Beep! Beep! Beep!

Anthony reached out from under his covers and turned off his phone alarm in a practiced manner, slinking back in and pulling the covers tighter over his head. It was a Saturday and he was going to enjoy sleeping in, especially with how late he stayed up the previous night, giddy that his first act as spider-man didn't blow up in his face. He wasn't sure if he could have taken failing on his first try at the whole, hero thing.

However before he could feel the sweet hand of sleep take him, his bedroom door flew it open, it smacking with a loud bang when it hit the wall. There was only one person his family who would ever open his door like that.

Huffing he threw his cover off and sat up against the backboard of his bed, taking his glasses of the nightstand and rubbing the crust out of his eyes. "Yes mother," Anthony asked, placing his glasses on and pushing them up.

"Is that anyway to talk to your mother," Nadia Wells asked her oldest son, her arms crossed over her chest. Nadia is of Russian descent given merit by her ash blonde hair that falls to the small of her back, while she bears green eyes and wears glasses, just like Anthony. Her outfit currently is a pair of blue jeans, socks, and a black sweater since it's currently early October, which in New York City might as well be akin to the beginning of winter.

Anthony just pushed up his glasses again, not wanting to play the game with his mother. The two of them share more than just eye color and wearing glasses, they both enjoy teasing people quite a lot.

Are they sadists? Probably, but that's neither here nor there at the moment.

Right now Anthony wanted to go back to sleep and his mother was keeping him from doing that.

"Don't act like my tone upsets you please," Anthony asked his mother, who began to chuckle. Which in turn caused Anthony to chuckle, until both ended up laughing for a few moments, the banter that they did was a regular thing.

After calming down Anthony smiled at his mother, "but really mom, what do you need, I'm tired ok." Anthony then yawned, being courteous by covering his mouth with his hand.

"Oh nothing, just that your dad needs help at Empire State today and I volunteered you," his mom said with a smile, like she did nothing wrong.

"Right, and why did you do that?" Anthony inquired, a bit pissed off his mother had done such a thing.

"Because guess who is going to be there today?"

Anthony gave his mom a flat look, "don't know, please tell me." He said in a dry voice, really wanting to sleep again.

His mother sighed, "fine, I can see you aren't in the mood to play today. It's Horizon."

As soon as the word Horizon was out of his mother's mouth, Anthony was in front of her face, grasping her hand with stars in his eyes. You see Anthony is a huge science nerd, in fact most would call him a genius, he possessed an eidetic memory and get A's in every subject, but there is one place every genius kid in New York wants to go, to push the limits of themselves, and that place is known as Horizon High.

Though that exact reason is why spots in Horizon are so competitively fought over. Anthony applied during his first year of highschool and got denied, so public school it was, but that didn't discourage him. He applied again that the beginning of the new school year and he still hadn't heard anything back, from Horizon that was way better than an outright no. And now with a chance to meet people from the school he wanted to attend, there was no way he could pass it up.

"So what exactly will be helping with today," Anthony asked, crowding his mother a bit. This forced her to push him back by his forehead.

"A demonstration," she mused, "you know I don't know about science like you and your dad do." It was true, while Anthony's father Raymond Wells was a professor/researcher specializing in physics at Empire State University, Anthony's mother ran a restaurant/coffee house that does exceptionally well. There home is actually one entire building with the restaurant taking up the first two floors, and the next two floors used by the family, that is how well his mom's business does.

"Right,right, but did he perhaps tell you who was going to be there?" Anthony asked.

"Yeah, he did actually. He said Max Modell-"

"Max Modell!" Anthony yelled right in his mother's face, causing her to cover her ears with her hands.

Max Modell was one of the leading scientific minds of the 21st century in the same leagues as Norman Osborn and Tony Stark, not only that but he was the owner and principal of Horizon High, and his own company Horizon Inc. which supported the school, with equipment and projects. Not to mention, he was one of Anthony's personal heroes.

"What time does it start?" Anthony questioned, going over to his closet and looking for something to wear. It was easy since he kept his room quite clean, with his television sitting on his wall and his laptop sitting on his desk in the corner near his room window, overlooking the busy sidestreet outside.

