Chapter Twenty-Six:
Loud thunderous echoes emit from the head of the Goblin King when he leaves the battle with Spider-Man and Spider-Girl. Everything does not go his way, which puts him into a more towering temper then ever before. The Goblin King smashes his way through the entrance to one of his labs.
The door flying off of the hinges gives the Goblin King entry. He staggers inside, anger just blasting through his eyes. There's a lot of angry emotions going through his body when walking forward. The rage only increased with each near failure.
"Where is it? Where is it? It has to be here somewhere!"
Those yells continue with the Goblin King ripping through and rifling through cabinets. An ailment like this is not about to stop him in his tracks, not when he became so close to winning the day. The Goblin King rips through the cabinets one at a time and finally finds it.
One last vial, one of clear blue liquid. It's the very last one, and now the Goblin King cradles it like a newborn child. He puts the chemical into the syringe and puts the needle of the syringe up to his arm before stabbing it into his shoulder. The mark indicates the syringe injecting the chemicals into his body.
"It's just what I want."
The Goblin King's eyes light up with a pure and vicious amount of power. He allows the syringe to drop down onto the ground. He's now cured one more time and now he has plans, big plans, plans which will spell the end for anyone who gets into his way. They might have the bomb, but they would not stop his plans.
Yet, there's one thing the Goblin King understands more than anything else. And that is the ability to have a backup plan. He stumbles through the lab, anger flooding through his eyes. There's some much anger in the eyes of a very angry and very bitter man.
He stops short of the portal and opens it up. An image appears on the other side, one of Scorpio, the leader of Zodiac. The Goblin King's lips curl into a very vicious snarl with Scorpio looking at him.
"Zodiac is ready."
"And this time, you better be. I will be sending through the package within the next two hours. It will make Zodiac the undisputed rulers of your Earth."
There's also several other Earths. The Goblin King activates the portals, preparing to lock onto the symbols. His vibrating hand shows that he's not in the best of spirits right now whatsoever. He holds said hand up.
"Your hand."
"It's nothing! Just stand by!"
The Goblin King steps back. The stabbing pain, the pounding in his chest. The same formula which created him is going to be the element which will result in his undoing. But, no, he's not going to lose it, not now. Not when everything is so close to coming true. The Goblin King smashes his hand against the wall, leaving a blood fist print into it.
There's also something else in his mind. He did not personally deal with Spider-Girl and Spider-Man and make sure they're dead. As long as there's not a body he mounts on the wall, there's no death. And he wants revenge on both of them, along with the Kingpin.
"My children, all come to me."
The Goblin King wants to give one final order. His dwindling Goblin army appears. While the dent is only small, it still brings the Goblin King into a rage that he doesn't have the entire city under his control.
The only solace is that soon the infection will spread beyond mere cities. The Goblin King snarls a couple more times and then breaths out to them.
"We have come so far."
They all bow before him. Especially, Vanessa, his Goblin Queen, who broke out into a soft smile.
"There are those who are willing to take this world. Your orders are to kill them all. Your orders are to rip them apart, no matter what the cost."
They all rumble and pump their fists into the air. The entire Goblin Army stands tall, with the rage bubbling from their eyes. Their emotions meet those of their masters.
"You will go out there and you will show your loyalty for me."
The Goblin King feels a little bit better now. Spite is a very powerful motivator and the spite he feels towards Spider-Girl for what she's done to him, it's going to rule him.
"All hail the Goblin King."
Putting all of these hybrids under his control strengthens the Goblin King. The dark side of Peter Parker thinks for a brief moment that all was lost. In reality, he's found everything else again. He's found something far beyond what he was looking for, power was near his grasp.
X-X-X
Spider-Man and Spider-Girl swing across the city to meet the others. After his near death experience, Spider-Man moves just a tiny bit more gingerly than he did in the past. It's just one of those things that you really have to deal with. Especially considering that Daisy's statement that they're running out of time having to deal with the Goblin King.
"You know, no one would blame you if you sit this one out."
