Peter walked into Stark's temporary laboratory, and Tony was leaning on the table waiting for him. "What did you find?" Tony asked.
"You'll know just by looking at it." Peter raised the flash drive in his hand and inserted it into the interface on the workbench. The screen lit up instantly and the folders were spread out densely.
Tony didn't wait for his reaction and directly took over the operation, typing rapidly on the keyboard with his fingers. His brows were furrowed, and his expression was so focused that he even breathed lightly. Peter stood aside and looked at the file browsing at such a speed that he couldn't keep up with his eyes, until Tony suddenly stopped on a file.
"What is Project D?" Tony took half a step back.
Peter's heart sank. "Fuck."
"You know?"
"I blocked a project a few months ago when I was on assignment for S.H.I.E.L.D.," Peter said. "A group of scientists were forced to replicate a genetic mutation. They were forced to use children for experiments."
"What kind of forcing method?"
"What else could threaten their family and friends?" Peter shrugged, "Although I stopped it in time, it was too late. Many children died before that... I don't understand, what does New York's children's experiments have to do with that old scientist Italy?"
"If it is really Wyndham, the top geneticist, then it is very likely that his theory was used in those experiments. Judging from what you said before, it is perfect." Tony said while tapping the keyboard quickly, and sighed after a few minutes, "Okay, there is good news and bad news, which one should you listen to first?"
"Good news?"
"I found a 'ghost driver'," Tony brought up an encrypted folder, "the label was the 'Super Soldier Serum' project, but--"
"The bad news is that you can't open it?" Peter smiled bitterly, "You can't decode it or something?"
"Can't open, the file is damaged," Tony pulled out a puzzle image, "There are only half of the pieces, and the other half is missing. The other half must be found before the file can be opened."
"In other words, there is no complete version of the file, so it cannot be opened at all." Peter concluded helplessly.
Tony nodded. "Yes, but there are a bunch of other documents I haven't read. Do you want to come?"
Peter nodded. The two of them rummaged through Wyndham's notes all night, but in the end they couldn't find any irrefutable evidence that could connect him with New York's group of scientists. It was just a waste of time.
Tony flew him home the next day. Peter thanked him a lot, but Tony didn't care. Anyway, he just left the laboratory and avoided the damn post-traumatic stress disorder. Peter tried to persuade him to talk to a psychiatrist, but Tony probably didn't listen to a word of it.
When he got home, Uncle Ben and Aunt May were waiting for him. Peter told Italy about this trip, using the fake version that he and Tony had discussed in advance. Fortunately, they basically believed it.
That night, Peter went down to the basement laboratory, imported the data from Wyndham's computer, and started comparing it with his father's files.
At this moment, someone pushed open the basement window from the outside. Peter turned around and saw Felicia·Hardy sneaking in deftly, and felt a sudden surge of guilt in his heart.
She landed in front of him and smiled brightly, "Hey, Little Tiger."
Peter couldn't help but laugh. He stood up and walked towards her. Felicia just said, "When did you--" Before he could finish his words, Peter took her into his arms and pushed her down. On the small bed in the laboratory, she kissed her hard. He bit her lips in an almost desperate way, just wanting to completely erase the wet and greasy feeling on the tip of Jessica·Drew's tongue from his mind.
She moaned vaguely in his kiss, and then gently pushed him away. "I didn't know you missed me so much."
"You have no idea," Peter placed a kiss on her forehead, "Italy is simply Hell."
"Why?"
Peter took a breath - it seemed it was time to confess. He told everything: how his superpowers were related to his parents' research, how those experiments made him what he is now, and he went to Italy just to find the scientist who might have killed his parents.
Felicia listened quietly, always holding his hand. When he finished speaking, she sighed, "I... I probably understand why you want to carry it yourself. But, Peter-" She slapped him on the head, "You plan to break into someone else's house, and you didn't even ask me?!"
Peter rubbed his head awkwardly. "I'm sorry. But-" He ran to the table and took a black cardboard box and handed it to her, "I brought you a gift."
Felicia opened the box and saw a pair of expensive black leather boots with silver piping on the sides. Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Okay, I reluctantly forgive you." She giggled.
Peter smiled, but the guilt surged in his heart again. He finally understood why he insisted on buying the most expensive boots Tony could find, and why he almost went bankrupt for it. Because Jessica·Drew.
Should he hide it from her? Of course he knew he shouldn't. But deception is never the way to maintain a relationship, and he knew it better than anyone else. So he took a deep breath. "Felicia, there is one more thing."
