Some moments earlier.
"....ter?"
'I can taste blood on my tongue. I had grown accustomed to the taste. Not only that, but I had grown insensitive to death in my previous life. It became trivial. That is why most people in that world did not hesitate. That is why I never felt petrified or guilty when the situation required what it required. The blood was just blood.'
"Peter?!"
'My previous life was insignificant. Teaching children during the day and praying at night for something to change. I always felt like something was missing. The only thing that made my reality anything was Ana. She was what kept me from becoming a living dead man.'
"Peter?! Wake up! You have to wake up!"
'I prayed for years for a miracle and it finally came. I wanted to live in a fantasy to escape my boring and insignificant reality. And now that fantasy is my life.'
"Peter?!"
His eyes opened. He inhaled sharply, exhaling fast, adjusting to the light.
'God. Very bright.'
"Peter? Thank goodness!" Susan exhaled with something close to physical relief when she saw him awake. "Are you okay? What happened?!"
He groaned, grabbed the sofa for support, and used Susan's help to get upright.
"Where are you going?" She stopped him immediately when he tried to stand.
"No, no, no. Sit down." She guided him back gently and stood in front of him with the expression of someone who has been frightened for a period of time and is channeling it into sternness. "You are not going anywhere until you tell me what happened."
"I.... what am I doing here anyway?" he asked, which was partly a real question and partly a delay.
"Well, you're working here., Peter."
"Forget it. It was a poorly worded question." He grimaced and shook his head, his brain actively working to calibrate to the new baseline.
'Right now I am extremely grateful for the adaptive capacity that came with the original bite. Without it, the sensory calibration alone would be unmanageable.'
"I went to check on you," Susan said, "since the system had no record of you leaving the building. I found you in a very bad state. Also, your lab security needs improvement. It did not take much for me to get in."
She sat next to him and raised a cloth to wipe the sweat from his face and neck.
"You were passed out on the sofa. Sweating significantly. Unresponsive to my calls. My brother helped me bring you here. I was about to contact Reed, but you woke up." She looked at him. "What happened?"
'Thanks to The One I woke up before a blood test could be run. Also, Cortana let her in, obviously.
And from Susan's behavior, she did not see Cortana materialize, which is good news. I do not want Richards and anyone else asking how I created her or why I have not presented her to the world.'
He rubbed his face and gave Susan his most charming smile.
"I experienced exhaustion and some unpleasant dreams. Nothing to worry about."
"Peter." She looked him directly in the eyes. "Do not lie to me."
"I.... sigh." He looked away. "I was working on an experiment." 'All right. Let us get through this.'
"What kind of experiment?" She asked as she leaned towards him, giving me a good look at her cleavage, which was black, his favorite.
'For The One. Blondes in black lingerie. My personal Kryptonite.' He swallowed.
"A sleeping gas," he said, lying back and looking at the ceiling instead of at Susan's neckline.
"I was testing it out of curiosity, to see if there was room for improvement. The problem is the gas is significantly more potent than intended. Potent enough to induce a semi-permanent sleep. It is lethal at higher concentrations. The nightmares appear to be a side effect. I was dreaming about my deepest fear, which was not pleasant. I inhaled only a small percentage and look at the result. I will have to scrap the research and approach it differently."
"Stay in your field," she said, casually, and took a tablet from nearby. "Show me this research."
"Okay." He took the tablet and navigated to the relevant log. It took less than a minute to locate.
He handed it over and watched her read through it with the focused attention of someone who is genuinely checking rather than politely reviewing. 'It is always good to have a contingency plan. And a contingency plan for the contingency plan.... And they say paranoia is a flaw.'
"This is consistent," she said after a moment. "You are not lying about that." She scrolled further. "Why is it called Project Crane?"
"Why would I do that? You're my friend and the Invisible Woman," he said, with a smile. "I don't want to take the bad side of either of them and as for the name it's a personal matter."
"You are a clever boy with a creative approach to naming things," she said, and stroked his head once, then leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Stay here. I will bring you something to eat."
"Good," he said, and she moved toward what appeared to be the kitchen. "Damn," he breathed. "That was close."
"I agree," Cortana said, through the earpiece he wore almost continuously in his civilian state. She did not materialize. She knew not to. Susan was nearby and the timing was wrong. "My calculations were not sufficiently accurate. I am sor-...."
"Do not worry," he said quietly. "There are times when things do not go precisely as planned. That is why you need to be able to adapt."
He settled back. "Everything went close enough to plan anyway. I am very eager to test the new capabilities. The One, I am so emoti-...."
"There are some urgent matters you need to address first," she said, and the television in the room came on.
The Green Goblin's face appeared on the screen, followed by live footage of the Goblin causing significant damage to the city from a glider.
"Someone has to stop that large, ugly, green, flying disaster," Cortana said.
"Haha." He exhaled. "Oh. Here we go again."
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"Peter! Your food is ready!" Susan called, coming back with a tray. "I hope you do not mind potatoes with car.... Peter?"
She looked around the room. Empty.
She set the tray on the table and turned to go look, and her eyes found the television. She picked up the remote and unmuted it. The device dropped slightly when she got a clear look at what was on screen. A large, green, heavily armored figure on a glider, dropping devices that exploded on contact with the city below.
She grabbed her phone.
"Hello, Susan. Good morning? Afternoon? Evening? I know, I left early after work...."
"Reed," she said, watching the screen. "I think we have a problem."
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