Author's Note: I'm sorry I made you all wait so long for these last few chapters, thank you for waiting so patiently. Ah yes, and thank you for the reviews, can't forget that. Now go ahead and read the next chapter, and enjoy.
~Gobby
Harry stood in the lobby of the laboratory building of Oscorp. It was dark and dank, and Harry was having second thoughts about meeting the caller. What-ifs were attacking him.
What if it's just some nut, a killer looking for fun?
No, he knew my name. He called me specifically. He has a reason.
Harry pulled his coat around him tighter and trotted down the stairs that lead to the basement labs. More thoughts bombarded him. What if he's not here? What if I'm in the wrong building?
What if it's not him?
What if you stop thinking like this, get down there, and see what the hell this guy wants.
Harry shut off anymore negative thoughts and concentrated on not getting lost in the huge building. He'd only been there once in his life. His father had taken him when he was young. Take Your Kid to Work Day or something. His dad had been with him about thirty seconds before rushing off to do something, having to leave Harry with an assistant. He'd come back to check on Harry a few hours later, apologizing. Shortly after, he disappeared again. The assistant, a kind middle aged woman had ended up staying with Harry most of the day.
That was when Harry had first found out just how important his father's work was, and how insignificant he himself was when compared to it.
Harry sighed at the memory. He had been seven when he realized how important and busy his father was. He'd thought being rich was pretty cool at first, once he was old enough to grasp the concept. But then, after a while, he had begun to see what other fathers did. He saw the other kids with their dads at the park, or being helped with their homework, just little things like that. But the little things were what hurt the most. The fact that his father had no time to throw a baseball back and forth for ten minutes, or to eat a hamburger with him was what hurt.
Harry sadly turned off of Memory Lane, coming back to the present. Signs adorned the walls. Harry squinted at one of them in the darkness. "Labs C30 through…..C35. It's down here." He was talking aloud to fill the silence. The huge building was giving him the creeps, especially the creaks and groans every now and then.
"Should've brought a flashlight," he muttered to himself. Should've, could've, would've.
Suddenly, a faint light met his eyes. He peered into the darkness, at the sliver of brightness standing out against the black. Light through the crack of a slightly open door. Relieved at the break in the solid black, Harry quickly made his way down the hallways to the door.
"Lab C35," he read off the door, making sure of it.
Pushing the door open slowly, Harry poked his head into the room. "Hello?"
No answer. No one in sight. Dim lights were on, giving the room's green floor an eerie glow. Harry's gaze traveled to the ceiling. Small lights along the edges of the ceiling were lit, but the huge long ones filling the middle of the ceiling were not. "Must be a back-up generator or something," Harry mused. "Anybody here?" Still no answer. "Hello! Is anybody here?" It almost felt wrong, violating the deep silence, but he needed to know who called him.
A huge glass case stood in the middle of the room, more of a smaller room with glass walls. Doors were visible on the farthest wall of it from him, and a metal track led into a slot in another of the glass walls. One of the walls was gone, apparently shattered. A metal gurney with broken restraints stood in the middle of the small room, obviously attached to the track.
Harry's gaze traveled the rest of the larger room in awe. Several computers were placed throughout the cavernous space, and there were metal sets of shelves containing bottles, computer discs, and things he couldn't identify.
Suddenly, the hair stiffened on the back of his neck and his flesh prickled. He felt eyes on him, watching him, maybe laughing at him.
Spinning slowly, trying to see every dark corner, Harry gazed around the room once more. He shook his fears off, chalking it up to the creeps at being in a deserted building at night. He stood for a moment longer, scanning the room again.
Peter rushed into the lobby of the Oscorp lab building, praying he wouldn't trip and break his neck. The freezing rain outside had soaked him to the bone, and the cold building wasn't helping.
Shaking the rain out of his wet hair, Peter slowed to a walk as he crossed the room. There were many doors he could go through, and he had no idea which one to choose. Nor did he have the time to enter each one and search it.
Chewing on his lip, Peter squinted in the darkness, suddenly daunted at the task of finding two men in that huge building. Maybe they weren't even there. He could be in the wrong place entirely, and he could be too late as it was. He had no idea how long Harry had been gone. What were the chances he was going to find him? Peter didn't even know what the Goblin's plans were.
Peter started to cross the lobby, picking the first door on his right. Always go right and you'll never go wrong, he thought with a grim smile.
Always go right, you'll be going in circles.
Peter's spider sense flashed once when he suddenly began to slide. With lightning reflexes, he regained his balance. Peter breathed a sigh of relief, almost laughing. That would have been just perfect, to crack his skull open on the floor and die.
He peered at the floor, trying to see what had made him slip. Something glinted dully on the floor, and Peter knelt carefully, running a finger through it. Water. A wet footprint.
It hadn't been raining long. It was the first time it had rained all day. That meant whoever had come through here must've come through within the last half hour, at most.
Peter stood quickly and scanned the floor for more wet footprints. A trail of them led to a door in the back of the room. Peter followed them carefully through the door to a flight of stairs leading to the basement level. He swallowed, gazing down the dark steps.
"Step into my parlor," said the spider to the fly.
Who's the spider here, Parker? You or him?
A feeling of foreboding grew, and he steeled himself for what was to come.
Harry glanced once more around the room and sighed in deep disappointment. No one there. A trick, maybe? Get the rich boy alone in a deserted building, make some easy cash. Harry began to feel nervous at the feeling of being watched. The sooner he was out, the better.
Harry waited a moment, though, an irrational hope that someone might appear. He had been certain he recognized the voice…
Harry shook his head firmly. He's dead. You saw the body. He's not here. Get the hell out of here before someone does show up.
He swiftly crossed the room to the door, eyes warily on the shadows around him. Quickening his pace, his eyes darted over huge dark shapes and objects. Missing the figure lurking in the darkness. Missing the mad eyes that watched him through a mask.
Peter silently flowed through the hallways, following the trail of wet footprints. He was little more than a shadow flowing through the darkness, watching for any sign of the two men.
Light met his eyes, and Peter's step quickened. Moving more cautiously now to the lit doorway , he pulled his gloves on, carefully sliding one over his bandaged hand. The medical tape around the fingers and the bandage made it a close fit, but fit it did.
Sneaking to the lit doorway, he looked at the sign. Lab C35.
Cautiously, very, very cautiously, he poked his head around the door, looking into the cavernous room.
Harry was striding toward him, and Peter sighed in relief. At least he knew where one of them was. Now to find the more dangerous one.
Peter hid in the shadows as Harry exited the room, holding his breath. As his best friend began to walk quickly down the hall, Peter sneaked up behind him and covered his mouth with his good hand, shushing him. He couldn't let him just wander off, not if the Goblin was planning to involve him in everything. Peter didn't want Harry to yell and give away their position, so he clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him back.
Harry jerked against his arms, making muffled yells. Clawing at the gloved hand covering his mouth, he swung his elbow backwards, trying to catch Peter in the stomach.
Peter dodged the elbow, tightening his grip. "Hey!" he whispered. "Calm down! Stop! Wait a second! Stop!"
Harry ignored these words and continued to pull and yank. He didn't know who his captor was yet, but he certainly didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.
