Chapter Four
Disclaimer: I do not own Spider-man, just saying. Wish I did.
CHAPTER FOUR
DECEMBER 2016
Peter morning started at school like always, despite going being mostly a formality. Peter only took two classes at his high school; his AP English class and his AP Economics class, both in the morning every other day. Those classes were the only ones he needed to graduate, and a couple of lawyers talking to his Principle resulted being allowed to take his jipped schedule.
Peter had taken every single AP math and science class offered by the end of his junior year. It was a mere formality of four years of Lit and a needed Econ class that he even still went high school.
Nonetheless, Peter entered school at seven forty three, two minutes before the bell rang. He meet Flash's eyes from across the courtyard, and they widened comically. Peter chuckled to himself.
Sliding into Lit class, Peter took out his homework and placed it on his desk. Peter was set to be valedictorian, and after his hellish sophomore and junior year and managing to keep up perfect As through the hard times, he knew he wasn't going to let it slip in his senior year.
That being said, Peter now felt a disconnect from his high school. He was planning on going to college yes, but more of a formality as he wanted to get his PhD. As the Avengers had so keenly pointed out, he owned a multi-million dollar corporation that took the biology field by storm.
Going to college wouldn't be necessary, but he wanted to.
His teacher arrived, harried like normal, and asked for the students to take out the novel they were reading. They were studying Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
Reading that book made Peter feel substantially better about his life.
….
Gwen cornered him after class. She was beautiful as always, with her blonde hair perfectly framing her face and her eyes lit up with life.
Peter knew that they would never work out.
"Peter," she called out. Peter turned to her, calmly.
"Yeah?" He managed to keep the sarcasm and bitterness out of his voice. She looked like she had a million things to say and a million apologies on the tip of her tongue. Peter would be willing to listen to none of it.
"Where are you applying to college?" she asked. Peter's face turned into a frown.
She had broken their long silence for something so small. Peter sucked it up, "Columbia, Queens, RIT, Empire State. You know me, attached to the city." He said it quietly as if there was a joke inside of it. And there was.
She knew it. She opened her mouth to comment on it, paused, then finally said, "Of course." Her voice was fond. For a moment, Peter wanted to reach out and touch her, but he was stronger than that.
"I actually have to go Gwen. Things to do, you know." He turned to leave both the awkwardness and the intense feelings behind.
"Peter," she grabbed his arm. He turned to her. Finally she said, "I'm so sorry if that matters at all."
He shook his head. "I know you are. We're okay. I mean, we will never be okay. But I don't blame you."
Her eyes grew soft and she brushed a hair from her face. A deep shadow of relief passed over her, and she almost pleaded, "Thank you."
He nodded at her, not giving her much. That was life. It was rare to meet your soulmate in high school. Peter should have know that, but he fell hard.
She betrayed him when she lonely and low. Peter knew that there was blame to go around, life wasn't simple enough to put it all on one person.
"For what it means Gwen," he said to her. "I'm sorry too. I hope you find happiness."
She smiled at him. Walking away he heard her voice call out. "You're still an asshole Peter, but if you need anyone, you call me. Just because we're not banging doesn't mean that I won't stitch you back up." She meant it literally of course. Or maybe not.
He turned around a flipped her off. She laughed at him, perfectly framed against the brick. God, he loved Gwen. In another life, they would have been perfect together. But it wasn't another life, and he needed to move on.
He wouldn't call her though. He knew that much.
….
It wasn't even ten o'clock by the time Peter got to the office.
His doorman which doubled as one of his security guards greeted him, "Hey boss."
Peter smiled brightly, "Hi Arnold. How's your daughter. Wasn't she sick last week?" Peter remembered the Friday before Arnold had been out sick. Peter had been concerned and glanced at the file.
"She's doing much better. My wife was at her mother's and I didn't want to leave her at home alone. She's only seven you see." Arnold told him.
Peter nodded, and stated to him, "I'll have Biggs add another paid sick day to you file." Briggs headed the HR department for him. They didn't have ton of personnel, but enough to warrant an entire department.
Arnold laughed at, "Thanks boss, you're too nice you know that? I would be beyond proud if my girl turned out like you." Peter blushed so hard. It was an amazing compliment.
He couldn't suppress his desire to help people.
….
Peter didn't have the traditional office space. He formerly owned the company, but he had another as acting CEO. Peter got final say on issues that he had strong opinions on, but Peter didn't have the time to run the day to day. He officially headed the R&D department.
Peter had his own mini-lab that had a great view of the Empire State building. It had full wall to ceiling glass and Peter felt himself relaxing just stepping into the space. There was something extremely therapeutic about being in his lab, as if he could forget about it all and focus on his inventing.
Peter always had his phone hooked up to his computer system back home, and if anything major occurred, a level one or two threat in his system, he received an automated text and Peter could rush out to fight it.
He heard a knock on the door behind him. Peter turned around to open it. The acting CEO of his company, Marus Joeham.
