Author's Note: The part of the story with Mary Jane is from Amazing Spider-Man volume 2, issue #44(#485), minus Peter and Aunt May.
The next two sequels to this story are going to be written hopefully soon, if high school doesn't take up most of my free time.
The villain in this story, "Mirage", is the actually the second villain with the name Mirage. I just recently learned that years ago Spider-Man tangled with someone named "The Mirage", so technically the Mirage villain here is "Mirage II". They don't have anything to do with each other, though.
Some parts from the conversation MJ and Rick (The Amazing Lobster-Man) have are lifted directly from volume 2, issue #44 to coincide with that issue. Plus, it's nifty to do that sort of thing, to keep up with continuity.
A big thanks to reviewers: Kat, Blaque Cell, DominoDS, Mossberg, deLurk, Serena, Jade, LAXgirl, Tammy-ddrtrr, and Lois Lane!
And now, I proudly present another chapter to add to the archives...
- Peter Parker: Responsibility -
- By Brian Marcelo -
- brianmarcelo@hotmail.com -
- PG-13 for language and content -
- Chapter Five -
"Mr. Parker?" Jennifer yelped in surprise, taking her hand off the knob to Peter's room, "What's wrong? How come you were yelling outside?"
Peter sighed a breath of relief as he fell back on his couch. "I was uh...yelling at the neighbors. They were letting their dog out again. It uh, likes to bite me sometimes."
Jennifer's eyebrow raised in suspicion. "How can you were yelling out 'Danger' then?"
"It scares their dog?" Peter replied lamely, hoping she'd believe his excuse.
"Oh, okay then." she said, as she went back to opening the door to Peter's room.
"Wait! What are you doing?" Peter said, panicking as he dashed towards the door to block her.
"What's the big deal, Mr. Parker?"
"My room's a real mess, Jenny, trust me on that..." he said nervously 'especially since my costume and web shooters are in there too...'
"Besides, why do you want to go in there anyways?" Peter asked, this being his turn to be a tad suspicious.
"I wanted to see where the crib was." she stated innocently.
"What crib?" he asked in confusion.
"You know, for your one year old-ish baby?" she said, wondering what was up with her science teacher.
"I don't have any kids, Jenny." Peter said quietly.
"But why were you picking out cribs with your pregnant wife then...?"
"How did you know about that?"
"I was looking through your photo album, Mr. Parker." she replied sheepishly, "there was nothing else to do while waiting for you to come back."
'Oh yeah, I was looking through that last night while caring for Jenny...' he thought to himself, 'I must've left it on the table since I was such in a hurry to get to school."
"What happened to your wife and kid anyways, Mr. Parker?" she asked innocently.
"I'm...well, my wife and I are separated," Peter said quietly, "and I'll just say that there is no baby..."
The mischievous look on Jenny's face was gone, replaced by a sad frown.
"Sorry I reminded you of it, Mr. Parker."
"It's alright Jenny." he said, a bit more cheerfully this time, "I'm sure things will work out soon."
"I'm sure she knows that you love her. After all, if someone like you can help save my brother and me just because I asked you to, then she must be one lucky person to be with you. I bet she'll be back real soon," she said, adding, "Plus, you know Spider-Man! What girl wouldn't like that?"
Peter smiled, flattered and somewhat amused at the irony of the last thing she said, since Mary Jane left because he was Spider-Man.
Jenny smiled returned. "By the way Mr. Parker, thanks for letting me stay with you for awhile, I really appreciate it, especially after everything you've done for me."
"No problem Jenny." Peter said warmly, "Besides, I really don't mind at all."
"So, you use to be a photographer?" she asked with enthusiasm, as she sat down on one of the couches Peter had and opened up the photo album.
"Sort of," he replied, "I mostly do freelance work for the Bugle now, taking pictures of Spider-Man and the occasional special event."
"I wish I could be a photographer. It'd sure be an easy way to earn money." she remarked.
"That is, unless your boss happens to be someone named John Jonah Jameson." Peter muttered under his breath.
"Hey Mr. Parker?"
"Mmmm?"
