章 88: Vengeance (Harry)

"Five." Still pointing at his prey with his spear, Harry started counting down with an ice-cold and sinister voice.

None of the Screwballers budged upon his countdown commencing, prompting him to proceed after a few seconds of silence.

"Four." One of the gunmen twitched, and the sudden movement caused Harry's gaze to shift over toward the nervous Screwballer. The gunman, still itching to pull the trigger, stared at the New Goblin intensely. Before he could make a decision, one of the thugs spoke up with a heavy and cocky accent.

"Alright fellas, move out the way. I'll handle this." A screwball fanatic confidently walked past his comrades and began to approach the New Goblin by himself. "C'mon, you guys seeing this? Don't tell me you're afraid of Harry Osborn of all people. The kid's a joke! I've seen your clips from back when you made your friend die. I'm not afraid of you." Harry's eyebrows constricted upon being challenged and mocked by this random clown.

The confident minion continued to walk forward without any weapons. Seeing this, Harry retracted his spear and places it on his utility belt, accepting the random thug's challenge. "Like I'mma let some scrawny playboy billionaire talk to me any 'ol kinda way." The man was clearly smiling under his clown mask based on his voice and body language as he continued to walk toward Harry, just as it started to conveniently rain to set the mood.

After a few seconds, the two stood face to face about an arm's length apart, glaring into each other's eyes coldly. Harry, knowing this lowly criminal didn't stand a chance, waited for him to attack first. Although most of his face was hidden by his mask and his goggles, Harry looked at the man stone-faced, as if he were a machine.

The man laughed a little, cracking his neck nonchalantly and looking the other way before quickly punching Harry directly in the jaw. Harry's head barely even moved as his eyes, barely visible through his inactive visor, look down at the man with fury.

Grabbing the hand that still rested on his chin, Harry snapped the man's arm and punched him in the face using his full strength. The man immediately fell unconscious after the first punch, however, Harry held his body up by the arm and began sending right straights directly to the man's face repeatedly until he decided to let the man fall on his back.

Harry didn't stop there. Wanting to make an example out of him, Harry punched the man four more times at full force as he lay unconscious on the ground. Without looking up, Harry's chilling voice spoke again while he reached for the retractable spear on his belt.

"Three." Harry slowly stood up before looking at the group once more. This triggered different murmurs and whispers to come from the crowd of individuals. He could tell by their differing body language that they were shaken.

"Holy shit."

"Is he for real?"

"There's no way that's Harry Osborn."

"Who's this freak?"

A few of the Screwball maniacs began to flee, only to be interrupted by a single gunshot which jump scared most of them, causing them to flinch.

The same gunman with the itchy finger stood with a smoking barrel pointed at the New Goblin with a spear below his shoulder. Upon being shot, Harry blocked the bullet with his body and immediately chucked his spear at the gunman, however, it was so fast that the flinchers failed to notice.

After a few seconds, the gunman fell over due to the blood loss. The thud of his body triggered the rest of the Screwballers to look toward him in awe.

"Two." Harry continued to count as if nothing had just happened, regaining the attention of the group of thugs.

Immediately, even more of the Screwball goons dropped their weapons and began running away from the fight, leaving about forty goons left.

"One." Harry paused, waiting for the rest of them to leave before slowly walking toward his enemies. As soon as he saw an inch of movement, he dashed at them with incredible speed, covering his exposed forehead with his forearms as he blocked the onslaught of bullets.

He then reached for his utility belt and pulled out a black and red ball that appeared to be some sort of grenade. He threw it above the Screwball goons, causing them to scatter in order to avoid what they assumed to be an incoming explosion.

The 'grenade', however, stopped in mid-air before suddenly spinning rapidly above the men. In an instant, all of the metal on their bodies, including guns, other metal weapons, jewelry, and piercings were then pulled toward the spinning sphere.

The screams of those whose earrings were forcibly ripped out of their body could be heard as Harry continued dashing up to the group, the pitter-patter of his feet hitting the wet floor growing louder by the second.

First, the Goblin punched one of the thugs with full force in the face, sending them flying backward about fifteen feet and landing unconsciously in a puddle. Another thug attempted to throw a punch at Harry from behind, failing to land it as Harry immediately turned around and caught the fist with his palm.

Using his overwhelming strength, Harry crushed the person's hand as he delivered a flurry of full-force punches to his face until the Screwballer fell unconscious to his knees. Harry then kicked him in the chest as he scanned his surroundings, meeting the gaze of three men approaching him.

One of the three threw a punch toward Harry, but it was so slow to the New Goblin, that he was able to duck under it and throw a powerful straight punch to his attacker's chest. Before Harry could do anything else, one of the thugs swung a bat at him horizontally, causing Harry to lean backward to avoid it.

Harry then grabbed the bat with both hands before kicking the man in his nuts with full force, immediately immobilizing him and compelling him to fall to the ground and roll in pain.

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆

Harry slammed the bat into the face of another one of the crooks, knocking him out cold and sending his unconscious body straight to the ground like a log. Harry then turned around to face yet another Screwball minion who attempts to stab Harry in the chest with a small knife.

As Harry dodged backward, he looked back to see that the effects of his magnetic field grenade had expired, allowing all of their weapons to finally be retrieved and used again. Using the gauntlet on his left arm, Harry blocked a knife slash and used his right hand to swing at the knife wielder's skull with the wooden bat, breaking it and cracking the Screwballer's skull in the process.

