The next day, Spider-Man swung through Manhattan skyline on the hunt. He could detect that there was movement on the Spider-Tracer that Venom had planted on the pumpkin bomb. The stronger the signal got, the bigger the pit in Spidey's stomach got.
He wasn't sure if he was ready to fight another Goblin. He was eager to leave that part of his past behind him permanently. However, it seemed that fate wouldn't let dead Goblins lie.
The eyewitness reports on Ryker's Island confirmed it. There was another one on the loose. The guards seemed absolutely frazzled by his appearance. Not that they got a great look at him, but it was clear that he wasn't like the previous Green Goblins. Indeed, they all reported an orange and blue clad man flying around on the glider rather than someone in green and purple.
Not to mention, it seemed like he was only interested in one prisoner. That prisoner? Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio. Mysterio teaming up with someone who had all of the Green Goblin's weaponry? Not something he liked to imagine.
Spidey could feel the signal's strength hit it's apex, just as he swung over a white beat-up van. Peter cocked his head as he thought, "That van looks awfully familiar...where have I seen it before?"
He snapped his fingers as he then remembered, "Eureka! It was in traffic last week! Looks like it was my Spider-Sense that went off!"
Spidey landed atop the van on all-fours with a loud THUD. It seemed that it was just in-time too, as the van suddenly swerved off the road and into a backalley. Looks like it was either after something, or whoever was driving realized that Spider-Man had just showed up.
Watching from a nearby skyscraper was the Hobgoblin. In his hands, he held a remote control and binoculars. Not just any binoculars, it was a very technical looking set of them with a green visor in the front. Using them, he could see quite a distance away.
He observed Spider-Man crawling atop the van with a smarmy smirk forming on his rubbery face. He lightly chuckled to himself as he said, "Heheheh, it seems he's fallen for my trap. As if I wouldn't notice that Spider-Tracer on one of the bombs."
With the flick of a switch on the controller, the van exploded in a massive firebomb that completely consumed the alleyway it was contained in. Hobgoblin cackled heartily, leaning back with his hands at his hips.
"Yes! Yes! Spider-Man dead with a mere flick of a switch! Unbelievable! To think, I didn't even have to lift a finger to be rid of such a nuisance. Osborn spent years of his life and died in the pursuit of Spidey's death. I, however, did it without him even knowing my name!"
As the Hobgoblin triumphantly bragged, Spider-Man leapt up above Hobgoblin as he quipped, "That was so rude of you! The least you could do is introduce yourself!"
"What?! You're supposed to be dead!"
"Did you really think it'd be so simple?" the webslinger sarcastically asked as he kicked Hobgoblin in the face, "Now, I don't know who you are, but I'll tell you that costume is in really bad taste!"
Hobgoblin collapsed onto the floor, the wind completely knocked out of him. He heaved heavily, struggling to pull himself back up. He knew Spider-Man would hit hard, but it didn't occur to him just how much strength one punch would contain.
He clenched his fist, bared his teeth, and shot a finger blast at Spidey as he growled, "Fool! You are only delaying the inevitable!"
Spidey leapt above the finger blast as if it were second nature. Not only was he strong, he was fast.
"That so? Doesn't seem so inevitable to me, ugly! Now come on, tell me your name at least!"
Hobgoblin stood back up, crouched over in pain. He snarled, "I'm the Hobgoblin!"
"Hobgoblin? Doesn't have quite the same ring to it as the Green Goblin. Could really use some alliteration," Spidey joked. It looked like that he had himself worked up over nothing. This new goblin was a chump, all talk and no show.
However, Hobgoblin had more up his sleeve than he first let on. He motioned his arm forward and his glider flew in on command. He clumsily leapt up onto it and his feet latched onto it, as if magnetically. Further maximizing his stability, he slid his feet into the bars on the glider. All in all, it was quite an impressive looking upgrade to the classic glider.
That wasn't all, though. The mouth on the horned demon head in the front slid open, revealing a missile launcher. Hobgoblin pointed down at Spidey, a pumpkin faced missile shooting out right at him. Spidey front flipped above it, shot a web strand at it, and redirected it back at Hobgoblin. He continued running after Hobby's glider.
Hobgoblin swerved to the side, narrowly avoiding it. The missile turned back around and redirected itself back to the wallcrawler.
