Back at the Queensboro bridge, Harry watched as the bus fell with Spider-Man inside it, he thought about how Eren told him that he didn't know how to swim back when he was telling him about the flooding in Wakanda. Seeing his best friend about to risk his own life, Harry sprang into action, running toward the collapsing bridge and past those who were fleeing.
'Is this it? Is this that moment that Eren and Cindy talked about? When your body moves on its own? When you stop shaking? When you stop being scared?' These questions circulated Harry's mind as he continued to run toward danger.
Once he got to the edge, he looked over to see that Eren was nowhere to be found. However, it wasn't long before he saw his friend's hand poking out from the water before shooting a web. The web missed the bridge, however, it was still within reach for Harry Osborn and this was the moment when he grabbed it.
"Gotcha!" He shouted before taking the web and attaching it to the bridge itself.
He immediately started pulling the webbing upward, bringing both Eren and the bus driver back up to the safe side of the bridge. Eren, despite being unconscious, was still somehow holding onto the unconscious bus driver. "Someone help me!" Harry screamed, though no one came to his rescue, they were all too focused on saving themselves.
"Fuck it" Harry said to himself before placing his hands on the bus driver's shirt and performing CPR.
'Ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive.' Harry sang a song in his head that was supposed to match the tempo at which he was supposed to apply pressure and it wasn't long before the bus driver spewed out water from his mouth and began to breathe again.
"It worked!" Harry shouted before moving over to Spider-Man. He lifted Eren's mask a little to allow the water to have a place to exit before repeating the process.
'Ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive.' He tried the same process, but it wasn't working. "C'mon, buddy. Wake up." Harry whispered before once again repeating the process. 'Ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive.' Again, nothing happened.
Harry looked at Eren's mouth before groaning internally. 'Oh god... this better work.' Harry placed his mouth on Eren's, giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before repeating the chest compressors. 'Ah, ah, ah, ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive.'
Harry again tried mouth-to-mouth. As he blew into Eren's lungs, Spider-Man sprung back to life, spitting water into Harry's mouth. "Augh!" Harry groaned as he spat the water back out onto the ground.
Harry was shaking, absolutely disgusted by the fact that water from Eren's lungs just shot into his mouth.
Eren started to cough, his lenses opened as his eyes did and the first thing he saw was Harry Osborn looking as if he wanted to vomit. "What happened?" Eren asked.
"Don't- don't ask..." Harry told him, getting back up on his feet, and lending a hand to Spider-Man to stand up as well.
Once Spider-Man stood up, he picked the bus driver up off the ground and the two boys started walking to safety and where the paramedics were starting to show up. "Did you save me?" Eren asked Harry.
"Yeah, I had the hero moment. When you just run, it was crazy." Harry laughed slightly, feeling almost invigorated at the moment. "I see why you guys do it..."
"Yeah? That's good." Spider-Man handed the man off to the paramedics before lending his hand to Harry. "This is kinda embarrassing but I can't use Godspeed right now so I'll have to carry you around the old-fashioned way. We need to find them before something happens."
Harry was reluctant at first, but he knew if they wanted to find Cindy, he'd have to curb his embarrassment. "Right, let's go."
Harry held onto Spider-Man and the two zipped into the air in search of Cindy Moon...
ππ¦π’π―πΈπ©πͺππ¦...
The Green Goblin, holding his wrist blade above Cindy's neck, cackled as he raised his arms and stabbed downward toward the girl. Feeling his blade penetrate through flesh, he once again laughed maniacally, thinking it was over.
However, his blade did not draw blood, nor did it penetrate flesh. What he actually stabbed was nothing but a web barrier blindly formed by Silk at the last minute. With her eyes still closed, Silk grabbed the blade and began bending it backward, snapping it in half.
Silk then spring-kicked the Green Goblin from the ground, sending him sliding backward, catching his balance. He whistled playfully as he watched her fight back with such determination.
"What a shocker! Cindy Moon still has a little bit of fight in her, doesn't she? Okay then." The Goblin walked toward the blind spider and threw a punch at her. She attempted to dodge and shoot webs at him, however, the webs completely missed, and the punch struck her liver.
'I can't see. But I can-' A powerful punch struck Silk in the stomach, interrupting her thoughts for just a brief moment. 'I can sense him. My Silk-Sense...'
Through her shut eyes, she was able to begin to 'see' the Green Goblin in front of her. She could even sense his disgusting grin. This was the difference between her Silk-Sense and Eren's Spider-Sense. Hers was far more advanced than his was, she just never realized it was this much more advanced due to relying on her eyes at all times.
Once the Green Goblin landed another punch to her liver and her 'vision' began to fade away once more. Upon taking the liver punch, she shot more webs wildly in a seemingly random fashion. Sensing another punch coming, she dodged it swiftly and sent a punch to his face before blindly spewing webs once more.
Upon being struck, the Goblin laughed, still smiling before ridiculing the girl. "Ah! Lucky strike! See if you can block this!" The Goblin threw another punch but feinted it. Silk dodged in reaction to the fake punch, allowing the Goblin to follow up with an uppercut. This punch sent Silk flying backward into another fossil, breaking it into pieces.
