Author's Note: So . . . I made a choice. . . . And it is a choice that you will finding . . . striking. I made a choice that I believe is for the best, but you may have mixed emotions for this choice. I will be explaining myself later. Let's just get to the chapter.

Spider-Man and MJ: Never Break

Chapter 11 Old Friends

The next few weeks were a lot. Long story short, MJ reported the abuse to the police. Peter and May gave testimonies about signs of abuse they had seen but not realized until then. All the while, there weren't any more attacks from the wannabe goblin. It was as if the wannabe goblin was aware of the situation and waiting his turn to be their primary focus. Peter had no luck finding any more clues about the wannabe goblin and his investigations into Harry were getting him nowhere, so he just accepted the freedom to concentrate on other matters.

It was the last night before MJ would meet her foster family and Aunt May had insisted on making a dinner of MJ's choice.

While Peter was out, taking care of Spider-Man business, MJ volunteered to help May with the cooking.

"I hope Peter remember to bring his camera," MJ said. "I'd hate for him to miss out on a photo op with a bomb threat."

"Well, he wouldn't be missing out on too much money if he did forget," May said, rolling her eyes at the wages Peter had been given for other photos.

"Peter is making more money now, isn't he?" MJ asked concernedly.

"More than the Bugle paid him, sure. But that isn't saying much," May explained.

"But he always takes really good pictures of Spider-Man."

May wished the topic didn't come up, but she wasn't about to lie about it. "Peter's not the only photographer who can take pictures of Spider-Man. Some of his competitors have taken photography courses and own better cameras. And they'll only buy so many pictures from him; Spider-Man saves people all the time, but they're not going to keep printing the same stories about Spider-Man saving someone from a mugger over and over. And it's hard to compete when he tries taking pictures of anything else. Also, I hate to say it, but not a lot of people buy newspapers anymore. Sure, there's online articles, but a lot of people are more likely to watch a minute long video of Spider-Man in action that someone recorded on their phone than they are to read an article with a single picture. The sad truth is, Peter doesn't get as much money as he deserves."

This was news to MJ. She assumed that Peter's pictures of Spider-Man were worth a fortune and a half. "Does Pete not make enough money to live on his own?"

"No. Sometimes I worry about him. Don't get me wrong; Peter is welcome to stay with me for as long as he needs, but what happens when I die?"

"Does Peter have any other ideas for a career?" MJ asked. "Does he have a college degree in mind? I know he's smart. He could be a scientist."

May stared at the floor with a heavy heart. "Peter isn't sure he can handle college. He can barely handle high school while being Spider-Man. And he doesn't know what kind of fulltime job he could do."

"Does being Spider-Man really take up that much of his time? He has enough time for me."

"It's not really a matter of how many hours as much as it's about being available when he's needed," May explained. "When someone needs Spider-Man's help, Peter drops everything and goes. That's not something you can get away with in most lines of work."

MJ didn't know that Peter had so many road blocks with money making. Peter never told her. MJ couldn't blame him since she wouldn't have told him either. In fact, she didn't like to talk about her job; she actually wondered if Peter knew she still worked as a waitress.

"Thankfully," May said with a more upbeat attitude, "I have a feeling that Peter will end up marrying a famous model/actress."

MJ put on a bittersweet smile. Marrying Peter and paying the bills with a highly successful model/actress career sounded wonderful. She just wasn't sure if she could pull that off. "I hope so," MJ said.


With all the terrorists unconscious or webbed to the walls, Spider-Man turned his attention to the bomb. "A minute and ten seconds left. No time to bring in a bomb squad. It's too big to get it to a high enough altitude. I'll have to defuse it," Spider-Man summarized. "He took a look at the wires and made an educated guess which one was right to disconnect. If he was wrong, his spider-sense would warn him in time. No such warning came, so he cut the wire. The countdown didn't stop, but there was no explosion either. Spider-Man thought it was weird that he got a non-destructive wire on his first guess. The last time he had a bomb to defuse, his spider-sense warned him about two wrong wires before he found the right one. Upon taking a closer look into the inner workings, he realized that something wasn't right about it. Spider-Man grabbed a fistful of wires without getting a warning from his spider-sense. He ripped them out all at once and nothing happened. With less caution, Spider-Man ripped pieces out and found the confirmation of what he suspected. "What's the big idea, here?!" Spider-Man asked the conscious terrorists. "This isn't a bomb! It's a glorified timer with extra wires!"

