Chapter 11: Serenity

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Seeing this, Edward patted his shoulder as he said "You are just a kid, you may have great powers, you do not know how to use them, you need training, something I can provide for you."

Peter was about to say something, but Diana cut in and said "I'm done, now you just need some rest. Aren't your parents going to wonder where you are?"

Peter scratched his head and said "My aunt doesn't know I left the house." Diana sighed and looked at Edward as she asked "A word?"

Edward nodded, and the two moved to another room. When they were finally alone, Diana couldn't hide her frown as she asked "What was that?" Edward sighed and said "You mean the kid?" Diana replied "What do you think?"

Edward chuckled and said "I thought you were going to say that… As you said, this is just a kid, and yet he seems intent on going out in the streets to fight the bad guys, but he doesn't even know how to fight. I can't just let him do so in good conscience."

Diana snarled "So you thought the solution was to bring him here, to our home?" Edward looked at Diana shocked, and asked "Our home?" Although they had been together for a few months, they still lived in different apartments, even though they were only a floor away from each other. Still, the distance still existed.

Diana stopped for a moment too, and understanding what she said, she took Edward's hand as she said "You are basically living here anyway, don't you think it's time you move in?"

Edward lost his tongue for a moment, before he tightened his grip on her hand as he said with a smile "I would love that." Diana smiled back and the two kissed, before she said "You still didn't answer me though."

Edward, who had a goofy smile on, said "Like Dragon taught me, I want to teach him. Not only to fight, but how to behave, how to be a hero, if that is really what he wants. He is a what, 14 years old kid who suddenly received powers, I don't want him to go the wrong way and use his powers for evil."

Diana sighed and said "But if you do take him under your wing, and anything happens to him…" Edward shook his head and said "If I just let him go and something happens, the guilt would be much worse. And I believe I can keep him in this world if I train him. I'm awesome."

Finally, he pressed his body against hers and lightly kissed her neck as he said "Moreover, now that I got fired, I'm going to have a lot of time on hand, and although I intend to spend much of it with you, you do have a job."

Diana smiled and lightly pushed him as she said "Fine, do what you want to do. But how are you going to explain that to his aunt?"

Edward shrugged and said "It depends on him really. If he is okay with telling her his masked identity, then I will simply tell the truth. If he doesn't want to, then I simply have to employ him, and train him during work hours."

Diana raised an eyebrow and asked "You are going to employ him just because you want to train him? Do you have the money for it? Just buying the material will already be hard."

Edward shook his head and said "I should have enough with my economies, and if I don't have enough, don't I have you, my sugar mummy?" Diana hit his shoulder as she said "I'm not your sugar mummy… Although if you do need money, I can give you."

Edward grinned and said "What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine, equivalent exchange right?" Diana chuckled and asked with a raised eyebrow "What can you offer me then?"

Edward's clothes began to slowly disappear as he said "Well, I'm sure we can find a way…" Diana laughed as she said "Maybe you were right, because I think I want to eat you." Edward tilted his head as he said "Would would have thought you out of all people would talk like that… But back to the kid, I'm not just employing him for his training, but also his skills. Despite his age, he knows a lot, and he could really help me. He's one of those child geniuses, even better than me back then I would say."

Diana nodded and said "Fine, do whatever you want." Edward smiled and pecked her on the lips as he said "Love you." before freezing. Actually, Diana did the exact same thing, the two looked at each other with wide eyes.

After a moment, Diana blinked and said "You… mean it?" Edward awkwardly smiled and said "Well, it just came in the spur of the moment, so… yes." Diana bit her lips as she went for a French kiss, before saying herself "I love you too."

Edward smiled and said "I am really starting to feel like the woman in our couple. Now, let me send the kid back home before I show you how much I love you."

He went back to Peter, who was blushing so hard his face looked like a tomato. Edward was surprised, before he remembered Peter most probably had extraordinary senses looking at the way he fought, meaning he heard them.

Acting like nothing happened, Edward sent him back home after giving him his number. Once left alone with Diana, the two had some fun.

For the following month, Edward set everything he needed for his company. He first bought a medium sized warehouse and filled it with the equipment he would be needing. He used all his spare money on this, and instead of borrowing the rest from the bank he took it from Diana.

