Author's Notes: So, here we go, the final fight between Harry, Peter and Gwen. Hope you all enjoy, and stay prepared for the ending, it's getting closer and closer to that point! - Dave
Chapter Thirty Six: We're Best Friends
...
The Rhino Mech flew across the night sky of Manhattan, limbs hanging heavily as the back thrusters held it to the sky. Harry clicked a few buttons and wiggled his fingers on the joy stick, bearing down on the beacon in the Goblin's armor. Where ever he was, so was Peter.
"You're gonna bleed Pete, I promise you that." Harry vowed, chuckling deep inside the Mech.
...
Gwen threw the Goblin through the chain linked fence with a crash. He tumbled and his mechanized spine spluttered and oozed oil, the shredded remains of his lips grinning.
Connors peered up from his current task of wrapping Peter's wounded hand in gauze, staring at Gwen dragging the Goblin over and chucking him unceremoniously into the gutter. The Goblin laughed as Gwen shook her head, stepping over him. She bent down besides Peter, resting her hand on his neck, lightly stroking her gloved thumb over his bloodied skin.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked softly. Peter nodded and his breath rasped with every wheeze.
"He may have a collapsed lung, I'm unsure." Connors sighed. "Gwen, we need to get him to a Hospital."
"Oh boy, good luck with that." She pinched the bridge of her nose. Peter began to weakly shake his head.
"N-No Doctors...my blood...they could...find out..." he rasped tiredly. Connors sighed and nodded to himself.
"Then Peter, you're going to have to choose I'm afraid. Peter Parker's health, or Spiderman's identity."
"Is it that bad?" Gwen asked, looking at Peter's bandaged hand. Connors nodded.
"I'm afraid so. Peter, besides your possibly collapsed lung, you have a crushed foot, your ankle is broken, the bones in your hand are...almost powder!" Connors scoffed. "The burns to your face are substantial and you've lost a lot of blood."
"Oh my god!" Gwen gasped. Peter coughed and wheezed. "Peter, that's bad, you've gotta go to the Hospital!"
"But, Gwen..."
"No buts!"
"Yes, no buts, Peter, do as the ball and chain says." The Goblin coughed and laughed from the gutter. Gwen growled and grabbed him by his shredded steel collar, lifting him up to stare venomously at him. Satisfied that he would now shut up, Gwen dropped the Goblin's remains down into the tarmac heavily. She huffed and looked back at Peter. His swollen purple ringed eyes were intent on the Goblin, his split lip flaring.
"Peter." Gwen said softy, taking his ripped chin in her hand gently, trying to pry his gaze away from the Goblin. Peter was seething as he listened to the broken Goblin's laughter.
"Kill him." Peter snapped, and Gwen gasped. Connors' eyes bulged and the Goblin grinned at Peter.
"There he is." He cackled and coughed. "Truly colors are grim, huh?"
"Kill him! End it now, k-kill him!" Peter began to wheeze after his aching bellow.
"But I thought that Spiderman was the good guy? I thought that bad people killed?" The Goblin played innocent, lying on his shattered and snapped spine.
"Shut up." Gwen snapped, blocking Peter's line of sight to the Goblin with her face. "Peter, look at me. Don't say that. That makes you just as bad as him, please don't lower yourself to his level."
"But you killed Kraven." Peter blinked at her. Gwen sucked on her bottom lip and her eyes bulged at him. She was speechless to his words. She sighed and looked down at the floor.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's right, I did." Gwen rubbed her face with a groan. "I did kill him. But, Peter, at the time I had no choice. I never set out to kill him, he was choking me, I had to save you, and..." She looked at Connors as he listened intently, the Goblin too. "...and the crane's cable was right there. I grabbed it, wrapped it around his neck and threw him off the side of the dam. I took a life, Peter. I'm not proud of it at all, but I did to survive."
Gwen looked at the grinning remains of the tattered Goblin. "But him? We kill him now when he isn't even a threat, then we're no better than him."
The Goblin turned his head and half of his snapped jawbone hung heavily against the pavement. "It's true." He shrugged, sparks popping and gears churning against rotten flesh. Gwen snarled and turned back to Peter.
"They'll lock him up and throw away the key."
