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( do we need to guess who this is for at this point )
Everyone had a threshold for dealing with shit and Harry had finally exceeded his.
Amid all the threats and not-so-accidental accidents, Octavius finally made a move. It was only thanks to an overpowered stun-gun Peter made him that Harry escaped. Octavius had gotten arrogant, moved just close enough to get in range, then ZAP. Both Octavius and the tentacles went on a fritz, throwing Harry to the ground. He was lucky to have gotten away with nothing worse than a gash on his shoulder and a mess of bruises from the encounter. But more than anything, it simply wasn't enough just to survive Octavius anymore.
Harry knew - now more than ever - that he needed to fight back. He needed to save himself from this guy. --But how? Even the stun-gun could only do so much.
And then he kept wandering into the study for long periods of time, staring at the mirror, long since replaced to hide the lair behind it once more. The serum was gone. Destroyed. But the weaponry, the materials, the blueprints... all of that was still in there. Granted, he couldn't use any of it as is. It belonged to the Goblin, and Harry wouldn't follow in those dark footsteps. If he wanted to use them, he had to become something else; he had to redesign everything.
...But could he? Harry was no genius, after all.
And yet - while that was true, he was resourceful and creative-- and he did exactly what he set out to do. Not without blunder, of course. There were plenty of mishaps and imperfections, but he had access to the programs, the blueprints, the materials his father had left behind. With them, Harry was able to create a new suit, a new glider, new weapons-- all entirely of his own design. He started out just tentatively flying around in abandoned subway tunnels, building confidence in himself and his tech. Especially trying to keep a low profile. This was just to fight Octavius, he told himself. He didn't need any attention on him; he didn't want Peter finding out until he was sure he could pull this off. And he had honestly meant to avoid heroics-- but then one day, he saw someone in trouble on his way to his makeshift training grounds. It seemed too cruel not to help.
They had been so grateful, and for the first time in a long time, Harry was proud of himself. He actually made a difference! It was an exhilarating feeling.
After that, he made more of an effort to help people before heading off to the subway tunnels. He still tried to stay low-key about it, but a new guy swooping in to save people was bound to get some attention. Today, he was even using the opportunity to test out a new gadget: a snare he'd built from razor bat scraps. It was supposed to lock onto a target and - when within range - break open and shoot out a cord that would ideally restrain said target. He was hoping to figure out a way to tie down Octavius' smart arms with it, but he figured this stupid mugger - trying to take off with some lady's purse - was as good of practice as any. The lock-on feature worked great, but the cord thing? ...Not so much. It just kind of ended up clotheslining the guy more than anything. ...Oops.
Thanks to that, Harry ended up staying behind longer than he wanted to, making sure the woman got her stuff back and that the mugger was properly restrained this time. In a hurry not to draw any more attention to himself than he already had, he was quick to return to his glider and hurtle off into the sky, hoping to get to the abandoned subway tunnels without further incident.
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"Okay, electric sword, come on, Harry, how are you meant to get better if you don't practice?" Hence the totally-not-telling-him. "How do you know I don't have a few tricks up my sleeve for electricity, anyway?" The webbing didn't conduct, a byproduct of his run-in with Electro. Gwen's doing, really. "And I do. Seriously, I've healed from a lot worse."
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"I don't know, but I wasn't planning on using this thing on a living person that wasn't Octavius!" Which is a good thing, really. "That doesn't exactly help with the--" Harry paused to jab his fingers in the air to signify 'stabbing'. A few seconds passed before Harry sighed, arms hanging at his sides in defeat. "That doesn't make me feel better, 'cause I don't want to hurt you at all."
A huff and then: "You're really stubborn, you know that?"
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"It's one of my many talents, right next to annoying cops."
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He fixed another glare on Spider-Man to show he still really didn't want to do this, but he needed the training. Mask: back up again, and this time, Harry reached back to retrieve the sword. It was a long, slender blade that hummed to life and glowed a vibrant green once charged.
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Well, the blade glowed green.
"Are you kidding me? Dude, we have to talk about the motif. That green lightsaber bullshit is a little overkill, don't you think?"
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He shot forward with a burst of speed from the glider, coming around in a mostly clean arc to swing the blade and try to chase Spider-Man off his perch on the wall.
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It worked, sending Peter up to the ceiling, but Harry's arc was too big, allowing Peter the chance to escape with a fair amount of ease. "You can’t win, Darth. Strike me down, and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine!" Then Peter's throwing himself down at Harry, aiming to land on his back.
