Marvel: Symbiote Spider-Man (Moved)-Chapter 24: CH 23: Eating Competition With Ben Grimm

"Thanks, I guess." Peter shrugged with a smile "You seem like a love dork yourself though. You've kept your date laughing since before we got here."

Ben's girlfriend, Alicia Masters, a blind blonde, chuckled sweetly "Ben here is a sweetheart, that's true."

Ben shook his head in amusement "Really, Alicia? In front of some kids?"

"And friendly too." Peter grinned teasingly, causing Ben to raise –what Peter figured– were his eyebrows "Really, kid? You too?"

The teen laughed "Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to mess with you. It is fun though, I won't deny that. But I'll get out of your hair now. Oh."

The awkward realization in his voice caused Alicia and Gwen to chuckle, but they quickly hid it. Ben rolled his eyes in amusement "Ha ha, very funny. You've got nice hair too, princess."

Peter laughed and turned forward in his seat "Thanks, sugar, you don't look half bad yourself either."

Their banter came to an end with both of them chuckling in amusement. As Peter rested his cheek on his palm, he smiled at Gwen "So? Has the date been fun so far?"

"Oh, it's been amazing! No wonder other girls love shopping sprees so much! Going to different stores, trying on all kinds of clothes, they're all so fun!"

He smiled happily "Hahahaha, I'm glad you're enjoying it as much as I am! But what do you mean "other girls?"

Gwen shrugged with an awkward smile "Well, I've never been close with any other girl to actually go on a shopping spree like this. My only close friends since childhood have always been you and Harry."

"Huh? But you have no problems talking comfortably with the girls in school."

"Yeah, but that's about it. All of it stays in school. I've never really managed to actually make girl friends to hang out with though, for some reason."

"Oh, you meant like that." Peter felt pity. He had experienced that feeling with failed friendships many times. He smiled as he gently grabbed her hand on the table "Then no need to feel bad about it anymore. Because from now on, we can have a shopping spree or just hang out whenever and wherever you want."

"Aww, Peter." She smiled fondly "We hang out pretty often now too though."

"Yeah, well, that was while we were still just best friends." Seeing his smile and wink, Gwen's smile widened, a light blush appearing on her beautiful face "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Pete. But don't call me clingy later on though."

"Oh, please." He rolled his eyes in amusement "It's going to be the other way around. Just wait and see who's going to be the clingy type."

She winked with a giggle "Then I guess we're both winners here."

"That we are." As they were looking at each other fondly, with love swimming in their eyes, a waiter showed up with a smile "Hello, welcome to our establishment. Can I have your order?"

Peter was annoyed at the moment being ruined, but his hungry stomach didn't let him be annoyed for long. As he picked up the menu on the table, he saw another waiter coming to Ben and Alicia's table.

Gwen told the waiter her order while Peter was looking through the options. Honestly, with his appetite, just one dish wouldn't satisfy him at all. But one particular option caught his attention. He smirked and turned to the waiter.

"I'll have the special option."

"I'll have the special option."

There was a moment of silence before he looked back with a smirk, just to see the orange rock superhero already looking at him with a smirk of his own "You sure you picked the right dish, kid? I don't think we have the same special option in mind."

"You mean the special 20 lb (9 kg) steak that is free if you finish it in under an hour, otherwise, you have to pay full price? Yeah, I didn't stutter."

"You sure you aren't going to blow up your stomach?"

"This is a light meal for me, pal. You sure your bathroom is going to survive this meal later?"

The two of them stared at each other, competitive smiles on their faces as Ben turned forward in his seat "Alright, you talk a big game, so let's see how you actually play it."

"Whoever finishes faster gets 20 bucks."

"Oh, now I'm definitely not going easy on you, hahahaha."

As the waiters noted down their orders and left, Gwen looked at him with amusement "You sure you'll be able to handle that much meat? And win against that giant of a man, at that?"

"Gwen, 20 lb (9 kg) of meat is barely an appetizer for me." He smirked. Something in that smirk sent an alarming shiver down Gwen's spine, but she ignored it and just continued talking with him.

A while later, all of their meals arrived at their table. With smiles, they set their orders on the tables. While his date looked at it with concern, Peter was barely holding back his drool.

The thing looked gigantic. Bigger than any steak he had ever seen. Not even on the internet. Because who would be crazy enough to try something like that? But for him? It really was just a light snack compared to what he had eaten last night.

"Uhh, Pete... you sure you're gonna be alright?" Gwen frowned with concern. If it was her, she wasn't sure if she could eat even a quarter of that much meat. But alas, Peter was a professional meat eater. (ಠ⁠◡⁠ಠ)

He smiled as he put a few tissue papers on his neck to not dirty his clothes "Don't worry, Gwen. Because I'm going to own this competition."

Ben smirked as he looked at the size of his meal "Alright, kid, let's see what you've got now."

As he cracked his fingers, he started devouring his meal. Taking giant bites out of it like a man starved. Both of them had disregarded spoons and forks. That was too slow for their liking.

Only occasionally using the knife to slice up the juicy meat. The speed in which they ate, the satisfied groans they let out as the taste melted on their tongues, caused a commotion in the small restaurant. Attracting the attention of the other customers to the point they ignored their own meals to look at the competition.

"Hahahaha, hope you're not struggling too much, kid." A few minutes later, halfway through his meal, Ben laughed after swallowing another bite "Cause I've barely gotten started-"

"*Burp* Excuse me." He frowned in confusion when he heard the teen burp. As he looked back again, his eyes widened when he saw an empty plate in front of him. His jaw hit the floor as he saw Peter simply cleaning the leftover meat between his teeth with a toothpick and a smug grin "Sorry, you were saying?"

