of missions and webs
A week or so after the sleepover, Parker luck struck again. While Peter had been playing at Harry’s place, Ben and May had decided to go out on one of their rare dates. They didn’t come back to fetch him. They stumbled onto a mugger, but after they’d handed all their valuables over to the two muggers, a third one had promptly shot them in the head. Clean, the bullet untraceable. They were already dead when the paramedics arrived.
At this difficult time in Peter’s life, Norman Osborn appeared like a saviour. When no one showed up to fetch Peter, Osborn offered him to stay for dinner. Then, when he got the call of Ben and May’s unfortunate deaths, he’d put on a condescending smile as he graciously offered him to stay the night. Then he stayed another, and another, and another, and…
**********
Norman found two weeks to be a sufficient time for Peter to process his grief. It was most generous of him really when he thought about it. So, he left the office early on a Thursday afternoon and went to Peter and Harry’s school. As his private driver went inside to fetch Peter, Norman carefully strategised his technique. The formalities were over. The boy liked him. Now he just needed his complete respect and obedience.
His driver exited the building, Peter a meter or so behind him. When Peter sat down in the backseat of the car, he couldn’t help but be a bit worried about the topic of their discussion.
“Good afternoon Peter, how was school?” Osborn greeted as the car pulled out of the parking lot and on to the highway.
“School was fine, Mr Osborn, sir,”
“Oh, please. Call me Norman. ‘Mr. Osborn’ makes me feel so old,”
“Okay…Norman,” Peter tested the feel of the name on his tongue.
Osborn decided to get straight to the point, “did anyone ever tell you your parents used to work for my company and me?”
“No, Mr Osbo...sorry, Norman,”
“Well, they did. We were rather close, your father and I.”
Peter wasn’t so sure about where this conversation was heading.
“Ah well, let’s cut right to the chase, shall we?”
Peter nodded,
“I know about your ‘abilities’ that your father gave you. It was really quite selfish of him to keep the benefits of his experiments to himself.”
Peter’s mind started thinking of escape routes.
“My company…has people who would be very interested in learning more of your ‘abilities’. You know, I could even give you a platform to use them. You could be a real superhero, Pete. What do you say?”
“I don’t know, Mr Osborn,” Peter started staring intimately down at his lap.
“I could give you a home Pete; you wouldn’t have to go to foster care now that your aunt and uncle are dead. You and Harry could be like brothers.”
Peter knew he wasn’t supposed to share his powers with strangers, but Mr Osborn was no stranger. Besides, it’s not like he wanted to do him any harm. Peter took Osborn’s outstretched hand and shook it timidly.
Norman grinned, “I suppose we’d have to 'home-school' such a smart boy as you, so be prepared to wake up early tomorrow morning,” he said as he exited the car and re-entered the office building, with Oscorp written on it in big letters.
***********
Three months later
Peter grunted only once as he moved from one Hydra soldier to the next. Efficiently taking each one down. They’d finished with all the samples they needed in his first week as Osborn’s puppet. He hadn’t known he’d be training with Hydra, but hey, if Norman trusted these people, so must he.
He dodged another kick and fended another attack until he could no more. He was knocked off his feet with a blow to his stomach.
“Spider,” an authoritative voice cooed above his head, “get up!” he ordered, his tone changing quickly.
Peter straightened his back and stood at attention.
“You have a mission.” His overseer reported. “You are to infiltrate a secure building and retrieve information that is rightfully ours. Report back down here ten pm tonight sharp.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Heil Hydra!” the overseer saluted.
“Heil Hydra.” Peter nodded.
Peter headed straight for the showers. He only had ten minutes until dinner now, so he only washed off the sweat. But he preferred long showers. Sadly, Norman would not tolerate tardiness.
He took the elevator up to the penthouse.
“Ah, Peter. Glad you could join us,” Norman greeted as Peter entered the dining room, only seconds too late. He took his seat at the table and couldn’t help but notice, the tension in the room. Harry would usually have tons to tell him about his day. Peter could also sense that Harry was a bit jealous that he was being homeschooled and not Harry. There was also something else.
Norman cleared his throat,” Peter, I’ve already talked to Harry about this, and I think it would be a great idea.” Norman gave him one of his many dangerous looks “I’m going to adopt you, and since I’m such a public figure, I want to announce it at my annual charity dinner. I expect that won’t be a problem for you,”
It wasn’t a question, but Peter answered anyway, “it would be my pleasure Norman,”
Harry looked reasonably excited or as excited as he was when Peter got his own room in the penthouse.
*********
After dinner, the boys went and played Mario kart in Harry’s room.
“So…what’s up with you and my dad?” Harry asked as if he’d been trying to bring up the question for a couple of months.
