Author's Note: It has been 84 years! Actually, it's been a little over one year. First thing I want to say is, Spider-Man and MJ 2: Fade to Black should be read after Spider-Man and MJ: Never Break, not before. If you haven't read Never Break, I would advise against skipping to this one.

For those of you who have read Never Break a while ago, you may or may not remember what happened. I was writing Spider-Man and MJ" Never Break when I decided that I needed to write an Encanto story as soon as possible. So I figured my options were, rush Never Break to a hasty conclusion or stop with a cliffhanger and have a sequel tell the rest of the story later. I chose cliffhanger. So Fade to Black is admittedly just the rest of Never Break.

(You can skip the previously part if you remember everything.)

Previously on Spider-Man and MJ:

A year after Gwen Stacey's death and the last known sighting of the Green Goblin, Peter finally got a date with Mary Jane Watson. An attack from a rat-monster resulted in MJ finding out that Peter is Spider-Man.

A phone call from Yuri informed Peter that there were two more rat-monsters which were yet to be seen and were most likely in the possession of whoever broke them out of the lab they were made in.

A new villain named "the Developer" began killing executives in a video game publishing company she used to work for. Spider-Man was going to merely stop her, but MJ advised him to get a confession from a game director who had a history of mistreating employees. Grateful to Spider-Man for getting the confession on camera, the Developer changed her methods from murder sprees, to gathering and exposing evidence.

A mysterious attacker broke into Peter's home and fought Peter, knowing his identity as Spider-Man; all while wearing a costume with a color scheme reminiscent of the Green Goblin's. After the Attacker got away, Spider-Man informed MJ about what happened and told her to report anything suspicious.

Suspecting Harry of being the new Green Goblin, Peter spoke with him. Their conversation included Harry admitting that Spider-Man is a hero despite the damage done to his reputation when Spider-Man revealed Norman's identity as the Green Goblin. The conversation transitioned to Harry warning Peter about MJ's history of drug addiction and disloyalty. Peter was dubious of his claims until later that night when MJ provided the evidence.

The next morning, MJ woke up with missing memories, but still remembering that she went to a party with her friends and got high. Peter informed her that, in her drunken and high state, she summoned Spider-Man to the party on false pretenses and bragged about knowing Spider-Man.

Peter was furious with MJ, partly because it confirmed what Harry said about her. MJ tried to communicate that she isn't the same girl that she used to be and that this incident was a singular slip, but Peter still shouted at her and left angry.

After crying about the whole thing, MJ was found by her parents who were also furious with her because as far as they knew, she was out all night. MJ's father proceeded to beat her with a chair.

Having had some time to cool off, Peter realized his lack of effort to understand MJ's actions. He returned to MJ, apologized for speaking with her the way he had and asked what pushed her to drug use. Feeling obligated to answer the question for the sake of their relationship, MJ told Peter that the drugs were a way of coping with her parents' abuse. Peter insisted that they report her parents to the police, which MJ did.

After MJ won the court case against her parents, Spider-Man stopped a bomb threat that turned out to have only a fake bomb. The scenario was really a pretense to bring Spider-Man to the Fake Goblin. Claiming to be the new Green Goblin, he fought Spider-Man, losing miserably. The Fake Goblin referenced Harry's conversation, convincing Spider-Man that he was Harry. He got away on his glider, leaving Spider-Man to think he knew where he was going.

Spider-Man confronted Harry, accusing him of being the Fake Goblin much to Harry's confusion and anger. After losing track of Harry, Spider-Man was called out to by a Goblin with a voice that was similar if not identical to the original Green Goblin's. Spider-Man found the Goblin in the kitchen, wearing a new and improved version of the Green Goblin-suit. Thinking this Goblin was Harry, Spider-Man had a conversation in which the Goblin didn't claim to be Harry, but also didn't directly confirm who he really was. Whenever Spider-Man asked him a question, the Goblin gave an answer that was truthful of his true identity, but Peter kept believing he was talking to Harry.

Having had his fun, the Goblin revealed that he was in fact the original Green Goblin, Norman Osborn; now with a mechanical body.

