Spider-Man: The New Animated Series: Season 2
Episode 2: Welcome Back: Part 2
"Well, well, well, if it isn't everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," the Shocker said as he and his goons trained their respective weapons on Spider-Man; the goons with their own guns, and the Shocker with his gauntlets. "Where've you been these last few months? The criminals in this city had missed you stopping their fun and throwing them in the slammer."
"I was off on vacation," Spider-Man replied sarcastically. "Niagara Falls is really nice this year. You should check it out–after the ten to twenty years you and your goons spend in prison, Mister...?"
"Call me..." His words trailed off as electricity began to sizzle at the pointed ends of his gauntlets. "The Shocker!" And with that, a combined plasma surge from both the gauntlets shot toward Spider-Man.
But the superhero leapt up into the air and dodged the blast, which flew beneath him and blew out the opposite wall in the hallway outside. Meanwhile, Spider-Man began swinging all around the room as the Shocker's goons' guns began firing up at him. After they recharged from their combined plasma shot, the Shocker's gauntlets joined in on the fun in trying to shoot Spider-Man down, but all the efforts of each weapon the room went for naught, as all they did was just ruin the room all around them.
"Stop it, you idiots, you're ruining my home!" Harry cried out in rage, as if he led this gang.
One of the goons nearby Harry ceased shooting at Spider-Man and smacked the butt of his Tommy gun into Harry's face, knocking him down to the floor. "Ah, shut up, you spoiled little rich piece of crap," the goon said as he aimed the Tommy directly in Harry's face at point-blank range.
"Marty, what in God's name are you doing?" the Shocker called out to the goon who prepared to blow Harry's brains out. "We need him!"
However, Marty the goon didn't listen and took the shot.
But fortunately for Harry, the shot went wild as Spider-Man swung in and kicked Marty in the chest with both feet. The goon went sailing across the room and brought down two of his friends, knocking all three of them unconscious.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man landed nearby another crook–Joe, the goon who asked the Shocker the questions back at the warehouse–and knocked him unconscious with a wild haymaker before quickly turning to the next goon, grabbing him by the forearm, and flinging him across the room to collide with two other crooks. They weren't knocked unconscious from this, but Spider-Man supplemented for that by quickly webbing them up. Then he quickly flipped out of the way of the onslaught of bullets that shot from the weapons of the five remaining goons and the combined plasma surge from the Shocker, which didn't hurt any of the guests who ducked to the floor in time to avoid peril.
Spider-Man then swung to the ceiling again, and dropped down towards the one goon whose clip from his handgun just ran out. That goon hastily tried to put a new clip in, but he couldn't get in time before he was kicked in the side of the head, knocking him out instantly, before Spider-Man rolled across the floor, kicked the Tommy gun out of the next goon he met, and then roundhouse-kicked him in the torso to send him flying to the wall unconscious as well.
The superhero then pivoted around, shoved the gun out of the next goon's hands, knocked him unconscious with a good uppercut that sent him flying several meters. Then Spider-Man jumped up, avoiding a few bullets from the penultimate goon, then tackled him to the floor, knocked him out with one punch to the face, and then flipped backward to kick the last goon's face, knocking him out as well.
But once Spider-Man landed on his feet, he turned to confront the Shocker, but found the gauntleted villain holding Mary Jane hostage, with one of his gauntlets pointed at the side of her head.
"Don't try anything, hero, or else my gauntlet will render this lovely lady's head into superheated molecules," the Shocker threatened.
Though he'd been in these situations before, Spider-Man was still stunned, not knowing what to do for a few seconds before the Shocker threw Mary Jane aside and then shot a plasma charge from both of his gauntlets. Spider-Man once again leapt out of the way and flipped forward for the Shocker, who tried to reach for another hostage just after he realized how stupid it was to throw MJ aside when another plasma shot didn't work in eliminating his target.
But Spider-Man tackled the Shocker to the floor before he could grab another hostage. And thanks to his quick reflexes, he removed both of the Shocker's gauntlets, threw them aside, webbed them to the floor, looked back to the now-helpless Shocker, and said, "Good night, Snow White." The villain didn't even have time to register that Spider-Man referred to the color of his hair before a simple punch to the face knocked him out.
