Chapter 2:
"Peter? Peter? Are you up?" Aunt May's voice called from the stairway, waking her sleeping nephew with a start. It took him a few seconds to completely gain consciousness. He groggily slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and headed for the bathroom as his Aunt continued to call out for him from the kitchen. "Peter? It's time for breakfast? Are you up? Peter?"
"I'm up, Aunt May," he hastily replied before he splashed water on his face. "I'll be down in a minute." He took a minute to check his face for any bruises or cuts, as had become part of his morning routine. Luckily, his accelerated healing factor had taken care of it, as it had all his other injuries. Heaven forbid she discover him with cuts and bruises, because his excuses like "I ran into a door" and "I tripped" were getting really old really quickly.
His unique healing factor was one of his powers that puzzled him. According to all the sources he researched, the fastest a spider or any other insect could recover from an injury was over several days. He'd once had two fingers chopped off by Kraven and they'd grown back overnight. And the strongest Spider could only lift three times it's body weight, while Peter had lifted a large pickup truck without breaking a sweat. He had begun too wonder if there was more to his powers than he realized.
Maybe he'd gotten bitten by a spider equivalent of a super-soldier.
He wound his way downstairs and into the kitchen. Aunt May stood over the stove, cooking some bacon and eggs for him. No matter ho hard he tried to tell her that he could make his own breakfast, she always insisted on doing it for him.
"You know, I can make my own breakfast, Aunt May." He said as he sat down.
"Peter, you pay three-quarters of the bills around the house with that abysmal job of yours, all the while going and maintaining those grades of yours. I think the least I can do for you is make breakfast. I'm not that old and senile yet." Aunt May chuckled as she placed some food on his plate before him. He should have known better than to say such things to her, as he knew what her response would be. She was a very independent woman, and refused help whenever she felt she could complete a task alone. Which made it a lot easier for Peter, allowing him more time to keep the streets safe.
"And furthermore, you wouldn't have time to both make and eat in the morning. Not with how much you eat," She chuckled. One side-effect of his Spider-powers was that he needed to eat four or five times as much as an Olympian-level athlete to compensate for his higher than normal metabolism. And he did so without gaining a pound.
"Oh, and before I forget," said Aunt May as she sat down across from him. Mr Jameson called earlier this morning while the rest of the world was sleeping.." She began.
"Sorry," Peter muttered.
"Why should you be?" Aunt May replied. "It's not as though you made him call. Anyway, he says he's got an article he wants written for the paper. Says the last guy quit, no idea why..." Aunt May chuckled again, "And he seems to think you're the next best employee for the job."
"Did he say what he wanted?" Peter asked as he swallowed the last of his eggs.
"Heavens no, Peter," Aunt May smiled, "You know as well as I do that that man doesn't have his head on strait half the time. And the other half of the time it's orbiting the planet." Peter nearly snorted milk when she finished. "Though I do hope it's not to dangerous," Aunt May continued obliviously, "And that maybe it'll get you away from all those dangerous Spider-man pictures he has you take."
"If J. Jonah Jameson stops needing pictures of Spider-man to rant about, I'll eat my microscope," Peter chimed, much to his Aunt's delight. He glanced up at the clock and saw that it was nearly time to leave. "Gotta go," he said as he stood up and placed his plate in the sink. He grabbed his backpack, which lay by the front door and opened the front door.
"Oh Peter, can you pick up some milk on your way home?" Aunt May asked from down the hall.
"I will, Aunt May!" He replied before he closed the door behind him and headed out onto the street. It was a fine mid-September morning. The leaves had just begun to change their colour, but it was not yet so cold that he needed a full-blown coat to stay warm.
Leaves rustled and Children skipped merrily behind their parents, while their older siblings tried to not be seen with their parents. Some texted their friends, while others listened to music on the latest devices their parents had bought them.
He actually felt privileged to having not been raised like that. If he wanted something along those lines, he had to pay for it from the time he was seven. When he was younger, he had cried when his Aunt and Uncle wouldn't buy him a brand-new laptop like the one Harry had. At the time Peter didn't understand that the laptop was a four thousand dollar prototype, he just knew he wanted it no matter what. So he worked his butt off for the summer, and gotten himself a second-hand laptop instead.
"Now Pete," His Uncle had said to him, "I know it's not the new one you wanted. but you earned this one. It's yours and no one can take that pride away from you. Ever." He still had the computer to this day, albeit with a few software and hardware updates.
The memory made him smile as he crossed the street, and walked onto Midtown High School property. All around him, students and teachers mulled about the campus. Separated by their cliques, they could be sorted by social standing almost. Under the big tree in the middle of the grounds stood Flash Thompson and the rest of the football team. As usual, they were tossing around a football, yelling hoarsely. Surrounding them were several cheerleaders. Ironically, Peter had helped each and every one of them with their homework at one point or another. And yet, he'd be knocked right on his ass into next week if he tried to socialize with them. Or they'd try to hit him at least, which was not an easy task when he could easily dodge bullets. But on the other hand, he did have a secret identity to maintain. So no lopsided ten-to-one fights today.
