Peter, Mary Jane, Victor, and Natalie all arrived at the Ditko Student Center well after the after prom party had started. They had changed into more casual clothes, much more appropriate for a late night party atmosphere.
As they walked in, they were greeted by a few parent volunteers, Student Center employees, and a few law enforcement officials, in civilian clothes. Peter recognized one of them.
"Good evening, Captain Stacy," he said as he walked past. Victor and Natalie continued walking.
"Good evening, son. Do I know you?"
Peter stopped for a second. He forgot that most of his meetings with the police officer were as Spider-Man.
"Wait a minute," Mary Jane said. "I recognize you. You were the one my aunt and I talked to after that guy got into our house. You went with us, Peter."
"That's right," Peter added. "I've also seen you at some crime scenes I've photographed."
"Oh, yes, Peter Parker," George remembered. "Yes, I've seen your work in the paper. Excellent."
"Spider-Man speaks highly of you."
"You talk to Spider-Man?"
"Well, occasionally he gives me some tips that he likes to pass along to the paper. So, how did you manage to pull this all nighter?"
Captain Stacy sighed. "Apparently, when I volunteered to supervise my daughter's after prom party, I was actually volunteering for the entire eastern half of New York schools."
"Bummer," Peter replied. "Where does she go to school at?"
"Springdale," the captain answered. "And then she's off to Empire State in the fall."
"Hey, that's where we're going."
"I'll be sure to give her your name. It'd be nice to know someone can help her out."
A few minutes later, Peter and Mary Jane rejoined Victor and Natalie.
"Anything interesting?" Peter asked.
"Laser tag and a few other inflatable obstacle course-like things downstairs. Up here is mostly refreshments," Victor replied.
"Downstairs sounds cool," Peter said. "Wanna go down there?"
"I think we'll stay up here and mingle for a while."
"Okay. What about you, MJ?" Peter asked.
"Come on, tiger, let's get downstairs."
Peter laughed and followed.
"I'm going to get something to drink," Natalie said.
As the two walked to the refreshment table, they heard a familiar voice call out. "Hey, Victor!"
Natalie continued to the table as Victor stopped and turned to find Jason Todd walking up.
"Jason! How's it been going, man?" victor asked.
"It's been okay. Saw you at the prom, but could never get over to talk to you."
"Oh. Too bad. Who was your date?"
"Liz Allen."
"Liz, eh? Anything serious?"
"Nah. Just a friendly favor - on both our parts."
"Ah. So, how've you been doing?" Victor asked. "I haven't seen too much of you since that whole thing at the Crib with Intergang. And that was what? October?"
"Yeah," Jason answered sheepishly. "I laid kinda low for a while, make sure that no one was trying to finish the job. Then, I kinda withdrew a little. But hey, you haven't exactly been hanging out too much lately, either."
"True. I've been . . . preoccupied. A lot of school work. A few out of school things too."
"Hopefully, you'll find more time to hang out this month. After all, graduation is like six weeks away or something. And, you know what they say about graduation day . . . "
"It's the never the same after that for you and your friends."
"So, you'll be around?"
"Of course," Victor replied. "In fact, isn't senior skip day coming up soon?"
"First Friday of May. You doing anything?"
"I haven't really planned anything yet. Just get with a bunch of people and then go somewhere in the city. Or elsewhere."
"That's the attitude I like. Tell you what, we should get together, do something."
"Yeah, I'll get together with you sometime this week and we can make a meeting place."
"Cool," Jason said. He glanced at his watch. "Well, there's supposed to be another laser tag game starting shortly. I'm gonna go join in."
"Have fun."
"Thanks." Jason walked away.
As Peter and Mary Jane reached the bottom floor of the student center, Peter felt a tingling in the back of his head.
"MJ," he whispered. "Something's not right."
"How can you tell?"
"Spider-sense."
"Hey, guys!" Liz Allen exclaimed, coming up behind the couple.
"Ahh!" Peter jumped, startled by Liz's sudden appearance.
