The journey back to Queens felt like an eternity to Peter, and he hated every single second of it. Ever since he got that call from Alex, it felt like his sixth sense was trying to claw out his intestines and he couldn't remember the last time he felt so on edge. Not since Uncle Ben and sure as hell not since Titan. Something about this entire situation made him super uneasy and for some odd reason, he felt like he was waiting for some sort of bomb to drop. He wondered if it was Ned's haunting words playing on replay in his mind, or Tony admitting he was looking into the background of Harry's father based on a company that Peter had never even heard of before. Why hadn't Harry mentioned that his father was the founder of a groundbreaking research facility? The fact that MJ herself got involved, though, even if it was about something concerning Peter, made him the most uneasy about the entire thing. Why would someone who seemed like they didn't want anything to do with Peter warn him about something that didn't even concern her?
The closer he got to his apartment, the more uneasy he got and his skin was essentially becoming more pins and needles than just flesh on his body. Part of him was glad that May and George were both working nightshifts that night, it meant that both of them were safely away from whatever was going on, and safe away from Peter's paranoid sixth sense making him wonder what the hell was happening. There was one person that Peter was the most concerned about right now and that was Alex. Alex was in the heart of a storm that felt way too eerily familiar and Peter couldn't quite connect the feeling as to what was going on.
When Peter returned to his borough, he quickly ducked into a dark alleyway to change out of his Spider-Man suit. However, the fact that the pit in his stomach continued to grow made him think twice about it. Instead, Peter kept his suit on and shimmied into his gray sweats and his baggy navy blue MIT hoodie before deeming that was enough to disguise the suit underneath him. Taking off his mask and gloves, Peter tucked the garments safely into his bag and slipped on his sneakers. In the end, it probably was riskier hiding the suit underneath his mundane clothes, but considering it just looked like Peter was wearing a red shirt underneath his hoodie along with red socks, it was enough to hide his alter ego.
Something's not right, A small voice chimed in Peter's head. If your sense is saying to keep the suit on, maybe you should listen to it for a change. Even if it doesn't make sense.
Running up to the fifth floor of the complex, the pressure inside of Peter's head increased to the point where it made him want to throw up. Needless to say, his spider-sense seemed to have no intention of dying down and he felt like a rabbit who was waiting for a fox to lunge at him and break his neck.
Before opening the door to the apartment, paused to send a text message to Alex.
P: I'm outside. I don't like the feeling of this. Something isn't right.
Digging into his backpack once more, Peter pulled out the Stark Watch that Tony had made him and slipped it onto his wrist for safe measure. Zipping up the bag, his phone buzzed quietly indicating that Alex had replied.
A: Something's off. I feel it too.
Harry, who the hell is after you? Peter frowned, but he had a small thought that maybe Harry was hiding from someone. At least that's what you're hoping for. Harry's your friend, you can trust him... right?
Opening the door to his apartment, Peter didn't get a chance to set down his bag before Harry got up from where he was sitting on the couch. The older boy's eyes were red and puffy as if he had been crying, and his entire body was shaking to the point where it was a wonder that Harry hadn't collapsed yet. What caught Peter's immediate attention was the black eye that was deep purple, as if it had been at least a few hours fresh.
"Peter, thank god, you gotta help me!" Harry told him hysterically.
Pushing down the pit in his stomach, Peter felt a wave of concern wash over him. He closed the door behind him and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"It's Uncle Bill... He's gone insane," Harry's voice was raspy as if he had been screaming.
"What are you talking about? What happened?" Peter repeated.
"I came home from school today and he was just talking to himself like there was someone there with him," Harry stumbled over his words and began to pace. "I thought maybe he was talking on the phone with a colleague or something, but when I walked up to him he was muttering things to himself."
"Did he do this to you?" Peter's eyes studied Harry's movements, at a loss for words.
"He got mad because I was eavesdropping on his conversation. I didn't mean to, but I was worried because he was just acting so insanely rageful..."
The face of the kind face of Harry's Uncle Bill flashed in his mind, and Tony's words echoed his warning. According to every database I have looked through, Bill Osborn doesn't exist.
So if Bill Osborn doesn't exist... Peter's train of thought started.
