the beginning
New York. The city that never sleeps, and Evan Buckley, the kid that somehow manages to get into every possible situation that would most definitely get you in copious amounts of trouble possible, a complementing duo. You can’t blame the kid, he just had to get out of that house.
Evan’s house was extra suffocating around this time of the year. He wasn’t sure why, he was unsure why he was unsure, but the one thing he was sure about was that moment his mother’s perpetually sad eyes stared at the kitchen calendar, a few seconds too long and she began running her fingers over it, over a particular month coming up. He knows he needs to get up and begin looking for an outing that could get him out of the house as soon as possible, normally this entails him just going stay at a friend’s house or something of that nature but it just so happens his small suburban school science club was going on an excursion to New York pretty soon. a full week away from home? You bet he made quick work of bullshitting his way into joining and even more bullshitting he was allowed to go on the excursion last minute, it helped to be the popular ‘fun’ guy, everyone got along with, and it helped even more that it was his friends that took up the majority of the club, and they seemed ecstatic at the idea of him coming along. He pretended that didn’t make him as happy as it did.
Did he join a science club to avoid his parents? Maybe. And it was working, his parents sent him off without complaint, signing the permission slip without even looking. His dad even gave him some spare cash to spend while there, he’d think they were somewhat relieved to have him gone for so long.
“Fun fact, there are spiders that can leap up to 500 times their body length and also have webs that are considered stronger than steel”
"Evan actually shut up before I backhand you”
He dropped his head to giggle at his friend, adjusting his back-pack before responding “Hey at least this stuff is interesting, if I knew you guys were into stuff like this I would have joined ages ago, with my spider knowledge I’d probably be a great fit”
His friend we'll call Louis just raised an expectant eyebrow “It’ll take a lot more than fun spider facts you read to make it in our actual science classes” he smiled when Evan raised an eyebrow to match him “I saw you looking at the topanimalfacts booklet while on the bus ride over here, don’t deny it”
Evan scoffed before placing a hand over his heart dramatically “Oh you wound me, you are a bully Lou, an absolute bully” he pointed accusingly before turning his head to the cylinder box on display “Look at this bully Mr spider, do you see the hatefulness I have to endure here”
Louis cackled at his antics “Evan that container doesn’t even have a spider in it.” Oh would you look at that, the fancy minimalist container didn’t have a spider in it, that’s Weird. Seeing as all the others did, was it just super tiny? The smaller ones were on a different side of the room though and the lab they were at said they were displaying all their latest evolutionary research in the brochure and almost all of it was using spiders, which technically meant none of them should be empty.
“Huh,” he blinked before looking back up “would be crazy if one escaped” he grinned
Louis visibly shivered “Oh my god don’t say that, I’ve got enough heebie-jeebies being in a room packed with these things but the idea that one could be ON me ” Louise flaps his hand “Ew no, don’t, I can’t”
Buck put his hands up in a placating manner “Woah calm it, it’s probably just being set up for the next tour group, it’s fine” he turned to a lady worker who was a few paces away “Hey ma’am, this container is supposed to be empty right?” He called
She smiled politely in acknowledgment before her eyes met the container, she made a small choked sound and rushed off to what he thinks is her supervisor “Oh…well that answers that” Louis said following his eyes before shivering again “Ugh I hate spiders”
Evan who was distracted watching the lady and her supervisor talk in a panicked manner didn’t acknowledge his friends’ words but simply nodded “Yeah nah let’s move on man”
He diligently turned away and began reloading his previous facts to his poor friends, rejoining the rest of his class’s group. In his yabbering, Evan Buckley failed to notice a beautiful orange spider tucked away in the hood of his jacket.
“TSS-ow what the fuck-“ Evan smacked his hand against his neck “Who pinched me?”
He turned around to face his classmate, she had her hands in her bag and shrugged “Wasn’t me Buckley” he glanced around, confused seeing nobody else behind him, his classmate made a face at him “Your neck looks a little red though”
She took out a compact mirror from the bag she was in the middle is scuffling through and handed it to him, he took it and craned his neck to see a blooming red dot “What the hell? Did I get bit by something?” A cold shiver ran down his entire body. No don’t think about it, but he's in a building full of spiders, but surely not-
“Probably a mosquito or something, I heard they feed those to some of the spiders here so it wouldn’t be surprising” his classmate took the mirror back and pulled out a small colourful bandaid from a separate little bag inside her big bag “Here, so you don’t itch it” he thanked her and made a playful jab about girls having bottomless purses and then immediately got scuffed for it.
When walking back to the bus the empty container from earlier passed through his mind again. Nah better not to think about it, he’s just being paranoid surely.
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The incredibly handsome man for today’s story is Evan Buckley.
Evan was bitten by a radioactive spider while on a field trip to New York and for like the past, ummm 123456…uhhh many years he’s been the one and only Spiderman.
