Spider-Man: Web of Life

[Ved17]

Issue Zero: Dog Star​

Welcome to Oscorp! the screen chirped. Norman Osborn welcomes the [Midtown High Class Trip] to these illustrious halls! In order to have a day pass, please fill out your name!


The average-sized teenager fiddled with his favorite pen as he looked at the screen. 'I could use a fake name. Could be fun. Dean, like that show Mom likes? Nah, maybe Wayne?' As he scratched at cheeks still puffy with baby fat, he sighed. 'I like my name, but the chance to be someone else could be fun… Ah well, never mind it.' Shrugging indifferently, he types out his name on the digital display: Sirius Moore.


The ID badge printed, a jaunty tune rang from the digital screen, and Sirius pasted the temporary pass onto his shirt. Stepping away from the kiosk, he saw his best pals waiting for him. "'Bout time, Dog Star," the female of the group said as he approached, moving a few strands of her straw-blonde hair out of her face. "Having trouble with the machine?"


"Can you blame me?" Sirius gestured to the lobby around them. "We're in Oscorp! This place is, like, the building of the future!"


"A-actually, that's the Baxter Building," the brunet pointed out, adjusting his glasses as he did so.


"Which I can attest Dad hates every time he hears it," Smiling with teeth that just screamed too perfect, the redhead took the lead as the four began walking to rejoin the rest of their class. "So I try to mention it as often as I can." As the four laughed at the image of the shrewd face of Norman Osborn red-faced at being reminded of what he couldn't buy, Sirius regarded his friends. As they rolled into their Sophomore year together you couldn't have picked a more unusual group. Peter Parker was a chemistry wizard and had a head for numbers like you wouldn't believe. Gwen Stacy was hyper and rebellious, but somehow teachers just loved her. ("My secret is my glasses," Gwen told Sirius once. "They make me seem non-threatening.") Last of all was Harry Osborn, the golden boy of Manhattan; he had money, prestige, and the most expensive everything, but he never made any of them feel poorer for it.


All three of these goofballs were Sirius' best friends – roped in midway through Freshman year – and even though they were childhood friends, they never made Sirius feel like a fourth wheel. ('Wait, that's not a thing. You need four wheels to move cars and stuff. You know what I mean, brain!')


"Move it, Geek Squad!" Sirius' thoughts were cut off as Pete went flying into him, nearly taking them both down, as Flash Thompson, sports star/resident jerk of Midtown rammed into the skinny teen. "You're in the way, Puny Parker!"


Gwen glared after the jock, her murderous glare bleeding through her bespectacled look. "Why you-!"


"N-no, it's okay, Gwen!" Pete fixed himself up even as Sirius helped him stand on his own feet again. "See? I'm A.O.K.!"


Gwen seemed barely mollified. "If I had five minutes alone with Flash-"


"He'd rip you in half," Harry pointed out. "He wouldn't even need all of five minutes to do it. He's bigger and he's stronger – there's no way you'd win."


"Well, he won't be forever," Gwen snorted. "He's just a high school has-been waiting to happen."


"But until then, he's the predator," Sirius sighed as they trudged on. "And we're the prey."


As the tour began, the class got a look at all the various innovations Oscorp was working on: miniature signal towers for improved Wi-Fi, security cameras with built-in face recognition, and even some organic adhesive that could clearly hold 1000 lbs. Pete tried to explain every invention to his friends, but only Gwen seemed to understand most of it. Harry seemed to struggle not to doze off, while Sirius just drew doodles in his sketchbook of Flash hanging by his underwear from the organic adhesive.


After half an hour of wandering around, and Flash subtly (read: not at all) bumping Pete every time he tried to take a picture for the school paper, the group found themselves in a new lab, covered with various stations that seemed to be focused on animals. As Sirius looked around the room at all the weird science stuff going on ('What is that one guy doing with the bats?'), a man in a lab coat came over. The whole class seemed interested in the new visitors, but that was probably because he only had one arm. "Ah, the Midtown class. Welcome to our Bio Lab Division. I'm-"


"Doctor Curt Conners!" Pete blurted out. Blushing at the outburst, he covered his mouth and looked down at his shoes.


Instead of chastising him, Conners laughed good-naturedly. "I seem to have a fan in the audience. Care to introduce yourself, young man?"


Sirius elbowed Pete, startling the brown-haired boy. Looking back up and toward Sirius, he mouthed, "Go for it," with Gwen and Harry sporting synchronized nods of approval.


"W-well…" Pete turned back to the front to look at the patient scientist. "I… I read your study on cross-gene splicing. How you explained sequence combination and the stabilization of amino acids when a host of a different species receives-"


"I know what's in my papers," Conners interrupted, studying Peter with a more focused look. "I asked for your name."


"O-oh!" Embarrassed further, the teen muttered, "P… Peter… Parker."


"Well, Peter Parker," Conners nodded, "I'm impressed you read my reports. Keep that interest and it'll take you far in this field." As Peter seemed to puff up a bit at the praise he so rarely received, Conners turned to the rest of the class. "As for all of you, I think you will find this room of great interest! As you can see around you, Oscorp is taking steps to improve not just technology, but the human body itself."


As he took them around the room, to each table and their corresponding scientist, he gave the kids quick explanations of what they were doing. Sirius' eyes glossed over as his mind could not even hold the basic information, and a quick glance to the side told him Harry was not much better. When they finally reached the end of the room, Sirius finally saw something interesting: a row of displays, each with a spider inside.


"Midtown students," Conners gestured to the weaselly-looking man next to the cages. "This is Dr. Miles Warren. Dr. Warren is studying enhanced arachnids, and the effects on their genetics."


