And now, we begin series four of this story, not with a bang, but with a trip to the past.

As such, I present to you: Life Story!

Series four of this story would begin with Peter Parker sitting in his room in S.I.L.K. headquarters, looking over the pro hero license card in his hands and wondering how it all came to this, how every event in his life suddenly came to this conclusion, and where it all went wrong for him.

And then, we get a flashback, as this entire arc, the opening segment of series four would consist of a giant flashback detailing Peter's life before the events of the series.

Peter thinks back to his childhood, when Uncle Ben had been alive, and his parents were still around. He didn't remember much of Richard and Mary Parker, as they had disappeared when he was young, but he had been old enough to feel the emotions of their loss.

When he was in his early years, he was a lonely child, ever curious of the world, and exceptionally adventurous, always wanting to explore and discover. However, that only had the habit of driving others away from him leaving him isolated and alone. This is made even worse by Peter's social anxiety, leading him to become very self-deprecative and developing severe social difficulties and issues.

However, that all changed when one day, when he was playing by himself in New York's central park, he was approached by a girl the same age as him. A girl by the name of Gwen Stacy, who not only tolerated his childish eccentricities, but seemed to share in and enjoy them, herself an anime fanatic and science geek, and was a lonely child as well.

The two of them ended up becoming friends, and were soon joined by fellow lonely child Harry Osborn, who was incredibly shy and socially awkward like Peter, but just as geeky as Gwen. Soon enough, the three of them would become longtime friends, spending days on end together, watching anime and learning science and doing almost everything together.

However, because of their status as the school losers and loners, the three of them would find themselves becoming the subject of harassment from bullies such as Kenny 'King Kong' McFarlane, Flash Thompson and his girlfriend Liz Allen, Carl King, and Sally Avril, for much of their time growing up, and would lead to them shrinking in on themselves and isolating themselves from the rest of the school.

Eventually though, during their high school days, Harry would end up growing to become one of the popular kids, mostly to gain the approval of his distant father, Norman, and would end up pulling Gwen along with him when she grew to become pretty as well. However, Peter would be left on his own due to his nerdy looks and weak physic, and although Harry and Gwen would try to keep the bullies off his back, Flash and his group would make it their personal mission to make his school life a living hell.

However, one day, during a field trip to Oscorp, one of the experiments that Norman and his company was running, a radioactive spider, escaped from custody and bit Peter, knocking him out and forcing him to go to the hospital, where he would be imbued with spider powers.

Thanks to these spider powers, Peter would end up becoming one of the top athletes in their school, and end up becoming one of the popular kids as well, and would even end up using his powers in an underground wrestling ring, where he would be given the moniker of Spider-Man. However, because of this, and due to his previous resentment of the people who bullied and mocked him, Peter would end up developing a severe ego issue and gain an inflated sense of self, refusing to listen to his Uncle Ben when he tries to encourage his nephew to let go of said anger and ego, eventually exploding at him one night when he says his 'With great power, there must come great responsibility' quote and stomping out.

Then, later that night, during one of those time where he had attended and thought in the underground wrestling ring, a random mugger would run past him, to which he wouldn't stop him, feeling that it wasn't his problem.

But then, later that night, he would come across a crime scene back at his home, seeing Gwen and Harry there, as well as Aunt May sobbing outside and being held by Gwen's father, Captain John Stacy.

That same mugger from before broke into their house, trying to hide from the police… and then shot Uncle Ben, killing him.

Peter is utterly distraught by this and runs away, not noticing Gwen and Harry trailing behind him, and he quickly dawns his wrestling outfit, coloured in blacks and whites instead of his iconic reds and blues (because we adore symbolism in this household, people), and tracking that same mugger down to an abandoned warehouse, and begins to wail on him in anger and rage, nearly killing him until-

Until Harry and Gwen grab him, and stop him from finishing him off and sullying his soul.

Then, Peter notices a photo that the mugger was carrying on him. A photo of a young girl called Jessica Carradine. The mugger's daughter.

And that is when Peter realises what he is doing, and stops himself. The three of them leave, Harry calls the police on the mugger, and, when they are safely away, Peter breaks down, and weeps in the arms of his closest friends.

