The room was a typical teenager's bedroom. Clothes were strewn about instead of being placed in a hamper or a drawer. Posters of actresses, games, and bands adorned the walls. A game system set up was prominently displayed in one corner of the room.

A groan emanated from under the blankets piled up on the bed. A moment later a hand dug its way out of the pile and pulled down the blankets, revealing a wide eyed boy of 13 years of age.

"What a horrible dream!" The boy exclaimed before flinching and launching himself out of bed. "What the hell?"

"Watch your language!" A female voice sternly said from behind the boy.

The boy spun around, taking note of the unfamiliar room while doing so. In front of him stood a lady that looked like she was in her mid thirties, but she took care of her health and appearance. She was already dressed and in make up for her day.

The boy stared, wide eyed, in confusion for a moment.

"If you start using foul language, I'll have to take a bar of soap to your mouth, Andrew Bartholomew Smith!" The lady in front of the now named Andrew further warned when it seemed like he wasn't going to respond.

"Okay, I'll watch my language." The boy obediently promised in order to not cause a scene with the lady. He already knew he was in trouble. He could tell that he was in someone else's body, in a strange room in an unknown house with a stranger chastising him on his manners. He needed some breathing room to figure out what the hel- what was going on.

"Good. Now, it's time to get ready. If you don't shake a leg, you'll be late to your first day of school. Go get ready, and come down for breakfast." The lady stated before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.

The newly named Andrew collapsed face first onto his new but unfamiliar bed.

"So it wasn't a dream after all." He moaned into the pillows. He really had gone on a roller coaster, the safety bar had failed, and he had fallen to his death. Which meant, he had transmigrated into the body of this young man named Andrew. "I'm so screwed. Wasn't I supposed to get the memories of the body I inhabit to help make the transition easier?"

The man who used to be Carl but was now Andrew bounced up from the bed. He had a look of determination on his face as he gazed into the mirror on the wall. He examined the features of his new face. He was surprised at how young he looked. He looked like he was barely into his teens. His brown hair and brown eyes and normal facial features made him a very average looking guy.

After looking over his new features, he patted his cheeks to give his system a little shock.

"Okay. There's nothing you can do about your current circumstances but go along with the flow. Try to get used to your new life." Andrew firmly put aside any ideas of dreaming butterflies for the time being. It wasn't conducive to his current circumstances, so navel gazing was something he would leave for a later time.

Looking around the room, Andrew began investigating what he could about the young man whose body he was occupying. From the decorations on the walls, he could see the young man liked movies and video games.

Ignoring the clothes scattered around the room, since he didn't know the original Andrew's organization method of which were clean and which were dirty, he opened the closet. He saw a variety of button down shirts hanging inside, along with several khaki trousers.

Raising his right arm, Andrew sniffed his armpit and decided that he needed to take a shower before getting ready for school. Grabbing a change of clothes, he exited the room and saw the open door to the bathroom down the hall.

15 minutes later he was freshly showered and dressed. At his young age he didn't need to shave, which saved him some time.

Luckily Andrew spotted "his" backpack already prepared for the first day of school. After rifling through the bag, he saw that he was going to be attending Midtown High School as a freshman.

"Why does that name sound so familiar?' Andrew wondered aloud, before shrugging the question away when an answer didn't come to mind.

The newly minted Andrew also found some basic paperwork that showed him that the original Andrew had been skipped a grade at the beginning of Middle School, so now he was a year younger than his classmates.

"Wonder if 'I' get along with my peers." Andrew pondered. He hadn't personally seen it in his previous life, but in all the stories he read when someone who was a genius and skipped grades, he engendered all kinds of hate and bullying behavior due to jealousy from the older students.

But with no journal readily evident that could tell him more information, he could only shelve the question for later.

"Get your tush in gear and get down here, Andrew!" A man's baritone voice came from downstairs.

Andrew realized that he had spent too long in exploring his new circumstances. Even if he had found a journal, he wouldn't have time to learn anything from it anyway.

"Coming!" Andrew yelled back, before quickly packing up his bag and making his way downstairs.

"Your breakfast is on the table. Your father will drive you to school on your first day to complete the paperwork. After that you'll have to take the bus like all the other students." Andrew's mother briskly spoke the moment he arrived in the dining area.

