Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
November 17th, 2015
The next day, Peter woke up feeling energetic. Out of habit, he grabbed his glasses off his nightstand and put them on. Something was off with his glasses. Usually, when Peter put them on, he noticed a drastic improvement in his vision. This time though, his eye sight with the glasses on seemed almost blurry as compared with his regular eyesight.
Peter took his glasses off, very confused. Sure enough, his eyesight improved. It was as if Peter’s terrible vision had been cured overnight. As Peter surveyed the room, he discovered that his vision had not only been cured, but improved. Scratches on the wall and faint stains on the carpet, which hadn’t been visible before, could suddenly be seen.
Peter shook his head with disbelief and got ready for the day in a daze. First judo flipping Kong, then the whole vein thing, now this. What on earth was going on?
Aunt May and Uncle Ben were at the table, eating a cold breakfast while talking worriedly with each other. They stopped talking as soon as Peter entered the kitchen/dining room. Peter would have found that act strange, but he was so consumed with finding a reasonable explanation for what had happened recently, that he barely noticed them.
“Peter honey,” Aunt May asked as he sat down, “How are you feeling? You’re up early”
Uncle Ben gazed at him curiously for a second, “Why aren’t you wearing your glasses?”
“Oh um yeah, I’m doing fine actually, really fine,” That was the truth. Peter was almost shaking from excess energy. He didn’t know where all of this energy came from, but it felt like he had just drank 10 energy drinks after sleeping for 12 hours. For the first time in his life, Peter felt the urge to exercise.
Peter didn’t have an answer for Uncle Ben’s question. He hadn’t yet fully processed the fact that his vision was suddenly cured overnight, so instead he asked, “Can I have some cereal?”
“Sure honey, just don’t eat all of it. This box has to last us for the month.” If Peter’s mind hadn’t been preoccupied, he would have been worried by that statement.
“Thanks,” Peter grabbed the cinnamon toast crunch and poured so much that the bowl Uncle Ben had bought at GoodWill almost overflowed. Uncle Ben looked at him suspiciously from his magazine. First Peter didn’t answer his question, now he was all of a sudden eating more in a day then he had in the past week. Something strange was going on with his nephew.
Peter didn’t know how hungry he was or how much he was craving cinnamon toast crunch until he ate the first spoonful. From there, he practically inhaled the food, not even bothering to add any milk.
To add to the list of strange things happening, the cinnamon toast crunch and everything else in their kitchen for that matter, smelled stronger than it had yesterday. From Uncle Ben, Peter caught a whiff of the faint smell of burnt and dirty wires. It was a smell that he usually only detected when angling his face close to a broken tech piece found in the dumpster.
Aunt May smelled like lavender shampoo. Peter had smelled that scent once, when he accidentally used her usual shampoo as body wash. Once Peter noticed those smells, a whole host of other scents, almost all super gross, made their way to his nostrils. He focused on the cinnamon toast crunch in an attempt to dispel them.
“Well I have to go now,” Peter looked up at his Aunt, “Wait why?”
“I have to work a double shift today,” Peter looked down at his bowl of cereal in shame, “It doesn't have anything to do with you Honey, don’t worry.”
Aunt May grabbed her coat and left right after Uncle Ben said, “Bye sweetie!”
The man studied Peter for a moment before checking the time, “It’s late, I better go to. Make sure to clean your bowl out, Bye Peter.” He left, leaving Peter alone in the house, which was looking incredibly dingy as he surveyed it with his inhuman vision.
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Peter walked leisurely down his relatively quiet street in Queens. Since he had woken up so early, he had more time to catch the subway.
The street that he lived on was sort of an oasis of apartment buildings ranging from low income to slightly more middle class. Closer to Manhattan, near the subway entrance, his street developed into bodegas, gas stations, and random businesses. On the other side of his street, farther away from the city, lay abandoned warehouses that hadn’t been used since the 90’s, marked by broken wire fences and graffiti.
As Peter was accosted by some really gross smells that he had never noticed before, he took out his phone, only to be immediately blinded by the bright blue light. Peter still didn’t know why his sense of smell and sight were suddenly enhanced. His only guess was that these were symptoms of the spider bite. Maybe he was still sick?
After closing his eyes, and then slowly opening them back up, Peter discovered that he could somewhat control his vision and sense of smell. He focused on just looking at his phone, finding its bright light to become somewhat bearable and the distractions around him diminished in their relevance.
Unfortunately, there was no cure for the stench of sewer and garbage that plagued Peter’s nostrils. He lifted his green jacket slightly up his face which barely helped, but it was better than nothing.
As he continued walking towards the subway, Peter checked his snap. Sure enough, Harry had replied with a Wat, followed by that sucks dude, also super random. Maybe I could convince my dad to give you a tour?
Peter smiled and replied, That’d be great. Hope we can get together sometime soon.
Peter was interested in the prospect of visiting Oscorp once again, not just because of the science happening there, but also because he wanted to do a little digging into what was happening with him.
Peter had already hypothesized that the spider that bit him, he could still remember the two orange circles on its body, was not a normal spider. He reckoned that it was somehow altered, thus why he was experiencing these weird symptoms.