After Uncle Ben's passing, Peter doesn't talk to anyone for a long time, not even Aunt May, for he is too consumed by his own guilt and grief over what has happened. Not even at school is he able to respond to anyone, not to Gwen or Harry, not when he was asked to show the new student, Mary-Jane Watson, around the school, not even to Flash and Kong's bullying, nothing at all.

And the others are quick to notice as well. Aunt May tries her best, but in her own grieving, there is only so much that she herself can do. Gwen and Harry are always at his side, keeping him company in his depressive state of mind and their own grief, having seen Uncle Ben as a sort of second father to them. Mary-Jane, or MJ as the others call her, would try to approach him as a friend, trying to pull him away to a party that she was attending and draw him out of his depression, only to realise that it wasn't a good idea and back off, settling to be just a friend instead. One student by the name of Jessica Jones, the head of Midtown High's newspaper club, would at first think of trying to make a story out of Ben Parker's demise, only to back down out of respect and disgust at herself. Students such as Abe Brown and Lana Baumgartner, and even fellow outcasts such as the secret mutants Kitty Pryde, Johnny Storm, and Bobby Drake, would take time out of their day to say sorry for his loss. Even Flash and Kong would back off from Peter for a while, having no desire to speak ill of the dead, and Liz Allen, Flash's girlfriend, would make it clear that she didn't actually think any lesser of Peter.

However, not all would be keen to give Peter space after Uncle Ben's demise. In fact, one in particular would be encouraged by it. Carl King, an upperclassman and senior student in Midtown, was known for being a sadistic bully who liked picking and preying on younger students, and it was also known that his favourite target was one Peter Parker, to whom he made Flash look like a pacifist.

So, when he heard that Peter's uncle had murdered, Carl would find sadistic glee in that fact and rub it in Peter's face whenever he got the chance, mocking him for it and implying that he was the reason for Ben's death. The others would be quick to call him out in this, and he would instead revel in their anger at him, calling them pathetic and taking sadistic pleasure out of it.

But then, when they call him pathetic, he flies into a rage and leaves, unable to handle it when he is given the same treatment as he gives others.

Meanwhile, Peter is left even more sullen than before, unwilling to do any of the things that he had been doing before, guilt over what happened and his role in Uncle Ben's death. He is barely able to keep himself from lashing out at his friends and classmates in response to his self-loathing, as he would never wish harm over anyone else. Not again.

But Carl King has no such compunctions. He was a sadistic bully, and he revelled in making other people's lives miserable. Worse yet, he is easily envious of others, especially with how his attitude and demeanour always drives others away from him, and he always desires what the other has.

And he wants what Peter has. The powers that he has.

You see, Carl King had been forced to become a chaperone for Peter's class to Oscorp under the orders of Midtown's headmaster as punishment for a previous altercation that he'd had with another student, and he had been there to witness Peter being bitten by the radioactive spider. He had then seen Peter, on his first day back from the hospital, seemingly effortlessly avoiding one of Flash's punches, and then jumping high above a car that was about to hit him. Taking to stalking Peter in order to find answers, he would witness Peter's matches in the underground wrestling rings, and would become jealous and envious of his new abilities, seeking them for himself.

So, later that night after he had stomped off from Peter's friends and classmates after they shooed him away, Carl would break into Oscorp and find the corpse of the radioactive spider, taking it home and hoping to replicate the process in which had made it the way it was.

But then, he realises that he has no way of replicating the process or any idea of how to even irradiate the spider in the first place, Carl would try the next best thing, and eat the spider's corpse.

However, instead of giving him the same powers as Peter, the dead spider would instead begin to break him down, violently mutating him into a swarm of spiders, a thousand of them, and eating him from the inside out.

And then, fully conscious of himself, he would go on to attack his own parents. First his mother, then his father, and finally his girlfriend. He would devour them whole, and take twisted glee out of it.

He would declare himself no longer as Carl King, but as the Thousand…

And he was going to devour Peter Parker, and take his skin and powers for himself.

Later, Peter would return to his old home in Queens, seeking time to himself and to remember the loss that he has brought onto himself. He and his Aunt May has been living with Gwen and her father for a while, at least until they can feel comfortable enough to move back into their old home.

