Ned blinked. "Um... why do you want Peter and I to go to Liz's aunt's wedding? A woman we never met before? When Peter is ridiculously grounded until the end of time?"

Michelle rolled her eyes. She pressed her phone harder to her cheek. She kept a watchful eye out for all the woman shuffling about in front of her. She slipped through the crowd and ducked to a corner, lowering her voice as she said, "Because I'm worried about Liz. Lately, she's been saying some dark, depressing things."

"Don't we all? I mean we are teenagers."

"No, not like the jokes. I mean some serious stuff." Michelle chewed on her lip. "She's sending me all these signals. I think she needs help. I think... I think she's going to do something today."

"And... you're asking me and Peter to...? What?" Ned's skepticism was going to be the death of him. Michelle was going to rip his throat out when she saw him.

She growled, "Because I know what you two do and if Liz does something then she's going to need your friggin' help!" 

Ned pulled the phone away from his ear. He shuddered and tried to focus. He had no idea what Michelle was talking about. He hoped that she wasn't talking about what he feared that she might be talking about. If she was talking about what he feared she might be talking about, he was, in no way, involved with her realization (and he hoped Peter would know that). But she might not be talking about what Ned was thinking about. She might be talking about something completely out of the blue and totally plausible, but who really knows what she was talking about?

Oh god, Ned just got a headache from all of that. Note to self: stop overthinking.

"Uh... I have no idea what you're talking about."

"For the love of god, Ned, if I don't see your stupid face and Peter's stupid face here in thirty minutes or less I will kill the both of you, got it?" She hung up before he could even respond.

Michelle took a deep breath and closed her eyes to regain herself. Act perfectly fine and everything will be perfectly fine. Okay, she can do this. She walked through the ladies to find Liz sitting in front of a mirror finishing her makeup.

Everything is fine.

Everything was not fine! Ned was scrambling to find a suit. He quickly got dressed in the appropriate attire because there was no way he was going to crash a wedding (a spot on his bucket list!) without looking the part. After a few minutes of struggling, he was yelling at his parents that he was going to hang out with Peter and he was out of the door.

Running in public with a suit does draw some attention to you. Ned panted as he made his way through the blocks of the city to Peter's apartment complex. He didn't live very far, but running was not one of Ned's strong suits- especially since he was in a suit.

He finally made it to Peter's building, only to be stuck in an elevator with a man who was also wearing a suit and completely out of breath. Once the elevator doors closed, Ned bent forward with his hands on his knees panting with everything in him.

The man next to him, through his breaths, laughed. "You too?"

"Ugh, man, you know it." Ned stood straight and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "So uh..." he said, eyeing the man, "what's your story?"

"I'm about to tell my girl that I love her and I'm going to propose to her."

Ned's mouth fell open slightly and he nodded his head. "Ah, I see. Cool, cool."

The man cocked his head to the side. "So, uh, you running to your girl?"

"Nah, I'm running to my man."

"Oh. That's cool, real cool." The man bobbed his head along, letting his eyes drift shut due to exhaustion. The elevator dinged and its door opened. The man said that it was his stop and Ned wished him luck on his love life. Ned waited for Peter's floor, the seventh floor, and bolted out.

Ned pounded on Peter's door relentlessly until he almost slammed his fist in Peter's face. "Whoa! Dude," Peter gasped, "what are you doing here? You know I'm grounded- geez! And why are you dressed like that?"

"Michelle invited us to her aunt's wedding, we have to come because she thinks that Liz is going to hurt herself, so bring your suit!"

Peter wasted no time running back into his apartment. Ned followed him, expecting to see May, but she appeared to be out (probably grocery shopping). Peter returned wearing his hero suit, not his dress suit. "I'm going through the window." Peter turned to leave before Ned cried out that he didn't know where the wedding was, so Peter stayed to get the address from Ned. Then, he was off, leaving Ned standing in his apartment.

After a long moment, Ned said, "Fuck."

He was not running again. He was going to take Peter's bike.

