(Force of Nature)

Guest: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. If you really want to see that, then take a look at a certain line in chapter 1, and I think you'll get your answer.

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The stars were shining brightly over the skies above New York, but things were far from calm.

"Okay, so it works like this." a man with blonde hair styled in a mullet (Morris Bench) held up a small device to "Like I was saying before, it's completely wireless."

"And you can activate the remote countdown whenever you wish?" the woman sitting at the desk in front of him, her expression neutral, yet holding an air of professionalism.

"When the time is right, I can remote activate the countdown and cascading detonations are going to be more than enough to bring down the building in its own footprint. It's a lot more simple when you see it for yourself."

"I'm sure it is, and I'm sure that my husband had great faith in your abilities as his top expert in demolitions."

"I like to think he did, because I sure owe him a lot. Everything really."

"He never did speak a lot about those sorts of things." Emily's gaze softened, if only slightly "Do you wish to talk about it?"

"Only if you don't mind." Morris gave a small sad smile as he sat down in one of the chairs behind him "I was really down on my luck after I got out of high school, mostly because I made a bunch of stupid choices around then. I thought I had pretty much screwed myself over after that, but then one day out of the blue, Mr Osborn came up to me and offered me a job, and that was just where it started for me. That job was enough to help me get through college, get a real degree, and after that I worked my way up to the position I have now. I guess that the simplest way for me to describe it is, everything I am now, I owe to him."

"He did have an eye for talent and potential, and for molding it to suit him." Emily's demeanor grew hard again as she stood up from her desk, prompting Morris to do the same "So then I think it's time for me to raise the most important question… What would you say if I were to offer you a chance to ensure that his death wasn't in vain?"

"I would have to say… Where do we start?"

"With a certain project my husband was working on before his passing."

"...Globulin Green? Didn't that stuff-"

"No, but taking care of that is on my list of priorities. I have something else in mind, though it mainly involves fixing something my husband had attempted in the past."

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Morning came, and the sun was just rising over the skies above New York.

'And here we go…' Peter sat on the couch in his living room staring at a collection of photos in his hands, a few of which he subsequently ripped up and shoved into a nearby trash can 'You fight the bad guys, you win and save the day, and then you gotta get rid of a good chunk of the evidence so that you can make sure nobody knows about your new friends. Maybe I can talk Jameson into giving me some more cash for the ones I can give him. Yeah right, and in that fantasy world, I'd actually get a freaking break for once, starting with the whole mess with Gwen and Harry.' he felt himself tense up as he thought of those two names 'Yeah, my two best friends… that I haven't seen in about a month. Not sure if they want to see me… or if I really want to see them. I don't know if I'd be able to face them now, after everything that happened.'

"Peter dear, you have to stop getting up so early. You need your rest."

Peter glanced over to see May coming down the stairs "I know Aunt May, believe me. I just have a lot on my mind is all. Aside from all of the crap coming out of the burning dumpster fire that my personal life has become, there's me and the Turtles dealing with the Kraang, and now an evil ninja clan run by some kind of super powerful assassin. Of course that's gonna have to be put on hold for the time being, for one big and incredibly stupid reason…'

"Yes I know." May's voice once again snapped him out of his thoughts "You've mentioned these new friends of yours on more than one occasion. Am I going to get to meet them at some point?"

"Not for a while at least, apparently the four of them are grounded for the next week, so I guess that means I'm on my own."

"I hate to see you spending your summer vacation alone. Why not call up Gwen or Harry, it's been a while since you've seen either of them."

'Yeah, and for good reason. They… have their own things going on, and I don't want to get in the way of that."

"Oh come now dear…" May rested a gentle hand on Peter's shoulder "I just wish you wouldn't let yourself be so alone like this. You live such a sheltered life too."

'I'm freaking Spider-Man, how sheltered does that sound to you? Look everyone is busy doing their own thing during Summer vacation, and frankly I'd rather be busy too than stuck doing nothing for weeks."

"So what are your plans for the day?"

"Drop off a few pictures at the Daily Bugle for Mr Jameson, and then I guess I'm just go from there."

"Just don't work too hard. You should be able to enjoy your Summer too. I know, why not go and see what Mary Jane is up too?"

"I'll… I'll think about it. For now I gotta get dressed so I can get to the Bugle."

"Not so fast young man, not until you've showered and had a proper breakfast. Then and only then are you allowed to go about your business." the stern look she was giving Peter was more than enough to quell any sort of protests he might have.

"...Alright. God, and I thought Gwen's variation of the Look was terrifying.'

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Meanwhile, with the villainous factions…

"Okay, so uh…" Morris looked around as the limo came to a stop and took a good long glance at his surroundings, that being a rather shady-looking building in a desolate part of the city "This is the place?"

"This is the place." Emily stepped out of the limo and motioned for him to do the same "It's out of the way, so nobody gets involved in business that doesn't concern them."

"Um, fair enough I guess." Morris looked around rather cautiously "So with all due respect, what exactly is it that you need me to do?"

"You did say that you wanted to help ensure that my husband's death wasn't in vain, right?"

"Yes, I did. So what does that mean?"

"It means that I want you to help in avengine him… by finding the one that finished him, and then returning the favor."

"So then…?" Morris gulped slightly as his skin turned pale "Are you saying…?"

"That's right, though I'm not just speaking for me. I'm speaking for the people that commissioned this job, because they see him as a threat too."

"What are you getting out of it?"

"Aside from a substantial amount of funding, access to new technology and resources, and the satisfaction of making sure that my husband didn't die in vain. But getting back to the point, what I want from you is to help us… in eliminating Spider-Man."

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Meanwhile, with the Spider in question…

'Well that could've gone a lot worse with JJJ, mainly because he wasn't there.' Peter let out a sigh as he exited the Bugle building, a wad of cash in hand 'Apparently when he's not there to take the pictures people give him, Mr Robertson takes his place. Good thing it's one of the few guys that doesn't think Spider-Man is a murderer, and unlike Jameson he's not a cheapskate. I guess it only makes sense, considering he's Randy's dad and he's one of the few guys on the football team that never really gave me a hard time. Not like there are many people like that, and even less after all the stuff that happened. I think this might be the biggest payment I've ever gotten from dealing with the Bugle, not that it's saying a ton, but it's enough to help Aunt May pay the bills, and that's good enough for me. For now at least. Well aside from Spider-Man stuff, that crosses out the only thing I really had on my to do list. None of my usual big bads have shown up, and the Kraang and the newly-appeared Foot Clan, still think the name is stupid, only operate at night, at least based on what I can tell so far. I'll be sure to keep an eye out either way, especially since the guys are gonna be on lockdown for the next week, at least according to Splinter. Anyway, I guess I'd better head out on patrol. Yeah I'll drop the cash at home, then head out on patrol and-'

"Hey there, what's up Tiger?"