"For how long, huh?" Peter licked his lips, swollen eyes brimming. "H-How long, before he just breaks out and does it again!" Peter hissed and winced as Connors removed his boot, seeing the bruised and split skin of his swollen foot, stained in claret.
"Sorry, please refrain from moving, Peter." Connors sighed, wrapping a sheet of gauze around the wound. Peter wiped his eye with a groan and looked blearily and exhausted at Gwen. She smiled softly and stroked his cheek, avoiding the burns.
"Look at him. You think he's breaking outta anywhere?" Gwen smirked as Peter gave a small smile. "We won. Take solace in that." She kissed his lips gently. Peter hummed.
"Not yet you haven't." The Goblin chuckled from the floor. Gwen rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Come again?"
"Still gotta tidy the mess I've made of Manhattan, hmm?" He nodded to the glowing blue canister of antidote. Gwen looked at the cylinder and picked it up, her thumb swiping dirt and dust off of the scratched glass.
"You're right." She murmured, looking up from the canister to Connors and Peter. "I'll go to the Carrier and fire this into the sky."
"Alone?" Connors asked, Peter hissing in pain as his hand tightened the bandage. "That's preposterous, the city is still crawling with freed criminals, infected or not!"
"G-Gwen, you can't go alone." Peter shook his head against the fence. A loud crackle and jolt of blue light lit up the sky as the Power plant's Tesla coils surged. "H-Help me up, I'll come."
"You're kidding, right?" Gwen looped a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. Peter shook his head.
"I-I'm feeling better. Doc's patched me up, I'm fine." Peter clutched the fence with a rattle of chains and stood on shaky legs, hissing at the pain in his foot. "S-See?" His face's features scrunched in hidden pain. Gwen sighed sympathetically as she drummed her fingers on the canister.
"Peter, come on." Gwen's hoarse voice said softly. "I can do this alone."
"Yeah, seriously Pete, stop holding her back." The Goblin laughed. "She is a strong independent woman, she don't need no man!" The Goblin's remains spoke with sass. Gwen pressed her boot onto his shattered chest plate and sunk it down, pushing the animated corpse to the earth.
"I can do this. Easy." She smiled brightly to Peter, emerald eyes expanding. Peter shook his head.
"Nope, I'm coming." He picked up his torn glove and boot, sliding his bandaged foot into the hotly wet spandex. He cried out in agony but finally slid it on.
"Oh yeah, no, y-you look like you're in tip top condition." Gwen retorted sarcastically, lips creased in sympathetic agony. "Peter, stop, stay here, you'll be safe."
A loud thump rumbled across the starry sky, a crackle of engines breaking the deathly silence. Peter's spidey senses flared and gripped tightly around his aching spinal cord. Gwen and Connors looked up in shock as a downdraft of heavy winds rippled outwards around them. Gwen's golden hair billowed around her face and shredded hood, staggering back and shielding her eyes with her wrist.
"Yay." The Goblin giggled from the gutter. A massive bang sounded across the land as a titanic machine of rigid steel landed on stumpy legs. The Rhino Mech stood up from it's crater, pistons hissing and gears grinding. Aiming from it's pneumatic hips, the Mech's wrists clicked and whirred as sets of machine gun barrels extended and locked into place.
Harry grinned through the glass of the cockpit, his HUD display helmet covering his eyes, but beautifully displaying the fear and shock on all of their faces. Feeling invincible, he activated the intercom, speakers on the outside of the machine crackling to life. Peter and Gwen slowly stepped away from the camouflage colored thirteen foot tall mechanical Rhinoceros.
"I've waited a long time for this moment Pete." Harry chuckled, stomping the massive Mech towards Peter and Gwen, stubby back legs supporting the huge upper chassis. "...That fear in your eyes, god I've waited to see that, and man it does not disappoint!"
"Harry...w-what the hell is this?" Peter croaked. The Rhino whirred and stood tall, the huge horn appendage tilting as Harry's head leaned.
"Oh this old thing? One of Oscorp's hand me downs, it's unusual weapon of destruction, left to gather dust in their labs. Well no more! This is exactly what I need to make you bleed!" Harry shouted through gritted teeth. A variety of machine guns and missiles flicked out of ports and slots, readying for combat, standing over them with clenched paws. "You like it?"
