DISCLAIMER

'Spider-Man', 'Spider-Girl' and all the characters from both belong to Marvel Comics.

CHAPTER ONE - Emergence.

Being the Spider-Girl is nowhere near as exciting as it used to be.

This is how one of my days usually plays out…

1) I go to school.

2) I come home.

3) I hang out with Davida, Courtney and/or Nancy, study, whatever.

4) In the evening, I go out as Spider-Girl.

There was a time when number 4 was the highlight of my day, as New York, especially Manhattan, is never short of a few crimes to stop and criminals to foil. At least, it was until 'The Spider Kid' showed up. Now, every time I hear a shop alarm, I arrive to find the Spider Kid completely overwhelming a group of armed thugs, flipping and springing all over the street while dealing out stiff punches and kicks as well as webbing attacks to the would-be felons. Same applies to any gang's attempts at a Rumble as well as carjackings, muggings, purse-snatchings, you name it, chances are, he's there do deal out some 'rough justice', as Dad once called it.

The Spider Kid's powers are very similar to my father's and my own. He has the incredible agility, speed, strength and wall crawling abilities. Even his costume is similar, though his uses a red and black colour scheme and there are some subtle differences in the design. Of course, neither I or my father know for certain who he is. In fact, since the Spider Kid's first appearance six months ago, we're no closer to figuring out his identity, though we do suspect someone...

My little brother – Simon Nicholas Parker.

This of course would make sense, after all, our father was Spider-Man, and I, May 'Mayday' Parker, have been Spider-Girl for over two years now, so it would make sense for another Parker to 'inherit' Dad's spider-powers, right? Plus, Mom would go nuts if another member of the family were to become a costumed vigilante. It was bad enough trying to convince her, and Dad for that matter, to allow me to use my abilities to help others, but Simon? No way would Mom allow it he had any powers, so it would make sense if he were to become this 'Spider Kid' and keep it a secret from all of us.

Then there's the fact that my powers began to emerge when I was 15. And by an interesting coincidence, Simon turned 15 just over seven months ago – just before the Spider Kid became New York's newest crime-fighting 'menace to society'…

"Morning Si'." May greeted her little brother as he came down for breakfast one morning. "Ready to face the world as a big bad fifteen year old?"

Simon merely scowled at her seventeen year old sister and said nothing. Both his parents noticed this – Simon's bad mood had lasted all weekend. Even his fifteenth birthday the day before hadn't improved it.

"What's wrong, Simon?" asked Mary-Jane as she put her youngest son in his high-chair.

Suddenly, May smirked as a thought entered her mind. "Oh dear." she said, drawing out the 'oh' part for nearly five seconds. "Girl trouble, am I right?"

Simon looked up, giving her a look that clearly said 'shut up', which she did. His parents, however, didn't.

"Oho." grinned Peter, looking up from his morning paper. "Got a girlfriends already, eh Si'?"

Simon glared at his father, wishing they would all just shut up – they didn't have a clue what was going on, though admittedly, Kathryn Powell and the fact he didn't have the guts to just ask her out was one of the things that had him in a bad mood at the moment. However, there was more to it than that…

Without saying a word, Simon got up and left the kitchen.

I admit that what I said was kinda mean, but then again, I didn't have a clue what was really going on with my brother's life until after school that same day. After that, something about Simon changed…

-x-x-x-

"You broke his nose?" Peter yelled furiously at the fifteen year old before him. "What is wrong with you? What were you thinking?"

May watched as her mother read the letter they'd been sent concerning something that had happened during lunch hour at school earlier that day – apparently, just like Jimmy Yama, Simon had punched Moose Mansfield. Last time, Jimmy had accidentally punched Moose in the throat, but this time, Moose Mansfield, star football player and bully, had had his nose broken with just one punch from a boy over two years younger than him. The main difference between the two incidents though was that Jimmy had felt incredibly guilty about what had happened, Simon had no such feelings. As Peter Parker demanded that his son apologise to Moose, Simon just stood there shaking his head incredulously, which didn't go down well with either of his parents, especially when he backed up his refusal by saying that Moose 'deserved a lot worse'…

A few minutes later, May went upstairs to her brother's room and found him sitting on his bed.

"Si'?" said May carefully. "You okay?"

Simon sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?" May continued.

"Look, I'm fine Mayday!" snapped Simon. "Just leave me alone, okay?"

"Simon…"

"Will someone in this family please just listen to me for once?" Simon yelled. "Leave. Me. Alone."

