ONE WEEK LATER
"Peter Parker lost his uncle. Barry Allen was struck by lightning. Two events that happened simultaneously and that needed to happen for these two to be led down the path they need to go down." The Watcher said as he was currently in the middle of the school whilst Peter made his way through the halls.
He is still not completely over his uncle's death, but at least able to make it to school. Once there, he was met with a lot of sorrowful looks throughout the halls as it seems the story of Ben spread throughout everyone.
"I'm truly sorry, Peter...but I know this always had to happen." The Watcher apologizes to the hero-to-be who couldn't even hear the fifth-dimensional being. "If you saw the bigger picture, you'd understand. But it would never take away the pain."
Peter didn't pay them any mind and made it to his locker. Once he made it there, Flash Thompson made his way over to him.
"Hey, Parker," Flash called out softly as he approached.
"Not today, Flash," Peter told him as Flash made it behind him.
Flash then raised his hand and felt sorry for him. "Come on, I just-"
But it seemed Peter wasn't having any of that today as he somehow found the strength to take Flash and push him against the lockers. The entire hall seemed to freeze at that moment as nobody has seen Peter stand up to someone like Flash before.
"Feel better now?" Flash asked, talking as calmly as he could. "Look, your uncle died. I'm sorry. I get it."
Peter saw he was being sympathetic and lowered him down before he started to tear up again. "Okay..."
"You okay?" Flash wonders as Peter didn't answer and made his way down the hall.
Peter let the tears flow as he kept trying to make it through the day and down the hall when Gwen stopped him.
"Peter?" Gwen said before she quickly pulled him in for a hug. "It's okay."
Peter definitely needed this right now and pulled her in to return the hug and let the tears flow. Peter then broke the hug off and walked away, trying to get to class. Try and act like nothing is bothering him. But Gwen saw the pain. She saw how it was hurting him. Ben was the only father figure he ever had in his life and he was ripped away from him.
With Peter, he and his class were on the final field trip of the school year to Mercury Labs where they were going to be the first to see a revolutionary experiment done by Otto Octavius.
Peter looked around the labs in amazement at the experiments that are in current development. They even had a stand on experimental spiders.
"There are over 32,000 known species of spider in the world." The tour guide said as she led them through the room. "They're in the order Araneae divided into three suborders."
Peter was listening for a moment as he kept up and looked around, being followed by Gwen who walked up to him.
"Hey, Peter." Gwen greeted him.
"Oh, uh...hi." Peter greeted as he rubbed his eye, fixing his contact lenses. "
"Arachnids from all three groups possess varying strengths which help them in their constant search for food." The guide explains and gestures to the one container. "For example, the Delena spider, family Sparassidae, can jump to catch its prey."
The spider then did exactly as explain as it jumped from one twig to another in its cage.
"Next, we have the net web spider." The guide said as she kept going. "Family Filistatidae, genus Kukulcania. It spins an intricate funnel-shaped web whose strands have a tensile strength proportionally equal to the type of high-tension wires used in bridges."
The spider was dragging its prey up a web on the top of the wood.
"This grass spider hunts using a set of reflexes with nerve-conduction velocity so fast that some researchers believe it borders on precognition. Early awareness of danger."
"This type of spider transfers RNA to encode an entirely new genome combining the genetic information from all three spiders into these 15 genetically designed super-spiders." The guide gestured to the fifteen containers that were on display when Gwen noticed an empty one.
"There's fourteen," Gwen stated, gesturing to the empty container. "This one's empty."
"Oh, so it is." The guide didn't notice. "I guess the researchers are working on that one."
Not knowing that the spider was currently above the entire group and was crawling down on a web toward the group. This was the same spider that was mutated due to the particle accelerator.
One bite, that's all it has in it. Enough bite for one person.
"This is it." The Watcher almost started to sound giddy as the spider went down towards Peter. "This is the moment that will define him."
"Now if you will follow me," The tour guide said, getting Peter to move out of the direction of the spider and causing it to land on the back of Gwen's jacket and crawl upward to her arm.
"Wait, what?" The Watcher asked in annoyance and gestured between Gwen and Peter. "No. Not her. Him, you stupid arachnid!"
