Chapter Twenty-Five:
Never in all of his days would Spider-Man expect himself in an alliance with the Kingpin of all people. Alongside Flamebird, Spider-Girl, and Quake, they clear the lab. And are joined by Cassandra, Laura, Captain Marvel, and Spider Woman very, very quickly.
Jessica brushes a strand of hair away from her face. There's a huge part of her who knows this entire situation is messed up and is going to speak about it.
"What are we going to do? The entire city is crawling with these goblin monsters. No matter how many times that we fight them, they keep coming back."
Spider-Man takes a good look at the sample of the goblin formula that was sent. He keeps staring it over and thinking about it. He turns to Gwen and Kara who both nod.
"We're going to need a lab."
"The best lab you can use is at Empire State University and it's all the way across the city."
This statement from the Kingpin causes Spider-Man to nod in response. To get through this lab, he's going to have to fight all the way across the city, past the hordes and hordes of Goblin monsters. Thankfully, he's not going to have to do it alone, but the prospect of dealing with all of them is about as daunting as one expects.
"No one says this is going to be easy."
A hand from Laura's direction falls on Spider-Man's shoulder.
"We have your back."
"Yes, and I will get my hands on the Goblin King."
"Greetings, people of New York City!"
Spider-Man hangs his head in frustration. He's about ready to hear some kind of bad guy monologue. That's about all he needs to hear right now. The thumping in the back of his head grows in more prominence. Daisy, Gwen, Kara, Carol, Jessica, Cass, Laura, and the Spider Slayer piloted by the Kingpin.
"As you may know, you've gone through a multitude of changes which will only improve your life. Each and every one of you are now just like me. My life has only improved since becoming since the Goblin King."
The Goblin King cackles and Spider-Man wonders how far this version of Peter Parker has fallen to turn into a raving lunatic like this. His voice drops into a half somber and a half serious tone.
"And for the many of you who have yet to have been blessed and become one with the Goblin King's army, you shouldn't worry. You'll be soon, trust me."
Spider-Man steps one foot outside of the door and allows a breath to hit him. He's outside of New York. Much to his surprise, the hoard of Goblin monsters left the area. It does not make him feel too much better, only makes him feel a greater amount of unease.
The Spider Slayer steps out and locks onto the unique isgnature.
Wilson Fisk will take back his city and he's going to make the Goblin King pay.
"How, very curious. By exposing the city to the chemicals, he may have ended up bringing an end to himself. We don't have much time."
Spider-Man is about to ask about the fact he did not have much time and what it means. Unfortunately, for them, an entire army of Goblin King's soldiers drops from the sky. They all wear military fatigues and some of them wield weapons.
"The military has been infected now."
Spider-Man throws his head back and groans loudly at this unfortunate bit of news.
"And this situation has gotten from bad to worse."
Spider-Girl blasts one of the goblin soldiers with a stun blast and sends him falling onto his back. These fine men and women turned into the Goblin King's personal army just adds to the frustration of today. Spider-Man wonders how things could potentially get worse.
Carol blasts off and takes them down. She wonders if any of them are next to turn. Carol pushes her hands down onto the top of the head of the Goblin monster.
"I don't really want to hurt these men and women."
A beam of light shoots from the eyes of one of the Goblin Monsters. Kara brings it back around with a blast of heat vision. The beams push back and forth until the point where Kara jumps up into the sky and brings the boom down onto the top of the head of the Goblin creature.
"Unfortunately, they don't really offer us the same courtesy."
That's a very frustrating feeling for them. Kara zips about two steps out of the way and hits one of them with an uppercut punch which sent him flying to the ground. Another attacker received a jumping kick high to the face.
"Just clear a path for Spider-Girl and myself to get to ESU."
Daisy slams her fist down onto the ground and sends the tremors cascading. The goblin army folds from the brutal attack. Daisy slams a fist onto the ground again and quakes them several steps back. She raises a fist a third time and quakes them one more time to scatter the goblin goons.
"You heard them. Let's move it!"
Spider-Man and Spider-Girl create a combined web line and then snap themselves down.
"Perhaps you have seen the futility of fighting me. And soon, both of your Earths will become one with my collective!"
