FAN FIC by ANIL RICKLY - SPIDER MAN: REBIRTH (part 1)

***Chapter 1 – The Surfaces of a Coin***
Saturday February 13th, 2009 – 8:25 pm

“I am not a bookworm nor am I a nerd…I am not proud to be a damn good chemistry student and heck…a friggin photographer; not to mention one of the smartest kids in NY city…I am not a bumbling idiot who wears glasses and paints a portrait of clumsiness on a canvas of misery…I am not some rich kid with a robotic missile-armed suit or a warrior/soldier with shields, guns or grenades…I am not an angel or a God or a friggin cave-dwelling freak…I am not a kiss-ass…I am not faltering when it comes to the ladies…(I do pretty well in fact, I am not your Calvin Klein Underwear Chace Crawford Model…but if I were a girl I’d find him hot…anyways I digress…but I’m cute at best…and I make this best work for me…I do very, very well with my high school girls…heck I’m the best at what I do and what I do best is…scratch that…that doesn’t sound right)…I am not shy…I am not scared…well, all the of time at least…Who am I?…I am my father’s son…I am my mother’s love…I am the end product of everything my Uncle Ben and Aunt May taught me…I am the final compound of their love, their justification, vindication and determination to teach me what is right from that which is wrong…I am good…I defend those who cannot defend themselves…I am him who will forge his own destiny, his own legacy…I am him who will care for everyone in his loving life…I will care for and protect New York City, my home…I am protector, avenger of all wronged, defender of my people, loyal and loving son, aspiring to do right in a world where wrong is the heart-beat of our planet…where evil and corruption is the currency of a morally bankrupt society…whose love for costume, material and superficial things beckon equally with greed, power and stepping on the downtrodden citizens and the poor, the sick, the helpless, the dying…Who am I?…
I am…in love…with the most beautiful girl walking the face of this earth…I am stunned, scared, nervous and gutted because she makes me tremble, shake, she makes my heart beat like a shot gun, she makes me fuzzy with butterflies as if they were rampaging and sewing my insides up…I’d do anything…and everything for her…even if it's for just One More Day with her...I’d walk through hell and make a deal with the Devil himself to ensure that she knows not one ounce of pain ever in her lifetime…I’d rather touch her for one second, slip away from this plane and die…than live my entire life knowing I could never be able to feel her…Who am I you ask? Uncle Ben tells me everyday the truth I know – With the slightest ounce of power, comes the greatest responsibility…I am 16 year old Peter Parker…and right now…it’s raining…I’m bleeding everywhere…I’m hurt…covered in rubble, burning wounds, threadbare lies my costume, ridden with dirt…and I am weak and on the verge of passing out…unconscious…damn…syncope…friggin busted a hole in this head o’ mine…ummm…right now…my mask is ripped and I have a lil’ piece covering my right eye and part of my nose…I am exposed…but right now…here in this stinking mud, amidst the scary lightning and pouring shower…on top this fallen concrete…I am frozen stiff…
I am Spider-Man…

And I’m wiping tears away and sobbing like a cookie-selling girl scout…crying like a lil’ bitch -

…Crying…afraid and scared as hell…

Cuz I’m looking at my first ever dead body...killed by me!!!”

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***Chapter 2 – Skipping Beats***
Monday February 8th, 2009 – Empire State High School – Lower Side, Manhattan – 8:50 am

“Jesus… I am fed up of this school…3 years already…now a fourth…who starts Empire High School at 13? I am tanked…16 years…and I’m sick of this…God…I’m already gonna graduate with honors…that’s a fact…I just wanna say F-all this and enjoy my high school…I’ve already jumped and skipped and passed advanced classes…geek or not…I’m way ahead of the curve, first in my faculty…and yet I am frustrated…do I love Chemistry? Huh? Probably not…but I’m good at it…a pro at school-work, numbers and equations…it’s like frickin keys on a piano…when I see em’…just like 'Will Hunting' says…"I just know how to play". I guess I’ll go on to Empire State U…major in Chem, do masters…PhD and crap…and be unhappy with my job. Pete? WTF…who thinks of this crap on their way to class? I’m frickin 16!…Get a grip Parker!” I spewed with my half decent inner-monologue but before I could frick it up and blabber in my constantly processing mind…I sensed her. Boy, did I sense her!

“Hey meannie,” she quipped. Gwen Cassandra Stacy snuck up behind me and ever heard the expression ‘Take your breath away’; well that’s her – OMFG…Oh My frickin God –
She is that gorgeous indeed.
“I knew you were behind me lab-girl…I sensed you from a mile away,” I slipped her as my hand poked at her tummy.
“Uh huh…yeah…sure…like a sixth sense right?” she teased as her fingers gently caressed mine. Teases and teases galore. Eyes were meeting, ducking and weaving cuz God knows I can’t look her straight in the eyes…else she’d see through me…see all my feelings.
“Yep…sixth sense…you know…like how some animals in the kingdom have a precognitive sense of…”
“Shuddup meannie. You know I hate all that Science stuff…outside of class…that is…plus I’m wearing the perfume you gave me last Christmas, that’s how you knew I was behind you,” as she stuck her tongue out to tease and harass my soul.
“Is that so nerdy cutie lab girl?” I harassed as I jokingly grabbed her and reeled her towards me playfully.
“Yep,” she whispered.
I replied, “I didn’t buy it…I made it home with my chemistry set haha.”
“Oh really?” she asked.
I loved that phrase of hers, wasn’t the typical ‘whatever’ used by a million gals today or ‘for real’…it was inquisitive, it could be sarcastic, fun, enquiring, sexy…a million different things. It represented what she was – unique and totally different, one day a punk rock looker, next an elegant prettiness, next day a cutie, at night if clubbing or hanging out…a sexy, awesomely insanely hot-legged dress-wearing teasing goddess that makes you wanna…well lemme jus say that she was set apart from all expressionless faces in the crowd. Along with her rosy red face cheeks, I loved this phrase…so much so I counted it from the first time she uttered it to me…no shit! I kept count.
“570 times cutie,” I snuck at her while she snickered and pinched my nose.

Normally…in fact all the time, I hate all this mushy lovey-dovey crap…but with her, I couldn’t care less…couldn’t care who was watching or who talked or whatever…I didn’t care about any high school drama, gossip and bullshit…I’d stop the friggin world and melt with her…lame song but hell…I’d never fallen so hard nor so fast for any girl – and that’s just it…Gwen wasn’t any girl…she was unique, one of a kind. I don’t hold hands or tease or play around in public…I don’t even hug…but I realised all the things that made me sick when I saw couples in public…all the things that made me go WTF…that made me an emotional robotic cripple…that made me cringe in laughter, disgust and wanna vomit…all that mushy crap…all the stuff I was afraid I’d never be able to do with a girl, all the stuff I was scared I’d never find with a girl – I realised…when it came to Gwen Stacy…I wanted it all…I knew from the first day I laid eyes on her…that Gwen Stacy would be my one true love…you only get one great true love in a lifetime…you can love someone…several people in fact…but to be in love…well that’s a whole ‘nother ball game! You gotta be in it…to win it…I guess it’s a gamble…the frickin lottery buddy. To be in love with someone is something completely and totally different. In this life, yeah…you’d prolly fall in love once or twice…maybe even 5 times…but you only get one true…one great love…that will never come about in your lifetime…not again. Maybe it won’t be your first love, but it's a bloody special love, and I’m a firm believer in it coming once – and if you don’t grasp it, if this great love is rejected…well you’re gonna have to do like 'Tad Hamilton' and run away to a place where you’d find the girl you love the second most…hmmm…I really despise Topher Grace by the way.
But one thing for sure...
– Love at first sight – that Cupid arrow bullshit…yep that’s what I felt the first time I saw Gwen…I do believe in that for sure! The ironic thing is…that I didn’t like her more than she liked me…yep…I think I didn’t realise how much in love I was with Gwen till I woke up one day, felt different and saw that ‘Hey this girl likes me way more than I like her’…I knew what my feelings were but I hid them…from myself…cuz it scared me to feel, to want…to love someone. To be truly, madly, Savage-Garden deeply in love with her. And a hobo once told me, a good guy by the nickname of JMS, that ‘Kid…you don’t marry the girl you love…you marry the girl who loves you’…and for me…to process and think of all this stuff…when no one in the world is afraid of commitment and sharing themselves with another, when a guy like me who keeps everything close to his chest…so many secrets I hold…I hide everything not on my sleeve but in my mind…for someone like me to process and think of this romantic stuff…and hell I do love romance, I really do – I love Dawson’s Creek!…for a closed-off recluse like me to feel this way for a girl…that would mean that Gwen was something extraordinary…in an ordinary world.
“Dammit Pete, you aren’t even listening…here we are walking to class and you aren’t paying me any heed. We walked from the quad and you are in your zone as usual. Pay attention…did you not just realise that I tried to kiss your cheek…ugghhh….first we manage to hold hands…now you scared to get a cheek kiss…Parker I’ll..”

But before she could say a word more, I kissed her…smack dab on her lips…in the hallway…I didn’t even realise we left the quad…and were in the hallway en route to labs.
“I was listening…I just wanted to surprise you,” I smiled as I hid the fact that I was not paying attention. But at least my entrained thoughts were on how much I feel for her, yet I didn’t know if I could let her know all this – would she feel weird or scared? What would that mean for us? God I had to stop letting my mind distract me.
“I was pensive Gwen…of why you still call me ‘meannie’…did we not iron out that issue?” I asked while admiring the glimmer in her eye.
“Maybe…but I still love that name,” she joked as she held my hand tighter and dragged me into lab.

