Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-man or any other references made in this fanfic. This was made for fun and I am in no way gaining any profit from it.
A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews.
First of all I want to give a special shout out to Blaze1992. You were able to figure out one of the powers I had planned for MJ. You can actually see it in this chapter. Good job.
As I mentioned before, the symbiote will have a variety of partners that he will switch on and off. MJ just so happened to be the first and main host, but I will write some chapter where he will be with other people. Also no two host will have the same power skillset, they will all use the symbiote differently depending on what fits their personality.
The host will also get certain traits from the symbiote: likes, dislikes, personal quirks, preferences, etc. depending on the amount of synchronization they have. You can kinda see some of the symbiote's preferences bleed into MJ's own personality later in the chapter.
There's a million different ways to use the symbiote and I'll try to make some creative ones.
Chapter 4
Green eyes locked on the alarm clock on top of the desk.
5:47 AM
"Stupid dream, why couldn't it have woken me up at noon. Now I can't even go back to sleep," MJ whined as she rocked on her hammock.
It was Monday morning and she had the whole day free since her test wasn't until Friday. She wanted to spend it just lazing around but she knew that her aunt wouldn't let her.
Thinking about the test, she remembered that she still needed to read the rest of the books and notes that Peter had let her borrow. With practiced ease, she shot a line of web that snagged the top-most book out of the pile and brought it toward her.
"I guess I should finish this before I forget," she commented as she opened it where she had left off.
The material was surprisingly interesting to her, something that her past self would claim as insane. Mary Jane was especial fascinating with biology. She was rather curious about Fang, he had just appeared one day and changed her world in the blink of an eye. She wanted to know more about him, to discover what he actually was, and how he did the things he did.
She took a little longer in finishing the book, since she kept trying to use her growing knowledge to try and mentally dissect her new friend. Regretfully she turned the last page in the book without finding much.
Reading the rest of the books only took a few moments, but she kept thinking about her friend during the entire time.
Finishing the final book in the pile she patted herself in the back, if she kept this up, she would be smart enough to test into any college of her choice. Harvard, Princeton, Empire State University would all be fighting to get their hands on her.
Checking the clock, she noticed it was a little past 8.
"I guess I deserve a little break."
Walking toward her desk, she slouched on her chair and opened up her laptop.
The first thing she noticed was that her e-mail had a number of unread messages. She ignored them since she knew they were most likely from her friends from her old school. MJ hasn't said anything to them before she left.
Opening a tab to her homepage, she scrolled down the recent events and had to blink twice when she saw her face on one of the recent articles.
[Red-haired teen stops armed robbery.]
The quality of the picture showed that it was taken with a phone camera, but that still didn't stop her from recognizing herself. "At least they got my good side," she thought when she inspected the photo, her fierce expression looked almost as if she was glaring at you through the monitor.
Clicking on the link, she was brought to a new page. The original story came from a blogger that just so happened to be there at the time and managed to capture it on his phone. It gave the details of the robbery and her involvement in it. It did a fantastic job of glorifying her, making it seem like she was some type of 8th degree blackbelt or some other nonsense. Thankfully they hadn't managed to get her name yet, but she knew it was only a matter of time, everyone was connected nowadays and the chance that someone would recognize her was almost a certainty.
She whistled when she saw the number of likes and re-posts that it was getting. She started to read some of the comments and snorted at the name they had given her. "Really? Couldn't they have chosen something better than Karate Girl."
She started to read some of the comments:
Starshow23: Dang that girl can hit.
KicksR4Kids: Shit! Did anyone see how she did that. Brutal man, just brutal."
Trollhunter32: lol :) she took them down in 12 seconds. I counted."
$Pinkranger$: I think it's good that a woman finally shows that we should be pushed around.
Mob32874: I could take her ;)
Truefist09: her execution was perfect. She waisted no movements at all. Aimed at all their vitals and took them down in seconds. 2 thumbs up.
RekU2: Am I the only who thinks she went to far. Most of these men will mostly like be confined to a hospital bed from now on.
