Vigilante Squared

Chapter Two: Peter

My name is Peter Parker. Six years ago, I was given amazing abilities...at the cost of my greatest hero. Now I will honor his memory by using my great power to protect my city, and any other city I find myself in. To fulfill this great responsibility, I have to become someone else. I have to become something else.

<~<-------->~>

As Peter landed in the alleyway, both the mugger and the woman that had screamed turned to him in shock.
"You know, if you're gonna do this as the sun comes up," Peter started as he gave a pose of indifference, "You might wanna try being out of earshot of a vigilante - or at least not on the same street as a police station."
While keeping his grip on the woman's coat, the mugger turned and began to fire three would-be-headshots.
"Sir, that is very rude," Peter called as he dodged the first two shots, "I am just trying to tell you how to 'mugger' better."
Peter then ducked under the last shot, ran up the alley wall and jumped off with a well placed kick to the mugger's jaw. Peter then grabbed the mugger's pistol and webbed it to the wall, and made sure to web the mugger's outstretched hands and feet to the ground.
"Hashtag Starfish." Peter joked as he made the hashtag gesture with his fingers before turning to the woman who was still clinging to the wall out of fear.
"There's an officer on patrol coming now," Peter told her calmly as the police sirens he heard earlier got closer, "I'm sorry I can't stay, but you'll be fine. Just wait for them, okay?"
The woman shakily nodded her head in understanding as she relaxed a little. Peter turned, ran down the alleyway, then parkoured his way up the alley walls and shot a webline up and out of the alleyway and continued his patrol of the area.
Peter had come into town yesterday because one of the only officers back in New York that fully trusted him gave him a lead that Kraven had come to Starling. The first task Peter had before him whenever he came to a new city - especially since he officially started this job - was to learn and all but fully memorize the layout of the city. Everything from the obvious placement of buildings and streets to where most crime - big and small - took place in the city and even down to foot traffic movements at three in the morning. This level of familiarity never came easy, and more often than not patrols were interrupted by random crime, much like the mugger a few minutes ago.
On top of all the patrols and the crime fighting was the lack of a proper sleep schedule. Peter was used to this, sure, but he hadn't exactly talked to an old friend yet like he had told May over the phone. In fact, said friend probably didn't even know that he was in town, let alone in need of a place to stay.
With the sun starting to change the sky from orange to blue, Peter started making his way towards the edge of the city, stopping at the last relatively large building to make a quick costume change on the rooftop. After checking to see no one was looking, and making some quick calculations in his head and making sure his backpack was strapped tightly and zipped shut, Peter leapt off the building and - using a couple different weblines - landed all but softly on the roof of a passing bus headed for the neighborhood he needed to get to based off the info he had written down a few years ago.
As the bus pulled near the neighborhood and came to a stop, Peter silently launched off the bus and landed behind a row of bushes. After a quick look around, he hefted his bag and began walking through the streets. A few false starts and knocking on wrong doors later, Peter came to the front door, knocked three times and waited. He barely recognized the woman that opened the door in her pajamas, but she recognized him.
"Peter?" She asked in disbelief.
"Hi Felicity," He started nervously with a smile, "I'm here to cash in a favor."

<~<-------->~>

Five years ago, a sixteen-year old Peter was unpacking his things into his dorm room. He had graduated high school early and been given a scholarship to any college he chose - oddly enough, he chose M.I.T. His reasoning was he wanted somewhere that he could be challenged in terms of technology, but still be able to have a social life if the opportunity presented itself.
"Are you sure you couldn't have picked anything heavier to bring?" An eighteen-year old Harry Osborn asked sarcastically as he hefted a bin that had been duct-taped shut in one hand and dragged a locked foot-locker in the other hand.
"I could've brought my entire room from home instead of half of it." Peter joked in reply as he gave Harry a hand with the foot-locker.
"Are you sure you're gonna have enough to eat, Peter?" Aunt May asked sincerely as she came in the door with two shopping bags in each hand full of snack- and junk-food.
"Yes, May, I'll be fine." Peter replied with a chuckle as he set the foot-locker down to be moved elsewhere in the room later.
As the three of them continued to unpack Peter's belongings, a very giggly couple holding hands walked past Peter's door. The guy in the couple wore a red hoodie and kept his blonde hair somewhat parted to the right. The girl could only be described as goth to the core - black hair and lipstick, leather jacket, an Egyptian Ankh necklace and combat boots.
"Hey," Red Hoodie started as he knocked on the door and moved to shake Norman's hand, "You must be the new guy, smart getting your little brother to help. I'm Cooper."
"I'm actually the help," Harry chuckled as he shook Cooper's hand then pointed to Peter, "This is the real new guy."
"Hi, I'm Peter." He said as a confused Cooper shook his outstretched hand, "This is Harry, we've been friends as long as I can remember. And this is my Aunt May."
"Nice to meet you all." Cooper said with a smile but confusion still apparent on his face, "This is my girlfriend, Felicity."
"Nice to meet you all." Felicity smiled as she shook everyone's hand, "Forgive him, he's still learning how to fully voice when he's confused."
"Peter's here on an Osborn scholarship," Harry started in reply with a chuckle and a dry smile, "Dad says he's the face of the next generation of great scientists. Well, after him and Harrison Wells of course."
"And your dad is?" The girl perked up with the question.
"Norman Osborn." Harry replied with a bit of embarrassment, "But, he made sure Peter competed in the public and advanced science fairs and expos just like everyone else - the only advantage he had was access to labs that I had access to so he could have the materials and budget he needed."
"Wait a minute, Peter...Parker?" Felicity asked in surprise as she looked to Peter, "The guy who won with a nanobot serum that cured a judge of his brain cancer at the 2010 Osborn Expo?!"
"Uh, yeah, that's me." Peter replied with a not so subtle blush of embarrassment.
"Dude, no offense, but why'd you choose here?" Cooper asked before being elbowed in the ribs by Felicity.
"What he meant to say was," Felicity started with an apologetic smile, "With all the options available to you, why M.I.T., why not Harvard or even Osborn U. of Tech?"
"Well, M.I.T. still gives a challenge for just about any of the offered majors." Peter answered, "But, it also gives me a chance to have a social life of sorts. Without revealing too much to embarass me, I wasn't exactly the social butterfly of my high school."
"Well, maybe we can change that." Felicity suggested, "Wanna check out the computer lab tonight? Maintenance owes me a favor for keeping the entire campus mainframe from going down last week, so we could stay all night if you want to get started on any big projects. Cooper and I were gonna do just that actually."
"Uh, sure, that'll fun." Peter answered while trying to keep the nerves out of his voice.
"Great, see ya' then, man." Cooper said before shaking Peter's hand again, "Take it easy."