—Chapter Four | "Stalker"
> 15:52 - 19:52
"LISTEN. TELL THEM RODRIGO GUEVARA IS HERE." A voice yelled from the bottom floor while being dragged away by two guards, quickly followed by another boy being dragged by another two. "Please, just tell them Rodrigo Guevara and Stephen Richards are here! Our names are Rodrigo and Stephen-!" the voice cut off as they dragged the two away. Marcus watched the scene, trying not to laugh.
"I guess I don't need to tell you what happens if you forget that." Gwen looked at the group with an awkward smile, Michelle just smiled before talking. "Shall we?" The two smiled at each other before leading the group down a hallway. Marcus went to follow before an arm grabbed his elbow.
"Marcus, what are you doing here?" Peter whisper-shouted at the Black-haired boy who looked at him with wide eyes. He grabbed Peter's arm, pulling it off his elbow before pointing at him. "I should be asking you that, Mr. Guevara." Marcus laughed before running to catch up with the group, quickly followed by Peter.
"Come around this way," Michelle ordered them while Gwen walked up to Curt Conners, the man both Peter and Marcus were here to see. He smiled at the red-haired girl before doing the same to the blond.
"Good afternoon, Gwen, Michelle." He greeted the two girls who stood smiling at him. Marcus and Peter watched along with the rest of the group before sharing a look and looking back. "Welcome. My name is Dr. Curtis Connors. In case you're wondering, I'm a southpaw." The group laughed as Curt smiled. "I'm not a cripple, I'm a scientist, and I'm the world's foremost authority on herpetology. That's reptiles, for those of you who don't know."
"But like the Parkinson's patient who watches in horror as her body slowly betrays her, or the man with macular degenerations whose eyes grow dimmer each day, I long to fox myself. I want to create a world without weakness. Anyone care to venture a guess just how? Yes." Dr. Curt Conners looked at a boy who raised his hand.
"Stem cells?"
"Promising. But the solution I'm thinking of is more radical. No one?"
"Cross-species genetics." Peter's voice spoke up from behind the whole group. Everybody In the group turned to look at the two boys who stood side by side at the back. Gwen and Michelle looked at one another before looking back down at the tablet Gwen held. Peter nudged Marcus to continue his words.
"Person gets Parkinson's when the brain cells that produce dopamine start to, uh, disappear. But a, um, zebrafish has the ability to regenerate cells on command. If you could somehow give this ability to the woman you're talking about, that's that. She's..." Marcus smiled awkwardly as he noticed all the people watching him. "She's curing herself."
"Yeah, you just have to look past the gulls on her neck." They all laughed at the comment a random boy made, but Dr. Conners shushed them to the two boys' surprise.
"Heh. A-and you two are?" Dr. Conners looked between the two boys, Peter stood without speaking while Marcus looked down at his feet, glancing at the man every once in a while.
"They're two of Midtown Science's best and brightest. They're tied second in their class." Michelle smirked at the black-haired boy who suddenly looked up at her, standing up straight with a small smile.
"Second?" "Yeah."
Peter smiled at Marcus as he looked at the red-haired girl with a raised eyebrow. "You sure about that?" "I'm pretty sure." Suddenly a phone ringing interrupted the small talk the two were having.
"I'm afraid duty calls. I'll leave you in the more-than-capable hands of Miss Stacy and Miss June. Nice meeting you all." He looked at the two boys who started whispering to each other and nudging or pushing each other before leaving. A blue hologram appeared in front of Gwen and Michelle as they stepped back. "If you'd like to gather round."
'Welcome to Oscorp's tree of life. Our planet's tree of life is immense. At Oscorp's Cross-Species Division..." The thing spoke as Peter dragged Marcus away from the blue light. "Hi." A female voice spoke. Michelle. Peter rolled his eyes before standing behind the shorter boy as the redhead looked at the black-haired boy. "What are out doing, Stephen?"
Marcus coughed in an almost awkward way, fiddling with the badge that was clipped to his jacket as he looked down at it, remembering that's what he was called today. "Oh, yeah." "What are you doing here?" Michelle laughed at the boy's face while Peter just stared around with a bored face before Gwen came up to him asking the same question.
"I work here, no I don't. I-I was gonna say I work here, but, uh, it seems like you, in fact, do, so you know that I, definitely do not, uh, work here." Marcus put both hands in his pockets while Michelle looked at him with a small smile. "Are you following me?" "I'm not following you, no. I had no idea you worked here."
"Then why would you be here?" she took a step closer to the awkward boy who rubbed the back of his neck.
"I snuck in because I just love science." "You love science." "I'm passionate about it." "You snuck in..?! Me and Gwen have to lead this tour group. So I'll ask you more about this later. Do not get me in trouble, or I'll kick your ass. Stay with the group, you hear me, Allen?" Michelle pointed at the boy before taking the blond away from Peter and towards the tour group.
"Okay, guys?" Michelle interrupted the group's conversations. "I'm gonna take you to the bioreactor room now." Michelle gave Marcus a pointed look before smiling at the group not noticing the two boys sneak off.
"Sorry. Yo." Peter bumped into a man, who looked very serious. "Sorry." He picked up the folder the man dropped when a hand grabbed it, snatching it off him before the man walked off. Rude much? Marcus watched the man with a confused face before grabbing Peter's wrist making them follow him. They followed him closely but stayed behind. They watched as he entered a passcode into a door, letting two men in cleanroom(?) suits walk out with the man walking closely behind.
The two boys shared a look. They were both thinking the same thing, what was in that room?
————————
YOU ARE READING
𝙎𝙋𝙄𝘿𝙀𝙍 𝙒𝙀𝘽𝙎 ¹ | the amazing spider man
FanfictionA.G} 𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑃𝐴𝑅𝐾𝐸𝑅 𝑥 𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒!𝑂𝐶 ---- "Spider-Boys? That's the best they could come up with?" "I mean, at least it's not spider-dudes." "In all honesty, I think that would be better!" ---- Abandoned by his parents and raised by an...