Peter realized too late that maybe he shouldn't have taken him from behind. Using Peter's trick, Harry snapped his teeth down on the hand, and Peter yelped and struggled to hold on. Luckily, his glove protected him from punctured skin. As they struggled, a faint sensation began to creep along the back of Spiderman's neck and his hair stood straight up.
Be careful, the spider sense whispered without words. Quiet…get away from here…
Spiderman began to feel spooked, and the urge to be quiet was growing stronger. He was getting a little annoyed at his friend. "Hey!" he hissed. Harry took advantage of the pause and twisted out from under Peter's hand, moving back towards the lab, into the light.
Suddenly, Harry froze, peeking around the edge of the doorway. Spiderman peered over his shoulder and clamped his hand back over Harry's mouth, biting down on his own gasp of surprise. He forcefully pulled the no longer struggling Harry back down the hallway into the shadows behind another open door.
As the Green Goblin silently emerged from Lab C35, Peter froze, urging Harry to do the same. Harry needed no encouragement. Peter had had no idea the Goblin was in the lab. He'd probably heard the struggling in the hallway. Harry's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as the Goblin halted just outside the door.
The Goblin's gaze swept the dark hallway, peering into every shadow with laser-like intensity. Peter was certain he would see them behind the door. His spider sense was going insane. I know, I see him! he felt like screaming.
Peter wanted to move around the door, into the room, but he knew if he moved, the Goblin would see them. He would see them in an instant, laugh as only he could laugh, and kill them both. He wasn't being the Goblin Peter remembered. He was more ruthless, to the point. He didn't play with Peter anymore before attacking, he went right for the kill.
The Goblin slowly walked down the hallway toward Peter and Harry, gazing from side to side, into the darkness. Peter could feel Harry breathing hard against his hand, panting with fear. Harry still didn't trust him, but apparently he trusted Peter more than the Goblin.
The Goblin drew closer, seeming to be able to sense them. The sureness with which he moved was terrible, as though it were only a matter of time until he found them. Peter stepped back ever so quietly into the deeper shadow, swallowing hard. Harry was trembling nervously.
The Green Goblin stopped about two feet away from them, head turned in the other direction. Peter felt like screaming at him, half-believing that the Goblin was toying with them. Instead, he held his breath, pressed between the wall and the open door.
After what seemed an eternity, the Goblin slowly turned and began to move in the other direction. Peter let his breath out slowly.
The Goblin suddenly spun back around and started toward where the two were hiding, stopping short. Peter almost jerked in surprise. Frantic thoughts raced through his head. Does he see me?!
The villain once more gazed over the hallway, apparently still oblivious to Peter and Harry's presence. He hesitatingly turned and went in the other direction, as though not completely satisfied with what he'd found, or rather, not found. Peter let his breath out slowly, spider sense fading. A trick, he thought with relief. A trick to scare us out of where we were hiding. A trick that almost worked.
Harry went limp with relief as the shadowy figure disappeared into the darkness. Peter waited until he could no longer see the Goblin, and then a minute after that. Still not releasing his hold on Harry, he leaned forward and whispered in his ear,
"I'm going to let you go. Please don't make any noise, or he'll come back. I can't promise that he wouldn't kill you to get to me, so stay quiet."
He cautiously released his grip on Harry's face. Harry spun to face his captor. "Get away from me," he hissed in a mix of anger and fear.
Spiderman raised his hands in a calming I'm-not-going-to-hurt-you sort of way. "Listen to me," he said in a calm, controlled voice. "We have to get out of here. I'm going to get you out of here, but I need you to trust me."
Harry was staring at him, wide-eyed, lost in a memory. "You killed my father," he whispered.
Spiderman winced, all the while staring down the hallway. The accusation stung. Harry was finally face to face with who he saw as his father's murderer, and his emotions were naked on his face. Peter clenched his fist. This wasn't the time to have a conversation about it, not now, not when Harry's father was about twenty five yards away with murderous intent. "I didn't….I didn't kill your father, I just brought him back to your mansion. Please believe me, I…" He swallowed. "I tried to save him, Harry, but I couldn't."
"How do you know my name?"
Footsteps were audible in the distance, the sound amplified in the huge empty building. Spiderman cocked his head, listening. "Sshh," he hushed Harry. "Come on, we have to go. He's coming back. Try not to talk."
Peter began to lead Harry silently down the hallway in the other direction, Harry clearly reluctant to follow him. Apparently, though, he feared the Goblin more than Spiderman, so follow he did. "Do you know where we're going?" Harry barely whispered.
Peter shook his head, then realized Harry couldn't see him and whispered, "No."
"It's quicker the other way."
"He went the other way, and he's coming back. I'd rather not run into him."
Spiderman continued to pick his way through the darkness to a stairwell. His throat ached from speaking and his hand was beginning to throb again. A sinking feeling took his stomach as he tried to find his way through the maze of dark hallways. What had he been thinking, trying to come and take on the Goblin? He had a broken hand, could barely breath, and couldn't very well fight while worrying about Harry. He already knew the Goblin was stronger than he used to be. A byproduct of death, Peter thought with a grim smile. Coming was a stupid, stupid mistake, and he was beginning to feel spooked. He turned back and listened for a moment. No more footsteps, but that didn't mean he wasn't coming. "He probably knows the building much better than us, anyway," he muttered out loud.
"Why do you say that?"
Peter paused for a moment, realizing his mistake. "Just a feeling."
The Green Goblin strode confidently down the hallway. He'd pinpointed Spiderman's location in the building. He'd been pretty sure that the two were there in the hallway with him, but he hadn't been able to find them. Now he knew they had been, and must have gone in the other direction, to the back stairwell. Voices carried, and though Spiderman was trying to be silent, no doubt, his whispers had caught the Goblin's supersensitive ears.
He slowed, moving more quietly as he neared the two. He was in no rush. They were unknowingly aiding him. He grinned with psychotic delight. The grin faded when he realized he had used the word "they".
An unlucky coincidence that Harry was with the spider. He'd wanted Spiderman to follow Harry to Oscorp, but hadn't wanted Harry to get hurt. He felt strangely protective of the boy, no doubt a result of Osborn's feelings mixing with his own. Harry, after all, probably wanted Spiderman dead as much as he.
The Goblin shrugged, listening to the whispers. He wouldn't intentionally harm Harry, but if the boy got in his way, that was too damn bad. Nothing, not even "his" son, would prevent him from killing off that frustrating, damned nuisance known as Spiderman.
Peter groped behind him as he ascended the stairs, feeling to see if Harry was still there. Harry tapped his arm to assure him that he was.
As Spiderman squinted in the dark, Harry tapped his arm again, more insistently this time. Spiderman halted and turned. "What?" he barely whispered.
In the darkness, he could see Harry put a hand to his ear, cupping it as though listening to far off music. Halfway up the stairs, Peter followed suit, straining his ears.
Footsteps, slow, deliberate, were coming toward them, approaching the bottom of the stairs.
Harry started to say something, but Spiderman shook his head and raised a finger to where his mouth would be on the mask. He clawed his hands in the air like a monster and pointed down the stairs. Harry nodded his comprehension and motioned for Spiderman to keep going.
