Tests and An Unexpected Guest

"Really...this is pretty amazing...!" I huffed out as I resisted against the hydraulic press pushing down on me with whatever equivalent in tonnes it was pressing down with. "Karen...what's the level at right now?" I huffed out again as I did yet another bench press of this staggering amount of weight.

Why do I say that despite not knowing exact what I was bench pressing? Well, because the last time I asked what I was pressing, Karen answered with 40 tonnes and that'd been quite a few increases-in-weight ago.

[70 tonnes, boss,] Karen voice out and I felt a laugh escape from my mouth as I fully pressed the weight up again.

It isn't a lot in the big scale of things, I'll admit. But 70-goddamn-tonnes! That's enough to easily lift a tank! To fling cars about like they're made of cardboard!

And what's even better? I'm not even fully grown yet. I'm still a teenager. I have plenty of time to grow in strength. As I have the proportionate strength of a spider, which is based off of weight (or rather, my muscle mass) when I grow bigger and taller, my power will naturally increase. Even without that increase, I'm still planning on working out.

As shown with Assassin Spider-Man or Peter Parker (Earth-8351), with enough exercise and training, the arachnid powers gained through the spider bite can be refined into better versions of themselves.

Which adds another bout of reasoning to Peter Parker of Earth-616 being a bit of an idiot.

He never trained or sought more power even after he lost so much. I don't know whether he's a man with strict principles, an idiot, or both.

"Stop the machine, Karen," I gave a shout and the circular pad of the hydraulic press stopped pressing down on me before slowly backing upwards enough for me to move and get up, "Thanks Karen," I gave a huff, taking in a few breaths of air before flipping myself up and off the reinforced 'bed' I'd just been using to support me while I tested my limits.

Cost a lot of money to find a metal that could withstand forces of above 100 tonnes but I needed it for the exercise machines otherwise anything else I used would just crumble under the weight before I actually felt a challenge.

Picking up a nearby towel, I wiped away at the very little sweat I'd produced during this work out.

It was a bit odd to not sweat after about an hour of testing out my strength but I guess it's one of the perks with superhuman stamina and a heightened metabolism, huh?

Even now I could already feel the little bit of stamina I'd lost was quickly re-filling itself. It was an odd feeling. But an overall nice one as well.

Walking over to another machine, I stood on it and turned it on, "Karen, turn up the speed every minute. Set it at 10m/s, okay?" I got a beep and then the machine I was on, a specially made treadmill, began to whir to life.

Quickly I had to began jogging, then running...but it wasn't my limit. It felt far from my limit, actually. But I kept my patience and didn't push ahead too fast. Minute by minute I kept running, not stopping or even feeling winded.

But I was starting to feel that I was reaching my limit after 20-ish minutes.

"What's the speed at, Karen?" I spat out as I ran. I looked down for a second and my legs were moving quicker than I thought possible.

[46m/s or 102 MPH, boss,] I was really running my heart out at the minute but I felt like I could do more. Yet I also felt like this was enough to gauge my overall speed. If push comes to shove, I know that I can outrun a car...and that's if I'd be running, you know?

Turning off the power for the treadmill, I jumped off it, not feeling the usual oddness of solid ground that you get after being on a treadmill for so long. Sensory disorientation doesn't seem to effect me at all anymore. Guess I really am getting used to my senses. Especially my uncanny sense of balance.

Though my sensitivity to light is still a bit much.

But you can't have it all, I guess? There will always be negatives no matter what you do. The good thing being that my sensitivity to light seems to be fading as time passes.

Walking out of the room, I looked around, feeling a sudden sense of danger but that danger went as quickly as it came, "...Karen, scan the lab and tell me if there's anything else other than me here. Put the base to stealth mode as well," I said just loud enough for Karen to hear from the dozens of microphones I'd planted all over this place just so she could hear me.

Instantly, the lights went out and the lab was plunged into pitch black. Or at least it was for other people. I could see clearly.

Crawling up a nearby wall and onto the ceiling, I began silently creeping across the ceiling while looked around for anyone or anything that should be here. Even a small clue to say if someone was here.

It'd been a few days since I'd gained my powers. I'd done dozens of tests.

One of which showed that my spider sense was incredibly sensitive to danger. But also danger that was focused on me. If a bomb went off in New York, I wouldn't sense it unless I was within the blast radius. Which is why my spider sense going off just now tells me that someone or something just targeted me. Knowingly or not, it doesn't matter.

Another reason is that my spider sense may have gone off to tell me that someone with ill intent was here in my lab.

Creeping through the halls, I reached into my pocket and pulled out an earpiece.

As soon as I fit it into my ear, Karen's voice sounded out, [Boss, there are no signs of forced entry on any of the entrances to the lab. But the pressure and heat sensors in the Chemicals and Testing room are indicating that there's someone inside and they're currently searching around inside.]

Huh. Could be a few people if they just suddenly appeared there. A teleporter or someone who can phase through objects...Either way I have ways to deal with them.

