So, then formula A becomes equal to B," Mr Addams, the science teacher said whilst gesturing to a formula he had written on the bored. "Now, then we have to remember that formula C is still here and when we add that into the equation it will..."
As the man continued to explain the formula to his student, Harry took a moment to look at his friends. Peter and Gwen were both paying attention though they were clearly bored, and not even because they found the subject to be tedious. Harry and the two of them were simply just so far ahead that they were basically just reviewing what they already knew at this point. He also noted Felicia who was actually paying attention to Mr Addams. The girl was smart, that much was clear, but evidently she was not as naturally smart as Harry and his friends, at least when it came to science. Still, Harry did have to respect the effort she would put into classes.
Harry found himself in the same category as Peter and Gwen, though unlike the two he had his notebook out along with his school books and would write in it in-between writing down what Mr Addams wanted him to. He was mostly writing down notes on runes, and trying to decide which ones to put on his webshooters. He was already making plans to fit runes that would automatically refill his webshooters so he could at the very least save time and money on making webs, but Harry wasn't content in stopping there. After all, he could fit more than one rune inside his devices. But for now he wanted to try getting one rune at a time to work since he didn't really want to risk multiple runes messing up at the same time, stuff like that was how people ended up loosing their arms. And unlike his last world, there wasn't a magical doctor in a magical hospital that could simply put his arm back on his body, at least as far as he knew.
"Mr Osborn," A voice called, Harry's eyes snapped up and he saw his teacher along with the majority of the class staring at him. "Could you please answer the question?" He asked, gesturing to the equation on the bored.
"Um...sure," Harry shrugged before taking a look at numbers. "Uh...that would be three-hundred and forty, point five."
"That's correct," Mr Addams nodded in a satisfied voice before turning his attention back to the board.
"Hey Osborn," Felicia whispered to him.
"What?" Harry whispered back.
"Nerd," She said playfully before averting her attention back to class.
"A bit," Harry whispered back.
"So," Felicia said as she and Harry walked down the streets, hand in hand. "What were you thinking about in science? Isn't that like the birthplace of nerds? You were miles away."
"I was thinking about your overwhelmingly brilliantly beautiful beauty," Harry answered.
"Flattery won't get you anywhere, Osborn." She said in an amused voice.
"You can just call me by my first name, you know," Harry replied. "I'd prefer it to be honest."
"Hmm, sure. But while we're on the topic of how we should address each other, how about nicknames?" She asked.
"What about them?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Isn't that what people who date do? Give each other stupid pet names."
"I have no idea," Harry admitted honestly. "Mum and Dad sometimes call each other things like 'dear' and 'sweetie', that sort of stuff. What about your parents?"
"My parents have been separated for as long as I can remember," She shrugged her shoulders. "Haven't seen my dad in years."
"Oh, sorry."
"Don't be, it's not like its your fault." Felicia said, not sounding remotely bothered about the topic. "Either way, I've never seen her interreact with him so I don't really know. So, what do you think? Should we give each other names?" Felicia asked.
"If we must," Harry said with a small sigh. "Nothing ridiculous though."
"Hairy Osborn!" Felicia said immediately with a grin.
"Fuck you!"
"I'm just kidding," Felicia laughed. "How about 'Har'?"
"Not on your life," Harry said, shaking his head.
"Um...'H'?"
"I don't know, should I start calling you 'F'?"
"How about 'Hos'? Like H for Harry and Os from Osborn?"
"No," Harry said simply.
"Os for Osborn?"
"Os is an alternative name used for the Batman villain known as Penguin, I am not willingly sharing a name with a gropey, big nose midget."
"Jeez, and they say that girls are hard to shop for," Felicia said in a dry voice. "Alright fine, scrap the nicknames for now. Are you ready to go on our date?"
"Yep," Harry grinned. "I'm really looking forward to it."
"Harry," Peter called, running up behind them. "Hey," He said once they stopped. "Um...Harry, sorry to interrupt but Gwen and I kind of need your help."
"Is this important, Peter?" Harry asked whilst using his head to gesture to Felicia.
"Yeah, it's about...you know..." Peter paused as he tried to think of a good enough lie, but it was not necessary since Harry was able pick up on what he meant.
"Um...Felicia," Harry said. "I'm sorry but do you mind if we postpone our date until tomorrow?"
"Are you serious?" Felicia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, but this is important. Can we have our date tomorrow, please?" He asked hopefully.
"Fine," Felicia said after a few moments of silence. "But there will be no excuses tomorrow, got it?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Harry grinned before he quickly turned and ran off with Peter. "What's up?" Harry asked once they were far enough away.
"Gwen's got an idea on how to find Mysterio," Peter answered with a grin.
