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"Remember, with great power comes great responsibility."
-Uncle Ben, Spider-man, 2002.
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"okay so what's the game plan, bros? we just walk in there, steal the data and check out the animals, then leave?"
vernon shook his head getting out of the car. "it's not that simple, but basically yeah, won."
mingyu got out of the driver's seat. "well, for starters, we're going to have to take this bad boy," he pulled out a thumb drive out of his pocket, holding it up in the air, "and put it in one of the computers. i downloaded some simple software from somewhere on the internet that allows me to control other computers and look through data from my own laptop, and put it on this thumb drive. it's kind of like a screen mirroring software. i can basically take control of a computer's cursor and look through it from my own device."
"yep, and i believe that's going to be the only difficult part," vernon shoved his hands in his pockets, "finding out whether or not there are anymore mutant animals and determining for sure that they came from here is easy. we just go on the tour and sneak off when we get to the corridor that has those weird storage rooms. i've done it once, i can do it again."
wonwoo shut his car door. "okay, sounds good. the thing is, i'm not too sure where you would find computers to put the thumb drive in."
mingyu pressed a button on his car key, the car emitting a loud beep next to them as it locked. beep beep lettuce. "we'll have to see. c'mon, i don't want to be late for our tour. it starts in like five minutes and the building is so far away."
"your fault for parking literally on the other side of the parking lot, dumbass."
"fuck you!"
once the three boys finally made it into the actual wencorp building (mingyu parked so damn far that it literally took like three minutes. who takes three minutes to walk across a parking lot smh), the trio walked up to the front desk. mingyu took the lead, resting his arms on the counter in front of him as he plastered a smile onto his face before looking right at the lady behind the counter. "hello!"
vernon and wonwoo shared a look. this was not going to end well... because it was mingyu of course.
the lady behind the front desk gave mingyu a look that reminded vernon of that one confused guy meme. "uh... how may i help you?"
bro forgot her script for a hot second. 💀
mingyu continued to grin. "hi. we're here for the wencorp tour."
"alright, so if you can just sign in so..."
mingyu and the desk lady's conversation faded into the background as vernon noticed something. he nudged wonwoo with his elbow. "hey, won?"
"hm?"
"we need to find like a computer or something to put the thumb drive in, right? what about that one. behind the front desk?"
wonwoo blinked. "i mean sure, but vernon, there's a person right there. how are you supposed to get there without literally being noticed?"
"not if there's a distraction."
"vernon what-"
mingyu turned around at that moment. "okay, i got our nametags. here."
vernon grabbed his tag from mingyu's outstretched hand. "hey, gyu, do you think that we could put the thumb drive in one of those computers behind the front desk?"
mingyu looked over his shoulder. "uh... yeah, but i don't think there's any way you can do that without someone noticing."
"watch me."
famous last words smh.
vernon looked around for something that could cause a distraction, before his eyes landed on a water cooler behind the front desk.
bingo.
vernon whipped his head towards mingyu. "can you distract the desk lady for a few seconds? i have an idea."
"idea? wh-"
"just do it."
"fine," mingyu rolled his eyes before walking back up to the front desk. "hey, excuse me, ma'am. i have a question."
wonwoo looked at vernon with a raised eyebrow. "what are you doing?"
vernon looked around the room, making sure that nobody was looking at him. "you'll see."
vernon felt his heart pound as he lifted up his hand, carefully aiming towards the water cooler behind the desk.
"wait-"
he shot a web, the web sticking directly onto the side of the cooler, before yanking really hard. the cooler made a loud crash, echoing through the whole lobby as the lady behind the desk shrieked. the jug of water on top of the cooler managed to come off, splashing the lady with water and absolutely drenching her bottom half. she stared at it with wide eyes, frozen in fear and confusion.
the woman was too stunned to speak.
after a few seconds of absolute silence, the lady finally composed herself, rushing off to presumably try to save face after such an embarrassing moment.
slay 💅. mission success.
mingyu turned around to stare at vernon, jaw dropped. "um, okay, pop off king," he pulled the thumb drive out of his pocket, "i guess we can put this in the computer now."
vernon snatched it from mingyu's hand. "on it."
"vernon, wait," wonwoo stopped him with a hand, "everyone is looking at us. you can't do it yet. they might tell someone if they see us go back there."
vernon looked around, seeing that indeed, everyone else in the lobby was looking at them.
well, shit.
vernon tapped his chin. "hmm, i need an excuse for going to the other side of the desk."
