All around them, Spider-Man and Black Cat could see the overwhelming numbers of Harry's henchman all aiming their weapons at them from what seemed like every advantage point they could fine. The two of them looked back at Harry who grinned at them as if he'd already won this battle.
"Well then," Harry spoke. "What's it going to be then?"
Spider-Man then looked up towards the snipers in the upper parts of the building and his gaze went up towards the rooftops in which for some reason than other than the top floor windows, the rooftop was defenceless.
"Come on," Spider-Man whispered.
Black Cat gave him a questionable stare. "'Come on?' What are—?"
"Just follow my lead," Spider-Man replied as he wrapped his arm around her waist and looked back at Goblin. "As to answering your question...just escaping."
With that said, he fired a web shot at the upper part of the building and yanked himself and Black Cat away from where they were and into the exposed area in the line of awaiting snipers. Many of the hoodlums who had their weapons aimed at the superhero couple were surprised to see the two actually risk it by showing themselves exposed to all, until they heard the call of the Goblin cry out across the derelict area and ordering to open fire.
"Shoot at them! Don't let them escape!"
With those words, Goblin's troops opened fire at the escaping pair. Peter's Spider-Sense was ringing in his mind like there was no tomorrow as the gun firing intensified. As they finally made it towards the top of the building, they were surprised to see the whole rooftop to be completely unguarded.
The two heroes looked at each other with surprise of what was an gaping hole in preventing them to escape, they didn't really think about why this was such an obvious flaw for Harry, but they decided to risk it and escape from the shooting.
They had just cleared over the roof when suddenly, The Goblin on his glider came flying in right in nearby. However what caught Spider-Man's eye was seeing that Harry held an activated pumpkin bomb.
"Shit!" Spider-Man cried as he frantically made a sharp turn in trying to escape from Harry, but already the madman through the air towards the fleeing pair. The bomb exploded, illuminating the area in an orange glow and causing the already crumbling rooftop to collapse down a few floors. Worse, the blast caught Spider-Man and caused him to lose his grip on Black Cat and send the two of them crashing down among the collapsing rooftop.
Harry let out a chilling cackle that, to Peter, sounded almost like that of his late father. "How does it feel little spider? Being literally squashed like a bug?"
By a miracle though, the crashing rooftop stopped at the forth floor down by what must have been an exceptionally strong floor. More amazingly, Black Cat had managed to grab on to the edge of a section of the rooftop that hadn't crumbled. She climbed up and looked down on the large hole in the ground that was filled with black smoke and she could only hope that just maybe...
As the dust cleared and the rubble came into view, her heart stopped dead. There trapped among the debris was Spider-Man, lying motionless.
'PETER!" She cried out in horror and the Goblin turned his gaze towards the leather-clad woman, he had been completely oblivious about what had happened to her.
"Oh, God Damn not you again!" Harry snarled. "Well it seems like he's—"
"Shut up..."
Excuse—"
"SHUT UP!" Black Cat's eyes were filled with tears, bitter and angry tears they were and the dark expression she gave Harry could've vaporized someone had she'd been able too. "This ends now...this all ends, tonight!" Her claws were now unleashed and she was ready to avenge her love.
"Oh yes your quite right," Harry smirked as the Glider opened it's cannons on her. "It all ends right here." The guns started firing at her and although she might've not had superhuman abilities, she was certainly no push over.
She ran up towards Harry and used her grappling hook to attach herself to the glider; a shower of sparks erupting from the glider as the hook made its impact. Quickly, she activated it to pull her forward and avoid the gunfire coming in from what seemed like all angles. As soon as she mounted on alongside Harry, the two began a brutal fistfight and the glider began flying crazily due to Harry trying to fend off Black Cat.
She was taking a heavy beating from Harry due to his strength but with her filled with pent rage and emotion for what had happened to her love, she didn't feel any pain and continue to strike the Goblin as if each punch was going to bring Peter Parker back to life.
The glider flew down towards the side of the side of the building and thanks to Harry not concentrating about where he was going, the glider crashed into the side of the building causing Goblin and Black Cat to the thrown forward the other side of the open and rubble filled room.
