The Amazing Spider-Man 4

Chapter 9

Peter let his arms float at his sides, the wind rattling them as he plummeted towards the ground below. He waited, relishing in every second of his free fall before shooting a web at the last possible second, barely avoiding the street below just in time as he suddenly rocketed upward, shooting his legs upward as he hit the apex of his swing for maximum effect. He eventually leveled out, allowing him to look out into the city as well as the street below.

Yep, even after all these years, this NEVER got old.

There was no feeling quite like soaring over the skyscrapers one web at a time, occasionally mixing it up by parkouring over rooftops. The rippling of his suit by the wind, the rush of adrenaline that shot through his system with each drop and rise, causing all his senses to reach their maximum levels, it all just felt so good. Aside from when he had to focus on responding to an emergency or crime, the entire city felt like his playground every day. Who would get tired of that?

Yet, for as amazing as all of this felt to Peter, he had a sense that what would happen later that night would trump even the feeling of the most intense of swings. He'd finally managed to get everything planned out that morning: he would take M.J. to their favorite restaurant to hang out at. It was nothing too fancy, just a small sandwich place that the two of them absolutely loved. Then, he would take her to some of her favorite sights around the city, with the intent to end up at the Empire State Building. By that time, it would be getting later and not as busy, and he would pull out the ring and pop the question to her. Naturally, if all went according to plan anyway, she would say yes, and it would be the perfect cap off to the night.

Peter was excited like he'd never been before, but at the same time, he was completely and utterly terrified. He had no logical reason to believe that Mary Jane's answer would be anything but a resounding yes. Things had gone surprisingly smoothly between them so far; sure, they'd had to figure out some things, mainly due to Spider-Man, but he thoroughly enjoyed every moment he'd ever spent with her. Seeing M.J. was the highlight of his day. Still, just because his mind couldn't help but think of how things could go wrong, it still pondered the reasons why she would say no, few as though they may seem.

What was more concerning to Peter however was that he was doing this with not one but two new threats who were gunning for Spider-Man. Even more disturbing was the seeming fact that that was ALL these things cared about. Most of his enemies had some plan to take over or destroy the city for any given reason, ranging from wanting to "fix" the people there to having a massive grudge against them to simply having way too big of an ego and wanting to take over. Between Kraven and the machine that had seemingly tried to draw him out the other night, these two seemingly had none of those motives, but rather a simple desire to fight him to the death for whatever reason.

It was enough for Peter to question even now whether the timing of his proposal was right or not. He loved Mary Jane more than anyone or anything else in the world and with that came the desire to make sure she was safe. With two random psychos out for blood, maybe it wasn't the best idea to draw M.J. even more into his crazy existence.

It was also hard not to think of Gwen as well. For the entirety of his and M.J.'s relationship, there was a small part of him that questioned whether he was almost betraying her memory by getting together with someone else. Peter knew deep down that such an idea was nothing short of ridiculous; he knew Gwen would want him to be happy, and he also knew that she wouldn't want fear of what happened to her repeating itself to stop him from moving on in life. Knowing it and applying it were two different things though, especially in Peter's guilt-ridden mind.

As Peter continued to swing, he opted to refocus on the positive. He loved Mary Jane, and she loved him. They both wanted to be together for the rest of their lives, come what may, and that was what was going to happen. He wasn't going to let anything get in the way of...