Beams of moonlight highlighted the Spider-Man posters on the wall of a young man's bedroom. As he lay awake, he glares at the image of his hero, wishing that he'd grown up in the era when the legendary Peter Parker was his age. He'd always had these wishes; though he pushed these thoughts aside as nothing more than fantasy. At least, that was before his father invented time travel.
Twelve hours from now, his father would be giving a presentation, showcasing his latest invention. He called it the Time Streamer, a watch designed to send its wearer to any point in time. His father spoke about meeting Jesus Christ, to see if the guy was real or if any of those feats written in the bible were true. He also spoke of visiting early America. The boy, however, had other ideas.
He wasn't the religious type, so he had no interest in meeting Jesus Christ. Being half-Black and half-Filipino, he didn't think going back to the 1700s was that great of an idea for safety reasons. Instead, he wanted to travel back to the year 2025, the year Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider. The year he became Spider-Man.
The young man got out of bed and started tip-toeing toward his door. As he slowly pulled it open, its creak reverberated down the hall, but not a soul was awake to hear it. Stepping as quiet as a kitten, he snuck past his parents' bedroom and into his father's office. Inside, he found his father's safe, where he kept a gun but also temporarily kept the Time Streamer.
He didn't know that Ky knew the passcode, but it was easy to guess. Ky tried his birthday first, then his older sister's. The touch screen gleamed and chimed, and the safe opened.
Of course, it's Ate's birthday... I guess she was born first.
Ky reached inside, finding the Time Streamer beside his father's gun. Cautiously, Ky grabbed the watch, being sure not even to come close to touching the weapon. The safety was on, but Ky wouldn't take any chances on accidentally catching a laser with his face.
He closed the safe and put the watch on his wrist.
All I have to do is go back to June 5th, 2025...
Ky slid his finger counterclockwise across the touch display until it showed his desired destination.
And then, I just have to come back to this exact moment and it'll be like I never left. Easy.
Once Ky confirmed the date, he felt as if his body was yanked backward by a rope. What he expected was a flash and then he'd be in the year 2025, but what he experienced was quite the contrary. His body felt as if it were tumbling aimlessly through a stream of darkness with the occasional blip of light. It was cold; yet, the inside of his body felt as if it was on fire.
Just when Ky felt as if he couldn't take these alien sensations any longer, he landed on his feet, finding himself inside an ancient version of Oscorp -- at least, it was ancient to his standards.
The device must teleport you to wherever you're thinking as well. Since I wanted to meet Peter before he got his powers, I went to the only place I knew he'd be... Oscorp. It's where he used to intern before he was bitten.
Ky walked around the science hub, gawking at what he deemed to be archaic technology. He stumbled upon an exhibit of radioactive spiders, peering inside while wondering which one of them was responsible for biting the web-slinger later in the timeline. He chuckled at how DNA splicing was still in its infancy back then.
He noticed one of the employees held a smartphone, messing about until they shoved it back in their pocket.
Wigly... That's right, those are called cell phones. They really carried those massive things around everywhere they went?
Ky noticed another employee texting on their phone and started looking over their shoulder. However, that person covered their screen once they noticed Ky was watching. "Ah, Sorry," said the time traveler.
He then could hear a crash, followed by "Not again, Parker...", which compelled his ears to perk upward. Ky glanced over to see a young man with glasses on his hands and knees, picking up a stack of papers that he'd dropped after running into a fellow Oscorp intern.
There he is!
Ky rushed over and started helping Peter. He was surprised to find that these papers had nothing to do with science; they were the mismatched pages of Peter's English essay. Since Oscorp let their employees print things for free, Peter took advantage as much as he could.
"You're Peter Parker," Ky said as he handed Peter his assignment.
Peter corrected his glasses and grabbed the papers from Ky, placing them in the pile -- disregarding the order in which he did so.
"Thanks... How do you know my name?"
Ky stammered. "Well, I saw it in your essay, there."
"Oh, I see. Well, thanks again. I gotta go now, see ya!"
Peter sprinted past Ky, failing to notice that he left one of his pages on the floor. Ky picked it up and held it over his head. "Hey, you forgot-" Before he could finish that sentence, he felt a sharp pain in his hand.
"Ow!" he yelled, instinctively smacking where he felt the pain. When he lifted his hand, he found the corpse of a spider. Immediately, he realized what he'd just done.
Oh no...
He felt the world around him beginning to twist, turn, and distort. It was as if the time stream was adjusting to his mistake. The distortion was so intense that Ky fell to his knees -- slumping into a cold sweat.
I have to- I have to go back...
Ky looked at his wrist, only to find that his watch was gone.
With Spider-Man being no more, thanks to his meddling, the timeline had shifted to such a degree that the watch was never invented. Could it have been that his father was inspired by Spider-Man in some way? Perhaps Spider-Man saved an ancestor, which led to his father's birth. Or perhaps New York was left to rot without the hero there to save them...
"No, no, no, no..." Ky whispered, reaching for where the watch once was. "No!" he yelled, compelling those around him to glare.
Feeling their eyes, Ky sprinted out of the building. Once his feet touched concrete, the reality of the situation had set in. Ky looked around at the ancient civilization he was trapped in, knowing that the technology that he'd need to replicate his father's invention did not exist; hell, he couldn't even replicate it if he had the resources.
I'm trapped...
Mom...
Dad...
Ate...
They're all gone...
I'm nothing more than a paradox.