Harry Osborn stared up into the sky, a look of childlike innocence and wonder on his face.
"Isn't it great?" Harry said.
Harry and Reiko were in the middle of the crowd in Columbus Circle on a beautiful early winter morning. Giant balloons floated high in the air as the Thanksgiving Day Parade made its way down Central Park West, bound for Broadway and Times Square.
Harry looked down at the tickets in his hand.
"Come on, our seats are right up front!" Harry said.
He took her hand and leads her toward a reviewing stand, tall bleachers three stories high, set up nearby.
On the reviewing stand, These were the expensive seats. The mayor of New York sat next to a visiting foreign leader, a grim-faced guy. The Mayor made conversation through interpreters.
"Ah! Yes, that one is Snoopy, a sort of devil-may-care dog who flies his doghouse around and pretends to be a World War I pilot." Mayor said.
The Interpreter interpreted, but the Foreign Leader looked baffled.
"World War I? The Great War? War to end all Wars?" Mayor said, then low to his aide. "Did they sit that one out?"
Nearby, Harry and Reiko arrived, and found their seats.
In the street Peter Parker worked his way through the crowd, loaded down with
cameras. He raised his camera, squeezed off a few shots.
Through his lens, Peter searched the crowd and saw Kuri with the police, pointing and commanding, the other cops looking at her in awe. Peter blushed. She was awesome.
On the street, Peter suddenly stopped what he was doing, rubbing the back of his
neck, his Spider-Sense going off. He looked around, didn't see anything.
On the reviewing stand, The Mayor was still doing his best with the Foreign Leader.
"Oh, here comes Garfield, my favorite! Garfield is a wonderful sort of, uh, sarcastic cat." Mayor said.
The Interpreter looked puzzled.
"Sarcastic cat?" Don't you have a word for that?" Mayor said.
The Mayor turned, hearing something. So did the others around him. It was a high-pitched whining sound.
On the street, Peter was really going crazy, certain there is a problem somewhere,
but not sure where it is. He looked up.
In the sky, Something darted in and out of the clouds, something small and
very, very fast.
On the reviewing stand, The Mayor was squinting up into the sky, at the source of the
buzzing.
"I, uh... I'm not familiar with that one, it must be new this year." Mayor said.
He raised a pair of binoculars.
In mid-air, A deranged cackle echoed over the whine of a jet-engine turbine.
On the street, Kuri had noticed it too. She pushed the cops down to duck as the object came down low.
It passed so fast, zigzagging through the floats, that no one could really get a handle on it.
The crowd applauded. Must be part of the act.
On the reviewing stand, The Foreign Leader applauded, smiles for the first time. He liked this bit.
On the street, the cops relaxed, thinking it was part of the show. But Kuri's eyes flashed silver.
"Peter," she whispered, eyes locking with his through the crowd.
Then suddenly, she was gone. Peter sensed trouble. He elbowed his way through the crowd and took off down the street, toward the mouth of an alley.
In mid-air, whatever-it-is curled up into the sky, banked, and hovered right over them, giving a first good look at it. It was the Green Goblin, clad in form-fitting dark green with a decidedly military look to it. That grotesque, skin-tight helmet was pulled over its face,
green mechanical eyes shining brightly through it. The Goblin had both legs astride a small flat flying wing, big enough for one, with footholds on either side of a single jet engine- both helmet and wing are the ones we saw back in the lab.
The Goblin's head twitches, the Glider responded immediately, banking and plummeting—straight down toward the street!
He flew right down into the thick of the crowd, which screamed and scattered, and he slammed toward the cops, stopped by Miko's barrier.
Reaching into an armament pouch (should we call it a Goblin bag?) fitted on the side of the Glider, the Goblin dropped a small orange pumpkin-shaped grenade onto her barrier.
Miko flicked a hand up, and contained the grenade in a barrier, flying it into the air and exploding it to cheers from the crowd.
The Goblin raced on around Columbus Circle at chest level, people screaming and leaping out of his way as he cackled maniacally, dropping pumpkin bombs left and right.
Miko quickly created a barrier over the civilians, and shuddered as her power was fading. She looked up at the sky—it was a New Moon.
Green Goblin reached the end of the street and rocketed straight up into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.
In an alley, Peter finishes surreptitiously webbing a camera into place on a second floor balcony, pointed at the reviewing stand. He set the shutter on automatic and started to unbutton his shirt, revealing his Spider-Man costume underneath.
