A/N: How are we doing here, folks? Wrapped up warm and comfortable? Good, then we'll begin the next chapter…

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Chapter 4.

Ten minutes had passed. Mary-Jane was frantically racking her brains, trying to recall all the details from her pre-natal classes, everything she had ever read on the subject of labour and birth. Trying to recall everything she had purposely forgotten because of their painful associations.

This couldn't be good… MJ sat on the floor, her hair flopping forwards, absently going through the contents of her purse once again, as if the answer were there. Amelia was half standing, half crouching, her arms draped over the elevator handrail and her head dropped onto her arms.

"Where is he? Where, where, where…" MJ muttered.

Honestly. She could tell that Pete wasn't comfortable with the situation either, but, dammit, he was supposed to be the hero, he was supposed to be the one who helped people, who helped put things to rights… MJ fished out a thin gold chain bracelet from the bottom of her purse. 'So that's where that went,' she thought subconsciously, while wondering what she could possibly do.

There was a groan from Amelia. Mary-Jane immediately jumped up and went over.

"What is it? Are you OK?" she asked.

Amelia didn't answer straight away; her eyes were closed and her teeth clenched tightly shut and she appeared to be straining. Then she opened her eyes and gasped.

"A contraction. Different. Pushing…"

"Omigod."

It all came back to her now. Mary-Jane had forgotten this part. She had been so drugged up, she hadn't known what was going on herself, only that things weren't happening as they should. Peter had been missing then too…

How much longer did they have before the baby arrived now?

…………………………………………………………

Spider-Man was wondering the same thing. He didn't have the time or luxury to fight, especially someone like Molten Man.

"Look Raxton, I dunno what's got you upset, but it's nothing to do with me, OK? This really is an emergency; there's a woman stuck upstairs in labour, and I…"

Raxton lunged, and Spidey twisted to the side. Damn, there wasn't much room to manoeuvre in this narrow stairway… Another punch aimed at him caught him a glancing blow, sending him hurtling back down the stairs. Spidey quickly morphed his fall into a couple of flips, and landed near the door of the room he had first discovered Raxton in. The bundle on his back was going to be a liability; he ditched it into the corner, intending to retrieve it later, after he had sorted out this mess.

Raxton came running down the stairs, his whole body glowing slightly. Spidey groaned to himself; Moltie was starting to 'fire up', which meant even more trouble for him. If he could only stop him before he got too hot to handle…

Creeping along the wall, Spider-Man's hands found something, a shape he recognised. Grabbing it, he yanked a fire extinguisher from its place; before Raxton could react, Spidey had released the catch and was enveloping him in foam. This made him angrier, but at least the golden surface of his skin had dimmed and returned to it's usual metallic state. He shook off the foam, and ran at Spider-Man, who threw the empty cylinder at him.

'clang.'

"Hey, you'd make a great clapper if the great bell at St Patrick's ever lost it's one!"

Thanking the dark and his spider-sense, Spidey was able to keep out of the reach of Raxton's blows; from experience he knew better than to try and return them - he didn't need a busted hand right now.

"Keep still Moltie, I want to web you." He shot out a quick web-net and threw it over him.

"You don't learn, do you?" Raxton responded, as he shrugged the webbing off. "Your webbing won't stick to me, nothing can."

"Yeah, only your criminal convictions…"

Raxton made another lunge for Spidey, who leapt away, but a sudden change of direction by Raxton meant that Spidey received a blow to the side which sent him flying across the basement lobby and crashing into the wall between the two open doors.

"Ooph!" He lay there a moment, winded and briused.

Raxton advanced on him, going by the sound of the crash. Spider-Man managed to recover in time to roll away from a kick that if it had connected, would have hurt. A lot.

One upshot of that kick was that now Moltie's leg was stuck; it had gone right through the wall, though the wood and brick debris wouldn't hold him for long. Spidey started spinning some extra thick webbing, knowing that it wouldn't hold Moltie for long either, but he had to try something. He had remembered something he had seen in the sick bay. It would be a long shot, but if it worked, he'd be able to get away.

Quickly bounding into the sick bay, Spidey frantically started searching through the glass fronted cupboards again, this time looking for a jar. He had turned on his signal for light - it was vitally important he found the right container. There, got it. He read the label again and shook the jar. 'I hope this is enough…' he thought.

