"Hello," Phil answered the phone.
"Hi, Phil, it's Uncle Ben,"
"How are you?"
"Good, listen, I have a lead on some new Goblin stuff, Liz Allen found some papers stashed away by her late husband, after the police are through they said they'd let me check it out. I might get a couple pieces out of it or maybe something for a revision on my book."
"That's great, I’d figured all the Goblin stuff was long over. It’s been what…18 months since your book came out."
"I was thinking the same thing but Norman and Harry really established an empire of secret hideouts and labs. Anyways, I was wondering if you'd want to come along. I know you're busy with school and all, but you were helpful last go round, I'd like another set of eyes with me again. I figured we could grab some lunch and hit this new safe house they found."
"Sounds like a plan, when do you want to do this? I'm off from classes tomorrow, nothing planned."
"Works for me, I'll meet you at your place around noon tomorrow. Bye, Phil."
"See you later, bye."
Phil put the phone down and went back to tidying up his apartment. His girlfriend was coming over tonight to watch a couple movies and he wanted the place to look decent.
=====
Ryker’s Island Penitentiary:
Jason Macendale sat on his bunk, absorbed in the mundane details of an out of date engineering manual, it was the only thing he could find in the shabby prison library that even remotely interested him.
Footsteps resounded in the hallway, a minute later they stopped, right in front of his cell. An average looking man stood before him, brown hair short cropped, glasses and a business suit; not an expensive showy one; a suit worn by a professional, it looked nice, but a lot of long hours had been spent in it.
“Mr. Macendale, how would you like a chance to serve your country?”
“I’ve already done that, and I didn’t like it very much.”
“I think you’ll find it more favorable this time around. It comes with a get out of jail free card. An educated and resourceful man like you can see the value in that, I hope.”
Looking down and letting out a sigh, he closed the engineering manual, it sounded like an offer too good to be true, and he knew better than to trust government types. After all, he had been one.
“Let me hear the details first.”
=====
Phil:
Meredith had arrived and brought some movies with her. They were doing a monster movie marathon and she’d picked up a box set of the original black and white movies. They were corny but fun.
Phil settled into the couch and put his arm around Meredith. He thanked whatever power might be listening for his time as the Green Goblin. The experience made him mature enough to be to deserve a girl like Meredith. Because of her, and ten thousand dollars he’d scored due to a tussle with Arcade as the Goblin, he was back in school, which his parents loved.
They also loved Meredith, which Phil couldn’t be happier about. Phil's older brother was a big shot with a nice job: a successful son his parents could be proud of, but he'd never brought home a keeper like Meredith. Phil smiled just thinking about it. His brother could have all the money in the world, right now Phil seemed like the best bet for grandchildren in the next decade, which bought a lot of leeway with his parents.
He'd even moved out of his old loft and into a nicer apartment closer to school. His new roommate wasn't bad either. They met on campus and became fairly good friends, he was a criminology student. Though at times he was very mysterious, he didn't talk about his home or early life much. He came and went at the weirdest times due to his job. He was often out late and sometimes stayed out all night. Phil looked up at the time on the DVD player. It was one in the morning. He knew Scott wouldn't be home anytime soon.
=====
Scott's Job:
"Where to tonight, Mr. Coleridge?" Scott looked up in the rear-view mirror to see his employer. Maxillian Quincy Coleridge had hired Scott to be his body guard, driver and personal assistant.
"Please, Scott, the nature of the work we do together should more than permit you to use my first name," Max replied. Scott saw his lips form into a bemused smile. Max wore a dress hat with the brim down to shadow his eyes and face.
"So where are we going, Max?"
"I'm told the Triads are expecting a weapon shipment at a warehouse down at the waterfront. I think we should happen to be there."
"Are the girls meeting us?" Scott asked, he gripped the wheel tight for a turn.
"Jessica will meet us there, Angela's in the air tailing us.
"Sounds good,” Scott replied as his gloved hands gripped the steering wheel.
The car pulled onto the waterfront, racing past warehouses as Scott waited for Max to signal which one was their target. The sounds of gunfire and explosions gave it away. The roof of the warehouse exploded in a bright flash, sending debris and shrapnel flying into the air.
Scott stopped the car and stepped out. He was wearing a gray suit with a red dress shirt and black shoes and driving gloves. However in a split second his attire morphed into the visage of Hybrid, the symbiote protector. Standing just short of six feet, while he did not possess an overly bulky frame he was still a visibly strong and agile man even before the symbiote enhancements.
Without warning the ground shook from the resultant shockwave of an explosion that leveled the warehouse. The Night Shift watched on, Hybrid leapt into action. His strength and agility propelled him through the air as symbiote tendrils whipped out from his back, grasping at his surroundings and swinging the hero forward. He peered around looking for survivors or innocent civilians. Looking into the air he could see Spider-Woman and Nocturne doing the same.
