Trigger Part 1

Chapter 9: Trigger (Part 1)

A/N: This chapter was originally an Omake detailing the opening scene from the opposing point of view. That Omake has been preserved at the end of this chapter following the Author's note.

Trigger: Noun A lever pressed by the finger to discharge a mechanism, especially of a firearm. An event that precipitates other events, especially one that initiates a major change through a chain of events.

Saturday, March 5th, 2XXX

It had been a week since the entrance exam. Peter had been up to his neck figuring, and checking, and double-checking his circumstances, spending so much time at U.A. to the point that he had little time for anything else. When Aizawa had told him that taking classes with the hero course would double his workload, he did not expect that to start a month before the actual classes. Apparently, creating a special exception for his particular class schedule had required a lot of accommodations and paperwork that needed to be completed prior to the start of the school year. Peter also couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion that the excessive busy work was Aizawa's personal way of disciplining him for his antics, and that it wasn't truly necessary to put him through the ringer like this.

But despite all that, Peter still made sure to make time for his friends, or really he should say his only friend now that his relationship with Setsuna was on the rocks. It was a little tricky figuring out a time where the two of them could speak considering not only each of their hyper packed schedules, but also the difference in time zone. But if it meant having a real conversation with his best friend, Peter didn't mind staying up a little later at night.

"Alright, can you hear me now, Pete?" Harry's face suddenly popped up on the video chat. After a week of short disjointed text messages, it was a welcome sight.

"Loud and clear buddy. Been awhile, almost two weeks at this point."

"Believe me when I say that I couldn't find the time to do it any sooner. Especially last week."

"Something happen last week?"

"Sign ups for the student council election."

Peter winced in understanding "And your Dad…"

"Expects me to win Class President."

"Can you even handle yet another obligation like that?"

"I don't really have a choice, if I don't have time for it, then I'm gonna have to make time."

"Even assuming you win, what about the team? Doesn't student council have meetings at the same time as practice? Not to mention the fact that Flash is gonna be on your case if you start lagging behind."

"Don't worry, I've already got it worked out. Believe it or not, Flash is actually going to get the football team to rally for me."

"Flash is helping!? How'd you manage to convince him to do that?"

"Promised to fix the football field's scoreboard if I won."

Peter furrowed his brows at that. "It was broken? I never noticed, then again, none of your matches were ever on the home field, so I guess I wouldn't know."

"That's the secret: it's not broken. Turns out, the custodian was just too lazy to ever turn on the breakers for it."

"Heh, custodians man, always gotta be the stodgiest mop in the closet, am I right?" Peter quipped.

"Hey, I take offense to that." Stan could be heard yelling from out in the hallway.

Peter bristled at his faux pas. "Sorry, Stan. I uh, didn't see you there." Peter apologized as he leaned over to close his door the rest of the way. For a man with hearing aids, he really did seem to be aware of everything that happened in the building.

"Busted."

"Shut up, Harry." The two had a good laugh at that.

"Alright, so the team isn't an issue, what about all your other stuff? I'm surprised you even have time to campaign. You're finished with etiquette classes, right? So that just leaves Business school, Japanese, Piano, and then Karate on Saturday, am I missing anything?"

As the heir to a multinational corporation, Harry had been put through a complete curriculum of courses on the necessary skills to succeed his Father starting from his youth. Oscorp had major branches in New York, Germany, and Japan. So of course, Harry was taught to speak German and then Japanese. (That was how they met actually. Peter had helped him out after catching him straining to understand a Japanese textbook in the 5th grade.) He wasn't as good at the language as Peter was, on the other hand, the number of German words Peter knew could be counted with just those fingers.

Beyond language skills, Harry also had to know how to mingle with high society, so he was given lessons on acting and improv, etiquette, ballroom dancing, horseback riding, and half a dozen snobby sports like golf, cricket, archery, horse polo, and so so many more.

Then of course, being a billionaire's son put quite the target on your back, so Harry took Karate lessons as well. Both for the self defense and also for instilling discipline. His sensei only spoke Japanese and harshly drilled Harry if he spoke English, creating synergy with Harry's foreign language classes.

Then there came the skills actually involved in running a business. So Harry had to go to business school and several other classes like interpersonal skills and memorization techniques. After all that, so what if he needed some help with his science homework because of all the other stuff he was juggling? It was the least Peter could do for his only friend.

Was it excessive? Yes. But he needed to be educated, and it was also partly to give him a distraction after his mother died. Peter suspected another reason was that Mr. Osborn didn't know how to adapt to being a single parent—not with his own grief and the demands of being a CEO. So he used the classes as a way to babysit Harry when he couldn't be there. In a way, their butler Bernerd had been more of a father to Harry than Mr. Osborn had. Of course, when you're a young kid that goes from losing their mom to suddenly being overwhelmed with classes, that's hardly a substitute for not having a parent, or really any support system to pull you through. But, somehow, Harry got through it. That's what Peter admired so much about his friend, he always persevered and never came out worse for it. Rather, he was made stronger by it, though Harry would only describe it as a humbling experience. The end result, Harry was one of the most well-versed and personable people he had ever met.

And that person was now plastering on a fake smile as he did his best to hide how tired he was. "Don't remind me Pete. Between football and student council I'll have to shuffle things around, so it'll be Karate on Sundays now. The real problem is my grades. Gotta keep my GPA above 3.2 or I get kicked off the team."

"Sorry I'm not around to help you with that anymore, buddy. Can I do anything to help? Don't mind the whole ocean between us, it's no biggie."

