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Peter Parker's New Groove Ch. 20 (Marvel)
🕑 Added 2021-08-17 16:15:34 +0000 UTCA/N: Here we are with Chapter 20~
-x-X-x-
He’d already made the decision not to second guess himself anymore. He wasn’t going to let anything stand in his way when he knew what he was doing was right. This… Spider-Woman might not be a villain, she might not be a bad person, but she was still out there in his city and that meant Peter needed to know what he was dealing with. He needed to know WHO he was dealing with.
Fixing Jessica with a determined gaze and a set jaw, Peter doesn’t back down.
“I need to know, Jessica. I need to know so that I can make sure she doesn’t hurt herself or others. Look, you said her costume wasn’t nearly as impressive as mine. I’ve been in her shoes. Before Mrs. Stark took me under her wing, I was the kid with a shitty dollar store costume who was trying to fight crime while avoiding being shot by criminals.”
Shaking his head, Peter sighs.
“It’s safer if she’s got people to watch her back. I can be that, but only if I can find her.”
Jessica Jones is quiet for a moment, the PI seeming to mull over his words before ultimately, her face softens, and she lets out a soft sigh.
“Sheesh, lay the hero speech on me why don’t you…”
Peter flushes but doesn’t squirm like he might have previously. He doesn’t back down, and in the end, Jessica finally gives him a nod.
“She’s a blonde. She left a few stray hairs behind, and I noticed them.”
Peter blinks at that, a little surprised. Jessica just shrugs at the look on his face and snorts derisively.
“I am a Private Investigator you know. I do have SOME skills beyond just hitting things really hard. In fact, I wish I could be more known for the former rather than the latter.”
Heh, he could sympathize with that. Offering Jessica, a smile, Peter holds out his hand.
“Thank you for your help, Ms. Jones. It was good working together, hopefully we can to it again sometime.”
Jessica shakes his offered hand, but also shakes her head, a rueful smile on her lips.
“I’d rather we not cross paths out in the field if I’m being honest. You masked vigilantes move in circles way too dangerous for me. I’d prefer my jobs to be filled with a lot less bullets. Still… no reason we can’t get together for other things outside of work.”
The suggestive tone and the glint in her eyes make it clear what she’s offering, if the fact that they’re both still naked at the moment. Peter blushes, but also grins and nods rather than ducking his head shyly, and he likes to think his confidence and easy agreement leave a dusting of red across Jessica’s pretty face as well.
With that though, their time together comes to an end. Getting back in the suit, Peter makes his way out of Jessica’s office and off into the city, swinging from building to building with his web. At the same time, he calls Friday.
“Fri, I assume you were listening in and watching, even when I took off the suit.”
“Of course, Peter. ESPECIALLY when you took off the suit.”
Grinning a little bit at the perverse nature of his AI friend, Peter chuckles and shakes his head.
“What do you have for me? Anything on this Spider-Woman chick yet?”
“A preliminary hunch at the moment, but not confirmation. Not yet.”
There’s no hesitation in Friday’s voice, no questioning of his decision to unveil this other hero’s identity when he’d refused to do so with Black Cat all willy nilly. Instead, the Artificial Intelligence is already hard at work making his wishes into reality. Smiling slightly, Peter continues his patrol for another half hour before finishing up without further incident and heading home.
Of course, it’s as he’s going to bed that Friday gets back to him with a name and completely ruins any chance of him getting any sleep.
“Peter, I’ve identified Spider-Woman.”
“Yeah? Who is she? Everything on the up and up?”
“Her name is Gwendolyn Stacey. Her father is the new Police Commissioner. And she goes to your school. Have you met her yet? Peter?”
He’d frozen up the moment the name Gwendolyn Stacey ghosted through his ear. While it was nice to know that Friday wasn’t using her omniscience to spy on him at school from the sound of things, it was still quite the shock to learn that Gwen Stacey, ‘Quickie in the middle of Lunch Period’ Gwen Stacey, was apparently running around in her own costume with her own set of spider powers.
“I… yeah, I’ve met her. We uh… we’re friends?”
Were they friends? Were they lovers? Fuck, what even were they to each other? Peter hadn’t tried to put a name on it, and neither had Gwen. But this was…
“… From the tone of your voice, it sounds like there’s more to it then that, Peter. But fine, keep your secrets. At least it should be easy to talk to her tomorrow at school about this.”
Right… easy.
-x-X-x-
“Hey Gwen, I need to talk to you about something.”
