Spider-Man and MJ: Never Break

Chapter 6 Development

"Out of the way, Spider-Man," the Developer demanded.

"You know I can't do that."

The blades on Developer's wrists changed into electrified rods. The Developer came at him and swung at him, but Spider-Man avoided every attack. Spider-Man shot webs onto her wrists that conducted the electricity from her rods into her arms, agonizing her. The Developer quickly stopped the electrical current, but she was still stunned enough for Spider-Man to get a few good hits in.

The Developer dashed back. Spider-Man tried to close the distance, but the Developer outstretched her hand, casting a yellow light that encapsulated everything in front of her. Everything the yellow light touch slowed down; including Spider-Man. He could still think and process what was going on at a normal speed, but his movement was sluggish. The Developer readied her machine gun; also in slow motion. And then a series of red exes started appearing all over Spider-Man's body.

Spider-Man could guess that as soon the slow motion stopped, she would quickly shoot at all those points. Still in slow motion, Spider-Man spun webs that grabbed onto a window of the next building over. The webbing was wide spread to grab onto many different points on the glass. He pulled and a massive portion of the window was ripped out.

When the slow motion ended, the Developer shot her bolts of electricity and Spider-Man moved the glass into the way. Each bolt broke the glass into smaller pieces, but the glass kept the bolts off of Spider-Man. He kept swinging the shards back into position to block each bolt. With every collision of electricity and glass, there was a burst of sparks and glass dust that stormed this dance of chaos. By the time Spider-Man's glass shards were too broken to protect him, the Developer's gun ran out of ammo. Spider-Man punched her so hard that she was cast off of the building.

Spider-Man ran to the edge of the roof with plans of saving her from hitting the concrete below, but the Developer, still falling, shot at him with her shotgun. Spider-Man dove back to avoid the bolts and doing so meant that the Developer took a hard landing.

"Knew I should have disabled fall damage," the Developer groaned, getting back up slowly.

Spider-Man jumped off of the roof and the Developer took aim once again. Spider-Man web-zipped to the side of the building across the street, avoiding another shell of electric bolts.

The Developer used her telekinetic powers to pick up a parked car and shoot it at him. She wasn't trying to kill him, but she knew enough about Spider-Man to know he could survive it. Spider-Man jumped from the building, latched onto the flying car, quickly ripped off a door and jumped off of the car before it hit the building. He dove toward the Developer, using the car door as a shield to block the next two shotgun blasts and landed on top of her.

Squatting on the car door that laid on the Developer, Spider-Man asked, "Now, what did the owner of that car do to game developers? Don't tell me you threw his car because he plays on Xbox and you play on PlayStation."

The Developer used her telekinesis to throw the door with Spider-Man still on it. He ended up crashing into another car parked on the other side of the street.

Thinking she had bought herself some time, the Developer started putting more shells into her shotgun. Spider-Man web-zipped to her before she could put the last shell in. With the distance closed, the Developer hit his head with the shotgun. Spider-Man tilted backwards, but he caught onto the shotgun, preventing his fall. The Developer pulled, trying either to rip the shotgun out of his hands or to fling Spider-Man into something, but neither thing happened. Spider-Man's clinging ability kept his hands firmly grasping the gun and his feet welded to the ground. Spider-Man used one leg to kick her away, still sticking to the ground with his other foot. Knowing the rounds were non-lethal, Spider-Man shot the Developer with her own shotgun, electrocuting her. The blasts clearly hurt, but they weren't enough to knock her out. Spider-Man kept shooting until he exhausted the number of shells in the gun. Without any more ammo to reload it with, Spider-Man broke the shotgun over his knee.

The Developer used telekinesis to pull another car behind Spider-Man. It hit him in the back, pushing him toward the Developer who punched him, sending him stumbling back again. The Developer lifted the car and hammered it down, but Spider-Man rolled out of the way just in time.

The Developer readied her machinegun and took aim. Spider-Man leapt into the air and swung around her as she missed shot after shot. Every so often, he dropped down to deliver a blow before going back to swinging around. The Developer kept shooting, but she couldn't get him in her sights fast enough. In time, her magazine ran out of ammo and she had no second weapon to switch to. Noticing she was trying to reload, Spider-Man landed and struck multiple times. The Developer tried to use her empty gun as a club, but Spider-Man was quick enough to avoid each attack. The Developer accidentally hit a lamppost with the gun. Spider-Man shots a web that stuck the gun to the lamppost and a web that stuck the Developer's hands to the gun. She was strong enough to break that webbing and she would have if Spider-Man gave her a chance. With the Developer's hands bound, Spider-Man hit her relentlessly until his last strike hit so hard that she was ripped out of the webbing.

