.

.

.

Chapter Twenty-Two

.

.

.

Peter's eyes widened as he watched the figure try to jam a crowbar through the seam in the window. For the first time since Mary Jane left New York, he was glad that she was gone. Who knows what would've happened if her and Annabelle were in that apartment right now but Peter hadn't been around? Along with the fear that he felt, there was also the prickling of anger.

This thug was really going to regret picking this particular apartment to break into. Because he really managed to easily piss off Spider-Man by doing so.

Peter rounded the corner and shot a web at the hands wrapped around the crowbar.

"Excuse me," He quipped with a biting tone, "But there is a lobby downstairs and something called a key that tends to open front doors."

The head whipped around to stare at him from underneath the dark hood. "Spider-Man?"

"Wow. I must have really made it big! The unknown criminal breaking into an apartment that isn't his own knows my name?" Spider-Man said as he shot another web at the guy's feet, tying his ankles together.

He got a growl in response. "Mind your own business, Wallcrawler. This is my sister's apartment. I've only come to get my daughter."

Red immediately tunneled his vision. Mr. Watson? This was Mr. Watson? MJ's dad was trying to break into his sister's apartment in order to kidnap his own daughter? No. Not on his watch.

"Kidnapping on top of breaking and entering? Are you trying to go for the trifecta of law-breaking?"

"You don't know what you're fucking talking about!" Mr. Watson spat as he pulled at the webbing surrounding his hands, "My daughter is a minor and didn't get my permission to leave. Now get this stuff off me, you little shit!"

Peter was trembling; he was so furious.

"Then you are going to have to go through the proper legal channels in order to get her back," Peter flipped off his position on the wall and landed right in front the man that would dare come around after abusing and neglecting Mary Jane, "And just so you know, I will testify against you in court."

Mr. Watson's head snapped to look at him, stopping his struggle with the webbing.

"Yeah, that's right," Peter continued, his voice cold, "Spider-Man will make a public appearance in this matter and testify that I caught you trying to break and enter into your sister's apartment. Can't say you will win any brownie points with the judge on that-"

His tirade of a speech was cut off when, in the matter of seconds, the webbing melted to sticky goo around Mr. Watson's hands and a swift punch to Peter's gut sent him flying through the air - cutting all of the oxygen out of his lungs in the process. A car was driving down the street when Peter abruptly landed on its hood - the horn sent blaring immediately from the crash impact and damage made to it.

Peter coughed in order to get air into his lungs. He turned to look at the driver through the windshield. "Are you okay?!"

It was an elderly man. He looked shaken but otherwise looked to be alright. That was when the shock of the situation caught up to Peter and he whipped his head around to look up at the fire escape…

He gaped in horror at the sight of the man towering above him.

Mr. Watson's skin was glowing a metallic gold. His black clothing was melting visibly in front of Peter's eyes, revealing more of that golden skin until all that was left covering his nudity was a pair of briefs made out of the same material.

Which was when the flames started.

Mr. Watson was on fire.

"Hold on!" Peter cried, in a panic, as he jumped to his feet on the hood of the car, "Let me help you! Stop, drop and roll!"

He whipped his head around in order to try and find the nearest fire hydrant. But Mr. Watson didn't seem at all concerned by his current predicament. With a giant leap, he let himself fall from the stories high fire escape until he landed heavily on the concrete below.

And worse, Mr. Watson was advancing on him with a murderous look in his eye. "You DARE try and keep my daughter from me?"

Mr. Watson paused at the edge of the street, held his hands out in front of him, and blasted a ball of fire right where Peter was still standing on the hood of the car. Peter was so shocked that he almost didn't react in time. If it wasn't for his spider-sense…

He flipped out of the way, but the fire still landed on the now vacated car hood. It set it blazing immediately. And Peter heard the elderly man crying for help inside the car.

"I'm coming!" He cried as he started forward toward the car. But was immediately blocked by another blast of fire - he flipped backward in order to avoid it, in the opposite direction from the trapped man he was trying to save.

"STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS, YOU FREAK!" Mr. Watson screamed as he sent blast after blast Peter's way. Peter was dodging the best that he could, but there were too many… and the asphalt ground was starting to get hot. As he dodged another ball of flame, his foot landed on a pile of hot ashes that was melting the road.

He let out a sharp hiss of pain and very nearly tripped himself up.

"Help me!" The old man cried from the car from in between hacking coughs, the flame was now spreading.

"Stop it!' Peter begged Mr. Watson, his voice was so desperate, "Please! Let me save him!"

