The marvellous spider-man

Chapter 40

Harry walked into his father's room. Having his own personal doctor Norman Osborn had elected to take his treatments at home, and sitting there in his extravagantly decorated room he looked terrible. His face was bandaged, and what could be seen of his skin was obviously bruised.

"Hey dad," said Harry sheepishly. "How are you?

"Son," said Osborn, his fingers interweaved. "I'm doing fine. I hear you've been talking to the police."

Straight to the point, no time for small talk. Typical Norman Osborn, thought Harry sadly.

"Yeah," said Harry. "I just thought the police would want to capture the person really responsible..."

"Don't get so defensive Harry," said Osborn sternly. "But you know you can't prove your story don't you?"

Harry clenched his fist. It was true. When Harry had gotten back the apartment all the battle damaged he had witnessed was gone. Harry had absolutely no way of proving Spiderman's innocence.

But...

"You're not mad that I'm not mad at Spiderman?"

"That depends," said Osborn. "If it's just a prank on your part, I will be angry. Mad. Furious, even. But if you are telling the truth, and someone had a," he chuckled. "Incredibly complex way of framing Spiderman, then you should absolutely say so." He frowned. "But as it is now, you have no way to prove it."

Harry wanted to be angry, but found he didn't have it in him. He often felt that way about his father. He always wanted to be angry, but couldn't find it in him to, since his father hadn't always been so cold. Not until mom had died.

At that moment he just sighed and turned around, ready to leave.

"I hope you're feeling better," he said.

"Harry," said Osborn.

Harry froze, "What?"

"When I said you have no way to prove it, I didn't mean it as an ultimatum. I meant it as a challenge. If you want to prove you're telling the truth, man up and find a way."

There was a moment of silence.

"Sure thing dad," said Harry flatly before leaving.

Man up. It was the only thing his father ever said to him since mom...anyway Harry hated hearing him say that. It was like he was saying, 'sure, life stinks, so man up and deal with it.' Harry really hated hearing him say that.

But as Harry walked to his own room, through a perfectly clean apartment, Harry thought that maybe, just maybe, his father had a point this time.

Surprisingly he found Captain Stacy in the building, waiting for him. Harry stopped and watched curiously as Captain Stacy looked around the apartment. Harry asked, "What are you doing here Mr. Stacy?"

"Well," he said. "I came to check up on your father. He gave the go ahead for me to come up. Now that I'm here," he looked around the room some more. "I realize something. When I looked around your apartment earlier, everything looked fine...no evidence whatsoever that fowl play had taken place here. Now that I've taken a second look, I see a few of the walls have a fresh coat of wallpaper. If I didn't know any better, I'd say something had been covered up.

Harry grinned. Apparently he and the good Captain were thinking the same thing.

Meanwhile Norman Osborn chuckled to himself. He hadn't expected to give Harry that advice. After all, proving Spiderman's innocence could set his plans back. Norman Osborn figured that maybe he wasn't as cold as he thought he was.

Oh well, he thought, maybe Harry will actually listen to me for once.

...

A little later Norman Osborn picked up the phone.

"Doctor," he said. "I'd like to know when I can take off the bandages and fake bruise makeup. The bandages itch, and that bruise makeup tingles. Obviously a makeup that's designed to be invisible until bombarded by radiation from a remote control has side effects. It's not that bad, just highly annoying. It's not as bad as that fake blood I coughed up though. Once I bit into those capsules I got this bitter taste in my mouth. Tell Beck that he should really work on this stuff. I know it's necessary but it doesn't have to be this inconvenient."

He put the phone down.

....

For the next few weeks the news ran stories on Mysterio like crazy. After the incident at Oscorp tower Mysterio started taking over duties that Spiderman usually handled. Bank robberies, petty crimes...the usual. People started talking about him, buying into his persona as a magician. Somehow he seemed to know exactly when and where crimes would strike, leading to headlines of, "Mysterio Predicts Future Crimes?" Some found it suspicious, and of course there were the usual internet conspiracy theories that he might be using technology, but if you believed the news, especially the Daily Bugle, then Mysterio was in the same class as Doctor Strange.

As the days rolled by there were, of course, plenty of people were suspicious of this Mysterio. Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, and of course Peter Parker, all knew that this Mysterio couldn't be up to any good.

Aunt May, on the other hand, wasn't paying much attention to the news. She was too busy worrying about Peter, and what would happen to him once that social worker came back.