Peter rounded the corner, at last closing in on his target: a hijacked semi-truck. Some nutjob had apparently stolen a bunch of diamonds from a local jewelry store, then opted for the largest possible vehicle that he could find as a getaway when the cops showed up. It would almost have been laughable if the guy hadn't apparently been driving so dangerously. Peter's earpiece in his mask had been filled with reports coming in over the police radio of the driver's willingness to hit anything, or anyone, that got in his way en route to his escape.

Basically, he needed to shut this down, and he needed to do it quickly.

Shooting a web, Peter pulled it taught, yanking himself forward. He somersaulted in midair, landing on all fours against the top of the cab. It took only a couple of seconds before his spider sense went off, the guy drawing his gun on him. As he evaded the bullets, Peter's spider sense alerted him to something else: an old man crossing the street slowly about a hundred feet ahead of them.

Realizing that his time was running out, Peter decided to take action. Leaping just to the side of the vehicle, he shot a web to the top of the cab, yanking himself inside feet first, kicking the driver clean out the door as a result. He only barely managed to shoot a web line that stuck the criminal to a streetlight before quickly grabbing the now open door with both hands, wrapping himself to the front of the vehicle. Planting his feet into the ground as firmly as he could, Peter slammed his hands into the grill, pushing against it as he bent his knees, desperate to bring the vehicle to a stop.

"Come on!" he shouted through gritted teeth, digging in even harder.

The vehicle finally came to a stop, and Peter turned around, slumping against the now bent-in grill. The old man he'd just saved was now just standing there, staring at him. From the blank but frustrated look on his face, he wasn't sure how much the older gentleman knew regarding what had just transpired around him.

"Will you be careful?" the man scolded. "I'm walking here!" He continued to grumble as he kept walking, muttering something about "kids these days" while Peter stood up again, coming around the cab and observing as the man was now surrounded by the cops that had been in pursuit of him. Jumping into the cab, Peter grabbed the container full of the diamonds that the man had stolen, which thankfully appeared undamaged despite the intense scenario that had previously surrounded them.

Walking up to one of the cops, Peter handed over the case of diamonds.

"Here you go," he said as he passed them along. "I'm sure that these will make some ladies out there much happier than they would me."

On that note, Peter fired a web and swung off, heading in the direction of his apartment. He was just a few swings in when his phone started ringing. He pulled it out to see that it was Mary Jane, quickly hitting the answer button.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I know I'm running late."

"Just wanted to see where you were," his fiancé explained.

"I had to stop a runaway vehicle on the other side of the city," Peter explained. "Still, I should be there soon; of course, that's all assuming that I don't get interrupted again."

"It's okay," Mary Jane assured him. "I'll text Liz and tell her that we are going to be a bit late to the party."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can," Peter said. "Love you."

"Love you too," she replied.

Putting his phone away, Peter redoubled his web swinging efforts as he sought to pick up the pace. In a perfect world, he would just now be picking Mary Jane up at her place and the two of them would be heading over to Liz's already. His fiancé's best friend and business partner was the one who the two had decided would host the staff party for all the workers of their store as they celebrated the forthcoming opening of their second location the next day. Of course, the world was not perfect, bad guys existed, and Spider-Man was needed.

Now, if Spider-Man could just not be needed for the next few hours so that Peter Parker could be where HE was needed, that would be great.


Unfortunately, Parker luck won out once again. He'd almost made it back to his place too, when Peter was alerted to a mugging nearby. He called M.J. again as he made his way to handle the situation, telling her that she should just go ahead if she wanted to make it on time and that he would meet her there. She rebuffed his suggestion, reiterating that she would wait.