"I knew something was off about him since I moved in with him. The late nights, the mysterious disappearances..." Harry shook his head hysterically. "He attacked me, Peter, I didn't know where else to go. I don't know what to do."
Peter's eyes flickered over to the form of Alex who was leaning against the kitchen doorway, the raven-haired boy's shoulders visibly tense and Peter could hear the way Alex's heart was racing. He walked over and placed two steady hands on Harry's shoulders. "You don't have to go anywhere, Harry, okay? I'm glad you came here, you know I have your back."
"I just don't know what to do," Harry repeated tearfully.
"Take a seat on the couch, alright?" Peter told him kindly. "I'll go get you some coffee or tea or something."
Harry just nodded, running a shaky hand down his face. "Yeah, okay..."
As Harry walked back into the living area, Peter walked over to Alex and the two of them ducked into the kitchen. Peter, wanting to make it look like he was doing what he had offered, placed a tea kettle on the stove and turned around to see Alex leaning with his hands on the dining table.
"Something still doesn't feel right about this," Alex told him quietly.
"I don't know what's happening," Peter admitted. "I don't know what to do."
"How can someone do that to their family?" Alex shook his head and Peter realized that the older boy thought that Harry's Uncle was indeed the culprit.
"Have you called George and May?" Peter wondered.
Alex shook his head. "No, I called you, he just kept asking for you. I figured he needed a friend more right now than another adult just telling him what to do and throwing him a pity party."
"Yeah," Peter leaned against the counter and hung his head low, not ignoring the way his sixth sense was making every single hair on his body stand to a point. Closing his eyes, Peter completely froze when a dreadful thought crossed his mind.
I know this feeling, Peter realized, a fresh wave of nausea washed over him. Holy shit.
Standing up straight, Peter's head began pounding in sync with his racing heartbeat. It was like every sound around him was becoming increasingly further away until all Peter could focus on was the instinctive pull of where his sense was leading him to.
"Peter?" Alex's muffled voice washed over him, sounding like he was miles away. "What is it?"
"I don't know," Peter confessed, his feet taking him back into the living room against his will. He was aware of Harry standing by the window of the living room, turning to look at him as if he had been able to hear Peter's footsteps coming towards him.
"Peter?" Harry's eyebrows furrowed. His voice was the clearest of all. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Feeling like a child trapped in the middle of a game of tug of war, Peter glanced between Alex and Harry a few times before he closed his eyes against the onslaught of his senses.
Come on, focus, He told himself. Fight the panic, you need to focus. What the hell are you trying to tell me?
Taking a few forced deep breaths, the haziness in Peter's brain cleared enough until suddenly, he realized what his sense was trying to tell him. Opening his eyes, Peter quickly shot a web, watching as it struck true to its target.
Harry's shocked and hurt face quickly merged into a devious grin from where his hand had been webbed to the window behind him. "That's some neat trick, that sense of yours."
Peter's heart sank, and it felt like he couldn't breathe. "Harry?"
"Oh my god," Alex breathed out in shock from where he was standing behind Peter.
"I… I don't…" Peter didn't want to believe what was happening. What... No... Not Harry.
"You don't understand?" Harry mocked him, all the kindness was gone from his posture. A familiar sinister glint gleamed in his eyes. "You're so pathetically gullible, Peter, but then again I didn't expect anything less from you."
Peter felt like a gaping fish as he struggled to find the right words to say. Eventually, he managed to ask, "Why?"
"Are you seriously asking why?" Harry raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Quite frankly, I'm offended you don't know the answer to that question."
"But… You…" Peter couldn't find the right words. Please let this be a dream.
"What? You really thought I was your friend? Come on, Peter, I know you're smarter than that."
Suddenly everything felt like a smack to the face. The constant paranoia, feeling like someone was watching him... Peter felt his stomach drop. "It was you."
"Now he gets it! Give the spider boy a golden star!"
"I just don't… I can't see why?" Peter exclaimed brokenly.
Harry groaned in annoyance. "If you're looking for some stereotypical villain's speech about why I did what I did, you aren't going to get it. Ask your so-called 'guy in the chair'. Gotta say, that was pretty amusing to watch."
Peter's fists clenched, "What did you do?"
