3 Issue 3: Birth of the Way of the Spider Part I
Peter smiled as he walked over to a few I-beams stacked together and said, "First step in Hero Training, Weight training!"
MJ lifted a brow.
"It's simple, pick up heavy things."
He picked up the 700 plus pound steel block and placed it gently back down on the ground before he began jumping across the walls and ground and shouted out, "Agility training will be augmented by Parkour, sprinting, and obstacle course running."
Peter then landed in front of MJ and smiled before crossing his arms and saying, "As for combat, Shang Chi should be our teacher, but it will take me a while to track him down."
MJ showed a puzzled expression before she asked, "Who is Shang Chi?"
Peter replied with a grin on his mug, "He's the world's greatest martial art master."
MJ then followed up by asking, "Why would he teach us?"
To which Peter answered, "Because he's a nice guy!" while thinking, "and Madam Web may influence his decision."
Peter seriously doubted that Madam Web would ignore his presence for long. If anyone could see what he had to offer and help, it would be the one directly connected to the Web of Life and Destiny.
MJ walked over to the I-Beam and picked it up, smiling at how easy it was she started working out as she asked, "If we have this kind of strength is there any reason to actually work out?"
Peter picked up 3 I-Beams and started lifting as he replied, "Yes, you remember how I said that the spider was made with the data of a super-soldier serum?"
MJ nodded her head, "Well, the muscles we gained are like super-advanced versions of what they used to be. Let me put it this way, if our muscles used to be copper, now they're gold."
Peter continued to lift around half a ton as he continued, "Although it's changed composition, we still need to exercise them to make them grow. If we don't build up our Super Muscles, then a lot of its potential would be left untapped."
After his metamorphosis Peter knew better than anyone what was happening to his body. He always wondered why Spider-Man's strength always surpassed that catchphrase, Proportionate Strength of a Spider.
There have been several occasions of him doing so, such as stopping a train, and catching a plane and supporting its weight while it landed, not to mention him holding up an entire building. After studying the files he pulled from Oscorp, he had his answer. They were indeed trying to replicate the Super Soldier Serum, and the boons went far beyond what a spider could offer.
MJ seemed to get the point he was making, so she picked up another I-Beam, and they continued to put their muscles to the test. Once they push the limits of their bodies to the max and felt intense strain, the Spiders came to the realization that 20 tons were their current limit. They benched until they worked up sweat and focused on acrobats, by playing a very mobile game of tag.
This also doubled as Spider-Sense training, as the two would use it to warn them of the other's touch before they were tagged.
Their game of cat and mouse carried on for a few hours until they had to switch back to other training methods. This time, MJ spoke up.
"We should include Yoga, It can improve our flexibility."
"So, it's strength, endurance, and then dexterity training. Sounds good to me," Peter replied as he scratched his head.
"Just one issue though…I don't know yoga,"
MJ chuckled before saying, "Luckily, I do."
They used cardboard boxes as mats and MJ guided Peter through several exercises she picked up in her mother's classes.
Peter found it exciting that they were able to bend in ways he didn't think possible.
"I've got to say Tiger, we're going to have to invent some poses. That has never been easier for me."
"I guess so, I can't believe how flexible we've become. I can center my entire body on a single finger or even twist myself to touch the back of my heel."
Once they finished their workout routine, the two noticed it was starting to get dark out.
"Race you back?" MJ said as she wiped up the sweat with a towel.
"Lets go!" Peter shouted as they took off. They jumped up to the nearest rooftop and started making their way across Harlem.
When they got back to their cul-de-sac, they split off and waved goodbye before they each entered their respective houses.
As he opened the door to his house, Peter was once again met by a worried Aunt May tapping her foot against the floor.
"Just where have you been, young man? Do have any idea what time it is?" May asked with crossed arms.
"MJ said if I want the bullying to stop, I have to get into the shape. She was jogging with me around the city, I'm even thinking about getting a gym membership card," Peter said as he removed his jacket.
"Oh, you've been spending an awful lot of time with MJ lately, something good happen?" Ben said with a teasing smile.
