Chapter 1: 01x01 Peter Parker: Origin
It was a typical afternoon in Queens. The sky's were clear, the sun was shining, and the day was just overall pleasant. Everything was as it was meant to be. Although, one thing stuck out like a sore thumb. The playground on Ingram Street, which was usually filled with the playful laughter and excited screams of children, was unusually quiet. Quiet, except for a slight sobbing noise.
"W-why are you being so mean?" Asked the boy, trying to sound brave despite his squeaky, nervous voice, struggling to swallow the lump in his throat. He felt unshed tears burn at his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He had to be strong right now, especially right now, when all eyes were on him. "Y-you're making him c-cry, Flash!"
This boy—Peter Parker—was a four year old resident of the city, having only lived a few blocks away from the very playground he stood at now. His street was on the more slummy side of Forest Hills, but he loved it regardless. His messy hair and sharp eyes were the same color of brown, and together with his pale skin he looked like your average boy from a small neighborhood, which was only reinforced by his simple clothing choice. He was wearing a red t-shirt paired with black shorts and his rather famous red sneakers. Upon his face were his black-framed prescription glasses, which he regretted having right now, as they only further highlighted his watery eyes.
The boy stood protectively in front of "him", another boy who was crying with his hand on his arm, clutching it in pain as he wished for his mommy to come and make it feel better. And even though Peter was the one trying to protect the crying child, he didn't look much better, what with his shaking form and watery eyes.
"If y-you continue hurting him…" He says raising his closed fists and spreading his feet, reluctantly preparing for a fight, if necessary. "I...I'm going to stop you!"
The boy in front of him—Eugene 'Flash' Thompson—stopped for a moment, followed by the two 'henchmen.' It almost confused him. Peter was facing this 'mob' in an almost useless act of bravery, fully knowing that he didn't stand a chance. Honestly, it kind of pissed him off.
Flash, just like Peter, was also 4 years old, even attending the same Kindergarten as him. Although unlike the brunette, he lived a little further away from here, in the more middle class area of Forest Hills to the northwest. But, judging by his current presence, it was still close enough for him to come to this playground. As for his appearance, he had spiky blond hair, gray eyes and fair skin. His clothes were a combination of a dark blue T-shirt, black shorts and yellow sneakers, all of which were old clothes he only wore when he played—his parents didn't want him ruining his good clothes, so they demanded he wear older ones when he went out, much to his annoyance.
Despite that, he quickly composed himself, smiling sarcastically as he viewed the scene in front of him with a hint of cynicism, finding humor in the boy's pointless efforts, even though it did still tick him off a bit.
"Hehe...You want to pretend to be a hero?" He asks with a mischievous smile. Both his goons activated their abilities, one growing wings before lifting off the ground, the other increasing the size of his fingers. Flash, on the other hand, punched his open palm, and with the contact, activated his own quirk. His hand released a black slime, which quickly rose up his arm and wrapped around it entirely, coating it in the black liquid while also giving him razor-sharp claws for nails.
"You don't stand a chance, 'Wall-Crawler'! Not without a quirk!"
It was the mean nickname he had given to Peter, one that he used to constantly remind him of his 'special condition', all in a voice that was threatening enough for him to take a step back. Unfortunately, that one sign of weakness was all it took for the bully and his cronies to pounce, ready to give him the beating of a lifetime.
Shortly after, the boy was lying on the ground, about to pass out, full of scratches and other injuries…
"Here is the sad truth; all men are not created equal. When I was four years old, I learned that some kids had more power than others…"
"...But that won't hold me back!"
The sky is as clear as it was on that fateful day at the playground ten years ago; the only difference being that it's morning. A boy runs along the sidewalks of Seventh Avenue, anxious to reach his destination, a fight between heroes and a villain near a metro bridge. He wore the black uniform of his school, along with his famous red shoes. The boy? Peter Parker; now fourteen, but he hadn't changed that much. He had the same messy brown hair. Although he was much taller and a little slimmer now. An animated smile dominated his face and his yellow backpack stood out like a sore thumb, though he didn't seem to mind it.
"...If anything, it pushes me to do better!"
The boy then arrives at his destination; a subway walkway that wasn't working at that time. The reason? A villain causing chaos and destruction, utilizing a quirk that increased his size; as at the moment, he was at least six meters high, and howled like an agitated beast, causing the ground around him to slightly tremble.
