Chapter 180: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
"Peter, I don't understand."
After Professor Morbius departed with expectations for Batman, Harry Osborn looked seriously at Batman in Oscorp's penthouse office.
"Harry?" Batman faced his friend.
Harry Osborn walked to the office door, stuck his head out checking both directions, confirmed no one was present, then slammed the door shut and locked it.
He quick-stepped to Batman, grabbed his shoulders, and shook frantically:
"Have you lost your mind? For a scientist neither of us barely knows, you'll exhaust all Parker Industries resources? Even I only have an employer-employee relationship with him!"
However good the surface appearances, Professor Morbius was merely an Oscorp employee.
Bluntly stated, as long as Morbius didn't die inside Oscorp Tower, his life or death barely concerned Harry Osborn—much less the completely unrelated Peter Parker.
Batman kept his body relaxed, not resisting Harry Osborn's shaking.
Otherwise, even if Harry used maximum force ramming Batman, Batman wouldn't budge an inch.
But letting Harry continue shaking wouldn't work. Batman silently counted seconds. After three seconds, he immediately reasserted body control, preventing further shaking.
"Harry, look at me." Batman said calmly. "You think I'm performing charity—risking everything to save a dying stranger, correct?"
"Isn't that exactly what this is?!" Harry was both urgent and angry.
No rational person would gamble everything for a stranger. Harry couldn't comprehend Batman's thinking.
"No." Batman answered decisively. He walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking New York. "Everything I do benefits Parker Industries. Possibly our future."
Inexplicably, Batman recalled his best partner crossing universes, traversing time, all to bring one little girl home.
"Our future?" Harry grew more confused. How did bankrupting themselves for a dying stranger relate to them?
But Batman's next words changed Harry's expression.
"Think about your father, Harry." Batman's words stabbed Harry Osborn's heart.
"Norman was one of the world's smartest men. But he fell beneath power he couldn't fully control. We witnessed firsthand how terrifying something spawned from a scientist's desperation becomes."
Norman Osborn injecting himself with incomplete super soldier serum to become Green Goblin couldn't be hidden from Harry.
When Norman had been transferred from Manhattan Police custody directly to Ravencroft Institute in the northern suburbs, Harry Osborn had learned everything—except the Batman who'd defeated his father.
Harry's expression froze. His hands gripping Batman dropped limply.
Batman's words didn't stop despite Harry Osborn's distress:
"Professor Morbius's blood disease is an unprecedented black hole. We don't know what it is. Don't understand its principles. Don't know what happens under extreme circumstances. Currently, it affects one person. But what if?"
"What if this disease has an incubation period? What if it suddenly mutates into an airborne virus? What if our competitors, or worse, someone like General Ross uses assets and lies controlling him, transforming this disease into a bioweapon?"
Harry Osborn recalled that night climbing from first to ninth floor, strange beast roars constantly echoing through the stairwell. He shuddered involuntarily.
He still didn't know what that thing had been. Not knowing made it more terrifying.
"But... where are all these 'what ifs' coming from?" Harry Osborn reflexively protested.
Though Harry remained somewhat unconvinced, Batman closed his eyes.
Not abandoning Harry's persuasion, but recalling fragmented images he'd seen upon first crossing dimensions.
Among them was a scene from Peter Parker's perspective—watching Ben Parker lying in a pool of blood.
Batman mentally apologized to Peter, then opened his eyes telling Harry Osborn:
"Harry, do you know what Uncle Ben said to me before he died?"
"Don't, Peter!" Harry Osborn panicked, trying to stop Batman from continuing.
Even though Harry's heart currently ached over his father Norman Osborn's situation, he still refused to let his friend Peter Parker expose wounds this way.
"It's alright, Harry."
Batman uncharacteristically patted Harry's shoulder. Both stood before the office window overlooking New York:
"Uncle Ben said... with great power comes great responsibility. We're not merely entrepreneurs, Harry."
---
Harry Osborn didn't know when Peter had left.
He simply stood motionless beside the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the bustling streets below, contemplating their conversation.
"Father is merely in a psychiatric facility, still possibly seeing daylight again. I'm already this distressed."
"But Peter permanently lost Uncle Ben. How much pain did reopening that wound cause him?"
Harry Osborn couldn't imagine what determination Peter Parker had summoned to tell him those things. His heart was trembling.
Standing silently before the window, Harry Osborn drew a deep breath, returned to the Osborn estate in Queens to change into a black suit, and bought flowers.
He needed to visit Ben Parker's grave.
---
After leaving Oscorp, Batman passed a car show and exchanged the low-profile sedan he'd been driving for a first-generation Audi R8 that had just debuted in 2006.
Since Batman bought the showroom car immediately, he paid nearly double the price.
This model attracted extremely high attention and head-turning rates on the road—currently only purchased by Wall Street's elite among elites. This was the convertible version.
Combined with Batman's untrimmed beard and Peter Parker's handsome face, countless pedestrians secretly raised phones taking photos. Shy girls wrote phone numbers on paper, crumpling them into balls tossed into the car.
Batman ignored this entirely. He hadn't purchased this vehicle to attract irrelevant pedestrian attention. Otherwise Batman could simply drive the Batmobile—guaranteeing far higher visibility than now.
But that would prevent Batman from openly visiting the Forest Hills neighborhood.
He needed to drive this obviously expensive luxury sports car to see Aunt May.