DISCLAIMER: SPIDER-MAN, AS WELL AS THE AVENGERS AND OTHER CHARACTERS, ARE COPYRIGHT PROPERTY OF MARVEL COMICS. NO PROFIT IS BEING MADE FROM THIS STORY, AND ITS PURPOSE IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT ONLY. IN OTHER WORDS, PLEASE DON'T SUE.

"To say that my life is complicated would be the understatement of the millennium…"

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK

It's a typically busy afternoon in the City That Never Sleeps. From lines of cars filling the roads to millions of people walking down the streets. Interestingly, the city had one other trend during these past few years: people who wore colorful costumes and had unusual but extraordinary abilities, with teams like The Avengers and the Fantastic Four being chief among them. All of whom used their powers to protect humanity from global threats, be it alien invaders, terrorist organizations, or criminals with superpowers of their own, and chose to use them to commit crimes.

And high above the streets of the city streets and sea of people was one of the said heroes, who was a masked man with a lean but athletic physique, dressed in a red and blue spandex bodysuit and wearing a grey backpack. The suit mainly was blue, with the red sections such as his mask, midsection, gloves, and boots containing a black web pattern. He had two spider-shaped symbols, the first being a small black symbol on the chest and the second being a giant red symbol on the back. The mask itself had two eyepieces with black pointed rims and white lenses that were two-way, in that he could see out, but no one else could see in. As for how this hero was in the air, he utilized a very unusual method of travel. In that, he outstretched one of his arms outward with the tips of his middle and ring fingers on top of a secret button underneath his glove and on top of his palm. Like the clicker on a computer mouse, he double-tapped the button, which caused a stream of liquid to shoot out of a tube on the inside of his wrist. Once it made contact with the air, it hardened into a line made of a web-like substance. As the line hit one of the corners of a nearby rooftop, the masked hero swung on that line and repeated the process with his other hand. The bracelets and the liquid used to create these 'web-lines' were all designed and invented by this hero. And he used these to travel around the city that he had long since vowed to protect. And it was around this time that the masked man swung his way to the building headquarters of the Daily Bugle, one of the city's biggest web news and newspaper media outlets.

"And yeah, that handsome devil in spandex that's shooting and swinging off webs coming out of wrists, that's me. Real name's Peter Parker, but all of New York knows me as its Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, a name that I have worn like a badge ever since I was fifteen years old. It's weird how much your life can change because of one bite from a genetically altered spider. But, as fun as web-slinging is, it doesn't exactly put food on the table. So, I had to take a few jobs, some better than others, and the one I managed to land was that of the Bugle. Like any other job, it had its pros and cons. But in my case, one BIG con…"

At the front entrance of the building, Peter is one of the many people to step out and is shown to be a eighteen-year-old male with brown hair, white skin with a fair tone, and a slender body frame. He dressed in a green and brown flannel shirt with a white t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and white teen shoes. On his back was a grey backpack that contained textbooks and school supplies for when Peter attended Midtown High School as a student halfway through his senior year. But also, a specially made camera that he used for his job at the Bugle and his secret 'other job.' As he walked away from the building, Peter kept his eyes on the paycheck he had received.

The amount was quite generous and was more than enough to help with the bills. But instead of feeling the happiness that would come from receiving such a sizeable amount of money, Peter only felt defeated. "Well, this is one of those good news, bad news moments," the gloomy Peter thought. "Good news is this should work for at least another month-."

Suddenly, Peter's train of thought is interrupted when he and everyone in the area are alerted by the angry screaming of a middle-aged man on a large TV built onto one of the buildings. "ITS TIME TO GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT, NEW YORK!"

Thanks to the TV's loudspeakers, the man's screaming echoed throughout the city, and the sound not only hurt Peter's eardrums but also further dampened his mood. For him, turning to face the TV was like a car wreck on the road; he didn't want to look at it, but he just had to. He joined the rest of the people passing by in turning and looking up at the screen, and what Peter saw increased his irritation. "And here's the bad news."

One the screen was that of The Daily Bugle's CEO and editor, J. Jonah Jameson, a fair-skinned man in his mid-fifties with greying black hair in a flattop hairstyle and a matching small black mustache. He was also dressed in a business suit, which he always wore when addressing the city on his network show. "We at the Bugle bring you footage of what only further incriminates the wall-crawling menace that is Spider-Man!"