"What other way could I get your pathetic ass to trust me?"
"That's right, I trusted you," Peter emphasized. "This isn't you!"
Something snapped in Harry's eyes. "Don't tell me who I am! You have no idea what I've been through!"
"That doesn't mean you have to go around killing people!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby, can't you see all I really want is you?"
"What did I ever do to you?" Peter was close to tears.
"Don't act like you didn't ruin my life!"
"What are you talking about?" Peter essentially shouted in frustration
"I LOST EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!" Harry exploded, a wicked rage emerging in his twisted features. "I lost everything when my mother died. I lost my home, I lost my identity, I lost my father…"
"Your mother got sick…" Peter interjected.
"It's not about my mother! Dear ol' Dad couldn't look me in the eye after that. It was all 'why couldn't you be more like Peter?' or my personal favorite, 'you'll never be good enough, you should've been smart like Peter.'"
"Harry…"
"And you wanna know something? You had a family still, and I had nothing. You took my father away from me, even when you stabbed him in the damn back!"
"What are you talking about?" Peter repeated in exasperation.
"That spider that gave you your powers?" Harry pointed at him with his free hand. "That was my father's life's work and you squashed it like a damn bug!"
"What? I got bit at…"
"An emerging science research industry," Harry gritted out bitterly. "They didn't have a name back then, but my father was there. And you destroyed him, and he took it out on me. He got obsessed, said that if he could recreate what happened to you, it'd be revolutionary. So he made a serum, except it got him killed!"
"Harry you got dealt a bad hand but I had nothing to do with this!"
"It's rather interesting," Harry glared at him. "I almost felt sorry for you. Poor Peter Parker, struggling to have everything he wants, while the world tries to make him choose. Struggling to be happy, but had the pressure of the world holding him up at that standard to the point where it was killing him on the inside."
Peter's fists clenched, as he repeated the same question. "What did you do?"
"Do I really still need to answer that question?" Harry raised an eyebrow, a bored expression on his face.
"Says the guy who's speaking in riddles!"
"You don't deserve your powers," Harry snarled. "You destroyed my father and now I'm going to destroy you and everyone you love!"
Peter went to cross his arms but used it as a cover as he pressed the SOS beacon on his watch. "That's never gonna happen."
"You really don't understand, do you?" Harry tutted mockingly. "Gods don't need to choose, Pete... We take."
"Alex, run!" Peter ordered.
Everything that happened after that happened in the blink of an eye. Peter didn't wait to hear Alex run out of the apartment before he sprinted towards Harry with a blinding and desperate rage. Harry, who had ripped his arm free of Peter's webs reached out with blinding speed to grab Peter by his arm, twisting it around Peter's back with inhumane strength before throwing him up into the air. Peter felt all of the air leave his lungs as he was thrown forcefully into the ceiling above him, debris raining down on him as he fell back into the floor. He had a split second to gulp in some oxygen before the alarm bells rang in his head and Peter rolled out of the way as Harry's foot stomped down against the floor where Peter had been laying a moment before.
Jumping to his feet, Peter felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest and everything around him felt like it was a part of one big nightmare. He half expected to find himself gasping awake into an inevitable panic attack, but the pit in his stomach and the intensity of his spider-sense grounded him back to this dreadful reality. Throwing a punch at Harry, Peter realized something that made him want to throw up. He wasn't holding back. This was real. Someone he trusted was trying to kill him. Someone who knew he was Spider-Man.
Harry easily dodged the punch that Peter threw his way and swung back just as fast. Peter blamed himself for being so lost in thought that he was too slow to dodge, and the blow was strong enough to send him into one of the windows, the glass shattering as his body bent haphazardly over the window sill. Shooting a web at Harry, it landed on his stomach and Peter used that to stop the momentum of the blow from sending him completely out of the window.
I don't have my mask on... Peter panicked.
Before Peter knew what was happening, Harry grabbed the web that was attached to his stomach and Peter processed two things. One was that Peter's momentum wasn't enough to cause Harry to stumble. The second thing was that Harry had been strong enough to break free of his web fluid...
He's not human, Peter panicked as he saw Harry pull at the web, lifting Peter off the ground. Turning around, Harry tossed him against another window that led to one of the fire escapes of the apartment, and Peter hit the glass full force and before he could process what had happened, he was lying face down on the fire escape, a sharp stab of pain emanating from his ribs.
