Chapter Nine: A Child of Science and Justice

"I still can't believe you beat me at bowling, Stiles. Are you sure you've never bowled before?" Stilinski chuckled as he parked the cruiser at the nearby Burger King... Stiles was in the passenger seat taking a bite of his curly fries with a big smile on his face.

"Never," Stiles muttered through his curly fry filled mouth, the one hanging down to his chin. "Not once have I ever bowled."

"Ugh, it's sickening when you talk with your mouth full." Stiles lowered his head as he finished what he had in his mouth before smiling lightly. "Seriously, you must have gotten that from your mother and I."

"A bowling prodigy... haha." Stiles rubbed the back of his head as he eyed the radio, almost like he was contemplating on what to do next. "So, I heard you on the phone last night. There was another murder, wasn't there?"

"I told you I don't like it when you listen in to my conversations."

"Dad, I'm going to hear them eventually, and as much as you want to shelter me, you need to at least treat me like I'm not a child anymore. I'm sixteen, I have a driver's license for god's sake, and you still treat me like I'm eight."

"I don't tell you what happens at work because it's confidential, and I could get in a lot of trouble for telling you Stiles. It's not like I'm purposely trying to make you feel like a kid, but you still are a kid Stiles, whether you like it or not. It's not something you can change. If you were a police officer, then it would be different, but you're not so I can't tell you."

"Fine, you don't have to tell me anything, I heard everything I need to know. If you really want to catch the guy, then you need to stop thinking like a cop and start thinking like a killer. And, if I were a killer, I'd be right in the middle of the investigation without anyone knowing, because you said it yourself, the areas the body were found, it's within walking distance of each other. The killer probably lives nearby, or has a hideout of some kind where he can see everything go down with the police. So, he's probably right in the background whenever you've been at a crime scene. It's what I would do."

"You're trying to tell me one of the people that have been around the crime scene behind the barriers looking in, is the Identity Thief?"

"I'm not saying anything, it's just what I would do. Although, based on what you were talking about, the bleach at the scene, a spot away from the body... they did it intentionally."

"Intentionally?"

"Think about it, some killers feel remorse after disposing of a body, and make themselves pay, perhaps by hurting themselves. Although, it could also be that the killer was trying to block something out."

"Blocking something out?"

"Yeah, like somebody's voice. Remember when I was first trying out for Lacrosse, and you were there in the stands and I got injured. I was hit hard enough to where the pain blocked out all the noise for that moment. What if they were trying to block some kind of noise out?"

"Huh, you might be onto something there, but we still don't have any evidence to go on."

"Well, you're a good cop Dad, I'm sure there'll be a break in no time. It's probably right under your nose but you don't realize it." Stiles assured him, turning away from his father and looking outside. "After all, the killer's likely going to strike again, and each time it seems like they're slipping up. One more slip up and you'll have them."

"Yeah, maybe." Stilinski replied before he suddenly heard the door shut to find Stiles was gone. "Stiles?" He choked on what little food he had left in his mouth before opening his door. "Stiles?"

The sound of that blood curdling scream was what gained Stilinski's attention as he stepped out of the police cruiser. It wasn't that of a woman, but it was more masculine, but yet feminine. His chest tightened up as he heard the scream, and within a matter of seconds Stilinski was running towards the nearest alley. He stumbled next to the building, catching himself with his hand. He turned around that corner with a quickness that only years of experience could ever lead up to, and he nearly turned a ghastly white color.

There, in the center of the alley, with a knife in his chest, his eyes meeting Stilinski's, was Stiles. "Oh god! Stiles!" By the time he reached Stiles, the teenager was gone, a tear running down his face as the reminder of the last moment of his life. The knife was planted firmly in Stiles's chest, but it was holding something against the teenager as well. It was a piece of paper reading: "You were born to suffer."

Stilinski woke up in a cold sweat gasping for air. It took all of his willpower to not scream at the top of his lungs for his son, but somehow he managed to. He looked around the room before getting up and checking Stiles's room. He found the teenager was still asleep, and smiled. It was a nightmare, Stiles was still here, alive and well.

He left the door open as he walked downstairs and sat in the chair, drinking a cup of coffee seeing as it was already five in the morning and he had to be up to make breakfast in a little bit for his day with Stiles to begin on a good note.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight today, kiddo."

Stiles woke up with this strange energy that he couldn't explain, something itching at the back of his mind, screaming at him to read the journal of his mother's that was in the briefcase he had taken up from the basement yesterday. The sun wasn't even up yet, and Stiles knew that this curiosity was going to get the better of him, so he opened the journal up to the first page that had notes, which was three fourths of the way through the journal.

