Chapter Thirty-Six:
Harry was currently being debriefed by SHIELD, in this case, one Phil Coulson, who had just returned from New Mexico. From what Harry could find out, it was an interesting situation that he had been involved, in, even though the details had not been given to Harry. That was a matter of confidentiality if there ever was one.
"So, how did you get involved in this situation?" Coulson asked.
"Well Martha Connors is one of my teachers and she is well aware of the knowledge that I possess," Harry said. "And it was my research that Connors corrupted in the first place. She didn't contact the authorities, because who would believe her. I was the one that had her contact SHIELD in the first place."
"And why did you go with Connors?" Coulson asked.
"It was the only way to get to his hideout," Harry said. Coulson was about to ask him with another question. "The Oz3 is something that I can't legally tell you about. I'm sure that you know all about secrets and how binding a confidentiality agreement can be under certain circumstances."
The look on Coulson's face said it all. He knew exactly about that.
"If you want to find out anything, you need to take it up with OsCorp," Harry said. "I'm not sure how much they'll be willing to tell you. Given the circumstances, I'm certain that they're conducting their own investigation and trying to come to their own conclusion. Connors was their employee after all."
"That could be a problem, because OsCorp is disavowing any knowledge of his actions," Coulson said. That caused Harry to raise one eyebrow in response. "We did discover a video recorded by Connors, where he explained in detail what he was hoping to achieve."
"Hmm, that's a bit odd," Harry said.
"Yes, because the time stamp on the video indicates it was recorded after he was missing," Coulson said. "We are under the assumption that it was faked and it was a copy….now what do you know about Spider-Girl getting involved?"
That was an interesting question and one that nearly caught Harry off guard.
"Well, she tends to get involved in situations that result in trouble," Harry replied.
"And in these situations, you're almost always around as well," Coulson said, almost casually.
Harry laughed in response. He knew that SHIELD might have suspected who Spider-Girl was, there was enough clues for a highly trained group of government super spies to pick up the paper trail, at least at this point. Harry remained calm and collected as ever before.
"I have this wonderful knack of finding myself in some tight situations, even more Spider-Girl swung into all of our lives," Harry said to him. "The fact she always is around, when I'm in trouble isn't any news flash. I do have this wonderful knack of being a lightning rod for some potentially unusual situations, as your boss might have learned in the pass."
Coulson nodded and decided to go for a different line of question. "What about Kraven the Hunter?"
Harry looked at Coulson. "I had no idea that Kravinoff was even in the country. Given all of the warrants that he has against him for his questionable activities, you would think that he wouldn't be on United States soil. I have heard of him."
"Yes, he is rather infamous," Coulson said. "Do you have any idea who Spider-Girl is?"
"Well, we all have ideas, but I don't like to go throwing around accusations without proof," Harry said.
Coulson had a few more questions. It was obvious that they were not buying it. Harry figured they had a good idea by now that Gwen might be Spider-Girl, but he was not about to hold their hand and lead them easily to the destination.
Nick Fury, Jessica Drew, and Maria Hill listened intently on the other end of a two way mirror. They had been listening closely to the conversation between Harry and Coulson. He was even more of a person of interest to than ever before. He was involved with taking out Connors, and it was highly suspected that he helped take out Dillon.
Fury grumbled. "He's hiding something."
Fury could tell that and that much was painfully obvious to the other two agents. He could call him out on that, but that could damage any standing that they had with recruiting him. And he was an extremely valuable asset.
"Hill, since you're in bed with him, he's your new responsibility," Fury said. "Drew, you'll function as a go between, since Hill's duties as Deputy Director keep her very busy."
"Yes, sir," Maria said.
"Yes, sir," Jessica said.
It went without saying that the two women needed to inform Harry of this. A few seconds later, Coulson entered the room. "Why are you going out of your way to keep things friendly? It's obvious that he knows more than he's saying?"
Fury looked Coulson straight in the eye and spoke simply. "It's complicated."
He walked out of the room a few seconds later, leaving Coulson to ponder his words. Fury didn't do anything without a good reason, that was for sure.
