Disclaimer: I do not own any Spider-Man and/or related characters.

It started with the kidnapping of Mary-Jane Watson. But in truth it has started much earlier. Mary-Jane's kidnapping was only the tip of the ice-burg. And it was enough to erupt the anger of one superhero: Spider-Man.

Mary-Jane was married to Spider-Man a.k.a. Peter Parker, hence the hyphenated last name Watson-Parker, though everyone called her Mary-Jane or M.J. for short. Dr. Doom, a villain from Spider-Man's past somehow acquired this information in his own integrate fashion about their marriage or why would he kidnap his wife?

Dr. Doom, much like Dr. Octopus was a genius and like Doc Ock went mad with power after adapting a physical abnormality to his advantage. His face was burned, so he wore a mask, but this wasn't Spider-Man's doing. On the contrary, Spider-Man had nothing to do with Dr. Doom's uprising in the criminal world. Instead Spider-Man was merely a go-between in stopping many of his schemes. This Spider-Man thought was probably the reason his wife had been kidnapped from their Mid-town apartment in Manhattan; it was a lure to get him to inter-dimensional space, where Dr. Doom was keeping Mary-Jane. Something Dr. Doom shadily told Spider-Man when they met in kidnapping Mary-Jane. He didn't know the reason why he was told this information if only to follow him. So with the help of the Fantastic Four an inter-dimensional rift was opened to rescue M.J. Little did he know it was a trap. Dr. Doom wanted both Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four together to implement a plan to eliminate them. Once trapped in limbo, as science-fiction writers say, Spider-Man had his work cut out for him. But in the end they prevailed and Mary-Jane was rescued, and they returned to their rightful dimension, trapping Dr. Doom in limbo. Eventually Dr. Doom would find a way out, but hopefully not anytime soon. But another problem developed: Spider-Man's identity was revealed in battle. He had managed to hide his true identity from the Fantastic Four before when he lost his mask and wore a paper bag over his head, but this time was different. His mask was ripped off by one of Dr. Doom's evil robotic soldiers in the conflict. And to Johnny Storm it was a means to end to why Spider-Man was so adamant in saving Mary-Jane, Peter Parker's wife.

Showered, Johnny Storm stepped out of the shower. He dried himself off and smelled his arm-pits. They stunk. In fact all of him smelled. Dr. Doom had some sort of fire retardant in his arsenal and used it again him. The trouble was not only did it extinguish his flame but it smelled like he had been sprayed by a skunk which was worse. Reed Richards had given him special medicated smell remover shampoo to shower with, but for some reason the stink was immure to the soap.

Depressed that he still smelled like something that came out of a garbage bin he towelled himself down and got dressed and met the others in the lounge. They were in the Fantastic Four building in Central Manhattan. Ben was smoking a cigar, Sue was talking with Mary-Jane, and Spider-Man or rather Peter Parker was in the science lab with Reed talking about something scientific.

"Gotta talk with your husband about this soap, sis," Johnny said. "It doesn't work." Sue was holding her nose, as was Mary-Jane.

"We gathered that," she replied.

"Oh man, you stink," Ben said in his casual insensitive way. "Take a shower, please."

"I just did, Ben. The blasted smell won't go away."

"Then why don't you burn it off?" Peter said as he and Reed came out from the science lab adjacent to the lounge. Peter was wearing his Spider-Man costume, but no mask. Since everyone knew his identity he didn't see the point. Johnny gave him a weird look. "Fire has a chemical that singes certain pungent odours. I'd say a ten second burst would do it."

"Peter's right," Reed agreed. "But Flame-On outside. The last time you burst into flame you set the couch on fire."

"And I just got this new couch, too," Sue said.

"Traitors," Johnny said in his serious but joke-like manner.

"Mary-Jane, we gotta go," Peter said. Reed Richards gave Peter a trench coat to hide his Spider-Man costume. "Thanks," he said, "and thank you again for helping me rescue Mary-Jane. I can't thank you enough. I owe you one."

"You're a superhero like us, Spider-Man," Ben said in his gruff voice. "'Tis was nuthin'. Your secret's safe with us."

"Yeah, us superheroes hafta stick together," Johnny said.

"It was a pleasure, and it was very nice meeting you Mary-Jane," Sue said. "Perhaps we can get together sometime?"

"I'd like that," Mary-Jane said. "Thank you, all." Mary-Jane went over to her husband and Peter hugged her and then they left the apartment. On their way down in the elevator Peter couldn't hold his enthusiasm and kissed Mary-Jane on the lips. "What was that for?" she asked surprised.

"'Cause I love you," Peter said. "And I told you I'd be with you forever. I'd never let anything happen to you."

"Oh Peter," Mary-Jane said back and followed her husband in one of the biggest and longest kisses they ever had.

