The One Where Peter is Related to Tony

November 15th, 2015

“Yeah they’re talking about laying off some people down at the company,” Peter gulped down his cinnamon toast crunch cereal as Uncle Ben talked about his work with a worried frown.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Aunt May assured him, “Mr.Hanks values your work, and you do help teach the newer recruits some of the ins and outs of old house circuits, so it’s not like he can replace you.”

“That’s the thing,” Ben sighed, “With all of these new people from Mexico and China coming in, the company finds it cheaper to pay inexperienced people a non-living wage, what they’re used to back home, then old geezers like me a living wage for quality work.”

Peter stopped shoveling cereal into his mouth, “You’re not an old Geezer Uncle Ben!  You’re 45, that’s like not even old age.”

Uncle Ben chuckled, “Well Peter, that used to be the case, but with the market rapidly globalizing and more people to compete with, a 45 year old just can’t compete with a 20 year old now in days.  But don’t worry yourself about all that, with your brains, you’ll become your own boss, I bet you’ll be the next Tony Stark.”

Peter’s face reddened, “I don’t know about that Uncle Ben...”

An alarm went off on Uncle Ben’s phone, “Well looks like I have to go, bye Peter, have fun on your field trip!”  He kissed May on the forehead, grabbed his coat, then hurried out the door, leaving Peter to think about the conversation.

Despite Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s assurances of the opposite, it was no secret to Peter that they were struggling financially.  Even with two incomes coming through, it was hard to pay the rent of a multiple bedroom New York apartment on time.

Peter desperately wished he was 16 and could get a job.  Everytime Uncle Ben came home exhausted from his work at the electrician company, or Aunt May had to pay for their Thai takeout in quarters and dimes from the change pile because her credit card declined, Peter felt an overwhelming sense of shame.

Aunt May and Uncle Ben never asked for him, even though they always seemed happy to care for him, Peter knew they wouldn’t struggle so much if they didn’t have to pay for all of his food and a bigger apartment so he could have his own room.  He wished he could do something to help pay for all of their expenses.

Peter’s thoughts of responsibility were interrupted by Aunt May’s statement, “You should start heading to school right now Peter, you don’t want to be late for the field trip.”

The sound of his chair skidding across the floor was heard.  Peter quickly grabbed his backpack, wearing it across only one shoulder, and left through the door with a “Bye May!”

Peter desperately hoped that he hadn’t missed the L-train.  He ran down the stairs, almost falling down from his speed.  Aunt May couldn’t possibly drive him to Manhattan on time, what with the traffic and their one car which could barely start since they almost never used it.

Peter ran past the bodega run by a family friend, Mr.Delmar.  He ran across the street, almost getting hit by a car since he was in such a rush, and down the dirty subway steps.  His backpack and the heavy books inside swayed side to side in an uncomfortable motion.

When he arrived at the platform, much to Peter’s relief, the L-train was at the station, just ready to leave.  Peter jumped into the subway a second after the doors closed.  With his adrenaline gone, Peter struggled to breathe, causing him to have to grab his inhaler out of the side of his backpack.

Asthma was great when it got him out of running laps during PE, but the worst when he actually had to run.  Peter was finally able to breathe freely when the subway made its first stop.  He grabbed onto a pole in order to keep his balance as he waited for another 7 stops.

To Peter’s surprise, he heard MJ’s voice behind him, “Hey there.”  He turned around.  There was MJ, dressed in her usual dark colored layers with a white t-shirt reading, ‘overthrow the patriarchy,’ in black letters.  Unlike Peter, she looked perfectly unstressed and put together.

“Oh,” Peter said, surprise MJ was on the subway, “W-what are you doing here?”

MJ smirked, “How else do you think I get to school, loser,” she playfully punched his arm.

Peter chuckled, “Oh, oh, yeah that makes sense.”  He looked around the crowded subway.  Most people were looking at their phones as the train made its way across the Queensboro bridge.  All of the seats were taken up, leaving the subway overcrowded.  A sudden thought entered Peter’s head.

“Wait, have you taken this subway everyday?  And I didn’t even notice?”

“Yep,” MJ popped the p, “I’m usually drawing in that seat right there though,” she pointed to a seat that was taken up by some lady’s bag.

“What do you draw?”  Peter was genuinely curious.  He noticed MJ blush for a second then say in a nonchalant manner, “People mostly, I like to sketch people in crisis.”

“Like who?”

MJ subtly turned her eyes to her left, where a guy in a suit was anxiously jabbering on his phone.  Peter could hear him say, “That’s not what I meant Susan!”

“So you draw random people?”

“Well, not always.  I also draw teachers from our school and people in our grade,” she dug into her backpack and grabbed a sketchbook, opening one of the pages, “This is a sketch of Coach Wilson a few weeks back.”

Peter looked at the drawing then laughed, “I know where that’s from!  It was after that girl vomited on the gym floor.”

MJ nodded.  The two spent the rest of their subway ride laughing at the drawings she had sketched of their teachers and peers over the course of the school year.

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At school, the freshmen were instructed by the announcements to gather in two groups determined by which field trip they would be going on.  The ones going to Oscorp were to wait in the gym while the school buses arrived, so Peter hurried to the place with Ned, who he had discovered was in his same home room.