The class walked in to see the one and only Otto Octavius and his wife Rosie Octavius in the room where the experiment was taking place.
"Well, look who's here," Otto told the class as they walked in. "The best and brightest of Central City High. Welcome, everyone. My wife Rosie and I would like to welcome you this afternoon. Today...you will lay witness to the birth of a new fusion-based energy source. Safe, renewable energy, and cheap electricity for everyone."
The whole class, minus Flash, seemed to understand and was impressed by this as Otto walked towards the tarp in the middle of the room.
"And now, I'd like to introduce you to my assistances," Otto said as he ripped the tarp off and revealed to have four metallic limbs that looked like octopus' arms on a stand. "These four actuators were developed and programmed for the sole purpose of creating successful fusion. They are impervious to heat and magnetism." He then removed his shirt and walked to the arms where they had a clamp to wrap around his waist. Then a long line went up to his back and injected itself into his spine.
The class watched as the arms started to slowly come to life and followed the movement of Otto's real arms.
"These smart arms are controlled by my brain through a neural link," Otto said as he gestured to a screen that showed the arms had a camera inside that Otto could see through. "Nanowire feed directly into my cerebellum, allowing me to use these arms to control fusion reaction in an environment no human hand can enter."
As he explains this, one of the class members raised their hand and asked a question.
"Yes?" Otto called her out.
"If the A.I. in the arms are as advanced as this, what stops this from becoming a Skynet situation?" Liz asked him.
"Spot on." Otto complimented as he turned around and showed off the device up to his spine and shows a glowing light at the tip of it. "That is why I developed this inhibitor chip to protect my higher brain function. It means I control these arms, not the other way around. And now for the main event."
Otto then showed off the device for his fusion and got to work. The arms worked twice as fast as any crew could ever hope to achieve.
One of the arms then pulled out a small canister that had a drop of something floating around inside of it.
"Precious tritium is the fuel that makes this project go," Otto said as he placed the small drop into the center of the machine. "There are only twenty-five pounds of it on Earth. I'd like to thank Norman Osborn and OsCorp Industries for providing it."
Otto then placed on a pair of goggles and got ready. He looked over to his wife and smiled at her and she opens the machine.
"Ladies and gentlemen. Fasten your seatbelts." Otto tells them as the lights are dimmed just as the lasers hit the tritium and cause a small explosion before turning into a miniature sun.
"Doctor, we have a successful fusion reaction." Dr. Michael Morbius tells him with proud joy. The entire class was amazed at what they were seeing and just clapped at the sight. "We're producing a thousand megawatts surplus."
Otto then started to get to work and use the arms to keep the fusion from expanding any further as he asked at his creation.
"The power of the sun...in the palm of my hand," Otto said quietly.
Peter then felt something pulling on his foot as he looked down and saw how there was a paper clip stuck under his foot. When he lifted his foot, the clip went flying and went into the rector. All of the metal started to be pulled towards the reactor, followed by any watches or necklaces the people and students were wearing all around the room.
"Keep calm! It's only a spike!" Otto assured them. "It'll stabilize."
Alarms started to go off and the scientists got more concerned than Otto. "Students, please clear the room."
But before that could happen, all of the metal on the walls peeled off and flew towards them all. Everyone ducked for cover whilst the scientists tried to shut down the reactor.
Some of the beakers in the room shattered and glass was sent flying throughout the labs. Rosie was sadly in the trajectory of the glass and was immediately hit.
Otto was able to use the arms for cover when he looked over and saw his wife. "Rosie!"
One of the containment breaches then came off and shot down his spine, destroying the chip. One of the others seems to have thankfully hit the power as when it did, the power to the whole building went out and the fusion reactor imploded and destroyed itself, along with the machine.
Gwen raced over to Peter and quickly helped him up from the ground. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Peter promised.
As she helped him up, the spider finally made its way across from Gwen's arm down to Peter's neck. Crawling its way up, it planted itself there before finally biting his neck. That caused Peter to wince and smacked the back of his neck.
"Come on," Gwen said as she started to lead Peter out.
The Watcher looked and stared at the unconscious Octavius and limping Peter as he made his way out. A smile spread across his face as he watched the moment finally occur.
"It happened. It finally happened. Spider-Man was finally born."
