37: Chapter 37 Experimental Subject - D (1)

Peter opened his eyes, his vision gradually clearing.

Above him were the familiar white shadowless lamps, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of disinfectant.

This was the Baxter Building's medical room; it was the same bed he had lain on when he first came here.

He tried to move his limbs, but his body felt as heavy as lead. The aftereffects of the battle in Harlem were still there; that mysterious gas had clearly wreaked havoc on his nervous system.

His suit's helmet and Webbing bracers were neatly placed on the bedside table. Peter rolled out of bed, his legs trembling slightly, but he gritted his teeth, stood steady, and put his equipment back on.

He needed to find Susan Storm. She was the one in the Fantastic Four who understood biology and genetics the best; only she could explain what exactly had happened to his body.

Susan's laboratory was at the end of the hallway. Peter pushed the door open and said straight away, "Susan, we need to talk."

"Peter?!" Susan spun around, her eyes slightly red, and rushed over to hug him. "Thank goodness you're awake! When Fury brought you in, we all thought you wouldn't make it! Johnny was so worried he almost triggered a supernova in the lab!"

"Susan, take a deep breath." Peter patted her back and chuckled.

Susan let out a long breath and hugged him tightly once more. "It's good that you're alive."

"Don't do that next time!" Susan suddenly let go and punched Peter in the shoulder, hard enough to make him wince. "Do you have any idea how worried we were? What on earth were you thinking?"

"Allow me to defend myself, that child's life was hanging by a thread at the time." Peter sighed and removed his helmet, revealing his face.

"But sometimes you forget, you're just a kid yourself!" Susan retorted without hesitation.

Peter grinned. "That doesn't seem to have stopped you from sneaking peeks at my butt when I'm wearing the suit."

"I, I did not!" A blush instantly flew across Susan's cheeks.

"Don't be nervous. When I see you wearing your stealth suit, I take a few extra looks, too." Peter winked.

Susan rubbed her temples helplessly. "You are truly hopeless."

"Indeed." Peter admitted frankly.

Susan pointed to the chair nearby. "Sit down and take off the suit. I need to draw some blood, but I really don't know how to get you out of this spandex."

"Didn't Johnny tell you how to unlock it?" Peter asked while activating the suit's expansion mode, skillfully peeling it off until he was sitting on the stool in just his underwear.

"No. Johnny, Reed, and Ben all went with Fury to handle the captives. Reed went to Finland to consult on a secret project; I don't know when he'll be back." Susan, with her back to him, was preparing the needle for the blood draw. "Johnny wanted to oversee the interrogation himself, and Ben went to help..."

Before she could finish, she turned around, her gaze landing on Peter, and her voice came to an abrupt halt.

"Susan? What's wrong?" Peter felt a bit uneasy under her gaze.

Susan's gaze slowly moved down from his abdomen, her eyes somewhat fixed. Just as Peter was about to make a joke, a strange scent suddenly flooded his nostrils.

It was a scent he had never smelled before—warm, sweet, like perfectly boiled maple syrup, with a hint of sweetness that made his heart race.

He twitched his nose, confirming that the scent was coming directly from Susan.

"Susan?" He called out again.

Susan snapped back to reality and hurriedly averted her gaze. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine. Here, no need to draw too much."

She stepped forward and inserted the needle into Peter's arm. Peter didn't mind the slight pain in his arm; all his attention was focused on the scent of maple syrup.

The scent was too intense. He definitely couldn't have smelled something like this before. Did that gas change him? Mutated his abilities?

Susan coughed, breaking the silence. "So, Peter, tell me exactly what happened."

Peter collected his thoughts and quickly recounted the mission, the strange properties of the gas, and his reaction after inhaling it.

"We will figure it out." Susan carried the blood sample to the workbench. She looked back, her gaze drifting downward uncontrollably again, and the scent of maple syrup instantly became even richer.

"You… you can put your clothes on now, Peter." She said softly.

Peter nodded. If it were before, he would have taken the opportunity to tease her a bit more, but the situation wasn't right now. This unknown sensory mutation was a warning sign, and he had to remain vigilant.

He returned to his private lounge, changed into casual clothes, and went back to the lab.

The screen in front of Susan was already filled with microscopic images of Peter's blood. Her brows were furrowed, and her eyes were filled with confusion.

"What's the problem?" Peter walked over and asked.

