Toomes." A voice called, causing Vulture to slowly wake up from his sleep, he blinked repeatedly and rubbed his eyes until his vision could clear up. He opened them and found himself back on his bed in the damn cell that he was currently confined in. Except that now, it wasn't just him in the cell, standing by the entrance was a large prisoner whose arms were bigger than Vulture's legs.
"Who the hell are you?!" Vulture demanded, shifting back until he hit the wall behind him.
"I'm your new roommate," The large man grinned as he slammed one of his fists into his other hand.
Just outside the cell, down the hall, two officers were walking, both of them sliding some money into their pockets.
"Someone really wanted that old geezer punished, huh?" One guard asked the other.
"I suppose," The second guard hummed, sounding quite uninterested. "Doesn't really bother me much, just means the old man won't cause more trouble for us. You didn't hear the lunatic earlier, but I did, he's a mad old man."
"Do you mean angry or crazy?" The first guard asked.
"Both," The second guard lightly snorted. "Went on and on about how he'd get revenge on Osborn and that 'spider freak'. It's nuts man. If someone's paying us a bit of extra dough to look the other way for that guy to be kept in line then I won't complain."
"Do you think our bonus pay came from Osborn?" The first guard guessed. "Would make sense, old man apparently went after Osborn's family as well."
"Are you stupid or something?" The second guard shook his head with disbelief. "No way is Osborn going to risk getting caught trying to bribe us."
"Then who did give us the..."
"Shush," The second guard cut him off, giving him a hard look. "Listen to me, don't ask too many questions, just accept the money."
"You know who it is!" The first guard realised.
"Don't ask more!" Hissed the second. He saw the other guard was about to say more so quickly cut him off. "One more word from you and I'm taking that money from you right before I haul your ass to the warden and tell him about you accepting bribes."
"Are you serious?!" The first guard stared at him with complete and utter belief.
"Keep your head down, don't ask too many questions, take your bribes and enjoy your life as best as you can," The second guard told him. "Keep your voice down while you still have it. I know who gave us the money and I value my life far too much to tell you. This is so much bigger than you can imagine."
"You will eat your breakfast and you will like it," Harry told Emily as he placed another spoonful of cereal into her mouth. Emily was in bed while Harry sat next to her, feeding her.
"Harry," Emily began after swallowing. "This is really unnecessary, I am perfectly..."
"Fine?" Harry guessed, giving her a knowing look. "Perhaps it's not Father that I get that from, eh?" He joked, earning a smile from Emily who stopped her protests and accepted the next spoonful that Harry gave her.
"Still, I am perfectly capable of feeding myself and I can still get up, I'll make you breakfast and..."
"That's fine, I already ate, now shut up and accept my damn love," Harry told her.
"Fine," Emily rolled her eyes.
"Don't you dare roll your eyes at me, young lady," Harry mock-admonished her, letting his mouth drop open as he pretended to be offended.
"Oh, you think I'm still young?" Emily grinned with delight. "Yay, that brightens up my day."
"Love you too," Harry let out an amused snort as he gave her another spoonful of cereal.
"Are you serious about this?!" Peter asked, staring down at Harry's notes along with Gwen as they stood on either side of Harry while he sat down in his chair at his desk.
"I'm more serious than a guy named Sirius," Harry answered, the corner of his lips curving up slightly. "But yeah, I am doing this, and I would like both of your help with this."
"What? You want us to help you with this?" Gwen blinked and stared at him with pure disbelief.
"Well, I can't do this on my own, can I?" Harry asked before pausing and looking thoughtful. "Well, actually, I think I probably could, but I wanted to include you guys since I figured that you would find out anyway."
"And we're very appreciative of that, but can't you see how this is absolutely nuts?" Peter stared at Harry with a look that let the emerald-eyed boy know that Peter had already drawn his own conclusion on that particular question. "I mean, you stop one crazy old guy in a vulture costume and now you want to start going out and fighting crime?"
"A vulture costume?" Harry couldn't help but laugh, though it wasn't a funny laugh or even a happy one. "Peter, that costume of his tore into my dad's limo like it was wet paper."
"Well, yeah but I..."
"Peter," Harry cut him off. "that 'costume of his' allowed him to grab my dad and fly him off and nearly killed him."
"Yes, but we have no reason to believe that anything like that will ever happen again," Argued Gwen.
"Don't we?" Harry scoffed. "Gwen, I can stick to anything and I'm strong enough to lift a car, that doesn't just happen, nor does a vulture guy suddenly show up and attack my father, this is just the beginning, I know it. Besides, I knew this would happen, I told you both that this would happen." Harry stood up and turned to face Gwen. "I told you that I don't know if I could stop or not, and I had meant it, and I was right. If I stop and know that anyone else had gotten hurt when I could have prevented it then that will haunt me. I've denied who I am for far too long."
"But I don't understand," Gwen sniffed, shaking her head slightly before she continued. "Why? Why do you want to go out and play hero?"