“What do you mean?” Peter asked, without parting his eyes from the game.
“I mean, he hasn’t been this nice to anyone since mum died.”
Peter put the controller down to look up at Harry, who was hugging his knees.
“Hey, Harry, are you okay?” he knew he wasn’t, so he moved over to him and put his left hand on Harry’s right knee, Peter knew that sometimes it was best not to say anything. Sometimes the other person just needed someone there. They sat like that until the nanny came in and told them to go to bed.
********
At nine-thirty, Peter carefully rolled out of bed and got dressed. He knew he would probably have to change downstairs, but he didn’t want to report to his overseer in his spider-pyjamas. The spider hurried lightly down the hallway and into the elevator. He tapped in the secret code needed to access the subfloors. The elevator doors closed with a thunk and opened several seconds later with a buzz.
His overseer was already waiting for him, even though it wasn’t ten o’clock yet.
“Get dressed,” he ordered.
Peter went into the changing room and put on the uniform that awaited him. It was a thin, body-tight suit, made of an extremely flexible material. He tested it by doing a couple of backflips and jumping up and down from the ceiling. Once he was satisfied, he went back to his overseer, trying (and kind of failing) to hide his excitement.
And without speaking the overseer pointed for Peter to follow him. They went out a secret passage in the gym, and up a staircase, leading up to a hidden garage. There was a black vehicle waiting for them.
He was filled in on the way. It was a straightforward mission. Peter was to enter the building undetected, download information from a highly secured computer onto a USB key, and exit the building without anyone noticing.
Peter was quite stressed. He entered the building from the roof. The spider took the air vent-way down to the correct floor. This is easy, he thought as he went down the hallway, avoiding any surveillance cameras. He picked the lock on the main office and voila, he was in. Just like that. Okay, now it was to retrieve the info. He could do this. He plugged in the USB port, waited a few seconds for it to work its magic, downloaded all the files on the hard drive, and he was on his way. The wind tickled his body as he scaled down the building and got back to the alley where the vehicle was hidden. Oh, spiders sure do not like the cold.
"Good job, spider," his overseer complimented him when he handed him the USB port.
Peter smiled within himself. He'd done an excellent job.
********
That weekend at the charity dinner, Peter was presented to the world for the first time. He was now officially an Osborn. Peter Osborn.
********
It was dozens of missions (and one attack on New York from outer space) later that Harry had a great idea.
It was one Sunday morning, a month since the battle of New York, and the boys were watching cartoons. During the commercial break, happy children could be seen playing with Avengers figurines.
"Peter?"
"Yeah, Harry?"
"Don't you think it would be cool to be a superhero?"
"Sure Har,"
"I mean...you already have superpowers. You just need the costume and the saving people."
"But mum said before she died, that I shouldn't ever reveal my powers to anyone."
"Well, you'd be wearing a mask of course."
Peter was interested, "wait, you think it's actually possible?"
"'course it is," Harry looked up at the ceiling. "We'd make you a costume, and you'd swing across New York saving people,"
"Wait, swing?" Peter looked at Harry matter of factly "swinging's not one of my superpowers,"
"It isn't now. But I've been thinking. What if we could make you webs like a spider, so you could swing across New York like a real spider. You'd be called Spider-man."
Harry had clearly put a lot of thought into this.
Peter liked the idea. "We'll see, we'll see." He smiled, his head stuck in a daydream.
********
A month later, a new vigilante was swinging above the streets of Queens. It had taken Peter some time to perfect the web fluid, but after a month of hard work, sleepless nights, and hiding his activities from Osborn, he was there. A superhero. It's not like he fought supervillains daily, but he did save people every day. He rescued cats out of trees and helped old ladies cross the street, occasionally he'd stop a crashing bus or so. He was good.
He fell into a routine. Training in the morning, studies at noon, training in the afternoon, and Spider-man at night. Every once in a while, he'd go on missions. He wasn't proud of what he did when he went on missions. But Norman's a good guy, and Hydra are good guys, so it must be okay to kill the bad guys for them. Peter knew in his heart it wasn't right, but he did it anyway. It was what he had to do. For Norman, who'd always been so good to him, and taken care of him when May and Ben no longer could. Took him into his family, when no one else would. The least he could do instead was obey, right?
Peter tried to make up for it all. By being Spider-man. Spider-man saved people. Peter Osborn was a nobody.
Peter had brought up the idea of using web-fluid on missions. His overseer had found it to be a brilliant idea.
Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Spider-man is Peter Parker. Or rather Peter Osborn. Peter Parker died with Ben and May.
So, Peter Osborn is Spider-man. Spider-man is Peter Osborn. Nothing can change that right?