Spider-Man 07
CHAPTER 1: Along Came A Spider
New York wasn't exactly a city someone could call 'paradise'. It was overcrowded, not everyone had a car, or even a job. Some people decided to make money another way: by taking it from others. There were also heroes: The Fantastic 4, whose name described them, the X-Men, a group of heroic 'mutants' that were led by a Professer Xavier, the huge, green Hulk, and others. You can't have heroes without villans. Tons of them. so many they outnumber the heroes. But this story is of a hero in which the citizens of the non-paradisaic city had never seen before. This is the origin of Spider-Man.
Peter Parker was an average teen, or maybe not-so-average. He had short, brown hair. He did not live with his parents, in fact he never even knew them. He lived with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. He was among the smartest teens, especially when it came to science. For this reason, he was among the least popular. He was constantly tormented by a group of bullies, the biggest and strongest leader of them was Flash Thompson. Peter did not like Flash one bit, 1) because he bullied him, and 2) he was sitting right next to the girl he loved the most, Mary Jane on the school bus this morning. He was even had his arm around her and was stroking her long, red hair! Peter wished to do whatever he could to make Flash miserable. But he had his health to worry about, so he refrained. It's not like he could do anything anyway.
Peter had no seat on the school bus this morning. Sure, there were plenty of spaces, but the teens occupying these seats denied him the privilege of sitting next to them. So, Peter was forced to stand the whole route to his school, Midtown High as the bus traveled along the bumpy road.
At school, Peter went the daily routine: Being tripped at least three times before getting to his locker, being hit by at least ten spitballs, the taking of his glasses and the little-surprise-in-your-locker-that-jumps-out-at-you-causing-you-to-fall-and-be-laughed-at-by-everyone. The genius boy did not even know how the bullies got those things in there. But Peter was not concerned with those things today. He was focused on his field trip. His class was going to a Biology lab, or Bio-Lab. There, they were researching spiders. It was like a zoo. A spider zoo.
Osborn Mansion
"Harry, It's time to go." yelled an older man with brown, slightly curly hair that curved backward, putting on his overcoat over his black suit.
A young man with similar hair but a younger appearance came down the stairs. In fact he was a spitting image of the older man when he was his age. He wore a striped brown shirt. "But dad, I don't even want to go to that stupid geek house."
"It's not a 'geek house', son." the man corrected him. "It's a very sophisticated place. I bet your friend Pete's going."
Harry was annoyed. "Of course he's going. He's somewhat of a 'nerd'."
"Whatever. Look Harry, we're already late. They're probably already on their way there. Come on, we're taking the Rolls."
"Al-right,"
The Bio-Lab
"Okay, Midtown High Seniors," said a teacher, Mr.Kroyen, who said the word senior with emphasis to signal them that they were to act orderly. He was a normal height black man with small glasses with circle-shaped lenses."
We're going to enter the lab in an orderly fashion," he said, putting emphasis on the word orderly. "Do not embarrass our school."
I can't believe I have to tell these things to Seniors! He thought.
Peter took the lead in walking to the institute. "He's so lame," he heard a male student say. He ignored this comment. He was very excited, until he was tripped and almost trampled by the rest of the class. His glasses were thrown from his face and landed a few inches from his face. He reached for them but they were smashed by a booted foot.
"No!" he yelled. He looked up to see the culprit. It was Flash. Peter rose up to his face, an angry look about it.
"Oops, my bad," Flash said sarcastically. This only made Peter angry, which his face displayed. He clenched his fists.
"Look at this!" Flash taunted. "Whatcha gonna do?"
"No!Stop!" yelled Mary Jane, running over. "Leave him alone, Flash!"
"Hey!" yelled Mr. Kroyen, also running over. "What are you two doing over here? The rest of the class is already inside, come on."
Flash turned to Peter. "Good thing my girl stopped me. I'll deal with you tomorrow."
"Excuse me?" MJ asked. "Your girl? What did I tell you about calling me that?" She walked off furiously.