And we can’t say he was called the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman until very recently, before that he had the coolest name. The ‘travelling weaver’, well that was what the majority of the world USED to call him now he’s just plane old Spiderman, BORINGG, would honestly prefer the travelling weaver, or maybe even the EmberSpider, something cool like that but I’ll settle for simplicity sake, also being called the Ember would totally out him at his job, Buck’s paranoid enough being a firefighter and being spiderman, the orange colour pallet was enough for him. Anyways back to it, as previously established in the flashback he was bitten by a radioactive spider on a school trip to New York, skipping some icky bits we’ll just say he came back and went through some *cough* changes, midway through puberty too. That's rough buddy. So he didn’t stay in Hershey very long after that and has been travelling since. Along the way, he met some people who helped him find his path and who helped him pave the course of whom he wanted to be. he even got this wonderful lady in Peru to teach him how to make his very own suit, her versions were umm very…skintight to say the least but it is nice not being mistaken for a petty thief with the black dusty cowls he was always wearing. Unfortunately the sweet old lady May had passed away in an incident by the beach which urged him to seek some stability outside of his vigilantism. This is where he eventually made it to Los Angeles after struggling to find stability within his civilian life, the Los Angeles Fire Department came through .
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Hen sighed “Chimney let it go”
“I don’t get it! I just don’t get it!” Chim stared at his phone ludicrously, open to the online news articles of the day, “Every single time, how does he do it? Like yeah sure super powers, but there is no way in hell he’s somehow just able to just predict if a giant fucking bus is going to hammer him, he wasn’t even paying attention!” the 118 were having a qui-*cough* slow day at work today, though nobody dared to say it out loud. The main 5 had situated themselves fairly comfortably in the lofted living space, with Chimney lounging full man spread on the corner couch frustratingly grasping at his cellular device.
Hen who had plopped herself on the other side of him with her medical books open simply gave him a raised brow
“Your fascination with Spiderman is sort of hilarious chim” Bobby who was in the kitchen chopping up some colourful veggies, stopped chopping to throw a small chunk of capsicum over the counter into the waiting mouth of Mr Evan Buckley “Nice catch.”
Chim turned, craning his neck over the coach to look at Bobby “You don’t get it cap, every single firehouse in the entirety of Los Angeles has met the dude, has seen him in action, except us! I have so many questions I wanna ask him, it’s killing me, man!”
“Ugh Bobby don’t call him THE Spiderman, makes him so way too official” Finally Eddie who was sitting opposite Chimney on the log chair didn’t even look away from his phone, some shitty Tetris game with too many ads.
Bobby gave a light-hearted chuckle at Eddie’s comment, slicing another piece of bell pepper. “Noted. Just Spider...man, right?” He threw another veggie piece, Buck caught it effortlessly again
“It’s Spider-Man. The hyphen’s important,” Buck chimed in with a grin, causing Chimney to roll his eyes.
“Of course, you’d know that, Mr Trivia Night,” Chim muttered, but there was no real heat behind his words. He switched his attention back to his phone, scrolling through articles with a huff of frustration. “Seriously tho, the dude's like a ghost. There’s no pattern, no predictable way to tell where he’ll be, and yet he’s somehow always right on time for every big emergency. It’s crazy.”
Buck suppressed a smile, leaning back on the high chair with an air of practised nonchalance. “Maybe he’s just lucky. You know, like a sixth sense or something.”
“Yeah, right. A ‘spider-sense,’ or whatever,” Chim shot back sarcastically.
Bobby finished with the veggies and wiped his hands on a towel, choosing to join the conversation. “I think what Chim’s getting at Buck, is that it’s more than luck. The guy has saved hundreds of lives in just the past few months alone. He’s always there like he knows what’s going to happen before it does.” Buck could hear the small twinge of pride and longing in Bobbys’ voice, it made him melt a little inside
“Yeah, I bet he’s got some insider connections,” Hen added, flipping a page in her medical book without looking up. “Maybe he’s a cop. Or, I dunno, an informant?” she peeks an eye over her book narrowing it at Chimney “A man in the chair perhaps?”
Buck shifted slightly, feeling the familiar twinge of anxiety coiling in his stomach. “I don't know, I feel like he's just a guy right? Someone trying to do good with what he was given”
Bobby smiled at him “That's a very nice way to think about it Buck, but I think our chim here is more into the mystery aspect of his life”
“That’s what I’m saying!” Chim leaned forward, pointing his phone in Buck’s direction. “He’s gotta have a day job, right? Something that lets him drop everything and swing into action at a moment’s notice.”
Eddie glanced up from his game, giving Chim a scrutinizing look that Chim shot right back before he turned to buck. “What do you think, Buck? I mean surely you’ve gone down one of your internet rabbit holes on the guy more than a few times by now, and if I remember correctly, you are the only one who talked with the guy? what do you think he does”
Buck’s smile faltered and was replaced by a slight grimace at his early stage slip up but he quickly plastered it back on and shrugged. “Yeah, I’m not sure if I’m being honest, ” Buck said with a mock thoughtful expression “If I was Spiderman I think I’d have a job like a… construction worker??”
