At the moment she was on her way to the Daily Bugle for the obligatory thanks she would have to give to J. Jonah Jameson. In the process, perhaps she could learn a little about Peter Parker as well. There had to be a reason that he was setting her off like he was.
She paused her progress and cut back to another building as her spider-sense flared full and loud. It wasn't that half-buzz like with Parker. No, this was a definite danger.
She took a moment to check her armaments and then continued toward the flaring, toward the danger. Arriving in time to see Spider-Man falling many stories to the street, the Goblin swooping down on him.
****
The Green Goblin cackled darkly as he closed on Spider-Man, poised to catch the wall-crawler just in the nick of time before he swooped off for his planned chat with the wall-crawler.
When the wall-crawler was swept out of his path by a blue and red blur mere seconds before he would have caught the arachnid pest, he was quite irritated.
"What?" the Goblin demanded. "There's another Spider-Man?"
He scanned across to follow the motion and saw the newcomer deposit his unconscious target on a ledge across the way before turning to face him and revealing what was most definitely a female body.
"I believe you have the wrong gender in mind," the new wall-crawler said. "I'm Spider-Rose."
Her costume was in a similar red and blue appearance to Spider-Man's, but the web patterns kept twisting into roses.
"No matter," the Goblin said shifting about to make a pass at both spiders. "This offer is an equal-opportunity situation."
The engines flared to life and Spider-Rose fired a swingline.
It was obvious to the Goblin in an instant that this second spider was much more agile than the first. If he'd had the eyes to judge it, he'd have noted an air of training in addition to the incredible natural agility. She appeared a bit more stupid, however, as she swung in on an apparently direct run on him.
The Goblin smiled darkly under his mask as he prepared to change his direction and catch himself another spider in his gunsights. Then the second spider broke off far before she came within reach of striking him, only tossing a small sphere of glass his way. He smirked as he considered that whatever gas she obviously intended to use on him would be useless through his mask.
Then the glass sphere broke, releasing a burst of water a moment before the second sphere within shattered and the sodium met the water. The resultant explosion knocked the Goblin off-course and sent him spinning out of control for a few seconds.
By the time he had recovered, a strand had swept out and wrapped about his arm. Which was when he started smiling again.
****
Spider-Rose's first indication that she had underestimated the Goblin's strength was when she was pulled through the air on the end of her own web-line. The change of velocity and direction was so sudden that she almost didn't have time to let go of the line and renew the distance between her and the Goblin.
Unfortunately, the Goblin didn't need to be close either. A fact that was proven as a pumpkin was lobbed in her path. Kodachi winced as she sprayed it with a blast of webbing in hopes that most of the blast would be contained. Even with that she was still blasted through the air, her ears ringing, and, unlike the Goblin, she wasn't on a flying platform.
She randomly tossed another webline and only by luck managed to catch herself and pull herself to a building. As soon as she realized where she was, she realized that it was another mistake. There was no telling who was behind the glass windows, and, any moment now, the Goblin would be strafing by with his machine guns.
Kodachi gritted her teeth as she reached for her belt and trusted her senses to tell her when to strike.
****
The Goblin grinned as he saw the second Spider land on the building to shake out her head, presenting just the target he needed. He was already in his run as Spider-Rose flung her hand at him and he felt an impact slam into one of the gaps between the metal plates of his body armor at his elbow. Looking down, he saw a rose-motif dart sticking out of the kevlar of the flight suit.
"Well," the Goblin thought. "Strong enough to get a dart through my armor. But what will that do?"
He glanced back toward his target but she had already left her perch.
"Damn it," the Goblin growled. "Where'd she go?"
"Not far!" Spider-Rose called out, swinging around from behind him and tossing another dart into the Goblin's arm pit.
With the second dart he started to feel a weakness in his arms, but he hadn't run out of tricks yet.
****
"Too close," Kodachi thought bitterly to herself as she tossed the dart. "Too close!"
But, by the time she realized, it was already too late to alter her path. The Goblin swiped out a hand and caught her, pulling her in the direction he wanted her to go, slamming her into a nearby brick wall with all the speed combined by his throw and his glider.
"So that's the ticket then?" the Goblin thought as the girl shakily grabbed to the wall she had just slammed into. "This little flower has a glass jaw in close combat."
If he'd had more time, he'd deal with her just then and take both spiders for a little talk, but he could feel his arm going numb from her darts, and the girl was already recovering to continue the fight.
"Well, pleased to meet you, Miss Rose," the Goblin cackled. "I shall look forward to our next meeting."
****
Kodachi was relieved as the Goblin flew off, not sure she had enough left to go back into the fight after her last mistake with the Goblin. She released a heavy breath that she hadn't been aware she was holding and swung up to pick up Spider-Man and carry him out of the public eye.
"Next time I face him," Kodachi gasped. "I'll carry more than one water-sodium sphere."
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(Posted Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:18)
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