"Right, now that Twilight's not mad at me any more-" Peter said, stuffing the black mask into his pocket and taking out his phone, selecting M-J's number and hitting the dial icon.

The phone rang for several long seconds, those ticking by as the dial tone played before it went straight to voicemail, M-J's cutesy-message playing explaining her current predicament.

"Hey caller, this M-J, I can't come to the phone right now cause I'm either sleeping, working out or being a model, leave a message and I'll get back to ya, tootles!" the message said.

"Tootles?" Peter asked with a raised eyebrow "Right, I'm not putting this off or I'll never get to it, I'll try Cadance's company first and go somewhere else if she isn't there"

He stuffed his phone back into his pocket and sighed loudly, knowing he'd need to change back into his temporary suit.

"Why couldn't I get Ms Marvel's ability to just change her clothes into her suit?" Peter asked, dragging his fingers through his hair to thicken it up again "... Maybe I could ask her to fly me there?"

Deciding it was a bad idea to use an Avenger as a taxi service he ducked back into the alley he'd been in a few moments earlier and changed, swinging his backpack onto his shoulders and then swinging off into the city's skyline.

He made good time to Candy Co's HQ and, for the first time in his whole career, he didn't run into a burglary or a mugging that would sidetrack him.

He dropped down behind a dumpster and changed into his usual clothing, wearing the same outfit he always did like some kind of video game character, before heading into the building.

He looked around at the posters on the walls, seeing the famous models that had worked their and apparently their biggest contracts with magazines like Vogue and Playboy, though he did notice a distinct lack of pictures featuring Cadance, something that surprised him as many beautiful designers often liked to post their own modelling portraits and feats of sexiness.

"Can I help you?" a woman asked from the front desk, a woman with short blue hair and thick red glasses.

"Actually, yes, I'm a friend of Cadance's, my name's Peter Parker and I'm here to look for a friend of mine, Mary-Jane Watson, do you know her?" Peter asked.

"Is she one of the Marijuana Models?" she asked in a bored tone.

"The... the what?" Peter asked with a confused expression.

"The Marijuana Models, they're a group Cadance partnered with a few years ago, they're this big company that uses models and P.R meetings to try and convince the government to legalize marijuana, but they don't use their real names to avoid getting found, so they go by monikers like Hemp, Ganja and Green... and in case you didn't know Mary-Jane is also a slang term of marijuana" she explained.

"You know a few years back I wouldn't have believed that was a thing, but ever since by initiation into the glorious world of Subreddits nothing really seems that outlandish to me any more, but no, she's not part of the Marijuana Models, she's a fifteen year old girl, redhead, should be working directly under Cadance?"

"That's Princess Cadance" she corrected.

"Should be working directly under P-Cizzle?" Peter responded.

"Do I need to call security to have you removed?" she asked.

"If that gets me to see Cadance faster then sure, call them" Peter shrugged.

"No sir, they'll remove you from the building" she said in a droll tone.

"Look, I know how this secretary thing works, I had one in The Sims 3, so just use the button you've got on your phone that links directly to Cadance's office to tell her I'm here, and once she lets me up I'll stop bothering you" Peter said with a bored face.

"I'm afraid I don't have time, I'm busy working" she shrugged.

"Woman you are a lobby secretary" Peter growled impatiently "Doing what I'm asking you is your work!"

"Did the Sims teach you that?" she asked irritably.

"No... I think I learned about that one in one of Robert Ludlum's books, think it was the Janson Directive actually" Peter said "It's a good read, I'll lend you my copy if you want?"

The woman looked at him for a long moment before placing her finger down on a button and speaking into a microphone.

"Security, we have a small problem in the lobby, can you please take care of it?" she asked.

"I'm gathering you just called security on me?" Peter asked.

"You pressed a button?"

"Yup"

"And spoke into the microphone?"

"Indeed I did, you're pretty observant kid"

"So... in order to get rid of me, you just used the same amount of time it would've taken to do what I asked you" Peter said, his eye twitching in fury "And the thing I asked you to do was exactly what you just did!"

"Bingo" she winked.

Peter looked at her with pure disgust as a door opened off to the side and several men in black uniforms came out, but one of them was wearing a white shirt and blue tie, that matched his messy blue hair.

They walked over to him, Shining having not noticed Peter at the moment as he was staring at his phone, and one of them pointed at him.

"Is this the problem?" one of them asked in a deep voice.

