A/N: This story is set in the comic-verse, where Peter and MJ are married but currently separated; and where MJ has been pregnant, but had a stillborn baby (maybe…!).
Surprise villain too!
Cheers!
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Chapter 3.
With a sudden heave that could have looked almost like panic to any observer who happened to be watching, Spider-Man pushed apart the elevator doors that led to the fifth floor, just as another unearthly wail began echoing up the shaft again. He'd go and find the stuff MJ needed, then see if he could carry the woman into one of the apartments on this floor - it had to be more comfortable than the floor of an elevator car. He didn't doubt MJ's assessment of the situation, and swiftly found the stairs opposite the small elevator lobby. Some natural light filtered in through narrow rectilinear glass; enough to light his way as he shot out some webbing and swung down the middle of the stair well. In an instant he reached the first floor, only to discover that the stairs did not continue down to the basement.
"There must be stairs down somewhere, perhaps further back inside…" Leaving the daylight behind him, Spidey followed the lobby where it divided around the side wall of the elevator, and down a small corridor to the service area of the building. He could rely on his spider-sense not to trip over anything in the dark, but he could also pass the door to the stairs; he lifted his top slightly and turned on his spider-signal, attached to his belt. Immediately the area was lit up with an eerie red glow that bounced along the walls and floor as Spider-Man moved along.
"I could be a real hoot at parties - I come with my own disco light!"
He found a door with 'Basement' written on it, and quickly went down. Three more doors confronted him at the bottom; none was labelled, and all were locked. Spider-Man was not happy, and became unhappier after he smashed the lock on the first door and his spider-sense began tingling.
"Oh great, I must've set off an alarm or something."
The first thing he noticed in the light of his signal as he entered, was that this room was not the sick-bay; the second was something glinting golden out the corner of his eye. Just before his spidey-sense intensified and before he could bring himself to actually react to it, something very hard slammed into him from the side.
…………………………………………………..
Meanwhile, Mary-Jane wasn't very happy either.
Amelia was in great pain with her labouring, and there was not a single thing MJ could do to relieve it. The best she could do - offering herself as support, talking to her, rubbing her back, offering sips of water - she felt was inadequate. Amelia was doing all the hard work.
The contractions were coming on so thick and fast, that Amelia didn't have time to recover from each one before the next arrived. Mary-Jane could tell it wouldn't be long now before the first stage was over. MJ wiped her own forehead, and pushed her hair back behind her ears. She had taken her coat off, she felt over-hot even with the cold. At this point, Amelia was dressed only in a top with a cardigan over her shoulders - she didn't seem to care about the temperature, clothing, or lack of it. All she was concentrating on were her contractions.
"I don't think I can take much more of this…" she whispered, her black hair lank and sticking to her face. MJ gently smoothed it away.
"You're doing fine, not much longer now."
Sure enough, with the next contraction MJ thought Amelia was about to pass out, the scream went on for so long without a breath being drawn. When it was finished, Amelia sagged against Mary-Jane, absolutely wasted with the effort. They waited together, MJ tense, for the next one to start.
Nothing happened.
A minute passed; two minutes, then three, and still nothing. Amelia didn't seem to care; she was obviously happy to have any sort of respite from the pain. But Mary-Jane began to worry. Had something gone wrong?
"Come on, come on…" she muttered under her breath. Where was Peter?
………………………………………………….
Spider-Man rolled and leapt up for the ceiling, clinging there while he got a look at what had hit him. He almost let go in surprise.
"Moltie!"
Mark Raxton, aka the Molten Man, stood revealed in the light from Spidey's signal. Spider-Man breathed a sigh of relief.
"If I'd known it was you behind the door I'd have knocked first." He jumped down from the ceiling to land beside Raxton. "So, what brings you to this neighbourhood?"
"None of your business!" growled Raxton.
"Hey, I was only trying to be friendly. Anyway, I hate to chat and run, but I've got an emergency on my hands…" Spidey turned to go out the door, but suddenly leapt out of the way, as his spider-sense warned him of another blow on the way.
"Hey!" he protested, flipping further into the room, "What gives? We're on the same side now, remember?"
"Not any more, we aren't. Not since I discovered the plans the government had in store for me. My skin may be impervious, but my heart isn't."
"Are you kidding me?"
"I don't kid."
Spider-Man watched as Raxton charged him, then at the last possible moment, flipped into the air and at the same time turned his spider-signal off. No point in giving Raxton the slightest advantage…
He didn't want to spend time fighting - he had to get back to MJ. Quickly and quietly, he crawled along the ceiling above Raxton's head, and through the door. He had to try and open one of the other doors as silently as he could, and hope like hell that Moltie wouldn't hear, and that the room was the one he wanted.
He tried the door on the left.
'plink' Spidey flicked out the lock with his thumb and finger, opened the door and caught the lock before it hit the ground. Not daring to turn his signal back on again for illumination, he instead relied on his spidey-sense to avoid bumping or crashing into anything. 'What is Moltie doing here, and what's all that crap about imperviousness?' he thought. Spidey felt the form of a bed in front of him. Great - sheets and blankets. Quickly he stripped the bed and bundled the bedding up. Leaving it on the bed, he found a counter with drawers and cupboards along one wall, and by feel alone, tried searching through them for scissors and some sort of thread.
"Geez, this is impossible, even with spider-powers…" he muttered under his breath.
He was going to have to chance a little light. Making sure the door to the room was closed, Spider-Man turned his spider-signal on again.
There, what was that? In the second drawer down, Spidey found a pair of scissors. Still no luck with the string. He pushed the scissors into the middle of his bundle, and looked around. What was this place? More than a sick bay; oxygen and gas tanks in the corner, high glass-fronted cabinets with chemicals, test-tubes, beakers and bunsens on the counter top, and - surely not - an encinctulating multi-channel incubator and furnace? Spider-Man kept opening cupboards, continuing to search. A hot water bottle! How long had the power been off? Spidey turned on a hot faucet above a basin, and waited for the water temperature to change. The sound of the running water sounded unnaturally loud to his ears; it also brought home to him the passing of time. He shivered, only partly with the cold. A small wisp of steam began to curl up from the stream of water. Spidey gave it a few more seconds to get really hot, then filled the bottle up, and stoppered it. He turned off the tap and stuffed the bottle into the bedding as well.
'String. If I were a ball of string, where would I hide? In the last place I'd look, of course.' Spidey turned to a small desk up against the wall by the door, and in amongst other items of stationery, finally found some string. He hurriedly shoved it in with the rest of his acquired items, and then, as a thought struck him, paused and started to look through cupboards again, finding a couple more things he thought may be handy.
Gathering it all together, he webbed the bundle up tightly, and made it into a large backpack; the best way to carry something and keep his arms free for wall-crawling. Turning off his signal light, he jumped for the ceiling, and upside-down, opened the door and exited as silently as a spider. He listened; he could hear nothing. Maybe Raxton had left? He crept along until he reached the stairs going up. He dropped down and cautiously climbed. Opening the door leading towards the lobby and entrance he stepped through, only to have his spider-sense flare.
Molten Man was there, and this time, he wasn't going to let him pass.
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