He is the Green Goblin.
But he is also Richard Parker.
Names do not have much meaning for him anymore. He stopped being the person he wanted to be when his wife was killed, and he was kept from his family for almost two decades.
The only thing that matters to him now is the Scarecrow. The drug that took so much away from him also gave him powers. More importantly, it gave him a legacy. Through genetic and other manipulations over the years, Richard had given the world a superhero in Spider-Man. However, Spider-Man was not living up to his potential. Peter was not the man that Richard had planned for him to be.
That is why he devised a series of tests for Peter. However, they all had little effect on Peter. Therefore, it was time for the final phase of the plan that would finally bring this family together.
Moments ago . . .
Richard was standing in front of the cabinet that was holding the majority of the Scarecrow in the world. As he grabbed the handle, he saw several red dots appear all along the wall. He heard Monty pull out his guns, and then slowly turned around. He saw an entire squadron of SHIELD agents lined up in the doorway, with one very familiar face leading them.
"I never thought I would see it," the leading agent said, walking up. "Richard Parker, back from the grave. Again."
"Koenig," Richard said through gritted teeth. "We did this dance last time."
"Then you know that I can't let you go this time," Koenig replied. "You're too much of a liability."
"Then why did SHIELD let me go twenty years ago?"
Koenig laughed. "I'm not talking about that, and you know it. You're a liability to the world." His grin faded as he looked over to Monty. "He probably doesn't even know, does he?"
Richard smiled. "This is all just part of the plan."
"What the hell, Parker?" Monty asked, completely taken off guard.
Richard shattered the glass on the cabinet holding the vials of Scarecrow, and grabbed one. He also grabbed the syringe next to it and quickly assembled it.
"That's it. Take him out!" Koenig ordered.
The SHIELD agents started firing their weapons. Richard ducked behind the nearest lab desk. Monty followed suit, but not without letting a few rounds out of his guns to cover his retreat.
"Hold it!" another voice shouted over the roar of the fire. With that simple command, the agents stopped their weapons. The owner of the voice quickly stepped forward to the front of the crowd. "What is the meaning of this, Koenig?" he asked.
"Commander Bridge, we have an intruder," Koenig replied.
"Bridge!" Richard exclaimed, standing up. "How sweet of you to join us."
Bridge just looked at Richard, and then down to Monty, up at Koenig, and then back to Richard. He activated his comm device. "Fury, come in. We have a situation down in the lab."
"Fury?" Richard asked. "Good ole Nicky boy is back? Good for him!"
Bridge raised his weapon. "This night is already so clustered that I don't have to worry about the pile of paperwork I'll have to fill out for pulling this trigger right now. So give me one good reason to not make your boy an orphan all over again!"
Richard smiled, this time, his grin turning upward, with an evil twist on the sides. And then he ducked down as the wall behind him imploded and a glider came flying in. As he jumped back up, his physical appearance had completely changed.
"Goblin!" Monty shouted, standing up, emptying his final rounds upon his one time ally.
"Do you really think mere bullets can hurt me?" the Goblin taunted, flying around the lab, swooping in, and decking Monty, knocking him down.
"Peter, I'm sorry," Bridge whispered as he fired his own weapon at the Goblin. "Agents!" he shouted. "Shoot to kill!"
"Now, that's the fun I was expecting," the Goblin said, skillfully avoiding every single shot as he glided through the air.
At this point, Nick Fury appeared in the doorway, unbeknownst to everyone in the lab. He looked around at the firefight between his agents and the Green Goblin. Looking across the room, he spotted the case containing the Scarecrow and other chemical compounds. He knew he only had one shot.
"Damn, that new leadership really turned you into a bunch of pansies," he said, lifting his weapon, aiming for the case.
Bridge turned as he heard his old partner's voice and realized what Fury had planned. He dropped to the floor. Fury squeezed the trigger, unleashing a massive energy blot towards the case.
The reaction was instantaneous, causing an explosion that filled the lab, and rocked the entire helicarrier. The force of the blast blew the already damaged wall out, and sent the Green Goblin sailing through the air, into the night sky.
As the dust settled, and Fury could see out of his one good eye again, he ran over to where Bridge was laying on the ground.
