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Chapter Twenty-Eight

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School on Friday passed by in an agonizingly slow manner. That, added on top of his frustration at not seeing any sign of Mary Jane's dad last night while on patrol made the daytime for Peter extremely brutal to get through. No matter what, it was always difficult for him to just sit still ever since he'd been bitten by that spider. The bubbling energy he felt inside made it nearly impossible. Add worry or concern on top of that? Peter was about to burst.

He'd have to make sure to get in some web-swinging in after school for a couple of hours before he went and picked up Mary Jane.

He sighed. Mary Jane… Despite everything, he couldn't wait to see her. Even if the very sight of her cause his mind to tumble in angst and confusion and desire - all in equal measure.

To help occupy his mind, Peter helped Harry hang fliers all over the school with his address for the party. It was weird, being so heavily involved in the planning part of the party rather than being the one that was deliberately excluded. But it was a good weird. It almost felt like the tides were changing for Peter's social life within the social hierarchy of high school. He knew that he would never be as popular as Harry, but he could now safely say that he was no longer at the bottom tier.

When the final bell for the day rang, Peter had burst out of his seat in relief. He had already had his backpack loaded and he was ready to go out and enjoy the afternoon blowing off steam until he had to return home to shower and dress for the night.

Aunt May was really excited that he was going to the party with Mary Jane, even when Peter told her that they were only going as friends. That didn't seem to matter to May as she was under the assumption that if anything, tonight was going to lead somewhere between Peter and Mary Jane. He let her have her fantasy for now, knowing that he would have to burst that bubble tomorrow morning when she asked him how his night went.

Still, the one good thing about May's excitement was that she had helped him pick out his outfit for tonight. When they had been going over the options the night before while standing in front of his open closet, May had even remarked how she liked what he was doing with his hair now.

Peter flushed at the reminder of Mary Jane's fingers against his scalp, deliberately messing up his hair. Since then, he only styled it enough to lightly tame the wild waves but otherwise, let them go free.

Mercifully, the hours seemed to pass by quickly as he swung through the city and in no time at all, it was already time for him to return back home to his apartment. May was already waiting for him in his bedroom and practically shoved him toward the shower. He had admit, her excitement was infectious.

Once clean and rid of the sweat he had accrued from his web-slinging, Peter changed into the dark jeans, plain white t-shirt and black sport's jacket that his Aunt May paired with some stylish brown boots that she had just bought for him from Nordstrom.

When he had finished and vacated his bedroom, Aunt May had given him one look before declaring, "Mary Jane won't know what hit her, Pete. You look so handsome."

Peter didn't really know about that, but he let the comment slide so that Aunt May could have her fun. Soon, she had ushered him into the car and was driving him over to the apartment that Mary Jane was staying in under Peter's watchful navigation.

When they arrived outside of the building, Peter leaned over and planted a kiss on May's cheek. "Thanks for helping me, May."

She only smiled and pulled him in for a tight hug. "Knock 'em dead, sweetie. Love you."

He pulled back and opened the door as he said, "Love you, too."

Peter walked around the car and onto the sidewalk and waited until May pulled into traffic again safely before he entered the building. This apartment was fancy, so at the front desk, they had a concierge that vetted all visitors before they alerted the apartment for you. He was surprised that the process didn't take overly long and was glad that he was immediately granted access to the elevators beyond.

On the ride up, Peter fidgeted with the cuffs on his jacket as he shifted from side to side. "This is no big deal," He told himself as he watched the numbers rise steadily up toward the twelfth floor "You've hung out with her plenty of time. This time is no different."

By the time the elevator doors dinged open, he almost believed his words.

He knocked as soon as he approached the door, before he lost his nerve. It would also be weird to linger outside since she already knew that he was on his way up.

Only a few seconds passed before the door opened and… there she was.

Peter swallowed. She was wearing a black, mesh lace one-piece with a high-waisted forest-green flared mini skirt over it. Her top had a slight plunging of the neckline and showed off the top curves of her soft-looking cleavage. His higher brain function shut down and narrowed down to one singular thought - boobs.

Peter cleared his throat as he shook his head slightly, trying to force himself to not react by hardening in his pants while in front of Mary Jane. He'd found over the last week that what worked to stop this was to picture Mary Jane's father and the significant danger that he still posed. With his mind clear, he forced himself to stare at Mary Jane's face. He would try his best not to let his gaze wander for the rest of the night.