"A rhino...a giant metal rhino..." Peter raised an eyebrow. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of."
"Really? Well, we'll see how ridiculous it sounds when it's stomping your corpse into the gravel!" Harry spat, the cabin's windows suddenly vanishing behind thick steel. The Rhino whirred and lifted it's wrists, cannons locking onto Peter and Gwen.
"Peter, look out!" Gwen screamed, shoving him through the fence harshly. The fence snapped and fell over in a heap, Peter rolling down the verge of grass and mud till he hit the concrete housing around one of the many towering Tesla coils.
The Rhino Mech unleashed a barrage of bullets in their direction, deafening crackles exploding across the night sky. The constant flickering of muzzle flashes blinded Gwen until she leaped up into the sky, firing a web to one of the Tesla Coils in a split second decision.
It backfired. A massive electrical current ripped down the Biocable and sunk straight into her Webshooter, popping the circuitry and bursting the plastic casing, Biocable fluid oozing out of the cracks and dribbling down her wrist. Thanks to her rubbery suit, Gwen barely felt the current, but it was still enough to shock her and send the blonde tumbling out of the sky, crashing into the Power Plant, landing heavily on a humming mass of cables. Gwen spasmed and flinched from the current in her nerves.
"Gwen! Peter!" Connors shouted in alarm, turning to face the hulking mechanical Rhino. Deep inside the Mech, Harry grinned at his Head's Up Display, locking his cannons onto the doctor.
"See ya, Doc." Harry cackled, squeezing the triggers, unleashing another barrage of heavy fire. Bullets tore through Connors body, ripping his towel and sending the naked man tumbling down the hill in a heap of blood. Harry laughed maniacally from inside the Rhino, stomping over the flimsy fencing, entering the Oscorp Power Plant.
A blue hue took to the cold night air as volts of cyan and violet light crackled between Tesla coils. Gwen groaned and sat up from the pipes and copper wiring, rubbing her aching head. She tucked the frizzy blonde hair out of her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Argh, that sucked!" Gwen hugged her stomach, standing on shaky legs. She looked at her right web shooter, fried and spluttering sparks and fluid. Gwen rolled her eyes and groaned, detaching it from her sleeve and throwing it unceremoniously on the floor. "Great." She quipped. Gwen looked up and saw Peter staggering to his feet, limping towards her with worry in his bruised eyes. Gwen's eyes lit up and she leaped over the cables, running towards Peter.
"Go!" Peter shouted, waving his arms over his head. Gwen looked up over Peter and saw the massive Rhino Mech stamping around the corner, huge torso wobbling, steel plates and wires jiggling with each stomp. Gwen staggered to a stop and grabbed Peter's hand, tugging him with her as she quickly led him to hide behind a nearby crate.
"Get down!" she yelped, just as Harry lined them up in his sights.
"You're mine now, you and your Blonde bitch!" Harry spat, squeezing the triggers and activating the Mech's array of machine guns. The Rhino's forearms jerked back as four barrels erupted in crackling flashes. Gwen shielded her head with her wrists and dived behind the crate with Peter. Bullets chipped the metal and exploded in puffs of dust.
Gwen held onto Peter like a lifeline, as did he to her, both panting and waiting for the hailstorm of bullets to end. Peter looked up at the towering Tesla Coils all around them, buzzing and crackling with electricity. Eureka. He had an idea.
"Gwen! I-I got an idea!" he shouted over the bullet fire.
"Lay it on me!" Gwen responded. Peter licked his lips and pointed to the Tesla Coils.
"We overcharge Harry's mech!"
"Like a battery?!" she mimicked an explosion with her fingers. Peter nodded exuberantly.
"Exactly, like a battery!" He looked left and right, before seeing the main housing unit for the conduit bridging the gap between Tesla Coil farms. "There! That platform! If I can get up there, web those wires back together and attach them to Harry's mech..."
"...It'll overload and explode!" Gwen nodded brightly. "Peter, you're in no shape to do this! You'll die!" Gwen gripped his collar loosely.
"Come out and die, coward!" Harry roared from inside the closely stomping Rhino.
