Darren wasn't bluffing.
If a real sorcerer had been there watching closely, they would've noticed that each bullet fired from his twin golden pistols shimmered faintly with an otherworldly glow.
Every round carried a thin sheath of arcane energy, pure, condensed magic.
In gaming terms, it was a simple enchantment: boosting the bullet's lethality with just a touch of magic.
But the Green Goblin wasn't buying it.
If all it took to be a wizard was shooting bullets with a glow on them, then half of New York would qualify as sorcerers by now!
Still, disbelief didn't dull the pain ripping through him.
Even with his body enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum and the armor absorbing most of the impact, those bullets hit like miniature cannonballs. Any weaker man would've been torn to pieces.
Clenching his teeth against the agony, the Goblin glared daggers at Darren.
"Who the hell are you!?"
Darren smiled easily, like a man chatting over coffee.
"Mr. Osborn, it seems you don't need my life elixir anymore. Shame, really. I just finished developing a new flavor. I thought you might like to try it."
"Life Elixir?"
The Goblin's pupils contracted, recognition flashing in his eyes. "Wait, you mean... you're, "
Seeing the realization dawn, Darren didn't bother to hide it.
He nodded solemnly. "That's right. I'm your kind-hearted alter ego."
The Goblin froze. Then blinked.
Kind-hearted what?
He, of all people, knew the truth, he was the dark side of Norman Osborn's psyche.
So where the hell had this "good half" suddenly come from!?
His fury boiled over. "You! You're that damned thief, Doctor Darren!"
Of course. It all made sense now.
Darren's mysterious disappearance from Oscorp… followed by the sudden theft of advanced equipment and classified projects.
It couldn't have been a coincidence.
"No one else could've done it!" he spat. "You conniving little snake! I'll kill you for this!"
For a fleeting moment, Norman's original personality burst through, his eyes wild with rage and regret.
He'd once hoped Darren's so-called life elixir might prolong his failing health, but the man had vanished without warning. Desperate and dying, Norman had been forced to inject himself with an unstable, untested version of the Super Soldier Serum.
That one act had shattered his sanity. His humanity splintered, birthing the Green Goblin.
Now, seeing Darren alive and mocking him, Norman's hate burned bright enough to seize control, if only for a moment.
But it didn't last.
The Goblin quickly reasserted himself, pushing Norman's conscience back into the dark corners of his mind.
He didn't care that Darren had fled or that Norman had suffered.
If anything, he owed his existence to that chain of events.
In a twisted way, he almost felt grateful.
"Forget what I just said." The Goblin's tone softened suddenly, eyes narrowing as his lips curled into a sly smile.
"Doctor Darren, there's no need for us to fight. With your intellect and my power, we could rule this world together. Why waste our potential killing each other?"
He'd used this same honeyed offer on Spider-Man once. That didn't go well.
But maybe this time would be different.
Then, from within, Norman's voice roared again, harsh, desperate, furious.
"Don't you dare! Kill him! End him now, you coward!"
The Goblin grimaced.
"Norman," he muttered under his breath, "you're getting a bit extreme."
Darren chuckled lightly. "You know... you almost sound convincing."
The Goblin's grin widened. "Exactly! Together, we can eliminate Spider-Man and, "
"But I refuse."
The smile froze.
The air between them dropped several degrees.
"So that's how it is?" the Goblin hissed, voice colder than steel.
Darren only laughed. "You're the evil personality, and I'm the good one. We were never meant to get along."
The Goblin twitched. Was he seriously still running with that joke?
Enough talk. With a growl, the Goblin launched forward, his glider screaming as it surged through the air toward Darren.
Darren didn't flinch. His pistols snapped up, and three enchanted rounds blazed into the night.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets tore through the armor, punching three bloody holes into the Goblin's chest.
But the maniac didn't stop. He threw up his arms to protect his head and rammed the throttle to full.
The glider roared like a jet engine, closing the distance in a blur.
Schhhk!
A blade sprang from his forearm, slicing through the wind as he swung for Darren's skull.
In his mind, it was already over, Darren was a scrawny scientist, no match for close combat.
He didn't even see it coming.
A sharp movement, then an elbow filled his vision.
"Muay Thai warning."
CRACK!
The hit landed square on his mask.
The Green Goblin's body went limp midair, rocketing backward like a broken kite.
BOOM!
He slammed into the Queensboro Bridge, the impact echoing across the river.
"Ahhh! My back!" he screamed, clutching himself, writhing in agony.
Even his enhanced body couldn't absorb that kind of fall unscathed.
He tried to get up, but froze when he found a pistol barrel pressed squarely between his eyes.
"You lost, Goblin."
Darren stood over him, golden Desert Eagle steady in his hand.
At this range, even the Goblin's reinforced skull wouldn't save him.
"You're no Ironhead," Darren said calmly. "You wouldn't survive this."
The Goblin's lips twisted into a bloody smile. "You think this means you've won?"
Up above, his glider floated eerily into position, its twin cannons slowly rotating, aiming not at Darren, but at the terrified crowd on the bridge.
It was the same sick setup as before.
The Goblin's laugh rasped through cracked lips. "Now then, another choice for you! Let me go... or watch these innocent people, "
"Achoo!"
Darren sneezed mid-sentence. His hand jerked, the gun went off,
BANG!
The bullet grazed the Goblin's head, tearing through flesh and leaving a red streak across his mask.
"Ah, my bad," Darren said casually, lowering the smoking gun. "You were saying something?"
The Goblin's eye twitched.
Clearly, Darren was not Spider-Man.
He didn't play by the rules. He didn't pick from the options, he made his own.
The Goblin hesitated, unsure whether to keep talking or just pray.
If he pushed it, Darren might sneeze again, and that could easily be the end of him.
Darren didn't give him time to decide.
He raised the pistol and slammed the butt down onto the Goblin's helmet.
Thud!
The armor rang like a gong. The Goblin groaned.
Darren frowned, unimpressed, and hit him again.
And again.
After about a dozen blows, the Goblin finally slumped over, unconscious.
Well, technically, not because of the hits. Darren suddenly remembered that the armor's internal system could release a heavy sedative, strong enough to knock out an elephant for days.
He'd just... momentarily forgotten.
"Oops," he muttered, pressing the injector trigger. "Better late than never."
With the Goblin out cold, Darren hoisted him onto the glider, then climbed aboard himself.
The machine's turbines ignited with a piercing shriek, slicing through the night sky as they vanished toward the horizon.
Below, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause and cheers.
"Beautiful!"
"Did you see that move?!"
"Who is he? A new superhero?"
"I don't know! But he looks just like the Goblin... maybe he's, I dunno, the Phantom!"
People craned their necks, watching as the mysterious figure disappeared into the stars.
And there, still dangling beneath the bridge, Spider-Man sighed.
"Yeah... sure. No applause for the guy still hanging here, huh?"