"You mean, we're not going to blow up?" one of the terrorists asked, relieved.

"No. Who sent you here to talk big talk with a fake bomb?!"

"Guilty," said a modulated voice from behind. Spider-Man turned around to find the attacker who came to Peter's apartment before. "The theatrics were just a pretense to get you over here."

"Who are you?" Spider-Man couldn't recognize that voice through that thick modulation.

"Green Goblin; the new one anyway."

Spider-Man groaned. "I am so sick of legacy characters. If you want new characters, introduce them as unique and keep the old ones. I mean, why replace what isn't broken?"

"The old Green Goblin is dead."

"My point exactly. I see nothing broken about that," Spider-Man said. He wanted to be relieved to finally hear confirmation, but he knew deep down that he could have been lying about his identity.

"Before we start hitting each other, I wanted to say congratulations on winning that courtroom case," the Fake Green Goblin said.

Spider-Man wanted to deny knowing what he was talking about, but he knew he wouldn't be fooling anyone and he didn't want Fake Goblin explain what he was talking about in front of the terrorists. "You know about that, huh?"

"Of course. I know all about you and your pretty girlfriend."

A glider crashed through the window and flew into position behind Fake Goblin. It was mostly like the classic Green Goblin's, but with a few slight modifications. Fake Goblin jumped onto the glider. A pumpkin bomb launched from the glider into his hand. "Care to stop me from a little senseless mayhem, Spider-Man?" Fake Goblin asked before flying out the window.

Spider-Man followed after him, jumping through the same hole in the window. As he chased the glider, Fake Goblin threw pumpkin bombs at people randomly, but Spider-Man always web-pulled the bombs away before they exploded.

Fake Goblin flew over a building and Spider-Man caught up to him, tackling him off of the glider. They landed on the roof where they began a fist fight.

Fake Goblin may have had the classic, goblin strength, but his fighting skills paled in comparison with Spider-Man's. For every hit Fake Goblin landed, Spider-Man hit him with three more.

Spider-Man web-pulled Fake Goblin's leg, sending him falling onto one knee. While he was lowered, Spider-Man jumped and kicked downward on his head.

While he was laying down, Fake Goblin said, "You and your girlfriend seem happy together. Tell me something. . . . Was I right to give you a heads up about her?"

Spider-Man stared at him angrily, recognizing the reference. Harry was the one to give Peter a heads up about MJ. "What did you just say?"

"I said . . . was I right to give you a heads up about MJ?"

Spider-Man just kept staring in disbelief.

"Does she get high and kiss people behind your back? Does she refuse to go out in public with you? Does she?"

"Harry?"

"You guessed it," Fake Goblin said before pressing a button on his glove.

The glider came flying at Spider-Man with a blade sticking out of its goblin-like mouth. Spider-Man jumped over the glider as it passed under him. But when Spider-Man came back down, Fake Goblin uppercut him, knocking him away.

The glider got into position and Fake Goblin jumped onto it again. He then blasted away. Spider-Man chased after him, but he was moving too fast for even him to keep up. Thankfully, Fake Goblin wasn't throwing anymore bombs. "He's gone. But I know where he's going," Spider-Man thought.


Harry stood in front of the T.V. instead of sitting down as they reported on the Fake Goblin's attack. He soaked in every detail he could find, wanting to know everything about the effect this would have.

"Harry," Spider-Man said from behind.

"Spider-Man? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, come on. You already dropped the act. Don't play games with me now, Fake Goblin."

"You think I . . . I'VE BEEN HERE ALL DAY!"

"What is this? Do you have guests in the house you're acting for?" Spider-Man asked, looking around. "You told me things only you knew when you were the Fake Goblin."

"My butler is in the other room. He can tell you I've been here for hours," Harry said, becoming impatient.

"You want me to ask your butler if you're guilty of a crime? No. That's not how this works."

"What did the new Green Goblin say that only I would know?"

"You know what you said! You're the new Green Goblin!" Spider-Man insisted. "It was you. I didn't want to believe it. But now I'm wondering if you were involved all along, pretending you had nothing to do with it. You were after the sympathy, saying poor Harry has to be associated with the Green Goblin, you're just like your father."

