Chapter Text
I’ve always wanted superpowers. Every kid does, especially when we keep hearing about superheroes on the news everyday helping people and being adored by thousands of people, who wouldn’t want to have a life like that? They make it seem so cool!
I had no idea of how much superpowers could actually suck .
Well, okay, they’re not actually that bad. I can’t deny that being able to stop buses with my bare hands, or climbing up walls are the coolest things ever.
Still, they don’t come without a price, do they? Even if you don’t go off helping people or kicking alien butt, something will definitely catch up to you eventually. And no one ever talks about how many different, painful ways you can get killed when it does.
Or, even worse, when your loved ones get to pay that price instead.
That’s the part that sucks.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself, let me start over: Hi, I’m Peter Parker, I’m fourteen years old, and until a few months ago, I was a pretty normal kid. I stayed on top of my homework, went to school, talked about nerdy movies with my friend, Ned, and then went home to a loving family.
Perfect life, right? Well, kind of, but I couldn’t ask for anything else.
But it all started going downhill after my school took my class on a trip to Oscorp.
First off, let me just say I had never been so excited about a school trip before. I had been looking up to Norman Osborn my whole life, way before Tony Stark ever built the Iron Man suit. When our teacher told us about the trip, I couldn’t contain my excitement.
Well, no one in my class could. We go to a school focused on science and technology, it says right at the name! Of course we all couldn’t wait to start going on trips like this.
As my luck would have it, I overslept.
I jumped out of bed and got ready as fast as possible. I had about 5 minutes to get to the bus station, otherwise I’d have to go all the way to Manhattan and meet my class there, and I’d most definitely be late for that.
I ran through the living room heading for the door, trying to tie my shoes as I walked.
“Hey, what’s the hurry?” Ben asked from the kitchen, and I jumped to my feet.
“Hi, Ben, sorry, I’m really late, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Wait, sit down!” He said, checking watch, “Have some breakfast, I can give you a ride.”
“Wait, really?” I replied. “I-I mean, won’t you be late or something?”
Ben used to drive me to school everyday, but it became a lot harder once I started high school in Midtown. It was way off his way to work, so I started taking the bus (followed closely by the train). I didn’t really mind, but it sure was annoying in days like this.
“I’ll be fine.” Ben answered. “No need to be running after that bus if I can drive you to school.”
I sighed in relief and sat at the dining table, grabbing some toast and putting it on the plate nearest to me, suddenly realizing I was starving.
“So, today’s the big day, huh?” Ben said. “Excited?”
“Yeah, definitely!” I replied. “I mean, it’s Oscorp, how long have I been dreaming of going there, right?”
Ben always listened to me rambling on and on about science. He had said multiple times that he didn’t understand most of it, but still enjoyed listening to it.
I asked why once, and apparently, my dad used to do the same thing, and he didn’t care enough back then. It was only after my father died that he realized how much he missed it.
I never met my dad. Or my mom, for that matter. I’ve lived with Ben and May for as long as I can remember. From what Ben and May told me, they died before I was old enough to even walk.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s really bad that I never got to meet them, but honestly, it’s hard to feel sad about the deaths of people I’ve never met. I know they were great people, but my whole life it had always just been Ben and May.
As far as I was concerned, they were my real parents.
“Oh, hey, boys! May greeted us as she walked into the apartment.
“Hi, May!” I greeted her as she walked over to us. “Where were you?”
“Work. Something came up, I took the overnight shift.” She answered, earning a grunt from Ben.
He never liked it when May took late night shifts. He always went on about how they were doing well, and she had no need to overwork herself for some extra cash. May always ignored him.
“Pete, it’s late, why are you still here?” She asked.
“I’m giving him a ride today.” Ben answered, “It’s that big school trip today, remember?”
“Oh, right! You better tell us all about it when I get home.” She smiled, “I’ll go get some rest, HAVE A GOOD DAY, YOU TWO.”
