CHAPTER 3

THE PARKER APARTMENT, 5:08pm

"Everything's getting me down about it, "moaned Peter, clearly in a mood. "Each time it interferes with my job or my friends, but mainly you."

Mary Jane moved over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "But, think about it this way; at least it's the same people. That means you'll always know how to deal with them easily." She went back into the bedroom and began to rummage through the wardrobe.

"But In the end, it doesn't matter who it is, it's whose lives are at stake. God, why do super-powered maniacs have to be around, anyway! I mean, once they've had their butt kicked by a hero, why do they try to get past them again?"

"Because, like the heroes, they never give up", MJ's voice called from the bedroom. "If they did, they wouldn't be able to live with themselves, like you would if someone died when you were trying to save them. They would be a destroyed form, nothing left to hope for. So, they keep fighting back."

"Gwen", Peter whispered, "I didn't let her death stop me; I went for revenge. I became a destroyed form, but I recovered. Oh, Gwen…"

"What did you say, Pete?" MJ called.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just mumbling, s'all."

"Good, because I need to know what you think about this outfit". She entered the room again. This time she had changed from her jeans and t-shirt, and was wearing a skin-tight green dress that went from her under arms to just above her knees, and her favourite kind of shoes; stilettos with straps. Peter thought she looked gorgeous, but something hit him that added a criticism to the comments list.

"You look great and everything, but, erm…don't you think it's a little revealing. I mean, that's great and all, but, er…"

"Hey, it's my first wrap party, and I wanna look fantastic, get some publicity, y'know. But don't worry; I know who my man is!"

Peter smiled. This was why he loved Mary Jane so much. She only appeared as a guest star in one episode of a crummy soap opera and she thinks that she's queen of the show. Well, she is to me. She's gonna make it soon. Who knows, she might attract a movie casting director with that dress!

"You look great."

"Thanks, but what are you going to wear? The party's in three hours so I need to know now."

"I was thinking some Speedos or something like that, you know, something skin-tight and revealing!" He smirked and winked at MJ. She beamed back at him with that award-winning smile.

"I wish! Then again, you can't say anything, your Spidey costume is spandex!" she said as she went back into the bedroom to change back.

A small frown covered Peter's face. "It is so not spandex!"

MJ poked her head around the door and grinned at him. "Whatever!"

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, 7:43pm

It had proved to be a tough search. Venom had been searching the city for hours now and they could find no trace of the 'Intruder'. Maybe their spider-sense wasn't working correctly.

"All we ask is to eat the brains of an unwelcome guest and then we can't find him. Bummer!"

From the top of the Empire State building, they could see everything and everyone. Human, circle-shaped blips were walking around below, and the square ones were cars. So why were they finding it so hard to find a squiggly blob wandering around, devouring the round ones and smashing the square ones?

"Aliens don't stand out like they used to! We give in!"

As Venom prepared to jump, his spider-sense exploded into his head and he looked towards the 'hot spot'. Sure enough, their sense was right; there on one of the lower rooftops (then again, all rooftops are lower than the ES rooftop) they could see a semi-visible humanoid shape, jumping with ease onto the next building.

"Bingo," Venom said to themselves. They launched off the ledge they was perched on and shot a webline from their wrist to attach to a nearby building, all the while keeping their eyes on the creature and where it was headed. It stopped, leaving Venom surprised at the location it had ceased at. "Why the hell would it go there?"

Many people were entering the building, all in fancy dresses and suits. Eddie recognised some from the TV. It seemed to be some kind of party for a crummy soap opera…