Chapter 29

*alarm clock ringing*

"Uhh…, five more minutes May…," Peter mumbled as he groggily reached for his phone.

As he clumsily grasps around the bedside table, he accidentally knocks his phone down the bedside table & onto the cold, hard, floor.

*crash*

*alarm ringing stopped*

Peter smiled to himself as he snuggles back under his blanket, before immediately shooting up from his bed as the breaking noises registers in his head.

"Oh man…," Peter sighed in frustration as he saw his phone, face down on the floor. He quickly grabs & inspects it for damages, letting out another soft sigh as he sees all the nicks & cracks all over his phone from his actions as Spider-Man.

"Hang in there bud," Peter smiled softly to himself, as he tries to turn the phone on. However, to his dismay, the (cracked) phone screen kept flickering.

"Wha-, No no, no…," Peter mouthed as he tries repeatedly to swipe his phone & access his apps.

Peter lets out a long, defeated, sigh. "Great, just the perfect way to start your day Pete," Peter sighs. "And it's also 7.20-," Peter stopped himself as his panic mode kicks in. "Sh-,"

"…manage, trust me Rio,"

Peter's super hearing helped him pick-up on his Aunt May's voice, as he gets ready to come down from his room.

"I appreciate the concern, but us Parkers always find a way," May lets out a small laugh as she struggles to open the door whilst holding her bag of groceries. "Just, tell McKenzie to put my name in for any double shif-, WHOA," May exclaimed in surprise at the sight of the young boy in front of her. "Peter? Why are you still-,"

Peter winced slightly as he sees his aunt's reactions, already dreading the talking to she was about to give him. "Hey, Aunt May," Peter smiled awkwardly. "How's the most beautiful girl in Queens this morn-"

"Shut it mister, no amount of flattery is saving you young man," she frowned, rolling her eyes in annoyance, before turning back to her phone in distress. "Oh, sorry Rio, I'm gonna have to call you back. And say hi to Jefferson for-,"

"Right, sorry Aunt May, I'm late for work! See you later!" Peter said quickly, as he noticed his aunt being distracted by the phone. He quickly slipped out of the still open door, grabbing a piece of bread from the counter as he does so. "Sworry Antt May, wove you!"

"Wa-, I-, we'll still talk about this later!"

*thwip*

"Woah, sorry, coming through," Peter exclaimed, as he swings across New York towards Oscorp tower.

"Woohoo! We love you Spidey!" a random passer-by called out from below him as he passes by them.

"And I love you too ma-,"

"Nuh-uh, speak for yourself, we hate you Spider-Man," another random voice called out from below.

"What? Shut up man, me & my friends all love th-,"

"Me shut up? You shut up! He's a menace! Vigilantes like him are the cause fo-,"

Peter perched himself on a nearby lamp post as he tries to stop the argument. "Look guys, I really don't think it's that-,"

"Man, you've been listening too much to that Jameson dude," another voice yelled out from the walkway. "Why you listening to that crap anyway?"

"And what's wrong with that?! Maybe if more of you listened to him, we wouldn't have this wall-creeping-,"

"Wall-crawling," Peter mouthed softly under his breath.

"-amateur, swinging around like he owns-,"

*sirens blaring loudly*

Peter's attention immediately turned towards the sound of sirens in the distance. He then quickly lets out a soft sigh as he shakes his head in annoyance. "Come on man, we seriously doing this in the middle of the day," he grumbled to himself. "Well, at least Harry won't be calling me the whole time," he snickered, before launching himself towards the sirens.

"Duty calls!" Peter flashes the arguing crowd a quick salute, before swinging off towards the commotion.

"Thor looks better than you anyway!"

Peter tries his best to flatten his messy hair, and tucks his red-and-blue suit under his T-shirt as he arrives into the lab. He quickly takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, before entering.

