Chapter 153

[Third Person's PoV] 

Peter and Gwen then decided to test out their senses, trying to see if they had developed something new.

Peter looked at Gwen with his mouth agape, clearly excited about something. Gwen just looked at him strangely, "What?"

"I have X-ray…"

"Huh!?"

Peter just covered his mouth and made an expression as if he was about to cry tears of joy, "I have some type of X-ray vision… this is the greatest day of my life."

Gwen blushed as she covered her chest since he was still staring at her. "You pervert!"

"It isn't anything I've never seen," Peter said with a smirk.

Gwen just narrowed her eyes at him and focused. "Huh, oh wow, this is cool. I have some sort of infrared vision, but I really have to focus on it; otherwise, it will flicker away. It's like it's turning on and off."

"I get what you mean… Nice tits though."

Gwen smacked him across the arm. "If you can stop being a pervert for just a few minutes, I would very much appreciate it."

"I have X-ray vision and invisibility… All I need is time-stop, and I would be golden. The heavenly trio."

Gwen's expression turned cold. "You're disgusting."

"Too far?"

Gwen only nodded, causing Peter to look apologetic as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I'll stop."

Gwen rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're so lucky I love you and understand your dark and twisted humor."

Peter laid down on her lap and buried his face by her stomach. "I guess I am lucky to have such an amazing and understanding girlfriend," he said, looking up at her with puckered lips for a kiss.

Gwen rolled her eyes as she held his face and moved his hair away from his eyes. She gave him a quick kiss. "Now come on, Mr. Pervert, we have to train our new abilities."

"What? Is that all I'm getting?"

"That's all you deserve for that little joke, Mr. Pervert."

"Is that what you're just going to keep calling me from now on?" Peter sighed as he reluctantly got up.

"Yup! Now come on, Capsule time," Gwen said, happily marching away.

Peter shook his head and followed after her. When they entered the Capsule, they spent a few hours training how to properly control their new strength, which surprisingly wasn't that hard for them.

Their experience in martial arts had given them amazing control over their bodies and muscles, allowing them to control their strength just as they used to before taking the SSS.

Afterward, they were able to control their senses, which were still heightened. Everything felt sensitive to them; they could even feel changes in the wind with their skin.

If they shut off all their other senses, they could faintly hear each other's heartbeat, but only from close proximity.

Aria developed a scenario where they had to find and track down a killer using just their heightened sense of smell.

As for their taste, Aria developed a scenario where they were in a cooking competition and had to win using their enhanced taste buds. This actually helped them both become really good cooks.

After training to properly control and use their new senses, they moved on to training with their new bone claws.

Peter and Gwen stood face-to-face in an empty white room.

Gwen spread her arms out, and from the tops of her wrists, long bone claws appeared on both hands. She took a step forward and leaned towards Peter, smiling widely and exposing her fangs.

Peter crossed his arms, and from the sides of his wrists, two bone claws appeared on each hand. Peter then swiped his arms to the side and grinned savagely, exposing his own fangs.

They both hissed at each other before they started laughing, amused and entertained by their own actions.

"Hahaha, okay, okay, for real now," Peter chuckled.

"Hehehe, you're right, you're right," Gwen said as they both got into fighting positions.

Their faces turned serious as they narrowed their eyes at each other. With a burst of blinding speed, they ran towards each other.

Peter and Gwen collided with a loud clash of bone on bone, their claws locking in a fierce struggle for dominance. Peter's superior strength began to push Gwen back, but she twisted gracefully, using her agility to slip out of his grasp and swipe at his side. Peter felt the sting of her claws as they raked across his ribs, drawing blood.

Grunting in pain, Peter retaliated with a swift backhand slash, catching Gwen across the arm. Blood seeped from the gash, but she barely flinched, her eyes burning with determination. She spun around, delivering a rapid series of strikes aimed at Peter's chest and shoulders. Peter blocked most of them, but a few got through, leaving shallow cuts.