"It's not just how I do these things. It might have started as your fight. But, it's my fight now."
Gwen nods in understanding and realizes that had the situation been flipped around, there would have been no chance, whatsoever, she would have sat out the battle either. She and Peter almost meet the point. There's a stray thought that enters her head about how it's very weird that they did not encounter any creatures. One can argue just how unsettling it is.
A knife flies through the air, hitting the right point where the web line she swings on severs. Gwen sticks the landing down onto the ground to see what she's fighting against.
Murdock, in all of his Goblin Glory, turns up. He breaths and hurls another dagger at Spider-Girl. She zips out of the way to avoid being punctured in the lungs with a dagger.
"I never thought I would catch myself saying this, but I liked you better before."
Murdock withdraws a wooden staff and charges Spider-Girl with it. Spider-Man webs onto the staff and turns him around. The two spiders fight the goblin hybrid with furious fists and feet to unbalance the enemy.
"Not that I like this guy any better when he was human, but I'm all out of cure darts."
"Yeah, I wasted my last one on him."
The thousand fists of fury delivered by the Murdock Goblin come very close to hitting Gwen directly on the chin. Gwen avoids the attacks and webs onto the man's hands. Murdock staggers a couple of steps forward, until the point where Gwen smashes her fists down onto the top of the head of Murdock, taking him down to the ground.
The thunderous crack of Murdock's head meeting the pavement echoes through the area. Spider-Girl whips her hand back and nails Murdock with a cracking punch to the side of the chin. Another cracking punch to the side of the chin and Murdock snaps back, blood dripping down his nose. Murdock swings as hard as he can, and Spider-Girl ducks the attack.
A pair of claws swipe out from nowhere and catch Murdock in the stomach. Laura flips him over to the ground. Cass jumps up and nails him with a huge double stomp to the face. Both feet connect with Murdock and rattle him.
The two spiders web him to the ground. That holds him, at least for right now. Murdock struggles against the webbing, but there's no way he's getting out, not any time soon. No matter how many times he struggles, or squirms, Spider-Man and Spider-Girl have him right there.
Kara, Carol, Jessica, and Daisy join them. Daisy rushes over to Peter in an attempt to rouse him to his feet.
"You okay?"
"I've had better...but what's this about his heart?"
"It's a ticking time bomb. The Goblin formula has created a weapon of mass destruction. Every beat of his heart edges us all that much more closely to Doomsday."
Peter puts a hand on hers in an attempt to calm this situation before it escalated out of control.
"The rage we put him in when we revert his Goblin Army might be more than enough to set him over the edge."
A grimace appears on Peter's face. He sees this as the very classic, damned if you do, damned if you don't type scenario. The web slinger feels a strong feeling of agony enter his stomach.
"And we've got another problem."
Kara points it out. Several of the Goblin King's army comes in the air. This causes Jessica's eyes to widen.
She does not need to speculate what might happen if all of those people are airborne when the cure comes into the city. The city will be raining people and that would be one huge mess.
"We don't have nearly enough webbing to catch them."
Kara nods grimly.
"I could try and…."
"We have ninety seconds to get them out of the sky."
Daisy blasts them in a very desperate attempt to brig all of the creatures out of the sky. Unfortunately for them, it's not as easy as it looks on the outset.
Kara and Carol jump into the air. They soar underneath the people. Time is running out for them all. The tandem attacks of both of the sisters need to be more efficient.
Spider-Man puts his hand on the shoulder of Spider-Girl.
"We need to try."
"Right...we have to try."
The bomb releasing the cure into the air is going to go off within the next minute or so. Spider-Man and Spider-Girl launch as much webbing to create a cushion for the remaining people in the air. The people are still going to need medical attention when they drop and unfortunately, many of the people who drop are going to be among the people who require medical attention.
The web slingers see Carol, Kara, and Daisy bringing them down, and Cass and Laura doing their best to make sure they stay down.
"Time! Everyone get clear!"
Carol and Kara assist them. The clocktower explodes and releases a white cloud of mist from the tower. The mist fills the entire city, and buries the Goblin hordes underneath it.
