"When do we start?" Peter asked.
"Now." Natasha handed him a S.H.I.E.L.D. tracksuit. "Get changed and head to the gym."
Peter changed and entered the gym. A huge training mat covered the center of the floor, but Natasha was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, his Spider-Sense screamed a warning.
Peter spun around, catching Natasha as she lunged from behind at the last moment and clumsily throwing her aside.
Natasha landed steadily and narrowed her eyes. "How did you know?"
"Looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't document all my abilities." Peter grinned. "It's something like precognition. Whenever there's danger, my brain goes into overdrive, letting me react faster than normal people."
"So you're a psychic?"
"No, I think it has something to do with the spider that bit me. It could sense danger too."
"Maybe you should study your abilities."
"Isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. already doing that? I'm guessing you stole my DNA ages ago," Peter quipped.
"We don't experiment on our agents' DNA without their permission," Natasha lied without batting an eye.
"Wow, you're a first-rate liar. Can you teach me?"
Natasha took a fighting stance. "Show me what you've got, Spider."
For the next hour, Peter and Natasha practiced combat techniques. Though his reactions were incredibly fast and he was very strong, his technique still lagged far behind, and he failed to gain the upper hand against Natasha.
Thud! Natasha threw him onto the mat again and planted a foot on his chest. "You're still relying on instinctive reactions instead of letting technique dictate the fight, Spider-Man. Instinct should only be a last resort."
"You keep saying that." Peter got up. "Again?"
"That's enough for today. Go work out on the machines. I need to think about how to teach you." Natasha took out her phone to make notes. "One hour of combat, one hour of homework, three hours of agent training every day. Understood?"
"Three hours in a basement with a beautiful woman every day? Aside from my girlfriend possibly getting jealous, no complaints."
After training, Natasha slammed a two-thousand-page S.H.I.E.L.D. Manual onto the table.
"Memorize it."
"The print's tiny. Is this really necessary?"
"Yes."
Then she tossed down a French textbook. "If you want to be an agent, you need to learn new languages."
Peter immediately switched to fluent French. "I know a little French. We can skip this part."
Natasha raised an eyebrow slightly, a flicker of surprise crossing her eyes. "I didn't know you spoke French."
"There's a lot you don't know. Like how I love vanilla ice cream. Remember to put that in my file," Peter teased, still speaking French.
Natasha rolled her eyes. "Fine. How many languages do you actually speak?"
He passed the language test easily. At seven that evening, Peter went to the Baxter Building to help Reed and Susan with their projects. Felicia called to check up on him while he was there, and he could only lie that he was training at the dojo.
At eleven, Peter put on his suit and went on night patrol as Spider-Man.
Passing through Hell's Kitchen, he stopped outside Matt Murdock's window. The rookie lawyer had made a name for himself through the Grass Stain Gang case. Matt seemed to hear his heartbeat, turning toward the window and waving.
Peter waved back before remembering that the other man was blind, making the gesture rather silly.
After stopping two robberies, he spotted a figure in a black bodysuit running toward the banking district.
Peter swung over and landed in front of her. "Hey, Black Cat! Fancy seeing you here!"
"You again." Black Cat sighed. "Seriously, you're such a buzzkill. Can't this city let a girl rob the rich in peace?"
"Nope." Peter shrugged. "Instead of you stealing something, me catching you, and you escaping again, how about we grab a late-night bite? I'm hungry."
Black Cat snorted. "Sorry, Spider. I have a boyfriend."
Peter gave an exaggerated gasp. "Really? You don't look like the type to settle down and date someone."
"I didn't think I was either, but... life is unpredictable."
"Is it that hero who saved you?" Peter scratched his head. "I never asked his name."
"And you're never going to find out." Black Cat's gaze sharpened. "Who I date is none of your business!"
Peter laughed inwardly but played dumb. "Okay, okay, just curious. Have you told him about this outfit, then?"
"Of course not!" Black Cat lowered her voice. "I'm not an idiot. He'd definitely freak out!"
"I don't know. From how you describe him, he sounds like a pretty decent guy. Besides, starting a relationship with secrets... isn't very healthy. Trust me, my girlfriend's great too, but she likes keeping things hidden."
