Chapter 40: Prank

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"So I was only gone for three months?"

Edward asked Diana, as they both sat in the living room.

Next to them, the little girl, whom he learned was called Donna, snickered as she said "Calm down, I don't have such a lousy dad."

Edward sent a glare her way as he said "Lousy?" Donna was suddenly sent flying backwards as she was forced out of the room, and Edward turned his attention toward Diana as he asked "Who's the brat then? Your daughter?"

Diana replied "No, not really." Edward repeated "Not really? You aren't sure?"

Diana rolled her eyes and said "I'll have you know I had a life before we met."

Edward frowned and said "Of course I know that, but I would still like to know important things like that. So, do you have children?"

Diana crossed her arms and replied "No, I did not. Donna was created by an Amazonian Witch using my lineage. So I don't know if she is considered my daughter."

Edward sighed and said "Then why is she here? Shouldn't she be with the Amazons?"

Diana frowned and replied "No, I decided to keep her with us. She will be like Peter." Edward replied "Peter doesn't live with us."

This made Diana smile as she replied "Neither will she." Edward squinted his eyes as he said "She barely is a teenager, and all the strength of an Amazon isn't going to help her live on her own, and an orphanage would be ill advised for that brat."

"THE BRAT SAYS FUCK YOU!"

Donna's voice echoed as she came running in, sending a flying kick toward Edward's face. Without showing any effort, Edward grabbed her by the ankle and slammed her into the ground as he replied in the same breath "So?"

Donna wasn't hurt in the slightest by that throw, Edward was using his mastery over his body and his Chi to mitigate the damage, and so she tried to hit Edward, throwing punches at him, but much to her dismay, she found to her shock that not only Edward was able to follow her punches, he was even able to block each and every one of them with a single opened palm.

The worst was that when she hit his palm, it didn't feel like the metal-like palms of her instructors in Themyscira, where she had been trained, but like a pack of cotton. Somehow, her punches were losing all their force when they came in contact with his palm.

Across them, Diana was watching the exchange with a smile as she replied "She will be living downstairs, so while she will be living with us, we will still have our intimacy. Although I guess we may have to adopt her for school."

"I don't want to go to school!" Donna cried out as the little imp seemed to somehow know about the horrors of the mortal world. However, Edward couldn't be bothered by her as he said "Downstairs? Seriously?"

Diana smiled and replied "I was teasing you two, she is already under my guard so there is no need for adoption. And the apartment below USED to be yours, but not anymore."

Edward retorted "I know that…"

Diana grinned and replied "You can't share your things… looks like you need to be cuddled." Before Edward could react, Diana sent the table flying and kicked Donna out of the room as she jumped onto Edward to kiss him.

Edward grinned as they kissed, and used his Spiritual Energy to close the door before entertaining his girlfriend. Those three months hadn't been easy for him either.

For the rest of the day, Edward and Diana resolved their argument by breaking the living room's table, discovered Edward's new astonishing strength by breaking the bed, and Edward's unbelievable stamina by keeping Donna awake during all the following night.

The next morning, Edward and Diana were both in what remained of their bed, the urges they had been containing for three months finally spent. Diana was now laying against Edward's body, while he gently stroked her hair.

After a moment of peace, he asked "Did I miss anything important in those three months, except you?"

Diana smiled and replied "A few things. Tony Stark is really Iron Man, and he has been taking care of terrorists and such scum. The fallout of Stark's pull out also drove several super villains to rise, especially from Oscorp. Peter was quite busy."

Edward asked "Is he okay?"

Diana hummed in response "He has managed to take care of them, you taught him well. He passed by a few times too, and apparently he has been making great progress onto his web slingers. Then, there is also your hybridization serum which has been saving lives worldwide."

Edward sighed softly and slowed down his strokes as he said "There weren't only good news, were they?"

Diana sighed too and said "Barbara. After you turned her back into a human, she remained the same, and was borderline crazy. I'm not really sure how, but she managed to escape from our detention and we still haven't found her."

Edward hugged her tighter and said "I'm sure we will find her." Diana shook her head and said "Then what? She clearly doesn't want to be found. I don't know what to do."

Edward replied "We will see."

Diana wrapped her arms around Edward and asked "What about you? How were your three months? You sure seem to have made a lot of progress."

Edward grinned at that and replied "A lot has happened. I…" Edward proceeded to tell Diana everything he went through, and drew various reactions from her as he told her what happened to him.

As he finished his tale, Edward asked "Do you ever come in contact with Asgardians? Don't tell me you are enemies, that would make things awkward."

