Chronicles of the Spider

Settling In

15 Years Ago

Earth Prime

It had been a couple of months since the big move. Peter had settled into his new home with gusto. It was familiar being back in his city. He knew the streets, he knew the shortcuts, he even knew the best bus stops. If you ignore the absence of any superhero, it would almost feel like he never left.

Peter had started going to college at Columbia. Because he was so much younger than the rest of the students, he stayed at home with Alice, unlike the rest who had to stay at the dorm. Peter had a little bit of a challenge fitting in, because of his age and mentality. While he certainly had the memories of two much older men, he was still only a teenager in the head. He made a fantastic impression on his professors with his vast knowledge, honed by years of experience, but that further ostracised him from his peers. Peter didn't let that get him down, though. He was able to make the decision of graduating early more easily.

So far, Peter had a grand total of two friends in the city. One was a slightly older redhead named Alex Michaels. He was a child genius as well. While certainly not in Peter's league, Peter knew that he was comparable to his old self in terms of sheer intellect.

Peter and Alex hung out all the time. As the youngest students at the college, it was obvious that they would gel. The other person that joined them, though, was a surprise. Allison McCormack was a bright journalism major that found nothing better to do than to hang out with boys way younger than her. When asked, she replied that they seemed to be more mature than the other boys around, a fact that amused most of the surrounding students.

Peter was doing a degree in biophysics. It had been his passion for a long time, and Otto had already covered most of the engineering portions of his knowledge. On the side, he was also developing his first product to be sold.

Peter had designed a water filter that could be produced at barely any cost. It would increase the nutrition in the water supply and detect and remove impurities better than ever before. It was a plan that he had developed earlier for Parker Industries, but never had a chance to actually make.

Peter had put together an entire business proposal. He had taken the help of Alice to help him in his quest, and together they had hashed out a pitch for selling it. Alice had gone ahead and arranged a meeting with the New York Municipal body to talk about selling it.

When he first entered the room, all of them thought it was a joke to see a boy of thirteen enter try to sell them something. Then, Peter started talking. All of them were stunned, and sat back down in their seats to hear it. At the end, all of them, without exception, got up from their chairs, and applauded loudly. Peter's experience, combined with Otto's showmanship (say what you want about the man's intelligence, but most of his dastardly plans failed because of his need to put on a show) ensured that the audience was enraptured throughout the pitch.

Alice probably applauded the loudest, not expecting the rebellious teenager she thought she was getting, to have given such a wonderful presentation. She thought that this would be an interesting assignment for her resumé, and she could apply to easier jobs in the future after being the butler to a billionaire. Peter's charisma, however, drew her in, and made sure that she didn't want to leave at all.

Peter had intentionally hidden his real name, for fear of succeeding not due to his own talents, but because of his family reputation and wealth. He called himself Peter Parker, drawing from his counterpart's life to provide some backstory. When the investment of $10 million came in, he asked Alfred for a loan from the Wayne family fortune. Alfred, against his own conscience, didn't inform Bruce about it at Peter's express command. Peter started production of his filter, hiring a small team, and a facility in the outskirts of the city to focus on production. It earned him a decent amount of money, and a good working relationship with the city.

XXXX

One day, Peter and Alex met at college. They entered the campus together, slowly making their way to class.

"Did you hear about the experiment at Spaken Labs?" Alex asked. They were both science nerds, following advances like many collected comic books.

"About the particle accelerator?" Peter confirmed. "Yeah, but I'm a bit concerned about it."

"Don't tell me you're one of those hippies, who thinks that doing it would be bad for the environment?" Alex retorted. "It's advances in science like nothing we've ever seen before. It could broaden our understanding of physics and chemistry like-"

"You don't have to defend it to me, Alex," Peter interrupted. "I know the possible benefits. I'm also aware of the risks."

"Nerds," a girl next to them muttered under her breath. Both the boys just ignored her, having been too used to comments like this to bother getting offended.

"But it's-"

Peter cut him off, not wanting to talk about the controversial subject anymore. "The launch is in three months. Let's worry about it then. Anyway, have you seen Alison?"

"No, I thought she was with you?"

Peter had a bad feeling. He could feel that something had happened, a feeling that was exacerbated when she didn't show up for the rest of the day. Finally, after their classes were over, Peter and Alex trudged to the girls' dormitory to find out what happened to her.

Knocking on her door, they got no answer, but Peter could clearly hear some sobbing inside. He grew extremely worried, and knocked harder.

"Alison!" Alex called. "It's Alex. If you don't open the door, I'm gonna break it in."

"Go away!" she cried.

Peter grew more worried, and knocked once more. "He's serious," Peter said. "We'll break the door down if you don't open it. We're your friends, Alison, okay? So open the door, and we'll talk about whatever the problem is."

After a period of silence, she slowly walked over and unlocked the door. When they finally saw her, they were shocked.

Her clothes were ripped, and she had wounds around her hands and face. A black eye was seen over her right eye, but that didn't distract from the bloodshot pupils.

"Well," she sobbed. "You saw me, now get out."

"Wh-What happened!" Alex stuttered. Peter, on the other hand, knew exactly what had happened. He had seen many cases like this in his previous life.

"Who was it," he growled.

"I-it was just some g-guy of the street," she muttered. She too knew that he had figured it out.

"Uh, guys?" Alex asked confused. He looked to Peter to answer his question, but Peter stormed away.

He stalked away from the campus, and made his way back to his apartment. Once he got there, he brought out a case from under his mattress. It was something he'd hidden from Alice, Alfred, and his friends, because he didn't think he was going to use it again.

The case lid popped open, and white bug-like eyes stared back at him. The red and blue fabric shone brightly under the ceiling lights, and the webbed pattern, iconic in his old world, led down towards the spider sign on its chest.

Peter didn't think he would enter the same line of business as his dad, but he supposed some things ran in the family.

XXXX

Hey guys!

Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. As you can see, Spider-Man still lives in the new world.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think. Let me know in the comments.

- BuddyBoy27