Act III (Part 4)

The next morning came around, Peter and Ned were busy walking around the park. They were walking in awkward silence until Ned started speaking.

"So, MJ, tells me, we needed to talk," Ned starts.

"Yeah, it's about everything." Peter states calmly.

Ned stared at his best friend blankly and then asked, "Is… Is it about the spell?"

Peter nodded.

"Oh… you're wondering if I'm mad or feeling something else against you?" Ned asked.

Peter nodded again.

"Honestly, when the memories came back, I was so saddened that my best friend was all alone… All by himself…." He paused. "Yet, before when we met again because of the spell, I was always wondering why Spider-Man would be your tech guy and not contact his guy-in-the-chair. And when the memories came back, it all made sense." He spoke.

Peter smiled back and asked, "So, you're not mad?"

"No… but I am a little disappointed that you didn't keep your promise, man. To come back to us. I felt like something was missing in my life and it was leading me all to Spider-Man." He said while looking down on the ground.

Peter sighed and looked at his best friend with a saddened expression. He made a mental note to help his friend whenever he needed him. Ned was there for him when May died, now it would be his turn in case he was dealing with something.

"Also, I'm still," he couldn't stop himself from laughing, "laughing at the chicken dumpling disaster. Hahahahaahaha!" He amused himself as Peter shook his head.

"You guys are not going let that go, huh?" Peter amused.

Ned guffawed and replied, "Nope." As he started to stop himself from laughing.

"Anyway, I'll see you at the Planetarium party in a few nights," Peter said as Ned nodded at that.

Peter's spider-sense started to tingle; it was heading the direction familiar.

"Oh, no," were then only words he uttered out of his mouth.

"This is Captain Jean DeWolff! Come out with your hands—" She screamed into the megaphone until an officer said, "Captain, look!"

The rookie gestured up in the air, Spider-Man was swinging by and headed inside Midtown High. Apparently held hostage by "Spider-Man".

"I see him," she said staring darkly at the vigilante.

"I thought he was—" The rookie started.

"I see him… I think we've been looking at the wrong Spider-Man…" She said darkly.

Spider-Man landed on the wall and started to descend down a bit, coming to face to face with the fake "Spider-Man", who was holding a student hostage.

"Spider-Man?" A few of students muttered under their breaths.

The fake "Spider-Man" started to get scared and yells at the original as he was holding the teenage girl hostage with a taser in his hand, "I'll—I'll do it! I'll kill this bitch!"

The original just stared down the imposter. He yelled again, "I'm not scared of you! I'm not!"

He still stared him down as he descended more and more from the wall.

"You crawl right up that wall and get out of here!" He yells as there's more of a hint of fear in his voice.

They stare at each other as the students could feel the tension rise. Spider-Man glares and webs the imposter's hand causing him to let go of the taser and his hostage was free from his grasp as he's pulled up to where Spider-Man was.

"Come here, murderer!" Spider-Man shouts as he threw a punch to his face.

"You murdered two cops! You killed them!" He shouts again as this time he throws a left and right hook, knocking the imposter on his ass.

"Do you realize what you've done?! Do you?! You dressed up like me and murdered two people!" He launches at the imposter and gives two more right hooks.

"For what?! For money! For attention!" He shouts as he gives a straight kick to his chest.

"Daaaah!" The imposter shouts as he's kicked across the hallway.

"People think I murdered those two cops! People think I stole money from banks! I got shot by Damage Control because of your crap!" He grabs the imposter the buy the throat and throws one more punch to him sending him to the floor.

The imposter groans in pain and tries to reason with Spider-Man. "Ok, ok…. I know you're mad. I was just doing it for the money."

Spider-Man lands a web on his chest, the imposter groans and shouts, "Come on!" in disdain as he's pulled towards the original who throws one more punch and then unmasks him.

"Why my costumes, huh?! Why me?!" Spider-Man shouts in pure anger.

"Listen… it was nothing personal… I just thought it was a cool gimmick, I swear…" The unmasked imposter is revealed to a white man with similar features to Peter only he's older, has curly brown hair, and blue eyes.

"Please…. I'm just some guy…" He pleads.

Peter throws the imposter across the hallway. Now his anger rose even more so that he thought he was becoming the Hulk.

"'Just some guy?'…. Just some guy! The world thinks I'm a murderer and a thief and a criminal because of you! I was dealing with Mysterio's accusations of murder! And you shot it down even further! All these students and teachers sitting here fearing for their lives because of you pretending to be me! All for the money!" Spider-Man shouts in pure anger and nothing is stopping him now. He sees Goblin in place of the imposter laughing at him for causing Aunt May's death.

The imposter pleads, "No…."

"SO, WHAT'S TO STOP ME FROM MURDERING YOU!" He beings to strangle the imposter by the throat and everyone starts to scream in fear.

