Harry? Harry? Are you okay?" Gwen said into her phone. "Harry? Harry, please speak!"
The young blonde was sitting at the desk in her room, worriedly biting her lower lip as she tried repeatedly to contact Harry who had yet to respond. She knew that Harry had gone to Tombstone's place but hadn't really known what had happened after that. She was starting to think that they really should work on setting up a camera in his suit that she could access at any time. All she knew was that he had not spoken a single word to her in the last fifteen minutes.
"Damn it, Harry, where are you?" She hissed into her phone.
"Right here," A weak voice said from behind her. She barely avoided screaming as she spun around and saw a pale-looking Harry sitting outside of her window on the fire escape. He was dressed in his Spiderman costume, though he wasn't wearing his mask, allowing her to see his face that looked paler than she had ever seen it.
"Harry!" She quickly got up and rushed over to the window, she opened it and Harry nearly fell right into her room and would have done if she hadn't caught him. "Crumbs, you're heavy," She complained as she dragged him into her room, putting a lot of effort into keeping him on his feet.
"Maybe you're just weak," Harry said with a forced chuckle as she dropped him into her chair.
"Like you're one to talk," She huffed. "What happened to you?" She asked worriedly.
"I fought Tombstone, he hits like a truck," Harry groaned as she placed a hand on his forehead.
"Damn, you're burning up," She gasped. "Tombstone did this to you?"
"No," Harry shook his head, breathing heavily. "There was a chemical there, a goon shot it and I got covered in it, I breathed some in and now I feel like dog shit."
"Chemical? What chemical?" She asked quickly.
"Di...Diox 3, that was the name on the canister," Harry said, his eyes suddenly feeling very heavy.
"Diox 3? I've never heard of it," Gwen said disappointed. "I'll ask Peter, maybe he knows."
"C...call Mum," Harry said, breathing heavily.
"What?"
"Tell her...tell her I'm staying at your house...make some excuse...please..." Harry coughed.
"Harry, you need a hospital,"
"No, no hospital," Harry refused quickly. "Just...shove me in your cupboard or under your bed or something...keep me hidden...I'll be fine."
"You don't look like you'll be fine!" Gwen hissed. "Harry, you're really pale and you look like you're a second away from death."
"I'll be fine," Harry insisted. "Gwen...please..." Harry trailed off as he felt his world go black.
"Goodbye Daddy," A feminine voice said.
Harry blinked rapidly as he woke up, shaking his head, he looked around and saw that he was once again in Gwen's room, in her bed. He looked around and spotted his spider suit draped over Gwen's chair while his mask was on her desk. Harry paused and looked down, realising that under the covers he was not wearing anything with the exception of his underwear.
"Well, that's awkward, isn't it?" He said to himself as he sat up just as the door opened and Gwen quickly rushed in, closing it behind her.
"Alright, my family are gone, it's just us," She said, as she walked over and stopped in front of him. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, did...have I been out all night?" He asked.
"Yeah, I phoned your parents and made some excuses for you," She said, touching his forehead.
"Did you undress me?" He couldn't help but ask her.
"Hey, you were burning up," She said defensively. "I'm just glad you were wearing underwear. Now, your temperature's down, that's the good news."
"What's the bad news?" Harry asked, knowing that it was rare for him to ever have good news without bad news. Gwen stared at him for several seconds before pulling out her phone and putting on the camera app.
"Take a look at your teeth," She told him as she handed him the phone.
"Huh?" He said intelligently before aiming the camera at his mouth, his eyes widened massively as he saw his teeth were definitely not the same as before. His canine teeth had been swapped with fangs that looked like they belonged more to a vampire. "The fuck? How did that happen?"
"Beats me," Gwen shrugged. "My only guess is that your body had some reaction to whatever chemicals you breathed in, they must have messed up your spider powers."
"I feel something in my teeth," Harry froze as he stared at Gwen. "We're going have to do some tests,"
"And what are we supposed to be testing?" She asked.
"How much venom is in these things," He answered, rubbing his jaw. "I swear it feels like I've got venom sacs, do I have venom sacs?" Harry asked, opening his mouth as wide as possible.
"Keep those things away from me," Gwen told him, leaning back as she gestured to his fangs. "We'll check if you have venom sacs or not, but I don't want you to test that out on me with your teeth."
"Sorry," Harry said apologetically as he closed his mouth. "Hold up," Harry frowned as he realised he closed his mouth with no problem at all. "My big-ass teeth didn't just pierce my beautiful lips," He realised, patting his mouth.
"Say 'ah'," Gwen said, staring at his mouth.
"Ah," Harry said obediently, opening his mouth, once again revealing a ferocious set of fangs.
