Chapter 2:

The Leap of Faith

Spider-Man: Life of the Spider Boys-Part 1 (Owen's pov)


The train ride to New York wasn’t that bad. The people on board were really nice and gave me a lot of stuff to eat and drink to hold me over on the ride. The scenery was also very beautiful, I'd never seen anything like it. Still even with all of this, the main thing on my mind was that I was finally free. Free to do anything and be anything.

I reached New York City around 9pm. I was the first one off and nothing but excitement filled me as I gazed upon the city. It was so bright and loud with people moving about like it was still day time. “This city really doesn’t sleep huh” I say with a smile on my face as I begin walking amongst the other people.

Soon I stopped by a cafe to grab something quick to eat and get changed into my makeshift suit. To truly test my new abilities I decided to go on top of Central Park Tower and jump off. I figured that since it was so high, it would give me enough time to figure out how to web sling before I hit the ground. So after I get changed and get my food and drink from the cafe, I immediately head to the tower. It was about a 45 minute walk from where I was, so when I finally reached it I was devastated by how tall it was. “Now I have to walk all the way up there? I’m getting really tired of walking around and I’ve only been in the city for like 2 hours.” Once inside the building I sneak past security and the people at the front desk into a stairwell. A look of pain and anguish comes across my face as I look up and see what seems like an endless amount of stairsl. “I wish I knew how to use my powers already” I say sadly as I start my journey up the steps.

About halfway through, I’m sweating almost uncontrollably and my legs feel like they’re getting heavier and heavier. At one point I broke down crying. Not because of the pain or exhaustion, but because I felt kind of useless since I didn’t know how to use my powers yet. When I eventually reach the top after another 45 minutes, another formidable foe appears. A door. First I tried simply turning the knob, but of course it was locked. So after muling through some options in my head, I decided that trying to ram the door was my only choice. I tried and tried for at least a good 10 minutes until I just went all in and threw my whole body into the door. The door went flying off its hinges as I smashed the ground and started rolling like a ball. It helped my pride a tiny bit seeing the door fly like that and I started being a little bit more confident in myself again. “Wow I guess I don’t know my own strength.”

To my surprise, I wasn’t in too much pain after smashing into the door. When I finally got up to look around, I was scared nearly half to death by someone who was already up there with the same startled look on his face. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he screams as he starts to inch away. He looked to be around my age, but he was wearing a goofing looking white skin tight suit under a hoodie and some jeans with what seemed like a halloween mask on the side of his head. “Who are you and why are you wearing that ridiculous looking costume?” I reply with a very confused look. “First off, why did you just bust through the door like that and secondly, does it really look that bad?” I nearly started laughing, but I didn’t want to seem like an ass so I kept it in.

“If I'm being completely honest, yes. Yes it does. And the only reason I busted through the door like that was because it was locked. Wait, hold on. How'd you get up here?

“Damn, I knew it.” he said with a disappointed look on his face.

“And I climbed up here.”

When the word climb left his mouth I nearly passed out. I just put the piece together from the goofy looking outfit to how he said he climbed up here and knew. He was bit too. I wasn’t the only one. I stand up and pull the beanie from my face. “Sooooo, you got bit too huh?” Almost immediately after saying that and at the same time, we simultaneously shoot webs at each other, canceling the others out. He then starts to laugh at me because he’s most likely figured out why I took the stairs. “Did you not know that you could climb? My man really took the stairs and walked his way up here even though he has Spider-Man like abilities. How did you even get past the people at the front desk? They probably thought you came to rob somebody but they didn’t think you were dangerous enough so they let you go.” I look at him with a blank stare as he continues to laugh at my pain and misery.

“Look I wasn’t thinking of it at the time, and if you must know I snuck past the people at the front desk and security.” He continues laughing almost uncontrollably and starts to stand. “But you thought to shoot me with some webs?! You are a trip!” I was still kinda down that I had to walk up the stairs and he’s not making it any better. Looking around I saw the broken door and decided that I was gonna hit him with it. Without a second thought I use my webs to grab the door and hurl it at him. I guess he sensed the incoming object and dodged out of the way unlike anything I’ve ever seen. He seemed just as surprised in himself as we both stood staring at each other.

“Hey man look, I’m sorry for laughing at you, but you really have to use your head if you’re gonna be a “Spider man”, and I beg you, please don’t throw another door at me.” he says as he begins to relax his body.

