Hello there!
Welcome to second Issue of Spider-Verse I: When I Swing By.
Hope you'll enjoy and now story time.
The first few classes of the day passed by in a flash. During lunch break, Aiden sneaked into the school's empty science lab. After Peter had closed the door behind him, Aiden began to tell him everything that happened after he left the field trip as well as the events that happened that morning in great details.
"...I know it sounds crazy!" Aiden said.
"Obviously." Peter said dryly, "Did you smoke?"
"...Pete, you know I don't smoke... Oh, very funny!" Aiden said as his friend wasn't believing him, "Alright, just a second."
He crouched down, in a single leap he went from the floor to the ceiling where his hand and feet sticking to it as he saw the upside-down face of his best friend who looked up to him in amazement. He began to crawl along the ceiling as Peter's followed him before he preformed a backflip and landed on his feet like an experience acrobat, something Aiden hadn't been the day before.
"Okay, your not kidding." Peter said as his friend took a seat across from him.
"Told you, I wasn't." Aiden said, looking at the back of his hand, where the swelling was now mostly gone but two small holes where the spider's pinchers had bitten him, "Do you think... It could have been that spider?"
"Possibly. It was genetically engineered." Peter said, taking a hold of his friends hand as he took a closer look at, "Did anything else change?"
"I shot some sort of web from my wrists." Aiden recounted, making Peter let go of his hand.
"Web from the wrists?... Like some sort of organic blood web?" Peter said with a grimace, "That sounds gross."
"I know." Aiden said leaning forward on the table, "What am I going to do?"
"We need to study this further." Peter said concerned, "Incase there are further mutations."
"You think I might grow four extra arms!?" he said shocked.
"Who knows what is possible." Peter said with a shrug, "Can you come over after..."
Suddenly a loud crack was heard before a voice spoke up from the intercom system, "Aiden Arclight, please report to the principle's office. I repeat, Aiden Arclight, please report to the principle's office." and with another loud crack, the voice died down.
"I should go then." Aiden said, picking up his bag, "I'll see you later."
A few moments later, Aiden was sitting in the principle's office, his father sitting next to him as Principle Harrington sat behind his desk.
"I have been told what happened in the hallway." Principle Harrington informed him, "I don't know what possessed you to get in a fight, but you should know that in this school, we don't condone violence."
"Principle Harrington." Thomas said with his legs crossed, "I seriously doubt my son would be fighting for no reason."
"I was just standing up to Flash, he was about to hit the new girl, who was standing up for Peter who has been bullied by Flash like so many times before." Aiden said, telling his side of the story, "I didn't lay a finger on him."
"You would have me believe he ran into the locker himself?" Principle Harrington said in disbelieve.
"Yeah, he did." Aiden said with a nod.
The principle ponders his story for a moment, "I can understand why you did what you did, Aiden. But we have a zero-tolerance for violence at this school." he said, "I'm afraid you will be suspended from school for two weeks and be happy it isn't anything more serious."
Before Aiden could protest, his father took a grip on his arm before pulling him out of the chair and guided him out of the office.
Sitting in the back of the car, with his father next to him, Aiden was slouched down with her arms crossed. The ride had been quiet, but he knew his father wanted to say something and once the car had driven out of Queens, he did finally broke the silence.
"Look, Aiden." Thomas said finally as he rubbed a hand through his hair, "Fighting in school... It is..."
"Please don't start." Aiden said crossing his arms as he looked out of the window, "I told you, I didn't start that fight."
"But you sure finished it." Thomas pointed out, but his son missed the hint of approval in his voice.
"What was I suppose to do?" Aiden said, as he continued to glare out of the window, "Turn around while my only friend gets beaten up?"
"No, I'm not saying that." Thomas quickly said, "Aiden, I know your changing. I went through exactly the same thing at your age."
"...Not exactly." Aiden muttered as he looked from the window to his wrist, "Flash deserved it."
"So this was not only about defending Peter, but getting even." Thomas said, "You must feel better about yourself."
But Aiden didn't answer as he thought about that question.
"I thought so." he said with a nod, "Well, since your suspended you will be coming to work with me for the next week. It's time you learn how things are run at Arclight Corp."
"What about the other week?" Aiden said, looking from the window to his father.
"I don't know, I will be at work." Thomas said with a smile, "Do what you want."
Monday morning had come very quickly, as a group of new interns standing in the highly advanced Biochemistry Department located in Arclight Tower, including an excited Peter. The group of interns had gathered in front of an middle aged man, one of Arclight Industries scientist's.
"Welcome to Arclight. My name is Miles Warren and I'm a senior scientist." he addressed them, "And I'm also head assistant to Doctor McCoy, so I'll be with you for the duration of your internship."
After they where instructed for their tasks, Peter sat at a table, a console with display on one end, a few rows of different vials on the other. He was doing the test he was assigned until he heard the sound of sneakers on the clean floor walking up to him.
Turning around he saw that the person who had walked up to him was a familiar face.
"Hello there." Gwen said with a wave as she stood next to him, "Your Peter Parker right?"
"Yeah, that's me." Peter said a bit nervous that a girl that pretty was talking to him, "I didn't realize someone else from Midtown would be here."
"It was either here, Stark or Oscorp, I prefer Arclight." she said with a smile before pulling up a seat next to him, "That friend of yours, the one with the reflexes, what happened to him?"
"One with the reflexes? Oh, you mean Aiden?..." Peter said seriously, "He got suspended for two weeks. Because he stood up to Flash."
"What? That's bullshit." Gwen said with an insulted tone before she spotted Dr. Warren talking with a man he was very familiar with, "Oh, isn't that..."
Peter turned to the side as he looked over the display and he saw Thomas being the one in a conversation with displeased looking Dr. Warren, and next to the owner and president of Arclight Corp stood Aiden, who was looking around as if he really felt out of place between all those scientists and aspiring scientists.
