It was now approaching a few days since Spider-Man fought the Hobgoblin and Norman Osborn woke up unexpectedly, now seeming more weird than normally. For now it was a waiting game for when the Hobgoblin would be striking next.
Spider-Man was swinging through the city searching for any sign of his halloween dress up pal, while on the phone with MJ talking about recent events. "Mr. Osborn is acting very off isn't he? Please tell me it's not just me seeing that!"
"Why do you say that Peter? I mean he's been acting a little weird yeah, but he was in a giant fire and explosion." She remarked back
"Fair point, but I swear my spider-sense has gone off sometimes around him, I have no idea why that'd be happening and even stranger, sometimes it just stops right in its tracks, then flares back up out of nowhere." Spidey responded, trying to wrap his head around that.
Before he could think about it anymore, another explosion occurred a few blocks away from a large building near the top floor.
"That sounded loud. Trouble for you?" She said, concerned.
"Oh, crap. Uh MJ I think I've found Hobgoblin, something just exploded. I'll have to call you back. See you later, hopefully with the whole gang!" He said and hung up rushing toward the destruction.
MJ sighed concerned for him as usual and wished she could help.
Reaching the building a few people were almost slipping and shockingly, Hobgoblin was helping people back up, apart from one they threw off the building.
Spider-Man naturally caught them before they fell and put them onto the ground. "I'm wondering who you are, but I've got a goblin to catch." He ran up the building as fast as he could, as Hobgoblin noticed him.
"You again! Stay out of this, I'm only here to eliminate the one man and believe me he's a bad man." He claimed, as Spidey approached closer.
"Yeah me again! Spider-Man and you are that other Hobgoblin aren't you? The one who attacked Oscorp? How about we get on a first name basis? You go first." He replied.
Hobgoblin naturally threw a pumpkin bomb. "My name isn't one I'm keen on sharing with you Spider-Man! How about yours?"
"Fair, dido that feeling! I'm not telling you mine either, but it was worth a try!" Spider-Man replied and kicked him off his glider temporarily, webbing him to the side of the building and shook his head at him. "Not the best fighter are you?"
He stared at him. "Something I'll work on."
"In prison I guess?" Spider-Man said and reached for his mask, then felt his spider-sense going off getting hit by another glider. It was the other Hobgoblin. "Looks like you fell for the trap!" The other Hobgoblin claimed.
"Unfair, I didn't know this was going to be a tag team! And how am I meant to tell you two apart?" He asked falling and grabbing onto the building. "Okay, you Hobbie that attacked me can be 1 and the other worse at this can be 2. How about that?" He suggested and dogged the incoming attack from Hobgoblin 1.
"You are incredibly annoying." His attacker said, revealing another flaming sword.
"Come on! How did you get it back? I thought the police confiscated it!?" Spider-Man asked annoyed and even more, when Hobbie 1 let loose Hobbie 2.
The first laughed. "You really believed I wouldn't make an entire arsenal of weaponry to kill you and all of our enemies? Let me kill him, leave now I'll finish it today. Get back to base now, get ready for phase 2." He looked at the second, he nodded and left.
"At least I'll know who I'm punching now!" Spider-Man exclaimed and avoided the swings from the sword punching Hobgoblin in the face.
"This is all futile, it truly is Spider-Man. I've planned this for a very long time, Norman Osborn is going to die today! This has been all I've played on doing for the last two years of my life. You really believe there is a miniscule chance you'll win today?" He questioned continuing to chase down Spider-Man shooting at him.
Spider-Man looked back at him. "Years in the making? Seriously? I can't believe this was your grand scheme! You've failed to kill him! And I'm going to stop you again."
"Today wasn't my first attempt and even if I fail today, I won't stop. I'll never stop." Hobgoblin claimed furious.
"Guess what, I'll never stop trying to stop you. Like an endless cycle. The definition of insanity even!" Spider-Man replied, shooting up webbing at him.
The goblin kept trying to kill Spidey, but kept on failing. "This isn't over." He said angrily and flew off.
Peter sighed. At least I know where he'll be attacking next, Mr. Osborn is in grave danger now, well again. Looks like I've gotta keep a close eye on him, I know captain Stacy already is. More help couldn't hurt!
He swung off heading towards the Osborn's home.
Spider-Man arrived, finding the police on standby and Captain Stacy getting into an argument with one officer.
