As if on purpose, the time until the big day flew by without me even noticing.
Despite the long hours we spent discussing everything, we hadn’t managed to prepare properly.
We simply didn’t have the resources.
I hated having to operate on a “hopefully everything works out” basis.
I’d much rather have a reasonably reliable plan and decent equipment, but unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
And there was no equipment in the world that could stop those grenades that literally turned people into dust.
I also couldn’t get Fisk out of my head.
Helping her by getting Osborn arrested was the last thing I wanted.
For now, my best plan was simple: drive the Goblin away, then follow her and capture her somewhere away from prying eyes.
The police probably wouldn’t appreciate us snatching a villain right from under their noses.
The bigger problem was what we’d do with her afterward.
The Goblin was extremely dangerous, and we had absolutely nowhere to keep her.
Her healing was another issue.
We could leave that problem to the girls and hope for a miracle, but there was no guarantee they’d be able to handle it.
Everything had gone smoothly with the Lizard’s serum only because Gwen was already familiar with it.
Could they do the same thing with an unknown formula?
And even if they could, how long would it take?
Those were questions we’d have to answer, and there was no guarantee I’d like the answers.
We had already taken our positions and were keeping a close watch, waiting for the villain to arrive.
Down below, a celebration was in full swing.
A huge crowd was having fun, completely unaware that something dangerous was about to happen.
There were souvenir stands, food vendors, various contests, and all kinds of attractions.
New York really was an incredible city.
Extremely dangerous people in costumes could run around the streets, posing a massive threat to everyone nearby, and somehow the residents just kept living their lives and having fun.
As someone who had spent his entire previous life living peacefully, I found that incredibly difficult to understand.
I couldn’t help thinking about warning the authorities about what was coming.
But, reluctantly, I had to abandon the idea.
Even if my modest reputation as a rookie hero was enough to get the event canceled, the Goblin wouldn’t simply give up.
There was no guarantee her next attack would pose less of a threat to civilians.
At least now, I knew exactly where and when to expect her.
I was positioned on a rooftop directly across from the building with the balcony where the important people from Oscorp were watching the celebration.
There was one unexpected group of guests there too, the Hardy family.
I still didn’t know what to make of their suspected connection to Fisk.
On one hand, it was entirely possible that I was imagining things that weren’t there.
On the other hand, I wanted to account for every possibility and avoid any unpleasant surprises.
“I see her.”
Penny’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts about the Hardys.
“She’s flying in from the east side of the street.”
Sure enough, the Green Goblin had arrived.
And damn, she was fast.
The movie hadn’t done justice to just how agile that glider was.
“I see her too,” I said into my communicator.
“Do it like we discussed. Try to push her away from the civilians, and be careful. We don’t know what kind of nasty surprises she’s carrying.”
Surprisingly, at first, the people below reacted to the object flying over their heads without the slightest concern.
Some of them even started filming it on their phones.
Apparently, living in a city full of dangerous supervillains didn’t teach people anything.
By the time Penny and I had exchanged those few words, the Goblin had already reached the balcony I’d been watching so carefully.
There was no time left for conversation.
I used my powers to teleport onto the balcony.
By the time I arrived, Osborn was already hovering above it, examining her potential victims with the cold gaze of an experienced vivisectionist.
Her costume was almost an exact copy of the one I remembered from the movie.
The green armor looked sturdy and imposing.
The glider, shaped like a goblin’s head with yellow lenses where the eyes should have been and a face twisted into a sinister grin, made the whole thing genuinely creepy.
The only difference from my memories was the addition of chest armor designed for a woman’s breasts.
“Ma’am, Halloween isn’t for quite a while yet,” I said to the villain, hoping to buy enough time for the girls to reach us.
“Costumes and presents are good any time of year, boy.”
Goblin laughed with an unpleasant, grating cackle.
“Have a pumpkin.”
The grenade she tossed at my feet was somehow caught by me before it touched the floor.