It didn't end up taking very long to dispatch with the low-level jerks that made the poor choice to harass a young woman just because they could. However, the lady, who Peter guessed was likely no older than twenty-two, was particularly frightened even as the threat around her was no more, so Peter had chosen to stay with her until the police finally arrived on the scene to help her feel safe and try and calm her down. After that, he finally managed to make it back to his apartment, quickly scrambling inside. Removing his gloves and mask, Peter threw on his nicer clothes for the evening as fast as he could and was still fiddling with his tie even as he scrambled at the door, where he found Mary Jane waiting in the hallway, leaning against the wall. He also noticed that she was wearing his favorite dress of hers, the long, flowing red one.

She came up to him.

"Sorry I'm so late," he apologized.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Peter moaned, finally getting his tie at least decent. "Just, you know, the usual. Sometimes I feel like the city's housekeeper or something, you know? There's always a mess to clean up. Seriously, you probably should have just gone ahead."

M.J. just smiled, coming over and putting the finishing touches on his tie.

"And miss walking in next to this?" she replied. "You really do clean up nicely when you want to, Tiger."

"Thanks, I think," Peter said. "You're looking amazing, as always."

"Thank you," M.J. replied. She leaned in, giving him a kiss.

"Shall we?" she said, taking him by the hand.

"Lead the way," he replied as they made their way to the elevator. They descended the building and out the front door, flagging down a cab for the trip to Liz's place. Ever the gentleman, Peter opened the door and let his fiancé in first, with M.J. giving a polite thank you in return. They spent most of the drive in light, breezy conversation as they went before eventually arriving at their stop. It would still be about a two-block walk to Liz's apartment, but selfishly, Peter didn't really mind the extra one-on-one time.

"How's Eddie been recently?" M.J. spoke up. "Last I talked with Anne, she said that he'd been keeping particularly busy with work. You two on the trail of some Pulitzer Prize winning story, perhaps?"

Peter rolled his eyes, letting out a light huff through his nostrils.

"No, not really," he answered. "Not yet anyway, though something tells me that another Pulitzer isn't exactly on his mind right now."

M.J. tilted her head, narrowing her eyebrows in curiosity as they walked.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I don't know," Peter began, "it's just...ever since you and Anne were taken hostage last year, he's just been a little different."

"Different how?" M.J. questioned. "You think he's still upset with you?"

"No," Peter assured her before backtracking a little. "Well, I think we've mostly worked past it anyway. He's just been really trying to take as many stories pertaining to crime in the city as he can now."

"That's weird," M.J. said. "I mean, I know that crime makes for big stories, but he's never been one to just fixate on one area of the news."

"Yeah," Peter said. "I think he's convinced that there's some new crime lord in power, or at least he wants to try and get to the bottom of whoever's behind the 'organized' part of the city's crime."

"What do you think?" Mary Jane questioned. "Have you heard any whispers among the city's worst?"

"Not really," Peter said, "but given its history, I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone."

"I remember you talking about taking down someone like that before," Mary Jane remarked.

"Yeah, but you know what they say about nature abhorring a vacuum," Peter replied. "Sadly, the underworld has always tended to be a perfect example of that. He said that Anne's been doing some digging into that from the D.A. office too though, so maybe I really am just overthinking it. Who knows, maybe this is even good for them?"

They rounded the corner of the last block, Liz's apartment building now coming into view.

"On a happier note," M.J. said, grabbing and tugging playfully at Peter's arm, "today is exactly five months to the day until we officially tie the knot!"

Peter's fiancé's smile was about as bright and happy as he'd ever seen, and it made his heart swell with joy until it burst from his chest.

"Wow," he remarked, "it's almost like someone's been counting down the days or something."

"And you haven't?" M.J. questioned, her tone half playful/half serious.

"No way," Peter teased. "You know me; if I do that, I'll develop more and more existential dread and question whether I deserve you, what kind of life I can give you, etc."

"Well, I want you to get those thoughts out of your head right now," M.J. said, moving in front of him and stopping him just before they could reach the entrance to the building. She took both of his hands in her own before continuing: "I'm not marrying you because I got sick of being single and was willing to settle for some dorky guy who happened to live next door to me. I'm marrying you because that dorky guy next door makes me the happiest woman on earth; you have shown and continue to show me a love that I've never known and didn't think I deserved either. I love you, Peter Parker, and believe it or not, it just might actually be because you are deserving of that love."