To say that Peter arrived in the nick of time was not an overstatement. He never thought Liz would ever do something like that, but thankfully Michelle was the hero of the day for telling Ned, and eventually telling Peter.

Then... Paradox was there. Just... just sitting there as if he didn't just watch Liz try to fall to her death. Blood boiled inside of Spider-Man. His jaw clenched as he faced Paradox. That was the last straw.

Paradox seemed to be in a joking attitude because he had said, "Hey Spider-ling, I am just so glad you made it to the party!"

"What the hell was that, Paradox?!" yelled Spider-Man. He stomped toward the anti-hero with fury in each step. "How can you just sit there?! How can you do nothing when people need you?! When Liz needed you?!"

"Peter, wait-" Liz began.

He ignored her and continued to scream at him, "How do you even call yourself a hero?! How can you live with yourself knowing that you let people get hurt and die? How could-?"

"-people love me still?" Paradox finished. He pushed himself from the ledge and sauntered over to Spider-Man. He extended his arms and shrugged his shoulders. "It's just appearances."

Liz tried harder to get Spider-Man's attention. She raced after him yelling, "Stop listening to him! Peter, he wants this-"

"Have you noticed that people are starting to hate you?" asked Paradox. "They blame you for that last bombing. You were the one who couldn't do a damn thing while I did all of the work. How unfair is that?" 

Spider-Man let out a cry. He surged forward and impulsively threw a fist at Paradox. The young man merely sidestepped his attack as if it was nothing. Paradox put his hands together in which his index fingers touched each other and his thumbs touched to form a triangle. He shoved his connected hands on Spider-Man's chest. A black energy shot him backward. Spider-Man tumbled and rolled until he slammed into the edge of the building.

Liz spun around to see Spider-Man collide. She couldn't stop him no matter how hard she tried. She turned back around to face Paradox. She saw as his eyes left Spider-Man's body and met hers. Liz began in a walk. She then accelerate to a jog, her heels clicking and clacking beneath her. She had no idea what she was doing besides giving Peter more time. She ran into Paradox and he held her waist, his eyes completely bewildered by her actions. "What are you-?" he began and she pressed her lips against his, backing him up to the edge before she pushed him over.

Inside, she knew she wasn't killing him. He would find a way to find a stupid little shadow to escape. As she peered over the edge, she saw just that. He was gone as soon as he touched the ground.

Liz released a heavy breath. She backed away and held a hand over her chest. She turned around to see Spider-Man picking himself up, staring at her.

Oh boy.

"Y-You kissed him?!" He yelped once he got back on his feet. "Why the heck did you kiss him? He's, like, evil! And, like, thirty for all we know!"

"Because I had to save your ass before he got into your head!" She ran over to him, her eyes searching his body to see if he was hurt. "You're okay, right, Peter?"


It was like he heard his name for the very first time. Trying to disguise his voice, he lowered it to a deeper one. "P-Peter? Who is Peter? I'm not-"

"Peter, I know, so please don't with the act."

"Aw man," he whined.

Ned made it to the rooftop of the wedding drenched in sweat. The kid was dead-beat tired. A massive group of people had crowded and were all pointing to another rooftop where there was no mistake in identifying Spider-Man and Liz. Ned found Michelle and pulled her arm. "We're... here..."


"I noticed," she said. "Liz tried to jump off the building but Spider-Man saved her."

"Oh thank lord Jesus."

Spider-Man swung over to the wedding venue with Liz before he had to quickly leave the scene. A few minutes later, Peter arrived wearing a suit, sneaking up before Ned and Michelle. Ned got spooked, but Michelle rolled her eyes with her arms crossed. Liz saw the gang between the spaces of a swarm of her family. She excused herself and pushed through to be with her friends.

The four of them huddled into a corner.

Michelle sighed, "Someone called the police and they're bringing an ambulance to take you to the hospital."

Liz blinked rapidly. "The hospital? Why? I'm completely fine!"

Ned scratched the back of his neck, his nerves have been going over the edge lately. "Um... you did just try to jump off of a building and ya' know... die."