"Praise Merlin for the miracle that is Gwen Stacy." Harry smiled.
"Alright, listen up," Gwen said as they all gathered around in Peter's basement, Gwen was sat at his computer while Peter stood behind her. Harry was stood at a nearby table, working on his webshooters which he had taken apart. "So, at first I reckoned that Mysterio and that wizard enemy of his were showing up at random locations."
"Are you implying that they're not?" Peter asked.
"Exactly," Gwen grinned. "I was at home today when my dad had a call from work, I overheard him talking and apparently nearly every attack was a couple of blocks away from a bank."
"So they're using these attacks as distractions to rob banks?" Harry asked as he started to reassembled his webshooters.
"Pretty much," Gwen nodded. "Though it's not always banks, sometimes a jewellery store or something similar. I imagine that not many people are going to be putting much focus on robberies when there are massive battles between wizards going on."
"Okay, so we've established what he's doing," Peter spoke up. "But how are we going to work out where?"
"Yeah, that is admittedly a big concern." Harry nodded.
"I've got one way so far," Gwen replied. "Dad's got his people stationed near every major bank, when an attack is nearby then they'll contact the others. Luckily though, Peter and I have been working on our own little side project."
"Which is what?" Harry asked.
"Hacking into the police scanner and radios," Peter said with a happy smile.
"Wait what?" Harry blinked, looking up from his webshooters. "When and how?"
"When? We got to work on it the last time you went out with Felicia," Peter replied. "As for how? Well, we're bored geniuses. Later when we have time we can work on you having access to them from your mask."
"You two are something else," Harry laughed as he finished reassembling his webshooters. "Pete, toss me two of my web pellets."
"Huh? Sure, why just two?" Peter asked as he picked up two pellets and tossed them to Harry who caught them with ease.
"Because I only need two," Harry replied as he placed a single pellet in each webshooter. "If my runes work as I intend them to, and I do think that they will, I won't need to refill them. The runes should hopefully refill my shooters for me."
"Runes, still weird," Peter whispered to himself.
"Any luck so far?" Gwen's voice spoke through Spiderman's ear piece as he swung through the city.
"Nope," Spiderman replied after performing a triple flip in mid-air and shooting out another web which allowed him to swing forward and land on the side of the building, he stuck to the building before looking around. "So far I've stumbled upon a few muggings, five assaults, four overweight guy being indecently dressed, three car jacking, two cats in a tree, an underweight guy being indecently dressed and a partridge in a fucking pear tree. No sing of Mysterio or Dracon.
"Police radio is pretty quiet on that front as well." Gwen huffed.
"Well, what else is there to do?" Peter's voice replied. "Unless you can work out which bank he's going to target then the best bet is to swing back and forth between banks and hope to find the right one."
"If he even goes for the banks," Spiderman replied. "I'd like to remind you that they've been hitting up some jewellery stores as well. I...wait a sec..." He looked down and saw a trio of police cars racing down a street, blue lights flaring and sirens roaring. "I've got some police cars heading in the general direction of Grand National bank," Spiderman told Gwen and Peter. "Maybe this is it." He said hopefully before jumping off the building and diving down towards the ground, he waited until the last moment before shooting out a web and swinging up into the air.
"From what me and Peter are hearing on the radio, it sounds like you're right." Gwen told him.
As he swung through the city he spotted what looked to be a green tornado a few blocks past the bank, one of the police cars headed towards it while the other two headed towards the bank. Despite wanting to head towards the massive tornado, as all sane people would like to do, he followed the police cars that were heading to the bank instead. Arriving at the bank he saw a police car was already there and two officers were crouching behind it as they were being shot at by a group of eight criminals that were hiding behind two big SUV's. The criminals were dressed in all black with black ski masks and had a variety of machine guns. The other two police cars stopped alongside their colleague, the policemen quickly got out and joined the fight.
Spiderman swung forwards and landed on top of a nearby lamppost, he aimed his webshooters at the criminals.
"Aargh! I can't control it!" He yelled dramatically before shooting out a massive amount of webs at the criminals, ten seconds later he had stopped and the criminals were all stuck to the ground and their cars, covered from head to toe in webs. Spiderman nodded in a satisfied way before turning to the policemen. "You're welcome," He told them before he jumped and started swinging away.
"Did that really just happen?" He heard one of the policemen blurt out. He swung towards the direction of the tornado when suddenly it disappeared in front of his very eyes.
"No!" Spiderman yelled, swinging faster and arriving near where the tornado was. He looked down and saw chaos as people were running in all directions while a few policemen were trying to calm everyone down, thankfully no one looked hurt. "Where are you?" He wondered, tilting his head slightly, hoping to pick up on some sound to let him find them.
It worked.
