Chapter 36

Peter lay on the couch in the apartment, flipping through his history book. On the balcony outside, Kara leaned against the railing and looked over the city. Korra carried two cups of hot chocolate out onto the balcony, giving one cup to Kara. As she too leaned against the railing, Peter wondered how either of them could stand to be outside in the mid winter with just their school uniforms.

"So, I want to say thanks for helping me these last two weeks." Korra said, "To, you know...accept this place as my own. If it weren't for you keeping my mind on other things, coming with me to on my 'charity runs', and helping me with this mountain of homework...well I think I might have broken down."

"And getting on your nerves, you can't forget that part." Kara said, "One of the best ways to keep your mind from being all sad was to get you slightly irritated with me."

"I knew you were doing that on purpose." Korra said before she took a sip of her drink. The wind picked up for a few seconds, prompting the Avatar to move in tighter to the Girl of Steel. "I don't suppose it ever gets easier, does it?"

"Not really." Kara said, "It's been over a year, and I still find myself wondering what my parents would think if they saw me doing what I'm doing." she took a sip of her hot chocolate. "But before we get away from the subject of me getting on your nerves, I'd like to return to the topic of you dating Peter."

"Oh, not now...please." Korra said, "I'm happy just the way things are, I don't want to ruin them."

"You wouldn't ruin them. At most you'd make things awkward for a while."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." Korra said, "The last guy I dated, I ended up in a huge jealousy thing because he started cheating on me with Asami. I don't want to go after another guy if you like him to."

"But you and Asami ended up as friends." Kara said, "And we already are friends, and I'm the one pushing you to go after him, so there's no problem really."

"Yeah, but you can't deny that it will make thing's awkward." Korra said, "You might not notice it, but sometimes you get a little...different around Peter."

"Well yeah, he makes me laugh." Kara said.

"That's not the only thing." Korra said, "Can you honestly say that you don't hope he asks you out? So that you could have him all to yourself every now and then."

"I...I don't know..."

"See? Things might get weird with us, and I don't want that." Korra locked her arm around Kara's and pulled in a bit tighter, "We're friends now, and that's all I need. Maybe in the future I'll want something different, but for now lets enjoy what we've got."

"Alright." Kara said softly. She rested her cheek on the Avatar's shoulder.

Inside the apartment, Peter watched both girls. It gave him a feeling of warmth to see Korra happy again, even if it wasn't him who was directly making her smile. He had the urge to make a joke about how close they were standing, telling them to 'Get a room,' but he withheld it. They were having a moment, and he wasn't going to interrupt it.

A siren blared in the city below. The girls perked up, and Peter's eyes widened. He tossed his book aside and grabbed his boots, gloves and web shooters. "I got it! I got it!" he said, pulling on his mask as he stumbled onto the balcony. "No need to interrupt what you're doing, I'll get that." pulling his gloves over his hands and web shooters, he hopped up and sat on the railing.

"I think it's just a fire in Harlem." Kara said.

"Then it shouldn't take too long. See ya." he leaned backwards and fell while still pulling up his boots.

The girls exchanged sideways glances and smirked at each other.

Less than an hour later, Spidey returned to the apartment smelling of smoke and ash. Only Supergirl awaited him in the living room.

The Wall Crawler began pulling off parts of his costume as he made his way to his room. "I thought you were going with Korra to whatever charity of the week she chose to benefit this time."

"We are, but since I can get there in under sixty seconds, I told her to go ahead." Supergirl leaned against Peter's open door as he began to fish out fresh clothes. "I...also, kinda...wanted to talk to you about something."

"Okay, what's on your mind?"

"Uh..." Kara's eyes moved around the floor as she tried to figure out the words she thought for certain she had just a few moments ago. "How do you feel about Korra?"

Peter set his clothes down on his bed and looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...what do you think of her as...more than just a friend?"

"I..." Try as he might, there was no hiding his quickened heartbeat and tensed muscles from someone with super senses. "Er, I, uh..., well I mean she's a good friend and, its, like...what, why are we talking about this? If this is about the time we kissed, it was only because of those weird chemicals messing with us."

"No, it's just, I think you and her would make a good couple." Kara said with a smile, "And I can't convince her to ask you out, so I'm tackling the problem from the other end."

His eyes widened slightly. "You mean she...with..." he broke out in a grin, but quickly wiped it away, "Wait, no. No, no, no. That's a bad idea. Korra's pretty and fun to be around and I...well, the point is inner-team relationships are usually a bad idea. I've read a few articles about this, and I've seen it in action a number of times. The Avengers have lost several members because of an especially sour breakup."

"But, you're assuming that you will breakup." Kara said, "But what if you wont? I think you two would be really happy together."

