Author's note - I have been very busy lately and hence my inability to write the next chapter took me a long time. Any way I would like to wish a very happy belated merry Christmas and an advanced Happy New Year to all my fellow readers and authors out there. Have a blast and party hard. ;)
And once again, I would never stop thanking my readers who had been such a support to me - kindleflame5, Winterrain36, Highlander348, Plasma57, Nico2883, Ravenmore45, guest reader Loana and all of you likewise.
Reviews are inspire me. They are like a sunflowers looking at the Sun (that is you people) which invigorates them. And as usual, suggestions are welcome, positive, negative alike. J
As usual, I don't own any character of Spiderman or any characters of Marvel.
Chapter 11
It was late at night and Peter looked at her, stared deep into those vast cerulean eyes of her, the colour of the endless ocean that siphoned away all his sorrows. He seemed to have completely lost himself in her. All though it seemed to be very difficult for him, all these pent up frustrations, his constant clobbering with the people and now with MJ to pile his stress.
Peter told her of the psychic link, the bond that they now shared, the blood transfusion. He explained her how exactly things had started to pan out. How he helped her control the powers, powers that had slowly manifested in her like a rising tide, an untamed tide with no one to tender. Peter could not help but notice the slight uneasiness in her voice, now that he had to spend all alone time with her for her training. He did not want her thinking something else and for nor the conversation seems to have headed that very way.
And again MJ on the other hand was a bit too difficult. To handle her was like playing with feral wild fire. How she took everything all, everything for granted.
But still he pulled on, in spite of all that.
There was nothing left for Peter to hide form MJ or keep anything a secret from her other than that sometimes even MJ joined them during their private moments thus completely ruining the moment. Peter knew that this was inevitable.
It was not that he did not like her to be around but MJ really did not care about his feelings anymore, she stopped hanging out with Harry now that the weirdness she felt when she was around her, the same feeling that Peter had once felt the first time when the two of them met him the first time.
She related everything to him and for that he was glad and with nothing else better to do, she kept barging in on them.
Gwen was of course felt a bit unwanted with nothing to do and sometimes, she would gawk at the two of them, sometimes even fantasizing, the relationship that they shared how she wished she was the one in Peter's head not her.
One look at Gwen and Peter could tell that she was sad and she wanted attention, some lone time and he wanted that too.
As soon as MJ left the two of them, Peter promised to make it up to her, knowing that it would be very difficult to do so
Gwen had nothing to do. She looked at Peter and started to wonder, the point in this entire relationship. Now that MJ had become his partner in crime, she felt more vulnerable in the relationship that they shared.
And just because Gwen felt guilty although she understood what was at stake here, she could see the reason and as for Peter he was almost hopeless, he had a lot of people to deal with right now. MJ's regular training and her apparent head splitting aches that Peter shared, was something she never approved off.
When she lost herself, he was terrified of something, he was scared, like a siren that would blow off from his head any second, should she would ever loose her sanity.
And this had happened for with them for exactly the third time, MJ barging right in the middle, either just messing with his head or just poking the two of them around. Peter found this to be very difficult.
Gwen knew Peter too well, he would never let all these feelings cloud his thoughts. He was too sensible for all of that. Gwen of course, she pretended to chill, leave all of everything aside and pretend like this was nothing but this really bothered her, Peter could tell that.
He knew that Gwen was right in her own way. It was just that she was a bit off, with everything happening, not being there for him, he knew that she wanted to make herself useful, involve herself a bit around, help him, aid him and in a way somehow be a bigger part of his life and influence it in a big way. Believe it or not, things did turn out the way he expected it to be.
Peter always looked out for Gwen, something to hold on to when he lost all his resolve, all his strength, melting away like butter, it was Gwen who helped him hold on to it. And Peter wanted to be with her too. He just wanted to make it good for all of them. The three of them.
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It was a regular day at school.
J. Jonah Jameson's face was all over the news, as usual. His constant bickering against the spider-man never ceased even for a second. He ignored that freak right then and there. It was useless.
But something what he said caught his attention.
"That spider menace has become a menace more than I had expected him to turn out to be. He has been spawning up new friends and this time it is a girl with flaming red hair. Could be his relative or even his … or you know what just forget about him. What is he planning to do now? Trying to spawn an army of super humans? He wants to take over New York? We have already had a similar incident and things did not go well as expected. New York had already be raged and plundered and I don't think city needs to suffer any longer…."
Right there, Peter lost his interest and there was back to the same class, same boring lectures.
His classes ended after an excruciating span of six lengthy hours. Peter stood in front of his locker and rummaged through the mess inside.
"Hey Parker, whatcha planning to do tonight or will it be a girls night." retorted Flash Thompson as his friends high fived him.
