Chapter 72 - Hero

As the crowd applauded Spider-Man, he glanced over to see Silk standing at the entrance of the children's pizzeria. "See you later, Chris. I gotta go." Spider-Man told the boy, patting his head before walking over to his partner.

He could tell that her heart was aching, it was clear by the look in her eyes. Silk web-zipped up to a building and waited on top of it for him with her arms crossed, giving him a cold stare.

Once Spider-Man was with her, she began scolding him."If you aren't taking this seriously, I don't need your help." She pivoted back around and continued walking across the roof while emergency vehicles sped beneath them. Eren speed-walked to catch back up with her, trying to get through to her.

"I am taking this seriously. We've been looking for you." Before Eren could continue, Cindy aggressively turned to him and screamed in his face.

"And I was looking for him!" Her shout completely muted Eren. He didn't know what else to say, he was stunned. He'd never seen her this way before, but the part that scared him the most was how much of himself he saw inside of her.

"Cindy, I know what you're thinking right now. You need to stop." When he said this, Cindy scoffed at him and looked at him with eyes of disgust.

"You're one to talk. You killed the man involved in your mother's death but I can't do that for my brother's killer? You're a hypocrite, you know that?" Eren, unable to contain himself any longer, raised his voice at Cindy for the first time throughout their entire relationship.

"Yes! I am! I don't want you to turn into what I was! What I still am! What don't you fucking understand! Once you end a life like that you can never take it back!" Eren yelling at her in this way startled her, she'd never seen him like this before.

He didn't want her to go through what he went through after he killed Fisk, it wasn't worth it. Cindy was too awestruck to say anything else as Eren approached her and retracted his mask. He grabbed her face with both hands, lifting her gaze up to his before speaking to her softly. "I'm sorry for raising my voice, but I care about you too much to let that happen. It's not worth it, trust me."

Cindy placed her hands on his wrists, looking at the boy's stern expression with glassy eyes of her own as he continued to try and get through to her. "I know it hurts. Trust me, I know. Killing him won't cure that. I'd know because I tried it, and it didn't help..." Spider-Man took the drawing he got from Chris and showed it to her, holding it next to his own face.

"If I didn't change, this kid would've never made this. He would've never looked up to me. You should've seen it. His smile, and his bravery... all because of how he sees me and how he sees himself in me. My point is, the goal of being a hero isn't to seek revenge on people. The goal is to help people who need us." He pressed the paper against his chest as he continued to articulate his beliefs passionately to her. "In order to do that, I need you. We need you. We're going to find him and we're going to stop him. Albert wouldn't want to see his sister become a monster, I promise you that."

Cindy knew that he was right. There was a reason she always held back against her other opponents. She knew that killing was wrong, but her anger was taking control of her. "You're right." she agreed, nodding slowly at him.

As soon as their short moment ended, Eren received a phone call from Harry, which was weird considering he was still wearing his comms so Harry could've just spoken to him directly. Eren answered the phone, "Anything new?" he said. However, his eyes widened upon hearing what was on the other line.

All he could hear on the other side of the call was the wicked, howling cackle of the Green Goblin.

"Paaarkeeeerrrr." The Goblin released a breathless, demonic cackle directly into Eren's ear through the phone after saying his name. Although Cindy couldn't hear the voice, she could see the fear in her partner's eyes.

"Tell your spider friend that if he wants to save Harry Osborn, come to the Queensboro Bridge! Tell him to bring his cute little partner too!" The call disconnected, as well as Eren from reality while he stared forward blankly.

"We need to go." Immediately, Spider-Man launched himself into the air and began swinging toward the location to which he was invited. Silk followed closely behind him as the two headed for Queensboro...

Meanwhile, at the Queensboro bridge, the Green Goblin, wearing his full costume, and his son were both at the top of the bridge, looking down at those beneath them. Harry was attached to a chair with his arms and legs tied down as his father stood behind him with his hand on his shoulder.

"Look at them, Harry. Not a single one of them has a clue what's going to happen." He gestured downward at the vehicles below. There appeared to be a traffic jam, which was artificially created by the Goblin himself by placing a spike trap in front of a school bus filled with a middle school football team.

On the center tower of the bridge that they were standing on, there were bombs attached to the main cables that held up the bridge. If those were to be damaged, the entire bridge would split in half and fall into the water below, killing everyone who was attempting to cross it.

"This is what playing the hero gets you. Now, Harry, I'll give you a choice." The Green Goblin pulled out one of his special vials and placed it in one of Harry's tied-up hands.

"You can still live if you take this and help me get what I want from the spiders. If not, then you go down with the bridge, being of no importance to society. Being a pathetic excuse of an Osborn. What do you choose, Harry?" The Goblin's confident voice spoke volumes about how he viewed Harry. He was almost certain that his son would join him, knowing that Harry hated the fact that he had never contributed to anything of importance. However, Harry immediately tossed the serum to the ground, causing it to crash onto the bridge below, without saying a word.

The people on the bridge looked up, pointing at the two Osborn men on the bridge before getting out of their vehicles in an attempt to escape. At the same time, the two spiders could be seen approaching from a distance.

