[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/XV1PIyT.jpg?2[/img][/center]

[b]Three Weeks Ago[/b]

I flip through videos on YouTube idly as the school year's final hours tick to a close. Another school year done, another summer break to start. Knowing we only have one more year of high school after this is exhilarating, but there's something else about this summer. I'm going to become a freaking superhero. Crazy, I know. But after getting superpowers from a weird, genetically-altered spider, what other choice do I have?

I mean, I've been trying my hand at it, but after a mistake weeks ago, I'm ready to really do what someone with what I've been given.

Heh. A mistake. What an understatement. I only let my selfish urges get in my way, and a man that's like a second father to me ended up dead. Mistake. Who am I kidding?"

A video thumbnail catches my eye as I'm lost in thought, and I quickly click it. The video opens to show panicked people running from a collapsing building. Why the idiot is filming this instead of running faster I'll never know, but he ends up being lucky. From above, a blur of blue and red swoops down and catches the debris, saving hundreds of civilians. The camera fumbles around before focusing on the hero, a man who looks like he's sculpted out of marble like the Greek gods.

[color=f26522]"Oh my god, Superman is so hot,"[/color] Mary Jane Watson whispers in my ear as she leans over to gawk at the superhero. 

[color=007236]"Babe!"[/color] Harry Osborn responds defensively.

[color=ec008c]"I mean, come on, Har,"[/color] I laugh at his look of abject terror, [color=ec008c]"Superman is objectively fine. It's scientific fact."[/color]

[color=0054a6]"Harry,"[/color] Peter Parker adds in, [color=0054a6]"his arm is like the size of your torso. He has a 12 pack. You have a keg. An empty one."[/color]

[color=007236]"You guys suck,"[/color] Harry grumbled as he poked at his bicep.

I didn't open the video to ogle, even if it is a side benefit. No, I did it because Superman is exactly the kind of hero I want to be. I could never do what he does, but I want people to look at me with the same kind of hope they do with him. I want to help make people safer. If I can do that, I've done my job.  

[center]**********[/center]

[b]Two Weeks Ago[/b]

The guy runs as goofy as he’s dressed. The wide-brimmed, floppy hat near falls off his head as his gangly frame scrambles down the street in a panicked haste. The striped shirt and domino mask really...wait. Holy crap. This guy is dressed like the Hamburglar. Straight out of McDonald’s!

Meanwhile, I’m running across the face of a building after him, enjoying the hell out of the new suit Pete’s cooked up for me. Carbon fiber weave on the outside and some sort of temperature regulating fabric on the inside keep me protected as well as comfortable. Pete says he did it after hours at Oscorp, and assures me no one will be able to track it back to me. I’m still worried a little, but I can’t deny I love looking as good as I do right now.

[color=ec008c][b]“Hey buddy!”[/b][/color] I call out to the burglar. [color=ec008c][b]“You left Grimace back at the bodega!”[/b][/color]

He turns, showing fear in his eyes, and fires off a shot with the pistol he just used to hold up the bodega owner. The bullet comes nowhere near me and strikes the brick wall I’m running across, but it shows the guy is sloppy. A stray bullet could easy break through a window and hit an innocent person.

I kick off the wall and leap on top of the man tackling him to the ground. The gun clatters away from him harmlessly. He tries to fight me, but with my strength he doesn’t stand much of a chance. 

[color=00a99d]“Gah! Let go you freak! You won’t get the Bodega Bandit this easily!”[/color]

Recoiling and wincing from the pain of that terrible name, I respond,[color=ec008c][b] “Bodega Bandit? Come on man. Between that and the Hamburglar costume you’ve got to know a life of crime isn’t going to work out for you?”[/b][/color]

Before he can answer, I rip off an unused bike chain near me and tie his hands to a lightpole, [color=ec008c][b]“Now, don’t struggle. I don’t want you getting hurt.”[/b][/color]

From down the street, I hear sirens approaching. I turn back to my newly captured foe and shrug, [color=ec008c][b]“Sorry, buddy. Looks like Mayor McCheese has Officer Big Mac coming for ya. Have fun!”[/b][/color]

I head back towards my house, knowing my dad will probably be home at any minute. From behind me, the Bodega Bandit yells that I'll regret this.

[center]**********[/center]

[b]The Next Day[/b]

[color=8493ca]“SPIDER-MONSTERS IN QUEENS!”[/color] the booming, baritone, possibly slightly-intoxicated voice of J. Jonah Jameson explodes out of the laptop speakers as Peter chuckles and tosses a ball up in down lying in bed. [color=8493ca]“Spider monsters in New York City, true believers. Now this is an Info Bugle exclusive everyone. One of my friends in the NYPD, our heroic boys in blue, tells me that a man was attacked by a monstrous, half-human, half-spider creature in Queens. It lunged onto him, and would have bitten his face clean off if it wasn’t for the arrival of the police.”[/color]

The video in front of me is legitimately insane. The portly man in it pounds on a desk full of papers as he turns about as red as any human can possibly get before exploding, or at least giving themselves a massive aneurysm. His hair flails about, and his mustache looks like a caterpillar holding on for dear life as he runs his mouth.

[color=ec008c]“And he does this...every day?”[/color] I look back at Pete in amazement.

