Issue 75: A New Age Part 12

Peter smirked as he started making spell circles that covered the building.

"1 hour outside is 10 in here. Thought you might like this," 

"You made the Baxter Building a time chamber?" Johnny's eyes sparkled.

"Yeah, but I'm not as good as the 5th Sorcerer Supreme yet. Time magic is actually really hard to pin down. There's a room in Kamar-Taj that makes time flow roughly 52 times faster inside. 1 hour becomes 54 hours."

"Soo cool," Johnny smiled.

"Seriously, you should make Magic part of that school you and the Avengers are running."

"Good advice, I'll talk to Dr. Strange about that,"

"So, is that why you dropped by? For us to help with the Avenger's money-making issues?" Sue asked. 

"Actually, I also came here to ask for a portal to the Negative Zone. I figured it be good to have something that'll give us enough funding to support the coming heroes in the future."

"I can agree to that," Reed walked out of his lab.

"Stretch! Good to see that you're finally out and about," Peter patted his shoulder.

"It hasn't been that long,"

"Right…I forgot. You don't know about my time dilation spell. Short time for you been a while for me. Oh, and strange will be stopping by to give you all the Super-Soldier boost for joining the Avengers."

"Pardon?" Sue looked at Reed.

"Well, with all the extra time we have now, I figured it shouldn't be an issue."

"Hold up, we get to be like Cap?"

"Yeah, but we have to wait for the little one to be born before you get it, and after Ben gets his body back, he won't need it."

"What?" Johnny and Ben shouted as they looked at Peter.

"You see, Ben rocks aren't actually his skin but a cocoon that is protecting and metamorphosing his body."

"So, he's a butterfly?" Johnny snorted.

"Sort of. Only his new body will be imbued with so much cosmic energy, Galactus would have to think twice before ever coming for Earth again."

"Oh…please explain?" Sue showed an interested expression,

"You see, the issue wasn't that he was exposed to Cosmic Energy, but he wasn't exposed to enough of it. Once his body gets the energy it needs, he'll bust out of those rocks like a butterfly shedding its cocoon."

"So…this is temporary?" Ben could feel the tears welling up.

"Yeah, though... I don't know how you'll look when the rocks are gone," Peter smirked as she gave Johnny the fuel he needed.

"He could end up uglier than he already is, or even worse, he could end up looking like he did before the whole rock thing. Oh, the horror!" 

"Shut it, spit fire!" Ben swiped his fist only for Johnny to dodge it.

"Relax, Ben. My Symbiote got a look inside those impenetrable stones. Your body still looks about the same, just a bit shinier. I also brought you guys some gifts. Paperwork!"

Peter pulled out the Avengers registration form and passed them out.

"Other than the responsibilities listed on the contract, you all get paychecks, and workspaces at Avengers Tower, although, I don't think you'll need them with the new Baxter Building set up."

"Oh…wow, this is impressive. Is this really our building now?" Sue asked.

"Yep! You guys can move in at any time, or rent it out, I don't care, it's your building."

Peter opened a portal and said, "See ya later."

"Leaving already?" Reed asked.

"Yeah, I'm a busy arachnid these days. Not to mention I'm getting ready to Terraform Venus."

"Oh, we so have to get in on that." Johnny smiled.

"For once I agree. We saw the video with the mu…er Meta-Humans and I'm curious to see it in person."

"I'll let you guys know when it's going down. I have some free time coming up next month, so we can spend some time with our friends." 

"Sounds like a plan. Later bug-boy," Johnny joked.

"Great he's flame retardant and a plain old retard. How many times do I have to tell you? Arachnids, spiders are arachnids."

The portal closed before Johnny could get another word in. 

Peter was back in his lab and worked on other projects until his Gemstone's had recharged.

The project he worked on was the revival of the dragon race and the study of their physiology. He looked at 5,000 floating eggs inside incubation chambers while the other side of the room was built to preserve the dragon bones.

"With these many, it goes way beyond the 50/500 rule. I also managed to alter the genetic coding of each dragon so that the majority of them aren't even siblings anymore. With this much diversity, there's no need to worry about inbreeding or genetic drift. I'm sure K'un Lun will enjoy it enough to allow me to learn from their dragon god."

Peter looked at the genetic structure of the Loong Species. After several months of testing, he had managed to extrapolate quite a few useful genetic markers from the dragon bones. One being their ability to have a god-like lifespan, however, there were also several other useful abilities he could make use of. 

With the Symbiote to edit his own genes, Peter could gain skin tougher than dragon scales, fangs, claws, and incredibly robust blood cells.

"Is the serum ready?" Peter asked.

"Safety protocols have reached a 99.99999999999999999% probability of a successful mutation without draw backs." Webster called out.

"So, no scales or slit eyes? I'm not going to turn all Lizardy?"

