Sixteen years have passed since the last Spider-Man sighting, and Wilson Fisk became mayor. Ever since that day, his rule has been....less than fair as he has started up a new police force of his own, Fisk's Fists which runs on Wilson's tyrannical rule. Crime has slightly increased and the Fisk's Fists are extremely leery about citizens potentially getting into criminal activities, even if most people know just how corrupt Fisk's rule has been lately. Most people are afraid to run into Fisk's Fists with their new more advanced weapons, combat skills, some morality or rationality and even some armor of their own. Nothing too powerful for armor but enough to take decent damage from bullets. What criminals did try to attack were large gangs doing a lot of harm to citizens and Fisk's Fists men alike. Either way, New York City has gotten far more corrupt with Spider-Man gone...but no one knows how to find him....
On a ride through the subway, a small group of gang members, the Dragon Slayers gang were subtly riding along planning on what they'll do. They know no one would be dumb enough to attack them. Especially in Harlem, where crime has hit the hardest. One of the gang members, a man with a dragon tattoo on his face pulled a knife out of his pocket scaring a poor fifteen year old girl. "Aww don't cry kiddo, just gimme your cash and you can walk off Scott free." He started as he twirled his knife like a pro. "Otherwise...." He then points to one of the gang members, a large man with chains wrapped around his body. He punches his own fist cracking his knuckles with a look of anger on his face. Meanwhile, the final gang member simply smirked leaning on the larger one.
The girl began to whimper in fear trying to get out of it. This didn't escape the sight of a black curly haired boy wearing short sleeves and shorts, both black along with red and black shoes who couldn't help but stare. The moment he heard the girl try to beg them to leave her alone, he walked up to the group seeing the big guy about to attack her. However, the boy grabbed the chains around his body and yanked on them making him Yelp from shock. "Learn personal boundaries clown." He removed the chains and hit the large man in the face and then head with them stunning him.
The other two stare in shock. "Whoa big man...." He gets his knife out ready to stab the unsuspecting boy. However, this boy heard him, dodged to the side and kicked his wrist knocking the knife on the floor. "You've got a big mouth on you. You should learn to shut it for once." He then kicked the male in the face then punched the other one with a right hook. He then looked at the male who had the knife who got ready to try and punch him. However, with the boy's reactions he was able to dodge and see him hit his large friend, knocking him back. As soon as the subway stopped, the three thugs ran off trying to get away while they still had some dignity.
The boy rolled his eyes putting his right hand in his pocket, while grabbing his backpack and putting it on his shoulder. "Amateurs." He muttered before handing the girl's bag back to her. "Here. You need this more than I do." He stated before leaving for his stop in the morning.
The girl looked at him totally stunned by his kindness and bravery. "T-thank you!" She shouted in appreciation. "But ...wait! Who are you?!"
The boy looked back at her with a calm cool and composed look on his face, keeping his backpack on his shoulder. "Richardson. Will Richardson. Don't mention it." He told her before giving her a quick wave and walked away. He then started to jog to his school, hoping to not be too late. He checked his watch to see the time. "Perfect. Still got plenty of time." He says reaching Mott Hall High School, the school he attended with about ten minutes to spare. He sees a few of the popular kids walk up to him and give him a high five after greeting him, which he reciprocated to them as a friendly gesture. But along the way to meet up with his other friends, he ran into the school bullies picking on one of the nerdiest kids in school. "Hey Cruiser....don't you have a football to go chew on? Leave the guy alone." He told the main bully with a serious look on his face.
Cruiser groaned sending the poor boy on the ground rather roughly. He then walked up to Will poking his chest roughly. "Better watch yourself Richardson....or you'll be next." He warned the curly haired student.
Will faked a look of fear on his face before rolling his eyes showing annoyance for this bully. After that, he picked up the other boy's belongings and handed it to them. "Thanks Mr. Richardson. I don't wanna even imagine what he'd do to me this time...."
Will simply waved him off while walking away. "Saw your notes. You may want to use a different compound for the potato launcher. Try a small amount of O2 for pressure." He advised before leaving. Will did show signs of being smart, however, he wasn't a total genius. He was smart, but not without enough help and resources. He was a bit nerdy, but still cool enough to hang out with a popular crowd. He was bullied now and then, but he could fight back. He was known to be a "bad boy" with a good boy. Good intentions, with some bad execution. While he could hang out with anyone he wanted, he had a specific group of friends he hung out with because they liked him for who he is and not for something he does.