"Gwen, no, I can do it!" Peter nodded to her. Gwen shook her head, and Peter knew what she was planning. "Don't you dare, you are not putting yourself in danger, I promised your..."
"My Father? My Uncle? Now isn't the time! We're a team, remember?" Gwen snapped at him. The bullet fire stopped and Gwen looked up over the crate, seeing the Monolithic Rhino stood in the middle of the flat road between Tesla Coils, staring dead at them. Smoke piped up from the glowing red barrels of Harry's machine guns. "We do it together. Peter, go to the center console inside the Power Plant station, I need you to deactivate the Tesla Coils, just for a while! Once I've reconnected the wiring, once I've given you the word...restart the Power Plant." Gwen looked at him with heroic determination.
"Time to face your destiny, Pete!" Harry's mechanized voice filled the air. Peter shook his head at Gwen.
"No, you're not doing this! I-I cant lose you!" Peter tried to sit up. Gwen quickly kissed him softly.
"You're not going to. We're Best Friends, remember?" Gwen winked, looking over at Harry's Rhino, waiting for them to emerge. "I'll keep him occupied. I can't swing about till you've got the plant shut down, okay?" Gwen looked at her last Web shooter. "I cant magnetize them, so I need you to shut the system down." Peter licked his lips and nodded, clambering to his feet.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are?" Harry chuckled, titanic Mech stomping around the Tesla Coils. Gwen leaped over the crate and turned, pointing at the station window, where the power switch was located.
"Go!" she shouted, turning with fists clenched to face Harry. In that split second she turned from Peter, her Spidey senses flared, and everything went in slow motion. Her ears rang as she saw her Father's apparition stood before her, looking slightly disappointed yet proud in a sympathetic frown. Her Uncle Danny smirked beside her Father, winking to her.
Stood directly beside her, grinning maniacally and clutching his shimmering Kukri blades still dripping with Peter's blood, leopard skins draped over his huge torso, Kraven the Hunter cackled at her.
"Stay safe, Gwendy." Her Dad smiled softly. "Please."
"Give em hell, Spidey Gwen." Danny chuckled.
"Go ahead, Gwendolyne, the one enemy I underestimated...go ahead and claim yet another life." Kraven walked around her, grinning. "Hah. Anymore, and you'll start catching up to my kill count."
Gwen shook her head and the apparitions vanished. She looked up the blue lit road, sparkling with damp puddles that reflected bursts of high voltage light, seeing the Rhino land heavily from a heaving jump, exactly where her Father stood. A thunderous bang rumbled from the tonnes of steel before her, concrete exploding around it's feet. Harry stood the Mech back up on two legs, whirring and hissing. The elongated and welded Horn raised into the air with a hum of vibrating metal.
"Where's Peter?" Harry snapped. Gwen shrugged and bit her lip.
"No idea. Guess you'll have to play with me." Gwen smirked. The Rhino raised it's wrist and aimed an array of missiles and machines guns at her. Bullet belts wobbled in the breeze. "Aww, did I piss you off?" She quipped, tilting her head.
"I will kill you, I have that power, you know, I am in control!" Harry shouted, spittle in the corner of his lips.
"Huh. Even at school I thought you were pretty weird. Guess this just proves it." Gwen stalled, looking over her shoulder slightly as she saw Peter enter the window frame, unlocking the cover over the reset switch. She turned back to the towering Rhino before her, only the whir of steel and crackle of electricity to be heard.
"Yeah..." Harry laughed weakly. "...bet nobody perceived this happening, huh?" all of the weapons clicked and loaded into firing positions. Gwen pressed her fingers against the trigger pad in her palm.
"Nope. Was a crazy world, huh?" Gwen smirked at him.
"Still Crazy." Harry snapped, squeezing the triggers. Suddenly all of the Tesla coils shut down and the blue glow vanished, only the lunar light to paint the dead Power Plant in dull white. As the muzzle flashes lit up the dark, the spot where Gwen was three milliseconds ago was now vacant.
"What the?" Harry stomped the bipedal Rhino back a few steps, huge drum of ammunition on it's back sloshing. He flicked a switch inside the pitch black canopy and the headlights on the Rhino's chest exploded to life, two thick beams of golden light painting the dead Power Plant before him.
