Hello there!
Welcome to first Issue of Spider-Verse I: When I Swing By. This is a prequel to Spider-Verse: Life We Never Had, though obviously it isn't needed to be read to understand this story.
I'm not going to follow any set Marvel continuity for this one, I'm going to look for inspiration to the cartoons, games, movies and of course mainly the comic's (both main and Ultimate). Though Spider-Man will be the focus, it is going to be part of a bigger universe.
Anyways hope you enjoy!
Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale... If somebody told you I was just your ordinary guy, not a care in the world... Please tell me who it was, I want a word with them.
A class of Midtown High School stood in front of Arclight tower, which stood high and proudly over the other buildings. A black Rolls-Royce Phantom driven by a chauffeur pulled up and in the back sat a man and his son. The boy was the fifteen year old Aiden Arclight, the boy who's life would change forever.
"No." Aiden said as he noticed his class staring at the car, "Can we drive around the corner, please?"
"Why?" his father, Thomas Arclight said, "The entrance is right there."
"Dad, these are public school kids." Aiden said embarrassed, "I'm not showing up for the field trip in a Rolls."
"You want me to trade in my car for a Toyota just because you flunked out of every private school I ever sent you to?" Thomas said with a raised eyebrow.
"Horizon High, Vision High... Those private schools..." Aiden muttered turning away from his dad, "It wasn't for me."
"Of course it was." Thomas said, trying his best to understand, "Don't ever be ashamed of who you are."
"I'm not ashamed of who I am. It's just..." Aiden said but deciding not to go through with it as he opened the car door, "Forget it."
He closed the car door behind him, walking up the stairs as he spotted his only friend in the school waiting at the edge of the gathered group. "Pete!" he said.
"Hiya, Aiden." Peter Parker said back, both hands on his backpack straps.
"Aiden! Won't you be needing this?" Thomas said as he comes walking up after his son, holding up his backpack, "Hello there Peter."
"Hello Mr. Arclight." Peter said with a wave, "I read your research on nanotechnology. Really brilliant."
"...And you understood it?" Thomas said with a pleasantly surprised smile, "Richard would have been proud."
"Hey, you two!" their teacher Mr. Dell said, "Let's move!"
"Nice to see you again." Peter said, as they turned to join the rest of the class, "You know, your dad is not so bad."
"Yeah, if your a genius." Aiden said playfully, "You already got the Arclight Internship. Next thing you know, he's going to adopt you."
Inside Arclight Tower, the class from Midtown was being shown around the Bioscience department, where they got a lecture from the head of the department about how genetic changes in animals like insects, and how they could help humanity adapt better into some harsh environments.
"There are over 32,000 known species of spider in the world." Dr. Henry McCoy said to the class, "They're in the order Araneae, which is divided into three subgroups..."
"That's amazing!" Peter said in awe as he looked up at the machine, "This is the most advanced electron microscope in the eastern seaboard. It's unreal."
"Arachnids from all three groups possess varying strengths which help them in their constant search for food." Dr. McCoy said as he gestured to the spider in question, "For example, the Delena spider, family Sparassidae, has the ability to jump to catch its prey."
Peter stepped forward, holding up his camera, "For the school paper?" he said.
Dr. McCoy nodded before he continued to lecture, "Next, we have the net web spider, family Filistatidae, genus Kukulcania. Spins an intricate funnel shaped web whose strands have a tensile strength proportionately equal to the type of high tension wire..."
Peter was about to take a picture, but the local school bully, Eugene 'Flash' Thompson bumped into him on purpose making him mess up the shot.
"Leave him alone." Aiden said immediately.
"Or what?" said one of Flash friend's, Brian 'Tiny' McKeever, who was wider than he was tall.
"Or his father will fire your father." Flash said mockingly, before grabbing the front of Aiden's shirt, "What's Daddy gonna do? Sue me?"
"What is going on?" Mr. Dell said, Flash quickly letting go of Aiden, "The next person who talks will fail this course. I kid you not." before turning around to listen to the lecture.
"This grass spider hunts using reflexes with nerve-conduction velocity so fast that some researchers believe it almost borders on precognition." Dr. McCoy continued, "An early awareness of danger... A spider-sense of sorts."
"Hey, look at that spider." Aiden said, gesturing to a glass container were a spider was changing its colors.
"Some spiders change colors to blend into their environment." Peter informed him with his own brand of geeky enthusiasm, "It's a defense mechanism."
"Come on Pete." Aiden said playfully, "What makes you think I'd want to know that?"
