This chapter went a little different than I originally planned. I had originally intended to introduce a new original character and Felicia Hardy but I changed my mind about Felicia at the last moment. This chapter is a quite a bit longer than the others because it has the first love scene between Norman and Alandra. Enjoy and review.
Edited on: November 19, 2004
Italics in "" marks is Norman's split personality talking.
Italics in ' ' are regular thoughts.
Chapter 6: Bonding
The man that Peter had once known as the father of his best friend was in front of him, impaled by his own mechanical creation. The Norman Osborne that Peter had known was dead. In his place was the Green Goblin. He didn't want it to end like this. He wanted to help Norman but now it was useless. Norman would be dead in a few seconds.
"Please, don't tell Harry," Norman said as he took his last breath. Peter stared at him for a second.
'It's not fair. Harry shouldn't loose his father like this…' he thought as he pulled on the glider, freeing Norman's body. Peter took the body back to the Osborne home, where Harry was waiting. It hurt Peter to have to look at Harry's face as he placed the body down.
Peter then found himself looking at Norman's grave. Harry had already walked off and Mary Jane had gone with him.
"I'm so sorry Norman. I didn't want you to die. I wanted to help you," he said quietly. He started to turn to leave when a strong gust of wind came from nowhere, causing leaves to blow along the ground. Peter became aware that it was suddenly getting colder.
"You…"
Peter eyes widened in horror as he heard a voice. It was muffled quite a bit but he recognized it plain as day. It was the Goblin.
"You…" he called again. Peter could feel the hair standing up on the back of his neck. He looked around him but only saw growing darkness.
"You killed me! I treated you like my own son! How could you do this to me? To Harry?"
"Norman…" Peter said in a whisper.
"You took my life away!"
"I…I…I'm sorry…"
"Sorry? Heh. You should be." Norman's voice was getting clearer. Peter tried to move to run but was frozen in place. "You're a murder Peter, just like me. Your hands are stained with my blood."
"No! It was an accident. I didn't realize that the glider…"
"Didn't realize? I think you did. You know you did. What do you think happens when a fast moving sharp object come in contact with flesh? It hurts. But, I'm not going to die alone," he said and started laughing insanely. The ground beneath Peter started to split open. Two hands shot up, latched onto him, and started to pull him into the ground.
"No! Let go!" he cried as the laughing continued. The more she struggled, the faster he sank.
"Your mine Peter! Your mine!"
"No!" Peter yelled as he sat up in his bed. He was covered in sweat and had tossed off most of the sheets. He took in a deep breath and tried to calm himself. This was the first time that he had ever experienced a dream that intense. He glanced over at his clock that was located on the left side of his bed on a small table. It was 5:30 a.m.
'Might as well get up. Harry is probably already gone,' he though and got out of his bed. He rummaged around in his closet for clothes, tripped over a pair shoes, and finally got dressed. He walked slowly down the stairs and into the kitchen. As he had guessed, Harry was gone. He had left a note saying that he would be back early tonight. Peter sat down at the table with a dry bowl of cereal and quickly began eating.
'I wonder what's been going on at Oscorp that has Harry practically living there. I didn't see anyting too intersting going on the night I staked out the place. MaybeHarry's latenights have to do with that Alandra woman. Itried a background check on her but everything was classified with the government. She may be working with Octavius, but I'm not sure. She's been just asbusy asHarry,' he though as he finished the cereal. 'The one thing that's been bothering me the most is that therehas been no sign ofOctavius all week.'
Peter got up, wincing a bit in pain. It had been several days since the 'meeting'with Octavius and he's ribs were still a little sore. He put the bowl in the sink. He glanced at the clock on the wall and groaned in frustration.
'I'll have to worry about all this later. I need to get to the Bugle.' Peter put on his shoes, grabbed his things a headed out the door.
Harry frowned as he walked down the hall. Alandra had kicked Norman out of her lab and locked herself in there almost a week ago. She had been neglecting her job and Harry had had enough. He entered her office and quickly shut the door. He could hear his father's voice coming from the lab.
"Your insane woman!" Norman yelled. Harry groaned at the thought of having to break up another fight between the two. He entered the lab and saw something he didn't expected to see: Alandra hunched over her work completely ignoring Norman. Norman glanced over to Harry and then returned his focus to Alandra.
"Alandra, tell me what is going on. You haven't left this lab in almost a week. If you keep this up, you'll break my father's record," Harry said. Alandra paused what she was doing and turned around. She had dark circles under her bloodshot eyes.
"Its none of your business Harry," she said coldly.
"Fine then, but I want you out and about by Friday," he said.
"Why?"
"Tony Stark is coming to have a look around," he said quietly. Alandra's eyes widened in shock.
"You can't let him in here. Once he sees what the government has us working on, he'll go out of his way to take it over!" she yelled.
"I don't have any choice in the matter. You will come out of here and interact with him for one day. It won't kill you."
"It might kill him," she muttered. Harry shook his head and left. He had more important things to worry about at the moment, like his father.
Eddie stood quietly listening to J. Johan Jameson rant out Spider-Man. He was waiting to get his next assignment. He was glad that he didn't have to tote Parker around anymore. There was something weird about that guy but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Anyway, Brock, your getting a new partner today. Unlike Parker, this one will be permeate. She transferred here from out of state," Jameson said.
