The Adjustment
He was having the time of his life.
Aleksei continued to drive the truck without a care in the world. He was in a downtown boulevard bumping into cars and smashing sides of several buildings. Police sirens occurred behind him as Aleksei looked at his rearview mirror. "AH! Those bothersome cops!" he yelled in frustration. The truck began to go faster as he slammed his foot on the accelerator.
Again more damage was caused by the stampeding Aleksei. 'I just like smashing into things. Not my fault they're in the way!' he thought maliciously. He turned the steering wheel and unbeknownst to him, the trailer part behind him began to go out of balance and proceeded to tear away, causing an unintentional barricade to the approaching swarm of police squad cars. But it added to Aleksei's delight. He turned around to inspect the damage.
"HA HA! That's what you get when you deal with the great!" he laughed maniacally.
As he turned back around, he saw a man up ahead wearing an unusual suit. It was a black and yellow vest that showed off the man's physique and also had on a steel-like belt with black pants. But what made the mysterious man more unusual was that he had on strange metallic gauntlets. Aleksei saw as he stood still and waited for the truck to proceed. Apparently the man standing did not appear to have a care in the world. Aleksei saw it as an annoyance. "You think you're invincible or something? HUH?!" Aleksei pressed the accelerator harder and the truck went faster.
Aleksei saw that the mysterious man shot off an electrical charge from his hands. It slammed into the engine. "What the 'el?" Aleksei cried out but nevertheless he kept the truck moving.
The man shot off more energy blasts, this time on the tires which immediately burst. Instantly the truck screeched and swerved out of control. Aleksei desperately tried to get the vehicle back under control to no avail.
Soon the truck derailed and Aleksei was knocked out unconscious from the impact.
The court hearing had since commenced and Mary Jane stood silent with all the other occupants in the small room. With her head down, she felt she should have been silent and not all the other occupants. Aside from her mother, the unknown people were not the ones who had to suffer what she went through with her bastard father. Mary Jane knew they were here for the show. 'How can they go on so cavalier and without a care in the world?' she thought.
Mary Jane saw the other door to the room open and the judge came in and got seated at his bench. He went through the records in his hands one by one. She immediately got nervous and eventually restless, as she wanted the whole thing over with. Finally at long last, the judge spoke.
"This is a condition hearing with the purpose to ascertain what has happened in the Watson household which occurred Friday the 28th of this year. The purpose of this hearing is to conduct an evaluation as to whether one Dennis Watson is suitable for being a parent and an asset to society."
As the judge continued to speak, Mary Jane no longer cared what the outcome of the case was. From the judge's tone, it was clear that her dad would get a slap on the wrist. She knew the protocol by now. For some reason, she was worried about Peter.
'Why am I worried about him? Why now?' she frowned. 'I guess it's because I haven't told him what Gwen is trying to do to him. But how can I tell him, when I don't know for sure what Gwen's going to do? I have to find out more.'
Peter came home from the hospital with his spirits a bit higher than lately. He had spoken to Aunt May and she seemed to be doing better. Aunt May did however, struggle with her anxiety and the devastation she suffered knowing Uncle Ben's tragic demise. The hospital doctors had informed Peter that she would stay in the hospital for about a week.
Closing the door to the house, Peter gave out a long sigh and began to organize his thoughts. One by one, he tried to go over what he was going to do. He came up with the first thing he had to do. It was the most crucial. Being collective was key. 'This is something that needs to be done. The city was what made Aunt May the way she is. It's time I fixed it. I don't want anyone else to suffer what my Aunt is going through.'
He got out his sketchbook from his room and made his way down the basement where he began to go to work. It was a while before he had gotten all the supplies from both the hardware store and the clothing department. The suit material was of a sleek kind that Peter found most intriguing and therefore, flexible. It was a bit tight but after wearing it just so he could try it out before he bought it, Peter was convinced that he found his true suit. Although, some people would agree that it wouldn't leave much to the imagination considering how tight it would be.
'OK, OK, so I like spandex. Criticize when I'm away, people.'
At first, Peter was more than willing to develop a suit of a bulky kind along with a utility belt for any gadgetry that Peter would come up with. 'That would be off the chain!' Peter thought excitedly at the time. After seeing the design in his sketchbook, it didn't seem to work out. Because he slung across buildings, such bulk would slow me down. 'Yeah, I agree. That bulk is going to slow down the momentum.'
