Chapter 1: The Foolhardy Teen
"I don't know what we're gonna do May. He's just gotten so out of control recently, I don't know how to get through to him..." Uncle Ben confided to his wife.
"Maybe you should try talking to him. Teen years can be hard on a boy, he needs your guidance." Aunt May suggested comfortingly.
Uncle Ben was a retired member of the army who now worked as a member of the New York Police force, having been so busy with work in recent years he has begun to feel that Peter's misbehavior might be due to his own negligence.
"Maybe your right dear... I'll talk to him tomorrow" Ben answered.
With Peter's newfound powers an unlimited array of possibilities had unlocked themselves for him. Aiming to put his skills to good use, Peter had begun to save up money he buy a car of his own: With a new car Peter was certain he could impress a certain beautiful girl.
" I'm going to the downtown library, I'll see you later." He shouted rushing down the stairs for the door.
" I'll drive you there." Uncle Ben offered.
" You don't need to do that!"
"Come on now, I've hardly seen you at all these last few weeks."
"Alright, fine.."
They piled into a beat-up grey toyota corolla.
"Listen, Peter, we need to talk."
"We can talk later." Peter offered defensively.
"Or, we could talk now." Ben submitted firmly.
"Why? What do we NEED to talk about?"
"We haven't talked to you in awhile. You've been avoiding your aunt and I. You've been shirking your chores and your teacher called today, said you're flunking your chemistry class."
"Stop lecturing, please." Peter whined, frustrated and beginning to feel guilty about his recent and upcoming escaping.
"I'm not trying to lecture, your aunt and I have just been worried. I know I'm not your father but-"
"Then stop pretending to be!" Peter snapped, leaving the vehicle in a huff.
Losing Uncle Ben wasn't hard once they had arrived at the library. After he was certain the Uncle Ben had departed he rounded the corner and changed into his Spiderman costume.
The underground wrestling ring he'd read about in the newspaper was roaring with people and packed with people when he made it. It reeked of blood, sweat and booze.
"Ladies and gentlemen... give it up for CRUSHER HOGAN!" An announcer exclaimed over a megaphone.
Peter felt himself grow nauseous at when he spotted Crusher Hogan, the man was nearly three times his size. But there was no turning back now. He'd set his mind on winning that money and that's exactly what he planned on doing.
" FOR THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS! IS THERE ANYONE MAN ENOUGH TO BEAT THIS TITAN OF TESTOSTERONE?!"
"I'll take him for that three hundred dollars!" Peter interjected, stepping up to the ring.
The crowd booed!
"Well, well! If it isn't another small fry." Crusher Hogan taunted, " Step up, sucker!"
"Just relax, I'll try to go easy on you so this doesn't hurt..." He whispered to Peter once he'd crawled up into the ring.
"That won't be necessary." Peter countered cockily.
The bell rang.
The burly wrestler charged forward across the ring towards Peter who leaped over him in one small jump. Peter felt the adrenaline flooded his veins as the Crusher and swung a punch at Peter, who dipped beneath the fist and shuffled to the side.
Peter swung in for a punch, but the Crusher took the opportunity to slam one into Pete knocking the wind out of him. He wobbled to the side but another was coming. Peter jumped away and dashed behind Hogan, grappling an arm around the wrestlers waist and leaping up onto one of the poles holding the ring in place.
He began climbing up the pole while Crusher Hogan shrieked in horror as he saw he gazed down at the ring below. The crowded burst into applause as Peter tossed the Crusher back into the ring and jumped down to join him, pinning him down.
DING! DING! DING! DING!
"Winner!"
Once he'd pocketed the money Peter made off in a hurry, hoping to make it hope in time for dinner!
Aside from just wrestling Peter had also taken up film as a secondary income. With a nifty new app for his Smartphone built to zoom-in on Spiderman in action coupled with his uncanny spider senses he was able to secure great clips for the Daily Bugle's website.
Today the Vulture was supposed to strike, media hype had sensationalized an incoming threat that he planned to seize a prized diamond shipment. An armed convoy followed the incoming shipment.
Peter knew this was the perfect opportunity to grab some great footage. Already on the sidelines in costume he carefully snuck away, climbing up the walls of a building to get a better look at the scene and set-up his camera.
He waited there, scanning the scene. He could some level of shuffling about below and his spider senses were tingling.
Then, there he was! The vulture swooped above the buildings of New York with a suitcase presumably filled with diamonds.
Spiderman shot a line of webbing after the vulture, grabbing him by the leg.
He tried to reel the Vulture back in towards the building but the Vulture had the upper hand and Spiderman was swung of the roof of the building, clinging the his web-shooter for dear life!
He grappled to pull himself up closed, grabbing for the Vultures leg as the webbing strained under his weight.
"You idiot! You think that you can take a bird down in the sky?!" The Vulture hackled at his dangling foe.
Spiderman had no time to lose, he shot a second line of webbing to another building while the Vulture tried to shake him lose from the leg. Spiderman wouldn't let go though!