However, he suddenly senses someone approaching him, and looks behind himself to see… Carl King's father? Yeah, Carl's dad, somehow in the house with him, and shambling forward like a zombie.

Then, suddenly, a swarm of spiders would crawl itself out of Carl's dad's mouth and deflating skin, and around all the crevices around him, swarming over Peter, who would leap away in a hurry, suddenly finding himself able to stick to the ceiling.

But that wouldn't save him, as suddenly, a giant spider, bigger than Peter was, would crash through the ceiling and slam into him, knocking him unconscious.

Soon enough, Peter would wake up, covered in webbing and tied to a chair. In front of him was Carl King, or at least, the thousands of spiders wearing the grinning Carl's wrinkled skin, a massive spider behind it clinging to the wall. The thousands of spiders would then speak at once, saying hello to Peter, and telling him that this was where he was going to die.

Peter, in a panic, would ask what the hell was going on, and Carl, taking perverse delight in seeing Peter act afraid, would then go on to explain, how he had seen Peter use his powers, how he himself had eaten the same spider that bit Peter, and how he now had his new powers, his new abilities as a swarm of mutated spiders. He then goes on to explain how he had eaten the flesh and bones of his mother, then his father, and his girlfriend, and how he was now going to do the same to Peter.

And he takes joy in watching Peter frightfully squirm at the sight of him and the sounds of his plans.

But then, he begins to tell Peter about how he is going to do the same to his friends. That how, during the science fair the next day, he was going to swarm Midtown's main hall and eat all his friends and classmates from the inside out, merely just because they slighted him, and just because he can…

And that's when Peter suddenly forgets his fear and swings into action, using his enhanced strength to bust out of the webbing around him and smash the chair that he was forced onto across Carl's head, crushing the spiders inside, before setting off a water main and drowning the rest. However, the giant spider, Carl himself, then attacks Peter and throws him out of a window, before scuttling off in the direction of Midtown.

Peter tries to run after him, but finds that it's already morning, and that Midtown's science fair is beginning now. He tries to call the police, but when they hear him talking about a swarm of cannibalistic spiders, they don't take him seriously, forcing him to realise that he needs to settle this on his own.

However, before he can, he decides to grab a disguise, as mutants are heavily discriminated again, meaning that he could get his friends and family in big trouble for using his powers, which would be seen by many as mutant abilities, so he runs into a pawn shop on the way there to grab a new suit. Not his old wrestling outfit, as he had to throw that away after that incident with the bugger, but something else.

Meanwhile, at Midtown, the science fair begins, with the likes of Gwen and Harry representing Oscorp, and everyone else running their own independent stands, with one of them even holding a pair of experimental grappling hooks.

However, suddenly, the giant spider that was once Carl King and is now the Thousand bursts through the wall and begins to attack, spreading his hundreds of spiders across the walls of the hall in an attempt to trap everyone inside. Most of the students and teachers would escape, but Peter's friends would be targeted by the spiders and trapped, and Gwen, Harry, MJ, Jessica, Liz, Kong, and Flash would be held before a laughing, gleeful Carl, who can't contain the sadistic joy he feels about being able to kill them in the most humiliating, painful ways possible.

Soon enough, in response to Peter's frantic call though obviously not believing it, a police car arrives at Midtown, and the cops soon enough believe what is happening when they see the giant spider holding half a dozen students hostage, they wisely call for backup.

Carl, meanwhile, is taking his sweet time in explaining how Peter's friends are going to die, how first, he is going to consume their flesh from the inside out and wear them as coats, how he was going to find their families and friends and consume them all as well, and then how he was going to find Peter and rip him limb from limb, and then feast on the gore and take what was rightfully-

An empty car slams into the giant spider, disorientating the others and allowing the students to escape.

Above them, a boy their age, in baggy blue overalls, red suits, red jumper, and red mask with goggles, tells them to get out of there, now.

The Thousand, upon seeing the masked man, flies into a rage at the prospect of his prey escaping from him, and demands to know who the hell dares to attack him.

Peter simply responds, "Haven't you heard? You were there for all my matches.

