37: Apex
"I know you said I shouldn't worry, but I'm really concerned. I don't want to doubt you, Carol, but..." Chloe didn't know how to put it into words.
What do you say to your best friend when she confesses that she's been using you as an excuse for a while to meet up with someone else? An older guy, no less.
It sounded like one of those cheesy teen dramas that usually ended very badly for the girl.
"But nothing, Chloe, you promised me you wouldn't say anything," Carol said with a frown. She really had been using Chloe too much as an excuse, something that only worked for so long because for most of her life, Chloe had been the only person Carol would go out with or hang out with.
Her parents knew Chloe perfectly and treated her like another daughter. Besides, Carol had never lied or hidden anything from them before, so they didn't think she was lying when she said she was spending time with Chloe.
Of course, a lie like that would fall apart sooner or later if, for some reason, her parents decided to call Chloe to ask about her and she couldn't lie properly. So Carol knew she had to tell Chloe about this at some point but had never found the opportunity until now.
Well, the opportunity had come, and she hoped Chloe would be on her side here.
The blonde girl bit her lip as she gripped the steering wheel of her car. They were on their way to Carol's house after a few hours of talking at the café where they'd been earlier. Carol had told her many things during that time.
Things that made her worry, mainly because Carol had omitted many things or explained them differently from how they actually happened to protect Daniel's true identity and, in turn, her own.
From Chloe's perspective, her friend had been tricked by an older guy with money. She still remembered how the guy dropped $100 without blinking before leaving, not to mention how Carol talked about how he had "given" her several things.
Of course, Chloe couldn't know that Carol was mainly referring to the suit he made for her as well as the trench coat. She was vague about it for obvious reasons.
So, Chloe was in a dilemma. On the one hand, she had promised Carol to stay quiet and not say anything. On the other hand, her more protective side was burning with rage for not being able to prevent her friend from falling into the sinister clutches of a clearly ill-intentioned guy who had come from the city and used his dirty tactics to sweet-talk her and clearly take advantage of her naivety.
Of course, if Chloe knew that it was actually Carol who wanted to take advantage of Daniel, she would probably be stunned.
"Fine, but you have to be careful, do you hear me? If he does something or tries to make you do something—" she tried to warn, but Carol interrupted her.
"I already told you that's not how it is!" Carol wanted to sigh in frustration.
'Yes, he's completely brainwashed her,' Chloe gritted her teeth, seeing her friend so defensive.
Soon they arrived at the driveway to Carol's house, where Mr. Kent was looking off into the distance, distracted. When he saw Carol arrive with Chloe, he couldn't help but sigh in relief and waved in their direction.
Seeing her father at the door of her house, Carol frowned. He had been increasingly stressed with each new piece of news about the changes happening in the world.
He needed to relax. Honestly, she didn't understand why he was so worried. Sure, the world was a bit chaotic, but it was fine. Daniel was there to keep it together, and in a way, so was she.
Before getting out of the car, she turned to Chloe one last time, looking at her seriously.
Feeling her gaze, Chloe let out a long sigh before speaking.
"I won't say anything," she finally said, making Carol smile and, for the first time, move closer to give her a light hug.
"Thank you," she whispered sincerely, making Chloe feel bittersweet.
The first time her friend showed her physical affection, and it was because she agreed to cover up her secret affair with an older guy... what a joy.
"See you in class," Carol said goodbye, walking toward her house, leaving Chloe alone, watching her walk away.
'I'm already regretting this.' She couldn't betray Carol. Carol had trusted her, but she would be a terrible friend if she didn't at least make sure she wasn't in danger. So she would have to do it her way.
By investigating this guy and seeing what he was after.
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"How was your day with Chloe? I hope she's feeling better; she seemed pretty affected by what happened," her mother asked while serving dinner at the table with her help.
"She's better. She adapts quickly; something like that won't hold her back for long," she replied distractedly. Of course, Chloe had been affected, but that wouldn't stop her easily, especially when it was somewhat related to her dream of becoming a journalist.
"That's good. With school starting again, I was worried she'd still be upset," her mother commented as everyone sat at the table. Her father, who had been silent, picked up the TV remote and turned it on, making her mother frown.
"The question is, will these incidents continue to happen? Experts predict that the emergence of special individuals like Defiant and, to some extent, Tony Stark with his alter ego Iron Man, marks the beginning of a new wave of super individuals. Rumors about monsters attacking people, which were once considered mere tales, can no longer be dismissed, not to mention the series of strange incidents that have been increasing as the days go by. Witnesses claim that—"
"Jonathan, why don't we skip the news for today?" Her husband's new habit of watching the news almost all the time had been worrying the woman.
Hearing his wife, Jonathan frowned but didn't take his eyes off the TV.
Seeing the situation, Carol decided it was time to intervene. She didn't know exactly what to do, but she would at least try to do something.
In a blink, the remote was in her hand, and the TV was off. Her father looked at his empty hand, confused for a moment, before looking at her with clear annoyance.