"Wait, you have a girlfriend?" Black Cat sounded very surprised.
"Of course! You think I couldn't get a girlfriend with this physique?" Peter laughed.
"So... is she a spider mutant too?"
"No, she's human."
"Really? Does she live in Canada?" Black Cat teased.
"Why would I lie to my archnemesis?"
"I'm your archnemesis?"
"It's either you or Electro. Honestly, I'm pretty glad it's you. I don't want that much stress in my life."
Black Cat leaned against the edge of the rooftop. "So... you think I should tell him?"
"Absolutely. My girlfriend tried to hide something from me, but I found out. I think she figured I'd freak out, but I really don't care. It's even one of the reasons I like her. But I don't want to push her. We've only just started dating."
"So you know her secret, but you're playing dumb?"
"Yeah. I want to wait until she trusts me enough to tell me herself."
"Does she know you're a superhero, then?"
"No." Peter smiled bitterly. "I'm afraid of losing her."
Black Cat smiled in understanding and patted his hand. "Give her some time. She'll come around."
"What about you? Planning to tell your boyfriend your real identity?"
"I... I think so. But not now. We only made things official yesterday. I don't want to scare him off."
"Good luck. Oh, one more thing." Peter caught her hand as she tried to slip it into his pocket. "Don't steal during a heart-to-heart. It really ruins the impression."
"Heh, sorry. Occupational habit." Black Cat fired her grappling hook and swung into the night sky. "See you, Spider!"
Peter sighed. He should have stopped her, but there was no way he was sending his own girlfriend to prison. Tonight, he'd give her a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Over the next month, Peter's life settled into a routine.
School became the most boring part of his day, and he could only pass the time by sneaking kisses with Felicia.
Natasha's special training grew increasingly hellish. She made him memorize the two-thousand-page manual within a week and taught him karate and other martial arts, fashion, current affairs, and even art appreciation.
Once, while Peter was looking down at a text from Felicia, Natasha suddenly reached out, snatched his phone, and smashed it onto the floor.
"No distractions during training!" she said coldly.
Peter stared at the shattered screen, wanting to cry but having no tears. He could only obediently pay for a new phone and promise never to slack off during training again.
At the Baxter Building, Peter finally began his core scientific research. He hid the stolen Arc Reactor and drone parts in the laboratory and began reverse-engineering them.
Meanwhile, he studied Electro's blood in depth. It was an excellent superconductor. Using the Fantastic Four's advanced equipment to analyze it, Peter discovered that Max's entire body had become a superconductor after he was frozen at an extremely low temperature and subjected to an electric shock. Even more amazingly, every mitochondrion in his body had mutated, allowing it to adapt to and store enormous amounts of electrical energy.
"Peter, your mitochondrial energy conversion rate here is wrong." Reed pointed at the molecular structure diagram on the whiteboard. "If you add this constant, the superconductivity in Electro's blood will stabilize."
Peter studied the formula for a moment before understanding dawned. He picked up a marker and quickly revised it. "Right, this will lock the energy inside the cell walls..."
After an entire month, with Reed's help, Peter finally understood how to alter the mitochondrial structure.
In late November, he invented a black superconducting fluid that could store and release electrical energy at will, with a transmission speed five times that of fiber optics. He named it "Parker's Blood" and had Susan apply for a patent on the superconducting fluid.
"Peter, you're amazing!" Susan hugged him excitedly. "This stuff is going to make us a fortune!"
"Sis, sometimes I think money's all you care about," Johnny quipped from beside them.
"Someone has to handle the money!" Susan shot him a glare, then turned back to Peter with a smile. "Seriously, we can sell this technology straight to the public. Google will definitely be fighting to get it!"
"Thanks, but can we apply for the patent first?"
"Of course. My God, you're only fifteen, and you already have two patents to your name." Susan marveled, then handed him a check. "Almost forgot. Here's your monthly salary."
Peter took one look, and his eyes nearly popped out. "T-ten thousand dollars?!"
"That's your monthly salary. You didn't forget we were paying you, did you?"
