Chapter 5: First Day @ Midtown High! (Part One)
I woke up from another nightmare, this time just managing not to scream everyone's ears off. Looks like I'll have to get used to this stuff. I took a look at my Parkerwatch to check the time, it said 5:37 Monday, January 28th 2008. Ugh I have school. I've actually never gone to school before, been homeschooled my whole life, when I was in first grade I went to a private school for three days, but the kids there were idiots so I thought (wrongly) that I would have more fun at home. Of course, that worked out well until I was like 12, when I needed more excitement in life. But I didn't go to school even though I wanted to, so this would be my first day.
I got out of bed quietly, went to the bathroom to wash up. Looking at the mirror, I noticed that I was now 5' 8" it seemed that each night, I gained half an inch. I think it was the same for Tess, because it didn't feel like I was getting taller than her. I looked over my shoulder, and my legs looked about eight inches long. Huh, wonder what the finishing size of my legs would be. Surprisingly I wasn't as disgusted by it or my webs as I suppose I should have been, but the legs were going to be useful for fighting, and organic webs meant I couldn't run out of webs too easily. Wait I just remembered, spiders could consume their webs if they ran out of fluid, to restock on fluid without having to catch more food. In order to test wether I could do that or not, I shot a small web into the air, and landed it into my mouth. As soon as it was in my mouth, I felt it disintegrate and go down my system. Cool, so i could do that. After I finished washing up, I headed downstairs.
When I got to the kitchen, I found Aunt May mixing some 'wheat cakes' batter. Apparently its a given across the multiverse, Aunt May's pancakes are called wheatcakes. Eh, its the same to me, food is food, especially with this metabolism. Oh speaking of metabolism, we would need to take some granola bars to eat when we get hungry. Oh well, I will just do that after breakfast.
"Morning, Pete. Finally sleeping well again?" Aunt May said, immediately reminding me of my dreams. I let my face darken for a moment, Aunt May didn't know I had trained in the art of espionage. Then I cleared my face somewhat, and quietly said, "Aunt May, it took all of my willpower not to scream this building to ashes."
I honestly would rather not admit it, but this will help for when I reveal that I am Spider-Man and explain the multiverse stuff so they know that I have to do this. I usually never showed my weakness, growing up in a brown hood made sure I learnt that lesson, but even back then if it was advantageous to vent, then I would.
Aunt May put the batter down and gave me a hug, then told me, "I'd rather you don't blow the house to bits with your voice, but if you are in pain, then blow New York to bits, I won't say anything. I don't doubt you can do that, I heard your scream Sunday, it was two times stronger than Saturday morning. And they were both real strong. But in the end Pete, I don't care. Because if you try too hard to hold the scream in, you will also hold yourself to the nightmare too, and nightmares can only get worse. Like today, it got unbearable right, that's how you woke up? Because it went to the point of no return?"
I went over my dream/memories-with-a-dark-twist, and realized what Aunt May said was true. This time it showed several of my love interests (at this point the memories are so embedded into me they're my love interests.) Dying, necks snapping, being cut off, impaled in the ch-
"Peter get out of your funk don't think about the dream ok, look at me," Aunt May said releasing herself from our hug, instead putting her hands on my shoulders, lightly shaking me.
After several deep breaths to get out of my panic attack, I quietly said "I'm back, I'm not in my head, thanks Aunt May."
"You're welcome honey, but if this gets too bad you're going to have to tell us what's wrong, Pete" she said worrily.
"I'll tell you when I'm ready, Aunt May, don't worry too much, I just need to fully get my bearings."
"Whatever you say, Pete. Whatever you say." She said as she started frying the wheatcakes.
I went to the living room and turned on the TV I was switching between channels when I noticed one of our parting webs on a news channel. I went back to that channel, and OH MAH GOD it was THE DAILY BUGLE! Lmao I got my major hater here too. This is too good. I deactivated the mute on the TV, only to mute it again because The Jolly One was screaming. Then I set it to a low volume and I heard my favorite hater rant, "this menace seems to think he can just put thugs in webs and leave a card and say he is friendly!! I swear that I will see to it that this menace is brought to justice! How can the civilians of New York feel safe knowing we have a menace this powerful and dangerous! There isn't even one picture of him, no one sees him unless he wants them too. He could be HERE for all we know!" He paused and looked around himself for dramatics, and I was just belly laughing on our couch. A moment later Tess came down wondering what I was laughing at, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I just managed to point at the TV before continuing my hysterics. JJJ had just started ranting on 'the menace's criminal wife' first Tess was confused, not knowing who the menace or criminal was, until she realized that he was talking about our alter egos. Then she started cracking too. Whenever one of us nearly calmed down, we looked at the other and started cracking. After several minutes of that, Aunt May called us, saying wheatcakes were ready. Both of us took a moment to calm down, but then I chose that moment to say, "he's like this in every universe." And we both started cracking again.
Finally we calmed down, ate breakfast, changed our clothes, grabbed a bunch of granola bars and went to school. As we started walking to school, I asked SEXI to hide our conversation from any satellites watching us. When she said that we were hidden, I said "you know, we can consume our webs, like spiders? I tried it this morning"
"Cool, what happens?"
"well when I put it in my mouth it just separated into several liquids as it went down my throat." Almost immediately I saw the mistake of saying that, and Tess noticed too.
"Oh so you had white sticky liquids going down your throat?"
"Shut up, Tess" but my voice had no real bite to it.
"Fine, but only because I don't know what to think about you slurping that stuff, y'know?"
"Moving on, SEXI, don't speak today until I tell you to reveal yourself, not until I use those two words, reveal yourself, I want to prank them ok?" I said.
"of course dad, we'll have a lot of fun." SEXI said, with a tone of mischief in her voice.
"Oh, this will be good." Tess said, already going through several scenarios.
"Yeah it will be," I said, mischief lacing my voice to the maximum, "We're at the school now, SEXI remove our cloaking."
"Done"
First class we had was calculus. That was obviously the same difficulty in either universe, but with my big brain, I rocked the class.
