Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except for my OC. All rights belong to Marvel and Rick Riordan.
Queens, New York May 12, 2006
HI, my name is Ben Reilly, I'm 15 years old and this is my story. It all started a week ago when all of those freak storms were hitting across the state. My cousin Peter and I were on a field trip at one of Stark Industries facilities that specialized in biological science when I was bitten by two spider's.
One week ago
Me and Pete were looking at all of the different spider's that were bred for their silk. They had been genetically altered to produce stronger webs that are as strong as suspension bridge cables. Next thing we know was that we were knocked into the container of spiders, but before we hit it I shoved Peter away from them.
I hit the container and felt a bunch of spiders crawling all over me and as that was happening I felt two bites. One on my neck and another on my hand and after that a blinding pain and then darkness.
Next thing I knew I was in the hospital and Ben, May and Pete were sitting next to my bed. " Agh, what happened? " I groaned, my mouth felt like it had been to the Sahara Desert and didn't know it was supposed to stay wet.
" Flash and Ned pushed us into the display case filled with the spider's. You pushed me out of the way and after you crashed into it the spider's were crawling all over you and by the time the staff of the facility saw anything the spider's had died from exposure from never being outside of their unit or being stepped on by people." Peter told me.
After that the nurse came in and informed us that Tony Stark would be paying for my hospital bill due to it being on his property. After I got out of the hospital, paid for by Stark Industries, we got a lawyer and sued Flash and Ned.
The first couple of days after getting out of the hospital some strange things started happening to me. The morning after I got out of the hospital I woke up and went to open the door to the bathroom and accidentally broke the door knob. Thinking that the knob was just old and that it was bound to happen sometime I did my business and went to wash my hands and broke the faucet and sink.
Explaining that to Ben and May was a doozy, but they believed me when I said that there must have been a crack in the sink that grew over the years. While going on a walk that day I felt something buzzing in the back of my head and turning to where it was buzzing the loudest I saw an out of control car barreling towards me.
I went to jump out of the way and ended up jumping on to the roof of a small time business. I was shocked cause I had never been able to do that before, I mean I was more athletic than Pete was but nobody, except for maybe Captain America, could jump 30 feet up onto a roof.
I discovered over the course of the weekend the ability to stick to any surface and to be able to stick stuff to my body no matter the place; During the night I discovered that I could see very well in the dark to the point that I could see a fly clear as day in pitch darkness.
That brings us to now.
Present
I had been training with my abilities so that I didn't accidentally put a hole in a brick wall at school or cause something to stick to me while in front of other people. The only one that I couldn't seem to control was that sixth sense of mine. For the past week I kept getting that buzzing sensation in the back of my head, but it was always when I was in a crowded area and I couldn't figure out where it came from.
I had worked out that my sixth sense only got triggered when someone or something meant to cause me harm. Whenever I felt it buzzing I kept an eye out for anything strange or out of place, but the only thing that I always found was that it always seemed to trigger when I was in math class.
At first I thought that it was either Flash or Ned, but they had been pulled from school by their parents after the incident. The teacher always seemed to give me the side eye every now and then, but she wasn't the one setting my sixth sense off.
{LINE BREAK}
Museum of Modern Art
We were on a field trip to MoMA the same time as another class and while we were on lunch I was sitting across from the fountain when I saw a girl that had red hair and freckles that look like they had been spray painted onto her face.
She was bullying two kids that were sitting at the fountain eating lunch, although the kid with black hair didn't seem to be hungry. I watched as she dumped a very disgusting looking sandwich onto the kid sitting next to the black haired one. I was about to get up and go to a teacher when I saw something impossible happen.
A tendril of water shot out of the fountain and wrapped around the girl and pulled her in. The black haired kid seemed confused about what happened and all the other kids were whispering about what happened.
"Did you-"
"See the water-"
"Like it grabbed her."
I heard from all the kids around me and before I could go get a teacher to help, one seemed to materialize in front of the fountain. Watching her I saw her take the black haired kid back into the museum, but I got an intense buzz from my sixth sense and it was telling me to run away from the substitute.
Telling Peter that I would be right back I ran into the museum and following where my sense was directing me away from I heard a scream come from one of the exhibit areas. Running over to the door I burst in and saw the kid being chased by a monster.
The best I could describe the monster was that it looked like a bat that got super sized. It was taller than the average human, giant leathery wings that were as long as I was tall and its fur was a gray/black color mix.
Snapping out of my stupor I ran to the kid and jumped over him and punched the monster throwing it back into the wall and before it could recover the door to the room opened revealing the wheelchair bound form of the teacher from Yancy academy, Mr.Brunner.
