“That is right.
I am Peter Parker.”
The older Spider-Man slowly raised his hands and pulled the mask off his face.
The face staring back at Harry Osborn was one he had known for years.
Peter Parker, his best friend since high school, was actually Spider-Man?
That meant his best friend had killed his father.
The immense mental shock caused Harry’s grip to fail.
The dagger he had secretly concealed clattered loudly against the floor.
Harry slumped down against the wall, burying his head in his hands and clutching his hair tightly.
The older Peter sighed and sat down right next to him.
“I am here today to tell you something even more important.
Your father…
he is not dead.
Two years ago, he deceived everyone.
Even you.”
Harry’s head snapped up.
The mental shock he felt tonight was somehow even more intense than the night his father supposedly died.
“Impossible!
I watched them bury him!
The doctors clearly declared him brain-dead!”
“At first, I could not believe it either,” the older Peter said.
“But someone showed me absolute proof.”
“What proof?
Show it to me!” Harry demanded, his eyes bloodshot like a cornered animal.
“Harry, the proof you are looking for is right here.”
A second, unfamiliar voice echoed from the balcony.
Harry instinctively turned and saw a second Spider-Man crouching on the railing.
His racing heart spiked again.
He had not forgotten that just minutes ago, he had issued a ten million dollar bounty for this exact vigilante’s arrest.
Peter walked straight into the room and handed Harry an investigation report.
“I asked Dr.
Connors to borrow a ground-penetrating radar from the geology department at Columbia University.
This report is a direct analysis of your father’s grave.
The scan results show absolutely zero traces of human remains inside the casket.
It means Norman Osborn’s death was a highly orchestrated hoax.”
Harry snatched the report and flipped through the pages frantically.
His eyes locked onto the final page, a ground-penetrating radar scan that was completely empty.
The air in the luxurious apartment froze.
Both Spider-Men watched Harry with deep concern.
Fortunately, Harry had not injected himself with the Green Goblin serum yet.
Otherwise, a mental shock this severe could have shattered his mind and created a villain even more terrifying than his father.
After a long, heavy silence, Harry finally moved.
He suddenly turned and pulled his best friend into a tight hug.
The older Peter paused for a second, his eyes turning red, before he wrapped his arms around Harry.
No apologies were needed.
The long-standing hatred and misunderstandings between the two friends completely melted away.
Peter quietly stepped back out onto the balcony, leaving the two reunited friends alone.
But the Green Goblin’s faked death was still a massive thorn in his side.
“I have a really bad feeling that we are not going to have to wait very long to see Mr.
Osborn again,” Peter muttered, rubbing his temples.
His spider-sense had been buzzing faintly this entire time.
It was not a sharp, immediate warning of danger, just a low, constant hum of unease.
That was why Peter knew the Green Goblin was hiding in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to reveal his twisted smile to the world once again.
Two years in the dark was more than enough time for a genius like Norman Osborn to plot something massive.
Peter even started to suspect that all the supervillains teaming up against Spider-Man in this universe might be a part of the Goblin’s grand design.
With Doctor Octopus saved and Harry Osborn’s feud resolved, Peter temporarily had no immediate targets.
However, the Web of Fate remained dormant, meaning his time in this universe was not over yet.
Needing a place to stay, Peter decided to become neighbors with his older counterpart, renting a cheap studio apartment right next door.
Life settled into a quiet routine, giving Peter a full week to thoroughly investigate Earth-96283.
After digging through endless records, he confirmed one brutal truth.
The older Peter was the absolute only superhero in this entire universe.
There was no Tony Stark, no Steve Rogers, no Stephen Strange, and no Reed Richards.
Peter’s original plan to assemble a makeshift Avengers team to hunt down the Green Goblin had to be completely scrapped.
Fortunately, Spider-Man always has a backup plan.
He asked the older Peter to take several high-quality photos of him swinging through the New York skyline, specifically striking a few arrogant, provocative fighting poses.
The older Peter was completely stunned.
Would a plan like that actually work?
But the more he thought about it, the more he realized it might just be brilliant.
The next morning, inside the editor-in-chief’s office at the Daily Bugle, J.
Jonah Jameson was getting ready to start his day.
Chomping on his signature cigar, he flipped angrily through the morning press releases.
He was incredibly disappointed.
Ever since the second Spider-Man showed up, New York’s crime rate had plummeted to an all-time low.
Aside from finding new ways to smear the two wall-crawlers, the Bugle had absolutely no exciting headlines.
Just as Jameson was about to throw a fit, a sharp tapping sound came from his window.
He glanced over but did not see anything.
When he turned back around, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
Right across from his desk sat the new Spider-Man, rapidly twirling a pen between his fingers.
“You are the second Spider-Man?” Jameson’s shock vanished instantly, replaced by sheer, opportunistic excitement.
The massive scoop he desperately needed had just walked right into his office.
Whatever this vigilante wanted, Jameson knew he could spin it into front-page gold.
“Mr.
Jameson, I need your help with something,” Peter said, sliding a sealed letter across the desk.
Jameson ripped it open and quickly scanned the text.
When he finished, his jaw dropped.
“What the hell?
The Green Goblin who terrorized New York two years ago is not dead?
And you want to challenge him to a public duel in the middle of Times Square?”
Jameson’s mind was already racing, drafting the explosive headline for tomorrow’s morning edition: THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY IN TIMES SQUARE!
Peter nodded.
Jameson was just as excitable as he had hoped, but that was not enough.
To guarantee the Green Goblin would show up, Peter needed the full, toxic power of the Daily Bugle’s media spin.
“That is right, Mr.
Jameson.
If the Green Goblin does not show his face, the entire city is going to be incredibly disappointed.
So, I need you to do what you do best and completely trash him in your papers to force him out of hiding.
In exchange, I will have a photographer named Peter Parker send you some highly exclusive photos.”
It was finally time for Spider-Man’s greatest enemy to experience the absolute nightmare of J.
Jonah Jameson’s relentless trash talk.