"Ben, not now," May pinched the bridge of her nose.
As Peter approached the table he sat down smiled before saying, "Yep! She's my girlfriend now."
May smiled happily, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be mad.
"I always thought you two would make a good couple. . ."
Suddenly Ben and May smelled the odor coming off Peter's body. In response to seeing him remove his sweat filled jacket, May's face turned green and shouted, "Don't you dare place that jacket on my chair young man, to the laundry room and hit showers."
Aunt May then ushered him into the bathroom and grabbed a basket before saying, "Now you take a shower and prepare for dinner,"
Peter blushed and thanked May before pushing her out of the bathroom and dropping his clothes in the basket from behind the door.
After taking a shower he poked his head out the door to make sure May and Ben weren't around, Peter couldn't quite explain the change in his body, he would need at least a few months before he could explain away his built physique.
Once he saw that the coast was clear, Peter dashed up to his room and as he closed his door behind him.
He then turned around and saw MJ sitting on his bed staring at his six-pack with a hint of lust in her eyes.
"If you keep staring like that, then maybe I should start charging a fee," Peter said making MJ snap out of her daze.
"I wasn't staring!" MJ shouted as she crossed her arms and turned around with a red face.
Peter smiled and said, "No peeking!" as he quickly got dressed.
However, MJ didn't listen and tilted her head back slightly to see it momentarily. She suddenly gasped in shock as she thought "Is it normal for it to be that size?!"
Before Peter finished putting on his clothes, MJ snapped her head back and smiled with a bright red face.
As he sat down beside her, Peter tilted his head at her awkward expression and asked, "What's up?"
MJ grinned before she gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, "It's the weekend tomorrow are we gonna get up early to go train again?"
Peter nodded his head before answering, "Yep, but this time we have the whole day to train, so I get to show you something cool."
Peter placed his hand on Mary's shoulder and was seconds away from kissing her when May's voice interrupted them, "Peter! Dinner's ready! Are you decent?"
MJ hopped off his bed like a frightened rabbit. She then leaned outside his window before saying with a blushed face, "See you tomorrow bright and early, Tiger!"
She hopped down and headed across the street. As Peter watched her toned ass swaying across the street, she looked back and grinned before waving goodbye.
"I'm definitely gonna make you my wife someday." Peter shook his head with a smirk on his face.
He headed down to eat dinner with his Aunt and Uncle. During the meal, "So, MJ and I are dating now, and she'll be picking him up tomorrow to go jogging. I plan on working out with her for a while."
Ben and May couldn't help but tease him for a while. After a few minutes of throwing out comments like, "So, when are you getting married?" and "Remember to be responsible, we don't want grandkids just yet."
"LALALAL I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Peter rushed upstairs with his hands over his ears before crashed on to his bed.
The next morning, around 5 AM, MJ came knocking. Peter grabbed a towel and jumped into his shower.
While he was getting ready, Ben, who was also an early riser, let MJ inside and greeted her by saying, "Good morning, Mary. It's good to see you."
MJ smiled and replied, "It's good to see you too, Uncle Ben! I'm here to pick Peter up."
"He's getting ready, so he should be down any second now." No sooner than saying this, Peter came downstairs with wet hair and a sweatsuit on.
After greeting them, Peter grabbed MJ's hand and ran out the front door while saying, "We'll be back in a few hours! Later!"
Ben smiled at the two as they jogged off at a steady pace. After they were out of view, they started running to their fastest sprint and took off in a blur of intense speeds.
"This is so fun!" MJ shouted as she jumped up and landed on top of a roof top. She looked over the ledge and saw Peter dash up the side of the wall before hopping over her with a big grin on his face.
"Yahoo!" Peter shouted as he leapt off the ledge and to another Rooftop.
"Wait up!" MJ cased after with an excited expression.
The two chased after each other, trying to one up each other with their acrobatic feats.
MJ saw street in the gab before her eyes darted around the area. Once she spotted the billboard, she jumped into the air and used her hands to vault herself to the next building top, landing a 360 front flip.