“Pshh please.” Chimney rolled his eyes dramatically. “You? Spider-Man? Sure, you’ve got the muscles—”
“Thanks, Chim.”
“—But you’re way too forgetful and don’t even get me started on your bad luck. If you were Spider-Man, you would have died within the first week” Chimney paused “Wait I think Maddie told me you used to be a construction worker and you got fired because you ditched one too many of your shifts” Everyone laughed at that.
Buck laughed along with the others, relief washing over him as the conversation shifted away from Spiderman again. He glanced at the clock on the wall, calculating how long he had until his next patrol. It was always tricky balancing his dual life, but it was worth it. Every rescue, every saved life, and every smile from a grateful stranger made the sleepless nights and constant danger worthwhile.
Still, sometimes it felt like he was walking a tightrope, teetering between two worlds that could collide at any moment. These conversations, tho sparse and far between always made him nervous, like one day no matter how careful he is they’d just think too hard and figure it out, having to seamlessly blend in at scenes to be able to take off without being noticed, his costume under his uniform, his large eyebags bobby won't quit making a fuss about. The reality of these things always hits him and sometimes that irrational fear of being outed gets to him late during the small merciful nights he lets himself sleep, quote ‘try to sleep’
“Yeah, Buck would probably get stuck in his own webbing,” Hen quipped, making the others burst into another round of laughter.
“Or tangle himself up trying to put the suit on,” Eddie added with a smirk, Buck pretended to scowl at him to cover his sheepish blush knowing he'd done those once or twice.
“Alright, alright, laugh it up,” Buck said good-naturedly, standing up and stretching. “But don’t come crying to me when Spider-Man turns out to just be some guy.’”
The conversation ended abruptly with the alarm making a chorus of groans come from everyone as they all moved to action “This seems like a small emergency, sorry Buck but it's your turn to be the man behind today” Buck was quick to groan louder for a different reason, Eddie patted him on the back in playful mock comfort
“Rough. I’ll let you know if we see spider-man this time, maybe I'll even ask if he remembers you” This caused Buck to chuckle
“Dream on, Buckaroo,” Chimney called after him as they all made their way down to the rigs, he rolled his eyes
When he saw the fire truck roll out of view, he made sure to make a quick pass to a nearby co-worker that he was going out to get some coffee
As he stepped out the back he took a quick precious moment for a deep breath of the cool Los Angeles air, Buck felt the familiar hum of anticipation thrumming through his veins. He glanced around, making sure no one was watching, and then pulled out his phone, to check the latest police scanner reports.
“Alright,” he muttered under his breath, eyes scanning for any signs of trouble. “Let’s see what kind of issues I can cause tonight”
Within moments, Buck was on the move, slipping into the shadows as he made his way to his hidden stash of gear. He couldn’t help but smile as he reached into the compartment, pulling out the sleek, dark orange-and-black suit that had become his second skin and slipping into it with practiced ease. Using his super strength to dart to the nearest roof
“lets rumble,” he whispered, and then he was off, leaping into the night with natural grace as
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(Meanwhile, inside the fire truck on their way back from what turned out to be a false emergency)
The 118 were still idly chatting when the radio piped up
“Any nearby active stations be aware, immediate assistance is being requested at-“As they rattled off an address, Bobby swiftly tuned in saying they were nearby and en route. His phone buzzed and when he glanced down his brow furrowed. “Uh-oh. Looks like there’s a situation downtown. Some kind of—”
“—building collapse,” Eddie finished, already having fished out his phone. “It’s all over the news.” as the words left his mouth Chim yelled in surprise pointing at the nearby buildings where a familiar dark orange hero was swinging ahead of them
“Wait, was that Spider-Man? Is he—?” Hen started, but Bobby shook his head.
“Doesn’t matter. We’ve got a job to do. Let’s move out, team.”
As the truck’s sirens were turned on Chimney couldn’t resist one last comment, throwing his arms up in exasperation. “I swear, if we get there and Spider-Man’s already taken care of everything again, I’m gonna lose it!”
Hen smirked as she gently elbowed Chim. “Guess we’ll just have to see if our elusive friend shows up this time.” she leaned in close despite the microphoned helmets “You even might get to talk to him~” she teased
Chim just looked unimpressed while the truck's sirens blared. Eddie's phone buzzed “Oh Buck says he going to get some coffee from downtown and to text him what we want” They raised an eyebrow at that before giggling “as if he’ll remember to actually get it.”
“Ugh he's gonna be so mad he's missing out right now” Hen commented, smiling at the idea of Buck grumpy because he's an action junkie probably moping at the firehouse right now
Bobby chimed in humorously “Oh he’ll live. Maybe he'll take a nap for once”