Midtown High stood tall against the morning sky, its brick walls glowing faintly under the early sunlight. Students poured through the gates in clusters, their voices blending into a constant hum of conversation and laughter.
Inside, the hallways were already alive — lockers slamming, sneakers squeaking across the floor, someone shouting from the far end like the entire building needed to hear them.
Peter moved through the chaos with practiced ease, though his attention was somewhere else entirely. His backpack hung loosely off one shoulder as he checked his phone for what felt like the tenth time. By the time he slipped into his classroom, the bell was only seconds away from ringing.
"Cutting it close again, Parker," the teacher muttered without looking up.
"Wouldn't be me if I wasn't," Peter replied quietly, sliding into his seat.
A moment later someone dropped into the chair beside him.
"Just in time, Peter," MJ said, resting her chin on her hand.
"Yeah." He gave a helpless smile. "Uncle Ben offered to drive me but the car broke down halfway. Bad luck."
Gwen glanced over from her seat. "Did you see Jack on the way?"
"No. Doesn't he usually get here early?"
The teacher called the class to order and they let it go.
Jack's seat stayed empty the whole lesson.
After class Gwen pulled out her phone and called him.
Ring. Ring.
"Hello… Gwen?"
His voice sounded off. Slightly rough around the edges.
"Are you alright? You sound different."
"It's nothing. Just a cold. Couldn't make it in today."
She talked to him briefly about resting properly, then hung up and turned to the others. "He's got a cold. I'm going to check on him after school." She looked between Peter and MJ. "You two coming?"
"Yeah, sure," Peter said.
MJ nodded. "Obviously."
At that same moment, Jack was not resting.
He was in an old garage a few streets over, standing in front of a shelf of secondhand electronics and computer parts, filling a box with everything he needed for the gadgets he'd been planning since the Gray Matter session.
When the box was full he carried it to the counter.
"How much for all of this?"
The old man at the register barely glanced at the box. "Two hundred."
Jack stared at him. "Two hundred dollars? For broken parts?"
After some back and forth he walked out having paid a hundred and thirty.
"Turns out I have bargaining skills." He sniffed. "Achoo." He wiped his nose with his sleeve. "This is the worst."
Back home he sat on the floor surrounded by the parts and had a thought.
Can aliens even get colds?
One way to find out.
He pressed the Omnitrix. Gray Matter blinked into existence on the floor between the components.
"Achoo."
He stared at nothing for a second. "So aliens can get colds too. Great."
He got to work. Using the parts, he upgraded his PC's performance by more than six times. But as he worked, a problem nagged at him. Even with a top-tier brain, without the right hardware he couldn't build what he needed — and without money, the hardware was out of reach. His novel was only half done, and that was a painfully slow way to earn.
The fastest path to real money, he figured, was to use what he already knew. The future.
He knew which companies would rise, which technologies would matter. Getting a share of that wasn't out of reach.
"Seeing Tony Stark go missing, there have been many rumors that he's dead and the stock market is tanking while everyone's selling their shares. Since I know Tony will make a strong comeback, I should get a piece of that — otherwise I'd be wasting a good opportunity."
He had to be careful not to take too much, or S.H.I.E.L.D. would be at his door the next day.
After some research into market systems, he built a smart trading program — nothing illegal, just the work of a mind operating several steps ahead of everyone else. Clean, legal, untraceable.
"With that done, I don't need to worry about money problems in daily life."
The transformation ended.
He picked up his phone and checked his trading account balance, watching the number climb by the minute.
It was real. He'd always wanted this in his previous life, and seeing it now — after actually doing it — felt surreal.
"Seeing it through Gray Matter didn't feel like much, but seeing it now makes even me excited."
Even though it was all legal, he still needed to keep his identity hidden — he didn't need to be on any government's radar.
He placed a few orders for parts he needed to build an AI, something that would make his work a lot faster.
"Achoo." The sneeze brought a dull headache with it.
"Let's take a small nap and do things later."
He was nearly asleep when something drifted through his mind.
The school had arranged a trip next week — Oscorp Corporation.
Which meant Spider-Man was close to being born. And if Spider-Man was coming, Iron Man wouldn't be far behind. The whole Marvel plot was beginning to move.
The era of heroes and villains was almost here.
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