Hello there!
Welcome to next Issue of Spider-Verse I: When I Swing By.
Hope you'll enjoy and now story time.
"Who's ready for more?"
Evening had come quicker than Aiden had thought, with some convincing needed at the entry desk, it was all one big blur as Aiden now found himself wearing his homemade costume, standing behind a curtain as his match against the champion would soon begin.
"Bonesaw is ready!"
The arena was filled with people, each and everyone of them cheering for Bonesaw McGraw.
"Will the next victim please enter the arena at this time?" the announcer said as he walked up the ramp where Aiden was waiting behind the curtain, "If he can withstand just three minutes in the cage with SLW's champion Bonesaw McGraw the sum of 3000 dollars will be paid to..."
The announcer moved his head to the curtain and away from the microphone, "What's your name kid?"
"Aiden... Oh, wrestling name." Aiden said before quickly thinking, "The Human Spider?"
"Human Spider!? That's the best you got? Did you just thought of that? Oh that suck." he said before speaking back into the microphone and walking down the ramp, "The sum of 3000 dollars will be paid to, the terrifying, the deadly, the amazing Spider-Man!"
"Great..." Aiden muttered under the loud booing of the audience, "He got my name wrong..."
Ignoring the taunts, yells and the threats, Aiden leaned under the rope to step into the ring, coming face-to-face with the black spandex clad bulging muscle mass that is Bonesaw. It was only then when he had to crane his head all the way back so he could look Bonesaw in the eyes, that he realized how much bigger Bonesaw was compared to him. He could best describe him as a walking, talking building with two arms, each one bigger than his entire body.
But he was snapped out of it when from the ceiling a metal cage came down, trapping him and his opponent in a cage match which in his hurry to enter didn't realize he had signed up for.
"Oh..." Aiden muttered, "Poop."
"Hey, freak show!" Bonesaw shouted as the spider kid turned to him, "You're going nowhere, I got you for three minutes. Three minutes of playtime!"
Once the bell rang, the mass of muscle rushed at Aiden, intending to pin him against the cage. But his spider reflexed kicked in, making Aiden leap up and sticking to the upper part of the cage as Bonesaw crashed into it with a loud smack.
"W-What?" Bonesaw said as he recovered, turning around to look up to see his opponent, "What are you doing up there?"
"You know, just chilling." Aiden said trying to sound casual, "Where did you get that outfit? Did your husband made it for you?"
Bonesaw growled as he jumped up only for Aiden to flip over him. Turning around the Wrestler charged again only to have his face kicked when Aiden jumped up. Taking a few steps back in his dazed state, Aiden rushed forward to deliver two punches to his chest and finishing it off with a spinning kick.
Only to have his leg caught in the iron grip of Bonesaw, who swung him around and smashed him against the cage wall. Getting gripped by his shirt, Aiden was smacked from one wall to the other before being thrown on the ground with a loud smack.
Recovering just in time to roll out of Bonesaw's knee drop, Aiden stood back up and kicked him multiple times against the head, before finally knocking him down to the ground with a haymaker.
"Three, two, one..." the referee counted down before the bell rang, "Winner!" holding up the stunned Aiden's arm.
"Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the new champion..." the announcer said, "Spider-Man!"
The crowed cheered the name 'Spider-Man' and Aiden raised another fist in the air, taking in the adoration as he had a huge grin under his mask.
Later that evening, Aiden was led down the hallway and into the office downstairs. He was now standing across from the fight promoter, sitting behind his desk as he counted a stack of hundred dollar bills. Picking one from the stack, a single hundred dollar bill was thrown on the desk between them, which Aiden took as he waited for the rest of his money the promoter was counting.
Realizing the kid was still there, he was told, "Now get out of here."
"But..." Aiden said confused, "The ad said 3000."
"Well, check it again, webhead." the promotor said, "It said three grand for three minutes. You pinned him in two. For that, I give you a hundred. You're lucky to get that."
"That's horsepoop." Aiden said hotly, "You can't just do that."
"I fail to see the part where it's my problem." the promoter said, who returned to count his money as Aiden stormed out of the office and past someone.
Striding out of the office, a grumbling Aiden reached the elevator in short order. He pressed the button as a few moments later, he heard a commotion from the office just as the elevator came down to his floor.
From around the corner, a man with dyed blonde hair comes running, he was holding a gun in one hand and under his other arm he was holding a bag. A few feet behind him was building security and the rude fight promoter who where chasing him.
