Raptor of life 9.2 (Patreon)

This is the edited chapter by sinisterr, thanks to pids, sky and Blackstarline for their help too.

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Queens
Grey Penthouse
08:02 PM

Finally I reached home. Once I was in the penthouse, I informed mom that I already ate at my friend’s, and to leave the leftovers of dinner for me in a Tupperware in the fridge. I would eat those tomorrow at school, for lunch. Walking through the corridors of the penthouse, I mused over how the day went as I climbed up the stairs that led to my bedroom. The escort detail, going to look for Jessica and Patsy, their reaction when their mom was being made aware about my kidnapping attempt. They had  become rather clingy after that, subtly flanking me, and paying better attention to our surroundings than they would normally. Then Jessica and I outing ourselves to our friends. All those were important events that were either manipulated by me or by happenstance; and I needed a way to take advantage of them for later in the game, after Sinister was dealt with.

There was so much to do, and I couldn’t gauge how much time I had before Sinister had enough of waiting and dispatched his real heavy hitter to come take me. It could be tomorrow or next month– time would tell. Closing my bedroom door, I flung my bag at the feet of my bed, stripping off my clothes and doing the same with them. The door to the bathroom opened itself, and I landed on the clean bathroom floor while thinking about what I was going to do tonight.

I needed an ally, someone loyal through and through; someone who wouldn’t shy away from commiting dirty deeds for good reasons. They had to be mentally and ethically flexible as well, while also being aware of when they couldn’t cross the line. 

Those requirements floated in my head while I was in the shower, shampooing my hair and applying African black soap on my body with repetitive but careful movements for another five minutes everywhere. Thinking was never hard in the shower; I could release my worries and actually l find solutions to my problems after some relaxation. 

Twenty minutes later, I left the shower cabin with the bare bones of a plan slowly growing in my mind. Willing myself to be dry, my power answered and the water evaporated from my skin and hair. No pesky hairdryer to damage my hair for me, thank you. I brushed my teeth, then directed my thoughts to this halloween party that I had decided to participate in.

It had slipped my mind as I had more pressing business occupying my thoughts, like the kidnapping attempt or meeting with Magneto and the Brotherhood lite. In the end they weren’t all that much, I mean they have to hide like prey and espouse an ideology of hate and intolerance; and I wasn’t interested in it. After meeting the Brotherhood, I realized they were a part of the problem I needed to resolve.

“Sooner or later, I will either convert them or destroy them completely.” I promised aloud, telling myself I would be merciful but also savvy, if some of them don’t want to change accidents could be arranged later.

The future was uncertain and full of horror perpetuated by Mutant or Human. *Wait! Mutant, Human, Mutant, Human. Metahuman? That’s a good name, better than Innovade and... Already taken by DC comics. Fuck them, I will use it. You know what? To avoid getting sued, I will buy them, Warner too.*

I planned to grow wealthier than Stark anyway. The first step would be to set up a workshop, buy the tools to make the tools needed to build the tech that I wanted. 2010+ tech to start with, then I will go to infinity and beyond. Floating a Nirvana band t-shirt, panties and short shorts, I put them on absently. Once I was clothed, I felt a presence nearing my room and by the texture of the thoughts I guessed that it was mom.

Knock. Knock.

“Enter.” 

Mom entered the room, beaming at me, but I knew something was wrong as it failed to reach her eyes. opened the door and entered my room, she gave me a big smile.. With her long blonde hair unbound and red satin long nightgown. I stared at my mom. I hoped that I would age this well when I will be her age. She did look like me when she was a teen. 

When she looked at the ground, with clothes strewn everywhere, and books I didn’t bother to place back on the shelves, a displeased expression showed on her face.  Without saying anything I gathered my clothes under her inscrutable eyes. Throwing them in the laundry basket near my closet, I used my TK to return to the books back on the bookshelves.

I smiled at her, but it fell short when I felt mom continue to watch me,  as if she was searching for something familiar. She was feeling distraught and sad.

“Hey mom, did you need anything? Or is this a surprise inspection of my bedroom?” I asked her, waving lamely. She often did surprise inspections, and the punishments she gave me were legendary when I didn't clean up.

After a long moment of silence, Mom breathed-in, her voice hesitant when she spoke, “Sweetheart… We must talk about-”

I tilted my head and finished her sentence thanks to what was at the forefront of her thoughts. “The killings? Sure.” I said in a rather blasé attitude.

Mom’s thoughts became more chaotic as I sat on my bed, crossed my legs and stared at her in a detached manner. I felt that this was going to be bad. Elaine Grey lived in a neat and ordered world, completely different from what Marvel had been throwing at me on unsuspecting days. Having powers in this universe was a curse; there was no good or evil, the universe simply was.

She observed me for a long time, searching for a reaction. I showed none. The sooner she accepted that it was not going to change, the happier she would be. 

“D-Don't you feel anything about it?” She seemed bothered by me not feeling anything about it.

I leaned forward and said in a bored voice, “Mom, what do you really want me to say? That I am sorry, and that I don't sleep at night because I see those people’s faces all the time?” I served her with all the cliché things I heard about killing.

Other-self chastised me and gave me a headache by shouting in my head. She never liked it when I became mean with my parents, but it was warranted in this situation. I shrugged, continuing, “I stopped thinking like that after the first three times they attempted to take me, even when I escaped and let them live, they kept coming. They almost succeeded one day, you know? I remember when I was twelve years old and those two clones tried to take me from the street on the way to school and that I’d been  forced to turn them into vegetables.” I snapped my fingers.

I, Jean Grey, was the product of my surroundings; without knowing, Sinister was forging and honing a blade that would strike at him sooner or later.

My eyes met mom’s glistening ones. Feeling her emotions, and reading her surface thoughts, I realised she lamented the fact that I didn't have a good enough childhood, what with Annie's death, the bullying in elementary school, me putting some of my bullies in the hospital and the fact that I had no friends before finally finding some in high school. She blamed herself for not seeing any of those problems and dealing with them for me, as my mother.

*This wasn’t her fault. Other self is right. I am being mean.*

Sighing, I raised from the bed, walking up to her and taking her hands in mine. “When I kill someone it's often for a good reason. I stopped feeling guilty about it and moved on. Think of me as a cop or a special agent of SHIELD– they have to kill people when they have no choice or when the baddies take hostages.”

“Your father gave me the same explanation, he didn't see the problem with what you are doing either, but I guess it's just me who sees one…?” Elaine lowered her eyes sadly, with a contrite expression.

Enfolding her in my arms, I hugged mom tightly and whispered in her ear, “Mom, you know I love you right? You are a good person, and you aren’t made for the kind of world I found myself in. That’s why I will protect you with everything I have, always.”

I stepped back from her but still held on her arms, my expression serious. I tried to reassure her by saying, “If anyone threatened you or took you from me there's nothing I wouldn't do to get you back. I think in those terms when I do what I do.”

There was some last token resistance to my way of thinking in Mom. “But what gives you the right? We have laws for this, you should be having fun with your friends and not care about anything but being a kid.”

I pulled mom to my bed and we sat, and I instantly said what weighed on my mind. “Mom, under the veneer of civilization, humans are all animals. We are messed up, balls of instincts and needs, even with laws in place we seek to advance ourselves and strive for power, status, sex and shiny things. People don't care about laws, they only fear it’s enforcers and being put away for good in a box. At least that's how I see it in their minds, only the consequences stop everyone from killing each other.”

I continued. “And about being a kid? Sure, but I am growing up, still it’s thanks to you listening to me and letting me go to Midtown high that I have some normal friends. Friends who will follow me all my life. So mom, don’t worry, sooner or later that guy trying to kidnap me will make a mistake, and I will kill him for it. Then, finally I’ll be free, and can stop placing my life on hold and constantly looking over my shoulder.”

With this, mom’s conscience was laid to rest. I hugged her again before she returned to bed to sleep. Glancing at the clock on the white wall near my bed, I saw that it was already 10:00 pm.

# # #

My body was asleep in my bed, and my astral form was now overseeing the building where my parent’s penthouse was located. My plan about seeking someone was now on the rail and I was sifting through the thought streams of everyone in the mental detection field in my radius. Eight kilometers is what I could keep under control without succumbing to madness with many thoughts assailing and overwhelming me.

I’d slowly but surely push myself to double that amount by the end of this month, until one day, I’d be more efficient than Xavier, and distance would not hinder me in any way. *And I will need no Cerebro to cheat.* Until then, I would stick with what I knew how to do.

As I was saying, my mind accessed the thought streams and I began searching for specific thought patterns and emotions. I don’t know how to classify this knowledge I had but people's thoughts have flavor and texture, colors even. Each color was linked  to an emotion and, in turn, emotions were linked to thoughts; thoughts are ideas or arrangements of ideas that result from thinking.

A thought may be an idea, an image, a sound or even an emotional feeling that arises from the brain. Then from the brain, those kind of misty streams rise up and lead out to a portal which heads  to the astral plane.

What I was doing was akin to putting search words in my google bar and for it to come up with results for me. For example, emotions had colors– red was for anger, embarrassment, passion or lust. Blue denoted shyness, sadness or calmness.Yellow symbolizes cowardice, happiness, or caution. Green hints at disgust, envy, friendliness, or greed. Purple can indicate pride, fear, or courageousness. Grey signals depression, regular sadness, or stoicism. Black emanates coldness or mournfulness. Pink signals cheeriness, embarrassment, or love. White represents shock, fear, coldness.

There is a quote from Edgar Allan Poe that I found fitted well with what I was currently doing. “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Doing the search by day would have been easier than night people who were asleep or fatigued were  more difficult to make sense of.

What I saw was depressing; there was a lot of dull grey, green and purple in the mass of the thought streams I was seeing. Greed and envy, fear and depression in various shades. The world… no, humans made it so difficult to tolerate existence. However, amongst the mass of negativity streams, you also found positive ones. Like right now. I found it when I flew over Brighton Beach, the neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City’s borough of Brooklyn because I was unable to  find my potential ally near my building.

