Chapter Twenty-Six
A crash of thunder, a screech of laughter, and I was flinging myself over the railing and stretching out my arm in a feeble, desperate reach.
Thwip!
I caught hold of the top of the railing as an added weight jerked my right arm. I looked down. My eyes traveled from the slit in my sleeve, down the line of webbing that stretched inexplicably from my right wrist to Dad's back.
Dad and Hobgoblin were still fighting, dangling just feet above the waves crashing against the support pillars. Dad pounded furiously at Hobgoblin's head, but Hobgoblin didn't release his death grip on Dad's throat. The wind gusted, slamming them both into a steel support pylon. Dad slapped his hand against the pylon, drew back his fist, and punched Hobgoblin in the head with all of his strength.
Hobgoblin's head snapped back. I saw his grip loosen, falter.
I couldn't reach him. Too far. He was too far!
"Harry! Harry, no!" I screamed.
Hobgoblin fell.
He fell in slow motion, the one who used to be Harry Osborn, feet first into the ocean. I saw lightning reflecting off his armor as the waves closed over his head.
I heard Doc yelling something from behind me, but I couldn't tell what.
Something roared over my head and dove straight down towards the ocean. The glider. It wouldn't make it; how could Hobgoblin swim in that armor? How could he...
"Harry!" I screamed.
A familiar warning buzzed to life inside my head. I twisted out of the way a split second before Black Widow's claws raked down and gouged into the floor.
My spider-sense!
I stood there, gasping, feeling an almost-forgotten strength surging through my muscles. My palms were prickling. My powers...my spider-sense, my webbing...
Maybe it was the electrical shock, I didn't know, and I didn't have time to think on it. But my powers...my powers were back!
Black Widow stood there, snarling.
Black Widow, Elaine Garcia. The real cause.
The real reason that my dad had vanished and spent five years of his life not knowing who he was or where he came from. The reason my mom cried herself to sleep, the reason my little brother grew up without a father, and the reason that so many people were suffering. The monster who had kidnapped Doc. The creature who had stood by and laughed as Hobgoblin reemerged. The woman who was responsible for the death of my best friend and who had nearly destroyed my family.
The creature whose very image caused a well of black, consuming rage to roar through me. No, not rage. This wasn't anger. This was something else.
Hatred.
I hated her. I hated her with every fiber of my being, this vile, evil monster...
"So, little Mayday," said Black Widow. "It comes to this."
I stepped backwards to the railing, chancing a glance downwards. Dad...Dad was wallcrawling. Slowly, uncertainly, he was pulling himself up the pylon, hand over hand.
"Yeah," I said, "It comes to this."
I grasped the top bar of the railing. It was about an inch in diameter, solid steel. The metal bar felt like a twig in my hands, and the steel buckled under my fingers as I twisted it off. I held the section of steel up at my eye level, making sure that Black Widow could see it clearly.
I gripped both ends and said, "And just so you know..." I folded the bar into an arc and tossed it aside. "My name is Spider-Girl."
Black Widow's eyes flickered quickly from the pieces of metal to my mask. She seemed to waver, and I saw the tiniest spark of some vague emotion in her dead eyes.
It was fear.
Black Widow forced a mocking smile onto her face, but it was unsteady. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut in, struggling to keep my voice level.
This would end. Here. Now. It wasn't just about me and my family. It was my responsibility to stop this monster, this twisted wreckage of humanity. My job, My duty came with who I was. Mayday Parker, Spider-Girl.
But it wasn't really my duty that kept me standing. It was another, different, darker thought.
I'll make you pay.
"Are you afraid?" I shouted. It was hard to talk, and hard to keep the furious snarl out of my voice.
Black Widow roared and sprang at me. I dove under her and tumbled out fo the way as she clattered against the wall, crouching and tensing for another spring.
I landed a few yards away, on my feet again.
Black Widow raised all six arms and extended thirty claws. "I'm not bothering with any venom, Parker. This time you die!"
My broken hand ached. Pain lanced up my arm. Ignoring the sickening feeling of bone grinding against bone, I forced my fingers into a fist.