Peter smiled, looking down at their joined hands.

"Well thank you," he replied as he matched her gaze again. "Granted, I'm sure that nothing you said will do much to quell my neuroses, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it."

M.J. smiled, letting out a light giggle in response as the two of them met for another kiss.

"Oh, and I love you too, by the way," Peter said once they separated. "You know, just so you're aware that it's mutual."

"Well, thank you for clarifying that," M.J. teased. "I was really starting to wonder there for a second."

After sharing a mutual chuckle, Peter took M.J. in his right arm, the two of them finally entering the building.


"Man, it never ceases to amaze me how small it looks from out here. It really lends some perspective, doesn't it?"

Eric sighed.

"John, as much as I agree with you about how nice the view is, that's not why we're here," he reminded his friend and captain through their shared com devices in their suits.

"Oh, don't be so uptight, Eric," John replied. "A man can both work and appreciate things at the same time. Besides, we still have plenty of time left on our little lunar excursion before we're due to land anyway."

"Which we're going to need since we seem to be struggling to find and collect all the samples we're looking for," Eric added. "How are you doing over there, anyway? Any luck?"

"Not yet," John said. "I...wait."

"What is it?" Eric asked.

"I think I found something," John replied. "Get the containment device and bring it over here, would you?"

Eric obliged, ceasing his own work and retrieving the containment unit for the samples they were sent to collect and bring back for study. He made his way over to his captain, utilizing the lack of gravity as he hopped along until he reached John.

"What did you find?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," John said, still chipping away at a small area. Finally, he uncovered it, revealing a small chunk of rock that looked different from the surrounding area.

"What is that?" Eric asked.

"Not sure," John said, taking the chunk in his hands. "It almost looks like a tiny piece of an asteroid got chipped off and ended up here."

"Whatever it is, the big bosses should be happy to see it," Eric said. He started to open the containment unit.

"Eric, look."

The man turned back, examining the small chunk of space debris once more. His eyes could have been deceiving him, but it looked almost as if something was shifting around inside a small hole within it.

"Are you seeing this?" John said.

"I think so," Eric replied. "Is there something inside there?"

Suddenly, Eric's question answered itself, as a strange black ooze began seeping out of the hole, slowly beginning to encase the rock and moving to the hands of John's suit.

"Eric, open the unit!"

The man did not hesitate, quickly heeding his captain's instructions. John promptly dumped the sample and the mysterious substance inside it before Eric sealed it up, securing the contents within.

"Okay, that was creepy," John remarked.

"Agreed," Eric said. "I'm going to go secure this in the shuttle."

The man turned and began making his way to their ship.

"Eric, wait."

The man settled back on the lunar surface, turning to his friend.

"Maybe we should leave it here," John suggested.

"Leave it here?" Eric questioned. "Why?"

"We don't know what that...stuff in that sample is," John pointed out.

"Exactly, which is why our superior's will likely be most interested in studying it."

"I don't know," John said. "I just have a bad feeling about this. I'm curious about it too, but maybe some things out here should be left out here."

"John, this is a big opportunity for us," Eric reasoned. "Suppose it turns out that this stuff is actually ALIVE? I know, it's crazy, but what if it's true? Can you imagine what that would mean for both of our careers? Look, I'll personally check and double check and even triple check to make sure it's secure for the remainder of our little trip out here before we head home, if that would make you feel better."

John let out a heavy sigh.

"Alright," he finally conceded. "But if that thing ends up breaking out and implanting us with its offspring, know that you were the one that wanted this."


Well...here we go! I just want to give you all a heads up: this story will likely be the heaviest and most brutal I've done in this series yet, so buckle up!

Thank you again to all who have been so supportive of this series, and I hope that this story delivers for you guys yet again.

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!

"I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord'; apart from You I have no good thing.'" Psalm 16:2