" What ho, Percy!" He yelled and tossed a pen to him and I saw him slip a pen cap into his jacket pocket and as the pen was in mid air I saw it transform into a sword about three feet in length and bronze in color with a faint glow surrounding it.
The kid, Percy, caught the sword and turned to see the monster flying toward him and I watched as he swung the sword as if it were as natural as breathing. As the sword touched the monster it dissolved into gold dust with a faint ~hiss~ sound as if a snake had hissed through a mic into the room.
As that happened I felt a faint wind blow through the room and saw the sword that Percy was holding turn back into a pen. "Huh, w-wait. What just happened? Did someone slip some magic mushrooms into my lunch again?" Percy muttered to himself.
" If you were given magic mushrooms then I must have also been given some too, because I just saw something impossible happen." I said, shocking Percy that I was still there. " Wait, you saw that too?!" He said and I saw the glimmer of hope enter his eyes.
Nodding, I walked with him out of the museum and we went our separate ways after exchanging info and as I walked away from him I heard him talking with Mr. Brunner. " Ah, that would be my pen, Mr. Jackson. Please bring your own writing utensil next time." Mr.Brunner said.
Making it back to Peter I saw that our group was packing up and getting back on the bus when it started raining really hard. " Seems like a hurricane is about to blow through." Peter said and while I agreed I found it weird. Hurricane season wasn't for a couple more months and there had been freak storms like this ever since December.
After that day in the museum the rest of the school year passed by without an incident, but the thing that kept bothering me was that my senses still went off at times and I could never figure out why.
June 12. 2006
It was the last day of school and Peter and I were getting our stuff out of our lockers to take home with us when we heard a cough directly behind us. Turning we saw that Mary Jane Watson was standing behind us looking nervous and a little embarrassed. " Hey, um Ben I was wondering if you wanted to go grab lunch sometime this weekend or maybe we could go see a movie?"
Looking at her I was surprised that she came up and talked to me. We never even talked to each other in the entire time that she had transferred here and now she was asking me out? I was about to decline, but then I stopped and accepted so that I didn't cause a scene and possibly embarrass her. We agreed to meet on Saturday and after that she left and we finished emptying our lockers.
Pete didn't say a word to me the entire time on the way home and when we did he went straight to his room and I heard the door slam shut. I went to the basement where Peter and I had a small lab that we did experiments in. I decided to make something that would allow me to fire a web from my wrist. The reason being is that while I was testing my powers I had swung on a pair of chains that were in the warehouse and found it to be fun.
I spent the rest of the school year figuring out the chemical composition for the web and doing odd jobs to buy all the parts and ingredients to build the web shooters. It took me most of the week to build and adjust the web shooters, so that they actually worked and didn't miss fire or the web didn't come out in a mist or explode into a shower of webbing.
I told Aunt May and Uncle Ben that I was going out and that I would be back later. Making my way to the warehouse where I tested my powers for the first time; I started by testing them out via just firing webs at the chains, walls and any loose debris. After making sure that they were firing fine I cycled out the old web cartridge by double pressing on the firing pad to rotate the cartridges.
After making sure that everything was working alright I decided to take a swing around the city. I found the tallest building in the area and went to the roof and stood on the edge and put on a homemade mask that covered everything except for my eyes. After psyching myself up I jumped
off the edge of the building, going into freefall and firing a web off to the side and felt the impact of it hitting the building through the web.
Feeling it go taut, I braced myself and jerked to the side when momentum swung me in the opposite direction and and letting go of the web I fired another one to the left and repeated the motion again. After getting used to it I swung down the street and landed in a building, stumbling as I landed. "That was awesome!" I exclaimed.
The rush of the wind in my face from being in freefall, even through the mask, and the weightlessness of hanging in midair waiting for the next webline to hit and carry me forward to the next area. It was all exhilarating and as I walked home after climbing down the side of the building I thought about how I could use this to help Aunt May and Uncle Ben out.
"Mm, maybe I could be a street performer. No, that's lame." I went back and forth with ideas all the way home and as I was about to turn down my street I saw a flier for a wrestling ad. GO 3 minutes against Bonesaw McGraw and win $1,000. Seeing that I grabbed one of the stubs and looked at where it was taking place and saw that it was down the street from the public library and it was taking place in 4 days.
Rushing home I saw that Uncle Ben was in the living room. " Hey Uncle Ben!" I greeted him and was about to rush up to my room to start working on a wrestling costume that looked good and concealed my identity. "Ah, not so fast, mister." He said " Do you know how late it is?" Looking over at the clock I saw that it was 10 O'clock. 'Oh Shit. I left at 3 p.m. I've been gone for seven hours.' I thought and turned to Uncle Ben " I am sooo sorry Uncle Ben." I said, regret in my voice for making them worry "I lost track of time."