Moving more quickly now, but no less quietly, Spiderman continued up the stairs. He was somewhat proud of Harry for not giving them away, as he'd half expected him to do. Instead, Harry was handling the whole thing rather well. Peter, on other hand, who could fully grasp the seriousness of the situation, was a nervous wreck. Facing danger head-on was one thing, but trying to sneak away from it when it had super human abilities and senses was another. The shadows and creaks of the building were beginning to fray his nerves, and he jumped at almost every small sound.
The footsteps coming to the stairs slowed. Peter guessed he was beginning his ascent. He wasn't worried about being caught on the stairs, though. He and Harry had enough of a head start so that they'd be out of the basement soon. It would be easy to find a way out of the building on the first floor.
Peter turned to look once more behind him as they made it to the top of the stairs, listening for the footsteps. He cocked his head. They had gone quiet. Maybe he went back the other way, he reasoned, figuring that's where we went. Harry looked at him questioningly, raising his arms in a "What?" gesture.
Spiderman turned back to find himself looking into a pair of large yellow eyes.
A startled cry escaped him as the Goblin lunged. Peter turned, yelling "Go, go, go!" at Harry, who stood like a deer in the headlights.
Peter suspected that Harry hadn't even seen the Goblin step around the corner to the head of the stairs. He gave Harry a rough push, snapping him out of his paralysis. Their lead wouldn't last for long, and it was a long set of stairs. Harry turned and sprinted down the stairs as Peter glanced once over his shoulder to see how much of a headstart they had this time.
As Peter lurched down the stairs in a stumbling kind of run, shock raced through him. How had the Goblin gotten to the top of the stairs before they had? Cold realization washed over him, canceling out the shock. Peter had been mistaken. The footsteps hadn't been coming to the bottom of the stairs, they'd been coming to the top. He realized the Goblin had known exactly where they were and had come to meet them there, rather than chase after them. As Peter had said, the Goblin knew the building better than them.
Now there was no doubt which way the footsteps were heading. They were thundering down the stairs right behind Peter.
Harry turned the wrong way, to the left, when he got to the bottom of the stairs, a long way ahead of Spiderman. It took Peter a moment to realize this, as a green hand clamped down on his shoulder and yanked, pulling him backwards. "Go right!" he yelled hoarsely as he landed on his back on the stairs, air rushing from his lungs in a whoosh. A fit of coughing took him as he crashed to his back. The Goblin jolted to a halt, momentum carrying him too far. He half tripped, half high-stepped over Peter, who kicked him in the back of the knee, collapsing his leg. The two of them rolled down the rest of the stairs, a jumble of elbows and knees. Each impact was a painful jolt to Peter's hand, and the cough was still racking his body. He curled over his broken hand, protecting it, and succeeded in getting an accidental green boot to the jaw as they rolled. The Goblin, who was bigger than Spiderman, was having a tough time in the narrow staircase. There was a loud thud as he banged his head into the wall, and another when he hit it into the floor at the end of the trip. They landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, entangled and dizzy.
Spiderman lay for a moment, coughing hard. Dizziness washed over him, partly from the trip down the stairs, but also from the hacking and coughing. Wheezing, he pulled his limbs out of the tangle and rolled to his feet, taking off after Harry, who had stopped to gawk at the hero and the villain. The latter found his feet, holding his hands to his head, shaking it slowly. Spiderman wanted every advantage they could get, and he swung a fist at the dizzy villain, catching him in the jaw. The Goblin hit into the wall with the force of the punch and bounced off as Spiderman sprinted to catch up with Harry.
"Go! Go!" he yelled between coughs.
A low chuckle sounded behind them, and with it, a low voice. "Thought you said to go right, Spiderman."
Spiderman hated to admit it, but he was right. They were in a dead end, with one door out. Spiderman slammed his shoulder into the double doors, struggling with all his might to push them in. Harry was breathing hard, watching the approaching maniac. "Oh my God, hurry up, hurry up!"
"Wait a second," Peter said suddenly, staring at the doors. His gaze snapped to the wall beside the door. A panel. Buttons on the panel, numbered buttons.
An elevator. In the darkness, he hadn't seen the panel, hadn't know it was an elevator. The buttons were dark. There was no electricity in the building, so how was he to work it? "Keep him busy!" he said distractedly to Harry.
"How am I supposed to do that?!"
Ignoring the shrieked question, Spiderman fought with the doors. Pulling, gritting his teeth, sucking in breath, Peter used every last ounce of strength to squeeze the door open a little. "Come on, come on," he begged through his tightly clenched teeth. A long cry of pain escaped him as he pushed the doors open a foot, his hand nearly exploding with pain.
Behind him, he could hear Harry grunt, and he feared to think what would happen if Harry attacked the Goblin.
Peter set his shoulder against the door and used every bit of leverage he could to force the doors open another foot. His second cry dissolved into a fit of coughing.
That's enough, he figured, looking at the space between the doors and coughing into his arm. "Harry! Come on!"
He watched as Harry threw another weak punch at the Goblin, who blocked it and gently tried to push past Harry. Peter noticed that no matter what Harry did, the Goblin never counterattacked, only blocked and dodged. Spiderman frowned. It seemed as though he was almost…avoiding hurting Harry.
A weakness! Think about it later, Parker.
The Goblin did try to get past Harry, however, but was having a hard time in the narrow hallway. Harry was the same height as him, and was doing a better job of blocking the hallway than Peter had expected. Peter yelled again, or tried to with his raspy voice.
"Let's go!"
Harry turned to run to the doors, but the Goblin caught his shoulder and pulled him back, hooking an arm around Harry's neck in a light choke hold. Harry cried out in fear.
"Get away from the doors," he said in a menacing growl.
Instead, Peter raised his hand and used a good old trick: he shot a bit of webbing directly over the Goblin's eyes, snapping his head back with such force that the Goblin staggered back a step, yanking at the webbing.
Harry stumbled to the elevator, and Peter wrapped his bad arm around Harry's waist. "Hold on tight," he warned Harry, who likewise hooked an arm around Spiderman's waist.
Spiderman glanced up the elevator shaft and back down. There was another level below them, and as he'd hoped, the elevator was stopped on that last level, five or six feet below them.
Spiderman jumped down to land on top of the elevator, staring up the shaft. He repeated his warning to Harry.
Spiderman bent his legs, took a deep breath, and leapt straight up.
As they rocketed toward the ceiling, Peter heard Harry whoop with joy, shortlived though it was. Spiderman realized that they were traveling too far, and shot a web, pulling them all the way to the top floor. Clinging to the ledge, he told Harry to hold on. Luckily, elevator doors were easier to open from the inside.
As they stumbled from the shaft, Harry shook his head, a dopey smile on his face. "We made it!" he exclaimed.
Peter was not so convinced. They had to get off the top floor, away from the building, away from the Goblin. He let his head tilt back and hit the wall he was leaning against. The adrenaline was draining from him in an exhausting rush, but this night wasn't over yet. No doubt the Goblin was coming.
Pushing away from the wall, he began to walk tiredly down the hallway. "Come on," he said to Harry. He coughed once, throat flaming for an instant. "We have to get out of here."
Harry's grin dropped from his face. "You think he's still coming?"
"Well…he's not dead yet, is he?"
"No…" Harry frowned. "Who is he? What does he want? Why…"
Peter glanced to him. "Why what?"