Liz protested, "I didn't jump. It was more like a graceful lean."

"Well, you're going to gracefully lean your ass into a psych ward, but it's whatever, you know?" Peter hit Michelle's arm. She dramatically winced at his action, but she clamped her mouth shut, realizing how insensitive she must have sounded. Like always.

Even though it was Liz who "attempted" death, Peter was the one who looked like a ghost. He was incredibly pale and he had worked up a sweat on his brow. He kept wiping it away with his sleeve, but the others could tell. Peter's mouth twitched and he angrily slammed his fist into a wall. He half-expected to have accidentally create a dent, but he managed to control himself enough to not show off his powers. "I can't believe Paradox did this," he growled.

"Wait a second, Paradox was here?" Ned gasped. "And he did what?"

Peter, exasperatedly, threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "He just did nothing! He let Liz fall! He wanted her to die!"

Liz squirmed uncomfortably. She rubbed her arms and held her head low. "Actually... I don't think he did want me to die. He showed up the day I came back to Queens and he's been... he's been watching me. He wanted me to invite you guys so you could see. He wanted me to jump so you could save me."

Peter narrowed his eyes. "You have to tell me everything about him."

Before she could, however, two police officers walked up behind the gang. They asked for Liz and she had no choice but to follow them with her worried mother in tow. They led her back downstairs and to the ambulance that was parked outside in the front.

Michelle, Peter, and Ned didn't stick around long enough to see if the wedding was still on or not. They decided that they needed to know what exactly happened with Liz and with Paradox. Michelle phoned her father to drive them to the hospital and the three of them sat in the backseat. They were awkwardly silent, unsure of what to say exactly. Peter and Ned weren't going to mention Spider-Man to Michelle, there was no way. But they knew Michelle was holding back too.

Finally, after that tense drive to the hospital, the gang sat in the waiting room until they were able to visit Liz. Just as they walked in, Liz's mother walked out with tears streaming her face, completely delusional to what happened. They side-stepped to avoid getting run over by the emotional woman and stepped inside Liz's hospital room.

For some reason, Peter was expecting to see Liz with her wrists and her ankles tied down to the bed to protect herself and others like he'd seen in the movies whenever there was an unstable mentally ill patient. It was a stupid thought because Liz was perfectly normal. That was what her doctor was so confused about. There is literally nothing wrong with her. She wasn't suicidal. She posed no harm to herself or others.

But boy, was she annoyed.

Her jaw was clenched and as her doctor was speaking to her, Peter swore he saw her roll her eyes to the back of her head. She pursed her lips as her doctor finished speaking with her and left the hospital room. Liz perked up when her friends arrived, pushing herself up to an upright sitting position. "Hey guys," she said.

"Did they drill a hole into your head?" Michelle was quick with the icebreakers. She went to Liz's bedside first and plopped herself in a chair ungracefully. Michelle pulled on a lazy smile, while she kicked back and relaxed, "Did it hurt?"

"Oh, definitely," Liz joked, smiling as well, "I can see the fifth dimension now. I'm all-knowing."

"Speaking of all-knowing, Liz," Ned shifted closer to the bed. He gripped the edge of it to steady himself, "what exactly happened? Are you okay?"

Liz's smile faded. She wasn't okay. She played with her hair by twirling it on her finger absentmindedly before she could work up the courage to speak. "He wanted to break you, Peter," she said softly. "Because he thinks you love me."

Well, the tension in that room got... intense. Ned quickly ducked his head low to avoid seeing the awkwardness unfold in front of him. Michelle frowned in confusion, her eyes blinking like that hilarious gif of that confused white guy- so funny. She glanced over to Peter, who was a still as a rock. He couldn't move.

Okay, sure, Peter might have been madly in love with Liz before the whole Homecoming fiasco, before he sent her dad to jail (which doesn't score well with the ladies) and before she moved away. He had come to his own terms that he was okay. He was fine. He was over someone he never even dated.