After filtering through various screams, shouts and much more, a sound filled his ears. A high pitched sound, that sounded quite different to the all the other sounds. Having no better clue to go on, he decided to take a chance and follow after it. It was an odd feeling, swinging through the city because you were following a high pitched sound, but for Spiderman it didn't even count as the top ten weirdest things he had experienced. After swinging for several moments he was able to spot something very odd, a couple of green clouds floating away. He was sure the sound was coming from them.
"Harry, what's going on?" Gwen asked.
"I got the bank robbers, and now I'm chasing after...something," Spiderman told her. "I can hear a sound and it lead me to two green clouds."
"Green clouds?"
"I'm not repeating myself, I'm following it and hoping it leads to something."
"You know," Peter spoke next. "I really think we should work on setting up a visual connection from our tech to your mask, then we can see what you're doing."
"I reckon we can do more than that," Spiderman replied.
"With enough time we can set up a camera, a HUD and..."
"Add them all to the list," Spiderman told him. "Also, good news, the runes appear to be working. My webs haven't run out at all."
"That's brilliant!" Gwen said excitedly. "If they work then you can start adding other runes!"
"Yep," Spiderman nodded. "Hold up, a sec." He told them as he heard the sound and saw the clouds descending down and into to what looked to be a warehouse. He swung towards the warehouse, leaping in through an open window and landing on the rafters. "Whoa,"
"What is it?" Peter asked.
"It looks like I'm in a prop warehouse or something," He replied, looking around the warehouse and seeing fake tigers, giant machines, a twelve foot brown teddy bear, a pirate ship, a fake green dragon and what looked to be hundreds of movie props. "Someone's obsessed." He muttered before refocusing and trying to track the sound, he heard it once more and followed it down to what looked to be a built in office. Spiderman shot out a web and descended down before cautiously walking towards the office.
"What do you mean it didn't work?!" He heard a voice hissed. "It's not my fault, I provided the distraction for you! If your men cannot do their jobs then that is not my fault. I performed my role to perfection!" He yelled before the sound of a phone disconnecting followed.
Spiderman got close enough to lean his head in, he saw two cow-sized grey machines hovering up in the air. Standing in-between them was a table with blueprints on them, and in front of the table was Mysterio with his back towards Spiderman, having not seen him come in.
"Blaming me, how ridiculous," Mysterio muttered. Spiderman took a step forward, raising his hand to web up Mysterio when the two machines spun around and showed that they also apparently had guns mounted to them. "I can see you, you know," Mysterio said without looking back.
The machines started firing at him, Spiderman leapt backwards to avoid the spray of bullets and landed on his hands before pushing up and thrusting himself into the air. He righted himself and shot a web up and pulled himself to the ceiling where he landed on his feet.
"So, not in the mood for visitors?" He asked calmly. A second later the two machines burst out of the office and headed up towards him, covering themselves in green smoke as they did so. "I guess not." Spiderman muttered before jumping off the ceiling, he spun to avoid the machines gunfire before hitting one of them with a quick web shot which knocked it backwards. Spiderman dove past the higher machine and grabbed it with a web line, he spun and tossed it straight at the other, causing a massive crash, knocking them both out of the air and sending them straight to the ground. The machines landed and the smoke dispersed, revealing the broken wrecks that were left. "They weren't expensive, were they?" He asked as he landed on the ground.
"Actually, yes, they were." An irritated voice growled as Mysterio floated out, standing on top of another machine.
"You're not really magical, are you?" Spiderman asked in an unimpressed voice. "You've been using tricks and illusions to convince people you were. Tell me, Dracon isn't even real, is he?"
"You are correct," Mysterio answered, flicking his hand which somehow summoned another floating machine. A bright beam shot out from the machine, Dracon appeared at the end of the beam.
"You will not defeat me, Mysterio!" Dracon roared dramatically. "I will be victorious!"
"Every hero needs a villain," Mysterio said before flicking his hand and the illusion of Dracon disappeared.
"Why are you doing this?" Spiderman asked him.
"Money, of course, why else would I do it?" Mysterio laughed.
"That answers one question, but I've got another, who are you working for?"
"I don't actually know," Mysterio admitted. "But his money is good and that's all I care about. Now, unfortunately, I think that you have seen too much." He snapped his fingers and a bright light flashed from the machine, causing Spiderman to close his eyes. Once they were opened he could no longer see Mysterio or the warehouse, and instead found himself in what appeared to be a massive black room surrounded by green mist.
"You can't hide from me, Mysterio," Spiderman called out just before spotting Mysterio running towards him, Spiderman shot a web at him and watched as the web went right through him, causing him to disappear. "Another illusion, really?" He asked as a second Mysterio started rushing towards him. Spiderman stayed still and allowed the illusion to harmlessly crash into him and disappear before a third Mysterio rushed towards him.
