New York
August 12, 16:55 EDT
Chinatown in Lower Manhattan is home to the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere and is one of the oldest Chinese ethnic enclaves. The Chinese demographic is so high that the street signs are written in English and Mandarin/Cantonese.
Besides being the best place to eat good Chinese food in Manhattan, it is also home to a small dojo owned and operated by Richard Dragon. The dojo is hidden deep in an alley on a side street, and its only distinguishing feature is a wooden sign with a carved dragon.
Atop the building across from the dojo was Peter, backpack in hand, who made sure no one was around before dropping to the ground.
'Travelling by web really cuts down on travel time. Usually takes 35 minutes to get here by train. I only needed 10.'
He moved to enter the dojo, but before he did, he looked up at the wooden sign, admiring it as always. Peter knew very little about art, but even he could tell the carving was a masterpiece. When he looked at it, it felt like the dragon was about to come to life, leap off the sign, and soar into the sky.
"Are you coming in or will you keep staring at that piece of plywood?"
Turning to the door, Peter saw Richard Dragon standing there. Dragon stood 6' (1.82 meters) tall, with close-cropped ginger hair, blue eyes, and a beard. He wore a black T-shirt and black karate pants and had a small green object hanging off a necklace. If Peter had not known Dragon and seen firsthand what he was capable of, he wouldn't have considered him a martial artist. His lean and lithe figure deceptively concealed a body full of raw power.
"Sensei." said Peter, nodding in greeting.
"Peter." Dragon returned his greeting while eyeing him up and down, "Let's head inside."
Following behind Dragon, they entered the dojo through the door. The dojo comprised a single room with a matted floor and two strung-up punching bags in a corner. A single resting bench was placed along the wall, while a framed photo of a yin-yang symbol was the only decoration. The only other thing in the room was a door leading to Dragon's living area.
"Go ahead and get changed. I'm going to make myself some tea, would you like some?" asked Dragon.
"No, thank you, Sensei." said Peter.
"Very well." said Dragon, heading into his living area but leaving the door open.
"How have you been?" asked Peter loudly as he put down his backpack and started changing.
"Quite well. You?"
"I can't complain." said Peter, smiling, "I'm a year older and a little smarter."
"And here I didn't get you anything. Happy belated birthday."
"Thank you, but your tutelage is more than enough." Peter said, finished changing into his usual training getup, a grey t-shirt and grey sweatpants, just as Dragon walked back into the dojo, teacup in hand.
"Mm. Let's start with a review of everything you've learned till now, shall we?" said Dragon, sipping his tea, "Whenever you're ready."
"Don't you want to finish your tea first?"
"Haha, please," said Dragon, shaking his head in amusement as he sipped his tea again, taunting him with the classic "bring it on hand" taunt.
Peter knew that taunting him was part of Dragon's training. He had done it many times before, using it to try and throw Peter off his game and have him slip up so he didn't react to it. Peter found it amusing since it was similar to the quips Spider-Man, and now he, so often used during his fights.
As amusing as it was, Peter knew he needed to focus on the fight. Unlike his easy encounter with the bank robbers, who he didn't even fight just webbed them up, Dragon was a different beast.
He did not read many DC comics in his past life so he was flying almost entirely blind, but he had a feeling that Dragon must've been a mentioned/somewhat prominent character in the comics.
A few things led him to this conclusion, the first being his name. Richard Dragon sounds like a comic character from the 70's; a white guy who turns out to be one of the world's greatest martial artists ala Marvel's Danny Rand.
The second is how skilled he is. He realized just how skilled Dragon was on the first day of his tutelage, and that had been cemented more and more every time they met. To gauge where he was before teaching him, Dragon asked Peter to come at him using everything he had learned until that point. Naturally, everything he had learned, boxing, MMA, capoeira, and even his meager lucha libre, was picked apart and rendered useless.
