Hobgoblin Rises Episode Three

It was his people that did his work for him. Roderick simply used his checkbook to get them up and going. His mother although she loved and cared for him before she tragically died, never taught him to stand up for himself and never taught him to do things himself.

'I love my mother….and yet I hate her.' Roderick thought seated down and gazed at the brazier, the flames whipping and cracking. Roderick enjoyed the comfort that the fire brought him in the early afternoon.

During his times as a major player in the fashion world, he showed no sign of shame that it was his people and only his people, who were the true orchestrators of his plan. They were the ones pulling the strings. Roderick only hoped the money he gave them would be enough to sway them, to keep his people obedient. Roderick was not a man to partake in such certain action, but he was who he was. He only hoped that everything went well.

But now, the shame of not doing things himself was seeping through his mind and his shoulders as if it were an unbearable weight to hold. It was the feeling one would get before they were at a point in fainting.

Sitting beside a fireplace offering warmth, Roderick looked at the phone and bit his lip. He contemplated over the present condition and what in the past hours had happened.

He thought in his mind what was going on and took a deep breath throughout. 'My people have hacked into OsCorp. They have a list of all the assets, the numbers, the statistics, what money is going in and what money is going out. All we have to do….is change the system. They're going to have to make it seem as if OsCorp is a little under. All the money they have now won't exist….'

Roderick took a large glass of water sitting on a wooden stand and drank it all in one big gulp. His cell phone rang. He jumped up in frustration. Looking at the caller ID on the front of the phone, Roderick seethed in anxiety. Nevertheless, he answered the phone reluctantly.

"Yes?"

"Sir? Have you done the deed?"

Roderick cleared his throat and put on his strong voice. "I'm still a little wary however. I make the call from my house and you are absolutely sure….that no trace of my number will ever be detected?"

"Yes, we have told you that already sir. You're clear and safe." The caller said.

"Very well then. I'll do it." He then hung up his cell phone.

Roderick looked back at the modern phone sitting on the stand beside his chair. He scolded himself for not doing things himself but now he had to suck it up and be a man. He then picked up the phone.

'You want to take things to the next level, you have to be willing to make the next step.' He told himself over and over.


School had ended and Harry sighed in relief that the day was done. He had no idea why he was still pulling off the normal student façade. School was becoming tedious for someone so gifted and so special. His limo driver had not yet arrived and Harry stood impatiently on the school curb.

He had been talking to Rajit ever since the hallway and now that he was out on school grounds, Harry showed his frustration.

"I don't care! I want Connors found!" he shouted.

"Sir…he is irrelevant. He's not a threat to the company. He's just a timid-"

"He could plot against us." Harry whispered. "You know what he's capable of. He may know things that could try and bring our company down. I want Connors found. No more excuses."

"Alright then, sir."

Harry snapped his phone shut and looked around the school for his ride. It was still nowhere to be found.

"Oh someone's going to get more than fired, alright!" Harry said out loud.

Suddenly his phone rang and he picked it up from his pocket quickly. "I take it you're on your way, are you?"

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid your ride has been canceled, Mr. Osborn."

Harry frowned at the mysterious voice and he became perturbed. "Who the hell is this?"

"Yes, I know. You've only been in charge for a few days of your father's company for a few days and already you're already having some trouble with the limo service. Gee, why is that, I wonder?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Harry growled.

"Just someone who knows you very, very well. I know what you would do to me if you knew who I was. Despite what you've been given, Harry Osborn. You're still a pawn and you fail to see that your life is all one big game of Chess, not Checkers."

"And yet you have yet to reveal yourself to me. You're somebody that bides his time are you?"

"One that has your company in the palm of my hand." the voice said rather smugly.

"You are mistaken if you believe that."

"I don't think so. You see, I have the remote…"

"What?" Harry frowned now.

"I said I have a remote that will trigger a cataclysmic explosion inside that precious company of yours unless you give me what I want."

"What is it that you want precisely?"

"My men have hacked into your information net quite easily. Yet, I will be requiring the password to get into the company's money. I'm thinking three billion dollars would do it."

"My company can easily be rebuilt and my employees are expendable either way. So really, have your fun destroying OsCorp. We'll start anew and be better than ever." Harry said.

"Well then, if that's the case, then I would be careful who you associate with, Mr. Osborn. Especially a certain red-headed girl. I hate to see your new friend, 'Mary-Jane Watson' meet a terrible demise."

"Am I supposed to know who that girl is?" Harry said in feign innocence. He was getting dubious now.

"Do not play with me, Harry Osborn. I know who you are for a reason and I also know who you converse with. You seem to have a friendship with that girl…one that could perhaps blossom into-"

"You stay away from her!" Harry growled. "Do you hear me? You better stay the hell away from her!"

