Chapter 2: Hobgoblin (Middle)
Somewhere in New York, at a nice apartment housing, we see Michael at his desk on his personal laptop computer to watch videos of Hobgoblin vs Spiderman from the first, second, and current one that took place. He played the three videos simultaneously and started to look closely at those fights before him.
"The first appearance - Hobgoblin was more of a thief and stealing more equipment from his own down with a personal hatred towards Norma Osborn. He didn't have much experience with fighting one-on-one or superhuman abilities as evidenced by Spiderman easily overpowering him & escaping while barely holding onto his glider," Michael thought, cupping his chin in thought and taking that picture of Hobgoblin's first appearance on his case board on the wall, marking that said goblin with thief on top.
"The second and a few other appearances - Hobgoblin appears to be more aggressive and has knowledge over firearms when using stolen military weaponry from Oscorp R&D. He had more experience with fighting like someone with military training and fought against Spiderman's freestyle fighting. He seems to be more of making sure his enemies are crushed before leaving with the money or equipment he has stolen. The only one who knows who Hobgoblin is underneath his mask is Spiderman because he removed the mask and soon the glider took the goblin to crash to his death. Granted, he was rushed to hospital and given heavy amounts of operations, being in a coma," Michael thought with a frown and marked the second picture of the Hobgoblin to be Army Ranger above the said picture.
"The current showing - Hobgoblin tried to kill Arlecchino but failed due to Peter pushing her out of the way and said goblin fought Spiderman throughout a good part of the city. It seems like a combination of both but in reality, it's not as Hobgoblin uses more pieces of equipment and even has a special laser-type pistol to show his deadly marksmanship. So assassin...I don't think so as targeting a business person is one thing but to try to kill one of the last nobles in the world who has a big influence in New York would shake a lot of things. This seems more like the move of an idealist than an assassin," Michael thought, putting the third and last picture of the Hobgoblin up on the wall with the title idealist on top.
Michael looked at the thief, army ranger, and idealist of the Hobgoblin. Three different versions and yet one goblin but still who is the Hobgoblin and what are his goals? It seems the said goblin targets Osborn's company and now Arlecchino. Personal revenge or hired by a rival company? Good questions yet was hard to tell for the red-haired teen.
Then something rubbed against one of Michael's legs, causing him to look down and see one of the cats that lived at his home, a white-furred cat. That said cat was named Snowflakes, one of the cats that live here and the teen kind of owns but in reality, is owned by someone else. And it seems this cat must have sneaked into the office now wanting something to drink or eat.
"Snowflakes, come on. Let's get you something to drink and eat up," Michael said as he got up from his chair and shut down his computer, having the white cat following him.
In the living room, we see several cats lying around, playing, drinking to eating while Snowflakes happily join the others and Michael walks into the living room to see the owner of the said cats on the sofa. He soon saw the owner of the cats to his view of his limited vision when walking closer to the sofa which happens to be two years older than him.
This was Felicia Hardy, the heiress of the Hardy Foundation as her mother was the CEO, a member of Oscorp's board of directors, and the Daily Bigle's biggest advertisers. She also hosts a few charity balls and even has a secret within her claws in more ways than one.
Now how did Michael meet such an heiress and allow this cat with her pets to live with him? Well, it started two years ago when Michael first started up in Midtown High School, wanting to go there instead of Bayville, and was able to get his guardian/adopted mother to agree on that. He was met to sign up for his classes but was put on hold when finding out some football players were ambushing and ripping some of the clothes off a white-haired woman. He had used his mutant powers, one of them was a powerful sonic bird cry and caused bad ear damage to those bastards from the football team before getting their heads smashed up against the wall. Luckily, they were too stupid and couldn't figure out what happened. Though some of their parents wanted the school to remove the red-haired teen from the grounds for harming their 'good boys' but lucky that were stopped by a certain figure from Bayville's school and Felicia's mother to even arrest some of those bastards for admitting sexual assault.
Ever since then and for the past two years now, Felicia has been close with Michael since then. Even her teasing was a disguise that she was two years older than him and such but her intentions were clear and become more ever since she seems to be living with him. Though she has owned her place and penthouse that her mother lives in but personal home was where she stashed her more exciting times for her night events.
"How many stray cats you have brought in this time?" Michael asked, trying to count the number of cats within his limited eyesight and hearing some of the meows far away from him.
"Just two more, we have ten cats, Michael," Felicia replied as she crossed her legs and drank her tea from her cup.
"I see...," Michael said as he sat down on the sofa next to the white-haired beauty who smiled.
