"So, what are you going to do about it?" Gwen asked Harry as she, Harry and Peter sat together in the school canteen at lunch. Harry didn't need mind-reading to know what she was asking about it.
"I'm not going to do anything about it," Harry answered honestly.
"it's not anv of my business.'
"Not any of your business?" Gwen repeated with disbelief. "Harry, you're the one who helped the kid in the first place."
"And I did my job and told the authorities," Harry argued. "if they can't keep a criminal locked up then that's not my fault, Besides, it's the police's job to catch him, not me."
"Are you sure?" Peter asked after swallowing his food. "You could start doing the whole superhero thing, you know, give Iron Man a run for his money."
"You have to be joking," Harry snorted. "you think I want to be like Stark? If he wants to have all that fame and attention then I wish him the best of luck, but that's not me. Besides, I don't know what you guys want me to do. I can stick to walls and I'm pretty strong, you want me to go out and hunt down a mutant who I have no knowledge about?"
I heard my dad say that he only has enhanced strength and sharp teeth," Gwen replied. "but to be fair, you've also got those webshooters as well."
"I don't care if I have the Iron-Man suit and Captain America's bloody shield," Harry responded. "I'm not going to go and risk my life trying to be a hero. Let the police protect the kid and catch the guy.
"Fair enough," Gwen let the topic die down since quite honestly she didn't really want Harry to start running off and fighting crime, though she couldn't help but find the situation odd. Harry was always the first person to stand up for Peter and herself if any of the other kids ever started messing with them, yet he was seemingly intent on avoiding this to the best of his ability, at this point she didn't know what to think, something about it just seemed so out of character for him.
"You alright?" Harry called out as he, Gwen and Peter entered their favourite fast food shop after school had finished, Gwen and Peter had gone to take the group's usual seats by the window.
Meanwhile, Harry had walked over to the till where he saw the owner working at the register. The owner, an elderly man with a jovial smile near permanently on his face, had slicked back white hair, a bushy moustache and a rather nice pair of sunglasses.
"How are you doing, Stan?" Harry asked.
"Same old, same old," Stan replied with a shrug, smiling kindly at Harry. "what about you kids? Doing okay?"
"For the most part," Harry confirmed with a nod. "anyway, we'll have two of our usual burger meals, one chicken wrap meal and we'll each have a Pepsi for our meal drink, please."
"Coming right up," Stan said warmly as one of his workers went off to prepare the order, Stan opened his mouth to say something before pausing and staring at Harry. "are you okay?" He asked with a small frown.
"Why do you ask?" Harry frowned back.
"I don't know, you just seem a little...off," Stan looked thoughtful as he stared at Harry. "like you have a different vibe today, are you okay, kid?"
"I am," Harry said, mentally wincing at the slight hitch in his voice, he really needed to work on his delivery. "I'm just going through a few things at the moment." He admitted.
"Aren't we all?" Stan sighed as he shook his head. "Well, whatever it is, hope you get through it okay.
"Thanks," Harry gave him a small smile. "just call me when the food's ready," Harry added before he left the till and went over to sit with Gwen and Peter.
"How's Stan doing?" Gwen asked as Harry sat down next to her while Peter sat opposite the two.
"Stan's still 'the man'," Harry gave her a small shrug.
"Best chips in the city, by far," Peter proclaimed with a grin on his face.
"Best burgers too." Harry grinned.
"You two need to start eating something other than burgers,"
Gwen laughed when the boy's stared at her as if she had just said something blasphemous. "What? The both of you always order burgers from here? He makes other good stuff too, you know.'
"But we want burgers!" Harry and Peter said at the same time.
"You can have burgers!" Stan called happily from the till where a tray with their food was waiting for them.
"Burgers!" Harry and Peter cheered.
"See ya, Stan." The trio called out as they left the shop, their stomachs filled, or at least Gwen and Peter's were, Harry wouldn't have minded some more. The trio soon started walking towards Gwen's house, chatting with each other as they did so.
"So according to this, that big green thing on the news could apparently be Bruce Banner," Harry said, looking at the website he was reading from on his phone. "Either that or Stephen Hawking is a lot stronger than he looks." He added as he thought back to that news report that had been on TV a while back, it had shown what looked to be a couple of giant monsters battling in Harlem. Both were other ten feet tall, possibly fifteen feet, one of them was bald, a dark green and had spikes popping out of his body. While the other one, the one that was apparently the good guy in the situation, was green with black hair and for some reason was wearing purple shorts. The two of them had wrecked a great portion of Harlem before eventually, the angry green giant defeated the other one, the media had named him 'Hulk'. Nobody really knew where he had disappeared after the battle, or at least the general public did not know, but that didn't stop many theories from being made about him. Some believed that he was an alien, and others thought it was a scientific experiment gone wrong.
