Chapter Fifty-One:
A wind kicked up in the distance. A crackle of lightning flashed through the sky, always adding to an interesting atmosphere. Harry turned his head from one side to the other, on the hunt for Gwen. The young man crouched down on a gargoyle and turned his head back for a moment. With a quick look around, Harry turned back from front to back.
Gwen disappeared into the night, but given the bloodlust of the symbiote, she might be able to pop up anywhere.
'You know after everything, I didn't expect you to be out there in uniform ever again,' Jean thought.
'You and I both, Jean,' Harry thought. 'This is going to be one and done thing, to knock some sense into Gwen. And I hope I can separate the symbiote from her, without hurting her too badly.'
'I really hope she offers you the same curiosity,' Emma thought. 'Given what happened earlier, I doubt very much.'
'And let's face it, when Gwen's in a right mood, she can be a bitch of a bitch,' Mary Jane thought.
Harry frowned at the cross commentary Mary Jane gave him. He took a second to collect his thoughts.
'MJ….'
'Well, she can, you remember how she could be when she was younger,' Mary Jane thought. She folded her arms and pretty much refused to argue any further about the entire matter.
'Well, you know she has a point,' Jean thought. 'I suppose we all have our moments, as we well know, right, Emma?'
'Mmm, did you say something, Jean?' Emma asked. She closed her eyes. 'The buzzing if anything isn't even there anymore. So the symbiote has figured a way to block us out, at least for a moment.'
'Are you sure you can't get through?' Harry asked.
'I said for the moment,' Emma thought. 'Give me a minute to be creative.'
Harry continued to move and hunt the old fashion way for Gwen. He should have seen this coming, but at the same time, he couldn't see it coming. The young man launched a line of webbing from his costume and swung from one end of the alleyway, to the next. The young man tested all of the systems.
"For the record, everything is running well for us being able to do minimal testing," Marla said.
"All things considered, it will have to do rather well," Harry said. "I never intended to bring it out for a test run, and I never intended to use it."
'So, wait, you created a super suit because you were bored?' Mary Jane asked.
'Pretty much, then,' Harry thought.
The loud sound of someone crashing through a set of windows directed Harry's attention away from the conversation. He stood up on the back legs of the suit so he can get a better look. The young man leaned in, and frowned.
'I think we found Gwen.'
One of the mobsters tried to run around. The black suited Spider-Girl yanked one of the mobsters around the neck and yanked him in. The mobster crashed down to the floor with agony.
Several black spikes wrecked the mobsters.
'Okay, showtime.'
Harry propelled himself down to the ground. Spider-Girl looked too distracted by her bloodlust, or the suit's bloodlust, rather. Regardless, Harry positioned himself for a movement.
The young man sprung into the air with a solid attack. The claws retracted from his suit and ripped into her outfit. Gwen screamed and turned around.
A venom blast followed into Spider-Girl's face. It incensed her.
Harry flipped away from her feet, dodging a black wrecking ball made from her own webbing. The suit made its own webbing, likely after feeding off of Gwen's bodily fluids. Harry needed to find a way to back off.
Spider-Girl sprang at him at the speed of light. Harry cracked back first against the edge of the building. He attempted to force his way out from her position. She pinned him onto the ground, with Harry trying in vain to struggle to break his way out.
He channeled bio-electricity from his suit. Gwen flew backwards and sent flying into a set of wind chimes. The wind chimes started to ring, making an abundant amount of noise.
Harry stopped and noticed the wind chimes caused the suit some irritation. Frowning, Harry looked over his shoulder.
"Okay, follow me, if you think you can keep up with me!"
Harry dragged himself up the edge of the building. Spider-Girl followed him. A series of spiked web balls flew at him. Harry arched back and dodged her.
"Come on, try and keep up."
'I hope you have a plan, Spider-Man,' Jean thought.
'First of all, don't call me Spider-Man, and second of all, I have a plan,' Harry thought.
Several black lines of webbing wrapped around Harry. He clawed his way up the clocktower, and busted through the windows.
The two of them entered inside, with Harry barely escaping her grip. He started to breath heavily.
Spider-Girl pulled herself up.