*door opening*

As he steps into the lab, everyone's attention quickly turned towards him. "Uhh, m-morning, hehe,"

Harry smacked his head in disbelief, while Liz lets out a small giggle as Peter stood there awkwardly, his goofy grin plastered across his face.

For a moment, Peter locked eyes with Gwen, as his eyes remained glued on her, staring (in awe) at the sight of Gwen in her lab coat.

Gwen quickly turned back towards the experiment at hand, knocking Peter out of his mini-trance.

"Ahh, Mr. Parker, I'm glad to see you're already taking this internship so seriously," Dr. Connors quipped in from across the room, himself standing amongst the three interns, seemingly in the midst of an explanation. "I was beginning to think that you had grafted the ability of the elusive 'chameleon' to yourself, invisible to our naked eye," Dr. Connors continued, smiling warmly as he does so.

Peter winced slightly, understanding the remark. "I'm sorry Dr. Connors, I-I got caught up with something," Peter offered weakly.

"Oh, no worries, Peter, you're only, let's see now, oh yes, an hour late," Dr. Connors continued to smile.

"Curt," a female voice rang out from behind Peter, as she steps into the lab next to him. "Cut the boy some slack, it's only his first day," she smiled warmly as she gives Peter a soft push towards the group. "Besides, if there's one thing all you geniuses share, it's your apparent built-in tardiness," she smirked playfully.

Dr. Connors smiles warmly at the sight of his wife, as he lets out a soft sigh. "I was only trying to scare him a little bit," he shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Wouldn't want this to become a habit, now, would we?"

"N-no sir," Peter quickly remarked, trying his best to look remorseful.

Peter quickly took his place amongst the group, next to a still frowning Harry. As he does so, Peter quickly saw a smiling Liz waving lightly at him.

Peter slowly waved back at the two girls across him (with Gwen seemingly too focused on the explanation at hand to notice him) before Dr. Connors stepped in front of them to continue his explanation.

"Now then, as I was explaining to your fellow students, one of the most common misconceptions about science, is how we scientists are able to work wonders amongst the confines of our lab. How there are breakthrough moments, and 'Eureka!' we have found the cure for cancer," Dr. Connors explained, in a slightly exaggerated fashion. "Now, I can assure you, there are no miracles in science," he turned towards the group, his face stoic & serious.

"Instead, what it is, is hard-work," Dr. Connors took a quick glance at Peter, which Peter replied with an apologetic smile of his own. "…after painstakingly hard-work. A step-by-step procedure, where failure is often your greatest teacher, in your pursuit of proving your hypothesis," he continued, his wife helping him slip on an insulated glove as he does so. "It is a process, upon which we build our knowledge, piece-by-piece, as we progress further & further into newly charted territory,"

Dr. Connors then quickly led the group to a large set of tanks, surrounded by large sets of cables that were connected to what seemed to be a row of electrical filters. "What this essentially means, is that 'Science' is a study of connections, of how one hypothesis connects to another, an understanding, leading to further queries and hypotheses. And there is nowhere where we see these 'connections', more prevalent, than in nature," Dr. Connors shifted the group's attention towards the tanks & the seemingly murky water within it.

"In nature, everything is connected," Mrs. Connors explained to the group whilst leaning with them towards the tank, helping them to see what was inside the tank. "As scientists, we explore & expand upon these connections, to the benefit of society," she smiled warmly, a sudden streak of sleek, gray body flashed across the murky waters, before a small arc of electricity sparked in front of them.

Peter couldn't help but stare in awe at what he was witnessing. His mind quickly raced with questions & possibilities of what he's seeing.

"For today, we thought we'll start you off slowly, with these genetically altered electric rays & eels," Martha beamed towards the group. "Now, who can tell me how does your typical eel generate electricity?"

Peter absent-mindedly raised his hand as his focus remained on the eels & the tank.

"I can see we've piqued your young interests," Martha smiled, as she looks at the 4 sets of hands up in the air. "Mr. Osborn,"

Peter quickly turned towards the others, only to notice that the other 3 had also raised their hand to answer Mrs. Connors question.