"Carter! I've had it with you!" Stacy said to him.
The officer named Carter looked unhappy. "Dewolff is a great officer, dare I say one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of working with sir! And aren't there a lot more important things to do right now? Such as deal with all these officers and keep guard out for that masked menace?"
"Jean should be reassigned, to someone more capable." He responded bluntly.
"Ah, her name is Jean now?" Carter remarked looking unimpressed.
Captain Stacy stared at him angered. "I swear to you, dropping this would be for the best. Do yourself a favor and listen, got it?"
"Is this in Dewolff's best interests? She's going to be promoted soon, right? Very fascinating timing you have, captain. Quite frankly it seems like you are heavily invested in her, perhaps to a fault?"
"Drop it now, Carter and go bother someone else, be grateful I'm not writing you up for everything you've done!" Stacy motioned him to leave, which thankfully the guy listened to leaving in a hurry.
Carefully, Peter stepped forward, never seeing him so enraged before. "Captain Stacy, are you alright?"
"What? Oh, Spider-Man. Yes I'm okay, don't worry."
"Officer Carter, he seemed like a stick was someplay it shouldn't be." Spider-Man said jokely. "Why was that creep so angry?"
Stacy thought of answering. "It's not relevant. What are you doing here?"
"Thought I'd check on everything, is Mr. Osborn around? And Harry? I tangled with Hobgoblin earlier, he told me he's going to attack again. Sounded like he was genuine, unless he was trying to get me off his real target." He then wondered allowed.
"It's possible, Norman expressed before how someone was targeting him. This could be the threat he feared, without knowing or maybe he's lying and knows exactly who these Hobgoblins are." Stacy replied, pondering as well.
"Let's hope he isn't lying, you know that guy has been acting a bit weird lately." Peter brought up again thinking about it.
Officer Dewolff came over. "Sir. Spider-Man." She said to them both.
"Hi." Spidey replied.
"What's up Dewolff?" He asked.
"Perhaps right now wouldn't be the best time for that, but I do want to report we've gotten a sighting of Hammerhead's thugs up to something." She expressed.
Stacy looked over at Spider-Man. "You want to deal with it?"
"Perhaps I should, wouldn't mind kicking some of Hammerhead's goons."
While they spoke, it appeared Hobgoblin had flown above them past a helicopter zooming into the building throwing a pumpkin bomb.
Both saw the explosion. "Ah, crap."
"Go, now!" Stacy exclaimed.
Spider-Man of course listened and ran up the side of the building as fast as he possibly could preparing for another fight. "Hey! Hobbie! Come over here!" He shouted and tried webbing onto his glider.
He cut the webbing loose and flew in.
Peter jumped in, finding Harry and Norman looking concerned with the Hobgoblin flying in front of them.
"We're all here, it ends at last!" He shouted and threw his bomb.
"No!" Spider-Man shouted and webbed onto it bringing it backwards, making the blast hit him ripping the suit a bit. "Great start. You two need to book it now!" He exclaimed.
They listened and ran to safety, but Hobgoblin wasn't done yet, opening fire on them both and shooting a rocket from his glider, which Spidey couldn't stop causing part of the penthouse to explode.
Spider-Man cracked him across the face knocking him to the ground and rushed to find Harry hoping he'd be okay, which thankfully he was, but knocked down, being smacked against the wall. Norman was fine too.
"Osborn! Get him out of here! Go!" Peter roared at him.
He nodded and carried out his son. "Don't stop until you've beaten that freak to a pulp. Got it, hero?" He said picking up his son, however something strange happened before both of them could leave, another explosion occurred.
"My spider-sense, it's going barsark, I've never felt so much pain from it." He said to himself looking to see what was happening now as the dust settled. All that could be heard was maniacal laughter coming from another figure on a glider. One who wasn't the other Hobgoblin.
"What the devil are you?" Hobgoblin asked defensively.
The man laughed sinisterly with a horrifying grin on their face, they looked similar to the Hobgoblin, but far more evil and dangerous, not to mention confident.
Spider-Man moved in closer too. "For once I agree with him, if you're not with Hobgoblin, what are you then?"
With a laugh he spoke. "I am the one true Goblin, The Green Goblin!" He said with a terrifying laugh. "I've had enough of this fonny running around, believing he's a real goblin worthy of the title! I created the Hobgoblin originally from my own desires of wanting to break free, to become my true identity! Now I'm here, no more need for a cheap fake!" He expressed.