"Woah! This guy's huge! This is gonna be an interesting one!" The boy says, excitement filling his voice
"The first incident was in Qingqing City, China; an extraordinary child was born, who radiated light. After that, reports of people with superpowers popped up across the globe, no one knew what was causing these quirks. And before long, the supernatural became the new normal, dreams became reality. The world became a superhuman society, with about 80% of the population possessing some uncanny ability. Our streets looked like scenes from comic-books, when the city swirled with chaos and confusion, a new profession dominated our collective consciousness."
The villain, screaming and howling, quickly spun around, his arm clipping an electric pole, which caused it to break before plummeting down to the street below...
"...it was an age of heroes!"
Running towards the falling pole, a man over two meters tall with gigantic muscles and some sort of pseudo-skin consisting of orange stones jumps in front on the danger. Firmly planting his feet on the ground, he raises his arms, catching a gigantic piece of metal and electrical wires before it comes in contact with the ground, using his enormous strength to support its weight. Looking back, he gave a reassuring grin to the civilians, one that would look a lot more creepy had they not already known who he was. It was kinda hard not to recognize him, though, considering his distinct, rocky appearance. Although, even it weren't for his unique physical appearance, Peter could still recognize him and the group he was a dedicated member to, solely based on the man's blue shorts that bore an iconic "4" on the waist.
"Oh, nice! Way to go, The Thing!" Cheers a surprised pedestrian, congratulating the hero.
"A quirk that gives super strength and resistance! I want it too." speaks another.
Then, just when they thought it couldn't get anymore interesting, the police and pedestrians were surprised to see an arm stretch for several meters in front of them, creating a kind of chain of separation from the action. Looking at the owner of the arm, they were pleased to see another member of the well-known group of heroes, dubbed "The Fantastic Four". This one was a man with dark brown hair and beard, and had a recognizable streak of white hair on the side of his head. He wore a blue uniform with black boots, gloves and belt and had the symbol "4" on the chest of the uniform.
"Everyone, please stay back. This area is far too dangerous!" Says the same guy with his back to the people, focusing on the action in front of him, prepared for anything.
"Wow! It's the leader of the Fantastic Four, Mr. Fantastic!" Says another pedestrian recognizing the hero.
"This guy must be pretty desperate to go full monster in the middle of the city…" Comments a businessman near Peter, as if it were just another average friday morning.
"Do you know what happened?" Another man near him asked.
"Just some amateur villain. Stole someone's bag and then got himself cornered." The man responds indifferently.
Peter stood on his tip toes behind them, trying to get a better view of the action, only to groan when he still couldn't see anything. The boy then decided it best to switch gears, starting to sneak through the crowd to get to the front.
At this point, two other heroes entered the scene; a larger one, with the appearance of a biped tree, was very tall, his entire body seemingly composed of wood. Extending his legs, he jumped and reached the catwalk. He seemed to be accompanied by another supernatural creature, although this one was much smaller, as he was small enough to ride on the tree-man's back. He looked like an animal—probably a raccoon—but he wore a dark blue vest and carried some kind of high-end cannon that was almost as big as him. This was none other than the inseparable duo, Rocket and Groot. Excited by the sight of two other heroes, Peter picked up the pace.
"Ah, Sorry!... 'Scuse me!... Comin' through!" Peter managed to make his way to the limit imposed by Mr. Fantastic's outstretched arm, and looks up to see the two heroes enter the action.
"Ooh, this is gonna be good!" Says the excited brunette, adjusting his glasses as he settled his sights on the scene, pulling out his notebook as he geeked out.
"It's Groot and Rocket, from the Guardians of the Galaxy, and they've finally returned to Earth! Man, I hope they learned some new moves while they were away!" The boy said excitedly, more to himself than to others. But even so he was heard.
"Heh, just looking at that dopey grin and listening to that gushy tone gives it all away." A man next to Peter called out, quickly grabbing the boy's attention away from the fight.
"I know what you are!" The man continued with an amused, yet friendly grin "A fanboy!"
"Ah... sort of." Answered the boy, a little embarrassed. Before the man could press further, though, a large crash rang throughout the air, bringing them back to the fight before them.
"Come on Groot! Let's show this oversized muscle head who he's dealing with!" The raccoon called to his companion, before he started unloading his ammo on the behemoth from his teammates back. The giant protected himself from the shots, but when he realized that they had little to no affect, he tried to crush Groot. But the tree hero was quicker, increasing the size of his legs to jump better as he positioned himself at a higher vantage point, on top of one of the subway beams.
"I am Groot!" The hero shouts, quickly looking back to face his partner while putting himself in a fighting position.
"Seriously!? You wanna discuss this right now!?" The raccoon asks impatiently as he changes the magazine.
"I am Groot!" He said, getting impatient as well.
