Chương 93: He's Back
Eren eventually excused himself from the Spider-Cave and used the holographic device given to him by Reed Richards to give the family a call. If he didn't know the future, he'd have a lot of questions for the scientist, however, he already knew everything he needed to know. He was mainly calling them just to let them know that he was okay and to let them know a little bit about what happened to him.
So, as he sat inside one of the living rooms of the Osborn estate on one of the sofas, he pressed the blue button on the hologram projector and waited for an answer. It only took a couple of seconds before Reed answered the call.
"Eren!?" Reed shouted, in disbelief that the boy who was declared dead was right before him. It wasn't long before Sue joined in behind him after hearing the boy's name, followed by Johnny and Valeria.
"Hey, guys." Eren smiled at all of them, waving from his side of the holographic call.
"Oh my god, Eren! We heard you died!" Sue exclaimed, having tears visible in her eyes through the call.
"Uncle Eren!" Valeria was excited to see him, smiling with her hands together in front of her chest. It'd been a while since he'd last seen them all since they left in the summer almost two years prior. Valeria was now twelve years old, finally reaching her mother's shoulder in height.
"Dude! What happened?" Johnny asked, leading Eren to explain the entirety of what happened in the same way he explained it to his friends. He made sure to leave out most of the details regarding the negative future ahead.
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"Fascinating..." Reed was rubbing his chin as he thought about the oddities of time travel after hearing Eren's explanation. "So there's technically an infinite amount of timelines if you account for the timelines that exist 'after' ours for lack of a better term."
"Yeah, exactly." Eren nodded. "The ones after me will get my memories as well."
"Have you experienced any issues with your abilities? I'm sorry for failing to mention it before but Shuri and I discovered that you have these special cells in your body that-" Reed was going to go on a long explanation, but Eren already knew about that stuff due to the shared memories of his past selves.
"Yeah, Godspeed Cells or whatever. I can't use Godspeed anymore, at least, not to the level I did before. The most I could do is turn my hands into sparklers. See." Eren held up both hands and tried to use Godspeed, however, only his fingers were able to get that blue glow around them. "It'll come back though. I just overextended myself, I guess."
If his future were to end up like his future selves, his Godspeed would return stronger than ever before, however, the method of doing so was something he still needed to contemplate about.
"I also heard about what happened with Franklin. I'm sorry to hear about that." Eren was referring to the fact that Franklin, who was not present, had sent himself into his own pocket dimension by mistake while trying to learn his powers. He'd been gone for about a year at that point, though no one in the family had pieced together a way to find him due to him being in a literal another dimension of his own creation.
The Future Foundation was saddened upon hearing him bring it up, however, Valeria was hopeful. "We'll find him. Dad and I will find him, I know it. We've almost figured it out."
Eren smiled. "I know you will, Valeria. I've seen it." He lied.
His future selves all died before Franklin was ever found. However, he wanted them to remain hopeful by telling them that they would find him.
The whole family smiled back at him, believing his lie since from their point of view, he had no reason to.
The five of them caught up a bit before they said their goodbyes once again. Once the call ended, Eren sighed and stared at the inactive hologram projector. He felt incredibly guilty for not telling them the truth, however, he knew he had to do it for their sake. They didn't deserve to live what little amount of time they had left grieving yet another member of the family.
Before he could think about it for too long, Harry appeared from behind Eren, rushing into the room with his costume on and his board in hand. Silk was directly behind him, also in costume, telling Eren everything he needed to know before it was even said. Even without the clues, he already saw their next foe in his memories.
"The Vulture?" Eren asked his two friends, surprising them.
"Well, yeah he does sort of look like one now that you say it." Harry admitted, laughing a little as he remembered the villain's goofy costume. "He's by Central Park. Let's go."
The three heroes made their way to the location of the crime, as Lily kept them updated from the Spider-Cave.
Once they arrived, they saw the Vulture, a bald man wearing a skin-tight, green body suit with wings, flying high in the air, flinging the metallic feathers of his wings down at the police officers beneath him. He was far too high in the air for Spider-Man or Silk to reach, as there were no buildings for them to fling themselves off of. However, the New Goblin was more than capable.
"Grab on!" Harry shouted before shooting himself upward into the air. Meanwhile, Silk and Spider-Man attached themselves to his glider and began flying with him toward the crazed maniac.
"Is that him!?"
"He's back!"
"It's Spider-Man!"
This was the first time Spider-Man was spotted ever since his supposed death, compelling everyone to exclaim in shock as they watched the hero and his partners soar toward the Vulture.