The city streets pile up with innocent people, who used to be these goblin monsters. Now they have turned into something else entirely.
Spider-Man takes a deep breath. Everyone turns back to normal and not too soon. Everyone, other than one very diseased individual. He puts his hand on Gwen's shoulder who responds with a nod.
The lights in the city start to flicker. Daisy takes out her portable computer, and initiates a sequence which tracks the person she's looking for to the source.
"He's not only giving out a lot of energy because he's about ready to explode. But he's trying to open up several portals. He has more of the virus which he's trying to release in many Earths, ours included."
Daisy grimaces at the thought of this plague spreading across multiple Earths. They would not be able to stop the disease when it came to that.
"Fortunately though, we can pinpoint him down."
"We don't have much time, do we? We have little choice, other than to finish him off."
Gwen's grim words showed the hopelessness of this situation. She resigns herself to the fact that the friend she once knew is good and dead. It's time to put some monster out of his misery before any more people gets hurt. A set jaw and fierce determination follows on the part of Gwen Stacy as they all head out.
Daisy sees another problem which she just needs to bring up.
"With the portals open, if he explodes….."
Kara jumps in to finish her sentence in the most succulent and grim way possible.
"This Earth and many other Earths are about ready to go full Krypton."
X-X-X
Spider-Man leads the way, with Spider-Girl, Quake, Spider Woman, Laura, Cass, Captain Marvel, and Flamebird following behind him. Time is running short for them all and they do not have that much time.
Unfortunately, they run into an army of Leo and Ram soldiers, and then the man himself, Scorpio. It appears that the Goblin King, after his first army has fallen, called for his good friends. Now it was time for them to square off against the mighty forces of Zodiac.
"We really don't have time for this."
"You will make the time, Spider-Man. The Goblin King is going to create a brand new world. It's just a minor pity you're not going to be a part of it."
"And you're delusional if you think that he's going to allow you to be part of his new world."
Zodiac soldiers make their way for the attack. Daisy gives them no quarter, quaking the ground and sending them flying.
The claws of the lion soldier retract and move to stab straight at Laura. Laura shows hers is bigger and she fights him off with a fury. The lion growls and spits and snarls. Laura shoves it back and kicks it hard down to the ground with everything she can muster.
Cass makes the most of her movements, withdrawing her knives and stabbing down at the creatures. The creature staggers a half of a step until Cass rears back and jacks its jaw with a huge uppercut to the face. Another ram rushes towards Cass, and Cass avoids it.
Spider-Girl hates the fact she used all of her webbing to create a net. Still, she's capable enough of improvising in a situation when it really counts. The warrior of webbing drops down and sweeps the leg out from underneath her enemy, taking him down to the ground. She whips up and takes her adversary down with another swinging punch.
The web slinger drops him all the way down to the ground. The lion jumps into the air and takes a punch from Captain Marvel. The attack folds him up with a very brutal and violent attack.
"Why don't you take a nap?"
Scorpio rushes towards Spider-Man. A couple of swift attacks barely miss Spider-Man. He comes back with more punches and rocks Scorpio back. Scorpio's attempts to whip out a wooden staff and take out Spider-Man are blocked. The web slinger locks onto him and nails Scorpio with a huge attack to the top of the head.
"You have to listen. The Goblin King is using you. And he's going to destroy our Earth if you let him."
"You're trying to fool me. I'm not an idiot...it won't work."
"If you don't believe that then…."
One of the rams rushes towards Spider-Man with malicious intentions and sadistic claws bared. The web slinger dodges the attack and allows the ram to smash hard into the side of the truck. Spider-Man whips his webbing onto the horns of the ram and then whips into the attack, smashing the back of its neck. The ram drops down to a knee and Spider-Man strings together multiple punches to take it out. The web slinger leans back and then hits the ram full force on the attack.
Daisy nervously eyes the energy reading in the middle of fighting. Just when you encounter one bad situation, about two more crop up at the same time. Her enemy about ready to go nuclear is not putting Daisy in very good spirits. Neither is the horde of Zodiac soldiers.
