J and Gwen had been right, and once Peter got back into a proper routine, hastened by the jar being constantly waved in his face, he felt better. Of course, having two incredible girlfriends helped, and a pile of never-ending escapades in the bedroom hastened his recovery.
He started to get out of the mindset he realised life had stuck him in, Victim. He could bench press several tonnes with no effort but he'd spend too long under Flash's thumb, under the impression that even being strong that he was weak and little by little he began to realise that was a lie.
Each time he went out he proved it, knives were nothing against his symbskin, and the one mugger that pulled a gun pissed himself and shook so much he would have shot himself before getting Venom.
Life began to move forwards and soon the lazy summer haze drained into crisp autumn and then into chilly winter. Peters modifications to the warehouse kept the inside at a constant temperature, air-conditioned and solar heated with jury-rigged but competently built tech kept the place heated and low cost.
Taking Gwen's idea he had built up, adding a staircase and a flat top roof to both box homes. Gwen had turned hers into a deck and had added some loungers and a few small tables while MJ had requested a hot tub on hers. The meeting table where they all ate got an upgrade as well, with Peter adding in a kitchen unit with a small burner stove, a microwave, and a coffee machine, so they could make breakfast without having to carry it from their homes.
The hot tub became a firm favourite of the trio, after a long workout they would spend time just soaking tired muscles and it was a decadence even Gwen could enjoy. Alexsi had just scowled when Peter asked if he could get him one and in the end, Peter had decided not to skimp and actually bought one from a store. Both Gwen and MJ chipped in to make sure it was a group effort and not just dumping the cost onto Peter.
MJ had forbidden Gwen and Peter from having sex in it though, after deciding to join them one day and finding Gwen between Peter's legs, her head bobbing up and down. She didn't mind sharing the tub or sharing Peter in the tub, but he was messy during sex and the clean up was always a pain, and for her, that was her limit.
MJ herself tested that limit over the summer. She enjoyed watching Gwen and Peter, enjoyed it as they both used him, and even went so far as to initiate small touches and kisses with Gwen but that was as far as she went. She didn't mind Peter swapping beds at night, Gwen's lack of stamina was apparent but MJ could go for hours.
She even made a discovery one evening as Peter wandered into her home, asking if she wanted some company and after kissing and using her mouth on him she asked what the strange taste was? She quietly admitted to herself that she enjoyed the taste of Gwen on Peter, her sweat had a tang to it that Peters lacked and it became a favourite of hers to lick him clean before they began. Even going so far as to request that Peter spend time with Gwen before visiting her.
She performed several different acts for Peter to keep it a secret. Even crossing a line that both she and Gwen had vetoed before and as Peter slid into her behind, she realised that she loved that too. Every inch of her enjoyed the attention Peter gave her, Muse purring and tingling with her as they succumbed to the pleasure he brought them.
There were now things that she wanted to keep a secret from Gwen and while it made her feel guilty, Gwen's pushiness was sometimes too much. She loved her. She was her best friend in the whole world but she wanted it to stay that way. To stay her friend and not become anything more. She had a line and she refused to cross it.
While their personal life was strong, she had been working as well. She still worked at the diner during the day and when the three of them hung out at night she handed out scripts and they let her use them as sounding boards, even if they devolved into laughter most times as Gwen and Peter were robotically stiff when trying to act.
Modelling work was tough to find without encountering slimeballs and a few times MJ requested Peters presence at interviews, the 'producer' turned pale as he saw him there. It was too easy for shitty directors whose claim to fame was filming crappy movies to appear as proper talent scouts, looking for naive actresses they could trick into more unsavoury roles. While MJ knew as Muse that she could snap off any offensive manhood that made itself known in her presence, Peter was just as good a deterrent and she enjoyed having him there while she auditioned.
Muse had also shown her her new trick, and while carrying an empty bag as cover, she was able to morph not just her clothing but hair and skin into lighter or darker shades, even her eye colour was changeable if MJ focused.
Not just their personal lives but the warehouse itself was changing. The offices he had gotten from Alexsi had expanded into ten and now Peter had a much larger house taking up one whole side of the warehouse on two floors. He had expanded the whole thing into a large U shape, with one office at each end and then three along the wall, each doubled up with a steel-framed staircase leading up to the next floor. The staircase was simply welded rebar with a grate floor, but it was strong and secure. As MJ and Gwen claimed space in the warehouse offices he was converting, he found that with work, exams, and improving the warehouse that his days were full.
Gwen took over one of the end labs, after discovering that their new enhanced metabolism shrugged off any alcohol they were at a loss. Even the stronger stuff barely dented the symbiotes and so Gwen built herself a brewery in one lab. Rows of fermenting grapes and other fruit juices lined the walls and she had Peter build her a small still, grinning as she anticipated making her own moonshine.
Her work with Oscorp had taken a deeper turn as well, she had left her internship and been given a proper position, a colleague of her boss, Dr Olivia as she'd introduced herself, had her working on samples of genetic material. Sure it was just feeding them into a mass analyser and then collating the results but Gwen felt that she was actually doing something worthwhile, away from the managers and slimeballs. It was part-time, counted towards credit on her college course and it paid well.