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"Would you just shut up about the-- augh!"
So distracted by his own complaining, Harry failed to see which direction Spider-Man was coming from in time enough to do anything about it. The sword jumped out of his hand on impact, sparking when the blade struck the wall on the way down, with Harry teetering forward and trying very hard not to follow it.
Has he mentioned that he's bad at this?
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Peter tightened his legs around Harry's shoulders, holding on even as he swerved and tried to regain his balance. Which wasn't very easy with Peter clinging to his back.
"This is the part where I would punch you," Peter explained, wrapping his arms around Harry's neck like a strange version of a piggyback ride. Instead, he's going to let Harry try to shake him off, or, if he can't regain footing, they'll just go crashing to the ground. "Onward, noble steed!"
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Maintaining balance on the glider was hard enough with just his own weight, but with another person on his shoulders, Harry was pretty much floundering. It never occurred to him how much he was actually lacking in physical strength until now, because he always thought he'd been in pretty decent shape.
Spider-Man's quips did nothing to help. "I'm starting to realize why no one likes you!"
To Harry's credit, he kept them from crashing into a wall on his own this time, but in the process ended up swerving too hard to the left and irreparably throwing himself off balance. And of course, he only made it worse when he lurched forward with his hands grasping at Spider-Man's arms to pry them from around his neck while he tried to flip Spider-Man over his head. Instead, he mostly just ended up throwing himself off the front of the glider with a cry and sending them both hurtling to the floor.
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Peter's pretty amused, watching Harry flail. It wasn't terribly difficult to hold on, sticking his hands to Harry's chestplate and letting him try his best. Yeah, Harry, sorry - superhuman strength. On the bright side, at least Spiderman is on your side, offering to help fight against Otto?
"Woah there - " Peter let go with one hand to shoot a web, leaving them dangling from the ceiling, barely avoiding smashing into the ground. The web twanged, pulled taut with the weight, and Peter slowly lowered them to the ground, untangling their limbs. "You okay?"
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Isn't that cheating, using your sticky spider powers to hold on? Not that Harry really stopped to think about it. Too many things going on at once-- he felt like he was racing to divide his attention adequately. For all of his whining, he was grateful to Spider-Man for taking the time to try and help him.
Even more grateful when his face didn't end up bashing into the ground. They were cutting it close-- Harry could reach out and touch the ground. He let out a breath of relief. "I'm okay. Thanks," was his earnest answer. The glider soon joined them, humming nearby while Harry scooted towards the wall to retrieve his fallen sword.
"You weren't kidding. It's really hard to steer that thing when you've got someone else to worry about." And Spider-Man wasn't even attacking him. He climbed back to his feet and decisively put the sword back in its sheath. "I think I should get used to that first before I start trying to use weapons. Is that okay?"
Regardless, Harry was already hopping back on the glider, ready to try again.
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Peter dropped to the ground in a crouch, severing the web that connected him to the ceiling. Well, could use improvement, but. Well, that was what training was for.
"That sounds like a good idea. Maybe we were taking it too fast." The sword went away; Peter had to admit, he hadn't been looking forward to getting hit with that thing, so maybe it was good Harry had put it away. "We can make the time. No use cutting corners." Even if they both, so desperately, wanted Harry to be deemed capable of his own safety.
"Already set to go again?" Harry was nothing if not persistent, Peter would give him that.
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"Definitely too fast," Harry agreed with a nod. The last thing he needed was to accidentally injure himself trying to juggle fifty different things. He hadn't even been able to hold on to the sword. What if it'd bounced back and hit them? Or what if he'd struck himself or his glider on accident? No point in chancing it until he was more confident.
Another deep breath. "Yeah. I'm not gonna get better if I don't keep trying." No giving up. Not this time. He lifted the glider back into the air a bit, offering up a teasing 'bring it on' motion with his hand. "I'm ready if you are, pal."
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"You just say uncle, buddy, and maybe I'll spare you," Peter wasn't goading, it was just...playful smack talk. "Come on, Osborn, show me what you got."
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Not that Spider-Man didn't have a reason to be cocky, because honestly, Harry couldn't hold a torch to him at the moment. He took a second to try and think about what to do next; they didn't exactly teach combat strategy at school. Spidey'd said to let your opponent come to you, hadn't he? "You've gotta catch me first," he shot back, deciding to put that advice into practice.