"Spiders?" Gwen glanced at one of the cages, which seemed empty for a moment… until the little creature popped back into existence. Startled, she took a step back, before looking back at Conners. "Why spiders? Can't roaches survive nuclear fallout? Or ants? They have the whole hivemind and everything?"


"Astute question, miss," Warren said, though he looked far from pleased at the call out. "The truth of the matter is that spiders, I find, hold the true secret of gene success. They are superior in the sphere of influence. Hunters that can catch nearly any creature, with traps or webbing. Eyes that can see more than any human could possibly fathom. Traversal abilities that only few animals can mimic."


"Also, Pym Labs has already experimented with ants and roaches," Conners added with a teasing smirk. "Mr. Osborn hates to mimic others." That got a small laugh from the class, though Warren's face looked anything but jovial at the undercut. "Why don't you take a look at the various specimens here before we move on?"


As Conners took a step back, Warren following with some clear choice words on his mind, Sirius stepped up with the others to look at the cages. As the class spread out to gawk at the display, Gwen dragged Peter to a different part of it so he could take some pictures. They even took some goofy ones, with Gwen posing like she was introducing a new car on a game show. (Pete would deny it later, but he was grinning like a loon the whole time Gwen was modeling for the camera.)


That left Sirius and Harry to inspect their section of the exhibit. "Hey," Harry said, as he noticed one of their classmates, another blonde with a fair complexion writing furiously in her notebook as she looked at a particularly slow-moving spider. "Do we need to be taking notes or something for class? They aren't gonna quiz us or something about what we got a tour of, right?"


"I dunno," Sirius shrugged, before smirking as one of the 'super spiders' jumped onto the glass and made Flash jump back with a yelp that had a kid who resembled the studious blonde girl and a larger student with a very prominent stomach laughing at him. "So, your dad's just growing super spiders in Oscorp's basement. How'd you never know about this?"


"I dunno," Harry mimicked, earning a playful punch to the arm. "Hey, I mean it! It's not like Dad tells me the going ons of the business. He'd have to trust me for that."


"Incredible!" The blonde busybody finished her notations, as well as a quick doodle of the target spider. "Spiders are so resilient and adaptable! Any one of these 30 subjects could have endless applications for improving the human genome!"


"It is pretty impressive," a Black American kid with, strangely enough, curly black hair already graying around the ear lobes said, though he was not facing the case or girl. His attention seemed consumed by the door on the far side of the room marked AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY. "29. If this is a public, all-access lab, why do they have restricted areas? Are their experiments so huge, they bleed into the…"


A large kid with a carefree smile lightly elbowed the distracted teen, which at his size nearly tipped his smaller peer over. "Reed, you're thinking out loud again."


"Hm? Sorry, Ben. Hadn't noticed." Not looking the least bit sorry, Reed looked back at the case of arachnids. "No, I was right before."


"Right about what?" the blonde girl asked, clearly put off by the correction.


"About your count, Susan. There are only 29 spiders in that case."


At this point, most of the class took notice of Reed's words. While Peter put his camera away, Gwen spoke up. "And here I thought the 'Mind of Midtown' didn't make mistakes. Check the lab labels, Reed. This display has 30 spiders in it."


"The display may hold 30 spiders," Reed said in that tone that was just shy of condescending, "but I only counted 29."


"Yeah, whatever," Flash snorted. "Ain't no way you counted all those bugs! There's like… a hundred of them jumping all over the place!"


"There are 29 'jumping all over the place,'" Reed corrected, speaking as if it was fact he wasn't wrong. "You might be able to count better if you weren't behind Kenny as a shield."


"What'd you say, geek!?" Flash called out from behind the vast back of Kenny Kong, his currently bemused best friend. "I-I ain't scared of no b-bugs! I just… think I can see 'em better from here, is all!"


While Flash did not cower behind his teammate, Sirius did a quick headcount on the spiders behind the glass. "Um, yeah… I'm not sure if I'm counting right… but I am only counting 29, too."


"Maybe one of them was taken away for…" Gwen trailed off as she looked at Sirius in silent horror. In fact, Sirius noted, everyone suddenly looked at him like he was about to eat them. "Sirius… don't move."


"Hey, what's-" Sirius' question died as he felt a slight weight moving on his hand. Turning his head down very slightly, he looked at his hand… and quickly wished he hadn't. Sitting on the back of his hand was a slightly larger-than-average spider; it had a mostly black body with white sections on its legs and a white stripe down its thorax. A red number '30' was tattooed over the stripe, sticking out like blood on a marble floor. 'It looks like a skunk,' the frozen teen thought unconsciously.


From there, two things quickly happened; the first was Peter – the least athletic of any of them – moved first. If he was going to smack the spider off Sirius, run for help, or just run away would remain a mystery. The minute he moved, he tripped on thin air and fell into Sirius instead. The second thing: the lab spider, clearly startled by the 5-foot meat sack that had shaken his perch clamped on for its life… by sinking its fangs ('Oh, spiders have fangs? Learn something new-') into Sirius' hand!


Pain blossomed when Sirius was bitten, his body seizing as he hit the ground. He heard Peter screaming next to his ear – no, he was over Sirius, saying words he couldn't hear over the screaming. 'Who is doing all that screaming? I'm dying and somebody's screaming… wait. It's me, isn't it?' After what felt like hours of burning, paralyzing agony, Sirius' body just gave up consciousness. As his head lolled to the side, he saw his eight-legged attacker make for the exit, every student jumping out of the way… except Harry, who brought his designer sneaker down on the fleeing creature with a thick squelching noise.


"Oh my God!" Gwen said from what sounded like a mile away to the fading teen. "Somebody call 911!"


