C, Cowboy: only two more chapters left counting this one, but is this the last you'll hear of Spinarak-Man? I've got planed multiple sequels planed pitting the Pokemon World's Friendly Neighborhood Wallcrawler against pokemonized versions of Doc Ock, The Lizard, Venom, Carnage, Electro, Black Cat, The Vulture, Electro, Shocker, The Punisher, and, of course, the Green Goblin. Now before putting the cart before the horse, who is the Hobgoblin?  Is it Brock? Gary? Tracy? Those are the suspects named so far, any guesses? Going to be narrowed a lot in this chapter. Can Ash as Spinarak-Man defeat the insane Rocket before another loved one is taken from him?  

Chapter 7: Who's Next?

"I'm really worried about him, Brock." Misty said to her friend as she took a sip from her milkshake, "I want to help, but he seems to have cut himself off from everyone ever since Melody's funeral."

"Eh," Brock shrugged, "He'll pull through, he's made it though tough times before."

"WAAAAAAA!!!!" Two voices screamed as they fell from the Pokemon Studio across the street interrupting the two friends.

Misty and Brock looked and saw Spinarak-Man silently dragging Jessie and James out the window of the Studio. He then quickly threw them both against a power pole and webbed them to it. 

Misty shot from her seat and ran toward the hero, "Spinarak-Man!" she yelled as Brock gripped her arm, "Misty wait, don't go near that freak! He's a murderer!"

Spinarak-Man stopped and looked for her reaction.

"No, Brock, he is NOT a murderer!" Misty screamed shoving him away, "Spinarak-Man would never ever kill!"

Ash smiled faintly under his mask, "At least one person in the world still believes in me." Spinarak-Man said sadly as he shot a webline and swung away.

"Spinarak-Man! Wait!" Misty yelled running after him a few steps before giving up, "wait…"

Spinarak-Man swung through the city trying his best to get the memory of Melody dieing out of his mind, but had no luck. "Hobgoblin knows who I am." Spinarak-Man said swinging between two towers. "I have no idea who he is, but he knows everything about me. He could be anybody! Brock, Tracy, I don't even know if I can trust Misty anymore."

Spinarak-Man continued to swing for hours, just thinking, trying to figure out what to do now, and whom he could trust. It was starting to get dark, when he finally brought himself out of his thoughts and realized he was near Goldenrod Gym. He swung close and seen a person standing on the roof looking out towards the sunset. 'Might as well trust someone.' Spinarak-Man thought as he swung toward the gym roof.

"Pretty huh?" He asked taking Misty by surprise.

"Spinarak-Man?" Misty asked surprised.

"Yeah it's me." He said crouching on the railing beside her, "I'll go if you want me to." 

"No…" Misty said grabbing his arm to make sure he didn't get away this time, "Don't go."

"Thanks." Spinarak-Man said looking towards the sunset, "for sticking up for me today."

"It makes me mad." Misty huffed, "they just blame it all on you, without even doing any investigating. It's obvious it was the Hobgoblin who did it!" Misty stated, "and I'm not the only one, my friend, Ash, he knows you didn't do it too." Spinarak-Man noticed a strange glimmer appear in her eyes as she continued, "Ash can help you! Ash always goes out of his way to help out when someone needs it! He does that sort of thing all the time! I'm sure he can help prove you didn't do anything wrong, and I'm sure he wants to get who really hurt Mel too."

"Ash always goes out of his way to help people." Misty said proudly, "most of the time he's never met them before and probably will never see them again, but he still helps."

"Ash Ketchum?" Spinarak-Man asked, "Yeah I know him, he…uh…we've met before. He's a good friend."

"If you met him, I'm sure you've made friends with him." Misty said with a smile, "He's really likable."

"Sounds like… you really like him." Spinarak-Man asked thankful his mask was hiding his blush.

"Yeah…you could say that." Misty whispered a blush creeping across her cheeks, "Spinarak-Man, could you keep a secret?"

"I wear a mask, don't I?" Spinarak-Man chuckled.

