Chereads / THE AMAZING SPIDER-BAT / Chapter 16 - ONE BAD DAY

Chapter 16 - ONE BAD DAY

One morning, Norman Osborne is released from prison and is met by his son.

"Is it true, dad? Did you really try to kill that guy and his wife?" Harry asks.

Norman looks at Harry for a moment.

"I don't feel like having this conversation right now, it's been a long night and I would like to go home."

"Just answer the question, dad."

"You wanna an answer, well here it is. Otto Fries Octavius was costing Oscorp money, so I removed him, just like I'll do to anyone who gets in my way."

A tear drips down Harry's face.

"Oh for God sakes." Norman scoffs.

"You know what? After mom died, deep down I was hoping that it would change something inside you. That you'd show at least an ounce of compassion. But I should have known better. There's no changing you and I'm done thinking otherwise. I'm gonna go crash at Pete's for awhile."

Harry walks away from his father.

"Harry. Harry! Harry, get back here now!" Norman demands but Harry ignores him and continues to walk away.

Meanwhile, Peter is sitting in the cave thinking to himself. Ben soon walks in and sees the young man deep in thought.

"Something troubling you, sir?" Ben asks.

Peter leans back in his chair and sighs.

"Did I make the right decision, Ben? Sure Norman did a terrible thing to Doctor Octavius, but- what about Harry? He could lose his father."

Ben doesn't answer for a moment

"When you came back to New York, you made a vow. A vow to fight injustice in this city, no matter what it may be. Harry is Peter Parkers friend, but Spider-Bat can't afford to discriminate. At the end of the day, a crime is a crime."

Peter hears what his trusted butler is saying, gaining some form of comfort. At that moment, Peter sees Harry at his front door.

"Well right now, Peter Parker needs to be there for his friend." Peter says, getting up from his chair.

"Very good sir." Ben replies with a smile.

Back with Norman, he is late to a tour with the military of Oscorp.

"General Sloan, it's good to see you again. I see Dr. Stromm has already shown you our glider." Norman says.

"Yes, like I was telling him, I've already seen the glider. That's not what I'm here for."

Norman doesn't reply for a moment

"Yes, you wanna see the progress report on the human performance enhancers."

Both Norman and Stromm look at each other for a moment.

"Well- we tried vapor instalation with rodent subjects, they showed an eight hundred growth in strength." Stromm says.

"Any side effects?" General Sloan says.

"In one trial, yes."

"But every other test since then have been successful." Norman quickly says.

"And the test that went wrong, what happened? What were the sideeffects?" Sloan asks.

"Violence. Aggression. And- insanity." Stromm says as Norman glares at him.

"That was only one test." Norman says passive aggressively.

"And what do you recommend- Dr. Stromm." Sloan says, looking past Norman.

"We need to take the whole line back to formula." Stromm says nervously.

As Sloan sighs, Norman angerly gets in the face of Stromm.

"Back to formula?" Norman asks as Stromm walks away.

"Osborne, I'm going to be honest with you. I never supported your program, we have my predecessor to thank for that. So- if your so called performance enhancers have not had a SUCCESSFUL human trial, and soon. I will pull your funding." Sloan says as he leaves the lab.

As Norman visibly angry by this, his secretary enters the room.

"Mr. Osborne."

"WHAT!?" Norman snaps back at her.

"The board of directors are here."

Norman is shocked when he hears this and tries to regain his composure.

Back with Peter, he sits and listens to Harry.

"I don't know man. I mean- I always knew my father wasn't the nicest guy in the world, but- to do something like that to two innocent people. It's just- it's really hard to believe."

Peter sighs and puts his hand on his friends shoulder.

"I am really sorry, Harry. You can stay here as long as you need to." Peter tells him.

Harry smiles.

"Thanks man, I really appreciate it. But unfortunately, I will have to go back home for a minute to get some of my stuff."

The two stand up and walk over to the door.

"You want me to come with you?" Peter asks.

As Harry opens the door to reveal Gwen standing there.

"Hey guys. Peter, can we talk for a minute." Gwen says with a smile.

Harry looks at the smile on Peter's face and chuckles.

"Thanks for the offer man, but it looks like you have your hands full already. I'll see ya later tonight." Harry says.

As Harry leaves, Gwen stops him.

"Harry, my dad told me about your dad. I'm really sorry." Gwen tells him.

Harry smiles

"Thanks Gwen."

As Harry leaves, Peter let's Gwen in the house.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Peter asks.

Gwen takes a deep breath.

"Well- I got in to Oxford."

A bright smile appears on Peter's face.

"Gwen, that's amazing. I'm so happy for you."

The two share a hug and a kiss to celebrate.

"Yeah, yeah, it's- very exciting. And kind of scary at the same time." Gwen says.

"Well, we'll have to work out a long distance relationship. Schedule video chats, calls, visits, I can take the private jet to visit once in awhile."

"Or you could- come with me." Gwen suddenly suggests.

Peter is surprised by this

"What?" The young man asks.

Gwen reaches out, holding Peter's hand

"Come with me. Oxford would accept you in a heartbeat. We could stay together and get out of this city."

Peter doesn't say anything for a while.

"What about Parker Industries? I was supposed to take it over when we graduated." Peter says.

"Is that really what you want? I get that you want to honor your parents legacy, but they wouldn't want you to put what you want last." Gwen says.

Peter continues to think to himself, taking another long pause.