He wasn't the only shocked one. One look around and he saw that everybody's jaw was on the floor. Even the boy's own date. He was shaken out of his surprise when Peter held up an open hand for him "You lost, big guy."

Ben was silent, before laughing "Alright, kid, you deserve that one! Cause damn, how the hell did you eat so much so quickly?!"

As he wiped his hands clean and handed him a 20 dollar bill, Peter shrugged "What can I say? I guess I'm just... spectacular. You wanna have a rematch after you finally finish your meal?"

"Hmph, sure. I won't go easy on you this time though."

"Neither will I, big guy."

"...What?"

-

A while later, both tables were filled with empty, oily dishes stacked on top of another, creating towers of dishes, while Ben and Peter competed again. Needless to say, Peter had won every round, and had filled his pockets with more than a hundred dollars already.

Yet even after eating more than 100 lb (45 kg), much to every spectators amazement, Peter barely looked troubled. Ben, on the other hand, was finally struggling to eat his dish.

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"Eat! Eat! Eat!" The spectators cheered. Moreso for the Thing, who hadn't won a single round. Gwen was one of the few that were cheering for Peter. He could just finish this round in a jiffy too, but he wanted everybody to have fun, so he had purposefully slowed down considerably.

"Yeah!!" In the end, he let Ben have the final round "That's what I'm talking- bwog!" He barely managed to stop throwing up everything mid celebration, where everybody quickly stepped back.

"Hahahaha good job, big guy!" Peter laughed and took out one of Ben's own 20 dollar bills "Here, you can have this one back."

"Heh, thanks, punk." He snatched the bill with an annoyed smirk, making Peter snicker. But his laughter stopped when his Spider-Sense went off.

Unlike the usual Spider-Sense, when it would go off just when danger was approaching or was about to strike, his empowered Spider-Sense was slowly becoming something like Clairvoyance. It gave him more time to detect danger than normal Spider-Men.

[Superhuman Speed: 200 mph (321 km/h) -> 4,270 mph (6.87k km/h)]

And as it went off, he had time to look around to spot the danger. His time was plenty with his speed. Especially when Spider-Sense slowed down time even more. The world basically came to a standstill.

It felt excessive to go full power when his Spider-Sense wasn't blaring intensely, but he would rather overestimate something than put Gwen in danger.

When he looked out the window, he spotted the danger. A car flying right at the restaurant they were in. Specifically, right at him and Gwen. After cursing the Peter Luck, he powered down and shouted while pointing outside the window "Look out!"

Before immediately jumping at Gwen, grabbing her and jumping away while hugging her tightly and shielding her with his own body. Thing, as an experienced superhero, quickly reacted when he looked at where Peter was pointing.

He jumped in front of the window, crushing the seat under his feet, before leaping at the incoming car. With how fast it was coming at them, there was a risk that it would send him sliding or even flying back at the civilians if he just stood there.

As he crashed into the car, it was crushed against his rock solid body. Landing on the street, Ben set the crushed car down "What in blazes? Hey, who threw that car?!"

Seeing that danger was averted, Peter peeked outside too while still guarding Gwen. They heard a commotion and sounds of a battle approaching from another street, and it soon revealed itself.

It was a giant bug. A serpentine bug standing at around 5 to 10 meters (16'4 to 32'8) with an even longer tail. Its black sickles supported its giant red, scaly body. (Image:)

And currently, it was fighting the other members of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards AKA Mister Fantastic, Sue Storm AKA Invisible Woman, and Johnny Storm AKA Human Torch.

"Geez, I go on one date and the world decides to end!" Ben grumbled, speaking what was on Peter's mind. He turned to the shocked civilians inside of the restaurant "Get away from this place! You might get hurt in the crossfire! Alicia, get to safety! You too, kids!"

Alicia and Peter nodded firmly while Gwen was still caught by surprise "Be careful!" While everybody ran away in fear, some idiots staying to film the scene instead, the brunet turned to the blind lady "Miss Alicia, please give me your hand! Things are a bit hectic here, I'll lead you and Gwen out of here!"

She nodded and let him take her hand. While holding both women's hands, he ran out of the restaurant and to safety. But when they were in an alleyway, Gwen stopped him "Peter, wait!"

He stopped and frowned "What? What's the matter? Are you hurt?" She shook her head, easing his concern as she pulled him to the side and whispered, mindful of Alicia "No, but you should help them."

"What? No, I don't! They've got it under control!"

"No, they don't! You saw it yourself! That monster was just rampaging around!"

"Yeah, before Ben stepped in."

"Peter, please, people could get hurt. You can't just stand aside when you can help them and save lives."

"But I promised that I wouldn't be Sp- that I would be all yours today! I promised that I wouldn't let THAT ruin my personal life and our date."

"Yes, and it makes me love you even more." She gently intertwined their fingers and stepped closer, her other hand gently going for his frowning cheek "Believe me, I want nothing but to stop you from putting yourself in danger.

But I won't be able to live with the guilt of people dying because I was too selfish to stop you from saving them. Please, Peter? Won't you save them, just for my sake at least?"

"..." Peter was silent, frowning deeply as he thought about it. But in the end, Gwen smiled when he gave up with a deeply frustrated sigh "This superhero bullshit is fucking annoying."

"Thank you so much, Peter!" She hugged him and kissed his cheek, making him roll her eyes "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now get to safety while I wrap this up quickly."

She nodded and took Alicia's hand "Miss Alicia, follow me!" As they ran away, he rubbed his temple in immense annoyance as his clothes turned into his suit 'I fucking swear I'm going to fuck up this Peter Luck bullshit one day.'