She kissed Ben’s cheek and ruffled my hair before walking into her bedroom.
“May can take care of herself, you know.” I told my uncle, seeing the frown on his face.. “I don’t think we need to worry about her.”
“You think I don’t know that? I feel bad for the poor bastard that tries to bother her.” He answered. “It’s just-- I mean, she has no need to unless there’s an emergency, you know.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I’ve been trying to convince her of it for almost twenty years, she won’t start listening now.”
We left as soon as breakfast was done and Ben was pulling up at the school not long after. It really was ridiculous how little time it took for me to get there by car compared to the bus and train.
I thanked Ben for the ride and ran to the group of students standing near the bus, quickly locating my best friend Ned.
“Dude, Oscorp!” Was his greeting as we did our secret handshake.
It was unnecessarily complicated, but at this point we were too used to doing it to stop. In our defense, we came up with it in seventh grade. We all make dumb decisions in seventh grade.
“Yeah, I know!” I answered. “It’s crazy, right?”
“We’re meeting Norman Osborn!”
Ned had spent most of the past week convincing himself that we’d run into the man himself on our trip. Personally, I thought the guy would be too busy to say hello to a bunch of high school freshman, but I wasn’t about to be the one crushing Ned’s dreams.
But to be completely honest, I wouldn’t complain if Osborn did find the time to say hello to a bunch of high school freshman, it would most definitely be the coolest thing to ever happen to me! Still, I was determined to not get my expectations too high.
Our teacher, Mr Harrington called for our attention near the bus to give us the general rules, and before long we were on our way to Oscorp.
The ride took a long time, and my anticipation didn’t make it any better. Luckily, Ned was pretty much on the same boat, so at least we both had a good distraction on the way talking about what we hoped we would get to see.
The second we had a view of Oscorp Tower, all the students gathered around our side of the bus to take a better look at it.
I had to admit, it was the most impressive building I had ever seen, which was saying a lot, considering we were in New York. I couldn’t even believe that was where we were headed.
“Everyone get back to your seats, please!” Mr Harrington ordered.
Everyone shuffled to sit back down, and murmuring filled the bus. Ned was one of the people responsible.
“Dude, what should we go see first?”
“I-I don’t think we’ll get to choose. It’s still a school trip.” I answered.
“C’mon, Peter, how many times will we be able to visit Oscorp ? It’s only fair we see some things on our own if they don’t let us see anything interesting!”
Thankfully, I didn’t have to think of an answer, because Mr Harrington started talking again.
“Alright, guys, we’re here!” He said, as if no one had noticed. “No one rush to get out, we’re not heading in just yet! Stay together, and remember the buddy system!”
Everyone was in a rush to get out.
Ned and I waited until most people had gotten out before getting up to leave. As excited as we were, there was no point in trying and wrestling our way out before everyone else. Well, at least that was what I did, I knew for a fact I wouldn’t get very far before getting elbowed to my ribs or falling on my face. It wasn’t worth the risk.
Once we stepped out, a fancy car parked right behind the bus. No one had to turn to see it was Flash who had just arrived.
“What’s up, Penis Parker!” He called as he walked by me to the front of the class.
Before anything else, let me get this out of the way: Flash was a dick.
He wasn’t the worst bully I’ve ever had, by a long shot. One of the advantages of going to a school that’s full of nerds is that the worst type of bully to find is one like Flash-- the rich kid who thinks he’s better than everyone because he has designer clothes, or the latest phone, and doesn’t need to take the subway to get to school, or the school bus for school trips because his parents just paid some guy to drive him around everywhere. I’d take that over getting beaten up in the back alley anyday.
It obviously didn’t make Flash any more tolerable, but I had gotten used to just tuning him out in the past few months.
After more rules and directions from Mr Harrington, we finally went inside, where a lady in a lab coat came to meet our group.
“Hello, guys. My name is Gwen Stacy, I’ll be showing you guys around today!”