Another one of the goons attempted to sprint toward the pile of guns to arm himself, however, Harry used his grapple hook gun to impale the Screwballer's shoulder and yank the thug toward himself. The thug flew backward uncontrollably until the back of his skull is met by Harry's hand. Harry clenched the minion's head like a ball and smashes him into the ground face-first, causing the man to immediately go limp.

Knowing their only shot at winning revolved around their weapons, almost every single one of the twenty-something remaining Screwballers began to make a run for the gun pile. Not wanting to allow this, Harry reaches into his belt and grabs three smoke grenades, tossing them at the gun pile and completely covering the area in smoke.

"Good Evening, everyone! I am so excited to announce formally that I am running for mayor!" Conrad Marcus spoke at the podium in the center of the stadium with a shit-eating grin, oblivious that his life and the lives of many were in grave danger.

A child in the crowd pointed up at the top of the stadium, noticing the smoke seeping in from above. Assuming that it was part of the speech, his mother reassured the child that it was nothing as the speech continued.

Now fighting in the smoke, Harry activates the infrared settings on his visor and continues to beat down his blinded enemies, delivering powerful and near-fatal punches and kicks to over a dozen of them.

The rest of the thugs, about fifteen of them, all stood outside of the fog with a few firearms and knives that they managed to scavenge as they wait for the smoke to clear. After growing impatient, they began emptying their magazines into the smoke, hoping just one of them could kill the hunter. After about thirty seconds, the smoke cleared, and the only things that remained were their comrades lying on the ground.

"Where did he go?" One of them asked, oblivious to the fact that the Goblin was now somehow floating above them on his nearly silent hoverboard. Using two of the grapple hook launchers attached to his board, Harry impaled two of the men below him before jumping off of his board and sending it away with the men still attached.

On top of the building, the last thirteen guards attempted to all gang up on Harry, but despite their numbers, they were no match for him. As Harry dodged and counterattacked, he reached down toward his utility belt and pulled out a shock baton before swinging it violently at the Screwball thugs.

As he continued to block and counterattack the unskilled Screwballers, he realized both he and his victims were inside a large puddle. Harry looked down at his feet before glaring back at the group of thugs as an idea infiltrated his brain. Using his incredible strength, Harry jumped in the air and threw the electric baton into the ground, electrocuting each remaining member of Screwball's army, or so he thought.

𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙂!

Falling to notice him before, Harry looked over to see a lone sniper hanging over the edge of the stadium's center, firing shots into the panicking people below. Spotting a knife on the ground, Harry picked it up and threw it at the hand of the sniper before he could fire another shot, causing him to drop the rifle and cry out in pain.

Harry stomped over toward the man, kicking up water as he grabbed him by the collar with one hand before lifting him up and slamming him on the ground with all of his strength. He then began stomping on the man brutally, using everything he had...

𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!

...until the Screwballer was no longer conscious.

In the center of the chaos, Harry looked around at the mess he made, impressed with himself that he was able to clear them all out so easily. He walked over toward the center of the stadium and looked down to see Conrad Marcus lying on the ground with a minor gunshot wound in the arm. He seemed to be the only non-Screwballer injured during the attack, allowing Harry to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing he just prevented a national tragedy from befalling his city.

Just as he was about to flee the scene, a familiar voice speaks to him.

"Harry?" Harry immediately turned around to look at the source of the voice. It's Cindy Moon, wearing her Silk costume. "Is that really you?"

She couldn't believe it. Harry Osborn, the clumsy boy who could barely ride his board, just took down nearly fifty men on his own. Harry, immediately exiting his vengeful mindset upon seeing his old friend, approached her as he quipped. "Yeah, it's me. Took you long enough."

Now sitting beside each other, unmasked, on top of the Empire State Building, the two friends caught up with each other and went over the events that happened within the last year.

"Dr. Beck brainwashed the whole city, huh? I wouldn't have ever expected him to do something so crazy. I'm sorry for getting you involved with him." Harry spoke solemnly, realizing that he had once again put a friend in danger inadvertently.

"It's okay, he actually helped me out a lot. I was able to beat him only because of his help if that makes sense." Cindy swung her feet as she spoke, seemingly unbothered by these past events. This comforted Harry a bit, prompting him to ask for more details about what happened.

"My sister said something about a dream… What was yours like?"

"Eh, mine was more like a nightmare for me. It was like a Kingdom Hearts opening or something... Wait, did you just say 'sister'?" Cindy raised a single eyebrow upon backtracking to what Harry had just said. Harry smiled sadly, thinking about what could've been.

"Yup. Screwball is apparently my older sister. I guess my dad was also a cheater amongst all other things. Luckily she told me about the terrorist attack before anything bad happened."

"So she turned a new leaf then? What're you gonna do about her?" Cindy's legs continued to swing while she looked had Harry curiously.

"I don't know. I invited her to our home, but I'm not sure if she's going to take the offer. As long as she stays out of trouble from here on, I'll leave her be, I guess." Just as these words left Harry's mouth, police sirens began to go off beneath the two, ending their chat prematurely. Without saying a word, the duo looked at each other before masking up and leaping off of the building together.

Calling his board, Harry lands on top of it with both feet as Silk began swinging next to him. The duo, after learning to forgive themselves and each other for what happened, follow the sounds of sirens to fight crime as a team, once again.