"You've already helped tons, I took your advice. A few study dates, and now Debra Whitman's volunteering to be my campaign manager if you can believe it. Helped me design some posters. Came out better than I could have hoped."

"Yeah, you're going to have to back up there, because I can't believe it. Whitman takes too much pride in her academics to volunteer for something like that. Are charity projects suddenly worth extra credit now or something?"

"You see first, I had to get her to help me study, thankfully that was pretty easy. She couldn't pass up the chance to hold one over the rich perfect kid, probably also saw it as a way of getting back at you, Pete."

"Definitely. She probably saw you as an enticing little Guinea pig to toy with."

"Hey, I gave her what she wanted, what's so bad about that? Though I think she was pretty shocked to see me actually put in the effort, I guess she thought I had been coasting off of your work or something. After that, she deigned to really run me through the ropes."

"Now that sounds more like the intellectual narcissism I remember from Whitman. Probably got some sadistic glee out of watching you run in circles."

"Okay, she was admittedly a little smug about it, but it got me through the test, so I'm grateful for all the drilling. Oh yeah, and did you know there's a diner right by the library that sells malts? Turns out the dates were good for more than just studying after all."

"Yes, yes, you're overflowing with charm, get on with it."

Harry chuckled at that. "Well when I told Debra that I'd have to reschedule because of the election, she was pretty skeptical at first, but once she found out about all my extracurriculars she softened up on me a bit. She must have been impressed with my credentials, either that or she just felt sorry for me and volunteered to help out with my workload out of guilt. Either way, she's been a big help. I'm honored to have such a good team. Couldn't have done it without everyone lending a hand like this."

"Wait, are you testing out your acceptance speech on me right now?"

"No. In my acceptance speech I'll say 'I'd like to thank the academy,' and then I'll say 'I couldn't have done it without everyone's help.' Completely different." Harry deflected with that effortless sarcasm of his.

"Bet that was also Debra's idea, wasn't it?"

"Well… she is better at composition than I am."

"Busted."

"Shut up, Pete." The two laughed twice as hard that time.

"Well it's good to know you're hanging in there alright now that I'm gone, even if you did replace me with Whitman." Peter couldn't stop the slight wisp of jealousy from creeping into his voice.

"Ah, come on Pete, don't be like that. We're still the most daring duo this world's ever seen. No distance is gonna change that," Harry replied, and Peter was more than willing to agree.

"Better believe it, just the two of us dudes against the world. Like Captain America and Bucky." Peter responded.

"Sure, Pete, you're Captain America." Harry said sarcastically. "Maybe back when Captain America was scrawny and Bucky had to stop him from getting beat up."

Peter mentally winced at that. Maybe a bad example, have to remember my quirk is supposed to be a secret, then again, I'm going to have to come up with some kind of excuse and break the news before he finds out about Simian on his own. It is a pretty short chain that goes from the school to Mr. Osborn to Harry.

"Okay… Then you're like the Han Solo to my Luke Skywalker," Peter suggested instead, trying to do damage control.

"Try again buddy. While Bucky and Han Solo are pretty cool, you're way too much of a nerd to be Luke Skywalker. But you could be the Hermione to my Harry Potter," Harry teased.

"You know what I mean!"

"Yeah yeah, I get it. And you're right. We do make a pretty cool team, the two of us, don't we? Just Harry and his pal Pete."

"Just me and my hombre Harry."

"Mi compadre and me"

Eventually the two started going back and forth.

"My main man."

"My homeslice."

"He's a chum"

"A confidant."

"My broski."

"Brother from another mother."

Another bout of laughter ensued.

"So what about you, Pete? How are things going in Japan, any updates on U.A.? You promised to tell me how that exam went, remember?"

"Tons. It's been a real rollercoaster, Harry, you wouldn't believe it."

"Try me."

"Well the school year won't start for another month, but…" Peter hesitated somewhat, but he knew he was going to go through with it. If there was anyone in the world he could share this with, it was Harry. "It turns out, I… have a quirk," Peter nervously revealed.

Harry was momentarily flummoxed. "I'm sorry Pete, the connection must be breaking up a little, I thought I heard you say you had a quirk."

"That's right. Later bloomer I guess."

"B-but how? Is that even possible? You took tests, there was the whole X-ray thing. Don't you have neanderthal feet or something? That's-that's…" Harry shook his head slightly as he gathered his thoughts. "That's incredible Pete, I'm really happy for you. You deserve it more than anyone."

"Thanks Harry. It really means a lot. I'm sorry if this is all a little sudden, it's sudden for me too. I'm still trying work things all out in my head and I wanted to wait to tell you face to face, not even Aunt May knows yet. You won't tell her, will you?"

"Of course not buddy. I'm always here for you, besides, it's your story to tell. But, if you don't mind me asking, just how did this all happen?"

"Funny, that you mentioned neanderthal feet. It's not entirely unrelated. You see, Japan requires everyone living in the country to register their quirks with the government. When I told the immigration and customs office that I was quirkless, they required me to take some tests to verify it."

"Alright, but you took tests when you were a kid too, what changed?"

"They did more than just the standard X-rays you do during a routine check-up at the Dr.'s office. DNA tests, and stuff like that. Turns out, the extra joint in my pinky toe is actually because of my quirk, not because of quirklessness. So I was misdiagnosed as a kid."

"I'm not sure I follow. Even still, you should have manifested abilities by now if you've actually had a quirk this whole time, even if the tests missed it. What exactly is your quirk?"

"It's a mutant type quirk, we're calling it Simian. Basically it gives me the traits of monkeys and apes. Which is why I have monkey-like feet."

