Peter had a smile on his face as he soared through the New York Skyline.
Understandable, considering the started with a unique photoshoot and followed with an explosive private time where he explored MJ's depths once more. She had realized his true identity, but at this point, he wasn't particularly torn on that subject.
No secret lasted forever, and sharing it with a sexy redhead was one of the better ways of handling that. Not to mention, it had some interesting perks, like the fact that it allowed Peter to sneak her back to her room using the window rather than through the door.
Neatly avoiding any question about her ripped clothes and bowlegged walk.
As he swung through the skyline, he had managed to burst a few muggings and a couple more organized operations, though he noticed some worrying movement in some of the larger gangs. However, they didn't make any move that would justify him bursting forward, and Peter made sure not to push too far too quickly to any gang.
He didn't want to suddenly create a gang war by weakening one of the gangs too much.
As he sneaked back to his home, he had to pull his thoughts away from MJ, particularly in the last part of their photoshoot where the redhead showed an incredible passion to 'punish' him, and turned them toward his next task.
His tinkering.
A bored sigh escaped his mouth even as he stepped into his small workshop, his thoughts forcibly turning his thoughts toward some of the villains he had dealt with, and started imagining devices that would have helped his life immensely.
His chemically-enhanced web grenades had proved very useful already against people armed with machine guns, so he wanted to have a larger arsenal.
Like a localized EMP grenade. It wasn't exactly unknown technology, but the problem came from the area of effect, and the fact that he was in a city. He doubted using a weapon that would destroy every electronic device in a several hundred feet radius would help him garner new fans.
In some parts of the city, it might cause millions of dollars of loss by destroying computers, which was nothing compared to the risk of death from malfunctioning cars and elevators.
So, Peter was working on a modified Faraday cage, one that would restrict the EMP blast on its confines. The simplest solution to blocking it was an enclosed metal cage, which would have been enough to stop an actual lightning bolt, let alone a measly EMP.
Physics was cooler than people realized.
Unfortunately, not many villains would allow him to enclose them in a metal dome, and the few that couldn't prevent him from doing so were hardly the kind that required such advanced methods, so Peter was forced to find a more creative way.
Like some kind of electric cage that could be created based on pylons. He already had some progress, as long as he used thirty-six separate pylons to deploy the electronic cage, but that was only slightly more convenient than a full metal cage.
So, he opened his computer, and started working on a simulation to understand the technical requirements for the pylons to reduce the number, ideally to four — which was the smallest number that would allow the creation of three-dimensional space, a pyramid with a triangle base.
However, as time passed and a light started to appear on the horizon, Peter realized he had underestimated the complexity of the problem he was trying to solve. He couldn't help but frown at the hardware limitations he was facing. The computer he had been using was not enough.
Not by a large margin.
Even worse, he couldn't just resolve it by spending some more money, because the limitations that he had been facing were not the kind that could be handled by a consumer-grade computer, not even the most expensive kind.
It required at least a research cluster, and even then, it would take days to solve properly. And, he couldn't just go and purchase that many computers without triggering all the red flags in a government database.
Even just trying to use those computers in his basement was out of the question if he somehow managed to purchase them. Just the electric consumption alone would have triggered the local police, assuming Peter used the house for illegal drug farming.
Creating a company for himself, and maybe selling the patent of the web grenade was an option, but it was one Peter was reluctant to do. Doing so would shout his identity, and while he was more relaxed about that, he wasn't at the point of completely ignoring the implications.
Even if he actually invented something else he could sell without revealing his identity, it didn't change the fact that a company that was set up by a high-school student would generate too much attention, especially if it started to buy military-lab-grade computers.
No, he needed a different methodology.
Then, he remembered another option. Dr. Connors, the man who had invited Peter to his team. Maybe they could actually do something with it. Peter quickly wrote him an email, asking for a meeting the soonest as he was available.
His answer said that he was available for lunch, and the immediate results were useful for Peter as well.
And, he certainly wouldn't have minded another discussion with MJ.
"Do you really think gamma rays could be leveraged in that manner?" Dr. Connors asked even as he started scribbling on a paper, his lunch forgotten.