"Not going to happen."
Spider-Man webs onto an abandoned building and with Spider-Girl's help pulls it down. The falling bricks separate the Goblin King's army and makes it just that much more easier for them to thin the herd and fight.
"Let's go!"
The Spider Slayer is dog piled by the Goblin King's army. A wave of sonic energy stuns them, acting very much like a dog whistle. Nets wrap up the Goblin King's army, although more is on the horizon.
Spider-Girl and Spider-Man swing off to the lab at ESU, and hope that they can get this settled before too long. The pounding in their head indicates that things are not going their way. They really hoped that they should push through and fight them before everyone in this world gets overwhelmed and smashed by these goblin warriors.
X-X-X
If there's one thing that Peter Parker has experience in, is mixing up an antidote in a crisis. Gwen helps him fortify the doors leading into the lab at ESU. She wipes a bead of sweat out of her face and backs off.
"That should hold. I don't know for how long."
Peter puts a hand on Gwen's shoulder to calm her down.
"It's going to have to hold for long enough."
Gwen responds with a nod. She gets the necessary out of the lab, with the help for Peter. She takes a few seconds to look at the antidote. All of this went wrong, because of her. Because she just had to get the rush from her new powers, and show completely off.
Peter's Uncle Ben and Aunt May died and then there was the accident which turned him into this horrific monster. Gwen snaps herself out of the guilt trip to mix the chemicals. The entire world is at stake and they do not have too much time.
"The cure is going to take a lot of work to mass produce. Let's just hope Daisy and the others can hold the line."
Gwen hopes so as well. There's a feeling in the pit of her stomach which causes a knot to tighten. She tries to focus on the work, but something keeps pulling her out.
"We'll do it. We'll pull through in the end. It's what heroes do."
She bites down on her lip. She does understand that's what heroes do. It's just, being a hero that got them into this tricky mess due to her own arrogance is heavily weighing on Gwen's conscious.
Something that Peter understands better than anything else.
"The past is the past. What is done is done. And what is said is said. You just push forward, and you can't change the past. The only thing that you can do is fix the future."
Gwen answers with a nod in response.
"And the future is going to be fixed right now."
"The future is going to be fixed right now."
In the meantime, Peter works on a delivery system. It's not Tony Stark in a cave with a box of scraps or anything to that level, but Peter feels very confident he has something rigged up that could do the trick, at least he thinks it can do the trick. The web slinger eyes what he has in front of him for the next couple of minutes and smiles.
"We're going to need a lot bigger delivery system."
"Not to mention a mass quantity...the bomb at High Noon...we can modify the Goblin Formula inside...there are four more tanks other than the one that Cass detached."
"Providing they're still there."
That's always a very obvious concern. Gwen hangs her head, hoping, perhaps against all hope, that the chemical is still there. It's worth a shot.
Peter and Gwen loads the serum into what seems like a couple hundred darts. It does not seem like there's enough of the serum to go around, because there isn't.
"It's just going to have to do. To thin the herd."
"Thin the herd? This is barely a spit in a buckle?"
Peter gives Gwen's shoulder a slight squeeze one more time to keep her focused. He feels it and she does as well. They're going to have to make do and hope that they can use the bomb at High Noon to mass produce the antidote and fill the city with it.
X-X-X
The Goblin King contemplates his next move in taking control of this world. Sitting on a throne made from the skulls of his enemies is a start, but it's just never enough for the likes of him. He has to have more. He has to have so much more. The Goblin King drums his fingers against the chair. Vanessa Fisk, in her mutated form, joins him.
"My husband has reprogrammed the Spider Slayers and he's coming after you."
The Goblin King corks his eyebrow and the very opposite of agitation hits him. There's some level of amusement, the smile widening on the Goblin King's face when he cackles.
"Let him come. If he's a fool, then he will fall. More citizens will mutate, then this entire world will…."
The front wall of the building blows up. Not only does the main Spider Slayer enter the room, but several other Spider Slayers follow it. The Goblin King backs up to survey the intruder.
"Hello, old friend. I'm taking back this city."
"Let me make one thing plain, Fisk. You're yesterday's news. I'm the Kingpin now. And you will bow before me!"