“Dude, not to brag, but like my dad works as a floor manager in Oscorp and he told me that the stuff there is insane,” Ned talked with a proud air to Peter as they followed their homeroom out of the classroom and into the hallway.

“Really! That’s so cool man” Peter exclaimed as they walked down the hall, the teacher looked to Peter and gave him a shush hand gesture, so he squeaked, “sorry.”

“My friend Harry is Norman Osborn’s son,” Peter said this in a lower voice, matching the tone of his peers, which included Flash and some of his goons, who were also murmuring amongst themselves.  Ned gave him an impressed look.

“He told me that the stuff Dr.Octavius is doing is pretty cool, but it can’t compare to Stark Industry.”

“Oh Yeah,” Ned replied.  The group was close to the gym.  “My dad actually works on the floor that Dr.Octavius works on, he said it’s cool, but I doubt anything can compare to a literal super-hero.”

Peter’s eyes widened, “Your dad works on that floor?  I hope we get to see it, Harry told me that it was pretty cool.”

“I’m surprised your friend mentioned my dad’s floor,” Ned commented, “He hasn’t told me anything they’re doing over there because he had to sign an NDA.”

Peter nodded, they were now entering the gym.  The room was filled with a multitude of students who were all chattering away in their different groups.  Peter spotted MJ, sitting on the bleachers while drawing in the sketch book she had shown him earlier.

She looked up and then saw him and walked over.  Peter looked over to Ned and said, “Oh so I want to introduce you to my friend MJ, I don’t know if you know her or not, but we’re like friends soo...”

MJ stood in front of the two boys. “Oh hi I’m Ned,”  Ned, always the outgoing one despite his nerd status, reached out his hand.

“Michelle,” she took his hand and awkwardly shook it.  Ned turned to Peter, “So how did you two meet?”

“We live in the same apartment.”  “I have decathlon with MJ.”

Ned just looked at them, slightly confused by the two answers spoken at once.  “Okay then.”

The group stood in awkward silence.  Peter desperately wanted to interject with some conversation starter, so that his two friends could get to know each other better, but before he could, they were ushered to the two yellow school buses that had arrived.

The trio followed their peers out of the big, glass double doors and onto the back sidewalk of the school.  The first school bus was filling up quickly, so the three entered the second one in order to ensure that they would be seated together.

At his middle elementary school, Peter usually sat in the middle of the school bus, alone, because Harry lived close enough to walk to the two schools.  It was a different experience for him to all of a sudden have two friends sitting by him.

Peter sat next to the window with Ned sitting next to him while MJ sat behind the two boys, drawing in her sketchbook.  Peter assumed that she wasn’t in the mood to talk, so he chatted away with Ned about Oscorp.

Peter was so excited when talking with somebody who shared his same love of science, that he didn’t notice Flash and his gang entering the front of the bus.  The bully sneered at the two talking boys, “Well looks like the two losers Fatty and Penis Parker have finally found love.”

When Peter ignored him for a second, Flash continued, “I bet Penis Parker will be thrown out of Oscorp on account that his family lives out of a dumpster.  Where did you even get those clothes, Goodwill?”

Peter looked up, now angry at Flash’s taunting.  Maybe it was the fact that Flash brought up his family’s financial struggles, the fact that Peter could see Michelle glare at the bully from the corner of his eye, or the fact that Flash was alone, his friends already at the back of the bus, that made Peter finally retort after months of bullying from Flash.

He scoffed in new found confidence, “Yeah, well at least my parents didn’t buy my way into midtown.  At least I have the smarts to actually earn a scholarship.”

A look of surprise came upon Flash’s face, immediately replaced by anger, “You’re dead!”  It looked like Flash was about to lunge at Peter, so Mr.Harrington intervened.

“Mr.Thompson!  Take your seat.  And Peter, sit down as well,” he added in a harsh tone, “If there’s another mishap between you two, you boys will be forced to stay in the bus for the remainder of the field trip.”

Flash and Peter nodded fervently, a little shaken up by Mr.Harrington’s harsh reprimand.  When Peter sat back down, Ned whispered, “Dude, that was so cool!  Did you see Flash’s face he was like, oh crap I didn’t expect Peter to be such a badass.”

Peter smiled a little unsuredly, “Yeah I’m not exactly sure why I did that.  Do you think he’s going to beat me up now, like in Karate Kid?”

Ned laughed, “Oh Peter, highschool isn’t like what it was in the 80’s, I doubt Flash will be better than you during a fist fight.”

“He might not be able to throw a punch,” Peter turned around to look at the only competent member of Midtown’s track who constantly followed Flash around, “but Kong sure can.”

Before Ned could respond, a notebook was passed to Peter from the seat behind him.  He took the page that had been bookmarked and opened it with a curious Ned looking over his shoulder.

On the page was one of MJ’s sketches.  The sketch was of Flash, perfectly catching his look of surprise morphing into anger in a few lines.

“Michelle drew that?” Ned asked, “That’s pretty good.”

Peter smiled, “Yeah she likes to sketch people in crisis.”  He admired the drawing for a few seconds longer, then wrote, this is awesome and handed the sketchbook back to MJ.

