A Rumble of Frost chapter 7

New York City, Midtown, February 12th 2001, 11:00 AM EDT

It  didn't take as long as I expected to get to Peter's house. I took the  Subway for the first time since moving to the city, and people gave me a  wide berth, probably because of my size. I wasn't complaining, and I  got on and off in record time, arriving at the station nearest to the  address Peter gave me and walking the rest of the way in quiet  contemplation.

When I got to the  address from the message I couldn't help let out an appreciative whistle  at the place. It wasn't big or fancy, but living in a house instead of  an apartment in New York was already impressive. Plus the place was  obviously well taken care of, even if it wasn't exactly the ritz. The  grass was evenly cut and the outside was pretty freshly painted. Someone  did regular upkeep on this house.

I  strolled up the walk, up onto the porch, an knocked lightly (I have to  knock lightly so doors don't shatter) on the glass paneled door, waiting  for an answer. It only took a second before the door opened, and a  sunny looking, fit older woman with short grey hair opened it, giving me  a smile. "Oh, my. You are a big one. You're Billy I take it? Peter  mentioned you were rather large, and we don't get too many visitors."

Putting  on my best charming smile, I held out a hand. "You must be Peter's Aunt  May. Or at least, I assume so, since he didn't mention having an older  sister living with him." The whole 'you look so young' thing might be  cliche, bit usually gets a good reception, so I don't mind be a bit of a  suckup.

May  flushes a bit, which looks good on her, she must be in her late fifties,  but Auntie keeps it tight. She rolls her eyes though. "Sure you do, you  little flirt." She turned around and waved me in. "Peter is upstairs in  his room, you can go up and see him. I'm making beef stroganoff for  dinner if you're still here in a few hours. You're welcome to stay and  eat with us."

Thanking  Aunt May, I headed up the stairs slowly, taking my time so I could get  my thoughts in order. I wasn't exactly sure about this. My instincts  told me to trust Peter, and I always went with my gut, but this was  still a huge decision. No matter how I spun it though, I needed to do  SOMETHING. Even if I refused to say anything and just told him to fuck  off he would probably start looking into me. Kid was a photographer who  worked at a newspaper. Even if his job was nerd stuff, that wasn't  something you got into without being a curious person.

When  I reached the door at the top of the steps and knocked, there was a  slight delay before Peter responded. "Come in." He said, so quietly I  almost didn't hear it. I pushed the door open and found my friend in a  small, neat room. The dark blue walls were lined with sturdy old  bookshelves and the twin bed was made. Peter sat on the other side of it  at a beat up old desk in a spinning chair, working on a clunky laptop  that looked about five years out of date. He didn't look up from the  screen as I came in. "Come on in Billy. Just need a second to finish  this up."

The  screen he had open was just a white notepad full of random nonsensical  alphanumeric text. I assumed it was a program or something, but I had no  real idea. I'd never learned to code. It was far too dull for me to put  the time in. He spent another few minutes typing, but I didn't push.  Finally, he let out a long breath and saved the file, closing the laptop  and turning around. "Sorry." He said tiredly. "Working on a personal  project. Just some 3D modeling software that should help with prediction  lines during high altitude travel."

I  nodded like I had any clue what that meant and he smiled slightly but  didn't mention my obvious ignorance. I cleared my throat before bringing  the subject back to the matter at hand. "So...Pete. You were asking  questions about why I wanted information on Kingpin. I thought about it,  and I'm willing to tell you. You've been a good friend since I got  here, and I have a good feeling about you. I need you to promise you  won't tell anyone thought. This is important. I need your word."

Peter  seemed a little thrown by the request. I imagined he expected me to  come over and bluster about my reasons not being his business or even  threaten him. I got the impression Peter didn't have a lot of real  friends, and trust wasn't the way he expected this to go. That frankly  pissed me off. I wasn't the best person in the world, but I valued  loyalty more than almost anything. I couldn't imagine threatening a  friend, even a new a new one, unless he actively turned on me first.

