Chapter 3: So, Using Grey Matter to Finish Homework

“This is unbelievable!”

Peter, recovering from his earlier state of shock, sprang to his feet, excitement lighting up his face. “I bet Oscorp is hiding something big. Let me borrow your computer.” Without waiting for permission, he plopped himself down at Bren’s desk and booted up the ancient, boxy computer.

“Whirrrrr...”

The clunky machine hummed noisily as it powered on. Peter navigated to the browser and typed furiously on the keyboard. Within moments, images of spiders flooded the screen. “Oscorp is researching spiders, but I guarantee they’re doing more than just studying web silk.”

“You’re planning to investigate Oscorp?” Bren asked, leaning casually against the chair’s backrest.

“Don’t you want to know what’s happening to us? What if there are side effects?” Peter retorted, his eyes blazing with determination.

Bren remained silent, thinking to himself: You’re mutating because the spider totem chose you. I’m mutating because Omnitrix protected me. He knew far more than Peter, but he simply shook his head. “Not interested.”

Oscorp might not be on Stark Industries’ level, but it was still one of New York’s corporate giants. In a world where capital equaled power, antagonizing such a company was asking for trouble.

Bren wasn’t about to throw himself into that fire. He wasn’t aiming to be a superhero, and he certainly wasn’t looking to entangle himself in Oscorp’s web.

Earning money, that was his priority.

His thoughts drifted to the Omnitrix, and he could almost hear Grey Matter calling out to him. With a little ingenuity and the alien genius’s skills, he could create a groundbreaking invention and start his own company.

“I’ll call it Plamorus Technologies,” he muttered to himself.

“What’s Plamorus Technologies?” Peter asked without looking away from the screen.

“The name of my future company. You’ll be working for me one day,” Bren quipped.

“Sure, whatever you say,” Peter replied absentmindedly, pulling up a new webpage. This time, a blond man’s photo appeared on the screen. “Dr. Curt Connors. Renowned biologist. He used to work with my dad and is now at Oscorp.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“So you think he knows something?” Bren asked, pretending not to recognize the man famous as the Lizard.

“I want to talk to him,” Peter said, his voice tinged with obsession. It was clear he wasn’t just after answers about his powers, he wanted to uncover more about his late parents, too.

Bren understood the desire, even if it bordered on fixation. Peter’s drive had already led to arguments with Uncle Ben. Both Bren and Aunt May were worried he’d end up hurt.

“You go ahead. I’ll pass,” Bren said. He wasn’t blood-related to Peter’s parents; he’d been adopted by Bren and May first, with Peter arriving later. For Bren, protecting Bren and May mattered far more than investigating Oscorp.

“Don’t you want to know what’s happening to your body?” Peter asked, incredulous at Bren’s indifference. “This could change our lives! We could become superheroes or monsters.”

“I trust you’ll figure it out and make sure I don’t turn into a spider-monster,” Bren replied, grabbing Peter by the shoulders with one hand. He easily lifted him like a watermelon.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Peter squirmed in midair.

Spider-Man’s powers didn’t peak the moment they were acquired, they needed time and experience to develop. For now, Peter was no match for Bren’s raw strength.

“Escorting you out. I didn’t invite you into my room.” Bren casually tossed Peter out the door, locked it, and sighed.

The Omnitrix’s secrets were staying with him, for now.

“Time to figure out how to bypass the Omnitrix’s safeguards,” he said to himself, twisting the watch’s dial to Grey Matter’s icon. As he pressed down, green light flooded the room.

In an instant, Bren transformed into Grey Matter, a diminutive, frog-like alien with large hands and bulging, horizontal pupils.

“I can feel so much mechanical knowledge pouring into my brain!” Bren exclaimed, astonished.

He hadn’t expected Grey Matter’s transformation to grant him not just a sharper mind but also access to knowledge he’d never learned.

“Does this mean Galvan intelligence can be passed down genetically? Incredible!”

But even with his newfound intellect, cracking the Omnitrix’s security wasn’t simple. Its core was deliberately placed on Grey Matter’s back, just out of reach. Azmuth, the Omnitrix’s creator, had clearly anticipated such attempts.

“I’ll need a precision robotic arm to handle this,” Bren mused. “But first things first, let’s keep it practical.” He clenched a tiny fist. “How about I start by finishing my homework?”

With that, he clambered onto his desk. The physics textbook before him was nearly as big as he was. Grabbing a pen almost as long as his arm, he scanned the questions.

“Finding the minimum magnetic flux density and the corresponding velocity of a sphere?” he muttered. “Earth kids study this? Galvan children are born with more advanced understanding than this.”

“Too easy.”

In less than ten minutes, problems that usually took hours melted away under his pen. It was child’s play, no, less than that.

With his homework complete, Bren turned to the oversized computer screen.

“Alright, now for the real work!”