The Goblin King lets out a sonic attack and strikes the side of one of the Spider Slayers. The tower he's in shatters from the impact. Another one of the Slayers bombards the Goblin King with several bolts of light. The crazed criminal rolls out of the way and blasts a beam of heat towards it.
"You're not well….let me put you out of your misery."
Misery is something that the Goblin King is not in. He's in a mood and glory will be his. The Goblin King rears back his hand and blasts at the slayers taking him down.
"Don't you understand? I'm the Kingpin now! I'm the Kingpin now….."
A missile strikes the Goblin King and knocks him outside of tower. The Spider Slayer jumps down and retracts its legs. It attempts to squash the Goblin King like an overgrown cockroach. The Goblin King pushes and pounds at the understand of the slayer.
It detaches from him until Vanessa jumps down and blasts the slayer on the back.
"You've put your empire ahead of me, Wilson. I want to see it crumble."
"As his puppet? I'm afraid this is not the woman I fell i love with."
"You love only power."
"I'm sorry you feel this way."
A beam of golden energy clips through the air and restrains Vanessa Fisk to prevent her from getting hurt or deterring Wilson's attacks. She screams several times over, in an attempt to break free from her containment unit. There's no easy way out.
The Goblin King smashes one of the other slayers down to the ground. His head starts throbbing and there's nothing that he can do to stop it.
He realizes what's happening. The Goblin King signals some of his fleet to engage Fisk's army of spider slayers.
"They're going after my bomb. They think they've won. But they're going to lost."
The Goblin King sends a telepathic command to defend the clock tower at all cocks. A good chunk of his army rips into the spider slayers, with the sheer numbers finally overwhelming him.
"I will find where you are Fisk and then I will rip your heart out personally."
This particular statement loses a little bit of steam, when there's a sonic eruption in the back of the Goblin King's head. His heart clenches and a loud scream echoes from him. One of the spider slayers comes close.
The pain in his body escalates, but the Goblin King pushes himself up and rises it above out of it. He blasts the spider slayer out of the air into the waiting arms of his children who proceed to rip the Slayer apart. The Goblin King turns his attention back to the unfriendly skies of New York City and makes a movement to go where he needs to go. Blood drips from his mouth, but the Goblin King persists in doing what needs to be done.
Persistence is the name of the game and what drives Peter Parker, whether good or evil.
X-X-X
Gwen and Peter climb their way up onto the Clocktower. Scurying up there, they do not know what to expect. They hope that this works and they hope it works real soon.
Then in comes the spider sense, and then the creatures swarm over the edge of the Clocktower. One of them jumps down with claws and teeth baring.
"Rip them to shreds."
"Oh, they can talk. Because this isn't creepy enough."
Spider-Man propels himself over the top of one of the Goblin King's monsters and hits him with a chain of punches. Each punch connecting is more brutal than the last. He tries to fight the army off, but it's not going to work on his own.
Gwen moves to load the dart gun. One of the creatures spits acid at her and forces Gwen to abort her attack. She hangs on for dear life at the edge of the clocktower. The heavy breaths continue to hit with Gwen dangling on the Clocktower by one finger. She swings back and forth like some pendulum, trying very hard not to drop to the edge and crash down.
Spider-Girl takes in a deep breath and tries to remember the kind of heroine she is. The kind of protector she is. She most certainly can do this. Spider-Girl flings herself high above the building and nails the Goblin King monsters to the side of the head.
One of them reaches for the bomb only to get a dart to the neck from Spider-Man. He turns into a human and several more get rapid fire darts. It's just much easier for Spider-Man to fling the darts at the Goblin King's army.
Several stunned humans drop down to the ground. The Clocktower receives bombardment from further attacks and it was shaking underneath the weight of the stampeding forces.
Two blurs blast through the air in the form of Captain Marvel and Flamebird. The calvary is here and they could not be here a moment too soon. Thunderous blasts knock the enemies back down to Earth.
"We'll get the people out of here."
"Quickly and come back. There's going to be even more."
Three of them grab Spider-Man and fight him off. The web slinger punches his way out of the goblin army members.