"All right, all right! We are going to make his admission! Happy now!?" Rocket concedes, trying to end the discussion as soon as possible. His companion only smiled brightly, before dodging another swipe by the villain.
"Oi! Racoon, can't you accelerate things a little bit?" The Thing asked as he slowly lowered the pole, not wanting to wreak havoc.
"DON'T CALL ME A RACOON!" Rocket screamed angrily, but concedes as he quickly turns to his partner. "Alright bud, time to show that new move we've been practicing!"
"I AM GROOT!" The humanoid tree then stretched his arms out as they quickly expanded, causing them to split into multiple branches that twist and contort, forming a tangled mass that could trap any D-list villain with ease.
"There it is! Their new special move!" Peter points out ecstatically.
"That's right tree man, show him what you got!" The man next to the Peter cheered, reciprocating the boy's infectious excitement.
And it is at that moment the branches of Groot's arm begin to increase and move towards the villain, who instinctively brings his arms up to his face to protect himself. Then another voice is heard approaching.
"Coming through!" A man similar in size to the villain crashes the scene, side-swiping the villain with a well placed kick, causing body slam the concrete, passing out on impact. Groot backed up, his planned attack completely disrupted. While everyone was amazed by the hero's meddling, Peter noticed a certain animal hero shout numerous obscenities.
Several people then started taking pictures of the new hero, whether they be from the Daily Bugle or one of its competitors. The new rookie looked familiar, wearing black and red leather, with a silver helmet that had a respirator, small antennae and red eyes. He then turned to the pedestrians, waving while removing his helmet, showing himself to be a different man than everyone else thought.
"Sup guys! I am Scott, Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man." He says opening the front of the helmet, showing his face much more youthful than that of his predecessor Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man.
"Ol' Hank decided to hang up the leather, so you'll have to deal with my handsome mug for the time being." He explained charismatically, decreasing in size to a normal human height.
"Wait a minute! This a**hole is taking all the credit?" Rocket complains.
"I am Groot." His friend consoles him, returning his arms to normal size and coming down from the catwalk.
"With the rise of superpowers, came an explosive increase in criminal activity. While governments were stuck trying to figure out how to reform laws with quirks in mind, courageous people started performing heroic acts to keep our cities safe. Protecting us against villains who abuse their powers for evil. With overwhelming public support, heroes found an official place as the peacekeeper of society, overseen by the government. Those who perform the best were paid the most and got all the fame and glory, their careers depended on their ability to stay in the spotlight."
"Hmmmm, 'Body Size Change', just like the Ant-Man before him, although he's definitely got his own personality. Not that it's a bad thing, though. He really seems to have the necessary charisma and attitude to be a favorite of the public, and his Quirk is really striking, but it will be a little difficult to getting past the problems that arise from it, most specifically property damage. Hank Pym had a lot of difficulty with this in the first months of acting, but even so…" Peter starts babbling to himself about the new hero, looking at the crater caused by the villain's fall, while writing notes in his journal about it.
"What is that, fan boy?" The same man from before asks him "Are you taking notes over there? You must want to be a hero too, hmm?"
The boy was caught off guard by the question, due to how out of nowhere it was, but quickly regained his bearings as the corners of his mouth tugged upwards. The boy turned to the man, giving him a grin so bright it could put the sun to shame.
"Yes! More than anything!"
A little far from all the morning mess, in a dark room, a petulant spider scales the walls, after having fled the last experiment by playing dead. After being discarded by the intern, she managed to get out of the trash and now wandered the corridors of that huge place. That is, until she feels a foreign presence approaching. Frightened, the arachnid scaled the first thing it saw, climbing until it found a dark, warm, well-hidden place to stow away in, which in this case was the pocket of a coat. Finally presence then entered the room.
"Yes, yes, send it to him yes...no...I need to sign this right? Okay, look, I gotta run some errands, so how about we put a tab in this conversation? ...oh, no?...really?...LO ... TH ... SI ... IS ... AILIN ... and oops, I hung up …" The presence itself was a man who seemed to be speaking to himself, with a suave voice that could make any girl swoon. He then takes the coat off its rack, puts it on and leaves the room, unaware of the little experiment that it hid inside.
"So, as third year students, it is time to start thinking seriously about your futures and what you want to do with your lifes." The science teacher, Curt Connors, said to his 'Stuyvesant Middle School' pre-teen class. "I could pass out some aptitude tests but...why bother? I know you all want to go to the hero track!"
He ends up throwing such career tests in the air, while all the students, now riled up, showed their respective Quirks; some releasing fire, changing the size of their necks, others turning to stone and others ... removing the eyes from their skull? Even a shy boy sitting almost at the back of the room raises his hand in shame, also wanting to enter the heroes' course, but too embarrassed to say it out loud. After all, he was different from the others, having no Quirk to show.
