"Why..." A voice spoke through the pitch-black darkness, a voice that Eren knew too well, the voice that he designated to the girl who appeared in his dreams every night. "Why did you let him go?"
Eren, unable to even see his own body in the darkness, spoke into the nothingness. "I don't..." He tried to give her his answer, though he didn't even know the answer for himself. "I don't know." He said, settling for that to be his answer. The child was still dissatisfied.
"Should I remind you what he did?" The child asked him. Immediately, the dark abyss transformed into a New York landfill. In front of the boy was a black plastic bag with flies hovering over it and a pool of blood beneath it. As if his body had a mind of his own, the boy slowly approached the bag.
'No.' He told himself in his mind, knowing what he was about to see, but not being able to stop himself.
'Wait!' His inner voice screamed as his body continued to approach the black plastic bag against his will.
'Stop!' His inner voice tried one last time to get himself to stop but it was of no use.
Slowly, he peered into the black bag, only to be met by his mother's disfigured, mangled, and rotting corpse. He wanted to scream, but it was as if he had no mouth. As he glared down at his mother's pieces unwillingly, her eyes shifted and locked with his.
"Parker!"
The boy's body jolted and he could hear the sounds of teens snickering around him. He looked around, finding himself in his classroom.
"Seriously, Parker. Why don't you just sleep at home?" Dr, Connors lectured, looking at Eren with a disappointed stare.
Due to his night with Black Cat, the Maggia, and Shocker, he was exhausted. He only had a few hours of sleep the night before, his thoughts about his own life, his two lives, along with the nightmares kept him up even longer.
The thing that kept him up the most was his discussion with the Shocker. He knew that the man behind Project V had to be a man of two things: Science and Power.
Victor Von Doom.
Norman Osborn.
Michael Morbius.
Reed Richards.
Though these men, along with many others, were not seen as anything more than great scientists, they were some of the most powerful men in New York. Power corrupts, however, would these men actually become corrupted would be the question running through the boy's mind.
Victor Von Doom was a mystery. After he became diseased, he basically disappeared from the spotlight. It was possible that during his disappearance, he decided to start dabbling in some dark experiments. Perhaps to even cure his disease.
Then there's his old partner, Reed Richards. Though he was a hero to many, he was also the smartest man on the planet. A man that smart could be a master manipulator, though the hero was almost certain that Reed was a good man. Even so, he could be the key to getting close to Victor Von Doom.
Michael Morbius, yet another mystery man with a disease that was said to be incurable. Despite the odds, he was still alive. Perhaps, just like the theory with Victor Von Doom, he fell into darkness in search of a cure for his disease. His location was unknown, however, there are many theories about his whereabouts.
Norman Osborn, the CEO of Oscorp and Eren's best friend's father. Of course, the boy had met with him a few times and he seemed like a good man. Though, he wondered if it were a facade. Unlike the others, he couldn't really pinpoint any goal or motive that made enough sense to see him as the main suspect. Perhaps money would play a role in why he created Project V, if he were the one who did it.
When it came to Norman, Eren was already close to him and his family so he was able to keep an eye on him. The others, however, would be difficult to investigate. Doom and Morbius had practically disappeared, though they were still alive. Reed Richards, however, was also a superhero. Perhaps the two could work together and find Doom, if Reed wasn't involved with Project V.
Regardless, the hero still needed to be a student, so he continued to play his role.
"Sorry, Dr. Connors. I couldn't sleep last night." The boy said quietly.
Before his teacher could scold him, the bell rang, signaling that the class had been dismissed. Eren packed his things, walking past Dr. Connors with his head down.
"Parker." Connors said, causing the boy to stop in his tracks. "Get some sleep, alright?"
The boy nodded, quietly exiting the classroom before continuing with the rest of his day.
Through the rest of his classes, the boy pondered about Project V and the possible culprits. However, at the end of the day, those thoughts would soon cease when he ran into Cindy Moon at the school exit.
