The Extraordinary Spider-Man - Vol 1

Chapter 19: Complications of the Father

Likenesses used

Toby Leonard Moore as James Wesley

"Alright, class. Make sure to review the study guide and go over the last three chapters to prepare for the exam this Friday," Mr. Johnson instructed as his geometry class was let out.

Peter quickly packed up his backpack and headed out. Gwen followed him.

"Hey, Pete. Peter!" Gwen exclaimed as she caught up with Peter. "Are we gonna talk or?"

"Talk? About what?" Peter blandly responded.

"You know what."

Peter didn't bother responding.

"Look, my dad doesn't hate you-"

"Sure-"

"Peter-"

"It never seems to go anywhere whenever I try to help, and your dad just decides that I'm the bad guy. If only he knew," Peter vented.

"Pete, I know he's difficult, but it's like I told you the other night. You gotta give him time," Gwen insisted.

"Okay, let's say I give him time. And nothing continues to change. What do I do then? Just keep letting him hate me? Hell no."

"I'm doing my best here. But you need to calm down. Seriously."

Peter scoffed. "With everything that's happened to me in the past few months, you expect me to just calm down? What planet are you living on?"

Taken aback, Gwen responded, "Peter!"

"I don't think you even remotely realize how difficult it is for me to hold this all in. So stop pretending to care already and just leave me the fuck alone!" Peter demanded as he walked away.

Peter kept walking, only for Harry to eventually catch up with him a few minutes later in the hallway.

"Yo, Pete!" Harry called as he ran over to Peter.

"Yeah?" Peter sighed.

"Gwen just texted me. What the hell's going on?" Harry asked.

"Nothing that really concerns you."

"Don't be like that, man. Just talk to me."

"I can't, that's the exact problem," Peter replied.

"Jesus, man. If you're upset about Charlie, that's okay. I get it, man," Harry empathized.

"Do you, though?"

"Dude, we all have. I know you really like Gwen, but if it makes you feel any better, I doubt she has the same bond with Charlie as you."

"You can't confirm that," Peter countered. "Honestly, I'm so done with it all. Regardless of stupid Charlie or not."

"C'mon-"

"Just leave me alone, man. Please."

Peter walked away, leaving Harry behind.

"Damn," Harry muttered to himself as he walked to the school library.

Inside, he went over to a table and met Valeria.

"Hey, Harry. Got your text. Said you wanted to study, right?" Valeria asked.

Harry shrugged. "Well, yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"Yes, I asked if you could come study. But I also w-wanted to see, if well, you've been planning this dance a lot. You said you didn't have time to find a date? So-so, I was thinking we could go together?" Harry asked.

Valeria chuckled, startling Harry for a second.

"Don't worry, that was a good chuckle. Yeah, I'll totally go with you!" Valeria agreed.

"Oh, seriously? Awesome!" Harry excitedly responded.

"Totally! I'll get the poster board ready and-"

"Oh, no need. I've been having a lot of fun hanging with you and planning this dance. That's more than enough."

Valeria smiled. "If you insist."

In his mansion, Harry walked over to his room, only to be stopped by a voice.

"Harry."

Sighing, Harry turned around to see his dad.

"Yeah, dad?" Harry murmured.

"I happened to be looking at your student portal around an hour ago, and I want to ask. Why is it that your grades have gone down a decent amount?" Norman asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Last semester, you had a great start. You ended with mostly A's and a few B's. But this semester, you have mostly B's and C's, and only two A's. Care to explain?"

"Look, I'm sorry, but classes have just been harder and-"

"That's no excuse. The class isn't hard as long as you put your full brain power and integrity into it. You were able to pull it off last semester even with the help you got from Peter and Gwen."

"This again."

"You know what I mean, Harry."

"Yeah, I do. All you ever want to do is constantly compare me to the two and talk about how much smarter they are. That makes me feel really good," Harry remarked.

"I'm not doing it to make you feel bad-"

"Well, you think it's gonna make me feel great?!"

"Don't be ignorant. I do it to motivate you, to remind you that you can be better than both of them! Hell, you're an Osborn! We don't give up and we put our full effort in everything! Clearly, that little dance committee you joined is distracting you!"

"It's got nothing to do with that!" Harry protested.

"Well, I'm sure I can be forgiven for assuming that helping with some dumb dance is gonna cloud your mind! It's painfully obvious you haven't been focusing on your studies as much. Literally, go hit up Peter or Gwen, or just apply yourself more! It's not hard," Norman sternly said.

"Again, the dance has nothing to do with this. An-and, I'll try harder. I can do it. Without Peter or Gwen," Harry said.

"I'll believe it when I see it. I have a decent amount of optimism for your future, but there's something especially special about Peter to me. Gwen's an interesting case as well," Norman stated.

Harry felt an uncomfortable chill down his spine. "Okay. I'll go study."

Harry turned around while Norman walked over to his office.

That night, Gwen was doing her chemistry homework in the living room. Her dad then walked into the house.

