I left the school building and went for a walk. Curious about what else I could do with my newfound abilities. I walked to the abandoned warehouse that Peter and I like to skateboard at. I knew it was quiet and abandoned, so I could really test myself out. I looked at my hand's and curiously jumped grabbing onto a bar above my head. I pulled myself up and up again to the next bar. Reaching the top of the platform.

I was able to do amazing handstand's that I never had the coordination to do before. My hand's stuck to the walls and I could climb them with ease, without falling. I could jump crazy distances. I hung upside down at the top of the bars of the warehouse beams. I watched a spider swing from it's web to the one next to it. I looked at the chains next to me and got a crazy idea. I flipped off the beam backwards and grabbed the chain swinging from it, to the next one and to the next one.
"Wooo-hooo! Agh! Whoa! This is amazing!"

I met Peter after school and we went to Oscorp to work on the algorithm project with him. He began to show us more in depth around his laboratory.
"We have protein structure, rDNA, chromatography, transgenics testing, that's X-Ray video. That's the only one on the planet. We have, uhm, human line testing over..."
"I remember that." Peter pointed to a room with a large machine inside it. "I've seen that before."
"The Ganali device." Dr. Connors said impressed.
"Yeah. I remember a picture of that in my dad's office." Peter explained and we walked over toward's it.
"The idea was so simple. Load it with an antigen. It creates a cloud, which can be dispersed over a neighborhood, an entire city. Theoretically, it could cure polio in an afternoon."
"That's incredible." I said.
"Yes, well. Other's disagreed. What if the device were loaded with a toxin? What if you wanted to opt out? You can't run from a cloud, after all so here it lies, gathering dust." He said sadly.

We made it to the lab and after most everyone had gone home that night, we started working.
"What you see here is a computer model of a lizard." Dr. Connor's pointed out on the holographic screen. "Now, many of these wonderful creatures have so brilliantly adapted that they can regenerate entire limbs at will. You can imagine my envy. We're trying to harness this capability and transfer it into a our host subject, Freddy the three legged mouse. Enter the algorithm now."

I walked up to the holographic keypad and began typing it in as Peter and Dr. Connor's watched the screen beside us. My cell phone started to ring and I pulled it out seeing it was Uncle Bob. I pressed the silence button and put it back in my pocket.
"Did you need to take that?" Dr. Connor's asked.
"No." I said simply and confused my work.

"System ready for gene insertion." The computer said.
"Okay." I grabbed the hologram of the gene and brought it over to the side Peter and Dr. Connor's stood at. "Check. See what I'm trying to do?"
Dr. Connor's took the hologram and inserted it into the diagram.
"Preempt the proteins?" He asked.
"For the immune response." Peter finished proudly and we held hands watching the images in front of us.

"Beginning trials. Pending... Pending... Failed. Subject deceased." We watched the hologram mouse die as the leg grew from him.
"Come on, come on." I whispered hopefully and Peter squeezed my hand.
"Pending... Failed. Pending... Failed. Pending... failed. Subject deceased. Pending... Peptide algorithm accepted."

As Dr. Connor's had begun to walk away the algorithm worked. He turned back around as Peter and I hugged each other happily cheering.
"You did it!" He laughed.
"We did it!" I hugged him around his neck happily and then blushed. Letting him go.
"Regrowth complete. Vital's normal, blood pressure normal. Limb generation successful."
"Extraordinary." Dr. Connor's whispered in awe. "Thank you. Both of you." He said putting a hand on my shoulder and looking between us.

"Meet Fred and Wilma, our three legged mice. Here you go." He picked one of them up and put it in my hand's.
"Hey, buddy. I got you." I cooed and held him carefully.
"Okay." Dr. Connor's grabbed a insertion device filled with the serum. "Careful, don't want to stick you by mistake. Human trials aren't until next week." He joked and stuck the mouse with it. We all chuckled. "There."
I placed the little mouse back in it's glass cage. We smiled at each other and Peter and I went home.

