The final bell rang, and all of the kids started to pack up and leave; some agreeing to have lunch together and hang out, and others simply wanting to go home to sleep. One boy in particular was the last to leave, as he finished putting his notebooks in his backpack, watching the news of the day about the event that morning.
"Man, that fighting from this morning is all over the news…" He says, scrolling through his phone and seeing all the headlines from different news sites. "Better write some notes down before I forget anything."
But before the boy could put his 'Notebook #13' in his backpack, it was swiped out of his hands by none other than Flash.
"I don't know what you think you're doing 'Wall-Crawler'-" He says with an air of disgust. "-but we aren't done yet."
"What you got? His diary?" One of Flash's 'henchmen' asks. Flash only raises the notebook to show him the cover, his face never leaving the quirkless teen.
"Ah? Don't tell me you are taking notes on how to be a hero." The second henchman snorts as he reads the cover of the notebook; 'Analysis of Heroes for the Future; No. 13'.
"That's so pathetic!" The first henchman mocks as he starts laughing.
"He is delusional!" Comments the other.
"Hehehe...real funny guys." Says Peter in amici's fear and frustration, trying to escape from the situation. "Just give it back…"
And right when he says that, Flash activates his power, making the black goo engulf his notebook, increasing the size of his fist and crumpling the little booklet.
"AH!" Peter is startled by the boy's action "That's… y-you just… Why!?" and in the face of that commentary, Flash throws the diary out the window, in the exact location where he knew the fountain was..
"Hm…most first-string heroes show potential early on." He speaks in a monotonous way as if he didn't care about his previous actions. "People look at them and just know they are destined for greatness. When I am the only student in this garbage Junior High to get into M.A, people will start talking about me like that. They'll realize I'm legit, the next big thing. And this ain't ego talking, I just know I'm good…"
"Definitely no ego here…" Mocks one of the henchmen, in a low voice. Flash doesn't seem to notice, and neither does Peter.
"Here's a little word of advice nerd." Flash puts his hand on Peter's shoulder and activates his ability, making claws grow from his fingers as he grips him harshly. The boy felt the claws pierce his uniform, like fake affection sugar-coating the true rashness. "Don't even think of applying, or else…" The boy then stands still, not knowing how to respond, frozen from fear of what might happen to him.
"Flash, that's enough." The teacher finally speaks up, deciding the boy had gone too far this time.
Flash grunted in annoyance, but obliged nonetheless, letting go of the boy and leaving the room henchmen in toe. Leaving the boy Parker to stand static, paralyzed...
"That's just sad, I thought he would at least have some fight in him…" Comments one of the henchmen.
"Let's hope he finally gets it, that he'll never be a hero. Better to find out now instead of later, I say…" Comments the second one. The room goes silent as they walk out, but not before Flash decides to get the last word in.
"You know, if you really want to be a hero that badly, that actually might be another way…" He starts ominously. "...just pray that you will be born with a quirk in your next life! And take a swan dive off the roof of the building! Hehehe! He laughs spitefully, before making his exit from the room, followed by his 'disciples'.
Peter still measured the weight of those words and what they meant to him. He felt sad, angry, isolated, but most of all just shocked. So much so that he hardly noticed the professor coming up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, this time showing some degree of affection.
"I know it's hard…" Professor Connors says, staring at the floor as if he doesn't know exactly what to say. "...but, if the hero course doesn't work out…I would be more than happy to write some recommendation letters for you, to some colleges I know." He says, giving the boy a gentle smile. The brunette finally broke out of his trance to look at his teacher, only to bow his head and look away, too ashamed to face anyone at the moment.
"Thank you, Mr. Connors…" The boy thanks weakly, before quickly grabbing his backpack and leaving.
Walking towards the tunnel that was a shortcut to his uncle's house, Peter still brooded on Eugene's words. "...that idiot, you can't go around telling people to kill themselves ... and what if I really jumped, what would you do then, huh?" The boy then stops by the water fountain and observes his notebook that had been thrown from the window, floating on the surface, slowly being eaten by the carp that inhabited it; "...my dreams have turned into fish food…" And that's all it took for him to finally snap, plunging his fists into the water as he shouted.
