This story is set during the Spider-Man comics published during the mid 1990s, specifically the Clone Saga. This story occurs sometime after Spectacular Spider-Man #229 and before Spider-Man: The Final Adventure #1. This is sort of my attempt to explain some things that happened in Spec #229 as well as the MC2 universe if you want to look at it that way.
Please leave a review as I am keen for feedback.
Peter strolled into the lab of Seward Trainer. He wasn't exactly in a good mood; but he was in a determined one. You didn't mess around when it came to things like this.
Recently Peter had been overjoyed to learn that his wife Mary Jane was pregnant. However his life had been turned upside down upon his learning that he was a clone of the original Peter Parker, created by the madman known as the Jackal a.k.a. Miles Warren, his old college professor. Peter had come close to the edge when he heard that and had even gone over it to some extent. He seethed at himself over the horrible memory of when he first heard the news.
It wasn't the moment he knew for certain that he was a clone which hurt. It was the rage which had engulfed him. The months before that day had put him through a series of traumatic events any one of which alone would have broken a lesser man. His best friend Harry had died. He'd lost his parents a second time. His aunt had entered a coma and then died not long afterwards. He'd been accused of murder, and a host of other traumas large and small seriously affected him as well. As such hearing he was a clone had been the straw which broke the camel's back and Peter had just snapped.
He viciously attacked his clone Ben Reilly.
No. He thought. I'm the clone. Ben is the original Peter Parker. I have to get used to that fact.
In the attack he'd been so consumed by his rage that it blinded him to his surrounding, he had become utterly unaware of everything surrounding him save for Ben. It was during that rage, and during his blanking out of his surroundings that it had happened.
Mary Jane had instinctively tried to stop Peter and had placed her hand on his arm for just a second. He was told later she'd been screaming at him to stop but, again, his rage had served to deafen him to his surroundings.
His spider enhanced reflexes and strength conspired with his rage to make him simply react without thinking with astonishing speed and he'd flung his arm out, knocking Mary Jane into a wall without realising what he'd done or even that it had been her who was behind him.
Peter intellectually knew that he genuinely hadn't realised she was there...but that didn't stop him from feeling guilty. Of hating himself for that moment more than he had hated any of the villains who'd tried to hurt him or his loved ones over the years.
That had been bad enough but not long afterwards Mary Jane had fainted and been rushed to hospital. The doctors had said her condition was critical (although he also found out she had been standing up and walking around afterwards which made him question their judgment) and it was all because of traces of radioactivity in her bloodstream. Those were having an adverse affect alongside the normal hormonal changes in her pregnancy and so both her life and the baby's had become endangered.
Ben's friend Seward Trainer, a geneticist and confidant to the Parkers, had been examining Mary Jane beforehand and had detected genetic anomalies. He'd given the baby the all clear but when MJ fell ill he showed up on Ben's request with a good idea of what had happened. He had explained that MJ's condition was even worse than he had anticipated and had explained it had been one of several possibilities. As such he had prepared an antidote and not told the Parkers since alarming them would have served no purpose.
After a crisis involving Trainer's super villain daughter (Lady Octopus) had served to prevent the antidote from getting to the hospital, Peter and Ben suited up as Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider and eventually retrieved it. In the process Peter had decided to give up life as Spider-Man and handed the mantle over to Ben. MJ was doing fine but now Peter wanted some answers and only Trainer could give them to him.
"Hey Pete." Said Ben.
Oh...I didn't know he'd be here thought Peter. He didn't know why he'd imagine he'd find Trainer alone. Ben was something like a son to Trainer so it was only natural that in seeking out one you might encounter the other.
"Hi Ben. What's up?"
Ben was carrying a large box and put it down.
"Nothing much. Just helping Trainer shift some of this equipment"
"I'd do it myself but I can't lift 10 tons over my head." Peter turned to the right where Trainer was emerging out of a room. "Hello there Peter. What brings you here? Is everything alright with Mary Jane?"
