Chapter 70 - Take

Norman stabbed downward toward his son's neck, the screams of his son muted the sounds of his own laughter.

Harry, with his eyes closed, felt a sudden warmth in front of him. He opened his eyes to see Spider-Man in his Ultimate Godspeed form, holding his father's hand in place. The two struggled as the raw strength of Norman Osborn seemed to be equal to that of Spider-Man, surprising the hero.

"Well, well, well! So the Spider came out to play hm!?" Norman spoke with a warped smile as he looked at Spider-Man's eyes through his lenses. He looked down at Harry before speaking once more.

"I knew you were up to something. Harry Osborn, the useless child of Norman Osborn, wanting to take over the family business? I knew it was bullshit as soon as it spewed from your worthless mouth. See Norman? This is why you should listen to me next time!" Norman was talking in the third person as if he weren't himself. Eren soon realized that this must be the Goblin that Harry mentioned.

In an instant, Spider-Man conjured up four spider legs from his back, using the Spider-Matter in his suit, and began to pry Norman off of Harry. Once Harry was free, Silk spartan kicked Norman in the chest, sending him flying backward into the room. He crashed into his display of weapons, equipment, and his strange elf-looking costume, causing the display to break and slam on top of him. Thinking that was enough to knock him out, Eren and Cindy shifted their attention to Harry.

"Harry, are you hurt?" Eren grabbed him by the shoulders and checked him for any wounds.

"Did he stab you?" Cindy asked frantically.

"I'm good." Harry laughed slightly due to nervousness and the protectiveness of his best friends. "I guess my hero moment will have to wait." As they had their moment, Eren and Cindy's heads began to tingle violently as they heard Norman cackle across the room.

"HAHAHAAAA!" Norman appeared wearing that green goblin costume, mask included, as he hovered in the air. The purple shirt covering the green skin of the goblin, as well as his hat, began fluttering from the pressure of the thrusters. The mask had the same grotesque smile that Norman had, almost as if the mask was his own face in a different color.

Using a pumpkin-shaped remote in his hand, Norman activated some bombs that were hidden in the facility, something he'd prepped just in case he was every attacked down there.

𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱

𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈!

Multiple explosions went off at once inside the underground bunker, prompting Eren to immediately grab both Harry and Silk and rush them out of the secret facility using Godspeed, barely avoiding the explosion behind them.

Once outside the Osborn estate, Eren released his two friends, looking back at the estate as it began to catch fire. All three of them looked on, realizing that Norman had completely lost it.

If he was willing to burn down his entire home, then he was definitely ready to take action. And God knows what taking action meant in such a crazed man's mind.

Thinking it might be helpful, Eren dashed back into the flaming house and retrieved a few samples of the Globulin Green formula. With samples, he thought they could perhaps reverse engineer it and figure out what exactly it is and what it did to Norman Osborn.

About half an hour later, all three of them found themselves sitting inside the boys' dorm room, desperately trying to figure out what to do next.

Eren, taking the role of leader, spoke to the other two as he sat atop the top bunk. "We need to find him before he causes more harm to anyone else. Do you have any clue where he might go?" Eren looked at Harry as he spoke. Harry looked to the ground, his arms shaking due to his feelings of anxiousness, before responding.

"I don't."

There was a brief silence between the three of them until Cindy brought something up. "What about that military facility?"

"Right." Eren nodded, jumping down from the top bunk. "We should check there first, although I don't think he'd go somewhere so obvious. I'll go check it out. I'll be back soon."

"I'll go too!" Cindy grabbed onto his arm as she said this. However, he looked down at her with a stern glare and shook his head at her request.

"No. You need to stay here in case he does something near here. We can't both be nearly out of state if something bad were to happen." Eren grabbed her shoulders as he continued to speak. "I'm leaving the city to you, Cindy. I only got a small glimpse of his strength, he may be one of my toughest opponents yet, but this time I have you." Her eyes widened slightly as she felt the weight of responsibility on her shoulders. Eren looked over at Harry, continuing to give directives.

"Look into what's in that serum. Whatever it is, it gave him a strength that matches ours. We might be able to create an antiserum."