Afterwards, Spider-Man webbed up the unconscious Shocker and the remaining goons who'd been knocked out and were beginning to regain consciousness. Police sirens sounded from the streets, as heard from the open balcony in the apartment, and Spider-Man took it to be his cue to make like a tree and leave. He passed by several stunned guests who didn't know what to make of this vigilante who, three months ago, was officially deemed a public menace, and now just saved them all from a hostage crisis.
Spider-Man crouched on the balcony's railing, prepared to jump off and swing away, before a familiar voice called, "Wait!" The superhero turned his head to find Mary Jane standing out from the crowd and asked, "Spider-Man. Where have you been?"
The superhero completely turned his crouching body to regard MJ, and then said, "I thought I was in a place where I could simply put aside the responsibilities that came with these powers of mine. But I came to realize that by denying those responsibilities, I had also denied the good that I brought onto this city, believing the mistakes I've made were all the excuse I had to try to live a different life." With that, he turned back around and swung away.
After a few seconds, nearly everyone at the party began cheering Spider-Man's name as a police force, led by the anti-Spider-Man cop Officer Barr, came in to arrest the Shocker and his cronies. Mary Jane simply stood there, alone in a crowd of cheers over the man she loved, with a tear of joy streaming from her eyes, glad to know that Spider-Man was still a hero.
But Harry Osborn, as usual, stood there, alone like Mary Jane, looking out to the balcony at the retreating form of Spider-Man with unmitigated, murderous hatred.
~o~
The next day in the afternoon, Peter came home with more than three hundred dollars, and he figured in no time, he'll have more than enough money to pay this month's rent. When he opened up his apartment room, his enlightened mood dulled considerably at what he saw.
"Bernie," Peter said dryly. "What're you doing here, and where's Brian?"
Instead of answering or even acknowledging Peter's presence, Bernie continued working on his puzzle book as Peter heard a flush in the bathroom. Several seconds later, after the sound of water ran from a faucet, Brian came out of the bathroom with a newspaper under an arm, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Peter close the door behind him.
"Oh, Mr. Parker, good to see you again," Brian said.
"How do you two get in?" Peter asked.
"Surprisingly, Bernie's an expert locksmith," Brian answered. "It's an area where he's not an idiot."
"One of the simplest locks I've had to work on," Bernie interjected without looking up from his puzzle book.
Peter looked away from Bernie and back to Brian. "I suppose you came back to ask about whether or not I'll join you and the angels in defeating the Antichrist?"
"Well, in any case, you did decide to come back as Spider-Man," Brian said as he dropped the newspaper on top of the coffee table in front of the puzzle-working Bernie. The front cover of the paper showed an excellent photo shot of Spider-Man punching out one of the Shocker's goons, with the headline being SPIDER-MAN BACK! For the worst of New York. The credit for the photo shot simply said, Anonymous, under Peter's request to J. Jonah Jameson; that way, no one at the party would question how Peter's camera took the picture when he wasn't even there.
When Jameson asked why Peter wanted to go uncredited, Peter shrugged and said, "I don't want my professor to know I missed a session with her when I was off partying." Although Jameson was gas bag in Peter's opinion, he did honor his request to remain uncredited. "Curiously, how did you get these shots without anyone seeing the camera or you taking it from its position?" Brian asked after dropping the newspaper down on the coffee table.
"Oh, it's simple, really," Peter replied. "The camera's fairly small, not really noticeable, and I put it at various different points around the room I swung about, setting it at auto-shoot the whole time. Sure, it was a risky move, what with the bullets and plasma surges coming my way, but thank God my camera didn't get destroyed."
Brian lifted up an eyebrow. "I thought you were an atheist."
"What?" Peter asked.
"You told me to thank God your camera wasn't destroyed," Brian answered. "Although considering my demonic status, I think you have a better chance at thanking him than I do."
Peter rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean literally."
"Ah, of course," Brian nodded with an expression saying he already had an idea of what Peter meant.