Immediately, he began to feel a bit guilty for what he did with Black Cat the night before. He still didn't know what came over him, it was as if he was a different man at that moment. Regardless, he greeted Cindy through his guilt as if his feelings for her were not growing more complicated by the second.
"Hey! You doing anything after school today?" Cindy asked, hoping she could spend time with him once again.
"I am, actually. Harry and I are working on a project for school. A drone actually." Eren answered.
"Ooooh, sounds fun."
Immediately, Eren thought of an idea. "Hey, if you aren't doing anything, you should join us. The more heads the better." Eren told her.
"Is that allowed." Cindy replied.
"Eh, who cared. It's not like they'll know. Come on, Harry is picking me up. He won't mind." As the boy said this, he could see Harry in the distance getting into a luxurious-looking SUV. The two approached it, greeting Harry as he sat inside.
"Yo! What's up." Harry said, scooting over to the side to give Eren some room in the back seat.
"You don't mind if my friend joins us, right? She's super smart." Eren asked as he pointed back at Cindy as she waved shyly at the billionaire.
"Of course, the more the merrier." Harry scooted over even further, allowing for both Eren and Cindy to get in the vehicle with him.
The seats were extremely soft. There were multiple mini-screens in the back seat, as well as a container with a variety of expensive snacks. There was an older man driving the car who was wearing an all-black suit with white gloves.
"It's Cindy, right?" Harry asked the girl, as they'd met one time before in the school halls.
Cindy nodded. "Mhm, Cindy Moon." She said formally.
Harry smiled. "Nice meeting you again, Cindy. Oh, this is Bernard, by the way. He's been working for my family since I was a baby. He's like my second father." Harry gestured toward the butler driving the vehicle as he says this, the butler nodded in response.
"Hello." Both Cindy and Eren spoke at the same time.
"Let's get going, shall we?" Harry declared as he tapped Bernard's shoulder, signaling the man to shift the SUV in gear and begin pulling away from the school campus.
Bernard drove the three of them to Oscorp and entered through the Osborns' personal entrance. Once parked, Bernard led the three of them inside the building through the back entrance.
"I will pick you up when you're all done, Harry." Bernard told the young billionaire, bowing to him respectfully before walking away.
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Harry was embarrassed, he didn't like that Bernard was so formal with him, especially around his friends. He didn't want to seem pampered.
"Sure, thing. Thanks, Bernard. C'mon guys I'll show you around." Harry said as he gestured to the two of them to follow him through the facility,
Harry showed Cindy and Eren his favorite areas of his father's building, including the many never before seen projects that Oscorp was working on. Cindy and Eren, both loving science, were enamored with every single invention and doohickey that Harry was able to show them. However, nothing about Project V was even hinted at, of course, something of that caliber wouldn't just be out in the open.
Eventually, the three ended up in a room filled with multiple long glass containers that reached the ceiling. Each container acted as a habitat for different types of radioactive spiders, the same type that bit Eren, along with some unique ones.
"This room is one of my favorites. You see these spiders? We created these here at Oscorp, well by we I mostly mean my dad and his team. Each batch has its own unique abilities. Eren will recognize these ones, they can discharge electricity and have insanely high reaction times. Oh! Those over there are my favorite." Harry jogged over to one of the containers, prompting the other two students to follow.
"These spiders over here can excrete webs from the tips of their legs. This allows them to create some really beautiful patterns with their webs. They can also use their webs to form armor around their bodies!" Harry told them excitedly.
"Woah. These ones are so pretty." Cindy whispered as she put her face up to the glass. As she marveled at the spiders' webbing and armor, one of the arachnids suddenly lunged at the glass. Cindy jumped backward, yelped, and grabbed onto Eren's arm unconsciously.
Harry winced, realizing he probably should've given her a warning about the spiders' habit of jumping at people. "Yeah… sorry I should've warned you. They do that sometimes. Well, anyways… Let's go to the workroom. Yeah?" He declared as he looked at the two lock arms, however, he chose to not comment on it.