Starshow23: RekU2 are you serious man. They shot a cop. I say they deserved worse.
RekU2: It was a mall security guard
KicksR4Kids: It doesn't matter. She was fighting for her life. I saw anything is fair game.
Trainlove3: Karate Girl can manhandle me all she wants ;)
kfjvniueod: Im with Trainlove3. That intense pissed off look that just screamed that she wanted to step on me was so hot.
$Pinkranger$: ewwww :(
bow2me: I know what Im gonna do later ;)
tinyknife!: Karate Girl, kicking ass and taking hearts
"Cool, I'm trending," MJ said as she watched the thread grow. There was also a Twitter and Facebook page with some news outlets like the Daily Bulge covering the robbery in more detail.
"I always wanted to be famous. I just think it would be like this. Wonder if I could use this," she thought as she scanned the overall opinion. Most called her a hero, while a few condemned her for using excessive violence.
While it was nice to be called a hero, MJ didn't think that was true. She didn't beat them up so she could stop the crime, she did it because it meant survival. If they hadn't targeted her and her aunt, she would have been more than happy to let them go, but they just had to make it personal.
'Still, it does feel good to be recognized, plus that guard was able to live thanks to us,' she pondered as she began to watch the small video of her in action. It cut off just as she chased after the last guy.
She switched to YouTube and began to look up more videos. In no time she picked up a couple more useful skills: first aid, sketching, singing, improv, driving, painting, swimming, just to name a few.
The teenage girl stood up from her chair and stretched out the kinks in her body. She closed the laptop and headed down stairs, where he aunt was just exiting the basement. From the small amount of sweat covering her form, MJ could guess what she was doing. "Have a good workout Aunt Anna?"
"Oh, I see someone is up. I've been filled with energy all morning," the old woman told her cheerfully as she jogged in place to demonstrate.
MJ noticed the dark circles around her eyes and the overall exhaustion on her aunt but decided not to say anything. 'She must not have gotten enough sleep.'
"Okay. I just finished skimming the rest of the books. I think I should be ready for the test," she said confidently.
Anna however raised an eyebrow, unable to believe that her niece could have studied all those notes in such a short time. "Really? Then you could tell me, what is the Capital of Idaho?" the old woman challenged
"Boise," MJ shot back without hesitation.
"How about Minnesota?"
"That's easy. Saint Paul."
"What's the square root of pi?" Anna said rapidly.
"1.772453-"
"Alright that's enough, I'm not even sure if that's correct, but it sound right," the elderly woman said as she gave in.
"Told ya. Are you going to Mrs. Parker right now?" MJ said out loud.
Anna nodded, "Yes, I was planning to stop by during lunch. I just don't like leaving her alone right now."
Mary Jane was hit with a sudden stab of guilt, but she managed to push it down and smiled at her aunt, "Yes, you're right. It hasn't been that long since her husband has passed from what you told me. Being alone in a house that has so many memories can't be good for her."
"Do you want to come also?"
Mary Jane shook her head, "Naw, I was planning to catch up on some daytime television and maybe go for a run later."
Anna looked like she wanted to say something but thought better on it. She just smiled and said, "Okay Dear, there's plenty of food in the pantry so you shouldn't starve to death." She turned and walked away to her room before giving her one last look, "Be careful okay."
Seeing the worried eyes directed at her MJ nodded and gave a small smile, "I will."
Once her aunt left to go next door, MJ grabbed her recently acquire chocolate stash and planted herself firmly into her seat as she turned on the T.V.
Reaching into a pillow case that was half way filled with chocolate she took out a single Snickers bar. Peeling back the wrapper she bit into it and let the delicious taste spread around her mouth, "Oh yes, this is exactly what I needed." She raised the volume on the television.
[Next on the Judge Mable Show.]
[Clare claims that Daren is the father of her two-year daughter. Daren says that that child can't possibly be his.]
[Clare: He better take responsibility. That is his child and he should own up to it like a man.]
