"M.J!"

Mary Jane didn't slow down right away, her mind still reeling after what she'd just seen. After a moment though, she came to a stop, taking a moment to compose herself. She sniffed hard, trying desperately to hold back the floodgates of her eyes that were threatening to burst with tears at any moment.

"How did that happen?" she questioned as she finally turned to Peter, her tone soft but angry. She hoped it didn't come off as accusatory towards him, but thankfully her boyfriend didn't seem to take it as such as he answered.

"He told me a few weeks ago that he was meeting with his dad; I was never able to track him down after that until... the Goblin clearly injected him with at least a variation of the same formula that gave him his powers, and who knows what else he did to his mind."

M.J. stepped back, folding her hands over her nostrils at the tears and emotions were becoming harder to hold back now. Things had been a nightmare already even just tonight, but this was too much.

"Hey," Peter said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Look at me. We're going to save him, okay? I promise."

"I know we are," Mary Jane conceded. "It's just that... Harry's innocent in all this. If it wasn't for the monster his father was... I just really didn't need this right now, not after what happened in getting here."

"What do you mean?" Peter questioned. "And where's Mr. Fireheart? Did something happen?"

M.J. glanced up at him, and it was clear by his reaction that he'd deduced the gist of it.

"At least he was at peace, I guess," she interjected. "He saved mine and Deb's lives; he said he felt he'd finally paid you back for saving his life, and, trying to kill you before, I guess."

Her words only seemed to serve as a mild consolation to him, with Peter shutting his eyes, seemingly taking a moment to process everything. Finally, he let out a breath.

"Alright. Enough people have died because of him. We're going to get a cure using Harry's blood, we're going to cure him and everyone else, and we're going to put this to an end."

"Yeah," Mary Jane said. "That sounds pretty good to me."

"Thanks for getting Deb, by the way," Peter added. "She'll be a big help."

"Anything to take a load off your shoulders right now," Mary Jane replied. "How are you holding up?"

"Eh, been better, been worse," Peter said. His words were clearly intended to assure her, but she could see on his face how worn out he was, perhaps emotionally even more than physically. She opted to roll with things though; she was more than okay with not dwelling on all the recent tragedy.

"We better get back there," M.J. spoke up. "Deb might need a little more instruction on what's needed."

"Right," Peter replied, and she followed him promptly back into the lab, finding Debra checking up on some stuff before returning her attention to them.

"Hey," she said, trying and failing to hide the shock of seeing her coworker as a superhero.

"I know, it's a lot," Peter said. "Hopefully when all this is over, we'll have plenty of time for Q , but right now, I could use your help."

"Right, of course," Deb replied. "Mary Jane said something about making an antiserum?"

"I already got a blood sample from him," Peter explained, gesturing over to Harry. "I was about to start analyzing it myself to hopefully get a head start for us, but basically..."

"...we need to isolate the compounds that are giving him his enhanced speed and strength and figure out how to neutralize them," Deb finished for him.

"Exactly," Peter replied, not missing a beat. For her part, Mary Jane hadn't understood most of what Deb especially had just said, but it did serve as a relief to know that the two brainiacs in the room were on the same page.

"I can get started analyzing the sample," she said before turning and gesturing to the bubbling container further into the room. "What's that you have going over there?"

"Oh!" Peter said, making a quick break for that side of the room, adjusting some things and causing the bubbling to begin subsiding. "This is a new batch of my web fluid, and right on time, too!"

"Wait, you MAKE that stuff?" Deb asked, her intrigue immediately evident.

"Mhm," Peter replied as if this were common knowledge. He immediately set to filling back up his web shooters, pouring the liquid through a very thin, smaller container into it. Peter then fired a test web, the sticky substance attaching itself to the far wall from him.

"Okay, I have SO MANY more questions," Deb said before catching herself. "But, that can wait; right now, we've got an antiserum to tackle."

"I'll be right over; just need to fill up the rest of my spare cartridges," Peter assured her, immediately setting to work on performing the task. Mary Jane strolled over to him, observing as he worked.

