Peter doesn't know what to do — how to react. The Vulture, the man who nearly killed him, is standing right there in front of him, and he doesn't know what to do.

He told Grace and Mr. Stark he'd leave it alone, for one, and trying to fight this guy now would only make things worse — especially if he doesn't even stop him and/or gets hurt trying. Even if could do that, he doesn't have his suit. He has practically nothing.

And then there's Ned.

Ned, who has liked Liz Allan for a whole year. Ned, who has been trying to ask her out for months now. Ned, who is so excited to finally be going out with her that Peter thought he would explode.

Ned, who's Peter's best friend and has been for years now, someone who's been with him and supported him through everything that's happened. Peter can't ruin this for him. He just can't.

Can he...?

"Peter?" he hears. It's The Vulture — Liz's dad. He's probably said it more than once.

Peter tries to smile, takes the man's outstretched man and shakes it. "H-Hi, sir. Sorry."

He laughs a little as he lets the boys in. "S'okay, son. You got a heck of a grip." He looks over his shoulder as he leads them into the kitchen. "You nervous or something? From what I understand, you're not on a date tonight."

Peter laughs a little bit, though it sounds nervous. "Yeah, th-that's true."

"She was very clear about that," Liz's dad laughs. When they enter the kitchen, Liz's mom is standing at the counter. She smiles when she sees them.

"Hi, Ned. Peter. You look boys very handsome."

Ned smiles. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Thank you," Peter says, eyeing the Vulture.

Liz's mom is still smiling. "Well, I'm gonna go get the girls."

She starts to walk off, but Ned awkwardly and nervously asks, "Um, could I, uh, use-use your bathroom really quick?"

Liz's mom smiles and points him to the bathroom, then heads upstairs, Ned sitting the corsage down before running off too, leaving Peter alone with the Vulture — a fact he is well aware of.

He squints at Peter. "You alright, Pete?"

Peter looks at him quickly, having previously made an effort not to look at him. "Ye-Yeah."

"Because you look pale," the Vulture continues. "You want something to drink? Like a bourbon or a scotch, something like that?"

Peter's eyes widen a little and he shakes his head. "I'm not old enough to drink."

The Vulture laughs, claps Peter on the shoulder. "That's the right answer."

A few moments later, Ned comes back out, grabbing the corsage again and sending a little smile to Peter — an 'I'm okay' sort of thing, even though Peter knows he's too nervous to be okay.

He goes to speak anyway, but then they hear voices coming from upstairs.

"Just a little bit!" Liz exclaims as if she's pleading with someone.

"No," a distinct, tired voice argues back. "Who am I trying to impress, anyway? It's just Peter."

Peter could almost smile as MJ unceremoniously clomps down the stairs, clad in a pretty purple and yellow dress and her black boots, her hair tied back as it usually is. It's very familiar, and it helps Peter in the crazy moment of everything being wrong. Liz's dad is the Vulture, he has a girlfriend that he isn't going to the dance with, and Ned isn't even wearing his hat. It's absolute madness. MJ, however — despite the dress — is just the same.

When she sees him, she makes a frowny face at him, another familiar thing, this time from detention. "Just so you know, I'm not dancing with you," she says by way of greeting.

"Trust me, I wasn't gonna ask," Peter replies, passing her her corsage. "You're cool and all, but..."

"Yeah, yeah, your 'homeschooled' girlfriend. Liz told me everything."

"Speaking of," Ned says, "where is she? — Liz?"

"Upstairs," MJ says, nodding her head back in that direction. "Probably reapplying lipstick for the fifteenth time in the past two minutes."

"I heard that." Everyone turns to the stairs, where Liz is gracefully walking down, wearing a simple, deep red dress and black heels. Her make-up is done, but it's simple, too. She looks at MJ. "At least I put some on."

Peter looks at Ned then, almost laughing at the awed expression on his face despite the situation.

"Wow," Liz's dad says. He looks at Liz's mom, walking in behind her. "Wow." Liz rolls her eyes playfully as she reaches everyone. Her dad looks back at her. "Don't you look beautiful."

Then, she really rolls her eyes. "Please don't embarrass me, Dad."

"Doesn't she, Ned?" Liz's dad asks, looking at him.

Ned nods, finally says, "Ye-Yeah, you look really... amazing."

"That's the right answer," Liz's dad repeats.

Ned still can only stand there and look at her, so Liz points to the box in Ned's hand. "Is that my corsage?"

Ned jumps a little and fumbles trying to open the box, and Peter hears Liz laugh. But he's looking at her dad — The Vulture. He's smiling, looking and acting just like a dad should but... it just doesn't make sense.

