Title: Daddy's Girl Part 3
Author: Pip's Sister/Ms. Marvel 1
Fandom: Spider-Man
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Archive: Yes
E-Mail: felicitypirrip@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Mary Jane Parker, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, etc. are all property of Marvel Comics and are used without permission for non-profit purposes. And Lydia Osborn is… uh… kind of my character, but not really.
Notes: Fanfic AU. Everything after Clone Saga bar "Hobgoblin Lives" all bull, yadda yadda. Oh, and the violence earns its PG-13 here for an offstage beating. (Did I give too much away? Well, I want you guys to know what you're getting into.) But it's not THAT bad.
Acknowledgments: Thank you Pet Tigress for your Beta Reading, and thanks Madgoblin for the idea. (http://madgoblin.org)
~*~*~
Dusk became night. Bright stars pierced an ebony sky. The blue moon shone like a large crystal ball, watching the earth below.
Norman Osborn couldn't help but smile as he stood on the verandah of his mansion, thinking about how the thread of fate was finally being woven in his favor. "Only her second battle with Parker, and she was able to best him. Harry wasn't able to do that until several battles had been fought, and Normie could barley land a punch on Spider-Man." The old businessman rubbed his hands together. Could it be that Lydia was the true heir to the Osborn legacy?
Norman certainly hoped so. Lydia was his last chance at an heir. In a way, Osborn knew not to worry. His daughter possessed the power and intelligence to be not only the Green Goblin, but also a shrewd businesswoman. She mastered the art of combat faster than Normie. While his grandson would spend their trips to Wall Street whining that he was bored and wanted to eat lunch, Lydia was attentive to Osborn's dealings and answered correctly when he asked her whether to buy or sell.
"It's rather ironic," Osborn said to himself. "My own flesh and blood turn out to be disappointments, yet Parker's daughter is the heir I've always wanted: strong, brave, able to stand up to anyone…" The villainous man smiled as he remembered their conversation earlier that day. "…Even me. Still, I can't let myself get too cocky. There's every chance she may still not succeed. I've experienced too much failure to be overconfident. I-"
Osborn stopped when he heard the motor of the Goblin Glider coming toward him. A wicked smile formed on his face as Lydia rode down towards him, holding an unconscious Spider-Man in her arms. His daughter pressed a button on her arm, then leaped off and onto the verandah as the glider zoomed to the mansion's attic.
"Here he is! I caught him!"
"Yes, I know. His wife and I were watching you the whole time. You could improve in some areas, but on the whole, you were very good. Your performance certainly left a mark on Mrs. Parker."
Lydia gave an amused cackle as she carelessly dropped Spider-Man and pulled off her mask. "Where is that bitch, anyway?"
"Mrs. Parker is in the secret containment room on the second floor. You can 'play' with her a little before you kill Spider-Man."
Lydia's blue eyes widened in surprise. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Osborn frowned. "Do you shrink at the chance to destroy our greatest enemy?"
"Well no, but… don't you want to kill him? You've fought him for so long…"
Osborn shook his head. "Lydia, I am an old man. The Goblin formula has slowed my aging, but it won't keep me living forever. I want to know, to see that my legacy will live on. Besides, if you were to kill Spider-Man, it would be my greatest victory of all."
"Why?"
The old businessman smiled. Ah! If only she knew. "You're my daughter, and one of the greatest joys of being a parent is to be surpassed by their child."
It was a good enough answer for Lydia. She leered at their foe, her white teeth bared as she did so.
"Don't get excited too soon, dear. You first have to deal with his wife…"
Lydia looked back at her father and gasped as he pulled a vial out of his breast coat pocket. Osborn popped off the cork and a green fluid bubbled within.
"And also this."
"Your Goblin formula… for me…?" she asked with awe.
"Yes."
"But… but I'm a mutant. I already have powers from your altered DNA."
Osborn grinned briefly at the old lie he had told her years ago. Perhaps it would seem odd that she believed that lie. Why would someone who only had super-strength powers produce a daughter with many other enhanced abilities, including the power to stick to walls? However, it had been reported in various scientific journals that second generation mutants did not have the powers of their parents by rule, so the lie was swallowed without much thought by Lydia.
"True," Osborn admitted. "But those powers did not come directly from the formula, did they? The formula should work just as it did on me, and increase your strength tenfold."
Lydia took the vial when her father held it out to her. The formula was hot. She could feel its heat through the glass, tickling her fingertips. "Does it hurt?"
