Prologue
When Peter Parker was born, his entire little world smiled, his parents at this moment the happiest beings in the universe. Their smiles almost reached their ears as the midwife informed them that their child was a healthy little boy.
***************
Roughly two years later the Parkers were devastated when little Peter Parker caught a severe case of chickenpox. Richard never wanted his little boy ever to have to suffer from such weakness again, so he started developing a serum to enhance Peter’s immune system.
Every week he would test out the serum on his son and hope for results. The first breakthrough he had was when Peter had recently turned three; Richard had started using spiders in his experiments, and after nearly a week of Peter lying in bed sick, Richard’s effort paid off.
They first discovered it when Mary came to Peter´s bedroom with soup, only to find him crawling on the ceiling in his pyjamas. It was then that Mary realised what they had just done to their son; they had created a mutant. In a matter of minutes, Mary decided to contact an old friend of hers who currently worked with an organisation called some long name she couldn’t remember.
The evening that day after they’d put Peter to bed, Richard seemed so happy with Peter´s mutation, and it kind of freaked Mary out.
“Richard,” she spoke out.
Her husband nodded at her to continue.
“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing here?”
“What do you mean?” he raised an eyebrow at her.
“I mean, are you sure it’s healthy for a toddler to be walking on the ceiling and lifting furniture?” she blurted out worriedly.
Richard started tapping the dinner table erratically.
“I called an old friend today, regarding the matter and…”
“What do you mean ‘regarding the matter’ as if we have a problem on our hands?” he cut her off “When the opposite applies. We just fixed a problem. Now our boy won’t get sick again!” He snapped.
Mary sat back in her seat, realising that her husband would not be reasoned with. Well, it's for the better; nothing we can do about it now, she thought and continued her train of worry,
“Well, then on to another matter.” Mary sighed “I think we should quit it with Oscorp. I overheard a conversation between two superiors. We are partaking in a super-soldier experiment. All the signs point to it, and you know it, Parker!” Mary snapped.
“Yeah… that, on the other hand, is something we should talk to your secret service friend about.”
“Yeah, I’ve already booked flight tickets for D.C., we leave tomorrow. We’ll leave Peter with May and Ben.”
Their plane never reached its destination.
************
The day of the funeral, not even the skies could be bothered to cry. The caskets they buried were empty.
Pretty soon after, Peter’s life popped back to normal. He started kindergarten again, and life went on in a comfortable routine for our little spider-boy. When Peter had first started kindergarten, he’d kept to himself, but after the loss of his parents, he despised the thought of being alone. So, he’d made a friend; his name was Harry. They were inseparable; they sat together at lunch and played together at recess. They were close but only as close as kindergarteners can be.
In the last week of first grade, the boys decided they were going to have their first sleepover. Peter was so excited; he could hardly stay still. He’d been pondering about whether to tell Harry about his powers or not. His mom told him before she died that Peter should never reveal his abilities to a stranger. But none of his worries showed on his face as he rambled on to aunt May about his and Harry’s plans for the sleepover.
“…And then we’ll watch Star Wars until the sun goes down and up again and we’ll build Harry’s new Lego set and go…”
“Hurry, you don’t wanna miss the bus, do you?” Aunt May cut him off, giggling over his excitement.
“No,” Peter curtly stated as he picked up his duffel along with his duffel bag and hurried out the door. As he walked the few meters towards the bus stop, he made a final decision. He was going to tell Harry his secret tonight.
*********
“Race you to my room!” Harry yelled as soon as the elevator opened to his penthouse.
“Hey! No fair!” Peter complained.
An hour later, as they were assembling the Lego set, Peter cleared his throat,
“Harry, can I tell you something?” he gazed at his friend,
“Sure Pete,”
“Well…I’d rather show you?”
This piqued Harry’s interest as he turned his full attention to his friend.
Peter ambled over to the wall of the bedroom, and placed his hands, then his feet on it and climbed to the ceiling.
Harry was aghast; his friend had superpowers,
“Is this the point where you tell me that you’re secretly a superhero?” he spoke, still in shock, ready to believe anything.
“No…I’m only seven, plus I’m not allowed to use my powers in public,” Peter replied, now unsure of whether it was the right choice or not to tell his friend.
Harry, now being over his initial shock, went into full out fanboy mode, “Ohmygod this is so freaking cool, I’ve always wanted to know a real superhero!”
“Not a superhero,” Peter injected as he backflipped off the ceiling, now sure that he was right to tell his friend.
“What else can you do?”
“watch this.” Peter lifted Harry’s bed without missing a breath.
“Wow!” Harry exclaimed.
"I can also heal super fast and hear from far away."
"That's so cool."
Pretty soon they were back at assembling the Lego set.
Around eight o’clock they went to the living room to eat pizza and watch Star Wars. They stayed up until eleven and then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch. The Osborn penthouse living room now an image of peace.
**********
Norman Osborn was sitting by his desk in his office when he heard a knock on the door,
“come in!” he ordered.
A security guard’s sweaty face appeared in the doorway; he was panting like he’d ran the whole way.
“Sir, there seems to be an anomaly in your apartments security cameras,”
“Well, fix it,” Osborn ordered, annoyed at having been disrupted for such a tiny matter.
“But sir, it is not the regular kind of anomaly…I think it would be best for you to see for yourself.”
Norman logged into the security system, the only unusual thing he could see was his son and his friend sleeping on the couch.
“Eleven minutes past seventeen hundred hours, your son’s bedroom.” The security guard stated upon seeing Osborn’s frustrated face.
Norman turned the video on; at first, Harry and his friend were playing with Legos and geeking about Star Wars. But after a few seconds, the other boy walked up to the wall and climbed up to the ceiling. He also lifted Harry’s bed without showing any signs of effort.
“What’s this boy’s name?” Norman raised his eyebrows.
“Peter Parker, sir,”
“Parker…Parker, Parker. Parker.” Norman's mouth broke into a grin. “Seems like Richard was too much of a selfish bastard to destroy all of his research after all.” He turned towards the security guard, “I want you to dig up everything you can find on this boy, and hand me the file Monday morning. I wanna know everything about that boy, got it?”
“Understood, sir.”
And the security guard exited the office even more stressed than he entered.