Peter Parker's Opening Moment

Peter Parker's Opening Moment

Peter Parker felt as though he had returned to his childhood in this life, to the day he had said goodbye to his parents. That day, they had taken him to Uncle Ben's house. After talking with his uncle and aunt, they hadn't told him why they were leaving. They had only told him, "Listen to your uncle and aunt."

He remembered telling his parents that he had found something. He knew they were in danger, and he wanted to help.

"I know you're smart. Sometimes, you don't seem like a twelve-year-old at all. But this isn't something a child like you can help us with. Listen to Uncle Ben and Aunt May, understand?"

Peter could barely remember how he had answered back then. He tried to recall it, but the alarm interrupted his thoughts and called him back to reality.

Still groggy from waking up, he raised his hand and hesitated for a second. Just then, Uncle Ben's voice came from outside the door.

"Fifth day in a row you've kept your morning temper in check, Peter."

"Sixth day, Uncle Ben."

Peter lightly pressed the alarm and abruptly sat up. Uncle Ben had already opened the door. Benjamin Parker was a man in his forties, a little heavyset but still sturdy, nothing like the elderly Uncle Ben from other universes.

"You came back too late yesterday. Your Aunt May doesn't want you turning bad just when you're about to start high school, hanging around outside like some little punk."

"Did you tell her I got held up?"

"Lost track of time at the library again? You'll need a better excuse next time."

Uncle Ben smiled and closed the door, reminding him, "Hurry up. We still have our morning run."

No matter what Spider-Man was like outside, Peter Parker was still just a fifteen-year-old high school student... or rather, a soon-to-be high school student.

"Did you know that high school in the United States lasts four years? From fifteen to eighteen."

Used to talking to himself, Peter spoke as he got dressed, then quickly went into the bathroom to wash up. He shoved his toothbrush into his mouth and continued indistinctly:

"But you probably also don't know that Uncle Ben served in the military, joined the Marine Corps, and carried out missions overseas. Pretty impressive, right? I mean, wow."

After quickly washing up, Peter began his morning workout. He and Uncle Ben jogged five kilometers, then returned to eat the breakfast Aunt May had made. The purpose of running wasn't to build endurance, but to better disguise himself as a normal person—otherwise, Peter could easily break world records.

Besides helping him train to pass as an ordinary person, Uncle Ben, as a retired serviceman, had taught Peter quite a lot: battlefield reconnaissance, combat training, planning escape routes, avoiding surveillance and lines of sight. Without that training, Peter couldn't possibly have become a Spider-Man he considered barely qualified in only five months.

"So, what happened yesterday?"

"You know, swinging around the ruins of New York, finding criminals, tying them up, and handing them over to the police."

Uncle Ben's face had already reddened from the intense exercise, while Peter looked quite relaxed, barely even out of breath as he spoke.

"But there are fewer and fewer smugglers now, Uncle Ben. After all, it's been more than three months since the Battle of New York. It'll be September soon. Maybe I won't have to keep checking on that stuff much longer."

Uncle Ben sighed. Peter didn't know whether he was lamenting that Damage Control still hadn't cleared the ruins after three months, or celebrating that they were finally about to finish.

He thought again of everything that had happened over the past few months. More than five months ago, his nephew had gone to a science fair and returned acting mysterious, constantly working on something while hiding it from him and Mei, leaving them worried for a long time.

Until one day, Peter restlessly told him the truth: at the tech expo, he had been bitten by an irradiated mutant spider and gained spider-like superpowers—wall-crawling, jumping ability, danger sense, and physical abilities beyond ordinary people—but he couldn't shoot webs.

"I... I want to do something. Maybe I could be a hero, or maybe make some money with this. What should I do, Uncle Ben?"

Ben had originally wanted to tell Peter, "With great power comes great responsibility," but he didn't say it. Peter was still only fifteen, after all, and he knew that so-called superheroes weren't nearly as glamorous as the reports made them seem. Just look at the freaks they had to fight to understand how dangerous it was.

Ben had no children of his own, so Peter was his child. He didn't want to push him into danger.

He only said this:

"As long as you don't use that power to hurt others, Peter, Uncle Ben will support whatever choice you make. I believe Mei will too."

Some time later, a fire broke out near their home. While Uncle Ben led the neighbors to put it out, he saw a scene he could never forget: Peter, holding a small child by himself, leaped down from the second floor and brought her to safety.

"I... I was scared, Uncle Ben."

He still remembered Peter telling him, almost trembling, in the car afterward:

"There were flames everywhere. A beam collapsed and hit my arm. It still hurts now. I... I didn't want to go in, Uncle Ben. But I heard that little girl crying. She wanted someone to save her."

