MJ and I watched as the suit was constructed in minutes. While it looked good in the simulation, it looked even better when it was fully made. Once the fabricator opened up, I reached in and pulled the suit out. It was a definitely a lot heavier than my other suits. But it was nothing I couldn't handle.

"Going to try it on?" MJ asked.

I looked at her and nodded. I set the suit down on its feet and started taking off the suit I already had on. Once I was down to my underwear, it took me a few moments to figure out how to properly get into the new suit. Once I did, though… yeah, it felt heavy. While it wasn't anywhere near heavy enough to restrict my movement, I knew I was going to have to put a little more effort behind my actions. The HUD was active. I raised my hands a bit and I looked down at my palms. After balling up my hands before unraveling them, I looked at Michelle.

"It feels decent enough," I commented. "A bit heavy, but nothing I can't handle."

"Show me," Michelle urged.

I beckoned her to give me room. Once she gave me that room, I started to do some maneuvers. I did some front flips, backflips, and cartwheels. I did some sparring with an invisible opponent. I then jumped towards the ceiling. It took me a couple of attempts. The first time, the ceiling was just out of reach. As I fell, I turned and landed on all fours with a thud. I sighed as I stood up. Putting a bit more effort in my jump, I ascended towards the ceiling again. This time, I managed to land on the ceiling. I slowly, I crawled across the ceiling before I came to a stop. I then slowly stood up and looked up… down… towards MJ.

"Seems good so far," I told her.

She nodded at me. "That's good."

"Let's test out the web shooters." I shot out two strands in the ceiling, one from each of the shooters. I then used them to lower myself until I was eye level with MJ. I hung upside. Underneath my metal mask, I smiled. "Works well to me."

"There's one more thing I want to see," MJ spoke up.

"Okay. Just let me – "

"No, I need you to stay where you are." She walked up to me slowly. I watched her curiously, wondering what she had in mind and why her heartbeat rose slightly. As soon as she reached me, she gently grabbed the bottom of my mask and pulled, flipping it open so my face is exposed. I looked at her in confusion.

"MJ, what are you…?"

"Ssssssh," she whispered out. "Trust me."

She leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine. It took me a moment to reciprocate. I had to process what was going on. MJ was kissing me while I was hanging upside down. Once I did process that, I kissed her back with gusto. I got lost in the kiss, with my only thought being how… hot this was. My heartbeat rose, and I heard her heart do the same. I started to feel a desire. I didn't know exactly what I desired, but I knew it involved MJ and a lot of touching. That desire only increased when MJ's tongue found her way in my mouth. And now what I desired also involved a room – either her room or my apartment. For better or for worse, because I could process this desire of mine, our need to breathe forced us to break the kiss. As we took time to fix our breathing, Michelle held my head in her hands. She took a step back and bowed her head to look me in the eye.

"…MJ," I whispered out. I knew I had the goofiest smile on my face, and I didn't care one bit.

"How was that, Peter?" she asked quietly.

"…I… I need a moment," I huffed out. She giggled as she ran the heel of her palm across my cheek.

"…I've wanted to do that for a while – kiss you while you were hanging upside down, I mean." She gave me a small smile of embarrassment. "I… I just didn't know how to ask you. I didn't know how you'd react so I… kinda just went for it while the opportunity was there." She sighed. "I know we told each other to give each other everything. And I know I'm the one who usually takes the lead on intimate gestures… but I do get nervous about this stuff."

"Well, you know I get nervous about this stuff, too, obviously." I chuckled slightly before my expression became a bit more serious. "But… when you want… whenever you want to… we can talk about these things. I want to… I want to do things we both enjoy."

MJ bowed her head and closed her eyes. "…You dork." She raised her head and stared me in the eye. "…Ditto." She then leaned forward and placed another kiss on my lips. This time, there was no hesitation when I kissed her back. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get lost in this one.

"What kind of E.L. James shit did we just walk in on?" a voice cut in. Specifically, it was Joanna's.

MJ broke the kiss and froze for a moment. "…Peter, are there people behind us?" she asked. I looked past her, then back at her before I nodded as a look of embarrassment took over my face. "Who is it?"

"…Craig, Kitty, Ned, Betty, Scott, Joanna… basically, everyone except Hogan," I informed.

"If we don't acknowledge them, you think they'll go away?"

"Maybe if you weren't doing freaky shit near the kitchen, that would work," Ned replied

MJ took in a breath as she closed her eyes and shook her head. She then turned around. While I couldn't see her face, I just knew she was glaring.

"No offense, MJ, but perhaps you and Peter could find a better place for your more intimate moments," Betty gently chastised. MJ turned her head towards her.

"No offense, Betty, but I won't sit here and get reprimanded by one half of The Lunch Line Lovers," MJ shot back.