"That's enough, give it back!" The brunette shouts, ripping his notebook away from the fish and out of the water. At least he managed to threaten them. Internally, he wished he could have that kind of attitude in other situations…
"Stupid...jerk…" The boy pouted, his vision starting to blur, tears forming and filling his eyes with water and his heart with sadness…
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"Aunt May, Aunt May! Come on, it's computer time!" A four-year old Peter jumped by his aunt, who was busy with dishes.
"Ben, dear, can you put that video for him?" She asked, turning to her husband who worked on his laptop in the living room.
"Sure thing!" Ben replies excitefully, getting up and going towards the boy, grabbing his arms and leading him to his room. When they reached the room, he remembered how full it was of posters and action figures of a single armored hero. Sitting him in front of the computer while typing the one internet video, he mused to himself, "Jeez, I think you got it ten thousand views to this one yourself Peter. But I understand, I would like it too if I was your age…"
"The video I loved was an old one. A disaster footage from a long time ago, but more importantly it was the day the debut of the greatest hero the world has ever known..."
In the recording, you could see a building in ruins, some parts still standing, but slowly collapsing. Fires and huge amounts of smoke fogged the scenery, making the film a bithard to see. Speaking of which, the recording was pretty low quality, probably having been recorded from a cell phone.
"Who is he?" The man recording asks. "The guy already saved a hundred people at least, and it hasn't even been ten minutes...th-this is crazy! I can't believe it!"
The camera then turns to a specific point, and zooms in, where it catches movement from the rubble. A machine, a red and gold robot, came out from behind a fallen bus, bearing light blue lights that contrasted with the darkness and the fire. It floated with the jets in its boots and carried three—no, four unconscious people in each arm. He lands in front of the camera guy and gently lies the survivors on the floor, where doctors who catch them quickly enter the scene
"The hospital is a long way from here, take these people to the Stark industries. They have the best doctors and nurses to attend to them." The robot says as he opens the helmet's visor, revealing the person behind the armor; a man, who looked like he was in his early middle age, with dark brown hair and a goatee of the same color.
"Who are you!?" Asks the man recording the video. The hero turns to the camera and smiles, as if talking to a reporter on a red carpet.
"Tony Stark; genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." he said winking at the camera and turning around to return to action.
"But what about your hero name!?" The man insists.
"I am… Iron-Man!" He says closing the visor and flying towards the rubble again to provide more help.
"HE IS THE COOLEST IN THE UNIVERSE!" says happy Peter as he raises his Iron-Man's action figure. "AND WHEN I GET MY QUIRK I AM GONNA BE A HERO JUST LIKE HIM! AHAHAHAHAHA!"
—
"Sorry kid, that's not gonna happen." said the doctor lazily to little Peter.
Peter states off his glazed eyes. Only moments ago, he felt ready to take on the entire world, and now…
"Oh dear, so you really think that there is something wrong then?" The boy's aunt May, asks the doctor, while keeping one hand on the boy's back and her other hand intertwined with her husband's. "Most of the other kindergarteners in his class have begun to show signs already…"
"My record says that both of you are fourth generation quirk users." The doctor says referring to the boy's guardians. "What quirks do you and the boy's parents have?"
"Well, nothing special, me and my sister can float small objects towards us and…"
"His father had microscopic vision and I am quirkless…" The boy's uncle admits and immediately rubs his hand over his face. "This is all my fault…"
"Honey…"
"Well, in that case, Peter should already have shown signs of one of the parent's quirks, or a combination of both…" The doctor says. "But after analysing his x-ray, I don't think it will happen... You see, when superpowers started to show up, lots of research was conducted and lots of doctors perceived the correlation between the bones in someone's foot and their possibility to develop a quirk. People with powers have just one joint in their pinkies, their bodies evolved to a more direct version of the human body. You can see here that Peter has two joints in his pinkies, as well as more or less 20% of the world population nowadays" The doctor says pointing to the x-ray of the boy's feet. "Based on existing research, it's safe to say that your nephew most probably won't develop a quirk."
