Chapter 02 - Mary Jane

Luke sat on the edge of his bed. His life so far had not been easy. He had grown up in Queens, with few opportunities and almost no support. Being a mutant had only added more layers to his daily struggle. But now... everything had changed.

"I need to train," he muttered to himself.

Evolving was his only way out. He knew that if he didn't, he could be hunted or, worse, exterminated like so many other mutants.

Luke took a deep breath and stood up. The small apartment felt even more cramped now that he understood the potential dormant within him. He looked at the plastic stool again, and this time tried something different. He focused not only on moving it, but on feeling the gravity around him. As if every particle around him had its own weight, its own force of attraction.

For a brief moment, he felt something... a slight shift. The stool floated, not like before, hesitantly, but in a more gentle and controlled way. But after a few seconds, he fell heavily to the ground.

"This is tiring," Luke thought, running his hand over his damp forehead. His ability to control gravity was linked to his mental stamina. Every movement, every fluctuation, drained his energy, leaving him exhausted. But he couldn't stop now.

Suddenly, a loud knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Luke! Are you there?"

He recognized the voice immediately. It was Mary Jane, his next-door neighbor.

"I'm here, come in," Luke replied, trying to hide the tiredness in his voice.

Mary Jane opened the door, a seductive smile on her face.

"You look like hell!" Mary Jane commented when she saw Luke's face drenched in sweat.

"Training," Luke replied, shrugging. "I discovered something... big."

"Big?" Mary Jane asked, she looked down further, focusing on the crotch of her neighbor.

Luke hesitated for a moment. He noticed Mary Jane's eyes, but his hesitation comes from the fact that he knows about her and Spider-Man's relationship.

Mary Jane arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "What did you discover? Any new abilities? Because if it's something cool, I want to see it."

Luke was surprised for a few seconds, but remembering his predecessor's memories, he knew that this is the redheaded neighbor's personality.

Mary Jane always teases Luke, but she never went too far, she knows she won't get any advantage from the poor orphan.

Luke changed the subject: "What are you doing here?"

Mary Jane ignored the previous topic and remembered what she came for: "Aunt May sent for you, today is Peter's birthday."

"Oh... I didn't know."

Luke is new to the apartment, so he doesn't need to be charged with remembering his neighbors' birthdays, but Aunt May probably felt sorry for the orphan who lives below her apartment, so she invited him to the birthday dinner.

"I'm going to take a quick shower." Luke spoke, grabbing a towel and some clothes from the hanging.

Mary Jane interrupted Luke and patted him lightly on the shoulders. "Go ahead, let me choose the clothes you're going to wear!"

Luke didn't care and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

Mary Jane looked at the closet with some clothes and chose the newest ones, but even those newer ones had been bought for a while.

In the underwear section, Mary Jane chose a random pair and looked at it, it was big, but Mary Jane knows that Luke is thin, so a reason for the big underwear came to mind.

Mary Jane smiled and turned her gaze to the closed bathroom door.