"Ah, looks like your friends have arrived just in time. Don't regret your choice! Goodbye, 'Son'!" The Goblin stepped onto his glider before turning back to Harry and speaking once more. "By the way, Norman has always detested you. You were never going to receive the company. Maybe if you were more like your friend, Parker, you would have." The Green Goblin laughed as he flew away and under the bridge without being seen.

Spider-Man and Silk arrived at the bridge and began scouting the area. Silk was the first one to notice Harry tied up on the bridge and began swinging up to him. Eren could see through the trap and attempted to stop her, but it was too late. The Green Goblin grappled her by the leg using a grappling hook attached to his glider and began flying away with her.

Before Eren could think about saving her...

𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈!

The main centerpiece of the bridge immediately exploded and began to collapse. The cables holding the bridge together started to snap and a massive crack was forming down the center of the bridge. Despite Eren's training, the boost he received from Wakanda, and his determination, he felt like he was nearly out of gas, especially after being blown up in the pizzeria.

It didn't matter to him.

What mattered was springing into action when he was needed, so the boy entered his Ultimate Godspeed form once again and dashed toward the collapsing bridge.

He winced as he felt as if his skin was ready to rip itself off of his muscles. As the world around him started to move a bit slower than usual, breathed heavily and sporadically like an injured animal.

His brain immediately calculated the exact route he needed to take in order to save every single person on the bridge. He looked up at Silk, who was trying her best to get out of the Green Goblin's hold, but she couldn't break free.

However, Eren was confident that she could hold her own against him for enough time for him to save everyone and return to her.

Spider-Man dashed forward, sprinting as fast as he could to chase down the bridge support cables. Once close enough, he sprinted up the falling cables before webbing them down to what was left of the collapsing main tower. He caught Harry in mid-air before using the falling rubble as stepping stones until he reached the ground and dropped Harry off on the safe section of the bridge.

In the middle of the havoc, a woman was attempting to unbuckle her baby's seatbelt, but her nerves were getting the best of her, causing her to fumble with it. Spider-Man whizzed by and seemingly freed the infant in what felt like an instant.

The woman grabbed her bay and looked backward, watching the blue streak continue toward the side of the bridge where mayhem was ensuing.

On the other side of the bridge, past the splitting crack that divided the bridge in two, people were standing in fear as they were too afraid to jump across like the rest of the brave souls making the leap. With his quick thinking, the Spider-Man immediately yanked over a long piece of debris that they could use as a bridge. He webbed it down and instructed everyone to cross. "One at a time, get across! Go!" They followed his instructions and one by one began to try and make it to safety as the bridge continued to rumble and shake around them.

The school bus filled with the middle school football team was resting between the two halves of the bridge. Spider-Man immediately dashed over and began prying a piece of the bus off with his bare hands, creating an opening for the kids to escape out of.

As the kids were evacuating the bus, the gap between both sides of the splitting bridge had grown too wide, nearly causing the bus and the mini bridge he made to fall through the middle. Springing into action, Spider-Man jumped in between both sides of the bridge and began firing webs at both sides.

𝘛𝘩𝘸𝘪𝘱! 𝘛𝘩𝘸𝘪𝘱! 𝘛𝘩𝘸𝘪𝘱! 𝘛𝘩𝘸𝘪𝘱! 𝘛𝘩𝘸𝘪𝘱!

As he held both sides of the bridge with his webs, he hung by his webs as if he was being crucified, and began to pull toward his center of mass as hard as he could. With all of his strength, he pulled the bridge close enough for everyone to either cross the bridge or escape from the bus safely.

Once all of the kids escaped, the driver began to exit from behind them. However, he began losing his balance and nearly fell over during his escape due to the bridge beginning to shake more violently.

All of the movement caused one of the cables to fly down and smash into the side of the bus, knocking it over with the driver inside. Bumper first, the bus began falling down toward the water below. The driver inside was knocked unconscious and would be guaranteed to drown unless someone stepped in.

And so, Spider-Man chased after him without even a second thought, panicking in the air as he slingshotted himself toward the bus.

He burst through the back window of the bus and caught the unconscious man, just before crashing into the water.

With the man in his arms, Spider-Man began trying his best to swim up to the surface, but he still didn't know how. Using the seats on the bus, Spider-Man pulled himself and the driver upward toward the surface, seeing the moonlight shining down from above.

Spider-Man eventually was able to pull himself and the driver to the back window of the bus, however, the bus was beneath the surface at this point. Spider-Man's lenses winced as he used the bus to springboard himself upward toward the surface with the man in his arms. 'C'mon Eren, it's just physics. Cupped hands... kick your feet.'

Despite never having learned to swim, Spider-Man began thinking logically, trying his best to figure out how to optimally rise to the surface.

He eventually began getting the hang of it, however, he was running out of air. He began scooping his arm and kicking his feet faster and faster as he could feel his lungs about to burst. He was just a few feet from the surface, kicking faster and faster until he was able to stick a hand out of the water.

𝘛𝘩𝘸𝘪𝘱!

He shot a web, just before he began taking water into his lungs, one final hail mary.

However, his web missed the bridge, whizzing past it to connect with nothing. Seeing this, Eren's lenses began to shut and he started to lose hope. 'Someone... please...' Spider-Man thought to himself as he slowly fell deeper into the water, watching the moon fade above him.