Ben sighed as he got up, followed by May, who led the broken Peter.
"Thanks doctor. We'll keep in touch." He waved goodbye, leading his family out of the doctor's office. He was sure they were all as tired as he was. Not to mention, they still had unsettled business they would have to discuss when they got home. After all couldn't run away from the topic forever.
Peter couldn't run from reality for forever.
—
Back at home, little Peter was still in his room, re-watching the Iron Man video; his uncle and aunt were standing at the door, sad to have given hope to the boy and his dream, only to tear it away...
"You guys saw that, Aunt May? Uncle Ben?" The same boy questions weakly without looking away from the computer screen. "He is always smiling behind the mask, it doesn't matter how bad the situation…even if it looks impossible, he never gives up…" He then turns to his guardians, his eyes and face soaked with tears, his nose running and his glasses fogged. Even so, he had a weak smile, trembling, and pointing to the video. "Do you think… that I can be a hero too?"
"Oh, Peter…" Suddenly, his aunt dropped next to her nephew with tears in her eyes and her throat tightened. She wrapped her arms around the boy as she started crying with him. His uncle soon joined suits, hugging both of them and stroking the boy's brown strands lovingly.
"I wish things were different…" His aunt choked through tears.
"I'm sorry Peter…" His uncle says weakly, believing that the whole situation was his fault.
"Aunt May, Uncle Ben… that wasn't what I needed you guys to say...you didn't see, my world was falling apart...there was only one thing I wanted to hear..."
"I made a decision that day… It doesn't matter what others would say, I have to believe in myself, and I will keep smiling, just like him!"
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The boy thought back on the memory, his determination rising as he started to walk into the tunnel, a shortcut to his uncles' house, with his notebook in hand. He puts it close to his chest and starts walking, forcing a heartfelt smile just like that of Iron Man.
However, suddenly, he heard a movement coming from the tunnel culvert. Turning back to see what it was, the boy hung in horror. Leaving the sewer through the manhole, a red and black goo began to take on a humanoid shape; two huge white eyes and a mouth with several pointed teeth and a huge and horrendous tongue, arms with sharp claws protruding from the amorphous form, all rising before him.
"Well well well, if isn't the perfect host for me to hide from the heroes…" The villain says, staring at the paralyzed boy in front of him while licking what had to be his lips.
And in a terrifyingly swift motion, he jumps towards the boy, trying to get a hold of his body. He sticks to the boy's chest and starts to climb towards his airways. A panicking Peter starts struggling and trying to remove that demonic sludge, but it was in vain, as it reached his nose and mouth and blocked his airways.
"Give up boy, it will only hurt for a few moments, then it'll all be over. Struggling won't do you any good…"
Peter loses the ability to breathe, the air no longer enters his lungs and his eyes start to fill with tears. His chest starts to burn and his heart starts to beat more slowly as his brain starts to shut down…
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"Will I die?..."
Suddenly his eyes detected a tiny bit of movement across the tunnel.
"So it's here that you came to hide, isn't that right Carnage?" The armored hero says to the villain, who gets startled by his appearance. "Now come on, leave the boy alone!" The hero says trying to sound a little more intimidating.
"Never!"
"Fine. Just don't say that I didn't warn you…" With this, from the hero's extended forearm comes out a small device glowing blue and with an antenna on the end; the mechanism charges energy for a few seconds until it releases a concentrated sound wave towards the villain and Peter. Carnage tries to extend one of its arms to try to attack the hero, but it is useless.
"NOOOOOO…" With such concentration and its weakness to sounds, Carnage is almost disintegrated by the force exerted and is released from the boy. Peter then manages to breathe again, but his brain is shutting down. He notices the red silhouette of his savior just before he completely loses consciousness...
"Hey, kid, kid! Come on now, you don't have to give me trouble. I'll give you $100 if you wake up right now…" Peter opens his eyes and is faced with a very peculiar face when opening his eyes; or rather, a red and gold metallic mask.
"GAH!" The boy shouts and crawls away from thenhero.
