Theo was with Peter, Milly, Isaac, Teresa and their friends as they did homework. Well Theo and Peter already finished most of their homework during class and we're just helping everyone else with their own homework. Theo attempted to get Milly and the others into the habit of doing the same thing, but they didn't like the idea. Peter on the other hand was already ahead of most of his classes and when Theo suggested it, he loved the idea.
Theo and Peter tended to get out of school and spend the rest of the day doing whatever they wanted most of the time. Which ended up being either working in the shop or programming as they worked on improvements to the shop's software they designed.
Today wasn't one of those days though, since their history teacher asked for a report to be done on the founding of America. It was homework for the weekend that Theo and Peter finished before school even let out for the day. Milly and their friends were just starting it though, so Theo decided to be nice and help them out a bit. Peter on the other hand was helping his little sister and Isaac with some math homework.
Milly pouted as she looked up at Theo and asked, "Can't you write it since you already know what to put?"
Theo gave Milly a flat look as he said, "If I write it, you wouldn't learn anything and I would be doing the assignment twice."
"But I don't care about this, it's borrrrrring." Milly said before she laid her head down on the table and her paper.
Theo glanced at MJ and Jean who nodded in agreement with Milly's statement. Theo shook his head as he said, "Well it still needs to be done. So you can either get my help with it now, or do it yourself over the weekend."
Milly slowly lifted her head and looked at Theo with narrowed eyes as she asked, "You won't help me with it tomorrow?"
"No. You either do it today or you can do it by yourself."
"You're a big jerk!" Milly said as she crossed her arms over her chest and turned her head to the side.
Theo rolled his eyes before he said, "You have five seconds to get back to work before I stop helping and go work in the shop."
Milly whipped her head back towards Theo with her eyes widened and her mouth slightly open. Theo raised a single eyebrow as he said, "Four seconds… Three seconds…"
Milly scrambled to pick up her pencil and started to write as Theo said, "One… What exactly are you writing? It better not be a random cake recipe."
Milly stopped writing and erased the last line of text before Theo asked, "Now what were you writing about before you started complaining?"
Milly looked at her paper for a few moments before she said, "The Boston Tea Party."
Theo nodded before he glanced towards MJ and Jean as he asked, "Is that where you two are at too?"
MJ nodded as Jean shook her head before she said, "I've already included that into my paper and I'm starting on the Intolerable Acts of seventeen seventy four and the lead up to the first First Continental Congress."
Milly glanced over with hope in her eyes before Theo said, "Don't even think about copying her work. You need to write about it in your own words."
Milly pouted but started reading from her history books again as she puffed out her cheeks in some type of protest that only made Theo want to laugh. The next couple hours passed slowly as Theo answered random questions or helped with wording something better. By the time everyone was finished Milly and the other girls looked like their souls left their bodies. Isaac and Teresa on the other hand seemed fine and even happy to be finished.
As everyone started to pack up their books Richard opened the door to the kids study room and glanced over the kids before he said, "Are you kids done with your homework? We were getting ready to lock up the lab for the day."
"Yes, dad… Could I see the new project you're working on before we leave?" Peter asked excitedly.
Richard smiled before he said, "Sure. Finish packing up and I'll show all of you kids the current test subjects before we leave."
Theo didn't monitor his close families every move so he had no idea what this new project was. Sure he worked with the Parker's through his Ezekiel persona, but he was hands off in their research. He gave them a budget and would get a progress report every six months or so in return. If he was even slightly concerned about results or profits he would have asked them to concentrate on a single project. Instead he just asked that they work on making contributions towards humanity, like the drug they invented.
Theo and the others finished packing up before Richard walked them over to the secondary laboratory they used. After entering through a security door they were greeted by a mostly empty lab. There was a few machines and devices inside which acted as monitoring equipment, but its main purpose was holding samples, specimens and test subjects. The only test subjects currently in the lab were in sealed glass cages.
Theo's eyes widened as Richard led them over to the cages before he said with a smile, "What do you kids think? Beautiful aren't they?"
Jean jumped back in fright as she realized what was in the cages and asked in a frightened tone, "How are spiders beautiful?!?"
Milly nodded in agreement as she said, "Cake is beautiful, spiders definitely aren't."
Richard chuckled before he said, "Well I find them beautiful. But then again they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Peter was fascinated by the display in front of him and asked, "Are they all the same species?"
"Yup. We choose the Parasteatoda Tepidariorum, which is better known as the common house spider to most people."
Peter frowned slightly as he asked, "Why do they look so different?"
Richard placed a hand over Peter's shoulder and pointed to one of the spiders as he said, "Each one was genetically modified in different ways to see which option was most viable. This is the second batch and so far they've lasted two weeks."
