The next stop on our tour was not a higher floor, but instead we took the elevators down to the underground floors where, according to Smythe, all research relating to biology was conducted. This included all sorts of gene splicing that we would soon be shown, but before that we made a quick stop at the part of the research facility where the famed Super Soldier Serum that Captain America was injected with during World War 2 was being recreated.
Naturally we were not allowed to go too close to the research, in fact we only got to look through some windows into the room where the work was being done. This line of work was very different from the robotics division where us being close to the research was not too dangerous as long as we didn't touch anything we weren't allowed to but when all sorts of dangerous chemicals were involved having uninvolved people nearby was a risk the company wasn't willing to take.
Of course, this didn't stop Gali who simply flew through the reinforced windows as if they didn't exist and made her way around the room, looking at all the different colored liquids in the vials with no care in the world using a comically large magnifying glass that she pulled out of nowhere. I wonder if she was actually learning anything from it, or just playing around.
"This project has been fully funded by the US government, who have had a vested interest in recreating the serum ever since the death of Captain America. Unfortunately, there has been little to no progress despite an absolutely huge sum of money being invested into the research over the course of the past 60 years." Smythe explained as we were all gathered around the windows looking inside.
Unlike at the robotics division where Gwen was on the borderline of boredom, here her eyes had literal stars in them if one were to look close enough. The same went for Peter, who was busy taking pictures, but he was just as excited about the earlier tech as he was here, the guy was just very enthusiastic for science.
"What are you taking notes on?" I whisper to Gwen, who had pulled out a small notebook from her pocket.
"Comparing my notes to what they are doing here in Oscorp. To think they would be using hydroxy tamoxifen instead of dimethyl sulfoxide as the binding agent. I didn't even consider that as a possibility, but I wonder if it would even work. Wouldn't that just cause the final product to be too unstable and destroy itself?" She muttered, half as an answer to me and half to herself, as she was thinking and writing down chemical formulas.
Yeap, my bad for asking, I don't understand.
"You have your own theories?" A new person butted into the conversation as a head popped up in-between me and Gwen staring at her notebook. Harry Osborn.
"Not that I meant to eavesdrop or anything," Harry started as he analyzed Gwen's notes. "But you think hydroxy tamoxifen is a better choice? That's wild. It's a selective estrogen receptor modulator, not a stabilizer."
"That's exactly why it's risky," Gwen shot back without hesitation. "But if it's bonded with a fluoro-compound like trifluoroacetate, it could create a more responsive cellular uptake. Faster absorption might simulate the original serum's rapid transformation properties."
Peter practically zipped over when he heard trifluoroacetate. "Wait, but wouldn't that overclock the metabolic pathway? You'd risk massive cell necrosis if you didn't balance it with a carbon-based buffering system like sodium bicarbonate or—actually—maybe even lithium ascorbate, but good luck keeping that stable in a plasma suspension."
"You're assuming they're keeping the serum in plasma form," Gwen countered. "If they moved to a lipid-based delivery—like through a nano-emulsion—the absorption window becomes way more controllable. Think about insulin delivery, but way more aggressive."
"Okay, hold on," Harry laughed. "You're saying we combine hormone regulators, fluoro-compounds, and nano-lipid carriers? You'd be lucky if the subject didn't just melt."
"Unless they didn't," Peter added, eyes wide now with the rush of the brainstorm. "What if the original serum needed that volatility to trigger the transformation? Maybe the destruction of unstable bonds was the key mechanism — the destruction forces the DNA rewrite."
All three paused. They looked at each other like they'd just cracked a major code. Or maybe invented a new one.
I looked over at MJ who, similarly to me, was breathing air. We made eye contact. It was clear neither of us were able to follow the conversation between the three geniuses.
Mmm, in moments like these, breathing air is truly a good thing.
MJ took a step back from Peter and towards me. "What was your chemistry grade?" she whispered.
"C+..."
"Damn, I barely passed with C-." She answered back. "I don't think either of us belong in this conversation right now."
Thank god we didn't have to endure it for long as with us not being able to go inside to watch the work, Smythe was soon done on giving us the rundown on the project, and we could move onto the next and final destination. Arguably the best part of the tour, the gene splicing exhibit.
We didn't have to go far, as the exhibit was set up on the same underground floor where the work on the serum was being done. Welcoming us was none other than the one-handed scientist Curt Connors.
"You are here earlier than expected." the scientist greeted us at the door of the exhibition room. "I trust you all have enjoyed your stay here so far?"
As a response, several students said yes, while most just nodded quietly or didn't even react. That however, seemed good enough for Connors.
"Octavius's presentation ended a bit earlier than expected, so we are ahead of schedule. I hope that is not too much of a problem?" Smythe asked the man with a smile, causing him to wave his one remaining arm in the air dismissively.
"Not at all, everything is ready to go, and I was just waiting for your arrival. Please step forward, but please make sure to not touch any of the display cases. We wouldn't want an accident to occur and a dangerous experiment to get out of their cage."
Done giving us the ominous warning, Connors entered the very well lit room with half a dozen glass cases containing a variety of animals.
I position myself behind the duo of Peter and MJ as Harry split off to go back to Flash's group, while Gwen was slowly walking behind me, still taking notes on everything being said. I wanted to have the front row seat for what was about to happen.
"Today I will show off a few of the experiments I and my team have been working on in the past few years. Our main goal has always been to take the best out of animals and give that to humans. We have come closer and closer to achieving our goals and as early as later this year will be moving onto human trials." Connors introduces his work as he brings us over to the first display case, one holding a bat which is hanging upside down.
