Regenerative Overdrive was the one he was least willing to guess about.
"I want a real number," Peter said. "Not a scratch. Something that would actually put a normal person in a hospital."
"That is not advisable," FSIS said. "The trait has not been tested at that severity."
"That is the point."
FSIS ran the projected risk model twice before complying. The blade this time went deeper than the first test, deep enough that Peter felt it in a way the earlier cut had not registered.
He watched the wound instead of looking away from it. The edges pulled together on their own, faster than his eyes wanted to believe, tissue knitting from the inside out until there was nothing left but a raised pink line.
"Closure in one minute forty seconds," FSIS said. "Deeper wound, proportionally longer closure time, but well within functional range. No indication of a hard ceiling at this severity."
'So it scales,' Peter thought. 'That is worth knowing before I ever need it to be true in the field.'
---
By hour twenty, he called for one more run, the same restraint scenario from the start of the night, except this time FSIS built the full version around it. Three armed suspects, one hostage, low light, a ticking clock.
The old Peter would have gone in cautious, testing his limits as he moved. This Peter already knew his limits.
He came through the vents in silence, night vision turning the dark room into something as clear as noon. The first suspect went down before he knew someone had entered.
The second took a strike calibrated to exactly the force needed and not a fraction more. The third reached for a weapon and Peter's precognition had already read the motion before it started, closing the distance in a blur, disarming him without breaking a single bone that did not need breaking.
The hostage simulation registered zero contact, zero collateral force.
Silence.
FSIS ran the readout. "Full compliance achieved on all three targets. No injuries exceeding intended force parameters. Total engagement time, three point one seconds."
Peter stood in the quiet room and let out a breath he had not realized he was holding.
'Power without control is just a different way of getting someone hurt,' Peter thought. 'I finally have both.'
He left the dimension at 10:14 PM. The warehouse clock had not moved.
---
Friday.
After school.
Peter found Felicia by the side entrance, alone, scrolling through her phone in the kind of way that meant she was waiting for something and hoping she was not.
"You've been somewhere else all week," Peter said.
"I'm fine." She did not look up. "Just tired. Exams."
Peter's spider-sense stayed silent. No physical threat here, nothing his body could flag. Just the quiet certainty that something did not add up, with nothing concrete to point to.
He did not push. He leaned against the wall beside her and waited.
Felicia exhaled after a moment and finally looked at him. "Okay. I could actually use help studying. If you're offering."
"I'm offering."
She almost smiled. "You say that like it costs you nothing."
"It doesn't."
MJ and Gwen came out a few minutes later, still mid-argument over a chemistry formula neither of them was willing to concede.
"Tell him," MJ said, dropping onto the wall next to Felicia without asking. "Tell him I'm right."
"You are conflating molarity with molality," Gwen said. "Again."
"I am not."
"You are. It is a common error. It is still an error."
Felicia watched the two of them with something unreadable behind her eyes.
"You two do this every day?" Felicia asked.
"Every day," MJ said. "It's basically a hobby now."
Peter said nothing, just watched the four of them settle into the easy rhythm that had built itself without anyone deciding to build it. Gwen pulled out her notes. MJ stole a study guide out of Peter's bag without asking. Felicia sat quietly in the middle of it, listening more than talking.
'She is not used to this,' Peter thought. 'Being included without having to earn it first.'
Nobody made it a moment. That was what made it one.
By the time they split up, the sun had dropped low over the parking lot and Felicia's shoulders had lost some of the tension they had carried all week.
"Thanks," she said, quiet enough that it was only for Peter.
"For what?"
"You know for what."
She walked off before he could answer.
---
Friday night. Felicia's apartment.
Her phone rang. Unknown number.
She stared at it through three rings before she picked it up.
"Hello."
The voice on the other end was calm, measured, the kind of voice that had made this exact call many times before and knew exactly how it would go.
Felicia listened without interrupting. Her free hand curled slowly into a fist at her side, then relaxed, then curled again.
"I need time to think about it," she said.
The voice said something short in response.
Felicia closed her eyes.
"Yes," she said quietly. "I agree."
She hung up and sat in the dark for a long time, the phone still warm in her hand, the apartment silent around her.
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