Early the next morning, Peter and Uncle Ben drove off in DeLorean DMC-12 and arrived at a container storage yard. Each box was numbered with bright orange paint. They parked the car and walked into the matrix-like array of boxes.
Peter looked around, there were very few cameras, only a few in the corners.
"Which room is it from?" he asked.
"342." Uncle Ben pointed to the end of the row of boxes, "It's right there."
They stopped in front of warehouse No. 342. The container was no different from the surroundings, with thick iron locks and rusty rolling shutter doors. Uncle Ben squatted down to unlock it, and the rolling shutter door rolled up with a bang, revealing the scene inside - Peter had only one word in his mind: chaos.
It was like the ultimate hoarder's dream. There were mountains of clutter: men's and women's clothing, computer parts, test tubes, piles of papers, photos, furniture, and a small crib.
"After they passed away, I moved all their things into this storage warehouse." Uncle Ben walked to the crib and patted the edge of the bed. "This is yours. You slept in it when you were a child."
Peter nodded and glanced at the bookshelf. The books on it were all extremely advanced, the kind that Reed·Richards would use as leisure reading. Most of them were about genetics, with a little bit of quantum physics mixed in.
The computer had been dismantled, but the hard drive was still intact and seemed to be usable. He put the hard drive away and looked through the scattered books and documents. Uncle Ben left him busy and walked outside to answer the phone.
Peter sifted through the pile of documents and finally picked out some information around the time when his father was in college. He held a few more books that he might need and walked out of the container. Uncle Ben was lost in thought with a photo album. Peter leaned over. In the photo album was a photo of little Peter being held by his parents.
"They didn't want to leave originally." Uncle Ben's eyes were red, "They hated the idea of leaving. Mary always thought something bad would happen, Richard didn't believe it... But she guessed it right in the end."
Peter looked at the photo. The man didn't look like a mad scientist who created monsters, but like a gentle husband and loving father. He was definitely not the one who created monsters. He had to prove his father's innocence.
"Uncle Ben, I'm done, let's go." He said.
"Okay." Uncle Ben closed the photo album and handed it to him, "I'll give it to you Aunt May to take a look, she will definitely be happy."
Peter responded. Uncle Ben locked the warehouse and Peter drove home. As soon as he got home, he locked himself into the basement laboratory and began to connect Richard's old hard drive to his computer.
The interface was old, and it took a long time to adapt successfully. He leaned back in his chair, waiting for the data migration to be completed. The files on the screen were copied to his hard drive one by one.
After the migration was completed, he started browsing. A bunch of college papers, a few emails, and some pornographic movies from the depths of the folder - bad movies from the 1990s. Peter almost didn't laugh out loud, but at least he could now confirm that Peter's love for red-haired girls was definitely inherited from his father.
But in the end, he found what was really important: an encrypted file hidden in a deep folder. It required a password, ten letters, no more than one, and only one chance. Peter tried various combinations: his own name, his mother's maiden name, his birthday, and even the name of the German scientist who provided the serum to Captain America. All of them were wrong.
When he was discouraged, he flipped through the old books left by his father and found that Richard liked Charles Dickens. He tried to enter the author's initials again, but it was still wrong.
He leaned back in his chair in frustration. His father would definitely write down the password, right? This might be his life's work, and he couldn't risk losing it. Peter himself had set emergency permissions on Baxter Building's computer. In case he was away, Johnny or Susan could also use it.
So... he turned to the pile of books and notes he brought back from the storage room. His father had started researching genetic theory in college, which meant that the encrypted file was also created at that time. The password was probably hidden in these manuscripts.
He picked up the book and flipped through the pages, trying to find the specially marked words. In the end, there was nothing except the scribblings left by the candidates. He threw the textbook aside and read his notes instead.
Richard's handwriting is like a ghost, and it seems that this is also hereditary. However, he remembers it in extremely detail, and there are formulas everywhere. Peter is not good at biology, and is better at mechanics and a small amount of chemistry, but he can still understand what his father is trying to create.
That is a basic molecular chain of testosterone. Richard modified it in a certain way, allowing the user to increase muscle mass to three times its original size almost instantly. This modification was based on a set of genetic codes he obtained from Spider. It seems that the fate of the Parker family and Spider was destined from then on.