"Who wouldn't?" Peter said perplexed until he spotted her standing near the spider exhibit. The red haired girl next door he had a crush on even before he was suppose to like girls.
"So..." Aiden said leaning in, "You gonna talk to her now?"
"Oh, no. Come on." Peter said nervously as he shook his head, "You talk to her."
"Oops." Aiden said dryly, pushing Peter forward.
He came just to a stop right next to the attractive red head who leaned closer to the spider displays.
"Disgusting." MJ said more to herself than anything else.
"Yeah." Peter muttered, getting her attention as he felt his face beginning to heat up, "H-hateful little things."
"I love 'em!" she said much to his surprise.
"...Y-Yeah, me too." Peter said, quickly backpaddling as he rubbed the back of his head, "Y-You know, some spiders can change their color to blend into their environment. Yeah, it's a, uh, defense mechanism."
"Really?" MJ said with a smile, "Cool."
"Armed with these DNA blueprints. We have now begun what was once thought impossible." Dr. McCoy said a few feet away, "Transfer RNA to encode an entirely new genome, combining the genetic information from all three spiders into these fifteen genetically designed super-spiders."
"There's fourteen." MJ said suddenly, "One's missing."
"Oh." Dr. McCoy said surprised, "I guess the researchers are working on that one."
"Do you know that this is the largest electron microscope on the eastern seaboard?" Peter said bashfully, "Hey. Uh, could I take your picture? I need one with a student in it."
"Sure, yeah." MJ said with a smile, "Where do you want me? Over here?"
"Yeah, that's great." Peter said, raising his camera.
"Don't make me look ugly." MJ said as she posed.
"That's impossible." Peter said with a small smile.
The girl giggled at that statement, as Aiden found himself smiling at his friend. It was nice to see him come out of his shell and talk to his crush. "Pete, make me proud buddy..." Aiden said but he was forced to stop mid-sentence as soon as he felt a small, but piercing pain on his hand.
He shook his hand, and just saw a red and vivid blue spider crawl away as the class moved on.
"Hey, Aiden." Peter said, his smile dropping and becoming concerned for his friend when he saw the pained look on his face, the color began to drain from his, making him look sickly pale, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah... Yeah... I'm fine." Aiden said, placing a hand on his friends shoulder, "Thanks for the concern Pete."
But just as he said that, a cold sweat began to spread over his body as he felt himself begin to shiver.
"You sure?" Peter said as his friends face became wet with sweat, "You don't look so good."
"Probably something I ate..." Aiden muttered, holding his head trying to nurse the pounding headache, "I-I think I'm just... going to go home."
"Do you need me to accompany you?" Peter said but his friend shook his head.
"N-No, I will be fine." Aiden said sweating bullets, "Just tell Mr. Dell where I went..."
A short and nauseating trip on the subway later, Aiden stepped out of the elevator leading to the penthouse owned by his father, his home. Feeling the large living room spin around him, he used the wall for support to keep himself up.
It felt way longer than it should have to get to his room, once he stepped inside and closing the door behind him. Dropping his backpack on the floor he went into his bathroom, where he turned on faucet to let water into the sink. Using both hands Aiden threw some cold water into his face as his entire body shivered. Looking up he stared himself into the wall covering mirror to see his pale face with bags under his eyes looking back.
Turning the faucet off, he walked out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom where he immediately collapsed onto his bed as unconscious overtook him.
Aiden never knew whether or not he had actually dropped off to sleep, all he knew was that quite suddenly his morning alarm went off. With an angry growl he slammed his fist on the top to turn it off but it was smashed, much to his confusion as his nightstand was now littered with plastic and electronic bits.
Standing up, he just noticed that his blanket was stuck to his hand. Shaking his hand, it didn't want to let go. He began to move his hand more violently and it still continued to stuck to his hand. He tried to get it off and in his wild movement ended up with his back against the wall.
He kept pulling and pulling, "Come on! Stop sticking!" Aiden muttered annoyed, until he noticed that the world had turned upside down. He was looking down on his room as he somehow stood on the ceiling, having crawled up there as he wrestled with his blanket.
"Keep sticking! Keep sticking!" he said before letting out a loud yell, he fell back to earth and finally his blanket got off his hand as he landed on his soft matrass.
Groaning he sat back up as he looked at his hand, he saw that a silver string of spider-like web was still connecting him to his blanket.
"What the..." Aiden muttered, snapping the string before jumping off his bed.