The crash had caused both of their costumes to be ripped in more ways that one. Black Cat's costume had been ripped in several places exposing her skin and her body was covered in grime and blood. Her mask had also been ruined so much that Felecia yanked off her ruined mask and threw it away as she glared over at Goblin as he staggered back on his feet again. Much like with Black Cat, his own outfit had been ruined with exposed holes being clearly seen around his chest area but half of his mask had been destroyed and showed half of his face.
He looked back at his glider, now completely wrecked from the impact and no longer able to fly before staring back at his opponent. "You wrecked my glider...that was my Dad's you know, you little BITCH!" Suddenly he lunged forward, thanks to his abilities, in such an unnatural like way that it caused Black Cat to look on in a stunned daze.
"Shut up you little rich Daddy's boy," Felicia growled, but before she knew it, Harry landed on top of her and began beating her senseless. She headbutted him back and quickly began to fight back. During this time in the middle of the wreckage, Spider-Man slowly awoke and the pain gripped him like a strong vice grip. Despite the pain he was in, he pushed off the fallen structures that was trapping him. His mask and the rest of his costume had been ripped and some horrid wounds could be seen as he struggled back to his feet.
"Felicia?" Peter asked himself as he heard shouting and fighting taken place from somewhere nearby, then he heard the sounds of footsteps marching up from downstairs and he knew immediately who they were. "Not letting you all get away this time," he added as confidence filled him and seemed to masked his pain as he dashed off to take on Goblin's foot soldiers and hope that Felicia could just hang on a little longer...
XXX
Nearby, despite putting up a great fight, Black cat was starting to lose in her fight against Harry. The platinum blonde woman was forcefully pushed heavily back against a wall and the Goblin began striking her blow after blow to the point that every attack she received might've killed her. One such strike from Harry sent the woman crashing to the floor, coughing up blood and lying in a broken state.
Clearly she was all but defeated.
For a small moment, Harry just stood over Felicia as she tried to get back on her feet again, though was clearly struggling. Then Harry kicked Black Cat in the stomach causing her to fall on her back, her face clearly read that she couldn't take it anymore.
Harry ginned menacingly and a set of knifes unsheathed themselves from his wrist guards. "Seems that all your nine lives have finally failed you, still, I'll give you credit that you did put up a good fight the first time we met and I thought you would like to be by my side. But seeing as you don't..."
He struck down on with the gleaming knifes and Black Cat bared herself for the deathblow. It never came.
She looked up and was amazed at what she saw. On the arm that Harry had his knifes on show, his arm was being held back by a line of web that was stopping him from attacking her.
"P-Peter?" Black Cat asked in amazement, she never thought that she would see him standing in one piece, Harry looked back in equal shock at his adversary.
"YOU?!" Harry roared.
"Miss me?" Spider-Man replied in a witty manner before yanking Harry over towards and began to fight him back. "Sorry, had to take care of Goblin's goons."
"Watch out for his spikes!" Felicia cried out as she tried to get back on her feet again.
Peter saw the spikes on the Goblin's wrist and in turn was using them to try and strike him down, though thankfully Peter's Spider-Sense was helping him to avoid them as Goblin went on for the attack on Peter.
"Harry stop this please!" Peter pleaded at his former best friend as Harry refused to listen and kept attacking him.
"Why should I?" Harry snapped. "After what you did with my father, you think someone would forgive you?"
"For God sake's Harry, I didn't kill—"
"LIAR!"
This time Harry caught Peter briefly off guard and punched him across the room and sent him slamming against a concrete wall.
"Don't you touch him!" Felicia screamed and jumped on Goblin's back and sent him to the ground. Even though she was in pain, just the sight of seeing her love getting attack seemed to set her off to attack Harry.
"Stupid bitch!" Harry growled as he tried to fend her off. "Why can't you just be a good little girl and die? I've got already one freak to take care off!"
"The only freak here is you!" Black Cat retorted as grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him onto a metal pillar nearby. She never let him go this time and began punching him in the face like if every punch was going to wipe all evil from Harry and the face of the Earth.
Nearby, Spider-Man slowly got back on his feet again and saw Black Cat battling Goblin like there was no tomorrow, it went to show why perhaps Felicia Hardy was the right woman Peter needed in his life. Then he heard the sound of sirens from below, indicating that the cops had by now gotten word of something going on in the area.
"Not even they will be enough," Peter muttered to himself as he glanced over towards where the sound was coming from.
