Morbid Mind

Saturday, July 1, 2018, 10:56 AM

The stairs groaned under Harley’s feet as he bolted up to the ninth floor. His heart was racing faster than it ever had. He had no time to lose. He didn’t want Doc to start testing without him. He finally reached the ninth floor. Out of breath, he pushed the door open and looked around wildly.

Doc was standing over some blueprints with a pencil tucked behind his ear. He already had his green protective goggles on.

“Did you start already?” Harley asked, between deep gulps of air.

Octavius grinned and shook his head. “I would never start without you. I was just running the numbers for the 100th time. C’mon, let’s get started.”

Harley sighed with relief and put on his goggles. “So what was your big breakthrough? What did you figure out?”

“Last night I was at home thinking everything over.” He began. “I was thinking about why the fusion reactor was so unstable. I went over the calculations, the blueprints, everything. But it wasn’t until I looked through my early notes on the project that I realized, the electromagnets we have been using for weeks aren’t powerful enough to sustain their own charge.”

“That can’t be right. We got the strongest electromagnets on the market.”

“That’s what I thought too, until last night. I found this,” He groaned as he lifted a massive coil of metal. Bigger than Harley had ever seen. “Holy shit,” He breathed.

“This is the breakthrough. And, why I need your help installing it.”

Harley nodded his head. He was speechless. “How- how did you even get this?”

He shrugged. “I told you, I’m a great negotiator. Are you gonna help me install these or what?”

The two set off to work. Harley moved quickly and with excitement, taking out the old electromagnets and replacing them with the new, more powerful ones. Doc simultaneously reconfigured the equations and power levels to accommodate the new current levels.

“All done here, Doc,” Harley said, putting the last of his tools away.

“Perfect timing. Let’s give this a full test, huh?”

“What? We don’t even know if the new current level is stable. It might-”

“Do you trust me, Harley?”

Harley sighed. “Yea.”

“Then let’s get this thing running.”

It was hard to ignore his growing anxiety as Doc began the test. But Harley trusted him. He chose to ignore the pit growing in his stomach and watch as the machine powered up. The core burned a bright orange to warm up. Orange turned yellow, turned bright white.

“Yes!” Octavius shouted, both fists in the air. “It works! We did it!”

Harley couldn’t help but smile. They’d really done it. He looked at the laptop displaying the current levels. “Current levels steady. I can’t believe it works.”

“I can!” Octavius grinned. “I knew we could do it.”

“Not ‘we’, Doc. You.”

“Don’t be so modest, I couldn’t have done it without you. You think these old bones could do all that heavy lifting?”

Harley snorted. “You got a point-”

There was a loud beeping from the laptop in front of Harley. “The current’s destabilizing.”

“What! How? I ran the numbers a hundred times.”

“I’m shutting it down,” Harley began typing quickly on the laptop.

“No! You can’t. It was working,” Octavius pushed Harley from the laptop. He was stronger than he looked.

“If we don’t shut this thing down we could blow the power everywhere in Queens. Or worse.”

A vein bulged from Octavius’s forehead. He stood silently staring at Harley for a moment. “You’re right.”

He typed on the laptop for a few seconds and the machine shut down. The bright glow dissipated and the loud whirring quieted.

“I’m sorry. I got carried away,” Octavius pulled off his lab coat and goggles. “Too much time in the lab.”

“It’s okay. You were just excited. Look, we’ll fix it. There’s gotta be something we missed. I’ll look everything over,” The pit in his stomach returned. “You get some rest.”

Octavius nodded. “Thank you, Harley. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He placed his hand on Harley’s shoulder and smiled. Harley couldn’t help but smile back. Though he’d only been working for Octavius for a few months, he felt such a strong connection with the man. Maybe even stronger than what he’d had with Tony.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Doc,” Harley said, as Octavius moved for the door.

Harley turned back to the machine and sighed. He first started with a diagnostic check on the computer. It came up empty because of course it did. He moved on to the machine itself and carefully removed the bottom metal plate to get a look at the inside.

Thick, black smoke billowed out the moment the plate was removed. Harley coughed and waved it away. “Well, that’ll be the problem, I guess.”

The voltage regulators had blown. Clearly, the best the market had to offer just wasn’t enough.