"In two hours," his mother spoke, a bit shocked about her hyperactivate her oldest son was being. He usually never got that way, but with posters of the solar system, a periodic table, and the logo for Stark Industries spread out on his walls, she could now see why he was so giddy.

He was going to meet and idol after all.

"Dad, I'm here," Anthony shouted, bursting into his father's office at Empire State dressed in blue jeans, a black hoodie, and blue sneakers. What he saw, or rather who he saw made him wish he could do that entrance all over again. Sitting in front of his dad's desk was thee Max Modell himself, Anthony would recognize the heavy set red haired man with glasses anywhere.

Swiveling his chair around, he came face to face with Anthony, while his father just sighed.

"Max, I would like you to meet my oldest, Anthony, a big fan of your school and quite smart himself." Raymond Wells, Anthony father said, rubbing a hand through his short dark brown hair, and laying his blue eyes on his son, wearing a slight smirk on his face.

Anthony wanted to punch his dad in the face at that exact moment, but he couldn't, not with Max Modell sitting right there, and the fact that his father looked different than usual. His dad usually wore casual type clothing and a lab coat at work, but today he was wearing a brown business suit, which told Anthony his dad was about to do or meet someone important.

"Hello there young Anthony," Max stood from his chair and walked over, outstretching his hand, "I've heard only good things about you from your father."

"Thank you, and it's a real honor to meet you sir," Anthony excitedly spoke, shaking Max's hand.

"Well then," his father clapped, "now that introductions are out of the way, it's time to get this show on the road, wouldn't you say, Max?"

"Yes, quite right you are Raymond."

The three of them left the office and headed for the venue, with no idea what was in store for them.

As they arrived at the venue for the presentation Anthony got the gist of the situation. Max and his dad were holding a career seminar for Empire State students showing off a Horizon students latest invention, a portable weather machine powered by Vibranium one of the rarest metals in the world. The reason Anthony had been asked to come, one of Max's students ended up sick, so they needed an extra hand with the setup, and when Anthony's dad "just so happened" to mention his son was at a Horizon's students level to Max… Anthony made a mental note to thank his dad for this opportunity later.

As they entered the auditorium through the back entrance, Anthony noticed three people working on a machine he had never seen before, a cylindrical device with a touch screen interface attached to it. It looked and felt very advanced, just from the short distance he stood from it.

"Anthony?"

Anthony turned around and smiled, right in front of him was a guy his age with red cropped hair and hazel eyes, standing at 5'10, this was Anthony's best friend in the world and a current student at Horizon, Heath Cartwright. Anthony really would have to thank his dad big time for this later.

"Well, this is a surprise, didn't expect to see you here today." Heath said, walking over and patting his closest friend on the back.

"I didn't expect to be here either, but my mom woke me up this morning, said dad needed help with something at the school and when she mentioned Horizon," Anthony shrugged to finished off his statement, nothing more needed to be said.

"I got you," Heath nodded along.

"Going to introduce us to your best friend Heath?"

Anthony looked past Heath shoulder to see an African american kid and a Spanish girl, who was looking a bit pissed off for some reason.

"Yes, let me introduce you." Heath slung his arm around Anthony's shoulder and pulled him closer, raising his free arm in a theatrical gesture. "Anthony my good mine meet two of Horizon's finest, Miles Morales, and the Spanish firecracker, Anya Corzaon."

"Hey man, nice to meet you." Miles came up and shook Anthony's hand, which he shook back.

Anya meanwhile just said "Hey" and went back to her machine.

Anthony could only give a complicated smile. "Is she always so um…" Anthony scratched the back of his head.

"Robotic," Heath finished.

"Y-yeah," Anthony apologetically said.

"No, she's just like this when she's into her work is all," Miles answered. "Her dream is to one day run her own company, and this seminar is a big step for her," he emphasized, doing an arm motion to encompass the whole auditorium.

"That makes sense." Anthony responded, before he heard a whirring sound that then popped. He looked to see the cause was Anya's weather machine.

"Uh!" Anya slammed her hands on the ground in frustration, "Why won't this thing stabilize!" The seminar was about to start and her machine would fail at this rate.