"Testing is required,"

"Right, better safe than sorry," Peter created a soulless clone of himself and injected the serum.

With the Symbiote working its magic, Peter watched his scans and saw that he grew fangs, sharp retractable claws, and its overall muscle mass increased by 15%.

Peter read off the scan's data and laughed, "Is this right?"

"Yes, my math is impeccable," Webster said with a snarky attitude.

"Incredible, regeneration factor has increased by 500%. With this, I could regrow limbs in half a day. With Chi, I can heal it in minutes."

"And with me, you could heal it in second. There also has been a substantial increase in physical strength," Webster finished.

"How much strength are we talking about?" Peter remote controlled the doll to his testing room.

Without the Symbiote, his soulless double was able to lift up around 750 Tons without any effort and a 1,000 Tons being its peak limit.

With the Symbiote, it could lift 50,000 Tons.

"Still don't know if that's enough to beat Thor. Let's see speed."

Running on a track made out of hard-light, Peter's jaw dropped as he saw the clone hitting 1,000MPH like it was nothing. When he told it to go all out, the clone hit 5,000MPH and that number only got faster as they Symbiote amplified it further. 

"25,000MPH? That's 32.58309 times the speed of sound! When I started this gig, I could barely get up to 250MPH. I'm not Quicksilver, but I'm certainly no slouch."

Peter noticed a drastic increase in stamina, reflexes, senses, and visual acuity. He had near perfect night vision and could see that his Chi-Levels were through the roof. 

"Hmm…If I'm right, I can live up to a few hundred thousand years. If I imbue Chi throughout my entire body, I can enhance my physical abilities 100-fold. Webster, run the numbers…"

"Running calculations, total increase estimated at 155x increase to all current abilities."

"Too bad you can't magnify Chi," Peter chuckled.

"Indeed. But I can amplify your base physique to get better enhancement during Chi use."

"I'm turning into a Super Saiyan," Peter laughed.

"But you don't have a transformation," Webster replied.

"Oh hush, quit ruining my fun," Peter snickered before saying, "Let's test those claws."

Peter put up a dozen or so different types of metal. The claws easily slashed through almost all of them, titanium and tungsten as well. It didn't make a dent and even broke his fingernails when he tried to cut Adamantium and Vibranium. However, he was even able to break through alloys that the Nova Corps considered invulnerable.

"So as long as it isn't a legendary tier metal, I can cut through it…good to know."

"I suggest you try applying Chi," Webster suggested.

Peter lifted a brow and went ahead with it. He noticed that unlike his usual red color, his Chi looked like gold fire with black mixed in.

"Whoa," Peter said as he stared at his nails. 

With a swipe against the shield, the clone made the metals spark but didn't break.

"No noticeable damage," Peter looked over it and scanned it, "But…there is microscopic damage. I scratched Vibranium!!!"

Peter examined the same way with the Adamantium and sighed as he noticed that it didn't so much as scuff the metal.

"Ah, adamantium is the denser material, and I'm basically scooping rather than out right cutting. Still, my claws are on par with Vibranium! This is so cool!"

Peter retracted his claws until they looked like his plain old, trimmed nails.

After his test run, he made the body vanish and created another to test a different Dragon Serum on.

The one he used previously was made from the bones of the youngest dragon that he had at his disposal, and the next one was from middle age to oldest.

Peter injected the serums and saw that the physical boost remained similar, but the Chi magnification was greater the older the specimen was. 

The oldest dragon allowed him to boost his physical and mental strengths by 200 times when using his Chi.

"It just occurred to me…I can run around 4% of the speed of light with you and my Chi amplifying everything. If Quicksilver hasn't discovered that he's faster than light yet, I might be able to outrun him."

His phone buzzed, "Well, I'm glad the Mimic Molecule I made works."

Peter thought long and hard after losing contact with the Earth during his trip to space. His solution to long distance communication was a cloned molecule. With it, regardless of space, time, or distance, these molecules would mimic the state of the other one. Once he made the Mimic Molecule, he had MJ make the technological equivalent in the form of new phones for the Avengers.

"What Serum are you going to use?" Webster asked.

"None. I want to see if there's a difference from a living dragon. Not to mention, if the Chi enhancement is better the older the dragon is, then I imagine the Immortal Dragon of K'un Lun must be worth the wait."

"What about the Jade Tiger?" Webster asked.

"I'll send MJ after her to get White Tiger join the Defenders. I can probably revive the Tiger God's species, but I'll need a corpse of some kind. Any DNA from that era will be hard to find."

"You could just create it," Webster informed.

"Yeah, but I told you about this before. I'd prefer to use all other methods before relying on them."

"You and your sense of accomplishment," Webster sighed. 