That almost made Peter glad that he had finally stood up for himself, almost.  Peter had grown up being made fun of for most of his life with Harry.  He knew that bullies probably wouldn’t become physical as long as he kept his head down and ignored them, rose above them.  That’s what Uncle Ben always told him anyways.

After a few seconds of silence, Peter’s thoughts drifted to Harry.  He checked his snap, even though he knew that Harry wouldn’t have been able to talk to him there since his dad locked his phone everyday with the exception of 3 to 3:15 pm.

Peter wondered if whatever Harry had to tell him had anything to do with his dad, or Oscorp as a whole.  He wondered when he would get the next opportunity to see Harry.  ‘Hopefully today,’ Peter thought to himself, ‘But I doubt it.’

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“Welcome children,” the tour guide made her way through the middle pathway of the main Oscorp labs, leading a gaggle of midtown high freshman students, 

“Rather recently, Osborn industry, inc. has increased in prominence.  It is dedicated to researching experimental chemical compounds, finding answers to problems that seem impossible to solve.  We are also the leading global manufacturer in providing innovative materials for chemical processing.”

Peter was only half listening to the tour guide as she droned on about Oscorp.  The tour group was walking over a glass walkway, overlooking the labs that Peter had read about in the past few weeks.

Reading about something and seeing it with your own two eyes are very different.  Peter gazed at the modern looking work stations, that were 100 times cleaner than his own, in wonderment.  

He looked upon the different people in white lab coats, holding onto vials with various chemical compounds in them, reports, and computers.  Some appeared to be recording data from different experiments while others seemed to be discussing said experiments with their colleagues.  Peter hoped that someday, he would have the opportunity to work in a lab like this one.

“The Oscorp labs in this building focus on manufacturing chemically engineered products with a special focus on replacements of hazardous acids and solvents.”

Most of the students following the tour guide were, like Peter, only half listening.  Ned stood on the other side of the walkway, placing his hand on the railing and looking onto the labs in wonderment in a similar fashion to Peter.  Michelle was behind them, people gazing and remaining inconspicuous as always.  The other students, like Flash, were either chattering amongst themselves or curiously looking around.

As they approached the end of the Walkway, heading towards what appeared to be an elevator down to the main labs, Peter was filled with excitement.  He was going to see the experiments done by professional scientists take place right in front of his very eyes.

That feeling of excitement was replaced with suffering.  For as the tour guide announced, “If you will follow me down this way, you will see-”

Peter interrupted the tour guide with a cry of pain, for a sharp, a stinging pinch was felt on his hand.  The students beside Peter rushed away , as he lifted his hand to see what had bitten him.  Surrounded by Peter’s blood was a huge, black spider, with two orange circles on its body.

Peter didn’t have a bad case of Arachnaphobia, he had dealt with spiders before, but when faced with a spider this big that had given him a seriously painful bite, he immediately flung it off his hand in irrational fear.

The spider landed on an unexpecting MJ, whose eyes widened, giving her a petrified appearance.  She immediately came out of her stupor though, swatting the spider onto the ground with her sketch book.

Once on the ground, the spider was crushed by Ned’s boot.  The boy had been standing there, having an inhuman trait of having no fear of spiders, he took the opportunity to crush the freaky spider with a stomp of his boot.

During this time, the pain Peter felt on his hand increased immensely.  His vision blurred and his knees wobbled, causing him to fall down on the floor, holding onto his bitten hand.  He heard Flash say, “Penis Parker is freaking out,” in a happy voice and Ned exclaimed, “Peter!” as he vomited onto the floor.

A multitude of voices rang out around Peter, but he couldn’t decipher who said them because of how sick he suddenly felt.  He clutched onto his hand and slowly went from sitting to sprawling on the ground.

“Jesus Parker!”

“What is going on here Peter?!”

“Everyone Back!”

“EEEWW!”

“Peter!?”

“Dude, that was a big honking spider, what the fuck?!”

“Peter?  Can you hear me?  Peter?”  Peter cracked his eyes open, he recognized MJ’s voice.

“Alright kids, let’s get into a single file!”

“See how I killed that thing?!”

“Parker, can you stand?  What is it, son?”

“Peter, please say something!”

The last thing Peter saw before his already blotchy vision completely faded was Mr.Harrington, a policeman, and MJ, crowding over him.  

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The next thing Peter knew, he was back on the school bus.  As he slowly opened his eyes, he was confused how he had gotten there.  He could see Ned next to him, and as he looked to the other bus seat beside them, he saw Mr.Harrington watching over him with a worried expression.

As soon as Peter seemed fully awake, Roger Harrington spoke to him, “We called your Aunt.  She’ll be at school to get you by the time we get back.  Are you feeling better?”

Peter looked down at his left hand.  A white cloth had been wrapped around it.  His hand was throbbing a lot, but the pain had decreased considerably.  Peter felt incredibly tired, but he didn’t feel sick enough to throw up again.

He replied with an unsure, “Yeah, I just -- I think I was a little freaked out by that Spider though, it was huge.”

“Yeah it was,” Ned piped up from beside him.  Mj, who was sitting directly behind the two said, “I mean you were just unlucky, anyone could have been bitten.”