Harry fidgeted slightly, seemingly surprised at actually being picked, before clearing his throat to answer. "Electrocytes, ma'am," Harry offered, slightly hesitating for a moment as he does so. "They produce their electricity through a specialized electric organ. Namely, the Main organ, Hunter's organ and the Sach's organ," Harry continued.

For a moment, a look of genuine surprise slipped onto Martha's face, before she quickly recovered, and smiled happily at Harry, seemingly impressed by his knowledge. "I see," Martha nodded her head solemnly, eyeing Harry to signal him to go on further with his explanation.

"Oh, uhh, okay," Harry rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Within these organs, we have electrocytes, which are a kind of modified muscle cells. These are usually arranged in stacked columns, with multiple columns parallel to each other with fluid-filled spaces between them," Harry continued with his explanation. "So, um, these electrocytes have two sides, a posterior side with the motor neuron, and an anterior side. They also have the membrane that has many tiny protein channels that selectively allow sodium and potassium ions to flow into and out of the cell,"

"The motor neuron, sends a signal, which causes the ion channels on the posterior side to pump the sodium and potassium ions into the cell, while the anterior side continues to pump the positive ions out of the cell." Harry continued, as Mr. & Mrs. Connors continue to keep their silence in favor of his explanation. "So, um, this then creates a dipole, which allows the fish to generate the electricity,"

"Bravo, Mr. Osborn," Dr. Connors beamed widely from atop the tank. "I'd give you a standing ovation, but alas," he joked, motioning playfully towards his missing arms. "I see your father's insistence to include you in this group was more than well-founded. It seems the 'Apple' truly 'does not fall far from the tree'. Very, very good, Mr. Osborn,"

Harry started blushing slightly as he rubbed his head in embarrassment.

Peter couldn't help but smile proudly at the acknowledgement for his best friend. He quickly gave Harry a slight nudge with his elbow, and flashed him a smirk.

Liz quickly gave them a quick round of applause, beaming excitedly as she does so (which caused Harry to further flush in embarrassment)

"Now then, I would like you each to think about what that would mean, if we are able to harness this bio-electricity, generate an alternate form of energy, a new, clean source of power," Dr. Connors addressed the group. "But of course, as I am sure each of you, brilliant young minds are aware, eels only produce momentary pulses of high-voltage electricity. The problem with bioelectricity is persuading the fish to switch on and off when you want it to," Dr. Connors smiled warmly at them.

"These eels have been genetically altered, removing the need for the motor neuron signal to prompt the ion transfer process," Dr. Connors continued, as he casually reached into the set of tanks using a hook-like set of rods, and then taking out one of the eels, crackling with energy, for the group to see.

"Now, as I'm sure you have been curious about the murky water within the tank, would any of you like to venture a guess, as to what it actually is?" Dr. Connors asked the group, turning towards them with the eel in hand.

The group hesitated for a moment, before Gwen raised her hand.

"Gwendolyn,"

"Um, I suspect it's some kind of solution or sludge that is high in Sodium & Potassium saturation," Gwen offered. "Maybe some kind of catalyst to preempt the protein channels?"

"Brilliant, simply brilliant," Dr. Connors looked at Gwen with a proud smile.

"It is exactly as Ms. Stacy here surmised. The 'sludge' increases the eel's bioelectric signatures, allowing a further increase in its ability to generate electricity," Dr. Connors explained as he placed the eel back into the tank. "In fact, these signatures, have become so intense, we've been forced to upgrade the lab's bioelectrical filters,"

"Uhh, we've been forced?" another scientist smiled jokingly at Dr. Connors, wrench in hand, as he leans on one of the frames for the bioelectrical filter.