Spidey once again avoided it by diving out of the way. The missile blew a hole in the roof, exposing the apartment within. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hobgoblin threw a pumpkin bomb at the hole to distract Spidey.
Spider-Man shot a massive web net, covering the hole. The bomb safely landed on the net, not going off. Spidey ran over the web, grabbing the bomb as he did. He gave a two finger salute down to the screaming man in there and yelled, "Sorry!" Just afterwards, he muttered to himself, "Would hate to be that guy. His landlord is NOT gonna be happy."
The webspinner leapt up in the air, giving Hobgoblin chase. Hobgoblin turned his head back, seeing that Spidey was still holding the pumpkin bomb. Hobby clenched his fist, activating a remote trigger in his glove that caused the bomb to explode.
Spidey threw the bomb just before it blew up, but he was still caught in the explosion. His webline snapped and he went tumbling to the ground. Before he could even shoot out another webline, a set of five razorbats came at him. Spidey was utterly swarmed, the sharpened edges of the bats cutting him all over. He crashed onto the sidewalk.
Everything went blurry as the blaring sound of nearby car alarms overwhelmed him. He laid there for a solid minute, a crowd gathering around him. He looked to one of the men in the crowd, who was pointing at him and saying, "You got what was coming to ya, menace!"
Another man said, "Hey! Don't listen to that jerk. Y'need any help up?"
Spidey shook his head, although it was unclear if he was saying no or if he was still delirious. He gripped his head, getting back up with a groan.
"Is this crowd forming over little ol' me?" he jokingly asked. "I'm such a celebrity."
A woman stormed through the mob with a sour look in her face as she said, "J. Jonah Jameson was right about you, y'know."
Spidey laughed, "Well, a broken clock IS right twice a day. Not in this case, but I'm sure if you looked hard enough..."
With that, he departed from the circling flock of people by shooting a webline up a nearby building and swinging away. He left to the confusing sounds of boos and cheering. Though, the cheers were slightly drowned out by the jeers he was receiving.
"Sounds about right," he said under his breath as he swung away.
"Looks like I've completely lost track of the Hobgoblin. Not that I'd say this to his nasty face, but I gotta give him props. Despite his lack of strength, he's clever. That van trick woulda made me an extra crispy Spider-Man if it weren't for my trusty Spider-Sense. He has all kinds of tricks too."
Meanwhile, Hobgoblin flew back towards the Village Theater. While he was already there, he only took that one pumpkin bomb to set the trap. After all, he wasn't interested in what trinkets Osborn's old caches might have to offer by this point. He had just about everything he needed. What he was truly after was the Goblin formula. It simply HAD to exist somewhere. He searched the entire night through all of Osborn's journals and found nothing. He browsed all of the schemetics, still nothing. He was getting desperate.
He needed it more than ever since he now knew what it was like to face off against Spider-Man. It felt like he had run a very long marathon. Even with his arsenal, he had no chance of actually defeating Spider-Man without the physical strength to back him up.
He landed on the roof of the theater. Running his hands across the winding air ducts, he found slight raise on the surface. Pressing his hand against it, a secret hatch opened on the floor. He dropped down inside. With Spider-Man off his trail, he'd finally be able to take his time without worry.
Carefully sidestepping the glass still littering the ground, he made his way to a section of cabinets in the wall. It seemed that they were all locked. Not that it mattered. Some finger blasts later and the doors were cleared away. He dug through all of the papers that were contained within. Nothing of interest. Just the same blueprints that he had seen many times before.
That was until he found it. After sorting through dozens and dozens of papers, he found the notes that contained the formula. Oddly enough, the formula wasn't in Osborn's handwriting. It looked like that these notes were stolen from someone else.
Hobgoblin shook his head as he blithely said, "Stealing notes, Norman? For shame, for shame." He pocketed the paper into the satchel hanging around his hip. Now that he had what he needed, he shot another finger blast at the glass display of pumpkin bombs. It went off, leading to a chain reaction. With time running out, Hobby charged out the back exit. Calling his glider forth, he hopped onto it and flew away.
He escaped just in time too, as the building caught fire soon after. Dozens upon dozens of explosions were emanating from within. Eventually, the internal combustions reached the outside. Debris went flying in all directions. It wasn't enough to cause the building's stability to be compromised, at least.