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE!"

"Oh, I would love for you to call the police for me," Spider-Man said, sitting down on a couch. "I'm sure the cops will want to know why Spider-Man is in an Osborn's penthouse, accusing you of being up to no good."

"What does it matter? I'll be their primary suspect anyway."

"HELP!" cried Harry's butler from another room. Spider-Man rushed through the penthouse, searching for him, but the butler was gone.

Spider-Man ran back to the living room, about to interrogate Harry, but he was suddenly gone, too. "HARRY!" Spider-Man yelled.

A voice creepily comical and sadistically playful said, "Harry is on sabbatical."

Spider-Man was horror struck by that voice; but then he convinced himself that it couldn't be who it sounded like. "Where are you?!" Spider-Man demanded.

"I'm in the kitchen! Come see my new outfit!" the voice said. "I just put the finishing touches on the new digs! It so much better than that blasé body armor you saw earlier!"

Spider-Man made his way to the kitchen and found him cutting carrots impressively fast. He stabbed the kitchen knife into the cutting board, stepped away from it and asked, "What do you think?" His body was covered in what looked like green skin with well-toned muscles and an abnormal visual presence of veins. His clothes were purple gloves, boots and an almost loincloth-like pair of shorts. His hair was purple and set in a slicked back style. The mask didn't look like a mask, but an actual face. His ears, nose and chin were long and pointy. His yellow eyes were larger than ordinary, but they were animated as if they were his actual eyes, complete with working eyelids.

Spider-Man wolf whistled at the outfit, not taking the situation seriously. "It looks even better than the real goblin's suit."

"I thought so. That old thing was alright, but the top was a little too peasant-like and the hat was hard to pull off."

"As much as I'd like to talk about super-suit fashion, I kind of need to make sure your butler is safe."

"Oh, don't worry about him. I had my associates show him the door and tell him not to blab about me, but he's in one piece. I'd hate to have to find another butler," the Goblin said before turning the nob on the stove.

"You really going to fight me while cooking?" Spider-Man asked.

"Why must we fight?" the Goblin asked, briefly sounding sad. "Can't two old friends just catch up over a good meal?"

"Thanks, but I already have dinner plans."

"Well, then . . ." the Goblin said, tossing a pan over his shoulder. "I guess there's no point in cooking. It seems so pointless just cooking for myself now. As much as I'd like to reminisce, I suspect you'd rather get down to brass tacks."

"Why are you attacking me? Is this about revenge?"

"Oh, please. Do you really think me that petty?" Goblin asked, mildly annoyed. "You're an obstacle in the way of my enterprises. This is strictly business. It was business then and it's business now."

"What about Gwen?!" Spider-Man asked enraged. "Was that just business when the real Goblin killed her?"

"She was just supposed to be bait. You're the one who cracked her spine."

Spider-Man was seething at that comment. But he wanted to talk a little more before they start throwing fists. "If you wanted me out of the way, why didn't you spill my secret?"

"Reveal your identity?! What for?! So a bunch of would-be spider-killers could line up on your doorstep and take turns getting trounced?! Sure a few of your loved ones may have been hurt, but that wouldn't have furthered my goals. Besides, why waste a perfectly good bargaining chip?"

"I know your secret, too, you know. You don't exactly have the advantage here."

The Goblin laughed at him. "You won't say anything! You said so yourself that you regretted telling the world about the Green Goblin's identity. So many innocent employees were put in a negative light thanks to that mistake you won't soon repeat."

Spider-Man kept silent for a few seconds, knowing that the Goblin rightfully called his bluff. "What was with the telling me who you are, pretending not to be who you are and then talking to me like it's not a secret now?" Spider-Man asked, changing the subject.

"Maybe I was just trying to get some good footage of you barging into my home and making accusations," the Goblin suggested. "There are still cameras in here; just not ones you can see so easily. Now, I have a question for you."

"Okay."

"Was it an accident when you . . . you know?" the Goblin moved a finger from one side of his neck to the other, referring to Norman's decapitation.

"Honestly, it was an accident," Spider-Man said, considering telling him more. He ultimately decided that he wanted him to know the truth. "But honestly, I'd do it again."