Dr. Connors continues to smile at the sight of the middle-aged scientist. "And this here, is the mad scientist-cum-engineer behind the eels," Dr. Connors introduced the man, as he steps down from atop the tank. "Mr. Maxwell Dillon,"

Max waved at the group of four absent-mindedly. "We've met already, remember? Me & Ohnn acted as a tour guide for these kids,"

"Ahh, of course," Dr. Connors nodded softly. "Anyway, Max here is currently in the midst of upgrading the bioelectrical filters to withstand the increased output of th-,"

*phone ringing*

The sudden ringing of his phone stopped Dr. Connors mid-sentence. As he reaches for his phone & looks at the caller ID, his constant smile slowly turned into an annoyed frown.

"Norman?" Mr. Dillon asked, seeing the small frown on his colleague's face.

"No, it's Ratha," Dr. Connors sighed. "I've told him, not to contact me on my personal phone," he grumbled, before leaving the phone ringing for a few seconds until it stops. He then quickly took out another phone from his pockets and dialed in a number.

"Martha, can you take them ove-," Dr. Connors continued before stopping when his call was answered. "Yes, Dr. Ratha, how can I help you?"

"Now then, come along," Mrs. Connors quickly gestured for the group to follow her & Max. "We'll leave the boring world of office politics to Dr. Connors there, eh?"

"And instead, listen to 'Dr. Connors' for an explanation on the wonderful world of transgenics!" Max said in a slightly exaggerated tone, seemingly joking at the expense of Dr. & Dr. Connors.

"Exac-," Martha started, before catching herself. "That was a joke huh?" she said as she turned towards Max, her annoyance plastered all over her face.

"Haha, what? I'm sorry, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up," Dr. Dillon shrugged his shoulder dismissively. "Still, got to hand it to Curt, the guy can be pretty damn insistent when he wants to be," he smirked, letting out a soft whistle of appreciation as he does so.

"Hmm, yes, Curt can be quite stubborn about the most trivial of things," Martha nodded solemnly, a small smile creeping onto her face as she does so.

"Yeah, well, that makes two of them," Max smirked as he turned towards Dr. Connors who was still on the phone. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised that Ratha's doing this on purpose just to annoy him," he chuckled slightly.

"Do you mean the phone thing?" Liz quipped in.

Martha looked at her, slightly surprised by her sudden comment. "Yes, Ms. Allan, that is correct," Martha smiled warmly at the group. "Curtis, has been pretty insistent on separating the use of his personal phone, and work phone from each other. Especially since Billy was born," Martha lets out a soft chuckle. "He says its part of his, 'make more time for family' thing he's been working on. Though I can't say I don't like it," she smirked.

"Huh, that's super sweet Mrs. Connors," Liz nodded. "Most guys I know only have two numbers coz they have a side chick," Liz said off-handedly, before catching herself. "N-not that I'm saying that's what Dr. Co-,"

Martha lets out another small giggle as she sees Liz's antics. "Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that," she smiled cheekily at the group. "It's one of the perks of marrying a nerd, see?" she winked playfully at the group, before leading the group away towards their next destination.

"Dude, where the hell were you?" Harry asked incredulously as they walked out of the labs, and headed towards the cafeteria. "I tried calling you, like, 17 times!"

Peter winced slightly, feeling slightly guilty under the glare of his best friend. "Well, I uh, broke my phone," Peter smiled sheepishly, taking out his cracked phone & showing it off to Harry. "Tada,"

Harry opened, and closed his mouth repeatedly, his eyes flitting between Peter's sheepish smile & the piece if disaster-stricken metal that Peter calls a phone.

"Again? I-I don't even know what to say to that," Harry shook his head in disbelief.

Peter quickly placed a hand across Harry's shoulder. "I do. Repeat after me. I forgive you Pete, and you're the bestest, most coolest friend ever-est," he joked.

Liz lets out a small giggle as the girls walked beside them. She then took a quick glance at the flickering phone in their hands.

"Wow, Pete. At this point, I think you're better off just buying a new phone," Liz remarked.

