Chapter 12 - The Heist (Part 3)

Tyler Riddle

Bathroom

I was actually very nervous. If I mess up at any point in the execution of my plan, I may have to fight my way out. And the longer I fight, the longer security has to call for more backup, whether that be more guards or police. But I don't have time to calm myself down, so I just have to turn my flight instinct to a fight instinct. 

I take out the EMPs in my shoes. Then I absorb my clothing and shoes, even my ID. Everything has to go be absorbed so I don't accidentally leave behind incriminating evidence. Security took our phones, so I don't have to worry about that. My Vantablack rubber suit starts to grow across my skin, not even leaving my eyes uncovered. Then I fashion some rubber straps around my waist to keep my EMPs in.

It's go time.

I cream open the door and throw out 3 smoke bombs to cover a wide area. The fire alarms start going off. Good, that should clear the building and get Gwen out of here. It's not too long until I hear screams, yelling, and the stampeding of feet.

I ran over to the security checkpoint, making sure to continuously throw out smoke bombs to cover my location. I try to throw them within the smoke, so as to not tip people off that there is no fire and that the smoke is just from smoke bombs. But i can't actually see through my suit, so I'm just making educated guesses.

When I finally make it back to the security checkpoint, the guards have left. Taking an EMP from my waist, I activate it to clear the memory on the cameras and to reboot the security systems. Cut a few wires that look important, and that should give me a good amount of time before they can see what's going on in this section of the building. I'll have to get out and join the other fleeing people before the security systems reboot and they can place me.

Then I absorb the EMP and continue down the hallway to the spider silk lab, making sure to continue throwing smoke bombs. Standing at the door to the lab, I check to make sure nobody is in there. It's all good, so Gwen must have left with the rest of the scientists. I take a few moments to produce a hammer and a bottle of liquid nitrogen. Chemistry class is really dangerous. It gives kids access to all these dangerous elements and chemicals. 

I pour liquid nitrogen directly on the reinforced plexiglass around the door handle. Then I smashed the area with the hammer, causing it to shatter. I reached my hand through the hole and gave the handle on the other side of the door. It opens and I head over to the spiders. 

The spiders are put into their own little habitats, but there are only three of them. They all look slightly different. One of them stands out to me though. It has multiple neon colors, with a big fat 42 in it's abdomen and it periodically spasms, releasing different colors of light. The phenomenon isn't exactly like the animated movie. It looks like it's shifting between different poses, yes, but it's not pixelated. 

I take a second to form a few plastic vials to hold the spiders in. I use the hammer and liquid nitrogen to break open the spiders' habitats. I then pick them up carefully and put them into the vials and seal them up, leaving two holes on the ends for me to cycle the air from. 

Once I'm done, i start foraging through the lab for information and hopefully a sample of the OZ formula. The 42 spider was altered with the OZ formula, so it must be around here somewhere. Three minutes later, I've read and memorized about 70 pages of lab reports, and I have about an ounce of the OZ formula. I didn't read for comprehension, so I'll have to go back and review them later. It's not worth destroying the lab, since Norman Osborn is sure to have a copy of the research here. The important thing is that I took the spiders. Mutating things that are already alive leaves a lot of things up to chance and it often ends up killing the subject. Norman will have to spend months at least to get this experiment back to where it was before. 

Taking my spoils, I head out the lab to return to the bathroom. I go hail mary with the smoke bombs, throwing out as many as I could without collapsing. I also use the rest of the EMPs since I won't need them anymore. I'm really trying to cause as much chaos as possible here.

Once I make my way back to the bathroom, I absorb my suit and the EMPs. I recreate my shoes and clothes. Then I look at the spider vials. These aren't going to work. I'm likely going to get searched, so I need to disguise them. I create colored foam on each vial to disguise them as stress relievers.

Now to cover my tracks and leave. First step, leave DNA evidence to corroborate your alibi. Not hard to do in a bathroom. Then remove suspicion from yourself by changing that into pity, so self harm it is. I ran out of the bathroom along my decided route. Along the way, I run face first into a pillar. It's something you would do only if you were in panic. I touch my nose. It's not broken, but it's going to bruise and I can feel a slight trickle of blood. Good. Then I keep running. A few people are still running up the staircases and I join them. 

Eventually I made it out of the building. The fire department, police force, ambulances, and a crowd of people surrounded the building. Very few people are actually hurt. The ones that are just have cuts and bruises. Almost everyone that ran out of the building was just looking back at the building. 

There was no fire, no heat, only lots and lots of black smoke rising up from the lower levels of the building, creating a thick smog. But it was starting to get thinner. I guess all the smoke bombs were running out now. A little while later, and the smoke was almost gone, dispersed into the wind.

EMTs were checking people in batches to make sure everyone was ok before they sent them off and called for more. Police were questioning people to try and peace together a story, but they couldn't question everyone. There were just way too many people. 

I started going around sniffing for Gwen's scent. It wasn't too long before I found her.

"Gwen! Are you ok?" I start checking her body for injuries, but she seems fine.

"I'm fine Tyler. How about you? Are you ok? What happened to your nose?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I just ran into a pillar while trying to get out. The smoke was so thick I couldn't see more than five feet in front of me."

"That's good. Let's sit down, I'm exhausted." Gwen said, sitting down in the ground.

The police didn't just start letting people go like I thought. More reinforcements came in and they helped coral people before taking people's testimonies. Once Gwen and I had our testimonies taken, we were let go. 

"So we're still doing our date night right?" Gwen asked, but it didn't sound much like a question.

"Sure"

"Ok. Just let me see if I can find a phone to call my parents and let them know I don't have my phone."

=÷=

5 hours later

Gwen dragged me into the movies to see some chick-flick. It was actually pretty good. It was almost midnight when we got out of the theatre, but there was surprisingly an ice cream shop still open nearby. They probably profited from the theatre's late night showings 

Her parents picked her up by the theatre not too long after that, and I walked back home. The night air air was brisk and it kept me awake long enough to get back home. 

Once there, I went to my room, and unsealed the 42 spider to let it bite me. It felt like a little zap of static electricity, but nothing more. I'll see what it did to me in the morning. I put 42 and the other spiders in habitats I made beforehand hand and went to bed. I was out as soon as my head met the pillow.