I wasn’t the student…but the lab demonstrator. I had already done this in my spare time in first year and now the faculty were impressed and asked me to run it again for them – another Chem Lab this year…fun forever…yay! Gwen went to her research desk with her group mates…and we locked eyes…as I saw my class come in. I knew that every 5 minutes into my session, and I was gonna be here from 9 till 3 pm; that me and Gwen would be stealing torturous glances at each other…she would be here till 3 also…finishing up studies after her group left at 12…keeping my eyes welcome company. I loved this lab – the Chemistry Lab Room 242 – and she did too…because just one year ago…this was where our romance blossomed…where I got my nickname ‘meannie’, where I defaced my favourite Minnie Mouse washrag, where Gwen and I sat within an inch of each other for the first time ever, where I felt my heart racing a million miles per second, burning with fires of 1000 supernovas or flaming suns, where I fell in instant love with her red rosy cheeks before the rest of her, where I was her teacher and she a student, where feelings were forbidden, where I found out that I could be something more than what I was currently…just a year ago…I found out I could be human.

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***Chapter 3 – Camouflage***
Friday February 5th 2009, London, England - 7:13 pm

“Good day Sir,” the ushers pleasantly said to the man with the briefcase. The ushers waved and walked slowly past in hopes that the man would ask their services and hence offer a tip. The man gently smiled but continued to the lobby area as if waiting for some specific thing or person. He was slim, tall, lanky and paid no attention to anyone else. His face drew long, eyes light blue, and seemed foreign. His wrinkles showed and his mouth twisted in a somewhat discomforting manner. He seemed incoherent with his gaze smothering all the faces in the hotel lobby – he was eyeing someone. He calmly held his briefcase and in a disconcerting manner, coughed with his hand over his mouth. He glimpsed over to the lobby desk…and strolled on to the receptionist.
“Milady, some assistance please - I have a briefcase with important documents for a Professor Miles Warren. He left me his cell but alas the Professor is at his biology lecture in Kingdom Hall, and I am to deliver this to him per his request. He ordered that I bring it in from his office at Empire State University, NY, my dear Sarah” said the man as he pierced the receptionist’s eyes.
“Umm…you know my name?”
He pointed.
Her work-tag bore ‘Sarah’.
She clumsily chuckled.
He grinned as she checked through the messages.
“Sir, he did not leave any notice with us to receive anything,” she remarked upon checking the records.
“I am his brother and assistant at Empire U, Aaron Warren,” as he presented his ID and University badge.

She fumbled as she checked again, and called Miles’ room to ensure he was not there.
“Ma’am I’m afraid I am on a tight schedule as I have to return to New York for my own thesis research. Please call the number on the ID I showed you, and you will be able to verify the briefcase he requested.”
She did so and Sarah spoke to the University secretary at the Bio Department…and Aaron’s story turned out to be true.
Sarah appeared apologetic but Aaron understood she was following procedure.
“Joshua, please take Mr. Warren to room 241 and ensure that this briefcase is placed securely in the room,” she asked of the usher, who stood nearby watching them.
“Of course Sarah,” the usher said as he accompanied Aaron to the room. Aaron thanked Sarah and left with the usher to the room.
As the usher got off the elevator with Aaron behind him, he took out the key-card and swiped the room lock. It opened with ease and the door swung.
“Sir, I will place the case on the dinner table safely,” said Joshua. Aaron acknowledged and watched him do so, before both left the room. As they got on the elevator, Aaron sneezed so hard that he brushed onto Joshua, who nervously jumped and shrugged him off.
“My humble apologies,” Aaron deemed.
“God Bless You Sir…and none needed,” Joshua wittily remarked as he fixed his red shirt again.
Aaron tugged his trench-coat as he left Joshua in the lobby and made his way to the exit, tipping his hat at Sarah.
Within 1 minute, when no one was looking at Aaron again, he speedily headed back up the elevator…and returned to the doorstep of 241…with the key-card emerging from his pocket. His slight of hand in pilfering the card off Joshua was impeccable. He slyly smiled, as he entered the room. He opened the briefcase and took out a portable hard-drive.
“I’m attaching it to his laptop right now,” said Aaron as he plugged into Warren’s laptop.
“Good job Dmitri…. the ‘Aaron Warren’ identity played smoothly…We set up everything and she even talked to the ‘University’ as planned,” replied the voice over Dmitri’s earpiece which he just inserted.
“As we monitored, he left the laptop in the room while he toured the Hall for his presentation…all is going swimmingly,” said Dmitri with his accent, Soviet it seemed.
“I’m into his personal files, the hard-drive is automatically hacking, decrypting and showing us all files received. Hmmm…interesting Sir, the folder is showing up as we expected. Everything is in place. We have all the files he received from the Zmiya. I am sending them to you now Sir.”
“Excellent I am receiving them now Mr. Smerdyakov…you are truly ingenious Dmitri Smerd…what is this? Lovely, my boy…lovely…it seems that these files were hidden by Warren so that no one could find them on his laptop…he receives the info from the Zmiya and hides them with his main worthless research…hidden in plain view!…Little did he know that we would find their sorry asses Dmitri. These files are plentiful, we will still have to decrypt them to fully see their contents one by one…will take days…to ascertain their contents but it seems that the research I lost years ago is found again my boy!”
“It would appear so Sir. Transfer is complete” as Dmitri unplugged the tech and made the status of the room the same as before. He tidied up and removed evidence of his foray.
“All is as twas before Sir, I was but a ghost in this shell,” his accent thickened as he rolled his eyes with evil intent.
“Well done Dmitri…they tried to hide from us…8 years they did this…but to no avail…they cannot cross swords with us monsters! We are masters…we are kings!”
“Sir, they underestimate you…they know not your patience and persistence to rightfully regain your throne, that which was always yours!”
“Indeed…Indeed…they do not understand – I am an entity my boy, they will never understand men like us – I am the fear, I am the fury, Dmitri…my dear Smerdyakov! Haha – now you must tie up loose ends not so? We can’t alert Miles to ‘Aaron’s’ visit, can we?”
“I am already taking care of it Sir,” said Dmitri as he slipped back outside and got off-line, placing the earpiece away.

He swiftly but unnoticeably placed the card back into Joshua’s pocket as the lad tended to an old lady’s baggage outside the revolving door.
“Now tis a matter of waiting. Warren won’t be back as his schedule stated for an hour…the working shift is changing in 10 minutes. As planned, I am on par!” whispered Dmitri as he slipped into the parking lot.
He lit a cigarette up as he sat on the curb…waiting…waiting…minutes passing by.
Til he saw them…Sarah and Joshua emerged as they finished their shift…holding hands, romantically wandering to Joshua’s old jeep.
Dmitri got up and paced steadily towards them, their backs turned to his front.
“Bloody key…always jams,” Joshua teased as he kissed his girl.
Before he could pull his lips away, he felt her gasp. He felt his side burning…his hand reached…blood. Blood in his side and on Sarah’s tee. He didn’t know whose blood was whose. Sarah fell to the ground. Her eyes rolled back, she looked slightly pale…motionless…and her quivering lip stopped. Joshua looked up. It was the last thing he ever saw…in this dark, dreary, lonely parking lot. Dmitri held the gun aimed to his head, and fired once more. Dmitri then placed the gun over Sarah’s head – it was a silencer – and pumped into her forehead – the same spot where he ended Joshua. The killer bent over, placed her long blonde hair to his nose…inhaled deeply as his eyes rolled back. Then he grinned, exhaled…and placed his gun away. No one knew what happened. No witnesses…Dmitri was a clear professional.

He calmly strode off, got into his van and made off…cool and collected.
“Both terminated,” he uttered as he put back in the earpiece.
“Well done. Await further orders,” said the familiar voice. This mysterious man then sat in his chair, overlooking the skyline, “New York looks lovely tonight!” he whispered to himself.
“They will never get who I am – I am the fist gripping this city – I am Legion…” the man whispered repeatedly to himself as he looked out his window and admired the view…and the sign atop his building said it all…OSCORP INDUSTRIES.

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***Chapter 4 – Set, Strike…Recover***
8th February 2009 – Monday night…World Trade Centre Auditorium 7:17 pm

The silence was broken with a loud crash as a man went flying through the glass, into the champagne table unconscious.
“You gonna pay for that,” screamed the other thug as he swung at Spider-Man, at me. I ducked, bobbed as boxer Jack Murdock did in his old videos, and leapt easily into the air…kicking the man’s head in.

“2 down…who else?” I asked as I motioned to the next scoundrel to approach with my fist a la Neo from the Matrix film.