He rushed into the bathroom throwing off his shirt from yesterday and what he saw in the mirror shocked him. It seemed that overnight, he had gained a great deal of muscle. Not to the type of a bodybuilder but he now looked to be in great shape.
Having done his morning routine, with some trouble as things kept sticking to his hand or to the web from his wrists, Aiden slung his backpack over his shoulder as he walked into the living room where his father was sitting with his morning paper of the Daily Bugle.
"Morning dad." Aiden said as he walked towards the elevator.
"Morning." Thomas said as he put the paper down, "I got a call from school yesterday. I thought you were sick."
"I was." Aiden said with a shrug, "I'm feeling better."
"That's good." Thomas said with a nod as he stood up, "Come I will give you a ride to school."
"I'll just take the subway." Aiden said waving his dad goodbye, "Thanks though!"
One ride on the subway later, Aiden entered Midtown High. With all these crazy changes to his body, which he obviously figured wasn't because of puberty's, he looked at the entrance for the one student who could possibly help him make sense of this crazy situation.
Usually Peter was rather early and would be waited for him at the entrance so they could walk to their lockers together. But when he didn't see him, he entered the school to look for him.
He was pushing his way through the student body but he still couldn't find hide nor hair of his bestfriend.
"Where is..." Aiden said, spotting one of his classmates he was on talking terms with, "Oh, hey Cindy!"
Cindy Moon was slightly startled when he called her, "Oh, H-hi Aiden." she said a bit nervous as she rubbed her upper arm, "G-Good morning."
Though she always became shy and nervous around people, Aiden noticed that it was many times worse whenever he talked to her or even when he was in the same room as her.
"Have you see Peter?" he said, "He wasn't at the gate."
"I-I think I saw him at his locker." Cindy muttered, suddenly finding her shoes very interesting.
"Thanks, Cindy." Aiden said with a nod before heading off, not hearing the 'your welcome' she muttered.
Making his way through towards Peter's locker, he looked around to see if he could spot him earlier or see him walk somewhere else.
"Come on, Pete..." Aiden muttered, looking at his wrist where he had shot that spider-like web out of as he walked passed other students, "Where are you?"
Down where their lockers were, Aiden noticed a crowd of students forming. Pushing his way through until he reached the center of the crowd.
He found Peter laid out on the floor, his glasses knocked off his face and Flash standing over him but someone was standing between them. It was a new student with long blonde hair and a black headband on top of her head.
"...It was just an accident." the headbanded girl said.
"My fist breaking your teeth, new girl." Flash said, "That's the accident!"
Flash attempted to slug her, but it was Aiden's new reflexes and strength that allowed him to react fast enough to catch his arm much to everyone especially Aiden's surprise. Flash let out a scream of pain under strain of Aiden's grip.
"Your seriously going to hit the new girl?" Aiden said with mild disgust, "That's low even for you Flash." releasing his grip on his arm and throwing him back.
Which turned out to be a mistake as Flash adopted a fighting pose. "Come on..." Aiden said annoyed, "I don't want to fight you Flash."
"I wouldn't want to fight me neither, freak." Flash said as he began to swing wildly at Aiden, who simply evaded by moving to the side and out of the way. Flash seemed to be moving a lot slower, at least to him. It seemed that whatever that spider did, it had improved his reflexes quite a bit.
Casually standing aside as Flash swung his in a wild whirlwind, Pete sat up, smiling amazed at his best friend.
Flash rushed at him which was countered by Aiden doing a backflip over him, making Flash run straight into a locker, knocking him out.
"That was amazing." Peter said getting back to his feet and walking up to his friend as the crowd began to disparage.
"It was spectacular." the girl said with a nod, handing Peter his glasses, "Nicely done."
"Oh, thanks." Aiden said a bit embarrassed that an girl that attractive would compliment him, "I'm A-A-Aiden."
"Well A-A-Aiden." she said with a grin, "I'm Gwen Stacy."
And that's it, first Issue, hope you enjoy.
I know, big inspirations from the first Raimi movie, but I'll be honest it's my favorite life action Spider-Man movie (favorite is Spider-Verse). Many thanks to everyone who read it, you beauties.
This is something I do for most stories where I tell which actor I imagine my OC's sounding as. Though in Spider-Verse II, I said I imagine Aiden sounding like Keanu Reeves, though I think that wouldn't really fit until he becomes like twentyish.
Have to think about it.
Anyways, hope you'll have a fantastic day and I'll see you guys next time.