Spider-Man: TAS
Season 6: The Final Chapter
Episode 2: The Boys Are Back In Town
Peter Parker and Mary Jane sat inside their apartment. The apartment Mary Jane doesn't recollect ever being in, much less sharing it with someone. As far as anyone other than Peter knew, Mary Jane was still missing after being kidnapped by Hydroman. However, that Mary Jane was merely a clone. A clone married Peter Parker, a clone found out Peter was secretly the masked adventurer known as Spider-Man, and a clone would probably have had Peter's babies if she hadn't evaporated. Now, the real Mary Jane Watson (Parker?) must discover everything she's missed.
"We're married?!" Mary Jane was too startled to say anything else for a few moments. Peter had answered with an assuring "yes," but MJ hadn't heard. She couldn't believe what happened. She not only had a clone, but for the brief time it had existed, it had completely bungled up her life. Not that she didn't want to marry Peter, lord knows she did. She just wanted to marry the man she loved herself.
"MJ" Peter snapped his fingers a few times. "Are you okay?"
"Uhh… Well, no. No, I'm not fine. I might never get to marry you, now."
"We are married," Peter explained.
"No we're not!" Mary Jane snapped. "You're married to my dead clone. I love you Peter and I want to be at our wedding."
"Ah…" Peter understood now. He had no idea how to explain this to MJ's Aunt Anna or to Aunt May. "I have no idea how to explain this to people when we throw another wedding."
"Did the first one suck?" Mary Jane asked enthusiastically.
"No, I don't think…" Then Peter thought back on the wedding. Memories of the Green Goblin, the Scorpion, Fisk and his robot, and the exceptionally flirtatious Black Cat flooded Peter's mind. "Yeah, it sucked."
"Great! As long as it was a disaster we can have another wedding. What happened last time?"
"Well… Remember before I started to tell you this story that there were a couple mind-boggling things I had to tell you?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, the marriage was only the first one," Peter explained. "What happened at the wedding is tied into the other thing I have to tell you."
"Which is?" MJ asked, eager to know what Peter was circumventing.
Peter sighed and decided it was best to get the news off his shoulder now. He didn't want to keep Mary Jane guessing where he disappeared to all the time if they were to live as a married couple.
"I'm Spider-Man," Peter said quickly. He felt relieved and sick at the same time. He had no clue how Mary Jane would react or if she believed him. Her quick smile made Peter decide the latter definitely had something to do with what was going to happen.
"I know that," Mary Jane said after choking down a laugh. She didn't want to make Peter feel stupid.
"You what?!" It was Peter's turn to be astonished. "What do you mean you… What?!"
"Come on, Peter. You don't honestly think that the whole time we dated I put up with your constant disappearing act without knowing the reason, do you?"
"Well the thought had crossed my mind," Peter told her.
"I've known since Harry and I were dating. I never wanted to get close to you because you always put your life on the line. I didn't want to get hurt. I didn't want to love a man who had a high risk of dying every day. But I did love you and I love you now. So we dated and now… I guess we're married."
Peter stared out the window contemplatively. She knew? She knew… Huh. He scratched his head. "You knew?"
Mary Jane laughed, which provoked a smile from Peter. They shared another kiss.
"So how did your aunt take the news that you're home?" Peter asked.
"I haven't been home, Peter. I saw you when I was about to walk in."
"You haven't been home?"
"Yes, I cleared that up."
"Madam Web said…"
"I've heard enough about this Madam Web character. As well as that Black Cat woman. How many women have you been with as Spider-Man?"
"What? No, it's not like that. I…"
MJ let out another laugh.
"Peter, relax. I'm just kidding." They smiled as they gazed into each other's eyes. They were both genuinely happy, something neither of them had felt in quite some time. "Let's go home, Peter."
As they walked out the door, Mary Jane said, "So what happened at the wedding?"
"Well, remember the Green Goblin?" Peter asked, realizing it was a dumb question.