He  looked uncertain, not sure he was willing to do this. He didn't know  what I was going to say and he was worried I'd get hurt. If I said I was  going to attack the Kingpin tomorrow and he kept quiet about it things  might get bad. Eventually though, he came to a decision, and nodded.  "Alright Billy. Unless I think you're doing something that is going to  get you killed, I promise I won't tell anyone about this conversation.  That's the best you're going to get from me man, I'm not letting you do  something stupid."

"Alright."  I sighed. "That'll have to do. I appreciate the trust, man. As you  might have guessed, I've decided to go after Kingpin. I ran into this  girl who has been trying to ruin his operation, and she recruited me to  work against him when she found out something about me. Pete...I have  superpowers." I held up my hand, condensing a hypocenter around my fist,  the glowing sphere illuminating the whole room better than the feeble  ass fan light Peter had above us.

Peter  just stared at me. "Yeah...I know." My eyes widened in shock, and he  rolled his eyes. "Billy, that hand shake when we first met was WAY  stronger than any normal person should be. It wasn't too bad to start,  just a little tighter than one might expect, but I started squeezing to  see how strong you were, and the pressure of my grip would have  shattered the finger bones of a regular person."

"Wait...what?"  I was dumbfounded. "So...does that mean YOU have superpowers?" I hadn't  even considered that. What the hell were the chances? It also kind of  explained how much Peter went out of his way to help me. Sure he was  just a genuinely nice guy, but keeping an eye on a random superpowered  person moving to town seemed like a good plan for...what? "So are you  like...a secret superpower cop or something? I've heard about them." Mom  ranted about those assholes pretty often when I was growing up.

He  chuckled bitterly. "No. Not at all. Those guys are called S.H.I.E.L.D  and I steer clear of them. But yeah, I do have powers. I got bitten by a  genetically engineered spider. Still, having powers is why I can tell  you that going after the Kingpin is a BAD idea. Wilson Fisk is a  psychopath. He has no remorse, no hesitation, and no limits. There's a  reason he's kept control over crime in New York despite not having  powers. I don't know what you can do exactly, aside from being big and  strong and apparently having glowing hands sometimes, but he's not  someone to mess with."

Despite  him basically telling me I wasn't tough enough to take care of myself, I  didn't get annoyed like I would have hearing that from Mom. Peter was  looking out for me. He thought I was going to get hurt and had revealed  his own powers to me to prevent it. He could have let me confess my  abilities and just played dumb, but he let me know I wasn't alone in  this. I respected that.

"Look."  I said after some thought. "I get your point. I really do. But I came  here to start my own crew and show what I'm made of." I grinned at him  and flexed a massive bicep. "Which is awesome, in case you couldn't  tell. I'm made of awesome. But in all seriousness man, I can take care  of myself. Still, I came here because I was planning to invite you to be  a part of things. I get that you're worried, so why not get involved  personally. With you around me and Felicia will be safer for sure. Hell,  if anything this is perfect man! I was looking for super team members  and you're super after all."

He  looked surprised. "I...I don't know man. That's a lot. I only got my  powers recently. I know about Kingpin because I've been doing a ton of  research on the criminal underworld before I went out and picked any  fights." I briefly noted that maybe I should have done that, but then I  just shrugged the idea off. Oh well. "I'm not...against the idea I  guess. But I'd need to see what you can do. Like for real. I know you're  pretty strong, but if we're going to team up, I'd need to know your  limits. Since sparring seems like a bad idea at the moment, why don't  you give me a rundown on what you can do, and I'll do the same."

I  shrugged, walking over to drop down onto his bed and wincing when the  thing cracked. I hopped up really quickly, but it wasn't fast enough to  save the bed from being damaged. "Shit." I said flatly. I looked at  Peter, who looked more pained than upset. "Sorry man. As you might have  noticed, my strength comes from having really dense muscles and bones.  It's the same reason I'm basically bulletproof. Like, not completely,  but it takes a really high caliber round or like an armor piercer to  punch through my muscles. That also makes me crazy heavy and requires  quite a bit of food to upkeep."

