MCIM Ch. 154

"No, no, no... stay away from me!"

Harry's consciousness snapped back to reality like a rubber band stretched too far. But reality was the last place he wanted to be right now.

His father, the man he'd idolized his entire life, was the Green Goblin. A supercriminal who'd nearly killed him with a pumpkin bomb. And his best friend, the person he'd trusted more than anyone, was Spider-Man. The hero he'd spent two years trying to destroy for supposedly murdering his father.

It was too much. Way too fucking much.

He clutched his head with both hands and screamed.

"Harry! Are you okay?"

Peter rushed over immediately, hands moving to support his friend as genuine concern flooded his features.

Without warning, Harry's fist lashed out and caught Peter in the cheek. Even with spider-sense, Peter didn't dodge, because his instincts recognized the attacker as someone who shouldn't be a threat.

The punch landed with a dull thud that probably hurt Harry's knuckles more than Peter's face. The gap in their physical capabilities was absurd, Harry might as well have been punching a brick wall.

Harry's eyes blazed with vicious intensity as he stared at Peter. When he spoke, his voice had changed.

"Peter... we meet again."

Then, in the space of a heartbeat, Harry's expression shifted to panic. "Father? You're dead. You died!"

"I've always lived in your heart, Harry." The voice came from Harry's mouth, but it wasn't entirely his anymore. "Spider-Man murdered me. You have to avenge me."

"No, no!" Harry's own voice broke through. "You died under your own glider. Peter had nothing to do with it!"

"He killed me. He's poison... always has been."

"Stop it! You're not real!"

Peter, still holding onto Harry to prevent him from hurting himself, watched in horror as his friend seemed to argue with someone who wasn't there. It was like watching a ventriloquist perform with invisible puppets, except the performance was deadly serious.

Mario stood from his position on the couch.

"Looks like the stimulation was too much. He's having a full-blown episode."

Peter's head snapped toward Mario. "An episode? Are you saying he is sick?"

Mario reached into his inventory, pulling out a frying pan. He hadn't used it in a while, and it felt oddly comforting in his hands as he walked toward Harry.

"Dissociative identity disorder is definitely a sickness. He's been under massive psychological pressure for two years. I suspect he inherited a genetic predisposition for it. Combined with everything that just happened... Yeah, he's having an episode. His mind created a secondary personality of his father to cope with missing him. Course, it's not really Norman, just Harry's imagined version of what his father would say."

He hefted the frying pan. "Move aside. I'll treat him."

Peter stared at the cookware in Mario's hand.

"Please tell me that frying pan isn't your medical tool!"

"What else would it be? A fashion statement?"

Mario held out the pan toward Peter. "If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Just give your head a few gentle taps."

Peter took the pan hesitantly and examined it from every angle. No matter how he looked at it, the thing appeared to be an ordinary frying pan. Maybe slightly heavier than usual, but nothing that screamed "advanced medical device."

Is he fucking with me right now?

He looked down at Harry, who was still alternating between arguing with himself and sobbing. With a grimace, he raised the pan and gave Harry's head the gentlest tap he could manage.

Dong.

The sound was soft, barely more than a tap. He had used almost no force at all.

Harry's eyes rolled back in his head. His left hand flopped to point at six o'clock, his right at seven. He looked like someone had just hard-rebooted his brain.

Mario shrugged helplessly. "Uh, actually, I meant you could try hitting yourself to see how it feels. You know, as a test."

Clang.

Peter dropped the frying pan and grabbed Harry in a panic, shaking him.

"Harry! Harry, what's wrong with you?"

He looked up at Mario. "What happened to him?"

Mario calmly walked over and picked up the discarded pan. "It just temporarily quieted his soul. Think of it like... hitting the mute button on his secondary personality If this kind of dissociation isn't controlled, he'll end up exactly like his father. I don't think you want that, do you?"

Peter looked at Harry's slack face and couldn't help but remember Norman's transformation into the Green Goblin.

"Please," he said quietly. "Save him."

Mario studied Harry with a slight frown. His bucket of milk could remove status effects, but he wasn't sure whether dissociative identity disorder counted as a debuff. It was like the situation with Banner and the Hulk, when Banner drank the milk, it didn't affect the Hulk at all. They were the same person, but also... not.

After a moment's consideration, he made his decision. "I don't have a way to handle this myself. But I know someone who should be able to help. Get him onto the couch. I'll be right back."

Peter nodded eagerly and carried Harry in a princess carry over to the nearest sofa.

For convenience, Mario headed out to the balcony of Osborn Tower. The space was wide open, more than enough room to place a respawn anchor. Wait, wrong item. A waystone.

After setting up the waystone, Peter started to call out a question, but Mario's body flashed with white light and he vanished without a trace.

"My God..."

He couldn't believe his eyes. He rushed to the balcony and stared at the waystone Mario had placed. Inscriptions glowed with soft white light across its surface.

"Is this magic?"

But he didn't study it further. Harry was still lying on the couch, drooling slightly. He returned to his friend's side and sat down.

"I didn't mean to hide this from you. I just... I didn't know how to explain it. I'm so sorry about your father. Every time I see you, I feel guilty. I never know what to say, or how to act around you. It's been eating me alive."

Tears streamed down his face as he poured his heart out, confessing everything he'd been holding back for two years.

More than ten minutes later, his spider-sense tingled. He sensed someone appearing on the balcony and quickly wiped his face. When he turned, Mario stood there with a stranger.

His enhanced hearing caught the tail end of their conversation.

"You won't let me join your company, but every time you need something, you come to me. Once you're done with me, you just toss me aside. I'm a person, not a tool, you know."

"One suit of armor."

"Deal. If you need anything, you can come to me anytime."