Spider-Girl reclaims her dart gun and fires with pin point precision at the back of the necks of the creature. One of them staggers and collapses, mutating back into a human. The other two follow quickly.
"It's just as we feared, there's more Goblins than darts."
Spider-Man knows that he's fighting an uphill battle. Some people might say he's fighting a losing battle. Spider-Man pulls back up and fights, jumping into the air. He disengages three of the darts, jumps behind and sticks the hybrids in the back of the neck sending them crashing down to the ground.
Blur in, blur out, with Flamebird appearing and then disappearing a few seconds later. The heart of Flamebird beats just that much faster when diving around and dodging the fireball attacks.
From the downstairs level, Daisy comes back up, alongside Cass and Laura. They help keep the Goblin King's army off of them.
Dart, dart, dart, Gwen fires them all into the backs of the Goblin King's army. They revert back to humans and Flamebird comes back in to pick them up, before taking them away from the tower.
The loud thunder echoes outside. Thunder and rain, just to make things that more dramatic. At least that's the thought that goes through the mind of Spider-Man. He flips through the horde of creatures, and then takes out a grenade. A web catapult knocks the grenade and hits them with some kind of sticky glue to back them into the building.
Spider-Man drops down to his knees and brushes a strand of sweat from his face. He sees Gwen kneeling down beside the tank. She took in a deep breath, practically resigned to what was to come.
"Watch my back, I'm going to finish this."
Peter does so, as does Daisy, Jessica, Carol, Kara, Cass, and Laura. The web slinger notices a very big weapon missing. Laura stabs her claws into the arm of one of them and hurls him down to the ground. Another one moves, with Cass nailing him with a couple of jabs, before flipping him down onto the ground and coming down to the back of the neck with a huge flowing punch.
"Where's the Kingpin?"
Daisy quakes the steps, thus making it a bit harder for the Goblin King's army to come up. But not too much harder, as they have wings.
"He went after the Goblin King."
There's a huge part of Spider-Man who was afraid of that. Regardless, he exhausts his rapidly thinning display of antidote darts to knock the creatures down the steps. It never seemed to be enough, not now, not ever.
X-X-X
Gwen Stacy finds herself one minute away from introducing the antidote into the bomb and modifying it. There's a couple of close calls, but very fortunately, she has a team which can very easily watch her back without any sort of difficulties whatsoever. That's a good thing for Gwen.
"Guys, I'm almost done."
Gwen bites down on her lip. There's just so much which can go wrong, but at the same time, she's hopeful that everything that might be able to go wrong, can go right. The Goblin bomb is modified into a mass filtration unit.
The windows shatter and the Goblin King shows up. Spider-Man jumps up to one of the beams to come face to face with his demented doppelganger.
"It's over!"
"Yeah! You've lost your mind. What will Uncle Ben think about this? Or Aunt May? You have one of those on this Earth, don't you?"
One can very see Gwen cringing a little bit. The other members of the Goblin King's army, the ones who did not get infected, all step back. Everything goes in a hush.
The Goblin King's voice drops low and more menacing before.
"I had them! I had them! I HAD THEM!"
The entire Clocktower begins to shake. Spider-Man takes advantage of the Goblin King's distraction by sending him flying out of the Clocktower. The fight between the two of them picks up again, with Spider-Man driving the Goblin King down onto the ground as hard as humanly possible.
The two of them jump up to a standing position.
"And this is why you're doing all this! It's because you lost Aunt May and Uncle Ben."
Rage burned through the Goblin King's eyes, spitting pure fire, almost literally when diving towards Gwen.
"You don't talk about them. You don't talk about them. Them dying opened my eyes to all of the time I wasted. I am a genius. I could change the world. I could bring about great change to this world, if people would let met."
"You still could. Let me help you!"
The Goblin King's words grow even more angry. It's almost like he did not hear a single word that Peter said, or at least he chose not to.
"Gwen allowed them to die!"
The Goblin King keeps snarling in response and Spider-Man stops a few seconds later. Spider-Girl drops down.
"She allowed them to die. The hero couldn't save them. That opened my eyes. That proved to me that in this world, there's no heroes. There's only despair. The only thing that rules this world is chaos. And I will bring the chaos! I will bring the destruction. I will bring everything!"