"You look fantastic," He nearly breathed.

Her response had been worth braving the compliment as she positively glowed as she beamed at him. "Thanks, Tiger. You look great too."

Gosh. How was he expected to make it through the night when she spoke in such a sultry voice? She was like the female version of Frank Sinatra.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked, "Mr. Hogan insisted on driving us tonight."

Why did that not surprise him? Happy was taking the over-protective role a bit too far. But, he supposed that he shouldn't complain. It was better than taking the bus to Harry's house.

"Yeah, let's go," Peter said as he stepped out of the way to let Mary Jane step through first.

"Ever the gentleman," She commented sweetly, as she stepped through, closing the door behind her before turning and locking it with her key.

The ride over had been a silent and awkward affair, with Happy glaring suspiciously at the two of them through the rearview mirror. There had been multiple times where he would look over and catch Mary Jane's gaze before she would roll her eyes at Happy with a mocking grin.

When they finally arrived at Harry's house, they both gaped as they realized that it wasn't a house at all… it was a full-scale mansion, with a mixture of old-syle white marble pillars with modern black stone. There was even a gate in front of the house - though it was blown wide open as students of every age from his school filtered in.

Happy stopped the car several feet past the house and put the car in park. Then he turned in his seat to look at both of them. "I'll pick you both up at 9:45 sharp. I want you to be outside by that time comes." He said this more toward Mary Jane, almost as though he were anticipating her defiance in this matter. But Peter answered for the both of them.

"Of course. Thanks for the ride, Happy."

When Happy's eyes shifted over to Peter, they softened somewhat. "Have a good time, Kid. You've earned it."

Peter gave him a nod as he opened his door and tried to rush around to open the car door for Mary Jane but she had beaten him to it and was already out and waiting for him. She grinned at him, which he couldn't help but return as he indicated with his head that they start walking. "Ready?"

She paused and her eyes surveyed him for a moment, seriously worrying Peter that something was on his face, before she said, "Wait. We should probably plan how we want to play this. We can't just walk in with a foot of space between us. That won't prove anything to Flash at all."

His brows raised at what she seemed to be proposing as his cheeks flushed. "So, uh, what do you suggest?" He asked as he saw in his peripheral that Happy was now pulling away from the curb.

Twisting her lips, Mary Jane thought before she said, "I think that if I'm holding onto your arm, that should be fine. It will be a clear-cut message that way. No blurred or misconstrued lines."

Peter bit his lip in thought before he nodded and said, "Well, then…" as he offered his elbow toward her. She giggled as she stepped closer to lace her arm through his own. His entire focus was fixated on where they touched.

"Let's go," She said, confident as they both began the walk forward to the front doors of the ridiculous mansion.

As they stepped through the opened doors, Peter immediately caught Flash standing nearby laughing with another junior in their class, Hobie Brown. From his position near the door, it was clear that Flash had been waiting for Peter's arrival - mostly likely wanting front row seats for Peter's humiliation when he showed up 'without' a date.

The overwhelming sensation of smugness washed over him as Hobie elbowed Flash in the side before nodding his head at Peter, with MJ hanging off his arm. The satisfaction that he felt at seeing Flash's face fall with mounting dread at the sight made Peter feel like he was ten feet tall. Immediately, Peter led Mary Jane his way and didn't stop until they both stood right in front of Flash's gaping face. Hobie patted Flash on the back sympathetically as he walked away.

"Flash," Peter said, trying to keep the sound of self-satisfaction and pride out of his voice. "I'd like for you to meet my date, Mary Jane Watson. Mary Jane, this is Flash Thompson."

Looking between the two of them, Mary Jane's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Oh. We've met once before. But I never did give him my name then."

Flash gaped for a moment longer at Mary Jane before he swiveled and turned to face Peter. "You got Fiesty Red to be your date? I've been trying to get my followers to find her social media accounts for weeks now!" He blurted out before he could stop himself. When the words caught up with him, he looked embarrassed.

Mary Jane shot an amused look over at Peter as he tried to smother a laugh. She could obviously tell that he was clearly enjoying this. "Yeah, she's my date alright. So it looks like you lost the bet, Flash."