As Conners and Warren rushed through the crowd of students, Sirius couldn't help but smile morbidly to himself. 'Better call the morgue first. Pretty sure… I'm de…'

---

…


Wind brushed Sirius's face, pushing hair in his face. "Urgh… Mom, close the window. I'm trying to…" His eyes opened, and his sentence died on his lips as he looked around him. Instead of the floor of a high-end laboratory, an ambulance, or even a mortician's table, Sirius was floating in a vast space surrounded by blue streams of… something, shooting all around him. The streams went on forever in every direction – up, down, left, right, and directions Sirius didn't think there were names for. "What… the…"


A pulse went through Sirius' body. It was loud, deafening really, and shook him to the bone. It was only when the sound caught up with the feeling that he realized it was someone (something) speaking: Come.


With a yank that felt like something had latched onto his navel, the confused teen flew through the ethereal space in the blink of an eye. All around him, stars, planets, and galaxies flew past him. He was even able to wave his hand through a handful of stardust as zoomed through the nothingness. Finally, his trip ended; stopping suddenly, he found himself floating in front of… a giant green potato? At least, that's what it resembled, with a bunch of roots sticking out of it, arching over, and planted into the ground.


You, the God of all root vegetables rumbled, Who are you?


On one hand, Sirius was scared and confused beyond any reasonable doubt! But, his mother had raised him to be polite, and he was mostly sure that counted even when talking to ginormous green gourds. "Um… I'm Sirius. Sirius Moore. Hi." He raised a ghostly hand and waved awkwardly; the Great Spud was unmoved and said nothing in reply. "This is… uh, a nice place you got here. Really roomy, lots of… space and all." The Great Unripe Pumpkin continued to stay silent. "I'm from Earth, so you know. It's nothing like this place, but it was okay… blue and… covered in air and trees. Uh, am I… dead or something?"


Kicking himself for how meek he sounded ('Stupid! Blue and covered in trees?'), Sirius was startled and nearly blown back by the creature's speech. Closer. And closer he did float, now a few inches from the floating island's ground, and a few feet from the large entity. For countless moments, the teen was regarded under unseen, ancient eyes. When he began to fidget, wishing he had his pencil in the afterlife, the titanic tater seemed to hum. You are not the one marked by the Totem. Yet, here you stand. Why have the fates put you on such a path of pain and turmoil?


The teen stopped digging under his fingernails at that statement. "Wait what was that about pain-?"


Suddenly, all around Sirius, golden lines stretched and connected together. The connected patterns looked vaguely like spider's webs, but more… majestic. Where they intersected, he saw faces of people, some he knew and many he did not. You are young, little Spider. Heed these words: your world is now wrapped in the Web of Life, you at its center. Your choices, your actions, will spell the future of your world. Be mindful the paths you walk. The Powers That Be do not make mistakes. If they chose you…


"Web? Center? Powers?" Sirius' head stirred in confusion. "I have no idea what you're saying! Also, how can I 'spell the future of the world,' or whatever, if I'm dead?"


You are in a trance, young Spider. But it is time to wake up.


Sirius brightened up at the idea of not being dead but paused as he finally heard what the talking tuber called him. "Wait, I'm not a-" Sirius' correction went ignored, as the grand root veggie seemed to push his spectral body, sending him flying fast enough that a corona surrounded him. His vision grew bright enough to blind before-


THUD!


"Oooooow." Sirius groaned from where he lay on the floor. "That's the last time I eat any weird thing Harry bought online from some… wait." As he slowly came to his senses, he recalled… something. What was it? A dream who could barely remember… His head pounded, eliciting another groan from the boy. "Too… much… thinking. What happened… yesterday? Oh, right. I got bit by a spider and passed out like a wimp. As if Flash needs any more ammo to shoot me with…"


Still cocooned in his covers, Sirius slowly picked himself up. As he did, there was a knock at the door. "Sirius? Dear, are you alright?"


For some reason, the knock might as well have been a cannon shot to Sirius' ear drums. So startled by the noise, he jumped; literally jumped, straight up – bumping his head on the ceiling! "Ah!" When he landed, he rubbed the spot where his head had smacked, dusting plaster out of his hair. "What the..."


"Sirius! What happened?" the voice called out again. "I'm coming in!" The door swung open, and in came Sirius' mother. Olivia Moore could be regarded as a natural beauty, but the type most men stayed at a distance and stared. Pale complexion, bleached hair, bags under her eyes from days of heavy workload. (It was all natural, she bragged, which most women wouldn't be proud of. Olivia Moore wasn't most women.) A lot of people, even before moving to New York, thought she was a zombie upon first looking at her. Some days, Sirius couldn't blame them, when she shuffled out of bed some days, moaning and wailing around until he got his mom her daily caffeine boost.


"I feel like crap," Sirius groaned, wrapping his blankets tighter around him.


"Here, let me see." Stooping down a little ('Wait, is Mom slightly shorter than usual? We should be eye-level…'), Sirius allowed the pale woman to inspect him. "Well, you seem alright. Good pallor, even temperature…"


"You work with dead guys," Sirius muttered. "Could you use more words that sound less like you're pulling me out of cold storage?"


"Hush," Olivia slapped his shoulder playfully before continuing her inspection. "What's this plaster-like stuff in your hair?"


"Plaster," Sirius said. "I, uh, hit my head on the ceiling."


"Seriously?"


"No, I'm Sirius Moore. You should know that."


The older woman rolled her eyes. "Well, in my amateur medical examiner's opinion, since your humor's intact, I think you'll be fine." Taking his face in both hands, she did a quick once-over of his face, turning it left and right. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say your two-day nap might have improved some things."


Sirius' eyes snapped to her as his brain interpreted that. "Two days!? I was asleep for two days!? And what do you mean 'improved?'"


"I mean puberty gave you early parole. Just get dressed. You've already missed enough school."


