Spider-Who?

Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

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Mary Jane Watson was walking the city streets of Queens alone towards her Aunt Anna's apartment.

Her Aunt Anna, who was out of town for the week, had long ago given Mary Jane a key to her apartment - knowing full-well what Mary Jane's home life was like. Mary Jane cringed as she thought back to the screaming argument her parents had gotten into, the memory of it ringing in her ears. It hadn't taken her long to get to the point where she decided that she's had enough and marched out the door - her Aunt Anna's key in her hand and a small backpack with a change of clothes and basic necessities.

She would be eternally grateful to her Aunt Anna. A secret part of her, hidden deep inside the recesses of her mind, had always wished and dreamed that she actually lived with her kindly aunt. But she had always been afraid of what the repercussions of merely asking would be. Her parents wouldn't take that decision lying down... her father especially.

Mary Jane had turned another corner on the dark streets, knowing that she was getting close to her Aunt Anna's apartment, when...

BOOM!

Screaming, Mary Jane instinctively covered and ducked her head in terror as the sound of the close explosion resounded through the air. She sat crouched over herself for a split second of time, heaving in a few mouthfuls of air as she tried to get the ringing sound out of her ears. When she finally managed to straighten, Mary Jane turned towards the alleyway that she had just passed, looking at the building before her in horror as it burned... black smoke billowing up towards the sky.

If there had been anyone inside of that building... there was no way they could have survived.

Suddenly the clanging sound of something banging against metal caught in her hearing, and served to divert her attention away from the flaming building. The sight of the body just as it fell from its collision with the metal dumpster caught her attention, just before it landed with a thud on the hard pavement. She waited, still in her shock. But when the body didn't move...

Mary Jane gasped and immediately snapped into action.

Her breathing came out in rasps as she ran forward, her mind doing its best to catch up with the adrenaline that was pumping through her body. Only to stop short when she got close enough to see the figure more properly, outlined by the glow of the flames...

It... It was... SPIDER-MAN!

Mary Jane gaped at the masked hero on the ground, just meters away from her feet. She... she had never seen a clear picture of what he looked like before. He was too fast for any photographer to get anything more than a blur. All that the world had of the Wall-Crawler were shoddy videos that were more of a smear of red and blue than anything.

It was strange to see him up close like this - To see his red and blue costume in full... to see him so still... A gasp escaped her again as she was reminded of the precarious situation at hand. Was he dying? Already dead?

No. Right there- a slight movement coming from his chest. He was breathing. But he was far from out of the woods yet. It was clear that he was unconscious... and that he needed help.

Her help.

But what could she do? She couldn't very well take him to the hospital. They would unmask him, do tests on him... lock him up?