[Daren: That girl looks nothing like me. I know she was with other dudes, so she can't possibly be mine.]
"Seen it," MJ said with a roll of her eyes before changing the channel.
[-million dollars in priceless paintings and jewelry was stolen from a New York City museum last night. Police are still looking for leads-]
[-the bat uses a remarkable high frequency system called echolocation, that works in a similar way to a sonar-]
She kept channel surfing until she had eaten half her stash.
Stretching from her position she turned off the T.V. and began to walk to the door. Her clothes changing into a pair of sneakers, black running shorts, and a white t-shirt. Her hair arranged itself into a long ponytail with bangs that framed her face. "I'm getting better at that."
Giving herself a quick check over in the mirror MJ couldn't help but think that she looked extra nice today. She knew that she was hot, that had never been a secret, but there was just something else when she saw herself. It was strange, she knew that she still looked the same as yesterday, but suddenly she was more aware of her own sexuality, from the way her hair brought out her eyes, the small dimples on the edge of her mouth when she smiles, the way her butt stood out.
Maybe it was simple narcissism, but at that moment MJ couldn't help but think of herself as desirable, not just to others but to herself as well.
She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts, 'What am thinking, I'm not that conceded.'
Tearing herself away from the mirror MJ exited the small suburban home and started to jog in a brisk pace.
(Park)
She had been jogging nonstop for an hour already, but MJ felt only slightly winded. She new that she had gained amazing stamina but this was ridiculous, although to be fair, she hadn't been going that fast only at the level of professional joggers.
Taking a seat on a nearby bench that overlooked the large man-made lake, she began to observe the other people there. There was a family of three walking around with their newborn, a street artist that was using spray cans on a canvas to paint something, a couple that were laying underneath the shade of a tree.
'Everything seems so peaceful. I wouldn't mind get used to this.'
Coming from the same direction that she had taken was another female jogger. She looked to be in her mid to late twenties, with short black hair, large hazel eyes and a healthy figure. A very healthy figure MJ amended in her head as she watched the woman's breast threaten to burst out of her tight blue training bra with every step. Her skin was flawless, a beauty mark on the edge of her mouth that gave her an element of sensuality, it wouldn't be farfetched to think she was some type of model.
There was also something hypnotic about those movements that caught her attention. Her vision slowed down everything and watched as they moved up and down, almost like that slow-motion scene in Baywatch when the women in tight one-piece bathing suits are running along the beach.
She was so lost in her thought that she didn't notice when the woman stopped right in front of her. 'Crap! Did she say something?' "Umm? Sorry did you say something?"
"Yeah, I asked if that seat was taken," the woman said as she pointed to the empty space next to MJ. She was hunched over slightly as she tried to catch her breath, giving MJ a clear view of her cleavage.
"Ummm, yeah. It's free if you want to sit," the redhead offered as she scooted to make more room.
"Thanks Red," the woman said as she collapsed on the bench in exhaustion. Tiredly she looked toward MJ with a smile, "You're pretty good, I've been trying to catch up two you for half an hour."
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Really? I didn't notice."
Sitting up straighter, the woman extended an open hand, "Clare Dolton."
Taking the hand offered to her, Mary Jane shook it good naturedly, "Mary Jane Watson."
Clare took back her hand before throwing MJ a curious look.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" MJ asked.
"Huh? No, its just- you look familiar? Do I know you from somewhere?"
"I don't-"
The black-haired woman snapped her fingers in realization, "Ah! You're the Karate Girl! I saw the video earlier today, I got say I haven't seen moves that good since … well ever actually."
Her cheeks colored from embarrassment, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear MJ gave a nervous smile, "You saw that."
Clare laughed at her, "Hahahaha, your kidding right. That's video is currently in the top 5 of almost every social media."
Mary Jane groaned as she covered her face, "This was not how I pictured getting famous."
Quirking her lips up, Clare looked MJ over, "Have you given any thoughts on modeling."
