Disclaimer: Sorry for the wait; work's been a pain lately especially with the overtime. Again, not at all surprised with the last chapter not getting any reviews. I did admit it wasn't my best, after all. Hopefully this one will make up for it. I hope everyone's having a happy Labor Day.
As usual, I do not own the rights to Spider-Man or his supporting characters.
Chapter XVIII
Sitting at the table with her car keys dangling from her fingers, Gwen spent the majority of the morning thinking about the strange conversation she had with Spider-Man in Central Park. It was strange because for all intents and purposes, Gwen still very strongly detested Spider-Man. Yet, she felt she was starting to understand him just a bit more than she expected. The genuine hurt in his voice of the death of her dad seemed to eat away at him like a cancer. But it wasn't just that moment that seemed to hound him.
Gwen played the words and the confession over in her head again and again. Her father wasn't the first person Spider-Man failed to save. Ben Parker, Peter's Uncle, died at the hands of a desperate man, and Spider-Man failed to prevent it from happening. Just like her father. He obviously blamed himself for it, but Gwen was trying to figure out why. He didn't know Ben Parker in any way, shape or form and yet he blamed himself for Ben dying. In doing so, Spider-Man stated rather cryptically that Gwen already knew who he was.
It made so little sense to Gwen, and she was smart. She got that intelligence from her father. The more she wrapped her head around it, the more she was intensely convinced that Spider-Man may very well have known Ben Parker. Which meant Spider-Man knew Peter. Gwen wasn't ready to admit it, but it seemed like Spider-Man had told her exactly who he was under the mask. She was just having more than a tough time coming to terms with it. Or maybe, Spider-Man was playing with her. Whatever it was, Gwen couldn't stop thinking about it. That was how she found herself at the diner, at the table, her table, jangling her keys in a vain attempt to distract her mind. It seemed to be working since she didn't notice the other presence next to her.
"Is this seat taken?" a voice asked, and Gwen looked up at Mary Jane and her infectious smile.
Managing a smile in return, Gwen replied, "It's all yours."
Mary Jane took the seat across from Gwen, who was still jangling her keys around in her fingers. "You look like you've seen better days."
Gwen stopped jangling her keys and looked Mary Jane in the eyes. "I ran into Spider-Man last night."
"Oh! Did he ask about me?" Mary Jane asked in a flirtatious tone.
"You weren't even mentioned once. Anyway, it was the most surreal thing; Spider-Man wanted to apologize for not saving my dad. You know; letting him die and all that. It was so strange." Gwen explained.
Mary Jane, for her part, listened intently. She said, "You make it seem like you didn't believe him."
"The thing is, I did believe him. I figured out that before he died, Dad found out Spider-Man's secret identity. It gets weirder than that." Gwen exclaimed.
"What do you mean?"
"Dad wasn't the first person that Spider-Man didn't save when he could. Back when he first appeared, he let Ben Parker die."
Mary Jane said, "Peter's Uncle?"
"Yeah, and Spider-Man showed just as much remorse and guilt over it as he did for my dad. More so even," Gwen explained. "The way he talked about that night, it sounded as if he knew Ben Parker personally. And when I asked him who he was under the mask, he said I already knew."
"Do you?" MJ asked.
Gwen wasn't even sure how to answer without compromising herself or Spider-Man. She also wasn't entirely sure if she should say anything to Mary Jane out of concern that she might out it herself. Above all, if Gwen were wrong, she'd put someone in danger that wasn't Spider-Man. The silence from Gwen was enough for Mary Jane to drop the subject. Gwen had been through enough already; compromising herself would've only made it worse. So after the next couple of minutes of pure silence between them, Gwen finally responded.
"I don't know if I'm right or wrong about it, or even if I should say anything at all. I don't know if I should go to the cops and expose Spider-Man's identity to them or if I should protect him."
"From where I'm sitting…" MJ said. "…it seems like you're protecting him. And maybe, you want to defend your father's honor at the same time. It's noble, really. In fact, I think it's the kind of thing Spider-Man would do."
"Dad would've done the same thing," Gwen said with a small smile. "You know, I envy you, MJ."
"Why?"
"You still have a father." Gwen replied before she started to leave.
MJ however was biting her lip and shutting her eyes at the statement. She replied, "Yeah, I do have a father. I just not sure I'd call him one."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Gwen asked as MJ was standing up and leaving the table herself.
After a short silence, MJ replied, "Maybe some other time, Gwen. That's not a subject I'm interested in discussing right now. Look, we haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but whoever you think Spider-Man might be, you might want to be there for him when he needs you the most."
"You think so?" Gwen asked.
"You never know when it might be the last time." MJ replied before she took her leave.
