Peter Parker

My Spider Sense went off. Anton lunged towards the three of us. I dove to the left, dodging the lunge. I rolled when I hit the floor before I ended up on one knee and two hands. I looked over to see Kaine with his arms up, hands on Anton's fangs as the large spider tried to sink them into him. He slid back a few inches at first, but then moved forward, managing to slowly push Anton back. I wondered how strong Kaine was for him to be able to do that. Not wanting to just stand by on the sidelines, I stood up and ran forward. I closed the distance before I left my feet and sent a dropkick into Anton's side, sending him skidding sideways. I flipped backward and landed on my feet.

"Eight eyes and you didn't see that coming?" I quipped. The large spider roared as it turned towards me. It suddenly reared up on its four hind legs and shot a strand of webbing from its spinneret. Even as my Spider Sense went off, I couldn't dodge it in time. As the webbing hit, the impact was enough to send me flying backward, much to my surprise. A split second later, I was pinned against an exhaust vent. I grunted as I tried to break free. My eyes then went wide as Anton ran forward towards me.

"EYES CLOSED!" Shadowcat yelled. That's when I saw the small projectile sail through the air. I quickly recognized what it was – a flashbang.

"Edi!" I grunted out.

"Activating Sensory Deprivation Mode!" Edith responded.

My lenses closed completely shut and the sensory deprivation field underneath my suit was deployed. After some seconds of feeling like I was in a void, floating in the middle of nowhere, things slowly returned to normal. I was greeted with a sight of Kaine straddling the spider's head.

"You chose the wrong person to ally with," Kaine growled out. He raised his fists up. A long claw suddenly extended from underneath each of his wrists. With a yell, he started to stab the claws into Anton's eyes. The spider roared out in pain before it suddenly swayed from side to side, trying to buck Kaine off. It eventually succeeded, sending Kaine to the floor.

"Need an eye doctor?" I yelled out in jest, wanting to take Anton's attention off of Kaine. "I think I know a guy!"

With a roar, the spider turned towards me. From what I could see, Kaine managed to stab four of its eyes. With a grunt, I finally tore myself out of the webbing. It was a good thing, too. I barely had time to move out of the way before Anton rammed into the exhaust vent. With eyes locked in on the large spider, I slowly walked around Anton and shot bursts of webbing at its feet. The larger spider tried to move, but it was stuck with its feet webbed to the floor. Suddenly, strands of webbing hit the ground around the large spider. I looked up into the sky. I then backed away as Kaine sailed down feet first onto Anton's head. He flipped backward and landed next to me as the beast was laid out.

"I am not impressed," Kaine said coldly.

"Neither am I," I replied.

"Then let me finish things off," Shadowcat said. She ran right through Kaine, leaving him a bit dumbfounded as he patted his stomach. She then jumped into the air, flipped forward, and landed on the spider's abdomen. She then kneeled down and placed a hand on it. "Let's you and I go for a ride." The two of them suddenly sunk into the ground.

"Where they did they go?" Kaine asked.

I thought about it for a moment. "We should probably to the ground floor," I answered.

The two of us turned and ran forward. We then jumped off of the building. As we dived towards the ground, I looked over at Kaine. He looked back towards me.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"I'm just… I never thought I'd be doing this with another spider hero."

Kaine scoffed. "I'm no hero. I'm just a man with a grudge."

I chuckled. "That's how I started."

Kaine and I each shot out webbing towards the building and used the strands to break our fall just a few feet above the ground. We then broke our lines and flipped onto our feet. I stared ahead at the glass doors which were destroyed. Walking away from a now prone spider was Shadowcat. She whistled a tune to herself as she walked through the shattered glass doors.

"Well that was easy," Shadowcat said. She looked back and forth between me and Kaine. "Get out of here guys. And keep a low profile if you can."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Kaine said before he shot out a strand of webbing. "Have a good night."

"You too," I said as he swung away. After that, I faced Shadowcat.

"Go home, Spidey," Shadowcat ordered. "And take tomorrow off as well. I'm happy you're back, but I still want to ease you back into things and save you for the main event."

I nodded. "Got it."

Shadowcat smiled at me before she lightly punched me on the arm. "Good stuff." After that, she sunk into the ground. I smiled underneath the mask at the praise. I then jumped into the air and used my webbing to swing away. It took me a while to get home. I had to take some time to dodge the Daily Bugle helicopter. Once that was done, I made a stop at the Bunker to drop off the Black Dahlia suit. Before I could take it off, though, Edith spoke up.

