"I still can't believe we're going to Oscorp! Their experiments are on the bleeding edge!" Gwen was nerding out.
"I know, I can't wait to speak to Doctor Connors about his regenerative tissue research! If his experiments are perfected it could change people's lives!" Peter replied back.
"Really? I wanted to go to Luciel Holdings instead. That new unstable molecule mesh is crazy good." MJ said, giving me a side-ways glare.
I chuckled. "Sorry MJ. The Bio-nerds won this round." I said.
About a year and a half ago, I found MJ outside my front door, crying. She, Gwen, and Peter were all hanging out at Peter's house and Gwen and Peter started to discuss the recent discovery of some new chemical or whatever, which MJ couldn't follow. She hated being the stupidest one in the group, so she quickly ran away from them and ended up at my front door.
She confided in me about her lack of self-confidence when compared to Peter and Gwen's intelligence. In this world, she and Peter were never separated and she obviously loved him dearly, so she was self-consious about Gwen and him being smarter than her and didn't want to lose him if he thought she was dumb.
Teenagers are a pain, but I kinda understood where she was coming from. I gave her a glass of strawberry milk and a book called science for dummies and told her to give it a browsing. I said something to the effect of 'you may not be as smart as them in bio-chem, but maybe you're smarter somewhere else.'
Of course, the fact that I was a reality warper hadn't changed. The strawberry milk had the effect of doubling her IQ and giving her an interest in some STEM field at random. People just thought she was becoming smarter, or just cared more about her grades and studies, as she went through puberty and didn't question it, but I knew the truth. Now she was able to join the conversations with Peter and Gwen and her grades increased, so her confidence went back up. It turns out that the random STEM field I gave her was mechanical engineering. Gwen was a pure bio-chemist, and Peter was a mix of both, so it all worked out in the end.
"Just think of it this way, your boyfriend's happy, so you should be happy too, right?" Jean quipped from beside me.
"I guess... but you're definitely introducing me to Forge one of these days!" MJ said, giving me one final glare.
She was a fan of his since he was the lead engineer for all of the machines at my company.
I raised my hands in faux surrender. "All right, all right! I'll have Emma set it up later." I said, earning a satisfied nod from MJ.
"Let me get in on that!" Peter interrupted.
"Alright man, hey, there's Alex!" I waved him over as he got on the bus. "Yo, Alex!" I called out to him
"Hey, Damian, everyone," Alex said as he sat next to us.
Alex O'Hirn was the latest member of our nerd group. He was a fellow nerd like us. We kinda absorbed him into our click in middle school when we noticed he was always coming in second or third on the test boards. It took a bit of convincing, as he was kinda suspicious at first, but after a while, he opened up. He's almost as good at Chemistry as Gwen and on par with Peter, though Peter spends less time on chemistry than he otherwise would have and more on engineering due to MJ's influence.
"So, what are you excited about the most?" Gwen asked him.
"I'm looking forward to meeting Doctor Octavious! He's truly one of the most intelligent men of our time! He's a leader in chemistry, physics, engineering, and mutagenics!" Alex got started on his rant.
"I know right!?!" Peter jumped in.
I tuned out their nerdspeak and focused more on Sam and Jean. "So, how come you girls are going with? This trip is voluntary you know?" I asked.
These two didn't care much about the sciences, not that they weren't smart enough for it, it was just that they didn't see that as their career path.
"What did you think? The tour is only a half-day right?" Jean smiled mischievously.
"And the mall isn't far from Oscorp, right?" Sam, picking up on Jean's intentions, joined her in the sinister smile.
"Alright, alright. I'll take you girls shopping." I said resigning myself to the fate of carrying shopping bags and being their wallet.
I really didn't care much. It's not like they were only using me for my money or anything. Well, they were, but they weren't ONLY with me for my money, so I didn't mind acting out the boyfriend role, despite the fact we weren't officially dating.
The girls smiled happily and gave each other a high five as I rolled my eyes.
...