"But anyway, you did come to find out whether or not I would join you, right?" Peter asked.
"Why else would we be here?" Brian asked back.
"Well, you have to remember that I'm still quite skeptical about that story you told me yesterday," Peter stated.
At that, Bernie looked up to express a look of disappointment that nearly mirrored Brian's.
"But that doesn't mean no," Peter interjected.
Both Brian and Bernie's eyebrows lifted up at this.
"So you will join us?" Bernie asked.
"Just long enough to see how Brian's story will hold up," Peter said to Bernie. He turned to Brian. "So you can go and tell the other angels I'm in."
Brian nodded at this with a smile. "That's definitely good to hear," he said. "You'll be contacted when we need you for a mission." He motioned for Bernie to give him the puzzle book and pencil, which he then put in his pocket, and they both made for the door. But Bernie still followed Brian's lead when the latter made an abrupt stop and turned back to Peter, saying, "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Mr. Parker–"
"Please," Peter interjected. "You can call me Peter now."
"Peter," Brian said. "The angels' spies in the Manhattan police department had successfully gained info just this morning as to the Shocker's interrogation. He spilled the beans as to who his employer was, which the spies and Bernie and I both agreed would be of a certain interest for you."
"Oh, yeah, who's the Shocker's employer?" Peter asked.
"The Green Goblin," Brian answered.
Peter's eyes shot wide open. "What?"
"Yeah, I think you should check it out," Brian replied. "Later."
And with that, Brian and Bernie left the apartment again.
~o~
Not knowing where else to look for when it came to the Green Goblin, the first supervillain who Spider-Man fought, and who had been dead for about half a year now, Peter called Harry, asking permission to chitchat about what happened at the party the other night. Harry agreed to this, so Peter headed right over to his penthouse.
"Hey, Pete, how's it going?" Harry asked as Peter entered the apartment, which had been pocked with holes throughout thanks to the Shocker and his goons the previous night.
"Well, I'd say my apartment sure is in better shape than yours," Peter replied. He and Harry laughed at that. After they were done, Peter said, "No, but seriously, you weren't hurt or anything, were you?"
"No, thank God I wasn't, or anyone else at the party either," Harry said. "MJ was used as a hostage for the gang's leader though, but again, like everyone, she wasn't hurt."
"Yeah, I read that this morning in the paper," Peter said. "Spider-Man came back and beat 'em all up."
"Yes, he did," Harry said darkly. "I don't know what convinced him to come out of whatever hole he crawled into, but he stopped those goons and foiled the hold-up." A couple seconds of silence later, Harry continued, "Speaking of which, I read that very same paper you mentioned. Seemed that whoever took that front-cover picture was humble enough not to have his name on ink. It's funny, because that photo seemed like something you'd have taken, Peter."
"Yeah, I noticed that, too," Peter said, subtly looking away from Harry. "It's like I never left the party and stayed there long enough to take the picture myself, eh? No, but you know I always agree to have my name on ink."
Harry nodded with a blank expression. "Yes, of course you do." Before allowing Peter to say something, Harry interrupted, "Pete, you don't mind if I show you something?"
"Oh, no, I don't mind at all," Peter replied. "In fact, I actually stopped by over to check this place out anyway."
"Really?" Harry asked.
Peter thought something up at the spot. "Yeah, I wanted to see how banged up this place was thanks to Spider-Man and those thugs," he said. "I got my wish, after all." He tittered nervously, and Harry didn't even humor him.
"Right, right," Harry nodded. Then he nodded his head for Peter to follow him to the next room. Peter abided.
"So, Harry, what is it you wanna show me?" Peter asked.
"It's a surprise," Harry replied. He and Peter approached the door into the next room. Harry opened it and...
"Your father's den?" Peter asked as he looked around the room that he and his friend were now in.
"Yeah, but this isn't what exactly what I wanna show you, Pete," Harry said as he led his best friend over to the mirror. "It's this." They stopped at the den's mirror.
Peter regarded his own reflection in mimicked perplexity before asking, "You wanted me to take a good look at myself, Harry?"