"Pete, you have a message from Ned, addressed to you and most of the other X-Men and American Idiots," she informed.

I blinked a couple of times, feeling a bit confused. "…Most?" I said. "Who's not getting this message?"

"Michelle, but from what I can tell, it's for good reason."

"…Okay…" I was still a bit confused. "What is the message?"

"'Hey everyone. MJ wanted me to tell you guys not to contact her regarding X-Men and hero stuff. The Department of Damage Control was at her home to question her.'"

I blinked a couple of times. I wanted to leave the bunker as soon as possible and make a beeline towards her apartment. But then I took a moment to think. Michelle sent that text because she figured there was a chance that the DODC was monitoring her. Even with her distrust of the government being considered, I didn't think she was being paranoid. If I made my way over there as Spider-Man, there's a good chance she'd get arrested. As I thought about it more I realized that going there at all would have been a risk to her. If I swung by and the DODC was watching, there was a good chance that they'd think I'd have some connection with Spider-Man. Was I being paranoid? Maybe I was. But considering that Midtown got investigated twice due to Flash lying about being best friends with Spider-Man, I reluctantly decided to just visit her tomorrow night.

When I got home, I got a call from Kitty.

"Hello," I greeted as I sat down on my bed.

"Good evening, Peter," Kitty greeted back. "I wanted to make sure you got home okay."

"I did, thanks." I paused for a moment. "…Did you get that message from Ned?"

"I did. Do you know if she's okay?"

"I don't. I wanted to swing by, but I don't know if she's being monitored or not. 'They' aren't exactly a great example of restraint."

"So I heard."

I sighed. "I guess I'll wait until tomorrow." I decided to change the subject. "How'd the group project go?"

"We won't know until we parsed through the books we checked out. Given the… 'feedback'… we received, I think we may have something on our hands." She went quiet for a moment. "…It felt good working with you again."

"It felt good to be able to contribute again. I just want to be able to wrap this up as soon possible."

"We all do, Peter. And when we do, we'll enjoy a good break… until the next time."

I chuckled. "Until the next time, indeed."

The next day, I went about my day as normal. It started off normal, too. Things stopped being normal when I went to Peter Pan and MJ wasn't there. I sent Ned a text, asking if MJ was okay. He told me she was okay-ish. As I walked out of Peter Pan with a donut and coffee in hand, I started thinking. I then put the donut in my mouth and took my phone out and texted Ned again.

"Hey, are you doing anything tonight?"

Around six thirty that night, Ned and I were on the floor that MJ's parents' apartment was, walking down the hall to her door. Ned was carrying a somewhat large box in his hands.

"I probably should have called ahead," I said. It was mostly to myself, but I said it loud enough for Ned to hear.

"I don't think MJ would mind," Ned replied.

"It's not MJ I'm worried about. I haven't met her parents yet."

"Not even before the You Know What?"

"We only had one normal week before things went south in my life, and since her dad hates You Know Who, well…"

Ned nodded. "I see." He then shrugged. "Well, if her folks are home, consider this a clean slate."

"…I guess."

Once we reached MJ's door, I knocked on it. I took in a breath and blew it through my lips. A few moments later, the door opened. MJ was on the other side of it. She looked at us with a look of confusion.

"…Hi," she greeted.

"Hey," I greeted back. "We're here to cheer you up."

Ned raised the box. "We brought Legos," he added.

MJ stared at us for a moment, not saying anything. She then gave us a lopsided smile before she stepped aside and allowed us in.

A few minutes later, Ned, MJ, and I were situated in the living room, sitting on the floor after we moved the coffee table off to the side. We were putting together Lego bricks in silence. I wanted to ask MJ if she was okay, but I didn't want to prod her. I figured she didn't want to talk about it and I wanted to keep her mind off of it. So, the three of us just focused on building the Death Star.

"So, anyone saw any good movies lately?" Ned asked. I knew he wanted to break the silence. I decided to run with it.

"I saw The Black Phone not too long ago," I replied. "I have to say, that was a great film."

"I've been wanting to watch it," MJ said. "I read the short story that it was based on, so I'm interested in seeing how it holds up on screen."