He could hear the swishing of webs, Harry's sadistic grin returning. He turned the huge Mech around to face the other way, headlights painting huge golden circles across the dark Tesla coils. Then something swung down between the glow of his headlights, the white and black clad female slamming her boots against the reinforced hull of the Rhino. The impact was enough to make the Mech stagger on stumpy legs, but it wasn't as effective as Gwen thought it would be.
"Reinforced titanium. Good luck with that one, girl..." Harry chuckled darkly within the towering Mech. Gwen rolled over onto her feet, now stood in the path of his bright headlights.
"Need to give Gwen some light." Peter mused, looking over the controls. He saw the labelled switch for Emergency floodlights. Peter's eyes lit up and he flicked the switch.
"...Now stay still so I can blow your brains out." Harry quipped, before squeezing the triggers. Gwen back flipped and narrowly avoided the stream of bullets currently ripping the tarmac apart. Gwen flipped upwards into the air and found a new sense of light, as huge flood lights above the Power Plant's four corners filled the Tesla farm with an exuberant amount of white light. Overlapping shadows from the towering Tesla Coils painted down over the stomping Rhino Mech, still firing at Gwen as she rolled and weaved through the stale air.
"Oh, thank you, Peter Parker!" Gwen cheered, twisting through the bullet storm to fire a Biocable at the Mech's forearm, catching a missile in its cradle. She tugged and pulled it clean out, swirling her body around to build momentum into the lassoed missile. She let go of the taut cable and sent the missile flying back towards Harry's Mech. Panicked, Harry raised the Rhino's paws and shielded the canopy as the missile made contact. A titanic explosion lit up the complex in a bright orange ball of expanding fire, swallowing the Rhino Mech as it tumbled and fell over onto all fours, rolls of smoke tumbling over the stained chassis.
Gwen landed on her toes and watched the writhing animal of metal whir and roll over onto it's paws. She watched and listened as Harry's disgruntled growls rumbled through the intercom. He got the Rhino to it's feet and aimed the sharp Horn at her.
"You wanna play, blondie?!" Harry spat. "I'm gonna kill every last one of you pathetic scum!" Harry roared before a loud whirring sound emanated from the Rhino's core. The mech suddenly galloped towards her, clumsy in it's every stride, but very quick and heavy. Gwen turned away from the stampeding Mech and leaped into the air, firing a web to the nearest disabled Tesla Coil and just climbing into the air before the serrated horn sliced her wide open.
Harry lay in the inverted cockpit and turned the running Mech straight into the Tesla Coil, the Rhino smashing straight through it in a spray of glass, copper and steel. The tower's snapped spine yawned and fell into the next as Gwen leaped and bounded between then, swirling through the air, occasionally looking below at the massive Rhino Mech stampeding through every single Tesla Coil she touched.
Peter watched with rapid beats of his heart as one after another of the Tesla Coils fell into a pile of shattered metal. "Come on, Gwen." Peter begged, fingers on the trigger switch.
Gwen somersaulted underneath the falling pillar of energized steel, as another Tesla Coil tumbled to the earth below. She fired her last web shooter to the next Coil and wrapped around it's side, launching her clear as the Rhino tore its horn straight up through the belly of the now crumbling tower. She landed on the platform where the cables were, a small grin on her panting lips.
The Rhino stood up on it's back legs as Harry frantically searched for her, missile pods extending across the Mech's bulbous shoulders. Gwen leaped from bundles of wiring to the next, firing webs from one to another, looping them around each other, essentially forming a web. Peter watched from the building with pleading eyes, his heart on fire.
Gwen turned and leaped into the air to abandon her work as bullets shredded the webbing.
"Damn it!" she exclaimed, landing to perch on the side of a Tesla Coil, watching the Rhino's bulky body turn to her. Her eyes latched to the missile pod raising over it's shoulder, a puff of smoke and whistle sounding before the white tipped rocket erupted into the air, towards the lithe blonde.
Gwen leaped up into the air and fired a web to the opposite Tesla Coil, feeling the wind whistle in her ear as the Missile brushed her hair. Heat erupted up her back and a massive bang deafened her ears, as the missile shredded the Coil to sunder.
