Peter stepped into the arena as Spider-Man, and he had a chance to walk away with a cash prize of ten thousand dollars if he could last five minutes against professional fighter Bonesaw.
Still frustrated from his argument with Uncle Ben, Peter used that as motivation and defeated his opponent in under a minute. With a clean win, the prize money was as good as his. Unfortunately, the fight promoter had other ideas.
Peter raised his brow at the money in his hand. "What's this? This is only a hundred. The ad said the prize was ten thousand dollars."
Paying the teenager very too little mind, the man continued to count his own money. "Read the fine print, kid. You got the money if you last five minutes. You beat Bonesaw in one, and you're lucky you got what I just gave you."
Clenching his fist and crumpling the money in his grasp, Peter could barely contain the anger that was rising. "I need that money!"
"I forgot the part where that's my problem." The promoter pointed past Peter's direction to the exit door. "Now get out of here."
Peter glared at the man for a few seconds, before storming out of the room. After cleaning out his locker, Peter traveled down a long hallway in a huff. He eventually reached an elevator at the end of the path.
However, the moment he pressed the elevator button a commotion broke out at the opposite end of the hall.
A man holding a gun raced toward Peter, followed some distance behind by a yelling guardsman and the fight promoter.
Peter allowed the man on the elevator rather emotionlessly, and the elevator doors closed before anyone else could stop him.
The fight promoter slowed to a halt as he approached the teenager, holding his hand over a bleeding gash on his forehead.
"What were you thinking? You could have taken that guy apart!" He groaned, gritting his teeth in pain. "Now he's going to get away with my money."
Peter turned his back on the promoter and pressed the button for the elevator. Once it arrived, he glared at the older man, folded his arms and shook his head before the door closed. "I missed the part where that's my problem."
Peter walked from the business, made his way outside to meet his uncle but stumbled upon a large crowd of people soon after. Curious, Peter forced his way through the crowd, and what he saw there pulled a cry out of him.
"Sir, you can't come through here." Officer Watanabe said when Peter saw his face.
"That's my uncle!" Peter cried, as the officers allowed him past.
"Peter...Peter..." Uncle Ben's voice was weak and slow as his blue eyes were glazed over, threatening to roll into the back of his head while his life slowly slipped away. Blood poured from the hole in his chest.
He reached through the crowd and made his way over and kneeled down and took the older man's hand in his own. "Uncle Ben? Ben!"
Peter's uncle had been gunned down. He managed to hold his emotions in check for so long, but the moment Ben died in his nephew's arms, he bursts into tears.
Peter shook himself out of the memory of the day of his uncle's death and knew he needed to hurry and get to his class. Making it through the school, he made it to the labs and raced inside.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, guys. I-" Peter was in the middle of explaining himself when he looked and saw his lab partners, Lian Tang and Otto Octavius were working on a new prosthetic arm.
Otto was holding a bunch of cables on the back of his suit whilst he had a strap wrapped around his waist in order to control the arm they were currently testing and was actually mimicking everything Otto was doing with his actual hand. Lian was working on the code that's allowing the hand to transfer the brain's network into code for the hand and for other people.
"It...it's actually working." Peter was shocked to see. "A little upset you started without me."
"It's fine, Parker. I invented this equipment. I think I can handle it." Otto assured him.
"And we warned you not to be late." Lian told him. "We even told you the wrong time to actually be here on time."
Peter looked over to her with an annoyed look, but then thought and realized that was a pretty clever way of doing it. "Good point."
That's when Lian then shrieked when her computer sparked, followed by their servers started to spark and fry.
"The power dampener-" Peter was saying before he ran over and tried to control the power as Lian was working on trying to close the link.
"Should we abort?" Lian asked Otto.
"Not yet!" Otto tells them as he tries to control the power.
Lian then had to jump away from her computer when it burst into flames. Sparks then zapped Otto in the back of the head and Peter saw they needed to abort and ran over to the power button and killed it.
Otto then fell to his knees as Lian ran over to help him stand. "Dr. Octavius, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Otto assured them as he stood with Lian's help. "Just another setback."
That's when another figure entered the room, running in and seeing the cloud of smoke between the three of them. He wore a lab coat, glasses, and his left sleeve was rolled up due to the fact that he didn't have a right arm.
"Was anyone hurt?" Dr. Curtis Connors asked.