"What happened to your dorky looking glasses?" she said with a sly smirk, showing him the photo of a very young Peter wearing black-rimmed glasses.
Peter laughed nervously, surprised that it took this long for someone to ask him this question. He had supposed that the spider had not only given him super strength, super agility, and spider sense, but had somehow given him back full 20/20 vision as well. He guessed that everyone probably thought he had just gotten his vision back, or something; they never did ask him about it.
"I have contacts." he answered simply, relieved to have quickly found an answer.
"No you don't." she replied, pointing to his eyes, "You don't have any on."
Peter gulped loudly. "Uh...I meant corrective laser eye surgery."
"They had that in the 80s?" she asked skeptically.
"Err...hey! What do you wanna have for dinner?" he said, picking up the phone and quickly changing the subject, "Pizza? Chinese take out?"
***
*knock-knock*
"Go away..." mumbled Mary Jane, who was trying unsuccessfully to sleep on her couch.
*knock-knock*
"Go away..." she said a little louder, as she put a pillow on top of her head to muffle the noise.
*knock-knock*
"I'm coming, I'm coming..." she yelled out from under the pillow.
*knock-knock*
"What? What is it?!" she yelled irritably, as she opened the door to find a guy dressed as a giant lobster in front of her.
"Hey MJ!" greeted the giant lobster.
"...who are you?" she asked with a huge fake smile on her face, not recognizing the actor but trying her best to stifle her laughter.
"It's Rick...Rick Turk. I know it's hard to tell in all this, but you know how it is." he said, with a big flashy smile on his face.
For some reason, Mary Jane was instantly reminded of the high school jocks who she use to go out with, before she met Peter. She thought it was probably his fake looking pearly white smile.
"Oh, um, hi...Rick." she said, embarrassed to have to work with someone who looked so ridiculous looking.
'Good thing Peter isn't here to see how embarrassing this is,' she thought, 'he'd be laughing so hard they'd have to haul him off the set."
"Mr. Devereaux said I'd find you here. Wanted to say hello to my love interest." he said with a wink, waving the huge lobster claw on his left hand around for added effect.
"Uh, yeah..." she muttered, "What's your character's name anyways?"
"C'mon, everyone knows the Amazing Lobster-Man!" he exclaimed proudly, flashing that eerily white smile again as he posed.
'I can't believe I signed up for this...okay MJ, no more accepting movie roles that don't even have scripts next time!' she thought to herself, relieved only by the fact that she was going to be killed off
***
Jennifer ate slowly as she contemplated on the last few days' events.
Steve was going to be gone for a long time, she was almost killed by a bunch of thugs, her home was messed up and most of her things were probably taken, and now she was staying with Peter Parker, her science teacher, as well as the only grown up who ever actually cared about her.
She studied him as she ate, wondering why he was so nice to her. If it wasn't for him and Spidey, she and her brother would both have been dead. He hadn't judged her by the way she lived, or the way her brother lived his life. He didn't listen to what the other kids called her, or what the other teachers thought about her.
It was amazing how Mr. Parker did so much for her, all for nothing. He even got her favorite superhero to help out, which was definitely a high point in her life. It was a weird feeling for her, to actually have someone she didn't know all that well actually care about her welfare.
Of course, she didn't mind though. Not at all.
Happily taking another bite of her pizza, she hoped that her stay with Mr. Parker wouldn't be cut short.
"I'm really thankful that you're letting me stay for awhile, Mr. Parker." she said quietly as she looked at her pizza, "it's not everyday someone lets you into their home, especially with a background like mine."
"You don't have a background though, Jenny. You've never done drugs or anything like that, you're just the victim of bad circumstances, that's all." Peter replied sternly, not wanting her to think that she was a bad kid.
"When I brought to your apartment I was unconscious because of this," she said quietly, pointing to her still black eye, "which I think says a lot about how my life sorta..."
"Like I said, you're just victim of bad circumstances that are beyond your control. You didn't do anything to deserve what happened last night." Peter insisted, taking a bite out of his pizza in the process.