"Hey, Gwen," George greeted.

"Hey, dad. How was work?"

"It was fine. Same old stuff. Grumbling cops and dealing with criminals."

"Anything else?"

"Well, not much," George said.

"You sure? Nothing about Spider-Man?" Gwen asked.

"Oh, boy. No, not much with Spider-Man. Nothing new."

"Other than thinking he's a bad guy?"

"Gwen, we've had this talk before. He literally disrespected my cops the other day, and he caused a huge scene with those damn assassins before that. And let's not forget about how destructive his fights were with Scorpion and Shocker," George argued.

"He's literally doing all that because he wants to help. Do you keep forgetting how he's taking down all these criminals? He literally took in Cletus Kasady, one of the world's worst serial killers and the killer of Peter's uncle!" Gwen countered.

"I'm not saying he didn't help out in those regards, but he should be leaving that to us in the end. Every time he ever interferes with some crime, it's always something that my officers could've handled instead."

"So, why haven't they? It's not like they've been there all the time."

"We're always doing our best to clean up this city. It's never that easy, though," George justified.

"I'm sure Spider-Man could say the same," Gwen countered.

"Gwen-"

"It's like you're not even trying to find reasons to like him."

"Believe me, I really want to. But haven't you noticed how these freaks only started coming out after Spider-Man? Sure, there's a few other vigilantes out there in different parts of New York, but I'm not so crazy about them either. However, once Spider-Man appears a few months ago, Scorpion comes out, and so does Shocker. After that, those mysterious assassins appear. Who knows what's next? Then, there's constantly crimes for all of us to be worrying about. I'm not saying this guy has any ill intent at all, but the impact he's making isn't as positive as people would like to think," George argued.

"Dad, it's not like he's actively trying to make those criminals come out and start terrorizing people."

"Still. Sometimes, we do the worst without realizing it, because we want to believe we're doing the best."

Gwen's phone started ringing.

"Uh, I'll let you get that," George excused as he left the living room.

Gwen picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Gwen. It's Charlie."

"Hey, Charlie. What's up?"

"Oh, uh, I just wanted to, well, I was thinking. It's been great getting to know you a lot in chem club. I-I wanted to see if you'd be down to go to the Sadie Hawkins Dance together?" Charlie asked.

"Wow, that's really nice of you! Sure, I'd love to!" Gwen agreed.

"Awesome!"

Inside Fisk Tower, Fisk sat in his office, filling out paperwork. The door opened, and his assistant James Wesley walked in.

"Wilson. I just came in to ask for an update on the entire Scorpion situation. I trust that you're handling it well," Wesley said.

"I'd say Osborn and I are being efficient. The process isn't as fast as I'd like it to be, but we're still being productive nonetheless," Fisk answered.

"That's good."

Wesley sat on the couch.

It's all going to be worth it," Fisk declared.

"Remind me again. Why are you even teaming up with Osborn?" Wesley asked.

"My alliance with Norman is what's keeping a good amount of the underworld together in all honesty. Norman's still working on genetic modifications, which'll potentially lead to superhuman resources and weapons. If we can supply my armies with those, we can further keep the city in check and wipe out any of the competition. In return, I'm helping Oscorp maintain its success by eliminating any potential predators. Some rival companies are far too powerful for now, but there are others that are much easier to get out of the way. Together, we're keeping New York from blowing itself up," Fisk explained.

"So you're both keeping each other from making any enemies?"

"Essentially."

"Well, what happens on the day you two have to compete with each other?" Wesley questioned.

"I don't want to say that's inevitable, but I also can't say it isn't. Regardless, I know I'll be prepared," Fisk confidently responded.

"Like you were with your father?"

"In a sense. Regardless of how horrific of a husband and father he was, he still taught me to fight against this world when it's beating you down. The more you let it pummel you, the thicker the blood gets. If you allow yourself to stay down, you'll never be able to solidify your defense. It's important to be your own fortress, and that's what my father taught me when he made me beat up a bully against his mayoral campaign," Fisk reminisced. "A week later, he beat my mom as alway. Except he was intoxicated, which didn't exactly make it better. By that point, I remembered everything he had told me, so I picked up a hammer and laid out my offense. I learned later on that my father was employed under Don Rigoletto, and he took pity on me. He took me around the world in ten years, teaching me everything to survive and come home to better my city."

"I haven't seen you talk about that in seven years."

"It's always worth thinking about. As much as Bill Fisk can go burn in Hell, he did help mold me into who I am today. And my mother, God Bless her Soul, she's only a reminder of how much more beautiful New York needs to be. Especially the cesspool of debauchery that is Hell's Kitchen. As time goes on, the more I realize how much of an interference Spider-Man could be."

"What's your plan with him? He's not as big an obstacle as Daredevil or even the Punisher."

"Not right now. Who says he couldn't be in the future? From what I've noticed, he started off taking out the common criminals and thugs before taking on these bigger villains. The more I think about it, the busier he'll be if there are more supervillains. While he's distracted with them, he won't be able to disrupt our men as much," Fisk pointed out.