"Wait a minute… Bro! You're freaking Kong dude! You stole Kong's quirk!"

"No I'm not!" Peter did not like being compared to Flash's leather faced lackey.

"Nah man, you totally are." Harry couldn't restrain his hysterical laughter.

"At least I still look human. And I clearly got the evolved brains of a Simian, Kong's just a big oaf who plays a good defense and thinks swirlies are mesmerizing. I just got this quirk, you are not going to ruin it for me already."

"Okay, okay, I'll cut it out. Back on topic, how come you never showed signs of having a quirk before? I don't think I've ever seen you climb a tree like a monkey before."

"We have a few theories. First you gotta remember that humans are Simians too, so it's not surprising that my development was pretty normal. After all, how much difference is there between a baby human and a baby chimp? And believe it or not, while it's rare, late bloomers aren't abnormal. Some people's quirks just don't start to fully manifest until puberty."

(Okay, maybe Peter was stretching the facts about late bloomers a bit. He was more aware than most that according to the research, someone like him would never have a chance of manifesting a quirk so late. But what he was telling Harry wasn't completely untrue either.)

"And finally we think there might have been some interference from the Nocebo Effect."

"What's the Nocebo Effect?"

"It's like a reverse Placebo Effect. You see, because I believed I was quirkless, I ended up subconsciously suppressing my quirk factor. Didn't help that I'm a sedentary bookworm. If I had grown up playing on the monkey bars instead, I probably would have turned out normal."

"So what does your quirk do exactly?"

"So far, not much. It's still developing. We don't know for certain if I'll become covered in hair like a monkey," (or a spider) "but we'll see what happens once I start growing chest hair in a few years. In addition to that, my quirk has atrophied from under use."

"Ah, just like the rest of your nerd muscles."

"Haha, very funny, Harry. Anyway, I've been working to train my quirk so that I don't end up stunting my growth anymore. Going to the gym, taking gymnastics classes, I've actually made some really good progress, I can feel the simian strength and agility kicking in. It's starting to awaken and fully activate. It's exciting, exhilarating even."

"That's awesome! And you're attending U.A., I bet they have plenty of ways to help you out with that. Just don't get too carried away, take it from me."

"Thanks, bud, I'll keep that in mind."

"What about that exam? Bet you knocked everyone's socks off with that freakazoid brain of yours."

"Well... you're not too far off actually." Peter broached reluctantly. Telling Harry about having a quirk was one thing, but about the exam? That had the potential to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Would he really accept that he went from quirkless to record breaking in just a couple weeks without asking too many questions? "Turns out I made a mistake, apparently the entrance exam is a way for people to audition for the hero course, as a support course student I didn't actually have to take it."

"Then why do I have a sneaking suspicion that you did it anyway? You just auditioned in front of the biggest hero school in the world, didn't you? Spill the beans, Pete."

"I may have gotten lost and stumbled into the exam area." Peter admitted.

"I knew it! What happened?"

"The exam consisted of examinees fighting against a horde of robotic faux villains to rack up points. The place turned into a warzone fast."

"Yikes! And what exactly did formerly quirkless Peter Parker do in the midst of all this high octane carnage?"

"Weeeelll... I maybe, might have, hackedintoalltherobots,shuttingthemalldownsimultaneously,andtotallydisruptingtheexam." Peter said in a nervous rush.

Harry sat there slacked jawed. "...You didn't..."

"Mmm... yeah, I kinda did."

"That is so epic! Hahaha. I can't believe it, my best friend, showing up all these big shot hero course people."

"You know what, yeah. You're right, it is pretty epic, isn't it? Thanks Harry, I guess I've been stressing over the whole situation too much." Peter said, his smile returning. While he had been worried about how Harry would have taken the news, and more than a little paranoid about his secret being uncovered, he now knew he had made the right choice. Who could he trust if not his best friend? Leave it to Harry to cheer him up and knock some sense into him at the same time.

"Did you get in trouble for it?" Harry asked.

"A little, but I avoided the worst of it."

"Well that's good," Harry stretched out as he yawned from his side of the video chat, glancing at the time as he did so. A crestfallen look coming over his face. "Hey listen Pete, it's been great catching up with you, and congratulations again on your quirk, but I lost track of time and need to leave. We'll talk again soon, promise."

"Don't sweat it, I've got a bunch of stuff to get done over on my end too. And I'm not even running for Class President…" Actually come to think of it, he did have to finish up that project to win class representative. "But yeah, get some rest buddy, I'll see ya later."

≈*≈

Later the next morning, Peter was tinkering away with his webshooters at his desk, his Hero Support textbook laid open in front of him. He had already finished a prototype of his tracers and had a receiver for them, unfortunately that was all that he had managed thus far. He would have liked to try and attune them to his spider-sense, but the time for that would have to come later. For now, he wanted to modify his webshooters to accommodate their original design function of shooting the tracers. Because he didn't want to go through the hassle of adding an entirely separate second launcher just for the tracers, that involved a lot of careful intricate adjustments to the web shooter spinneret and nozzle. Once he was done with that, he just needed to add a compartment to store a cache of tracers and load them into the chamber, and presto, his webshooter could now shoot more than just webs.

A little bit of testing showed his webshooters to be fully operational. The device was a cuff that wrapped around his wrist where he loaded the webbing canister and tracers, web fluid was released from the canister with a valve where it would then go through a spinneret and then through a nozzle equipped with an aperture, and then finally the web would shoot out of the barrel of the webshooter. The device was operated with a lever that extended from the wrist and into his palm with a button on its end. Getting all the different functions to operate using only a single button as the trigger was quite the clever stroke of ingenuity, Peter was pretty proud of himself for that one.

