Great Power

Morning came by in Gotham, and Nick was sleeping soundly in his room. Unlike last night though, he seemed to be sleeping much better. Whatever pain he felt yesterday seemed to be completely gone as if it was never there to begin with. He was interrupted from his sleep when his alarm clock started beeping to wake him up.

Groaning in discomfort from waking up, he lifted his hand and tried to find the alarm clock so he could turn it off. He felt around and finally knew where it was and slammed his hand on the snooze button...problem was the moment he did that it broke into pieces.

"Whoa!" Nick exclaimed in surprised. He sat up and saw the state of his alarm clock. "Geez, I knew it was old, but I didn't think it was that old."

Nick got out of bed and couldn't help but marvel at how better he felt compared to last night. 'I feel better than ever. I guess I just needed some rest after all.' Nick started putting on his regular clothes, but paused to look himself in the mirror. He saw that his muscles have seemed to increase in size and bulky, but only by a small margin.

"What the..." Nick muttered in confusion.

"Nick! Are you okay?! You're going to be late for school!"

Nick jumped in surprised at his mother's voice and scrambled to get his clothes on. After finally getting ready he raced down the stairs with newfound energy. He entered the shop and saw his parents working.

His father noticed him and looked in concern. "Whoa son, you sure you're okay going to school." Billy asked.

"Actually, for some reason, I feel better than ever." Nick said with a smile as he hugged both parents.

"That's great." Pam said with happiness. "I was starting to worry about you."

"Make sure you still take it easy." Billy said as he ruffled his son's hair.

"Stop worrying dad." Nick said as he picked up his lunch. "Well, I'll be seeing you guys."

Nick raced out of the shop and hopped on his scooter. Feeling safely secured, Nick raced down the street to get to school and to not be late. As he was riding his scooter and halfway to school, he overheard something not that far from here.

He looked back and spotted a few of those infamous Jokerz riding down one of the upper bridges behind him. He's heard of those clowns before, and even witnessed some of their spray paint graffiti art that they spread all over the city.

'They're driving pretty close to home.' Nick thought with worry. 'Maybe I should...wait, that bridge takes them all the way to uptown. It's all okay.'

No longer feeling worried, Nick made his way to school.

/

Terry and Dana walked by the front entrance of the school to prepare for another school day. Terry just got through telling Dana about how Nick wasn't feeling well at the end of the school trip.

"I hope he's okay." Dana said.

"Me too. He seemed like he was about to pass out on the way back from the trip." Terry said.

They were both surprised when they felt Nick wrap an arm around their shoulders. "What's up guys?" Nick said.

Dana became a little confused. "Wait...I thought Terry said that you were sick."

"Yeah man, you looked like the living dead yesterday." Terry said with just as much confusion.

"Not sure what happened, but I feel even better than ever." Nick said happily as he unlatched his arms from his friends.

"Well anyway, I'd be careful if I were you. I heard that Professor Connors is giving us a surprise question today, and you know how painful those are." Dana complained.

"Awe come on, it's not always that bad." Nick said.

"Says the straight A student of the group." Terry said with a smirk.

Nick laughed along with them as they made their way too their class. They all sat down as their teacher came walking in. Their teacher was named Curt Connors, a man with brown hair, wore a lab coat, and had a prosthetic arm where his right arm should be.

"Alright class, settle down." Connors said as everybody took their seats. "Today, our subject will be on different functional groups." Connors said as he brought up different slides. "Mr. Styles, can you tell me which functional this is."

"That would be the carboxylic acid, sir." Nick said without hesitation.

"Very good." Connors said with pride as he continued the lesson.

Nick wrote down notes as the class continued, but then found himself drawn to something, like something in the back of his mind was telling him to watch out. He grabbed onto the book over by his side and raised it up to his head. He looked at it after a second and spotted a spitball on it. He looked around and spotted Nelson with a straw in his hand and looking angry that his prank didn't work.