Jenny grinned. "Maybe you're right Mr. Parker, but, you know, it was pretty cool seeing Spider-Man before I, you know, blacked out, cuz then I knew everything would be fine. It always is when he's around."
At this point Peter felt like saying thank you, but of course, that would mess up the whole point of having a secret identity, so he simply grinned and took another bite of pizza.
***
"Oh Amazing Lobster-Man! Who are you?" Mary Jane said dramatically, feeling cold from the artificial rain that was coming down.
"You already know, miss! I must now fly off!" answered the Amazing Lobster-Man triumphantly.
"Oh, Amazing Lobster-Man! You're the only superhero in my heart!" MJ cried out as the Amazing Lobster-Man flew off into the sunset.
"And...cut! Great job guys, just perfect!" said the director, who started clapping enthusiastically, "I can't wait for the post production group gets this footage so they can spruce it up with all sorts of special effects! You can go back to your trailers for a few minutes while we set up for the bridge scene where MJ dies!"
"Oh, great." muttered MJ, as she took off her ridiculously damp, uncomfortable, very revealing shirt and quickly replaced it with a nice, dry, non-revealing shirt.
"Isn't it great being the first girlfriend of a superhero such as the Amazing Lobster-Man?" Rick said proudly, still in costume for some ungodly reason.
Mary Jane forced herself to smile as her patience with this production grew thin.
'No...I won't make a scene...must resist urge to scream out. It wouldn't look good on the tabloids that a model trying to be an actress attacked her ridiculously goofy co-star.' she though to herself, as she tried to get her hair dried for the next scene.
***
"So, what do you plan on doing after high school's over?" Peter asked, as he put the leftovers away in the fridge.
"I dunno, Mr. Parker. Maybe get a job doing photography while I try to get into college, somehow." she answered while idly playing with the salt and peppershakers.
As he thought about her predicament a bright idea popped into his head. "Well...maybe I could help you with that..."
"Oh?"
A sly smile appeared on his face. "I've known my boss for over ten years, and even though he's been sort of a pain, I'm sure I could convince him to hire you."
"You'd do that for me Mr. Parker?" she exclaimed in disbelief.
"Why not? You need a job to get through college, and since you seem to be interested in photography, I bet ol' Jolly Jonah wouldn't mind getting some fresh new talent."
"I kinda need a camera though..." she said solemnly, since good cameras
"No problem, you can borrow mine." he answered casually, as if it wasn't a big deal, "it has a bunch of neat things like automatic mode, so I'm sure it'll be just perfect."
Peter didn't really need the camera as much as he did in the past, since his teaching job paid consistently higher then even the best photos of Spider-Man.
Jenny smiled brightly, although Peter didn't notice since he had plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. It was really a pleasant surprise to have someone be so unbelievably nice. She was so accustomed to having half drunk grown ups yell at her that she really tried not to associate with any people other then kids on the street.
Mr. Parker was significantly different; it was as if he was perpetually sixteen years old, except with responsibilities like paying the bills and going to work everyday.
Just as she was about to plop herself on the couch she heard a knock at the door.
*knock* *knock*
"Hey Mr. Parker, are you expecting anyone?"
Peter swiveled his head away from the TV. "No, why?"
"There's someone at the door." she replied, pausing as they heard it again.
*knock* *knock*
"Mind getting it?" he said with a slight grin, obviously not wanting to move away from the couch.
She rolled her eyes and nodded, as she put her hand on the doorknob and opened the door...revealing a tall man wearing a black jacket and black pants, complete with a menacing grin on his face as he played with a small white pill in his hand. He looked somewhat similar to that drug dealer who had been selling drugs to Steve, as well as the same person who "introduced" her to the Shade two nights ago. His dark appearance meant that this guy must be working for him...
"Hey little girl..." he said in an eerie tone, "wanna pop some pills with me...? We can have a lot of...fun together...just you...and me..."
- End of Chapter Five -
As usual with everything I write, please rate and review! ^_^
Most of this chapter was to have Peter and Jenny talk a little more, as well as seeing how Mary Jane's movie is turning out.
