The Heist, Problems And Earning Some Cash

Tonight was the night. A few days of constant surveillance over Oscorp while practicing my powers semi-religious had let me feel at least somewhat prepared for the act of stealing the Oz Serum. I'd even got some practice in web-slinging after I brought myself a balaclava and other appropriate clothing.

Budget spider suit, anyone? I'll sell it after I'm famous. Sure to make that big bucks from it.

Jokes aside, I'd done as much preparation as I could in such a short amount of time and now I was going for it. So, here I am, on the tallest building next to Oscorp.

...Sounds kinda like the set-up to a joke to my mind but that's just how my mind works in high-pressure scenarios. Makes me try and quip every few seconds or as much as possible. A blessing and a curse. Peculiarities aside, right now, I was stretching - it's always important to limber up - and getting myself ready to slingshot myself to the top of Oscorp tower.

Ready, I aimed my wrists at the ledge of the building I was on and shot some web at it while holding it real tight. Then I began walking back across the roof. True to the hype of what that scientist/guide said, the web grew taut but didn't snap or come off of the ledge it was attached to.

Once my feet reached the opposite end, I took a deep breath before letting myself get flung. I felt like an angry bird or something, let me tell you that.

The sudden acceleration alone would've killed most people, I know that much. But me? It felt like I'd just turned myself into a pebble in a slingshot. I rocketed forward so fast I must've blurred and soon I was well past the roof I'd originally been on. Bad thing about Oscorp tower? Every building near it was at least one hundred meters away from it, Oscorp having brought every bit of available land to keep other buildings from getting too near it.

And unless I wanted to get caught for wall-crawling up the side of the building from the bottom - that'd take a long time as well - I needed to turn myself into a human-spider rocket. I could've webbed my way up there but even that would've taken a decent bit of time.

I wanted to be in and out as fast as possible. So human-spider rocket was the only plan.

Crossing the distance only took a few seconds and by the time I was nearing Oscorp my momentum was tittering, so I shot another web as high as it could go - to the ledge of the top of the Oscorp building. I'd worked this stuff out, trust me. Once it attached, I grabbed it with both hands and yanked as hard as I could, flying straight up instead of horizontally like I had been.

Towards the top, I placed a hand on the window, activating my wall-crawling abilities ever so slightly to slow down my ascent. As I neared where my web was, I let go of the wall and made a beautiful arc before landing on the roof.

"...And ten points to Spider-Man for the beautiful display of acrobatics," I mumbled to myself as I balanced on the vent I'd landed on, "I hear he's aiming for the 2008 Olympics." Pushing my jokes aside and calming myself, I placed a hand on the grate below me and pulled it off courtesy of my ability to stick to things, even through the gloves I was wearing. Taking a deep breath, I crawled into the vent just like my arachnid ancestors and thus began my journey deep into the bowels of Oscorp.

It was a tight fit, don't get me wrong, but the vents were surprisingly bigger than I expected. Even easier to fit through than my plans accounted for. I was expecting I'd have to brute force my way through them but I could deal with it purely with my flexibility and ability to fit into small places.

I crawled and crawled, fitting into vents and taking twists and turns and mentally measured out the distance I was travelling. What I was aiming for was the 60th floor. Each floor was a standard size of about 15/16 feet, so I only had to measure out that much and I knew approximately what floor I was on. When I felt like I was on the right floor, I removed a vent and peeked my head into the room. Opaque glass? Check. Scientific equipment everywhere? Check. Mysterious chamber filled with vials of green liquid? Check. I'd arrived on the 60th floor.

Getting out of the vent, I stuck to the ceiling and skittered across it in a way that would make the spider who bit me proud. I made my way across the the chamber and lowered myself on a web before getting in front of a console.

Surprisingly lacking when it came to security. Only needed a password and a complex pattern put into it. No vocal password or eye scan. I guess they must have more security and decided to skimp out on this part, huh? I hadn't set off anything to my knowledge yet so I was good. Taking my index finger and thumb, I slowly unscrewed the screws holding the console together until it came off.

Sticking it to the chamber with webs, I turned my attention back to what was below it. Wires. My worst enemy. I went through the wires and thanked that it was labelled for people who had to repair it and began yanking wires that related to the door function. This was way too easy, right? I mean, this is a multi-billion dollar company we're talking about--And it's open. Wow. Would've come here earlier if I knew it was this easy.