Earlier that night –
“I can’t believe I’m here with you cutie. Every time I’m here…I feel like it’s gonna be my last…like someone is gonna tear us apart and we’d never see each other again.”
Those words you’d think would be Gwen’s…but nope…were mine! Classes were done, and with her dad, Captain George, newly promoted and putting in major hours on duty in the force…and the mother who abandoned her when she was 9, I guess I was all she had. I wanted it…loved it that way.
I snuck here every night…even though her dad wasn’t home…I’d hate for him to come and bust a cap in my you-know-what…so I always took caution. Plus my instinct and sixth sense always made me seem infallible…like I’d never get caught. Still, I wouldn’t worry about me…but I’d fear for Gwen. I’d take all the hits, all the pain and shots and misery this world had to offer, just to shield her…my Gwen!
“What is it you like about me so much Pete?”
I kissed her…and we always had a spoken understanding that we were the best kisser the other ever experienced. She always bit my lower lip…in the sexiest, playful manner that she knew I loved; I couldn’t control my urges after that. I used to keep a pillow between us as a barrier, but she always removed it, and bit my lower lip. Always. She was perfect. We never used tongue…much…too sloppy…it was the lip biting, gentle nudges and nibbles…neck, ear, chest…but I loved her nose…and God…kissing her cheeks was impeccable. Her sexy legs, I always remembered when I saw her in the club for the first time, would always wrap around mine, and our feet belted footsy-wars, and we always awkwardly, pulled the plugs off both her fans out the sockets. Her dresser…filled with DVDs was always a mess…as was her room…shoes, clothes, unpacked closet, a mini-fridge with an infinite array of Coke and snacks, and a small bed which was perfect as it kept us that much closer. We couldn't go out, and I'd have given anything even...for just...one foray out into the public eye so they could view me holding her hand...just one...cinema date...or a walk down by the pier! But it mattered not, for we were wrapped in each other's young arms. I was always warm, always had a high temperature…and she loved us cuddling…as much as I did. She smelled like roses too.
“I like most – hmm…your breasts!”
“Oh really?” she tickled me…571 times spoken…and we could not stop kissing. We’d kiss for hours upon hours. No joke people! I would ensure I left no hickey – learnt my lesson the first time…even phoned a friend who told me use salt water warmed and apply with a cloth…funny as hell. But we’d just hug and cuddle and kiss till the time died…expired as the breath in our lungs…. folding like envelopes to keep each other in…like raindrops melding with raindrops…falling past the silver lining of the moon…like a yellow-glazed skyline with the threadbare sun at the helm…we’d wrap each other tight…we adored the hell outta each other as intimately arranged as possible.
“I like that you call me ‘meannie’. I always liked you; from the moment I first laid eyes on you. You Gwen are the first thing I think of in the morning, the last thing I think of at night, I started praying again to thank God for you cutie lab girl…I like that if I’m in the deathliness of sleep, the thought of you makes my heart race till I’m wide awake on instant thinking of you…I love that you give me fuzzy feelings and butterflies…that we texted the shit out of each other when Flash was dating you…that you snuck around with me…and we codenamed him ‘Painter’…very gay btw…and that when you broke it off with Flash, you recalled that when we texted, and you asked if I’d kiss you with your germs…I said yes…and I did kiss you whenever you were sick…and you said that that was the first time we said we’d kiss each other…as single folks, no boyfriend or girlfriend involved…we were single. I loved that you put us before your Flash stuff…and you risked so much for me…that I had to go all in for you…I loved that you kiss me, and hug me, like no other girl…and that I do the same for you…like you were the only angel alive…I love that I can make you feel safe, warm, protected and that we can feel how much the other cares for the other…I love how you make me ramble on and on and on...I love mostly…kissing your forehead and pinching your cheeks…cuz I know then…you’re real…not a dream Gwen”


“You are a real poetic tragedy ain't you Parker,” as she forcefully kissed me.

“Pete I love the rings you wear, the red-band that you say is for safety, the wood and green band that you took back from me cuz you wanted to wear something I wore, I love your hair, style, trackies, the Japan symbol chain, the whip cream teasing, the :P smiley tease we text, the Gothic neck chains, the fact that you don’t care what people think, the fact that you gave me course notes, held doors open for me…and we still never spoke…and I loved that I could feel for someone…so much that Flash knew he’d lose me…I felt that strongly for you…I loved that you gave me Ben and Jerry’s…plus cheesecake…plus when you taught me in labs, you never spoke but acted mean…hence ‘meannie’…and you scribbled your Minnie Mouse rag to distract yourself…cute! And I did my best to get that ‘A+’ with your lab cutie…I love that I found you…that ‘meannie’ was a façade and misdirection to the fact that you liked me so much…that you left your email and cell on the course notes incognito…then messaged me on facebook when tutors were dicks to me…and then that was it…we couldn’t stop texting…and I loved that we called and hearing each other’s voice was like a new world to us…we did this for a year Petey…even after Flash caught us…I still couldn’t stop…that’s how I knew we liked each other so much…we could never stop nor stay away from each other…I love that you’re the best kisser out…that you tickle me…that you never force me…”
“Well you always place your hand by your tummy so mine can’t go anywhere…”
“Oh really?”
“572”
“Anyways…I love that we spend all this time and it’s you and me in our world. I love that you’re mean to me…so we can makeup…that you always sulk with me…as an excuse to cuddle and makeup…I love that you’re a meannie”.
I was staring into her gleaming eyes. Sincerity, genuine and truthful…honesty was the key to our happiness. I knew we started our relationship with her in the arms of another but for a girl like that, you gotta grab it cuz it may never come again.
“I love that when I first came here, we didn’t kiss…the second time I came up, you told me you dreamt me…I asked what…you blushed…so I kissed your hand…your palm…forearm….then before I knew it…your lips rushed mine…I was shocked and scared…but it felt so right Gwen…like we belonged together…I love that you always kissed first…when we got caught….you were the first always to say that we can't be apart, that we can’t stop thinking and feeling for the other, that anytime we met, you always threw the first kiss…you made the first moves always…that’s why you’re everything to me Gwen. You moved the pillow barrier, you got us closer, you made me open up…I loved that we had two different crappy lives but when we ran away to this room, it’d be just us in our own universe…like we jumped through a blackhole to another dimension. Our own universe.

And when we stepped apart, we’d go back to our sucky lives….the days we couldn’t take, when hours turned to minutes and we were seconds away…counting down to our next tryst, rendezvous when we’d return to our own world. I loved that you didn’t stop even after Flash found the messages and tossed the phone at you…that made it clear…that I…I lov…”

BEEP………………………………..
BEEP………………………………..

I grabbed my cell cuz this was a special ringtone…emergency text. I had to leave ASAP. I kissed her so tightly, I could see concern in her eyes. But before she could say anything,
“I gotta go pretty girl! Aunt May needs stuff…and she’ll kill me.”
But she couldn’t respond as I jumped out the back door like Usain Bolt, reading the text again…it read -
“HOSTAGE SITUATION…WTC AUDITORIUM…ON ALL STATIONS”

I cracked the next guy over the head, and wrapped him by the arm…and heaved him onto the caviar tray. I left Gwen alone, dammit, I hope no one saw me change in the alley…jeez rats on my clothes I bet…
“Eat it bitch!” I said as I ducked a fist, chopped to the gut, knee to the head, web-bolo and strike you’re out.
I always felt so much confidence in uniform…that mask gave me all the power and strength I lacked.
“You guys taking swinging lessons…but not from Tiger Woods…cuz he never misses…ask them blondes…oh shit…” I had to cut short my quip as I felt a head butt into me and send me skating on my ass across the room of the Auditorium.
“Wha tha fudge…” I bellowed…I was winded…I saw people screaming and running across the room as things had gotten messy, out of hand.
But I hope Gwen isn’t mad…Shut it Parker I thought to myself…I was getting distracted with thoughts of her…I hated fighting crime right after being with her…I can’t focus…head ain't in the game….I used the shooter, webbed a tray…
“Eat snail shit” and swung it into the guy’s throat…his head was huge and frickin rectangular…and he dropped to his knees…so that’s my cue…the karate…I never forget…I webbed and swung from the chandelier to his back….kicks to the head…shit that hurt…my feet were killing…oh crap…I sensed it…I ducked left 45 degrees, go up 59 degrees, arch, parabola…2 steps back…shit…it missed, leap, web to the table, swing over the chair, bob Pete…duck…shit…that was close…my head was alerting me constantly…down…19 degrees anti clockwise…rotate neck, swing behind…kick their asses….in that flurry…50 seconds folks…and the 2 shooters were down…my fists ached but forget common sense…that’s what I call Spider-Sense!
Is Gwen gonna be pissed? – F**k it Peter…stop that crap!


I jumped onto two thugs again…webbed them together and smacked their heads…this karate had me fit as a fiddle, and with my super-powers, hell if I didn’t humbly admit, I was hard to beat in a fight…quick, faster, swift, rapid…any word you want…plus the super-strength, agility, web-shooters, spider-sense…these guys were plentiful, but fodder. I glanced over, no hostages wounded…on first glance…everyone was scampering away….but there stood the Hammer-head creature…his throat was red from my tray…but he held a man off the ground by his throat. The guy’s fist was huge…shit is that?…Prof Miles Warren?


I read his work as a side project…he knows his Bio…but then again I’m a Chem guy so wadda I know?
“Put him down Header…if you want to enroll, he can’t help you…but I can tell your handsome ass where to look…and knowing is half the battle…the more you know..”
“Shut tha frack up Webfreak” as I smashed a fist into his hard head...OWW!

“Huh…didn’t like that quote…how about run before you crawl? Or knowledge isn’t real power…just something nerds say whilst reading Disney comics or watching Brianna Banks Spankwire…”
“You ever turn it off creep?”
“Umm…not really”
“Listen punk…all my men are down…but I’m taking this one with me…or else I crush his voice box and you get more bad press idiot!”
“Whoa….chill header…put ‘im down…you can’t escape…what you want with him?”
“Nun ya bizz”
Why nab a Bio teacher? Jeez…this is getting sticky…no pun intended.
I tried to stall…the cops were pouring in the hall. Hammerhead…I guess I named him…walked over to the elevator…and I had to let him go…for Warren’s safety.
Hammerhead reached the rooftop…and flung Warren to the ground.
“You got the call…you sure you didn’t know anything?” yelled the thug.
“I swear I didn’t…it was planted on me. Those aren’t mine…I know nothing about this…those were old…he’s dead…how can I work with him…he’s dead…I haven’t worked with him in over a decade…please I swear!” Warren pleaded.
“You gotta be telling the truth…you hear him big guys…” as the villain held a radio transmitter to Warren’s voice, “Cuz we got yah daughter and wife…and if you didn’t tell the truth we’d hafta kill you…but we knows you loves em’…so if youse says you don’t know anything…we believe yah…especially cuz we followed up the tracking of those files from the source…seems guy planted a bogey to you”
“Please thank you…thank you…I promise I’m not double crossing you…” sobbed Warren.
“We’d drop the ladies off somewhere, NYPD will be told where to get em safe an sound. But youse…don’t leave town….bosses orders. They have some use for you I hear…future shit…if you skip, we’s kill you!”

