What I had been dreading finally happened.
There was an explosion at Oscorp’s testing range.
Several important company executives and an American Army general were killed.
From what I understood, the demonstration had been meant to help pull the company out of the hole Fisk had pushed it into with his setup.
The demonstration was supposed to happen without Norma’s involvement.
Apparently, the board of directors had decided to solve the company’s problems themselves, without the participation of its supposedly incompetent owner.
When the weapons were stolen, however, all the blame was dumped on Osborn, as if she had personally opened the doors to her company’s warehouses and invited the thieves inside.
The media had several different theories about what had happened.
Nobody seemed to know the truth.
But to me, it was obvious.
Norma had finally reached her breaking point and decided to test the serum on herself.
I remembered this part of the movie perfectly.
The Green Goblin had finally appeared.
I couldn’t exactly celebrate the fact that my predictions had come true.
The woman had apparently gone completely insane.
She didn’t even seem to realize that her actions were driving even more nails into the coffin of her own company.
Or perhaps she simply didn’t care.
Her thirst for revenge and blood had clouded her judgment too badly.
If I remembered correctly, Goblin’s next move would be an attack at some kind of large public event, where she would try to eliminate the remaining important members of her company.
I couldn’t remember exactly what event it was or where it was supposed to take place.
I wasn’t even sure whether the movie had mentioned it.
Still, figuring out when the next major public festival in the city was going to happen wasn’t exactly difficult.
Who would have thought that the internet would become one of my most important superhero weapons?
I also couldn’t forget that all of this was happening while Shocker was still on the loose.
I seriously doubted she would simply forget what had happened and move on.
Then there were Fisk’s schemes and the upcoming confrontation between Stark and Stane.
It was honestly annoying that villains refused to patiently wait for their story arcs to begin like they did in movies and TV shows.
Of course, we could simply ignore Iron Lady and her problems.
There was also no guarantee that we’d actually manage to be in the right place at the right time.
Still, I really didn’t want to miss the opportunity to make such a useful connection.
In our line of work, knowing the right people could be just as valuable as having strong fists and superpowers.
The real problem was convincing the girls that we needed to attend the upcoming festival in our superhero costumes.
I only knew about the attack because I’d seen the movie.
I had no genuinely solid arguments to support my theory.
I told them what I’d concluded about Oscorp, leaving out only the information I’d gotten from the movies.
In other words, I left out the most important part.
I tried to convince them that what had happened at the testing range had been an assassination rather than an accident.
To put it mildly, my argument was pretty weak.
I knew that perfectly well myself.
“Listen, don’t you think…”
Gwen hesitated slightly, clearly trying to find the most tactful way to phrase what she wanted to say.
“That this is a little paranoid?”
This time, we were in my room.
I was sitting at my computer desk, trying to support my rather flimsy arguments with newspaper articles and screenshots.
Proving that something strange was happening around Oscorp wasn’t particularly difficult.
The stolen rifles alone were suspicious enough.
Explaining why I was convinced that something would happen at the upcoming festival was much harder.
Penny sat quietly on my bed and seemed more inclined to agree with me than Gwen was.
Gabriella was her best friend, after all, and Norma wasn’t exactly a stranger to her either.
So if something bad really was happening at Oscorp, it made sense to be cautious instead of leaving everything to chance.
At least, I assumed that was roughly how Penny was thinking about it.
Obviously, I couldn’t tell her that the real danger would come from Norma herself.
That would have sounded completely ridiculous.
Gwen, meanwhile, crossed one leg over the other and sat in the chair beside me.
She was considerably more skeptical.
That didn’t mean she refused to help.
Quite the opposite.
The girl had already made it clear that she was willing to go anywhere with me.
She simply wanted something more convincing than, “Something is happening at Oscorp, and something terrible might happen at the festival.”
“I understand how this sounds.”
Like Stacy, I paused for a moment to choose my words.
“But think about it. If I’m wrong, we’ll spend a couple of hours outside and waste some time. It’s not a big deal.”
I looked at both girls.
“But if I’m right, we could save a lot of lives.”
That argument turned out to be quite effective.
Not only with Gwen, but with Penny too.
After all, both girls had their hearts in the right place.
It wasn’t a coincidence that they’d chosen to become heroines.