As it turned out, it really was easy. After their… first encounter, Peter had taken to inviting Gwen to eat with him, MJ, and Ned at lunch. At the same time, Felicia had invited herself to their lunch table as well. For the first time in his and Ned’s entire school lives, their table at lunch was more girls then boys, which was undeniably odd.
Regardless, Peter had procrastinated as long as he could allow himself to. Maybe he should have found out Gwen’s address from Friday and ambushed her there, or even just pulled her aside before school, but he’d allowed himself to wait until now… until Lunch.
Blinking as she looks up from her food, the blonde smiles after a moment and nods.
“Sure, Peter!”
Even as he leads Gwen out of the cafeteria and down the hall, Peter can feel Felicia and MJ both staring daggers into his back. That… might be a situation he needs to deal with later, but one massive problem at a time. Given the delicate nature of the conversation he and Gwen needed to have, Peter takes her to an empty classroom… specifically, he takes her to the same empty classroom they’d used last time, mostly because he knew it would be empty again.
… In hindsight, maybe that was a mistake. All things considered, it’s perfectly reasonable for Gwen to latch onto him the moment the door is closed and locked behind them. Peter barely manages to get her name out before she’s got her arms around his neck and is standing on her tiptoes as she kisses him quite hungrily. Her tongue halfway down his throat in mere seconds, Peter is admittedly taken aback for a brief moment.
His own hands settle onto her hips, and very briefly he considers just putting off the conversation even longer and using this lunch period to have a repeat of the other day. But then his fingers dig into her supple flesh, and he’s reminded of why he pulled her away in the first place as he encounters seriously toned resistance.
He’d noticed it before, to be fair, but only now did he understand what it meant. Gwendolyn Stacey was extremely athletic. The sporty blonde girl was insanely toned and had a beautiful, flexible body with just the right amount of muscle to go along with her springy figure. But now Peter knew that body was because she was, somehow, just like him. Because she was Spider-Woman.
It takes every ounce of his willpower, but he ultimately pulls her away from him and shakes his head.
“No… that’s not why I dragged you away, Gwen. We need to have a talk.”
The seriousness in his tone brings the blonde up short, and she blinks owlishly at him, looking confused.
“A talk? About what? If this is about Felicia, I’m not going to let her scare me away. Though, I think I put her off a little when I suggested we just share you…”
Thrown off by the comment, Peter is sidetracked for a moment.
“What? Felicia-? No, no that’s not why either. Just… let me speak for a second.”
Fully disengaging from Gwen, Peter steps away from her entirely, organizing his thoughts as she stands there, staring at him with a furrowed brow and an expression filled with concern. Finally, he just sighs and puts his cards on the table.
“I know you’re Spider-Woman, Gwen. And full disclosure… I know because I’m Spider-Man.”
There, he said it. Turning back to face her, Peter wonders what he’ll see on her face. Panic? Shock? Confusion? Instead… Gwen looks remarkably blank as she just stares at him for a long moment. Finally, though, she responds.
“I know. Or rather, I guessed it.”
That surprises Peter, because honestly, he didn’t… he hadn’t thought… how could SHE have guessed his secret identity when it took Friday to find out who she was?
“You guessed it?! Uh, can you explain.”
Shoulders slumping, Gwen lets out a loud sigh before nodding.
“Sure. I guess, to start with… the multiverse is real. Other timelines, other dimensions, other universes… all of them exist. And I, I suppose, am a sort of dimensional refugee?”
Needless to say, out of everything Peter was maybe expecting to hear in way of explanation, this was not it. Sure, the original Avengers had had to do some serious time travel in order to get Peter and everyone else who was snapped away back, as well as defeat Thanos once and for all. But… well, there really wasn’t a ‘but’. With that taken into consideration, Gwen’s story made sense. Though, the last part…
Luckily, Gwen is quick to explain.
“I don’t really know how it happened, only that it had something to do with you snapping your fingers and stopping Thanos. That was the day I… awakened, for lack of a better word. Me and my dad, actually. We have memories of another world. More than memories, we have the powers and bodies we had in that other world as well. Here in this world, Gwendolyn Stacey and her father were two… nobodies who got snapped away.”
Shrugging helplessly, Gwen grabs at one of her arms with her hand and looks away self-consciously.
