"Long time no see, Peter! What's this?"
"Uh, nothing!" Peter jumped, startled, nearly leaping to the ceiling.
"Hey, Harry! It's been ages, I almost didn't recognize you! Aren't you at boarding school?" he said, hastily tossing the sketchbook behind his back and leaning against the doorframe to block Harry's view into his room.
Harry took the bait, but didn't give Peter the full story. "Ben called me, so I came out for a bit. That place is like a prison."
"We haven't seen much of you since your dad sent you off!"
Peter was clearly thrilled to see his old friend again. If his room wasn't a mess of half-finished superhero gear, he'd have invited him right in.
"How about we play some games?" he suggested, stepping out and quickly closing the door behind him. "Ben borrowed a new game from a classmate the other day."
"A new game? Awesome! I'd even have fun playing Pong right now!" Harry nodded eagerly, then finally took a good look at Peter. Now it was his turn to be surprised. "Peter, you've gotten a lot taller!"
Peter looked very different from what he remembered.
For starters, he wasn't the scrawny kid anymore. Peter was now almost taller than Harry and seemed much more solidly built. He'd also gotten rid of his glasses.
"Did you get laser eye surgery?"
"No, just contacts," Peter said quickly.
He hurriedly led Harry to Ben's room, pushed the door open, and booted up Ben's computer.
He felt a little bad about using Ben's stuff without asking, but he needed to distract Harry, and this was the only way.
"Hey, where is Ben, anyway?"
"Downstairs, I saw him heading to the kitchen," Harry said, gripping the game controller like a steering wheel, his eyes practically glued to the screen. "Hurry up, Peter!"
Harry urged him on.
Even though the gaming setup at his house was far superior to Ben's computer in terms of specs and graphics, for some reason, playing games at home felt dull to him now.
But here, before the game had even started, he was already impatient and even a little nervous.
Clearly, he hadn't yet realized that the best part of gaming wasn't the hardware, but the company.
A little while later, Ben came upstairs carrying three glasses of juice.
Watching Peter and Harry, completely absorbed in their game, he felt a bit like their chaperone...
"Come play, Ben!" Peter had initially just wanted to divert Harry's attention from his room, but now he was fully immersed in the game himself.
"I've got other things to do. You two have fun," Ben said, putting the drinks down and leaving the room.
He wasn't lying. He genuinely had a lot on his plate. Now that he'd "secured" the investment from Harry, a mountain of tedious tasks lay ahead.
"The money from Harry isn't enough to buy a building. I need to figure out how to get my own lab. And once we have a product, we need distribution channels, or at least a way to build a reputation."
Inside Greymatter's brain was a wealth of knowledge about advanced weaponry, but Ben had no intention of developing it, at least not for sale.
Even though Stark Industries' exit from the weapons market had left a huge vacuum, Ben couldn't bring himself to sell weapons, especially not to the U.S. military.
"A lab, market research, marketing... Better to start with something for civilian use."
"That way, the equipment doesn't need to be top-of-the-line." Ben thought about it. With the nanotech project on hold for now, he wouldn't need extremely precise instruments, which would save a significant amount of money.
"The consumer electronics in this world aren't very advanced."
Both Ben's computer and phone were relatively outdated models.
After all, this world was still in 2008. Apple was only on its second-generation iPhone. Truth be told, he had a ton of novel ideas he could implement.
"But I need to move fast. In a few years, all sorts of bizarre tech will start popping up."
Before Tony Stark became Iron Man, the world's publicly known technology wasn't too outrageous.
But after Loki's failed invasion of New York with the Chitauri army, the leftover alien tech would cause an explosive leap in Earth's technological development.
Thinking of the Chitauri, Ben sighed again.
"Thanos is also a problem. I wonder if this world will follow the movie universe I know."
He didn't dwell on it for too long; that was a worry for the distant future.
Right now, he was more interested in building a secret lab underneath the house, like the Spider-Man in Into the Spider-Verse. But he couldn't start construction without Uncle Ben and Aunt May finding out.
Ben sat in the living room, sketching out wild plans in his notebook. The money from Harry hadn't arrived yet, so he couldn't actually do anything.
Meanwhile.
While Peter and Harry were happily gaming, at Oscorp, Dr. Connors was being backed into a corner.
"Dr. Connors."
The Oscorp executive's tone was arrogant and dismissive. He had barged into Connors' lab with a group of men, casually walking over to a table and picking up a small vial of green serum.
"You succeeded," he stated.
Connors, not yet sensing the hostility, eagerly shared his progress. "It's not complete. I've only tested it on mice so far. But soon, if you just give me a little more time—"
"There is no more time," the executive cut him off brutally, leaving Connors stunned.
"Mr. Osborn has no patience left to wait. Begin human trials. Immediately."
"What?! No, we can't do that!" Connors protested, agitated. "It's not ready for human trials—"
"I said, there's no time for your slow pace. You've delayed long enough, Connors."
The executive was unmoved by Connors' distress. Why should he care about a physically incomplete man?
"This isn't a request. It's a notification."
But Connors stood his ground, blocking the man's path. "No! I won't allow you to do this!"
His dream was to invent a serum that could regenerate limbs, to help millions of disabled people. Using an unfinished formula on human test subjects completely violated his principles.
"In that case, you are no longer needed."
The executive gave a signal to the men behind him. They immediately began clearing out the lab.
The most important items were, naturally, the serums invented by Dr. Connors!
"What are you doing!"
Connors tried to stop them, but with his disability, he was powerless. He was easily shoved to the floor.
"I'm merely reclaiming what belongs to me, to Oscorp."
"This is my invention!" Connors roared from the floor, his voice filled with grief and fury, like a enraged dinosaur.
But he didn't intimidate anyone.
Or rather, these vampires were long accustomed to the desperate cries of their victims.
"No. It does not belong to you."
The executive shook his head contemptuously, tucking a small vial of the serum into his suit pocket. Then, he stepped on Connors' empty sleeve, letting out a derisive, discriminatory snort.
"Oscorp paid for your research, Connors."
"Otherwise, what value could a man like you possibly have?"
Connors lay on the floor, frozen.
At this moment, his spirit felt as broken and incomplete as his body.
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