Felicia smiled, "What?"
"In Wyndham's manor, I... met a girl." Peter paused, "She is just like me."
"Same? What do you mean?"
"She has the same ability as me. And my ability comes from her." Peter produced a cluster of blue bioelectricity from his fingertips and showed it to her.
"She also has Spider abilities?" Felicia opened her eyes wide.
Peter nodded. "Yes. She can climb walls, is fast and strong, and I guess... she can also release pheromones, and even go one step further."
"What do you mean?"
"She can control other people's pheromones," Peter confessed. "She can make people angry, sad, happy... I suspect that we are all affected."
"We?"
Peter blushed. "She, uh, she kissed me."
Felicia raised a silver eyebrow.
"I didn't kiss her back! I swear!" Peter said urgently, "She suddenly kissed her, and I was completely confused. Then I don't know what happened. Her ability seemed to be out of control. When I came to my senses, she had already wanted to take off my clothes. I was completely confused at the time-"
"So," Felicia's voice was very soft, "You mean, she drugged you?"
Peter lowered his head. "Yes... please don't be angry, I really don't want to."
She was silent for a long time, so long that Peter felt that her heart was being crushed a little bit. She raised her eyes, her eyes filled with inexplicable things. "Did you kiss her back?"
"Absolutely not." Peter just felt that somewhere in his heart was cracked. In his life, the only relationship with Felicia was the choice that he could truly say "belonged to him". Everything else, Peter·Parker could do it by himself, except her. He couldn't lose her, he--
Felicia stood up. Peter froze. Then he found her arms wrapped around him and her head rested on his shoulder.
"I'm not going to let you go just because you got kissed by some Italy bitch, Peter," she whispered, "Do you really think I would?"
She released the hug and looked down at the boots. "Wait a minute, is that why you bought such expensive shoes?"
"Yeah."
"Hmph, maybe it's a good thing if you kiss other women." Felicia teased.
Peter rolled his eyes. "Don't."
"So, can you show me what you found?" Felicia asked.
Peter nodded, pulled her to the computer, and unfolded her father's files and the data obtained from Wyndham for her to see. He explained each item, and also mentioned the ghost driver discovered by Tony.
"That's probably it," Peter concluded, "It's not much, but at least it proves that my parents are not crazy."
"Hmm." Felicia stared at the screen and suddenly frowned.
"What's wrong? Did you find anything?"
"Yes, this." She clicked on a folder on her father's hard drive, "What is this?"
Peter blinked. "His paper when he was in school."
"Why put it here?"
"Maybe he just copied everything related to Super Soldier Serum into this disk." Peter shrugged.
"But he started researching so early?" Felicia asked.
"He is a genius, just like the next one--" Peter grinned and opened the folder. An error message popped up immediately. He was stunned for a moment, "What the hell?"
The file is damaged and cannot be opened.
"Can't open it?" Felicia was curious.
"Can't open." Peter muttered, and a thought suddenly came to his mind, "No... it's impossible..." He dragged the file into the ghost drive and entered the date--suddenly, a new prompt popped up.
"The file is complete and opening..."
Peter's pupils suddenly shrank. "I--fuck."
The file began to repair itself, and dense formulas and numerical sequences filled the screen, followed by a new window popping up - with the green Hydra mark clearly displayed on it.
"Fuck!" Peter ripped off the computer host's power supply.
"What's going on?" Felicia asked nervously.
"Oops." Peter took apart the host without saying a word, used his extraordinary strength to crush the CPU and motherboard, pulled out the hard drive, and unplugged all the cables from the wireless router. He couldn't take any risks.
"Peter, what happened?" Felicia's voice was filled with worry.
"That sign... is Hydra."
Felicia was startled. "You mean, the Nazi organization that the captain dealt with back then?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"What does your father have to do with a dead Nazi organization?" Felicia asked.
Peter looked at her. "Who told you they are dead?" He grabbed the hard drive and sighed, "I have to give this to Fury."
"Is S.H.I.E.L.D. worthy of belief? Don't they still want to use that glowing block to make weapons?" Felicia said calmly. Peter smiled, she was far smarter than people thought.
"Yes, they did... But if Hydra comes looking for this thing, it is safer to put it in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hands than in my hands. This way Uncle Ben, Aunt May, Mary Jane and Liz will not be involved in the crossfire." He lowered his voice, "I know this is a risky decision, but I have no choice."