The screen then switched from Jonah's image to video footage of Peter, in his Spider-Man costume, displaying incredible agility by jumping and kicking a group of masked thugs in black clothing outside a jewelry store. The video then cuts to Peter standing over one thug lying on the ground covered in a 'web-cocoon' with an opened briefcase with millions of dollars of jewelry inside. Once the police arrived, Peter instantly turned, pointed his right hand at the roof of a nearby building, and shot a web line. Once the line hit the roof corner, Peter jumped and pulled on his end with enough strength to make him sour into the air like a marble being fired from a slingshot and disappeared from view.

The footage then regressed t a small screen right beside the gruff Jonah. "Now to all those who claim that Spider-Man is a 'hero,'" Jonah said sarcastically while making exaggerated quote marks in the air with his fingers. "How do you explain this? That masked hooligan was clearly seen robbing a jewelry store! To make matters worse, he had hired help this time, which he decided to double-cross and keep all the stolen items for himself! And probably would have if New York city's finest didn't show up in the nick of time! He's not only a menace to society but also a menace to other menaces! A MENACE'S MENACE! THAT'S HOW BAD HE IS, PEOPLE!"

For the people watching Jonah's Anti-Spider-Man rant, the results were mixed. On the one hand, some people listened intently and believed Jonah about Spider-Man being a criminal. Others, however, simply ignored him, as some of them had heard his rants so many times that it was becoming tiresome and not even worth their time.

But for Peter, all he could do was roll his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. "Smooth, Jonah. REAL smooth!"

"Ah, Jonah, so gifted with words. Unfortunately, it's a gift he abuses because he spends most of the time trying to get the city to hate me no matter how much I prove that I'm one of the good guys! And how do I get said proof? Well, you're probably wondering how I got that paycheck…"

QUEENS, THE AFTERNOON BEFORE

Peter is in the Spider-Man costume in a nearby alley but with his mask pulled up to his eyebrows. This was so he could see better as he worked the configuration of a digital camera with two propellers attached to the sides. This device which Peter affectionately called the 'camera copter,' which he spent four grueling nights working on, was a testament to his extraordinary gift of science and inventing.

"Yeah, turns out, for the past couple of years, I made videos of….well, myself, and I gave them to Jonah for cash. A little shady, I know, plus it doesn't help that he uses the footage as part of his 'Spidey-hate' campaign. But we needed to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. And to be fair, I didn't intend for this to be a permanent thing. I mean, if that camera copter was of any indication, I've always loved science and inventing and had plans of being a scientist. Maybe work at places like NASA, or Stark Industries with Tony Stark, aka Iron Man! Maybe even be part of the Avengers! But, until then, this was the best option I could think of at the time."

After finalizing the video setting on the camera, Peter noticed something on the upper right corner of the display screen. Much to his dismay, he saw an image of a battery with a thin red line at its bottom and a number that red 'thirteen percent, which indicated its battery life. "Crap! I forgot to recharge the camera yesterday!" Peter thought in aggravation but then took a deep breath to calm himself as he couldn't afford to make any kind of noise that would alert any people in the area to hear him. "Well, no use complaining now. Besides, this should be enough power to shoot one movie at least. All I need now is for something to happen."

After saying that, Peter was alarmed by the sound of panicked bickering among a group of men behind the building on the right. "Hurry up and get the damn door open!" whispered one of the men with a hiss.

Naturally curious, Peter placed the camera copter down, then rolled up his right glove to reveal one of the two silver bracelets that he wore on both his wrists. There was a small red button on the base of this particular bracelet, and as he pushed it, the propellers on the camera copter began to spin, causing the camera itself to hover upward.

After rolling his glove back over his bracelet, Peter pulled the mask back over his face to complete his Spider-Man guise, then used one of his spider abilities. One that earned him the nickname 'The Wall-Crawler.' In that, he jumped toward the wall in front of him, held up, and concentrated his energy on his hands. Once his fingertips touched the wall, Peter immediately stuck to the surface instead of slipping and off, then proceeded to crawl up the wall and towards the roof to see what was causing so much commotion.