Mr.Harrington smiled, probably because a student appeared to have not been seriously ill on his watch, “You’re aunt will take you to the hospital so-”

Peter was too tired to hear the rest of what Mr.Harrington was saying.  He was too tired to care about the gossip about him that was being passed around on the bus, too tired to care that he only got the chance to see a small percentage of the Oscorp labs.  He passed out on the bus seat, unaware of what was happening to him.

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Norman Osborn was in his office, talking with his lawyer.  His mind wasn’t focused on his blabbering lawyer though, he was worried about what that idiot Leeds had told him.  The specimen that he had worked so hard to create, the only one that had the oz serum successfully sent through its DNA, was missing.

He looked down at his labs from the huge glass window in his office.  The specimen could be down there, crawling about.  It could be smashed by one of the many idiots who worked under him, thousands of hours of research destroyed.  Norman did have one other fail safe, but it had come to nothing so far, unlike the spider.

His thoughts were interrupted by a huffing Mr.Leeds, trying to catch his breath as he walked up to Norman’s white, modern desk.  “Mr.Osborn,” Norman Osborn’s lawyer stopped talking and turned to the floor manager.

“Seems there was an incident on the main laboratory floor.  One of the Midtown high school students from the field trip, Peter Parker, was bitten by the specimen.”

Norman Osborn raised his eyebrows, “So you have found the specimen then Leeds.  Contained it.  You might keep your job after all.”

“Uh-uh, well I’m sorry to say sir but, the specimen was crushed and killed by one of the other students.”

Norman turned around to look at his floor manager, “You mean to tell me that thousands of hours of research was destroyed, by a HIGHSCHOOL STUDENT!”

Mr.Leeds cowered, “Uh, yes sir, that would be the case.”

“You're fired, Leeds, pack your shit up and go, GO!”

The no longer floor manager stumbled out the door.  Norman was still heaving with anger, he was left with nothing, his specimen had died because it had bitten some stupid highschool student.

Another thought came into Norman’s head.  Before he could expand on it, his lawyer piped up, “We have to worry about legal obligations Norman.”

Norman Osborn turned to him, telling him to deal with it himself on the tip of his tongue.  “If the boy’s parents sue, they’ll sue us, not the school.  We’re the billion dollar corporation here.  We have to either settle immediately or we start building our defenses now and wait for the hit.”

The thought that had come to Norman’s head festered, this whole incident wasn’t bad at all, it was a golden opportunity.  Human testing of the oz serum had been completed without Norman having to beg at the feet of some government official.  Hopefully this human would have a more interesting response than the last.

“No, no, I have a better idea, let’s pick up the tab.”

Norman’s lawyer looked flustered, “B-but sir, that’s an admission of guilt.”

Norman poo pooed him, “I don’t care.  I’m also going to send a nice fruit basket too.  Why not.”  An evil smile was plastered on the scientist’s face, creeping out his lawyer.

 “Why sir?”

Norman ended the conversation with a determined look, “I want to keep an eye on that boy.”

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“How’s Peter doing?” Ben rushed through the door.  Despite his devastating day at work, the only thing on his mind was his nephew.

May was sitting at the table, holding onto a mug of chamomile tea.  Her expression was contemplative, but she didn’t appear to be stressed.  “He’s passed out right now, but the doctors said he was fine.”

Ben breathed a sigh of relief.  When May called him from the hospital, he had feared the worst.  Now he had only one problem to deal with.  “How much is the medical bill going to cost?”

May gave him a relieved smile, “I was worried about that too, but the Osborn people picked up the check and even sent us a basket of fruit.”  Sure enough, he could see an overly ornate basket of fruit sitting on the counter top.

“That-That’s good,” Ben slumped down into a seat across from May.  The news he was going to tell her would ruin their day, even more than it had already been, but Ben was never one to hold off telling people the inevitable.

May must have noticed his weary expression and defeated body language, “Ben, what’s wrong?”

“I got laid off today,” he turned to look at his wife.  Ben saw May’s horrified expression so he continued in a reassuring tone, “I couldn’t find another job today, but with my experience, I might be able to score a better one than I had.  This might be a blessing in disguise.”

Ben and May both knew that wasn’t true, losing one income was far from a blessing, but they also knew from experience that it was always better to stay optimistic.  “I can take a double shift at the senior center,” May blurted out.

“May you don’t ha-”

“Yes I do, if I don’t we won’t be able to pay the rent or groceries,” Ben sighed in defeat.

“In the meantime I can work part time at Delmar’s.  He needs a cook I know, and I’m sure he’ll give me the job.”

A thought crossed May’s mind as she heard the loud springs move in Peter’s mattress, “What should we tell Peter?”

“We shouldn’t worry him about this, not with him starting that new school of his and having to deal with kids like Flash Thompson.”

May nodded her head in agreement.  The two both had a hatred for the boy after they had witnessed him bully Peter during an impromptu visit to midtown.  Uncle Ben and Aunt May were certain that Peter would be miles ahead of him in a few years, but in the present, with Flash’s father practically funding half of the school, the situation was an unfortunate mess.

