When Peter emerged from the forest that led to the hidden grounds of the Avenger's Compound, he welcomed the cool October air that slightly broke through the skin-tight barrier of his Spider-Man suit. He felt like he was beginning to suffocate under the nerves of the possibility of MJ being in danger along with the rage that Peter was quickly losing the battle to suppress. The last time that Peter had felt like he had reached his boiling point had been when he apprehended Ben's killer in the shadows of an alleyway. It was the first time that Peter had almost lost control and he had been so close to taking a life that night, but in the end, it was Ben's voice in his head that had stopped him from doing the unforgivable. Ever since then, Peter had sworn to be the better man and that there was always an alternative in stopping someone from hurting people. Right now, however, Peter couldn't ignore the fire that was simmering through his veins at the mere thought of Harry touching a hair on MJ's head.
"KAREN, where was MJ's last known location?" Peter asked stiffly as he swung forward with a sense of urgency.
"I can do you one better," KAREN told him cheerfully. "MJ's current location seems to be at the Queensboro Bridge. She doesn't appear to be moving."
Why the hell is she not moving at a bridge? A pit of dread began to form in Peter's stomach.
"You appear to be injured and in distress, Peter," KAREN's kind voice washed over him, but it did nothing to calm his nerves.
"I'm fine," Peter replied dismissively. "It's just been a long night."
"Considering you have burns on your face and broken ribs, I disagree."
Peter gritted his jaw, "KAREN, not now."
KAREN was quiet for a moment before she said, "You're angry."
"Considering all that I've been through tonight, I feel like it's well deserved."
"What's going on, Peter?" KAREN managed to sound uncertain.
Peter didn't answer her for a few minutes before he said, "I think MJ is in danger and it's all my fault."
"And you're looking to apprehend this danger alone when you're angry and injured?"
Peter was starting to get annoyed. "I really don't need this lecture."
"I'm just merely stating a concern," KAREN told him calmly.
"I appreciate the concern, KAREN, I really do, but it's completely unwarranted."
"Then why are you acting like you want to kill someone?"
"Look, if you really want to help me, then you can just be my eyes, okay?" Peter told her flippantly.
KAREN silenced herself for several minutes and Peter felt a wave of remorse wash over him, but couldn't find it in himself to apologize. Finally, she said, "Very well."
"And KAREN?"
"Yes, Peter?"
"This is just between the two of us," Peter told her quietly. "I don't want anyone else getting hurt because of me. Not again."
"As you wish," She agreed reluctantly before going quiet once more.
The rest of the journey back to the city passed in silence and it felt like an eternity to Peter. There were more than a few times where Peter found himself questioning what he was doing. His head knew that there was a fair possibility that Peter just set himself up for a suicide mission, but his heart was telling him that this had to stop before Peter had lost someone he cared about for good. Alex was still fighting for his life, and Peter didn't even know the damage that the older boy had endured outside of what Peter saw and experienced for himself. When he had left the compound, Alex had still been in surgery and Peter didn't get a chance to find out what kind of surgery or if he had even been stabilized. However, outside of Alex, there were only two other things that were playing in Peter's mind on replay. One being that MJ could very well be the next victim if he didn't stop Harry. The second being that Peter might have to make the difficult choice of doing something that he had sworn to Ben and himself that he'd never do.
Why are you making me do this? Peter thought to himself, picturing Harry's kind face in his mind, the face of a person that Peter had thought he knew. A person that had played Peter into thinking that he was someone that truly cared for him.
Don't think of the past, He scolded himself. You know how that ends. It doesn't end well. You need your head clear. MJ needs you to have a clear head.
When Peter re-ented the city, the sight of the skyscrapers passing by him in a blur made Peter feel like he was walking on a tightrope. There was a lump forming in his throat and he didn't seem to be able to shake it no matter how hard he tried. When he was three blocks away from the bridge, a squad of six police cruisers zoomed past him, sirens blaring.
Oh god, A pit formed in Peter's stomach as his sense flared in a warning. "KAREN, what's going on?"
"There seems to have been some sort of explosion at the entrance of the Roosevelt Island tramway," KAREN reported, and Peter didn't miss the urgency in his AI's voice. "The explosion caused a massive car pile-up on the bridge."
Peter, who perched himself on top of a roof as he approached the scene, stopped and looked at the sight in front of him. His stomach plummeted at the evident damage. "Harry... What have you done?"
In the distance, he was able to make out a form that seemed to be hovering up to the top of the bridge. The gondola wire of the Roosevelt Island tramway was missing and from the way one of the air trams seemed to be floating haphazardly, Peter had a good guess as to what was going on.