Look out for Lone Hero: Chapter Four out soon, followed up by Responsibility: Chapter Six! That is of course, if High School doesn't get too much in the way. ^_^;
The next two sequels to this story are going to be written hopefully soon, if high school doesn't take up most of my free time.
The villain in this story, "Mirage", is the actually the second villain with the name Mirage. I just recently learned that years ago Spider-Man tangled with someone named "The Mirage", so technically the Mirage villain here is "Mirage II". They don't have anything to do with each other, though.
Some parts from the conversation MJ and Rick (The Amazing Lobster-Man) have are lifted directly from volume 2, issue #44 to coincide with that issue. Plus, it's nifty to do that sort of thing, to keep up with continuity.
A big thanks to reviewers: Kat, Blaque Cell, DominoDS, Mossberg, deLurk, Serena, Jade, LAXgirl, Tammy-ddrtrr, and Lois Lane!
And now, I proudly present another chapter to add to the archives...
- Peter Parker: Responsibility -
- By Brian Marcelo -
- brianmarcelo@hotmail.com -
- PG-13 for language and content -
- Chapter Five -
"Mr. Parker?" Jennifer yelped in surprise, taking her hand off the knob to Peter's room, "What's wrong? How come you were yelling outside?"
Peter sighed a breath of relief as he fell back on his couch. "I was uh...yelling at the neighbors. They were letting their dog out again. It uh, likes to bite me sometimes."
Jennifer's eyebrow raised in suspicion. "How can you were yelling out 'Danger' then?"
"It scares their dog?" Peter replied lamely, hoping she'd believe his excuse.
"Oh, okay then." she said, as she went back to opening the door to Peter's room.
"Wait! What are you doing?" Peter said, panicking as he dashed towards the door to block her.
"What's the big deal, Mr. Parker?"
"My room's a real mess, Jenny, trust me on that..." he said nervously 'especially since my costume and web shooters are in there too...'
"Besides, why do you want to go in there anyways?" Peter asked, this being his turn to be a tad suspicious.
"I wanted to see where the crib was." she stated innocently.
"What crib?" he asked in confusion.
"You know, for your one year old-ish baby?" she said, wondering what was up with her science teacher.
"I don't have any kids, Jenny." Peter said quietly.
"But why were you picking out cribs with your pregnant wife then...?"
"How did you know about that?"
"I was looking through your photo album, Mr. Parker." she replied sheepishly, "there was nothing else to do while waiting for you to come back."
'Oh yeah, I was looking through that last night while caring for Jenny...' he thought to himself, 'I must've left it on the table since I was such in a hurry to get to school."
"What happened to your wife and kid anyways, Mr. Parker?" she asked innocently.
"I'm...well, my wife and I are separated," Peter said quietly, "and I'll just say that there is no baby..."
The mischievous look on Jenny's face was gone, replaced by a sad frown.
"Sorry I reminded you of it, Mr. Parker."
"It's alright Jenny." he said, a bit more cheerfully this time, "I'm sure things will work out soon."
"I'm sure she knows that you love her. After all, if someone like you can help save my brother and me just because I asked you to, then she must be one lucky person to be with you. I bet she'll be back real soon," she said, adding, "Plus, you know Spider-Man! What girl wouldn't like that?"
Peter smiled, flattered and somewhat amused at the irony of the last thing she said, since Mary Jane left because he was Spider-Man.
Jenny smiled returned. "By the way Mr. Parker, thanks for letting me stay with you for awhile, I really appreciate it, especially after everything you've done for me."
"No problem Jenny." Peter said warmly, "Besides, I really don't mind at all."
"So, you use to be a photographer?" she asked with enthusiasm, as she sat down on one of the couches Peter had and opened up the photo album.
"Sort of," he replied, "I mostly do freelance work for the Bugle now, taking pictures of Spider-Man and the occasional special event."
"I wish I could be a photographer. It'd sure be an easy way to earn money." she remarked.
"That is, unless your boss happens to be someone named John Jonah Jameson." Peter muttered under his breath.
"Hey Mr. Parker?"
"Mmmm?"
"What happened to your dorky looking glasses?" she said with a sly smirk, showing him the photo of a very young Peter wearing black-rimmed glasses.
