Spider-Man and MJ: Never Break

Chapter 5 The Developer

"I know they're human beings and Spider-Man saves everybody, but it's hard to feel sorry for these people," MJ said.

"You're right, MJ. They are human beings and Spider-Man does save everybody," Spider-Man said, swinging on his way to the Developer's location.

"Assuming that the Developer is telling the truth, they've been nasty to their employees," MJ said over the communicator in May's computer.

"It's not for me to decide who lives or dies. They might be terrible bosses, but that doesn't excuse murder."

MJ was coming at this from a different perspective. She felt for the Developer. MJ knew what it was like to be abused, to not be given a voice, to be put under someone who's scum. "Peter, I'm not saying you should let them die," though she did want to, "but can you see how she's a victim, too? These people emotionally trampled her for years. And this isn't just about her. What about all the other people this video game company hurt. Can you really consider this a job well done if you just beat the costumed supervillain and then let those monsters continue to suck the life out of their employees?"

"Well . . ." Spider-Man said sheepishly. That kind of was his original plan. "I don't know how to solve corporate mismanagement. I just take down criminals."

"I've got an idea," MJ said, wondering if it was her place to suggest a plan to a superhero. "What if you grab one of them and threaten to not save him if he doesn't confess everything while you record it and then everyone will know what these monsters have done."

"I can't just not save him if he doesn't make a confession."

"Sure, but he doesn't know that. All you have to do is be a good liar. You've had plenty of practice with that, haven't you?"

"Ouch," Spider-Man playfully said. "Fair point. But . . . I don't know. Extorting someone for information? That seems a little unfriendly-neighborhood-like."

"It's not extorting if you're not the one about to hurt him. It's more like providing a service in exchange for information. Do it for me, Tiger. It might be against the rules, but love is supposed to break the rules."

Spider-Man was worried that this could become a slippery slope of cold-blooded methods. But he couldn't deny the points MJ was making. And it was hard to argue with MJ asking him to do it for her. "Alright, I'll do it."


"There he is! There he is!" the Developer said, pointing excessively at a game director. "There's the face that everybody sees."

The director was brought to her by her henchmen. "Don't do this," he begged, staring at the four bodies that had just been in his position.

"Nice to see you again, Richie, my old boss."

"Who are you?!"

"WOULD YOU REMEMBER IF I TOLD YOU MY NAME?!" the Developer shouted. "Maybe you could figure it out if I told you about our past. You made me work six hours passed the scheduled end of my shift without pay more than once; does that narrow it down."

Richie had too many people that fit that description. "What do you want?!" Richie cried.

"What do I want?! WHAT DO I WANT?! I want to see my family! I want to smile when I tell people I make video games! I want the passion for my work that you took from me!" The Developer threw the dice at him. "Roll," she said coldly.

Spider-Man crashed through the window like a cannonball. He stuck to the ceiling and said, "Hope you don't mind the broken window. I figured you'd take that over the alternative."

The henchmen pointed their guns at Spider-Man, but they didn't fire yet. "This isn't your problem, Spider-Man," the Developer said.

"You kidnapped a bunch of people and started shooting them in a city where it's my job to save people. I missed the part where that's not my problem."

Spider-Man was perfectly calm even with all those guns pointing at him. He knew that his spider-sense would give him a heads up if they were about to shoot.

"You don't understand," the Developer insisted. "These people deserve to die."

"That they might, but . . . and bear with me on this, you want your revenge to be just, right?"

"Right," the Developer said, not knowing where he was going with this.

"And that just revenge is supposed to be done with the camera watching."

"Y- yes," the Developer said, confused. The camera was already watching. What was he getting at?

"AND! And you want all of these people to be here to die. Especially him," Spider-Man said, pointing at Richie.

Richie's sweating intensified.

Spider-Man continued, "So if he got away, that would be bad for you. And if not all the deaths were on camera, that would also be bad for you."

"What's your point?"

"Well . . ." Spider-Man sprang off of the ceiling, rolled on the floor, sprang back up, grabbed Richie and leapt out the window with him. Before they fell, Spider-Man web-grabbed the floating camera and pulled it into his hand.

"SPIDER-MAN!" the Developer screamed in rage. She pointed her gun at the hostages, but she couldn't get what Spidey said out of her mind. She did want it on that camera. She growled her frustration, lowering her weapon. "Keep them here. I'll be right back," she told her henchmen. Before her appeared a map the city, zoned in on their area. She could see a marker representing her camera which Spider-Man was swinging away with. Seeing the direction they were going, she tapped a location they would reach eventually. "Fast travel," she said before fading away.

The Developer stood on the rooftop and waited. All the while, she could see what her camera was streaming. Spider-Man had the camera stuck to Richie's torso, looking up into his face.

"Thank you, thank you!" Richie said.

"You might not want to thank me just yet," Spider-Man said much to his own chagrin.

They were coming into the Developer's line of vision. She began taking aim with her built in aim assist maximized.

"Before I officially save you, I'm gonna need a full confession about all the nasty things you did to your employees."