"Carol, what—"
"I think you need to stop," she quickly interrupted him.
"Dad, I know you worry a lot about me, I really do, but you need to go back to being how you were before. Continuing to act like this won't make things different, and it won't help me if I'm really in trouble," she said seriously, and Jonathan was silent for a moment.
"Honey, she's right. The world isn't what it used to be, and acting all paranoid and stressed about it isn't helping us. You need to go back to being who you were before," Martha added, deciding to support her daughter.
For his part, Jonathan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was this an intervention? He wanted to argue, to make his case, but seeing their worried expressions, he couldn't do it.
Had he really been acting that badly?
But how could he avoid it? How could he go back to feeling safe when the world seemed to get stranger and more dangerous every day? By trusting Defiant? That billionaire playboy Tony Stark?
Jonathan wouldn't even trust them with the fertilizer for his fields.
"Listen, Dad, I'm not a little girl anymore. I know you want to protect me, but... I don't need it."
At his daughter's words, Jonathan frowned deeply. She didn't need it? What kind of daughter didn't need her father? And more importantly, what kind of father couldn't protect his daughter?
He couldn't help but bury his face in his hands, feeling the helplessness wash over him once more. Jonathan had been raised as a country man, and as a country man, he felt like he was failing his family.
Seeing him like that, Martha sighed. She understood what her husband was going through, but just because she understood didn't mean she would let it continue.
Her daughter was right; this needed to stop before it started causing them problems.
"Carol, why don't you go to your 'fortress' for a while? I need to talk to your father."
Hearing her tone, Carol knew that this time her mother was ready to really step in, so she decided to give them their space.
"Of course." She took her plate, stood up, and began heading to the barn to finish her dinner there, leaving her parents alone to talk freely.
Of course, that was when she heard the air shifting in the sky and the familiar sound of heartbeats—one that couldn't have come at a better time. With a smile on her face, Carol changed direction without hesitation and started heading toward Daniel's farm with a spring in her step.
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Daniel entered his workshop without hesitation, his mind filled with various thoughts. His conversation with Harleen had given him some ideas about his next course of research regarding the transformation of humans into monsters and how an emotional trigger might be causing this.
Of course, it was all still theories and hypotheses that needed more research, more examples—examples he believed he would soon see one way or another.
Even so, it wasn't something he could rush, so he just had to be patient—something frustrating but that he could grudgingly accept.
When he entered and saw the device he had left working, he approached it without hesitation, verifying that the scan had been completed properly—not just once but several times. After all, he had left the device running beyond the initial two hours it needed, so it had been repeating the scan as he had programmed it to do in case he didn't return in time, thereby obtaining a more detailed mapping of the area where the kryptonite was present.
Seeing the map and the calculated amount left him with a dry mouth.
Collecting that much could take more than a day.
"You're back!" Carol's excited voice echoed. She entered the workshop as if it were her own home but immediately frowned for two different reasons.
The first was seeing the kryptonite sample carefully placed inside the antenna Daniel had designed, which acted as a sample to search for similar radioactive signatures in the surroundings.
The second was because she caught a whiff of an unpleasantly familiar scent on him—one she recognized as belonging to an annoying blonde.
"Well, you're here, look at this." Daniel approached her with the tablet in his hands, showing her the map of Smallville and its surroundings, along with markers of the locations where the most kryptonite had been detected.
"These should be the places where the meteorites hit the hardest and weren't cleaned up afterward. There's at least several tons of kryptonite scattered throughout this region. It'll take some time to gather it all and take it to the fortress. I'll have to start soon if I want to collect it all before the week is over."
Carol distractedly looked at the map, not knowing exactly what to say. Should she be angry? Happy? Jealous? She decided that being angry and jealous was useless for now. Instead, she focused on feeling pleased to see Daniel working so hard to help her.
Then she processed what he had said—Several tons?!
"T-That's a lot of kryptonite," she couldn't help but comment, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Yes, I didn't expect there to be so much around here. I still don't know how much more might be scattered across the country or around the world. I suppose we'll find out once I build a larger scanner." The prospect was a bit unsettling, and Carol couldn't help but feel even more grateful to Daniel. Without him, who knows how much trouble she might have gotten into with so much kryptonite out there.
Yes, looking at Daniel, she couldn't help but smile. Her father was worrying for nothing—after all, she already had someone to protect her.
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"Combination of genetic traits between species successfully completed."
Dr. Curt Connors took several steps back, his body trembling as he saw the message on the central laboratory computer screen.
He couldn't believe it—he had succeeded and was one step closer to achieving his goal!
"I need to report this!" He nervously searched for his phone, thinking about everything this meant.
Things had been tense—very tense. Oscorp Industries had nearly plunged into crisis when Tony Stark returned. It seemed like the opportunity that had knocked on their door just a few months ago was slipping away, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Until the very day of his return, the man announced the complete withdrawal of Stark Industries from the military market. Stark Industries' stocks plummeted, and the military, which had previously been hesitant about whether cooperating with companies other than Stark Industries was a good idea, now began actively looking at other options.