Flash's eyes widened before they narrowed. "You told her about the bet, Parker? That's against the rules! I should win by default."

A smirk grew on Peter's lips as he quipped back, "But Flash, you never said that I couldn't sabotage."

He could tell the moment Flash caught that his own words had come back to haunt him. He shook his head and then turned to Mary Jane, with a speculative look in his eye as he looked her up and down. "So how much did Parker pay you to be his date?"

There had never been a moment before in Peter's life where he had wanted to hit Flash as much as now. Mary Jane stopped as his words registered before she raised a sardonic brow at him. "Are you trying to imply that I'm some sort of hooker?"

Flash's entire demeanor froze before he sputtered. "Wha- No! I mean-"

Mary Jane fixed him with a level stare and lowered her perfectly manicured brow. "You need to learn how to speak with the ladies because right now, you really don't have any game," Then she reached over and took Peter's hand in hers. "Come on, Tiger. Let's go get something to drink."

Peter went along with her, letting himself be dragged away behind her. He couldn't help looking back at Flash though, and he was amused to find that he was currently sporting an expression that resembled a goldfish.

"Okay," Peter said, squeezing the hand that held his as he leaned in close to yell at her over the pounding beat of the music, "You're officially my hero."

She gave a dramatic sigh as she turned around to face him, still walking backward as their hands were still connected. "Whatever would you do without me, Peter?"

Peter. She rarely ever called him by his real name. It sent a rush of pleasure down his spine at the sound of it coming from her lips. And as much as he loved the nickname that she gave him - as it sparked such familiarity between them - he couldn't help but want to hear his given name from her more often. He decided to point it out to her.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked as soon as they made their way to the table at the edge of the room, lined with cans of soda and bottles of varying types of water. Harry had really overdone himself for a simple high school party. What sort of teenager would go out of their way for sparkling water?

"Shoot," Mary Jane said as she picked up a bottle of plain water.

"Why do you call me 'Tiger'?" She looked up at him with a level of surprise at the question and Peter felt the need to clarify. "It's not that I don't like the nickname, I was just curious where it came from."

She threw her head back and started to laugh, he joined in somewhat - as her laughter was as contagious as ever - but he was still a bit confused as to why it was so funny. When she calmed down a bit, clutching her stomach to help regulate her breathing, she finally responded. "I'm sorry! It's just that, it's so silly now that I think about it. When I first saw you open that door the day that we met, it sort of just slipped out."

He raised a brow at her. "You mean when I hit the jackpot?"

She looked down at her hands that were holding the water bottle and actually flushed at his reminder. "Yeah… I may have been teasing you then."

"Oh really? I didn't notice." He said sarcastically before he chuckled and gave her a pointed look. "You had me so embarrassed then."

She looked up and nodded at him eagerly. "Oh, yes. It was a fun discovery to see how easy it was to rile you up and get you all flustered. It still is, but you've developed a bit of immunity since then."

He rolled his eyes at her but he still couldn't fight the smile on his lips. "That still didn't answer my question. Why 'Tiger'?"

Her lips pressed together for a moment to fight another burst of laughter. "I called you Tiger then because to me, you clearly weren't one. I thought that I had you all figured out the moment that I laid eyes on you. That you weren't a fighter. That you had no spark. But I've since been proven wrong many times on that assumption,"

"Huh." He said as he rocked back on his heels. That certainly wasn't the answer that he had been expecting. "I don't know whether to be offended that you pegged me as a sheepish weakling or grateful that you changed your mind."

Mary Jane took a drink of her water, completely unbothered before she swallowed and responded, "Oh. Definitely grateful, Tiger. It's a very rare occasion indeed when I completely change my mind about someone when I think that I already have them all figured out. In fact, you should feel honored."

"Wait. How did we go from me feeling offended to feeling honored? That's quite a leap through the whole range of emotions, isn't it?"

Mary Jane giggled, shaking her head at him in a mocking sort of way. "You gotta keep up, Tiger. I tend to live life in the fast lane."

Peter opened his mouth to respond when someone bumped into him from behind. He forced himself to stumble forward a bit at the onslaught, even though his body's natural reaction was to withstand it and not move an inch.

"Hey, watch it," Mary Jane complained pointedly at the large senior, who Peter looked up to see was Randy Robertson, the quarterback of the football team.