I still didn't touch the floor and instead crawled into the chamber by it's walls before I began picking up enough Oz Serum for my needs. The vials weren't small - you'd need two hands to carry it. Each vial carried about a litre of the green substance inside it. So, I picked up three and decided it was enough.

Backtracking, I closed the chamber door, refitted the console and then made my way back to the vents. I was getting a bad vibe, one I didn't know if it came from this being too easy or if my spider-sense had actually picked up on something important that I'd missed but either way I made my escape with much more vigour and speed than before.

I'd webbed the three vials together and then webbed them further into a protective cocoon which I then stuck to my face. What? It was the only place I could put it and still fit into the vents. Don't blame me, blame vent manufacturers.

Towards the top of the tower, I began hearing alarms and guessed someone had noticed I'd been where I had, somehow. But I focused and soon found myself out on top of the Oscorp building.

Doing the same slingshot maneuver as before and I quickly got away.

I landed on a building - not the same one I'd came from before - and looked back to Oscorp. I saw I wasn't the one who'd tripped the alarms. It was someone quickly making an escape on a zipline from a floor a few levels lower than the one I'd been on. Enhanced sense of sight and all that jazz, I could see they were carrying some stacks of paper. Probably research or something similar.

I mentally debated on whether to go over and stop them but after a while I just realized it'd be pretty hypocritical of me and left. Plus, I had some pretty important cargo with me so it'd be stupid to risk losing that stuff.

Making my way through the city with my webs, I made a beeline straight for that same warehouse I'd first tested my powers out. I'm not taking this stuff home, what if it has a tracker in it? Or on it? What if it has radiation marking on it so it can be found in case someone steals it? It'd be a massive lack of insight to think Oscorp would let people have a secret military project. At least with the warehouse, it has no ties to me personally.

Over the last few days, I'd, uh, 'borrowed' some equipment from nearby labs and from my school. Uncle Ben would be disappointed but I'll just have to shoulder that if he ever finds out. My resolve isn't weak enough to be deterred by just that. Not now. Not with what I know is at stake.

Landing to the floor just outside the warehouse, I didn't stop and just walked in, making my way straight for the furthest corner of the warehouse.

Once there I bent down and placed my hand on top of the floor that looked no different than any other part...and pulled. The concrete that made up the floor slowly rose, the weakened substance that looked like concrete around it's edges falling apart - it's mind-boggling how much you can do with my intelligence and access to basic chemicals - and finally my own little spider cave's entrance was open for me to see.

I dropped down into it, webbing the cover of concrete and dragging it back into place as I fell down.

What's this? Something I dug out in about an afternoon. Spider strength and the fact my nails are as sharp as razor blades and more durable than most metals, goes a long way. Let me tell you this; if superhero stuff doesn't work out, I have a very bright future as a human excavator.

I'd made sure it wouldn't collapse in on itself by using some of the better quality steel girders for supports alongside wooden scaffolding to further support it. This place is only a temporary thing but in the future I'll make sure to have something a little more high-tech than an underground hidey-hole. I have some plans for money-making but I've got better things to think about right now.

Looking around, I saw the battery-powered lamps were still running, which was good. I could've ran them on a generator...but I am in a hole underground and gasoline isn't cheap. I keep the generator for more important stuff - like running the machines down here.

This entire place had been planned out by me a week after the merger. I knew I'd have the strength to do it on my own, so I'd made preparations. Not to mention I figured out all the machines I'd need to fix the Oz Serum and where to find them. Didn't just figure this stuff out on the fly after getting my spider powers - it took a lot of planning. I have the blueprints to prove it.

Anyway, the generator is situated a bit deeper into the cave I'd made and had appropriate venting to stop the build up of carbon monoxide and fumes, so it was fine. Gasoline still isn't cheap though.

Walking over to a chair I'd placed here a few days ago, I sat down on it and dragged it across the wooden flooring I'd moved down here. Not the best fitting you'd find but I liked it enough so I let it go for now. Tearing the cocoon with the Oz Serum in it off my balaclava, I place it down on the desk and began extracting the vials from the cocoon. Before long I had three big vials of the serum in front of me. Picking up one of them, I fiddled with the advanced container for a little while before figuring out how to open it.

From that point on, the game was on. Had to figure out the formula for the serum, what was going wrong in it, how to fix what was going wrong with it, how it reacted to my DNA, what'd it do to my enhanced spider DNA--a whole bunch of science-y problems.

