บท 62: The Power of the Sun
Harry, Eren, and Cindy were all gathered around inside Harry and Eren's dorm room, with Harry sitting on the desk while Eren and Cindy sat next to each other on the bed.
"I have something really important to tell you guys, regarding Spider-Man stuff." Eren told them both. He hadn't told them about Project V, so he thought now would be as good a time as any. "There's something that might be dangerous happening in our city right now, and I'm the only one who could stop it. At least, I was the only one, but I need help from you guys."
"Even me?" Harry asked, confused as to how he could be of any use being nothing more than a normal man.
"Especially you. Both of you are equally as important." Eren exhaled, preparing himself to revisit his past. "Remember how I told you that my mother was a Wakandan spy posing as a reporter for the Daily Bugle?" Both Cindy and Harry nodded.
"She was looking into this thing called Project V. It sounds really dangerous and I believe Harry's father might be involved." Eren saying this compelled Harry to ruffle his eyebrows. Noticing this, Eren started to apologize.
"Harry, I like your dad and I'm sorry-"
"Don't apologize. I'm not mad at you. My father has been doing some shady stuff for a while, I thought I was just crazy but... If you also think so, it might be true."
"Explain what you mean by shady stuff?" Eren asked Harry, hoping that this would lead to something.
"There's an area in Oscorp that my father never let me go inside after my mother became sick... It was especially so after she passed. He never even let me see her in the hospital... I didn't even get to see inside her casket."
"Harry, do you think he..." Eren hesitated, he didn't even want to say what he was thinking. He didn't want to cross any lines.
However, Harry didn't care at all, finishing Eren's sentence for him. "Experimented on her? I'm almost certain, but I can't find proof. That's the reason my father and I aren't so close. Especially when he's manic."
"Manic? Like bipolar?" Cindy asked.
"Yeah, he either has some sort of DID or bipolar disorder. He's not professionally diagnosed because he thinks he knows himself better than any doctor, but he's always had it. It worsened when my mom got sick, he stopped taking his meds. Recently... I think he stopped again." Harry's sad expression sort of changed into a depressed smile as he thought even further back into his childhood.
"My mom and I, back when I was a little kid, used to call him 'The Goblin' when he was on one of his manic episodes. He was scary, he'd become violent. Joking about it sort of helped us cope with it all."
Both Eren and Cindy were speechless. Looking at Harry and his father, one would have assumed they had a healthy relationship. Harry never even mentioned his home life, so the other two just assumed it was so painfully average, it wasn't worth mentioning. However, it seems that was far from the case.
"Anyway, if this Project V stuff is related to my mother in any way, I want to help." Harry told them both. "I can't fight, but I'll do my best."
"Thank you, Harry. I'm sorry about everything that happened. I had no idea it was like that." Eren told him.
"Yeah, me neither." Cindy added.
"What can I say, I'm good at pretending. Also, I've been working on something for you guys. I completed it a couple of weeks ago, but I never really found the time to tell you about it." Harry reached into the drawer on the desk he was sitting on, pulling out a blue box. Harry opened it, showing three pairs of contact lenses inside.
"These have cameras in them. I was thinking, while you guys are out on the field, you could wear these, and I could watch through your eyes and try and help. I could also implement this tech into Spider-Man's mask. I know it's silly, but-"
"No, that's incredible! How did I not come up with this?" Eren lept out of his seat and grabbed the box from Harry's hands, holding it up to his face to get a good look at the secret cameras.
"Well... I felt sort of useless being the only one without powers. I just wanted to help."
"Harry, you don't understand just how perfect these are. I had a plan, but you've just improved it ten-fold." Eren looked at both Cindy and Harry before telling them his grand plan. "I need you two to infiltrate Oscorp. Harry, since you have clearance in most eras as the heir, you're the most important piece. Cindy, I need you to keep an eye on him from a distance as he looks into this supposed secret area."
"What about you?" Harry asked.
"I'll be on the tenth floor playing the role of Eren Parker, watching Otto's presentation, and keeping an eye out for your father when the presentation is over so I can tell you when to dip." Eren explained. "That sound good?"
"Yeah."
"Sounds good to me."
"Alright then. The presentation is at 6 PM tonight. We'll meet back up here after class to regroup. I'll have the things we need by then."
"Oh! Do we get a team name!" Harry was excited to finally be a member of the unnamed spider team, feeling as if he too were a hero just like his friends.