This thought stream was beautiful. It shifted in the purple of pride and courageousness, light grey for sadness, yellow for caution, red for passion and blue for calmness. It was a sign that this person lived with their head held high, even through the shit life threw at them. They seemed to have a horrible life from what I could pick up. I was led to a really bad part of New York where the street was unkempt, and there was the burned hull of a car in a spot that led to an alley. Deeper into it was some kind of  discrete sign that lit up the darkness electrical blue, and under it was some kind of reinforced door. Not caring one iota about the obstacle, I stepped through it.I became witness to what I could only describe as decadence. There was a throng of men smoking and drinking under red lights, all seated in different booths. Girls of different ethnicity and age ranging from seventeen to twenty five strode in bikini tops and micro-skirts, wearing high heels  and serving drinks and food. Russian music blared from the speakers which were placed at strategic points in the entire room.

As I didn’t have any sense of smell right now, I was unable to describe the scent, and thank goodness for that; the pungent smoke alone would’ve made me choke. I shrugged, then followed the interesting stream to the back of the room where there was a kind of hidden door which I passed through. I wish I didn’t.

The lewd moans and noise of flesh slapping flesh were what first clued me in that I’ve ended up in some sort of illegal brothel. “What the fuck?”

I continued to follow the stream, ignoring the half-opened doors where those girls were used by those pigs. Most of them didn’t come here willingly, some even drugged to the gills to keep them from acting up. In my mind, I was already scheming on how to save them, and how I’d burn this place down and kill anyone linked to this business.

I went deep in this hidden level, the drab painted black walls and brown carpet covering the ground was barely enlightened though. There were stairs, and as I climbed them, the stream thickened and I sensed distress coming from it.

Going through the door, this time I ended up seeing another scene, I wished I didn’t. On the bed before me were a man and woman going at it.

The man between the young woman’s legs  finally finished spending himself inside her. He kissed her, but I didn’t see her react at all. The man had at least twenty years on her, looking pasty white with a bald head. He seemed heavy, too. Pushing himself off her, he went into the bathroom adjoined with the room. The young woman finally reacted, sitting up and looking at herself. She was beautiful. I couldn’t guess at her ethnic heritage as her skin was a warm ivory, her eyes and hair a rich brown color. She was taller than I and in shape– the kind of body you attribute to a dancer.

Her face was heart shaped, a pert nose and refined cheekbones. She was a woman who belonged on  magazine covers. I’d never felt this inadequate in my life, and I knew that I was beautiful, but her beauty was on a whole other level. 

I watched her for a long moment as she gazed at her hands, and entered in deep introspection. I felt the distress and self-loathing she exuded; she didn’t want to be here, she didn’t want to let that man or any man touch her this way again. But she was powerless, a slave, and… The young woman suddenly looked at me as if she could see me.

We looked at each other for three seconds, and when she glanced at the bathroom door, I was reassured. Her gaze returned to me again, though. “You! What are you doing here?” She sputtered, attempting to cover her naked form with a pillow. Then she covered herself with a pillow.

I flinched and said dumbly, “Wait, y-you can see me?”

It shouldn’t be possible. I am in astral form and she is a-

The woman glared at me. “Of course I can see you! Did Anton send you to assist me?”

I gaped at her forwardness. Meanwhile, feelings of worry, a sense of déja vu and a sense of familiarity gradually filled her as she took me in. She gathered her hair and styled it into a loose chignon. This Anton person didn’t rate much in her memories.

“No, I was looking for someone to help me.”

The statement seemed to have dislodged free a memory in her brain, and when I watched it unfold, I saw myself saying those same exact words. *What the hell?!*

The ivory skinned beauty left the bed, standing. She didn’t try to reach for me and there were two expressions battling on her face: anger and relief. “You took your damn time!”

“Huh, what?” She unsettled me as what she thought and felt didn’t make sense to me.

Her glare intensified. I didn’t know why she felt so familiar with me, but it seemed that she would explain everything to me whether I wanted it or not. “I’ve been waiting for someone to come free me. I can see the future! One year ago, before Anton forced me into this place, you appeared to me in a vision.”

I raised a hand, halting her speech. “Okay, wait.”

What are the chances that I end up finding someone who seemed to have special eyes or some kind of clairvoyance power when I was looking for an ally?

*What’s her name anyway?* As I thought the question, it revealed itself in my mind. Samira Khan, twenty five year old, school drop out, forced into prostitution by her uncle under some asshole called Anton Popov– the boss of this bordelo.

Samira neared, and her voice held a desperate tinge to it. “There’s no need to wait. I will do anything to get free, please.”

Her eyes held no tears; they must’ve dried long ago with everything that had been done to her,but my empathic ability sensed that she was on the verge, at least mentally. There was no way that I would leave her there. And I couldn’t say no to such a beauty… down Jean! You have Cindy!

The teenage hormones finally calmed down when I stomped on them with my control, allowing me to think rationally. The fact that Samira had precog powers changed nothing; she was perfect for me. “If you can see me it means you have powers, either you are like me or…” I thought aloud.

“My grandmother was a soothsayer, well respected in India.” Samira interjected helpfully.

“Okay, Magical lineage, got it. I am going to help you, and we will see what I can do for you.”

“Thanks, really thanks, this… has been a while since I felt hope; but… you are not really here?” She asked, plunging her hand in my astral form before retracting it. I felt nothing when she did it, strange. “Don't worry, my abilities are versatile and powerful. I can manifest my powers from afar.”

Then Marvel chose this exact moment to interrupt us. The rapist exited the bathroom. “Sam, ləv (love) do you need to…”

Before he could finish his sentence, I broke his neck with my TK. With a sickening crack, the naked man fell heavily on the ground. I didn't anticipate my new friend's reaction though.

“Oh my god!” Samira shouted, jumping up in shock. 

She took step backs until she fell on the bed, gazing at me with horror and fear. *Squeamish aren't we?*

“1 of 34, the list is short for once.” I nodded, still feeling how many men were left within the building. Samira stared at me, then at the man who had bought her service. She felt numb to my empathy, until her outburst.  “Y-you killed him!”

I threw a derisive look her way. “What did you think would happen?”

“He was…” Samira was now remembering that he was the less worst of the lot. What he did to Smira was rape as she was an unwilling particapant. A bit of Stockholm syndrome had reared its head.

I choose to use the safest route to achieve my goal. Samira wanted to be free; she might fuck up the process, so I will have her contained. “Samira, I will get you out of here. Though you may want to remain in this room while I go take care of everyone downstairs. You said that you'd do anything, but it seems that you don't want to dirty your hands.”

Samira stared at me like I was the devil who presented her with a tough choice. I snorted, *She will come to my way of thinking sooner or later.*

Her face held anguish until  she balled her hands into fist, reaching the decision  that she was powerless to change anyway. I had already decided to save the women. “Please at least spare the girls!” She blurted out.

I became somewhat offended that she thought that I was a murder hobo or something. “Hey! I didn't intend to kill the women, all the men will be killed though, deal?” Some feminist in my other self’s world would have loved what I am about to do.

“Deal.” Samira accepted, tired. She reached for a reason to want me to just scare them off, but then she remembered what she endured and couldn’t find it within her to forgive any of them. Just like I thought.

And that's when she went into the bathroom so she could clean up and dress to get out of this place. We decided I would kill the guys in the other rooms first while she took charge of bringing the other women to safety with her inside this room.

Once dressed, I told her to let the girls enter the room after I compelled them to seek her out. She nodded with determination. I phased through the door and then went to work. The first room I entered, the guy was beating up the girl because she didn’t react like he wanted. I killed him with a thought by crushing his head.

The girl screamed endlessly at the scene,but I forcefully calmed her down by pushing peaceful feelings to shift her mood. Then I compelled her to go to Samira in the room up the stairs. She grabbed her clothes, limping slightly as she departed.  This routine followed in each room– some of the girls couldn’t move by themselves because of either being too drugged or wounded, so I used my TK to transport them to the other room. 

Ten minutes later, I had finished evacuating the girls from the room, and now I had to do the same for the waitresses. I focused on them, they were still working, even in the kitchen. I snapped the neck of the collaborator though; she was responsible for the bar and the food and also her mind was filth. One by one, the waitresses filed through the secret doors and I compelled them to go to Samira who must’ve been cramped in the room by now with all those women.

When everyone was safe, I blocked the secret bordello door with a table pushed against it, and stacked another on it. Turning towards the bar, the men filling up the booths asked aloud where the girls were. I blocked the door with my TK by overlaying a psionic shield over it; looked at the red lights illuminating the entire place and broke them all by staring at them.

“Kakogo cherta?! (What the hell?!)”

“Verni svet! (Bring back the lights!)”

“Gde devochki? (Where are the girls?)”

“Moy stakan pust! Vodka! Seychas zhe! (My glass is empty! Vodka! Now!)”

The more vocal men reacted badly with the lights going out. Though the last guy I heard made me laugh; he had problems with his priorities. Most of those men present were lieutenants, henchmen and right hands of the Russian mob; there were some Italian, Irish and South american representatives. I failed to care about them so they would die too. 

Just in case I siphoned knowledge from their memories about their organizations, secrets and practices… and it sickened me to my core. Their fate was sealed.

There wasn’t any loud noise when I lifted them all with my mind and began strangling them, some light scuffles and feet beating in the air. Some died of asphyxiation while those who struggled profusely broke their neck. I released them, crushing their skulls into paste when I double tapped them; you never know what might happen if one survived.

I had plans for Samira and now for the girls I’ve saved. This place must not be the only bordello in New York.

Floating toward the secret door, I atomized the stacked tables and passed through it, going to search for the girls. Samira turned toward me. Not only can she see me, but she also senses me.

“It's done. Make them all go outside, by the way do you know the room where they kept all the money?”

Samira looked around her. She  didn't want to speak aloud and make the others think she is crazy. I sighed and said to her, “Speak to me in your thoughts.”

