Partners in Crime | Spiderverse AU |

CHAPTER ONE: Transformation

WARNING: Chapter contains body horror/gore.

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"Woo, okay, my hands are shaking" Jonathan Ohnn held his shaky hands out in front of himself, a tremor of both excitement and nervousness in his voice.

Axel Morse, Jonathan's roommate and coworker, looked up from his briefcase that he had been haphazardly stuffing documents and equipment into.

"You alright?" Axel knew that this was a big day, he was well aware of the fact that there was a lot of excitement as well as a lot of pressure around this collider project, now, he had only ever seen it once when Jonathan had managed to sneak him in during VERY early development, but judging by how much material he witnessed getting delivered for it he knew it had to have gotten a massive upgrade to the smaller scale version he'd seen.

"Y-..." Jonathan paused and gave the question serious consideration. "Yes, I'm alright, just- freaking out! Y'know we've been working on this for a really, REALLY long time and- well- it's a really big deal, and what if something malfunctions and it... I don't know, it incinerates everyone within a five mile radius! That is a very real possibility! Gosh, speaking of possibilities..." His voice trailed off, hands shaking more as possibilities, specifically negative ones, cropped up in his mind.

"Hey, hey, listen to me" Axel had rushed over and grabbed a hold of the other scientist's hands, holding them together, he needed to calm him before he started spiralling. He had successfully got Jonathan's attention as he looked up from his hands, forehead creased in worry.

"You have worked too goddamn hard on this thing for it to go haywire, you are going to go in there and kick ass an-" Axel's pep talk was cut off by Jonathan.

"Kick ass? Wh- why would I be kicking ass??" Of course he would question the logistics of the inspirational talk.

"That's not the point, the point is that you're going to do great, because you always do great" Axel's little improvised pep talk had worked, as Jonathan's hands had stopped shaking and he no longer looked so pained.

He took a deep breath, extracting his hands out of Axel's grasp and using them to button up his lab coat.
"Ok...yeah, the collider will work as intended, and everything will run smoothly...yeah, besides, even if I did make a mistake or miscalculation one of the others would have caught it and fixed it." -His voice still tremors, but no amount of pep talk was going to make this man unexcited and not nervous about this.

"That's more like it," Axel was thankful and relieved that Jonathan felt better, he crammed a few more items into his now overstuffed work briefcase before struggling to force it shut.

"How do I look?" Jonathan asked, gesturing to himself. The night before he had cleaned his glasses and ironed his lab coat, as well as cutting his hair to be short on the top and shaved at the sides, this was drastic change from his usual long and free flowing hair, which was a visual cue for Axel that this project was a massive deal, as he could count on one hand the times Jonathan had trimmed his hair for that 'clean' and 'professional' look, and all of those times had been events of significance.

"Very handsome and professional as always. Anyway, we better get going, don't wanna be late on your big day!" Axel exclaimed, heading to the door, Jonathan following suit, mumbling about how it wasn't just his big day as it was a collaborative project.

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The two scientists had arrived at the Alchemax facility they both worked at, one step in and you could tell today was going to be hectic, nobody was still, it was all a big scramble as everyone had collectively realised just how much of a time crunch they all were under. Jonathan and Axel cautiously made their way across the lobby, trying not to crash into scientists and mathematicians dashing around chugging coffee or clutching important documents to their chests.