During the third week of school, I was working on my greatest experiment yet; artificial spiderweb fluid. The only person who knew my secret was Gwen, and honestly, I liked to keep it that way. Harry was my best friend and all, but the only one I trusted was Gwen.
Speaking of Gwen, she was helping me out with the web fluid. I just couldn't get the formula quite right, but if anyone could, it was her. I had already built web-shooters, with cartridges for web fluid, but all the cartridges were sitting empty in my bedroom.
I was thinking about this on my way to Dr. Octavius's class, and I just so happened to have my phone out. Flash Thompson took that as a challenge, and plucked the phone from my grip as I walked by.
"Not funny, Flash, give it back!"
"Nah." Flash just laughed with his gang.
"Eugene. Give me back the phone."
He stopped laughing. Uh-oh. "What did you call me, you little punk?"
"Eugene. That's your name, isn't it? Come on, Eugene, give me back my phone."
He pulled his fist back. "Oh, you're gonna get it now, you little-"
"Boys! What's going on here?" Oh, thank God, it was Dr. Octavius. He walked up, grabbed the phone from Flash, and ordered us both to get to class. I quickly nodded and walked to his classroom.
At the end of class, I went up to Dr. Octavius and asked him for the phone, explaining that it was mine and Flash had stolen it from me. He handed it back to me, and in doing so he inadvertently turned it on. He saw the screensaver, a picture I had taken, and looked surprised.
"Peter… that photo is phenomenal! Did you take it?"
"What? Uh— yeah, I did. It's really nothing special—"
"Nonsense! Here, I'll give you the room number for Mr. Robertson, the journalism teacher. Go see him sometime, show him those pictures you take, and see if he likes them."
"Oh— okay. Well, um, have a nice day, Doctor."
Layer, I took his advice and went to the journalism classroom.
"Hello, Mr. Robertson. I have a few pictures Dr. Octavius says you'd like to see."
"Okay, let's see…" He looked through the photos, and he beamed. "Holy cow! These are… amazing! You took these?"
I nodded. I was shy, but proud of my work.
"I need you to take as many pictures around school as you can, then bring those to me. I can pay you with money, or switch you to my class for these."
"S-switching to your class will be fine. How much would you be paying me, though?"
Mr. Robertson laughed. "Oh, not much, just around a dollar or two for each picture."
That was a lot of money, considering that I could take a lot of pictures… and didn't have a job. "Maybe I'll, uh… sorry but I have my schedule planned out. Could I, um… choose the money?"
"Sure! No hard feelings, honest pay for honest work, right? What's your name?"
"I'm Peter. Peter Parker."
"Well, Peter-Peter Parker, I'm Robbie Robertson. It's good to meet you." He smiled and outstretched his hand to shake.
I shook his hand, somewhat awkwardly. "Yeah. Um— you too." I smiled at him, then waved and left.
Once I got home, I went up to my room and changed into my superhero outfit. I had managed to buy a radio and Jerry-rig it into a police scanner, so I turned that on and listened for anything they'd need me for.
Unfortunately, I had kind of caught the attention of the local news, which collectively seemed to like calling me "the spider man". I wasn't against the name, but the articles painted me as some kind of lunatic, going around making the police's job harder. Even Uncle Ben disapproved of the spider man. "Nobody beating people up with a mask on could call himself a hero," he said.
I loved Uncle Ben, I really did. But he was very, very wrong. The spider man was a hero! He kept people safe and gave criminals something to be afraid of! Even people in school thought he was the coolest. It was a way I could really make a difference. And the people loved me! Well, most of them… besides the police. If anything, I was making everything easier for law enforcement.
While I was waiting on the scanner and pondering this, I got a call from Gwen. I answered.
"Hey, Gwen! What is it?"
"Peter. I figured out the webs!"
"That's awesome! Text me what you've got?"
"Just did."
"That's so— you're the best, Gwen. Okay, I'll see what I can do. But for now, I think my scanners got something. Catch you later!" I tossed the phone down and climbed out of my window with my backpack of clothes, as I had grown accustomed to doing. I felt bad for hanging up on her abruptly like that, but New York needed its spider man.
I had long since learned that I performed better without shoes, so I ran carefully barefoot.
I shook off all the thoughts and went into spider man mode. Two blocks left, then one, now… there, get on a building, leap to the next one… now I was on top of the cornerstone getting robbed. I crawled down, through the window above the doorway, then right above the man in a ski mask, who was holding a gun up to the store clerk and…
My stomach dropped. The only other person in the store was Uncle Ben. And he was… trying to talk down the robber?! That's a quick way to get killed, Ben!
It was also a useful distraction, giving me a chance to drop down behind the robber and put him in a chokehold. "Put the gun down!" I said, in my gruffest, lowest voice.
"Are you kidding me?! Spider man, now?! Which one of youse called him?"
"Nobody called me. Put the gun down, now!"
He didn't put the gun down, but Uncle Ben rushed at us and wrestled it from him.
"Jeez, old man, you're gonna get killed someday doing that! But thanks for the help." I reached my hand out to shake his, because I felt like taking a risk, and he grasped my hand and shook it slowly and deliberately.
He looked me in the eye through the suit and said something that would haunt me for weeks and stick with me forever.
"With great power comes great responsibility, son. Never forget that. Your abilities give you the privilege of protecting people, but don't lose sight of your obligation to those people."
I was stunned. He walked off, but I stayed there for a couple of seconds to process that information. Finally, I shook my head to clear it and ran off home.
I had to get there before Ben, so I changed in alleyways along my path as I ran. First I took off the hoodie, then I stopped to switch pants, then I took off the long-sleeved short that the spider man wore and traded it out for a collared shirt with a sweater over it. Last, I put my shoes on, then sprinted the rest of the way.
As I got settled in my bed and took out a school notebook as if I had been studying, I heard Uncle Ben come through the door. He told Aunt May about his encounter with the spider man, and how he hates the way young people don't care about violence anymore. I tuned him out pretty quickly, and once I was sure they weren't coming upstairs, I got to work on making web fluid.
I had to stay up late into the night, to grab ingredients from downstairs and such, but by morning I had created the perfect synthetic spiderweb. The only problem was that the way spider man's attire was, there was no place for it.
I redid the whole thing with some old spandex from Halloween costumes and red paint, kept the blue hoodie with the ripped-off sleeves, re-created the full face mask with new stylized eyes, made it a onesie so it covered my feet like strong socks, added gloves, and (most importantly) built web-shooters in. I'd have to position my hands awkwardly for it to work, but it would have to do. At my waist, right below the hoodie, was a belt stocked with spare web-fluid cartridges. All in all, a great setup.
As I was admiring my handiwork, I had no idea what was going on at the prison.
"Hey, boys, Marko's back!" an inmate shouted and laughed. "What losers didja bring with you this time? The Herman guy, right? Ooh, can't wait to eat him alive!"
"Very funny, Gargan. But my other partner has a plan to get us out of here. And may I say…" Flint Marko grinned. "It's a good one."