The scene before them was unlike anything Peter had ever seen. The room had a single bed which seemed to have been moved haphazardly to the centre in a hurry. There was a man splayed out on the bed, though he appeared to be unconscious.
Streaming down from the sides of the bed were four mechanical tentacles, two from either side of the scientist's waist. They stretched an impressive distance, each arm nearly reaching the wall in the direction it was pointing.
The extra limbs ended in four triangular claws that closed to a single point, obviously for gripping things. The joints bore similarities to a human's fingers, though they were much broader, likely to provide greater grip strength.
"Great Scott!" Utonium struggled to form the words to describe the scene in front of him. "I knew he used mechanical arms for his work, but I didn't know they were… like this."
The feeling at the base of Peter's skull returned once more, though it wasn't the same tingle warning him of danger as before. This time, it was a low hum. It felt like it just wanted him to be careful.
"I don't like this," Poochie offered, speaking up from Ken's arms. "It's not Z-Rays, but it's definitely not good. He smells… dangerous."
"This is concerning. There's nothing we can do to help him while he's here in the hospital, so let's just hope he doesn't cause any trouble."
The mechanical arms shuddered, clicking with each minute movement. The scientist's body shifted as he seemingly regained awareness. His eyes darted around the room as soon as they opened, trying to get an idea of where he was and what had happened.
"Utonium?" Octavius' eyes fixated on the professor. He lifted his neck as if he were trying to sit up, but was completely unable to. "What the hell happened?" His head fell back onto his pillow, facing back up towards the ceiling.
"Otto, you were in an accident in your lab." The professor attempted to keep the injured man calm. The last thing he wanted was for him to turn into a new villain for the girls to deal with in an emotional rampage.
"Why are my arms here?" Octavius spun his head left and right, analysing the situation and building his understanding of what had happened.
"I think we should call a nurse." Utonium stepped forward and pressed the nurse call button. It buzzed briefly, acknowledging the input and indicated a nurse would be on their way here soon.
"Are they… stuck to me?" The arms began to snake their way back towards the bed, pulling back the sheets one by one. He was wearing two separate hospital gowns, one for his upper body and one for his lower body. Between them sat a round metallic device that seemed to be seamlessly grafted to his skin.
"Just stay calm, Otto. Everything will be fine." Utonium attempted to keep his old colleague composed, though his efforts seemed to be in vain. Octavius had managed to lift his hands and was now attempting to wedge them under the metallic layer to remove it.
"What happened?! How could this happen?!" His mechanical arms started to writhe, almost as if in agony, as the man struggled with the device.
"Calm down!" Utonium dashed over to Otto's bedside, forcing his shoulders back down onto the bed and holding him still. "Just stay calm. We'll figure everything out. Just stay with me."
It had hardly been minutes since he had awoken and the man had already displayed tendencies similar to those who had been hit by black Z-Rays in the past. Though to be fair, a lot of people would probably be surprised to wake up with four extra limbs.
The professor's forced intervention seemed to have helped. The mechanical arms had returned to being still and Octavius' breathing seemed to be steadying.
"Sorry about that. I'm not sure what came over me." The doctor closed his eyes once more, trying to help himself calm down. When they opened once more, he gazed at the others in the room. "I've met Ken before, but who are the other three?"
It was a good way to distract him from his predicament, so Utonium answered instantly.
"The boy next to Ken is Peter. He's my new intern, starting today, actually. The girls are Miyako, next to Peter, and Momoko on the right. They help out at the lab occasionally."
Each person gave a small wave as they were introduced, helping the doctor to put faces to the names.
Before long, the door opened behind them, causing the group of visitors to have to split up to allow the nurse into the room. She was a tall brunette with long hair tied back in a bun.
"Otto, you're awake! How are you feeling?" The nurse was chipper and friendly. She spoke in a tone that no person on Earth could feel threatened or patronised by.
"On a scale of 10, my pain is an 8." He shifted to be in a more upright sitting position, wincing and groaning as he did so. "No. A 9."