Uncovering her eyes, she took a glance at the other woman, "Modeling? Me? Not really, I've always been more into acting?"
"Are you any good," Clare asked.
Composing herself the best she could, MJ sat up straighter before answering, "Well I've never done anything professional, but I have been in a few school plays. Not to toot my own horn, but I'd like to believe I have some mad acting skills."
"Really? Why don't you give me an demonstration?" Clare challenged.
"How?"
"Wait, I have just the thing," Clare said taking out her smartphone from only god knows where and started to tap on the screen. "Here, can you read this?" she called out as she shoved the phone into MJ face.
The redhead had to lean back so she could read the screen, "Is this a script? Are you an actress or something?"
"Something like that, so can you do it?"
The script wasn't that long only about twenty lines or so line. She only glanced at them for a second but had it memorize it completely. Taking a deep breath she turned her face to the side before looking at Clare again.
Her eyes were watery as her lips trembled. In a voice that was barely above a whisper she spoke, "W-why? Why are you doing this to us? Why are you doing this to m-me?" Her voice cracked at the end as she let a tear run down her cheek.
Springing to her feet she began to pace in front of the bench, "How could you think this would make me happy? Do you realize what you're asking me? Don't you even care that you might die!?"
Angry tears began to pour out of MJ as she glared at Clare and the brunette had to remind herself that it was all an act.
MJ suddenly kneeled in front of the woman and grabbed her hands tightly, "Please! I beg you, don't go! We can work this out together, like we've always have. I know things look bad now, but there's no need for you to do this."
The two stared into each other's eyes, and Clare flinched back at the raw emotion that were coming out of the red-haired girl.
"So thats your answer? You would gamble your life away in the army instead of staying here, with me!? Don't you even care how I would feel knowing that you could die at any minute. You could die out there alone in the middle of nowhere and I wouldn't know until they bring you back in a body bag!" Mary Jane finished with a shout as she began to cry out more loudly.
"-End scene," she said as she took her hands back from the stunned woman, wiping the remainder of the tears from her face. She stood up from her squatted position and took her previous seat on the bench as if nothing had happened. "So what do you think?"
Clare looked flabbergasted as she looked at MJ, "First off, wow! I can definitely see those mad acting skills you talked about. Second, here." She took out a business card from nowhere again and handed it over to MJ.
Cautiously Mary Jane took the offered card and inspected it.
[New Wave Entertainment
Talent Agency
CEO: Clare Dolton]
There was a telephone, an email, and an address printed on corner. She raised and eyebrow while giving the woman a skeptical look, "This isn't one of those scams is it? The ones that just take people's money and are never heard of again?"
Clare didn't look offended in the slightest just smiled, "No, this is legit. I used to be a model a few years back before starting my own agency, you can verify it if you want later. Still, I see a lot of talent. If you ever feel like getting serious about acting, why don't you give me a call. I might have a few jobs for you."
Tucking the card into her pocket, MJ stood up from her seat, "I'll think about it." She turned around and began to walk away, throwing her one last look.
Clare gave her a flirtatious wave before calling out to her, "Don't keep me waiting too long, alright!"
MJ rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the small quickening of her heart beat when she saw those bedroom eyes. 'Alright, so it isn't just me!' she thought to herself concerning her sudden interest in women.
'I need to go run some more to get my head on straight,' she finished as she picked up her pace.
(Scene change)
Her run had led her through the streets of Manhattan until she had arrived at the outside of an abandoned theater. The outside looked worn down and unkept, the name had long since faded with time and only a pathetic 'TH' was hanging loosely from the sign. Some of the windows looked like they had been broken and different gang signs were spray painted on the walls. All the entrances were boarded up with thick pieced of plywood and a chain link fence surrounded the building to discourage trespassers. At the very front of the large building was a 'For Sale' sign plastered for all to see.
Giving it a contemplating look MJ thought to herself, 'This would be a good chance to test more of my powers.'
Deciding to at least try, she sneaked toward the back of the building into an alleyway.