Immediately, May left Simon's room and went downstairs, leaving behind a very angry younger brother. Typical, he fumed mentally. Just fucking typical! The one time I stand up for myself and I get treated like the one in the wrong while that jackass's treated like he's the victim. I mean, I sure as hell don't remember Mayday getting in this kinda trouble when she broke Howard whatsisname's hand while sticking up for Sandra Healy, so why do I get yelled at, grounded and suspended? He went over to his bedroom window and stared at his own reflection. Oh, yeah, I forgot, May Parker can do no wrong, even before she got her powers. I mean, she has it all – she's popular, has all the friends she could ever want, she doesn't need to wear glasses when reading, she's a star on the basketball team and she's Spider-Girl, whereas I'm just her unimportant little brother. She's actually worth something. And what am I? Nothing. Worthless. Unimportant. Just some average, mundane, underestimated, overlooked loner who's not even allowed to stand up for himself, not even once. He punched the wall in frustration. Fucking assholes, all of them. Fucking school. Fucking parents. Fucking sister. Fucking life…

Suddenly, as he punched the wall, he heard a noise. For a second, he wondered if he'd imagined it.

Then he saw it.

From a spot just above his wrist, a thin, string-like substance connected his wrist to the wall just above his bed on the other end of his room. Staring at it for a few seconds, he then clenched one of his fingers, causing the 'string' to retreat back into his hand.

What the hell? Simon thought, staring at his wrist. No way. He aimed his wrist at the wall again and clenched his fist. Nothing happened. He tried again, this time tapping his hand with his ring finger, just like his father and sister did when using web-shooters. This time, the same substance shot from his wrist and hit the wall. He flicked his wrist suddenly and the 'string' was severed from his wrist, dropping down to the floor, though still attached to the wall. Bending down, he picked up a part of the 'string' and looked at it. It was quite sticky, and when he tried to break it, quite strong as well. Looking at it, there was only one possibility…

Webbing.

But that just wasn't possible. Web-shooters and web fluid were both required to make a web line like the one in Simon's hand, but he had neither. But there it was – a line of webbing, produced by nothing but Simon's own body. He looked at his wrist again incredulously and tried again. Another web-line shot out from his wrist, this time attaching itself to the ceiling. He then tried it with his left hand. The first web-line on the ceiling was joined by another one. Severing both of them, leaving two web-lines dangling from the ceiling as well as the first one draped over his bed, Simon stood there staring at them.

Eventually, he decided that he should get rid of the web-lines before someone came in and freaked out. Taking the one off his bed was no problem, but as for the ceiling…

I wonder… thought Simon. A split second later, he jumped with his arms stretched above his head and found himself dangling above the floor with both palms stuck to the ceiling. Smirking to himself, Simon unstuck one of his hands and reached out for the two web-lines stuck to the ceiling and detached them both from the ceiling. He looked up at his other hand, which seemed to be supporting his weight with no problem. By now, Simon was starting to get a little excited.

He had spider-powers.

Dropping down to the floor, he quickly gathered up the webbing and went to go downstairs. However, he stopped as he approached the door. "There's no way I'm letting you be a superhero if you do get any powers! We already have enough heroes in the family!" exclaimed the voice of his mother in the back of his mind. "Simon, we don't need your help right now. Maybe some other time." said his father's voice, every time he tried to help either his father or sister. "Just stay out of it Simon. You'll only get hurt." warned his sister's voice only a month ago when Speed Freak had been on a rampage, running circles around May every time she'd tried to confront him, though she did find a way to stop him eventually. Oh, what's the point? Simon thought. They'll never let me use these powers anyway if I do tell 'em. But then again, I should probably tell them now, I mean, I can't keep these powers to myself, can I?

Can I?

After putting the three web-lines in the bin, Simon sat down on his bed again and began to consider his options. On the one hand, there was telling his parents about his sudden development of powers, just May two years before, and have them forbid him from using them. On the other, there was just keeping them to himself and doing nothing with them anyway. None of those options appealed to Simon as much as the third option – using them. After all, if a new costumed arachnid inspired superhero suddenly appeared, then all he'd have to do was make sure that no-one could prove it was him. All he needed was a costume, which wouldn't be too much of a problem as there were plenty of spare Spider costumes lying around the attic that he could alter, and the fact that he didn't need web-shooters would make it much harder to prove it was him if he didn't actually use any…

Hold on, he thought suddenly. What the hell am I thinking? Become a superhero? That's just ridiculous. I'm no hero. I'm just… He stopped in mid-thought. No. It doesn't matter what anyone else says. If I do have the powers of Spider-Man, then I'm damn well gonna use them however I see fit. And no-one's gonna stop me. Not Mom, not Dad, not Mayday, no-one. I'm gonna prove I'm worth something if it's the last thing I do.

With that, Simon Parker's mind was made up. No-one would know the identity of New York's newest costumed vigilante until he had proven that he was worth something. No-one would know until he told someone. And no-one was going to stop him. It was his decision – no-one else's.

And Simon Nicholas Parker had made his decision.

-x-x-x-

Authors Notes

This story is set in a world that uses characters from both Spider-Man and Spider-Girl.

If anyone's played 'Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro' on the PS1, then the Spider Kid's costume is similar to the 'Alex Ross – Red' one, except the upside-down triangle on the back goes down further than the one on the front.