"Willy old boy!" A boy with blonde and red hair jumped on Will's shoulders with a smirk. "Have I got news for you! I know the best way to charm any girl I want that's ABSOLUTELY FOOLPROOF!" The boy stated. This boy was Johnny "the looks" Martinez. He was supposed to be the best looking one of the group.
Will rolled his eyes with a smile, wrapping an arm around him and giving him a noogie. "You say that every single day and then it fails." He reminds his friend while laughing.
"Yeah but that's cause they didn't quite get....the great Johnny." He then points both of his thumbs on his chest trying to look as cool as possible.
"According to my exact calculations, you've attempted your tactics around 23,567 times. Not once have they ever succeeded so by running the numbers to reach a conclusion, your chances of this working are about at 23,568/1." Another boy adds on while writing it down in a notebook. This young man was named Cornelius "the brain" Martins. He was basically the smartest person in their group. So much so that he is able to finish all his homework in class, hack into almost any piece of technology he can find, and have plenty of time to play video games without fail. "In fact, Mr. Richardson here will probably stand a better chance due to his charisma to most females in our school." He states calmly.
Soon, a scream was heard down the halls, as another boy was trying to escape the group of bullies from earlier. "Help help help! They're after me again but I didn't do anything yet please don't let them murder me!" He shouted out in one breath. This boy was Paul, "the wiz kid" Ethans. He was basically the fastest among them for his running speed.
One more boy stepped in between them with his arms extended out towards each of the kids in the middle of their "fight". "Now now, this isn't the best way to deal with this. Why don't we talk things over, and try to find some common ground between you two-" He started off before getting shoved down to the ground. This boy was Charles, "the debater" Williams. He wasn't quite as smart as Cornelius, but he was very close to it in some ways. He was best known for being able to find common ground in almost any situation and end conflict. However, in this case, that wasn't going to happen.
Will watched as his friend was getting knocked over and couldn't help but feel a small amount of anger toward that. Immediately, he pushed his back off of the lockers he was leaning on to walk toward the bullies. he first grabbed Cruiser by his shoulder and pulled him toward the lockers and slammed his face into them, keeping his arm behind his back slightly twisting it, as if he had fought before with some skills in martial arts. He had some skills in combat from living in a city filled with criminals and thugs, figuring he'd need to fight to defend himself and others along with him, learning some basics of mixed martial arts, kung fu, and karate on videos and improvising from then on. He then used his skills to shove his face on the lockers again to cause a little extra pain to the bully. "You really never learn do you? I told you to stop trying to hurt them.....along with anyone in the school...." He said coldly trying to intimidate Cruiser.
Unfortunately for the curly haired boy, a teacher, along with the school principal stepped out seeing Will hurting Cruiser. The Principal immediately groaned loudly seeing Will assaulting Cruiser yet again. Well, from his point of view that was what was happening. "Not again....William Andrew Richardson!" He called out to the boy, who immediately dropped Cruiser. The principal began to tap his foot on the ground, trying to show his patience for Will beating up Cruiser....again....
After a few minutes in the office, Will sat down slouched in the chair in front of the principal's desk looking bored as usual. He of course knew what was going to be said. He'd heard it plenty of times every week. "Alright look, I know what I did was bad but-"
"You were just trying to help someone that was in trouble." The principal cut off Will knowing exactly what he was doing. He let out a sigh putting two fingers on his temple and rubbed gently to calm his nerves. "I understand you want to help people so they don't get hurt. But....you can't just keep getting involved in such dangerous and hurtful things. Not only could YOU get hurt, you could get into some serious legal trouble." He said trying to be as firm but fair as possible. "Believe me....I understand that you don't like seeing people getting picked on or bullied.....and I know you're just trying to help....you're a good kid for that Will.....but it's time you knew that violence isn't always the answer....to use your head in these situations.....to be a little more responsible with what you can do......I can let you off with a warning this time....but next time you may not get so lucky Richardson....now get outta here. Your next class is coming up."
