Veins and Wires // Peter Parker

Destruction and Realization

"Here," Hill said simply, handing me a plain black jacket to cover myself with so no one would see their classmate with metal and wires sticking out of them.

"Thanks," I sighed and put my arms through the sleeves and shrugged it on before quickly getting out of the car.

"Don't die."

"No promises," I said and slammed the door shut, casually power walking to the door and through the cream-colored lobby. I pushed the elevator button fifty more times than necessary and hopped in it the moment it opened.

I pushed the number four several times and waited impatiently in the elevator as calming instrumental music played. I had five minutes to get to my room before the opera ended and they would get back to the hotel. I struggled to get my keycard for my room, my hands shaking feverishly but finally got it out of my pocket only to drop it. I groaned as I bent over to pick it up causing more pain to shoot up my entire body.

I opened my door, kicked it closed, and rushed to my bag, falling to my knees to dig through it. I heard Bob coo at me curiously from his open cage in concern but I ignored him.

"Come on, come on...where the hell are you?" I mumbled to myself, going hysterical as I clawed through my clothes to get to it. I felt my fingers scrape something at the bottom and the sound of crinkled wrapping paper filled my ears. I shoved aside a pair of pants to reveal a black package covered with black paper to hide it from anyone who looked through my bag. I unceremoniously ripped it open to find my fathers old New Element Arc Reactor Mark V. Yeah, it's a mouthful.

"Oh thank fuck," I sighed in relief before shoving half of my entire arm into my chest and slowly took out my dying system that was still attached to me by a coil. "Okay, okay...I need to time this just right or I'm dead," I warned to myself, carefully taking out my diamond shaped nano-particle unit. I gently grabbed the Mark V reactor and laid down on the ground, preparing for the most dangerous move I'd ever make, possibly in my entire life.

"3...2...1!" I counted down as I hovered the reactor over my chest and yanked out my corrupted system. My body went limp from the lack of my system but just like I had planned, my hand dropped the arc reactor right into my chest. A world of pain smashed into me like a train making me gasp for breath and the faint humming of the reactor processing my body could be barely heard through the room.

My body was never built to be adaptable to the arc reactor but with some major work over the last few months, I actually did it. In only the car ride to here I had rewired my body to be able to process the energy and commands that came from the reactor to make a successful symbiotic relationship between them. But even with that work I had no idea if it would actually work.

I cried out in pain as I felt the power of the arc run through my ill-prepared body, biting my tongue to avoid letting out a scream of agony. Electricity wrapped around my body, not being able to contain the energy that was being forcibly shoved inside of it. My chest heaved in struggle to keep breathing as I felt my temperature skyrocket.

WARNING: Systems overheating WARNING: B-b-body overloading WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING  WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING WARNING: BODY OVERLOADING

Red flashed across my vision, warnings popping up faster than I could close them and soon my eyes were covered in red. Popping soon filled the atmosphere, the lightbulbs in the lamps and ceiling exploded from the electricity leaking out of me with only one thought in my mind.