I climbed the side of the building…there he was on the roof…

That ugly mo-fo…
“Kay boss…did what you wanted…where’s the chopper? Hurry for the coppers come and bring their own plane…we have like 5 mins and I ain't seeing shit, boss!”
“Sorry young Maggia Bull…but we can’t risk it…you played your part.”
“Bossman…you better be fackin kidding me…Silvermane? SILVERMANE?” he screamed.
Before I could tackle him, I sensed something off - he started twitching and fitting…and he fell to the ground frothing…I ran over and so did Warren…the goon was dead…no heartbeat.
“Look, steam off his tie…seems like there’s an internal circuit” Warren added as he cautiously analysed it. My sense was lull…so I knew twas safe…I ripped the tie off…it acted like a shock collar…it’s user…once the detonation switch pressed, would have his brains fried with electric current…and I guess they used a lot of electricity in this guy. They deemed their own expendable…I looked down from atop and it seemed all the thugs, wore ties, and were dead…shocked. I recognised the Silvermane name…crime boss…mob crap….Maggia family. Not nice people.
“Thank you Spider…”
But before Warren could finish,
“Hands up Spider-Man…under arrest for endangering the lives of the hostages with reckless care…”
“Screw this…my girl’s gonna be pissed…” and I jumped off and swung away…and like a pendulum, I was swinging side to side to avoid passing bullets…THEY ARE FRICKIN SHOOTING AT ME…ME!!!! My sense didn’t go off, no shots fired…whew! NYPD still believed in me…close call there bud! There were just doing their job! I on the other hand mucked it up badly. And I was somehow still thinking of Gwen. My head wasn’t in the game at all!


Half-hour later:
FrontLine newspaper office: Ben Urich

“It’s frickin 9pm and the NYPD thinks I nearly got Warren killed. I know you’re good, honest reporters.…so I’m telling you this…something’s weird in this city.”
“He’s right,” Ben replied, “but you can’t go in guns blazing like that hero. You could have gotten a lot of innocent people hurt. We know you’re trying to help, Miles will vouch for you…everyone knows that…but if a kid had gotten killed; no matter your previous rep, you would have to fall down…and the cop who mighta have to do it…he may love and respect and admire you…but he’d have to shoot you if you resist! But you gotta remember, this saving people thing ain’t a business, a privilege…it’s a duty! Trust me…I know guys who do this buddy! You wanna be unmasked? Jonah is already leading the lynch and smear campaign!”
“You sound like someone I know,” I replied.
“That's a smart person then! Ben is right Spider-Man. Be careful. Tonight was just an example of how this city is turning dark and bleeding red.”
“Dudes…these thugs were shocked and murdered. Their own dealer probably, most likely. Header called Silvermane’s name…and we know Silvermane is Maggia…so Headly was capped by his own boss? I don’t get it…they were all loyal soldiers it seemed…if disloyal, I could get their execution but this seemed unwarranted,” I slithered.
“We can’t even try to have NYPD identify where the control signal was transmitted from…too much electrical and static interference…needle in haystacks,” said Ben.
“Jeez…Jonah is gonna have a field day with this story…and you are going front-page Spidey…he’s gonna claim you worked with the goons…not some hero-for hire like Cage and Fist…this ain’t Misty or that Karate Shang business Spidey…he’ll slander that you had something to do with their electrocutions…conspiracy theory…and if he found me, Joe Robertson, here backing and talking to you two, he’d have my head!”

“Guys…listen…we meet like this cuz we hafta come together like the Illuminati or some Dan Brown society shit…to pool info together to stop crime - you, Ben, and Robbie, of the Bugle…and me, Tarzan of the jungle…cuz we gotta piece puzzles together…but jeez guys...I cant save NY alone…not by myself…”


“We care so that’s why we meet with you Spidey,” Ben added, “one day I have some friends for you to meet…”
“Til that day…hear this…Silvermane I think killed his goons…after they tried to do their job…I don’t even think they wanted to kidnap him…Warren told the cops they just wanted his advice on some lost data?”
“Yep…seems like they went through a lot of trouble to talk to him…or to scare him” said Ben.
Robbie input, “Well they just picked his wife and daughter up lower in the Bronx, thank Jesus…they are alright…they put the fear of God into that man…but he’s keeping something from the cops…Bio data? WTF guys…and I don’t think they are gonna pry anything outta him…I think he wants to protect his fam!”
“But stuff is brewing guys, we haven’t heard about this rumoured Kingpin character in a few months…he’s gone off the radar…so did Silvermane…their gang wars are dead it seems…nothing for nearly 6 months…and these guys who died tonight…all apparently Maggia…Don Fortunato, Eli Rumsford, Harry Dumont, Simon Marshall, the Header guy is a no-ID and we got the other dead man as Smuggler…all were Silvermane’s guys,” Ben input to the guys.
“And while Silvermane and Kingpin….this Kingpin is a friggin shadow still…I’m starting to think he’s a myth boys…they stopped their shit…the other Maggia hand…the Nefaria family, has reportedly left to head to Europe…possibly Sicily…rumours were that Anthony Stark was caught making out with Whitney Frost, Count’s daughter and new head of the Nefaria, over in Italy. Either way, seems they didn’t get with some new program…and bolted!
“People are covering tracks…secrets…Warren is in deep now it seems…but Silvermane…the Kingpin disappearing act…all this…must be connected…I gotta clear my head…gents…always a pleasure…” as I shot home. What a night!…and I still gotta go face him – boy is he gonna be pissed!!!

That same time, OSCORP –
“Well it seems that Warren is not the guy we were looking for, but he is a guy who will be of future use I am certain,” creepily uttered Norman Osborn in his chair.
“I can’t believe that you made me execute the most loyal of my men OSBORN!!!”
“They were ugly my friend…tasteless suit-wearing scum, plus I cant risk secrets coming out of this current endeavour I’m on…names, people, slip-ups can destroy what I’m trying to do!” replied Osborn to Silvermane, “I can recommend better men to work under you…men I trust…just remember they work under you, Silvermane, and you, Kingpin…no one must ever trace them back to me…or else you all will die.”
“Yes Norman, of course…our deal is in play as proposed. My ring is running under the auspices of your demands, and of course you will not divulge me, the Kingpin, as Wilson Fisk. Tis a viable financial deal…we both benefit old friend,” said a grim sounding Fisk.
“You both work for me…make that damn clear…but your men work for you…unless I say otherwise…but for now…things are becoming oh-so clear to me…clarity is a bitch…and tis named NY city. That being said, I have sent you both a list of cities that are on a black-list…they are to not be touched unless I say so. Manhattan is mine especially. Silvermane, you are to remain dormant til I assemble men for your new Maggia. Times are a-changing…Kingpin…you don’t want to end up hiding like Nefaria don’t you…I know you are more stubborn than Silvermane…so resist…it is futile…obey the orders on that list…do not cross me by dealing where I said not to…I have matters to attend to gents…Goodbye!”

Kingpin’s lair –

“You gonna take it from that hair-plugged bastard Kingpin?” asked the albino henchman. His appearance was silver, his teeth yellow…filed…he looked like a human/shark hybrid…tall, muscular and seemingly pissed. He looked at Smythe who sat at the PC adjacent to him for back-up, but Smythe remained silent.
“For now, Tombstone…for now…Norman said stay off certain places…I’ve checked the list…but it seems my old stomping ground is fair game again Tombstone…”

“Ha ha…Hell’s Kitchen huh?” grimly sneaked Tombstone.
“Of course. Let’s renew old acquaintances…that horned devil must fall my friend. I’m charging you and another to do this job…I have some business to attend to…the Natchios deal may be on the fritz boy…so I want you to handle this devil for me…”

“Who’s the other guy?” Smythe asked as he and Tombstone looked inquisitively at Fisk.
“His name’s…Bullseye!!!”

Silvermane’s home –

“Jesus…what deal have I made…with Satan himself? I wish for a brand new day…this Osborn stuff is gonna be the death of me,” as he looked at the Maggia family portrait staring at him with disappointment over the table.

Osborn’s office –

“You online Dmitri?”
“Sir I am!”
“Seems…when we unlocked every inch of the hidden files…they were false info…planted there to throw us off…he sent this to Warren when they did early research…and he let us know, that Zmiya, he let us know that Warren had some of his files…he set us up…and put us on the bogey trail of Warren…Zmiya played us for fools…hook, line and sinker - we’ve been sniffing the wrong tail…the Zmiya is elusive it seems…more so than we thought…he was desperate…he is afraid of us…he planted that contingency plan on Warren in case we came after him…if he is alive, he’s running scared…cuz he showed desperation by endangering innocent Warren and his family…such loose actions and screws are that of men whose back are against the wall…trust me I know…his morose slither and kerosene actions beckon me to want to f#%king rip his head off,” as Norman went from cool…to ballistic as he turned over his deal, and flung everything off his desk.
“Sir, we will not fail, success is on the horizon I promise!”
“That Zmiya…may be alive…or dead…but he stuck, hid, made away with my info…with my precious data…he stole it from me…FROM NORMAN OSBORN…NO ONE DOES THAT!!!! He made us piggyback onto false trails…onto Warren…onto numerous dead-ends…for 8 years Dmitri we have plowed and trudged…I am at my rope’s end!”

“Sir, I have not stopped…even after London…I kept looking for hot trails…Sir, I promise, all my resources…European, American, African and Asian…all my tech people…we are using every means available…we will find the data. Zmiya must have slipped up…I will not rest til’ we have your property!” he coyly echoed with his accent.
“Dmitri…I want to…ha ha ha ha…I want…no NO…I NEED HIM TO BE ALIVE…I NEED TO FIND HIM ALIVE AND WELL…I NEED TO FIND…SO I CAN KILL HIM WITH MY STRANGLING BARE HANDS…EVERY DROP OF BLOOD DRAWN WITH THE LASH SHALL BE REPAID BY ANOTHER DRAWN WITH THE SWORD…I WANT THE HEAD OF BEN REILLY!!!