He plopped onto a stool and pulled out his phone. He typed out a message to Octavius; ‘Voltage regulators blew. I don’t know where we’ll find ones good enough to stabilize this much power.’

He tossed his phone on the table and looked around. Octavius wasn’t around. The perfect time for him to put some time into the suit.

He dug around in his backpack and pulled out his helmet. “Hey ABBIE, what’s up?”

“Hey, Harley. You working again?”

“Always am. I think we’re ready for a full flight test tonight.”

“Are you sure? Do I have to remind you how the last flight tests went?”

Footage of Harley’s previous flight tests lit up on his heads-up display. It showed him twisting the knob on the gauntlet and it completely crushed his hand. Another showed him slamming against the exposed brick wall of the lab after his rocket boot malfunctioned and sent him flying ten feet. Beside that, a clip of him sending blueprints and important papers flying through the air when he tested his repulsors. The final clip showed him smacking his notebook on the floor repeatedly to put out the fire he started when he tried to take notes with his gauntlet on. Harley rolled his eyes. “Hilarious. No, I think I know what went wrong. I just got a bit of tweaking to do.”

~

Saturday, July 1, 2018, 10:29 PM

“Alright,” Harley sighed. “Initiate test number sixty-something.”

He looked at the iron man helmet he’d placed on a desk across the room and gave it a thumbs up. He always filmed his tests for academic purposes.

The whole test area had been cleared of desks and equipment. If he was going to do this, it had to be properly. He didn’t want to risk breaking anything again.

After cracking his neck and shaking out his nerves, he posed himself with his best impression of Iron Man. He didn’t have the full suit on, so he felt a bit stupid. He just had the repulsor pads and the bones of the rocket boots strapped to his hands and feet.

“Start off easy with…” He thought for a minute about his past attempts at flight. His design was way more powerful than he expected. And that brick wall hurt like hell. “One percent.”

His boots instantly activated. Unlike the last sixty-something times, he just barely left the ground. Maybe a foot or two. He laughed excitedly and leaned a bit forward. He slowly hovered forwards.

“Yes!” He cried. “It works!”

He leaned his body to the right and ended up doing a little twirl. He laughed again and steadied himself. “Okay, kill power.”

The boots shut off and he landed on the floor with a thunk. “You ready to take this on a road test, ABBIE?”

“Are you sure? One test doesn’t account for wind speed, drag, and-”

“Just give me a warning if things get messy okay? I’ll land on a roof or something,” he shrugged.

He pulled the helmet on and his HUD lit up in blue. It showed every plane flying over the city at that moment and a mini-map in the bottom corner showing his exact location. He wished he could’ve taken credit for the beautiful interface of the HUD and the AI, but Tony had done everything for him as a Christmas gift. He’d done an amazing job too. Well, he was Tony Stark after all.

“Let’s do this,” He whispered, turning the knob on his wrist. The full gauntlet sprang from his watch and enveloped the repulsor. He did the same on his ankles and his feet were covered with thick metal boots. He hadn't found a way to disguise the helmet, so he had to just put it on and remove it normally. As for the rest of the suit, he had no clue… yet. The chest plate, back, legs and upper arms all seemed too daunting to worry about at the time. The rocket boots and repulsors were way cooler and more fun to build anyway.

He made his way up the fire escape and onto the roof of the lab.

“Transfer manual control to EEG signals and give me live updates on power levels,” A power percentage appeared on the top corner of his HUD. He grinned and prepped himself for takeoff.

The rocket boots exploded alive and he was thrust upwards into the sky. He did a few unintended barrel rolls while trying to regain control, but eventually got a handle on things. He was steadily flying through the NYC skies just like he’d dreamt of doing as a kid.

“WOOHOO!” He screamed, raising his arms like it was a roller coaster. He instantly lost balance and began a quick descent to the street below.

“Shit!” He put his arms back down, his palms out, and blasted upwards before hitting the ground. “Okay, that was dumb.”

He took a deep breath to calm himself of the pure excitement and the fear that he literally almost died. The suit worked though! It really worked. He’d actually built something that worked. This was a massive step up from just taking remote controls apart and back together.