Harry's frown grew. "I got a call. A call from someone who asked me to come here, to the basement lab."
Peter pieced the story together. Smooth, Parker, he berated himself. You walked right into his trap.
Wait a minute. A call. Peter cleared his throat, trying to sound as casual as possible. "And did you…recognize the caller's voice?"
Harry looked down. "I thought I did," he whispered. A sudden look passed over Harry's face, one of anger and suspicion. "So wait, you didn't answer my question, how do you know my name?"
Spiderman continued walking, avoiding the question. "I think there's an exit down here."
Harry grabbed his shoulder and turned him, pinning him against the wall. In truth, Peter could have picked him up, dribbled him the length of a basketball court and stuff him in the net, all with one hand tied behind his back, but he let his friend pin him.
"How did you know my name?" The question was a growl, now.
Peter looked away, wishing he was a better liar. "I uh….I've seen you around. I mean, your father…he's famous…I just know who you are, that's all."
"Uh-huh." Harry wasn't buying.
"I know you by your father. He's famous, I know his name. So I'd know you."
"Was famous."
Peter winced at the tone, and conceded in a quiet voice. "Was famous."
"How old are you?"
Peter was surprised by the sudden question. "Uh…not too young, not too old," he offered vaguely.
Harry let it go. "And you had nothing to do with my father's death?"
"Harry, would it make you feel better if I said I did?"
Harry bitterly shook his head. "No. Not really."
"Then it doesn't really matter."
Harry smiled faintly. "That sounds like something my best friend would say." Peter swallowed hard when Harry's gaze darkened again. "You didn't say no. Did you have something to do with his death?"
Spiderman suddenly perked up, listening. "We should go. Come on, question me later."
Harry started to protest, then shook his head and followed. They made their way through the dark top floor towards the door to the nearest stairs. Spiderman pushed against it and then pulled. Mustering his remaining strength, he rammed his shoulder against the door. Desperation threatened to take him as he peered through the door window at the two heavy padlocks on the other side. Another door waited beyond that one, also padlocked and chained as well. After slamming into the door a few more times, he gave up. It would take too long, give the Goblin too much time.
Harry watched for a moment, then inspected the door. "Is it locked?"
Had Peter not been wearing a mask, Harry would have seen him roll his eyes.
"Yeah, from the other side."
"Why don't you use your super strength or whatever?"
Peter resisted a sarcastic retort and instead laughed a little, which once more brought on his cough. "I'm injured. It makes me weak…we fought a few days ago, and I got hurt. He, uh…." Peter cleared his throat, terrible images from the day running through his head. "He won."
"What's injured?"
Peter started to answer truthfully, then realized what a bad thing that could be to say. "I'm just sore, is all. Bruises and cuts."
Harry tilted his head. "Why the bad cough?"
Peter swallowed, aware that he was treading dangerous ground. "Uh…he almost strangled me…when we fought, I mean."
Harry nodded, then looked around. "Gotta be another way out, right?"
Spiderman looked around, not quite finished with this door. He wasn't sure he trusted the stairways anymore, but he reasoned that the Goblin couldn't run from the basement to the top floor so quickly.
Unless he flew up an elevator shaft. Peter didn't know where the glider was. He had rarely seen the Goblin without it. No doubt it was somewhere nearby.
Spiderman thought for a moment. How would someone get out other than the elevator and these stairs? What if there was a fire, where would the people go?
A fire. A fire escape.
Peter spun to peer through the window in the door of an office. Red words stood out to him on the large window in the back of the room. "Come on," he said to Harry, running to the office door. Those doors shouldn't be locked, not if the stairwell was.
Spiderman gave a silent cheer when the door swung open without protest. He opened the window in the back, gazing out at the bright lights of the city, breathing in the cold air washed clean by the now stopped rain. The cool night breeze felt good through his mask. He took a few deep, purging breaths, calming himself, reclaiming strength.
He gazed up at the edge of the roof, three feet above his head. He would have to climb to the top, never mind the broken hand and help Harry up. It was the only way out of the building. Peter would have webbed Harry to safety, but that wasn't possible with a broken hand. It looked like he would have to get him home by rooftop.
Peter gingerly climbed the wall, putting all his weight on his good hand. He reached down and clasped forearms with Harry. Instincts began buzzing as he tugged Harry up onto the roof. They both paused for a moment, dread filling their hearts as the familiar sound of an engine met their ears.
The glider, carrying its gruesome master, rose into sight right in front of him. Spiderman turned without a second thought, grabbed Harry's arm and ran.
"Why don't you use those web things?" Harry yelled as they ran.
Peter didn't look at him. "I can't use my right hand!"
"Why not?!"
"He broke it a few days ago!"
Harry and Peter were two cats trying to outrun a cheetah. As the pursuit began, and cold fear took Peter's stomach, he wondered how MJ was.
You'll pay now…trust me, MJ…you think a woman like that's sniffing around…Spiderman! Save me…Peter, I was so sure you were dead…empty threat, Spiderman…
Mary Jane Watson's eyes slid open, heavy lids begging to close again. She gazed slowly around the hospital room, exhausted. Her mother was asleep in the chair beside the bed.
Fighting back unconsciousness, MJ thought hazily. She had swum up through the murky depths of the coma, prompted by a dim realization and a memory. For a second, she couldn't remember her own name, let alone how this had happened. Random thoughts were dancing through her head, voices and words of people that had been in her foggy dreams. Peter's face suddenly flashed in among them.
Explosion. Apartment. Is Peter okay?!
Yes. She knew he was, that he had carried her out of…out of what?
How had it happened? Think, MJ! Think! What happened!?
But her body felt so heavy and achy…the pillow felt so comfortable…
No! Think! How did it happen?
Green. Green with yellow eyes.
It suddenly hit her. His name escaped her at the moment, but she was pretty sure of who had blown up her apartment. She hadn't actually seen him, but she dimly remembered the voice.
And the laugh. The demon's cackle.
She didn't know why he had it in for her, but it scared her cold. As far as she could tell, she hadn't done anything to him. Then again, who knew? Maybe just her existence was enough to piss him off. Either way, since that day at the Festival…it seemed so long ago!…he had hated her.
Hello, my dear.
The voice…what had it said? She knew that voice, not just from behind the mask, but somewhere else, too…
Words played through her head, meshing together, but she was having trouble separating the ones from her nightmares from the ones she'd heard spoken.
Give my regards…let die the woman you love…a word to the not so wise…
What? That wasn't him!
The random thoughts in her mind were making it hard to think. She was mixing everything up…or was she? Had he said that at some point? A word to the not so wise about… About what? Someone had said it, someone had shouted it derisively…
Two things were being concluded in her fuzzy mind. He was connected to the other thing. There was a word, one she'd heard from him many times, one he'd said at the explosion in the apartment…one she'd heard somewhere else, when he had attacked her in her apartment that night and drugged her…she had vague memories of being drugged…what was the word? It was so hard to think when she felt like she had cotton in her head…
Spiderman.
She gasped as the realization hit her.
Empty threat, Spiderman
Can Spiderman come out to play?
Both spoken to Peter.
Trust me, MJ. He said it to her that night on the bridge. The day the theater exploded.