'Or deal with whatever this is supposed to be.' Peter looked up from his brooding and found a certain redhead standing on the sidewalk in front of him "Oh hey MJ, what's up?"

"Apparently being the first one of you people outside of May to get even a glimpse of you in over a month." she gave a smirk "Let me guess, being the smart one takes its toll on a guy after awhile doesn't it?"

"I don't know about that, but I actually have been pretty busy lately. Sorry if I've been too out of touch since school let out, it's just been… pretty crazy, to say the least."

"I know the feeling. I was looking forward to spending our Summer vacation doing absolutely nothing, but I realized that was boring as all hell, so I started helping my Aunt Anna around the house and with some gardening. The most exciting thing about that is her complaining about this drought and how it's apparently bad for plant life."

'Oh thank the great god above, I forgot how much I missed dealing with problems from normal people. Seriously, for god only knows how long it's been giant monsters, psychopaths in costumes with evil tech flying around like madmen, lunatics with superpowers, and then there's either aliens, robots or alien robots. This is just perfect."

"My aunt's garden dying is perfect to you?" MJ shot him a raised eyebrow that left him looking dumbstruck, but then she let out a chuckle "Take it easy Tiger, I'm just messing with you. You let yourself get worked up way too easily you know."

"I wouldn't know, I can't remember the last time I was able to take it easy."

"Because you're in high school or because it's New York?"

"All of the above."

"Just checking." the two of them started walking down the street, and then MJ took another glance over at Peter as her expression softened "So how are you feeling after… everything?"

"You uh… you mean breaking up with Liz? It was hard… not really good, but it had to be done at some point."

"That's not what I meant Tiger. I meant the whole thing with Gwen." the mention of that name was enough to make Peter freeze in his tracks.

"...Oh. You mean that everything." Peter paused for a moment, then let out a sigh "Honestly, I've been trying not to think about it. The fact that I've been so busy with everything lately does help with that if nothing else, but…"

"You still can't stop thinking about her?"

"At least not when I have time to stop and think without having a million things coming down on me at once, and when I do she's pretty much all that I do think about. Not that good of a sign of moving on is it?"

"Who said you had to move on?"

"The fact that she's with Harry and I'm more or less all alone."

"Uh huh. Funny thing about that Tiger, my Aunt Anna always told me that you're only as alone as you let yourself be."

"Yeah well, I haven't let myself be alone that often actually. I don't know if Aunt May told you, but I actually did meet a few new guys I've been hanging out with for the past few weeks."

"So I've heard, at least from what she knows anyway, which apparently isn't much. Not telling her of all people?"

"They like to keep to themselves, I'm just trying to respect their privacy."

"Fair enough. So what, you didn't want to hang out with them today?"

"It's not really that simple. They got grounded for the next week, something about skateboarding in the house. Technically that's not a lie, at least not according to Splinter. Anyway, since they're out of the picture for now I had to focus on my other priorities, like helping Aunt May with paying the bills."

"Pretty sizable wad of cash you have there. Probably not something you wanna carry around out in the open in broad daylight, at least not in this city."

"Yeah good point." he quickly stashed the money away into his pockets "Lucky for me the big man with the moustache wasn't there today, so Robbie was the one in charge. He accepted the pictures and paid me what I'm pretty sure is about triple what Jameson would've. I tried to say it was too much, but the guy wasn't having it."

"So where' the man with the Hitler-stache anyway?"

"Jameson doesn't have a-" Peter paused and stopped in his tracks, and then his jaw dropped as the realization dawned on him "Oh my god, I can't unsee it now. Anyway no, he was just taking some time to visit his son, you know the astronaut, over at… Ravencroft." his expression turned solemn at the thought of that man 'Yeah, the hero that got infected with alien spores and got driven off the deep end by Venom trying to frame me. Not only did he do that, but he gave Jameson a pretty valid reason to hate me.'

"Peter?"

"What? Oh sorry, I guess I spaced out for a second."

"I noticed. So what are your plans for the rest of the day?"

"Honestly, I'm not really sure. I figured I'd drop my pay off at home, check on Aunt May and make sure that she's alright. After that, I figured I'd just go off on my own and do my own thing, figure something out for myself to do."

"Uh huh. You know I've got a better plan."

"What's that?"

"I did say that you're only as a lone as you let yourself be." she patted him on the shoulder "So how about after you do your thing at home, you and I go see a movie or something?"

"...Yeah, that sounds nice actually." Peter gave a small smile as they started waking again 'Well at least I still have one friend from school that I can talk to. Yeah, friend. At one time I thought that she and I might be… well more than that, but she made it pretty clear that she only wants us to be friends, which honestly I think I could use more right now. Besides, after everything that happened with Mark, I doubt she's looking to go out with anyone else.'

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Meanwhile, in the Oscorp lab…

"Okay, that uh… seems a little bit extreme, but…" Morris suddenly found himself being strapped into position, various wires and electrodes being latched onto his body as he glanced up at the man in front of him "So you said your name was… Warren?"

"Dr Miles Warren, leading research scientist at ESU." Miles told him without looking up from what he was doing "And I understand that you worked under Mr Osborn before his passing, am I correct?"

"Yeah that's right, I'm the head demolitions expert."

"Yes yes, I'm sure he thought highly of your abilities Mr Bench. In that case I'm sure that you'll understand the need for the rest of us to maintain a safe distance during this experiment, behind the glass that is."

"Wait, why do you need a safe distance for this? What exactly are we doing?"

"I suppose you could call this an experiment of sorts."

"Wait what?"

"Relax Mr Bench, I assure you that there's nothing to worry about. I can assure you that what I'll be doing is simple and painless, and completely worth what you're being asked to do. Allow me to explain it if you're not completely satisfied." he pulled an ipad out of his pocket and started to go through some images "You're going to be infused with millions of microscopic granules, half of which will be containing hydrogen that will be meant to create a sort of subdermal armor."