Black Widow sprang. I leaped into the air, somersaulted, and came down feet first onto the back of her neck, slamming her facedown on the floor. Just as quickly Black Widow swung an arm around behind her and backhanded me in the side of my head.
I staggered backwards, flashes of light exploding in my vision. A hand...no, two hands wrapped around my throat and slammed me to the floor, slowly cutting off my air. I drew back both feet and kicked upwards. Black Widow's head snapped back for an instant, then came forward again, growling. "Oh, so it's 'Spider-Girl' again, is it, Mayd-"
"Take your hands off my daughter!"
An indistinct blur slammed into Black Widow and she let go of me with a screech, tumbling backwards. A hand gripped my arm and slowly pulled me to my feet.
"D-Dad?" I choked, struggling for breath.
Dad was there, looking battered and exhausted, but with the strength to manage a small smile. "It's me, Mayday. It's...it's me."
A lump formed in my throat. "You...remember?"
Dad nodded slowly, his smile widening slightly. "Mayday...I can't believe it. It was like yesterday you were ten years old, and now..."
"Parker!" A malevolent hiss interrupted Dad. I turned around slowly. Black Widow was crouching a few yards away, eyeing us warily.
"Garcia. It was you all along. You. You stole my family, my life..." Dad's voice trembled, but whether it was with fury or sorrow I couldn't tell.
Black Widow shifted, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Doc leaning over a guard, taking his pulse.
Doc.
A wave of frustration boiled up inside me. I...we...had to get Doc out of here. That was what I had come for. I couldn't fight Black Widow!
Dad was still talking, reasoning. "I didn't kill Osborn, Garcia."
Black Widow hissed like a cat, and stabbed a finger at the air over our heads. "Tell that to him!"
Dad and I whirled, and I gasped. Hobgoblin crouched on his glider, clenching the pitchfork. He was alive! He spoke, starting in a flat monotone which rose into a mad shriek. "You think you can get rid of me that easily?"
"Mayday," Dad whispered, without moving his lips. "She's coming up behind us...when I say..."
"Now you're here!" Hobgoblin ranted insanely with Harry's stolen voice. I watched him, aghast. If Hobgoblin had had any last vestige of sanity within him, it had finally snapped. "I no longer need Spider-Girl! I'll kill you! Just like you killed him! I'll-"
"Jump!" Dad shouted. He grabbed my hand and we sprang into the air just as Black Widow's claws whistled through the air below us. Dad fired a webline from his left wrist and I followed suit, swinging away to land against the wall. Dad landed next to me, his back against the wall, supporting himself with his fingetips and the soles of his feet.
"Just like old times," Dad muttered. "Mid-air dodge, web, and somersault landing. One of my specialties."
I managed a small smile under my mask. "My favorite's the free fall."
I saw the guards, all lying across the plant near the generator. A few were sitting up, and Doc was just helping one to his feet. He cast a stricken look at us.
Black Widow and Hobgoblin turned as one to face us. Hobgoblin pointed at us. "Do what you want with Spider-Girl," he said, "But Spider-Man's mine!"
"You know, this time I agree with you," Black Widow seethed.
"Here it comes...go!" Dad yelled. We pushed off as Hobgoblin hurled a grenade. It whirled past my head as I shot a web line. It collided with the wall and detonated. The shock wave almost knocked me out of the air. I released and dropped to the floor.
In an instant Black Widow was there, slashing wildly. My spider-sense was screaming like a siren, ordering me to jump, to dodge, to leap. I sprang into the air and whirled, delivering a double spinning kick to her head. She grabbed my ankle and jerked upwards, sending me tumbling backwards. My broken hand was on fire.
I landed hard on my side and twisted away as she crashed down where I had fallen a second before.
We were both up again, circling around, waiting for the other's move. To Black Widow's left was the wall of computer terminals, screens and lighted keyboards glowing eerily. Another explosion rattled the plant. I could see Dad and Hobgoblin over Black Widow's shoulder. Hobgoblin was on the ground again, his glider nowhere to be seen, stabbing brutally with the pitchfork. Dad was evading him, trying to speak. "I didn't kill your father! It was an accident!"
"Liar!" Hobgoblin hissed.