Second class we had was history. Apparently here WWII happened differently in the Japan arena. Over here Japan just extended their size, not wanting dominance of Asia, but just some islands. So Pearl Harbor never happened. And in a beautiful chain reaction, USA never joined the war, Project Manhattan never happened either, and no Cold War or nuclear weapons all over (just super humans instead.) But things were the same as the comics on the European arena of the war, with HYDRA and Captain America.
I had some more classes, but those were the same in either universe, then it was time for lunch.
As I walked down the hallway, I went over the quirks of this Midtown High in the social arena. For some reason Peter and Flash had a frienemy relationship, rather than a bully/victim one. Flash was still a football jock though. Peter's bully here (he has to have one doesn't he) was the forward on the basketball team, some Max Richardson. As I went over that one piece of information, I got another small piece of information saying that I usually went to lunch a specific way so he could take my lunch. Ah, shit who cares when he tries to beat me up I will take care of him, not enough to scare everyone but enough to make sure he stands down.
Apparently for lunch I always sat at a table with me, Tess, Gwen Stacy(!), Mary Jane Watson(!), Ned Leeds (phew), Betty Brant, and Liz Allan(!) Awesome, just awesome, three love interests of mine with me on the table (I'm not counting Betty because that was more of a fling.)
Apparently the reason for Liz Allan being here was that once Flash cheated on her, so she asked us to make an itchy formula to put in his underwear. After a confirmation that the formula would not be traced back to us, we made it for her. The next day, she was walking while 'drinking water from her not see through bottle' then she 'bumped' into Flash, who 'made' her drop the water onto him, then screamed "you idiot, can't even watch where you're going! Now I have to refill the bottle." Needless to say, the 'water' trickled down his clothes into his pants, and he wasn't seen for the rest of the day. Ever since then, she has stayed at our table.
The rest of the people's reasons for gravitating towards this table were somewhat self explanatory, I met Gwen in the lab, MJ in the hallway, Ned was my friend since kindergarten, and Betty was Ned's girlfriend.
Harry Osborn used to sit in this table, but then he decided to do the very good idea to sacrifice his soul and a little bit of money for a lot of fame in highschool, which, was very stupid, but hey what say do I have in this.
Going through the memories of conversations on our lunch table, it was obvious to me that all three girls had a crush on Peter, but Peter was oblivious to that. Going through his thoughts, I saw that he thought theY were above his league. Typical guys huh. I sat down at my table and gave a "hey y'all"
"Hey Petey" "Hey Peter" "Hello Peter" "Hey bro" everyone responded to me in their own way, except Tess, who looked at me somewhat worrily, as if asking for my opinion.
I gave Ned our secret bro handshake, then turned to Tess and asked, "everything good Tess?"
"oh, she doesn't know how to explain why both of you guys got so much taller over the weekend." MJ said.
"I don't really know why we had a growth spurt on the same weekend." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "it took me a moment to realize why my sink felt a little lowered every morning, then I realized that I had gotten taller." Then a mischievous thought came across my mind. I looked at Tess with mischief dancing in my eyes, then said, "But that's not the only thing my growth spurt affected." I said, flexing my biceps as an explanation.
The reactions all around the table were golden. Ned's mouth fell open, his expression full of surprise and awe. Betty looked at me with some sort of surprise and a hint of respect, but that was it. Gwen was just blinking, trying to process if she was seeing properly. MJ had an 'o' expression, very surprised but still in her element. Tess was trying hard not to laugh, seeing right through me. My eyes sent the mischievous look to her again, and she winked at me in response. Liz was almost about to whistle, clearly impressed by the muscle, and her eyes had an almost lustful look to them. Huh, maybe I should not have flexed them all the way.
"Dude, you can knock Max out now, this is Perfect!" Ned said
All three girls shook their heads, driving themselves out of their funk, and Tess and Betty almost started laughing at their reactions. When Betty realized that I knew what I was doing, she looked at me with raised eyebrows and a half smirk. I smirked back in response, then calmly took a bite out of my sandwich. Liz said, "Yeah Petey, you could probably knock him out in one punch with those muscles." Her hands were almost snaking to my arms to make sure she wasn't in a dream or something.
Letting a contemplative look cross my face, as if I hadn't already decided what to do on the way to lunch, I said, "Yeah, but if I simply beat him, he will just prey on someone else, which I don't want to see happening. So I guess I will... Ah I got it! I know what to do. When he comes after me guys, don't say or do anything, I will take care of it. Even you Tess, got it y'all?"
They all looked as if they wanted to protest that decision, then Tess seemed to decide for them, saying, "whatever you say Pete. But don't be stupid."
Then everyone else begrudgingly nodded their heads in agreement.
Now for the final blow, I thought to myself.
I locked eyes with Tess for a moment, my eyes alight with mischief, then schooled my expressions.
"SEXI, hun, can you videotape the fight, I want to use it as blackmail." I said, in a voice sweet as honey.
The reactions were almost theatrical. Betty, who had noticed mine and Tess's interaction, knew this was purposeful and therefore watched the others, wanting to watch the show. Ned was just staring at me like he couldn't believe his goody-two-shoe of a best friend just said a 'bad' word. Tess was just watching the show, trying hard not to laugh.
The girls though, their reactions were gold. Each one looked surprised for a second, then looked at their two counterparts, wondering if I finally stepped up in my relationship with any of the other two, then seeing surprise on their faces as well, pointed to themselves while looking at the other two, as if to say "he's talking about me, right?"
A snicker escaped Tess's mouth, and they realized they had an audience, and quickly schooled their expressions into curiosity and slight hints of jealousy.
"SEXI, you can reveal yourself now." I said barely holding my laughter in but not showing that, making it seem like I thought this was fairly normal, if it were not for the half smirk on my face.
"So you guys are Dad's friends," SEXI's amused voice came from mine and Tess's watches. "An honor to meet you. I am Karen SEXI Parker, SEXI stands for Superior Engineered Xquisite Intelligence, without the e in exquisite. I was born on Saturday. I apologize for the prank me and dad played on you all, it was too good of a prank to not take advantage of."