The next texts Peter viewed were from Ned and MJ. Ned sent him, Peter I hope you’re okay. It was awesome though when you flipped kong. Sucks that no one took a video of that.
MJ sent a simple, Get well soon loser.
After reassuring his friends that he was okay, Peter turned his attention to the midtown meme account. He hoped that they had moved on from making fun of him, but judging from the fact that he had fainted again, he wasn’t hopeful.
Unbeknownst to Peter, a black SUV drove up a block behind him, slowing to a standstill. Shaw, who was in the driver’s seat, told Norman Osbourne over the phone, “I have a visual.”
“The street isn’t busy, but there might be some people watching from the apartment buildings nearby,” Norman Osbourne sat in his office chair, casual sipping a drink as if he wasn’t ordering a hitman to murder a teenager, “Make it look like an accident.”
Shaw nodded, driving towards the boy focusing on his phone at freeway speeds. Before he could run into the target, the strangest thing happened.
Peter noticed the car driving on the sidewalk only when it was a foot away from him. Like yesterday with Kong, a sense that he couldn’t explain told him that something was behind him. This time though, the sense was a thousand times stronger, as if sirens screaming danger were playing on repeat through Peter’s head.
Peter’s body worked on autopilot as he effortlessly flipped over the speeding car. Before he could process his near death experience, Peter heard a loud crack. He turned around to find that the black SUV had run into a pole on the side of the road.
He started running towards the car, in an attempt to see if the passenger inside was hurt. To his horror, when Peter approached the black SUV, the man driving opened the car door and pulled out a gun.
Peter froze in fear, then immediately snapped out of it. Uncle Ben had taught what to do when faced with a gun. Peter turned around and started running zig zag to his apartment. He forgot about school as his mind raced with thought and theories concerning what had just transpired.
Shaw immediately called his boss once that kid ran away. He knew Norman was going to be mad at him, but given the circumstances, he had hope that his boss would be a little more forgiving.
“Report, is the Parker kid taken care of?” Norman sat alert in his chair, ready to get this whole ordeal over with.
“Sir, you are not going to believe this, but-” As his hitman told Norman what had happened, Osborn’s eyes widened in shock, then his mouth morphed into an evil smile. Thousands of hours of research had not been wasted after all, the Oz serum had finally fulfilled its desired purpose on a human.
“Sir, this mission can still be fulfilled. I can go to his home and-”
Norman paled at Shaw’s words, then immediately exploded into anger, “Abort Shaw! Abort! I want to study that kid, not kill him!”
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Peter stumbled down the stairs and into his makeshift lab as thoughts swirled around his mind, trying to make sense of what had just transpired. Peter gripped the doorway from the lab to his apartment’s basement. His knuckles turned white as the plaster crumbled.
Peter startled back and stared at his hands in shock. How had he done that? He turned to look back at the doorway. The apartment basement was rundown and filled with cracks, so Peter doubted that a handgrip indent would be noticed. Still though, he put his hands on his head in anxiety as a single question raced through his mind. What was going on?
Peter sat down in front of his PC. He thought about what exactly had happened over the course of 2 days. First he was bit by a weird ass spider. Then he fainted and felt tired. Then he flipped Kong, the biggest kid in his grade, flat on his face. What was weirder about that incident was that Peter somehow knew that Kong’s foot was coming for him, seconds before it made impact.
Next came the strange way his veins had reacted when prodded at the hospital. Peter had had his blood taken many times in his life, so he knew that that was not normal. Not to mention that his skin was suddenly thick, for some reason. Actually, Peter had a good idea of exactly what that reason was.
Peter couldn’t ignore these abnormal occurrences anymore this morning. First he suddenly didn’t need glasses, which now that Peter wasn’t wearing them, his face felt weird. To add to that, now he could all of a sudden smell everything, causing New York to become almost unbearable.
Then the incident with the hitman happened, and Peter had no doubt that guy was a hitman. He was wearing a black trench coat and carried a gun around for Pete’s sake! Somehow Peter had jumped with inhuman strength over an entire black SUV car. At PE, Peter could barely perform a box jump.
The fact about what had happened a few minutes ago that confused Peter the most was that, like with Kong, he could sense the car coming before it hit him. While Peter furrowed his brows in concentration, trying to think up a logical explanation for all of this, he remembered something from his 5th grade science project on spiders.
Peter turned on his PC and started frantically typing. He visited a bug enthusiast website that had been a lifesaver for him 3 years ago when working on a final project for biology. Peter quickly clicked on the spider hyperlink, sending him to a page that hadn’t been updated since 2006, but still had all of the information he needed.
Many people confuse spiders with insects. Both belong to the phylum arthropoda in the animal kingdom.
Peter didn’t bother finishing the introduction, opting to skim the article until he came to the snippet of information he wanted to double check.
‘Found it!’ Peter excitedly thought to himself as he read the article in detail again.
The prosoma spiders have a good developed feeling mechanism that makes them capable of detecting movements of their prey.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that sentence meant. Spiders had a sense that detected their prey, a sort of danger sense, the same sense that had alerted Peter of Kong and the car.
Peter leaned back in his chair, thoughtfully staring at absolutely nothing as he realized the implications of the information found in this article. All of the strange shit that had been happening to him, was because of the spider bite.
