Reed Richard, also known as Mr Fantastic, was looking through a microscope in his lab. He had just discovered a very interesting species of unicellular organism (he was the only one in the building that thought of it as interesting). Just as he was about to figure out the biological phylum of it a red light on his handheld computer/cell phone started to twinkle. He lifted it up from the desk and had a look. Then he dialed the first number he had on speed dial.
"Susan?" he said in it. "Could you meet me at the observation deck? It looks like we are getting visitors."
Susan Storm, aka The Invisible Woman, soon joined her boyfriend outside, where they was greeted by the two young superheroes Spider-man and Jackpot.
"Hi Peter. Nice of you not to get fried by the security systems this time."
"You knew we were coming?" Peter asked.
"I have connected the buildings sensors to my cell phone, the computer recognised your body signature from half a mile away."
"Wow, you got to fix me one of those."
"Sure, you got 54 000 dollars for the components?"
While the boys where doing the friendly chit chat, Susan was concetrated on something else.
"Oh my god. Is that you, Mary Jane?"
"Is it that obvious?" MJ asked after she took off her mask, worried that she was to easily recognizable.
"Not really. When I saw you on TV yesterday I didn't recognize you. But come on, a red headed superheroine shows up together with Spider-man, that we know have a red headed girlfriend. It's easy to connect one plus one if you got all the backstory."
"Yeah, I guess so. Let's hope all the towns criminals don't get it."
Reed stretched out his neck, startled MJ as he did it.
"Interesting. You are saying you're that new superhero everybody is talking about?" he said while reaching his head around her to get a better look of her costume.
"I'm standing here, in spandex, if that's proof enough."
"This is why we come here." Peter said. "There's a whole lot of unanswered questions in this mess, and we were hoping you guys could help us with that. Since you did it before, I mean."
Reeds head returned to his shoulders and he rubbed his chin, like he was thinking of something. "I think we can do that. Come on in and we'll run some test."
Reed and Susan lead Pete and MJ through the Baxter building, and even though they already been here a few times before, the place never ceased to amaze them.
"Now..." Sue said to them. "First, we'll put you in the bioscanner, then we do some test to see how strong you are, how fast et cetera. I also need to take some blood and urine samples from you."
MJ face frowned. "Urine...? Is that really necessarly?" she asked, and both Susan and Reed nodded. "Okay, but you better fetch me some water then."
The four heroes passed the door leading to the spare time room, where Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, known to the public as The Human Torch and The Thing, were engaged in a bloody fight. On the X-box. MJ and Peter waved at the two and said "Hi", the two Fantastic Four members however did not even looked up.
"Yeah hi Pete, hi MJ." Johnny said without taking his eyes from the TV-screen.
"Yeah hi..." Ben said, he too to much in the game.
The two more mature members of the Fantastic Four shook their heads and lead their guest further down the hallway, leaving Johnny and Ben for themself. After a minute, funny sounds could be heard as the screen changed color and showed the words Game Over, the score favoring Ben Grimm.
"Oh man, that's not fair!" Johnny bursted out. "Your guy is way faster then mine!"
"Is not, Flamebrain. You lost fair and square, so suck it."
"It's not fair, I demand a-- Wait! Was that Mary Jane?"
They both looked at the open doorway, finally reacting to the information that had reached their brains.
"If it was she sure gone Britney on us."
"My friend, this we gotta see those up-- I mean this up close."
"After you, Matchstick."
After giving them some blood and urine, Reed and Sue had Mary Jane step into the giant scanner that bombarded her with beams of light. She was sure that if she had needed glasses before she stepped in, she didn't when she stepped out. After that, they made her lift some kind barbbell, but instead of weights, the device was connected to the floor by some kind of magnets. Lifting it was hard, but not particularly heavy. It was like some invisible force tried to force it down when she lifted it. During the whole time, Peter stood in the corner with his arms crossed, being very quiet.
After the magnetic barbell, they put MJ on some kind treadmill. They hooked her up to a pulse monitor and Richard told her to run as fast as she could until he said stop. And run she did. During which, she came to realize something;
"Man I wish I'd brought a sportsbra."
"Heh, welcome to The Big Girls club, sweetie. We got meetings and cake." Susan joked, which some of the boys didn't get.
"She's kidding, right?" Johnny asked. "There's no such club, is it?" But Reed, Peter and Ben just ignored him.
When all the test where done, MJ sat on a bed in the room that where the buildings medic room.
"Okay." Reed said while facing the holographic computer screen. "I'm just gonna put in some numbers and then we just wait for the test results. It's just going to take a couple of minutes."