Xavier immediately became excited. He'd been longing to join Mario's organization, and it wasn't hard to guess why. The powered armor suits were impossibly cool technology. When Raven occasionally returned from missions, he practically wanted to sleep with her suit at night.

The two men entered the room. Seeing Peter's reddened eyes, Mario smiled slightly but said nothing about it. Instead, he made introductions.

"Professor Charles Xavier, expert in mental health and genetics. Trust me, if anyone can help Harry, it's him."

Xavier looked at Peter. "Hello, Peter. You can relax, I'll do everything I can to help your friend."

---

Several minutes later, Xavier opened his eyes with an expression of frustration.

"I can't sense his psychic presence at all."

He gave Mario a knowing look. "Did you hit him on the head with that frying pan again?"

Aside from Mario himself, the last time he couldn't sense someone's mental energy was after Erik had been smacked upside the head with that same vibranium cookware.

Mario laughed awkwardly and pulled a bucket of milk from his inventory. He quickly moved to Harry's side, forced his mouth open, and poured the liquid down his throat.

"You didn't see what he looked like during his episode. It was pretty intense."

Xavier merely smiled.

The milk's effect was immediate. The debuff vanished instantly, and Harry's eyes cleared, regaining their normal brightness.

"What happened to me?"

He only remembered his head feeling incredibly heavy. He'd seen his father, or thought he had. Everything after that was blank.

Realizing he was lying on a couch, he looked around in confusion. Peter, Mario, and a stranger were all watching him intently.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, looking at Xavier.

Mario explained with a gentle smile. "This is the specialist I found to treat your condition, Professor Xavier. Don't worry, he's a professional when it comes to mental issues."

Harry didn't respond. Instead, he turned his gaze to Peter.

Peter squeezed Harry's hand. "What just happened to you... it was the same thing that happened to your father. Mr. Argento says you have hereditary dissociative identity disorder. The way you were talking to yourself just now was really frightening."

Harry froze. "The same as my father? Split personality?"

No one who has mental problems thinks they have mental problems. In his memory, he'd only seen his father. There didn't seem to be anything else wrong.

Mario spoke up. "Actually, I wanted to record your reaction when you saw the Green Goblin armor, so I ended up recording your episode too."

Silently, Xavier had already explored Harry's memories. This was the terrifying aspect of telepaths, without sufficient mental defenses, there was no way to resist such intrusion. Before you even realized it, you could be controlled or influenced.

Mario pulled up the video and played it for Harry. The footage showed him alternating between two distinct voices and personalities, arguing with himself about Peter and his father.

"This... this... Peter, did my father become like this too?"

Peter nodded sadly. "He was worse. By that point, he'd completely gone mad. I had no choice but to—"

"His secondary personality is emerging," Xavier interrupted suddenly.

Peter looked at Harry. His friend's expression had become twisted and terrifying.

"His secondary personality is filled with destructive and violent urges. It can communicate, but it can't be reasoned with or changed..."

Mario didn't seem particularly concerned. "Can you eliminate it? Just kill off the secondary personality."

Xavier gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "My abilities aren't sufficient for that. His problem goes beyond simple dissociation. The secondary personality and primary personality are two sides of the same whole. With my current level, I could forcibly use psychic energy to annihilate the secondary personality, but it would cause severe damage to the primary personality as well. It would affect his memory and behavior. Possibly permanently."

Mario understood immediately. Xavier meant he could attempt treatment, but the success rate was extremely low. Even if the forced treatment succeeded, Harry wouldn't die, but he'd likely end up with severe cognitive impairment.

Under Xavier's mental control, Harry's secondary personality couldn't even move, let alone speak.

Mario reclaimed his phone and dropped onto a nearby sofa, rubbing his temples. Even milk doesn't work...

He shook his head.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Peter, carry Harry and come with me. Oh, and restrain him first so he doesn't hurt himself when we move."

He wasn't wrong. If Harry broke free later and went berserk, it would be a disaster.

Peter couldn't help with the technical aspects, but he could provide muscle. Following Mario's instructions, two strands of webbing shot from his wrists and wrapped around Harry's arms and legs. With Harry's current physical condition, there was no way he could break free.

Lifting Harry in a bridal carry again, he asked, "Where are we going?"

Mario revealed a mysterious smile. "To a place you'll probably wish you'd never seen."

With that, he led the group toward the waystone on the balcony.

"Put your hand on the stone. A prompt will appear. Don't panic, just select 'Mephisto's Bedroom.'"

Peter didn't overthink things. He did as Mario instructed and placed his hand on the monument.

But Xavier, observing from the side, felt deeply puzzled. What kind of place would have a name as ominous as 'Mephisto's Bedroom'?

Even with Mario's prior explanation, Peter couldn't help but exclaim in amazement:

"Whoa... what is this? Some kind of holographic interface? Where's the projector?"

His eyes scanned the floating menu. "Endstar... Home... Marvel 2... Marvel 3... Thanos' Garden..." he muttered to himself as he scrolled through options, soon finding the location Mario had mentioned.

"I found 'Mephisto's Bedroom.' What do I do next?"

Mario walked over with Xavier and also placed his hand on the stone. "Just think about teleporting. The stone will handle the rest."

"Teleport?"

The moment Peter thought the word, his figure vanished in a flash of light. Mario smiled slightly and teleported as well, with Xavier following a moment later.

---

Mephisto's Hell.

Through the waystone, Mario returned to the infernal realm once again.

Professional problems required professional solutions. Among everyone Mario knew, if Mephisto claimed to be second in the study of souls, no one would claim to be first.

The three of them materialized in what could only be described as a nightmare made manifest. Rivers of lava flowed between jagged black rocks. The air itself seemed to shimmer with heat and malice.

"Monster! Oh my God... there are skeletons walking around!" Peter shouted as he spotted shambling skeletal figures in the distance.