Electric love

Chapter 1 - Close connection

It was the first day of college. Ned didn’t know how to feel, his best friend MJ was there with him, but something felt like it was missing. Ever since he received his acceptance letter, he felt this sense that life wasn’t the same. He assumed it was just a part of growing up and life changing, but he couldn’t place it. This feeling also wasn’t going away, unless of course, he was distracting himself with homework, legos, or his favorite distraction - eating.

Ned loved to eat, and his body reflected that fact. He was always chubby, and then fat. He tried to lose weight from time to time, but his hobbies weren’t physical, he was always the guy in the chair not the guy running track. Also, when your best friend works at a donut shop, it’s kind of hard to lose weight. So what if he gained around 30 pounds during senior year, eating made that weird feeling go away. He had learned to be okay with it, his friends didn’t seem to mind. He even had a summer girlfriend in High School. Being over 250 pounds wasn’t really what Ned was thinking about now that he was in College. He was excited to meet new people, and possibly explore his sexuality more. Ned has known he was Bi since middle school, he had this crush on a kid in his class, but for the life of him, he can’t remember his name. He also always kinda had a thing for Flash Thompson. He wasn’t sure if it was the money or confidence, but Flash sometimes reminded him that he was Bi. Ned was excited to test the waters and possibly date a guy. His family wasn’t too keen on him being Bi, but his Grandma reassured him that she would love him no matter who he dated. All of this to say, Ned was ready to meet someone, preferably a dude, but was open to anything. Who knows, maybe he would meet that person in his first class - Engineering 101.

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Maxwell Dillon wasn’t sure what to be worried about more, his first day at MIT or his first day being out of the “hospital.” Max had a rough summer. After he graduated from High School Max landed a research assistant gig at a lab that specialized in genetic testing. He was working as an engineering assistant and helping out with the technical side of things. The internship was amazing, if only it wasn’t for those electric eels. One of the studies being done at the lab was looking at the bio-electricity of electric eels. While under observation, the tank needed some technical tweaks. It was Max’s first time working hands on, not just watching his mentor. What Max didn’t know was it was his first and last time. While he was fixing the tanks, Spider-Man burst in fighting some random villain. Unfortunately for Maxwell, he was caught in the crossfire. Spider-Man was thrown directly into Max, accidentally pushing him into the tank while holding an electric cable. The bio-electricity somehow merged with Maxwell - resulting in a catastrophic reaction. Max went from being the researcher to being researched while recovering from the ordeal. His skin was static to the touch. He couldn’t do anything but hope his condition would get better. After 2 months in recovery, he was finally able to get a handle of his condition. He could regulate his electric output and was starting to find ways he could live with his shocking disposition. He was even able to learn to use it to his benefit, being able to control electricity outside of his own. He quickly learned how to change the channel on his TV, primarily cause watching TV was the only thing he could do when everything he touched was electrocuted into a pulverized heap of ash. Being able to change the channel quickly evolved to turning on and off the lights. When his former colleagues learned of his new found abilities, they began testing them more and more. Maxwell soon became not only a functioning person again, but a functioning super-person. He didn’t know yet what to do with his new powers, his doctors wanted to keep him to study longer, but Max was done with being a lab rat, he wanted to live his life like he originally had planned - which is how he ended up at MIT scared to death he was going to accidentally electrocute someone, or cause the schools electric grid to go up in flames. A human conductor going to a school that builds conductors, go figure. Maxwell just wanted a normal life, to find a boyfriend, do well in his classes, attend parties, classic college stuff. But, the only way he was allowed to attend school was if he agreed to still live at the lab, which was normally a 3 hour commute - but for Max, who recently learned to travel using the power grid, could get from MIT to NY City in just 10 minutes. Either way, he wasn’t going to be having free time to have fun like he hoped, but he could still make the most of his college experience while on campus, so who knows what could happen. Now all Max was thinking about was how he was going to survive Engineering 101.