Powers Manifesting
"Go back there, little-roos."
This was NOT what Peter Benjamin Parker was expecting to wake up to on Monday. He had spent all of Sunday working on his and Kimberly's project (which he needed a name for) and had missed an event that would change the fate of his world forever. He'd attempted to text Kimberly what he had, but never got a reply. Checking now, the message had never made it.
"Um, sorry?" He asked, a little confused.
"Go back to that cave there, little roos." Tony repeated his order/demand in text early the next morning. "There was surge of energy release last night, and as much as I still think nothing bad is going to come out of it, I just want to be sure. You said there was a robot there, right? Ask it what teh heck it's doing. Also, how's the science project coming along, because I do not want to show up and be bored out of my gord."
Peter's attention was now rapt on the realization that Tony was actually going to showing up at the Angel Grove Science Fair and composed himself.
"It's so far like a Geigner counter, but I'm reworking it to pick up on certain frequencies and maybe even detect peoples with powers or super weapons."
Tony seemed geniuelly interested, if teh smirk on his face meant anything.
"Ambitious. I like it. Just don't let Trask get his hands on that." He warned his protege
"...Not a fan, I take it?"
"The man designed robots that specifically target people with an active X-Gene. On top of that, he was selling them to enemies during a time of war. I may have been a weapons mongol, but I mostly made sure I KNEW who was buying my weapons and stayed close to home."
He omitted certain details about that to perserve Peter's idolized view of him, then decided he was on a roll and added:
"I eman first it's mutants, then it'll move onto rivals, and then before you know it, the slightest thing out of line will get you squashed by a giant robot. Geez...you know what? I bet he, Ross and Obidah were drinking buddies."
"Ms. Potts, Tony is getting political!" Peter called over the chat, knowing that there is only one force in the universe to bring Tony Stark down to the level of mere mortals:
The love of his life, Pepper Potts.
"Tony!" Said redhead growled, her footsteps being heard over the chat.
"Traitor." Tony grumbled playfully. "Get t done and stay out of trouble; haven't seen any Spiderman pics in Crsytal Cove..."
"Angel Grove" Peter corrected.
"Whatever," Tony continued. "Keep it that way, got to placate the love of my very, very complicated life."
Tony then ended the chat, leaving Peter to hurry and get ready for the day. A sudden crash from the bathroom caught his attention. Rushing up the stairs and praying for the best (he'd rather not explain his skills any more than nessacary) he opened the bathroom doorsteps
"I heard something bre..."
He saw what was broken: An entire corner from the sink was on the floor, a shirtless and nervous Jason apparently the cause.
"Um...hey, Pete." He greeted awardly, just as Peter realized something: "Bet you're wondering why the sink is missing a chunk...Well, I..."
Peter didn't actually hear him, focusing on what seemed to be the more miraclous part of this morning shocker.
"Hey, Jason? Your leg..."
It was now sans brace, and Jason didn't appear to be in any sort of discomfort.
"Yeah, weirdest thing." Jason smiled, showing off his fully healed leg with pride. "Just woke up and...viola! No more brace! No idea how or why, but hey, I ain't complaining!"
Jason was lying on the 'no idea how or why', Peter could tell; whether from experience or just intution was anyone's guess
Memories of his first morning after that fateful bite suddenly entered Peter's mind: No longer needing his glasses, being stronger and faster...and the awkward trying to hide when he smashed Uncle Ben's lucky plate, among other things.
Aunt May, upon learning his secret, loved bringing up that stupid vase in particular...Irked him to no end.
Regardless of the strangeness of the whole matter, Peter found himself sympathizing with Jason. He'd figured out how this happened later; he had to get Kimberly up to speed on the project and make sure he didn;t run late for school; being Spiderman had destroyed his former perfect attendance record and he was not about to have that repeated here.
"...Want to get out of here before anyone asks?" The secret superhero suggested.
"Yeah, probably a good idea." Jason nodded, just let me get a shirt on."
When Peter's back was turned, Jason put a rock with a small red, circular symbol on it into his pocket. Memories from the night before were still a blur; there had been a security guard, a train...glowing colours?