The Oscorp tour was rather boring if I'm being honest. Sure, the stuff they were talking about was revolutionary, and would greatly benefit the world's population, however, I also saw that most of the things being developed her weren't exactly cheap, meaning that normal people would probably never be able to afford the limb replacements or the disease cures.
Doctor Octavious' exhibit was probably the best. It turns out that he and his wife who works with him, walk around their lab with his four mechanical arms constantly. As a matter of fact, Rosalie was giving MJ and Peter an impromptu demonstration while Alex and Gwen grilled Otto about his side-project of mutagenics research.
I was knocked out of malaise when Peter called all of us to take a picture, as was his hobby. I smiled briefly, waiting for the moment to arrive while also sending out waves with my power to detect the spider. It appeared it was already on Peter as he lined us up for the shot. I smiled widely as the shutter of the digital camera, the newest model from Luciel Holdings that I got him for his birthday, closed with a satisfying 'snap' sound.
An idea popped into my mind the moment it did. Peter Parker as Spiderman is probably the best superhero ever. He's just a kid who happened to get superpowers in a freak accident, and always tries to do the right thing regardless of how much it screws up his life. I remembered the episode of the animated series where he visited a terminally ill fan of his in the hospital and played with him all night, eventually even revealing his secret identity to him.
That shit hit hard and came completely out of left field. No other superhero would do something like that. Maybe Superman or some versions of the Flash, but Superman is an almost invincible alien who'd do fine even if his identity was revealed and Reverse Flash would definitely kill the kid if he heard about the Flash's visit, so Flash might not even do it at all.
I also knew the current Peter Parker in front of me very well. While not exactly like his animated or comic book counterpart, he definitely would do something similar if in that same situation, so I decided to give him a little help on his way.
I changed the Spider to grant him a host of new powers. I boosted all of his standard abilities to the biological maximum, granting him a flat 10 times 'stat increase' as it were. I gave him bio webbing along with a mild psychic connection to them so he can make the different web constructs like web bombs and net shots. A Wolverine level of regeneration and a stinger like Kaine had. Finally, I granted him the Miles Morale's suite with the Stealth ability and Venom Blasts.
I smiled as I saw the sider sink its fangs into Peter, who winced.
"Are you, ok?" I was briefly drawn to Jean as she called out to me.
"Huh?" I asked her confused.
"You were smiling for a lot longer than just the picture and seemed to be zoning out." She commented.
"Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about something that's not important." I smiled a bit awkwardly.
"Gather around everyone! The tour is over and the security guard is going to have to see us out." The teacher called out from the other side of the room.
We all gathered and made our way through the halls and back to the entrance. When we go there, a lady at the front desk called out to our class.
"Ah, is there a Samantha Eve Wilkins, in your group?" She called out to us.
"Yeah, that's me!" Sam said, raining her hand.
"We found your wallet." the receptionist said, pulling out the pink-colored leather card holder.
Sam's face went red and she opened her purse, pursing through it quickly. After realizing that her wallet was, indeed, gone, she quickly walked over to the receptionist who looked mildly amused to see the teen, head down, and bright red, collecting her lost possession in front of the entire class.
When she finally got back to us, the teacher said we were free to go or to come back to the school on the bus. We were teenagers near the downtown mall. She seemingly knew that most of us would not be returning to school the rest of the day.
Jean and Sam came up to me, eyes looking expectantly. I rolled my eyes. "Yes. Yes. I remember, shopping it is." I said, to which Jean and Sam smiled widely.
"Still though, there's something I want to confirm. PETER! You ok?" I called out to him. He looked pale and was swaying from side to side.
MJ and Gwen were already with him. "He's just a bit sick. I think it was the hotdog earlier." MJ called back.
"You two going to take him home?" I asked.
"Yeah, I already called dad. He'll pick us up!" Gwen stated.
"Alright, stay safe!" I called back before turning back to Sam and Jean. "I guess its just the three of us today."
I stated. "Is Alex not going to come too?" Sam asked, looking around, but I noticed Alex already sneaking off when he heard me promise to take the girls shopping. Apparently, he didn't want to be a designated bag carrier either. Especially not for some girls who weren't even going to be in his harem.