"On the bright side, though, it does help me in staying active."

Once Peter arrived at the ledge, he showed incredible upper body strength as he pulled himself up, then kicked his feet up, flipped forward, and landed safely on his feet on the rooftop. It was here that Peter pressed a small switch on the side of his right eyepiece, all of which caused the camera copter to hover over to Peter himself, who had since walked over and stood on the edge of the left side of the roof. And as he looked down, Peter saw something that brought a smile behind his mask. "Speak of the devil!"

"Mostly when I get involved with antics like this…."

As Peter suspected, it was a group of three masked burglars dressed in black trying to break into the rear entrance of the building that was a jewelry store. After a few minutes, the burglar at the door finally picked the lock open, and they all ran inside, seeing how they had now triggered the alarm and had to work fast. As the gang began to steal what jewels they could find, a black Lincoln sports car was parked near the front entrance and underneath a streetlamp. As for the getaway driver, who was a masked man dressed in all black with a matching mask and who stole the car a week before this robbery, anxiously looked from side to side, both to look out for the cops and at the alley, hoping that his crewmates would work faster.

"Come on, come on…!" The driver said nervously, and his anxiety only grew when he suddenly heard a 'thwipping' noise four times. "What the hell?!" The driver quickly turned to roll down the driver's side window to see where that noise was coming from, but he soon got the surprise of his life when he felt the car shake. As he looked forward, the diver's eyes lid up with fright when he saw Peter looking at him upside down through the windshield and crouching on all fours on the car hood.

"Hey pal," said Peter in a lighthearted tone. "I don't want to be that guy, but I don't think you're supposed to park here."

Naturally, the driver was scared beyond belief to see this masked man in tights, as he heard from other criminals how encounters with 'the Spider-Man' were both painful and humiliating. He decided that this job and his friends still inside the store weren't worth going to prison over and instantly started the engine and tried to speed away, hoping to knock Peter off in the process. However, as hard as he clamped his foot on the accelerator, the car wasn't moving. Both scared and confused, the driver rolled down and looked out the driver's side window, and to his horror, he saw that the wheels were covered in a web-like substance and stuck to the pavement.

All this made Peter smirk behind his mask as he sat up and looked down at the driver in a perched position. "Hey, look on the bright side," said Peter with a playful shrug. "At least you didn't get the boot."

The driver desperately opened the door and stumbled out of the car, but not before he pulled his pistol out of his leg holster and took aim at Peter's masked head.

However, Peter proved to be the real 'quickdraw' as he pointed his left hand forward and shot a web-line out of his wrist, which directly hit the pistol's barrel. Moving so fast that it all appeared to be just one motion, Peter yanked the gun out of the driver's hand, then pointed his right hand at the baffled driver himself and shot another web line, which ended up hitting and sticking to the driver's chest. And it was here that Peter displayed remarkable strength for someone his size. In that, he yanked hard on his end of the line and, in the process, pulled the driver off the road and towards Peter's waiting hands. Once Peter caught him, he tightened his grip around the driver's collar and hoisted him up into the air like he was a beachball. As he looked up at the quivering driver, Peter noticed that he was standing underneath the streetlamp, and his mask hid a smile as he got an idea of how to deal with this criminal in his grasp.

A few seconds later, the three burglars ran out of the store in a hurry, with two carrying bags, while the leader ran between his two crewmates while he carried a briefcase. "Sam," yelled the burglar holding the suitcase. "Hurry up and start the damn car!" Just as they approached the vehicle, the leader and his fellow burglars stopped dead in their tracks and saw something that made their eyes grow as wide as softballs.

Not only did they see the wheels of their getaway car covered in webs and rendered immobile, but their driver, Sam, encased in a web-cocoon and hanging upside down from the lamp post, where his screaming was muffled with web covering his mouth.

And the master of this setup was Peter, who sat perched on top of the lamp post and looked down at the stunned burglars. "Hey, fellas," he called out, where he succeeded in getting the burglars to look up and surprised enough to make them drop the loot they were carrying, even causing the briefcase to open and reveal the expensive jewelry inside.

"SPIDER-MAN!" exclaimed the leader, as the sight of this masked hero who's nabbed more criminals than the cops was not something he wanted to see.

