Heya! I'm so sorry I haven't updated for almost 3 weeks, but I had writers block with the last half of this chapter and then went all wacky with te rebuilding and the virus etc. Sorry! Please read and review!
Surprise, Surprise!
Part 14
"Harry," Peter started, as he was led away from the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. "What just happened?"
But Harry just shook his head fervently and dragged Peter into the nearest quiet alleyway he could find. He let go of Peter then quickly peered round the corner of the alley to check no one was listening, then began speaking in a low voice.
"Ok, we're safe here." Harry sighed in relief and seemed to want to leave it a that, but at Peter's annoyed frown he reluctantly explained.
"That… was Chaos." He said hesitantly, fiddling nervously with his hands for something to do.
Peter sighed in frustration. "Gee, really? I wouldn't have been able to te-" He practically growled sarcastically, but Harry hastily cut him off.
"Also known as Eddy Brock." Harry pronounced meaningfully, and watched Peter gape wordlessly.
"Brock?" Peter finally choked out. "But how? Why? I mean, I know he didn't particularly like me, but-"
"Money; and power." Harry stated simply. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, feeling a migraine building. There was silence for a while as Peter realised Harry needed some time. Then, "Peter? What would you say if I told you I sold my soul to the devil?" Harry cautiously opened his eyes to look at his friend, but didn't dare hold his gaze. The silence seemed to well up and surround him as he awaited Peter's verdict.
Peter quietly said after a while, "I would say, what could possibly drive someone like you to do such a thing?"
"Hate can do a lot of things." Harry replied in a whisper, not wanting Peter to hear the answer, full of shame. He fiddled with the corner of his shirt and stared at the ground.
"Do you… hate me?" Peter asked tentatively, fearing the answer yet craving the knowledge at the same time.
"I… used to." Harry admitted. "Now though, now I'm not sure what I feel. Who I am- what I've done…"
Harry paused to take a deep breath then blurted it all out. "Peter, I sold the remains of my father's super soldier formula to Jameson. Along with the glider, suit and weaponry." He paused and surveyed the horrified expression on Peter's face, feeling the guilt well up inside him.
"But, there was only a third or so of the formula left over. You know Stromm was murdered?" Harry continued at Peter's nod. "I think my father pressured him into helping test the formula on himself, but then Stromm panicked and shut down the chamber before all of the formula was released, effectively signing his own death warrant" Harry sighed, feeling instantly better, like a great weight had been released of his chest that had been slowly suffocating him. "So, Brock shouldn't be as strong as the Goblin was… or as… insane." He finished in a whisper, and slid down the wall to sit on the floor with his head in his hands. Peter somehow knew it was the first time he'd actually admitted that his father had been the Green Goblin, perhaps now he could come to accept it.
Peter stood for a while, digesting the information and trying not to panic or strangle his friend. Then he swallowed down the anger and bitter taste in his mouth, and sat down next to Harry, arms resting on his knees. It wasn't the time to flay Harry for what he'd done, it was the time to figure out what to do next, and besides, it seemed Harry had gone through enough trauma for one day.
"There's more." Harry said, so quietly Peter wondered if he really had said anything at all. "Jameson sent two reporters to the café to cover the story, so his newspaper would get the scoop. You remember the red-head with the brown suit? And her partner, the big guy with glasses and bad hair style?" Harry looked up.
Peter nodded slowly. "Er… one had a clipboard or something? Yeah, but they promised not to say anything…" He trailed off hopefully, frowning in deep thought.
Harry snorted in reply.
"You don't think it was sincere?" Peter asked worriedly.
"Honestly, Peter, you're so gullible. If they really meant what they said I'll eat my shoe." Harry said in a matter of fact way.
Peter snorted at that, grinning despite the situation. "You'll eat your shoe?" He repeated dubiously, looking faintly amused.
"I don't have a hat." Harry explained, deadly serious.
"Ah," Peter said as if it was perfectly normal. "Well, I think you're too pessimistic about humanity. I prefer to believe in the best in people, I don't think they'll tell." Said Peter with complete confidence.
"Yeah, but you also believed Dr. Connors wouldn't give you an F for that essay on atoms." Harry shot back, and smirked slightly.
Peter smiled indulgently and didn't reply, simply glad that he'd got his friend to smile for the first time in what must have been months. It seemed they had come to a somewhat shaky truce; at least until they could figure out a way to defeat Chaos. Then whatever issues they had between them could be resolved, and hopefully, Peter thought, they could start up their old friendship. He knew their bond would never be the same again, but at least they could try.
---
Peter swung home shortly after and Harry called a taxi to be taken back to his mansion, his friend having declined the offer of a lift in preference to blowing off some steam.
He thought deeply as he swung, and eventually became so lost in his thoughts that swinging ceased to need his attention. He simply shot out a web- 'thwip!'- held onto it until it reached the end of its ark then shot out another, the motion turning to a gentle rhythm. Before he knew it he was outside his balcony, with no idea how he'd got there so fast. Then again, time flies when you're having fun, Peter thought sarcastically.
He wearily eased the French doors, which badly needed oiling, open, and was about to collapse on his bed, but there happened to be another person occupying it.
He laid down next to MJ anyway and groaned. She poked him. "Hi tiger," she said brightly. "I've been waiting for you for ages. What're you moaning about today then?" She grinned and rolled over onto her stomach, her head propped up on one elbow, she looked at him mischievously. "A kitten scratch you when you were rescuing it from a tree? Or did Dr. Connors give you another lecture?"