Rose sat at her desk at her main office. It was regarding a business deal between shining Light International and Frost International. She actually had been working on this deal with Emma for a long time. It will lead to a full merger when Harry takes control of the company on his twenty-first birthday.
They were for all intents and purposes married, despite Emma's fucked up view of relationships. Just like was with Jean, Gwen, and Karen, and Rose was depressed about that last one, because she blamed herself completely about that one. The fact they could no longer pinpoint where she was could be a problem.
On the bright side, thanks to the bond, Harry would know if she was dead or not.
She spent a few minutes contemplating a few things and working on the paperwork, never a good task. A moment or two of doing this was broken up by the intercom buzzing. "Yes?"
"They're here," her secretary said.
"Send them in, Lindsey," Rose said. She stood up and stood in front of her desk.
The door opened suddenly, and two red head blurs sped across the room and slammed into her legs with a triumphant shout of "Mommy!"
She kneeled down and scooped up a pair of six year girls into her arms. Amanda Kara Evans and Emily Karen Evans were picked up. The two girls were giggling. "How was camp?"
"Oh, it was pretty fun," Amanda admitted.
"But, we did miss you and Harry," Emily said. She had a pouty face on when she and her twin was placed on the nearby couch.
"That's what happens when you're away from someone you love very much," Rose said. "And it makes you appreciate them even more when you're together again."
'Just like Harry and Karen, and she will return some day,' Rose thought to herself.
"We did so many cool things, it was really awesome," Emily said. "I mean, sure there was hard, but we met so many people. We met this girl named Cassie, and she's more of a tomboy than Mandy here is."
"Yeah and her mother is an archeologist, she digs up all kinds of cool stuff, for museums," Amanda said. "And some of it might be cursed."
"Oh, I think that Cassie was just teasing us when she was saying that," Emily said. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. "I mean, if it was cursed, it wouldn't be put in a museum."
"That might add to the intrigue, but the stupid people will touch it," Amanda said, shaking her head and laughing. "And we heard all about Spider-Girl, she's so awesome, when I grow up, I want to be just like her."
"Yes, Mandy has a crush on Spider-Girl!" Emily sang. Rose looked amused.
Amanda folded her arms. "I do not."
'Oh, Harry, I think that you have some competition,' Rose thought. If only Amanda and Emily knew who Spider-Girl was, but she wasn't about to tell her. She half listened to her daughter rattle on about Spider-Girl and all her adventures. Although she was pretty sure that she didn't beat up the Juggernaut with one arm tied behind her back.
"She didn't beat the Juggernaut with one hand tied behind her back!" Emily protested. Amanda folded her arms in response and she looked at her.
"But at least you admit that she made the Shocker cry," Amanda said. She wrinkled up her nose and shook her head. She turned to Rose. "Mommy, what kind of name is Shocker, anyway?"
Rose sighed. "I'll explain that one when you get older. You're much too young for it now."
'Or, they'll decide to look it up on the Internet, because that seems to be what children do when they get curious about something,' Emma thought. 'I know, I just got them banned from using the Internet, didn't I?'
The door opened suddenly and Rose's eyes snapped up. She held her hand up and her eyes narrowed when she saw that she had guests and they weren't invited in.
The one and only Selene was the first woman in the room. She was followed by her adopted daughter, Diana. A dark haired woman named Amelia Steed, the Black Queen of the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, stepped inside. Her apprentice Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock followed her inside.
Rose's secretary followed her. "I'm sorry, they wouldn't take a 'you're busy right now' for an answer."
The windows rattled slightly when Rose took a deep breath to get herself back underneath control. She was pissed off, and obviously so because they were cutting into the time with her daughters.
"Lindsey, please take the girls up to the penthouse," Rose told her. "I'll be up there in a second."
Mandy was about to protest, but Emmy nudged her roughly. It was obvious that the atmosphere in the room was about to change and not for the better. They might be young, but they were prodigies in their own way, much like their father is.
Lindsey escorted the two twins out of the room. Rose gave Selene a narrowed eyed look. The feared Black Queen stepped back because of sheer rage that this look inspired. "If you ever interfere when I'm spending time with my daughters again, you won't like the consequences."
