Author's Note: Sorry I missed last week. Also, I'm sorry this chapter is so short again. You do what you can do when you're juggling projects.


Spider-Man knew that they didn't have long before Green Goblin would find out about the attack on his building. They had to get to Oscorp Tower, rescue Danger's parents and take down Green Goblin as soon as possible. He had an idea for beating Green Goblin. He just needed to pretend he wasn't wearing the symbiote long enough to disable the noise makers on Green Goblin's glider. Then he could unleash the symbiote's abilities. That would ideally be after rescuing Danger's parents.

Spider-Man found Terence Redfield, the current CEO of Oscorp and told him he had reason to believe hostages were being held in the building. Terence was dubious of the concept, but he had no intention of arguing with, and was more than willing to cooperate with, Spider-Man. He was already dealing with enough bad press over what Spider-Man revealed to the public. The last thing he wanted was for Spider-Man to be upset with the company again. He had to walk out of a meeting with the board and they encouraged it, having the same fears he had. The most obvious place was the lowest floor, beneath ground level. It seemed unlikely because that floor was where the giant rats were being worked on until the escape. Spider-Man wanted to search it anyway. There, they found people working on the aftermath, setting up new doors to replace the ones that had been smashed through and moving out the equipment that was used for the rat mutation.

"What's in that crate?" Spider-Man asked, pointing at a particularly large one.

"It might hold a containment unit for one of the rats," Terence guessed.

Spider-Man shook his head. "It's not big enough for the rats. But it is big enough for people." Without asking for permission, Spider-Man ripped the lid off the crate and found a machine that held two people in stasis. "Found em."

Danger rushed over and peered inside. He almost shouted his parents' names, but stopped himself, knowing it might give away his identity.

"What?!" Terence said. He took a look inside himself and said in panic mode, "I had no idea!"

Recognizing how cooperative he'd been and how he had previously told the police about the rats, Spider-Man said, "I believe you. Now, do you know someone who would be able to open it safely?"

By the time Spider-Man had finished his sentence, Danger had overeagerly plunged his fist through the control panel on the machine.

"Or we could just smash it and hope for the best," Spider-Man deadpanned. "He's new," Spider-Man told Terence.

Danger was embarrassed, but since they were past the point of no return anyway, he ripped the machine open and lifted his parents out.

Spider-Man checked their pulses and said, "They'll probably be awake soon. Terence, call the police and have them pick these two up."

"I want to go with them," said Danger. "Green Goblin might come after them again."

Spider-Man got close to Danger and lowered his voice so no one else would hear. "Green Goblin doesn't care about your parents and he's too practically minded to take revenge on them. Now that he knows he can't control you, he'll be coming after you directly. So you don't want your parents to be around you."

"Alright. How long do you think it will be before he finds out about this?"

"Any second now. I'm kind of shocked that he hasn't already-"

"SPIDER-MAN!" shouted a voice from nearby speakers. It was unmistakably Green Goblin. "I'm in the conference room! Get up here and bring your new friend with you!" said the Green Goblin.

Spider-Man shrugged. "Well, you heard the man."


Spider-Man trusted his spider-sense to warn him about gunmen waiting in the corners as he burst through the conference room doors and landed on the table. Green Goblin was seated on the far side, disappointment written all over his face. Thankfully the board members weren't there anymore and there was no blood stains or any other signs of them being killed.

"I should have known it wouldn't last," Green Goblin bemoaned.

"Then why'd you even try?" Spider-Man asked.

"Oh, Peter," Green Goblin said, not caring that Danger was close enough to hear the use of that name. "I always saw your potential. I always wanted us to go far together. I just couldn't help giving it one last try."

"We could have done great things together," Spider-Man admitted. "But it wasn't my fault that we didn't.

"For the longest time, you wanted it to be me against you, never realizing that the world could be ours. I offered you everything . . . but all you wanted was an enemy. If you'll have it no other way, just remember that you chose this." Green Goblin pressed a button on his glove and a noise erupted from under the table.

Spider-Man clutched his ears and screamed in pain. The suit turned black and writhing tendril spread from it, squirming.

Danger rushed toward Green Goblin. Green Goblin smashed his chair against Danger, breaking it and then threw Danger back into the hallway.

"How did you know I was still wearing the symbiote?" Spider-Man asked, barely able to be heard over the noise maker.

Green Goblin pressed the button again, stopping the noise. "I had your room bugged. I heard your talk with Mary Jane and I've known you were wearing it this whole time."

"Of course, he had my room bugged! Why wouldn't he?!" Spider-Man thought bitterly. "But if you knew this whole time, why didn't you stop me from killing your rats and saving Danger's parents?"

"I had something better to work on then worry about useless hostages and replaceable rats. While you were busy, I made a few adjustments to a little project I've had in the pipeline."

"What kind of project?" Spider-Man asked.

"It was supposed to be a gift for you before you started dating Mary Jane and didn't need it anymore. But after a bit of repurposing, it makes for an especially haunting way for you to die."

Danger came flying back into the room and crashed into Spider-Man having been thrown by someone. It was most likely that surprise Green Goblin was talking about.

Spider-Man recomposed himself and watched as that "surprise" walked into the room.

Spider-Man froze. He kept staring, waiting for his eyes to adjust or recognize it as someone else, anything to make him realize it wasn't what it looked like.

The surprise panted and growled through gritted teeth like a zombie. Its right eye glowed light blue and the left eye glowed pink. A device was stuck onto the side of its skull, the side of its head shaved to leave it unobstructed. That device was no doubt controlling it and the occasional twitching may have been a sign of futile resistance. Its fingers were stretched into sharp talons, but Spider-Man barely noticed because he couldn't stop staring at that unmistakable face.

Spider-Man's mind went from being stunned to scrambling for an explanation. In his irrational state, he came up with a crazy theory; one that happened to be correct in this crazy situation. It was a clone; it had to be. Either that or a ghost. If Norman could make giant rats, why not clones?

Noticing his stunned state even with the mask covering his face, Danger asked, "Who is that?"

Green Goblin put his arm around the surprise's shoulders and said, "This . . . is Gwen Stacy."


Author's Note: Thank you for reading. Don't forget to review, follow and check out my YouTube channel if you're interested.