"Thanks." Andrew said as he sat at the empty seat. He did his best to ignore the strange look his new parents were giving him for his behavior. Apparently Andrew didn't usually act like he currently was? Since there was nothing he could do about it, Andrew decisively ignored the looks and just continued acting like everything was normal.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find some friends and fit in better at High School than in Middle School." Andrew's new mom comforted him, thinking he was nervous about the new school and fitting in.

"Just act confident and be yourself son. I'm sure you'll be fine." Andrew's new dad added on.

Andrew just hummed and nodded in agreement with his mouth full of eggs. The less said right now as he was getting used to his new circumstances the better. Judging by the lack of noise in the house, and that there were no other place settings, Andrew assumed he was now an only child. Which meant that his new parents had plenty of attention focused solely on him, without the distractions of other kids. So he would have to be cautious not to do anything too outrageous.

'Just be a normal son and student and fit in with the crowds.' Andrew internally nodded. He could do that.

"But if it doesn't work out with your peers this time, at least be sure to continue keeping your grades up." Andrew's dad warned.

"Donald." Andrew's mother hissed at her husband and smacked him on the arm.

"Ow! What did you hit me for Mary?" Donald asked in confusion.

"Don't discourage him!" Mary hiss-whispered in a way and voice that gave the impression she was trying to not let Andrew hear. Naturally it was a complete failure, since they were right there. Andrew mentally rolled his eyes at his new parents. He kind of liked them already. At least it was funny to watch their dynamics.

"It's okay. I'm sure I'll do fine." Andrew piped up, unable to not comment.

"There, you hear? He'll be fine." Donald said in an aggrieved tone while rubbing his shoulder, as if he was actually hurt by the shoulder slap.

"Just because he's fine doesn't mean you should put extra pressure on him. He's already a year younger and outperforming all his classmates. The thing he needs now is our support, not doubt!" Marry lectured, having apparently read something recently in some parenting blogs.

"Okay, fine, you're right." Donald retreated, having recognized that he wouldn't be able to win the argument. He then looked over at Andrew. "We support you, son. We're proud of you. Keep up the good work."

Andrew's mouth twitched into a smile; he was barely suppressing the grin and laughter that wanted to bubble up. Seeing Donald's "forced-by-my-wife" expression and Mary's "good-boy-you-can-be-trained" expression was just too comedy duo to be confronted with so suddenly.

Especially since he was still feeling completely off balance because of his death and forced relocation, his emotions seemed to be on a rollercoaster and were easily affected.

Or was that the teenage hormones running through his new body?

Despite the silly way the couple in front of him acted, Andrew could really feel the care they had for their son. That realization actually made him feel a little guilty inside because he wasn't their original son. But in order to not cause problems, and give himself a chance to figure out what he was going to do from now on, he could only go along with what was happening in front of him as best he could.

"Thanks, mom, dad. I'm sure I'll be fine." Andrew smiled at his new parents with as much warmth as he could.

"Okay, son. Now, brush your teeth before leaving for the day." Mary smiled back at Andrew before collecting the dishes.

Andrew did as she said, brushing his teeth in the bathroom before joining his new dad in the car. As they drove to the school, Andrew paid careful attention to the neighborhood and the route to school in case he needed to find his way later while keeping one ear on the ramblings of his new father.

He had already found out that he was now living in New York City, which was a big difference from the west coast of California.

'But at least I ended up in a place where I can speak the language. I mean, if I ended up in somewhere like Japan or Russia, I would have been screwed since I didn't get the memory pack of my new body.'

After a short fifteen minute drive, they arrived at his new school. After finding a parking spot, Donald walked Andrew to the office and finished filling out some forms. Andrew got a school id, map, a schedule of his classes, the information on the bus schedule, and was sent on his way.

Andrew watched as his new father's car drove off before turning around and looking at the campus of his high school as all the students were filing in. Some from the buses, some drove themselves, and others walked or rode a bike.

'And isn't that a kicker, being back in high school.' Andrew sighed before adjusting his backpack and following the map to his first class of English.

Weaving his way through the growing crowds, Andrew soon arrived at the classroom. Looking inside, he saw there were already several students sitting down. Andrew followed suit and found himself a seat on the left side of the room, next to a window.