I smiled. "We can see it together some time."

MJ scoffed. "Yeah, no thanks."

I frowned. "Why not?"

"Peter, most of the time, I like watching a movie with you. But every single time we've watched a movie that I haven't seen but you have, you always get giddy and squirmy when something major is about to happen."

"Am I that bad?"

"It's bordering on blatant spoiling territory."

I pouted. "I'm just passionate about good cinema."

"And I love that for and about you." She leaned forward and placed a kiss on my cheek. "But I prefer my surprises to be… surprising."

"Please don't start making out in front of me," Ned complained. "I don't want to see that."

MJ glared at Ned. "Ned, I've had a stressful past some odd days. I have a right to indulge in romantic and sexual activity with my nerd of my boyfriend for the sake of my mental health." I bowed my head and covered my face with my hands. My face heated up in embarrassment. It probably didn't help that I was remembering the time MJ and I bathed together.

"I hate both of you," Ned grumbled.

I raised my head from my hands and looked at Ned. "What did I do?" I demanded.

"You're her boyfriend and you condone her trolling, that's what."

I scoffed. "That's hardly fair."

Ned put his hands defensively. "I don't make the rules." He shrugged. "I just abide by them."

MJ laughed. I turned my head towards her. I wanted to glare, but as she leaned against me, I couldn't bring myself to do so. I was just happy to see her in a good mood. So, I put my arm around her.

"Feeling better?" I asked as I rubbed my hand up and down her arm.

"I am, thank you," MJ replied. She looked at Ned. "Thank you both."

"We're he for you," Ned said in earnest.

I nodded. I then frowned. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

"It was a bunch of ridiculousness," MJ said with a shake of her head. "Basically, they saw footage of the Midtown Incident. Specifically, it was when Spider-Man was taking me to Coach Wilson's office." I was a bit confused as to why Michelle talked about Spider-Man as if he and I weren't one in the same. I then realized she was probably being extra careful in case this place was being monitored. "Because he was holding my hand during that walk across the court, he figured I knew Spider-Man on an intimate level. I…" She shook her head. "I felt like he saw me as an easy target and didn't have much empathy or sympathy for what I went through." She sighed. "It was pretty shitty."

I held her tighter against me. "I'm sorry you went through that."

"Me, too," Ned added.

"Don't be." She rubbed her cheek against mine before she pulled away. "I have no regrets over what happened in the gym." She winked at me. I smiled at her. I was about to say something when I heard the sound of the door unlocking. The three of us looked at the door as it opened.

"We're back Miche'," a woman said as she stepped inside with a man, both with bags in their hands. I realized who they were – MJ's parents. I fought to keep my expression still as my heart sank. "We brought dinner and…" Her mother trailed off as the two of them looked at us. "Oh… we have guests."

"…Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise?" her father said with a smirk. "Not only is Ned here, but our daughter also has her boyfriend over." He then looked down at the floor. "You know, I was worried that, one day, I'd be walking in on you and Peter doing something rather scandalous, but this has to be the most G-rated activity involving I've ever came home to since she MJ was a toddler."

"Hi Mr. Watson, hi Mrs. Watson," Ned greeted with a wave.

"I take it you're MJ's parents," I said. I carefully stood up and walked over to them, making sure not to step on a Lego. I stuck my hand out. "I'm Peter – Peter Parker."

"Ah, yes, the elusive Peter Parker," her mother said with a smile as she took my hand and gave it a shake. "I'm Sandra and this is Michael."

I smiled and nodded as stuck my hand out to MJ's father. "Pleased to meet you both." I had absolutely NO desire to call them by their first name.

"The pleasure is all ours," Mr. Watson spoke up as he took my hand and gave it a shake. "Quite the handshake there, son – I like that." He withdrew his hand. "I hope you and Ned don't have any plans tonight, because we'd like to have you both for dinner." He nodded towards me. "You, especially, if it's not too impromptu for you."

I smiled once more. A part of me wanted to come up with an excuse for not being able to stay. However, I decided against it. I would have only been delaying the inevitable. So, I shook my head. "I have no plans, sir."

"Neither do I," Ned spoke.

"Splendid," Mrs. Watson said before she walked past me towards the kitchen with her husband in tow.

I eyed the two of them before I looked over at MJ. MJ gave me an apologetic smile. I winked at her, showing her that I wasn't upset.