Samira subtly nodded. <They keep the money in a room behind the kitchen. They count it and write in the ledger how much they earn each week. Then they store all the cash in bullet and flame resistant duffel bags to be collected and brought to the drop point.>

I frowned at that; this system was too elaborate for this operation to be the only place controlled by those guys. “It seems all criminals have a streamlined process to launder money.”

There was something that Samira omitted but I decided to not push her too soon. I’d settle for confronting her when we were actually face to face. “Get out of here and bring the girls with you. I will be by soon.”

Samira nodded, heading towards the open door.She turned toward all the others and clapped, the more cognizant ones looked at her. I made them more susceptible to listen to Samira. “Girls follow me, everyone has been dealt with in the club. But please don't look at your feet when you walk out, okay?”

Most of the girls struggled to believe they were going to be free while some others could scarcely believe the situation, but some were full of hope that this nightmare could finally end.

“Dealt with?” A brunette asked, not daring to believe.

The blonde at the brunette's side understood instantly and asked with hope in her tone, “They've been killed?”

Samira gave her a firm nod. “Yes. A person I know decided to save us all. Those who were kidnapped will go home soon.”

Everyone who knew Samira were aware that she was in highest demand and that some of the men offered to make her free but she had always refused. The girls, who knew how the system they were in worked, thought that Samira had slept with someone and asked him or her to save them all. I thought it was sad that they didn't expect that some good samaritan just wanted them to go free.

A girl, my age with pale blonde hair and in underwear whispered, “G-good riddance.” Relief was clear in her stutter; her tormentors and rapists were all dead. Another girl raised her hand as though she was in school.“Are we permitted to take our stuff?” She felt uncomfortable being nude before everyone.

Samira nodded. “Absolutely! But avoid taking too much, those who will stay with me and my friend will be sorted out.”

Everyone in the room was practically naked or in underwear, even I couldn't begrudge them wanting to be decent; it was October and slightly chilly outside. 

I turned to Samira, wondering how she knew what my intentions were. I didn't tell her anything about keeping the girls with us. “How do you know about my plans? I don’t even have something concrete yet, but I do intend to take responsibility for saving them.”

Samira's lips quirked into a smile, her long black dress swishing as she turned to me. <I saw a big apartment building in a vision when I worried about where I would be staying. It was old but well maintained and has thirty apartments.>

The smugness oozing from her gave me the epiphany that I could get headaches even in astral form. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I groaned with  frustration. I could already hear Jessica laughing at me in my mind. “So this is what it feels like when someone frustrates you by knowing stuff about your future.”

Samira's face stayed neutral but I could feel her amusement. <You must have had fun by confounding people with that mind reading.>

I rolled my eyes and floated off the ground. “Yeah, yeah laugh. Something tells me you are worse. So let's go, we don't have a lot of time, and I need to burn this place when we are done.”

Shrugging, I disappeared through the door and descended to the club area, making my way to the kitchen. It was a clean place despite being that kind of establishment.  I used my TK to discover where the money was stored, looking for inconsistencies or simply passed my head through the walls.

I finally found the place and was presented with four duffel bags on shelves. Searching for a safe in the walls and under the carpet, I found it in the wall behind the desk with the counting machine. With an effort of will, I took the safe from the wall that cracked and then began to dismantle the safe and- wow, there was a lot of money inside.

I turned, spotting more duffel bags. With a smile, I filled them with the money from the safe. From the ledger I found on the desk, I counted the money in the bags and the safe, to be about ten million. Millions that will serve me in housing the girls, cloth them and educating them. There was also the fact that I may find other girls, men or little kids who would need my help to get back on their feet. 

Levitating all the duffel bags, I left the room by blasting a hole where the door was supposed to be and proceeded to exit the illegal bordello. The girls paled when they saw all the bags float in the air. Samira nodded at me, then the girls began asking questions to her.

After placing the duffel bags on the nearest isolated roof of an abandoned building, I got back to the girls and looked at the entire structure that housed the bordello and lit it on fire. The fire was so scalding, it would consume every crack and crevice. 

Some of the girls watched with glee at the place burning, others cried, realizing that now they were free. I could empathize with them– if a man or interested party had tried to touch me this way or enslaved me mentally or by other means… burning them would be par for the course.

Looking at the flames, all we had to do now was wait for the authorities to arrive.

# # #

October 29, 1996
Grey penthouse
03:45 PM

School had been weird this morning. Peter was noticeably more mellow, Jessica and Patsy had a Chesire cat smile plastered to their face, and Gwen was more thoughtful than usual, looking wistfully at Peter. I tried not to meddle in their business but those two really needed to step up their game.

Gwen didn't care that he was spiderman and she told him that clearly at lunch, and she also told him that he should tell his aunt about his other identity before he was found dead and she learned the truth this way. He had tried to play it off as ridiculous and brush her off, but when we all stared at him with hardened, narrowed gazes, he caved under pressure, asking Gwen to come with him after school for the reveal.

Plus, I had added that my parents knew of my powers and were cool with them, so why was he unable to do the same? That was the mature thing to do. 

After school, Cindy came home with me, intending to stay the night. We were about to create our costumes, a kunoichi one for me and a princess Kitana for Cindy. Hers was easier as she just needed a corset, thigh high boots, bracers and clingy leather pants. Mine would be made from scratch of course. I asked uncle Phil for help to get materials such as a leather sheet, cardboard, wood and fifteen steel rods and a lot of reinforced thread. Mom had bought me black leggings and a fishnet top. 

We went into my room, and as I was about to close the door, Mom appeared, levelling me with a look. “Keep the door open, I wouldn’t want you to get too handsy with your girlfriend.”

I gasped in indignation. “MOM!!”

She gave me a saccharine smile. “What? I was young too…” 

She also felt smug at showing off her bantering skills. Cindy giggled at my predicament, making me spin around and glare at her to which she gave me the most beautiful smile. Instantly, my heart melted, and I sighed heavily despite me.

When I turned back to Mom, she wore a knowing smile. “Fine, I will try to not get grabby with Cindy.”

Her head bobbed as she made a slow nod. “That’s all I can ask. I will grab you some snacks later.” With those parting words, she left. 

I walked back to Cindy and sat before her. She clutched a steel rod that she was examining. Then she looked up at me and said, “I like your mom, she's cool.”

She wore a white strap top paired with black shorts. Her fashion sense was asian themed, making her look  tomboyish and cute at the same time. I was a woman of simple tastes, or was it other-self who was? She was the one who infected me with her asian girl fetish.

From the black haired beauty, I felt some happiness for me and a bit of longing and envy. Cindy spoke sporadically of her parents, but the impression I got of them was that they neglected and pushed expectations too high on Cindy. I hugged her mentally, and when she fluttered her eyes shut in delight, she tried reciprocating it. 

Since Cindy knew about my power, I had been constantly showing her  how telepathy worked and she liked it. She never flinched  when I spoke in her mind or mentally kissed or hugged her.

“I love her too.” I finally answered.

Cindy smiled awkwardly and tried to say something, anything. “So…”

This was the first time we were left completely alone, without supervision; we had dates in public spaces or hung out at school. This felt more private, and I’m not gonna lie, I liked it. 

I could see myself sharing my life with Cindy; telepathy and empathy gave me a window into her soul that considerably lowered the amount of time it would take to get to know her and divine what I should do. She was fun as a friend, loyal, funny and pleasant. The possessiveness I felt in her was merely something ephemeral that was engendered by the stressful control her parents and her mother in particular exerted on her life.

Cindy thought what we had was precious but fragile and she didn't suffer any people disrupting our relationship, that was why she didn't like Gwen or anyone male trying to accost me; the little asian knew that I was bisexual. 

“Before we start, I have an offer for you, Cindy.” I had pondered over this long and hard, and it was time Cindy knew of the offer that was on the table. She looked at me and cocked her head. “Oh?”

A long moment of silence passed before I spoke. “Do you want to establish a telepathic link between us two?”

Cindy frowned, a bit uncertain. “Hmm, what would it entail?”

I smiled at her and began to explain what a telepathic link between us would permit us to do. It was basically the power to link minds between two living beings, making them able to share thoughts, memories, emotions or feelings.

Cindy’s eyes bugged out, her shoulders tensing before she  lowered them and mumbled. “This… this is a big step.”

I knew that, but I wanted to just let her know that this option is available to us. I nodded, “Don’t worry. I will wait, babe. I know it's early but I like what I see and feel from you. I don't want to have secrets or walls between us. But, there’s no hurry.”

Finally her shoulders fully relaxed. She wasn’t ready for this; at least not yet, it wasn’t a fear of commitment. But it was akin to what Jessica felt about my powers, it was about the sanctity of her mind. I respected my friends too much to force a telepathic link onto them, but just to tempt Cindy further I added, “Though it would permit us to discuss over a long distance and permit us to locate each other.” 

She felt torn and I smiled at her. Then, I felt a familiar mind nearing the building. It was Phil, and he was surely bringing back the materials I had asked him. I floated the tools I would use to make my costumes from my closet whose door opened and a tool case came flying and settled between me and Cindy. It was five minutes later that uncle Phil arrived with two other agents loaded with most of the things I asked.

“Jean, good afternoon.” Phil stepped into my bedroom, looking first at me, then through the window and different sides of the room. “Cindy.” The agent nodded at my girlfriend.

Cindy waved at Phil who removed his shades to place them in his breast pocket. He shot us a tight smile while the two agents put the two wooden boxes full of materials on the carpet. The steel bars and the leather rolls were poking out the box. As I catalogued mentally the contents of the boxes with my awareness, I discovered it contained extra things like nails or a pneumatic stapler.

I didn’t comment on that and preferred to offer some platitude, “Uncle Phil, I’m sorry you had to do such a menial task but…”

Phil put his hand on my arm. “It’s alright, you don’t want to go everywhere under escort.”

I chuckled darkly. “Yeah, I don’t like standing out.”

I hated it. People from school constantly asked me if I was wealthy, and if I didn’t put my resting bitch face on, they would keep doing it. The kicker had been Harry Osborn asking me how much my parents earned with a smug smile while having Mary Jane glare at me, clutching desperately on his arm. The smug little shit accosted me so that he could replace a redhead for another by throwing enough money to change my preferences.

