Prologue
Category: Max/Liz & Peter/MJ
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: This story takes place after ‘Smoke And Mirrors’, my first Spider-Man fanfic. All you really need to know is that Mary Jane now knows Peter’s secret ID, and there is this mysterious killer loose in NYC whose identity is still a mystery.
My name is Liz Parker, and for the first time in my entire life, I have absolutely no idea where I’m headed.
Ever since I was a child, I have prided myself on always having a plan. I was going to finish school, get a degree at Harvard majoring in biochemistry, and then maybe discover a cure for cancer or some other disease that’s plagued mankind. That was the plan, of course. But plans don’t always work out the way we want them to. There’s always an unknown variable…an x-factor…that can throw everything off. Three years ago, something happened that made every single plan I ever made get thrown completely out the window.
You see, three years ago…I died.
I was shot in the stomach while working at the Crashdown Café, a UFO-themed restaurant owned by my family in Roswell, New Mexico. I should have died then, but I didn’t. Instead, a young boy named Max Evans healed me. By some miracle he saved my life, and I’ve been in love with him ever since.
However, miracles always come with a price, right? It’s the only way the fates will be balanced. Max was an alien hybrid. A mixture between aliens and humans who had been ‘born’ on Earth in 1945. When he brought me back from the edge of death, he changed me. He made me like him. Like Michael. Like Isabel.
Now, three years later, everything’s different. Alex is dead…murdered by the traitorous Tess. The rest of us are on the run now, desperately trying to escape the rogue FBI agents from the former ‘special unit’. No college…no future. No one to turn to except each other.
“Liz?” Max suddenly asks me out of the blue. “Are you ok?”
I look up at my new husband and smile. The look tells him everything he needs to hear. Despite everything, I’m happy now. Happy just to be with him.
Husband.
I still can’t believe it. Aliens, superpowers, death and betrayal seem almost natural to me. But the fact that I’m married to Max Evans is the one thing I can’t believe? I’m still wearing my wedding dress right now. The one that Maria designed and made herself. I’m only eighteen years old, and married. If we weren’t the closest things to fugitives right now, I’d be overjoyed.
But marriage is supposed to represent stability, right? It means you’re supposed to ‘settle down’, but that’s the one thing we can’t do.
We can’t run forever, though. Sooner or later we have to stop running.
“So, where are we headed anyway?” Kyle Valenti asks from the front seat. “We do actually have some sort of destination, right?”
Max looks over to Michael, who looks to Maria, who looks to Isabel, who looks back to Max. All of them have blank looks.
“Great!” Kyle sighs.
Suddenly, an idea pops in my head.
“Lets head for New York!” I say out loud.
Max looks at me, curiously.
“Why New York?” he asks.
“I have some family there,” I explain to them. “I haven’t seen them in years. Not even when Grandma Claudia died.”
“Hey, is that the Aunt who makes the wheatcakes?” Maria asked. “God, I loved those things.”
Max starts to look pensive. I don’t blame him. His last trip to New York was hardly a good experience.
“I don’t know…” he mutters.
“Let’s do it!” Michael interrupts. “Come on, Maxwell…we didn’t get to go to New York the last time.”
“Oh, you’ll love it there!” Maria cut in. “Makes Roswell look like a dude ranch.”
In the mirror, I catch the first hint of a smile on Kyle’s face.
“Manhatten, here we come!” he announces, as he takes a turn, heading towards our destiny.
I hadn’t been to New York…at least not physically…since before I met Max. It’s one of my favourite memories. Of me, Maria, and Alex spending the summer hanging out at the home of my father’s brother…my Uncle Ben.
I can only wonder how things have changed since I’ve been gone. Whatever it is, it couldn’t possibly be that much different.
No, if there’s one thing the New York version of the Parkers are, it’s normal.
*****
New York City...
They call it 'the city that never sleeps', which is unfortunately true. The bad news is that the parts of it that doesn't sleep are usually the bad ones. Something about the night brings out the dark, corrupted parts in our souls. The demons come out to play.
You see, there's three types of people in New York. There's the people who look out for no one but themselves, and aren't against walking all over anyone who gets in the way of what they want. Then there's the people who try to imagine the first group doesn't exist. They go about their business, not worrying about who gets hurt...as long as it's not them.
Then there's the innocent people. The ones who just want to live their lives in peace, and not have to worry about some cheesehead with a gun snuffing it out on a random power trip. Too many times, it can't be helped. However, every so often, somebody steps in. To save the little guy. To protect them.
Sometimes it's the cops.
Sometimes it's a random Good Samaritan, who just happens to be wandering by.
And sometimes, just sometimes...it's me.
My name is Peter Parker. They call me the 'Amazing Spider-Man', for lack of a better word. I'm just your average ordinary guy...albeit with the proportional strength of a spider, who likes to help out whenever he can.
I don't ask for anything in return. Action is my reward...and the slight chance that I can snap of few pics to make a certain hairless grinch with a Hitler moustache happy enough to pay me for them.
Ok, so maybe I lied just a little. I’m hardly what you would call ‘normal’. After all, who in their right mind would get their kicks hanging out on rooftops, dressed in a skin-tight spider suit, freezing their butt off for people who think that he’s a menace.