Oscorp Industries seized the opportunity without hesitation to renegotiate the nearly expired military contract that had been hanging over their heads like a guillotine, giving them room to maneuver and extra time—time they undoubtedly needed, time that Connors needed.
If he had been under the same time constraints that Norman had initially given him, Connors would have surely failed.
His experiments with genetically modified spiders had been an absolute disaster at the beginning.
Of the 52 specimens that had been successfully created years ago by Richard Parker, more than 47 had died in the numerous processes Connors conducted to learn more about the successful method Richard used to modify them genetically.
And although he had discovered a few things, he was still at a dead end regarding many crucial aspects of the process, which frustrated him. He was down to only five spiders; he couldn't keep killing them to learn more, so he had to work with what he had, hoping it would be enough.
It wasn't.
The first two spiders he tried to fuse with other species died horribly.
None managed to acquire the genetic traits of regeneration provided by the lizard, and instead, their genetic structure collapsed with no chance of recovery.
This left him with only three spiders...
Curt couldn't keep taking risks; he needed to do something, to find a way for the spiders to survive the process at all costs. As long as he could make some progress, as long as he could show results, Norman would surely see the possibilities... The man convinced himself that he wouldn't be thrown out on the street, and all his research discarded as long as he had something to show.
Therefore, he changed his focus. He needed to make the spiders strong, resilient, and adaptable, capable of enduring the process of interspecies genetic combination as best as possible.
So he went back to basics: genetic modification within the same species.
This was something that had already been successfully achieved a long time ago and was the foundation on which his research was based.
He took the three remaining spiders and began modifying them slightly at first, adding the genetic traits they lacked from each other. After all, although the 52 spiders had been modified in the same basic way, each was designed with different genetic traits.
Some were stronger, some faster, some had better venom, or better camouflage.
Some were a mix of all these traits or various others.
Not anymore. The remaining three spiders were given everything that the other 49 had possessed—a risky process, but one that was completely successful and without complications, likely thanks to the mysterious method Richard Parker had used to create them in the first place.
Thus, three apex individuals were born, monsters among monsters, spiders unlike any seen before, with the best that their species could offer, all perfectly combined within their genetic chain.
If Connors had to compare them, he would say they were the super-soldiers of spiders, only much more beyond that.
They had a wingspan of 15 centimeters, with red and blue colors that glowed with exotic patterns on their bodies.
A super-species had been born, and Connors could only admire it for a moment before deciding to destroy it.
Because that's what happened: when he began integrating the lizard's genetic trait into them, the two chosen spiders died immediately.
The apex of their species was destroyed in seconds...
In absolute desperation, Connors made a final attempt to investigate their remains to see where he had gone wrong, what he had done wrong.
He was missing something, but he couldn't see what it was.
With his desperation at its peak and nothing left to lose, he pulled out the old notes Oscorp had on the first super soldier.
Captain America.
He tirelessly read every document available, every speculation, the step-by-step process that had been carried out.
"Radiation? Vita rays?" A stabilizing energy, used to enhance the serum's effects...
The Vita radiation was something that had been discovered a long time ago, mainly used to create the first super soldier. But after the project failed with the death of Dr. Erskine and the loss of the serum, it was set aside, rarely used over time.
"It could... it could work." After all, the project had originally been conceived as an attempt to recreate the super soldier serum, albeit taking a different path. Although radiation had been considered initially, it was quickly dismissed due to its various drawbacks. But now... now Connors saw no other option.
Without hesitation, he requested a Vita ray generator, which Oscorp had on hand as it was one of the first devices they recreated when the project for a new super soldier serum began. Even if it was later discarded, the generator was still kept in their warehouses, gathering dust.
Once he had it in his hands, he created a metal capsule following the same parameters as the one used to create Captain America, only spider-sized.
It took him several days to get everything ready, but once he did, he began the process once again.
He injected the lizard serum into the spider while simultaneously imbued it with overflowing Vita radiation. For a moment, the entire lab was flooded with a blinding yellow light, then it stopped, and Connors looked at the capsule with his heart in his throat.
He waited, waited until the scanner finished working, and then the announcement came.
"Combination of genetic traits between species successfully completed."
His knees trembled, he felt his heart start beating strongly once more, and he almost felt tears of joy welling up in his eyes.
Then, he quickly reached for his phone to notify of his success, rushing out of the lab, trusting that the capsule would keep his test subject safe.
But, when the lab was left alone, a creaking sound was heard. There was a flash, like electricity, followed by the sound of metal tearing.
Two hairy front legs tore an opening in the metal of the capsule easily, and faster than the eye could catch, a web shot upward, followed by a small, glowing eight-legged figure that stuck to the lab's ceiling.
It remained still for a moment, and if anyone had been there to see it, they would have been stunned to witness how the air rippled and the figure seemed to disappear entirely as if it had become invisible.
The only sign that it had ever been there was the thin strand of web now swaying in the wind.
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Note:
Of course, leave your newly finished experiment alone, what could possibly go wrong?
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