The kiss in the rain. The kiss in the cemetery.
In her shock, unconsciousness took her once more.
~Gobby
Harry stood in the lobby of the laboratory building of Oscorp. It was dark and dank, and Harry was having second thoughts about meeting the caller. What-ifs were attacking him.
What if it's just some nut, a killer looking for fun?
No, he knew my name. He called me specifically. He has a reason.
Harry pulled his coat around him tighter and trotted down the stairs that lead to the basement labs. More thoughts bombarded him. What if he's not here? What if I'm in the wrong building?
What if it's not him?
What if you stop thinking like this, get down there, and see what the hell this guy wants.
Harry shut off anymore negative thoughts and concentrated on not getting lost in the huge building. He'd only been there once in his life. His father had taken him when he was young. Take Your Kid to Work Day or something. His dad had been with him about thirty seconds before rushing off to do something, having to leave Harry with an assistant. He'd come back to check on Harry a few hours later, apologizing. Shortly after, he disappeared again. The assistant, a kind middle aged woman had ended up staying with Harry most of the day.
That was when Harry had first found out just how important his father's work was, and how insignificant he himself was when compared to it.
Harry sighed at the memory. He had been seven when he realized how important and busy his father was. He'd thought being rich was pretty cool at first, once he was old enough to grasp the concept. But then, after a while, he had begun to see what other fathers did. He saw the other kids with their dads at the park, or being helped with their homework, just little things like that. But the little things were what hurt the most. The fact that his father had no time to throw a baseball back and forth for ten minutes, or to eat a hamburger with him was what hurt.
Harry sadly turned off of Memory Lane, coming back to the present. Signs adorned the walls. Harry squinted at one of them in the darkness. "Labs C30 through…..C35. It's down here." He was talking aloud to fill the silence. The huge building was giving him the creeps, especially the creaks and groans every now and then.
"Should've brought a flashlight," he muttered to himself. Should've, could've, would've.
Suddenly, a faint light met his eyes. He peered into the darkness, at the sliver of brightness standing out against the black. Light through the crack of a slightly open door. Relieved at the break in the solid black, Harry quickly made his way down the hallways to the door.
"Lab C35," he read off the door, making sure of it.
Pushing the door open slowly, Harry poked his head into the room. "Hello?"
No answer. No one in sight. Dim lights were on, giving the room's green floor an eerie glow. Harry's gaze traveled to the ceiling. Small lights along the edges of the ceiling were lit, but the huge long ones filling the middle of the ceiling were not. "Must be a back-up generator or something," Harry mused. "Anybody here?" Still no answer. "Hello! Is anybody here?" It almost felt wrong, violating the deep silence, but he needed to know who called him.
A huge glass case stood in the middle of the room, more of a smaller room with glass walls. Doors were visible on the farthest wall of it from him, and a metal track led into a slot in another of the glass walls. One of the walls was gone, apparently shattered. A metal gurney with broken restraints stood in the middle of the small room, obviously attached to the track.
Harry's gaze traveled the rest of the larger room in awe. Several computers were placed throughout the cavernous space, and there were metal sets of shelves containing bottles, computer discs, and things he couldn't identify.
Suddenly, the hair stiffened on the back of his neck and his flesh prickled. He felt eyes on him, watching him, maybe laughing at him.
Spinning slowly, trying to see every dark corner, Harry gazed around the room once more. He shook his fears off, chalking it up to the creeps at being in a deserted building at night. He stood for a moment longer, scanning the room again.
Peter rushed into the lobby of the Oscorp lab building, praying he wouldn't trip and break his neck. The freezing rain outside had soaked him to the bone, and the cold building wasn't helping.
Shaking the rain out of his wet hair, Peter slowed to a walk as he crossed the room. There were many doors he could go through, and he had no idea which one to choose. Nor did he have the time to enter each one and search it.
Chewing on his lip, Peter squinted in the darkness, suddenly daunted at the task of finding two men in that huge building. Maybe they weren't even there. He could be in the wrong place entirely, and he could be too late as it was. He had no idea how long Harry had been gone. What were the chances he was going to find him? Peter didn't even know what the Goblin's plans were.
Peter started to cross the lobby, picking the first door on his right. Always go right and you'll never go wrong, he thought with a grim smile.
Always go right, you'll be going in circles.
Peter's spider sense flashed once when he suddenly began to slide. With lightning reflexes, he regained his balance. Peter breathed a sigh of relief, almost laughing. That would have been just perfect, to crack his skull open on the floor and die.
He peered at the floor, trying to see what had made him slip. Something glinted dully on the floor, and Peter knelt carefully, running a finger through it. Water. A wet footprint.
It hadn't been raining long. It was the first time it had rained all day. That meant whoever had come through here must've come through within the last half hour, at most.
Peter stood quickly and scanned the floor for more wet footprints. A trail of them led to a door in the back of the room. Peter followed them carefully through the door to a flight of stairs leading to the basement level. He swallowed, gazing down the dark steps.
"Step into my parlor," said the spider to the fly.
Who's the spider here, Parker? You or him?
A feeling of foreboding grew, and he steeled himself for what was to come.
Harry glanced once more around the room and sighed in deep disappointment. No one there. A trick, maybe? Get the rich boy alone in a deserted building, make some easy cash. Harry began to feel nervous at the feeling of being watched. The sooner he was out, the better.
Harry waited a moment, though, an irrational hope that someone might appear. He had been certain he recognized the voice…
Harry shook his head firmly. He's dead. You saw the body. He's not here. Get the hell out of here before someone does show up.
He swiftly crossed the room to the door, eyes warily on the shadows around him. Quickening his pace, his eyes darted over huge dark shapes and objects. Missing the figure lurking in the darkness. Missing the mad eyes that watched him through a mask.
Peter silently flowed through the hallways, following the trail of wet footprints. He was little more than a shadow flowing through the darkness, watching for any sign of the two men.
Light met his eyes, and Peter's step quickened. Moving more cautiously now to the lit doorway , he pulled his gloves on, carefully sliding one over his bandaged hand. The medical tape around the fingers and the bandage made it a close fit, but fit it did.
Sneaking to the lit doorway, he looked at the sign. Lab C35.
Cautiously, very, very cautiously, he poked his head around the door, looking into the cavernous room.
Harry was striding toward him, and Peter sighed in relief. At least he knew where one of them was. Now to find the more dangerous one.
Peter hid in the shadows as Harry exited the room, holding his breath. As his best friend began to walk quickly down the hall, Peter sneaked up behind him and covered his mouth with his good hand, shushing him. He couldn't let him just wander off, not if the Goblin was planning to involve him in everything. Peter didn't want Harry to yell and give away their position, so he clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him back.
Harry jerked against his arms, making muffled yells. Clawing at the gloved hand covering his mouth, he swung his elbow backwards, trying to catch Peter in the stomach.
Peter dodged the elbow, tightening his grip. "Hey!" he whispered. "Calm down! Stop! Wait a second! Stop!"
Harry ignored these words and continued to pull and yank. He didn't know who his captor was yet, but he certainly didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.