Peter rubbed his head, smiling sheepishly at the girls. "Uhm, nahh, she's still good for a few more rounds," Peter smiled warmly as he looks to his phone. "I'll just drop by the thrift shop later, see if they've got some spare LCD lying around,"

"Huh? You're gonna try to repair that?" Liz looked on in surprise.

"Ehh, I've dealt with worse," Peter shrugged slightly. "Besides, no point wasting a perfectly good-,"

"It's broken though," Gwen quipped.

Peter opened, and closed his mouth repeatedly for a moment as he tries to find the right words.

"Weeellll…, I-it's damaged," he winced. "Slightly?"

"Very," Gwen replied.

"Whatt? No way,"

"Pete, you could barely touch the screen without touching a crack,"

"That's harsh,"

"No, that's putting it nicely,"

"You & I have very different definitions of nice,"

"You & I have very different definitions of 'slightly',"

"Technically,"

"Technically?"

"From a certain point of view,"

"Are you seriously pulling an Obi-Wan on me right now?"

"What the hell are you two talking about right now?" Harry raised his eyebrow in confusion, as he stares at the pair.

"So, we haven't actually had the chance to talk, but what are you guys doing here anyway?" Liz asked, taking a small bite off of her tray of food.

"Hmm?" Harry looked up, slightly surprised by Liz's question. "Oh, well… my dad suddenly told me a few days ago that his lab was offering up a few internship positions for high-schoolers. Says, it'll be good for early exposure, or something like that," Harry explained whilst also taking a bite from his lunch. "I told him I wasn't really interested, but if you know Norman Osborn, you'll know he never takes no for an answer," Harry sighed, smiling bitterly towards the ground.

"Next thing I know, he's already placed me & Peter into this program," Harry shook his head slowly.

"Wow, how utterly unexpected," Liz opened her mouth in (exaggerated?) awe. "Would you look at that Gwen? That was utterly unplanned, almost purely coincidental, isn't it?"

Peter's eyes flitted between Liz & Gwen, as the girls seemingly have an unspoken discussion amongst themselves.

"Wow, how totally random. Only a madman would be insane enough to think of the possibility of something like that happening, almost even spelling the exact scenario before it even happened," Gwen replied in an almost equally exaggerated manner.

Peter turned towards Harry in confusion, only for Harry to stare back at him in an equally flabbergasted manner.

"Oookaaayyy, I'm-We're, just going to go ahead and ignore all that," Harry gestured towards the pair of girls in general. "But anyway, now that we're here, I've got to say, I'm liking Dr. & Dr. Connors so far," Harry smirked.

"Right? Even if it sounds like some batshit, Mad Scientist, stuff, I'm totally into 'transgenics' now," Liz grinned happily.

"Right, you missed out that part coz you missed the first hour. Well, transgenics is basically the process or, study of the alteration of an organism or a cell's genome through the introduction of foreign DNA sequences," Harry explained as he turned towards Peter.

"I know what 'transgenics' is Harry," Peter grinned at his friend, slightly amused at Harry's attempt of an explanation.

"Shut up Parker, no one likes a know-it-all," Harry frowned as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"What? I'm just saying, I'm aware that that's what Dr. Connors is specialized in," Peter grinned.

"Kinda like that Zebrafish thing you & Gwen talked about a few days ago," Liz offered.

"Huh, yeah, I guess so," Gwen nodded solemnly.

"Huh, I wonder what would happen once this thing takes off," Harry mused. "Do we get to have like, a cheetah's superspeed? Or like breathe underwater, maybe?"

"Ooh, maybe graft like, a spider, and then get like spider powers, like shooting webs-,"

Peter (and Gwen) nearly choked on their food as they listened to Harry's musing.

"Woah, talk about being in sync," Harry joked playfully as he sees Peter & Gwen coughed repeatedly.

"You okay Gwen?" Liz asked, slightly concerned, as she looked at Peter & Gwen with concern. For a moment, she eyed Peter curiously, before their eyes met. Liz quickly turned away, blushing slightly as she does so.