"Then do as I tell you. You give me the password and all will be fine. You have a few hours before I call. I await your decision." the phone then went dead.

"You just made a very big mistake!" Harry said as looked at the phone intensely.


Mary-Jane was not one to sit around and relax after she had been in a terrible ordeal, however bad it was. But yet, she didn't know what direction she should take next. After she had arrived at her mother's house, Mary-Jane did the only thing she could do. Get answers.

Trying to figure out who had saved her from kidnapping and who had played games with her during her time in prison, was baffling. Questions grew to more unanswered questions. Her lack of focus and coherence was due to one thing, one guy….Peter.

"My God…what have I done?" she whispered as she looked out the library window.

The very thought of him was what drove Mary-Jane to confusion. No matter how she tried, she couldn't stop thinking about him. It took an effort for her to get back to reality and turned back to the library computer database. In the search engine, she changed her search.

She had typed in: YOUNG WOMAN, IMPRISONED, BLONDE, EARLY 20s.

The parameters were once again not to her liking as the search only grew more. More links were distributed. She sighed.

"Dammit!" She whispered and nevertheless did not want to overlook anything and just scrolled down.

She stopped and backed up when she saw something that made her frown.

RUMOR OF YOUNG BLONDE PARTAKING IN ELABORATE ROBBERY

Mary-Jane clicked on the link and an analysis of the report appeared. No picture was seen unfortunately. She read the first paragraph in a whisper.

'Reports of a suspicious young woman with white hair and a skimpy, tight black outfit may have been responsible for the alleged thievery of a certain priceless artifact. The guard did not say anything else once he came to, but the description stills stands viable according to him.'

"No it can't be her." Mary-Jane frowned. "This girl's hair was blonde not white…"

Suddenly her computer froze and within a second, her computer turned to pitch black.

"What?!" Mary-Jane cried.

So did everyone else seated at the computer area. Mary-Jane could tell from the from the frustrated looks on the people's faces when they got up from their seats that their computers had turned off as well.

'Must be some kind of malfunction, I guess.' Mary-Jane thought.

Then a bulletin came on her screen. Mary-Jane bent down to see if it was whether a sign saying the power was going to be restored. But it was something different. Something Mary-Jane thought as ominous. Something that made Mary-Jane panic that she was being watched right now.

"Who the hell have I met at that prison?" she asked petrified.

"YOU'RE NOT READY TO KNOW YET, RED-HEAD! XD!" the message said. A familiar Japanese cat icon appeared below.


The office space room was very uncomfortable. The lighting bright as it was, was almost damaging to the eyes and the walls had a claustrophobic feel to them. Eddie sighed. He was not supposed to be here.

He was supposed to be with Gwen at the hospital.

'Man…I hope she's alright.' He thought solemnly.

He was called repeatedly recently from the Daily Bugle to partake in an interview. Eddie declined but eventually surrendered when he figured they wouldn't stop calling. Eddie knew they were going to talk to him about him almost being killed. That was not what Brock was looking forward to. He didn't want to remember the past. It only infuriated him.

The door opened and a man with grey sides on his strong black hair came in, wearing a serious expression. Eddie never such disappointment coming from J. Jonah Jameson before.

'Am I here to get scolded or get fired?' Eddie said trying so hard not to shake his head.

"I'll start first." Jameson said seated down.

Eddie nodded but looked away and braced himself.

"You came to my office a couple of days ago and begged me on bended knee to get coverage on the whole Octavius deal but yet I gave you something else….something that should have been easy for you to do. Because after all, that's what this entire country is focused on: Spider-Man. Did you get me the pictures?" Jameson asked sternly.

"Look, sir I tried-"

"I said: did you get the pictures!?" Jameson yelled.

"No. As you may or may not have heard, I was injured in the line of duty." Eddie said rather sarcastically. He was having enough.

Jameson was incredulous by his calm demeanor. "Oh you're being funny now? When your very job rests in my hands? It's slipping away, Brock! Why are you simply letting it?"

"I wanted to get the shots of Spider-Man and I didn't get them. OK? I was under duress. I didn't have time to get a picture of him when I know he probably let all that bad stuff happen to us?"

"How do you know that Spider-Man let the disaster happen on purpose?"

"Hey! I can hate the guy can't I?"

"Not if you have a good reason why!" Jameson said shaking his head.

"He's just….he's a freak! Most of the other freaks taken down are because of him, OK, I get the whole hero complex. But he causes more trouble too, boss, you know it and I know it. A young guy died because he was too busy probably perfecting his next save…which apparently didn't even happen in time." Brock said sardonically.

