"Are you sure that this'll work?" Peter asked sceptically.
Harry, Gwen and Peter had all returned to the abandoned train station so that Harry could try and experiment with some runes. Gwen had come readily whilst Peter was still not entirely convinced about the whole idea of magic being real.
"I am positive that it'll work," Harry said whilst using a knife to cut some runes into a cardboard box. "Mostly...somewhat...not really."
"So, how does it work?" Gwen asked curiously as she stood behind Harry, watching him work.
"The general idea is actually quite simple," Harry began explaining. "I carve the necessary runes into the box, then I channel some of my magic into it, the magic should reach the runes and voila! The box will levitate!"
"Or do nothing," Peter couldn't help but comment.
"Unfortunately, that is actually a possibility," Harry admitted, rather than getting annoyed with Peter. Quite honestly, he understood why Peter was so sceptical. "But still, the point of this is to see if I can get the runes to work."
"Why couldn't we just do this in your room or something?" Gwen asked.
"Because I didn't want to risk something going wrong in my room," Harry answered honestly.
"Wait, what do you mean something going wrong?" Peter blinked.
"Done!" Harry said suddenly as he stepped away from the box and put on a pair of goggles before giving Gwen and Peter their own pair. "Now, you two get back a bit, just in case."
"Alright," Gwen said before she and Peter exchanged looks before they started moving a few steps back and put on their goggles. "Ready whenever you are."
"Alright, my chaotic friends, here's hoping this works," Harry said before he placed his hands on the box and breathed in, he breathed out and pushed his magic into the runes. Once he felt like he was getting something he quickly jumped back and awaited the results. "Holy crap," Harry grinned when the box started rising up into the air.
"Wait! What?!" Peter blinked.
"That's amazing!" Gwen gasped once the box had floated up a meter in height.
"It's alive!" Harry laughed loudly. "It's alive!" He laughed madly and dramatically just as the box was about to reach the two-meter mark, it had just gone past the mark when flames burst out from the area where the runes were written and quickly ended up covering the whole box. The box fell straight out of the air and landed on the ground, staying there until the flames reduced it into just a small piece of burnt cardboard.
The trio stared at the box with disbelief for several seconds before they looked back and forth between each other.
"Good enough!" Harry yelled triumphantly as he raised a fist up into the air.
"Good enough!" Gwen and Peter agreed, raising their own fists.
"You ready, arachnophobes? Line up the cast and I'll snap your bones, crack my knuckles and wrap my knuckles, I'll bash your skull and crack some jokes," Harry quietly sang to himself as he entered his home, he saw his mother was in the kitchen, making some food. "Hey Mum, what are you making?" He asked as he closed the door behind him.
"Making some fish and chips," She told him with a smile. "Do you want some?"
"I've inherited your Britishness so that's a definite yes," Harry grinned. "Where's Dad?" He asked.
"He's in his office with that Menken fellow," Emily answered, rolling her eyes.
"Don't worry, Mum, I don't think Dad's the sort to cheat on you," Harry joked as he started walking to the office. "Just in case, I'll go and interrupt and make sure no funny business is going on." He added.
"You're the best, Sweetie," She played along before she returned her attention back to her cooking.
"I am the best," Harry agreed with a smirk before he entered his room and picked up a bag before he walked out of his room and stopped outside of his father's office and knocked on the door. "FBI, we've seen your search history, open up." Harry half-yelled.
"Come in, Harry," Norman's amused voice called out. Harry opened the door and walked in, finding his father sitting behind his desk while Donald was sitting opposite him with his computer tablet in his hands. "How can I help you?" He asked without looking away from his papers.
"Well, Father, I just thought I'd come and see how my favourite parent is doing," Harry smiled as he closed the door behind him.
"We both know that your mother is your favourite," Norman said absently before putting a document to the side and picking up another one. "Now, what do you need? Is someone bothering you at school?"
"No, well, yes," He frowned as he thought of Felicia. "But that's nothing I can't handle; I actually wanted your help with something else."
"Oh, and what would that be?" He asked before looking at Donald. "Move Tuesday's appointment up two hours and re-arrange Wednesday's appointment for Thursday."