Peter had already made that connection before, but he was 100% sure now. That spider was not a normal spider, he was certain of that. Peter knew that no known spiders on the planet just gave people a sixth sense when bitten.
The answer to what exactly had happened to him was in Oscorp. Common sense told Peter that Oscorp had done something to that spider to make it give him these weird symptoms.
He visited the Oscorp website and studied it extensively, only to find nothing concerning spiders or animal testing. The only thing Oscorp was doing with animals was testing different chemicals with animal and human tissue.
After scouring reddit, 4chan, and even a science discord server for some scientific experiments Oscorp was conducting off books, or even just conspiracy theories, Peter found nothing.
He groaned in frustration. Peter hated dealing with uncertainties, and now he had many. What had happened to that spider that bit Peter? He knew that Oscorp had created it. No known spider species on the planet had two orange circles on its body.
Also why was a hitman ordered against Peter? He assumed it was because of this whole ordeal. Maybe Oscorp had ordered the hitman? Peter wouldn’t put that past Harry’s creepy dad. If the hitman wanted to kill him though, and knew enough about him to follow him on his walk to the subway, why wasn’t he here trying to kill Peter?
Peter was obviously grateful that the hitman wasn’t actively trying to kill him, but he was still confused. As Peter turned his head, he eyed the microscope on his work table. He may not be able to answer all of his questions, but he could clear up a few issues concerning what exactly had changed in his DNA to give him a sixth sense.
A few moments later, a drop of Peter’s blood was held in a sample container. Peter had never pricked his skin before, but it didn’t seem that thick as compared to yesterday with the nurse.
Studying his blood through a microscope created a whole new set of questions that Peter doubted he would ever know the answer to. Peter usually focused on chemistry and physics, but he had studied human blood under a microscope before.
He knew that regular human blood wasn’t supposed to look like his. The individual cells seemed altered. There was foreign DNA attached to them, that Peter assumed, in light of recent events, to be the spider’s.
After studying his own blood for God knows how long, and then googling random questions about blood that would probably put him on an FBI watchlist, Peter sighed in defeat. He wasn’t going to get any farther into his investigation of what had happened to him.
So far, what Peter had pieced together was that an abnormal spider from Oscorp had bitten him, giving him superhuman vision, smell, and a sixth sense. The word super made Peter think of the avengers. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor...Did the spider give him superpowers?
Peter couldn’t help but smile at that thought. Maybe the heroes he had idolized for so long weren’t so different from himself? He let the part of his brain that developed unrealistic fantasies create one where Peter was a member of the Avengers, gaining fame and prestige. He imagined fighting alongside them against terrorists, aliens, or whatever the baddie of the month was.
Peter immediately shot down that idea. He was just some random kid from Queens who couldn’t even do a single pushup and was bullied by a nerd who couldn’t throw a punch. Why would the Avengers want him? And plus, why would he want to join the Avengers?
The Avengers already fought the bad guys, constantly getting criticized by the media and not being able to have normal lives as a result. The more Peter thought about it, the more he decided that using his newfound powers to help the world that had done nothing but shit on him his entire life was a terrible idea.
It would only ruin his Aunt and Uncle’s, the people who had given him so much, lives.
With this thought in his heart, Peter took out his Uncle’s birthday present. He had already finished wiring the LEDs, now he just had to download code into the arduino.
Before he could grab his supplies, a ton of sound input came into his head all at once. Peter gripped his work table as his ears started ringing. He could hear so many voices, conversations, and arguments.
Some random guy was watching Survivor in the apartment on the ground floor. Peter heard Jeff Probst talking about some challenge. A guy was arguing with his wife on the second floor. Peter knew it was on the second floor since the sound was fainter than the survivor one.
Pain filled Peter’s ears as all of the voices and sounds became much louder. Cars rushing across the highway, sirens, and the subway were deafening. Peter covered his ears, sinking to the ground, as he was able to hear somebody crinkling a bag of potato chips 3 floors up.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the lights were all of a sudden too bright, and the smell of old wires that Peter had found on Uncle Ben, overwhelmed his senses. Peter curled up in a ball as he closed his eyes and wished everything would go away.
He focused on the thumping of his heart beat that steadily decreased in frequency as the minutes passed by. ‘What was that?’ Peter thought to himself as his senses slowly stopped going haywire.
Peter already knew the answer. To add to his list of superhuman abilities, he now had super hearing. Because of the craziness of the day, Peter took this newfound ability in stride. What was one more?
Peter slowly stood up, still being able to hear more sounds than he ever could before, but it was like his brain was focused or something. Peter didn’t know quite how to explain it, but it was as if he could tune out certain smells, sights, and sounds, and focus on a single one.
He focused on his breathing, then found when not, sensory overload threatened to cause him trouble again. ‘Got it, my senses are going to be dialed to eleven unless I focus on something.’
Once fully feeling like himself again, Peter tested his new found ability. He focused on the survivor episode his neighbor was watching. He didn’t try to hear his neighbor’s conversations though, no matter how curious he was. Peter knew that would be a complete violation of their privacy.
It was still sort of cool to have super hearing, almost better than having a spider sense(Peter had decided to call it that.) He wondered how far he could hear. Peter focused on sounds that were faint. Despite his best laid plans, He unwittingly eavesdropped on a tourist couple visiting the empire state building.