He already knew how skilled some people could be, after all, he had learned boxing from Ted Grant who was a former heavyweight champion, but Dragon felt different. If allegorized to free climbing, Grant felt like a skyscraper, very hard to scale but with time and dedication, there was hope, but Dragon felt like a mountain. It was as if he knew every fighting style known to man and had mastered those styles to their utmost and because of that, he knew exactly what was going to happen in the fight before it even began.[1]
Another aspect of that skill was his teaching. Dragon's teaching was different than what one might expect. He very rarely used words to explain what you were doing wrong. Instead, he chose to drill it into you until you understood what you were doing wrong. At times it frustrated Peter having Dragon stand there with all the answers while he struggled to figure it out. Still, he was used to that style of teaching because Ted Grant was much the same way, and according to him, he taught like that because it felt more rewarding when a person figured out what they were doing wrong rather than being told the answer.
Lastly, the third and final reason was pure gut feeling and Peter trusted his gut feeling.
Focused and ready to go, Peter took the starting stance Dragon had taught him: feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed between both feet, chin down, left hand at temple height and slightly out, and right hand near the chin.
Since Dragon practiced many styles of martial arts, each with its starting stance, he devised what he called a near-perfect stance for all martial arts. To Peter, it looked like a slight variation on the basic stance of MMA, but who was he to correct a martial arts master?
As he was about to start, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a spider web in the corner of the room, causing him to realize something that had somehow slipped his mind.
'How did I forget I'm way stronger and faster than before?' thought Peter, his focus turning to worry, 'I can control my strength enough to not break everything I touch but I don't think I can say the same when I'm fighting. I'm too used to using all my strength just to try and keep up with him. Second day with these powers, and my secret is about to be discovered. Damn Parker Luck.'
"Something wrong?" asked Dragon, looking curious as to why Peter's expression changed from focus to slight worry.
Peter began racking his brain for an excuse to leave before something came to mind, and he immediately put it into action. He made a slightly embarrassed face, hunched over slightly, and clenched his cheeks.
"Sorry, Sensei, but I have to go," he said, subtly grasping his stomach to make his upset stomach act more convincing, "I just remembered I have a very important summer essay that I haven't gotten around to."
"Oh, what a shame, but school is important. We wouldn't want you to fail, now would we?" said Dragon, his face carrying a trace of amusement as he noticed Peter's change of state.
"N-no we wouldn't."
Peter walked slowly and stiffly to his bag as if trying to hold in the contents of his stomach, before bending ninety degrees at the waist to pick up his backpack. After putting it on, he walked to the door, pausing as he reached it.
"Sorry again, Sensei. I'll be back next week." he said as he reached for the doorknob.
"You can use my bathroom if you would like." said Dragon.
"What would I need to use your bathroom for, Sensei?" said Peter, keeping up the facade.
"Please, Peter. There is no shame in a natural bodily function. You are my student; of course, you are welcome to use it." he said, taking a sip of tea, "But judging by your state, use a lot of air freshener."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Sensei. I really do have a super important summer essay to do. So I'll be going now." he said, opening the door.
"Peter."
Peter noticed Dragon's amuse-laden voice was gone, replaced by a serious tone that made him pause and look back.
"If something is going on with you, I am more than happy to listen."
'He knows something is up.' thought Peter, 'Deny, deny, deny.'
"I'm fine, Sensei. Really. Just not feeling my best right now." said Peter, trying to sound as genuine as he could.
"Are you taking drugs?" asked Dragon.
"Drugs?" said Peter, his surprise genuine as he was caught completely off-guard.
"I noticed your physique has changed since I last saw you. You're more muscular, your steps more balanced. That's something that happens over the course of months, not a single week."
"S-so you think I'm taking steroids or something?"
"Not the legal kind. There's been talk of a new street drug called Venom. It's a neo-steroid, a strength-enhancing drug that increases muscle mass." explained Dragon.
'Venom? That definitely sounds like a comic book drug. I'll take note of that for later.' thought Peter.
