Harry makes a run for it, bounding through the hallway and sharply turning the corner, dodging several students along the way.
“Holy crap dude, did you have any idea that was Harry Osborn?” Flash asks one of his friends.
“No way dude, and he was at our school this whole time? his friend replies.
Valerie pushes through Flash’s friends’ blockage and goes after Harry, tracking him down to the now empty courtyard,
“Hey...you alright?” she asks him, finding him huddled under a tree.
“My...my secret’s out.” he mutters, “Now you know.”
“Yeah, but how long did you think you were gonna be able to cover that up?”
He shrugs, “The staff were willing to cover me up. They changed my name on the roster, let me wear the sunglasses indoors.”
She raises an eyebrow, “And...how were you able to do that?”
“I’m Harry Osborn, I paid them off, how else would I do it?”
Harry Osborn, Mr. Osborn’s son. Although she knows who he is just from the last name, she’s not entirely sure who he is.
“Uhm...yeah, kind of new to New York, remember? I’m sorry but...I don’t really know who you are.”
He smiles, “That’s probably for the best.”
“But what I would like to know is: why go to such great lengths to conceal your identity?” she asks, sitting under the tree beside him.
He shrugs, “You saw how those guys reacted to me. The name Osborn has a certain weight to it, a certain, predisposed expectation. Sometimes I just want to be nobody.”
“You’re no nobody to me Harry!” it’s Liz, in her cheerleader outfit with the entire team also in uniform, “C’mon girls!”
They all get into a single-file line and Liz claps her hands together while the other girls raise their pom-poms, “Let’s go! Harry! Harry!”
Harry lowers his head and slaps his hand to cover his face, “This isn’t happening.”
“We love you Harry!” they cheer.
He gets up and walks off, pushing past the cheerleaders without any kind of acknowledgement. This leaves Valerie, sitting under the tree, with the cheerleaders awkwardly standing around her,
“Well, you certainly tried your best.” she nods, before standing up and walking to class, leaving them further confused.
Valerie arrives at SapphireTech’s workshop to find Mr. Torger waiting for her,
“Thank goodness you got my text-”
“You better have a good explanation for this. I cancelled tutoring freshmen with Eddie for this.” she snaps at him impatiently.
“Well, you see, Mr. Osborn just ordered some major adjustments for the suit. He...he wants us to equip it with weapons, bombs, grenades, the works. Do you know the kind of legal paper we’ll have to go through and still complete the suit on-time?!”
So that’s what Mr. Osborn meant by “fixing chinks in his armour”, although this is a little more literal than what she’d imagined.
“I’ll get it done, somehow.” she mumbles, before walking toward her office.
“Also, you’re slated for a meeting in half-an-hour.” he shouts, still standing in place.
She turns around, surprised, “Wha...they’re not suppose to know I’m back yet. Shouldn’t it be Hayden attending these meetings?”
“They asked that both of you attend.” he informs.
She sighs, “So I would’ve had to come in anyway? Fine…alert me when the time comes.”
Valerie shuts the door behind her and sits down at her computer. She opens her e-mail and her stomach sinks at the gigabytes worth of paperwork linked to her.
She sees an unusual shadow pass over her window, and she looks over and sees Deadpool sticking to the glass with rubber suctions, yanking one off just so he can wave to her.
So he does know her identity but, how?
He gestures for her to open the window. She shakes her head, why should she?
“Awe c’mon, you’re gonna make me do all the work by myself? I thought we were buddies.” Valerie jumps and sees Deadpool is now on the other side of the glass, inside the office.
“Oh my god, how did you do that?!”
He jumps down and starts taking off his rubber suctions, the ones on his feet now stuck to the floor, “Uhm...the power cosmic?”
“The what?”
Unable to get his suctions off of the floor, he pulls on one as far as he can, stretching it until it snaps off, knocking him to the ground, “Because, physics!” he successfully pulls the other one off with ease and jumps up, “So...whatcha doing?”
“I’m not on duty right now Deadpool. If you really want to work with me, wait until I’m actually in costume.”
He slumps exaggeratedly, “Ugh, but I’m soooooo bored. Why do you have a job anyway and go to school? You’re a superhero! Go out, do your superhero thing!”
“Not now Deadpool, I have a lot of work to do. Now get out before someone sees you.”
He leans over and looks over her shoulder, “...pretty please? I’ve been spending all day thinking up material. I’d hate for it to go to waste-”
There’s a knock at Valerie door, it must be Mr. Torger. Valerie points to the window, but Deadpool instead decides to hide in the corner, behind the potted plant, his entire body still visible behind the thin stalk of the plant. Her heart plummets as Mr. Torger enters the room,
“The meeting’s in ten. It’s in the conference room on the eleventh floor.”
