hours I can go to the bank and get you more.”

I shot a web line up to the ceiling and hung upside down, the position felt somewhat natural. “I don’t want your money. I have a feeling that you are going to need everything you have just to repair what those yahoos did to this place.”

“Well, what do you want then?” His eyes had relaxed a little bit, but they still held a cautious gaze.

I shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. Maybe spread the word to the shops around here that I’m around. I won’t let guys like this mess with the area again. And if you wanted to throw in a free sandwich every now and then I wouldn’t complain.” I dropped back down onto the floor and wrote out two notes.

The first note read: 

Protected By Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

I handed the note to Irv. “This probably doesn’t mean a lot right now. But I’m going to try to make a difference in this city.”

“Maybe you could start by helping me clean up the store?” He asked hopefully.

I started walking towards the exit. “Not today, Irv. I have a bus to catch.” I gave him a mock solute and went back outside. 

I leapt up back onto the lamp post and dropped down to hang next to Joey. “Alright so,” I shot a web onto his forehead and stuck the second note onto it, “when you ultimately get bailed out of jail by whoever your boss is. Make sure you tell him that Queens is now protected by Spider-Man.”

“Hahaha!” Joey bellowed. “You think you’re tough. You aren’t shit. I’ll give you a name to remember, Tombstone. And he won’t like that you are moving in on his ground. He will put you in the di…” I cut him off by firing a web at his mouth.

“Sheesh and I thought I talked a lot.” I looked at the note that was stuck onto his forehead. I’ll have to get some proper cards made up in the future. I like the message though. Hopefully the police do as well. The second note read:

Courtesy of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

I leapt off the light post and swung around to the side of the building where I grabbed my backpack. Probably faster just to swing to school at this point. I climbed to the top of the building, ran across the roof and dove off the top. The cool January air rushed across me as I plummeted to the street below. I shot a line out onto a nearby building and began my journey to school.

Chapter Text

            It was pretty fast getting to school via web-swinging. The only downside was using the webbing. I originally filled six cartridges—three for each wrist—and I was down to my final two. I guess I will have to go to the lab after all. But at least I won’t be lying to Aunt May anymore. I was a few blocks from school when I realized I was going to have a new problem: changing out of my costume. The roof of the school was my main choice, but it wasn’t exactly a good one. The school had cameras along the edge of the rooftop that scanned the perimeter of the property, and it would be difficult to swing onto the roof without one of them picking me up.

I scanned the streets around me, looking for a quiet alleyway I could duck into. Right when I spotted one, my spider-sense kicked off. About a block ahead of me, I saw what caused it to trigger: someone was mindlessly cutting across the street with their head buried in their phone. About 150 feet in front of them was a small sedan; the driver was digging for something in the passenger seat, oblivious to the disaster that was unfolding.

I quickly dropped my web-line and fell into a dive to gain speed. As I approached the pavement, I fired out a line that rocketed me up and flung me nearly level with the person. I saw them look up and turn to see the car bearing down on them. Shock set in as they froze in the middle of the street. I quickly used another web to pull myself to face them and then fell into another dive before firing a line that would sweep me across the street. My spider-sense intensified, yelling at me to pull away, but I was already committed. I felt the heat of the grill against my side as I grabbed the person with my free hand and carried them away from the car.

The webbing snapped under the combined weight, sending us flying sideways. I grabbed the person in a bear hug and rotated so my back would be to the ground. We landed on the sidewalk and skidded to a halt, the top of my head resting inches from a building behind me. I let out a large sigh of relief; the person underneath me shuddered slightly and groaned softly.

“Hey, are you okay?” I questioned, trying to get a look at the person’s face, which was buried in my chest. All I could see was their blonde hair cut into a short buzzcut and their backpack, which read Midtown Football Team. Oh no. Oh no, no, no.

The blonde head raised enough to look up at me, blue eyes boring through the ski goggles I was wearing. God, I hope he doesn’t recognize me. “Oh my god. You totally just saved my life, didn’t you?” Flash Thompson said with a mixture of shock and amazement. “You just completely saved my life. I was toast. Completely toast.”

He quickly bounded to his feet and stuck out a hand for me to grab. Instinctively, I took it and got up as well.

We stood in silence for a moment, looking at each other. His eyes were wide with amazement as he looked me up and down. I was frozen in place. I just saved Flash Thompson’s life. My longtime bully. My tormentor. And I saved his life. Obviously, if I had known, I wouldn’t have let him get hit, but still. This is so weird.

“Dude, I can’t believe a superhero just saved me!” he exclaimed. “What’s your name? Wait, can I guess?” He was almost vibrating with excitement.

“Uh. I gotta get going, so maybe next time,” I said, gesturing away. Alright, so he doesn’t recognize me through the goggles. Thank god.

“Dang, really? Well, at least tell me your name. I am going to tell everyone about how I just got my life saved by…” He leaned forward slightly for me to end the sentence.

“Spider-Man. You can call me Spider-Man.”