"TELL ME WHY I SHOULDN'T KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW!" He screams again as the imposter starts to grasp for his life, Peter instantly realizes he has to stop and let's go. The imposter grasps for air and all the students and teachers stare at Spider-Man in shock. He almost killed a criminal in front of them.

Outside, Jean DeWolff orders aloud with the megaphone, "That does it! I want anyone wearing a Spider-Man costume to come out with your mask off and hands over your head!"

The school's door open and every student and teacher come out terrified and screaming "Ohmygod!"

"What happened?" A rookie cop asks.

Jean stares darkly at the situation as cops enter the scene. They see the fake Spider-Man webbed upside down and note from the original Spidey that said: 'From the REAL Spider-Man! This is your guy!'

Jean takes the note and looks at it. The imposter starts to talk frightened.

"I did it…I was gonna blow up this school if it wasn't for Spider-Man stopping me… and I killed those two cops and robbed that bank… I confess!" He pleads for the cops to arrest him.

Peter sits on top of building and takes off his mask, tears almost coming out of his eyes. He puts his hand on his forehead and shouts in agony, "DAMMMN IT!"

"I lost it… I completely lost it again…. Like that time with Goblin…. And that rat creature from the party… what's wrong with me… and that time when Uncle Ben was killed by that thief... why am I letting this anger of mine just creep up on me?" He says to himself.

"I thought I wouldn't be able to get angry like that ever again… I didn't even realize it was happening…. That I could've killed him… Killed that man with my bare hands… Then what would I be?" He starts taking breaths, trying to calm himself down.

"I just have to prevent myself from ever getting that angry and to never let that happen…EVER!" He starts to remember what Peter-3 said about himself after he lost his girlfriend and what he did through his grief.

"You know at some point, I just… I stopped pulling my punches… I grew rageful… I grew bitter."

It starts to rain heavily and he stares out into the city, hearing the sirens, the cries for help and so on. He starts to remind himself of the words, "With great power, there must also come great responsibility."

He heads his phone vibrate and sees MJ calling and decides to ignore for it now. Peter puts on the mask and swings all the way to a certain place.

MJ was trying to call Peter, but he wouldn't pick up. A knock on her window startled her and she jerked her head to see it was Peter knocking with his costume still on and heavily raining outside. She opened up the window and he quickly entered inside.

"Peter, what happened? I saw some stuff on the news about Midtown being held hostage by that imposter Spider-Man," MJ said aloud.

Peter was just not having it. He took off his mask, his eyes puffy and red from heavily crying and it scared MJ to see Peter like that.

"Are your parents home?" Peter asked. She shook her head.

He fell onto his knees and started to shake uncontrollably.

"I don't- you don't deserve me as your boyfriend... I almost killed that guy..." he said while almost breaking down into tears.

MJ was shocked, she tried to calm him down, but then she bent down to his level and gave him a huge hug.

"It's ok, Peter... you're not gonna let loose and kill someone," MJ said firmly, trying to hold back some tears.

"And you'll always be my boyfriend, Spider-Man," MJ said proudly.

"But I almost killed someone- how can you love me when I've left you thinking about who gave you that necklace? About not coming and helping restore your memories of me? And now if I committed manslaughter... would you still love me?" Peter kept asking her these questions.

"Because I know that's not who you are." She said back.

He stared at her eyes widened, what did he do to deserve her.

"But if I did... would you still love me?" Peter asked.

MJ bit her lips, stared on the floor, and then right back at Peter's eyes. "I wouldn't love what you did, but I know you'll tell me that I'll have to move on from you... and maybe I could... but sometimes I think I just know it in my heart that you're not like that...I told you before didn't I, we're facing these risks together."

He stared at her in awe again. "I know we had this conversation before... but do you think Spider-Man... I'm a hero? Like what's so great about me?"

MJ's lips turned into a little smile and she just replied, "Everything."

Peter sort of blushed at that. She continued, "You're a hero because you just saved everyone at Midtown High from that dumb fake you. And if I was a hero and someone wore and impersonated and framed me, I'd go kick their ass. You even leaped to save me from falling at the Statue of Liberty if it wasn't for Osborn... you saved our friends at Washington DC and in London. So, yeah, you're a hero. Oh and you saved the MIT lady from the tentacle guy."

He kept thinking long about what MJ just said, that he is a hero and he has done a good thing for the people of New York, even if they do dislike him or hate him because of Mysterio's lies that doesn't mean he should use his power to hurt them, rather be above that, be the hero to not only prove them wrong, but because also the right thing to do.

"Thanks, MJ. I needed that," Peter said as he got up from the floor, about to go out the window, and swing back to his apartment until MJ gently tapped his arm and he turned to look at her.

"What?" He confusedly asked.

"This," she replied back and gave him a kiss on the lips. As they were done, he gulped and put his mask back on, leaped out the window, and swung back to his apartment.

I'll end it there, I hope you guys like it. I also apologize for not updating this story as much as university has been getting on my ass. But anyway like I said I hope you enjoyed it!