Chapter 152

[Third Person's PoV] 

Scarlet-Spider was saying goodbye to her new friend while Peter and Gwen walked home from their internship.

"It was nice meeting the two of you," she said, patting the heads of two little boys standing behind Anastasia's leg.

"Come on, you two, say bye properly," Anastasia encouraged, holding their heads gently.

Blushing, the boys said their goodbyes in Russian before rushing back into their new home, causing both women to laugh.

"So, are you going to be alright settling in? It's a big change, after all," Scarlet-Spider asked curiously.

Anastasia nodded. "Actually, before leaving, SHIELD offered me a job as one of their agents… I was thinking of accepting."

"Sounds like a great opportunity. You should take it. Now, I guess I should get going. I've overstayed my welcome."

Anastasia hugged her. "Nonsense. Visit whenever you want."

After their hug and goodbyes, Scarlet-Spider climbed to a rooftop. "Now come to mama," she whispered.

Spiders began to surround her. "The ones with cameras, line up in front of me," she ordered.

The spiders obeyed, and she began collecting the cameras from their small bodies. "Thank you, little cuties. Now go rest and do what spiders do. Wait for my call."

"Yes, our Spider Queen," they said with reverence before scattering.

Scarlet-Spider shook her head in amusement and turned invisible, heading home. She snuck in through her window, undid her invisibility and spider outfit, and took a shower before dressing in a tank top and shorts. Sitting on her bed, she organized the photos she had received while eating a snack. 

After nearly an hour, she uploaded the selected photos to a flash drive. Dressed once more, she jumped out the window and froze. Scratching her eyebrow, she muttered, "There was absolutely no need for me to do that. I could have just used the door."

She hurried to The Daily Bugle, which was still open despite the late hour. MJ printed the photos and asked Betty, "Is Mr. Jameson in his office?"

"He ever even leaves the place?" Betty scoffed. "But you can enter; he's just talking to the other intern."

"He's here? Isn't it pretty late?"

Betty gave her a deadpan look, causing MJ to feel embarrassed. "Right, sorry. I'll let myself in."

Inside, she heard Jameson yelling, "Come on, kid! You could have skipped school and gotten me better pictures. I want pictures of them fighting, not the aftermath. We need evidence!"

"Excuse me," MJ interrupted. "I actually skipped school to get these pictures. Can I get a note to excuse my absence?"

Jameson motioned for her to hand him the pictures. As he looked at them, he laughed. "Now this is what I'm talking about!"

"You should learn a thing or two from her, Jerry. This is dedication! She risked her education and got me these marvelous photos!"

"It's Eddie," Eddie retorted, annoyed. "And you can still use my pictures. Just put them side by side with hers and show the effects of what they left behind."

Jameson rubbed his chin. "I see what you mean. I'm so glad I thought of this."

Eddie's lip twitched at Jameson's shamelessness. He turned to MJ, who was trying not to laugh. 

"So, can I get my excused absence note?"

"You'll get more than that, young lady. These pictures deserve a bonus. I almost thought I'd have to use these useless photos for tomorrow's paper."

"There's no need to diss my photos. If you don't want them, I'll take them somewhere else."

"Stop being a big baby; I still need them," Jameson waved Eddie off. "Betty, give Mary Jane a bonus on her way out and a note excusing her absence on my behalf."

"Now shoo, you two. I have a paper to write."

MJ rolled her eyes and received what she needed. Eddie, walking next to her, scoffed. "Why is he like that? And how come he remembers your name and not mine? Mine's easier to remember."

"Excuse me?" MJ raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean anything bad by it," Eddie apologized.

"You seriously don't realize what he was doing?"

"Huh?"

"In his weird, asshole way, he was trying to be a mentor and teach you something."

"Huh?! Are we talking about the same guy? What was he trying to teach, how to be an ass?"

MJ scoffed in amusement. "No, he wanted to show you that those who get the job done and well get recognition, while those who don't even try won't have their names remembered."

"And I'll ask you again, are you sure we're talking about the same person?"

As they got outside, it was turning dark. "Come on, I'll walk you home. It's getting dark."

"Huh? Why would you do that?" MJ asked, confused.

MJ, like Peter, was completely oblivious when people were hitting on her. Unfortunately, she was even more oblivious than Peter.

"Come on, you don't really expect me to be okay with letting someone as beautiful as you be alone when it's getting dark. Who knows what kind of creeps you might encounter."

"I appreciate the compliment and the gesture, but I can take care of myself perfectly fine. I didn't take self-defense classes for nothing."

"Men are much stronger—"

His words were cut short as MJ aimed her foot right at his temple, stopping an inch away. Eddie stood there, stunned, while MJ smiled and walked away with a skip in her step. "Like I said, don't worry."

As she walked away, Eddie held his camera and secretly took a picture of her. MJ's spidey senses tingled. She looked back in confusion and saw Eddie smiling at his camera. She shrugged and walked away.