Diana, being young and hot tempered at this point, moved towards Rose. Selene placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Please accept my apologies. I wasn't aware of who you were with, and I know how precious time with your children is, considering I've outlived several of mine."
Rose grudgingly accepted that apology, by nodding. "So, why did the Black Queen of both the American and London Branches of the Hellfire Club feel the need to barge into my office unannounced?"
Selene smirked. "We're here about my grandson."
That caused Rose to look at Selene and she looked like she could set fire with her to her mind. Selene raised her eyebrow. "And I mean no harm. And I'm quite pleased with his progress. Which I consider to be because of your influence. But there are many things that he's going to need to learn before we can properly move forward."
Selene decided to take a seat down and look at Rose. The others sat down as well.
"Not the least of which is ensuring his and Emma Frost's smooth transitions into the club," Selene said. "It's not something that one could leap into without the proper training. And naturally, we should keep him under the radar, at least until the pretender with delusions of grandeur and his faction, are snuffed out properly."
Rose read that as Dumbledore and the remaining members of his Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore mentally broke after his savior disappeared and he spent time confined to his tower, ranting about what needed to be done to deal with Gellert. The fact some people still drank this madman's Kool-aide was extraordinary.
He turned from a great man to a sick dog within the last couple of decades rather quickly.
"And he will be dealt with, in due time," Selene agreed. "It will be a mercy killing at this point. I would say that entire world needs a mercy killing, but there are some that may have potential. If it hadn't been squandered already."
"Lily didn't want Harry to step one toe into that world and he doesn't either," Rose said warningly.
"And so he shouldn't, and I agree, that world cost me way too much," Selene said.
Steed remained quiet up to this point, but she spoke in a rather posh British accent. "Both of the Black Queens are united on this front, so it would make perfect sense for the Red Queen to join us."
Rose paused for a good long minute to consider this. "What do you have planned?"
Harry sat in his bedroom, behind his computer, busily at work. Gwen laid sprawled out, sleeping on his bed. Harry found himself in the process of comparing Gwen's blood to Connors. It was badly mutated after injecting himself with the Oz3 that had been spliced with Lizard DNA. It went without saying that he was worried about possible side effect that the Oz2 spliced with Spider DNA had.
He stopped for a moment. He felt Rose's joy. There was also amusement about Mandy's girl crush on Spider-Girl. And then he could feel a spike of anger that was pretty much unsettling.
'Rose, is everything okay?' Harry asked.
'Yes, fine, Harry, I just was caught off guard,' Rose thought. She seemed weary for some reason.
Things felt fine through the bond, so Harry made his way through the bond. He shifted his attention back to the project that he was working on.
The thing that he could tell was that the major difference between the two of them is that what changed Gwen's DNA was stable at its core levels, while the serum Connors used on hims was unstable.
The thing that he couldn't figure out is why. He separated the two blood samples from the respective Spider and Lizard DNA from the serum. It was his hope that he could break down both of them and then compare the rare raw chemical makeup of each.
That might be a tricky situation. Despite the fact that he had the equipment at home that was pretty good, it was looking like he might need to do it at the lab. Something he didn't want to do, because that would make it available on the network, even though only Norman, Otto, Fiers, and Menken had access.
Harry brought up the e-mail he had been sent some time ago and looked it over with narrowed eyes. He reached up to pinch the bridge of nose, reading it. He highlighted the formula within it and copied it for easier access.
It was then which Gwen stirred herself awake. She was dressed in nothing, but an oversized shirt and panties when she got up to her feet. She edged her way over, barely stifling a yawn when she walked towards Harry.
She wrapped her arms around his waist and cuddled against his back, content to watch for a moment. Then she wanted to be content to do more than watch.
Gwen kissed him slowly on the back of his neck and then trailed her kisses up towards his earlobe. She nibbled on his earlobe for a minute.
"I'm going to go have coffee with my friend from out of town later," Gwen said.
She stood and went in the direction of the shower. Before she could get too far, Harry sprung up to his feet.
He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled Gwen in deep. Harry kissed her passionately, shoving her against the wall.
Gwen closed her eyes and wasn't about to complain about what was going to happen next. Harry had her up against the wall and pulled back from her.