Peter realized too late that maybe he shouldn't have taken him from behind. Using Peter's trick, Harry snapped his teeth down on the hand, and Peter yelped and struggled to hold on. Luckily, his glove protected him from punctured skin. As they struggled, a faint sensation began to creep along the back of Spiderman's neck and his hair stood straight up.
Be careful, the spider sense whispered without words. Quiet…get away from here…
Spiderman began to feel spooked, and the urge to be quiet was growing stronger. He was getting a little annoyed at his friend. "Hey!" he hissed. Harry took advantage of the pause and twisted out from under Peter's hand, moving back towards the lab, into the light.
Suddenly, Harry froze, peeking around the edge of the doorway. Spiderman peered over his shoulder and clamped his hand back over Harry's mouth, biting down on his own gasp of surprise. He forcefully pulled the no longer struggling Harry back down the hallway into the shadows behind another open door.
As the Green Goblin silently emerged from Lab C35, Peter froze, urging Harry to do the same. Harry needed no encouragement. Peter had had no idea the Goblin was in the lab. He'd probably heard the struggling in the hallway. Harry's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as the Goblin halted just outside the door.
The Goblin's gaze swept the dark hallway, peering into every shadow with laser-like intensity. Peter was certain he would see them behind the door. His spider sense was going insane. I know, I see him! he felt like screaming.
Peter wanted to move around the door, into the room, but he knew if he moved, the Goblin would see them. He would see them in an instant, laugh as only he could laugh, and kill them both. He wasn't being the Goblin Peter remembered. He was more ruthless, to the point. He didn't play with Peter anymore before attacking, he went right for the kill.
The Goblin slowly walked down the hallway toward Peter and Harry, gazing from side to side, into the darkness. Peter could feel Harry breathing hard against his hand, panting with fear. Harry still didn't trust him, but apparently he trusted Peter more than the Goblin.
The Goblin drew closer, seeming to be able to sense them. The sureness with which he moved was terrible, as though it were only a matter of time until he found them. Peter stepped back ever so quietly into the deeper shadow, swallowing hard. Harry was trembling nervously.
The Green Goblin stopped about two feet away from them, head turned in the other direction. Peter felt like screaming at him, half-believing that the Goblin was toying with them. Instead, he held his breath, pressed between the wall and the open door.
After what seemed an eternity, the Goblin slowly turned and began to move in the other direction. Peter let his breath out slowly.
The Goblin suddenly spun back around and started toward where the two were hiding, stopping short. Peter almost jerked in surprise. Frantic thoughts raced through his head. Does he see me?!
The villain once more gazed over the hallway, apparently still oblivious to Peter and Harry's presence. He hesitatingly turned and went in the other direction, as though not completely satisfied with what he'd found, or rather, not found. Peter let his breath out slowly, spider sense fading. A trick, he thought with relief. A trick to scare us out of where we were hiding. A trick that almost worked.
Harry went limp with relief as the shadowy figure disappeared into the darkness. Peter waited until he could no longer see the Goblin, and then a minute after that. Still not releasing his hold on Harry, he leaned forward and whispered in his ear,
"I'm going to let you go. Please don't make any noise, or he'll come back. I can't promise that he wouldn't kill you to get to me, so stay quiet."
He cautiously released his grip on Harry's face. Harry spun to face his captor. "Get away from me," he hissed in a mix of anger and fear.
Spiderman raised his hands in a calming I'm-not-going-to-hurt-you sort of way. "Listen to me," he said in a calm, controlled voice. "We have to get out of here. I'm going to get you out of here, but I need you to trust me."
Harry was staring at him, wide-eyed, lost in a memory. "You killed my father," he whispered.
Spiderman winced, all the while staring down the hallway. The accusation stung. Harry was finally face to face with who he saw as his father's murderer, and his emotions were naked on his face. Peter clenched his fist. This wasn't the time to have a conversation about it, not now, not when Harry's father was about twenty five yards away with murderous intent. "I didn't….I didn't kill your father, I just brought him back to your mansion. Please believe me, I…" He swallowed. "I tried to save him, Harry, but I couldn't."
"How do you know my name?"
Footsteps were audible in the distance, the sound amplified in the huge empty building. Spiderman cocked his head, listening. "Sshh," he hushed Harry. "Come on, we have to go. He's coming back. Try not to talk."
Peter began to lead Harry silently down the hallway in the other direction, Harry clearly reluctant to follow him. Apparently, though, he feared the Goblin more than Spiderman, so follow he did. "Do you know where we're going?" Harry barely whispered.
Peter shook his head, then realized Harry couldn't see him and whispered, "No."
"It's quicker the other way."
"He went the other way, and he's coming back. I'd rather not run into him."
Spiderman continued to pick his way through the darkness to a stairwell. His throat ached from speaking and his hand was beginning to throb again. A sinking feeling took his stomach as he tried to find his way through the maze of dark hallways. What had he been thinking, trying to come and take on the Goblin? He had a broken hand, could barely breath, and couldn't very well fight while worrying about Harry. He already knew the Goblin was stronger than he used to be. A byproduct of death, Peter thought with a grim smile. Coming was a stupid, stupid mistake, and he was beginning to feel spooked. He turned back and listened for a moment. No more footsteps, but that didn't mean he wasn't coming. "He probably knows the building much better than us, anyway," he muttered out loud.
"Why do you say that?"
Peter paused for a moment, realizing his mistake. "Just a feeling."
The Green Goblin strode confidently down the hallway. He'd pinpointed Spiderman's location in the building. He'd been pretty sure that the two were there in the hallway with him, but he hadn't been able to find them. Now he knew they had been, and must have gone in the other direction, to the back stairwell. Voices carried, and though Spiderman was trying to be silent, no doubt, his whispers had caught the Goblin's supersensitive ears.
He slowed, moving more quietly as he neared the two. He was in no rush. They were unknowingly aiding him. He grinned with psychotic delight. The grin faded when he realized he had used the word "they".
An unlucky coincidence that Harry was with the spider. He'd wanted Spiderman to follow Harry to Oscorp, but hadn't wanted Harry to get hurt. He felt strangely protective of the boy, no doubt a result of Osborn's feelings mixing with his own. Harry, after all, probably wanted Spiderman dead as much as he.
The Goblin shrugged, listening to the whispers. He wouldn't intentionally harm Harry, but if the boy got in his way, that was too damn bad. Nothing, not even "his" son, would prevent him from killing off that frustrating, damned nuisance known as Spiderman.
Peter groped behind him as he ascended the stairs, feeling to see if Harry was still there. Harry tapped his arm to assure him that he was.
As Spiderman squinted in the dark, Harry tapped his arm again, more insistently this time. Spiderman halted and turned. "What?" he barely whispered.
In the darkness, he could see Harry put a hand to his ear, cupping it as though listening to far off music. Halfway up the stairs, Peter followed suit, straining his ears.
Footsteps, slow, deliberate, were coming toward them, approaching the bottom of the stairs.
Harry started to say something, but Spiderman shook his head and raised a finger to where his mouth would be on the mask. He clawed his hands in the air like a monster and pointed down the stairs. Harry nodded his comprehension and motioned for Spiderman to keep going.
