Chapter Twenty-Five

I fell.

"Mayday! Nooooo!"

SHHHHHHEWWWHAAAM! CRASH!

"Aaaaargh!" I landed hard on my twisted ankle and clapped my hands to my ears as another tremendous crash rocked the plant. Looking up, I gasped and scrambled aside as the twisted remains of the highest catwalk plummeted down, the cables melted and smoldering.

"What...?" I choked.

Why wasn't I dead? My heart was racing. I whipped my head around. I had fallen on a catwalk that was leaning at a crazy angle, balanced on a few crisscrossing beams, just inches above the sparking coils of the generator. There hadn't been any catwalks below.

"You!" I heard Black Widow snarl. I looked up.

Someone shouted, "Guess who's come to crash the party?"

Harry!

Harry was standing aboard the glider...the glider that he must have called back. He was in full Hobgoblin regalia, hovering a few yards above and away from Black Widow. From under each wing, both of the missile ports could be seen. One was empty.

He had shot down part of the catwalk to catch me!

There were startled cries from the guards below. Dad was staring up at us, frozen.

The heat was unbearable. Sweat broke out on my forehead as the broken catwalk gave an ominous lurch. I wrapped my fingers through the grating and stumbled to my feet. The catwalk trembled.

Black Widow glanced between me and Harry quickly. She couldn't reach either of us; her size and weight prevented her from getting me, and all Harry had to do was fling that grenade and the whole plant would go up.

"Well if it isn't young master Harry on his white horse!" Black Widow mocked.

Harry was carrying a weapon I had never seen before, a short metal staff about two feet long. He raised it and shifted his grip. Three daggerlike prongs thrust out with a sudden snap, turning it into a razored pitchfork.

Harry pointed the weapon at Black Widow. The other fist was clenching a grenade. "If you ever...try and hurt her again...I swear I'll..." His voice was taut and shaking with a fury that I had never heard before in the sane Harry.

I saw Black Widow shift on the catwalk above. At her sides, hidden from Harry, I saw the middle and ring fingers of each hand begin to bend inward.

"Harry! Look out!" I yelled. He had to have seen it, had to have sensed the danger...

But Harry didn't have spider-sense.

He jerked in surprise at my shout, but not enough to dodge when Black Widow fired web from all six wrists, hitting him directly in the face and chest.

Harry rocked backwards on the glider from the force of the web impact, clutching at his face. He dropped the pitchfork. The grenade went flying. Black Widow ducked out of the way. The grenade sailed over her head and bounced down to the floor of the plant as the rig guards dropped Doc and ran for their lives.

The grenade exploded in a tremendous roar of light and fire. I clenched the edge of the catwalk so hard I thought my fingers would break. The catwalk shook and slid backwards.

"Oh, great," I said.

The catwalk seesawed again, tilting backwards towards the crackling transformers. I looked up. The entire severed path was held only by a twisted grill hooked around the highest beam surrounding the generator in a frame. As I watched, the metal of the grill started to bend. The weight of the steel catwalk was straightening it.

I wrapped my fingers through the grill just as Black Widow turned to her guards and, pointing at the struggling Harry, yelled, "Shoot him!"

The guards fumbled with their weapons, stumbling around the grenade's crater. One half-raised her gun and froze. They made no move to shoot.

The catwalk groaned and slid jerkily another foot. I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood. The entire broken catwalk had turned into a deadly slide. The weight would straighten the hooked cable holding it up. Once the cable straightened, the metal walkway would slide across the beams and straight down into the middle of the generator coils.

"What are you doing?" Black Widow screeched. I saw Harry free an arm, now clawing at the web covering his mask and blinding him. "I said shoot him! Bring him down! Sergeant Freidmann!" Black Widow turned towards the guard that was standing near the front of the group. "Shoot him, Freidmann! Shoot them both!"

There was a muttering, murmuring sound from below.

"Don't move, Freidmann!"

It was Dad.

The catwalk slid again. I slowly reached up, holding my breath, and wrapped my fingers through the grill over my head. If I could get to the top, where there was room to climb out...

But I watched the scene below, openmouthed.

Freidmann, the guard, turned at stared at Dad. "Man...I've got orders...I..." His hands clenched and unclenched around the gun nervously.

"Orders that would make you kill that boy?" Dad shouted.

I grabbed another handhold and braced my feet, dragging myself up towards the beams.

The catwalk slid again.