"Call it a saving people thing, I suppose," Harry shrugged. "Now, I need to know, are you going to help me?" He asked before moving back and staring at both Peter and Gwen. "Are you both going to help me?" He asked, hopefully.
"I'm in," Peter spoke up first. "This is mad and crazy but I think it's better if it happens with me by your side." He added before they both looked at Gwen.
"I hate the both of you," She said with a suffering sigh before she stared at Harry for several seconds. "I've spent my whole life being worried about my dad going out and getting himself killed, I don't want to do the same with you but I also know from that look in your eyes that nothing I can do would really stop you." She knew that she could tell Harry's parents but she felt like that would cost her his friendship and be a temporary solution at best, and she sure as hell wasn't going to report him to anyone since his getting arrested was also pretty high up on the list of things that she didn't want to ever happen. "But I want you to promise me to be as safe as possible and to do your best to stay alive." She told him in a firm voice.
"I do that anyway, but yeah," Harry agreed with a small nod of his head.
"Fine, we'll both help," Gwen gave him a short nod before looking back at his notes. "I don't know where we're supposed to get half of the stuff we'll need, Harry. I mean, protective armour? I suppose it's possible to get you a vest or something but..."
"Actually, I do have a few ideas on that," Harry said, gently cutting her off. "We'll circle back to that later. I think the web-shooters and the mask are the more important parts we need to work on."
"Let's start with the mask," Peter suggested.
"Are we going for a partial or full coverage?" Gwen hummed thoughtfully.
"I'd say full," Peter crossed his arms. "Makes it less likely for his face to be seen, thank god."
"Oi," Harry laughed. "Careful Parker, you're just jealous of my godly looks."
"Yeah, you look just like Zeus." Peter rolled his eyes.
"Really? Cool." Harry grinned.
"Not as cool as you'd think," Gwen replied. "He pretty much did his best to get it on with everything that moved."
"Cool," Harry repeated.
"I mean everything, Harry," Gwen told him in a meaningful voice. "Probably even the stuff that didn't move."
"Less cool and let's move on," Harry said quickly. "Back to the mask, why not add some stuff to it?"
"Oh, like a built-in camera so we can see what you can see!" Peter said excitedly.
"Exactly," Harry smiled, enjoying the moments he, Peter and Gwen spent together, making stuff. Harry had plenty of ideas for not just his mask but also his suit. 'I suppose I could put some runes in to...' Harry stopped that train of thought particularly quick, he didn't really want to bring magic into this unless absolutely necessary. Call it what you will, but Harry wanted to stay away from it for as long as possible, quite honestly he wasn't even sure if his magic would work in this world, he hadn't even tried it since being born here, quite frankly he didn't want to try it. Harry only had the barest understanding of runes and he was well aware that if he still possessed his magic then experimenting with it was extremely dangerous and could possibly end up with his head being splattered all over a wall.
'Besides, it's not like I'll need magic in the future,' Harry thought to himself. 'Right?'
"Oh, I owe you?" Norman asked in an amused voice as he talked on his phone whilst walking down one of the many hallways of Oscorp. "For what exactly? Au contraire, I seem to recall that it was I who had helped you the last time. Oh, and what do you plan to do? It would be your word against mine, and to tell people means to let people know that you helped me bribe those guards. Really, I don't know why you're acting like this. We have a perfectly good business relationship and I don't think it would be beneficial for either of us to get greedy and change that. You keep up your good work and I'll keep up mine, deal? Good, now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few meetings to attend." He hung up the call before pocketing his phone just as he turned a corner and saw the receptionist sitting at the desk outside of his office. "Don't bother getting up, Linda," Norman spoke when he saw her about to stand.
"Okay sir, I..."
"What meeting do I have next?" He asked impatiently.
"Doctor Jefferies is waiting for you inside of your office," She answered him quickly, knowing by now that he was not a fan of wasting more time than necessary.
"Excellent, and what of Doctor Conners?" Norman asked.
"The doctor was informed of your desire to talk to him and will be heading here in an hour."
"Good." Norman offered her a small nod before walking past her and into his office. "I am expecting good news," Norman said without breaking stride as the door closed behind him. Norman walked over to his desk and sat down in his seat before staring at Doctor Jefferies who was now standing opposite him. "Well?" He asked the middle-aged brown-haired man.
"Well, Mr Osborn, we've been able to have a look at the designs of Vulture's suit and it's pretty impressive, to be honest," Doctor Jeffries began. "The propulsion system is ingenious and..."
"I am well aware of how brilliant it is," Norman cut him off. "You should be able to recall that I was the one who saw it in action. Now, tell me what we can do with what we have."
Norman's posture was quite laid back but in truth, he was more than a little pissed off, the fact that Vulture had come close to killing him and his entire family had made him angrier than he had ever been. Norman was not content to simply lay back and hope that nothing like this would ever happen again. He wanted to be prepared, from now on, he would do his best to keep his family safe.