"No." Peter assured him, thinking of what can be said so Otto and Lian didn't get in trouble. "It was-it was my faul-"
But before he could take the blame, Otto quickly stepped in and stopped him. "The energy levels exceeded our expectations."
"This is actually a very positive development." Lian also joined in. "You know...from a certain point of view."
"Doesn't smell very positive." Connors commented as he breathed in some of the smoke. "I think we should have a word with Dr. Callaghan about these experiments."
Otto sighed and knew that he was pulling enough strings with the previous accidents that have been happening recently with these experiments but knows he can get through to Robert.
"Maybe you two should take the rest of the day off." Otto tells his two lab assistants.
Lian and Peter looked to each other and to Otto in sorrow as he and Connors left to talk with Callaghan. The two walked out of the labs and down the halls towards the elevator in distress.
"Doc'll be okay, right?" Lian asked Peter.
"It was just a minor accident, nobody was hurt." Peter shrugged it off, knowing Otto will get away with nothing more than maybe a stern talking to. He then pushed the elevator button to call it to them. "Well, since we have time, I'm gonna go to the Bugle. Gotta sell Jameson these photos before the deadline."
"How's the family?" Lian wondered.
"Teresa's doing fine, Peni's back in grade school, even though she's smart enough to be in high school already. May thinks it will be good for her to try and hang out with kids her own age." Peter answered, Lian always seems interested in his family, but he could never understand why.
Sure, they're basically known as a family of geniuses, May being the only normal one amongst them, but there's nothing really special about them as Lian is making them seem.
"That sounds like the right idea." Lian shrugged as the elevator arrived and Peter walked inside. "She's already shy enough, isn't she?"
"Sure, I guess." Peter guessed as he pushed the button to head up to the roof. "I just think that she's going to be bored."
"Better to be bored than alone." Lian told him as the doors closed.
Lian then looked up and noticed that the elevator was heading upwards, not downwards. Shrugging it off, she turned and saw the janitor was mopping the floor.
"Hey, Mr. Dillon." Lian greeted him as she passed.
"Have a good day, Lian." Max replied as she kept wandering down the halls.
Peter made it to the roof of the college and quickly changed back into his suit, as it's the fastest way to get around without having to pay someone or buying a car. It took till noon, but he made it by swinging his way through the city, Peter felt the wind in his face and kept on swinging off towards the Daily Bugle.
Once he made it to the bugle and met up with the secretary of Jameson, Elizabeth Brant.
"Hey, Betty." Peter greeted as he raced over to her desk. "He in a good mood right now?"
"Get the heck out of my office!" Jameson cried as he kicked one of the other reporters out. "You've had some dumb ideas, but that is the dumbest!"
"It would seem he's in a better mood." Betty tells him.
Peter rolled his eyes and made it inside to see Jameson and Joseph Robertson were the talking about the paper.
"How about we run a headline of a chicken with the headline: Food poisoning scare sweeps city." Jameson said with a proud smile.
"Some food got poisoned?" Hoffman asked.
"I'm a little nauseous, yeah." Jameson stated as he then looked over to see Peter standing there. "Where the heck have you been? Been looking for you all morning. Why don't you pay your phone bill? I've been trying to reach you all morning. Bank attack downtown, and we don't have pictures."
Peter handed him the photos and Jameson saw dozens of them with Spider-Man and Shocker taken from several different angles of the bank, due to him using a few different cameras, and possibly a drone.
"They're terrible." Jameson stated as he then handed the photos over to Robbie. "Here's your front-page cover. "Masked menace destroys bank and steals money."
"I told you he's not a menace." Robbie stated to Jonah.
"And I told you-" Jonah was gonna reply when Robbie decides to just let it go.
"I'll take care of it." Robbie stated as he walked off.
"I'll give you 150 for them." Jameson said as he looked to Peter. regarding picture price and was writing a check.
"I need 300." Peter replied.
"That's outrageous!" Jameson stated. "Done!" He then tore the check from the book and handed it to Peter. "Give this to the woman at the front desk. Now get out of here."
Peter did just that and handed the check to Brant. "Hello again."
"Hey." Peter said as she handed him the money. "Thanks, Bette."
"No problem, Peter." Bette said as he then made his way out and saw he should maybe start making his way home, knowing it'll take him a while to get there.
Peter landed in the alleyway and quickly changed back out of his suit and went through the back door. Making his way inside, he saw May was back home from her day job at F.E.A.S.T. already in the kitchen working on dinner.
