Spider-Man of Earth 65

Felix sat on one of the plush sofas, staring at the large television that hung on the far wall. He had stayed the night in the penthouse after Eleanor had insisted, citing that it would be safer until everything surrounding the factory explosion calmed down.

On the TV, J. Jonah Jameson ranted in his usual, bombastic fashion. "An explosion at an Oscorp factory! What else is new, folks? Oscorp, once again, at the center of another catastrophic event! How many times are we going to let this company put the citizens of New York at risk? I've been saying this for years, and I'll keep saying it: Oscorp is rotten to the core! And who's behind it all? Harry Osborn, of course, picking up right where his father left off!"

Felix sighed, his fingers drumming on the arm of the sofa as he continued watching. Jameson leaned forward, as if he could somehow reach through the screen to grab his viewers by the collar.

"We don't know the full story yet, but I've got my theories. Was it an attack? Sabotage? Maybe even some kind of dangerous experiment gone wrong? Let's not forget the Oscorp Tower attack from a few months ago, either. Someone wanted something there! This is a pattern, people! And if the mayor doesn't step in, who's going to protect us from Oscorp's endless disasters?"

The news feed then cut away from Jameson's face, and a more composed anchor took over. "In other news, the mayor of New York City has issued a statement, saying that he is in talks with Oscorp and law enforcement to fully investigate the incident at the factory. He has promised to find out who was responsible for the explosion and why it happened."

The screen shifted to a press conference with the mayor, who stood at a podium surrounded by microphones. His expression was grave as he addressed the media.

"We are in close contact with Oscorp," the mayor said, his voice steady, though a hint of frustration seeped through. "We will not rest until we have answers. This city deserves transparency, and I promise the people of New York that we will find out what happened. We will hold those responsible accountable."

Felix rubbed his temple. In his left pocket, sealed in a zip-lock, were the strings of blonde hair he had taken from the buried corpse.

'With the explosion, the corpse is gone. All I have left is these hairs.' Luckily, Eleanor kept a zip-lock bag in one of her draws so he was able to safely keep it in his pockets. The DNA wasn't ruined. 'I gotta get to Daxter Labs and get it analyzed. It might be the key to what happened.'

Eleanor entered the room soon after, looking fresh but slightly weary from the events of the previous night. She glanced at Felix with a small, grateful smile. "Thank you again for staying the night, Felix. It put me at ease."

Felix smiled. "Thank you for the seventeenth time, really. But…I should get to work soon," he said. "I'm already running late."

'A lie. Liv knows I went to the meeting that night. She thinks I can't come to work.' 

"Me too." Kate's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. She entered the room, her sharp eyes darting to Felix. "I have… school work."

Eleanor glanced at her. "School work?"

"Club work," Kate emphasized. "Gotta go fast, Mom."

"Fine. Both of you should get back to your lives." She glanced at Felix, wanting to say something. 

Felix grabbed his jacket and followed Kate toward the elevator. As the doors opened, he turned back to Eleanor. "Let's talk again, Mrs. Bishop."

"Again, you call me Eleanor." Eleanor gave him a gentle smile. "And please do."

The elevator ride was quiet. 

"A certain friend of mine got us a ride," said Kate.

A friend, huh? No more had to be said. 

Once they went outside, they were greeted by the sleek SUV waiting for them outside. The driver's door opened, revealing none other than Yelena Belova, who lazily waved through the window. 

"Morning, kiddos," Yelena said with a grin as they slid into the back seat. "Everyone alive after last night's fireworks?"

"Just about," Kate replied, settling into the seat beside her at the front. That left Felix to go at the back. 

"Oh. Hey, Aaron."

Aaron Davis sat in the passenger seat. 

"Yo." The tall male grinned. "Good to see you're alive."

"Me too. My glasses broke when I was running, which sucks."

"How did you get out?"

"How did you?"

"I went with the blonde chick once I gave the button to you."

"Ahh, okay. I had to parkour. It wasn't fun."