With  a sigh, Peter just waved it off. "It's fine. Explains a few things at  least. How strong are you exactly? Because I ramped up that handshake so  I wouldn't hurt you, but I was for from going all out. You barely  seemed phased though. What is the upper limits of your powers? And what  is that crazy glowing orb?" He seemed to have gotten past the reticence  and was now just excited to have someone to talk about powers with. I  got that.

Condensing  another hypocenter around my finger, I flicked the air, making sure to  use as little of my power as possible. The air cracked, but it was only  about as wide around as a dime, and the fractured space released a burst  of force that was only enough to ruffle Peter's hair. "Basically that.  But it scales HARD. That was the least I can manage. I call them  hypocenters, and they're basically condensed vibration bombs that I can  direct into physical attacks. It's hard to explain unless you see me go  all out, which you won't because it's crazy dangerous."

"As  for my strength..." I cocked my head. "Two and half tons maybe? Last I  checked. I seem to be able to get stronger without limits, because it  USED to be one. But it takes a lot of time and working out to push my  body these days. After a certain point getting stronger isn't as useful  when I can just focus on my power. If that makes any sense?" I used to  be a total gym rat, but eventually I was just strong enough. I needed  more skill with my powers, not more physical strength. Knowing I'd be  getting back into the field though, I might look into picking up some  workout gear.

To  my surprise though, Peter nodded. "I get it. Surprisingly little reason  to lift more than five thousand pounds. That's a small car. The power  is really interesting. I'm curious how it works, and I'd love to study  it sometime. Mine is a bit less flashy. I stick to walls, I'm really  fast and strong, and I can sense when I'm in danger. It's not the most  amazing combination, but it works pretty well as a package. I can show  you sometime when we spar." He grinned mischievously. "I'm even stronger  than you are."

I  rolled my eyes. "Sure, but are you more durable? Being able to lift  three tons is great, but being bulletproof is where its at. Anyway, are  you in for a trial run at least? Knowing some of my powers? Just to see  how things go?" I still wanted to see Peter's face when he met Felicia.

"Fine."  He said with a sigh. "I'll give it a shot. In the meantime I'll catch  you up on what I know about the Kingpin from my research. If we're going  after him we need to be prepared." He snorted. "No faster way to get  killed than to be one of those idiots who just charges off to fight  without a plan." I very carefully did NOT grimace when he said that, and  followed him over to the laptop.

We  spent a few hours going over information on the Kingpin, a man named  Wilson Fisk, and all his various operations. I nonchalantly mentioned to  my new teammate that Hector was no longer in distribution, since he'd  hear about it from Felicia anyway. Once he understood what had happened  he yelled at me a bit, but once I pointed out that I'd been right and  wasn't hurt at all he shut up about it.

Finally,  Aunt May called up. "Peter? William? Dinner is ready if you boys want  to come eat!" I looked at Peter, who raised an eyebrow, and then down at  my massive frame, and he just rolled his eyes and sighed, nodding as we  both got up to head down to eat. The stroganoff smelled amazing, and as  we came down, Aunt May grinned at us. "Oh good, I was worried I'd have  to come get you. Billy, Peter mentioned you're a big eater, so I made a  double portion. Have as much as you like."

"Thanks  Miss. Parker." I said politely, and sat down at the table after making  sure the chair would hold me. As I started to scoop out huge spoon fulls  of delicious stroganoff from the dutch oven on the table, I looked over  at Peter and his Aunt. Mom and I never did stuff like this, not really.  Our dinners had been formal affairs on opposite ends of a huge dining  table. This was...nice. I was glad I'd decided to trust Peter. I was  even more glad that I would have until sunset to digest this. Tonight  after sundown, we'd agreed to go out to try sparring. It had been ages  since I had a good fight.