"Peachy," Gwen smiled, doing her best to assure her friends.

"N-never better," Peter smiled awkwardly as he tries to calm himself down after the fear of getting caught.

"Huh…, okaaay," Liz nodded solemnly, her eyes still warily lingering on the pair.

"Anyway, speaking about spiders, did you guys see the news recently?" Harry said casually. "Apparently, there's a new spider hero in town. And apparently it's a she,"

"Oooh, a friendly neighborhood Spider-Woman?" Liz joked.

Peter immediately perked up at the mention of the new heroine. In his mind, he's certain that they're currently referring to the mysterious new web-slinger that he's been hanging out with over the past few weeks.

"O-oh really?" Gwen suddenly muttered softly. "Like a female Spider-Man, l-like a Spider-Woman? That sounds pretty cool, huh?" she fidgeted in her seat.

Liz frowned in confusion at Gwen's words. "That's literally what I just said,"

"Huh, sounds like she'll be a great hero," Peter tried saying casually, as another of his awkward smiles forms across his face.

"Really? You think so?" Gwen suddenly bit her lips (very prettily) as she looks towards Peter, almost for confirmation.

"Well, from what I've heard, she's more like a sidekick," Harry said off-handedly as he scrolls through his phone. "Apparently she's a bit rough around the edges, but people seem to like her,"

"Right, right, cool cool cool," Gwen nodded absent-mindedly. "What do you mean she's a sidekick?"

Harry raised his eyebrow, slightly taken aback by the intense glare that Gwen was giving him. "Umm, I-I'm sure she's a more than capable hero. B-but, the reports kinda say that she's mostly seen tagging along Spidey,"

"W-well, that's because she's new right?" Gwen said.

Harry looked at Peter for support, to which Peter just raised his shoulder in confusion, slightly unsure of the situation.

"Y-yeah, that's probably it," Harry nodded along quickly.

"I mean, she can take on the criminals by herself, right? She's just tagging along with him, coz they're like, partners," Gwen continued, before stopping herself when she realized the attention she was getting from her friends. "P-probably, right?"

"Uhm, y-yeah, that sounds about right," Peter nodded along, smiling awkwardly as he does so. "They're probably partners anyway,"

"Well, one thing's for sure, I am loving her threads," Liz whistled in appreciation as she scrolls through a screenshot of Ghost-Spider next to the comically dressed 'Bodega Bandit'. "Don't know about you, but that black & white? And the cyan webbing pattern? On those magenta accents? That's super sick,"

"Yeah, she definitely looks pretty cool," Peter nodded, smiling to himself.

"Right? The design is super cool right?" Gwen said, slightly excited.

"Yeah, it's definitely better than the tacky red & blue suit Spider-Man's wearing," Harry smirked to himself.

"Oh yeah," Liz lets out a small giggle as she nods in agreement.

"Yea-, wait what?" Peter stopped himself for a moment. "Spider-Man's costume is tacky?"

"Uhh, yeah? It's super tacky," Harry smirked, proud at himself.

"Wha-Why-What's wrong with a red & blue costume?" Peter asked.

"Pfft? Seriously?" Harry raised his eyebrow. "Nothing…, if you're from the 60s," Harry laughed.

"What?!"

"Well, I mean, we have to give him some props," Liz grinned as she turned towards the two boys. "It takes a certain kind of bravery to have the guts to wear that in public,"

"Or stupidity," Harry joked.

As the two continued laughing at Spider-Man's expense, Peter quickly turned towards Gwen, looking questioningly at her.

"Huh?" Gwen seemed slightly taken aback by the look Peter is giving her. "W-well, I think it's ok. I kinda like it," Gwen smiled. "It's a 'classic',"

"Thank-,"

"Or in other words, old-fashioned! Hahaha!" Harry exclaimed as he laughed out loud.