"Uh, KAREN?" Peter sounded uncertain.
"It seems like one of the air trams is being suspended by some masked villain, there must be at least a dozen people on board," KAREN said. "They appear to have a human hostage too, and Peter..."
"MJ," Peter's heart skipped a beat before he catapulted himself off of the roof and urgently made his way over to the bridge. Once on the bridge, Peter latched onto one of the ascending support beams, swinging in a loop to gain momentum before slingshotting himself up to the top where he came face to face with his worst nightmare.
There on top of the bridge, Harry was decked out in his Green Goblin costume, his helmet missing so that Peter could see his twisted features. In his left hand, he had MJ by the throat and was dangling her over the side of the bridge, in the other hand was the gondola wire that was holding up the suspended tram, the only thing keeping the people inside from plummeting into the dark water below.
"MJ!" Peter called out urgently. MJ's eyes were wide with fear and she looked like she wanted to speak, but the hand on her throat was preventing her voice from projecting. She was decked out in her black skinny jeans and a loose navy blue Midtown Graduate hoodie, her black converse glinting in the bridge's orange glow.
"Peter, Peter, Peter," Harry clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "You really don't know when to die, do you?"
"Harry, you don't have to do this," Peter held his hands out in a placating gesture. "They have nothing to do with any of this."
"You know, I realized something about you at that apartment," His ex-friend's eyes glinted dangerously. "I thought killing you the old-fashioned way would be the most satisfying thing, but then I saw the look on your face when you threw yourself in front of the line of fire to protect him. And I realized, you really are the most pathetic human being on the entire planet. So desperate... So weak..."
"Let them go," Peter narrowed his eyes at him.
"Nah ah ah," Harry cut him off. "It's never that easy."
"If you really wanted to kill me, then why all the small talk?" Peter demanded.
"Because seeing that desperation on your face makes the task just so much more thrilling," Harry replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You see, Peter, this is why only fools are heroes - because you never know when some lunatic will come along with a sadistic choice." He chuckled as he lifted MJ higher into the air. "Let die the woman you love... or suffer the little children? Make your choice, Spider-Man, and see how a hero is rewarded!"
"Harry, stop this!" Peter ordered, and he hated the pleading tone that was evident in his eyes. "This isn't you!"
"Oh, Pete, don't you get it? We are who we choose to be," Harry told him in mock sadness. "Now, that choice is up to you. Choose!" He let go of both of them and in an instant, the tram and MJ began to plummet.
"NO!" Peter shouted as everything seemed to begin to play out in slow motion. "KAREN!"
"Go for MJ, you can catch them both!" KAREN told him immediately and Peter dove off towards MJ's gut-wrenching screams.
As soon as he managed to tackle her into a hold, Peter shot a web at the bridge, using the momentum to swing himself over enough to dive after the falling skyway tram, the children's screams echoing in his ear. When Peter's hands wrapped around the falling gondola wire, he instinctively stuck himself to the material as he shot another web with his other hand, forcefully stopping the momentum so Peter was stuck in the middle.
"MJ," Peter panted as the trembling form of MJ was wrapped around him in an octopus hold. She was panting heavily and the hitch in her breath made Peter's heart break.
I did this, Peter wanted to cry, but the adrenaline was preventing him from breaking down.
"I'm okay," She responded immediately, her voice shaking. "I'm okay."
"Okay," Peter nodded as he looked up to see Harry's rageful features glaring at him as if Peter had just killed his puppy. Then a bright light washed over him and Peter looked over to see a spotlight coming from a cargo ship coming his way.
"Ahoy up there!" The captain called out with a megaphone. "We're going to bring the barge right under you!"
He didn't get a moment's reprieve to feel relief, because the sound of Harry's glider coming his way made him and MJ look up in horror.
"Oh my god," MJ croaked out in horror. "Peter..."
"I know," Peter gritted his jaw. "MJ, you gotta climb down, the barge..."
"I don't know if I..." MJ looked conflicted, her form still shaking, but Peter could see that she was trying her best to hide it.
"Yes, you can!" Peter insisted as his web began to give way, causing all of them to plummet a good five feet. "Shit! KAREN!"
"The weight seems to be too much," KAREN sounded slightly panicked.
What the hell? But isn't the organic webs supposed to be stronger? Peter managed to think for a split second before he shrugged it off. Not the time, Pete.
"MJ, you can do it," Peter encouraged her genuinely. "You have to."
MJ nodded against his shoulder, "Okay, okay," She gave herself a small pep talk.
"Trust me, okay?" Peter tried to calm her down. "I got you. I won't let anything happen to you."