'Sorry Gwen, but this is going to hurt me, a lot more than it hurts you. And this will hurt you a lot.'
Harry locked onto the bell and with a tug; he started to rock it back and forth.
The church bell started to ring back and forth. The symbiote suit started to scream in horror. Harry fired a blast towards the church bell. The bell rocked back and forth even harder, clanging and banging against the wind.
Harry reached the realization the suit wouldn't be giving up without a fight. He grabbed onto Gwen and started to remove the suit from her.
The suit barely pride from Gwen's body, leaving her in the tattered remains of her Spider-Girl costume, looking pale with a few bruises on her.
The suit tried to get its claws into Harry. He removed a canister from his suit and slid the squirming suit side. He made sure to seal the canister shut.
Bending down, Harry gripped Gwen's wrist. He felt her hand, squeezing it. Gwen returned the squeeze in a reassuring, if a bit weak manner. With a smile, Harry leaned down, dragging Gwen to a standing position.
"What have I done?" Gwen asked.
"Well, I tell you when we get out of here. But I have a feeling you won't like it all too much."
Gwen was afraid of it. Regardless, Harry wrapped his arm around her and swung her from the building. She clung onto Harry as the two of them left the building.
If there was one thing Bolivar Trask despised above all other things, it was a sudden and unexpected burst of complications. And the man needed to call the emergency meeting of his associates.
The first associate stood with broad shoulders and dark hair, wearing a rather distinct Victorian garb. He stood with two gentlemen who leaned a bit back in the shadows. Trask could make out them wearing similar Victorian style garbs, although nothing as extravagant as the first gentleman.
"Mr. Trask."
"Mr. Shaw."
Bolivar Trask stood face to face with Sebastian Shaw, a man who had high aspirations to move up the ranks of high society.
"And I believe I've introduced you to my two associates, Henry Leland and Donald Pierce."
"Yes, we've been acquainted before," Shaw said.
The second associate entered the meeting. The large frame of the man imposed over them. He wore a custom made white suit, because someone of his stature wouldn't have worn anything less. He wasn't the type of man who had the luxury to buy his clothes straight off of the rack. Regardless, the man approached both of them, with a raised eyebrow.
Wilson Fisk understood getting into bed with such high-level people would allow him to play the game.
"We have complications, as you well know," Fisk said. "The death of Norman Osborn has complicated our little project. While young Peter may be able to honor our end of the deal, he does have more than enough to worry about. And we shouldn't assume he would in the end."
"Norman dying has set our project back several months," Trask said. He frowned, folding his hands together in his lap.
"But we do have other options, do we?" Shaw asked.
Trask tucked his hand beneath his chin, adopting a slightly thoughtful demeanor. He took a moment to consider Shaw's words and shook his head.
"We do have other options, yes," Trask said. "Maybe not the best options, but we do have other options."
"Well, do describe them," Fisk said.
Trask reached down towards his briefcase and pulled out his notes from the first file.
"With SHIELD keeping a close watch over OsCorp, we're going to have to explore other avenues," Trask said. "Horizon may be a new company, but they could in fact suit our needs."
"Given how much a wild card Harry Evans-Parker is, I doubt very much we want to go there," Shaw said. "He might not understand the necessity."
Shaw neglected to mention other reasons why he didn't want Harry Evans-Parker anywhere near any operation of his. The young man's heritage proved to be a problem for Shaw's plans to move up in the world.
"What other options do we have?" Pierce asked.
"We have Hammer and Stark," Trask said.
"Tony Stark would be brilliant enough to pull this off, but given his recent veer into the heroics and him gallivanting around in his stupid tin toy, he would be ill-advised," Shaw said. "And his father had his connections with SHIELD, so you should assume Mr. Stark is either working with them, or has SHIELD's eyes on him, especially after the Iron Man fiasco."
"We can check Stark off of the list," Fisk said.
Trask realized the few options they had, unless they wanted to outsource the work outside of the East Coast. And outsourcing a project such as this didn't really play into his agenda.
"Which leaves us to Justin Hammer. Hammer has resources, not as much as Stark and Horizon. Maybe not as abundant, but he can help us with the DNA scanner and the targeting software. And he's unlikely to ask too many questions about what we're doing."