At that, the Goblin giggled. "New York's favorite golden boy has a dark side. What happened to all those speeches about how being a hero means never killing anybody?"

"The Green Goblin happened," Spider-Man answered.

"THE GREEN GOBLIN HAPPENED!" he repeated, amused. "Never was there ever another villain who left such a mark on you."

"Sounds like you're proud of your old man."

"Old-Man-Osborn had his qualities, sure; taught me all about how to be a man."

"He taught you wrong," Spider-Man said. "My uncle taught me that being a man is about standing up to the bad guys and protecting people."

"I'll bet you didn't get rich, doing that," the Goblin teased.

The Goblin pointed a finger at Spider-Man and his spider-sense went off. A yellow projectile made of either light or plasma shot from his finger. Spider-Man dodged the goblin-bolt just in time. The Goblin ran at him with his fist cocked. Spider-Man held up a hand ready to catch his fist, but the Goblin switched, hitting him with the other fist. The Goblin headbutted him and then kicked him all the way into the dining room.

The Goblin pursued him, but Spider-Man leapt backwards, landing with his hands on a table sized for two people. The Goblin kept coming, but Spider-Man launched himself backward taking the table with him, using his clinging ability. When the Goblin approached, Spider-Man landed and slammed the table down, breaking it against the Goblin's guarding arms. Spider-Man web-grabbed a chair from a far longer table and threw it at the Goblin who kicked it away. Spider-Man rushed the Goblin and punched him in the gut. The Goblin was moved by the hit, but he didn't seem to feel any pain.

The Goblin punched him hard enough to spin him around. The Goblin locked him in a bear hug from behind and kept a firm grip around him. The Goblin positioned his back against a wall and held Spider-Man there while a glider flew into the room.

"I wonder . . . is your body tough enough to stop the blade before it can pass through to me?"

The glider extended it's blade and flew straight at them. Desperate to get out of the Goblin's grip, Spider-Man hit his face with the back of his head. The Goblin released him and Spider-Man jumped over the glider which impaled the Goblin, pinning him to the wall.

"OOOOOOOOHHH!" the Goblin cried. "THE PAIN! THE AGONY! I feel the torment of a thousand deaths! I can't stand the blade tha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Spider-Man couldn't believe what he was seeing. The goblin had been stabbed all the way through and yet he was laughing?

The Goblin pushed the glider until the blade was all the way out. The glider hovered out of the way, letting Spider-Man see that there was no blood from the stab wound. Spider-Man looked at the hole in the Goblin's chest with great attention. He was almost certain that he saw circuitry in there. But why would Harry have that inside his body? Harry hadn't been decapitated, so he wouldn't have needed a robotic body to replace his old one.

Spider-Man was horror struck as soon as he connected the dots.

"I can see from all the trembling that you've figured it out." The Goblin's mask turned out to be made of nano-tech. It seemed to melt off as the nanites slid down to his torso, revealing that face underneath.

"Norman?" Peter whispered in horror.

"Peter," the real, original Green Goblin replied with a bright smile. "I'll bet you're thrilled to see me again."

"How are you alive?" Spider-Man asked Norman Osborn, the true Green Goblin.

"Isn't it obvious? When you took my head off, I was clinically dead, but not brain dead." Brain death is when your brain breaks down too much for you to live anymore. There's no coming back from brain death. Clinical death is when your body shuts down. It is possible for you to come back from clinical death if you haven't been gone for very long. "My associates kept my head on life support systems; it probably wouldn't have kept most people alive, but someone like you and me could make it. From there, I oversaw the design of a new, mechanical body. After a year of upgrades and fine tuning, I finally stand before you, stronger than ever. And thanks to you, I'm about to have my name cleared."

"You talking about framing Harry for being the Fake Goblin? Nice try, but people are still going to know you're the original."

Green Goblin giggled. "Is it ready?" he asked someone through an earpiece. Apparently, whoever he was talking to said yes.

A holographic screen was projected from Green Goblin's glove. It showed the footage of Spider-Man confronting Harry with edited audio. "You're the Green Goblin! It was you all along. Your father had nothing to do with it."

Spider-Man hadn't said it like that, but that was his voice saying each of those words.