Nick would have been upset by that, but he was a little confused on that strange feeling he had in his head. He placed his book back down on his desk, but found that he couldn't let go. For some reason, his hand was stuck to the book, or rather the book was stuck to his hand. It took a while, but he finally managed to pry the book off his hand.

He narrowed his eyes at his hands and couldn't help but think that he saw sharp pointy hairs coming out of his fingertips.

/

After class with Doctor Connors, Nick was about to partake in the only class he wasn't good at; Gym class. Now by no means was he terrible, it's just that sports weren't really his thing.

Today, however, was completely different.

He did more push-ups and sit-ups than anybody else in his class, he ran around the gym and outpaced everyone, and throughout the whole time, he felt extremely supercharged.

"Alright class!" The coach announced. "Today we are going to be doing an oldey, but a goody, dodgeball!"

Most of the class groaned as they got into their assigned teams. Nelson, however, smirked with satisfaction when he found out he and Nick were on opposite teams.

'You got lucky back in class Styles, but let's see how lucky you are now.' Nelson thought smugly.

Terry and Nick were stretching before the start of the game, while Terry was still wondering about his friends' sudden athletic skills. "Alright, what's going on man? How'd you get so good?"

"I don't know." Nick answered. "I've must have really slept good because I'm so full of energy."

The coach blew the whistle and so every teen grabbed as many balls as they could and began throwing them at each other. Nick looked around and saw that at first it seemed even, but his team was slowly starting to lose its members. Terry was about to chuck a ball, but was hit in the stomach by Nelson.

Nelson smirked when he got Terry out, but then turned his sights on Nick. 'You're going down Styles.' He then threw the ball at Nick when he wasn't looking.

That tingling sensation that Nick felt during class came back again as he ducked to avoid a ball he didn't know was coming at him. He blinked in surprise as he didn't even see that coming, but just knew when to dodge. That sensation came again and he grabbed a ball heading towards him with just one hand, then with a lot of force threw it back at the other team and hit one teen so hard he was sent to the other side of the wall.

Nick looked at his hand in surprise as he didn't even know he could throw that hard. "Whoa."

Nick looked around and, much to his dismay, saw that he was the only one left and the only ones on the opposite team was Nelson and his gang of tough friends. They began to try and pelt him with even more balls, but Nick was able to dodge each one with ease. Two more of them came flying right at him and he caught them easily.

The two who threw them were out and that just left two more, including Nelson. Nick looked at the balls in his hand as he then gained a small smirk. He tossed one ball that hit one guy and tossed the last one at Nelson.

Nelson moved out of the way before it could hit him. "Ha! You missed me!" Nelson taunted. That accomplishment was short lived when the ball bounced off the wall and hit him in the back of his head. "Ow!"

Everyone stared in shock by the outcome of the game. The coach eventually found his voice. "Um...that's game."

/

After gym class, Nick walked back to his locker and went to get more of his books. While he was doing this, he couldn't stop this about what happened.

Throughout the entire game it seemed as if his senses were heightened tenfold, including his strength. He never felt so energized in his entire life.

Before he could open his locker, that tingle in the back of his head came back. Everything seemed to slow down around him as he moved his head out of the way of an incoming fist.

The fist hit the locker instead and Nick saw it belonged to Nelson. "You think you're so funny, don't you Styles?" Nelson said angrily as a crowd came around to watch.

"Come on, man. It was just a game." Nick tried to reason.

"Yeah, and this is me pounding your face in." Nelson said as he brought his up.

Nelson swung a couple of punches but Nick dodged each blow. Just like the dodgeball game time seemed to slow down for Nick for each swing Nelson tried to throw.

Terry and Dana came by after they heard the commotion going on. "Help him, Terry!" Dana told her boyfriend. She didn't want to see one of her good friends hurt so badly.

Another one of Nelson's friends came up from behind, in an attempt to jump him. Nick sensed this coming and did a backflip, avoiding the incoming blow.

"Which one?" Terry asked in surprise.