"I agree," Shaw said. "I've done business with Mr. Hammer in the past, and he's a gentlemen with a stand up….."
A knock on the door interrupted their meeting.
"Enter," Shaw said.
A gorgeous dark haired woman entered the room. She dressed in a tight black corset which caused her ample breasts to raise high into the air. It stopped short of the apex of her flat stomach. A thong covered her bottom half, although one could not tell with the long overcoat she wore. Black gloves and black thigh high boots covered her.
"Tessa, you're early," Shaw said.
The woman took a few seconds to compose herself before crossing the room to stare Shaw in the eye.
"Yes, Mr. Shaw, but you should know Selene and Buckman are wondering about your plans," Tessa said.
"What?" Trask asked. He rose to his feet and almost got up into Shaw's face. He hitched in a breath for a second.
"This could be an issue we're going to have to address."
Fisk's words bore into Shaw's head. The man understand by someone addressing it, Fisk meant Shaw would have to address it.
"Unless they found a worthy replacement for the Black King, my future place in this organization is secure," Shaw said.
Shaw sat up straight with confidence. He appreciated Tessa bringing these concerns to him, but he didn't seem too concerned. Buckman assumed he had power, but in reality, he was almost one foot out of the door, and the other foot started to slip in an entirely different direction.
As for Selene, well Shaw knew she wouldn't act, unless she had someone.
"Make sure your place stays secure," Fisk said. "The plan can't ill-afford any slipups right now."
"When I become the Black King, we'll have everything we want and even more," Shaw said.
He played the game for far too long to lose out now. The entire world rested in the palm of Shaw's hands.
"Anything else, Tessa?"
"No, sir, but I'll keep an ear out with the usual sources."
Tessa turned her back and slipped out. The men continued their meeting as if they had not had an intrusion at all.
Mary-Alice exited the car after her visit with her husband. Otto's condition didn't look to be improving. She offered him a few reassuring words, and told him to have faith everything would go right for him.
Were they words to reassure Otto, or words to reassure herself? Mary-Alice couldn't really figure out right at this moment. Regardless, the woman exited her car to do some grocery shopping.
Trying to live as normal of a life as possible until Otto recovered would be for the best. Grocery shopping showed to be an adequate method for her for her to make her way through life. Harry offering her the work at Horizon, even though a limited capacity, also gave her piece of mind.
Mary-Alice sank down at a bench outside of the store for a couple of minutes. Her illness made her have days where she felt extremely tired and worn down. She lifted herself up to her feet.
The moment she entered the store, she crossed a kindly old man who she recognized as one of her neighbors.
"Hello, Mr. McMichaels."
"Mary-Alice, how is your husband doing?"
"Not well, I'm afraid. He's still in a coma because of the accident. I'm not sure when he's going to wake up. The doctors are doing everything they could. I just have to get through it one day at a time."
The old man nodded. He lost his wife last year, so he could sympathize what Mary-Alice was going through.
"Just remember to take care of yourself. The last thing anyone wants is you to go down as well."
"Don't worry, I'm doing the best I can," Mary-Alice said. "Thanks for the concern."
She grabbed a grocery cart and wheeled it down the first aisle of the store. Fishing through her purse, Mary-Alice consulted a list.
"Okay, chicken soup, good I'm right here."
Mary-Alice grabbed the can of chicken-soup in her hand. She stood in the aisle, glancing at it. Her eyes went all glassy for a second.
The woman slumped to the ground, like a puppet getting its strings cut. The woman crashed to the ground hard and fast.
Several store employees rushed over to check up on her, but she already long since lost consciousness.
"Someone call an ambulance!"
The woman on the ground languished as the store employees followed procedure to get an ambulance in.
"So, yes, I'm Spider-Girl."
Gwen stood, dressed in a tank top and short jean shorts, clutching Harry's arm. Given the ordeal with the symbiote, she hadn't let go of Harry's arm since last night. Mary-Jane, Betty, and Liz sat around the apartment.
"Seriously?" Liz asked. "I'm not being punked, am I?"