"We've also finalized the smart reader deal with Amazon," Johnny chimed in. "Each one sells for a thousand bucks, and you get a five-percent royalty. That's fifty bucks."
"Wow, so I get fifty bucks for every unit sold?" Peter whistled.
"So don't go wasting your money, Spider-Man." Susan winked and turned away to contact a patent attorney.
That evening, Peter slapped ten thousand dollars in cash onto the dining table, giving Aunt May and Uncle Ben a fright. Uncle Ben even thought he had robbed an ATM.
After Peter explained everything, the older couple hugged him tightly, their eyes reddening. Peter insisted that they use the money to pay the mountain of bills.
That night, Uncle Ben privately told him that the family's finances had been on the verge of collapse. This money was truly a lifeline.
With that worry out of the way, Peter began making a new suit.
He used a black S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical suit as the base. Its polymer material offered excellent bullet resistance. Next, he built a miniature Arc Reactor with a hexagonal design, replacing conventional wiring inside with Parker's Blood. Not only did it glow black, but he also reduced its size to three inches.
He ran Parker's Blood wiring throughout the suit and covered it with translucent red polymer. When the reactor activated, the wiring lit up, forming a huge, glowing black-and-red spiderweb that spread from his chest to his limbs and the sides of his waist.
The Silk-Shooters also received a major upgrade. Peter redesigned them as forearm bracers with integrated automatic reloading systems, adding miniature computers and smart screens. He reinforced the gloves' knuckles with armor and installed a small shockwave emitter in each palm.
As for sole-mounted thrusters, they were too bulky and would affect his balance, so he had to abandon them.
Johnny helped design the helmet, which could fold into a face mask. It incorporated the night-vision equipment seized from Rhino, while its surface consisted of color-changing panels. When inactive, it had ordinary colors; once activated, it became red with a black web pattern.
In mid-December, the new suit was finished. Peter hung it on the laboratory wall and let out a long breath.
Just then, Susan pushed open the door. "Hey, Peter, I wanted to talk about the Parker's Blood patent..." She spotted the suit on the wall and whistled. "Is this what you and Johnny have been tinkering with?"
"Yeah." Peter checked the bracers' folding mechanism.
"He wasn't exaggerating. This design is genius." Susan stepped closer to examine it. "Are you sure Stark won't sue you for copying his technology?"
"Strictly speaking, it isn't his. With the Parker's Blood unit added, this is an entirely different machine. The reactor might work on similar principles, but he wouldn't sue me over that."
"If you say so." Susan handed him several documents. "Sign these. Also, mind if I look at the suit's blueprints? They're very... interesting."
"Help yourself. You know the password to my terminal." Peter lowered his head to sign. Watching Susan study the blueprints intently, he couldn't help reflecting that she had a scientific side too; it was just usually overshadowed by business matters.
Just then, Peter's phone vibrated. A text had arrived from an unfamiliar number.
"Peter, this is Norman Osborn, Harry's father. I cordially invite you and the Baxter Foundation to Osborn Enterprises' annual Christmas party. I guarantee that you'll regret it if you don't come. Many renowned scientists will be attending, making this an excellent learning opportunity for you.
Each person may bring one guest. Please note that this isn't merely a party. I will also use the occasion to announce Osborn's major goals for next year. I believe your scientific mind will be interested in the astonishing new possibilities my company offers.
Please reply within one week. The party will take place the day before Christmas Eve.
Norman Osborn, CEO of Osborn Enterprises"
Peter rolled his eyes. The man was narcissistic to the extreme, mentioning "his" company and "his" achievements five times in the text.
His instinct was not to go. But if Norman was plotting something, he had to investigate.
He showed Susan the text. Susan made it clear that the Fantastic Four would never attend. Norman was too dangerous, and they couldn't get involved with him.
Peter agreed. But he wasn't an official member of the Fantastic Four, so that restriction didn't apply to him. He therefore accepted the invitation in a personal capacity.
His intuition told him the party would be anything but peaceful. Spider-Man would definitely have to get involved.
Looked like he'd have to ask Felicia if she wanted to be his date.