She pulled her shirt over the top of her head, to reveal that she was wearing nothing underneath, but a pair of panties. That was something that Harry found himself rather pleased about.
In the aftermath of that round of six, Harry's cell phone rang. He moved over and prepares to answer it.
"Harry, do you think that you could go to Vegas for me?" Rose asked.
That was a bit out of the blue. Harry was a bit confused by this particular statement that Rose gave him. "Why Vegas?"
"I have something extremely important that needs to be taken care of there," Rose replied. "I would go, but something came up here and the girls just came back from Camp."
Harry nodded. "Sure, I'll go, Rose."
"Thank you, Harry, I owe you," Rose said.
Harry smiled, it would be a perfect time to allow his computer to run the necessary simulations. It might have been extremely powerful, but it was going to take a couple of days just to run the tests and simulations. Going to Vegas would give him something other to do than wait around.
Besides, it was only Vegas, what could really happen there?
Much later, Gwen was on her way to meet up with her friend at a nearby café that was close to her apartment. She was running behind, although she wasn't complaining about the reasons why she ran behind. After Harry screwed the hell out of her, she needed to take a shower and get dressed.
Gwen still basked in the afterglow, so much that she didn't really pay much attention to the direction where she was going.
She turned the corner and nearly got run over by a rather statuesque brunette. Gwen fell over.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the brunette said. With her dark hair, blue eyes, and amazing figure, along with her height, she looked like she could be a model or could kick her ass. "I wasn't watching where I was going. It's just that this is my friend time in Ma…in the City, and I'm just a bit overwhelmed by everything."
Gwen waved it off. She was used to New York. "Yeah, I lived here for my entire life, but it can be overwhelming. And I'm Gwen."
"Donna," she said with a smile.
"Why don't you join me for coffee?" Gwen asked. Perhaps she was being a bit too forward, but she was interested in learning about this girl and her story. There was just something to it that she couldn't put her finger on, but she was pretty certain that it was amazing.
"I need to run, sorry, I'm really sorry," Donna said. She shook her head to clear some rather obvious cobwebs. "I'm meeting my sister, and I really need to run. Thanks for the offer, though."
Gwen decided to go for broke. "Maybe we should exchange numbers, then?"
Donna beamed in response and the two girls did just that, exchanging numbers with each other. They went their separate ways.
Gwen turned around and finished the rest of the trip to the coffee shop. She spotted a redhead, with blue eyes. Her black top fit snugly around her toned body and the outline of her breasts could be seen. She wore a pair of jean shorts and a nice pair of shoes.
"Barbara!" Gwen exclaimed in excitement. She rushed over to greet her.
Barbara Gordon got up to her feet and wrapped her arms around Gwen's waist with a grin on her face. Her childhood friend was there.
The two of them became friends through their Fathers, who both went to the Police Academy together before the two of them were even born. They met regularly at least once a month even after that. Since they had really intelligent daughters around the same age, they brought them there and it just so happened that the two of them hit it off quite nicely.
"So, I've got some good news," Barbara said. Gwen looked at her. "I'm moving to New York to live with you and your father, because I'm going to Midtown this fall."
"Really, already?" Gwen asked. Barbara looked at her. "Oh, that's great; by the way, I'm so happy that you actually got permission from your father to do this!"
"Yeah, I'm surprise too, but getting me out of Gotham City given the unpleasantness going on there is priority," Barbara said. "There was a six month program that allows me to graduate early, despite being the same age as you, and I can go straight to Empire State"
"Really great," Gwen said when the two of them finally sat down with each other. She turned to Barbara and asked her the obvious question. "What are you going to study?"
"Forensic Psychology," Barbara said. "You know, you should go through the program easily. It might allow you to get in earlier and do what you want."
"I think that I just might do that," Gwen said.
'Well, I'm going to as well,' Mary Jane piped up through the bond.
Harry sighed and shook his head. 'Of course you are.'
Harry was going to have to schedule a lot of time to tutor both of the girls. Not that they needed much, but they could use a little boost. It would be a hit to their egos if they didn't get in right away.
"So, what have you been up to as of late?" Barbara asked.
"I've been doing a lot of web design lately," Gwen said.