"I've never heard of Venom, and I'm not taking any drugs. I promise." said Peter, looking into Dragon's eyes to show him he wasn't lying.
After a few seconds of tense silence, Dragon nodded, ending the stare-down.
"I believe you, but I'm here if you need to talk. With the life I've lived, there's little I haven't seen and experienced. My wisdom is yours if you so wish."
"Thank you, Sensei." Peter looked away to hide his guilt, "I'll see you next week."
"I hope so."
Exiting the dojo, Peter quickly left the alley, making his way onto the side street. He stopped and looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath to assuage the guilt he felt for lying.
'I didn't do anything wrong and yet I feel guilty. It's not like I can blame the guy for caring. He thinks I'm troubled/taking steroids.' he thought, rubbing his face while sighing, 'The best way out is through. I need to get my strength under control in a week so I can keep learning from Dragon, and unless I can do that before Saturday, I'll have to skip out on going to the boxing gym as well.'
As he stood there thinking about the specifics of how he was going to get his strength under control his concentration was broken by the slight tingle of his spider-sense prompting him to look behind him. Looking at a building, he sensed whatever caused the tingle wasn't coming from the building but probably was in that direction.
When no one was looking, he leaped halfway up the building before scaling the rest. As he set foot on the roof he noticed a plume of black smoke rising into the sky a few blocks away. Judging from the amount and location, it seemed like a building fire.
'I don't hear any sirens and judging by how dark that smoke is, it's burning hot.' he thought as he reached to the very bottom of his backpack and took out his suit, 'Good thing I brought it.'
~
- General 3rd POV -
On a street corner of Chinatown, a four-story brick building was engulfed in flames as a crowd of curious and worried passersby formed around it while some began to record.
At the same time, a news van burst onto the scene, the side door opening to allow a cameraman and a female reporter to exit. They pushed their way to the front of the crowd before starting their broadcast.
"Good evening, this is Bethany Snow with GBS News, coming to you live from Chinatown where an inferno has broken out, engulfing this building. As of this moment, we are unsure if anybody is ins-" said the blonde reporter wearing a burgundy blazer and skirt before she was cut off.
"Help! Somebody help!" shouted a distraught woman in Mandarin, looking to the crowd and back to the building, "Please! My baby! Help!"
"It appears there is at least one person inside." she said somberly, "Emergency services have been called but all we can do is wait and pray."
After hearing the distraught lady's shouting, the curious crowd took on a more worried atmosphere. One brave samaritan stepped out of the crowd, taking off his jacket, ready to dive into the fire, but a small explosion originating from the restaurant on the first floor stopped him in his tracks.
"No!" shouted the mother, dropping to her knees while clutching her chest as her cries got louder with the explosion, "Please! Please! My baby! My baby!"
"Look up in the sky!" shouted someone from the crowd as they pointed to the sky, causing the cameraman to change his focus.
"It's a bird!" said a lady.
"No, it's a plane!" said an older man.
"Are you both stupid? A bird? A plane? It's Superman!" said a young man.
"That's not Superman. Superman can fly and doesn't wear a mask." said a chubby bespectacled man with a tight ponytail.
From behind a building, a figure clad in a red and blue suit with a spider on the front swung onto the scene. The figure swung toward the building, somersaulting as he dove through a broken window on the third floor and into the blazing building.
"It appears an unknown person has entered the burning building. Thanks to our quick-thinking cameraman, you can see this unknown person was wearing a red and blue outfit of some sort and released a rope of some kind that he used to swing around before entering the building." said the reporter who was back in the frame while the building was behind her.
Tense silence set over the crowd with the only noise being the crackling and roaring of the flame.
BOOM
A much bigger explosion than the first one occurred, followed by the sound of material collapsing.
"Oh my god!" "Get back!" "It's going to fall!"
"No! My baby!" shouted the kneeling mother while the crowd retreated, afraid of another explosion.