"Damn it, Nick," Bridge said in a raspy voice. "You think you could've come back before things went all to hell."
"I was never much for timin'," Fury replied. "Looks like we got caught with our pants down all over the place."
Bridge grunted as he pushed himself up. "Nick, we've had our pants down for twenty years. We should have taken care of this Scarecrow business back when the Parkers went missing the first time. Our arrogance then is biting us in the ass now."
Fury nodded and walked over to the hole in the side of the helicarrier. "This thing has taken too many hits tonight."
"What does that mean?" Bridge asked.
"I highly doubt that this tub will be airborne come morning. And at this point, I don't think that's such a shame. We've screwed up, Bridge." Fury paused for a second, and then turned around. "Follow me."
"Where are we going?"
"We've got a couple of loose ends to tie up."
Now.
Normally, thoughts would be racing hard and heavy through Peter Parker's head after such a bombshell of a revelation. However, this was not a normal time, and he found himself once again on this night running though a corridor of the SHIELD helicarrier. He was closely followed by the other members of his team.
Suddenly, he spotted two men standing at the end of the corridor. He stopped and put his arm out behind him, trying to keep the others behind him. However, it was too late to be stealthy. The two men turned, and clutched their weapons.
"Whoa!" Peter said, throwing his hands up. Then, he realized who was behind the guns. "Fury! Bridge!"
The SHIELD agents lowered their weapons. Fury grunted. "This night just keeps getting better."
"Hey, we're just trying to get off of this ship," Peter said.
At this point, Monty stepped forward to the front of the group. "Fury?"
Fury's one eye grew wide and he turned a shade of pale. "I . . . You were there that night."
Monty nodded. "The night of the Doomsday Weapon. You're lucky I'm out of bullets, so I can't even consider paying you back for all of that ass covering and political runaround that took away twenty years of my life, and is nearly about to ruin my son's. But we are ending this tonight."
Fury nodded. "Of course. We were just on our way to take care of that."
"He's still out there, Fury," Monty added. "The Goblin has made himself known, and is now loose in the city."
"Who knows what kind of havoc he could cause?" Bridge sighed.
Peter stood, staring off in the distance. "He's got a plan."
"What's that?" Fury asked.
Peter took a breath and mentally brought himself back to the group. "My dad. Through all of the insanity, there's been a plan behind it."
"Any idea what that plan might be?" Fury wondered.
Peter shook his head. "He's clearly not right in the head. I don't know if we can go so far to say insane, because he does have some sort of elaborate plan figured out. But a big part of that plan is confusion. Things have been thrown at me -- at all of us -- so fast and heavy this past week that no one's had time to absorb it all, or piece it together."
"But you've been at the heart of it," Cassie interjected.
"I know," Peter replied. "But I'm here, and he's taken off."
"It's not just you," Victor added. "I've been dealing with stuff too."
"What if all of that was just more set up to get to me?"
Victor starting shaking his head slowly, and then planted his face in his palm. "It's the classic villain move. Go through your friends."
"But what's his end goal?" Cassie asked.
"It doesn't matter," Peter answered. "Because he's going after Mary Jane."
"And we need to get down there, yadda yadda," Victor added. "But we're at a serious disadvantage here. None of us are at full strength for a fight with that maniac, and that's even if we can get there. Web looks wiped, and she's our ride." He turned to Fury and added, "Any chance of an escape pod?"
Fury shook his head. "If there's one functioning, the best it could do would be to dump you in the water below. There's no way you'd be able to make it into the city itself before lunch tomorrow."
"What about wings?" Monty asked.
"We might have a working plane or helo somewhere on this tub," Fury answered. "But you'd need a pilot, and I don't have anyone to spare."
"I can fly," Bridge offered.
Fury shook his head again. "Those Manhunters are about five minutes away from trying to obliterate my ass. I'm gonna need you here to blast those suckers to hell."
"Not an issue," Monty interjected before Bridge could object. "I have some pilot skills. At least, enough to get the kids close to the city."
Fury turned to Bridge. "Take them to the hangar and get them off this tub. Then, meet me on level 15." Looking back at the kids, he added, "I'm sorry. For everything. We'll definitely be in touch." With that, he turned and started running.
"You know, if we were anything more than lab partners, I'd feel like I was stood up," Gwen said, staring at the plastic cup in her hand.