Peter laughed a little as he kicked of the signboard, landed backwards on the ledge of the next roof, and 360 flipped onto the gravel roofing.
"What else do you have to show me?" Peter ran ahead.
"Cocky, aren't we?" MJ chased after and had a blast moving through the city.
When they arrived, Peter threw down his backpack and started to suit up, MJ blushed seeing him undressing and even more so when he put the suit on.
"Wow, Tiger! Turns out the saying, the clothes making the man, is true." MJ bit her lip as she stared at the classic red, black, and blue costume.
Peter smiled and pulled out his newer model web-shooters and placed them under his gloves.
"What are those?" MJ asked with an excited grin, making Peter grin under his mask.
"These babies are my web-shooters. Right now, they're still in the prototype phase, but it's what I'll spend most of my time training to master. I can't wait to start swinging from skyscrapers."
Peter shot a web to the ceiling and quickly climbed up it. He laughed as he shot another web and swung from it landing on the second floor.
"That's awesome, did you make that? Can you make me one?" MJ's eyes glowed as she tried pulling on the webbing to test its strength.
"I can make you one, but it will take a while, I had to spend the car money I was saving up to make these," Peter said as he climbed down the webbing, he then jumped down the rest of the way and landed in front of MJ.
"The web formula consists of salicylic acid, toulene, methanol, carbon tetrachloride, potassium carbonate, and ethyl acetate, and a trace amount of synthetic Carbonadium. I used the rest of the Synthetic Carbonadium to build a miniature spider spinneret that creates the web as the co2 ejects it the fluid. The webbing hardens almost instantly because of the…"
Peter did his best to explain the properties of his webbing, but he could tell that he had lost her around salicylic acid. Peter then started to pull out a bunch of textbooks and said, "I think you should try reading some of these and I'll tutor you every day."
A look of horror spread across her face as she said, "My arch-nemesis! Chemistry!"
Peter chuckled in response to her statement and replied by saying, "Oh, come on! It's not that bad. Besides once you start to get the hang of it, I think you'll like what you can do with the power of knowledge."
Seeing the innocent expression on Peter's face, MJ caved in and agreed, "How does that old adage go? Knowledge is power."
She picked up one of the notebooks for physics and biology and sighed as she started reading while squatting with I-Beams on her back.
Peter stepped outside and started his webbing practice.
This training continued for almost three months. In this time, MJ and Peter grew accustomed with their enhanced bodies. On top of their muscles looking more defined, they had built up the stamina needed for prolonged combat through intense sprinting and acrobatic performance. Even their flexibility had shown some improvements when MJ came up with some interesting ways to stretch their bodies.
The two saved up enough money to make another pair of web-shooters and even started web-slinging practice. It took them a few weeks to get the hang of flinging themselves from building to building, and their skills were still lacking.
During his off time, Peter continued to search for Shang Chi. He monitored China Town and waited for reports of the martial arts master being spotted taking out Triad members. It took him the entirety of the three months before Peter finally found him sitting in a Chinese restaurant called, the Golden Dragon.
Looking at the photo of Shang Chi and seeing the man sitting by the window, Peter walked inside before he sat down next to the Bruce Lee look-alike and smiled while holding his hand out.
"Hi names Peter. You're a martial artist, right?" Peter questioned.
Shang Chi looked at Peter like he was a mystery. Thanks to his vast experiences he could tell that the boy in front of him was both physically strong and had a powerful Chi boiling inside him.
Of course, the Chi Shang Chi noticed is what Peter called his Bioelectricity or living energy. In Kung-Fu both Chi and Bioelectricity are essentially the same things. Furthermore, thanks to Wolverine's Regeneration and the Spider Powers, Peter was gifted with an abundant amount of Chi, far more than what Shang Chi was used to.
The master martial artist held out his hand to shake, and the moment he felt Peter's grip, he knew he was correct, "My name his Shang Chi. Tell Peter, why have you sought me out?"
