AN: (--) is garbled speech.

Fighting Back

It did not take long for our friendly neighborhood wallcrawler and the Commander to return to the bridge. When they entered, they noticed that the footlocker was already there and ready to receive their explosive deposit. Crenshaw gave Spider-Man the device to secure it with all the others.

Before placing the one he had inside, the wallcrawler added some webbing around the ones that were currently inside the footlocker for a little insurance so that they wouldn't go off if jostled. He then did the same with his and carefully closed the footlocker while locking it.

"Is there any place special you want this precious cargo, Captain?" Spider-Man asked, carefully lifting the footlocker up.

"Over in the far corner should be fine, Spider-Man," was the Captain's reply.

Once he placed the container in the corner, the wallcrawler lashed it down with some webbing.

Spider-Man was about to discuss the current situation with the Captain and Commander Crenshaw until he caught sight of Mary Jane.

"I see you made it back in one piece," she said with relief.

"That I did and not a scratch on my costume either," Spider-Man replied as he searched his costume for any marks. "I need to talk things over with the Captain about what our next move is."

"Any ideas?"

"Maybe, how did things go up here?"

"Nothing unusual, I guess Shocker still thinks he has the upper hand in this situation."

"Well, he's going to be shocked learning otherwise."

They both chuckled at that comment. Spider-Man turned to head over to the Captain but Mary Jane stopped him. She gave him a quick peck on the check and whispered, "I love you, Peter."

He gave her hand a caring, gentle squeeze and nodded his head to tell her he felt the same. Letting go of her hand, Spider-Man joined the conversation that Commander Crenshaw was having with the Captain.

"Commander Crenshaw was telling me what happened, Spider-Man. But before we continue, on behalf of myself and the crew, thank you for everything that you have done thus far," Captain Miller thanked the wallcrawler.

"All in a day's work," replied Spider-Man. "But we still have Shocker and some of his men to take care of yet. Also, we need to find room to lock them up while they're still on board."

"Any thoughts on the prisoner situation?" Captain Miller asked, offering the question to not just Crenshaw but any other member of the crew that was in earshot.

While there was talk amongst the crew, Spider-Man thought of something. "You wouldn't happen to have a cargo area on board that would work?"

"I'll take a look at the ship's manifest to see what we have on the ship," offered the First Officer.

A nod from the Captain was all she needed to get to work on that and using the bridge's computer would make the job that much quicker.

"We haven't taken on anything that required a lot of space so it shouldn't be a problem to use that extra room," Lieutenant Commander Marshall informed.

"Of course, we'd have to have guards down there when the men are taken into custody," added Crenshaw.

"All right, Crenshaw, get a few of your men to ready that area," ordered the Captain.

"Aye aye, Sir."

Spider-Man then mentioned, "With that taken care of, our next move should be to get as many of Shocker's men out of the way as possible. The best way to do that is just like we did for the bombs. But no one is to go to where Shocker is because we'll save that for last."

"Why is that?" a curious member of the bridge crew asked.

"He's got passengers in there as hostages that we need to consider before we do anything because one thing I don't want to see happen is this turning into a blood bath."

"I agree with you, Spider-Man," stated the Captain as he felt the same as the wallcrawler.

"We'll use the same groups as before and with some of the decks already taken care of, we can add an extra member to each group. I'll let you handle that while I try to get in touch with the Avengers again."

Spider-Man left the group and motioned for Mary Jane to join him as used his ID card to reach his fellow Avengers. The card's screen was filled with static but was clearing a little bit so that he could make out someone whom he assumed was Jarvis.

"Is that you, Jarvis?" Spider-Man asked, hoping his question got through the static.

"Master --Man, -- is you?" was the Avengers' man servant's reply.

"I can barely hear you but I hope you get this. The cruise ship that Mary Jane and I are on was hijacked by Shocker and several men under his employ. He planned on sinking the ship if his demands weren't met. So far, several members of the crew and I were able to disarm the bombs. We can use any back up the rest of the Avengers can give."

"Can -- repeat?"

The wallcrawler went over what had told Jarvis again, hoping that he got it this time. He also let Jarvis know that Tony could get any information he need from the cruise line since Shocker had made a ransom demand to them.

"I'll inform -- Stark and Captain -- know about what is ," Jarvis' garbled voice advised.

"Great, the crew and I will hold down the fort for now," Spider-Man replied, relieved that help would be on the way.

"-- well then, take care of -- and Mrs. --."

But before Spider-Man could answer back, the card's screen became filled with static again until it went completely blank.

"Hopefully, Jarvis can pass on enough of my message so that we can get some of the Avengers out here," he told Mary Jane.

"Uh huh, but at least you got something out. So now what are you going to do?" Mary Jane asked her husband.