If he wanted to shoot a web, he just pressed down on the button and the web fired once he stopped adding more pressure. To fire continuously, he had to release slowly by easing his fingers off the trigger without fully letting go.

Adjusting the type of web was as simple as changing the amount of pressure he put on the button. Pressing down on the button caused the spinneret's nozzle to dilate, so a light tap would cause a webline to whip out of the narrow tube. And then the longer he waited to take his fingers off the button after that tap, the longer the resulting web cable would be.

A proper press made the aperture wide enough to allow a full net of webbing to be launched through instead, and then he could ease off the trigger to cause the spinneret to contract while still firing, allowing him to create a net connected to the end of a cable.

Pressing down on the button harder would spew an adhesive goop for the cases where he was more in need of glue than a web.

If he wanted to shoot a tracer chip instead, he pressed down on the button until he felt a click in the lever the button was situated on. That click meant that the shooter had switched tracks and loaded one of his tracers into the barrel rather than drawing from his webbing canisters.

Peter practiced his aim by firing at various objects around his room, and to his delight, the tracer chips stuck to their targets securely and discreetly. Though he did notice his aim was slightly off. Must be the weight, he thought. The chips are a bit heavier than the webbing, I'll have to adjust. Peter continued his target practice until he fired at a picture frame on his desk. Instead of a small chip, a glob of webbing shot out and shattered the frame.

"Huh?" Peter picked up and inspected the busted frame. The picture was obscured by both a spiderweb of cracked glass and one of webbing. Beneath it was the picture of him and Harry that he kept on his desk next to the one of him and his aunt and uncle. Peter grimaced. I'll have to replace that frame. But just what happened there? Some kind of jam?

Peter looked down the muzzle of the webshooter on his wrist. "Doesn't seem broken…" he pressed the button and was immediately met with a blast of webbing in his face.

His head snapped back at the impact, and the shock caused him to slip and fall in loony toon fashion, hitting his head on the corner of the desk as he fell. On instinct, his hands moved to grab at the sticky glob over his eyes, only to find that his hands were now stuck to his face as well. Peter now found himself rolling around on the ground desperately trying to tear the stubborn gunk from his face.

"Ahh! M-my eyes, it's in my eyes! Ooh that burns." Unfortunately, his super strength was of little help as he tried to avoid ripping off his eyelashes in the process.

"O-o-ow-oww-urrrr!" Peter grumbled as he carefully peeled the webbing off his eyes. Eventually, he got it off and was able to get himself off the ground, grabbing onto the ledge of the desk above him "Am I missing… an eyebrow?" he gasped as he climbed to his feet. When his eyes met their reflection in the mirror, he was glad to see that they were indeed still intact. Though the area around his eyes was a little red, like he had too quickly ripped off a patch of duct tape. Which, to be fair, wasn't too far off from what actually happened.

"Note to self: spider-sense won't save me from my own stupidity." He looked down at his hands, still covered in the webbing. "Bleh. This is gonna take forever to wash off," he whined. "At least it's not still on my face."

Peter went over to the sink to soak and scrape the gunk off his hands. "You just had to go and figure out how to make this stuff waterproof, didn't you Pete? Huuhhh… at least it'll dissolve after a couple hours," he grumbled as he did his best to use a dish scraper to remove the webbing.

"Still…" his eyes wandered further up his arm to the webshooter on his wrist. "Why did that happen? Did it not switch tracks correctly?"

Peter soon found his answer when he checked the tracer cache only to find it empty. "Out of ammo. No duh, of course it is. Can't switch tracks if there's nothing there to load into the chamber. But why is my webshooter assaulting me?"

Peter narrowed his gaze at the wrist mounted device as the gears in his head started turning. Trying to picture in his mind what happened inside the mechanism when the button was pushed.

If it can't switch tracks, then the catch on the valve isn't going to latch, so the pressurized canister is just going to keep releasing more webbing… But with the valve so loose, it's just going to blast web fluid through the wide nozzle, so why doesn't it just pump out the thick goop?

Hmm... Does it have to do with how I let go of the button all at once when shooting the tracers?

Let's see, when the nozzle contracts, the canister valve at the back is the first thing that tightens up, and then the spinneret in the middle of the barrel gets narrower to tighten the weave of the webbing in response, and then the aperture at the end of the nozzle dilates last. I made sure to make it contract from back to front to avoid jams and pressure blocks, like rolling up a tube of toothpaste to make sure there isn't any left stuck at the bottom. But how is that relevant?...

Because if it contracts too quickly, the thick fluid will be squeezed through the tightening spinneret much faster than it normally should. Especially because the catch from the failed switch is going to cause the chamber to keep getting flooded even while it's tightening up. That would create a pressure gradient from high to low pressure, causing the cohesive fluid to be quickly accelerated through the chamber by its own elastic energy. The fluid at the front would be too low pressure to be immediately expelled, so it begins to precociously coagulate in the barrel creating a pressure seal. And then as the high pressure fluid at the back is pushed forward, it gets squished up against the coagulating fluid, which forms a hard outer shell as it's compacted. Finally, as the chamber continues to contract and squeeze the webbing out of the chamber, the pressure seal is overcome and the webbing is fired. Take all this and condense it down to all happening within a fraction of a second, and the end result:

"A dense pellet of webbing fired at a high velocity. In other words,"

He accentuated his point by aiming the webshooter at a ceramic coffee mug on the table and pressing the trigger. Immediatedly, a gob of webbing was fired out of the webshooter and pierced the mug, causing it to shatter on impact.