"One and only," Peter replied with a friendly wave and tone. "I was 'hanging out' with your driver here and telling him how much fun you guys are going to have in prison."

The leader, who was not wanting to go inside a prison cell, or listen to Peter's jokes, quickly reached in his coat pocket, pulled out his gun, and took aim at the young hero above. "WASTE HIM!" The leader exclaimed desperately, and soon his fellow buglers followed suit by pulling out their guns and joined him in firing at Peter.

Luckily, Peter saved himself by jumping and flipping to the left side in a cart-wheel fashion to allow the bullets to hit nothing but air instead. While he was upside down in mid-air, Peter fought back by pointing his hands down and rapidly tapped the buttons on his 'web-shooters' to fire three ball-shaped globs of web. These 'web-balls' ended up hitting their mark as they not only hit and blocked the barrels of the burglars' guns but also covered their hands as well. Once he was right side up, Peter placed his feet on the left wall and ricocheted off it, where he leaped over the leader and the burglar on his left side, then used his right leg to throw a flying kick, with the target being the chest of the burglar on the right side.

Though Peter managed to use just enough force not to shatter the burglar's ribcage, the kick was strong enough to send the burglar flying backward and hitting his back against the wall behind him. Once Peter landed on his feet, he shot four more web balls, all of which hit and covered the disoriented burglar's hands and feet, making him stick to the wall and rendering him immobile.

However, even after he handled the burglar with ease, Peter was quickly reminded that he wasn't out of the woods just yet, thanks to another ability granted by the fateful spider bite. In that, he was soon alerted by an intense tingling sensation in the base of his skull. This 'Spider-Sense' often occurred whenever danger was near, and it saved his life many times over. And this situation was no different, for the cause of the tingling was that of the leader attempting to sneak up from behind Peter and using his webbed-up pistol to hit him in the back of the head. Fortunately, Peter heeded his spider-sense and soon ducked without even looking, causing the leader to miss and nearly tumble to the pavement. Before standing up, Peter looked over his right shoulder to see that the last burglar was about to attempt the same thing and thus threw a right-legged back kick, which had the same force as the last kick to send him up against the wall. Utilizing his fast reflexes, Peter stood up, turned in the direction of the second burglar, and implied the same trapping method as he fired four web balls that stuck to his would-be attacker's hands and feet and kept him in place at the wall to prevent him from escaping.

With three buglers dealt, there was only one to go. And Peter wasted no time spinning around once more and pointing his hands in a web-shooting fashion at the leader, who was about to try another sneak attack but stopped dead in his tracks and held his hands open as if to surrender. "Whoa, whoa, hold on, Web-Head! We don't have to keep this up," said the leader calmly as if to show he's no threat, then pointed down at the opened suitcase with the exposed jewels. "What do you say you let me go, and I'll split half of this with you? And hey, maybe you and I can be partners?"

At this point, Peter lowered his hands and seemed genuinely shocked about this offer. "Really? You'd do that?! Sure, man, that sounds like a fair deal!"

Naturally, this response left the leader baffled, as he couldn't believe that Peter was so easily convinced of his offer. "Really? Just like that?"

"Nope," Peter replied matter of factly, then shot two streams of webbing out of his wrists and onto the leader, which moved down from his chest to his feet and trapped him in a web cocoon. Moments later, the leader fell to the pavement and could only struggle to free himself but to no avail. "Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is a lot of things, pal," said Peter as he looked down at the cocooned leader with his hands on his hips. "But being someone who can be bought isn't one of them." Suddenly, Peter heard the familiar sounds of police sirens approaching, and as he turned, two cop cars arrived and stopped right behind the getaway car, and four officers stepped out of them. "And here's New York's Finest to escort you to nice cozy cells. See you later, guys!" With his job now done, Peter pointed his right hand up, shot a line and zipped out of the scene, and allowed the officers to arrest the burglars.