"I hope you appreciate all the trouble I went to to get real footage. I could have made fake footage with impersonated audio, but I didn't want anyone noticing the cracks in the illusion."

"How could you do this to your own son?" Spider-Man asked outraged. "You're about to ruin his life!"

"Harry was always weak; an insult to the name of Osborn. And once he takes the fall, it will be easy enough to get my company back. All I have to do is convince the board of directors. A little black mail here, a few death-threats there and I'll be back on top in no time."

"You're only proof against Harry is my warped testimony. I'll just tell everyone the truth."

"Peter, I wouldn't be telling you all of this if that were a possibility."

Spider-Man heard the sounds of two more gliders before they flew into the dining room. On each of the gliders were hobgoblins clothed in orange with blue sleeves. They had orange hoods and capes and their masks were a like the Green Goblin's apart from the sickly yellow faces and red eyes.

"These are my hobgoblins. You've met them before. That one fought you in your apartment and that's the one you fought after the fake bomb scare," Green Goblin explained.

"Are they here because you can't fight me yourself?" Spider-Man asked.

"You'll see what they're here for soon enough."

The nanites crawled back onto his face, reconstituting the mask. Green Goblin pointed at Spider-Man and shot repeatedly. Spider-Man jumped around the room, avoiding each goblin-bolt.

Spider-Man shot webs onto Green Goblin's fingers. He quickly set to ripping it off, but by the time he was done, Spider-Man was right in front of him, about to strike. He deflected Spider-Man's punch and hit him instead. Green Goblin hit him so hard, he flew onto the longer table which he followed him onto. Spider-Man web-grabbed chairs from each side of the table and used them as disposable weapons. Each chair broke against Green Goblin, prompting Spider-Man to grab another. Green Goblin punched through the next chair and hit Spider-Man. He tried to fight back, but Green Goblin overwhelmed him with his same old skill and new found strength. Each time Spider-Man actually hit him, it would only hurt if it was a blow to the head; everything else was mechanical and nano technology which Spider-Man barely managed to damage.

Spider-Man was knocked down. Laying on the table, Spider-Man asked defiantly, "That all you got?"

"Oh, did you want more?" From inside his body, two separate halves of a pitchfork emerged. The green skin made of nanites mended itself when they were out. Green Goblin connected the two halves and the pitchfork ignited with a green glow and intense heat.

"Why did I ask that?" Spider-Man bemoaned, getting back up.

Green Goblin thrusted the pitchfork forward frantically, barely missing Spider-Man each time. Spider-Man caught the pitchfork to stop it, but it burned his hand, forcing him to immediately let go. Green Goblin wasn't bothered by the heat since his hands weren't real.

Green Goblin swung at him. Spider-Man dodged and threw a punch, but Green Goblin blocked the blow with the middle of his pitchfork and then struck the tail end of it against Spider-Man's head. Green Goblin spun around and slashed Spider-Man's arm with the head of the pitchfork. Spider-Man backed away and then Green Goblin shot another goblin-bolt that intentionally grazed his thigh. Spider-Man lost his balance and fell down. Green Goblin jumped and kicked onto Spider-Man when he landed, snapping the table beneath them in two.

Green Goblin grabbed him by the throat and tossed him to the side where he rolled to a distance. Spider-Man got half way back up, struggling to do so. Green Goblin snapped his fingers and the two hobgoblins landed at each of Spider-Man's sides. They grabbed his arms and held him down on his knees.

"This is the part they're here for," Green Goblin explained. "That whole trick I pulled to convince you that Harry was the goblin so you'd make that testimony for me; that was all just in case this next part didn't work. You see, I've been thinking a lot about you." As the hobgoblins held Spider-Man in place, Green Goblin walked over to his low-hovering glider. "I think it would be such a waste to kill you. Some people say, if you can't beat them, join them. I prefer to say, if you can't beat them, hire them."

"You should know by now that I won't work for you," Spider-Man said.

"Not with that attitude, you won't. But I brought a better one for you!" Green Goblin pressed a button and a canaster emerged with something black inside. It was a liquid creature that squirmed and shifted with hundreds of tendrils lashing out and grabbing at various points of the interior. Spider-Man recognized it as the venom-symbiote.

"No," Spider-Man whispered. "NO, NO, NO!"

