After meeting and talking with Gwen's father, I decided to speak with Aunt May and tell her about my—shall we say—"heroic" hobby.
I realized that Aunt May would find out about everything eventually. And if she discovered it on her own, rather than hearing it from me, her reaction would almost certainly be much harsher. So, I decided to tell her now, before it was too late…
"Aunt May, are you home?" I called out the moment I walked through the door.
"Yes, Peter! I'm in the living room," she replied immediately.
I walked into the living room and saw her lounging on the sofa, watching her usual TV shows.
"Aunt May, we need to talk!" I said, sitting down beside her.
A look of surprise crossed her face. She picked up the remote, turned off the TV, and sat up straight, sensing that I had something important to share.
"Well, Peter—has something happened? I've never seen you look so serious before." Aunt May gently took my hand, offering her support.
"Haa... I'm not sure how to break this to you gently, so I'll just come right out with it. Aunt May, I'm not an ordinary person. A while back—at the Stark Expo, to be precise—I was bitten by a spider, and I gained superpowers. Because of that, I can lift tons of weight, crawl on walls, and shoot webs." As I finished saying this, I fired a web at the ceiling to demonstrate.
"Oh my goodness—that's incredible!" Aunt May exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hands in sheer astonishment. "Well, basically, because of these abilities, I started… how should I put it… playing the hero."
"WHAT!? Peter, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!" she exclaimed, jumping up immediately.
"Yes, I do. But I'm not exactly weak, either! Just recently, I stopped a giant lizard that was planning to spray some kind of dangerous substance in the middle of New York City. And a few days ago, I saved Gwen's father from a madman in a goblin costume, riding a flying glider and rigged with explosives. On top of that, I saved a classmate of mine from being raped. All of this, thanks to my powers. Is it really a bad thing to help those in need and stop terrorists?"
"No, Peter. It's not a bad thing—quite the opposite, in fact. But you're still so young for this! What am I supposed to do if something happens to you? You're the only family I have left. It's just so incredibly dangerous…" Aunt May insisted, unable to let it go.
"Don't worry about my safety, Aunt May. My skin has become so tough that even a shot from a high-caliber rifle probably wouldn't hurt me. And on top of that, I have an incredibly durable suit—it could even withstand a tank shell!" I said, slapping my chest with my palm.
In an instant, my entire body was covered by the suit, leaving Aunt May with a look of utter astonishment on her face.
"See, Aunt May? It's my own invention. Even Tony Stark would be envious of a suit like this," I said, chuckling at her expression.
"So, it was you the whole time! I've seen reports on the news a few times—they showed you flying through the sky!" "...she finally exclaimed."
"Alright, Peter. I won't tell you what to do or try to stand in the way of your plans, but promise me one thing: if you're about to do something dangerous, you must let me know."
"Of course, Aunt May! I'm so glad you aren't angry!" I said, putting away my suit before giving her a hug.
"Oh, Peter. How could I be angry at you for saving people? Your uncle was the same way—that's why I loved him," she replied, hugging me back.
"Yeah, he was a true hero…" I agreed.
***
"Hey, Daisy—miss me?" I asked, calling my partner after things were settled with Aunt May.
"Hey—not a chance! What do you want?" I heard her laugh on the other end; she was clearly just joking. It seemed she'd become much friendlier toward me since our last mission together.
"I wanted to ask: did you manage to dig up any information on the Fantastic Four?"
"Yeah—surprisingly, there's quite a lot. Turns out the military is involved. I'll send the data over to you now."
"Ha! Them again. Why am I not surprised?" I let out a chuckle, and just then, the files from Daisy arrived on my laptop via a secure channel.
"Alright, thanks a lot for your hard work. I'm going to start looking through this. Goodnight." I made sure to thank her, then ended the call and immediately began reading the information.
As it turned out, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm had been working on a teleportation device back when they were still in school. And in this endeavor, they achieved a certain degree of success. During a school competition, they managed to teleport an apple to an unknown location—only for it to return as sand. At the time, the young men assumed it was sand from a desert, but their project caught the attention of the military, who were actively scouting for new talent. Analysis revealed that the sand actually came from another planet; consequently, once the young men had grown older, they—along with Sue, Johnny, and Victor—were invited to a specialized military laboratory to complete the project.
And one day, they succeeded. They managed to open a portal to another world. However, their journey ended on a tragic note. They were all exposed to a strange form of energy, which granted them superpowers. Although they...
***
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