"Wow. That was insane."
"I saw my mom's company, and I even waved to her."
"That is my school over there. They are going to be so jealous."
"Faster. This is amazing. I am flying."
Amano Ren took Kate on a web-swinging tour of Midtown.
Spider-Man had not appeared yet, so they had unintentionally claimed the first full swing across New York.
When Ren brought her down onto a high rooftop, Kate still was not satisfied.
"So freaking cool."
"I have never felt anything like that. Free flight, freer than a bird."
"It would be even better if you did not wrap me in that stuff."
Her cheeks were flushed as she shouted her excitement.
She had never been a perfect little lady, and the swing snapped something loose inside her, a taste for thrill that kept tugging at Ren for more.
He noticed her legs still trembling, though she did not seem to feel it.
He pointed at the sun sinking west and sighed.
"Your parents must have told you not to stay out late, especially a young lady. Time to go."
With Kate yelping, he scooped her up and swung fast across the city.
Even on his first try, his coordination rivaled Spider-Man's, letting him command this other kind of flight with ease.
Who did not want to fly like that after watching Spider-Man for the first time?
Not just Kate. Even Ren felt the rush.
He dropped Kate at home, waved to Eleanor and the staff waiting at the door, then pressed off the ground and shot skyward.
Just before he fell back, a long strand of web latched onto a tower and slung him forward again.
"Hey, I am coming tomorrow. I want to play more."
Kate called after him. He did not look back, only flashed an OK behind him and vanished among the high-rises.
"Kate."
Eleanor snapped out of it and hurried to her side.
"Mom, today was amazing. Mr. Amano is like an Omniman. There is nothing he cannot do."
Kate chattered in high spirits.
Eleanor could only watch her with indulgent warmth and listen.
The more she heard, the more a twist of envy pinched her, and Ren's power startled her all the more.
This handsome man from the East was even more mysterious and overwhelming than she imagined.
She bent and whispered, "Kate, do not tell anyone about this. It could bring trouble to Mr. Amano. All right?"
Kate lifted her chin solemnly. "You can trust me. A superhero cannot expose his identity. I get it."
"I will tell no one but you."
Eleanor nodded. Kate was lively and curious, but when she promised something she kept it.
"Then pinky swear. Not even Dad, understand?"
"Mm."
Across Manhattan, a teenage boy slumped in a school bus seat and stared out the window.
"Oh my God, someone is flying."
"Where? There, he is really flying."
"Is he a superhero? That is so cool."
Peter Parker followed the noise and looked outside.
A figure leaped from one building to the next like a bird in sunlight.
He zipped through the city and vanished in a few breaths.
"So cool. If only I had that power."
Peter's heart ached with envy. Hearing the chatter around him, he wondered if a power like that could finally make him someone people admired.
Superhero. It sounded impossibly cool.
Then he remembered what a loser he was and gave a crooked smile.
Good stuff like that never happens to me.
Ren had no idea the real Spider-Man was eyeing him, the counterfeit.
He landed on the Empire State Building's summit and looked out over New York, heart surging.
He had not even spent a full day in Marvel and had already grown this strong.
What about the future?
Could he climb, step by step, to the very top and become an almighty god?
He shook it off. Too far ahead.
"I am still too weak."
"A few dozen tons of strength is nothing here. In the MCU that barely earns a walk-on."
"Across the endless cosmos, I am no more than an ant."
"I need to grow stronger."
He drew a deep breath. As his gaze drifted, a familiar yet strange logo caught his eye.
"That is... Oscorp."
He stared at Oscorp Tower for a long moment, a smile tugging at his mouth.
Where no one could see, his brain pulsed out unknown signals, slipped into the nearest network, and began to move.
He slid into Oscorp's surveillance hub.
His mind ran hot. In barely ten seconds he had what he wanted.
"Green Goblin - Norman Osborn."
Right then, in the Oscorp Tower laboratories, a room crammed with high-tech instruments.
In a lab coat and glasses, Norman Osborn recorded readings on a report.
He watched a white mouse inside a cage of bulletproof glass and did not blink.
A faint thrill edged his face.
Then, in the next second, the super-sized, savage, frantic mouse went POP and powdered out of existence.
Norman's face went dark. He forced down his anger and wrote:
"With a 70 percent reduction in the vaporized inhalant dose, Subject 759 displays an eightfold increase in strength. Duration one minute, significant increase. Side effects remain: violent tendencies, aggression..."
"Recommend beginning next trial at this dose..."
He finished the dense report, locked it in a safe, dropped into a chair, and rubbed his temples.
"Damn it. Why can I still not make it work? What went wrong?"
"Do I have to roll back to the formula stage and start over? No. Absolutely not. It must be that detail there... or maybe a mouse body is too fragile."
He muttered for a while, checked his Rolex, and exhaled. "Harry is out of school... that is it for today."
He shrugged off the lab coat and slid it into sterilization. As he turned to leave, the lab door opened.
"Who is it? I said no one interrupts my experiments."
His brow creased, ready to snap, then paused at the sight of a stranger of Eastern descent.
Ren walked in as if it were his place. His gaze swept the lab and drank in every detail.
Positions of equipment. Names of reagents. Odd notations.
"Who are you?"
Norman searched his memory. No match.
As the head of the company, he knew the upper tiers. He could not and need not know everyone below.
"Who I am does not matter. Here is what matters. Do you want to live?"