"uh, you c-"
"oh, wait i know what to do," vernon pulled out his phone and raised it up in the air, speaking loudly to make sure everyone can hear from probably miles away, "look, it's my phone!," he casually tossed it behind the front desk, it landing in the puddle of water with a small splash, "oh no!," vernon placed his hands on his cheeks as his jaw dropped like one of those reaction youtuber thumbnails, his voice coming out still loudly and sarcastically, "my phone!, it fell over there! i am going to get it now!"
"why the fuck did you throw your phone into water!," wonwoo whisper yelled.
vernon marched over to the other side of the desk, picking it up while also smoothly shoving the thumb drive into the computer. "don't worry it's waterproof. what now, gyu?"
"simple," mingyu looked around before leaning in closer, weary of all of the eyes on the trio, "a pop up should come up with the contents of the file. quickly transfer the contents from the drive to the computer, and then i'll be able to access it."
vernon grabbed the computer mouse and did just that. "got it."
"hurry up," wonwoo seemed to shrink as he stared at all of the people looking at them, "before somebody comes back."
vernon pulled the drive out of the computer before walking back to the other side. "it's done," he pointed at some empty seats in the corner of the lobby, "let's go sit down before our tour starts."
the trio walked over to sit down, and thankfully all of the other people in the lobby seemed to go back to their own business. as soon as they sat down, mingyu slung his backpack off of his shoulder, pulling out his laptop and turning it on. "okay, so i should be able to... yes! the software worked."
"awesome sauce, my guy," vernon tilted his head, "so what are you going to do now?"
mingyu scratched his head before tapping away at his keyboard. "i'm going to first transfer all of these files to my own laptop so i can save them somewhere safe. it looks like wencorp is dumb and keeps all of their information on all of their computer systems. the front desk computers don't necessarily need all of this info, but for some reason they do. talk about bad business structure."
"wait so," vernon furrowed his eyebrows, "what would've happened if the front desk computer didn't have all of that information?"
mingyu shrugged. "we'd have to get our software back and put it on a different computer."
"oh yikes."
"yeah," mingyu scrolled through his laptop, "this is crazy. there's so much stuff on here like experimental reports, security system information, employee directory, even architectural plans. we're going to have to look through all of this because this is a fountain of information... unfortunately, the tour is going to start soon so we'll have to do that later."
"welp," vernon leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head, "that's one of our two missions done, and we haven't even started the tour yet. i'd say everything is going swell."
"who tf says swell anymore? it's the twenty-first century you old man!"
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"okay, so, i believe the next hallway is the one where i found the mutant animals, at least in that one room. do you think i'd be able to get into one of the rooms again?"
"well, how'd you get in before?"
"i entered when somebody left. it was kind of big brain of me actually."
"why don't you just do that again?"
"um, you want me to wait next to the door until somebody leaves? what if there's nobody in there in the first place?"
"why do you want to go in anyways? isn't the goal just to acknowledge whether or not there are actual other animals there?"
"i want to take pictures. then we'll have evidence documented."
"ah, i see. very smart."
the three boys were currently whispering their asses off as they trailed behind their tour group, trying to figure out how best to go about their plan.
it wasn't exactly going very well though.
mingyu scratched his neck. "how about you steal a key card?"
"what," vernon's eyes widened, "how? i can't exactly just take one from an employee... unless i punch one in the face and knock them out. how 'bout th-"
"no!," wonwoo whisper yelled, "that would draw so much attention. even if you do it in a secluded place, who knows what will happen once they come to. they might tell someone or worse, someone finds their passed-out body before they wake up. we want to do all of this while being as discreet as possible. we don't want anyone to know that we did anything."
"you're right, hmm," vernon stared at his shoes as he walked, "gyu, do you think you could maybe do something with the wencorp shit you downloaded onto your laptop? maybe you can like override the security system for a single door."
mingyu sighed. "i think you overestimate my skills... but i'll try my best. do you have your earbuds?"
"uh," vernon tapped his pocket, making sure they were in there, "yeah, i do. why?"
"there's no way that i'll be able to do this while we're walking, so i'll probably just sneak off to the bathroom or something. you'll need your earbuds so we can still communicate."
"got it."
wonwoo looked up, making sure nobody was listening to their conversation. "i'll go with gyu. i think it'd be better for you to be the only one out on the field, vernon. besides, if mingyu is struggling with something, i can try and help."
"wait, so you and gyu are going to go to the bathroom together?," vernon wiggled his eyebrows.
mingyu rolled his eyes. "you're so immature. good luck, and i'll call you once we are secure."
vernon whisper-yelled at the pair as they stopped walking with the tour group. "use protection!"