Coming into the area mere minutes later was Spider-Man, who was obviously chasing after the loud noises. He saw people evacuating the now burning building. It was clear that this was the work of the Hobgoblin. Wherever he disappeared to, he was long gone by this point. Still, Spidey could do his best to make sure that nobody was hurt in the chaos.
He swung into one of the windows. The heat was already all consuming on the outside, but on the inside? It was sweltering. He felt like he could melt it felt so hot. He called out, "Anybody in here?!"
Thankfully, he didn't hear anything. It looked like that if there was anybody inside, they had already gotten out. He dived back out and swung onto the building across the street as the theater burned. He watched it go up in smoke with that pit in his stomach returning. A sense of dread overtook him, one that wasn't lessened even as the firetrucks arrived to put out the flames.
"Nobody got hurt this time," he thought, "but there's no guarantee of that next time. A prison break yesterday and some arson today, this Hobgoblin means business."
Back at the apartment, Tomoko was lazing around on the sofa. Which wasn't too unusual for her. Her gaze turned to the window. She thought, "[Such a lovely day today. I should take advantage and go somewhere.]"
She shrugged, turning over to the TV instead. She actually hadn't really watched it in her time here, not knowing any of the channels or what aired. Not that she didn't really used the TV at home either. Unless it was to watch some Blu-Rays. However, Peter didn't even have a Blu-Ray player. All he had was a DVD player. So, that was out of the cards.
She grabbed the remote off of the table and turned it on. To her surprise, she saw Eddie Brock on it. It looked like he was heading up a hill leading towards a gated facility. It was a gothic looking establishment, straight out of some kind of horror anime.
"Eyebrows guy has his own TV show?!" Tomoko asked aloud.
Eddie waved at the camera, while also motioning for person behind it to follow him, "So, we're here at the Ravencroft Institute for the Mentally Insane. I've been given a chance by the Daily Globe to interview infamous serial killer, Cletus Kasady. This is SUCH a-"
Tomoko changed the channel after that with a tired expression on her face, "Ugh, boring."
She surfed the channels, looking for SOMETHING to stave off the boredom. There simply wasn't much of interest. Yawning, she turned off the TV and turned to her phone. She browsed the internet for a couple minutes, but it wasn't enough to keep her distracted for long.
For a second, she longed for some excitement. Then she remembered just what excitement around here often meant. This was certainly preferable to being kidnapped by some freaky monster, so perhaps it wasn't so bad.
She stood up from the sofa, stretching her limbs. She looked around the apartment for anything of interest. There wasn't much that caught her eye. That was, until she saw a small container sitting atop a shelf on the wall. She sauntered over to it and checked out what was inside. What she found inside was a big stack of photos.
Tomoko dragged the container back to sofa and sat down to look at them. The first image she saw was of J. Jonah Jameson yelling and getting spit all over the place. She actually recognized where this picture came from, it was at that banquet hall where she met that rock monster and the unpleasantly loud man in the picture. She chuckled to herself as she went through some of the other photos.
One that drew her eye in particular was a picture of Spider-Man fighting what appeared to be a giant man in a rhino costume in the middle of an intersection.
"Furry convention must've got out of hand," Tomoko joked to herself.
A bit of laughter leaked out as she continued, "Hehehe, he must've been real horny."
At that moment, someone else spoke up, "That joke really pisses him off."
Tomoko looked up at the ceiling, the direction in which the voice came from. She saw Spidey above her. She gripped her chest and huddled up next to the arm of the chair. Then she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, "Are you trying to scare me?!"
"Well, maybe not intentionally," Spidey replied as the pillow bounced off of him.
He dropped down from the ceiling, landing on the sofa next to her.
"You're not mad at me, are you?"
Tomoko slugged him on the shoulder, "Don't you ever use the door?"
"I would if Mr. Ditkovich and Ms. Muggins weren't hounding me for rent as soon as I walked in through the door."
He removed his mask, revealing a cheeky smirk on his face. Now that he was close, Tomoko could see that his costume was covered in black scorch marks.
"What happened to you?"
"I came across the Hobgoblin."
Tomoko cocked her head, "Hobgoblin? Isn't that when you take your di-"
"Nooooooo!" Peter interrupted while waving his hands and shaking his head. "I don't know where you were going with that, and I almost don't want to know, but it isn't. Just a new costumed crook running around causing trouble."