Outside the building Peter hailed a cab and Mary-Jane got in. But as Peter was getting in his spider-sense went crazy and he got again. "What is it?" Mary-Jane asked.

"Trouble," Peter replied. He looked around where he was but couldn't see anything. Then he looked up and found to his surprise Venom was scaling the Fantastic Four building. He was ten floors up and looked to be heading for the top. "It's Venom," Peter said. "I have to warn them."

Mary-Jane got out of the cab. "No," Peter said. "You go home. You've had a trying day. I'll deal with this."

"But," Mary-Jane said.

"I'll be all right," Peter assured her, and closed the cab door. Peter told the cabby where to go and it sped off into traffic. Peter meanwhile ran back into the building and took the elevator back up to the top floor. He couldn't scale the outside of the building like he normally would without his mask so he had to take the pedestrian route, which was awfully slow by his standards. It took nearly a minute to get to the top and he was cursing at the elevator to hurry-up all the way. By the time he reached the top he could hear a battle going on. So he shouldered the apartment door and burst into the apartment. The furniture was in disarray and there was noise coming from Reed Richards lab.

Peter took off the trench coat and entered the lab where Venom looked to be having a tat-a-tat with the Fantastic Four in the form of a hardcore fight, and the Fantastic Four were losing. Venom seemed too strong and agile for the foursome, which wasn't surprising. With his spider-like agility and alien webbing and thirst for violence and destruction he was a formidable foe. But what puzzled Peter most was why was Venom was here and why was he attacking the Fantastic Four? Other than having a personal grudge against Spider-Man he typically stood on the side of good, stopping usurpers and criminals. This wasn't right.

Sue was unconscious on the floor, Reed was trying out of his experiments on Venom with limited success, Ben was having a trying time against Venom's strength and Johnny was attacking from the air with flame balls. But all he was doing was setting the lab on fire. Soon the sprinklers came on and drowned the flames, including most of Johnny.

"Hey Venom, what's your beef?" Peter demanded.

Venom immediately turned his attention to Peter. "Parker!" the black symboite costumed crime-fighter said in his blood-curling, disgusted, hateful way. "This is none of your concern, leave us be or face the consequences."

"Looks like I'm going hafta get into act." Peter twisted his wrists and shot a large amount of web fluid from his web shooters at Venom and caught him in a net. Venom snarled horrible in hatred and broke free almost immediately, and fired off a web shot of his own at Spider-Man. However it wasn't net, but a ball of hard fluid and it hit Peter straight in the face, knocking him to the floor. It felt to Peter as if someone has just punched him in the face. But he was fine and stood up and joined the action. He fired off multiple attacks and eventually trapped Venom in a net of web. Using a special coagulate Reed Richards had developed in one of his experiments Venom was secure in a ball of spider-web. He snarled and dripped green spit as his long tongue snapped from side-to-side through his sharp teeth. He looked at Peter with a long deep hatred. Inside the symboite was a man by the name of Eddie Brock, a former news photographer like Peter. One day Eddie Brock got fired from the Daily Bugle and blamed it on Spider-Man. After joining with the symboite he learned about Spider-Man's secret identity, that he was in fact Peter Parker. So it was no surprise he greeted Peter the way he did when Peter entered the lab. And Peter didn't worry about wearing a mask since all in the room knew who he was.

Reed Richards turned off the sprinkler system, and then helped Sue. After Sue Richards regained consciousness and Johnny extinguished his flame, all five of them gathered around Venom. And Peter asked the question that was on everybody's mind: "Why are you here?" But Venom had no answer for them. Suddenly the webbing started to break like brittle rice paper and Venom broke free. He wracked Peter across the side of the head sending him to the floor. Then he attacked Johnny. Venom grabbed Johnny by the shoulders, but a moment later cried out in agony as Johnny erupted into flames. The symboite cooled Venom's hands down by whatever means it had. Peter got back up holding his head. Venom had walloped him hard. That was surprising. He should have see it coming. Peter fired off a web-fluid mallet and cold-cocked Venom in the back of the head. Venom dropped to the ground and looked to be out-cold. But he quickly returned with a counterattack and threw one of Reed Richards' experiments at him. Peter just barely got out of the way as a huge hunk of experiment crashed against the wall where he once stood. Then it appeared Venom had had enough and jumped out the nearest window and web-slung away. Peter held the side of his head as he ran to the window and watched Venom flee the building. "What the hell was that all 'bout?" he wondered. "This isn't Venom's M.O." Peter turned to the others and saw the disastrous mess of the lab. "Something's wrong. Venom would never attack like this."

"Man, this bites," Johnny said, extinguishing his flame and landed on the floor. "What's his problem?"

"Don't know," Peter replied confused. "Whatever it is, it's not good." Peter then smelled the air. "But on a bright note, you don't stink anymore." He smirked jokingly.

-- TBC