Chapter 3: Learning How To Crawl

A/N: So, when this "Mr. Franz" met with the Kingpin, that is a dream sequence that Peter had after he passed out. In this chapter, Peter will learn how to crawl a little bit, but he's going to be a klutz at first. I think he may or may not have more interaction with Mary Jane and Harry this chapter. That being said, read away!

Aunt May and Uncle Ben's House

I sat straight up in my bed and let out a bit of a scream. I was sweating and I noticed that I was wearing a white T-shirt and pajama pants. That's odd, I thought. I don't remember getting out of bed. I took a minute to catch my breath, before getting out of bed. I noticed that the vaporizer was plugged into the wall and there was an ice pack sitting in my lap. What? I put my hand on my forehead and felt that it was cool. I decided that the ice pack was probably on my forehead. I finally put my feet on the floor and noticed there was an extra blanket on my bed. I saw my glasses sitting over on the desk and went to go get them. A knock at the door stopped me in my tracks. "Peter!" my mother called. "Are you all right? I heard a scream!" I stopped to stare at the mirror on my closet to see that my muscle density had increased a little. "Peter!" my mother called. "Yes?" I said. "Do you still feel sick? Any change at all?" she said. "No, mom. I feel better." I said, continuing to admire myself in the mirror. "Well, hurry up!" she said. "Your Aunt May and I just made breakfast!" I moved away from the mirror. "Ok, I'll be right down." I said.

I moved over to my desk and grabbed my glasses. I put them on, to see that my vision was really blurry. I took off my glasses and saw that I could see as clear as daylight. "Yep. That's a change." I said, putting my glasses back on my desk. I looked over to my clock and it proved that my mom wasn't lying. It was eight o'clock in the morning. I slept through the entire afternoon and night! I thought. I proceeded to take off my pajama pants and put on regular blue jeans. I exchanged my white T-shirt for a regular blue T-shirt with thin red stripes. I didn't bother to put on clean socks as I walked out of the guest room. I walked to the first stair and felt a surge of strength and power. I completely avoided the stairs and ran along the wall down the stairs and pushed off the wall when I got to the bottom. "My goodness, what was that?" my Aunt May asked, when she heard me land on the floor. I walked into the kitchen and put my hand on Uncle Ben's shoulder as he ate his oatmeal. He looked up at me and laughed a little. "I thought you were sick?" he asked. I couldn't help but smile. "I feel better." I said, simply. "Come here Peter." my mother said. I walked over to her and she placed the back of her hand on my forehead. She cocked an eyebrow. "Amazing." she said. "What is it?" I asked. "You were burning up last night. We woke you up so you could eat some soup, take medicine and get into your pajamas." she said. "And today, you're just fine."

"I don't remember getting out of bed last night." I said. "I'm not surprised." my father said, finally speaking up. "You hardly spoke last night. It was tough even for you to keep your eyes open." I cleared my throat. "Well like I said, I feel better. I've never felt so good." I replied. "Well that's great!" Aunt May said. "Why don't you make yourself a plate, Peter?" she asked. "I think I will." I said, as I grabbed a plate. I walked over to the pan of scrambled eggs and took half of what was left, which wasn't a lot. I moved on to the bacon and took about nine or ten strips, then the sausage, taking four saugages. Finally, I got to the hashbrowns and took almost all that was left. I walked over to the table and sat down next to Uncle Ben. "Goodness Peter, are you hungry?" Aunt May asked, after seeing my plate. "Are you kidding?" I asked. "I'm starving!" I ate like there was no tomorrow. In less than a minute, my eggs were gone. "Slow down Peter!" my mother said. "You don't want to choke, do you?" I continued eating like I was, as she put a full glass of orange juice in front of me, at that time my hashbrowns were gone. I took a break from eating and drank half of it in one go.