"I see the problem, you're running too much power through one ciruit, but if you adjust the power to feed through the other circuits the output would be high, but manageable," Anthony explained, taking a look at the readings displayed on the interface of the machine.

"That's" Anya shot up and looked at the readings herself, doing some quick mental calculations, "absolutely right."

"Sometimes it takes fresh eyes on a problem to see how to fix it," Anthony explained, placing his hands in his hoodie pocket.

"Told you this guy is the real deal," Heath spoke.

"Then, not to pry, but why aren't you a student at Horizon yet man, we could get into so much with you there," Miles exclaimed, happiness in his tone.

Anthony shrugged, "the same as anyone else who wants to go to Horizon, I applied but the waiting list is long."

Miles nodded in understanding with his arms crossed, he too knew the pain of being on the dreaded Horizon student wait list.

"What's your area of expertise," Anya asked, still working on her machine, doing the modifications as Anthony instructed.

Anthony saw no reason not to share, "well I'm good with robotics and math, but my specialty is biology and chemistry."

Anya snorted a bit, "now I see why Max chose to let you in on today, better watch out Gwen, seems you might have another competitor soon."

Anthony tilted his head sideways at Anya talking about someone he had never met, he then turned to face Miles and Heath. "So, am who is this Gwen exactly?"

Heath stepped forward, "ah the lovely Gwen Stacey, our resident blonde beauty."

"Who would never go on a single date with you in a million years," Anya said, "and neither would I for that matter."

Heath fell over and Anthony could only give his friend a blank look. Heath despite being as smart as he is is known for being a notorious playboy, so when a girl like Anya, who Anthony had to admit was quite pretty, put him in his place he felt no sympathy for Heath at all. He in fact thought Heath deserved a put down every once and awhile, to keep his ego in check.

"What Heath meant to say that Gwen is like a female version of you, with her specialty being biology. She's really cool too, and she's also the one who came down with the flu today, which is why you were called in," Miles finished in Heath's place.

"Then I might have to meet this Gwen one of these days." Anthony wondered just what this Gwen girl was like.

"Yes," Anya cheered, "the machine is up and running."

"Glad to hear it, Ms. Corazon." Max spoke, walking out onto the stage, with Raymond accompanying him.

"Well Max it really wasn't me, if Anthony hadn't figured out the power overload situation, then things might've been delayed," Anya admitted.

"Wow, this is a tremendous day, Anya Corzaon complimenting someone else's work besides her own, color me shocked," Heath joked.

Anya sent him a dirty glare, but all he did was respond in mock hurt.

"Anthony my boy, it seems your making impressions on my students already." Max praised.

"Nothing really sir, just being me is all." Anthony stated, checking out Anya's machine again. He knew that the students as Horizon had access to some cutting edge stuff, but the tech he was glimpsing, it was out of this world.

"Right, well it was just in time too," Max looked to the auditorium doors being pushed open, people beginning to file in, "things are about to start."

While Anthony and his new friends moved the machine backstage, Max moved to the podium along with Anthony's father, and waited for the auditorium seats to be filled. By the end of the allotted entry time, every seat could be seen filled in, and even a few were standing in the back near the entrances, it was a full house.

'This is a lot of people, way more than I expected.' Anthony thought, as he made sure everything was prepped for Anya's entry as her allotted time.

Meanwhile, Max began his speech. He tapped the microphone for a quick mike check, before speaking. "Hello and a big welcome to you all. As you probably know I am Max Modell, and this gentleman next to me," Max pointed to Anthony's father, "is Dr. Raymond Wells, a professor here at Empire State University, who some of you might even learn from." A chuckle was elicited from the crowd before quickly dying down. "Today we are here to present you with a wondrous opportunity, a place where you can find work in the next few years or so. Horizon Inc. is doing incredible things, pushing the boundaries of science as we know them everyday. But how do we do this you ask? Well, instead of just telling you, today I'm going to show you."

"Anya," Anthony whispered, "you're on."

Anya and Miles rolled her machine on stage, and got a round of applause when they stepped out.

"These two young people are students at Horizon High, and some of the brightest minds I know, I would like to introduce you to Miles Morales and Anya Corazon." Another round of applause was given for them. "Today they will be showing you a glimpse as to what Horizon can do, and what you can do for Horizon." Max then walked over to Anya and handed her the mike.