*For that, I will kill you later Osborn.* I thought in my heart. I had always intended to destroy and kill those goblin fuckers. Peter is my friend and he didn’t need to deal with  that particular brand of evil.

Phil shook his head and gave me a commiserating smile. “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Jean. But you failed.”

Hmph. “It doesn’t matter.”

The pneumatic stapler and the electric drill floated out of the boxes thanks to my TK. I lifted my chin and asked Phil, “Do you know how to handle those tools you added in the boxes?”

The agent smiled. “I do.”

I clapped. “Awesome, please could you help us uncle Phil?”

Phil didn’t even think about it and took his jacket off, threw it on my bed and then loosened his black tie. “Girls, let’s get to it.”

My telekinesis was key to most of the process of making a short sword like other self showed me. I took a steel bar and melted it, then using my mind I dissipated the temperature outside the window, making sure to shield Phil and Cindy from it. In a bubble shield I started the process of tempering as there was almost no impurities in the metal. I used the carbon dioxide in the air and transmuted some scrap of steel into iron, then turned it into iron sand. The process of forging took another five minutes.

Transmutation was a recent ability I discovered I possessed, which also was dependent on my knowledge of the periodic table. The short sword, a dull grey, took form. I didn't need something that would last; I just wanted a cheap sword to go with my costume. And that's what I got, it was a cheap blade compared to what I saw the hand ninjas had. The real work would be making the dull blade, sheath, and hilt as beautiful as I could. 

Meanwhile, Phil was occupied with helping Cindy with  the crafting of her bracers made of black leather. It was heartwarming to see her struggle with the tape measure.

I finished crafting a sheath for my short sword. It wasn’t fairly easy to dye the wood and cover and seal it with ornate steel decorations. The cheap sword was complete, it was hard and blunt enough to serve as an icepick. Then I began working on the kunai belt and the disposable throwing one. This was hard as it was a mess of leather strips and metallic threads and staples but it looked rugged. The mask and bracers were easier to craft, thankfully.

Cindy finished before me, and lorded it over me; but my costume was more elaborated. Phil helped me with the metal plate for the armored pieces, it was seven pm when we were finally done. I don’t know where Phil found our mannequins which he placed our costume on but I thanked him with another of my family specialties that I’d baked early this morning before school and gave mom the responsibility to take care of: a Tiramisu cake for after dinner.

# # #

October 31, 1996
Osborn estate
09:20 PM

Today was the day where everything I had set up for the last two days was going to happen, and I was nervous until I saw Gwen disguised as an elf, a petite and cute one; and Peter was Gandalf, his costume not as complicated as mine. Gewn should’ve opted to go as a fairy because it went better with her stature. Jessica and Patsy were disguised as witches– sexy witches to be accurate. They had on those cute pointy hats, short black dresses, thigh high sock and pointy boots and even crafted their own brooms. 

When I saw Cindy, in her Princess Kitana, I was a goner, drooling. We almost didn’t go to the party as how could I let her out like this? She was so… fuckabl- I mean sexy! When she opened her fans and danced with it, I became mesmerized by the scene. I was well aware of my friends snickering in the background but I couldn’t find it in me to care. We stood outside Cindy’s apartment block when she exited and my eyes were glued on her. A lot of lewd thoughts and acts came into mind, but I felt that it wasn’t possible to do those yet, shit.

Cindy stopped dancing, then laughed wryly at me. “So… finished looking?”

Shaking my head, my eyes still stuck on her, I answered, “No, I could do this all day, but I will stop if you want me to.”

She wrapped her fingers around my arm and pulled me toward the fleet of SUV that would bring us to the location of the party. Cindy looked back for an instant and added, “For now at least.”

When we climbed into the car, I passed the time smooching with Cindy; we had our own vehicle and the others understood that I needed some alone time with her. It seemed Cindy liked my own costume as she repeated that I was ‘super hot’ a lot in her mind.

When we arrived, we had to refresh our makeup. We stepped out of the vehicle and saw there were a lot of people already entering the gate of a sprawling mansion. Honestly, it looked like a castle with its grey walls and black roof; through my spatial sense I guessed that it covered a large area. 

I included the garden which seemed like a total bother to keep maintained well. The castle-like manor had many windows and I felt that there were a lot of security people deployed around it. Pulling me out of my analytic fugue, Cindy pulled me through the gates where Gwen and the others waited for us on the entrance porch.

The sun declined in the background, while we waited for someone to open the door. Glancing down at my costume again, I took inventory. My corset was white with a clasp, a fishnet of the same colour over it, paired with a tattered black scarf, leather bracers and leather metal pauldrons combo. My legs were clad in simple black leggings that were like second skin and thigh high boots with armored knee armor pieces. My leather belt was refined in the last two days, looking like the work of a professional. A majordomo opened the door, he looked in his fifties. We gave our names and showed some ID to enter. Fortunately, Flash had told us about that and we presented our student IDs. We entered the Osborn lair with trepidation and were led to a... ballroom? Norman had a Ballroom?!

It was spacious, and decorated in a very eerie sort of way. There were scary carved pumpkins everywhere with lit candles inside them. Red-orange banners with ‘Happy Halloween’ written on them framed the walls. There were buffet tables at the left and right of the room loaded with food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Nightwish music blared from the speakers placed in the DJ platform at the other end of the ballroom. People were already busting out moves to “Over The Hills And Far Away” while others shook their heads back and forth as if they were into a pogo. The DJ seemed to really like the old stuff, because as the song finished it faded away and switched seamlessly to “Holy Diver” from Dio.

Gwen grasped Peter’s hand, pulling him toward the table with all the various canapes. The little blonde pixie had only come for the food and the dancing. The Jones sisters went on to dance, needing to bleed away all the excitement coursing through them. There were some people I recognized in the crowd because like at school instead of mingling they had separated in clique. The cheerleader squad wore different kinds of outfits, ranging from catgirls to disney princesses. The goths were all vampires or witches, the geeks… they showed diversity, some were disguised as Mario and Luigi, Link, and there was a cute blonde geeky girl who was out as Princess Zelda.

This was taking me back. Without noticing, Cindy had brought me to the drink table where there was a non-alcoholic punch fountain, different kinds of sodas and root beer. There were also many pepsi bottles which pissed me off. No wonder the Osborns were crazy, they are philistine! Heretics! I could tolerate Jessica, as she was  my best friend, but I would be sure to add this sin on the growing list of why the Osborn family must be killed.

I flinched when I felt someone with a rancide and twisted mind coming toward Cindy and I, with someone familiar at his side. Harry Osborn and Mary Jane were the first I’ve seen that were coming up toward me, and I wasn’t surprised to see Norman Osborn with my operative, Samira Khan, on his arm.

The man looked just like Willem Dafoe. I shouldn’t have been surprised, Harry looked a tad like James Franco but with a blend of Willem. Was it this dimension trying to fit my expectation with my knowledge or was it just coincidence?

“Hey, Grey! You came!” Harry waved a hand at me. He was disguised as an Arabian Prince whereas Mary Jane took on the persona of Princess Jasmine.

Harry blatantly ignored Cindy. I waved at him with a fake smile. “Hello, I like what you did with the place.” I indicated at the decor with a hand, to which he shot me a smug smile for. 

My arm snaked around my girlfriend's waist and I projected feelings of love and caring into her. I didn't  want to let her think that I was going to ignore her too. I knew she received the message when she leaned into me. I felt how the action pissed off Harry which brought a genuine smile to my face this time. “Thanks! Dad went all out. By the way, this is he, Norman Osborn.” Harry stepped to the side to let his dad and Samira step toward me.

If this man wasn't Norman Osborn, I might have liked him. His smile was wide and he oozed charisma. Willem Dafoe had been one of my other self’s favorite actors, because he lent his face and voice acted in "Beyond Two Souls" the video game on PS3 in her world. But my other-self knew the guy before us was pure evil, even in his sane days and I trusted that self as much as I did my parents.

“I heard so much about you from Harry, he… didn’t understate how beautiful you were.” I felt Norman's eyes slide all over me and it evoked a slight shudder from me. He held out a hand before me and I masked my disgust as I took it.

Samira, standing at his side, reciprocated my disgust for the act and also hid it. I regretted involving her in my plot if she had to be with that guy all the time. But I didn’t spend a day brainwashing everyone Norman knew to insert Samira in their lives for nothing.

I inclined my head slowly. “It’s an honor to meet you sir.”

Norman retracted his hand, smiling. “Harry said that you were some kind of science whiz. You know, I'm something of a scientist myself.”

Looking carefully at him in his Dracula costume, I quickly recognized the quotes from the first spiderman movie. It was an occasion to troll him! I was good enough to feign admiration. “You wouldn’t be where you are if you weren’t, sir. I read all your research on nanotechnology. Brilliant.”

Norman raised an eyebrow, a spark of interest sparkling in his eyes. “You understood it?”

*If you knew Normie… I have so many plans involving that tech.*

I grinned. “Of course, the only things limiting us to achieving this milestone are computing power and energy generation, Mister Osborn. Can you imagine what we would be able to do with that technology? Building new materials only seen in science fiction, or adapting this tech into our medical science? There would be no HIV, cancer would be something of the past and genetic defects nonexistent.”

*Producing nano-plagues or nano-drones able to see and hear everything their host does.* I didn’t say that aloud, not wanting to give him any ideas. My gaze briefly slid to Harry who looked wounded that his father had taken such an interest in me in barely two sentences. His little heart screamed 'notice me too daddy,' which was actually really sad to see. Though it didn’t detract me from my decision from killing father and son, I still felt for him.

Norman’s smile was dashing.“Impressive. You can already guess the sociocultural ramification that introducing such technology would bring. You have beauty and brains, Miss Grey. Your parents must be very proud of you Miss Grey.”

I put a genuine smile on my face. “I do my best to give back all the support they give me.”