He spent the time waiting for class to start by looking out the windows at the track field he could see, pondering over his new circumstances.

It was a really unexpected set of circumstances that led to him finding himself here. He found himself pondering the question of why this happened to him. Why did he get a second chance in a totally different body? And now that he seemed to be stuck here with no way back home, what was he going to make of his life?

He was at the beginning of his High School career, so he had an open playing field. Studying well and getting good grades, he was sure to get into a decent college.

The teacher arrived before Andrew had made any firm decisions on what he was going to do with his new life beyond take advantage of his opportunity to get good grades.

While the teacher took roll call, he began thinking of how he was going to go about his studies. The better his grades were and the more he learned, the more opportunities and choices he would have when deciding his new life's career.

The first day of class for the incoming freshmen was mostly introduction, going over the syllabus, and passing out books. Andrew did his best to pay attention, remember his classmate's names, and generally do his best to enjoy his new high school life.

The bell eventually rang, causing a general stir of students packing up their bags and making their way to their next class.

Andrew followed the crowd out, frowning when he saw that he was much shorter than his classmates. He was at least half a head shorter than everyone.

'Damn. I'm a year younger and apparently a late bloomer.' Andrew gloomily thought as he did his best not to get run over by the herd of rambunctious teenagers. He couldn't see anything past the shoulders and heads around him.

For someone who was over six foot in his previous life to suddenly be five foot nothing once more was a trial. Andrew worked hard to convince himself that he was actually five feet tall. Wearing shoes counted, right?

At least his new father was tall, which gave Andrew some hope for future growth.

After swimming through the sea of teenage drama and ignoring most of it, Andrew arrived at his math class. Apparently Andrew had taken Algebra 1 in 7th grade, Geometry in 8th, and now was taking Algebra 2 / Trigonometry.

Andrew arrived too late to find a nice seat, so he took one in the front middle of the class. He barely paid attention to his teacher, Miss Summers, calling roll until one name popped out at him.

"Peter Parker." Miss Summers called out.

"Here."

In his amusement, Andrew's head slowly turned to look at the young man whose name was Peter Parker, incredulous at first that anyone would be so cruel to their kid to name them after Spiderman.

'Not that it's a bad name at all. And Spiderman is an admirable hero. One of my favorite in the Marvel universe, in fact. But this kid is no doubt going to be mocked by his peers for having the name of a comic book superhero, cause kids can be so cruel to each other for the dumbest reasons.' Andrew thought.

Seeing the kid who was named Peter Parker, Andrew chuckled inside a bit. 'That poor bloke. His parents even dressed him to look like Peter before he became Spiderman. The glasses, the overly nerdy clothes. Are they asking for their kid to be bullied?'

After a moment Andrew turned his attention back to the teacher and listened for his name. He called out to affirm his presence when Miss Summers reached his name.

Once she was finished with the role, Miss Summers passed out their syllabus and books, before pulling out a large stack of papers.

"Okay. And now we'll have a little quiz to see just how much you all remember from your previous math classes!" Miss Summers cheerfully announced.

Carl smirked a bit inside when he saw Miss Summers' smile grow a little when she heard the students groan in protest.

'Apparently our math teacher has a bit of a sadistic side to her.' Andrew postulated when he saw her pleasure grow the more the students grumbled. 'Note to self, don't get on her bad side. I'm sure her punishments will be annoying as hell, just to entertain herself at her student's expense.'

Thankfully Andrew was pretty decent at math in his previous life. It had been a while since he had taken these math classes, but as he read over the test, many of his memories and half forgotten formulas became clearer in his mind, allowing him to answer most of the problems correctly.

Andrew sighed when the bell rang. He knew he hadn't gotten all the answers right. He stacked his paper on top of everyone else's when he filed out the door. He would have to work hard at some reviewing to refresh his memories.

Looking around, Andrew had the idea of talking with the kid named Peter Parker. Seeing the kid with his head down and trying to look like he was a turtle avoiding danger, Andrew changed his mind. He already looked like he had been bullied into timidity, so Andrew nixed his idea to gently tease the guy to try to start up a friendship.

