Chapter 28: Field Trip

After Harry's promposal to Lily Hollister, the school bell tolled, signaling all students to go to their homeroom classes as usual. To Eren's surprise, the homeroom teachers announced that there was a field trip that day to Oscorp to view a special presentation by Dr. Otto Octavius. Perhaps it was mentioned before, but Eren was so caught up with superheroing, that he forgot all about it.

Despite being surprised, he was excited. He loved all things science, and for Eren, Oscorp was akin to something similar to an amusement park for normal people. Excitedly, Eren and his friends rode one of the many school buses to Oscorp, arriving just before the presentation began.

"You look excited." Harry teased Eren as the two of them, along with Cindy and Lily Hollister walked toward the massive glass science building. Eren, realizing he was smiling, fixed his face to a more neutral one, turning to Harry and denying his claims. "I'm not, I was just thinking about something."

Cindy laughed. "Yeah? Does that something have anything to do with science?" She teased, causing Eren to feel a bit embarrassed.

"You're one to talk, spider-girl. You begged Harry to see the spider room ten times." Eren retorted, referencing Cindy's obsession with the spider that they saw when Harry toured them around Oscorp. Since that day, she'd often requested to visit that room so she can see the one with the pretty web patterns once again.

"Spider-girl?" Cindy said with a playfully offended expression. Harry and Eren both laughed, though Lily had a grossed-out expression on her face.

"Ew, that spider room creeps me out... I never wanna go in there again." Lily said, remembering the time Harry took her in there against her will.

Harry laughed, reminiscing about the same day as she. "I wish you guys could've seen her face, it was hilarious. Speaking of spiders, have you guys seen Spider-Man's new costume?" Harry asked the group, taking Eren by surprise.

"Yes! He's so cool!" Cindy said with the face of a fangirl, Eren had no idea that she was into that sort of stuff. Her admiration for the hero brought a small smile to his face.

Lily, with a fangirly expression of her own, added on to Cindy's admiration for the web-slinging hero. "You think he's cute under that mask? I bet he is, he's gotta be."

"I'm right here..." Harry whispered defeatedly, though his whisper was mostly ignored.

"I don't even care what his face looks like. He's so sweet and heroic. His body is nice too." Cindy added dreamily. If Eren wasn't the man beneath the mask, he'd be incredibly jealous at that moment, but instead, he felt a bit awkward that two girls were objectifying him in front of his face.

"So true. His body is insane, especially in the Fantastic Four suit." Lily agreed, once again making Harry feel a bit jealous of the hero.

Eren looked back at his own body, feeling a bit self-conscious about it.  Wanting to direct the conversation away from his body, Eren asked a question of his own. "Are you guys fans of the guy? Sounds like it." Eren asked, sounding disinterested, but in reality, he was praying that they'd all say yes.

"Huge fan, I follow the Spider-Man subreddit, even back when it was the Phantom Spider subreddit. " Harry said excitedly. "That video of him pushing the crane off of his body when he was fighting Electro was so cool."

Cindy nodded. "I saw that video too on Twitter. It was like a Dragon Ball Z episode or something. It's comfortable knowing someone so strong is in our city after the Avengers disappeared."

Lily smiled, nodding herself before adding to everyone's admiration. "And I heard he's Black too!"

"Really?" Eren asked, faking a surprised tone. He wondered what exactly gave it away since he'd only shown part of his face to Cameron on the rooftop. "That's pretty cool, there's only like 3 of us... I mean Black heroes. Like Storm, you know?" Eren was trying not to sound suspicious with his wording, though that was unnecessary since no one would ever suspect that he was a hero himself.

Lily agreed. "Yeah, it's really comforting and inspiring knowing the guy under the mask looks like you, right?"

Eren chuckled slightly, finding her statement ironic since he was actually the man beneath the mask. "Yeah, literally." said the undercover hero, feeling happy to know that kids who look like him are able to identify with him.

The four of them continued into Oscorp, walking with each other until they found themselves inside one of the auditoriums. The four of them sat side by side chatting with each other until the curtains opened, revealing three men: Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn, and Dr. Connors.

"Isn't that your teacher?" Cindy whispered to Eren, pointing directly at the one-armed scientist.

"Yeah." He nodded, noticing a tarp covering Dr. Connors's shoulder, the one with the missing arm.