May took her husband’s hand, “Don’t worry Ben, we survived an alien invasion.  We’ll pull through this like we always do.”

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November 16th, 2015

The next morning, Peter was incredibly drowsy and tired.  He dragged himself out of bed though, checking his snaps while feeling a bit too sick to eat any breakfast.  Unlike a few days prior, Peter actually had notifications.

Harry sent him a snap, saying:  Sorry Peter couldn’t meet your class at the labs my dad wouldn’t let me.  He followed the message with a frowny face.

Peter replied with:  it’s fine i actually didn’t see anything since I passed out from a spider bite.  He imagined Harry would respond with a GIF of Skeletor saying Wat sometime between 3 and 3:15.

To his surprise, Peter received multiple snaps from Ned.  how are you feeling?  A few hours later:  Peter you have to look at the midtown meme account on instagram.  I know you follow them.  Peter frowned.  He hadn’t been on his instagram account since the beginning of the school year.  What was happening there?

Peter scrolled down to Ned’s other snap before checking out the midtown meme account.  Peter i’m so sorry i didn’t mean for this to happen.  He scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion.  What was Ned sorry for?

Before Peter could get to the bottom of this mystery, May announced, “You better get going if you don’t want to be late for school.”  

Peter blinked blearily up at her, he really was tired.  “Honey, are you alright?”

Peter rubbed his eyes and yawned, “Oh yeah I’m fine May, just tired.”  He grabbed his backpack as May replied with an unsure, “Okay then, bye.  Have a good day at school.”

MJ met him at their usual spot on the L-train.  Peter noticed that her usual snarky and closed off expression was replaced with one of sympathy and second hand embarrassment.  “Hey MJ-wait what’s wrong?”

“Have you looked at the midtown meme account in the past day by any chance?”

Peter was starting to get worried, first Ned now MJ.  What was going on in that meme account.  He had scrolled through it a couple of times in the beginning of the year.  The account was mostly made up of memes making fun of Mr.Harrington’s obsession with his ex-wife or inside jokes that Peter didn’t understand.

“Uh, no.  Can’t say that I have.  Wh-what’s on there?”

MJ sucked in a breath, “Just look it up on your phone.”  The subway still had at least 6 stops to make so Peter opened his phone, knowing that he had time.

The account was filled with memes about him.  There were no pictures of him, since everyone had their phones confiscated in the beginning of the field trip, but the captions were all recalling his moment with the spider.

One caption read:  This dude deadass passed out from a spider followed by a couple of crying laughing emojis.  Another one was more on the nose, saying:  Penis Parker fainted from his fear of spiders lol.  

Peter turned to MJ.  He didn’t know what to think about this.  He knew that Flash liked to pick on him, but he never thought that the bully would be this mean.  Instead of Peter’s retort to the bully resulting in a fistfight, they resulted in everybody in the school thinking he was pathetic, which was even worse.

Most of the commenters on the memes were either making fun of Peter or completely confused and out of the loop.  MJ and Ned though, faithful friends, defended him with mixed results.

MJ commented:  tf is this a shit throwing account now?  And i thought we only made fun of teachers lmao.  Nobody replied to her comments, probably because nobody really noticed MJ.

Ned tried to help in his own way, but unwittingly ruined Peter’s reputation even more.  He posted an entire persuasive essay onto his story explaining how Peter wasn’t a loser or pathetic for passing out from a spider bite.  He actually made some good points, from Peter’s point of view, but of course his classmates didn’t think the same way.

Reaction memes were made to Ned’s essay.  Most people were posting phrases like:  Fatty at it again, these losers are made for each other lmao.  This guy needs to get a life lol.  It’s just a meme.  Some reactions were the lenny face followed by the caption, hmmm wonder what this means?

Peter put his head in his hands from embarrassment.  Not only was he a loser, but he had sucked his newest friend into being a complete loser too.  MJ, who had been sketching him this entire time, spoke up.  “It’s sort of trendy to make fun of you right now, but it’ll die out in a week or so.”

Peter hoped that she was correct.

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At school, it seemed like Peter’s entire freshman class was staring at him.  Everytime he turned to look back at them, they would whisper amongst themselves.  When Peter came into his homeroom, Ned glanced at him sympathetically.  They didn’t have time to talk though, until lunch.

As he took part in his before lunch classes, Peter couldn’t help but be angry at Flash and this entire situation.  Before, most of the student body paid little attention to him.  Flash of course teased him, but it was just him and about 4 other guys.  Plus, as the months wore on, their bullying became less and less.

Now though, everyone thought he was a loser.  Peter was basically a social pariah.  Worse, Ned had somehow gotten himself entangled into this mess, so now he was a social pariah too, because of Peter.   He couldn’t help but feel guilty for something that any reasonable person would assume was not his fault. 

Peter knew that if Ben and May heard about this situation, they would reassure him that none of this was his fault and that in 5 years he would be going places while his highschool bullies would have peaked junior year.  That still didn’t make having to endure another four years of being viewed as a complete loser any easier.

As Peter walked through the lunchroom, he became even angrier at that stupid spider with the wierd ass orange cirles on its body.  He was also angry at himself.  Why did he have to be so sickly as to faint from a stupid spider bite?  Peter thought that his days of spending weeks at the hospital with pneumonia were over.

