Us Against The World ｡ Peter Parker [2]

46 - The Devil You Know

Changing fate was something that had haunted my mind for weeks now, the very question stuck in my mind like glue. If you were able to see into the future and saw great destruction, was it your duty to try and change it? If you had the ability to change the outcomes, would you? Despite the horror that could follow with changing one tiny thing, despite the ripple effect it may cause. Would you try to save a life if it meant taking another?

 "So, what's the plan now?" Gwen Stacy questioned that evening, her shoulders hunched forward and her chin set in her hands. We had gathered on the rooftop of Peter's apartment building, the blinking stars watching us from above. After our little hiccup with Harry Osborn, we had regrouped in order to find a new way to stop him. 

My fingertips were chilled from the night air and all I wanted was a hot shower, but there was a strange courage in my heart now with knowing New Goblin's plan of attack. Apparently, my visions had done something right. "Well, when I touched his wrist and a vision happened, I saw darkness."

Ned paused. "Darkness? How ominous."

Gwen was snicking quietly with his comment, her sense of humour taking a nose dive with our current predicament. Which seemed reasonable enough, we were a group of teenagers about to go to war against a friend, there was no one emotion that fit best right now. Beside me, Peter was chewing on his bottom lip, deep in thought. He had been mostly quiet since leaving the Osborn mansion. I had a feeling he was more divided about what we had to do next than any of us because Harry was his oldest friend. Mary Jane was hanging back from the group, her eyes trailed to the skyline as she kept her distance.

"Not that kind of doom and gloom darkness, Ned." I started quietly. "I mean actual darkness. I saw the city being plunged into total darkness. Almost like the night of the earthquake, but this was different. I saw the Avengers Tower being the centre of everything. It reminded of something Michelle said once at our internship about how the Avengers Tower powers half the city with clean energy and how by taking out the tower, it could cause a city blackout. I think that's his master plan, or well, part of it."

Mary Jane finally glanced over at me. "A blackout, huh? A perfect time to strike when the city is already in darkness and chaos." Her face seemed to drop for a moment. "Harry's really planning on attacking the city, and us? This doesn't even seem real. It feels like at any moment, I'm gonna' wake up and all this is going to be some horrible dream."

"It's not a dream, Mary Jane. I really wish it was, but..." Peter said, his voice fading into a whisper. My gaze snapped towards him, seeing the sadness resting in his eyes. We all loved Harry in our own way and it was hard enough seeing our friend so broken and lonely. How were we supposed to take down the villain when we loved him?

I cleared my throat, breaking the odd silence. "If Harry's going to take out the Avengers Tower, we need a way to stop him. He wants the city up in flames before striking, so in theory, all we've gotta' do is keep the city from falling into chaos while Spider-Man does his hero thing."

Ned frowned. "How do we even do that?"

Like all great leaders, Peter Parker leaned forward and shared his ideas on how we would bring down New Goblin. "The Avengers Tower powers half the city's energy and everything is wired into the building's mainframe. Harry's most likely going to target that and wipe out the power, meaning the entire city could be vulnerable within seconds." he paused, thinking. "If the city does go into a blackout before we can even disconnect the tower from the mainframe altogether, we have to reboot the mainframe completely. Which could take time, time we might not have at the given time."

"Okay, so if the city goes into a blackout, Harry's plan already in motion, all we've gotta' do it get to the tower and restart the power system? If we get the city's power back up, we can simply inform the police or I don't know, those heroes down in Hell's Kitchen, and everything will be fine?" Gwen asked the group.