The Goblin King's hideous screams echo through the city.
"It was a mistake. I shouldn't...I was young and stupid and I'm sorry."
Peter sympathizes greatly with her. One mistake in the past is all it takes to lose a loved one. Yet, it's a part of the growing process, no matter how hard it hurts. Some people grow and some people don't.
"Sorry doesn't bring them back. And sorry won't save you."
Spider-Man dodges a very dangerous sonic attack from the Goblin King. The crazed criminal is done playing games and he comes at Spider-Man with pretty much everything in his bag of tricks. The web slinger ducks his head and rolls around on the ground. He web zips into the heavens and knocks the Goblin King across the back of the head. A huge punch staggers him a second or so later.
The Goblin King falls onto one knee and Spider-Man kicks him in the chest. More kicks rock the Goblin King. The demented version of Peter Parker's hands light up and blast Spider-Man in the chest.
Gwen aims her dart gun at the shoulder and fires it at the Goblin King.
The cure passes through the veins of the Goblin King and does absolutely nothing. The Goblin King spins around to nail The Goblin King in the throat and sends her down to the ground.
"She thinks that she can cure me. She thinks she can fix me. Well,you're wrong, because the DNA is a part of me now. It's a part of my system. And you can't fix what's inside."
Gwen realizes she wasted her last cure dart for nothing. The Goblin King jumps up to finish her off only for Spider-Man to web yank onto him.
"My children will not fail this city."
The Goblin King receives a double stomp to the chest from above with Spider-Man using his web zip to hit him from all angles. Debris repeatedly smashed into the Goblin King and rocked him almost senseless. The Goblin King staggers back and Spider-Man rears back with more punches to keep rocking the Goblin King until he collapses down and hard.
X-X-X
Daisy stands at the Clocktower and surveys the damage from the resulting battle. She cannot really spell out the frustration no matter how hard she tries. The hoard of creatures might be thinned, which is a good thing. She turns her attention to Carol who returns.
"They fled. Why did they flee?"
"I don't know. We should figure out what we can do….I think Gwen and Peter finished the thing."
Unfortunately, Gwen's chance to activate it and end this nightmare stops when the Goblin King shows up and takes them down completely. Daisy finds one final cure dart on the ground, and at least two more on the stairs. One more dangles out of the ledge of the clocktower and is about ready to drop down to the Earth. Not that it will be enough to take out any more Goblin creatures.
"I got all of the cured to a safe place. They're confused, but they'll be okay."
Daisy just barely heres Kara's words. She's a bit concerned for Peter and Gwen after they end up halfway across the city. What happened? Where did they go? There's so many questions they need to answer. Daisy bends down to analyze the bomb.
"Cure or not, we really shouldn't be around when this thing goes off."
"Is there some kind of remote timer?"
"Give how most villains have a sense of drama with their schemes, I wouldn't be surprised"
Daisy fiddles with the bomb ever so slightly, and tries to get something, anything. She knows that as long as the Goblin King is still out there and still a problem, there's still a danger.
X-X-X
"I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU!"
The further meltdown of the Goblin King and the immense heat burning off of his body is a concern to Peter one hundred percent. He feels like he's going to have a meltdown, along with sounding like he's going to have one. That's not really a very good combination at all.
The Goblin King hits Spider-Man with a brutal attack and sends him flying halfway across the city. Spider-Man makes an attempt to web yank onto the Goblin King, only to find himself smashing down to the ground at a rib cracking fury. Spider-Man pulls himself to a standing position and fight with fierce determination against his enemy.
"Let's just all talk this one out."
The Goblin King's not a fan of Spider-Man's calm and casual suggestion. He attempts to put Spider-Man down into the ground with huge blasts of fire. Spider-Man decides the best way to avoid this attack is not to be in the way when it hits. He webs onto everything he can get his webbing on and flings it at the Goblin King. From bricks, to cinderblocks, to trash cans, all of them having very little effect as they bounce off the Goblin King.