"I'm Spider-Man."

The two begin to duel, with Carl trying to swarm him with his hundreds of spiders, and Peter trying to avoid being eaten alive by the spiders by jumping from wall to wall.

However, suddenly, one of Carl's spider arms manages to land a hit on Peter, goring him on the side and sending him crashing to the ground. Carl would move to attack and eat him, but would be stopped by Gwen Stacy of all people, who had taken Flash's lighter and an aerosol can and turned it into a makeshift flamethrower, burning dozens of the Thousand's spiders alive and wounding him, his fur setting alight and leaving him in a frenzy.

Now severely wounded himself, Peter pulls himself up, his side mangled and weeping blood like a fountain. However, instead of retreating, he spots the experimental grappling hooks nearby and grabs them, using them to throw an entire stand at Carl and throw him off further, and then allowing him to start gathering his friends and pulling them away to safety, trying to get them through the giant hole in the wall of the hall, only to find that Carl's spiders have webbed it up, and that it's compromising the structural integrity of the building around them.

Then, suddenly, the sprinklers begin to go off from all the fire, and Peter, upon seeing the sparking electricity from all the stands, tells everyone to get on the tables, knowing what is about to happen.

However, Carl, now in his giant spider form as all the other spiders have been burnt alive, doesn't seem to acknowledge any of this, as he is too busy ranting to himself. He believes that what Peter has should belong to him, and that Peter himself has been living fine and well for all his life, whilst Carl's life has been so unfairly hard by comparison, and yet he also says at the same time that Peter deserves nothing and is nothing, whilst Carl is one of the most popular people in the school, and deserves it all.

And that is when Peter and the others deliver the mother of all 'Reason you suck' speeches to Carl, finally unloading their collective hatred of him, how he was a pathetic nobody who scared off everyone because of his disgusting attitude, how he intimidated and hurt others for nothing more than his own sick jollies, how he prayed on younger, more vulnerable students just to make himself feel better, and how, in the end, he was nothing more than a humourless joke.

In the end, they point out his biggest flaw: he is always leeching off of others, trying to make himself better by surrounding himself with others that are better than him and taking their successes for himself.

And there is the one of the biggest differences between Peter and Carl: Peter has a level of humbleness to himself, and never takes the accomplishments of others as his own, surrendering himself to not being as good as everyone else. Carl, meanwhile, does nothing but, and has always been victim to his own ego, bloated sense of self, and desperation to prove his own superiority.

Carl goes mad and charges at them, despite Peter's warnings, declaring that they were going to die for making a mockery of him-

And that is when the exposed electrics of the various intentions around them finally make contact with the water, frying the giant, monstrous spider that was once Carl King with a million volts and sending him flailing across the hall, smashing into everything and then…

Bringing the whole building down on top of them all.

When Peter comes to, he finds himself buried under a pile of rubble, the water mains of the hall bursting and beginning to flood the crevices. At first, he thinks to himself that this is it, this is how he dies, and he only wishes that he could've been better, he could've done more for his friends and family, that he could've saved Uncle Ben, that he simply could've done more for everyone, and laments about how he wasn't good enough to save them…

But then, he hears a voice. MJ's. Then another, Gwen, then Harry's, then Liz's, then Flash, Jessica, and Kong.

They're all still alive, which means that Peter can still save them.

And it is here where Peter finally learns what his Uncle Ben meant, and remembers his words and his motto. He declares to himself, 'With great power comes great responsibility,' and decides that this is how he was going to use his power, to save as many people as he can, and then to save even more, to be the man that Uncle Ben can be proud of, and be a hero that can reach out to everyone.

He has this power now, and he has a responsibility to use it for others.

And so, with all his might, he accomplishes a great feat of strength, and pushes the mass of rubble off himself. Then, he moves to pull MJ out of the rubble, then Harry, then Gwen, until all his friends and classmates are free, accidentally shattering the grappling hooks whilst doing so, unfortunately.

But then, suddenly, a giant spider bursts out of the rubble. Carl is still alive, and even more furious than ever. He declares that this is not over, that one day, he will kill Peter and his friends, and then he will eat and consume everyone else. One day, he will have his-

Then suddenly, Iron Man arrives, landing right where Carl's spider head is and accidently, crushing it, ending the Thousand's threat for good.