Stiles was born three years ago. It's amazing to see how much he's grown. At first we thought there was something wrong with him when he got sick way too often for doctor's likings... and we had him have some testing, and we discovered that his immune system was not how it was supposed to be, apparently... it was underdeveloped. But, he's starting to get over it. It's starting to get back to normal. But my work is going to help even more if I can just finish it.

That was what got him interested in his mother's work... What had Claudia Stilinski been working on? Stiles went to his computer and typed in the google search bar... Claudia Stilinski.

Search results came up with something called Cross Species Genetics. Stiles scratched his head lightly before clicking on the link and found that his mother's work was actually trying to help the human body restore itself.

An amputee could regrow the limb they lost, a person with dementia could heal themselves. The possibilities were endless. His mom... was trying to save lives by doing that work. Now, from what had been said was that there was an illness affecting Norman Osborn and that was one of the more important reasons to get it done apparently. Osborn's illness was slowly killing him, but was not contagious, only genetic. Stiles scratched his head at this before looking through the journal to find something about Norman Osborn.

"Well, look at what we got here." Stiles found a page that was talking about Norman's state of illness.

My supervisor is forcing us to work harder to complete our research and find a cure for Norman's illness. Now, Norman has quite a few years left before it becomes critical... I'd say since the year is currently 2003 right now, about forty years, depending on how the disease continues to spread through his body. It will continue to get worse... the Cross Species project will help him, and millions. No more illnesses... it could be the end of all non man made diseases.

If we continue our latest branch of research, arachnids... mainly spiders, who knows what we may get... we have three main focuses... spiders, lizards, and wolves. Their DNA holds the most potential. Wolves are something I don't understand though, but whatever it is that's special about it, it makes the guys in the lab call it the Lycan Project. We are testing it right now, using the first human test subject for it... and results look promising. Subject's name is (the name is scribbled out with permanent marker, making it impossible to figure out what it says underneath.). The subject was blinded after an accident, and was hard of hearing after damage to the eardrum occurred from an explosion, now... the subject can see perfectly, hear things more clearly then ever, even things people can whisper from across the room... however, there are some concerns...

The entry was cut off suddenly, and after that there wasn't anything left in the journal, having been the end of it. Stiles had known how small this journal was considering it was full of drawings his mother had done long before she had worked at Oscorp. The drawings were beautiful, and often enough realistic to where Stiles couldn't tell if it was a photo or a drawing. When he was thoroughly finished with the journal, Stiles shut it and walked downstairs to meet his father and enjoy the one day they could spend together.

"Wow, you actually made breakfast?" Stiles laughed with surprise as he hopped into the kitchen seeing his father finishing up with the food. "Wait," his body tightened up suddenly as a thought crossed his mind. "Does this mean you can't hang out?"

"Why would this mean that?"

"Usually the only time you make breakfast is when you're trying to make up for something is all I'm saying."

"Stiles, believe me son, I wouldn't miss a father and son day for the world. I already have the day planned out, first we can go bowling, the place your mother and I went to, it has a great food court that you will just fall in love with." Stilinski was beaming as he laid out the plans for today, and Stiles couldn't help but smile too. It was good to see Stilinski like this, as it was rare to see him smile like this. It was almost like his mother was still there, and before the dementia, it was the happiest time of his life; it was probably the simplest time of his life as well.

This was before Stilinski had to work constantly just to pay the bills, somehow manage Stiles going to school, pay the bills, maintain the house, and all the other fun stuff that it entailed. Stilinski still smiled, it just wasn't like that anymore. Back then it was a simpler time, before the sudden appearance of super powered beings all over the place, and now New York City whether intentional or not, it was a circus.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Good, and hey... let's just avoid parking near any alleys, okay?"

"Dad, it's New York, there's alleys everywhere."

"I don't want us being in twenty feet of one is all I'm saying, and we're avoiding Hell's Kitchen too. I take it you know why I want to avoid that place at all costs," Stilinski implied, eying his son with a sly grin that showed both disappointment and pride.

"Yeah, the murders. I've-"

"-heard me talking on the phone with Diaz? Yeah, I had a feeling you did. By the way, try to not listen all the time okay?"

"Dad, I can help, just let me."

"Funny enough, you already did, in a dream I had last night. It was something worth looking at." Stilinski laughed, trying to not have the image of a dead Stiles in his mind any more than what he could. He looked at Stiles who was standing in the doorway, adjusting his glasses, and for whatever reason, something in the back of Stilinski's mind told him to break the one rule he had, keep Stiles away from work. Stiles was very intuitive and could find something that many others wouldn't be able to see from any angle, yet Stiles could. If Stiles could help save lives and bring this Identity Thief to justice, then Stilinski knew that whatever the price was for Stiles helping was worth it. "You know, maybe I could leave my work on my desk before I go to work, and you could walk into the study and find it laying on the desk, with it open... but you should not look at it."