‘Well this isn’t that bad, actually this is pretty great,’ Peter thought to himself as he continued gathering supplies for the task of completing Uncle Ben’s birthday present. After the initial shock of having powers like these wore off, Peter was pretty nonchalant about them.
Yeah, he could sense danger and his senses were enhanced, but they weren’t going to change his life, at least not for the worst. Peter could probably use these abilities to improve his life somehow.
As he grabbed the cord used for attaching his computer to the circuit from the table filled with scattered tech from the dumpster, Peter’s eye caught sight of a mechanical watch. An idea from his subconscious resurfaced, causing him to immediately forget about Ben’s almost done Birthday present.
He grabbed the watch and walked to the work table centered around chemistry. Sure enough, there were a couple of empty vials that had once been filled with his father’s formula, or web fluid as MJ had coined it. Next to them, were all of the components Peter needed in order to test out his idea.
He spent the next few hours taking apart the watch and unmixed web fluid. Peter finally had an idea for what his father’s work could be used for, and it came from Indiana Jones.
The work was a good distraction for Peter. All of the thoughts and unanswered questions still swirled around in his mind, but they took a backseat to the thought of spraying web fluid out of a watch to form a rope, or even just to coat something with web fluid. Peter wasn’t entirely sure how the web fluid would react when squeezed through a tiny hole.
After using spare parts from multiple sources to alter the inside of the watch, Peter was finally ready to try out his invention. He poured the web fluid into an area of the watch. He pressed a button on the side and…
Peter was about to say viola in his head, but the result of his experiment was not what he had expected. Instead of the web fluid reaching out to the wall five feet away and sticking to it, it gurgled meekly out.
Peter didn’t give up after that failed try though. He increased the speed of the spinners inside the watch and tried again. The second try exploded the watch much to Peter’s dismay, but he was still glad it was different from the last.
The hours whizzed by as Peter altered the new watch he had dissected more and more. None of the attempts were successful, but Peter was hopeful that he at least was getting closer.
A game changer for Peter’s invention were the hundreds of small little vials he found in one of his parent’s old boxes. Peter had forgotten these things even existed, they served no purpose for any experiments that he knew of.
Now though, Peter knew exactly what these canisters could be used for. He poured the web fluid into one, then inserted it into the watch. Before, Peter would just pour the unmixed fluid into the opening, making it less compact.
Peter almost screamed with excitement as the web fluid shot out of the watch and onto his lab’s wall, forming a perfect rope. The end of the rope was attached to the wall in a frayed manner, like a spider’s web. ‘Ironic,’ Peter thought to himself.
Before he could study the rope any further, a shrill voice was heard from the basement stairs, “Peter! Get your ass up here!”
Peter glanced at the small window placed on the corner of his lab. The sky was already dark. A flood of memories and thoughts came back to him. “Oh crap.”
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November 17th, 2015
Pepper was eating a salad when Natasha strode into her office, looking almost identical to when they had first met. Pepper couldn’t say she was surprised though. Nat and her had been meeting up for weekly lunches ever since 2012.
It started when Pepper took over the PR for the avengers. Natasha, knowing all of the ins and outs of the team, decided to help Pepper with going about making the avengers the good guys in the eyes of the media. She knew every avenger’s strength and weakness, so her input was invaluable.
As time went on, their meetings devolved into complaining about the men they had to deal with at work, and talking about random aspects of their lives. Sometimes, when the Black Widow wasn’t needed on a mission, Pepper would bring over some wine to the compound and they would spend the night watching cheesy hallmark movies and gossiping about people on the team.
Natasha was carrying a folder, so Pepper assumed that she either needed her help with one of the solo missions she did every other week, most had to do with tracking down Bruce, or she was about to present a strategy to a PR problem that the Avengers were facing. Seeing as there hadn’t been any controversy the past few months, Pepper assumed it was the former.
“So, Nat, what brings you to my office?” Pepper took a bite of her quinoa.
Natasha smiled and took a seat, “You’ve probably already guessed, Tony sent me on a solo mission to Oscorp. I was wondering if you could do a friend a favor and mark me as a former floor manager for Stark Industry.”
Pepper faltered a bit at the mention of her former boyfriend, or current boyfriend on a break. It was complicated. Things hadn’t been the same since… Pepper didn’t want to think of that, so she focused on the task at hand.
“That could be done in 2 minutes,” Pepper visited the proper directory on the ipad that she had been scrolling through while eating lunch. She crunched a couple numbers and edited some names, “You’re still using the cover, Natalie Rushman, right?”
“Yes.”
After a minute, Pepper finalized the edits, “You’re good to go Miss Rushman.”
“Thanks Pepper,” Natasha must have noticed her sad expression, probably because that woman didn’t miss a thing. She added, “So did you fire that guy at the marketing compartment yet?”
Pepper huffed, “No, unfortunately he’s still valuable so I can’t fire his ass.”
The two friends laughed as they shared stories about what was happening in the separate work places. None of the topics they covered were about anything of great importance, so the conversation was a nice distraction. Pepper’s grief that always sprung up during the quiet times in the fall was momentarily forgotten.