At the very back was Maria Hill, her eyes glued to her phone. She barely looked up, her fingers flying across the screen as she texted someone. Maria spoke as soon as they pulled from the hotel. "So, the explosion last night," she began, still tapping at her phone, "what do you know about it?"

Felix leaned back. "Not much. I was there for the tour, then everything went to hell. The next thing I knew, the place was coming down."

"So same as Aaron Davis," Maria murmured. "Not a single piece of information that tells us who caused it, why, and how."

Aaron turned slightly in his seat, his eyebrows furrowing. "By the way, my device got cut off right when Alistair Smythe took the group through that steel door."

"Steel door? Oh, you mean where they keep the animals." Felix crossed his arms. "I did notice that the space itself was made of a special metal. Must have blocked off your signal."

"The type of radio waves I use are unblockable though."

'The type of waves the Fantastic Computer uses are unblockable. What you use is just mildly above average.' 

"Clearly not," Yelena said. "It got blocked, end of story."

"Wait," Felix said, "did the signal ever return?"

"Vaguely? We could hear sounds at some point."

'Ah, so that's where the Advanced Glasses kicked in and hacked it. Huh, if I had known it was already blocked, I wouldn't have told Herbie to do it. Oh well.' 

Felix did not consider telling them about the body. There were too many unknowns at play, and he wasn't ready to reveal all his cards just yet.

Maria, still focused on her phone, spoke up again. "The important thing is that you've gained Eleanor's trust. That's progress."

Aaron glanced at Felix through the rearview mirror. "How exactly do you plan on getting this information?"

Felix stayed quiet, but Maria chimed in smoothly. "It'll become clear soon enough, Aaron." Maria then proceeded to change the subject. "According to my informants, the mayor is considering declaring a state of emergency. We had the Oscorp Tower attack, and now an Oscorp factory has blown up. Both incidents seem targeted, and both are directly tied to Oscorp, New York's biggest and most influential company."

"And the Spider-ling," Yelena added. "I hear all sorts of shit about him. During the night, he's a nightmare."

Felix peered over his shoulder, his attention fully on Maria now. "So why hasn't the mayor done it yet?"

"Because he hasn't spoken to Norman Osborn," Maria said, her tone clipped. "Everything hinges on that conversation. The mayor doesn't want to move forward without knowing Oscorp's stance on this."

The explosion wasn't just about physical destruction—it was political. Oscorp's reach was vast, and any action taken against them had far-reaching consequences. The city couldn't afford another crisis, especially one involving Oscorp, but it seemed like that was exactly what was happening.

"So," Felix said after a moment, "we wait for Osborn."

Maria nodded. "For now."

***

From the outside, from the front, no one cared. New Yorkers minded their own business and walked next to tall buildings without a second thought.

At the very back of one of those buildings was Felix. 

"Algorithm Sigma, Phase Delta, Authorization: Faeth-One-Two-Seven."

He walked down the corridor, his footsteps echoing in the empty space, until he reached a specific section of wall. To anyone else, it was just ordinary bricks, but Felix knew better. 

"Biometric clearance: Faeth Alpha-Three-Nine."

The bricks trembled slightly, then shifted and slid away. A sleek metal elevator awaited. Felix stepped inside, and as the doors closed, the elevator began its descent deep into the underground. He felt the familiar drop in his stomach as he was lowered into the depths of Daxter Lab.

As always, it was huge. Two sides and workstations, a door leading to the training chamber, and the Fantastic Computer at the back. Herbie the robot was constantly expanding it. To help speed things alone, Felix cloned several versions of it. Now, it wasn't only one but eight different robot Herbies at work. 

Felix strode over to the Fantastic Computer at the back, where a small glass dish awaited him next to the keyboard. From his pocket and zip-lock, he pulled the strands of blonde hair, the ones he had taken from the body buried under the factory, and carefully placed them into the analysis tray. The machine hummed to life as it began its work, scanning the hairs and running them through its vast database.

