Chapter 215: Meanwhile, Smith Medicals. 2015 CE
[Smith Medicals, around 10 AM]
Peter Parker stood amongst the crowd of teenagers as they were being guided through the Smith Medicals facility. In front of the crowd is a man that is wearing a formal tuxedo, and beside him is a teenager that looked really annoyed.
The duo that is in front of the crowd is the literal owner of the building, Jonathan and Theodore Smith.
Theo was looking at a tablet that was given to him by his father, and he was… explaining things, rather unenthusiastically as Peter observed.
"Right… next up… this is the bionics research center… as the name suggests, this corner of the floor focused on the research of bionic limbs that can provide an alternative of replacing limbs if a patient doesn't want to inject themselves with the miracle serum… this research center is founded in 2012 when—"
"Come on Theo… why are you speaking like that…" Peter heard Theo's dad complain. "You need to be more enthusiastic, I mean, it's exciting for your friends here, don't make them bored. You told me that it's boring to listen to Mrs. Wilson's class here, that she doesn't make physics fun at all… this is exactly what you're doing here, come on, cheer up! Mrs. Wilson, I apologize for my son's words about you…"
Mrs. Wilson in the corner just nodded at Theo's dad and smiled awkwardly, though the rest of the students found it amusing, except for Theo himself.
"Mrs. Wilson, I did not say that, my father said that because he wanted to tease me." said Theo, panicking. He then turned towards his father, and shoved the tablet back to him. "Well you do it then, you're supposed to be the guide! Not me!"
While Theo whispered all those words to his father, the crowd basically could hear him.
Pluto shrugged at his son. "You should know what the company that you will manage in the future is working on, but fine, I'll do it, don't regret it."
"Wait, on second thought, I'll do it." said Theo, quickly changing his mind. He dreads the thought of what his father would say to his classmate. "Just… please dad, don't embarrass me in front of my friends anymore, it's only a matter of time before they'd bully me."
Pluto scoffed. "Bully you? That's very funny son, very funny…"
—
The tour was halfway done, and the crowd stood in a rather tightly protected area of the building. The class is now wearing white lab coats, protecting them somewhat from what's inside.
"Now everyone, don't do anything idiotic." said Theo flatly. "There are all kinds of stuff in this area, insects mostly. This area focused on the research on the biology of insects all over the world, most of what was inside is even radioactive from all the experiments being done."
"Isn't that kinda cruel?" asked a girl, Sally Avril.
"Really?" Theo raised his brow. "Avril, you eat burgers every week, where do you think the meat's from? Appeared out of thin air? No, a pig or a cow gets chopped off to pieces, leaving their children and mates—"
"Okay, enough Theo," said Pluto. "Now, let's come in. Remember, don't touch anything."
The crowd then entered the area, where most of the insects were stored in glass cases, complete with their 'habitats'.
Theo explained what had been 'extracted' from each of the insects in the glass case, with the help of the text from the tablet of course. While his voice is not the most enthusiastic he can produce, it's still better than before.
"Next up it's the spider. The spider on your left is a mutated kind, so there aren't any more of these in the wild or in the rest of the world. These spiders are incredibly toxic, one bite from those radioactive fangs and you'll probably die a gruesome death. What do I mean by 'Gruesome'? Search Hisashi Ouchi on Google, trust me, you'll regret it— Wait wait, Gwen, what are you doing?"
The crowd then turned towards Gwen, whose face is practically planted on the glass case of the spider habitat. "You said 'These Spiders' right?" she asked, moving her hair away from her face.
"Yeah, why?" Theo asked.
"Well I see only one spider." she pointed out.
Theo turned towards his dad, who was already calling some staff. "Don't worry, they'll look into it, just stay away from the case, Gwen, it's dangerous…"
Gwen hummed at Theo's concern. She hugged her textbook, listening to his warning. After that, the crowd moved on, but a certain someone still stayed, seemingly mesmerized by the insects around him.
This certain 'someone' is Peter. He took out his cheap camera, and snapped a couple of pictures of the insects. Without him noticing however, a spider crawled around his arm, dropping from the ceiling.
He was so focused on examining the pictures and looking at the other insects that he didn't notice it, at least, until the spider bit him.
"Ouch!" he winced, slapping the spider that is on his arm, killing it instantly. "W-What was that?"
He looked at the carcass of the spider, and his eyes widened. His gaze turned from the carcass to the spider case, and to the carcass again. The spider looked the same, and he just remembered what Theo had just explained about the 'gruesome' death…
Peter gulped loudly. "O-Oh no…"
"Peter!" a shout came. It was Theo, seemingly waiting for him. "You done yet!?"
"Y-Yeah, coming!" he said, quickly following the crowd once again.
—
After the tour is done, Pluto is taking Gwen, Ned, Theo, and Peter home. The entire time Peter looked nervous, while Theo, who was sitting in the front seat, kept talking to Gwen who was sitting behind him.
Ned noticed that Peter looked nervous as hell, and he whispered to him. "Dude, you okay?"
He scratched the bite wound from the spider. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay…"
Pluto heard it however. He looked from the rear view mirror, and saw that Peter was scratching a wound. "You sure you're okay Peter?"
"Y-Yeah I'm fine Mr. Smith… wait, actually… you remember when Theo said that the spider bite could give the ones who's bitten a gruesome death? Is that really the truth?"
"It depends," said Pluto calmly. "You've been bitten Peter?"
"W-Well…"
Theo sighed when he heard the conversation. "Great…"
---
A/N: Next arc would be the 'Calm Before The Storm', basically, it's the homecoming arc where the focus is Helios, it's around 10 or so chapters I guess, so if you don't like it, just skip this arc, and come back to the next volume, which is 'War Is Eternal', or not, your choice. it's 3 more volumes ;) around 50ish more chapters (51 chapters if nothing's changed), after that this fking thing is finished, don't know if I'll make a sequel, because the ending can't support a sequel unless Theo is the Sequel's MC lol.