"It's not me, you'll have to apologize too. Your Aunt was up until 9:45 waiting for you, but I managed to get her to go to sleep." He explained and motioned for me to come over. " Apologize to her in the morning and I won't ground you."
Nodding, I walked over to him and sat across from him and listened as he explained that I had to be careful and to watch the time. Today it was late for dinner and keeping Aunt May up making her worry. Tomorrow it could be that I'm late for a job interview that I'm looking forward to.
Nodding, I said sorry again and went to my room with Peter and saw that he was fast asleep. Using my sticky fingers I pop a floorboard up and put my web shooters and mask in an old shoebox and stick under the floorboards. Putting the board back in place and after making sure
that it didn't squeak I got a notepad out and started drawing up designs for a wrestling costume. I went to sleep ten minutes later after putting the notepad under my pillow.
The next morning
I woke up and saw that Peter was still asleep, so I decided to get back to work on a wrestling design. Eventually I came up with a two piece red bodysuit and a blue hoodie that had ripped sleeves and a spray painted spider on the front of it. The mask was simple in design, all red with large white eyes. (1)
I went to Aunt May's sewing room and found that there wasn't a lot of material there, so I headed down to the kitchen where I had heard May cooking breakfast and asked her if she needed any supplies for her sewing room.
Looking up from breakfast in surprise, because I never took an interest in sewing; in fact I had never even been in her sewing room until today. " Why, yes I do. I was going to go in today and grab some more material for a project I am going to be starting soon."
"I can go in with you to grab it, Aunt May. it's the least I could do for making you stay up so late last night." I said to her while also apologizing to her for last night. She said yes, so after breakfast we got ready and went into the city.
While she was looking through all the different fabrics I was looking at the various reds that they had and let me tell you there were a shit ton of them. After perusing them for a bit I chose one that was on the lighter side of the spectrum and asked for 20 feet of fabric and a foot of white fabric.
Meeting up with Aunt May at the cash register I pay for both of our stuff with the rest of the money that I had stored up. Getting home I went down to the basement and dropped the fabric down on the worktable. I ran upstairs and grabbed a sewing machine and measuring tape. I also stopped by my room and after making sure that Peter wouldn't walk in I popped the floorboard off and grabbed the shoebox with my stuff and the notepad.
Going down to the basement I yelled to Aunt May that I would be working on something in the basement and hearing her reply I shut the door and got to work crafting my wrestling costume. After a couple of hours I finished making it and found that there was extra fabric, so I made a
spare mask. I noticed as I was working that I never had to take any measurements, I just knew how much fabric I needed and I made a perfect seam where the fabric connected on the first try. I didn't question it that much; I just thought that it was a result of the spider bite. After all, spiders were natural weavers.
After finishing it I looked it over and saw that it was perfect, the only thing missing was the hoodie. Running upstairs I grabbed an old hoodie Peter or I never used anymore. I went back to the basement and ripped the sleeves off of it and grabbed a can of black spray paint. I graffitied the front of it with a spider facing my left shoulder with its butt facing my right hip.
Putting it all on I faced the full length mirror that we had stored down here. I saw what I looked like in it for the first time. 'Damn! I looked good as fuck.' I thought to myself and as I was thinking that I heard the basement door open and ripping the mask off and stuffing it into the pocket of the hoodie and struggling out of it, threw it to the ceiling and using the web shooter sitting on the table I webbed it to there. " Hey Ben. Aunt May says dinner is ready." I heard Pete yell from the top of the stairs.
"Alright! Be up in a sec." I yelled back at him. Hearing the door close I let out a sigh and fell to the floor. "This better not be a recurring thing." I said to myself. Going upstairs and having dinner I asked uncle Ben if he could drive me down to the library tomorrow. After hearing him agree I thanked him and finished eating then left for the basement to do some touch ups on my web shooters.
The next day
Packing my wrestling costume into my backpack I met Uncle Ben at his car and found that Peter was there too looking through the newspaper. " Hey Pete. What are you doing here?" I asked him, wondering if he also was going to the library or was doing something in town. " Looking for a summer job in the city." He replied and went back to looking through the newspaper.
Riding into the city was a quiet affair and after making it to the library Peter and I were about to get out when Uncle Ben stopped us and talked to us about how this was the moment in our life that will shape us into the man who we are going to be for the rest of our lives.