Billy, Kimberly, Zack and Trini had been there...maybe they could help him understand. But peter? Jason refused to let his guest get invovled in this; Peter still had a future and was a good guy. Besides, this was Jason's thing, he'd fix it.
If only he knew...
SM-PR
Getting to school had been easy. Separating for class had been easy. Going to classes while working on the project had been easy.
What had not been easy was the feeling that Jason was not alone in whatever had happened; or the fact that those who seemed affected where all Peter had developed something of a bond with.
'What the heck did I miss last night?' Peter asked himself as he made his way to 4th period, when he saw Billy, standing there in shock...and one of the bullies on the ground, unconscious.
"Billy, you okay?"
"I don't know what happened, I was just minding my business when he came over and tried to mess with me. Next thing I know..."
The ringing suddenly appeared in Peter's mind, tuning out the Billy's explaination. Whatever the threat was, Peter could suddenlt feel something coming from behind him
"Running out of victims?" He asked the downed bully's friend as he caught the punch that had been aimed for him. The bully did nothing and tried to kick him, but peter leapt away.
"No bodyguard this time, nerd." He smirked.
"Look, we don't want any trouble." Billy started
"Too bad, you got some." The bully then rushed towards Peter, who slipped into a fighting stance...only to see his would be attacker hit with a pencil and then feel pinches that made him go numb and fall to the floor
"Think you two had enough fun." Zack smiled, flexing his fingers. "Seriously guy, Pete did this before. Maybe you should stop being bullies and...I don't know, go hang out with the goth kids behind the dumpster or something."
The still conscious bully forced himself to his feet, growling like an animal
"Hey, is that Jason?" Peter asked, pointing behind the buly.
"Yeah right, I'm not falling for...!"
He then found himself slammed into the wall by Jason, who was joined by Kimberly.
"What did I tell you and your buddy?" Jason asked venomously. Not waiting for a reply or being in the mood to deal with this, he dropped him to the ground. "Get out of here."
He turned to the three other guys, his attention on Zack in particular. A brief silent that carried wieght fell over the group before Jason finally said:
"Thanks for that."
"No prob." Zack waved off, then making his way for lunch, proudly declaring: "That was Hip-hop Akkio, folks! My own little creation, and yes I do teach lessons!"
"You two okay?" Jason asked, getting nods which made him smile. "Good. Listen, Pete. Can Kim, Billy and I talk...in private?"
Peter's suspicions were now confirmed; something had happened last night between the three boys at least. But hey, it wasn't his place to pry.
Giving his two friends and project partner a nod, Peter made his way to lunch.
SM-PR
"Aw, you eating alone?"
Peter looked to see Trini, a tray of her own and smiling at him.
"I thought you, Jason and Billy were pals." She mused, "Especially after Billy's little bully take down."
"Oh we are." Peter assured her.
"Then why are they sitting with Queen Kim while you're looking for a spot?" Trini asked knowingly.
"Something came up last night that they needed to talk about." Peter explained. "I was busy working on the project and...well, it's not my place."
Trini shot the group a glare before sighing.
"Come on, I know a nice spot."
Not wanting to turn down an invitation from a pretty girl, Peter followed her to the roof of the school, where they sat down and enjoyed lunch.
"Why aren't you sitting...?" Peter stared
"Don't have or need any." Trini finsihed. "Sides, I like you, Pete."
Peter blushed at that before seeing Trini's mood seemed to dampen.
"...I don't trust them." Trini confessed. "Those three. A nerd, a cheerleader and jock? What a group. That'll fall apart quick."
Peter was halfway tempted to bring up some of his team-ups (now THOSE where groups that should've/had fallen apart quick, what did three teenagers have them?) before remembering the point of a secret identity was to keep it a secret...and then spying Trini seemed uncomfortable.
"You okay?" He asked, getting a weak smile.
"Just life. My folks and the drama of school. Nothing a big city kid like you would have to worry about."
"Oh, you'd be surprised..." Peter mused.