"Well, that's certainly the first thing I want you to see, Peter," Harry said in an expression that showed an unbridled hatred. "The second is this."
Before Peter's spider-sense could warn him, Harry punched him in the small of his back and sent him flying toward the mirror at full speed. Peter smashed through the mirror and it shattered around him as he crashed to the floor of the dark corridor he ended up in.
Peter quickly turned on his back, and watched as an angry-looking Harry walked into the dark corridor and balled a fist against the wall to his right. Immediately, the corridor lit up.
And it revealed a lineup of orange pumpkin-like bombs, and to the other side of the corridor were labelled glass tubes of green liquid that sat alongside an all-too familiar green glider and demonic mask.
Peter looked back up at Harry in horror. And his best friend laughed one of the most horrifying laughs he heard in his life–because it once came from one of the greatest enemies he ever had to face.
"It's nice to see you again, Peter," Harry said in the voice of the Green Goblin.
Then Harry leapt forward with a double-fist raised overhead, but Peter flipped back as the fist slammed into the corridor's floor, making a small but deep crater there. The two of them then quickly stood up, and then Harry punched out, sending Peter flying back several meters into the wall behind him. He landed like a ragdoll on the floor, but had the energy again when he looked up and found Harry charging at him again.
Peter then pushed his feet off against the wall behind him and rocketed towards Harry. He tackled his best friend to the ground, and they rolled around before Harry head-butted Peter in the nose, then grabbed him by the forearms and threw up back out into Norman Osborn's den.
Once Peter landed back in the den, he leapt back up and spun back around, but was kicked in the sternum and flew back again a few meters. Harry landed on top of him and punched him three times before Peter grabbed the pounding fist and used his other free hand to punch Harry off of him.
After Harry was off of him, Peter leapt back up to his feet and looked back down at his best friend.
"What's happened to you, Harry?" Peter asked. "What's going on?"
Harry then pressed off the floor and sent himself rocketing toward Peter, his feet aimed at his best friend's face. Peter saw white for a few seconds, not aware that he flew back to crash against one of the den's support beams, but his vision cleared up for him to see himself hit the floor. He looked back up and saw Harry charge at him once again. But this time, before Peter could launch himself from his position like he did back in the corridor, Harry made it in time to kick Peter up the chin and send him flying up to the den's ceiling.
After Peter hit the ceiling, he began to fall back down to Harry, but they met halfway as the latter jumped up high enough to grab the former by the neck and slam him back down to the ground.
And with that, after another flash of white that obscured his vision, the next thing Peter saw was blackness that enveloped his consciousness.
~o~
When Peter woke up, he found himself in a dark room with a bright, white light hanging above him. He found that he was in his Spider-Man mask and costume, and he was chained by the wrists and ankles against the floor. He tried to rip out of his bonds, but they were strong. But then he ceased his efforts when he looked up to find the Green Goblin walk into the light.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Spider-Man?" the Green Goblin asked. "Or, since no one else is around, would you rather I call you Peter?"
"Harry," Spider-Man said. "I know it's you under there. You didn't knock me out hard enough to erase any of my memory."
The Goblin took off his mask, revealing Harry's boyish visage beneath. "Didn't think I did," he said in his regular voice rather than that of the Green Goblin's. He then took a couple steps forward, kicked Spider-Man in the ribs, and then, after the superhero doubled over, Harry took off Peter's own mask.
"So here we are, Peter," Harry said as his friend/enemy looked back up to him. "Mano-a-mano. Our masks for one another to see." He held up both masks, then tossed it down on Peter's face, which slid off his head and down to the floor. "So that we could also see who we really are."
"Harry, why?" Peter asked in between forced breaths, considering the kick to his ribs. "Why're you doing this?"
Harry then used the hand that wasn't holding his Goblin mask and smacked Peter across the face.
"Isn't it obvious by now, Peter?" Harry asked angrily. "I've wanted to get my hands on Spider-Man every day ever since I saw him stand over my father's corpse that day. And my need to get my hands on that wall-crawling murderer increased ever since he simply upped and disappeared. I sent the best private detectives and teams my money could buy. But for the next three months after that, they never found a thing.