Peter laughed nervously, surprised that it took this long for someone to ask him this question. He had supposed that the spider had not only given him super strength, super agility, and spider sense, but had somehow given him back full 20/20 vision as well. He guessed that everyone probably thought he had just gotten his vision back, or something; they never did ask him about it.
"I have contacts." he answered simply, relieved to have quickly found an answer.
"No you don't." she replied, pointing to his eyes, "You don't have any on."
Peter gulped loudly. "Uh...I meant corrective laser eye surgery."
"They had that in the 80s?" she asked skeptically.
"Err...hey! What do you wanna have for dinner?" he said, picking up the phone and quickly changing the subject, "Pizza? Chinese take out?"
***
*knock-knock*
"Go away..." mumbled Mary Jane, who was trying unsuccessfully to sleep on her couch.
*knock-knock*
"Go away..." she said a little louder, as she put a pillow on top of her head to muffle the noise.
*knock-knock*
"I'm coming, I'm coming..." she yelled out from under the pillow.
*knock-knock*
"What? What is it?!" she yelled irritably, as she opened the door to find a guy dressed as a giant lobster in front of her.
"Hey MJ!" greeted the giant lobster.
"...who are you?" she asked with a huge fake smile on her face, not recognizing the actor but trying her best to stifle her laughter.
"It's Rick...Rick Turk. I know it's hard to tell in all this, but you know how it is." he said, with a big flashy smile on his face.
For some reason, Mary Jane was instantly reminded of the high school jocks who she use to go out with, before she met Peter. She thought it was probably his fake looking pearly white smile.
"Oh, um, hi...Rick." she said, embarrassed to have to work with someone who looked so ridiculous looking.
'Good thing Peter isn't here to see how embarrassing this is,' she thought, 'he'd be laughing so hard they'd have to haul him off the set."
"Mr. Devereaux said I'd find you here. Wanted to say hello to my love interest." he said with a wink, waving the huge lobster claw on his left hand around for added effect.
"Uh, yeah..." she muttered, "What's your character's name anyways?"
"C'mon, everyone knows the Amazing Lobster-Man!" he exclaimed proudly, flashing that eerily white smile again as he posed.
'I can't believe I signed up for this...okay MJ, no more accepting movie roles that don't even have scripts next time!' she thought to herself, relieved only by the fact that she was going to be killed off
***
Jennifer ate slowly as she contemplated on the last few days' events.
Steve was going to be gone for a long time, she was almost killed by a bunch of thugs, her home was messed up and most of her things were probably taken, and now she was staying with Peter Parker, her science teacher, as well as the only grown up who ever actually cared about her.
She studied him as she ate, wondering why he was so nice to her. If it wasn't for him and Spidey, she and her brother would both have been dead. He hadn't judged her by the way she lived, or the way her brother lived his life. He didn't listen to what the other kids called her, or what the other teachers thought about her.
It was amazing how Mr. Parker did so much for her, all for nothing. He even got her favorite superhero to help out, which was definitely a high point in her life. It was a weird feeling for her, to actually have someone she didn't know all that well actually care about her welfare.
Of course, she didn't mind though. Not at all.
Happily taking another bite of her pizza, she hoped that her stay with Mr. Parker wouldn't be cut short.
"I'm really thankful that you're letting me stay for awhile, Mr. Parker." she said quietly as she looked at her pizza, "it's not everyday someone lets you into their home, especially with a background like mine."
"You don't have a background though, Jenny. You've never done drugs or anything like that, you're just the victim of bad circumstances, that's all." Peter replied sternly, not wanting her to think that she was a bad kid.
"When I brought to your apartment I was unconscious because of this," she said quietly, pointing to her still black eye, "which I think says a lot about how my life sorta..."
"Like I said, you're just victim of bad circumstances that are beyond your control. You didn't do anything to deserve what happened last night." Peter insisted, taking a bite out of his pizza in the process.
Jenny grinned. "Maybe you're right Mr. Parker, but, you know, it was pretty cool seeing Spider-Man before I, you know, blacked out, cuz then I knew everything would be fine. It always is when he's around."