From the falling, burning wreckage of the warehouse a form emerged. It flew into the sky in a dizzying display of twists and loops with a maniacal laugh. It appeared to be a man riding atop some flying device. Nocturne rushed into the air, her bat-like wings propelling her. She tried to reach out to the flying form with her empathic powers but the mind she encountered was warped and genius, too advanced and twisted to allow her powers to take hold. Steeling herself for a long chase, she tucked her arms and wings in tight to her sides, zipping through the air, gliding downwards and building up speed before releasing her wings and swinging up into the air with more momentum. She was about to come up under the subject with her claws.
Seeing that he was about to be attacked, the flying subject released several exploding bombs, Nocturne ducked and weaved between these, successfully maneuvering between the bombs until a piece of shrapnel flew out and caught her in the leg. The wound was not lethal but severe enough that she had to give up the chase.
Nocturne turned about and landed near the Shroud's car where her three teammates had gathered. She yanked the shrapnel out of her leg and concentrated, drawing ambient emotional energy into herself to heal the wound.
"He was riding a sort of flying contraption and threw explosives out at me. I managed to catch this for you," Nocturne reported, showing a wry smile. She owed much to the Shroud, he had stabilized her mutation using his fortune and the technology from his company. It allowed Nocturne to return to human form and talk while in her bat-totem form. She had proven a valuable ally due to this kindness.
"I got a good look at him with my mystic vision, it was an adult male standing atop a flying platform, from what I know of the super-villain scene, it would appear to be one of Spider-Man's Goblin foes," the Shroud reported.
Nocturne turned over the piece of shrapnel, the outside was orange with grooves carved into it to resemble a pumpkin.
The cops and fire department could be heard approaching. The Night Shift quickly disappeared from the scene.
=====
Phil’s Apartment:
The last movie was about over at a little past three in the morning. Phil heard the door unlock and Scott made his way into the apartment. Scott took off his suit jacket and slumped into a recliner, laying his jacket across his lap.
“How was work?” Phil asked.
“Not bad, just tiring,” Scott replied with a yawn. Scott leaned over and grabbed a box of crackers off of their coffee table.
“Sorry if I’m prying, but what is it that you do to keep you out so late, Scott?” Meredith asked, looking over as she leaned against Phil, her legs curled up on the couch. She had her own apartment with one of her friends, but she was over at Phil’s quite often and had become good friends with Scott as well.
“He likes to be secretive, but basically I’m the personal assistant to some guy with more money than he knows what to do with. I chauffer, do errands for him, body guard, etc.” Scott replied, as he walked over to the kitchen area, the open layout of the apartment allowed their conversation to continue. He grabbed a glass of water and returned to his seat.
“I don’t like to talk about it that much, I had a rough early life. I was a Bed-Stuy kid as you know, so things were hard. It’s better now with that Hybrid character running around though,” Scott fought back a smile. He wasn’t arrogant but he did allow himself some pride. He had made his home safe for future generations of kids, a place to grow up and enjoy, not just survive and scrape by.
“You may not believe me but,” he allowed himself to smile and took a big drink of water, keeping his small audience in suspense, “I was a Guardsman at the Vault for awhile.”
“Wow…really?” Meredith and Phil were surprised.
“Yeah…it was a few years ago, remember when that New Warrior kid Justice was in jail? Killed his dad in an accident? I was there at the time, got to know him pretty well. I was about his age at the time, barely 18. Some of the old timers that had acted as guards before the armor suits were uppity about them, so they drafted in a bunch of youngsters, figuring the computer generation would be more excited and better suited to work them. It started as an internship and graduated into a full job. They ran us through an advanced police academy. They were scared a kid from Bed-Stuy would be a crooked cop, but I was one of the straightest shooters. The rough upbringing just meant I could handle myself better.”
“I’m still shocked,” Meredith replied, “why are you telling us now?”
“Phil and I have been rooming together for a year now? That about right, Phil? And we just signed a lease for another year, I was doing some thinking tonight and I guess I just felt it was time, when you asked a few minutes ago well…everything just lined up perfectly. I lost my father at a young age, my brother was killed a few years ago, I don’t have many people close to me, I think I make it hard for people to get close…but we’ve had some good times and I get the kind of feeling I’ll know you guys for a long time. So you may as well really know me.”
Meredith and Phil smiled, what they had known of Scott had been limited but they had been good friends and given him the space he had needed. They were happy he was embracing their friendship now.
“I know this seems really sudden, but life changing things happens suddenly. A quick decision can change your life,” Scott looked down a bit now, thinking of his first encounter with the Hybrid symbiote that got him kicked out of the Guardsmen. “Just like that,” Scott snapped his fingers loudly, “your life can turn upside down.”
