Baby Vulture flew higher and higher, laughing haughtily as the civilian screamed bloody murder.
Peter swung from his opalescent web, arcing and muscling himself up high above the tree tops in pursuit as Baby Vulture zigged this way and that.
"Hey Spidey, where's sweet cheeks at? Tell her I missed her as I kicked your ass!"
Sweet cheeks? That molted bastard was talking about Annie. His eyes narrowed as he shot out a strand of webbing, catching Creep Vulture's foot.
The Vulgar Vulture jerked down with Peter's weight, earning a higher pitched scream from his hostage. Vulture twisted, and heaved his leg up high enough to slice the webbing with the razor edges of his wings. Someone didn't skip leg day. Of course when he did that, he couldn't fly as well, so he and his cargo dropped a few feet as Spider-Man shot out another web, stopping his own free fall.
"Here, just take my bag! It's all there, my research! Just take it and let me go!" the man screamed.
"Suite yourself," Vulture sneers Then in one swift motion, Vulture swiped the man's bag and dropped him.
Spider-Man shot another web; the strand caught the top of the tree, and he arced himself around the bushy tree top, manipulating his swing so that the momentum slinged him high into the sky. He embraced the falling man in a bear hug, then with his arms awkwardly crossed behind the man's back, Spider-Man shot out another web, this time, catching Vulture between his shoulder blades. Their weight jerked the Vulture down and Peter shot another web at the ground.
"Hold on tight," he yelled at the hostage, and the man hugged him like a vice.
Peter pulled on the web-line attached to the ground, yankingVulture down a few feet, as if reigning in an unruly kite. While holding onto a grown ass man, while dangling from said kite and simultaneously anchored to the ground.
Yeah. Bad analogy.
Another strand of webbing hit the Vulture and he saw MJ on the ground, ready to help pull him down. With one final pull, they wrenched Vulture from the sky, and fell a safe-ish distance to the ground. The civilian groaned, the wind knocked out of him. Vulture made a move to escape, but Peter knocked him out with one punch, and grabbed the bag containing the research everyone seemed to be after.
MJ helped the civilian up, and, holy crap, it was Dr. Mason from ESU! No wonder he looked familiar. Mason looked shaky and pale, but he didn't seem hurt.
"Just give it to them," Mason screamed. "My research, just give it to them so they leave me alone!"
The poor guy was terrified. "Just take it, it's here," he screamed again, pointing to bag Spider-Man now held. MJ tried to placate him, but it was no use.
"Run," Spider-Man told Mason, and the doctor ran like hell. Bubble Boy and Blondie approached.
"Hey Red? Any idea what her powers are?"
"Creepy, but not too horrible. Keep your distance from her."
And of course, at that moment Vulture came too, and he came swinging. Peter and MJ ducked and dodged his attacks. Bubble Boy shot a force of magenta at them, and they easily dodged it, but the attacks came again and again, keeping Spider-Man and Spinneret on the defense.
"I got him, if you take the bird," MJ said.
"Deal," and then Spider-Man leaped out of the way of Bubble Boy's magenta projectiles, and as he was doing so, Vulture got in a lucky shot, decking Spider-Man in the face, and then he flew up above him.
Spider-Man was ready to charge, but his Spider-Sense screamed. He was still a moment while the Vulture cackled overhead, and noticed a small, blinking red light on a disc hanging from the bottom of a park bench.
"Bomb!" He yelled, just as it went off. The force of the explosion catapulted him off his feet, and hurled him in the air. As he flew he saw MJ was also thrown backwards off her feet. She sailed over the railing and into the murky depths of the East River as he slammed into Bubble Boy's dome with a static thud, Bubble Boy and Blondie safely encased in their shell.
His back, were it had made contact with the shield, burned and he saw that Vulture was gone. He likely escaped the blast due to his height.
Peter saw that MJ had not resurfaced. He rushed towards the river and jumped over the railing, expecting to land in the water, but instead he landed on solid ground, the color, magenta for as far as the eye could see.