"How many of those do you have to deal with?"
Peter started counting on his fingers. Eventually he ran out of fingers and just shrugged, "A lot."
Tomoko went through more photos, pausing when she saw a picture of Spider-Man with six arms fighting some kind of freaky looking guy with long black hair, big red eyes, and an upturned nose. Like some kind of vampire. But, that couldn't be right. Could it?
She turned to him with a puzzled look on her face.
"No, I don't have six arms anymore. I'm not hiding them. You've seen me almost naked, how could I hide them?"
Then she pointed up to the vampire-looking man with a worried expression.
"Yes, that's a vampire. Well, he's not exactly a vampire. He drinks blood, but like, he's not undead. He's a living vampire."
"You've fought a vampire?!"
"He's a living vampire!"
Tomoko shook her head, her eyes bugging out and her teeth gritted, "Vampires exist?! That's scary!"
"Nooo," Peter clarified, "they don't. He wasn't made by supernatural means, he was made with science."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?!"
"I hoped it would."
Tomoko took a deep breath, recomposing herself. Then she asked, "How did the six arms thing happen?"
"I wanted to quit being Spider-Man. Made a serum in an attempt to remove my powers. It uhhhh, instead gave me four extra arms."
Tomoko's head shot over to him, utterly confused. "You're smart enough to make a serum that gives you extra limbs? I can't even get a B in chemistry..."
"I mean, to be fair, I wasn't trying to make a serum that gives me limbs."
"...did you grow any other extra appendages?"
Peter's head slowly cranked over to her with an incredulous look on his face while folding his arms.
Tomoko blushed as she quickly tried to steer the direction of the conversation in a way that wasn't perverted, "Ahhh! N-not like th-that! I-I mean l-like, e-e-extra l-legs."
"Do you see any extra legs in the picture?"
"N-no."
"Then what do you think?"
"But, what about fingers?"
Peter sighed, snatching the picture from her hands and then bringing it closely to her face, "Do you see any extra fingers?"
"...toes?"
Peter just put the picture back in the container, "I did NOT grow anything else besides extra arms."
Tomoko looked at another picture, this one with some kind of monster. At least, it looked like a monster. It had green scales lining its limbs, a baggy purple leotard with a belt, a matching purple floppy hat, pointed ears at the side of the hat, and a mischevious grin. Most striking of all were it's piercing yellow eyes with small, deranged pupils. Tomoko had to double take just looking at it. She wasn't sure if it was ridiculous or scary looking.
"Who is this?" she asked.
Peter answered, his voice shifting to a more melancholy tone, "That's the Green Goblin." Not wanting to drag the mood down, he then added, "Hard to believe that's a costume, right?"
"Th-that's a c-costume?!" Tomoko asked, astonished.
Peter didn't say a word, he just nodded.
"It looks so real. Hey, wait! You said you encountered another one today. How many goblins have you fought so far?"
Peter held his hand up with two fingers, "Just two so far. Well, technically three if you count the two different Green Goblins."
"Why would they choose goblin, anyway? That's such a niche choice for a supervillain. If I were a villain I'd be like, uhhh...not a goblin, at least."
Tomoko pondered her hypothetical options as she leaned back in her seat. She could go with a witch theme. That might suit her looks. Then again, that would lean HEAVILY towards goblin so that'd be pretty hypocritical. Oh! There was that one scary movie she saw with that creepy pale skinned girl who crawled out of TVs. She could adopt a look like that. Then again, it would be hard to fight a hero with that long hair constantly in your face. That one not-vampire guy she saw had pale skin, long hair, and dark circles under his eyes like her. Maybe she could be a vampire themed villain? Nah, that'd be derivative. Then again, there's multiple goblins running around so it looks like blatant unoriginality isn't so bad. Either way, coming up with a gimmick was a lot harder than she thought it would be.
"Never thought about it. Green Goblin's weird, but it's nowhere near as weird as some of my other villains. Just wait until you see the guy with the fishbowl for a head."
"A what?"
Peter dug through the stack of photos, until he found one of the man he was thinking of. It took awhile, but he eventually found a picture of him. He handed it to her.