"See what you have done?" Black Widow whispered viciously to me. "See what you both have done? See all the lives you people have destroyed? See-"
"You tell me about lives I've destroyed?" I snarled. "Just like you've destroyed my family?" I sprinted forward, blinded with rage, swinging wildly. I'd get her, I'd make her pay for what she had done to us!
A single fist crashed against my head and sent me sprawling, fireworks exploding in my eyes. I staggered forward again and leaped into the air delivering the hardest blow I could to Black Widow's face. Black Widow lurched backwards, crashing heavily into the blinking wall of terminals. Sparks flew.
"Warning," said a mellow voice from the wall. "Power regulation system is off-line. Attempting emergency override."
Black Widow paused, and it was in that instant that I charged, swinging my fists. I felt my fractured hand impact and nearly screamed in agony. Black Widow whipped an arm around and clamped a gigantic talon around my wounded hand, squeezing like a vice.
"Aaaaaaaaahh!"
This time I couldn't strangle the scream that erupted from my throat. Black Widow steadily tightened her grip, grinning wickedly, twin devils dancing in her eyes. I could feel the broken bones compressing, being smashed against each other.
The lights of the plant flickered. Another mechanical voice droned. "Emergency override has failed. Emergency override has failed. Manual override necessary. Window for manual override expires in four minutes."
My legs buckled and I was on my knees, eyes squeezed shut, teeth gritted, spider-sense howling a desperate alarm.
"Is this the hardest challenge this city has to offer?" Black Widow mocked.
"You...are...pathetic!" I gasped.
"I'm not the one on my knees." Black Widow clenched her fingers shut and I almost collapsed from the agony.
My vision blurred. My left arm felt like lead as I heaved it up, stiffened my fingers, and chopped down on Black Widow's forearm with all of my strength.
Snap!
Black Widow let out a horrible, reverberating screech and released my hand. I staggered to my feet, feeling as if red hot spikes were being driven through my hand. Black Widow clutched her broken upper left forearm, her lips pulled back from her fangs in a grimace.
"Repeat: emergency override failure. Window for manual override expires in two minutes." The lights failed suddenly, then flickered back on. An ominous buzz from the generator rose in pitch.
My spider-sense flared and I somersaulted backwards a second before a hail of bullets tore into the wall behind me. Black Widow screamed.
The Hobgoblin glider swerved away and back to the opposite end of the plant, back towards its true target. The bullets had been meant for Dad, who had dodged out of the way just in time.
Black Widow staggered, clutching her side. She raised that hand to her face, and I saw black blood dripping from her fingers.
"Window for manual override expires in sixty seconds."
The meaning of the computerized voice finally hit home. Black Widow had damaged the power regulation system. The system was probably what controlled the amount of energy flowing from the generator. If it were damaged, then the entire generator would go up in a matter of minutes.
Taking the plant with it...
Black Widow lurched towards me, towards the terminals. Making my decision in a heated second, I spun around and smashed my good fist through the keyboard panel, grasped the net of power cables and ripped them out.
"No!" Black Widow surged forward, shoving me aside, scanning the wall frantically. A deafening siren howled.
"Warning! Manual override drive off-line. Core implosion imminent!"
A shower of blue sparks sprayed from the generator and pattered over the floor. Black Widow turned to me with a murderous growl, stretched out her claws...and stumbled.
I stepped backwards, shocked, as Black Widow groaned and clutched at her side. Black blood leaked through her fingers. She had been hit by one of the glider's bullets.
The lights went out, and I felt a whoosh as something rushed over my head. I whirled, squinting through the darkness. The lights flickered back on.
Black Widow was gone.
"Warning! Core implosion estimated in twenty minutes, twenty-three seconds. Evacuate!"
I searched frantically, scanning the walls, the ceiling. Where had she gone? I dashed into the middle of the massive hangar, just in time to see Dad hurl Hobgoblin into the opposite wall. I sucked in my breath in horror as he crashed against the wall and collapsed, gasping.
"I didn't kill your father, Harry. It was an accident. I-"
Hobgoblin replied with an animalistic snarl. The opaque yellow eye shields slid up into his helmet, revealing a pair of blazing gray eyes that had once belonged to Harry Osborn.
