Peter held the glaring Harrison Thompson in his grasp as he just stared bewildered. "Oh I get it, you are working for the Crime Master and he made you be a decoy or a body double; still impressive he could get the head of a construction company as his patsy." Peter said out loud thinking about it for a second but Harrison just laughed.
"Oh no Spider-Man, I am indeed the real deal Crime Master or at least I have been for the last two years." Harrison told him to Peter's confusion. "So you masked miscreant; allow m to detail my tale now that you know." Harrison told him and Peter just continued staring at him wondering if this will explain anything.
"I was always considered just one of those kid who will only get by their family's money and their future inheritance. Was seen as such at the snobby prep school I went to; that was motivation for me deciding to send my son Eugene to public school so he can learn humility and build his own destiny as a football hero." Harrison started and Peter scoffed; Flash certainly acted like he would fit right at home at those prep schools.
"Dad retired and I took over a head of Union Allied Construction; I tried to build a name for myself but everyone just saw me as one of those billionaire snobs. I decided to branch out and bought several failing science companies including the Life Foundation. It was founded during the Cold War to set up communities for their rich clients and protect their fortunes and lifestyles after Armageddon. Couldn't save them from dying out due to Level 7 Bankruptcy; got the majority shares relatively cheap." Harrison said with a bit of a laugh and Peter had to admit he was chuckling a bit at that. "With those labs I founded Alchemax and got a friend in Roland Treece to be the public face; still I was seen as just a fake smiling billionaire. However that changed almost a decade ago when I met someone." Harrison continued and Peter realised what he meant.
"Lucky Lewis." Peter answered and Harrison gave a little nod.
"At the time I was in the middle of a big project but was having trouble acquiring the land that I needed. Lucky Lewis came to me offering a partnership; he said he had the blackmail needed to force the landowners to sell to me relatively cheap. He succeeded and our partnership started. He relayed to me his plans to use the blackmail he had acquired on other crime lords to start taking the organised crime in the city. I was the one came up with the idea of using the masked persona and he agreed and thus the Crime Master was named by the media. I funded his operations as he slowly began taking over the crime rings in the city and I was the one who came up with the idea of using the experiments at Alchemax to get rid of bodies or people that need to be eliminated. He was hesitant at first but he eventually came around." Harrison continued and Peter looked like underneath his mask that he was going to be sick.
"It continued on for years as he built his reputation and far around him with me using Alchemax getting rid of competition that wouldn't play ball or other people of interest. Still I still felt like I was not getting the respect that I was owed but that changed when Macendale came into the picture 2 years ago." Harrison told him and then Peter raised an eyebrow.
"He was out of work after being dishonourably discharged and I met him when he volunteered for a low dose of the performance enhancing serum. It was originally conceived during the days of Life Foundation to create super soldier guards for the community but there were always sanity related side effects. However it seemed to work on Macendale after a low dose since he was a bit unhinged anyway; I managed to get his loyalty by promising him that he could kill and torture all he wanted as my personal assassin. Let me tell you it was a hard time convincing Roland of creating advanced body armor for him to be my own personal Super Villain!" Harrison laughed and Peter shook his head.
"I knew where Lucky Lewis stayed and I had Macendale got rid of him as his first task as my Hobgoblin. It worked to my advantage donning the mask, voice enhancer and getup to take over as the Crime Master. I knew where his blackmail and resources were; over the years I had managed to memorise his tactics and how he ran his empire plus not a lot of people knew of my connection to him. After using Macendale and the blackmail to silence all the other people who knew Lewis was the Crime Master: I had successfully taken over with no one knowing he had been replaced!" Harrison finished and Peter let go of him looking at him unimpressed.
"So you go from a smarmy businessman to a smarmy replacement, who then took advantage of the hard work and used the loyalty of a psycho to bully your way into taking over his empire." Peter told him and Harrison was furious.
"How dare you make light of my achievements; I run this city and it will expand throughout the entire country! In time I will become the President of the United States as well as the Crime Master of the entire country! I will have the resources to get rid of the 22nd amendment and be the commander in chief for life!" Harrison snapped and Peter jsut stared there dumbfounded.
So Flash pretty much inherited his overflated sense of himself and his ego from his dad; it was quite obvious he would never have had the Crime Master's empire if it wasn't for Lucky Lewis building it up doing the work for him.
Peter then dropped him to the ground with a thud. He then got up to glare at Peter some more.
"Wow you are the most arrogant wannabe crime lord ever; you just wasted your time telling your backstory to me. You might have thought it would make impressed but I am not!" Peter told him shaking his head but Harrison laughed to his confusion as he got his mask and hat.
"Oh I don't think it was a waste of time at all because it served the purpose of distracting you so that my Hobgoblin will get his gear ready!" Harrison gloated and Peter then noticed Macendale in full armor come out on the left.