He did an intentional spin and then headed straight up. “Let’s take this bitch to space!” He shouted.

“Space travel is impossible in this suit. This is a prototype. My estimations say you’ll likely make it to 14,000 feet before losing power and free-falling to your death. ”

“14,001 feet it is then,” He accelerated as hard as possible and blasted upwards.

“Might I remind you that you don’t have a parachute?”

“Noted,” 5,000 feet.

“If you lose power, what’s your plan?”

“Try my best to not die,” 7,000 feet.

“Not a great plan.”

Harley rolled his eyes and watched the clouds grow closer and closer. He looked down and saw the streets below in little chunks. Each building was just a little lego block and the cars were the size of ants.

“Power levels dropping. Ten percent power remaining,” ABBIE warned.

“Keep going!” 10,000 feet.

His HUD was flashing red. That wasn’t a good sign at all. He only had 3,000 more feet to go. He could make it.

“Harley, power levels are at five percent. I strongly advise you-”

“We can do this!” 12,000 feet.

He looked down. Each light was a building and the lights were tiny. He could see the chape of the islands. The divide of each borough. All the bridges, roads, and beaches. He could see where the edge of the city became upstate and the forests. It was insane. 13,000 feet.

“Power- shutting down- warning-” ABBIE was crackling in and out in his ear.

“Okay, back down,” He slowed his ascent and turned his head toward the ground. The repulsors on his boots and palms began to flicker. His HUD stopped flashing red and was then completely dark.

“ABBIE? Hello?” Shit. That wasn’t good. He was just falling thousands of feet towards the ground. “ABBIE? Talk to me! You there?”

He looked at the arc reactor haphazardly strapped to his chest. It was flickering trying to stay online. He began to spin in the air. “Shit!” He screamed.

The lights were getting closer by the second. He’d seen enough movies to know that he really only had a minute of freefalling before he was screwed. He took a deep breath and turned the knob on his wrist to free his right hand. He struggled to move it to his chest while spinning uncontrollably.

He pulled the arc reactor off his chest and brought it closer to his face. He had installed an off switch since it didn’t have to keep his heart running at all times. He pressed it twice and slammed it back into his chest. He couldn’t believe he was resting his life on ‘have you tried turning it off and on again?’.

He put his arms out to stop himself from spinning and stared at his chest silently praying for the light to come back on.

“YES!” the light flicked back on and his HUD came back online.

“Power levels low. I suggest you get on the ground as soon as possible,” ABBIE said in an ‘I told you so’ voice.

He didn’t even care, he was just so happy to hear her voice again. “Heading back now!”

Making sure he wasn’t using too much power, he flew down back towards the lab.

“Critical power levels,” ABBIE warned again.

“We’re almost there, hold out a bit longer,” He could see the lab. He was maybe twenty feet above it. He could make it. He flipped so his head was up and his feet were under. He slowed the repulsors for landing.

“Powering down. Critical power levels.”

“Shit!” the repulsors died again and he fell straight down. He slammed onto the gravel roof with a thud and a splash of rocks.

He’d never wished for a chest plate more than in that moment. That was next on his to-do list.

~

Sunday, July 2, 2018, 10:32 PM.

The wind blew cold against him as he swung from building to building. There wasn't much going on during his patrol. Mostly just helping old ladies cross the street and tourists find their hotels. Pretty typical stuff for a Sunday night. Ned was chatting excitedly in his ear the whole time about legos and the physics test he was going to ace.

Peter was only half listening. He was more focused on how long he could swing before he got tired. So far, he’d been swinging for thirty-three minutes straight and he was only kinda feeling winded.

He did a quick backflip mid-swing just to entertain himself. Mid spin, he saw something. It was big and climbing up Avengers tower.

“Ned, did you see that?” Peter interrupted his rambling.

“See what?” He asked excitedly. They hadn’t had anything interesting all night so he probably wasn’t even watching the footage on his laptop.

“Over there on Avengers tower,” He landed on a nearby roof and looked closely at the tower. He was a bit far, but he could definitely see something moving.

“Do you think they’re training or something? Is that Vision?”

“No, they have a whole compound to train at. None of them even live there anyway.”

“So then what is it?”

“Let’s find out.”