“What a good daughter.” Norman whispered, glaring slightly at Harry who lowered his eyes shamefully. The boy was saved by the fact that Samira placed a hand on Norman's elbow.

The businessman's face lit up as he looked at Samira. “Ah, sorry I forgot, darling. Miss Grey this is Talia Al’Gul, my girlfriend.”

Samira gave me a blinding smile. “Enchanted.”

I nodded. “Same, you look fantastic in this purple sari.”

Watching Norman, I noticed he was smitten. He hadn't felt this feeling since the death of his wife; the man has been getting a new lease on life. He had no idea that I was the one manipulating his emotions and programmed him to love Samira and provide her with what she wanted. This is what I’d been up to in the last two days, besides making sure all the rescued women were safe.

All thanks to the money I'd hid in Harlem plus the stolen funds from the Russian bordello that I've rescued the girls from. I was the co-owner of a woman shelter located in an old apartment building in Queens able to house sixty people that Samira had secured instantly after the police released her and the girls who had nowhere to go. Some of them had gone back to their families who were happy with their return  and provided help. Others had decided to strike out alone but were given cards with Samira's phone number if things did get too tough or if they were in danger.

It was progress, but we had to do more. So for my next operation I decided to tie up some loose ends and protect Peter and Gwen from the machinations of Osborn who would get too interested in spiderman. I could already see what he had planned for Peter if he ever caught him.

*Really? Human experimentation, Norm? Can’t say it shocks me.* It was just like I expected.

Samira plastered a smile on her face, her expression full of fondness as she watched Morman. “Norm provided it.”

<Damn girl, you should be winning Oscars.> I spoke into her mind. She was able to express herself naturally, to play roles.

I could feel the smouldering waves of smugness rolling off of her. My gaze then fell onto Norman who I decided to compliment. “You know how to treat a lady, Mister Osborn.”

Norman smiled, straightening his spine, clearly pleased with the appraisal. *Bastard.*

The sound of a phone ringing was heard, and Nomran took his out of his dracula outfit pocket and looked at the screen.

“I am sorry, I must take this.” He said, turning to leave. 

Mary Jane placed her hand on Harry’s shoulder, who looked disappointed. She stared at me but I ignored her. I wasn't in the mood for the social games with this trash Princess.

Samira stayed with us, looking at Cindy with interest. Cindy returned the interest, not sexual fortunately, but it was like admiring a beautiful painting. 

“Who is the lovely lady at your side?” Samira asked with a smile in her voice.

<Who is she to you, Jean? Don’t keep me in the dark.> Samira projected her thoughts loudly to me.

I rolled my eyes. Samira had been curious about me and my abilities;it was like she lived vicariously through me. “My girlfriend, her name is Cindy. Sorry if she's silent, she's a bit intimidated.”

Cindy slapped my arm playfully. “No I'm not.” Then her gaze slid over Samira again. “She's just… I mean, did you look at her?”

I was already used to looking at Samira. The woman had no modesty left anymore, as she pranced in her new condo that she bought with my money completely nude. “Yes, Cin. She's easily a ten.”

Smiling, Samira advanced toward the girls and patted their shoulders. “Girls, don't worry, when you are out of your teenage years, I am sure you'll be just like me. Beauty is mostly taking care of your health and how you carry yourself.”

Mulling over what she said, I nodded. “Nice advice, I am happy that I already have good habits of eating healthy and doing martial arts then.”

Harry’s eyes showed his skepticism as he spoke,“Wow Grey, you are a martial artist?” I almost forgot that the little bastard was there. “Yep.” I clipped, not bothering to elaborate. Then, I sized him up from top to bottom.“It also counts for guys too, you know, Osborn. MJ also works hard to stay in shape.”

Harry wasn’t at his physical peak, he was tall and gangly and I was certain that if he wasn’t rich, the redhead clinging to his arm wouldn’t give him the time of day. Speaking of Mary Jane Watson, she decided to participate in the conversation. “Hum yes… I am a cheerleader, we have to be in top form physically to stay on the team. The coach put us on a special diet to develop our muscles and gave us exercises to be agile and bendy.”

I saw her on the football field and in the gymnasium, she is indeed... flexible enough for all the figures the school does.

“Not just a cheerleader MJ, you are the vice-captain!” Harry added, throwing an arm around her shoulders. 

MJ preened. “Yes, I am.”

The music changed from rock to a slow song more suited for couple dancing. Cindy and I looked at each other at the same time, smiling.“Time for some dancing, Princess Kitana.”

I waved at Harry and MJ as Cindy pulled me to the dance floor. We danced on a Shania Twain song called “From this moment on” for three minutes or so. Then it suddenly passed to a younger generation of singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. After dancing till our legs ached we went for some drinks. While eating and drinking, Cindy poked me in the side and indicated to where Patsy was, dancing with a boy too old for her.  I didn’t go there to stop it; we taught her how to take care of herself. As for Jessica, she stood near her sister, dancing with one of the football jocks, a black guy who was all muscle, who was disguised as Captain America.

“You know, they can take care of themselves.” I spoke, leaning  against a wall. Cindy mimicked me and filled my plastic cup with one of the bottles of water available.

Cindy smiled patronizingly at me. “Yes, but it doesn’t cost us anything to keep an eye on them. They would do the same for us.”

She had a point, “I guess you are right...”

“That’s going to happen a lot in our relationship.” Cindy laughed and leaned against me.

I kissed her cheek and seductively whispered into her ear, “Say, are you going to come home with me?”

I didn’t imply that I wanted to sleep with her, this was too fast; but having her in my arms when I woke up? It’d be pure bliss. 

“Aren’t we moving too fast, Jean?” Cindy mumbled, lowering her eyes. Her flushed cheeks were visible even under the low light environment of the ballroom. 

It was cute. I replied with all the certainty of knowing myself and my inner desires, “Cin, I know what I want, and I want you.”

It’s another thing that meditation brought me; I focused on myself and entered into deep introspection often.

She looked into my eyes, and must’ve found what she was searching for, as a chuckle left her. Her arm went around my waist, and she leaned in, huskily whispering, “I like that you can just look at me and say what you think, you don’t play games. You are not trying to control me or tell me what to do.”

“I would never do that to you, I respect you too much.” I delicately caressed her cheek and kissed her full on the mouth, she opened her mouth and our tongues duelled for a minute or two.

We came back for air, and Cindy smiled while  I continued to be distracted by her cuteness. “It’s not just your body I like.” Cindy was stunning, but what also attracted me the most was her energy, her mind, her thought process and how obsessed she was with hockey and science.

She glued herself to me, looking earnestly into my eyes. “I can say the same for you. I’m not gonna lie, at first it was just that. I mean you are a really beautiful girl, but now I know there’s more to you, Jean.”

“You kind of caught my attention when you pulled me in the girl’s toilet to kiss the hell out of me too, huh. But whatever magic spell you put on me, Cin, I just like passing time with you. I know... we are in a sort of testing phase for now. But I want to be with you more, know more about you.”

“We have all the time in the world.” With that, she grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the dance floor where we busted out some moves to some Spice Girls song whose title I forgot.

Parties were not so bad. We mostly danced, drank and fed on the free food; and the buffet kept getting fancier with the caterers delivering slowly on the table's new dishes. The party stretched well past midnight and came to an end when the DJ thanked everyone for coming and that souvenirs would be distributed at the mansion's exit.

“Damn, this Halloween party was awesome!”

“Hell yeah!”

“The DJ diversified the music genres to include everyone's tastes, rap, r&b, rock… it was a pro I think.”

My friend had a really good time it seems. We were about to leave the ballroom when Harry stopped us. He was all smiles. “Thanks for coming Grey, I hope you had fun! Your friends too.”

“It was a good party, my first actually.” The statement was true as I had never been invited to a party that wasn’t made for family.

Harry’s smile fell, his gaze shooting to my friend’s to figure out if I was joking.“You're kidding right?”

He thought it weird that a gorgeous girl like me had never gone to a party but I was a loner before high school and had a serious case of misanthropy.

“Nope, thanks Harry.” I held my hand to him.

Harry smiled and shook it. I used this brief contact to forge a minor telepathic bond that I intend to use for the second phase of my plan to destroy the Osborns. Just like that, my dominoes were all in place and I was about to kick a hornet nest.

“Goodbye.”

# # # 

(Harry Osborn)

November 1st, 1996
Osborn Mansion
07:01 AM

Friday was All Saints' Day, and Harry jolted up from his bed, sweating and panting from his nightmare. His bedroom was dark, but when he clapped his hands, everything was illuminated. The tastefully decorated white ceiling had lights placed strategically to distribute as much light as possible, not letting any spot of darkness in the room.

Harry stripped out his t-shirt, leaving his boxers and slippers on. The room was tastefully furnished. There was a desk with the latest generation of computers placed at the end of the room opposite the bed, a walk-in closet and expensive white and blue carpets on the marble tiles. 

The blue walls were loaded with posters of models between the wooden shelves showing trophies for sports such as tennis or badminton, cycling and other activities. To his misfortune Harry had never received any acknowledgment from his dad for his triumphs. Their relationship was strained as Norman believed Harry didn’t apply himself enough. But to Harry, science was just not his thing. He remembered how idiotic he felt last night when Jean Grey spoke with his father. It was as though they were speaking in chinese, and he  couldn’t follow. Nanotechnology? All he knew about it was that it was manipulation of matter on a molecular level and nothing much. His father would get on his case for not knowing the family business that he would inherit later. He walked up to the window, the sun wasn’t up yet. His thoughts were churning.

“But I don’t want the fucking company!” Harry raged, bashing his fist against the metal window frame. 

<Then what do you want?> A voice whispered.

Harry turned and looked into his room. “Who is there?!”

He couldn’t decipher whether the voice belonged to a male or female. “Hello?”

“I-it must be nothing.” He stuttered, a pathetic way to make him feel at ease. 

There were mirrors at each side of his bed and when he neared them, he noticed his reflection smiling back at him. He stopped, moved his hand and saw his reflection didn’t follow the movement, his smirk growing bigger. <Hello Harry.> It was his voice! It was his reflection! But it was completely different from how he carried himself.

