Michelle ran down the steps that led to Flash's house while Peter chose a quick way down and bounded over the steps. He landed slightly in front of her and kept running beside her. They hurried down the street, both of them looking over their shoulders to see if they were going to get caught. In the distance, they saw Flash run out of his own home, mystified and looking all around to find the culprits. "Hey!" yelled Flash when he spotted the two down the shout. He lifted his legs to run. "Get back here asswipes!"

"Hey!" yelled Flash when he spotted the two down the shout. He lifted his legs to run. "Get back here, asswipes!"

But Flash was no flash. He panted and stopped not that far from his home. He leaned over with his hands on his knees while he took deep breaths. "I'll-" he panted, "-I'll kill you!"

Peter and Michelle made it around the corner of the street before they finally slowed. Peter grabbed onto a stop sign while he searched for any sign of Flash. Michelle's chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. Michelle narrowed her eyes at him. "Dude... how are you... not panting? I never... ran this hard since... I was late to Pride Parade."

He decided that the coast was clear and faced Michelle again. She looked different. Her hair was windblown and slightly messier but... her crown! It was gone. "You dropped your crown!"

"Really?" Michelle touched the top of her head. "Oh well, it's gone. And so are we, let's go!"

"W-Where are we going?"

She pointed down the block. "To go scare some kids. Did you forget?"

"Oh, right." They began the walk down the street but the fact that Michelle was without her crown bothered him. He began to ponder: what if Flash finds her crown and traces it back to her? He couldn't stand idly by while Michelle got blasted by Flash.

He stopped. Michelle raised her eyebrow at him. "On second thought," he said, "hang on." Peter spun on his heels and ran back the way they had come from.

Michelle, already tuckered out from their journey, couldn't bring her legs to move after him. "Peter! Where the hell are you going?!"

Peter jogged down the sidewalk, keeping his eyes open for the golden crown that fell off of Michelle's head. He saw the crown behind a bush because of its shining golden hue. It must have rolled there after it fell.

Without really thinking, Peter stuck his arm out and shot thin webbing that pierced through the bush to grasp the crowd. He pulled back and the crown flew into his hands.

Peter's sticky web wrapped all over the crown.

"Oh geez!" Peter panicked. He tried to pull the webbing off but it clung onto the crown like a magnet. The webbing would dissolve in an hour. Great.

Peter placed the crown in the bush since he couldn't return it back to Michelle. It was already bad enough he was dressed as Spider-Man, no need to be even more obvious than he had to be.

Dejected, Peter walked back to where he left Michelle, but not before he passed a girl and her teenaged sister trick or treating. The little girl wore the sleeping beauty princess costume with the same crown Michelle had.

They walked past him before Peter had noticed them. He skidded on his heels and spun around, almost losing his balance in the process. "Excuse me? Princess?" Peter waved at the little girl. She turned and looked at him. "Hi, there! Wow, you're really pretty."

She smiled, exposing a few missing teeth. "Thank you!"

"I was wondering if you could help my friend out since you're a princess?"

The girl's older sister pursed her lips. She glanced between the two of them, unsure what to think of the exchange. The small girl lifted her head with dignity. "Anything for my loyal subjects!"

"My friend is a queen of a faraway kingdom," Peter said, making it up on the spot. He lowered himself to a crouch as he spoke to her so that they could be eye level. "And a horrible thief came into the castle and stole her crown!"

The girl gasped. "Oh no! Not the crown!"

Peter gravely nodded. "Yes, the crown," he said regrettably. "The queen is really sad since the crown was so pretty. So, princess, your crown was special magic that can make the queen happy again. I was wondering if you could give it to me so I can give it to her royal majesty?"

She pulled her face together. Her teeth chewed on her bottom lip and she huffed. But the girl gave in. "Okay, I will give the queen my crown." She reached for the top of her head to pluck the crown. She held it out. "I, Princess Marie, grant Spider-Man my crown."

Peter gingerly held the crown in his hands and offered her a smile. "The queen thanks you."

The little girl's older sister ruffled her hair, proud to see that she was willing to share. Although she looked at Peter in confusion, Peter decided it might be best to get out of there very quickly. He ran further down the street to meet up with Michelle, all the while thanking the girl for her crown.

Finally, he spotted her where he had left her. Michelle leaned against the stop sign and stared at the small device in her hands, her phone. She glanced up when she heard Peter's footsteps and tucked away her phone. "Dude," she sighed, "what gives?"

Peter waved the crown in the air. He declared, "I got it! I got it!" He stepped closer to her to place the crown on the top of her head when she slowly dipped forward. "There."

"Thanks, but you didn't have to do that. That's so extra."

"Eh," Peter shrugged. "Can't scare the kids properly without the right getup, right?"

Michelle touched the crown, lifting the corner her lip as she did so. Her eyes fell back to him and she suppressed her slightest smile. "Let's do this."

The plan was simple. They would go to a quiet house that left candy out for the kids to take themselves. Michelle would be frozen in her spot, as if she was part of the Halloween decoration while Peter would hide. The kids giggled and went to the front entrance of the houses. They would reach for the candy, only to have Michelle move and shriek at them. The kids screamed in terror and scampered backwards when Peter jumped out form his hiding spot (the bushes, the fence- you name it) and blocked their path. The kids fell to their bums and rushed to run away.

Before Michelle and Peter could have their good laugh, the owners of the house would storm outside to see what the fuss was about and the pair sprinted away before they could get caught.