Going undercover at Oscorp remained in the back of Natasha’s mind. She wondered what was happening in those labs, what this oz project was all about. Her best guess was that it was another science corporation’s attempt at recreating the super soldier serum. Whatever was going on, Natasha was determined to get to the bottom of it.
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Norman Osborn studied Natalie Rushman’s background information. Her time at Stark Industry, coupled with all of the global experience she had, made the woman a perfect choice for a new floor manager.
Nevertheless, Norman wanted to go through everything himself before telling Miss Rushman to start in the morning. As the incident with Leeds showed, nobody could be trusted with even the most simple tasks anymore.
Despite the troubles brewing during the past few days, Norman Osborn couldn’t be in a happier mood. The oz serum was finally successful, and Norman had proof. Justin Hammer and General Ross would no longer be nagging him for results. He had results.
For the first time since the 1940’s, another super soldier had been created. With Norman being the one to create the super soldier, self pride couldn’t cover what he felt towards himself.
And if Norman’s calculations were correct, which he had no doubt they were, that gangly teenager, Peter Parker, was ten times stronger than Captain America. Now all Norman had to do was test his experiment.
He knew he couldn’t just have Shaw forcibly take his blood. Taking an experiment’s blood was a delicate process, having to be done in the lab. Plus with his strength, Norman doubted Shaw would be any match for someone injected with the oz serum. Then Norman would have to somehow get that Parker kid into his lab, and take his blood by trickery. Maybe-
His thoughts were interrupted by Harry, opening and closing his office door. Harry had been standing outside, contemplating if he should ask his dad for a favor or not.
It was a shame that Peter wasn’t able to tour the Oscorp labs, and from a spider bite no less, how random. Harry felt bad for his friend, since he was the one who had the science obsession after all. If anyone deserved to tour his father’s labs, it was Peter.
Now though, standing before his dad, Harry was all of a sudden having second thoughts on asking him. He probably wouldn’t say yes anyways, leaving Harry to deal with a scolding but nothing to show for it.
Before Harry could make an excuse and leave though, his father said, “Well what is it that you want Harry?”
He looked thoughtful, but not mad. This was actually the happiest Harry had seen his dad in a long time. Harry decided to go through with his question after all.
“So you know Peter, Peter Parker, my friend back in elementary and middle school? You said you approved of him sir.” Harry paused, seeing the surprised yet approving look on his dad’s face caused him to continue in earnest.
“He was supposed to go to a tour of midtown two days ago, but he couldn’t because well, this is going to sound crazy-”
“He was bit by a spider,” an uncharacteristic smile could be seen on Norman’s face. Harry was about to ask how his dad knew that, then realized that Peter had been bit in Oscorp, of course his dad knew what had happened.
“And since your pal missed his field trip you want to take him on a tour of the labs.”
“Yes sir, if that is alright. We’ll only go on Doc Ock’s floor where he’s coding the bionic arms, since that’s the only floor I’m allowed to go on anyways.”
Norman put a proud hand on his son’s shoulder, “That is more than alright son. Have your friend come to the labs right after school.”
Harry stammered out, “Thanks dad,” then quickly left. As he snapped Peter the news on his phone, since it was 3:10, he couldn’t help but be confused by his dad’s sudden change in attitude.
He was happy with his dad’s change though. Maybe the guy wasn’t so bad after all. Yeah, his dad was eccentric, obsessed with his work, but that was dedication. The stuff that he injected him with, well his dad probably knew it would do nothing to Harry. It was probably vitamins or something. Whatever the case, Harry was ecstatic that for the first time in his entire life, his dad wasn’t disappointed or screaming at him.
On the other side of the door, Norman Osborn called Doctor Octavius. “Hello, Norman, the specs will be done within the hour.”
“Otto, I have something I need you to do.”
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“So I get a call at work, and-and the principal’s office says that he didn’t even go to school today!”
Aunt May and Uncle Ben were cornering Peter while he leaned against the doorway to the kitchen. They both wore matching expressions of anger and disapproval, making Peter bow his head in shame. He rarely made his aunt and uncle mad.
Why had his stupid brain decide to forget school? Oh right, because Peter all of a sudden gained weird spider super powers and he wanted to figure out what was happening.
Always the good cop, Ben said in a gentle but firm voice, “Where have you been all day Peter?”
“I was in my lab,” At least Peter didn’t have to lie about that.
“What were you doing?”
He contemplated telling May and Ben the truth, but the words died in his throat. Peter still didn’t completely understand what had happened, so bothering them with his problems wouldn’t solve anything. Plus would they even believe him? Peter’s sixth sense only popped up when he was in danger, and he doubted he would ever be in danger around his Aunt and Uncle.
“Hello?” Uncle Ben broke Peter’s silence. He was confused why his boy, who was always talking his ear off, was all of a sudden quiet and vague in his answers. Ben knew something was going on with his nephew, but he wasn’t sure what.
“I didn’t feel like going to school today, alright?!” Peter sullenly stated.
Aunt May hardened her expression after hearing Peter’s reply. She had hoped that teenage angst skipped over her nephew. “Didn’t feel like going?” Aunt May almost laughed as Peter gazed at her angrily, “He didn’t feel like going!?”