Tomoko held the picture very close, studying it intently. Slowly, her face expressed more and more confusion of just what it was she was looking at. His costume was a mess. There was the fishbowl head, but there was also the billowing purple cape with a swirly pattern lining. His main costume was just a green spandex onesie with a gridline pattern. His golden gloves were incredibly ornamental, almost resembling lanterns of some sort. Most baffling of all were the eyeball clasps on his cape.
She was speechless. Words tried to escape her, but she had nothing. Absolutely nothing.
"His name's Mysterio, by the way," Peter added.
Tomoko dropped the photo onto the carpet, "Is he some kind of alien?"
Again, Peter didn't say a word as he nodded. Obviously, he knew Mysterio wasn't an alien, but this was too funny not to at least keep going for a little bit longer.
Tomoko gripped her head as she began freaking out, "Aliens exist?!"
Peter stifled his laughter as he corrected her, "He's not an alien, I was only joking. He's just a washed up stuntman and movie effects guy, if you can believe it."
Inwardly, he thought, "They must not have Skrulls in Japan. Or if they do, they must be really good at hiding."
Tomoko scowled, "Why did you do that?"
"Because I thought it'd be funny. It was. Anyway, they do still exist. That Venom guy's suit is an alien, y'know."
"Oh."
Tomoko folded her hands, her gaze redirecting to the floor. It shouldn't be surprising given all that she's encountered in her time here, but it was.
Peter, meanwhile, bent over to pick up the picture and put it back in the container. Afterwards, he stood up, "I'm heading to the Bugle to turn in some pics so I can pay the rent."
As he walked away from the sofa, he turned back and then pointed at her, "You're coming with."
Tomoko shot up in her seat, "Huh?! Why would I ever want to go with you there?"
"You need to get out more. All you do is sit in the apartment. There's so many great sights to see. Albeit, the Daily Bugle isn't one of them...but, hey. It's something."
She groaned, craning her neck back in tired frustration. She stood up and entered the bathroom to get changed into something more presentable. Peter packed his civilian clothes into a backpack and slung it over his shoulder. He slid his mask over his face.
Tomoko stepped out of the bathroom in a casual set of clothes. Spidey shot out a strand of web to her and yanked her over to him, "Ready to take a ride, pretty lady?"
A wobbly smile took shape on her face as she meekly nodded. With that, Spidey gripped her tight as he went out the window and swung off towards the Bugle.
This was the second time Peter took her swinging. This time was under less strenuous circumstances, so now Tomoko could just take it all in. It was still so exhilirating, even the second time around. It didn't take them very long at all to arrive at their destination.
Peter landed on the roof of a building just near the Daily Bugle and set Tomoko down. He unzipped the bag and started putting on his regular clothes over his costume. He had put it on in about half a minute.
He grabbed her by the hand, pulled her in close, and they dropped down to a nearby alleyway. Tomoko resisted every urge to scream as they dropped. Peter landed on his two feet, not much worse for wear.
Again, he set her down, but still held her hand. They walked out the alleyway and headed for the Bugle. It was a rather tall building. Eyecatching too, since it had the giant letters at the top that read, "DAILY BUGLE."
They walked inside and took an elevator to the top floor. When the elevator door opened, the aroma of newsprint mixed with coffee and smoke hit instantly. Greeting them as soon as they stepped was a pleasant looking man with a big smile on his face. He had dark skin and short white hair.
"Hey, Pete," the man said. "I see you've got a friend with you today."
"Robbie!" Peter enthusiastically greeted. "That's right, this is my roommate. I told you about her, right?"
"You did."
Robbie looked to Tomoko, "Nice to finally meet you. I'm Robbie Robertson.
"T-Tomoko," she quietly introduced.
"You're a very lucky girl, it doesn't get much nicer than Peter over here." He then added in a slightly more hushed tone, "That is, if he's on-time." After that, he winked.
"I heard that!" Peter said in a joking tone.
Robbie laughed, "Sorry, Pete. Anyway, I take it you have photos for Mr. Jameson?"
"Right you are, Robbie. Where can I find ol' grim n' gruesome, anyway?"
Robbie pointed over to Jameson's office, "Same place as usual. Hope you aren't just gonna barge in like you did last week. You don't want to be chewed out like last time, do you?"
"Naaaah. I'll have Betty let him know I'm coming this time. Thanks, Robbie!"