The Developer tried to get up at first, but she let herself lay there, knowing she was beaten.

Right on cue, the police arrived. With the Developer taken down and the police on the scene, Richie shouted from the rooftop, "GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!"

"Go ahead, Spidey. We got this one," a police officer said.

"I'll be right back." Spider-Man leapt half way up and wall crawled the rest of the way to the rooftop. That bought the Developer all the time she needed.

A holographic map appeared above the Developer.

"Hey, what is that?" a police officer asked worriedly.

"Fast travel," the Developer said.

And then, she was gone.

Spider-Man came back down too late to stop her. "What happened?" he asked the officers.

"She just disappeared. It looked like she had a place on that map marked, but I'm not sure where it was."

Over the coms in Spider-Man's mask, MJ said, "She might have gone back to the other hostages."

"HOLY CRAP! THE OTHER HOSTAGES!" Spider-Man exploded in panic.

Without another word, Spider-Man swung away to the same building where the Developer had kept the hostages surrounded by her henchmen. Imagine his relief to find armored police officers who had taken over the room.

"What did I miss?" Spider-Man asked.

The nearest officer told him, "With the big bad out of the way, we had an easy enough time with her cronies. Those things were dumb as rocks. They didn't hide behind cover. They didn't threaten the hostages. They couldn't aim very well and they didn't even seem to notice half of us. The best part was, they cleaned up after themselves. Their bodies just disappeared a second after we shot them. We got the hostages out and then the Developer herself showed up. But she was in no shape to handle us. As soon as she knew we were here, she disappeared again."

"Any idea where she went?" Spider-Man asked.

"She had this map with a marker on it. Looked like a few blocks over."

"That must have been a false location. She knew you could see it, so she just got somewhere where she could mark her real hideout. She got away," Spider-Man said melancholy.

MJ told him, "Don't feel bad about it, Tiger. I think you did great. The truth about Richie is out in the open and most of those hostages are safe. I call that a win."

"Thanks, Ma . . . I just realized; I can't use your real name while I'm talking to you like this. I don't suppose you have any code names in mind.

"Um . . ." Mary Jane had to think it over for a few seconds. "Call me Michelle."

"Michelle?"

"Yeah. If anyone asks who you're talking to, tell them I'm Michelle Jones."

"That's specific. Any reason for it?" Spider-Man asked.

"Michelle is the name my aunt suggested to my parents. And her last name is Jones."

"Sounds like Jones can be traced back to you. How about I just say Michelle?"

MJ sighed. "We've only been a thing for two days and you're already trying to get rid of my last name," she said, sounding upset with him.

"Well, it's just that . . ."

"I'm messing with you, Tiger," she said, pleased with herself for making him worry. "Michelle No-Last-Name-Given is fine."


The Developer sat on her couch, listening to a report on the effect Spider-Man's actions had. Thanks to Spider-Man, awareness of the issue was spreading and local politicians were talking about stricter laws on the treatment of employees, mostly as it pertains to development crunches. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It seemed too good to be true. She thought about her conversation with Spider-Man; about how he said it might not be too late for her to be what she wanted to be. She took a look at her costume which was draped over her coffee table. She never really did like it. Maybe, deep down, she didn't really like the idea of killing for revenge. She didn't want it to be about revenge. She wanted it to be about making a positive change. The Developer knew that the best place to start that change was with herself.

The Developer began work on a new outfit, using her powers to quickly forge it out of nothing. She came up with glossy, purple, skin tight pants and a matching bikini-like top. Her head would not constantly be invisible. Instead, she had a mask that let her hair out in the back. And she made a hologram generator that projected a much longer ponytail than she actually had. Her holographic ponytail almost reached the floor. Now that was the kind of video game character she wanted to look like.

She upgraded her guns to be more like sci-fi weapons. But that wasn't enough. She attached pistols to the heels of her stilettos and made blades attached to extendable chains that wrapped around her arms. Now that was the kind of gameplay she wanted.