On the street ZAP-FLASH! A pumpkin bomb exploded in a brilliant orange flash, so
bright and searing it turned everything into an X-ray image for a split-second, showing us the skeletons of the Cops grouped around it. When the flash fades-
"I CAN'T SEE!" Cops yelled and screamed.
The other Cops started shouting too, they had all suffered the same fate, they were completely blind!
On the reviewing stand, Reiko and Harry threw their hands to their faces, shouted in surprise and alarm, they too were unable to see.
High up above them, The Goblin looked down joyfully as the other bombs went off, one
after the other, like a circle of flashbulbs popping off all around Columbus Circle.
Miko shuddered and her barriers faded and went out. She swayed as her disguise shimmered, threatening to reveal her secret identity. Her eyes were totally silver, immune to the bombs.
Finally the disguise failed and her body faded and appeared next to Reiko and Harry, using the last of her power to force an arrow into the ground and keep the stand from collapsing.
"Kuri?" Reiko recognized her energy in the air.
"Yes!" Kuri yelled.
It was chaos. The bombs have blown out two of the supports of the reviewing stand, and it lurched off to one side, swaying. People screamed and scrambled.
In mid-air, Over the wails of anguish rising up from the street below, the Green Goblin spun his Glider around and plummeted straight toward the reviewing stand, the nose of the Glider pointed right at—Harry Osborn!
Kuri steeled herself and pointed the last thing she had—a wooden arrow with no magic—at the goblin.
The Goblin hit a switch on the center console of the Glider. On the nose, a sharp-pointed spear rotates into place.
Harry looked up in horror.
The Goblin flicked a switch, cackling wildly—The spear rocketed out of the Glider, flew straight toward Harry, and—THWIP!
A single web strand shoots gracefully out of nowhere, intercepted the spear just inches from Harry's chest, and flipped it away.
In mid-air The Goblin looked up, amazed. Now- THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!- a torrent of
web strands curled around the engine of his Glider, yanking it down to street level and binding it to a cement post.
On the street, Goblin and Glider were yanked to an abrupt halt. Enraged, the Goblin looked around for whoever dared to thwart his plans.
As panic and mayhem engulfed the streets around them, Spider-Man descended calmly from a lightpost behind the Goblin, hanging upside-down from a web.
"Hey." Spider-Man said.
The Goblin whirled around, furious.
"I wear the tights in this town." Spider-Man said.
POW! Spider-Man uncorked a powerful punch that sent the Goblin sailing back across the street, legs still straddling his Glider.
He smacked into a wall.
Above them, rivets cracked and popped out of the reviewing stand as it began to
collapse. Kuri, Reiko and Harry still stood in the middle of the swaying stand, like skaters on thin ice.
"Oh, no..." Kuri said and fainted.
In the street, The Goblin recovered himself, spun upright on his Glider, and shouted at Spider-Man.
"Get out of my way or I'll destroy you!" The Goblin said.
"Get out of my way or I'll destroy you, please." Spider Man said.
The Goblin whipped a boomerang out of his Goblin bag and sliced the web strand that bound the Glider. He hit the acceleration and the Glider rocketed forward, straight at Spider-Man.
The web-slinger leapt at the last second and landed on the side of a building, three floors up.
Down below,The Goblin was going too fast to stop, and sailed right through the open door of an office building.
The Goblin Glider blasted through the building at top speed, smashed through a window on the other side of the lobby—comes out of the opposite street, looped up, over the intervening buildings—and plummets down again, straight toward Spider-Man, who was still on the side of the building.
Spidey flattened himself against the building, the Glider scraped past, Spidey released his grip, and he landed square on top of the Goblin's shoulders, legs straddling him.
The Goblin screamed and lost control of the Glider. It rocketed down the street, spinning over and over.
The Goblin finally regained control.
"I'm warning you, Spider-Man! I'm no purse snatcher or chain-grabber! I am like you! I am more than you!" The Goblin said.
The Goblin threw a furious punch that sends Spider-Man flying off the Glider. Spidey sailed through the air—and smacked neatly up against the side of a glass building, splay-legged.
On the reviewing stand, Harry and Reiko were part of the crowd that's madly climbing across the swaying bleachers, trying like hell to get off them.
A huge support beam cracked and falls, smashing through the bleachers between them.
Kuri stood shakily, saw the beam fall before it did—and pushed Reiko out of the way, getting pinned underneath.
Harry heard Reiko scream, but he claws at his eyes, he couldn't see her to help her!
"Reiko?!" Harry said.