Gwen took advantage of the brief opening to leap back and catch her breath. She wiped the blood from her arm, her expression one of fierce resolve. "Not bad," she taunted, a wild gleam in her eyes.

"You're pretty quick," Peter replied, his voice strained but steady. "But I'm not done yet."

With a roar, Peter charged forward again, his claws flashing in a deadly arc. Gwen ducked and weaved, her movements a blur, but Peter's relentless assault began to wear her down. A lucky swipe caught her across the thigh, causing her to stumble.

Seizing the opportunity, Peter lunged forward, tackling Gwen to the ground. They grappled fiercely, rolling across the floor in a flurry of claws and teeth. Both were bleeding from multiple wounds, their breaths coming in ragged gasps.

With a final surge of strength, Peter managed to pin Gwen beneath him, his claws poised at her throat. Gwen, panting heavily, met his gaze with a fierce glare, but she did not struggle further.

"Will you look at that, babes? It appears it's my win," Peter said smugly.

Gwen sighed, her body relaxing slightly. "Yeah, you got me," she admitted, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "But don't think I'll go easy on you next time."

Peter grinned, retracting his claws and offering her a hand to help her up. "Wouldn't expect anything less."

"But did we have to fight without our spidey-senses and with lower strength and stamina? These cuts hurt, you know," Gwen whined.

"I'm just doing it in case we ever come across a villain that can disable our spidey-senses or lower our strength. We wouldn't be helpless then if that time came," Peter explained.

"I guess you have a point," Gwen sighed. All of their cuts then healed within seconds.

"Oh shoot, I forgot about our healing factor. It probably has gotten stronger and upgraded again… Wait a minute. Hey, Gwen, can I try something with you?" Peter asked.

Gwen was confused. "Sure."

Peter put a hand near her stomach and closed his eyes. Gwen just looked at Peter in confusion, her eyes widening as she was sent flying back, tumbling in the air before skipping along the ground. She stopped herself with her hand and looked at Peter in surprise.

"What the hell was that for!?"

Peter just looked at his hands in awe. "Want to know what I just used to do that?"

"What?" Gwen asked, confused as she stood up and dusted herself off.

"My wall-climbing abilities…" Peter said with a big smile.

Gwen had a look of surprise. "How!? You have to teach me how to do that!" she said in awe.

"You remember how our wall-climbing abilities work, right?"

Gwen immediately figured it out. "You're using your now-powered bio-electricity to change the electrostatic force that causes the Van Der Waals Force, right?"

Peter nodded with a smirk. "It was easy for me to do with my familiarity with electricity. All I did was reverse them. So instead of making things stick together, it pushes them away. I think I can even supercharge it to the point where I can weaponize the air itself."

"Aww, so that means I wouldn't be able to do it?" Gwen asked sadly, thinking it was really cool.

"Actually, you should be able to since you can wall-stick to things. It just won't be as powerful as what I can supercharge, but it should still be pretty powerful. It will require really hard training since you aren't as familiar with electrostatic forces as I am."

"Yes!" Gwen pumped her fist. "Well, what are we waiting for? Start training me, sensei," Gwen said, putting her fist to her palm.

Peter chuckled and pretended to rub his imaginary beard. "My young disciple, this course takes discipline. Are you sure you're up for the task?" he said, aging his voice.

"Yes, I am, Master~" she winked.

"Seducing your master is a large taboo," Peter continued, both of them playing around for a bit before they both got serious.

…

After their training, they decided to call it a day since they weren't getting anywhere. Gwen found it much harder than she thought.

Afterwards, Gwen decided to head home since it was getting pretty late and she felt bad about making her dad eat dinner by himself.

Peter decided to stay a bit longer. He went to his main workshop and sat down. "Alright, Aria, show me what you were able to find about S.H.I.E.L.D…"

A holographic image of Aria appeared. She then pretended to sit on Peter's lap as she pulled out a large tablet from out of nowhere.