"What exactly are you trying to figure out by doing that?"
Richard turned towards Theo with a smile on his face as he said, "Great question Theo. The short answer to that is seeing if we can remove genetic traits from embryos to help prevent things like cancer, autism, down syndrome and other issues."
"There is also the chance that this could lead towards other discoveries like increased life span or better health for people." Mary said from her place by the door she just entered through.
Richard nodded at that before he said, "Alright, you kids have seen enough. Let's get out of here."
After leaving the laboratory Theo, Peter and Richard headed into the shop to work for a bit as Mary walked Milly and the other kids home. Theo spent a while as he debated on what to do with the spiders before he decided to not worry about it. If and when Peter would be bitten would be up to fate and he wouldn't interfere in it. That said, he decided to put a little more security around the laboratory and the shop in general. He wouldn't directly interfere or spy on his family, but he would definitely make sure no one else could either.
After dinner with his family and hanging out with them for a while, Theo switched with a clone before he went to meet up with Hulk who now lived on Genosha. After months of learning and helping Hulk not rage over small or even bigger issues that didn't matter. Theo deemed Hulk good enough to live around other people, so he set up Hulk in Genosha. He even set Hulk up in the casino hotel a floor below Hela, Tao and Agatha. The room only needed to be modified a little bit to fit him too, since Genosha was designed for meta-humans with weird body types in mind.
Theo in his Ezekiel persona portaled to the penthouse area where he stopped by Hela's apartment first. After he knocked on her door, he only waited about a minute before Hela opened the door with a serious case of bed head while wearing pajamas and some slippers. Ezekiel smirked at her slightly before he asked, "Are you ready for game night?"
Hela nodded slightly and walked out of her apartment as she waved a hand and her clothes changed to jeans and a t-shirt. Ezekiel said nothing about her hair that was still a mess before they both headed over to Tao's place. Tao answered the door within moments and smiled slightly when she noticed Hela's hair before she asked, "Would you like to come in or did you need something?"
"Hulk wanted to do a game night, I wanted to see if you wanted to join us?"
Tao glanced towards the living room of her apartment before she asked, "Ezekiel invited us to a game night, do you wanna go?"
Agatha's voice replied back as she said, "I don't mind…"
As Tao turned back towards Ezekiel she said, "I assumed you would invite Agatha if you invited me."
Ezekiel smiled as he shook his head slightly before he said, "That was the plan…"
"Good. So what are we playing?" Agatha asked as she approached with Ebony following along beside her.
Agatha noticed Hela's hair as she stepped out the door and raised an eyebrow in question as she glanced towards Ezekiel who just smirked in response. Without another word they headed towards the elevator and went down a floor to go to Hulk's apartment. While not as big as the penthouses on the top floor, Hulk's place was still a decent size with a couple of spare bedrooms.
When Hulk opened the door he instantly noticed Hela's bed head and asked, "Did you change your hairstyle?"
"No, why?" Hela asked as she frowned slightly.
Hulk gestured to his own head and moved his hand around a bunch as he said, "It's all over the place right now."
Hela conjured a mirror in front of her face and as her eyes widened in shock Ezekiel burst into laughter as Tao and Agatha smiled slightly. Hela turned towards Ezekiel with narrowed eyes a moment later as she asked in an accusing tone, "Why didn't you say anything?!?"
Ezekiel gave a helpless shrug as he said, "I couldn't help it, you looked cute."
Hela froze as her cheeks started to turn red and she mumbled to herself, "I look cute?"
"Yup, so just leave it and let's play some games." Ezekiel said with a nod.
Hulk stepped out of the way as he said, "Come on in, I set up the table and put out some snacks."
Hela took a moment to recover properly as everyone walked inside Hulk's apartment before she used magic to fix her hair and followed everyone inside. Ezekiel chuckled slightly when he noticed Hela fixed her hair and said, "You could have left it."
Hela shook her head as she said, "I should always look my best when I go out."
"Don't you only go outside when Ezekiel invites you somewhere?" Tao asked in a teasing tone.
Hela huffed slightly before she said, "I go outside without Ezekiel around too."
Before Tao or Agatha could tease Hela more, Ezekiel asked Hulk, "So what game did you wanna play first?"
Hulk, who was by a bookshelf full of games pulled out Risk and held it up happily as he asked, "How about Risk?"
Ezekiel glanced between Hela and Hulk before he remembered how games of Risk went with each of them and said, "Absolutely not!"
"What, why not?" Both Hela and Hulk asked at the same time before they looked at each other.
"Because I don't wanna rebuild the hotel if the game gets out of hand. Pick something else that isn't as competitive."