Chapter 1: Making of a Superhero

Peter was in shock as both his parents lay dead at his feet after having been shot to death. He knew they were Federal law enforcement agents working for the government, but it had never occurred to the four-year-old child that criminals would break into his family's home and kill his parents before they knew what had happened.

When he sensed people coming into the house, Peter ran into his room and hid therein.

"Look at what we have here," one of the assassins who wore black clothes and ski-masks called out when he found Peter hiding under his bed. After dragging him out and throwing him on the ground next to his dead parents, the other similarly dressed assassins regarded the boy, surrounding him.

"We can probably sell him for money on the black market. He's not bad looking. Maybe one of those brothels in Bangkok could use another lady-boy," one of the men said prompting the others to laugh.

"You killed Mommy and Daddy!" Peter screamed as he rushed one of the gunmen, coming close to taking hold of his gun.

"Get back!" the assassin yelled as he backhanded Peter, striking him in the head and sending him to the ground in a world of pain and unconsciousness. Then one of the men grabbed Peter by the throat and snapped his neck, killing him.

"We could have sold him for money."

"No, our bosses wanted to make sure there were no witnesses. Besides, angry kids intent on revenge don't make good whores anyway."

Upon feeling their work was done, the assassins left Peter and his parents dead.

XXX

In another universe, circa 2020, Homer Dane was finishing watching the recent Avengers Endgame movie from his seat in the back row of a beautifully furnished luxury movie theater with a tub of popcorn and a large Diet Coke, thinking about how he would have done things differently from the heroes he had been watching and about which he had read.

Homer had spent decades reading comic books and watching movies and television programs about comic book superheroes. He was a huge fan to the point he had even read novels on superheroes and had played Marvel Comics and Hero System role-playing games.

"I wish I could be a superhero," the ninety-year-old man said to no one in particular as he looked at his unusually large movie ticket. Homer had spent much of his life as a computer/technology nerd, financial broker, accountant, bank teller, and identity theft protection agent. He had even graduated from medical school at the behest of his parents when he was a young man. Despite all his hard work, he had little success outside of a lot of money to show for it. He hadn't even gotten a chance to get any friends including a girlfriend or get married in his entire life despite all the time he had spent working out in the gym and training in martial arts.

As he prepared to get up and leave, the special ticket he had gotten online from an unknown source glowed. Then the words, "wish granted" became audible. Upon hearing these words, he dropped back in his seat, fell asleep, and vanished into thin air.

Sometime later, Homer woke up with a mild pain in his neck that quickly faded away. After taking stock of his surroundings he noticed the death and destruction of his parents and their home.

XXX

Where am I? What's going on and why am I in the body of a four-year-old child?

The living room was dark and furnished with brown mahogany chairs and tables lavishly adorned with sparkling silverware. The rug was dark red and soft as I lay on it. Then I got to my feet.

"My joints feel like butter," I said to no one in particular as I put my hands on my hips and swiveled around, twisting my pelvis and back in ways that would have brought me a great deal of pain in the life I had just left a few minutes ago.

My youthful body prompted me to believe I could do a backflip until I tried to do it and crashed to the ground, falling on my face. Despite my stumbling, I didn't have any injuries and the minimal pain quickly subsided.

Then everything occurred to me as I checked the current memories of my new life while still being aware and having all the abilities of my previous one.

I don't believe it! I'm actually in the body of Peter Parker. But this is years before he becomes Spider-Man.

Upon realizing that my parents were dead and that the same people who had killed them had almost killed me, I got up and looked around. Things were pretty bad, but life must go on. Despite that, I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness at my parents' passing.

So who could I go to live with until I reached my majority? After reaching into my new mind, I found that Uncle Ben and Aunt May were over a thousand miles away and probably couldn't afford to come to Taiwan. Taiwan?! Why did my parents feel the need to move to Taiwan?

I also had memories of a butler that had tended to me when my parents weren't around, but for some reason, I couldn't remember his name.

At this point, I realized my parents had friends in Taiwan. It was also important that the people who had killed my parents didn't know I was still alive until it was too late for them. Yes, I was planning to deal with them in the future. But in the meantime, I would have to strengthen myself somehow.

One of my parents' friends was a martial arts master who had been a Shaolin priest. Fortunately, I remembered where he lived. Could I possibly get this guy to train me in kung fu? I had trained and did a lot of martial arts training in my previous life, noticeably Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and some MMA which had taken me a total of fifteen years to master. It wasn't so much my physical abilities that enabled me so much in my previous life as much it was my extensive knowledge of the human body. In addition to that, I hoped the knowledge of all the martial arts anime I had seen would be usable here in this universe.