Moving more quickly now, but no less quietly, Spiderman continued up the stairs. He was somewhat proud of Harry for not giving them away, as he'd half expected him to do. Instead, Harry was handling the whole thing rather well. Peter, on other hand, who could fully grasp the seriousness of the situation, was a nervous wreck. Facing danger head-on was one thing, but trying to sneak away from it when it had super human abilities and senses was another. The shadows and creaks of the building were beginning to fray his nerves, and he jumped at almost every small sound.
The footsteps coming to the stairs slowed. Peter guessed he was beginning his ascent. He wasn't worried about being caught on the stairs, though. He and Harry had enough of a head start so that they'd be out of the basement soon. It would be easy to find a way out of the building on the first floor.
Peter turned to look once more behind him as they made it to the top of the stairs, listening for the footsteps. He cocked his head. They had gone quiet. Maybe he went back the other way, he reasoned, figuring that's where we went. Harry looked at him questioningly, raising his arms in a "What?" gesture.
Spiderman turned back to find himself looking into a pair of large yellow eyes.
A startled cry escaped him as the Goblin lunged. Peter turned, yelling "Go, go, go!" at Harry, who stood like a deer in the headlights.
Peter suspected that Harry hadn't even seen the Goblin step around the corner to the head of the stairs. He gave Harry a rough push, snapping him out of his paralysis. Their lead wouldn't last for long, and it was a long set of stairs. Harry turned and sprinted down the stairs as Peter glanced once over his shoulder to see how much of a headstart they had this time.
As Peter lurched down the stairs in a stumbling kind of run, shock raced through him. How had the Goblin gotten to the top of the stairs before they had? Cold realization washed over him, canceling out the shock. Peter had been mistaken. The footsteps hadn't been coming to the bottom of the stairs, they'd been coming to the top. He realized the Goblin had known exactly where they were and had come to meet them there, rather than chase after them. As Peter had said, the Goblin knew the building better than them.
Now there was no doubt which way the footsteps were heading. They were thundering down the stairs right behind Peter.
Harry turned the wrong way, to the left, when he got to the bottom of the stairs, a long way ahead of Spiderman. It took Peter a moment to realize this, as a green hand clamped down on his shoulder and yanked, pulling him backwards. "Go right!" he yelled hoarsely as he landed on his back on the stairs, air rushing from his lungs in a whoosh. A fit of coughing took him as he crashed to his back. The Goblin jolted to a halt, momentum carrying him too far. He half tripped, half high-stepped over Peter, who kicked him in the back of the knee, collapsing his leg. The two of them rolled down the rest of the stairs, a jumble of elbows and knees. Each impact was a painful jolt to Peter's hand, and the cough was still racking his body. He curled over his broken hand, protecting it, and succeeded in getting an accidental green boot to the jaw as they rolled. The Goblin, who was bigger than Spiderman, was having a tough time in the narrow staircase. There was a loud thud as he banged his head into the wall, and another when he hit it into the floor at the end of the trip. They landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, entangled and dizzy.
Spiderman lay for a moment, coughing hard. Dizziness washed over him, partly from the trip down the stairs, but also from the hacking and coughing. Wheezing, he pulled his limbs out of the tangle and rolled to his feet, taking off after Harry, who had stopped to gawk at the hero and the villain. The latter found his feet, holding his hands to his head, shaking it slowly. Spiderman wanted every advantage they could get, and he swung a fist at the dizzy villain, catching him in the jaw. The Goblin hit into the wall with the force of the punch and bounced off as Spiderman sprinted to catch up with Harry.
"Go! Go!" he yelled between coughs.
A low chuckle sounded behind them, and with it, a low voice. "Thought you said to go right, Spiderman."
Spiderman hated to admit it, but he was right. They were in a dead end, with one door out. Spiderman slammed his shoulder into the double doors, struggling with all his might to push them in. Harry was breathing hard, watching the approaching maniac. "Oh my God, hurry up, hurry up!"
"Wait a second," Peter said suddenly, staring at the doors. His gaze snapped to the wall beside the door. A panel. Buttons on the panel, numbered buttons.
An elevator. In the darkness, he hadn't seen the panel, hadn't know it was an elevator. The buttons were dark. There was no electricity in the building, so how was he to work it? "Keep him busy!" he said distractedly to Harry.
"How am I supposed to do that?!"
Ignoring the shrieked question, Spiderman fought with the doors. Pulling, gritting his teeth, sucking in breath, Peter used every last ounce of strength to squeeze the door open a little. "Come on, come on," he begged through his tightly clenched teeth. A long cry of pain escaped him as he pushed the doors open a foot, his hand nearly exploding with pain.
Behind him, he could hear Harry grunt, and he feared to think what would happen if Harry attacked the Goblin.
Peter set his shoulder against the door and used every bit of leverage he could to force the doors open another foot. His second cry dissolved into a fit of coughing.
That's enough, he figured, looking at the space between the doors and coughing into his arm. "Harry! Come on!"
He watched as Harry threw another weak punch at the Goblin, who blocked it and gently tried to push past Harry. Peter noticed that no matter what Harry did, the Goblin never counterattacked, only blocked and dodged. Spiderman frowned. It seemed as though he was almost…avoiding hurting Harry.
A weakness! Think about it later, Parker.
The Goblin did try to get past Harry, however, but was having a hard time in the narrow hallway. Harry was the same height as him, and was doing a better job of blocking the hallway than Peter had expected. Peter yelled again, or tried to with his raspy voice.
"Let's go!"
Harry turned to run to the doors, but the Goblin caught his shoulder and pulled him back, hooking an arm around Harry's neck in a light choke hold. Harry cried out in fear.
"Get away from the doors," he said in a menacing growl.
Instead, Peter raised his hand and used a good old trick: he shot a bit of webbing directly over the Goblin's eyes, snapping his head back with such force that the Goblin staggered back a step, yanking at the webbing.
Harry stumbled to the elevator, and Peter wrapped his bad arm around Harry's waist. "Hold on tight," he warned Harry, who likewise hooked an arm around Spiderman's waist.
Spiderman glanced up the elevator shaft and back down. There was another level below them, and as he'd hoped, the elevator was stopped on that last level, five or six feet below them.
Spiderman jumped down to land on top of the elevator, staring up the shaft. He repeated his warning to Harry.
Spiderman bent his legs, took a deep breath, and leapt straight up.
As they rocketed toward the ceiling, Peter heard Harry whoop with joy, shortlived though it was. Spiderman realized that they were traveling too far, and shot a web, pulling them all the way to the top floor. Clinging to the ledge, he told Harry to hold on. Luckily, elevator doors were easier to open from the inside.
As they stumbled from the shaft, Harry shook his head, a dopey smile on his face. "We made it!" he exclaimed.
Peter was not so convinced. They had to get off the top floor, away from the building, away from the Goblin. He let his head tilt back and hit the wall he was leaning against. The adrenaline was draining from him in an exhausting rush, but this night wasn't over yet. No doubt the Goblin was coming.
Pushing away from the wall, he began to walk tiredly down the hallway. "Come on," he said to Harry. He coughed once, throat flaming for an instant. "We have to get out of here."
Harry's grin dropped from his face. "You think he's still coming?"
"Well…he's not dead yet, is he?"
"No…" Harry frowned. "Who is he? What does he want? Why…"
Peter glanced to him. "Why what?"
Harry's frown grew. "I got a call. A call from someone who asked me to come here, to the basement lab."