Liz could not believe it, but at the same time, she could believe it. Mary-Jane chuckled and patted Liz's arm.
"No, Liz, trust me, you're not being punked," Mary-Jane said.
Betty placed her hand underneath her chin and frowned.
"You know, it makes a lot of sense, with the sudden disappearances all of the time," Betty said. "And if I had to guess, you got your powers around the same time of the first major accident at OsCorp, didn't you?"
"Yes, I was bitten by a genetically altered spider," Gwen said. "And so was Harry."
Betty raised her eyebrow in surprise, and looked at him.
"Of course, the mysterious other spider seen last night was you, it would have to be you, wouldn't it?" Betty asked.
"It was me," Harry said. "Just one time."
"Well, the press is running with it, and calling you, Spider-Man," Betty said. "Leave it to the press to have a sterling amount of originality, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes," Harry said.
"Well, it could be worse, they could be calling you, Spider-Boy," Mary-Jane said. "Which doesn't really roll off the tongue too much to be honest."
"Not to mention it being an even bigger inaccuracy, because we all know Harry is all man," Betty said. She smiled at him.
"One time thing, one time," Harry said. "I'm not going to be going out there every night and fighting criminals."
"Of course you aren't, Harry," Mary-Jane said.
"Well, the only reason he had to suit up tonight, was because I allowed myself to get possessed by some weird alien," Gwen said. She closed her eyes for a second. "And I really wish I can remember how it latched onto me."
"You can't?" Harry asked.
"No," Gwen said. "I really can't."
"It's a shame, isn't it?" Betty asked. "So, you got your powers in the same way, didn't you?"
"Well, I've always had my powers, powers of some sort. One of them being a minor healing factor, which blocked the genetically altered spider from rewriting my DNA. At least until the accident with Norman."
"You got sick then," Liz said.
The concern in her voice prompted Harry to alleviate the best he could.
"Not as bad as Gwen did when she got her powers, but pretty much, I got sick," Harry said.
The three girls sat around the room.
"It gave me an entirely new set of powers."
'Along with enhancing some old ones,' Harry thought. 'But, I'm not sure if I can really scratch the surface.'
"I made the suit with Marla, in case for an emergency," Harry said. "And this qualified as an emergency to be honest. I don't want to make it a regular thing after last night."
"You sound like you've done this super hero thing before," Betty said. Harry smiled. "You have, haven't you?"
"Yes, I have," Harry said. "But its ancient history, but looking into some urban legends, and you might be able to figure it out."
Betty smiled, it sounded like a challenge.
"And for the record, I bet you a million dollars you'll have to put the suit on for some reason."
"It's like a drug, isn't it?" Mary-Jane asked.
"Well, in a way, yes," Gwen said. "I feel a bit of a rush out there when I'm Spider-Girl. Not as good as sex, but still pretty amazing, spectacular, even."
"Yes, it can be good, but it comes at a price," Harry said. "As long as it doesn't uproot your life too much, I don't see a problem. Other than the symbiote, you've been doing a pretty good job. After the first few growing pains, you've managed to hang onto the hero thing."
Gwen thought about the growing pains and shivered. Even as a veteran(for the most part), hero, she experienced her share of mistakes.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Gwen said. "So, what did you do with our little friend?"
"She's currently stored in a storage tank," Harry said.
"She?" Mary-Jane asked.
"Well, it's kind of rude to call something an it," Harry said. "Especially when it does have a gender. And the fact it's a women made a lot of sense."
"Considering she aggressively went after you you when she possessed Gwen and knocked you out a window when you denied her, I'd say so," Mary-Jane said.
Liz clapped her hand over her mouth, gasping.
"You were knocked out a window?" Liz asked.
"Yes," Harry said. "But, don't worry, I'm fine right now. Remember, healing factor"
"Oh, yes, sorry, this is all very new to me," Liz said. She reached in and clutched Harry's hands for a few seconds.
"You don't have a problem, do you?" Harry asked.
"Well, like Betty said, it makes sense, with Gwen being Spider-Girl and you being….Spider-Man," Liz said.