He turned his head as he heard a crashing noise, and Raxton entered the room. Still holding carefully on to the jar, he back-flipped over the bed and up against the far wall.

"Trapped!" exclaimed Raxton. "I can see you now too; you won't get out of here except in a pine box!" He tilted his head back and laughed.

"Sheesh, what is it about you Moltie - your disarming smile or your scintillating conversation? I'm entranced…"

Spider-Man waited until Raxton had passed the foot of the bed, then threw the glass jar at him. It shattered on Raxton's chest and its contents flowed over his skin; down his torso and legs, splashing his face, arms and hands.

Too late Raxton threw up his hands; but lowered them again as he looked at the viscous liquid slowly running down his body.

"What is this crap? You're pathetic Spider-Man. This won't stop me getting to you."

"Perhaps not, but this might!"

Darting to the side, Spidey lifted up and held the tank of oxygen under one arm while he turned the valve onto full and aimed the hose at Raxton. There was a hiss as the gas escaped. Raxton looked startled for a second, but then relaxed and laughed.

"You always were the joker, Spider-Man. I can't let you go though, you may tell someone I was here."

"Why are you here?"

Spidey was playing for time; if Moltie was in the mood to talk now, he'd encourage it - until his improvised plan worked - if it did… 'C'mon, c'mon…' he thought, continuing to spray the oxygen over Raxton.

His opponent looked grim.

"I've been the 'caretaker' here now for a while, hiding. As you may know, I was helping the government with some of their more secret experiments - attached to a special section of the military. Well, to cut a long story short, they stopped having me carry out research for them, and instead began using me as a test subject; only I wasn't supposed to know. But… I had become friendly - no, I fell in love with one of the scientists there. She-she felt the same, warned me. Shortly afterwards, she didn't come back to work. I was told she had been transferred to another division… Only…"

He hung his head.

"Hey Mark, that's rough. Y'know, the government and I haven't always seen eye to eye either, and…" Spidey didn't get to finish. Raxton had looked down at himself and in the light from Spider-Man's signal, had noticed something wrong.

"What the?"

Where the liquid had touched his skin was now a crusty dull white. As he watched, small bits of white began to flake away . He frowned and curiously used a finger to scrape at one of the patches, but quickly stopped in astonishment and… pain?

"What is it? What have you done to me?"

"I'm afraid your skin isn't as impervious as it was," Spidey answered. "That liquid I threw at you was a compound of mercury; mercury is one of the few substances that act as a catalyst between metal or metallic alloys, and oxygen."

Raxton looked shocked; as a chemist himself, he knew exactly what was happening now.

"You mean… I'm corroding!"

"Exactly." Spider-Man turned off the oxygen, but kept hold of the cylinder, waiting to see Raxton's reaction to the information, though his spider-sense was quiescent at present.

"B-but," Raxton spluttered, "That's so basic, so simple! Why didn't anyone think of it before?" He looked totally gobsmacked.

"WAHOO! This is wonderful!!" he shouted. He jumped forward and gave a startled Spider-Man a hug. "Finally! I'm rid of this cursed skin! This is the best Christmas present ever!"

"You're welcome - glad you like it."

Spider-Man broke into a grin under his mask, to see how happy Raxton was, but thought he'd better warn him.

"The reaction will continue, but I don't know how far it will go or even if it will be permanent; I mean, do you have skin under that skin? Is it in your bloodstream? Or… You might consider taking yourself off to a hospital or something."

"Yeah, you're right." He gave a huge grin. "Anyways, I won't be a guinea-pig for those government twerps any longer!"

He went to go, then turned back to Spider-Man. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Remembering back to how Raxton became the Molten Man, how it was partly his fault anyway, Spidey replied, "No. No, nothing. Oh wait. Your last duty as caretaker - get the power restored."

"Will do. Well, in the future then. If you need help, I'll be around." And with that, he left.

'And I better do likewise,' thought Peter watching him go, 'MJ's going to kill me else! Heck, she'll probably still kill me, but at least I won't be as dead as I would be if I didn't hurry.'

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A/N: (insert the special announcer's voice here…) The penultimate chapter - and only four days to go until Christmas - will the last chapter be out in time? Be sure to read on…