Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)

Issue 68 - Beginning of the End Part 3

I didn't get far before my stomach twisted.

The firelight behind me painted the broken hallway orange, and for half a heartbeat I kept walking, letting Otto's voice drown in the crackle. My suit wanted that. Wanted me to leave. Wanted me to pretend this was justice.

Then I pictured Peni's face.

And something in me snapped back into place.

"Not like this," I breathed.

My webs shot out on instinct, two lines anchoring high above. I yanked myself up through the hole we'd made in the roof, boots scraping debris, body screaming at the sudden movement. Rain hit my face the second I cleared the broken edge, cold needles on hot skin.

I ran.

Not away. Up.

Web. Pull. Step. Web. Pull.

The side of the building became a ladder I was too angry to fall off.

My hands shook as I climbed, not from fear, but from the delayed horror finally catching up. The whole night was trying to climb into my throat.

Peni. The lab. The Nomu. All For One's hands on my face. Otto's blade.

My web line snapped tight and slingshotted me onto the rooftop.

I skidded across wet gravel and stopped so hard my knees almost buckled.

A helicopter sat on the landing pad, rotors idling, the wind whipping rain into a sideways sheet. The logo on the side made my stomach drop.

Oscorp.

And there, under the harsh white pad lights, were guards in dark suits with rifles.

And Norman Osborn.

He stood like he owned the sky, coat untouched by the rain, hair perfect, expression calm in that way that always felt like a threat. At his feet, Peni lay on her side, still, pale, too small for the way her blood had stained the rooftop.

My vision tunneled.

I marched forward.

The guards shifted. Hands tightened on triggers. They had to decide, right then, whether I was a problem or a paycheck.

I didn't give them the luxury.

Two tendrils snapped out from my back like angry whips. One wrapped a rifle barrel and crushed it with a metallic groan. The other ripped a second gun out of a guard's hands and bent it in half like a toy. The guards stumbled back, shocked, staring at their ruined weapons like they couldn't believe reality had the nerve to disobey them.

I didn't even look at them.

I kept walking.

Norman didn't flinch. He didn't step away from Peni. He didn't raise his hands.

He just watched me approach like he'd been expecting me.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, voice low, dangerous, the words scraping out of me.

Norman finally looked down at Peni, then back up at me. "Your cousin needs a hospital," he said, like he was discussing the weather. "Not your rooftops. Not your swinging. Not your... theatrics."

My suit pulsed, annoyed.

I hissed through my teeth. "Get your hands off her."

Norman's eyes met mine. For a second, it felt like the rain got quieter. Like the whole city leaned in.

Then he stood, slow and controlled, and took one step back from Peni. "Fine."

I dropped to my knees beside her, hands already moving, checking her breathing, checking the cut, checking everything I could without shaking apart. My fingers were clumsy. My chest felt too tight.