He groaned again. "I never got to Dr. Connors' class, and I was too busy fighting the neighbourhood's latest attempt at a super-villain to be worried about cats stuck up trees, thank you very much." He told her. All trace of her flippancy instantly vanished, and she looked at him with concern.
"What?! Why, what happened? I thought you were meeting Harry-" a look of dawning suddenly darkened her expression and she said softly, "Oh no… you don't mean…?" She didn't dare voice her fears.
"No," Peter said heavily. "Harry wasn't the villain himself, but he did play a rather large part in his creation." He partly explained.
She breathed a sigh of relief, and then fixed a questioning gaze upon him. "Harry… made a deal with Jameson… he sold the last of the super soldier formula in exchange for my identity being revealed. Jameson sent two undercover reporters to capture the fight, but Harry's plan backfired, and Chaos, more commonly known as Eddy Brock, turned on him. We don't know if Jameson planned that part or not, but we do know that no one is safe while that maniac is still on the loose." Peter finished.
"Oh my God." MJ whispered, her eyes darting about as she took it all in. Then she suddenly looked at Peter fearfully. "The reporters- they won't-?"
"No, they promised their silence." Peter cut in.
"And you believe them?" MJ asked doubtfully.
Peter gave her an odd look, then said disbelievingly, "I am the only one who's even remotely optimistic in this city?"
---
MJ left around an hour later, after much discussion about Chaos and Harry. She'd promised Peter she would ring her old friend and ex-boyfriend, and see if they could perhaps start to patch things up a bit, but primarily to see if he had any ideas as to what was to be done about the newest super-villain on the block.
Peter had given her a grateful look, at the same time saying the perfunctory, "Are you sure?" Which had come to be part of what society considered good manners. 'And you're nothing without good manners', Peter reflected on the days when that had been Aunt May's favourite saying and sighed wistfully. Things had been so much simpler, so much easier then, he wondered why things had had to change. Now Aunt May had taken up his late Uncle's favourite saying as well as her own, as if that would somehow make up for the lack of his presence. He didn't like change much.
He was jerked out of his morose musings by the wail of a siren, and quickly stripped to his costume to follow the cry.
Soon after another siren joined the wail, then another, and another, until the screeches were all jumbled together in a cacophony of sound. Peter winced as he swept low over what seemed to him a particularly loud police car, and had to stop himself from letting go of his web to cover his ears. He sighed in relief when the police finally turned their sirens off, and slowed. It left an odd ringing noise in his ears that at first drowned out the screams of several terrified people, but his hearing quickly came back, and along with it a certain dark green figure on a glider.
Peter gasped and darted out of the way of a pumpkin bomb which exploded painfully close to his ear. He let go of the webline and dropped a few feet under Chaos, catching a glimpse of the wreckage the villain had already caused. A once beautifully sculpted museum was burning fiercely, and every now and again the Saturday morning shoppers had to push and shove out of the way of a falling flaming beam.
He did a double take as he looked across from there and his eyes fell on a building which seemed to have been taken apart by Chaos piece by piece, but then he noticed the huge demolition crane behind it. The driver was in the process of hauling his rather large butt out of the cabin and legging it across the small mountains of soil and bricks to safer terrain.
Suddenly Peter was forced forward, and for a moment he slipped down the web but he quickly regained his balance and twisted round to see Chaos plant his muddy foot back on the glider, grinning madly. Peter could already tell it was going to be one of those days.
End of Part 14
Ok, do you like or not like? Have you got any advice on how to write a massive fight scene? I really need help!
IMPORTANT: I changed a bit of the movie, you know how Stromm shut down the chamber early? Well what if all that there was left of the formula was that canister Norman had started to use. Just use your imagination on this one please, forget that Harry found a room full of the stuff in Spider-man 2, in this story he only found that canister that had already been used.
spyder616: I like Harry too much to make him insane and evil. :P Thanks for saying happy birthday! And your not old... even though I don't know how old you are, but anyways. ;)
PureEvilOne: Hobgoblin? I didn't make Chaos the Hobgoblin because he was Harry wasn't he? And Chaos isn't, he's my character! All mine! Mwahahaha! (ok, he's only partly mine... I think...)
Padfoot: Lol, thanks for the review.
Jenn: Yay you got it right! Well done! You can have a cookie. :P
Emily M. Hanson: Thank yee kindly for yee review. :P
LordLanceahlot: Your wish is my command. ;)
sma: Yes, "I am only 15". No you're not old and inadequate, even though I wouldn't know since I don't have a clue who you are, but oh well.
Angie King: Thanklie very muchlies for the reviewly!
Amber: That's ok, lol. Sometimes it's hard to tell if someone's joking or not when it's in type. Thankies for your review!
Kirsten-B: A sequel? Um, you do realise there's 14 more chapters and I haven't posted the last 2 yet right? :) Thankies anyways!
Mark C: Yep, you got it right. Well done and here's a cookie! :)
DiabloDude1: Thanks, Kerry should have won ( you didn't see that and no offense to any Bush fans), and did you email me the next chapter of Holding Out For A hero? I didn't get it if you did. :(
Meepie: Thankies! And don't eat that cake too fast! ;)
YLJedi: Thankies! I thought the fight scene sucked actually. lol.
ashthedragon: Ok thanks, I'll go check out your account at deviantart!
AA Battery: In a word- no. But you can have a cookie anyways because it was a good guess! :)
Padfoot n'Moony: Well, here I am, updating. :P
Mary Jane Watson-Parker: Thankies! Well if that made you happy then you'll like the next couple of chapters! ;) Yay you're 15 too! Judging from the reviews everyone seems to be older than me. :(
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I'll try to update soon!