"Do you expect me to forget with out Alzheimer's?"
"I suppose not. Well his son took up the mantel afterwards and decided to ruin Spidey's big day."
The two reached the stairs. There was a long pause.
"Well," Mary Jane said. "Who was Green Goblin to begin with?"
"Heh…" Peter felt a little nervous. "Walk with me."
They continued walking and talking.
Peter had pretty much finished explaining the Osborn/goblin legacy when they reached the house of Mary Jane's Aunt Anna. Mary Jane was shocked but managed to save all the questions for later.
MJ rang the doorbell and when the door opened, Anna nearly passed out in joy. Instead of passing out, however, she gave her niece a big hug and actually went as far as to invite Peter in. Perhaps it was because Peter's Aunt May was over there as well, though.
"May, look. Mary Jane is back and well," Anna exclaimed.
May smiled and asked, "What happened to you two?"
"Well," Peter began, "It's a long story, but Spider-Man ended up saving both of us from Morris Bench in the end."
"Well, it's wonderful to have you both back," Anna said.
Peter was shocked. Perhaps his wife's aunt was finally beginning warm up to him now that she notices how much he and MJ love each other. The last time he had talked to Anna Watson was during an argument about putting MJ's life in danger. Anna had blamed Peter for the kidnapping, but apparently her ideals have changed since Peter's outburst on how much he loved Mary Jane and would do anything to keep her out of harm's way.
They all sat down in the living room and talked for a while before switching on the tube. There on the news was live footage of the Rhino and Shocker tearing up Manhattan. Peter leaped to his feet.
"I… I have to get down there. Mr. Jameson will have my hide if I don't bring him some news photos. Especially since he hasn't seen me in a while." Peter ran out the door before anyone could voice questions or objections.
Within ten minutes Spider-Man was ready for another slugfest with his good old-fashioned villain duo.
Spider-Man landed in front of the two criminals before they blew anything else up. There were already buildings and automobiles on fire. Not to mention all of the glass and broken concrete that now covered the ground.
"It's nice to see a long lasting relationship these days. They say those celebrity relationships never work out," Spidey mocked.
"Very funny, wall-crawler," Shocker hissed. "I heard you were back in town, punk. That's not going to make the Kingpin happy, though. Hopefully I can rectify that problem right now. Charge 'im, Rhino."
Rhino bent forward and prepared to run before being interrupted.
"Wait a minute. Hold up. Shocker says he's going to get rid of me before demanding that you, Rhino, charge me. Does that make any sense? I mean, you both work for Kingpin, right? I assume you both have the same wages."
"He gets paid a little more," Rhino pointed out, gesturing towards Shocker.
"Does that give him the right to tell you what to do?" Spidey asked the question Rhino found quite perplexing. Nevertheless, Rhino came up with an answer he liked.
"No… I don't think it does." Rhino turned towards Shocker.
"What are you doing, you idiot. He's trying to turn us against each other," Shocker yelled. "Rhino, don't…!"
Before Shocker had a chance to do anything, Rhino had punched him out.
"Now I'm going to wipe the floor with you, bug."
"Arachnid, buddy. A spider is an arachnid," Spider-Man astutely pointed out.
"Don't try any of that wise-guy stuff on me, Spider-Man. I ain't gonna listen. Lucky for you, I didn't like Shocker, anyway."
Rhino charged. Spidey dodged, naturally, and that was how it went for the next ten minutes before Spider-Man decided that this course of action was ludicrous and going nowhere. Then Shocker woke up.
"Okay. Now you're both going to fry," Shocker screamed in angst.
"Take your time Shocker" Spider-Man said as he back flipped onto a wall. Rhino hit that wall hard and Spidey fell but managed to shoot off a web before he was within his adversary's grasp.
Spider-Man landed between Shocker and Rhino so when his spider-sense blared, jumping up was a natural move for Spidey.
