My first 'Spider-Man' fic. Faves and Reviews are welcome :).

A little darker than my other stories, considering it covers the not-so pleasant details of reincarnation, whereas the others are 'wham, bam, portal, deal with it' situations. Hope I did an okay job on this one. Enjoy!

Heads up: This story takes place in a unique (AU?) universe, as I simply do not own enough (or hardly any) comics to go off of any continuity.

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. This includes characters, content, plots, et cetera. I only own my OC's


Prologue:

It happened so fast.

One moment I was at a red light, waiting for passing cars to move on before I could seize an opening and take a right.

The next?

I got rear-ended by a drunk driver, or perhaps some inconsiderate jerk on their phone. Either way, they were much too distracted to see me.

Mind you, I had my seatbelt on, and my airbags worked wonders in what they were meant to do, so, I would end up fine right?

Wrong. You see, Physics decided to play its hand at the cruel game that is life, the vehicle behind me going at just that right speed with just that right weight to send my car into the intersection. Not that far into it I suppose, but with my pain addled mind, I was too disoriented to stop in time to avoid the still coming traffic. My life literally flashed before my eyes as a Mac semi-truck's headlights landed on me, the trucker frantically honking his horn. I mentally applauded the effort of the warning, but it was far too late as the much larger vehicle slammed into my significantly smaller one. The entire driver's side caved in on me.

In but a brief lapse of time, I went from being in indescribable agony to being in the absolute bliss of nothingness.


I remained suspended in a seemingly eternal darkness before it suddenly decided to -how do I put this- shrink. Of course my senses refused to work for my being in the void, so imagine my bemusement and panic once they started to function again. My sense of touch detected the heat of my body as it curled in on itself, the once vast and cold void around it becoming as cramped and as hot as a sauna. My sense of hearing picked up on my own heartbeat, and the ever so faint yelling of a woman in pain. My sense of smell inhaling near-suffocating scents (and I mean they were positively ghastly!), and in conjunction with that, my sense of taste was no better off!

And last but not least, my sight, which was the same as it was before the abyss started to cave in, only difference was that I could physically feel my eye lids try to open. Despite all my willpower, the buggers refused to lift.

My heartbeat intensified as the woman's screaming got louder. At this point, the abyss was caressing me as I found myself sliding right along. I squirmed uncomfortably as I noted just how wet the 'walls' around me were. My surroundings tapered around my head, a very frightening experience on par with the deadly crash that I still remembered in detail.

So what did I do?

I started to cry, like a baby. At first it seemed muffled, but then, as the walls of the abyss gave me one last push, I found that my volume had increased exponentially. Not because of the fresh load of oxygen, but because of the bright lights shining ever so gloriously into my sensitive eyes.

So, being an even bigger baby, I started to squirm, arms and legs thrashing about. That thrashing coming to an immediate end as someone cuddled me close to them. I went positively limp at the feeling of being cradled. That and I got fatigued rather quickly, so it was nice to succumb to the embrace, my throat was also becoming fairly sore as well.

A man's voice spoke then, in soft and reassuring tones. I calmed down, despite not understanding a lick of English from what just came out of his blurry, featureless face…if that was what he was speaking. With a garbled yelp, I squinted even more, trying to actually see what -who- was in the room with me. I could only make out dull splotches, varying from whites to dark grey. Some moved, others stayed inanimately still, so I pivoted my head slightly to the left to the only blur that actually had some color AND made noise. That noise being a woman crying in…relief? That relief only lasted a moment before she started to yell and point.

Wait, she was pointing at me.

Crap.

I started to squirm again, my anxiety tripling as I noted that my heart was pounding and I was having difficulty breathing. There were more yells from all around me, but mainly coming from the man whom I was secured within the arms of. A few moments passed before a terse shout and hurried stomping announced the arrival of another figure as he moved up beside the man holding me, my weight suddenly shifting to the security of a single arm as the doctor(?) grabbed something small and slim from his buddy. All I heard was a hiss, the distinct hiss of a container opening, before I felt something cold slither onto my arm, then work its way around my body in an almost serpentine manner.

I went from being contently limp to being rigid with pure mortification as the cold liquid(?) seeped into my skin. And ironically enough, it didn't kill me, quite the opposite to be precise.

I could breathe properly again, and my tiredness vanished, replaced with a renewed vigor. So, I started to thrash again, but not as violently as before.

Relieved, melodramatic sighs echoed from all directions, and I braced myself as I was carried over to the woman, who was, from my perspective, almost as big as whoever was carrying me.

As I was deposited gently into a soft embrace, my mind was reeling…

Where am I?