"You said half of them? What about the other half?"

"The other half will be containing a special mutagenic substance I've been experimenting with over the past few weeks, such as this." Miles reached down and picked up a canister filled with a glowing green substance "Admittedly I hold a certain distaste for this sort of procedure, mainly due to the fact that when it was done improperly by Doctor Octavius, it led to the creation of the lab accident known as the Sandman."

"Wait, you mean you're turning me into Sandman?"

"No no, nothing of the sort. As I said, that was an accident, but I understand the flaws in that failed implementation and I've corrected them."

"You said you didn't like doing it like this?"

"The reason for that is because I actually had perfected the method using nanotechnology and I was able to use it correctly on another subject, even if that turned out poorly, albeit for various other reasons."

"Uh huh. So what's this gonna do to me?"

"As I mentioned previously, this procedure will provide you with subdermal armor made up of a combination of hydrogen and this… Mutagen I believe they called it. So long as the procedure works as is intended, you'll be granted a variety of abilities completely original to you, and you'll be impervious as well."

"You mean I'll be immune to taking any form of damage or pain?"

"Theoretically speaking at least, yes, and that includes Spider-Man or any of these new allies that he's been rumored to have recruited."

"Spider-Man has some kind of buddies now?"

"Supposedly, but as I said they are simply rumors, at least for the moment. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I have some other preparations to make." and so Miles made his way through the door and into the room behind the two-way glass, where he found Emily and a certain man in a suit with short black hair and an emotionless mask of a face waiting for him "Now that all of us are present, shall we begin with the experiment?"

"I will admit that I hold a certain set of concerns." Emily's emotionless mask gave way to one of concern and a bit of uncertainty "I found a volunteer as you said you needed, but this lab is, well to put it bluntly, a disaster just waiting to happen."

"Which wouldn't be surprising considering this was where the Sandman and the Rhino had been created under the commission of one Mr Lincoln."

"And yet they never bothered to clean up after those incidents did they?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny."

"And yet you're using some sort of dangerous Mutagen chemical in this experiment that you said you know next to nothing about. You never even used it in a test before."

"This is the test, a perfect opportunity that presented itself, which is the precise nature of science at its very core."

"Attention." this was when the other man in the suit spoke up, his voice monotone and robotic sounding, and void of any emotion "Commence that which is known as the experiment with that which is known as the Mutagen." yes he's a Kraang in disguise, that should be obvious.

"As you wish." Miles was about to pull the level to activate the experiment, only to be stopped when he noticed Emily grabbing him by the arm "Is there a problem ma'am?"

"I'm only going to say this once, so listen well." Emily's tone was firm and left no room for any sort of argument "If I don't like what I'm seeing from this experiment, I'm shutting it down, end of discussion."

"As you wish ma'am."

"Attention." the Kraang in the human disguise repeated itself "Commence that which is known as the experiment with that which is known as the Mutagen."

"Well he is the one who commissioned this request." so Miles promptly pulled the lever to get things underway, sending millions of granules full of hydrogen and Mutagen into Morris, causing him to cry out in agony as water and Mutagen began swirling around his body within a powerful vortex "This is… proving to be problematic. "

"The electrical field manipulating the hydrogen is overloading." Emily was quick to grab Miles by the arm and gave a simple command "Shut it down. Now."

"Just a moment ma'am, I'm sure that it will-"

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear. Shut it down. Now. I'm not going to-" she cut herself short when she and the others watched as Morris was turned into a pile of sand on the floor, and her expression briefly turned to one of horror, before shifting into one of rage and sadness as she levelled a fierce glare at Miles "I told you to call off the experiment, you deliberately ignored me and now look what happened because of it."

"With all due respect ma'am, when your husband supervised these procedures-" he was promptly cut off by the dark glare Emily was giving him.

"I'm not my husband, unlike him and clearly unlike you, I'm not willing to sacrifice lives for the sake of my goals."

"...Perhaps there is one other detail from the notes left by Dr Octavius that I had neglected to mention beforehand. It was stated there was a delayed reaction in the previous experiment when it supposedly failed."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I believe we're about to find out." he pointed to the two-way glass.

As it turns out, the puddle of water on the floor of the other room suddenly began to pull itself together and reshape itself into the rough shape of a man, and his expression quickly morphed into one of horror as he looked at his own reflection "What… What is this? What the hell did you do to me?!"

"Please calm down Mr Bench, you need to control yourself, because then you'll be able to control your new power." Miles made his way back into the room "This power is one that you can control using only your thoughts, but you need to stay calm."

"You're not exactly one for inspiring trust right now, whether it be for him or for me, especially not for me at the moment." Emily made her way into the room and gripped Morris by the shoulder, or tried to at least "Morris, I know you probably don't have a many reasons to trust him right now, or me since I'm the one that got you involved in this, but you do need to calm your mind and focus right now. That's the only way you can get ahold of yourself. You need to show a level of patience and perseverance. Take a deep breath, in and out, nice and slow."

"But I…" Morris stared at Emily for a moment, then gave a simple nod as he began taking a series of deep breaths to calm himself down, and his body solidified further as his appearance refined into how he looked before the experiment took place "So I'm… back now?"

"Essentially yes, but better than before." Miles stepped forward "This actually is a good thing if you look at it the proper way."

"How am I supposed to look at it? I got turned into the Sandman!"

"Sandman is essentially an earth variant of this experiment, whereas you're water. If anything, you should refer to yourself as… Hydro-Man. Yes, I think that has a nice ring to it. The fact is that you have a power that no one else has, which includes the likes of the various criminals that permeated this city… or even Spider-Man."

"Spider-Man?" Morris, now going to be known as Hydro-Man, suddenly froze at the mention of that name, and his expression twisted into one of rage as his eyes began glowing green with his anger "He's the reason I'm like this now. He's the one to blame for turning me into this!"

"Morris please, you need to calm down." Emily gripped him by the shoulders "Remember the main reason why you agreed to take part in this to begin with."

"You said that you wanted me to help avenge Mr Osborn, of course you meant you wanted me to take out Spider-Man! I'm gonna do just that, I'll drown him for what he did to Mr Osborn and for what he did to me!"

