Phil Urich, the heroic Green Goblin, leapt in front of the electric blast being fired by Jason Macendale, the new Scourge.
Phil had just sorted business out with fellow hero Hybrid, who was, understandably, hesitant to trust a Green Goblin. Just as the two had sorted things out, they were attacked by a third party. The assailant identified himself as Scourge. Dressed in blue and white, he had red gauntlets, a horned helmet and rode a glider similar to the Urich’s.
Fortunately, the electricity diffused harmlessly over Urich’s armored body. Phil was surprised. He had expected to be racked with pain. Upon further thought it made some sense to him. The Goblin suit had an electric blasts weapon in it—his powers were even activated by an electric shock.
Emboldened, Phil threw out several razorbats at Scourge. Scourge ducked the razorbats, his glider swooping down for a second, he flew back up around, and brandishing a gun-looking device that fired what looked like quills.
Hybrid launched a tendril that absorbed the quills. His forearm seemed to morph to a large club looking appendage—the symbiote suit moved the quills through its body, from the tendril to Hybrid’s forearm and re-launched them at the villainous attacker.
The quill’s hit Scourge but harmlessly bounced off of his armor. The center of his helmet started to light up and fired off a blast of energy. The Green Goblin and Hybrid both dodged this blast. As Phil turned to look at where it landed, he saw a gargoyle on the building behind him crumble. Seeing that this “Scourge” was no one to mess with, Phil charged at him on his glider, firing at Scourge with the glider’s machine guns, Phil activated the electric blasters in his glove.
The bullets hardly fazed scourge, he turned and started to power up the energy blast in his helmet again, but before he could fire it off, the Green Goblin, darted forward and flew up at him. Phil landed a punch in Scourge’s stomach while simultaneously unleashing his electric blast. This sent Scourge flying off his glider—he landed hard on the rooftop behind him and fell unconscious.
As Phil and Hybrid rushed over to him, the man seemingly disappeared.
“We’ll figure this out later if you want. I have a teammate in trouble. Come help if you wish,” Hybrid told the Green Goblin before launching himself off the rooftop.
“Might as well,” Phil said to himself, and he followed Hybrid on his glider.
____________
Spider-Woman’s Location:
Although Spider-Woman was more agile than the Hobgoblin, and could fly around him, when he did land a hit, it hurt.
Jessica was trying to keep him busy and find out what he was up to, but the man would not engage in any sort of villainous repartee to give away his plan.
His glove lit up and fired an electric blast; Jessica managed to duck this and returned with one of her bio-electric venom blasts. It staggered the Hobgoblin somewhat, but left Jessica feeling drained.
She activated her comm. link and spoke to her team one more time.
“Still dealing with the Hobgoblin, any help would be appreciated.”
“I’m trying Jess, had some trouble of my own.” Hybrid replied over the link.
“I’ll be there in a second,” Nocturne also replied.
Jessica continued dogfighting in the sky with the Hobgoblin. He started to lunge, powering up his glider and rushing at her, blades extended from his glider as he tried to skewer Spider-Woman. She managed to dodge him somehow and turned quickly. The Hobgoblin circled just as quick and came back at her, however, suddenly something rose out of the night sky quickly and swiped at the Hobgoblin.
“I’m here,” Nocturne said as the blue and orange villain howled in pain. The tunic and chain mail on his back was shredded from her clawed slash. Nocturne’s wings carried her swiftly through the air. After her initial attack, she had already turned and faced the Hobgoblin again, ready to attack once more.
The Hobgoblin threw out several pumpkin bombs, flying off on his glider. At this point, now outnumbered, he was just trying to get away. The machine guns on the glider came to life as he did an about face, turning around to face his attackers. Nocturne and Spider-Woman both dodged and remained unharmed. However they were out of his way long enough for him to zoom off into the city.
“Target’s heading back into the city. Westward into Manhattan,” Nocturne buzzed over her comm. link. “Shroud, can you get us on the GPS and intercept?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” the Night Shift’s leader replied over the link.
