Chapter 7

Waking up a few days later, Jax felt rested and at peace, as everything finally seemed to be going right in his new life, that is, until his mother called him down to the living room with a strange excitement in her voice.

Thinking the worst, Jax run downstairs in his boxers, prepared to kill anyone who threatened his mother, only to freeze once he reached the bottom step, shocked and embarrassed.

Standing next to his mother, who is trying not to laugh out loud, was a very red faced MJ, who fought between the options of looking down and looking away. MJ had already met Jada along with Jax a few days earlier, so she thought it was okay for them to walk to school that day, but she never expected this.

Though she imagined it many times, especially after their date, MJ never would've guessed that Jax looked so amazing without his clothes on. She made sure to burn the mental image in her head for later research.

"Boy, you are in front of a young lady, go put some clothes on!" Jada broke free from her laughter to be a responsible adult and take charge of the situation.

Jada has a policy to not wantonly just read peoples minds, unlike Jax, so she is currently unaware of all of the depraved things her son is being imagined to do in the teenage girl's mind.

After getting dressed and coming back down far more confidently, Jax walked up to MJ, gave her another kiss on the forehead and pulled her into a loving hug, making the poor girl nearly pass out from her heart beating so fast.

'Even in front of his mother?! Does... does Jax actually like me? Wait, we went on a date, kinda kissed and hugged twice, and I met and had dinner with his mother. Are we dating?!' MJ thought to herself in an inner turmoil of teenage girl emotions.

After the embarrassing moment, the three of them sat down and ate breakfast since it was still early, but a news alert quickly grabbed their attention, especially Jax. The news was talking about how Tony Stark was kidnapped and held captive in the middle east, and apparently has been so for a few months at that point. The government apparently tried to hide the story to not cause a mass panic, but someone apparently leaked the story to the news, and now Stark is on all of the headlines for a whole new reason.

This was bad, very bad. Stark was only held captive for a few months before he escaped with the first Ironman suit, and then the MCU began. Jax was very confident that he was not in the MCU, though this world did share some similarities, so Jax wasn't sure if things would still play out the same way it did in the movies. But one thing he does know is, that once the world has Ironman, nothing will ever be the same.

Hell, now that he thought about it, Peter should've already been freaking out and skeeting webs all over his room a few days earlier, which is also another turning point in the universe. But, Jax hasn't heard any stories about a man swinging through the city, so he figured that things were going slow on the Spiderman front.

Too many things were happening, and Jax wasn't quite sure what the right move to make was, but something told him that he needed to master Deathstroke's Holocron as soon as possible.

After that, Jax and MJ walked to school together, holding hands like a cute couple, MJ wearing a sweet smile hidden by her hair. She had been trying to build up the courage to ask Jax what their relationship was, but right when she opened her mouth, someone called out to them.

Walking near the school, a well built, man with a swimmer's body, russet brown hair, and decent features ran towards them, waving his hands frantically. "Jax, MJ! Wait for me!" yelled the man in a familiar way.

Looking closer, the man's clothes were too tight, as if he just suddenly grew.... Jax knew what was happening now, this is Peter Parker!

"Pete? Damn, it like like you had the same growths spurt as me! Must be something in the water haha." Jax joked, knowing full well what happened to Peter. Peter had already started his transformation a few days earlier, but he suddenly had a huge change overnight, which surprised Jax.

"Uh, I'm almost positive it's not the same." Peter said, remembering the forest of webs in his room and climbing on walls. Peter was fairly certain that this wasn't how other you young men went through puberty.

'What the heck?! How did they change so much?! Do boys normally go through this much change during puberty? I wish I could change too... then I could be beautiful for Jax!' MJ thought to herself while she silently prayed that puberty would hit her like a semi truck as well.

As you'd expect, the students at school went crazy over Peter's transformation as well, and there were even all kinds of crazy rumors of different things that Jax and Peter had to do to change so much practically over night.

Even the school thots came out, trying to put the moves on Peter and Jax, but, Jax wasn't interested in those skags, and just because Peter looked different, didn't change how socially awkward he was, so they just assumed he wasn't interested either.

Besides the buzz surrounding Peter, talks of Tony Stark, and rumors that Jax and MJ are dating, the school day was fairly normal and boring.

On the way home, they stopped by Peter's house first drop him off, and Jax had the honor of meeting the famous Aunt May and Uncle Ben! It was their original old forms, not the strangely absent Uncle Ben or the younger, weirdly hot Aunt May from the newer movies. After chatting for a few minutes, Jax and MJ went in their way.

As they were walking, holding hands, Jax suggested they stop for ice cream, his treat. MJ tried to deny it as Jax had already been so nice to her, and she didn't know how to repay his kindness, but Jax just waved her off, and guided them to the nearest ice cream shop.

Now on a nice bench together eating ice cream, Jax's arm wrapped around her while she cuddled his chest, MJ felt like it was now or never for her to ask.

"Why are you so nice to me?" MJ asked, looking up at Jax.

In response, Jax let's out a hearty laugh. "What kind of question is that? You're special to me, so of course I'll be nice to you." Jax said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Do you... Do you like me? I mean, I'm not super pretty or outgoing like all of those girls who throw themselves at you." MJ said, her head hanging down, until she felt something cold on her nose and saw Jax had put the tip of his ice cream on it.