Am I in a hospital?

Why is everyone so big?!

The woman began to hum a beautifully soothing tone, which did some good to assuage my rising panic…

Everything's so blurry

All noises are muffled

I can't speak…

And…is that a voice in my head…?

I tensed as my predicament became oh-so much clearer, my head being softly laid just below the woman's collarbone. A heartbeat thudded rhythmically below my head, below the lady's skin, below her rib cage which didn't seem so big anymore.

Oh…oh, God…am I really…?

I whimpered at the bizarre notion, as a soft orchestra of chuckles and coos echoed all around me.

I'm…I'm a baby…


The beginnings of my new life were a blur really, even when my sight developed and I could finally properly interact with things and people, it still all went by rather quickly –and fleetingly.

Every diaper change…

Every stumble, every fall…

Every praise for speaking so comprehensibly…

It was all either a faint, or non-existent, memory. Faces would come and go, but very few stayed close by. Those faces close to my orbit being my 'mother', and her very few friends (or perhaps simply colleagues), whom would observe me and nothing else.

No tug of the cheeks, no coos, no contact whatsoever. Only those intense, inquisitive gazes and glances that I found very disconcerting, even as an adult in a toddler's body.

Oh yeah, and the voice I heard when I was first born only got stronger. But, I'm not implying that it was a bad thing, oh no, I (believably) relished the company. I certainly found it (or should I say him) more comforting than the egg-heads.

At around four to five years of age, that's where my life slowed down enough for me to actually retain my memories and enjoy the experiences of my (second) childhood. Even if the presence of my 'mother' and her 'pals' flitting about the household bothered me, I fortunately had the mind -and mobility- to retreat to my room, where I could then take the time to learn as much about the new reality as I possibly could…and, of course, talk to my buddy (whom I named Ghost because of his quiet and shy personality). This mainly included news articles that I read on my computer (yes, mother dearest seriously trusted her five year old with a moderately expensive piece of equipment) and videos uploaded on the internet. Through my meticulous research I learned a great deal many things. All of which made my head spin, especially since we lived so close to the proverbial beehive. I remember quite clearly how far my jaw dropped that one day (where I had yet ANOTHER epiphany), and how fast my hand flew to one of the conveniently located notebooks I had on my desk.

Breaking my notes into sections, such as 'People' and 'Places' et cetera, I then madly jotted down terms related to what I overheard my mother and her co-workers discussing on a near daily basis –one cannot help but eavesdrop in a house of a hush-hush scientist, i.e. my 'new' parent.

And no matter how many notes I took, I was still having a difficult time grasping the new reality I was born into. It wasn't like I researched movies and comics, oh no, the stories and biographies I read online were as real as the computer I was typing vigorously on, and the hushed voices of my mother and her associates downstairs…

As real as the hastened footsteps of someone climbing up the stairs, moving gingerly toward my room, making me log off my computer and gulp in trepidation (and earn a growl from Ghost).

Ah yes, THAT memory really stuck with me, the anxiety of seeing this tall, intimidating-as-hell man with an eye patch suddenly throwing open my bedroom door -but not miraculously slamming it- and shooting me an indecipherable look, and, my awkward attempt of closing my notebook to conceal its contents from him NOT escaping his attention.

With a blank, un-amused stare, Nicholas (freaking) Fury gestured for me to follow him, in a get-your-ass-in-gear sort of way.

I complied, not batting an eyelash.


Five or so years after that little introduction, and I still found myself in a regular school for regular children, why the specifics, you ask? Simple: because I was not a regular child and I shouldn't have been in a normal school as I had learned from my time at one of SHIELD's facilities.

That's right.

I was a mutant. Oh, wait; scratch that, NOT a mutant. But despite knowing (both myself and SHIELD) what I was –or what 'we' were, SHIELD still labeled us as a mutant in their files. Why? I wish I knew. Or, ahem, we knew.

So, despite being around SHIELD agents and having to endure their many trials, testing the limitations of my -our- 'abilities', collaborating with scientists (including mommy) and whatnot, they would send me back to my school (a relatively quaint little elementary school in Brooklyn) for my education during the odd hours of the day. Because, I suppose, sending me to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was out of the question (imagine my disappointment). I assumed it was because they wanted a tight leash on me, as I was their miracle and technically not a mutant, a kind way (not) of saying we were their experiment. I know, how cliché, but that's what I had to expect from a comic book universe.