MJ left Gwen with more to think about than she knew what to do with. For once, MJ had a point and that was the first time Gwen saw her so serious. Yet, she was still unsure if she wanted to believe she knew who Spider-Man was under the mask. Or, even if she should believe it. She kept coming back to what Spider-Man told her; she already knew who he was. He further hinted that he failed to save Ben Parker. Gwen was starting to put the pieces together, so it was simply a matter of accepting the truth about Spider-Man… and the man behind the mask.
The old saying went The enemy of my enemy is my friend. It was something that, better or for worse, rang true even in the criminal underworld, and Kingpin and the other crime lords had a two common enemies; the Green Goblin and Spider-Man. Mr. Negative suggested a pool of their collective resources to take out both threats before he, Kingpin and Silvermane could fight amongst themselves for control of Manhattan. To that end, the three primary crime lords sent out their best enforcers into the city rooftops, all armed with the latest weaponry to put down either the Goblin and Spider-Man… whomever came first.
As it turned out, Spider-Man was spotted swinging across the skyline by a gunman named Savoy. Savoy spoke into a radio in his ear, "This is Savoy to Silvermane. I've got a visual on Spider-Man approaching from the southeast."
"Any sign of the Goblin?" Silvermane said over the radio.
"None yet? How should we proceed?"
"Begin your attack on Spider-Man. With any luck, that'll draw out the Goblin and they can finish each other off."
"Roger that," Savoy said before he turned to his group of trigger-happy mercenaries. "Listen up; Spider-Man is on his way toward our position. On my signal, we unload on him."
Like clockwork, Savoy's men took positions and numerous points on the rooftop they occupied. Kingpin and Mr. Negative's crews were likely doing the same thing on the other rooftops, all of them waiting for either the Green Goblin or Spider-Man to appear. Savoy was by the far edge of the roof. He had a faint visual of Spider-Man right before he vanished passed another building. Instinctively, Savoy covertly ordered his men to converge on the other end of the roof. From there, they could easily snipe Spider-Man just as he would reappear.
But Spider-Man never reappeared on the other side. Savoy and his crew searched for the hero for the better part of five to ten minutes. On Savoy's orders, the mercenaries spread out around the roof again to cover the edges. One of the mercenaries drew too close to the edge and he suddenly vanished over it and also drew the attention of Savoy and the others. They slowly approached the edge where the mercenary vanished until they were on top of it. Savoy looked over the edge carefully and found no sign of their comrade. Behind them, on the far end of the roof, Spider-Man appeared.
"Wow, a welcoming committee. Is it my birthday?"
Savoy and his crew spun around just in time for Spider-Man to toss the missing mercenary, covered in webbing, into the nearest group. Then the rest of the mercenaries opened fire on Spider-Man but weren't able to hit him when he bounded off the ledge and into the air. From above, Spider-Man fired off a few globs of webbing and jammed the guns of three mercenaries before landing dead center of the group. He quickly tripped all of them in one move except for Savoy, who was quick enough to avoid the surprise attack.
Savoy rolled to the side and fired on Spider-Man without regard for his men, and Spider-Man rolled and ducked and weaved around he onslaught of bullets flying at him. Spider-Man landed and snagged the gun from Savoy's hands, and then he swung around and cracked one of the mercenaries in the face. Another mercenary felt the same thing, as did another. The last of the mercenaries tried to ambush Spider-Man from behind but failed miserably, taking the hero's feet into his gut. As soon as Spider-Man was done webbing the mercenaries to the ground, Savoy pulled on a handgun and fired on him.
Spider-Man again took to dodging the gunfire, all while saying to Savoy, "C'mon, at least make it look like you're trying to shoot me."
"Stand still and I will shoot you." Savoy countered.
"Stand still? Where's the fun in that?"
Savoy kept shooting at Spider-Man until he ran out of bullets, and not one of them struck the hero. Noticing the submachine gun on the ground, Savoy dove to grab but Spider-Man yanked it away with a web line. Spider-Man quickly disassembled the weapon, and Savoy grew desperate. He charged at Spider-Man head one and threw a straight punch. Spider-Man sidestepped the oncoming punch and ducked another punch and another one after that. He found an opening and flipped back to the ground, cracking Savoy in the jaw as he went. Then he quickly nipped up, striking Savoy in the chest and sending him crashing to the ground. With Savoy down, Spider-Man webbed him and his group to the ground to keep them from escaping.
"Take a load off, precious." he said.
"You're one dumb bastard," Savoy said. "You think we're the only ones out here. There's a whole army of mercenaries coming for your ass. You're and the Goblin."
"The Goblin? The Green Goblin?" Spider-Man said.