"Web bullets."

Oh. My. Gobs.

I just turned gobs of goop into high powered projectiles. By accident.

"I am: A Genius!" Peter pumped his fist and fired off another shot at his closet door in celebration, immediately causing it to shudder on its hinges with the sound of cracked wood, and leaving behind a patch of webbing on impact.

Peter winced as realized it was the same busted door that Ditkovich had fleeced him for on his first day here, and had yet to replace. It was March now, and he still didn't have any way to pay for the rest of his rent. That meant Mr. Ditkovich would be breaking down his front door any day now demanding it from him, and he'd have nothing to show for it, which would probably get him set on a 30 day eviction notice. Bad precedent to set on your first month.

I wonder if I can get Dr. Connors to buy the patent for my wrist launcher designs. Setsuna said he was interested when I submitted for the open design contest on my U.A. Application. He might be even more interested if he saw they could be adapted for offensive use. It would definitely help with my money problems, Peter idly mused to himself. But he shook his head clear of the idea almost immediately afterwards.

No. While it's not like Spider-Man's going to get fined for using patented tech, it's still not a good idea to go advertising it around as Peter Parker. That's just asking for trouble.

"Still… this thing is pretty impressive." His eyes darted up towards the shattered coffee mug, which in hindsight probably wasn't a very smart target to pick either. "Definitely packs more of a punch than a paintball gun. Even has a bit of a kick to it. Having a long range offensive option is definitely gonna come in handy. I mean, if I had this when I fought Shocker, I probably wouldn't have needed that wrench."

Of course, as things were now, the web bullets were a bug, not a feature. It probably put a good bit of strain on the web shooters, and could break them if he kept abusing it. So if he wanted to be able to reliably shoot at trouble, he was going to have to engage in some good old fashioned troubleshooting.

Another hour or so of tinkering, and he had it down pat: perfected web bullets. Firing a tracer was the same as before: press till the lever clicked to switch tracks and then release immediately. But if he only eased up on the trigger until it clicked back to the primary track, it would fire a web bullet instead. While the trigger was in this state, he could then rapid fire by clicking the trigger over and over by twitching his fingers without letting up on the pressure. And then once he wanted to start firing normal webs again, he just let go of the button entirely and the webshooter reset.

Now that he had his new and improved webshooters, it was time for answers. He came to Japan because it would be dangerous for those around him if information about his quirk got out, so he had to get as far away from New York and Oscorp as possible.

But now, he was the Japanese vigilante Spider-Man, completely unrelated, anonymous, and equipped with abilities uniquely suited towards espionage. Which was especially good for Peter because while it would be dangerous if others knew about his quirk, it was dangerous for Peter to not know. Bestowing quirks is a groundbreaking development, and he had to know exactly how and why it had happened to him. And for that, he had to know exactly what was going on in those Oscrop labs that day, and all other days for that matter. Beyond the more widespread implications, Peter also had to know about any potential side effects or surprises that might be lurking right around the corner. That research data had already completely transformed Peter's life, and by extension cost Uncle Ben his. So Peter was going to unravel that mystery even if it was the last thing he ever did.

And luckily for him, now was the perfect time to act. No one would be expecting Spider-man to randomly pop into Oscorp's Japanese branch to take a quick peak at their research data—not that he'd get caught even if they were expecting him. He'd sneak in, snoop around, maybe get the drop on some high ranking personnel, and then use their credentials to hack into the system and get to the bottom of this.

With all that in mind, it was time for Spider-Man to pay a visit to Oscorp's Japan branch situated in nearby Naruhata.

A/N: This two part-er is by far the most troublesome chapter by far. Between my first semester of College, and the holidays, I haven't been able to write as much as I would have liked. But we're finally back on track, and hopefully for awhile to come.

The theme of this chapter, as should be obvious, is "Trigger" whether that be the literal trigger on Peter's webshooters (really proud of myself for coming up with that design by the way) or the conversation that triggers the change in Peter and Harry's relationship moving forward. Part 2 will showcase another kind of trigger, ones that will mark major turning points for the story, and the beginning of some of the overarching plot points, characters, and mysteries that will play a major role in the story now that we're past the prologue section. Hope you're all excited.

I recently creating a Forum page (it'll always be the last chapter of the story) that'll house news and updates about the story and Q and A questions, so that I can respond to reviews for the most recent chapter. Starting with this chapter, I am going to migrate over some of those relevant Q and A questions here so that I can reset the Forum page and start answering the questions that will eventually appear in the next chapter's Author's note. Forewarning, there may be potential spoilers in the Q and A questions, they will always be at the end of the chapter (unless there's an omake afterwards, like in this case) so they are easy to avoid.

Guest: What superhero name and suit will Peter use in U.A. and what will his relationship be with the 1A-Class?

A: I'm not going to reveal that yet, but there are plans in place for the suit and it will be relevant to the story. As for his relationships, I won't reveal too much. Everyone that has shown up thus far will play a role somewhere in the story, so there's that. I will now roll a random number generator and reveal something relating to the corresponding character: 9. That's Koji Koda, probably my least favorite member of the class (sorry). Umm... I don't have anything planned. Sometimes Spider-Man has some ability to control spiders, maybe I could play with that? Okay, re-roll: 29, that's beast in 1-B, maybe a one off joke about Hank McCoy? Again, nothing else interesting here, so I'll re-roll again: 2. That's Mina Ashido. Okay, a good character. Lot of writers use her as the story's gossip engine, a bit one note, but it's not a horrible use of the character. More particularly in regards to this story, I plan on having Peter and Ashido take the Season 2 Final Exam together. That'll at least get them interacting and get Mina to mettle in his affairs more actively especially if she's already causing him problems unintentionally. Which is good, lot of story telling opportunities. Those two would have a good character dynamic I feel.