This was ridiculous, Peter had every right to not feel like going to school. With only two people not bullying or whispering about him everyday, school sucked, “School isn’t the party you think it is, alright?”
Uncle Ben narrowed his eyes, he was tired of this uncalled for attitude, “Well, you’re not supposed to be having a party, young man, you’re supposed to be in school to learn!”
Peter paled at Uncle Ben’s “young man,” he only said that when he was truly pissed. He nodded his head, turning his line of sight to the ground again, “Yeah, I-I know.”
Aunt May noticed Peter’s change in his defiant attitude. She had been told by the principal about the bullying Peter had faced during the past few days, and even before. May felt bad for her nephew, but bullying was no excuse for him to forego his education. “Now I know that what happened on the field trip was embarrassing. I can see that but-”
Uncle Ben saw Peter put a hand to the back of his head and brace himself against the wall with the other hand. His uncharacteristic actions were worrying Ben. Maybe the sickness he got from that spider was worse than the doctor’s had told them? And Peter was covering it up because he didn’t want to feel like a burden? That would be something his nephew would do.
“Are you feeling alright, son?”
For whatever reason, well Peter guessed it was some other symptom of the spider bite, sweat poured out of his pores and he felt incredibly angry. Of course he wasn’t feeling alright!
He could smell the disgusting trash from their kitchen and the neighbor’s disgusting trash along with the sewage from their entire apartment complex. Peter could see every tiny wrinkle on his Aunt and Uncle’s faces, the dark circles under Aunt May’s eyes that were being covered by makeup.
He could hear every conversation going on in their apartment. All of the voices and arguments along with every siren in New York City made Peter’s ears ring as everything morphed together. It was too much input. Peter yelled, “I’m fine!” causing him to focus on his aunt and uncle, their steady breathing and heartbeats , so he didn’t repeat the same incident from earlier.
He angrily tugged his hand off of the wall, only for pieces of drywall to be stuck to his fingers. Peter looked at his hand in shock. It was as if-his hand-it was stuck to the-
Uncle Ben and Aunt May were too taken aback by Peter’s statement to notice what had happened. “Peter?”
After a moment of silence Aunt May put her lecturing finger up, “Uh, who exactly do you think you’re talking to with that mouth?”
“Maybe you need to go to your room for the night and think about things,” Uncle Ben held the same disapproving expression as Aunt May.
Peter stared at the two in indignant shock. They were treating him like a child. They didn’t even know what was going on. “Go to my room!? I’m fifteen years old!”
“Go,” was Uncle Ben’s only reply while Aunt May remained firm by his side. They weren’t going to deal with this type of behavior. The two decided to talk with Peter once he calmed down.
“God!” Peter stomped to his room with a humph. He slammed the door as Uncle Ben and Aunt May looked down their hallway with a worried expression. What was going on with their nephew?
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Peter huffed, laying on his bed as angry thoughts swirled through his head. Aunt May and Uncle Ben had no right to do that! He was just trying to figure out what was going on with himself. Plus Peter was the perfect kid, his Aunt and Uncle never had to discipline him ever!
While his classmates went to parties acting out like regular teenagers, they posted it on instagram and received no repercussions. Peter skipped school once and his aunt and uncle were all up in his case about it. He didn’t even do anything wrong. He was literally in his lab the entire day!
As his anger subsided a bit, the rational side of Peter’s brain took over. Yeah, he had skipped school holed up in his lab, but Aunt May and Uncle Ben didn’t know that. For all they knew he was smoking pot, like that doctor had implied. The more Peter thought about it, the guiltier he felt.
May and Ben didn’t ask for him, yet here he was making their lives harder. They paid for his every expense when it would have been just as easy to dump him into foster care. Peter had no memories of his parents, besides from pictures, so Aunt May and Uncle Ben had been the only adult figures in his life to step up to the plate and raise him. He would forever be in their debt.
Peter sat up in his bed, deciding to apologise to his Aunt and Uncle and tell them what was going on. As he did though, his fingers brushed against the drywall that had unstuck once he calmed down. Peter looked down to the broken pieces of plaster, suddenly remembering what had happened.
He took off his shoes. Peter was going to test something out.
On an impulse, he put his hand against his gray bedroom wall, almost forgetting about apologising to Aunt May and Uncle Ben. He mentally told his hand to stick to the wall. To Peter's amazement, when pulling very lightly on his hand, he didn’t want to ruin more of the apartment’s walls, his hand was stuck.
He stuck his feet and other hand to the wall and started climbing his bedroom like a spider. Peter climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling, hanging level with his ceiling fan that never worked. Peter smiled as he saw his Albert Einstein theory of relativity poster from an upside down angle.
‘This is so cool!’ Peter thought to himself. Not only was his senses enhanced, which was also a burden but still amazing, and he had a sixth sense to warn him of danger, but he could now stick to things. The pros of that spider bite definitely outweigh the cons.
Peter momentarily forgot he was hanging from the ceiling as his super hearing picked up sound from his Aunt and Uncle’s conversation. Their murmuring formed into distinct words as he focused his super hearing on their voices. Peter never imagined that sentence would ever come out of his brain. These powers were officially awesome.
“He’s just a kid May, going through some growing pains that’s all. I’m sure this phase will pass,” Peter heard Ben’s reassuring voice sounding through the kitchen.