I immediately threw it as high as I could, just before it exploded.
The resulting blast echoed throughout the area.
The people below finally realized that something was seriously wrong.
It was difficult to mistake a grenade explosion for a fireworks display.
Panic erupted.
People began running in every direction.
Good.
Let them get as far away from the danger as possible.
The only thing that mattered was making sure they didn’t trample each other in the chaos.
“And what are you waiting for?” I snapped at the wealthy people who were still standing there like frightened rabbits.
“Get out of here!”
Anastasia Hardy was the first to snap out of her fear.
She grabbed her daughter and dragged her toward the exit.
She made sure to keep herself between the villain and Felicia.
The others quickly followed.
I knew many of them by name, having memorized them while investigating the situation surrounding Oscorp.
“Where are you going without your presents?”
Osborn was already preparing to throw another grenade, but a shot from a web shooter interrupted her.
Gwen used her webbing to yank the projectile out of the villain’s hand and send it flying into the air.
Another explosion gave the fleeing crowd an extra burst of motivation.
Before long, the only people left near the villain were Gwen and me, along with Penny, who finally arrived.
“Oh, children,” Norma sighed theatrically.
“You’re so selfish! Did you decide to keep all the candy for yourselves?”
She laughed.
“Well, I don’t mind.”
An entire cluster of grenades came flying toward us.
We scattered.
Fighting the Goblin turned out to be the most difficult battle we’d faced so far.
Even the Lizard, for all her ferocity, had fought with nothing but her claws and tail.
Most importantly, she had stayed on the ground.
The Shocker wasn’t even worth mentioning alongside those two.
I’d dealt with her alone without much trouble.
Osborn quickly realized what advantage she had over us and wasn’t shy about exploiting it.
That fast glider could easily open up the distance between us and move beyond the range of our web shooters.
My shots from the Shocker gloves weren’t particularly useful either.
Norma easily dodged them, and the weapons simply weren’t designed for long-range combat.
Still, we’d achieved our main objective.
The Goblin hadn’t managed to kill anyone.
Despite the stalemate, the villain had no intention of retreating.
Her constant, insane laughter made it very clear that she was enjoying every second of this.
But the situation couldn’t continue forever.
Our grenades, webbing, and the charge in my gloves were all limited resources.
The same was true for the Goblin’s ammunition.
Her supply of pumpkins was clearly starting to run low.
They were coming at us less and less frequently.
Suddenly, Goblin changed tactics.
Instead of keeping her distance, she charged straight at Gwen, who was closest to her.
The blades mounted on the front of her glider made her intentions painfully obvious.
Gwen was quick enough to avoid the attack without difficulty.
She even managed to wrap the villain in webbing.
Unfortunately, Osborn tore through it with ease.
The fact that our main weapon wasn’t nearly as effective against her as we’d hoped gave Norma even more confidence.
With her usual insane laughter, she began chasing Gwen.
I tried to cover the girl, but the bloodthirsty Goblin easily dodged the shots from my gloves and continued the pursuit.
That’s when Penny, who had been lying low for a while, finally made her move.
With a perfectly timed shot from her web shooter, she covered one of the glider’s engines in webbing.
Osborn was sent spinning through the air.
For a moment, it looked like she was about to plummet straight to the ground.
But she managed to regain control.
She even avoided our shots when we tried to capitalize on the opening.
That incident made the villain significantly more cautious.
Apparently, she wasn’t quite as insane as she wanted everyone to believe.
At the very least, once she realized that her glider had suffered a serious loss of speed and maneuverability, and that she’d consequently lost most of her advantage over us, she assessed the situation surprisingly quickly.
Then she ran.
Whew.
We could consider the first part of the plan a success.
We’d driven the Goblin away without a single civilian casualty.
Now all we had to do was follow her carefully and capture her before she could replenish her ammunition and repair her glider.
If only saying it were as easy as doing it.