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Chapter Six
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"...Police Chief, Captain Stacy, says that there is still an ongoing search for the criminals who were taken from their cells three weeks ago." The Asian news reporter informed on her T.V. She stood in front of a large, gaping hole on the side of the prison wall. It was taped off with signs of caution and construction signs. "Captain Stacy urges civilians to remain cautious until they are apprehended. Back to you, Mark."
Mary Jane took a drink of her evening coffee, not really paying attention to the news on the television screen. It was really her dad who was watching it, anyways.
"Thanks, Debra," The news anchor said to the camera, with too white of a smile compared to his rather orange complexion. "In other news; Citizens of New York wonder about Spider-Man's sudden disappearance-"
Mary Jane, who had just taken another drink of her coffee, sputtered, nearly choking from her sudden coughing fit. Her dad let out a grunt of annoyance at her disruption, but Mary Jane paid him no mind… her attention now rapt on the screen before her.
"It has been two weeks since the last known sighting of New York's personal Wall-Crawler, when he had been spotted chasing a van in a high-speed chase through Manhattan..."
Her attention was completely fixated on the screen, drinking in every word. Every time Mary Jane left the house now, to walk the streets of Manhattan, she found herself looking up more-so than she has ever done before, hoping to catch the sight of red and blue among the towering skyscrapers.
So far, she has been left disappointed.
"Here to comment more on the issue is Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson."
The camera panned to the left, to reveal an upper-middle aged man with a mix of brown and grey hair... which seemed to look oddly flat on the top.
"Mr. Jameson," The anchorman, Mark, began. "What do you have to say about Spider-Man's disappearance? Do you think that it's temporary or is he gone for good?"
But Mr. Jameson hardly looked concerned. In fact, he looked smug.
"I say good riddance to that menace!" He said with a hard, rasping, bark of a voice.
Mary Jane's jaw dropped.
"That no-good Wall-Crawler has been a nothing but a nuisance to the city of New York since he first showed up!" Mr. Jameson continued, getting a little red in the face as he worked himself up in his rant. "I have it on good authority that Spider-Man, single-handedly, crashed a plane onto the beaches of Coney Island! That is blatant disrespect for public property, which he should be fined and jailed for!"
Mary Jane gaped at the screen, unable to understand how this man was even able to say such horrible things about Spider-Man!
The headline at the bottom of the screen changed to, 'Spider-Man: Menace?'
"And don't even get me started on the ATM store that he destroyed while robbing it months back! What was done about-"
Click.
The screen turned black.
Mary Jane looked down at her hand, not even having realized that she had reached for the remote to shut off the television until it was already done.
"What the hell?!" Her dad exclaimed, immediately outraged. "I was watching that!"
"Well, I couldn't stand to watch another second of it." Mary Jane said, as she stood from the couch, remote still clasped tightly in her hand.
"Then leave the fucking room!" Her dad argued back as he stood harshly up from the couch, as well. His leg knocked into the coffee table, where her mug toppled over and crashed over the floor. He didn't take notice, as he took thundering steps towards her.
Mary Jane shook her head as she stepped backward, matching his every pace. "How can you stand to poison your mind with that garbage? I mean, to poison it more than it already is..."
"You ungrateful bitch! Give me the fucking remote!"
He made to grab for it, but Mary Jane threw the remote across the room, out of his reach. They both followed the movement of the remote in the air with their eyes as it landed into the sink, still full of dishwater.
A tense second passed before...
Slap!
The pain didn't come straight away. The shock that she felt more than masked it, at first. But it still did come...
The sting of the slap her father had inflicted across her face.
Mary Jane could only stare at the floor, stunned, as she lifted a shaky hand up to her cheek. The very cheek that was flooding with the warmth of her blood to counteract with the pain...
Her eyes finally shifted up to her father, and saw that his eyes were wide as he stood there, frozen. Just looking at her.
He had never hit her before...
In that moment, she had never felt so unsafe and exposed before.