“I know Ben,” Peter heard the soft scrape of his family’s wooden chairs against the tiled kitchen floor, “I guess I’m just worried about our finances is all, and I took it out on Peter. I shouldn’t have done that. Goodness knows he’s going through a lot with the bullying and all.”
Peter’s interest perked up with the mention of financial trouble. What had happened?
“Don’t worry May, Peter won’t hold a grudge and he’ll deal with the bullying. High School kids are gruesome but in 4 years, he’ll fly right by them,” Peter’s face burned with embarrassment at the compliment. Nobody was even with him, but it was awkward to have someone praise him regardless.
“As with our finances, Delmar gave me the job,” Peter’s eyebrows furrowed. Why would his Delmar- Before he could finish that thought, Aunt May piped in, “That’s great honey!”
“If we forego cable this month, and skimp a bit on groceries, we’ll be able to make the rent.” Peter heard May’s sigh of relief as his brain filled in the missing pieces.
He did a backflip off the ceiling and onto the ground, as if it was second nature, but the excitement Peter had felt before was gone. It was now replaced with guilt. Uncle Ben had lost his job, making his Aunt and Uncle more worried about their finances than they already were, and Peter had added to their problems.
Their conversation turned back to murmuring as Peter focused on his breathing. He needed air, a place to think, some fresh air. All of these discoveries were happening too close together and Peter couldn’t figure out how he felt about them.
His gaze met his window. Besides the street lights and blinkers from the cars that sped up and down his street, outside was dark. Dark enough for a teenager to crawl down an apartment wall without being seen.
Before he could convince himself not to, Peter grabbed a black hoodie he had swiped for free at a garage sale and opened the window. He peered down at the pavement below. It was a 7 story drop to the bottom if he fell, but he wouldn’t fall, because he could now stick to, well drywall at least.
Peter hung his foot over the edge of his window and placed it over the dirty stucco exterior. Sure enough, it stuck. Peter wore a triumphant smile as he retreated from his room, sticking entirely to the outside of his apartment building. Barfoot, Peter shivered in the chilly November air, but he was too amazed at his abilities to really care.
He effortlessly crawled down the wall, making sure to position himself in the dark spots and shadows. With his super hearing, Peter could hear a couple of voices coming from the sidewalk. They sounded drunk though, so he wasn’t too worried.
Peter met the ground and then made his way to the sidewalk, walking away from Manhattan and towards the abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of Queens. As he ran, he didn’t worry about other people looking at him. The people of New York probably wouldn’t question a random kid running on the sidewalk barefoot, what with the amount of strange stuff one saw on a daily basis.
As he ran, a lot of thoughts crossed Peter’s mind. Most of them were about his family’s finances. Some of them were about who he should tell about his powers, if he told anyone.
Peter definitely didn’t want to tell Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They already had enough on their plate. He didn’t know if he should tell MJ and Ned, probably not since he had only known them for a few days. Peter didn’t know if they were mutant phobic or not. Not that Peter was a mutant, he had read that those powers only manifested when one was either born or 12, still, they might think so.
Harry would be the only one Peter could tell, not over the phone though, because his dad might be listening in. Heaven knows Peter didn’t want his dad to know about his powers, considering how creepy he was and the fact that he might be behind them.
Peter had read some files on Hydra back in 2014. He had read history books about mutants or people with powers being turned into laboratory experiments and tortured. Peter shuddered at the thought. He wouldn’t put it past Norman Osborn to do that in the name of science.
He stopped, when a sudden thought hit his mind. Was that what Harry had been trying to tell Peter? That his dad was doing some shady experiments? That would explain how he gained his powers. Thinking of that, Peter decided he didn’t want to tell anyone about his powers, not until he was sure that the benefits of telling someone outweighed the danger he could be placing on himself and whoever he told.
With that thought in mind, Peter continued running towards the abandoned warehouse neighborhood. His feet felt dirty from the asphalt and Peter was a little cold, but despite that, he felt stronger than he ever had before. Peter’s asthma didn’t bother him at all and he could see graffiti on a brick wall from half a mile ahead.
Peter tried something out. That spider bite had given him powers… Did those powers include enhanced running.
The answer was found to be a resounding yes as Peter lengthened his strides, running almost the same speed as the cars that were rushing down his street. For someone who struggled running a single lap during PE, it was exhilarating to suddenly rush past chain link fences and apartment complexes with superhuman speed.
As Peter continued running, not even caring what the random passerbyers thought anymore, cheap apartment buildings gave way to dilapidated warehouses. The sidewalks became increasingly more cracked and no trespassing signs were posted on every other piece of broken chain link fence.
Peter paid no heed to those signs, he knew from the times when Harry and he explored this part of town that nobody really cared who lumbered around the once used factories. The signs boasting of surveillance cameras were only there to scare away the homeless.
Showing off a somewhat new found power, Peter jumped over the fence positioned in front of an old car factory effortlessly. He had already somewhat known that he had the power of… Jumping high? Peter ultimately decided on using the term inhuman acrobatics, since he had done a flip over the car this morning.