Shocker's blast had set off the spider-sense and that blast hit Rhino and stunned him for a movement. But only for a moment. Shocker went berserk and started blasting this way and that but hit everything except for his opponent. To keep out of the way, Spider-Man was doing flips on the ground, jumping off walls, and swinging around streetlights. Suddenly the blasting stopped.
Spider-Man glanced down from his perch at the top of a streetlight. Down below was a vigilante entirely garbed in red with Shocker lying at his feet.
"Horn head!" Spidey exclaimed. "Long time no see."
"I heard these guys are working for Kingpin," Daredevil called up. "I think it's about time we finished what we started the last time we met."
"I think you're right," Spider-Man agreed. Then the streetlight fell after Rhino had hit it.
Spider-Man leaped to safety then quickly said, "Daredevil! Do you think you can keep these clowns occupied for a little bit? I have an idea, but I need to take off for a few minutes."
"Make it quick web-head," Daredevil said as he jumped out of Rhino's way. "Don't forget I'm not quite as strong as you."
"Don't worry, horn head. Strength doesn't do much against Rhino, anyway." With that, Spider-Man took off.
Spider-Man raced once again to the ESU science lab. He knew what he had to do and produced a new batch of webbing in fifteen minutes. Daredevil had been alone with the two villains for twenty-five minutes now. He hoped they guy was holding out okay. There was no time to check the news. Once the webbing was finished, he took off and arrived in time to keep Daredevil from having to be alone with the two rogues for a thirty-eighth minute.
Daredevil was on the ground about to be blasted away by Shocker when Spidey arrived. Spider-Man kicked Shocker to the ground and helped Daredevil up.
"Thanks for making it quick," snapped Daredevil.
"No problem," Spider-Man retorted. "Take care of Shocker. I hit him pretty hard so you shouldn't have too much work left to do. I'll take care of Rhino."
The Rhino charged once more. "I'm not going back to jail, Spider-Man," Rhino wailed. "I won't be arrested again!"
"I'm afraid you will be," Spider-Man said, unconcerned about the threatening advance being made by Rhino. Spidey lifted his arms and covered Rhino head to toe in webbing. The Rhino slowed down.
"What's happenin' to me. What'd you do?" Rhino cried. His costume was disintegrating before his eyes.
"I just concocted a highly caustic web-fluid to get rid of that suit of yours. I guess that takes care of your strength, eh?"
With one punch, the once powerful Rhino fell. Spider-Man changed web-cartridges and webbed the near naked man (Rhino still had boxers on) from a streetlight. Then Spider-Man turned to see Daredevil punch Shocker down to the ground. Spidey leaped over and delivered a forceful kick before Shocker could stand up.
"And that's a wrap," Spider-Man said as he webbed up Shocker next to Rhino.
"Pun intended?" Daredevil asked.
"Of course. You feeling okay?"
"I'll be alright. I did do most of the fighting, though."
"Uhh… Yeah, sorry about that."
"Once I catch my breath, we go after that vermin, Kingpin. He's not going to be ruler of the mob for much longer." Daredevil clenched his fists and jaw with the thought of the large powerful figure sitting at his desk without any worry.
"Take your time, Daredevil. I have a feeling we're going to need a lot of energy for the upcoming fight." Spider-Man took a deep breath and exhaled. "I can't wait to see that scum bag go down."
Sitting in his inherited mansion, Harry Osborn watched the evening news and squinted when he saw the image of Spider-Man appear. The red and blue hero was fighting the Rhino and Shocker.
"I know that's you, Peter," Harry whispered to himself. "I know you've been lying to me. You've been deceiving me. Why, Peter? I thought we were best friends? I need to think. I need help. The Green Goblin will help me! He's helped me before. Maybe he can help me again. He can bring MJ back to me. MJ and my father!"
Harry got up from his chair and left the living room. It was time for him to find the Green Goblin again.
Next: Empire's End