"Ladies and gentlemen I have amazing news! Spider-Man, New York's very own, who was reported dead sixteen months ago, has been spotted above Central Park as he, Silk, and the New Goblin take on the man referring to himself as the Vulture! Fans are in disbelief that their hero, no, our hero is back!" Millions watched the news report highlighting his return, all smiling after seeing the man they idolized or the man that impacted their lives had returned.
"Alright guys, from what I've seen, all this guy does is fly and throw part of his wings. His name is Adrian Toomes, an escapee from Rikers during the Green Goblin Riots. He has no powers, he's just some dude in a costume. Should be a piece of cake for you guys, good luck." Lily spoke from inside the Spider-Cave, having multiple monitors opened with details about Adrian Toomes as well as clips of him using what little abilities he had.
"Should be easy enough. Any ideas?" Harry asked the two spiders as they held onto his glider.
"I got a few." Spider-Man told him. "Harry, I want you to be our building. Stay in the air at Vulture's level, and dodge his attacks, while Cindy and I will swing from your board and attack him.
"Understood!" Harry had a big smile on his face. There was nothing he wanted in the world more than to be able to fight crime alongside his best friend. It was truly a dream come true for him.
Just as they planned, Harry flew up to Vulture's altitude before throwing ranged attacks, whether it be his throwing boomerang knives or various gadgets. Spider-Man and Silk, using the New Goblin's board to fling themselves upward, slingshotted themselves at the Vulture.
Due to the fact that they were only able to move in a predictable trajectory in the air, the Vulture dodged before taunting them. "You may be able to come back from the dead, Spider-Man. But in the air, in my domain, I am unstoppable!' the Vulture proclaimed before flinging his metallic feathers at both spiders and the New Goblin.
Harry was able to dodge these attacks fairly easily, however, Spider-Man and Silk wouldn't have the same luxury of being able to move in the air. Luckily, Silk saw this coming, creating a web shield big enough to block her entire body. As she blocked with one arm, she held onto Spider-Man's arm with her other hand.
Once three of Vulture's feathers impaled her shield, Silk flung Spider-Man forward, catching the Vulture off guard due to the red and blue-wearing arachnid being hidden behind Silk's shield the entire time.
𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!
Spider-Man was able to deliver a powerful left straight aimed directly at the Vulture's chin, causing the bird to begin flapping his wings sporadically. The Vulture glided backward, regaining his balance before the New Goblin appeared in front of him, riding forward on his glider.
𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!
Harry Osborn got a right hook of his own in, causing the Vulture's entire body to turn to the side as Silk flung herself upward using her webs and Harry's board.
𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!
As if the other two attacks didn't already do enough damage, Silk delivered a powerful knee to the Vulture's nose, accidentally drawing blood and breaking it. Silk winced. "Oof... Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard."
Silk's Silk-Sense tingled, though not because of danger. Autonomously, she reached her hand outward, catching a web that was shot by Spider-Man before yanking him upward toward the Vulture as gravity began pulling her down.
𝘾𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙆!
Spider-Man gave the Vulture one last gift, a strong uppercut to the chin, one that completely knocked the bird out and caused his limbs and wings to go limp. As Spider-Man was still floating in the air, the New Goblin flew by, grabbing his arm as his other was already grabbing onto Silk before boosting down toward the Earth with his glider.
In just a couple of seconds, the trio was down at the ground level. Using her fingertips, Silk created a hammock of webs using the trees at Central Park before the Vulture came crashing down, landing in the hammock and lying unconscious.
The three heroes looked at the Vulture, lying like a cartoon character who was hit by an explosion before celebrating amongst each other. "That was sick!" Harry shouted. "Our synergy is already off the charts!"
"Yeah, I'm impressed, New Goblin. I've seen you in the memories but seeing it in real time was quite the spectacle." Spider-Man gave his best friend props, smiling under his mask. He would've never thought Harry of all people would suddenly become such a strong fighter.
"I had to step up while you were gone." Harry had a big smile underneath his mask, Spider-Man's words meant a lot to him.
"You too, Silk." Spider-Man looked at his lover. "You've gotten a lot better at this hero stuff."
Silk smiled under her mask as well, it was visible by the look in her eyes. "It's all because of you." she told him before dozens of people began crowding around them.
"Are you the real Spider-Man?"
"What made you fake your death?"
"Are you and Harry Osborn friends in real life?"
"Where were you in the last year?"
"Is it true that you and Silk are dating?"
The three heroes started to get overwhelmed by nosy civilians, prompting Harry to activate his board. The two spiders hopped on with him before Spider-Man waved to everyone and the three of them blasted off.