Saving lives was clearly a much more convincing argument for them than all the evidence I’d listed before.
Maybe I should have started with that.
I was still learning how to work with my team.
Next time, I needed to think these things through more carefully.
Seeing that my words were finally having the desired effect, especially since the skepticism on Gwen’s face had noticeably faded, I decided to press my advantage.
“I know this doesn’t sound convincing.”
I placed my hands on Gwen’s shoulders and met her eyes.
“But with Connors, I didn’t have any solid evidence either. I simply trusted my instincts. Now I’m asking you to trust me.”
“I’m not refusing.”
Stacy looked slightly flustered by my insistence.
“I just don’t understand why you’re so certain it will happen at the festival. If this is some kind of corporate power struggle like you say, why wouldn’t they handle it quietly?”
She frowned.
“They could hire assassins or something.”
My position was considerably weaker here.
I thought for a moment, trying to come up with a counterargument.
Then I received some unexpected help.
“Making a statement.”
Penny finally spoke.
“They want to make themselves known. I mean, if they wanted to do everything quietly, they wouldn’t have blown up the testing range, right?”
Gwen considered that.
It was a reasonable argument.
Even I had to admit it.
Penny was a sweetheart.
She wasn’t completely convinced herself, but she still stepped in to support me.
There were other ways I could have gotten them involved in the fight with Goblin.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t explain the real reason for my confidence.
Not without revealing where my information came from.
And I didn’t want to operate completely in the dark either.
Osborn was going to be an extremely dangerous opponent.
I wanted the three of us to be as prepared as physically possible.
“All right.”
Stacy gave a firm nod.
“If you two really believe that, I’ll trust you.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
Trust was incredibly important in a team.
If the girls were willing to follow me even when my arguments were this weak, then we were clearly moving in the right direction.
I was still learning how to be a hero, how to fight, and how to make plans.
Sooner or later, I’d make mistakes.
When that happened, I wanted them to correct me, not blindly nod like puppets and follow me into a slaughterhouse.
Still, I hadn’t really doubted that I’d convince them.
I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I wasn’t worried.
Now came the difficult part.
Planning.
And then the actual fight.
“So, do we have at least some idea what we’re going to be dealing with?” Gwen asked, leaning back in her chair.
“Explosions.”
My answer came immediately.
“Grenades or bombs.”
“Explosions?”
Penny looked surprised.
“In the middle of the city? During a festival?”
Most female supervillains, just like ordinary criminals, were motivated by money.
Mass murder didn’t make you any money.
It did, however, earn you a reputation as a completely unhinged psychopath, and serious players in the criminal world generally didn’t like working with unstable people.
Of course, there were exceptions.
And if I remembered this particular villain correctly, Goblin was definitely one of them.
She had never been shy about throwing bombs around populated areas.
In cartoons and movies, everything usually worked out.
Reality was unlikely to be so forgiving.
So Penny’s concern was perfectly understandable.
Yes, there were incredibly brutal villains out there.
But throwing bombs into a crowd was something else entirely.
That was a full-blown terrorist attack.
Very few people would be willing to go that far.
“She blew up the testing range,” I reminded the girls, pointing toward the articles I’d shown them earlier.
“Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that something simply detonated by accident. But I’d rather prepare for the worst and assume we’re dealing with a complete psychopath armed with grenades.”
“Or something even worse.”
The girls nodded.
They clearly understood that my concerns were reasonable.
We continued discussing our plan.
“I think we should decide on our positions in advance.”
I pulled up a 3D map of New York on the computer and brought up the street where the festival would take place.
“If we position ourselves here, here, and here, we’ll have a clear view of everything that’s happening.”
I pointed to the locations on the screen.
“At the same time, we won’t be so obvious that the police start wondering what we’re doing.”
The discussion continued late into the night.
Fortunately, Mom had some kind of corporate event that evening, so I didn’t have to worry about her coming home.
There was one more thing bothering me.
If we managed to defeat Osborn, she’d almost certainly end up in police custody.
And that would play directly into Fisk’s hands.
I really didn’t want that to happen.
It was difficult to say which of them was more dangerous.
A mentally unstable woman with a collection of bombs?
Or a cold, calculating Kingpin?
Either way, we had a lot of excitement waiting for us.
I couldn’t exactly say I was looking forward to it.