Ned joined him at the lunch line, which to Peter’s displeasure, was incredibly slow moving.  He just wanted to grab his lunch and eat alone.  “Dude,” Ned grabbed an apple, “I am so sorry about the thing I posted in my story.  I thought it would make people lessen a bit on the fainting memes, but it made everything so much worse.”

Peter grabbed an apple and nothing else, he felt a little too sick to be eating anything heavy.  “It’s not your fault,” he eyed Flash and his gang, who were strolling towards him.  Peter closed his eyes, preparing himself to not react to any of the taunts coming his way.

“Oh no I got bit by a spider, Huaaag!” Flash did a terrible impersonation of Peter.

“Look there’s the two love birds, you guys are perfect for each other,” A member of Flash’s gang, Peter remembered his name to be Derek, pointed at Ned and him.

Sometimes, at the height of their taunting, Flash and his friends would jostle Peter a bit.  They wouldn’t beat him up, but they would aim an unexpected kick onto his back pack or something like that.

Kong aimed a kick towards Peter’s backpack.  Before he could carry it out, something weird happened.

He kicked Peter’s backpack, only to miss.  The hairs on Peter’s arm rose as a sense, or something that he couldn’t quite explain, told him to jerk to the left.  To his surprise, Peter saw Kong’s shoe rise through the air right where he had been.

Acting on an instinct that he never even knew he had, Peter grabbed Kong’s shoe and flipped him through the air.  Kong landed face first on the ground, petrified and screaming.  Everyone backed away from the two boys.

“Dude Holy-” Flash didn’t finish his sentence as he put his hand on the back of his head in pure bewilderment.

Peter turned to Ned, whose expression mirrored Flash’s and everyone else near them.  A teacher approached the group, saying, “Hey, what’s going here?” As Peter looked down at his hands in shock.

Peter was so confused.  Why had he done that?  He never got physical with his bullies ever.  More importantly, how had he done that?  Peter was terrible in PE, having no muscles to speak of.  How had he suddenly gained the strength and knowledge necessary to judo flip Kong, the biggest kid in his grade?

Before Peter could contemplate those questions further, he suddenly felt dizzy.  He passed out in a similar way to how he had at Oscorp.  Mrs.Warren hovered over him as his vision completely blacked out.

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“AAAH!” Peter sat up, shaking with nervous energy.  He looked around him.  There was Aunt May, dressed in her usual 70’s attire and wearing a worried expression.  Next to her was what Peter assumed to be a doctor.  He’s looking through some forms.

At the end of the bed there’s a nurse holding onto a gurney.  Peter looked down at himself, instead of his usual jeans and science shirt with jacket combo, he’s wearing a hospital gown.  The room also smelled strongly of antiseptic.  Peter had been to his fair share of hospital rooms, and never had the antiseptic smell been so strong.

Before he could distract his mind further with thoughts of unusually strong scents, Aunt May spoke up, “Oh My God!  Thank the-Peter are you okay?”

“Uh yeah, yeah I’m actually fine,” Unlike this morning, Peter actually felt fine.  His out of the ordinary tiredness from earlier had completely diminished and his hand wasn’t throbbing.  In fact, looking at his hand, Peter could see that his makeshift bandage had been taken off and the spider bite had completely disappeared.  

May rubbed his back, “You’re not fine honey.  You fainted.”

“How many fingers am I holding up son?”  Peter turned to look at the doctor. 

“Three,” Peter replied easily.  He was always confused why his peers and doctors alike always asked him that question when he took off his glasses.  It wasn’t like their fingers were all swirly, just a bit fuzzy.

The doctor continued his questioning, “Any dizziness?  Blurred vision? Nausea?”

Peter didn’t have any of those symptoms, so he replied, “No.  I’m thirsty though, like really thirsty.”

The nurse at the end of the bed stopped what she was doing, “I’ll go get you some water, hon, be’ll back in a jiff.”  Before Peter could reply with a thanks, she had hurried down the hallway.

Once they were alone in the room, Aunt May asked, “Peter, what happened at the school?”  His aunt looked worried, her hair was done in a messy ponytail and her face was devoid of makeup.  Today was supposed to be her day off from work.

Peter looked guiltily up at his aunt and answered truthfully, “I-I don’t know, it just happened so fast and then I fainted again.  I’m so sorry Aunt May.”

May pursed her lips.  Before she could continue her line of questioning though, the doctor spoke up, “How’s your hand?  The bite seems to have disappeared, but we don’t know for sure if there is any internal damage.”

“Oh yeah, no it’s fine,”  Peter looked down at his hand, happy that at least one thing was going well for him today, “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

He must have looked too happy, because the doctor followed up with, “Have you been taking any drugs at all?  Marijuana?”

Peter was slightly taken aback and after glancing at May, he could tell she was too.  “No, of course not.”

The doctor looked skeptical, “Now’s the time to tell me.  We’re going to run blood tests and urine tests.  So...”

