Scrounge Some Loot Before Leaving

"Huh? Where did Peter find someone this good to help him?"

Harry brought his glider to a hover in midair. In all the years he had known Peter, he had never heard of anyone like this in Peter's circle.

Absurd strength, unnatural speed, and the ability to fire energy blasts of that caliber from his chest.

Where the hell had this monster come from? But now wasn't the time to ponder that.

Harry turned his glider around, scanning the dim construction site for Venom.

He spotted him.

A black figure lunged from the shadows, heading straight for Peter.

Peter's Spider-Sense screamed, but he still hadn't recovered from Sandman's punch, leaving him half a beat too slow.

Venom's claws slammed into his chest. Peter flew backward, struck a steel beam, and crashed to the ground.

"Peter!" Harry's pupils contracted sharply, and he sent the glider into a dive almost on instinct.

Dazed, Peter was strung up by his hands in Venom's black webbing. The Symbiote receded from Venom's face, revealing Eddie's mutated, twisted features.

Seeing Eddie in this crazed state, Peter still tried to persuade him to take off that sinister suit, even with a pointed piece of rebar pressed against his carotid artery.

But Peter had forgotten that not everyone was like him.

"I like being bad! It makes me happy." Eddie gave an evil grin, revealing four mutated fangs.

Venom covered his entire body again, and he raised the rebar, ready to turn Peter into a spider kebab.

"Roar!!"

Two Pumpkin Shuriken flew past, leaving wounds deep enough to expose bone in Venom's arm.

Harry burst through layer after layer of webbing. Blades sprang from the front of his glider as he charged toward Venom at full throttle.

But even a watered-down version of Spider-Reflexes was enough for Venom Eddie to react. He leaped clear of the lethal strike, then shot out webbing and snatched the glider away.

Without his glider, Harry flew straight into a concrete crossbeam, leaving him reeling.

A stylish entrance! But the style hadn't lasted...

Peter, meanwhile, noticed that the clatter of the falling steel pipes made Venom screech in pain, and he even showed faint signs of separating from Eddie.

Memories flashed through his mind, and his clever brain instantly identified Venom's weakness.

Once the noise stopped, Venom Eddie recovered and roared again, ready to impale Peter with Harry's glider.

Having regained his senses, Harry instinctively moved to rush out and take the hit for Peter.

But someone was faster! All Harry saw was a dark blur charging out of nowhere before the guy with the gaping mouth went flying.

Bang!

Venom Eddie slammed into a concrete pillar, spreading cracks across the surface behind him. He felt as though every bone in his body had fallen apart.

"Oh... why does it feel like I just got hit by a truck?"

Eddie couldn't even manage Venom's roar anymore. Trembling, he struggled to climb off the ground.

Having arrived just in time, Lu Wen surveyed the scene. At the sight of Peter hanging there and Harry about to rush out to take the hit, he couldn't help commenting.

"Seriously, is the script this rigid? Things have gone this far, and it can still get back on track?"

"Huh?" × 2

Ignoring the two confused, mutated young men, Lu Wen just wanted to finish this order quickly.

He walked up to Venom Eddie and, without another word, delivered two thumping punches! His powerful strength stats left Eddie seeing stars, even with Venom constantly repairing his body.

"Wait, this won't work. His weakness is noise! We need to make noise to separate them and save Eddie."

Having broken free, Peter brought Harry over. They stood behind Lu Wen, each holding two steel pipes.

"That's so you. You're still thinking about saving him after all this! Fine, you're the client."

Lu Wen shrugged helplessly and punched Venom in the stomach again, doubling him over like a shrimp.

He had meant to punch clean through him, but since the client had spoken, he might as well forget it. Insisting on killing Eddie would leave a bad impression, and with a bad impression, he probably wouldn't be able to scrounge anything.

Yes! Scrounge some loot!

He had no intention of simply taking a few thousand points and leaving. That would be far too little! This little Green Goblin had some pretty decent technology, too. He had to milk him for something before he left.

He might not have a use for it, but what if an order he came across someday required it? Better to be prepared.

He left Peter there to fight Venom one-on-one. A half-dead weakling turning the tables on a spider monster? Not even in his dreams.

"Young man, let them fight. How about we have a chat?"

"But Peter..."