Dr. Octavius was a heavyset man, sporting glasses and brown hair atop his squarish head. With a sort of waddle, the doctor made his way to the center stage and began to greet the audience. "Welcome, everyone!" the doctor said, flourishing his arms outward.

"My name is Dr. Otto Octavius, and today, I will show you my newest creation. Now, this is only a prototype, keep that in mind." The doctor removed the tarp, revealing Dr. Connors's new robotic arm. The crowd was amazed, uttering some "oohs" and "aahs". Dr. Connors, however, did not seem pleased, he seemed reluctant. Not many were able to detect it, but Eren could see that he wasn't pleased.

"My dear friend, Dr. Curt Connors, lost his arm in the line of duty. For years, the two of us have been working on ways to allow him to once again be able to live his life as he once did. This arm, the Smart Arm V2.0, will allow him to do just that." The tone in which Otto was speaking of this situation was sort of condescending, it almost seemed disrespectful, at least to Eren. Eren frowned, looking at his teacher's reluctant face before glaring back at Dr. Octavius's arrogant grin.

"This is a blank canvas." Octavius stated, pointing a large white canvas toward the crowd. "My friend will now demonstrate one of Smart Arm's amazing abilities." Otto then strolled over to Connors and placed the canvas on the table in front of him. "Go ahead, my friend." Otto encouraged the once one-armed doctor, prompting him to grab a pencil and begin scribbling on the canvas.

Each stroke of the pencil was masterful, it appeared as if Dr. Connors was a world-class artist, despite having little to no experience in that matter. On one of the screens of the venue, a camera was following the doctor's hands as he was drawing some sort of reptile. The image was so lifelike, almost photo-realistic.

"Wow..." Cindy whispered, staring at the work of art being created before her with eyes of astonishment.

"Incredible." Lily added, staring with the same stunned glare as Cindy's beside her.

"That's sick." Harry uttered, leaning forward in his chair with a massive grin on his face. He knew about the project since his father was funding it, but this was his first time seeing it.

Eren, however, did not look up at the screen, only at Dr. Connors. His face was solemn, it almost looked as if the humanity inside the man was gone. Eren wondered why Connors even volunteered for this, as it was clear that this only made him miss his arm even more.

After about ten minutes, the doctor finished his drawing. It was a beautifully drawn lizard, almost appearing as a black and white photo of one from the real world. The crowd applauded, everyone was smiling, all but one man.

The three men continued on with the presentation, giving more information about the Smart Arm before going somewhere backstage. Putting on fake excitement, Eren looked over at Harry, asking him a question. "You can go wherever you want, right? You think you could get us a closer look?" He really just wanted to talk to Dr. Connors, but he didn't want to just straight up ask Harry to take him to see him.

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"Yeah, probably. I wanna get a closer look too." Harry answered, leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head.

"Nerds." Lily teased, having no real interest in talking to three old men about the robotic arm.

"Hey, you can stay here if you want. Better yet, you and Cindy can get acquainted, yeah? We'll meet back up when we're done." Harry told her. And so, the two boys left the girls, heading backstage while the girls explored elsewhere.

Eventually, the two boys found the room where the three scientists were talking amongst each other, peeking through the crack in the door to eavesdrop.

"I guess I was able to keep my motor skills despite losing my arm for all these years…" Dr. Connors moved his robotic fingers around as he spoke, however, the expression on his face lacked satisfaction.

"That's the beauty of it!" Dr. Octavius added with great enthusiasm. "It uses advanced AI to do exactly what you want to do, as long as you believe you can do it. Since you've drawn in the past, your brain was able to give it the instructions needed to perform the action."

Otto looked up to notice the two boys standing at the doorway, motioning to let them in with his arm. "Come on in, boys. You're Parker, right?" Otto asked, remembering the young man and his drone from the competition that took place not too long ago.

"I am. Nice meeting you again, Dr. Octavius. What's up, Mr. Osborn." Eren said, waving to his best friend's father.

"Good Morning, Parker." Norman said as he waved back at Eren with a smile before directing his gaze toward his son, erasing that smile rather quickly. "Harry."

Harry waved lazily at his father, showing firsthand that their relationship definitely had a sort of rift in it.

"Hey, Dr. Connors." Eren approached the doctor, placing his hand on his shoulder and taking a closer look at his arm. Part of it seemed to be actually attached to the doctor, digging into his skin in a way that look intrusive, likely uncomfortable.

