Chapter 136

[Third Person's PoV] 

Peter woke up with Gwen in his arms, which prompted her to wake up as well. Peter kissed her cheek before getting up and getting dressed.

Gwen sighed out loud as she stretched, her sheet covering her naked chest. She just stared at Peter getting dressed with a smile of contentment. Gwen laid on her side as she rested her face on her hand.

"If you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to blush," Peter teased.

Gwen chuckled as she rolled her eyes. As Peter got dressed and was about to leave, Gwen stretched out her arms to him while puckering her lips and making grabbing motions with her hands.

Peter chuckled as he went and gave her a goodbye kiss that lasted several seconds. "See you later," he said as he turned invisible and jumped out from her window before swinging back home.

…

Peter and MJ soon arrived at school, where they found the others waiting for them.

Harry appeared like he had stayed up all night. "Couldn't sleep?" Peter asked as they did their handshake.

Harry sighed as he shook his head. "Every time I close my eyes, all I see is 'it' in my hands once again."

Peter patted Harry's back. "Take the day off."

"What? I can't do that, not when I just started. Who knows how many of them are out there, how many will need my help, and because I take the day off, they will have to pay the price…"

"Rule number one?" Peter asked.

Harry mumbled, "You can't save everyone…"

"Especially not when you're like this…" Just as Peter said this, Lizzy appeared.

"Hey Lizzy, Harry wanted to take you out on a date but is too embarrassed to ask since he can't come up with a place you would enjoy."

"What!?" Harry asked, looking at Peter with threatening eyes.

"Awww," Lizzy said as she jumped towards Harry and hugged his arm. "That's so cute! A date between us sounds fantastic," she said as she leaned her head on his arm. "We haven't been on one in a while…"

"Yeah, dude, you guys haven't been in a while. What's the matter with you?" Peter teased as he smacked Harry's other arm.

Gwen just had her arms crossed as she looked towards Peter with a smile. "Look who's talking, mister… we haven't been on a date in a while either…"

Peter rubbed the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. "I guess you have a point…"

Meanwhile, Harry interlocked fingers with Lizzy. "I suppose you have a point… Let's go on a date…" He said as he kissed the side of her head, causing Lizzy to giggle happily.

Felicia then went and locked arms with MJ. "I guess that just leaves you and me…" Felicia started to playfully bat her eyelashes at her. "What do you say, is it a date?"

MJ rolled her eyes as she pushed Felicia's face away with one hand playfully. Felicia just had her lips puckered with her arms out. "Come on, at least a smooch!" she said as MJ still kept her at arm's length.

They all laughed and continued bantering with one another as they entered the school as the bell rang.

…

Soon, school came to an end, and they all started heading back to their internships.

Since Jameson hadn't used her pictures to discredit Spider-Man, MJ still worked for him. Now she had decided to be the Scarlet-Spider while taking pictures for the Daily Bugle.

Peter and Gwen walked hand in hand towards the Baxter Building. Once they arrived at the floor they were previously on, Peter knocked on the door.

"JOHNNY, OPEN IT TO SEE WHO IT IS!" They heard shouting from inside.

"What am I, your personal door boy or something!? I'm working on something!!"

"You're the closest to the door! Just open the door, Johnny, don't keep them waiting!!"

"Ughhhh!!! Fine!"

Peter and Gwen looked towards each other before they smiled in amusement. It wasn't long before the door was opened by Johnny, his face and hands covered in oil. He was cleaning his hands with an oil-covered white rag.

"Oh, it's you guys, and you don't look beat up. That's good at least. Come on in," Johnny motioned with his head.

"It's the interns!" Johnny yelled towards Susan as he walked off towards an open space where he was working on a red muscle car.

"Is that a 1969 Chevy Camaro?" Peter asked, getting distracted and walking towards Johnny.

Johnny smiled proudly as he tapped the side of it. "Yup, my baby right here is one of a kind. I'm just working on the engine to see if I can get her to run again. It used to belong to my father, now it belongs to me."

Peter nodded, leaning in to get a closer look at the engine. "Nice, it's in great shape. Have you checked the carburetor? Sometimes they get gummed up if the car's been sitting for a while. Also, it might be worth looking at the timing belt and ignition system. Ensuring the spark plugs and wires are in good condition can make a huge difference."

"You know about car engines?" Johnny asked in amusement.

"What do you think?" Peter asked with a smirk.

"I think we're going to get along just fine," Johnny smiled. "And I already checked the carburetor; that isn't the problem. I'm thinking it might be something with the fuel pump. It's not delivering fuel consistently."

Peter furrowed his brow as he inspected the engine more closely. "Yeah, that could be it. You might want to check the fuel filter too. If it's clogged, it can cause irregular fuel flow. Also, make sure the fuel lines aren't cracked or leaking. Even a small leak can cause a lot of issues."

Johnny nodded, appreciating the suggestions. "Good call. I'll take a look at those next. Thanks."

"No problem. Just let me know if you need an extra pair of hands," Peter replied, grinning.

"It's nice to see you boys getting to know each other," Reed said as he appeared with both Ben and Susan.