"I don't exactly know what you normally do, but this looks like quite a batch."

"I was fortunate they had everything I needed in the amount I needed too," Peter replied. "Something tells me there's a good chance I'm going to need it all before this is over."

"Where are the other two?" M.J. inquired. "Still out there?"

"I hope so," Peter said. "When Harry found us, I broke off to stop him, but I haven't heard from them since."

"I'm sure they're fine," Mary Jane tried to assure him.

"I know DD has survived some pretty crazy stuff," Peter replied. "Admittedly, this feels like a whole new level for both of us..."

"A whole new level compared to the Chitauri invasion during our Sophomore year?" Mary Jane commented.

"Okay, THAT was pretty crazy too, though to be fair, we also had A LOT more help," Peter replied. "Also, how's Deb holding up in all this, especially after what happened to Mr. Fireheart?"

"She's scared, but she's pushing through it," Mary Jane replied as she glanced briefly over to her new friend, who was hard at work. "I think she's tougher than she thinks she is."

"What about you?" Peter asked as he finished filling up yet another cartridge, attaching it to a carrier compartment around the waist of his suit. "I know you haven't had any real chance to process everything..."

"I'll do that once this is over," Mary Jane replied sharply.

"M.J..."

"No offense, Peter, but you're the last one to be talking about taking the time to process anything," she added. Her tone came out more defensive than she'd intended, but she was determined not to let anything take away Peter's focus right now... at least that was what she was telling herself.

"Fair enough," Peter conceded. "I'm sorry if I..."

Peter then cut himself off, his focus turning sharply towards the window... which meant only one thing.

"What is..."

Mary Jane didn't even get the chance to utter another word out before Peter suddenly threw on his mask as he raced towards the window, suddenly launching himself through it.

Shattering the glass in front of him, Peter immediately fired two webs, sticking them to incoming pumpkin bombs. Twisting them in the air, he hurled them straight back towards the Goblin, who veered out of the way just in time to avoid the ensuing explosions. Peter shot another web, pulling himself on top of a nearby flagpole as his opponent leveled out to face him, hovering about fifteen feet away.

"So, the rumors are true!" the Goblin shouted; he was clearly trying to put on his usual maniacal glee act, but Peter could see the frustration brewing beneath in the form of his gritted teeth and wide eyes. With any luck, he might be able to use his opponent's hidden rage to his advantage.

"Come on, Gobs; you know better than anyone that you just can't keep a good Spider-Man down!" he taunted, stretching his arms out wide for dramatic effect.

"Indeed; my mistake was not watching you die with my own eyes last time!" the Goblin shouted, his glider pumping out a pumpkin bomb straight into each hand. "And it's one I do not intend to repeat!"

Peter made a hard leap to the right, avoiding the Goblin's initial assault. Firing several webs, he swung hard and fast as he sought to lure his nemesis away from the antidote effort. Once they were far enough away though, he would turn one hundred percent of his focus to going on the offensive though. This was a huge opportunity, a chance to bring down the Goblin while also coming up with the means to hopefully cure Norman and his crew...

... and it was an opportunity Peter had no intention of missing out on.

"So... are we going to talk about that?"

"Nope," Mary Jane replied. "We're going to focus on getting the cure ready."

"Right, of course," Deb said, hurrying over to the blood sample Peter had extracted. With the woman having finally resumed her work in the wake of their little surprise, M.J. wondered over to Harry; she didn't come right up to him for fear of what should happen if he woke up and she was too close (as well restrained as he seemed to be), but she got close enough to see his face well. It looked different, though not in an overtly physical sense, but rather, it just didn't look as... happy. Since coming back, Harry Osborn had been one of the most joyful people Mary Jane had ever been around, but now, even as he slept, it was almost like she could see the conflict going on between who he was and who his father had molded him into. She tried to bear in mind that this wasn't REALLY Norman's doing, that it was through some insanity-induced alter ego, but it was just hard to separate the two personas in her head.