The comic book version of Spider-Man didn't learn martial arts until later in his career, but this time things would be different.

I had even had arguments with some of the other posters at a Marvel Comics RPG forum who felt Spider-Man wasn't a martial artist despite being trained by Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu along with some more training from Captain America. Well, this version of Spider-Man was going to be a martial artist from the get-go. My biggest antagonist from that forum and his raccoon avatar could go pound sand for all I care.

Then I realized that I would need to take whatever I might need and take off for the Master Cho's home. This included my parents' financial information and important legal documents including my passport and birth certificate. Once I've gotten myself prepared I left.

XXX

Several minutes later, I found myself walking up a pathway with beautiful shrubbery on either side of the smooth stone walkway. After knocking on the front door of a peach-colored, two-story home that had solar panels all over the roof, I saw the large wooden door open.

"Peter? What are you doing here? And where are your parents?" Master Cho asked me as I looked up to him with a huge backpack on my shoulders. Then I explained what had happened, asking him to take me on as a student at the end of my explanation.

"I see. Well, come on inside. I can train you in Kung Fu. But make no mistake. It will be very difficult and painful to learn this art. Your parents have saved the lives of several of my relatives thus I'm willing to train you," the ancient martial arts master said to me as I nodded.

"I'll show you to your sleeping quarters. Get a good night's sleep. We'll start early in the morning."

XXX

Thus I spent the ten years, working hard learning Kung Fu which included Chinese acrobatics, tumbling, and escapology. I also learned gung fu, iron body, tai chi, and speed training. In addition to these talents, I acquired rudimentary ki and chi training which allowed me to increase not only my physical abilities but my mental and spiritual abilities as well. While I was nowhere near as powerful as Goku and his friends from Dragonball Z, I was raising my abilities to an almost superhuman level. I was probably more in the league of Karnak of the Inhumans if anything. I also was starting to learn how to shoot off ki energy blasts, but even that took me a long time to learn with minimal results for years to come.

The fact that I was such a young child made starting with such intense martial arts training more beneficial than it was when I had finally mastered Brazilian jiu-jitsu at a much later age in my seventies. Even all the other complementary skills I was learning came about at a faster rate despite my physical ineptitude at the start of the training.

While I had the developing body of a child, I had the mind of a grown man. This meant I would have youth and skills along with old age and treachery at the same time. Thus I decided to make myself a more Batman type Spider-Man with a lot more intellectual skills like deduction and criminology.

I would also have to figure out how to make a lot of money to finance all the equipment I'd need. This wouldn't be too difficult since I already had a lot of financial and technological knowledge with the ability to predict which stocks would go up and which ones would go down.

Come to think of it, I might not even need to get bitten by a radioactive spider to be an effective superhero.

During this time, Master Cho had me working in the theater as an actor and other jobs including working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. However, the fact that I was Caucasian posed a problem until I figured out how to disguise myself as an Asian. I had done a lot of that in my original life and Peter's inhuman genius-level intelligence made my ability to learn things a whole lot quicker, practically at superhuman speed. Even the school which Master Cho had insisted I attend was easy for me. I had always had a knack for learning foreign languages so Chinese and other Asian languages came to me quickly.

"Peter, I barely recognized you. Why have you changed your appearance?" Master Cho asked me after I had created a new identity for myself.

"My usual appearance is offensive to some people around here. So I disguised myself as a Chinese person to fit in."

"I see. It might be for the best. Your parents were fairly skilled at disguising themselves so I shouldn't be too surprised."

Master Cho also had several friends who were enthusiastic about teaching me their martial arts so I was able to learn Tae Kwon Do, Hwang Do, Korean Commando training, and Thai Kickboxing. I had even learned some South-Eastern martial arts like Salat along with Chinese grappling arts like Shuai Jiao and Qin Na.

There was even a Shaolin priest who taught me intensive physical, mental, and even spiritual disciplines which further increased my ki and chi, enabling me to better control my body, mind, and spirit. This training helped me increase my martial arts skills. Even my physical capabilities boosted upwards further.

Despite all this, I had found that my physical capabilities weren't as great as I would have liked. If I hadn't have started at such a young age and didn't use every iota of my willpower to power forward, things would have been much more difficult for me.

However, after ten years, my time was up.

"It's time for you to leave. I have already taught you as much as I can. My debt to your parents has been paid."

"Thank you, Master Cho. I shall never forget what you've done for me," I answered with a bow of respect. Then I got my stuff and left.

XXX

I had then decided to go to Japan to learn Kempo, Karate, Aikido, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, and especially Ninjitsu. It was no problem for me to disguise myself as a Japanese person and since I knew everything about IDs and had become fluent in the Japanese language, it was easy for me to get to Japan and get myself registered in a high school.