Dad was still holding the antidote in his left hand, but he seemed to have almost forgotten it. He whirled around and stared up at Black Widow, stabbing a finger in her direction. "What is she trying to do, huh?" He yelled, "You just saw her drop that girl into the generator! Did any of you sign on to be accomplices to murder?"

"They aren't supposed to be here!" Another guard shouted back. "They're jeopardizing everything we've worked for! You know that, Doe!"

"And what's that?" Dad shot back. "What have we worked for? Do you know? How about you, Naish? Or you? Or you?" He turned to face the semicircle of guards. "You don't have any damn idea!"

I climbed another foot. The catwalk didn't move. I saw Harry tearing web from his face.

I just might make it...

Doc suddenly appeared from the small crowd of guards. "How many of you are New Yorkers?" He paused. "Have you been keeping up with what's been going on? Do you know that your sainted doctor collapsed the midtown tunnel? That she orchestrated all of the attacks in the Bronx and Staten Island? For that!" Doc pointed at the antidote in Dad's hand.

"She wants the formula for the OsCorp performance enhancer." Doc's voice dripped disgust. "So she can hand it to her boss. That formula causes madness. It can turn normal, decent men and women into monsters. It causes insanity." Doc paused to let the words sink in, and repeated, "Insanity."

I hauled myself upwards, muscles trembling with the strain of keeping my balance. Just five more feet...five more...

"So go ahead. Go along with this. And then the blood of those who will suffer will be on your hands as much as hers."

The other guards were muttering. Black Widow sucked in a hissing breath. "I promise you, Freidmann, and all of you. If you disobey my orders, you'll pay so dearly..." Black Widow trailed off.

Freidmann took a step forward, raised his gun...

And threw it to the ground.

"Get someone else to do your dirty work, Garcia."

I gritted my teeth, focusing on that beam, sweat dripping down my face. Three more feet...

A woman came forward next and tossed her gun next to Freidmann's. "Who the hell are you really, Doe?"

Harry was ripping at the web binding his other arm. Black Widow's eyes were flickering wildly between me, Harry, and the crowd below. One by one, then in twos and threes, eight more guards came forward and tossed their guns onto the growing pile.

Two more feet...

Six guards hadn't moved. Dad said, "What do you stand for now?" He didn't sound at all like the nervous, horrified man that he had been only moments before.

A guard shook his head. "Look, Doe, I signed on. I said I'd do my job, and I will. I don't go back on deals."

Just one...more...foot...

Then Harry flung off the web, the six guards opened fire, and Black Widow kicked the broken catwalk into space just as my hand touched the beam.

"Aaaaah!"

The catwalk disappeared from under me. I flung my arms around the beam as the metal pathway tumbled back and crashed into the generator with an earsplitting screech. Sparks flew and blue bolts of electricity shot into the air. The beam grew hot.

Bullets ricocheted off of Harry's armor in all directions, not penetrating but throwing him backwards. One whined past my ear. Black Widow bounded over the coils to the opposite side of the frame, dodging bullets and yelling, "Hold! Hold your fire!"

I couldn't hold on to the beam! It was much too wide, and the cloth of my gloves didn't grip at all. It was a ten foot drop to the floor.

Harry shouted, "Mayday! Doc! Shut your eyes!" when I lost my grip.

There was a brilliant flash and a strangely muffled explosion. I landed hard on my feet and staggered, clapping my hands over my eyes and squeezing them shut. I heard only a clattering and the roar of the waves.

I opened my eyes tentatively and saw the remains of a grenade in the middle of the floor, but no crater. Almost every single one of the guards was flat on the floor, unconscious. Doc and Dad both lowered their arms from their faces.

Harry drifted down calmly. "I'm sorry about them," he nodded at the guards, many of whom had thrown down their weapons, "but I had to get the shooters. They'll be fine when they wake up."

"Which is more than I can say for you, Osborn." Black Widow landed crouched with shocking suddenness in the middle of the floor, staring around at us with predatory alertness. She was huge, threatening, terrifying. Only Harry could stand a chance against her now.

Dad moved to stand directly in front of me, blocking Black Widow's path. "How long has it been," he asked. "Since you've known? I don't know who I am. I don't remember anything before the past five years. And you know why, don't you?"

Black Widow's smile looked more like the grimace of a death's-head. "I do...Spider-Man. But if I were you, I'd be worrying about someone else. Someone who should be arriving any moment now, and who also has a score to settle with you. Isn't that right, Mr. Osborn?"

Black Widow rolled her eyes to look up at the hovering Harry, who hadn't moved. He seemed to be frozen where he stood.

