Chapter 93: A Bite

New York — Connors' Laboratory — Afternoon

As usual, the laboratory was bathed in a soft yet powerful natural light coming from outside, illuminating every corner of the room. Peter, Gwen, Curtis, and Martha Connors had been working there together for a while now, each at their own station and entirely focused on their own observations, their eyes fixed on a microscope.

The atmosphere was studious and particularly calm, accompanied only by the faint hum of the various devices and the occasional clicking of the equipment they were handling.

On the workbenches surrounding them, several biological samples had been carefully arranged, labeled, and distributed so that each of them could study them.

Their objective for the day seemed simple on the surface, but was much more complicated in practice: understand the particularly unstable nature of the organisms they were observing and discover why their development seemed to encounter so many difficulties.

After spending several more minutes examining her own sample, Martha slightly raised her head and turned her attention toward Gwen.

— "So Gwen, did you find anything?"

— "Well… they seem to multiply at a pretty impressive rate. The only problem is that they die very quickly."

— "How quickly?"

— "They die so quickly that their reproduction rate can't even compensate for the number of deaths. So their population remains constant." 

Martha remained silent for a few moments, thinking about what the young girl had just explained to her before turning her attention toward Peter, who was working nearby.

— "I see… and what about you, Peter? Did you find anything interesting?"

Peter slightly moved his face away from the microscope and gently scratched his head, clearly showing his frustration. Despite all his efforts, his own research didn't seem to have produced any better results.

— "Unfortunately, no, I'm at the same point as Gwen. However, I tried injecting some kind of boost into their organisms, but nothing. Even with that, they're still in the state Gwen described."

— "Hmmm… maybe we should switch things up and try to find something else to inject into them and see what works. It's good to see that they multiply quickly, but if they die as fast as they're born…"

Peter let out a sigh, perfectly understanding where she was going with this.

— "Yeah… it's useless."

A slight expression of discouragement appeared on their faces. After all the time they had just spent studying these organisms, none of them had yet managed to discover anything that could actually solve the problem. Gwen, however, didn't let herself get discouraged for very long and quickly turned her attention toward the last person who hadn't said anything yet.

— "And what about you, Professor Connors? Did you find anything?"

— "It's kind of you to ask, Gwen, but I'm at the same point as you kids. I can't understand it… it's as if, from the moment they're born, their organisms can't adapt to the environment and they're exposed to some kind of intense radiation that kills them within seconds." 

Hearing this, Peter narrowed his eyes slightly. For a moment, he almost felt like dropping to the floor at the sheer scale of the problem they were facing. If even Professor Connors hadn't managed to find a real lead, their research was still far from over.

— "Looks like we're not out of the woods yet…"

— "You can say that again, but we're not going to give up!"

Faced with the scientist's almost immediate optimism, everyone regained a little confidence. Curtis might have been facing the same problem as them, but he seemed absolutely unwilling to let himself get discouraged so easily. His wife was actually the first to share his enthusiasm.

— "Of course!"

Martha then looked up at the clock mounted on one of the laboratory walls, not far from them. When she noticed the time, a small, gentle smile appeared on her face and she immediately turned her attention back toward her husband.

Then, she added:

— "But maybe it's time for us to stop here, don't you think, darling?"

Their eyes met, but Curtis didn't immediately understand what she was trying to make him realize. Martha made a few slight movements with her head and subtly changed her expression, trying to get the message across without having to say anything more.

It took him a few more moments before a sudden spark of realization finally crossed his mind, already greatly occupied by their research.

— "O-Oh, yes, of course!"

Slightly embarrassed to have made the same mistake once again, Curtis discreetly coughed to clear his throat before quickly regaining his composure. He straightened up, then turned his gaze toward his two students with his usual kind smile.

— "Peter, Gwen! Clean up your desks, then you can leave! Oh yeah, and the laboratory will be closed tomorrow, so don't come!"

— "Alright!"

— "Okay!"

While Curtis and Martha moved slightly away to talk quietly in a corner of the laboratory, Peter and Gwen calmly began cleaning up their workstations.

After several hours spent thinking about their samples without managing to obtain the results they had hoped for, the atmosphere gradually relaxed at the thought that their day was finally coming to an end.

But as Gwen calmly put away her things, a sharp, stinging sensation suddenly shot through her left hand.

Out of pure reflex, she immediately slapped the spot where she had just felt the sting, crushing whatever was there before she had even truly understood what had just happened. Surprised, she looked down at her hand and discovered a small spider, now motionless, resting in the palm of her other hand.

— "A spider? But where did it come from…?"

Her gaze almost instinctively turned toward the place where the Connors' experimental spiders were kept. Just like during their first days as interns, several terrariums were set up there, each housing different spiders with particularly varied patterns and colors.

Gwen carefully observed them for a few seconds before beginning to count them.

And very quickly, she noticed something.

One was missing.

For a brief moment, Gwen didn't move an inch. Her gaze remained fixed on the terrariums while her mind seemed to gradually understand what had just happened. She lowered her eyes slightly toward the spider she had just crushed, then looked back at the terrariums.

— "No, wait… it can't be…?"

Memories immediately came rushing back to her: The revelation of Peter's secret, the explanations he had given her about the origin of his abilities, the way everything had begun for him and, above all, what had given him his powers.

A spider from the Connors' laboratory.

A strange pressure immediately began to build inside her, accompanied by a bad feeling she was unable to ignore. Very slowly, almost as if she dreaded what she was about to discover, Gwen lowered her eyes toward the exact spot where the spider had just bitten her.

But before she could truly understand what that meant, something strange began to happen inside her body.

Her heart suddenly sped up. An unusual heat gradually spread through her and a violent wave of nausea suddenly made her feel like vomiting. Her ears began to clog up, gradually muffling the sounds around her, while her vision became increasingly blurry. Gwen tried to remain standing, but her legs began to lose their stability and her body swayed dangerously.

Peter, who was still putting away his own things a few meters away from her, immediately noticed that something was wrong. Seeing Gwen lose her balance, he abruptly abandoned what he was doing and rushed toward her, managing to catch her just before she collapsed to the floor.

— "Gwen!"

Hearing his shout, Curtis and Martha immediately stopped their conversation. Both of them turned toward the teenagers before quickly approaching, discovering Gwen now unconscious in Peter's arms.

TO BE CONTINUED.