She didn’t look much older than us, and was clearly just some poor intern who had been given the task to guide a bunch of high schoolers around the building for the day.
Still, she didn’t seem too bothered as she took us to the elevators. At that point, we had to split the class into two groups. The first one got into the first elevator with Miss Stacy, and the rest waited downstairs to wait for the next one.
In case you’re wondering, yes, Ned and I were in the second group who had to wait downstairs, like the true losers we were.
As for the trip itself, I’ll spare you most details.
Yes, I could sit here and describe everything I saw, every bit of research we were told the lab were running, and all the many ways every single thing I saw in the building could be revolutionary to treat countless diseases, or just overall make our lives a thousand times easier.
Yes, even that ant carrying a doughnut crumb one of the scientists had dropped. Especially that ant carrying a doughnut crumb one of the scientists had dropped. Trust me.
The thing is, we would be here forever, so I’ll just jump straight into the most interesting: the biotechnology lab.
Yes, seriously, that’s the interesting part.
As Miss Stacy guided as through the room, she explained that their biggest project in that area was cross species genetics as a way to treat illnesses, or body disfigurements.
Their current main subject was, apparently, a wide number of different types of spiders. Their current objective was to see if they could transfer spiders abilities between species to create some sort of super spider.
Now, why someone would ever want to create a super spider is beyond me, but according to Miss Stacy, the spiders were merely the first step. The research would still go through many other stages.
She then showed us the spiders that were being experimented on. All of them were held in cubicles stacked on top of each other in one of the desks, so we could actually see them.
Well, Ned and I barely could. As usual, we were standing behind everyone in our group. Ned isn’t that tall, and my eyesight is, what the experts like to call, a piece of crap, so even with my giant glasses I needed to wear every waking hour, it was really hard to see the tiny little dots at the front of the class, while also trying to peek above everyone’s heads.
So, as it became our routine, we waited until most of the students had moved on to something else before even trying to approach the desk.
The spiders didn’t look like much, if I’m being honest. The most impressive thing I saw was one of them jumping between the walls of their confined space. I knew not every spider could do that, so I assumed that was one of their successful experiments.
Or, it was just a regular jumping spider, but I was trying to be positive.
“There’s one missing.” Ned called out, pointing at one of the cubicles. “It didn’t get away, did it?
I had to lean a bit on the desk to properly see the one he was pointing to, and indeed, it seemed to be empty.
Miss Stacy overheard him, and walked over to us to take a look herself.
“Oh, well. I’m sure they just took it out for testing, it’s nothing to worry about. The spiders can’t leave these containers on their own.” She assured us.
After that, the tour was paused for lunch, and we were led to the cafeteria.
I gave Ned my lunch money and told him what I wanted before heading to the bathroom.
Don’t judge me, the line was huge with our class and the regular employees, and I really needed to go.
I was about to wash my hands when I felt something crawling around my hand. When I actually looked at it, I noticed the spider.
I froze.
I wasn’t sure what to do. For a moment, I entertained the thought of it being the one Ned and I had noticed to be missing back at the biotech lab.
For the rest of the time, the only thought that occured to me was: YIKES!
Before I could move to do anything, I felt its fangs dug into my hand. I cursed and I slapped it out of my hand. I turned on the sink and watched as it went down the drain.
I looked at the bite in my hand. It honestly didn’t look too bad. I could only hope it wasn’t venomous, because I definitely couldn’t afford the medical bills.
(With my luck, though, I wasn’t too confident.)
I washed my hands and left the bathroom, trying to act as if I hadn’t just had a very weird encounter with a spider that might have been bred and tested in a lab, which could result in all sorts of weird things for me.
For about an hour, everything was totally normal. I didn’t feel any different, or sick at all. The only reminder that it had really happened was the fang marks on my hand, but even then, it isn’t like I spend a lot of time staring at my hands.
Then, things started getting weird.