"Spider-Man isn't the one who made you like this Morris, that's him." she pointed at Miles "You need to take the time to adjust to this change before you do anything else-"

"NO!" the water began circulating around him in his anger "Spider-Man is mine, I'm gonna rip him apart and anyone else that stands in his way!"

"Morris you need to-"

"Don't call me that. Morris Bench is dead, now you can call me Hydro-Man!" and so he suddenly dissolved his physical body disappeared into a nearby storm drain, leaving Emily and Miles alone in the room.

'Morris…'

"A rather interesting turn of events." Miles pulled out his ipad and started typing on it "On one hand, the experiment did appear to be a success for the most part. On the other hand, it would seem that the Mutagenic serum included has displayed a warping effect on the mind of the subject. This will require more experimentation and further study."

"That's all you have to say about this?" Emily shot a glare at Miles "I went along with this because Oscorp's image was tarnished after the Green Goblin fiasco, and those men were offering funding we needed to pull ourselves together. I did this for my family's business, not to create a madman that's hellbent on some twisted ambition. That's exactly what my husband turned himself into."

"Here I thought that you blamed Spider-Man for the death of Mr Osborn."

"I did. Or at least I thought I did." Emily looked around the wreckage of the lab "Then I let myself gain a greater understanding of what he did in places like this, and he did it without so much as batting an eye. I'm not like him. I won't be like him, and I won't continue his work if it's meant to destroy lives." and so she promptly walked out of the lab, looking back at the wreckage as she did so 'Morris… I'm sorry. That's one thing that I can do that my husband never would. I can and will admit my mistakes. Right now though, the only thing I can do is pray that nobody else gets hurt because of it.'

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Meanwhile, with our protagonist…

"Okay, so… that happened I guess." Peter made his way out of the movie theather and down the street in the direction of his neighborhood, with MJ by his side, though he was struggling to figure out what to say "I mean that movie was…"

"Let me take a wild guess, you're trying to say that it was a burning dumpster fire but you're too nice to say it?" MJ shot him a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know if I'd say that, but… yeah pretty much. Still though, it does feel pretty good being around someone else my own age again, instead of just the people at the Bugle or Aunt May, as great as they are." Peter let out a sigh "I guess I just needed to get some air too. I mean with all of the stuff that's happened over the past few weeks. Yeah, aside from the whole thing with the Green Goblin, I basically lost two of the only friends I have. Or had anyway.'

"I know what you mean, I needed to get out of the house or I was gonna lose my mind. Plus I did guess you could use some company, and it looks like I was right. Speaking of which, the movie was pretty bad in itself, but there was one thing that I've gotta give it credit for."

"Oh yeah, what's that? The part where the hero got to sweep up the girl of his dreams in his arms and hold her close to him like his life depended on it, because he felt that his life didn't really mean anything without her by his side?"

"Not my sort of thing Tiger." MJ shot him a sideways glance as her gaze softened 'Though I think it's pretty clear what you're talking about, not that I can blame you. Well there were two things going for it actually. For starters, it was the way that the hero kept fighting even when all of the odds were stacked against him."

"That's what a hero is, fighting the good fight even when the entire world is basically against you, because they're willing to do what needs to be done. What about the other thing?"

"Well I can imagine you're probably gonna freak out over this one…" MJ glanced over and shot him a knowing smirk "But being able to give up his biggest secret in order to protect the people he cares about most, that's the sort of thing that takes a lot of guts."

"Uh… yeah." Peter tensed up at this part "I mean heroes like that keep their identities a secret for a reason though. Captain Stacy actually said it best during one of his Criminology lectures back in January. A guy like that, a man in a mask doesn't always have something to hide, but he's got something to protect."

"Yeah, he said the same thing about Spider-Man. Which leads into this…" MJ stopped walking and turned Peter around to face her as she lowered her voice "I can tell that keeping this whole thing a secret is a big deal for you, but this isn't the time for games. Whether you actually let it out or not, you're hurting inside right now and you need somebody in your corner, so I'm gonna have your back on this one Tiger… or should I say Spider-Man?"

"...What?" Peter felt his entire body freeze as his face turned pale, and so he grabbed MJ by the arm and pulled her into a nearby alley "Ignoring the fact that I might be dealing with a panic attack right now, you mean you… know?"

"Yep, I've known for awhile actually. Like I was saying, your secret is safe with me."

"But… But how did you-?" Peter was cut off by the sound of a loud crashing noise, so he quickly motioned for MJ to stand back as he poked his head out of the alley 'Oh god, and here I thought I was actually having a good day for once.'

"Where is he?!" as it turns out, it was Hydro-Man bursting out from within a storm drain, a gleam of insanity visible in his eyes "Where the hell is Spider-Man? I want him here and I want him here now, and if he doesn't show I'm gonna drown this entire freaking city!" and so to prove his point he subsequently unleashed a stream of water at a nearby group of cops that began shooting at him, sending them all hurtling backwards in a heap.

"Oh god, it's like the Sandman all over again." Peter let out a sigh as he ducked back into the alley and turned back to face MJ "Okay since I clearly don't have time to deal with the whole thing about me being Spider-Man, let me just say that you're right but we don't have time to go into that right now, so I'm gonna take a raincheck on this conversation, which we're sure as hell gonna be continuing later."

"So you're going out there." MJ shot him a raised eyebrow.

"I have to. If I don't then people are gonna get hurt, or worse, and it's my responsibility to use my powers to make sure that doesn't happen. So I'm gonna go out there and fight, and save lives."

"Uh huh. Well then Tiger, all I have to say is this…" she promptly turned around "Go ahead and do what you have to do. But you might wanna get changed first."

"...Good call." and so he promptly retreated further into the alley as he started stripping off his clothes as he strapped on his web-shooters 'On the plus side, I do have a new form of webbing I've been wanting to try out.'

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Meanwhile, with the new supervillain…

"Hey man, let me ask you a quick question." Hydro-Man grabbed a female cop (DeWolff) with one of his water tendrils and slammed her against the back of her "You ever wonder what it feels like to be water-logged?"

"Get away from her!" this was when George Stacy and Carter leapt towards Hydro-Man and pounced at him, and they attempted to hold him down as the former gripped his gun, only to be sent hurtling backwards by powerful streams of water as well.

"Until I finally get the chance to take out Spider-Man myself, I'm gonna have to settle for taking out any of the stooges that would defend him!"

