章 31: Things are... still looking up
Once again, Eren Parker found himself at his work desk in his room, messing about with the Programmable Matter that he stole from the Underground base. Though he of course was awake because of his excitement to further understand the material, he was truly up because he couldn't sleep due to his nervousness about Cindy Moon.
As he promised himself the day before, Eren planned on asking her to prom and that fact horrified him. As he worked on the strange material, he thought about Cindy Moon and what would happen if she said yes. He soon found himself zoning out, picturing him and Cindy Moon dancing with each other in the school gymnasium with a live band in the background playing a slow song.
Words were being exchanged with each other, though Eren couldn't hear them, nor could he read her lips to make out the words. However, Cindy Moon's eyes widened and at the same time, the boy's alarm jolted him back into reality in the same fashion as it did when he revisited that memory of his father.
'What the hell was that?' He thought to himself. It wasn't a memory, yet it felt exactly the same as when he was reliving one. Figuring it was nothing more than an intense daydream, the boy shut off his phone alarm, opting to skip breakfast so he could have more time to mess with his project. So far, he'd learned that Programmable Matter and the suit that the Fantastic family gifted to him were extremely similar.
Both materials took advantage of unstable molecules to a certain degree, however, one was made to adjust to body heat and temperature, while the other was meant to adjust in shape. 'I wonder if I could possibly create my own version of both... Spider-Matter.' He thought to himself, taking a closer look at the differences between the two substances. 'A transforming suit... That's definitely possible, but I'll need to borrow some tech from somewhere. Maybe Harry could sneak me some...'
Having his brain overrun by ideas, Eren began jolting down his ideas and the materials he'd need in order to create this so-called Spider-Matter. Nearly getting lost in his own creativity, the boy was once again jolted by the sound of his second alarm about thirty minutes later, signaling that he needed to actually get ready for school.
And so, the boy prepared himself for school, making sure to bring the poster he made before leaving his home and heading to Osborn Academy. On his way there, he stopped by a flower shop, hoping a bouquet would be the cherry on top of his promposal.
Soon enough, Eren Parker found himself standing in the main building of Osborn Academy, holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand nervously. "Okay, Parker. It's just a girl. The worst she can say is 'ew', no big deal." Eren whispered to himself in an attempt to calm himself. Harry, standing behind Eren with a sign that said "Do you wanna swing by prom with me?", accompanied by a hand-drawn picture of Spider-Man, laughed before teasing his friend.
"You're talking out loud again, dude. Just relax, you got this." His words, though positive, did not help Eren's nervousness wane. Regardless, he took a deep breath and tried his best to calm down.
After a few minutes, Cindy Moon emerged from the crowd, looking better than ever. In fact, Eren was almost certain that something was different about her, though he ignored it. Upon seeing Eren and Harry standing there, a big smile grew across the girl's face and her cheeks became pink with slight nervousness.
Eren approached her sort of quickly, handing her the flowers before speedily saying, "Please, go to prom with me." to hurry and get it over with. Cindy laughed, finding his nervousness adorable, before hugging Eren, calming him down slightly.
"Yes, of course. I'd love to." She said in his chest, though the crowd that somehow spawned around them could not hear her answer. However, Harry took it upon himself to relay the answer to the crowd. "She said yes! Finally!" Harry exclaimed and the crowd of students clapped and cheered on the undercover hero.
However, the applause would soon cease as everyone's attention was shifted toward the front of the school once more.
Walking toward the school, with both hands in his pockets, was Dr. Curt Connors. The smile on his face was massive and he walked with the most confident stride that anyone had ever seen. Eren, still hugging Cindy, looked forward with wide eyes. While everyone else was in awe and happy for the doctor, Eren was furious.
'Dr. Connors you liar!' He screamed internally, though Dr. Connors was able to understand Eren's thoughts by the expression on his face. Eren's face soon switched from that of anger to feeling betrayed, causing Dr. Connors to feel guilty about lying to him.
Regardless, everything about Dr. Connors looked fine. His skin wasn't green, he had no tail, he just looked like a normal, happy man. 'At least it looks like it ended up being fine...' Eren thought to himself. As Connors got closer, Eren gave him a slight smile, at least feeling content that nothing bad happened despite Dr. Connors disobeying his suggestions.
"Looks like she said yes. Congratulations, Parker." Connors teased, tapping his student on the shoulder before continuing on into the school. Many of the students continued to look on with a mixture of awe and confusion.
"No way... he really pulled it off." Harry whispered. "All these years and he's finally done it. Even I was beginning to lose hope."
"Yeah, he did..." Eren whispered, still holding onto Cindy as the crowd around them dispersed. He couldn't shake that bad feeling within him, like something bad was about to happen. Regardless, the young hero and his friends continued their day as they normally would. Despite Dr. Connors being a fool, things were still looking up.