'Well played,' Emma thought in her standard charming manner. 'Not necessarily a lie, but not necessarily telling her everything until she's been figured in. I like the way you're coming along.'
"Soooo, did you finally get with that boy that you wouldn't shut up about?" Barbara asked.
There was only one thing Gwen could do right now. She gave a humongous grin, looking like the cat that ate the canary. That pretty much told Barbara all that she needed to know about the answer to this question.
Back at OsCorp, Norman was in the process of delivering the blood samples that was taken from Connors and Spider-Girl back to Otto, along with a detailed analysis.
"So, what do you think?" Norman asked.
"Well," Otto said, after a moment of contemplation. "While we do have Spider-Girl's blood, which gives us a great deal of insight on how she obtained and survived the process of gaining her power, it gives us no real clues regarding her identity."
"She might be an OsCorp employee," Norman said.
"If that's the case, we could arrange for a series of blood tests and give an excuse about how it's for insurance purposes," Otto suggested calmly.
Norman thought about that for a few seconds, but he decided against it. "That's flashing a big neon sign saying that we're trying to figure out who she is."
"And it might not even be an OsCorp employee, it could be an EMT or a guest that was in the building at the time," Otto answered. "There were a few injuries that day."
"We need to get Harry back to the lab and working on completing Oz3," Norman said. This statement was pretty much out of the blue.
Otto corked an eyebrow at him for a moment. "Why can't you do it yourself? After all, you were the genius behind Oz1 after all."
"I haven't touched a test tube since my wife died," Norman said. "And, as much as I hate to admit this, Harry makes me feel like I should be commuting on a short bus."
That caused Otto to raise one eyebrow in response. "That's pretty high praise coming from you. I will admit that Harry is brilliant in his own right, but that…"
"He makes both of us look like special needs children," Norman commented in his sharpest tone of voice. "The two of us might be brilliant, but he is even more son, and everything that I would ever want in a son. Which is a relief because Harold and Peter are disappointments and have not met any of my standards."
"I'm surprised that you would be disappointed in Peter," Otto replied.
"More disappointed in the type of company that he keeps," Norman replied. "Have we considered who we can get to replace Connors now that he's no longer going to be of service?"
"Morbius is the most likely candidate," Otto informed him.
"Very well then," Norman said. "We need to get Harry back into the Lab, if we want any hope of cracking this, along with curing your wife."
Peter was standing halfway down the hallway and heard this statement coming from Norman regarding how much of a disappointment he was. He intended to go speak to his father, but he stopped, when he heard his father inside talking to Otto Octavius.
He heard pretty much every cross word that was said. His faithful shadow stood behind him as always. His eyes narrowed, body tenses, and he gritted his teeth.
He shook his head and made his way towards his lab, his assistant tagging behind at his heels like the faithful dog she was.
Harry arrived at Vegas and got settled in. He made his way to the bar within the Casino/Hotel he was staying at. He was going to have a meeting with Pepper Potts. Last he heard, she was still in New York with Stark, but that was a couple of days ago.
The meeting was not until tomorrow, so Harry had plenty of time to kill.
Harry noticed a fairly attractive blonde, at least from the backside, sitting next to him. She was dressed in a tight white t-shirt and a tight pair of leather pants that really showed off her shapely ass in a good way.
Harry sat down next to her, ordering a drink. He couldn't help the fact that he could overhear the conversation. She seemed to be talking to her younger sister.
"I'll be back home soon, try and stay out of trouble," the woman said. She looked towards the drink and seemed rather stressed out that her drink was gone.
"Get her another drink, and put it on my tab," Harry said.
"Okay, I'll see you real soon, bye Kara," Carol answered.
Harry blinked when he heard that name, but didn't say anything. There could have been a thousand Karas in the world, and he couldn't jump to the conclusion that he was jumping to right now.
She downed what was left of her drink. She turned to order another drink only to find that another one was in front of her.
"I figured that you could use a drink," Harry said. He got a good look at her, she looked just as beautiful from the front side, that she did the backside. Her beautiful blonde hair formed a curtain down her face. "My name is Harry."
She smiled at him. "Nice to meet you Harry, I'm Carol."
To Be Continued on May 28th, 2015.