Mr. Watson ignored him and continued firing the destructive blaze his way. Peter needed to end this. The man was going to die! He had one chance to distract Mr. Watson, and he needed to take it fast. He had a feeling that this wouldn't work a second time if he failed.

Tapping his wrist as he dodged, Peter quickly switched the setting of his web shooters. When he finally got to the desired one, he dodged one last blast before he pointed both wrists at Mary Jane's father and held down his web-shooters with all of his might. What came out was a mass of white, sticky goo that coated every visible part that Peter could see of Mr. Watson's golden body.

"UGH!" He heard Mr. Watson's muffled cries, but Peter paid them no heed. As soon as he was distracted enough, Peter sprinted for the car and tore off the smashed-in door of that was trapping the old man - who was now unconscious from all of the smoke. With one hand, he crushed the seatbelt that held the man in place and got his arms under the man's body. He extracted him from the car just in time, as the fire had finally spread to the oil tank - with a loud boom, the car exploded.

Peter turned his back, shielding the old man with his body from the debris. When it ended, Peter looked down at the man, who was thankfully breathing but looked to be having a difficult time managing it with the smoke in his lungs. The man needed help!

Whipping his head back to the spot he had last seen Mr. Watson in his webbed prison, his heart sunk to his stomach with dread as he only saw the bubbling goo on the pavement - boiling from the heat. Mr. Watson was nowhere in sight.

He was gone.

…..

Peter knew that the man didn't have time to wait for an ambulance, so he took him himself to the hospital that was only several blocks down the road. He dropped him off at the emergency entrance, much to the shock of the staff of seeing Spider-Man enter the ER holding an elderly man in his arms as he called for help.

In the fluorescent lighting, he was able to see the burns that marked the man's body now. He was in critical condition.

The staff worked diligently, ordering a bed for the man stat as they wheeled him away to the burn ward. Only one nurse stayed behind to try and gather a story from Peter on what happened.

"There was this man!" Peter exclaimed, moving his arms about wildly in the air as he paced in front of the nurse. "I caught him trying to break and enter into an apartment but then, he turned into this, like, molten lava! And he was shooting all of these fire balls at me, and one got caught on the old man's car. He was trapped but I couldn't get to him in time to stop the burns."

The nurse listened to his tirade and nodded calmly at him before she rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder, stopping his pacing in the process. "You did what you could. And if you had waited any longer, the patient may be gone now. You may have just saved his life by bringing him here so quickly."

He didn't really feel like being reassured, not when he fucked up this badly. He didn't even allow himself the chance to think of the implications of Mr. Watson's escape. He couldn't right now or he would fall into a heap of panic.

Instead he sighed, shook his head and forced himself to calm down. Then, he looked up at the nurse. "Will you let me know how the man is doing?"

Her reassuring expression fell somewhat as she reluctantly shook her head. "That's against the HIPPA privacy policy. I'm sorry, Spider-Man…"

Peter's shoulders slumped as he nodded. He would never know the fate of the man he tried to save - whether he lived or died. He would just have to think hopefully and pretend that he knew the outcome, and that it was good. "Thanks for helping him."

The nurse nodded. "It's our job. Just like yours, apparently."

With that, she gave another pat on his arm and walked away, leaving him literally breaking apart at the seams now that he had nothing to distract him.

Peter didn't linger after that. As soon as he walked outside the Emergency entrance, he crouched low to the ground and gave a giant leap into the air, landing on the nearby rooftop across the street from the hospital. As soon as he settled, he tapped twice on the side of his mask and said in a definitive voice, "Call Mr. Stark."

On his eye lenses, he saw as the call was connecting. He only had to hear two dial tones before Tony picked up. "Wow, miss me already?"

"Mr. Stark!" Peter cried, his voice cracking from the stress he was feeling, "Mary Jane is in danger!"

A beat passed before, "Give me the lowdown."

Tony's voice was all business-like and serious now.

Peter explained the entire situation, pacing on the rooftop as he did so as he ranted and raved about what it was that he just experienced.

"It's her dad, Mr. Stark!" Peter stressed, as he allowed his tense body to fall on the concrete floor, laying in the starfish position as he tried to force himself to calm down. He needed to think rationally here. "Her dad. And he knows where she lives and he wants to kidnap her and I can't let that happen! He was dangerous before but now-"

"You've got to calm down and listen to me, Kid," Tony interrupted, his voice authoritative. For once, Peter actually appreciated the authority over him. He wanted to be told exactly what to do in order to fix this. "I'm going to set up an apartment for your little girlfriend and her Aunt when they get back in town. They'll be safe there. But what I need from you is to call her and tell her the situation and the plan."

"But…" Peter's voice started to falter. "I can't call her as Spider-Man, can I?"