"I'll show you a cheap fake you little freak!" Hobgoblin said and flew towards him, then the Green Goblin hopped off his own glider, pulling him off it grabbing him by the throat laughing hysterically at this failure of attack.
"Ha! Someone doesn't have super strength, if I so desired I could crush your neck right here and now fool! First, I must know your identity!" Goblin exclaimed pulling off his mask, Spidey used this chance to attack shooting webbing into his new foe's face. "You can't be serious! That's all!" Green Goblin easily ripped it off. "I was expecting more from the great Spider-Man, after all you've proved to be a great thorn in my side! Rest assured, I have a deep burning hatred for you and I'll be with you in a moment." He said as he looked at the unmasked Hobgoblin. "Roderick Kingsley, isn't it?"
"No, this isn't how it was all meant to go!" He exclaimed, terrified.
Spider-Man pulled Kingsley out of Green Goblin's grasp. "I'll be dealing with you later, first I've got another goblin to kick around."
Green Goblin smiled. "Ohhh, you believe you are going to beat me? You're a very amusing little bug aren't you?"
"I'm not afraid of you, I've kicked a lot of bad guy butts and yours will be no different from the rest." Spider-Man replied, getting ready to fight and leaped at his foe going to punch him out, only to have his fist grabbed. "Uh, that's not good."
"You're a dead man, boy." Green Goblin replied laughing and hit him back standing Spider-Man backwards flying into the wall.
As he got back up, from the corner of his Harry was stepping forward as it appeared his father had left. "Hey! Take this someplace else!"
Oh Harry, sometimes I wonder about you. Spider-Man thought to himself rolling his eyes around and grabbed his friend bringing him to the hallway. "Kid, do yourself a favor and run away! This is serious!"
"My home getting trashed is serious too! And my dad ran off as soon as that Goblin creep showed up!" Harry responded.
Spidey looked both surprised and annoyed. "Please just-" Before he could finish his repeated sentence, his spider-sense went off as Green Goblin broke though the wall grabbing a hold of him, smashing Peter into the ground.
Goblin smiled at Harry. "Run along now boy, unless you want to stick around for the show!" He laughed and beat down on Spider-Man.
Fortunately, Harry listened finally and booked it out of there.
Before the beatdown could continue on, Spider-Man grabbed his powerful enemy's hand holding it back straining himself. "You are really, really, strong." He said slowly trying to push back Goblin and managed to fight back, cracking him across the face breaking free.
"Impressive!" He responded and pointed his glove at Spidey, firing some lasers from the glove like a gun.
Spidey naturally avoided all of it and webbed his foe's hands together shooting off a bunching of webbing to get them stuck. "Alright, good. Try breaking out of that now green leprechaun!"
His foe tilt his head. "Goblin, The Green Goblin! And your pitiful little webbing isn't enough to hold me back!" He broke free ripping the webbing.
"I'm going to need something tighter and a lot more sticky." Spider-Man exclaimed and rolled down to the ground, kicking Green Goblin in the face. Shockingly, his reflexes were very quick and he managed to grab his legs before he could kick him around anymore. Having hold, he lifted Peter's body, throwing him into the wall crashing him though it.
"You're a persistent pest, aren't you?" The Goblin remarked unamused.
Spider-Man felt his face feeling blood. "You bet and you're quite the ugly one aren't you? With a horrible sense of fashion, I thought those Hobgoblins looked bad, but boy, man alive! You take the cake!"
Goblin looked angered and charged him, so Spider-Man leaped out of the way, managing to be fast enough to pull him down, making him fall into the ground crashing through the floor. "That, actually, hurt." He said and got back up fully enraged, grabbing a hold of Spider-Man again, banging him into the ground, surfing off him as the poor hero crashed through multiple floors until it finally stopped. Processing to get a few more punches to the face, making him bleed more.
The Green Goblin moved in close with his horrible grin. "You truly believed you could defeat me? The one true Goblin!?" He reached his hand to choke out Spidey, but for some reason stopped. "Perhaps I'll let you live for another day. You've caught me in a generous mood. Lucky for you. Make no mistake, this isn't over, not by a long shot. I'll be returning, this is a simple beginning of something magnificent." He laughed maniacally and went back to his glider.
Peter was hurt pretty badly by the strength of this Green Goblin, he was completely blindsided by how deadly this new enemy was.