Andrew didn't think he would appreciate the gentle teasing and would think that Andrew was one of those who mocked him. He would have to wait for a better time to see if he could make friends with the kid. Shrugging his shoulders, he made his way to his locker to put away his books before making his way to his next class.

The rest of Andrew's day went by pretty normally. First days weren't usually intense, mostly consisting of introductions and reviews.

It wasn't until his last class of the day, history, that Andrew felt like his grasp on things was a lot more tenuous than he thought it was.

Their teacher, Mr. Underwood, began like normal. He passed out books and the syllabus. It was what he talked about after that that threw Andrew for a complete loop.

"While this class is mostly concerned with History, ie the past, the thing to keep in mind is that our current events will be tomorrow's history." Mr. Underwood stated as he paced in front of the class, making eye contact with the students.

"So every Monday we will spend some time on current events. We'll take turns throughout the year so that everyone gets a chance to present a report on what has been happening in the world of today. We'll discuss what is happening and what some of the ramifications of those events could be on our society and history in general."

"If you can find and present similar events from history to your article's subject, I'll give bonus points to your grade. This will be included in your participation grade, so don't slack off it."

Mr. Underwood then strode up to the easel that had been covered since the beginning of class.

"Since today is the first Monday, and none of you have had a chance to prepare, I'll go first to give an example. This is an older article that I made four years ago when Captain America was first thawed out."

Andrew's jaw dropped at the sight of the news articles blown up and highlighted. At first he was in denial, thinking that Mr. Underwood was a fan of the Marvel movies and wanted to play a joke on the students.

But as he watched everyone's reactions and serious attitude, Andrew soon came to the realization that they weren't joking. Both the teacher and students were too enthusiastic and serious about the article and subject matter.

Doubt began creeping into Andrew's mind. Was this real? Was he actually in the Marvel Universe?

'Midtown High School!' Andrew froze in realization. 'Peter Parker's high school. The actual, real, Spiderman's high school. And there is a Peter Parker, who isn't Spiderman yet.'

Andrew finally calmed down and came back to himself. He had been completely ignoring the class discussion in favor of freaking out. He came back to himself when he heard Mr. Underwood finishing up a summary of Captain America's life up to this point, enthusiastically talking about how amazing it was to have such an American hero back among them, and how much he has done for them, especially in the Battle for New York that happened three years ago.

The bell eventually rang, releasing the students for the day. Andrew packed up his books, his mind in a fog. He mechanically made his way to the buses, saw his bus number, and climbed on.

It was only when he got off the bus that he finally started being coherent to himself, no longer freaking out about the realization that he was in the freaking Marvel Universe!

He entered his new home of less than a day, and made his way up to his room. He booted up the computer in his gaming corner. Staring at the login screen, Andrew scowled at the fact that he didn't know the password.

"Dammit. Curse you for not giving me the memories of the host body!" Andrew muttered at whatever force allowed him to inhabit the body with no clue about his new life.

Andrew spent the next 15 minutes digging through the original Andrew's desk before finding a little pocket notebook full of passwords.

"Saved! At least now I don't have to reinstall the operating system and lose all that Andrew had on his hard drive." Andrew muttered as he logged in. It wasn't like he was a computer hacker that could figure out the login information, so he would have been screwed if the passwords weren't written down.

After logging in, Andrew started searching online for any information related to certain superheroes and what had been happening lately in the world.

It was currently the year 2015. Andrew was 13 and a year younger than all his classmates, which made Peter Parker 14 right now. If he remembered rightly, then Peter was 15 when he got bitten by the spider and made into Spiderman.

Andrew looked over the articles he could find about Iron Man. He had to troll through a lot of articles, since there were so many online. But after some time he learned the basics. This world seemed to follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In 2008 Tony Stark was kidnapped while in the Middle East. After escaping / being saved, he made his Iron Man suit and cleaned up a lot of the terrorists who had been using his weapons. He shifted Stark Industries away from building weapons, which caused a huge drop in stock prices for a time. But he got into energy and building technology to help save lives and make society better.

In the same year there were articles of a giant green humanoid monster that would rage around. The army had no success subduing it. When their forces were expended, the Hulk would just wander off and disappear for a time. Occasionally over the years around the world there would be a reappearance of the big green Hulk for a short time before he would wander off again.