---

***Chapter 5 – The Genesis Web***–
That same night – The Parkers’ Home

“So you a swashbuckler now huh? Careless…carefree…RECKLESS…dammit Pete!”
“Sorry Uncle Ben,” I felt like hell as I responded.
“How could you have endangered all those people kiddo…you’re 16 but this brazen, cocky attitude will get someone damaged or even worse…killed…how could you have charged in that auditorium so gunz blazing? Didn’t your spidey sense kick in?”
“I swore I didn’t realise the goons in ties…were goons…my sense was off the charts but I thought it was cuz of the Hammerhead looking guy…I didn’t realise the others were thugs…the ties threw me off…and the suits…they looked like guests or waiters…or”
“Pete…had you taken the time…cased the place…stuck on the wall like a fly…and not dropped through the roof like an asinine spider…you would have realised that the situation wasn’t as it seemed kid. I was in the NAVY boy so I know about re-con…did we not discuss all this?…Didn’t you remember the training, fighting, the tools you need, these skills…we can hone them but some things are mental Pete…you’re showing mental fragility…you distracted boy…you sure you wanna do this…this is serious stuff kiddo…and I know your love life is in full swing…I told you that would happen if you played that game…you’re a high schooler kid!!! Aunt May’s been finding your poems all over the house…the Taking Back Sunday and Thursday CDs, posters of Bert McCracken, Geoff Rickly and Adam Lazarra, Oscar Wilde and Bukowski books…these poets ain’t teaching you what I can boy…you made the choice to be a super hero…with slight power comes the greatest ‘sponsibility…and you have awesome power boy! You gotta be careful…if something happened to you, knowing me and May allowed this, how would Richie and Mary feel looking down on us from heaven boy-o? I can’t let anything happen to you…Jonah’s trying to hang you…the NYPD is iffy…remember they only know Spidey, they don’t know Peter…I can’t lose you kid…you’re not an angel…not a God…you’re a mortal teen…you ain’t our nephew…you’re our son!”
No apology could matter…Uncle Ben knew I was sorry…I dropped in his arms and cried…
“Now boys…stop…” but Aunt May emerged from the shadows and she too wrapped in this family embrace…we all hugged and cried til 11…no words needed to be said furthermore…such was the strength of our bond. This was the Parker family.


My past is tough…I’d never wish it upon anyone…but I’d never change it…cuz it made me who I am today…all the bumps, hits, bruises and deaths…they all made this life…for me…and I can’t change it…I have a job to do.
There are worse things in the world than being alone, by the time you realise this, it’s too late…and there’s nothing worse than too late! Bukowski said that…amazing huh? The funny thing is I adopted that precept when I decided to don this costume…I couldn’t care about finding Love…I just wanted to make Uncle Ben and Aunt May proud…I just wanted to save lives…I swore I could live alone…I was so young and naïve…so I made it clear to them that one way or the next…I was gonna be Spider-Man…and they warned me…I’m in high school…I need my education, my sports, my girls…and I told them I could make those things adapt and work around being Spider-Man…those things would revolve around Spider-Man…that’s who I was…My focus would be on nothing else…little did I know that my central core…would be shaken up…that shit…even being Spider-Man…would start to revolve around Gwen Stacy. This is gonna be messed up to say – just over a year ago, November 2007…to be exact…Gwen left Flash and we fell…in love…the kicker is January 2008 I was 15…and well folks…August 2008 is when I officially came into public eye as Spider-Man…rule # 1 was "Don’t fall in love…don’t get thrown off the path…don’t slip up…" and I did it…I always fended off girls when shit got committed and too serious…and I had lots of terrible relationships, they all hate me now…they say I start off a good guy but I’m pretending…cuz we always end badly…and little did I know, I’d fall in love…right after becoming Spider-Man…I thought I could keep Gwen at arm’s length…but little did I know…my heart would come full circle…and this true, great love would find me now…I swore I’d get that love in a 10 years…boy was I wrong…the timing was something else. Meet Peter Parker, newly committed superhero…newly committed love-bird! I can’t stray off the path…but you know something…heart and mind…they tend to fight with each other when they disagree…and they fight strongly…my mind was focusing on Spider-Man…but my heart was always with Gwen…could I find balance? I have no idea!


I was 8 years…young…mum and dad took me to the New York Empirical Science Centre…this was before Empire State U was the premier research facility for genetics and biology this side of the hemisphere. Back then NYESC was the place for all things regarding Engineering, Biology, Physics and Chemistry. It was a Science Heaven. Aunt May was originally May Reilly and she took us there…her sister, Jan, had an adopted son, Ben Reilly, a premier scientist and genius in the fields of biology, genetics, biochemistry, cloning and he also had an engineering doctorate. He was the head researcher of a 5 man team…called JACKAL…with 4 junior associates…they worked on combining strains of DNA and genetic manipulation and cross-breeding of animal coding…to splice and generate super-species. Now that’s just the tip of the iceberg, cuz there were other projects I heard of: CARRION – where they actually bred these animals in cells. JACKAL was the research work, but CARRION saw to it that these theories and postulates and hypotheses go into actual reality. The names of the 4 other associates were never revealed, not even by Ben, because they were all students earning their doctorates…and Ben knew if anything went wrong, they would all be liable…so he alone allowed his name to be cast on this team…with the other members kept as shadows…he wanted to protect them if shit got bad, hit the fan etc…as he just wanted them to do grunt work…he was Frankenstein…they were Igor I guess…but his heart was right…he could not place them at risk in case things went awry. He wanted full liability and responsibility …I remembered Uncle Ben telling him on the phone that fateful day, with slight power comes the greatest responsibility.

There we were…twas 2002…just after the 9-11 attacks in NY so I guess America endorsed its scientists emerging ahead of the field…maybe they saw it as a means of protecting the nation…strengthen it at a time where US was viewed as weakest. That Monday after lunch, things would never be the same. We visited Reilly, Aunt May made baked potatoes and fried chicken, and she decided to drop it off for Ben. Twas his fave. Aunt May took her husband, and my parents accompanied with me also…and we were off. We entered the facility…and waited…waited…waited for Ben. Reilly didn’t show…Uncle Ben took me to the vending machine…and we were getting 'Snickers' when it happened. We looked up and saw Ben above us, through the glass, holding a glass cell…when BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!


There was a huge explosion…and the entire roof came crashing down…the upstairs where all the scientists were began crumbling…I hit the ground as Ben dove over me…
“May!!! Richie…Mary!!!” he yelled…but the roof caved in and lights went out…the backup power tried to come on…but didn’t…lights barely flickered…as the entire place went dark…concrete slabs, glass, fibre material…debris lay all around…I couldn’t see a thing…til Uncle Ben whipped his old heavy Nokia phone out, and used its mini-flashlight…he was strong…for a 42 year old…and shrugged rubble off his back…all the while ensuring I was okay…NAVY SEAL strength. But before I could arise, I recognized the broken frame of the cell that Reilly held…and as I coughed something bit me…on the arm…it was a spider…scarlet…with blue spots on its back…and I shoved it off and mashed it…electricity lines hung down at the behest of cupboards, PCs, shelves and desks etc…Uncle Ben grabbed me…
“You 'kay Petey, what was that…”
“Just a bug…” I couldn’t even cry…I was petrified…
He tried to shine light to see where to go…but there was debris blocking him…how could we get to our family?…He started to sweat as he moved through the rubble…suddenly I felt a sting in my eyes…for the first time I saw fear in his eyes. I began feeling swollen headed – and I could somehow sense…hear…once I focused on laboured breaths…and her sigh…twas Aunt May…my mind seemed to isolate a path through a maze…and I grabbed Ben’s hand and we ducked and swerved through…when beams fell, I knew before it happened…and Ben was shocked…till we came upon Aunt May…and others…Ben rallied and got his wife into his arms, I grabbed her leg and the others were behind us…and I was ready to lead…until I saw my mum’s hand…I recognized the bracelet hanging around her hand…and my eyes swelled up…Aunt May looked and began crying…Ben knew my parents were dead under there…sad to say, as young as I was, I knew also…and that’s when I realised…I had to lead these people to safety for the greater good…I stepped over the rubble that covered Richard and Mary Parker, Uncle Ben led all over his brother’s grave…and we all followed my lead to find an exit…through a collapsed steel window. 10 of us survived…but as soon as stepped outside and medics took us far away to Mercy Hospital, I told Uncle Ben,
“What was that smell in the hallway inside?”
“S’called natural gas”
“Cover your ears…”
“Why son?”
“It’s gonna blow…”

And the entire building went up in flames…we heard the explosion from quite some distance. That was the farthest my sense ever worked from, never got that range again…but I think that day…the first day was something beyond my understanding! I was so young but the memory is so vivid…it’s like a movie. I realised that day that if I could have let my parents rest there…dead under concrete…to move strangers to safety…that my path lay differently than everyone else.

The Aftermath gave no good news…10 of us survived by me…another 12 escaped…of these 22…20 lived…2 died from after-effects and respiratory failure…thankfully no nearby buildings or people were hurt. The fire could not be put out in time, most of the bodies, including my parents, were incinerated in the blaze…no remains…this was a science centre so the radius was large…so many chemicals burnt…there was a 2 mile evacuation radius…many perimeter people still fell ill…Reilly and all scientists were considered perished…no scientist survived. Total casualties estimated at 600 people. Electrical failure was deemed the original cause, seems that Max ‘Electro’ Dillon, the company electrician, was adjusting the primary and secondary generators, when a malfunction caused the initial explosion that rocked the compound.

Leaking fuel gas lines for reactors and boilers blew the building apart. The death toll began there…and wrapped with the natural gas reservoir in the Centre combusting. Years of scientific work and research went up in flames! That’s how I became an orphan…till Ben and May immediately became my new parents.