"I'm sorry to hear that. We'll prescribe you painkillers as soon as we can, but first we have to go through some tests." The nurse flipped a page up on her clipboard before turning to Utonium and his friends. "Trust me, Otto is in good hands. You can go home now."
"Thank you." Utonium took one last look at his friend before turning back towards the door. "You'll be fine, Octavius. Trust me."
As the group headed for the exit, Peter noticed Utonium placing a small device in a place where it would be unlikely to be found. He pressed a button on the device to start it up before continuing out of the room.
"My… Z-Sense wasn't too jazzed about being in the same room as that guy. He's dangerous." Peter couldn't hold his thoughts to himself as they made their way towards the elevator. "We need to keep an eye on him or something."
"I agree. I've already installed a hidden camera there to monitor for any dangerous behaviour." The professor seemed downtrodden. "Octavius was a good man. It's sad to see him affected this way."
"Those octopus arms were so creepy!" Momoko complained, folding her arms. "Why didn't anyone warn me about them?"
"The mayor did. He just didn't say they looked like that." Miyako corrected her fellow Powerpuff, though it did little to improve Momoko's mood.
"I just don't know what to say. Those arms are impressive pieces of technology." Ken was focused more on the technical aspect of the arms rather than their aesthetic side. "They seem very versatile. I'm not surprised he uses them for all his experiments."
"That's not all, it looks like he can control them with his mind now. Perhaps that's the major change the Chemical X made on him?" Utonium pressed the elevator call button, then brought his hand up to his chin. "I wish we could take him back to the lab to find out more."
"You wanna bring that guy to the lab?" Momoko stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor.
"If we can help him, then yes. By the way, you should be on high alert in case something happens with Otto."
"We will be. I just hope there's something we can do to help him." Miyako seemed a little less optimistic than she had before.
"But you haven't researched Chemical X in years, right? Wouldn't that make it difficult to help him?" Peter did want to help the guy, but he didn't want them to be regretting not doing things they couldn't even do if they tried. "Isn't the best person to figure out what's happened to him… himself?"
"You're right. When his condition is stable, we'll bring him to the lab and try to figure it out with his help." Utonium's plan had been made. If nothing prevented it, they would execute the plan as soon as Otto is discharged from the hospital. Though, considering his unique situation, that might take a while.
"So what now?" Peter asked as they stepped out of the elevator.
"The Sun's already starting to set, so you should all head home. I'll drive you home in the van." The group left the building and approached the strange vehicle. Ken called shotgun once more, so Peter was resigned to sitting in the back.
"I've gotta ask, what's with the restraining bed?" He settled into his seat, facing towards the strange addition.
"Well, we mainly used it for when we needed to bring someone infected by black Z-Rays back to the lab. Though nowadays the girls just fly them here, so it hasn't been used in a while."
"I still can't believe you strapped me to it when I first got my powers!" Momoko exclaimed, though she didn't seem too emotionally invested. It seemed like she was doing it mostly to have something to say.
"To be fair, we weren't sure what you were capable of back then," Ken replied, trying to appease the girl. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you could've broken the straps if you tried."
"Hm." Momoko seemed too stubborn to withdraw her complaint.
"Hold on, isn't that basically kidnapping?" Peter asked, becoming slightly concerned about the scenario surrounding the Powerpuff Girls Z getting their powers.
"Of course not!" The professor defended himself, regardless of how bad the situation made him sound. "It was more like we were acting as an ambulance. We were worried about what the white Z-Rays could do to them."
The van pulled up at a large eastern mansion. Miyako opened the back door and stepped out.
"Thanks for the ride, professor!" She called back, waving her hand above her head. She shut the door and headed into the courtyard of the large property.
"That's one hell of a place to live," Peter commented, almost wishing he had the same wealth.
"Miyako lives with her grandmother. It might seem like a nice house, but she has to spend most of her time cleaning it." Momoko seemed to have some more insight into the blonde's life, deciding to share it with him.
