So here it is...something I've been planning, like, forever. The idea is just as old as the idea for 'A World Without Voldemort' (yeah, if you're nice you'll be getting another chapter of that soon enough). This is an AU for the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. The entire story will be a recollection of events from Peter's POV, and possibly Eddie's as well. Things are gonna be different this time around.
Also, this is SLASH! Do not read if you are offended my homosexual males! Eddie/Peter or Peter/Eddie, whichever you want to call it. NO FLAMES!

Disclaimer: I do not own Spectacular Spider-Man or any of its characters.


The Alien Symbiote Made Me Do It

Chapter 1 – A Change In Plans

For as long as I can remember I've held onto one single truth: nothing ever goes "according to plan". Robert Burns said it best when he said, "The best laid plans of mice and men usually go astray." That has been a constant in my life since the beginning, from my parents dying in a plane crash, getting bitten by that damn spider and becoming Spider-Man, to losing the only man I could really call a father. Nowadays I just don't make plans at all! Plans are for the neuro-typical, the boring, the usual, and the everyday! Me? I just keep swinging from my threads.

So anyways, my time as Spider-Man had been fraught with some inconveniences at best. Nothing to worry about, just takin' care of the usual slime of New York over summer vacation (hell, I even came to terms with the fact that I'm gay! But that's neither here nor there right now), but just when I'm about to start my third year of high school, that's when all hell breaks loose. All of a sudden I'm facing off against this creepy old guy with a crooked nose and a wicked pair of wings, calling himself 'Vulture', who's trying to kill the father of my best friend! Next, I try to tutor the most popular girl in school and before I know it I'm facing off against a living bolt of lightning, whimsically calling himself 'Electro'!

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Well, maybe I should put the final puzzle-piece into place; something that happened about a year or two ago, shortly after the Electro incident, but a month before the particular incident that this whole story's about. Apparently, during his little rampage, Electro electrified a serum my boss, Dr. Curt Connors, was working on which would result in instant limb re-growth. Up until then his experiments had failed, but something about Electro doing his thing with it must have jump-started it…like an electric shock to the heart. Anyway, when Dr. Connors uses it on himself, miracle of miracles, it works! Unfortunately for him and the rest of us ('us' being namely me since I'm the one who faces off against it and has to force the damn gene cleanser down his throat) he turns into this six-foot tall mutant lizard (affectionately called 'The Lizard') the next afternoon. This is where it all starts.

Mrs. Connors tries to appease the Lizard, get it to recognize her. It looked like it was going to work, until my brainless oaf of a friend (and secret crush) decides to tackle the damn thing! Lizard easily overcomes Eddie, throws him down like a sack of potatoes, and high-tails it out of the lab, Eddie hot on his heels. I suppose I make my first mistake by making up some lame excuse to get out of there, "grounded if I don't get home before ten," and whatnot. I still remember the look of hurt and disappointment in Gwen's eyes (she still hasn't entirely forgiven me for that, even though she now knows why). Running as fast as I can I go to the nearest alley and change into my costume before starting my search for Lizzie.

I end up in a subway tunnel trying to make my way past citizens doing all they can to get out. The NYPD's already on the job, though they can't do much. Eddie's there too. So, yeah, I try my best to keep Lizzie from the crowds, and save Eddie's life from a pile of falling ceiling bits, but I end up getting my left hand broken, and cracking dumb-jokes. It's not an easy job, but someone's gotta do it, right? I end up getting my left arm seriously bruised and losing Lizzie down in the subway tunnels. That big, dumb, gecko had seriously pissed me off.

So I swing by the lab, pick up the gene cleanser, and head over to the Bronx Zoo (thanks to a tip from a certain big, blonde, lovable, lummox). After nearly drowning in a heated pool within the reptile house I foolishly make a plan to take down Lizzie in the Polar Bear crater. And as always, my plan falls apart thanks to me not putting my cell phone on vibrate. Eventually (and thanks to a dumb kid's skate board) I manage to finally get the gene cleanser into Lizzie's mouth and POOF, Dr. Connors is back to normal.

Now here is where the crucial event in all the mess that comes to follow occurs. Ordinarily I would have taken my camera and the pictures it took (which were awesome by the way) to the Daily Bugle for that contest. However, at the very last moment, Uncle Ben's voice starts playing in my head. "With great power comes great responsibility." First time he told me that I thought it was a load of bull and asked myself when Uncle Ben had turned into a fortune cookie. Looking back on it I realize it was the best bit of advice he could have ever given me.

So I take the film, tear it to pieces, and change before running to the lab. When I get there, Gwen and Mrs. Connors are still there. I give them a sheepish smile and tell them that halfway home I realized how stupid I was being and asked if they'd heard anything. Gwen slapped me before squeezing me to death and telling me how Spider-Man had shown up and took the completed gene cleanser and how they were still waiting to hear back from the boys. Aunt May chose that time to call me. I answered and listened to her rant and rave for, like, three minutes before she calmed down enough for me to explain that there had been an emergency at the lab and I had ran off home scared only to come back midway thinking about what Uncle Ben had told me. Gwen and Mrs. Connors even took turns on my cell collaborating my story (I owed them big). I ended up with a verbal slap on the wrist and two weeks grounding.

The next day I come in and everyone's standing around a table glaring down at a newspaper. I go up to the table and see a photo of Spider-Man fighting the Lizard. Apparently some random New Yorker with a camera had been at the right place at the right time and had won the contest, getting his photo of me and the Doc put on the front page. Gwen had consoled me, saying that, "even if I hadn't won the contest, I had won something far greater: proof that I was as good a man as my Uncle." I smiled at her and thanked her for that before getting a slap on the back from Eddie and a thumbs up from both Dr. Connors.

So, now that you've gotten the full picture of how nothing in my life goes according to plan and have witnessed the crucial point in this mess that happened two years ago, we can get to the actual mess itself. It involves Eddie, myself, and an annoying blob of goo that hitched a ride on a space shuttle about a month later.

To Be Continued