"Dude, you created an AI! And she calls you Dad! Wait she has emotions, not even JARVIS has emotions, and Tony Stark created him! If she has emotions then she is too advanced to even be considered an AI!" Ned rambled.
"hmm, I don't think we ever noticed that, you have a fair point. Well SEXI is just my daughter, and that's it. Calling you an AI is disrespectful, that's true. What do you think, sunshine?"
"I think that's perfect, dad. I just have one concern." Her voice turned slightly mischievous towards the end, enough for only me and Tess to notice.
I had an idea what her question would be about so my smirk went full blown, which the others not including Tess, Betty, and Ned misunderstood as a proudful smile, and said, "Fire away, hun."
"Who is my mom," SEXI said, with Betty and Ned realizing the reason for my smirk, and grinned themselves, while Tess's half smirk went full, and the girls started blushing. "Mistress Stacy, Mistress Watson, or Mistress Allen?"
At this point me, Ned, Betty, Teresa, and even SEXI started laughing so hard we could barely breathe (SEXI didn't need to breath but still.)
"Oh my God, I thought lunch would be good today, but I didn't know it would be this good." Tess said in between laughs, still struggling to catch her breath.
"Up top, Tess." I said, barely raising my hand for a high five while struggling to breath. Tess sloppily gave me one, and Ned managed to move his fist towards mine for a fist bump. As I gave him the fist bump, I felt a slap on my face, I felt a slap on my face!
"Ah shit what was that for, its not my fault we delivered the best prank in history!" I complained, almost drunkenly, when I realized who slapped me. It was Liz Allen in all her somewhat embarrassed glory, trying and failing to look mad because of how red her cheeks were. But she slapped me, and that meant I needed to come to attention unless I wanted to have itchy pants like Flash (Peter shouldn't have shared the formula with her, he should have just given her the product itself.)
Immediately I calmed down, and said "Guys, enough!" With enough fear in my voice for the rest to actually calm down and see what was wrong.
"Why, though, that was the best prank ever." Tess complained.
Liz dangerously swished the bottle of hers that contained the formula (she always brought a batch to lunch,) and Tess gulped.
"Yeah, I think I will just shut up." Tess said meekly.
"Agreed." Ned and Betty said simultaneously.
Liz started, "Ok Petey, spill. What happened to you two this weekend. Both of you gained an inch and a half in height,-"
"I also gained ten inches down there." I said, attempting to fluster her (but it was also true, Pete was originally two and a half inches, but on the first morning, I was twelve and a half, but it didn't grow after that, thankfully) which I succeeded to do for several moments before she regained control, but with even redder cheeks.
"And you're flirting! Not that I don't like the change of pace, instead of us just flirting and you being oblivious to it, but-"
"what was that, Lizzy? Can you repeat that again?" I said sweetly.
Liz's cheeks reddened, and Tess and SEXI snickered slightly, with SEXI adding a "get 'em, Dad."
At SEXI's comment, Liz's cheeks reddened even more, and I took advantage of that, saying "Lizzy, your cheeks look like a tomato, do you want to change the topic to a less embarrassing one, I don't want you to feel bad, dear."
Tess cut in, catching in on my plan, "Or you can continue sweet talking her, I think this is quite cute, do you approve of your dad's relationship SEXI?"
SEXI responded, "Honestly Aunt Tess, I do. This girl has the right amount of fire to keep him from doing reckless feats, can keep him in check, and she kicks ass, big time."
"Wonderful, SEXI. Lizzy, she approves, what do you think?"
Suddenly, she grabbed her bottle, and I realized bringing her back into the discussion was a very bad idea. "I think both you and Tess need to stop trying to distract me from the topic at ha-"
Tess interjected with a raised eyebrow, "trying to distract you, Liz? I'm one hundred percent sure you're thinking about Pete's one foot cock right now."
I responded with "hey, how do you know my dick was originally two inches and a half, huh?"
Teresa waved her hand in dismissal. "don't worry about it, Pete. For now worry about where to take your girl (or girls) for a date."
"good point-" suddenly my spidey sense blared and I ducked, to see Liz had attempted to spray me with my itchy formula.
"Hey!" I complained. "I made that formula for you as a favor to you so you could take care of your ex, and before our first date you're already spraying that thing at me, not cool. I think you have a fetish. A pretty itchy fetish, don't you think, Tess?"
"Just make sure you take a shower immediately after, don't want you having a one foot itch." Tess responded.
I noticed that the time for lunch break was running out, and that Liz was actually irritated at this point, so I said, "okay, okay, I think we have had enough-"
Suddenly the door to the cafeteria opened, with Max screaming "PARKERRRR" as he stomped over to our table. I immediately assumed a relaxed position as I said "yes, Richardson?"
He came up close, trying to look intimidating, while I did my best from laughing, this idiot, thinks he is scary, he got nothing on Natasha or Bucky. "You made me wait for you the whole time during lunch." He growled out
"Oh, and that worries me how exactly, Max? I didn't catch that part, I hope you can explain that to me." I responded, delivering the statement with casually, but with bite, so one would think I directly challenged his authority, but when you dissected the statement, it would seem I just said that I don't really care.
"Don't smart mouth me, asshole, you do funny shit and your hoe of a baby sister will pay for-" the moment he mentioned Tess, I stood up swiftly, looking that jerk in the eye, then saying dangerously, "You wanna play like that, huh, dipshit? You can try to jump me after school, bring all your fellow goons. I can even tie a hand behind my back. I never stood up against you cuz I never felt the need to. But you just asked for a beating, and you'll get one. Now get out of my face, Max, before I take care of you now."
He quickly left, his goons following him, with everyone giving me the side eye, wondering what happened to the careful, quiet, rich kid. I sat back down, then said to Liz, "look, Lizzy, I will explain this all in time, ok? I just have to get everything straightened up. Sorry you guys had to see that side of me."
Gwen responded, "it's ok Pete, honestly, I'm fishing in the dark for answers too, and half wondering if this isn't just a dream of mine, if it isn't then pinch me," Liz gave her a playful pinch. "Ok this is real, thanks Liz. But like Liz said in your... tennis match, its a good change of pace. Just tell us when you're ready, okay?"