"School? But, what about…?"


"Sirius, I'll tell you after you take a shower. You smell like week-old takeout." Satisfied he wasn't dead, Ms. Moore gave her son a quick hug before leaving the room.


Slowly walking out of his room, Sirius looked after her with confusion evident on his face. "What the heck did she mean-!?" Glancing sideways, he saw someone in the bathroom! He stumbled back in shock… and so did the intruder. Pausing, he raised a hand and the stranger mimicked him. "Oh, it's just the mirror – hold on…" Walking forward slowly, Sirius entered the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. "Holy crap…"


He wasn't DiCaprio handsome, but he looked a little different. Acne had cleared up, and his face seemed narrower, like a panther's. Also, now that he focused on his body, his clothes seemed… smaller in some places. His shirt was slightly stretched from his broader chest, back, and shoulders. "No way..." To confirm his disbelief, Sirius lifted up an arm and flexed a little, gawking at the prominent bicep that pulsed at his command. "Whoa. I should get bit by science experiments more often."


After an hour of cleaning, which included spending 30 minutes finding a shirt that didn't feel tight or small (thank God he loved baggy jeans. Although, now, they were just… jeans.), Sirius came into the apartment proper where he noticed his mother was at the kitchen table. She had not noticed him enter though, her main focus on the pile of bills in front of her. "The glamorous life of a single parent…" she muttered as she inspected another pink document.


'Pink means past due,' Sirius noted sourly. 'There's a lot of pink in that pile… Can I help? I can get a part-time job. You shouldn't have to do this alone.' All of this Sirius wanted to say but didn't. He'd asked before, but his mom was adamant he focused on his studies. Her words: It's not time for you to grow up yet. Have a little fun first, before the world forces you to be responsible. You'll know when it's time to stand up and seize your moment. So, swallowing his worry, he knocked lightly on the wall. "Morning. Like, officially."


Without missing a beat, Ms. Moore folded the bills and dropped a place mat on them. Turning in her chair, she smiled at Sirius. "Good morning. Glad to see… why are you wearing sunglasses indoors?"


'Because while my head doesn't hurt anymore, it feels like I walked into a 3D movie and everything's coming at me.' Deciding to not say that, Sirius adjusted his specs and shrugged. "I wanted to feel cool. Missing two days of school, I might be lauded as a badass for playing hooky for so long."


"Language," Olivia threw out with a smile before continuing. "I called the school, and they know it wasn't hooky. Sorry, you'll have to settle for just being 'out sick cool' instead of 'skip school cool.'


"Sigh," Sirius snarked, as he grabbed some cereal, fruit, and pop tarts. "It'll be hard, but I'll cope. Speaking of my 'nap,' what happened? I… don't remember much."


Olivia Moore, chief medical examiner of the NYPD's 56th precinct, had seen a lot of dead bodies, torn apart in nearly every conceivable way. She had seen horrors and mutilations that she wouldn't tell Sirius to this day, but it never seemed to scare her. Now, however, Sirius watched as his mother seemed to grow older and more tired than he'd ever seen her. "I wasn't told much. I got a call from your teacher, told me there'd been an accident. Oscorp, those-!


Olivia snarled, eyes almost looking like they were flashing red in the low light of the sun peaking through the window. Taking a calming, steadying breath, she continued. "Your field trip forms, according to Oscorp, double as NDAs. Nobody, not even the doctors, knew what happened to you. And…" As her voice broke, she took a moment to pause and breathe. "They said that despite you fainting, there hadn't been any head damage from hitting the ground. They couldn't find anything serious, so they just… released you with a doctor's note. Told me if your condition gets worse, to take you to the ER."


"Wait… I went to the hospital? But how did I get home?"


"Thank George for that," Olivia smiled at the thought. "He was already there with Gwen. She rode in the ambulance with you. I was told she nearly strangled the EMT that tried to stop her. If her father hadn't arrived, he might have had to explain why a policeman's daughter was committing murder." The image of Gwen having to be pried off the poor man gave them both a chuckle.


"After you were released, George carried you up the stairs and into your room. You had a fever the whole time, but you wrapped yourself in those covers. I couldn't even move them, your grip was like the locks we use in the morgue." Finally done, Olivia sat there, unable to raise her eyes from the table. "This is so stupid, I don't know why… you're okay, you're here, but-"


"Yeah, I'm here," Sirius cut in, placing his hand over his mother's. "And I'm not going anywhere." Like Dad went unspoken. Both stayed silent for a moment, lost in their memories before Sirius looked at the clock. "Cra- er, crud, I'm gonna miss the train!"


"Go, you've got time!" Olivia stood up, following him to the door. "Hey, how about a movie night this Saturday? Something fun, maybe?"


Sirius grinned at the idea of a nice, quiet movie night at home but paused as a thought occurred. "Actually, maybe we could invite the Stacys? As thanks for… all the help."


Olivia nodded. "Sounds like a plan! I'll get the popcorn, and you get the movie. Oh! Almost forgot!" Olivia handed her son a lunch box that seemed to smoke with ill will. "Made your lunch! Five Alarm Quesadillas, and Jalapeño Rice!"


Sirius gulped nervously but accepted the bag. 'Oh no. Mom's cooking. If it didn't burn the roof of my mouth, I'm sure it'd be delicious…' Instead of saying any of that, the teen politely (and nervously) smiled. "Thanks, Mom. Love you lots." After a quick hug goodbye, Sirius made for the subway, wondering who he could pawn this future colon disaster on before lunch…

---

'Ah, Midtown High,' Sirius thought as he entered the courtyard. "Just eight hours of sweaty, judgy people all treating you like crap, with only the peace of detention as solace. You think after sleeping for two days, something would change…' He looked around at his peers, crowded into their cliques and talking about their lives and weekend plans. 'But nope. After all this time, nothing changes… well, mostly…'


One Year Ago…


"Well, here we are!" Olivia said as she walked beside Sirius up the sidewalk to the front gate of the building. "Midtown High School! The last hurdle before you step up into the real world! Looks pretty lively, right?" Olivia didn't get a response; when she looked over, Sirius' nose was stuffed into his journal, drawing away at doodles and designs. Olivia nudged him for his full attention. "Hey, sport? Wanna plug in here? This is your first day and all."