"They're still big," Gwen noted. "Maybe your mouth has just become numb," Harry considered her words before running his tongue around his mouth.
"Nope," Harry replied. "I can feel everything with my tongue. Give me a sec," Harry put one of his hands up and gently pressed his teeth against the back of it. To his surprise, he didn't feel large pointy fangs touch his hands and instead felt his regular teeth.
"Your teeth shrank!" Gwen gasped.
"Really?" Harry asked, looking into her phone camera and seeing his teeth were back to normal. "Must be a mechanism to prevent me from hurting myself, I...ow!" He yelped when Gwen slapped him hard around the back of his head.
"Did you really just try to test your teeth on your own skin?!" Gwen glared at him.
"Well, I figured that if I had venom in my own body then I'd be immune to it," Harry replied in what he considered to be a reasonable tone.
"Don't do that again," Gwen told him warningly.
"Yes Ma'am," Harry said with a mock salute before staring at the camera again. "Give me a sec," Harry said, focusing on his teeth. A low growl escaped his mouth before his teeth started growing in front of his very eyes, once more becoming pointy fangs. "That's cool," Harry grinned as he looked back at her.
"I suppose it is," Gwen agreed, she opened her mouth to speak but suddenly stopped and closed it, staring at him with wide eyes.
"What?" Harry questioned her, sounding slightly worried. "What is it?"
"Harry, do you perhaps have the ability to change the colour of your eyes?" She asked quietly.
"No," He answered without thinking. "Why do you want to know?" He asked, sounding slightly more worried than before.
"Just...take a look at this," She took her phone and held it in front of his face, Harry stared down at the camera and was easily able to ignore his new teeth in favour of the glaring new change to his appearance. Staring back at him were not his beloved emerald green eyes, inherited from his previous mother, the late and incredibly great Lily Potter. No, the eyes were the same shape and the same size, but the colour was no longer emerald green, it had been replaced with a bright scarlet red.
"No," Harry breathed out heavily as he continued to stare. "No, no, that's not possible."
"Harry, are you okay?" Gwen asked, concerned.
"No," Harry choked.
There is no good and evil. There is only power... and those too weak to seek it.
"No,"
"Harry, are you okay? Harry?"
I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!
"Harry, snap out of it! Harry, wake up!"
I'm going to kill you, Harry Potter. I'm going to destroy you. After tonight, no one will ever again question my powers. After tonight, if they speak of your name, they'll speak only of how you begged for death, and I, being a merciful lord... obliged.
"Harry, please snap out of it!"
Come out, Harry... come out and play, then it will be quick, it might even be painless. I would not know, I have never died.
"Harry!"
Don't you turn your back on me, Harry Potter! I want you to look at me when I kill you! I want to see the light leave your eyes!
"HARRY!"
A large gasp escaped from his mouth as he felt a bucket of cold water be dumped on his head, he shook his head wildly, sending water everywhere, and looked up to see a worried Gwen holding the very bucket in question. He stared at her for several seconds, he wiped some water out of his eyes and then asked the simple question that was on his mind.
"Gwen, what the fuck?" He asked bluntly. "Why am I all wet?"
"You were freaking out!" Gwen exclaimed, throwing the bucket behind her before sitting down on the bed in front of him. "You saw your eyes and then you froze and you started breathing heavily and I didn't know what to do! You weren't listening when I kept calling your name and your body was shaking and your breathing was getting heavier and heavier!" She babbled before taking in a deep breath. "Harry, what happened to you?"
"I'm sorry, I...just had a bad reaction, I think," He mumbled, shaking his head.
"To what? Your red eyes? Your new fangs barely even bothered you in comparison. Why did your eyes scare you so much?"
"I...they...remind me of someone," Harry admitted reluctantly as he stood up out of the bed. Gwen took a second to check out his body before she shook her head and refocused her mind.
"Who?" She asked curiously.
"Someone I'd rather not think about, if it's all the same to you," He said in a gruff voice. "Do you mind if I use your bathroom?" He asked quickly when she opened her mouth to question him.
"Sure," She said softly.
"Thanks," Harry grunted before turning and making his way to the bathroom connected to her room.
"Harry," She called just as he had reached the door. "You don't have to tell me everything, you know, but if you ever did want to...I'm trying to say you don't need to keep secrets from us."
"It isn't because I don't trust you," Harry sighed. "It's just not stuff I want to talk about, not yet, anyway."
"That's fine," She replied in a quiet voice. "You're eyes have gone back to your usual green now, you can check in the mirror. If you don't mind me asking, why did you come here to me? You could have gone to Peter's house, you came to mine, why?"