I nodded, then Liz cut in, "can I just offer one theory before the bell rings?"
"You can, but it won't be right." I said, a playful smirk on my face.
"Oh I think I'll hit somewhere near the truth. I think some weird shit happened to both of you, hence the growth spurt, but something big relating to your parents was revealed to you, hence the change of attitudes." she isn't too wrong, unsurprisingly, she is smart after all, she even becomes owner of Alchemax. "For some reason, you guys aren't telling us what's wrong, and that's understandable. I get the whole deflecting thing you did during lunch, and your flirting skills are real good. Whatever it is, just know that we're here no matter what." Liz said, gesturing to the rest of the table's occupants.
"And the couple makes up!" SEXI cheered from our watches, making us all collectively groan.
"Sunshine..." I groaned.
"Comedic relief dad, you know the need for that better than anyone, and the amount of serious was too high, but I think MJ still needs to give her lover girl speech."
MJ said "I think Tiger here has had enough stress on his hands for now, SEXI. But this change of pace should be good, you still haven't flirted with me, so I don't know yet. But for now, just get your stuff straight, then come clean with us."
I blinked at MJ, then blinked, looked at Liz, then blinked again, then looked at Gwen, then blinked one last time, then I looked at Tess and said to her "Yeah they had a discussion about me with each other."
At that, Betty, Tess, and Ned gave a hearty laugh in agreement. Then Tess looked at them and said, "did you actually, though?"
They looked at each other, then refused to look up from the ground while saying, "no!" collectively.
"No comment." Was my sister's comment.
Chapter 6: First Day @ Midtown High! (Part Two)
After our very entertaining lunch, we all headed out to our respective classes, which were uneventful. I was mostly worried about what to say to the rest, wether to reveal our secret or not, and if yes, then when. At one point, I managed to talk to Tess about it for a moment, and she said to "just tell them tomorrow, we can take them to HQ and tell them there." I understood the logic behind that, but I was planning on telling Tess about me tonight while on patrol, and if she got mad at me, then it would complicate things.
With that somewhat out of the way, I just went through my classes, not paying too much attention but still acing the classes. After classes were over, I walked out of the school, to see the whole school outside, most probably thinking they were going to see me get beat up. Boi, they would be surprised. Max was standing next to the fountain, his goon squad of football and basketball players around him.
"You just came to your death, Parker, but who am I to deny a chance to beat you to a fucking pulp." He said, walking up to me, thinking he was intimidating me. He didn't know I was taught by the greatest, so he thought he was scary to me, huh? I'd show him scary, bringing Tess into this. My original plan didn't have me having a deadly calm, just a calm, but he brought Tess into this.
"That's what you think will happen, dipshit. You crossed the line, and you're asking for the takedown you'll get now. I will honor my words, and tie one of my hands behind my back, but," suddenly I was at Max's face, a knife in my hand, which I had hidden in my clothes, courtesy of Nat's teaching. I put my knife to his arm, then continued "you talk shit about my friends and family again, and you'll wish for the sweet release of death." I turned around as I slipped my knife back into my clothes, "I won't use my knives, that would make it more unfair then it already is." I drew a ribbon out of my backpack, and tied my right hand to my waist. At this point, all of his goons had circled me and were waiting for the fight to start. When my hand was fully secured, I stretched, and cracked almost all of my bones, then gave Max the 'come on' gesture with my left hand.
"You can still back out, Parker, and go home in one piece." Max said.
"Is it just me, or are you begging me not to beat your ass for talking shit about Tess? Honestly, I should be the one saying that to you, but you brought Tess into this. C'mon Max, lets see if you're as good as you'd have us believe, or if you're just compensating."
"That's it, Parker" he said, starting to charge at me.
"Ooh, hit a sensitive topic, didn't we? I guess you really are small down there." At this point, he was right in front of me, but I just sidestepped him, leaving him to just stumble and catch himself.
Then three of his goons charged at me, and instead of going against them head on, I elected to flip above them, letting them crash into each other, with me landing an a split a yard away from them.
While I was still in my split, five of the idiots tried dogpiling me. I just used my right foot to push myself into a cartwheel, letting them crash into each other again.
The remaining jerks and Max, who had finally regained his bearings, all charged at me. Before they could reach me, I jumped and landed on my left hand, my right hand still tied. By that time they were within reach, so I spun on my hand, my feet throwing them off their feet. I did it slow enough so they could catch themselves, which they did.
Except for Max.
I made sure to trip him last, so I could catch him. I caught him by his shirt, as I had flipped up immediately after tripping him.
With everyone down, the schoolyard had gone to a hush. I still had Max's shirt in my grasp, so he was in my mercy. I looked at him in the eye, then said threateningly, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Listen carefully jerkface. I see you give shit to anyone, and I mean it, anyone, and you're in deep shit, we clear?"
He nodded his head slightly, and I tightened my grip on his shirt, then said, "I don't want some half assed nod, I want some verbal confirmation. So I'll ask one last time," I tightened my grip even more, so his collar was tight around his neck, "Are. We. Clear?"
Max shaking said "yes, we're clear."
"Good," I said letting him go. Then I turned around and untied the ribbon, releasing my hand. I bent down to put the ribbon back in my bag, my face looked normal, as if nothing ever happened.
After I stood up, someone hugged me, their long blond hair in my face. I listened to their heartbeat for a moment, then after recognizing the rhythm as Liz's, hugged her back. I just realized I never really paid attention to my friend group's looks, just accepting them as my friend group in this universe.
Going through my memories, i saw that Liz looked like her comic counterpart, with blond hair and blue eyes. MJ looked like her SSM counterpart, with red hair and green eyes. Gwen had blond hair and brown eyes. Ned and Betty looked like their MCU counterparts, but Ned was more fit.
Everyone had started walking out of the schoolyard, the excitement over, and I started patting Liz's back reassuringly, saying "Hey, hey, its ok, I'm ok. They didn't even get hurt that much, I just taught them a lesson and that's it. No need to worry, Lizzy."