Months passed and soon enough, Dr. Connor's serum and the procedure were approved, thanks to Oscorp's backing to speed up the process. Due to high demand, the so-called Connors Procedure was given to the citizens of New York before it would be able to branch out throughout the nation and then worldwide.
By May, hundreds of people had the Connors Procedure done and none of them had experienced any side effects. By that time, Eren was no longer worried about the serum and was focusing more on himself.
Within those months, Spider-Man became more popular and gained a lot of new fans throughout the city of New York, especially after he wore a paper bag over his head during the process of creating a replacement mask. He even earned the nickname "The Bombastic Bag Man." for a brief period of time, though the name would soon fade once the first prototype of Spider-Matter was created.
Though he still wore the Fantastic Four uniform, occasionally working with the team every once in a while, his mask would often change in color and shape. People assumed he was just changing masks like how a person would change their shoes, but this was far from the truth.
With Spider-Matter, the mask itself transformed into whatever the wearer wanted and soon enough, the hero's entire costume would be able to as well.
With the help of Oscrop technology and a few pieces of advice from Reed Richards, the young hero was finally able to finish his own new costume, just in time for prom night.
_________________
"Thank God it started to cool down..." said Spider-Man as he sat atop a building as the sun set behind him. Spider-Man, equipped with a new suit, looked down at the hustling and bustling city beneath him as he ate a jelly-filled donut, a worthy snack for a job well done after fighting crime. He now wore a red mask, keeping the same dynamic lenses that transformed with his facial expressions. The red covered his shoulders and went down in the shape of a V until it reached his abdomen. The rest of the suit was black, as was the massive spider on his chest whose legs spread throughout the entirety of the red section of the suit.
In an instant, the hero transformed the pattern on the suit into something completely different. This time, it appeared red and gold, having a gold spider on the front along with gold lenses. As quickly as that version of the suit appeared, it disappeared as the boy transformed it into an all-black suit with red trimmings and a red spider symbol on the front of it. Beneath the spider symbol, a red line in the shape of a V went from his chest, all the way up to his shoulders. His lenses, still dynamic, were now white, having a red outline around them.
Spider-Man then switched his suit back to the one he was originally wearing. "Spider-Matter is definitely my greatest invention." Spider-Man said aloud as he looked down at his costume. It took a couple of months, but he was able to make his own version of Programmable Matter, one he called Spider-Matter. Just like the original, the user can command it to change shape. Unlike Programmable Matter, Spider-Matter could change color as well.
Combining aspects of the material from the Fantastic Four costume he was given with aspects of Programmable Matter and his own unique materials, he created Spider-Matter. He was so proud of his invention that he even made four of them for the Fantastic Four as a thank you for being so kind to him, though he hadn't had the chance to give them to them.
It was May 22nd, and despite being in New York, the temperature had hit a record high, hitting over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. As his feet swung off the edge of the building, Eren Parker looked through his phone, texting Cindy to confirm if she were ready for him to pick her up.
As the young hero waited for her response, he began scrolling through social media, noticing a headline that piqued his interest. The hero read aloud as he followed along with the headline. "Perhaps due to the intense heat, many recipients of the Connors Procedure have reported having dry skin and feelings of dehydration. If you are a recipient of the serum, we advise you to stay inside and drink plenty of fluids?" The boy said in a puzzled tone. 'Well, a lot of verified procedures have side effects so I guess dry skin isn't too bad. I hope Dr. Connors is okay.'
As the boy thought to himself, he received a notification from Cindy, immediately removing those worries from his mind.
[Cindy: I'm ready. Let me know when you're here :)]
"Man, things really are looking up." Spider-Man shot a web from his wrist and began swinging from building to building. "I can't remember the last time I was actually happy. I'm going to prom with the girl of my dreams, I'm at the top of my class, I have the greatest best friends anyone could ask for, I'm loved by everyone as a hero... Life is great."
The hero continued to think about all of the good things going on in his life as he swing to Cindy's place. Once there, Spider-Man backflipped in the air, landing in front of Cindy Moon's apartment before retracting his hero suit and revealing a tuxedo beneath it. The young hero fixed his tie and knocked on the door, taking a deep breath.
He'd changed a lot since the beginning of the school year. His hair had grown, and his dreadlocks, now in a ponytail, nearly covered his eyes at that point. His face was more defined, appearing more aged than he did before he became Spider-Man. Despite appearing older, he still struggled to grow any real facial hair, only having a few strands on his chin.
Standing calmly, the boy waited for the door of the apartment to open, his heart rate only slightly changing when he heard the door unlock. The door opened, revealing the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
Cindy Moon, wearing a black and white dress made of silk, looked up at the hero with a bright smile, posing against the door frame like a model.
'God damn...' Eren thought to himself as he marveled at her perfect figure that he failed to ever notice looked this good. His jaw dropped, he forgot that he was supposed to greet her as he just stared at her.
"Face it, Eren. You just hit the jackpot."
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