But the funny thing about it all? The only thing he could think of was Paradox has the wrong girl.

Peter was just about to explode. Yep. There was something absolutely off in his mind. There was no way, no possible way that he could have those deep dark "love" feelings for Michelle. Well, she was pretty cute and pretty smart in her own way that Peter never knew he admired, but that doesn't mean he was in love with her! Oh god, what if he had an actual crush on her and it escalated like it did with Liz?

"Peter!" Michelle snapped her fingers repeatedly. "Stop zoning out, asshat!"

Yeah, he's definitely not in love with her. No way.

Fortunately for him, Peter was saved from sounding completely stupid when Ned spoke instead. "So this is a bad guy that knows who Peter is," he stated. " We have to even the playing field. We have to know who Paradox is."

"His first name is Nico. He didn't say his last name though," admitted Liz.

Now that was some progress. Peter had a name for the villain at least. It was something. All three kids edged closer to the hospital bed, gearing up for some juicy details that Liz was going to release. She swallowed, recollecting the things she learned out loud. "He's... romantic, thorough... idealistic. He's pretty strange. I think that he's incredibly smart but he's heartless. He doesn't care about people... but I think he cares about me."

Ned lifted a skeptical brow. "But he tried to kill you," he deadpanned.

"Well, he also kissed me and asked if I was okay. He has some qualities of a sociopath, I think, and sociopaths can kill people that they love on purpose or on accident."

"What's his deal with falling from buildings though?" Ned wondered. "Is that like a kink or something?" 

Everyone just stared at him. 

"Never mind." 

Michelle rubbed her chin with her thumb and index finger like she was plotting something mischievous. "Do you know what he believes in? Like all the little things, Liz- think."

Another deep breath. Liz lifted her head to the ceiling where she stared at the roof for a few moments before she could answer. "He likes to keep his word," she said, "It's like a rule or a law. He was upset that I didn't recognize him as Paradox when I met him so that must mean-"

"-his image is important," Michelle offered.

Liz nodded. "Yeah, exactly. And instead of like teaming up with Spider-Man, he wants to ruin Spider-Man's image-"

"-so he would look like the better hero to New York. The only hero."

The gravity sunk with each one of them. They weren't sure what being the only hero meant. Was Paradox planning to ruin every hero's image, or was he more sinister than that? Did he want to break each hero by hurting their loved ones? Did he want to kill every hero that stood in his way?

Just then, Liz's mother walked into the room with her tears all dried up and wiped away. "Okay, kids, I think it's time for you guys to go home so Liz can get some rest." The gang didn't press her for a longer time to speak with Liz. She was already broken enough and asking for more would be way out of bounds.

Reluctantly, they left the hospital room. Their feet dragged along the white tile floors, prolonging their stay so they wouldn't have to step out of the hospital doors. If they did that, then everything was a reality.

Peter lagged behind. He grabbed Ned's sleeve and pulled him back with him so they can walk and talk together without Michelle. "What are we supposed to do with Paradox?" he asked. "He's way more stronger than me. I stand no chance."

"Plus if you fight him, the people will absolutely hate you more than they already do." Ned sighed, "I'm trying my best to support you in my Spider-Man blog, but there's an influx of anti-Spider-Man blogs and campaigns that are ruining everything."

Peter's mouth fell open. "Not the blog..."

"Yeah, the blog," pouted Ned.

"Hey, guys?" Michelle had stopped in front of the elevators. She had pressed the down button and sheltered herself in a tight hug. She was shivering, but she definitely wasn't going to mention it. "My dad can take us all home, and we could get something to eat if you'd like."

"Oh yeah!" Ned's spirits were instantly lifted. Whenever he was feeling down, the right food would perk him right back up. "Sounds good, MJ!"

Michelle pulled on a small smile. "Okay." She glanced over to Peter. "Pete?"

"Uh... I don't think I can. I have to call May to check in. She won't be very happy that I'm calling from the hospital though... or that I left the house because I'm grounded." He laughed to himself as he pulled out his phone from his pocket. He quickly called his aunt May and explained the situation in hushed whispers while she screamed on the other line for him to go home.