"Hey!" the officer shouted upon spotting Aiden, "Stop that guy."
But feeling vindictive towards the man who cheated him out of his money, Aiden stepped aside to let the robber run right into the now open elevator.
The robber slammed on the buttons, the doors slid close and just before the man disappeared he said, "Thanks." with a grin to Aiden as the officer now smacked into the closed door.
"You could've taken that guy apart." the fight promoter said as he came walking up, "Now he'll get away with my money."
"I fail to see the part where it's my problem." Aiden said smugly, smirking at the man as he turned to the elevator back to the streets where Peter would be waiting for him.
The next week flew by, with Aiden experimenting with his new powers. The usually unused gym in his house now finally had some use.
On the treadmill he found out he could run for several hours at high speeds before fatigue started to set in. He could now preform jumps and acrobatic stunts that even most accomplished circus aerialists or acrobats couldn't preform.
He also found out he could achieve a state of perfect equilibrium in any position he could imagine. He found this out by balancing on one hand on the penthouse balcony. During one of his walks through the city, he tested his strength to find that he could easily lift a big rig semi-truck with ease.
Soon enough it became Monday again and Aiden had to return to school. He walked into the kitchen with his backpack slung over his shoulder to pick up his lunch. Sitting at a kitchen counter, with a cup of coffee in his hands, was his father, staring at a picture of a young family sitting in front of him.
It was always the same, on the same day every year. His father taking the day off from work, being drawn into himself, not saying anything. He would just look at the picture of a man, a woman and their baby.
While Thomas never mentioned the reason to his son, Aiden figured it out on his own why this day was so important to him. The man on the photo was a younger Thomas, the baby was Aiden and the woman was once his mother. And it was on this day, Jessica Arclight, had died. But Aiden still hadn't figured or found out how exactly.
"I'm leaving for school." Aiden said, getting a murmur from his father to show he had heard him, "Hey dad... I know it was only for a week, but could I continue the internship?"
This caught Thomas by surprised and drew his attention away from the picture his eyes had been glued to, "Seriously?" he said.
"I'll admit... I kind of liked it and..." Aiden said rubbing the back of his head, "Well, it's time I start to learn how things are run at Arclight Corp."
"Yeah, sure." Thomas said with a smile as he was pleasantly surprised, "I'm not sure if we have an open spot in Bioscience."
"Applied Science would be cool too." Aiden said with a small grin.
"We can arrange something." Thomas said with a small laugh, "I'll tell Cheryl to look into it."
And so Aiden had to return to school, something Peter was happy with as he finally had his bestfriend back, though in the meantime he had been spending a lot of time with Gwen, who rather quickly had become a mutual friend of theirs.
During the lunch break that day, Aiden and Peter where sitting in the cafeteria, their untouched lunches in front of them as Peter was staring off in the distance while Aiden was scribbling down notes of calculations into his notebook.
"Did MJ got a new skirt?" Peter said, looking at his crush sitting a few table in front of them at the table with students who would be described as the popular kids.
Looking up from his notes and looking into the same direction. "No, we've seen that skirt before, just never with that shirt." Aiden said, turning back to his notes, "You should probably stop staring before it gets creepy."
"Too late." a female voice said behind them.
They both turned around to find Gwen standing there with her own lunch tray before she took the free spot next to Aiden. "You guys are losers." she said as he bite into a fry.
"Then why sit with us?" Aiden said.
"Because you two are my only friends." Gwen said before peaking over at his notes, "What are you writing about?"
"What?" Aiden said, but she had already snatched them, "Alright, just some equations based on Dr. McCoy's research on those genetically engineered spiders."
"Calculations on how the spider's strength would multiply in a human." Gwen said, looking them over before letting out a low whistle, "Whomever has that strength, I would not want to pick a fight with that guy." she added with a laugh before giving the notebook back.
After lunch break ended, Gwen was having gym class but currently she was struggling with her locker to store her books and grab her gym clothes. She couldn't open it and suddenly someone touched her arm and she jumped startled.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I realized I had gym class too and thought we could walk to it together." Aiden said before noticing what she was doing, "Problem with the locker?"
"No, I'm pulling at it with all my strength for fun." Gwen said.
"Alright, alright." Aiden said giving her a smile, "Let me try."
He grabbed the door of the locker, and he did managed to open it with a single pull. But what he didn't had intended was to open it by removing the whole door.
"That was not what I was going for..." Aiden said as he looked at the door in his hands, "S-Sorry, I'll fix this!"