Harry, feeling the weight of responsibility as well, began speaking frantically. "I can't- I'm not-"

Eren roughly grabbed Harry's shoulder with one hand, his other still on Cindy's shoulder, as he continued to speak. "You can. I know you can, Harry. We need you. You're equally as important to the team as either one of us. I need you to try." Harry nodded as he attempted to put on a look of confidence.

Eren looked at the two of them briefly before transforming into his Ultimate Godspeed state. The pressure from his transformation caused both Harry's and Cindy's hair to gently blow backward as if they were being affected by a breeze. In an instant, Spider-Man dashed out of the building, leaving the other two alone.

Although he had super speed, crossing the entire state would still take time. Due to his training, he was able to stay in his Ultimate form long enough for a round trip and possibly enough for a short fight.

Harry and Cindy stood frozen in the dorm room, feeling lost without Spider-Man there to guide them. After a moment, the two looked at each other before Harry spoke up first. "I'll look at all the news outlets for any sightings. I think you should try swinging around the city while I update you."

"Right. Tell me as soon as you hear anything." Silk told him, getting a determined nod in response before she lept from the window.

Once she was gone, Harry pulled up both her visual feed and Spider-Man's before frantically scouring the internet for the whereabouts of his father.

Back at the Moon family home, Cindy's younger brother was eating dinner with their mother and father. "How was school, Albert?" Mrs. Moon asked the youngest Moon sibling.

"It was okay... they made us do a drill today." He told her, picking up a bunch of noodles and shoving them in his mouth.

"That's good. What for?" His mother asked, taking a small bite from her noodles.

"Monster attack drill." He told her, something that was newly implemented at all schools after the lizard incident.

"Oh..." His mother uttered.

"Yeah..." It was awkward speaking about the tragedy still. He had a few friends who disappeared after the lizard attacks, so he assumed they were eaten by the creatures. Luckily, since it was nighttime, he wasn't on campus to actually get attacked himself. The event was still traumatic for him despite that though.

"How are your grades?" Mr. Moon asked.

"They're good. The teachers have high expectations because of Cindy, but it's fine." Albert once again shoved noodles into his mouth as he gave his answer.

"Ah, your sister was always the overachiever! You know, she was number one in her class." Mrs. Moon bragged as if Albert wasn't at the graduation.

"Yeah, I know. Her and her boyfriend. I was literally there, Mother."

Mrs. Moon chuckled and smiled brightly. "Yes. Eren is a good boy, I'm glad she found someone smart like him. You need to find your wife already!" Mrs. Moon teased, embarrassing her son at the dinner table.

"Mom... I'm only fourteen." He told her awkwardly. He wasn't even anywhere close to confident enough to speak to girls, so finding his future wife at that moment was impossible.

"So? I met your father when we were fifteen years old. Your wife could be in your algebra class."

"Mom..." Albert muttered, wanting this conversation to end very badly. Luckily, his father changed the subject.

"Do you have any idea what you want to do after high school?" Mr. Moon asked his son.

"Oh! Cindy's boyfriend said that if he has his business started by the time I'm in college, he'll hire me! I wanna do biophysics like Cindy and Eren." He was very excited about this. The few times he spoke to Eren, the two of them talked about science for hours. He saw Eren as the sort of older brother he never had and the feeling was reciprocated the other way for Eren.

"That's nice of him." Mr. Moon said. "He did mention that he wanted to start a tech company that focuses on helping people. He really is a good-hearted young man."

"I wanna help people too. I want to make..." Albert began thinking of something that would really change the world. "Oh! Underground high-speed rails that connect the entire country together. No, the world!" Albert's excitement compelled his parents to giggle. They were so happy to have a son who had such high goals. It seemed that Eren rubbed off on him through their very few interactions.

𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬

Someone was knocking on the front door, which was odd since they weren't expecting any guests. Mrs. Moon began getting out of her chair and starting toward the door.

"Don't worry, Mom. I got the door." Albert said before quickly getting up out of his seat and sprinting toward the door. Using his tippy toes, he looked out the peephole and saw a familiar face on the other side.

"Oh, Osborn. Why is he here?" Albert said, opening the door to see Norman standing there with a grotesque smile on his face.

"What's up, Mr. Osborn." Albert greeted him, but he received no response as Norman just continued to stare down at him with that disgusting ear-to-ear grin.

"Mr. Osborn?" Albert repeated, finally getting a response.

"Is Ms. Moon here?" He asked the young man.