"He saw you," Hobgoblin whispered. "Seven years ago. You were there. He saw you...with the body..."
I saw Hobgoblin's hand creeping towards the keypad on his left wrist, and I knew. A split second before the glider tore over my head towards Dad's unguarded back, two saberlike blades extending from its front.
"Dad!" I screamed, "Look out!"
I had once thought I was good ad what I did. It seemed so long ago. I was overconfident and full of myself, convinced that no one was faster or stronger or more skillfull than I was.
But when I saw my dad in action, I realized how much I still had to learn.
Dad moved so fast that time seemed to freeze around him. Without glimpsing the glider he leaped into the air, turning a perfect backflip as the glider's blades scored the air millimeters beneath him, continuing its deadly course, straight for Hobgoblin.
But Dad wasn't finished.
He landed, whirled around and fired web from both wrists, connecting squarely with Hobgoblin's glider and halting it in midair, the glittering blades quivering inches away from Hobgoblin's head.
I watched, openmouthed, as Hobgoblin stared wide-eyed in horrified facination at what he had almost done. What Dad had saved him from.
Dad gripped the web lines and wrenched, yanking the glider away and hurling it into the space behind him. Hobgoblin pulled his helmet off, gasping for air. He was black and blue, his lips split, blood dripping from his nose and the corner of his mouth. He stared at me, then at Dad, completely astonished.
"You...saved...me?"
"You see now?" Dad said. "Do you know what would have happened to you, Hobgoblin? The exact same thing that happened to your father!"
"No..." Hobgoblin breathed. "No, no, it can't be...you're lying!"
"He killed himself with his own glider, Harry, when I got out of the way. I didn't kill him. It was an accident." Dad swallowed. "Right before he died, the real Norman Osborn came back. And he looked at me and said, 'Don't tell Harry.'"
"No...that's not true! You killed him, you had to have killed him! You're lying! You're lying!" Hobgoblin screamed.
Then I understood.
Hobgoblin was the reflection of Harry, Harry's own demons brought to life through the OsCorp performance enhancer. He had been alive, sharing Harry's body for months, the other half of his mind. He had lived only on his own anger, lurking, feverishly anticipating the moment when he could take his revenge for the crime and laugh in his enemy's face.
Only to find out that there was no crime, and that he had no enemy.
"You're lying! You're lying!" Hobgoblin yelled hysterically, madly, a terrible desperation etched over his features.
After all he had done, what he had tried to do to me and Dad, what he had already done to Harry, when he had endangered the lives of hundreds of people. I remembered Times Square, the Staten Island tour boat...
I stood there, staring at this pitiful, twisted creature, built on the hatred of a teenaged boy, who thrived on the one single belief that had just been robbed from him.
He stared at Dad, eyes stretched wide, teeth bared, shaking his head.
I remembered Times Square, the terror that he had caused, the faces of the people and that reporter, screaming and running for their lives. I remembered Hobgoblin laughing, and the shock and anger that I had felt.
But now, all I felt was pity.
I walked over to stand next to Dad.
"Core implosion estimated in sixteen minutes."
I heard and saw out of the corner of my eye Doc helping the guards to their feet, ushering them out, urging them to safety. The last guard stumbled groggily after her companions, and Doc hurried over to stand beside me.
Hobgoblin's eyes flickered wildly between the three of us. He looked like a trapped animal.
"Let it go, Harry," said Doc. "It's over."
Hobgoblin's face contorted into a bizarre echo of his mask. "It's not over. It'll never be over!" He lurched up, lunging towards us, his hands curled into claws...
And stopped in midstep.
"Core implosion estimated in fifteen minutes."
Hobgoblin froze, trembling, his face twitching. He jerked backwards as if pulled by puppet strings, sweat streaming down his forehead.
"Osborn, what do you think you're doing?" Hobgoblin roared. "You...you coward! You...you weak-willed...aaaahh!"
Hobgoblin clutched at his head, and his voice changed completely. "Give it up, damn it! Give it up! You're pathetic! You've got nothing to live for! Nothing! You aren't me! You're nothing! Nothing!" Harry shouted.
