Chapter 2: Assaulted

After the round of introductions, Connors finally showed him his team. Edward had six people working underneath him. Sarah, Pedro, Alan, Ines, Lucas and John.

Those six people all had a common point, they were all new like him. The reason Curtis couldn't give this side project to his own assistants was because they were, just like him, experts on reptiles and reptiles only.

So they had to hire a bunch of new people for this side project. The six were also among the only ones who didn't look at Edward with envy, but with praise. This group was restricted to the six of them, Curtis and his lovely wife, Martha. (I swear they are all called Martha…)

Anyway, the six were also all relatively young, most of them had just started working just like him. Connors then led them to a side lab, which would be entirely theirs. In a corner was an office too, which would be Edward's in the future.

Obviously, Edward didn't come here empty handed, and he had already prepared a starting point for them. He looked at his six assistants and said "I hope you all read the papers I sent you by mail."

The six nodded, they didn't want to get fired on their first day.

Edward nodded too and said "Good, we can start to work then. Working on too many species would be useless and redundant, so we have to choose wisely. I decided we would start with arthropods. Start the computers and get familiar with the files Dr Connors sent."

The six replied at the same time "Yes, Dr Bell." and they started working.

Edward couldn't help but smile when he heard them. They all had a Master, while he had a PhD, or Doctorate, meaning they had to call him Doctor.

Doctorates weren't common cabbage, which was also why Edward was hired so quickly. Just finding a Doctorate to work for them is a hard task on itself, even for Oscorp, but to have him target the specific area they wanted to research, they might not have found someone like Edward even in ten years.

While his assistants started working, Edward headed to his office and started working on his own. He had to admit, working in such a lab was much better than what he was used to. Before coming here, he had made many theories about possible paths that could be taken, but he wasn't able to verify many of them.

It wasn't only because of lacking machinery, MIT and the companies where he had his internships also had those. However, he was never able to get the materials, that is the tissues from the different species, they costed quite a lot because of he quantities he needed and how far most of them were.

However, he had access over many types of tissues here in Oscorp, and he also had a huge database to work with. This made his work much easier and much more enjoyable. So much, in fact, that the day passed very quickly for him, so quickly Connors had to come tell him the day was over.

And indeed, now broken out of his focused state, Edward saw it was already dark outside. After quickly thanking the blond man, Edward packed his stuff, leaving some behind for tomorrow and left the tower.

It was currently mid February, so the night was setting in already and it was quite cold. He kind of regretted not taking a warmer jacket.

Only when he came back home did the exhaustion set in, but he hadn't eaten yet, and he was too tired to cook something… He couldn't help but wish he had a chef. When his financial situation got better, maybe he would think about it.

Still, he dragged his tired body to make himself some food before falling into his bed. A few hours later, he woke up, feeling refreshed. He looked out the window, and as expected, it was still night outside.

His sleeping pattern had been shaken because of the jet-lag, so he fell asleep at merely 6.30 pm and woke up during the night, at 4.00 am. It would probably take him a few days to get back to his usual routine.

His day would normally start at 8 am, but since he was awake so early he would do the same as yesterday and head there an hour before, so he still had 2 hours and 45 minutes ahead of him…

Well, he spent all his time on his X-Box 360. What? He liked playing, he couldn't be judged because of that… For two weeks the first DLC of Call of Duty: Black Ops, First Strike, had been released, and with it a new zombie map, Ascension.

He would be betraying his friends if he didn't' play with them, and damn that map was good. As for the multiplayer… Well, fortunately Modern Warfare 2 existed.

Unfortunately, they couldn't finish their game as Edward had to leave for work, much to his friends' anger. But as he left his house, he had a smile on his face. Back when he got into MIT for the first time, it was his childhood friends who helped him psychologically, dealing with a whole new environment all of a sudden wasn't easy.

And today they did the same, it wasn't easy to just arrive in New-York, knowing no one. He couldn't just work all day, and he wouldn't know what to do of his free time, so video games were a great relief.

He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed though as he left his apartment as he did not see the beautiful Diana today. Maybe she already left for work. That idea was scratched off his mind though as he saw her car downstairs, so she probably wasn't gone yet…

Dodge.

Edward suddenly felt a strange feeling, and somehow knew there was a… something, in front of him, so out of instinct he stepped to the side. Only after he dodged did he have the time to turn his head and see he almost bumped into someone.

