Prologue
I was the new kid to Midtown High, New York City. Perhaps one of the worst rankings you can receive at a high school. New kid. Firstly, you are the prime target for bullies. Secondly, you receive all the blame for any and all pranks. Finally, you are under pressure from new friends and trying to get the attention of a girl, or boy, whichever is your fancy. In Midtown, the most active bully was a jock named Flash Thompson. Being a prime target at 5'4" and only 120 lbs, I was scheduled into his bullying routine.
"Hey nerd," said the devil himself, "What're you writing there?"
Flash, being a whole foot taller than me, reached over my shoulder and yanked my journal from me. I had started writing a journal ever since mom and dad died. The family therapist, Doctor Timberlain, told me to write how I felt day to day. He said it would help the coping process or something. The blond jock began reading it and burst out laughing.
"This isn't my homework," chuckled Flash, "It's a diary!"
"Shut up Flash," I yelled.
He snickered at me and began to rip apart my journal. I tried to get it back, but he was so much taller than me that it was nearly impossible. Suddenly, his legs were pulled out from under him and he plummeted to the floor. When he landed, my journal was thrown up into the air. I quickly gathered the pages and tried to return to my seat. Unfortunately, Flash needed someone to blame and I was the only other person in the room. He was up in a second, but my back was to him now. A pain bloomed from the back of my head and I fell into some desks. I held the back of my head as my vision blurred. Before the beating continued, someone entered the room.
"What's going on in here?" yelled a voice.
I managed to glance over, through my watery blurred eyes, to see a kid a little taller than me. He was one of Flash's other targets, Peter Parker. He was the first person to say hello to me when I showed up for my first class. He usually sat with one of two groups of friends, but he made a move to say hello to me.
"You want some of this Parker," growled Flash.
"Only if you can catch me, Pea Brain," teased Peter dashing out of the room.
Flash let out a war cry and chased after the teen in rage. I tried sitting up, but I must've hit the desk harder than I thought and I began coughing.
"Did he really hit me that hard?" I said to myself.
"No," said a German accented voice, "That would be the anesthetic."
I turned in the direction of the voice and saw an old scientist walking towards me. He was balding and had thick wrinkles all across his face. His eyes were glowing red behind his glasses and his breath smelled like sulfur. I coughed once more before I fell to the ground and into unconsciousness.
Several Hours Later…
My eyes opened and then shut themselves in reaction to the harsh bright light. I could hear some commotion coming from somewhere to my left. Once my eyes adjusted, I saw that there was a thick blue curtain blocking me, or them, from view. I looked at my surroundings to try figure out where the hell I was. From what I could gather, I was in some sort of laboratory on an operating table. My limbs were strapped down to the table and I was only wearing a hospital gown that was way too big for me, as usual. Speakers then turned on and I could hear someone tapping a microphone.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen," said a familiar German voice, "I, Doctor Reudveig, have finally discovered a way to harness the power of the Auranite Crystal."
I was still blocked from view and I couldn't say anything from being groggy from the anesthetic. What was it he said? Auranite Crystal?
"Said crystal was located by Oscorp amidst the asteroids of Saturn's rings. The discovery of such a beautiful and powerful crystal is unheard of anywhere else, since Oscorp bought out all of the competitors."
The crowd seemed to laugh at his poor joke.
"We first became aware of the crystal when an Oscorp Satellite orbiting Saturn picked up a large amount of energy emanating from the gas giant's rings. Through funding, which added up to more than 50 billion dollars, we managed to locate and bring back this mysterious energy source. Due to the crisis of last year, specifically, the invasion, the US government has asked to use any means necessary of creating a means for defending planet Earth from another alien attack. While the Avenger Initiative was successful, millions of dollars were spent on reconstruction, and we as a country cannot go through that again. Today, I am going to demonstrate the potential of the Auranite Crystal."
"Doctor," asked another voice, most likely a reporter or another scientist, "This may be a pointless question, but why the name Auranite?"
"Ah, Prof. Speekle, to a scientist, no question is pointless. The name was determine due to the nature of the crystal itself. A blue aura seems to 'drip' from the crystal, similar to that of a cloud."