Upon landing on the roof, Peter once again jumped over the ledge and, by pure instinct, pointed his left hand downward and shot another line at the alleyway he was in previously and ended up hitting his backpack. A split second later, Peter yanked the line back, pulled the bag towards him, and caught it with open arms, thus allowing him to flip forward and land safely on a rooftop the next block over. Moments later, Peter placed the backpack on the roof floor and double-tapped his right eyepiece, making the camera copter hover towards him. Once the camera was over his head, Peter rolled up his glove and pressed the button on his bracelet, which turned off the propellers and allowed the camera itself to fall into Peter's waiting hands. "Well, that was easy enough," Peter said with accomplishment as he turned off the camera and proceeded to fold and condense the propellers. "Maybe I can make it home just in time for dinner." Just as Peter bent down and placed the camera copter inside his backpack, he was alerted by what sounded like a woman screaming. All this made Peter let out an annoyed sigh. "Okay, I admit, I set myself up for that." With that said, Peter ran over to the ledge and placed the backpack near the corner. As he looked down and saw what the commotion was.

It was a that of a purse snatcher, who appeared to be a light-skinned man in his mid-twenties with a messy brown hair five o'clock shadow and rugged street clothes. The purse he napped belonged to a forty-year-old woman with fair skin, a somewhat husky body frame, blonde hair in a style in which a good majority of it was combed to the left side and put in place with gel, a blue top, blue and white skirt and white high heels.

"STOP HIM!" The woman screeched as she tried to run, but her shoes did not give her the flexibility needed to do so. "HE TOOK MY PURSE! SOMEBODY STOP HIM!"

The woman's ear-piercing scream only made the purse snatcher run faster. But just like the burglars at the jewelry store, the snatcher received quite the surprise when he felt something stick to his back and then pull him up from the sidewalk and into the air. Before he knew it, the snatcher found himself dangling by a web line attached to the end of a streetlamp, and as he struggled, he spun around slowly. Once he stopped moving, the snatcher looked to the right side and saw Peter dangling upside down from another web line, but one stuck to the lamp's base.

"Wow, this is like the second time I've used a streetlamp to web up a thug," the hanging Peter thought to himself. "If this webbing didn't melt in an hour, the city would probably hate me even more than it does now."

As for the snatcher, he could only look on at Peter in both confusion and fear. "Hey, what the-?!" Before he could finish his question, the snatcher's mouth is quickly covered by a smaller web-ball, one Peter shot from out of his left wrist while using his other hand to hold on to the line.

"Whoa, easy, buddy," said a cheerful Peter as he pulled his left hand away and used it to shrug. "Just an honorary member of the fashion police here to let you know that that purse doe NOT look good on you!" Peter once again used his left hand to shoot a line, but this time one that hit the purse that was still in the snatcher's right hand and pulled it out of his grasp. Once Peter used that same hand to catch the purse, he couldn't help but add more to his quip. "But I can tell you what does, an orange jumpsuit. So just chill here until the police come, and they'll be sure to fit you with one!" Peter then released the web-line, and as he fell, he flipped backward to land safely on his feet, leaving the snatcher to struggle violently and his verbal obscenities muffled thanks to the webbing over his mouth.

Back on the street, Peter ran over to a blonde-haired woman, who stood in complete awe and presented her purse. "Here you are, ma'am," Peter said to her politely as she snatched it out of his hand. "Curtesy of your Friendly Neighbor Spider-,"

Suddenly, Peter's usual greeting was cut off when the woman frantically dug into her purse and pulled out a black hand-size can of mace. "GETAWAY!" Was what the frightened woman shrieked as she sprayed mace at Peter's masked face, then turned and tried to run as best as she could. "HELP! IT'S SPIDER-MAN! CALL THE POLICE!"

Though his eyepieces provided his eyes with protection, the mask could not fully protect against the mace's pungent smell, which made Peter cough violently as he tried to wipe the mace from his eyepieces. "Geez, is it too much to ask for a simple 'thank you'?!" As Peter wiped off some of the mace from his lenses, he could see that the woman's frantic scream had attracted a couple of nearby officers who approached the woman. "Just great," Peter said to himself, both annoyed and feeling defeated, as he knew that the woman was only going to tell them that 'Spider-Man the menace' was trying to harm her and given the status he had with half the city, he knew he wasn't going to make his case. Thus, all he could do was point his left hand in the direction of the roof that he left his backpack on, shoot another line, and zipped up to it just as the two cops came running towards him.