It was a dark day indeed…so many lives lost…my parents gone. But after that, after the few ensuing months of grieving…I knew I was different…cuz I felt changed…inside and out. I took up karate…all along with Uncle Ben training me in combat…NAVY style…to focus on shit was good…we wanted no bad thoughts in our lives…ensured we were all occupied.

I constantly visited a doctor friend of Uncle’s…who recommended Uncle keep close eye on me…and that he did. He and Aunt May took great care of me…and did I mention I kicked major ass in karate?…Black Belt in record time…I was ballistic and so damn fast the kids nicknamed me ‘Black Bolt’…Ben taught me well…and I wasn’t the typical nerd…I kept training…I was fit, had abs and all that crap…oh I was cute too…so ladies came and they went.

Heh heh…but like I said I changed that day…the day I got bit, the day of the fire, the day my parents died. Around the age of 10, Uncle Ben and Aunt May caught me raising the washing machine…with one hand to get an arcade coin I dropped…I remember the looks on their faces…and I saw it more with my training and karate…I was super fast, very strong, I was solid and could take human lashes with ease, agile, swift and rapidly flipped…Ben swore I was Jet Li. I told him something was different…I saw people’s real time actions as slower, we began to understand more about how my sixth sense worked…I did medical tests, body tests, endurance tests, physicals, my body was evolving…this was what the doc said. His name was Curt Connors.
The 3 of us - me, Doc and Uncle studied me…cuz things weren't normal. I was too fast, too agile…Doc called me a young Steve Rogers…whatever that means…guess he was some kinda gold medallist in Olympics gymnastics or sum so…around the age of 12…these abilities began to manifest hugely and this is when I spent almost 4 days a week in Doc’s lab…it got so freaky when I began to frickin cling to solid surfaces…I stuck to them like a spider…even if it was wet or slippery…my grip would adjust…even with oils…I’d adjust according to the fluid viscosity…Connors said twas something he’d never seen before. This guy knew his Biology, genetics and ironically, biochemistry and physiology inside out…similar to Reilly; and the catch was that he was an equally adept physicist. They began to grow wary and worried…when the NY regional karate tournament took place…and I fought Flash Thompson in the final, and I broke 3 of his ribs, and he never breathed right since, I did so inadvertently with my forearm crashing his ribcage…he called me ‘Puny Parker’ as a kid so I wanted to fight him but I didn’t exert anything at all…and that was when Ben pulled me out of combative training…and lunged me into being Connor’s lab rat…but not guinea pig…if anything this was the best move…I couldn’t hurt anyone…and I’d find out what I really was…but they kept info from me…not even Aunt May I think would tell me what Ben told her…til on my 13th birthday…I asked my new parents, “Am I a mutant?”
That’s when I finally got my explanation…from the brilliant Connors himself.

In layman’s terms, Connors explained what I was…but the shocking parts didn’t even concern my getting bitten. This stuff was bigger than any of us had ever imagined. Seemed that the spider that bit me…that caused these changes in me…mutants were born with their traits that gave them abilities…genetic anomalies…but there is radiation in my blood…this radiated mutagenic enzymes present in my blood came from the spider…you’d find out how…soon…and jeez it really hit home – Fate! I wasn’t born with my mutation hence I don’t get to go to Bald guy’s gifted school with visor kid…I’m a human mutate…all my abilities came from the venom the spider secreted into me which altered my genetic structure and gave me my powers so to say. It’s like HIV…infecting and embedding into my DNA…some jellyfish DNA was injected into mice, which made 'em glow like jellyfish…still with me folks? Same concept…the spider’s DNA became engrained in mine. Hence my metabolic efficiency is higher, I regenerate and heal faster than average, heightened reflexes and my nervous system is super, my muscles, tissue and skeleton is better than normal. Also, pesticides make me sick…go figure…and I ain’t kidding. I can cling to and climb walls…with my limbs…heck even my back…and my strength is so damn sick that I could probably kill normal humans with maximum effort…and I am a brutal fighter so don’t test me…I leap far, run super fast, am flexible like hell…agile…all the stuff I mentioned above. I am a regular…I dunno – a regular superkid! My spider-sense tingles and warns me of shit that’s gonna happen…and helps me in the dark…to go around objects…and help me aim my web lines…this is my sense of security. It makes sure no one gets the best of me…it helps me stay alive. It is my warning device! The worse the event is that’s gonna happen, the louder this alarm rings.

Now you wanna know how Connors arrived at all this? All in due time. He did blood tests on me…right after I started developing abilities as a 10 year old…and he told Ben and May of his suspicions. They turned out true after the Flash incident…he said I would evolve…a human mutate. The abilities manifested slowly so Uncle Ben thought he’d try to let me live a normal life, but with puberty, they arrived stronger and faster and Connors realized that I would never be normal. Hence why he, Ben and Aunt May took me outta fighting, and let me stick to girls and books…well the girls I did on the side and never let people know. Hey I’m a private kinda guy. Anyhows, my abilities were developing…so with each one, Uncle Ben helped me get through…the physical ones especially…reflexes, speed, agility etc…while Aunt May helped me hone my spider sense by finding the ball hidden around the house. I also took our pup, Ninja, a white hound, hunting and we’d go all over the forests and park to help hone this ability. And it worked. By the time I was 14…I was frickin invincible…so to say, even felt like a God.
But I wondered what was I supposed to do? Well one ability that freaked me out…my palm ejaculation…yeps…instead of sweaty palms, at 14, my hands secreted a gummy substance…which constitutes a polymer-like material that spiders use to make webs, but this was a much more rigid structure…a stronger polymeric fluid…and using my knowledge of chemistry, and Connors’ application of ejectors…well…basically I made the secretion into my webbing…combining polymers…the strongest known to man, thanks to Connors lab, and under stringent catalyst conditions…I was able to form my web-fluid. Now the ejector uses carrier water, which we lined into the Spidey Suit, and this water, once I push the eject button on my wrists, flows through the ejector that is my web shooter…it’s a Venturi effect where the high pressure water enters the ejector at a low velocity, then meets the ejector throat nozzle. Here the area reduces at a choke point, the velocity of the water speeds up, and pressure lowers…for a constant volumetric flow…just ask Bernoulli. Now, the ejector is connected to my wrist pouches, with the high pressure web fluid cartridges…and this fluid is at high pressure…and moves to a low pressure system…it moves through the ejector…so now this web fluid mixes with water and shoots out the ejector…it shoots out the web shooter, forms my super-strong web which is really frickin robust…can hold a fridge dude; and this web is what I use to swing and kick asses…and my aim is via the spider sense. Easy right? Well…I wanted to become a super hero…by the age of 15 I told 'em all this…Uncle Ben helped train me, I had combat skills…and now, well I made web shooters…well alls I need is a costume.

Doc Connors tried along with my new parents to convince me to just be under the radar and try to live a normal life; but we all knew I wouldn’t. It was Fate – took my parents away, gave me spider-bitten powers, made me realise I was meant for more. Just after my 15th birthday in January, Uncle Ben went to the grocery, bought some goods to deliver for old hobo JMS. JMS stayed in an old shack about 10 minutes from us…and Aunt May was ill and unable to send a meal for him. Ben went over…and when he entered the shack…he was ambushed.
I was web-slinging through the town…just my tenth try…and I had a frickin paper bag on my head…Uncle would kill me if he saw this…but I lost all focus when I saw squad cars heading towards the house on my street…I began shooting and swinging above the traffic as onlookers gasped. Something was off…cuz JMS was a good 300 metres from his home; he was asleep on the park merry go-round.
Turns out some bank robbers hid by JMS after a recent robbery, and they took refuge till Ben came…they held him gunpoint…and he couldn’t do a thing…and they took him home, hijacked our car and headed on the streets to the city. Aunt May phoned it in…and I followed in hot pursuit…to the upstairs of old STAN LEE WAREHOUSE…an old comics factory…
“They upstairs…they got him hostage,” yelled the cops as they surrounded the place and tried to shine lights in… but they couldn’t see any of the perps. I was already inside though, and there were 4 of em….they had money and a hostage…and before they knew it, my masked face was swinging into em…I tackled two and blinded one with my web, the third shot but I ducked and he hit the man holding Ben. I lassoed the guy who shot, and flung him through the window and into the dumpster…3 to go. The other guy wasn’t able to pull the face web off and I jumpkicked him down the stairs…and the other rushed me only to be round-housed out cold. I sensed it…gunshot coming…but before I reacted Uncle Ben hit the last man with an iron post…all down.
“Quick get outta here Pete…I’ll say I used my NAVY skills to neutralize em.”
“But they wont believe that…you’re old, 49 right?” I whispered, but he made it clear and I obeyed. The NYPD couldn’t believe that Ben did this, but they had to. I was already pacing it home, couldn’t web swing cuz if anyone saw me…too much attention…but alas, pics were already out due to my casual swings through NYC. Spider-Man they called me. I was on ‘youtube’ also. WTF indeed. Twas that moment, I saved Uncle Ben, I realised my calling – my Fate – that’s when I told 'em and Connors – I’m gonna be a superhero…and they fought me to the end…but the cat was outta the bag…I was already seen through the city, people were whispering that Ben got helped by Spider-Man…so I made it clear…I needed a costume…and using my secretions, a Kevlar liquid, nylon and synthetic fibrous material…Connors lined the suit we made with cooling carrier water…I used my poetic taste in art…and designed the look…blue and scarlet…like him who bit me…and Spider-Man was born. Right there in Doc’s lab…I was ready! I was official. I was Spider-Man. The Doc was my aid…just like Ben…they along with May, made up my team…Go Team Spidey!