With Cindy still on Eren's arm, they nodded and began following Harry to another room. As they strolled, Cindy was still unconsciously holding on to Eren's arm. Eren said nothing, so as to not make it weird, and opted to pretend he didn't notice. It only took around half a minute for Cindy to notice what she was doing, causing her to quickly release his arm. "Oh!" She exclaimed as her face begins to turn red, just as it did back when the two were in her room. "Sorry I didn't notice I was still-"
"You're good." Eren said with a slight grin. He truly didn't mind, in fact, he was hoping she never noticed.
The three of them eventually found themselves in a massive workroom, filled with hundreds of high-tech tools. Eren's genius mind began to run at a million miles per hour as he thought about the many things he could create with those tools.
"Wow." Eren whispered in awe. "I've never seen so much tech in one room. Bro… Is that an Amphimax? Woah, that's a Cosmoflux! And this is an Electromagnetic Carnflux!"
Both Harry and Cindy looked at each other with surprised expressions as their friend wandered deeper into the workroom. Usually, he was quiet, but as soon as the tech was involved, he couldn't shut up.
"Holy shit! Harry, why didn't you tell me about this stuff? A Hypersensitive Gluon Propeller Encoder!" The boy continued on for nearly a minute, only stopping when he noticed his friends covering their mouths to stifle their laughter.
Unable to hold it in any longer, both Harry and Cindy began to laugh hysterically, causing Eren's smile to fade into a look of embarrassed confusion. "What?" He asked his two friends as they continued to laugh at his nerdy rant.
"You're such a nerd." Cindy said as she playfully punched the boy in the arm.
Eren stood with his hands pointed outward, in disbelief that Cindy of all people was making fun of his sciency side. Ironically, that was one of the traits she liked the most. "What? This stuff is cool!" The boy said in an attempt to defend himself.
Harry smiled at the two as he began moving three chairs over to the workbench. "Shall we get started?" He asked them both. The other two nodded and made their way to the table, before beginning to discuss their future plans for the drone.
"How about a spider-shaped drone? Seeing the spiders in that room gave me the idea." Eren lied, as he already had this planned and wanted to use it for his super-heroics.
'A spider? Seriously?' Harry thought to himself, seeing the idea as corny.
Cindy, however, had the opposite reaction. "You're a genius!" She said after gasping, sharing her interest in arachnids after their mini field trip with Harry.
"What if we have it shoot out electricity like the ones in the containers?" Cindy added.
"Like a taser!' Harry proclaimed loudly, causing Cindy to gasp once again.
"Yes! A taser!" She repeated, causing Eren to look at the two with a somewhat worried expression.
"Uh... Is that allowed on campus? Isn't that violent?" Eren said quietly, causing Harry to reach over and place his hand on his shoulder.
"Eren, Eren, Eren, my friend. I know you're a pacifist but lighten up, dude." Harry said in the most nonchalant tone possible.
Like a parrot, Cindy agreed while nodding. "Yeah, lighten up dude."
'Those two seem to be hitting it off...' Eren thought to himself, just now realizing how similar their personalities were. He was at least happy that his two friends were quickly becoming friends with each other.
"Okay, I'll lighten up... Dude." Eren said plainly, making his two friends laugh due to his delivery. "Anyway, Harry, didn't your dad make some cloaking mechanism?" Eren asked, knowing the answer already but wanting to confirm.
Harry snapped his finger and pointed at Eren. "Yeah, we gotta use a certain type of metal on the shell for it to work though, it's this one synthetic material…" Harry stroked his chin as he tried to recollect the name of it. "It can stick to walls when stimulated... It would be cool since the drone is spider-shaped.
The three tried to remember the name for a while, but both Harry and Eren seemed to be struggling. However, Cindy was able to eventually come up with the name. "Phycyzm?" Cindy questioned, immediately causing the two boys' eyes to light up.
"Yes, phycyzm!" The two boys said simultaneously.
