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The earth begins to shake, tremble, and explode with cracks. Not the best place for a teenage girl. A huge metal robot appears from around the corner, and Michelle runs, covering her head, because now it will shoot.
He appears suddenly: in red and blue tights, swinging from a thin web, and without any fear of what is happening. He grabs Michelle by the waist and flees from the scene. Michelle clings tightly to his shoulders and hears some stupid: "Are you okay?" Oh, of course! It's just a robot attack after all. Of course, she's okay!
It's high and horrifying here, he takes her far, far away on that very thin web that does not inspire confidence at all. Something smashes against the neighboring house—a crumpled piece of iron that was once a car. It falls and rolls down to the sidewalk, and Michelle closes her eyes to keep her mind off it. Were there people there?
"MJ?"
She is silent. The bots are taking New York by storm, and at some point, it seems like a great idea for her to drop everything and move to the backwoods. Mechanical monsters don't wreak havoc there. There she won't be so frequently missing from the ground courtesy of Spider-Man.
Don't get her wrong. She appreciates the rescues but hates these flights.
"MJ, I need you to jump now."
Oh, that's right, Spider-Man isn't an Uber, he won't give you a ride home, he'll drop you off on any safe rooftop and rush off to save the world. Michelle looks down—it's still high up here. Why can't he just make an exception?
"I can't."
"You can."
And he just lets her go. Michelle screams, but lands on all fours. Her hands are torn with blood, and this isn't the worst thing that could have happened to her. She raises her head to yell something caustic at this bastard, but a huge robot launches Spider-Man right into the wall of a neighboring building.
Oh, so that's why he threw her off. The world is spinning around too fast. On one side, Thor flies and fights with the living machines, while on the other Wanda attacks with her magic. Against the background of them, Spider-Man seems so tiny. One-on-one with a killing machine.
Michelle hates heights and battles, but she grabs a twisted piece of iron, runs to the edge, launches it at the robot and even hits it.
"Take that!" Michelle blurts out.
And the robot lets Peter go, and turns its attention to Michelle. Oh no. She takes a step back, another step, and rushes to the exit from the roof. It grabs her before she has time to do anything, only not with iron paws, but with strong hands.
"What, have you become a superhero?" Peter asks. They're rushing back to God knows where on the web that Michelle hates.
"It's not my fault that you can't do your job!"
Peter just laughs, and this time he doesn't randomly throw her off anywhere. They are already far from the battle, and Michelle says:
"You can put me down."
"No"
"No?"
"No."
"You're in the middle of a battle, remember?"
"And you're also a girl who tries to fight robots with scrap metal. I'd rather miss a good fight than look for you in pieces later."
Michelle has nothing to object to. Of course, attacking robots wasn't the most brilliant idea, but she was scared for Peter! Even though he has gotten himself out of tougher scrapes than this.
He brings her straight to her house and gently puts her down on the asphalt.
"I have to run, otherwise Thor will be the hero of the day again."
Michelle nods, but grabs his arm, not letting him get away. Her scratched palms burn, but ignores it, squeezing his wrist tighter.
"My hero is definitely you," she whispers, lifting his mask up to his nose, and gently kissing him.
Peter grunts indignantly, and pulls away, "What are you doing? How am I supposed to leave now?" he asks mournfully
"Save the world and you'll get more," Michelle promises.
Peter immediately swings off into the air. "See you later!" the young hero shouts back with renewed vigor.
In the evening he comes back to her, exhausted and beaten, for kisses, but he's so tired that he immediately passes out on her bed. Michelle calls May and tells her that Peter will sleep at her place. Her parents had gone to the symposium anyway and May had never been opposed to Peter sleeping over at a friend's house.
Sometimes Michelle wonders: is it really going to be like this all the time? Battles and the eternally tired Peter, who can't find the time to go on dates: except to come to her house and collapse. Michelle pulls off his dirty suit and covers him with a blanket. Peter doesn't show signs of life until morning, but Michelle still can't sleep a wink.
Does she really want all this?
But when Peter wakes up in the morning, winces and gives a sleepy smile—he is the most charming guy in the world. And after she forces him into the shower, he even stops looking like a pig. And to top it all off, Peter volunteers to make breakfast.
Yes, maybe this is what Michelle wants. They're still only seventeen, so there's no point looking too far into the future. For now, they're just having fun and a good time together. Besides, her parents won't be here until tomorrow, and if no new villains show up, they still have a whole day ahead of them.