"Yes."
The young woman nodded. She suspected it would. Lydia closed her eyes and lifted the vial to her lips.
If there was anything in the world that screamed to be spat out, it was the Goblin formula. It tasted exactly like Lydia imagined magma would taste: thick and scalding.
Her face wrenched as she fought through her instinct to spit it out and swallowed. God, it burned! Her throat and stomach felt like they were being clawed apart and the feeling was growing. She collapsed on the ground as the clawing spread to her limbs.
The transformation only lasted a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity to Lydia. Finally, the pain seemed to subside. The awful clawing was gone, replaced by a crippling ache in all of her muscles. She curled up in the fetal position in an attempt to rid herself of the pain. Her chest rose and fell rapidly against her knees as she gasped for breath.
Osborn walked a step forward and looked down upon his daughter. Lydia stared back into his eyes. "Did I bear it well?" she wondered. "Does he approve?"
"Get up," commanded Osborn. "Now."
The thought of standing nearly terrified the young women, but she, like those Scriers she had spoken to earlier, knew better than to question her father. Lydia shut her eyes and forced up all of her strength. It hurt so much to move. She tried to stretch as she sat up, but it did little, if anything, to quell the enormous ache. Lydia gritted her teeth as she pushed herself up and stood on her feet.
Osborn opened his arms, which his daughter accepted eagerly. His hand moved under Lydia's chin and lifted it up.
"You did well, my Green Goblin."
~*~*~
An hour later, Spider-Man heard a voice.
"Rise and shine, Parker."
The hero shook his head and opened his eyes. A blurry figure loomed over him, its features quickly morphing into the stern visage of Norman Osborn.
"Blech! Well isn't that the most disgusting sight in the world to wake up to."
"Is that so?" Osborn sneered at his foe, who lay strapped by andamatium bonds to the dining room table. "Well, maybe I should tell my daughter that. Hmmm… I do think she's with your wife at the moment…"
"My wife?" Spider-Man exclaimed. "Where is she? What did you do with her?"
"Ah, nothing… yet." Osborn's smug smile made Spider-Man want to throw the murderer across the room. "Don't worry, Parker, I won't kill her, and neither will my daughter. At least not yet, we have other things in store for the both of you."
Spider-Man glared as the old businessman paced the length of the table. "What things, you lunatic?"
"That's for my little girl to decide."
Spider-Man's brow furrowed in frustration. Fine, he could find out the plan later. There was something else he wanted to know, however. "When did you have a daughter, anyway? And where did she get those powers?"
Osborn suddenly stopped and stared at his foe. "You mean you haven't figured it out? You disappoint me, Peter. Your wife got it instantly. After all…" the wicked smile again. "What mother wouldn't know their own daughter?"
Spider-Man's stomach tightened as he felt the blood drain from his face. "What…? What kind of sick joke-?"
"I don't joke, Parker. You should know that by now."
"B-But… May died sixteen years ago."
Osborn's eyebrow raised in interest. "Did she? And who told you that? The doctor I hired to help with your wife's labor? The one who drugged you and brought you to me?"
Spider-Man suddenly felt sick. God, this couldn't be true. This was just too awful… that child he had loved so much… the daughter he had waited so long for… alive? She was alive? Osborn had her all this time? How could it be?
"Dr. Folsome didn't lie to you completely," Osborn said. "It was food poisoning which caused your wife's early labor. Her waitress at the Daily Grind was a hireling of mine, Alison Mongrain. At my orders, Alison poured a drug in the soup that would not only trigger a premature labor, but drug the child as well, making her appear to be dead.
"After your wife gave birth, Alison took the unconscious child to the docks, where I was waiting with her pay for her wonderful services."
"Wonderful services?" Spider-Man thought bitterly. "Stealing my daughter? Poisoning my wife? Destroying our lives?"
"I told Alison Mongrain to dispose of the 'package' she had brought me, to never let it be seen again. However, as she stepped into the boat which would take her to Europe, well, it's odd how the mind works, but I thought of my own child and grandchild.
"Harry had been such a disappointment to me. I wanted a strong heir to continue for me after I had gone and what did I get? A drugged-up incompetent who had the gall to let himself be killed by you! However, all was not lost. I still had my grandson to continue the family traditions, but there was always the chance that he could fail as well. I would not be able to oversee another generation. If only I had a trump card.