As the computer processed the sample, Felix plopped back in his chair. It was damn comfy. 

Something about the explosion, the strange melting he'd witnessed, and the mushroom cloud had been gnawing at him since last night. Something wasn't right.

"Herbie," Felix said aloud. "Check in on the NYPD's investigation. I want to know who caused the explosion. Any updates?"

Herbie processed the request in an instant, tapping into the NYPD's database and pulling up the latest reports. 

"No definitive conclusions. Investigation ongoing. Suspected sabotage but no solid leads," Herbie replied. 

"Something doesn't add up. It wasn't just heat. The Advanced Glasses malfunctioned, and that's never happened before. Hell, I had it specifically modified to handle better environments." From his other pocket, he pulled out what remained of the Advanced Glasses. Somehow, even after the fire, it got worse. And no, it wasn't because it was in his pockets. 

"I am afraid I cannot provide an answer," Herbie said. "The malfunction occurred suddenly, during the event, and there were no prior indications of system instability. However, the environmental conditions suggest an anomaly beyond typical parameters."

Felix frowned, rubbing his chin. His glasses were designed to handle extreme heat and environmental changes. That was a fact. What could have caused them to go offline then? His thoughts went back to the strange sight of the walls melting in the factory, the almost unnatural way the explosion had spread, and that persistent mushroom cloud.

"Radiation," Felix muttered under his breath.

A specific type of radiation. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It wasn't just heat that had caused the glasses to fail. It had to be something with more range, more power—ionizing radiation perhaps? The kind that could disrupt electrical equipment, DNA, and melt metal.

"Wait, let's think about this. We were at a one-of-a-kind factory that did lots of cross-species genetics. The best example of cross-species genetics is, well, me."

His mind flashed back to the research surrounding the radioactive spider. The spiders had been intentionally designed by Cindy Moon based on her studies of extraterrestrial spider-like creatures. And then, years later, Alistair Smythe had used that same research to recreate those spiders, using them as part of his secret experiments for Oscorp.

He quickly pulled up the records he had on Oscorp's spider research. But to his frustration, Cindy Moon's research was completely gone. Erased. Not even a trace left in the digital archives.

There were reports and emails but no specific measurements or anything of that sort. 

"Herbie," Felix said, his voice tight with frustration, "find everything we have on Alistair Smythe's spider research."

The Fantastic Computer's hum filled the lab as it combed through the Oscorp archives. After a few moments, it responded, "No digital records exist. Alistair Smythe does not store his research digitally."

"Shit, obviously." Felix sighed, remembering his previous encounters with Alistair. The man despised technology for anything beyond the bare minimum. Everything he did was stored physically, on paper—locked away in some hidden location.

Felix remembered cheekily asking Alistair once where he kept all his notes, but the scientist had just smirked and deflected the question. He had never told anyone where he kept his physical records.

Felix stood from his chair, pacing the length of the lab. He couldn't confirm it yet, but every instinct in his body told him that the radiation emitted during the explosion was the same that had been used to create the radioactive spiders. There was a connection here. He just needed to figure out what it was.

"The dead body," Felix asked, changing subjects. "What about that? Is it cross-species? Who is it? Does it have a match?"

"Searching…searching…"

For a supercomputer, it shouldn't take longer than a couple minutes. The NYPD, public hospitals, Herbie scanned all that and more.

"Match not found."

'What…? Not found?' 

Okay, weird. Really, really weird.

"Herbie, you have footage of when I found the body, right? The soil was moved a month or so ago but the body itself must have been killed a year or two ago. Are my estimations correct?"

"From visual cues alone, it is impossible to say."

"But I know what I felt and saw. I don't think I'm wrong." He began pacing again. "An old body…an explosion…radiation…cross-species. Oh, and that woman, Ashley. I doubt that's her real name. Someone hired her to erase data on the spiders. That's weird considering that Alistair Smythe doesn't keep his data on a computer."

None of this was making sense. Honestly, it never did. One mystery was solved, another dozen arrived.