"Yeah, the nutjob that tried to off Kingpin and the other crime bosses of this town last year. What about it?" Savoy said.
Spider-Man pounced on Savoy and asked, "How long ago did he come back?"
"You don't watch a whole lot of news, do you? The crazy sum' bitch dropped Donald Menken from a high-rise that the cops ruled a suicide. Then he went after Silvermane, Negative and Kingpin but they managed to get away. They put together their best guys to take out the both of you."
"Where is he? Where the Goblin?" Spider-Man asked.
"If I knew that, what makes you think I'd tell you?" Savoy chuckled before getting a piece of webbing on his mouth.
Then a faint booming sound was heard several blocks away. Spider-Man quickly bounded from the roof and swung toward the source of the sound, and then he picked up the pace to get to the site. By the time he made it to the roof where the boom originated, Spider-Man saw that it was a massacre. Numerous bodies were laid out all around the roof. Spider-Man quickly determined that the dead men wore of the same group of mercenaries he'd just beaten, and through the sheerest of coincidence, they all worked for Kingpin, Silvermane and Mr. Negative. Some else got to these men before Spider-Man did, and wasn't nearest as subtle in taking them out. The Punisher came to mind, since killing was usually his way of taking out the scum of the city. But Spider-Man knew better now.
Spider-Man heard a faint whimper and found a wounded mercenary nearby. "What happened here? He asked.
The mercenary looked up at Spider-Man was contempt. "Kingpin, Silvermane… they don't pay us enough for this crap. They hired us to lure you and the Goblin so you could take each other out. But the Goblin… he got to us first."
"The Goblin… where did he go?" Spider-Man asked, but the mercenary succumbed to his wounds.
His spider-sense suddenly exploded and everything around him slowed to a crawl. A moment later, Spider-Man's vision centered on a copper orb with blinking lights coming directly at him. Spider-Man instinctively dodged away from the orb moments before in exploded in a hail of shrapnel. The shockwave still caught him and sent him into the wall. Spider-Man heard a ringing in his ears and his vision was blurred momentarily. As soon as he recovered enough awareness, another copper orb landed right in front of him. This time, Spider-Man was able avoid the explosion and the shockwave that followed. His heard the whining of a high-powered engine and soon enough, there was the Green Goblin hovering into view.
Unknown to either of them, one of the dead mercenaries had a hidden camera on his vest. And it was feeding the video to a separate receiver elsewhere in the city.
Kingpin, Silvermane and Mr. Negative were watching the feed from an undisclosed location. "It's about time they showed up. You're not as senile as I thought Silvermane." Kingpin mocked the older crime boss.
"You of all people should know, Kingpin; I've been doing this kind of think while your mother was breastfeeding your lard ass."
"Back then, you'd probably have used some out of date, archaic technology. Nice to see that you've at least changed with the times, old man." Kingpin snapped.
"If you two are finished bickering like children, I'd like to watch the Goblin and the spider kill other." Mr. Negative said.
"For once, I'm in agreement, Negative. This should be a show." Kingpin said.
Spider-Man bounded clear of another pumpkin bomb tossed his ways by the Green Goblin, but was hit by the shockwave of another one. The blast knocked the wall crawler off his feet and to the ground. The Green Goblin hovered above Spider-Man, cackling into the air as he did before in their first encounter a year ago. Spider-Man tried to shake off the effect of the shockwave while the Green Goblin hovered closer to him. The Goblin loomed over Spider-Man from atop his glider like a demonic entity out to claim the young hero's soul, and he grinned all the more menacingly. Then the Goblin hopped off his glider and pounced on Spider-Man, pinning him to the ground.
"You don't look all that happy to see me, Spider-Man." the Goblin mockingly implied.
"Trust me, Gobby; this town's wacko enough without you." Spider-Man retorted before the Goblin grasped his throat.
"You wound me with your cruel, cruel words. I always thought I was your favorite adversary."
"Actually," Spider-Man got his hand free a webbed the Green Goblin in the eyes before kicking him away and standing upright again. "The Sandman was my favorite bad guy. At least he had a conscious. You, not so much."
The Green Goblin pulled the webbing from his eyes and returned to his glider. "I guess we'll have to work on that, won't we?"
Then Green Goblin tossed a pumpkin bomb at Spider-Man, which Spider-Man was able to avoid before bounding off the roof. Firing a web line, Spider-Man swung out of range with the Goblin in pursuit. Spider-Man was already well ahead up until the Green Goblin caught up to him, and that was when he tossed more of his pumpkin bombs toward the hero. The bomb detonated around Spider-Man, trying to throw him off balance. Righting himself, Spider-Man managed to turn around for a moment and in midair, shot off a series of web spheres back at the Goblin. The Goblin used his own glider to block the attacks and tossed another bomb.