Green Goblin fought and defeated Spider-Man, weakening him enough for Green Goblin's hobgoblins to hold him down. Green Goblin produced the black symbiote which had previously changed Eddie Brock into Venom.

Green Goblin poured the symbiote onto Spider-Man forming a black suit which quickly corrupted his mind. Green Goblin proposed a business deal for Spider-Man to not get in his way and help with a few crimes in exchange for a handsome salary.

"What do you say? Are you in?" Green Goblin asked, offering a handshake.

Spider-Man had to think about it for just a few more seconds. But he eventually told him, "Yes . . . we are."

"You're never going to believe this," was the first thing Peter said upon returning to the apartment.

"What happened?" MJ asked, guessing that his story would explain why he was late for dinner.

"You might want to sit down for this one. And look at this; you've got dinner on the table; a perfect place to sit down."

Peter, MJ and May took their seats at the table. "I had a run in with the Green Goblin today," Peter said casually.

MJ and May's eyes nearly popped out of their heads. "He's alive?!" MJ asked horrified. "THE Green Goblin is alive?"

"You're sure it was him?" May asked.

"Oh, there's no doubt about it. But that's not even the craziest part." Peter took a second to make sure he remembered the whole made up story. "It turns out, Norman was never the Green Goblin," Peter lied.

"That's not . . . how . . ." May was flabbergasted. She had been hearing for the past year that Norman was absolutely the Green Goblin and Peter had been a thousand percent sure about it. "How is that possible?! And if he wasn't Norman, who was he?!"

"It turns out, the Green Goblin had these nanites that could cover his face and make a mask that looked exactly like anyone he wanted. He made himself look like Norman to frame him."

"Who did?" MJ pleaded.

"Harry," Peter lied. "It was Harry the whole time."

MJ and May looked at him in shock. This information, if true, which it wasn't, would be world changing.

"In fact," Peter continued, "they're probably talking about it on the news right now. I told them the whole thing."

"Wait, how do you know all this?" MJ asked.

It would be unnecessary to recount the whole made up story that Peter had rehearsed with the Green Goblin. The short version is that Peter told them a series of convenient explanations that moved the blame from Norman to Harry. "But there's a bit of good news," Peter said, lifting a bite of his dinner into his mouth. "This pasta is some great stuff, by the way, May. The good news is, Harry won't be bothering us anymore."

"Did you beat him?" May asked.

"Not yet, but I did convinced Harry that I'm not Spider-Man," Peter lied.

"How in the sick, twisted, confusing world did you do that?!" MJ begged.

And then Peter told them another made up story it would be useless to repeat in its entirety. "Anyway, now he just thinks Peter Parker is some other guy that happens to have super strength. May, could you pass me the rolls?"

May stared at him blankly. These stories weren't that much crazier than other stories Spider-Man had found himself in. But the truly strange thing was that Peter was so relaxed about the whole thing, able to eat while telling the story of how his previous girlfriend's killer was not the father of his former best friend, but his former best friend.

"And more good news," Peter said, standing up so he could reach over and grab the rolls himself. "Norman, who is innocent, is alive. And I rescued him."

May buried her face in her hands. "Peter, you told me that Oscorp was ordered by Norman to create multiple super villains. You insisted that he was guilty."

"That was before I knew about the nanites."

MJ didn't know what to say. She wasn't in the know when Spider-Man dealt with Green Goblin the first time. She briefly wondered if Peter could have been someone who was using a nanite mask like the one he described. She even considered throwing a bread role at him to see if his spider-sense would kick in.

"With enough luck, who knows; maybe Norman will get his old position at Oscorp back," Peter said optimistically.

"You're sure no one's going to get hurt, right?" Danger asked.

"That part's on you, kid," said one of the gunmen sitting across from him.

"Right," Danger said, looking down at his clasped hands and legs, one of which was bobbing nervously.

"Just remember your instructions; if Spider-Man shows, you're the one who fights him, otherwise, you have the easy part. And if anyone asks, your name is danger.'"

"Like I need to be reminded."

