Rrrrrriiiinggg!
The final school bell rang out across the campus like a signal of freedom. Students poured out with excited faces and loud conversations — tomorrow was the weekend.
"Sorry, guys, music practice got cancelled because of me," Gwen said as they were walking towards the parking lot.
"It's fine. We don't have any competitions coming up soon anyway. Do you need any help with Mr. Stacy's discharge?" Jack asked as they walked outside as a group.
"No need. Dad's coworkers are helping out."
"Call us if you need any help. I'll visit your house tomorrow — are you guys coming?" Jack looked at MJ and Peter.
Since Peter and MJ were free, they were both ready to visit Gwen's house tomorrow.
"Then see you guys tomorrow." Gwen left in the car.
"Alright boys, I have dance class today. See you!" Mary Jane waved and headed off.
"Looks like it's just us," Jack said with a smile, glancing at Peter.
"Don't you have dojo class today?" Peter asked.
"No, Colleen said she had something to take care of, so I'm free today."
"Well, you know I'm an intern at Oscorp now, so I'm heading there," Peter said with an apologetic smile.
"I know. I'm coming with you today."
"That—" Before Peter could even think about it, Jack had already put a hand on his shoulder and left with him towards Oscorp.
With Peter's help, Jack got into the Oscorp building without any trouble.
On the way in, Peter talked Jack's ear off about Dr. Connors and the project — how promising the research was, how much of a difference it could make. But as they got close to the lab, a woman in professional dress stopped them.
"Sir, this area is off limits."
"What? Off limits? That's Dr. Connors' lab. I'm his intern." Peter held up his ID. "And this is my friend, he's just here to visit Dr. Connors."
The woman checked Peter's ID carefully.
"Please wait here a moment." She went into the lab and came back out a few minutes later.
"Sir, only you may enter. Dr. Connors has left the company, and the chief scientist would like to speak with you."
Peter was confused. Everything had been fine yesterday. The experiment was a success.
"I'll wait here. Go find out what's going on," Jack said.
Peter nodded and followed the woman into the lab.
Once Peter was gone, Jack lowered his voice.
"Little Red, you completely deleted every file related to the lizard serum yesterday, right? Nothing left?"
"Yes, Master. I deleted everything completely, as you instructed," Red Queen replied, a faint edge in her voice showing she was already tired of answering the same question when she had done it perfectly the first time.
Jack relaxed slightly.
The last thing he wanted was for Oscorp to get their hands on the research and start building an army of lizard soldiers.
A few days earlier, after finding out Peter had started working at Oscorp, Jack ordered Red Queen to monitor the place. By pure luck, she detected unusual activity in Dr. Connors' lab last night. Jack slipped into the lab himself, copied the lizard serum formula, took the mutated rat, and had Red Queen erase every trace of the research before leaving.
The lizard serum interested him. In some ways, it was even superior to the Super Soldier Serum — granting not only enhanced strength but also extreme regenerative abilities, enough to regrow an entire arm.
With Grey Matter brain, Jack believed he could eventually remove its side effects, and create a safer version — something capable of strengthening his human body and covering some of his weaknesses during the times he couldn't rely on his alien forms.
Jack looked up as Peter came back out of the lab with a heavy expression.
"Peter, what happened?"
"Dr. Connors is gone. No one can reach him. And after the lab got destroyed and all the research results disappeared, the company accused him of doing it himself." Peter shook his head. "Because I was with him yesterday, they questioned me too. They cleared me after a few questions but I've been fired from the internship."
It seems Dr. Connors took the blame for me destroying the research data...
Jack felt a little guilty. He only wanted the research gone — he hadn't thought it would make Dr. Connors the main suspect.
Peter tried calling Dr. Connors' mobile but it was switched off.
He tried again. No answer.
"Why don't we go check on him at home?" Jack suggested, watching Peter stare at his phone.
With no other option, they got Dr. Connors' home address from one of the lab workers who knew him and headed over.
"Dr. Connors? Dr. Connors, are you there?" Peter called out from the front door, knocking. A few minutes passed with no response.
"Let's try the back," Jack suggested. He already had a pretty good idea of what they were going to find.
They went around to the back of the house. The door was unlocked.
They looked at each other and went inside.
"Dr. Connors? Are you here?"
The inside of the house was a mess. The kitchen fridge was wide open, things scattered everywhere, furniture knocked over and thrown aside. The whole place looked like a total disaster.
"What happened in here?" Peter muttered, moving toward the stairs to check the upper floor.
A/N:🚨 Power Stone Goals! 🚨
🔥 200 PS = 1 Bonus Chapter
🔥 500 PS = 2 Bonus Chapters(Max 2/week)
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