OUTSIDE THE DAILY BUGLE, PRESENT

Peter groaned as he recalled that memory of getting mace and how he spent hours trying to get the smell of pepper spray out of his mask. "Well, at least I didn't record THAT lovely little moment," Peter thought, trying to be optimistic. "Can't imagine what Jonah would do if he actually-."

'THIS JUST IN!" yelled Jonah on the big screen. "We now have even more footage of Spider-Man committing more audacious acts from a concerned citizen. And newest of his many crimes, terrorizing a woman walking the street!"

The image on the screen once again changed, but this time, it was that of a video recording of Peter getting maced, courtesy of an unknown pedestrian with an iPhone.

All of which left Peter in a state of bewilderment and disgust. "Oh, come on! Really?!"

Peter's annoyed words reached the ears of an overweight construction worker who was off duty and on his way home. And like Peter, he also looked at the screen with disdain. "I know, right? Dat is just so wrong!" The construction worker exclaimed in his thick Brooklyn accent.

Naturally, Peter was surprised to hear this from a stranger and took it as a way that he finally got a supporter, which made him smile. "Well, thank you! It's about time that-!"

"Who does dat web-spewin' punk think he is, scarin' women like dat!" The construction worker finished, causing Peter's smile to disappear and be replaced with shock instantly. "Jameson's right on the money about that freak!"

Peter was utterly speechless as he watched the construction worker turn and leave until anger brewed up so much that he felt compelled to speak. "Hey, wait, that's not-!" Suddenly, Peter looked straight ahead and saw an older woman bending down and hugging a little girl in front of her parents, who appeared to be her granddaughter. This love and warmness reminded Peter of a specific family member whom he had long since looked after and tried to support. But even he knew that he couldn't do it if he's said something that would jeopardize his secret. As such, Peter barely managed to stop himself from speaking and took a moment to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth to calm himself, just as the construction worker turned to face him. "Nevermind…" said Peter, sounding a lot calmer but also feeling defeated.

As for the construction worker, he only looked at Peter with a confused look. "Yeah, whatever, kid," he said as he walked off, feeling that Peter must be a Spider-Man supporter and didn't want to waste his time with someone who supported a menace.

Though his pride was further wounded, Peter still did his best to dismiss the construction worker's words as he placed the check inside his front pocket and went on his way. "Let it go, Parker," he thought, staying vigilant but still visibly irritated. "There's a place you need to be and a certain woman you need to be there for." With this in mind, Peter kept walking until he approached an upcoming alleyway on the right. As he entered and walked deeper into the alley, Peter stopped at a dumpster, and as part of his routine, he looked side to side to make sure that no one was around. Now certain that he was alone, Peter placed the backpack down near the dumpster and unzipped it.

And it was here that Peter began the next phase of his routine of getting around the city. Namely taking off his shirt, pants, and shoes, which were hiding his Spider-Man costume underneath, minus his gloves and mask. He then reached in his backpack and proceeded to pull out not his web-shooting bracelets, which he immediately strapped onto his wrists, then pulled out his gloves and slipped them over his hands. Peter then pulled out the final feature to complete his guise as a web-slinging superhero, the mask! This piece of the costume was the very thing that kept his identity and the lives of those he loved safe, and he had to always make sure that it was never damaged whenever he either fought thugs or saved people from catastrophes. A fact he always bore in mind, even as he slid it over his head and face, and became Spider-Man once again.

This quick change of wardrobe was not to fight crime, or at least not yet. It was to use his web-swinging to get to a particular location, which for Peter, was a much easier and faster method than taking a cab or a subway train. And so, after placing his clothes inside his backpack and zipping up the top, Peter picked it up and ran both his arms through the straps so he could wear it on his back. Afterward, he looked up, pointed both of his hands upward towards the roof of the building in front of him, and shot two web lines.

As expected, the lines hit and stuck to the ledge, allowing Peter to jump up, pull hard on the lines, and zip up over the roof and into the air. With his left hand, Peter shot another line towards a nearby skyscraper, and proceeded to swing from one building to the next on his way to Queens, which was the location of a homeless shelter that provided Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter, and Training; hence its name; F.E.A.S.T. And it was this place that a certain woman worked, one who was now the only family he had left and was being honored in the best way for her selflessness and kindness. And it was out of love for this woman that Peter was determined not to miss it.

PART 2 COMING SOON