"He's all yours man." Nelson's friend said nervously.

Nelson growled in anger as he just threw punches wildly in anger, but each one missed. Nick was getting slightly annoyed as he grabbed Nelson's fist. Nelson was groaning in pain as Nick started to squeeze. Nick then punched Nelson, which sent him sliding across the floor. He slid so far that he stopped at the feet of one of the teachers, causing their lunch to fall on his face.

Everyone either laughed or looked on in shock. Nick looked at his fist in shock and then stared at everyone else. They were looking at him weirdly, and in some instances slightly afraid.

"Geez Styles, you are a freak." Nelson's friend said as he went to check on Nelson.

Terry and Dana walked up to him. "Nick, that was amazing." Terry said in awe.

"Yeah, how did you do that?" Dana asked.

Nick didn't answer as he just ran out of there and made it out of the school.

'It's okay. It's okay. Everything is alright with me.' Nick kept repeating to himself as he ran down the sidewalk. 'Everything is just fine. I am completely normal!'

That sensation came back as he realized that he ran off in the middle of the street. He looked to the side as a car came racing towards him. In a moment of adrenaline Nick jumped out of the way...he just wasn't prepared how far he would jump.

Nick opened his eyes and saw that he was sticking to the side of a building! He would have screamed at first, but he was just too amazed by all of this.

'I wonder...' Nick thought. He slowly started to actually climb up the building with ease. His fingers were clinging onto the surface and he didn't seem afraid of falling.

Nick looked to the next building across from him and got an idea. He prepped himself and jumped off the building, safely landing on the one across from him.

"This...is...AMAZING!" Nick exclaimed as he jumped off that building and landed on the roof of another one.

He raced along the rooftops and jumped from one building to the next. He was able to calculate the distance between each building and was able to land safely. He did this for quite a while until he realized the time.

"I better get back home." Nick said to himself as he landed on the side of a building. He checked his watch as he saw it was getting late. "My parents will be wondering where I am."

'But how is this possible?' Nick's mind instantly flashed back to the field trip that he went to and the spider bite. 'It couldn't be that simple...could it? I'll think about it later on.'

/

Nick walked back down the street still wondering about what happened. He really wanted to deny that it was the spider bite, but all evidence pointed to it.

Currently Nick was talking to Terry over the phone. "Yeah, I don't know what happened...how's Nelson doing by the way...he may be a jerk, but it doesn't mean I can't still care...alright I'll see you soon man."

Continued walking, but something caught his sense of smell. It was the smell of smoke and it was coming down the direction of his parents' shop.

'No, no, no...'

Nick raced down the street as fast as he could as he begged he was wrong. When he turned the corner, he gasped in horror at what he saw.

His parents sandwich shop...burned down.

The firefighters were just finishing up and the police were setting up a perimeter.

Nick ran as fast as he could. "Hey kid, you're not supposed to be here." A police officer said as he stopped him.

"I live here! Where are my parents?! What happened?!" Nick shouted frantically.

The officer placed his hand on Nick's shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry kid, but there was a fire. Street camera footage says that it was the Jokerz."

"What?" Nick asked in shock. His face then went pale. "My parents...where are my parents?!"

The cop looked down sadly. "I'm sorry, son...but you're parents...they didn't make it."

Nick couldn't register what he said at first, but then it hit him.

His parents are dead.

Nothing mattered to him in that moment. Not the strange school day, not the powers, not even the police around him.

He knelt down and didn't noticed the tears streaming down his face.

/

Hey everybody, here's the next chapter.

Once again, a pretty short chapter, but that's because I'm just getting through the opening journey of Nick discovering who he will become, and what he will do with his gifts.

Of course, we had to end it on one of the things that all Spider-Men have to go through…tragedy. It's rough, but almost every hero, whether about Marvel or DC, has gone through some form of tragedy and it can shape the kind of hero they want to be. Just look at Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Iron Man, and Hulk.

Get ready for the next chapter...Great Responsibility.