"I called Alison back before the boat could leave and asked her for the package. She seemed confused, but didn't ask questions. I still remember the moment when she climbed back up to the docks and placed the child in my arms.
"It was at that moment when the child first awoke. Her tiny arms flailed about and she let out a high-pitched screech as her blue eyes opened for the first time.
"As I looked upon her small, helpless body I smiled at the irony. One day your radioactive blood would turn her into a creature of great physical might and power, and that creature was now mine to mold into an Osborn, and if need be, a Goblin!"
"No!" Spider-Man shouted.
Osborn crossed his arms and smirked at Spider-Man. "No?"
"I don't know what you've told her or what you've done to her, but you're not corrupting May! I won't let you!"
A cruel laugh escaped the old businessman's mouth. "How stupid are you, Parker? I've raised Lydia ever since she was a baby. She believes-knows me to be her true father. She knows her mother, a woman I hired to pretend to be my wife, left me soon after the wedding. She knows her powers came from my altered DNA. She's been told this all her life from the man who has raised her all her life. Why would she believe you?"
With a movement so quick Spider-Man barley sensed it, Osborn gripped his hand around the younger man's neck. His eyes bored into Spider-Man's head.
"She hates you, Parker!" Osborn growled. "She would love to see you maimed, tortured, eaten alive! She once told me if she ever found you dead in the streets that she'd spit on you! Do you understand Parker? Do you?
Spider-Man strained against Osborn's grip. He tried to speak, but the hand was a vise on his throat. As he continued to struggle, Osborn took out a needle and jabbed it into Spider-Man's neck. The hero thought that the needle held more drugs and he would go to sleep again, but he didn't feel drowsy at all. In fact, the chemicals seemed to be doing nothing.
Then, for seemingly no reason at all, Osborn slowly released his grip on Spider-Man, his angry features softening into his former smug expression as he did so. Spider-Man opened his mouth from beneath his mask to speak, but no sound came out.
"What's wrong, Parker? Cat got your tongue?" Osborn snorted contemptuously. "I've paralyzed your larynx, if you haven't figured it out already. So even if you could convince my daughter of her true parentage, you are not able. Not that I believe you could, but there's no reason to upset her. Speaking of whom…"
The ceiling of the dining hall made a metallic rumbling as it opened. Before Spider-Man could blink, a Goblin Glider zoomed from the ceiling. The hero's eyes widened in shock as he saw who rode upon it.
It was the Green Goblin. Lydia had changed her costume, but it was obviously her beneath the mask ("Who else would it be?" thought Spider-Man). Her purple cape flew behind her as she zoomed downwards towards the two men, her gloved hands clutching a battered and bloody woman.
"Mary Jane!" Spider-Man thought. "Oh my God! What did they do to her?"
Osborn laughed cruelly as his daughter tossed the unconscious woman to the floor like a rejected doll. "Had fun, Lydia?"
"Much!"
Spider-Man's entire body tensed as Lydia smiled, her false fangs and pointed green ears giving her the appearance of a vicious predator. This was his daughter? The baby he felt kicking in his wife's stomach? The child on the ultrasound picture they once tacked to their fridge? She was this girl?
"Well, here's the chance for some more fun." Osborn pressed a button on Spider-Man's bonds. They whipped back into the table, releasing him. Spider-Man immediately leaped towards his wife and cradled her in his arms.
She looked like she was dead, or at least nearing it. Blood poured over her swollen face from a deep gash in her forehead. Her shoulder was dislocated and her arm was mangled back, clearly broken under the skin. Bruises and cuts covered her lovely body. Spider-Man felt tears welling up in his eyes. "Please, God," he thought. "Don't let her be dead… she can't be…"
A pained groan issued forth from Mary Jane's mouth. She opened one of her green eyes. "Peter…"
Spider-Man put a finger on her mouth to silence her. He could feel a great weight removed from his shoulders as he pressed his wife to his chest. She was alive! Alive! He was so happy that he felt like crying. However, this elation would be short-lived.
"Hate to break up your little reunion, but I think we have some unfinished business." Osborn grinned as he turned to his daughter. "The time has come, Lydia. Avenge our family! Kill them now!"
"With pleasure!" Lydia sneered as she pointed her gloves toward the reunited pair, sending waves of electricity hurtling toward them.