"She's fine Seward. The baby's fine as well but...it's about what happened at the hospital recently"
"Oh yes?" Trainer raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"
"You see I...I..." Peter decided to leave manners to one side and simply be direct. "Trainer...I want to know exactly how those radioactive traces got into my wife's blood."
Seward inhaled and then exhaled slowly through his nostrils. "I think Peter...what you're really asking is...did they came from you?"
As Ben looked from Trainer to Peter and back again, Peter stared Trainer dead in the eyes then exhaled himself.
"...Yes. MJ and me are usually careful whenever she touches my blood. We know it's radioactive but it can't hurt you unless it gets into your system and I've never given her a blood transfusion or anything like that. Heck whenever she touches my blood she either wears gloves or makes sure she hasn't got any openings in her skin so no blood could get in. Not that if it did it's likely to transfer any radioactivity. The radiation is so sparse that you're need a whole transfusion's worth to transfer even a particle to someone and-"
"...And even if a particle got in, her body would deal with it or the white blood cells from your blood would address the problem." Cut in Trainer. "Yes I know all that Peter, we have discussed this. I know that just like I know how, from time to time, you check out the radioactivity in your blood to ensure there aren't any worrying changes-"
"...And check out MJ from time to time too, just to make sure there is no radioactivity her either." This time Peter cut in. "If I had even seen a tiny amount of radioactivity I would've taken steps to make sure there wasn't even the possibility of her getting harmed. I'd have gotten ISO-36 or taken her to see Reed Richards or someone else, even if it'd expose my identity. I mean she gets screened for cancer every now and then anyway, just to be sure; she did used to smoke after all."
Peter turned his whole body to directly face Trainer now and he slightly clenched his fists too. "So you tell me Trainer...how did the radioactivity get in there? Did...did you know about it?"
Trainer's expression didn't waver but he did decide to walk around the room a little bit whilst he began to talk. "Not as such. I'd examined Ben enough times to know about his radioactive blood and your wife was lightly insisting I run radiation checks. I would have done so any way, or at least I would've checked her blood in the first place. Blood tests are relatively standard procedure for most pregnant women. Not only does it give you an idea of the mother's health but it allows you to prepare for any possible problems like if the mother or the child is rhesus negative."
"Yeah yeah I know all about that" Peter said impatiently.
"Er...I don't." Said Ben, sounding stupider than he actually was.
"You don't?" Peter was surprised. Ben was a scientist like him, how could he not know about rhesus negative?
"Well I'm not the expectant father; I haven't read up on this stuff. What the heck is rhesus negative?
Peter mentally checked himself. Ben and he might share the same memories but Peter had been given the luxury of completing his education and as someone hoping for kids (which Ben hadn't considered when he believed Peter had been the original) he'd obviously read up on this stuff.
Trainer stopped his little walk and turned to address Ben. "Rhesus negative is a particular quality in the blood of a minority of people. Often if mothers possess this quality and are exposed to rhesus positive blood their bodies' create antibodies which fight against the rhesus positive blood. The danger being that in rare instances where a baby's and it's mother's blood mixes the mother's own body will fight against the baby. It's normally not a problem and only a danger if there is a second pregnancy where the baby's blood is again rhesus positive. There is a simple treatment to deal with it which neutralises that element in the baby's blood. Without that treatment the mother's body can attack the baby as a pathogen and thereby endanger it's life and potentially the mother's as well. It's all because in an odd way a baby is a kind of parasite as far as the mother's body is concerned. But certain hormones dictate that the mother's body doesn't harm the baby."
Peter's impatience was rearing it's head again now. "Thanks for that lecture. But can we get back on topic please?"
"Oh sorry." Said Trainer looking slightly embarrassed. "Well I checked out Mary Jane's blood and found no radioactive traces within it. Even if I had, don't you think I would have told you, or her, or even Ben here about it to keep you vigilante should anything happen? Don't you think I would have gotten some of that ISO-36 to neutralise the radiation or given her the antidote as soon as I developed it?"
There was a twinge of hurt in Trainer's voice. Maybe it was the idea of his professionalism being questioned? But Peter suspected it was more a bit more personal than that. Nevertheless Peter pressed on.