"But then, just less than a month ago, when I wanted nothing more than just to see myself standing over Spider-Man's corpse just as he stood over my father's, I thought I saw you standing in my father's mirror when I sat in his den. I threw his prized dagger right towards it, and I saw that dark corridor that had all those chemicals and equipment that belonged to the Green Goblin.
"And that was the day, the moment, when I realized who my father really was. I broke down then, Peter, with no one, not my friends, not my father, not anybody, to help me through that. My father was a homicidal supervillain who was no better than the man who murdered him. But then, I also realized that if my own father would be that psycho who nearly killed me and Mary Jane at the Unity Day festival, then my best friend, Peter Parker, would also have to be the same man who killed that psycho who was once the only family I ever had left.
"At the time, there was something in my head telling me that I had no real proof for that, unlike what I found with my father. But then I remembered. In that unfortunate realization that Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin, I remembered the last time I talked to him–the last time I hugged him as the son who loved him unconditionally, just as he did for me. I told him that Mary Jane loved you, Peter. And the last thing the Green Goblin did before he vanished was kidnap MJ and hold her at the Queensboro Bridge for Spider-Man to save along with all those kids in that railcar.
"And then that something in my head agreed with my grief; the Green Goblin kidnapped Mary Jane Watson so that he could not only kill Spider-Man, but also Peter Parker; therefore, Peter and Spider-Man, just like Norman and the Goblin, were one and the same. So what was I to do after that? And I thought of it instantly–I would redeem my father's legacy as the Green Goblin by becoming one with him; I would use him so that I could kill you and become New York's first true hero."
"You took the serum," Peter said in disbelief.
"Isn't that obvious, too, Peter?" Harry asked sarcastically. "Gee, I must've really knocked some sense right outta ya. Well, then, here, let me knock some sense right back into you." Peter's face was then met with a smack across the head, and he thought he lost a few IQ points from that.
"You made a grave mistake, Harry," Peter said.
"Oh, yeah?" Harry asked. "And what was that?"
"You think you can control the Green Goblin?" Peter asked.
"It's worked out well for me so far," Harry replied sardonically. "He handled the deal with the Shocker well enough to tell him that if he and his thugs robbed me, they would not only get my money, but the Goblin's as well for successfully killing Spider-Man. You see, I knew you would come back as Spider-Man, Peter. I knew that if your friends were threatened, you would fight for them, one way or another. But I'll admit, I did make a mistake–a mistake in underestimating you.
"I thought that the Shocker and his thugs would have been able to handle taking you out, but instead, they turned out to be nothing more than the idiotic dolts they really were. Had they succeeded in taking you out, they would've got their money, scurry back into whatever rathole they came from, but instead of money, they'd have found bombs that've been blown them to kingdom come. Then the Green Goblin would've become New York's vigilante protector, and after a while of public acceptance between not only the citizens of this city, but even the cops as well, the people you never had vouching for you, I truly would have redeemed my father's legacy... and become my own man."
"Well, I saw what the Goblin did for your dad, Harry," Peter said. "He made him do terrible things that were beyond his control, taking away that option of allowing him to be his own man. The Goblin took away your father's freedom, Harry. You know it; you said so yourself at that festival–"
"My father never accepted the gifts that the Goblin offered him, Peter!" Harry screamed. "I have!" He then breathed in and out and calmed himself noticeably. "And it was regrettable that my dad refused to work with the Goblin as a partner rather than a puppet. But that doesn't mean he deserved to die at your hands anymore than the Goblin did."
"Harry, I didn't kill your father!" Peter cried out.
For that, Peter got his groin kicked in, and he doubled over in so much pain and agony, he thought he was deaf and blind from the white that once again encompassed his vision. The next image he saw once his vision cleared up was that of tiny drops of blood dripping from his lower lip, down to the floor. His hearing also seemed to recover as well in time to hear what else Harry had to say.
"Liar!" Peter heard Harry shout.