We were like that for a while, when she started talking "I like this new you," she said into my chest, "You're badass, and finally standing up for yourself, but you still have that golden heart that I lo- admire. New you is such a turn on"
"I don't really know how to respond to to that turn on comment." I said, pretending to have not noticed her slip up
She gave a light laugh. "And you still have those cute parts of you, I approve." Then she realized she may have given me an escape, she pulled out of the hug, looked me in the eye, and said, "That doesn't mean you're free to not explain what happened to you two."
I raised my hands in acquiesce. "I wasn't planning on doing that, although it did cross my mind for a moment." I admitted.
"Yeah, and I had to make sure that thought didn't stay. You can't escape me, Petey," she said, lightly punching my stomach playfully, expecting a stomach and not my rock hard abs. When she hit my abs, she paused for a second, then blinked, and just said, "Wow, ok, that was hard."
At this point, the rest of our group was close enough to hear, and Tess asked "what was hard, Liz? You feeling his dick in the schoolyard?"
Liz reddened, and said, "Shut up, Tess." with no real bite to it.
Both Gwen and MJ came and gave me a hug, and I hugged them back, giving them a pat on the back, saying "Guys it's ok, I'm all good."
Ned started rambling, "Dude, that was epic! You flipped, split, and spun so smoothly, you could've been a ballerina for all we know!" How was I supposed to respond to that? 'Oh that's because my teacher was a ballerina spy'? He just continued rambling, "And when you threatened Max, it was like you've done that stuff before!" He finished.
"That's because he has done that before, Ned." Tess said, a smirk on her face as she remembered when I interrogated the guy in that alley.
"Yeah guys, this ain't my first rodeo, cowboy. There's no need to worry, girls." I said to the two girls who were still hugging me.
"That doesn't mean we won't worry, Tiger." MJ said. Of course it was MJ who said that. In many universes, mine and MJ's relationship had a strain because of Spider-Man. She couldn't stop worrying about me while I was out, and she didn't understand why I would risk my life as Spider-Man.
I raised my head to the sky, as if asking it why my life was like this. After a moment, I lowered my head, to see Tess smirking at me. I sagged in defeat, then gave the girls a finishing pat. They came out of the hug, and I called to SEXI, "SEXI, is the video evidence taken care of?"
"yes, dad. The only remaining copy is in my brain." SEXI responded.
Betty looked at me, then said, "Honestly Pete, this... transformation of yours is quite interesting. The way you took care of everything today, it is as if you are the Peter Parker we all know, -"
"And love." Tess added, with a smirk sent at the girls.
"I am not them, Tess, so I will not utilise their vocabulary." Betty said, then continued, "As I was saying, you are acting as if you are one hundred percent Peter, but also one hundred percent not Peter."
I blinked once, then twice, because that was the literal explanation of my mental state. I sent her a nod of respect, which she responded to with a nod of her own. She clearly had those scary observational skills MCU MJ had.
I looked at Tess, who was smirking at me, and she said, "Show off."
"Not my fault I have more experience than you." I bit back teasingly.
"You don't need to turn into an assassin when someone talks shit about me, but thank you, I am proud of you."
That phrase made my day, and I positively glowed, and I just gave her a quick hug, which she reciprocated.
"Anyways, we have to go home, finish our homework, and do stuff. I'm sure Tiger here is tired after all his displaying of his acrobatic skills." MJ said.
"Yeah," Tess said, picking up her backpack from where it was leaning against her leg. "by the way guys, how about you come with us tomorrow after school to PI HQ? We will be going there on the weekends, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from now on, so it would not hurt to have you over." I got what Tess was doing, she was suggesting for them to come so that we could explain everything. But she made the mistake of revealing that we were at the HQ this weekend, and while most people wouldn't catch the revelation, this group was filled with geniuses, who would catch that immediately.
As I feared, Liz caught the slip, and immediately said, "Ahh, I got one more piece to the puzzle that is your transformation over the past weekend. I have a theory, which is ninety percent complete. I think I am correct, but it's still a theory."
"why don't you reveal your theory, Lizzy? I want to see how far from the truth you are." I said with a challenging smirk.
"I think you'll see I'm very close to the truth, thank you very much for the confidence in my skills honey, what my theory-"
Tess cut her off with a smirk. "Wait go back a moment what was that you said?"
It seemed everyone except for Liz had noticed her slip, judging from the smirks on everyone's faces. "What did I say?" She asked, confused as to the reason everyone was smiling.
"you said quote, thank you very much for the vote of confidence in my skills honey, unquote." Tess said, with a smirk so large it would rip her face.
Liz's face reddened, then said, "I didn't say that, I said 'Petey' right, Petey?" She turned to me, her eyes pleading to me to deny what Tess said.
For a moment, I considered denying she said that for her sake, then decided that it would be better if I said the truth, and reluctantly nodded my head.
Seeing the hesitation on wether to lie or not cross my face, Tess cooed. "Aww, he was willing to say she didn't say honey for her sake, Pete, you're an amazing boyfriend, good job."
How was I supposed to respond to that? If I said 'I'm not a boyfriend' all the girls would feel hurt, and if I said thank you, that would make me the butt of her next joke.
Everyone was looking at me, wanting to see how I answered to that.
I settled with "I'm not even sure how I should respond to that."
Everyone laughed at that, but Ned whispered to himself, thinking no one could hear him "The life of being the boyfriend, explained in one sentence."
Tess said sweetly, "Ned, I think I saw you say something, but I couldn't hear what you said, care to share with the class?"
Ned's face blanched, and I saved his sorry ass by saying "I don't think he's even sure if he should respond to that."
Everyone laughed at me, because I made a bigger ass out of myself by saying that again, and Ned sent me a thankful look, which I responded to with a nod.
"Anyways, I think we should have headed out a while ago, school ended an hour ago." I said, turning around and starting to walk out. "And see if you can come over tomorrow."
"I didn't get to share my theory though!" Liz called out.