'A girl…I hope she's good looking,' he thought.
"Meet Alexis Carmichael. The two of you should get along quite well." Eddie turned and saw a woman enter. She was about 5'6, brown eyes, long reddish-brown hair, and a perfect figure. Eddie had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping. She walked up to him and shook his hand.
"Hi," she said in a shy voice. Eddie nodded and somehow managed to reply back to her.
The day passed far too quickly for Alandra's tastes. She couldn't stand Tony Stark and had no intention of being nice to him. She looked down at the contraption she had been working on all week. Right now it didn't look like much. There were wires all over the place and there was still only a skeleton frame.
'Even if I don't work on it at all Friday, I can still have it done by Sunday,' she thought as she started to leave. She turned and found herself face to face with the Green Goblin. She let out a startled shriek and stumbled backwards. The Goblin looked at her and let out a small chuckle. The sound made Alandra's skin crawl.
"God Norman, don't sneak up on me like that!" she snapped and started to walk past him.
"When I'm in this suit, I'm the Green Goblin," he hissed in a cold voice and blocked her path.
"So?" she said coldly. "Will you move? I want to go home and get some sleep."
"Alright," he said. Alandra cringed at the amused tone in his voice and before she could react, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
"What the…put me the hell down!" she screamed as he walk out of the lab and through her office. "Where are you taking me?"
"You said you were going home. I'm taking you there," he said.
"When I get my hands on you Norman, I'm go to shove that grotesque mask of yours right up your…"
"I'd love to see you try," he said, cutting her off. "Besides, now that were alone, I want to know why you want the enhancer serum so much. And don't bother denying it. I looked at your files on your computer." They had now entered a large lab. Alandra recognized it as the one that Norman did his testing in. He came to a stop and sat her down in a rolling chair. "Now, why do you want it?"
"Who wouldn't want to have super human strength and agility?" she said in an icy voice. The Goblin cocked his head a bit and snorted.
"She's lying Norman. She knows something."
'Be quiet! I will get the information better it I play along and gain her trust!'
"Who's after you then?" he asked.
"What gave you that idea?"
"No one locks them selves in lab building a laser rifle without good reason," he said. Alandra made a move to get up. He seized her shoulders and shoved her back down into the chair.
"Octavius isn't dead. He's alive," she said after a few moments of silence. She then told him about how he appeared outside of the building and called her on her cell phone. After she was done, the Goblin looked at her for a minute. He then took off his helmet and sat it on the floor. Alandra looked him in the eyes and was startled to see them full of concern.
"What the hell are you doing? Don't look at her like that!" the Goblin demanded.
'Don't tell me what to do and get out of my head!' Norman yelled back. His mind was silent once again.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. The coldness was gone from his voice.
"What would you have done? Laugh at me? Tell me I was seeing things?" she said, her voice breaking. Norman hung his head a bit as she fought back the tears he knew had been there all week. "All you ever do is bother me. I tried to be nice to you that day and all you did was bite my head off."
"I'm…sorry," he said. Alandra looked at him with a shocked face. He smiled weakly. "I don't say that very often you know."
"I didn't think so," she said quietly and returned his smile. He helped up her up to her feet. "I really should be getting home now."
"I'll give you a lift," he said with a grin. Before she could protest, he had picked her up again, but this time he cradled her in his arms. Alandra could feel her face turning red. He strode over to his glider and jumped onto. Alandra could hear it come to life and shut her eyes as it started to rise into the air. Suddenly, she felt them take off and she clutched onto Norman.
"Your not scared of heights are you?" he said with a chuckle. Alandra slowly forced open her eyes and gasped. They were high above Oscorp looking out at the city. It was truly a beautiful sight. Alandra laughed nervously.
"I have a car you know," she said. Norman grinned at her and flew them higher in the air and started toward the city.
"Would you like to stand?" Alandra looked at him like he was nuts. "Come on, there's nothing to it, although you haven't had the enhancers so we'll have to be careful that you don't loose your balance." He put her down in front of him and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. "Ready?"
"Yes," she replied and they were off. Alandra enjoyed the feeling of wind on her skin. They flew around the city for what felt like hours. Finally they went back to Oscorp. Norman navigated the glider through an opening in the roof. Within seconds, they were back in the lab they had left. They stepped off the glider and faced each other.
"Enjoy yourself?" he asked. Alandra nodded her head and smiled.
"Maybe we could do it again sometime," she said.
"You do realize that tomorrow night, I'm going to let Spider-Man know that I alive and well," he said in a serious tone. "If we go out again, it may be dangerous."
"Showing concern are we?" she teased. Norman's face turned red and he quickly pulled her into an embrace.
"I just…don't want anything to happen to you," he said as he held her. Alandra's eyes widened a bit.
'He's actually likes me? I can't believe it,' she thought. He put his hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes. Before she knew it, he had pulled her into a kiss. She responded and deepened it. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and ran a hand through his hair while he ran his hands along her back. After about a minute they separated. Both blushed a deep red and said their goodnights. Both went to sleep that night thinking of the other and the kiss that they shared.