In 2010 when Andrew was only 8 Tony Stark's expo was attacked by a horde of Iron Man knockoff drones, but he came out of that disaster with the release of several more advances in energy which reversed the temporary drop in stock that resulted from the attack. The rise in his stock prices was actually a lot higher than it was previously, since everyone seemed to be recognizing that Tony Stark was extremely hard to put down. And his new innovations were amazingly profitable.

Then, in 2011 Captain America was found and brought back from being frozen in the Arctic. There was a lot of excitement in the articles at his successful revival.

In the same year there were articles of some attacks on a town in New Mexico. If Andrew remembered rightly, that should be Thor coming to Midgard after having his powers suppressed.

Then in 2012 there was the Battle for New York where a portal opened up in the sky above the city and an alien army attacked. The Avengers closed the portal after fighting the invaders.

Two years ago in 2013 Tony Stark's house was attacked with missiles. A short time later the U.S. President was attacked, but saved by Iron Man, who had been missing since his house was attacked but had shown up once more.

During that time there was also an attack on London by strange forces. The reports weren't specific about what. Andrew saw a lot of conflicting information on the internet about who was attacking. The only solid news online was that Thor of the Avengers had stopped the attack.

Andrew then found news about the previous year's craziness. Captain America and the Black Widow released the news that Hydra, the Nazi organization, wasn't as dead as it was assumed. The two posted the S.H.I.E.L.D. database on the internet to expose the Nazi organization. Then there was a battle where a couple of those airships were crashed and destroyed.

Andrew sat back in his chair and blew out an explosive breath of air. He really didn't know what to say about that whole situation. He didn't know the ins and outs of the now real life situation. But he was wondering why Rogers and Romanov would post S.H.I.E.L.D.s database online. Chances are there were many enemies benefitting from such a move more than it hurt Hydra.

Maybe it was the only chance they had at the time to fight back and stop Hydra's plans?

Andrew shrugged off the questions. There were always armchair generals that would criticize the soldiers who actually participated in the battle. He had no idea what the situation was at the time, so he decided to hold off on judging them harshly.

Andrew's mind then circled around to the fact that he had been avoiding thinking about for some time.

He was in the Marvel Universe.

Sometime later, Andrew finally stopped jumping around and squee-ing like an overly excited fan boy. Sitting back down in his chair, Andrew looked at the timeline he had compiled from the online news.

The big superhero events seemed to be increasing in frequency and seriousness. The world Andrew now lived in seemed to be devolving into chaos and war. Every year crazy battles and conflicts were happening, and they were getting bigger.

And here he was, an ordinary 13 year old kid in a superhero universe.

No special powers, no ability to protect himself from any of the coming threats.

*cough* Thanos *cough*.

He wasn't a genius that could build himself a mobile battlesuit. He didn't have mystical powers, or mutant powers.

"Well, there's an idea. I could always go find the Sorcerer Supreme and try to become an apprentice. There is of course no guarantee that he would actually train me, but I could try it." Andrew thought it probably wouldn't work. What could he possibly offer Dr. Strange to get training?

"He would probably just return me back to my parents with a story of how I was getting into trouble with the wrong crowd, ensuring I got grounded." Andrew sighed in regret at not being able to learn magic any time soon. At least not until he was an adult and could make his own decisions.

But by then the whole war with Thanos would have already happened. Who knew if things would actually play out like in the movies? Who knew if he would survive the Snap? Or if Tony could even reverse it after it happened.

"The best bet I have to gain some powers to protect myself in any relevant time is to get bit by that radioactive spider with Peter within the next year." Andrew sat back in his chair. "I mean, most of the rest of the paths to power are jealously guarded by organizations like Shield or Hydra. Or the formula is lost like Captain America's serum. Or it would twist me into some kind of monster like what happened to Blonsky with the Hulk's blood. So the best bet I have is to get some spider powers."

Andrew paused for a moment as stark reality bit him in the ass.

"Yeah. Like a 13 year old no power kid with no money is going to be able to do anything to plot and plan a path to power." Andrew snorted to himself at the thought. He was less than a 98 pound weakling at the moment. How could he even get any plans out of the being on paper stage?

No, the only possibility he had that was in his reach was that spider.

