[CENTER][hr][/center][sup][h1][center][img]https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/e/e5/Parker_Industries_%28Earth_616%29_Logo_from_Amazing_Spider_Man_Vol_4_3_001.jpg/[/img][/center][b][center][color=black] S P I D E R - M A N[/color]
[color=ed1c24]S P I D E R - M A N[/color][/center]
[/b][/h1][/sup][indent][sub][COLOR=ed1c24][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] Parker Industries HQ[/sub][sup][right][COLOR=ed1c24][b]Post #3:[/b][/COLOR] Little Gremlins[/right][/sup][/indent][hr]
Normie slowly walked through the halls of Parker Industries, headed towards the Neogenics lab. The clacking of his walking stick echoing through the polished, metal halls. He frowned as some of the workers walked past him. For a moment, he found himself alone, before stopping dead in the hall and listening... He could swear he could hear something. He turned around, nobody there, just an empty hallway... That's when he heard a muffled snickering, before looking straight up and seeing the face of May-Day staring at him as she walked along the ceiling above him. [color=f6989d]"HEY NORMIE!!!"[/color] She screamed at him, Normie startled for a second by the sheer volume this little girl was capable of.

[color=6ecff6]"Keep it down, neither of us are supposed to be here. It's just that nobody questions the crippled kid."[/color] Normie sighed, before slowly hobbling away, the clacking beginning to echo again. May skipped along the ceiling above him.

[color=f6989d]"Want me to carry you?"[/color] She asked, him, shooting a web from her wrist to his back and pulling him up to her.

[color=6ecff6]"LET ME DOWN!!!"[/color] Normie roared, flailing wildly. May-Day found this, frankly, hilarious. That was until the flailing walking stick smacked her square in the forehead. At which point, she dropped him as she sat down on the ceiling, rubbing her forehead.

[color=f6989d]"OWWWW!"[/color] She moaned, not crying, but visibly distraught. Normie landed on his backside and rubbed himself, before staring up at the little girl. [color=f6989d]"WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?!"[/color] She yelled at him.

[color=6ecff6]"I've told you before, don't pick me up like that!"[/color] He replied. At that point, the sound of one of the laboratory doors opened and one of the scientists walked out to see what the commotion was. A web hit Normie on the chest and pulled him straight up to the ceiling out of harms way. The pair of them sat in the shadow of between 2 of the lights in the hallway. The scientist looked both ways, before shaking his head and closing the door. Normie looked at May who smiled smugly at him [color=6ecff6]"Ok, when it comes to not getting in trouble, sure you can pick me up like that..."[/color] He sighed. She carried him over her shoulder as she walked down the wall and onto the ground.

[color=f6989d]"So, Whatchya doin' in here?"[/color] She asked, rocking back and forth between her heels and balls of her feet, arms behind her back. Normie shook his head and began to hobble away again.

[color=6ecff6]"I'm doing research."[/color] He grunted. May-Day skipped beside him.

[color=f6989d]"Oooh, just like Daddy, what kind of research?"[/color] She beamed at him. [color=f6989d]"Can i help? Daddy won't let me do it after last time"[/color] She groaned, pushing her index fingers together.

[color=6ecff6]"Uncle Pete isn't doing this kind of research..."[/color] Normie mumbled. May-Day continued to skip in her upbeat, chipper way. Normie didn't particularly dislike May-Day, but he had to admit that he was envious of her power. Not so much the super strength and the wall crawling, but just the fact that she could walk and pass for an everyday normal person. Eventually, they came to the Neogenics lab, Normie inserted the security card he had swiped from Peter's office and walked in. As he did so, he looked around the lab. Lots of computers, lots of test tubes, lots of experiments going on.

[color=f6989d]"Hehehehe, we're gonna be in trouble!"[/color] May-Day giggled. [color=f6989d]"It's been a while since I broke in here, although it was mean old Uncle Otto who caught me."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"Otto is in the Robotics division, this is Neogenics[/color]

[color=c4df9b]"Indeed, this is my lab."[/color] They both stopped dead as they heard a familiar voice speak to them. The pair of kids turned to see Alistair Smythe staring at them.

[color=f6989d]"BUSTED!"[/color] May-Day yelled, before running towards the door, but being unable to open it. Smythe quickly advanced on Normie, towering over him. 

[color=c4df9b]"Young Norman..."[/color] He said, staring down at the boy.

[color=6ecff6]"It's Normie.[/color] Normie responded. Alistair looked down at Normie's crutch, before looking him in the eyes. They stood, looking deep into each other for about 10 seconds.

[color=c4df9b]"I know why you're hear. Trust me, it's not worth it."[/color] Smythe responded, turning around and walking back towards his experiments. Normie hobbled after him. but Mayday turned and looked at them.

[color=f6989d]"YOU READ MINDS?!"[/color] She asked, grabbing her own head.

[color=c4df9b]"I recognize the look of a crippled boy contemplating doing something he's going to regret in a vain attempt at normality. There are days that i wake up and would trade anything for my wheelchair again."[/color] He sighed. [color=c4df9b]"It is the reason i have agreed to work for your father. If i can mutate myself back to human, my legs will cease to work."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"Why would you ever choose that?"[/color] Normie asked.