Harry demanded loudly, “The fuck are you?!”

<Tut-tut-tut, don’t play innocent Harry, you know who I am.> His double sneered at him.

“N-no, I don’t.” He took a step back, and his heartbeat skyrocketed when he saw his double step out the mirror. 

Evil Harry pointed his fingers at the original. <Did you think you could escape from yourself? I have always been with you. Even when you were crying yourself to sleep when daddy wouldn’t come home to take care of your sorry ass.>

Harry’s face darkened as he heard his evil twin belittle him. “Fuck you! You know nothing about me!”

Evil Harry pushed him on the bed. <Of course I do! I even know what you want, every single time something isn’t going your way.>

His double was on Harry as he was about to stand from the bed. Evil Harry lifted him from it with a hand on his neck. <I want to do what you can’t, I want to say what you want, To remove those in your way. Like that fucking indian whore who is suckling on our dad.>

Harry beat on his double’s arm, kicking him, but all his attempts were in vain. “Fuck you! I’m not…”

Evil Harry’s expression became stone cold, showing a disappointed expression. <Maybe Norman is right, you are too fucking useless to do what needs to be done.> Releasing him, Evil Harry returned to the mirror, cackling loudly at the little boy in his bed.

At that, Harry looked back at the mirror with fury and stomped toward the reflective surface and punched it, realizing too late that his reflection had stopped acting weirdly. The glass shattered, shards flying everywhere, falling to the ground, along with the blood dripping from Harry’s hand. =

“Shit.”

# # #

“So boy, why did you break the mirror? Do you have any image issues I should be made aware of?” Norman pressed, seated on a black leather sofa, holding a coffee mug. Harry faced him, not making eye contact. The majordomo had called their family doctor who had ignored his practice to take the mirror shards out of the young man’s knuckles. For Harry, it had been painful and somewhat humiliating. “No, Dad.”

Talia was sitting at Norman’s side. Her gaze skated between father and son, looking a bit lost. “Norman, maybe I shouldn’t be here. It seems rather personal…”

The older Osborn turned to the half indian beauty and put a hand on her thigh. She was wearing a tight white dress that would put any man aflame. Harry was attracted to her, but he considered her to be a hindrance and a gold digger having taken more and more of his dad’s time.

Norman gave her a warm smile, and patted her thigh. “Nonsense, Talia. You are going to be the woman of the family, and being able to communicate with Harry and know what troubles him is going to be one of your tasks. You are already part of the family, dear. You aren’t an intruder.”

Harry’s eyebrows shot up to his forehead once his father's words sunk in. “Wait, wait, wait? What do you mean dad?”

“Oh, I wanted to tell you over breakfast but you had to hurt yourself with your mirror. Talia has agreed to marry me.”

<You see, you are nothing to him.> Evil Harry whispered into his mind.

Harry’s left hand tightened into a fist, glaring icily at the woman. His hatred burned and if looks could kill, Talia would be dead.  Talia looked at the young man with what could be called a neutral expression. Harry couldn’t guess what she thought. He barely tolerated her since she invited herself into their lives a year ago and… 

Harry frowned, it was weird. He didn’t remember exactly when she appeared! Memories flooded into his brain, and his confusion slipped away as the memories flooded in. He now recalled how she had been seeing his dad in secret. It seemed his father liked them young. Harry remembered how he basically hit on Jean when she had her girlfriend on her arm.

The young Osborn looked at his father with utter disgust. “Congratulations, father. Talia.”

“Thanks, boy.” Norman gave him a tight smile that failed to reach his eyes when he noticed that Harry wasn’t calling him dad anymore.

# # #

<He has forsaken you.> Evil Harry appeared instantly once the young Osborn arrived in his bedroom.

“Shut up.” Harry sprawled across his bed, placing his hands over his ears. Evil Harry looked furious as he ranted. <It’s clear that he has already written you off, He will marry her and make another son. One smarter and more pliant than you.>

“SHUT UP!!!” Blood lust rose from Harry as he jumped off his bed, staring straight at his evil double who  didn't look happy either.

<You know I am right, you saw it in his eyes.>

Harry stiffened. Norman's indifferent gaze had shocked Harry. He sat on his bed and began his introspective reflection. His dad had changed after his mother died, neglecting his fatherly duties and burying himself in his work. As the years passed by, Harry noticed how Norman became a ruthless, ambitious, paranoid, troubled and disturbed man.

His dad was extremely smart and intelligent, skilled in mathematics and science, possessing an immense knowledge of chemistry and the side-effects of drugs on humans and animals. Then suddenly, he became obsessed with his legacy and focused entirely on Harry for a period of time, attempting to make him a replica of himself. He had even forced him to attend  Midtown High, a science focused school.

Harry's talent laid in the physical side, he was mildly smart but not a genius like his dad. Norman had been forcing Harry to be more studious and tried to have him tutored in science but it was futile; Harry would never  be more than passably knowledgeable in the fields that his dad mastered. Since then, Harry’s father made him feel that he was no good, a failure.

<Yes, to him you are a failure.> Harry’s mind and emotion subtly shifted as his evil twin whispered his acquiescence.

“What should I do? I-I don’t want to be irrelevant! I tried! I really tried to be worthy! To make him love me!” Harry stood up from his bed and began to pace on the carpet, his hand behind his back for a minute before his evil twin appeared with a devilish smile. His eyes glimmered with promises that screamed trouble. 

<It’s easy. Take your gun and kill the bitch.> Evil Harry looked deadly serious.

He owned a weapon. He had stolen it from the security command center purely because he thought it’d be fun. He’d something that he had stolen from the security command center because it had looked fun at first and he had kept it in his closet, hidden in a strongbox.

Harry stood there, paralyzed by this horrible advice. “No, no, no, no, no!” He repeated, shaking his head frantically, his facial trait taking on a vehement expression.

<Why not?>

“It’s wrong! WRONG!” Harry bellowed, panting from ehaustion because of all the high emotions running high within him. 

Evil Harry shrugged his shoulders, staring remorselessly into his eyes. <So? Dad did worse, remember?>

Harry squeezed his eyes close. He was right, he knew how his dad did business… It was a year ago when Harry witnessed his dad killing a man for his research, then ordering security to get rid of the body. Harry’s emotion shifted again, *Why do I seek to be loved by that monster?*

<Yes, why?> Evil Harry laughed like a demon.

# # #

07:02 PM
Norman’s study

Harry stood before the door in his a black shirt over a white cotton T-shirt with ripped blue jeans. He no longer cared about the dress code his father had imposed upon him. He knocked and waited. He’d been thinking of speaking with his father and asking him more about this marriage he was planning to go through with. At his side, his evil double waited with a nonchalant smile for the discussion to happen. When he heard a bit of a scuffle and two voices in the room, he frowned. Evil Harry chuckled. <They were fucking.>

After another minute and knocking, Harry heard the commanding voice of his father, “Enter.”

Harry’s face darkened, and he slowly opened the door. No wonder his father had no time for him lately if he kept getting distracted by his new squeeze!

<You already lost him a long time ago, Harrykin.> Evil Harry whispered.

His emotions shifting, Harry remembered the neglect and the cry for attention for his last family member, all ignored. “Right, I did, didn't I?”

“Good evening, father.”

Norman, who sat behind his desk wore a dark business suit with a red tie that looked ruffled  Talia also looked unkempt, her face flushed and her white sari looking wrinkled from being put on hastily. She stood at Norman's side as if it had always been her place. 

Harry frowned at her. She didn't even acknowledge him, kissed Norman on the cheek, whispering something in his ear and began to leave. As she walked up to Harry, she nodded at him and exited the study. The lingering scent of her jasmine perfume filled the room and her absence was a loud statement. 

Norman looked irritated as he spoke. “Son? You couldn't have come at a more… inopportune time.”

Snort. “Really, is that all you have to say?” He scoffed, looking derisively at his father with a mocking smile.

Norman's eyes widened, then his expression slackened and with a neutral but threatening tone said to his son, “Harry, don’t take that tone with me.”

Harry laughed. “I would listen to you, if you deserved it father.”

Norman was shocked. He’d expected his son to cower at his expression and say something to try to please him but Harry  didn’t move an inch, holding his stare in defiance. “Harry? Boy, what's got into you?”

Harry cackled. “What's got into me father? I AM TIRED.” He didn’t shout or throw a tantrum, just expressed how he felt for over ten years since his mother died.

Norman’s shocked expression remained, and the expression of utter disdain and disinterest on his face shouldn’t be there. He had wanted his son to become stronger, independent and less cowardly, but disrespecting and uncaring toward his own family member? No!

Harry’s gun behind his back burned a hole in his belt. “I am tired of you pushing your expectations onto me!!! I-I want to stop, it’s not worth it anymore. I wanted my dad back but instead all that’s left of him is that evil guy in his skin. I am done waiting for you to stop your bullshit.”

Confiding in his own father about what he thought about him, Harry didn’t know the effect it was having on his father. Harry was about to turn to leave when his father raised his hand making him stop.

Norman passed his hand in his hair, leaned in his office chair and tried to explain. “It may seem this way, but I want what's best for you Harry. I wanted you to be able to take my place.”

“Then why force me to go to a school that I don't care for? I don't want your company, it's not worth the trouble it would bring.” Harry had friends in his previous school, real friends. At Midtown High, he had to bribe the jocks so they wouldn’t bully him at the start. Even to obtain Mary Jane’s affection, he had to break out his black credit card and slave away while shopping. At least he had fucked the little redheaded trollop.

“Harry, I was dying.” Norman announced. 

“What?!”

“Retroviral Hypodysplasia, a rare, genetic, incurable disease. Our family curse. I tried very hard to find a cure for it. I thought I did when I… when I created the culmination of all my research.” Norman opened a drawer, retrieved a folder full of papers, and placed it on the desk. 