"Doctor," said another voice, but more familiar, "How are you going to demonstrate the crystal?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't seem to know your name."
"Parker, sir, I'm the correspondent from the Daily Bugle," said Parker, wait did that mean it was Peter Parker?
"Well to answer your question, I will show you."
I could see a shadow approach the far end of the curtain and press a button on the wall. Slowly, the curtain began to part from the far side towards me. Reudveig stepped ahead of it and gave me an evil look as he made his way to a control panel. The crowd seemed rather shocked to find me on the table.
"Allow me to explain," said Reudveig, "This boy was selected at random from a database of surveys. He willingly allowed himself to be rigged up as he is now. For the preparation stage of this experiment, he was put under an anesthetic, by his request, but it seems to have worn off. No matter, I would not have proceeded if he was unconscious."
I looked at him and then to the crowd. I tried calling out, but I only mumbled something unintelligible. Reudveig pressed a few buttons on his console and a panel on the ceiling began to recede. In its place, a large blue crystal was lowered by a thick mechanical arm. The crystal itself was nearly the size of a microwave and the arm seemed to strain under the weight. I looked to the crowd again and found a familiar face looking right at me. Peter Parker. I tried as hard as I could show the horror in my eyes. His expression got serious and he dashed off. Where the hell was he going? Hell or something, asshole!
"And now to begin the firing sequence," said Reudveig.
The Auranite Crystal started to hum as power began emanating from it. Clouds of blue gas fell from the stone and burned my skin. Bolts of blue plasma shot at the table and up and down my body. The bolts burned like hell and I screamed loudly.
"Is this experiment safe?" asked Prof Speekle.
"Of course it is," said Reudveig, "The other test subjects are still alive."
"Other test- What do mean by still alive? Where are they?"
"What else would I mean by still alive? However, they are much less kindly to strangers, nowadays at least."
"I think this test is over Doc," said a tantalizing voice.
Swinging from the seating area came Spiderman. He shot Reudveig with some webbing and rushed over to me. He began pulling on my bonds as the crystal's charge increased. A bolt of plasma shot at him and knocked him away. Reudveig managed to free himself from the webbing and pressed a button on his console. Red lights started flashing and alarms began blaring.
"Let's see how you face my Auromorphs," cried Reudveig.
Two doors on either side of the room opened up and revealed the other test subjects. They had been transformed into glowing blue monstrosities. Some had merged together while others had missing limbs. The crowd went into an uproar and began fleeing the laboratory. The monsters weren't focused on them as they honed in on Spiderman.
"Kill him my children!" yelled Reudveig, "Delay him further!"
Reudveig was too busy focusing on his controls to worry about me or Spiderman.
"Something is wrong! You should be dead by now or at least one of them."
Suddenly, a thick bolt of plasma shot into my stomach. I felt more pain than I had ever felt in my short life. I looked at Spiderman and some of the monstrosities were beginning to fall apart. Blue aura clouds began getting pulled away from them by the Auranite Crystal. The more that fell, the more intense the beam became. Spiderman noticed this and focused on the crystal itself. He shot webbing at it in an attempt to pull the crystal down, but the aura burned it away in an instant. Spidey looked around quickly and made a gut decision. He shot webs on either side of the room and began pulling back. As soon as his back touched the wall, he launched forward, feet first, at the arm holding the crystal. As he flew through the air, Reudveig saw what he was doing and moved to the crystal. Spidey slammed into a joint of the arm and it swung back as Reudveig came into its path. The Auranite Crystal caused him to disintegrate upon touching it. The crystal then began humming loudly. Spiderman undid my bindings and carefully put me on his shoulder. We launched out of the skylight as the crystal exploded, destroying at least half of the building. We swung a couple blocks away to a nearby hospital and he got the attention of a nurse.
"You're going to be okay," said Spiderman.
"Don't you fucking lie to me," I spat at him, "This hurts way more than any assurances you can give me about survival."
I sucked in a breath and looked down at my growing wound. The blue aura seemed to be crawling up my chest, eating away my skin. Some nurses arrived with a gurney and attempted to put me on it. When I touched it, the aura attacked the gurney and melted it away.
"What is that stuff?" asked one of the nurses.
"Plasma burn," said Spiderman.
