The apprentice spider

Peter Parker was five years old when his parents left home, never to return. They were his first experience of loss, but they were far from his last.

Peter was taken in by his aunt and uncle shortly after his parent’s deaths. He would never just ‘get over’ his parents deaths, but by the age of thirteen, it was something that he was coming to terms with, so naturally, that’s when his Parker look struck again.

At age thirteen he was bitten by a radioactive spider while on a school field trip to Oscorp. He was sick for days after, so sick he was afraid he might die, but instead, one morning he woke up feeling better than he had in years. And he had a six pack! Oh, and superpowers too.

All of his senses were dialed up to eleven and he even had an extra one now! He could also climb walls and had the capability of being stronger than captain America himself. Then, one fateful night, uncle Ben was shot dead infront of him, and the worst part is that he could have prevented it. His own uncle, dead, and it’s all his fault.

But it is also because of this great tragedy, that a hero is born. Inspired to help others to not have to go through what he has, the young boy dawned the homemade spider suit and became the Queens vigilante known as Spider-man.

This is when he met Mr Stark. Mr Stark recruited him to help fight the rogue Avengers in Germany, also giving him a much needed upgrade for his suit. After Germany, Peter had thought Mr Stark would keep in touch, he thought he would be able to help out on a larger scale now that he was in with the Iron Man. Apparently not. For a while anyway.

After the events of homecoming, Peter had been offered a spot on the Avengers! Which he had turned down of course, as it had just been a test, but now Mr Stark was finally going to trust him with the big league stuff. They had also developed a sort or mentor, mentee, possibly kind of, father, son bond. (Though neither of them would admit to the latter aloud ). Peter would come over to Mr Starks labs as a personal intern and help out all the time with all sorts of things.

Then Titan happened. Peter had really tried his best, they all had, but in the end it wasn’t enough, it never does seem to be, does it? The last thing he saw as he was so painfully pulled apart, atom by atom, was Mr Starks distraught face, looking down at him, eyes filled with sadness, pain and regret that mixed together into a chocolate brown swirl and pushed out all light and hope, desperately trying to keep its softness to comfort the child dying before him. All he could do was think about what Mr Stark had said to him all those months ago.

“And if something happens to you, I feel like that’s on me”.

So he said the only thing he could.

“I’m sorry”.

All he knew was pain. And then nothing. And then hope. Doctor Strange was there, telling him that the Avengers needed their help. And boy did they. He was so happy to see Mr Stark again, and the sentiment was definitely shared as he was pulled into a warm hug while rambling about he got there.

Then Mr Stark was dead, and the grief that had become a regular companion grew ten fold. He saved everyone except for himself.

Peter Parker was fifteen when his third father figure died. He was also fifteen when he was accused of murder. Funny how people say that your teens are some of the best years of your life. Although, who knows, with his dumb Parker luck, maybe the rest of his life will make his teens look like a walk in the park.

His identity was compromised, and his friends were suffering for it, so he asked Doctor Strange for help and surprise! it did the opposite of help him. He met other versions of himself and their villains, their twisted, sick villains. No. Wait. That’s not fair. They were ill, it’s not their fault. But Peter can’t help but blame Norman for the death of aunt May. He might’ve been the green goblin at the time, but the goblin had Norman’s face, his voice, his body. He will always be the reason Peter lost the last of his family.

Peter Parker is sixteen when his last family member dies. He is also sixteen when he loses everything.

The multiverse was collapsing in on itself, and the only way to save it was to make everybody forget Peter Parker. So now, at the age of sixteen, Peter Parker was completely and utterly alone in this world.

He was barely getting by working at the diner down the street, barely making enough money to feed, cloth and shelter a normal person, let alone a vigilante with a metabolism that could rival Steve Rogers’.

He always felt like a dead boy walking. Never having a full stomach or enough sleep and yet still working himself to the bone every night and every day.

The only time he felt alive anymore, was when he was swinging from building to building, wind flushing his face red despite being hidden behind a mask, when all that mattered was saving the next victim or stopping the next criminal.

So that’s what he did. He spent every free second he had patrolling Queens as Spider-man, and he was so tired. But how he felt didn’t matter, all that mattered was protecting his city.

—

As Peter walked home from the diner, he couldn’t shake to feeling of being watched. But who would be watching him? He is, quite literally, a nobody. He would usually trust his senses, but with how tired and hungry he was feeling, he decided to chalk it up to nothing more than paranoia.

He walked up the stairs and pulled to keys out of his pocket before reaching and opening the door to his minuscule apartment.

He was given a free meal by one of the other workers at the diner who had a soft spot for him and so he didn’t see the point in wasting the little food he had in his cupboards by eating when he had already done so earlier in the day.

Peter changed into his red and blue outfit and climbed out his apartment window and onto the roof. He was just about to shoot his web onto the building across the way when he felt it.

He felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His spidey sense, or as aunt May used to call it, his Peter tingle. It felt like he was being watched, which wouldn’t be unusual in itself, as his costume tended to gain attention, but whoever was watching him, they weren’t just some random civilian, no, they were dangerous.

Whoever this person was, they were more dangerous than almost any villain he had ever had the displeasure of being near.