Randy grabbed at Peter's shoulders to help steady him, even though Peter was already on even ground now. "Oh. Sorry Parker," Then his eyes shifted over to Mary Jane and did an obvious scope of her body with his eyes. "Damn. I haven't seen you around school before."

She shot Peter an amused look before she looked up at Randy with a sultry expression on her face. "That's because I don't go to MSST. I'm Peter's date, actually."

Randy's eyes nearly bugged out from their sockets as he looked between the two of them. "Damn, Parker! You'll have to show me where you find your girls. Did he find you on the cover of Vogue or something?"

Mary Jane laughed. "First of all, I'm the one that found Peter, not the other way around. And that's a no to Vogue, but-" She paused and turned to meet Peter's eyes, an animated gleam in her gaze. "I am a model. Mr. Lincoln called last night. He loved the photos and is working up a contract as we speak."

Peter's eyes widened and before he could catch himself, he bounded over to her and caught her up in a tight hug. "Th-That's SO GREAT! Congratulations, MJ!"

She was laughing joyfully as she clung to him tightly, her arms around his neck.

"YO!" Randy called out to a group of seniors close by that were wearing letter jackets. "Parker's dating a model!"

Peter's face flushed at the assumption that he and Mary Jane were dating as he pulled back from the hug. He gave Mary Jane a sheepish look, which she giggled at before grabbing his hand in hers again. The heat emanating from her touch was otherworldly.

"Come on, Peter," She said as she started to drag him off again, much to his pleasure. "I believe that I promised you that I would show you some of my moves on the dance floor."

…

It took Flint a bit of time to track down Parker's residence. And even then, he wasn't entirely sure if it was the right one or not. There were numerous 'Peter Parkers' in the city, believe it or not. So, instead of barging in the front door and slashing Spider-Man before he could even blink, Flint snuck under the door as fine sand, trying to be as discreet as possible. Inside was a middle-aged woman who was so fucking hot, it caused Flint to falter for a moment. He watched her as she watched a crappy soap-opera on the T.V., and was actually crying at the terrible acting from the scene.

"How can he just leave her after she spent months nursing him back to health?" The woman cried softly to herself as she dabbed at her eyes with a kleenex before blowing her nose.

If he still had his normal body functions, he would have been tempted to proposition her - give something real to cry about. But it was Peter Parker's fault as to why he couldn't do that anymore. And for that, he was going to fuck this kid up good.

He crawled stealthily over the laminate flooring, just sand piling on top of sand. The slightest of rustles that couldn't be heard over the dramatic exclamations of love and loss on the television.

He checked the bedrooms. The first one was obviously the master suite. Flint reformed his body to look at a picture he saw on top of the dresser. He picked it up. In it, was the woman and a man next to her that was obviously her husband. And in the middle… a teenage boy with glasses.

This couldn't possibly be him. The kid was too much of a nerd. He set it down on the dresser again before he walked out and made his way to the other bedroom, forcing himself to be thorough while everything within him screamed that this was a dead end. The next bedroom obviously belonged to a teenager. With clothes all over the floor, posters all over the wall, and video games scattered by the T.V. in the bedroom.

This is where he needed to investigate to make sure whether this kid was the genuine article or not.

As quietly as he could, he started in the closet. Just a bunch of sweaters and t-shirts with bad science jokes on them that he didn't quite understand. He looked around the rest of the bedroom. Checking the desk drawers. Underneath the dirty clothes. He even checked behind the T.V.

Nothing.

Perhaps this one was a bust after all.

He was about to turn toward the bedroom window and make his escape through there when a thought struck him… and instead, he turned to face the bed.

When he was a teen, he had always stashed his porno magazines underneath the mattress so that his kid brother, Johnny, wouldn't be able to find and steal them. If his hunch was correct…

Flint walked over to the mattress and lifted it off of the boxspring. There, underneath, was not a porno - which he hardly expected in today's internet age of free porn - but a single small notepad. Reaching forward, Flint grabbed the notepad and lowered the mattress once again. He sat on the bed as he flipped the cover and read. The title told him all that he needed to know.

Web Fluid - Version 3.01

Underneath the title were a bunch of ingredients and formulas that he didn't understand. But what he did comprehend from this piece of paper was one thing - that he's found the right Peter Parker.

