Chronicles of the Spider

Gods and Monsters

14 Years Ago,

Earth Prime

Peter sighed, staring out of his large windows into the city. It seemed to glow in the setting sun.

It had been more than a year since he had arrived in this brand new world. Every so often, he found himself reminiscing about his old life. Peter Parker, though he was largely unhappy with his life, still had moments of joy. He remembered bonding with Franklin and Valeria, his years with May, even some of his relationships and friendships. MJ and him had many good moments, but also several difficult times that forced them to eventually call their engagement quits. Johnny, Matt, and Logan had been some of his closest friends, but even that had been soured by the taint of Otto's actions. While he couldn't fully blame them for their refusal to trust him again, some part of him was still bitter. When many of heroic colleagues had been revealed to secretly be Skrulls in disguise, he had accepted the real people back with open arms, no questions asked. However, when it came to him, they couldn't even give him the benefit of the doubt.

He shook his head. It wasn't the time to fixate on dark thoughts like that. He turned it to matters closer to home. Dawn Technologies was doing extremely well, already raking in several millions of dollars each month. The New York City authorities had decided to fully back the emerging tech giant. It was their hope that the rise of Dawn would incentivise the creation of new businesses in New York, business which had been lost to Metropolis. Now, a gleaming building sat in the middle of Manhattan, coincidentally exactly where the Baxter Building used to be in his old world

Dawn Technologies was going to go public soon, and their IPO was set to be a record high, unlike anything ever seen in the history of the stock market. However, Peter was still set to retain majority ownership of the firm.

He was startled out of his thoughts by a shining Spider symbol illuminated on the clouds. Peter frowned, before hastily putting on his suit and leaping out of his penthouse. He swung as fast as he could, only to see a cloaked figure move at inhuman speed over the rooftops. Helicopters desperately tried chasing after it, but weren't able to match it's pace. 

Peter quickly sped past them, signalling to them that he would handle it. They drew back and formed a perimeter, while Peter lunged and landed in front of it, stopping the figure in its tracks.

"Alright, cloaky, I don't what you've done to get their attention, but I'm gonna need you to come in quietly."

He was startled when the cloak came loose to reveal a monster. His eyes went wide, and he almost didn't react when it spewed fire from it's mouth. Luckily, he had dealt with all sorts of things in his old life, so he dodged out of the way, wrapping the creature in webbing while doing so. It's beady red eyes glared at him, and its insectoid body contorted to try to free itself, but Peter was fast. He spun around it, and wrapped it up fully.

Deciding that it was a lost cause, the creature lunged forward and pressed the strange cube in it's hand against the wall of the building. Done, it turned back to Peter. He felt his Spider-Sense ring strongly, so he quickly shot two webs at it, and heaved it into the air with all his strength. It rocketed above the city, on account of Peter's massive strength increase, before crying "FOR DARKSEID!" and exploding outwards.

Peter panted, his adrenaline calming down after the fast paced fight. He moved towards the decorated cube on the walls, and was joined by his closest associate from the police. Ed Baker landed on the ground from the helicopter, his bulletproof vest still on.

"Any idea what that thing is?" he asked the vigilante. While he didn't initially approve of the hero, The Spider had proved himself again and again, making New York's policy on the webslinger much more lenient then that of, say, Gotham.