"shut up, vernon!"
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"we're entering into the hallway now. have you guys figured out how to override the security for the doors yet?"
"i'm looking through the information on the security system. there's like a whole log on which employee keycards were used on each door and at exactly what time down to the second. this is insanely detailed... i'm trying to find out whether or not there is a specific way i can open a single door. there's commands for taking down all security and basically rendering every single door in this building useless, but i don't think that would be very discreet."
vernon shoved his hands in pockets, trailing behind the tour group. "well, do you think you could look any faster? we might miss our chance."
mingyu let out a groan over the call, causing vernon to snicker like a literal child. "i'm trying my best. just be patient with me, okay?"
"gyu, what if you tried selecting one of the individual security modules instead of looking at the system as a whole."
"maybe, hold on... bingo! it looks like i can just open a single door... oh wait, goddamn it. i need a card code. it seems each keycard has a specific identifying code linked to it that tells information like what employee opened the door."
vernon stared at each door as they slowly walked past before stopping with the tour group as they stopped next to the door that he went in at the last wencorp trip. strangely, the door now had a note attached to it that read, "caution: dangerous area. do not enter unless specifically permitted".
vernon's eyebrows furrowed. that wasn't there before.
vernon inched slowly towards the door (cha cha real smooth) until he was right next to the door, replying to mingyu's words. "you said there's an employee directory, right? check if that has card codes."
"hold on, i'll try that now."
vernon peeked in through the window, eyes widening. the room didn't look like it did before. most of the cages or tanks of animals were gone, and a bunch of caution tape went across the room, most of it covering a large hole in the wall. the hole was mostly covered by a bunch of seemingly hastily nailed-in wooden planks, but it was still very obvious that there was a hole there. "what the hell?"
"what? what is it? is something wrong?"
"the room i was bitten by the spider in is different. it looked like something happened here. mingyu, any luck on getting me in?"
"yeah, i'm trying to do..."
vernon blinked, confused at mingyu's sudden silence. "gyu?"
"holy shit, wonwoo. look at this."
vernon was now very concerned. "guys? guys? what's wrong?"
"oh my god."
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"oh my god."
mingyu and wonwoo both stared at the laptop in mingyu's lap in absolute shock (which was probably an understatement). the pair didn't know what to think as they stared at the screen.
mingyu's hand was frozen over the trackpad on his laptop because he was scrolling through the employee directory, but he didn't expect to see a familiar name there.
it was seokmin's name.
lee seokmin, it read, intern, that text was right next to a little picture of the familiar face of their friend.
wonwoo inhaled sharply as he looked at mingyu. "did you know seokmin was an intern here?"
"no," mingyu shook his head, shaking himself out of his frozen trance, "he never said anything about this."
"seokmin? what are you guys even talking about?"
"seokmin's name is under the directory as an intern. did you know he was an intern here?"
"what? no? i'm so confused, you're saying seokmin interns here?"
"that's what it looks like," mingyu muttered before clicking on the employee profile, tons of information showing up on the screen, "the picture on record looks exactly like him, there's no doubt about it."
"are you sure?," wonwoo pointed to something on the screen, "it says here that he is twenty years old according to the birth year listed. i thought he was our age? unless... did he lie... about that?"
mingyu still stared at his screen in disbelief, feeling slightly betrayed as the picture of his friend seemed to stare back at him. top 10 anime betrayals. "i wonder what other secrets he may be hiding. is this why we haven't seen him at school lately? is he even supposed to be at a high school if he is really that old? why would he be there then if he... what..."
"we can talk about this later, guys. i still need access to the door, gyu, the tour group is starting move."
"right, right," mingyu scrolled down through seokmin's profile, "looks like the employee profiles do have their keycard codes," he copied seokmin's code before going back to the security system, "vernon, what room number is it?"
"16D."
"got it," mingyu pasted the code into the individual module and pressed enter, "well, seokmin, whatever you may be hiding, it looks like you just used your card to open a door. is the door open?"
"yep. the indicator just turned green. i'm going in."
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"yep. the indicator just turned green. i'm going in."
vernon grabbed the door handle and turned it, looking around him to make sure nobody was looking, before stepping into that room once again.
his view from the door window didn't really show how chaotic the room actually was. he thought that a lot of the animals in the room were missing, but he didn't realize literally all of them were gone. the shelves were filled with empty cages and tanks, and it was honestly more disturbing than when there were actual animals in there. it felt eerie and cold like something went wrong.
well, it also probably felt eerie and cold because there was a draft of icy air coming through the hole in the wall smh. vernon shivered slightly. bro should've brought a jacket.
vernon pulled out his phone to snap some pics. "this is really weird guys. all of the animals in here are gone... and there's a massive boarded-up hole in the wall."