Said enemy flew towards the now revealed Hobgoblin, a man named Roderick Kingsley. Nobody else was around to listen to their conversation. "Tisk, tisk. You thought there was a chance you'd beat me?" He said and lifted his mask enough for Kingsley to see his true identity, Norman Osborn.
"What the hell is going on? I just saw you? How is this possible and how did you get all this power?" Kingsley questioned.
"Much trickery, it'd be far too complicated for an immeasurably small mind such as your own. You believed you could turn my tech against me? I made it all for Macendale to use after all. I presume you killed him and learned all of his secrets? Norman should've kept a closer eye on that fool." Green Goblin said, pulling back down his mask.
Kingsley looked bewildered. "How insane must you be? To speak in the third person?"
"I'm not Norman Osborn you foolish imbecil! I'm his friend, here to help make his life so much better. Norman wasn't strong enough to do what was necessary, he always desired this, so I'll carry out everything he wanted!" He explained with pride.
"You've clearly lost it Osborn! What are you planning on doing to me? Kill me? I'm not scared of you!" Kingsley exclaimed unphased.
Goblin looked unhappy. "I'm not Osborn! This, well it's not something he'd man enough to deal with personally. See, I don't want you dead. Such a punishment would be too simple?" He said, grabbing his flaming sword laughing hysterically. "Think of this as a permanent reminder of your failure to beat the great Green Goblin!" He exclaimed cheerfully, scaring Kingsley's face.
"Surely we'll meet again, Kingsley and when we do, a great battle must commence between us both!" He said laughing and flew off, as an injured Spider-Man managed to pull his way back up to see him leave, waving at his defeated foes.
Naturally after such a crazy day and fight, he kinda just fell over wanting to lay down for a minute, it wasn't like Kingsley would be an issue. After a minute of laying down, Peter reluctantly got back up wanting to question Hobgoblin. "Alright Hobbie, I can barely stand right now, but I demand to know who the heck you are!"
"Obviously I've lost today, I don't care what happens now I'm going to prison. It was Norman Osborn, that freak was him! At least I can bring him down with me." Hobgoblin said smiling again, with his nasty scar.
Peter stared at him. "Uh, maybe you hit your head, did you forget Osborn was literally here when that Green Goblin guy busted in? Did you happen to just forget that? Very convenient considering you despise the guy!"
"No, no, I swear that Green Goblin had his face! He mentioned about tricks, we live in a fantastical world! What if what you saw was faked!"
Spider-Man thought for a moment. "Maybe he showed you what you wanted to see? Ah heck why am I even listening to you. Of course you want me to believe he's Norman Osborn, so he'd riot with you! Great idea in theory, awful in execution!" He shook his head. "Who are you?"
"A businessman, all I wanted was to make my business go to the top! Osborn tried to destroy everything I had, take over and make me useless. Along with the rest of his colleagues, I wanted Osborn gone, but my ally wanted more to cripe the powerful and so I helped him. It was going to be wonderful." He expressed.
"You did everything, for money?" Spider-Man asked, greatly disappointed.
The defeated Kingsley frowned. "Money and power, now it's all gone. At least my partner is still out there and can complete our objectives. Along with their own, they're much smarter than you are."
Spider-Man grabbed him. "Who was your buddy?"
"I'll never tell you. Let's say, he's more powerful than me too. And you'd be mistaken to underestimate him." Hobgoblin responded with a cocky tone.
Captain Stacy with all his officers arrived upstairs finally. "Spider-Man, are you alright? You look seriously hurt." He said approaching Peter.
"Oh? I am? I was hoping this was Green Goblin's blood. I hope stain remover works on my suit. Think I might fall over now." He said and did so.
Stacy looked around. "We need a paramedic! Now!"
Green Goblin returned to a laboratory, a secret one which only himself and doctor Stromm knew about, speaking of which he waited for Osborn as he landed and unmasked, switching back to himself.
"I can't believe what I- my friend did. The Goblin. The serum worked perfectly, Spider-Man and Hobgoblin, I beat them with ease. Though, I nearly killed Them. The Goblin almost did, part of me wanted to let it happen. Deep down perhaps." Norman said looking at Stromm, who was now in a wheelchair, with some prosthetics parts now.
"It was dangerous what you did today, are you sure you control this Goblin?"