"I could save her. I wasn't helpless. I was afraid that if I went in, I wouldn't be able to get back out... But what if I could have saved her, and because I didn't go, she could never get out again? I think I'm even more afraid of that. More afraid of dreaming at night about all the people I could have saved, asking why I hadn't reached out a hand."

Peter hadn't chosen to become Spider-Man because he wanted to help others. He had chosen it because he was afraid of being unable to help those he had the power to help. When he became a superhero, what drove him wasn't power, nor a savior complex that believed himself superior to others.

It was the fear of facing the disappointment of every person who had begged for help and received none.

At that moment, Benjamin Parker understood that his nephew could become the greatest hero in the world.

He began to worry that one day, Peter might not be able to endure it anymore, but he chose to support Peter's decision. So he drew on the skills he had learned in the Marine Corps and began training his nephew, continuing all the way to the present.

Peter had also shown his talent. He was very smart, just like his deceased parents. He had even found clues in some of his father Richard's scattered notes, synthesized Web Fluid, and made his own Web Shooters.

They both liked spiders. In that regard, he really was like his father...

"Maybe once the ruins are cleared, those smugglers will run off on their own. Then all I'll need to do is catch a thief or save a cat on my way to and from school..."

Peter ran backward and looked at his uncle, who seemed lost in thought. "Uncle Ben?"

"Oh, that would be great. Then your Aunt May won't have to worry about whether you're hanging around with some little punks."

"She knows I wouldn't."

Peter and Ben laughed together. Then Peter turned around and ran beside Uncle Ben.

"Once Grand Central is cleared out, how about we go get Turkish kebabs?"

Some basement in New York.

A Black man in his twenties with dreadlocks carried a bag into an unfinished building. This was his base. Inside were simple mattresses, a desk lamp, and seven or eight companions.

"This is today's haul."

He distributed the money in the bag among his men. One lackey asked, "Herman, why is the money getting less and less every day?"

"There are fewer and fewer things to find in the ruins, and fewer buyers too. Those guys calling themselves A.I.M. pulled out last week. Even the people in Hell's Kitchen barely take any now. I still need to find someone else willing to buy alien junk while risking a beating from Iron Man. And that's not even counting the freak in a web-patterned bodysuit who's been giving us trouble lately."

After the Black man named Herman finished speaking, another underling complained, "You never should've hidden all that merchandise. Now we have nowhere to sell it."

Hearing that, Herman smiled instead.

"Guys, New York's goods are valuable, but they aren't endless. We have to think about the future. I used to be New York's best locksmith. I made the finest safecrackers."

"But today, thanks to the help of our alien friends, I used the stock I held onto to make something even better."

As he spoke, he took something resembling a gun from his shoulder bag. It wasn't complicated. It had a blue energy chamber connected to a Chitauri battery, along with a dial and a trigger.

"What is that?"

"A lockpick. A shockwave generator. Here's the dial. It adjusts the output. On the first setting, we can knock a person down."

Herman fired at a concrete pillar beside them. An invisible shockwave made the pillar tremble.

"But if we turn it up to the second setting..."

A piercing sound rang out, and the concrete pillar shattered instantly.

The lackeys immediately grew excited.

"What about maximum power?!"

"I haven't tested it, but if my calculations are right, blowing apart an entire building shouldn't be a problem. That's why I added a safety lock. It can only go up to the third setting."

The lackeys cried out one after another about how cool it was. More importantly, Herman had taken out more than one of the things. He gave one to each of them.

There were plenty of concrete pillars in the unfinished building, so they could freely test the power of their new toys.

And this was the "lockpick" Herman had made, capable of opening any safe or vault door.

"Herman!" One lackey who had tried out the new weapon couldn't help laughing. "What do you call this thing? Does it have a name?"

"Of course. It's called Shocker. Herman Schultz's Shocker."

Herman picked up a Shocker and said with complete confidence:

"Whether it's that spider freak or the Avengers, none of them can stop us now. When the time comes, all of New York—no, the entire United States—will know. The best engineers aren't those bookworms in universities, nor those white dogs in glasses. I'll prove something to those idiots who care so much about diplomas and skin color."

"I, Herman Schultz, created something they can never replicate—"

"Shocker."

P.S.: Herman Schultz, also known as Shocker, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #46 in March 1967. He was a highly gifted engineer and safecracker who had not completed compulsory education. In the comics, he invented a pair of shockwave-emitting gloves in prison to break out, then used them as weapons and became Shocker.

For plot purposes, this book adapted him into a Black man to make the story easier to develop.