A huge bone rattling punch nails Spider-Man so hard, he's pretty sure his ancestors feel that one. Another uppercut punch nails Spider-Man in the chest and he's on dream street. The web slinger swings his fist around and goes for another attack. The web slinger goes for another attack, but Spider-Man comes back up and nails his attacker with several more punches to the side of the head.
The web slinger hits him as hard as humanly possible and rocks him down to the ground. Despite hitting him hard, the Goblin King gets up and leaves Spider-Man with an aching feeling in his knuckles.
Spider-Girl returns to the battle and hits the Goblin King with pretty much everything she has. Unfortunately for her, everything Spider-Girl has is not enough. The Goblin King grabs Spider-Girl and flings her to the side.
"I will take my time in breaking you after I finish him."
The Goblin King knocks Spider-Man down to the ground and he flies down hard. The web slinger feels every muscle in his body tense up. The Goblin King jumps at him and unloads on Spider-Man with a rapid fire succession of punches. Each punch brings a more agonized breath from the Goblin King as he smashes Spider-Man in the face. His mask sticks to his face, swelling up underneath. No matter how many times the Goblin King hits him, Spider-Man keeps swinging back.
The Goblin King picks up Spider-Man and whips him down onto the bridge. The bridge wobbles underneath Spider-Man's weight.
An attempt to nail him with a sting blast does not go as planned. The Goblin King forces his foot down into the back of Spider-Man's back on an endless basis. He rams him further and further into the bridge, rocking him and swinging him back and forth. Spider-Man is brought up and slammed down onto the bridge.
It takes Spider-Man a few seconds to come to the pained conclusion they are fighting atop of the George Washington Bridge of all places. This brings back so many bad memories for Spider-Man.
Yet, he persists, despite the fact the Goblin King only getting stronger the more he pounds him. He hurls Spider-Man around like he's absolutely nothing and the snarling only gets more frustrating.
"You're garbage."
The Goblin King's heart sizes up. It's not for the first time today. He's going to have to return back to headquarters to fix this and then finish off Spider-Girl later.
Spider-Girl moves her way over to the bridge just in time to see Spider-Man hoisted above the head of the Goblin King. The Goblin King launches Spider-Man over the edge of the bridge right before the horrified eyes of Spider-Girl.
To say his entire life flashes before the eyes of one Peter Parker is a severe understatement. He cannot scream at all. What should be a short flight and very sudden landing is very drawn out.
Spider-Girl launches herself off of the bridge, speeding up her descent and getting underneath Spider-Man. She's able to catch him in mid-air before he lands into the water below and then she descends, creating a modified raft with her webbing. It's a bit shaky and will not hold for more than a few minutes, but it's more than enough to cause them to crash down onto the waters.
Spider-Man coughs a couple of times. Spider-Girl puts her hands on his shoulders and jolts him back awake.
"I'm fine….I'm fine."
"I'm glad...we should go after him."
Spider-Man cringes a little bit. He would rather not, but he knows he has to. Spider-Man and Spider-Girl make their way up to the bridge.
There's no Goblin King. There's not a sight of any of the goblin soldiers in the sky. Spider-Girl loops her arm around Spider-Man and holds him up until he caught his bearings.
"Can you walk?"
"Yeah, the healing factor's starting to kick in."
"I wonder what direction he's going."
Spider-Man whips out a tracker device and Gwen raises her eyebrow.
"For a second, I thought that I might not live long enough to use the tracker I slipped on you."
"How very Batman of you?"
"You know him too?"
"Yeah, he's only one of the most famous comic book characters in history."
Spider-Man just snorts at her statement. Oh boy, oh boy did he have something interesting to tell Gwen about the differences between their two Earths later. Right now, he hears Daisy's voice in his ear. Garbled, but present.
"Sorry, Quake. I had to make an adjustment."
"Can you hear me now?"
"Yes."
"We have the bomb ready to go off within the next ten minutes and we've cleared the immediate area of the uneffected. But the real bomb is when the Goblin King is going to go off."
"Come again?"
"He's unstable."
Peter's theory from earlier gains some form of validity. This news is going to make things that much more challenging for them all.
To Be Continued on 9/16/2018.
Thanks for your support and I'll see you in the next chapter.