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𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲
𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲
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𝑷𝑬𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 doorbell and Connors came to the door.
"Dr. Connors. Uh.." He trailed off, not really knowing what to say.
"You don't remember us we're—" Jake started.
"You're the interns from the other day." Connors finished and Jake nodded.
"I'm sure you two are very nice young man but this is a home. I'm asking you to make an appointment with my office."
Connors was about to close the door but Peter spoke up, "I'm Richard Parker's son." He said and Connors opened the door again, "Peter?" He whispered and Peter nodded.
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Connors was pouring coffee into mug when he spoke up.
"I'm afraid I can't help you much Peter. I don't know why they left. Or where they were going." He was about to drop a mug but Peter caught it in time.
"Good reflexes." Connors said, "Thank you." He handed him his coffee.
"We read your book." Jake spoke up, "it's something, you know. So you really think it's possible, cross-species genetics?" He asked.
"Of course. But for years Richard and I were mocked for our theories, not just in the community but at Oscorp as well." Connors started.
"They called us mad scientists. And then your father bred the Spiders and everything changed, the results were beyond encouraging. They were spectacular."
"We were gonna change lives of millions. Including my own. Then it was over. He... he was gone, took his research with him. And I knew without him I..." He trailed off.
"Was lost?" Jake finished and Connors nodded, "I was angry. So I stayed away from you." He looked at Peter, "And your family and for that I'm truly sorry."
"Say... it worked, that you got it to work. Like how much would the foreign species take over?" Peter asked.
"Yeah what could the side effects be?" Jake added.
"It's hard to say considering no subject survived. The problem was always—" Connors was cut off by both of the boys, "The decay rate algorithm?" They say in unison.
"Right." Connors whispered.
"Can we, uhh.." Peter pointed at the notepad.
"Of course." Connors said.
Peter sat down and Jake was behind him, looking over his shoulder. Peter began to write, "Change that." Jake muttered, He wrote fast and when they were done they showed it to Connors.
"Extraordinary. How did you boys come up with this?" He asked, Peter and Jake looked at each other and then just shrugged, chuckling.
"How would you feel about coming to the Tower, after school?" Connors asked and they nodded.
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"You did that on purpose Flash!" A girl said when the basketball hit the bucket full of paint cursing the paint to fall on the paper.
"No I didn't but I should've. You better watch your back." Flash said.
Peter and Jake walked up to the girl. "Hey." Jake whispered as he placed the bucket back.
"Alright?" Peter asked then caught the basketball that was about to hit Jake.
"Give it up Parker." Flash said, Peter looked at Jake who shook his head.
"Why don't you take it from me?" He asked getting closer to Flash, "Oh god, this isn't gonna end well." Jake whispered, putting his head in his hands.
Peter stuck his hand out with the ball in his hand. "Go ahead, take it." He said and just as Flash was about to grab it but Peter took the ball in his other hand.
Flash went to grab it again but he spun the ball around his head cursing him to turn around which gave Peter the opportunity to hit him in the back with the ball.
He turned around and Peter smiled before deceiving to throw the ball making Flash wanting to grab it but he almost fell.
"Just take it." He whispered sticking out his hand, Flash looked at him, "Okay how about this? Okay?" He asked and put his hand over his eyes. "How about that?" He turned his head around.
Flash grabbed the ball but he couldn't take it.
Peter turned back, "Come on, take it." He whispered, Flash backed away and Peter started to dribbled the ball, "Alright bring it! Come on Parker!" Flash said.
He started to run towards Flash, he bumped into Flash cursing him to fall, Peter then jumped and threw the ball in the net hard cursing the glass to break.
Everyone looked at him in shook. Peter turned to look at Jake who just shook his head in disappointment.
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"They are not gonna make us pay for the backboard." Peter told Ben when they walked out of the principals office.
"I don't care about that. Was that true?" Ben asked when they stoped walking, "What?"
"Did you humiliate that boy?" He asked and Peter sighed before nodding his head, "Yeah I did. But this guy deserved it."
"Was he the guy that punched you and Jake?" Ben said, "Yeah.. yeah but—" Peter said, "So all this is about getting even." Ben interrupted him.
"If so I guess you must feel pretty good about yourself now, right?" He asked and Peter sighed.
"Yeah I thought so. Well thanks to this little escapade of yours, I had to change shifts at work, so you have to pick up Aunt May tonight 9:00. Understood?"
"Yeah." Peter said, "Good." Ben nodded.