____________
East Midtown, Manhattan:
Max Coleridge, the Shroud, leapt from building to building. In his ear an audio feed alerting him to his position and that of his allies was playing.
As a young boy, Max Coleridge witnessed his parents being gunned down by criminals. Given an infinite drive to see the guilty punished, Max traveled the world, built a reputable and prosperous company and leaned how to fight the evils of mankind.
During his late adolescence, Max discovered the Cult of Kali. A mystic religious order devoted to the goddess Kali—unaffiliated with anyone else, the kept a hidden temple in Nepal where the Shroud learned martial arts and philosophy. At the end of his training, his face was branded with a hot iron, in the shape of Kali.
Max ran outside, frantic, believing himself betrayed by those who had trained him. When the pain subsided, he discovered that his sight had disappeared, but he had been given a new sense. Almost like radar, the placement of his surroundings had been laid bare to him. He could “see” what people were doing through walls, and could “look” through objects and inside of them.
As useful as that ability was, especially later on, when he found himself able to create and manipulate the inky darkness of the Darkforce dimension, he was still blind. The actual appearance of an object would always be a mystery to Max, he could not read a book or see the screen of a television or computer.
However with the wealth of his company, he had appropriated or created many tools that helped accommodate for his shortcomings. He had many devices that gave him auditory or tactile input to make up for his lack of sight. So instead of reading off a GPS screen where he was and where his teammate was, in his ear a computerized voice gave him both positions and the distance between them.
So Max turned and leapt into the air, his cloak opening and allowing him to glide across the street, landing on a rooftop, he ran and performed the same stunt again. Then his mystic sight caught a “glimpse” of his oncoming target.
As the Hobgoblin tore through the air, trying to get away from his pursuers, the Shroud spread his cloak and leapt off the building from where he was observing. His cloak reacted to the air current, stiffening and turning into a glider. He swooped across and took the Hobgoblin unaware. The Shroud glided across the street and landed a devastating kick in the Hobgoblin's side, knocking him off of his glider.
The Shroud collapsed his cloak and dived down through the air, grabbing onto the Hobgoblin and pummeling him. Reaching out with his mystic sight the Shroud located a building ledge and fired a grappling line. It latched onto the building ledge, the Shroud swung into an alley, holding the Hobgoblin. He threw him into the brick wall of the adjacent building.
“What are you after?” the Shroud questioned his suspect, holding him down.
The Hobgoblin only laughed, he easily broke the Shroud's hold with his super strength and leapt to his feet. “It's no consequence to you,” he shouted back at the Shroud, he struck backwards with his fist into the brick wall behind him. He left a large crater in the wall, sending brick splinters flying.
“It looks like you have some fancy gadgets and you're well trained, but can you keep up with me?” the Hobgoblin asked his attacker after his blatant display of strength.
“I'll do whatever is needed. And I've got help on the way,” the Shroud replied, he threw out several Kali-shaped shurikens at the Hobgoblin who shrugged them away easily.
Hobgoblin charged at the Shroud, but Max deftly jumped away. He grabbed the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder and swung upwards. Landing on the railing, he coiled and pounced over to the opposing wall, he jumped off of it, turned and threw down several more shurikens. These ones however, exploded upon hitting the Hobgoblin, managing to hamper the villain. The Shroud grabbed back onto the fire escape.
The Hobgoblin's hood and tunic were torn up. He was struggling but still on his feet. He reached out and pointed his finger, electric bursts shot out toward the Shroud but he leapt out of the way.
Unexpectedly the Hobgoblin was hit with an electric blast himself. Stumbling, he turned around and faced the rest of Night Shift and the Green Goblin.
“Why have you been targeting Osborn warehouses?” Phil asked. The Hobgoblin still didn't want to go down and attacked the Night Shift. Green Goblin hit him with another electric blast and hammered him in the face with a punch. Hybrid fired out a line of symbiotic webbing and stuck the Hobgoblin to the wall.
“Once again...why have you been targeting Osborn warehouses?” Phil asked him. The rage at Hobgoblin having hurt his uncle was bubbling over. “You better talk, dammit.”