"Lunch Line Lovers?" Joanna muttered out in confusion. She looked at Ned and Betty for a moment before she gave them a look of disgust. "…Don't tell me you guys are THAT kind of couple."

"Well sue us for being affectionate," Ned protested.

"It's PG exhibitionism if you ask me," Craig deadpanned, prompting Betty to look at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. Kitty turned around. I saw her shoulders quiver.

"Excuse me?!" Betty yelled.

Craig looked back at her and raised his eyebrows. "Am I wrong, though?"

"Anyway!" Scott spoke up. Everyone went quiet. Craig gave Betty a cheeky smirk, prompting Betty and Ned to flip him off. Scott's eyes glowed behind his glasses, and the three of them stopped their shenanigans. "Anyway, we all came to check up on you. I'd say we came in at a bad time, but I see the time you two spent together was a lot more productive than the sight we walked in on would suggest. Is that a new suit I see, Peter?"

"It is," I confirmed. I broke the lines, turned in the air and landed on my feet. I flipped my mask down. "MJ and I designed this. You like?"

Everyone crowd around me, giving me a look over.

"Bruh, what is this?" Craig questioned as he gawked. "Like, seriously, if this was like some kind of anime or something, this would be that suit upgrade that'll have people talking and merchandise moving!"

"I wanted to make a sturdier suit to have in case of heavy gunfire. MJ and I worked on it. It has a lot of bells and whistles." I chuckled. "…I think I'm going to call it The Black Dahlia Armor." I looked over at MJ, who gave me a knowing smirk.

"And you guys made this in the span of a couple of hours?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah, and most of it was the brainstorming and designing," MJ confirmed. "This Stark fabricator made this armor in just a few minutes."

"And it looks awesome!" Ned stated, nodding in approval. "Seriously, it looks badass!"

"I have to say, it looks impressive," Joanna commented. "…Okay, my confidence level in this mission of ours just went up about ten points. So I'm… five percent confident now."

"…But… that's still single digits," I pointed out.

"Yeah, I was at negative five when Ned put Craig on blast."

"…You know what… that's fair," Ned conceded. He looked at Craig. "Dude, I'm…"

"Save it," Craig interjected with somewhat forced gentleness. "I'm over it, really." He wasn't. He just didn't want to talk about it anymore. Fortunately, Ned seemed to get the message. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the end of that.

"So does that mean you're not mad at us for coming along?" Betty asked with a hopeful tone.

Craig glared at Betty. "No, I'm still freaking mad at you guys over that."

"Craig," Kitty gently stated as she walked up to him. "I get it – I'm mad at them, too. But you have to understand that – "

"That they care about Peter?" Craig looked at Kitty. "Of course I understand that. I care about Peter. You care about Peter. Everyone on this plane cares about Peter… except for maybe Joanna. I'm not quite sure." He looked at Joanna. "I don't want to make any assumptions. No offense."

"None taken," Joanna assured.

Craig nodded at her before he talked again, looking between MJ, Ned, and Betty as he spoke. "Like I said, mostly everyone on this plane cares about Peter. But Scott, Kitty, and I care about you guys, too. Your safety means a lot to us, and you guys being here is a liability. I'm already trying to prepare myself for the possibility that we won't find Carmilla or we won't find her alive. And now, low key, I'm freaking out over the possibility that you guys won't make it through this either. Plus, to be rather honest, I find it freaking hurtful that you guys don't trust us to keep Peter safe on this mission." He then stared straight at Betty. "And I didn't appreciate having me getting sidelined thrown back in my face." He sighed. "…I just wish y'all would understand that."

The whole room was quiet. The only thing that could be heard was Scott sighing. I looked at him. He looked tired. I looked around at the others. MJ, Ned, and Betty looked rather remorseful. Kitty was looking at Craig with a look of worry. And Craig… he looked angry, upset, tired, weary, worried… He looked like he had a huge weight on his shoulders.

"…You all look like you can use a drink," Joanna commented. "…Is the bar stocked?"

"We are, absolutely NOT giving them alcohol!" Scott interjected, his eyes glowing behind his glasses. "You, Hogan, and I are the only ones on this plane that is of legal age."

Joanna looked at him and smirked. "Oh come on. A little shot of the Henn never hurt anyone."

Scott glared at her. "Joanna…"

Joanna threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine. Then maybe you and I can take a bottle down to the bottom deck and indulge in some Netflix and chill."

There was a hitch in Scott's throat as his eyebrows rose above his glasses. He was caught off guard. Despite the previous tension, all the rest of us laughed at his expense. As we laughed, Joanna looked at me winked. That's when I realized that she got a rise out of Scott on purpose to lighten the mood. Or maybe she just wanted to tease him in general. I decided it was probably a bit of both.