"I mean, that makes more sense than the last one I read," Peter hummed thoughtfully.
"The one that said he was a magical creature?" Gwen asked.
"Yeah, that one."
"Could be possible," Harry spoke up.
"You believe in magic?" Peter scoffed.
"I believe that anything could be possible," Harry shrugged just before they arrived outside of the building where Gwen stayed. "I mean, look at me, I stick to walls, mate.
"Yeah, but that's all science," Peter argued. "your body reacted to a spider that had been experimented on a lot."
"Yeah, but I think that..." Harry found himself cut off as Gwen's father came out of the building.
"Hi Dad," Gwen began but stopped at seeing the stressed look on her father's face, not to mention the fact that he had his police badge and gun with him. "what's wrong?"
"Nothing sweetheart, just some work business," Gwen's father waved them off. "Sorry, I can't stay and chat." He gave them all a brief nod before walking past them and crossing the street before he got into a police car that just pulled up.
"What's going on?" Peter wondered. "Is he..."
"Shush." Harry gently shushed him before turning his head to the side and aiming his ear at the car that Captain Stacy had just gotten into.
"What the hell's going on?!" Harry heard Captain Stacy hiss to the other policeman.
'I don't know, sir," The other cop confessed, sounding almost as stressed as Captain Stacy. "all I know for sure is that he escaped and he has the kid." Gwen and Peter were tempted to ask what was happening but stopped when they saw Harry's eyes widen and his skin pale.
"Damn it," Captain Stacy cursed. "do we have any leads on where they are?" He asked, sounding hopeful.
"What do you think he's hearing?" Peter whispered to Gwen as they both watched Harry.
"I don't know, but it doesn't look good." Gwen frowned as Harry continued listing in on the police conversation. A few seconds later the car's siren suddenly started blaring loudly, causing Harry to wince, the car drove off with the other cars on the road making space for it. "What did you hear?"
"I'm going to go home," Harry said suddenly, looking quite sick. "I'll talk to you guys tomorrow." He added before he turned and took his skateboard off his back and dropped it on the ground, he got on it and started riding away whilst ignoring the calls from Gwen and Peter. Eventually, Harry turned into an empty alley and travelled down it until he was sure he was alone, he popped off of his skateboard and immediately put his hands on the nearest wall for support in staying upright.
What felt like millions of thoughts quickly travelled through Harry's head, thoughts that switched in and out so fast that not even Muhammad Ali in his prime would have been able to keep up with them. Thoughts like how the kid could be dead, in pain, perhaps being tortured at this very moment.
'Am I overthinking this? Maybe they wouldn't hurt him.' Harry thought hopefully before he felt his head tighten in pain, almost as if the more intelligent part of him decided to punish the stupid part. His memory of finding the kid let him know that the kid's adopted father clearly didn't mind harming the child. 'Besides, being a kid didn't stop the Dursleys, didn't stop the death eaters or Voldemort either.' Harry took several deep breaths. 'No, no, no, I can't do this. I'm not Harry Potter anymore, I'm Harry Osborn, I don't have to help anyone. I don't have to help anyone. I don't have to help anyone. The police are going to help the kid. I don't have to help anyone. The police will find him. The police will save him. I don't have to help anyone. But the police were the ones who weren't able to help the boy in the first place. I'm not doing this, no more of that stupid 'saving people thing'. I don't have to help anyone. I don't have to help anyone. I'm not Harry Potter, I'm not Harry Potter. The boy's in danger. I'm not Harry Potter. I don't have to help anyone. Am I still the same guy who jumped on a troll? No!
I'm not Harry Potter. I'm not Harry Potter. I don't have to help anyone. What did helping people get me? It let you keep your friends alive. My last friends are probably dead right now, I've got new friends now. I don't have to help anyone. You were a hero.'
"And that got me killed!" Harry snapped loudly as he remembered being blasted into the cursed veil by Voldemort, panting and breathing heavily, but ultimately just thankful for the brief pause as the thoughts in his head were no longer arguing with each other and he was now instead able to focus on his breathing.
Fortunately, nobody was around to see Harry acting quite mad.
Unfortunately for Harry, his reprieve was a temporary one.
" can't do it again, it'll just get me hurt, or worse.' His thoughts resurfaced, the words rising up in his head like an army flag, ready for battle with the opposing side. 'Maybe you don't have to do it all the time. 'The other part of him thought, seemingly reaching for a compromise. 'Just help the kid, you've gotten involved now. End it, save the kid. 'Harry's breathing slowed down, his thoughts slowing with it. Just Ryan, just save Ryan, then go back to being plain old Harry Osborn.' A compromise was reached.
"I hate this and myself," Harry muttered as he sat perched on top of a train at a train yard.