She nodded once more and forced out a few deep breaths, "Okay." She opened her eyes and reached out for the gondola wire before wrapping herself around it in a firefighter stance.
"Hold on tight, and go quickly!" Peter told her urgently as MJ began to make her way down the wire.
A flare ignited in Peter's head as Harry's maniacal laughter echoed closer towards him.
"Peter on your left!" KAREN warned as Peter began to lower the tram slightly.
Looking up and to the left, he saw Harry flying toward him a split second too late. Before Peter could do anything to dodge Harry's attack, the Goblin's punch felt like a brick had struck his face from miles away, causing his weight to forcefully jerk the tram in his hand. He heard MJ let out a panicked scream as she clung to the wire with an iron grip, her weight swinging with the force of Peter's hit. He could hear the screams in the airway tram below and his heart felt like it wanted to tear itself to shreds at the sound.
"Peter!" KAREN tried to warn him as Peter took his gaze off the sight below him in time to see Harry's fist coming back his way, the momentum of the glider causing the next blow to send him in a backward spiral. His grip on the wire failed and the skyway tram began to plummet.
No, no, no, no! Peter's voice yelled in his head and he desperately reached out, catching the wire by its end, causing the tram to jerk to a stop. MJ, who had been halfway down to the tram, lost her grip and began free-falling with a gut-wrenching scream. Just when Peter was about to lose his shit, MJ caught herself on the outside railing and Peter let out a sigh of relief. The barge was so close to being where it needed to be, but it was still too far away for Peter's liking.
Glancing back up at the noise of Harry's glider, Peter felt like a deer that was caught in the headlights, unsure of what he was supposed to do. He knew he was in a sticky situation, the barge was still too far away, but Peter was stuck in the middle of something that could very well get him killed with the way Harry was coming towards him.
Lowering the tram a little bit more out of desperation, Peter tried to will the barge to move faster, but he knew it was a lost cause.
"It's time to die!" Harry's sharp voice echoed in his ears and Peter looked up to see blades extend out of Harry's glider.
"Oh, god!" Peter panicked.
"Peter, there's no way to avoid that!" KAREN also sounded nervous.
Just when Peter thought he was about to die, something hit Harry forcefully on the back of his head, causing him to spin out of control, allowing Peter to lift his legs to avoid being impaled. Harry seemed to be just as confused as Peter because he began to look around for what had hit him. Another object smacked him in the back of his head, and this time Peter saw it was a brick of some sort.
"Come up here, tough guy!" A voice echoed from above and Peter felt his mouth drop open in shock as he saw citizens from the bridge chucking heavy objects at his assailant. "I got a little something for ya! Leave Spider-Man alone. You gonna pick on a guy trying to save a bunch of kids?"
"KAREN?" Peter stared at the scene in front of him. "Am I dead?"
"No, Peter, it seems like they came to help," KAREN also managed to sound awed.
"Yeah, I got something for your ass! You mess with Spidey, you mess with New York!" Another person shouted.
"You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"
Fighting down the overwhelming sensation to cry happy tears at such support, Peter looked down and saw that barge approaching and he began to lower the Roosevelt Island Tram to safety. As soon as it touched down on the boat, Peter let out a sigh of relief.
Not today, Peter told himself. Not again, not because of me.
Cheers broke out on the bridge at Peter's victory and he let go of the gondola wire before his sense sent another spark of pain to his head.
"Spider-Man watch out!" MJ's voice rang in his ears, but before he could register what was happening, a wire wrapped around his waist and he was yanked away from the sanctuary of the bridge.
There was a few moments of stomach-turning weightlessness before Peter grabbed a fistful of the wire and yanked with all of his might, the material breaking in one fluid motion. Kicking up, Peter used his momentum to land in front of Harry on his glider, landing a punch to the Goblin's face. Harry's weight became unsteady and the glider began to wobble from the lack of control, the city buildings coming into view. Peter sent a few more punches Harry's way before the other boy caught Peter's fists and punched him in the gut before head butting him. Stars broke out in Peter's line of sight for a moment as he struggled to gain his bearing, but it wasn't fast enough. Harry's hand clasped over his throat once more and his other hand came up to yank Peter's mask off his face.
"You just don't know when to quit!" Harry growled as he let the mask go, the red material falling back to the streets below. "I tried making it painless! I tried getting you to understand! But you've become quite the thorn in my side!"
Gaining a surge of strength, Peter kneed Harry in one place he knew would be the most vulnerable, causing Goblin to let out a pained curse. It succeeded in the sense that Peter was able to break free of Harry's grasp for a moment. However, that had also succeeded in pissing Harry off and his hand clamped down in an iron grip on Peter's jaw, lifting him with inhumane strength.
