Part Five

"That's it, take all the pictures you want!" Norman said gleefully atop his glider like one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. "I wouldn't want the world to miss my debut!"

He reached into his bag and pulled out a flaming pumpkin, "Why don't we make sure I get coverage on all of the channels." Norman cackled and prepared to fling it towards the center of the crowd.

Suddenly, a blur of red and blue emerged zipped past the Goblin's face and clocked him in the jaw. Norman spun around on his glider, stunned for a moment. "What was that?" He asked rubbing the sore spot on his jaw. He turned his head around and gazed at the interloper clinging on the wall of the hospital. "Who the hell are you?" Norman demanded angrily, "And what gives you any right to meddle in my affairs?"

"The name's Spider-Man." The agile figure replied, "As for me being here, I'd like to inform you, you've been chosen to play the lead elf in the new Harry Potter movie."

"Insolent whelp!" Norman responded and reading pumpkin bomb, "I'll kill you."

Spider-Man shrugged, "You're welcome to come and try!"

Peter Parker tried to hide the fear he was feeling. The Green Goblin had taken his punch better than anybody ever had. "I can beat this guy, just like I beat all the others."

Norman flung the pumpkin and accelerated towards his new foe, "Heads up, web-head!"

"Whoa!" Peter leaped off the side of the building moments before the pumpkin impacted against the wall and exploded. Bricks flew all around them like deadly shrapnel. He directed his leap straight towards the Goblin.

He landed a solid kick into the green figure's chest.

"Oof!" Norman declared falling off his glider and onto the asphalt. "Glider: auto-pilot pattern Zero-Nine."

Peter landed gracefully a few feet away from the Goblin. "Looks like somebody can't fly around anymore." Both men stood in the driveway that the ambulance carrying Marko had been in. The wreckage from Norman's attack was still smoking. The crowd formed a circle around the two competitors.

Norman stood up with a smile on his face, "Nice job so far." He clenched his fist, "Let's see how you handle this?" His hand grew a bright orange. He outstretched his arms and the electro-zap gloves went to work.

Beams of energy zipped through the air. The first one hit Peter directly in the chest. He skidded across the ground due to the force of the blow. "Damn." Peter said in pain. There was a black scorch mark on the center of his costume. "This guy's going to be a royal pain, I can already feel my ass aching."

He flipped back onto his feet and landed with his fists clenched, "Let's try this dance again!"

Norman smirked, "Certainly." He fired off more beams from his powerful zap gloves. Spider-Man pulled off a dazzling array of maneuvers dodging every blast. "Impressive."

"I thought so." Peter replied. He sprang across their small battlefield and closed the distance between him and the Goblin.

Immediately the real battle began. Peter managed to score an uppercut that forced Norman to clumsily stumble back a few steps. The Goblin retaliated with a sidekick that put Spider-Man on the defensive.

Norman slugged Peter across the face and then hit his nemesis in the gut. "Having fun, yet?" He asked mockingly.

"You tell me?" Peter suddenly ran up Norman's chest and face as if it were some sort of wall.

"Ah!" Norman screamed and fell back a few steps. Blood dripped from his lips. "You're becoming a nuisance, boy!" He went back on the offensive and landed a fierce volley of punches.

Peter clenched under the hits. He could feel his own blood under the mask. "Keep on him!" He told himself. Spider-Man responded to Norman's attack with a barrage of kicks.

Norman slid across the rough street and halted beside a car. He coughed some blood and laughed, "Talk about a work-out!" Peter advanced but was met by a kick across the floor. The hit knocked Spider-Man's feet out from under him.

"I need to keep him off his feet." Peter said to himself nervously. This was the first fight since gaining the power that he was being hurt in. It terrified him.

Spider-Man could hear Norman closing in behind him. "Now!" Peter declared. He flipped directly over Osborn and landed a drop kick as he came down. , "I'm telling you, you're exactly what Victoria's Secret is looking for to advertise their new line: Gay but proud!"

"Priceless!" Norman replied jokingly, "You should have become a comedian! Shame you're such a lousy fighter!" Norman responded just before pounding the side of Spider-Man's face with a right-hook. Peter fell across the floor, "Ha!"

Peter coughed up some more blood into his mask and rose shakily, "He's chewing me apart." He could hear the sounds of the crowd all around him. The cheers and the booing followed by the sympathetic sounds of pain echoing all around him.