To be continued…
Extra Author's Note: In case you were wondering, as far-fetched as paralyzing someone's larynx seems, trust me, it's been done (at least in the MU) before. Sabra once did it to the Hulk with her quills during their battle, so it's not much of a stretch. :-)
Author: Pip's Sister/Ms. Marvel 1
Fandom: Spider-Man
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Archive: Yes
E-Mail: felicitypirrip@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Mary Jane Parker, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, etc. are all property of Marvel Comics and are used without permission for non-profit purposes. And Lydia Osborn is… uh… kind of my character, but not really.
Notes: Fanfic AU. Everything after Clone Saga bar "Hobgoblin Lives" all bull, yadda yadda. Oh, and the violence earns its PG-13 here for an offstage beating. (Did I give too much away? Well, I want you guys to know what you're getting into.) But it's not THAT bad.
Acknowledgments: Thank you Pet Tigress for your Beta Reading, and thanks Madgoblin for the idea. (http://madgoblin.org)
~*~*~
Dusk became night. Bright stars pierced an ebony sky. The blue moon shone like a large crystal ball, watching the earth below.
Norman Osborn couldn't help but smile as he stood on the verandah of his mansion, thinking about how the thread of fate was finally being woven in his favor. "Only her second battle with Parker, and she was able to best him. Harry wasn't able to do that until several battles had been fought, and Normie could barley land a punch on Spider-Man." The old businessman rubbed his hands together. Could it be that Lydia was the true heir to the Osborn legacy?
Norman certainly hoped so. Lydia was his last chance at an heir. In a way, Osborn knew not to worry. His daughter possessed the power and intelligence to be not only the Green Goblin, but also a shrewd businesswoman. She mastered the art of combat faster than Normie. While his grandson would spend their trips to Wall Street whining that he was bored and wanted to eat lunch, Lydia was attentive to Osborn's dealings and answered correctly when he asked her whether to buy or sell.
"It's rather ironic," Osborn said to himself. "My own flesh and blood turn out to be disappointments, yet Parker's daughter is the heir I've always wanted: strong, brave, able to stand up to anyone…" The villainous man smiled as he remembered their conversation earlier that day. "…Even me. Still, I can't let myself get too cocky. There's every chance she may still not succeed. I've experienced too much failure to be overconfident. I-"
Osborn stopped when he heard the motor of the Goblin Glider coming toward him. A wicked smile formed on his face as Lydia rode down towards him, holding an unconscious Spider-Man in her arms. His daughter pressed a button on her arm, then leaped off and onto the verandah as the glider zoomed to the mansion's attic.
"Here he is! I caught him!"
"Yes, I know. His wife and I were watching you the whole time. You could improve in some areas, but on the whole, you were very good. Your performance certainly left a mark on Mrs. Parker."
Lydia gave an amused cackle as she carelessly dropped Spider-Man and pulled off her mask. "Where is that bitch, anyway?"
"Mrs. Parker is in the secret containment room on the second floor. You can 'play' with her a little before you kill Spider-Man."
Lydia's blue eyes widened in surprise. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Osborn frowned. "Do you shrink at the chance to destroy our greatest enemy?"
"Well no, but… don't you want to kill him? You've fought him for so long…"
Osborn shook his head. "Lydia, I am an old man. The Goblin formula has slowed my aging, but it won't keep me living forever. I want to know, to see that my legacy will live on. Besides, if you were to kill Spider-Man, it would be my greatest victory of all."
"Why?"
The old businessman smiled. Ah! If only she knew. "You're my daughter, and one of the greatest joys of being a parent is to be surpassed by their child."
It was a good enough answer for Lydia. She leered at their foe, her white teeth bared as she did so.
"Don't get excited too soon, dear. You first have to deal with his wife…"
Lydia looked back at her father and gasped as he pulled a vial out of his breast coat pocket. Osborn popped off the cork and a green fluid bubbled within.
"And also this."
"Your Goblin formula… for me…?" she asked with awe.
"Yes."
"But… but I'm a mutant. I already have powers from your altered DNA."
Osborn grinned briefly at the old lie he had told her years ago. Perhaps it would seem odd that she believed that lie. Why would someone who only had super-strength powers produce a daughter with many other enhanced abilities, including the power to stick to walls? However, it had been reported in various scientific journals that second generation mutants did not have the powers of their parents by rule, so the lie was swallowed without much thought by Lydia.
"True," Osborn admitted. "But those powers did not come directly from the formula, did they? The formula should work just as it did on me, and increase your strength tenfold."
Lydia took the vial when her father held it out to her. The formula was hot. She could feel its heat through the glass, tickling her fingertips. "Does it hurt?"