He took off down the few blocks to the tower. The closer he got, the clearer he could see the thing. It was the guy he fought at Coney Island. Tentacles and everything.

“Is that him? Is that the Kit Fisto guy?”

“Yea, that’s him,” Peter breathed. He’d nearly forgotten just how massive he looked with the metal arms.

He landed on the side of Avengers tower with the smallest thud. He looked up at the guy scaling the side of the building. What was he after? First a rollercoaster and now the most expensive building in manhattan? It didn’t make sense.

“Hey!” He called. The man froze. “You know Spider-Man is coined. You’ll get sued with the whole eight legs thing.”

“Leave me alone!” The man shouted and began to climb faster.

“You know this is private property! You could get sued for trespassing too!” He shot a web at one of the metal arms. It moved on instinct and shot backwards taking him with it. Peter released the web and fell a few feet before catching himself on the wall.

“What are you looking for? Maybe I can help you find it!”

The man ignored him and continued climbing.

Peter followed.

“What do you think he’s here for? Is he gonna try and end the world? Is he gonna summon his army of aliens and kill us all?” Ned whispered.

“Last time he just ripped up a bit of a roller coaster. What makes you think he’d go from that to ending the world?”

“I don’t know, he’s a supervillain. Isn’t that what they do?”

Peter rolled his eyes and watched as the man climbed higher and higher up the building. “Do you think he’s gonna try to steal something?”

“What would he steal? It’s not like they live there anymore. What do they even keep in there anyway?”

Peter shrugged. “The labs are still working. Maybe he needs to build something. He looks like the kind of guy that would build something to end the world.”

“Ha! I told you. He’s a supervillain.”

One of the man’s tentacles pulled back from the wall and then slammed into it. The window cracked a bit but didn’t shatter. He pulled the tentacle back to strike it again.

Peter shot a web at it before it could hit the window again.

He looked down at Peter with his glowing red goggles. Peter was strangely reminded of the vulture and his glowing green eyes.

The man changed course and started moving directly to Peter.

“Oh god,” He said, walking backwards down the building.

~

Sunday, July 2, 2018, 10:48 PM.

He pushed the bedroom door open with a groan. He ached all over from his crash landing.

“Oh… Hey Ned,” He said to the boy sitting cross-legged on the bedroom floor. A laptop was perched on his lap and his eyes were glued to the screen.

“Hey,” He replied, eyes still locked on the screen.

“What’s going on? Where’s Parker?”

Ned pointed at the screen. His eyes widened. “Back up, back up!”

There was a crashing sound from the laptop.

“He on patrol?” Harley asked, dropping his backpack on the floor with a metallic clunk and stretching out his bruised shoulder.

“Yea, there’s this crazy dude with these tentacles climbing the Avengers tower.”

Harley laughed. “Sounds fun.”

“Look out!” Ned shouted. His hands clasping over his mouth.

Another louder crash.

“Sounds like it’s not going well,” He dropped onto the bottom bunk and looked at the screen from behind Ned’s shoulder.

Hundreds of feet in the air, Peter was sticking to the glass wall of Avengers Tower. He was looking down at a dark figure a few feet below. It was too dark to really know what he was looking at.

“That him?”

Ned nodded.

“Doesn’t look like he’s got tentacles… What am I even looking at?”

Peter flipped around and began climbing up the building. The reflection of the Spider-Man mask and the sky above was all they could really see. That is until Peter slammed into the glass wall. He was pulled off and spun around slowly.

Harley’s stomach dropped. A thick metal tube was wrapped tightly around Peter’s torso.

“You’re bothering me,” the man said.

Harley felt sick. He recognized that voice. It couldn’t be.

Peter was slammed backwards into the wall. The camera was shaky as he struggled to free himself from the metal arm.

The man moved closer and under the blue light of the giant Avenger’s logo, Harley clearly could see Doctor Octavius wearing a backpack with four giant tentacles protruding from it.

“Oh god,” Harley’s chest tightened at the sight of the man. “I have to go.”

“What? Where? Peter might be in trouble!”

Harley launched himself off the ground and grabbed his keys. “He is. And it’s my fault.”

He was out the window and down the fire escape in seconds. He slid into the driver's seat and started up the engine. He quickly called Ned and sped down the street towards Peter’s location.