At this point Peter felt like saying thank you, but of course, that would mess up the whole point of having a secret identity, so he simply grinned and took another bite of pizza.
***
"Oh Amazing Lobster-Man! Who are you?" Mary Jane said dramatically, feeling cold from the artificial rain that was coming down.
"You already know, miss! I must now fly off!" answered the Amazing Lobster-Man triumphantly.
"Oh, Amazing Lobster-Man! You're the only superhero in my heart!" MJ cried out as the Amazing Lobster-Man flew off into the sunset.
"And...cut! Great job guys, just perfect!" said the director, who started clapping enthusiastically, "I can't wait for the post production group gets this footage so they can spruce it up with all sorts of special effects! You can go back to your trailers for a few minutes while we set up for the bridge scene where MJ dies!"
"Oh, great." muttered MJ, as she took off her ridiculously damp, uncomfortable, very revealing shirt and quickly replaced it with a nice, dry, non-revealing shirt.
"Isn't it great being the first girlfriend of a superhero such as the Amazing Lobster-Man?" Rick said proudly, still in costume for some ungodly reason.
Mary Jane forced herself to smile as her patience with this production grew thin.
'No...I won't make a scene...must resist urge to scream out. It wouldn't look good on the tabloids that a model trying to be an actress attacked her ridiculously goofy co-star.' she though to herself, as she tried to get her hair dried for the next scene.
***
"So, what do you plan on doing after high school's over?" Peter asked, as he put the leftovers away in the fridge.
"I dunno, Mr. Parker. Maybe get a job doing photography while I try to get into college, somehow." she answered while idly playing with the salt and peppershakers.
As he thought about her predicament a bright idea popped into his head. "Well...maybe I could help you with that..."
"Oh?"
A sly smile appeared on his face. "I've known my boss for over ten years, and even though he's been sort of a pain, I'm sure I could convince him to hire you."
"You'd do that for me Mr. Parker?" she exclaimed in disbelief.
"Why not? You need a job to get through college, and since you seem to be interested in photography, I bet ol' Jolly Jonah wouldn't mind getting some fresh new talent."
"I kinda need a camera though..." she said solemnly, since good cameras
"No problem, you can borrow mine." he answered casually, as if it wasn't a big deal, "it has a bunch of neat things like automatic mode, so I'm sure it'll be just perfect."
Peter didn't really need the camera as much as he did in the past, since his teaching job paid consistently higher then even the best photos of Spider-Man.
Jenny smiled brightly, although Peter didn't notice since he had plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. It was really a pleasant surprise to have someone be so unbelievably nice. She was so accustomed to having half drunk grown ups yell at her that she really tried not to associate with any people other then kids on the street.
Mr. Parker was significantly different; it was as if he was perpetually sixteen years old, except with responsibilities like paying the bills and going to work everyday.
Just as she was about to plop herself on the couch she heard a knock at the door.
*knock* *knock*
"Hey Mr. Parker, are you expecting anyone?"
Peter swiveled his head away from the TV. "No, why?"
"There's someone at the door." she replied, pausing as they heard it again.
*knock* *knock*
"Mind getting it?" he said with a slight grin, obviously not wanting to move away from the couch.
She rolled her eyes and nodded, as she put her hand on the doorknob and opened the door...revealing a tall man wearing a black jacket and black pants, complete with a menacing grin on his face as he played with a small white pill in his hand. He looked somewhat similar to that drug dealer who had been selling drugs to Steve, as well as the same person who "introduced" her to the Shade two nights ago. His dark appearance meant that this guy must be working for him...
"Hey little girl..." he said in an eerie tone, "wanna pop some pills with me...? We can have a lot of...fun together...just you...and me..."
- End of Chapter Five -
As usual with everything I write, please rate and review! ^_^
Most of this chapter was to have Peter and Jenny talk a little more, as well as seeing how Mary Jane's movie is turning out.
Look out for Lone Hero: Chapter Four out soon, followed up by Responsibility: Chapter Six! That is of course, if High School doesn't get too much in the way. ^_^;