NO GOING BACK

Back to Norman's child hood, after spending hours in the dark room with the Goblin mask, scratch marks on the door and bloody fingertips, his father finally let's him out. As Norman slowly stands up, his father puts his hands on his sons shoulders, looking at him with kind eyes, for the first time in his life.

"Listen Son. I'm sorry. I've been unfair to you. I just want you to be a better man than I was and I took it too far. You're my only son, and I love you." His father tells him.

Norman is shocked by all of this, but is glad that his father is saying all of these things to him. But then looks over and sees his mother laying lifeless on the ground. His father quickly turns his head away from

"Hey, look at me. I need you to do me favor. Ok son? I need you to say that you saw everything and that your mother attacked me, ok? Your mother deserved what happened. Trust me."

As he walks away, Norman's mind starts to unravel as thoughts of his mother, his dog, his father's abuse, and the Goblin mask in the dark rushes through his head. He then looks over to the same gun he used to kill his own dog and picks it up. While Norman's father is wrapping his mother's body up in the rug, Norman aims the gun at the back of his head and pulls the trigger.

An hour later, the police are there and both of Norman's parents are carried out in body bags. Two cops then talk about what happened.

"Looks like the husband killed the wife in a fit of rage. The son must have saw this and shot him in the back of the head."

The other cop sighs.

"Damn. How's the kid doing?" He asks.

The cop doesn't say anything, moving out of the way to show a laughing Norman Osborne.

"He hasn't stopped- laughing since we found him." One of the cops says.

Tears start running down his face as he continues to laugh hysterically.

Back to present day, The Goblins laughs echo through the night yet again, carrying Spider-Bat off with his glider. Peter quickly reaches into his utility belt and pulls out an explosive device, shoves it into the glider and blows it up. Both of them fall hard to the ground as the burning remains of the Goblins gliders falls next to them. Norman gets to his feet first and runs away as Peter soon gets up, with one of his mask lenses busted out, and follows him.

Peter soon arrives at the front of the Goblins Carnival. He slowly enters, hearing someone crying from a tent nearby. He looks inside in shock, seeing Commissioner Stacy crying in a cage, surrounded by multiple pictures of Jill Stacy naked.

"George."

Peter runs over to the Commissioner and rips the cage door off and helps him out of the cage as he cries in his arms.

"Oh God....OH GOD!" Commissioner Stacy yells.

"It's ok. Let it come." Peter says.

"He... He shot Jill. Showed me ph-photo-graphs... He tried to drive me mad."

"Listen, the police should be here at any moment. I'll stay here with you until they arrive." Peter says.

"No! No I'm ok. You have to go after him. I want him brought in... and I want him brought in by the book." Stacy says.

Both Peter and Stacy look at each other for a moment.

"I'll do my best." Peter replies.

He then runs off to go after The Goblin.

"By the book, you hear? We have to show him! We have to show him that our way works!" Stacy yells.

Peter runs through a twisted fun house, with multiple Goblin images all over the walls.

"Welcome Batsy! I'm glad you could make it. I did so want you to be here."

Peter ignores The Goblin and continues to run through the fun house.

"You see. It doesn't matter if you catch me and send me back to the Asylum... Stacy's been driven mad. I've proved my point."

At that moment, Peter's Spider-Senses are triggered as a trap door beneath him opens as he quickly shoots out a web and swings over the spikes.

"I've demonstrated there's no difference between me and everyone else. All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once. And it drove you as crazy as everybody else... Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all this struggling! God you make me want to puke!"

Peter continues to ignore The Goblin while avoiding and dodging traps.

"I had my fair share of bad days. Of course I don't really know which one was the one that made me like this, but it doesn't really matter. If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

As Peter gets passed all the traps, The Goblin appears infront of him and throws a punch. Peter blocks it but gets punched in the chest and kneed in the face. Osborne then hits him with a right cross right to his jaw, knocking him to a knee.

"The point is... I went crazy. And I'm smart enough to admit it. Why can't you?"

The Goblin kicks Peter in the face over and over again.

"It's all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... It's all a monstrous, demented gag! So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?"

Osborne throws another punch but Peter dodges, lands an uppercut to the chin, then tackles him through a fun house mirror. They both get up, with The Goblin grabbing a shard of glass and charges in at Peter. Spider-Bat quickly catches him by the wrist, drives his elbow into his stomach, and flips him to the ground. The hero then grabs him by the throat and pins him against the wall.

"Because I've heard it before... and it wasn't funny the first time." Peter says.

He then punches The Goblin in the stomach and then hard in the face. He repeatedly punches Osborne in the face, each punch harder than the last. As blood begins to spill, he kicks him to the ground.

"I spoke to Commissioner Stacy before I came in here. He told me he wanted this done by the book. You know what that means? It means that despite all your sick, twisted, cruel little games, he's as sane as he ever was."

The Goblin stands up and swings but Peter blocks and grabs him by the shirt.

"So maybe ordinary people don't always crack. Maybe- it's just you."

The Goblin gets frustrated by this and pulls down Peter's mask, blinding him.

"No!" He says, moving behind him.

Osborne picks up a piece of wood and swings it at the back of Peter's head while he tries to fix his mask. Without looking, Peter blocks the piece of wood, shattering it on impact. He then punches The Goblin in the face so hard that he goes flying through the wall to the outside. As Osborne is laying motionless on the ground, Peter slowly approaches him. The Goblin then springs up with a gun hand, aiming it at his chest, with the same sick smile and laugh.

When he pulls the trigger, it's revealed to be just a prop gun. This surprises even Osborne.

"Damnit." The Goblin says, throwing the gun away with a disappointed look on his face.

Peter stares down at the defeated Goblin.

"Well? What are you waiting for? I shot a defenseless girl. I almost killed a bunch of children and your girlfriend- again. I terrorized an old man. Why don't you kick the hell out of me and get a standing ovation from the public gallery?"

Peter continues to stare at The Goblin for a moment longer.

"No... I don't want to hurt you. Not anymore, Mr. Osborne. I don't want either of us to end up killing the other. But we're both running out of alternatives. Maybe it all hinges on tonight."

Peter kneels down to Norman, being one of the only people to show him compassion.

"I don't know what exactly bent your life out of shape. Maybe it was the serum or maybe- it was something else... Maybe I've been there too. Maybe we can work together. I could rehabilitate you. You don't need to be out there on the edge alone anymore. We don't have to kill each other. Let me help you."

As Peter offers his hand, Osborne looks conflicted by this.

"No. I'm sorry but... No. It's too late for that. Far too late."

The Goblin stands up, ignoring Peter's hand. As the two stand across from each other, Osborne starts to chuckle.

"Y'know it's funny. This situation reminds me of a joke I heard my father tell his friends. See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum. And one night they decided they don't like living in an asylum anymore. So they decide they're going to escape. So they get up to the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap. They see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moonlight. Stretching away to freedom. Now the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend is afraid of falling. So the first guy, he has an idea. He says "Hey! I have a flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me." But the second guy just shakes his head. He says "What do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was halfway across!"

Osborne starts laughing hysterically at the joke.

"Excuse me."

As The Goblin continues to laugh, Peter sighs and knocks him out with a punch, saddened that he couldn't help Norman Osborne.