"You were brilliant today." Peter said softly as we stood in front of his house. He tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear.
"Well, it wasn't just me. You helped me with that formula. You're a brilliant scientist Peter Parker and I don't know where I'd be without you." I smiled softly and placed a hand on his cheek.
He leaned into the touch and sighed. He smiled and leaned closer to me. Our faces mere inches from each other. His lips were about to press onto mine when the outside light came on. Uncle Ben opened the door and chuckled.
"Oops. I hope I wasn't interrupting." He raised an eyebrow as we had jumped apart.
"Uncle Ben." Peter hissed. He gestured with his eyes to make him go back inside. Uncle Ben gave him a knowing look and walked back inside. "Sorry..."
"It's okay. It's late. I should probably head home."
"Okay. I'll, uh, see you tomorrow then." Peter said with some disappointment in his voice.
I nodded and began walking away. Peter caught up to me and grabbed my arm. I turned around and he kissed me.  

It was a soft, quick kiss. But it was enough to know and feel everything I ever imagine it would be like. It was simply wonderful. Full of sparks and unsaid emotions.
"Wow." We both said as we opened our eyes.
"Goodnight, Peter." I smiled dreamily at him.
"Goodnight, Cate." He smiled back at me and kissed my cheek as I turned away.

I walked down to my house and walked up the steps with a silly grin on my face.
"Well, it's good to see someone happy." Uncle Bob said from the porch bench he was waiting for me on.
"Oh, hey. I thought you..."
"Didn't you forget something?" He asked me angrily.
"What?"
The phone in my pocket started to ring and I reached for it.
"Now, don't answer that, but I'm glad to know it's working. You owe your Aunt an apology. Big-time. Now get in there." He scolded and I walked inside.

Aunt Mary was standing in the living room, looking worried like usual.
"Listen, Aunt Mary. I'm sorry, I..."
"Honestly you don't have to apologize to me. It's your Uncle..."
"The hell she doesn't." He said from behind me.
"Bob..." She sighed.
"I'm sorry. I got distracted. I was at Oscorp, with Peter and..." I tired to explain.
"Oh, she got distracted." He said sarcastically. "Your Aunt, my wife, had to walk 12 blocks alone in the middle of the night and then wait in a deserted subway station. While you were out galavanting with Peter?"
"Bob, sweetheart, honestly. I am completely capable of walking home by myself." Aunt Mary tried to explain.

"You will not defend her!" Uncle Bob shouted.
"I'm not defending..."
"You are defending her." He said roughly and turned to look at me. "Listen to me."
"Yeah, go ahead." I told him.
"You are a lot like your father. You really are, Cate, and that's a good thing. But your father lived by a philosophy, A principle really. He believed that if you could do good thing's for other people, you had a moral obligation to do so. That's what's at stake here. Not. A choice. Responsibility."

I listened to every word he said about my Dad, but it only made me feel angrier.
"That's nice." I nodded my head. "That's, that's great. That's all well and good for him. But where is he?" I said quietly trying to hold in my tears.
"What?"
"Where is he? Where's my Dad and my Mom? They didn't think it was their responsibility to be here to tell me this themselves?" My voice rose with every word.
"Oh, come on. How dare you?" Uncle Bob scoffed.
"How dare I? How dare you!" I shouted back.

In all my years of living here, I'd never raised my voice with either my Aunt or Uncle. I looked up at his astounded face and walked out the front door.
"Where are you going?" Uncle Bob called after me. "Cate, come back here, please."
I shut the door behind me and apparently it was to hard. It shattered the glass in the window making the both of them gasp. I looked back at their shocked expressions and turned around walking away from them.

"Leave her alone for a little while. She'll be alright... Probably just going to Peter's." Aunt Mary said.
"Cate!" Uncle Bob called out after me. He walked out the door to the house careful of the broken glass and followed off in the direction I had gone. "Cate?"

I had walked away up through town and perched myself on a steel beam for the subway. I watched Uncle Bob walk underneath me, calling out for me. But I was so angry with myself for lashing out the way I had and angry for not understanding anything going on with me and in my world right now.