"Guess not. You wouldn't want anyone to know your name is Miles Morales!" the gunmen shouted toward the doors.

"Shush! Keep it down!" Danger demanded, worried someone outside the truck would overhear them. He felt even worse when the gunman laughed at him for it.

The truck came to a halt and the four gunmen stood up, heightening Danger's nervousness. It was time. They ran out of the truck, Danger forcing himself to follow despite every bone in his body telling him this was a bad idea.

They ran into the bank and started telling people to get down on the floor, not to try anything, the usual bank robbery things. Danger wanted to tell the poor hostages something reassuring, but he neither wanted to anger the gunmen nor risk giving them hope that might be false for all he knew. As the thieves went to work on the vault, Danger took another look at his super suit. His heart sank, knowing that suit was supposed to be for a hero. Hundreds of red lightning strands on otherwise black clothes including a hoodie and sneakers. He wondered if he could ever become a hero after today. Doing so would require him to get out of his current situation and an end date was never discussed.

"Just try to stay calm," he told himself. "They have it all planned out and there's a big chance that Spider-Man won't show u-"

SPLAT!

Danger screamed at the sight of the body that landed in front of him. For a split second, his paranoia tried to convince him it was Spider-Man. In the next split second, he thought it was some kind of inhuman monster due to the misshapen limbs and the moaning noise.

But really it was one of the gunmen. A few of his limbs were misshapen because they had been snaped like twigs. Upon closer inspection, Danger found that the moaning would have been agonized screams if not for the webbing covering his mouth.

Spider-Man did this. Danger looked up, but no one was there. Danger ripped the web off the gunman's mouth and asked, "What happened?"

"Spider-Man . . . he's crazy. I tried to beg him to stop. But he kept breaking," the gunman whimpered, fighting off the urge to scream for as long as he could.

Danger heard gunfire from the other side of a wall and froze. The next thing he heard was one of the gunmen crying out, "DANGER!"

The next thing he knew, a body came crashing through the wall. When the dust settled, he saw Spider-Man lift a gunman above his head. Despite the fact that the gunman was already beaten, Spider-Man broke his back over his knee.

Danger was shocked. He never heard of Spider-Man using such brutality; not since he stopped wearing the symbiote. Spider-Man's suit was clearly the classic red and blue which felt mismatched with the way tossed the gunman's broken, whimpering body aside.

"I broke the other two when you weren't looking," Spider-Man said. "You're the only one left."

"Listen . . . I don't want to fight you," Danger said meekly.

"You should've thought of that earlier."

"Just let me go with the money and . . . and nobody gets hurt," Danger said, trying to play the part of someone who would actually hurt the hostages.

Calling Danger's bluff, Spider-Man told the hostages, "Don't worry, if he tries to hurt you, I'll stop him. You can go now."

People started getting up and running out the door.

"Um . . . wait! You can't go yet!" Danger said uselessly, getting no one to listen.

Within seconds, the hostages were all gone.

"Now, what was it you were saying about wanting the money?" Spider-Man asked.

"I was saying . . ."

Spider-Man launched himself at Danger without warning.

Danger ducked, letting Spider-Man fly over his head, but he didn't avoid the web that grabbed him from behind. Spider-Man web pulled him in and kicked him in the back. Danger crawled away from Spider-Man, whimpering in fear. He mastered himself, trying to stay quiet. Slowly, parts of his body seemed to vanish; the camouflage spread until he was completely invisible.

Spider-Man wasn't fazed. He closed his eyes and waited.

Less than a second after his spider-sense went off, Spider-Man grabbed Danger's invisible wrist. He struck Danger in the gut, causing him to uncloak and then Spider-Man hit him in the now visible head. Spider-Man let go of Danger's wrist and pummeled him with both fists. With each hit, Danger's desire to make it stop grew, as did the electricity building up on his limbs.

Danger screamed and spread his arms out to the sides, unleashing a blast of electricity in all directions. Danger fell to his knees, momentarily exhausted. He knew that blast wouldn't be the end of the fight, so he tried to pick himself up in time, but he was already too late. Spider-Man came lunging back in and struck him hard. Danger couldn't even tell if Spider-Man had been caught in the blast or if he had gotten to a safe distance.

