On Earth-65.
"Hey, Gwen… Are you free?" MJ caught up to Gwen. They'd both just left a common lecture.
"MJ?" Gwen was surprised to see her old high school friend, "Sure, what's up?" Gwen asked feeling bewildered inside. They hadn't talked more than the occasional hello when they passed by each other in the hall for the better part of college.
They'd drifted apart after Gwen got busy with her Spider-Woman stuff and ended up ditching her old friends. Peter's death was also a big factor in the splitting up of Gwen from her old friends.
"You want to get the band back together?" MJ asked Gwen.
"Oh…" Gwen took a minute to process the question, "Are you sure that you want me on? After last time…" Gwen trailed off.
"Yeah… It's just not the same without you. So what if you bailed on us at the last moment right before our biggest concert…" MJ said with an edge in her tone that left Gwen feeling a little guilty. She looked to the side, feeling guilty enough to not be able to look MJ in her eyes.
"You wanna come back to drum for the Mary Janes?" MJ offered again.
"I'd love to." Gwen smiled brightly and agreed, "When is our next gig?" Gwen asked next, making MJ feel a little conscious.
"In two days…" MJ said sheepishly, feeling a little guilty about the short-term notice that she gave Gwen.
"Two days?!" Gwen barely held herself from shouting.
"Yeah…" MJ said with a wince, expecting Gwen to reject her.
"…Sure. I'm in." Gwen ended up agreeing after some thought. Since she was on a break from her Spider-Woman gig as Alex managed things, this was the perfect way to have some fun.
"Really?" MJ was surprised that Gwen agreed so easily.
"Really." Gwen said, only to be tackled by a surprise hug from MJ, "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me…" MJ said while hugging Gwen.
"You'd already exhausted all your options before coming to me didn't you?" Gwen teased.
"Uhh… Mhm." MJ hesitantly nodded, "No take-backs!" She said quickly, afraid that Gwen would ditch them again.
"I'm not planning to take back anything," Gwen said, "Though I need to get back in tune with the band, where are you guys practicing?" She asked.
"We have a pretty nice spot, I'll send you the address. Can you come by tonight at 9?" MJ asked.
"Sure." Gwen agreed and left.
[See, not being Spider-Woman is already doing good for you. You're reconnecting with old friends, going back to your usual hobbies. Everything is going so well…] Alex commented as Gwen walked to her next destination.
[Yeah, I guess… it's peaceful not having to take care of so much stuff all the time…] Gwen had been feeling pretty lax these past few weeks since she'd stopped being Spider-Woman. Though her training kept getting more and more intense. Alex regularly drilled her in more ways than one.
{ «Status- Host #1»
«Name: Gwen Stacy (Ghost Spider) (Earth-65)»
«Bonding Rate: 57%»
«Bonding Level: 2»
«Powers: Superhuman Physique (40->60 Tons)— Spider Sense— Wall Crawling— Bio-Electricity—»
}
Her physique had increased to quite a high level after all these regular training sessions.
Soon, she was at her destination.
[Cindy had far too many resources, no?] Gwen asked as she looked at the seemingly newly built skyscraper in downtown Manhattan.
[Honestly, even I'm surprised with this. Just getting a location like this is difficult enough, but getting a skyscraper remodeled from the ground up within weeks of disbanding her old organization… She's crazy good.] Alex was impressed.
[Yeah…] Gwen said as she walked into the building and directly went to the top floor, knowing that Cindy would be there. There were no identity issues since Cindy made sure to tell the people who 'Stacy' in Stacy Industries was.
"Hi, Cindy," Gwen said as she walked into Cindy's office.
"Gwen! How are you." Cindy got up from her seat and came to Gwen to give her a hug.
"You know, same old, same old. What about you? How are things with the production lines going?" She asked.
"We're still being blocked by the conservatives in the government saying that such advanced prosthetics can cause problems and shit…" Cindy grumbled.
[How about I help out?] Both girls heard Alex's voice in their heads. After his increased capabilities with Chaos energy, Alex finally established a telepathic connection with Cindy. Now, he could easily communicate telepathically with anyone who was wearing his collar.