Just then Harry started pushing himself off the pillar and began to attack again, much to Felicia's amazement who had hoped that she would have gotten Harry to finally give in. Spider-Man quickly joined in the battle to assist his partner.
As the battle went on, Peter was still determined to tell Harry the truth, regardless of how much his former best friend kept denying it.
"For God's sake Harry," Peter exclaimed as he dodged an attack from Harry. 'I didn't kill your father, just listen to me!"
"What difference would it make?!" Harry snapped as relentlessly tried to beat down Peter and Felicia. "You killed him! His blood is on your hands and you know it!"
It was just then when Felicia noticed in a brief second that she swore that Harry's eyes had turned an unnatural looking shade of green. It caught her off guard at seeing this bizarre sight before her and this was to be her downfall as Harry kicked Felicia across the room (with such immense strength) and caused her to crash though a crumbling pillar.
"HARRY!" Peter roared as he began to fight Harry back. "This doesn't have to be like this! Just listen to me for once!"
As he said that, Peter only just noticed his former best friend's eyes turning green and to make the situation more disturbing, Harry let rip a vile cackle that sounded eerily familiar...
"No..." Peter gasped as he heard the laugh, it sounded just like that of the first Goblin...
Just then as Harry staggered backwards, he groaned loudly and clutched his head as if he was in pain and fell on his knees. Peter glanced over towards Felicia with a clearly questionable look as if he the expression itself was asking her what was going on.
In his mind, Harry could hear a voice. "Finish him!"
Harry winced again. "I...I can't...!"
"You disappoint me," Norman's voice echoed. "After all the things you kept saying about avenging me and it comes down to this? What a joke you are, you are NOT my son anymore!"
"NO!" Harry leapt forward and started to attack Peter again, but unlike before in which he was fighting Peter with a motive, this time Harry was attacking Peter in a blind fit of rage that made him dangerous, yet open to attack.
Peter, unaware Harry was going through mentally, brought Harry down to the floor after a battle that seemed to be over in a flash. Finally, the raving green clad Harry Osborn had been defeated.
For what felt like a minute, there was only just silence, other than Felicia groaning getting herself back on her feet again and the sound of the police arriving down below (that had pretty much forgotten about the cops arriving.)
The two men in the room looked at each other with different expressions. One had a look of bitter resentment and the other of great sympathy.
"Harry," Peter said softly. "Why did it have to be like this? Don't you remember we were best friends who always stood up for each other when we needed support when others wouldn't give us it?"
"Why even bother trying to reason with me?" Harry replied angrily. "I do remember the old days before all the crazy shit in the world happened to us, what I'd give to live out those days again..."
"Norman Osborn was the Goblin—"
"You killed him, why'd you do that? He loved you like a son...more than me at times."
Regardless of what Harry might've thought, Peter felt terrible for him. Even after what had happened and of Harry now following in his father's footsteps, he didn't deserve all the grief and strife that had been building up in him over the last few years. Despite remember Norman's last words of Peter not to tell Harry the truth, he couldn't keep that promise forever and he knew that Harry just had to know.
"Harry...your Dad told me not to tell you the truth."
The defeated individual looked at Peter with confusion. "What'd you mean by 'not telling the truth?'"
Peter drew in a shaky sigh. "He...tried to kill me, here, right in this very same place, stabbed by his own glider when he tried to use it to impale me..." The brunette shuddered; he could just sense that Norman would be turning in his grave at the thought of Peter spilling out the truth.
After a stunned silence, Harry could only shake his head in disbelieve. "...No...no, he would never be that sort of man—!"
"He killed those people on that balcony, remember?" Peter retorted. "You were on that balcony too, he tried to kill those kids on that cable car, he tried to kill Mary Jane and he tried to kill Aunt May—"
"LIAR!" Harry charged at Peter in a made fit of rage, but Peter's Spider-Sense helped him to avoid the oncoming madman and sent Harry flying across the room and falling flat on his face.
After his failed charged, Harry didn't look back at Peter and just lay there weeping quietly, almost, as he was too ashamed of avenging his father. "Why...why would he do that? Before he died, his last words to me was that he was wanting to make it all up for me...and is this it?!"
