Chapter 76: The Tracker

Peter lay quietly on the ceiling, closed his eyes, and used his mind to feel every muscle in his body, little by little. He gradually became familiar with the changes in his body this way. 

"Huh--" About half an hour later, Peter carefully landed on the ground. He had basically adapted to this faster, stronger body with more developed spider-sense. 

However, he was still a little cautious, afraid that he would break something if he used too much force. Although he now had the ability to make money, Aunt May would definitely scold him for making a mess at home for no reason. He still remembered how angry Aunt May looked over a month ago!

However, what surprised him the most, besides the change in his physical strength, was a new ability. Whoosh-- Peter stretched out his hand towards the ceiling, and a spider web shot out from his hand. 

But he wasn't wearing web-shooters right now! This spider web actually shot directly out of his hand! But he didn't have any new organs in his body that could produce web fluid. Perhaps this was some kind of magical power?

Was this the ability he got from Noir Spider-Man? After all, the other two Spider-Men used web-shooters, and only Noir Spider-Man, whose powers were more magic-based, produced his own webs. Peter gave himself a more reasonable explanation in his heart.

Buzz-- His phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket. Peter carefully took out his phone, lit up the screen, and found that there were actually a lot of messages. 

[Ned: Why did you take the day off today? Are you sick? How about I visit you after school this afternoon?]

[Ned: How about bringing my Lego Death Star? Let's put it together, help.jpg, help.jpg]

[Ned: Are you working on the Stark internship project, so you don't have time to reply to messages? Should I still come over to your house this afternoon?] 

[Ned: I thought about it and decided to go. I can wait for you at your house first. When you finish the Stark internship project, remember to come back quickly.]

[Ned: ]

Ned sent him more than a dozen messages, almost one every half hour. If you didn't know better, you'd think they were a couple in love! 

Peter thought for a moment and carefully typed on the screen: "I am indeed sick and resting at home. I just woke up. If you want to come over, go ahead. I'll be waiting for you at home."

Then, Peter looked at the second message, which was from his teacher, Mr. Harrington. 

[Mr. Harrington: Peter, are you feeling better? I hope you get well soon. We will soon participate in the National Academic Decathlon. Don't be absent.]

Peter replied: OK, I understand. Thank you for your concern, Mr. Harrington.

The third was from Aunt May, but it was mainly to remind him to eat on time at home and bring an extra coat as it was cold recently. Anyway, it was all the same usual stuff.

Peter wanted to just reply "OK" to brush it off, but after typing, he hesitated. He remembered the repeated exhortations of the Amazing Spider-Man B.

"Don't ignore the people around you who care about you."

"When being Spider-Man, don't forget to be yourself." 

Thinking of this, Peter picked up his phone, considered his words, and honestly composed a long text message and sent it. This was the first time in his life he had done this.

He didn't know what Aunt May thought when she saw it, but after sending it, Peter felt relieved. 

The fourth message was from Happy, Iron Man's driver and bodyguard. But he mainly asked about Peter's recent situation, which seemed to be a routine matter. 

However, Peter always felt that there was something wrong. It was as if Happy knew that he had been staying at home a lot recently. Peter frowned.

The fifth one was from Tony Stark. And Tony Stark was even more direct. He asked Peter if something had happened recently, as he often stayed at home for a whole day.

Peter felt something was wrong at a glance. In this situation, he was being tracked 24 hours a day! Someone was watching him secretly? 

No, it shouldn't be. If there was someone, he would definitely be able to detect it. His spider-sense was still very sensitive to those who deliberately targeted him.

Then... A tracker? On his body? Or... In that suit?!!

Peter admitted that he might be too sensitive. Maybe Iron Man really just cared about him. But now that he had thought of this possibility, he would feel a little uneasy if he didn't check it carefully. 

Even if it was just for peace of mind, he had to check it carefully today! Peter took out the spider suit that Iron Man gave him and turned it inside out.

Inside the suit were many circuits made of conductive fibers. Peter frowned, and after searching for a while, his eyes lit up, and then his brows furrowed even more. 

"This is a tracker!" 

Peter picked up tweezers and tore the tracker off the suit bit by bit. Looking at this little thing that was still sending signals, his heart went cold. 

He was really being tracked. And by the superhero Tony Stark, whom he had always admired! For a while, he found it hard to accept.

After a long time, "Huh--" Peter let out a long breath and calmed down. He had figured it out a little.

Rationally speaking, Iron Man's approach was indeed correct. After all, to the Avengers, he was just a 15-year-old kid who had just gained superpowers. 

To prevent him from messing around, it was understandable to install a tracker to locate him. But from Peter's own personal emotional point of view, he could not accept this behavior.

Thinking that his daily actions were being monitored, Peter felt uncomfortable all over. Especially now that he had a glowing spider web in his mind, he might often go to different worlds where other Spider-Men were to have adventures. 

And once he went there, his body here would be in a dormant state. Once or twice would be fine, but if it happened too many times, it would definitely be discovered!

Peter was not ready to share his secret with others for the time being. Even in the Earth-1610B universe, when he talked to the Amazing Spider-Man B and others, he only roughly said that his abilities were slightly different from theirs, but did not explain in detail.

Peter held the tracker between two fingers, exerted a little force, and crushed it into pieces. He did not want to use this as evidence to question Iron Man about why he was tracking him. 

That would be meaningless. The tracker was actually very obvious. It was directly attached to the inside of the suit. It was clearly added later.

If it was meant to be concealed, it could have been put directly in the gap between the middle layers of the suit, inside the circuitry. 

This showed that they were not afraid of Peter discovering it at all. Even if Peter went to question them, they could say that it was to protect him or something like that.

"In the end, I can only rely on myself!" Peter turned the suit back out and stuffed it into his backpack.

(End of chapter)