Learning & Power

-October 10, 1996-

9 months have passed. Peter was already finished with his encyclopedia. At this point he had more general knowledge than most of the adults. Regarding learning resources, he hot the resources of grade1 to grade 3 for free by giving a examination that certifies his knowledge of the first grade. He has already learned all of them.

During the summer holidays, the Parkers went on a beach holiday. Uncle Ben and Peter also went kite flying regularly. They went to watch baseball too. The fact that whenever they cheered for their team from the stadium, their team lost did not give them much confidence though. The uncle-nephew duo decided to go watch a game only annually while TV could suffice for the other games.

Peter was becoming increasingly athletic and surprisingly surpassed the average height at school. Also now that he did not look weak despite wearing glasses, he became quite popular in class. During his birthday celebration many of his friends from the kindergarten came. Gifts included books, children's encyclopedias on specific subjects, pencil stands, notebooks, board games, and other such things.

Uncle Ben gifted him a New York Mets T-shirt. While giving him the gift, his uncle grinned and said," Remember, do not get too excited and remember you have other clothes as well" infront of all his friends. He felt embarrassed but quickly hid it and opened the present. Surely he was shouting with joy, "Yes! The Hardball is Back."

Aunt May also got the one of the best presents, i.e. enrollment passes for Karate classes at the Queens Martial Academy in the area. He had already begged her to allow him learn self defense to grow stronger. He convinced her telling her how if he was weak he would be prone to diseases and injuries and that may lead him to the hospital. With most of his educational expenses being covered under the scholarship, May finally had enough resolve and money to send him to learn karate.

"With this my combat training and skills will not surprise people and this would also stop potential bullies." exclaimed Peter in his heart. He was seriously happy that day. What he did not realize was the fact that due to the memories, his body producing less fatigue, photographic memory and his 1 year practice of military grade modern combat arts, he was pretty much a prodigy in martial arts.

He has also started his elementary school and even made some friends such as such as Liz Allan, Seymour O'Reilly, Jason Ionello, Sally Avril, Sean "Tiny" McKeever, and Charlie Murphy.

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-June 02, 2000-

Time went by and quickly 4 years passed. Peter continued to follow his schedule with slight modifications to add time slots for his Karate classes, Science fairs, lab visits, library visits, small competitions both academic and co-curricular.

Peter slowly but steadily became an all rounder. He was now a Black Belt in Karate, being a 'prodigy' in martial arts he was one of the more dedicated students and could earn his black belt in a little less than 4 years. During this time he also integrated the military grade modern hand to hand combat arts in his informal fighting style.

May was proud of Peter being an all-rounder. Uncle Ben advised," Now that you are so strong you should always know this. Your father believed this, I believe this- With great power come great responsibilities. Never use your power to hurt or bully others, always behave responsibly my child. If anything happens, come to us, we are always here for you."

Peter never refused his advise and would always respect it and cherish it. But he also had his own world view. Although he agreed with his uncle that 'with great power comes great responsibility', he also accepted that sometimes, to fulfill his responsibilities he will have to hurt others or even kill them. Ofcourse he has never done it but he is still ready to confront the dangers of this world.

From those memories he knew that being a goodie two shoes will give him nothing, in turn everyone will think of him as weak or vulnerable and will try to exploit this. Though he never spoke of his own ideals he still thought about them almost regularly.

Peter also started to practice calisthenics daily. In the recent years, he has achieved good understanding of his body's balance and flexibility. He also participated in various Karate Competitions and even lost in some of them. This was because he did not play it like a regular 'competition' sport and unconsciously did some prohibited moves to defeat the opponent.

Despite this, his patience and will power increased as he tried 'mend his ways' for future Karate Championships as they brought him fame, medals and money.

In January this year, Peter also visited the Oscorp labs as part of the Scholarship Program. He was inspired to focus on science in the near future. He also participated in various quizzes, competitions, and projects. These awarded him with academic credentials, certificates and sometimes money.

In these years he has saved little more than 5000 USD from all the competitions, projects etc. Peter also opened up with his friends and would now annoy them with his bad jokes/scenarios. Despite being stronger than all of the students, he never bullied anyone and ofcourse did not let anyone else to become a bully.

From this Peter realized that 'power' was required if you want to help other, power greater than those who seek to destroy them. He could only stop bullying without much of the social repercussions because he was strong enough to deter others. If he was weak no one would have helped him.