"There's- something else I have to do Gwen. Something important, that only I can do. I'm sorry."

Gwen, with a disappointed look, let's go of his hand.

"And what's that Peter? Tell me, what's so important?"

Peter, with sadness in his eyes doesn't answer the question.

"You know what? I'm sorry, I am being unfair. I shouldn't have even suggested something like this. Just forget it." Gwen says, leaving in a hurry.

Peter sinks into the couch, takes off his glasses and sighs, trying to figure out if he really could leave Spider-Bat behind.

Back at Oscorp, Norman walks into a room where the board of directors are in.

"Hello everyone. It's always a pleasure to have our board of directors pay us a little visit."

"Norman. We wanted talk about the future of Oscorp." One of the board members says.

"I assure you, Oscorp has never been stronger. Costs are down. Revenues are up. And our stock, has never been higher." Norman says with a smile.

"That's great to hear. Especially since we're selling the company."

When Norman hears this, he is shocked.

"What?"

"Mr. Osborne, it is only a matter of time before people hear about what you did to Doctor Octavius and the company starts to loose money. Right now, Quest Aerospace is expanding and have made us a very tender offer that now we can't afford to ignore."

"Now with your recent arrest, the deal is off if you come with it. The board expects your resignation in thirty days." Another board member says.

A stunned Norman slowly gets up from his seat.

"You can't do this to me... I started this company... YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED!?" Norman yells in anger.

"We're sorry, Norman. You're out."

As the news sinks in, Norman starts to laugh to himself.

"Out, am I?" Norman asks himself while still laughing.

Meanwhile Peter is standing infront of his parents graves. As he leaves flowers, he takes a deep breath, still having a lot on his mind.

"I'm sorry. It doesn't mean I don't care, about what happened to you two, or this city, anymore. I don't want to let you down, but- it- just doesn't hurt so bad anymore- not when I'm with her. You guys can understand that, right? I can give money to the city, they can hire more cops, let someone else take the risk, it's different now." Peter says to his parents.

As he's met with silence, he drops to his knees.

"Please... I need it to be different now. I know I made a promise to you both. But- I didn't know this would happen. I didn't count- on being happy."

Tears start to fall down Peter's face.

"Please... tell me that it's ok."

The young man then feels a hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe, they already have, sir." Ben says.

"I can't have it both ways, Uncle Ben. I can't put myself on the line as long as there's someone waiting for me to come back." Peter says.

"When you first told me about your plans to save New York City, I was honestly prepared to call a brain specialist. But you started your crusade and you made a difference, saved lives, and inspired the people of this city. You gave them hope, and maybe that's enough. Maybe that's all the Spider-Bat needed to do. Your parents, more than anything in this world, just wanted you to be happy, master Parker. If that means leaving all this behind and being with Ms. Stacy, then so be it. You deserve to be happy. Of course they'd understand, Peter."

Peter and Ben share a smile, then a hug.

"Thank you, Ben."Peter says.

"Anytime sir."

Later that night Gwen is sitting in her room, unable to think about anything else besides Peter. At that moment, she hears something at her window. She slowly walks over and moves the curtain to see Spider-Bat outside of her window, letting out a scream.

"No, No, Gwen, it's ok." Peter says.

The young man then removes his mask to reveal his face, Shocking Gwen.

"Peter!? You're Spider-Bat?" Gwen asks.

She opens the window and let's Peter in.

"Yeah. Well- I was anyway."

Gwen is confused.

"What does that mean?"

Peter smiles, putting his arms around Gwen.

"It means that I love you. And wherever you go, I want to be there to. I'm want to go to England with you."

A bright smile appears on Gwen's face.

"I love you too, Peter. I love you so much."

The two then start to passionately kiss, and Gwen takes off her shirt. She then tries to take off Peter's suit but can't find the zipper.

"Where's the zipper on this thing?" Gwen asks.

The two laugh and fall onto the bed together.

While that's happening, Norman is strapped to a machine inside a chamber, while Dr. Stromm looks on in fear.

"Norman please. This is extremely dangerous, we can't take this big of a risk."

"Don't be a coward. Isn't risk apart of laboratory science?" Norman replies.

"Just let me reschedule. All I need is two weeks."

"In two weeks we'll loose the contract request and I'll be out of my own company. I refuse to let that happen. Let's get started." Norman says.

Stromm hesitates for a moment, soon reluctantly starting up the machine. Green smoke begins to fill the chamber, fully covering Norman. After a few moments Norman's screams can be heard from the smoke.

"Norman?" Stromm says, worried.

As some of the smoke clears, Norman starts convulse and shake, blood spewing from his mouth. Soon Norman's skin begins to turn bright white and his hair turns green. As Norman flatlines, Stromm quickly enters the chamber to check on him.

"Norman!? Oh my God, Norman!?" He yells.

Stromm tries to do CPR, pressing on his chest over and over again, but nothing seems to be working for awhile. then all of a sudden, Norman's heart begins to start up again. He opens his eyes and a giant, unhinged smile appears on his face. New Norman Osborne then grabs Stromm by the face and laughs wildly.

"See? I told you everything would be fine. I feel- FANTASTIC!" Norman says as he crushes Stromm's skull with one hand, laughing while doing so.

"Whoops, Guess I do have have quite the grip." Norman says, still laughing.

He then stands to his feet, smearing the blood on his hand and face face over his face to make a smile.