Peter looked up back at who was once his best friend, and then said, in a hoarse voice, as the kick to his groin had been really obviously painful, "You may think that the Green Goblin is working with you as a partner. But in time, you'll see, as your father did, that no matter what, the Goblin can never be controlled, and he will consume you in the end, one way, or another."
Harry snorted as he took out a syringe from his belt. "Well, Peter, if that day does come," he said with an evil smile just before he plunged the syringe and injected it into Peter's neck.
"You won't live long enough to see it happen," the Green Goblin said as he slipped on his own mask and fitted that of the Spider-Man's over Peter. Then everything went black for Peter again.
Spider-Man woke up a few minutes later, standing on the edge of the roof of OsCorp Industries, his wrists tied behind him and his ankles bounded together, all be steel chains that he felt too weak to break free from. The Goblin must've given him a tranquillizer that was still having an effect on him even as he came to realize all of this.
"Wakey, wakey," the Green Goblin said from behind him.
"Eggs and baky?" Spider-Man retorted, despite that his lips and tongue felt numb. But then he noticed that the numbness was suddenly begin to wear away pretty quickly.
"Nice follow-up," the Goblin commented on Spider-Man's ability to banter even while sedated. "Too bad for you it'll be the last quip you'll ever spout. But at least take mind that since your defeat of the Shocker, and the fact that he must've squealed on me in prison, you've taken away any chance Harry had of redeeming who his father was." For some reason, it seemed to Spider-Man that the Goblin was faking the sincerity of the regret he voiced, as if he was using that line to further manipulate Harry's mind to his own ends.
And with that, the Green Goblin pushed Spider-Man in his back and sent him tumbling off the roof, where he would meet his death more than a hundred storeys below.
Or so that would have been the case had his superhuman immune system not been able to purge the tranquillizer in his system. Halfway down to the ground, the tranquillizer completely wore off, and he was strong enough to break the steel chains on both his wrists and ankles. Another underestimation on Harry/Goblin's part, it seemed.
Spider-Man spout out a web-line from one of his wrists and he began to swing back to OsCorp's roof to confront the Green Goblin. But once he arrived on the roof, he found no one there.
Suddenly, his spider-sense tingled, and he looked up just in time to find the Goblin on his glider descending rapidly from the sky. The bow of the glider began shooting bullets at Spider-Man, and the latter leapt out of the way. The glider swooped just a meter over the ground from which Spider-Man once stood, and then he came around for another pass. More bullets shot out from the glider's fore, but Spider-Man leapt over them again and practically flew towards his mortal enemy.
The two combatants met as Spider-Man nearly tackled the Green Goblin off his glider, but the vehicle stuck to the villain's feet, and then it went into a ballistic end-over-end barrel roll from which Spider-Man and the Goblin were a part of. As this roll happened, the two of them began punching and kicking each other in order to try to knock the other off the glider, despite the force of the momentum and spin of the vehicle they were both on.
But in the end, when the glider finally managed to correct itself and hovered in a lateral position again, it was the Goblin who got the better of his opponent when he ducked beneath a haymaker, and came up with a good uppercut that sent Spider-Man falling right back to the roof of OsCorp.
The superhero landed on the roof on his back in a giant thud! But even so, he wasn't out of the game yet. He saw the orange-tinted bomb that shot out of the glider's bow above him, and he flipped back three times before the bomb hit the spot on the roof where Spider-Man once lay and exploded. However, the force of the explosion sent Spider-Man flying back again, and he began falling over the edge of the roof behind him.
He arrested his fall by shooting out a web-line to the ledge of the roof, but the glider swooped in and knives that appeared out of its bow cut the line in a snap.. Spider-Man began falling again, and then the glider made another rapid descent, the Goblin hoping for his blades to impale Spider-Man and be done with him once and for all.
However, Spider-Man flipped over the incoming knives and kicked both feet into the Goblin's masked face. The supervillain flew off the glider, and the vehicle went flying in a ballistic arc as both Spider-Man and the Goblin continued their descent to the ground. But then, as the Goblin began punching in some keys on his wrist control for the glider, commanding it to come back to him, Spider-Man kicked him in the sternum and sent him crashing through the window behind him.
