……
A month later, in a room at the mutant school.
Hawking was floating half a meter above his bed, legs crossed, and eyes closed, focusing his thoughts and striving to control his qi to maintain his levitation against gravity. Suddenly, the alarm clock on his desk went off, distracting him and causing him to drop back onto the bed.
“I’m finally getting somewhere, but I need to practice more!” he muttered as he hit the snooze button on the alarm set for 10:30 AM, then leapt out of bed.
After a month of studying qi, Hawking had finally found a way to make his body levitate, managing to stay off the ground as long as he concentrated. He wasn’t far from mastering the technique of flying freely.
Given his current combat prowess, flying using this technique wouldn’t be an issue. The main challenge was mastering the skill without a mentor to guide him directly.
Leaving his room through the window, Hawking flew on his energy column to Queens Park in Queens, where he met Peter Parker, clad in his Spider-Man suit.
“Congratulations on graduating today!” he greeted Peter, who had just graduated and been accepted to the prestigious Empire State University.
“Thanks,” Peter replied, lifting his head with a stiff smile.
Hawking immediately sensed something was off: “What’s wrong? Did Mary Jane reject you?”
Over the past month, Peter had come to confide in Hawking like a close friend, sharing his secret crush on his classmate Mary Jane and his valid reason for wanting a sports car. Hawking encouraged him to pursue her boldly without fear of rejection.
Although Hawking didn’t think Mary Jane was the right match for Peter, he believed such matters should be left to the individuals involved. If Peter had become resentful of advice, it would have been no one’s fault but his own. Hawking, a person of strong convictions and less susceptible to external influence, supported Peter in making his own decisions, even if they led to regret.
So when Peter mentioned that Mary Jane had broken up with her boyfriend Thompson, Hawking encouraged him to confess his feelings at the graduation ceremony, take her for a drive if successful, and then… do what a man’s got to do.
But now, it seemed the confession had failed, which Hawking had half-expected. Would Mary Jane fall for Peter just because he owned a sports car? Unlikely.
Mary Jane had fallen for Peter because he was a well-known superhero in New York, much like the unreachable star she had always wanted to be, admired by everyone and having saved her heroically twice.
“Hawking, Mary… she… she’s dead!” Peter looked up at Hawking, his eyes red with emotion.
“What???” Hawking was stunned by the news.
“What happened?” he asked.
“On her way to the graduation ceremony, she got caught in a robbery… I caught the robber and handed him over to the police!” Peter explained, choking up as he recounted the incident.
Mary Jane had taken a taxi to the school for the ceremony but ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught between two robbers fleeing a jewelry store heist. Tragically, she was shot and died on the spot.
Grieving and furious, Peter donned his Spider-Man suit and tracked down the fleeing robbers, beating them severely before handing them over to the police, though he couldn’t bring himself to kill them.
“It seems it still happened,” Hawking sighed inwardly after hearing Peter’s story.
Spider-Man was destined to lose a loved one; it’s just that, due to Hawking’s influence, it wasn’t Uncle Ben that Peter lost, but his secret crush, Mary Jane.
“Take it easy, take some days off to rest,” Hawking patted Peter on the shoulder.
Given the circumstances, Peter was understandably distressed, and Hawking didn’t want to pressure him further, opting instead to give him a few days off.
However, Peter’s expression firmed, and he took out a stack of money from his backpack and handed it to Hawking:
“No, it’s precisely because of this that I can’t rest. Like Uncle Ben said, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ If I had found and stopped those robbers during the robbery, Mary wouldn’t have been killed. So, starting today, I’ve decided to fight crime like you, not for money but because it’s right. I’ve sold the sports car for eighty thousand; I still owe you twenty thousand, which I’ll repay over time. In the future, I won’t take any money to help you fight crime.”
Peter had kept his activities hidden, but Uncle Ben had suspected something. After learning about what happened today, Ben talked seriously with Peter, which helped him gain clarity.
“You don’t have to do this… okay,” Hawking didn’t want to take the money, but seeing Peter’s resolute look, he knew Peter had changed and accepted it.
But then Hawking continued:
“Peter, I’ve been thinking that relying solely on one person’s efforts is limited, just like what happened today. I want to form a team of people with special abilities like ours to help more people. To ensure that we can confidently use our powers without life’s minor disruptions, we could even set up a related company to handle operations. We could occasionally take photos, make ads, and sell merchandise to make a bit of money to support ourselves. What do you think?”
“Ah… I don’t see why not. That sounds great, but how would we do that?”
Peter was momentarily stunned; this was indeed a good idea, but as a recent high school graduate, it was all too unfamiliar.
“Just leave the specifics to me. What I mean is, if I set it up, would you be willing to join?”
“I definitely would!” Peter nodded without hesitation.
Using his abilities to help others while also making money to pay off his debts was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. This was different from when he was doing good deeds for money; now, it was about genuinely wanting to help others, with the added benefit of earning money for his family expenses.
And despite his firm intention to repay his debt, the thought of the twenty thousand he still owed was daunting; he had no idea how long it would take to repay it through part-time jobs.
So naturally, he was willing to engage in something that offered multiple benefits at once.
Most importantly, he trusted Hawking. If it were anyone else, he might not have been so willing.
……
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