Chapter Text
Today had been quite a dull day for Mary Jane Watson.
It had started with the usual problems of an angry father, which she used her usual remedy of simply leaving to fix for herself. Then she’d been stuck on her own, Gwen and Harry and everyone else busy with their own weekend plans. So going the generic route, Mary Jane wandered around the city for a while until she found herself at the mall.
Of course- having not bothered with grabbing anything- she couldn’t even pay for something, so the teen settled with idly walking by, shamelessly eavesdropping to see if anyone was having a better day than her. At least there’s a nice breeze, MJ optimistically thought.
But it seemed Mary Jane was about to be in for quite the activity change, as only after five minutes being at the complex there was a crashing heard above, followed by two colourful figures falling through the shattered skylight. A gasp escaped the girl once she’d identified the people; the two being none other than Spider-Man and the supervillain Mysterio.
And it seemed the evil magician was winning the fight.
Recovering from their crash first, Mysterio pulled himself up, towering over the momentarily incapacitated Spider-Man. “It’s over Spider-Man”, the man boomed over dramatically. “I have finally defeated you. Now I will rid the world of you... forever!”
Acting on pure instinct, Mary Jane moved. Picking up a neglected burger packing, she frantically balled it up then threw it at the supervillain. It sailed through the air, lightly tapping his fishbowl helmet. The man took a surprised step back before slowly- very slowly- turning his head, staring straight at the red-headed teen.
“What... was that?” Mysterio asked exasperated. MJ shrugged, eyes wide. The villains sighed before swishing his cape. “Either way, now you will-”
He didn’t finish, as midway through the sentence a THWAP was heard, and then Mysterio was pushed into the ground by a web. The man cried out in annoyance as Spider-Man had finally recovered, doing a fancy flip move to put himself back into a standing position. With that done he moved back, closer to Mary Jane.
“Okay, stay down for a second, Mysterio”, Spidey absently ordered. “I’ve gotta help this-- MJ?!”
At the shocked exclamation, Mary Jane jumped a little. “Huh? Wait, Spider-Man?! How do you know my name?”
The question posed, the hero started stuttering. “I uh- I, you know, h-heard you say it before?”
“When?”
Spider-Man stared at her. “When I came over here?”
Mary Jane gave him a suspicious look. “But I never- hey, Mysterio’s getting up!”
The moment that had been announced, Spidey jerked his head back in the villain’s direction, already getting into a fighting stance. As he got ready to restart his fight with the villain, Spider-Man glanced over at Mary Jane. “So uh, you should probably get outta here.”
“Noted”, MJ nodded as she started walking backwards, still keeping an eye on the fight. Basically the moment she started moving the two were at it again, Spider-Man zipping forward in a lunge. The teen moved back a few steps before squatting close to a beam. She found herself unable to leave, needing to see the outcome for an undetermined reason.
Meanwhile, the two adversaries were ongoing in their fight, Mysterio using a mix of his illusions and real gadgets while Spidey of course used his webs. Just as the webslinger was about to land a hit on the villain, he had swished his cape, somehow disappearing.
Spider-Man groaned as he scanned the area. He knew Mysterio was more than likely cloaking himself, so all he needed to do was get the guy to deactivate it. Before he got fully into it though, he shot a web up, slinking himself up it. When he was about a metre off the ground, he started his plan to draw out his opponent.
“Mysteriooooo”, he exaggeratingly called, crafting a long web in his hands. “Where’d you go Fishbowl? I need the specs for your prized ‘helmet’, man. I’ve got this salmon I think would fit into it just nicely.”
The bait not working, Spidey sighed but continued on. He was listening intently to his spider-sense. It took a moment, but he realised during his calling out he must have turned himself upside down.
“C’mon Houdini, where are you? Fights don’t really work with one person!” With still nothing coming, the hero gave another groan. He knew undoubtedly that Mysterio hadn’t left, so his silence was slightly annoying. And adding onto that he just caught sight of MJ still hanging around.
Shifting his long, rope-styled web into one hand, he used the other to wave at her. When he finally caught her attention he gave another motion, the meaning obviously ‘get outta here’. Spidey sighed when all he got was a shake of the head, but interestingly enough, the redhead left the area just after. With her gone, Spider-Man went back to trying to sense the area.
While he did that Mary Jane moved out of the area. She half-realised how much of a cliché it was for the fight between those two to be in the takeout area. Maybe they should have a food fight? She jokingly thought as she continued moving along. Reaching her destination a sly grin crossed MJ’s face.