The next time she turned on her camera, she said to her viewers, "What's up, gamers? You might not recognize me after all the improvements, but it is me, the Developer, still trying to make life better for devs and animators. But we're going to do things a bit differently now. I want to thank Spider-Man for showing me how much good I can really do without . . . resorting to . . . murder sprees." The Developer cleared her throat awkwardly. She moved the camera to look at a office building behind her. "I heard some pretty unsavory things about what goes on in there. So, we're going to see if we can catch any evidence. I know it's not as explosive, but don't worry; that's not all I'll be doing."


Author's Note: I want to tell this now in case you skip the back up story. I just uploaded another video to my YouTube channel about the romance in Spider-Man 2. It's called.

Spider-Man and MJ (Spider-Man 2 2004) - Couple Reviews by MVPKnight


Back up story

Thor and Hulk: False Pantheon

Chapter 3 Incredible

As the helicopter landed, the pilot was half relieved that his passenger would be getting out. A scientist unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door before stepping off. A general, who had been sitting across from him said, "This is as close as we can get without being noticed."

"I just keep going west until I see the hideout, right?" the scientist said, unbuttoning his shirt.

"That's right. You know, it's not too late for us to rethink our strategy. We can still bring in a few tanks and jets to help you out," the general suggested as the scientist took off his shoes and socks.

"Oh, no. I don't need the guilt from letting a few soldiers die on my watch. I'll be fine on my own," the scientist replied before removing his pants, revealing the stretchable, purple shorts underneath.

"You sure about this, Bruce? You're outnumbered three to one."

"It's two to one, really. I'm not counting Zemo. The only one I'm really worried about is Abomination." Bruce put his clothes, including his glasses, on the Helicopter floor.

"Last time you fought him, you barely won; he was alone then."

"Last time I fought Abomination, I was dumb as a rock."

Bruce started walking west and began the change. His skin turned green as his eyes and veins began to glow. He grew bigger until he was ten feet tall. His muscles became impossibly large, broadening his shoulders. This was the Hulk; a powerful force of destruction.

Hulk ran west, each step launching him far. He eventually found a building with metal barriers blocking every window and door by default. Whether this was an abandoned government base or safe house that belonged to Zemo's lineage, Hulk didn't know or care. Whatever this place was originally built for, it was the hide out for a band of supervillains. Apparently they were prepared for an attack, because turrets sprang from multiple points on the roof and fired missiles at Hulk.

Unimpressed by the security system, Hulk jumped over a hundred feet up, avoiding all missiles. He landed next to one of the turrets, grabbed it, and ripped it out of its foundation. Hulk connected a few of the wires, getting it to fire missiles as he pointed it at the other turrets. After all turrets were obliterated, Hulk wondered if he would have been smart enough to use that tactic in his earlier days as the Hulk. Sure, the Hulk used to be a reckless brute, but he always had a creativity for destruction.

Hulk jumped down from the roof, landing painlessly next to the front door which was sealed by a metal barrier same as everywhere else. Whoever designed this place couldn't have accounted for an attack from the Hulk.

He struck the barrier, bending the metal with each hit. A crack opened, allowing Hulk to dig both hands in and pull the metal apart, creating a larger opening. That was when Abomination punched Hulk from the other side of the door.

Hulk stepped back as Abomination and the others walked through the opening. Abomination was a scale-clad monster who was roughly the same size as the Hulk. The Executioner was only a little smaller, but he carried a heavy axe and had heavy guns on each side of his belt. And Barron Zemo was the only regular sized person present; armed with only a sword, he really had no business there.

"You were foolish to come here alone, Hulk," said Zemo.

"I'm foolish? Really? You're the one who lost most of your team. These two are the only 'masters of evil' you have left," Hulk said, surprisingly articulate.

"Since when do you talk in complete sentences?" Abomination asked.

Hulk grinned at Abomination's ignorance. "Haven't been keeping up with the news, have you."

"It doesn't matter! Kill him!" Zemo ordered.

Abomination and Executioner ran at him. Abomination threw a punch which Hulk caught with both hands. The Executioner swung his axe, but Hulk swung Abomination around, to take the cut from the axe instead. The impact between his axe and Abomination knocked the Executioner off balance. That was when Hulk came at him and hit him three times in quick succession.

Abomination was bleeding from a deep cut in his back, but he got back up anyway. This time, he tackled Hulk, but he refused to fall onto his back. Hulk planted his feet firmly and struck the Abomination whose arms were wrapped around him. Hulk lifted both fists and hammered them down onto Abomination's lowered back.