"Thanks," Liz says, and Peter turns. Ned's just put the corsage on Liz's wrist. MJ pretends to gag.

Then, Liz's dad clears his throat. "Well, hey, I'm your chauffeur, so, uh, let's get this show on the road."

His wife protests. "No, no, no, no, we have to take some pictures, babe."

"I don't wanna be late for my flight-"

"It'll just take a second," Liz's mom replies, gathering the four of them together, Ned and Liz getting closer than Peter and MJ, of course. They all smile — even MJ, though not fully. Liz's mom takes a few pictures, then politely asks to take one of just Liz and Ned. Peter and MJ get out of the shot, Peter looking back at The Vulture.

They make eye contact.

Peter's eyes widen, and he looks away. MJ gives him a weird look, but he says nothing.

"Okay," Liz's mom says, lowering her phone. "I'm done." She hugs Liz. "You kids have fun!"

"We will, Mom," Liz says. "Bye. Love you."

"Love you too."

Liz's dad kisses his wife goodbye, saying he'll see her in a couple days, then puts his coat on.

Then, they all head out the door, Liz's dad right behind Peter, Liz and Ned leading them all, and MJ behind the love birds. When they reach the car, Liz starts to get in the passenger side, but her dad says, "Hey, why don't you sit in the back with Ned and MJ? Save the front seat for my buddy Peter." He claps Peter on the shoulder again.

"Oh, th-that's alright," Peter stutters even as Liz gets in the back.

"No, no, you look sick; you don't need to be cramped in the back seat," The Vulture insists. And so, reluctantly, Peter gets in the front seat.

Liz and Ned talk in the backseat while MJ reads on her phone, leaning her head on the window to her left. Peter looks to his right, out his own window, his mind racing like the houses passing by.

Suddenly, Liz's dad asks, "What are you gonna do, Pete?"

Peter, surprised, turns to him. "What?"

"When you graduate, what do you think you're gonna do?" he elaborates.

Peter swallows, a thousand things flashing through his head — Spider-Man, college, Grace, all mixed together, all possible, all at once. "Oh, um, I don't know," he says.

Liz's dad glances in the rearview mirror. "What about you, Ned?"

"Don't grill him, Dad," Liz insists.

"Hey, I'm just saying, you know. All you guys who go to that school, you pretty much have your life planned out, right?"

"I-I mean, I'm just a sophomore," Ned stutters, "but, I don't know, engineering sounds cool. Or... psychology."

"Those are two very different things," MJ says, briefly looking up from her phone.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Ned asks.

"I'm getting a PhD, and I'm gonna be a research scientist."

The Vultures hums. "Seems like you're the only one without a plan, Pete; I know Liz's, of course."

"Peter has an internship with Tony Stark," MJ says flatly. "I don't think he has to worry."

The Vulture's brows raise. "Really? Stark?"

"Yep," MJ says absently, looking at her phone again.

"What do you do?" The Vulture asks Peter curiously.

Peter looks away again. "Yeah, actually, I-I don't intern for him anymore."

Liz and MJ look up. "Seriously?" MJ asks. Ned looks down uncomfortably, knowing exactly what happened.

Peter shrugs. "Yeah, it got, um... boring."

"It was boring?" Liz asks. "You got to hang out with Spider-Man."

This really piqued the Vulture's interest. "Really? Spider-Man? Wow. What's he like?"

"Yeah, he's nice." Peter's voice cracks, so he clears his throat. "Nice man. Solid dude."

"Hmm."

"Look, it's so cute," Liz says from the backseat, showing something to Ned on her phone. MJ is silent again.

After a moment, the Vulture says to Peter, "I've seen you around, right? I mean... somewhere. We've, uh, have we ever met? Because even the voice..."

"He does Academic Decathlon with all of us," Liz says, barely looking up from her phone, still showing Ned something.

"Oh," the Vulture.

"And he was at my party."

"Ah."

"It was a great party," Peter says nervously, "Really great, yeah. Beautiful house, a lot of... windows."

MJ snorts. "You were there for less than two seconds."

"That was- I was there longer than two seconds," Peter weakly argues.

Then, Liz pipes up again. "You disappeared."

"No, no. I did not disappear."

"Yes, you did. You disappeared like you always do. Like you did in D.C. too. You left Ned."

The Vulture looks over at Peter as he stops at a stoplight. "That's terrible, what happened down there in D.C., though. Were you scared?"

Peter swallows again, only nods.

"I'll bet you were glad when your old pal Spider-Man showed up in the elevator, though, huh?"

Peter shakes his head a little. "Yeah, well, I-I actually didn't go up. I saw it all from the ground." The Vulture looks at him, then back at the road when the light turns green. Peter shifts in seat. "Very lucky that he was there that day."

