Chapter 9: Felicia Hardy

Bennett slumped into his seat just as the bell rang, earning a withering glare from Mrs. Chen at the front of the classroom.

In most American high schools, teachers didn't really care if you made it to class by the skin of your teeth. Hell, half the time they were just grateful you showed up at all.

A blonde girl in front of him spun around in her chair, flashing him a knowing smirk.

"Cutting it close today, aren't we Parker?"

"Technically, I wasn't late, Hardy," Bennett shot back, pulling his completed homework from his backpack with perhaps a bit too much satisfaction.

Felicia Hardy. Rich, gorgeous, and completely aware of both facts. Most guys at Midtown would kill for her attention, but Bennett knew something they didn't—in a few years, she'd be running around in a skin-tight black leather suit, stealing priceless artifacts as the Black Cat.

Of course, right now Felicia had no clue her dear old dad was one of New York's most notorious cat burglars, let alone that she'd eventually follow in his footsteps.

"God, you're such a boy scout," she said, rolling her eyes at his perfectly completed assignment. "Do you ever just... not do homework?"

Felicia had never seen Bennett turn in anything late or half-assed. The guy was frustratingly responsible, which should have been boring but somehow wasn't. Problem was, in a world full of Peter Parkers and Reed Richards types, being a decent student only got you so far.

Bennett could handle regular classes just fine, but when it came to the really advanced stuff—the kind of academics that got you noticed by colleges or internship programs—he hit a wall pretty fast.

Felicia knew the feeling. She worked her ass off and had decent grades to show for it, but she'd never be valedictorian material. Sometimes she wondered if that's why she and Bennett got along—they were both smart enough to know they weren't the smartest people in the room.

Maybe I should get a study group together, she mused, watching Bennett flip through his textbook with that slightly distracted look he got sometimes. Get Gwen involved, make it social...

She was about to lean over and suggest it when Mrs. Chen cleared her throat meaningfully, forcing Felicia to snap back around in her seat.

Bennett, meanwhile, was completely oblivious to her internal plotting.

His mind was still buzzing with thoughts of the Mark IV armor currently stashed in an abandoned warehouse across town. What teenage guy wouldn't be excited about getting his hands on genuine Stark tech? And not just any Stark tech—stuff he'd literally ripped off Tony Stark himself.

Grey Matter could tear that thing apart circuit by circuit, he thought, barely suppressing a grin. Figure out how it all works, maybe even improve on the design.

Sure, he'd already disassembled it once as XLR8, but that had been pure brute force. With Grey Matter's enhanced intelligence, he could actually understand what he was looking at.

The only downside was not having access to the arc reactor itself—that little detail was still keeping Tony Stark's heart beating.

The arc reactor was the real prize. Cold fusion in a package the size of a hockey puck? That was the kind of breakthrough that could change everything. Tony had somehow cracked physics problems that had stumped scientists for decades.

Bennett wasn't naturally a tech geek—most of his academic effort came from not wanting to disappoint Ben and May. But the idea of reverse-engineering Iron Man technology? Building his own suit, maybe even a whole army of them? That was the kind of project that could keep him busy for years.

A small piece of paper hit his desk, snapping him out of his technological fantasies.

The note was written in Felicia's careful handwriting: Study group at my place this weekend? Thinking of inviting Gwen too.

Study group, huh?

Bennett glanced over at Felicia, who was giving him an expectant look while mouthing silently: "You could bring Peter."

It wasn't a terrible idea, actually. Gwen and Peter were easily the two smartest kids in their year, constantly trading the top spots in class rankings. And if Bennett was being honest, getting Peter in the same room as Gwen Stacy would be a hell of an upgrade from his current obsession with Liz Allan.

But then reality kicked in. What am I thinking? I've got bigger priorities right now.

He had an entire Iron Man suit waiting to be analyzed. He could transform into Grey Matter and unlock decades of technological advancement, or maybe try Upgrade and see what kind of modifications were possible. Hell, maybe he could even build Peter a proper Spider-Man costume instead of letting him run around in whatever homemade outfit he was probably putting together.

The last thing Bennett had time for was sitting around someone's living room pretending to care about calculus homework.

He crumpled up the note and shook his head at Felicia.

"Can't do it," he said simply. "Got other stuff going on. Peter's pretty swamped these days too."

Which was true—Peter had been completely obsessed with his parents' research, Dr. Connors, and everything Oscorp-related for weeks now. The guy probably wouldn't surface for air long enough to attend a study session anyway.

Plus, if Bennett remembered right, Gwen had band practice most afternoons. She and MJ had some kind of girl group thing going with a few other students.

"Seriously?" Felicia's voice went flat, and Bennett could practically see the temperature drop around her desk. "Just like that?"

She'd clearly expected him to jump at the chance. Most guys would have.

Typical, she thought, irritation flaring. I actually invite him to something, and he blows me off with some vague excuse about being busy. Right. Because Bennett Parker is obviously running some kind of secret social empire I don't know about.

If he didn't want to hang out with her, fine. But he could have at least come up with a better lie.

Whatever. I'll get Gwen and a few other people together, have an amazing time, and when my grades shoot through the roof, he can wonder what he missed out on. Maybe then he'll appreciate what I was offering.

She turned back around in her seat with enough force to make her hair whip dramatically, which was definitely intentional.

Bennett, already moving on, focused his attention on the lesson.

Something felt different today—sharper, like his brain was running on premium fuel instead of regular. Concepts that usually took him a while to grasp seemed to click into place almost immediately.

Am I actually getting smarter?

It could be the spider bite. Spider-Man's powers were supposed to enhance everything, right? Maybe that included cognitive function. Or maybe all those Grey Matter transformations were leaving some kind of residual effect, like muscle memory but for intelligence.

Either way, he wasn't complaining.

For the first time in his academic career, Bennett found himself genuinely engaged with the material instead of just going through the motions. It felt good—like his brain was finally working the way it was supposed to.

Of course, he wasn't about to fool himself into thinking he'd suddenly become some kind of super-genius. If that were the case, high school physics wouldn't require this much concentration.

Real geniuses like Peter had been inventing impossible materials in middle school. Even Dr. Connors, for all his failures, was working with genetic engineering concepts that wouldn't exist in the real world for decades.

Compared to them, Bennett was still firmly in normal-human territory.

But that was fine. He'd been normal in his previous life too, and he'd made it work. Now he had access to alien intelligence whenever he needed it, plus a few million other genetic templates to choose from if Grey Matter wasn't enough.

The final bell rang, and Bennett felt genuinely good about the day—mentally sharp, academically engaged, ready to tackle some serious alien technology.

Felicia, on the other hand, had spent the last hour alternating between righteous indignation and genuine curiosity about what had Bennett so distracted lately. She'd been planning to give him the cold shoulder for the rest of the day, but honestly, it was harder than expected when he was sitting right there.

He's probably been miserable all day, she decided. Regretting turning me down, wondering if he made a mistake...

She turned around to gauge his reaction, maybe throw him a bone if he looked sufficiently apologetic.

Bennett's seat was empty.

She whipped her head toward the door just in time to see him disappearing into the hallway, backpack slung over his shoulder, not so much as a backward glance.

"Are you kidding me right now?" she muttered, loud enough for half the class to hear.

"BENNETT!" she called out, but he was already gone.

Unbelievable.

300 powerstones for extra chapter.