“This could work...”
Back with Spidey, he had finally managed to root Mysterio out, the villain now very nicely throwing a wide assortment of different technological weapons at him. He dodged two disc bombs easily, then gave a sigh as the illusionist procured three robo-bats out of some hidden compartment, throwing them at the webslinger.
The bats screeched out as they darted at the spider vigilante. “Eat the bug!” “Sterio doesn’t like.” “He’s red!”
Spider-Man took a miniscule double take at the fake creature’s cries. “Dude, you gave them voices?! That’s so cool, but so messed up at the same time. Aw jeez, now I can’t just destroy them, they have personalities and stuff. Hey, did you-”
“Enough!” Mysterio boomed, fed up with his enemy’s spillage of words. He hoisted himself into the air with the use of his specially made propeller boots. He sprayed a mist out of his gloves, and when it hit Spidey he started swaying. “As I said before: I am going to rid the world of you. Now, sleep.”
Spider-Man continued swaying, his vision going blurry. “You know Fishbowl”, he slurred. “I jus’... juz my...” The next moment he’d toppled over, unconscious on the floor. Mysterio evilly laughed.
“Yes. Now, now I can be rid of y-”
WAP!
Mysterio’s helmet shattered, the glass flying everywhere. The villain stumbled back from the hit, looking in shock at his surprise attacker. The redhead Mary Jane gave the illusionist a hard glare, raising the metallic bat threateningly.
She moved over to Spider-Man’s body, only half-noticing the three little robots tapping their heads against him, making fake, little chewing noises. Ignoring that for the time being she returned to staring down Mysterio. “Not so fast, pal. I won’t let you kill Spidey.”
Rubbing his face, the villain gave a furious scowl at the blood that was on his face, courtesy of the hard bat hit. “Stupid, idiot girl! Get out of the way or I’ll kill you too!”
When he stepped closer Mary Jane faked a swing. When he flinched back, she gave a sharp grin. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. No more tricks, huh?”
Mysterio balled his fists at his sides, gritting his teeth. “Well, there is one every person has.” He then lunged forward, harshly hitting at MJ. She grunted as she was pushed back, toppling over Spider-Man’s body. She gave a mental apology. When she looked up again she saw the triumphant expression on the villain’s face. “Clever, isn’t it?”
Mary Jane just whimpered slightly. At the hard pang in the back of her head, she realised her fall had been more impactful than she thought. Despite it all, she still managed to speak up. “So now you’re going to kill a kid, huh?”
At the accusation, the man seemed to pause, a strange look decorating his face. MJ didn’t wait to see his decision though, throwing all caution to the wind and thrusting out her feet as hard as she could. The kicks connected, making Mysterio stumble and giving the girl a chance to get up. She quickly scrambled up onto her feet, then dashed across the area.
“Ugh, come back here!” Mysterio roared, waving the bat around like crazy, trying to catch up to the redhead and beat her. It was only after once he’d skid a corner he realised he’d been played.
He slid across the floor, realising too late that the floor was slick with liquid mess. Mysterio scrambled to right himself, ending up falling over. He groaned as his back slapped the floor, then looked over just in time to see the girl running back to their previous stage.
Mary Jane was close to sprinting the moment the illusionist had slipped over, moving herself back over to where Spider-Man lay. She wobbled into a stop beside him, shaking the webslinger’s arm furiously. “Come on, come on”, she pleaded, punching at his shoulder. “Get up, Spider-Man. Get up!”
Seeing that Mysterio was already getting back up MJ frantically looked around, settling on something that could hopefully help. She rushed over, grabbing a bottle then moved back next to Spidey. She then uncapped it, pouring the water inside over the hero’s face. Is this... waterboarding? Mary Jane found herself morbidly wondering, realising the mask would soak up almost all the water.
But it seemed her question wouldn’t require an answer, as the next moment Spider-Man had bent up, coughing for quite a few moments. He quickly recovered though, lightly pushing MJ to the side. “Sorry about this, MJ, but I’ve got to stop this guy”, he said on autopilot, swinging over to the quickly approaching Mysterio.
This time Spidey didn’t wait and hope Mysterio would decide to give up his scheme, instead going all in and slamming a swinging kick right into the villain’s face. He spun around, down onto one knee. As he went to get up, the webslinger shot out big wad of web onto his chest, the force sending him back and trapping him to the floor. Spider-Man let out a breath.
