A/N: Here is the fourth chapter! I originally wanted to post a different chapter, one that went on with everything, but then I figured the story would be moving too quickly and it would be done within 13-14 chapters. I couldn't have that! So I improvised a bit, and I really liked how it turned out. Enjoy!

Gwen knocked four times, standing outside Mary Jane's door.

After Peter had very graciously left her in Central Park, it had started raining really heavily. Gwen figured that since Mary Jane's was a closer walking distance than Stark Tower was, she'd go there. Plus, she really didn't want to see her parents and put up with them after her less than perfect evening.

The door opened and a barefaced Mary Jane stood there, her gorgeous red hair tied up into a messy bun. "Oh my god, you're freezing! Get in here!" MJ ushered her into her modest-sized house, which was now dimly lit, but toasty warm. "I just lit a fire," she told Gwen, and brought her to the living room, where the fireplace was crackling merrily.

"Thanks, MJ," Gwen sighed, unbuttoning her coat and sinking into a couch, rubbing her hands together. Mary Jane curled up on a couch beside her, resting her head on the couch.

"Thank god you came by," she said, rolling her eyes. "My laptop's broken and I can't hang out with Flash, so I wanted to call you, but you had a date so I didn't want to. What happened, by the way?" she questioned, her green eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Gwen hesitated, and then told her everything. She told her about lunch and Peter's jokes and Peter's hair and Peter's eyes, and realized she had gone too far and blushed deeply while MJ raised an eyebrow, amused. She quickly ushered on to the end of the date, when he had left abruptly.

"I – I sort of noticed something wrong with him, like he'd act all fidgety whenever I mentioned Oscorp and –" Gwen hesitated, unsure how to deliberately tell Mary Jane that Peter was acting strange and not give her theory on why. "I think I mentioned his uncle," she said quickly, remembering about Peter's uncle's abrupt death earlier that year, "and yeah, I think I pushed too far and then he just told me that he had somewhere to be, and left."

Mary Jane gave her a sympathetic look. "Yeah, he's really touchy when it comes to that. I wouldn't blame him, though; he and Ben were really close. You probably shouldn't have mentioned that."

"Yeah, I – wait, how do you know he and his uncle were close?" Gwen asked, puzzled. "You guys don't even talk that much."

MJ looked surprised. "Oh, you didn't know? He's my neighbour." Gwen's eyes widened as she pointed out the window to the house next to hers. "He lives there with his aunt, and the few times I've met her she was really sweet."

"What, so do you guys have play dates or something?" Gwen asked bitterly, surprising herself. She bit her lip and shot Mary Jane an apologetic look, which she shrugged off.

"No need to be jealous, blondie," Mary Jane said, smiling wryly. "They used to invite us over for dinner once upon a time. The last one was about a year ago. I think my parents really got to them," she said bitterly. MJ's parents weren't the best people in the world, and Gwen didn't know how she could handle them.

"Oh," was all Gwen said as she stared at the fire. MJ had known Peter for a long time, but never mentioned it to her. Did they have a history together? Was Mary Jane hiding something from her? "Do you see him often?" she asked after a while, eyes darting to where MJ sat, curled up on her couch.

"Not really, no," Mary Jane replied, shrugging. "We used to see each other a lot, when my mum bought that hammock for outside. He'd come outside to say hi, and I'd ask him to go over a script with me." MJ smiled fondly at the memory while Gwen looked away, a little jealous. "At first he was so shy, but once he let loose he's actually not that bad of an actor. But then Dad took the hammock down and we did sit down and talk for a while – we had like an unspoken agreement to just meet each other every day at five in front of his porch. But then senior year started, and we sort of drifted apart. We hardly talk now," she sighed, realizing how much she really missed just talking to Peter. He was a really nice guy, and Mary Jane had always teased him about his awkwardness and he'd hesitantly bump her shoulder in return. He had always kept mostly to himself, though, and she had the sense not to ask about his parents. In a way, MJ knew Peter well, but she didn't really know Peter Parker that well. In fact, she didn't know much about Peter Parker at all.

Hearing MJ talk about Peter like that made Gwen uncomfortable. She didn't know what was wrong with her; they'd only been on one date, and she had always found him cute and interesting; she had always had a teeny tiny crush on Peter Parker. Maybe now that she had actually partially acted on her feelings, she liked him more.

Gwen cleared her throat and got up, looking out the window that didn't face Peter's house. The rain was still pouring, heavier than before. She sighed. "MJ, do you mind if I stay over? I don't think I'll be able to get home in this weather."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about that. The weatherman said that there would be a storm tonight," Mary Jane explained, and Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"You watch weather reports?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"The weatherman's hot," MJ admitted, looking ashamed. Gwen laughed. MJ seemed like a shallow girl on the outside, and she did have her dumb moments, but she wasn't that dumb; she attended a high school specializing in science. Of course, they offered theatre studies as well, which was probably the only reason MJ agreed to attend Midtown Science High.