As it turns out, when it comes to giant mutant abominations, the Avengers are typically the ideal people to call.

"So, where's the bad guy?"

"…"

Jessica points down, "You just… stepped on him.

"…Woops."

And so, with Carl gone for good and his classmates saved, the fight is over, and Peter finally relaxes…

And then he remembers that his side has been mangled and gored, and that he's lost a lot of blood.

Peter collapses, passing out, surrounded by his panicking friends and classmates, thinking that this is how he is going to die, and that he hopes he at least did Uncle Ben and Aunt May proud…

And then he wakes up, surrounded by doctors and with a elderly woman by the name of Peggy Carter coaxing him into consciousness once more.

And in the corner of the room is one Director Nick Fury, holding a red mask and set of goggles in his hands, welcoming Peter Parker to the Triskelion, the headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D., and remarking as to how his new mutant powers, given to him by that radioactive spider, have been able to heal his wounds so quickly.

Peter would be confused as to why he was there, and how Fury knew who he was, and Fury goes on to explain that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been tracking him ever since he'd been taken to the hospital after being bitten by that radioactive spider from Oscorp, and had been monitoring him to see what he would do with the new powers that he had. Unfortunately, they hadn't registered Carl King as a threat, a mistake on their part considering what he did next, and for that, he apologises.

Then, Peter remembers about his friends and family, and asks if they're okay. Fury tells him that they're all okay, even his aunt, and that there is no traces of Carl, or the Thousand as he called himself, in neither them nor Peter. Carl King is gone for good. Peter is saddened to hear of Carl's death, not having wished that upon him, even if he was a despicable person who killed others, and Fury is almost surprised to hear this.

Peter asks what is going to happen to him, and Fury lays it out to him: right now, Peter Parker has committed an act of vigilantism with what should be illegal mutant powers. That's enough to give him and his family a lot of hell should the truth ever get out.

Luckily for him, S.H.I.E.L.D. have done a mighty fine enough job covering up what happened. As far as anyone, even his aunt, knows, Peter Parker was attacked and wounded by the Thousand on his way back to Gwen Stacy's home, and the so-called Spider-Man who saved his classmates was just a random illegal mutant who had no connection to Peter nor Midtown.

Peter asks Fury why he is doing all of this for him, but Fury simply tells him to not go out and moonlight as a vigilante anymore. What he did that day, with stopping Carl King from murdering his friends, that was undeniably the right thing to do. But the fact of the matter was, Peter Parker is no older than thirteen, a child, and way too young to even think about going into the hero business so soon and be subject to the violence that comes with it. Fury tells him that he got lucky today, but if he tries to do something like that again, this whole Spider-Man business, then he might not be lucky again, and tells him to just enjoy his youth, mourn the passing of his uncle in a sense of normalcy, and find some happiness in his life.

And with that, Fury leaves, and Peter is led out of the Triskelion and flown back to New York, being checked into the city's biggest hospital, given once last lookover by the staff there, and then being released, reuniting with Aunt May and his friends, who are all happy to have him back (it is implied that his friends, and even the likes of Flash, Jessica, Kong, and Liz have figured out that Peter is the same Spider-Man from the Midtown brawl, but keep their mouths shut about it).

Later that night, when looking over the news and seeing how New York, and the city itself, is reacting to the battle in Midtown, how they react with both praise and scorn, Peter thinks to himself about what he thought and realised during his time in the hall, under all that rubble, and resolves himself on the promise that he made at that moment.

Then, he makes himself a new suit, builds himself his webshooters, and takes to the streets once more, not as Peter Parker, but as Spider-Man.

From there, Peter thinks back to everything that happened to him over the years, from thirteen to fifteen. His skirmishes with his growing rogues gallery and how they came about in response to him, how he got his ass handed to him so many times by even the likes of Spot, Beetle, and then his successor Lady Beetle, and how he eventually learnt to overcome and best them in turn.