"Yes."
The young woman nodded. She suspected it would. Lydia closed her eyes and lifted the vial to her lips.
If there was anything in the world that screamed to be spat out, it was the Goblin formula. It tasted exactly like Lydia imagined magma would taste: thick and scalding.
Her face wrenched as she fought through her instinct to spit it out and swallowed. God, it burned! Her throat and stomach felt like they were being clawed apart and the feeling was growing. She collapsed on the ground as the clawing spread to her limbs.
The transformation only lasted a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity to Lydia. Finally, the pain seemed to subside. The awful clawing was gone, replaced by a crippling ache in all of her muscles. She curled up in the fetal position in an attempt to rid herself of the pain. Her chest rose and fell rapidly against her knees as she gasped for breath.
Osborn walked a step forward and looked down upon his daughter. Lydia stared back into his eyes. "Did I bear it well?" she wondered. "Does he approve?"
"Get up," commanded Osborn. "Now."
The thought of standing nearly terrified the young women, but she, like those Scriers she had spoken to earlier, knew better than to question her father. Lydia shut her eyes and forced up all of her strength. It hurt so much to move. She tried to stretch as she sat up, but it did little, if anything, to quell the enormous ache. Lydia gritted her teeth as she pushed herself up and stood on her feet.
Osborn opened his arms, which his daughter accepted eagerly. His hand moved under Lydia's chin and lifted it up.
"You did well, my Green Goblin."
~*~*~
An hour later, Spider-Man heard a voice.
"Rise and shine, Parker."
The hero shook his head and opened his eyes. A blurry figure loomed over him, its features quickly morphing into the stern visage of Norman Osborn.
"Blech! Well isn't that the most disgusting sight in the world to wake up to."
"Is that so?" Osborn sneered at his foe, who lay strapped by andamatium bonds to the dining room table. "Well, maybe I should tell my daughter that. Hmmm… I do think she's with your wife at the moment…"
"My wife?" Spider-Man exclaimed. "Where is she? What did you do with her?"
"Ah, nothing… yet." Osborn's smug smile made Spider-Man want to throw the murderer across the room. "Don't worry, Parker, I won't kill her, and neither will my daughter. At least not yet, we have other things in store for the both of you."
Spider-Man glared as the old businessman paced the length of the table. "What things, you lunatic?"
"That's for my little girl to decide."
Spider-Man's brow furrowed in frustration. Fine, he could find out the plan later. There was something else he wanted to know, however. "When did you have a daughter, anyway? And where did she get those powers?"
Osborn suddenly stopped and stared at his foe. "You mean you haven't figured it out? You disappoint me, Peter. Your wife got it instantly. After all…" the wicked smile again. "What mother wouldn't know their own daughter?"
Spider-Man's stomach tightened as he felt the blood drain from his face. "What…? What kind of sick joke-?"
"I don't joke, Parker. You should know that by now."
"B-But… May died sixteen years ago."
Osborn's eyebrow raised in interest. "Did she? And who told you that? The doctor I hired to help with your wife's labor? The one who drugged you and brought you to me?"
Spider-Man suddenly felt sick. God, this couldn't be true. This was just too awful… that child he had loved so much… the daughter he had waited so long for… alive? She was alive? Osborn had her all this time? How could it be?
"Dr. Folsome didn't lie to you completely," Osborn said. "It was food poisoning which caused your wife's early labor. Her waitress at the Daily Grind was a hireling of mine, Alison Mongrain. At my orders, Alison poured a drug in the soup that would not only trigger a premature labor, but drug the child as well, making her appear to be dead.
"After your wife gave birth, Alison took the unconscious child to the docks, where I was waiting with her pay for her wonderful services."
"Wonderful services?" Spider-Man thought bitterly. "Stealing my daughter? Poisoning my wife? Destroying our lives?"
"I told Alison Mongrain to dispose of the 'package' she had brought me, to never let it be seen again. However, as she stepped into the boat which would take her to Europe, well, it's odd how the mind works, but I thought of my own child and grandchild.
"Harry had been such a disappointment to me. I wanted a strong heir to continue for me after I had gone and what did I get? A drugged-up incompetent who had the gall to let himself be killed by you! However, all was not lost. I still had my grandson to continue the family traditions, but there was always the chance that he could fail as well. I would not be able to oversee another generation. If only I had a trump card.
"I called Alison back before the boat could leave and asked her for the package. She seemed confused, but didn't ask questions. I still remember the moment when she climbed back up to the docks and placed the child in my arms.