"Hey, May." Peter greeted her casually.
"Hey, I'm making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner." May tells him as Peter grabbed some water.
"Spaghetti and meatballs again?" Peter asked with a chuckle.
"Would you prefer another turkey meatloaf disaster?" May questioned with a grin.
"Oh, I don't think the block would survive if we did that again." Peter chuckled and noticed it was quiet.
"Where's Teresa and Peni?" Peter wondered.
"Peni should be home any minute, Teresa went out with Honey to get some costume ideas for the Halloween party." May answered and looked over to Peter. "Why didn't you go with? Teresa said you're not going?"
"I wasn't really planning on going." Peter shrugged, not thinking of going to a party where everyone's dressed up when he's usually the one dressed up for his side-job. Except side-job implies he gets paid.
"Come on, why not? All your friends are going, aren't they?" May asked as she finished the spaghetti.
"I guess, but it's not something I think it'd enjoy." Peter shrugged off, thinking it'd be best if he kept to trying to help raise money than hanging out with his friends. It's not like he does that most of the day anyways. When in school, he'll hang with the gang and some days he'd go out after school and hang somewhere.
"Yeah, but you don't really hang out with them anymore." May reminded him as she pecked his cheek. "You don't really meet others just meeting the same people."
"You're not trying to set me up with someone again, are you?" Peter wondered, remembering the failed attempt she tried to set him up with someone and it was a disaster.
Peter and May then laughed at that when Peter then sensed something was wrong and looked to the door to see Peni coming in, hearing her sniffles as she ran up the stairs and slammed her door room.
Peter looked over to May with a confused look as she does the same, neither of them knowing what to make of what they just saw.
"You wanna check that out, or should I?" Peter asked May, pointing to the stairs.
"I think you should check it out." May said.
Peter nodded and got up as he walked towards the stairs.
"Growing up, Peni has been...different. Not just intelligently, but...characteristically. She never really got along with kids her age, and things got worse when our parents died. She doesn't really remember them, but ever since they died, she'd been more distant when it comes to others. Sometimes she gets emotional to the point that she'll only talk to me, alone."
Knocking on the door, due to Peter's senses, he could easily pick up the crying in the bedroom and he sighed, knowing something must've happened at school. "Everything okay in there?"
"No!" Peni cried from inside.
"Come on, Peni." Peter begged of her.
Peter then heard some whirring and opened the door. Looking back and seeing the locking mechanism she created for the door, Peter smiled at the genius his sister has. But then looking back, he saw his little sister laying against the bed, across from Teresa's bed and side of the room.
The two of the sisters share the bigger room, for obvious reasons. And it's easier for Peter when he needs to sneak around and work on some personal gadgets of his, as well as working on his suit.
"Hey." Peter greeted, only earning a few more sniffles. "I'm gonna guess that it didn't go well at school?"
"No." Peni confirmed, curling herself up even more.
"What happened?" Peter wondered as he pulled Peni over to him as she curled up with her head on his hip.
"Nobody would talk to me." Peni told him and Peter sighed and pulled her closer.
"I know it's hard, it's always difficult on the first day." Peter assured her.
"But it's worse. They would actively avoid me." Peni told him, making Peter think of what to say next as there's nothing he could think of saying. "As soon as I walked to them, they'd go away."
Peter patted her and pulled her in and allowed her to cry on his hip. "Yeah, I understand."
"Really?" Peni asked.
"Yeah, everyone in school would avoid me and your sister." Peter informed her, thinking back to before he met his pack of friends. Sure, they knew Tadashi back then, but they weren't really friends yet. "But then I found some great people who wanted to be our friends." He then looked down and turned Peni to look him in the eye. "You just have to be patient. Someone'll wanna be your friend, and you'll find them. Someone will realize how smart, amazing, and funny you are."
Peni started to stop crying and smiled and closed her eyes as she leaned against her brother, feeling a lot better. Peter smiled and saw his job as big brother had been accomplished yet again.
"With or without the suit, I do all I can to help others. But my family...they will always come first. May, Teresa, and Peni. The last of the Parker name, and the strongest family that's been through terrible ordeals and are still holding strong."
(A/N) So, I've gotten a few PMs and reviews asking about ships, so I'm gonna leave it up to you guys. Check out my main page, you'll find a poll with the choices for Peter to end up with.