Chapter Two

It was Friday afternoon when Sean was working in the lab at Oscorp.

Nothing interesting came out of his and the spider's DNA sequencing, nothing that a simple screening would pick up at least. As far as physical testing did on the other hand, Sean could easily lift a car, had superhuman-like reflexes and for Pete's sake he could stick to walls and things in general.

Sean had taken some of his old hair strands from his brush at home, going through the same tiring procedure to extract his DNA while sweating buckets and praying none surprised him using cutting edge tech and Oscorp's money for personal use. Without a control Sean couldn't pinpoint the finer changes in his genome, however.

There was some overlap between the spider's and Sean's DNA in loci concerning the TCA cycle and mitochondria but it didn't explain such large changes, at least in Sean's opinion.

"Anything new regarding that spider?" Sean jumped up, finding Connors looking at the DNA sequence.

"That's rather interesting. I didn't notice those gene clusters at first."

"Oh? What do you think of these?" Sean switched to the spider's genome, smoothly closing the window to his own DNA on the computer.

Spilling bullshit and questions about the arachnid biology did the trick and soon the professor had lost interest, excusing himself to go and grade some papers.

Sean spent another hour skimming through gene clusters after the sequencer spat out data about his DNA before the spider bit him. On a general level he had some different introns and miRNA, and major changes in some mitochondrial genes compared to the average human. Too bad he didn't have data about his previous transcription patterns. When Connors left and the janitor dropped by to swipe the floor, Sean was still going around the lab.

His phone rang. It was Timmy Jackson.

"Hey Tim, what's up?"

"Hey Sean! Tomorrow night, I'm in. I talked Nate, and he's coming too. Didn't take you as one for nightclubs."

Sean sighed, "What are you talking about?"

"You, me and Nate plus Joe and your brother's friends. 50/50. I'm all for loud music, DJs and chicks."

"Don't get me started. Alex has bothered me all week to go with him. One of his friends has something of a crush on me. F*ckin' teenage hormones."

"What are you talking about, man!" Timmy said with his joking voice, "You've got girls throwing themselves at you and never bat an eye. I heard the English Literature girl, Felicia Hardy, often goes there. Damn, do you think we'll see her?."

"Don't know, don't care. Not much at least."

Sean by reflex looked at his wallet with just twenty bucks in it. "I don't have time for girls. Nor money."

On the way home he stopped at Simon's tech shop to fix computers and other devices for a price.

Simon Diaz was a good man who put up with his frequent tardiness. When the tall young man arrived at his shop, his mouth twitched upwards for a second.

"You have the keys, I left your pay in the usual place. There are a dozen laptops, cell phones and other stuff for you in the back."

Sean smiled at his boss thanking him before going in.

"Remember to close the door when you leave," Simon said as he donned his coat and left.

Diaz's Tech and Appliances, or simply Simon's in the hood, was a small shop south of Hell's Kitchen. By its appearance one would expect a Chinese guy behind the counter, with glasses and fiddling with a PC and a screwdriver with half his family working in the back. Such Chinese family was Sean in this case, who worked till late at night to fix Simon's leftovers from the day. Sean took his place in front of his worktable, turning on laptops, troubleshooting problems and cleaning viruses in most cases. There were few cases in which he had to look at the motherboard, but nothing that he couldn't do.

Linkin Park blasted from his earphones until he noticed it was nine o'clock and he got. He swore looking at his phone, closed his laptop, put his tools in order and donned his coat to ward off the cold.

The neat roll of a hundred and fifty bucks felt nice in his jacket as he came out in New York's chilly spring night. Few people were around at that hour and Sean was cold and hungry beyond belief.

Walking towards the subway he glanced at a stunning red-head ahead of him. She had a green and thick jacket a slim figure.

Three thugs were prowling the street after her before they tackled her to a side alley. Sean didn't think twice and broke into a run after them.

The low-lives were threatening the girl with a knife and Sean didn't bother warning them, taking a swing at the one with the knife. He wrestled him off the girl and punched him hard and the chin, knocking him out cold. The other two had by then taken notice of him and showed their butterfly knives in his face.

Sean's head buzzed well before one of them, a white dude with a smashed-in nose, lunged at him.

An MMA fighter wasn't trained against weapons, but he could keep his cool without a hitch. He knew he was superior in terms of strength, agility and reflexes, superhumanly so to boot. He grabbed the thug number one's arm and twisted it until the dude had to let go off his weapon in pain. It was strange, dialing down his strength. He threw him to his other accomplice who was just watching confused in the background.

"Go," Sean said to the girl, who didn't think twice. The remaining two guys didn't last long, knife or no knife.

Sean knocked them out cold in a moment. Seeing the three of them down, Sean swatted down and fumbled with their coats. He took out three wallets and the money inside, a good two hundred bucks.

"That's not something good," a voice came behind him. It was the red-head.

She was stunningly beautiful, with bright green eyes Sean could make out even in the mild light of the street.

"I need that money," said Sean defensively. There was some struggle in him between stealing the few banknotes from criminals and stay poorer, yet with a clear conscience. The girl noticed as if it was written all over his face. Whatever she might have said stayed with her.

"We should go," said Sean before he tucked the bills in his pocket and escorted the girl to the subway.

When he came home his mother had already returned and he found her sleeping in front of the TV underneath a blanket.

"Hey mom," he whispered.

Her eyes ushered open and her lips turned upwards.

"Hey . . . how was it today? Is Simon alright? He was worried for you when you didn't turn up back on Thursday."

A nice three hundred and fifty dollars rested in front of her.