Norman closed in again ready to rip apart Spider-Man. Peter halted his attack with a powerful spinning kick. The Goblin fell back, scratches all along his green skin. "Enough of this game! Glider: Return to user!"

The glider soared down back to street-level just as police sirens began to close in. The Goblin cackled, "Shame you can't fly, web-head!" He soared back into the air.

Peter clenched his teeth, "Damn it." He glanced at his web-shooters, "In theory I could swing on them…just before splattering on the street."

The police burst through the crowd and aimed their weapons straight for Spider-Man, "You're under arrest!" One of them barked.

"Next time I'll build a jet-pack instead." Peter fired a long strand of webbing that connected with one of the buildings that the Goblin had just passed by. Peter seemed to fly off the street.

In actuality he had tugged on the highly elastic web strand. It acted like a bungee cord and now he was swinging majestically through the city skyline. "Oh my God! This is, like, so dangerous."

He fired another strand of webbing to keep swinging. He could see the Goblin directly ahead of him. Peter focused all attention on his target and increased his pace.

Norman heard a weird noise from his rear, "What is that?" He turned around and was shocked to find Spider-Man coming up on his tale via web-lines. "Welcome to my domain!" He cackled and spun his glider around. He began a head-on charge for the masked hero. "Fire missile one!"

The glider's computer complied and launched the warhead headed directly for Spider-Man.

Peter's eyes widened, "Holy sh-!" He let go of his web-line and dived down into the streets avoiding the missile by only a few feet.

"Detonate missile one!" Norman demanded. The warhead exploded and sent deadly shrapnel in all directions.

Peter twisted his body into angles that were exhausting even for him. He managed to dodge the shrapnel and fire off another web-line keeping him in the air.

The Goblin came around and made a pass on Peter. He slugged his foe across the jaw. "You seem to forget that in the air, I'm the stronger!"

"Oh?" Peter fired another web-line that caught onto the edge of Norman's glider, "Then I'd just better even the odds." He yanked on the web-line. He was sent hurtling straight for the Green Goblin. Peter landed on the edge of the glider. His feet managed to cling to whatever little space was available to him.

Norman gazed straight into the face of Spider-Man, "This isn't a taxi service, now hop off!" He swung his arm in a desperate attack.

Peter ducked and avoided the hit. He then launched his own assault and landed two fists against Norman's jaw. Norman then tried to elbow him, but Peter managed to twist his back enough to avoid it. He then kneed the Goblin in the gut.

"I'll tell you this, Spider-Man." Norman replied wiping away some of the blood on his face. "You've just made me a very happy Goblin."

Peter frowned, "What's that mean?"

Norman cackled, "Glider: Fire missile two!"

It was then that Peter realized what they were facing. The Empire State Building. "No!"

The glider fired its last missile. The warhead continued on course for the massive skyscraper. Peter leaped off the glider and fired a web-line that connected with the missile.

"Have fun!" Norman said with a wide grin on his face, "I'm finding this Spider-Man to be quite an annoyance." He decided to let his foe live would be foolish, he'd have to take the advantage right away to win.

Peter's web connected with the missile but that didn't stop it. He was now along for the ride. It was small, about just large enough for him to sit on. Peter did just that as he landed on the missile via the momentum from his bungee-like web-line. The missile began to descend due to his weight but stayed on course for the tower of steel.

"I can't let this thing hit that building!" Peter declared realizing what the casualty number could be. He smashed his hand through the steel-shell exposing the wires inside. There was a maze of them. "I don't have time for this!" He grabbed all of the wires he could get a hold of and ripped them out.

The result was an immediate explosion. Peter was thrown from the warhead by the force of the blast. He flew through the air like a rag-doll and crashed against the side of a building. His feet clung to the surface keeping him from falling to the streets.

Peter slowly opened his eyes and gazed at the Empire State Building. He let out a sigh of relief; the missile had exploded safely away from the building, and then glanced at his own status. He had survived the blast relatively unscathed. However, Peter could already feel the cuts and bruises across his body.

"Goblin." He whispered nervously. Peter looked around for his foe but could find him nowhere in the area. He remembered the fury and strength of this new madman and the cold realization swept over him. "Oh no." He murmured as his senses tingled.

The Goblin suddenly emerged from beside him atop his demonic glider, "You've done exceptionally well thus far web-head and though I'd love to play tag with you all day long, I have other business to attend to, so I guess I'll kill you right now and be done with it!"