Nodding, both Peter and I went our separate ways and after making sure that Uncle Ben and Peter were out of sight I headed to the wrestling arena. After getting some flak from the lady at
the registration booth I changed into my costume and waited for my turn at him, hoping that he wouldn't be pinned before I got there. After an hour of waiting I heard the announcer start doing my intro and there was a brief pause as he asked me what my name was. " The Scarlet Spider." I told him and made my way out after he announced me to the crowd. Making my way to the ring I saw Bonesaw for the first time and I'll admit that if I didn't know that I had superstrength I would be shaking in my tights at the moment.
He was 6" 1' and had a massive amount of muscle on his upper chest. He was wearing a unitard that thinned out on the top and clung to his body. Getting in the ring I was getting ready when I heard something above me moving and saw that there was a giant cage descending locking us in here. " Hey, this wasn't part of the deal!" I screamed at the announcer " I didn't sign up for a cage match."
Shrugging, he rang the bell and I felt my spider sense go off and I heard thudding footsteps behind me. Actively suppressing the fact to not display any sign that I had powers, I dropped into a crouch and rolled to the side. Looking up I saw him hit the ropes and spring back into me and knock me to the ground. Feeling the wind get knocked out of me I felt my spider sense go off and opening my eyes I saw Bonesaw go to drop an elbow I rolled to the side and got into a three point crouch.
Looking over at the clock I saw that only 30 seconds had passed. ' Okay, two and a half minutes to go.' I thought as I dodged Bonesaw again. That's how it went for the next couple of minutes, him trying to hit me and me dodging him and hitting him back. Glancing at the clock I saw that there was 10 seconds left on the clock.
Running at him I applied a bit of strength and threw him to the ground and got on top of him and as the ref was hitting the mat to tap him out I locked eyes on the clock and saw it tick down from 2… 1… 0. It hit zero right after the ref hit the mat for the third time. ' NO.' I yelled in my head.
Getting up the ref took my hand and raised it high signaling I was the winner. Trying not to let my displeasure known I went along with it and went to collect my money from the main guy. Getting to the room I saw him and one other guy counting money and looking up, the manager started counting out money and eventually set down $900 dollars. Grabbing it, I looked at him and said " At least I survived the full 3 minutes."
Turning I left the room and pressed the button for the elevator and waited for it to get here. Hearing a commotion behind me I turned and saw a portly security guard chasing after a criminal that was wearing a red ski mask.
Seeing him head straight at me I got ready and as he was passing by I stuck my arm out. He ducked under and hit the first floor button and the doors closed before I could put my hand between them.
Rushing downstairs I looked around and not seeing him I headed outside and heard a gunshot. Rushing to where I heard it from I saw a crowd gathered and pushing through I saw Peter on the ground bleeding out.
"PETER!!" I yelled out and rushed over to him; two cops tried to stop me, but I yelled that he was my cousin.
"Peter." I whispered to him, " Come on man, don't do this to us."
He looked at me and I could see the light fading from his eyes and he leaned in and whispered something to me, but I was too distraught to hear it properly. Hearing one of the cops say that they had the suspect in pursuit in a red cadillac. Rushing to a nearby alley I put on my web shooters and climbed up a wall and after reaching the top I ran across the rooftops for a couple blocks and reaching the edge of the building I'm on I stared out at the city.
Hearing sirens I looked to the left and saw a line of police vehicles following a red cadillac. Taking a deep breath I leaped off the building and fired a web line and started swinging after him.
Landing on the roof of the Cadillac I punched a hole in the roof and blindly reached around for his face. Finding it I poked him in the eye and caused him to swerve into oncoming traffic and narrowly avoided passing cars. Hearing a click and my spider sense going I leaned my head to the right and avoided being shot.
Looking up I saw that we had somehow made it to the warehouse district and we were heading for a gate. Leaping off I landed on the side of the building and saw him get out of the car and make his way into the building. Entering through one of the windows I searched around for him and found him on the top floor looking around wildly.
Stalking him from the ceiling I dropped down and threw him against a wall and fired a thick cover of webbing, pinning him to the wall. Walking over I reached up and forced him to look at me. " PLEASE HAVE MERCY!" He yelled.
"Did you have mercy on that kid you murdered! Huh, he's dead and his family is never going to see him again.!" Screamed in his face and put my hand against his face and applied my sticking powers and ripped it off. AsI was walking out he was screaming his head off from the pain of having his skin removed in such a painful way.
Sitting on the rooftop opposite of the one Peters killer was in I saw cops moving in. Deciding to leave now that the cops were here I changed back into my civilian clothes and went home and found Aunt MAy and Uncle Ben sitting on the couch holding each other crying.
Seeing them I went over and kneeled with them and cried all night holding them.
Fin
1) Classic Scarlet Spider Suit from the comics.