"Before we tackle Shocker and whoever else he has with him, we'll do a deck search to pick up any of his men. Of course the ones where we already have picked up his goons we won't have to worry about."

"Good, because I'm going with you."

Peter was a taken a little off guard by his wife's comment. "What do you mean by that?"

"This time, I'm helping you. I can't stand being here doing nothing. I want to help, in some way."

"I don't want you putting yourself in danger like that."

"But I won't be as long as I go with you," Mary Jane pleaded along with using her greatest weapon against Peter, the dreaded puppy eyes.

Aw, MJ did you have to use those? Peter thought when he came to a decision. "Alright, you can come but as long as you do exactly what I tell you to do."

"Thank you for letting me do this." She rewarded her husband with a kiss on the cheek before walking over to where everyone was gathered.

"You ready, webhead?" Commander Crenshaw asked, eager to get this next step in regaining full control of the ship back.

Spider-Man answered, "Yeah, we just don't need to worry about the bottommost deck and the one up here. So, how many per group, Commander?"

"We got groups of four but it'll be just you and me as the last group. All right, you've got your assigned decks, let's move out."

The groups began leaving the bridge to their go about their assignments while Spider-Man held back the Commander to inform him of an addition to their group. "It won't be just the two of us this time."

"Why is that?"

Mary Jane jumped in to provide the answer, "Because I'm going with you."

"Are you sure about that?" a stunned Crenshaw asked not knowing his partner's reasoning about bringing Mary Jane along.

"I'm very sure about this and I know of a way that we can best use her talents for this plan."

Both Mary Jane and Commander Crenshaw gave the wallcrawler quizzical looks as the left the bridge having no idea what Spider-Man had in mind.

With the added numbers to each group, it would not be too difficult for some of them to capture any of Shocker's minions. So far when the Shocker's men had been encountered, they were only in pairs and that would be a major plus for taking them down. As Spider-Man's group continued to their respective deck, they were given word that some of the other teams had encountered Shocker's men and were in the process of apprehending them.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Crenshaw asked as they arrived on their deck to commence their search.

"Of course it will work and I'll be right with her all the way," answered Spider-Man as he gave Mary Jane a confident pat on the shoulder and then leapt up to cling to the ceiling.

Spider-Man had discussed his plan on the way. It pretty much consisted of Mary Jane being able to lure whoever it was that was watching that particular deck and for her teammates to use the element of surprise to capture Shocker's men with little to no fuss.

The Commander would have to stay back far enough so that he could keep Mary Jane in sight and to help the webslinger when needed. As for Spider-Man, he would be right on top of the situation quite literally since he would be right above her.

Using his spider-sense, Spider-Man pointed them in the direction they should go. It didn't take them long to run into the pair of men that Shocker had guarding the deck.

"Lookee what we got here," a heavy set man said as he approached Mary Jane.

"She sure looks fine, Tiny," the other man mentioned appreciatively.

"You got that right, Mikey. You do know sweet cheeks that you're not supposed to be out roaming the halls."

"I'm sorry, fellas," Mary Jane apologized in a seductive voice. "I was getting bored being all cooped up so I wanted to stretch my legs a little bit."

"And those sure are lovely legs beaut—" Tiny was saying when he was caught off.

"This is Jenson reporting in, all clear on deck 3. We are now bringing…" the report came over Crenshaw's radio, which was loud enough for everyone to hear.

"All right, beautiful, what the hell is going on here?" Tiny asked not too politely.

"And you better answer my buddy properly if you know what's good for ya," added Mikey who had grabbed Mary Jane from behind.

"If I were you, I would take my hands off the lady," Spider-Man warned from above.

Both Mikey and Tiny looked up when Spider-Man greeted the larger of the two men with both feet to the big man's chest, knocking him down.

"That's why." Mary Jane gave Mikey an elbow to the gut to get him to let her go. Then, she cupped her hands together and smacked her captor in the jaw.

With both men down, Spider-Man wrapped them up in webbing.

"You both all right? I must've forgotten to turn down my radio. Sorry about that," Crenshaw explained as he came over to them.

Mary Jane and Spider-Man nodded as both him and Crenshaw gathered the two men and began their trek to the make shift prison in the cargo hold.

When they got there, they found out that the other decks had been cleared and that the men were brought in already. Spider-Man and Crenshaw brought their men in and the wallcrawler secured the rest with some webbing. Before leaving, the Commander made sure there were enough men to stand guard and make sure no one would make a break for it.

The trio then headed to the elevator to get back up to the bridge.

"With that now taken care of, there's just one thing left to do," Crenshaw said.

"Yeah and Shocker won't be too happy about what's happened, especially when he sees me," Spider-Man replied as they got off the elevator and went to talk to the Captain.

AN: As always, please feel free to leave review because I would like to hear what you think about this story. Constructive criticism is very welcome but no flames.