She saw the back entrance that lead into the theater. Making sure that no one was watching her, she crouched down on the floor and tried to leap over the 7 foot fence.
MJ managed to jump over it easily, the only problem being was that she was still not used to her strength and had overshot her mark. She had jumped thirty feet high before smacking face first into the brick wall.
"Oof!" she yelped as the wind was knocked out of her. Although she had just smashed into a solid wall, she only felt a dull sting. The redhead saw that she was still stuck on the wall like some sort of spider, so with careful movement she began to crawl down to the floor. Or at least that was the plan, when suddenly she lost her grip on the wall half way through and plummeted the rest of the way.
"Ouch," she groaned as she landed on her back before standing back up and dusted herself off. 'Really hope no one saw that.'
The young woman jiggled the doorknob but found that it was locked, "What was I thinking, of course it would be locked. How am I supposed to get in now."
Glaring at the stubborn knob Mary Jane thought of just breaking it but suddenly an idea came to her.
Carefully she extended a single finger toward the key hole and concentrated. From her outstretched finger grew a single thin tentacle that wormed it's way inside. It only took a second of fiddling with the lock before she heard a small click and the door swung open.
Retracting the tentacle back into herself she smirked and blow imaginary smoke from her finger tip, "Not bad, not bad at all."
She entered the dark building with only a little hesitance. Finding a light switch on one of the walls she flicked it only to be left sorely disappointed when nothing happened. "Tch. Why can't it be like in movies when buildings still have power. Stupid real world. Damn those electric companies that actually do cut the power on time." Despite the obvious lack of light, MJ found that she could see just fine in the dark, or at least the same as outside.
Shutting the door behind her, MJ began to make her way further inside.
The place was rather messy, she could see the ground littered in garbage and old flyers. Colonizes of insects had long since claimed this as their home, and MJ had to hold back a shiver as a particularly large cockroach tried to brush against her shoe only for a black tendril to spear it and then consume it.
"Nope. Nope. I'm not going to even think about that?" she told herself as she tried not to think about where exactly that disgusting thing was now, if only to preserve her remaining sanity.
As she shuffled more through the mountain of trash, more and more bugs escaped only for Fang to consume them as well. Even an unfortunate rat that tried to scurry passed her couldn't escape as a black web covered it in a cocoon like structure before constricting it from all sides, making MJ wince every time she heard a bone snap.
Her danger senses perked up suddenly and she had to duck as a family of bats dive bombed her. "Whoa!"
The symbiote reacted to her sudden surprise and large sharp spears shot out from her skin, impaling every single bat through the chest. The large mouth that still managed to unnerve her opened on her shirt and proceeded to consume the flying pests.
She was hit with a sudden sense of nausea and had to lean against the wall for support.
"Wow. What was that?"
The young woman didn't know what that strange feeling was yet, but she could instinctively feel a change in the symbiote.
With a wave of her hand she tried to shoot out a red web out of her wrist but what she got was a cluster of small projectiles that explode as soon as they made contact with the wall. Wide-eyed, MJ looked at her hand again and saw a glossy red cockroach come out of the black band on her wrist and fall to the ground.
"Eww! Eww! Eww!" she screamed as she rubbed her wrist to get rid of the disgusting feeling all the while backpedaling.
The small pest stood still as it awaited something, it's thin antennas twitching every so often.
MJ was still freaking out over the fact that a freaking cockroach just crawled out of her skin. "I take it back these powers are so fucking weird!"
As she stared at the small red roach all she wanted was for it to get as far away from her as possible.
The antennas stood up suddenly, and with speed that betrayed it's small size, it scampered over mounds of trash and started to climb the wall furthest from her. It glowed red three times in rapid succession before detonating into a small flameless blast that managed to gouge out a portion of the wall.
"What the?"
She stared at the newly made hole in shock.
While half of her was curious to test this new power, the other half was filled with revulsion at the thought more of those disgusting things crawling out of her.
