Brave Scars | Spider-Man/ Peter Parker Fanfic

Chapter 1: The Gym Attack

Amber's watch ticked harmoniously with the sound of her friend's snore and her dad's lecture. This must have been the twentieth time she stole a glance at her wrist watch.

Amber Young is a freshman in New York University. Her father, David Young, is a geology professor known for his successful research in discovering gemstones that would provide the finder with powerful abilities once it was broken. Regardless of what was told in his public lectures, he never went anywhere deeper and refused to answer questions that went beyond clarifying whatever was already told in his lectures. This discovery brought many news reporter and researchers to their house, but her father's reaction to these media seekers was to kindly tell them he's not available to discuss such matters. Years after years, Amber would always see her father's familiar figure on his work desk early in the morning: his brown hair was messily wavy and his tortoise frames sat calmly on the bridge of his nose. She would bring him coffee in the morning and ask him about this "magic" he found, she never got the answer she wanted. instead, her father would give her his handsome smile, and with adoring blue eyes, pat her head and say "I'll tell you when you're old enough, Amber-girl".

Six years after his discovery, he joked about his growing age. He said it limited his ability for anything adventurous and decided to settle down as a university professor instead.

Geology is not Amber's field of interest, but regardless of how supportive her father was for her interests, he asked her to take this class as a favor for him.

"And that's a wrap, class! Don't forget to do your homework and I'll see you next class." Her father exclaimed. Amber sighed in relief before nudging her sleepy friend beside her. She looked up groggily at the clock and gave her a thank you nod before tossing her notebook into her shoulder bag and left. Amber stayed back.

"Are my lectures really that boring?" He asked nonchalantly as she walked up to him. She gave him a small smile.

"Nah, they were just sleep deprived from the amount of homework you gave them last class."

"But I only gave them twenty pages of reading and one essay to write last time."

"Only?" She repeated with raised eyebrows and a small smile.

"Yes, only. I had to write nearly 100 pages of research when I was a young scientist, so don't complain, Amber-lady." He gave her a knowing smile and a little poke on her forehead. Amber laughed as she helped him pack.

Her father is an over achiever, and he probably expect the same from Amber.

"Don't you have to go to your next class soon?" He asked with raised eyebrows. Her father is a very handsome man, even at the age of mid forty. He had boyish eyebrows which contrast beautifully with his sky blue eyes that seem to glisten like crystal whenever he smiled. Unfortunately, Alcohol and years of depression gave him deep wrinkles, but now that he was out of those habits, he went back to his healthy routine and he looked just like what she remembered seeing when she was younger.

Her mother passed away on the night of her fifteenth birthday. It was one in the morning; sounds of glass shattering and shouting men haunted her. Amber was asleep in her room, when a loud shrilled scream followed by a gunshot and heavy silence sounded. She stumbled out of her room in her white pajama dress, and peered down from upstairs. Her mother was stagnant on the floor, her red satin night gown became one with the expanding pool of scarlet blood. Glittering shards of glass embellished her mother's body like specs of gem. The robber stood shocked, as her father crouched beside mother's limp body, shaking her tremendously. His tears fell on her face, a transparent outline glided down the side of her frozen wide-eye. The sound of her mother's name from her father's lips sounded muffled and everything felt grey, except for the bright scarlet figure of her mother in the center of the floor.