Peter smiled and said, "I wish to receive combat training from you! Right now, I have been granted extraordinary powers, and with them extraordinary responsibilities. I need someone to help me shape my abilities into the perfect tool for me to wield. If I can't focus and use my talents to their fullest potentials, then I can't save everyone that I come across."
While hearing the boy speak, Shang Chi used his Chi to read Peter's pulse, and after hearing his whole story and discovering no lies were told, Shang Chi smiled and asked, "Why would you risk your life for others like that?"
Peter scratched his head before thinking through how he wanted to phrase his next statement, "I've always wanted to be a Hero. Whether it was using my brain to solve some kind of world crisis, or through pummeling bad guys with my fist, I just wanted to do some good. A while ago, I was just a smart kid, but after I received these powers, I realized that the saying my Uncle always tells me is true. With great power, comes great responsibility. I know this sounds silly, but I always tried to live by this motto, and right now I have a whole lot of responsibilities."
Shang Chi smiled and handed Peter a piece of paper, "Head here tomorrow, and I shall test you."
Peter smiled as he took the paper and opened it up. The directions led to Shang Chi's personal dojo were written down in Chinese. However, with the power Google Maps, Peter was able to find it without any trouble.
"Maybe I should start learning other languages."
The next day, Peter and MJ appeared standing in front of a large Chinese-styled building with a white fence surrounding a large garden-like courtyard. Inside the building, Shang Chi had sensed their arrival.
After entering Shang Chi saw MJ and showed a surprised expression. Just like Peter, Shang Chi could sense strong waves of energy emanating from her body.
Shang Chi then smiled as he placed out his hand in a martial stance before saying, "Show me what you can do."
Peter moved forward and took up a very basic boxing stance, and as he tried to punch at Shang Chi, Peter only managed to hit the air.
Shang Chi dodged Peter's punched with little effort and appeared beside him before saying, "Not a bad choice for punches. Boxing does indeed have many years of fist-techniques under their belt, but your moves are amateurish and are poor imitations."
Shang Chi then kicked Peter's feet from under him making his Spidey Sense go off.
Narrowly dodging the low kick, Spider-Man jumped back and did a flip before landing in the low to the ground pose Spider-Man was famous for.
"Oh! Now that was interesting! How did you detect my attack?" Shang Chi asked with a curious expression. He knew that Peter wasn't fast enough nor was he skilled enough to dodge.
Peter smiled and rubbed the back of his head and said, "It's a danger-sense of sorts. Although the ability borderlines on precognition, it's very hard to tell what level of danger is approaching us. In simpler terms, we get a tingling sensation that invades our minds and warns us of impending danger."
After explaining a bit and the limits of their powers Shang Chi smiled before saying, "I can think of a few things to start teaching you, but first we begin with the basics. I especially look forward to training your…spider senses, I wonder what kinds of training methods I'll develop. This could even prove useful for me."
Peter smiled and said, "I'm glad we can help."
With that said the two began their training, it had been another 3 months of constant training until Shang Chi had finally started to see the outline of their new martial art. To train their senses, he blindfolded them both and made them dodge his attacks.
In the beginning, the two were beaten mercilessly.
Shang Chi pummeled them with soft and hard attacks in an attempt to help them learn of the difference in severity of danger for the attacks. Although they could sense it, they weren't able to tell which of his attacks were more damaging and neither were they able see through to his real attacks.
However, after many days of this type of training, they began to fine-tune that section of their senses. On the end of the first month, the two Spider-Warriors could feel a slight difference in the levels of dangers, and the ringing sensation inside their head had slight alterations to it depending on how Shang Chi attacked.
After another week of Shang Chi's intense training, they began to sense and effectively dodge their master's attacks. With their Spidey-Senses under control, they could almost see the image inside their mind before Shang Chi's punches and kicks connected.
Once he approved of their level of mastery, Shang Chi removed their blindfolds revealing that he too was wearing one, shocking the two spider-themed heroes.
Shang Chi removed his blindfold and said, "Defense is decent…Next, we work on attacking!"