NeoShad0w: Will U.A. mark the end of Spider-Man's vigilantism?

A: No. I suggest you re-read the end of the last chapter, Peter contemplates the same question and makes plans for what Spider-Man can do in the meanwhile.

Katana12: Will Peter get extra powers like Miles's electricity?

A: Quirks can canonically evolve, including completely new abilities, like when Tsuyu evolved invisibility. So it's definitely possible. I do have plans for how Peter's abilities will progress with training and experience, the specifics of that I won't reveal yet.

Chapter 9.1: Omake

Harry Osborn was overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed. More than that he was fatigued, completely spent, mentally, emotionally, physically. That was nothing new, in fact, it was practically all he knew. Being a billionaire's son had always been demanding, but the last couple weeks had been particularly strenuous. Since Peter had left for Japan, Harry could barely push himself to keep going, but he didn't dare risk over taxing his quirk to compensate for it.

One of the hard lessons he'd learned was that it was always better to meet such challenges head on with pure strength of will. It built character, taught him his emotional limits, and his father had stressed the importance of both respecting and overcoming your limits.

What was that thing Peter had also been fond of saying? 'Go Beyond, Plus Ultra.' That was a good way of putting it. He just had to hunker down and roll with the punches until the punches didn't bother him anymore. Until the overwhelming didn't overwhelm him. Exhaustion, lack of motivation, men of weaker resolve had those excuses. He didn't have the luxury of procrastination. If he couldn't handle having so much on his plate, he just needed a bigger plate. Because the life of Oscorp's CEO would be much more demanding than anything a highschool student could have to deal with. If he wanted to honor his father's legacy and do well as the corporation's future leader, he would have to learn to handle so much more than he currently was. How his father did it and still managed to be so considerate of the needs of others, Harry didn't know. That simple fact was why Harry's admiration for his father grew each time Harry barely managed to scrape by after a day of his comparably small troubles.

That was why he refused to use his quirk to offset his exhaustion. Resisting the easy way out made him stronger, and he knew the consequences of a lack of vigilance. Sure, it would make things easier on him in the short term, but by taking those things off his plate for today, he'd only be adding them to his plate for tomorrow, and then he'd have to rely on his quirk twice as much tomorrow, and then his situation would be thrice as bad the day after that, in an endless downward spiral of irresponsible procrastination.

Hmm… he'd have to ask Bernerd to throw away their coffee grounds for the next week. He wouldn't allow himself to be tempted to rely on caffeine either. Better to just throw it out so he couldn't think about it. Especially when he needed to be so diligent with his sleep schedule to maintain this level of productivity.

Harry wasn't fool enough to think he could just sacrifice his health in order to continue working through the night without repercussions. That kind of thinking was shortsighted, he couldn't just go on forever. Limitation is the mother of creativity as they say. Time was limited, energy was limited. Only 24 hours in a day, 10 of which are used for sleep and other necessities. Everyone worked within those boundaries, everyone had those same limited resources.

Of course, some people get greater returns out of those same resources than others. That was because those people are more efficient. Harry needed to get greater returns than anyone else. As a member of the next generation, he was one of the leaders of the future. And the future was a scary place that needed good leaders. It needed him to be a good leader, regardless of whether or not he would be ready to take on that role when the time came. Harry wouldn't fail everyone's expectations, he refused. He wouldn't dishonor everyone's continued faith in him, Father, Peter, Bernerd, Mom… It was his duty: Ruthless Efficiency, that was the Osborn way.

Of course, sometimes there was nothing more that could be done on one front but wait for further developments. And at those times the best thing that could be done was to refresh oneself; rest and prepare, get another perspective. That's where Harry was at now.

Despite everything going on in his life, Harry still made sure to make time for his friends, especially his best friend. The quirkless nerd was a better friend than Harry deserved. And he was really missing having Peter around, it was made painfully obvious how much the two had relied on each other now that they were separated. Harry's life had almost immediately become more difficult than it had been for years, and while he and Peter didn't get the chance to talk much, he could tell his friend had a lot on his shoulders as well, especially after Ben died.

It was a little tricky figuring out a time where the two of them could speak considering not only each of their hyper packed schedules, but also the difference in time zone. But if it meant having a real conversation with his best friend, Harry didn't mind waking up a little earlier that morning, even if he would have to accommodate for the breach in his strict sleep schedule.

"Alright, can you hear me now, Pete?" Peter's face suddenly popped up on the video chat. After a week of short disjointed text messages, it was a welcome sight. And while Harry took note to hide the weariness in his expression, the smile plastering his face was genuine.

"Loud and clear buddy. Been awhile, almost two weeks at this point," Peter replied with rivaling enthusiasm. Of course, Harry could tell that he wasn't the only person hiding his stresses. It didn't help that Peter wasn't as good at hiding it. Lord knows the boisterous nerd couldn't keep a secret.

"Believe me when I say that I couldn't find the time to do it any sooner. Especially last week."

"Something happen last week?"

"Sign ups for the student council election."

Peter winced in understanding "And your Dad…"

"Expects me to win Class President," Harry admitted.

"Can you even handle yet another obligation like that?"

"I don't really have a choice, if I don't have time for it, then I'm gonna have to make time."

"Even assuming you win, what about the team? Doesn't student council have meetings at the same time as practice? Not to mention the fact that Flash is gonna be on your case if you start lagging behind."