"No," he gasped as he saw MJ trying to punch her way through, her movements panicked. He dropped to his knees and punched the field, feeling it give as his fist sank into the hard surface. But the harder he hit, the more it bounced back.
"You think I'll let you escape?" The man bellowed. And then the edges curled up and over, encapsulating them both as MJ's movement's began to slow. It had already been minutes.
No quips. No holding back.
With the Brooklyn Bridge overwhelming his periphery, Peter drew his fist back, his body stretching up, and then, with a guttural cry, he dropped back down, packing every bit of his strength and weight into the ear splitting blow.
The other man grunted when Spider-Man's fist pierced through the force field. For a second, Peter had hope, especially when he felt MJ's fingers grasp for his own. But that second was fleeting. The gaping hole around his wrist closed up as Peter was about to pull Mary Jane out of the frigid water. And then her grip loosened, her fingers grazing his desperate hands as she sank.
He glared up at the man standing smugly ahead, and with an explosive force, he catapulted himself into the air, his wrist and fist painfully breaking out of the ground. As he landed, he fired out a web line and yanked the man towards him. Before he smashed into him, Spider-Man grabbed him by the back of his head, and slammed his face down onto the force field.
It winked out of existence as if it had never been there to begin with. Both of them crashed into the water. He saw MJ, slowly sinking and grabbed her and kicked up to the surface.
She choked on the air, gasping, as if not able to get enough of it.
Relief flooded his soul at the sound of her breath. She rested her head against his chest, coughing up half the river.
"Will!" Came a panicked cry. He saw the woman bending over the railing, screaming out over the water. "Will, please!"
Spider-Man jumped out of the water and hoisted himself and Spinneret over the railing, and gently laid her on the ground. Coughing, she sat up, as the other woman screamed for her partner.
"Go get him Tiger," Mj wheezed between coughs. "I'm okay, promise."
She was right. He couldn't let him drown. Spider-Man tore himself away from her side, and back into the river he jumped.
He found Will, grabbed him, and resurfaced, dumping him at the blonde woman's feet. She screamed his name, "Will, Will!" again and again. But Peter didn't look back. He scooped up his wife and got the hell out of there.
A short while later, Peter stopped on a rooftop, strategically picked due to its proximity to the hospital and placed MJ down.
He crouched next to her. "Are you okay," he asked as he began searching her for injuries.
"I'm fine," she said. And her coughing had subsided; her breathing now a slower, normal pace.
She looked exhausted. He wished he could see her green eyes, and longed to pull her mask off. Instead he laid his hand on her cheek and she leaned into it.
"I thought I lost you," he choked. And then his body was wracked with sobs as he held onto her. "God, I thought I lost you."
She embraced him, her hand now stroking his back, and he basked in the comfort of her.
"I'm right here Tiger," she whispered. "I'm right here." They stayed there, for how long he wasn't sure.
"I gotta get ready. Need to open the store," she whispered.
"No, absolutely not!"
"Come on! I'm really okay. Just a little shaken. That's all."
"Murph can handle to store. Please," he squeezed her hand in his.
"Okay," she said. And then, "Peter." His name was the softest whisper on her lips. "I can't swing home."
"What?! Why not? What's wrong?"
"The suit. Something's wrong with it. When the bomb went off, I went flying, hit the water, and then, it was like every ounce of strength in me just vanished. I was weak. Like I took the suit off."
He sighed in relief; for a moment there he had thought he'd missed some sort of grievous injury. But MJ didn't share his relief. She looked terrified.
"It's okay," he said.
"I can't lose my powers, I-I don't what's wrong with me,"
"There's nothing wrong with you. We'll get to the bottom of this. We'll run some diagnostics, maybe have Tony or the FF look at it. Okay? We'll figure it out."
She nodded, her bottom lip quivering.
"It's okay Red." He picked her up. "Hang on tight, yeah? Just like the old days."
She smiled, but even with her mask, he could tell it didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah. Like the old days."
She wrapped her arms around him. Together they swung home.