Jake sighed, Ben looked at him before his eyes go to the person next to him.
"She looks familiar. She's the girl on your computer. Yeah. He's got you on his computer." Ben told Gwen.
"Don't forget Aunt may." He said before leaving.
Peter turned around and Gwen got closer, "He's a character. That's my uncle. He uhm.. He's a pathological liar, thought you were someone else." He said.
Jake stood there watching them, Peter seemed nervous, actually both of them seemed nervous. He frowned, Did he actually like her? And did she liked him back?
That's good news right? He should be happy for him.
Why isn't he?
Jake rolled his eyes, having enough of them. He looked around and noticed the hallway was empty. He was late for class so he just started walking. Unnoticed by both Gwen and Peter.
"I can't right now.." Peter said, "Yeah, no me too." Gwen chuckled, "But maybe uh, another.." He started, "Time. Alright." Gwen finished and started to walk down the hallway.
Peter watched her go, he turned around to see that Jake left cursing him to frown.
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Jake was confused and upset and when he was upset he would go skateboarding.
He walked to a warehouse near the river with his board in one hand but stopped when he saw Peter skating. Jake didn't know why he was so upset with him.
It had to be because of the incident right? Jake told him not to do anything but he didn't listen, he was reckless and he got into trouble.
He was sure that was it.
Peter noticed him, "Hey. Thank god, I wanted to talk to you." He walked up to Jake.
"Why?" Jake didn't meant for the question to come out so harsh, Peter frowned, "Look, I'm sorry. You were right and I should've listened to you." He said and Jake sighed, "Yes. You should've."
"Forgive me?" Peter looked at him with hopeful eyes and Jake sighed, "Please?"
"Okay." He said rolling his eyes.
Peter smiled before hugging him, Jake hugged back, closing his eyes. They stayed like that for a while. Maybe a little too long. They must've noticed that in the same time because they were pulling away and looking everywhere but at each other.
"So why uhh.. what are you doing here?" Jake asked, he knew it was a stupid question but he had to break the silence, "Skating."
Peter replied laughing slightly, "Right, yeah."
"I wanna show you something, come on." He said taking Jake by the hand.
"Stay here."
He tried to stick on the metal. It seemed to work. he slowly worked his way up the wall like a spider. All the way up, then leaped upwards to hand stick to the joists.
Peter let himself dangle, only holding on with his legs. He spotted a metal robe hanging from nearby. With one jump, he was swinging on it.
He cheered before going back to Jake, "What do you say?" Peter asked, Jake stood there in complete shook, "Jake?" Peter said, "I- that.. uh, that was.. amazing." He said and Peter smiled, he was about to say something but Jake's phone vibrated.
"Shit. We're gonna be late for our meeting with Connors, come on." Jake said and Peter nodded.
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"We have human line testing over.." Connors said, Peter had spotted another device he had seen before.
"I remember that." He pointed to the steaming, massive gun-like machine in the corner of the room.
It was secured behind a wall of glass.
"I've seen that before. The Ganali device." Peter said
Connors smiled, impressed. "Yeah, I remember a picture of that in my dad's office." Peter nodded. Both of them got closer while Conner explained, "The idea was simple. Load it with an antigen. It creates a cloud, which can be dispersed over a neighborhood, an entire city. Theoretically, you could cure polio in an afternoon." The boys were in awe about the technology they were witnessing.
"Incredible!" Jake breathed out, marveling at all the cables and tubes running into the device. "Others disagreed.", Conners pointed out, his gaze jumping from the device to the boys and back. "What if the device were loaded with a toxin? What if you want to opt-out? You can't run from a cloud after all, so here it lies, gathering dust." He said and began to walk again.
They were at the hologram projector, where a model of Conners's experiments was already running. A lizard and a double helix of DNA was shown. "We're trying to harness this capability and transfer it into our host subject," Conners explained. A mouse appeared beside the lizard. "Freddy, the three-legged mouse." The man pushed a few buttons. "Enter the algorithm now," he advised Jake and Peter.
They did as they were told. In the middle of the process, Peter's phone rang. Uncle Ben was calling, but he declined the call.
"System ready for gene insertion," the projector told them in a female voice. The algorithm had formed a tiny patch under Jake's fingers he could symbolically insert into the formula. He pulled it around the holoprojector until he was standing next to Conners again.
"Ok, Check." Jake told the projector and gave the little patch that expanded into a tube to the scientist. "See what we're trying to do?" Jake asked, Conners remained silent as he started the simulation of a possible outcome.