After a little while, she couldn't take dwelling on it anymore, so she eventually wandered back over near Deb, trying her best to let the girl patiently do her work. Her efforts didn't last long though.

"See anything?"

"Maybe," Deb replied, thankfully not seeming upset at M.J.'s question. "I'll need to zoom on some stuff, but I think I may have a lead."

"Sorry," Mary Jane said. "I'll try not to distract you."

"It's okay," she said. "I'll take what distractions I can get to keep my mind off everything I've just seen in the last hour."

"Actually, I was going to ask you how you were holding up," Mary Jane asked. Her friend raised her head from the microscope, but didn't look at her right away, seemingly taking the time to contemplate her response.

"It just feels like my whole world has been turned upside down," Deb said. "I mean, out of the eight billion people that live in New York, I happen to work with SPIDER-MAN, and my first friend in the city is his girlfriend? The odds of that are insane, and yet, here I am, helping with an antidote effort to stop an epidemic of superhuman madmen that want to destroy the city. It's not exactly what I expected!"

"I'm sorry that you ended up in all of this," Mary Jane said.

"Honestly, now that I'm here, I think I'd rather be doing something than just sitting at home waiting for all this to be over," Deb admitted as she turned back to her work. "I've always liked having as much control of things in life as possible, so getting to do something like this, even if getting here was the scariest thing I've ever done, at least helps me feel better."

"I am glad that you at least consider me a friend already," Mary Jane added.

"Yeah, me too," Deb said. "And, in the spirit of friendship, I guess I should ask the same of you. How are you handling all this?"

"I'm... fine," M.J. replied hesitantly, though it was clear by her friend's facial expression that her facade was fading fast.

"I mean, I saw your reaction when you saw that guy," Deb said. "I'm guessing Harry Osborn is a friend of yours?"

"A good one of both me and Peter, yeah," Mary Jane confirmed, seeing no point in hiding that fact.

"I mean, between that and, I don't know, literally everything else that's happened, I have to imagine that would be hard for anyone," Deb theorized.

"It is, but you know, we just have to focus on the task at hand, you know?" Mary Jane said.

"Mary Jane, this isn't a scene in a play," Deb said, seemingly growing exasperated at the way Mary Jane was handling things. "It's okay to be honest with yourself about how you feel in all this."

M.J. turned her head to the side, her emotions once more threatening to boil up within her yet again. Aside from when she'd first seen Harry, she felt she'd mostly done a good job of keeping herself in check since she'd been rescued, but it just felt like additional weights were just being piled onto her body, and sooner or later, she just might break under the pressure.

"Mary Jane?"

"Deb, I..." M.J. took a moment to compose herself before continuing. "Thank you for your concern. I know I'm not showing it well right now, but I do appreciate it. It's just that, right now, Peter needs me to be strong for him. As rough as I've had it recently, he has a weight on his shoulders right now that I can't even imagine. I can't do much; I don't have powers, I'm not smart like you are, so this, keeping my composure and being strong, is what I can do for him right now."

"I guess," Deb replied, "but, if I'm not being too bold, I don't think that specifically means that you just need to bury it all deep down, even in front of him. It's okay for the two of you to be honest with each other about how awful everything is right now."

M.J. nodded, forcing a thin smile.

"I'll keep it in mind."

From there, Deb turned back to her work, leaving M.J. to privately contemplate what her friend had said. The woman probably did have a fair point, but frankly, that didn't even really matter to her right now. The man she loved was literally fighting for his life most likely even now, just as he'd been for the better part of the last several hours, and, since she couldn't be out there helping him directly, she had to be ready to once again be a source of strength for him when he got back. To her, the fact that Peter was fighting to get back to her was more than enough to get her through this.

She hoped so at least, just like, right now, she hoped Peter was giving the Green Goblin's rear a good kicking.

Well, I technically just finished writing the final chapter, so the book is more or less done! I'll be posting chapters daily between now and the end, so keep an eye out! Hope you enjoy it as we speed towards the finish line!

Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy, and happy belated Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1, 26