Sirius didn't want this. He didn't want to move. To leave his friends. Or Dad to… But when did he ever get what he wanted? They had to leave Seattle, for his sake and his Mom's. She was trying to put their family back together; she was trying to get him to care about anything again. He was tempted to stay silent, curl into himself, and stay there. But… she was trying. Shouldn't he try too? "This… is where Dad went to school, right?"


Olivia's pale cheeks flushed in appreciation, but she kept her tone aloof. "Yeah. Major told me so many stories of his time here. He said the lessons he learned and the friends he made in Midtown went a long way to who he became when we met. He… always wanted to bring us here to see his old neighborhood."


The pair stood silent for a moment, both recounting memories of brighter days with an endlessly affable man. His stories, warm presence, and patience… gifts they never appreciated until… they couldn't anymore. Olivia snapped out of it first and clapped Sirius on the shoulder. "Well, I have to get to my first day of work, and you need to beat the bell. Have a good day, and… please try to look up from the sketchbook, at least once, okay?"


Sirius frowned at the comment unconsciously, his grip on the journal tightening. One barely perceptible nod later, and the 14-year-old walked into the school's courtyard.


Sirius looked around at all his new classmates. Like any school, there were jocks, emos, drama kids, geeks, and nerds roped off into their little groups. Chatting away about nothing important; nothing Sirius could bring himself to care about anyway. Trying to put out all the chatter, he sat down at a random bench and began to sketch.


Going by memory, he began doodling the Space Needle. Smiling, he remembered when his Dad took him up there one afternoon. The view from the top was something out of a dream. 'It'd be amazing… to have a view of that many lights again-'


"Hey, shrimp!" A shadow descended over Sirius; he had a second to look up before he was shoved off the bench and sprawled out over the brickwork. Turning over and looking up, he glared at the big blond creep that pushed him. Some of the courtyard got quieter as they watched the scene in mocking amusement. "Who told you you could sit on our turf? This is the Cool Bench, no freaks allowed!"


"Hm? What's this?" One of the girls, a Hispanic brunette, picked up Sirius' journal. Eyes widening, he got up to grab it, but it was already snatched by the blond creep.


As he began thumbing through it, he laughed derisively. "Hey, nice find, Liz! Look at this doofus' stuff! Guess we got an artist here!"


Sirius stared at the book, heart pounding in his ears as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. This musclebound jackass, holding onto the last thing Dad gave him before-


With a wordless scream, Sirius lashed out, aiming his fist at the smug bastard's face. In another universe, it might have connected, knocked out a tooth, or maybe broken his nose. But, in this reality, the teen was very thin and not much taller than his own mother. In contrast, the jock was well-built, tall, and clearly trying to get a rise from the new kid. All of this did not go through Sirius' head, as his thoughts had stopped on vengeance and acted on that.


Sirius' fist came short, and the jock, with what looked like no effort, just sidestepped and pushed him down again. With another laugh, he dropped the book in front of the fallen teen. "Nice try, fresh meat! Consider this your welcome to Midtown. Just remember who runs this place, and keep outta my way!"


Not even using or paying attention to the bench he was defending before, the teen walked away, taking time to kick the notebook away. His posse followed, not that Sirius noticed as his eyes were locked onto the flying book. As he scrambled after it, the courtyard went back to talking like there wasn't some kid crawling on the ground in the dirt.


'Where is it? Where is it!?' Sirius' scurry led him halfway across the plaza when the bell rang. As the kids began filing in, he lost sight of the journal, only making him panic more. 'No NO! Stupid! Why did I bring it with me!? Why did I pull it out!? This is so lame! I'm finding that damn book and going home! Forget this school! Midtown – hell, all of New York can suck a-!'


A soft cough from above Sirius brought him out of his spiral. Focusing on his surroundings again, he looked up to see three people: a fair-skinned kid with dark wavy hair, a kid who (somehow) looked even wimpier than Sirius, and a blonde girl with a small smile… holding out Sirius' journal! "I take it this is yours? It's a little dirty, but-"


Sirius didn't let her finish, as he shot up and took the book. He turned away for a minute, thumbing through to make sure all the drawings were intact. "Wow, not big on manners, huh?" Wavy Hair muttered. "S'not like you were crawling around for it earlier. Could be a little grateful." Blondie gave him a sudden elbow jab, shutting him up.


Closing the notebook, Sirius turned back to the trio, head slightly bowed. "…Thanks," he muttered, eyes going no higher than the group's knees.


"Thank Peter," Wavy nodded at the boy who was half-hiding behind the group. "If it hadn't hit his head, we wouldn't have noticed it."


Peter shrugged with one shoulder. "I-it was just the right place, right time. C-call it the 'Ol' Parker Luck.'"


"Parker?"


"Right, introductions are in order," the girl took the lead, with the gravitas that screamed leader. "I'm Gwen Stacy. Mr. Too Cool for School is Harry-"


"Sup."


"And this is Peter Parker."


Replacing his glasses, Peter said, "The 'w-welcoming committee was Flash Thompson. The K-king of Midtown."


"And on behalf of everyone with a brain," Gwen added, "we apologize for him. He's trying to accomplish a World Record: living his entire life without ever using his brain. 16 years so far." That one got a chuckle out of everyone before Gwen spoke up again. "So, what's your name, stranger?"