Andrew made up his mind.

When his class went on that trip to Oscorp, he would be right next to Peter and would ensure he too was bitten. He didn't want to steal Peter's opportunity to get those powers. He wasn't a dick.

But if he could get those powers too, then he would jump at the chance.

Over the next year Andrew spent his time either studying, exercising, or hanging out with Peter, becoming his friend. Which led to him meeting Ned, Peter's best friend.

Andrew's first impression of Peter being a bullied nerd wasn't actually completely accurate. While he wasn't given much respect from the Jock and Social clique, it wasn't to the point of actual bullying, really.

At most there were some disparaging remarks thrown Peter's way from Flash's group. Other than that, they left him alone, and Peter stayed away from them for the most part. The various social groups did their own thing, and only interacted at school a bit.

Andrew had been spending plenty of time working out, running and lifting weights, in anticipation of getting his base body enhanced. The idea was that the spider powers were a multiplication of his base powers. If he started out with a base power of 5, and say the spider powers would multiply that by 10, then he would have a power of 50. But if he started out with a 10, then with the spider powers he would end up with a power of 100. It could double his power if he had a more fit body.

Of course the whole thing was conjecture and blind guessing. Andrew had no hard data or scientific measures. But doing exercise and being fit wasn't a bad thing to be. At the very least he would be healthy, even if nothing came of his efforts to get some spider powers.

Finally the day of the tour came near the end of the school year. Andrew was having a hard time of sitting still on the bus, he was so nervous and excited about the upcoming event.

"Dude, you got to pee or something?" Ned laughed when he saw how jittery Andrew was.

"Nah, I'm just excited about seeing the sweet tech." Andrew tried to calm down and act nonchalant. It didn't work very well if Ned's mocking face was anything to go by.

"I'm excited too." Peter commented absent mindedly as he watched the hot girl Liz chatting with her friends further down the bus.

Andrew and Ned snickered at Peter, but also watched the hot girls for a few moments.

"Ahem. Yeah, it's gonna be a good tour." Andrew said once the girls sat back down.

"Yup."

"Yeah."

The awkwardness was soon dispelled as the three friends started chatting about random things. The bus finally came to a stop in front of the Oscorp building and everyone piled out.

From his place in the middle of the group, Andrew looked up at the looming building. He couldn't express to himself what he was feeling at the moment, so he just stopped thinking and stuffed all the feelings down inside for the time being.

The class followed their teachers inside and gathered in the reception area of the Oscorp building. Role was called and guest passes were handed out. Andrew double checked that he had the small vial that he planned to put the spider into once he was bit safe in his pocket.

Andrew followed along with the tour, joking in low voices with his two buddies. Eventually they arrived at the room with all the samples. There were more than just the spiders that made Peter into Spiderman. The group was working with many different interesting creatures from nature. Scorpions, lizards, ants, bees, and many others.

Andrew kept an eye on Peter, watching out for the spider.

Eventually he saw the thing crawling on Peter's sleeve. It reached Peter's hand and bit him.

"Ouch!" Peter exclaimed, reaching out to slap the spider.

Before Peter could smash it, Andrew's hand was already there, grabbing the spider. He put the thing on his own wrist, ignoring Peter's antics of clutching his painful wrist and jumping around. The spider on Andrew's wrist bit him too. It was like the spider was going on a biting frenzy, just biting everything around it.

Andrew tried to move the thing to put it into the small container he had prepared to capture it, but he failed as the spider wriggled out of his grip and leaped away, disappearing among the nearby shelving.

It was probably for the best, just in case the Oscorp people did a search of him. If he had one of their samples on his body, he didn't want to guess what the legal consequences would be.

With his burning wrist as testament that he succeeded in his goal at least, Andrew was pleased. Even though he didn't catch the spider, the important thing was that he got bit and would gain some awesome powers.

The cold sweats and nausea that soon started were symptoms that he had expected, since fundamentally changing someone's DNA was bound to be a painful process. Andrew followed along with Peter in getting early release from the tour, explaining that they must have eaten something bad.

Andrew managed to get home, somehow navigating the public transport system while fighting the onset of symptoms.

He crashed in his bed at home and surrendered to unconsciousness.

