Boy Turned Spider Man

The Bite That Changed Everything

It was bring your child to work day. Richard Parker was bringing his young son to observe his lab work. As the elevator went up, Richard rubbed his ecstatic son's head.

"Will we see cool science, dad?" Peter asked, readjusting his glasses on his face.

"Oh we will, Peter," Richard replied as the elevator came to a stop, the doors opened and they walked into the laboratory. There were terrariums with different arachnids crawling along the walls of the glass boxes.

"Whoooaaa! These are cool!" Peter cheered, looking at the spiders.

"We're experimenting with a special compound, that'll make their silk even stronger. For applications in industrial purposes," Richard said, remembering the script that he's been told by Oscorp to hide the purpose of the spiders. Looking over the various spiders in the terrarium, noticing one had it's lids thrown off. Looking around to try and find the spider, Richard is worried that the spider has escaped into the facility or has simply died somewhere. Which would be unfortunate, since that spider had the most cohesive blend of their hero serum inside of it.

"Peter, if you see a spider crawling around. Let me know and don't touch it, they don't like strangers and might get nervous around you," Richard instructed his son, who wasn't fully paying attention. He was too enamored by the notes about the spider silk that was on his father's desk, how the composition effected the tensile strength. He hardly felt the spider crawling up his leg. Peter feeling only a minor pinch on his outer thigh before the spider fell out of his pant leg on its back, dead.

"Ok dad. I will," Peter said, scratching his leg from a minor itching that had suddenly started. After an hour or so of looking around, Richard gave up on looking for the spider. Peter looking a little worst for wear, swaying a bit from left to right as he was a bit dizzy. He was sweating, looking red from a fever and yet green from nausea at the same time.

"Peter? Are you okay?" Richard asked, grabbing his son some water to keep him hydrated.

"I....I feel...dizzy..." Peter said as he collapsed into his father's arms. Richard holding his son up and carrying him out of the lab to the elevator. Neither of them noticing the dead spider on the ground that had delivered it's chemical payload and had an internal metabolic collapse. Richard's employer, Norman Osborn was watching Richard carrying his son out of the building.

"Richard? What's wrong? Is your son okay?" Norman asked in concern.

"He broke into a fever suddenly, so I'm taking him home to take care of him," Richard explained.

"I see. Take the next few days. Make sure your son makes a full recovery. God knows I'd bring down Heaven and Earth for my son," Norman instructed.

"Thank you, Mr. Osborn. I'm happy you understand," Richard said as he brought his son to the car and drove them both home. Peter was asleep in the back seat of the car, taking shallow breaths. Richard was driving slow but with a purpose to not agitate Peter's nausea more. The drive home was tense, as Richard tried to figure out what happened that caused Peter to be suddenly ill. Maybe Peter had eaten something that triggered a sort of allergic reaction. Or he was trying to hide the fact that he was sick, and he was feeling his worst today. The scientist was trying to figure out what the cause was for his son's illness.

Then a morbid thought crossed the concerned father's mind.

What if that spider bit Peter? Richard wondered. Looking over at his struggling son, squirming in fevered agony. Once they got home, Richard put Peter into his room. Laying him down onto his bed and putting a damp cool towel onto his forehead. From there, it was a daily routine of trying to keep the fever down and making sure that Peter made a full recovery.

After a week, Richard was convinced that the spider is the cause for this. The fever wasn't going down, but the overall symptoms had subsided. Richard ended up having to go back in to work, leaving care to Peter's condition to his older brother Ben.

Richard Parker would not make it home that night, caught in what seemed to be a major car accident.