"Cindy, Cindy, Cindy! You try and you try and you try and yet-" He kicked her while she was down, causing her to slide across the ground, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. "You can't even stand up on your weak feet. Stand up!" Silk weakly rose back onto her feet, wiping the blood off of her mouth, leaving a red smudge on her black glove.
Suddenly, she began frantically shooting webs at the Green Goblin as if she had no real strategy. He easily dodged these telegraphed attempts as he approached her prior to landing a hard left hook on her jaw, sending her into a wall.
Leaning against the wall, Cindy pushed off of it to stand up straight, nearly losing her balance and falling while she wiped her mouth once again. This time, she had a smirk on her face as if she somehow had the advantage.
"What's funny, girl?" The Goblin began to feel irritated at the girl's lack of fear. In his world, he should be the only one who laughs, only he should be the one having fun.
Silk hopped up lightly and landed with one foot on a web that was suspended inches off of the ground. The Goblin looked around to see that the entire area had been surrounded by webs. The entire time Silk was getting beaten, she had been strategically placing webs in order to create a sort of trap that could inform her of his presence and enhance the accuracy of her Silk-Sense.
He took a micro-step forward, only to be immediately clocked in the face by Silk as he tripped one of her wires. He stumbled backward, only to step on another web, leading to him getting slashed in the face, completely ripping his mask off and exposing Norman's face.
After backstepping and avoiding some of the webs, the Green Goblin stood still, being careful not to move a muscle as he stood between her webs. 'What is this?' He thought to himself, thinking the girl was out for the count this entire time.
Silk continued to balance on her strands, incredibly focused, as she waited for them to tell her where her enemy was. A drop of blood fell from the Green Goblin's face, causing one of her strings to ever so slightly reveal his presence.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
She decked him in the face, sending him soaring into more of her webbing. Knowing his exact position, she pounced on him and began punching him in the face with murderous intent behind each strike.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
πΎππΌπΎπ!
πΎππΌπΎπ!
She began driving her fists into his face with everything she had.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
She thought of mother.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
She thought of her father.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
She thought of her little brother who was taken from her.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
Between each blow, the Goblin laughed as if he didn't feel a thing. The Globulin Green in his system had enhanced his pain tolerance. He was also too far gone to care about a no-frills concept like pain.
"HAHAHAHA! You've got quite the punch!" He extended his arms upward in an attempt to grab her by the throat, only for them to be swatted away and webbed to the wall behind him, bounding him helplessly beneath her.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
πΎππΌπΎπ!
πΎππΌπΎπ!
Silk continued to strike and the Green Goblin continued to smile crookedly while staring up at her as if he was enjoying her punishment.
"Do it! Finish me! Become a killer just like that worthless boyfriend of yours!"
πΎππΌπΎπ!
πΎππΌπΎπ!
πΎππΌπΎπ!
Despite her thinking she was already using her full strength, her punches suddenly increased in strength due to his taunting, slamming his head on the ground and creating a small crater beneath it. The Goblin started enjoying it more and more as she unlocked more strength that she didn't know she had.
"Kill me! Just like how I killed your worthless little brother!" These words completely set Silk off. Using her webs, she formed claws around her nails once again and began clawing at the Goblin's skin, practically torturing him.
ππππ!
ππππ!
ππππ!
As she tore through his face, his skin began to rip off, revealing the muscle underneath.
She had completely lost it, falling possibly even deeper into rage than Eren Parker did when he finally got his hands on fisk.
Her Silk-Sense suddenly began resonating with something nearby. It was almost as if something was calling to her. This strange sensation caused her to stop.
The sensation was so familiar to her.
It was calming, yet the thing she was sensing seemed to be aching. After a second to process her sensations, she realizes what it was.
It was Eren.
He was standing inside the building watching her from afar with Harry standing next to him.
She turned her head toward him blindly. She couldn't see him, but she could sense everything that he was feeling as he watched her mutilate the Goblin. Perhaps due to being deprived of sight, her connection with Eren had grown far more potent as she was able to feel everything he felt at that moment.
Her heart sunk to the lowest part of her body as she came back from that dark place she found herself in. She didn't know it yet, but the Goblin had finally passed out due to his injuries, so she was attacking his unconscious body at that point.
Eren and Harry both ran over to her, causing her to begin to cry over Norman's unconscious body.
If they hadn't been there, she would've crossed that line.
Once Harry and Eren were next to her, they both looked over at Norman and at each other. His face was completely mutilated to the point where it was unrecognizable. Cindy really did a number on him.
Spider-Man knelt down beside her, seeing that there was purple stuff covering her eyelids. "What happened to your eyes?" He asked her.
"He blinded me with some weird bomb... thank you for coming here." Eren grabbed the mask from her neck and placed it back over her mouth. "Of course." he told her. "We're always gonna be there for each other, right?" Cindy nodded before lunging at Eren and hugging him tightly, crying over his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I don't know what came over me." she apologized through her weeping over Eren's shoulder. He was thankful that he was able to stop her, however, he did wish he had arrived sooner to stop her from doing what she did to Norman's face, despite him deserving it.