…The kicker remained…my first official public crime-stop…twas amazing indeed!…Oh I still didn’t explain how Connors knew what I was…it wasn’t from just blood tests, lab experiments and me telling him a spider bit me…Curt Connors is an integral part to this…he knew where the spider came from…who created that spider that bit me…he knew Ben Reilly! He knew just what Ben and NYESC was doing before it was destroyed.

---

***Chapter 6 – A Hole in the World***
Tuesday 9th February, 2009 – Gwen’s room – 8:15 am

“I missed you…I thought of you whole last night…my chest tightened up…I couldn’t breathe…I got nervous…just like right now…I’m drawing short breaths…Cassie,” I whispered as my nose embedded itself in Gwen’s hair.
We ducked school – hooky we play – cuz after last night, I needed her…at my side. More than she needed me.
“I was shocked when I got your text message this morning…for us to stay in…and cuddle…meannie!” she replied as she kissed my lips gently. Her lips were soft, felt like heaven itself, like marshmallows…soft…and when we kissed…both our lips flowed over each other so smoothly – like it was meant to be – like God depicted it when he shone the first light in this dark universe…my top lip would always be over her top lip…my bottom lip over her bottom lip…and she always bit my lower lip…as I gently pulled and sucked at her top one…simple physics…for every action, there is an equal and opp…screw that bullshit…for every second we get close…our faces touch…I hafta kiss her!!!
“You called me Cassie?…you barely call me by my middle name…and the rare times you do, you call me Cassandra remember meannie?”
“Sure I do. But I just wanted to try it on!”
“Oh really?”
“573 time…,”and she kissed me hard…pressingly before I could finish. I held her tight, kissed her forehead…the routine I ensured…to let her know…I felt this way…this strongly. We always locked our right hands and left hands in the others’ and spread our arms, bended like the wings of a plane extended, and we squeezed each others’ fingers and hands…and we did this cuz we could feel each others’ energy and ebb flowing through the other. We were one…just like when we kissed…our souls became one…we shared a single positive energy…that is some sappy shit but it’s so frickin true. Our minds could be casually dressed and deep in conversation, we could be separated by miles…but we’d always know when one was missing or thinking of the other.
“I’m glad you’re here Pete, I got bummy after you bolted you know…thank God…I feel fuzzy right now…don’t scare me like that!”
“Gwen…there’s something you need to know”
“Huh…whazzat,” she softly whispered while she looked dead into my black eyes. I watched her fair skin, her lovely face, her red cheeks…cute nose…she took out a Rice Krispie and threw the empty can coke to the ground…how cute was she!
“Last night…I,” I had to choose my words wisely, “I didn’t sleep cuz I had…a dream…about us…I was thinking of my future and what I wanted to do with it…Uncle Ben and Aunt May were concerned with me and school and a buncha other crap..”
“But why Pete…you’re a brilliant student meannie!”
“It’s not that…they’re worried that…”
“They think I’m a bad influence?”
“No…Gosh no…they think I’m gonna do something rash…like go and try to save the day!”
“Haha…don’t they know we have Spider-Man for that shit. Haha. He must be some old billionaire freak or a guy from Mars or something…at least he helps…I hope haha…can’t trust guys in masks…you think he’s a rapist?”
“Haha I hope not,” I chuckled.
“But why are they worried?”
“I dunno…I guess it’s cuz I always do what I want, what I feel to do…I throw caution to the wind…reckless shit you know…like how I didn’t care that Flash dated you…yet I made sure I’d steal you from him…”
“We already made it clear that we were both wanting each other Pete…don’t feel guilt or remorse…listen I’m sorry…I know I put you in that spot…that sticky mess…and I know now we spend all this time together…it’s my fault…”
Before she could finish I kissed her, “No that’s just it…Gwen…Cassie…there’s no place I’d rather be! The only person I want to spend time with is…You! If you had one place to be right now, your own utopia where…what would it be?”
“No need to think, Pete…it’s right here…right now…I always wanted this…with you!”
“Well this is my second favourite Gwen…cuz my fave…well I dreamt it…you…I dreamt us last night…that’s why I wanted to stay in with you today…and get lost with each other. Time I figure is threadbare…but now…these moments are golden…forever everlasting. My utopia…I dreamt it last night Gwennie…Cassie…”
I held her face tightly with my hands.
“My utopia is where me and you…we hover with the stars…in the sky…in the gaze of the silver moon…and this moon watches us…like an eye…like a hole in the world…and it’s just us up there. Up there it’s us…and Yellow plays…from Coldplay…Look at the stars…look how they shine for you…and all the things you do…”
“Your voice is sucky”
“Haha…yup cutie!”
“You really dreamt us?”
“I dreamt us…it was like when you ask me to teleport to your room? I saw us…I teleported to when we got older Cassie…that’s what I called you…Cassie”
“What’d you dream? Remember our second date here…you asked me that…and we kissed for the first time?”
“I never forget a single second, word, thought, phone call, text or spoken voice with you…and in this dream…I dreamt I was looking down at my grave…but it was empty…I looked at my shoe…and my clothes…and felt my face…I was covered in dirt…and there were objects all around…my future it seemed…it seemed that I had dug out of my grave…like I was dead and brought back to life. I think that’s what I was all this time…dead inside…till I met you and you brought me to life…and in that dream, I looked up…and I saw Ninja with a frickin cape or sumting…and he was lifting a table into the glare of the moon…and I saw you there…you were counting the stars…and as I blinked…I appeared…teleported…changed…clean…sitting opposite you while the mutt held us in the sky Gwen…Cassie…I stared into your eyes…and you were gorgeous…older…your hair was longer…you were as beautiful as you are now…you didn’t wear any makeup…you had no ‘look’…it was the mature you…with a red top…baseball tee…cut below the elbow…and I asked why you were crying…you looked so beautiful…and you told me…I looked differently…my hair was shorter and blacker…I was taller you said…you said I looked like I aged 5 years…and you looked the same way also…I asked again why you were crying…and you said…it was because I had left one day and left you…and you…you told me in the dream…that every night you and Ninja would wait in the sky for me…you said you did this for years…cuz you knew one day I’d come back…and I did…I came back for you…I recited in my mind the 5 things I had to do for you…1) Kiss your forehead 2) pinch your cheeks 3) hold and squeeze both your hands 4) feel your hair 5) kiss both your warm hands…and the sixth thing Peter Parker does for you Gwen Cassie Stacy…before I could whisper it you asked me – Pete where have you been and you cried…tears I wiped away…you asked me where’d I run off to…where was I hiding…well I did the sixth thing there and then Gwen…I told you the truth…that’s the final thing Peter Parker does for you – tells the truth.”
“What did you say when I asked where you were hiding?”


“It seemed that I lost you…or rather you lost me Gwen…in this dream…but we managed to find a way back to each other…in this dream. I woke up sweating bullets crazily. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even text or call. I needed to feel and be near you…to know you were real, my dream come true…not just this fantasy dream girl”
“You meant everything you said in the dream?”
“I did…I do…I’ve just been afraid to say it…to admit to myself and to you…cuz I’m scared…I don’t wanna lose you. This poem…read it…I..umm..”
She took my crumpled paper…and opened it neatly…and ironed it with her hand…

“In this blackout, inertia will hold our thoughts...
And the exit sign offers no light to see by.
Can we cast our shadows alone in the dark?
I can't see... without you.

When the world is crashing down,
Part with it, start again.
When the world is crashing down,
These notes will fold themselves.

Standing at the margin's edge...
to see where the daybreak ends.
You can find compassion here,
But the page turns too fast.

We fell in this hole that opened up...
Giving up on hope,
Living without love.
We still type black lines...
When the world is crashing down,
These notes will fold themselves.

Adjust the aperture to focus on the negative.
Like phosphors in the darkroom ignite,
Like dodging faces in the corner of the print,
Frame by frame, this hole is opening up... and we fall in.

There is no such thing as whole.
There is a hole in the world...without you by my side.”

“Gwen…I felt so alone without you last night…so empty…afraid…and incomplete…I don’t want to lose you!”
“I don’t either. I can’t lose you. We’d never lose each other. I promise. I swear”
“We can’t promise that, can we?”
“Yes…we can” she replied as she kissed my nose, “…so why are we waiting to say those words Pete…you know either of us could die…could flatline…stop breathing right this second?”
“No…it won’t happen…God isn’t that mean or cruel…I’m a meannie…not him!”
“So are we going to say it?”
“I’m scared Gwen”
She sighed as she hugged me tighter than ever… “Me too meannie, me too.”
We wrapped each other and lay there…just lay in each others’ embrace…these were welcome open arms…and it was just us alone…in this world…in this hole. All in our parallel universe. I slipped in a disc in the player…Miles Davis and a James Taylor mix…to get lit to…I fell asleep…we in each other’s arms…this was home…where we’d make it…where the heart is…her room felt like my home…I felt comfortable, wanted and loved…I never thought I’d find another place that I’d feel this way about. I was next to the girl I loved…this dream was reality.


That same time –
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams.

“You didn’t rest Sir?”
The voice came over the intercom…Osborn watched the picture in his hand with great mystery and a sad disposition…he was so taken aback at the picture of the lady in it…fair maiden, brown hair, hazel eyes…pretty indeed…and at the base was a poem scribbled…

‘Emily…
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.’

“Sir…??”
Norman put the picture back into the top drawer…and hastily fixed his tie…
“I am a Machine, Dmitri, I need no rest…not for the wicked. I am pondering my next move on this chessboard.”