Spider-Man then twisted around in mid-air as he continued falling and shot out a web-line for the erratic glider, which hit its target. He then pulled himself in and flipped right on top of it. But once he got into a crouching position, it made a steep dive toward a nearby roof–responding to a command made by the Goblin, no doubt, Spider-Man thought.
Once he saw that the glider would make a crash-landing for the roof it was heading towards, he flipped back, but two seconds later, the glider abruptly pulled out of its descent with centimeters to spare between its underside and the roof. It then lopped over and laterally righted itself as Spider-Man shot out another web and swung back for the Green Goblin. But his spider-sense tingled and he briefly turned around to find that the glider had shot out a rocket for him, which was now rapidly gaining on him.
Spider-Man then let go of the web-line he just shot out and allowed his momentum to carry him through the air as he twisted around and had a good dose of impact webbing shoot out towards the rocket. The webbing hit the rocket's nose, and it exploded instantly. But the shockwave threw Spider-Man back, and he crashed through a window of OsCorp Industries behind him, though it was several storeys below the one that the Goblin crashed through.
The Goblin himself saw that as he looked out through the broken window of the empty room he ended up in. So he jumped out and a few seconds later, his glider, which managed to escape the shockwave of the rocket's explosion, hooked itself beneath his feet and guided him down to the floor of the building where his archnemesis landed.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man jumped out of the broken window he crashed through and spout out a web-line that began to swing him over to the descending glider above him. The Goblin was faster in reaching his target, however, and he gave his opponent one good punch in the face that sent him falling right back down to the ground. Spider-Man then shot another web-line to the glider and pulled himself back up, where he tried to plant a good kick the Goblin's head and knock him off his glider again. However, the supervillain caught the kick in both hands, then the glider spun around real fast before it made an abrupt stop from which the Goblin released Spider-Man, sending him flying away for two blocks before his backside hit the ledge of a roof. That sent him into an uncontrollable back-roll for several meters until he landed on his back at the center of that roof.
As that happened, the glider followed the flying Spider-Man, and then, once the superhero made his final landing on the roof, more bullets shot out. But the superhero rolled out of the way, shot out a web-line that attached to the Goblin's chest, and pulled on it to yank him off the flying vehicle. But instead, the vehicle was still planted firmly beneath the supervillain's feet, and it rocketed towards Spider-Man with knives that appeared out of its bow again.
After the one second it took for the superhero to register this, he flipped out of the way, and the knife-fronted glider skidded against the roof with sparks shooting out. Eventually, the knives broke off, and the Goblin went flying to the opposite ledge of the roof as the glider tumbled end-over-end until it finally landed on its upside several meters from the Goblin.
The Goblin himself, meanwhile, caught the ledge of the roof with both hands after he tumbled over it. He then flipped himself back up, and charged over to Spider-Man. The two foes met with more attacking and defending blows that came with their superhuman strength and agility. Several blocks away, meanwhile, a police helicopter approached, having respond to the trouble that Spider-Man and the Green Goblin were causing.
After a while, however, Spider-Man won the duel when he made a solid punch into the Goblin's face that sent him flying back to land next to his crashed glider.
"It's over, Harry," Spider-Man said.
"I agree to that," Harry's voice said.
Then the Goblin took out a bomb from somewhere in the glider next to him, and then it was the supervillain's voice who concluded, "But it's not for me!"
He then threw the bomb forward, and Spider-Man quickly leaned out of the way. But his spider-sense tingled, and he turned around to find that it was on a trajectory for the incoming police helicopter.
Not wanting the cops there to die, Spider-Man had no choice but to shoot out a web-line that grabbed the bomb, and he threw it right back to the Green Goblin.
The Goblin pushed himself back in order to avert death from the explosion, but the bomb landed less than a meter from his feet when it blew up.
The shockwave launched Spider-Man backwards and off the roof, where he was nearly decapitated by the rapidly spinning blades of the police chopper behind him. But he instead landed against the windshield of the chopper, and he began to fall several storeys down to the ground like a ragdoll, his wounds from the fight against the Goblin numerous, before a quarter of the way down, his energy came back to him like it did when the tranquillizer wore off. Then he swung off, the police chopper on his tail.