"Uh... my sister? No... why?" Albert was very confused as to what business Norman had with his sister and why he was acting so strangely.

Albert's mom began approaching the door. "Mr. Osborn? What brings you here?" she asked, somehow bringing an even bigger smile to the man's face.

"I was just seeing where Cindy was..." he told them.

"Why?" her mother questioned.

𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱

The faint sound of something being activated was heard behind Osborn as he held both hands behind his back.

"If any of you survive, tell Ms. Moon that I send my regards." Norman spoke before dropping a pumpkin bomb at the front door, grabbing the door, and slamming it shut.

The bomb hit the ground...

𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱

... letting out another chiming sound combined with the sound of metal striking wood.

"Albert!" both parents screamed.

𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱

Mr. Moon shot up out of his chair, sprinting toward the door as fast as he could in an attempt to save his son.

Mrs. Moon, already on her feet, sprinted toward her son with her arm extended forward, trying to reach him in time so she could pull him away.

𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱

Albert stood in the same place, frozen in fear as he was barely able to even comprehend what was happening. He was too close to the bomb, there was no escape for him.

𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈!

The bomb exploded, engulfing Albert, along with his parents and the rest of the room. in flames...

Swinging through the city, Cindy could immediately feel a disturbance. In fact, she was able to pinpoint its exact, precise location. "No..." she whispered, realizing that if her Silk-Sense was correct, her family may be in danger.

'Please. Please. Please.' She repeated as she swung toward her home, aggressively yanking herself off each building to build up more momentum. It didn't take long before she found herself nearing her street corner, praying to God that her Silk-Sense was wrong and whatever she sensed was nowhere near her home.

She turned the corner and immediately she felt her heart sink lower into her body. "No..." she mumbled upon seeing an absolutely dreadful sight.

Her apartment building was engulfed in flames, the source of the flames seemed to be coming directly from her floor. She swung over to the burning building, which was then being put out by firefighters.

"Is there anyone left inside the building!?" Silk screamed at one of the firefighters.

"Everyone is out... but there's two injured." The firefighter hesitated, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. "There's one dead, too. A young man, maybe around thirteen years old."

The light suddenly left Silk's eyes, as she was able to piece together exactly what that meant. "C- can I see him?" she asked the firefighter. "To see if it's him... please." Silk's voice was shuttering with each word as she spoke.

The firefighter was heartbroken, seeing the girl completely broken in front of him. He pointed over toward where a few ambulances were parked, not saying a word, prompting Silk to slowly walk over toward them.

With each step, Cindy tried telling herself that maybe there was a chance that the injured family was not hers. It was a selfish thought, but she was hoping that the injured boy was just some other random kid around her brother's age if that meant Albert was still alive.

She tried to tell herself that maybe her family went out for the night.

Maybe they had dinner together.

Maybe they saw a movie.

Maybe they even stopped by her school to visit her.

However, those chances were reduced to zero upon seeing her mother being loaded onto an ambulance via a stretcher in critical condition. She looked over at the other ambulance, seeing her father who was also in bad shape being hauled away with burns covering half his face.

She saw a body bag on the ground, immediately sending a shiver down her spine as she knew the contents within it. She approached it, causing one of the coroners to stand up and try to stop her. "Hey, ma'am you can't-"

Silk didn't say a word, pushing the man to the side using her strength before kneeling down in front of the bag. Not wanting to provoke her any further, the rest of the coroners just watched as she slowly unzipped the bag.

Inside, she saw Albert Moon, her little brother, with skin so charred that he was almost unrecognizable. At that very moment, something within her snapped as she began feeling a mixture of emotions inside of her.

Outrage.

Anguish.

Self-hatred.

Sorrow.

Guilt.

Just about any negative emotion that one could imagine was stirring up inside Cindy Moon.

"I'm going to kill him." Silk whispered, inducing the coroners to look at her with wide eyes, not saying a word.

Silk looked up at them, causing their hearts to stop for a second before Cindy got back up on her feet. It was as if an aura of her pain surrounded her body, one that could be felt by anyone nearby.

She looked at her brother one last time, removed her contacts and comms, and left the scene so her friends couldn't find her. They'd only get in her way.

She was certain of it, she didn't care what Eren had to say about it.

She was going to kill Norman Osborn.