Before he could recover, Harry was suddenly standing over him and he grabbed Peter's shoulders. Looking at the fire escape of the rooftop ten feet above him, an idea sparked in his mind and Peter shot two webs at the surface, pulling with all of his might. He succeeded in taking Harry by surprise as the two of them became airborne, using the momentum to flip them around so Peter was on top. As soon as he had Harry where he wanted him, Peter shot a web at the floor below them and yanked them down, the force enough for Harry to break through the first fire escape before he was slammed against the surface below. Sending what should've been a knockout blow to Harry's face, Peter turned around to send a web so he could put some distance between the two of them. However, when his sixth sense flared a second too late, Harry grabbed Peter's ankle and pulled him back down before forcefully swinging him into the window of the apartment below his own.
This is a fight that I'm not going to win, A voice in Peter's head chimed.
Peter's ribs were on fire at this point and he laid on the floor, struggling to catch his breath. That, however, only ended up with Harry grabbing Peter by the shoulders once more before tossing him into the apartment's front door, the door splintering against the force as Peter's back hit the wall of the open hallway. A split second later, the wall of the apartment was kicked in and Peter covered his head in an instinctive manner, only to see Harry walk into the hallway with a murderous expression on his face.
"Strong enough to have it all..." Harry drawled as Peter scrambled to his feet. Webbing a bench that was behind him, Peter threw it at Harry with brute force, but Harry just punched it, splitting the bench in half without it fazing him. Peter threw another punch, but Harry caught his arm in an iron grip that Peter couldn't break. "Too weak to take it!" Turning them around, Harry gut-punched Peter, sending him stumbling backward before he did a backward roll to his feet.
That's enough... Peter's eyes locked on Harry's with a furious expression and ran at him, using the wall to boost him up so that his legs came to lock around Harry's neck in a vice grip, trapping the older boy against the wall. Raining down four punches, Harry just took them as he cackled manically and Peter continued rolling with the punches, feeling himself get more desperate the more it didn't work. Eventually, Harry began walking forward enough to throw Peter's weight into the ground, causing the floor to give way leaving Peter to plummet another floor below.
Rolling onto his side, Peter cried out in pain as his ribs felt like they were slowly shattering inside of him, struggling to find the oxygen he needed to breathe. Eyeing the window at the end of the hallway, Peter stumbled to his feet and began limping desperately over to the exit he saw. He couldn't breathe, he needed to get out of here. Where was Alex? Was Alex out of the building? Where was the Avengers? Where was Tony?
Shooting a web at the window in front of him, Peter yanked at the glass, causing it to shatter. Climbing onto the outside of the building, Peter paused as he desperately gulped in the fresh night air, his entire body shaking as if it were about to collapse. Closing his eyes, he rested his forehead against the cool brick and took a moment to try and force down his racing heart that seemed to be echoing inside of his head. When bright light washed over him, he foolishly thought it was the Quinjet coming to his rescue. But the consistently high-tempo buzzing did not belong to a jet engine. Opening his eyes, Peter glanced behind him and saw that he was facing the front of the building and there was a crowd of people running outside of the complex, looking up at the scene as they collected outside. The light shining on him belonged to a helicopter and Peter's heart plummeted into his chest.
No, not like this... Peter felt like he was standing on thin ice that had just given way and he was slowly freezing to death in the dark water below.
Desperate to get out of the public eye, Peter crawled into an open window on the other side of the building. Any other time, he would've realize that was too convenient and he probably shouldn't have done that. For Harry was cackling at him as he sucker-punched Peter, who fell onto his hands in knees from the force. "As I said... Pathetically predictable."
Grabbing Peter by the back of his hoodie, he threw Peter up into the air and he had a deja-vu moment of being slammed into the ceiling before Harry caught him in a firefighter's hold. Before Peter had a chance to react, Harry dove downwards and suddenly Peter was free-falling, barely feeling the floor give way as he fell further and further downward. When Peter eventually did hit solid ground he blacked out for a second before he came to with the sudden urgency of not being able to breathe. Blinking against the black dots that were slowly entering his line of sight, Peter saw Harry above him and he couldn't see his attacker's hands. When Peter registered the pressure against his throat, he had a small part of his mind realize that Harry's hands had a death grip against his throat.