"really? all gone? are you sure this is the same room?"
"i'm positive. i recognize the room structure and the location in the building itself. i'm sure this is the same room."
vernon walked over towards the hole, kneeling by it as he ran his fingers across the wood. "somebody must've boarded these up quickly. it's kind of a messy job, but no large animal could get through here unless they really tried. i wonder-"
vernon suddenly froze.
his spidey sense went off.
vernon whipped his head to look at the door, only to see two random employees in the process of opening the door with a keycard.
"shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit"
"that's a lot of shits. did something happen?"
vernon instinctively shot a couple webs towards the door frame, trying to keep it stuck for at least a while. "there's people outside, oh my god."
"dude! get out of there!"
vernon looked around frantically before his eyes landed on a vent on the ceiling. "you don't have to tell me twice."
bingo.
he shot a web towards it before yanking it, causing it to clatter to the ground with a loud clang. vernon cringed at the sound, but immediately shot two more webs to the top of the vent and hoisted himself up. once he was in the vents, he let out a sigh of relief as he began to crawl. "i didn't exactly get what we wanted, but i still got some pictures. i hope it'll be good enough for our investigation. i think it's time to get out of here."
"great. i'd call that a mission mostly success. we'll meet you outside."
"sounds good, but first," vernon chuckled, "do you think there's a map of the ventilation system in the wencorp info dump? i'm... kinda lost here."
"are you kidding me? i just closed my laptop!"
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"it looks like the chip implant was a success, professor. joshua should be waking up soon."
"great, thank you minghao," professor wen cleared his throat as the two walked down the hallway, "after he wakes up, we're going to have to run some extra trials to see if the chip would actually mitigate the side effects of the serum."
"noted professor," minghao nodded, "the trials will have to be closely monitored and-"
"excuse me?"
the professor and his assistant turned around to see an employee standing there, a frown on his face. the professor quirked an unamused eyebrow. "yes?"
"professor, i've been looking for you. some of my coworkers reported that they think that someone unauthorized was in the storage room with the mutant animal breakout," he pointed a thumb down the hallway behind him, "we just wanted to inform you because we know how high of a priority you set on the restrictions for that room."
the professor's eyes widened slightly. "someone unauthorized? how could you tell?"
"you might want to see for yourself."
professor wen and minghao trailed behind the employee as they made their way over to said storage room, and immediately the professor knew something wasn't right. the door was propped open about halfway, a sticky substance that looked kind of like a large spider web seemingly stopping it from opening any further.
the professor stared at it with stony eyes. "what is this?"
"we don't know," the employee gestured into the room, "there's more inside. the vent cover was on the floor and more of this weird substance was attached to it."
minghao muttered under his breath. "spider-man green."
the professor looked over at his assistant. "what was that, minghao?"
"spider-man green," he repeated, louder, "haven't you seen him on the news? he's a masked crime fighter that recently started stopping crime. he's been intervening a lot of the mutant animal attacks too. one of his tools is this web that seems to come out of his wrists, and this," minghao gestured towards the substances stuck to the door, "looks exactly like the webs he uses.
the professor's eyes widened. "crime fighter? the animals. he must be here because he traced back the mutant animals to here."
"you don't know th-"
the professor clenched his fist as he narrowed his eyes.
"we have to stop him before he takes down my whole company."
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Word Count: 3549
a/n oh my god i finally updated yay. this was definitely the longest time between updates and i promise it'll never be this long again. its just that i had to take a little break between this and last update because i had finals and then i had the holidays and all this stuff... basically i was hella busy. i apologize for how late this was, i hope you guys can forgive me :)
anyways, this chapter was the last chapter of act one! i can't believe that we're already finished with this first act. i'm so excited for the second act and out of the three acts, the second one is definitely my favorite because it has probably the most action out of all three. i hope you all are as excited as i am!
i also wanted to say: thank you all so much for 1k! i'm so happy this book has gotten too that point, and it was my goal to have at least 1k by the end of act one. thank you all so much i love you all!!!
QOTC: since this was the last chapter of the first act, what was your favorite scene of the book so far? for me, my favorite moment would definitely be when wonwoo found vernon stuck to the ceiling lol. i remember that was really fun to write.
have a good day everyone!
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