They hit a few houses with that routine until Peter's phone vibrated. He blinked in surprise to see Karen as the caller ID. Peter stopped laughing to answer the phone. "Uh, h-hello?"

"Peter!" Karen sounded exactly as he remembered her. Silky, soothing, calm and warming. "I'm glad I could finally reach you via your cellular mobile device."

Peter had to act normal. It was normal to talk to A.I.s right? He glanced over to Michelle and she plopped a piece of candy in her mouth. She snagged two stashes of candy that some kids dropped while being terrorized. Good. She wasn't paying attention.

"Yeah, I'm glad too. What's up?"

"I recommend you wear your mask, Peter," Karen said, "because there is an attack at the-" she named a building that Peter didn't recognize. "And the police are stretched thin-"

Michelle interrupted, "Everything good, Parker?"

"Yeah! Of course!" Peter rushed, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Um... okay..."

"-so I would advise you to put on your mask so I can direct you to the building right away, Peter."

Tonight just took a turn for the worse. People were in danger and he was out scaring little kids? What kind of hero was he? Would Tony look at his actions and be ashamed?

Peter hung his head. He placed his hand on his hip and his hand shook slightly with the phone. If he was too late... that was on him. Peter had to leave. He had to leave Michelle.

He swallowed hard. "Okay," he said softly, his voice going out, "yeah, I'll be there."

The last phrase caused Michelle to look up at him with an eyebrow raised. She watched him as he hung up the phone and faced her. She deadpanned, "You're leaving."

Peter's shoulders fell and he drew a shaky breath. "Yeah. I am so sorry, MJ-"

"Nah," she waved her hand in dismissal. "It's cool."

Peter breathed a sigh of relief. He took a giant step toward her with his fingers intertwined with each other, looking much like a beggar. "Thank you so much for understanding, MJ. I had fun tonight. I gotta go."

"Yeah." Michelle's pursed lips morphed into a small smile.

Peter gave her one last smile before he ran off again for the second time that night. He didn't notice how her smile instantly fell and she brushed ahead her hair from her face. She turned and sulked further down the street, opening candy and eating the small pieces by herself.

Peter pulled out his mask and double checked that no one was around him in this neighborhood to see him. The street was dark and there were no kind walking around anymore, so the coast was clear. When he masked himself, instantly the world lit up blue with the mask's interface. Karen welcomed him. "Hello Peter, shall I set the destination?"

"Yes!" Spider-Man's web snagged a tree and he pulled himself in the air. He used the momentum to land on a roof of a house to make his way towards the attacked building. "Also, not to sound rude or anything, but how did you get my phone number?"

"Mr. Stark didn't tell you?"

Spider-Man hesitated. "Tell me... what?"

"Just in case there was an emergency such as this and you needed to be contacted if you weren't wearing your suit." She added, "Or if you find yourself in an awkward situation and you can call me and pretend to ignore someone and leave. That's what Mr. Stark said."

Spider-Man pulled his lips together. "Huh... smart. I'll probably use that to be honest."

Karen directed her further into the city to find the building she described under attack. Spider-Man could see the grey smoke boiling in the air, tarnishing the atmosphere. He drew closer to find a building leaning over in half. It had fallen, and since the building was tall enough, its length crossed the street and leaned against two smaller buildings. Chunks of the building fell into the street, but the street was crowded with pedestrians and cars, not to mention fumes of smoke and ash.

Karen notified Spider-Man. "There's no one left inside."

Well, shit. Spider-Man hoped he wasn't too late.

People first. Building later.

Spider-Man dropped down to the ground level, rolling until he came back up to his feet. He spotted some people sprawled about, parts of their bodies burned away. He slowly asked Karen, "What happened here?"

"I detect remnants of an explosion, Peter. Most of the residents inside are Muslim, so I think that it might be another terrorist attack."

"Oh no," he coughed, the thick and heavy air had already defiled his lungs.

He pulled a man to his feet. Half of his face was bleeding. Patches of skin exposed raw muscle mixed with dirt and grime. The man wailed in agony. "I got you," Spider-Man reassured as he led the man out of harm's way.

Spider-Man collected a few more people, and as he did so, the building became more and more unstable. He shot out webs at weak points to prolong its stability, but it wasn't enough to keep it from falling apart, piece by piece.

A girl shakily rose to her feet. She wore a costume. Spider-Man. She lifted up her mask over her head and she stared wide eyed at the crumbling building. Above her, a chunk fell and gravity pulled it towards her, to crush her. The girl calmly lifted her hand to presumably shoot web from her costume.

Spider-Man leapt to get behind her. He was far enough back so he wasn't standing directly behind the little girl. He struck out his arm and shot his web, throwing the piece of chunk away from her to slam against the crumbling building with a patchwork of webbing to secure it.

The girl spun around, suddenly breathless to see Spider-Man. He didn't think as he spoke, "Good job, kid."

Which caused his whole world to temporarily crash. Spider-Man got some serious déjà vu vibes from this one moment. He thought back to when he was ten and attending the Stark Expo with his uncle Ben and his aunt May. A legion of armored suits were attacking, and Peter, as young and stupid as he was, decided that he could stop them. He had an Iron Man mask and built his own arc repulser model and decided that he could take on an armored suit as if he was Iron Man. Peter faced death in the eyes and held his ground, only to find out that Iron Man blasted the armored suit behind him and said, "Nice work, kid."

Now he came full circle with this little girl.

Peter was so distracted that he couldn't get out in time when the building fell on top of him and the girl.