Opening the folder, Norman showed pictures of people with deformities varying from nails turning to  narrow dirty claws to canines lengthening to resemble fangs and greenish skin. Harry looked from the pictures to his father. Then he took the folder and began to read the complete file. It was ten minutes later when he threw the folder on Norman’s desk.

With suspicion, Harry looked at his father. “Why aren’t you…”

Sighing heavily, Norman rose from his chair and walked up to the portrait of his late wife, Harry’s mother, Emily Lyman. Harry’s father pushed the golden plaque under the portrait of Emily and the painting slid aside revealing a silvery metal safe. He punched in a code on the keyboard, and placed his thumbs on the fingerprint reader. The safe opened with a hiss.  

Plunging his hand in the safe, Norman extracted a covered vial that contained a greenish liquid. “This is the Oz Serum. It is a biogenic chemical compound developed by Dr. Mendel Stromm and his assistant Dr. Nels van Adder. It’s able to augment the human body similarly to the Super-Soldier Serum.”

Norman put the vial on his desk and stared at his son, beaming. His eyes held an insane glint to them.  “This serum has cured me! The curse of our family no longer plagued me! It was exhilarating, son! I WAS FREE! The Oz Serum has made me stronger, smarter and faster! A superman! But... the formula was imperfect.”

Evil Harry shook his head. <There’s always a catch, Dad, those type of things must have side effects.>

Real Harry heard that and looked at his dad with distress. “There were side effects?”

“Yes.” Norman simply looked apathetically at his son.

“What are they, father?” Harry asked, his face a blank canvas now, mirroring his fathers. As if he was explaining this to a child, Norman began to dessert.“The formula is unstable, the process rendered the test subjects insanely violent and aggressive. It also induces dissociative identity disorder. With bouts of psychotic urges manifested as a new... identity.”

All of a sudden, Harry felt unsafe, but he masked his fear. “You are cured, right?”

Norman chuckled. “Cured? I am not. I live with the goblin in my head, and this time I am in control of my body. He has a particular soft pot for Talia and is in love with her.”

Harry’s emotions raged inside him, he was lost between pitying his father and anger for not telling him about his condition. “Wait! FATHER, why have you never told me about this? Is it recent? Is…” *Is it  because of this serum you neglected me?* Harry asked in his heart.

Norman squinted his eyes, noticing his son’s strange behaviour. He’d become twitchy, unfocused and his eyes held the same insane glint in his own that he’d been seeing in the mirror every morning since his goblin persona awakened. “Son, it’s… I injected myself with it six months ago.”

Harry’s emotions completely shifted, raw and darker emotions such as rage, hatred and fear found themselves amplified. “I see. Do you think it makes it okay what you have been doing to me?” Harry took the gun from behind his back, cocked it and pointed it at Norman in one movement.

Norman raised his hands, his face soaked in shock.“Harry. Listen, boy. You don’t want to do this.”

Harry’s palms felt sweaty, his heart thrashing violently in his chest, begging to be let out. “Give me a reason, anything… please. I… you are a monster father, and I feel- no I know that I am becoming one too. I feel… that I should have joined mom. Maybe that’s why she faked her death.”

It was as if Norman’s world sank around him at this revelation. Everything he had done was suddenly put in perspective. “She what?!” He continued on, basking in pride that he’d finally broken the calm facade his father usually had on. “Oh you didn’t know? Mom had begged me to come with her, but I pitied you, I loved you dad. I thought how unfair it was to leave you all alone. But now? I see how right mom was. You don’t know what love is and you have no fucking honor. You stole doctor Stromm research, right?”

Norman’s face became dark, a crazy snarl escaping him as he suddenly lunged toward his son at a speed that defied comprehension. However, the Colt 1911 in Harry’s left hand fired off repeatedly and the full pistol clip emptied into Norman’s body. Two bullets pierced his eyes and reached his brain, four were placed in the center of his body and two were fired in each of his kneecaps.

Harry was horrified by what just happened; he hadn’t intended to fire. Norman’s hand reached Harry’s weapon and he fell on his knee at the same time, blood spewed from his mouth. His eyes held endless sadness as he stared at his son. “I-I am so...rry, I... wasn’t... much of a father.”

Harry’s gun clattered to the ground and his father fell back first on the lacquered wooden panels. There was blood pooling everywhere. When the  haze of rage finally lifted from the young man, he looked at what his actions did and fell to his knees. Harry’s hands were on his father trying to stave off the bleeding, in vain.

“No! No! Dad! Stay with me, I am sorry!”

Evil Harry appeared at his side whispering. <Aww, big baby cannot take it? You just killed him. Just like you wanted, congratulations, you are a man.>

Harry glared balefully at his evil double. “Shut up shut up shut up!”

<You killed your dad because he didn’t have time for you.> Harry tried blocking out the taunts, but to no avail. The mocking laughter simply persisted. Bang! The room to the study opened violently and Talia appeared. Her gaze bounced from Harry to Norman. Her eyes slowly widened and she screamed. She pushed Harry away from Norman and began to sob. “Norman, darling!”

“S...so-rry lov-” Norman choked, and then he was gone. 

Red appeared before Harry and he glared at Talia. “This is your fault.”

Talia couldn’t stop wailing, hugging the body of Norman. As she cried, Harry took his gun and changed the clip

“If you hadn’t come into our lives, this wouldn’t have happened.” Harry pointed his colt at Talia, who stared up at him with horror in her gaze. 

Grinning madly, Harry was about to shoot her too when two loud bangs resonated in the room and he felt pain in his chest. Blood bloomed  on his white shirt and he turned to see Majordomo with a pistol whose barrel was still smoking. “Fuck.” His gun clattered on the ground once again.

He tumbled to the ground, falling on his back, witnessing evil Harry smiling at him once again. His double’s form began to shift and shimmer to be replaced by a gorgeous young woman with a red mane of hair staring at him as though he was so much dirt on her shoes. 

“So I am really crazy.” Harry admitted aloud, looking at the familiar form of the young woman he had fantasized about, or was it another mirage his mind conjured?

“Stay there and die, worm.” The ethereal Jean spat with scorn, her expression one of utter disgust.As the security agents employed by Norman burst through the entrance of the study, darkness took Harry Osborn.

# # #

12:32 AM
Oscorp HQ

I didn’t feel guilty at all. As I looked at my hands, I felt no remorse or disgust for myself as I remembered how I pushed Harry to kill his father and later get himself killed by the private security of his own house. I manipulated everything and everyone beside Samira. She has become my accomplice, in my erasing of the Osborns from the face of the earth. 

Though she doesn't care either way, after I showed her what Norman is all about, taking his money and his company would be a good settlement for how much he had touched her. Talia had found the man disgusting and had told me it was the last time she was going to do the honey trap plan, I couldn't begrudge her.

Oscorp was a tall building, at least forty story high, and it was the crowning achievement of Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius. The two men knew each other since college, sharing the same vision to “change the world” so they decided to start a business. They chose to  add the word "Corp" to their nickname the "O's", thus creating the name for Oscorp.

Jokes were on Otto when Norman sidelined him and took control of the company, and cheated him from his settlement money when he gave his controlling share to him. It made me laugh. Norman had no loyalty or hono and I was elated to have gone Goblin Slayer on his ass and killed him and his spawn.

*But it also shows that Otto was the philanthropist and Norman the money grubber.* 

I hoped to be able to hire Otto later, and exploit his smarts in good faith and actually advance society. Earth needed to be at least at the level of most star societies out there to be able to withstand the obstacles heading its way. The Kree, Thanos, the Skrulls, a lot of other aliens. There would be many invasions in the next twenty years because those alien fuckers either want to harvest our DNA and conquer us, or want those infinity stones stashed on the planet.

“The first steps to enact big changes are here.” I floated with the six armored shipping containers at my side in a pose that could be called Magnetoesque over the Oscorp skyscraper.

Not wanting to exhaust my astral body that had been out influencing Harry for almost the entire day, I decided that I would attack Oscorp myself and use it sparsely. I wore a catsuit and boots that I made someone else buy for me with a dark cloak and mask obscuring my face. I wore gloves to avoid giving away my identity as I was going to touch a lot of things today.

“It’s almost Black Friday anyway. If you are going to hit someone, then it ought to be the fat, jiggling meat of unethical, greedy CEOs, right?” I snickered, landing on the roof with the containers.

Kneeling on the ground I pushed my spatial awareness toward the entire building till I reached the foundations. Throughout the forty floors I could feel everything happening into it, there were still people working, a simple scan of their minds showed scientists and security guards making their rounds. A smile stretched across my face. It couldn’t have been any easier. 

Norman and Harry’s death must have kicked the metaphorical hornets nest and panicked everyone concerned. I projected myself in astral form to do a quick possession of the chief security guard. Opening my eyes, I was smackdab into the command center, looking at the screens showing most of the floors. What interested me was the R&D divisions. As I downloaded the floor plans from the chief’s mind I realized that they were in the basement.

I cursed, letting go of the chief’s mind and putting him asleep at the same instant. My astral form drifted lower, phasing through the floors. I passed through the administrative floors and the reception rooms at high speed until I phased in an elevator shaft until I reached the bottom of it two hundred meters deep. *Wow, Normie you don’t joke about the safety of your R&D department.*

When I phased through the door, the futuristic look of everything struck me. It was as if I was in a TNG episode. I could get lost in there; there were so many rooms to explore! But I didn’t have the time for that. I expanded my mental field to the entire R&D basement, compelling everyone present to sleep. Feeling the minds all around me drift into sleep, I swifty returned to my body on the roof.

Breathing in and out, I flexed my will and seized the armored containers and lifted from the ground to swiftly descend at the feet of Oscorp tower. I touched down before the entrance and opened a hole by destroying the gates and enlarged it with my TK by turning the steel and glass into particles. I entered the building with the containers floating by following me.

With a sweep of my right arm I sweeped away the furniture from the welcome area of the lobby, making space for my containers to pass. After a little walk, we arrived at the elevator space. The door opened as if a giant tore them down and I placed all my containers in a row before the opened elevator shaft. I levitated and dived into the shaft, the air of my controlled fall disturbing my cloak.

