saudade

Peter couldn’t really focus on Dr. Connor’s explanations because he was so excited for the demonstration. He was about to see the world’s greatest invention live. He would see something only journalists or high respected businessmen had access to and he, an average boy, had the chance to attend it.

After the lecture, he was picked up by Harry who was even more excited than he was. After all, it would be the biggest achievement OSCORP ever had. They entered Otto Octavius’ house and got a place in the first row, since Harry was the one sponsoring the project. Peter wrapped his arm around Harry’s waist to lower his nervousness.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, my wife Rosie and I would like to welcome you this afternoon. Thank you for coming. Today, you will witness the birth of a new fusion-based energy source. Safe, renewable energy and cheap electricity for everyone. And now let me introduce my assistants.” Dr. Octavius revealed something that looked like large gripping arms.

“These four actuators were developed and programmed for the sole purpose of creating successful fusion. They are impervious to heat and magnetism.” He put the arms on and let them encircle him. Needles ate their way into his flesh. The arms rose.

“These smart arms are controlled by my brain through a neural link. Nanowires feed directly into my cerebellum allowing me to use these arms to control fusion reaction in an environment no human hand could enter."

“Couldn’t that make you vulnerable to them?”, a woman asked. To Peter, it was a valid question.

“How right you are. Therefore, I developed this inhibitor chip to protect my higher brain function. It means I maintain control of these arms, instead of them controlling me. And now on to the main event.”

Otto Octavius approached the invention Peter saw yesterday. “Precious tritium is the fuel that makes this project go. There’s only 25 pounds of it on the whole planet. I’d like to thank Harry Osborn and OSCORP Industries for providing it.”

“Happy to pay the bills, Otto”, Harry shouted in enthusiasm. Peter smiled and took his hand.

“Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts”, Octavius said and put on his protection glasses.

He pushed a few buttons and an atom with, and incredible amount of energy appeared and started to grow. When there was a miniature sun, the fusion reaction was successful. Everybody in the room clapped and Peter could see the wide grin of relief on Harry’s face. He smiled. Harry deserved this giant success.

“This is a breakthrough beyond your father’s dreams”, a man behind them said to Harry who smiled brighter than the miniature sun in the room. “Thank you.”

Peter squeezed Harry’s hand as he saw the sparkle in his brown eyes.

The gripping arms approached the miniature sun. “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand”, Octavius said, proud of the breakthrough he achieved.

Peter’s spider sense started to tingle. Something was wrong. When the lamps on the ceiling started to lean towards the small sun, he knew what it was. Unlike Octavius had said, it wasn’t impervious to magnetism.

Then, all magnetic object in the room were sucked into the sun. “Keep calm! It’ll stabilize soon”, Octavius tried to calm down the visitors. The iron pieces on the ceiling started to break.

“Shut it off, Otto, shut it off!”, Harry screamed and that he couldn’t see Peter anywhere, made his fear increase.

Meanwhile, Peter put on his Spider-Man suit. He had to save them.

“Otto, shut it off, now!”, Harry insisted but Octavius didn’t listen to him.

“It’ll soon stabilize!”

“I’m in charge here so now you shut it off!”, Harry yelled, and Peter threw him aside before a cart full of scientific instruments could hit him.

Harry’s face showed pure disgust as he saw who saved him. “This doesn’t change anything.”

Peter didn’t have time to say something so he jumped on the ceiling to pull the plug before the whole house could be blown up. One of the metallic arms threw him into a wall. Seriously, what was so funny at throwing him in walls? The glasses broke and before Peter could react, Rosie Octavius was dead, and Otto got shocked by the fusion.

Peter stuck his feet to the wall and tried to rip out the thick cables with both arms. Just as he thought his arms will tear, he managed to rip them out. Unfortunately, it didn’t prevent anything. The fusion exploded and vanished.

Peter put his clothes back on and carried Harry outside the house. “Are you okay?”, he asked and eyed him worriedly.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me. Where have you been? I was worried about you.”

“I, um, I just went to the toilet”, Peter lied.

“But you’re okay?”

“Yes, I am”, Peter assured him.

As Harry saw all the people under treatment by the firefighters or the ambulance and as he saw Rosie’s body, carried away by undertakers, he knew everything had failed. He was ruined. He had nothing left except Spider-Man.

As he remembered that he was touched by this criminal, a cold shiver ran down Harry’s spine. He was humiliated by the bare touch of his father’s murderer. If Harry was sure of one thing, it was that he would find and kill Spider-Man.

“Harry, I don’t think you should obsess over work now. Today was tough”, Peter said quietly.

“Don’t you understand? I’m ruined. I ruined my father’s legacy and I have to find a way to fix it. There’s nothing left for me except Spider-Man if I lose the company”, Harry explained and tried to focus on the newest statistics.

“But he saved your life”, Peter tried to convince Harry. He didn’t want Harry to get eaten up by the thirst for revenge. From his own experiences he knew what it could do to people.

“He humiliated me by touching me”, Harry spat, his voice full of hatred.

Peter swallowed hard. He needed to find a way to ease Harry’s pain and anger before it could destroy him. What would his boyfriend do if he knew that Peter was Spider-Man? Would he still want to kill him? Could Harry kill Peter?

Peter couldn’t believe it; he didn’t want to believe it. He hoped that he would never have to experience the true answer to that question.

“Would you tell me if you knew Spider-Man’s identity?”, Harry asked, “Since he’s your friend and everything.”

“Harry, could we get off that subject?”, Peter tried to avoid giving an answer.

“So, you wouldn’t tell me?”

“Harry, I don’t know who he is”, Peter sighed.

“But if you knew, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

“I would”, Peter finally said, knowing that it could have serious consequences if Harry ever finds out about his secret.