"Word of warning dude, hands off the cops before I smack you with a rolled up newspaper and use it to soak your butt up!" this was when Spider-Man promptly leapt onto the scene, launching a kick that sent him hurtling straight through Hydro-Man's body and failing to wound him, but it did distract him long enough for Spidey to latch onto Stacy and the others with his webs and pull them to safety, while he himself turned his attention to Hydro-Man and dodged a series of water tendrils being shot at him, and then he charged in to launch a counterattack, only to be swatted aside by a large ball of water being shot at him 'Okay, somehow I imagined that one going differently than this.'

"I should thank you for showing up when you did, because now I don't have to waste any time on the others and I can just get to taking you out!"

"Go ahead and try it you walking fire hydrant!" Spider-Man rebonuded and began dodging the series of water tendrils Hydro-Man was unleashing on him "Great, first Sandman and now the human fire hydrant? I'm half expecting a dog to walk up and do its business on your leg." he was immediately met with a water ball hitting him square in the face before he could react, knocking him to the ground with a loud crash "Ow…"

"And for the record you goddamn insect, the name is Hydro-Man! You better remember it, it's the last name you're ever gonna hear!" Hydro-Man grabbed onto Spider-Man with another one of his water tendrils and sent him hurtling high and far into the air and in the direction of a certain suburban neighborhood.

'Well, this is something else I was hoping to try out at some point.' Spider-Man released a series of web streams into the air that bound together and formed a makeshift parachute, allowing him to slowly glide back towards the ground 'As far as positives go right now, at least I know that using my webs to make a parachute can work on full-sized people instead of just birds that you can't get to shut up. Yeah, that was not a fun day for a number of reasons, Venom being right at the top of that list.' he let out a sigh at the memory of that incident as he reached the ground and let go of his web parachute 'Okay so to sum up, the web parachute worked and I managed to get out of that little scrap in one piece. Aside from what I think might be the internal bruising, and now I have to go back in and make sure that he doesn't- Wait, know this neighborhood. Oh god, I just had to land here didn't I?' he was met with the sound of thunder rumbling overhead, and then a series of rain droplets pouring down from above 'And of course it starts raining… Wait… Rain, as in water, as in… Oh god dammit."

"You don't have what it takes to stop me Spider-Man!" the voice of Hydro-Man started echoing all throughout the area, and his face materialized in a nearby puddle "You're the reason I got turned into what you see now, and you're gonna pay for it!"

"So let me see if I got this: You went with the superpowers but kept the mullet? Well I never really considered anyone working at Oscorp for having good judgement, so–" Spider-Man was cut off by a column of water burst out from a nearby fire hydrant and slammed into him, sending him crashing into a nearby tree "Ow. Again."

"How did that one go? Oh yeah!" Hydro-Man gave a smirk as his physical form materialized using the water from the fire hydrants "Down came the rain and washed the spider out! Yeah there we go, time to put it into action!" he unleashed a massive wave that he sent hurtling towards the downed form of Spider-Man and engulfed him in almost an instant.

'Yeah I'm gonna be honest, I hate that song, I mean REALLY hate that song. This is just perfect though. Not only does another bad guy show up just to take me out, the second one in the past month, which is actually a pretty slow pace now that I think about it, but I have to bring him onto the street where I live with my own Aunt May! I keep saying that I make it a point to keep the people I care about out of my life as Spider-Man, only to bring that stuff to them. It's official, I totally suck at this whole thing.' Spider-Man let out a groan as he webbed a line and pulled himself out of the web and onto the roof of a nearby house.

"You're about as tenacious as everybody says you are, and even more annoying than they say you are too, which is a hell of a lot!" Hydro-Man shot a barrage of water balls at Spider-Man, forcing him to evade them and retreat onto the top of a nearby lamp post.

"I like to think I'm more charming than annoying, I mean I had this whole conversation before with the Beetle the other day. Alright time to give the quips a rest for a second, I have to find a way to shut this guy down before anyone gets hurt. The only question is how to- Crap!' he was forced to evade an oncoming water ball, and then he used a series of webs to counter the water bullets being shot at him as he retreated to the ground 'Okay that's getting old pretty fast, I need to come up with a plan. He's too powerful as he is right now, before anything else I'm gonna have to cut off his water supply.'

"Check it Spider-Man, this is what real power looks like!" Hydro-Man suddenly morphed into the form of a massive water monster as it brought down one of its giant fists, backhanding Spider-Man into a nearby car.

"Hey you giant lougie, get a load of this one!" Spider-Man rebounded as he webbed a nearby manhole cover and hurled it into the water monster, causing it to revert back into a giant puddle of water 'Okay gotta think this through, gotta stay calm and don't let my emotions get the better of me or any of that good stuff. Wait a second… emotions… The human brain is made up of a series of stored memories and electrical impulses… Electrical, that's it! I can finally try out that new set of Electric Webs I was working on. No guarantee it's not gonna fry me, but I've taken worse stuff and come out in one piece. I'm gonna have to take a pretty big gamble for this part though.' so with a deep breath to compose himself, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number "Captain Stacy, yeah it's me. I know you know, you mentioned her by name. Yeah well, we don't have time to worry about that right now. Is everyone evacuated? Good, because I need your help. I'm in the middle of fighting this guy right now, and I need you to get the water shut down in this area. I've got a plan to take him down, but I need to cut off his power supply. Okay good, thank you." and so he hung up and breathed a sigh 'Well that oughta take care of that in the next few minutes, once it does I can try out that new little trick and see if it works. If not, I'll go back to the drawing board and think of something else.' so he leapt back to avoid the oncoming series of water bullets being fired at him, and then he countered one giant ball of water with a series of webs "So I don't suppose you had ever heard of the whole line about great power coming with great responsibility? I mean I know you're coming off as being a lunatic, but-"

"I already know the responsibility I've got, they're the reason why I got roped into getting these powers in the first place: Avenging Mr Osborn and taking you down!"

"Okay so it's revenge, at least that one makes more sense than whatever it-" Spider-Man was cut off by Hydro-Man backhanding him across the face using one of his giant water arms, sending him crashing to the ground "Now I'm gonna finish what he started, by ripping you the hell apart!" he suddenly enveloped himself in an enormous typhoon that began pulling Spider-Man in, along with some of the debris in the surrounding area.