"I think it's worthwhile to experiment, but it's also very risky," Peter answered, aware that his expression was just as serious. It had been two hours since he visited Dr. Conners' lab, which was just supposed to be a twenty-minute meeting, to explore the possibility of Peter working as a lab assistant for the summer, with the possibility of doing his doctorate directly without an undergraduate degree if the professor could arrange it.
Peter had to admit, it was tempting, and not just because of the amazing character prospects implied by such a move. Doctorate meant a much looser time schedule compared to an undergraduate, which would allow him to work on his superheroic abilities. The fact that he was willing to forgo some of the living grants for the doctorate students in exchange for not dealing with some of the more time-consuming processes like giving lessons sweetened the deal even more for Peter.
However, when Dr. Connors asked another question about using gamma radiation to trigger the abilities of some forced animal DNA grafting, the logistical questions had been abandoned in favor of the scientific possibilities.
Especially since, for Peter, it was not just some kind of curiosity but something more fundamental.
One that linked to his superpowers directly.
"But the impact you suggest doesn't conform with any of the scientific principles of evolution."
"I know, doctor," Peter answered with a frown as he pulled his pen and scribbled. "But I had managed to get the latest paper of Doctor Banner before it was scraped off the web, and his experiments clearly show that Gamma Radiation impacts DNA in a way that doesn't follow classical radiation modeling."
"Really, you have that paper. Even I don't have it, and I checked with everyone I could reach."
Peter nodded. He hadn't been surprised considering the challenge he had gone through for that paper. The government was doing its best to suppress the fate of Dr. Banner, especially since they wanted their best to deny the connection between the doctor and the green monster that destroyed more than one town.
And Peter was sure that the only reason the government went all that trouble was the nature of the link, which no doubt implicated at least a few government officials. Or, considering the effort they put in, maybe more than just a few.
The only reason Peter was able to get was the effort he had put into the subject, creating several nested networks with several crawlers searching just for the keywords related to possible papers Dr. Banner might create.
After all, considering his own abilities, having that paper was more important just to address his curiosity. It was also the reason he was able to easily met Dr. Connors word by word on that topic.
Of course, while Doctor Connors was an intelligent man with years of experience, he lacked one thing Peter had, which allowed Peter to have several insights on the subject that clearly fascinated him.
A steady source of experimentation material. His own blood.
While Peter let himself lost in thoughts, Dr. Connors read the paper he just received, his frown getting bigger and bigger. "That's the paper? Are you sure it's genuine?" he asked, unable to suppress his frown.
"I doubt the government would put all that effort to remove a fake paper from circulation," Peter answered.
"Still, the results…" he murmured. "They are … far-fetched at best."
"That's what I thought at first, but then I run the results of the experiments compared to his earlier papers. The results are certainly revolutionary, but consistent with the earlier results. Not the kind of stuff that could be faked easily."
"There's an easier way of validating," he said as he opened a file. "We can analyze my earlier experimental results based on the prediction model on the paper, and see whether it's as accurate as the paper implies," he said.
"That makes sense," Peter said.
Dr. Connor reached for his keyboard before pausing and pushing the keyboard toward Peter. "Do you want to write the comparison model yourself?"
"Sure, but why?" Peter asked.
"If you can finish the model in less than a week, I'll take it as an admission submission, and use it to gain a doctoral student spot for you before you even graduate high school."
"Really?" Peter said.
"Yes, my research is very important for the college, as success has the potential to bring a lot of grant money. And, since I'm having trouble finding students that could actually support me on the topic, proving your ability to support the research is all I need to push your case."
"Sounds tempting," Peter said with a smirk. "But a week is…"
"We can always extend it if a week is not necessary. Not everyone is very familiar with the more computational side of the sciences, and it's not fair to expect you to code without even going through undergrad."
"Not that," Peter said with a smirk even as his hands danced on the keyboard. "I was just going to say you can finish your lunch while I finish coding it." As he worked, his new supervisor watched him with a shocked gaze, trying his best to capture the code on the screen.
Fifteen minutes later, Peter was the unofficial newest member of Dr. Connors' research team, while the lunch still sat on the desk, untouched.
Notes: Finally another chapter for long-neglected story, and another chapter is already in the works. It was just a connection chapter, but the next chapter is quite a bit more fun...
And as usual pat re on / dirk_grey for my originals.
I hope you enjoy it.