Unknown to him, his heart beat was getting slower and slower, until it finally stopped and didn't beat again.

Andrew started feeling a floating feeling. Like he was unbound from something. He opened his eyes and saw himself floating in his bedroom of the past year.

His body was lying on the bed, completely still. Looking closer, he saw that his body wasn't breathing!

"What the hell!" Andrew tried to touch his body with the idea of doing some CPR. But his hands passed through his body. He was insubstantial.

"Did I die?! What the hell!" Andrew yelled in frustration.

"Yes. You are dead." A bone dry voice sounded from behind Andrew.

Andrew whirled around, seeing a skeletally thin man in a three piece suit standing there, staring at him.

"Who are you?" Andrew asked warily.

"I am an Emissary of the Personification of Death. I'm here to collect you and pass you on to your destination, Carl. I don't know how you arrived here from your previous life, but your time here in this world is over."

"Just like that? I mean, I didn't even get to do much of anything." Carl, who had been getting used to being Andrew over the past year, complained. "I mean, what shitty luck to have died just when I was gonna get some spider powers."

"That wasn't bad luck, I'm afraid." The thin man smirked at Carl. "Did you really think it was that easy to acquire the destiny of a hero? To gain the powers of the Spider Totem? Peter Parker only survived the ordeal because of the changes his scientist father made to him through experimenting on him as a child. Your body, I'm afraid, was completely unsuited to the power. You never had the chance."

"Really?" Carl slumped down, depressed. All that planning, all that waiting for the right moment, wasted. Seeing the smirk on the man, and his nod of affirmation, Carl sighed out his depression.

He had gambled and lost on the chance that it really was that easy to become someone with powers in the Marvel universe.

After a brief moment of depression, Carl straightening back up, throwing it all behind him. Easy come, easy go. Keep telling himself that and he may actually start believing it.

"Well, at least the last year was pretty fun, hanging out with Peter and Ned. I can't say it was a complete waste of time, since they were pretty okay dudes. And I got to meet Peter before he became the Spiderman. Okay, so where are you taking me now Emissary? What's my destination?"

"That's it? No railing against the fates? No cursing me or demanding another chance?" The unhealthily skinny man asked in disbelief at Carl's easy acceptance.

"Well, I figured I already had my second chance after falling to my death in the first place." Carl shrugged. "I already made my peace with having died once before. Doing it again wasn't so hard, really."

"With where I landed in this life, having gone to the same school and year as Peter Parker, I figured it was a lock in that I would be able to get some spider powers. So, I went for broke to get the coolest powers I easily could get without becoming some kind of mad scientist or thief or something."

"I gambled and lost. What more can I say? You don't owe me anything as far as I know, so demanding something for nothing from you would be a bit presumptuous on my part. You say you're here to take me to my destination. So." Carl shrugged. "Let's go then."

The man started to chuckle, sounding like the rattle of bones. At first it was a faint sound. Then his chuckles started getting louder, until he was guffawing, his head thrown back in amusement. The man was clutching his stomach as he laughed uproariously.

Carl was understandably confused.

Eventually the man settled down. He wiped the tears of mirth out of his eyes.

"Oh, mortal. That is just priceless. Thank you for that." The man finally said.

"Uh…sure. If you don't mind my asking, what was the joke?" Carl asked in some bafflement.

"I'm afraid it would take far too long to explain." The man said with another little chuckle. "Eons, in fact, to get the whole story. And I'm afraid you don't have that much time."

And before Carl could ask any more questions, the man who was looking more and more like a skeleton in a suit, raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Carl's world went black as he lost consciousness.

Carl gasped deeply as he sat up abruptly. A moment later, he was struck by a coughing fit. Trying to breathe deeply and coughing at the same time caused some painful issues for a moment, before Carl had gotten control of his lungs.

Looking around, he saw that he was sitting on his bed that he had gotten used to when he was living as Andrew over the past year.

Was meeting that Emissary of the Personification of Death just a dream?

Carl looked down at his Andrew hands, and realized that it was most definitely not a dream. His fingernails were blue and his whole body felt extremely cold. He realized that his body had been dead while he was floating around. It had cooled down a lot while it lay on his bed.

Looking down further, he realized that he had been incontinent in death.

