Chapter 6: Coming Clean...
If there's one thing I've learned about Mary Jane Watson since she started to pursue me at the beginning of this year, it's that she's persistent and stubborn. She's like the classic definition of a fiery redhead, a spitfire who won't take no shit. It's attractive but annoying when your on the other side of it, I know that even if I stave her off today she'll remember. She'll remember and try to find evidence or catch me out, and who knows what trails she'll leave behind following me or gets someone's help. It would be better to just tell her, 'stop the leak' so to say.
"Mary Jane.. Your right, I do have powers.. but I'm not a mutant. A mutant is someone who has an activated X-gene, I don't know if I have it but what happened to me is definitely not mutant related." MJ narrows her eyes.
"So, your not gonna go crazy and become a terrorist like that weapon controlling dude?" She questions. "No MJ, I'm not. Plus mutants aren't crazy or evil or anything, they've just got something a little different in them and because of that get a bad wrap from the media and the facist government. And that terrorist dude you were talking about, his names Magneto and he doesn't control weapons, he controls magnetism which lets him control metal, which most guns are made of. He's actually one of the reasons that mutants get ostracised and feared." I finish informing her. I don't want a person I genuinely respect to have twisted views on something like this (Mutants), so it's best to set the record straight now.
MJ looks kinda ashamed for her previous assumption but I think she's glad that she knows now. "Thanks for telling me that Nick, I don't want to be a racist or anything, it's just that the media mostly shows negative incidents concerning the Mutants. Anyway I'm not bothered about that right now, I want to know about you, what's a 'Mutate Situation'?"
I take a moment to figure out my words. "A 'Mutate Situation' is what you call it when an otherwise normal person is affected by something or is in an accident which results in them gaining power. They are called a 'Mutate' as they are someone who would not gain powers naturally, technically Captain America is also a 'Mutate' as he was affected by a serum that enhanced him in ways he would not naturally have gained. There are also the mystically empowered, which are people who use magic or are empowered by a god or a totem of some kind, some people believe that there was an element of magic that was involved in Steve Rogers transformation but it's never been confirmed." I finish, it's better to just tell her stuff like this now so she doesn't ask me later.
"WAIT!" She suddenly starts. "What happened to you to gain your powers, you were in the utility closet with that blonde hussy and were only in the exhibition room for less than a minute before you ran out. How did you become a Mutate?" She caught on quite quickly, I guess there were some versions of MJ where she became a journalist instead of a Model, and even when she became a Model she eventually went into business and set up an organisation or even became Tony Stark's assistant in one reality taking Peppers role. Though I don't particularly like that reality because Tony Stark is a bigger arsehole than he usually is in it.
But what do I tell her though, if I tell her the actual version of events she's gonna know that Peter is Spider-Man in a few weeks and I don't want to do that. It could mess all sorts of stuff up, especially when he's just starting out and one slip up and he's dead. I think I'll tell her an altered version of the event. "Well after my little rendezvous with Gwen I went back to the exhibition, when I entered I noticed that there was a spider in my hand. I stopped and started to bring my hand closer to my face to get a good look at it because it was shining some weird psychosomatic colours. Unfortunately that's when you bumped into the back of me, and I jerked my hand towards my face and the spider came off of my hand..."
She looks intrigued. "Well, what happened then?" She questions, I smile at her. "The spider flew into the back of my mouth, the situation could still have been resolved then, but.. You asked why I had stopped and then you pushed me forward jostling the spider in my mouth and forcing me to swallow the spider. That's how the 'Mutate Situation' occurred..."
She looks at me bewildered and a bit guilty. "S-sorry about that. B-but y-you swallowed a spider and got super powers? H-how does that work? There must be loads of people who have swallowed and eaten spiders before, how come you got super powers from it?" It's not actually a bad question, she doesn't know that it was a radioactive spider.
"I believe that the exhibition we were visiting has something to do with that. If I remember correctly the exhibition was showing spiders and the boring scientist was explaining that they were doing experiments with radiation on them. I can only assume that the spider I swallowed was radioactive, I'm quite lucky to actually be alive!" I'm not going to tell her that those spiders were also being experiment on in a bid to create a super soldier serum, less complicated that way.
"Again, sorry but... Wow... So, you have some kind of spider powers now, how does that work?" She certainly doesn't waste any time. "I've just woken up Mary Jane, I haven't had time to see what kind of powers I've acquired. Though I have noticed that I'm stronger now and all my sense are dialled up to the wazoo, I'm sure that there is more discoveries to come. And as soon as I've tested and found my new abilities and there limits, I promise that you will be the first one I tell."
She actually brings up a good point, so far I've only tested my physical limitations. I haven't yet tried wall crawling or tested if I can spray webs out of my wrists (it's possible that this is a universe where Spider-Man has web powers). Also since I've been enhanced more than Peter, who knows what kind of abilities I have developed, I would actually quite like those stingers that he got in one of the comic books. If I recall it was something to do with becoming more animalistic and something called 'The Other' or something, I also recall Peter being killed by an inheritor and then coming back from the dead. These are spider powers which I could possibly have, I will have to take another week off of school to figure out my new abilities.
"So... Do you wanna get something to eat? I know a great pizza place, my treat." I question, I feel grateful for her taking care of me, I can at least buy her some food. "Yeah, that would be great!" She can at least try and look at least a little less excited. I put on a nearby shirt and grab my wallet of the counter while she puts her jackets on.
I walk towards the sore and open it for her. "What about Tony Stark then, is he a Mutate, he has that glowing blue thing in his chest?" Does the arc reactor in his chest affect him? "No, Ironman is just an arsehole with a lot of tech. The Ark Reactor in his chest is just there to keep his heart going and stop any the shrapnel in his chest from going near it."
She steps past me and out the door and I follow behind her. "You know who are Mutates though? The fantastic Four. They were hit by a cosmic wave that genetically altered their DNA and it's quite interesting because..."
We make our way down the path towards delicious pizza...
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