Getting out the design that he went for, Peter threw the suit on wooden table and got out a paint sprayer, charged it and got ready for work. Peter started off with a red color, he used the red only for the back part of both elbows which he then spread to his upper chest area and narrowed it into a narrow strip down to his crotch area which served as a belt that he also spread red. He also applied the red to his boots, which had little holes underneath them that helped him stick onto anything.
'So far, so good.' he smiled.
Next, Peter went with a blue color. He used the paint sprayer to let out a blue coat over the remaining parts of the suit. Next he applied a light, sticky material that Peter was trying so hard to be careful with. He spread it out so that it covered the suit. The material served as web motif. 'Got to keep the concept.' Peter smirked. The suit now sported a web-style background with a stylish spider symbol on the chest area.
Once that was done, Peter let the suit dry and went off to his other work. His mask. The mask was red with a spider-web motif running down and around it. Two large holes that were to be used for the eyes had been made. All Peter had to do was apply the lens. Each eye-piece was white and each was triangular, small but wide. 'Can't let people see my real eyes. Who knows who might recognize them.' Peter nodded.
Peter was soon done. He had stains of paint and soot all around him but the exhaustion was all worth it.
Looking at his completed work, Peter saw his new costume with much delight. He then cleared his throat.
"Look out scum, lowlifes and foes, here comes the superhero-eh...eh..." Peter frowned. "The superhero...ummm." Peter's expression got serious now. 'Holy crap! What do I call myself?'
"Who am I?" he asked out loud.
At the local gym, Gwen was exercising with her friends along with Flash, who eventually she found to be bothersome lately. She tried to make any exercise count. Gwen loved to exercise. She treated her body well with good nutrition and exercise. Today, however, she was losing her focus. On the treadmill, Gwen couldn't help but think about Peter. 'I know he's the one that saved me that day.' she kept telling herself. 'But I have to know for sure...'
Suddenly her treadmill turned off and almost fell. Gwen looked over and saw that it was Flash that stopped the machine. He looked at her with a serious tone. Taking off her headphones, Gwen steadied herself. "Can I help you?" she asked annoyed.
"Just wanted to know how the Parker thing is going." Flash stated.
Gwen was afraid of this. Nevertheless, she went with the truth. "He's having some problems. He broke off the date a few days ago. I don't think he's interested." she said trying to sound casual and not sad. The statement felt true.
'I have to make him interested.'
"You have to make him interested.' Flash insisted.
'What the-? I swear is he psychic?' she thought incredibly as she looked at him in shock.
"It's not like I don't want to-" Gwen stopped and reorganize what she was saying. "He's a bit evasive. I don't think he likes girls."
"Well I wouldn't be surprised." Flash chuckled.
"I'll try and get him. Get some new info on him as well."
"Why the 'info'? You just told me he might be gay!" Flash laughed and went off to his friends who were by the weight area and telling them what they heard.
"Why do I get the feeling I just made things worse for the guy?" Gwen muttered and shook head in frustration.
She got off the treadmill and went to the locker room and passing by Flash and his friends. She was very upset. As she sat down on the bench in the locker room, a torn up newspaper was on the ground. Without picking it up, Gwen read the headline. "POSSIBLE HERO OR MENACE?" the picture showed of the disaster and only a small, faint image of both the creature and possibly Peter in the background.
As she looked at the small blur object which was so miniscule that she couldn't tell if it was the masked man or the creature. Gwen nevertheless spoke. "Is it really you?" she whispered.
Otto knew time was running out. So he made his choice quickly. In an underground lair, he went to work on a project that would surely change the world. A lab had been set up, taking off the harness that supported his mechanical arms. Otto went to his desk that contained his supplies especially a large, glass container that held up a ball of energy suspended in mid-air. A video camera had been set off away from the camera. The blinking red light indicated that it was recording.
'In the event that my experiment proves to be a success, I must document everything. I could be more successful than Curtis. I could be more famous than Norman Osborn! Pretty soon, I'll have a corporation that could rival his!'
