New Beginnings Part I: Isolation

Hey, Jack here, I want to apologise because this first chapter is a bit slow, however, things will pick up, I promise, all I ask is that you give it a go, if you like it great, it not, tell me why, I'd love to hear any criticism as long as it helps improve my writing.

First things first, I want to offer a warning because this story does contain mentions of physical abuse and mild language, with that said, the first chapters are some of the darkest, as with any Superhero fiction, since it contains the origin of this new Spider-man.

Disclaimer: I do not own Spider-man, Marvel, or any associated characters.

With all that said, let's begin, Enjoy!

-Ytttu

"Alright Mr. Braddock, I'm going to as you something and I want your honest answer. How's your home life?" A woman sat back in her chair, her dark hair tied up into a tight bun, she had a professional demeanour as she spoke to the boy sitting opposite her, across her desk.

"...It's fine." The boy kept his answers clipped and short, he was around sixteen and had messy dark brown hair, which matched the colour of his eyes, which had bags under them from a lack of sleep, the boy was of average height, but skinny and quiet along with it.

"Aaron, I can't help you if you don't-" The woman began, trying a more friendly approach

"It's fine, Miss. Allan. Honestly." Aaron kept his short replies. He didn't understand why people had to pry so much or why he had to attend these stupid meetings to check on him.

Liz sighed "Okay...So home life is 'fine'...You excited about the Field trip to Alchemax tomorrow?"

Aaron shrugged "I guess.." The young man wasn't much for talking, especially to his School counsellor.

Liz frowned for a moment, thinking to herself, before looking at her watch "Okay Mr. Braddock you can go. Not much point in keeping you here."

Aaron nodded and got up, leaving the room without another word, placing his headphones in and taking out his cracked, old phone that his Mother had given him to turn on some music as he walked.

Eventually, the boy reached the run down apartment building he lived in with his parents, making his way to the floor which housed their living quarters. Aaron unlocked the door and tried to make his way to his room unnoticed by his father.

"Take those out." John Braddock walked over to his son, he was a menacing figure, tall and built like a boxer. "Did you hear me kid? I said take 'em out." John pulled a headphone out and Aaron stepped back slightly. "I don't wanna have to teach you a lesson like last time. Bad enough they got you seein' some counsellor bitch after that, you didn't say nothin' to her, did you?"

Aaron shook his head slightly.

"Well? Did you?" John got into Aaron personal space and the boy backed up even more, shaking his head more frantically, "N-No Dad…"

John stayed there for a moment, before sitting back down "Good kid. Now go bother your Mother."

Aaron quickly left the room, knocking on his Mother's bedroom door "M-mom?"

Amy opened it, smiling at her son, she was sporting a new black eye, but Aaron new better than to mention it when John could potentially hear.

"Hey sweetie, how was school?" Amy sat on her bed, crossing her legs.

"Alright I guess...What're you doing?" Aaron sat next to her, Amy was going through a box of old drawings.

"Just looking...I found this old box of junk, old sketches I did of superheroes from when I was your age...Captain America, Iron man, Spider-man, The Fantastic four...I used to love them, wrote stories and drew pictures about them before I met your Father." Amy showed a few to her son, smiling timidly as she did so.

"I always loved your drawings." Aaron said, staring at a sketch of Spider-man, his Mother's favourite.

A loud voice came from the lounge "AMY! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"

Amy replied only just loud enough for John to hear "Coming honey!" The Mother then stood up and left the room, offering Aaron one last smile.

Aaron sighed and went into his room, where he locked himself for the rest of the night. The next day he left for school early, not wanting to be at home for when John woke up. He eventually arrived at school and then got loaded onto a bus ferrying the children in his class to Alchemax for the field trip. Aaron sat at the back, alone and looked out of a window, deep in thought when somebody sat next to him. He kept his head down, not wanting to risk talking to somebody potentially ready to tease him.

"Excuse me, this seat's not taken is it?" Aaron turned, looking at a girl he hadn't seen before.

"N-No- I mean-No...No it's not...that I know of...Maybe- Ish…" Aaron cleared his throat and went back to looking out of the window.