"Don't worry, I've already got it worked out. Believe it or not, Flash is actually going to get the football team to rally for me." Harry reported, a small swelling of pride leaking through into his demeanor. He was especially proud of that particular delegation of duties. He really didn't think he could have done all the campaigning by himself, much less find the time to do it in the first place. And of course, he need not even consider the chances of him winning should he have attempted it that way.

"Flash, is helping!? How'd you manage to convince him to do that?"

"Promised to fix the football field's scoreboard if I won."

Peter furrowed his brows at that. "It was broken? I never noticed, then again, none of your matches were ever on the home field, so I guess I wouldn't know."

"That's the secret: it's not broken. Turns out, the custodian was just too lazy to ever turn on the breakers for it." That particular stroke of genius was another small point of pride for Harry. Peter might have been smarter than him, but Harry had been taught how to be attentive to anything and everything that might yield him an advantage, in business or otherwise. Noticing that small detail had been an unexpected boon,

"Heh, custodians man, always gotta be the stodgiest mop in the closet, am I right?"

"Hey, I take offense to that." A voice could be heard yelling from the other side of the door in the background of Peter's video feed. Harry figured that the door led to the hall and that the custodian for Peter's apartment complex was apparently on the other side.

Peter bristled at his faux pas. "Sorry, Stan. I uh, didn't see you there." Peter apologized as he leaned over to close his door the rest of the way.

"Busted."

"Shut up, Harry." The two had a good laugh at that.

"Alright, so the team isn't an issue, what about all your other stuff? I'm surprised you even have time to campaign. You're finished with etiquette classes, right? So that just leaves Business school, Japanese, Piano, and then Karate on Saturday, am I missing anything?" Peter asked.

As the heir to a multinational corporation, Harry had been put through a complete curriculum of courses on the necessary skills to succeed his Father starting from his youth. Oscorp had major branches in New York, Germany, and Japan. So of course, Harry was taught to speak German and then Japanese. (That was how they met actually. Peter had helped him out after catching him straining to understand a Japanese textbook in the 5th grade.) Peter was always better at Japanese than he was, and thank goodness for that, he certainly needed the help of a senpai. Beyond language skills, Harry also had to know how to mingle with high society, so he was given lessons on acting and improv, etiquette, ballroom dancing, horseback riding, and half dozen snobby sports like golf, cricket, archery, horse polo, and so so many more. Then of course, being a billionaire's son put quite the target on your back, so Harry took Karate lessons as well. To learn how to defend himself, yes. But Harry had always appreciated its secondary effect of instilling discipline more. It also created synergy with his Japanese classes as his sensei never spoke English. Then there came the skills actually involved in running a business. So Harry had to go to business school and several other classes like interpersonal skills and memorization techniques.

Was it excessive? Maybe for most people. But it was the least Harry could do to begin to live up to his duties, he owed it to everyone to give back afterall. And for that, he needed to be educated, and it was also partly to give him a much needed distraction after his mother died. It also allowed his father to distract himself by turning his focus to running Oscorp. He needed to mourn too afterall. His father's willingness to sacrifice his precious time with his remaining family to uphold his obligations, even in the face of such grief, was another reason why Harry respected his father so much. But that also meant that Harry was practically raised by their butler, Bernerd, instead. Thankfully, Bernerd cared for the Osborns enough that Harry never felt neglected. Or at least, not without cause. Harry had at times (especially when he was younger) selfishly wished for more of his father's attention. But he couldn't blame his father. There was an important job that needed to get done and someone needed to do it. Harry certainly wasn't capable of doing it yet, but his father was. So he had no right to complain. If he wanted his father to have more time, then Harry needed to have the skills to take some of that workload off his shoulders. Besides, it was wrong of him to be unsatisfied with Bernerd's guardianship, especially in light of his loyalty to the Osborns.

Snapping out of his trip down memory lane, Harry turned his attention back towards Peter. "Don't remind me. Between football and student council I'll have to shuffle things around, so it'll be Karate on Sundays now. The real problem is my grades. Gotta keep my GPA above 3.2 or I get kicked off the team."

"Sorry I'm not around to help you with that anymore, buddy. Can I do anything to help? Don't mind the whole ocean between us, it's no biggie."

"You've already helped tons, I took your advice. A few study dates, and now Debra Whitman's volunteering to be my campaign manager if you can believe it. Helped me design some posters. Came out better than I could have hoped."

Harry reassured his friend that things would be taken care of—it's what he did best after all. But truth be told, Whitman had been a difficult person to get into the good graces of. But with some patience (and a little more flattery than he'd like to admit) he had managed to stroke her ego enough to ingratiate himself to her. And while she was no Peter Parker, Harry did eventually learn to enjoy her company in much the same manner, even if their time together did remind him of how shallow the comparison was.

"Yeah, you're going to have to back up there, because I can't believe it. Whitman takes too much pride in her academics to volunteer for something like that. Are charity projects suddenly worth extra credit now or something?"

Harry internally laughed at Pete's little jab. So I'm a charity project now, huh? His friend's skill with playful banter was one of the biggest reasons why their friendship had lasted so long. Of course, Harry would never admit that, lest the quirkless nerd get a big head about it.

"You see, first I had to get her to help me study. Thankfully, that was pretty easy. She couldn't pass up the chance to hold one over the rich perfect kid, probably also saw it as a way of getting back at you, Pete."

"Definitely. She probably saw you as an enticing little Guinea pig to toy with."