"No, she is" Peter growled, pointing at the secretary.

Shining then recognized Peter's voice and looked up at him.

"Oh, hey Pete" he said, stuffing his phone away.

"Hey Shining" Peter said, the secretary's eyes widening in horror.

"You mean you... you know this kid?" she asked.

"Yup, he's a good friend of the family actually, goes to school with my little sister" Shining said before correcting himself "Well he would be if he hadn't kicked the shit out of the school's basketball team without taking a punch"

"Eh" Peter shrugged "Have you seen M-J anywhere?"

"Yeah, she was upstairs with Cadance badmouthing you last time I checked" Shining answered.

"Awesome, I'm kinda here to fix that" Peter nodded.

"Well good luck, I'll take you up there if you want" Shining said "The elevator's locked by fingerprints and iris scanners and won't work for anybody who isn't registered into our system"

"Really?" Peter asked.

"No, it's just that the buttons play different chiptunes when you press them and I like pressing them all on the way back down, it's why Cadance hates me coming to work to visit her" Shining said with a boyish grin.

"Right then" Peter said before he threw his arms up in the air as he ran towards the elevator "Chiptunes time!"

"Leedle leedle leedle le!" Shining called, following suit with his arms raised high.

Peter caught a glimpse of M-J's hair disappearing into a room as he exited the elevator and he hurried after her.

"Mary-Jane!" he called out to her, not sure whether she couldn't hear him or if she was just choosing to ignore him.

But deep down...

He knew the answer.

"M-J!" he called out, going through the door and finding himself in a gym filled with models.

He noticed many pairs of gorgeous eyes on him and his nerd instincts kicked in, partly due to being in a gym full of people who exercised and being surrounded by beautiful women.

"Uh, kid, this place is reserved for people who work here" one of the models said from somewhere in the room.

"Right then... am I allowed to talk to my friend for a few minutes?" Peter said, looking at Mary-Jane with a raised eyebrow.

Eyes went to Mary-Jane, who had her hands resting on her a weight rack, her own eyes focussing on the rack before she nodded her head.

"Sure Peter, I've got a few minutes to talk" Mary-Jane said, pushing herself up and walking over to him "What d'you need?"

"Can we talk outside for a few minutes?"

"Alright then" she nodded, following Peter out of the doorway and closing the door behind them.

"Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry" Peter began "I'm sorry I bailed out on you, sorry I left you on your own and I'm sorry I left you to explain it to J.J who, by some miracle of God, hasn't fired my dumb ass yet"

"Well... I will admit, I'm happy you're one of those guys who knows how he messed up" Mary-Jane said "But you're still not forgiven"

Peter's eyes dropped before Mary-Jane held up a finger, getting Peter's green eyes to meet her own green orbs.

"But, this is a good start" Mary-Jane said "And if you want to keep going then I want something from you"

"Uh... which is?" Peter asked.

"I want you to take me out on a date" she said, folding her arms.

Peter was taken aback by this request as it was something he'd not expected a girl to ask for when mad at somebody else.

"I... I thought you said you didn't date?" Peter asked.

"I don't, and still won't" she answered.

"But you just asked me to take you out on a-"

Another finger, this time pressed against Peter's lips, caused him to fall silent.

"I know that Tiger, but you won't be taking me out on a romantic date, you'll be doing my favourite two things a guy can do for me, the first being doing everything I say with no question to try and make me happy, and the second thing is spending money on me! So everybody wins!"

"No they don't, I lose money and don't get anything in return" Peter said "That means I lose Mary-Jane"

"But you get to rekindle our friendship..." she giggled before stepping a little closer to Peter "And if I really enjoy myself I might give you a little treat in return"

"Really?" Peter asked "Like what?"

"Mhmm, just wait and see Tiger" she said, tapping him on the nose with her index finger "So, you tell me what we're doing tonight, text or call, your choice, and then we'll meet up at wherever you pick at eight o'clock, that sound good to you?"

"Uh... yeah, sure" Peter nodded.

"And don't just pick something tacky, keep in mind that I'm a hard girl to please" Mary-Jane said, smiling for a second before heading back into the gym.

"Well... my first serious date in my entire life and it's gonna be one where I'm waiting hand and foot on my date, doing whatever she says whenever she says it just to avoid an argument" Peter said with a blank expression before his face lit up in rage "Is this gonna be a date or me living out my sixteenth year of marriage!?" Next Chapter: Let the Challenge Begin! Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 59 Minutes