"Indeed," Wesley agreed. "But right now, that Scorpion has to be taken out before we can plan any of that."

"Exactly. I contacted Aleksei about the experiment just recently. He says it's closer to being complete. But based on what he told me, things are only gonna get more interesting after the experiment."

Wesley's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Wesley, how much do you know about the rhinoceros?"

Peter walked into the house, only to quickly hear Aunt May crying.

"Aunt May?"

Peter walked over to the kitchen, where Aunt May was crying at the table.

"Aunt May, what's wrong?" Peter asked.

"Oh. Hey, Peter," Aunt May said.

"Aunt May, talk to me."

"I'm sorry. It's just that I miss Ben so much. I know we've been going to therapy, and it has gotten better. But that's never been able to change his lack of presence in our lives, and how much we really lost that night. I still don't think anything's ever gonna go back to normal," Aunt May vented.

"I feel the same way, May. And it sucks, I know. But as much as I hate to admit it, we both have to keep doing our best to move on and persevere," Peter declared.

"It's not just that, Peter. I-I keep reminding myself that it was my fault that it happened-"

"The hell are you talking about?"

"I've told you this before. I let him go that night to find you and then-"

"God, just stop!" Peter yelled.

Aunt May's eyes widened. "Peter?"

"Stop fucking blaming yourself! Quit acting like there's more you could've done to prevent it. There wasn't. He died, and that's it! Yeah, it's horrible, but you can't keep acting like this and constantly blaming yourself! He was killed, and that's it. Nothing more," Peter raged.

Aunt May burst into tears, and Peter threw off his backpack. He then walked up to his room, closing his door.

In his lab, Justin was putting the finishing touches to the Copelemia. Various chemicals, both common and rare, were scattered across the table. He synthesized the central toxins with the vital agents, and put in the finishing touches afterward.

"Hell yeah!" Justin exclaimed as he admired the finished product.

Justin quickly took out his phone and called Tombstone.

"Yes?"

"Tombstone, it's finished," Justin confirmed. "The Copelemia is done."

"Perfect. What next?" Tombstone asked.

"I just have to integrate it into the Scorpion armor. After that, time to torment the spider," Justin planned.

Disclaimer: Spider-Man and any other Marvel characters are created and owned by Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. I do not have any ownership over them.

Here I am with the new chapter. I know it's a bit filler, but I figured I'd still take this as a chance to further develop the relationships. Expect a lot to be happening in the next couple chapters! I also hope you guys had a great 4th of July! I know I did by hanging out with my friends. Water gun fights are immensely fun.

I've also realized that I haven't said anything about George Floyd's death as well as the multiple others in the past few weeks since they've happened. Well, I'll say now that it's unfortunately a representation of how tragic and prejudiced life and society can truly get. We have to do and be better, and we can't attack others. #BlackLivesMatter.

As always, favs, follows, and reviews are always appreciated! I'm turning 20 in a few days, so I'm pretty excited to celebrate with my friends. Also, I finished my summer Spanish class! Hell yeah! Other than that, my best friend and I also started the anime Death Note recently. He finished it, and I'm ironically getting very engrossed by it, especially since I'm not an anime watcher. He also got me into Brooklyn 99, which is just amazing.

Rollerparty - Thanks! And I totally understand how you felt about the Enforcers, though I used that scene with them to tease another possible encounter…

ShadowStrike234 - Lol I didn't even do that pumpkin pie thing intentionally! And thanks, that Peter-Mac heart-to-heart was a scene specifically made for the Peter+Mac bromance shippers. Your feedback is more than appreciated. You're really seeing my goals and what I'm trying to do in terms of developing and building up this story. I'm really glad you're enjoying the villains, and I'm ecstatic that you're excited for my plans for the future (Believe me, I've got a LOT planned). It really flatters me that you'd compare this to a TV show, and I hope you continue to read! If Along Came a Spider-Man either doesn't continue or takes longer to update, hopefully you can have this to read still.

Guest - Lol another bald comment right here. He's getting more of an edge for sure!

Fate-Be Changed - Why yes they are. With Peter's bonds getting shakier, how will he resolve them?

Marvel Nerd - Yeah, be proud that you did! And you'll see!

Guest - Lol I can't say Peter will don the Bruce Willis look, but ironically I just saw 2018's Death Wish the other day.

Geek4Life - They're both stressed out for sure. And you'll see what happens with their next encounter!

SpideyXBC - Eventually! Shocker will have quite a place in Spider-Man's future.

Teller-Story - Lol he's still not shaving his head, but you'll further see how he deals with his stress!

JPrime - Thanks! I thought it'd be a nice homage to the movie.

ThePurpleArcher24 - Thank you! My Spider-Man will definitely get beat on a lot in the beginning to show his inexperience, and you'll see how he gets stronger. And I did see the newest chapter of your Spider-Man story, it was good stuff! As for your upcoming Batman story, I'd totally be down to read that!

-redbird12