"Uh..." Eren didn't know what to say, looking at Cindy, who was also unsure. "Let's hold off on the team name." He told him, however, Harry's excitement continued.
"Okay, okay. What about my hero name? I'm thinking the Seer. Since I'm your second pair of eyes." Harry was proud of this name, though Eren wasn't really sure how to feel about it.
"Isn't that kinda literal?" Eren asked him.
"Yeah, Spider-Man?" Cindy quipped.
"Huh? I could've sworn I heard someone who named themselves Silk of all things speaking to me." Eren quipped back.
"I think Silk sounds better than Spider-Man, to be honest." Harry chimed in, causing Eren to feel a bit betrayed by the guy who was supposed to be his best friend.
The three of them continued teasing each other about their respective names, laughing and trying their best to defend themselves and their name, but to no avail. Shortly after, the three of them went to class, came back, and rebriefed the plan while gearing up.
When they were all ready, everyone went to their positions, prepared to get to the bottom of this Project V situation.
Harry, wearing his normal clothes and the special contact lenses, snuck his way toward the restricted area before taking it down to the basement floor. Cindy, in the vents of the facility, crawled her way to the basement to watch Harry from above in case anything were to happen. Eren, wearing his work uniform, walked into the building's auditorium, seeing Dr. Octavius and Norman Osborn on stage.
The two men waved at Eren, and he waved back before he sat down toward the back away from most of the crowd.
As he waited, he opened his phone and began watching the feed being presented through Harry's eyes. Eventually, the lights in the auditorium turned off, leaving only the stage lit, as Dr. Octavius began to speak.
"Good evening, everyone. My name is Dr. Otto Octavius. Today I will present to you the birth of a new fusion-based renewable energy source. It's safe for humans, as well as the environment while also being cheap. This energy will be available for all to use for their homes and in the future, their vehicles." Otto spoke to the crowd before walking over to a tarp that covered a part of the presentation.
Eren watched as Harry took a look inside the deepest parts of Oscorp. Harry was checking his back often, despite Silk already watching him from above, but he wanted to be sure he wasn't followed.
"To help me with that, I will be using these four of my friends to help me." Octavius pulled the tarp and revealed his four robotic tentacles. He then stood on a platform in front of them and pulled a lever. Once he pulled it, the centerpiece gently placed itself onto his spine before aggressively stabbing itself into place. He winced for a second but immediately put his confident face back on.
In the basement, Harry found a room that looked much more secure than the others. However, Harry knew his father's passcode and used it to open the door. Inside, one of the main attractions caught his eye. There was a green bodysuit that looked as if it were made for a futuristic super-soldier. It was equipped with grenades and was attached to some sort of hover device.
'Weird.' Eren thought to himself, looking at the strange outfit through Harry's eyes.
"You guys seeing this? Looks like some kinda... emerald elf getup." Harry approached the costume, seeing a file next to it before reading the title of it out loud. "Globulin Green?" Harry opened it, seeing that the file was empty. "Damn it." He whispered, looking around for anything else that caught his eye.
"These were developed for two main reasons. Reason number one: The AI in these tentacles can also be used for prosthetic limbs, allowing the user to use the limb as if it were their own. Reason number two: They will be used to help me stabilize the fusion reactor. They repel both heat and magnetism." Octavius extended all six of his arms, his two human ones and his robotic ones, as he spoke to the crowd in a grandiose manner.
In the basement, Harry continued looking around the room he found himself in until he found more files. One was labeled 'Subject V Test #1' and appeared to actually have information inside of it. "I think this is it. But it looks like it's missing some stuff." Harry whispered, flipping through the pages until he found some writing. "Subjects became cannibalistic. Skin discoloration. Grew extended fangs and claws... Like the lizards?"
Dr. Octavius continued his lecture on the main stage. "These smart arms are connected to my brain via a neural link. By using an inhibitor chip, I can ensure that I am the one who is in control at all times." Octavius pointed to his neck, showing the inhibitor chip to the entire crowd.
After looking through that file, Harry moved on to another. "Subject V Test #2". Harry opened it up and sees a picture of a hamster exhibiting the symptoms listed above. It was horrifying, the creature was nearly unrecognizable and its skin looked almost as if it were melting off. "Jesus Christ..." Harry whispered.
Even Eren felt sick as he watched the feed through Harry's vision.
"Now for the main event." Octavius walked over to another tarp and removed it. Revealing a strange contraption underneath. It appeared to be a circular platform that was surrounded by four metal pillars. On the front of it, there were a few monitors with buttons beneath them.
