41: Chapter 41 David

Peter nodded: "Yes. My father is the reason I have superpowers. His experiments... allowed me to adapt and evolve."

"Oh, Peter, I am so sorry." Susan Storm hugged him. Peter smelled the scent of watermelon. Sadness.

He hugged her back. Honestly, he didn't feel too bad. A normal child might feel sad or angry because their father did this to them. But Peter? He didn't care at all. That wasn't his real dad, right?

"It's okay, Susan Storm." Peter let her go and turned to the monitor. "I just... where did he work?"

"What do you mean?"

"He was employed by someone, someone provided him with funding and research conditions. So, where did my father get this stuff to inject into my body?"

Susan Storm worked quickly at the terminal. But every time they thought they were close to the truth, it was just another dead end. One after another.

Susan Storm stepped back and sighed: "Sorry, Peter. This is beyond what we can handle right now."

Peter pondered. Someone obsessed with obtaining the Super Soldier Serum? Sounds like HYDRA. Maybe Richard Parker was tricked into working with them? Just like those scientists last night? Very likely. When Richard discovered the truth and refused to continue working, HYDRA killed him and his wife.

"This is such a mess." Peter rubbed his temples.

"I am very sorry, Peter."

"It's fine, it's not your fault." Peter sat down. "But now... what exactly should I do?"

Susan Storm sat next to him: "I think you can only continue doing what you are doing. Save lives, be your hero."

"Yeah... Susan Storm, please. Please don't... please don't tell anyone about what we found today. Not S.H.I.E.L.D., not Reed, nobody. I'm not some big shot. I... I don't want others to know."

"I promise, Peter. I won't tell anyone." She nodded.

"Thanks... wipe all the data on my blood from the servers. S.H.I.E.L.D. can hack into those systems. If they find a way to clone me and use my blood to recreate the Super Soldier Serum..."

"That would trigger a war." Susan Storm nodded. "I know."

Peter turned to the screen. His blood... could trigger an arms race. He was lucky that Richard Parker had encrypted it, and no one could figure out how it worked, but cloning was still an option.

He had to stay vigilant... maybe it was time to figure out what else these new abilities could do, and upgrade his tech gear while he was at it. The Chitauri would arrive soon, and he had to be ready for the invasion.

Hmm, maybe it was time to start working on recreating Otto's mechanical arms?

...

Peter noticed that Natasha no longer appeared at the training ground.

She had been permanently reassigned to other missions, replaced by a guy named David—the creepiest, most twisted instructor Peter had ever seen in his life.

He still remembered the day they first met.

Peter was resting his feet on the table in the operational conference room waiting for someone, when the elevator door opened, and a muscular black man walked out. That face looked fierce and mean.

David stared at his feet resting on the table, his gaze like lightning.

"If you want to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, everything you do represents us." He swept Peter's feet off the table. "So, this is inappropriate."

Peter raised an eyebrow: "Hi, my name is Peter. Who are you?"

"David." The other man grunted.

"Just David?"

"Yes." He nodded and sat down next to Peter. "Agent Natasha has already synced your training progress with me, and to be honest, it's terrible. You treat everything like a joke and have absolutely no focus."

"I'm only fifteen, can you give me a break?" Peter rolled his eyes.

"Your IQ is the only reason I'm still willing to train you into a qualified Agent." David grunted and opened the file. "You disobey orders, act on your own, try to post videos of corrupt council members on Twitter, and have insulted the Director to his face several times."

Peter shrugged: "So what?"

"So, the only reason I'm here is because I follow orders." David said through gritted teeth. "I don't like you, Parker, not one bit. But I will train you, that's my job. I hope by the time the training is over, I can whip you into an Agent."

Peter raised his eyebrows: "I'll make you wish you were dead, just you wait."

David glared back coldly: "I'd like to see you try."

Peter smiled at him.

Very well.

This guy would regret saying that today very soon.

— —

A few months passed in the blink of an eye.

Peter continued to be a crime-fighter, and life was going smoothly.

During this time, he was also gradually becoming familiar with his new abilities.

Bio-electric shocks were ridiculously useful. His body was now like a walking electrical conductor. He even modified his suit so that the energy of the Parker Blood could be transmitted back and forth between the suit and his body.

He figured out different levels of discharge effects: he could stun people, paralyze people, and even overclock it to blast them away. If he really wanted to kill, he could also fry someone from the inside out like Electro.

He also discovered that he could absorb a certain amount of current into his body; not only would he not get hurt, but it could actually replenish a little bit of energy.

He was also working on pheromones; for now, he could only detect and identify scents, and couldn't actively secrete them like Jessica Drew. He might need to practice more; after all, he had ventured into uncharted territory.

Besides abilities and training, equipment upgrades were also a major highlight.

The Chitauri would come sooner or later. He didn't know when, but they would definitely come.

He needed to be stronger.

He first changed the entire suit system to voice-controlled, recognizing only his own voice, and integrated all the suit's systems. Actually, he could have gone further and made an AI, but for one, his software skills weren't that good yet, and for another, he didn't want a smart-mouthed AI blabbering in his head while fighting crime.

He also modified the helmet, adding a zoom function to the lenses; this would definitely come in handy later.

He also learned a few tricks from Batman and started making multi-functional gadgets.

The first one was a utility belt. It took some effort to make sure it didn't affect his swinging and fighting, but in the end, he sewed it into the lining of his suit, solving the problem perfectly.

He also made a batch of throwing darts, shaped like eight-legged spiders, painted red. Johnny Storm had no idea why he wanted these things, but Peter couldn't be bothered with him.

It was just cool, that's all.

Other small gadgets were also made one after another: a gun that could fire liquid nitrogen projectiles, a spray gun for expanding foam, several bugs that could be used for eavesdropping, a few smoke bombs, and just in case, he shrunk the previous EMP emitter.

Unfortunately, he couldn't stuff any more things into the suit; any more and the center of gravity would be messed up.

Next was the main event: Dr. Otto's mechanical arms.