The nurses rushed off to find some way of transporting me to a room.
"Hey," I said to Spidey, "Seeing as I might die."
"Don't say-"
"Please don't interrupt me. You think I could see your face?"
"What? Why?"
"To know that I lived for something. To know that I managed to unmask the Spiderman even if I died doing it."
"Sorry there are too many people around."
"Not even as a dying wish?"
He looked down at my wound and began staring at it. At first I thought he was thinking about something, but then he didn't turn back to meet my eyes.
"What?"
"It's slowing down," he said to me.
I looked down to see that the aura cloud was indeed slowing down. As I watched it, it slowed down further. My mind began racing with thoughts of survival, but realized I would probably be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life. That was when I heard the first voice.
"What is life?" asked someone.
I looked around to find that time had slowed.
"Who said that?" I asked.
"What is life?"
I looked down at the blue aura to see it retreating back down my chest. The skin started replacing and repairing itself faster than I believed possible.
"What is life?" it asked again.
Assuming whatever was talking was asking me, "Life is existence."
"What exists?"
"I exist."
"How?"
The being had me stumped there. The longer I took the slower the aura cloud retreated.
"Consciousness."
"Explain."
"Well it's kinda complicated. I exist, my consciousness that is, because even if I were being fooled into believing this reality. I would still have to be present to be fooled.
"What is reality?"
"Something that is or is not real based on your perceptions of the world around you. May I ask you a question?"
"If you are able."
"What are you?"
"I am that which resides in you."
"How do you mean?"
"I am that which was inside the crystal and you."
"You mean you are what's saving me?"
"No. You are saving yourself."
"How?"
"Because what is happening now, is reality. You, in a moment of intense distress, caused a reaction with the energies of the Auranite Crystal through your emotions, which released chemicals from your brain into your bloodstream. This moment is happening in a fraction of a second, unnoticeable by the naked eye."
"How am I doing this?"
"Doing what?" asked Spiderman.
I looked down at my wound to see it fully healed. Spiderman stood up and offered me a hand. I reached for it and upon contact, I was showered with images. I saw Peter getting bitten by a spider, then him crying as he held a dying man, and then him donning Spiderman's mask.
"Peter?" I asked.
He froze in place.
"How do I know who you are?" I said out loud, "What the hell just happened?!"
I stood and pushed passed Spiderman and began running, unknowingly, towards my home.
Chapter 1: Godlike
I ran and I ran. I ran until I couldn't breathe anymore. I only stopped so I wouldn't get hit by traffic. I slowly calmed myself and carefully made my way back home, unfortunately, I was being followed. I heard his Web Shooter go off with every swing. I picked a suitable alley and waited for him. He landed down behind me trying to act all secretive, so I let him. He was just behind me when I spun around and caught him off guard. I had him against the wall and he didn't like that one bit.
"What Peter?," I growled.
"Ow," he plainly stated," are you okay?"
"Yeah, never better. Why?"
"Because in the last ten minutes you have grown two feet taller and have developed muscle mass equal to that of Captain America."
"What?"
I looked to find my shirt over stretched and my pants ragged. My toes were even poking out of my shoes. My arms were wider than Spidey's waist. I was too shocked to move so Spiderman slipped out of my death grip.
"Woah," I said.
"Yeah, I'd say," said Spiderman.
"You mind sparring quick?"
"What?"
I jabbed at him and he jumped back. I dashed forward and threw my weight into a punch. He dodged it, but my hand kept going as it slammed into a brick wall. I pulled it out to find no damage at all to my hand. The wall on the other hand was an entirely different story. It shook and my eyes widened.
"Spidey," I called.
He sprayed webbing onto the forming crack, but it wasn't fast enough. I began to panic and thoughts of becoming an evil super villain plagued my brain. I shrank into myself as the crack got wider and wider. Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT! Suddenly, my mind was clear. Beams of blue aura shot out of my eyes and the wall began to restore itself. Spidey's webbing burned away and the wall stabilized.
"Now that is cool," said Spiderman.