"As you wish," Donald obediently said before he started re-arranging them on his tablet.
"Can I have a lab?" Harry asked hopefully, causing both Norman and Donald to stop what they were doing and look at him.
"I beg your pardon?" Norman blinked.
"A lab, can I have one?" Harry asked. "Please?"
"Why on Earth do you want a lab?" Norman frowned.
"Father, given that you own what is arguably the best scientific research company in the country, I am very concerned that you don't know what the purpose of a lab is," Harry frowned.
"Harry," Norman sighed, while he was glad that Harry had inherited his brains, it was very apparent that he had also inherited his mother's sarcasm and humour, truth be told he found it quite amusing, but he didn't really want to let Harry know that at the moment. "Why do you specifically want a lab for? You're a teenager."
"I'm also a genius level intellect with two fellow geniuses for friends and we want to experiment," Harry answered. "We all want to get into science, and we want to..."
"Son," Norman interrupted him. "While I both love and am grateful for your interest in science, you do realise that it would be completely irresponsible for me to leave three teenagers, no matter how smart they are, in a lab without any supervision. Do you realise what the law would do to me if they found out? Or worse yet, what your mother would do to me if she had found out and what she would end up doing to you after?" He added, causing both Osborn men to shiver at the thought of a rampaging Mrs Osborn.
"It doesn't have to be without supervision," Harry said quickly. "I can think of someone who I might be able to convince to help us and supervise us, an employee of yours, actually."
"That'll be interesting, but it doesn't change the fact that I cannot just toss a lot of money into making a new lab just for you, I think that..."
"You won't need to build a new lab," Harry cut him off. "I know that one of your labs had closed and Oscorp is still deciding what to do with it, let me have it."
"If I may interject," Donald spoke up.
"No," Harry and Norman said at the same time before the two turned their attention back to each other.
"A great idea but that still leaves me with the problem of explaining to Oscorp why I've just allowed a valuable resource to be given to my son and his friends." Norman pointed out.
"Ah," Harry grinned as he reached into his bag. "I've thought about it, and here is my genius." He pulled out a binder and placed it in front of his father. Norman frowned at him before he picked up the binder and began skimming through it, Harry and Donald remained silent for about five minutes before Norman put the binder down and looked at Harry.
"A test, I think," He said thoughtfully. "You have one week to prove it's worth."
"Agreed," Harry smiled happily, he was now experimenting with runes and if he was able to get his lab then that would make his experimenting much easier, not to mention allow him to have an easier time with the scientific and technological parts of his vigilante lifestyle. "Thanks Dad, love you." Harry grinned before he rushed out of the room, only to stop and peak his head back in. "By the way, Dad, Mum's making fish and chips, should I ask her to save you some?"
"I already talked to her about that, but thank you," Norman said appreciatively, Harry sent him a smile before getting out and closing the door.
"Forgive me, but if I may ask, what was that about?" Donald asked Norman.
"My son had worked out a way to keep a lab," Norman said with no small amount of pride. "Oh, I hope he succeeds, I'll be lording it over everyone for years." He grinned.
"Hey Osborn," A voice called out just as Harry, Gwen and Peter left their last class of the day.
The three stopped and Harry stiffened slightly just before he felt an arm wrap around his left arm, he turned to his left and found the sparkling eyes of Felicia Hardy looking up at him. So far, he had done his best to avoid her with the help of Gwen and Peter, the three working in perfect harmony to keep their distance from the young thief, but the girl had been persistent and was apparently not going to be dissuaded from her idea of spending some time with Harry.
"You've been avoiding me," Felicia said in an amused voice.
"What on Earth makes you think that?" Harry asked innocently.
"The fact that you've been avoiding me," She said simply with a small shrug of his shoulders.
"Your logic is impeccable," Harry admitted.
"Thanks," She smirked. "So, I was wondering if you would spend some time with me after school?"
"We're busy," Harry said apologetically.
"Um...yeah," Peter nodded. "We're going to go and do some science stuff, really boring, I don't think you'd enjoy it."
"You're right, it doesn't sound like my sort of thing," She admitted in a thoughtful voice. "Still, maybe I can come with you?" She asked Harry.