It wasn’t always like this, of course. Once upon a time, I was a normal high school student. I was going to graduate college with high honours, major in biochemistry, and maybe discover a cure for cancer or some other annoying bug. Then, about a year ago, everything changed.
On a trip to a science presentation, I was bit by a genetically-altered spider. Its venom altered my body chemistry, passing on its abilities into my own DNA. Suddenly, I could do things no one else could. I had the proportional strength, speed, and agility of a spider. I could scale walls with ease, and leap large distances without any trouble at all. Most amazing of all, I now had spinets in my forearms, which enabled me to create webbing as strong as steel.
These days I try my best to make a difference where I can. This costume I wear lets me do that, while still being able to live a semblance of an ordinary life. There’s only one person who knows the truth.
Mary Jane.
Even thinking about her gets to me sometimes. I’ve loved her my entire life, even before I knew I even liked girls. She loves me back, too. I know she does. I want nothing else but to hold her in my arms and let her know just how much.
However, no matter how much I want to, I just can’t. As long as I’m Spider-Man, the people I care about will always be in danger. I messed up once, and it almost cost Mary Jane her life.
I’ll never let that happen again.
Suddenly, a large crash shakes me out of my daydreaming. I can see a van pull into a warehouse down below.
“It’s bit late for picking up or receiving, isn’t it?” I wonder aloud.
A sudden thwipping sound, and a webline shoots out of my wrist to anchor to a nearby rooftop. I use in to swing to the warehouse window without making a single sound.
I peer inside and see four kids, probably in their late teens or early twenties, pile out of the van.
“This the stuff?” one of them asks, using a crowbar to open up a crate. Inside, I can see several different syringes.
Drugs. Great.
The window is open partway, so I’m able to quickly sneak inside. They don’t even know I’m here yet. That’ll give me the chance to listen in a bit longer, anchored to the wall, and hidden by shadows.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” one of the addicts comments. “Where’d you get it?”
His friend just smiles.
“Let’s just say it’s new!” he replies. “I got a lot of money to spread this across the street. Some sort of new steroid. Here…try it out!”
He hands his friend one of the syringes. That’s it…no more wasting time.
I reach for the belt-buckle underneath by costume. Even though my natural powers give me more than enough of an edge against punks like these, the scientist in me can’t help but tinker together a few gadgets. There’s a high-powered flashlight on my belt buckle for when I’m trying to find something in a dark place. For an added psychological edge, I even made it project an image of my mask where it shines.
Yeah, I know…a certain guy dressed as a rodent is gonna sue me one of these days.
Out of nowhere, my ‘spidey signal’ shines on the would-be drug dealers. They freeze in place, shocked by my sudden arrival.
“Haven’t you ever heard the expression ‘just say no’?” I ask them.
It only takes a moment for them to snap out of it.
“SPIDER-MAN!!!” one of them screams.
I tackle that one before they get the chance to even react. I’m strong enough that he’s out cold after the first punch. After that, his fellow junkies pull out their guns.
One quick blast of webbing clogs one, while my danger-detecting ‘spider sense’ warns me of where they other two are going to shoot. I don’t even bother disarming them…it’s not worth the effort.
“Impossible!” one of them says, noticing how easy I leap out of harm’s way. “No one can move that fast! He ain’t human! He AIN’T human!!!”
“Oh, now you’re gonna insult me?” I joke. “That’s it, no more mister nice superhero!”
Using both feet, I crash into him. Before he falls, I use his body as a springboard, crashing into his fellow gunman with unbelievable force. The impact knocks the both of them out.
I land on my feet, facing the only one left standing. His weapon is still clogged with webbing, so he throws it to the ground.
Now, here’s the part I like. When you take away their guns, there’s only two options. Either they run, or they try to take me out. The stupid ones always fight…they think that all the stuff they hear about me on TV are just rumours. No one could possibly be that tough, or so they convince themselves.
Unfortunately, this guy was one of the stupid ones. He charges me, screaming bloody murder, hoping it’ll give him an advantage.
It doesn’t. I don’t even give him the chance to reach me. A swift kick to the head causes him to fly backwards on the ground.
“Idiot!” I scoff.
He’s not completely unconscious, but something tells me he’s in too much pain to bother getting up any time soon.
In the meantime, I take a look at whatever the heck they were trying to deal onto the streets. It sickens me. As if there wasn’t enough junk out there that people wanted to pollute their bodies with, these guys had to introduce a brand new one.
What I see, however, is something I didn’t expect.
“What on earth?” I comment.
Whatever’s in these syringes definitely do not look like any steroids I’ve seen in chemistry class. It’s kind of a bluish colour. It almost seems to be…glowing?
Could it be radioactive? After those ‘hulk’ rumours going around, maybe these idiots think that injecting their bodies with radiation will make them as strong as me. I really don’t want to find out.
I finish webbing them up, and stick one of the syringes in a small sealed compartment on my belt. Whatever it is, I think I want to have a closer look. It’s not dangerous…otherwise my spider sense would warn me.
Why, then, do I have this creepy feeling in the back of my skull?