“So this is where you want the 'bad guy' to spell out all of his plans?” The Hobgoblin answered, laughing at the pitiful sentiments of his assailants.
Green Goblin launched another punch, hitting the Hobgoblin square in the face. “We'll just have to unmask you, maybe if we can figure out how you really are I'll find what you've been doing.”
The Hobgoblin only laughed at his attackers, “good luck with that,” he replied. His glider flew in under remote control. Unleashing a hail of bullets at the crowd of heroes, they scattered. Spider-Woman shot a venom blast at the glider but missed. Hobgoblin broke out of his restraints and jumped up to the glider. He climbed on top of it and took off.
The Green Goblin summoned his glider and took off after the Hobgoblin. Spider-Woman and Nocturne followed him. Hobgoblin weaved throughout the city, down through alleyways, under bridges, between buildings, trying to create a difficult path to follow.
Phil managed to follow him, firing at the Hobgoblin when he got close enough to him. Phil was gradually gaining on his enemy. He wanted to overtake him and force out a confession. Finally Phil caught up to him and hit him with a blast of electricity.
____________
Jason Macendale, Scourge:
After his fight with the Green Goblin and Hybrid, Scourge had used the Pym Particles in his equipment to shrink down and hide. He had recovered enough now and had returned to normal size. In his communicator Gyrich was sending him a message that there were reports of a disturbance going on through Midtown. He got back on his glider and took off.
He steered towards Midtown at full speed. Flying over the city he saw what looked like a large electric discharge then a few figures took off in the air. Using binocular lenses in his mask, he noticed that one of them was the Green Goblin he ran into earlier in the day, the other one was a familiar figure to Jason: the Hobgoblin. At one point Jason himself had been the Hobgoblin.
Jason hunkered down on the glider and pushed it to full speed. As he got closer, he roared over the sky, strafing the two goblins with machine gun fire.
Phil and the mysterious Hobgoblin looked in the direction of their attacker. Phil recognized him from earlier in the evening, but still didn't know anything about him. He did his best to dodge the bullets but caught a couple in the chest. Luckily his Goblin armor was bullet proof, but the rattle of the impact still affected Phil.
The Hobgoblin reacted quicker, turning his glider and flying at Scourge. He threw out several pumpkin bombs, Scourge sped up through the explosions and attacked the Hobgoblin with electric blasts from two battle staves that appeared in his hands.
Scourge lunged forward, jumping off his glider, with the electric staves in hand, he landed on the Hobgoblin, smashing his head with the staves.
This knocked the Hobgoblin off of his glider, and the two tumbled down onto an adjacent rooftop, landing hard on the unforgiving concrete.
Spider-Woman and Nocturne from the Night Shift had caught up Phil finally. Although no formal introductions had been made, Hybrid had informed the other members of his team that the Green Goblin was—on some probationary basis—to be trusted.
“What's going on?” Spider-Woman asked.
“I'm not sure. I was chasing the orange and blue one, then this other joker came out of nowhere. I got shot too. My suit took it, but it still wasn't fun,” Phil replied. The events of the day had been long and tiring and he was starting not to make sense.
As Spider-Woman charged up a venom-blast, ready to charge at Scourge and Hobgoblin while they fought, the two villainous characters seemingly disappeared, just as Scourge had earlier.
“Where'd they go?” Phil asked, incredulously and to no one in-particular.
“I don't know, but you probably owe my group a few answers,” Nocturne said, not quite baring her claws, but getting ready to take the Green Goblin into custody. To have the perpetrators suddenly disappear was infuriating. She wanted answers.
“I think I'd rather get going,” Phil, the good Green Goblin replied, throwing down a couple smoke bombs. He sped off on his glider, letting the thick black smoke obfuscate his exit.
____________
Hybrid, the next morning:
Over the communications link in his ear, Scott heard that Spider-Woman and Nocturne had caught up with their new foe but that he had made a mysterious getaway.
