Adventures In The Spider-Verse

Becoming Spiderman (prologue)

It's been over a decade since Spiderman died, the world soon finding out his secret identity, Peter Parker.

Where one thing goes wrong, so does everything else.

It felt that the moment the world found out Spiderman is dead, everything went to hell.

I remember it, six year old me watching the news, seeing pictures and videos of what happened.

We all mourned for the worlds loss, our one and only saviour, gone.

That is, until last friday.

Let me take you back a few days, to when my life got turned around.

My name is Doreen Mendoza, I'm a street rat and a thief, my parents died in a bombing not long after the villians took over and since then, I've been on my own.

Now that you know some things about me, let's get to the story.

It was a normal day for me when I woke up, fires set everywhere and the occasional bang of a gun.

I followed my usual daily routine, go for a walk, get some food, steal some stuff, antagonise the guards. But today felt off, like something was going to happen.

That something ended up changing my life forever.

The sky was cloudy and dark, permanently that way from smoke and other chemicals that the villians have created.

I find my way to my hide out after a long day, my stomach still in a knot even after I tried everything, I just can't shake the feeling of something bad.

I grab my blanket and pull out some food I managed to steal today, sitting down infront of my window and looking out at the dirty street.

I sigh as I take a bite of a sandwich, slowly chewing and staring off into space.

I feel a slight tickle on the back of my neck and swat it slightly, then there's a pinch and my head goes fuzzy.

The fuck was that?

I grab at what was itching my neck and bring it around to my face, I look closely at it. A spider, I just got bit by a spider.

I bring it closer and look at it better. It was blue and red, some purple on it too, nothing normal.

The spider wiggles in my hands and I drop it on the ground, running to get a plastic container and trapping it.

I squat on the ground, looking at the spider.

"Your weird" I say to it.

I pick up the container that holds the spider, getting my knife and poking a few holes in the lid so it can breath then pitting it on my desk.

Your gonna be my new friend.

I go back to eating my sandwich, watching the spider make webs in the container.

The webs were a light purple, shining in the minimal light that comes through the window.

"Your very weird" I mumble to the little bug.

The next morning

I wake up on the floor, my blanket barely covering me. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and sit up, looking at my desk where the spider is. Little guy is still there.

I get up from the floor and put my jacket on, it was one of my friends leather jackets before she went missing three years ago, now I keep it as a memory.

I leave the building and go to my favourite coffee shop, getting my usual, hot chocolate and a cheese toastie.

I sit at a bench on the outside of the shop, eating and drinking, people watching and stealing wallets from people that walk past.

Everything is the same for the rest of the day, until theres a massive bang and a strange orange light comming from the top of a roof.

I run up the fire escape to investigate, seeing a very tall and muscular man in a blue and red suit. He's fighting a man in a purple outfit.

I stand at the edge of the roof, watching the fight, until the man in purple spots me and runs over to me.

My ears ring and buz and I crouch down right as the purple guy makes a swing at me, I look up at him then to the other guy, who, even with a mask on, looks shocked.

I stare at the blue guy, my ears ringing while we make eyecontact, the purple guy growls then makes anther swing at me while I was distracted.

He manages to hit me over the side of the head with the big metal glove he has on then grabbed me by the throat, holding me over the edge of the building.

"Don't-" the blue guy says, stepping forwards but stopping when I cry out in pain from the purple guy holding tighter.

"I will drop her if you make one more step" the purple guy says.

My vision goes fuzzy and black spots start to form, I go light headed, close to passing out.

"You dont want to do this" the blue guys tells the purple guy, holding a hand out.

"I think I do" the purple guy growls, throwing out his arm and releasing me.

My arms flail and I scream, watching the ground get closer and closer.

I see a flash of blue and I'm no longer falling, I look up to see the blue guy holding onto me woth ine arm and some sort of glowing red rope with the other.

We land on another roof top and he puts me down, staring at me.

My ears ring again and there's a buzzing sound.

I hold my head and groan, not expecting nor liking the feeling.

It stops and I look to my saviour.

"Who are you?" I ask him, he tils his head.

"Isn't it obvious?" He asks me in return.

"Uhh are you supposed to be famous?" I question.

"Thats funny" he tells me in a flat voice, "I'm Spiderman"

I stare back at him, confusion covering my face.

"I'm not from this earth, there's something called the multiverse, and then there's the spider society, I am the leader." He looks down at me.

"Spider? As in Spiderman?"

He nods, "every earth has a spiderman, and the best of those spidermen are part of my society."

"O-okay" I stutter, "who was that guy?" You ask.

"The prowler, an anomaly from another earth that somehow ended up over here. I'm here to bring him back home." He says.

"Wait prowler, as in the Morales family?" I ask him, fear in my eyes.

"Yes" he breaths out, "but there's another issue on this earth I discovered."

"What's that?" I ask. He looks right at me.

"You, Doreen."

I gasp, how does he know my name? What did I do?

"Me?" I question in a quiet voice.

"Every time a person is bit by one of the spiders, I'm informed. And last night you were bit by Spider 17694.2, a science experiment made by using the blood of myself and another spiderman to give this world a hero, since your soiderman died."

"Hold up," I take a breath in, "IM SPIDERMAN?" I yell at him.

"Yes" he replies.

"I-i-i don't even know the first thing to being a hero. What do I even do? I have powers?" I start rambling, asking too many questions for Spiderman to keep track of.

"Slow down. Your going to come with me, and I'm going to help you. And trust me, if you were bit by that spider then it means your more than capable of being Spiderman."

He presses a few buttons on his watch and a bright orange thing pops up, he holds out his hand and I gently place mine in it.

He roughly pulls my behind him through the orange thingy, we step through and appear in a dark room, computers and all sorts of technology everywhere.

"Welcome to the Spider Society Headquarters."