"There is a lot we need to go through, but first I will tell you the three things I believe you are going to want to know most of all.

"First of all… S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently being taken over by Hydra agents. Although they are hard to find and barely leave a trail, I had to dig deep to even find information on it. But it appears that some agents are actually sleeper agents."

Aria then stopped and looked at Peter in surprise. "You don't look surprised…"

"I mean, it should be obvious they have taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of the reasons they were taken down last time. So is it safe to say that they would take over the one thing that can stop them? Isn't it obvious? Why wouldn't you take control of something that has stopped you from accomplishing your goals before? Plus, it's actually a really smart thing to do since they would be able to hide evidence of their existence much better and more efficiently," Peter explained.

Aria nodded in understanding. "I see you understood that much. It's no wonder you aren't surprised. And to be fair, they are literally everywhere you turn, so I can see why you weren't surprised."

"And the other things?" Peter asked.

"Uhhh, Grandpa Ben was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and one with a high clearance level at that. He was recruited from the army due to his achievements and skills."

"WHAT!?!" Peter shouted in surprise. He then put a hand on his chin and began to ponder.

"What's wrong?" Aria asked.

"Some things I remember from my childhood are starting to make much more sense if I think about them differently."

"Hm? Like what?" Aria asked curiously.

"After my parents died, Uncle Ben would stay out a lot and always be at work. I always assumed he was grieving the loss of his brother, my father, and was using work as a distraction and a way to earn more money since he had to take care of me now as well. But if he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, that changes things. Aria, can you check when Uncle Ben became more active as an agent?"

"Hmmm, let's see… It was after the death of your parents. From what I was able to find, he was looking everywhere for the cause of their deaths. Based on the information recorded on his file, he felt there was more to it than their boss simply killing them and wanted to get to the bottom of it. He then stopped completely and dropped out of S.H.I.E.L.D. around your seventh birthday.

On his file, it has a quote of something he said when he decided to quit. Reason For Quitting: 'My little nephew is growing up and becoming more and more of a troublemaker. If I don't keep my eyes on him, who knows what he would blow up? He already destroyed my microwave trying to build a time machine.'"

Aria just turned and stared at Peter with a look that said, 'Really?' as he covered his face in embarrassment. "I honestly believed I could do it, okay? Don't judge me. I thought I could put an item inside and send it to the future, and then my future self would be able to send me things back as well. I thought I could build anything I thought of if I just put my mind to it… Please stop giving me that judging look."

Aria just patted his shoulders. "You are something else, Daddy. Never change, never change."

"Let's just move on, okay?"

"Hehehe, if you say so."

Aria then sighed as her expression turned serious. "As for the last thing… I thought you would want to know that Felix Hardy, father of Felicia Hardy, has been in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D.–"

"What!?" Peter asked once again in surprise as he looked at Aria.

"Please let me finish. There's more… and it isn't very good news… He was in their custody for trying to steal from them. A few months later, he broke himself out. He was a pretty famous thief known throughout the underworld as The Black Cat.

His skills were so good that even S.H.I.E.L.D. had tried to recruit him. They wanted to use his skills for good. But they were declined as Felix Hardy was more of a free spirit, a wanderer if you will.

After breaking out, he began snooping around them. That's when he accidentally stumbled across Hydra. This was something I was able to find only after accessing files from places apart from S.H.I.E.L.D… Here, take a look."

It wasn't a video… It was just a blurry picture. It was a man wearing black in a feline position standing in front of a man with long hair, a black mouth cover, and a metal arm with a red star on it.

Peter just stared with his eyes widening as he looked at the picture.

"From what I've been able to gather and infer, he is known as the Winter Soldier. He's like Hydra's boogeyman. No one this man has gone after has been able to escape and make it out alive. So it's safe to assume…

Felix Hardy has been killed by none other than the Winter Soldier."

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