He's still too strong, Peter struggled, rage boiling in his veins.
Peter kicked and flailed, trying to break loose, but blades contracted on Harry's arms from the suit and he sliced Peter's abdomen just as Peter managed to bite down on Harry's hand. They both let out an exclamation of pain, Harry's arm dropping enough so Peter could push himself off of the glider and into the night. Shooting his web at a building to keep himself from falling, Peter shot multiple webs at Harry's glider in an attempt to block the device's engine, but Harry easily dodged all of them with inhuman precision. Instead, he made his way over to Peter until the blades on his arms sliced through Peter's webs with ease and Peter plummeted once more in a spiraling fashion. Before he could reorient himself enough to shoot out another web, a weight slammed into his side, sending him flying back first into a brick wall. He hit the surface hard enough to dent it, allowing him to sit haphazardly in the space created so he could catch his breath.
His sixth sense saved him before he fully came back to reality, and before he knew what was happening he flipped himself out of the dented wall until he was upside down, seeing Harry's fist make contact at where he had just been a moment before.
"You're such a fucking liar!" Harry growled as Peter dodged another blow, still stuck to the wall. "You ruined everything!"
"I didn't do anything to you!" Peter gritted his teeth. "You're fucking insane, Harry! What the hell happened to you?"
"Shut up!" Harry exploded, ripping a portion of the wall away so it began to fall with Peter on it.
The wall began to flip and Peter found himself crawling against the force as it fell until he was able to shoot a web and swing away before the wall shattered against the streets below. The next time that Peter got rammed with the glider, he clung to it like a lifeline. He had seen where the pumpkin bombs came from, and he knew exactly where they were. Punching forcefully into the glider's floor, Peter ripped away the metal that housed the pumpkin bombs below. Grabbing one of the orange balls in his hand, Peter pressed the activation button before stuffing the explosive into the glider's engine, feeling satisfied when it blew.
Falling into an uncontrolled landing from at least a hundred feet in the air, Harry and Peter found themselves crashing through the windows of a warehouse before bouncing off the cement floor with bruising force. Peter could feel shards of glass trying to pierce through the back of his suit from where he had landed after he finished his rolling momentum. Ignoring every painful ache in his body, Peter stood up and crouched in his infamous pose as a dangerous wave of rage washed over him.
He watched as Harry got to his feet ten feet away with a dark chuckle coming from his wheezing chest. "Impressive... I gotta say, I didn't think you had it in you."
"Don't underestimate what I can do," Peter warned him, his eyes narrowed.
"What? Do you really think I'm scared of you? You're too fucking weak to even finish it! I've seen the way you hold yourself to this moral standard? What are you going to do, huh? Send me to jail? Take me to trial?"
"No," Peter felt red enter his vision. "I just want to kill you myself."
That got Harry to cackle dangerously, "Atta boy..."
Those two words broke Peter's resolve and he charged at Harry with blinding ferocity, shooting two separate webs that Harry had easily dodged before being close enough to swing his fist. Once again, Harry dodged it with ease and Peter felt himself begin to get irritated at the fast reflexes that the Goblin seemed to have. He hated that Harry seemed to predict his every move and it just resulted in the continuing accumulation of raw anger in Peter. Shooting another web, Peter succeeded in webbing one of Harry's feet to the floor, temporarily trapping him in place. A flash of surprise entered Harry's features as it seemed to have caught him off guard and Peter used that to his advantage, clocking Harry with such intensity that it sent the Goblin slamming into the cold stone floor with a pained grunt. It was a show of strength that Peter had never let him feel, it was a sign that Peter wasn't there to tame the threat or stun Harry, no... this was a sign that Peter was out for blood. Jumping into the air, Peter swung his fist with all of his might in a straight down trajectory. Harry managed to roll out of the way, and when Peter's hand connected with the floor, it easily gave way with a teeth-chattering boom, the surrounding floor splintering for a good six feet.
As Peter straightened up, he saw that Harry had gotten to his feet and contracted both of the blades on his suit's arms. Harry let out a mocking whistle. "Well, consider me surprised. Look at the itsy bitsy spider showing his true colors. And they call you a hero, but what would they say if they could see you now?"
"You don't know anything about me!" Peter growled as he charged once more.