"That's for you being silly," Jax laughed as he gently wiped off the remnants of the ice cream from her nose. "MJ, I'm here with you, not those other girls for a reason. As much as you don't see it for some reason, you are very beautiful, and I like being around you. I love the sound of your laughter when you laugh at my lame jokes, and I absolutely adore the way your face turns red whenever something like this happens," Jax said as held softly lifted MJ's face and brought their lips together.

And just as Jax predicted, MJ's face was redder than it ever was before. MJ has often fantasized about her first kiss, but never imagined it would be so dreamy and romantic. The cold weather from the holidays being near, idyllic park area, and with a handsome, tall, kind young man who looked like a modern day prince. It was all she ever dreamed of and more, and knew that no matter what, she would remember this moment for the rest of her life.

A short while, their lips parted, but MJ still looked to be in a dreamy state of bliss, making Jax laugh. He loved how silly MJ was and how natural it felt to be around her. Jax genuinely cared about MJ, even outside of all of her being a character from one of his childhood stories. If he had to explain it, he felt like she was a puzzle piece that he didn't even realize he was missing.

After a while of chatting, kissing, and cuddling some more, Jax felt that they were both starting to get a little too heated, as even without even intruding on MJ's thoughts, she was as easy to read as a book. Flushed face, heavy breathing, squirming of her legs, and the strong smell of her pheromones and of her deliciously scented honeypot, Jax knew it was time to go before he ate her up right there.

As they approached MJ's house, she froze, and Jax could strangely smell fear on her. Before he could ask her what was wrong, the overwhelming scent of alcohol, musiness, and a shout grabbed his attention.

"Mary Jane, where the hell have you been? And who the hell is this crow bastard? Get your ass in here and start making dinner. I had a long day, so don't forget the beer!" said a Irish sounding drunk man with a beer belly and balding orange hair, the same shade as MJ's, before he went back inside the house and slammed the door.

Jax had to use all of his will power to not kick that door down and tear the man he suspected to be MJ's father to pieces. Jax had yet to experience such blatant racism ever since he came to New York, so for him to be called a derogatory term so boldly was a shock.

The two were silent for a while before Jax heard MJ sobbing beside him.

"I-I'm so sorry that he said that horrible thing to you! My father hasn't been quite right ever since my mother left, but you still didn't deserve that! I-I have to go before he gets too upset again.... Jax, i-" MJ said before she felt Jax pulling her into a comforting hug.

"A child should never have to apologize for the parent. It's okay MJ, it's not your fault that he acts this way. But listen to me, my mother already loves you, and you already know how much I care about you. If you ever want to leave this house, or if he ever dares to hurt you, I promise I will move your things into my house myself. All you have to do is give me a call, and I'll show up faster than you'll know. You hear me?" Jax said as he felt MJ give a quick nod and start sobbing in his chest.

Jax was truly like MJ's knight in shining armor. Ever since her mother left, her father began heavily drinking and becoming increasingly more harsh and abusive to her. He had even started saying how much she looks like her mother and started touching her hair and giving her weird stares, making her feel uncomfortable. So to know that there was finally someone that could protect and care about her, MJ was beyond grateful.

After giving MJ a quick kiss and hug goodbye, Jax walked home, fuming. Not only was her father racist to him, but it was clear to Jax that he was abusing her, just based on how traumatized she was just to go home. But the most frustrating part was not being able to openly do anything.

Sure, he was a wealthy millionaire now, but he was 16 with no possible way to explain how he got that money. Plus, him and his mother were barely in the green financially now, thanks to her new job at Oscorp, so he didn't want to put the burden of taking care of yet another child, that wasn't even hers, if he didn't have to. But, he knew his mother was so kind, she would take in the whole neighborhood if she could. Jax wondered if that was her Jade powers influencing her somehow.

Anyway, Jax was stumped about what to do with the MJ situation, because, yes he could kill her dad and free her from the abuse, but with no job and no way to explain where he got so much money, he was stuck.

Then it hit him. He had already been setting up the perfect foundation to solve everything! During the contract signing of the warehouse, Jax as Shade, bought the seller's, Michael James', failing realty company and renamed it into, Shade Realty Group. During the acquisition of the company, Mike, was named as the CEO and Jax was the owner in paper.

Jax also received all of Mike's other failing properties, and found that he wasn't actually incompetent, he was just being stonewalled by people with more money. But, Jax was too rich and smart for that to work on him, and so even just today, Mike already called him to inform him that they've sold two properties for double the asking price thanks to Jax.

And so, to help promote the new business and fix his family's money problems at the same time, Jax plans to host an extravagant lottery and rig it so that his mother wins. Is it a crooked tactic? Possibly, but that's not the way Jax saw it. At the end of the day, it's all his money, so he just pictured it as a more roundabout way of gifting his mother money, but also gaining some much needed attention for his new company.

Satisfied with his genius plan, Jax was in a much better mood on his way home, as he planned to tell his mother about him finding a new job as an "Assistant" to a new realty company.

The conversation was a bit touch and go, as even though Jada was exhausted from work, she was a cautious person by nature and she too was somewhat of a genius, but at the end, Jax convinced her that there was no danger, wouldn't interfere with his schooling, and would not only look good on his resume, but also be the start to a future career. After promising that he would still go to college in the future in case the company tanked, Jax was officially a working man.

Now all he needed to do was build his lair and start his training with his new master, Deathstroke.