"It's not your fault," Felicia suddenly called out, making both men look back at her in surprised, they had actually forgotten she was there in the first place. "Peter is telling the truth and even if he had murdered your Dad in cold blood, what would the point be in killing Peter? Nothing. It would make you look like a terrible person...people would eventually find out what you did to him and your connections to Norman...you don't have to follow in his footsteps and be the villain, is that what you want?"
Both men were stunned, not because these wise words were coming from Felicia Hardy of all people, but that she was absolutely right about the path Harry was heading down.
"She's right," Peter added. "You've got to put this all behind you. Your Dad's gone, nothing can bring him back, that's the hard truth to take I know. I would do anything to bring Uncle Ben back, killing someone won't bring Norman or Uncle Ben back."
Felicia looked down and saw police SWAT squads down below aiming upwards towards the pair, but she looked closely at various red flashing objects round the base of the building. Something was telling her that those flashing things weren't anything to do with the police squads down below...
Harry finally responded with a laugh as he craned his head up towards Peter. "Oh Peter, such a shame it has to come down to this. That said, I knew you were going to still lie about your involvement and say all this bullshit that killing you won't achieve anything...I'll you the later. We probably have nothing to earn from this."
On one of his wrists, both Peter and Felicia glanced at him flicking a flashing red button. For some reason, Felicia's mind suddenly took over her body as she lunged forward at Peter in a split second and crying out to him to get out of here. The brunette was confused by his girlfriend's sudden reaction, however he soon found why that was the case when a huge explosion happened below there and caused the building to shake with such force that the superhero pair fell over.
Then they looked to the sides and could see that the building they were on was starting to collapse and Peter had a sudden thought of Goblin's goons that Peter had taken care of down below. ("Have they gotten out?" Peter pondered briefly as the horrid thought seemed to grip him.)
As everything was collapsing around them, Harry just lay there and started laughing like there was no tomorrow, the laugh that sounded like his late father's. "See you in hell, Parker!"
"Not tonight!" Peter responded by running up towards Harry, scooping him up throwing him over his shoulder and starting to web sling away from the doomed building, with Felicia hot on his tail (neither of them caring that both had forgotten to take back their masks).
Oddly, Harry didn't try and get himself free or yell for his freedom; instead he was silent, almost as if he was willing to accept his fate. As they swung away, Peter looked back at the collapsing building and the screams of the doomed souls nearby, those sounds made him cringe, lives he'd failed to save.
He didn't know what was going to happen next, all he did knew though, was that his time with Harry Osborn, had finally come to an end.
XXX
In the wake of their escape, the police had followed the pair to a construction sight a fair distance from where they were before. The oncoming cops though had no idea of what was the cause of it, never mind what was going on with the three escaped individuals in that moment.
On one of the bottom floors, Harry, aka the new Goblin, had been tied up thanks to Spider-Man's webbing and in a strange turn of events, he hadn't said anything nor attempting to try and get himself free for some off reason. Neither did Peter and Felicia seem to understand why he'd be like this, other than the fact that Harry must've of felt so angry with himself that he had failed his father and could only stare back at Peter and Felicia with a glare that would've made even the most harden character shake with fear.
"I'm sorry, Harry," Peter sighed sadly, Harry saying nothing back. "I wish it would never come to this. We were best friends, always there for each other, why did it had to come to this?"
Harry didn't reply.
"You see...we've both been cursed in more ways than one," Peter continued, he looked like he was on the verge of tears. "I never asked for these powers to begin with, neither you or Norman wanted to end up the person you both became and most of all...our own friendship."
Peter shuddered after what he'd said and Felicia could feel the sadness that her lover was feeling. Of all the super villains that he and Felicia had fought together, Peter would've never thought that he would have to take on Harry of all people. "There is nothing I could do for you, we've lost Norman and Otto...I don't want you to end it that way, so I'm letting you live."
Harry once didn't reply, but gave Peter a stunned stare at the mere thought that Peter, aka Spider-Man, was going to let him live.
Then the sounds of the police sirens were getting louder as they were heading towards the site. Peter and Felicia both took one last sad look at Harry. "I'm sorry, Harry," Peter sighed before he and Felicia fired their respected web line and grappling hook and swung away from Harry, there to leave the unfortunate Osborn to his fate.
In truth, both sides had failed and a thought crossed Peter's mind. "Next to a battle lost, the worse thing is a battle won."