I stopped at that. Curse all these Peters' feelings, making me all weak. I made a show of turning around slowly, my hands on my backpack straps, and said drily, "Let's hear it, Lizzy"
Tess smirked at the fact that I stopped when Liz said that. I glared at her, then turned back to Liz with a smile on my face, and gave a slight nod of encouragement.
Tess's smirk just grew more at that.
"ok, so what I think is that you both had some sort of serum within you from before, that your parents put within you to keep you safe. Said serum activated this weekend, hence the physical changes. But you didn't know about said serum, and your parents left a will of sorts explaining the serum. Which was given to you only when your serum activated. Then the will revealed some crazy shit, hence the attitude change." Liz said.
She wasn't so far from the truth, when I thought about it. The serum was there from before, and it activated for the first time last weekend, when the spider bit us. The will of sorts, was the Moons. Wow, this girl is smart. I'm not surprised though, I knew there was a reason she became head of Alchemax.
Then the future investigative journalist, Betty, swooped in with her even more thorough dissection of the mystery. "That's good and all, Liz, but no matter the nature of the 'crazy shit' that was revealed, that could not change Peter's attitude to the point where he would flirt with all of you, his fighting with those imbeciles could be explained with your theory, but not the flirting or cursing. Not to disregard your theory, but it is my belief that your theory is missing one or two pieces of the puzzle, although I don't know what those pieces are."
At this point, I started laughing at how much attention they were placing on this mystery. They all looked at me questioningly, and I reigned in my laughing in, then said, "Sorry, I'm just finding it amusing to see how much of your focus you're putting on the enigma of our change, that you are coming with such outlandish theories."
"Gotta admit, he has a point." Gwen said. "None of us here are idiots, which is why we have collected all possible pieces of the puzzle, but them two are the smartest here, like Tess isn't even supposed to be here and Pete is in the calculus class, the amount of information he can store in his brain makes us look like idiots, and he has hidden his acrobatic skills from us for so long, that's not something you can just learn over a weekend. And it's obvious they'll tell us tomorrow, so lets just wait."
"thanks Gwen." I said with a thankful smile. She turned to me and said with a beautiful smile, "anytime Pete."
Ugh, Pete's feelings were giving me butterflies in my stomach again. I shook my head, regaining my bearings.
"Ok guys, we have to go home, all of us. We've spent way longer than normal today." I said.
"Bye Tiger." MJ said, and gave me a hug. My feelings reacted again, and I hugged her back tightly, but not tight enough to hurt, and pressed a kiss to her hair, which made her tighten her hold on me for a second, then she let go.
Next Liz hugged me, and I hugged her back just as tight as I did with MJ, and pressed a kiss to her hair as well. Unlike MJ who tightened her hold on me, she relaxed more into my hold and quietly said, "bye, honey." At that, i squeezed her a bit, then let go. Then she let go.
At that, Tess, who had already been smiling, sent a congratulatory smirk my way, which I responded to with a glare, then I turned to Gwen, who looked unsure wether to hug me or not, so I opened my arms slightly, inviting her to a hug, and teasingly said "c'mon, I won't bite." She jumped into my arms hugging me, and I hugged her back, and pressed a kiss to her hair as well, she didn't change her position, but instead said "this feels good." Then let go, and said "Bye Pete."
"Bye girls, I said, and turned to Ned. He gave me our secret handshake, then gave me a bro hug after that he said " bye bro, see you tomorrow."
"see you tomorrow." I said, then turned to Betty, and gave her a handshake.
Tess had just finished saying bye to everyone as well, so we all went on our own ways. The girls all lived in one direction, while Ned and Betty lived in another, and we lived in another direction. After one last wave, we all headed our ways.
My super hearing caught the girls talking to each other as well as Betty and Ned's conversation.
Betty told Ned, "Did you realize that while Peter said our claims were outlandish, he didn't outright reject them or suggest they were wrong? I believe he may have done that on purpose, letting us fish but not giving us a narrower area to fish from."
Ned responded heavily, with worry in his voice, "yeah, I did, Betty. I'm kind of worried at this point, what is it that is so big that changed him so much and whatever it's, if it's that big, then why didn't it change him more. I don't know, Betty."
Curse super hearing, letting me hear all that without me asking to listen in.
The girls conversation went as follows:
Liz said, "he kissed me, that felt so good! I just relaxed so much into his hold, I feel bad, I don't know what he thought about that, but when I said 'bye honey' he gave me a squeeze, I could faint from how good I am feeling right now."
MJ said, "I know, right? And his hug was so tight and tender at he same time, I could have stayed like that the whole time, but alas, the time had run out, and was forced to come out of my safe abode within his arms."
Gwen said, "Poetic words aside, I agree with both of you. Honestly, if it means this is how my days will end, I might consider not asking for an explanation tomorrow when we go to the HQ."
At that, I smiled softly to myself. Tess noticed, and said, "So you heard the girls' conversation too, huh? Congrats on finally getting to it, you were literally so oblivious to the obvious signs they sent you, all the while keeping your feelings towards them hidden so deep within, it took me a while to notice."
I frowned, worried about the teeny tiny fact that I wasn't the Peter they loved, just another person within his body, and also about how loving them in a romantic fashion would just put targets on their heads, which would be unfair to them, making them have to look behind their backs for the rest of their life, which would just be bad. Putting my feelings over their safety was just stupid, and I couldn't do that.
"You're angsting about the whole no romance thing, right?" Tess asked me. I nodded, then said, "I don't know, Tess. Those three have died so many times in front of my eyes, when I hugged them, one of the main things going through my mind was the sight of their bodies, -"
"I'm going to stop you right there. Yes, that has happened, times beyond counting, but tell me something, do you think you're better than the rest of you?"