"Welcome to the world of Peter Parker," Mary Jane replied with a laugh, taking a sip.
"But what I don't get," Gwen stated, "is how that boy is spending so much time in the lab, but yet I end up doing most of our lab reports?"
Mary Jane sighed. She was running out of lies, or even plausible half-truths. "He's a perfectionist?" she offered.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Gwen started to get up, but saw Jason Todd walking near the door. He looked back and smiled. "I got it!"
Gwen sat back down, keeping a ear to the conversation at the front door.
"Um...it's a little early for Halloween, dude. And it's not that kind of party," she heard Jason say. With that, she turned to the front door. She couldn't make out the figure, but she could tell his face was green, possibly a mask.
"I'm just a . . . courier," the visitor said. "I've got a message for a friend of yours. Tell Peter Parker that the Green Goblin is ready to play."
"Excuse me," Gwen said, coming to the door. "But Peter Parker isn't here." She gasped as she saw the face of the Green Goblin.
"That's why it's a message!" the Goblin exclaimed, picking up the weapon he had by his side.
"Oh, no . . . no . . . " Jason muttered. "No more parties . . . " He lunged forward at the Green Goblin, not caring what happened, as long as it helped end the situation.
The Goblin chopped Jason in the back. As he did so, he looked up and saw Mary Jane across the room. He smiled. "The girl. Even better."
Jason fell to the ground, stunned. The Goblin charged through the room, grabbed Mary Jane and then crashed through the window.
The SHIELD helicopter was jerking side to side over the Hudson River.
"I thought you knew how to pilot!" Cassie exclaimed.
"I said I had piloting skills," Monty replied. "Besides, it's not like SHIELD gave us top of the line equipment."
Cassie sighed and turned to Peter, who was staring out the front window very intently with a blank, but angry look on his face. She put her hand on her brother's shoulder.
Suddenly, Peter's eyes grew wide and he pointed. "There! On top of the bridge!"
All four occupants looked down and saw a green beast hovering around one of the towers the held up the bridge. It was obvious he was carrying something, and that something became more obvious once he dropped his cargo onto the tower. Peter recognized the long red hair anywhere.
"I'll be damned," Victor commented. "He's got MJ."
Before anyone else could comment, Peter had already activated his Spider-Man costume and jumped out of the helicopter, immediately shooting a webline towards the bridge.
"Is he crazy?" Monty asked.
Victor pulled the guns out of his side holsters and checked their clips. "We gotta get down there!" he screamed.
"There's nowhere for me to land!" Monty shouted back.
Victor turned to Cassie. "Can you teleport us in?"
Cassie took a deep breath. "I think so."
"This is probably as close as I can get you two without blowing everyone off the bridge," Monty informed his passengers. "But once you get over there, you're on your own. I'm going to have to land this bird soon, and it might not be pretty."
Victor put a hand on his father's shoulder and gave it a gentle, but reassuring squeeze. "I love you, Dad."
On the bridge tower, Spider-Man landed hard.
"Just let me go!" Mary Jane screamed. "I don't care about any of this! I just want to go home!"
"I'll get you there, MJ!" Spidey exclaimed, regaining his footing.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, boy!" the Green Goblin shouted from the air as he hovered around.
Spider-Man fired a webline from his right wrist, aiming for the center of the Goblin's mass. He then shifted his weight down towards his feet, bracing himself, and hoping that he would win the battle of physics.
The webline broke rather quickly as the Goblin maneuvered in the air. Spidey shot several weblines, just trying to obscure the Goblin's vision or flightpath.
Finally, the Goblin landed on the tower, just feet away from Spider-Man. Mary Jane was huddling down just behind Spidey, near the corner of the tower. She was afraid that one sudden movement would send her careening off the edge of the bridge.
The two Parkers just glared at each other for two seconds.
"You should give up now, son," the Goblin said. "If you keep fighting, you'll just get everyone hurt."
"Everyone already is," Spidey muttered. At that point, he noticed a mist appearing behind the Goblin and realized it was Cassie and Victor teleporting in. "But I'm liking my odds."
"I don't think your girlfriend does, though," the Goblin said, taking a step towards Spider-Man.