“DUDE! That name rocks so hard,” he said, putting his fist out to me.

I gave him a weak fist bump in return. “Um, thanks, man.” Wow, the first person who has actually responded positively to the name is Flash… So weird. “So… I’m gonna go now,” I said as I jumped into the air and swung back the way I came.

As I swung away, I could hear him call out to me. “Wait! I have to repay you or something! I owe you!” I shuddered slightly. Flash owes me a debt. And it’s not even one that I can call in. I quickly swung around a building and into a small alleyway. I pulled out my phone and checked the time. Dang it, I’ve basically missed half of the morning already. Better hustle up then. I dropped down, quickly changed into my regular clothes, and jogged out of the alleyway toward Midtown High.

I was opening the door to the school when I heard a voice call from behind me.

“Hold the door!” it exclaimed. Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. I thought he would have made it here by now.

I turned around to see the still-giddy face of Flash Thompson running up to me. His happy expression soured the moment he recognized me.

“Oh. Parker. It’s you,” he said flatly. He walked up and shouldered past me through the door I was holding. I let it close behind him.

“You’re welcome.” I muttered under my breath.

Flash turned around, a spark of anger flashing in his eyes. “You know what? Just because I’m in such a good mood, I’m going to let that comment slide. You won’t believe what just happened to me.”

“I’m sure I won’t,” I replied, my voice laced with sarcasm.

“A real-life superhero just saved my life. Swooped down and pulled me away from a car that was about to flatten me. It was insanely cool.”

He opened his mouth to say more, but my internal clock was screaming at me to get to class. “Listen, man,” I cut in, “we are both late enough as is…”

His face twisted in annoyance. “What do you mean you have to get to class? I just told you that a superhero saved my life, and the only thing you can think about is putting your face back into some books. Sheesh, Parker, this is why no one likes you.” He shoved my shoulder, expecting me to stumble back, but I stood my ground. His hand hit my shoulder like a gentle breeze. I felt the shock of the impact travel back up his arm and saw the flicker of surprise as pain registered.

Flash winced slightly and grabbed his elbow, his face turning red with embarrassment. “You think this is funny, Parker?”

“Flash, I don’t think any of this is funny. I just want to get to class,” I replied flatly.

“Well, your face is telling a very different story, and I’m going to wipe that smug grin right off it,” he seethed as he stepped forward menacingly.

He drew back his other fist, causing my spider-sense to vibrate slightly at the back of my head. I got ready to do something; I just hadn’t decided what that something was yet. Do I dodge? Do I let him hit me? If I dodge, he might just get angrier. But if I let him hit me, I might not absorb the blow right, and he could shatter his hand.

Luckily, before I had to make a decision, a sharp voice yelled down the hall. “Parker! Thompson!”

Flash’s arm immediately dropped as we turned toward the voice. Standing down the hallway with a face that could make milk curdle was Principal York.

Principal York pointed at Flash. “You, go to my office right now.” He then pointed at me. “Parker, you get your butt to class this instant.”

Flash started to protest but quickly stopped when Principal York gave him a stare that could ice out the sun. Flash trudged down the hallway. As he went, he continuously shook out the arm he hurt when he tried to shove me. I smirked slightly. I guess putting my face into books is beneficial sometimes.

Principal York saw my smirk and turned his sun-freezing stare onto me. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt today, but don’t you think for a second I forgot about the knife stunt you pulled earlier this year. Now get to class.” He quickly turned and followed Flash down the hall.

I sighed. Flash is going to be so pissed. And I’m going to have to deal with that. Maybe I can give him an anti-bullying PSA as Spider-Man. He might actually listen. I turned and found the nearest staircase to get to my class.

-

Hopefully Doc Connor’s doesn’t need too much help at the lab and I can get out quickly. Just need the materials to get more webbi-

A lunch tray clattered across from me. I jumped and my heart did a flip when I saw Liz Allen sliding into the seat, a mischievous grin on her face as she stole one of my fries.

“You are so screwed on Monday dude,” she teased.

“Huh, what? Why? What?” I stammered out.

She snickered and pointed the fry at me. Her blue eyes danced in the awful fluorescent lighting. “Sheesh Petey, how you do so well in school with such a bad memory will always shock me. Flash dude. He is pissssed. Like severely pissed.”

I sighed. Of course he is. “I didn’t even do anything. All I was trying to do is get to class.”

“Well, he got sent home for the day. Which usually Flash would consider a good thing. But Principal York made the football coach bench Flash for the next game. Apparently, Flash was on a three strikes system, and this was the third—” Her phone vibrated cutting her off. “Speak of the devil. Here look at this.”

She turned the phone around to me. The highlighted message read: PARKER IS SO DEAD.

Wanting to kill the guy who saved his life is levels of irony I can’t get my head around. He really does need that bullying PSA. “Does he not realize that beating me up will just give him a fourth strike? The fourth strike must be a worse punishment than the third strike. Like what happens in baseball when there’s a fourth strike?