"You know what? I'm just going to pretend that this didn't happen?" she told herself with a determined expression before exiting the room to explore more of the theater.
Walking down the long dark corridor MJ noticed some posters hanging on the wall. "Oh? Did they perform 'Phantom of the Opera,' here?"
The poster had a man dressed in a black tux, a flowing black cape fluttering by some invisible wind and bone white half mask obscuring the top of his face.
Looking closely at the picture, MJ didn't noticed Fang begin to transform until she felt something grow on her face.
"Huh?"
Bringing a hand to her face, she could feel a cold hard material underneath her fingertips. Finding an edge, she managed to slip her fingers underneath and pull the object away from her. Inspecting it, she noticed that it was an almost exact replica of the mask in the poster.
Mary Jane finally noticed that she was currently wearing the same clothes as the man, the only differences was that it hugged her figure more closely and she was wearing black boots. She even had a black velvet cape on her shoulders with the inside being a dark scarlet red.
"Nice," she said as she twirled around in her new attire, particularly enjoying the fluttering of her cape.
Putting on the mask again to complete the look, she felt it fuse to her face and even move as if it was a second skin.
It took her a couple more seconds of walking before she finally found herself staring down at the stage from one of the second story seats.
"I wonder what it must have felt like to be here when it was still open. What were the actors like? Were they sad when this place finally shut down?"
With a pensive look, MJ stood up from her seat and walked toward the guardrail that kept people from falling over the edge.
Bending her knees slightly, she leaped from her position and towards the stage downward. She got half-way before noticing that she hadn't put in enough power and she would crash into the seat below.
She braced herself for impact, but there was no need as just as she was coming down, her cape split in half and transformed into two large bat wings that flapped once and extended to their full size. Mary Jane glided the rest of the way, stumbling forward only momentarily as the wings lost their form once her feet touched the wooden stage.
Checking behind her she noticed that her cape was back in place before a large grin got plastered on her face. "That was actually pretty fun."
She didn't have much time to experiment however, as she felt her danger senses flare up.
Scanning her surrounding she noticed that the rusted chains holding a large metal chandelier above the stage had snapped off, probably caused by her landing.
She was just about to leap out of the way, when she noticed her cape move around her to cover her in a protective dome. All she could do was close her eyes and trust that Fang knew what he was doing.
Crash!
Hesitantly she opened her eyes and released a breath of relief when she noticed that her cape had managed to hold out. Bringing a hand to the dome still incasing her, MJ noticed that it was hard to the touch, almost as if it was metal. Taking a closer look, she discovered that the cape was made up of countless small pentagonal disk that overlapped each other to form a hard glossy surface.
With a mental command she forced the cape to turn back to normal. It fell limply around her, losing its rigidness and becoming cloth once more, the chandelier falling slowly to the side.
"Looks like we have more things to test," she said with a sign and hunched shoulders before looking up with excited eyes.
A/N: Done.
So now you kind of guess what MJ powers revolve around. FYI the theme is mimicry. She got those powers because she wanted to become an actress, so now she can imitate anyone or anything. She can act and transform into anyone, she can make constructions that can act like the original, and even mimic some of their powers.
The cluster bombs as I'm going to call the roaches are pieces of the symbiote (like the webs) that can crawl over surfaces and other obstacles with ease and detonate with a mental command from MJ.
The cape can move independently to protect MJ from threats. It is made from trillions of overlapping chitin plates that are strong enough to take a bullet or other damage with ease by distributing the force of the impact to the rest of the cape. Sort of like Dragon Scale bullet proof vests. They can also rearrange themselves to form spikes and other edge weaponry.
Still unsure if I should go with the bat theme, but I gave her bat wings since it fit with the cape.
Hope you like the little Phantom of the Opera reference. I'm still undecided on what her superhero name will be but I kind of liked the idea of naming her Opera and the symbiote being called Phantom and together they would be known as the Phantom Opera. Still undecided however.
Please comment, I like to hear new ideas or suggestions