The new transfer student had always kept her distance, standing as the dream girl for half the guys in school.
At the moment, she was staring intently at Peter with her bright emerald eyes, her gaze mixed with curiosity and playful scrutiny.
Peter met her eyes without backing down.
The two shared a silent standoff for a few seconds until Felicia broke eye contact first.
Peter knew full well that this woman was terrifyingly sharp—that glance just now had definitely been a test.
When the bell rang, Peter had barely zipped his backpack when he heard Felicia call out from behind him, “Hey, muscle boy, wait up.” Peter pretended not to hear and kept walking.
Felicia caught up in a few quick steps and clapped a hand onto his shoulder.
“I said wait.” “What did you call me?” Peter raised an eyebrow.
“Muscle boy.
What else?” “Are you serious?
The whole school thinks I’m built like a toothpick.
You want a muscle boy, turn left at the door and find Flash.” “Finally, something we agree on!” Flash materialized out of nowhere, cutting between the two of them.
He threw a winking smile at Felicia.
“Babe, looking for me?” “Get lost, lardball.
I’m talking to the muscle boy.” Felicia curled her lip in disgust.
Flash burst out laughing.
“Are you insane?
Parker can’t even bench a dumbbell!” “That’s just because the rest of you are blind,” Felicia scoffed.
Stepping right around Flash, she closed in directly into Peter’s personal space.
Without warning, she reached out and pressed her hand against Peter’s chest through his jacket, giving his pectoral a firm squeeze.
Her eyes flashed with provocation.
“Don’t be fooled by these baggy clothes.
Underneath it all, muscle boy here is packing real heat.” Peter looked down at her instigating hand, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Felicia, if you’re trying to cop a feel, the least you could do is buy me dinner first.” Felicia raised an eyebrow and withdrew her hand.
“Sure thing.
What does muscle boy want to eat?” “You?” “Moving fast, aren’t we?” “Likewise.
You’re the one who touched my chest.” Felicia let out a low chuckle.
“All jokes aside, got time?” “Lunch?” “Starving.” “Lead the way.” Not far away, Mary Jane took in the entire scene.
She said sourly to Liz beside her, “I don’t like her.” Liz rolled her eyes.
“No kidding.
Flash, what were you trying to pull just now?” “I was just saying hi to the new girl…” “Shut up!
If I catch you hitting on that vixen again, we are through!” Mary Jane ignored their arguing, grabbing Liz’s arm to drag her along.
“Come on, let me see where they’re going.” In the cafeteria, Peter and Felicia took a seat at the most prominent table.
Peter took a big bite out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Felicia looked down at his plate with a frown.
“That’s what you’re eating?” “I eat better at work.
Coworkers treat me,” Peter said, talking around a mouth full of food.
“What company is so mysterious?” “You won’t even spill your own background, so what gives you the right to ask about mine?” Felicia chuckled.
“Fair enough.
Tell me, muscle boy, why does everyone avoid you?” “Don’t call me muscle boy, call me Peter.
People think I’m a loner, plus I’m pretty smart, so they’re intimidated.” “Smart?” Felicia sliced into her chicken salad.
“You don’t act like a high schooler.
You’re used to being isolated—in fact, you enjoy it.
You’re a genius who belongs in college, yet you’re hiding out in high school.
What are you hiding, muscle boy?
Mark my words, I’ll figure it out.” Peter felt a quiet shock.
Her observational skills were terrifying; she had nearly stripped off his mask right then and there.
“Felicia, I think I’m falling in love with you,” Peter said with a sudden smile.
“Sorry, you’re not my type.” “Figures.
So tell me, what do you actually want from me?” “The physics teacher said my grades are abysmal and told me to get you to tutor me.” “So you started stalking me?” “I didn’t plan on it at first, but what you said in history class caught my attention.
I think you’re pretty interesting.” Peter pondered it for a moment.
Between daily patrols, his job, and practicing his martial arts, his schedule was packed tight.
“I can spare an hour after school.
But one hour maximum.” “A grand genius is only worth an hour?” “I have a life.” “Like that mysterious job of yours?” “Yep.” “Fine, one hour it is.
I couldn’t stand being around you for more than an hour anyway.” During afternoon history class, while Peter was daydreaming, his Spider-Sense suddenly flicked on.
He tilted his head sideways, easily dodging a paper ball thrown at him.
Mary Jane’s eyes widened.
She quickly scribbled a few lines on a piece of paper and passed it to Peter.
*What’s going on with you and Felicia?* Peter wrote back: *She asked me to tutor her in physics.* *Can I join?
I need tutoring too.* Peter glanced at the note, a subtle smirk forming on his face.
Mary Jane was jealous, giving him a quiet surge of satisfaction.
*I’ll ask her.
She brought it up first, after all.* *Okay.* After school, Felicia brought Peter to a cafe on the street corner.
The tutoring session proved to be a test of endurance.
Felicia’s physics foundation was shockingly abysmal.
Even so, Peter patiently walked her through the core concepts.