Peter had finally been told what had happened during her internship, a scumbag had tried to grope her, making an implication that she'd be fired if she said anything. While Peter's face darkened Gwen hurriedly added that she'd been saved. Her new boss Olivia had come to her rescue and the man had been fired not too long after. He still made a mental note to find him, people like that needed to be taught a lesson in Peter's mind.
Once the summer faded Gwen started her college course. She hadn't taken the leap to invite any of her classmates over yet but Peter told her they were welcome. He wasn't about to ban any visit to the warehouse and as long as he had warning he could either be in or out and would make sure the place looked spotless, especially if Gwen ever invited her boss over.
Peter added in several lab spaces for both him and Gwen and a small stage into one of the end offices close to his home where MJ could practise. Peter had cut and shaped steel plates to divide up several sealed rooms for Gwen to work on her chemistry, and added clean rooms where he could work on his electronics.
While he had no machines or lab equipment he had laid the framework, cleanrooms and sealed extractors were fitted, and doors with locks to hold anything dangerous or expensive were added in. One of the harder to reach top floor offices was converted into a storeroom and Peter kept not just his tools but a collection of scrap and plates that he could use in the future.
Focusing not just on improving their homes but the breakout project he needed to make Parker Inc a household name he had thought of a perfect one.
While Flash's plight didn't even ping on Peter's emotional radar, the idea of cheap and well fitted prosthetic limbs did. It was becoming more and more common for 3D printed limbs to be used. Cheap, replaceable, customisable, and easy to get a hold of, the trend for them was booming. He wanted to make them a booming industry.
Making a cheap prosthetic was easy, plastic was readily available to anyone and as 3D printing became easier and easier more people just printed off the limb they needed once the old one broke. Where Peter was experimenting was a conductive biomaterial, one that registered a sense of touch and gave a person a wholly artificial but wholly replaceable limb. He could feel through his symbskin, see through the mask he wore, even breath through it, so if he could crack a way to make it without using his own body he would have the perfect material.
With Gwen's help, they began to test the limits of his webbing and symbskin. They first needed to stabilize his cells, they were no use as they burst within seconds of leaving his body and Gwen created a gel-like web that coated them in a film, stopping the cell from eating itself. Finally, after a few months, they were able to make the breakthrough that everyone lacked. A biocompatible material that would react to the nerve impulses of anyone without needing a special interface or an implant. A material that could be applied directly to the body and worked as a second skin.
He had sketched out an inorganic but wholly functional limb without the need for invasive and painful surgery. From there he had managed to create a webbing fluid that once he exposed it to air, hardened and became mouldable like plastic. From prosthetic limbs to moulded body armour, the applications of the symbiote webbing and symbskin would make Parker Inc. shine.
He needs to stay focused of course, a dream was good but one step at a time. Manufacture the limb, make the skin and ligaments, create a working adaptive neural link, all large steps in themselves, broken down further and further into smaller and smaller steps each easily accomplished to make the larger goal.
He had his designs for prosthetics, a simple workable hand that with Gwen's help was slowly turning into the complete biological replacement. A simple cap could be fitted over the end of the missing limb and after some tuning peter had a working prototype they would move and mimic the working of an actual limb. Where he was stuck was in the design of nerves and proper receptors. Gwen was more a genetics wiz than neurobiology and he needed a doctor or a neurologist to make the last part. The design waiting for its final form. It had been christened the C.L.S, Cybernetic Limb System and while now it was just a design and a few barely working prototypes, it was a start.
Peter himself was happy but that night at the diner still sat on his mind. Even after all this time, the fight played over and over again. He had been overconfident, he had been cocky and in being too hotheaded and full of himself he had gotten himself and Gwen hurt, but they would pay. Peter knew would get his revenge, it would take time and patience
In doing so he began to formulate revenge against those who had wronged him.
He had researched Oscorp and found archive footage. Norman standing proudly in front of the Goblin Mark One. It was a simple harness designed for industrial work and he recognised Doc Ock, who wouldn't with four huge mechanical arms. The huge man had been fitted into the harness and shown off its multi limbs. The control chip in the back of the neck allowed the worker to remote pilot the limbs as if they were his own.
It was marketed as a tool to help workers with heavy construction but eventually, the cost drove it to be scrapped. The Goblin Mark Two was being touted as combat armour, giving the soldier an extra pair of AI-enhanced arms during combat, and Peter wanted not just the design but the interface as well. The Mark Two was eventually scrapped as well, the archive only noting it was the difficulty of maintaining the limb system that eventually led to its demise. The Mark Three had been named 'Goblin' and was marked as being classified until it was released, Peter could only find grainy shots of test flights and nothing concrete.
The Mark Two and Three were of no concern to Peter, being combat armour the military probably had them on an army base somewhere but the Mark One was civilian in design and he wondered if Oscorp had it on site.
Peter figured that if it was powerful enough for Doc Ock to slam him through a wall he could rework them into a simple hand or leg. He might just have to pay a visit to Oscorp's storage warehouses to see if there was another he could steal. Of course, ripping it from Doc Ock's beaten body would be much more satisfying.