Gwen's phone started buzzing and she picked it up, quickly looking at the caller ID. "Hi, Dad."

"Gwen, where are you? You said you'd be back an hour ago, and –"

"Dad, have you looked outside? It's raining cats and dogs. I'm staying over at MJ's for the night, okay?"

She heard her father yell out "she's okay!" in the background and Tony's answering yell. "Sure. Just call next time, okay? Me and Tony were worried sick!"

"Tony and I," she corrected, and both Steve and MJ snorted. "And yeah, sorry about that, I was just about to call."

"Okay, princess. I'll pick you up tomorrow."

"No, Dad," Gwen protested, knowing that MJ couldn't see Captain America casually popping by to pick her up. "It's okay –"

"I want to. I'll come by around lunchtime. Bye!"

"Love you, Dad," Gwen sighed as he hung up. She would have to find a way to divert Mary Jane's attention when her father showed up. She walked back into the living room, where MJ was watching TV.

"I ordered pizza for us," she informed the blonde. "Extra cheese, just how you like it."

"Thanks," Gwen replied, finger-combing her fringe. "I'm going to go and freshen up."

"Sure!" Mary Jane said, still watching the TV. "Use my clothes if you want, but stay away from my sexy stuff!"

"Okay!" Gwen laughed, heading up the stairs to MJ's bathroom.

She washed her face and properly combed her messy hair, bringing it back to its neat state. When she did this at home, her mother would sit on her bed and roll her eyes at her, telling her about how she would never be bothered to tame her hair since she got into trouble on a daily basis. Once Gwen was satisfied, she swept her straight, blonde hair into a high ponytail and headed back to MJ's room.

Mary Jane's room wasn't neat, but it wasn't messy either. There were a few posters of old boy bands on the wall above her double bed, and the bedside table next to it sported a few framed pictures of MJ and her friends. Gwen smiled as she sat down on the bed, looking at a picture of her and MJ. It was taken recently, when they had made a visit to a skate park and decided to cam-whore in front of a graffiti wall. Gwen still remembered it well. MJ had come up with the ridiculous idea of posing like secret agents, and Gwen had laughed at the irony of it. They both posed back-to-back, using their hands to mimic guns. MJ looked like a model, as usual, while Gwen was trying her best to smirk, her hair hanging loose and she was wearing jeans for once.

She laughed at the memory and shrugged off her tights and shirt, leaving her in her underwear. She poked around MJ's cupboard for some shorts and a loose t-shirt and slipped them on.

"Pizza's here!" MJ shouted from downstairs, and Gwen darted out of the room, suddenly feeling very hungry. Little did she know that a very red-faced Peter Parker was sitting in his room, eyes wide and mouth open.

Peter shook his head, trying to get the image of Gwen in her bra and underwear out of his mind. Was Gwen stalking him, or something? Or was it simply coincidence that she decided to go over to Mary Jane's house?

His mind kept playing the scene in his head. Gwen laughing while holding a frame. Gwen looking around the room, twirling a little as she did so. He noticed little details while watching her, trying to ignore the fact that it was quite stalker-ish of him. Her hair had always been one step behind her movements, the blonde mass swishing just a second after she'd jump. She walked around on her tiptoes when she was happy. She liked pulling strands of hair out of her ponytail, and then tucking them behind her ear. How her eyes lit up when she smiled and her habit of tugging at the bottom of her shirt.

And then he remembered her magnificent stomach and her legs and her boobs, and the colour of her underwear (her bra was black but her underwear was a nude colour that blended in very nicely with her skin tone). He felt embarrassed just thinking about it. It wasn't that he didn't like the sight of her like that – in fact, he really, really liked it – but he felt like he robbed a potential future moment, if he and Gwen would ever be together like that.

Peter was very much a virgin, and thinking about Gwen like that… he crossed his legs over his crotch, trying to hide the growing bulge in his pants from himself. Thoughts like that made him giddy and excited, but nervous and fumble-y too. He hoped that Gwen hadn't done it before, because the thought that someone else had seen her body made him clench his fists in anger.

He mindlessly fumbled with his newly devised web-shooters as his thoughts drifted back to the afternoon. He had made her laugh more than ten times, which pretty much made him feel invincible for the entire day. And then his spider-powers had acted up, and he had left her hanging like the idiot he was.

Peter was still trying to figure out what happened to him. So far, he knew that his actions were caused by the spider that bit him, but he had accidentally squashed it and therefore couldn't examine it. He had wanted to go to Doctor Connors about it, but he didn't have the time today, so he planned on going tomorrow. But so far, these powers had been quite cool.