Gwen pushed her palms to the opposite Tesla Coil and immediately leaped to the next as a spray of bullets shredded the spot she had been in milliseconds before. One after another, the Tesla Coils fell into piles of ash and shattered steel. Gwen leaped and bounded from one to another beneath the moon's glow, narrowly avoiding Harry's Mech.
"Stay still, and DIE!" Harry screamed, his lips frothing, seething. He groaned in frustration and threw his HUD helmet off, disengaging the canopy so he could get fresh air and see her with his own eyes, not on a damn screen. The reinforced canopy folded back and the Horned head of the Rhino extended up above it's shoulders. Harry growled and aimed at her with his steely determination, huge Rhino arm raising to mimic his movements.
Gwen swung around Tesla Coils as a line of bullet devastation carved down them in her direction. She twirled up over the Mech and fired a web down, deep into the central workings of the Mech's servos. Gwen reeled herself down on the web to land on the back of the Mech, taking a hold of the thick ammunition belt on the back, tugging with all of her might till it split and snapped, throwing Gwen unceremoniously into the concrete.
Warning! Ammo feed is inactive. Weapons are non functional.
Harry growled at the A.I's voice and turned the Mech around to face Gwen as she stumbled to her feet. As all of his guns clicked on empty, Gwen stuck out her tongue and leaped back onto the platform to continue linking up the wires with her webbing. She had to complete the circuit! Peter could only watch on. He was in no condition to help her physically. At least he could fire up the Power Plant when she needed him to.
Harry stomped the Mech towards her, aiming the last of his missiles at her. Gwen's senses flared and she turned, leaping high into the air as a hail fire of swirling rockets squealed towards her. She weaved beautifully between the missiles, her natural curves sliding around deathly explosives. However, there was a catch. They were heat seekers. The missiles turned back towards Gwen as she dived down to Earth. Gwen fired a web out towards a nearby pile of destroyed Tesla Coil, pulling a cylindrical bundle of copper into the air. She swirled around and threw the copper into the path of the whistling missiles, causing a titanic eruption of bright fire to exhaust itself in the cool night air.
Gwen had no time to recover and crashed down into the concrete with a crack. She groaned and writhed, sitting up to the see the Rhino Mech stomping towards her. She could see Harry now. He was seething, intent on killing her. Harry tapped a few buttons on his console within the cockpit and the A.I spoke again.
Activating Electrical whip.
A huge portion of the Rhino's back plating slid apart and a wound up bundle of thick wiring connected to the right forearm of the Rhino, feeding a long cable through the paw. Soon the blackened cable lit up blue and massive sparkles of cyan and violet light crackled across the long whip as Harry flicked the Rhino's wrist.
"Huh. That's convenient." Gwen murmured with a groan as she sat up, only for Harry to whip her across the back. Gwen screamed and was flung through the air by the impact. She begged her diaphragm to loosen, to allow her to breath, but she was so winded. She sat up and saw the Rhino turn towards her.
"That hurt?" Harry cackled. "Good! Ah, I am so gonna make you bleed!" Harry grinned, whipping the earth around the Mech, massive crackles of electricity exploding across the tarmac. Gwen sat up and coughed, swiping her thumb over her bleeding lip. Clambering to her feet, still feeling the shocks of the whip rack her body, Gwen eyed him intently.
Harry swung the whip over the Rhino's head and Gwen lunged at the Mech, firing a Biocable at the undercarriage, pulling on it and sliding her back across the gravel, directly under the Mech and out the other side. Given how long it took Harry to turn the Mech around, Gwen's chance was nigh.
She finally leaped back to the platform and began to link the wires back together with her thick webbing. The Rhino turned around with heavy stomps and dragged the crackling whip across the concrete. Gwen leaped back and forth, attaching webs left, right and center.
Harry growled and swung the Rhino's arm back, throwing it forward and launching the whip at Gwen. She dodged the strike as it cut and melted a hole through the corrugated steel.
Gwen fired a web at Harry's face, coating the teen in thick webbing. Harry growled and clawed at his face, the Rhino Mech staggering without it's pilot's control. Gwen finally had two bundles of webbing in her hands and was ready to complete the circuit.
