Looking up

The next morning after Eren Parker and Cindy Moon's heart-to-heart moment, Eren found himself sitting at his work desk tinkering with a small piece of Programmable Matter that he stole from the Underground base when Yuri wasn't looking. Due to the place crawling with law enforcement, he could only take the smallest of pieces, however, it was more than enough for him to study its properties and perhaps find a way to replicate it.

His life at this point was beginning to feel as if things were coming up for the young man. His new name, Spider-Man, was already catching on and Cameron's video had already begun trending on social media platforms. Excitedly, Cameron messaged Eren his many thanks, and Eren thanked him as well for reminding himself of who he is.

Of course, things with Cindy were now much better than they were before and that was another plus for the young hero. His social life, in general, had improved and the relentless bullying had finally ceased for good since he stood up to Flash.

These positive thoughts were soon interrupted by Eren's stomach releasing a mighty growl. As usual, he planned on skipping breakfast, but he had also skipped dinner the night before. Though his life was gaining a lot of positives, there was still one big issue going on in his life at that moment.

He was broke.

He had pretty much no money left, working as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle wasn't cutting it and his rent would be due soon. He could have asked Harry for money, but that would have been too embarrassing of an act for Eren to go through with. Along with that, he was afraid Harry would think he was using him. This was far from the truth as Harry would give Eren a place to stay in a heartbeat if he asked and wouldn't think anything of it.

Luckily, Eren only needed to come up with a few months' rent before he'd be living on campus for free with his scholarship. He emailed his high-fidelity photos of Spider-Man's new suit to J. Jonah Jameson, his boss, and that alone should be enough to put him slightly over for the month.

Distracting himself from his money struggles, the boy began thinking of ways he could replicate the Programmable Matter and perhaps make crimefighting tools out of it. Looking under his microscope, he was able to deduce that the matter itself was able to change in shape due to its unstable nature at a molecular level. "This stuff is similar to Zotheysium... but there's something off about it... it seems Nuform is what causes the molecular imbalance." The boy was puzzled, though dopamine was flowing through his brain as he was having the time of his life figuring out this conundrum.

Though it was already very early in the morning, he had been up for a few hours because the idea of studying the material wouldn't allow him to sleep. A small smile was on his face as he reached over to his laptop and began researching what exactly Nuform was.

"Nuform is a synthetic version of the natural electricity humans generate in their bodies... Interesting." The boy whispered as he looked through one of the early journals of the material. "That must be why it reacted to my body in such a way... That old electricity, before it became Godspeed, must have been an extremely enhanced version of my body's natural electricity. Nuform merging with it must have created Godspeed. This also explains how Programmable Matter works for normies, the wristbands synergized their own body's electricity with Nuform's, sort of creating a fake Godspeed. I wonder if neurons are involved in any way..."

The young man began scribbling into his notebook, writing down his thoughts before they could become forgotten. In the middle of writing down a sentence, he stopped in an instant as a new thought infiltrated his brain.

"If Nuform or Godspeed affects neurons, that must explain the dreams and the visions. When I relived that memory and when I saw myself wearing that dark costume, it was almost real. Too real." The young hero put his pen down and crossed his arms, closing his eyes before taking a deep breath. "Okay, it usually happens when I begin to drift out of consciousness or if I'm completely out. I'll try clearing my mind, I'll think of a memory..." As the young man's mind drifted away, his black locs began to turn white as snow and lift upward due to Godspeed's pressure.

He took a deep breath and thought of a memory, one that was locked in the back of his mind, but he could only recall a small fraction of it.

Eren opened his eyes, finding that his height of 6'3" had shrunk down to that of a small child. He was now reliving a memory of his past self, he seemed to be around seven years old as he walked through the halls of his old childhood home. It was nearly completely dark, only dimly illuminated by the light coming through the cracked basement door, his father's workshop.

Slowly, the boy approached the door, peeking inside to see his father seemingly working on some sort of formula. Eren, internally, laughed slightly at the fact that he and his father looked exactly the same as they worked at their desks, he knew exactly where he got it from. As the little Eren's weight pressed against the door, moving it forward slightly, a slow creaking sound resonated through the room, catching his father's attention.

Richard Parker turned around, having a rather serious expression on his face, one that looked like an exact copy of Eren's, before it shifted to a playful half-grin. "Eren, Mom tell you to go to bed?" Richard said, chuckling as he got up out of his chair and approached his son.

The young Eren smiled brightly out of admiration for his father, though internally, the older Eren felt as if he wanted to cry tears of joy. It was just like before when he saw the memory of his mother. It was as if he was really there. This time, however, it was as if he was taking a backseat and viewing the memory rather than being able to interact with it.

"I wanna see!" Eren said, pointing toward his father's work desk. Despite being a child, he had already formed an interest in scientific concepts. He'd always sneak into his father's workroom and read through whatever he could understand in his father's notes. His father of course knew about his sneaky behavior, but he didn't mind.

Richard laughed at his son's enthusiasm, bending over and picking up his son before bringing him over to show him his newest concept.

On the messy desk, a large piece of paper was spread across it, nearly taking up the desk's entire space. This drawing was nearly incomprehensible, it was far too abstract for the uninformed to even begin to try and understand. It seemed almost alien in nature, definitely not something of this world.