"Thank you Max," she then turned to face the crowd, "As Max just said, what we do at Horizon High, it's like we're already pushing the boundaries of science, but having fun while doing it, and my machine will show just how serious we are. Today I give you a portable weather machine, powered not by batteries or nuclear means, but by Vibranium, a metal I was fortunate enough to get to work with and experiment with, at such a young age."

But just as Anya was about to activate her machine, Anthony felt his spider-sense go off. Quickly scanning the room with his eyes he couldn't spot any signs of dangers, until he heard a high pitched sound that forced him to cover his ears, much the same with everyone in the auditorium.

A small part of the roof caved in, and descending through the hole came a person, dressed in a suit reminiscent of a bird of some-kind, with a mask on their face.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here," Max asked the mysterious person as they descended further.

Looking down at Max from above, they released a high pitched sound way attack from their helmet aimed at him, thankfully he jumped out of the way in time, but thudded onto the stage.

"You can call me, The Vulture," a distorted voice called out.

Everyone in the auditorium then began to scream and panic, running out as fast as they could, a veritable mob.

Anthony on the other hand, left to get changed for work.

The Vulture landed next to Anya's weather machine and began to use his talon-like hands to tear it apart. She wanted to go stop Vulture, but Miles held her back, it was a supervillain after all, and it wasn't like they were the Avengers or anything.

The Vulture gutted the machine until a purple glow began to shine, "Just what I came for," the Vulture removed the vibranium core from Anya's machine. "Vibranium is so hard to procure these days, thanks for your help, kids."

Before Vulture could take off however, the Vibranium was hit with webbing and snatched out of his grasp.

"Who dares?" Vulture roared in anger.

"Ah, that would be me," Anthony in his costume was sticking to the wall, the Vibranium in his right hand, while his other and feet kept him secured to the wall. "Your friendly neighborhood spider-man." He waved the Vibranium back and forth, as if to egg Vulture on.

"Return what belongs to me, spider, or suffer the consequences!"

"Spider," Anthony sighed as he placed the Vibranium in his coat pocket. "I'm spider-m-" Anthony jumped from the wall as Vulture fired a sonic blast at his spot, the shot breaking the concrete in on go.

'Definitely can't get hit by that.' Anthony using all fours to stick to the wall again, did a quick mental analysis of the Vulture 'Concentrated sound manipulation, anti-gravity flight, talons for close-range combat, just what else is this person hiding in that suit?' Anthony nervously thought. His first real supervillain and it was a tough one to boot.

Well, it wasn't like being a hero was easy.

Anthony jumped from the wall and shot a web which attached itself to Vultures right leg, pulling he raced forward while also tripping Vulture up, he then delivered a kick to their stomach, sending them flying back and crashing into the wall. But they quickly recovered, pushing themselves out.

Releasing a barrage of sonic screams, Anthony used his enhanced reflexes to dodge each one, jumping, backflipping, and limboing out of danger.

When he was an opening, Anthony shot out a web that attaches itself to the Vultures right forearm, but this time it was quickly torn to pieces by the Vulture's talons. Trying again he got the same result.

'Time to change things up.' Aiming at Vulture, Anthony shot out multiple webs balls, which hit Vulture and exploded outward, trapping them in webbing, no matter how much they struggled they were trapped.

"Give up Vulture, you're trapped," Anthony said with a smile.

"Heh, that's what you think." Before Anthony could ask what he meant Vulture turned their head upward and unleashed a sonic scream, which caused pieces of the roof to fall down, right over Anya and Miles who were still on the stage.

"No!" Anthony reacted instantly, he shot out webs in a wide burst, which created a net over them, as the rubble landed on it the webbing strained, folding in but to Anthony's relief it held.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Get to safety now."

"Right, am, thanks spider-man," Miles said, taking Anya's hand and running off the stage.

"Fool!" Anthony was blasted with a sonic blast, which sent him crashing into the seats of the auditorium. Vulture then freed themselves by clawing off the webbing, and then flew after Miles and Anya, grabbing Anya by her wrist and raising their altitude.

