I walked through the lobby towards the front desk. It was a lot busier, and now that it was dark outside, lights lit up the interior, giving the room a grander aura. Amy trailed slightly behind me, wearing a Yankees cap, blue sweater, and a pair of jeans. Apparently, she went around her regular day with her wings folded underneath her clothes. She said it hurt a bit, but she didn’t really have an alternative.
We stopped by the front desk, waiting behind a short line of people. I glanced at Amy as she looked around nervously. It was weird suddenly being her height. She’d been a quite a bit taller than me before, but now we stood at eye level. I might’ve been a slight bit taller. I tugged at the sleeves of my hoodie. It was too small, but I hadn’t had a chance to buy any more. That was a lie. I just couldn’t be bothered.
“So do you just tell them who we’re here to meet?” Amy asked. I nodded, before looking around again. My dread slowly started to increase as we got closer and closer to the front of the line. Would this work? I had no idea.
We reached the front of the line, and the receptionist flashed me a smile before typing a few things on his computer.
“So, how can I help?” he asked.
“Uh… we’re here to see Dr Ricardo Gonzales?” I said. He frowned.
“Are you supposed to have someone meet you?” he said.
“I don’t know, I just need to talk to him”
“If it’s not an official meeting, I’m sorry I can’t really help. The reception is more for the museum correspondence than anything on the science side of things” he said.
“Ah, well there’s probably someone waiting to take us. I just thought we had to sign in our something” I said laughing nervously.
“No worries. People do it all the time” he said.
We stepped out of the line and made our way to a bench around one of the pillars in the lobby. Shit. What now? I didn’t have his number or anything, and I hadn’t been able to talk to him one on one before we left, so he didn’t even know I was here.
“I’m kind of hungry, is there anywhere to eat?” Amy said.
“There’s a food court, we could head over there” I replied, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. We made our way over to the food court, passing the souvenir stores on our way. As we entered the bustling food court, I spotted Lindon, struggling to carry food and a holster with two cups as he fished around for his keycard.
I rushed over to him, calling out his name. He turned, a look that passed for surprise crossing his face before his scowl came back.
“What do you want?” he said.
“I have to talk to Ricardo” I said.
“We’re busy. Wait till he’s finished work to bother him” he said spinning around. I grabbed him, holding him by the shoulder.
“This is important!” I pleaded. His look of surprise at my audacity turned to a sneer, and he tried unsuccessfully to pull away from my grip.
“Let go of me” he said with an unexpected vehemence.
“It’s about your experiments” I said desperate, as I let him go.
“I don’t care. Leave before I call security” he said, turning away. I felt my heart sink. I needed to do something, anything to convince him that he needed to let Ricardo see me. Suddenly it hit me.
“Did you ever do tests on spiders? On dragonflies? On other insects?” I asked. He spun around, narrowing his eyes as he stared at me.
“How do you know about that?” he said.
“I think I came into contact with one. My friend too” I said gesturing to Amy. He scowled again.
“Impossible. Stop harassing me with nonsense” he said. I grabbed him again, this time exerting more strength than I’d intended. Lindon jolted, as though he’d suddenly been yanked from behind.
“We’ve got the side-effects” I said.
His eyes widened, as he looked at me, and then glanced at my hand.
“Let go” he said.
“Please this is-“
“I’m letting you in. I just can’t move you idiot” he said. I let go stepping back. He turned and opened the door, holding it open for the two of us. We stepped inside and Amy shot me a look.
“Don’t say a word until we reached the lab” Lindon said as we made our way down the corridor. Amy poked me in the side.
“I thought you said they were expecting us” she whispered.
“I may have embellished the truth” I replied. She frowned but didn’t say anything more as we continued.
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“Sorry” I mumbled.
“I said no talking” Lindon said. We both fell silent making our way down the stretch of corridors. We reached another set of doors and Lindon swiped his keycard, before stepping out onto a walkway. Underneath the walkway was still bustling with scientists. I recognised Peter and Gwen working together on something with a few others. I guess they’d been more than just tour guides.
We made our way down to the other side of the walkway and Lindon swiped his card again. We stepped past some armed guards who eyed us but said nothing. Then we got in the elevator and went up to the lab. When we stepped inside, Ricardo was busy writing on some sheets of paper.
“I brought some guests” Lindon said. Ricardo looked up and frowned.
“Lucas? Why’re you here?” he said taking off his glasses.
“I needed to talk to you” I said.
“About what? I’m sure Lindon wouldn’t have brought you up here without a good reason” he said stepping forward. He glanced at Amy then turned to Lindon.
“I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but they’re both saying they came into contact with some of Otto’s test subjects” Lindon said.
“Impossible. They destroyed all his research over a month ago” Ricardo said.
“I know” Lindon said, then he glanced at me, “but the boy’s strong, and his eyes… they look exactly like the colours displayed on subject S-14B”
Ricardo turned to us and frowned putting his hand on his chin.
“What do you want to do Doc?” Lindon said.
“I told you just call me Ricardo” he mumbled, still deep in thought.
“Ok, explain this to me. From the beginning” he said, looking between me and Amy.
“About three weeks or so ago, when I first came here everything was normal for like a day, and then I just… had superpowers. Spider related superpowers” I said. Ricardo nodded and turned to Amy. Amy hesitated before breathing deeply.