"Folks, it appears a second explosion has caused the structural collapse of the interior of the building. The fate of the two people in the building is currently unk-"
BOOM
A third explosion rocked the building causing the crowd to duck while the red and blue-clad figure leaped out of the building, the force of the explosion propelling him toward the crowd. As most of the crowd ducked, afraid to get hit by something from the explosion, they didn't see the figure launched toward them.
Luckily, the figure shot out a line of rope at a street light that they used to slow their momentum, allowing them to land gracefully on top of the pole.
"On the light pole!"
With that shout, everyone turned to look up at the pole, seeing the figure in his singed outfit carrying a green bundle in his arms. The figure dropped down from the pole before lowering the bundle down to the ground from which appeared a young girl.
"Mommy?" she said, clinging to the figure, afraid of the crowd gathered around her.
"Mei!" frenziedly shouted the kneeling mother as she looked every which way, trying to find her baby, "Mei, where are you?!"
"Mommy!" shouted the little girl, still clinging to the figure.
The mother, as if granted the powers of Flash himself, ran through the path made by the crowd, before enveloping the little girl in a hug, weeping as she did so.
"Mei!" she said, burying the little girl in her arms, "You're okay! You're okay!"
"He saved me! Mommy, he saved me!" she said happily as if she hadn't been in a fiery inferno moments before.
"Thank you for saving my baby! How can I ever repay you?!" said the mother while repeatedly bowing her head.
"No thanks needed. Just doing my best." he said, his voice muffled thanks to his mask.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!" said the reporter, sticking a microphone in front of the man's face, as the crowd gathered around them, "Who are you? And why did you jump into that burning building?"
"I'm-"
"His name is Spider-Man!" said the little girl, escaping from her mom's embrace and grabbing Spider-Man's hand as the cameraman captured it all, "He saved me! He's a superhero!"
"I'm not a superhero." he said, kneeling down to pinch her cheek, "I'm just a guy trying his best."
"But who are you?" said the reporter.
"I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." he said as the sound of sirens began to get closer, "That's my cue. See ya!"
With that, he jumped back up to the light pole before jumping again and shooting a line.
"Bye Spider-Man!" shouted the little girl, waving at him.
"Bye, Mei! Eat your vegetables!" he shouted as he swung out of sight.
"Well, folks, what started as the harrowing tale of one life at stake turned into the debut of New York's newest oddity, Spider-Man. I'm Bethany Snow, GBS News."
~~~
Author's Note
Will admit not my favorite chapter but writer's block is a bitch. That said, I did like how I ended it.
Dragon's backstory will be similar to his comic backstory: former thief, secret agent, vigilante, etc who has since settled down and mellowed out to become a martial arts instructor. With that being said, Lady Shiva, a prominent character in Dragon's story, will be older than she is in the YJ canon by 10 years; she was originally born in 1981 in YJ but will be born in 1971 instead. Dragon will be one year older than her, meaning he was in his mid-to-late 20s when he trained Batman who should be in his mid-to-late teens when he trained with him, in YJ canon at least.
As for Peter's past training in martial arts, as a Spider-Man fan, he knows more or less what styles of fighting he uses which is why he decided to learn MMA, capoeira, and even dabbled in lucha libre. That said, the people he learned from weren't anywhere near being the best at what they taught so he quickly moved on once he felt like he had learned what he could from them. Unlike the others, however, Ted Grant is considered one of the best in the world especially at boxing so he's been learning from him for a longer time.
He will keep learning from Dragon and Wildcat but he will realize that what he is learning is more suited for one-on-one not one-on-many, nor is it suited for fighting normal people so he will develop the fighting style that Spider-Man is known for on his own. Though Dragon may be able to help him create Spider-Fu. Eventually.
As for Venom, Bane isn't much of a villain in the YJ canon except as a drug dealer so I'm making him one of Peter's rogues.
[1] holy glaze batman