As the three of them rode the New Goblin's glider away, Spider-Man sighed. "I see the press didn't get any less annoying."
"They got worse actually. My identity is public so they're trying to get Silk to do the same. Give them an inch and they want a mile." Harry told him.
"Ah, because of the name, right? Should've stuck with Seer."
"Yeah, but that would defeat my whole purpose. I'm doing this to atone. I know it might not mean much to everyone else, but adopting my father's name and replacing it is important to me.
When people hear Osborn, I want them to think of the good I've done with the company. I want Harry Osborn to be the first name to come to their heads. Same with the Goblin. I want the Goblin to be something positive, not the monster that my father became. Not the one who was responsible for the deaths of thousands and killed Spider-Man.
I want both of his names, which are now mine, to bring people security. Besides, Tony Stark did it, so why can't I?"
Eren was smiling under his mask the entire time as he heard Harry's explanation. It was clear that Eren had rubbed off on him, something that happened with almost everyone he'd come into contact with. Speaking of which, there was another person Spider-Man needed to visit.
"I'm really proud of you, Harry. You guys go on ahead, I still need to let some people know I'm okay." Spider-Man tapped Harry's shoulder before leaping off of his board.
The other two returned home, while Spider-Man swung to Black Cat's penthouse.
Once there, he knocked on her glass sliding door twice. Felicia was seen peeking around the corner before her eyes widened. She then sprinted toward the sliding door, opened it, and hugged Spider-Man. "Spider!" she shouted, gripping him tightly.
"Hey, Cat. Sorry about the looking like I died stuff. I'll explain." Just as he said, Spider-Man explained everything to her as the two sat at one of the tables in her home.
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"Holy shit... That's gotta be heavy..." she was shocked. Time travel was something she didn't even believe existed, let alone alternate timelines.
"Yeah, very." He told her. "It's sort of scary having all those memories in my brain."
"I have a question." Black Cat had a sort of sly smile on her face as her cheeks began to turn red. "In these other timelines... do you and I ever... you know?" she almost didn't want to say it. She knew he was taken, so she didn't want to overstep any boundaries. However, she was still curious.
"Well, what do you mean? Like date or do you mean 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩?" Spider-Man asked.
"Well, I meant 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩, but if you have the answer for either one, I'll take it." Black Cat was still blushing. She thought it was such a silly thing to ask of him, especially since he was so much younger than her. However, she couldn't help but think about it.
"Yes. We've done it in other timelines and dated. However... my other selves realized that you weren't actually into the man beneath the mask, only Spider-Man. It was a mistake more than anything on their part. Of course, they were cool with it at first. I mean, look at you. You're a very attractive, older woman. What kind of guy my age would I be to not wanna... you know.
I mean if I was single, of course. I'd never do that right now since Silk and I are in a relationship. My point is, don't get your hopes up or anything. You and I weren't ever meant to be anything more than friends. I'm sorry." This may have seemed out of the blue and forward, however, Eren had the knowledge of hundreds of timelines. Felicia's secret feelings for him weren't very secret.
She was baffled. She never really thought about it, but it was true. Despite falling for the hero, she never once thought about the man behind the mask. Not a single time.
"You're right, Spider. I didn't realize it until now, but I never once really cared about meeting the other you. The man, rather than the hero. I'm sorry about that." Black Cat seemed a bit embarrassed, however, Eren didn't really care too much that she viewed him that way. He was long over it due to having decades worth of years to think about it technically.
"If you want to meet my other half, I can show you. I know you'd keep my secret safe, since, you know... memories and all that." Black Cat contemplated accepting this offer from him. She was curious, but she also didn't want to ruin the surprise. However, she was determined to prove him wrong, to show that she can care about the guy under the mask, but as a friend.
"I'd like to." she told him.
And so, Spider-Man reached up to his face and removed his mask, showing her his young face for the first time. Her eyes widened, as she expected something much different. She didn't say a word, she just continued to stare at the boy, compelling him to laugh and make a joke. "You know a picture would last longer, Felicia?"
Black Cat snapped out of it before keeping it professional. "You're pretty good-looking, Spider. Silk is a lucky girl."
Eren smiled. "I'd say I'm the lucky one. Name's Eren, by the way."
Black Cat smiled softly at him. "Nice to meet you, Eren. Thank you for being honest with me today. Yet another thing you taught me that I need to work on..."
Eren felt guilty after hearing her words. He left out a lot of details, such as how he watched her die through many other timelines alongside his other friends. Sometimes, even he was the one to take her life.
However, once again, Eren lied to a friend. "Of course." he told her. "I'll always be honest with you, no matter what."
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