The martial arts I had learned helped me to learn these Japanese arts quicker since there was some inherent crossover between the arts.

I had already learned how to fight blind and be aware of my environment, but what I had learned in Ninjitsu went beyond that. As it was, many of my senses had increased to an inhuman level much like the superhero, Daredevil from Marvel Comics. I even seemed to have gotten the ability to practically teleport myself away while using stealth and concealment to vanish into thin air.

I also learned more about psychic powers like mind control, mind reading, and others from mystic masters of the martial arts. I didn't exactly acquire too much in mental or mystic powers, but I had learned how to deal with such things. I didn't want to become dependent on magic, however, if there ever was a time when I would need to use magic for any reason, I would be able to use it as was needed.

During my ninja training, I learned how to practically teleport myself and make myself invisible. There may have been a mystical element to these abilities. However, most of what I was doing came under martial arts training and learning how to control my body on a higher level.

However, the most difficult training I underwent was learning how to deal with fear and increase my presence. During this time, I conquered it, becoming practically immune to it and learning how to dish it out much like Batman from DC comics. While I was doing this, I learned how to suffer a great deal of pain being electrocuted and burned at other times. Fortunately, I had mastered several self-healing techniques.

"I'm surprised you're still here. Even the most powerful and fearless martial artists haven't endured my training as long as you have. However, there's something strange about you," the wizened, ancient man said in flawless Japanese.

"Strange? W-why do you say that?" I asked while lying down with thousands of acupuncture needles in my body, causing me great pain.

"It's as if you're an old man in a younger man's body. The fact that your mental discipline is so high proves this. The speed at which you've mastered Zen is astounding. You have no problem separating your psyche from your body when needed."

"Well, I've trained hard in…,"

"No, that's not it. There's something more to you, something different. I can't even totally read your mind. There are parts of your mental processes that are even hidden from me. How is your name Homer?" the ancient martial arts master/psychic countered.

I had to think fast. "Have you heard of alternate lives, Master?"

"Yes, that could be it. However, it's rare for someone to have such detailed knowledge of their past lives the way you do. Anyway, it's time to increase your pain threshold further. Let's see if you can remain fearless and in control during this upsurge while I terrorize your mind and spirit with frightening images that will attack and inflict real pain on you."

"Aargh!"

XXX

While still in my Japanese disguise, I had talked to many Americans and Europeans who were surprised at my ability to speak English, French, and other European languages along with the willingness to trade maneuvers and techniques with them. Thus I was able to learn American boxing, weight-lifting, and Greco-Roman Wrestling which included Pankration, a brutal form of wrestling. During this time I also learned a lot of street fighting techniques and how things worked on the street where there were no rules.

During this time, I had a boxing match against someone much larger than myself after having matches with much smaller opponents. My last adversary was a large, muscular African-American with large powerful hands and intense eyes.

I could have ended the fights I had in those gyms quickly, but I wanted to learn as much as possible about fighting styles many people knew. It was also important I learn how to knock people out quickly without seriously injuring or killing them.

At the start of the match, my opponent came rushing towards me with a speed that belied his size. I easily sidestepped his forward motioning fists.

When he attacked again in the same manner, I sidestepped him again moving to his right. However, this time I struck the right side of his face with a left roundhouse punch, causing him to reel backward, barely keeping himself from falling to his left.

"What the…" the surprised boxer gasped. Then he got to his feet and attacked with a left cross all in one swift motion. I barely shuffled backward in time enough to avoid the attack as the boxing glove of my opponent grazed my nose.

However, as I tried to counter, my opponent literally beat me to the punch, striking me in the jaw thus sending me crashing to the ground.

My high pain threshold allowed me to recover rather quickly thus I was ready to resume the match with only my pride wounded. However, while I was getting up my opponent struck the top of my head, pounding me to the ground again.

As I recovered, my opponent taunted me. "I hear you're some kind of martial artist. Well, why don't you get out of here and take your Kung Fu witcha, your Kung Fu witcha, your Kung Fu witcha, your Kung Fu witcha, your Kung Fu witcha!"

At that point, I had had enough. I had learned as much as I could from boxing. So I got up, ignoring the referee's count. And before anybody else could react, I shot forward, zipping on the ground at an inhuman speed and striking with a forward punch right into my opponent's solar plexus. Thus my opponent went flying off his feet and out of the ring unconscious before he hit the ground.

As I walked away from the gym, I realized I was well on my way to becoming what I planned to be, but I still had a lot to learn.

XXX

A/N: This is pretty much how the Peter I'm writing is going to be but I might think of something else later.

This story will be updated slowly