"It's okay. We all make mistakes. I understand." As Eren said this, he looked over to see Harry standing over his father's unconscious body with an emotionless expression.
"He's still alive after all that." Harry's voice was somber, yet a small trace of disdain for his father was seeping through. Eren's eyebrows lowered as he watched his best friend trying to comprehend what he was feeling.
"I'm sorry, Harry." Spider-Man apologized on the behalf of Harry's father. Harry didn't deserve any of this.
"No, don't be. I lost almost all attachment to this monster years ago. It was all gone once I learned the truth." This wasn't entirely true. Sure, Harry didn't love his father and he was sure his father didn't even love him either. However, it was still the man that raised him right in front of him, completely mutilated.
But also vulnerable.
"Eren?" Harry's calm voice almost disturbed Eren due to how much it lacked any humanity in it.
"Yeah?" Eren looked down to see that Harry was tightly gripping the broken blade from his father's gauntlet in his hand, drawing blood from himself without noticing due to how hard he was gripping it.
"Why don't you do these guys like you did Fisk? Don't people like him deserve it? Why did she stop?" Tears fell from Harry's eyes as he quivered with rage and abhorrence toward his father. He looked at Eren and screamed at his best friend. "Why are we letting him live!? We should end this bastard right here! He killed our moms! He killed Cindy's brother! He tried to fucking kill kids! Children! Toddlers!"
Eren looked forward at Norman without saying a word. He didn't have an answer at that moment, so he continued to listen to Harry as he continued on his hysterical rant.
"Can I do it? Should I do it?" Harry asked, looking over at his friend for affirmation. Eren shook his head, denying his request. A burst of tears dropped from Harry's eyes before he looked back down at his father's unconscious body.
His hand continued to shake until he composed himself. A drop of blood dripped from his hand as he contemplated his next action. He lifted the blade in the air and pointed it down at the Green Goblin, his father Norman Osborn, before stabbing downward toward him.
His hand stopped a few millimeters from his father's face, not due to Eren interrupting, but due to his own mental weakness not allowing him to do it. He dropped to his knees and began to weep over the body.
Eren didn't have a real answer to Harry's questions, but he began speaking his mind regardless.
"When you do what I did, you can't stand to look at yourself in the mirror after that. You see someone else instead. A freak. A monster. I couldn't take it anymore. I still see it sometimes. What matters is we stopped him, right?"
"But Cindy's brother... We could've stopped him before that. If I wasn't so weak, I could've done it myself."
"Don't blame yourself, Harry. It's my fault. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do. I'm indirectly killing by not killing the bad guys, right? That's what some people say on those forums..." Eren reached into his pocket as he continued to speak. He looked at the picture that the boy drew for him earlier that day, now smudged due to the ocean water coming in contact with it.
"His name is Chris. He drew this for me. He had a shirt that had my mask on it. He said I was his favorite hero. I felt- I felt validated. I felt loved. I felt like people cared about me. For most of my life, no one gave a fuck about me. Only my mom, Dr. Connors, Cindy, and you, Harry."
"I don't want to be like the bad guys. I don't want to be a monster. I don't want to stoop down to their level. It's not worth it for me. I know it's selfish. I'm doing this because I'm not man enough to take another life. I'm sorry for being selfish. It's my fault. I'm sorry."
Harry immediately felt an insurmountable guilt in his chest. He basically just blamed Eren for this without thinking about Eren's perspective. He and Eren were similar in the fact that no one ever really cared about them besides a select few. That's what originally drove Harry to want to help the spiders. He wanted to stop his father and become a hero like them. He wanted people to care about him too.
Before Harry could say anything in response to his best friend's heartful cry, Yuri and her officers arrived at the scene. Harry explained to them that his father kidnapped him and the spiders miraculously came to his rescue. They took Harry in for questioning and the two spiders gave their versions of what happened before fleeing the scene.
Silk was too weak to make it home by herself, so Spider-Man swung back to his dorm with her on his back, thinking about everything that'd happened up to this point.
'Once again, I find myself fleeing the scene after defeating a man of science like myself. Another brilliant mind, like my own, taken into the darkness...
I thought I had everything figured out, but I didn't.
I tried blaming the system, but Connors proved that to be incorrect.
I tried to blame it on the dangers of science, but Norman proved me wrong.
The Globulin didn't turn him into a monster, it only enhanced the monster within him...
But aren't Norman and The Goblin separate entities?
I felt that way about myself and the Phantom Spider at one point...
But Norman... it was very different in his case. I met the man, he's my best friend's father, and he seemed like the complete opposite of who we just faced.
Perhaps it was just a facade.
Now the stuff with Project V...
What do I do about that? What's the next step?
They already cleaned house, the base is emptied and there are no leads.
If that stuff gets in the wrong hands...
The world may end.
Perhaps that's what I saw in those visions...
The darkness.
Maybe those so-called wrong hands are my own.'