Peter pieced the story together. Smooth, Parker, he berated himself. You walked right into his trap.
Wait a minute. A call. Peter cleared his throat, trying to sound as casual as possible. "And did you…recognize the caller's voice?"
Harry looked down. "I thought I did," he whispered. A sudden look passed over Harry's face, one of anger and suspicion. "So wait, you didn't answer my question, how do you know my name?"
Spiderman continued walking, avoiding the question. "I think there's an exit down here."
Harry grabbed his shoulder and turned him, pinning him against the wall. In truth, Peter could have picked him up, dribbled him the length of a basketball court and stuff him in the net, all with one hand tied behind his back, but he let his friend pin him.
"How did you know my name?" The question was a growl, now.
Peter looked away, wishing he was a better liar. "I uh….I've seen you around. I mean, your father…he's famous…I just know who you are, that's all."
"Uh-huh." Harry wasn't buying.
"I know you by your father. He's famous, I know his name. So I'd know you."
"Was famous."
Peter winced at the tone, and conceded in a quiet voice. "Was famous."
"How old are you?"
Peter was surprised by the sudden question. "Uh…not too young, not too old," he offered vaguely.
Harry let it go. "And you had nothing to do with my father's death?"
"Harry, would it make you feel better if I said I did?"
Harry bitterly shook his head. "No. Not really."
"Then it doesn't really matter."
Harry smiled faintly. "That sounds like something my best friend would say." Peter swallowed hard when Harry's gaze darkened again. "You didn't say no. Did you have something to do with his death?"
Spiderman suddenly perked up, listening. "We should go. Come on, question me later."
Harry started to protest, then shook his head and followed. They made their way through the dark top floor towards the door to the nearest stairs. Spiderman pushed against it and then pulled. Mustering his remaining strength, he rammed his shoulder against the door. Desperation threatened to take him as he peered through the door window at the two heavy padlocks on the other side. Another door waited beyond that one, also padlocked and chained as well. After slamming into the door a few more times, he gave up. It would take too long, give the Goblin too much time.
Harry watched for a moment, then inspected the door. "Is it locked?"
Had Peter not been wearing a mask, Harry would have seen him roll his eyes.
"Yeah, from the other side."
"Why don't you use your super strength or whatever?"
Peter resisted a sarcastic retort and instead laughed a little, which once more brought on his cough. "I'm injured. It makes me weak…we fought a few days ago, and I got hurt. He, uh…." Peter cleared his throat, terrible images from the day running through his head. "He won."
"What's injured?"
Peter started to answer truthfully, then realized what a bad thing that could be to say. "I'm just sore, is all. Bruises and cuts."
Harry tilted his head. "Why the bad cough?"
Peter swallowed, aware that he was treading dangerous ground. "Uh…he almost strangled me…when we fought, I mean."
Harry nodded, then looked around. "Gotta be another way out, right?"
Spiderman looked around, not quite finished with this door. He wasn't sure he trusted the stairways anymore, but he reasoned that the Goblin couldn't run from the basement to the top floor so quickly.
Unless he flew up an elevator shaft. Peter didn't know where the glider was. He had rarely seen the Goblin without it. No doubt it was somewhere nearby.
Spiderman thought for a moment. How would someone get out other than the elevator and these stairs? What if there was a fire, where would the people go?
A fire. A fire escape.
Peter spun to peer through the window in the door of an office. Red words stood out to him on the large window in the back of the room. "Come on," he said to Harry, running to the office door. Those doors shouldn't be locked, not if the stairwell was.
Spiderman gave a silent cheer when the door swung open without protest. He opened the window in the back, gazing out at the bright lights of the city, breathing in the cold air washed clean by the now stopped rain. The cool night breeze felt good through his mask. He took a few deep, purging breaths, calming himself, reclaiming strength.
He gazed up at the edge of the roof, three feet above his head. He would have to climb to the top, never mind the broken hand and help Harry up. It was the only way out of the building. Peter would have webbed Harry to safety, but that wasn't possible with a broken hand. It looked like he would have to get him home by rooftop.
Peter gingerly climbed the wall, putting all his weight on his good hand. He reached down and clasped forearms with Harry. Instincts began buzzing as he tugged Harry up onto the roof. They both paused for a moment, dread filling their hearts as the familiar sound of an engine met their ears.
The glider, carrying its gruesome master, rose into sight right in front of him. Spiderman turned without a second thought, grabbed Harry's arm and ran.
"Why don't you use those web things?" Harry yelled as they ran.
Peter didn't look at him. "I can't use my right hand!"
"Why not?!"
"He broke it a few days ago!"
Harry and Peter were two cats trying to outrun a cheetah. As the pursuit began, and cold fear took Peter's stomach, he wondered how MJ was.
You'll pay now…trust me, MJ…you think a woman like that's sniffing around…Spiderman! Save me…Peter, I was so sure you were dead…empty threat, Spiderman…
Mary Jane Watson's eyes slid open, heavy lids begging to close again. She gazed slowly around the hospital room, exhausted. Her mother was asleep in the chair beside the bed.
Fighting back unconsciousness, MJ thought hazily. She had swum up through the murky depths of the coma, prompted by a dim realization and a memory. For a second, she couldn't remember her own name, let alone how this had happened. Random thoughts were dancing through her head, voices and words of people that had been in her foggy dreams. Peter's face suddenly flashed in among them.
Explosion. Apartment. Is Peter okay?!
Yes. She knew he was, that he had carried her out of…out of what?
How had it happened? Think, MJ! Think! What happened!?
But her body felt so heavy and achy…the pillow felt so comfortable…
No! Think! How did it happen?
Green. Green with yellow eyes.
It suddenly hit her. His name escaped her at the moment, but she was pretty sure of who had blown up her apartment. She hadn't actually seen him, but she dimly remembered the voice.
And the laugh. The demon's cackle.
She didn't know why he had it in for her, but it scared her cold. As far as she could tell, she hadn't done anything to him. Then again, who knew? Maybe just her existence was enough to piss him off. Either way, since that day at the Festival…it seemed so long ago!…he had hated her.
Hello, my dear.
The voice…what had it said? She knew that voice, not just from behind the mask, but somewhere else, too…
Words played through her head, meshing together, but she was having trouble separating the ones from her nightmares from the ones she'd heard spoken.
Give my regards…let die the woman you love…a word to the not so wise…
What? That wasn't him!
The random thoughts in her mind were making it hard to think. She was mixing everything up…or was she? Had he said that at some point? A word to the not so wise about… About what? Someone had said it, someone had shouted it derisively…
Two things were being concluded in her fuzzy mind. He was connected to the other thing. There was a word, one she'd heard from him many times, one he'd said at the explosion in the apartment…one she'd heard somewhere else, when he had attacked her in her apartment that night and drugged her…she had vague memories of being drugged…what was the word? It was so hard to think when she felt like she had cotton in her head…
Spiderman.
She gasped as the realization hit her.
Empty threat, Spiderman
Can Spiderman come out to play?
Both spoken to Peter.
Trust me, MJ. He said it to her that night on the bridge. The day the theater exploded.
The kiss in the rain. The kiss in the cemetery.
In her shock, unconsciousness took her once more.
