Peter felt terrible after Mary Jane broke up with him, and he couldn't figure out what he had done wrong. Was it wrong to be a hero? Wrong to enjoy the cheers of the crowd?
He suited up as Spider-Man and swung aimlessly through the city's night sky, searching for something—anything—to vent his frustration on.
Whoosh!
A green pumpkin bomb suddenly appeared behind him. Even with his spider-sense warning him, Peter didn't have time to dodge before it exploded.
"Ah!" The blast sent him crashing into a wall, leaving a large crater. He groaned in pain, rubbing his back as he struggled to get up.
"Hello, Spider-Man!"
A dark green figure floated slowly into view. Harry, clad in the Green Goblin suit, hovered on his glider, sneering down at Peter.
"Do you recognize this gear, my great hero?"
Harry's face twisted with hatred. At last, he was going to avenge his father.
"Norman Osborn. Do you remember him?" Harry lunged forward and struck Peter hard. "The man you killed. Now his son is here to collect the debt!"
"Harry?" Peter staggered from the blow, disbelief filling his eyes.
"How rare. A hero who swings around the city all day actually remembers the name of someone insignificant," Harry mocked. Enhanced by the serum, his physical abilities were nearly on par with Peter's.
He grabbed Peter by the shoulders, slamming him against the wall and dragging him along it.
"Do you have any idea how much I hate you?!"
Harry hurled Peter into the air. With no tall buildings nearby to anchor himself, Peter had no choice but to fire a web at Harry's glider and get dragged along with it.
"I'll repay you double for the pain my father suffered!"
Harry pulled a dagger from his coat—the same weapon he had once planned to use with Otto to execute Spider-Man. Back then, Renzo had interfered, and Otto had beaten him badly, foiling the plan.
Now, in midair, Peter had no way to fight back. He could only endure the relentless assault.
In truth, even on the ground, Peter would have hesitated to fight his friend. Despite everything, he couldn't bring himself to hurt Harry.
Boom!
Peter slammed into a wall again. Harry immediately followed up, slashing him with the dagger and leaving a deep cut. Under the continuous barrage, Peter was quickly wearing down.
Boom!
Another pumpkin bomb detonated, leaving Peter battered and bloodied, barely able to stand.
"Now you understand my father's pain!" Harry sneered, gripping the dagger as he slowly approached. "Show me your real face!"
"No, Harry!"
Harry slashed downward. The mask—Spider-Man's symbol—fell away. At the same time, a cut opened on Peter's face, blood trickling down.
Harry froze.
Disbelief flashed in his eyes as he stared at the exposed face. He rubbed his eyes, but the image didn't change.
"Haha… Peter… hahaha… Peter Parker!" Harry's laughter turned hollow and broken. "The one who killed my father… was you!"
His smile twisted into something bitter, and the light drained from his eyes. His best friend… had killed his father.
Memories flooded his mind—every moment they had shared. They had once been so close. His father had treated Peter like a son.
And now…
The shock was too much. Harry stumbled backward, forgetting he was standing on a glider high above the ground.
As expected, he lost his footing.
In front of Peter, Harry fell from dozens of meters in the air, plummeting toward the ground. Fortunately, a line snagged him partway down, slowing his descent and preventing an instant death.
Even so, the impact was brutal. The back of his head struck the steps hard, blood immediately pooling beneath him as he lost consciousness.
"Harry!" Peter shouted, blood filling his mouth, his eyes full of anguish.
...
"This is your base? Not very impressive." Renzo led Flint into Dr. Otto's laboratory. The dark, damp environment immediately made Flint uncomfortable—moisture in the air caused his sand body to clump together.
"Hey! Why did you bring an outsider here?" Otto snapped, glaring at Renzo with clear displeasure.
"What kind of circus are you running here? A metal man, an octopus—what next? A spider kid?" Flint scoffed.
"He guessed correctly," Otto said calmly as he walked past them.
"You must have seen that spider boy before."
"Yeah, I knocked him to the ground and beat him up," Flint said with a hint of pride. It was their first encounter—Peter hadn't understood his abilities yet, so taking a loss had been natural.
Renzo didn't expose the exaggeration. He simply smiled and turned to Otto.
"Doctor, do you have a way to cure cancer?"
"Please. I'm a scientist, not a physician. If you need medical treatment, go to a hospital," Otto replied dismissively without even looking up.
"You lied to me!" Flint exploded in anger, his body instantly dissolving into a swirling mass of sand, ready to attack.
"But what if we built a machine that could cure it?"
Flint's raised sand fist froze midair as he waited for the rest.
"Do you actually have that kind of capability?" Otto tensed as Flint's towering sand form loomed over him. The four mechanical arms behind him twitched, ready to strike at any moment.
"Of course. In my world, it's called a Regeneration Cradle," Renzo said with a faint smile. "A technology that reconstructs and repairs the human body at the cellular level."
"That's fascinating." Otto stepped forward, suddenly energized. Though not a doctor, the technology clearly involved advanced principles of physics, biology, and chemistry—fields he was deeply passionate about.
"If this technology were realized, it could drastically reduce deaths from cancer and severe injuries."
"With the two of us working together, we should be able to build it within a week," Renzo said, tapping his temple. Before Dr. Helen Cho had publicly introduced the technology, its data had already been stored in advanced systems—and it just so happened Renzo retained that knowledge.
"Oh, right—I forgot to introduce you." Renzo tapped his forehead with mild annoyance.
"This is Dr. Otto—one of the most brilliant scientists in the world."
"And this is Flint Marco. A fugitive… though you can also call him Sandman."
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