"You're weakness Peter is morality," Harry rasped manically, and Peter could see the evil humor in his face. This wasn't Harry. This was pure Goblin. "It's choking you!"
Peter lifted his hands to try and push Harry's hands away, but it was getting harder and harder to fight the longer he went without oxygen.
"Poor little Ned... Tossed to the side just because you were too blind to see what was right in front of you," Harry's voice seemed like it was miles away. "Can you feel it, Peter?"
Just when Peter thought he was going to lose the battle to remain conscious, suddenly an overwhelming wave of oxygen rushed over him and he began coughing as his brain slowly came back online.
"You insolent son of a bitch!" Harry snarled and Peter heard a thud somewhere off in the distance.
Turning onto his stomach to try and get on his hands and knees, he heard Harry continue, "You just don't know when to stop interfering in things that don't concern you. It's pathetic!" A foot came down on his back and Peter collapsed under the weight of it. Then there was a hand against his throat and a hand yanking at his hair, causing Peter's head to rise and survey the scene in front of him.
There in front of him was Alex, holding what looked to be a jagged piece of a broken pipe. Peter's heart sank. No, no, no, no... "Alex, please..."
"This is what happens when someone dabbles in things that don't pertain to them," Harry's raspy voice echoed in his ears.
Peter's sixth sense sent another shiver down his spine and he saw the gleam of a familiar silver object a split second before it came crashing through the front door of the apartment complex, slamming into Alex, causing him to fly off to the side a good six feet before colliding with the cement wall with a sickening crunching noise.
"Alex!" Peter cried out desperately as Harry suddenly released his hold on him in favor of jumping onto the hovering glider.
Peter struggled into a crouch, desperate to run to Alex, but knowing he still had to try and protect him. A newfound wave of adrenaline washed over him as he heard Harry's voice ring in his ears like nails on a chalkboard.
"Peter, Peter, Peter... You disappoint me. All of that weakness inside of you... It makes killing you so much less meaningful. But you can thank me later, you'll see him again." Harry reached into the glider and pulled out a familiar orange-shaped object that made Peter's heart skip a beat. He glanced over at Alex for a moment and Peter's gaze followed him and his stomach twisted nauseatingly. "After all, no good deed goes unpunished." A sickening smile appeared on Harry's face as he pressed down on the pumpkin bomb in his hand, and the object began to glow with lines of green, the constant ticking noise causing Peter's heart to race even faster. Harry tossed it over at Alex before turning around on his glider to leave.
"No!" Peter yelled as he dove towards the bomb, feeling the object bounce off his fingers before his world was consumed in a raging ball of fire.
It was the ringing in his ears that brought him back to reality, along with the overwhelming pounding in his head and the smoke that filled his nostrils. For a moment, Peter couldn't remember what had happened or if he had passed out, but as soon as Harry's face flashed in his mind, Peter's eyes flew open. Sitting up from where he was laying on the hard ground, Peter's eyes surveyed the fiery remains of his apartment building, debris scattered around him from Peter plummeting three stories below.
What have I done? Horror washed over Peter. All those people… God, I hope no one died.
One thing that Peter couldn't ignore was that his face felt extremely itchy and the skin was pulled tightly into a knot. Reaching up blearily to touch his face, he half expected to feel his mask firmly in place, however, when his fingers came into contact with the tender skin of his face, his stomach plummeted.
Tony's new Fireproof protocol... It must've force-activated... Peter thought blearily before another wave of memories washed over him. There was a helicopter outside, they saw my face… Peter began to panic. No, no, no… This can't be happening. This isn't happening… Wait… ALEX!
Memories of the older boy being flung into a wall by Harry's glider flashed in his mind, and Peter remembered the bomb that had been thrown his way. The bomb that Peter tried and failed to catch, causing both of them to be in the line of fire. Getting painfully to his feet, Peter wrapped a protective arm around his broken ribs as he desperately surveyed the remains, feeling raw panic begin to rise in him. He let out a cry of relief when he saw Alex in the same place as he was before the bomb had gone off. Running over to the raven-haired boy, Peter fell to his knees by Alex's side.