=====
The Next Day:
Phil and his Uncle make their way slowly through the abandoned safe house. It was a converted warehouse with living space. Ben told Phil that Harry had it set up in case he ever needed to hide away for awhile. It was owned through some dummy corporation and only recently had it come to light that the late Harry Osborne had been the secret owner.
Unbeknownst to the reporter and his nephew, they were not the only ones interested in the activities of the deceased Green Goblin. Roderick Kingsley was the other interested party and he was busy investigating the warehouse himself, though in a different guise: the dangerous Hobgoblin.
For awhile now, Roderick had been hiding in the Caribbean, using his ill-gotten gains to live a life of luxury. However once word of the seventeen dead heroes reached him, he began to plan his comeback. He knew how the superhero crowd was fond of transcending life and death. It had been over a year now. He had retrieved his Hobgoblin gear and was putting his plans in motion.
He had been investigating old properties that had been owned, directly or indirectly, by the Osborne’s. If they had made any new advances in the Goblin formula or developed any interesting new weapons he figured he may as well appropriate them. It's what he'd done to start his villainous identity, and it wasn't like the Osborne’s would be around to make use of it.
As he prowled through the dark, empty building Roderick soon heard two voices. Unwilling to share whatever discoveries he could make, he drew a pumpkin bomb from his satchel and took to the dark, hunting down the two faint voices. Once he had a good line of sight on the men, he recognized one. Ben Urich had been a reporter at the Bugle with Ned Leeds--a stooge he'd used to cover up his identity a few years ago. He put the pumpkin bomb back in his bag and drew another one. Originally he was just going to knock them out, but the bomb he held now was an explosive. He knew Urich was obsessed with Goblins, and didn't want the clever reporter hounding him. He threw the bomb.
Out of the corner of his eye, Phil saw something coming at him, thinking it was a bat or moth, he stuck his arm out to swat it away, but his hand connected with something much more solid, knocking the bomb away, it beeped and then exploded, the blast was far enough away not to hurt the uncle and nephew team, but it blew a chunk out of the floor, causing cracks to run everywhere. The floor gave out and Phil and his Uncle fell into the basement.
The building must have been hiding a decrepit core, as the floor gave way it destabilized the support struts. The building started to shake. The Hobgoblin summoned his glider that he'd left in the rafters and jumped atop it. He maneuvered over to the growing hole in the floor, he saw two crumpled bodies with bits of debris coming down on them. Kingsley threw a few more explosives into the heart of the building, taking out more support struts and making it implode. He blew a hole in the ceiling with a power blast from his glove and flew into the night. He hadn't made any discoveries, but in his attempts to claim New York, he had eliminated a potential powerful enemy.
Down in the basement Phil moaned. A chunk of concrete had landed across him. Luckily it was being held up by another chunk adjacent to him and he was able to wriggle his small frame out from under the debris. His uncle had been hit in the head, he was breathing but unconscious. Luckily nothing else had hit or landed on him.
Phil managed to heft his uncle's form up over his shoulder. He saw a door in the back of the basement and shambled over to it. The door was old and rusted but Phil pried it open after a few tugs that nearly took his arm out of its socket. There was a room only a couple yards long that led to an old service elevator. He hoped it would take him back topside.
Phil flipped the switch to activate the elevator and to his dismay instead of going topside it began to rapidly descend. Phil cursed the Osborne’s and their secret lairs, operating like moustache-twirling cartoon villains with secret hideouts. The elevator stopped. It was dark.
Phil groped the wall for a light switch, doing his best to keep his uncle's unconscious form stable on his shoulder. Finally finding one he turned it on, rows of bright fluorescent lights lazily came to life. Exposed and open before him lay a laboratory full of advanced computers, large testing tanks, racks upon racks of pumpkin bombs and razor bats. Several gliders and Goblin suits adorned the walls.
He could tell by the general style of everything that this was all gear Harry meant to implement, but failed to do so before his death. Several large, person-sized floor to ceiling tubes lined the back wall, Phil surmised that they were filled with the same chemical bath he was exposed to when he became the Goblin. In one corner was a living space. Harry had this place set up to last. There were shelves of food and supplies, a bed and other necessities. Phil carried his uncle’s unconscious form over and laid him down.
Taking a mask off of the wall, Phil held it in his hands and peered into the large, maniacal yellow eyes. He hoped it would work, he could feel the circuitry inside the mask and it was just like his old one. After being doused in chemicals, he put on a mask and it delivered an electric zap to his brain—that’s how it originally worked. What if this one needed a different chemical bath to work with? What if this was an upgrade or a older version to the one he had used and wouldn’t work?
He had to try. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he tugged the mask down. He experienced a sharp jolt of pain, quick and electric; it felt like caffeine being injected into his heart and being suddenly thrust awake. He instantly knew it had worked. He felt stronger, faster, and more agile.
The Green Goblin was back.