So, I got to it. I brought over smaller vials and poured equal parts of the container in my hands into the smaller vials. I only had so much to work with, so I had to do this in a conservative manner.

...All in all, I'd say I'll crack the serum in about a week's time.

Plenty of time before Green Goblin starts doing anything too radical but I'll keep my eye out for now. If he springs up, I'll be out to stop him--classic stuff, really. For now, however, I tore off one of my gloves and bit the end of my thumb hard enough to draw blood before letting a drop or two fall onto a slide before putting it under a microscope. Then I took a pipette and took a drop of Oz Serum from one of the smaller vials.

I needed to see what'd it do without any work done to it so I can know what I'm working toward. Dropping the Oz Serum onto the slide, I put my eye to the microscope lens and waited for the reaction.

Everything seemed fine at first. Great, even. As the cells drunk the serum and seemed to get slightly bigger, denser and even began persisting longer than blood cells should. The Oz Serum seemed to extend cell life, which is good. I guess you could even hypothesize that it'd speed up cell division and lend quicker healing and a faster metabolism than normal. Even for my superhuman healing and metabolism. But then the bad things started.

The blood cells began mutating and stopped being, well, uniform. Each blood cell was changed different. Some got smaller, some got bigger, some of them only got wider...then odd green cracks began to form on the blood. Then the blood exploded.

...Well, that's not good. Definitely don't want that happening on a full body scale.

Sighing, I pulled my eyes away from the microscope lens, knowing I had a lot of work to do.

. . .

A week in and I knew I'd underestimated the challenge. I'd made more progress than I had any right to as just one person working on a project that must've taken dozens of people to complete, even if incorrectly. But the perfected version of the Oz Serum was harder to reach than I'd originally thought.

I'd sorted out the cell explosion problem but with that it left two major problems found in the rats I'd tested it on. 1) Aggression in creatures that take the serum is amped up massively. 2) They go batshit crazy. I can't be having that unless I want to turn myself from what I am into some sort of rage monster who has a broken mind.

It's not all bad though. I've figured out why it has those effects. The effects happen because the serum messes with the brain - changing and twisting the amygdala so much that you react to things in such an exaggerated and aggressive way. These changes don't just stop there and affect the entire brain, basically crippling the creature's sanity. Granted this change does come with a degree of enhancement to intelligence...but it's most certainly linked to the twisting of the mind.

Basically, you can't have one without the other.

The problem I have is figuring out how to have it effect the body and my human DNA but not effect the brain and my spider DNA. Because the latter of which is what forces the cells into exploding.

And I don't know what the outcome would be if I tried to enhance the already very potent spider DNA with something like the Oz Serum, perfected or not. I've come to the conclusion that I should use the serum to try and balance out my two sides - right now I have enhanced spider DNA but normal human DNA. My goal with the Oz Serum is to change that human DNA into enhanced human DNA.

Obviously that's much easier said than done. Having it effect a certain part of my genetics while avoiding an entire other part and not messing with my brain...it's hard. But definitely possible. Certain tests and theoretical estimates have show it should be possible.

That aside, I've been training my powers and trying to improve on what's already there. My body hasn't been taken to it's peak right now, so it's actually probably best that I haven't figured out the Oz Serum just yet, and I'm trying to get it there. This is a hell of a lot simpler than figuring out the serum but it's equally as hard. I mean, how am I supposed to exercise when lifting a bus isn't that hard for me? I've tested it and lifting that sucker was way too easy.

It strained my arms a little sure but in the same way a shopping bag filled with heavy stuff would strain your arms. My exact physical limits are still unknown to me but I'm slowly but surely exploring them. I can only hope it's prove fruitful.

What am I doing now? I'm, uh, I'm blowing off some steam. And earning money.

"Next!" the lady at the desk called and I stepped forward, letting her cast an eye across me and in return she looked up and cocked an eyebrow at me, "You sure you're meant to be here, pretty boy? You look more like a model than a wrestler, sweetie," she joked as she gestured to my costumed form. Can't exactly blame her - while, yeah, I'm muscular, my form is pretty lithe when compared to some dude called Bonesaw who definitely takes all sorts of steroids.

(A/n - I'm just joking, I love you Macho Man Randy Savage. RIP, brother.)

"Yeah, I'm sure this is for me," I said, smiling behind my mask. I wasn't wearing a proper Spider-Man costume but you can bet your bottom dollar that it's better than the one from my memories about Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.