Diana shook her head with a smile and said "Although we used to be enemies, Olympus and Asgard are now at peace and friendly. There are some I don't particularly like, but the same goes for Olympus. As for Thor… We had fun when I was younger, but as he became older he grew arrogant, and we drifted apart."

Edward snorted and said "As he grew? I assure you he had quite the pride even back in the 6th Century."

Diana shrugged and said "In any case, all I know is that Odin has punished Thor for his recklessness, and almost provoking another great war against the Frost Giants. I am not sure what that punishment entails, but I heard Thor hasn't been seen for a few years now."

Edward said "I see. Well, since it was his father's punishment, there's nothing I can do."

Diana smiled and said "You know, he told me about you." Edward looked at her in surprise and she said "I didn't realize at the time, but he told me how he got Mjollnir, and about the most valiant mortal he ever met. And the craziest too. 81 strikes of lightning, seriously?"

Edward chuckled and showed her his hand. His hand turned purple, and he said "It was worth it, I assure you. Hadn't I done it, I would be only twice as strong, I would say."

Diana slightly nodded, and the two once again fell silent.

They eventually had to leave their bed though. Edward took the time to call his parents, he hadn't given them any news for three months so they were bond to be worried about him.

Then, after annoying Donna a little more using his telekinesis to throw stuff at her, Edward called Peter, who was overjoyed Edward was back, and told him they would meet at the lab.

Once he arrived at his lab, Edward was surprised to see how clean it was. It seemed Peter had regularly come to clean it.

Speaking of the spider, Peter arrived not long after Edward, in his civilian clothes. Edward looked at the young man in surprise as he asked "Shouldn't you be at school?"

At that Peter laughed and replied "It's Sunday Sir!" Edward scratched his head while whispering to himself "Oh right."

Peter came in closer and asked "So, what were you doing in those three months Sir? Your girlfriend wouldn't tell me."

Edward smiled, and after a moment of contemplation told the kid what happened to him. Peter's reactions were priceless, and much more pronounced than Diana's. The kid was easily impressed. Well, maybe it was Diana who wasn't easily impressed.

After that, the two decided to spar, to see if Peter had trained well in Edward's absence. The results were… disastrous, for Peter.

Edward found the young boy had indeed worked well, and managed to improve onto his mastery over his own body, but Edward had become much stronger, and stomped on him.

Although he was physically weaker, even with his Chi, compared to Peter, the difference had now been shortened enough so Peter could ignore the difference in techniques between them.

With that considered, Edward easily beat the boy to the ground, even as the later used all of his power.

Edward knew perfectly well that this fact was in fact quite unfair to the young spider, as Peter strength was not in head on fights like this, but in using his environment to his advantage.

For example, while Edward was away, Peter had fought against a man called Electro, and who's power was to control electricity.

Peter couldn't even get close to him as his lightning was potent enough to even shock Spider-Man, but Peter used his mind and destroyed a fire hydrant and force a short circuit in Electro, defeating him.

In the same manner, Edward knew for sure that if they were fighting outside, in the street, or even in a warehouse Peter wasn't scared of destroying, then this fight wouldn't be as easy, and could even result in his defeat.

However, they weren't here to fight and see who was stronger. He was here to teach Peter, and letting the boy fight in his own territory would be useless. What he aimed to do was to patch Peter's weaknesses, so that in the future, if he ever finds himself in a sticky situation where he cannot use his usual tactics, he would still have something to fall back on.

After a couple of hours, Peter was left panting on the ground, while Edward was still fresh. While he wasn't as strong as Peter, his stamina was much stronger. He had to thank his incredible Chi for that.

Speaking of which, it was finally time to see what Chi actually was. Ever since he awoke the power, he had wanted to experiment on it, using science, but before leaving for Camelot, Edward had never been able to manifest his Chi, and he couldn't extract it from his body without killing himself.

Now, that wasn't the case anymore.

He took a container, which he pre-emptively turned into a vacuum, and stuck his index to one of the boxes' walls.

The thing with Chi was that while he could coat his body with it, as soon as it left his skin, it would nearly instantly disappear as it would be absorbed by the world.

Hence the sealed box. As for why it had been turned into a vacuum, it was to confirm a theory of Edward.

The equipment needed to examine something as arcane as Chi was expensive, but thankfully he had earned quite some money from his hybrid serum.

Edward personally didn't have any need for money, his parents had enough to live comfortably, and his daily expenses hadn't really changed since he became a college student.

So he used his money for two things. One, power his lab, and two, give Peter a salary.