The Stacy's and Further Thoughts

A shower, a new change of clothes, and finally we were here...

"Boss, how you doing?" mom opened the conversation up with this and despite my earlier words about her being calm and serious went down the toilet instantly.

...Seems she's a bit, well, informal with adults around her own age. Or just with her colleagues.

Oh well, as long as she's okay, her behavior doesn't really matter to me. So instead of looking up at my mom, I turned my gaze to the man she was addressing as boss. This must be her Captain. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and a well-built body. Though signs of age were clear on both his weathered face and his slightly pudgy body.

But he had a steely look in his eyes. A look I could respect. This man had seen things and done what he could to stop whatever he'd seen.

As expected of someone who could become a police Captain.

"What did I say about calling me 'boss' when we're not in the precinct, Meera? My wife will bust my ass if she thinks I'm having you call me 'boss' or 'Captain' while you're over for dinner," he gave a light chuckle before accepting the bottle of wine mom put toward him when she began her greeting, "Hmm, a decent wine. Surprising coming from you, honestly," he laughed much to the indignation of my mom who just gave a friendly glare to him.

"What are you talking about? I'm a dignified woman, bo--George," she corrected herself before she said 'boss' again. But other than that, she was joking around with her superior, holding her head high comically.

Probably to put on a show for me. I dignified it with a small laugh which brought George's eyes away from mom and her childish display. He had blond hair that was slightly graying, along with icy blue eyes.

I somewhat knew who he was from the information available to me yet I didn't hold any bias.

"You must be the little genius I hear about all day. You're mother holds nothing but praise for you, son," he said, surprisingly me, before putting his hand out in greeting. Again, I was surprised but if my mom's been talking about me, he must know I have a distaste for being treated like a child. I took his hand, his adult hand dwarfing mine yet I still put in a decent grip while glancing up at mom who was looking slightly embarrassed that her son-con ways were being outed.

"It's good to meet you, sir," I gave a formal reply and George laughed before glancing over to mom.

"He's got better manners than you, Meera," he continued laughing before he let go of my hand and looked back to me, "You've got a good grip, son. Well, do you both want to finally come in? Helen's probably getting suspicious of what I'm doing. We've been at the door for a few minutes now," he laughed again, his slightly wrinkled face having it's wrinkles pronounced by the action.

Mom nodded with a smile before she took off her coat. She wasn't one for dresses and the like. I guess you could even call her a tomboy. She was dressed in somewhat formal jeans and a nice white blouse. Her hair was done up a little and for once she was wearing make-up. Not that she needed it or anything.

I just followed behind her. I looked around the apartment we were entering and found that it was similar to ours, just a bit bigger.

Upon entering the hallway, I instantly smelt what was being cooked and I felt my mouth watering.

Food is the most important thing to me right now. Nutritious food is the foundation of a good body, after all. And from I can smell, I can smell some very high quality fish being cooked. I wonder if I can get seconds?

. . .

Gobbling down the food available to me, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Though I did get a few slaps round the back of the head from mom, telling me to have some manners. But after the third time, she just resigned herself to fate.

"...Leo dear, you know you have to check for the bones in the fish, right?" Helen, George's wife, said to me with a worried look.

I nearly scoffed at such a worry - does she think puny fish bones could hurt a draconic individual like me? - but I just nodded my head with a polite smile before answering after I swallowed another mouthful, "Yes, I know Auntie Helen. But the bones are soft and are a good source of calcium...not eating them would be a waste," I admitted, knowing that I wouldn't let such good nutrition go down the drain.

I'd been in a body that didn't get the right nutrition...Being a shorty was really annoying.

--But I refuse to be short this reincarnation! Not when I'm gonna be messing about with hot chicks! But mainly so I don't get outshone by most of the Heroes of this time. Tall bastards.

Helen widened her deep blue eyes - a much deeper blue color than her husbands - before she gave a gentle chuckle, "What a clever and mature young boy," she mused before looking to mom with a slightly envious light in her eyes, "I bet with a mindset like that, he's not a picky eater is he?" she joked, to which mom nodded with a bit too much pride.

