Chapter 7

A Call to Arms

The entire city knew their favorite hero returned along with Spiderman. Crowds of people stood outside Michigan Avenue watching Spiderman and Frozone decorate the various buildings in webs of ice. The evening edition of newspapers read: Frozone is Back With Spiderman! Of course everyone knew of their relationship when Stark and Rogers appeared on the news for press conference to find Harry OsBorne.

"Sir, what is Spiderman and Frozone's relationship?" A reporter asked.

"Close, in fact they have been dating the past couple of weeks," Stark announced and quickly smiled to the cameras as reporters threw questions at them about Frozone and Spiderman. Peter looked away from the TV as Annie messed with the little candle on the table. She was freezing and melting the wax inside the jar to keep herself occupied.

"You're going to either freeze or set this place on fire. Which one is it?"

"Both…" Annie replied not taking her eyes off the candle.

"What's on your mind? You seemed out of it when you were picking out an outfit with Natasha," Peter asked her. Annie shook her head. Her phone buzzed and she looked at it to see a message. Rooftop at midnight sound good?

Annie quickly typed a quick reply and sent it. "Natasha is just asking where we are so she can babysit the morons," Annie said to Peter. He took a sip of champagne that was on the house from the manager of the restaurant.

"Annie… come on…"

"I'm fine, I'm just tired is all."

"You're lying. Your frown when you lie," Peter pointed out. Annie looked up from the candle and frowned.

"I do not… I'm just tired and honestly I'm pretty pissed off Tony announced to the world that you and I are dating," Annie whispered. Peter chuckled and looked around. No one was paying attention to them yet the manager knew Annie from school and waved at them from the front.

"You don't want to be here do you?" Peter asked her.

"I love this restaurant-"

"You know what I mean," Peter replied and Annie's face dropped.

"I haven't been back in years… I really let people down here when I took off and left," Annie replied.

"Where did you go? New York?" Peter asked. "Fury said you were untraceable for six months after you vanished from Chicago. People assumed you were dead."

"I was traveling so what?" Annie replied. Peter sighed and went back to watching her melt and freeze the wax.

"You said you wouldn't keep secrets… that's why I trusted you so much," Peter replied. Annie looked at him, her lip twitched. She leaned in and Peter did the same.

"I was at Xavier Institute For Higher Learners," She whispered.

"Wait… as in Charles Xavier's school? The mutant school Fury was talking about? Why?"

"Some things are better left until everyone knows the whole story, Peter," She replied.

"Fury doesn't know why?"

"Nope. Only one other person knows."

"Who?"

"My half-sister," Annie replied.

She waited until Peter was fast asleep before throwing on jeans, and a jacket. She quietly walked past Stark's room and took the stairs up to the rooftop of the hotel.

"So you finally decide to show your ugly mug and with one of the top popular superheroes too. Aren't we creative…" A voice said and Annie smiled.

"Nice to see you too… How long has it been two months?"

"Eh, it seems longer." The women appeared from out of the dark, her blond hair falling past her shoulders. Her face looked tired beyond belief and her clothes were wrinkled from a long day of hard work. Annie rushed forward and hugged the women tightly. "Missed you too, sis."

"You cannot believe the shit I've been through the past few months, Raven," Annie replied.

"I can believe, trust me. Charles has us working to the bone on the vanishing Mutants case."

"Mutants are vanishing?" Annie asked.

"All the ones created by Dr. Nevilles himself," Raven replied.

"Loki must be behind it then… he's trying to find my weakness."

"If you keep hanging around Parker he'll just use him."

"How-"

"Sweetie don't even. Fury tells Charles everything and I also did some research."

"Have you found any information?"

"Nothing really except a faint trace of Osborne near United Center."

"That was already shot down…" Annie turned around and kicked a lone brick.

"Doesn't that Foster women have something to track Thor's brother?"

"No, he can't be traced. Everyone thought he died over a year ago."

Raven clicked her tongue and scratched her head. She loved Annie to death and didn't want this bothersome creature hunting her down but why did he kidnap the Osborne kid?

"Annie?"

"Yeah?'

"I did find out something though… about this Loki character," Raven replied.