"You will all fall before us!"
Scorpio knocks Cass down onto the ground. He rushes into the attack, only for Spider-Girl to jump on his back and flip him down to the ground. Scorpio drops down to the ground and then hits it.
Spider-Man rifles through his belt. One more web cartridge. He's going to have to make it count.
"You will allow bow before the might of Zodiac!"
"No."
Spider-Man zips over and catches Scorpio flush on the side of the face with a big kick. The members of his army dwindle. Spider-Man and Zodiac go punch for punch in a battle. Zodiac shows why he's skilled as he is, almost knocking Spider-Man's legs out from underneath him.
"You will yield to me, Spider-Man."
Scorpio makes an attempt to smash a staff down into the chest of Spider-Man. The web slinger dodges the attack and pops back up, nailing Scorpio with a huge uppercut punch right between the eyes. Scorpio wobbles until the point where Spider-Man rears back and hits him with a full force attack.
"You won't listen to reason? Maybe I'm going to have to beat some sense into you then."
Daisy knocks Scorpio back down to the ground. She puts the tablet in front of his face.
"You don't believe us. Then maybe you'll believe scientific data. The kind of data which shows you what the Goblin King is about ready to do."
Scorpio opens his mouth. Disbelief hits him. He cannot ignore what is glaring him in the face.
"It's impossible."
"Is it really?"
The mouth of Scorpio opens another fraction of an inch and he can only shake his head. It's not impossible, not this time at the very least. The item in front of his face tells a whole lot to be perfectly honest.
"Impossible."
"And yet you see it."
Scorpio inclines his head to shake off the undisputed proof. One can see the hint of frustration burning through his eyes. The frustration turns to outrage, and then the thoughts of betrayal just bubble in. He clutches his hands together.
"Zodiac...fall back!"
Those words cause the Zodiac soldiers to stop fighting. They move into position and fall in line before their leader.
"We need to stop the Goblin King at all…."
A blast of green light incinerates all of the Zodiac soldiers prior to Scorpio giving his final command. All of them turn their heads just in time to see the Goblin King standing above them.
The glow his body gives up cannot be the most healthy thing in the world. The skies turn dark around him when he moves. Fireballs shoot out of his hands.
"The price you pay for betraying me is your life, Scorpio!"
Scorpio drops down to his knees, almost paralyzed by some attack. A sonic assault bombards his ear drums and starts to liquify the inside of his brain. Scorpio howled in endless agony the force the Goblin King assaulted him.
"And you will pay the price as well, Spider-Man. Because, this time, I'm not going to merely throw you off of a bridge. I'm going to rip you apart piece by piece with my bare hands."
The Goblin King is about as horrific as his words. He dives down onto the ground and sends the heroes rattling with a sonic attack.
X-X-X
"We're going to stop you."
"No. Not this time. Every single portal will open to every single Earth. Hordes of Goblin King creatures will come into this world and overwhelm it. You will bow before me."
Goblin King waves his hand and Spider-Man dodges the super loud blast before it blew him away. The web slinger activates the stinging mechanism of his web shooters and shoots a concentrated blast of energy directly at the Goblin King. It only backs him off a fraction of an inch before Spider-Man drops down to the ground behind him. The web slinger rears back and cracks the Goblin King against the back of the head with the full force of his attack.
"That's not going to work."
A hand smashes down onto the ground. Ash appears on the ground right where the Goblin King's hand hits. Spider-Man dives at him, only to find himself knocked down onto the ground.
"We got to take him down without accelerating his condition."
"We're going to have to shut down the portals too."
The Goblin King sends sonic waves towards Carol and Daisy. Carol jumps into the air and tries to bypass the Goblin King's effort.
He catches Captain Marvel out of mid-air and swings her ankles like a lasso before hurling her halfway across the way. Carol lands with a very sickening thud, her body connecting to the ground with a full force impact. Carol tries to rise up to a standing position, only for the Goblin King to come down on her arm with a sickening stomp.