"Nah, he snuck off already. Besides, you want him to ruin our date night?" I said back to her.
She smiled. "If its a date we're talking about, then I'm going to go all out!" She said, wrapping herself around my right arm.
"I'll take some of that action," Jean added, wrapping myself around my left.
I fake sighed. "My girlfriends are golddiggers!' I jokingly declared as if I were despairing.
The two of them both giggled as we walked away.
...
(3rd POV)
As Damian and his girls made their way to the mall for an 'exciting' shopping date, MJ and Gwen were carefully loading Peter into the backseat of Captain Stacy's car.
"he alright?" the Captain asked.
"I'm sure it's just food poisoning from eating a hotdog at 7 in the morning rather than breakfast." MJ quipped.
"H-hey. It was only a buck and its better than not eating at all." Peter tried to act sassy back but it felt as weak as he was.
Gwen shook her head. "Can you take us to his house?" She asked.
"On it." Captain Stacy said as he drove off.
As they were driving, Gwen suddenly flinched. "Ow!" She said, waving her hand around wildly.
A small blue and black dot flew away from her hand and landed on MJ's side of the car, but no one noticed.
"What's wrong?" Captain Stacy asked.
"Nothing, I think something just bit me, though." Gwen moaned as she shook her hand back and forth.
"Oh, sorry. pest control's been down at the station all day. We had a gnat problem in the garage. One of them might be in the car." He apologized.
"They really need to move you into the new station, dad!" Gwen pleaded.
"Haha. I know, sweety, but they still need someone to man the fort while the switch is ongoing." He said, scratching the back of his neck.
"That the new building from Luciel Holdings?" MJ asked.
"Yup. Ever since they bought out Damage Control, they've been going on a tear, building up new infrastructure all throughout the city. New Fire Departments and Police Stations included. Its almost like they're preparing for something big to happen." Captain Stacy pondered aloud.
"Hmm..." MJ hummed in amusement, wondering what her friend was up to. "Ow!" She yelped, slapping the spider that bit her on the neck.
"Is it the gnat?" Gwen asked.
"No, it was a spider this time," MJ responded, brushing off the dead arachnid from her shoulder.
"Dad!" Gwen called to him with redness on her cheeks. Her dad's bug-infested car was embarrassing her in front of her friend and boyfriend.
"Hahaha. Sorry sweety, I promise I'll clean up the car when I get home today. Get all the bugs out." He chuckled, knowing full well he'd probably forget.
"I'll keep you to that then, but I'm feeling yucky after sitting here. MJ, is it ok if I shower at your place and maybe stay the night?" She asked.
"That's fine. It's my dad's and moms' university today, so they'll be back late." She said.
"Cool." Gwen finished as they arrived in front of Peter and MJ's place.
At this point, Peter was barely conscious and walked like a zombie up to his front door. He began fumbling around for his keys but in his hazy state of mind, he couldn't find them. MJ, who lived in the apartment across from him, noticed this and rolled her eyes.
"Peter, are you going to be ok?" She asked.
"I- uh.. don't have my keys." He admitted.
"Oh that's right, didn't he keep them in his backpack?" Gwen asked.
"Yeah...? Oh! We left our backpacks in our lockers at school... well it's fine. You can chill in my house until Aunt May and Uncle Ben get home." MJ stated as she guided them inside.
Both she and Gwen were starting to feel woozy by now too.
Somehow, they all made it to MJ's bedroom. Peter immediately collapsed onto the chair in the corner of the room and passed out. Gwen sat at MJ's desk and put her head down on the table, pushing aside a few sketches for a pressurized fluid shooter she was building for her and Peter's shared science fair project. After a groan, she too fell asleep.
MJ, seeing this, shook her head and lay down on her bed. "I guess that trip really wiped us all out huh?" She said to no one in particular before she too closed her eyes and surrendered to the coming tide of unconsciousness.
Bet you didn't expect 3 people to gain spider powers today!
I don't really know anything about Cindy Moon (Silk), so I decided that in this fic, she won't be featured, especially since Morlun is in the regular multiverse and not this isolated one to hunt her down.