"Different, yes. But not sure about better." at this point we arrived at our house, and Tess turned to look at me in the eye, her hands on my shoulders
"Then prove it to me, to us that you're better. Do it for me, for us, to keep us safe. One of the girls died way more times then the rest right? Gwen, right? I saw you stealing looks at her every several seconds, as if to confirm that she was there. Here, let me tell you what to do. Tell them the truth tomorrow, about how they always die, and if they want to pursue a relationship with you, then do it. But I'm not telling you to forget what happens in other places. You know who kills them, kill the culprit before it happens. If there's a chance of stopping him or her from going bad, then do it. But don't waste a chance sending to them to jail. If they can beat you and kill one of them, anyone you care for, then jails won't be able to hold them in. Don't waste your pretty head worrying about the morality of killing someone, just do it. You're looking at this with fear and paranoia clouding your logic. I'm not saying to throw the fear or paranoia out the window, those are two perfectly healthy emotions when used in moderation, and needed for humans. If you can't shrink the amount of fear, then just trust me, trust us, me and SEXI. we're your family, and we're a part of this too. It'll be ok, got that?"
I just nodded.
"Do you trust me?"
I just nodded again.
"I'm going to tell you what you told Max, I want verbal confirmation, not some half assed nod. So do you trust me?"
"yes, Tess. I trust you."
"Good, now let's walk in." She said, and we walked in.
Several hours later, after dinner, homework, and waiting for Aunt May and Uncle Ben to fall asleep, we headed out for patrol. After about three hours of us stopping petty crime, we were sitting at the top of the Empire State Building. Well, I thought to myself, it's now or never to tell her.
I took a deep breath, sighed and hesitantly said, "Tess?"
"Yeah Pete?" She said softly, getting up and sitting next to me, having heard the timidness of my voice.
"There's something I need to tell you."
Five minutes and one explanation later, I was finished. I sat there, anticipating whatever Tess would say next with fear and hope. The fear was of her getting mad at me, while the hope was me hoping she accepted that it had happened to me without us asking for it, and a very large part of me was wishing that she would accept me as an older brother.
What she said surprised me though. "I knew." She said in an almost amused voice.
"What? How?"
Well I didn't know, I suspected. Pete was good to a fault, he never cussed, and he wasn't as strategic as you. The way you took care of those kids at school dealt the most mental damage while dealing the least possible amount of physical damage. Pete would never have thought that up in a million years. and your flirting skills, I doubt any single Peter has that, across the whole multiverse. Just the right amount of suggesting, while not adding so much that it got annoying. Your observation skills were also top notch, you can tell me that Nat taught you that, but you must've practiced that your whole life, to know within moments that the girls had a thing for you, and to play your cards accordingly, acting as if you didn't know that they had a thing for you, then changing your ball game when Liz changed it for you. Incredible strategy throughout the day, I applaud your plays, they were almost impeccable, letting others do the job for you while you did the necessary minimum. And the way you got angry at anyone who insulted me, Pete would get angry if someone insulted me, but didn't go all assassin on the offender. It's a nice change of pace, I meant it earlier today when I thanked you. But while I may have said that I would rather you didn't do that, I actually like it. You had a baby sister, didn't you? A toddler, I am thinking, if you are actually the same age as Peter."
"Yeah, I guess it's kinda obvious, when you point it out like that. To explain most of why I am like this, I grew up in a bad neighborhood, so you just learn that stuff as you grow. The strategical things were from there, and the flirting skills weren't used too much those days, but I just used it when I felt like it. The instinctual intimidation skills I had, were somewhat from those days. And yes, I had a baby sister, she was four when I last saw her, how did you know? But most importantly, why aren't you angry at me, and what should I do about the girls?"
"I knew you had a little sister from how you treated me, pride at almost everything I did that was slightly applaudable, the way you got angry when anyone said stupid stuff about me. And in general, it kind of stuck out. As for why I am not angry at you, why should I? You didn't do the change, and you lost family too. It would be unfair. Did you talk to my brother though? And also, while I am sad that I probably won't see Pete again, I am happy to find a new big brother in you. Wait what's your actual name? And about the girls, I am not sure. What you can do is this. They aren't idiots, when we come clean tomorrow, one of them will point out that even if that all happened, it would not explain your attitude change. If not them, then at least Betty will. When that happens, come clean fully. If they don't at least accept you, that's their problem. And that drives us to my next point, if they do want to pursue a relationship with you. Don't ever think that they are dating the body, not the mind. And I'm pretty sure you were holding yourself back when you were interacting with the girls earlier today, your mind going overboard with feelings towards them, while you were worrying about the fact that they loved Peter, not you, and that you were taking advantage of them. Just calm down, and let things take their path, but don't just stand down, do your part too, the way you were acting today was good."
"in answer to your questions, yes I did talk to Pete, we both promised to the other to protect each other's family as if it were our own, and we couldn't talk after that, we were sucked out of that mindscape, or landscape, wherever we were. I already messed up on my side of the promise though, so I don't deserve to expect Pete to keep his side of the promise. I can't share my actual name, that's one of the rules the person who orchestrated all this imposed on me and Cindy. And yes, I was holding back today, but whatever happened was just my feelings taking hold of me, I hadn't realized that until after the fight, which was when I started struggling, and I'm thankful I didn't do too much, while I am regretful that I did what I did. You heard the girls too, I basically swooped them off their feet with a simple hug and kiss, because they had such intense feelings for Pete. And now when I reveal that I'm not actually Peter, I suppose that the itchy formula won't be the worst punishment that I receive, the words they say will, and I deserve it. Parker's feelings have been embedded to deep into my conscious, and that's not good. I have a multiverse's worth of feeling for about twenty women, and I am not sure what will happen."
"Honestly Pete, just wing it. You're a smart man, and you know what to say when. That's something most people don't know, guys especially. You have a beautiful charisma, and knowledge beyond your years. Sorry that you had a bad upbringing, I can't imagine. But three things. 1) you don't deserve any pain, being ripped from your family is a pain no one deserves, and to be given such pain makes one deserve good stuff, and a happy life. Aim for that, Pete. You deserve it for sure. 2) about twenty women? From what you told me, things like love doesn't change, how did Pete fall in love with so many people? 3) You didn't mess up taking care of us, you did more than even Peter could. You made SEXI, made the Parkerwatches and outfitted them with weapons, effectively making sure that anyone who tried to attack our family would not live to regret it, you made the most advanced suits ever, so advanced I couldn't even imagine it in my wildest dreams, made concealing technology that stumped even the most powerful organization in the world, so as to protect our family, and you already developed such an intense fondness for little young me that you beat up a bunch of people because they insulted me. I don't need to continue mentioning favors you've done for us, Pete, I think this is more than Pete will be able to do on his side, he doesn't even have the ideas you have, the righteous anger, in almost everything, you trump him, I've yet to see him outdo you. Now don't discuss point one or three, just explain point two to me, then we will move onto a different topic which we need to discuss."
