Chapter 8: You're a King and I'm your Lionheart
Chapter 7: But You're a King and I'm a Lionheart
Here it is. The climatic battle. I hope you enjoy? I'm nervous.
This chapter's title is from King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men (This was another another alternate title for this story!)
The Goblin glides easily into the alleyway, stopping his hoverboard with the air of someone parking their car in the perfect space.
"Hello, old friend," The Goblin says pleasantly.
"Gobby," Peter greets, equally as cordial.
"Let me first extend my congratulations," The Goblin says, his yellow eyes gleaming madly. "A wedding and a baby on the way all in three years, my, my. Your dear old Aunt must be proud."
Peter fights back a growl. How dare this monster casually mention the woman he almost killed? The Goblin offers him a cruel, crooked little smile. "The polite thing to do would be to offer your own congratulations to me, Spider-Man."
"For what, your kill count?" Peter spits out.
The Goblin grins. "Yes, generally people are impressed by it, if terrified." He adds, "Let me now offer my condolences."
"For?" Peter subtly moves his wrist so his shooters have a clear shot at the Goblin.
"Your impending demise, of course!" The Goblin cackles, and Peter leaps just as the Goblin starts to propel forward. They crash together, and the battle is on. Peter sinks into the headspace of Spider-Man, where it's all sarcastic quips and acrobatic maneuvers and powerful punches to disarm the baddies. It's simple here.
He's missed this, he thinks as he dodges and punches and dances this old familiar dance. He's missed it, and the Goblin has too, judging by his gleeful taunts and cackles.
Peter grabs the Goblin by his belt, full of his fun little tricks, and yanks him back from where he's trying to remount his glider. The momentum makes a few pumpkin blasters tumble out and fall over Peter's feet. He slams the Goblin into the wall, dazing him, and snags them with his web and slings them haphazardly away. All he needs is a close-range detonation. He doesn't hear any corresponding booms, so the Goblin must not have them dialed up yet. The Goblin pushes off the wall and slams into Peter, who has to dig his heels in to avoid keeling over. The Goblin's close enough to reach for his throat and start squeezing; Peter has to kick his legs out from under him to get him to let go.
"Peter! Are you okay?" a tinny voice comes from his microphone. He does a quick thumbs-up and hopes she can see it through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cameras.
"Ah, ah, play nice, Gobby," Peter chides. His neck throbs, so he kicks the Goblin while he's still sprawled on the ground.
"But that's no fun," The Goblin pouts. "I prefer to play dirty, you know." He punctuates his words with a tug to Peter's ankle that jerks him off balance, then he pushes him over and clambers back on his glider and gets airborne as Peter recovers and tries to catch up.
"I see your wife is nagging you even out here," The Goblin calls, grinning. "Mine was a right bitch, too."
"Don't you dare," Peter snarls, springing off the building's wall to jump on the Goblin's back. The glider staggers under their weight. The Goblin bucks forward, and Peter tumbles off, landing flat on his feet.
"Your wife is a looker though, bug," The Goblin leers. "And look at that pregnancy glow. Mine was pretty too, but not quite to Miss Mary Jane's level."
"Don't talk about her," Peter snarls, kicking the Goblin's hoverboard and knocking him off balance.
The Goblin snarls as he nearly falls, and Peter takes the opportunity to punch the bastard in his stomach as many times as he can. The Goblin returns by grabbing his fist and twisting his wrist back, and Peter cries out. Fuck. He can't do this on only one hand. They're too close in ability.
"Too bad that pretty little wife will be raising your mutant alone. That is, if I decide not to kill her after I finish you." He yanks Peter forward by his injured wrist and hisses the words into his face. Peter grits his teeth and pulls his body back, yanking the Goblin with him so he stumbles. Peter spins, pulling him off his glider and throwing him to the ground and jumping on top of him.
"No she won't," he growls, delivering a blow directly to the Goblin's face, his rage satisfied by the resulting cry of pain. "You know why I'm gonna win this one, Gobby? Because I've got something to fight for. My home, my girl, and my baby. You've only got your twisted revenge mission. Tell me, are you still a man under that suit, or just a ghost?"
The Goblin grins through bloody lips. "Whoever said men weren't just breathing ghosts?"
"Poetic," Peter bites out, with a kick to the Goblin's knee. He hisses and punches Peter's cheek, and he has to suppress a wince.