Not only that, but he remembers all the details and events, both big and small, that happened during those two years. Helping Aunt May move back into their home in Queens, helping Jean Dewolff take down Hammerhead's gang, battling against Norman Osborn in his Green Goblin guise and failing to save Harry from himself, meeting Felicia Hardy for the first time, his brief romance with Liz Allen after she broke up with Flash, losing Captain Stacy to an attack from someone posing as Spider-Man and almost being killed by Gwen for it, rescuing Jessica Jones from the mind control of the predatory Purple Man and working with her to expose his crimes, forming his own temporary team of vigilante heroes known as Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends with Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), Johnny Storm (Human Torch), and Bobby Drake (Iceman) before they broke up to join the X-Men and Fantastic Four, having to babysit Sally as she tried to go vigilante as well, only for her to get herself killed in a speeding accident that he couldn't prevent, almost being killed himself by the Kingpin only to be rescued by Daredevil, helping to protect mutant rights activists during their protests in the streets, standing with Kitty, Bobby, and the rest of the X-Men in resisting Bolivar Trask's army of mutant hunting Sentinels, having to briefly team up with Deadpool to fight Weasel, entering into a relationship with Gwen Stacy only to lose her to the Green Goblin, falling into a short relationship with Felicia Hardy shortly after only for them to both break it off, having to continuously hide from the bounty hunters and government agents gunning to collect the bounty that J. Jonah Jameson had put on his head, and fighting against his rogues and villains time after time after time again…

And then, he fights Goblin for the Infinity Gauntlet, they end up on the Raft, and, well, here he was.

Peter thinks back to all his friends, all his family, and all the people that he knows. Uncle Ben, Harry, and Gwen… then MJ, Jessica Jones, Liz, Flash, Kong, Sally, Captain Stacy, Kitty, Bobby, Johnny, Jean, everyone that he had left behind… he wonders what they would be thinking if they saw him now, saw him in the state that he was now after everything that has happened, how he had hurt people, how he had got Kazuho killed, how he had attacked one of his closest friends and put another in a coma, and now how he had been given a hero's license and stopped from facing the consequences of his actions…

And he can't help but imagine them all looking at him… and then turning their heads away in shame.

Then, he hears a knock on his door, and is told that Adriana wants to see him. She wants him to meet her at Tartarus Prison. There's been an incident there.

Sighing to himself and putting on his mask, Peter leaves his room behind, and carries his doubts and guilt with him.

No rest for the wicked, then.

(Nor any for the just.)

There was always a time during writing out this story that I wanted to go back in time and explore Spider-Man's origins, and where his motivations stem from beyond just Uncle Ben, and I feel like now, when we're beginning series four, which itself carries themes of guilt and remorse, this would be as good of a time as any.

In case you couldn't tell, Spider-Man's origin story in this narrative borrows a lot of elements from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books, with the inclusion of Kong and Kitty and Johnny and Bobby, how Uncle Ben died, and so on. However, there are also a lot of other elements and areas that I've pulled from as well, such as with the main villain of this arc, being Peter Parker's old bully, Carl King, A.K.A. the Thousand.

When I was writing this arc out, I had originally planned for it to tie more closely with the original Ultimate Spider-Man comic book, and have the Green Goblin attack Midtown looking for Peter Parker. However, I ended up not liking that idea, and wanted to give Spider-Man a different villain to start his career off with. As such, I looked up the different members of Spider-Man's rogue gallery to see if I could find anyone of note, and ended up coming across a onenote villain known as the Thousand, that being Carl King, who serves as a foil for both Flash Thompson for how pointlessly cruel and sadistic he is, as well as being a horrifyingly disgusting villain who brought about his own end. As such, I decided on using him in this arc, and having him serve as a narrative foil to Peter as well, displaying how they differ and highlighting both Peter's flaws and virtues by comparison.

(If any of you thought that Carl went down too easily or was fooled way too easily here, that's the point. Carl's biggest flaw is as much his cruel, sadistic need to lord himself over others as it is his pettiness and entitlement. He had every available opportunity to kill Peter and his friends, and yet he felt the need to gloat to them, and invited his own downfall to him because of it. Then again, with that attitude, he probably wouldn't have got very far as a villain anyway.)

But anyway, let's end this here before I start rambling on again, shall we?