Robbie shot him a thumbs up as he and Tomoko walked over to the door to Jameson's office. As per usual, muffled yelling could be heard on the other end. It sounded like he was on the phone with someone.
Sitting at a desk was Betty Brant, recognizable by her brunette bowlcut.
"Betty," Peter began, "could you let Mr. Jameson know I'm coming into his office?"
Betty nodded, hitting a button her microphone. A loud buzz resonated in Jameson's office. She grabbed the mic and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Jameson, but Peter Parker has pictures for you."
Betty turned back to him, "Alright, you should be good to go. Good idea letting him know first; you wouldn't want a repeat of last week. By the way, who's your friend?"
"This is my new roommate. You know, the one I told you about. The exchange student."
"Ahh, yes, of course. It's very nice of you to take someone in like that, by the way."
"It's not that a big deal. Besides, it means I'm paying less rent."
Betty looked over to Tomoko and asked, "What's your name, sweetie?"
"T-T-Tomoko," she answered.
"Aww, you don't have to be shy around me. Hear you've been dating Peter. Hah! Good luck with that one, sister."
"Aheheh, wha-what's that sup-p-pposed to mean?"
Betty chuckled to herself, "I dated him once. He's a good man, but he's so flaky too."
"[How many people has he dated?! I didn't think he was such a stud!]" - Tomoko thought, baffled.
"Mmm, I'm sure you'll do fine," Betty reassured.
Peter, meanwhile, had stepped into Jameson's office alone. Jameson banged on his desk, "I haven't got all day, Parker! Where're the pics?"
Peter handed Jameson a set of photos. They were all of Spider-Man fighting the Hobgoblin.
Jameson looked over the photos, but only briefly. He tossed one down onto the ground in disdain but kept the others. "I've give you $300 for the lot," Jameson offered.
"$300? Mr. Jameson, it took a lot of work and danger to get pics like these. You couldn't get them just from anybody. How about $600?"
Jameson looked up at him with his lips curled up into a frown. His brows furrowed as he said, "$500 and that's my final offer."
Peter said, "That works for me," as he thought, "Knew I'd get $500 if I overshot my offer."
Jameson handed him the money as he slid the photos into a drawer on his desk. "Crazy to think that some other madman would take on the reins of the Green Goblin! I'll bet if Spider-Man weren't around, we wouldn't have to deal with any Goblins!"
Peter slapped his own face, "Boy, he really will blame everything on me. I wish I was that good at keeping things under my control like that."
Jameson then pointed to the door, "Well? Get out! I've been getting calls from Eddie Brock all day and it's giving me a migraine. He wants his old job back, but I don't rehire people who fake their stories and photography."
"The only time Eddie faked something was that story and pictures of Spider-Man breaking into the John Jameson's crashed shuttle. He only did it because was desperate at that time. People do change, Mr. Jameson. Maybe you should reconsider."
"Well, his stories have been doing quite well for our rivals at the Daily Globe now that you mention it. His investigation into Cletus Kasady in particular has led to tons of sales and publicity for them. Ohh, I've just got such a big heart I might just do it. Anyway, you got gunk in your ears, son? I said get out!"
Peter hurried out of the office as he said, "Okay, okay! Just don't fire me again!"
He motioned for Tomoko to follow him with his head and she followed with him back down the elevator. As they went down with the pleasant music playing, Peter said, "Quite an interesting set of coworkers, right?"
"Oh, uhh, right. Yeah."
"Now that I can pay the rent, I'm thinking we'll go on another date too. Not today, but maybe another day. What do you say?"
"I'd like that."
That said, the two of them stepped out of the elevator together. They happily made their way back home. While she didn't want to go out, Tomoko did have to admit to herself that it was nice to get out of the apartment. Meeting some of Peter's coworkers was also pretty interesting, even if she didn't talk with them all that much.
Elsewhere, on Long Island, the Hobgoblin returned to his mansion. He landed on the ground and picked up his glider. On his way back, he found a package sitting at the doorstep of the mansion. He picked it up with his other free arm and limped inside the mansion. It seemed like Quentin Beck's Mysterio gear had finally arrived.
Setting his glider back down as soon as he set foot into the building, Hobgoblin slowly made his way up the stairs. Carrying both the box and glider while also being injured left him quite short of breath.
He walked up to Quentin's room and knocked on the door.