"You got some muscle." Gwen said impressed, putting her books in and taking out her gym outfit as he tried to fix her locker.
Gwen didn't even know how, but he actually did manage to fix it. "Well thanks for the help." she said and the two walked off to gym class.
It was during gym where they where split off, the athletic students playing a game of basketball while the rest where doing an exercise routine in pairs. It was first Aiden's turn, as he was doing sit-ups, his feet being held to the ground by Gwen, who couldn't help but comment on the fact that he had some very muscular legs.
"So your coming back to the internship?" Gwen said next.
"I want to. Talked it over with my dad." Aiden said in-between coming up so his crossed arms met his knees, "But I don't think Doctor Warren likes me very much."
"Yeah, one employee might not like you. That's a real roadblock." Gwen said dryly, "It's a shame your father isn't the CEO of the biggest company in the world."
"Arclight isn't the biggest company in the world." Aiden said as he came up, "Stark Industries and Oscorp are bigger, right?"
"Maybe in tech and weapon development. But I'm pretty sure Arclight Corp does both so it became the biggest last year." Gwen said, "At least it's still part of the big three."
"Doing good Aiden." Coach Wilson said as he walked by.
"Alright." Gwen said after he was done finishing his set, "My turn."
"Yeah, sure." Aiden said, kicking himself upwards back to his feet.
But before they could swap placed, an small altercation caught Aiden's attention.
"You did that on purpose, Flash!" Cindy Moon said holding the side of her head as nearby as Flash picked up the orange ball.
From what Aiden could guess, Flash had overshot the ball during his practice and had managed to hit the quiet girl against the head.
"No, but I should've." Flash said pointing at her, "You better watch your back."
"Just a second." Aiden said standing up and walking to the shy Korean girl was slightly startled when he kneeled next to her, "Hey, you okay?"
Acting on the sensation he felt every time there was danger, an instinct he had come to trust which he had called his spider sense, Aiden held out his hand and he caught the basketball heading their way without looking.
"Hey, Arclight." Flash shouted holding up a hand, "Give it up."
Smirking, Aiden gave Cindy a wink as he stood up and turned to face Flash, who had his basketball squad standing behind him.
"If you want it, you'll have to take it." Aiden said bouncing the ball on the floor before catching it back in his hand as he stood across Flash in the middle of the field, "But you already knew that."
Aiden held out the ball, which Flash reached for but at the last second, Aiden moved the it out of his reach. All eyes where on them now, as nearly nobody in the student body could believe that Flash was being made a fool of in a sport.
Feigning to throw it over Flash shoulder, who turned around only to have the ball bounce off the back of his head and back into Aiden's hand.
"Alright." Flash shouted in anger, "Bring it, Arclight!" before he rushed like a rhino at Aiden.
But Aiden nimbly evaded by moving side-ways, dribbling the ball as he rushed to the goal ring. Jumping high to preform a slam-dunk, shattering the glass of the board. Landing on his feet, a shock of realization came over Aiden as the glass fell on the ground while he still had the ring in his hand.
"Oh..." Aiden muttered, "Poop."
"Not that it matters but..." Aiden said standing outside of his father's car once school was long over as he had been picked up by his father after serving detention, "They won't have us pay for the board."
"I don't care about the board, Aiden." Thomas said, obviously trying to keep his temper in check, "You have been back one day, and already your getting into trouble. Today of all days..."
"Yeah, of course." Aiden said annoyed, "It's all my fault."
"I'm not saying that, but I hardly recognize you anymore. You get into fights, and I'm sure Flash deserves it. But just because you can beat someone up, doesn't mean you should." Thomas said, placing a hand on the door, "Your a lot like your mother. You really are, Aiden, and that's a good thing... but your mother lived by a philosophy, a principle, really. She believed that if you could do good things for other people, you have a moral obligation to do those things. If you have great power, there also must come great responsibility."
"That is nice." Aiden said, something finally snapped in him, "That's all well and good. So where is she?"
"What." Thomas said flatly as if he had just been slapped in the face.
"Where is she? Where's my mom!?" Aiden suddenly shouted in anger, "Shouldn't she be here to tell me that herself?"
"How dare you..." Thomas said under his breath.
"How dare I? How dare you!? I know nothing about her. The only thing you ever told me about her is her name." Aiden said, "When I look at that picture you have of her, all I see is a stranger."
With that, he turned his back to his father as he ran away, ignoring the attempts of the father to call out to his son.
And that's the third 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.