"But at the hospital you said you knew MJ's life was going to be endangered."
"No, I said it was a possibility. I was referring to the minute possibility that the baby would have radioactive blood like you and that the blood might intermingle with the Mary Jane's. Usually that can't happen except in exceptional circumstances. However Mary Jane has not necessarily been...handled, as gently as she perhaps ought to have been so there was a possible risk of her's and the baby's blood intermingling."
That now all too familiar self-hatred seethed within Peter for a second.
"On top of that those genetic anomalies I detected initially in the pregnancy might have altered the nature of the pregnancy from a normal human one so that it may well be possible for the mother and baby's blood to intermingle. Remember Peter when it comes to this sort of thing we are in uncharted territory. Apart from you and Ben here no one else possesses your unique abilities and no one else has attempted to pass them on to the next generation. Your child and Mary Jane's are the precedent. The trend setters if you will."
Curiously Peter didn't feel like much of a pioneer.
"I still don't understand why you didn't warn us about this?"
"As I said at the hospital it would have served no purpose. You and Mary Jane were going through a hard enough time as it was. I didn't want to make you needlessly worry about something which was a remote possibility and only one of several other possibilities. I prepared the antidote secretly and vowed to only use it if necessary."
"You should have told us!"
Peter didn't mean to raise his voice like that and Ben inched a little bit towards Trainer. Trainer though was stone faced.
"Perhaps." He said deadpan. "But imagine it like it was rain"
"What?" Peter and Ben said in confused unison.
"Imagine it was like rain. Imagine that there are two people you want the best for, two people who've had a very hard time of it lately and have been living in apprehension about bad weather."
"A-are you being serious?" Peter asked. He was somewhere between confused, incredulous and annoyed. Trainer shrugged
"Sorry, this is the best analogy I can come up with."
Peter turned to Ben who shrugged himself.
"Just hear him out Pete." With an eyebrow raised Peter turned back to Trainer and gave a small nod, indicating that he should continue.
"Ahem. Where was I? Ah yes. So these two people have been living in fear over possible bad weather but they are pleased to learn that the forecasts expect clear skies and sunshine for the foreseeable future. And after even more hard times those two people want nothing more than to simply go out and enjoy the sunshine. But the man who told them about the good weather is all too aware that there is a highly remote possibility that the weather might turn. Would you then insist to them to take an umbrella? Or would you not simply naturally keep one on standby, ready to give it to those people when and if the weather turns? It wasn't like I sent you and Mary Jane out blindly when the sky was dark with rainclouds Peter."
Peter looked sceptical, but decided to move on to another question worrying him.
"If the radiation in essentially harmless in small enough doses, why did it harm Mary Jane?"
Trainer answered almost methodically.
"To correct you for a moment Peter, it wasn't the radioactive traces themselves which were harming Mary Jane. She was harmed by her normal hormonal changes reacting adversely due to their presence. Mary Jane had heightened hormonal activity in her body due to her pregnancy. The radiation in her blood stream was not harmful in and of itself and her body easily produced antibodies to it which kept her safe. However her body identified the source of the radiation as the foetus and so the hormones kicked her immune system into overdrive and tried to harm the baby which had a knock on affect upon Mary Jane endangering both of their lives.
My antidote utilised aspects of ISO-36 to neutralise the radioactive traces in Mary Jane's bloodstream and also within the baby itself. It also introduced another chemical which stopped her immune system from attacking the baby and it 'turned off' the chromosome inside the baby which generated the radiation in it's blood in the first place."
"How could it generate radiation though? I'm no expert but I know enough about biology to know that we get most of the things our body needs from what we eat. That's how we have iron in our bodies; we compose it from the various foods we eat. It's not like we directly eat the metal itself. So how could Mary Jane or the baby generate radiation if they aren't eating uranium or something?"
Trainer paused for a while and rubbed his beard whilst looking downwards in thought.
"That I am not sure about to be honest. But we already know the radiation in your and Ben's blood is not like more common forms of radiation. Perhaps it self-generates or uses other chemical compounds to generate itself. After all you and Ben both possess radioactive blood so there is a case for it being generated organically since you were grown from Ben's DNA Peter. And I doubt Warren would've introduced radiation himself into his clones.