As these titans fought, Zemo saw fit to confidently monologue. "The loss of our fellow Masters of Evil is a minor setback. With your defeat, our recovery will . . ." Hulk threw the Abomination at Zemo, shutting him up. Zemo was splattered between Abomination and a wall. Abomination inspected what was left of his former boss; the skull had been cracked open and the brains spilled out. The ribcage was flattened and the blood had been splashed everywhere; including all over Abomination's back.

The Executioner swung his axe at Hulk again. Hulk grabbed the shaft with one hand and struck it with the other, breaking the axe. The Executioner tried to fight back with his bare fists, but every hit paled in comparison to the strikes Hulk hit him with. If the Executioner was able to speak, he would have begged Abomination to help him.

Abomination punched Hulk in the head, taking his attention away from the Executioner. As Abomination kept Hulk busy, Executioner got some distance and prepared his guns. Two bright beams blasted from the guns, colliding with the Hulk who shouted in agony. Abomination took the opportunity to strike Hulk a few more times. After taking a few good hits, Hulk regained his composure and blocked a strike before retaliating with a few punches of his own. But by then, the Executioner's guns had recharged. The Executioner blasted him again, knocking him off his feet. Abomination tried to pin him down, but Hulk kicked him back with both feet. Hulk quickly got back up, now knowing how long it would take the Executioner's guns to recharge.

Abomination raised both fists and hammered them down, but Hulk caught his arms, moved them to the sides and hit Abomination's head with his own. Hulk pulled back both his fists and plunged them forward, striking Abomination with both at once, knocking him down.

Hulk knew he had a few seconds left before the guns would be recharged. He rushed the Executioner too quickly for him to escape and too soon for him to shoot again. Hulk tackled him to the ground and pummeled him.

Abomination was on his feet again, but Hulk had bought enough time for the guns to finish recharging. Hulk ripped the guns out of the Executioner's hands. He threw one of the charged guns at Abomination. With the gun in front of Abomination's face, Hulk shot it with the other, resulting in a powerful explosion of energy. Hulk held the not yet destroyed gun like a club and bashed it onto the Executioner's head over and over until it broke. By then, the Executioner had received enough blunt force trauma to kill him.

Abomination growled, furious with the Hulk. He was the last one left. Abomination swung wildly at him. Hulk backed up and dodged, avoiding every hit until he found the right time and struck the Abomination. Enraged even further, Abomination frantically threw punches, none of which landed thanks to Hulk's quick movements. Abomination was too obsessed with striking back to even think about avoiding attacks from the Hulk; so Hulk struck him twice more without consequences. Abomination threw another punch; this time, Hulk blocked the attack and immediately followed up with a punch to the gut that Abomination wasn't ready for. "HULK SMASH!" Hulk whaled on Abomination. Between the rage and the pain, Abomination couldn't think clearly anymore. Hulk kept hitting him too consistently for Abomination to recompose himself. Hulk knocked Abomination down onto his back. Hulk stood over him and grabbed both his wrists. Hulk planted one foot on Abomination's throat. The harder Hulk pulled on his wrists, the more pressure that was applied to Abomination's throat. Abomination planted both his feet and launched himself up so that Hulk would fall off of him.

Abomination got on to his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath, but Hulk was too persistent. Hulk grabbed his head and struck it against his knee repeatedly. Abomination ceased to hold himself up with his hands and knees. Hulk let his face fall to the ground and started stomping on his head, creating tremors in the earth. Eventually, Hulk felt Abomination's skull cave in and he knew it was over.

Hulk spread his arms to the sides and yelled triumphantly at the bodies. Hulk took a moment to calm down. In the old days, calming down would have meant transforming back into Bruce Banner. But the transformations weren't involuntary anymore. Hulk wouldn't lose any sleep over the lack of survivors. The masters of evil had all been to prison before; they had their chance to reform and they wasted it.

Hulk turned to the east, planning to return to the helicopter and go home. With all the 'masters of evil' dead, Hulk had some celebrating to do. But he stopped when he noticed something unusual in the sky. Unusual, but not unfamiliar.

An onslaught of light streams came crashing from the sky. This was the method of interplanetary travel used by the Asgardians; this was the bifrost. When the bombardment of light concluded, Thor was left standing in its place.

"You," Hulk said.

"You," Thor replied.

Hulk ran at him and Thor ran as well. When they collided, Hulk picked him up in both arms and patted him on the back. "Good to see you again!" Hulk said merrily.