"Don't worry. Peter's been holding back this whole time. That kid's too kindhearted. If he used his full strength, he'd have smashed him to pieces already."

Harry still wanted to help, but Lu Wen forcibly dragged him away.

Shock surged through Harry.

He was an enhanced human! How was he no different from a baby chick in this man's hands? Was that monstrous strength for real? What brand of enhancer had he taken to get this damn strong?

"Young Mr. Osborn, right?"

"Yes. Are you a friend of Peter's?"

"I can be. Let me introduce myself. My name is Lu Wen. I'd like to make a deal with you. Would you be willing to..."

Meanwhile, Peter subdued Venom with an array of steel pipes and successfully separated him from Eddie.

But he had never imagined that Eddie would throw himself forward without hesitation and perish alongside Venom in the flames of a Pumpkin Bomb.

He couldn't understand it. Standing there, watching Venom's remnants burn away bit by bit, he kept asking himself why.

"It was his own choice."

Sandman appeared behind Peter, having returned to human form. He had come for a heart-to-heart...

By the time Lu Wen and Harry finished their discussion and walked over with their arms around each other's shoulders, Sandman had finished his heart-to-heart with Peter, too.

He had also received Peter's words: "I forgive you."

"Harry!" Seeing his best friend approaching, Peter hurried over to meet him.

As Sandman prepared to leave, Lu Wen called out to stop him.

A trace of fear appeared on Sandman's rough face as he watched Lu Wen approach!

"You can go save your daughter now. Spider-Man doesn't have time to bother with you right now," Lu Wen whispered close to Sandman's ear.

"Stop robbing banks. You should know that ordinary people work hard for their money, but capitalists don't."

Looking at Sandman's surprised face, Lu Wen patted him on the shoulder and gave him an encouraging look.

Understanding immediately dawned on Sandman's face. He gave Lu Wen a grateful look, then turned into drifting sand and flew into the distance.

Behind him, Peter, Harry, and Mary Jane were hugging and comforting one another.

Lu Wen kept a respectful distance from that bizarre love triangle, silently waiting for the three of them to finish.

Mary Jane was taken back down to the ground, Peter swung away on his webs, and Lu Wen stood with Harry on the glider as they flew back to Osborn Manor.

In exchange for helping repair Harry's disfigured face, Lu Wen got a glider, a Green Goblin Suit, a dose of Green Goblin Serum, and Green Goblin Equipment including Pumpkin Bombs and Pumpkin Shuriken.

Now, someone was bound to ask: wasn't he asking for a little too much?

Ha! If he didn't ask for more, how could he call it scrounging?

Of course, it wasn't just scrounging. Besides promising to help fix Harry's face, his payment also addressed one crucial issue.

That was the hereditary disease in Harry's family, which he knew about.

But Lu Wen told him that his father had created the Green Goblin Serum to cure that hereditary disease. However, using it before it was perfected had caused severe side effects.

The most terrifying of these was that it could cause a split personality, creating a crazed, evil persona! That was why his father had become the Green Goblin.

That included Harry himself. Even the formula Osborn had improved still had flaws. The image of his father telling him to attack Peter's heart was a side effect of the serum, not his father's ghost appearing to him.

(At least, that's definitely true in this universe! Lu Wen silently added.)

"Your father didn't want you to die young. He wasn't a bad man. The Green Goblin did all those terrible things, including causing his death. He just loved you too much."

Under Lu Wen's barrage of words about a father's love, the already emotionally fragile Harry immediately lost his psychological defenses.

He had lost his mother as a child. His father had been his only support! But...

Just like that, his defenses crumbled. Combined with the debt he owed Lu Wen for saving his life-he had intended to take the hit for Peter, fully expecting to die, but Lu Wen's timely arrival had prevented it-and the fact that Lu Wen had gotten everything exactly right, he gave Lu Wen the full set of Green Goblin gear.

"I'll be back. Trust me."

With that, right in front of Harry, Lu Wen teleported back to Marvel Universe 628 with his haul and Harry's "details."

"Holy shit! Where'd he go? This guy is really something! I should be able to trust him."

Seeing Lu Wen leave in such an uncanny manner erased the last trace of doubt in Harry's mind.

Even if it was a lie, so what? It wasn't as though he stood to lose anything anyway.