"Give up, bug," The Goblin hisses, seizing Peter's wrist as he moves to punch him and twisting it back once more. The Goblin pushes him back, and he hits the asphalt. Peter cries out as the Goblin slams the injured hand to the ground and squeezes his wrist. "Come now, be reasonable."
"Yes, you're the voice of reason in my life," Peter snarks back, using his uninjured hand to grab the Goblin's shoulder and yank it out of its socket. He howls like a wounded dog. Peter has enough momentum to pummel his ribs, and the Goblin wheezes.
Peter's almost taken by surprise when the Goblin summons his hoverboard over and nearly slices Peter's head off. His Spider-Sense only gave him a little edge. The Goblin must've been tinkering during his absence. He barely dodges the blades that slide out of the sides; one nicks his shoulder and he staggers back.
"C'mon Gobby, keep it fair," he scolds as they dance around each other, trading blows and grunts of pain.
"That would be awfully out of character for me, wouldn't it?" The Goblin grins.
Peter leaps to avoid a kick and agrees, "Yeah, but can't fault a guy for trying."
"Oh, no," The Goblin says agreeably as he nimbly dances away from Peter's fists. "I like your persistence, Spider-Man. It makes it more fun to destroy you."
"Gee, glad to be of service," Peter mocks, finally landing a punch to the Goblin's nose.
Peter realizes too late the Goblin's managed to get them backed up to a wall, and with a sudden movement, the Goblin seizes Peter's shoulders and slams him into the brick. Peter's vision sways for a second, and the Goblin starts to lay into him. Peter fights back, but his head is heavy and his hand aches, and the Goblin is gaining on him. The Goblin pulls him off his feet by his shirt and delivers a massive punch, then drops Peter to the ground. When he tries to get up, the Goblin's foot lands on his shoulder and presses down hard.
"Hey, Goblin!" Mary Jane's voice carries like a lion's roar, loud and powerful. "Get the fuck away from my husband!"
Jesus fuck, what happened to staying in the lab? His wife is standing maybe fifty feet from his arch nemesis, her feet planted in a stance of defiance. Peter curses Coulson for telling her how to disable the security measures. In case of emergency, my ass, he thinks.
The Goblin cackles, and Mary Jane snarls, "Peter's too moral to end you, but I'm not."
"Are you going to kill me, my dear?" The Goblin sneers. "Spider-Man's pregnant slut?"
"I'm not a slut," Mary Jane growls. "And you're just a pathetic old man in a suit who's about to die."
The Goblin laughs again, stepping closer to MJ. Peter tries to struggle up, but the Goblin kicks his head, and he collapses again. "Go ahead, try, dear. Greater men have failed."
"To answer your question," she says, looking directly into the Goblin's yellow eyes that have frozen so many victims, "Yes, I am going to kill you."
Peter's Spider-sense tingles just before MJ takes her hand from behind her back and lobs a discarded pumpkin blaster directly at the Goblin. It lands at his feet, too close for him to get out of range in time. Peter catches his web on the building above himself and pulls himself up, missing the explosion by microseconds. The Goblin shrieks, a piercing, hideous shriek, the sound mingling with the sounds of destruction. Mary Jane throws herself behind a car for cover; oh, God, are she and the baby okay? Peter swings and lands on the car's hood, peering behind it. "Mary Jane!"
"Peter!" she cries, leaping up and crashing into his arms.
"Are you okay?" They both shout at each other at the same time.
"I'm fine," they say, their words intermingling. "The baby?" Peter asks. "Okay, I think," MJ says, feeling her stomach.
Peter turns to see the destruction; this time, he has to be sure. The Goblin's body is still on fire, his armor melting and losing its shape. This is it, this time. He's dead.
"You were amazing," he tells Mary Jane. "You sure you're not the secret superhero?"
"No, I think that's enough for me," she laughs weakly.
"MJ, you should get out of here and go to the ER to get checked out, just in case. I'll be there soon, but I should be here when—" He hears the approaching sirens. "When the authorities get here."
"What if they try to arrest you?"
"That's nothing new. I don't think they will this time. I think they'll be relieved to see me back in town."
"If you don't get at least ten gushing editorials, I'm writing every newspaper in New York to complain." She takes a breath. "Alright, I'm going to get Baby Parker checked out. Meet me there, and be safe." She kisses his cheek and starts towards the next street over, where she can find a cab. He watches her walk up the street before she turns around and yells, "Oh, and we're moving back to New York for good!"
"That's my girl," he says under his breath.