Chapter Eleven

Luthorcorp plaza, Metropolis. Jason once again waved his identification card in front of the screen on the elevator wall, then pressed his thumb against the screen. The only difference from the last time he'd been in this elevator was that it was now the middle of the night, and this time he was not alone. Standing next to him was Harry Osborn, wearing a long trench coat and brandishing a large knife.

The screen displayed the message "Identity Confirmed: Jason Macendale." The elevator began to rise.

"Didn't realize you were a regular guest around here, Jason," Harry scoffed, his eyes digging into Macendale with a burning hatred. "I never knew you and Lex Luthor were so close."

"We're not," Jason said, keeping his eyes on the knife. "It was strictly a business deal. Luthor wanted the formula, I was in a position to sell it, I figured I'd make a few bucks. When you have an opportunity like that, you take it." The way Harry was glaring at him made him extremely uncomfortable. "Look, I took you to it, didn't I? I'm helping you, right?"

"We'll see."

After a few moments, the elevator reached Level 33.1, and the metal doors slid open, revealing the science lab. Harry took a few slow, deliberate steps out of the elevator, taking in the scene around him. His eyes went wide as he approached the metal vat that contained the formula he craved. He stared at the racks behind the vat, holding row upon row of canisters filled with the formula.

"Luthor made all this?" Harry asked, shocked.

Suddenly, an alarm started blaring and lights began to flash brightly all around the science lab. Harry whirled around and glared at Jason, eyes wild.

"I didn't do it!" Jason screamed, throwing his arms over his face and cowering in the corner of the elevator. Harry stomped forward and grabbed Jason, hauling him roughly out of the elevator and shoving him to the floor.

A sudden movement on the other side of the lab caught Harry's eye. A scientist who must have been working late scampered across the lab like a rodent dodging traffic on the highway. Realizing he must have been the one to trip the alarm, Harry hurled the knife at the fleeing scientist. The knife just missed the man as he dove under a table, the blade embedding itself in the wall.

"Doesn't matter anyway," Harry muttered, wandering over to the rack of canisters. "I've got what I came for."

A small battalion of security guards sporting protective shields quickly filled the lab, guns drawn. "Freeze!" yelled one of the guards, as red laser sights danced across Harry's back.

Harry casually removed one of the canisters from the rack and turned it over in his hands several times.

"You're wasting your time, Osborn," Lex Luthor's voice said from the back of the lab. The squad of security guards slowly parted, making way for Lex to stroll to the front of the pack. "Macendale screwed us both. He sold me a fake formula."

"Fake?" Osborn asked, not bothering to turn and face Lex. He knew the formula was authentic. Just being near it, he could feel the very same formula running through his veins, screaming out for more. "What makes you think it's a fake?"

"We've injected dozens of test subjects with it," Lex replied. "It hasn't worked, not even once."

Harry had to laugh. "Well, Lex, that's your problem right there." He finally turned around to face Lex and the security guards, who still had their guns trained on him. Harry threw off his trench coat, revealing a new, revamped version of the goblin armor underneath, and a satchel slung over his shoulder. He took the canister in his hand and inserted it into a compartment built into the armor's forearm.

"You don't inject it," Harry continued, pressing down on the canister. The armor instantly converted the liquid into a gas, which sprayed out of a nozzle beneath Harry's chin, allowing the gas to waft up and fill his mouth and nostrils. He breathed it in, deep. "You inhale it."

A wave of cold dread filled Lex Luthor as he realized the mistake he had made. The formula was real, and Harry Osborn had just given himself a full dose of it. Lex turned and scrambled back behind the pack of security guards. "Shoot to kill!" Lex screamed, ducking for cover.

The guards opened fire with a hail of bullets as Harry's armor expanded to form a helmet over his head, sporting the familiarly chilling grin of the Green Goblin. As the serum coursed through Harry's veins, he could feel the demon inside of him taking full control once more. He laughed the maniacal laugh of a man who has fully embraced his own insanity.

The Green Goblin charged straight at the security guards as bullets bounced off him and ricocheted around the room. As the formula endowed him with his old familiar manic strength, he tore into the guards with a crazed fury. The Goblin ripped the gun from one of the guards' hands, then unleashed a hailstorm of bullets that tore through several of the men. He laughed as a streak of red spattered across the green of his armor.

Jason slowly crawled toward the elevator, bathed in sweat. His hand trembled as he reached up, desperately searching for the button. His shaking fingers finally found the button and pressed it.

"Come on," he whispered. "Please… please…" He noticed to his horror that the sound of the gunfire had stopped.

A hand grabbed Jason by the arm and yanked him away from the elevator, just as the doors slid open. He was pulled to his feet, and found himself staring into the crazed yellow eyes of the Green Goblin.

"Sorry, Jason," the Goblin snarled. "But when you have an opportunity like this, you take it." With that, he lifted Jason up over his head, then savagely hurled him right into the metal vat of goblin goo.

As Jason thrashed around in the vat, the Goblin removed a pumpkin bomb from the satchel he wore. He twisted the top, arming it as it lit up and whined to life. Then, as the Goblin walked away from the vat, he casually tossed the bomb over his shoulder with all the care of a man discarding an apple core. The bomb banked off the side of the vat and landed with a small splash right next to the frantic Jason Macendale. The resulting explosion a moment later sent goblin formula spraying all across the lab like a tidal wave. The racks behind the vat toppled over like dominoes, the canisters shattering and spewing their green contents all over the floor.

The Green Goblin sprinted toward a huge plate glass window at the back of the lab. Then, he threw his arms out and crashed through the window head-first, plunging toward the street below like an Olympic diver. He continued laughing as he twisted around and somersaulted in the air, righting himself just in time for his feet to slam down onto the newly refurbished Goblin glider that had silently swooped in underneath him from below and caught him in mid-fall. The glider dropped down and flew low over the streets of Metropolis as citizens ran screaming, then rose back into the sky as the Goblin flew away, cackling off into the horizon.

Back inside the Luthorcorp building, Lex Luthor sprinted down a corridor behind the science lab toward a large steel hangar door with a green triangle logo emblazoned on it.

One of Luthor's top scientists, Dabney Donovan, ran after him. It was he who had set off the alarm when Harry broke in. "Mister Luthor! It's over! The Goblin is gone! He jumped out the window and flew off on his glider!"

"This isn't over, Donovan!" Luthor yelled back. He reached the hangar door and slapped a large red button beside it. The door slowly cranked open with a loud clanking sound.

Inside the hangar was a green and purple battle-suit.

"It's not over by a long shot," Lex whispered.