As he made a few adjustments, Otto went toward the camera."Good day. This is Otto Octavius reporting. At the present time, I have indicated in my past research that my finding of sustainable and safe nuclear fusion is a major possibility, provided that a few factors and components are planned out and added. The question many scientists including myself ask: "What would possibly happen, except the obvious of two opposing forces in matter colliding with one another? They could attract or they could annihilate."
"But imagine if that was all done on a massive scale." Otto whispered.
Otto moved the camera over to where the container held the orb of unknown energy. "Today, I'm about to increase the size of the orb and trap it once it gets big enough. Soon, power to the people will truly be shared." Otto said happily and went to put on a gas mask.
Putting on his special harness, Otto went to work. With one tentacle, he opened the container while still speaking loudly for the camera. "As soon as the temperature excels at 100,000,000 degrees, the size of the orb will grow. I will take it to a large container hidden in the back tunnel where it is kept as a necessary precaution."
As Otto placed the orb in his designated area, the orb began to glow bright and instantly he began to get aware of it. Taking out a small datapad from his holster, Otto ran a diagnostic. "Strange, it appears to be already fluctuating. But how can that be?" he said confused and yet very worried. 'I must have made a bad calculation.' he thought regretfully.
The orb began to glow brighter and brighter until Otto trembled and thus found it unable to move. "NO! What is happening?" he cried out. Suddenly a massive wave broke out.
Finally he had enough strength to overcome his fear and turned around and crouched to the ground. The energy had hit the harness on his back as well as the arms. Otto then passed out as the energy subsided until it became non-existent.
It didn't take Peter long before he came across a typical street thief. Luckily for Peter, he had attached a small device inside his lens that allow him to view certain places in a large size. As Peter activated it, he caught almost everything going on. From Peter's perspective, the hoodlum got away with a woman's purse. 'Really?...scumbags still do that?' Peter scoffed.
As the man ran to the alley, he stop and hid behind a dumpster. He proceeded to count the money he had in his bag. 'One, one thousand. Two, one thousand...Man I'm going to be set for life!"
"Oh I say you're set alright..."
"Who said that?" the thug said as he turned around pointing his gun at nothing. There was nobody there.
"I also say you need a new hobby."
The thug turned back around and pointed his gun and once again finding nobody in his path. "What the hell is going on here?"
"You're probably not a very smart guy are you?"
Peter had slowly appeared and was hanging upside down using his webbing. He faced the thug, who to Peter's delight saw that he was so dumbfounded by his appearance. "What the hell are you? Some kind of freak?"
"Now hey!" Peter said holding a finger and waving it around indicating 'no'. "That's no way to talk about people with special abilities!" While Peter was upside down, he shot out his legs and kicked the burglar square in the chest, making fall back and hitting the ground.
"Lemme guess...your mommy and daddy didn't teach you right from wrong, huh?"
The thug took out his gun and prepared to shoot when Peter, nimble as he was, got down with one hand and with unnerving skill kicked the gun away while also using his other leg to kick the man in the face.
"Hey! What hit me?" the man said seeing stars.
"Not quick on the uptake huh?"
Peter then delivered the coup de grace. The man was about to get up and Peter immediately used his webbing and in a rope-like fashion shot at the man's feet, making them stick together, and making him fall to the ground. The man was about to use his hands for support when Peter shot a thick, sticky webbing that attached to the man's hand and on the ground, leaving him stuck. Peter immediately did the same with the other hand. "Aah, hey what the hell?" he yelled as he tried to get free but it was no use. The burglar was stuck to the ground.
"Who are you, you freakin'-?" The man's mouth was soon applied with white sticky web, apparently shutting him up.
Peter grabbed the man by his collar and voiced out through his mask. "I'm Spider-Man."
The man frowned.
"That's my new, cool name. I just thought of it now." Peter chuckled.
Peter heard police sirens going off nearby. Content, he did the next thing. He took out a note and placed on the unmoving man's chest.
"Nice meeting you!" he saluted the burglar.
Peter knew that a police officer would find the man and the note. He knew full well what the note read. 'After all, I wrote it!' he thought. But what it said made him laugh wholeheartedly.
COURTESY FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN! There was special emphasis on the name as Peter had underlined it.
'It's a bad-ass superhero name!' Peter smiled.