Yet it was still pretty lacking when compared to the real costume I had in the works. It was basically a stretchy red body suit and mask with a blue hoodie pulled over the top. Sleeves were gone too. Spray painted a spider over the front as well--so yeah, I just ripped off Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider costume. But can you blame me? It's super easy to make! And it looks kinda cool. Has this whole rough edge to it that makes me seem like a hero but not so much like a hero that I'm going away from my roots or something--

"Okay. You understand the NYWL is not responsible for any injury you may and probably will sustain in said event?" she filled me in while her eyes wandered down my form. I get it lady, I'm shredded like a model, but my eyes are up here.

"Yes ma'am," I nodded, still smiling behind the mask. She gave a sad look to me like I was gonna die or something and then gestured with her head toward the side, signalling that was the way to go. As I walked away she muttered something about, ahem, my rear but I ignored and continued onward. Just keep smiling and walking, Parker, just keep walking.

I continued walking and was soon stopped by some sort of stage hand while I heard the man on the microphone speak, "If he can withstand just three minutes!" he said, extra emphasis on that last part before he continued on, "In the cage with Bonesaw McGraw, the sum of three-thousand dollars with be paid to--" he stopped just next to me and whispered away from the mic, "What's your name, kid?" he asked in a hurried manner.

"Spider-Man," I answered, thinking about the shock some of these people will have when I start slinging webs and stopping crime in the near future. Hell, some of them will probably go to the Bugle with the story--the start of the menace, Spider-Man. Or at least that's how it'll be sold.

Holding back a chuckle to a joke nobody else would get, the man nodded to me and pulled the mic back to his face as he yelled, "The sum of three-thousand dollars will be paid to...the terrifying, the deadly...the amazing Spider-Man!"

Hearing it be called out, I waited for the screen to be pulled up and once it was, I walked that catwalk with confidence I definitely did not feel. Sure, I knew I could beat the guy but this many people looking at me with the intensity these guys are? Man, it makes my skin crawl. Nonetheless, I raised my hands up and flexed my rather impressive musculature, playing to the crowd. Bonesaw's lady friends trashtalked me a little and the crowd was chanting 'Kill' but I think deep down, they all love me, really. Definitely.

Getting to the ring, I grabbed the rope that lined it and pulled myself up and over it, landing steadily on the slightly bouncy floor of the ring. Then the cage began lowering from the top. Once fully descended, the guy with the mic spoke again.

"Will the guards please lock the cage doors at this time?" he spoke in a very foreboding manner. Is this a death match or something? Dial it down, dude. Damn.

Either way, exaggerated or not, Bonesaw stepped up to me and squared off.

He was an imposing guy, stacked with thick bands of muscle and about two or so inches taller than me. If I were a normal guy, I'd definitely be pissing in my suit. Potential accidents aside, Bonesaw spoke in a purposefully louder voice so the crowd could here, "Hah! Another coward who covers his face," he taunted, working up the crowd before turning back to me and jabbing a finger at me, "Freak show, Imma squash you like a bug and send you crying back to mommy, you hear?!"

"Arachnid," I corrected on instinct before taking a step closer to him, "And look who's calling me a freak? A walking steroid. Get a mirror and look in it, buddy - what do they say again? People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones or something like that?"

The guy's veins bulged even more than they already were - should that even be possible or healthy? - and he stepped to me so that we were face to face as the crowd 'Ooh'd at what I'd said, "I've got you for three minutes. Three minutes of playtime! I'm gonna enjoy this, ya little twerp!"

"Just giving off all sorts of bad vibes here, Mr. Bonesaw. Question: You ever thought of becoming a catholic priest? I think it'd suit you," I quipped and then the bell rang.

I dodged back from the slap that was coming my way, too slow to even think of touching me, followed up by a shoulder check that I sidestepped. I tripped his passing form quite easily and he sprawled across the floor like a starfish. The crowd went quiet before bursting into cheers - that's the thing about crowds like this, they don't care who's winning. Just that it's entertaining.

Bonesaw threw himself up and looked at me with bewildered yet angry eyes and lowered his stance into a more serious one, arms raised high and ready to charge at me for a grab/submission.

...I didn't wanna embarrass him but I did need to last for three minutes, right? For the money? Money I could use for a new suit, maybe even a motorbike and for equipment to help crack the problems with the Oz Serum? Yep. So, sorry, Bonesaw. I'm gonna have to drag this out and make it embarrassing. So...sorry, Mr. Bonesaw.