And speaking of comics, the universe I was born into was the Marvel universe. I wasn't too sure if it was the cinematic universe, and I wasn't too knowledgeable on comic continuities (I owned very little comics in my previous life, and they revolved around Deadpool and Venom) to have guessed WHICH one of the comic Marvel universes I was in. It wasn't really something I tried to dwell on, especially when I had to focus on school and the bullshit SHIELD scientists subjected me to (Ghost was definitely my anchor in those times).

Moving right along, you're probably wondering just what I have for powers, or rather what my symbiote is capable of.

To put into perspective, Ghost was the 996th Klyntar of his line. Whether that line was around for as long as Venom's or not…I wasn't sure. What I was sure of though, was that we were pretty strong, and that we were NOT related to Venom. So, being of a unique line, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my Klyntar buddy could muffle his own footsteps at will, and had an unusually high aptitude when it came down to stealth and evasion tactics. He also kindly shared that we could NOT be sensed by other Klyntars and could achieve intangibility. Oh yeah, and because of his predecessor, he inherited 'wings'. Wherever this Wraith guy was, we (or I) made it our life's mission to track him down and hug him.

Growing up, SHIELD also felt obligated to give me -us- a healthy dose of phenylethylamine when needed, along with taking care of our food expenses, so yay for high metabolisms.

You're probably also wondering how some girl and her Klyntar had managed school life without causing mischief.

That's just the thing. We couldn't, and therefore, I shall present to you a fair example:

I was on my way to school, after I had a routine check-up done on me by one of the SHIELD doctors, sucking on a lollipop (that we deserved, thank you very much) as I walked, not skipped, to the bus stop. It was a beautiful summer day, yet to have been blemished by any misfortune and any bad feelings, which was funny considering I would always be in a somewhat foul mood after having an assessment (especially Ghost, poor guy). One of my many Mondays never seemed so perfect in a surreal sense.

But then I heard snickering and whispers come from the group of boys trailing me.

Bullies, one of the most persistent forces in the universe –or should I say, universes

Having little tolerance for the little snickering hobgoblins, but having enough to play their game, I grinned like the Cheshire cat and veered off into an alley, leading them away from the bus stop. Thankfully, I liked to get there early, so I had plenty of time to pull off what I wanted to without the consequence of missing the bus. No, it did not involve eating them…we were not savages.

"Hey Freak, wait up!"

It's not like they knew I had a symbiote, but alas, due to my pale complexion and solitary, reserved demeanor (no thanks to Ghost rubbing off on me), a good portion of the kids at my school had viewed me as a target. And boy, were they merciless little bastards. Most of them, such as the group behind me, I only had to deal with once I got to school, since I was often the only kid at the bus stop. But that day, I guess the mothers of the little Satan-spawn didn't want to drive them. I could understand why.

So, seeing that the adolescent boys, whom were much bigger than me, had indeed followed, I continued on my merry way. "Hey Pasty, we just wanna talk!".

Should we make them piss their pants now…?

Nah, I have something better in mind

I rolled my eyes, and looked over my shoulder, my pace never slowing. "About how you and your boyfriends are such obnoxious turd-blossoms? Or are we going to have a productive chat like civil human beings?" I glanced in front of me to avoid bumping into a trashcan, then moved my gaze back onto the group of 'turd-blossoms'. All of which scowled at me and picked up their pace. Smirking, I decided to poke the proverbial bear some more.

"Say, don't your mothers usually drive you to school?" I sucked away the last bit of the high-fructose ball before I haphazardly threw the stick behind me, doubling my stride as I heard one of the boys squawk in disgust "Did they stop once they realized they could just have Animal Control give you guys a lift?".

"You little shit!"

And thus, the chase began.

Pounding my feet into the ground, I ran a good couple of blocks away from the bus stop in total, not at all winded from the distance. Whoopee for symbiote stamina.

Seeing that we lost the boys, I backtracked to where I last saw them. Waving once they came into view.

At once, the chase continued, only we were sure to slow our pace on purpose. After another street or so passed, we waited till there was a mere thirty feet separating us from the boys, then ducked back into another alley. With a deep inhale and exhale, and a squat, we jumped onto a fire escape, and ultimately onto a roof. With time of the essence, I only stuck around long enough to hear the shocked gasps and outraged yells ("Where did she go?!" hehe, never gets old) and then ran/bounded from rooftop to rooftop, doubling back to where the bus stop was.

Whilst careful (or tried to be anyway) not to be spotted, we landed on the building closest to where the monkey cage on wheels would roll up, and clambered down along the side of it, ever so gracefully landing/running toward our objective. I reached the bus just as the last kid got on, my breath coming out in short, excited breaths.

Hmm, certainly a peaceful way to deal with the pests, was this to lower our chances of getting caught?