He turned the next page of the notebook. There - a drawing of a mechanism device that helped him to shoot his webs, with detailed notes on how to build it. When he turned to the next page, it all but confirmed everything for him if he had any lingering doubt - it was a drawing of the spider-suit. His earliest model, by the looks of it. It looked similar to the one that Flint had fought him in weeks ago - that ridiculous home-made suit that made him look like a total moran.

This dweeb was the one responsible for ruining Marko's life? If anything, this information made Flint feel even more murderous. There was no way he could let this stand. This fucking kid was not going to be the one that have had the jump on Flint Marko.

He set the notebook down, looking around the room. It was obvious that the kid wasn't here right now. But Flint was itching to fight right now. He wanted to end this all in order to alleviate the burning rage that he felt in his chest.

He needed to go out and find Peter Parker… but wasn't even sure where to start.

As he looked around, his eyes landed on the computer in the room before he smiled ferally. With today's technology, it was easy to track people's locations by their phones when they had it on them. Especially if it was someone that was already in each other's contacts. With that thought, he stood. It looked like he was going to make himself known to the hot woman in the living room after all. He was going to force her to give him her phone and then he was going to use it to track Peter Parker's current location… which would be where he would end his fucking existance.

….

If Peter closed his eyes, he could pretend that he was living a different reality. Where Mary Jane was his girlfriend and they were just on another date together at a party. With Mary Jane's arms wrapped around his neck as they swayed and danced to the beat, it was easy to fall into that fantasy.

He really appreciated the lengths that she was taking to help him out here. Not only had she agreed to come as his date for tonight so that he won the bet against Flash, but she also let the entirety of his school believe that Peter Parker was now dating an up-and-coming model. But on top of everything else, she was really showing him a good time on the dance floor. It wasn't just the dancing and the way he got to watch her sway her hips in time with the beat - a very arousing sight, indeed - but every once in a while, he would eagerly watch as a tell-tale smirk would grace her features before she would lean forward and yell over the music in his ear a comment that she noticed about one of his classmates.

"Don't look now, Tiger, but that poor guy over there has toilet paper stuck in the back of his jeans."

Or-

"Can you believe it, Peter? That girl just threw her drink in that guy's face. Not quite an Alexander the Great party foul, but a party foul no less."

He was finding that as more time went by, she would start to make up ridiculous remarks that he knew for a fact weren't true.

"Ooooh. Peter, that Freshman over there just got dumped for wearing the wrong shoes!"

And-

"That Senior's dad just called. He's coming to pick him up because his son failed in Gym class and now he wants a paternity test."

Each one had Peter throwing his head back, roaring with laughter. He couldn't remember the last time he had let loose and allowed himself to have this much fun. With Mary Jane, all of his worries seemed to drift into the back of his mind.

They must have been there for about an hour when Harry finally approached them while they were taking a break from the dance floor for a water break. "Pete! Mary Jane!"

Mary Jane twisted her head around to face him and flashed Harry with the most dazzling smile. "Harry!"

She skipped forward to wrap him in a hug as Peter watched awkwardly from the sidelines, shifting from foot to foot. His heart may have clenched a bit at the sight of the two of them together.

They pulled back from the hug and Harry beamed down at her. "Thanks for coming, Lady. I'm glad that Pete was able to snag you for tonight. I may have gone a bit overboard and put him in a difficult situation with the bet…"

Mary Jane laughed with a roll of her eyes as she angled her body in order to include Peter in their conversation. "So I've heard… But don't worry, MJ was on the case."

She flashed Peter a winning grin at that but Peter had a difficult time mustering one in return. "Yeah, MJ has really gone all out in making sure everyone knows that Flash has lost the bet." Peter supplied instead.

Harry released a gleefully sinister laugh. "Finally! I've been waiting for karma to catch up with that guy for years now." Then he looked between Peter and Mary Jane before asking, "You mind if I take you out for a spin on the dance floor, Mary Jane?"

She shook her head with a wide smile as she said, "No, not at all. Peter?"

The tight-lipped smile that he gave in return felt unnatural on his features. But still, he forced the words out. "No, go ahead. I need a break anyway."

Harry nodded and held out his hand for Mary Jane to take. "Mi'lady?"

