The second part of my double-bill.
I hope you've enjoyed it so far. For Spider-Man fans, I'm sorry but this one will have an element that's heartbreaking. In this chapter, Peter is set on a different path.
The Leopard from New York.
As he panted jogging along the sidewalk, pretending to take it easy while he was more than capable of jogging without losing much breath, Peter reflected on the last few weeks since he'd acquired his new abilities.
He wished he just had enough of an opportunity to test himself while keeping his cover. It was getting harder and harder to control what he did at school once he'd made a new breakthrough. He'd discovered this problem shortly after he'd found a warehouse which was perfect. It had more junk stockpiled inside it, a couple of old cars, and there were high beams that held the roof in place.
Peter had already tested his agility and his strength; okay he was still a long way from figuring out just how strong he was now, but he knew he was strong now, strong enough to go beyond the super-human barrier that separated the likes of people like Thor, that green-skinned thing that was being reported wandering about the country, and Iron Man, though Thor was reportedly the real Norse god and Iron Man was just a man in a super-powered exoskeleton. Truthfully there weren't that many super-powered people on the Avengers. Black Widow and even Captain America didn't count, even Cap who was only just stronger than the average human, but there were others out there who were stronger than all of them.
Agility wise, Peter was able of leaping high in the air with his new leg muscles, allowing him to leap high in the air like a proper leopard.
That particular species of big cat was well known for its habit of dragging prey into trees and keeping it out of reach of predators like other leopards or some of their other natural enemies. It didn't surprise him one little bit he was able to leap high in the air, but he had tested his new abilities as best as he could but he felt he had a long way to go. Peter had decided to approach all of this from a scientific point of view. He had begun experimenting with his abilities that were inspired by things from the net.
But Peter was still a long way from truly testing just how far his new skills went.
That was the easy part, the hard part was making sure he didn't do anything stupid like accidentally punching a hole in a locker or a wall when someone frustrated him at school. Ever since the school field trip, Peter had tried to keep his distance from the rest of his class. It was just some of the class wouldn't leave him alone as Flash and his gang kept trying to make his life a misery with their stupid pranks and their childish antics. It never failed to amaze Peter that no matter how old he grew, Flash was still mentally a five-year-old.
As he jogged home, trying his hardest to appear as a regular jogger without giving much away like how fast he actually was now, Peter thought about the way Flash and his gang had tried to corner him after football practice. They were bubbling with testosterone which they hadn't yet managed to burn off playing that stupid sport so they came after him, or rather they tried too. After seeing them, Peter had no choice but to flee from them, and he had managed to dodge them by ducking into a corner and leaping onto the roof and remaining there hidden until they'd left.
But while he was running away from them, a part of his mind was screaming for him to turn around, to stand his ground and tear them to pieces. Peter had to admit it had been tempting, but he had managed to gain some control, but he did hope that it was a part of him and not the big cat that was now inside of him.
He had made a note of the incident when he'd gotten home, but the fact remained that until graduation came around he would still have to contend with a bunch of neanderthals at school.
To this day Peter still had no idea why on Earth he was being targeted like that, but at the moment he didn't care. All he wanted was to just get through the remainder of his time at Midtown High, go into college, and become a scientist and do something with himself rather than constantly lie inside Flash Thompsons' shadow.
The thought of making a discovery that put him out there among the likes of Einstein, Galileo, Pasteur, Faraday and Hawking made him feel better about himself though he wanted to make discoveries than make a quick buck. Still, it would be satisfying; a scientific discovery was perpetual, whereas a football player, while loved and admired during their career, had victories that ended up joining those played by other players. One day Flash would be another nearly forgotten player, and that was the sweetest revenge of them all.
But what really frightened Peter the most was the fact every time he thought of Flash, a part of him wanted nothing more than to literally murder the other teenager. And as time passed, that part of him grew stronger and stronger until now he was convinced the mutation had reached his brain, though he hoped nothing serious happened.
It was just worrying that he no longer really seemed to care about hiding whatever changes to his personality there were now, and he had noticed quite a few of the girls whom he had once crushed on and yet hadn't received anything in return except contempt now seemed determined to flock to him all of a sudden. One of them was Liz Allen, but since the girl was one of those people who had scorned him and put him down, well it hadn't been difficult for Peter to ignore her. Something that made Flash jealous. Why Peter didn't know since he wasn't interested in Liz.
It was impossible to think about Flash and not think about Mary Jane Watson.
Peter had noticed a new found confidence in himself that he had hadn't had before, and he was sure it came from being genetically bonded to a leopard. It seemed things were genetic as leopards, like all domestic cats really, didn't seem to be bothered about things like keeping themselves to themselves.
He didn't really care much about Sally Avril or Liz Allen despite trying time and again asking them out on dates with him in the past, but their constant refusal had done more to dent his confidence before the incident at Oscorp, but it hadn't been until recently since Mary Janes' nasty remark on the trip he decided he couldn't do it anymore.
Mary Jane, Sally, Liz. All three girls were no longer on his radar though it would be hard for him to avoid Mary Jane since she was his neighbour and he saw her nearly every day, saw her constantly smile while wearing immaculate but amazing clothes that had allowed her to fit into the In Crowd without too much trouble though he knew things were not rosy at her home. Mary Jane's remark had done more to harm Peter than he'd expected. He now wanted nothing to do with those girls.
He knew what she was going to do at college, of course, everyone knew she was planning on becoming an actress, something that had never really interested him though he had cried like a little kid whenever he had seen her plays.
But now it didn't really matter since he was going to college to study science and computing and he would probably never really see her, but it didn't hurt as much as it had in the past as Peters' new leopard nature made him just mentally shrug his shoulders and pull away. It was worrying but ever since that incident at Oscorp he'd found himself pulling away from a great deal.