I had a big grin on my face as I turned and made my way back to my apartment. Spiderman had disappeared and was replaced by Peter Parker. I had discovered his identity when I stumbled upon him in the midst of changing. It was really awkward and I don't really want to go into detail. Anyways, he was cool with it as long as I didn't tell anyone, and he had my word. He was considerably shorter than me now, as I stood about 8 feet tall and was ripped. He was still my best friend in the whole world and nothing would change that.
When we got back to my apartment, the goons were gone. I sighed in relief and proceeded up into my home. Peter followed not knowing what else to do and sat quaintly on my couch. He turned on the tv and flipped over to the Daily Bugle. Why he would intentionally watch someone who insulted him daily, I would never know.
"The menace strikes again," spat Jonah," today the flying bug destroyed an Oscorp Research Lab as you can see him swing out of the exploding building." A clip of Spiderman swinging out of the building ran its time.d
Jonah went back to ranting about Spiderman as I got us a quick snack. The only thing I had were Granola Bars, but they were better than nothing. We quickly finished our snacks and sat there for awhile. The silence was getting rather buggy and we both knew it.
"So no one else lives here?" asked Peter.
"My brother does," I answered quietly, "He's not around much anymore so I basically own this heap of a home."
Peter was about to ask another question when his phone rang. He looked at me apologetically and stepped outside. I didn't mind if he talked in front of me. When the door closed I began relaxing. I looked at where he was sitting and noticed something strange. In Peter's wake there was a red and blue aura, my guess would be to symbolize him as Spiderman. It followed his exact path to the door. I focused on the door and a stronger aura began glowing behind it. It took on Peter's shape. Minimal details at first then more and more definition. In a few seconds it was like looking at him through glass wall. The color changed suddenly to a sickly green and he looked at his phone. He did his best to cover up this new feeling and entered smiling. I of course made no hint of what I was actually doing.
"Who was that?" I asked.
"Work," said Peter, I could detect a slight grimness in his voice.
Something was wrong, but I didn't let on that I knew anything. It was probably better that way. The aura soon faded away after I commanded it to. We both ate another granola bar and sat in silence. I stood and turned off the television.
"Wanna go for a walk?" I offered.
"Already?" he retorted, "I just got comfy."
Liar. The more time passed the more his aura smelled of deceit and guilt. What was he hiding? Who called him? He said work, but that either means the Daily Bugle, in the case of Peter Parker, but that could mean anything from Spiderman. Who trains a superhero? Suddenly, four strong auras began nearing. They were approaching rather quickly, so my guess was a helicopter. The most refined aura let out the smallest hint of his presence while the other three either didn't care or didn't have the discipline of the one. I would have to take him down first if it came down to that. I checked Peter's aura again and it was practically screaming at me to act.
"Where does Spiderman work?" I asked.
Peter didn't answer and his aura flared even brighter. That was it, time to leave. I grabbed up my coat and dashed out of the apartment.
"Wait!" called Peter.
I was already half way down the stairs by the time I heard him. I decided I wasn't going fast enough and decided to launch straight through the wall into the street. Traffic wasn't that bad at this time of day. I turned in the direction of the four new aura signals. I could barely see a helicopter in the distance. That was probably them.
"You there," called someone behind me, "Halt!"
I turned to see a black man with an eyepatch. He was aiming a pistol at me. The man wore a black jacket and didn't seem to be phased by my presence. This man had a great will.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I will do the talking," he snapped, "To answer your question, I am Director Fury of Shield."
I stepped towards him and he shot the pavement just ahead of me.
"Warning shot," said Fury, "The next goes in your leg."
I glanced back at the helicopter. It was much closer than before, about a block away. Suddenly, Ocrem appeared in front of me. I glanced around at the world to find it standing still as it seemed to always do when I spoke with him.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Don't fight," said Ocrem, "We need to train more before we can start combat."
"Really? What about that wall?"
"You can't fight because I won't allow you to. The wall was all you, you can do good."
"Fine," I said sighing.
"Good," said Fury, "Will you come with me without a fight?"
"I'm not in a position to fight, but sure."
The Oscorp Lab
"How did you obtain your powers?"
"That scientist had some weird blue crystal. He used it on me and something bonded with me. I was lucky enough to survive, unlike the other test subjects. Spidey had damaged it and I managed to escape."
"What is your name?"
"Merco Blaine."