"Using Tritium provided by my good friend Norman Osborn, I can fuel my fusion reactor." The doctor put on a pair of goggles before activating the machine with a lever, generating a loud, mechanical humming sound.
The Tritium, appearing as a silver ball, began to lift into the air at the center of the machine and spin. As it spun, it began generating energy until a mini sun appeared around it. The room instantly began to shine brightly, feeling warm as if they were out in the summer heat.
Back in the basement, Harry continued looking through more files. "There's another file here..." Harry said, trying his best to make out what the file read, but the handwriting was too illegible. "Damn it, I can't read this. Something with an R?" Harry said, squinting and holding the page up close to his face.
Suddenly, the auditorium started to tremble, as did the entire building. Metal from all over the room, including lights, jewelry, and tools began flying toward the mini sun. People started to panic as the monitor in front of the machine started playing an alarm sound. A few of them began to leave their seats as the feeling of danger filled the air. The activation of the fire sprinklers increased the tension further.
"Everyone stay calm! It will stabilize!" Otto yelled as he used his tentacles to push down on the solar sphere.
Sensing that he was going to need to step in, Eren quickly ran out of the room before reappearing almost instantly in his Spider-Man costume. As the solar sphere grew, the energy began to leak out and spew in random directions of the room. It was close to exploding completely.
"You guys need to leave, the building might explode. Go!" Eren spoke into his earpiece, prompting Silk to drop down from the vents she was hiding in and grab Harry to escape. Spider-Man took a deep breath and entered his Ultimate Godspeed form.
As the machine began to continuously reach unstable levels and the artificial sun continued to grow, Spider-Man stood high and shouted directions at everyone. "Get out, now! I'm opening the doors!"
Spider-Man zipped over toward the multiple doors of the auditorium and began prying them off of the hinges, allowing everyone to escape much faster. The room began to tremble, causing them to lose their balance, including a middle-aged woman who fell on her hands and knees. Spider-Man dashed over, getting her back up on her feet before dashing out of the room with her.
"You're okay." he told her right as he began to zip away once again, not even allowing her to thank him.
Once every single spectator was cleared from the room, Spider-Man could see Norman Osborn messing with one of the panels as Otto continued to try and hold down the miniature sun with his mechanical arms, however, it kept expanding.
Spider-Man dashed beside Norman, looking over his shoulder at the panel and startling the man. "How do we stop it?" Spider-Man asked, getting a head shake from Norman in response. "I don't know, it's password locked!"
"Otto! What's the password!?" Spider-Man shouted, barely being able to be heard due to the sounds of energy blasts shooting sporadically out of the mini sun in all directions.
"I can hold it! Don't worry!" Otto spoke as if he weren't risking the lives of millions at this moment, as that miniature sun could be strong enough to blow up the entire city if it continued to expand.
Spider-Man's lenses furrowed in frustration, he couldn't believe that Otto was so arrogant and reckless. He grabbed Norman by the shoulder and used Godspeed to take him out of the room, leaving him somewhere safe. "Wait!" Norman called out to him, however, Spider-Man had already zipped away.
Finding the massive wires powering the machine on the walls, Spider-Man ran over to them and grabbed them with both hands. "Stop! What are you doing!?" Otto yelled, turning his neck and taking his attention away from the ever-growing artificial sun.
"Turning it off!" As Spider-Man began to pull, Otto stepped toward him, loosening his grip on the sun and allowing it to send an energy blast to the back of his neck, striking the inhibitor, before the scorching hot energy began traveling all throughout his body, completely frying him.
At the same time, Spider-Man unplugged the machine, causing the fake sun to implode in on itself, and saving everyone in the building and the city. Spider-Man looked over at Otto, his lenses wide, seeing that the doctor was completely burned all over his body, he was practically unrecognizable.
Spider-Man sprinted over, kneeling down next to the doctor before saying his name sporadically. "Dr. Octavius!? Dr. Octavius!?"
The doctor groaned, allowing Eren to breathe a sigh of relief. However, as Spider-Man continued to look at the man, he wondered how Otto would even begin to recover after that. His life would be completely changed, however, Spider-Man failed to predict in what way the doctor would be a completely new man.
Soon enough, paramedics came to help the injured. Otto was swiftly taken to the nearest hospital where he would receive treatment for his burns and also surgery to remove the machines attached to his body.
Once in the operating room, several surgeons surrounded the doctor, ready to try their best to save him.
However, Otto Octavius may not have been the one who would really need saving in that room...
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