Chapter 74: Green Goblin and the Vulture
Harry stared at the face under the helmet — his father's face — and couldn't make a sound.
The Green Goblin walked toward him, tossing a pumpkin bomb from hand to hand like a baseball.
"I'm your father, Harry. Why are you looking at me like that?"
The grin was wrong. Everything about it was wrong.
"You're NOT my father — you can't be — you're NOT!" Harry's voice cracked, raw with panic. He couldn't reconcile the thing in front of him with the man who'd raised him.
The Goblin looked at Harry with something like disappointment. "Fine. I'll send you to meet your real father then. After that, I've got a little spider to welcome to the neighborhood."
Harry's blood ran cold. He was going to die here. And he had nothing — no weapon, no plan, no way out.
When the Green Goblin had first arrived in this universe, he'd been disoriented. Drifting.
But the moment he spotted the Oscorp Tower on the skyline, everything snapped into focus. He'd assumed he'd survived somehow — come home.
He went to the house. And found another Norman Osborn already living in it. One who hadn't taken the serum. One who was still just a man.
That was when the Goblin understood: this wasn't his world. This was a new world.
A new world with its own Oscorp. Its own Norman. Which meant, almost certainly, its own Spider-Man.
So the Goblin made a simple decision. Kill this Norman. Take his place. Then find the spider and finish what he'd started.
He'd beaten this world's Norman half to death before something shifted inside him.
The Goblin's other half — Norman's real personality, the man underneath the monster — clawed his way back to the surface.
The Goblin's hand started trembling. He looked at the bomb in his fist, then at the broken version of himself bleeding on the floor, then at Harry — his son, or close enough — staring at him with terror.
The eyes changed. The cruelty drained out.
"It's okay, son. I'm not going to hurt you." Norman's voice was strained, confused. "What is this place? Why is there another me?"
Harry didn't know what to do with any of this. He watched the man's whole demeanor flip in seconds. His guard was still up, but he forced himself to stay steady.
"That — on the floor — that's my father. Norman Osborn. The CEO. You did that to him. Please — please help him."
While Norman was distracted, Harry's thumb found his phone in his pocket. He dialed 911 without looking at the screen.
Norman noticed. He didn't stop him.
Because the Goblin was pushing back. Norman could feel the second personality surging, fighting for control, two versions of himself wrestling inside one skull.
He pressed his hands to his head, face twisted in agony.
"I am Osborn. But sometimes I become the Goblin. It's — it's another personality. An evil one."
Every word cost him. "I don't know why I'm here. I don't know why any of this is happening. All you need to know is that I'm your father too."
He wanted to say more. He didn't get the chance.
The Goblin surged back.
"HA HA HA! This is power! I'm BACK!"
Harry saw it in the eyes — the switch. The warmth was gone. Something feral and gleeful had taken its place. Is this really my father?
Then Norman fought back — grabbed control for one more second —
And screamed at Harry with everything he had left:
"RUN! Find Peter Parker! GO!"
Norman knew. If he stayed, the Goblin would kill Harry. So he jammed his feet onto the glider and launched himself out the window, away from the house, away from his son.
He didn't know where he was going. He just knew it had to be far from Harry.
It was the only thing he could give the boy — time.
Harry stood there, shaking, and slowly came back to himself. He grabbed his phone properly and called for an ambulance.
Why did he say to find Peter Parker?
He didn't have time to think about it. Squad cars were already pulling up — Oscorp's founder was one of the city's biggest taxpayers, and the police had responded fast.
Officers swarmed in, started first aid on the unconscious Norman on the floor, and began taking Harry's statement.
In the sky above New York, Norman — or what was left of him — was flying blind on the glider, putting as much distance between himself and Harry as he could.
Then a massive shadow swept up alongside him.
Norman turned his head, straining.
A bald man with mechanical wings, soaring through the air like a bird of prey.
"Hey. Green Goblin." The bald man matched his speed, casual. "I know who you are. Name's Vulture. How about we team up — take over this world together?"
The Vulture had already figured out this wasn't his original universe. And his interest in the Goblin was straightforward.
He was a new arrival. No money, no lab, no infrastructure. If he wanted to upgrade his gear — and he always wanted to upgrade his gear — he needed a corporate backer. Oscorp fit the bill perfectly.
Adrian Toomes. Electrical engineer by training. A man who'd spent his life chasing one dream — flight. He'd built prototype after prototype, trying to create wings that could carry a human being. But without funding, the work stalled. A business partner had conned him, and he'd gone to prison for it.
When he broke out, the man who came back was different. He strapped on the flight suit, called himself the Vulture, and started taking his resentment out on the world.
He'd been burned by a small-time crook the first time around. This time, he was going straight to the top.
And if the Goblin said no? Well. Toomes had ways of making people reconsider.
Norman — what was left of Norman — didn't respond. He couldn't. The Goblin was surging again.
The eyes shifted. The grin came back.
"Heh heh heh. You want my investment? Then show me you're worth investing in."
The Goblin's glider spun sideways. A mounted machine gun deployed from the undercarriage, and without another word, the Goblin opened fire on the Vulture.
Toomes saw the shift in demeanor — felt the air change — and his reflexes kicked in.
He banked hard, climbed, and returned fire with his laser cannon.
An aerial dogfight erupted over the city.
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