Thinking this, I moved onward, crawling across the ceiling quickly yet utterly silently and before long, I arrived at the place where I did all my testing with chemicals. It just so happens to be where I kept all my data on the Oz Serum. If I had to guess who could link that shit to me...well, only one annoying organization came to mind.

The door was open and I snuck in, briefly freezing for a second when I saw who it was.

...This might be easier to deal with then I first thought. Could prove to be a good chance for an experiment as well.

Donned in a full white and grey costume that was both simple yet, from the circuitry I could see, complex. I couldn't see the face of the figure or their costume's 'face' but I could tell it must have some kind of red light on the front from the ambient light lighting up the place they were looking.

And despite the suit, I could tell the person was a she from the feminine curves and even the scent I was picking up. Huh. That's new.

The figure had a hood that seemed to cover most of the head bar the face and overall the costume looked quite well armored. Which, knowing who she was, seemed like a redundant thing to have.

Suddenly, she turned around, the lights on her mask shining straight behind her. She looked around...and she even looked directly at me. Just as I was prepared to subdue her, she just turned back to the computer she was trying to hack into. She was never gonna beat Karen or the cyber securities I'd put up for all of the computers in this place.

But that wasn't where my focus was right now.

She'd looked right at me and hadn't reacted. Which is when I realized something - I was invisible. Or rather, I was camouflaged to the wall behind me. Somehow even my clothes had gone entered this state with me. No doubt something to do with the mystical part of my powers from the Other.

Tearing my gaze away from my hand which was somewhat see-through, I dropped to the ground without making a noise and snuck up behind the girl in the tech-suit.

She wasn't very tall. Only about 5'7" and her build wasn't very athletic-looking either. I guess it didn't need to be with her powers. Anyway, taking my eye away from her figure, I lifted up my hand and whacked her hard enough on the back of her head that she just crumpled to the floor.

Well, that was easy.

. . .

POV Change - Ava Starr

What...had happened? I remember not being able to get passed that stupid security on the computer, then I felt something behind me. When I looked back there was nothing there, so I chided myself and got back to work...only to have something hit the back of my head with such force it felt like I'd been hit by a baseball bat?

My eyes groggily opened and I found myself in a room. It was dark. Very dark. But the dark wasn't what unsettled me.

It...it was the feeling that there was something else in this room with me.

I could feel it. Wandering in the corners of the room. It's footsteps weren't silent but I somehow felt like that was by design. But even more so than that, I felt something was different.

I tried to move my hand yet they were tied behind my back with something that felt like...sticky rope? I tried to pull my hands free but the bindings wouldn't budge. I wasn't unsettled because I could just phase out of the bindings.

But that's when I realized what was different. I couldn't access my powers.

Neither could I feel the pain I had gotten so used to every day. The pain of my cells ripping apart and joining back together again. I felt nothing but normalcy.

So much so that I nearly didn't realize that the thing in this dark, dark room with me was now sitting in front of me on a chair. I could barely make out the outline of it's body but it was definitely a person. Then it spoke.

"Ah, I guess you can't see me, huh? Karen, turn the lights to 30% in the Stabilization Chamber," his--it seemed like a he, at least--voice was deep yet also young sounding. Like a teenager in the throes of puberty. Then the lights went from being off to being dim, though even then, the teenager's eyes squinted a little.

But that didn't stop me from seeing the pure blood red color of them. Like a pair of rubies. His pupils also seemed...odd. Somewhat vertical, I guess is how I'd put it. But not completely, like a cat's.

The teenager definitely didn't have a body like one either. He was only wearing a tank top and some shorts, allowing me to see the well-built, lean muscles all over his upper body, arms and legs. Each muscle was...for the lack of a better word, perfect. Like small cogs that were the perfect size and all came together to make a more full, more perfect machine.

Yet that didn't make me feel any safer around him. Quite the opposite, in fact, I felt even more on edge when I realized that he'd been the one to hit me. He was like me: A powered individual.

"Now, let's start with why S.H.I.E.L.D sent you here, Ms. Starr," he asked a question I never expected. Instantly my brows furrowed against everything my training had taught me not to do.

But I couldn't care less.

How did he know I was a S.H.I.E.L.D Operative? I was given the codename 'Ghost' for a reason. I didn't technically exist. Not even to some of the higher-ups in S.H.I.E.L.D. For this person to know who I was...he was terrifically well-informed.

It was even worse that he was definitely the owner of the lab I'd snuck into. Despite the difference in eye color and slight bodily differences, this was definitely Peter Parker. The man I'd been sent to steal data from. He was suspected to have hired a thief to steal the Oz Serum for him but I couldn't find any physical evidence let alone break through his computer security.

Which told me one thing: He was well-informed AND he knew what S.H.I.E.L.D was and that they'd possibly target him after what he did.

Looking at the man in front of me, I didn't care for his age, because the person sitting across from me and smiling at me with what looked like fangs where his canines should be...he definitely shouldn't be classed as a boy or a teenager. This was a person who'd experienced the world and knew how to deal with it. For the first time since my parents died and I'd gained my infernal powers...

...I felt scared and vulnerable.