“Okay turn left now,” Ned instructed.

The car screeched to a halt when he caught a glimpse of the two. He jumped out and climbed up on top of the car.

A crowd had formed. People had gotten out of their cars and were looking up at a building across the street.

“Now we can finally figure out the true identity of the masked hero,” Octavius shouted triumphantly. “The genius behind all of this!”

It was hard for him to see. The rain was pouring now more than ever. They were dangling off the roof of a building. But there was definitely something red and blue up there with him. And then suddenly, they were falling.

Harley backed away as far as he could before they slammed down onto the concrete. A loud boom shook the street as the pavement cracked beneath them. The crowd screamed and backed away but they never stopped watching.

A second boom echoed when the Octavius pinned Spider-Man to the side of the building. He struggled against the metal arm but he couldn’t seem to free himself.

“I already know his secret,” The man continued. “Harley Keener!”

He reached for Peter’s mask. Ready to pull it off.

“Doctor Octavius!” Harley shouted. Jumping onto a car to separate himself from the crowd. The man stopped abruptly and looked at Harley. “Stop.”

He looked startled. “Harley? What? No! You’re not-”

Peter took the man’s confusion as an opportunity to wiggle free of his grip and send a powerful kick to his face. He webbed his tentacles to the ground and bolted to Harley. “Car! Now!”

The two didn’t waste any time climbing into the car. Harley shoved the gear into first and sped off.

“You know that guy?” Peter asked frantically.

“He’s my boss!” Everything hit him at once. Doctor Octavius was wearing four metal arms and was about to unmask Peter in public.

“You work for him?”

“Not anymore!” He pulled the wheel as far as he could and the tires screeched against the road.

Peter stared frantically behind them. “He’s following. Go faster!”

“This car is like fifty years old. This is as fast as it goes.”

Peter groaned and rolled the window down. “Keep it steady. And lead him as far from the city as you can,” He climbed out of the window and onto the roof.

Harley rolled his eyes but his grip tightened on the wheel. He swerved through the lanes smoothly avoiding the nearby cars. It was exactly like a video game.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone went off. He quickly smacked it and picked up the call.

“Ned!” He shouted over the sound of booming footsteps and honking horns. “Perfect timing. What’s the fastest way out of the city?”

“Kid,” Shit. That definitely wasn’t Ned. Of course, Happy chose now to check-in. “Imagine my surprise when I see a red car with a silver racing stripe driving full speed down Bleecker Street. Oh, look there’s a little red and blue man standing on top of it shooting webs from his hands. Let me ask you something, would you perhaps be the idiot driving this car?”

He hesitated for a moment. Unsure of how to respond to that. “Hey Happy, how’s your weekend going?”

“Busted. I’m on my way right now. I can’t leave you two alone for two days can I?”

“We have it handled!” Harley argued. There was a loud thump from above and then Peter was on the hood of the car wrestling with a metal claw. “Sorta…”

“Who’s the metal tentacle guy?”

“Uhhh… He’s my boss. You know that lab I’ve been working at? That’s him.”

There was a moment of silence. “I’m getting on the next flight to New York. Try not to get killed until I get back. I wanna be the one to do it.”

“No promises!” He pulled the wheel all the way to the right, getting on the emptiest street in sight. The tires screeched beneath him and there was a loud thump as Spider-Man was smacked against the passenger side window. Harley stared at him in shock.

“Eyes on the road!” Peter shouted from outside the car. Harley instantly snapped his eyes back to the road.

“Sorry,” He shouted back as Peter was yanked out of sight.

“Tony is gonna kill me,” Happy continued. “You’re lucky you haven’t crashed yet. I’m landing in four hours. Promise me you’ll survive until then.”

Before Harley could answer, a metal claw slammed Peter onto the hood of the car and then yanked him away.

“Shit!” Harley stared out the back window searching for anything red and blue. Nothing.

“Kid? What happened? You guys alright?” Happy shouted through the phone.

Harley instantly remembered that he was driving and his head snapped back towards the road. Unfortunately, he’d drifted to the right while he had been distracted. The car was only half on the road. The other half was headed straight for a metal lamp post. He yanked the steering wheel to the left and slammed down on the breaks. The tires screeched again. He pulled the wheel towards the road just before the car spun out. He could smell burnt rubber as he slammed on the gas again.

