Wings || Peter Parker

11: Training

"Do you have any idea of where to start?" Peter asked.

I shook my head. 

We were in an empty training room. It was huge. The ceiling must've been thirty feet tall, and Peter described it as "Three times the size of his school gym." On one wall was a ton of strength training supplies, and the rest of the room had a padded floor on top of concrete.

"Okay, maybe just stretch out your wings?" He was stuck to the wall, resting a couple of feet above me.

I copied his instructions, letting them reach their full capacity.

"Holy crap that's a lot bigger than I imagined!" He exclaimed. I nodded. "Umm, I don't really know how you would go about learning. We probably should've planned something."

I nodded.

Should we plan now?

"I can't see, it's too far away." He replied. He jumped off the wall and looked closer. "Oh, I think we could just wing it. Get it?"

I smiled.

"Okay, how would you fly?" He asked.

Like a bird?

"Smart. How do birds fly?"

Wings.

"Yeah, I know." He paused. "Well, you do have the right body type to mimic a bird. They have hollow bones, so they're lighter, and their wings are about three times their body mass. You're pretty small, no offense, and your wings are huge."

I nodded.

"So theoretically, you were built to fly. You just need to get off the ground."

How would I do that?

"Well normally, I can just shoot a web to get started, but you can't just start flapping your wings and lift off the ground. You're going to have to get a running start, or jump off somewhere high."

I'm not going to jump off a building.

"Not yet." He grinned. "Mr. Stark is taking me and Harley up to a facility in upper New York next week. It's completely hidden deep in the woods, but there's a ton of empty fields around it. You could practice up there."

Ok. What should I do now?

"You could try just cardio or something?" He sat down. "Have you had previous training and such?"

I trained for three hours every day my entire life.

"Really?" He said. "That's a lot. What kind of training?"

Wing stretching exercises, cardio, weight training.

"Wow. So you're pretty strong?" 

I nodded.

"What did you do as wing exercises?"

Stretching, shifting, and angling so when I did learn to fly I'd be prepared.

"You were going to start flying?"

Yes.

"When?" 

I shrugged.

"Ok. If you have all of that done, then you should be pretty prepared." He laughed. "You were lying when you said you'd never tried to fly."

I try to forget about it.

"Oh." He glanced at his feet. "Sorry."

It's okay.