I started getting headaches, as much as I tried to focus on what Miss Stacy was telling us, I couldn’t. Literally, she kept going in and out of focus in my vision, and I could just barely make out what she was saying.
It got so bad, I eventually had to take a seat on the floor in the middle of what our tour guide was saying. Because I was standing in the back of the class, Ned was the only one who noticed.
“Pe...? Is… eve.. okay?” Was all I could hear him say.
Everything was just so loud . And yet I could barely hear any of it. I knew Miss Stacy continued to talk at the front of the class, because she might as well be yelling right next to my ear, but I couldn’t understand a single word of what she was saying. I knew many of my classmates were talking between themselves because it felt like I was standing right between them, but their voices didn’t seem to form actual words. At least not to my ears. And that wasn’t even counting the cars outside, or all the people not so quietly working all around us in the lab, or all the equipment running all around us.
I took off my glasses to see if it would help with the headache. It didn’t. But I was surprised to see that not having them on actually helped me, like, see . Things were still blurry as ever, but I could easily make out what they were than I did a second ago when they were on
“Y-Yeah.” I told Ned. “’m good.”
Ned didn’t seem to believe that for a second and helped me stand up. He started leading me somewhere, and I felt too dizzy to question it, so I let him.
“...gton, P… tty bad…” I barely made out Ned’s voice.
Wait. Was he talking to Mr Harrington?
I blinked, and looked up at who was standing in front of us. The lights nearly blinded me, but yes, I could clearly see it was our teacher.
Too clearly, in fact. I could swear I could see every single pore in his face.
Ned did rat me out to him. Traitor.
Mr Harrington said something, but I didn’t know whether it was directed at me, Ned, or someone else.
Before I could even make another effort to get into the conversation and assure my teacher I was fine, my stomach turned.
A lot more alert all of a sudden, I looked around for the nearest trashcan and bolted towards it, right before my lunch came back the way it came from. Gross, I know.
I didn’t move. I was afraid that my breakfast would also come back any second, but I was also very aware every pair of eyes in the room were staring at me.
I don’t know if you’ve ever puked in front of your whole class, plus a handful of strangers before, but I assure you it’s very embarrassing. The last thing I wanted to do was turn around to face them.
I’m not too clear on the details of what happened after that. Mr Harrington and Ned led me out of the lab and into the reception. Mr Harrington was saying something, I knew that, but once again, I didn’t know if it was directed at me or anyone else, and at this point I had no energy to try and figure out.
A few minutes later, Mr Harrington led me outside and into a familiar car. It wasn’t until I was inside that I noticed it was Ben’s car. Mr Harrington must have called him when he realized I was feeling sick.
Or, at least, Ned must have.
Traitor. Again.
“Pete?” Ben said once I got inside. This time I could clearly make out my uncle’s voice, which came as a surprise. “What happened?”
I shrugged. “Must’ve eaten something weird.” I replied. “I don’t feel so good.”
Ned had already told him, I was going home no matter what, so there was no point in fighting it anymore.
“Well, clearly!” He answered, putting his hand on my forehead to feel my temperature. “Pete, you’re burning up! This can’t be something you ate! We should take you to the hospital!”
“No!” I was quick to answer. “No, Ben, I promise, it’s probably just a stomach bug or something, I’ll be fine tomorrow, just-- can we go home? Please?”
Ben let out a sigh, clearly not thrilled by that option, and started the car. “Fine. But we’re going to the hospital if you’re not feeling better by tomorrow, there’s no getting out of that!
I nodded. Anything to get out of the hospital for as long as I could help it. They already spent way too much money on me, no need to add ridiculously expensive medical bills to it.
Ben was right, there was no way this was something I ate. Ned ate the same sandwich as I did, and he seemed fine. It had to be that spider bite.
I risked a look at it when Ben was distracted with the road.
Somehow, the fang marks had already disappeared. It was like the bite had never happened.