March 21st 2005, 4:05pm
A light snowfall fell over Peter's head as he dragged his feet through the slush that came with March's milder weather. After day of school had come and gone, another day when Flash had attempted to lock Peter in his own locker, make fun of Peter's lack of a girlfriend and once again call his sexuality into question. To make matters worse, Flash had even called attention to Peter looking in the same direction as Liz Allen while she was bent over. While Peter had noticed her thong riding up, he hadn't been staring at it. That didn't stop Flash from calling Peter a 'gay pervert' however. Nothing in Peter's life could ever go his way, things had been bad before Uncle Ben's death but at least Peter always had Uncle Ben to come to. Uncle Ben had always known exactly what to say.
If only Peter hadn't been out that night, foolishly spending his evening wrestling of all things. Sure he had been making money, but to what end? It's not like he was trying to help out his Aunt and Uncle, no instead all he had been concerned with was making money to buy new clothes and maybe even a car to impress the girls at school. Puny Parker would finally have been a thing of the past, everyone would have known his name. But all that had been in vain, if he hadn't been so obsessed with his popularity he could have been home. He could have used his new abilities to stop the gunman, disarming him in one quick move being the hero that his Aunt and Uncle had needed. Instead Peter had come home to police outside the house and the front door's glass smashed in from where Uncle Ben's lifeless body had fallen.
Feeling his pocket vibrate, Peter removed one of his gloves as he reached into his pocket to pull out the new cellphone that Aunt May had given him. After Uncle Ben's death, Aunt May had been a wreck and rightly so. Uncle Ben had been her life partner of nearly forty years. Highschool sweethearts, the two had lived through the sixties and seventies together. Travelling the country even attending the 'Summer of Love' in San Francisco. Life without Uncle Ben must have been hell for Aunt May and Peter held himself responsible.
"Hullo." Peter said as he brought the phone to his ear before answering it.
"Oh Peter, I'm glad to see the phone I bought you works." Aunt May replied as she started to ramble on. "It's amazing how far technology has come in the last decade. I could scarcely believe it when the salesman had told me that little device was a cellphone. You should have seen the ones that came out in the eighties, your father used to carry one around."
"I think I found that phone in a box in the basement." Peter added as he felt his throat tighten upon hearing Aunt May's voice.
"Anyways Peter, could you pick up some eggs from the store on your way home or are you almost here?" Aunt May asked as Peter nodded his head before turning on his heel.
"It's okay Aunt May, I can go back for them." Peter answered as he started to walk towards the store he had passed nearly two blocks back.
"Sorry Peter, just with Ben gone and filling out all the paper work for the insurance company my mind has been else where. It's just been..." Aunt May's voice paused as Peter heard her sniffle slight before clearing her throat. Tears well up in his own eyes as he heard his Aunt struggling to control her emotions. "It's just been hard." She added quickly before clearing her throat slightly again.
"Aunt May, I..." Peter paused carefully considering his next words. "I'm so sorry, if I had been home that night..."
"Peter don't." Aunt May scolded him. "If you had been home, it could have been you dead on the floor. And I know for a fact Ben would give his life for you Peter, don't go spoiling his memory by wishing you in his place instead."
Stuttering, Peter tried to backpedal as the works struggled to come out. "Aunt May, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..."
"Shush child, it's okay I know you didn't mean anything by it. Anyways I should let you go apparently you only have so many minutes to talk on your phone. Please don't squish the eggs." Aunt May said before the line went dead as she hung up.
"Yeah... bye Aunt May." Peter said tucking the phone back in his pocket before blowing on his hand to warm it up and pulling his glove back on. Walking into the convenience store, the door bell rang as Peter made his way through the narrow isles. Without a major grocer in the immediate area, 'Browne's Corner Store' had expanded its selection to accommodate most general needs. As such the shelves were often overstocked and crowded but the locals lived the store and the owner actually offered fairly reasonable prices, a rare occurrence in a city such as New York. Walking to the back, Peter opened the fridge before pulling out a dozen eggs and turning around. The 'ding' of the door rung out through the empty store as another man entered. Getting distracted by the magazine rack as he flipped through 'Popular Mechanics', 'Advanced Idea Mechanics', 'Horizon Magazine', 'S.T.A.R. Labs' and 'FoxTech Monthly'. Suddenly a painful tingling sensation shot through the back of Peter's head as he dropped the magazine in his head to the ground.
"Just give me the money in the register man." Peter looked towards the front seeing the man who had entered after him holding up the register. The owner, Marcus Browne had raised his hands in surrender but was still shaking his head towards the armed man. For the first time in his life, Peter was thankful that his meek and nonthreatening demeanor had made him invisible. Reaching into his backpack, Peter pulled out his wrestling mask, the eyes appeared to stare back at him and he could have sworn it nodded as Peter realized what he had to do. Pulling the mask on, Peter opened the carton of eggs and chucked one towards the thief.
"Hey!" Peter called feeling his bowels threatening to empty at any moment. "Yeah I'm talking to you King Louie." The big man turned towards Peter as Peter threw another egg. Catching the egg, 'Louie' crushed it in his hand, yolk and whites falling to the floor before being sprinkled in broken shell.
"Big mistake kid." Louie growled as he pulled the trigger. Peter felt his heart stop only for his body to react and turn as the tingling in his head seemed to explode again. Almost involuntarily, Peter felt his body twist out of the bullet's path as he leaped into the air, adhering to the ceiling.
"You some kind of freak?" Louie growled. "World would be better off without you mutie."
"Now that's just rude." Peter called back, not knowing where his voice was sudenly coming from. "For all you know I could be a really nice guy. We could have hit it off, gone out for beers maybe even found ourselves a nice pair of girls before we parted for the night. But no, instead you had to go and shoot first." Peter quipped as he pushed off the ceiling, his new found strength flung him across the store before his feet connected with the thief's chest. The wind was knocked from the larger man as he was sent flying, crashing into the wall before slumping to the ground unconscious.
"Who are you?" Marcus asked as he looked towards Peter and his mask.
"Uh..." Peter paused before opening his mouth again. "Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." He added as he threw down the money for the eggs. "Gotta run." He called as he shoved the remaining eggs in his backpack and ran out the door.
March 21st 2005, 8:36pm
The excitement of the afternoon still hadn't worn off as Peter sat in his room later that night. He felt bad about lying to Aunt May about the missing eggs but the truth would have set her off worse than Mount St. Helens in nineteen eighty. After Uncle Ben's death, Aunt May was so worried she had begun to coddle Peter. It was smothering and had come to a head with the cellphone. The cellphone had nearly cost her the mortgage payment for the month but she insisted that Peter needed it for emergencies and so Peter could keep in contact with her.
Sitting in front of his computer, Peter looked up the latest sightings of some of his favourite heroes. The Batman of Gotham had always been something of a favourite of his, his costume, the gadgets, Peter could only wish he was out there swinging from roof top to roof top. Holding up the mask, Peter looked into the eyes again. It had felt pretty good today, stopping that robber perhaps he was onto something. If others with powers were out there saving lives, why wasn't he? Uncle Ben had after all told him that with great power comes great responsibility. Peter had the power, it was time he lived up to his responsibilities. Going back to his computer, Peter began to look for more information about grappling guns.
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