With a giggle at his antics, Mary Jane took his hand and together, they left Peter standing at the refreshment table. He turned and grabbed another bottle of water, opening it and nearly downing the entire thing in one go. When he finally came up for air, he sighed. Why did it hurt so much watching Mary Jane walk away with Harry? He already knew that there was something going on between the two of them. He would've thought that the foreknowledge would've helped to ease the pain a bit but it didn't. Not at all.

"So, you got ditched, huh?" A sardonic voice lulled from beside him. Peter jumped and looked over to the side to see Michele, leaning against the table as she watched him with arms crossed over her chest.

His brows drew in as her words caught up with him. "Uh, no. They are just going out for one dance."

The level stare that he got back was of dubious skepticism. "Mhmmm. Right. Five bucks says that she won't come back."

For a moment, he just stared at her in disbelief, wondering why she would even bother to say such a thing. Then, doubt started to creep up from the back of his mind. Mary Jane had already done her duty. She had come, showed up on his arm, danced with him… she really owed him nothing further than that and if she wanted to spend the rest of her time here with Harry, there was really nothing stopping her.

But there wasn't a response that he could come up with to say in return. He didn't want to prove Michele right. So, without another word, he just turned and walked away from her.

"Wait. Peter-" He heard behind him but he didn't stop. Instead he easily dodged and maneuvered his way through the mass of sweaty bodies until he made his way to the other side of the large entertainment room. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Harry and Mary Jane dancing and laughing together on the dance floor. It looked like she was having a really good time with him as she playfully did the shimmy in Harry's direction. He hated to admit it, but they looked good together.

He sulked against the wall, hidden behind a wall of people as he fought to regroup himself. For a moment, he considered being selfish - he could always donn his Spider-Man suit and visit her apartment tonight, tell her that he wants to give them a try. But it just felt so wrong - duplicitous. But as the minutes grew, the more tempting the idea was…

He considered that it was probably best that he wasn't alone right now and thoughts of finding Ned came to him. He left his spot against the wall to start his search. He only managed several feet when his spider-sense went off.

Peter froze. The world around him became hazy as the people blurred together in slow motion as he turned about wildly in a circle - trying to pinpoint the cause for his senses to start going haywire.

He spotted it a couple of feet in front of him, by the front door. A tall figure in a hat and a hoodie stood there with his back turned to Peter, seeming to try and be as inconspicuous as possible. Peter immediately started his approach, his mind so hyper-focused on the figure, he didn't even pause to consider that maybe he should be changing into his Spider-Suit first before confronting this stranger.

As soon as he was close enough, Peter reached out and gripped the shoulder of the figure and forcibly turned him so that he was face to face with the man. He gasped in horror at what he saw in front of him.

Mark Watson's golden metallic skin was unmistakable.

"You!" He cried, nearly staggering back in his shock at seeing Mary Jane's father here after all these weeks of searching for him. He could see the immediate recognition mirrored in Mark Watson's eyes as he sized up Peter's face. He remembered Peter, that much he could tell. But that didn't matter now. What mattered was what Peter was going to do in order to resolve this. He couldn't very well fight the Molten Man as Peter Parker in front of nearly his entire school. But he also couldn't risk changing into his suit in fear that Molten Man would get to Mary Jane during that time.

The man in front of him glared at Peter, but otherwise looked dismissive of him. He obviously didn't remember the punch that Peter had administered to his face months prior… "Look, I don't want any trouble, Kid. I'm just here for my daughter."

"No." Peter seethed immediately in retaliation, taking a menacing step closer as his mind calculated how best to activate his web-shooters underneath his clothes without anyone noticing - especially Molten Man. "You're not going near her."

He grabbed at Mr. Watson's arm, tightening his grip incrementally. Molten Man looked down at his arm before snapping his head back up to seethe hatefully at Peter. "You better rethink what you're doing right now, Kid. You seriously don't want to get me angry. I can barely control it-"

As he spoke, Peter could feel a significant heat temperature rise from where he was touching Mark Watson's arm. No. Not here. He couldn't burn up in here with everyone around in danger. Peter let go of Mark's arm immediately and raised his hands in what he hoped to be a placating manner. "Okay! Okay… Let's not discuss this here. We can go somewhere isolated and safe where we can talk about this."

Steam started rising from Mark Watson's clothing. "Who the fuck are you to tell me what I can and can't do? I'll leave as soon as I get my daughter."