I went back to eating and cleared my plate of the saugages. I finally ate my bacon and was done in a few minutes. "Well Peter," my father said. "it seems that you've set a new record for eating fast." I laughed. "What are you talking about?" I asked. "I was just really hungry. My stomach felt empty!" I got up from the table and put my plate on the side of the sink that was meant for dirty dishes. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?" my mother asked. "Yes, mom." I replied, slightly annoyed. "I'm fine." I walked out of the kitchen and towards the door to the basement. "I'll be down in the basement!" As I walked to the stairs, my Aunt May cleared her throat. "Doing what?" she asked. "Research, reading books and surfing the web on my laptop. What I always do when I'm here." I walked up the stairs and to my room to get my phone, in case somebody called me. After I got my phone and slipped it into my pocket, I walked back down the stairs and towards the basement door. I opened the door and turned on the light, after I shut it behind me. I walked down the stairs and to the desk that was against the wall on the left side of the room. I sat down at the chair, opened and turned on my laptop that sat on the desk.

Ok, let's go over the details. Yesterday, I was bit by a radioactive spider. I went to bed yesterday with a massive headache and stomach ache. I wake up today feeling lots better, being able to see without glasses and increased muscle density. That spider did something to me. But what? I got up out of the chair and opened the drawer to my right. I reached around, since a was a bit difficult to see. I finally pulled out a manilla folder and a key. I placed the folder on the desk and walked over to a big steel cabinet on the other side of the room. I stuck the key in the keyhole and unlocked the cabinet door. I reached in with both hands after putting the key between my teeth and brought out a dusty microscope, an instrument I rarely used. I walked back over to my desk and placed it on the left side of my laptop. I blew the dust off of the seeing part of it and whiped the dust off of the part you put a slide on. I walked back over to the cabinet and reached for a package of utensils that I had put in there. I walked to the desk and placed the package down next to the microscope. "This is all very delicate work." I whispered to myself. "I can't screw up." I opened the package and brought out a fresh glass slide and laid it down on the desk. After that, I brought out a small, sharp needle.

I pricked my thumb with the needle, let a little bit of my blood fall and pool up on the glass slide. I then picked it up and carefully placed it on the viewing part. I pulled a tissue from the box behind my laptop and dabbed at my thumb, drying the little bit of blood left. I finally looked at the slide under the microscope and what I saw was, just, well, just weird. There were these little black particles floating in the sample of blood that I took. I knew it. That spider did something to me! But what is this stuff? I hissed in frusteration, as this was getting me no where towards an answer. I walked over to the storage unit that sat on a lab table against the wall opposite the desk. I opened the cold storage unit and took a sample of my blood that I had taken a few years ago, when I was here. The thing about the cold storage unit, is that it kind of cryogenically freezes the blood sample, so it won't change or die. I took this slide and walked back over to the microscope. I carefully removed the sample that I had just looked at. I placed the sample in my hand under the microscope and proceeded to look at it. The result didn't surprise me at all. I was sort of expecting it. The two samples were completely different. In one, there were black particles and in the other, they weren't present. I was utterly confused and didn't know what to do. I couldn't tell my parents or my aunt and uncle, all four of them would flip out. I can't tell Mary Jane or Harry, because we barely know each other, they could rat me out and Harry isn't a big fan of me anyway. There's only one other person I can think of. Gwen. I can tell Gwen, I know I can trust her with something like this. But before that, I need to record this in my journal. I opened the desk drawer again and grabbed a composition notebook, my "journal" of sorts. I opened it up and flipped to the next empty section that I could write in.

May 6th, 2020

09:25 a.m.

Yesterday at three-thirty in the afternoon, at Oscorp Industries I was bitten by a radioactive spider. I came home to my Uncle Ben and Aunt May's house having a headache and feeling sick to my stomach. I eventually went to sleep and when I woke up today, I felt even better than before. I could see just fine without my glasses and my muscle density had increased. I ate breakfest about ten minutes ago and ate like it was no one's business. I felt like I was starving, even though I wasn't. I took a blood sample down here in my lab after breakfest and saw the strangest thing in my entire life. There were these strange, black particles in my blood. It has occured to me that my blood has been infected by an unknown contaminent.

