3000 years from now, the Marvel universe has recovered from a great disaster in which much knowledge from the Age of Heroes was lost.

Ben Rikkard crouched in an alleyway trying to avoid attention. His clothes were soaked through, and he was pretty sure that whatever was in the bin next to him was radioactive. But none of that mattered. Just a few minutes ago, his brother, Kaine had been killed by one of the gangs that prowled Knewyork's lower levels. Suddenly his closest relative was gone.

20 minutes earlier

Ben and his brother had just left a movie about one of the legends from the past, the Impossible Hulk. Kaine, at twenty, had always been interested in the legends of superheroes, though Ben, age 15, didn't really buy them.

"It's just too ridiculous." He'd say. To which his brother would respond,

"That doesn't mean it couldn't happen"

Almost 3000 years ago, there had been a massive war. What had started it was anyone's guess, but by the time it was over most of the records of the time had been destroyed. Those who'd survived had told stories of beings who'd lived before: beings with extraordinary abilities. Most experts believed that they were simply legends created by the survivors as a coping mechanism.

To Kaine, these stories were everything. His room was crammed with datachips full of tales of the so-called Marvel Age. He'd even written a few of his own when he was a kid (though he refused to admit it). To him, challenging the existence of beings like The Captain and Mainframe was like challenging the existence of the sun.

"So why'd they use a different actor than the last movie?" asked Ben as they left.

"Something about payment issues." Answered Kaine with a shrug.

"Or maybe", began Ben with a grin, "The Hulk was actually a shapeshifter!" His brother turned toward him with a look of mock horror.

"Impossible! Do you hear me? Impossible!"

"Besides", Kaine continued with a more serious face, "only mutants could shapeshift. Everyone knows that."

They took a crowded lev-train most of the way home (and tried to ignore the smell). The rest of the way had to be walked. It seemed fairly uneventful until a voice called out to them to stop. Suddenly a group of young men surrounded the two. Each wore a helmet and a dark purple cloak, identifying them as members of the Mysterions. One of them, obviously the leader, stepped up carrying a round object with a single button on it.

"Now listen you two," he said in a metallic voice ( his helmet must have altered it), "You're gonna give me all the Shock'n money you've got, or I'm gonna push this button and you get to spend your last few seconds thinking that rat-roaches are eating you alive."

Looking around, Kaine slowly began to reach into his pocket. Suddenly, he picked up Ben and made a break, charging into one of the attackers. While the advantage of surprise gave them a short head start, there was no way Kaine could outrun them for long, especially carrying his brother. As he turned a corner Kaine threw Ben into the first alley he saw.

"Stay there!" He ordered as he continued running.

Ben saw his older brother leave, and he saw the Mysterions follow him. He heard the screams of terror as they carried out their threat.

Now

Ben sat in the polluted sludge of the Knewyork alley as it began to rain. He didn't even take notice of the ratroaches crawling across his feet or the spider climbing up his back. Maybe whatever toxic waste was back here would kill him, maybe he'd wake up and realize this was all just a horrible. Finally, after who-knows-how-long he got up and began to walk home. Ten minutes later the front door slid open, and he walked in.

Ben had considered calling the police, even begun to do so. But so many people were killed in muggings in the lower levels, that he knew that his brother would just be filed away and forgotten about.

He sat down in silence. His Aunt would be home soon. He'd have to tell her then.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a burst of pain on the back of his neck. Reaching back he pulled out a spider that had hitched a ride on him. Throwing it on the ground Ben stomped it flat. This was the last straw.

"Shock it!" he cried, as he swung out his arm at a chair next to him.

The world seemed to freeze for a moment as something inside him ordered Ben to dodge. And dodge he did as splinters of wood scattered across the room. Ben looked at his hand: he'd just shattered a wooden chair with one blow and not received a scratch. Only then did he realize just where he was; stuck to the ceiling. With that revelation he let go in surprise, half expecting to land and break an arm. Instead almost instinctively he corrected himself and landed perfectly.

Ben's mind went to the stories Kaine always told, the legends of the superheroes, and one in particular: Spider-man. Ben realized that now, somehow, he had gained the same power, the power to avenge his brother and take down the ones who'd killed him.

The Mysterions would pay for what they'd done. Ben was running to the door to exact vengeance, when suddenly a thought occurred: what if he failed. If they saw his face and he didn't succeed the gang would surely track him down.

Well... the original Spider-man wore a costume, why shouldn't he?

The Spider-man in Kaine's stories had blank eyes, and a black and white costume. Ben would follow suit. He grabbed a black and white jacket from a closet. A bandana and old goggles would serve as a makeshift mask to hide his face.

With night coming on and his aunt still not home Ben ran out under the cover of darkness. He needed to find a member of the gang and through him learn where he could find the ones who'd done this

"The city is too big to search on foot." he thought. The legends said that spider-man could shoot webs: maybe, just maybe...

Using his newfound climbing powers Ben crawled his way up a building. Though the Knewyork upper levels were still well out of sight, he was already hundreds of feet from the ground.

"This had better work." Ben muttered. Closing his eyes, Ben held out his hand and willed for webs to appear. With a sudden "thwipt!" a line shot out of his wrist and struck a skyscraper across from him. One deep breath later he leapt off.

Ben's stomach jumped and contorted as gravity took over. The building zoomed in at incredible speed. Only his new early warning sense let him shoot out another web-line before he became a stain. It took a bit of getting used to but soon he was swinging like he was born for it. For a moment he almost enjoyed himself.

"Kaine would love this.", he thought. Kaine. He was dead

The thought of his brother put him back on track and increased his resolve. Soon enough he heard a scream. The same one that Kaine had made.

Mysterions.

Ben jumped down and found two of them taking money off a corpse. The two turned.

"What the shock are you supposed to be?" said the bigger of the two. The other pulled out a knife and charged forward. Reflexively Ben dodged the blade, grabbed the attacker, and threw him at the other, all in less than a second. Webbing them to a wall he yelled in their faces.

"Where are you all hiding!?"

5 minutes later

Ben arrived at the ruins of what was once a building. He crawled in on the ceiling, staying out of sight until he found who he was looking for. Suddenly a light went on.

"Hey! What the shock is that?!" someone cried out.

Ben jumped down into the crowd of Mysterions. With his webs he grabbed one and used him to take out the others. Gas bombs were thrown, he simply leapt out of range. No matter how many of these shock'n punks came at him he fought them off.

Suddenly his extra sense went wild. That one over there. He was the one. The one who'd killed Kaine!

In a fit of fury Ben threw the others aside. Charging forward he threw the killer into a wall, webbed him up and prepared to give him what he deserved. But he hesitated: he was Spider-man wasn't he. Wouldn't spider-man, the lethal protector, have killed him? But what would Kaine want? His brother sometimes talked about another Spider-man, one who wore red, one who never killed. Kaine always liked that one better. When Ben asked why, Kaine said that killing made the hero no better than the villain.

With a cry of anger Ben punched the wall beside the young man's head. He pulled out his holo-phone and called the police. As he walked away the prisoner yelled out,

"Who the Shock are you?"

Turning around Ben replied, "I'm Spider-man."

"And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power must also come great responsibility!"

Hey everybody! I hope you liked the origin story. Be sure to let me know what you think.