Chapter 33: The Green Prince

"You know what pisses me off the most?" Liz cuts in to save the day. "The video of him on YouTube already has fifty times more views than our song!"

I go to their band's newly created channel, which I had completely forgotten about with all the excitement of the last few days.

"Well, twenty thousand is a pretty good result!" I try to encourage the girls. "It's your first song, nobody knows about you yet."

If it weren't for the fuss about the robbery, they would have been glad of the twenty thousand views!

"Pathetic consolation!" M.J. replies, she's always been a maximalist when it comes to music. "And don't try to get off the subject. What's up with you and Spiderwoman?"

"Mary Jane," I try to hint with a look that the place is somewhat inappropriate, at least with one stranger around, "maybe not here."

Which, naturally, doesn't go unnoticed by Alan.

"Just pretend I'm not here... okay, okay, I'll step back."

"You know that Spider-Girl told the truth," I begin, when, thanks to the understanding of a classmate, we are alone, "at least in the fact that I was the one who gave her the web."

"So, you have nothing with her?" Sensing something wrong, M.J. squints.

"Well," I can't believe I'm about to say this, "We kissed after she got me home."

Mary Jane looks as shocked by what she has heard, as I am. The new rules of the game, though they look comfortable for men, I can't take them for granted yet. The fire of fear still smolders inside me. I had just confessed to my girlfriend that I had kissed someone else. That's almost cheating! What if M.J. doesn't want to put up with this state of affairs?

"I can't believe it..." says the girl quietly. "Who the hell is she?"

"I didn't take her mask off... completely," I shied away from answering. It's not like I said I didn't know who was hiding under that mask.

"It's... I don't know, it's just... wow!"

And M.J. doesn't seem angry or upset about it. Shocked, surprised, yes, but I don't see any signs of jealousy.

"Every day something new, more incredible than the last!" Mary Jane exclaimed,"It's like my life has exploded since you came into it. And I wondered, My boyfriend gets a call from Spiderwoman to help her stop the monster! Ha! I had no idea what was coming next."

"Hush, hush," I shush at her, "don't shout it to the whole class! I'm just telling it like it is."

"I'm not complaining," she brushes me off, "I just can't believe it."

An intruder bursts into our private space.

"Hey guys," Ozborne smiles crumplingly and lands next to me. "How's it going?"

"Are they totally bugging you?" MJ asks the guy sympathetically.

Harry smiles apologetically, but then, seeing my perplexed look, still explains:

"Ever since Thompson got suspended, I can't take a step in peace," he confesses. "It's like I've got a target painted on my back. Flash used to scare everybody off, but now I don't know what to do."

I got it! Mary Jane had explained to me on the first day that Harry was only going out with Audrey so that she could serve as a buffer between him and all the other huntresses.

"Do you mind if I hang out with you guys while you're at school?" He almost begs. "Maybe being around you will leave me alone for a little while."

"Is that such a big deal?" I wonder. "Let's say you don't like anyone here, is female attention such a big deal?"

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"Huh?" Osborne looks at me with a mixture of disbelief and admiration. "You can't tell by looking at me, can you?" He smirks, glancing over at MJ.

"You wouldn't what?" I'm kind of freaking out.

"Well, no offense, but you're like a woman. It's like you're ready to punch whoever gives you a hard time," he explains. Gradually I realize that the comparison to a woman in his speech must mean something like, a real man. "You got in a fight with Thompson, and you got in a fight with the muggers."

"Well, it's a little awkward when you have to fight a woman..." I start, but I realize I'll only make it worse for my reputation. "I'm sorry I beat up Thompson, she's your girlfriend."

Mary Jane laughed and Osborne stared at me with a look of shock on his face.

"Yeah... okay, forget it, I'll just sit here for now, okay?" Harry changes the subject. "Maybe at least at school I could get an hour or two of peace."

"What kind of peace are you talking about? Have your servants forgotten how to serve coffee in bed? Or did you have to learn how to put your own socks on?" M.J. scoffs.