"Of course I do Stromm, my friend is our weapon. My protetor and defeated our foes. Now I've revealed the Hobgoblin making him go into jail and defeating Spider-Man, showed my suppoirity. He didn't stand a chance. It felt incredible and now, with my friend we've come up with more ambitious ideas now we've got so much power at our dispile. Everything we'll put into motion, nobody will be able to stop us!" He exclaimed with a horrible grin on his face, feeling overwhelmed by the power and switching back to this Goblin persona.
Spider-Man awoke again and panicked immediately, then saw captain Stacy. "Did anyone take off my mask?"
"No, nobody. Just got the paramedics to make sure you were breathing." He responded looking concerned. "I understand you have a healing factor, but you seriously need a hospital. Peter, please I'm serious nobody is around. Quite frankly I'm going to drive you there mask or no mask, then come up with a cover story somehow, but your beating was serious." He said genuinely looking at him, it was obvious how badly Peter must've been looking to get this reaction out of the man.
Peter sighed in agreement. "You know, I had a birthday a few days ago. At least it wasn't on my birthday when all this fun happened. Okay, I'll unsuit myself, then you can take me and call my Aunt May once you figure out that cover story. Oh and what happened to Hobgoblin? You have him in custody right?"
Stacy nodded. "Yes, Kingsley is now heading to prison, for a very long time. Glad we know at least who one of these manences are."
Peter stepped away to take off his suit and thought about the Green Goblin and the Hobgoblin. That Green Goblin, he nearly killed me, though he let Harry go which was very strange. Maybe there could be a connection between mean and green, with Mr. Osborn. Whoever is behind that mask, he threw quite a hard punch! He was stronger and faster then myself, his powers almost felt even similar to mine, apart from the webbing stuff. Nah, I must be crazy how would it be connected, lots of people have super strength these days. I'm going to be ready next time I face that creep, I won't let him win again. Then we've got this other Hobgoblin running around still, could be a full on goblin warfare! Great, just great. And now I need to sit in the hospital, worrying Aunt May and MJ. This whole thing could've gone better, at least I know now the new looming threat out there and I know exactly how dangerous that madman is, this friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is going to take them down.
Hope you all enjoyed it, it was crazy finally getting to this point. Next chapter will continue on this plot. I figured calling it Hobgoblin part 4 wouldn't make sense as Kingsley is off to prison. Of course the mysterious other one is still out there, who will continue to be built up and their identity.
Naturally the main event of this chapter was the reveal of the one true villain of the series, The Green Goblin. That's right, I don't believe it's a spoiler to say he's the ultimate villain, it's always been leading to him. The plans changed along the way, but I'm very excited to have finally revealed Green Goblin. I hope everyone will enjoy my take on him. I've got some twists and turns planned, as I'm sure most of you have figured it's going to get interesting with Goblin. More details about what's going on will be explored more next time. Along with another appearance from Otto, who will become Doc Ock in the series. Can't leave him out could I?
I wanted to say, part of me feels bad if anyone was holding out hope for Doc Ock being the main villain or Hobgoblin, as somewhat alluded to. It's pretty cliché I guess having Osborn be the big bad villain. I had contemplated Hobgoblin being the main antagonist, but I always felt Green Goblin was always who I was going to do and nothing would change it. I can promise both of those villains will have big roles, (unless I fall off a cliff again) but Green Goblin will be the biggest threat.
The Green Goblin is probably my personal favorite Spidey villain I think, (besides Shocker bless you) I love all the usual suspects too of course and I would say Doc Ock is arguably better at times. And I wish Hobgoblin was handled better back in the day, as originally planned. Anywho, I love a lot of Spider-Man villains and if I could go back and rewrite the series, I probably would've done stuff differently.
I'm looking forward to the next chapter to give a clear idea of the future direction and I enjoyed this chapter a lot. Till next time.
(Wrote all that in April, since ironically a Hobgoblin team up actually happened in the comics. Along with another thing that might age funny, hint, hint.)
To CG
Batwoman's finale is on the way, can't quite say when. I believe I'm about halfway through the story portion, it's for sure going to be reaching double length. The response section I haven't started yet unfortunately, so still a ways out. On a brighter side, I've gotten more active again with writing for Batwoman after getting side tracked for sometime, but I've managed to stop myself from not writing for quite some time too so that's a bright spot at least. Also I'll give Holiday wishes in a few days on the Batwoman story.