Harry sliced at Peter's legs, but he had seen the move coming from a mile away and just cartwheeled off to the side, dodging once more as Harry sliced towards his abdomen. Rolling off to the side, Peter sent a strong blow to Harry's hip, feeling a spark of dark satisfaction gloss over him when Harry let out an annoyed cry of pain. He could feel Harry's desperation increase as he swung blindly towards Peter, who had been dodging the blades with ease and Peter began webbing Harry's feet to the floor once more to limit his mobility. When Harry managed to slice Peter's arm from the wrist to his elbow, Peter let out a frustrated growl before sending a blinding punch to Harry's face. With the Goblin dazed, Peter webbed Harry's neck, yanking his head down so Peter could knee him in the face. With one more blow to Harry's face, Peter jumped over Harry, grabbing him by the back and Peter used his momentum to flip Harry onto his back. From there. Peter just towered over him and began landing blow after blow, each punch increasing in its brutality.
Suddenly it seemed like he had no control over his anger and he took every ounce of it out on the villain in front of him. Anger for the unjust way Ben had been taken from him. Anger at the world for bringing him back five years later after being dusted. Anger at MJ for building a life of her own and moving on without him. Anger at Harry for convincing Peter he was his friend only to stab him in the back. Anger at Tony for the irrational fear of losing another father figure after the billionaire was able to establish a family of his own. Anger at Harry for potentially taking Alex away from Peter. Anger at himself for being so blindsided because he had been so desperate to cling onto something from the past.
It felt like everything that was happening was going by in a blur and before Peter knew what was happening, he had Harry in a chokehold and he was watching his ex-friend's face growing purple with the lack of oxygen.
You're not a monster for wanting to be angry, Pete, but look at where it's landing you. Are you sure this is the type of person you want to become?
Alex's voice rang in his head and the red haze in Peter's mind began to clear.
What am I doing? Peter's eyes widened and he let go of Harry's throat and staggered backward in horror, looking at his hands as if they had burned him.
Harry began coughing and gasping as he fought to get air back in his lungs, and when he came back to reality, he began to laugh. "Look at you, Mr. Spider-Man!" Harry's gravelly voice made Peter want to throw up. "What would New York think of you if they saw you choking the life out of a man."
"I don't want this," Peter shook his head. "I'll take you in, but I'm not going to kill you."
"Oh, Peter..." Harry shook his head with a sadistic smirk. "That morality really is gonna be the thing that kills you in the end." The boy in front of him staggered to his feet.
Just when Peter thought Harry was going to charge him, alarm bells began to ring in Peter's head and he jumped straight up in the air, processing for just a moment that Harry's glider had been zooming towards him, the blades out. He spared a thought that Peter could've sworn he had blown the damn thing up, but he heard Harry let out a small "Oh..." before the blades impaled his friend, sending him flying into the wall where he became pinned.
Peter almost wondered if that had been Harry's lack of oxygen because there was no way it would've been that easy. But another part of him got filled with dread when Harry cried out in pain.
"Harry!" Peter ran over to him. His hands began to hover over the glider, fighting the nauseous feeling that was quickly overwhelming him.
"Leave me alone!" Harry growled, reaching out to hit him, and Peter staggered backwards.
Peter felt tears form in his eyes, "I didn't want this..."
"It doesn't matter what you wanted," He coughed and let out a spine-chilling chuckle. "What's done is done."
"Why did you..." Peter began.
"You know what they say about heroes, Pete?" Harry asked. "They might've found you amusing for a while, the people of this city. But the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fall... fail... die trying."
"Harry..." Peter's voice broke.
"What do you think the people of this city will think when they hear you killed someone? That poor Peter Parker, the man behind the mask, is a murder?"
"I didn't do this," Peter shook his head. "You did this to yourself."
"Who's to know? You started all of this," Harry smirked. "And you know what they say about a liar, Pete? Hang his tongue from a telephone wire. We all fall in the end, there's no stopping it. I'll see you in hell."
Peter watched as Harry's form slumped against the glider, blood pooling on the floor and from where it was falling out of Harry's mouth. Peter could see the glazed-off and empty look in the Goblin's eyes and he fell to his knees, feeling as if an anchor had landed on his chest.
I can't stay here, Peter couldn't breathe. I can't...
Ignoring the screaming pain in his body, Peter aimed a web for the broken windows in the roof, slingshotting him out into the night, the cool air doing nothing to ease the ache in his broken heart.
Hope that wasn't too anticlimactic, but I gotta say, I really loved this chapter.
Was it good? Was it bad? Feel free to let me know!
P.S. I'm infamous for reusing scenes, huh? Explanation? I feel like I wanted to incorporate past Spider-Man scenes as a homage to the character in a way, but also in my mind, I'm creating some sort of new canon for MCU Peter. I just find it really cool to see how I can incorporate everything past franchises had for the character and spin it to help this Peter's character growth :)