"Yes, you all have some impressive quirks, but no power usage in school grounds! Get a hold of yourselves!" The teacher lectures, trying to calm the room.
"Hey teach, don't let me in with this lot of losers. I'm the real deal! These guys will be lucky to end up as sidekicks to some busted 'D' lister, hehe!" Declared Eugene, or Flash, the boy continued as he fed his superiority complex. And for some reason only god knew, he really was the best in the class. He had grown a lot in those years, the biggest difference was that his spiky hair was now black, no longer blond, and it was something that no one could explain; whether he had painted it or if it a side effect of his quirk. Either way, he didn't care to explain why.
"YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN US, FLASH!?" The class gave an instant reaction as they butt heads with the boy, even though they were already used to his way.
"Let's go, I'll take all of you on!" He openly challenged his colleagues.
"Hmm, you've got impressive test results." Compliments the teacher as he eyes a paper on his desk
"Maybe you will get into M.A. High."
"He's gonna try for the international school!?" Questioned one of his colleagues.
"That school has a 0.2% acceptance rate." Another one commented.
"It's impossible to get into!" Yet another commented.
While Flash continued his speech, a certain nearsighted brunette started to cringe, as if he knew what was going to happen next. It was inevitable that the topic of M.A. would come up, but if his class found out—hell, if Flash found out…
"That's exactly why it's the only place for me!" Flash says, jumping up from his chair as he stood on his desk. "I aced off the mock test! I'm the only one in this school who stands a chance of getting in! I will end up more popular than Iron-Man himself and be the richest hero of all time! People all across the world will know who I am, and it all starts with M.A High!"
"Oh yeah, Parker, don't you wanna go to M.A too?" The teacher asks nonchalantly, none the wiser as the shy student shrinks even more out of shame. Flash can only halt in his tracks, astonished by the news. All students turn their attention to the boy. For mere seconds, everyone stared at the poor boy without even blinking, until they all burst out laughing, laughing at the poor boy, who was extremely embarrassed and just wanted to hide somewhere. The only one who didn't laugh was Flash, who just remained motionless, a sour frown making its way into his face.
"Parker, you're kidding right? There's no way you are getting into the hero course without a quirk." A student comments slyly..
"Well…actually, they got rid of that rule." The brunette apprehensively defends himself, getting up from his seat to try to explain while shyly adjusting his glasses. "I could be the first one…"
When the boy least expected, Flash pounced, his arm completely covered in the black goo and his face contorted in rage. He slammed Peter's desk, breaking it and causing the boy to fly backwards and crash against the wall at back of the classroom. Peter tried to get up, only to freeze in fear as he saw Flash standing over top of him. And if looks could kill, he would be suffering in the seventh level of hell.
"Listen up Wall-Crawler! You are even worse than the rest of this damn rejects, you quirkless wannabe! You really think they would let someone like you in if they can have me!?"
"Ah, no wait, you got it all wrong!" The boy says frightfully, raising his arms and scooting closer to the back wall. "Really, I'm not trying to compete against you, you got to believe me!...It's just that...I wanted to be a hero since I was little, I may not have a quirk, but I can still try my hardest, can't I?"
"You'll never be able to hang with the best of the best, you'll die in the exam!" Flash shouts, extending his arms as the goo spread and created spikes on his shoulders. "Defenseless Peter! This school is already crappy, you really want to embarrass it more by failing so hard!?"
A little away from school, another villain tormented the early afternoon, and this time, he was much more dangerous than the jumbled giant in the morning. The bacteria from another planet, Carnage. The psycho red monster ran through the streets after robbing a department store. With money stuck to his back, he moved insanely fast, using his speed and shape, changing form to jump and run much faster. But what he didn't expect was a man who calmly took his walk after lunch, and had just seen the villain passing by, decided to act; checking that no one was watching him.
"Friday, can you activate the armor? I feel like I'm going to be late for the meeting." The man asks the artificial intelligence in his glasses and it does what he asked; quickly, tiny robots start to move and cover his body forming a kind of red and gold ultra technological armor. He starts to float due to the repulsors in the boots and the palms of the hands. Quickly putting himself in flight position, he fires in the direction of the villain, drawing the attention of some people close to him.
The little spider that hid there is quickly taken by surprise at the change of terrain, and starts looking for a new place to hide in the new environment, deciding to sneak between the joints of the armor, amid the circuits, it nestled itself somewhere between the metal suit's chest and shoulder. Next thing it knew, it was hanging on for dear life as they blasted off at rocket speed.