I reached for my phone after I was done writing and it started buzzing. I took it out of my pocket and saw that it was Gwen who was calling me. How coincidental. I shrugged and answered the phone nonetheless. "Hello?" I said. "Hi, Peter. Good morning!" Gwen's soothing voice greeted me. "Good morning Gwen!" I said. "What's up?" After a few seconds, she spoke. "I just wanted to call you and ask how the field trip yesterday was!" I sighed. "Gwen, this is kind of a bad time. Could you call me back? I'm kind of busy over here." Gwen sighed, sounding dissapointed on the other end. I immediately changed my mind. "Actually, no. This is a great time. In fact, why don't you come over?" I asked. It took a few seconds or more for her to answer. "Why?" she asked. "Just come over. We need to talk." I said. "About what?" she asked in an annoyed tone. "Look, I just need to talk to you about the field trip. Could you just come over?" I asked. "Why can't we just talk over the phone?" she asked, her voice raising a little bit. "Because, what I want to tell you," I said. "you wouldn't believe me if I didn't show you." She didn't speak for at least ten seconds. I was about to ask if she was ok, when she finally spoke again. "You are dragging me out of bed at nine o'clock in the morning." she said. "This better be good Parker." I smiled. "Trust me, it is." I said. "Whatever." she said. "I'll be over soon. Where are you at?" I cleared my throat. "I'm at my Aunt May and Uncle Ben's." I said. "You know where that is, right?" She sighed on the other end. "Yes, I've been there a few times Peter." she said. "I'll be over soon." And with that, she hung up.

I laughed, in a fit of success. I put my phone down on my desk, ran up the stairs and threw the door open. I walked into the living room, where my mom and dad were sitting. "What is it Peter?" my mom asked. "Gwen just called me." I said. "She said she wants to come over to talk to me." I lied about that last part. "Um, ok." she said. "That's fine." I nodded and walked back to the open door, but I heard my mom quickly following me. "Peter." she said. "What?" I asked. "Do you think she's coming to tell you she has feelings for you?" she asked. "No mother, I don't." I said. "Why not?" she asked. "Because she didn't ask me if she could come over. I requested that she come over here. So I can tell her about the field trip." I said. "Is that all you're going to tell her?" she asked. I was starting to get angry now. "Mother, I appreciate that you're trying to help me learn to lose my shyness, but I have to do somethings on my own!" I said, in an angry tone. "And this is one of them!" My mother looked at me, with sort of a blank expression on her face and raising one of her eyebrows. "Ok, Mr. Mouth." she said. "I'll let you handle it on your own." I let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god!" I said. I was about to walk back downstairs, but my mother spoke again. "You should ask her on a date, though. She's a cute young lady." I turned around. "Mom!" I said. "Ok, ok." she said. "If you don't want my help, than get out of here."

I walked back down the stairs, after shutting the door behind me. I mean, my mom is right. I should tell Gwen about my feelings for her. But what if she doesn't feel the same way? I wouldn't know if I don't try, but I'm just to shy! I sighed in defeat and sat back down in the chair at my desk. I got on my laptop and decided to pull up the Oscorp Industries webpage. What the hell are those spiders made of? What has it done to me? I was so utterly confused and all I wanted was Gwen to hurry up and get over here. I looked around the Oscorp webpage, to see if I could find any hints to what was happening to my blood. As expected, I found nothing. I sighed in yet another failure. I got up and decided to take another look at my blood sample. I took the one from storage off of the microscope and took it back to the storage unit. I walked back tothe desk and gently put my blood sample back under the microscope. I proceeded to look at it once again and found no change. There were still those strange, tiny, black particles in my blood. "So fascinating, yet so strange." I muttered, as I continued to examine them. "But I have no idea what they are." I was about to go back to my computer, when I heard a voice. "What is so strange?" I heard Gwen say. I jumped and banged my head on the low ceiling. Gwen started laughing as she walked over and stood next to me.