"It's like Star Wars!" The child said, pointing down at the massive drawing beneath him. Richard laughed once more, sitting down at the desk with his son on his lap. "Not quite." he said with a smile. "This is a time machine. Remember when I showed you that movie with the car and he went back in time?"

Eren nodded. "Mhm!" he said.

"I am working with my college buddies on a way to make it a reality. Imagine if we could go back in time and stop bad things from happening before they happened." Richard was a kind man, much like his son, he wanted more than anything to help people. Like the superheroes around the world that existed at the time, he wanted to use this machine to save people in both the past and present. Aside from that, the idea of time travel had always fascinated him. He wanted more than anything to explore time itself, whether it be the past, present, or future.

"Like stopping a bad accident, daddy?" the seven-year-old asked.

"Yes, like stopping bad accidents or big tragedies. Sadly, this isn't such an easy thing to do but I know it's possible. I'm almost certain." Richard had a determined look on his face, losing the smile that he once had as he thought about the things he could have changed if this machine was real.

"I'll help!" said Eren, eager to do anything with his father. Of course, despite being a bright child, the concept of time travel was way too advanced for him.

Richard laughed once again. "We'll work on it together when you're a bit older, okay?"

"Yay!" Eren said, unaware that the day would never truly come.

"And by then, I'll have saved enough to start up our own family business: Parker Industries." Richard had a smile on his face as he looked down at his desk with a dreamy expression. "I can't wait. Finally, I'll have an impact on the world. I'll be able to make a difference. We will be able to make a difference, a real difference. It is our responsibility after all."

"Our responsibility?" Eren asked.

"That's right, Eren. Guys like us, we're gifted. There are a lot of people out there who have the ability to change the world but they don't use it. Sure, we aren't the Avengers, but we have a power of our own, Eren."

"We do?" The child asked excitedly.

"Of course we do. Our power is up here." Like Spider-Man did on the rooftop when he was speaking with Cameron, the boy who wanted to jump, Richard Parker pointed to his own head. "This is stronger than any superpower, there's a reason Tony Stark is the leader of the Avengers."

Realizing Eren probably doesn't understand what he means by that, he decided to change the subject. "Ah, you're probably too young to really get what I mean. Just remember this, Eren." With a stone face, Richard looked into his son's eyes and put a hand on his son's shoulder. "With great-"

The blaring sounds of an alarm clock disrupted the boy from his daydream, jolting him back to reality before he could finish hearing his father's words. "Right." Eren whispered, having forgotten for just a second that he was only in a dream, not reality.

"It was so... real. Just like the one with Mom." Eren looked over at his clock and sighed, seeing that it was time for him to get ready for class once again.

And so, the boy got dressed and headed to school as usual. As he rode the bus, he watched from the furthest seat in the back as his peers all gawked over Spider-Man's new suit, new name, and the song that Cameron produced. It brought a small smile to the undercover hero's face, finding it humourous that none were aware that the man they were fawning over was just a few feet away from them.

As the bus arrived at school, Eren could see Harry Osborn waiting for him at the school entrance. The brown-haired boy had a huge smile on his face and what appeared to be fake blood all over his face, body, and formal clothes. "What is it this time..." Eren whispered to himself, knowing he was about to be wrapped up in one of Harry's shenanigans.

As soon as Eren stepped off of the bus, he noticed a sign in Harry's off-hand that read, 'I'd KILL to go to prom.' Eren approached him, looking at the sign with an unimpressed glare. "Sorry, I plan on going with someone else." Eren said, cracking the smallest of smiles.

"Yeah, well you aren't my type anyway." Harry joked in response with a smirk of his own before gesturing the poster toward Eren. "I need you to hold this sign when I ask Lily Hollister to prom. She should be here in a few minutes."

Eren looked behind Harry, noticing a bodybag with a fake corpse inside of it as if he were a serial killer who was really bad at his job. "Why do you have a fake dead body?" Eren asked.

"We watched this movie about this office worker who killed a bunch of people on one of our first dates so I thought it would be cool to make it my theme."

"Uh-huh... Isn't this a bit much?"

"It's a promposal, dude. It's supposed to be a bit much. Just hold the sign."

Reluctantly, Eren grabbed the sign and followed Harry toward the main building of the school. They then waited for Lily, who eventually arrived on campus just a few minutes later.

There she was, Lily Hollister, the chestnut-skinned blondie of Osborn Academy. Everyone was looking at her, which was odd since she usually kept a low profile. With an estranged look on her face, she walked further into campus until she entered the main building to see Harry holding a bodybag behind him, covered in blood with his costume. She immediately understood the reference upon seeing him. Beside Harry, Eren reluctantly held the sign that said 'I would KILL to go to prom with you.', dreading the many eyes that were glued to him.

Lily smiled, covering her mouth before walking over to Harry and hugging him. Of course, she agreed to go with him, however, this sparked an idea within Eren. Though he didn't like crowds, he began brainstorming a proposal of his own for Cindy Moon.

It was decided. The next day, Eren was going to do a promposal of his own to Cindy Moon, then on the night of prom, he would officially ask her to be his girlfriend.