He was about to apologize for almost bumping into them, but he abruptedly stopped when he saw that person. It was a man, with a hat that barely covered his shocked face. In his hand too, was a scary looking knife that had almost pierced into Edward's stomach.

Once again looking into the man's eyes, Edward panicked, while the man turned ruthless as he once again tried to stab Edward, this time not bothering to hide.

Lower right.

Edward once again felt that strange feeling, and although he wasn't able to follow the speed of the stab because of both shock and his opponent's skill, he still knew where the knife would hit, and awkwardly dodged to the left.

The attacker was shocked to once again miss, he couldn't understand, the target was only supposed to be a nerdy scientist, and his moves showed he never trained, and yet he had already dodged twice. Was the target hiding something, or was he just lucky?

However, as he was thinking to himself, Edward suddenly cried with all his might "HELP!" The attacker was shocked and tried to attack Edward in a frenzy.

The attacker stabbed, slashed and even tried to use his body to attack, but no matter what kind of attack he used, it didn't matter, Edward would dodge them while repeatedly crying for help.

However, no matter how he cried, no one came to his help. Instead, some people watched from afar. Edward was relieved when he saw some take out their phones, but his relief turned into anger when he saw that instead of putting the phone next to their ears, they pointed it toward him… Were those fuckers filming instead of calling the cops!?

Even with his strange instinct, he lost focus because of his anger and he was finally hit, the knife slashing across his chest. Fortunately Edward was still in the process of dodging and the knife didn't go too deep, just enough to cut his flesh a little and make him bleed.

The attacker wasn't finished though and lunged toward Edward, but this time he didn't feel the instinct flare up. For some reason, it had stopped, and amidst his shock he barely had the time to raise his left hand.

The knife, which was going for his throat, pierced through his hand, which allowed him to divert the knife's trajectory a little and making it miss his throat.

For a moment, Edward didn't feel pain in the slightest, and instead felt anger bubbling inside him. The attacker had his knife stuck in Edward's hand, and Edward, under his anger, seized the opportunity.

Unbeknownst to him, his right fist turned a little darker as he smashed it into that man's face. Edward put all the power he could muster in that punch, and the man was forced to release his knife as his face caved in, his nose breaking into pieces, and finally being sent flying backward, dropping the knife.

After punching the man, a part of Edward's anger disappeared, allowing him to regain some of brains, and he realized that punch was weird. He knew himself well, exercise wasn't his thing, and he didn't have much strength, or he wouldn't have needed help when he moved in.

But blood sprayed from his attacker's face, he saw a few teeth on the ground and just the fact he was sent flying backwards was incredible.

However, he didn't have much time to think as his attacker got back up, holding his face with one hand, blood dripping, and his eyes bloodshot. He growled something Edward couldn't even understand because of the broken teeth and jaw apparently, but the other guy suddenly took out a gun.

Left Lung.

Much to Edward's relief, the voice once again sounded in his mind, and so he purposefully dropped toward the right. However, a dark brick like object suddenly appeared in Edward's eyes, and it flew at a quick speed toward his attacker's head.

The latter didn't even see it coming as it smashed into his head. Coupled with the earlier punch, he was straight out knocked unconscious. However, he was able to pull the trigger at the last moment.

The shot finally alarmed everyone around, be it those who were watching or those further away, the shot shocked them all.

As he hit the ground, Edward felt a sudden pain from his left hand, and saw he used it to stop his fall, but because of the adrenaline blocking his pain, he forgot he was stabbed earlier.

He winced at the pain, but at the same moment he was relieved. If he could feel the pain, and only felt his hand, then it meant the shot had missed.

"Are you okay?" Edward looked up and saw his saviour… Diana. Edward grunted and said "I would gladly pretend and say I'm fine, but DAMN getting stabbed hurts."

Diana smiled and said "I will assume you aren't in fatal danger if you can joke with me."

Edward eyed her for a second and said "Don't underestimate me." before falling on his back. Diana hurried to his side, but saw he was still awake, a smile on his lips. He fooled her.

Diana pinched his side and said "Don't move, I will call the cops… and an ambulance." She ran toward the fallen attacker, and took back the dark brick.

Seeing what it was, Edward smiled mysteriously and said "I see you own mankind's most powerful weapon?"

Diana looked at him puzzled, was he raving because of the loss of blood?

However, she almost smacked his head when she heard his next words "The Nokia 3310…"