"...Treat him just like any other intern." Thomas said as he turned around, "And make sure he isn't on his phone the entire time."
The doors slid down behind the big boss, as Dr. Warren turned to glare at Aiden.
"So..." Aiden said looking around, "What do you need me to do?"
"Just sit there and watch the other interns." Dr. Warren said annoyed as if he would do rather anything else than talk to the child of the CEO, "And don't mess anything up for them." before walking away to return to work.
"Right..." Aiden muttered over the rather cold shoulder he got.
Looking around the room, he saw that all the other interns where deep in their own experiments before he spotted one waving him over. He let out a sigh of relieve when he spotted his best friend who he immediately approached.
"Hey Pete." he said with an awkward smile as he waved at them before turning to the blonde, "And... Gwen right?"
"You got that right." Gwen said with a nod, "Don't wear it out, A-A-Aiden."
"Just Aiden." he said with an embarrassed smile as he pulled a third chair up.
A bit of time passed before they where allowed to go on their lunch break. Aiden, Peter and Gwen where now sitting at a table on one of the roof terraces located in Arclight Tower for breaks. Their phones laid on the table as the young man explained to them what had happened last Friday, how he was suspended for two weeks and how his dad is making him come to work with him for the next week, why he was now suddenly be the intern program despise not being as smart as Peter.
While Aiden wasn't stupid by any means, in fact he could be pretty sharp when he applied himself but Peter was just on another level. But as Peter would say, he often compare them to Spock and Kirk, both are intelligent but in different ways.
"Ah... So that's why you got a highly sought after internship at one of the biggest companies in the world." Gwen said taking a sip from her soda, "Just plain old nepotism."
"It's nothing like that." Aiden protested.
"Kidding, Aiden." Gwen said with a laugh, showing off her straight white teeth, "Still it's complete bullshit that you got suspended but Flash did not."
"That's what you get for being a Quarterback." Peter muttered, poking around at the food which was miles better than what they served in the school cafeteria.
"It's not so bad." Aiden said with a grin, "I got a week to hang out with my friend and another week off school."
"And where else would you want to hang out? Did you know Arclight has this machine in Applied Science called a Fabricator." Peter said as they changed the subject to something else, "It's like a massive printer that can create nearly anything."
"I know! The only one of its kind!" Gwen said enthusiastically, "It's one of the reasons I took the internship at Arclight instead of Stark Industries."
"Speaking of Stark, have you heard what happened?" Aiden said putting a some fries in his mouth, "Tony Stark has gone missing. Something went wrong during his visit to Iraq."
"That's terrible. I hope they find him soon, it would be a disaster for the Earth if we lose one of the greatest minds of this..." Gwen said before her phone went off, "Sorry, it's my dad. I got to take this."
Picking up her phone she left the two friends sitting at the table. Aiden found himself kind of drifting away from the conversation as he stared in the direction she had walked off. He only got out of it when Peter very closely waved his hand in front of his face.
"Hello! Earth to Aiden." Peter said, finally getting the attention, "Everything alright?"
"Yeah, just... beautiful view." Aiden muttered, "Anyway, what where you saying?"
"Right..." Peter said taking out a piece of newspaper from today's Daily Bugle from his backpack and slide it over to Aiden, "I think I found the right place to test your newfound strength."
Aiden looked it over to see a amateur wrestling competition being held this Friday evening, for three minutes in the ring he could win three thousand dollars. A colorful character was required.
"Really Pete?" Aiden said, "Isn't this a bit too, I don't know..."
"Come on." Peter urged, "With your new agility and strength this should be the easiest money you ever made."
"I thought this was suppose to test my strength... Oh well." Aiden said with a shrug as he pocketed the piece of newspaper as he decided to join, "On one condition. We donate the prize money to your aunt and uncle."
"Deal." Peter said just as Gwen returned.
"What are you two talking about?" the blonde said as she sat back down.
"Wrestling." Aiden and Peter said.
That Friday afternoon before the Wrestling competition, in Peter's humble bedroom on the second floor of his aunt and uncles house located in the borough of Queens, where Aiden showed off his homemade suit.
It consisted of a red hoody with cut off sleeves, a large black spider painted on it. He wore it over a black long sleeved shirt, black sweatpants. His red sock-boots, red fingerless gloves, his face covered by a red mask covered everything but his eyes.
"So what do you think?" Aiden said, pulling the mask off.
"It's a wonder how you ever passed Home Economics..." Peter said, looking his friend over, "It's not bad. I've seen worse."
"Didn't have a lot of time." Aiden protested, "I've been reading up on those science papers you recommended."
"Your finally getting an interest in science!?" Peter said happily but he knew better, "Or is it for someone specifically?"
"I have no idea what your talking about." Aiden said quickly before he started to take off his homemade suit before dressing back into his normal clothes.
He just pulled his shirt over his head when he heard a knock on the door and a few seconds later it opened and it was Peter's aunt.
"Peter, dinner is almost ready." Aunt May said before turning to the other young man, "Aiden, will you be staying?"
"How could I say no to Aunt May's cooking?" Aiden said with a smile, "Oh, is there going to be wheat cake?"
"What do you think?" she said with a wink before leaving the room.
Aiden always liked it at Peter's uncle and aunt. May was just the sweetest woman he had ever know who treated him like he was another nephew and Uncle Ben was just the coolest guys he had ever met.
Uncle Ben's brother, Richard Parker, had been roommates with Thomas during their time at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And while Ben didn't seem to like Thomas very much, he had always been kind to Aiden.
And that's the second Issue, hope you enjoy.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, favorite and follows this story.
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For now I wish you all a fantastic day and I hope to see you people next time. Bye for now.