After I recovered and stopped rubbing my head, I looked at her. "Gwen, come over here and look at this!" I said. "Oh Peter." she said. "Please, not another one of your mad science experiments." she said, as she walked over. I moved away from the microscope so Gwen could take a look. After a few seconds of looking at my blood sample, she looked back up at me, with a confused expression on her face. "What are those black dots in the sample?" she asked. "Well, first of all, they are particles of something, not dots." I said. "And yeah, that's the uh, 'I have no idea part'." Gwen narrowed her eyes. "Peter..." she whispered. "What exactly happened at Oscorp yesterday?" I walked over to my science journal and picked it up. "Why don't you take a look for yourself?" I asked, as I handed her the notebook. She stared at it for a few seconds. "How is this supposed to-" she started talking, but I interrupted. "Gwen, please. Just read it. Just read the last entry in the book." I said. "Outloud or in my head?" she asked. "It doesn't matter." I said. "If you're are going to read it outloud, then please talk quietly." She cleared her throat and began to read. "May 6th, 2020. 09:25 a.m. Yesterday at three-thirty in the afternoon, at Oscorp Industries I was bitten by a radioactive spider." she started reading. "You were bit-" she started to raise her voice, but I freaked out and quickly put my hand over her mouth, muffling what she was going to say.

She started letting out muffled yells, probably telling me to take my hand off of her. So, I did. I shook my head at her and put my finger over my lips. "Shh." I whispered. "You were bit by a radioactive spider?" she asked, in a quiet tone. I nodded. "We have to get you to a hospital! And tell your parents!" She started heading for the stairs, but I quickly grabbed her wrist. She turned back to look at me. Oh my God! Her skin is so warm! "What is it now?" she asked, in a frusterated tone. "I'm starting to have no idea why I invited you over. Gwen, I thought I could trust you." I said, in an emotionless tone. She gave me a sympathetic look. "Peter, you can trust me." she said. "Just let me tell your parents so we can get you to a hospital!" I sighed. "Just keep reading from my journal." I said, finally letting go of her wrist. She rolled her eyes and continued reading nonetheless. "I came home to my Uncle Ben and Aunt May's house having a headache and feeling sick to my stomach." she said. "I eventually went to sleep and when I woke up today, I felt even better than before. I could see just fine without my glasses and my muscle density had increased. I ate breakfest about ten minutes ago and ate like it was no one's business. I felt like I was starving, even though I wasn't. I took a blood sample down here in my lab after breakfest and saw the strangest thing in my entire life. There were these strange, black particles in my blood. It has occured to me that my blood has been infected by an unknown contaminent." She closed the book and put it back on the desk. "What does this have to do with me Peter?" she asked. "I all ready said it." I replied. "I needed someone to tell this secret to and you were the one I chose. Because, well, my parents would flip out." She looked like she was thinking. "What was the spider made of?" she asked. "I have no idea. A number of chemicals probably. I was thinking Plutonium or Uranium. But if that was the case, than how would I be alive?"

Aunt May and Uncle Ben's House

Peter's Lab

Ten Minutes Later...

"And maybe I should consider that the spiders were tested on with various toxins and-" I was continuing to drone on, until Gwen interrupted me in a very harsh tone. "Shut up!" she said in an angry tone, as she rubbed her temples. "Peter, please! Just shut your mouth!" I stared at her for seconds on end, with a look of hurt on my face. She stood there for a few seconds, hissing in pain. She finally looked up at me to see the hurt and sadness in my eyes. "Look Peter, I understand that you're trying to explain all this science mumbo-jumbo to me," she said, still rubbing her temples. "but it's not making any sense! And on top of that, you are giving me a massive headache! So please, just stop talking about science for now." I walked over to the manilla folder I had set out a half hour ago, but I stopped dead in my tracks. On the cover of the folder, paperclipped to the folder, was a picture of Gwen taken when we were in seventh grade. "What's wrong?" Gwen asked. "Nothing!" I said in a nervous manner. "Everything is just fine!" I flipped the folder over to the other side, but it didn't do any good, as it fell off the desk only seconds later. "Crap!" I said, getting on my knee to clean up all the papers, pictures and newspaper clippings that had fell out of the folder. "Don't worry, I'll help you." Gwen said, getting on her knees next to me. "No, no." I said. "There is no need." She laughed. "Nonsense, it's just a pile of papers!" she said. "Ok..." I said in a timid tone.