"Preempt the proteins?" he asked
as it started, and Peter nodded. "Preempt the immune response."
"Beginning trials," the ai said, and the mouse began to grow a fourth leg. " Pending..Pending.."
They watched in expectation as code ran in the background, Peter had his arms crossed over his chest. While Jake had his on his hips.
"Failed. Subject deceased." The ai concluded before starting another run. It automatically changed the code to find its sweet spot to make the algorithm work.
"Pending. Pending.." Jake looked at Peter to find him already looking at him.
"Pending. failed." "Come on, come on."
Jake whispered.
"Pending... Pending... Pending... failed. Subject deceased." Another fail. Peter sighed. "Pending... pending.. pending.. Peptide algorithm accepted." the ai suddenly told them, and Peter nudged the doctor that had turned away in frustration.
"Regrowth complete.", the ai added after a few more seconds, and a happy, healthy mouse hologram was looking at them, with four instead of three legs.
It worked. "Vitals normal, blood pressure normal. Limp regeneration successful." the Ai said
"Extraordinary," Conners whispered. He was taken back by that key invention. Peter and Jake chuckled in disbelieve. "Thank you." Conners placed a hand on their shoulders before being led off to another room. Two glass cages were standing on a metal table with two white mice.
"Meet Fred and Wilma, our three-legged mice." Conners introduced them That was the part about science they both didn't like. Conners grabbed Fred and placed him into the Peter's hands." Hey, buddy. I got you", Peter tried to calm the animal that panicked.
The doctor grabbed a syringe, filled up with the cross-genetic activator.
"Careful, I don't want to stick you by mistake.", he warned Peter to hold still. Jake and Peter looked at each other, the serum wouldn't do anything to Peter. His DNA was already altered.
"Human trials aren't until next week." Connors finished that made Jake and Peter both looked up. "Uh.. what?" Jake asked in a low voice, earning a chuckle from Connors.
All of them were nervous as the mouse was given the serum orally. With that, Peter could place him in his cage again.
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"I can't believe it worked." Peter said as they were skating to his house, it had gotten dark already. "I can." Jake replied, Peter laughed.
They stoped in front of Peter's house to find Ben sitting on the porch, waiting for Peter.
"Hey. I thought you uh—" Peter started but Ben didn't let him finish,"Didn't you forget something?" He asked and Jake closed his eyes in realization,
Aunt May.
Peter's phone rang, he was about to grab it, Ben shook his head. "Don't answer that, but I'm glad to know it's working."
"You owe your aunt an apology, big-time. Be a man. Get in there and apologize!" Ben gestured through the open door, and Peter walked in his head low. Peter ran a hand over his face in regret. "I'm sorry, Aunt May, I.." "Honestly, you don't have to apologize to me. It's your u—" May waved it off. "The hell he doesn't." Ben argued.
"Ben." May shushed him. "I'm sorry I got distracted. We were at Oscorp." Peter tried to explain himself. "He got distracted." Ben was furious. "Your Aunt, my wife, had to walk 12 blocks alone in the middle of the night and then wait in a deserted subway station because you got distracted!"
"Ben, sweetheart, honestly, I am completely capable of walking home by—" May tried to make him stop. "You will not defend this boy!" Ben told her off. "I'm not defending—"
"You are defending him!" He then turned to Peter again. "Listen to me, son." He started
Jake watched Peter carefully, seeing that he was losing his patience. "Yeah, go ahead." Peter told Ben, his voice firm.
"You're a lot like your father You are, Peter, and that's a good thing. But your father lived by a philosophy...a principle. He believed that if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things. That's what's at stake here. Not choice."
"Responsibility." Ben finished.
"That is nice. That's.. that's great." Peter mumbled, tears filling his eyes. "That's all well and good. So where is he?" Ben was puzzled.
"What?"
"Where is he?" Peter repeated.
"Where's my dad? He didn't think it was his responsibility to be here and tell me this himself?" Peter said.
"Oh, come on, how dare you?" Ben replied harshly. "How dare I? How dare you?!" Peter snapped. He looked at Ben for a moment, then turned to leave. He had to get out of there.
"Where are you going?" Ben called after him.
"Peter, come back here. Please." The glass door shattered as Peter closed it, leaving him to jump around in shock.
He glanced at Jake who looked at him worried, Peter thought about to stay but decided against it. He turned around and started to walk again.
Jake went to go after him but Ben stopped him, "I'll go." He said and Jake nodded.
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