Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sixty thousand dollars. That's how much they demanded from me, so that I could rent a high-tech laboratory for twenty-four hours. And another fifteen thousand dollars for the consumables and reagents I needed.

Not thinking long, I paid for everything and began to develop my drug. Of course, at my age, I wouldn't have been allowed to use the lab, but the fake documents I was able to make quite easily and a little makeup easily fixed that. I told Aunt May that I was going to a sleepover at a friend's house, so she didn't really ask who it was. Just warned me to use protection, I guess she thought I was going to a girl's house... I love her.

So, I was already about six hours in the laboratory, and just finished all the preparatory procedures.

Walking over to the computer, I made the necessary data and adjustments, and then started the project.

All the necessary equipment immediately buzzed and began the process of creating the serum. And according to the approximate calculations of the system, it will last eight hours and twenty-eight seconds. So all I had to do was wait...

***

When I heard the sound of the serum's successful completion, I opened my eyes and looked at my watch.

It was five in the morning, and from the lab window I could see the first rays of sunlight on the horizon.

The thought of soon acquiring superpowers perked me up more than any coffee.

I carefully pulled out a syringe of serum, then walked back to the chair where I'd been sleeping and prepared to inject myself.

Rolling up my sleeve, I cast another glance at the syringe, or rather the slightly glowing serum that was in it. A wave of anxiety and fear rose in my heart. After all, I was about to inject myself with an incredibly dangerous thing that was going to completely rearrange my DNA. And if something went wrong, at best I could become a deranged monster like Dr. Curt Connors, and at worst I could die in agony.

My hand trembled a little at the thought, but I clenched my teeth and forcibly calmed my heart, and then, before I started to have doubts again, I stuck the syringe in my arm and injected the serum.

At the same moment, I felt as if I had injected caustic acid into my arm, not serum. I fell out of my chair and onto the floor, screaming and rolling around in pain. The pain began to spread throughout my body, my heart was racing and sweat was pouring off my body. I was sure that if it wasn't for the special electronic soundproofing, my scream would have been heard throughout the building.

- Is this really the end of me! - The thought swirled around in my head, and my whole life began to flash before my eyes.

At some point I felt as if my heart had been cut with a knife. The pain was so intense that my eyes darkened and my mouth began to bleed. Finally, the pain got to my head. It was as if a sledgehammer was hammering hot nails into my brain, and to keep me from going crazy, my brain turned off my consciousness....

***

When I opened my eyes, I didn't realize what had happened for a few seconds, until the memories of the torture I'd endured after I'd injected the vaccine came rushing into my head.

A wave of shivers ran through my body, but I was quickly able to pull myself together.

- Oh, Peter Peter, I really thought I was going to die. - I laughed self-deprecatingly and bitterly, and then began to look around. It didn't look like a laboratory.

Suddenly I realized something, and I looked first at my hands and then at my feet, and then I realized that I was hanging from the ceiling.

In that instant I wanted to laugh at the top of my lungs, for my serum had worked.

I immediately detached myself from the ceiling, and did a somersault in the air and landed on the floor.

I felt incredibly light in my whole body, as if I had been carrying a heavy burden on my shoulders all my life.

All of my senses became incredibly sharp that I could easily see dust particles flying in the air, ten meters away from me.

I felt an incredible power in my body, and it made me a little scared. Looking at my watch, I realized that there were two hours left until the end of my rented time. So I began to extremely carefully erase all my traces from the lab. So that no one would realize what was being created and tested here.

When half an hour was left, the laboratory suddenly heard a sound of an alarm that warned about the end of time. It was so sudden and loud that I was even frightened. At the same moment, I felt that my skin had somehow changed, and claws came out of each of my fingers that glistened as if made of metal.

- Hmm, so this is my battle mode? - Instead of being startled, I began to examine my body curiously.

These spikes were incredibly strong and sharp, and their shine warned me how dangerous they were.

When I finished looking at the spikes, I tried to remove them. I was relieved to be able to do so easily enough, and then turned my attention to the skin.

Looking at it, I realized that it had countless small scales that covered my entire body like armor. Deciding to test them, I took a scalpel from the table and tried to cut my skin. But instead of cutting my skin, the scalpel broke, releasing a shower of sparks without leaving a mark.

Smiling happily, I also tried to remove the scales, and I did it easily. Not that they were bothering me, but they made my skin color a little different, and I glistened in the sunlight like I had been slathered in oil.

After I finished with the basic checks, I left the lab, and headed toward an old abandoned warehouse where train cars were stored to be scrapped.

Half an hour later I was there, and without much thought I tried to lift it. And I was able to do it with about half my strength.

The car was lifted about half a meter off the ground, and it was incredibly breathtaking.

And considering that one empty tank weighs about thirty tons, it turns out that I could lift about sixty tons. Such insane values made me so emotional that without thinking I hit the tank with all my might.

*KABUMMMMM* - there was a deafening clang of metal as my hand pierced through the thick layer of metal.

With the satisfaction of pulling my arm out, I decided to test out one last ability, namely web release.

Taking aim, I made the gesture that Gwen usually did, and a web flew out of my hand at high speed, which touched the wagon and stuck firmly to it.

I nodded contentedly to myself and experimented with the web for about ten more minutes, and then I went home, for if I disappeared for too long, Aunt May would be worried....