Spider-Man: Marvel Knight

Chapter 9- Precautions

   Spidey swung across the city headed to Osborn mansion. Hopefully, MJ would still be there safe from harm. All it takes is a little bit of science to throw New York out of whack, and unfortunately it was his fault. The entire city was on full lockdown due to Kurt being in the sewers. The streets were empty except for police cars and swat teams that had flooded the streets on patrol looking for them.
   Peter grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Yuri's number. She picked up on the second ring.
   "Chief Watanabe," she answered.
   "Yuri," Spidey said. "I've got an update for the creature in the sewers."
    Yuri let out a sigh. "Hopefully you've got some good news, Spidey. The entire force is completely scared for their lives after seeing the destruction caused by that thing." She rubbed her temples. "You just attract crazies into New York at this point don't you?"
   Pete chuckled. "Appreciate the sarcasm, chief. Way to lighten the mood."
   "Get to the news," she said sternly.
   Spidey cleared his throat. "The Lizard's real name is Kurt Connors. He's a scientist at Oscorp that was partly in charge of the pharmaceutical department. He gave himself a formula that wasn't ready yet...and well...the rest is history."
   Yuri sighed. "Oscorp again... Of course. Well I'm guessing shoot to kill is off the table then."
   Spider-Man kept swinging to the manor. "We are synthesizing a cure right now. It might take a little bit, but we're figuring it out as we go." He text messages signal codes to her phone. "I just sent you a link to a comms table. On the other end is a friend of mine who has access to a radar of the city. We currently have a tracker on Connors, so the next time he makes a big racket we'll know where he is."
   She nodded and rubbed her temples. "Okay, that helps a little bit," she said. "I'm trusting you on this, Spidey. Don't screw up." With that, she hung up.
   Peter chuckled as he swung through the night air. "That woman scares me sometimes," he said to himself.
   Finally, he arrived back at Osborn manor. Hopefully, MJ was still inside and safe from everything going on. Surely she left she would have called him, right? Right?
   Of course she would.
   Peter opened the door and saw MJ sitting on the couch watching TV. She turned and saw him walk in and got up. "Oh my God, Peter!" she exclaimed. She got up and hugged him. "I saw what happened on the news. Are you okay?"
   Pete nodded and took off his Spider-Man mask. "As good as I can be." He kissed her gently on the lips. "It's one of those days, you know?" As he retreated from the kiss, he winced a little on pain from his side. His adrenaline had been up for hours...he really hadn't come to terms with how bad he had gotten beaten. He was bruised and bloodied from being thrown about by Kurt in that small time and his advance healing could only do so much.
   MJ saw the blood on the suit and her jaw dropped. "Oh my God, Peter, you're bleeding," she said while running to the bathroom to get a first aid kit. "Go lay on the couch." Peter nodded and went to crash on Harry's couch. He winced in more pain as his ribs and back hit the cushion. Pete didn't really realize that Kurt mopped the floor with him. He took the top of his suit off and laid all the way back down.
   "Ow," he whispered.
   MJ came back in with the kit and sat down next to Peter. She pulled out the rubbing alcohol and rag. The wound on Peter's right side was large and ugly. It was bruised with large scrapes going up and down his ribs. "Oh boy," she said pouring some alcohol into the rag. "Does this happen a lot?"
   Peter chuckled through the pain. "Only on my off days," he replied.
   "How many of those do you have?" she asked still eyeing his wound.
   He adjusted himself so MJ could get to his wound easier. Through his pain he said, "On a pain scale, this is one of the worst."
   MJ took the alcohol rag and moved towards Peter's scrapes. "This'll sting a bit," she said.
   Pete chuckled. "I'm used to it," he said. "You wouldn't believe how many times Gwen had to do this to me after we locked Norman up."
   MJ slowly placed the rag on Peter's wound and he only winced a little bit. She shook her head. "Peter, that's not good if you get used to the pain of alcohol on wounds. That just doesn't sit well with me."
   He shook his head as she cleaned his wound. "It's part of the job, MJ. I have the power to get through all of this so I can fulfill the responsibility of protecting the people I love."
   MJ shook her head. "What if it gets too much?" she asked. "Some day you're gonna fight something that you can't handle. What are you going to do then?"
   "I'll figure it out," he said. "I always do."
   She finished cleaning the wound and grabbed some gauzes and medical wrap. "Sit up," she said. Peter did so and raised his arms. MJ placed a the gauzes on his wound and begin to secure it with the wrap. "I might be a drama student, but wanting to be a nurse growing up pays off right now," she said with a giggle. After she finished wrapping him up, she checked her work. "How's that?" she asked.
   Peter moved his body a bit to see if the bandage would restrict him any. Fortunately, MJ did a really good job wrapping him up. "Not bad," he said with a smile. His expression turned serious as his eyes turned toward the TV. The replays of the Lizard...of Kurt tearing through the city right before Pete arrived was terrifying. In his ten months of being Spider-Man, he hadn't faced something so fierce before. The closest baddie that he had fought that was this bad was Rhino, but at least he had a clear vision in what he was doing. This creature that had taken over Kurt was reckless. It was driven by primal instinct. All it wanted to do was take over territory and kill anything in it's path.
   "I don't know how I'm gonna stop him, MJ," Peter said flatly. "How am I gonna stop something that isn't human? There's nothing left of Kurt in there."
   MJ put her arm around Peter and rest her head on his chest. "You'll figure something out, Peter. You're Spider-Man." She looked up at him. "Doesn't Spider-Man always win?" she asked with a sweet smile.
   Peter smirked. "So far he has," he replied. "But I have to end it one way or another. It's my fault that Kurt is like that. I gave him the money and power to complete project x. I approved the funding and testing of it and I didn't even think of what it could do to someone."
   MJ leaned up and looked at him in his crystal, blue eyes. "You can't blame yourself for everything, Peter. Gwen told me the stories of you kicking yourself for what happened to Norman and everything else. You'll stop him, Peter. Spider-Man will stop him."
   Peter grinned. "That's a pretty good motivational speech," he said.
   MJ moved her lips closer to his. "I thought you would say so, Tiger." Their lips were so close to each other, it seemed that they were constantly not knowing whether they wanted to kiss or not.
   Peter looked at her lips. "Do you think that we could finish what we were trying to do earlier?" he asked softly.
   She giggled and ran her fingers through the back of his hair. "I think that's possible," she responded.
   Their lips pressed together as they did before. Peter carefully laid on the couch as MJ continued to kiss him. He placed his hands on her hips, which reminded him of their slow dance together. Slowly, his hands began to move to her shirt to continue what they had started earlier in the night. Just as she was about to remove it, Peter's phone rang.
   Peter's lips removed from MJ's as he sighed. "Come on," he whispered. "Why now?" She smiled as he grabbed his phone and answered it. "Hello?"
   "Peter!" Harry said on the other line. "We've got a problem."
   Peter leaned up as MJ sat back on the couch. "Harry, what's going on? Did the radar go off?" he asked.
   "We've got bigger problems than that right now."
   "...What happened?"