“In the other world, I was a heroine called Ghost Spider and my dad was Police Commissioner. Suddenly, after your snap, it was like the two versions of us got brought back together, like we were combined somehow. So now I’m both Gwen’s. Except, the version of me in this world was boring. I’m much happier being who I am now… being Spider-Woman.”
After a second, Gwen pipes up again, continuing her explanation.
“I knew you were probably Spider-Man because, well, there is no Spider-Woman in this world besides me. And in that other world, you weren’t Spider-Man, but you were… you were my friend. My very good friend. A-And I lost you. But then… but then I got this chance to g-get you back, so I took it and I’m sorry I lied, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before now, I just…”
Ah fuck, those were tears. Peter can’t help but move forward and take Gwen into his arms as she finally breaks down. In all honesty, he’s not surprised. What she just told him… it’s pretty unbelievable, and yet Peter believes every word of it. It sounds impossible, but in truth it’s probably just… improbably. Part of him wonders (and worries) that he had something to do with it, but Gwen doesn’t seem too upset about the change in circumstances. Still, had his snap done something? When he’d defeated Thanos, he’d… the Stones had sung to him. It was like they’d harmonized with him and his desires.
But it wasn’t even him who brought back everyone that Thanos snapped away, that was Dr. Hulk or whatever he was calling himself. Peter had snapped later, to destroy Thanos and his invasion force. So, what did it all mean? Where the Infinity Stones were concerned, Peter couldn’t be sure of anything to be frank. Nothing was out of the question. Everything was a possibility.
… Peter would undoubtedly be processing this revelation for quite some time, but at the moment at least, his friend needed his support. As evidenced by Gwen’s broken murmuring, which only his enhanced hearing allowed him to pick up as she nuzzled into his chest.
“P-Please don’t h-hate me…”
Tightening up his hug almost instinctively, Peter shakes his head.
“I could never hate you, Gwen.”
He liked her quite a lot, actually. Love? It might have been too strong of a word, but he certainly felt a serious level of affection for her. He adored her, even. As they slowly pull apart, Gwen gives him a watery, hopeful smile, looking up into his eyes. And then she goes in for a kiss, and Peter is more than willing to let her.
However, just before their lips can meet, the locked door to the classroom springs open and a certain someone storms inside.
“Aha! I knew it! Get away from my man, you hussy! God, at least I got here before anything happened…”
As Felicia Hardy puts away her lockpicking kit and glares at Gwen with naked anger in her eyes, Gwen and Peter exchange a look… and both burst out laughing. Felicia’s face drops into a confused scowl as she crosses her arms over her chest.
“W-What’s so funny?”
Disengaging from the hug with Gwen, Peter sighs as he steps back and then turns to face the cat burglar that he was ALSO currently in some sort of… relationship with.
“It’s just… Gwen and I had fucked before you even tried to stake your claim in my Felicia. Literally that day.”
Eyes widening, the Black Cat’s civilian identity goes pale, especially when Gwen follows up Peter’s honesty by stepping to his side and wrapping her arms around him lovingly.
“That’s right, Hardy. But hey, my offer is still open. Down for a threesome anytime~”
Felicia blushes at that, looking between the two of them uncertainly. For the gorgeous femme fatale who always seemed so self-confident and sexy and seductive, it was an interesting change of pace in Peter’s eyes. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t gainsay Gwen one bit. And his silence, in the end, is damning enough as Felicia bites her lower lip, looking a little panicked.
“But… but I can still be your best girl, right Peter? I…”
She trails off, seeming quite uncertain right now. It would seem Peter has a decision to make about one Felicia Hardy. And to think, he’s still reeling from the revelations concerning Gwen. Sheesh, why did it always seem like it was one thing after another these days?!
Still... it was a chance to set the record straight. He just had to decide how he wanted to do so and what a straight record should even look like. Should he 'punish' Gwen in a fun way for her deception by making her sub to Felicia? Or should he make it clear to Felicia that she's not ever going to be in charge?
Or perhaps a third option...
Comments
Alun Lewis
Time for the Spider Lord to make sure his harem knows he cares for them equally! :P Though I'm sure MJ too is secretly struggling between trying to be her "too cool for school" self and wanting to claim Peter for herself, so that's gonna be a fun time when she finally decides to cock-block two enhanced sexpots ;)
Seaver IXp
Felicia is definitely the more interesting character as compared to Gwen. Catgirl all the way.
HeirOfRohan
Huh, I am honestly surprised by the choice this time. Does the community finally beginning to understand the concept of bad endings?! Will wonders never cease?!