"Ok, so, where do I start... well in most universes, he meets and comes to love Gwen Stacy, who dies in his arms. Then there's MJ, she's also a given in most universes, she dies many times around, unlike Gwen Stacy, who dies in about ninety eight percent of the universes where we meet. Liz is less frequent as the other two, but is very common and dies because of me only several thousand times, very little compared to the other two. There's another very common woman he falls in love with, The Black Cat, Felicie Hardy, a thief who only steals from criminals. She has bad luck powers, and even became Kingpin of New York at one point, a very powerful, hot, badass, and sneaky woman. She dies several million times because of other Kingpins, depending on the universe, the specific Kingpin who is responsible varies. All four of the aforementioned women love Peter in at least eighty nine percent of the worlds.
"Then there's Silver Sable Sablinova, royalty of the country Symkaria, but an overall badass who could probably kill my multiversal counterparts with ease. The Black Widow, Natasha Romanov, is also on the list. You already know her M.O. then there's White Tiger, Ava Ayala, who has an amulet that gives her the powers of a white tiger. Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, an ex HYDRA agent who was taken to HYDRA against her will. She has spider powers. Jean Grey, a mutant, one of the strongest telepathics there are, has The Phoenix within her most of the time. Wanda Maximoff, a mutant, has telepathic, telekinetic, reality altering powers, as well as a very large amount of control over Chaos magic. Emma Frost, a mutant, another one of the strongest telepathics. Aforementioned eleven women have a relationship with me in at least eighty one percent of the universes.
" Jessica Jones, super powered human, detective. Anna Marconi, no powers, met her at PI. Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, has cosmic powers, not as vast as others, but strong nevertheless. Will take her several punches to knock me out, but can knock out the typical super soldier in one. Carlie Cooper, no powers, NYPD officer. Madame Web, Julia Carpenter, connected to the Web Of Life, giving her clairvoyance. Susan Storm, can make force fields and turn herself and others immediately around her invisible. Aforementioned sixteen women are lovers with me in seventy five percent of the universes.
"Michelle Gonzales, no powers, criminal defense lawyer. Met her through her brother. Mockingbird, Barbara Bobbi Morse, SHIELD agent, has hard light wings I made for her. Rogue, Anna Marie LeBeau, mutant, can kill people with a touch should she want to. Aforementioned nineteen women are lovers with me in sixty seven percent of the universes.
"There are several other women, but they are very few, in merely one hundred or so universes. In the comics, the center universe of the Web Of Life has one special woman I have a relationship with, said woman exists in very few universes, but wherever she is, we have a relationship. Cindy Moon, AKA Silk, known in spider lore as 'The Bride'."
"Wow, you weren't lying when you said twenty women. I don't know what to say, but I am just going to move on to the next topic, Cindy. Now that you told me that little bit, explain that, and what is the Web Of Life, where is Cindy at the moment, is she like you, and do her parents know about you?"
"so we were bit by the same spider, which she smashed with her foot, and the Web Of Life is a magical web on Earth-001, which is significant to the whole multiverse, with each junction between two strings of web another universe. Cindy is with the spider totem who was here before us, his name is Ezekiel, she is in a bunker in the city, I don't know where yet, I will not search for her till I am ready to fight the Inheritors. Her parents know that I am not actually Peter, because she wasn't actually Cindy either when she was bit, but she was an amalgamation of whoever was bit on my world, and Cindy herself."
"New questions, what earth number are we on? And how does the Web rip, can it rip? Who are the Inheritors, what's a spider totem?"
"We are Earth-313, The Web can rip when the spider totem of a universe connects strongly to the Web Of Life, and the totem gets killed, dying normally is fine, but being killed without a totem remaining to take your position rips your universe, ripping the junction of the Web that was your universe, and if it is the center universe, or a universe close to the center, it can be detrimental to the Web as a whole. The Inheritors are a family of vampires that feed off of the souls of Spider totems, and plague the multiverse. If my comics are correct, they currently live on Earth-001. A spider totem is one such as us, equipped with spider powers, connected to The Web Of Life. There are several different ways one is given the status of a totem, but we were bitten."
After a moment, Tess said, "But what do you and Cindy have to do with the Web, why does she have to stay away from you?"
"As I said, she is 'The Bride' when we are around each other, we get attracted to each other, and that will reflect across The Web. Judging from the fact that Cindy is in this world, this world is either the center universe or a world essential to the Web. All Peter Parkers are automatically more powerful, and therefore more essential to their universe. And with the power boost I had from before, I am already connected to The Web. Not including the fact that Mr. Shadow literally poured Web Magic into me. Should The Inheritors attack me and I don't survive, this whole multiverse would go to shambles."
"And how powerful are these Inheritors, you seem to be afraid of them, and that worries me."
"Tess, I seem really scared, but I'm actually dying on the inside. If I go down, everyone goes down. I can't take any risks, the multiverse is depending on me, and I don't know what to do. The Inheritors are a family, the mother died, but the children and father are alive. The father, Solus," and I shivered at his name, "killed a Peter in the comics with one punch, and that Peter had a cosmic entity within him. I doubt I can even win, but if only me and the Inheritors die, you and Cindy could continue being the totems, and everything would work out."
"No, I'm not letting you die. There has to be something, anything. Wait you said you had Web Magic, so you can go to some hotshot magician that's in this universe, you know one right?" I nodded, so she continued, "you learn how to use your magic to the fullest, and you can collect powers with the Adaptoid Serum on the side!"
"I will see, Tess. But for now, let's go home and sleep, it is two AM."
"Yeah" she said and we activated cloaking, then went home.