'My liking towards her is definitely developing into a crush. Her confident smile was so beautiful…'

…

Nearly an hour later, Peter and Gwen awoke with their bodies aching.

"Ahhh!" They both screamed, holding their eyes. "Aria, shut off the lights!"

With the lights off, they blinked a few times. "Alright, what is going on?" Gwen asked.

"I think the SSS upgraded the spider DNA in our systems. We might have developed night vision since I can see you perfectly even though it's pitch black in here."

"Whoa, that's cool. I wonder what else we can do," Gwen mused.

"I wonder that too… but first, let's take a shower. I'm so sweaty, it's a bit gross."

"Heh, I understand. Wanna go together?"

"Did the SSS also upgrade your libido?"

"You don't want to?"

"Now I never said that. Who am I to miss such an opportunity?"

After showering, having some shower sex, and showering again, they dressed in training clothes and sat in the dark training room.

"Let's have Aria do a quick scan," Peter suggested, and Gwen agreed.

After their scans, Aria reported, "There are some things these scans can't show, like how they've affected your senses. But I can tell you that the spider DNA inside you has indeed gotten stronger, causing you to develop new abilities and upgrades.

Let's start with the typical abilities. Everything has been upgraded by at least two times. You can now lift 200 tons. Your muscles are more compact, making them heavier and stronger, which means increased durability.

You are now effectively bulletproof. Normal bullets will bounce right off, and high-caliber bullets will cause a regular bullet wound at most. You should now be faster than the speed of sound. Congratulations 

Your tendons are like rubber, allowing you to twist and turn into impossible positions, making you very flexible. The spinnerets in your forearms, responsible for your organic webbing, have been upgraded. You can now produce acidic webbing.

Your bio-electricity has strengthened, burning brighter or colder based on who I'm talking to. Your camouflage ability has also improved; you should be able to turn objects you're holding invisible as well. It's more durable, allowing you to take hits while invisible without losing your camouflage.

Finally, all your senses have been upgraded twice over. What you can do with them, I can only infer."

"I see, so that's what's upgraded. What did we receive that's new? I can tell there are things in my body that weren't there before," Peter said, looking at his arms.

Gwen nodded in agreement. She extended her arms, and from the top of her wrists, long bone claws shot up, splattering the floor with blood and causing her to wince.

From the side of Peter's wrists, two long bone claws appeared on each wrist. "Shit, does Felicia have to deal with this pain every time? They're sick though, I'll give you that," he said.

Their bone claws retracted back into their bodies as the holes they created immediately closed.

Aria then said, "As you can see, you have developed retractable bone claws. You also have retractable fangs, two at the top and two at the bottom."

Gwen, who was sitting on the ground, leaned back on her hands and looked at Peter teasingly. She opened her mouth slightly, and the four fangs elongated. She looked up and licked one of her fangs before biting down.

"You naughty, naughty girl," Peter said in a Nigerian accent, wiggling his finger at her.

Peter then pulled the side of his cheek with his middle finger and showed his teeth, smirking at her, which caused them both to laugh.

"Are they venomous? Like do they have paralytic poison?" Peter asked.

"No, and neither are your bone claws. They are just there," Aria responded.

"Cool, so I just turned into a carnivore," Peter said sarcastically.

"Now then, what else?" Gwen asked as she was standing up. As she did, Peter spread his legs a bit.

She looked at him in confusion. "How did you know I was just going to sit in your lap? I was just standing up."

"Yo, this is so trippy since I just saw an image of you doing it. To me, it appeared like a flip book. I saw you standing up, walking towards me, and plopping down right inside my legs. The images of you were faded though."

"Cool," Gwen said as she sat between his legs. "So, do you have some kind of foresight?"

"Yup. I wonder, do you have the same thing as I do?"

"Hmm, let's see..." Gwen said as she closed her eyes and focused on her spidey-senses. "Woah... I don't have foresight, but I do have some type of clairvoyance. I can see what's happening in the streets outside. My spidey-senses are painting a picture in my head, and we're pretty deep underground."

"Heh, young disciple, it appears you have opened your third eye," Peter teased, causing Gwen to chuckle.

"Tell me, have you guys ever heard of the Laplace Demon theory?" Aria suddenly asked.

"Yup."

"Nope," Peter and Gwen said, respectively.

Peter explained, "The Laplace Demon is a theoretical creature that, if it knows the position and motion of everything, can predict where everything would move next and thus predict the future."

"Correct," Aria said seriously. "Take that theory and add your abilities—not just your spidey-senses, but your chi abilities as well.

Let's take Dad's spidey-senses and electric chi as an example. Dad, your spidey-senses take into account everything in their surroundings, while your electricity is energy that pushes everything forward. That's how I believe your foresight came to be.

Now for Mom, it's more difficult to guess. But I believe, just like Dad's, your spidey-senses notice everything. Here's where it gets tricky. I think your spidey-senses take the concept of spreading from your ice-based chi and add it to them, making your spidey-senses spread further than they would normally, giving you clairvoyance on a larger scale, if that makes sense."

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