"Well, it worked out well last time," Harry shrugged. "Besides, I wasn't really thinking, just wanted to get to somewhere safe. Plus, I trust you," He smiled at her before opening the door and walking into the bathroom, closing it behind him. He turned to the bathroom mirror and stared at his reflection. Gwen was telling the truth when she said his eyes were back to normal, as were his teeth. Harry closed his eyes, focused, and then opened them again. Once more he stared at his reflection, this time he was able to see his new fangs and red eyes.
"You're not here," Harry whispered so quietly that he was barely able to hear his own voice. "You won't ever find me again,"
"Are you sure about this?" Peter asked Gwen later that day.
The trio were currently standing in the abandoned train station, Harry had drawn a large triangle on the ground with a white piece of chalk before cutting his palm and placing preciously three drops of blood at each corner. Meanwhile, Gwen and Peter were standing a short distance away.
"I'm not," Gwen answered honestly. "But Harry's really shaken up, whatever happened to him has really frightened him. It was the red eyes, they had shaken him up for some reason."
"Hmm," Peter hummed thoughtfully, Harry had shown Peter his new fangs and his colour-changing eyes. While Peter personally found it to be really awesome, Harry did not like it at all. Peter couldn't help but agree with Gwen's theory of it being the eyes that bothered Harry. "He still has his secrets." Peter frowned.
"Apparently, he's not the only one anymore," Gwen responded, giving him a knowing look.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter asked quickly.
"Peter, we all know that there's something going on with you," Gwen explained. "We can tell, Harry and I, you're working way too hard for one reason or the other. I'll tell you the same thing I told Harry, you don't have to tell us everything, but we're here for you if you want to, you don't need to keep secrets from us."
"Gwen, I..." Peter trailed off, struggling to come up with the right words.
"Alright, I'm ready," Harry told them as he stood in the centre of the drawn triangle.
"Are you sure this ritual of yours will work?" Peter couldn't help but ask.
"We're about to find out," Harry replied, his voice slow and quiet. "It's a basic cleansing ritual, should counter any bad effects from the Diox 3. It's a standard ritual that is used when people get poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Gwen blinked. "You have a standard ritual for that?"
"Well, most people would just use an antidote for the poison, but I don't have the necessary ingredients to make one, especially since I don't know what the hell is in Diox 3 in the first place. Besides, I don't want to wait around to find any more changes happening overnight." Harry added before taking a deep breath and sitting cross-legged on the ground with a knife in his hand.
Gwen and Peter watched in tense and uncomfortable silence as Harry began chanting something in another language, he raised the knife and recut the same palm that he had cut earlier. Both of them couldn't help but notice how Harry had not even flinched a little when cutting himself. Harry allowed precisely three drops of blood to drop onto the ground right in the centre of the triangle before he wiped his palm on his head, smearing it across his forehead in a small line of blood.
"Gwen," Peter whispered. "Do you think that something is supposed to happen? Like is..." Peter's words died in his mouth as a golden light suddenly shined from Harry's ritual triangle. A golden light shined from each corner of the triangle, beams of light travelled from each corner to Harry while a fourth light shot up from the centre and at Harry's head, covering his whole face in a golden light. The lights lasted for several seconds before they slowly started turning white, and shortly disappearing afterwards, leaving Harry sitting inside a chalk-drawn triangle with no signs of any blood left on the ground.
"Hmm," Harry hummed as he looked at his hand which had healed.
"Did it work?" Gwen asked hesitantly.
"I feel...a bit lighter, but other than that, I don't know," Harry admitted as he stood up, he closed his eyes before opening them and growling slightly as he once more felt the venom sacs in his mouth. "My eyes are red again, aren't they?" He growled angrily.
"Yep," Peter slowly nodded. "Did it not work?"
"It can't not have worked!" Harry said in a frustrated voice. "I...I did the ritual perfectly! Why couldn't it have worked?!"
"Maybe...maybe it did work," Gwen said, causing Harry's attention to snap towards her. "You said that...that the ritual is a cleansing ritual. Meaning it's basically designed to get rid of any negative influences in your body, right?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Harry nodded. "Why do you ask?"
"Maybe it did get rid of it, but maybe the teeth and fangs are already fixed into your body or maybe it simply didn't register them as bad influences," Gwen answered. "Or maybe it's possible that the Diox 3 had no other changes to make besides the teeth and fangs."
"That doesn't really make sense," Peter frowned.
"We're working with unknown chemicals and magic, I don't expect anything to make sense here." Gwen retorted before looking at Harry. "What I am saying is, we're in unknown territory here. Maybe it did work and maybe the teeth and fangs are due to his powers being messed up and maybe the ritual couldn't change that. You see? We're dealing with a lot of 'maybes' here."
"Maybe," Harry considered her words for several seconds before speaking up again. "We need to do some tests, and we need to find Tombstone and try to get a sample of Diox 3."