"Yeah, well very few relationships start out with both parties thinking things will end badly, but often they still manage to." Peter said, "We're friends now. And things are going pretty good for us. I wouldn't change anything unless it was to make either of you happy."

"And that's exactly what I'm trying to do! Make you guys happy!"

"Let me rephrase that. I wouldn't change anything unless it was negatively affecting you guys, and the desired effect of changing it would be an increase in joy for all parties, super villains excluded."

Supergirl's shoulder's drooped as she huffed.

"Look Kara, I appreciate you trying to make us happy and all, but as best I can tell, we are happy." Peter said, "So there's...nothing to be concerned about."

"Alright..." solemnly, she floated to the window, then stood for a moment before turning around, "But answer me this. Do you think, however briefly, that dating Korra would make you happier than you are right now?"

"Uh..." Peter put his hand on the back of his neck, "Yeah, it would."

At that, Supergirl opened the glass door to the balcony and flew off.

Both Korra and Supergirl stood in front of a Red Cross food drive with boxes of canned food. Korra set her two boxes down, then hopped up on Supergirl's shoulder's to get to the top of the fourteen boxes she carried.

"I...this is quite unexpected." said a man in his fifties taking inventory of the food, "I wasn't aware that you heroes made a profit off of what you do."

"We don't." Korra jumped down and set down another box of cans, "But we have a monthly...allowance, for lack of a better word, from Tony Stark. He gives us more than enough to live on, so we're donating the excess to this cause."

"More than enough for you to live off of..." Supergirl muttered.

"What?" Korra asked as she set down another pair of boxes.

"Oh, nothing, just saying goodbye to my taco money...and my pizza money...and ice cream money."

"I told you you didn't have to give up your share if you didn't want to." Korra said.

"No, no. You want to do this charity stuff, and I'm your friend, so I'm doing it with you." Supergirl said.

Korra took her by the shoulders, "You're the best friend a girl without her world could ask for." she pulled Kara into a hug.

"I know." Supergirl said, "Besides, it's not like I need to eat, like, a million calories a day to fuel my powers or anything."

"A million?" the man taking inventory asked exasperatedly.

"She's exaggerating." Korra said, pulling out of the hug, "But she does need to eat a lot to keep her strength up, right?"

Supergirl had her head tilted upwards slightly.

"You hear something girl?" Korra asked, putting her hands on her knees like she was talking their puppy, King, "What is it? What is it girl? Someone stuck in a well?"

"No, it's a rocket engine." Supergirl said, her eyes widened slightly, "It sounds like the same one that fake Goblin was using."

Wind rushed by as Peter fell story after story. Frantic, he struggled to pull on the one web shooter he had managed to grab. His spider sense had woken him up from the middle of a nap just in time for the glass to the balcony door in the apartment to burst inward. Before he could get both web shooters, or any part of his costume, someone had grabbed him by the back of the shirt and thrown him out of the building.

When he secured the one web shooter on his wrist, he fired a stand of web and swung. With so much momentum and little time to see where he was aiming, Peter crashed onto the roof of a building, bouncing and rolling across it.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Peter hopped up as the glider circled lower, leaving a smoke trail behind it. Rage filled him as it had when he had confronted the fake Goblin the time he had been captured and mind controlled to wear the symbiote. He had to concentrate to resist the urge to jump on the glider and tear it's rider to pieces.

"Peter, I know I should have scheduled an appointment, but I just couldn't wait to see my old...friend."

He froze in fear when he saw the rider in full goblin armor, but without mask or helmet to hide his face. "Harry?" Peter whispered.

"Surprised?" the glider leveled out and descended to be nearly level with the costume-less Spider-man. "I did try to keep it all a secret for so long. Like to think I did a better job than you did at keeping my secret. I've known about your 'secret identity' for quite some time."

"H-Harry...what are you doing?" Peter asked.

"Well, I haven't heard from my associates after you took out Doom." Harry said, a sadistic smile on his face, "So I decided to take matters into my own hands."

"Y-you were working with Mojo?" Peter asked, "You've been helping him harass me and my friends?"

"Oh yes. I wasn't involved in bringing those two girls here, but when he offered me a chance at revenge...I couldn't resist." Harry said, "Speaking of the ladies..."

The red streak of Supergirl rapidly closed in, the Avatar following behind as fast as she could. "Wait! Hold on!" Peter waived his hands at the Girl of Steel. Looking at Harry's wide, dilated eyes, he couldn't tell if he had any sort of plan to take out the girls or if the serum had put him in a mad frenzy, but he wasn't going to risk it.

Supergirl slowed to a stop fifteen feet away from the roof. "Peter, what's going on?" she asked.

"I don't know, but stay out of it." he said, "This is my fight, let me handle it."