"I'm alright!" Reiko came to him. "We have to help Kuri!"
On the side of the building, Spider-Man pivoted as the Goblin, above, circled around for another pass. Behind the Goblin, he sees something even more terrifying—Kuri, trapped inside the collapsing reviewing stand, Harry and Reiko trying to reach her.
"Kuri!" Spider-Man said.
The Glider came in, low and hard, straight at Spider-Man, who shot a web onto the building across the street. At the last second, he leaps out of the way, swinging out into the air.
On the Glider, The Goblin pulled out a boomerang and hurled it.
In Mid-Air, The boomerang zipped through the air and sliced across Spidey's hand!
Spider-Man shouted in pain as the boomerang made a long, jagged cut right across his palm, severing his webbing in the process.
On the Glider, The Goblin sees the cut and shrieked with glee as the boomerang
doubled back toward him.
In mid-air, Spider-Man fell, straight down, plummeting toward the pavement.
On the glider, The Goblin caught his boomerang, saw the blood glistening on its edge, and watched Spider-Man fall.
In mid-air, Just two floors from becoming a smashed spider, Spider-Man reached out and grabs hold of a flagpole that jut out from the side of a building. His grip was strong, he flipped around it twice, released, sailed through the air, and landed—on a rooftop, hard. Spider-Man rolled over, groaning, in terrible pain, clutching a badly wrenched ankle.
On the reviewing stand, Boards are falling, the whole rickety thing was about to go,
everyone was climbing crazily to get off it, but nobody was helping Kuri, who was trapped in the middle of it all, her leg pinned under the beam.
Harry was straining to reach her, but he can't quite get to her with his outstretched hand. A beam falls, smashed through the wood next to him, splintering it. Rivets rocketed off in all directions like crossfire.
Frightened, Harry pulled back.
"I'll get help!" Harry said.
"No! We can't leave my sister here!" Reiko said.
Harry hesitates, torn- turned and climbed away, off the bleachers.
"HARRY!" Reiko growled at him and gave chase.
In the air, The helicopters that were covering the parade had noticed the reviewing stand and were racing over toward the scaffolding.
On the reviewing stand A huge beam groaned ten feet over Kuri, at a forty-five degree
angle. It was going to fall, the question is, would she be there when it does?
Kuri tested her powers, trying to escape, put they had deserted her.
She pulled harder, trying to wrench her leg out from under the beam.
Below, on the rooftop, Spider-Man leapt to his feet, saw Kuri above him. He ran, hurled
himself off the side of the building, and landed on the scaffolding, about thirty or forty feet beneath her. He started to climb toward her, straight up.
Up above him, Kuri saw the helicopters coming.
"Thank God! Help me!" Kuri said, putting on the innocent civilian act.
The helicopters arrived, the doors opened—and they pointed their cameras at her. Some help!
From below, Spider-Man was approaching.
"HANG ON!" Spider-Man said.
She looked up. The groaning beam shuddered, began to fall.
Spider-Man hurled himself the last few feet, landed in the middle of the wreckage, standing right over Kuri.
The beam fell—and he catches it, holding it aloft with one hand, a display of incredible strength.
He reached down with the other hand, grit his teeth, and lifted the beam that was pinning Kuri in place.
She dragged herself free, Spider-Man bellowed with effort as he hurled the beam away from them—and the bleachers finally collapse, beams falling straight toward them, no way he'd be able to stop these.
He grabbed Kuri with one arm, bent his legs, and leapt! It was anincredible jump, three stories, straight up into the air—and at the apex of his jump, he shot out a web, it catches on the side of a building, and he swung away as the scaffolding imploded in a would—have-been deadly rumble of wood and metal.
Kuri looked at Spidey, wide-eyed, thrilled.
"I-I knew you'd come..." Kuri said.
Spider-Man looked at her. She looked somehow different, weaker, though it may just have been the trauma. He couldn't be sure.
In the street, Harry Osborn and Reiko, who were racing across the street with two firemen, stopped in their tracks, watched Kuri and Spider-Man swinging away, out over the city.
A swarm of people race around Harry and Reiko, they were buffeted by the crowd.
On a rooftop, The Goblin landed his Glider and hops off. He went to the edge and looked down- in the swarming crowd, he would never find Harry again.
He looked up, saw Spider-Man flying away, across the city. The Goblin's face set in a horrible, determined grimace.
"I may not be able to kill you, Spider-Man... but if it's the last thing I do, I'll make you wish you were dead!" Goblin said.