Jessica venom blasts the Goblin King in the face. She wishes she did not have to do that all things considered. The problem is, when seeing Carol in this position, it makes her see red.
Spider-Girl sneaks past the fight and moves through the portals. She sees several different worlds and also the bomb connected to them. Spider-Girl tries and undoes the bomb, but it was a tricky process. One wrong move and it was goodnight for all of them.
In comes the Goblin King, rushing in to take her down. Spider-Girl dodges the attack, web yanks a fire extiguisher off of the wall, and slams it into the face of the Goblin King repeatedly. She webs onto a large metal table and flips it up into the air. The Goblin King punches a hole through the table.
"The more you fight, the more I'm simply going to crush you."
The Goblin King is as bad as his word. A gust of super breath stops him from advancing. The Goblin King drops down to his knees and Flamebird blasts him with heat vision. The heat vision only barely burns his chest.
"Have some of that!"
"And have some of this!"
Green radiation emits from the Goblin King's hand. He throws a huge fire bomb towards Flamebird who scatters.
Spider-Girl makes her way up, but Quake is already in front of the computers. She enters the information and makes sure to shut the portals.
"No, you don't!"
Daisy slams the ground and blocks the Goblin King. Flamebird and Captain Marvel get on his back until he throws them both off. This causes Spider-Man to rush a tool cart into the Goblin King and send him crashing outside of the window.
"And when he gets up, he's going to be pissed."
The Goblin King rises from the ashes, fire burning from his eyes. Daisy's energy tracker goes completely nuts.
"You...have gotten on my last nerve."
"You know, if I had a dime for every bad guy who said that I would….OWWW!"
The Goblin King is not amused by Spider-Man's banter in any way whatsoever. Several more fire balls attack Spider-Man. Spider-Man gets him away from the lab long enough for Daisy to do her thing.
Even the Goblin King in his rage realizes this in a moment.
"She's shutting them down. No. I won't…."
Spider-Girl stabs the Goblin King one of the daggers that Murdock tried to nail her with during a previous encounter.. The mystical properties of the dagger wound the Goblin King and causes his howls to only grow louder. His blood pumps and his eyes bulge. The Goblin King drops down to the ground.
"Guys, we have a problem."
"Get him in here, I have an idea."
Peter trusts that Daisy's idea is going to work. Because they have one angry Goblin King and one who is going to rip them apart.
The Goblin King blasts past them and knocks them into the doors. The Goblin King raises his hands up into the air and smashes the tanks containing his fluid.
A large gust of green gas fills the air. The Goblin King coughs and twists in mid-air before growing larger and more hideous than he was before.
And also, extremely unstable to be honest. Goblin King grows and smashes the ceiling. His fists swell and he swings them.
"Crush you!"
"You know, the Hulk would not appreciate you honing in on his gimmick."
The Goblin King swings back to punch Spider-Man. At the last second, Spider-Man avoids the attack and the Goblin King smashes the box powering the portals. A burst of energy erupts through the air and knocks the Goblin King back. His breathing only escalates when dropping down to a single knee.
Then, screams echo and cause Spider-Man to stagger back. Something bad was happening, and it was the end.
But would it be the end for them all?
X-X-X
His eyes bulge up, anger flowing through them. The Goblin King feels a strain coming through his heart. The last pump of enhanced blood could be what causes the explosion. A very wicked and sadistic expression spreads over his face. Realization hits him full on.
If he dies, they die.
"I'm going to take you all out with me."
The Goblin King blasts them with white hot fire. It dangerously comes close to hitting some of the chemicals in the lab. Not that the Goblin King appears to be one who cares about tempering that attack.
"We've got to get him out of here."
Spider-Girl snaps her fingers.
"Idea...just keep him off of me for about a minute."
"I'll try."
"We'll all do it!"
Spider-Man, Flamebird, and Captain Marvel move into position for the first wave of attack. The Goblin King howls as you would expect from a deranged monster like this. He keeps coming at them like a slasher villain and they keep fighting him off. It is a dance which would continue to the end of the time.