Sure thing buddy, last thing I want is Patchy to scold us

As I sat down, the bus driver (whom had no tolerance for kids who arrived late) pulled the lever that closed the bus door with deliberate slowness as the three bullies that had pursued me finally ran around the corner. Their distraught faces morphing into contempt as they eyed me, and being the 'mature' one, I lovingly responded by flipping the bird.

You're probably wondering, despite our attempts of being a roof-jumping ninja, 'that's an awfully good way to get caught', and I, being the one to admit my faults, would happily agree with you. In fact, days after that happened; I got reprimanded by Nick Fury for being so careless. The agency had to have their technical staff work their magic to have a few posted videos torn down, and/or edited to look like a hoax. After that, I got lectured by my mom, and then sent to my room with the parting words of "You're grounded". The day after that, I was assigned a personal chauffeur to drive me to school…and issued a tracker bracelet to monitor my whereabouts.

It was like that for two years before they trusted me enough to remove the tracker and take the bus again.

Did I learn my lesson? The answer would be a big, fat, NOPE. Then again, what would you expect from a Marvel fan-girl given a second chance at life with a symbiote along for the ride?


I was fifteen when I decided to don the masked vigilante persona, such an opportunity seized once SHIELD decided I was old enough for them to relinquish their grip on me, requesting that I send personal reports to them on a weekly basis instead of having me visit the compound. They (specifically Fury) said, and I quote, "You're both on your own now, but that is no excuse to be careless. Exercise your newfound liberties, but be discreet" and then proceeded to tell me that we held much promise and all that jazz. I'm also sure he mentioned the Avengers too, but we were too busy day-dreaming of chocolate.

And thus, we exercised our freedom in the most 'discreet' way we could. Sure, I was still studying and being an engaging student (I was not a Valedictorian in my past life, but I sure as shit wasn't mediocre), getting good grades in all my high-school classes (mainly Art), but only because I didn't join any groups or any extracurricular activities that put a strain on my schedule. Nope, just one after-school activity could be crammed in, and that was when I was extremely careful. With Ghost morphing into a symbiotic suit with a hood, we would go out and patrol Brooklyn (at night) and stop any malicious activity our acute hearing and/or the police scanner app could pick up, or…if were really lucky…we would bump into Spider-Man and accompany him wherever he went, although he was skeptical at first about us being a symbiotic pair (he'd apparently already went through the 'black suit' phase), we eventually got to go about stopping drug deals, human trafficking, and so on.

I was probably pushing things, but the self-defense lessons I had with Agent Coulson did pay off, and Ghost could of course heal me, so I refrained from panicking whenever we got shot or stabbed by petty thugs. I also did my absolute best to limit my interactions with well-known villains/supervillains, as I did not wish to be hunted down or have my 'mother' (as unpleasant as she may have been at times) targeted…or perhaps be traced back to SHIELD where I would then suffer a fate worse than sweet Death at the hands of a livid Nick Fury.

Yep, I believe the saying would go 'don't bite off more than you can chew', so me and my symbiote buddy were perfectly content nibbling away at New York's regularly occurring crime.


Even after four years, I didn't have many run-ins with Spidey. And any run-ins I did have were just mainly waves and figurative pats on the back to show the mutual respect we had for one another and what we did, and a surplus of quips and jokes as we pummeled the piss out of any thugs unlucky enough to encounter the both (or should I say 'three') of us in the same place and time.

That was just how we liked it though. The guy had his personal life (along with the pursuit and capture of villains/super villains) to attend to, and I had mine, neither of us bothering to disclose our real identities…so, sadly enough, we didn't hang out after our little patrols. Besides, college took precedence over strengthening bonds with supers, particularly since I didn't go through college in my previous life before 'the incident' happened. So, not wishing to waste any precious time and make the most of my new life, I made the most of every class, specifically all the art-related classes I had in my junior year. And because of my determination, I seemed to finish college a little too soon, thus introducing the stress of picking out a home afterward.

Even with the two of us thinking in unison, it took a little while to find a place we agreed upon. It wasn't much, but we couldn't complain, our place was a beautifully humble little studio apartment with electricity and running water, and all for a modest rent being that it was as safe as all the other apartments in Manhattan could possibly be. That meaning I had to buy a dead-bolt and a few other locking mechanisms, but beggars can't be choosers can they? And since it was a reasonable distance from a few different crime hot-spots, I wouldn't argue…not when we had a reputation to uphold.


And there you have it, the prologue is DONE. A little longer than I intended, but I wished to get the back-story out of the way before we got to the good stuff :).

And it's not like all the SI!OC's amusing childhood experiences have been shared...those can come later.