Red clouded his vision and something snapped inside of Peter as he blurted out, "Can't you see that she doesn't want to go with you?!"

The punch to his chest came out of nowhere, sending him hurtling across the room and through the drywall dozens of yards away. As he landed in a heap on top of a grand piano in the other room with a loud bang, immediately he could hear the screams begin. The breath was knocked out of him but he didn't allow himself any time to recover. He tore off his shirt and double-tapped the spider-emblem on his chest as he reached into his pocket for his mask. His suit and web-shooters were now activated. He threw the mask over his head just as he leaped up into a crouched position on top of the ruined piano.

Through the gaping hole left in the wall that his body had made, he could see many people scattering - and beyond that, stood Molten Man, his entire body blazed in open flames.

With each step, he was causing a fire to spread. Smoke was quickly rising up from the blaze toward the ceiling as his classmates tried their best to escape. Molten Man picked up a nearby table and threw it up at the ceiling in his rage, which released one of the high beams to hurdle crashing onto the floor, trapping a few people under its weight as it fell onto them.

"MARY JANE!" He roared as he thundered through the room, his head turning about wildly in his search. "I KNOW YOU'RE HERE!"

His peers were screaming as they crawled over each other in order to get to an exit.

Peter leapt off of the piano and hurtled through the air toward the trapped students underneath the beam. They had to get out here fast! The way that Molten Man was moving around, the structural integrity of the building wasn't going to last. He lifted the heavy beam that had trapped the three people. One was a girl that he noticed was now unconscious, but he was surprised to find that one of the people had been Harry. As soon as he lifted the beam off of them, Harry clutched at his leg in pure agony. A couple of seniors ran past them then, and Peter immediately reached out to grasp at their letter jackets to prevent them from getting away.

"Wait!" He cried at them, forcing them to stop and look at him. Their eyes widened at seeing Spider-Man standing before them. Peter indicated to the three on the ground with his hand. "Help them get outside. Quickly!"

But before they could even respond, Peter was surprised to see Flash come up behind him out of nowhere as he bent down and scooped up the unconscious girl from off the floor into his arms. "I've got her, Spidey! You two help with the others!" He yelled at the seniors, then he turned to look at Peter and said, "Go kick some ass."

Peter allowed himself only a second of shock before he nodded and turned on his heel to run toward Mr. Watson. He had him in his direct line of sight. All that he needed to do was to keep him away from the others - especially Mary Jane. Gosh, he hoped that she already made it out of here. He didn't think that he would be able to focus if he had to worry about her safety on top of all of this. He needed to catch Mr. Watson unaware as he lined up his web-shooters to trap him in his heat-resistant webbing. He stupidly didn't bring any extra catridges of web fluid with him tonight so he only had a few tries to do this right.

It was at that moment, Molten Man spotted him, his entire face embodied rage and the fire seemed to grow more. "YOU!"

A ball of lava was immediately sent hurtling in his direction. Peter dodged as he leapt up in the air to attach himself to the wall. "You need to calm down!" Peter cried at him. "You're going to burn the whole place down!"

He was ignored as another shot of fire came hurtling his way, immediately emblazing the wall he had just vacated.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS?" Mark Watson cried, his hands now throwing continuous flames with no end in sight. The smoke was now rising to a dangerously high level. It was getting into his lungs. He couldn't help coughing as he kept dodging the flames getting hurtled his way.

As he tried to breathe, he focused himself to the best of his capabilities as he wracked his brain to come up with a strategy. Fast. The opportunity presented itself as he somehow managed to do a flip over Molten Man's head without him being able to follow Spider-Man's quick movements. Peter landed behind him and knew that it was the perfect vantage point to blast Mark Watson with his web-shooters.

He raised his wrists to do just that, when his spider-sense went off a split-second before something solid slammed into his side. He flew several feet in the air from the impact before knocking into yet another wall. He fell to the floor with a strangled groan and looked up to see what had caused the collision.

His entire face drained of blood underneath his mask at the sight of Flint Marko grinning deviously several feet in front of him. Slowly, his arm transformed into that of an axe.

"Hello, Spider-Man," He said in a deep and gravelly voice, "Or should I say, Peter Parker?"

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A/N: Dun. Dun. Dunnnnnn….! Thank you so much for reading this chapter! Please leave me a comment/review to tell me what you think of the story so far.

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