"Alright, yeah... gotcha." Stiles replied with a wink, seeing his father finally loosen up the grip with the case. Stiles was nearly jumping out of his skin with excitement at the thought of being able to view the case, and Stilinski could see it on his face. "So, you don't think that I could look at it while I eat right?"

"Stiles, no work, just you and me for right now, okay?"

"Okay." Stiles was defeated, for now... however Stilinski knew that Stiles was going to look at that case the first chance he had. "Dad, do you know what Mom was working on at Oscorp?"

"Something about animals, I never really asked, why?"

"In that briefcase she had I found a journal, and it talked about her working on something called Cross Species Genetics. It was something that could have saved millions of lives."

"Your mother was ambitious, Stiles. I've told you that she wanted to do a lot of things before she was diagnosed, but she was also very secretive, she liked to hide things. She could hide something in plain sight and nobody would notice. I won't lie, you're the only one that was able to see where she hid anything, because you have her brains."

"Well I have your morals."

"That too," Stilinski flipped the last couple of pancakes and motioned Stiles to get the plates. Stiles did so and set the table, glad that he was going to get to enjoy the day with his dad for the first time in years.

Harry loved Stiles's lab, it was one of his favorite places to be. The lab was spectacular, for a teenager Stiles had a lab set up like he was in Oscorp or something similar to that. Stiles was sitting at the computer typing some things up researching, but Harry was looking at all the chemicals and machines he had set up in here.

"I never get over all the doo-dads you got. My father doesn't even have this much crap laying around."

"It's not crap Harry... plus, yeah... most of it, y'know, I got from my mother."

"Inherited it?"

"Yeah." Stiles replied as he got up and walked over to the chalkboard that was scribbled with equations that Harry couldn't even get around.

"What is this anyway, it seems a bit complex."

"That's because it is. It's something my Mom had been working on before she passed away. This was for an interesting molecular adhesive. I just can't get my head around some of the more complex components, it's probably really simple and I'm just over thinking it."

"Don't you take breaks?"

"Yeah, but you don't know what it's like not having much to do after school and not hanging out with your friends all the time," Stiles muttered lightly as he examined the board.

"I still don't understand what this is though."

"I could go over a twelve hour lecture over this... or you could just accept it and act like you know what's going on."

"Cool, let's do that one. Can I ask something, how did your Mom buy it?"

"She died from a rare type of dementia." Then it sort of came to Stiles as he looked at the board and suddenly jumped over to the chair. "My mom got really paranoid when the symptoms got worse, so she would have put any research she was doing in the areas that were hard for even geniuses to find. Maybe if I..."

"Uh, Stiles?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Harry... I can do this later. What chapters were we going over in Biology?" Harry was eyeing Stiles suspiciously, as if Stiles was more focused on something else, and he suddenly got an idea.

"Chapter 12 and 13. Did you ever show Lydia this? The lab, and the board? You said she's the smartest in your class, maybe if she shows up with a clear mind, she can help you out."

"She's too busy to hang out with a nerd like me, plus what makes you think she'd be willing to help me?"

"It's Lydia, the girl who lived next to you for how many years? I get she moved, yeah, but she's still the one that cared about you to some degree. I don't know why she'd say no to helping you, just ask her for some help with this, and maybe you guys can build a friendship like that."

"Maybe."

"If you can't finish it with her help, maybe you can take a look at the Oscorp tech they have now, they have a special microfiber that could help out."

"That sounds like a plan, but let's just see if I can figure this out by myself for right now, if I don't in the next week or two I'll ask her, deal?" Stiles asked, and Harry nodded, even though he knew Stiles was just saying it so he didn't have to keep listening to Harry talk about Lydia and working to get them in the same room as some sort of love guru.

"Deal. On one condition... you learn how to avoid Jackson and his friends at school."

"Avoid them? Like that's possible."

A few months ago:

"Ooof!" Stiles grunted as he fell forward, a foot having hit square in his back, and books were sent flying everywhere. It was the one day that he actually wore his glasses to school, and surprise, surprise... they went crashing onto the ground as well. Of everyone in the hallway, none of the students were doing a thing except for laughing their butts off.

Stiles hit the ground with a thud, and all he could hear in that singular moment was laughter. "GOOOAAL!" was the only voice Stiles heard over the laughter, and he knew that voice anywhere. Kenny "Kong" McFarlane was the one screaming as he stood behind Flash Thompson in triumph over their game; their game being torturing Stiles for laughs.