You bet buddy. You got no idea how many of her self aggrandizing lectures I had to sit through, or hoops I had to jump through before I actually got anything out of it. Harry thought, though he immediately chided himself for the backhanded complaint.

"Hey, I gave her what she wanted, what's so bad about that? Though I think she was pretty shocked to see me actually put in the effort, I guess she thought I had been coasting off of your work or something. After that, she deigned to really run me through the ropes."

"Now that sounds more like the intellectual narcissism I remember from Whitman. Probably got some sadistic glee out of watching you run in circles."

"Okay, she was admittedly a little smug about it, but it got me through the test, so I'm grateful for all the drilling. Oh yeah, and did you know there's a diner right by the library that sells malts? Turns out the dates were good for more than just studying after all."

"Yes, yes, you're overflowing with charm, get on with it."

Harry openly chuckled at that. "Well when I told Debra that I'd have to reschedule because of the election, she was pretty skeptical at first, but once she found out about all my extracurriculars she softened up on me a bit. She must have been impressed with my credentials, either that or she just felt sorry for me and volunteered to help out with my workload out of guilt."

As an honors student herself, Debra had expressed to him that she sympathized with the big workload, and while she didn't apologize directly, it had been clear to Harry that she had felt sorry for judging his book by its cover and taking advantage of his need for help. It was at that point that Harry had felt they had become real friends. And if he was being honest, he was really grateful to have someone who understood what he was going through. Sure, Peter understood, but it was different. Peter looked at things from the opposite direction: his hard work had always been to scrape by and keep his head above water. Debra understood the burden of needing to excel, and why you could never just settle for average. And it was nice for Harry to have the reassurance that he wasn't alone in that.

"Either way, she's been a big help. I'm honored to have such a good team. Couldn't have done it without everyone lending a hand like this."

"Wait, are you testing out your acceptance speech on me right now?"

"No. In my acceptance speech I'll say 'I'd like to thank the academy,' and then I'll say 'I couldn't have done it without everyone's help.' Completely different." Harry deflected.

"Bet that was also Debra's idea, wasn't it?"

"Well… she is better at composition than I am," Harry admitted sheepishly.

"Busted."

"Shut up, Pete." The two laughed twice as hard that time.

"Well it's good to know you're hanging in there alright now that I'm gone, even if you did replace me with Whitman." Harry frowned at that statement. Didn't Peter know how much Harry still needed him, how much they still needed each other? They'd been together through thick and thin since the 5th grade. Peter was like a brother to him. He didn't want to think that all it took was a little distance and some tutoring from Debra to change that. In fact, the thought scared him.

"Ah, come on Pete, don't be like that. We're still the most daring duo this world's ever seen. No distance is gonna change that."

"Better believe it, just the two of us dudes against the world. Like Captain America and Bucky." Peter responded.

"Sure, Pete, you're Captain America." Harry said sarcastically. "Maybe back when Captain America was scrawny and Bucky had to stop him from getting beat up."

"Okay… Then you're like the Han Solo to my Luke Skywalker."

"Try again buddy. While Bucky and Han Solo are pretty cool, you're way too much of a nerd to be Luke Skywalker. But you could be the Hermione to my Harry Potter," Harry teased.

"You know what I mean!"

"Yeah yeah, I get it. And you're right. We do make a pretty cool team, the two of us, don't we? Just Harry and his pal Pete."

"Just me and my hombre Harry."

"Mi compadre and me"

Eventually the two just started going back and forth.

"My main man."

"My homeslice."

"He's a chum"

"A confidant."

"My broski."

"Brother from another mother."

Author's Note that was posted with the original Omake:

A/N: It's been a month since my last update. That's because I just started my first semester of college a couple weeks back, and it's my 20th birthday next week. So I thought I'd give you guys something to hold you over because I don't know when I'll start consistently posting again. So here's an Omake checking up on Harry, just a little short giving things from his perspective. When the full chapter actually drops, this will be the first scene, though given from Peter's point of view (I'll probably paste this Omake at the end of the full chapter after the Author's note for those who want to compare the two perspectives).

On a side note, I don't think I've ever seen Harry's character get justice. There have been times where it starts out pretty good, (Ultimate comics and the Raimi movies come to mind.) but Harry always seems to degenerate into a whiny helpless baby so that Peter can either save his butt, or so the audience won't feel bad that Peter is stealing his best friend's girlfriend. Less of that please? Harry has so much potential and is one of my favorite characters when done right. He's supposed to be Spider-Man's best friend, a part of the Peter, Harry, MJ/Gwen 3-man band. Can't you at least make that as significant a relationship as Iron Man, Rhodey, and Pepper? at least treat him as well as Ned is treated in the MCU movies. Can we be allowed to actually care about Harry first before he's made into a drug addict or the green goblin? Maybe then it'd have some emotional weight to see Spider-Man's BEST FRIEND be ruined, because you have to actually start in the audience's good graces before you can fall from grace. At least in the Raimi movies he wasn't sniveling. I want Harry and Peter to have a relationship like Zuko and Sokka, they've got a great potential dynamic. But it always ends up that one has to completely rely on the other in a one sided friendship. Right now, the state of Harry Osborn in media is like if Zuko wasn't given a character arc. It'd be like if Zuko went from whining about honor to OD-ing on drugs and becoming the next evil fire lord. If you want to make Harry into a villain, then if the Green Goblin is the fire lord in this analogy, then at least make Harry into Azula, that would fit! My confusing rant aside, I hope you enjoyed this little scene (P.S. These ramblings of mine in no way indicate any of my potential future plans for the character of Harry Osborn in this story, I will not spoil those.)