Rough Seas Ahead

"That went… well," Mary Jane said as she and Peter left the security office.

After losing track of the men, Peter had gone immediately with Mary Jane to inform the ship's personnel, specifically ship's security. But all they had told him was that they would look into it and if Peter or Mary Jane saw anything to let them know.

"Yeah, but it wasn't completely unexpected. There's not a whole lot they can do except keep on eye out for those guys and with the number of people on the ship, that's a difficult task for them to accomplish," mentioned Peter.

"So, what happens now?"

"Just like security on the ship will do, we'll keep our eyes open for those guys too. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there are more of them on board. Tonight I'll take a look around, spider style."

"I kind of figured you would."

Later that evening

With the cloaking technology in his Iron Spider costume, Peter was able to leave his cabin wearing normal clothes. But once he found a secluded dark place, he changed his appearance to Spider-Man, using the old black and white costume. By using this version, he would be able to blend in with the dark parts of the ship.

"Well, let's take a look around," Spider-Man said as he spun a webline and swung his way up to one of the ship's smokestacks. From up there, he had an excellent view of the main deck of the ship and would be out of view of any prying eyes.

Using the visual enhancements of the suit, especially infrared vision, Spider-Man would have no trouble spotting anything in the dark of night.

There appears to be nothing out of the ordinary tonight, at least out here anyways, he said to himself as he scanned the area around him. "But I think that one couple over there," shocked to see what the couple was doing in public, "should go to their room."

Several more minutes passed without anything going on and not a tingle from his spider-sense either. Spider-Man climbed down from the smokestack and kept himself amongst the shadows.

Spider-Man went to the stern of the ship to see what was going on back there. With no spider-sense tingling, that was a sure sign that nothing was happening back there at the moment. At this end of the sea faring vessel, there weren't many open areas like at the bow and that meant Spider-Man had to stay relatively closer to the deck than he wanted to.

Still nothing going on around here, he thought after spending more time watching and waiting.

After some more time passed, Spider-Man took a swing around the ship. It didn't take him long to circle the place and he still found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Might as well call it a night," he said as Spider-Man landed on a dark and deserted part of the deck.

A quick change and he was old Peter Parker again. He took a quick stroll along the deck to check things out once more before heading back to his cabin. As he headed back, Peter's spider-sense began to tingle. Without hesitation, he used the sensation to guide him towards whatever was setting it off.

It led him down a few corridors to what appeared to be a maintenance room. With no one looking, Peter carefully opened the door and looked inside. There appeared to be nothing threatening in there despite his spider-sense giving off a low tingle. With nothing more out of the ordinary, he decided to call it a night and head back to the cabin.

Shortly after he left, a couple of men went inside that very room.

"Just keep an eye out, will ya," the one man told his friend.

"Yeah, yeah."

Inside was the device that he had personally setup a day or so before. Punching in a code on the small keypad, followed by the enter key, he armed the bomb.

"It's done. Let's get out of here and have some fun," the man that just activated the bomb said to his buddy.

"Sure thing."

Shocker had kept himself busy as he too armed the bomb that he had placed on board. With the detonator in hand, he made sure that the bomb was ready if he needed to use it. A small smirk made its way to his face as the detonator light came on with several others that signified other bombs were already armed as well.

"Good, it looks like I have the right guys for the job," Shocker said as he headed back to his cabin to fine tune his vibro-shock devices.

Peter quietly entered his room so as not to disturb Mary Jane who appeared to be sound asleep.

"How did it go, Peter?" Mary Jane asked as she turned on the lamp on the nightstand and sat up in bed.

"It could've been better," he answered as he took off his costume and put it away in a locked suitcase.

"Why do you say that?"

Now in his sleeping attire consisting of a pair of sleep pants, Peter got into bed and answered his wife's question. "There was absolutely nothing going on up on deck. When I decided to take a little look around within the ship, my spider-sense did go off a little bit. It led to some kind of maintenance room. There was nothing out of the ordinary but I didn't get a good look when a couple of guys came my way so I had to make a quick getaway. I may check it out tomorrow."

"Sounds like a good idea."

"Uh huh, and this whole thing could be nothing."

"True, but do you really believe that, Peter?"

"With my luck, I highly doubt it. But if it is serious, I have my Avengers ID card so I can contact them if I need to."

"Hopefully it won't come down to that. If you still don't find anything, at least then we can enjoy the rest of the cruise."

"Yeah, it would be nice if I didn't have to bust some heads." Peter turned to Mary Jane and gave her a warm kiss before reaching for the lamp. "'Night, MJ."

"Good night, Pete."

The following day, Peter tried to find the room that set off his spider-sense. Regrettably, he wasn't able to with the activity onboard during the day and since all the hallways looked the same it was that much harder to find where he went last night. So, Peter spent the rest of the day with Mary Jane either lounging around the pool or checking out one of the shops.

That day was also when the costume party was to take place. As the day passed, Peter was wondering what Mary Jane would be dressed up as. Of course, he would go as his alter ego of Spider-Man. Using the Iron Spider costume, Peter could go to the party in any of his past costumes except the one that Johnny Storm had fashioned for him.

Mary Jane was very tight-lipped about what she was wearing, right up to the time they got ready for the party.

"Hey, MJ," Peter called out while she was changing into her costume in the washroom. "What version of my Spider-Man costume should I go out as?"

With just a thought, the Iron Spider suit changed into his classic red and blues with webbing under the arms. Then he changed into the black and white costume. That one was not an option especially since Mary Jane had a strong dislike of it. He switched the costume to appear like the one Ben Reilly, his clone, had worn. I wonder if MJ would like this, Peter thought as he got a good look at himself in a nearby mirror.

It was at this time that Mary Jane had come out of the bathroom in full costume.

"MJ, how about…" Peter began when he turned around and got a good look at what his wife was wearing and lost his train of thought.

"How do I look?" Mary Jane asked, fully dressed as the She-Devil with a sword, Red Sonja.

"I… I… I…" Peter stammered out just amazed at how much MJ looked like the woman he had teamed up with before.

"So, I take it you like how I look?"

Still unable to form a coherent thought, Peter nodded in agreement.

"Peter, just go in the red and blue costume. You've always looked good in it."

Peter, finding his voice at last squeaked out, "Okay."

Within a second, Peter was in the classic red and blue Spider-Man costume. Taking his wife's hand, they left the cabin for the party.

When they arrived, they could see that several of their fellow passengers were in various types of costumes including some very well known heroes. Peter was surprised to see a few dressed as Spider-Man.

"Don't let it go to your head," Mary Jane told him as she too spotted some Spider-Men wandering about.

"Who me?" Peter responded as they both went to get something to eat.

They then found a free table and sat down to eat. When they finished, Peter and Mary Jane took to the dance floor. The song they were dancing too abruptly stopped when a group of men stopped the band from playing by firing some shots into the air.

"Now that we have your attention, I would like to introduce myself," the man on the mic told the stunned crowd as he made his appearance known. "You may call me Shocker. I have just commandeered this vessel. If anyone wants to try to be a hero…"

Shocker fired a vibro-shock blast at a nearby table, shattering it to pieces.

"The old Parker luck is running true to form as usual…" Peter whispered to Mary Jane. "…because this vacation has just come to an end."

AN: Please leave a review because I would like to know what you think, especially since there has been a lack of them lately. Constructive criticism is fine but no flames.