He heard Tony sigh dramatically. "It's like you don't know me at all. I'll encrypt your phone so that she won't be able to track the number as being the same as Peter Parkers. Tell her the plan."

Peter was nodding along, even though Tony wasn't able to see it. "Got it. Call her. Tell her the plan. Got it."

"You should also ask her if 'Peter Parker' and May can pack their things, as well. It's probably best that they don't return to the apartment until this guy is caught."

Peter was quiet for a moment, reflecting on his latest failure tonight - resulting in his inability to protect Mary Jane in the process. Now, he had to do all of this damage control, uproot Mary Jane and her aunt from their apartment…

"How do I stop him, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked, quiet in his shame. "My webbing didn't work on him. They just melted off… And I couldn't exactly punch him or I would burn."

"Hmmm…" Tony hummed on the other end, "Tell you what. I will fly to New York tomorrow and will send Happy to pick you up for the Avengers compound. We will work on something together."

There was a tightness in Peter's chest as he thought on all of the waiting that needed to be done in order to resolve this. He wanted it done now. Before Mary Jane packed her suitcase to fly home.

Tony seemed to know what was on his mind.

"Just be patient, Kid. We gotta think with a level head in order to beat this. Geniuses rarely ever win by thinking or acting rashly."

Peter sighed and nodded. "Thanks, Mr. Stark."

"Anytime, Kid. Also, I just tapped into your phone. You should see a new app that I just installed. If you switch it on, it will encrypt your phone."

Peter pulled out his phone to check and the app was there just like Tony said. He clicked into the app and switched the button to signify that it was now armed. "I just turned it on."

Tony made a noise of approval before, finally, a bit of lightness came back into his tone. "Have fun with your little call, Kid. Don't do anything that I wouldn't do…"

Peter rolled his eyes. "There isn't much that you wouldn't do, and you know it."

Tony laughed. "Exactly. Which is why I said 'have fun'... Seriously, Kid. You've earned it."

Was Tony seriously implying phone sex or something? Peter shook his head and let it go. He doubted that Mary Jane would be up for even a light-hearted conversation with Spider-Man after all that he had to tell her about her dad…

Man, what even happened to her dad? He was normal when Peter had seen him at the house when he was helping MJ move out. Well, as normal as an abusive father can be. But Peter swore that he was fully human then and not at all a glowing metallic gold color.

Dread gripped his chest as a thought suddenly came to him but he put a pause on it in order to end his conversation with Tony. "Thanks again, Mr. Stark. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Bright and early in the mid-afternoon," Tony confirmed. Then, they hung up and Peter returned to his previous thoughts.

It was the Big Man. It had to be. Somehow, Mr. Watson got involved with the Big Man and got himself transformed into that… that… Molten Man.

It was too much of a coincidence. First, a Sandman. Now a Molten Man. He was starting to see a theme…

Earth.

Now, fire.

'And everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked…' popped into his brain.

He was in deep shit now.

…

He tried calling Mary Jane but she didn't answer. Peter understood, he always did the same thing whenever he saw a strange number calling his phone. He always let it go to voicemail and knew that if the call was important, then they would leave a message and call back.

Peter didn't leave a voicemail. He didn't want to take the chance that Mary Jane wouldn't listen to it.

Instead, he sent a text.

Peter: Mary Jane, this is Spider-Man. I just called. I really need to talk to you. I'm about to call again in a minute. Can you please answer?

He allowed a minute to pass in order to give her time to see the text message his encrypted phone sent. Then, he clicked on her name again and the dialtone started.

She picked up on the second ring.

"Spider-Man?"

He breathed a sigh of relief at hearing her voice. He knew that she was currently safe, of course, but it was another thing to actually have it confirmed.

"Yes."

"How did you even get my number?" She asked, not at all angry, just confused.

Shit. He had to think fast.

"Mr. Stark was able to track it down for me. Listen-"

"It's really good to hear from you," Mary Jane said, her voice please now. Not at all bothered by the apparent lack of privacy that had been breached against her.

Longing constricted in his chest. He wanted so desperately to fall into their pattern of light-hearted chatter but just this once, he couldn't indulge her.

"Listen, Mary Jane," Peter said, his voice heavy at the blow he was about to inflict against her. "Something's happened. It's your dad…"

Silence met him on the other line for the longest moment. "...my dad?"

Peter nodded, working himself up to having to hurt her by necessity. "Mary Jane, you and your aunt are in danger."

.

.

.

A/N: It's getting juicy now! Please leave me a review! I love reading your comments, as they help to motivate me to write faster!

.

.

.