"Hey, hypothetical question." Trini asked: "Say you suddenly got something really cool and wanted to use it, but you knew some others with that same really cool thing and well..."
"You don't get along?" Peter finished. "Well, that depends what this 'really cool' something was."
"Sorry, no hints."
Peter had seen that coming and seeing taht lunch was almost over, he decided to go with his 'go-to' response
"Well," Peter msued. "My uncle always taught me 'With great power comes great resposibility.' I know that probably doesn't help.."
The bell rang, but Trini smiled.
"Actually? I think it might. Thanks for listening Pete."
They then parted ways.
SM-PR
"So what's the project going to be?" Kimberly suddenly asked Peter at free period. "Oh and...sorry about stealing Jase and Billy."
"No problem. As for the project...Well, you know what a Geiger counter is?" Peter started. When Kimberly nodded, not being sure clear, he continued. "Basically, what I...We're..."
He corrected himself as he handed Kimberly the blueprints of his design.
"...doing is adjusting the frequencies and the energy it picks up. For example, it could be a simple metal dectector, or...and this is a little stretch...but maybe it can detect weird energies?"
This was a terrible idea, he realized. This was like something out of a comic book or cruddy movie! Kim was going to laugh at him...
"You want to bulid something that can detect superpowers or aliens." She translated for herself.
"Um...Yeah."
"...You can do all that?" Kim asked, surprised.
"In theory, yeah." Peter said, still waiting for the laughter...but it never came.
"We are going to win this, aren't we?" She smield knowingly. "I knew you were smart, but...Wow! So, what can I do to help?"
Peter thought.
"Maybe a name?" He suggested. "And some help in making sure it stays in one piece?"
Kimberly smiled and nodded in understanding.
"I'll reserve the shop-room for us. As for a name...How about...Power-Grid?" She suggested. "Just for now?"
Peter smiled at the suggestion and wrote it down.
SM-PR
That night, Spider-man made his way to the caves again, determined to get to the bottom of what had caused the surplus of energy being released and to do it quick. He had started to enjoy getting a full night's rest while out of New York and wanted to make sure he could squeeze in as many uninterrupted 'Z's' as he could.
"Peter?" Karen noted. "I detect human biosigantrues in the area. Do be careful."
"Got it."
Spider-man decided to stikc mostly to wall-crawling this time arond; webs made noise and his costume was still pretty...brightly colored.
'Wonder if we can get camo-mode?' he mused. 'Would make this a heck of a lot easier...'
"We can, I'll download it later." His AI assured him, a little loudly, and his Spider-Sense rang.
"What was that?" a familar voice called out, amking our hero cirnge and try to hide behind some equipment.
"Probably the wind or something, let;s just get this over with and figure out what all this means."
His interest peaked, the wall-crawler quickly lepat behind another tree and made his way up, being careful not to...
His spider-sense rang.
SNAP!
The branch supporting him gave way, and his instinctivly fired a webline to stop his fall...and alert the others.
"Wait, is that...SPIDER-MAN?!"
The web-slinger turned to see Jason, Billy, Kimberly, Trini and Zack all standing oustide the cave
...
...
...
...
...
'Aw...%$#&.' Was all our hero could think.
Read and review, would ye kindly?
First of all... I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!
And finally...I'M SORRY!
Life has been rough on me lately; another bout of family misfortune, job-hunting, a helath issue and dealing with getting my first novel rejected by a publisher. The universe seems to be against me writing as of late, especially this story; others (including a new Power Rangers story) are coming, but nothing for this one.
I know all you readers want more regular updates, so I am pleading once again, for the sake of readers and to keep this story moving, that if anyone wants to co-write., PM myself or justimtaylor, whose brilliant mind came up with this concept, and we shall talk. Otherwise, I shall try to update every 2nd Saturday evening
As promised, the 'filler' chapters are no more; now we get into the Ranger's first adventure alongside Spiderman...how will his presence change things? And not to worryl there will be moments from the Sam Raimi moments coming...a certain lip contact in the rain, anyone?
Tune in next time!