She nods, trying to not look at Deadpool as he stands completely still behind the plant, perfectly visible, “Thank you Mr. Torger. You may leave now.”
He bows his head, and leaves, closing the door behind him.
“Phew! Thank God that’s over. One more moment of awkward silence, and I would’ve exploded! ...or just chopped that guy’s head off-”
“No! You will do no such thing, now please, LEAVE!” she shouts furiously.
He pauses for a second, almost as if he’s genuinely surprised, “...fine. But I am gonna do this.” he slaps her on the ear, and Valerie feels a slight shift of weight. She rubs her ear and realizes there’s now an earpiece attached to her.
She looks up and sees that Deadpool’s disappeared, but just when she breathes a sigh of relief, a familiar voice comes in from her right ear,
“Roger, roger, coming in clear, this is Deadpool speaking, Tarantula, do you read me?”
She tries to tear the earpiece off but it’s firmly attached, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Hey, haven’t you always wanted me to narrate your life?”
“No.” she grumbles as she exits her office.
“Say, as a point of reference, who’d you have play you in a movie?” he asks, “Personally, I’d want Ryan Reynolds to play me, now there’s a funny guy!”
“...who?”
She enters the elevator and presses the button to the eleventh floor.
“You know I’ve always wanted my own movie. I mean, c’mon, the Guardians of the Galaxy get their own movie before me? Not fair! Also, while you’re up in that conference room, could you do a small favor for me?”
She looks out of the glass elevator and sees Deadpool hanging on a window washer’s lift, wearing traditional work overalls over his red suit.
“And why should I help you? I know this has something to do with killing Mr. Osborn.” she whispers into the earpiece.
“Because if you don’t, I’ll start killing people.” he threatens, his voice suddenly having a tone of seriousness to it.
She tenses up, “...like who?”
Deadpool grabs something from behind his back, pulls it out and reveals the lifeless body of the window washer. He hangs his body over the edge of the lift, and drops him, letting him fall to the ground, “Like him, but I can do better. Who should we start with, your employees? Mom and Dad? ...oh, how about one of your boy toys over at Midtown High-”
“When I am done with this meeting, I am coming out there to-”
“What? Kick my ass? You’ve never been very good at threats Tarantula.”
The elevator arrives at her desired floor, and she sees a reception desk, which is currently unattended.
“Okay, see the computer on that desk? Go there.”
No way, “I’m going to get caught.”
“Nah, you’ll be fine! You’re the main character, indisposable!” he assures her.
“You know sometimes I really do think you’re crazy.” she says as she begins walking toward the computer, shifting her eyes in all directions for signs of anyone.
He laughs, ending in a sigh, “Not gonna argue that.”
She boots up the computer and sees it requires and username and password login, one she doesn’t have, “I don’t have access to these computers Deadpool.”
“Username: blackcat194, password: probability.” he immediately responds.
She starts typing this in, “Should I even ask how you have access to this?”
“Lets just say I have friends in high places.”
The username and password work, giving Valerie a plain desktop screen, “Okay, from here, you’re going to have to hack into Oscorp’s database.”
“What?! I can’t do that.”
“Pffff, it’s easy, just bring up a command prompt.” he instructs, “Then bypass the firewall without tripping a red alert while cracking the security passcode while doing a handstand and the macarena.”
She follows his directions, minus the strange derailment of his train of thought, and gains access to Oscorp’s entire database, “Wow...that was easier than I thought it’d be.”
Valerie hears some shuffling before someone presses a cheap-sounding button and an automated male voice says, “That was easy.”
“Oh ha ha, very funny. Now what am I looking for?”
“You’ll want anything concerning that disease Normie has.” he tells her.
“What, retroviral hypoplasia?”
“Yeah, yeah...that thing...retrovintage hydro, it’s Goblin AIDS, okay?!”
Valerie rolls her eyes, how politically incorrect, but then she realizes something as the results of a simple search pop up onscreen. In one of the articles, it says someone named Richard Parker was working on a cure using genetically enhanced spider venom. Any relation to Peter?
“Okay, so the main expert on this subject would have to be...Dr. Curt Connors.” the Lizard. They certainly can’t quite reach in right now. But, isn’t he Gwen’s boss? Maybe she’d know something. And Valerie also needs to confront Mr. Osborn about Dr. Connors.
“Valerie, what are you doing here?” she looks up and sees it’s: Harry. Opps.