Tragically it was happening at home as well as at school; Peter was now finding himself pulling away from his aunt and uncle a little, but not so much. He was still trying to spend some time with them both while trying to figure out what he was going to do with himself. Fortunately his uncle managed to reassure his worried aunt he was just growing up, and as a result Uncle Ben (god bless him) had taken the news he was planning on jogging into his stride as just one of those things. Yet somehow Peter had the impression Uncle Ben was actually pleased he had a new interest instead of just his conventional hobbies. The only thing that surprised both of his guardians was how long Peter was out at around this time - another reason his aunt fretted since she expected him to be attacked in Queens. He was usually out here for a long while he jogged around the neighbourhood, but his guardians were wrong. He wasn't just doing this to see how fast he was, but he was doing this so then he could test his speed from time to time.
Now Peter was heading home after jogging around the block, thankful the hoodie he was wearing was covering his face so if anyone from school actually saw him they wouldn't have a clue about who he was. He didn't want anyone at school to spread rumours about him jogging, he had no idea what kind of attention would be fixed on him, and frankly, he didn't want it to happen.
He had just started back when his ears picked up a distant scream. It was quite far off, but he had managed to pick it up. Peter turned in the direction the scream was coming from, his pace increasing with every second before he came across a scene that made him pause.
A woman with a child was being cornered by a pair of thugs, one of them had already grabbed the young woman's purse but she was holding onto the strap and trying to tug it away from them while the other was groping her while he had a hand wrapped around the thin wrist of the child who was screaming in pain and fear while his mother tried hard to make her attackers let him go.
Peter didn't need to think about what he was going to do next. The teenager was about to break into a run when he realised that although the hoodie he was wearing covered his head, his face was still exposed. Peter reached into the pocket where the scarf he had removed from his neck was kept.
Aunt May had fretted so much about him jogging she had made sure he was dressed up warmly even on nights when it wasn't cold and he wore a scarf. Peter had taken the scarf off just as soon as he had turned the corner and shoved it into his pocket. But now he wrapped it as tightly as he could around his neck and face so then it hid his face. Once he was finished, Peter rushed towards the muggers, heading for the one whose hand was wrapped around the little boy's wrist.
Peter hit the thug in the chest with the force of speeding train while reaching out grabbing his wrist holding the boy, crushing the brawny wrist like it was a biscuit. The thug screamed in agony and let go of the boy, but Peter snapped the thugs' upper arm. The thug collapsed to the ground, wheezing from the pain and cradling his broken arm in his one good arm. The other thug turned in disbelief.
"Wha-?" he was about to say, but he didn't have time to react before Peter picked up and threw the whimpering mugger off of the ground towards him, but his friend stepped aside when he realised what was happening. With a growl, Peter faced the street thug who was still standing. But the street thug took out a flick-knife and tried to throw it at Peter, but the teenager managed to dodge it once or twice. It slashed his hand.
Peter took a step back even as the thug grinned in triumph as he looked at the wound in surprise.
That grin disappeared when Peter let out a furious angry howl that instantly had mother and son cling to one another in shock. Peter charged the thug and instantly began to beat him up, sounding very much like a wounded angry animal as he methodically beat the life out of the thug. The thug was lying on the concrete, choking as the blows to his chest and head made blood leak from his mouth as one of Peters' blows dislocated his jaw and had the side-effect of slicing open his tongue.
The animal side of Peter was enjoying what he was doing and he brought his hand back, seeing his claws extend out of their sheaths, and he pulled them back further as if readying himself like he was about to enjoy what he was about to do, but something stopped him from actually killing the mugger right there and then. Or rather a little voice filled with panic and terror broke the air that stopped him.
"Mummy! Let's get outta here 'fore the monster gets us!" It was the little boy, who was clinging to his mother in terror.
Peter stopped and let the anger fade away before he slowly turned his head around to look at the boy and his mother. The moment they saw his attention turned to them, the woman stiffened and clung protectively to her child. "K-keep away from us!" the woman cried out.
They're afraid of me, of what I'll do to them, Peter thought to himself as the leopard half of his allowed the human side to re-emerge and take control once more.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Peter said, hoping that the scarf muffled the sound of his voice so then they wouldn't remember it well. "I came here to help you-"
"Liar," the woman whimpered quietly as if terrified he would lose it with her for even speaking back to him. "Y-you're one of them, aren't you?"
"One of what?' Peter asked in confusion.
"One of those filthy mutant freaks, that's what!" the woman became hysterical even as she bent down and recovered her purse from the ground and backing away from him with her son. "Stay away from us! K-keep back!"
Peter was about to respond to that even if his mind reeled at being called a "mutant freak" as he realised the woman was just as indoctrinated with all the anti-mutant propaganda spread around by those groups like Friends of Humanity and those fear mongers like Senator Kelly when the child spoke.
"M-mummy, keep the….the mutant freak away from me!" the little boy said, looking at Peter as if he was trying to avoid catching a cold from a kid at school. "I-I don't wanna be a mutant!"
Peter was sickened by the child's words like he believed he would become a mutant just by being in the presence of one. Peter looked at the woman and the boy, thankful neither of them could see his features with the hoodie and the scarf hiding them. Unable to hide his disgust from them, Peter decided to just leave. He was about to leave when he remembered the flick-knife. It had some of his blood on it, and he didn't doubt for a second the woman wouldn't call for the police to come here and deal with the problem. The last thing he wanted was to make it easier for them to catch him. Peter grabbed the knife and turned and ran off.
"MUTANT FREAK!" The woman spewed out hatefully as he ran off.
Do you see Peter becoming a hero now?