Harry knew he was about to crack; he was beginning to hear and see things even when he was awake. He had gone up to his private quarters to get away from everybody and try to clear his head, if that was even possible. He walked in the room, but was oblivious to the extreme chaos the room was in. There were papers scattered around the room everywhere. A cushion was off the couch and lying onthe floor, clothes were strewn about haphazardly.

He sat down heavily in a chair across from a large mirror. He held his head in his hands for a moment before tiredly looking up into the mirror. At first he saw his own haggard reflection in the mirror, then the image changed before his eyes. He could now clearly see his father.

"Harry." It was as if the voice was actually in the room with him. Harry sat transfixed by the image and the disembodied voice.

"Harry, it is time you learn your true destiny." Norman spoke in a flat tone.

Harry sat there completely dumbfounded, unable to even utter a sound.

"Harry, you have to complete my work." The voice continued in its same flat tone.

Harry sat there not knowing what to do. As if reading his mind the voice replied, "Go to the hidden room, Harry." Harry had no strength left to resist the voice's calling and he obediently got up and went to the room hidden behind the wall. When Harry entered the room, his eyes fell across the eerie green mask on the pedestal. When the voice spoke again it seemed to be coming from the mask.

"Harry this is your true legacy. You have to fulfill my work."

"What do you want me to do?" Harry said almost mechanically.

"You must drink the contents of the vialon the shelf."

Harry walked over to the shelf, as if it really wasn't himself, but another force that was propelling him onward.

He opened the container and drank the thick, green liquid, which burned his throat as it went down. The container then slid out of his hand and landed with a loud crash, shattering into several pieces as it hit the cold, hard floor. Immediately after that the world to Harry seemed to start spinning around and around faster and faster and it was filled with bright flashing colors. It then suddenly all turned to black as Harry fell to the floor unconscious.

----------

The next morning Peter and Clark are walking down the sidewalk of one of the many commercial neighborhoods. There are little shops lined up next to each other down both sides of the streets. People are milling about, walking in and out of the stores, walking their dogs, talking on their cellphones and riding their bicycles down the street. Clark is just taking in all the activity around him as they continue on down the street. As they pass another shop a door swings open nearly hitting them. Mary Jane walks out of the store.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you," Mary Jane says, slightly surprised.

"Hi, MJ. How are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm fine, just running a few errands," she says as she holds up her shopping bags.

"Uh hmm," Clark coughed slightly to make his presence known.

"Peter, I think you should introduce your friend," Mary Jane said lightly.

"Yes, Peter, I think you should introduce your friend," Clark said while smiling brightly.

"MJ, this is Clark Kent. Clark Kent, this is Mary Jane Watson," Peter said as he motioned with his hands between the two people.

"Pleasure to meet you," Clark said politely as he extended his hand.

"Well, thank you," Mary Jane replied as she blushed slightly.

"So, now that we have the introductions out of the way, what are you doing now?"

"I have one more errand to run, then I am meeting John for lunch."

"Oh, okay," Peter said, dejected.

"Why don't you come and see my new play," Mary Jane said hopefully.

"I'll be there. I promise," Peter replied earnestly.

"It was nice seeing you again," she said as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Peter said longingly.

Mary Jane slowly let go of Peter's shoulder and turned to walk away down the street.

When Mary Jane was out of earshot, Clark put his hand on Peter's shoulder. "I'm sorry, man." Clark already knew the answer but he asked the question anyway. "Why don't you tell her?"

Peter glared back at Clark. "You of all people should know the answer to that. Tell me something, Clark, is there someone you really care for?" Clark just nods his head in response.

"Have you told her about yourself?" Peter questioned.

"No." Clark answered quietly.

"I am not going to put her in any more danger," Peter said as he sighed and clamed down. "Besides, I just can't tell her."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, but it seems to be killing you," Clark said apologetically.

"Well, what does it do to you when you have to continually lie to people?" Peter asked.

"The same exact thing. Come on, let's go get something to eat." They continued down thestreet for a while in silence until Peter decided to ask a question.

"Tell me, Clark, do you have a girlfriend?" Peter queried.

"No." Clark said as he hung his head. "I have two"—a wide grin breaking out on his face.

Peter's eyes grew big as he exclaimed, "What?"

"I have two good friends that are girls," Clark said, then added more seriously, "at least I think they are still my friends."

"What happened?" Peter asked, curious.

Clark thought about both of Chloe and Lana for a moment before answering; but didn't realize long he taken to answer the question.