"Hey, it's not just about that. If I can do it without the gemstones, then that means that others can too. I want to pave a path, not make think people it's impossible without god-like powers and cheats."

Peter opened a portal and said, "I'll go get Danny. We have work to do," Peter snapped his fingers and made all the incubators appear inside his bag of holding.

After jumping through, he smirked as he saw Danny training in Colleen's dojo. He had her pinned to the ground and was seconds away from giving her a smooch when Peter snickered, "Man, is my timing bad or what?"

"Peter?" The two shouted as they separated.

"I can always come back," Peter grinned as he opened a portal.

"No…er, it's fine. What did you come here for?" Danny said as he helped Colleen up.

"I thought you might want to return to K'un Lun a hero?" Peter smirked as he tossed the torso sized incubator.

The moment Danny caught it his Chi began to react to it, almost as if it were excited.

"Is this a…"

"Dragon egg," Peter finished as he changed the portal location to the gates of K'un Lun.

"Ah…" Danny looked nervous while Colleen looked excited.

"Relax, Danny boy. Once they realize I have 5,000 Dragon Eggs that can restore K'un Lun to its golden age, you abandoning your post won't really matter. Those old fogies are the type to weigh good deeds and bad before coming to a decision."

"How did you…"

Peter lifted a brow, "Danny, I can learn anything I want as long it's considered past information. So, when I say I do background checks, it's the whole shebang. I know about you 'leaving' K'un Lun, and before you say anything, I think that you were in the right. The world is changing, and K'un Lun's reclusive nature has left the world weaker and more open to attack. I promise you, let me talk to them, and I'll do my best to resolve our, particular situation."

"I…I'm scared…scared of what they might think of me. I don't wish to see the disappointment in Lei Kung's eyes."

"Who is Lei Kung?" Colleen placed her hand on his shaking shoulders.

"He picked me up after my parents died, raised me as his own, and taught me everything I know. I…I just don't want him to hate me."

Peter shook his head, "A father can never truly hate their own child. Come on, Danny. No more running. It's time for K'un Lun to stop hiding from the world."

"They won't think the same," Danny sighed. He knew just how stubborn the people in K'un Lun were.

"I can be quite persuasive," Peter patted his bag of holding.

"I'll go…but there is just one issue. K'un Lun only opens up every 5 years."

Peter lifted a brow as he pointed to the glowing portal that he was holding open.

"Right…I almost forgot you were a master of the mystic arts."

"Get something warm on, and let's go," Peter chuckled as he hopped on the roof and laid back, "I'll wait."

The two walked off and came back five minutes later with heavy jackets, boots, and their masks on.

Peter smiled and put his mask up as he jumped through the portal with his friends. They ended up in a snowy mountain with a long and narrow canyon path when it closed behind them.

"So, how's the battle with the Hand?" Peter asked.

"We took down three of the five fingers," Colleen informed.

"Make that four, I took out their leader a while back. Have you had a chance to meet Shang Chi yet?"

"Really? You took out the Hand's leader? No wonder they've been running around like a bunch of chickens with their head's cut off," Colleen snickered.

"Shang Chi…We met a while ago. He's a good martial artist. He taught me a thing or two on how to manipulate my Chi."

"Big world, lots of talent, yet another reason to end the seclusion of K'un Lun," Peter sighed as they approached a stone gateway.

"Let's see," Peter started deciphering the runes carved into it, "Oh, this is pretty good. It uses ambient energy to charge and open itself every five years. Well, if the power is the problem, then it's no problem at all."

Raising his hand, Peter filled gateway with an abundant amount of pure energy, opening it up without any trouble at all.

"Let's go," Peter walked through first, only to meet with two spears that stopped short of his neck.

"Guard dogs, heel!" Peter snickered as he grabbed the spear tips and bent them inward.

"Who are you!" The monks shouted as they got ready to fight.

"Brothers! Stop!" Danny walked through the portal while holding the dragon egg in his hand.

As if the hidden realm knew what they brought, the Chi in the area suddenly became several times stronger, growing the plant life around them, making the flowers bloom, and filling the air with life force.

"Ooh, now this is interesting," Peter mumbled, "I understand our Chi reacting to the Dragon's presence, but the realm itself recognizes it? It's like it's alive."

"Danny, you're back!" One of the guards seemed happy while the other, not so much.

"He's a traitor!"

Danny flinched at the accusation and sighed, "I did leave. But I had my reasons."

Peter pulled out a couple more of the dragon eggs and watched as more and more Chi started to gather around them.

"Stop! What are you doing?!" The guard with the nasty attitude yelled out while pointing his broken spear tip at them.

"What are you going to do with that? Tickle someone?" Colleen spoke up.

"I'm having fun, quit being rude," Peter pouted as he put the eggs away.

"I need to see fa…Lei Kung. I bring good news. The dragons will return to K'un Lun."