"Good to see you, too. I hope I'm not interrupting something," Thor said, looking at the bodies.

"No, no. Just finished, actually." Hulk put him down and asked, "It's been too long, man!"

"I know. I need to get one of those . . . phones you humans are obsessed with."

Hulk said awkwardly, "Oh . . . that might not work from another world."

Thor pursed his lips, struggling not to make a comment about how primitive the technology from Midgard is. "I should have come to see you sooner. Truth is, I was avoiding this whole realm because there's just too many memories."

"Memories about what?"

Thor's jolly attitude was quickly drained. "Oh . . . Jane and I broke up."

"What?"

"Yeah . . . we were talking about what a future would look like; she didn't want to be a queen in a realm she didn't know and I didn't want to leave my place as the future king to live in Midgard."

"It's her loss, man. You can do better," Hulk said encouragingly. "And I guess we're both in the same boat here; things didn't work out with me and Betty either."

"Really? What happened?"

"She wanted Bruce Banner, but not if it meant having Hulk, too. You know, it used to be my whole goal to get rid of the Hulk, live a normal life. She wanted to be with me because she thought that would happen. But now that I'm happy with being the Hulk, she realized that she'd never get what she wanted."

"Why would she want someone normal when she could have a guy like you? Foolishness," Thor said, shaking his head. "You're better off without her."

"Yeah, I know," Hulk said. In earlier days, a loss of interest from Betty would have crushed him, but he wasn't a misery prone tragedy machine anymore. "So what brings you to my branch of the World Tree?" Hulk asked.

"That . . . uh . . . I have a favor to ask; a rather large favor actually. Could we go somewhere you can sit down?"


Thor looked around Bruce's house. A lot of the stuff there was sized for the Hulk, but there were normal sized equivalents. For a split second, Thor wondered why Bruce would spend any time as the Hulk in his own home, but then noticed a long, messy platter that had been used as a dinner plate. If Thor could eat more food without getting fat or hurting himself, he would do the same.

On the walls were framed newspapers with headlines such as, "HULK SAVES CITY FROM THE LEADER," "MONSTER TURNED HERO," and "THE HULK SAYS HE'S NEVER BEEN HAPPIER." On the top of a few shelves was an assortment of Hulk merchandise; plush toys, action figures, a few coffee mugs, and so on.

Hulk sat in his appropriately sized lounge chair, contemplating the story Thor had told him. "So you need my help to kill off all these false gods."

"I know it's a lot to ask," Thor said. "I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to stay home. This isn't your problem and you don't owe it to anyone. But . . ."

"Let me stop you right there," Hulk said. "Thor, look around. All this admiration I get instead of hatred and fear. All the royalties I get from the merchandise. I wouldn't have any of this if you didn't take me to Asgard to have my mind fixed. It only took your people a few days to combine Bruce's identity with the Hulk's and give me . . . my life. After years of battling with myself, wishing I were dead, and feeling like a burden on everyone close to me, I can finally like the guy I see in the mirror. That's what I owe you. Besides, I'm a superhero; I help people who need it. This isn't your problem either, but here you are." Hulk stood from his chair. "So, let me make a few calls so that my associates know I'll be out of town and let me pack up a few things, then I'll be ready to go."

"You're sure about this? Defeating an entire pantheon is no small feat." Thor didn't want Hulk to feel obligated to perform such a huge favor. "I need you to say you want to do this. If you don't, you're not coming with me."

Hulk's eyes drilled into Thor's. "Oh, I want to come with you. And there's no way I'm letting you come without me." Hulk was aware of the . . . interesting choice of words, but he regretted nothing.


Author's Note: I almost set this in the MCU, but didn't. The portrayal of Hulk in this is based off of his portrayal in Endgame with a few adjustments. A lot of people were upset that Hulk lost his savagery and he didn't really smash much. And that's true, but Bruce Banner was miserable in every movie up until then. In Endgame, he's finally happy. People in universe actually like the Hulk and aren't afraid of him. He's probably the most emotionally healthy person in the movie. I find it so inspiring to see this man who's been suffering for so long finally find self-love. But I do understand the criticism; people like the Hulk because he smashes stuff. In this story, I'm going for the real best of both worlds. He doesn't have a split personality anymore and he can control his transformations, but he also has the classic Hulk savagery and power.

Don't forget to check out my new YouTube video if you're interested.

Spider-Man and MJ (Spider-Man 2 2004) - Couple Reviews by MVPKnight

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