After that messy phone call, the gang was ready to go. The elevator arrived and Ned was the first one inside. He pressed the ground floor button and flopped his arms to his sides. He waited for Michelle and Peter to step inside, but Michelle stopped Peter from entering by pulling his sleeve.

"Go on down, Ned," Michelle said. "I have to talk to Peter for a second."

"But-" The doors were already closing and Ned was gone.

Michelle let Peter go and he hoped that she couldn't hear his heart pounding against his chest. They hadn't been alone since he snuck into her bedroom and... yeah. That was a weird time. He didn't know if he was supposed to speak first, and if so, what about.

Peter noticed that she was still shivering. He couldn't just ignore it like she could. He shrugged off his jacket, much to Michelle's peril. "What are you doing?" she asked as he stepped toward her.

"Making sure you don't freeze to death." He draped the suit jacket over her to wear and stepped back. Wow, she really looked great. He didn't have enough time to admire her earlier at the wedding. She had a lovely green dress that fitted her like it was made just for her. And with Peter's suit jacket on? She was a knockout.

He couldn't stop blushing when Michelle reluctantly slipped her arms through the sleeves.

Michelle was that icebreaker alright. "Why couldn't you just tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Peter hoped that this wasn't the talk that he was dreading to have. He never wanted to have this talk ever again.

She scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "For Christ's sake, stop acting like you don't know, Parker."

She was right. The time for denial was over. He never thought he would be telling Michelle his biggest, darkest secret: his alternate identity, but there they were. Peter swallowed hard and he felt his chest cave in. "I-I just... couldn't. I wasn't allowed to. Ned found out by mistake, I still don't know how Liz knows, but when my aunt found out, she was going to kill me. Plus like, the more people know, the more danger they are in."

"I knew. I had suspicions the entire time, but I knew, Peter." Michelle shuddered, but Peter knew it wasn't from being cold. She shook her head, her jaw trembling. Peter heard her voice crack, her walls being fractured at that moment. Her eyes brimmed with tears. "The worst part," she said, "was the exclusion. Like as if I couldn't be more alone already."

"But we weren't friends then-" Peter tried to say.

"God, you're so stupid!" She yelled. She stormed up to him and snatched his collar in her fists. "You're so stupid! I-we- had to be- we were something, damn it! I'm not good with the whole feelings thing, but I know that you and Ned and Liz are the only people- the only friends- that I have. How could you not see that?"

"I'm not good either!" Peter stressed. "I-I don't know what to do at all, ever! But..." He locked eyes with her. Unwavering, unmoving. He suddenly felt relieved, despite everything. "But we're friends now, right? You know now. There are no more secrets or lying and you're included in everything. You're not alone anymore, okay? You have us. You have me."

Michelle's lip trembled. She unclenched his collar, wrinkling it in the process. She hurriedly wiped her eyes with Peter's jacket's sleeve. She stepped backward to press her knuckle on the down elevator option and the elevator doors dinged opened instantly.

They stepped inside, silent as ever until the doors shut. Suddenly, Peter found himself pushed against the wall of the elevator as Michelle was on him. The moment that her lips were on his, his mind went blank. He swore there was some tongue action going on in there, but he wasn't complaining. In fact, his mind was screaming HOLY SHIT!

Michelle had him pushed against the door with her hands on his shoulders. She leaned completely on him and so Peter wrapped her in his arms. As the elevator traveled floors, Peter felt dizzier and dizzier. Michelle pulled away, stepping backward and she dusted her dress off as if she got it dirty or wrinkled- which she didn't.

"What was... what- that?" Peter blinked. "What was that for?"

"My friend almost died today, a super-powered villain is after my other friend and I'm just processing my feelings, Parker." Michelle sighed, "Keep up."

Peter figured that he never could.

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Why is it... so hard... to write...???? Like I think I am going to speed this up than I originally planned so expect a whirlwind of shit coming up. Good and bad.