Green Goblin took the canaster and approached Spider-Man again. Spider-Man tried to break free, but the hobgoblins were too strong. Each of them had gotten the same treatment that gave Green Goblin his original strength. Green Goblin opened the canaster and poured the symbiote onto Spider-Man's head and back. It spread across his body, growing to cover every inch as the hobgoblins backed away. The symbiote formed into a black suit with a larger, white spider-symbol.

"You just made a terrible mistake," Spider-Man said threateningly, getting up from his knees.

Green Goblin pressed a button on his glove and all three gliders blared a loud noise. The symbiote was tortured by the sound and its pain was shared with Spider-Man who backed away, clutching his ears.

Green Goblin released the button, ending the noise. "I've made a mistake, you say? I prefer to think I've opened your eyes to the possibilities in front of you!" Green Goblin said theatrically. "Aren't you tired of working so hard and having so little to show for it? I know you don't have as much money as you'd like to have. And there's nothing women hate more than a poor man."

Spider-Man did wish for more money and the symbiote amplified the affect that Green Goblin's words had on him. But he didn't trust him yet. "Are you trying to offer me a job? You?! You killed Gwen!"

"And look at you now!" Green Goblin said excitedly. "You've got a new girl who's ten times hotter! And this one won't have to worry about any goblins trying to kill her."

"Why wouldn't you want to kill this one?" Spider-Man asked dubiously.

"Because she's dating my bestest buddy in the world, of course. It's not my policy to kill the girlfriends of my coconspirators. I've known where she lives this whole time and I didn't touch her." Spider-Man almost told him something, but Green Goblin cut him off. "Now, I know what you're thinking; Spider-Man is a hero! He wouldn't be caught dead helping a villain like me. Well . . . who said you need to get caught? That suit of yours can change appearance. You can be everybody's golden boy as the red and blue suit Spider-Man."

The symbiote changed into a perfect replica of the red and blue suit without the battle damage.

Green Goblin continued, "And you can do a few jobs for me as the black suited, mysterious, unknown assailant."

The symbiote changed to black again. But this time, it had no symbol, illustrating that he didn't need to look like Spider-Man.

"Think about it! Mysterio and Venom both tried to frame you and were proven wrong. If anyone notices the resemblance, they'll just assume you're another imposter! At this point, the city will give you all the benefit of the doubt you need. Of course, if it would put your mind at ease, one of my hobgoblins could play dress up so that everyone can see Spider-Man and unknown assailant in the same place at the same time."

"He's right. We could get away with it," Peter thought. Those were words in his mind at least. They may have been words thought by the symbiote, they could have also been words that Peter came up with under the symbiote's influence.

"In my employ, you could do your hero thing and make a handsome profit; not just by doing jobs for me, I'll pay you a regular salary to not bust my people's jobs. And you'll come home to your hot girlfriend who is both safe from the Green Goblin and impressed with your fortune. What I'm offering you is the best of all worlds."

Spider-Man's brain was flooded with dopamine. It was as if Green Goblin were describing the ultimate life. The symbiote had buried his hesitations and swallowed his moral fiber.

"What do you say? Are you in?" Green Goblin asked, offering a handshake.

Spider-Man had to think about it for just a few more seconds. But he eventually told him, "Yes . . . we are."

To Be Continued


Author's Note: Now, don't panic. I know this is a lot to leave you with, but I consider myself duty bound to return for a sequel. I'm thinking that Spider-Man and MJ 2 will be my next story after I'm finished with Disney Princesses: Attack on Encanto. I regret to inform you that I'm not sure how long that's going to take, but we will do this eventually.

I should probably explain this decision. I felt like I couldn't wait too much longer to write an Encanto fanfiction, so my options were rush through plot elements or save those plot elements for the sequel. Splitting this story into two parts will prove beneficial because it will give me an excuse to spend more time on ideas that I otherwise would have glossed over even if I didn't have an Encanto story to get to. In the sequel, Spider-Man will need MJ's help to come to his senses now that he's been taken by the symbiote, MJ will have her foster family to adjust to and there will be another villain or two. When Spider-Man and MJ 2 comes, it will make the wait worth it.

Make sure you follow me, not just the story so you'll know when the sequel begins.