"Well." She sighed stepping away turning her back to the masked hero, "I've…kindda…had a…well…a bit of a…crush on Ash for a few years now." She then spun around when she heard a thud from Spinarak-Man falling off the railing and hitting hard on the roof.

"I…uh…I thought you were going out with Gary Oak now?" Spinarak-Man asked sprawling to his feet.

Misty let out a deep sigh, "I am and I have strong feelings for him too, its just there's something about Ash. He has an air to him. You see, when he's around, no matter how bad the situation is if he's there he makes it feel like everything will work out fine. And then there's someone else…I also have strong feelings for him too, and he's got that same feeling of safety to him as Ash."

"Sounds like you have a lot of thinking to do." Spinarak-Man stated as he jumped back to the railing, "I got some swinging to do, so I'll leave you to think. I do know who you should chose though." He stated looking back towards her.

"Who?" She asked nervously taking a step towards him.

"Who ever makes you the happiest." Spinarak-Man said as he swung away.

"Who ever makes me the happiest…" Misty repeated as she turned to go inside to get ready for bed.

Spinarak-Man was about a block away when he felt a tingle in his danger sense that told him to go back to Misty's. "Something isn't right."  Spinarak-Man said as he made a beeline towards the Gym.

He swung around to the neighboring building that was across from Misty's bedroom window. He started to leave thinking it was a glitch when he spotted something that caught his attention: Misty removing her shirt.

"I really shouldn't be doing this…" Spinarak-Man said to himself, "I really shouldn't…she wears a thong??? I didn't know that!" He said as the cloth of his mask covering his mouth began to dampen with drool.

Misty then started to go to remove her bra, "this is wrong, this is wrong" Spinarak-Man repeated but couldn't pull his eyes away, when a knock on the door caused Misty to pull on a bathrobe. "Oh dang!" Spinarak-Man sighed snapping his fingers.

"Huh? Gary what are you doing here?" Misty asked as Gary stormed into her bedroom.

"Why didn't you tell me you spent the other night with Ash? Alone??" Gary growled glaring at her. 

"I just heard from Brock, He found you in the living room with him." Gary snapped.

"Yes, Gary, he was upset about Mel, and I stayed with my best friend. He slept on the couch and I stayed in a chair." Misty explained slightly peeved that Gary was going on about this.

"But you were alone with another guy, and you're MY girlfriend, Misty!" Gary yelled gripping her shoulder. 

"Let go, Gary!" Misty yelled trying to pull his hand from her shoulder, "You're hurting me!"

"Fine then, Misty!" Gary growled as he jerked open her robe and pushed her on the bed, "I'll give you what's coming to you!"

Gary had just enough time to touch his jeans when Misty's bedroom window shatters and he felt two feet fly into the side of his face. 

"What the?" Gary asked but was cut off as he felt a fist connect with his ribs then his jaw.

Gary then found himself being held off the ground and staring into a pair of reflective eyes, "If I ever, EVER, catch you with in a mile range of her again…" Spinarak-Man hissed with a large amount of hate in his voice, "You do NOT want to know what I will do to you."

Spinarak-Man threw him into Misty's hallway and watched him sprawl to his feet, and run like mad. He then turned his attention to Misty. She was curled up in a ball on her bed, tears running down her cheeks. "It's ok now, Mist, It's ok." He soothed pulling her to him.

"Spinarak-Man?" Misty asked between sobs.

"It's ok now." Spinarak-Man repeated again, "I'll always protect you." He whispered softly running his gloved hand though her hair.

"Ash…" she sighed making Spinarak-Man panic.

"Wa-waa?" He silently freaked looked down, but calmed when he seen she was silently sleeping.

"Dreaming of me, Mist?" Spinarak-Man whispered as he gently laid her down in her bed, and tucked her in, "I'll always protect you." He soothed again as he turned to go and lock her door and make sure Gary was long gone. 