"It was at that moment when the child first awoke. Her tiny arms flailed about and she let out a high-pitched screech as her blue eyes opened for the first time.
"As I looked upon her small, helpless body I smiled at the irony. One day your radioactive blood would turn her into a creature of great physical might and power, and that creature was now mine to mold into an Osborn, and if need be, a Goblin!"
"No!" Spider-Man shouted.
Osborn crossed his arms and smirked at Spider-Man. "No?"
"I don't know what you've told her or what you've done to her, but you're not corrupting May! I won't let you!"
A cruel laugh escaped the old businessman's mouth. "How stupid are you, Parker? I've raised Lydia ever since she was a baby. She believes-knows me to be her true father. She knows her mother, a woman I hired to pretend to be my wife, left me soon after the wedding. She knows her powers came from my altered DNA. She's been told this all her life from the man who has raised her all her life. Why would she believe you?"
With a movement so quick Spider-Man barley sensed it, Osborn gripped his hand around the younger man's neck. His eyes bored into Spider-Man's head.
"She hates you, Parker!" Osborn growled. "She would love to see you maimed, tortured, eaten alive! She once told me if she ever found you dead in the streets that she'd spit on you! Do you understand Parker? Do you?
Spider-Man strained against Osborn's grip. He tried to speak, but the hand was a vise on his throat. As he continued to struggle, Osborn took out a needle and jabbed it into Spider-Man's neck. The hero thought that the needle held more drugs and he would go to sleep again, but he didn't feel drowsy at all. In fact, the chemicals seemed to be doing nothing.
Then, for seemingly no reason at all, Osborn slowly released his grip on Spider-Man, his angry features softening into his former smug expression as he did so. Spider-Man opened his mouth from beneath his mask to speak, but no sound came out.
"What's wrong, Parker? Cat got your tongue?" Osborn snorted contemptuously. "I've paralyzed your larynx, if you haven't figured it out already. So even if you could convince my daughter of her true parentage, you are not able. Not that I believe you could, but there's no reason to upset her. Speaking of whom…"
The ceiling of the dining hall made a metallic rumbling as it opened. Before Spider-Man could blink, a Goblin Glider zoomed from the ceiling. The hero's eyes widened in shock as he saw who rode upon it.
It was the Green Goblin. Lydia had changed her costume, but it was obviously her beneath the mask ("Who else would it be?" thought Spider-Man). Her purple cape flew behind her as she zoomed downwards towards the two men, her gloved hands clutching a battered and bloody woman.
"Mary Jane!" Spider-Man thought. "Oh my God! What did they do to her?"
Osborn laughed cruelly as his daughter tossed the unconscious woman to the floor like a rejected doll. "Had fun, Lydia?"
"Much!"
Spider-Man's entire body tensed as Lydia smiled, her false fangs and pointed green ears giving her the appearance of a vicious predator. This was his daughter? The baby he felt kicking in his wife's stomach? The child on the ultrasound picture they once tacked to their fridge? She was this girl?
"Well, here's the chance for some more fun." Osborn pressed a button on Spider-Man's bonds. They whipped back into the table, releasing him. Spider-Man immediately leaped towards his wife and cradled her in his arms.
She looked like she was dead, or at least nearing it. Blood poured over her swollen face from a deep gash in her forehead. Her shoulder was dislocated and her arm was mangled back, clearly broken under the skin. Bruises and cuts covered her lovely body. Spider-Man felt tears welling up in his eyes. "Please, God," he thought. "Don't let her be dead… she can't be…"
A pained groan issued forth from Mary Jane's mouth. She opened one of her green eyes. "Peter…"
Spider-Man put a finger on her mouth to silence her. He could feel a great weight removed from his shoulders as he pressed his wife to his chest. She was alive! Alive! He was so happy that he felt like crying. However, this elation would be short-lived.
"Hate to break up your little reunion, but I think we have some unfinished business." Osborn grinned as he turned to his daughter. "The time has come, Lydia. Avenge our family! Kill them now!"
"With pleasure!" Lydia sneered as she pointed her gloves toward the reunited pair, sending waves of electricity hurtling toward them.
To be continued…
Extra Author's Note: In case you were wondering, as far-fetched as paralyzing someone's larynx seems, trust me, it's been done (at least in the MU) before. Sabra once did it to the Hulk with her quills during their battle, so it's not much of a stretch. :-)