"Wait, I'm sorry!" Flash pleaded, running after her.
Peter picked up what used to be his glasses. He was tired of this. He wished he had the strength to show Flash he would not be pushed around anymore. But he didn't, so he couldn't. He figured he'd have to accept that, and walked toward the lab.
A black Rolls Royce pulled up to the building. Out came a young, teenage boy with curly brown hair and his father.
"Have a good day, Harry," the father said, and got back into this car, driven by a butler.
"Peter!" the now glasses-less teen heard from behind him. It was Harry Osborn, his best friend for years.
"Oh, hey Harry!" Peter said, happy to finally have some company on this trip.
"Harry!" the man from before yelled after getting back out if his car. "Is this Peter?"
"Yeah, dad, Peter, this is my father, Norman Osborn. Dad, this is Peter Parker."
Both shook hands. "Harry told me your quite the science whiz," Norman said. "He says you helped him many times in school."
"Yeah, you could say that," Peter said. "But I'm nothing compared to you."
"That maybe true, but you've got potential. I'm sure you'll be very successful Peter."
"Thanks, Mr.Osborn."
"Please, call me Norman."
"Thanks, Norman."
"Well, Peter, Harry, I'm gone. I'm a busy man today." He got back into his car and it pulled away. Peter and his friend went inside the building.
"You're fortunate, Peter." Harry said.
"Why?"
"My Dad. He's crazy about you. If I called him Norman I'd be grounded."
"Really..." Peter said. He held a black camera to his eye and pointed it toward a small, black spider in a glass cage. With a click, he snapped the photo at the exact time that the spider jumped from the branch it was sitting on to another. It made it in one bound.
"Isn't that amazing, Harry?" Peter asked his friend. "This spider has the ability to jump to catch its prey."
"Sorry Peter, but I'm not thinking about little bugs. I'm wondering when we're going home."
"Why would you want this to end?" asked Peter. "They're so fascinating! If I could be like that spider, just for one day, even one hour,I'd be happy!"
"Whatever Peter."
"Well, we'd better be getting back with the class, before we're left."
The two teens headed back to the class. A woman began to speak to them about what the scientists study at the lab. All but two, who of which included Mary Jane and Peter, were bored and paying attention to something else. Harry, however, was paying attention to Mary Jane. He walked up to her, who was looking at a spider cage.
"Hey MJ," Harry greeted her.
"Hi, Harry, when did you get here?"
"Just now."
"Oh."
"You know, that spider over there has the power to jump to catch its prey," Harry said, pointing over at the spider cage a few feet away.
"Cool. I don't think there is a spider in this cage." To the naked eye, there was just a small tree in the cage. That is, until a brown lump on a branch started crawling.
"Oh, there it is," said MJ, laughing. "These things are interesting, aren't they?"
"Sure.You know, some spiders can you know, change color. It's a, um, defense mechanism."
Peter however was now alone. You could probably guess who took the chance to mess with him. Flash walked up behind him, along with his cronies.
"You know you've still got it coming, Parker." Flash said.
Peter was not concerned. He started to take pictures of spiders.
"Hey, you," Flash said, pushing him. "I'm talking to you."
Peter looked at him. "Back off, Flash."
"Ooh," one of Flash's friends said. "Parker's finally got some heart!"
Upstairs Lab
"Yes, sir." said a black scientists in a white lab coat, talking on his cell phone. "The research is going quite successful."
The person on the other end of the line said some words only understood by the scientist.
"Oh, the new species. It's fine. We discovered that it has abilities far more advanced than all of the other species of spider discovered. It is quicker, smarter, and way stronger than the others. Okay. Okay. See you later."
The man turned to look at the cage of the newly discovered species. His heart nearly stopped as he noticed he'd left the door open. He must have forgotten to close it when he heard his phone ring. He shook with fear. He had no idea where the spider was, or what would happen if it bit him. He felt very much relieved as he saw the spider sitting in the darkness next to the monitor of his computer. The man got on some gloves and carefully picked up the red and blue bug and placed it back into its cage, quickly closing the door. The man let out a 'whew' and headed downstairs to take his break.