"That, is definitely worth ten points."

"Ten? That was a six, tops!" Kong retorted as Stiles turned his head, snarling with disgust as he picked his glasses up. "Oh look Flash..."

"Right, I think Stilinski's about to go full on 'Carrie' on us Kong! So scary!" Flash laughed as he stepped towards Stiles and went to grab him, but Harry put his hand in the way.

"Guys, come on. Leave the guy alone for two seconds." Harry pleaded as Flash looked almost offended by Harry's disapproval.

"What? Are you sweet on him, Harry?" Flash asked, as Stiles grabbed his books and got up.

"No, I'm sweet on you. He's my best friend you idiots! Can't you just leave him alone?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. This is your charity project."

"I'll make it a charity project if you keep bothering him. Go pick on someone else for god's sake." Kong and Flash walked away disgusted, but never said another word.

"Stiles, when are you going to learn to stay out of their way?" Harry wondered as he lightly put his hand on Stiles's shoulder as the teenager adjusted himself.

"Yeah, silly me for walking down the hall. What was I thinking?" Stiles laughed lightly... "I'll try harder."

"You need to roll it off."

"Roll it off?" Stiles repeated as he turned to face Harry, only to find his friend with the most serious expression he had ever seen Harry muster, and to put it simply, it made Stiles's skin crawl. "What do you mean, roll it off?"

"I mean, don't worry about them, they're trying to make you angry and it's working. The moment you ignore them is when they'll leave you alone. After we graduate, you are going to like, whiz right by them. You'll slap together with one of those internet companies that sell widgets and make forty million dollars or something; these guys, you know how it goes, Flash Thompson's whole life peaked like three weeks ago. You have a better future coming than that idiot could ever have."

"Yeah, and what about you?" Stiles wondered.

"Don't worry about me, I'm the son of Norman Osborn. My life is practically laid out for me, you are the one that has to lay groundwork, including that friendship with Lydia if you ever plan on initiating that plan to make her fall in love with you."

"The ten year plan? Ha, yeah that's not going to be a big deal for me. I'm working on school, Harry... you know that. I want to graduate with the highest grades possible and get into Empire State University on a scholarship. I have plans, and having a girlfriend right now isn't exactly going to be the best course of plan for that. I appreciate that you care, it's just not on my list of important things to do right now."

"Well, who knows, maybe she'll be more helpful than you realize if you become friends with her. She might just be able to get you out of that scarlet nerd zone you've been put in."

"That'd be nice." Stiles laughed as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and for a moment as he looked to the small window, he could have sworn he had seen someone with glowing blue eyes staring in on him, but it had to be his imagination, right?

The man in the black leather jacket growled as he hid from sight as he stood next to the window on the second floor, having been seen by Stilinski's son. He jumped off the roof and onto the street, the cement cracking as he punched it.

She's dead. I can't believe it, what did Osborn do to her? She was geting close to something, but what? No research to go on, but at least now I know that Dr. Gajos does have a son... he can be helpful if I can get to him without anyone knowing. I just need to watch and hope to god this "Stiles" can help me find out what Dr. Gajos uncovered, and find her before it's too late. That killer is going to strike again soon, and I need to find her before that happens.

Hey guys, late happy thanksgiving, I tried to update yesterday but it did not work at all, but I got to update today, and as for the update this is the last "boring" chapter we'll have for a while because things are about to pick up with the spider bite being right around the corner, and December will be a very productive time for me so be prepped for some chapters to come your way. I don't know if Legend of the Speedsters will be updated or not but I will try.

Questions for this chapter, and note I have a request, if you guys can hit ten-fifteen chapters by... say Monday, I will have the chapters up on Wednesday for sure. Would that be okay? I want to get up to chapter twelve ready to post by December 1st so please make it happen because I get inspired from more reviews.

1. In the next chapter we have Scott and Stiles as the main focus. Scott has a change in his character that will help him as a vet for the animal clinic when we reach that point, but I was curious, what character twists would you like for the teenage characters? Like say... Danny. Or more eccentric characters that we didn't get enough of, and well, pretty much it's not what you think might happen, but merely your ideas. I have Scott and Lydia's characters planned out, so you let me know about the other ones.

2. For the Spider Bite chapters, which there will be only one depending, would you like the Claudia backstory to push onward by going back for a flashback chapter? It'll help the story out if you guys do, but if not that is fine.

3. Tell me, do you like this version of the story so far, and why?

4. What characters do you hope to see in book one?

Remember, 10-15 reviews answering those questions and I will update with two chapters on Wednesday!

Until next time guys, please review and I will see you guys soon.