Peter has seen a similar application before. It was not the "Venom" monster that he encountered, but the green reinforcement called "Venom" that Bane used to beat Batman. This is exactly Richard The basic prototype that played with in his early years. However, his entire paper seemed to revolve around this chain. Although he gave up later, no one would forget his first theory. Just like Peter himself still has a soft spot for Scanning Adapter, and even uses its abbreviation as part of the password.
Richard gave this theory a nickname - "STR-SPIDER". Perfect. Peter spread the notes next to the keyboard and entered this string of letters.
The screen flashed and the encrypted file was unlocked.
It contained more than a dozen folders. He opened the earliest one in chronological order, which was dated shortly after his father left college. Inside were some video files. Peter clicked on one.
The screen lit up: a laboratory, with test tubes and instruments on the table, and a chair in front. A young man with brown hair walked into the screen - it was Richard·Parker, his father. The voice was surprisingly similar to Peter.
"Record of the first day. I joined a private research institution today. According to regulations, my name cannot be disclosed. The risk of being discovered is too high. People here take security very seriously. I was introduced to everyone and assigned my own laboratory. I don't know when I can enroll next time. I hope it will be soon."
The next video is a month later.
"A month has passed since the last recording. I finally know what I want to do. To be honest, I am ecstatic. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recreate the miracle that the late Abraham Dr. Erskine created many years ago! I started researching based on the small amount of existing Super Soldier Serum information, which was basically handwritten notes. Unfortunately, the Spider serum I designed was not the direction Erskine wanted, so I had to give up that idea."
The next video is from the next day. Richard is blushing and wiping her wet hair with a towel.
"Today I met my partner -" he smiled like a fool, "Mary·Fitz Patrick, specializes in gene splicing. That woman is incredible. She is my soul mate, red hair, perfect smile, and that ass! Oh, that ass!" Peter rolled his eyes - he is indeed his biological father. "I'm not sure how she feels about me, but... ah, I'm so excited!"
One year later.
"Mary discovered something interesting." Richard said with a serious expression, "There is a document deep in the archives that has been ignored by many people. It has no signed author, and the content is about how to modify human cells so that they can accept subsequent genetic modifications. It is a wonderful manual, and people here have been using it as a guide for a long time. But Mary put forward a different theory - it is not just a guide. It -"
"Parker? Are you in there?" A woman's voice interrupted him.
"Here, Mary." Richard immediately turned off the camera.
One month later.
"We developed a new formula based on the book Mary discovered." Richard looked exhausted, but still smiled, "As just said, we believe that the author of that book is none other than Ya Abraham Dr. Erskine himself. We found that the writing styles are very similar. In other words, this book may contain the answer we are looking for. In addition, I finally made an appointment with Mary. So, not bad."
Nearly a year later, Mary also appeared in the video. She sat next to Richard, both of whom looked haggard.
"The situation is not good." Richard's voice was hoarse. Peter had never seen his father look so haggard. "We successfully cracked half of the code of the super soldier formula and handed it over to Herbert. I should listen to you, Mary." He sighed. Mary reached out and held his palm.
"We made a terrible mistake." Mary took over, "These people are not who they say they are. Colleagues started to disappear, and anyone involved in the project disappeared. We plan to leave early tomorrow morning. I have contacted the government to ask for help. I don't know what will happen next."
The last video was taken three years later. The scene was not in a laboratory, but in a warmly decorated living room. This scene was like a sharp sword piercing Peter's mind. He remembered this place, that was his home. Richard and Mary walked into the scene, much older. Mary held a brown-haired toddler in his arms with a red pacifier in his mouth.
Peter's eyes widened and his fingers touched the screen involuntarily. That was... little Peter.
Richard and Mary sat down on the sofa in front of the camera. The little guy kept jumping around in Mary's arms. She managed to stabilize him and shook him gently while smiling.
Richard smiled at his family, then turned to look at the camera and sighed, "I pray that I never have to turn on this camera... They found us. Don't know how, but they did. Someone followed me and Mary for a whole week. They want the formula, I'm sure. We perfected it half a year ago, but now... it must not fall into their hands. We have to make sure they never get it."
Mary handed the child into Richard's arms and faced the camera. "We have stored all the videos in Richard's old computer. There is still enough evidence in it to point to the person we believe is the mastermind behind it. We pray that these will fall into the hands of the right people and not trigger a war that may end human civilization."
The screen goes dark. This is the last video.
Peter cursed secretly and quickly looked through the accompanying materials in the other documents: land deeds, bank statements, photos of a gloomy laboratory, and several photos of men with black hair and beards.
All clues point to the same person - Herbert·Wyndham.