"Sounds rough." Peter wasn't exactly great at keeping his room clean, let alone a whole mansion. Then something occurred to him. "Hey, can't you fly? Why didn't you just head home on your own?"
"That's rude. What, you don't want me here?" Momoko frowned, turning to face Peter.
"That's not what I meant! I was just curious, sorry."
"Alright. If you really want to know, it wears me out to transform multiple times in one day. It's easier to just be driven."
"Oh. Fair enough, I suppose." Peter couldn't exactly complain about getting the explanation he asked for, even if it was a little mundane.
"This is my place," Momoko mentioned as the van came to a stop. "I'll see you at the lab tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, I'll be there. Why?"
"No reason. I'll see you around… Petey." And with that, she shut the door on him. He could hear giggling from the other side, like she'd pulled the joke of the century on him.
"Don't call me that!" He called through the aluminium shell of the van, which only compounded her giggling into full-blown laughter. "The heck?"
"Ignore her, she gets like that when she's had too much candy." Ken explained the situation to him.
"That's… Has a doctor checked that out? I'm pretty sure getting hyper on sugar is a myth."
"Maybe for normal people, but that's Hyper Blossom we're talking about." Utonium chucked, jumping into the conversation once more.
"So what's first on the agenda tomorrow?" Peter asked, curious about what his internship would entail. "Or do you guys not work Saturdays?"
"We're working every day. We have to, with how frequently we get interrupted by someone attacking the city. Like today when you arrived, Fuzzy Lumpkins was trying to kidnap Ms. Bellum. You'd think he'd be over her by now."
"At least he's devoted," Ken supposed. "But you don't have to come in every day unless you want to. We only do it because we love research."
"And I guess it must be hard to ignore work when you live in the building you work in." Peter figured, connecting a few dots. "I'll probably come around most days. If you ever need me, just call and I'll be there."
"That sounds perfect." Utonium commented as Peter gave him directions to his place. "And don't worry, we won't call you in every time we have to send out the girls."
"Here's the place," Peter unknowingly diverted the conversation. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"We're looking forward to it!" Ken called as Peter exited the back of the van. He shut the doors with very slight effort, but they still made quite a loud slam when they shut.
Here he was, the place he's been calling home the whole time he's been in New Tokyo. It wasn't much, just a small rental property a skip and a hop away from the lab and school. His Aunt's work wasn't far, either, which Peter was sure she was happy about.
He slid his key into the lock cylinder, turning it to allow him entry into the hallway.
"Aunt May? Are you here?" It was pretty late, after all. Pushing seven in the evening, the sun had set around a half hour ago.
The house remained silent, so it seemed that he was alone in the building. May must've been clocking a few extra overtime hours at the cafe. She worked herself too hard trying to make Peter's life easy. Her body wouldn't be able to keep up with her for much longer.
That's why he'd been interested in the internship position when Ken had first mentioned it. Even if it was fairly meagre pay, it would be better than nothing. And he'd be getting paid to help with scientific research! It was the ideal job for a high-school science nerd.
Peter decided to fix himself a quick snack from what he could find in the pantry. While he did so, his mind wandered to the Powerpuffs.
"Do they earn royalties off their merchandise?" He wondered aloud. He'd seen kids with plush dolls of the girls and he'd walked past stores selling their action figures. "Because if they're not I'm sure they could get some form of compensation from the toy companies. That'd be a sweet amount."
It almost made him reconsider the whole superhero gig, but he stopped himself before he got carried away.
"I'd feel too guilty if I was only helping people for my own sake. It wouldn't be right." He did realise that he was refusing partly out of stubbornness, but he elected to ignore it. He wasn't going to be a full-time superhero and that was his final decision.
His makeshift dinner was light, but it staved off his hunger for the time being. Peter decided to head to his room before May caught him in the kitchen. Besides, the whole spider bite ordeal had given him a few new ideas on how to produce it.
He'd make an artificial spider spinneret and he'd modify his adhesive formula to be more like spider silk. It'd allow him to make strands of adhesive rather than just applying it as a blob. This would allow him to modify his formula to be more akin to nylon, a strong polymer chain.
