To Crys Skywalker: Of course you like Austin better. You're supposed to like the hero better than the villian. That's why everyone thinks Ottophiles are weird.
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Chapter 8: Hollywood Hunter
Kraven the Hunter was no Steve Irwin.
On his reality TV show, he simply wasn't content to wrestle alligators and snakes. The super-powered big game hunter had declared the superhero Spider-man to be his next prey.
The hunt had ended in disaster for his career. Kraven became a full-fledged supervillian, consumed by an obsession with the arachnid superhero, and captured and impersonated him for a brief time—before killing himself.
But before that, the Hunter had had a love affair with an A-list Hollywood actress by the name of Jennifer Thorne. That affair had resulted in a baby boy, Alexei.
Alexei grew up rich and spoiled. He was a Hollywood brat in almost every way, almost except for his supernatural affinity with animals. Everyone almost thought he could actually communicate and control any animal he came in contact with, except nobody could actually do that, could they?
But Alexei did.
Jennifer Thorne, seeing that her son needed to be able to interact with other young people his age, sent him to live in New York City with his maternal grandparents. They enrolled him in the Academy, the elite private school. In sophomore year, at the advent of his puberty, was when more of Alexei's animalistic tendencies began to emerge.
Alexei soon learned that he was as fast as a cheetah and strong as a bull elephant. He was an excellent athlete, of course, but he was intelligent enough to know how to keep the full extent of his powers concealed—even from his mother and grandparents.
Once he asked his mother where he got his talents from. But his mother, fearing a tabloid scandal, simply replied that God had blessed him—and he was meant to do great things.
And soon enough, a darker side of Alexei began to emerge. He was constantly picking fights with other guys, especially over girls. One of his girlfriends, not knowing just how accurate she was, liked to joke that Alexei was constantly "in rut." And quite a few had been beaten so bad that they were sent to the hospital. Jennifer, however, always managed to use her influence to keep it quiet. "Sometimes he just can't control his own strength," she said.
He was now on Empire State University's football team, and on the veterinary medicine program. But his life would change forever when the auburn-haired woman in the green suit came to his dorm room—and offered him the chance to make a name for himself—and to distinguish himself as more than a Hollywood brat.