At one point, when a waitress arrived to serve their coffee, Peter’s keen eyes picked up on Felicia’s gaze sticking shamelessly to the waitress’s curves.
*Bisexual?* Peter mused to himself.
*This girl just keeps getting more interesting.* When the hour drew to a close, Peter packed up his stuff while saying, “A friend of mine wants to join the study sessions.
Mary Jane.
You don’t mind, do you?” “Depends on how she behaves.
But if you two try to flirt on my tutoring time, I swear I’ll kick her ass.” “Deal.” Over the next few days, Peter’s routine working at the Fantastic Four remained busy and fulfilling.
On this particular day, he spotted the Thing, Ben Grimm, awkwardly holding a sports magazine.
Because his hands were so massive, he couldn’t get a proper grip and accidentally tore the magazine clean in half.
Ben let out a heavy, frustrated sigh.
Peter took it all in and kept it in mind.
Ben bore the agony of being turned into a monster while remaining optimistic; Peter decided to help him out in his own way.
He holed up in the lab for two straight all-nighters, leveraging the resources inside the Baxter Building to build an invention he named the “Scanning Adapter.” On Thursday evening, the Fantastic Four gathered around the dining table eating pizza.
“We really ought to hire a cook,” Susan said, taking a bite of pizza with a sigh.
“Our finances are in terrible shape.
If we don’t bring a profitable product to market soon, we might have to cut down on expenses.” “Are you thinking of firing the kid?” Ben asked in a low rumble, spearing a slice of pizza with a wrench.
“I hope not, but we might have no choice,” Susan said helplessly.
“Where’s Peter anyway?
Haven’t seen him all day,” Johnny asked.
“He’s working on a personal project,” Reed replied.
“Hey, everyone!” Peter burst into the dining room carrying a black, flexible frame, his face flushed with excitement.
“Peter, want some pizza?” “Pizza again?
You guys seriously need to hire a cook.” Peter placed the frame on the table.
“Take a look at this.
I call it the Scanning Adapter.” He pulled at the frame, expanding it to three times its original size, and placed it over a magazine before calling out, “Scan.” A soft blue light flared within the frame, and the magazine cover was instantly projected into the center of the viewport.
“This frame can expand to the size of a blackboard or shrink down to fit in your palm.
It scans documents and saves them directly to mobile storage.
It can also perform high-speed scans.” Peter handed the frame to Susan, then rapidly flipped through the magazine pages.
In less than a minute, over a hundred pages were fully captured.
“Save as October 2011 Time Magazine,” Peter commanded.
A checkmark popped up on the display, and every scanned page automatically compiled into an electronic magazine file.
“So you built a glorified e-reader?” Johnny snorted.
“It’s a smart whiteboard capable of compiling and adapting physical books in an instant!
Compared to your glorified birthday candle powers, this is a total technological leap.” Peter rolled his eyes, then scaled up the Scanning Adapter and passed it gently to the Thing, his tone softening.
“Ben, with this, you won’t ever have to worry about tearing pages again.
It’s built tough, and even if it breaks, the data backs up straight to a new device.” The entire room went quiet.
“You…
made this specifically for me, kid?” Ben’s voice trembled slightly.
“It’s hard enough living with what happened to you.
I just wanted to make things a little easier.” Peter gave a warm smile.
Ben set down his wrench and carefully wrapped his arms around Peter in a gentle hug, holding back out of fear of breaking the kid’s bones.
“Thanks, kid.
I really owe you one.” “Peter, this is incredible,” Reed marveled.
“We didn’t even notice Ben’s struggle.” “You all have enough on your plates,” Peter said with a shrug.
Susan’s eyes lit up instantly.
“We can patent this and license the production rights to Amazon!
Piracy might be an issue, but we can implement a security system to solve that.
This is going to bring in serious money!” “Bring in money?” Johnny perked up.
“Absolutely.” Susan smiled.
“Congratulations, Peter.
You just saved your own job.” “Wait, what?!” Peter’s eyes popped wide.
“You guys were actually going to fire me?” “We only considered it,” Susan said, raising her hands defensively.
“But now you’ve saved yourself.” Peter let out a long breath of relief.
Susan quickly brought in a patent attorney.
Peter not only kept his job, but he also secured a cut of the patent royalties.
On Sunday morning, Peter dragged himself downstairs for breakfast, sporting heavy dark circles under his eyes.
He had patrolled until the early hours of the morning and was bone-tired.
The Thing was sitting in the living room watching television.
Peter had intended to head straight to the kitchen, but a news broadcast on the screen forced him to a halt.
“The Stark Expo will officially open its doors to the public this Friday!” Today was October 30th.
Peter’s eyes narrowed.
The plot of Iron Man 2 was officially underway.
He knew what was coming next, and he knew what a massive opportunity this presented for him.
Justin Hammer.
Peter mentally outlined the name.
He needed a plan—an airtight plan targeting Hammer—to make sure everything unfolded according to his design.