"Alright, you are coming with me back to the Helicarrier."
"No. Why the Helicarrier?"
"Because it is the only place powerful enough to hold the Hulk. You, I hope, are currently much weaker than him."
"Fine. You don't have much reason to trust me."
"You got that right."
We began to leave the building. I followed close behind Fury as he lead me out of the building of my creation. Some of the Auromorph corpses littered the hallways drained of their strange power.
"It's sad to see them drained and destroyed," said the voice from earlier.
I noticed that the world had slowed to a crawl as a result of his appearance. I caught a flickering blue form fly out to meet the corpses. It was similar to a fairy in an old game that I used to play, but slightly less annoying. It gave off a serene presence. The conscious flew around and glanced into the eyes of each Auromorph and sighed dejectedly.
"It's a shame they had to lose their awesome power," it said again.
"Why did they have to die?" I asked through thought.
The fairy turned towards me and took on a slightly more coherent form. It appeared as a small unclothed humanoid, completely devoid of gender. Its face was flat along with the rest of its body. I assumed it was a he from his choice of form.
"I would guess the power that created you, and I suppose me, decided to return to its source to reacquisition itself. I do feel a certain bond with the crystal, as if it were my home, but I can't seem to acquire an origin to my existence," explained the being.
He looked at his form briefly and noticed that his form changed and was slowly growing. Whatever was causing him to grow was unknown to him. He turned back towards the Auromorphs and sighed once more before moving to my forehead. His form was about six inches tall and slowly increasing in definition.
"Do you have a name?" I asked before he merged with me.
"A name?" He mimed, "It hadn't occurred to me that I didn't have one. Could you suggest one?"
"How about Auracle?"
Auracle cocked his head and almost smiled before touching my forehead. He merged with me and time began to return to normal. My stride didn't change and Fury hadn't noticed a thing. Fairly soon, we found an exit to the destroyed building. It had gotten dark since we had first entered the Oscorp Lab. I looked to the west to see the sun slowly receding behind the horizon. It was a such a beautiful thing to watch and yet it was barely noticed due to it monotonousness.
I looked ahead to find a helicopter waiting for us. Fury apparently had called for one when I wasn't paying attention. As we neared, a hatch on the rear of the helicopter opened up and several Shield Agents piled out. They all trained their guns on me carefully. Fury stopped just before the hatch of the helicopter and turned towards me. He stepped aside and gestured for me to enter first. I sighed to myself and and stepped into the helicopter. Inside the helicopter, there was seats lined up on both walls of the helicopter. In the center of the helicopter, however, there was a large chair with about ten restraining belts. I figured I would be restrained while being transported. I went to the seat and sat down and fastened the belt across my waist.
The Agents followed me in and began fastening the remaining restraints. My wrists were strapped tightly to the chair along with my ankles. Following that, my knees and elbows were then strapped down to ensure that I could not move. I large gag was then placed around my mouth that covered my entire lower jaw. Finally, a large black strap was fastened across my forehead to pin my head to the chair. I was completely locked into place when Fury finally entered and took the last seat, nearest to the closing hatch. He glanced at me and he could sense I need an explanation.
"I don't know the extent of your powers," said Fury, "Just a precaution."
I rolled my eyes and calmly shut them. I felt the helicopter take off and fly off to the Helicarrier. It was a silent ride and the Shield Agents were very unforthcoming with any information. Fury was no better. The only light that we had in this damn thing was a irritating red light just above the hatch.
"This is Fury," said Fury into his comm, "Take us down near the holding cells just in case. Spiderman have your team meet up with us. Fury, out."
Within a few short minutes, we had arrived at our destination. The helicopter rocked slightly as it balanced itself and set down. Fury was first to stand and he moved to my restraining chair. He began to undo the bindings starting with the gag and head brace. The hatch opened and the Shield Agents stood and piled out of the helicopter and left Fury to unbind me. He removed the elbow and knee braces and then followed up with the ankle and wrist bindings. I groaned as I stood. My body had grown stiff, but it quickly subsided as Auracle quickly reenergized me. Fury glanced at me and proceeded off of the helicopter. I followed him off and found myself once again surrounded by the Shield Agents. However, this time they were supported by Spiderman's team.