There was a long silence. The kind of silence when people don't really know what they should do now.
"Man, is this boring." MJ said as she finally broke the quiet. Peter just rolled his eyes.
Then Susan turned to MJ. "Can I get you anything, MJ? Anything to eat? Drink?"
"Oh yes, I'm starving. Bring me anything, and lots of it. And something to pass the time, if that's okay?"
"Sure. You want anything Peter?"
"No I'm good."
Sue then left the room. Her younger brother on the other hand, wouldn't leave the room for all in the world.
"I'm telling you, MJ, you just look awesome in that thing. Green is really your color. And the show on the treadmill, wow, really made my day."
"You're such a smooth talker, Johnny. But thanks anyway." MJ told him, both a little amused and a lot annoyed of his blarney.
"Heh. You look great on the TV too, all those acrobat moves you do. Tell me, can you do the split?"
Johnny was unobservant of the evil eye that MJ's boyfriend were giving him. Ben, being quiet and just watching the whole thing, leaned in and whispered to Pete;
"Careful, Web. If somebody won't stop 'im soon, he ask her to pose for 'im or something."
"Say MJ, you're not interesting in modeling are you? I'm somewhat of an amateur photographer..."
"There ya hav'it."
That was the last straw for Peter. "OKAY, THAT'S IT!!! Every one in here who is not a patient, dating the patient OR have at least two PhD, LEAVE!!! NOW!!!"
"What? No!"
"You heard 'im, Johnny-boy. You're coming with me."
And by that, Ben lifted Johnny up, took him under his arm and carried him out of the room. On the way out they passed Sue, carrying a invisible tray full of candy bars.
"Why does it feel like the IQ in this room just went up when he left? Here, I found this for you."
She handed MJ a handfull of bars and a bottle of water.
"Johnny is trying to get us sponsored by some energy bar company. I for one don't get it, it's just nuts, fruits and chocolate."
"If oo ine, thafs." MJ said with her mouth full.
Peter looked at his girlfriend, and he had to smile, MJ was awfully cute with her cheeks stuffed with chocolate. Susan then handed MJ a paper she brought them.
"Here. I thought you might wanna look at todays Bugle."
MJ took the paper, and just as Susan said, on the the front page she could see herself fighting the grey monster from yesterday. "A NEW MENACE IN TOWN. EXCLUSIVE PHOTO BY BEN URICH" it read under the front picture.
"Look at that, Peter. I'm the big story of today." she said as she swallowed down the nut bars with some water.
"Is that the guy that beat you up?"
"Yeah, and he's even uglier in real life. Hm, Menace huh. Guess ugly-guy got himself a name now."
Peter leaned in to read over MJ's shoulder. "MJ... I think the're talking about you."
"What?!"
"Look further down. It says 'Vigilante Jackpot and her unnamed associate caused property damage worth tens of thousands of dollars. The menace of self-made heroes, such as Jackpot...' They never mention ugly-guy by a name."
MJ seemed to collapse in the bed. Her head hanged with her head and her arms went limp.
"That's just perfect. Not only do I get the beating of my life, I get pointed out as a danger to society. That Jameson, I hate him so much."
Peter put his hand on Mary Janes knee to comfort her. "Don't take it personaly, MJ. He's a jerk to everybody. You know what trash I have to put up with."
"You guys are not alone, we have taken some crap from him too." Susan joined in. "We can really do nothing but take the high road."
PING
"Aha! Here we got it." came from Reed as the display finally were done with the results. "Interesting." he continued as he read it.
"What?"
"Well, I've compared the DNA we took from you last time, after the whole clone incident you know, with the DNA you just gave us. And it is quite the big difference. Tell me Mary Jane, before you discovered your powers, did you feel sick or nauseated? Did you have any pain?"
"If I did! I thought I was gonna die."
"Mm-hm. Not surprising. Changes like this doesn't go easy on the body before they settle."
"But shes fine now, right?" Peter wondered.
"Oh yeah, she's fine. Actually, she's better. MJ, your values is through the roof."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your physiology are amazing. Your entire metabolic efficiency is greatly enhanced. You have a heighten amount of blood cells, which makes your body better at taking up nourishment and oxygen, and it seems to produce less waste products then before. The density of your bones, muscles and skin has increased, and your cells generate in a astounding speed. Not Wolverine-fast, but still pretty fast. And you seem to have an higher resistance to negative influences, such as toxins and virus. I would also guess, and I'm often right when I do, that the reason you eat so much more now is simply becouse of a much faster metabolism. It kind of go together with all this."
"Well, that's good to know."