"I'll write this stuff down." Eren said as he began digging through his bag for a notebook and pencil. At the top of the paper, he wrote the suggestions that they had so far, adding one more thing to the list. "We need cameras too!" Eren declared, knowing they'd prove useful for his future reconnaissance as a hero.
For the next few hours, the three went into great detail on the features that they wanted to include with the drone. The whole time, just like during their private study session, Eren and Cindy would exchange looks as the other was focused on writing down ideas, each doing their nervous habit while doing so.
Harry, sitting beside Eren, noticed the two eying each other, feeling a little left out and like a third wheel, however, he was intrigued. 'Interesting. So she likes him back, huh.' He thought to himself, not being too sure that Eren's crush was reciprocated but it was very obvious at that point.
For the next two months, Eren, Cindy, and Harry worked on the drone nearly every day after school, refining and updating it each week. While the drone was in progress, Eren would look into anything that could hint toward Project V within Oscorp, though he couldn't find anything. Of course, he couldn't just go around asking about Project V, nor could he sneak deep within the facility without his costume.
When Eren wasn't taking bathroom breaks to sneak around, the three of them became much closer due to the bonding activity, especially Cindy and Eren. It became a custom for the three of them to hang out as friends, even outside of working on the drone. Once it was finished, Eren and Harry brought it to the after-school program on the due date.
"Good Afternoon, everyone! I hope you all finished your drones as today is the final day and the day of our test." Dr. Connors spoke in front of the class.
"If no one has any questions, let's all head to the gym for our competition." He declared as he began to walk out of the classroom. The entire class grabbed their drones and they began heading following their teacher to the gymnasium. Eren and Harry looked around at the other students' drones, looked at each other, and smiled confidently.
"There's no way we'll lose." Harry whispered.
"For real." Eren responded, having a slight confident grin on his face.
They all headed to the gymnasium and saw the obstacle course that Dr. Connors had set up. It looks similar to the obstacle courses used for dog shows or a mini version of Ninja Warrior, an obstacle course TV show.
"Alright class, I'll go over how exactly I expect your drones to complete the course. The first part of the course is the Rotating Log. As your drone walks on the log, it must maintain its balance to ensure that it does not topple over." Connors said as he stood next to the obstacle.
He made his way over to the second obstacle, which appeared to be a wall with an incline of about sixty degrees. The wall also seemed to be covered in multicolored rocks, similar to a rock-climbing wall.
"This is the Rock Hill. Your drone must be powerful enough to make it up this incline and be able to also maneuver around the rocks in its path." Connors stated as he walked a few steps forward.
"Once at the top, your drone will drop down here as a test of its durability. Over here…" Connors continued as he walked further down the course.
"We have the swinging axes! Don't worry they are not real. They will test the speed of your drones, you must be able to make it past the axes fast enough so that way they do not hit you off of the path." He explained as he looked back at the class.
"For the final section, if you survive the course, you are free to use this area here to show any special abilities that your drones are capable of. You're free to use any of these props during your demonstrations. At the end, I and my two fellow judges will score you for your run." Connors pointed over at the judges' table where two men were already sitting.
"You guys should be familiar with Mr. Osborn, of course. The man next to him is our dear friend Dr. Otto Octavious. All three of us will judge you. Any questions?" He asked as he put his hand in his coat pocket.
He answered a few of the class's questions, called up the first group and sat down at his judge's seat.
Before Eren and Harry had their turn, ten other groups went, but only two of them were able to make it to the end. Seeing this boosted the two boys' confidence even more.
"Okay, next up is… Mr. Parker and Mr. Osborn. Everyone give them a welcoming applause!" Connors announced as the two boys approached the course with their drone.
It was large and looked more like a giant, metallic crab than a spider, however, its looks were not what was important. The capabilities of the drone would soon prove to be something great, thanks to the combined intellect of all three students and the free backing of Oscorp.
The class clapped for them and the boys set their Spider-Drone on the course. The two boys looked at each other and nodded, ready to show the class what they'd been working on for the last few months.