"Can you, Alex?" Cindy pleaded. She knew about quite a few of Alex's capabilities, and she was aware of his mind-manipulation abilities.
[Sure, just text Gwen the list of people. I'll make sure that in your next meeting with them, they are… perfectly accommodating.] He said with an edge to his time.
"No!" Gwen instantly interjected herself.
"What?" Cindy asked.
"No. There will be no mind manipulation shenanigans going on. If they are blocking us, then we'll find another way." Gwen disagreed with Alex's approach.
"Gwen, the alternative is me threatening them with their lives and families. And it's extremely troublesome." Cindy stated.
"Cindy, there are legal ways to get all of this stuff done," Gwen said.
"Yeah, but it would take too long…" Cindy mumbled.
'Guess, I'll have to convince her again…' Alex thought, slightly annoyed, but he understood where she was coming from.
Seeing as their conversation wasn't leading to any result, Alex decided to stop them and said, [Okay, girls. Stop. We'll come back to this later.] He said.
"Fine," Both Cindy and Gwen agreed.
They spent the rest of the time talking about more stuff and Cindy filled Gwen in with the information for when she eventually takes the seat of the chairman. Cindy will always be the CEO, but Gwen was technically the owner of the company and was needed to play a role.
With everything finished at the company, Gwen moved to the warehouse for her daily training.
"Alex, can we finish up before 8?" Gwen asked Alex who was standing in front of her.
"Don't worry, you won't miss your appointment with your friends." He told her.
"Thanks, Alex, you're the best." She jumped at him to hug him tightly.
"All right, all right. Calm down. We still have an hour or so to train, and I'll be drilling you extra hard." Alex's expression sent shivers down Gwen's spine.
…
Gwen was wheezing after the intense hour of exercise that she'd experienced, "Are… we… done?" She asked between huffs.
"Yes, we are, my dear Gwen. And since you took everything so well today, I've decided that we're going on a date tomorrow." Alex told her as he rejuvenated her mind and body.
She took a few seconds to register his words, "A date?" She looked at him curiously.
"Yep. I was hoping that you'd ask me for some usual romance stuff like a date or trip, but apparently, you're either too pussy or too dense to initiate it. So, tomorrow, dinner. Okay?" Alex asked.
"Mhm…" She wasn't sure how she was supposed to react so she just nodded and agreed.
"Great. Don't book tomorrow evening and night with your band. The rest of your day is free." Alex told her.
"And training?" She asked.
"Eh, I've decided to go slightly lax on your training for now. I've found a more efficient way to train, but it needs some time to prepare. So you have some lax days up ahead." Alex told her. He was going to use the Asgardian training regime for her along with their data for multiple races in the world to see what would be optimal.
"Oh my god, really!" She jumped up and grabbed both his hands before looking into his eyes, "You're the best," She gave him a passionate kiss.
"Yeah, ask her out on a date and you get a lackluster nod, on the other hand, tell her that she gets to rest from training and suddenly you have a confession of her undying love from her…" Alex said sarcastically.
"Come on, Alex… Training is such a pain." Gwen acted cheeky and rubbed her face in his neck, making him shake his head in defeat. He hugged her back and ran his hands through her hair gently, lightly massaging her scalp while running his other palm over her lower back.
A few minutes later, Gwen showed no signs of wanting to separate from Alex's comfortable embrace so Alex decided to bring her back to reality, "You'll be late for band practice." He said.
"Yeah…" She said but didn't make any more to separate.
"You don't want to go?" He said.
"I don't want to separate from you." She was feeling clingy.
"Come on, chop-chop. You'll feel bad later about ditching them. You know that I'm with you all the time, right." He said.
"I know." She said, her arms still wrapped tightly around his torso.
Alex stopped caressing her hair and brought his hand to her shoulder to push her away, but she resisted vehemently, "Noo!" She held him tight enough to break a weaker man's bones.
"Fine then, get on my back." Alex didn't want to literally force her away so he decided to give her a piggyback ride.
***
This week's gonna have all Symbiote chapters. Enjoy...
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon.
I post 20 advanced chapters of the book on my Patrèon. Check it out!
I also do weekly polls there to decide which story I will be posting for the following week.
www.patrèon.com/addyctive
(Replace the è with e)