Chapter Nine

Spider-Man was swinging as fast as he could, just to try and keep up with the Goblin's wild flight pattern. He was weaving around buildings, soaring up and then swooping down. Spidey was starting to get dizzy just from following him, and he was still a little groggy from that blast back on the rooftop.

They were heading back towards familiar ground… the Goblin was flying towards the demolished convention hall from the night before.

The Goblin dipped out of sight as Spider-Man approached the scorched earth and ash-covered ground that remained from the previous evening's events. Spidey swung in and landed amidst the debris. He looked around. Rubble lay everywhere, chunks of concrete and brick scattered for blocks like some kind of massive graveyard. Smoke still rose from the wreckage in some places… the news said they were fighting the fire most of the night.

"Hey, Greenie, why don't you come out and show yourself?" Spider-Man called out. He was here somewhere close by, he could feel it.

He was above him… spider sense just a second too late. He went to jump, but took a pumpkin bomb to the back of the head. It went off at point blank range, sending Spider-Man reeling across the debris, landing sprawled out on his stomach, cut, bleeding and in quite a lot of pain.

The Goblin laughed like mad, circling around Spider-Man several times, taking in the view from all angles.

He looked at Lex, who he was holding by the collar of his shirt. He was still unconscious.

"It's too bad you weren't awake to see this, Lex," the Goblin lamented. "But, you'll find out soon enough what happens to anyone who crosses me." He tossed Lex aside like a piece of trash, sending him tumbling down, landing violently amidst the junk.

As the Goblin slowly descended on his glider towards the bruised and battered Spider-Man, Lex's eyelids fluttered open. He groaned, and felt the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth and running down the back of his throat. His entire body screamed with a pain he had never imagined possible. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he was alive or dead, much less where he was.

He raised his head up and blinked the haze away, trying to focus. He could make out two figures… it was Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. Lex saw the Goblin pick up Spider-Man and backhand him across the face. Spider-Man looked limp and lifeless. He was either unconscious or dead.

That armor… Lex had seen it in the basement of OSCORP… Oh, God… Harry!

Lex collapsed back into the pile of rubble he'd landed in. This was not happening.

He looked around. Maybe he could shout for help? It didn't look like anyone was around.

Then he saw something, buried in the wreckage in front of him. He reached out, and brushed away the dirt and ash… he'd landed right next to something, something that had survived the convention center fire. It appeared to be some kind of battle-suit…

The Goblin smacked Spider-Man across the face again.

"Wake up! This won't be any fun if you sleep through it!"

The throbbing in Spidey's head was all he could hear… He wasn't sure if his eyes were open or closed, but he couldn't see anything but black. That bomb had gone off right next to his head. It would have killed an ordinary person. Somehow he was still alive, but, he managed to form the thought that maybe it would have been much better if he had died.

Another smack across the face. He felt it, sharp and cold, stinging. His eyes opened now. He coughed on the blood and struggled to get the Goblin's hand off his throat.

"Ah, that's much better!" The Goblin's voice echoed through his head like the Grand Canyon.

"G-Goblin…" He coughed, trying not to choke.

"Oh, Spider-Man. This was way too easy."

He dug his fingers into Spider-Man's face, hard, grabbing onto the cloth of his mask. Then, he ripped his hand back again, pulling the mask clean off.

The Goblin just stared blankly at the face beneath Spider-Man's mask.

"No…"

The face of Peter Parker.

Peter struggled to speak. "Hey man, I just rolled out of bed…" Cough. Gasp. "I doubt you're… a sight to behold… first thing in the morning… either."

"Peter! Peter Parker!"

"Y'know… Gobby… I thought we already did the whole… secret identity revelation bit?" God, his voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard, he could barely choke the words out. "Have you talked to your doctor… about Alzheimer's?"

"How could you do it, Pete? How could you kill my dad? For the love of God man, we were best friends!"

How could he kill…? Oh, no. Somehow, the thought hadn't even occurred to him that the Goblin could really be…?