'Great, first a water version of the Sandman and now he's turning himself into a hurricane. I'm done taking chances with this guy, I've gotta make sure May gets out of here. I can't get to her in person or he'll just follow me, gotta avoid that.' he looked up at Hydro-Man, then back in the direction of his house, then down at his phone, and he let out a sigh 'Well if the secret is out then it's not like I have anything to lose if I go through with this.' so he leapt onto a nearby rooftop and dialed another number on his phone "Come on, come on…"

"Hey Tiger."

"Hey MJ listen, how close are you to your house right now?"

"Close enough that I can see you talking on your phone in front of what looks like a category-5 hurricane."

"Yeah not the time for snark or quips, I'm being serious. Listen I'm still kind of on the fence about you figuring out my secret identity, but I can't afford to worry about that right now, because there's something that I need to trust you with."

"Alright, name it."

"You know that my house is only a few blocks away from where I'm fighting right now, I need you to slip around the other way, find my Aunt May and get here somewhere safe. Can you do that for me?"

"...You can count on me Tiger."

"Thank you." and so he promptly hung up 'The irony here is about as painful as taking a full force headbutt from the Rhino. All this time I've been keeping my identity a secret in order to protect the people that I care about, but now I need to reveal it to keep them safe. Isn't that just another case of the typical Parker luck slapping me across the face. Either way, the fact is that MJ might be the one person I can trust with this right now.' he quickly found himself forced onto the evasive by another series of water bullets, his mind racing as he dodged them 'Please MJ, I'm counting on you right now.'

"Come on Spider-Man, let me show you what real power looks like!" Hydro-Man enlarged the typhoon to the point where entire cars and other vehicles were being pulled into it, which also forced Spider-Man to go on the evasive.

'Come on come on, I gotta keep him occupied for a little while longer. As it is right now, my new Electric Webs need to build up enough charge for them to work properly, or else it might as well be for nothing.'

"Now do you see it Spider-Man, do you see what I'm capable of? This is what real power looks like, and now I AM real power!"

"Yeah well, apparently real power doesn't know when to shut up."

"You've never shut up a single time you showed up in that stupid costume!"

"That's different, I'm expected to be snarky and throw out quips. If anything I've trademarked it at this point! You on the other hand…" he webbed a nearby net to him and promptly brought it down on Hydro-Man's head "You just keep on running your mouth without being able to back up the talk."

"You wanna see me back up my talk?" Hydro-Man cast aside the net and formed a large vortex around his body "I'm gonna level this entire freaking city, and then everyone is gonna have you to thank for it!" and then he brought down an enormous ball of water.

'They already think I'm a murderer, how is that gonna be any different?' Spider-Man rolled his eyes underneath his mask as he shot a series of webs at the water ball, only for it to come down on top of him.

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Meanwhile, at the Parker residence…

"Well goodness…" May looked out the window of the kitchen as rain (at least what she thought was rain) poured down heavily from the skies above 'I had been hoping for rain for the garden, but something definitely feels wrong about this. I just hope that Peter isn't caught out there in this weather.' she was quickly pulled from her musings by the sound of rapid knocking on the door, and she answered it to find MJ standing there panting heavily "Oh Mary Jane, please come in, we need to get you out of this weather."

"No time…" MJ held up a hand to May as she took a moment to catch her breath, and after a moment passed she composed herself "Peter sent me."

"I thought the two of you were out seeing a movie."

"We were, it ended, then this happened. Don't worry about Peter, he's fine but he asked me to come over here and make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine but please come in dear, we don't want you to get soaked." May quickly ushered MJ inside the house as she handed her a towel to help her dry off.

'Always thinking about other people and doesn't even bat an eye, now I'm getting a pretty good idea of where Tiger gets it from.' she took a look around the house as she dried off, then stopped when she saw a certain picture sitting on the mantle 'That must be his Uncle Ben… I never got to meet him in person, but he talks a lot about him. So this is him right?"

"You mean Ben? Yes dear that's him, though it's a bit of an older photo so he looks a great deal more spry and young."

"Come on May, you're aging like fine wine." MJ gave her a playful smile, but then her face fell slightly "Plus you were the one that raised Peter to care so much about other people."

"I may have had a hand in keeping him on the right path, but Ben had quite a large part in that as well. I like to think that Peter is turning out the way he is because of the values that his uncle had placed in him. Now that he's gone, it's up to me to make sure he stays on the right path." then her face fell "Although that isn't as easy in recent times. He's always running about and staying so busy that he hardly has any time to relax for himself anymore. And when he does stop if even for a moment, he looks so…"

"Downcast and lonely?" MJ's expression softened slightly "I know. This whole thing with Gwen and Harry is hurting him more than he's willing to admit."

"At least he has you to be there for him, so thank you for that dear."

"Don't worry about it. He's a good guy, he just needs to have someone in his corner to watch his back for him. I guess the only thing he really needs right now, is a good friend."

"This is why I told him so many times that you had a wonderful personality. I wonder why he always seemed so concerned whenever I said that." a brief pause.

"...Wait, that's what you told him?" MJ couldn't stop herself from laughing "No wonder it took you so long to get him to meet me. He might be a good guy but he's still a guy, and saying stuff like that is always a turn off for them."

"Really?"

"Trust me May, I've seen plenty of guys who-" MJ was cut off by the sound of glass shattering, courtesy of the living room window breaking "Oh right gotta get back on topic, he wanted me to get you out of here." so she grabbed May by the hand and quickly led her out of the house, just in time to see Spider-Man get sent crashing to the ground in a watery heap.

"Is that Spider-Man?"

"How you doing?" Spider-Man shot her a thumbs up, then let out a groan "I know, I still don't have anything on Joey from Friends, just give me a second." he picked himself up and pulled out a few web cartridges from his utility belt 'At least now I think my new electrical web prototypes have built up enough charge. I'm just praying to the love of god that this actually works, or else I'm probably gonna drown on dry land. Alright you two get out of here and get somewhere safe, I can handle this myself." and so he promptly started web-slinging his way back to the fight.

"Come on May let's go, I'm getting you out of here." MJ quickly grabbed May by the arm, and then she started leading May in the direction opposite of the battle, though as she did she glanced back at Spider-Man 'You'd better get out of there in one piece Tiger, you leave this woman alone and I'm never gonna forgive you, and neither will anyone else for that matter.'

