boyutpedia Chapter 2: The Opening Moment Belongs to Peter Parker
Chapter 2: The Opening Moment Belongs to Peter Parker
Chapter 2: The Opening Moment for Peter Parker
Peter Parker felt as if he had returned to his childhood in this life, to the day he said goodbye to his parents. That day, his parents took him to his Uncle Ben's house. After talking with his aunt and uncle, his parents didn't tell him why they had to leave, but simply told him, "Listen to your aunt and uncle."
He remembered telling his parents that he had found something, that he knew they were in danger, and that he wanted to help.
"I know you're very smart, and sometimes you don't seem like a twelve-year-old. But this isn't something you can help us with alone. Listen to Uncle Ben and Aunt May, understand?"
Peter couldn't quite remember how he had answered. He tried to recall, but the sound of the alarm clock interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to reality.
In his morning grumpiness, he raised his hand and hesitated for a second. Just then, Uncle Ben's voice came from outside the door.
"The fifth day of Peter's unwavering resistance to morning grumpiness."
"It's the sixth day, Uncle Ben."
Peter gently pressed the alarm clock and sat bolt upright. Uncle Ben had already opened the door. Benjamin Parker was a man around forty years old, slightly overweight, but still looked robust, unlike Uncle Ben in other universes who was an old man.
"You came home too late yesterday. Your Aunt Mei doesn't want you to go astray and wander around like a hoodlum when you're about to start high school."
Did you tell her that something came up and I was held up?
"Lost in time at the library again? You'd better come up with a better excuse next time."
Uncle Ben smiled and closed the door, adding a reminder: "Hurry up, we still have to go for our morning run."
No matter what Spider-Man does on the outside, Peter Parker is still just a 15-year-old high school student... a soon-to-be high school student.
"Did you know that high school in the United States lasts four years? From age fifteen to eighteen."
Peter, who was used to talking to himself, mumbled as he dressed, then quickly went into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. He put the toothbrush in his mouth and continued, his words muffled:
"But you probably don't know that Uncle Ben served in the military, joined the Marines, and even served overseas. Pretty impressive, huh? I mean, wow."
After a quick wash, Peter began his morning workout. He jogged five kilometers with Uncle Ben, then ate breakfast prepared by Aunt May. The purpose of the run wasn't to build endurance, but to better disguise himself as a normal person—otherwise, Peter could easily break the world record.
Not only did Uncle Ben help him train to disguise himself as an ordinary person, but as a retired soldier, he also taught Peter a great deal: battlefield reconnaissance skills, combat training, planning escape routes, and avoiding surveillance and line of sight. Without this training, Peter would likely not have developed into a Spider-Man he considered competent in just five months.
"So, what happened yesterday?"
"You know, wandering around the ruins of New York, finding some criminals, tying them up, and handing them over to the police."
Uncle Ben's face was already flushed from the strenuous exercise, while Peter seemed quite relaxed, barely even out of breath when he spoke.
"But there are fewer and fewer smugglers these days, Uncle Ben. After all, it's been more than three months since the Battle of New York, and it's almost September. Maybe I won't have to check those things anymore soon."
Uncle Ben sighed, whether he was lamenting that the Disaster Control Bureau had spent more than three months clearing the rubble or relieved that it was finally almost done.
He recalled what had happened recently. More than five months ago, his nephew went to a science fair and came back acting mysteriously, doing something he kept from him and Mei, which worried them for a long time.
Until one day, Peter nervously told him the truth: he was bitten by a mutated spider after being exposed to radiation at a science expo, and gained spider-like superpowers: climbing walls, jumping ability, danger perception, and superhuman physical abilities—but he couldn't spin webs.
"I...I want to do something. Maybe I can be a hero, or maybe I can make some money from it. What should I do, Uncle Ben?"
Ben had intended to tell Peter, "With great power comes great responsibility," but he didn't. Because Peter was, after all, just a fifteen-year-old boy, and he knew that superheroes weren't as glamorous as they were portrayed in the news. Just look at the freaks they had to deal with to see how dangerous it was.
For Ben, who had no children of his own, Peter was his own child, and he didn't want to put him in danger.
He simply said this:
"As long as you don't use this power to hurt others, Peter, I'll support whatever choice you make. I believe May feels the same way."
Some time later, a fire broke out near his home. When Uncle Ben led the neighbors to put out the fire, he witnessed a scene he can never forget: Peter, holding a small child, jumped from the second floor and rescued the child.
"I...I'm so scared, Uncle Ben."
He also remembered that later in the car, Peter almost trembled as he told him:
"There are flames all around, and a roof beam collapsed and hit my arm; it still hurts. I... I don't want to go in, Uncle Ben. But I heard that little girl crying; she wants someone to save her."