And she wished that Spider-Man was there... to wrap himself around her, holding her in his protective arms as he shielded her from the outside world.
…
Peter sighed as he stared out the window at the busy, dark streets of Queens. He seemed to be doing this quite a bit lately ever since the accident. Slowly but surely, his memory has steadily regained until only minor details of his life were the only things left as blurs.
Though he still didn't remember why he'd even been near that exploding building that night…
Since then, it's been three weeks.
Three weeks of confusion, which was lessening every day.
Three weeks of boredom, which was increasing every day.
And three weeks since he had last seen the gorgeous Mary Jane...
Peter sighed again as he thought of her, resting his chin onto his folded arms on the window-sill. Mary Jane has crossed his thoughts more than once since he had first woken up in his bedroom the day after initially meeting her.
Alright, so she has crossed his mind a lot since meeting her.
With his regaining memory, Peter has since come to realize how big of a deal it was that Mary Jane had protected his secret identity the way that she did.
He has been more than tempted to put on his Spider-Man suit and go out to try and find her again. He kept telling himself that it was just so that he could thank her for all that she did, but Peter knew the actual truth…
He just wanted to see her again. Spend time with her. Laugh with her…
Get to know her.
He didn't know much about her, but what he did know, he liked. A lot.
He knew that she was selfless and caring from the way that she protected his identity as well as took care of him in his time of need. She was also confident from her overall demeanor, ambitious from talking about her dream of being an actress and a model.
But there was also a level of depth in her eyes as she told him about how her parents fought a lot.
It was clear to him, even with his jumbled mind that there were a lot of layers to Mary Jane. Layers that were yet to be discovered but Peter so desperately wanted to.
But he couldn't just go and see her… For one, his aunt had banned him from being Spider-Man for the foreseeable future. Second, he didn't even have his suit, because Tony had it to fix it up for him when he had the time - which hadn't been easy for him to come by since Tony was currently in D.C. with General Ross - And the final reason was that it just wasn't a good idea to get Mary Jane tangled up in the web that was Spider-Man's life…
It took a while for Peter to come to this conclusion, and when he did, he knew that it was the responsible thing to do. It would be different if Mary Jane knew him as Peter Parker, but for her to spend time with him as Spider-Man?
It was out of the question…
Or is it?
Peter stood harshly from his seat by the window as he tried to shake away the involuntary thought from his head.
He started to pace subconsciously back and forth through the tiny bedroom as he racked a hand through his wavy, brown hair.
Of course, this was all under the assumption that Mary Jane even wanted to see him again…
He ran his hands down his face and groaned.
Maybe he should just forget it all and-
Peter stopped and froze as the now-familiar tingling of his spider-sense overcame him.
He turned on a dime to face the window just as the police sirens broke through the normal bustling sounds of the night.
Immediately, almost as though on autopilot, Peter went to turn for his Spider-Man suit… Only to suddenly remember that he didn't have it.
Sullen, Peter's shoulders sank, resigning himself to stay in instead of investigate the source of those sirens.
That is, until the fearful screams coming from a horde of people off in the distance met his ears.
Peter's head snapped up at the alarming noise, before his eyes caught on something red and blue out of the corner of his eye…
He focused his attention of the colorful fabric of his first Spider-Man suit… the one he had before Tony gave him the upgrade. The suit that he had beat the Vulture in.
Peter walked towards the suit, picking it up and examining it with a pondering eye.
When suddenly, he remembered the last words his Uncle Ben told him…
"Peter… With great power, must also come great responsibility."
It wasn't a matter of choice that he go out and stop whatever was hurting those people out there. It was a matter of responsibility.
"My responsibility," Peter whispered. Before he whipped off his shirt and jeans, once again becoming who he is was meant to be.
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A/N: I'm sorry this is short. I'm still trying to get my mojo back. I just wanted to let the small following on this story know that I haven't abandoned writing this, at all. :)
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