Mark looked tired, as if he had a long day dealing with bullshit. Peter winced internally. "Hi Mike."
Mike was in his late fifties. He had three children, all of which were older than Peter. He exuded calm and strong demeanor. Peter felt bad for anyone who wronged Mark. The guy was a great CEO. He agreed with Peter about caring for their people and helped him cut through the usual bullshit of the medical science industry which was rampant with lobbyist and politics.
"Hey Peter, how was school?" Peter shrugged at him. School was school.
"What happened now?" Peter asked.
Mark sat down at the chair near the door. "Kaiser was holding us hostage for two billion dollars they wanted off, and I'm not against cutting costs for the sake of saving lives, but at that cost, it wouldn't even cover the processing fees of our material. They claim they can to go to Oscorp for the same materials. I kindly reminded them that the last time they did that that the shipment the recieved was defunct, they used it anyways, and then was sued five billion in a class action lawsuit." Peter remembered that. He had been particularly smug about that.
"What happened?" Peter asked. Losing Kaiser as a buyer wouldn't put them under, but it would set them back in quarter goals.
"They hung up with me, called back a half hour later and offered more than our original asking price. Seems I was able to talk some sense into them."
Peter watched Marcus grin like a shark. This was why the man dealt with the company stuff and not him. Marcus finished his story with, "I was planning on shifting the extra revenue into our HOPE find. What's your thoughts?"
Peter nodded slowly, "Yeah, that'll increase the amount we donate the quarter. Maybe we use it to sponsor some doctors along with the medical supplies." Every quarter, Peter and the company donated a bunch of the medical supplies they produced to foreign companies and small hospitals that would not be able to afford the life saving items. Mark had actually been the one to come up with the idea when they overproduced Peter's thread the first quarter.
Mark smiled at him, "I'll have Briggs look into it. Peter you look tired."
Peter sighed, "Yeah, I had a long night. I'm going to head out in about three or four hours. That cool?"
Mark laughed at him, "Peter, you know you sign my paycheck right?"
Peter shrugged. "I'm going to check in on everyone's process in a little bit too. Thanks for worrying Mark."
"Peter you are impossible not to worry over. You will always be the barely sixteen who came to me with this brilliant idea in my head. Try and get more time to yourself in the future."
"You say I lock myself in my lab too much," Peter exclaimed.
"Yeah, you work too much," Mark ribbed him.
Mark and him talked for a couple more minutes before Mark had to get back to actually running his business. Peter made a point to check in with everyone in R&D.
Jamie was working on a cure for diabetes with some sort of self induced healing. Gene stimulation. Richard had his head buried in something bubbling and grinning like a mad loom.
"Peter," he called out extremely loud. "Look what I came up with!"
"Richard," Peter yelled back in the same voice, "You're yelling!"
"Oh!" He exclaimed loudly, "Am I? I may have had an explosion in the lab earlier that was really loud."
"Don't kill yourself," Peter told him.
He shook his head frantically. "I won't." The he dragged Peter over to help him with his research. By the time two o'clock rolled around, Richard and Peter had managed two more explosions, but were that much closer to a breakthrough.
….
When Peter returned to his flat at three, he ate a small meal, and crashed for until ten o'clock like normal. Seven hours was better than normal. He sat at his kitchen and started did his Econ homework as he ate the equivalent of what would be his breakfast. He tried to keep ahead, and if had anything particularly hard, he would cut work short for the day.
Peter walked over to the computer set up in the corner of his flat. It showed that today had been relatively quiet. He had a rating system for cimes. Level One was rampaging mutant or villain. Level Two was manic individual with guns or gang violence against civilians with guns, Level Three was mugging or violent theft, and finally Level Four domestic violence, and Level Five was suspicious or negligent individual. There wasn't much Peter could do about muggings, theft, domestic violence, or suspicious individuals unless he was already in costume.
On the other hand, Peter always tried to react to Level One or Two if he could. Peter knew that he wasn't perfect, and that there were a lot of things out of his control, but he tired to control it the best he could, nonetheless.
Peter suited up, inserted his bluetooth headphones which was rigged to both the police scanned and his computer system which processed the information and informed him of anything else he should know. It was AI JARVIS level that Tony Stark had, but it was a pretty smart computer.
It was a much better system that he had at fourteen when he was just starting off.
Peter darted through the shadows for the night.
….
Five hours later at 4AM, Peter crawled back into bed for a small nap. He felt well rested, but it had been a fairly quiet night. He stopped two muggings and a warehouse theft. No super villains had showed up. Almost twenty four hours since he had gone to school on Monday, Peter felt content with his day. He liked the system he had carved out for himself.
And he got to nap, which was not a normal blessing.
As Peter slept in his loft, however, the world shifted and changed around him. Peter didn't know yet, but he would walk up the New York Times and Daily Bugle claiming: Peter Parker is Spider-Man and Spider-Man's Identity Revealed.
At that singular moment, Peter slept disillusioned.