The lights suddenly shut off, and Peter groaned. Rain had been pouring heavily the whole night, and that had probably caused a power cut. He stuck his head out of the door. "Aunt May, are you alright?" he called out. Aunt May didn't answer, so he crept down the hall to her room. Sure enough, she was fast asleep, probably because she had group outings every Saturday.

Peter could surprisingly see well in the dark. He grinned to himself as he digested the new fact. It made him feel all-powerful. But he walked back into his room and fished for his torch anyway, because although being able to see in the dark was cool, being without light made him feel edgy.

Suddenly, a strong sense of uneasiness took over. Peter couldn't describe it. It was a tingly sort of emotion in his gut that sort of stood for a warning of danger. It was vague, but powerful, sending chills down Peter's spine. He wanted to dismiss it, but knew somehow that something was really, terribly wrong.

Peter's gaze drifted towards Mary Jane's window. The bedroom was dark, signaling that his wasn't the only house that was struck by this blackout. But somehow, the darkness looked more menacing, and Peter knew that whatever this feeling was, it made one thing clear: Gwen was in danger.

He grabbed his web-shooters, attaching them to the sleeve of his sweater as he ran out the hallway, somehow knowing that Aunt May would be alright. He jumped down the stairs, landing with an easy grace and didn't even have time to ponder over it before he was out the door and jumping over the fence that separated his house from Mary Jane's.

Peter stopped at the doorway, somehow knowing that he couldn't just barge in. Because there was something in there that threatened the lives of the two girls, and he'd need to be careful if he wanted to save them. His mind was puzzled as to how he knew this, but he didn't really pay attention to how; rather on what next.

Peter slithered to the back of the house, pausing by the wall and closing his eyes, listening intently. By this time, his mind had given up to how he would be able to listen to what's happening inside when there was a concrete wall in between. He strained a little, trying to expand his hearing capabilities.

"– what I don't get, though, is how the fire went out –"

"Gwen, shut up! You're scaring me!"

Peter grinned in relief, as he didn't detect any other voice in the room. Okay, Pete, time to head home. But the tingly sense refused to stop tingling, so he listened even more closely.

"I just don't understand…" Gwen was saying, sounding confused. "Maybe the rain was so heavy that it fell through the chimney and put the fire out. Yeah, that must be it."

"Gwen, shut up!" Mary Jane pleaded, half-whispering.

There was a sudden noise of a door being slammed shut, and the two girls' breaths hitched in fear.

"Was that –"

"No, was it you?"

"No! I'm right here, you idiot!"

Peter decided that he should probably start making a move now, and silently opened the back door. He knew that he shouldn't be sneaking in, because the girls didn't need to be even more scared than they actually were, but whoever – or whatever, a voice in his head said – was in this house with them, Peter wanted to remain undetected.

He slowly crept into the house, surprising himself by not knocking into anything and breaking apart his whole ruse. Wait, he thought suddenly, didn't I manage to stick to the ceiling during the train ride? Peter knew it was probably ridiculous to even try, but he placed his hand on the wall, and then the other. He took a silent breath, shutting his eyes and lifted both his feet against the wall, waiting for the unbalanced fall that would come.

When he didn't fall, Peter opened his eyes. It worked. He was sticking to the wall, like – like a spider! His excitement was short-lived when he heard a gruff voice shout, "Don't move!"

Peter immediately began climbing the wall, reaching the ceiling as if it were second nature. He climbed across the ceiling and into the living room he had been into a few times, and the breathing of the five different intruders suddenly became much more obvious.

"Please – please don't hurt us," he heard Mary Jane beg, and she yelped as one of the men clicked his gun.

"Which one of you owns this house?" the gruff man demanded, and Peter climbed to the hallway, where one of the men stood in a corner. It would be easy to take him out in the darkness; he would just have to do it very, very quietly.

"I do," Mary Jane whimpered, and Peter watched in dread as another man grabbed Gwen and pressed a gun to her head.

Despite the situation, Peter could just make out Gwen's annoyed expression. "Hey!" she shouted in protest, elbowing the guy. "Don't. Touch. Me."

The gruff man laughed. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?"

"What the hell do you want?" Gwen hissed, and Peter kept crawling to the hallway, praying that Gwen wouldn't do anything stupid.

"All I want is the money, and the jewelry. And anything else valuable in this house. You'll get the stuff for me, won't you?" he guffawed, and laughed even more as Peter assumed that MJ nodded.

"Hey!" another man yelled, and there was the sound of a struggle and something being thrown across the room. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You're messing with the wrong people," Gwen hissed, and the three men in the room roared in laughter.