Liz smiled and shook her head at me.

“There’s no fourth strike in baseball is there?” I laughed.

“No, no there is not,” she giggled, holding her hand over her mouth.

“Well, the point still stands. Can’t you talk to him or something? Give him the ol’ Liz Allen charm,” I pleaded.

She shook her head and put her hand across the table onto mine causing my heart to leap into my throat. “Sorry Petey. This one is going to be a whole thing with his dad. And… Ya know I shouldn’t get into it. Not my dirty laundry. But just keep your head up alright.” She pulled her hand back and grabbed another fry, “Do you think it’s true though?”

Liz Allen held my hand. Liz Allen held my hand. Ok calm down Parker. Compose yourself c’mon man. “Do aYEae—” My voice cracked causing my face to get hot. “Erm erm. Uh sorry, water must’ve gone down the wrong pipe or something. Do I think what’s true?”

She giggled and then leaned over the table so only I could hear her. Her perfume blanketed around me. “Do you think that he was actually saved by a superhero? Or do you think it was some stupid attention ploy?” She pulled back taking the scent of sweet citrus with her.

“Well, is uh. Is he uh. Um sorry.” I paused and took a quick drink of water. “Erm, erm. Does he usually lie for attention? Flash doesn’t seem like the kind who needs more attention than he usually gets.”

“That is a very good point, Peter Parker. I guess I just questioned it because of the name he gave me. ‘Spider-man’ so stupid right? Like at least try a little bit.”

“Yea totally,” I forced out.

She stood up, “Well anyway I gotta get going. Just wanted to give you a heads up for Monday.” She walked around the table and put her hand on my shoulder. “And also, to steal a few fries.” She grabbed another fry and walked away.

Why does everyone hate my name? I mean, except for Flash. Who is apparently going to kick my ass on Monday. Why do I have to like Liz? Why do I have to have the biggest crush on the girl who’s dating the guy who hates me? Ugh. The bell echoed through the lunchroom. And now I get to spend the next few days deciding if I let that same guy kick my ass or not.

Chapter Text

The ESU lab was mostly deserted, which was expected for 6 o’clock on a Friday night. I figured that 80% of the labs I walked past on my way to Doc Connors’ had their lights off, but I had a good feeling that he would still be there.

As expected, the light was still on when I got to the lab. I opened the door expecting to see Dr. Connors at his usual bench with his head buried in a microscope. Instead, he was standing in front of the chemical supply closet with the door wide open, a clipboard in hand, and a frown across his face. He looked up as I walked into the room.

“Oh Peter,” he said, his voice lacking the usual warmth. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight. You weren’t scheduled, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t. I just thought I’d pop in and see if you needed help with anything to close out the week.”

He stepped away from the door. “Actually, you may be able to. I seem to be missing some chemicals here: polyvinyl acetate, ethyl chloride, silicates, glycerin, and a hydrolyzing ester compound. Any of these rings a bell?”

My web fluid. My stomach spun into a knot. “No, that’s a pretty weird mix of stuff Doc.”

“Yes Peter. I agree, they are a very specific mix.” His gaze froze me in my spot. “And what’s more, is that they were all expired. Someone new to laboratory science might overlook expired chemicals, but they have their place. Do you know what a control standard is?”

 I gulped. “It’s a baseline. To calibrate equipment and ensure the purity of new chemicals.”

“Exactly.” His words were sharp, like a knife. “Without the expired chemicals to act as a control, I can’t properly calibrate the mass spectrometer. Which means that I have to consider every analysis from the last month compromised. I now have to re-verify everything. Weeks of work, Peter. All because the baseline is gone.”

The knot in my stomach turned tighter. How could I be so careless? I should have known I would be caught. And not only that I might’ve ruined weeks of his life’s work.

“I… I might’ve thrown them out,” I stammered. The lie burning like sandpaper through my mouth. “I was clearing out the closet a few weeks ago, getting rid of old reagents. I must have misread the labels, thinking they were waste.”

Dr. Connors stared at me for a long moment. His eyes were suspicious, knowing. He knows I took them, but he has no proof.

“A very convenient mistake,” he finally said, his voice low and laced with disappointment. “You should know that most students in your position would already be in their undergraduate degrees. I stepped out on a limb to bring you here. Not just because of your intelligence, but because of what I believed to be strong integrity. Don’t make me question that.”

He closed the clipboard, walked across the lab and sat in front of a microscope. “Consider this your only warning. If any other materials go ‘missing’, this internship is over. Do you understand?”

“Yes Dr. Connors. I understand, I’m sorry.”

“Go home Peter. I don’t have any work for you right now.” He said coldly as he looked into the microscope.

I backed out of the lab and closed the door softly behind me. He won’t trust me again. How could he? He knows I stole from him, but he can’t prove it. This job is an opportunity of a lifetime, and I’ve ruined it. For what? To play hero. What is the point of this responsibility to others if I can’t even be responsible to myself?