"I can help you after class today, with your project." Eren reminded the doctor, bringing a small smile to his face and reminding him of his true goal, the ability to regrow his arm.

"Ah, right I almost forgot you offered to help me, Parker." Connors then looked over at Otto, placing his real arm over his fake one. "This was a fun little experiment, Otto. It was an honor to be the first person to be equipped with the Smart Arm, but it's not for me." As he said this, he began prying the arm from his shoulder, unlatching it and slowly removing the few needles that were impaled into his skin. With each needle, the doctor winced in pain, it was as if he were receiving shots in reverse.

Pulling the last needle out, he grimaced once more, prompting Otto to reach out to the science teacher, though Connors moved away so Otto couldn't help him."Curt, what are you-" Otto tried to speak, but Dr. Connors interrupted him.

"I don't want it, Otto. We both know this." Dr. Connors abruptly stated, pulling the rest of the arm off before placing it on the table with a metallic thud.

"But Curt…" Octavius began to speak once more but was once again cut off by Connors. "It makes me uncomfortable. Computers aren't meant to dig around in our brains. It could be problematic. What if it develops a mind of its own or something? I'd rather continue my research on the organic side of things." Connors stood up, pushing in his chair before looking around the room. His eyes finally began to show life again, as he began to speak with true passion.

"I want to feel! I want pain and pleasure. Warmth and coldness. I want to feel my hands and fingers individually as I touch surfaces. I want to feel my wife's face with both hands. I mean really feel it, Otto." Connors used both hands as he spoke, emphasizing his words.

"I see…" Dr. Octavius quietly uttered in a defeated tone."Technology is the future, Curt. However, it is your decision after all. If you change your mind, just let me know."

"I won't change, Otto. We both know that neither one of us will. Ever since we were kids, we've always been like this. You think technology will fix the world, but I believe natural sciences will always prevail, my friend." Connors and Otto looked at each other with competitive eyes, with glares that showed that they had mutual respect for each other despite seeing the world so differently.

"I thank you for wanting to help me, Otto. But you know how I really want to fix this." Connors told him.

Otto nodded. "I understand, Curt. I just really wanted to help you, it truly pains me seeing your struggle, but I understand that what you want and what I want for you are completely different. I was being selfish, I apologize."

"No need to apologize, Otto. You were only trying to help. Don't worry, I'm not alone. Parker will be helping me after all." Connors glanced at Eren, prompting the young man to smile and nod back at his teacher.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go gather up my homeroom class. Goodbye, Otto. Norman." Dr. Connors began walking out of the room, leaving the two scientists and the two students in the room together.

"Can we see the arm?" Harry said with a smile, approaching the arm and inspecting it for himself before even waiting for a response. As Harry got a closer look at the arm, Otto grabbed Eren's shoulder and began speaking to him silently.

"Please watch out for Curt. I know him all too well, and I know he gets restless, reckless, and too competitive when I pull ahead like this in our endeavors. I'm the same way. Just make sure he doesn't try anything too dangerous, okay?"

Eren nodded. "Got it, Dr. Octavius." Eren was confused by what exactly he meant by this. 'How dangerous are Dr. Connors's experiments?' he wondered. However, Eren would find the answer soon enough.

Octavius then lectured the two boys about the arm until both of them had their fix and both Harry and Eren left the room to go find Lily and Cindy. Eventually, the four teens ran into each other, though something was off with Cindy. As she stood next to Lily, she was visibly covering her left arm with the sleeve of her cardigan, covering something up with her other hand.

The two of them had separated briefly, so only Cindy knows what really happened, however, she planned on hiding it for as long as possible.

"Are you okay?" Eren asked, noticing some sort of redness beneath her sleeve. As he looked at her, his head felt as if it were about to explode. It was his Spider-Sense, but it was a strange feeling, one that he'd never felt before. It wasn't warning him of danger but of something else.

"Yeah, I just... I have a skin condition and it's embarrassing can we not talk about it right now?" Cindy lied, though this lie would be enough to get the topic to change.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I didn't know." Eren said apologetically.

The four students shifted the conversation elsewhere, though really it was only the two boys and Lily speaking at that point. Cindy, falling behind them silently, continued to hold her body as she felt her body begin to feel feverish. She was beginning to form a raging headache, one that would seemingly increase as she would look over at Eren, though she didn't understand why.

Little did she know, the real reason for her body reacting in such a way was because the two of them were now ensnared by the same webs of fate.

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