The Vulture smiles. "Good ole' Spider-Man."

Soon, they reach the school, the lights coming through the glass in the doors, other students dressed up and standing outside.

The Vulture stops the car. "Here we are. End of the line."

MJ opens the door and gets out, calling back a, "Thanks."

Liz leans forward, saying, "Thanks, Dad. Love you. Have a safe flight."

"Love you too, gumdrop. You and Ned head in there, have fun-" he looks at Ned "-but not too much fun, okay, son?"

Ned nods. "Okay. Got it. Thanks, Mr. Allan."

Ned gets out, then helps Liz out of the car. Peter's halfway out the door at that point, but The Vulture grabs his arm. "Let's let the lovebirds head on in there first, huh? Wouldn't want you third-wheeling or anything."

"But MJ-"

"She's already inside," he insists, sounding a bit angrier. "Give it a minute." He looks at Peter, who reluctantly, slowly gets back in the car and softly closes the door.

There's a long, uncomfortable silence, then the Vulture asks, "Who knows?

"Kn-Knows what?" Peter stutters.

"Don't play dumb with me, kid. Who knows? Does Liz?"

"N-No."

More silence then. "I bet Ned does, doesn't he?" Peter says nothing. He doesn't know what the right answer is — what's about to happen. His heart is racing.

He's scared.

"Peter," the Vulture says, "nothing is more important than family. You saved my daughter's life. I could never forget something like that. So, I'm gonna give you one chance. Okay?" He waits for Peter to say something, but Peter only looks at him, so he continues. "You walk through those doors, you forget any of this happened. And don't you ever, ever interfere with my business again. Because if you do, I'll kill you and everybody you love. I'll find that girlfriend of yours, wherever she is, and I'll kill her dead — and then you right after. That's what I'll do to protect my family. Do you understand?"

Peter looks away, feeling like he's gonna puke, and he nods. He needs to get out of here. He needs to go home. To see Grace. Something.

The Vulture continues. "Hey. I just saved your life. Now, what do you say?"

Peter looks back at him, fear coursing through him, but now something else. This man — this criminal —  has just threatened his life and the lives of everyone he loves. He's hurt people, nearly killed Peter himself, and now he wants Peter to thank him?

How can he stay here?

How can he let that man go spread those dangerous weapons around, getting who knows how many people killed? How can he let something like that happen when he can do something about it — fancy suit or not? How can not go out there and protect the people he loves by taking this guy down for good?

Silently, slowly, he inches his phone out of his right pocket all the while gritting his teeth, forcing out a, "Thank you."

The Vulture smiles. "You're welcome. Now, you go in there and you have some fun, okay? And watch your friend with my daughter. He seems like a good kid, but you can never be too careful, you know."

Peter turns and gets out of the car, letting the phone slide to the floor of the car, face down. He closes the door behind him, then walks into the school as the Vulture drives off, and he doesn't look back.

He sees Liz and Nez dancing and laughing, MJ standing by, slightly amused but also looking around for Peter, wondering where he's disappeared to now. She spots him, and he walks over to her, no words coming out of his mouth.

"What?" she says. "You look like crap — more so than usual."

Peter opens his mouth, then closes it again, trying to word his apology. He looks up at her. "Listen, MJ, I'm so sorry, but I-"

"Have to go?" she finishes. "Yeah, I kinda expected that."

"I'm sorry," Peter repeats guiltily.

She shrugs. "I never wanted a friend to go with in the first place; that was all Liz's idea. This just makes my night even better."

Peter almost cracks a smile. "You know have no idea how happy I am to hear that." He turns to go, then adds, "If Ned asks where I went, tell him it was an emergency, okay?"

"Sure."

But MJ doesn't have to tell Ned anything. As Peter runs out, Ned sees him go, and he stops dancing. He knows what it is. How could he not?

"What's wrong?" Liz asks. She follows his line of sight. "Peter's leaving again?" She sees that MJ is perfectly fine with this development and decides to let it drop. She turns back to Ned. "Well... let's just have fun. Maybe he'll show back up."

Ned shakes his head. "He won't. I think I know what's going on. It's... It's gotta be bad. It's an emergency."

Liz looks crestfallen. "So now you're leaving too, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry," Ned says. "I... Peter's my best friend, and he needs help. I'm so sorry, Liz."

"I can't believe you would just..." she trails off, then sighs. "Just... Just go, Ned. Thanks for dancing with me for, like, five minutes."

"Trust me, I wouldn't be leaving if it wasn't important."

"Whatever," she mumbles, and at that point Ned knows there's nothing he can do to make her understand save telling her everything. And he doesn't have time.

Spider-Man needs his guy in the chair.