Octavius was closer now. Just a few feet away. Peter was standing on the trunk of the car doing something Harley couldn’t see through the rearview mirror.

There was a loud slam to Harley’s right. One of Octavius’s tentacles had slammed into the driver’s side door. Glass flew everywhere. Harley tried his best to keep his eyes on the road.

A web exploded onto the empty hole where the window was, forming a protective barrier between Harley and Octavius.

“Show off,” Harley grinned.

The car was yanked to the right. Harley had no clue what to do. He decided to slam on the gas and pull the wheel to the right.

The car was yanked harder and harder until the whole driver’s side door was ripped from its hinges. The car spun out of control. He slammed the breaks and pulled the wheel toward the road. He had no clue how, but the car was suddenly rolling on its side.

The next thing he knew, the car was stopped. Smoke was erupting from somewhere under the hood, and he was dangling upside-down, pinned to his seat by his seatbelt.

“Harley! Are you okay? What happened?” Happy’s voice was glitching slightly. Probably poor service.

“Fine,” he breathed. It was all he could manage to say. It was a bit of a lie though. He had definitely broken something.

It took him a moment to unbuckle himself and fall to the ground. He groaned and stumbled out of the car. He landed roughly on the road. Glass shards crunched beneath him and dug into his skin. He winced and pushed himself onto his feet.

The street was empty other than Spider-Man and Doctor Octavius who were locked in battle. Or they were until Doctor Octavius spotted Harley. One of his tentacles slammed into the side of Peter’s head and knocked him onto the ground. It held him there as Octavius approached Harley.

Peter kicked and fought against the giant metal claw but didn’t make any progress on escape.

“Harley, after all the time we spent together in the lab and all your brilliant suggestions, I had convinced myself that there was nobody else who could possibly be genius and yet stupid enough to be the Spider-Man. I want you to know this is truly shocking to me.”

“Yea, so what? You were gonna unmask me in front of everyone because you thought I was smart?”

The man groaned and rolled his eyes. “He’s been ruining everything! We needed supplies for the fusion reactor and he kept getting in the way.”

“Because you’re insane! There are other ways to get supplies. We could’ve gotten funding somewhere else. If Tony Stark knew what we were building he’d-”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. One of Octavius’s tentacles slammed into Harley’s chest and knocked him flat on his back. It dug into his ribs as it pushed him deeper and deeper into the concrete. “Tony Stark is an arrogant idiot who’d much rather make money than contribute anything of value to the people who really need it.”

The claw released and Octavius yelped. Peter had shot a web grenade at Octavius’s head.

Harley took advantage of the distraction. He tried to push himself off the ground but he collapsed after putting his weight on his ankle. He’d definitely broken it. Instead, he just crawled to the car. He didn’t want to, but he could call Tony for help. It seemed the only viable option at the moment.

A claw clamped around Harley’s good ankle and tossed him into the air. He was caught by another metal claw that snaked around his torso and squeezed.

“We could have done it together, Harley. We could have changed the world together.”

“Not like this,” Harley squirmed under the pressure around his chest. He could hardly breathe.

Red and blue lights flashed a few yards away. Octavius rolled his eyes as the whoops of sirens echoed through the trees.

Harley was suddenly released and crashed onto the road below with a groan. Octavius rose higher into the air as his tentacle arms acted as legs and crawled into the woods.

“Harley!” Peter was finally on his feet. “You okay?”

He nodded even though it was a lie. He really wasn’t okay. His whole body ached. “Go,” He said.

“What?”

“Go follow him. We can’t let him get away.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Peter held his hand out for Harley.

He shook his head. “I’ll slow you down. Go, before we lose him.”

Peter hesitated. The lights and sirens were getting closer. Any second, and they would be discovered and probably arrested.

“If you get arrested I’m gonna kill you,” He ran to the edge of the road and shot a web at a nearby tree. He launched himself off the ground and disappeared into the woods.

A horn honked a few feet away. A cop car skidded to a stop and suddenly the whole road was bathed in bright headlights.