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Meanwhile, back with the fight…

"How many times do we have to go through this before you figure it out Spider-Man? You can't defeat me!" Hydro-Man didn't even bat an eye as he phased through Spider-Man's attempt to punch him, and then he unleashed a stream of water from both arms that engulfed Spider-Man in a large water sphere "Here's something to figure out though, maybe you're one of those cool water spiders that I heard about!"

'This is not how I imagined today going.' Spider-Man let out a series of loud gurgling noises as he reached into his utility belt and pulled out two web cartridges, which he promptly placed into his web-shooters 'The question is, are these things actually gonna work on him? I'm still not sure that my web-shooters are actually gonna work with these things and not fall apart from it.'

"What's the matter web for brains, you running out of air in there?"

'...Well one thing is for sure. This is gonna hurt me a hell of a lot more than it's gonna hurt him, and it's really gonna hurt him.' Spider-Man gritted his teeth as he launched a single web line through the water sphere as it latched onto Hydro-Man, and the webline suddenly unleashed a sizable surge of electricity that caused Hydro-Man to scream in pain as he dropped the water sphere, allowing Spider-Man to burst out and retreat a short distance "Now that right there is what I call electrifying." he paused, then cringed visibly at what he just said "Oh wow, yeah you know it's a bad one when I'm the one that cringes. Note to self, set aside some time to work on new quippage material. On the plus side, it looks like the Electric Webs were a success.'

"I'm not gona go down that easily!" Hydro-Man unleashed another water vortex around his body that subsequently cancelled out the electricity coming from the webbing, and then he promptly surged forward in his rage… right in the direction of MJ and May "What do you say we go ahead and spice things up a little bit ladies, have some fun with-"

"Get the hell away from them!" Spider-Man burst towards Hydro-Man as fast as he could and unleashed two simultaneous streams of his electric webbing at Hydro-Man, causing him to scream in pain as his body evaporated into a puddle of water on the ground from the electrical current, which gave Spider-Man a chance to breath a sigh of relief as he turned to MJ and May "While I'm ridiculously tempted to make a joke about getting the world's biggest bathmat to soak this guy up, priorities have to come first. Are you two okay?"

"We're a little bit damp, but I think it could've been a lot worse." MJ gave a shrug "Thanks to you that is, you basically saved our lives."

"I'm just doing what I have to do, but it does help to know that there are people looking out for one another." Spider-Man glanced directly at MJ as he said this 'In other words, even though I can't say this out loud in front of her, thank you for looking after her for me. I guess Aunt May was right about what she said before, having someone to help out and have my back isn't that bad of an idea after all. Her knowing about my secret identity on the other hand, still more or less cause for me having a panic attack. I'm gonna have to deal with that soon enough.'

"Hey Spidey? I'm all for awkward silences and all, but I think it's safet to say we've got another problem…" MJ pointed to the rippling in the giant puddle of water in front of them as it began to take on a new form.

'...Aw crapbaskets.'

"You thought I was done that easily?!" Hydro-Man suddenly burst upwards as he reverted back to his humanoid form and hit Spider-Man with a giant water fist, sending him hurtling backwards and crashing to the ground, and he began drawing water into himself to enhance his size until he was towering over every surrounding building 'Just perfect, more water. Where the heck is a drough when you need one? What makes it worse is that I used up the only samples of Electric Webbing that I had on me, so no chance of frying him into nothing. God, now I sound like Electro don't I? Well whatever, I don't have time to dwell on that right now.' he was quickly forced onto the evasive by a series of water tendrils and liquid bullets being shot at him 'Well right now I guess there's only one thing left to do, and that's go to the backup plan!' so he reached into his utility belt and pulled out a series of web cartridges and threw them into Hydro-Man's mouth one by one while he was in the middle of laughing maniacally.

"Seriously that's not gonna do anything to me, but it did kind of tickle. And you know, those web things of yours actually don't taste too bad. Kind of like chicken. Anyway, now I'm gonna take you down for- Oh crap." and then a series of enormous webs burst out from within Hydro-Man, leaving him to be absorbed by the webs and left as nothing but a large pile in the road.

'Perfect, that's exactly what I thought it was gonna do, and it proves my theory. Not only can my webs act as conductors, but apparently they're incredibly absorbent too. Looks like a fair amount of good came out of today after all."

"You're not gonna hear me object to that one." MJ shot him a smirk.

"Because I took down a supervillain and saved your life?"

"And somehow you fighting a supervillain with water powers managed to fix my aunt's garden problem without even trying." she jerked a thumb at the garden next to them.

"Irony, thy name is Spider-Man." he then leaned towards her, his voice low "Get May out of here just to be safe, I'm gonna call the cops and have them pick this guy up, and then you and I are gonna have a good long talk."

"Figures."

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An hour passed, and the sun was beginning to set.

"Well that actually went pretty well, for once at least." Peter watched as Hydro-Man was taken away by the police, then turned to MJ "Stopped the bad guy, nobody got killed, and apparently I did a little bit of gardening for our aunts. Not too bad of a day's work if I do say so myself."

"And apparently learned how to use your webs to electrocute a guy." MJ pointed out dryly "Hey by the way, you said you webs aren't organic right?"

"No and I get questions about those all the time, ironically the webs are pretty much he one and only spider-based power that I didn't get when that thing bit me."

"Then where do you get them?"

"Actually I make them, there a pretty complicated chemical compound I cooked up. The first batch I made with this old chemistry set that my Uncle Ben got me when I was a kid, that was enough to last me through last Summer and a good chunk of my first semester last year. After that I started borrowing some stuff from one of the labs at school, I figured if they didn't know about it then they wouldn't mind. I've got this whole stach of these little web cartridges hidden in my closet in my room, it's enough to last me for another full month at least."

"Huh. That's pretty cool."

"I have the mind, I like to think I can put it to good use." Peter gave a shrug, but then he took a quick glance over to see May enter their house, and then his gaze quickly hardened as he turned back to MJ "Okay now that there are no more distractions, time for the serious talk. How long have you known?"

"You mean about your… other side? For the past couple months or so. Since that whole incident with Venom back in January."

"You mean when he tried to out me as Spider-Man to the whole world?"

"Yep. I had my doubts about it at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made way too much sense. Plus during your fight with him outside the school, I caught a quick glimpse of you without the mask on."

"...Oh."