"Knock, knock."
Quentin opened the door, "Ahh, it's finally here! You work quick, Hobgoblin."
"As do you," Hobgoblin said back as he stepped into the room. "Your new glider design worked perfectly on the field. To think you were able to design and build it in just a night."
"What can I say? It's a skill." Quentin took the box and set it on his desk.
Hobgoblin, meanwhile, collapsed onto the bed. He gripped his chest in pain, "I had no idea Spider-Man would be so strong."
Quentin was just about to tear into the box before Hobgoblin said that.
"You don't know the half of it," Quentin said, looking back to Hobgoblin.
Hobgoblin reached into his satchel and held up a paper, "Take a look at this."
Quentin walked over and snatched it. "Quite interesting. Seems you finally found Osborn's secret formula."
"What can you tell me about the chemicals used in it? Do you think you could recreate it if given the proper resources?"
"It seems relatively simple, all in all. With this as my guide, I could make it easily."
"Be weary, though," Hobgoblin warned. "While going through Osborn's journals, I found out that the original formula blew up in his face. Some adjustments might need to be made to make sure that doesn't happen again."
"Quite right," Quentin agreed as he sat back down. "Perhaps it's how some of the chemicals were distributed. Some form of chemical imbalance. Or perhaps, it's how they were mixed? Could be any number of things. Do you think the serum drove him insane? That might be something to worry about."
Hobgoblin shook his head, "No, couldn't be. By going through his journals, I could tell you Osborn was already very mentally unwell even before he became the Green Goblin."
"If you're certain. Either way, if you provide me the supplies, I can easily recreate this formula. Might even be able to kink out the flaws it has."
Hobgoblin pulled himself up, heaving heavily as he did, "Very well. They shouldn't be too hard to acquire."
With his arm still wrapped around his upper chest, Hobby hobbled back out of the room as he coughed. It was quite clear that Spider-Man did a serious number on him.
Quentin took note of this, "Well, whoever's behind that mask, they're certainly not the bruiser type. Even I wasn't so winded after Spider-Man knocked my lights out for the first time."
With Hobgoblin finally gone, he then tore right into the package still on his desk. There it was, the costume he loved so dear. It was all there too, just as he hoped.
He triumphantly held the gridded green costume up in the air as he declared, "Looks like Mysterio is back in business!"
That's it for Chapter 12. You might notice that this chapter took a bit longer to come out than previous ones. I apologize for that. This story doesn't have a set schedule, but I will warn you that updates won't be as frequent as they have been. Don't think this story is going on hiatus, though. Not at all, I'd still like to update regularly.
When I began this story, I had the first seven or so chapters mapped out in my head. After those chapters, I've been somewhat winging it. I've had these ideas, but they weren't thoroughly mapped out. I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to take this chapter for the first few days I spent writing it. I knew I wanted to have Spidey have his first encounter with the Hobgoblin, but after that? I didn't know. It was only a couple days later that I realized where the rest of this chapter was going.
One last thing before I get to reviews. I know I mentioned Cletus Kasady in this chapter. However, I'm NOT building up to Carnage. I love Carnage, but he's in a similar situation as the Green Goblin in that I don't think he'd fit the tone this story is going for. I also don't want to distract from the current main antagonists, Hobgoblin and Mysterio. I thought I would clarify so I'm not building up false expectations. Sorry to disappoint anyone who might've been looking forward to that. I only brought him up as a fun little nod to the character and because I needed SOMETHING to be on the TV when Tomoko turned it on.
Now, let's get to the reviews. There's quite a lot of them.
Cool Doggo - Venom couldn't be gone for TOO long, now. Also, that is the BIGGEST compliment you could have given me for how I've written Venom. The PS1 game is a big inspiration for his character in this story. I love him that game.
Mr. NoName - I actually wasn't going for a Web of Shadows reference when I wrote that, if you could believe it. Funny how that works out.
bigbroyuta - Glad you think so!
Guest - More has arrive.
DFScorpio - Thanks!
Suppose that'll do it for this chapter. As always, thanks for reading and I hope I'll see you in the next chapter.
Sidenote: I just posted this to the Doc Manager and I am now learning this is the longest chapter I've written so far. When did this happen?! It didn't feel this long when I was writing it! I even thought this was a short chapter! That's unbelievable.