Jack wasn't entirely sure if Gwen was being serious or just teasing.
But knowing Gwen, he decided to take her at her word.
After all, she really did let Jessica help her take a shower…
Once Gwen was done, she borrowed a set of Jessica's clothes.
She didn't have much choice—her Spider-Woman suit was completely torn up after last night's chaos.
...
When Gwen left to head home, still wearing Jessica's oversized hoodie and shorts, Jack surveyed the aftermath in his room.
The place was a disaster zone—water on the floor, furniture scuffed, someone's desk partially broken, and a suspiciously long black strap draped over the recliner like a forgotten belt.
On the ceiling, a makeshift web-hammock hung between corners, still glistening with damp spider silk. Pieces of Gwen's tattered black-and-white suit were snagged in the threads.
Jack raised an eyebrow. Yup… pretty wild night.
Buzz~
His spider-sense tingled lightly.
He turned just in time to see his adoptive sister Jessica creeping in again, peeking through the door.
"Jessica," Jack called out. "Come help your awesome big brother clean this mess."
"Ugh, no way," Jessica replied with a grimace. "Why should I clean up after whatever you got up to?"
"C'mon, be a good little sister," Jack coaxed with a smirk. "It's just basic tidying. Don't you vacuum and mop the apartment all the time?"
Jessica hesitated. Her gaze wandered around the room, briefly narrowing at the chaos, then back to her brother.
"…Fine, but just this once," she muttered, walking in and swinging the door shut with her heel. "And for the record—I'm only here to clean the room, nothing else."
Jack chuckled, not bothering to correct the implications. "Of course, of course."
...
Time slipped by.
That afternoon, Jack was holed up in his studio again.
True to form, he wasn't exactly working hard. Every so often, he lazily added a brushstroke to the art commission he was supposedly finishing, flirted casually with his tech assistant Skye, or tinkered with the dozen or so magical trinkets cluttering his table.
Among them: a complete set of enhanced Zodiac Talismans—upgraded relics that Jack had customized over time.
He'd tested their limits, and the results were jaw-dropping.
Take the Snake Talisman, for instance. Originally, it only granted basic invisibility—useful but detectable under certain frequencies. Now, the upgraded version not only turned him fully invisible but also allowed for short-range teleportation.
Combine the two? Practically untraceable.
Other talismans had received similar power boosts: —The Ox Talisman now multiplied strength exponentially. —The Dog Talisman truly granted near-immortality. —The Rabbit Talisman? Jack was sure it made him faster than Quicksilver on a bad day.
With such a toolkit, Jack Kadere—the vigilante once known as Black Spider—had become less of a public figure and more of a whispered rumor.
Why show up in person when most super-criminals could be stopped remotely, thanks to these artifacts?
By the time he got bored playing with his trinkets, Jack summoned another favorite function from the Neural Combat Framework: a smooth metallic sphere, shifting subtly in texture as it hovered above his palm.
It wasn't a device in the traditional sense—it was a projected form, a kind of adaptive training construct born from the NCF's internal nanite matrix. And it was evolving. The more data Jack fed into the system, the more the construct adapted—not just reflecting his growth, but accelerating it.
If he had to describe it, Jack would say the construct was like a living algorithm—a reactive template capable of storing and refining techniques, then applying them in real-world scenarios. The deeper his understanding of combat, strategy, and systems, the more intricate the construct became.
Jessica and Gwen had already picked up the basics—the physical forms, the reflex conditioning routines Jack had extracted and reshaped from the NCF's archives. But unlike Jack, they didn't have a neural link. No shortcuts. Everything had to be trained manually, the old-fashioned way.
It felt weirdly like building a party in an RPG: tweak their loadouts, upgrade their routines, test them against stronger enemies. Leveling up, one step at a time.
Speaking of delays—Tony Stark. Still hadn't delivered on the upgraded armor Jack requested. Typical. Genius, billionaire, walking deadline extension.
While Jack was half-thinking about sending another passive-aggressive ping, the construct in his hand started to pulse faintly and spin faster, catching Skye's attention.
"Is that one of your Stark-tech toys?" she asked, reaching out to poke it.
The construct responded—elongating a hair-thin filament that snaked around her finger, almost playfully. It shimmered with a liquid-metal sheen and moved with unnerving precision.
Skye shivered. "Okay, that feels... alive. That's creepy."
Jack smirked. "Creepy? I think it's cute." He flexed his fingers, and the filament snapped back. The sphere collapsed into a fine mist, which dissolved into his skin.
"Not Stark tech," Skye said, squinting at his hand. "Jack… that wasn't just a gadget. That thing moved like it knew me. You've got powers now?"
"Not powers," Jack replied, gently flipping her hand over. "Think of it as... an implant. Combat-focused. AI-enhanced. Trainable, adaptable, and—technically—not legal."
Her eyes widened a little. "Can someone like me learn it too?"
...
She looked up at him, eyes wide and glimmering with curiosity and something a little more intimate—like a bunny following a dangling carrot.
"You?" Jack raised a brow mischievously, letting his hand wander along her thigh. Her over-the-knee socks and skirt didn't leave much room for modesty today. The soft wool brushed against his fingers as he traced the edge where skin met fabric.
"You'll have to learn some simple techniques first," he teased. "I'll start you off with the basics."
Skye slumped against his shoulder with a sigh, torn between laughter and exasperation. "Can we please stay on topic? And stop moving your hand."
Jack leaned in and gave her earlobe a playful nip, making her jump. "So... do you really want to learn?" he whispered.
********
You've probably noticed it but I had to replace the Golden Light Mantra with the Mk. II
It's of my own design but does the same or more things compared to the Golden Light Mantra.
Neural Combat Framework (NCF) Mk. II
Alias: Black Box
User: Jack / The Black Spider
Type: Subdermal Neural Implant
Also, I tried but couldn't whitewash the 12 zodiac talismans. Too bad.
Remember, the story is mostly slice of life, turn off your brains and just enjoy the ride!
Don't overthink it!!!