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A black-haired teenager stepped out of a patch of shadows. His face was young and a little delicate, with just a hint of boyishness. He looked a bit tired—but even more than that, he looked excited.
After all, Peter Parker had finally handed over a fully finished web-shooter. Now he could swing around the city at night like a real Spider-Man.
This is so awesome!
The boy's name was Jasper. He and Peter Parker had both been bitten by a spider at a museum, which meant he also ended up with Spider-Man-like powers. But unlike Peter, his powers turned out to be a bit different—Jasper had the ability to travel through shadows. On top of that, he had another weird skill: he could send his consciousness to alternate worlds. Not his body, just his mind.
But that kind of travel used up a ton of energy, so he usually only did it once a month. Just last night, he visited another world and saw a woman pull a sword out of her chest. Purple lightning exploded from her body, sparking and surging all around her like a storm. It was terrifying and powerful.
Anyone who's seen that scene could probably guess who she was—yeah, that woman was the famous "Raiden Shogun," the one-hit-wonder known for her iconic sword-draw in Genshin Impact.
Jasper knew she was a video game character, but he wasn't all that surprised. After all, he was literally living in the Marvel Universe now.
All he really remembered from that other world was the blast of purple lightning—then everything went dark and he snapped back to his senses. It had only been a few seconds, but it left him feeling completely drained and woozy.
That's when he got a message from Peter Parker. Peter said the extra web-shooters were finally ready, so Jasper rushed over to his place to pick them up.
After getting the web-shooters, he immediately used his shadow-travel ability to get back home.
He looked at the devices for a while, then carefully put them away. "Better get some sleep now."
The Next Day
Jasper showed up to school the next morning, feeling fresh and full of energy with his backpack slung over his shoulder.
That's when a tall Black student stepped in his way and gestured for him to head around back behind the school.
Jasper sighed. Seriously? These guys get discriminated against all the time, and now they're turning around and trying to bully Asians? What's wrong with their heads?
He could already tell the kid wanted to rough him up—but there was no way Jasper was just gonna stand there and take it. If that guy dared to throw a punch, Jasper would make sure he regretted it.
Sure enough, behind the school, the guy took a swing at him.
How boring.Jasper grabbed his wrist and smacked him hard across the face.
The tall kid staggered back, totally shocked. He couldn't believe this skinny-looking Asian dude actually dared to fight back.
Fueled by rage, he charged at Jasper again.
But in the blink of an eye, Jasper grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the wall. The pain made the guy panic—he started begging for mercy.
"Trash," Jasper muttered as he walked away. He wasn't really a fan of violence, but hey—sometimes it just felt good. Like, really good.
Still humming a little tune, Jasper made his way to the classroom.
Peter Parker was already there reading a book. Jasper didn't want to bother him, so he just went to his own seat and sat down.
At school, he and Peter didn't talk much, but outside of class they often hung out. They had that whole spider powers thing in common, after all.
A few minutes later, a cute girl walked into the room—it was none other than Gwen Stacy, the famous Gwen Stacy. Right now, she happened to be Peter Parker's crush.
As for Jasper? His relationship with Gwen was pretty meh. If they happened to bump into each other, he'd say hi—unless he wasn't in the mood, then he'd just ignore her like she wasn't even there.
Jasper turned his gaze toward the window. Outside, some of the athletic girls were already doing their morning workouts. A few of them had… developed quite well, let's just say.
He overheard some gossip—that a lot of those sporty girls weren't virgins anymore. Apparently, one blond pretty boy at school liked to go "hunting" specifically among the sports girls.
Jasper noticed one of them, a tan-skinned girl with a beautiful face. He couldn't help but wonder, Is she still innocent? Hope she doesn't fall for some jerk's tricks…
Science Lab Class
Jasper yawned and stood beside Peter. "This looks super hard…"
Peter instantly replied, "It's actually not that bad—"
Then he launched into a full-on explanation, rambling on and on, but Jasper didn't take in a single word.
Peter's science talk actually impressed Gwen, who was in the same group. When he noticed her watching him, Peter got all flustered and started messing up his words.
What a pure-hearted guy.
Thanks to Peter, Jasper had a pretty chill time in class, just coasting along.
When class ended, Gwen said, "Peter, that was really impressive."
Peter lit up like a Christmas tree and stammered, "N-no, it's not a big deal… Just average, really."
Then Gwen glanced at Jasper. "You know, slacking off all the time isn't a good habit~"
Jasper raised an eyebrow. "What's it to you?"
Seriously, what's so bad about slacking off? If you can avoid working, then don't. That's his favorite life motto!
Gwen just smiled and walked off—taking Peter's heart with her.
Not long after, Peter started gushing about how amazing Gwen was. How pretty she was, how kind, and on and on.
Jasper was getting second-hand embarrassment, so he decided to just shut up. But Peter kept going, getting louder and louder, until other people started looking over.
Only then did Peter realize how awkward he was being and quickly ran off.
Jasper followed soon after.
Afternoon
Jasper walked down the street, humming a tune with his backpack slung over his shoulder.
People were definitely checking him out—he could feel it. He had one of those faces that really stood out in a crowd. There was something magnetic about him.
But he was used to it. This wasn't the first time.
He just kept walking. No one was going to actually come up and start a conversation anyway.
As he thought about it, he realized he didn't really have any close friends. Not even Peter, honestly. They'd only started hanging out about a month ago, and only because of the whole spider powers thing. So, they were more like casual friends than anything deep.
When Jasper got home, the house was still empty. His parents were Asian, but not his biological parents—they'd found him when he was really young and taken him in.
They were good to him, just really busy all the time. They never had much time to spend with him, but Jasper didn't mind. He wasn't a little kid anymore.
"....."