Danger covered his fist in lightning and threw a punch, but Spider-Man grabbed the part of his arm that wasn't electrified and threw Danger against a wall. Before he had the chance to recover, Spider-Man came in and rammed into him so hard they exploded through the wall together.

Finding that they were in the employee's restroom, Spider-Man web-grabbed a sink, ripping it off the wall and cracked it against Danger's head.

Danger rose through the pain, preparing to fight back and Spider-Man hit him with another sink. It wasn't until the fourth sink that Danger shot forward, tackling and electrocuting Spider-Man. Danger threw Spider-Man away, but caught himself, not sliding far thanks to his sticking ability.

When the lightning covering his body dissipated, Spider-Man lifted his head and said through gritted teeth, "Ow."

Danger had made Spider-Man mad. To think that everything he'd done before was when he wasn't mad.

Spider-Man wed-zipped passed him, striking Danger as he went. He then launched himself off of a wall and hit him as if he were shot out of a cannon. Danger was knocked back through the whole in the wall and landed in front of the exit. He wanted to escape, but Spider-Man was too quick to pick him up and threw him up into the ceiling. Spider-Man web-yanked Danger, adding his pull to gravity's and Danger cratered into the linoleum.

Spider-Man picked up his already defeated enemy by the shirt collar and was about to hit him again.

"Wait," Danger pleaded, his voice weak. "They took my parents. They said they'd kill my mom and dad if I didn't do what they say."

"Don't care," Spider-Man said casually. What a very un-Spider-Manly thing to say. Not, "I don't believe you," or "Cool story, still arresting you," just "Don't care."

Danger assumed that Spider-Man must not have believed him since it was the only thing he could think of to explain Spider-Man's apathy. "My dad is Jefferson Davis. He went missing a month ago."

"Your dad is the confederate president?" Spider-Man laughed.

"The name is an unfortunate coincidence . . . I hope. He's a police officer. You can look him up."

"Do you know how much time it takes to look up a name?" Spider-Man asked.

"Uh, about thirty seconds?" Danger said, confused.

"It takes enough time for a supervillain to escape." Spider-Man cocked his fist again.

"Peter, stop!" MJ pleaded through his mask's communicator.

Spider-Man sighed and said, "Hang on." He turned his head away from Danger, but kept a hold on his shirt collar. "Why should I stop?" he asked MJ.

"I just looked up his dad and the story checks out. At least it will if this kid is Miles Morales. Lift his mask for me."

Spider-Man reluctantly did as she asked. Danger was embarrassed to be unmasked and the fact that Spider-Man was in the right to do so was like salt on the wound. He could only hope no one outside or watching camera footage would have a clear view of his face.

"That's him," MJ confirmed.

Spider-Man shook his head before throwing Danger's mask in his face and dropping his collar. "Fine. Who has your parents?"

Danger wasn't sure it was safe to reveal it. For all he knew, saying too much would get his parents killed if the bank robbers were listening. But he knew he was treading on thin ice with Spider-Man and didn't want to push him. So he told him who it was. "The Green Goblin has them."

Spider-Man stared at him. And then he uncontrollably face-palmed. He had accidentally ruined his new boss's bank robbery and was expected to rescue his new boss's hostages.

Author's Note: I'm going to try to not let the story go on for toooooo much longer. Like I said, Spider-Man and MJ 2: Fade to Black is kind of just the rest of Never Break.

I really wanted to resolve the story of Never Break, but I had other stories to tell. This time, I'm not going to end on a cliff hanger that sets up a painful wait for another story. But I know better than to promise I'll have a new chapter every week. Oh, how things have changed. Believe it or not, I used to be one of the good ones. I used to stick to, "Post at least one chapter every week or the world ends." In fact, I had times when I would post two chapters a week without fail. That has not been the case for a while.

I would appreciate if some of you could give me some words of encouragement, (of the polite variety, please) to keep me going and not let this story fester for very long.

Thank you for reading. Please follow and review.