What was also quite worrying, was the fact that he was on the roof of his own apartment building. Had they seen him crawl out of the window? Did they know who he was? He needed answers.

Now, a less impulsive person might’ve waited this out, waited to see if they would be followed, and see what this person was planning on doing, but Peter was nothing if not impulsive so, instead he yelled,

“Hey, stalker! I get that I’m amazing, but if you want an autograph, why don’t you just come out and ask like a normal person?”

If Peter were anyone els, he wouldn’t have heard it, but with his heightened hearing, he was able to hear what he swore to be a low chuckle.

“It’s remarkable really, how one sentence makes you remind me so much of him,”

Peter swiveled around so fast he thought he might’ve given himself whiplash. He looked at where he heard the low gravel tone come from. On the roof infront of him, there was a tall man, around six-four, wearing a half orange, half black costume that reminded him of tactical armor. He was also wearing a helmet with the same colours. His spider sense was warning him that this was a man not to be messed with, but Peter was never one to back down when the odds were against him.

“And who, might I be so bold to ask, is it that I remind you of?” Peter asked in a sickly innocent voice.

“Maybe another time,” The man began to walk toward Peter, “now, I’m on a bit of a tight schedule, so it would be much appreciated if you came willingly”.

“Haha, good one, and they say I’m the comedian”. Seriously who did this guy think he was?

“Hm, I thought as much”.

Peter’s spider sense was becoming stronger, warning him of an upcoming attack, but before Peter had any time to process what was happening, the man was on him, injecting something into his neck and he began to feel drowsy. He has a super metabolism, whatever this dude was using shouldn’t be able to work on him!

The man had moved at an impossible speed and had been much stronger than the average human, he must be an enhanced, or a mutant.

Peter was already half asleep when he felt someone pick him up. He was too weak to protest and simply fell limp in the man’s arms. As he felt himself drift into unconsciousness, his only thought was, ‘of course this would happen to me.’

—

Hours earlier.

Slade began to look through all the superheros of this world, perhaps Richard had also been a vigilante here. It has to be a vigilante who hasn’t been seen in over sixteen years. There was also this ‘blip’ to take into account. Apparently half the population had been dead for around five years. The child could have been apart of these people, meaning Slade has no idea how old they could be. Well he didn’t know their age before he found out about the blip either, but this just makes it even harder to try determine one.

There are no vigilantes or superheros that hit the criteria to be Richard, so him being one is off the table. It says online that both him and his wife were scientists for something called SHEILD.

He decides to move onto finding Richard’s offspring. The mercenary shut off the computer and wipes his online presence before gathering up his things and heading to the roof. After climbing a tedious amount of stairs, he reaches to roof.

He opens up his gear bag and pulls on his armor, he also takes out his DNA gun. It’s a handy thing when you’re looking for someone and all you have to go off of is their DNA (no this is not lazy writing, what are you talking about?) he pulls out the vile he keeps with Richard’s DNA. Some might think it’s weird for Slade to keep his ex-apprentice’s DNA, but Slade calls it being prepared.

The mercenary slides the vile into the slot of the gun and begins to scan the city for any hits. After about ten minutes of searching the scanner beeps, indicting that it has found a match. Slade looks at the screen to see a heat signature inside of a run down looking diner and he begins to jump across rooftops with his bag and gun in that direction.

He finally lands on the rooftop across from the facade of the diner and looks in through the window. Inside the diner is a young boy, who if not for his brown hair and eye colour, he would have sworn to be a clone of the first boy wonder. Slade smirked to himself as he saw the boy begin to pack up for the end of his shift.

The mercenary followed the boy around the city and watched him go into a run down apartment building that looked like it should have been demolished years ago. Even more interesting, was when Slade saw a bright red and blue spider crawl out the window of the young boys apartment.

Slade had of course seen articles about Spider-man when researching the heros of this world. The vigilante known as Spider-man had first appeared eight years ago in Queens. He was not seem at all during the blip, leading the public to believe that he was one of its victims (most of the public besides those who believe to Daily Bugle. The newspaper claimed that Spider-man had used the blip as an excuse to take a vacation).

He was also accused of murder not that long ago and the city is still split in half over the vigilante’s innocence. Interesting. It seems Richard’s son is the one who becomes the hero in this universe. If anything this serves his cause perfectly.

One more thing that he notes with pleasure about Spider-man, is that he is a meta human. It is not known for definite what powers he possesses, but there is speculation.

Super strength, enhanced senses, enhanced agility, the ability to climb walls and produce webs are the most solid and proven guesses.

The people of Queens also believe him to have some kind of early warning system, as there are many reports of Spider-man seeming to know whenever some sort of danger is about to occur.

Slade guesses that this all also means a large metabolism, so he will have to use his meta human tranqs. He will also have to be quick about this as he doesn’t know how long they will keep him out for.

Slade is able to accomplish this with a practiced eases. Though, he suspects that it would have been much harder had the boy had a full stomach and full nights rest. The kid looked like death personified. Well, Slade is not complaining, it made his job much easier.

The mercenary holds the boy tightly and aims the gun on the two of them. In a flash of white light, they are both back in the penthouse suit and only a few hours have passed.

Slade looks upon the boys sleeping features and smiles. He finally has his apprentice.