He stomped a foot down on one end of the glider, which sent him rocketing straight up. It only took a second for him to twist around and fly in the direction opposite of Spider-Man - it was obvious he'd been practicing that move - and start weaving between chains and around obstacles.
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Ah, he's learning! Peter grinned behind his mask, shooting a web into the air to give chase to Harry. He wasn't expecting the bypass, however, and ended up having to twist in mid air and correct his path. Harry did have the element of surprise, though, and Peter lagged a little, watching to see where he'd go.
The versatility of weaving between the chains was unexpected; he didn't know the glider could be so smooth. Peter kept up, almost at a match, being the slim aerodynamic acrobat that he was.
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One of the few things Harry felt he could properly take credit for. Even without the necessity of having to redesign so as to not be confused for the Goblin, the original glider seemed bulky and hard to maneuver. Accordingly, Harry thought it was a good idea to slim the design and give it propulsion that could freely rotate depending on where he needed to maneuver. It seemed to be paying off.
Spider-Man was quick and gaining on him in no time, so Harry had to think of something to keep the distance between them, pronto. He decided to take something of a risk-- he switched the position of his glider - 'skateboard' mode - and crouched, managing to slip between the supports of the tallest ramp and end up on the other side, using the obstruction to hopefully weasel away for a little bit longer.
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It was definitely working, forcing Peter to lag a little further behind so as to anticipate Harry's moves. He was better at running than fighting, which was totally fine at this point! Better than Peter could have hoped for, honestly. He started to go for it more, shooting webbing that missed by centimeters. And he was legitimately trying! Harry was doing very well.
The trick with the ramp was like straight out of Star Trek and Peter laughed, taking the long way round by going over the ramp and fully expecting to block an ambush.
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Harry didn't have a lot of time to be proud of himself for being able to stay ahead of Spider-Man or he would have been. He spared a quick glance to see which way Spidey was headed before making a choice-- which ended up being exactly what he predicted him to do. Because of course he was going to get a little overeager and hopeful that he gave himself a fighting chance there.
At least he had enough foresight to acknowledge that using his body would be a bad idea against a superhero with amped up strength, because when he came around, he swung the glider in an attempt to strike Spider-Man with the edge of it.
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Peter deflected Harry's attempt to hit him, grabbing the edge of Harry's glider and pushing down, using it to lift himself up. He shot another web, momentum from the dodge putting him a little off-kilter. Well, he might not have hit Peter the way he intended to, but he did a good job of evading him and minimizing potential for Peter to get in a strike. A little more cat and mouse and he might actually get him.
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The weight pushing down on one side of the glider flipped Harry forward, so he just tried to roll with it the best he could. For the umpteenth time, he was thankful for the footholds on his glider, keeping him from sliding or outright dropping off the thing. It took a little flailing, but Harry successfully righted himself with more ease this time and was able to zoom back towards the other end of the warehouse. For now, he learned his lesson about overly aggressive tactics. This was working for him.
"Maybe I should just skip the weapons and fly around until he clotheslines himself on something," Harry joked. He only wished it were that easy. Unfortunately, Octavius wasn't that stupid.
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"You should figure out a tracking pattern. How can you get your attacker to fall into a trap?" Peter swung, low and fast, giving chase after Harry and trying to anticipate where he was going to go next so as to cut him off.
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"--How? His movements are so unpredictable. He has like... eight limbs to watch!" And after all this time, that's when it starts to sink in. A guy named Otto Octavius ending up with eight limbs? Distracted by the revelation, Harry started to laugh and ended up clipping a chain. It threw off his balance just enough to send him swerving when he went to compensate in order to avoid Spider-Man's fast swing and ended up over-correcting. He squawked in alarm and pulled to a jarring stop before he ended up crashing into one of the nearby ramps. It was close enough to touch, which he did to steady himself a bit before pushing off and letting the glider drift away a couple feet. "Sorry-- my bad. I'd offer to foot the bill if I break your ramps, but it's kinda hard to write a superhero a check."
But he was going to use the opportunity to take another breather. "How the hell are you so fast? It's unreal."
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"They're not, though, everybody has something. I favor my right side. Sometimes I catch myself doing it and try to stop but - woah!" Peter swung right at the last second to avoid crashing into Harry, landing on a support beam and watching Harry right himself. "Nah, I break them all the time. I steal wood from the construction dumpsters. So I guess it's not really stealing. Repurposing."
"I'm moving with velocity. You're moving with thrust. So...you're kind of already at a disadvantage." Add practice and superhuman abilities and...yeah, Peter was fast.
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