She's obviously had a much easier time with Osborne since she and I started seeing each other. It was as if, now that she had a boyfriend, she could see Harry as a possible friend instead of an object of attraction. And from what I can see, that appealed not only to me, but to our golden boy as well. I'm glad that MJ isn't looking at another guy, Harry's glad that he's finally starting to have friends who don't need anything from him. This is new to him.

"Mother is having trouble at work, and she suddenly remembers that she has a son. She never took into account the opinion of the governing board and pushed her decisions against all odds, and now she's out of business. She's been suspended. And I get the feeling she wants to use me to her advantage."

"A marriage of convenience?" I wonder.

"I'm afraid so. Don't embarrass me, Harry!" the boy mocks his mother, "you'd be surprised how many people want to intermarry with our family. I was afraid she was going to make me flaunt in front of the daughters of possible business partners again today, but that seems to have gone the distance. This morning it was as if she hadn't even noticed me."

"You're like a prince from an old fairy tale," Mary Jane exclaims with exaggerated delight, to which Osborne makes a displeased face, "and Thompson will be your mighty knight* - a savior who will snatch you from the clutches of the competition!"

"Oh, shut up for God's sake!" Harry can't take it anymore.

Yes, Norma Osborne has as much grip as Norman. Using her son to make new alliances when things didn't go according to plan on the OzCorp governing board.

On this day, school classes went quietly. Extremely boring, but quiet. I was desperately killing time on the Internet, because the speed of the material, even if I didn't know it, was appallingly slow. And does anyone else ask why I'm skipping school? But during the class I learned a lot of interesting things from news sites.

First, I found a lot of articles about Gwen's exploits these days. The girl was starting to get into a new role. For the most part, though, she was interrupted by preventing petty thefts, extortion, thefts, and stuff like that. The White Rabbit robbery was her most high-profile case to date, since saving the city from the Reptile menace had never been made public. Everyone was so focused on the rampages of Stans and Deadpool that they didn't even notice the real threat.

I also came across some disturbing news: It turns out that a few days ago Menead Stromm, a former companion of Norma Osborne who was convicted of financial embezzlement not long ago, was killed in a prison fight. Which means, if events unfolded as they did in my past world: Norma had already used the Oz serum on herself.

Looks like I was a little late with my plans to infiltrate Ozcorp in order to prevent the woman from becoming a supervillain. Perhaps it was too late already when I first saw her. In any case, I would soon find out for sure. I found out what event Harry was talking about. OzCorp is merging with HammerTech, ending the fight to become a U.S. Army contractor, and tonight's festival will have pretty much the entire OzCorp governing board and HammerTech representatives.

After walking Mary Jane home, I went straight to our secret hideout at the Deadpool house.

This time both Bobby and Wanda were there. I didn't beat around the bush and immediately dumped a lot of information on them. The only thing I didn't tell them was the source.

When I heard that a supervillain might be coming, planning a terrorist attack that would kill the top of the company, Deadpool immediately offered to take advantage of the commotion and break into the company's science department and rob them. I never doubted her.

Bobby, on the other hand, expressed a desire to go save people. Deadpool wasn't happy about it, saying that the purpose of the symbiote was to lug equipment from OzCorp for us, not to make sure the moneybags didn't kill each other in their internecine squabbles. She clearly takes everything about my lab's equipment closely, and thus her chances of getting her beauty back.

"No," Bobbie objected firmly. "If I can save someone's life, I should at least try. Even if it's not the most worthy of people."

"Relax, Wanda," I distracted Deadpool. "Stans has already earned a bad name for Bobby, after all. This is her chance to clear her name. Though I'd advise you to disavow the exploits of your predecessor entirely. Can a symbiote change its coloring? It would be nice to convince everyone that the ogre monster and you are different people. Though it wouldn't be easy to wash off suspicion, anyway."

"Thanks, Peter," Bobbie said, as if she were listening to something inside herself. "Yes, I think we can change the way we look."

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