Two hundred meters down I stopped again in person before the door of the R&D department and it fell apart in fine particles before me. As I put a foot on the ground, I looked at the receiving area. A laugh bubbled out of me; there was no one to stop me. I skipped as I walked toward the end of the area. There was a card reader near the door to allow access but I disintegrated it too and began my acquisition trip.

I was aware that I was taking risks right now, that I could get caught by the police or something like that but, the riskier the road, the greater the profit. I couldn't pass up taking everything worth money, and the future from Oscorp. I arrived at some kind of main corridor with a vaulted gray ceiling, on the left and right there were doors that surely gave on different labs.

Going for the first door, it opened with a wave  and I wasn't surprised to see a room full of shelves loaded with terrariums, filled with different species of insects and arachnids; this made me smile. In the center of the room was a blocky  computer linked to multiple memory banks and a radiation projector that looked like a cannon whose end was a satellite dish.

I think I just found Cindy's birthday present. I looked for the spiders and when I found them I looked through them for the number forty-two. 

Some of them were already dead but fortunately, it seemed that luck was with me. “Ah, there you are my beauty!” I took terrarium number forty two from its shelf and let it orbit around me. Spider forty-two was the only one left alive and I sure hoped it was the one that would allow my girlfriend to attain her iconic super powers. 

There were many file cabinets on the wall near the scarab aisle, and I walked up to it, searching through them for the files on the spiders. *Got them!* I let those orbit around me too, floating and following me as I levitated toward the exit and the next lab that gave me hope for the future as I finally found where they kept all the computers. Desktop and laptops and supercomputers. 

They were all offline. 

Fortunately, I didn’t bother choosing; I took them all, unplugging them from the walls and also making them follow me to the next room. My acquisition spree continued for over an hour where I had to go up the elevator shaft back and forth to load everything in the armored containers. Secreted in my messenger bag were twenty vials of Oz Serums that I found when I breached Norman’s private lab.

I took Doctor Connor’s formula, the Rhino armor prototype, the exo-suit that would be better known as the goblin armor and the glider prototype. The first prototype of what would become the scorpion suit and some kind of fancy gauntlets were also there- a good haul. I pilfered everything, even if it was bolted down.

I also stole the computers and files that were in the rooms, the delicate lab tools and furniture were also loaded in the containers that suddenly didn’t seem to be enough for all the gear, tools and hardware I stole. There was only one lab left before I moved on and hid the containers in the private warehouse in Forest Hills.

At the same time, I evacuated everyone who was sleeping in the labs to the lobby at the entrance of the skyscraper. I couldn't let anyone down there with good conscience when I was going to torch the labs down. Floating to the last laboratory at the end of the huge corridor, I opened the door, and was taken aback by surprise when I saw someone awake inside. 

He had a bowl-like haircut, wore round glasses and a lab coat covered a middle range grey business suit. With a quick probe of his mind, I realized that this was doctor Otto. *Weird, what is he doing here? And why is he fucking awake?!*

“Who are you?! W-what are you doing?!” His eyes widened like saucers when he saw the gear floating and following me around.

The half face mask on my face showed my lips that curved into a smile. I placed a finger before my mouth. “Shhh.” And I pushed a suggestion in his mind about sleeping. He fell like a sack  of potatoes on the ground, but I didn’t let his head impact it. Floating toward him, I took off my right glove and touched his forehead with two fingers.

“You are one of the most intelligent men on Earth. I’m going to copy everything.” I spoke, beginning to replicate Otto’s skills and knowledge, taking care to not download any memory of his. Otto Octavius was a multi-discipline scientist with expertise in various fields of science and it fucking hurt to replicate a genius level mind!

“Argh! Damn, I’m not doing this again… Huh, wow I know Quantum physics and I can make a cold fusion reactor- why the hell didn’t he make one?!” I stared at the sleeping Otto as I held onto my head painfully. I laughed through the pain, though. This guy had the power to help a lot of people; he was a brilliant engineer and inventor. Now I was too, having copied everything he knew. I intended to build onto this knowledge.

Then I shrugged. I wasn’t about to let Otto get stuck here; he was too precious for the future. I just hoped he wouldn’t blame me for destroying Oscorp and stealing everyone’s research.

Otto Octavius was made to float with the gear behind me. I looked around me and saw that it wasn’t a lab but more like a storage room. Oh! Otto’s tentacles prosthetics were there too, and what’s that? Rocks? Huh, oh wow, no this is…! I felt life coming from those two rocks which was bizarre and only meant one thing. 

<Klyntar!> The voice of my other self rang into my mind. 

The Klyntars, originally and better known as Symbiotes, were  a species of inorganic, amorphous, symbiotic extraterrestrials created from the “living abyss” at the beginning of the universe by the primordial deity Knull who is a fucking bastard.

I gulped. This was dangerous, but those creatures could be useful, if raised right and could attain perfect symbiosis. *Okay, Jean if you do this, remember: Klyntars are sentient beings, not toys or pets; they deserve love and to be protected, right?* 

With a nudge of my mind, I cracked the rock on the right and one anxiety filled minute later, I felt the mind inside awaken and oh so slowly, a puddle of golden and viscous elastic sludge poured out of the cracks I made from the meteorite on the ground. It looked right and left it seemed, feeling around with their own senses. I crouched slowly before it, allowing my ungloved hand to slowly near the  Klyntar projecting feelings of welcome, protection and promise of friendship toward it thanks to my projective empathy.

<Here, come unite with me. I will protect you and feed you if you  promise to never hurt me and those I love.>

The Klyntar rippled for over thirty seconds as it pondered over my words. Finally it made its decision, and reassured by my words, the golden puddle of amorphous sludge slowly advanced toward me and then latched on my hand. It elicited a little scream from me at first and then the symbiote slowly covered all my body in gold. This sensation of being engulfed by something… it scared me a bit. I felt the symbiote insinuate itself into my body, I almost harmed it when I couldn’t take such an invasion, but when I felt it bond with me, something clicked in my head, as if I slotted another CPU on my circuit board.

[Happiness: Greetings.] The Klyntar projected it’s mind-voice and I felt a glow of joy in my mind making my cheeks redden. Its voice was neutral.

*Huh, hi.* I thought aloud, sure that the symbiotes would understand me.

[Mirth: Thankful, I am for finding a host of such power and health on my first landing.] I felt that this golden symbiote was special. I felt that it was still bonding to me, tasting me, scanning my body to look for defects. When it came up empty, I sensed its approval and spoke. *You are a Klyntar, I am... huh, happy to meet you. My name is Jean. Are you sure that you want to bond with me? I am not the nicest person around.* I asked, aware of my own flaws. 

There was no way that my hands would be stained in blood when I felt safe enough for me and my loved ones in this universe. The symbiote detected my own doubts and I felt its own.

[Uncertain: Host Jean, please offer me a name for easier discourse. To answer your question, you are a good person and fiercely protective of your family network. You have a plan to attain true peace which is admirable and it interests me to see you go through with it.] I felt its voice becoming gradually female in tone.

I glanced at my hand where the symbiote was moving like one of those japanese tentacle hentai. *I am going to call you Goldie, it’s cute because you got a feminine voice even though your race is genderless.* It defied everything I knew about the Klyntar, the way she spoke like an AI or the mind talk. Do Klyntars have some weird tradition I wasn’t aware of?

Goldie hugged my mind and decided that letting me in the dark wasn’t good, as it could feel my psionics well and power; I could easily kill it. I wouldn’t though, as she wasn’t evil nor did she feel evil at all. [Explanation: You are my first host, and you are female and psionically powerful enough to understand the concepts, emotions and images I can transmit to you. I have decided that a female voice and identity would be easier for our continued cooperation.]

*You are one smart Klyntar.* Maybe too smart. She was doing all this to put me at ease and to not renege on our deal.

Shrugging, I decided to not linger here. “Okay, we don’t have the time to speak for long, I must steal everything in this room to deny my enemy resources. I know that you good Klyntar are big on this justice thing.”

The Klyntar symbiotes have established a hive mind capable of sensing the “voice” of the Cosmos and created an intergalactic peacekeeping society called the Agents of the Cosmos by using the symbiosis they needed to subsist in order to transform “worthy” hosts into the ultimate noble warriors. 

I think I was too hasty in signing up to become the space police.

[Compliance: Dormant, I will be again.] It said and I felt its mind gradually become quiescent.

Forty minutes later, I’d finished  looting everything and lit everything on fire with my pyrokinesis in a controlled manner. I simply destroyed anything I couldn’t take with me, the terrariums who weren’t containing any living spiders burned. Everything was consumed clean by the cosmic flames until no ashes were left. I floated up the elevator shaft, with my bubble of oxygen letting me and Otto to not be concerned by the lack of oxygen.

The loot slowly followed me up, then I reached the entrance of the shaft in the lobby. I didn’t feel any awakened mind and that was reassuring but just in case, I planned on destroying the video records of my visit. I put Otto on the ground and I wrote a note saying “I will call you” with a smiley face on it that I placed in his lab coat pocket.

I sent my astral form to the command center of the chief security guard and began to obliterate everything with my TK by turning the recording gear into dust. *That’s that.*

Returning to my physical form, I lifted from the ground and began to store everything in the half filled sixth container. I delicately placed everything inside. There were  hundreds of millions of dollars of gear here. Once done, I lifted the containers from the ground and got out of Oscorp tower. I stacked the containers side to side and landed on the middle one and covered them in psionic energy and activated my cloaking field and I was finally out of here at  cruise speed.

“Thanks for the shopping trip, Norman.” I whispered as I thought about the awful man.

I turned north toward Willow Lake where I would hide the containers filled with goodies. I hugged the terrarium to my body, spider forty-two didn’t feel any bothered by the trip. Goldie, my symbiote was sleeping and I vowed to make a giant stash of processed chocolate to feed it to not have the problems that Peter Parker and Eddie Brock from Earth-616 had with the Venom symbiote.

“Best acquisition trip ever.”