Harry tore the webbing off of his face in frustration and turned the Mech back at Gwen. He roared in uncontrollable rage and whipped her again, this time the thick electrical cable wrapping around her waist.
Despite the unbearable high voltage currently burning her suit and overcharging her nervous system, Gwen dug her heels into the platform and tried to pull the tight bundles of webbing together before her.
Harry grinned out of control, the intent to kill in his lost eyes consuming him entirely, simply fixed on keeping that whip wrapped around Gwen's waist, to keep shocking her to death. Gwen groaned and grit her teeth, slowly bringing the webbing together.
Peter watched, petrified for Gwen, as Harry's Mech kept it's arm stretched out, whip lassoed around Gwen tightly. Volts and blue crackles ripped up and down her body, but Gwen was far from giving up. She finally pulled her arms together despite the surging pain and tied them together, seeing the Biocables begin to glow red hot as electricity from the whip past between them.
"Peter now, do it NOW!" Gwen screamed. Peter nodded and threw the lever back. Suddenly all of the Tesla Coils lit up bright gold and a massive surge of energy shot through Gwen, throwing her clear of the electricity field. The whip became tangled in the webbing and the circuit was completed by Harry.
Gwen landed and tumbled across the floor, smoke and steam rising from her spasming body.
Peter watched as the brightness of the Power Plant grew and grew. Harry screamed as unfathomable amounts of energy surged down the whip and into the Rhino Mech, overloading it's circuitry, bursting bulbs and sending wailing warning alarms into overdrive.
Harry's cries and screams became jostled by the immense amount of electricity passing through his body, bursting his heart. The Rhino's arms threw outwards and jostled alongside Harry's movements, as finally the load became too much, and a massive explosion erupted from the Rhino. A shock wave tore across the Power Plant and shattered the last remaining Tesla Coils, blowing the fuses on every light switch in Manhattan.
Peter stepped back as the brightness dissipated, leaving darkness as every bulb in the city went dark, the only light being the red hot glow from the smoking Rhino Mech, and Harry's cooked body. Peter panted and watched as the Rhino listed back and forth, before finally tipping forward and landing on the tarmac with a deathly crunch, plates of warped steel peeling away, the left arm of the Mech tumbling out of it's socket and rolling across the tarmac. The body bounced from the impact, until all became deathly silent, and the dead Rhino became still again.
Peter bathed in the silence, until realization dawned on him. "Gwen!" He limped away from the console and made his way to the exit.
Finally Peter limped out and into the cold outside air, smelling putrid smoke, seeing the Rhino Mech face down, Harry's dead body within. Peter swallowed with an audible click and turned towards the sounds of low moans. "Gwen." He whispered, vaulting over sparking cables, seeing her lying face down in a pile of brick and glass
"Gwen." Peter rolled her over gently and saw her smiling weakly. Peter sighed heavily with relief. "Ah, thank god!"
"Something like that." Gwen hissed as she sat up with a wince. Peter chuckled and wrapped his arms around her sore body. Gwen groaned at the contact and Peter quickly realized, relieving the squeeze of his hug.
"Oops. Sorry." He said. Gwen smiled and winced as she sat upright, fingers occasionally twitching.
"S-Still a bit jittery." she shook her head.
"Can't say I'm surprised." Peter stroked the soot and blood off of her dirtied cheek. Gwen sunk into the embrace warmly.
"Okay. Think I'm ready for that hug now." Gwen smiled, opening her arms. Peter chuckled and sunk into her hold, hugging her back. Both of them groaned at the aching in their bodies, but they were alive, and that was all that mattered in this moment. The occasional buzz of electricity crackled through the air, making Gwen and Peter flinch, but they simply hummed and sunk back into hugging each other's warmth.
Overhead, the clap of rotors sounded, military Helicopters swarming Manhattan to begin the clean up and quarantine operation. With all of the Goblin goons dealt with, and the threat of the Ganali device null and void, extra army reinforcements had arrived in the battle damaged harbor.
"Mmm. This is nice. Well deserved." Gwen smiled against his rising chest as Peter stroked her back.
"Yeah." Peter sighed and slowly retracted out of the hug. "But it's not over." He lifted her chin. "Not yet."
