~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For 40 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:
Patreon - Twilight_scribe1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday was the day Henry had agreed to teach Gwen how to drive.
As her father, George Stacy approved, but on one condition: the lessons would take place in the auxiliary parking lot of One Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department.
Henry naturally had no objections. He had been wondering where he could find an open space in Manhattan, where every inch of land was worth a fortune.
Finding an empty lot in Queens, where the Stacy family lived, would have been much easier. But since Gwen's father had already chosen the location, Henry saw no reason to make a fuss about it.
Teaching someone to drive certainly didn't require the whole family to come along. Earlier that morning, Katharine Hepburn and Katie had already finished their daily walk, so in the afternoon Henry drove over alone in his old Cadillac.
Skye had wanted to come too, probably hoping to pick up some driving experience herself, but she was ultimately left behind. In this household, once Katharine Hepburn spoke, there was rarely anyone who could refuse her.
Gwen came to the police station on her own to meet Henry. George briefly stopped by, inspected the safety condition of Henry's vehicle, and then left to attend to his work.
If Henry's car had failed inspection, George had been prepared to lend him his own. However, the old Cadillac was in far better condition than George had expected. It hardly looked like a vehicle over thirty years old.
Pre-driving checks were essential, especially adjusting the mirrors.
Since visibility was directly related to driving safety, Henry explained the process in detail and had Gwen adjust everything according to her own field of vision.
For a manual transmission, the first hurdle was learning how to use the clutch, shift gears, and coordinate the clutch and accelerator pedals. Only after mastering those basics could a beginner avoid stalling the car every time they tried to start moving.
After that came driving, shifting, parallel parking, backing into spaces, and other maneuvers.
Gwen learned exceptionally quickly.
Usually, after being shown something twice, she could remember the sequence and perform it independently. That reassured Henry considerably.
It wasn't that the Kryptonian was worried about his old Cadillac getting damaged.
As long as it wasn't burned into a fireball or crushed into scrap metal, Henry could fix practically anything.
But just look at where George Stacy had chosen as the practice location—the parking lot of NYPD headquarters.
One serious mistake and, instead of hitting a wall, Gwen could end up scraping an entire row of police vehicles.
Even on a police captain's salary, George would probably turn pale from the compensation costs.
Fortunately, his daughter was capable enough to avoid such catastrophic mistakes.
Throughout the lesson, every traffic rule was followed strictly.
Seat belts, turn signals, proper procedures—everything was done by the book.
After more than an hour of practice, the bold young woman proposed that they take the car onto real roads.
Henry didn't object.
The old Cadillac left the police parking lot and entered normal city traffic.
For beginners, the greatest challenge of driving on public roads was often nervousness due to constantly changing traffic conditions.
But Gwen Stacy truly was someone destined to become Spider-Woman.
Mentally, she was a little nervous.
Operationally, however, she was as steady as a veteran driver.
The only issue was that she didn't dare drive very fast when traffic became heavy. She obeyed every speed limit exactly, which led to quite a few impatient drivers leaning on their horns behind her.
Compared to many instructors, Henry's teaching style was remarkably quiet.
He wasn't the type to sit in the passenger seat constantly chattering instructions.
He only spoke when Gwen made an obvious mistake that needed correction.
The reason was simple: he didn't want to overload a beginner with information and make them even more nervous.
On the other hand, the silence in the car occasionally became rather awkward.
When they reached a stretch of road with lighter traffic, Gwen, naturally outgoing, finally broke the silence.
"Henry, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why did you adopt Skye in the first place?"
"Why?" Henry turned to look at the girl in the driver's seat.
Her eyes remained fixed on the road ahead. She appeared calm and composed, nothing like a beginner driver.
"It just happened. There wasn't that much thought behind it."
"It just happened?"
Henry said,
"I don't know if Skye ever told you how we first met."
In truth, there was no way a Kryptonian could fail to hear the whispered conversations between the two girls in their room.
He simply pretended not to.
It made him seem less creepy...
For some reason, that thought made Henry feel vaguely terrible about himself.
After thinking for a moment, Gwen replied,
"She did tell me. She said that because you were a jerk, she used to take a lot of jobs pulling pranks on you, which is how you started paying attention to her.
"Then you, being a stalker, tracked her down, kidnapped her, and somehow made yourself her legal guardian. Now you stick your nose into every part of her life."
Henry burst out laughing.
"Kids, right?"
Children might not be good liars, but they were excellent at creating stories that painted themselves in the best possible light, no matter how many holes those stories contained.
After some consideration, Henry selectively recounted what had happened back then.
"So there was another child using the name 'Skye,' and she died?"
"Yes."
When I found them, it was already too late.
Henry omitted the fact that he might have been capable of saving the child despite the ruptured organs and severe internal bleeding.
The outcome was the same either way.
He hadn't saved her.
"And then the current Skye came back, saw what happened, and blamed you for it. But you still decided to take her away from that place?"
"Don't make me out to be a good person. I originally went there looking for trouble. But after seeing a situation like that... I couldn't save the dead. The least I could do was help the living. Otherwise, my conscience wouldn't let me sleep."
"So at first you didn't even know Skye was a girl? And you still thought about adopting her?"
"How was I supposed to tell?" Henry protested. "She was just a filthy, smelly little street brat. If I'd known she was a girl, I would've handed her straight over to a government child welfare agency. Girls are too much trouble."
The moment the words left his mouth, Henry felt a deadly glare coming from beside him.
He quickly corrected himself.
"Look, I'm a single man. I don't have a wife who can't have children. I'm basically just a live-in caregiver staying in Katharine's house.
"Do you really think someone like me is suited to raising a girl? Just think about it for a second.
"If it's a boy, you make sure he has a place to sleep, three meals a day, and doesn't end up living on the streets.
"But a girl needs more care than that, right?
"If Katharine hadn't spoken up, I definitely wouldn't have let Skye stay. It's not because I disrespect women. If anything, it's because I respect them that I feel that way."
Gwen sucked in a breath through clenched teeth.
"Your logic somehow makes sense... but it still feels weird."
"Anyway, my goal hasn't changed. I'll take care of her until she's an adult and has a legitimate way to support herself. Whether she likes me or hates me isn't important. As long as she doesn't end up back in a sewer somewhere."
Objectively speaking, if the kid truly showed promise, Henry still had three vials of Eternal blood on hand.
With that, he could probably create some kind of super-soldier serum. Even if it didn't reach Captain America's level, enhancing her natural abilities and supplementing them with powered armor could make her a valuable ally.
But if this Skye really was Quake, then Henry felt there was no need to gild the lily.
The title Destroyer of Worlds wasn't something just anyone could earn.
So...
Once she reached adulthood, he should probably send this walking disaster away as quickly as possible.
Henry hadn't forgotten that she also came with a very troublesome mother and sister.
Assuming, of course, that those two existed in this world as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🎉 Power Stone Goal Announcement! 🎉
I'll release one bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones we hit!"
Let me know what should I do
Your support means everything—let's crush these goals together! Keep voting, and let the stones pile up! 🚀
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~