As May pushed the door open to step into the room, a flash of green light blinded her, forcing her to close her eyes instinctively.
The light vanished as quickly as it appeared. Feeling uneasy, May opened her eyes to find Bren lying on the bed. The blanket was puffed up like it was covering a small elephant, with only Bren's head poking out from under it.
"Hi, May," Bren greeted her, trying to act casual.
"Are… you okay?" May hesitated. She had plenty of questions she wanted to ask.
What was that flash of light? What were those strange sounds coming from the room? And why did it look like he'd hidden a 200-pound pig under his blanket?
But she held back. Kids needed their privacy, after all.
Instead, she walked over to Bren's bedside with a hint of concern. Her hands, weathered by years of life's trials, gently pressed against his forehead.
"You don't seem to have a fever, but I think it's best to take you to the hospital just to be safe." May was ready to pack their things and drag Bren out the door if necessary.
But Bren clutched the blanket tightly and shook his head vigorously. "Wait, Aunt May. I'm fine. There's no need for a hospital."
A hospital?
In a country like this, visiting the doctor wasn't exactly cheap.
Bren didn't want to add any unnecessary burden to Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
"You've already missed several days of school, Bren," May said, her tone firm and laced with worry. "Ever since you and Peter came back from Oscorp, both of you have been… different. At least Peter seemed to recover quickly, but you—" She sighed. "Ben and I are really worried about you."
"I just… didn't want to go to school, that's all…" Bren muttered, pulling the blanket tighter around himself.
"Don't want to go to school?" May's voice rose, incredulous and tinged with anger. She looked ready to launch into a lecture, but just then, the sound of Uncle Ben's car engine echoed from downstairs.
It was an old, battered car, and every time it started or shut off, it made a ruckus better suited to a bygone era.
"Uncle Ben's back? I thought he had work today," Bren said quickly, hoping to divert the conversation.
"Peter got into a fight at school," May said with a pained expression.
With a heavy sigh, she walked to the door and paused to look at Bren seriously. "I need to check on Peter. Later, Bren and I will sit down and talk with you, okay?"
Bren nodded obediently, and only after May closed the door and her footsteps faded away did he let out a sigh of relief. He pulled the blanket off himself.
His body still retained some residual spider-like features. The Omnitrix hadn't fully repaired his genes yet, which was why Bren had been keeping himself hidden under the blanket.
[Omnitrix energy insufficient. Recharging… Gene repair estimated to complete in 1:37 minutes.]
"Incredible. A device capable of destroying the universe with a self-destruct program can still run out of power?" Bren muttered, staring incredulously at the spinning watch on his wrist. At the same time, he could feel the mutations in his body gradually disappearing.
Once his genes were fully restored, it seemed he'd lose the powers of Spider-Man.
Not that Bren minded. "As long as the Omnitrix works, Spider-Man's powers don't matter much."
Among the Omnitrix's vast library of alien DNA, there were plenty of species with abilities similar to Spider-Man's. The Arancha aliens, for instance, better known as Spider-Monkeys.
A minute and a half passed quickly.
Bren no longer felt any abnormalities in his body. Before he could fully inspect himself, the Omnitrix's light shifted from green to blue. The screen flashed rapidly with strange, shadowy shapes.
[Calibration mode activated.]
"Calibration mode? Did the watch reconnect with Primus?" Bren's excitement surged.
The first-generation Omnitrix didn't store over a million alien DNAs locally; it functioned more like a cloud server, requiring downloads from Primus for transformations. Calibration mode allowed the device to randomly load ten alien DNAs.
"I wonder which ones I'll get this time."
Among the million-plus options, the most powerful was undoubtedly the Celestialsapiens, better known as Alien X.
But Bren wasn't keen on receiving that DNA. Alien X's powers came with too many strings attached. A single misstep could trap him in an endless internal debate between its dual personalities.
As Bren mulled over this, the Omnitrix completed its calibration.
The device's appearance hadn't changed, but it now displayed several new icons.
Bren pressed the side buttons, causing the dial to pop up. The hourglass-shaped symbol in the center morphed into a rectangular frame, displaying a silhouette of a humanoid figure.
"Heatblast?"
Bren recognized the Pyronite icon immediately. Turning the dial revealed familiar shapes—Wildmutt, Diamondhead, and others.
"The original ten aliens," he murmured.
The original ten aliens had powers that were versatile and robust, capable of handling a wide range of situations. And among them was Grey Matter!
Grey Matter's DNA came from the Galvan species, the same race as Azmuth, the Omnitrix's creator and one of the five smartest beings in the galaxy.
In theory, Grey Matter's intellect could bypass all of the Omnitrix's safeguards. But knowledge was a prerequisite, and, well, the Bren in the cartoons struggled just fixing a car's AC.
Bren decided not to test the transformations immediately. He tugged his sleeve over the watch just as he heard someone coming up the stairs.
"Sounds like Peter," he thought, picturing his cousin walking up.
Then he froze. "Wait, since when could I hear that clearly?"
Before he could dwell on it, the door opened again.
"Hey, Bren, feeling better?" Peter asked as he stepped in. But his words faltered halfway through as their eyes met.
A strange sensation surged from deep within their souls.
It was as if invisible lines radiated from their heads like bristling hairs standing on end.
"Wait, you too?" Peter's eyes widened.
"Don't tell me… you got bitten by a spider too?"
A few days earlier, Peter had been bitten by a spider at Oscorp. Overnight, he'd discovered he was no longer ordinary. And now, some instinct told him his cousin shared the same fate.
Bren was equally surprised. He'd thought the Omnitrix had entirely removed the spider DNA, but apparently, it had preserved it. Even without the watch, he now had a way to defend himself.
But instead of answering directly, Bren smirked and said, "Technically, I bit the spider."
Peter: ???