Closer to the parking lot was a collection of Heavy Metal/Goth types. And not to far away from them was a circle of Drama kids reciting lines for the school's production of Romeo & Juliet. But neither of those groups held his attention. He was diverted to a small group to his left. Mary Jane was practically jumping up and down to try and get his attention. He sighed and ambled over to where his ex-girlfriend was standing with his best friend, Harry Osborne and four others.
"Hey Peter!" M.J. chimed as he came over. Even though they had broken up several months ago, they remained good friends. Things did get a little awkward when she and Harry started dating though. He mused. He was over it, and he had told them, so they didn't have to go behind his back about it anymore. "I've got some fresh meat today!" she smiled as the strangers behind her grimaced, expressing their extreme discomfort. Not out of place when you considered the fact that they were starting at a new high school.
As head of Student council, it was M.J.'s job to show new students around the school, introduce teachers and such. Usually she got one or two new students a month. Today she had four, which was almost unheard of. Three girls and one boy shifted their feet nervously as people around them gave them looks. New students were always given this treatment. It was a form of hazing.
"Anyway," M.J. Continued to babble on, "these two are gonna be in a couple of your classes," She motioned to two of the older girls. "And i was kinda hoping you could show them around for me, 'cause it's not like I can clone myself or anything." Peter glanced at the people behind her, guessing that they couldn't be to dangerous.
"'K" he nodded sheepishly, before one of the girls caught his attention, more specifically, her hair caught his attention. It was a deep shade of brown, with a single white stripe. It was the same girl he had saved from the thugs last night. She must look older than she actually is, He thought to himself.
"Great!" M.J. Said ecstatically as she grabbed both the white-stripe girl and the girl to her left. "This is Marie," M.J. Said as she motioned to the girl with the white-stripe hai. "And...this is...hang on..." She looked hard at the girl, trying to remember her name, "Katy?...no, Kimberly? ..."
"Katherine." said the other girl nervously, shifting her feet and looking down at the ground.
"Right," said M.J., checking her watch. "Well, we've got five minutes until the bell, so I suggest you show them to Dr Connors's classroom." She finished before leading the other two new students off, leaving him and Harry in an awkward situation with the two strangers.
"Well," said Harry as he slicked back his hair in an attempt to stop himself from looking like a weirdo, "I gotta get to math, so..have fun." He finished as he smacked Peter on the shoulder and took off after M.J. Math. Right. He's gonna go see if M.J. wants to skip out on class again. Peter turned to his new shadows for the day.
"Well," he said, attempting to be cheerful. "Lets go see what Dr Connors has got for us to dissect today. Yay!" He clapped his hands and raised them into the air. The one girl, Katherine, muffled a laugh, but stopped when her friend gave her a strange look. Sighing to himself for having botched another friendship with a girl like he had done so many times, he lead them into the school. They twisted and turned down the halls until they reached the science wing. They turned into the third classroom on the right.
Dr Curtis Connors had at one point been a scientist respected on the same level as Reid Richards and Steven Hawking. He specialized in cross-species genetics, particularly Human-reptile. Most had attributed this to the fact that he had an obsession with cellular regeneration. Something to be expected when one of your arms is missing at the elbow.
That obsession had led him to create a limb-regenerating serum. It worked with one side-effect: He was transformed into a eight foot tall human-lizard hybrid bent on the destruction of humanity. With a little bit of help from Reid Richards, Peter had been able to reverse the effects. After that, his life had fallen into a depression, saved only when Peter came to him for help during a crisis when a new 'lizard' began terrorizing the streets. Thanks to his co-operation with S.H.I.E.L.D, the international agency that monitored superhuman activity, Dr Connors had received a full pardon and been granted a teaching job. As far has Peter knew, he was the only person in the school who knew about Connors's problematic past. And he kept it a secret, out of respect for the man. He smiled as he sat down, thinking of how the parents would react if they found out their kids where being taught by an ex-monster.
As usual, Peter's brain was forced to go on autopilot as his teachers droned on and on about subjects that he memorized years ago. Occasionally something caught his attention. Whether it be a random fact or trivial information he had forgotten. But nonetheless he was somewhat glad to hear the bell ring at the end of the day.
He begrudgingly headed for the Daily Bugle. He knew the path off by heart and made it there in no time. As the elevator doors chimed open, he was greeted by the shrill voice of his Boss.
"WHERE IS THAT STORY ON THE PUNISHER THAT I ORDERED?" Jameson shrieked from his office. Sliding in-between the cubicles, he reached the door to Jameson's office as more shouting continued.
"You wanted to see me, Mr Jameson?" Peter asked calmly.
"YES PARKER I..I did. There's an article I need written, and Johnson refuses to do it. So here's your big break." Jameson said as he sat behind his oak desk. Behind him was a wall lined with newspaper clippings. Most of them where of Spider-man's supposed 'criminal' actions, coupled with reports of supposed mutant activity in New York. "I want you to cover next month's presidential debate to take place here in New York. Worldwide coverage, and I want it on the front page of my newspaper. Do it and you'll get a job as a full-blown writer. But I still want your Spider-man photos coming in on a weekly basis."
"On it, sir" Peter replied with a smirk.