“Sir, I am currently en route to Brazil. The jet-screens are running logistics as we speak…the traces are thinner and thinner…trail is growing cold Sir.”
“Hmmm…so it seems. But we must always remember…a concept called misdirection…That which we are looking for…may lie right before our eyes…” said Osborn as he stared at the newspaper. The front page made his brow furious – ‘MENACE’ it read, showing a blurred web-slinger over the WTC.
“You don’t think it is just a wrong assumption for us to make Sir?…We do not have the facts…we need the proof and data before we…we ran the numbers…they do not match”
“Dmitri…I AM SURE YOU ARE LOOKING AT SEVERAL SCREENS IN THAT JET…PROCESSING ORACLES OF INFO…BUT I KNOW…THE WARREN CHASE WAS A THROW-OFF BUT THIS TIME…THIS ONE TIME…I WANT TO DO IT THE WAY OF THE FIST…I WANT…NO…I NEED HIM…I PLAYED COY…WE TESTED THEORIES…HYPOTHESES…WE WAITED…BUT THERE’S A REASON WHY WE CANNOT FIND BEN REILLY OUT THERE IN THE WORLD…A REASON WHY THAT INTRUDER SAVED MILES WARREN’S LIFE THAT NIGHT…A REASON WHY HE IS POPPING UP RECENTLY AFTER WE GOT CLOSE WITH OUR REILLY CRUSADE…A REASON WHY HE DOES THE THINGS HE DOES IN THIS CITY…WHY HE CAME HERE TO NY CITY OVER A YEAR AGO…TO TEASE AND TORMENT ME…A REASON HE POPPED UP A YEAR AGO WHEN WE WERE HOT ON REILLY’S ASS…A REASON WHY HE HAS US CHASING SHADOWS…DMITRI…WE MUST BRING HIM IN…I CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER…BRING HIM IN…BEN REILLY IS ALIVE…"
Norman’s mind dreamt his words – His office was smouldering with imaginative hell-fire as he yelled and screamed at his shadow!

He took a breath before his mind calmed in its dream, and he calmly exclaimed in a stern voice, “Bring in Ben Reilly!”
“Sir but…”
“I want him alive!”
“As you wish Sir!”
Osborn stood firm and he breathed diligently as he looked at the paper headline…his mind wandered again as he yelled…
“BEN REILLY IS SPIDER-MAN!”



***Chapter 7 – Full Circle***
Remember I said that me getting bitten was just a part of the story…that Connors had a huge deal to play?…That he knew what Ben Reilly and NYESC were doing?…Well…Turns out that Ben and his team had engineered this spider – Madame Web – PROJECT: CHARLOTTE…was the codename. This was their most successful achievement…the spider could lift 1000 times its body weight…they made this spider…well…amazing…spectacular. They played God. Genetic engineering to the max. But NYESC was going to be bought out…just before it went up in flames…3 months before…a secret merger had been brokered…where a young businessman, a master-of-industry ‘stormin’ Norman Osborn…became major share-holder of the company. The other key stakesman…Mendel Stromm, was Osborn’s right hand man…they both studied chemistry and electrical engineering…Osborn’s fortune…passed from Alton ‘robber-baron’ to Amberson Osborn to his son, Norman…plus Mendel’s manoeuvring within the boardroom led to this corporate takeover…and Norman immediately made the power play. He took keen interest in the research department Reilly and company worked in, and he threw huge focus onto JACKAL and CARRION.
It was clear that Osborn was up to no good…and it soon unfolded. Ben Reilly realised that he was in trouble…just around the time CHARLOTTE was deemed a success…he found that Osborn and Stromm planned to do the unthinkable…human test subjects. This was to win a secret contract with the covert section under US ARMY jurisdiction…but Reilly knew that this, if successful and in wrong hands, could be marketed on a terrorist scale…he realised Norman wanted to use NYESC for his own intents and purposes, for no good…to make weapons, armies, and to gain more power…and his starting point was from the military aspect of things. Past military projects had yielded super-soldiers, but rumours of such projects as PROJECT REBIRTH were deemed fables, and Norman planned to rise the American ranks by showing he could make the army of soldiers fit for this nation…by ANY means necessary. But Reilly’s team had not allowed CHARLOTTE’S success to be revealed. Everything they worked on…along with everything NYESC worked on…went to the NYESC hard-drive…a giant mainframe…which some of the world’s greatest minds worked on…Otto Octavius, some other guy named Richards, who had a genius son or some crap like that…helped build it…called it ‘THE OTHER’. All the science stuff went into this…all but the project CHARLOTTE…and selective other stuff Ben and his group worked on…that if in the wrong hands, Norman’s, could be exploited. Instead, Ben found out what was going to happen…that Osborn was personally going to come to see his team…and Ben knew that it was just a matter of time before Osborn found out about CHARLOTTE. So he did what he thought right…the info needed hiding, all the secret projects and data, and research; as well as all the data stored in ‘THE OTHER’; Ben hacked the system…and stole every bit of data from ‘THE OTHER’…stored everything…he was going to shut down NYESC.
All the data was hidden…and Ben knew that he would be found out…that Osborn would come after him, so he sent fake trails out all over the world, and set up fake Ids, fake addresses, fake everything…to throw Osborn off…and send him on a wild goose chase…for the data. Ben routed these trails to scientists and random people all over the world, just to kill the real destination of this data. Ben knew that some people may have gotten hurt, but he was thinking of the greater good…a few lives hurt so that this info would be in safe hands, saving millions of lives. He did what he felt right, even if twas wrong. The destination of all this data – well Ben trusted one person; and he made sure there was no trace to this person…Curt Connors…NY CITY…would be the last place Norman would look for the data…it never left the city…even if he found Reilly, Osborn would not find the data…Connors got all the info transferred to him…that same day… ‘THE OTHER’ was wiped totally clean…the same day Ben Reilly wanted to get the spider ‘Madame Web’ out of the facility…safely to Connors…that was the same day…of the NYESC fire…when flames burned the building…and lives were lost – my parents and Ben Reilly included! That day…Connors got all the data from Reilly…everything NYESC was…and he would use this in enhancing the Empire State U secretly; the same day that Norman watched his precious science centre burn to the ground…they say he lost piece of his mind that day. The money he received…insurance…he used…and he tricked his other investors and NYESC board…into investing into a new company…and he one-by-one had them relegated to minority shares…even his friend Stromm, who took a shotgun to his head a year after…for Osborn had formed his own company…his vision of NYESC…he hadn’t the heart and soul and data of NYESC…but nonetheless, OSCORP was a force…is a force to be reckoned with!
Osborn never let go of NYESC…they say his sanity was grazing away as he lost a lot of credibility and contracts…as he failed to deliver certain promises…made on the auspices that NYESC would be his play-farm. He never let go of the lost data, of ‘THE OTHER’. That was his white whale.
Now, the reason why Connors plays a big deal…well, he got all the data…as well as instructions from Ben Reilly, hide this data with his life, use it for good only, help heal this broken world, well…he realized that there was little chance ‘Madame Web’ survived the blast…and like I said – I’m a huge believer in Fate – cuz when shit started happening with me…Uncle Ben took me right to him – Aunt May knew Jan held Connors in high esteem…cuz Ben did…Reilly had huge respect…but never let it be known for Connors…his science rival…his nemesis in University it seemed. So when May said that he might be the best bet to attend to Peter…well Fate brought us all together! I was 10 and lifting machines single handedly…and Connors after doing blood tests and labs on me…saw the bloodwork had matching DNA strands…of Ben’s spider. He realized that I shared this DNA. He was sure – I was the hybrid…that’s why Connors diagnosed me properly…he knew exactly what I was – why I was Spider-Man…he waited to see if these abilities would quell but when things got bigger and serious, and out of control…after the Flash incident…when I was 12…when things got way beyond weird…he told Uncle Ben and Aunt May everything…that’s how they knew I was not a mutant for sure…cuz God knows they swore I’d be a mutant and join that X-club…and they told me everything on my 13th birthday…I was a human mutate spider-kid…oh yeah don’t forget…a few months later…this 13 year old Parker went into high school! What a way to start high school huh???
My point is that – Fate – check it…Jan couldn’t have kids…adopted Ben, Ben was a scientist, made this super-spider…my family went to see him, building blew up, spider bit me, my parents died, Ben Reilly died, I got spider powers and saved Uncle Ben and Aunt May…they adopted me…my father’s brother was my teacher…taught me to be a man…then my powers kicked in…and the doctor I visited…turns out he has all the info on why I am who I am…he helps me…he guides me…he and Uncle Ben and Aunt May…they groom me to use my powers for good…I save Uncle Ben from thugs…I decide I want to be Spider-Man in high school…at age 15…and then a few months later…I fall further totally in love with Gwen…Yep…that is called Fate ladies and gents!!! Everything comes full circle…always remember that…Richie Spice said that I think!

That same time at Oscorp –
“Run you web slinger, run and hide…I am coming for you troll…I am coming! Gents, are you ready? Bring the bastard in alive. I am paying good money so I expect results…I have suited you with the proper weapons, the data and relevant info are in the databases…so bring him in…bloody, beaten and alive…bring me Spider-Man!” screamed Norman.
The 3 goons looked at each other, smiled and nodded evilly.
“Yes Sir!” they unanimously reported with intent and smiles on their face. They couldn’t wait to go after the wall-crawler.
“You wanted this Reilly, now here’s to throwing down the gauntlet!” Osborn exclaimed.
The 3 men in their suit boarded a hovercraft and looked back at Osborn. They took flight and headed into the heart of the city.
Osborn quietly whispered to himself, “You have fought the meaningless thugs, the weak of this city…now let’s see how you do against my super-powered men…are we villains? No, Spider-Man…we are heroes…America will see this…they will see me for the legend I am and will continue...to...be…and I’ll start with you…MY MEN ARE GOING TO BEAT YOU TO THE BRINK OF DEATH…AND THEN I AM GOING TO DISSECT YOU AND INFLICT SO MUCH PAIN, YOU’D WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN REILYYYYY!” screamed Norman as he laughed…loudly and maniacally in the high skies of his office as he re-entered.

“WHEN I AM DONE SPIDER-MAN WILL BE NO MORE!”