Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Chronicles: Gang War (Male Reader Insert)

This is Not Puberty

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping.  I looked at my alarm clock.  Even though I just woke up, I could see it clearly.  It was 12:00 PM exactly.  I was full of energy.  Like someone gave me a sedative yesterday and an adrenaline shot today.

I hopped down the stairs, giving mom a kiss and dad a hug.

"Good morning family!" I exclaimed.

"That was the longest nap in the history of naps," Dad said.

"I thought you were dead," mom added as she continued making breakfast.

"So is this gonna be a play-video-games-for-14-hours-straight day or a do-something-with-your-life day?" she asked.

"You know what?  I'm gonna do something with my life.  Dad let's go to the basketball court!"

"Okay, okay.  Well I don't know about you but I need to eat first."

"Oh... right of course.  I-I knew that," I replied sheepishly.

As the three of us were eating (eggs, bacon, and grits), dad kept eyeing my arms.

"Looks like you put on some muscle," he pointed out.

"Huh, so I did."

"Y/n be honest," mom started.

"Are you taking drugs?"

I laughed so hard I almost choked on my food.

"What?  No!  Why would you even think that?!"

"Think about it.  You barely made into the house yesterday, then you wake up full of energy today with a bunch of newfound muscle."

"Mom, I'm not on drugs.  I can give you a urine sample," I suggested.

"OKAY... I'll just take your word for it," she quickly declined.

I chuckled.

~~~

Dad and I arrived at the court in Chinatown near F.E.A.S.T.  I basically skipped over, making my dad even more confused.

"Okay what is going on with you?  You've never wanted to be active in your life."

"Well you know, things change.  New year, new school, new environment, new me," I cleverly answered.

"Look, I've been in the place you're in.  You start developing hormones, you care more about your appearance," he started.

"This is not puberty," I promised, shooting his hypothesis down.

"Okay," he concluded, throwing up his hands in surrender.

"I hope you've been practicing, because if not, I'm taking you down," Dad warned.

"Just don't hurt your back old man," I taunted.

He smirked and started dribbling.  I intercepted his movement an stayed on him.

As he went to score a layup, I blocked him perfectly, and dribbled to the three point line.  He walked up to defend, but I dribbled to the basket.  Then he hit the ball.  It should have been knocked out of my hand, but it got stuck to my fingertips.

'What the hell?' I thought.

I continued to move it out of the way as dad tried to steal it, and it still stuck to my hand. Eventually, I tried to calm down and shoot the ball, which seemed to cause it to unstick.  The ball bounced off the backboard and went in.

He passed me the ball again, and I dribbled straight to the basket, making a fast break.  Then, I leapt into the air with ease and dropped the ball in the net.  Now how many kids get to say they dunked on their father at 14?  Well I know one.

~~~

Me and dad showed up at home around 5:00, both sweating like crazy.  I walked in with a smirk, bouncing the ball up and down in my hand.  "Did you two have fun?" mom asked with a smile.

"I think I should try out for the basketball team," I suggested.

"You've never wanted to do an extracurricular activity in your life. What brought this on?" she asked.

"He dunked on me," dad explained with pride.

"And you say you're not on steroids," mom joked.

"I'm not!  I promise," I defended, getting a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed bullying your father, but you still have these dishes to put away.  So hurry up and take a shower."

I walked upstairs, started the water and took my shirt off.  Mom was right.  I definitely got more muscle.  If I had to guess, I'd say it was that spider bite.  Weird.  What I thought was the worst moment of my life turned out to be the best.

Once I finished with the dishes, I went into my room and opened an old unfinished notebook from 5th grade. There, I was documenting all the changes in my body:

- Bit by a spider with green blood/venom

- Most likely radioactive

- Still alive

- Some sort of DNA altering (splicing?)

- Similar characteristics to that of various spiders (sticky fingers, stamina, muscle, maybe more to come)

- Point of injection: fangs to hand

- Substance injected: spider venom

- Fatigue so my body could passively accept these changes

Lastly, the goosebumps I got when Flash tried to trip me. Like an early warning detection system of some sort, similar to the movement of a spider's bristles that help it pinpoint stimuli. A spider-sense.  I was freaking out as I was writing this, trying to decide if this was awesome or terrifying.  I just hoped my body wouldn't change any more than this.  I really couldn't deal with turning into a whole spider.