“Please stay down”, the hero drawled, starting to feel his adrenaline disappearing. “For both of us, man. It’ll just be easier.”
Mysterio tried a few more times to escape, but when his spider-enemy shot more webs onto his legs and arms, he let his head drop, drawing out a sigh. “You win for now, Spider-Man. But know I won’t be locked up for long. I will b-MMPH!”
Spider-Man gave a sigh of his own back, moving over to Mary Jane after throwing one last comment over his shoulder. “That’s enough fancy talk, Fishbowl. I’ll see you in a few weeks.” Done with the villain now that he was defeated, the wallcrawler went back near the red-headed teen, choosing to sit cross-legged next to her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine”, she answered, fiddling with something. Spidey looked down and realised it was Mysterio’s bat-bot thingies. Mary Jane gave him a soothing look. “These things are harmless. They were even pretend eating you earlier.”
The hero gave a surprise laugh, cutting himself off with a cough. “Interesting. Never been eaten by my enemies before.” He couldn’t help but grin under the mask at the girl’s quiet laugh. He waited a beat before speaking again. “I honestly can’t bring myself to destroy these little things. They’re sorta cute.”
Mary Jane nodded along. She realised they shared an odd sense of what ‘cute’ meant. “I uh, I actually named them.” MJ couldn’t help but blush at what she knew was a surprised look from the vigilante. She pointed out each one as she spoke; left to right. “I called this one Itty, that one Bitty... and this last one’s called Tom.”
Spidey looked at Tom. It looked back. Tom the bat-bot pointed at the hero’s symbol. “Eat the bug!”
The webslinger was just able to stifle a laugh. At a silent gesture he picked up the bots, surprised they didn’t fuss. Apparently Mysterio had made quite passive machines. He gave one last look to Mary Jane. “I have a place I can hide these little guys, but you should get outta here. I’ll make sure the cops get ol’ Fishbowl to the station.”
Mary Jane nodded her head, absentmindedly giving a small wave. “Okay, sounds good. See you around, Peter.” MJ froze, looking directly at the just-as-frozen hero. She gave an awkward smile. “Oops. Wasn’t supposed to say that.”
There was a very long and very awkward stretch of silence. It took a whole two minutes for Spidey to recover, looking at the redhead incredulously. “You knew?!”
Mary Jane shrugged. “Well... yeah? You’re not very good with secrets Peter.” At his hissed shushing she shrunk back a little. “Ah, sorry again. Wait- hey! You won’t even try to deny?”
Spider-Man slumped his shoulders. “Well what’s the point, MJ? You know I’m...” He leaned close, briefly whispering. “You know nerdy Peter Parker is also the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. How?”
The redhead have another shrug. “You called me my name in costume- Spider-Man shouldn’t know that- you don’t even try to hide your voice, and there’s also the times you show up with bruises or limps. And I doubted that you ever joined a fight club these last few months. And there’s one more thing.” MJ stuttered a little, blushing a bit as well as she finished her explanation. “I also kinda- basically saw you halfway through getting into the suit when I walked by once... I don’t think it’s smart to change in the alley in our street by the way.”
Peter huffed at the words, well and truly giving in now. “Damn. That’s embarrassing. Have you told anyone?”
Mary Jane gave a hard look at that. “Pete- Spidey, I’ve been your friend for ages now, you honestly think I’d sell you out that easily?”
“I- well... no. I don’t think you would”, Peter murmured after a sigh. He then brushed a hand over his masked head, moving the bots to one arm. He spoke again after. “Okay uh, we’ll-we’ll talk about this again later. But just get home...” Seeing his friend’s distant look he quickly added another option. “Or go to my place or something if you want. The cops will probably be another ten minutes then I’ll swing over.”
“Okay”, MJ agreed, nodding, before she stopped mid-step. “Wait, did you just make a pun?”
Spidey didn’t hold back a chuckle. “Yes. Prepare for them, now that we’re both in this.”
Mary Jane smiled to herself as she left the store. As she decided to head over to Peter’s house, she couldn’t help but think about all this. Since she had made Peter aware she knew what he secretly does, would anything change? Her grin turned wider, entertaining the idea of convincing him to let her help him somehow. She ran those last words of Peter’s through her head.
“We sure are in this together now, Pete. And I have a feeling it’s going to be amazing...”