"I could have saved her; I'm not powerless. I'm terrified that if I went in, I wouldn't be able to get out... But what if I could have saved her, but because I didn't, she never got out? I'm more afraid of that; I'm more afraid of dreaming at night about those people I could have saved, asking me why I didn't reach out."
Peter didn't become Spider-Man because he wanted to help others, but because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to help those he could. When he became a superhero, what drove him wasn't power, or a self-righteous savior mentality.
Instead, they are afraid of facing the disappointment of not being able to reach out to anyone who begs for help.
At that moment, Benjamin Parker understood that his nephew could become the greatest hero in the world.
He began to worry that Peter might one day be unable to hold on, but he chose to support Peter's choice. So, he used the skills he had acquired in the Marine Corps to train his nephew, a skill he continues to this day.
Peter also demonstrated his talent. He was as clever as his deceased parents. He even found clues in some of his father Richard's scattered manuscripts, synthesized the web-making fluid, and then made his own web-shooter.
They both like spiders; in that respect, he's definitely like his father...
"Maybe once the rubble is cleared, those smugglers will run away on their own. Then all I'll need to do is help people catch a thief or rescue a cat on my way to and from school..."
Peter ran backwards, looked at his uncle who seemed lost in thought, and asked, "Uncle Ben?"
"Oh, that's good. Your Aunt Mei won't have to worry about you hanging out with any hooligans anymore."
"She knows I won't."
Peter and Ben laughed together, then Peter turned around and ran alongside Uncle Ben.
"How about we go get some Turkish kebabs once Central Station is cleared out?"
A basement in New York.
A black man who looked to be in his twenties with dreadlocks walked into an unfinished building carrying a bag—his hideout, which contained a simple mattress, a lamp, and seven or eight companions.
"This is what I've accomplished today."
He distributed the money in his bag to his men. One of them asked, "Hermann, why is the money decreasing every day?"
"There's less and less to find in the ruins, and fewer and fewer buyers. Those guys who called themselves AIM left last week, and even the people from Hell's Kitchen aren't buying much anymore. I have to find other people willing to risk getting beaten up by Iron Man to buy those alien gadgets. Not to mention, there's this spider-web-headed freak in the bodysuit causing us trouble lately."
After the black man named Herman finished speaking, another subordinate complained, "You shouldn't have hidden those goods; now there's nowhere to sell them."
Upon hearing this, Hermann laughed instead.
"Guys, the goods in New York are valuable, but they're not inexhaustible. We have to think about the future. I used to be the best locksmith in New York, and I made the most amazing safe-cracking devices."
"But today, thanks to the help of our alien friends, I've created something even more amazing with the portion of the goods I left behind."
As he spoke, he took out something resembling a gun from his satchel. It wasn't complicated; it had a blue energy bar connected to a Chitauri battery, a knob, and a trigger.
"What is this?"
"A lock pick, a shockwave generator. Here's a knob to adjust the output power. On the lowest setting, we can knock a person down."
Herman fired at the concrete pile next to him, and the invisible shockwave made the concrete pile shake.
"But what if we increase the power to level two..."
A piercing sound rang out, and the concrete pillar was shattered.
The younger brothers immediately became excited.
"What about the maximum power?!"
"I haven't tried it, but if my calculations are correct, it should be able to blow up a building. So I set a safety feature that limits it to a maximum of level three."
The underlings exclaimed "Cool!" one after another. Most importantly, Herman took out more than one of these things; he gave one to each of his underlings.
There are many cement piles in the unfinished building, so they can fully experience the power of this new thing.
This is the "lock pick" manufactured by Hermann, capable of opening the doors of any safe and vault.
"Hermann!" One of the henchmen, having tried out the new weapon's effects, couldn't help but laugh. "What's this thing called? Does it have a name?"
"Of course, it's called Thriller. Hermann Schulz's Thriller."
Hermann picked up a terrifying weapon and said with absolute confidence:
"Neither Spider-Man nor the Avengers can stop us. Then all of New York, no, all of America, will know that the best engineers aren't those college nerds or those bespectacled white dogs. I'll prove one thing to those idiots who value degrees and skin color."
"I, Hermann Schulz, created something they could never replicate—"
"Terrifying"
PS: Herman Schultz, also known as Shocker, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #46 (March 1967). He was a highly talented engineer and safekeeper who did not complete compulsory education. In the comics, he invented a pair of gloves that could emit shockwaves to escape from prison (a genius!), and used them as weapons, thus becoming Shocker.
The book changed the character to a Black person for plot purposes, to facilitate the development of the story.
(End of this chapter)