Peter was ecstatic as he made his way over to the warehouse that he knew had cars weighing at least 500 pounds. Going from skinny asthmatic kid who couldn’t throw a punch, to someone who had superhuman jumping and running, or probably just endurance, made him giddy with joy. Now he just wanted to see if super strength was on his growing list of powers.
The door to the warehouse was barred shut, but that was no problem for Peter. He grabbed onto the concrete walls and started climbing up the wall like a spider. From the last time Peter had been in this place, back when it was more accessible, he had seen some large holes on the high ceiling.
Peter grasped the corner of the wall and roof made of gravel, heaving himself up. He ended up jumping high in the air and landing on top of the roof in an over the top superhero stance he had seen Iron Man use once on TV.
The gravel tickled Peter’s feet, sensitive from the cold, as he surveyed the roof for cracks. All around him were rooftops and walls. Towards Manhattan, if Peter squinted, he could see the windows on his apartment building.
Once a large hole was found, Peter did a series of complicated twists, gracefully landing on the ground with the same superhero pose as before. He brushed the dust off of his pants and scoured the large open room for any heavy objects.
‘Aha!’ Peter thought to himself as he found a pile of rusty cars. Five of them were stacked against each other. Peter briefly wondered what, whoever used to own this old factory was going to do with the piles of junk. He brushed those thoughts away, Peter was dying to know if he had super strength or not.
His question was answered as he positioned his hands onto the bottom car in the stack. As he lifted the cars into the air with minimal effort, Peter smiled triumphantly. The rusty squeaking and scratching hurt his enhanced ears, but he didn’t care. Him, Peter Parker, officially had super powers. The possibilities were endless.
The cars were thrown to the side of the building with inhuman strength, causing a ruckus sounding of rusty metal clanking together.
Peter did a backflip with joy, because he could totally do that now. He wasn’t sure why he had these powers, a million questions still remained at the back of his mind, but that didn’t matter. Because with his abilities, Peter could take on the world.
Aunt May and Uncle Ben wouldn’t have to worry about paying the rent, in fact they wouldn’t have to live in a shitty apartment anymore. Peter could go to the olympics, or become a pro-wrestler and make a ton of money. He could repay Aunt May and Uncle Ben for all of the sacrifices they had made for him over the years. He would no longer be a burden.
“I love that freakin spider!” echoed through the abandoned car factory.
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Peter quietly crawled into his room. He carefully slid his window close without making a sound. Peter could hear the even breathing of his Aunt and Uncle, so he assumed that they were asleep, but he didn’t want to risk them knowing he had snuck out in the middle of the night. The two were already disappointed in him as it was.
Peter glanced at the alarm clock stationed near his bed. It was 3am. ‘Looks like I won’t be getting much sleep tonight,’ Peter thought, but he found it hard to be dismayed. The fact that he now had powers that he hadn’t even dreamt of in his wildest dream overpowered everything else.
Peter laid down on his bed and turned on his light. He was now as strong as Captain America, a superhero that he and every other person he knew looked up to. The thought made him giddy with excitement.
He absent mindedly wondered if he had the muscles as the famous Captain America. Peter strode up to the mirror and whipped his science pun t-shirt off.
Holy shit!
He was ripped, like super ripped. Peter wouldn’t be surprised if he could get a job as a Calvin Klein model or something. Peter flexed his muscles and smiled as he saw them bulging. Not that Peter could show anyone these, that would make him having powers seem way too obvious, but it was still super cool.
After getting over his physique, which Peter took almost in stride since so many crazy things had happened that day, his phone dinged.
The notification was from some guy responding to a post he made on reddit, so Peter didn’t respond to it, but holding his phone reminded him to check his notifications.
Peter stared guilty at his phone as he saw how many missed calls he had from Aunt May and Uncle Ben. He also checked their text messages. There were many angry and worried ones from May, who was more fond of texting than Ben was.
Next, Peter checked his snaps. There was a ton from Ned, asking him where he was and if he was okay. Peter reassured his friend, giving off some bullshit excuse that he felt sick again and decided to take a day off. It’s not like he could tell Ned, or anyone, the truth.
Some of Ned’s texts were about the Midtown meme page, which Peter really couldn’t care less about anymore. Compared to gaining superpowers, a couple of memes were inconsequential. Ned did convey that the memes making fun of him had died down, now that everybody thought he was seriously ill because of the fainting incident in the cafeteria. Only Flash’s gang, especially Kong, kept up the trend of making fun of Peter.
Peter couldn’t help but chuckle. If only they knew that he was far from ill.
Michelle sent him a single snap. It read, Missed you on the L-Train loser. He replied to that text with, Will be there tomorrow, missed you too :). After Peter impulsively sent that, he almost gagged. ‘Missed you too? How stupid is that!’
Before Peter could dwell on an individual text any longer, he opened the multiple Harry had sent him. After reading them, Peter contemplated why Harry’s dad had agreed to let Peter come to his Oscorp labs. He was ecstatic to see ground breaking science in action, but for someone who hated kids in his work space, it was odd of the guy to just allow Peter in there.
Well looks like Peter was going to figure out how he had gained these powers after all. He was no longer afraid of Norman Osbourne trying to experiment and torture him. He could try, but with Peter’s super strength and spidey sense, he doubted the guy would be successful.
With that thought in mind, Peter settled into a restless sleep.