"…Sirius Moore," he answered.


"Sirius?" Pete perked up like a dog who was called to by his owner. "As in Alpha Canis Majoris?"


Harry blinked at Peter's add-in. "The Alpha can what majorly?"


"The Dog Star, Harry," Gwen helped.


"Yeah…" Sirius looked away, trying not to look uncomfortable. "I – nobody's called me that since… well, it's been a while."


While Harry raised an eyebrow at the comment, Gwen smiled in understanding, looking at an uncomfortable Peter from the corner of her eye. "I… think I understand. How about we skip the nicknames for now, then? Need help getting to class?"


With barely a nod, Gwen grabbed his arm and dragged him to the school, Harry following along and talking with Peter about some assignment in class. As Sirius was basically roped into these three's orbit, he didn't realize it, but some of his tension seemed to melt away, as a small smile appeared on his face.


Watching as the ghosts of himself and those he would later call his best friends passing into Midtown High, Sirius took a deep breath in and exhaled. 'A lot can happen in a year. I didn't think anything could make things feel… normal. Before, I thought it was bad when everyone was upset Mom and Dad had me out of wedlock. But then Dad… passed, and we inherit the debt from his school loans and Mom's. They shouldn't be able to do that, but nobody was on Mom's side.'


Automatically, Sirius sat down at a random bench and pulled out his old weathered notebook. 'Dad got me this when I said I wanted to draw. The last thing he ever gave me. Before we left Seattle, that therapist said that if I feel closer to his memory by drawing, I should keep doing it. That's how it started, but now I just draw for the heck of it… and to sort out what I'm feeling.'


Settling on an image, Sirius opened the book and began the sketch. 'Who would've guessed that Dad's stories were pretty on the nose? In Midtown High, you can find a group of people who absolutely have your back.' As he began on a certain brunet, he smirked. 'Peter Parker is an odd duck. He's sharp and witty, but you'd hardly hear it over the sounds of his teeth chattering together. We're a little bit alike, in terms of trauma. Even though he's a freakin' genius (excluding Reed, who probably has a robot in his basement), he has no self-respect. He'd lick Flash's shoes if it meant he'd avoid a beating or being stuffed into a locker. Pete lost his parents and is living with his Uncle and Aunt, but they might as well be his parents with how much they care about him.'


Finishing the outline, he switched to Harry's profile. 'And on the opposite side, Harry Osborn wishes his father would disappear, except it feels like he already has. We've gone over to his place a lot, and somehow I've still never seen him! I think I might have caught a glimpse, but I'd have an easier time counting how often I've seen Bigfoot! Or Flash being a decent human being. At least me, Gwen, and Peter have people who are actively poking into our lives. I think Harry's ready to do anything just to get his father to look up from Oscorp.'


Switching to softer pencils, he went over Gwen's outline. 'In the middle, there's Gwen Stacy. Lost her mother, but has her father. He tries to pay attention, but police captains rarely have all the time in the world. And instead of curling into a corner and scratching any approaching targets like I did, she seems to be just fine. Humming when she thinks nobody notices, dancing like nobody's looking. She'd... the coolest person I know. Plus, she's smart enough to keep up with Peter, patient and firm when dealing with Harry, and witty enough to stop me from jumping too far into the emo pool with a life vest. Somehow, she dragged our families together; the Parkers and the Stacys welcomed the Moores with open arms, and I… I learned what it feels like to have your family accept your situation. Gwen's amazing. I don't know whether to thank her for being compassionate or Pete for having such a large head-!'


Sirius' unconscious smile fell as the hairs on his neck stood up. He looked around as it felt like an alarm was going off in his head. Its message: danger approaching. Following the direction the sound seemed to be telling him to look, he turned to his right to see… Flash Thompson, right about to push him from the bench. Reaching out, Sirius grabbed Flash's arm firmly, giving him a glare. 'Bad enough he bullies everyone in Midtown, but now he's doing it in slow motion?'


Flash and his whole crew blinked in surprise, Flash frowning as he tried to pull his arm back. "Hey, doofus! Didn't I tell you not to sit here!? And would you let go of my arm!?"


Sirius' glare was replaced with a look of confusion. "Flash, I don't know what you're on about, but I'm not in the mood." Because he had to be messing with him, right? The star athlete of Midtown High was unable to rip his arm out from someone who never worked out ever? Sure, and next week, Wakanda is gonna reveal they've been sitting on a mound of gold and have just been pretending to be a poor farming village. Closing his book with one hand, because Flash was so committed to this stupid can't move my arm bit (although, Kenny's face of mounting confusion was nearly convincing), Sirius put his materials away, got up to head inside-


RRRRIP!


Only to pause as he looked at his now free hand… and the sleeve of the letterman jacket now attached. What the… Looking back, he saw a gobsmacked Liz Allan, and flabbergasted Kenny, and a furious Flash, face red as a tomato. Chuckling nervously, Sirius tried to shake off Flash's sleeve (Why was it not coming off his hand? Is there glue somewhere on him?) as he stepped back from the jocks. "Uh… Not a bad summer look, Flash. I hear sleeveless Lettermans are in…"


Flash glared through Sirius, breathing like a rottweiler about to attack. "You… my… I-!"


"This isn't my fault!" The nervous teen spoke quickly, focusing more on avoiding a beating than what he was saying. "You should tell your mother to stop buying clothes from a bargain bin. Seriously, this had to be one cheap jacket-" The same ringing returned to Sirius' head, but it was hard to hear over Flash yelling wordlessly as he lunged forward.