"Ooh, such the chauvinistic hero!" Harry said, "But little Spidey's forgotten he only has one web shooter." he pulled out three small jack-o-lanterns. Their eyes lit up and they began to smoke. "But I've got plenty of these."

With his battles against the Green Goblin and Hobgoblin over the years, redirecting and returning the incoming pumpkin bombs had become child's play. As he moved into position though, he hesitated, remembering that Harry wasn't in his right mind. He covered his face as the heat of the explosions surrounded him. Spider-sense flared up, and he jumped in the air as the glider passed underneath of him with a glint of steal shining out.

"Maybe you remember these blades," Harry pointed to the front of the glider where two foot long blades protruded from the glider, "They're the same ones you used to kill my father!"

"I didn't kill your dad Harry! He-"

"YES YOU DID!" he shouted, "You were like the son he always wanted...the brother I always wanted...and you killed him! Betrayed my family!" He charged the glider forward, and Peter jumped up and grabbed Harry's shoulder's and placed his feet on the glider. Korra arrived just as the fight shot upwards.

"I didn't kill him!" Peter shouted, "God help me, sometimes I wish I did, but I didn't! He was the Green Goblin, Harry! How can you defend him! HE MURDERED GWEN!"

The glider evened out and they streaked through the sky, Korra and Supergirl following behind.

"No he didn't!" Harry said, "I saw the coronary report. Her neck snapped when you caught her. YOU KILLED HER!"

In a flash, Peter's hands were around Harry's neck. "NO! I didn't! I didn't mean to! That's not what happened!" He barely felt Harry's punches and kicks as his grip became tighter and tighter, "I didn't want any of this!"

Their bodies were thrown about as they crashed onto the flat roof of the MetLife building. Peter got to his feet and closed on Harry, but caught himself when he noticed his friend coughing and choking. In his anger he was about to hurt Harry. Maybe bad enough that he wouldn't recover.

"Harry, I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Oh I think you did." Harry spat. He paused for a moment to cough, "You won't be satisfied until *cough* until the Osborn name is nothing *cough* but mud."

"That's not..."

"Where were you!" Harry yelled, "You think you were the only one that cared about Gwen!" he coughed a few more times, "I lost a friend...and a father...and you were nowhere to be found. I needed you...but you chose to hate me as much as Norman."

"Harry, I never hated you."

"Liar! You abandoned me! Left me to the wolves of the media and the board of directors that wanted to take my father's company."

"I'm sorry Harry...I-I couldn't...I was just..."

"Oh, but you have plenty of time for your new friends." Harry raised the bag of bombs bombs overhead.

"Harry, please don't do this!" Peter pleaded, "That Goblin serum is messing with you. Just calm down and we'll talk this out like-"

"I hope they know who you really are! You're there for them when life is easy, but when life gets tough, you think you're the only one that matters." the bag began to let out smoke. "Well life's tough now Pete, so show these girls your true color and run away, leave me to-"

Peter was in the process of aiming his web shooter, but never got the chance. Supergirl dashed in and ripper the bag loose. Before Harry could react, Korra had swept his legs with air bending. The bombs were thrown up into the outer atmosphere before they detonated. Before Harry could get up, Peter webbed him to the roof. Frothing at the mouth, Harry violently jerked back and forth trying to get free.

"I'll kill you Peter! I know who you are, and I'll never stop! I'll kill you! I'll kill those girls! Your Aunt! Everyone you care about!"

Peter got on his knees and leaned over his friend. "I don't believe you Harry. You are not your father, you're a good person. This formula is messing with you, but I'm going to get you help."

Harry relaxed and gasped for breath. He stared up at Peter, eyes full of hate, but suddenly he blinked rapidly like he was having an epileptic spell. "Peter..." he said weakly, "Peter, whater...what are you...doing here?" his eyes rolled upwards and he lost consciousness. Peter squeezed the bridge of his nose as he thought.

"What...what was that?" Korra asked.

"That wasn't Harry. It was the serum. The...manifestations of all his aggression amplified." Peter stood and stared blankly in between both girls, "The police...they'll take him to someone that can help...can you guys...I need to get out of here, I...don't have my mask."

"Sure Pete, we got this." Korra said, "But...you know it's not true, right?"

"Yeah, you're a great friend." Supergirl said, "We'd be lost without you. This is just...this isn't your fault." Both girls moved towards him, but he took off towards the edge of the building.

"Thanks guys..." he fell forward and web swung away.

So back to the action again, and moving the plot forward. Mojo may not be meddling with their affairs directly, but rest assured he has a few more tricks up his sleeves, as do the other Marvel villains.

Anyway, I had it pointed out that I was neglecting to clearly define scene transitions with a line break, I copy and past from a Word document. Fixed it this time, and I'll try to keep on it in the future. if you have any other suggestions for me, feel free to let me know.

Next update I'll have something that I hope you'll really like ;)