He knew most people would be ashamed to do so, but Edward did not see it that way. He had a project, and his girlfriend supported him. If she also had something similar, then Edward would not even hesitate to help her in his best capacity.

In the end, after a month, he managed to set everything up, and officially employ Peter for an internship. When he did, he obviously had to go see his parents, or rather his aunt for some talk.

Apparently, Peter had lost his parents years ago and his uncle some time ago, meaning he was living alone with his aunt. His life was quite tragic to be honest, and Edward even learned their family was struggling to ends meet, Aunt May was already quite old.

So she was obviously happy when he told her he would take Peter in and give him a satisfying pay, although he could see she was a bit uneasy about Edward being one of the people who worked on the serum that made the Lizard.

But Edward did not mind, for he was close to washing off his terrible reputation as he had already made the necessary changes for the anti serum, and he had submitted it to the WHO, the World Health Organization.

In the past month all the monsters had been under quarantine in a special prison, not only to confine them but also because the lizard mutants were much stronger than normal humans and would easily riot out of a normal prison.

Anyway, now that he had submitted the anti serum, all he had to do was to wait until it was verified, and when the victims were healed he would regain his reputation, and maybe even some more. Even Connors could be healed.

But even though he had done this, his work wasn't over yet. He now needed to continue working on the real serum, but it couldn't be the Lizard Serum. With the Connors' incident, even if the serum was perfected too many people would be afraid.

That's why, Edward decided to focus on a side project. The reason they had been working on lizard regeneration serum was because of Connors' selfish reasons, for his arm, but Edward's only goal was to help humanity.

Same with the anti serum, although he partly did it for his reputation, the main reason still was to help those poor people who lost their minds and lost their families. That's also something many people did not really care about, Connors may have killed some people, but he broke many more families by turning people into monsters.

Just imagine one day seeing your child or your parent turn into a monster, the blow would knock out most people.

Back to the serum, the Lizard Hybridization Serum could be called selfish because it's utility would be rather trivial compared to the potential other species may have. Sure, this would cure disability through the world, but you can live pretty much normally, even with one less hand.

This may sound horrible, but it was the truth. In comparison, the serum Edward was working on would help much more, as it was an Elephant Hybridization Serum, which had for aim to cure dementia.

Obviously, dementia itself couldn't be cured, but all the illnesses that caused it could be. One such example was Alzheimer, and it was only one example among many. You could live with one less arm, but you can't live without a sane mind. Hence, although his serum wouldn't heal those already ravaged by dementia, it would prevent it from happening to anyone else ever again.

In the past month, Edward didn't only work obviously, and he had a lot of time to think about his hero pass time. He could see two paths for heroes in Diana and Peter, passive and active.

Diana only attacked the super villains, and so she was waiting most of the time. On the other hand, Peter would go against all criminals, and so his work as a hero was much more active.

Edward believed both types were needed, but he himself had his preference, and it was Diana's style. He could see in the past month how going after each and every criminal was impacting his life, he never had a break and it impacted his life quite a lot.

Moreover, Edward believed that those small time criminals were for the police. His job was to stop those the police couldn't stop, such as the Lizard, or Circe. Those were two different views, two different paths, and Edward couldn't say for sure the one he chose was the right one, but he intended on sticking with it.

He believed he could do as much for the world as Edward than as Serenity.

Finally, Edward also began Peter's training, which was going along fine as Edward was teaching him various martial arts, to both allow him to control his strength and actually use his gifts to the fullest. As for himself, he would still go to Dragon's dojo, but he could see there was some unrest over there recently.

But they told him nothing, so Edward decided not to snoop around, if they needed him they would tell him.

As for his Serenity persona, he had been all over the news for a while after he knocked the Lizard to the ground. People were wondering what his name was, and a friendly neighbourhood superhero told them he was Serenity.

Edward was actually relieved Peter did so, he didn't want people to create silly names for him, that would be harmful.

Author's Note: Chapter is a bit early today as I won't be available tonight and wouldn't be able to post. Good for you guys! You can come check Patréon to thank me.

(It's a joke, don't use it against me!)

PS: Today's last chapter on Patréon, the 31st, is once again quite amazing as we get to see a new power of Edward! I definitely recommend you to go check it out!