The Developer's heart skipped a beat. She had a clear shot, but she didn't pull the trigger. She hid herself from view and let them swing by.

Spider-Man landed on a different roof top and ripped the camera off of Richie's chest. "So let's hear it nice and clear for all the folks at home," Spider-Man said.

"You can't be serious!"

"For once, I actually am."

"You can't do this! You have to save me!" Richie pleaded.

"Well, I might have the responsibility, but I technically don't have any obligation. I never took any oath or signed any contracts. I'm kind of a civilian who has every right to run from a dangerous situation."

"You're crazy! I'm leaving and I'll call the police!"

"You can't go. And the police can't get to you in time."

"What?!"

"There's no stairs or elevators leading to the top of this building," Spider-Man explained. "I hate to break it to you, but we're stuck here until you tell me what the Developer is mad at you about."

"You don't understand!" Richie said in panic. "If I came clean about what I've done, it would ruin my reputation!"

"So you did do what she said!" Spider-Man declared. "You know something, I would have considered that maybe you were innocent, but now that I've heard that, you officially have five seconds to spill the whole story before I leave you here for the Dev."

"Okay, okay! I'll talk! Just don't leave me!" Richie pleaded.

The Developer as well as many others listened as Richie laid out a series of confessions about how he and the company mistreated their employees. The Developer had thought Spider-Man would prove to be an obstacle, but he actually helped make progress without any bloodshed.

The Developer appeared at a distance on that roof top, prompting Richie to scream and hide behind Spider-Man. "Save me!" Richie cried.

"Did you hear all that?" Spider-Man asked.

"You . . . You don't know what that meant to me, Spider-Man," the Developer said, her voice weak and humbled. "I didn't think anyone cared. I'll always be grateful for the effort. That's why I won't kill you. I'll just knock you out and kill them all while you're unconscious." The Developer's guns ignited with electricity, symbolizing their switch to non-lethal rounds.

"Wait!" Spider-Man urged. "It doesn't have to be like this! When enough people see this evidence . . ."

"You think that's going to change anything?! People won't even think that confession is hot news anyway. Since when has it ever been popular to talk about problems a bunch of non-famous people put up with. Nobody knows about the hundreds of hard working devs and animators who get overworked and underpaid in development crunches. But everybody knows about poor Ms. Emotionless Movie Star who sued because she only got twenty million dollars for her bare minimum performance!"

"Since when has shooting people ever solved problems like this?!" Spider-Man countered. "Look, I know they took a lot from you."

"You have no idea how much," the Developer said.

"Don't let them take anymore from you. Everyone of them you kill is more years to your prison sentence and more damage to your soul."

"My soul is fine. And I'm not going to prison."

"Look at yourself! I can see that this isn't who you want to be," Spider-Man said.

"Of course it's not." The Developer tugged on her shirt to make the words, "I have a great body under all this censorship," clearly visible. "This getup is a symbol of what they turned me into. This is what I made instead of what I wanted to make."

"Maybe you can still be what you wanted to be."

The Developer remained silent for a moment as she contemplated his words before saying, "I need to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone else. I need to make sure none of them hurt anyone else."


Author's Note: Fun fact. I was originally going to write the Developer as a male character because most video game developers are men. But I made the Developer a female character because the other villains I've been planning on using are male. I want to assure you that it was not my intention to imply that abusers are always men nor was it my intention to imply that all abuse victims are always women. I hope it comes across that there are both men and women that suffer from the problems that the Developer is talking about. I also had that producer in the last chapter be a woman so we're not pointing fingers at men specifically.

In case you choose to skip the Thor and Hulk chapter, I'll tell you now about my new video about the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. It's called –

Spider-Man and . . . EVERYONE (Spectacular Spider-Man) – Couple Reviews by MVPKnight


Backup Story

Thor and Hulk: False Pantheon

Chapter 2 Tyranny

Thor saw much that did not sit well with him. Those who ruled over Oblious deemed it a necessity to construct giant statues while little resources were dedicated to things like proper hospitals or decent schools. Homes for the common people were built in the most degrading fashion Thor had ever seen. Deep holes in the ground that stretched for almost a mile each had hundreds of homes imbedded into the dirt walls. People would have to climb up hundreds of steps every day just to get to work. Of course, the houses nearer to the top of these holes were more expensive. So the poorer they were, the lower they lived and the farther they would have to climb and the less sunlight they would see. Such great lengths they went to in order to not be higher than the precious statues of their false gods. The most entertaining thing, in their opinion, was the holograms that would float in the center of the holes in the ground; they would usually broadcast trash about the false gods' relationship drama or updates on the false gods' vanity projects. It was truly ridiculous that the citizens of Oblious were actually more invested in such petty squabbles than they were concerned about the hundreds of deaths from starvation and the millions of slaves. Thor flew over the capital city, seeing slaves being whipped as they carried out their backbreaking tasks. Where was any of that in those broadcasts?