Susan picked up a medical chart and started to read off it. "And that's not all of it. MJ, your strenght-test showed you were able to lift 3.4 metric tons. That's about 7480 pounds, roughly 660 pounds more then Peter can lift."
And Peter raised an eyebrow at this statement. "So she's stronger then me? Nice, won't hurt my male ego at all."
"Awww, cheer up Tiger." MJ said as she took held his hand. "You're still the number one macho in my book."
"Cute."
Mr Fantastic read the chart over The invisible Womans shoulder, while his right hand was still typing at the keyboard, five feets away. "But we have to remember that this is not a conclusive number. You are both young, and I do belive that you'll both grow stronger as you reach full maturity."
"Look at me, how much more mature can I get?"
Sue cleared her throat. "Let's take one thing at the time. When it comes to your reflexes, they are much superior to a normal person, but not far as good as Peters. I would say you're on the same level as Captain America, if not a tab better. Some parts of your brain seems to have evolved, especially those that handle your balance and senses."
"On the treadmill you were able to reach a speed of 42 miles per hour." Richard told. "And you were able to sustain that speed for three minutes."
"I could have gone on much longer if you hadn't told me to stop."
Peter stepped up to ask a question he had in his head all the time. "Tell me, how come she... you know... Why is she-- I mean, she's..."
"What my eloguent boyfriend here is trying to say is; Why do I look like Jessica Rabbit all the sudden?"
Reed adjusted his glasses. "Well, uh..." But Sue interrupted him.
"I'll take this, honey."
"Oh thank you. So much."
"MJ, there's a number of things that caused your body to change this much. One is that it's now storing fatcells much more efficient. Another one is that you have a heighten amount of estrogen in your systems. The scanning showed that you also have a increased numbers of glandula mammaria."
"Uh-huh... Which is?"
"Milk glands."
"Oh. Um, that's nice but... I don't really see the meaning of all that, other then making me look smoking hot."
"If you look at it from a survival-of-the-species point of view, it's a big deal. A more attractive body makes it easier to attract the opposite sex, ergo spreading ones genes and secure the next generation. All this just show that you are a strong, healthy person of the female gender."
MJ smiled and put her arm around Peters shoulder. "Well, this feamle don't need to attract anyone more. I've found the guy I wanna spread my genes with."
"Wait a second!" Peter broke in while braking free from MJ's arm. "It's all nice to now that my girlfriend suddenly can bench-press an SUV, and that she can sign up for Playboy or whatever. But the real questions is; WHY? How did she become like this?"
"The answer to that question must lie in her DNA chain." Reed said while facing the screen again. "I can't find any traces of the X-gene, so we can rule out the possibility that she's a mutant. I don't think-- Hold on a minute. What is this?"
He zoomed in to a few cells on the DNA helix that were slightly green. He was quiet while studying the results, all the others also went quiet too since they didn't wanted to disturb him now when he was on to something."
"I belive I have found the answer. MJ, the reason for your powers is... OZ."
"What?"
"OZ? You mean Norman-Osborn-OZ? As in Green-Goblin-OZ? Juiced-up-spider-that-bit-me-OZ?"
"Yep, and I'll tell you, I could not have found it unless I was actually looking for it. Take a look at this." The screen now showed two helix strands, looking exactly the like except for the cells that were green on one strand was red on the other. Reed pointed at the later. "See, this is before, when we thought we cured you of the OZ. And the other one is now. It seems that we didn't find a cure for you at all, it was just a antidote. It put the mutated cells to sleep instead of... unmutating them, so to speak. It looks like some external effect have caused them to mutate further, making you turn into what you are now."
Both Mary Jane and Peter looked at the display, speechless.
"But how... What do you mean external effect?"
Susan walked up to the keyboard and pulled up some more results. "Properly something she have ingested. Take a look what the computer find in her urine sample."
"Interesting. It looks like small traces of the OZ, but it seems to have been slighly altered on formula level. MJ, do you remember eating or drinking anything out of the ordinary?"
MJ shook her head.
"Then I guess someone have sneaked it into you without you knowing it. I have to to some more test to be sure."
"MJ, Peter." Susan said. "Do you know anyone else besides us that know of the OZ-formula?"
"I don't think so." Peter answered. "SHEILD have it of course. Otherwise, no one. I mean, Osborn is dead and-- Oh no! Reed!"
"What?"
"Do you think you can do me a favor? We have to call the Triskeleon and tell them we're coming over. Like, right now!"
"Okay, why?"
"Because I think I know who's responsible for this."
AN: I'm only uploading one chapter this time, because I don't seem to be able to upload documents from my computer to this site. I'll return as soon as this been fixed.
