Oscorp Tower was taller than Gwen expected.
Sleek black windows, sharp steel edges, and a logo that practically dared you to trust it. It didn't look like a science facility. It looked like the kind of place a mad genius would launch a laser from.
"I'm already impressed," she whispered as they stepped through the glass doors.
Luffy, hands in his hoodie pocket, tilted his head slightly. "It smells like cold metal and capitalism."
She grinned. "Perfect."
They handed over their visitor passes—forged with shockingly convincing detail, thanks to Gwen's Photoshop skills and a color printer she may or may not have borrowed from her dad's precinct.
The receptionist scanned them. Blinked once. Then waved them through.
"Elevator Three," she said flatly. "Lab Level C. Don't touch anything glowing."
"Noted," Gwen said, nudging Luffy. "We're in."
The Tour Begins
Lab Level C was buzzing with activity.
Tour guides in white coats stood beside stations showcasing robotic arms, DNA editing simulations, and holographic displays about Oscorp's commitment to "responsible advancement." Other kids in the program clustered in groups, wide-eyed and excited.
Luffy, for his part, was scanning everything. Not with awe, but with calculation.
"This place is polished," he murmured.
"Which means they're hiding something," Gwen added.
They drifted toward the edge of the group, pretending to look fascinated by a nano-tech prototype that built tiny bridges from metallic dust.
Behind the device, a security door blinked quietly.
RESTRICTED: GENETIC TESTING & BIO-STORAGE.
Beneath it: a keypad.
Luffy noticed Gwen casually pull a folded sticky note from her sleeve.
"I memorized this from an Oscorp QA leak online," she said nonchalantly. "Old lab keypads sometimes default to 5150 if not updated."
"You scare me in very specific ways," Luffy said.
Gwen punched in the code.
Click.
The door slid open.
The Spider Room
The hallway beyond was colder, dimly lit. Rows of enclosures stretched down each side—glass tanks containing frogs, lizards, rodents… and spiders.
Lots of spiders.
Some clung to webs that shimmered faintly under the lights. Others sat motionless, glowing slightly with bio-luminescence. One enclosure held a strange hybrid—part organic, part synthetic. It watched them with too many eyes.
Luffy's skin prickled.
Not from fear—but from something deeper. A pressure behind his eyes. A quiet pulse under his ribs.
Observation Haki.
He wasn't trained yet, but his instincts were warning him.
"This place isn't a lab," he said. "It's a vault."
Gwen was already walking ahead, drawn toward a display marked Series-B: Arachnid Fusion Trials.
Inside were half a dozen spiders suspended in gel, each tagged with numbers and genetic markers.
"They're not testing these," she said. "They're preserving them. Or waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Luffy asked.
Gwen opened her mouth to answer—and winced.
She slapped her neck instinctively.
"What was that?"
Luffy stepped forward.
A tiny spider—barely the size of a paperclip—twitched on her shoulder.
She flinched and brushed it off. It landed with a soft thud on the tile and curled up, unmoving.
Gwen stared at her hand.
Then at Luffy.
"I think it bit me."
Back in the Light
They didn't tell the tour guide.
They didn't tell anyone.
Gwen insisted she was fine—no dizziness, no swelling. But she gripped the railing of the elevator just a little tighter on the way back up. And Luffy stood closer than usual.
Back on the street, the world looked normal.
But they weren't.
Not anymore.
Late That Night – The Treehouse
Gwen sat on the floor, hoodie wrapped tight around her, head resting against the wooden wall.
Luffy handed her a bottle of water and a cold cloth. "You don't have a fever," he said.
"Doesn't mean I'm fine."
She shifted slightly. "My whole body feels like it's rebooting. Muscles twitch randomly. My eyes hurt. And I'm pretty sure I can hear a raccoon breathing in the alleyway four houses down."
"Okay," Luffy said, calmly. "So that's either sensory enhancement or you're going to explode."
She snorted. "Helpful."
He sat beside her, thoughtful.
"We don't know what that spider was," she said. "What if it's something Oscorp doesn't even have records of?"
"What if it's not just the spider?"
She blinked. "You think they designed it?"
Luffy didn't answer.
They both knew the answer was yes.
The First Clue
An hour later, Gwen was pacing the beams above the treehouse floor.
Literally—on the beams.
Without realizing it, she'd climbed to the ceiling and was now upside down, hanging from a rafter like it was perfectly normal.
She stared at her hands.
Luffy, sitting below with a half-eaten granola bar, looked up. "So, uh… do we log that under 'spider stuff' or 'black magic'?"
Gwen dropped down with perfect grace. "Okay. Something is definitely happening."
Luffy nodded, tossing her the granola bar. "Welcome to the club."
She paused. "What?"
He blinked.
Then smiled faintly. "Never mind."
Parallel Paths
They didn't talk about it outright, not yet.
But something had shifted between them—something that couldn't be undone.
Luffy could feel his body responding differently now. Elastic reactions. Delayed momentum. He caught himself stretching instinctively when he reached too far. A bounce in his step that hadn't been there before.
And Gwen? Gwen was faster. Sharper. Her balance was unreal, her senses tuned like a machine.
Two kids. Two paths.
Both standing at the edge of something vast.
Something waiting.
Unseen Eyes
Deep beneath Oscorp Tower, a man in a sleek black lab coat reviewed surveillance footage.
Frame by frame.
He paused at the moment Gwen stepped into the restricted lab. Enhanced the image. Saw the spider fall.
Saw Luffy step closer.
He tapped the screen.
"Tag both."
Behind him, red lights pulsed on dormant containment tanks.
The system marked their profiles.
PROJECT PHASE ECHO: TRIGGERED