She started stacking the papers, clippings and pictures in their own respective piles. She handed each of the piles to me one by one and I put them back in the folder. After all of the piles had been put back, she pointed something out. "You missed one." she said. I looked over to see she was right, there was a newspaper clipping still on the floor. But there was something else too. I could see the corner of her picture sticking out from under the clipping. "Wait, what's this?" she asked, grabbing it and the folder. We both stood up and looked at each other. She had a confused look on her face, as she looked down at the picture in her hand. After looking at it, she looked back up at me, with more of a stumped expression on her face. "Why do you have a picture of me in your folder?" she asked. "Well, it wasn't in the folder. It was paperclipped onto the folder." I said. "That's not the point. Why do you have this?" she asked. "Can I have my folder back?" I asked. "Answer my question and I'll give it back. Why do you have this?!" she asked, in a sharper tone. "Um, brainfart?" I said, not wanting to tell the truth. She looked back at it and then back up at me. "Peter," she said. "do you l-like me?" I decided to lie. "Um, no. You're just my friend." I said in a calm tone. "That's it?" she asked. "No? Just your friend?" I nodded, smiling. "Yep! Nothing more!" I said. She stared at me with an angry expression and I could see that tears were coming to her eyes. "You really know how to make a girl feel special Peter!" she said, before throwing my folder at my face.

"Ow! Hey!" I said, as I fell down. I could hear her stomping up the stairs and I could also hear her crying a little bit. I got back up in a hurry, all of the papers sliding off my face. I ran up the stairs after her and through the open basement door. I saw the front door was open. I stepped outside, to see her running down the sidewalk. "Gwen!" I called. "Where are you going?" It was no use. She was ignoring me and was already gone. I sighed and walked back in, closing the door behind me. "What was that all about?" my mother asked. I shook my head, trying to get her to stop. "Was that about your crush on her?" I had completely lost it. "No!" I screamed at my mother, tears forming in my eyes. "I told you to stay out of it! The only friend that I've ever known just walked out, because of what I did! It would really help if you would stay out of it, just like I said!" I heard my Aunt May walk up behind me. "Peter Benjamin Parker!" she scolded. "Get out of my sight Peter." my mother said. "Just leave. Go. Go!" I was crying a little now, as I walked back down the stairs of the basement, slamming the door behind me. I was so angry and distraught that I had no idea what to do. I grabbed one of the drawers, took it out of it's socket and threw it across the room, shattering it against a wall. "What did I do wrong?!" I screamed, while covering my mouth to muffle the scream. I looked at my hand, to see that a piece of wood was sticking to my hand. "Will you get off!" I said, shaking my hand, but it didn't do anything. I ripped the board from my hand and dropped it. I bent down and placed my other hand on the board. When I lifted my hand, the board came up without any difficulty. I just got an idea... I took off my shoes and socks before walking over to the wall. I placed my hand on the high window and held on, followed by putting my feet on the brick wall. After a few seconds, I let go and began to fall. But not all the way. I kept falling, until I was literally standing on the wall. I stared, as my feet stuck to the wall. What the literal hell?

A/N: So, what do you think of his morning after the bite? Any opinions on how Gwen reacted? Should he have just told her the truth? Should he have held it back like he did? In the next chapter, Peter will have interaction with Mary Jane and Harry. Possibly with Gwen, but most likely not. I hope all the readers are enjoying this series, as it's a long process, but I have fun while doing it. This is going to be a very long story, if I hadn't mentioned. So, please review and favorite if you like it! And till the next chapter is out!

Spidey Trivia Fact #2: In the Spider-Man movie series directed by Sam Raimi, Peter also was able to see without his glasses. Now, to me, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It doesn't make sense, because no matter how many eyes spiders have, they have horrible eye sight. Or at least I believe so.