Part Two

Mary Jane wrapped the towel around her torso and entered her bedroom quietly. The water from her shower was still dripping off the ends of her long red hair. She dried up and traded her towel in for a white t-shirt and shorts.

She walked over to the window and opened it to allow a wind to rush in.

There was a knock on the door that separated her room from the rest of the modest home. "Come in." MJ said lightly.

Her mother entered through the doorway, dressed in a robe. "Hi, baby. You've got a date tonight, right?"

"Yes, mom." She replied, "In about a half hour."

"So what's this Harry, like?" Her mother asked with a gentle smile on her face, "He's not like that guy you were dating before, Sam, is he?"

MJ shook her head quickly, "No, he's not like Sam."

The mother shook her head approvingly; "He was no good for you." She stared at the red dress that had been carefully laid on her daughter's bed. "That's what you're wearing?"

"Yeah."

"That's nice." Her mother remarked, "Okay, I'll leave you alone to get ready." She walked back out of the room closed the door behind her and reluctantly descended the stairs for the living room.

She took the next ten minutes to put on the proper clothes and her own dress. After that was done, she leaned over and pulled her make-up box out from the under her bed and then sat at her desk placed in a corner of the room. Mary Jane applied her lipstick and stared into the mirror inspecting her own appearance intently. She had put on just the right amount of make-up, not too much that she looked fake but enough to compliment her other features.

"What was that?" MJ had heard a cough from nearby. She turned around and walked towards the window cautiously, "Is somebody there?" MJ peered out the window and grimaced, "I guess not."

From the top of the neighbor's home, Peter Parker watched MJ stare out the windows and then retreat back into her own bedroom. The suit had receded from his head.

He fired a web-line and landed against the wall that faced their neighbors of her home. Peter silently crawled to her window and peered inside, shrouded in shadows, he could see her moving about.

MJ was putting the finishing touches, oblivious that she was being watched. "This bra sucks." She noted.

Peter turned his eyes away while she adjusted her brassiere. Whatever had driven him here, respected MJ too much to throw away the trust that she had placed in him.

A car drove up to the front of the Watson home and honked the horn. MJ quickly left the bedroom and began to make her way downstairs. Peter crawled to the ground floor and peered in through the kitchen window.

He could see her walking through the hallway towards the door only to be confronted by her father.

"Where the hell are you going?" He asked, words slurred by his own alcoholism. The man was fat and balding but at least over six feet. His arms looked like they were wider than Peter's entire waist.

MJ looked fearful and for some reason ashamed, "I'm having dinner with Harry."

The mother appeared from the living room doorway, "Please, Dennis." She pleaded.

"Oh?" Dennis Watson asked, "Please, what? I haven't done anything. Just asking where my daughter is going."

MJ nodded, "I'm going to go now."

Dennis smirked, "Sometimes I wonder, how I ended up with a slut daughter like you."

"Please, just leave her alone." The mother pleaded grabbing his meaty arms.

"Why?" Dennis asked belligerently, "So that she can get knocked up by some guy and leave me holding the bag? Damn slut." He said again.

MJ quietly backed against the wall, her face pale.

Dennis shrugged, "Go ahead, have sex and get pregnant for all I care. Just remember that I'm not going to be footing the bill."

Without uttering a word of protest, MJ walked out the door and made for the car without delay.

Peter watched her do her damned hardest to compose her face into something friendly. She struggled for a moment and at first he was sure she'd fail and break down, but sure as day, the smile came across her face, hiding the truth. The suit quickly spread across his face forming the cold and dark mask. Rage began to build up in Peter; it started first in the depths of his soul and quickly boiled to the surface filling him with an indescribable anger.

Dennis walked into the kitchen to grab a beer. He opened the can and took a couple of sips. "That hit the spot." Dennis walked around and entered the living room. It was full of empty cans, erotic magazines, and trash in general.

He walked to the television and sat down, he saw his wife slipping by. "Where the hell is my dinner, woman?"

"I'll make it in a second." She said submissively, "I wish you wouldn't treat Mary Jane like that."

"Well then, you shouldn't have raised her to be a slut." Dennis remarked smugly. He took another sip of his beer, "We should have had a son, responsible, strong, athlete, and at least things would be quieter around here."

Suddenly, the wall blew shattered and blew apart into a thousand pieces. The force of the blast sent Dennis against the wall. "What the hell?" He asked landing on the floor.