In any case, there shouldn't be any more radiation coming from the foetus and we'll be vigilante from now on to ensure it doesn't happen again. I'll even tell you how to create the antidote yourself if you want Peter or simply make more for you."
"Um...yeah...thanks Seward." Peter lowered his head. He had all his answers now. His wife and child were healthy, and what passed for his faith in Seward had been restored. And yet there was something deeper which still troubled him. Ben couldn't figure it out, but Trainer saw it in Peter. It was a concern he could recognise as an older man who had been young and full of hopes for the future once. He moved forward and placed a hand on Peter's shoulder and spoke firmly but with a consoling element to his voice.
"Peter please listen to me. What happened to Mary Jane was not your fault. Every pregnancy carries risks. But the rewards if all goes well are...well they are worth it."
He lowered his eyes for a moment.
"I was simply too damn stupid to see that when I was your age."
Peter looked up and his and Ben's eyes met for a moment. They both knew Trainer was referring to his own daughter and the miserable job he did as a father to her. Trainer's eye raised and he straightened up his posture slightly, as if this would give his words more authority.
"So don't you worry too much about letting MJ touch your blood, and don't feel like this means you shouldn't have another baby if you want to. There are many possibilities for conceiving a child with your unique genetics. Some are dangerous some are not. Even this scenario was highly unlikely. I wasn't expecting with any certainty the baby would generate radiation due to having your genetic coding. It may well be a recessive gene the next baby won't inherit at all. Just be careful and do your best. And if this happens again, well you have the antidote now don't you?"
Peter gently nodded his head
"Thanks Trai- Seward"
"Parenthood, like life, doesn't come with a rule book Peter. There are always risks no matter what and all any of us can do is our best and take it one day at a time."
"One day at a time...but that doesn't mean I can't prepare for the future..."
"Excuse me?"
An odd distant look had crossed over Peter's face as if a light bulb in his head hadn't so much just turned on, but was slowly but surely getting brighter and brighter as an idea formed.
"Seward, you've got connections in the scientific world right?"
"That I do. Yes."
"Do you know of a company called General Techtronics?"
Ben's eyes widened and his head tilted to the side as he locked eyes with Peter and gave him a quizzical stare. Seward however simply rubbed his bearded chin again and looked upwards in thought.
"Hmmm...yes...yes I do. I'm afraid they aren't around anymore though."
"Oh..." Peter did his best to cover up his disappointment. Trainer's expression though didn't change at all.
"Yes, there was a merger and they are called Garrid now. Why do you ask?"
Peter's eyes lit back up.
"Garrid. Alright." He said more to himself than Seward or Ben. "Seward do you think you could maybe get my foot in the door there?"
Trainer looked surprised. "At Garrid? Probably, but you'd still need to lobby hard for a position. Competition is tough even for someone as skilled as you or Ben."
"I'll find a way" Peter began to head out the door. "Thanks again Seward. See ya Ben"
"Peter wait!" called out Ben. Peter paused halfway out the door.
"General Techtronics...Garrid...They were the company that-"
"That developed the machine which irradiated our old friend the spider." Intercut Peter.
"Why do you want a job with those guys?"
"That baby is of my irradiated blood Ben. It has my mutated genetics. It may well inherit our abilities. Heck since it's a second generation it might not be exactly like you or me. For all we know it might sprout hairy legs on it's thirteenth birthday. I've got to find out more about the process which turned me, er...you, into Spider-Man. If I can do that I can find out more about yo- I mean me and therefore do my best to prepare for anything your little niece or nephew might face."
"That...That's actually really smart Peter"
Peter smiled properly for the first time since he'd entered the lab.
"Well you don't have to sound so surprised. I mean if you think I'm a dummy what does that make you?"
"Point taken. But seriously Peter that's..." Ben's face displayed a look of pride and admiration. "...Well that's really responsible."
"Well Benjy boy what can I say. After all, that baby...is my greatest responsibility."
Peter left the lab.