Susan nodded to both Peter and Gwen. "It's nice to see you two managed to make a full recovery."

Peter scratched the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry about that."

"Anyways, you left quite an impression last time… I want your opinion on something," Richard said to Peter before motioning for him to follow.

Peter was curious about what Richard wanted to show him, so he followed. They walked towards a large empty room with a whiteboard covered in mathematical equations and symbols.

"Are you sure you want to show me something like this?" Peter asked, looking at Richard oddly.

"Think of it as a test. I want to see if my hunch about you is correct, or if I'm just giving you too much credit," Richard said with a smirk.

Peter stared at him with a plain expression. "Using reverse psychology on me is not cool, man."

Richard didn't say anything else except to smile at him.

"You're expecting too much from him; he's just a kid," Ben whispered, leaning towards Richard.

"Like I said, it's just a test. It's alright if he fails it," Richard replied in the same whisper.

Peter felt his lip twitching as he heard them perfectly well. He just rolled his eyes and focused on the equations in front of him.

After a minute of studying everything, Peter turned towards Richard and asked, "Are you demented or something?"

"Eh?"

"HAHAHAHA! I sometimes wonder about that myself," Ben laughed loudly as he patted Richard's back.

"You're planning on opening a portal to another dimension. We can calculate how to do it—yes, that part is the easy part. You've almost completed it and just need to add the final touches. But you failed to factor in what we will find on the other side. A portal is a two-way door. Just as we will be able to go in, something from the other side will be able to come out," Peter explained.

Richard smiled as he looked at Peter. "So you understand what I'm trying to do, yes? But we've already solved that problem with the containment shield. Nothing comes out unless we let it."

Peter took a deep breath to calm himself. "We don't know what we'll find on the other side, so we don't know what type of life forms we'll encounter. Thus, we won't know how strong they are, and we can't be sure the containment shield will be enough to hold them back. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Richard nodded with a smile. "Then how about this: we'll build a detector, something like an interdimensional scanner. Before we open a portal to any location, we'll be able to detect if there are any signs of life nearby. If there are, we won't open the portal. If there aren't, we'll open the portal and investigate the surroundings."

"I guess that could work… but it's still dangerous. Another thing: did you miscalculate something here on purpose?" Peter muttered as he continued to look at the equation.

"Where?" Richard asked curiously, looking at him in confusion.

"Here it says \(\int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-x^2} \, dx = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi}}\), but it's supposed to be \(\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2} \, dx = \sqrt{\pi}\). Not only that, you applied the concept of quantum entanglement in the wrong way. It should be \(\Delta x \Delta p \geq \frac{\hbar}{2}\), but you wrote \(\Delta x \Delta p \leq \frac{\hbar}{2}\)." Peter said as he grabbed a marker, erased the bottom part of the equation, and began adding the corrections.

"Good catch… and yes, it was on purpose…" Richard nodded his head. 'I totally missed that, but they don't need to know that.'

'He's lying,' both Peter and Gwen thought at the same time, amused as their spider-senses warned them of the lie. But both chose to remain quiet about it.

Peter then leaned back and studied the board. "Oh, also…" Peter said as he began to mutter and continue writing on the board, slowly solving it.

Both Ben and Richard raised their eyebrows as they saw he was in the zone.

"And carry the 1…" he muttered before looking back and closing the cap on the marker and nodding. "Oh wait…" He looked toward Richard in horror. "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to—"

Richard just raised a hand and sighed, stopping Peter.

"What did he do?" Ben asked curiously.

Richard chuckled and shook his head. "He solved it… He solved the thing I've been working on my whole life…"

"I can delete it… I swear… I didn't mean to…" Peter said, standing awkwardly as he put the marker back where it belonged.

Richard shook his head with a smile, his arms crossed. "No, no, kid. It's alright. I'm honestly glad… This means my hunch about you was right. You are a genius… you might even be better than me…"

Ben laughed as he patted Richard's back with a strong force. "Hahaha, you've been out-Richard! That's a first if I've ever seen it."

Richard still had a smile as he looked at Peter. "You know what this means, right?"

"That I'm getting a bonus on my paycheck?" Peter said with a nervous smile.

Richard had a look of amusement as he shook his head. "No, it means you're going to help me build this thing." He grinned.

Gwen then raised her hand. "I'm sorry, but I have to know, why do you want to build a portal to another dimension?"

"It's for resources, right?" Peter asked.

Richard nodded. "If we could find an empty dimension, we should be able to mine its resources and put an end to the destruction of our own world. Our world grows weaker due to the amount we've taken out of it. It won't be long before we'll have to abandon our world to inhabit a new one. So with this, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that."

"I see… that's very admirable," Gwen nodded.

"Thank you," Richard smiled.

"So how long would it take us to complete this… portal thing?" Ben asked curiously.

"Give or take a couple of months…" Both Peter and Richard said at the same time.

They both stopped and looked at each other with a smirk before bumping the sides of their fists.

"Let's get started," Richard said with a dangerous glint in his eyes. 

While Susan grabbed Gwen's hand, "And you come with me, I always wanted an assistant" She said happily as she dragged Gwen to her lab. 

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