"Anya!" Miles shouted in worry.

Anthony picking himself up saw the scene and bit his lip, his eyes locked on Anya dangling in the air with fear in her eyes.

"Now, be a good little spider and toss me the Vibranium, or this girl will take a very nasty fall," Vulture threatened. Anthony knew he only had one choice.

"Here, take it." He removed the Vibranium from his pocket and threw it to Vulture, who caught it with their free hand.

"Good," Vulture mused.

"You got what you wanted, so put her down, now!"

"Well, if you insist." Vulture tossed Anya into the air, while they rocketed out of the skylight, fleeing the scene.

"Agh!" Anya screamed as she raced toward the ground, however, a moment later she felt arms around her body, looking up she saw Anthony's masked face near her own.

"You'll be ok miss, I've got you." Anthony swung down to the ground, and landed safely. Once he made sure Anya was safe, he webbed up to the open skylight and stood on the edge hoping to get any sign of Vulture, but sadly they had disappeared.

Sighing he jumped down to the ground to make sure no one else needed any assistance, a bit of a heavy air around him. His first major villain and he had failed to stop them, his thoughts were saying that maybe being a hero wasn't the best idea.

"Thank you."

Anthony turned around to be faced with Anya, and Miles. "You talking to me?"

"Who else man," Miles questioned. "You really saved us back there, and the way you handled that Vulture person, so cool!" Miles cheered.

"You also saved me, which is more than I can say for my machine." Anya gained a saddened look in her eyes. "But as Miles said, thank you again for saving my life."

"You're welcome," Anthony responded back. He was shocked, not thinking he had done anything to great, but Anya and Miles were congratulating him even though he lost Vulture and the Vibranium. It dispelled his depressing thoughts, just because he had failed once didn't mean he wouldn't get another chance.

'Keep trying and things will get better.' It was something his mother always told him, and something he had almost forgotten to live by, but not now.

Smiling he webbed off into the skylight to become Anthony again.

"Guys, what happened," Anthony asked, having found everyone in the campus courtyard. The police had also arrived to take statements as well.

Before Anthony could get an answer, his father rush forward and swept him into a hug. "Anthony, I'm glad your safe son."

Anthony pushed his dad off, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah dad, I am. When I saw that flying person make a hole in the ceiling I got out of there quickly and went to get help."

"Well you missed it man," Miles said, "that flying person is called Vulture, and he stole the Vibranium core in Anya's machine, but then this new hero called spider-man showed up."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and he was awesome. He took on Vulture with no fear and probably would have one, except," Miles looked downed, "he had to worry about me and Anya. First he saved us from being crushed by rubble, and then he caught Anya in the air when Vulture took her hostage to get the Vibranium."

"But still, it was our own fault for not evacuating with everyone else," Anya stated.

Anthony shook his head. "It's no one's fault, you guys were trapped in a dangerous situation. I think if you had moved around recklessly your lives might have been put in even more danger. So hold your heads high, I'm sure the Vulture will get theirs one of these days."

"Well said Anthony." Max came over with a smile on his face. "On that note, I have some exciting news, we're getting a brand new student at Horizon High." Hiz gazed landed on Anthony. "Mr Wells, welcome to the Horizon family."

"Geh?" Anthony was so shocked he couldn't register his own excitement. "Max this is a great honor and all, and not that I'm grateful, but why me?"

"A very astute question. The simple answer is, you impressed me today. Not only did you understand the mechanics behind Anya's machine after only spending a few moments with it, but you solved a problem with it that even she herself didn't notice. Ingenuity and adaptability, two things I look for in all my students."

Again before Anthony could respond, Miles slung an arm over his shoulder. "Alright man, isn't this great, now we can hang out all the time."

"Hey Miles, let him breath will you, we don't want him thinking we're a bunch of violent people," Heath joked.

Anthony could only smile, one of his dreams had come true today.

A/N

I know what you're going to say, and yes I know this is reminiscent of the 2017 spider-man series, but it's about to stop right here and now. The story will diverge and expand, trust me on that, and stay tuned for the next chapter.

The Vulture's suit, picture the 2017 version, only with a face mask dyed green.