“No!  I swear.  I wouldn’t even know where to get any,”  Peter was flabbergasted that the doctor would think he took drugs.  Sure a ton of kids in his class bragged about smoking pot, as if they were above everyone else for doing something ‘grownup,’ but Peter didn’t have any friends until yesterday.  Much less ones that were into that scene.

Aunt May came to his defense, “The thing is that Peter has always suffered from one ailment or the other.  He has asthma and allergies.  In fact, you know this doctor, when he was younger, Peter was in here every few months because of some sickness.”

Peter winced a little at May’s description of him.  It was totally accurate, but still made him seem like a complete invalid.

She finished with, “Maybe the spider bite somehow messed with Peter’s system or something.”

The doctor rubbed his goatee, “Maybe… We’ll run a full blood work anyhow.  And some x-rays, just to cover all of our bases.”

The nurse, who had already returned with some water, placed a needle on the metal gurney next to Peter’s hospital bed, “I need you to just relax your arm, okay?  It’ll only sting for a sec.”

She rubbed the crook of Peter’s elbow with her gloved hand, looking for a place to inject the needle into.  When the nurse turned to grab the needle, Peter looked down at his arm, only to see his veins bulge out in an abnormal fashion.

No one had noticed his veins do that except for Peter.  May and the doctor were busy talking about Peter’s predicament.  He scrunched his eyebrows together, Why did his arm do that?

Before Peter could fully contemplate what had happened, the nurse came back to his side, needle in hand.  She attempted to prick his skin, only to have to almost shove the needle into him.

“Huh,” the nurse commented as she drew Peter’s blood, “Thick skin you got there.”

Peter didn’t say anything to that.  He thought over what had happened over the past day and a half.  Peter knew something strange was going on, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

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“Hi, could you take this to the lab and have them do an express on this one?”  The nurse who had drawn Peter’s blood put the syringe onto the window of the front office then left with a, “Thanks.”

The guy who worked at the front office was browsing reddit, so he replied, “Whatever,” and paid no attention to the blood.

Unbeknownst to Peter’s doctor, nurse, or any of the hospital staff, a shadowy figure grabbed the syringe that held his blood and replaced it with another.

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On a secret floor in Oscorp, unmonitored by security cameras, Norman Osborn, his hitman Shaw, and his lawyer, all gathered around a hologram, viewing Peter Parker’s blood.

“Sir?” Norman’s lawyer spoke up.  He didn’t know anything about blood or science, but he wanted to know what was happening to the boy.  Peter Parker’s fate would probably determine how much work he would have to do in the coming months.

“The oz, it’s killing him,” Norman Osborn’s voice conveyed despair, not over a boy losing his life, but over the fact that his oz serum wasn’t successfully altering human DNA.

“How?”

“Well I don’t know, do I?!!”  A vein bulged on Norman’s head, which to most people who worked under him, was a sign to nope outta the room.  Norman’s lawyer knew that if he let his boss take the reins for this predicament, he would be out of work, so he steered the conversation into the direction he wanted it to go.

“They’ll trace it back to the lab.”

“Yes,” Norman replied.

“Set the project back, maybe forever.”

“Yes.”

“How long does he have?”

“Not long,” the lawyer was surprised by Norman’s almost downtrodden expression.

“So he’s going to die.”

“Yes.”

“So, no matter what, he’s going to die?”

Norman sighed in defeat.  He could still recover from this, but he was going to have to kiss those military contracts goodbye.  Months of work had gone down the toilet, but if Norman didn’t do what his lawyer was insinuating, his dream of creating his oz serum successfully, would never happen.

Norman turned to his hitman with a determined look on his face, “Shaw?”

Shaw, who had been silent the entire time, said, “Taken care of sir.”

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When Peter and Aunt May arrived at their apartment, drowsiness overtook Peter once again.  He took a nap, until Uncle Ben woke him up for dinner.  “Peter, wake up, it’s time for dinner.”

Peter slowly opened his eyes, “Huhh, what?”

“It’s time for dinner Peter, you aren’t going to get better unless you eat something.”

Peter contemplated just telling his Uncle that he wanted to sleep, but then his stomach growled.  He hadn’t eaten anything all day.  All of a sudden, Peter felt a pain in his gut.  His urge for food was stronger than it had ever been.

He stood up, “I’m coming Uncle Ben, I’m coming.  What’s for dinner?”

The two walked out of Peter’s room and into the hallway, “Well I made us some split pea soup, and Aunt May made her date loaf.”

Peter scrunched up his face in disgust.  Every few months, Aunt May would attempt to make the same date loaf her grandmother made her during the 70’s.  She would always fail, making Peter and Uncle Ben secretly gag as they tried not to hurt her feelings.

“We’ll eat the date loaf while watching a movie or something,” Uncle Ben reassured Peter.  They both knew that while Aunt May was distracted, it would be easier to throw her date loaf away.

When the two came to the kitchen table, Aunt May had finished setting the bowls and split pea soup, “Oh Peter honey, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” Peter reassured her, “Just, really really hungry, can we eat now?”  Peter didn’t mean to be impolite, but his hunger overpowered everything else on his mind.

Probably because he was sick, Aunt May and Uncle Ben let his impoliteness slide, “Well lucky for you, I made my date loaf and Ben made his famous split pea soup, so you’re not going to go hungry any longer.”