"What?"

"He has a battle ship near Mars ready to attack at any moment." Annie turned and looked at her best friend. "Charles and Nick are calling for a Call to Arms with President Obama. We're trying to gather up as many suitable Mutants for battle preparations but the amount of soldiers or creatures on that ship is unknown. It's been there for a few weeks, maybe even months."

"Over a year…" Annie whispered.

"Possibly."

"So we're working with the X-Men now?"

"Starting tomorrow it'll be official with the government," Raven replied.

"At least I got my best friend by my side," Annie said and wrapped her arm around Raven's. They both smiled and looked up at the stars.

"One day… I want to find someone who will honestly love me like you do," Raven replied.

"Just think, they'll find your blue skin very kinky in bed," Annie giggled and winked and Raven shoved her away.

"I also have something for you from Charles," Raven said and handed her a silver box. Annie took it and opened it to see silver gloves with blue swirls as a decoration. She pulled out a silver card.

"Not every Mutant was created to be heroes. Remember who the real enemy is. X."

Loki held a syringe in front of Harry like a dagger.

"What will it do?" Harry asked.

"Make you a god," Loki replied. His partner in crime stood in the corner looking out the window.

"Oh come on, Bucky, be more happy for this kid." Bucky turned and waved his finger around with a straight face. Loki rolled his eyes. "No wonder why people hate you. You're never full of excitement these days… lighten up a bit," Loki said and turned to face Harry.

"Could this kill me?"

"Possibly," Loki replied as the syringe was inches from Harry's skin. "It will fight back and try to take control of your body. Just let it for a second, throw it off guard and take control again. It'll never win then." Loki plunged the syringe and pushed the virus into Harry's bloodstream. At first Harry felt calm and relaxed. Loki stepped back and Bucky stood next to him watching Harry. Harry pulled on the restraints quickly as the virus made his skin bubble.

He was standing in the forest when he saw a women wearing white. Her hair was the color of snow and her eyes a bright green.

"Who are you?" The women asked him.

"I'm Harry OsBorne, head of OsCorp," Harry replied.

"Who are you?"

"I just told you, I'm Harry-"

"Who are you?"

Harry's hand flinched. "Look lady-"

"If you don't know who you are, how can I possibly tell you who I am?" The women asked. Harry froze.

"I'm…" He looked down at his hands. They were green. "I'm… Goblin."

"I'm Azael."

"Good to know, why are you here?"

"You were injected with a virus that could possibly damage every nerve cell in your body, destroy your state of mind or even kill you if it is strong enough," Azael replied.

"I was already told this? Are you even real? Is this just a dream?"

"Life doesn't always end with a happy ending, Harry. In dreams we can sift through our deepest desires or uttermost fears but you Harry, are in a reality nightmare," Azael cooed and vanished into thin air. That's when the screaming start and Harry turned to see Gwen Stacy's broken body dangling in mid air.

"HARRY HELP ME!" The screaming cried out. Harry ran from the body and continued towards the voice until he hit an invisible barrier. It felt like glass to the touch and he looked to see Gwen's face instead of his own reflection.

"Why?" She asked him. "Why did you let me die?"

He screamed and shut his eyes, the screaming continued as other voices cried out for his help. He looked up to see Annie's reflection snickering at him.

"Who would want you? Spiderman is strong and you're just weak," Annie mocked him.

"No… no!" Harry cried and covered his ears as Annie's scream echoed throughout the forest. It continued for what seemed like hours when her voice grew quiet and he heard a loud crack. He looked up to see Annie's body on the ground, her neck broken from the fall. Peter stood over her crying and looked at him. Harry looked down and saw in his hand was a silver glove with swirls. One of Annie's gloves was missing. Peter looked up and saw the glove in Harry's hand.

"You did this! You killed Annie!" Peter cried out and Harry felt a sharp hot pain go through his chest as he was pulled back and the screaming continued. He fell to his knees and covered his ears. The pain, the screaming, Annie's death. He couldn't take. He started to scream and beg to make everything stop.

"STOP! MAKE IT STOP! WAKE UP!" Harry screamed. All at once it stopped and his world was covered in darkness.