“Uh… I don’t remember coming into contact with anything, but one day, just over a month ago, my back started to hurt, and I noticed something was growing out of it. I grew dragonfly wings. I checked on the internet because I was so freaked out. I can also create a sort of exo-skeleton, and I’m strong” she said.
“Can you show me?” Ricardo said, his face as expressionless as stone. Amy flushed slightly.
“Yeah, but you’re going to have to look away, while I take the bandages off” she said.
“There’s a shower room at the back in case we get any contaminants on our skin. You can change there” Ricardo said. Amy made her way over to the back of the room. Suddenly Lindon perked up his head.
“Wait are you Dragonfly, and Spider-man?” he said. I frowned.
“I think you’re talking about us, but those aren’t our names” I said. Suddenly he stood up and stepped towards me. My intuition buzzed, and he grabbed me by the shoulders. He looked at me intently, almost crazily.
“This is incredible!” he said.
“Lindon” Ricardo said calmly. Lindon looked back at him and then back to me, realisation passing over his face.
“Sorry” he mumbled stepping back.
“Can you show us your abilities?” Ricardo said. I nodded and turned to the wall. I pressed my hands against it, and crawled up the side, stopping when I reached the ceiling. I glanced back down to see both of them looking up at me in shock. I jumped back down and landed on the ground.
“Is there anything else you can do?” Ricardo said, looking at me his eyes wide.
“I can fire webs, uh… I’m strong. All my senses are like dialled to the max man. Plus I have this sort of intuition that alerts me of things just before they happen” I said.
“Incredible” Ricardo said.
We all turned at the sound of a door opening, to see Amy step out of the contaminant shower. She had her blue jacket on backwards, with the back only zipped up halfway. Her wings fluttered slightly, glittering beautifully in the light.
“My God” Lindon said.
Ricardo instantly started clearing a table, before grabbing a pen and clean sheets of paper. He handed Lindon a set of keys.
“Lindon grab two full test kits. We’ll need to test urine, blood, saliva, everything” he said. Lindon quickly left the room.
“So are you going to see if we’re okay?” I asked. Ricardo nodded.
“You said it’s been about three weeks, so you two should be okay, but we’ve never had human test subjects before. Plus, Dr Octavius used radiation on his subjects. We were the group that got assigned to testing the research on mammals, and as you can see, we’re still struggling with mice” he said.
“It’s kind of cold in here. Can I change back now?” Amy said.
“I’m afraid not. We’ll have to take a sample of the wings to make sure they’re not harmful. It’ll be a small sample, and I’ll take it first so you’ll be able to change” Ricardo said. Amy huffed and sat down in a chair, looking at some of the mice. I took the seat next to her and spun around in my chair.
“Wait, I’m confused. Who’s this Dr Octavius guy?” Amy said.
“He’s a scientist here. Well, was. He was in charge of the experiments we were doing now. He was fired two months ago. There was a dispute between him and the financial backers over the applications of his research. He only experimented on insects and sea creatures. The suits from Oscorp wanted him to experiment on mammals because of the human application. That’s where the profit lies.”
Ricardo sighed and took a seat.
“I’m guessing he didn’t take to it” Amy said.
“No. He had a fanatical obsession with insects, mostly arachnids and cephalopods. No idea why. It’s a shame really; he was a brilliant man” Ricardo said.
“So how did his research get loose? They didn’t just dump it right?” I asked.
“They gave us all the paperwork and research. His interns, Peter and Gwen gave us a basic rundown of their research and that’s all we know. All the subjects were destroyed by Oscorp. Well at least they told us they were. Now I’m not so sure” he said.
“Isn’t that bad? Like really bad? I mean, what if we’re not ok? Couldn’t there be other people like us in danger?” Amy said.
“Worse. There’s no guarantee that mutations can’t affect the mind” Ricardo said, crossing his arms.
“Wait, you’re saying the mutations could’ve affected our brains?” I asked.
“I don’t won’t to alarm you, but it sounds like it did in your case. The spider sense of yours sounds like a neurological phenomenon. You seem fine, and you very well could be. But there’s no guarantee that someone else receives a mutation that doesn’t affect their mental capacity or drive them completely insane.” Ricardo said.
“So you could get someone affected by a mosquito, who suddenly wants to drink a ton of blood, and happens to have superstrength?” Amy asked.
“Yes” Ricardo said. I shuddered at the thought, then paused.
“Wait there’s no reason it has to be humans that mutated, right? What about other animals?” I said. Ricardo nodded.
“That’s probably more likely, and more dangerous. Given how many test subjects there were, we could be looking at a hundred or so meta-organisms, roaming the streets. That would be an absolute disaster. We can only pray Oscorp hasn’t been as foolish as we’re assuming” he said.
“Holy shit” Amy said. The door opened and Lindon stepped inside with a bunch of medical equipment.
“We should be fine right? I mean we would’ve seen these monster insects already, right?” Amy said.
“There’s no way to tell how quickly the mutation occurs. So, there’s no way to say” Ricardo said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Once we’ve tested you it’ll take a few hours to process your results, and probably a few days to accurately determine what’s happened to you, if that’s even possible. You’ll have to return for routine checkups, but we can organise something” Ricardo said standing up.
“Can you… not tell anyone about this?” I asked. He paused and nodded.
“You have my word” he said.
“Thanks” I said.
“Don’t worry. You came to me for help. I owe it to your mother and father to do something for you at the very least” he said. Then he turned to Amy. “Now then, a small sample of your wings.”