Of course, doing it this way would change its purpose–It'd be less about holding surfaces together and more about holding itself together. He'd still have to work on its surface adhesion, but he likely wasn't going to make any progress in that direction for now.
Peter drew up a tri-weave mechanism that would take three streams of input and twist them around each other, similar to a hair plait, giving the silk even greater strength. It was a purely mechanical system; as fluid passed into it, the pressure from the fluid would rotate the parts. That way the weaving would always be consistent regardless of the flow rate.
Additionally, it meant that he didn't need to supply electrical power to the spinneret, nor would he have to put any motors in it. Any reduction to the number of failure points on the mechanism was a boon, so he celebrated the conceptual victory.
Next, he modified the adhesive itself. The design needed it to undergo a rapid polymerisation reaction when it's exposed to air. Creating a polymer without extreme conditions like heat or pressure was basically unheard of–it'd be like trying to turn oil into plastic with things you could find in your garage.
But for some inexplicable reason, his brain seemed to know exactly how to induce exactly this kind of reaction. It was almost as if the spider had imparted its knowledge on webbing to him when it'd bitten him. He'd have to remember to tell the professor about this later.
His newly enhanced hearing picked up the click of the front door opening from downstairs. It would have been Aunt May. Nobody else had the key, after all. Except the landlord, Peter thought, though she rarely appeared without calling in advance.
"Peter?" He heard his aunt call him down. "I'm home!"
He jotted down one last point in his notebook about the reaction requiring it to be around human body temperature, before jumping out of his seat and heading downstairs.
"Hey Aunt May. How was work?" Peter gave a basic greeting and tried to initiate conversation.
"Oh, you know. Busy as always." May sighed as she placed her handbag on one of the kitchen stools. "Sorry I'm so late, the kitchen was understaffed today, so I figured I could help them out a little."
Peter knew that was probably a lie, but elected to ignore it. If she didn't want him to know, he would act like he didn't know.
"Those guys really need to hire some more workers, this is happening way too often." He tried to subtly hint that she should cut back on working so hard, at least for a few days. "Or maybe you should ask for a pay rise instead?"
"Don't worry Peter, more work is good. It keeps me fit." Despite her best efforts, May looked much more exhausted than fit. "Besides, they pay me extra for anything outside of my regular hours so it's fine."
"If you say so." Peter poured both May and himself a glass of water. "Oh yeah, I was at the lab again today. I spoke with the professor about an internship position."
"And what did he say?" May was intrigued, this was the first time Peter had actually applied for an internship. He was always just happy to sit by himself and do his little experiments in his room.
"Well he said I could intern there if I wanted to. I'll start tomorrow."
"Peter, that's wonderful!" May pulled her nephew in for a hug. "I'm so proud of you!"
Peter wrapped his arms around her, but he wasn't as optimistic about the situation as she was.
"I mean, it was probably because nobody else has actually applied there. Well, except three girls that volunteer there after school."
May seemed like she wanted to say something but Peter cut her off before she could even begin.
"But they don't even know anything about science, so the professor only has his son to rely on for that."
"Peter, you have to stop putting yourself down like that. You're capable and you know it. Nobody likes someone who pretends they're less capable than they are."
Peter stole a glance at the time. It was already pushing 9:00pm, way too late to prepare a proper dinner.
"Right. Sorry, Aunt May." It was better to just agree with her on these sorts of things. He downed his glass of water and headed towards the staircase. "If you need me, I'll be in my room."
Peter left his hardworking aunt in the kitchen to decompress and went back to his drawings, continuing where he left off. By the end of the day, his artificial spinneret would be completely planned out.
That was the easy part. For something like this, normally Peter would have no way to reliably produce it–especially not to the precision necessary for the spinneret to actually function. He'd have to ask to borrow some of Utonium's lab equipment.
He absentmindedly listened in on the television that May had turned on downstairs recounting the daily news. It spoke about how Fuzzy Lumpkins was quickly and easily defeated in the city centre after going on a rampage.
