From 3pm to 8pm, it was the after-school activity period arranged by Midtown High School for students.
During these times, students could participate in club activities, sports events, and so on.
And for Peter, this meant he was finally, finally out of school!
You don't know how long he had been waiting for this moment.
The instant the time came, Peter grabbed the textbooks off the table, rushed into the hallway immediately, opened his locker, took out his small backpack from inside, and jumped straight out of the empty back door with his backpack. A smooth set of motions.
After all, he had been doing this for over half a month now, and was already very familiar with it.
As for whether he would be discovered?
The chance was extremely small.
Because one of his spider abilities was the power of concealment.
Hiding oneself is a spider's instinct, and Spider-Man naturally possessed this instinct.
This instinct allowed him to find the safest spots to transform from Peter Parker into Spider-Man without being detected.
And this instinct had been slightly enhanced after visiting the world of Noir Spider-Man, which slightly strengthened his related abilities like stealth, tracking, and counter-tracking.
If he had his current concealment abilities back then, maybe even Iron Man wouldn't have found him so easily.
Well, it's just "not quite as easy."
In fact, in this era of big data, Iron Man who controlled super AI and the Avengers' massive information network, would find it difficult to hide any secrets from him if he truly wanted to uncover them.
It was simply a matter of time invested and resources utilized.
Of course, since Iron Man and Peter were on the same side now, it didn't make much sense to dwell on hypotheticals.
After Peter snuck out of school, as usual he found an alley to change into the suit provided by Iron Man.
Then, he sprayed several parts of his backpack with webbing from his web-shooters, and colored over the white webbing with a paint pen.
A backpack with the same style but completely different colors appeared.
Peter put the modified backpack directly on his back.
In the past, he always hid his backpack at his changing spot, so several times it got taken by passersby.
Each time he had to shamelessly ask Aunt May for a new backpack.
So he decided from now on, he would be a backpack-wearing Spider-Man.
After all, he was now essentially an Avenger-in-training. Iron Man could personally tell him that the scope of his activities fell into a gray area - between what Iron Man would do and wouldn't do.
Very philosophical, right?
At least Peter thought it was quite philosophical.
Therefore, as a probationary Avenger, as long as he didn't intentionally expose his own identity, the Avengers would only help conceal it.
"Good afternoon, Peter."
"Hello, Miss Karen." Peter greeted the AI in his suit.
"Peter, what training module will you be doing today?" Karen asked.
Peter raised his hand, and preset courses designed to teach him how to be a proficient superhero were listed on his wrist display.
With the mindset of "you won't lose anything by learning it anyway", Peter decided to go through these lessons daily as routine tasks.
"Let's do this one today. The, uh, 'Scientific Web-Swinging with Gymnastic Aesthetic Influences'. Geez, who came up with that mouthful of a name?" Peter said incredulously.
"It was likely Mr. Stark," Karen honestly threw her former maker under the bus.
Peter: "What a creative genius at naming things!"
Karen remained diplomatically silent.
Peter then asked Karen to activate the police band receiver in his suit. This allowed him to instantly know about emergencies in Queens so he could quickly respond.
Much to Peter's relief, Queens was very peaceful today.
He patrolled from 3pm to 5pm, only helping an elderly woman cross the street and reuniting a separated little girl with her mother.
The old woman treated him to a barbecue patty, while the little girl gave him a chocolate bar.
This made Peter very happy - not because of the modest rewards, but because he felt appreciated by others.
That was the most important thing.
Peter returned home and had a simple dinner alone.
Aunt May was away at a charity event, suspected to be Red Bull sponsored, for a few days.
She had prepared some food and cash in the fridge for him.
For these days, Peter took care of his own meals.
Afterwards, Peter locked himself in his room and worked on modifying his web-shooters.
He planned to set up two "ammunition compartments" - one to load his own webs (which Peter dubbed "Spider-Silk No. 1") and the other for the webbing used by the Amazing Spider-Man (dubbed "Spider-Silk No. 2").
Spider-Silk No. 1 was more elastic, suited for capturing criminals alive or rescuing people.
Spider-Silk No. 2 had higher tensile strength, able to restrain vehicles, support buildings, etc.
He could usually blend the two together, forming a thicker, tougher combined webbing.
But that would increase consumption rate significantly.
Considering his limited webbing supplies, Peter felt this should only be used when absolutely necessary.
As for modifying the web-shooters, it was actually quite simple.
He just needed to add a parallel line next to the original pathway.
It only took Peter an hour to complete the web-shooter modifications.
Then, he took out pen and paper and began documenting the internal structure of the pneumatic electronic single-fiber dynamometer he had secretly memorized from school.
His memory was very strong, enhanced further after being bitten by the spider that gave him powers.
Soon, he had written down everything stored in his mind.
Next, based on these schematics, he would reorganize and modify the manual dynamometer in his room that he had cobbled together from scraps.
This was more complicated work.
Even more complex than making one from scratch.
But it was impossible for him to actually make a new one.
Quite simply, he had no money.
He made this dynamometer firstly to ease future equipment calibrations, but secondly so he could thoroughly study the properties of spider silk, and then approach Tony Stark to discuss potential collaboration!
Currently, he only had a few dozen dollars left - just enough for his meals over these days.
He wondered if trainee Avengers were paid a monthly salary?
Was it issued at the beginning or end of the month?
Etc!
Peter's head shot up.
He suddenly remembered something very important.
He had forgotten to ask Tony Stark how much his salary would be as an Avenger-in-training!
The spider-suit he wore was a subsidy from the September Foundation, but Tony had mentioned that full Avengers like Black Widow had a guaranteed living allowance!
Even though he was just a trainee, he should get something too, right?
(End of chapter)