“I’m sorry too. I’ve just had a rough couple of days and you just didn’t help make it any better.” I say back and find a place to sit next to him. “But how did you know I wanted to be Spider-Man? Did I make it that obvious?” I say still confused on how he guessed so easily. “ You really aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed huh? It was easy. You have superpowers, a bootleg suit on with a beanie for a mask, and you came on top of one of the tallest buildings in New York City. It was very very simple if you ask me.” this guy doesn’t really pull any punches, he’s so brutal when he speaks. He makes me feel like i’m dumb and we’ve only known each other for like 10 minutes. Even with his brutalness, I can tell he wants the same thing and that his intentions are pure.

“So why do you want to be Spider-Man and why haven’t you jumped yet?” a goofy looking blank stare comes across his face as I ask that question. “Well I want to be Spider-Man to try and build a better life for my little brother. And ummm… the reason I haven’t jumped yet is…”as he says this he puts his head down in disappointment. “I’m scared. There I said it” This time I can’t hold in my laughter and start to laugh out of control. He was just as scared as I was. “You?! Scared?! How long have you been up here anyway?” He gives me the same look I gave him when he was laughing at me. A look of embarrassment and pain. “Yes I’m scared and I’ve been up here for 6 hours” he says quietly while I’m still laughing at him.

“6 hours!!” This guy has been up here for 6 hours I think to myself as I walk over to the ledge, But when I go over to look over the ledge and look down I see why he was scared to jump. This building is unbelievably high and everything below looks like ants from up here. He then walks up next me and begins looking down too. We stared at each other for a moment and we both knew that we had to jump. “We have to jump. To see if we are worthy or not.” I’ve never said that before but it felt right in the moment. “I guess you’re right but that still doesn’t change the fact that I’m scared.” We go and gather our belongings and step on the ledge. “Oh by the way, what’s your name?” I ask, still looking down.

“TRUE, what’s yours?” he says as he pulls his mask from the white suit up to his face and puts the Halloween one over it.

“Owen, nice to meet you.” I say as I too pull my mask over my face.

With that we take our leap of faith.

Immediately after jumping I regretted it. I lost my mind free falling, completely forgetting what I jumped for. TRUE on the other hand looked to be having the time of his life. He was doing all kinds of flips and tricks in the air and looked completely calm. Not screaming or anything, unlike me. He looks at me and says “Shoot the webs! Start shooting your webs!” When he says that I start to shoot webs in every direction since my movement in the air was unstable. Once I’m finally able to face the tower I shoot towards the tower and my webs finally stick to something. Grabbing onto my webs for dear life, I feel them tense up. Suddenly I spring back up into the air like I was on a bungee cord.

The sensation of flying into the air with the wind on my face actually felt kind of amazing. Reaching past the top of the tower, I was able to get a beautiful view of the city’s skyline. My mind starts to race with all of the possibilities and then I start to feel more comfortable in the air. I begin to remember why I came to New York in the first place. “This is the freedom I was looking for.”

“This is why I left. To see if I can become a hero.”

I come crashing back down on top of the tower with a smile on my face. Almost immediately after I hit the tower, TRUE comes flying up screaming with either joy or fear. I couldn't tell, but it was kind of funny. He came crashing back to the tower but his land wasn’t as smooth as mine. As soon as he hits, he starts rolling aggressively smashing into something in the center. I go to check on him and it seems as if he was knocked unconscious until I reach out and try to touch him. “What are you doing?” he says as he stays completely still. “I was just checking to see if you were okay. You hit the ground kind of hard, no really hard.”

“I’m fine, just let me lay down for a minute”

He said all of this while sounding out of breath. That combined with the goofy looking outfit he was wearing, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was too funny not to. I sit down next to TRUE after I finish laughing at him. We both pull the makeshift mask from our faces to reveal smiles. “Do you think we can do good in this world as Spider-Man?” True ask while still smiling, looking at the sky. “Of course we can. Plus we kind of have no choice now because this is what we chose to do with our powers.” “Yeah you’re right. I guess I'm just a little nervous, that's all.”

We sat there for a while just talking and making jokes until we finally decided to leave the top of the building. I’d say we were up there for about 3 to 4 hours, because for some reason the city sounded like it was getting more quiet. Probably because it was so early in the morning. As I bring up this point TRUE says “It’s the calm before the storm. The city has to calm at some point, but in a few hours its hustle and bustle will pick up again.” I give him a weird look and I just receive a blank stare back. I decide to break the awkward silence and bring back up the leap of faith. I was feeling a lot more confident after the first and I also felt like I had to redeem myself. It was embarrassing freaking out so badly so I knew this is what I need to do.

“Well let's go.” TRUE says with a smile on face before pulling his mask back up. His reaction made me feel better and I pulled my mask up too. We start to walk back to the ledge with my new found confidence and TRUE’s calm and cool demnier. “This time let’s do this with style” I say and TRUE gives me back an enthusiastic thumbs up. With that, we take our true leap of faith.

End of Chapter 2- The Leap of Faith