The webbing from his right wrist, which has been secured to the Vulture snapped just as Peter caught a line on the building ahead of them.
"Haha! I'm free, I knew you couldn't stop me Spiderman!" The Vulture hacked.
As Peter swung down he shot up at the Vulture again, tangling him by the waist in his webbing. The momentum of Peter's fall through the Vulture off balance and he descended along with Peter.
The two smacked against the building Spiderman had hooked onto hard.
SQUEEEEEEK!
The two of the them slide a small ways before the line of webbing pulled itself taut, the Vulture was out cold from the blow with the building.
Spiderman finished wrapping the Vulture up so he couldn't break free and delivered him to the police department.
"He's all yours guys!" Spiderman chirped happily, swinging away.
Less than an hour later Peter was delivering the footage to J. J. Jameson.
"Hello Mr. Jameson." Peter announced as he strutted into the main office of the Daily Bugle.
"Parker! You what are you doing here so late?! I was expecting you an hour ago!" Jameson snarled.
"Sorry, I lost track of time." Peter muttered.
"Well we're going to miss you around here. I have no reason to continue employing, punctuality is key here at the Daily Bugle." J. J. stated rigidly.
"Aw, don't be like that J.J.! You wouldn't be mad at me after what I've just gotten for you!" Peter stated with a smirk as he played the footage for J. J. Jameson
"What? You managed to get pictures of the heist in action! And Spiderman too, I knew he was in on this!" He muttered to himself, tossing a check in Peter's direction.
On his way out Peter ran into Betty.
Betty was Peter's biggest crush, since he'd started at the Daily Bugle several months ago he hadn't been able to get her off his mind, she was a thin but tall woman. A little older than Peter, but they'd grown to be friends over the last few months since Peter had started working at the Bugle.
"Hey, Betty. I was wondering if you were doing anything this Saturday?" Peter opened with.
Midtown High was having a school dance and Peter had made-up his mind to go.
"I'm sorry Peter, I'm going to be out of town visiting my brother next Saturday. Maybe next time kiddo." Betty said sympathetically.
Peter sighed, "That's alright, I hope you have a nice visit."
"See you around Peter." Betty said, smiling sweetly back at him.
His heart skipped a beat and his face flushed as he stuttered, "Th-thanks Betty! S-see you!"
Later the next day after school Peter was still pondering how he was going to attend the school dance.
"Hey, umm... Liz... I was wondering if you're not bus-" Peter stuttered approaching a busty blond haired girl about the same age as him.
"Sorry Peter, I've got a date for tonight with the boys!" Liz giggled, dashing off towards one of the local football players.
He sighed feeling sorry for himself, at this rate he would never find a date.
"We just need one more guy for the dance!" A girl chirped from the forming group.
"What about you Peter? " Exclaimed a member of Flash's crew.
Another one of the football players burst into a roar of laughter, "That nerd? Hah! That's a joke."
He draped an arm around Liz pompously.
"Jeeze guys, you don't always have to be so mean to Pete all the time... What's he ever done to you?" Liz scolded as the group piled into Flash's new Cadillac.
"Stick to the science stuff Puny Parker, we'll take care of the ladies." Flash Thompson, star quarterback of Midtown High's football team, vouched boisterously.
"What did you say?" Peter said, blood flooding to his face.
"You heard me." Flash taunted to the dread of poor Liz.
"You wanna go?!"
Peter had never been the biggest guy on campus and had always felt a little left out. Frequently bullied by jocks, especially Flash. Incidents like these really grated on nerves, he couldn't stand Flash's attitude anymore! He clenched his a fist in annoyance.
He swung in at Peter aiming to get in the first blow, but Peter was too fast for him dodging to the side. This only served to only further frustrate Flash.
"Come on Flash! Stop it!" Liz cried.
Peter swung at Flash, knocking him out clean in one blow. Liz shrieked and ran in to see if Flash was okay, but the rest of Flash's posse was not so keen. One of them took a swing at Peter, entirely outnumbered by half Midtown High's football team.
A rush of adrenaline hit him, this hadn't been the first fight among his peers he'd gotten into in the last few months and it was rapidly becoming a very bad habit. He booked it as fast as he could.
"I can't believe you're causing this kind of trouble!" Ben roared at Peter after he was delivered by one of his teachers to police station.
"I didn't start it!" Peter whimpered.
"I don't care if you started it! That kind of behavior is completely unacceptable!" He shouted.
"Ben please, be gentle with him..." Aunt May insisted worriedly, giving a sympathetic look to Peter.
"You get into fights with your classmates! You've been shirking your chores! You're flunking chemistry, along with almost every other class at your high school!" Ben yelled, "I've had it! Starting next month we're transferring you to a new school!"
Author's Note: Just kind of setting the stage for future events. I was really trying to capture the feel I had for Spiderman back during his earlier days before he'd really matured as much. I've got a pretty elaborate plot in mind for this story so stick around! I'm really excited to make this into something, I absolutely love feedback so feel free to tell me what you think about the story so far.