Thor knew he made the right decision to have a look around while the other Asgardians went straight to the palace. Thor was disgusted to know that, at that very moment, his father was apologizing to the king of Oblious for not stopping Loki from escaping and attacking their world. As much as Thor knew Loki would not be a wise king, he couldn't imagine Loki making a worse ruler of Oblious than the ones they had. These false gods must have been manipulating these people for a long time if they were loyal enough to let them get away with this. Thor could guess that the false gods were born on Oblious and not foreign invaders. The Obliousians all had skin that was red with unique, pitch-black markings. Some Obliousians had black stripes, some had black spots, and some had entire black limbs. The false gods matched that description, so they must have been from Oblious. They had probably been there for centuries. If Thor was going to have his way, they wouldn't be there for much longer.


"I assure you that we have learned from our mistakes and Loki will not be escaping a second time," said Odin to the king of Oblious. That was when Thor pushed the doors open and walked in with a stone expression on his face. All the eyes in the room turned toward him; the Warriors Three, Lady Sif, Loki in his handcuffs, Odin, four of the false gods of Oblious, and a few slaves all wondered why Thor looked ready to destroy everything in sight.

Thor glared hatefully at the false god who sat on the throne with his head resting on his propped-up fist. King Xaxius was eight feet tall. He had black bones protruding from his limbs and black horns on his head. He had no eyelids to cover his glossy, black eyes and no lips to conceal his jagged, black teeth. The lack of a shirt allowed everyone to see the extra set of ribs that wrapped around the outside of his chest. Sitting at his feet were two concubines; one was female, one was male, and both were topless.

"So nice of you to join us, Thor," Odin said, trying to keep things non hostile.

"And what a nice place for me to join you in!" Thor said with aggressively dramatic gestures. "I must say I love the marble columns and the sparkling chandelier! This is so much nicer than the literal holes in the ground that most people around here live in and starve in!"

Odin was seething at Thor for making such a scene. It wasn't that he didn't agree with Thor's opinion of them, he was just concerned about keeping the peace between Asgard and Oblious. "This is no time for throwing insults. Do you not see that we . . ."

"OH YES! Now is the time for apologizing to the oh so wise King Xaxius of Oblious for allowing our criminal to escape and almost ruin his otherwise perfect society," Thor said sarcastically. "Tell me, what does the wise king have to say for the slavery, starvation and want for education?"

King Xaxius was still as everyone stared at him, wondering what he was going to say. Some of them held their breath. And then they all clearly heard Xaxius snoring.

"He was asleep that whole time?" Thor asked, dejected. The lack of eyelids had made it hard to tell.

Dreya, the false goddess of light, gave Xaxius a few shoves to wake him up.

"Great, now I'll have to do the whole thing all over again," Thor groaned. "WHAT A NICE PLACE FOR . . ."

"Thor!" Odin scolded.

Xaxius yawned and tiredly said, "We must thank you Asgardians for the most entertaining event. Loki's attempts were most amusing."

"Amusing?" Thor questioned. "Lives were lost because of his 'amusing attempts'."

Xaxius chuckled at him. "Only mortal lives," Xaxius said, making Thor even more furious. "Speaking of which; to thank you for fighting him for us, we have prepared a gift."

Xaxius clapped his hands and ten slaves were led into the room in chains.

Thor looked at his father, expecting him to do the right thing. Odin humbly told Xaxius, "We accept your gift."

Thor shouted in outrage, "I WILL NOT TOLERATE SLAVERY IN ASGARD!"

"THEY WILL BE GIVEN FAIR WAGES FOR THEIR WORK!" Odin shouted at Thor. "And they will have the option to leave if they so choose." Odin didn't want to offend the Obliousians, but he wasn't going to allow actual slavery in Asgard either. Odin was actually doing those slaves a favor. They would have better lives as employees in Asgard than as slaves in their own world. That calmed Thor a little, but he was far from satisfied.

Thor realized that he wasn't going to get the war he wanted in that moment. There would be time enough to convince his father later.

Thor glared at Xaxius, prompting Odin to say, "We are grateful for this gift; are we not, Thor?"

Thor forced himself to put on a goofy smile for Xaxius. "Yes. Of course!" Thor lied. Thor thought, "I'm going to kill that man." Thor said again, "Of course."


"It is not Asgard's place to destroy any government we deem unfit," Odin argued, having returned home.

"But it is our place to protect those in need."

"What you ask for would throw Asgard and Oblious into war."

"Then let there be war!" Thor demanded. "You know we would win!"

"And how many of our own would die before hand. And what message would be sent to the rest of the universe? Civilizations may grow to fear us and join forces against us. I cannot send Asgard's army to help you wipe out an entire pantheon. They are not like the superheroes of Midgard that would help without fear of repercussion." Thor wasn't sure, but he thought that sounded like a serious suggestion. Odin started walking toward the door. He stopped for a moment and said, "You've met of few such superheroes of Midgard, haven't you?"

"I have."

"One such superhero owes you a favor if my memory is correct."

"It is."

Odin left the room, letting Thor make whatever plans he saw fit.


Author's Note: Thank you for reading. Don't forget to follow, review and check out that Spectacular Spider-Man video I just uploaded.