The Parker family sat at the table.  Peter immediately inhaled a bowl of his Uncle’s soup.  Even though the ingredients in the split pea soup were subpar, almost rotten leftovers, Uncle Ben always managed to make it more than edible through garlic and spices.

After downing one bowl of soup, Peter quickly poured another one, his hunger not yet being satisfied.  Uncle Ben and Aunt May stopped their conversation, which Peter hadn’t been listening to.  “Woah there,” Uncle Ben said, “Slow down there Peter, you aren’t on a time limit.”

“Sorry!” Peter squeaked, he looked sheepishly at the table, then started eating his soup slower.  He was less hungry now that he had already had one bowl of soup.

“So Peter, are you going to be okay to go to school tomorrow?”  Aunt May asked.

Peter thought about her question.  He actually felt perfectly fine despite his two fainting spells.  The illness he had got from that spider was weird, but Peter reckoned it was going away.  “Yeah, I should be fine.”

Uncle Ben and Aunt May nodded happily.  After eating 4 bowls of soup, much to the astonishment of his Aunt and Uncle, Peter’s hunger was finally satisfied.  

The three decided on watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that night.  They were a little tired of watching so much Star Wars and Peter’s second favorite franchise was the Indiana Jones's one.  Aunt May and Uncle Ben sat on the couch, forgetting their financial troubles for a couple of hours.

Peter laid down on the armchair, where he eventually fell asleep.  He forgot about the whole midtown meme account fiasco, or even checking his snap to see what Harry had texted him.  As his eyes drooped, Peter could only focus on Indiana Jones’s whip.  An idea for what his Dad’s creation could be used for sprung into his subconscious.

Uncle Ben and Aunt May carried Peter to his bed after the movie finished.  They did the dishes for him while worriedly talking about how they were going to pay the rent for the upcoming month.

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November 16th, 2015

Tony cursed to himself as he failed to find something remotely shady or illegal going down in Oscorp.  Even with an AI that was at least 20 years ahead of its time, Tony could only find files of Oscorp testing how human tissue reacted to certain chemicals used in warfare.  Of course Norman Osbourne now had all of the army, including a very shady General Ross, wrapped around his finger.

Tony wasn’t jealous, Stark Industry had pulled out of weapon manufacturing ages ago.  He did have a seated interest though, in Osbourne’s main backer, Justin Hammer.  Tony had assumed he was done with that annoying little man back in 2010, but of course he was out of prison, and backing something shady once again.

  Tony was about to call it quits, maybe Just Hammer had turned a new leaf after all?  Then Friday stumbled upon a correspondence between the basement level floor manager and Norman Osbourne himself.  It was a quick message, reading:

All files for Project Oz will be in paper format.

‘What is this project Oz?’ Tony thought to himself.  ‘And why would Norman Osbourne want all of its files non digitized?’

“Seems a bit unnecessary don’t you think?” Tony asked Dummy, U and Friday as he exited his lab.  The bots whirled and beeped as he entered the elevator and told Friday to take him to the common floor of the Avengers compound.

Tony knew he couldn’t get anywhere by hacking, he had to have someone on the ground floor of Oscorp, reporting to him what this Oz project was.  Whatever it was, Tony hoped that it wouldn’t be another extremis.

He couldn’t do that himself.  Tony Stark was way too recognizable, even with sunglasses, actually, especially with sunglasses.  He also couldn’t waltz into Oscorp with the Iron Man armour and demand to see what the Oz project was.  Osbourne would just deny everything and Tony had no proof, without admitting he had illegally breached the floor manager’s privacy on a hunch.

There was only one person who could go undercover at Oscorp and not raise any suspicion.  As Tony exited the elevator, he saw her right ahead of him, reading a book on the big couch in front of the flat screen TV.  Tony walked right behind her, near the kitchen island that most of the Avengers used as a dining room table.

“Hey so Justin Hammer is out of prison.”  He leaned against the kitchen island, hands in his pockets as Natasha answered, “Yes and?” not taking her eyes off her book.

“Isn’t it weird?  That Justin Hammer is out of prison even though he was supposed to have a life sentence.”

“Some would say.”  Again, Natasha didn’t take her eyes off of her book.

“And did you also know that he’s now funding Norman Osbourne?  And all of his funds are going to a secret project that has moved all of its files to paper?.”

“Hmmm,” Natasha pondered, “Maybe Norman is trying to be old fashioned.”

Tony stopped leaning on the kitchen island, “Okay come on Nat, you know as well as I do that something shady is going down in Oscorp.”

“So you want me to go undercover, finding out what they’re up to?”

Tony clapped his hands, “You know what, here are some new and improved widow bites for you, they travel at least twice as fast as the one’s made in Shield, terrible manufacturers there by the way.  They can also be hidden, disguised as bracelets.”  Tony picked up the silver case that he had brought with him from his lab and put it beside Natasha on the couch.

“Thanks Tony, these will be perfect for Oscorp,” Natasha called before he could enter the elevator.  She knew Tony hated it when people handed him anything, even favors.  He usually wanted to be the one giving something to other people.  So she added, “I was going to investigate there anyway, Steve asked me earlier today.”