"Shit." Andrew muttered quietly so no one would overhear his foul language.

He hastily grabbed a change of clothes, dashed to the bathroom, kicked off his shoes, and jumped in the shower fully clothed. He needed to do a pre-wash of his clothes before he tossed them in the washer.

While he was cleaning off his body and warming up, he pondered over the brief encounter.

"Did you really think it was that easy to acquire the destiny of a hero?"

That question the Emissary asked was echoing in his mind. What was the deeper meaning behind that question?

Andrew began analyzing the entire conversation, trying to parse any hidden truths.

He hadn't been lying to the Emissary at all when he said he had accepted his death. The moment he recognized he was dead, he had immediately recognized that he had no power to do anything about his situation. And so, he firmly cast aside the life he had been living for the past year to prepare himself for whatever came next.

He wanted to land on his feet in his next destination. He was actually looking forward to it, intensely curious to find out what came next. If he could land in the Marvel universe, where could he land next? Or what afterlife was there for him?

But now that he was back in his body, he felt a little lacking in purpose. His burning desire of the past year to grab some powers had cooled down after his brush with death. He wouldn't turn them down by any means, but he didn't think he would gamble his life on them again. He still really wanted to live.

Andrew had no idea why he was allowed to go back into his body. Was it some Zen thing? Only through learning to let go did he have true control, or some such nonsense?

But why did the Emissary laugh so hard?

"Eons, in fact, to get the whole story."

Did he just get fooled? Just because he didn't have the whole story, wouldn't the basics of the joke have been tellable in just a few moments.

"Well, explaining a joke makes it not as funny, so I guess he wanted to preserve whatever humor he got out of it." Andrew couldn't really blame the Emissary. For a joke that takes so long to get to the punch line, he wouldn't want to cheapen it either.

After showering and rinsing out his clothes, he brought his laundry down to the washer in the basement. It was only then that Andrew finally noticed the changes to his body.

He had been so distracted by being alive again and having shit himself in death, that he hadn't recognized his physical change for what they were.

He felt so light on his feet as he walked.

The laundry basket felt like it weighed nothing.

His balance felt beyond compare as he ran down the stairs.

After Andrew started his laundry, he went to the corner that had the weights he had been lifting over the past year to get fit in preparation for having spider powers.

He began with the weight that he had been using to do low reps and heavy weight on the bench press. He picked up the weight and did a few curls with it. It felt feather light in his hands.

Andrew began to smirk. He added more and more weight and continued to do curls with weight that he wouldn't have been able to bench previously. And it never felt any heavier.

He had super powers!

Andrew walked to the wall and placed his hands against it above his head. He intensely thought about sticking to it, then tried pulling his hands away from the wall. Instead he pulled himself up the wall.

He had spider super powers!

"Did you really think it was that easy to acquire the destiny of a hero?"

Suddenly the question the Emissary had asked echoed in Andrew's mind once more. He thought of letting go of the wall and dropped to the floor. The mention of a hero's destiny caught his attention this time.

"A hero's destiny is connected to their powers?" Andrew muttered while rubbing his chin in thought. "So what is connected with Spiderman's powers and destiny?"

"There are so many things that change about the Peter Parker Spiderman story, but the one basic that always remains the same is that he loses his uncle; and that loss sends him on the path of living 'With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility' in order to fulfill his role as a superhero."

Andrew felt a shiver run down his spine at a particular thought.

"So, if I don't start fulfilling that destiny, will something happen to my family that I could have prevented that would push me down the path of a hero?"

Andrew began pacing back and forth as he furiously thought about that particularly chilling thought. The idea was frankly terrifying that some cosmic force would stare at him, waiting for his decision and actions, and if he was found wanting, then behavioral corrections would be made.

"Do I even want to take that chance? Do I want to play chicken with something that is so far above me?"

Andrew thought about the past year with his new family. They were good people. They cared for their son. They worked hard to live a decent and upright life.

Andrew stopped pacing suddenly. His shoulders firmed up. His face set in determination.

A moment later, Andrew's whole posture changed. His shoulders slumped, and his back bent. He carried the air of defeat and depression.

"I don't even know how to sew!" He plaintively shouted as he raised his fists to the sky. "How the hell am I supposed to make a crime fighting costume?!"