"Screw it," Victor muttered from the opposite corner of the tower as he raised his gun and fired two shots directly at the Green Goblin.
The Green Goblin stopped and got a startled look on his face. "Wha...?" he said as he collapsed down.
Spider-Man looked down in shock at the Green Goblin laying at his feet. He could see the two pools of blood forming on the Green Goblin's head and neck where the bullets had penetrated.
"Victor, what the hell did you just do?!" he yelled.
"What I had to!" Victor yelled back, taking a step forward and lowering his gun. "No one else was going to be finishing this job anytime soon."
Spider-Man clenched his fist and took a deep breath. As he let the air out through his mouth, he also loosened his fist. "You're right," he said calmly. He ran his hands over his face. "I . . . I . . . I don't know."
Mary Jane stood up and put her arms around Spider-Man's shoulders. "Tiger, let's just get down from here."
A few days later, Mary Jane Watson was walking down the hall of Peter's dorm. She had been there plenty of times over the last couple of months, but this time, the hall seemed to go on forever. Each step required more strength and willpower than the one before.
She finally reached the door. She raised her hand to knock, but then pulled it back. She bit her lip, unsure if she was really ready. But then she remembered everything that had gone through her head over the last few days, and raised her hand again and knocked.
There was a moment of silence before the answer, "who is it?"
"It's me," Mary Jane replied.
Another moment of silence passed before Peter responded with "come in."
Mary Jane was not completely surprised at the condition that she found the dorm room. It was completely dark, except for the lamp on Peter's desk. Peter was just lying on his bunk, staring upward. Mary Jane also noticed that the room seemed a little bigger and emptier.
"Did Victor leave?" she asked.
Peter nodded. "He's commuting from his grandfather's place. Things got a bit awkward here."
Mary Jane sat on the edge of the bed. "Peter, I hope you don't hate him."
"Hate?" Peter sat up. "Oh, no, no, no. Victor did what he thought was right. I mean, he beat the bad guy."
"Who was your father . . . "
"Was he?" Peter asked, laying back down. "Maybe it would be different if he'd been around the last fifteen years."
Mary Jane looked down, not sure how to continue.
Peter sighed. "But it's not just that. The whole situation was a little intense for me, regardless of the bad guy. So, we both decided that it was better if we didn't hang out for a while. We -- I need time to process it all."
"How's that been going?"
Peter shook his head. "Hell if I know."
Both Peter and Mary Jane were silent for a few moments, not even looking at each other.
"So, what did you come here to tell me?" Peter finally asked. "I know you've got something on your mind."
"Nothing," Mary Jane replied, standing up. "I just . . . I just wanted to see how you were doing."
Peter sat up again. "MJ, we both know that's not the truth."
"It's been a long couple of weeks for me too," MJ said. "And the fact that I was targeted because I was Spider-Man's girlfriend really didn't help anything. I can't do it anymore, Tiger."
Peter sighed. "I know. I sort of picked up on that up on the bridge."
"That obvious?"
Peter shrugged.
"Are you okay?"
"Look, we both need time to get our thoughts together and figure out who we are and what we want. I mean, I think this whole Spider-Man thing is over too."
"Peter, you don't have to -- "
Peter put up his hand. "No, I had already thought about that. Here I am, top science student, and I'm on the verge of failing out of college in my first semester. I need to get my act together, and running around on super agent helicarriers isn't helping."
"But what about your whole power and responsibility thing?" Mary Jane asked, standing up.
"I have a responsibility to myself. And sometimes, the responsible act is not acting."
At this point, both were standing in front of the door. MJ put her arms around Peter's neck and hugged him.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Peter hugged MJ back. "Me too. But we'll both get through this."
MJ opened the door, then wiped the tears that had formed in the corner of her eyes. "I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah," Peter replied as the door closed. Then he took a deep breath and flicked the switch to the overhead light. He walked over to his desk and reawakened his computer. There were a series of graphs all across the desktop. He sat down and pulled his chemistry book down from his hutch.
After opening the book up to the current chapter, he reached for the desk phone and dialed the five digits to another dorm room.
"Hey, Gwen!" he said after the other person answered. "I've got the report done for the latest lab. Wanna come over and look at it? I'll order pizza."
Next: Some time has passed . . .