It was currently dark out, and instead of finding himself comfortably sitting in his room and listening to music or watching TV or even going to sleep, but no, he was instead on top of a damn train trying to find a mutant. Harry was currently dressed in dark trainers, black trousers and a white shirt that was under a black hooded jacket, around the lower half of his face he had also made sure to wear a grey bandana to decrease the chance of getting recognised. He had spent the last half hour combing the area, trying to find Ryan. According to what he had overheard from Captain Stacy, this was the area where they suspected Ryan and his kidnapper to be. Harry had nearly run into a few cops already.
"Mum's asleep, Dad's at work and I'm their failure of a son that's running around trying to play hero," Harry whispered to himself.
"what the hell am I doing?" He wondered as he stood up, he was ready to jump down and head home when all of a sudden he heard something. Harry paused and focused on the sound.
'Crying.' He mentally realised.
"Quiet boy!" Harry heard a voice - a man's voice -hiss.
"Is that really unlucky or lucky?" Harry wondered before he cancelled his plan to go home and go to sleep before jumping over to the next train with ease, Harry hoped from train to train until he was right on top of the train that let him look down to see Ryan being dragged by the arm by a man who was dressed in white shoes, blue tracksuit bottoms and a grey hooded jumper. The man had brown hair and a mean look on his face.
"I said shut up!" He growled at a whimpering Ryan, Ryan stared at him fearfully. Harry narrowed his eyes, not just at his treatment of Ryan but also at what Harry noticed when the man opened his mouth. Harry remembered Gwen saying this man had sharp teeth, well the man Harry was staring at had sharp and pointed teeth that looked like they belonged to a shark. "You stupid freak!" Harry heard the man say as he raised his hand to slap Ryan.
Harry wouldn't be sure if it was the 'saving people thing', the fact that this man was about to slap Ryan or even his own memories of Vernon Dursley hitting him in a similar way, but Harry growled before leaping off the train and towards the man.
"Hey, asshole!" Harry yelled just before tackling the man to the ground, Ryan yelped before jumping back out of the way. Harry raised a fist to punch his opponent but quickly found himself thrown off him and crashing straight into the train he had just jumped off, Harry slid down to his feet before he felt his head tingle, without thinking he moved his head to the side and barely avoided a punch that dented the train, leaving a fist-shaped impact where Harry's used to be.
"You want to fuck with 'The Teeth'?!" The man roared before using his other hand to try and punch Harry in the stomach. Harry jumped up and stuck to the side of the train as the man's fist crashed into the bit of the train where Harry's torso used to be.
"That's what you named yourself?!" Harry blurted out before kicking the man in the head, he held back on his power as he didn't really want to take off the man's head, not yet anyway, unfortunately, he ended up holding back too much as Teeth was seemingly not that bothered by it, he grabbed Harry by his ankle and pulled him off the train before slamming him face-first on the ground, hard. He hadn't stopped there and pulled Harry up into the air before slamming him down on his back. "Ow." Harry quietly whispered.
"Leave him alone!" Ryan cried, throwing a stone at Teeth's head, but it only succeeded in irritating the man.
"You're becoming more trouble than you're worth, boy," Teeth growled. "stay quiet or I...ooh!" He found himself cut off as Harry had pushed himself onto his hands and kicked Teeth in the face before transiting onto his feet. Harry leapt towards Teeth who caught him and slammed him against a train hard enough to dent it. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"
"Leave him alone!" Ryan yelled, running forward and grabbing
Teeth by the leg and trying to pull him off.
"Get off me!" Teeth shoved Ryan, causing the boy to fall to the floor and bang his head on the ground.
"Kid!" Harry blurted out before he reacted by throwing a right hook to Teeth, actually proceeding in knocking one of his teeth out.
Harry grabbed Teeth and tossed him to the ground, he tried to get up but Harry stopped him with another punch to the face. Once Teeth was back down on the ground Harry followed up with another punch, followed by another. He punched and punched until Teeth only had five teeth left, blood poured out of his mouth and his eyes were dazed. Harry grabbed him by the neck with one hand and sat him up. "You touch that kid again, and I will know!" He followed up by punching Teeth back down. Harry roared loudly as he threw a few more punches.
Harry stopped, panting slightly as he stepped back and stared down at the beaten and bloodied person that was lying down in front of him. He felt his knuckles sting, he felt something on his hands that he was sure was blood.
"Damn," Harry whispered to himself.
"Well...that brings back memories." A voice cut through the air, Harry quickly spun around and looked up, finding the source of the voice. Standing on top of the train was a man dressed from head to toe in black. Black shoes, trousers and a black full-sleeved shirt and black gloves. On his head, he wore a black eyeless mask that covered the top half of his face. Harry stared at the man for several seconds before blurting out the first thing that came into his head.
"Who the fuck are you?"