Out of the dust emerged Spider-Man. His white eyes seemed to focus on Dennis. "You're a tough guy?" Peter asked furiously, "You think you're tough?"

"What the hell do you want?" Dennis asked getting up and taking a step carefully towards Spider-Man, "Do you know how much money that wall is going to take to repair?"

Peter grabbed Dennis by the collar and flung him through the wall into the hallway, "Less than your medical bill is going to cost." He leaped through the wall and found Dennis crawling along the floor. "Come on. Send a punch my way, you're a tough guy, aren't you?"

Without waiting for him to rise, Peter grabbed Dennis by the foot and slammed him against the wall. "You must channel the abusive drunk that is inside of you." He said mockingly before slamming Dennis through another wall and into the bathroom.

The mother was screaming wildly as she saw her husband being battered.

Peter stared at Dennis clutching the toilet feebly. "Please don't hurt me. I didn't do anything to you, please."

"Its not what you did to me. Its what you did to MJ!" Peter remarked and grabbed Dennis' foot and began to drag him down the hall, "You're all alike. The bullies at school, the Green Goblin, you. In the end, you just don't care who you hurt, you don't care whose in your way, what matters is that at the end of the day you feel good about yourself!"

He stopped at the end of the hall and hung Dennis by his feet from the ceiling. "Well guess what, bucko, I need to release some stress and you're my new punching bag. Won't that be fun?"

"No, don't, please!" Dennis begged.

"Let me think about that." Peter tapped his foot, "How about, no?" He socked Dennis across the jaw. The force of the blow sent him swinging about wildly. Blood dripped from his gums and landed on the floor. "You call, MJ, a slut and I beat the hell out of you? Sounds like a fair trade to me!" He hit Dennis again with similar results.

Dennis cried loudly, "Please, I've had enough, I promise I won't hurt her again."

Peter rocked his head back, "Really? Well then, maybe I've made progress here, now that you've learned the errors of your ways, I can leave with the knowledge that MJ will be safe." He took a step towards the door but stopped suddenly and socked Dennis again, "What do you think, I'm stupid?"

"No!" Dennis said as he saw another fist heading straight for his bloodied face.

"Don't worry." Peter remarked readying his fist, "I'll stop when I get tired, say in about three or four hours."

Harry and MJ were dining at a fancy restaurant, very exclusive, the type that the Osborn family attended. He toyed with his food quietly, running the fork along the steak. "So." Harry said meekly, "That's a nice dress."

MJ smiled, "Thank you." She adjusted her position in the seat and wrapped some lasagna around her fork.

Silence settled in between them. Harry stared at his dinner and sighed. "How are things at home?" He asked.

"Could be better." MJ replied.

"Oh?" Harry inquired, "What's wrong?"

MJ shook her head, "Just some problems with my dad." She said suddenly feeling alienated.

"Your dad?" Harry asked, "I know the feeling."

"You do?"

The young Osborn nodded, "My dad is a real hassle some times." He shrugged, "I don't know, I guess he had bigger aspirations for me and I didn't live up to them. He seems pretty bitter about it."

"I think I understand." MJ replied. They smiled at one another.

The police converged on the Watson home. Captain George Stacy pulled out of patrol car and gazed at the massive hole in the side of the house. "What's the word?"

Another officer approached him in short order, "From what the wife told us, Spider-Man broke into the house and just beat the crap out of her husband."

"Why?" Stacy asked.

"No idea." The officer replied, "The guy's never had a scrape with Spider-Man before, and his record is clean except for a couple of DWI arrests."

"Okay." Stacy saw news vans approaching from down the road. "Keep those people back."

He made his way through the front door only to find a dozen or so police officers moving through the house doing all sorts of work. He walked into the living room where the paramedics were treating Dennis Watson.

"Hello, sir." Stacy said warmly, "Are you alright?"

"Does it look like I'm alright?" He barked angrily as he was put on a stretcher. "The freak nearly killed me."

The paramedic intervened, "Please, he needs rest. He's been through a trying ordeal and several of his bones were shattered."

Stacy nodded, "I see." He walked back into the hallway were the remains of webbing dangled from the ceiling. "He went too far this time. Officer Brim!"

A policeman answered his call at once, "Yes sir!" He yelled emerging from the kitchen.

"Get an APB out on Spider-Man. I want him brought in on the double!"