The sight before him was rather gruesome and it made his stomach roll when he saw that half of Alex's face and neck were exhibiting deep burns and his left leg was bent at an awkward angle.
"No…" Peter's hand came to rest on the good side of Alex's face as tears formed in his eyes. "I'm so sorry…"
It wasn't more than a second later that Peter realized his worst fear was playing out in front of him.
I can't hear his heartbeat… Why can't I hear his heart beating? Peter's hands scrambled over to Alex's neck and pressed down on the pulse point with his index and middle finger. When nothing came to life under his fingers, a spark of adrenaline coursed through his veins.
"No, no, no, no," Peter panicked as he rested his hands against Alex's chest and began compressions. "Don't do this, please don't do this. Not like this…" The crunching of Alex's sternum made Peter want to just break down in tears at that moment, but he pushed the feeling away. "Come on! Fight!"
He kept it up for a couple of minutes with no progress before an idea sparked in his brain. An idea that was impossible when Peter realized he had organic webs now and no synthetic web-shooters. He and Tony had been in the process of making them, but they hadn't been ready when Peter left to go back to Queens. He didn't have his electric webs to use as defibrillators, and he didn't have KAREN's voice telling him what to do. Minutes ticked by and Peter was feeling a wave of grief slowly creeping over him.
Please don't do this, Peter pleaded. I can't deal with losing you too... Please...
Just when Peter thought all hope was lost, he suddenly heard a weak heartbeat that echoed in his ears and a shallow gasp coming from the boy below him. Peter let out a relieved cry and collapsed against Alex's torso for a moment before he realized that probably wasn't a good idea.
Just as he was about to sit up, hands came to grab him around his chest in a gentle manner and someone began to pull him away. At first, he thought it was Harry coming back to finish what he had started, and he struggled against the strong arms shouting bloody murder, not wanting to leave Alex to the mercy of the Goblin's hands.
"Hey, hey, hey… Peter!"
The familiar echo of Captain America's voice rang in his ears and Peter quickly realized it was Steve who was holding him.
"No! Alex!" Peter continued to try and break free. He might've not been in mortal danger, but he didn't want to leave the boy he grew to see as a brother. He didn't want to leave Alex when it was Peter's fault that he got hurt in the first place.
"Tony's with him right now, Peter," Steve tried calming him down. "He's in good hands, you gotta let us help him."
"Alex…" Peter's voice broke.
"Is going to the compound where Dr. Cho is going to help him," Steve repeated softly.
The adrenaline was quickly wearing off and his mind was coming back to reality. Steve was sitting behind him with Peter pulled into his chest in a paralyzing hold. Despite the iron grip, the super soldier's arms were still gentle, as if he didn't want to hurt Peter further, the arms loosening a little as Peter's struggles weakened.
Breaking free of Steve's loosened hold, Peter rolled off to the side, landing on his hands and knees as the nausea finally won its battle and Peter violently heaved as his stomach rolled. When he calmed down, Steve pulled him back into a steady grounding hold, something that Peter had to admit was doing its job of bringing him back to reality.
"You back with me?" Steve asked him when he sensed Peter's breathing returning to normal.
"This is all my fault…" Peter began.
"Don't do that," Steve cut him off sternly. "Are you good to swing out of here or do you need Vision or Sam to give you a lift?"
"But I have to help… I did this…" Peter protested.
"Pete, you need to get out of here, okay? Let us handle this," Steve let Peter go so that he could stand up and help the shell shocked Peter to his feet. "Are you good on your own? Open and honest here, don't even think about lying to me."
Peter closed his eyes and clenched his fists in an effort to stop them from shaking. Finally, he decided he should go by himself because he wasn't exactly in the social mood and didn't want to have a pity party thrown his way. With a nod to Steve, Peter ran out of the building and hit the skies, not missing the flashes of the reporters and bystanders that had accumulated outside.
Two Words: I'm sorry
Was it good? Was it bad? Feel free to let me know!
Also minor disclaimer: I don't own that infamous fight scene from NWH, and I hope y'all understood why I thought it worked so well for this particular story. I tried making it my own the best I could.