As Will was leaving, with his backpack hung over his shoulder, he slowly walked toward class, looking through his phone without paying too much attention to his surroundings. He went to search for a certain video on the internet to watch before he went to his class. Once he found it, he clicked on it to see his favorite hero of all time...he knew most of his class loved heroes such as Captain America, or Iron Man, hell even The Incredible Hulk. His however, was Spider-Man....even though he heard people call him a menace, a glory hog or whatever, Will saw him as a hero....though he wished he'd come back, Will did his best to live by his example and fight the good fight. He sighed putting his phone away before walking to his desk and sat next to a girl nearby. A beautiful strawberry blonde girl, with blue eyes and a smile that never faltered. Her beauty only matched her brains. Her name? Gwendolyn "Gwen" Stacy.....the daughter of, of course, Gwendolyn Stacy the first. No one really knew where her mother was. But her father was a special agent of SHIELD doing his part to help people save the world.
Gwen looked over to Will through the corner of her left eye intrigued by the boy next to her. Sloppy clothes put on, his hair a mess and curly, and honestly someone who barely smiled....but he seemed to have a cute face, and he was brave to boot. She slightly hinted for Will to look over at her. "That was very brave of you.....to stand up to Cruiser for your friends. Most people would back away from a barbarian like him." She whispered to him quietly.
The curly haired boy only shrugged his shoulders trying to act calm. "Well they have my back so I will return the favor." He explained to her best he could trying to act cool.
Gwen smiled at him, seeing how casual and humble he was. "Listen umm... there's this....party going on tonight by the pier and....well I finished my homework....so I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go with me? Or meet me there?" She asked him, in an attempt to hopefully get to know him on a somewhat personal level.
The curly haired troublemaking boy could tell her intentions though. The two never really talked much, but that was due to them not being in the same area much. Though they knew of each other's existence, and both wanted to meet one another. Her to see just how bad he could be, to which she didn't see the bad in his intentions....just not the proper way to go about them. But Will wanted to see just what made this Gwen Stacy such a popular girl. From what he could tell, he started to have an idea. She was a very nice girl with brains to boot. "Yeah sure. I can stop by and see what it's all about." He answered with a small smile.
As school started to come to an end for the day, Will walked out of his final class of the day and headed to the gym, where some punching bags were to do his own training. He mostly came in the area to work out and blow off some steam. He knew he had a little bit of a temper, but he always felt his heart was in the right place. He started to punch and kick the punching bag, using his skills in mixed martial arts to train and figure some n w combo moves he was working on. "I've got a half hour before I gotta head out...." He then mumbled to himself planning his day out. Once the time was up however, the cool but collected boy was panting and wiping sweat off his brow. He walked out of the building to reach his next destination in time. Once he left the campus, Will immediately started sprinting out in the streets of Harlem. It took him about fifteen minutes to reach a small elementary school, Kipp Star Harlem College Prep Elementary. He panted heavily after that Sprint he took, trying to catch his breath.
As he waited for three minutes, he could hear the bell ring signalling that their classes were at an end. He sees a boy, around the age of 9 and a girl, around the age of five walk out together searching for someone. Once they saw Will, they smiled widely and ran up to him. "Big brother!" They shout together hugging his legs.
Will laughed softly, picking up his little sister over his shoulders while he petted his little brother's head, ruffling his hair. "Kenny, Misty! You made it out alright! You learn anything new and exciting today?" He asked them like a father would as he picked up his child or children. He could practically hear the excitement in their voices as they explained about their day. "That sounds exciting! C'mon, let's head home. Once we get there, and you finish your homework you can watch some TV. Anything you want." He told them as he walked them to their home.
As the three reached their small house in a run down corner of a cul-de-sac, Will went in his pockets to reach for his house keys. "Yeah don't worry, I'll get you a snack while you work on your homework." He told his little brother, Kenny. He could see Kenny's excitement as he jumped up and down cheering which caused the older brother to laugh softly.
However, before he could put the key in the door, an older man opened it for him, a stern look on his face directed at the curly haired boy. " You are in so much trouble..." His father tells Will, with anger in his voice.
(Editor's note: well, this chapter helps you get to know our main character. Not a bad person, just some bad choices. You will get to know him a little bit more in this story. Hope you're enjoying so far! :3)