But the chase between Spider-Man and the police helicopter didn't last too long before the former jumped into an alley. The copter made a pass over the alley, but both cops inside found that Spider-Man just disappeared there. With that, they passed over the alley and flew off back to N.Y.P.D.
When Spider-Man was sure they were gone, he ducked out of the abandoned building he hid himself in, which he entered through one of the building's busted windows. It was a very convenient alley for him, too; with no one living in either of the buildings at either end of this alley, as they were both abandoned, this was where he kept spare civilian clothes of his. He slipped those clothes over his Spider-Man costume, put the mask in his pocket, and walked out from one of the alley's ends, easily merging into pedestrian traffic as if he had been part of it all along. No one else walking on the sidewalk with him or across the street noticed his sudden presence, as they all seemed preoccupid with other things in their lives; the story of he lives who inhabit New York, Peter thought.
And it was a thought that helped keep his emotions in check and off his face as it sunk into his mind that Harry Osborn, his best friend, who was also the Green Goblin, his worst enemy, was now dead.
~o~
Later, Mary Jane knocked on Peter's door, and less than half a minute later, he opened it up. They greeted each other, and Peter invited her in, asking if she wanted anything, keeping his emotions under control due to the fact that his best friend was now dead, and he couldn't tell anyone without revealing his secret identity or Harry's.
MJ declined Peter's offer for food or drink, and he said, "Okay then. So what's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Harry, Peter," she answered. "And about Spider-Man."
Peter grimaced, but asked politely, "What is it about them you wanted to talk to me for?"
"Well, lately, I've noticed that Harry hadn't been acting as his usual self," she said. "I mean, sure, he still seemed like the happy-go-lucky guy he always was. But for some reason, I don't think it was real this time. It seemed like his cheery attitude was a charade, like he was hiding something that he didn't even want his friends to know about. I think, that if anything, his obsession with who he thinks is his father's murderer increased ever since Spider-Man disappeared all those months ago."
"You really think so?" Peter asked, not letting on that he already knew this from Harry's point of view.
"Of course I do," MJ replied. "And now that Spider-Man's back, I don't know how Harry's going to take, or how he's taking it right now." Peter grimaced at that as well, though MJ didn't see it as she looked to her feet before looking back up at Peter and continued with, "I haven't seen Harry since the party. I figured that with what happened last night, I'd give Harry some space, what with his birthday party ruined for him in more ways than one. I didn't even call him yet. Have you seen or talked to him sometime today, Peter?"
"Ah, yes, yes, I have," Peter answered truthfully.
"And how was he?" Mary Jane asked.
It took Peter a few seconds to answer before he said, "Well, he wasn't very happy, or sociable, what with what happened at the party last night."
"Hmm," MJ said with a nod. "That's what I was afraid of. How much time do you think we should give him to cool off?"
Peter suppressed a shudder, considering that his best friend died via an intense explosion. "I say we give him another day or two," he forced himself to say.
"That long?" MJ said with some amount of disbelief.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, he was really angry," he said truthfully, again.
Mary Jane shrugged. "Well, you've been his friend longer than I have, so yeah, I'll give him a day," she said.
Peter nodded. "Yeah, you do that."
MJ nodded back. "Okay." After an awkward moment of silence between them, she said, "Well, goodbye then."
"Bye," Peter said.
Without another word, Mary Jane turned around and left his apartment.
Afterwards, Peter walked over to a particular photo in his apartment. This photo was taken less than fifteen years earlier, back when he and Harry were kids. They were clasping each other's shoulders as they smiled for the camera, and Peter remembered that it was Uncle Ben who took the picture. It was at a family picnic with him, Ben, Aunt May, and Harry tagged along after both his father, and Ben and May of course, gave him and Peter permission to come along.
It was one of the earliest memories that Peter had of Harry. And even after what happened to him, becoming a psychotic supervillain hellbent on vengeance, Peter would cherish all of the memories he had of Harry, and he would always remember him as the best friend he ever had for the rest of his life.