Daisy's energy tracker, laying in the corner, gives a loud and shrill beep.
"Guys, that means he's about ready to reach critical."
Kara can barely muster up a quip due to the fact she needs to duck and roll from the Goblin King's brutal assault. His hand smashes the ground. She can feel him about ready to reach critical in a matter of moments. The energy pumping from the Goblin King makes Kara be on edge a little bit more.
"Any time now...would be good!"
Spider-Man tags the Goblin King in the back of the head with a roundhouse punch. This minimal amount of contact sets the Goblin King off. The Goblin King swings his fist down to the top of the head with the web slinger avoiding the attack.
"When I take this world out, you're going to come with me first."
"Yeah, how about no."
Spider-Man whips his fist down across the face of the Goblin King and sends him back a couple of inches. He almost staggers through the portal.
"Guys, now's the time."
Spider-Girl and Spider-Man join forces and launch the Goblin King straight through the portal to another Earth.
Goblin King falls on the other side of the Earth. Nothing other than zombies surround him. The Goblin King screams in agony as his heart goes critical.
The portal closes just as the Goblin King expires in the most gruesome way possible. It is hard to tell what got him first, the zombie attack or his own heart going nuclear.
X-X-X
The lab is destroyed and they stand in the lab. Daisy sinks down into a chair and it's a small miracle she does not drop to her knees because of this. She's not the only one to feel relief.
The energy reading device, after going insane just a couple of minutes ago, is calm. Daisy picks up the device and cradles it with a smile on her face.
"We did it."
"Yeah, we did it."
Pete puts a hand on her shoulder and Daisy leans in. There's a small part of her who can relax after all of this, although not completely.
Gwen can hardly believe it. Is her long nightmare really over? There's a combination of relief and sadness coming over her. Relief that this entire nightmare is over and sadness about the man she watched Peter become. And her wishing things might have been a little bit different.
Still, maybe she should not be too upset. Things happen for a reason.
Daisy steps outside to look into New York City. Carol and Kara follow her. Scorpio's on the ground, still covering from the battle. Daisy makes sure to cuff him. Despite his entire army being down, he's still a dangerous man.
The city of New York is completely Goblin Free. Kara and Carol hover into the air to check out the damage.
There's some very confused people roaming around the city streets. It is going to be a very long time before they figure out what's happened and are able to recover. They will get there in time.
Daisy smiles and looks at the people in New York City. All of them are back to normal, although it's going to be a few days before they really recover.
"We're Goblin Free."
"That's the good news."
Spider-Girl and Spider-Man appear at her shoulder. Daisy reenters the lab and she figures that there's something.
"The bad news is, during the fight some of the components in the portal were damaged. And after he blew up, we might have been able to shield the Earth from his attack by closing the portal but…."
"It wasn't completely closed."
Gwen bites down on her lip underneath her mask and sighs in abject frustration.
"Therefore, some of the components in the portal are damaged. You're stuck here. I'm stuck here."
"Isn't this your home?"
Gwen doesn't answer this question. Jessica, Carol, Cass, and Laura all look at the portal. An attempt to even turn the thing on results in a loud hissing and smoke coming from the portal.
Daisy, on the other hand, claps her hands.
"This is just another challenge. If the Goblin King built this thing, he must have spare parts around here somewhere. We're just going to have to roll up our sleeves and get to work."
Daisy knows the first person to ask is SHIELD. Although they have their own problems after the Goblin King mutated some of their best agents.
The only good thing to come out of this battle was they did not get mutated.
"It's going to be a long day tommorrow. We should all get some rest before then."
Fixing the portal can wait, although some of them will not be sleeping well until it is. And they had no idea how long they would be here. Days, weeks, months, longer, everything was an open door.
"Just another day in the life, huh?"
Kara's statement just causes a few forced smiles. Regardless, there's work to be done.
To Be Continued on 9/18/2018.
Thanks for the support and I'll see you during the next chapter.