Peter snapped his fingers in front of Clark to try to get his attention, "Hey, Earth to Clark."

Clark jumped slightly. "What?"

"You zoned out for a second. What happened to make you think they wouldn't be your friends anymore?"

"Okay, well first of all, their names are Lana and Chloe. You look at Mary Jane the same way that I look at Lana." Peter nodded knowingly.

Clark continued "Well, I had finally started seeing Lana and everything seemed right and was going well for a change." Clark paused for a moment and sighed.

"But?" Peter said and prompted him to continue.

"But, Lana and I weren't sure how to tell Chloe about it," Clark stated.

"Why would you have to tell her?"

"She's also one of my good friends. She eventually confronted me at my farm and told me that she had known all along because she had seen us kissing in the barn. She was yelling at me and told me to have a nice life, then drove off."

"Wait a minute. You live on a farm? An actual farm with cows and chickens and everything?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Clark answered, smiling.

"Whoa. I may have to come out and see that." Peter replied.

"Anyway, continue your story. That explains why Chloe would be mad at you, if she still is, what about Lana?"

"As I mentioned before there was a lot of stuff going on and the day I left I drove off with Lana standing in the driveway crying. She said she wanted to know me. I know she thinks she does, but if she knew the real me then she wouldn't have anything to do with me."

"What kind of 'other stuff' was going on?" Peter queried.

"I don't want to talk about it," Clark said a little too forcefully. Peter backed off, slightly hurt.

"Sorry about that. It's just a sensitive issue," Clark said apologetically.

"Don't worry about," Peter said brushing it off.

"So, what is the deal with Mary Jane?" Clark asked

"Oh" Peter sighed. "We are just friends. That's all we can be. My best friend Harry knew how much I liked her, but then went ahead and started seeing her. But, then it didn't work out between them. After that she asked me how I felt about her. I had to tell her I just wanted to be friends. She has been kidnapped and almost killed twice because of me. I can't put her in anymore danger. Also it messes stuff up when I tell her that I will see her plays and then I miss them," Peter said.

"Oh and you weren't helping the other night when you pulled your stunt" Peter said sarcastically.

Clark's face turned red with embarrassment, "Oh no. You were going to see her then. Sorry about that."

"I told you, you were messing up my social life." Peter said as he pushed on Clark's shoulder.

"I am so sorry," Clark said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it" Peter responded.

As they continued walking down the street, Peter felt a small tingle at the base of his skull.

Peter turned around slowly and looked skyward and squinted against the bright sun. He raised his hand to shield his eyes to see if he could tell what had set off his spider sense. At first he couldn't see anything but he heard a high-pitched squeal that seemed very familiar to him. Then suddenly a form appeared against the glare of the sun. Peter's face paled as he instantly recognized what the form was.

"It's not possible, he's dead." Peter said inalmost an inaudible whisper. He hadn't realized that he had said it at all.

Then the form came closer as it spotted its prey and Peter's spidersense went off at full force. Peter's stunned brain started working again and he yelled, "Everybody get down." A pumpkin bomb exploded nearby. Peter crouched down and pulled Clark down next to him as the explosion rocked the area. While the dust was settling Peter ran into a nearby alley to change into his costume. Meanwhile the goblin was making a loop to come back to a second attempt.

Clark stood for a moment, bewildered, then he followed Peter into the alley. In the midst of all the chaos Clark had an odd thought: "He wears his costume under his clothes. That has got to be uncomfortable." Then he saw Spiderman swing off to the unknown assailant. Clark knew he needed to help, but there were people everywhere and he couldn't take the chance of anybody seeing him do anything. ThenClark heard another explosion go off and knew that he had to do something even if somebody saw him.

Spiderman had narrowly missed the first attack as a pumpkin bomb whizzed by and hit a nearby water tank. The bomb effectively seared right through the metal stand the water tank was on, causing it to plummet downward onto the curious pedestrians below. Spiderman quickly landed and spun a web out to catch the tank just a few inches above everyone. He then lowered it safely to the ground.

Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky with the second attack. His opponent took full advantage of the momentary distraction and sent another bomb hurtling toward the roof. It landed right next to Spiderman, causing him to fall backwards towards the street. He didn't have too much time to think before he was speared with the glider and taken skyward.

"Can't have you falling and getting hurt before I get to have my fun with you," the goblin said and laughed manically.