"Very good mom. There's a whole lot of people that bring Mr. Diaz their stuff without even trying to fix it. Got a little tangled up, there was more than usual, but also more money."

"That's good. Alex was telling me you two are going out tomorrow," she said, taking out a good seventy bucks from the stack, which might have been one of the thug's money, handing it back to Sean.

"Use it responsibly, and don't come home too late. It goes without saying you have to look after your brother," her face was now sterner, "don't make him drink one drop. I had to give him a scold."

"What for?"

Jessica sat on the couch and rubbing her eyes with a yawn.

"Says he wants a job, a new phone like his schoolmates. You know, usual teenager shite. I just want him to finish school and go to university, like my big boy here," she said standing up and throwing a jab at Sean's shoulder.

Jessica was one of those mother who would move heaven and earth for her children, the only family she got left. Things weren't going her way, however: rent and bills didn't come cheap when you have a son at university, without mentioning two. On the other hand, Sean had long come face to face with his house's economics, especially with the fact they didn't look good. Now, taking that money from wannabe-rapists didn't feel half as bad.

"One shot. Vodka," he told the girl behind the bar, leaning close to her ear while the song's drop made his whole body thump with the bass. The bartender was baffled for a bit, yet she complied, filling the glass with nearly two inches of alcohol. The customer is always right. Sean downed it in one gulp and went in search of his friends.

One hour before he had met up with Joe and his university friends, Timothy Jackson and Nathan Green. Alex brought about his mates, spearheaded with the exuberant Liz Allan who was dressed to kill in a top and short skirt. Sean had to say, she was smoking hot and had he been three years younger he would have gone for her for sure. The seventeen-year-old blonde was tall with blue eyes that most would kill for.

Together with her there were a couple of friends and the famed Eugene Flash Thompson, Midtown High hotshot as Alex told him. Sean recognized a couple of them, including Peter Parker and his blonde classmate.

"Hey, hello there," said Timmy as he introduced himself to the girls first.

Flash's mouth slammed open when he saw Sean.

"Dude, you didn't tell me your brother was the rage on the internet these days! I saw him took out a dude in a gym, a friend of mine passed me the video on Facebook."

Sean shot a glance at Joe, who had gone forward.

"Hey man, I took that video."

The boys in the company looked at Sean with new eyes after seeing the video of him taking Rodriguez out on Flash's phone. Sean was the sh*t in their eyes.

Liz and her red-head friend took a very good look at the video, too.

"So jacked, damn . . ." said the bombshell biting her lower lip.

Brushing off the comments and admiration, Sean turned to Thompson.

"Alex says you have a guy to let you in, right. Don't want any trouble with the bouncers. And you," he turned to his brother, his index finger right under Alex's nose, " .drink. Am I clear?"

There he was an hour later and one vodka shot heavier, navigating the dancing floor to reach where his group was at. Being one of the tallest guys in the club was a cheat in itself, making his job way easier in the midst of raised and waving hands.

He found Flash hitting on one of Liz's friends near the seats they had, without much success. The night was going well, he guessed. It was a rather pointless waste of his time with music he didn't like and people he barely knew (or wanted to know), but it was going well.

Taking a page from Flash's book, Timmy was making sheep's eyes at Liz, with the same results.

A hand poked at Sean's shoulder, making him turn only to find the red-head from the night before smiling with two drinks in her hands.

"Fancy seeing you here, Mr. Savior," she shouted to make herself heard, while she offered him one of the drinks "here you go. After what you did for me, this is the least I can do. A Cosmopolitan."

Seeing her here was a surprise, but a welcome one, like meeting an old friend in the street by chance.

"That's my favorite drink, how did you know?" he asked.

"A trade secret. The name is Jean, by the way."

"Sean."

She was just 'passing by' in New York, without saying if it was for a job or education. They took up a corner for themselves in the club, not far from Sean's friends so he could check up on his brother on occasion. Sean sipped his drink slowly, listening to Jean telling him the story of her nineteen-year-old life. She went to school north of New York, at Salem, under the renowned Charles Xavier.

"I know him," quipped Sean, "he's a great geneticist, specializing in mutant biology."

"How do you know?" she exclaimed.

"Well, I'm something of a scientist myself. I'm studying at ESU, major in Molecular Biology, you know. I've read a couple of his articles. Very well done. What is he doing now?"

Jean deflected his question, saying the Professor was just going forward with his research.

It was around this time that Liz appeared behind Sean, grabbing one of his arms and hugging it as if her life depended on it.

"What are you doing here, darling?" her breath smelled of alcohol.

"Let's go dance," she added, tugging with all her weight. Sean didn't bulge, however, and looked around for Timmy or anybody. The damn girl had her way of wasting his good vibes with Jean.

"One of your friends, Sean?" asked the red-head.

"Yeah, one that shouldn't drink. Thinking of it, how did you get the drinks? You're nineteen, aren't you?"

Jean smirked like child after being caught red-handed.

"Trade secret. Yet again."

"Same one as before?"

Sean took the chance to bring Liz back at their place, where Alex and the rest were, telling them to look after her. Nate didn't hide his appreciation when looking at Jean, throwing a knowing gaze at his friend.

"I can take it from here," he told Sean to his ear, "just make the best of tonight. I'll see Alex back home."

It was a green light for Sean. Jean brought Sean in the crowd, where their two bodies got more than friendly with each other. Sean's hands reached lower with Jean tacit permission and it wasn't long before they were kissing heatedly in a bathroom.

"Let's go to my place," she said, and that was enough to know how the night would turn out.