If you haven't done so already, I recommend you read my stroy, 'Becoming Superboy' before this chapter, otherwise the end of this and the next chapter, will make no sense and you will wonder why it suddenly changes adding something which looks like it has no relevance to the plot.
Thanks.
Two days late, the evening of the meal, the Parker trio were preparing to go round to dinner at the Kent's. Ben stood in his room adjusting his tie and making sure his suit had no creases in it, so as to impress Mr and Mrs Kent. Peter and Mary-Jane were downstairs applying the final touches to a pudding that they had insisted they take.
"Ben are you ready dear!?" Mary-Jane called upstairs, as she brought the pudding through from the kitchen.
"Just coming!" he shouted back as he finished tying his shoe laces up.
Ben galloped downstairs and came to a stop right by the door as Peter grabbed the car keys and started to move out of the house.
Over in the Kent household, they were busy making the final preparations to the dinner table and the food that they were to be having. On tonights menu was French onion soup for starter, roast beef and Yorkshire Puddings for main and a selection of puddings, including the Parkers for desert.
"Clark, have you got the meat ready and carved?" Lois asked.
"I have just finished it," Clark replied as he placed the carved meat back into the oven on a low temperature to keep it warm.
Jason had invited Wally over to introduce to the Parkers and they were busy finishing off the living room, making sure that it was tidy and presentable for the coming guests. Wally had become like a brother to Jason, especially as they had a common heritage in America and also because of the secret they each held over their powers.
Just as they finished moving the last object to its secret hiding place for the night, the doorbell rang, alerting the household that their guests had indeed arrived.
"Jason, could you grab the door!" Lois called.
Jason walked to the door and as he did so, remembered the friendly advice his dad had told him and Wally earlier.
"Remember to be careful with your powers tonight, you are still getting used to them and they may come out if you are not concentrating. We don't want to expose ourselves."
With that advice locked into his mind, Jason opened the door to reveal the Parkers standing on his doorstep.
"Hello, welcome come in," he said. "My name is Jason and this is my friend Wally," he introduced each of them to Peter and Mary-Jane.
"Hello Jason," Peter said enthusiastically, "It is great to be here. Please call me Peter and this is my wife, Mary-Jane."
"Oh hi, welcome to our home," Lois said as she entered the hallway, pulling her apron off, slinging it to one side, and extending her hand out to Peter's. "I'm Lois and my husband Clark is just in the kitchen finishing off the soup."
"You have a lovely home here," Peter said.
"Why thank you, it is a lovely area around here, very different from our old home back in Metropolis. Anyway, please come in out of the doorway. Go and take a seat in the living room, I am sure Wally and Jason can get you some drinks."
As they filed through, Mary-Jane handed Lois the pudding they had brought.
"Is there anything you need help with," she offered.
"No no, please we have everything covered. You have already done more by making this lovely looking pudding. Thank you."
With that, they went into the living room and sat on the sofa, whilst Jason and Wally served their drinks.
"So lads, how have you found adapting to life over here in the UK?" Peter asked.
"I think it is fantastic," Wally said. "You always get people telling you how bad moving to another country can be and how bad the food is and how rude the people are, but I have not found that here. It helped having Jason as he has similar circumstances in moving over from the Sates, but everyone was s welcoming."
"I have been here most of my life and only have minor memories of life in America, but I really like it over here. It has so much history and beauty you don't necessarily get in America," Jason added.
"I have to agree with you," Peter stated. "I find London just wonderful with the buildings dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, right through to some of the most modern like the Shard, being all mixed together. History alive I say."
At that moment, Clark walked in to the room to introduce himself to the guests.
"You must be Clark," Peter said. "I did not say this to your wife, but I have followed your articles for a long time and really admire you two as journalists."
"Why thank you. I have to say, your rise from a freelance journalist to the man who is running the London branch of the Daily Bugle to be quite an inspiration too."
Unbeknownst to the assembled group, Clark was secretly scanning his guests to ensure that they were not carrying any concealed weapons. He made sure that he wasn't looking at any private areas, but when he came to Peter, he almost did a visible double take. Underneath Peter's shirt, there was something very familiar to Clark. He was wearing a Spiderman costume. Peter Parker is Spiderman, how could he have not seen it before. The fantastic pictures taken at impossible angles for a regular human and often right in the middle of the action, right where people could be killed.
"I must thank you to," Peter said to Clark's compliment.
Before anyone could say anything, Lois walked into the room and spoke.
"Dinner is served, you can come and sit up at the table."
They all rose from their seats and filed through to the dinning room and took direction as to where to seat themselves. Lois and Clark brought out the food and served it to everyone before sitting down themselves and tucking in.
"This is wonderful soup," Mary-Jane said. "Probably the best I have ever had, so moreish."
"Thank you," Lois said.
As they ate, they talked about their experiences moving and living in the UK, before turning the conversation to Peter's new job at the Daily Bugle. Lois brought out the various deserts and laid them on the table.
"These look exquisite," Peter said. "I think desert is probably one of the best things the British do."
There were nods of agreement around the table.
They finished up and were coming to the end of the evening when something happened that destroyed the happy mood that had been building up.
"Thank you so much for a lovely evening," Peter said, as the Parker family stood in the living room, ready to leave.
Just as they turned to go, Jason noticed that Ben didn't look right.
"Ben are you ok?" He asked. As he finished his sentence and before Ben could answer, his knees buckled and he collapsed onto the floor.
"Ben!" Mary-Jane cried in shock.
Clark immediately was down on his knees feeling for a pulse. He also took a glance with his x-ray vision at the inner workings of his body. What he saw was that of a body shutting down. The organs were failing. Something was reacting with them, but the weird part was, it was changing his body. Almost as quickly as his organs were failing, they seemed to change and start to try and restart.
"He is alive, but I have never felt such a strange pulse," Clark said in a way as to not give away his ability to see through into Ben's body.
"We need a Doctor," Peter said desperately as he too got on his knees to look at Ben.
"We know a really good one, but we are not sure where he is," Lois said, trying to be helpful.
"What is happening to him? What's wrong?" Mary-Jane was starting to get quite stressed.
"Maybe I can help," a voice said behind them. "I hope you don't mind, I let myself in."
They turned around to look at the owner of the voice and there standing I front of them wearing his long brown overcoat, pinstriped brown suit, blue shirt and converses, was the Doctor. He had his Sonic Screwdriver held aloft, the tip lit blue and it was emitting a faint buzzing noise.
"You! What are you doing here?" Jason asked.
"I got a message on the physic paper asking for help."
The Doctor moved over to Ben who was still lying on the floor. He pulled out a pair of glasses and placed them on his face.
"Right, what seems to be the problem?"