"To start off with, let me introduce you to one of my favorite creatures to work with. Bats. They have some incredible abilities that would propel humans to a whole new level with their resistance to disease, excellent vision in the dark and of course, echolocation. Could you just imagine a human being able to use echolocation to move around? Something like this could be a life changer for those with impaired vision and one day, not too far in the distant future, we will make that happen."
Umm… one such person already exists though. Maybe ask him for an interview.
"Just imagine a human with the powers of a bat… a batman if you will…" Connors chuckles at his own joke. "So far we have been able to take the increased disease resistance from bats and have a working theory on how to give that over to humans, but the procedure itself is still waiting on human trials to begin."
After the bat, Connors took us over to a water filled tank with an octopus. This animal apparently had something called an "exceptional neural plasticity" which let them rewrite their own brains to adapt easier. Not the most important thing to humans but could be a godsend to many mutants to allow them to control their mutations easier and live normal lives.
As Connors went on to show off a few other animals such as ants, snakes and eagles, I turn my attention towards a smaller case which shows no hint of movement inside. The label on it predictable said 'spider' and it was without a doubt empty.
I look back at Peter, who is taking pictures of the owl, which Connors is explaining could one day give humans the powers of flight.
Now where is that little spid-
"Ow!" a small squeak is heard from behind me as Gwen drops her notepad. A few people turn to look at her for a second but seeing she was okay turn their attention back to Connors.
Oi, don't tell me…
"You okay?" I step closer and pick up her notepad from the floor.
"Um… yeah." She says hesitantly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Just felt like something stung or bit me. Must be a bug in here somewhere."
"Yeah… a bug." I say, taking a look at her neck where she was rubbing. I can't see anything noticeable, maybe it was really just a very angry mosquito? I hand the notebook back to Gwen. "Well, hopefully it wasn't a genetically modified angry mosquito that gives you mosquito powers."
"What would I get? The power to be annoying?" She jokes, taking back her notebook and refocusing on taking notes from Connor.
It wasn't long before we reached the final two animals. The first up was the spider, which…
"Huh, looks like it is being shy today and doesn't wanna come out to show itself." Connors jokes as he knocks on the glass of the empty case. "That's okay, even animals can feel pressure when looked at by a crowd of creatures hundreds of times the size of them. Talking about a hundred times… did you know that some spiders can lift as much as 120 times their own body weight? Just imagine how useful that would be to humans. Labor jobs would be easy as pie in almost all fields in an instant."
He yapped on about spiders for a while, occasionally checking the case to see if the creature itself decided to show up, but it never did. Finally, we moved onto the final animal, a lizard.
"This particular specimen," Connors said, pausing in front of the glass terrarium holding a green anole, "is especially important to me personally for reasons that are obvious to the observant eye. Lizards possess something most mammals can only dream of, the ability to regenerate lost tissue, including entire limbs."
He raised his left arm, or what remained of it, the sleeve neatly pinned at the elbow. "As you can see, I have a very personal stake in this research. Traumatic amputation affects millions worldwide. Veterans, accident victims, individuals born with congenital defects, all living with a permanent loss."
He turned back to the glass, watching as the lizard scurried along the bark. "Lizards don't scar. Their bodies react to injury by activating pluripotent stem cells at the wound site, creating a regeneration blastema, a kind of biological blueprint for regrowth. Our aim is to understand that process and reproduce it in humans. No prosthetics. No robotic arms. Actual biological regeneration."
"Of course," Connors added with a dry chuckle, "we're still a ways off. But we've seen promising results in mammalian cell cultures. Human trials, with the right regulatory approvals, may not be as far off as you'd think."
"That was regretfully the last animal I had to show off, so why don't we do a quick Q and A session before ending it off…" Connors says before being bombarded with questions, mostly by Peter and a few from Gwen, though she is being a bit more quiet than one would expect from the science nerd.
Finally, after a few hours at Oscorp the full tour was finally ending. We bid farewell to Connors as Smythe leads us out to the elevators and finally to the entrance of Oscorp where we first started the tour.
"Thank you all for joining me for this tour today." Smythe says, adjusting his lab coat, "I hope you all learned at least a little today and look forward to what Oscorp will bring to the public in the future. If you have any questions about what you saw today and would like further consultation and to continue the discussion, your teacher will give you all my email later, I will be happy to answer anything I can."
"And remember classes will resume in the afternoon so make your way back to school now." A teacher continued from where Smythe left off, ruining the good mood everyone had. Unfortunately, a two-hour tour would not be ending the school day.
As groups began scattering, going either back to school or leaving elsewhere planning to skip the rest of the day, I felt a tug on the back of my coat.
"Hey, Ill talk to you later or tomorrow. Im feeling kind of light-headed right now, so I think I'm gonna go home and sleep it off." Gwen said weakly with sweat on her forehead.
"Want me to come with you?" I ask in concern but get denied as she shakes her head.
"I'll be fine, but thanks for the offer. Talk to you later." With those words, she walks off towards the bus stop that would bring her back right next to our apartment building. She will be fine.
As for me, though, I don't plan to return to school either. There is some shopping to be done before I check out the dungeon after returning home.
***
Author note: A lot of scientific terms in terms of chemistry and biology come from AI. Unfortunately, I am not that much of a genius in terms of science. If you are a real scientist or smarter than me and there are inconsistencies in some things, I apologize.
I don't think Hydroxy Tamoxifen is a stabilizer like it suggests, but… meh
Additionally, I am going out of town for the weekend, so I can't promise chapters on both Saturday and Sunday. I will try to write ahead to post on at least one, if not both, but no guarantees.