"The problem is that there is no problem." Susan gritted her teeth and pulled up two sets of DNA double helix structures. "The right side is your blood sample from a week ago, and the left is the current one. Your genetic structure… it has mutated."

Peter leaned in close to the screen. At first glance, there wasn't much difference, but upon closer inspection, he could see that certain gene chains in the sample on the left had undergone a complete reorganization, turning into some completely foreign structure.

"How is that possible?"

"I have a theory." Susan pointed at the screen. "It has to do with your superpowers. We analyzed it before; your blood can automatically adapt to foreign invaders. Perhaps this time, it did the same thing again."

Peter rubbed his chin. "Have the lab files been pulled? What exactly is that gas?"

Susan typed rapidly on the keyboard, pulling up several encrypted files. "According to the data, the geneticists' mission was to replicate a certain mutagen. The base component of the gas was extracted from 'Subject D', a person said to possess special abilities."

"What kind of abilities?"

"I don't know. In the folder provided by S.H.I.E.L.D., there is no detailed report on Subject D's abilities at all."

"Subject D is a woman." Peter immediately grasped the key point. "What about her genetic sequence? Can we deduce her abilities from the sequence?"

"No, because they didn't know either."

"What?" Peter widened his eyes. "They wanted to replicate someone's abilities, yet they didn't even know what those abilities were or how they worked?"

"Why do you think thirty-one children died in the experiments?" Susan's voice rose sharply, filled with uncontrollable rage. "Those animals! They didn't have enough time or materials to research; it's like giving a three-year-old a box of watercolors and forcing them to paint the Mona Lisa. Unless they had a genius working for them, this was simply impossible!"

Peter sighed. "Then how much do we know about the gas itself?"

"The gas contains certain properties I'm not sure about." Susan scratched her hair in frustration. "The scientists only got a small blood sample of Subject D, but they weren't allowed to study it directly. So they could only try to use radiation to force the blood to fuse… to fuse with those children's bodies."

She paused, her voice trembling. "Children, Peter… those were living, breathing children!"

Peter lowered his head. "I know, Susan. Believe me, I know."

"How could S.H.I.E.L.D. not know about this?" Susan demanded.

"They knew. It's just that there was no one available to execute the mission until Fury sent me."

"The next time I run into Fury, I'm going to snap his neck!" Susan completely exploded.

With her roar, an invisible force exploded from her as the center. Folders, pen holders, and even several chairs in the lab were violently shoved away by this invisible force field, slamming against the walls with a loud crash.

"Susan, calm down." Peter quickly tried to soothe her.

"…Sorry." Susan gritted her teeth, the force field instantly dissipated, and she turned around, staring fixedly at the screen.

Just as Peter was about to speak, a pungent odor suddenly flooded his nostrils. It was like rusted copper being seared on a fire—burnt, acrid, and spicy.

"Susan, do you smell anything?"

"What smell?" Susan looked confused.

"That kind of… like burnt copper wire. Like something is burning." Peter sniffed; the smell was getting stronger, and the source was Susan herself.

Susan frowned and pulled up the building's surveillance footage. "There are no fire alarms on the fifth floor, Peter."

Peter squinted and leaned toward the screen. As the distance closed, the smell of burnt copper almost felt like it was drilling into his brain.

Her emotions again?

He paused for a moment, then stepped away. "Never mind, pretend I didn't say anything."

Susan looked at him with concern. "Peter, if you're smelling things that aren't there, it might be a concussion aftereffect. You need to rest."

"I can't sleep until I figure out what's wrong with my body." Peter shook his head.

"Peter…"

"Please, Susan. I have to know."

Susan sighed and pulled up the blood analysis report again. "They tried to use radiation to force Subject D's blood into… the bodies of those test subjects."

As the anger in her tone surged again, the smell of burnt copper filled the air once more.

Peter's heart skipped a beat. Burnt copper represents anger; maple syrup represents desire. He could now smell other people's emotions.

"Radiation again." Peter rubbed his temples. "The first time it was a radioactive spider, now it's radioactive gas… wait, can we reverse-engineer these two blood samples and compare what exactly happened to them?"

Susan's eyes lit up. "Good idea!"

She immediately busied herself in the lab. Peter stood to the side, watching the complex genetic calculations. Genetics wasn't Peter's strong suit, but his modern thinking allowed him to suggest different entry points.

"Damn it!" Susan suddenly cursed under her breath.

Peter immediately walked forward. "What is it?"

"Your blood! That's the problem!" Susan pointed at the screen. "It's locked!"