[color=0054a6]“Oh yea,” [/color]he nods. [color=0054a6]“This is actually him being pretty calm. He tends to take off his shirt when he’s really worked up.”[/color]

[color=8493ca]“Now, I’ve been doing some digging,”[/color] Jameson calms down and tries to smooth over his mussed up hair. [color=8493ca]“I believe whatever this spider creature is, now this is straight from someone I trust very much who should not be telling me this, remember. This thing is an escaped government weapon. They designed it to fight the superhuman threat that has been spreading over this planet like a disease! Now, what is the government not telling us about their response tactics to the superheroes? Why aren’t they telling us about their human-animal experiments? Find out tomorrow on the Info Bugle, where we trumpet the truth.”[/color]

[color=ec008c]“Oh god the tagline is so bad. I thought everything was bad and then the tagline came and I think I may have thrown up a little,”[/color] I grimace and gag.

[color=0054a6]“Yea,”[/color] Pete nods. [color=0054a6]“It’s bad. Really bad. But hey, you’re name’s getting out.”[/color]

[color=ec008c]“As a freaky science experiment!” [/color]I protest.

[color=0054a6]“Which will scare people!”[/color] Pete answers. [color=0054a6]“That’s what the Bat in Gotham does. Seems like a good idea for you.”[/color]

I shake my head, [color=ec008c]“That’s not what I want, Peter. I want to be a hero people can look to for hope. Not something to be feared.”[/color]

He considers it before changing the subject, [color=0054a6]“Well, I also invited you over to give you an update on the other project I’ve been working on. They should be ready in a few weeks.”[/color]

[center]**********[/center]

[b]Now[/b]

I stand on the roof of some still-under-construction, swanky Manhattan  apartment building pacing back and forth. The wind whips across my face, rustling the hood of my costume, This is absolutely crazy. There's no other explanation for what I'm about to do. It's crazy. I must have a death wish. I mean, I know Peter is a genius and all, but trusting him with something like this makes no rational sense. Hell, getting bit by a radioactive spider and becoming a superhero makes more sense then jumping off a thirty story building for fun.

[color=0054a6]"What are you waiting for?"[/color] Peter's impatient voice filters through the in-suit communicator he installed when he made the costume. His help certainly has been welcomed, that's for sure. I wouldn't be able to hang with bad guys like Batman or the other superheroes do without him. The fact that it gives him something to distract him from Uncle Ben and soothes my own crushing guilt doesn't hurt either. [color=0054a6]"Gwen, I told you it's going to work. When have I ever steered you wrong?"[/color]

The question hangs in the air for a few moments before I answer, [b][color=deeppink]"Remember when you told me crayons taste like candy?"[/color][/b]

[color=0054a6]"I was five!"[/color] he yells back in his own defense. [color=0054a6]"And I mean watching you pick blue out of your teeth was hilarious."[/color]

[b][color=deeppink]"Yea well, my mom nearly had a cow when a blue turd showed up in the toilet,"[/color][/b] I respond with a chuckle. Mentioning mom still brings a twinge of pain to my heart. It's lessened over the years, but I'm not convinced it's ever really going to fully go away. I'm also not really sure I want it to. If that happens, it might mean I don't miss her anymore, and I never want to feel what that feels like.

[color=0054a6]"Stop stalling and jump,"[/color] Pete breaks me out of my own thoughts.

[b][color=deeppink]"Fine,"[/color][/b] I sigh before adding, [b][color=deeppink]"but if I die I'm haunting you. You'll never sleep again without your closet door creaking open and closed constantly, and parts of your room being abnormally cold."[/color][/b]

I take a deep breath before backing up a few steps. It's not that I need a running start or anything. My legs are strong enough for me to jump clear cross to the building across the street without so much as a bend of the knee. Benefits of super strength and all that. But subconsciously I feel the need to run. Hell, maybe it's my brain telling me to runaway...but I'm gonna choose to ignore that.

After another sigh and shrug of my shoulders to no one in particular, I take off towards the drop-off. As my toes curl around the edge of the building, I push off and corkscrew through the New York night.  The air rushes around me like a hurricane as I free fall towards the street below. When I'm halfway down, I say a prayer and let loose with Peter's new invention.

A thin line of web-like fluid erupts from the device on my wrist and sticks to the wall of the building closest to me. I hold my breath as the line goes taught, but all the worry is for nothing. The substance holds my weight perfectly, and sends me swinging in an arc higher above the street. I let go of the line, do a back flip, and shoot another line to swing from.

[b][color=deeppink]"Wahoo!"[/color][/b] the scream escapes my lips, surprising even me as I come in low, towards the street and land on a bus moving down the avenue. A stupid, wide, infections grin is painted on my face under the mask. Pete really outdid himself this time.

[color=0054a6]"I told you it'd work,"[/color] the tech genius says, self satisfied.

[b][color=deeppink]"I can't hear you, Parker,"[/color][/b] I respond, jumping off the bus, swinging around the top of a light pole to gain momentum, before launching myself into the sky and swinging along the skyscrapers. [b][color=deeppink]"I'm too busy being a superhero."[/color][/b]

[color=0054a6]"What does it feel like?"[/color] he asks longingly.

[b][color=deeppink]"Like I'm Tarzan!"[/color][/b] I laugh back, before catching myself. [b][color=deeppink]"You know, without the white savior tropes and implied racism."[/color][/b]

Suddenly, I hear sirens explode in the distance.

[b][color=deeppink]"Well, Pete, they're calling our number. Time to see how these babies handle in a fight!"[/color][/b]