[color=c4df9b]"Young Normie, there are more things to life than just walking and running and..."[/color] He reached a hand up to the spikes raising from his shoulders. [color=c4df9b]"Shooting laser beams... I want to be normal again. I would rather be stared at by people pitying the cripple, than people staring terrified of the mutated freak. Look, Normie, i'm currently working on something that, if it succeeds, it could cure BOTH of us. But let's take time and get it right. Neogenics has the power to do great good, but equally great evil and most of that evil has come from people refusing to have respect for that power. Your father always says that with great power comes great responsibility, well this is one of the greatest powers and it will require the greatest of responsibility to wield it for the betterment of mankind."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"And in the meantime?"[/color] Normie asked.

[color=c4df9b]"In the meantime, we suffer and we learn to respect the power we seek."[/color] Smythe looked at Normie. He saw a kindred spirit. They had both lost their fathers in a super-powered plot and he remembered sitting feeling powerless as his Spider-Slayers were utterly useless at actually delivering the revenge he sought... But Normie didn't even have anyone to take revenge on. Harry died by his own hand. He knew that the boy needed something to latch onto to focus that anger. [color=c4df9b]"Tell you what, why don't i show you how this works?"[/color] He said, the children followed Alistair over to his work station. Smythe pressed a few buttons and brought up a picture of a bunch of cells on the monitor. [color=c4df9b]"These are my bodies cells."[/color] He said. The computer showed a breakdown of the chemical makeup of his body. [color=c4df9b]"Neogenics is the science of breaking down our bodies cells and changing them to improve them"[/color]

[color=f6989d]"So... You made yourself a spiky guy?"[/color] May-Day asked.

[color=c4df9b]"Precisely. Radiation can cause this at random, but Neogenics seeks to figure out how to do it targetted. Think of it like playing a Piano. If you press the keys randomly, you just create an awful noise, but if you press the right keys in the right order, then you make something beautiful."[/color]

[color=f6989d]"So, we need to press the piano keys in our bodies in the right order?"[/color] May-Day asked.

[color=c4df9b]"It's more like we need to figure out what the keys are as well."[/color] He pressed a few buttons. [color=c4df9b]"Radiation can be a little unpredictable. One wrong move and you're growing laser shooting spikes."[/color] He sighed. He typed a few buttons and the cell was blasted with something. It started to slowly shrink, slowly stabilizing towards something human... Except the shrinking didn't stop, until the cell burst and Smythe grunted. [color=c4df9b]"My job is to figure out what instrument i'm playing, where it's keys are, what the keys do and how to make them do what i need them to do in order to play music."[/color] May-Day looked blank. Smythe had the feeling that none of this had set in.

[color=6ecff6]"Can't you use Vita-rays to try and stabilize them? I've read a few papers, it's suspected that they had something to do with Captain America's transformation."[/color]

[color=c4df9b]"Vita-Rays add energy to cells, i'm trying to take energy away from my cells."[/color] Smythe replied

[color=6ecff6]"But they are somewhere to start. Neuton's third law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. We know that Anti-matter is real and cancels out matter. Surely there is some kind of Anti-Vita-Ray out there?"[/color] He asked. Smythe looked a little surprised at the 10 year old seemingly being able to debate him in the ways of science.

[color=c4df9b]"Precisely what i was thinking..."[/color] Smythe answered slowly, trying to re-rail his train of thought. [color=c4df9b]"But it's finding it that's the problem. In the entire of recorded human history, we have yet to document any and then it'll be the problem of finding a way to generate them safely. Until then, i'm working with what i can."[/color] He shook his head [color=c4df9b]"Elementary School Science didn't teach you about Neuton's Third Law."[/color]

[color=6ecff6]"My father home-schooled me. Elementary school wasn't teaching fast enough for me."[/color] Smythe nodded, looking impressed.

[color=c4df9b]"Reading level?"[/color] Smythe asked.

[color=6ecff6]"12th grade"[/color] Normie responded

[color=c4df9b]"Favourite book?"[/color] Asked in quick succession.

[color=6ecff6]"Great Expectations."[/color] Normie said just as quickly.

[color=c4df9b]"I found it a little disappointing."[/color] Smythe responded equally quickly. Normie then actually cracked an amused smile, before the pair of them legitimately laughed. May-Day shuffled nervously.

[color=f6989d]"I just finished reading Gemima Puddle-Duck with Mommy."[/color] She stated as a matter of fact. Normie turned to her and smiled condescendingly. Smythe however knelt down to her.

[color=c4df9b]"I LOVE the works of Beatrix Potter."[/color] As Smythe began talking with May-Day about Mr Todd, Normie quickly pulled out a pen-drive and stuck it into Smythe's computer, before silently pressing a few things and downloading a number of files, before quickly retrieving the dive before Smythe could turn around. [color=c4df9b]"I shall give your mother a few of the other books i have when i come into work tomorrow."[/color] He then turned around, seeing Normie stood looking unimpressed. [color=c4df9b]"I will talk with your Uncle and see if he wouldn't mind me tutoring you. You seem rather interested in Neogenics and i think you have a bright future in the field."[/color] Smythe smiled at him. Normie was a little taken aback, he could have swore Smythe was humouring him before, but this offer seemed genuine.

[color=6ecff6]"I... Would like that..."[/color] Normie said.