"Not yet." Gwen sighed, looking at the sizzling Rhino Mech lying face down, smoldering and spitting flames from tears in the armor. Peter stood up with a groan, dusting his palms off against his blue spandex thighs. He extended his hand to Gwen and smiled. Gwen beamed back and accepted, being pulled up to stand. Both of them winced and gasped as pain wracked their bodies in sharp violent stabs.
Peter wrapped his arm around Gwen and both of them leaned against one another, lightening the burden of their pain. They both limped over to the massive Rhino carcass, smoke pouring from the deep gashes and stains. Peter licked his lips and sighed, pressing his palm to the broken steel plating.
"Sorry Harry." He blinked tearily, sniffing. "I-I'm sorry you got involved in all this. I'm sorry I killed your Dad...at least the part of him that was your Dad." Peter corrected with a mumble. Gwen hugged his side, resting her head on his shoulder. "...Rest well, buddy. No matter what, we'll always be best friends."
Gwen kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry, Peter." she played with the neck of his spandex suit. "I really am."
"I know. He was outta control. He wasn't gonna stop till either one of us was dead." Peter rubbed his tired eyes. "Urgh, why? Why Harry? He was my friend, and I failed him." Peter shrugged. Gwen sighed heavily and hugged Peter's waist tightly, pressing her forehead to his shoulder to lessen her headache.
"You didn't fail him, Peter. He failed himself." She sighed. They were both ripped from their bewail, as they heard a splutter and gasp from over in the pile of destroyed Tesla Coils. Peter and Gwen lit up and quickly limped over to the pile of rubble. "Hello?"
"G-Gwen?" They heard a voice groan from within. Peter tried to lift a segment of Copper coil, but he simply gasped in agony and instinctively clutched his side. Gwen tried too, but they were in no condition to do anything to help.
"Argh, its too heavy!" Gwen panted. Suddenly a massive reptilian hand smashed up through the pile of rubble, Gwen and Peter staggering back. The rubble shifted and rolled away as something massive pushed up from within. The Lizard reared his head and panted, greenish red blood oozing from bullet holes in his chest. Connors groaned and rolled unceremoniously out of the hole, panting, tail wrapping around his own leg to straighten it out.
"You made it!" Gwen and Peter cheered, dropping to their knees to look at the huge Lizard, panting to the floor. "Are you okay?"
"Argh...A little worse for wear...But I'll be alright." Connors licked his lizard lips and smiled. "Congratulations, you two. You did it." He sat up with a groan, huge plates of muscle writhing beneath sliding Lizard skin. "I'm sorry about Harry." Connors mumbled to Peter. He smiled sadly back. Gwen nodded and sat back next to the huge Lizard.
"Just one more thing to do." Gwen suddenly sat up with a start. "The cure! Where is it?!" Gwen cried, frantically looking around the destruction. Connors chuckled raspily and revealed his left claw, opening his palm, a glowing blue canister of liquid sloshing within. Gwen sighed heavily with relief.
"I don't think you realized that you'd dropped it earlier." Connors smirked. Gwen rolled her eyes and chuckled, taking it from his hands. "Come on, last thing to do."
"No it isn't. Not the last one." Peter said, looking off at the distance. Gwen stood beside him with a raised cut eyebrow.
"Wha?"
Peter simply looked at what he was seeing, Gwen following his line of sight, until she saw the Green Goblin limping off into the distant Manhattan, dragging his shattered heel through the tarmac.
"The last thing on the list." Peter sighed, looking at Gwen. Gwen bit her lip and nodded.
"Go do whatever you have to. Just...please...don't lower to his level. You're so much more." She kissed his cheek, turning to Connors as the Lizard limped to his feet. "We'll go launch the cure."
"What about Peter?" Connors asked, watching as Peter began to limp off. Gwen smiled lightly and turned to the Lizard.
"He's getting closure." she shrugged.
Author's Notes: The end of the Osborn family. Harry's demise will mark the end of an era for Oscorp, but also the rise of Gustav Fiers, as no one is left to challenge his rule over Oscorp and all that entails. Let me know what you think guys! I love ya, and stay tuned for more! - Dave