Peter blocked out the rest of the conversation, thinking that Gwen would be able to handle it for a minute or two. He looked up – or down – from the ceiling and tried to decide how to take down the man, before thinking that he would just go with his gut. Peter landed stealthily behind the man and covered his mouth. The man instantly began struggling, trying to turn around to face him. Shit, he has a gun, Peter panicked, and spun the man around, using his web-shooters to web the man's mouth, preventing him from talking. The man's eyes widened in confusion, dropping the gun as he fumbled with the web over his mouth.

The web worked and the man was instantly silenced. Going with his gut, Peter elbowed the man's head with unnecessary force. The man collapsed, unconscious, as Peter stared. He had just taken out a burglar within a few seconds. Make sure he doesn't wake up, a voice in his head whispered, and within seconds the man was webbed to the wall.

Peter hardly had time to admire his work before he started on the second man, who looked even bigger than the man before. No matter; Peter quickly webbed the man's mouth and squeezed his throat, knowing that it would hit a pressure on his throat and make him pass out. Sure enough, the man collapsed and Peter hurriedly webbed him to the wall.

Back in the living room, the men were starting to get impatient. Gwen had tried stalling them the best she could, leading them on with some information they had recently found did not exist.

"You've made a big mistake, coming here," she said in a menacing voice, although her expression faltered. One of them had tossed her phone aside and it was broken. Mary Jane's was all the way upstairs. Gwen couldn't call any of her parents; she had no way. She was on her own.

Deciding that she should act now, she remembered her mother's training. Aim for the lower back, for the pressure point. It will temporarily paralyse your enemy. Gwen aimed a kick at the man's lower back but missed, hitting his thigh instead. He groaned and dodged her next blow.

"Gwen!" MJ was screaming, and a man held her back. "What are you doing?" she screeched before her screams were muffled.

Gwen felt one of them behind her and turned around – just to see the man being swiftly lifted off the ground. She whirled around as the man holding MJ suddenly disappeared with a yell, and whipped her neck around to see where he went.

"Who are you?" the last man yelled, holding out his gun. "Where are you?" he yelled, before someone leapt down and hit him.

Gwen didn't know what she saw; it was all happening too fast, and suddenly the unknown person had taken the robber out and disappeared. The unconscious robber was lying on the ground.

The lights flickered back on, and Gwen heard MJ cry out in relief as the room instantly brightened.

"Oh my god," Mary Jane was gasping; shedding tears Gwen didn't see before. She pulled the blonde into a tight hug, and released her, checking her over. "I can't believe that happened – you're so stupid, Gwen, what on Earth made you think you could take them on? We need to call the cops – get these guys arrested –"

"MJ," Gwen interrupted, as she stared at the spot where the last guy was taken out. "We can't call the police."

MJ looked at her like she was ridiculous. "Of course we need to, wouldn't your dad -!"

She gasped at the sight before her. Gwen crouched down beside the man, who was literally webbed to the floor. He was lying spread eagled, with a web-like substance holding him down. Gwen reached out a hand to touch it, and MJ protested.

"Don't touch that!" she hissed. "It might be dangerous, and –" She whimpered as Gwen touched the substance anyway, pulling some strands of the sticky substance away as she pulled back. Something hard suddenly fell on her head, and she yelped and jerked backwards, observing the object that hit her. A fifty-cent coin. But coins didn't really hurt unless they were dropped from a high distance.

Slowly, Gwen looked up, and gasped in shock at the sight before her. Two men were hanging off the ceiling, each having one hand and one foot strapped to the ceiling with the web-like substance. MJ must have followed her gaze because she let out a shriek behind Gwen. "Didn't you say that there were two more guys?" Gwen asked her, and she nodded, her green eyes wide and her red hair flopping on her shoulders.

Gwen walked out to the hallway, but even though she mentally prepared herself, she still jerked back in shock at the sight of two more men strapped to the wall like a spider catches a fly.

"MJ!" she called out, still staring at the two unconscious men as MJ came running into the hallway. She was going to say 'call the Avengers', but she wouldn't be able to explain to MJ how she memorized their number, and they didn't make house calls anyway. That would only result to… "Call the police," Gwen sighed, knowing there wasn't much else she could do.

"Gwen?" MJ asked in a small voice, and Gwen turned to look at her friend, noticing how frightened she really was. "Who helped us? Who did this to them?"

Gwen was honestly only trying to figure it out herself. Who was it she had seen, who moved so quickly and blended in with the shadows? How had they used this web thing? Why did they help them?

Gwen merely shook her head, sighing. "I don't know, Em, but I wish I did."

So how was it? Should I add in more improvised chapters and add in more scenes like this? Or should I just stick to TASM storyline? Or maybe more chapters of fluff? It's your choice! Review!