The newscaster then moved onto various traffic accidents throughout the city, including a train car nearly derailing because of sloppy maintenance procedures. Before long, the anchor began to read a topic that Peter was more interested in.
"The world-renowned Doctor Otto Octavius was hospitalised early this morning after a catastrophic accident involving Chemical X." He paused to read ahead on the incident report, before continuing. "According to eyewitnesses, he was brought out of the building with some sort of mechanical harness attached to his back. It is unclear what his harness does as of now, but it may have contributed to the accident."
This news message immediately made him think of the professor, reminding Peter of the agreement they had made.
"I need a suit." He wasn't exactly sure how to design a superhero suit, but he had read a ton of different comic books, so he had a general idea. "First we need a colour scheme."
His thoughts immediately went to black and white because of the strange coloration of the spider that had bitten him, but he dismissed it. He'd be a laughing stock if he wore a pitch dark suit during the day.
He removed lime, cyan, and pink from the colours he would use. He didn't want to be too closely associated with the Powerpuff Girls, lest they start calling him one.
Instead, he picked his two favourite of the three primary colours, red and blue, using a more vibrant but darker colour when compared to the Powerpuffs' outfits.
It was going to be a homemade costume, so he wouldn't be making it skintight or anything. Preferably, he'd like to do it by just modifying clothes he already had or could easily buy on the cheap.
Next was the problem of keeping his identity hidden. The girls' costumes seemed to perform this effect naturally, without obscuring their faces no less, but he would have to actually cover his face. He didn't exactly want to place his trust in a Clark Kent glasses disguise.
Taking a new sheet of paper, Peter drew out his first idea for a mask. It simply covered his whole face, completely obscuring his identity. It was primarily red in colour, but had a black webline pattern stretching across its surface from just between the eyes. The eyes themselves were reflective silver lenses that curved towards the centre, giving a friendly but serious expression.
The only problem he could see with the design would be how difficult it would be for him to make. He would need to shape the material to fit his head and be easily removable which would be hard to do with his amateur sewing skills. And that's not even considering the webbing pattern, which could completely ruin the mask if he makes a mistake while producing it.
He decided to leave the costume design for the time being. It would be too difficult for him to make a whole costume using a design as intricate as this is. If possible, he wanted to stick to mostly solid colours and straight lines.
He buried his costume designs in his drawer and left his spinneret design on the desktop. May knew he was experimenting with adhesives, but if she saw the costume designs then saw someone wearing the suit, she'd likely be suspicious.
Peter laid himself down on his bed, reflecting on what had happened in the past two days.
First he'd been bitten by a spider that'd been exposed to Chemical Z. It was the strangest thing that had happened to him in his life, and nobody would've believed him if he told them it gave him superpowers.
Then he'd gone to the lab to test out his new abilities where he met the Powerpuff Girls Z who turned out to be his classmates. He'd say that was a low probability occurrence, though considering they were the ones that got his class the tour of the lab in the first place he settled his grievances with lady luck.
And after that they'd visited a scientist who had mechanical tentacles fused to him in hospital after a lab accident. He figured this would have to be the last of the strange events in his life. How many weird things can happen to him in just a few days?
A bit of a shorter chapter his week, but I felt that this was a good place to end it.
Maximum Rhapsody: I don't think there's any particular reason to make Peter more powerful than his comic counterparts, especially if we ignore a lot of the wackier aspects of the Powerpuff Girls Z. Breaking the moon by accident is an enormous feat of strength, as is putting it back together, but the feat has no bearing on the original story so it's safe to ignore here, too.
With that logic, the Powerpuff Girls Z actually aren't particularly strong. They can fly pretty quickly, have super strength strong enough to lift vans fairly easily, and have their weapons. Peter's versatility would make up for his arguably inferior strength, and his webbing makes up for his lack of a weapon.
That said, Peter would probably be more willing to integrate tech into his suit than the girls, so he could use that if it seems like he's falling behind. But just so you know, I'm not exactly going to have him lifting buildings or anything on that scale.