SPIDER-MAN

Business Part II

Experiments

"Smythe! What are you doing up there?" a voice shouted up from the floor of the testing warehouse. It was Dr Farley Stillwell, a genetic engineering specialist, who had made some of the greatest breakthroughs of the decade. He had been offered a rather large amount of money to come and work for Foster, Ingman, Stevens and Kendal Industries where he had been promised a huge lab that made his basement lab at home seem like it was made of Lego. The chance to work in such a great environment and with some of the greatest scientific minds on the planet was too much for him to turn down and so he had gladly accepted. What he was working on had far exceeded his wildest dreams.

All the testing so far for Project Arachnid had been a massive success and now that the two human test subjects had been found and detained he just had to assemble his team for the final stage. His team included Alistaire Smythe, a chemical weapons designer who had been paralysed from his waist down in a terrible accident at his home some years ago. The explosion had killed his parents and destroyed his life's work in the adjoined lab. The final member of his team was Dr Mendel Stromm who was a robotics expert and had created some very advanced AI software as well as co-creating, with Smythe, the worst-case-scenario defence robots for this experiment itself, the aptly named "Spider-Slayers".

"Smythe! Smythe?" he repeated, starting to fret about the physical and mental health of his fellow scientist at this critical time in the experiment. He had noticed that Smythe had been subject to terrible headaches and was almost always locked up in his lab, only leaving it during the night. His fears were soon found to be misplaced as Alistaire Smythe strolled down the steps from his lab, merely rubbing the temples of his head.

"Headache" he shouted still rubbing his temples. But it wasn't really a headache, it was something much more dangerous, another side affect of the explosion at his father's lab all those years ago. Alistair began to think back, memories re-emerged, memories of his father, of the lab and of the tiny breakthroughs they had made. His father had been a chemical weapons designer for the US army years ago. He had been responsible for the success of many SHIELD operations but his weapons had also gained a large death toll, which weighed heavily on the mind of Spencer Smythe.

Yet for all his scientific successes and the death that his weapons had caused, he was almost obsessed with life. He had originally trained as a surgeon but had been led by a friend to the occult, the mystical, magic. He had eventually met the famous Dr Steven Strange who was a man close to his heart. Strange had just returned from watching the Apollo 11 mission take off when he first met him. Strange himself had once been a medical doctor yet had become obsessed with the magical arts. Spencer's favourite "fairy tale" that the Doctor would tell him, was that of the philosophers' stone and it's bearers' immortality. This was the one item that would tear him away from anything he was working on. Rumours about its whereabouts had lost him his job with SHIELD 6 years before his death and during this time of unemployment he had become very depressed. He was out of work and had to return to his tiny lab at the side of his house.

By this time Alistaire has followed in his Father's footsteps gaining acclaim in the field of chemical engineering was ready to help his father in his hunt for the philosophers stone and immortality. There was a rumour that it had been taken to the moon and even if it hadn't, Dr Spencer Smythe would never reach immortality. He destroyed his house, himself, his wife and wheelchair-bound his only son as he accidentally detonated a prototype vaporiser bomb. This was when Alistaire was offered the chance to work here and in his need for a lab to continue his studies, he gladly accepted. He needed to find a cure to his problem and this lab had all the equipment he would need to do it.

Alistaire and Spencer Smythe, after hearing that the philosopher's stone was on the moon, began to think of other routes to immortality. One however was deemed too dangerous after being tested on a tramp as it had severe side affects. They were close to improving upon the serum when the explosion occurred and the serum was destroyed.

"Now where's Stromm?" Dr Stillwell muttered to himself as he searched the room for him.

"Right here, Farley. Shall we begin?" Stromm asked as he worked his way around the operating table from behind Stillwell.

"Yes, I think so. Process began at 10:14." Smythe added before they began their work on the unconscious form of Ex-SHIELD agent Mac Gargan.

"Peter!"

"Uncle Ben?" Peter groaned from his sprawled position in his bed, cover wrapped around him like a straight jacket.

"You must have been really thrashing about last night to end up like that" Ben Parker chuckled as he slipped through the doorway into Peter's room. "What were you dreaming about?"

"There was a black van… and a spider… project arachnid. I was going to get Aunt May her paracetamol and a little spider bit me. I passed out just down the street. I'm sure of it" Peter mumbled trying to make sense of it all.

"No Peter, you went to the shop and bought the paracetamol just as I asked, we watched that cheesy Clint Eastwood movie later remember? Then you went up to bed and pretty much passed out on your bed. I haven't seen you that deeply asleep for a very long time."

Peter struggled to decipher the real memories from the fake ones, but in the end neither made sense. He didn't remember anything after collapsing on the sidewalk last night yet Uncle Ben said that they watched a movie last night and that Aunt May got her paracetamol. He just had to give in to Uncle Ben this time, his head was all over the place and he couldn't concentrate. "Oh yeah Uncle Ben, Dirty Harry wasn't it, with his 44." Peter falsely chuckled hoping that his assumption was right.

"There you go, I knew you'd remember. Must be still half asleep, eh? Well, when your fully awake, make sure you come down and get some breakfast. I think May's doing a fry up this morning." With this Uncle Ben slipped back out of Peter's room leaving him with his thoughts.

He lay back and stared at the ceiling as he tried again to separate the real memories from the false ones but as he watched the ceiling it began to ripple and shake. Peter had to roll over to stop himself throwing up. He'd been staring at the nauseating affect unconsciously for about a minute and really wasn't feeling too well yet as he looked at the ceiling once more, it was perfectly normal. No ripple effect, just the circle pattern that aged to back before he lived here. IMust be my mind playing tricks/I thought Peter as he threw on his dressing gown and meandered groggily down the stairs following the tempting smell of bacon.

"Stromm? How goes Project Arachnid?" asked calmly the bass voice.

"Mac Gargan is adjusting very well to both his increased strength and his extra appendage. The acid solution that Smythe created works remarkably well with my mechanical stinger. Stillwell's serum has made it very easy for him to adjust to the tail, as it is now part of his instinct. Project Arachnid is a huge success sir." Dr Stromm replied through his radio brimming with excitement and confidence.

"And what of Parker?"

"Nothing yet sir. We are beginning to fear that the serum didn't breach his immune system. Quentin Beck is watching over him though and should any change occur you will be notified immediately sir." Stromm replied this time slightly more agitated at the lack of success in this part of the project.

"Make sure it doesn't fail Stromm. You will be held responsible. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir" muttered Stromm weakly.

"Good, now return to your work. Two supers will not be enough," the most powerful man in New York ordered as he looked out once again at his favourite view of the city.