"What?" Harry asked intelligently.
"You want to come with us?" Gwen said, not totally able to mask her surprise. "You don't seem much like a nerd, no offence," She added jokingly.
"None taken," Felicia smiled. "I'm not a nerd, though I could probably keep up if I tried, still, I want to spend some time with Osborn over here, I figure it can't hurt to learn more about his interests." She shrugged before looking up at Harry. "So, if you don't totally hate me, can I come along?" She asked hopefully.
"I...I don't hate you," Harry quickly said.
"Great," Felicia smiled before she leaned up and kissed Harry's cheek. "So, where are we going?" She asked eagerly, something that caused Harry to stare at her for several seconds.
"I don't know how to handle you," He admitted.
"So, this is what you guys do for fun?" Felicia asked in a surprised voice as she looked around.
She had followed Harry and his friends from school and was not expecting to be taken behind the back of a building where they had started hovering around an old pipe for a few seconds until Peter had started pulling out some scientific equipment.
"Actually, this is new, even for us," Gwen told her.
"And what exactly are you doing?" Felicia asked.
"Saving the city, one problem at a time," Peter said.
"Let me explain," Harry said as they continued working while Felicia watched. "These pipes supply water to several surrounding buildings,"
"As they should," Felicia nodded before gesturing him to continue.
"Well, there have been some people near here that have gotten sick,"
"And that's not normal because..." Felicia trailed off and looked at him questioningly.
"Because nearly everyone in the surrounding area all ended up with the same disease at nearly the same time," Gwen answered for Harry.
"How do you guys know that?" She blinked.
"A lot of research and the investigative miracle that is Gwen Stacy," Harry answered, causing Gwen to grin. "Anyway, me and my chaotic duo over here have theorised that the problem comes from the water."
"Yeah, the symptoms for the sick people matched a water-based virus that we had researched," Peter added.
"There's a small crack in the pipe and we're working on getting water samples from that," Harry explained. "We have some scientific equipment at Peter's place that we're going to use to test it, our best guess is that the contamination is connected to the nearby Oscorp factory."
"Wait, you think that your father is responsible for this?" Felicia blinked.
"I'll have you know that my father is the kindest man on Earth," Harry said matter-of-factly, ignoring the looks that Gwen and Peter were sending him. "I don't think he's responsible, but it's entirely possible for the company to have done something they shouldn't have, intentionally or otherwise."
"And what do you get out of this?" Felicia asked in an interested voice.
"I get to help people,"
"Yeah, yeah, but besides that," She said, waving off that answer.
"I wanted a lab and I asked my father for one, for him to authorise me to have a lab, I'll have to prove to Oscorp that my having a lab will be beneficial to the company in some way." Harry responded. "I think researching and pointing out Oscorp's flaws and saving them against lawsuits is a great way to do that. So, I just need to prove it's worth it, my father gets me a lab under somebody else's name, Oscorp gets a research station and I get to do as much experimenting as my heart desires." He finished and looked down at his water samples, missing the impressed look that Felicia had on her face.
"Alright, we're done," Peter declared.
"I never figured that you would be the nerd type," Felicia told Harry as they started walking away. "I guess rich people need a hobby."
"It's not a money thing," Harry rolled his eyes. "Peter's family is just barely getting by and he does it as well, though to be fair they could end up making a whole lot more money if his uncle wasn't so stubborn." He couldn't help but add.
"Uncle Ben is not stubborn," Peter replied.
"Hey, I've told him numerous times that I could get him an interview at Oscorp but he keeps refusing out of some stubborn pride or whatever," Harry shrugged. "Honestly, he considers even a little bit of help as charity."
"Okay, fine, he's stubborn," Peter admitted. "Though, for what it's worth, Aunt May is telling him to accept your offer."
"That's because your aunt is a very attractive and intelligent woman," Harry replied.
"Harry has a crush on Peter's aunt," Gwen explained to Felicia.
"I do not have a crush, I'm just attracted to her, there's a difference," Harry pointed out.
"Harry, do not make me spill these water samples over your head." Peter warned.