"Coward! Coward! Coward!" Hobgoblin chanted insanely. I ran forward and grabbed Harry's shoulders, ignoring the searing pain in my hand.
"Come on, Harry, come on! He's losing! Hobgoblin's losing! Fight him, Harry!"
"Core implosion estimated in thirteen minutes."
Harry's body shuddered violently, sagging under my grip. He fell against the wall and slid down.
I gaped, horrified. "Harry? Harry!"
Harry looked up at me dimly. "Mayday..."
"It's me. It's me. Come on, Harry..."
"Please," Harry gasped, air wheezing in his lungs, "Oh, God, Mayday, please...help me."
I stared into his eyes for a moment, not understanding. Then, I reached over and tapped him on his left temple. He closed his eyes and slid to the floor, unconcious.
A brief respite.
I gently put my arms under Harry's shoulders and knees. I paused, then placed the helmet back over his head. Whatever happened, his identity would be safe. I lifted him up.
"Dad?" I turned to look at him. Doc likewise did the same.
"Core implosion in twelve minutes."
Dad's brow furrowed, and he stared down at the floor for a moment. "Three hundred personnel, including the guards. They'll have taken all of the escape boats."
"We're stuck here?" Doc asked.
Dad's head snapped up. "No. The seaplane. Fifty miles of fuel and room for six. On the south docks. Let's go!"
We took off in a sprint for the massive doors, Dad and I having to save our speed in order for Doc to keep up. I tightened my grip on Harry, praying that Hobgoblin wouldn't come to before Harry did.
"Core implosion estimated in ten minutes."
Down the huge corridor, past painted steel doors and docks.
"Mayday! Can you keep up if I webswing?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay!"
"Hey, but...whoa!" Doc yelled as Dad suddenly grabbed him around the waist, pinning his arms to his sides and leaped into the air, swinging one- handed down the corridor. I quickened my pace, dashing for all I was worth, suddenly blessing my old track coach for teaching us the all-out.
Dad turned a sharp corner and I skidden after him. A blast of rain blew into my face as we reached a large open platform, once a helicopter pad, Through the rain, I could barely see the receding lights of twelve escape boats.
Dad dropped lightly down beside me and set a shaking, wide-eyed Doc on his feet. "There! There!"
The seaplane bobbed in the waves, chained to the platform. It was small, propellered, with two wide skis. We rushed over, slipping on the platform in the driving rain.
"Core implosion estimated in nine minutes."
Dad grabbed the chain and snapped it, then clambered up and wrenched the door open. "I don't supposed either of you knows how to fly this thing?"
"There's something I can do." Doc pushed forward. "Air Force for three years."
"You were?" I asked, feeling like nothing would surprise me now.
Doc grinned. "I flew in the Gulf, med transports. I can manage this."
"Hurry, get in!" Dad yelled over the shrieking wind. Doc climbed into the cockpit, and I hurried forward with Harry. Dad reached forward to pull him into the plane. I froze.
Oh, no.
My eyes widened.
"Dad!" I gasped. "The antidote!"
Dad stared for a split second, then horrified understanding dawned on his face.
Doc didn't have any more antidote in his lab. Black Widow had made sure of that. She had stolen the data and destroyed the rest. There was no way Doc could reconstruct the formula in time.
The only antidote left in the world existed in a drilling platform that was about to explode.
"We've got to go back!" I shouted.
Doc said, "Here! Leave Harry here!"
Dad took Harry and hesitated, "If Hobgoblin wakes up you won't have a chance!"
"I'll risk it! Without that antidote the whole thing starts all over again!"
Dad lay Harry across two seats inside the plane and jumped down. I made a decision, glanced at Dad. He looked back, and nodded grimly.
I turned to Doc and yelled, "Doc! If we're not back a minute before implosion, take off! Understand! Don't wait for us!"
Dad turned to me and smiled lopsidedly. "Think Spider-Girl and Spider- Man can pull this off?"
I smiled back weakly under my mask. "Only one way to find out."
"Then let's go!"
The speaker called in an absurdly calm tone, "Core implosion estimated in eight minutes."
Dad and I turned and ran back for the doors.