What went unnoticed by him was a tiny, clear sack left next to the monitor.
Two tiny, clear circle-shaped eggs moved. Out of each slid out a very tiny, baby spider. They were spitting images of their mother, having blue bodies with red spots. They each crawled their way out of their eggs, and down and off the desk. They found the stairs, and climbed on the walls, heading downstairs.
Flash was speechless. Due to Peter's sudden bravery, and his friend's taunting, he couldn't think of a word to say. He was quite embarrassed. This ceased when he spied a tiny red and blue spider on the ground. He immediately stepped on it, ending it's short life. Peter watched in horror.
"How...how could you?" Peter asked. "It was so innocent.."
"By tomorrow, Parker, you're going to be just like that spider. Crushed." With that, Flash walked off. One of his followers said something, and Flash palmed his head and pushed him away.
Peter was too bus thinking that he had worsened his own life to notice a second spider climbing up his pant leg. He continued taking snapshots of the spiders. He scratched an itch in his shirt, and caught up with the rest if his class. The small spider avoided his giant hand and moved forward.
He saw Mary Jane, still watching some spiders. He approached her and held up his camera. "For the school paper?" he asked the red-head.
"Sure," she answered, she stood in front of the cage and smiled. Peter snapped the photo. This felt like the best day of his life. He scratched his chest once again, and prepared to press the zoom button on his camera. Before he got there, he felt a tickling feeling in the top of his hand. Before he could look the tickling shifted to a feeling like two tiny needles puncturing the skin. He looked as a red and blue spider was there, keeping its tiny fangs in his skin. He shook it off, dropped his camera and rushed to the bathroom. The feeling in his hand changed to a burning sensation.
He held his hand in agony, falling to his knees. He looked at the bite mark. It was white and very soft to the touch. When he touched it, it burned. He began to feel very dizzy. He fainted, right there on the cold bathroom floor.
Peter opened his eyes. He was still there on the floor. He rose up, and rubbed his head. He still felt a little woozy. He checked his wristwatch, and found he had been there for an hour! He rushed out of the bathroom, to find that the class had already left him. He didn't know what to do, and panicked. A finger tapped him on the shoulder.
It was Mary Jane. She held a broken camera in her hand.
"Here's your camera, Peter." she said. "Or, what used to be your camera."
Peter took the camera. "Thanks."
"Are you feeling alright? Your eyes are half-open."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little headache."
"Good, then let's go before we're stuck here."
Peter and MJ left, and made it just before the bus took off. Peter sat and took all the paper balls and spitballs on the bus because he felt to sick to do anything.
Mary Jane walked him home. Peter did not tell his aunt and uncle what happened. It slipped his mind. He just wanted to get in bed. When he did so, he found he could not stay there. He shivered as he felt cold and dizzy. He rolled off of his bed, pulling the covers off of it. he wrapped his shivering body up with the comforters, as he laid there. He drifted off to sleep without noticing.
When he woke up, everything was slightly blurry, but then cleared. He rose up, and his vision cleared. Peter was very surprised. He could see without glasses! He discovered a brand new pair on his desk next to his bed. his aunt and uncle had bought him a new one. But when he put them over his eyes, his sight was very blurred. He set the glasses back where he found them.
He examined his shirtless upper body in a large mirror on the wall. As his eyes moved down to his torso, he saw a 6-pack!
"What the?" he said, discerning the sudden transformation of his torso from a normal, skinny one to a muscular, well-defined one.
He looked at his arms. He flexed his biceps, making tiny veins appear.
"Peter?" asked the voice of Peter's aunt, May, from behind the door. "I saw you on the floor last night. I was wondering if you were alright."
Peter examined his newly hot bod in the mirror once more. He made a muscle with his arms up. "Well Aunt May.."
He rubbed his hand over his new abs.
"I'm fine!"