"Hey, look at that, didn't it work? Kids nowadays are very materialistic." He says in a mocking tone. "But that's fine. The important thing is that you woke up. For a moment it looked like I had lost you. Oh and don't worry, I didn't find any remnants of Carnage in you."
"..." Peter didn't know what to say, in front of him was his favourite superhero, the number one...
"Everything is fine now, I was able to capture Carnage in this vacuum containment chamber." The hero says showing the boy the glass container with metallic foundations and with a recognizable red ooze that was struggling inside
"Oh my God! I need an autograph, I must have a paper somewhere and...ouch!" The boy feels a twinge in the back of his neck and reflexively strikes his hand on the spot, feeling something being pressed and falling down his back. Probably just a mosquito.
"...ah, in that notebook!" He says pointing to the very object he had dropped when he was attacked. Quickly picking it up and turning on the already opened page, he is faced with a red signature 'T. Stark'. "AH! You already signed it!"
"If you keep this up for a long time you can make some money." The hero says as he attaches the container to the side of the armor. "I saw a guy selling it on the internet for 500 bucks."
"Thank you! Thank you so much! This will be kept with great care, it will become a family heirloom for generations, the centerpiece of the coffee table in the living room!" He blurts out, not noticing how off-putting it sounded.
"Chill out, kid! Now I have to take this bad boy to the headquarters so we can lock him away for good." The hero says turning his back to Peter. "See ya kid! And don't get into trouble."
"Wait, you're already living?" The boy asks with a bit of disappointment in his voice.
"Of course, fighting against time is one of the other things that we pro heroes do." says the same, preparing his thrusters and checking the armor data. "Besides kissing babes and fighting bad guys. You know how it is right? Fridays…"
But Peter couldn't let him go, there were still so many unanswered questions that he wanted to ask, and because of that, in an almost suicidal action, he jumps in the direction of the hero.
"Nice meeting you kid…" Tony says and shoots towards the skies at high speed, but he quickly notices a decrease in speed due to the weight gain. But the container with the Carnage did not weigh so much... "Friday, by chance was there a decrease in efficiency in the armor?"
"No sir." answers the artificial intelligence.
"Then why are we so slow?"
"Because of the passenger; Peter Parker, 14 years old, Quirk: S…"
"Wait, what do you mean by passenger!?" He complains and looks at his left leg, only to see the boy from earlier grabbing his armor and screaming at the top of his lungs. "Boy are you insane!? I love my fans, but this is insane! Let go now!"
"AH! I'M FLYING! IF I LET IT GO NOW I WILL FALL AND DIE!" He screams, barely audible with all the air rushing at his face. "I HAVE QUESTIONS! YOU ARE MY IDOL! PLEASE!"
"Ah– okay, okay, you got a point there, we better land!" The hero says as he starts to look for an empty building to land. He then realizes that his breathing has become a little uneven, and the energy levels of the armor were dropping.
"Shit…"
As they both flew through the city, a small spider huddled on the ground, about to kick the bucket. At least she had managed to bite the boy...
"I saw my life flash before my eyes…" He says, his mouth feeling dry and his stomach churned.
"All right boy, you had your fun; got the ride, the autograph, but now I have to go" The hero says heading towards the edge of the building in order to take flight. "See ya later kid, now for good!"
"Wait, not yet! Give me a second…"
"My seconds are really expensive, and unfortunately I don't have any."
"But I need to know!"
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"Sorry kid, it's not gonna happen…"
"I am so sorry Peter…"
"Oh Peter...I wish things were different…"
"Defenseless Peter! This school is already crappy, you really want to embarrass it more by failing so hard!?"
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"Sometimes I think that I am really a failure...like there is no hope for me, but even so, I won't give up, never!" He says, mostly to himself. Remembering everything he believed, and gathering all of his courage, he asks "Is it possible for me to become a hero, even if I don't have a quirk? I'm a normal kid with no powers, can I hope to be someone like you!?"
"Meeting Iron-Man was a dream come true, a real miracle. In front of me was the hero that I idolized for most part of my life, I didn't realize at the time that the words he would say next, would change my life forever..."
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"But…" Iron Man then starts "You DO have a quirk…"
"WHAT!?"