Harry flinched at the code name being given. It wasn't like it was the worst code name he couldn't had it. The Belligerent Bug Boy would be worse for example. Cheesy, and inaccurate all at the same time.
"Please don't call me that again, Liz," Harry said. "Like I said, it's a one time thing….."
"Which I bet you a hundred thousand dollars you'll be out in the costume by the end of the month," Betty said.
"You don't have a hundred thousand dollars to bet," Mary-Jane said.
"Hey, Jameson pays me decently, and I don't burn my money away on booze and hookers like some reporters do," Betty said. "But seriously, Spider-Man or not, Harry is superior to any other men."
Betty leaned forward and kissed Harry on the lips. Liz, Gwen, and Mary-Jane all had to agree about Betty's assessment.
"Hey, I want a turn," Liz said.
"You'll all get a turn," Gwen said. She nudged Betty out of the way. "Except, I get a turn first, because I'm one of his Alphas."
Mary-Jane frowned and shook her head. "Boy, aren't you special?"
"Well, a little bit," Gwen said. She barely kept a knowing smirk off of her face. "Let's make sure I'm completely cured."
Gwen ravenously attacked Harry's lips. Her busy hands ran all over his body, for a couple of moments.
"We better help the Alpha Female remove her man's pants," Betty said.
Liz, Mary-Jane, and Betty assisted Gwen in stripping Harry naked, while also assisting themselves in doing the deed as well.
The orgy wrapped up, and Harry found himself buried underneath a mountain of sweaty female flesh. Not the worst of ways to go out, Harry figured as much. Regardless, he made his way over, to pick up the phone which started to ring.
Harry answered it.
"Yes…oh God….yes, thank you for calling, we'll be right there."
Gwen, the only one mostly conscious after the orgy, rose up from the depths of female flesh. Harry turned around to Gwen.
"Get dressed, we need to head to the hospital. Mary-Alice suffered a stroke and she's in critical condition."
Harry and Gwen arrived at the hospital with pretty much time to spare. The young man made his way up to the front desk.
"I'm here to see Mary-Alice Octavius," Harry said.
"Are you Harry Evans-Parker?"
The doctor approached them and looked rather stone-face and fairly grim as he approached him.
"Yes," Harry said.
"This way," the doctor said. "We're doing everything we can for her, but she's in a bad state. She might not make it the evening. Since her husband is indisposed, she left you as her emergency contact."
Harry knew this, but understood it was protocol.
"Is there anything we can do?" Harry asked.
"All any of us can do is hope the doctors can work their magic and make sure everything is alright," the doctor said.
'So she had a stroke?' Gwen asked.
'Yes,' Harry thought. 'She wasn't really healthy, but I had no idea…she just went down.'
Gwen frowned; someone could be struck down in an instant, at any incident. The stress she experienced after her husband's accident didn't help. The two of them entered Mary-Alice's room where her immobile body rested on a hospital bed. The doctor looking over her locked eyes onto Gwen and Harry.
"I'm sorry. She passed in her sleep."
Peter Osborn watched the footage of the battle he found himself in the middle of, although he couldn't remember a lot of it. The suit attached to his body somehow. He tried to piece together the information the best he could.
How the suit was able to copy Spider-Girl's powers ended up being the million dollar question. Peter's theories proved to be a dead-end after dead-end. He considered taking a look at his own DNA, to see if any secrets would come out.
"Mr. Osborn?"
Peter's beady eyes fixated on Spider-Girl acquiring the symbiote. He switched his attention to news reports about Spider-Girl's rampage on the criminal underworld, along with her fight with the figure they press dubbed Spider-Man. They mistook Spider-Man for Peter in the black suit earlier, because of some similarities.
Well similarities to a blind fool perhaps. The capabilities on the suit from what Peter could see from a few grainy security pictures looked to be the work of a genius. Only a few people could pull it off.
"Yes, Fiers, I have a task for you. I need you to find out anything you can about Spider-Girl and this Spider-Man. I want to know who they are."
Otto Octavius lingered in his hospital bed, oblivious to the fact his wife passed away peacefully in her sleep.
In a bolt, Otto's eyes flashed open.
To Be Continued on September 28th, 2015.