"It's 2.07." The cashier clerk of the small convince store I stopped at said. I tried to pay for my bottle of chocolate milk. "Uh, its $2.07." He scoffed as I placed the two dollar bills and five cents down on the counter. I searched my pockets for two pennies and didn't have them. So I grabbed them from the donation change.
"Yeah, I know."
"Yeah, and you're holding up the line." He said as there was only one man behind me. "No. You can leave a penny, you can't take a penny."
"What?" I scoffed.
"You can leave a penny anytime, you have to spend $10.00 to take a penny. It's store policy." His voice rose as he spoke. I pursed my lips and sighed. "Are you gonna pay? You're holding up my line."
"Dude, it's two cents. I don't have two cents." I argued.
"You can't afford your milk so step aside. What Daddy didn't give you enough milk money today?" He mocked me.
"We are talking about two cent's here."
"Just step aside, kid!" 

I grabbed my money angrily and moved out of the way for the man behind me as I put it back in my jeans pocket. The other man put down his six pack of beer and I walked towards the door. The long blonde haired man knocked over a small shelf on the counter making the rude cashier look at him in disgust.
"Really?" He scoffed and bent down to pick up the mess.
The cashier was distracted and the man reached over the counter and took the money from the open register. I noticed a small star shaped tattoo on his wrist. He looked at me as I watched him. But I was to angry to care to do anything. He grabbed the milk on the counter and threw it to me. I caught it with ease and walked out the front door. The other man walked out the side door.
"Yo, not cool, bro.." The cashier said noticing the money from the register was gone. He ran outside shouting after him. "Hey, man stop! Somebody stop that guy!"
I watched him cross the street and watched the cashier struggle to call after him.
"Hey, kid. A little help?" He called out to me.
"Not my policy!" I called back to him and began walking away.
"Somebody stop that dude! Hey! Hey, stop!"

Uncle Bob was walking up towards the store on the other side of the street. Hearing the shouts from the store clerk. He watched the man run through the the side walk, barreling through people. He knocked into a woman and the gun in his vest fell out, in front of Uncle Bob. The pair stared at each other for a minute, and then Bob lunged forward for the gun.
The two men struggled against each other and the gun went off. In Robert Barrett's stomach.

I heard the gun shot and turned around. I noticed someone laying on the ground and crossed the street to go help. That's when I noticed it was Uncle Bob. Tears filled my eyes as I dropped down next to him, putting my hands on his wound.
"Oh, god, oh, god. Uncle Bob? Uncle Bob! Someone call an ambulance!" I screamed out through my tears. "Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob. Oh, god. Oh, my god." I screamed out in anger, terrified at myself, for causing this. It was my fault. My hand's were covered with his blood. Literally and figuratively.
"Jesus. Uncle Bob. I'm so sorry." I cried.

An officer brought me home to Aunt Mary. They explained to her what had happened and she cried in my arm's. After a while they began their investigation.
"Witnesses gave a description to the sketch artist. I need you to take a look." The officer said to her.
"No, I don't know him." She told him heartbroken. I watched her from the doorway and leaned my head against it holding in my tears.
"I didn't expect you would ma'am. Homicide detectives are on it. We'll see what they turn up."
"Okay." Aunt Mary's voice came out almost nonexistent. It was so quiet. She started crying again as the officer left the table.
"Uhm, can I... Can I have that?" I choked out as he walked by.
"Sure." He handed me the drawing and I looked at it, vengeful and hate filled. It was the same man I had let go at the convince store. "There's one other thing. He has a star tattooed on his left hand." He informed me as the officer's left our house.

I went to my room. My hand's still covered in blood and I pulled out my phone. I had missed calls from Peter and one from Uncle Bob. I clicked on his voicemail and put the phone to my ear.

"Cate, I know things have been difficult lately and I'm sorry about that. I think I know what you're feeling...." I let out a strangled sob and clicked the phone off. I couldn't handle it. It was all my fault.