"Using that brain of yours for special cases huh?" Felicia asked or rather stated as she had seen her friend's detective board and web line connections to serval things even a new one that goes into the Hobgoblin.
"Pretty much," Michael admitted, rubbing the back of his head with his right hand.
"You could be a cop or private detective much earlier than normal," Felicia remarked, noting that her friend was gifted genius and clever at reading people.
"Maybe," Michael said, not seeing himself as a cop but a private detective could be interesting and a bit ironic as his grandmother was a thief down with a detective who did several cases with his adopted mother.
Also, the red-haired teen had other plans and put his abilities to use against crime in New York. It should be interesting.
"(Sigh) I see you are making yourself home again, Ms Hardy," A female voice said, annoyed at the white-haired woman for making herself at home and living with Michael.
Michael knew that female voice well and saw his adopted mother but using a more 'normal' appearance and cover-up due to her natural one was a giveaway. He saw that she still had her long beautiful red hair and eyes mixed with grey to blue, having a mature figure of a model that could make others turn heads from both men & women to even lusting after her. Her attire was a red dress that showed her cleavage and long legs with matching color heels.
This was Raven Darkholme, using one of her normal appearances to avoid suspicion and wasn't going to show it around this cat who has moved into Michael's life.
"And you are bringing in more cats," Raven said, being pretty annoyed by the number of cats living in the apartment housing with Michael.
"Michael doesn't mind and I will do all that I wish for myself & my babies," Felicia fired back in defense as she picked up one of her cats to pet and give affection.
This gives Raven much annoyance but did raises an eyebrow when a few cats are nearby her and raised an eyebrow as this gives her a few ideas with all of the cats. She will be able to blend in as one of the cats herself thanks to her being a shapeshifter. She found that ironic and was still annoyed by how Felicia was moving more freely into Michael's life. Was it jealousy or being protective? Pretty much both even she won't admit out loud.
"Do you have another speech to be ready for a charity event, Ms. Hardy?" Raven asked.
"Already taken care. All of them are the same yet different from each other and my mother handles most of them but I have done a few of them and Michael was a good listener," Felicia replied, being reasonable and had a feeling that the next few speeches for charity would most likely do a few for her mother.
Michael has listren to Felicia's speech and became a good editor.
"You don't say," Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Is that a problem?" Michael asked his adopted mother.
"Not really. I just don't like people using you or more cats coming over," Raven replied as a few cats were rubbing against her leg for attention and hummed on that.
"I am not using Michael, Mrs Darkholme," Felicia pointed out, assuring that wasn't her intentions
"Ms. Darkholme...I know you are not using Michael but when you deal with business and wealth for a good part of your life, you remain on guard," Raven informed due to her history.
"Reasonable but still," Felicia said with a small frown.
"Please, let's not have another argument. Mother, I don't mind Felicia coming over from time to time or the cats living here. They do make things less quiet and less lonely. Now more cats? I think ten is enough," Michael said, being a great voice of reason and making good points on both sides.
"I could agree with that," Felicia admitted.
"Alright, I just don't want you to go over...well you know," Raven said, rubbing her arm in comfort with her hand and frowned on recalling how she found the grandson of her close friend in such a bad state.
Michael frowned with a sigh and nodded his head in understanding of that. He can understand why his adopted mother was protective of him and started years ago when his former relatives abused & treated him like a dog even making fun of his disability. When he was five years old, five going to seven they treated him like a slave or a dog they punched around. It was thanks to Raven that changed and was able to get this good stable life where he is now.
Felicia sensed that unease and held Michael's hand in comfort, relaxing him, and smiled back. Raven went to get her cup and drink some coffee while thinking over things.
"Overprotective? Yes, but I can see how Felicia cares about Michael, even if she comes here and makes herself at home. However, I can agree with Michael that having friends is a good thing and people over with a limited number of cats is reasonable. When I adopted him as a personal favor for Irene from her will that I look after and take care of her grandson, I promised to make sure he doesn't get abused like that ever again. I wish Irene was here and I can have her input on this...maybe I can talk with Erika about this," Raven thought, being in deep thought and planning on talking with a good friend of hers about this state of parenting.
Granted, Raven has serval children and one was adopted but they were raised differently from each other and different compared to Michael's. She even made sure not to get her adopted son involved with Mutant/Human events to mutant civil rights stuff. That's what she did for her adopted daughter and didn't work out in the end to be apart from each other but maybe one day that can change. So a meeting with her friend - Erika was the next best thing as she didn't want to deal with the likes of Victoria again or talk with her two adopted sisters. We shall how that goes down along with this madness and question that the Hobgoblin was bringing up.