The Shroud had called the evening a wash. They had some information recorded that they could go over another time. As far as the present was concerned, the Night Shift had weathered a long shift and deserved a day of sleep. Still, Scott Washington, the hero known as Hybrid, sat in his kitchen, pondering the events of the day. Twice this “Scourge” character had gotten away but Scott couldn't figure out how.
This new “Scourge” seemed to be packing a lot of ordinance and had a variety of tricks to utilize in combat. Scott didn't' like the thought of having to deal with him again. He wanted to figure out what Scourge was after and stop him.
____________
Phil:
After escaping from the Night Shift, Phil had raced to the Goblin hideout, his glider carrying him as fast as it would go.
It had been a long and troublesome night. It seemed as though Phil had gotten back into the superhero game at a bad time—already he'd had run-ins with the Hobgoblin and some new character called Scourge. Adding to it was a new version of the super-team Night Shift and Phil wasn't sure if whether they'd befriend him or take him down next time they met.
At least now he had his own secret Goblin Cave! Phil smiled at his musings, as cliché as it might be, it was handy to have somewhere to go where he could be safe. There was some good news for tonight though—Meredith was visiting her family and was away for the weekend. At least Phil wouldn't have to come up with an excuse for him being out all night.
Phil flew in through the spillway that led him into the Goblin lair. He landed his glider and jumped off, casually dismounting as he began to take off the Goblin armor. Finally, he tugged off the mask, leaving him plain, ordinary Phil.
He threw on his regular clothes and made his way up to the street level and eventually back to his apartment for a long rest.
____________
Empire State University:
Two men sat in the hallway, waiting for their interviewer to come and get them. It was a nice office—after all they were meeting with the President of the University and some of the more important Deans.
They had been given refreshments by the secretary and could hear some faint arguing going on from inside the office.
Finally, a man came out of the office, he looked at both of the waiting men, giving them a quick inspection.
“Will you both come inside? I know this may seem unorthodox but we'd like to interview you together.”
The University President stood up and offered his hand, “Mr. Lang, Dr. Slade,” the President greeted the two men and bade them sit down with a gesture of his hand. He was an older man, with bright eyes and fading silver hair.
“I'm glad you accepted our invitations to come and meet us. I know this might seem like an unusual interview—two of you in one session, but please bear with me. You are not competing for the same position, so you can relax on that at least. However, the two of you do share something that I believe could be an asset here at ESU.”
“And what would that be?” Dr. Slade asked. He had somewhat longer brown hair, its wavy length brushed out of his face. His countenance bore a slight stubble but was also interested in what the President had to say.
“While you're not ostentatious or overly demonstrative about your alternate identities—it is well known that you are...well for lack of a more erudite term, 'super heroes'” the President answered, “your nom-de-guerre being Ant-Man and Phantom Rider, respectively.”
“I knew I recognized your name from somewhere,” Dr. Slade announced, looking over at Mr. Lang and shaking his hand.
“Well, with the recent disappearance of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, coupled with the trouble with that Hydra creature some months back, some of our faculty have opted not to renew their contracts and have now left the University—the gentle academic type not up for a challenge I suppose. They feel New York and ESU particularly are too dangerous a setting. So I want to offer both of you a job. Engineering and Archaeology were two of the areas where we lost staff.”
“What do you want me for? I don't have a doctorate. I've done my best to repent, but I also have a bit of a criminal record too,” the formerly quiet Scott Lang spoke up.
“I am aware of that—and while I would like to encourage you to further your own education, you were referred to me by Dr. Bill Foster. He told me you had recently received your Masters from MIT through part-time and distance education. A remarkable feat. That certification coupled with your work for the Fantastic Four and Stark Enterprises makes you a great candidate.”
“Your flattery is convincing. So you want us to be crime-fighting professors?” Lang asked.
“After a fashion. I think your alternate personalities will be a boon to the community—should you choose to engage as them. Meanwhile, your brilliant minds will also be utilized,” the President answered and explained.
Dr. Slade pursed his lips for a minute in thought. Finally he spoke up, “so where do I sign?”