Whatever he wanted to do to Sirius (the curse words he was using seemed to contradict one another) was never learned, as Kenny stepped in and wrapped his massive arms around Flash, pinning him to his person. "Whoa whoa! Easy, Flash! How about… we take a walk, huh?" Kenny didn't wait for his friend to respond as he dragged him into the school, most of the crowd recording his reaction on their phones.


As Sirius watched them go, finally getting the sleeve off his hands, Liz glared balefully at him. "I don't know how you stopped him like that, but to go and say…"


"Huh?" Sirius blinked at her. "Say what? I was just joking! What did I say that earned me a mauling?"


"What did you-!?" Catching herself, Liz looked at all the students around her, clearly eager for more juicy early morning drama. Finally, she settled a hard glare at Sirius. "You know what? Forget it. Just leave Flash alone." With that, the cheerleader walked around Sirius into the school, leaving him flummoxed as to what just happened.


"Whoa..." Sirius turned to see Gwen, Peter, and Harry, with the latter shaking his head in amusement. "That was absolutely amazing! I've never seen him like that! What did you do and how did you do it?"


'Wish I knew myself,' Sirius thought to himself as he tossed the lone sleeve into the nearest trash can. "Don't even worry about it. Hey, about the other day? On the field trip? I... thank you for stepping up, guys."


"'S fine. Are you alright, though?" Gwen asked, thumbs hooked into her belt loops as her fingers beat out a rhythm on her jeans. "I mean, you hit your head pretty hard."


"Yeah… hit my head." Sirius rubbed where a dull ache on his neck throbbed. "Uh, actually, I have very little memory after the head-hitting ground thing. What happened exactly?"


"After Brainiac pointed out there was a spider missing," Harry began as he led the walk into school, following the rest of the crowd of students as the bell rang, "Superstar here," he elbowed a bashful Peter, "tackled you to get it off! You should try out for the team, slugger!"


"U-uh, it was nothing, honestly," Peter rubbed where he was elbowed. "I m-meant to try swiping it off with my hand, but I k-kinda tripped."


"It was still pretty brave, Pete," Gwen rested a hand on the stuttering boy's shoulder, eliciting a blush from him. "I mean, I didn't go for it, and neither did anyone else."


"Ex-squeeze me," Harry coughed as they stopped at a row of lockers. "I recall someone very handsome and just as brave as Wonder Boy here stomping the freaky spider flat before it could bite someone."


Sirius shook his head in both amusement and silent response. 'More like someone else. Missed it by that much, Harry. But it's the thought that counts.' "And Gwen? Mom told me how you and your dad helped us. Thanks for that."


Gwen smiled dazzlingly at the compliment. "Oh, that was just Dad! You know what he's like, a police captain even outside the uniform."


"Well, I hope you don't mind, but Mom and I were doing a movie night this Saturday, and we were hoping you and your dad could come too?" Sirius asked. "As thanks and all."


"O-oh!" Peter blinked at Sirius' invitation to Gwen. "A movie night? That sounds… pretty nice."


"A quiet night in, huh?" Harry gave out a lecherous smirk as he draped an arm over Sirius' shoulders. "You wouldn't be making any plans to try something on our 'Big Sister,' right? …Hey, did you get taller?"


Sirius shrugged off Harry's arm and gave him a look. "Harry. Captain Stacy and my mom will be there. How and why would I try something?"


"There are totally ways around that," Harry smiled, a spark in his eye. "You and Gwen could be sitting on the far end of the couch, got a blanket over your laps, and no one can see what your hands are doing-"


"H-harry!" Peter gaped at him, cheeks flaming.


"Too far, man!" Gwen's gaze sharpened, the tips of her ears going a bit red.


"The man has a gun, you perv!" Sirius whisper-screamed. "And if I tried that, Gwen would use it on me before he could!"


Unperturbed, Harry's smile didn't falter at his friends' mortified faces. "So, does that mean if neither of them was there, you would risk it?" Everyone was spared the number of retorts that question brought up as the bell rang, and they all rushed to class.

---

Sirius figured he could forget what happened before school by throwing himself into his lessons. This proved more difficult than he expected. In Algebra, he gripped his pencils hard enough to break and could not get past putting his name at the top of his quiz. In history, the pages kept sticking to his hand, and by the end of class, most of his supplies were attached to some part of his body. And in Language Arts, he fell asleep and was startled awake… breaking his desk and chair with his flinch. Yeah, he wasn't having a great day. How the teacher and the class chalked it up to terrible desk material, and his sudden growth spurt was great, but even Sirius was beginning to suspect that was bull.


The nervous teen was absolutely relieved when lunch rolled around. Heading to the usual table, he saw Gwen already there with her school lunch. 'Lucky,' Sirius glanced at his lunchbox. Before he could head over, he heard a sniffle. Not odd to hear some of the students crying, like Johnny when he saw his grades in science, but Sirius didn't notice anyone cry nearby. A quick glance around the room, and following that weird sixth sense again, he noticed way across the room… was Liz Allan, a girl who was never seen without a smile or her entourage, sitting alone and rubbing at her eyes. The 'Power Couple of Midtown' were never apart. Where the heck was Flash? Or even Kenny?


Deciding to not bother the girl who seemed ready to castrate him earlier, Sirius went over to Gwen's table and sat across from her. "Hey there. Is that… a pencil on your neck?"


Sirius tensed and grabbed at the implement before pocketing it. "M-must've stuck to me when I fell asleep in ELA! So, how was Gym?"


Gwen groaned as she pushed her cream corn around her tray. "Don't get me started! Stupid nerd arms… why is that stupid rope so important? Nobody in New York is going to be climbing ropes!"


"Yeah, I hear ya. Want some lunch? Mom packed-"


"Not after the first time you got me with that," Gwen's accusing glare melted into laughter as Sirius joined in. "God, her chili pepper meatloaf! That was…"


"An experience?" Sirius supplied. "You should have tried it as leftovers. The spice… gathers. I'll leave it there."