The girl smiled slightly, mildly amused. "My name's Haley, and you are?..." Aaron looked back at the girl, avoiding eye contact, fiddling with his hands "Aaron...Braddock."

"Well it's nice to meet you Aaron." Haley was shorter than average and had purple hair tied into a ponytail, she wore thick glasses and a baggy dark blue sweater.

Aaron nodded slightly, not comfortable or confident in the slightest. "Y-yeah...You too."

Haley frowned, slightly confused at just how awkward Aaron was, but she shook her head slightly and continued trying to spark conversation "I'm new here, just moved from Los Angeles with my family, trying to make new friends, y'know?"

Aaron nodded slightly "Yeah.."

Haley talked for the rest of the journey, Aaron occasionally agreeing or nodding along where appropriate, he had to admit, it was nice to have somebody talking to him instead of avoiding him, teasing him or trying to provoke him.

Once everybody had gotten off the bus, the tour began, Haley moved to the front, making notes, engrossed in what the tour guide was saying about the various experiments they were shown. Aaron stood at the back, watching the sights around him, when a piece of paper hit the back of his head. Aaron turned slowly to see who threw it, and there stood the three main bullies who targeted him.

Josh, a rich boy who talked down to anybody he perceived as below him, Josh was dressed in expensive clothing and was not the toughest looking person in the world, however, his best friend and primary muscle, Steven, was.

Then there was Josh's girlfriend, Nadia, a beautiful girl with a not so beautiful personality.

Josh gave a smug grin and pushed past Aaron, Steven doing the same, but laughing. As Steven pushed him, Aaron fell to the ground, crashing into a table and knocking a pen pot over.

Nadia walked past, stick her nose up as she did so, actively avoiding looking at him.

As Aaron picked himself up and the stationary up, the class moved on. Aaron went around the corner to find them and sighed as he couldn't. He spotted a coded door that had been left open. "Guess they're being shown some contained experiment or something…" Aaron hurried into the room and looked around.

It was relatively small and had only a few computers along with an empty plastic box in the centre. Aaron walked over to it and peered inside "Looks like an animal enclosure…" Aaron thought to himself as he continued examining it.

As he did so, he rested his hand on the table, above him, a spider slowly lowered itself from the roof, crawling onto his hand. Aaron stood up and turned to leave, then felt something on his skin, crawling. Aaron looked at his hand and yelled, attempting to swat the spider.

The Spider panicked and instantly bit down before Aaron crushed it and threw it off "Ew...Ew...Ew…" Aaron shuddered as he looked at the bite marks.

"Better find them…" Aaron ran out of the room, searching for his class. Eventually finding them looking at a giant microscope.

The tour ended shortly after and Aaron made his way home, feeling progressively more ill as he got there, as he reached home, he walked straight into his room and slowly pulled off his clothes as he felt hot, as if he'd been sitting in the sun all day. He then collapsed on his bed. But he couldn't sleep. The base of his skull felt tingly, like the worst headache he'd ever had. Everything was louder and slower, each footstep in the hall like a hammer.

Aaron was sweating profusely, his skin was almost ghostly white and his eyes were bloodshot, he covered his ears and grit his teeth and then…

Silence. The noise had subsided and everything was fine.

Then, there was the tingle again as Aaron heard somebody in the Hallway, John on the phone. "Yeah...Yeah, I get it, I get it damn it! But Tuesday's our big day! Big score! Set for life...Able to leave Amy and the disappointment, I don't care. We're doing it. I know we've never hit a bank but there's a first time for everything. Just bring your mask and gun, alright? Cool. Bye." John walked into his room and locked the door.

As soon as the tingling sensation stopped, Aaron passed out from exhaustion, moving in the night as if he were suffering from night terrors.

Suddenly, Aaron sat up, looking around. Sunlight streaming into his room through his blinds. It was morning, and Aaron felt good, no, better than good, Aaron felt great, better than he had in a long time. He got out of bed and looked in the mirror, frowning at what he saw.

He was the same size as before, except he had well toned Muscles. "Well this is new...Oh crap, is that the time?!" Aaron looked at his clock, then rushed around, throwing his clothes on, grabbing his school bag and leaving the house quickly.

Next time: A New Beginnings Part II: Discovery