"Yes," Black Widow said, full of a gleeful malice that made my blood run cold. "If my assumptions are correct, I'd say he's coming back just...about...now."

Black Widow took another bound backwards, away from us. "Shall we watch?"

I stared up at Harry, filled with a gripping, freezing horror. Harry suddenly collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut, tumbling off the glider and landing on his back on the floor, wrenching at his helmet.

"Harry!" I rushed forward, grabbed his arm, tried to pull him to his feet. Harry sagged again, ripping his mask off. His face was white, and sweat poured down his face in rivers. He started to shake.

"Mayday...get out...go...he's back...Hob-..."

"Give him the antidote!" Doc yelled, running forward. "It's the liquid! Doe!"

Black Widow was standing a few meters away, with an amused expression that sent a stab of rage through my heart. I grabbed Harry's shoulders and heaved him up as Dad fumbled to open the cylinder. I grabbed Harry's hand. "Come on...stay with me, Harry..."

Harry went limp, his jaw slack. His eyes were half-shut and unfocused.

"Oh, no," Doc whispered.

"Come on, Dad, hurry! Hurry-aaaaahh!"

Harry's hand crunched shut around mine in a viselike grip, crushing my fingers together. His eyes snapped open, glinting an eerie green from the reflected lightning.

"Well, hello, Spider-Girl," Harry said, in a voice that had haunted my nightmares. His teeth were bared in an insane grimace, half grin, half snarl. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?"

Hobgoblin.

His grip tightened agonizingly. My bones were about to break. "Let...go!"

Hobgoblin jerked my arm forward, bringing our faces inches apart. "Why? You've taken such a great interest in my welfare, Spider-Girl. Doesn't that mean we're close friends?"

I felt something snap in my hand and strangled a scream of pain. My right hand. I was right-handed. Hobgoblin thought he had put me out of commission.

I drew back my left fist and swung as hard as I could. My knuckles connected solidly with his head. I ignored the pain shooting up my arm as Hobgoblin let go, clamping a hand over his eye.

"Now! Dad!"

Dad rushed forward in front of me with the antidote. I think he meant to throw it in Harry's face. Hobgoblin stumbled to his feet. I ran forward.

Hobgoblin pulled back his fist. I knew that a punch from his could send someone flying, something no normal human could ever survive.

"Dad!" I yelled. "Look out!"

The antidote smashed on the floor.

Hobgoblin swung, hitting Dad squarely in the chest, knocking him into me, and sending us both flying backwards.

Straight into the side of the generator.

KSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHH!"

I felt the coils of the generator slam into my back an instant before my body exploded in a white-hot, ripping pain. I fell forward, collapsing on my knees on the cool floor. I couldn't breathe. I heard Dad fall down next to me.

Agony rippled through my muscles and fireworks exploded in my head. I was shaking apoplectically. Pain slashed across the inside of my wrists like razor blades.

We had only slammed into the side of the generator and the pain was excruciating. Through a fog I saw Dad reach up and tear the helmet off his head, taking in huge gasps of air.

It was him, almost exactly as I remembered. Only now his hair was tinged with gray. He was blinking, one hand to his forehead, as if waking from a dream. He turned to look at me.

"M-…Mayday?"

I stumbled to my feet. My broken hand had stopped hurting. "Dad...you okay?" I wheezed. The roaring surf reached nearly to the dock. We had fallen just in front of the guard rail protecting the workers from the sea.

"'Dad'? Did you call him..." I heard Hobgoblin gasp. He was there, and Doc a few yards behind him. Hobgoblin had put his helmet back on. The yellow eyes burned in Dad's direction.

Dad's own eyes widened. "Norman?"

"No, not at all," Black Widow called. I had almost forgotten that she was there. "See what your meddling has led to, Spider-Man! Your-"

Black Widow stopped in midsentence, and I'm sure that for an instant we were thinking the exact same thing.

How had Dad remembered the name of the Green Goblin?

"You," Hobgoblin hissed. "You. You're Spider-Man." His voice rose to a mad, hate-filled shriek.

"You killed my father!"

DANGER!

I jerked backwards as Hobgoblin made a backhand blow in my direction, meaning to swat me aside. Instead he lunged at Dad, grabbing him by the throat with both hands. Dad drew back his fist and brought it smashing into the side of Hobgoblin's head. Hobgoblin reeled backwards but didn't loosen his grip. They overbalanced.

"Noooo!" With a speed I didn't know I possessed, I sprinted forward just as they both tumbled over the railing and towards the raging ocean below.