"Harry?" Cough… "Is that you?"

The Goblin let out a primal scream, and bashed Peter's head against the nearest rock. He saw red. The pain was unbearable… Peter started struggling against the Goblin's grip, struggling for his life as he was struck across the face, repeatedly.

"I'm going to make you pay, Peter Parker! I'll take everyone that you love away from you! I'm going to kill your stupid aunt, and I'm going to make you watch me do it! I'm going to kill everyone you've ever met or talked to or cared about in your life!"

He tightened his grip around Peter's neck. Peter couldn't breathe. He couldn't see. He tried to shoot a web in Harry's face or something, but he didn't even have enough muscle control to move his fingers.

"I'll even kill Mary Jane," Harry growled. "Because I know you've loved her from day one… how's that going to feel, Pete? When you watch me kill Mary Jane, right in front of your eyes?"

Harry felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.

"Hey, Osborn."

The Goblin turned around.

"Oh… shit…"

Lex Luthor stood behind him, wearing the green and purple battle-suit that he'd found buried in the rubble.

"Shut your mouth."

Lex's fist connected hard with the Goblin's face. The Goblin mask shattered, shards of metal sticking into Harry's face as the cracked mask fell to the ground. He screamed and let go of Peter, throwing his hands up in front of him.

"You know, Osborn," Lex said, grabbing Harry by the shoulder and pulling him to his feet. "I always thought you were a whiny, stuck-up son of a bitch." He slammed his fist into Harry's stomach. "And you know something?" Another punch to the face. "I was right."

One more punch to the face sent Harry tumbling onto his back. Lex ran up and kicked him in the stomach.

Harry was whimpering on the ground, holding his stomach with one hand and his face with the other.

Lex leaned in close over the beaten Goblin.

"Tell me something Osborn," Lex sneered, his voice full of quiet rage. "Still think you can beat me with one hand behind your back?"

Harry spat blood in Lex's face. "Yeah," he said. "I do."

He shoved his left hand straight into the chest plate of Lex's battle-suit, and released a violent electric charge right inside the suit's circuitry. Lex's eyes opened wide as his body went into a series of uncontrollable muscle spasms just before he blacked out.

Harry shoved the unconscious Lex aside and got wearily to his feet.

Spider-Man was gone.

He threw his head back and screamed, his entire body shaking.

The glider returned to him, and he wearily climbed on top of it. "This isn't over," he mumbled. "It's only begun." He took off into the sky.

Clark Kent caught sight of the Goblin's glider leaving the abandoned convention grounds. He sped over to the wreckage to find Lex lying unconscious, wearing the very battle-suit he'd seen at the fair the night before.

Clark knelt down beside his friend, and tried to shake him awake. "Lex? Are you okay?"

No response. Clark lifted Lex's body up in his arms, and started sprinting for the nearest hospital.

. . . . . .

Back outside the hotel, Chloe looked up and down the street for any sign of Clark. By the time she'd gotten some clothes on and gotten outside, the fight had already moved away from the building, and Clark had seemingly vanished.

She sighed, and shrugged to herself. Guess she might as well go back to bed, and wait for Clark to return with another one of his myriad of lame excuses for running off.

There was a loud crash in the alley behind her. Something had fallen from the roof? From out of the sky?

She wanted to run, but, as usual, her curiosity got the better of her.

"Hello?" she called out, as she cautiously stepped into the alley. "Who's there?"

A muffled groan answered her.

She froze.

"Hello?" she called again.

"Help," she thought she heard, faintly.

She walked deeper into the alley. There was some rustling in the open dumpster in the corner.

Oh, God… someone was inside the dumpster?

She fought every urge she had to take off running. Ever so slowly, she crept closer… closer…

She peered inside.

There, amidst the trash, barely alive, was Spider-Man.

Chloe threw her hand over her mouth and gasped.

She recognized the maskless face, despite the bruises and the blood.

Spider-Man was Peter Parker.