"Yeah. Anyway it took me awhile to process, and I didn't want to tell you until you wanted to tell me. It was your secret, it wasn't my place to say anything."

"And yet you pretty much threw that out the window today."

"I know, but in all fairness, I did hold off on that for awhile. But I figured that right now, you need at least one person in your corner, especially given… recent events. Like Harry and Gwen."

"...Yeah." Peter's entire body tensed up as he looked away "Like that sort of thing." he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back at MJ, and he let out a sigh as he hung his head.

"Don't lose hope just yet Tiger, you and Gwen are meant to be together, I see that just as much as everyone else. You can't give up on that."

"I don't see it as me giving up. I just see it as me doing what has to be done. The fact is that right now, Harry needs her a lot more than I do. It hurts yeah, I mean how could it not, but if it has to be done… then the only thing I can do is give them the space they need. Besides, Aunt May and I kind of already had a talk like this."

"You did?"

"Yeah, pretty much the day after Harry's dad's funeral. She told me not to lose faith and that this wouldn't last forever. She told me about that cheesy old saying when it comes to love. Apparently when you love something, you have to set it free. If it comes back to you, then it's yours. But if it doesn't, then it never was yours to begin with." he shook off the sadness for the moment and gave an incredibly forced smile "Anyway I've gotta email some pictures to the Bugle so that I don't get fired, and then I'm just gonna stay with Aunt May for the rest of the night, so I guess I'll just see you around then."

"Yeah maybe. Or maybe you'd just wanna hit an arcade or something tomorrow?"

"...Yeah, that sounds kind of nice. I mean as long as me and the guys don't have too much going on or anything. Well I'm gonna go… do what I already said I'd do."

"Yeah, I'd better go check on my aunt and make sure she's okay."

"Good call. And MJ? Thanks for being such a good friend."

"...No worries Tiger, it's what I do." MJ gave a smile as she watched Peter make his way into his house, but then she let out a sigh and pulled out her phone "Hey, it's me. We need to talk. Can you meet me at the Silver Spoon? Okay, see you in a little bit." and then she hung up 'You probably won't like what I'm gonna say to her Tiger, but it needs to be said, for your sake.'

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About a half hour passed.

'She'll be here soon…' MJ sat outside the Silver Spoon (the typical coffee place around that part of New York) with a cup in hand, which she took a sip out of 'This has to be done, for her sake and for his.'

"Hey MJ, sorry I'm late."

MJ looked up to see a young woman with long blonde hair (Gwen Stacy) walk up to her and sit down next to her "No problem, I was just closer is all. How have things been?"

"Pretty good, I mean as good as they can be anyway. Hey before I forget, here's that straight iron you let me borrow a few months back." she held up the straight iron in question "I mean I've had this lying around since like Valentine's Day."

"Oh yeah, you know I completely forgot about that." MJ accepted the straight iron, then promptly pushed it aside as she handed Gwen a cup of coffee "So listen, I'm just gonna get right to the point of this. I talked to Peter earlier."

"Really?" Gwen's face lit up at the mention of Peter, but then it fell just as quickly "So um, you guys are hanging out?"

"We went to see a movie and we talked a little bit. Anyway we talked about… you two, and he says that he's okay."

"He is?"

"Yeah, he says that Harry needs you right now more than he does, so he's okay with taking a step back for awhile and letting you guys have your space."

"So he's… okay then?"

"He says he is."

"That's… That's good."

"Yeah." MJ's expression quickly turned solemn "Except here's the thing Gwen, he's lying through his teeth when he says that. He's trying to be strong about it, but I can tell that it's pretty much just killing him inside. I love both you guys like crazy, but speaking as probably the only friend he's got right now, I'm gonna have to say what he could never bring himself to say, because that's how much he cares about you… As long as you're staying with Harry, you probably shouldn't see him for awhile."

"...Yeah. I know." Gwen looked down at the ground, prompting MJ to pull her into a hug, to which Gwen buried her face in MJ's shoulder as tears began to flow.

'Yeah, this is the hard part of being a good friend.' MJ let out a sigh as she comforted Gwen as she continued crying 'But this is probably a good thing. Aunt Anna always said that times like these are what people need to figure out who they really are and what they really want out of life. I mean it's pretty obvious that what these two want is each other, but now they can really discover that for themselves, and work through these things so that when the time comes for them to get together, they're really gonna be ready. As for you Tiger, I'm gonna do what I can to support you, whatever that might be. That's what friends are for after all, isn't it?'

A/N:

Now we see another new Spider-Man villain that we didn't get a chance to see in the original. In this case, it's Morris Bench, or as he's now known, Hydro-Man. I'm not sure how many fans picked up on this, but he actually did appear once before in Spectacular Spider-Man, in the episode Shear Strength. This version of the character originally worked for Normal Osborn as a demolitions expert. Also he's voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, which is awesome. Oh yeah, and in case it wasn't clear, the Kraang are the ones that are commissioning the creation of Hydro-Man in order to take down Spider-Man, with Miles Warren being the one to carry it out. Also, keep in mind that if it looks like Morris being turned into Hydro-Man made him go insane, that was by design. The Kraang's Mutagen was used in his creation, and it's been established a number of times that Mutagen is unstable and has a warping effect on the mind, so that's what sent him over the edge.

In case it wasn't clear, this chapter takes place during the events of the first Baxter Stockman episode, while the Turtles are grounded for a week, so that pretty much cuts them out of the chapter. Like I said before, while it is a crossover with TMNT, this is also a continuation of a Spider-Man story.

As I'm sure all of you have noticed, I'm trying to make use of Emily Osborn, the wife of Norman and the mother of Harry that had a number of appearances throughout the first two seasons, though she never actually had a speaking role. I will admit that I know next to nothing about her character, and the only interpretation of her that I actually do know anything about is the one from the PS4 game, and if that version is valid, she was actually a very decent human being, unlike Norman, so I'm trying to model my approach to her character after that.

Oh yeah, and as is confirmed by this chapter, Mary Jane also knows that Peter is Spider-Man, along with Captain Stacy, so now she's more or less become a sort of confidante for him, someone he can talk to about the struggles between balancing the two lives he's trying to lead, keeping in mind that he hasn't told any of the Turtles about his secret identity yet, and he won't for at least a little while. After all, like Captain Stacy said, a man in a mask may not have something to hide, but something to protect.