"Please do," Gwen said as she took a bite from her black bean burger. "Hey… about this morning? Harry was… yeah, sorry, he was out of line. I swear, some days you can't be prepared for the crap that comes out of his mouth…"


"Yeah," Sirius said, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "That kind of stuff's like 4th or 5th date territory."


"Right?" Gwen jabbed a fork in the air. "I mean, if we were dating, then-!" Gwen's voice seemed to catch suddenly, and Sirius was treated to something he'd never seen before: all of Gwen's ears going red, along with her eyes going wide. "I-I-I mean! I meant if I was dating someone! Not you! Not that there's anything wrong with you! You're artistic, and kind, and really stand up, and- I'm just… gonna stop talking now…"


As the frantic blond began drumming her fingers on the table, her own nerves clearly showing through, Sirius chuckled at the display. "It's fine, Gwen. I know what you meant. I don't know if I want to go dating anyone right now, but if I was…"


"Right!" Gwen said a little too sharply, before repeating more calmly. "Right. Yeah, big if. Huge if."


"Billboard-sized," Sirius offered.


"Maybe even planet-sized!" Gwen added, joining in the game.


"Yep!" Sirius took a (small) bite of his lunch before looking around. "Where are those two?"


"No idea," Gwen looked at her phone for the time. One hand gripped the device, while the other beat out a steady beat on the table. It was a clear broadcast of her nervousness. "They only have half of lunch left. We should-"


"Go find them. Yeah, my thoughts too." Maybe it was nothing, they both thought. Maybe Harry, the most unaware rich kid to ever exist, and Peter, Midtown's number one locker filler, were perfectly okay… but was that a bet anyone was willing to make?


Sirius and Gwen split up, Sirius' search taking him all the way to the quietest corners of Midtown High. After checking for any teachers or administrators in the area, and finding nil, Sirius spotted a familiar object near one of the bathrooms labeled 'No Man's Land': Peter's Captain America pencil case. Picking it up, and checking to see if it stuck to him, the teen muttered, "Pete never lets this go. Something's wrong…"


"He-!" Sirius turned to hear a muffled yelp from the restroom. One he'd heard when Flash first shoved him into a locker last year. Looking into the restroom, he saw Peter… surrounded by three burly jocks. Friends of Flash, not that he could remember their names. "P-please let me go! I d-didn't do anything t-to you!"


"No, but your loser friend did something to Flash!" the lead one said. "He got sent home because of the freaky prank he pulled!"


"And he destroyed his jacket!" the jock to the right the leading thug spoke up. "Those things ain't cheap!"


"B-b-but I'm broke! Ask a-anyone!" Peter cried. "My lunch is on layaway! I don't have-!"


"Shut up!" Jock Thug #1 pushed Peter over; the tiny teen fell awkwardly on his arm, trying to protect his glasses from hitting the ground. "This is about respect, not money, four-eyes!"


Peter looked up at the trio, a mixture of fear and… something else in his gaze. A cross between tired and... something indescribable. "Did… Flash send you guys just to beat me up?"


Jock One just laughed with his friends. "Nah, we ain't gonna hit you! Your little boyfriend embarrassed Flash, and we're here to get even for him! If Flash is going sleeveless," the third jock opened the stall door as Jock One continued, "How about we give you a new hairstyle?"


Peter's fearful gaze doubled. "W-wait! S-swirlies are very d-dangerous! You could break my neck! Worse, if you break my glasses, it'll take forever to fix them!"


As Peter's whole face drained of color, Sirius saw red. Rage pounded in his ears to the beat of his heart. Pushing the door open hard, he rushed in before the group knew he was there. With a single kick, the third and silent jock went flying with a scream into the stall. Ignoring the crashing sound, Sirius got into a fighting stance in front of Peter. "Touch him and die!"


The surprise attack put the bigger teens in shock; rooted to the spot, they tried to rationalize seeing Sirius Moore roundhouse kick a defensive lineman flying through the air like a very buff pigeon. Sirius was frozen as well but for slightly different reasons. His body felt powerful but light; it was a new feeling, and even though he'd never fought before, damn if it didn't come to him naturally now. He felt the electricity coursing through his veins – from the kick, from the thrill of the next hit – all of it! (He was so caught up in the rush, he failed to notice his sunglasses had slipped off his face. His eyes seemed to flash in the light, which only further scared Peter's attackers.) Calling on that feeling, he clenched his fist hard enough that his knuckles turned white.


"Here's a message for Midtown's 'King,'" Sirius hissed. "If Flash wants me… he can come get me himself!" Swinging forward, he slammed his fist into the first jock's face. The resulting hit turned into fireworks as literal sparks exploded on impact! A bolt of electricity arched to the second one, and both of their bodies seized and spasmed before falling back unconscious.


"Sirius…" Peter's breathless whisper of fright brought Sirius' rising adrenaline back down to simmer. Looking back at him, he saw fear, shock, and curiosity on his friend's face as he looked at him and the room around him. Sirius looked around for the first time since his anger haze and… holy shit, this place was a disaster!


Sirius' entrance had both torn the door from its hinges and slammed it into the wall where it stayed embedded. For his high kick, Sirius had used the sink and counter as leverage… but the counter had stuck to his shoes, so it had been used as added power to his kick on the barely conscious jock on the broken porcelain that had once been a toilet. To the average observer, you wouldn't be at fault to think that the South American boogeyman called Grande Monstro Verde had been through the restroom. "Uh… these restrooms are… really shoddy, huh?" Sirius shrugged with a self-conscious chuckle as the restroom door fell to the floor with a reverberating thud.