'Danger!' He thought to himself as a familiar tingle went through his head, he leaned back to dodge Mysterio's punch before he threw a right hook that knocked him to the ground. "Wait a sec," Spiderman said before stomping down on the foot, crushing so it was flat, making wires and metal pop out. "Robots!" Spiderman realised before he jumped and stomped on its head, crushing it. "You're using robots and illusions?"
"Am I?" Mysterio's voice echoed throughout the room as a dozen Mysterio robots appeared. "But what is illusion? What is reality? How can you tell the difference?" He asked as a dozen more Mysterio clones appeared followed by a trio of tigers, a couple of bears, pirate skeletons and a very large dragon. "You can't, can you? You don't even know what's real, do you? You don't know what to believe, you don't know how to get out of this."
"I have my ways," Spiderman replied, adjusting his webshooters before aiming his arms to the side. "You know what I don't believe in?"
"And what would that be?" Mysterio asked, sounding a bit curious, but mostly amused.
"Overkill," Spiderman answered before leaping in the air and spinning around, constantly shooting out webs before he had even left the ground. He had spun a dozen times in the air before landing and continuing to shoot out more webs for several moments. Once he was done he took a deep breath and took a look around.
The green mist and black room had gone and he was back in a warehouse with several robots stuck in webs, along with the vast majority of the warehouse. The robots were trying to move but thankfully weren't able to bust out of the webs. A second later Mysterio's machines landed on the ground, including the one that Mysterio was on.
"Get this off me!" Mysterio yelled, his entire body was covered in webs and was webbed to the machine that had landed on the ground and caused him to land face first, cracking the bowl on his head.
"It's a good thing I had a wide-spray setting on these," Spiderman said to himself, adjusting his webshooters back to normal before going over to Mysterio. He grabbed Mysterio's bowl and ripped it off, revealing an angry looking man with scruffy black hair.
"Get me out of this," Mysterio yelled.
"I'll think about it, now, who were you working for?" Spiderman replied, staring at him intently.
"I'm not telling you anything!" Mysterio roared, spitting on Spiderman's foot. "You don't scare me."
"I can fix that," Spiderman hissed menacingly before kicking the machine hard, causing it to roll over, pulling Mysterio with him and turning him on his back. Spiderman spotted one of Mysterio's arms sticking out of his little web cocoon, Spiderman grabbed it and pulled off his glove. "Ah," He said upon seeing the buttons and wires attached to the glove. "That's how you've been controlling your machines, cleaver." He told him before crushing the glove in his hand, damaging it beyond use. Instantly, all the robots behind Spiderman died down and stopped trying to break through the webs.
"Oi! I worked hard on that!" Mysterio screamed.
"Did you really?" Spiderman asked in an uninterested voice before he placed his hand on Mysterio's face, shoving his wrist right in front of Mysterio's mouth, using his palm to keep his mouth open. "Now, you've seen what I can do with these webs. Tell me, how'd you like it if I unload roughly ten litres of webs down your throat?" Spiderman growled at Mysterio whose eyes widened with fear. "Now, are you going to talk or not?" Spiderman asked impatiently. Mysterio quickly nodded his head as best as he could, which was somewhat hard when someone had your mouth forced open. "Wait? Not? You're not going to talk?!" Spiderman demanded, causing Mysterio to look even more scared. Mysterio quickly shook his head to say no. "What? You won't talk?! Fine then," Spiderman said dramatically before standing up and aiming his wrist at Mysterio.
"Wait! Wait! I'll talk!" Mysterio said quickly. "It's...I don't know his name, I don't know his name! But...but...he's called the 'Big Man'."
"What does he look like?" Spiderman asked, sounding very interested.
"I don't know, I've never seen him before," Mysterio quickly admitted. "He gets into contact with me through different people, one day I'll be talking to some chick. The next day it's some guy, there's no real pattern to it. Random people will call me up, tell me they're calling on behalf of the 'Big Man', and tell me where to hit. I...I never asked questions, he funded me, that was all I needed to know. Please, I promise, I don't know anything else." Spiderman stared at him for several seconds before he lowered his hand. "Thank you, thank you," Mysterio said quickly. "I...um...can you let out of these webs now?" He asked hopefully.
"No," Spiderman told him bluntly before rushing forwards and knocking him out with a quick punch to the head. "You guys get that?" He asked.
"Yep," Gwen's voice replied. "I've never heard of 'The Big Man' before."
"Me either," Peter added.
"Same," Spiderman replied as he took a look around. "Can you two send the police an anonymous call? I have a feeling that they'd be interested in what Mysterio has here."