"Whoa, a little jumpy tonight?" Liz asked.
"I thought . . . you . . . it was something else," Peter replied. But my spider-sense is still buzzing. He grabbed his temples.
"You okay?" MJ asked.
"Just a little headache," Peter replied. "I'll be fine, but I should probably go find a place to sit down."
"Let me help you - "
"No. No reason you can't have fun tonight because I have a headache," Peter said, walking off.
"What's up with him?" Liz asked. "Walking away from a hot girl like you?"
"He's . . . That's just how he is," MJ replied. "When he's got a headache or something, he'd rather be alone."
"You need to break him of that habit, girl!"
"I'm trying."
Peter ducked into a darkened hallway, and after making sure no one was watching, changed into Spider-Man. His spider-sense was still buzzing. Danger was still imminent. He only hoped he would be able to find it in time.
The screams coming from downstairs announced danger's arrival.
"What's that?" Natalie asked, sitting up a little straighter.
"Sounds like screams, from downstairs," Victor said, standing up, ready to rush to the aid of his classmates.
Natalie grabbed his arm. "Wait. Don't go rushing into trouble until you know what it is."
"I'm just going down to look. More than likely, Peter's already taking care of it."
Victor ran over to the stairwell. It was hard to get downstairs with so many people rushing to get upstairs.
When he was finally able to reach the bottom floor, he saw a man hovering in the middle of the large room. His skin was golden, and so was his hair. He was simply dressed, in a black t-shirt and jeans. Victor was reminded of Doc Savage, except that this man gleamed.
Victor looked up and saw Spider-Man crawling on the ceiling.
"Hey, Gold Boy!" Spidey shouted.
The golden man looked up. Spidey shot webbing in his face.
But Spidey's cockiness turned to shock as he saw the webbing burn and melt away.
"Okay, I guess I can call you the Molten Man . . . "
Victor ran over to Mary Jane and Liz, who were both frozen in the corner of the room.
Spidey leapt off the ceiling to attack Molten Man, but one punch from Molten Man sent Spidey flying to the other end of the room.
Molten Man began walking towards the girls.
Victor grabbed their arms. "Come on, we gotta get out of here!"
"Wait . . . " Liz whispered.
"Now!" Victor exclaimed.
Before they could get too far, though, Molten Man caught up with them. Victor tried to shield the girls behind him, but Molten Man decked him, sending him to the floor. Victor passed out on impact. Mary Jane noticed the smoke coming from where Molten Man had made contact.
"Liz!" Molten Man exclaimed.
Tears were pouring out of Liz's eyes. "No, not now. Not here. Not like this!"
Spider-Man had recovered and leapt over Molten Man to stand between him and Liz. He began a series of punches to Molten Man's gut that started to stagger the attacker.
Molten Man finally fell to the ground. Just as Spidey was about to land one final punch that he hoped would knock his opponent out cold, he felt someone grab onto his arm.
"Liz, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted.
In the meantime, Molten Man stood up and stormed out of the building.
"Damn it, girl! You let him get away! What are you thinking?"
Liz was still crying. "He's . . . he's . . . my brother," she said softly.
Later . . .
Peter, Mary Jane, and Natalie were all standing around as Victor was wheeled out on a stretcher.
"I told him not to get hurt," Natalie said, wiping tears away. "Not to rush into trouble."
"He didn't," Mary Jane replied. "In fact, he was trying to get me and Liz away from it."
"Liz, that bitch," Natalie spat out. "If she hadn't been in the way, Victor wouldn't have gotten hurt, and Molten Man wouldn't have gotten away."
Peter sighed. "She had her reasons."
"The hell with her reasons!" Natalie exclaimed. "I don't care if that lunatic is her brother! If she was smart, she would have run away and let Spider-Man take care of it."
"It's not over, is it?" Mary Jane asked, turning to Peter.
Peter shook his head. "No. Molten Man will be back. The question is when."
"And how can Spider-Man possibly stop him? The webbing melted right off of his face."