The bomb detonated in front of Spider-Man, knocking him out of the sky. He managed to catch himself before he reached the streets below, startling onlookers along the way. Using the web line he fired to catch him as a bungee cord, Spider-Man catapulted himself back up toward the Goblin. The hero landed a kick that knocked the villain off balance from his glider, but not to send him falling from the machine. The Goblin recovered and was upright on his glider, but Spider-Man managed to land on the glider himself and grabbed hold of his archenemy.
"Get the hell of me!" the Goblin demanded.
Spider-Man only maintained his grip and said, "I know that's you under the mask, Osborn. Set this thing down so we can talk this out like men."
The Green Goblin drove his elbow into Spider-Man gut and then threw him off the glider. Spider-Man managed to fire a line and quickly clung to a wall. "Haven't you figured it out?"
"Figured what out?"
"This; our fighting each other like petulant children. It's all the work of Kingpin and Silvermane and every other low life crime lord in this city. They set us up to kill each other," The Green Goblin explained. "We should be working together against them."
"Maybe, but that doesn't justify placing innocent people in the crossfire." Spider-Man retorted.
"You think those ungrateful little slugs down there are innocent? Even after a year since our last encounter, you're still so naïve. And I have to educate you."
"There's nothing you can teach me, Osborn, other than that you're a raving lunatic." Spider-Man retorted.
"There's always something to learn, Spider-Man."
The Green Goblin gunned the engine of his glider and flew right toward Spider-Man, with a set of blades jutting out of the front end. The glider slammed into the wall, the blades embedding into the brick. Spider-Man saw an opening and pounced on the Goblin and the momentum removed the glider from the wall. They fought for control of the glider as they jetted along the skyline, at times dipping straight down and flying over the streets and avoiding oncoming cars. The Green Goblin tossed Spider-Man off of him and threw more pumpkin bombs, but Spider-Man managed to avoid the blasts. The razor bats were another story; the Goblin tossed a pair of the seemingly living projectiles toward Spider-Man, who was able to snag one of them with a line. He swung the projectile into its partner and they shattered in midair.
The Green Goblin saw an opening and took it, using his glider to cut the line from which Spider-Man swung. Spider-Man spiraled but was able to catch himself with another line and swung back around. He tried to strike the Goblin with a straight punch, but the Goblin managed to avoid it and struck back with an energy bolt from his gloves. The blast hit Spider-Man in the back and sent him spiraling again. Again, Spider-Man caught himself with a line and swung ahead of the Green Goblin, who tossed another pair of razor bats his way.
Spider-Man dodged the projectiles as they came before he swung back around toward the Green Goblin. This time, Spider-Man was able to strike the Goblin in the face with a straight punch and sent the Goblin and his glider spinning out of the control. The glider slammed onto a nearby roof and sent the Green Goblin halfway across it. Spider-Man landed and sprinted toward him, but the Goblin tossed a pumpkin bomb at him. The bomb detonated a few inches from Spider-Man and sent him crashing onto the ground, buying the Goblin enough time to reach his glider and take off again.
Flying away and then coming back around, the Green Goblin tried to drive the blades of the glider into Spider-Man. Spider-Man bent his body back and clung to the underside of the glider. From there, he rammed his fist into the underside and pulled some wiring free. The glider sputtered and coughed up smoke from the engine while Spider-Man managed to jump clear. The Green Goblin tried to stabilize the glider before he retreated. Spider-Man was about to give chase with a web line, but he found that the cartridges in the web shooters had emptied. Checking his supply, he found he only had one cartridge left and by the time he changed it, the Green Goblin was already gone.
"Keep running, Osborn. I know where you live." Spider-Man said before swinging away.
The Green Goblin had been hiding around the corner of a building half a block away, watching Spider-Man swing away from him. His initial instinct was to follow him and finish him off, but Spider-Man would've felt him coming a mile away with his spider-sense. That meant the Goblin needed to come up with a plan to neutralize that early warning system. If history taught anyone anything, the Green Goblin always had a plan.
Kingpin. Silvermane. Mr. Negative. They can wait. I'm coming after you, Spider-Man.
Author's note: I think this chapter came out a little better than the last one, especially with this one being highlighted by Spider-Man/Green Goblin fight. Keep in mind that Spider-Man's knowledge of Norman Osborn being the Goblin was already established earlier in the story. Go back and read if you don't remember.
Also, there's the interaction between Gwen and Mary Jane, and Gwen trying to come to terms with whether or not Peter and Spider-Man are the same person. Mary Jane's own troubled past is also brought up. We'll see where that goes.
Ya'll don't go silent on me with the reviews and/or the favorites. See ya, bye!