Clark sped up to the top of the roof and saw an unbelievable sight. He saw Spiderman skewered on top of some type of strange glider. However, the strangest thing was the person, he assumed it was a person, controlling the glider. The person looked like hewas wearing a very realistic Halloween costume. The entire costume was a dark green color with a metallic look to it. It had eerie yellow eyes. Clark thought, if I can bring this thing down then both of us can defeat it. Clark concentrated his heat vision on the underside of the glider and it began to smoke.

The force of the impact caused Spiderman to roll to the other side of the roof. He lay there deathly still.

The enraged goblin headed straight for Clark. "You should not have interfered. I guess I will have to have my fun with you since Spiderman isn't up to playing right now." He laughed again as he turned and looked at Spiderman, who still lay motionless on the other side of the roof.

Clark struck the first blow and instantly knew that he was in trouble. It had hurt when he hit the mask. It had actually hurt. Clark's head was still spinning from this and his eyes grew wide with shock but that soon turned to horror as his opponent placed his hand firmly around Clark's neck. As soon as he did so, Clark felt like hot needles were being stuck in him all up and down his body. His neck felt like it was on fire. He held Clark firmly against the entrance to roof area. Clark tried prying the lethal hand off his neck, but it was no use, he was not able to budge it. The goblin then began to squeeze, causing Clark to desperately gasp for breath. Just as Clark's world began to grow dark, the lethal force was jerked away.

Spiderman hit the goblin smack in the face with a wad of webbing, then caught his arms and pulled him away from Clark. "Hey, don't forget about me, Greenie." The goblin stood between Spiderman and Clark directly beside where his glider had landed as he pulled furiously at the webbing on his face, trying to get it off. At the same instant that the goblin freed his face of the webbing police sirens could be heard approaching the area.

"This is not over, Spiderman." The goblin spat out with venom as he got on his glider. He threw down a smoke bomb to hide his exit. "Not over by a long shot, because I know who you are, but you don't know me," the goblin said to himself smugly after he had risen in the sky.

Peter knew he should go after the goblin, but then he looked over at Clark slumped next to the entrance of the roof. Peter walked over to Clark. "Hey, we've got to get out of here, we don't want to be here when the cops make it up here. Are you all right? Can you make it okay?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I can run right now," Clark replied, still a little shaken.

"Okay, well hold on. I hope you don't mind heights," Peter replied.

Clark gulped. "Well......."

Peter put his hand around Clark's waist and shot a web out and started swinging to another building a little more than a block away. They landed gently, then Peter said, "Stay here for a minute. I am going to go back for my clothes."

Peter came back and opened the door to the stairway and went inside and quickly changed his clothes. He came back onto the roof and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, let's go," Clark responded.

They exited the building and walked in silence in the general direction of Clark's apartment. After they arrived there Clark went straight to the refrigerator. "You want a Coke?"

"Yeah," Peter responded. Clark got himself one and threw one to Peter.

"So, what happened to you up there?" Peter queried

"Well" Clark shifted uncomfortably, "you remember when I told you that the ring that I was wearing affected me. It was made out of a red meteor rock."

"Mm-hmm," Peter said as he nodded his head.

"Well." Clark shifted some more. He didn't like talking or even thinking about the effect the rocks had on him. "There is another variety of the rock, it's green. Anytime I am around it, I become extremely weak. When that 'thing' grabbed me it felt just like someone had placed a large rock right up next to my neck."

"But, you seem to be okay now."

"Yeah, as long as I can get away from it, I'm fine. So, what was that thing? You seemed to know him," Clark asked.

"That was the Green Goblin." Peter replied as Clark's eyes got wide and he chocked on his coke.

"Are you all right?" Peter asked, looking at Clark, really puzzled.

"I'm fine. Just got a little choked up there." I wonder if that is the reason I felt bad.

"As I was saying, that was the Green Goblin." Peter paused and looked, slightly confused, at Clark to see if he was going to get the same reaction. Seeing none, he continued, "But, it couldn't have been the real Green Goblin."He sighed heavily.

"Why couldn't it be the 'real' Green Goblin?" Clark asked cautiously.

"Because he's dead," Peter said with his eyes downcast.

Clark could tell there was more to the story. "What happened?"

"I, well, I mean Spiderman had to fight the Green Goblin. He died as a result of the fight. I didn't kill him, though. He tried to spear me with his glider; I managed to get out of the way. But he was then speared with it," Peter said solemnly.

"You couldn't help that, it is not your fault that he died."

"Yeah, I know," Peter said unconvincingly.

"I need to go," Peter said as he placed the now empty Coke can on the counter and left the apartment.