Scott sighed as he shook his head. "Okay, everyone to bed now," he ordered. We all groaned. "We have a long day ahead of us, and I'd appreciate it if we had some semblance of sleep."

Reluctantly, we all filed down to the lower deck. Before I went with them, I change out of my suit and back into my previous suit as the others waited for me. As we made our way back, Craig turned his head towards me. "Hey, think you can make me a suit?"

"Sure," I replied with a nod. "But in the morning, though."

"Gotcha."

Once we were back in the sleeping area, MJ grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to her bed. I smiled, happy to not be sleeping alone.

A few hours later, I was woken up from my sleep by Joanna. I groaned as I looked up at her.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're just approaching the coordinates," Joanna replied. "About fifteen minutes away, to be exact."

"I see." I tried to sit up, then realized that MJ was snuggled up to me. "…Um… give me a moment."

At that, Joanna scoffed as she stood up. "Must be nice." She then walked away. I stared at her for some moments before I turned my attention back to MJ. With the arm I had around her, I gently shook her.

"Come on, Sweetie, we have to get up," I whispered. She groaned as she stirred awake. She lifted her head towards me. She used her hand to move her hair out of the front of her face, revealing her tired eyes and the somewhat dark circles around them.

"Be honest, how tired do I look?" she asked in a raspy voice.

"…Um…" I paused before I smiled sheepishly. "…To be honest, if we were in my apartment, I think you'd ask me for a can of Cocaine."

"Yikes." She groaned as she moved to sit up. "You think they have tea on this plane?"

"There might be?"

We didn't get a chance to search yet. The chairs were adjusted and turned towards the center. Scott took the time to activate the projector. The projector showed the image of the ground below us. We saw nothing but sand – we were definitely flying over a desert.

"Happy wasn't kidding about this plane having SHIELD tech," Craig commented.

"Indeed," Betty agreed as she leaned in. "This has to be like 12K resolution!"

"Think we can play Star Wars on it?" Ned asked.

"Let's worry about the mission first, then we can play whatever you want on this," Kitty told Ned. She then looked at Scott. "So what's the plan?"

"Once we're at the coordinates, Happy will have this plane hover in place," Scott explained. "During this, we'll be using different cameras to see if we can find anything at this location."

"And if we do, do you guys like skydive down there?" Ned inquired excitedly.

At that, Scott scoffed. "No, we won't. Once we confirm what we found, we're going to find a place where we can get a proper amount of sleep before we plan accordingly."

"Sounds like a plan," Craig stated.

"I'm surprised you're not clamoring to just dive in," MJ pointed out.

"Yeah, well, as much as I want to do that, I got next to no sleep last night, and I don't think going in with our current state would be smart."

"Good point," Betty said in agreement.

We felt the plane slow down. We all went quiet as we looked at the holographic projection. Slowly, the sand stopped moving by. I leaned forward towards the projection and narrowed my eyes. From what I can tell, there seemed to be an abandoned building – I think it was a gas station.

Joanna leaned forward. "An abandoned gas station in the middle of the desert," she stated. "…You know, had this been some years ago, I wouldn't think anything of it. But maybe it's hiding something?"

"Maybe," Scott stated. "Let's see what the X-Ray cam does." He typed at the keyboard of the projector. Suddenly, the image went from full color to near monochromatic. Suddenly, the gas station wasn't there anymore. Instead, there was a huge black square in the middle of the screen. At that, Scott nodded. "So there is something there."

"What are we looking at?" Craig asked.

"Something they want hidden." Scott scoffed. "They're not doing a good job of it, though. Well, at least, not to my standard, anyway."

"Why's that?" I spoke up.

"I'm guessing it's like putting a box over something you want to hide in an otherwise empty room," Betty mused. "The thing is hidden, but obviously anyone who comes along will check what's under the box."

"Good point." I then tilted my head. "…But maybe they know that?"

"And that's all the more reason to hold off for now." Scott stood up. "We'll find a hotel or motel nearby for now. After we're well rested, we'll go from there. But for now, we'll need to work on disguises."

"Disguises?" Betty stated. "For what?"

"In case anything goes down, and we need to make a quick escape, we'll need to make sure they don't connect our civilian identities to the X-Men in anyway shape or form," Kitty explained. "We got hair dye, color contacts, clippers and scissors for haircuts… the only thing we don't have is something to make a fake ID with."

"…Actually, maybe we do," I replied. "I'm thinking we can use the fabricator."

Kitty nodded. "It's worth a shot."

"Okay," Scott said. "I'm going to tell Happy to find a place to land. Kitty, Peter, let's help everyone with disguises."

"Got it," Kitty stated. "Come on guys, let's go."

We all stood up and followed Kitty. As we did so, MJ rubbed her shoulder against mine. "I'm choosing your name, loser."

I chuckled. Of course she would.