"I do know he's trouble son." Jameson sighed and rubbed his forehead. "But we need proof. The people need to know there's a side of Spider-Man that makes him reckless and dangerous."

"So what now?" Eddie said. "What the hell was the point of all this?"

"Betty's going to come down and get some details over the attack that happened that day. Get your side of things, tell what went down and anything else." Jameson said shrugging before he went on. "The point…is that until you're back in the game, you're on a temporary leave of absence."

"Are you serious?"

"I'm not laughing, Brock, that means I 'am' serious! Until you're a hundred percent physically and mentally, you're not due to be back to work until a week is done."

"But that's not fair!" Eddie shouted.

"No….having people out there like Spider-Man, the Goblin and that Octopus character is not fair. I'm here to tell you need some time off. You're not fired. You just get need to get back in the game." Jameson said the last part generously

Brock sighed. Often times, he had thought of Jameson as a father he never had. But now his patience was wearing thin over this man. "So…ask me one thing before this interview goes underway then…..am I being punished because I cared about a girl?" Brock angrily stated.


Roderick had hung up the phone and he began breathing heavily. His heart was pounding very fast. Sweat poured down his forehead. He knew he was a good actor when it came to threats but he hoped he wouldn't screw up.

'Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I hope I don't screw this up!' he thought frantically.

He paced around in his cozy, living room and tried hard to think of the positive side of this. Roderick couldn't help but feel as if he was way over his head.

Roderick took in a big gulp and stifled a cry of desperation. He wiped a tear from his face as he picked up his large black coat. He fought nerve after nerve that was holding him back from exiting his home but eventually he prevailed and went outside. The next phase was going to be a big one that Roderick had ever done. It was all up to him.

He went outside where his car was parked. The black camaro was a car he loved since he first laid eyes upon it. He was about to feel a modicum of calmness once he got inside it.

"BOOOOM!"

"AAH!" the blast sent Roderick back several inches away. Unfortunately debris flew past him without hitting him. He laid on the ground with his arms crossed to his face to avoid anymore pieces. But he slowly took them away from his face and saw to his horror, his car, his pride and joy, blown away to smithereens.

He was about to hyperventilate as he stared at the wreckage. 'What the?' he gasped loudly.

"Well, well, well!" a voice bellowed behind him.

Roderick turned around and saw a young man standing on top of a small glider floating several feet off the ground. Aside from the black suit he wore, the young man's face was more than enough to tell him who it is. It was Harry Osborn. Roderick had no words. He couldn't even form a thought. The young man was certainly dressed to kill.

"Roderick Kingsley...did you really think I wouldn't find you?"

Roderick stuttered. "What-What? How?"

"How did I find you?" Harry said amused. "You'd be surprised how 'my' people work. You'd be surprised in...how I work!" he grinned at him. The glider's weapons were locked at the ready.


Peter wasn't in the mood for much of anything heroic anymore. Today was the day he was putting 'Spider-Man' away for good. He had the suit in his backpack as he prepared to go on out. 'It's time for you to go away.' he said to the suit as he packed it up.

As he opened his front door to head on out, a surprising sight greeted him unexpectedly.

"Hi Petey!" It was Liz.

Peter didn't have time for this but he had to keep up with the formalities. "Oh hey Liz..." he frowned.

"I was just about to ring the doorbell. You have good timing."

"I was just heading out."

"Really where?"

"Uhh...library." Peter guessed.

"Right...still want to prove that geeks rule the world, huh?" Liz joked.

"Is there a reason you're here Liz, other than the obvious?" Peter said trying not to get annoyed. It was proving difficult however.

"Yeah...there's a party going on at the Inferno downtown on Saturday. It's going to be my 18th birthday, wouldn't you know? I was wondering if you could come." she smiled.

"Me? Why?"

"Well, because I want to make up for all the terrible stuff I did to you. Now I know what you're thinking that this is probably another prank or something. But to tell you the truth I actually think you're cool enough to start hanging with the popular crowd now, Petey. You got that potential."

"Well that's nice of you, Liz. But I don't know if I'm going to make it. I have to-"

"Brood? Study? Watch TV? That's no reason to live, Petey. You need to rise up. Just live life for once. Who knows? You might actually enjoy it." Liz raised an eyebrow.

Peter wanted to go visit Gwen at the hospital soon. 'I guess I'll visit Gwen some other time then.' he thought. Liz had a point and he could use the fun.

"Yeah sure."

"Alright well...i'll uh,um, I'll leave you to do your thing." she said awkwardly, clearing her throat and giving him the invitation.

"Thanks..." he said.

She then surprised him by giving him a kiss on the cheek. "See ya there, Petey!"

Peter had the urge to scratch his head in confusion as he saw Liz walking away. 'There's a lot of awkwardness going on here and I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon.'