After using a lot of webbing to make a makeshift widow for her, he was off again. Gary's pretty much out of the picture with her now, so Misty liked two guys, technically one, but she can never know that. "Wonder if Clark Kent ever had days like this?" Spinarak-Man thought as he swung down to an ally near his and Brock's apartment building.  

Ash walked out of the ally in his regular cloths and made his way up to the apartment. "Brocko, you home man?" He asked walking in but stopped dead in his tracks when his danger sense went off.

"Welcome home, Ashy Boy!" a voice sounded from the living room. Ash took a defensive posture and slowly made his way into the living and back stepped slightly when he discovered the place was trashed.

"Brock?" Ash asked angrily, "Hobgoblin! Where are you?"

"Right here, Web Brain!" Came a voice to the left of him.

 "BROCK!" Ash gasped as Brock flew toward him.

Ash caught him and eased him down to the floor; he was battered, beaten and unconscious. "That's for always getting in my way!"  Hobgoblin growled as Pikachu ran down the stairs preparing to thundershock the monster.

"Oh, no you don't, Rat!" Hobgoblin yelled as he tossed an electric proof net over the electric rodent.

"Shame you got home so fast, Ash!" Hobgoblin chuckled, "I couldn't finish him off in time. Too bad." He then pressed a button on his wrist, "See ya around, Loser!" he mocked as his glider blasted through the living room window.

"HOBGOBLIN!!!" Ash yelled as he watched him fly out the window. Ash looked down at Brock for a moment before looking up at the hole in the wall. He gave a nod to Pikachu, turned his hat around backwards and ran and swan dived out the hole.

"Very bold of you to fight me out of your Halloween costume, Ash!" Hobgoblin chuckled as he narrowly missed Ash's swing kick.

Ash swung around and landed on the glider, and the two began to fight and wrestle, trying to throw the other off. "I'm not… going to stop… till I make you want to be dead!" Hobgoblin growled, "Then I'm going to kill you!"

"We'll see, Smiley!" Ash yelled as he decked him. Hobgoblin tumbled backwards, but Ash too fell off as the glider plowed through a billboard.

Ash clung to the side of the large sign trying to catch his breath. "Almost finished, Loser." Hobgoblin growled floating up beside him back on his glider. "I've been watching you from the background for quite sometime, I can't wait to watch you die. Watch your back." He said flatly as he threw a pumpkin bomb that threw Ash hard against the roof of the building. 

"Goblin…" Ash growled as he got back to his feet and found Hobgoblin nowhere in sight.

A few hours later, Ash set at Brock's bedside in the hospital. He was badly beaten but he'd make a full recovery.

"Ash…" Brock groaned as he looked up.

"Brock, how you feeling man?" Ash asked happy to see his friend awake.

"Like I was hit by a truck." Brock grunted shaking his head lightly.

They set there in silence for some time before Brock finally spoke up, "Before that freak showed up and did a number on me, Misty called." Brock said looking at Ash, "She was asking for you. Sounded like she just woke up from a nightmare, and she was really upset."

"What did she say?" Ash asked nervously.

"She said that Gary tried to hurt her, because of her spending the other night with you, and she was worried he'd try to do something to you. She really cares about you, Ash." Brock stated reaching to pat his shoulder.

"Maybe." Ash said shyly.

"Why don't you just tell her how you feel about her?" Brock asked with a smile.

"What?" Ash asked a blush going to his face.

"It's obvious to everyone but you and her that you're nuts about her! What harm would it be letting her in? Maybe if you did it in the first place that with Gary would never have happened." Brock stated coaxingly.

"Everyone…knows…" Ash whispered as the color faded from his face, "I'll be right back!" Ash yelled as he jumped to his feet.

Ash literally ran to the payphone outside and dialed Misty's number. He waited for her to pick up but only got the Gym Answering machine. "Misty, this is Ash, if you're there pick up the phone! Sigh, Misty when you get this massage…" Ash message was cut off by the sound of someone picking up, "Misty??"

"Hello Ashy boy, can Spinarak-Man come out to play?"

To Be Concluded…