"I don't know. I'll figure that out later. Right now, it's 2 in the morning, I've been up since 10 yesterday morning, and I just finished fighting some guy who can melt webbing that happens to be the brother of someone I go to school with. And here I thought my biggest problem would be having my sleep schedule completely ruined."
"We should go," Natalie said. "I can't stand to be here right now."
"I understand," Peter replied. "We can have the limo take us home."
"No, I'm going to Victor's house. His family probably has been contacted by now, but I should be with them."
"Sure . . . "
After Natalie had been dropped off at the Cranston home, MJ cuddled up next to Peter in the back of the limo.
"You know," she said, "we were planning to stay out all night. It'd be a shame to get home so early. Maybe we could find a nice secluded place somewhere . . . "
"MJ, I don't think we're ready - "
"Hey, I'm not talking about doing it. I'm just saying I want to be alone. With you."
"Oh. Where did you have in mind?"
"There's this place I know. Secluded. Romantic . . . "
Peter and Mary Jane sat on the grass, looking out over the lake. Peter had his arm around Mary Jane, who was laying her head against his shoulder.
"This is perfect . . . " she said.
"I hate to ruin the moment right here, but there something I need to ask you."
"What?"
"When I'm Spider-Man, and fighting the bad guys, what is going through your mind? Or when I realize that I have to jump into action?"
"I'm worried, usually. But most of the time, I'll know you'll be okay. I mean, you haven't had any major accidents as Spider-Man. And I always hate when we're together and you have to run off to go fight someone, but that's normal. I mean, any girl would hate to have her boyfriend run off on her for any reason. But I love you, Peter Parker. Now, just hold me . . . "
Several hours later, Peter woke up to find Mary Jane beside him, and both of them laying on the blanket they had set on the ground. He checked his watch. It read 7:30.
He gently shook Mary Jane. "MJ! Wake up!"
"Hmm?" MJ asked, groggily.
"It's 7:30. We have to get back home!"
There was a gentle knock on the door to the hospital room. Peter stuck his head in.
"Can we come in?" he asked.
"Sure," Natalie said, opening the door all the way for Peter and Mary Jane to come in.
Victor was sitting up in the bed. His grandfather and mother were sitting in the room. Natalie returned to the chair beside the bed.
"Hey, guys," Victor said. He sounded perfectly normal.
"How do you feel?" Peter asked.
"Okay. Except it hurts where he hit me."
"We brought you some gifts," Mary Jane said, handing Victor a small teddy bear she had bought in the gift shop.
"And, I, uh, got you this," Peter added, giving Victor a get well balloon. "It was the only thing I could find in the gift shop that, uh, well, I felt comfortable getting for another guy."
"I understand," Victor replied. "But it's great just to see you two up here. Doctors say I should be out of here by tomorrow."
"No major damage?" Peter asked.
"Just a minor burn, and a lot of bruising. That sucker hits hard."
"I know."
"How are you doing, Peter?" Lamont Cranston said, getting out of his chair.
"Fine, sir," Peter replied, shaking Lamont's hand.
"And you must be the lovely Mary Jane that I've heard these boys talk about," Lamont continued, looking at Mary Jane.
"Yes, sir," Mary Jane answered, blushing a bit.
"Well, we'll leave to kids alone to talk amongst yourselves."
"You don't have to leave," Peter said.
Lamont waved his hand. "I need to get a cup of coffee anyway."
Lamont and Mrs. Cranston left the room.
"Any word on Molten Man?" Victor asked.
Peter shook his head. "The only thing we know about him is that he's strong, he can burn stuff by touching, and he's Liz Allen's brother."
"We should probably question Liz."
Peter could see the look of disgust on Natalie's face when Liz's name was mentioned.
"I doubt she could tell us much of anything. She probably doesn't know more than we do."
"We still have to be on our guard," Victor said. "The Molten Man will return. And it will probably be at the worst possible time."
Next: Senior Skip Day!