She ruffled my hair, like she usually did, and gave a smiling reply, "Oh definitely. He'll eat just about anything you put on his plate. Though, he does seem quite obsessed with eating healthy food for some reason," she said with an expression that was a mix between a thoughtful and proud one.

Helen smiled before leaning forward like she was about to spread some juicy gossip, "How lucky are you? Gwen doesn't eat unless it's a chicken-orientated dish. Which is why when we're all eating fish, she's eating chicken nuggets. Isn't that right, missy?" she gave a joking reprimand to the little girl sitting next to her.

The girl...looked like a mirror image of her mother. Just younger. Blonde hair that was so light that it was nearly white, matched with pale and unblemished skin. The only thing she seemed to have gained from George, her father, would be his icy blue eyes.

Gwen looked up at her mom with red cheeks brought on by embarrassment, "M-Mommy! Stop teasing me!" she childishly got out, getting a placating head pat from her mom in return.

She just went back to eating her nuggets with a pout on her face and an indignant expression to boot. She kinda looked like a hamster, nibbling on those nuggets like that...I guess it could be called cute? If you're into that sorta weird stuff anyway.

"Well, despite her being so picky when it comes to food, she's not much of a handful. She's quite the intelligent girl, aren't you, Gwen?" George spoke up with a loving smile and Gwen's grumpy face disappeared at the praise. Lucky she swallowed the nugget still in her mouth before she beamed a smile at us, looking a little smug.

Ah, so this is a smart Gwen Stacy? The OG one, so to speak. Though I did see some pictures of Gwen dancing ballet. They looked new.

I wonder if instead of Peter I need to look out for Gwen? This MCU might have Spider-Woman instead of Spider-Man. Maybe it will have both? Either way will work for me. Though it having both of them...that would give me more material's to work with. More Spirit Medicine, so to speak.

Either way, I should try and befriend them both, just in case.

After this, the rest of the night went by pretty okay. Gwen was too shy to speak up to me but mom did mention to Helen that we should set up a few play dates. I even mentioned inviting her over when Peter and MJ are over. Which gained me a grateful look from both Helen and George...so it would seem that the smart Gwen Stacy is a lot like Peter in that regard. As in her maturity and natural intelligence as isolated her from people at her school.

Oh well. With me looking out for her, she should at least be able to make friends with MJ and Peter. I don't know about myself...it has been quite a long time since I became friends with someone I didn't deem immediately important...

Which means being friends with a possible Spider-Woman should be fine, right? Yeah, I guess so. Though that does mean that I need to train more. If things from the comics begin to slip into this Universe (the MCU), then I can take it that not everything being added is going to be, well let's just say, nice.

If I push it, I should be able to increase my Ki gathering speed by 50% and I'll up my training by an hour a day. Put that with the 3 hours I usually take per day...It should be enough to get to my goals by the age of 10 instead of 11. Maybe even a little before I'm 10.

Though physical training can't be rushed. Unless I want to ruin this superb body I now have.

On the way home, I began to reassess what I wanted to ask of The Hand. I needed them to find someone for me. Then I needed them to steal something from the Government or more specifically, the Army.

...Tch. Alexandra is going to try and squeeze that IOU card dry, isn't she? Though I should be able to complete one favor for them. Just finding that one person and forcing him to comply will use up my favor for them, so stealing something from the Government will put me in their debt. I'm just lucky Alexandra will use the favor straight away.

But if she doesn't...Fucking annoying. This is why I hate schemes. Call me a muscle-headed brute all you like but you can't deny that hitting something till it's dead is much simpler than dealing with a multi-billion dollar, international assassin organization.

...Haah~ Alas, I need to do what I need to do.

Gaining that shitty Super Soldier serum the Army have, then getting Dr Burstein to do his experiment on me to enhance my Iron Body Technique...these are my first major steps to gaining power. Without them, the other steps are near impossible.

As soon as I got home, I went to bed after saying goodnight to mom. Though I didn't sleep.

I stayed up another 2 hours, cultivating my Ki and thinking about what I needed to do in the future.