Gwen came right in and grabbed Peter's shaking hand. Oh how he wished, just once, just once could lay his hands his hands on him.
Gwen pulled Peter's face close to her and she said in a serious and yet in a threatening tone.
"Pete, look at me. Just look at me"
Peter looked into her, gazed into her, he saw calmness, hung unto that, closed his eyes and placed his fingers on her shoulder and lightly touched it ever lightly not wanting to let it slip by as rage was just edging itself on the verge of taking over him completely.
"Oh or are you still gonna suckle on your momma? Oh I am sorry she and your dad abandoned you didn't they? Or maybe they found death to be more rewarding than to raise you."
He forced his eyes shut, tears threatening to erupt any moment now. He mind seethed with rage. Gwen was sad, there was nothing she could say anymore. Her hands were sweaty. She could sense the obvious tension that was going through him.
She spoke softly to him.
"He is not worth it. You don't have to taint your hands by going on him."
A punch would silence him for good, just a smack would immobilize him for life.
It was like his anger had radiated onto someone and someone who deeply cared for him inside.
A loud smack, a sudden scream that caught everyone by surprise. There wasn't any bickering all of looked at a particular someone. Some had their jaws hanging wide open hardly believing their open wide eyes.
MJ was almost half the size if of Flash and there she was holding his arm at a very awkward angle.
Flash was crying out. Obvious of the excruciating pain that as being inflicted upon him now. His arm vein was bulging out along the contours of his well-toned gym body.
He gritted his teeth, saliva flew out of his lips that showed anger and humiliation. And everyone was stunned to see MJ holding him and pinning him to the ground helpless. His face touched the floor. One of his eyes were closed and the other danced around madly.
MJ's eyelids were partially closed. It was a perfect lockup. A tiny twitch of her hand further to the left would have dislocated his arm for sure. MJ sat on top of him. His stomach down.
A perfect submission move.
"You are gonna apologise him, you cheap piece of shit." said MJ as coolly as possible. This somehow elevated that very effect.
Gave her a sense of superiority. Few of them broke into sudden smiles and some of them laughed at the scene. A scene that none would have ever imagined to see in their school life.
"Mary Jane kicks Flash's ass."
This was going to be an epic cover story in the school news article.
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Peter waited for MJ. He decided to take her alone. There was no use in ignoring her and running from her. That would make things worse. Tonight his target was sync up with his spider sense and trace the spider tracer. He only hoped that he still did not notice the sensor that he had implanted. Things would get difficult then, they might send him on a wild goose chase. And then everything would be spoiled. This was the only solid lead that he had and he wanted to go full out.
In the dark folds of the night sky, he could see her. Swinging gracefully, building to building. She neared him. She gasped with shock. He started to blush so bad that he felt that his mask would melt right off his face. He had never imagined her to dress so scantily … she looked like a time bomb.
Her face had the same mask like his but with a lot more black in it. Her hair was let loose and her mouth remained uncovered, the pout in her lips was … delicious.
That would be the only word on Peter's mind.
And as for her body she wore tights, her breasts were noticeably shapely and her torso showed a lot of skin, much against his comfort level and she had the same footwear like his, snuck and tight fitting around the shapely legs of her. Her stomach lay bare, muscles taut and firm.
Webs erupted from her wrists like a jet of silvery fluid having an extremely high tension so that that the molecules would never separate from each other. She landed right next to him on all her fours and Peter took a few steps away from her, on instinct.
The spandex that she was wearing looked absolutely smouldering. A mixture of blue, red and black, all of them webbed like the costume on his own.
She was dashing.
You should have taken up modelling, you are way too hot. All those curves would go to waste. Thought Peter.
"Why, thank you tiger. I guess I look good in these, don't I?"
MJ moved her left hip a little and rested her right hand on her right hip pushing it slightly away towards her left. Swaying almost taunting him.
Ah, Fuck. This was the last thing that he had been expecting.
He stood for Gwen. He held on to that thought.
Peter would never get provoked. He had get his shit together.
No matter how much he got provoked by her, no matter how hard he found to let it go.
"MJ we need to get going, the tracer that I had planted on one of them is somewhere nearby, I can feel it."
Peter looked at the tumble down place that was just below him.
No sign of anyone nearby.
This was good. This would reduce collateral damage.
"Okay then, let's get going."
The two of them leapt down into the black dark, towards the faint distant chrome yellow light.
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There could have been nothing more demeaning and monstrous to the way the people were chained right before his eyes.
It was a small scale laboratory that looked high end.
Vile experimentation on subject humans, more of those monstrous people, injecting some kind of a yellow serum into all of them.
Their bodies had started to develop cracks on so many places, like that of a molten and solidifying lava. The veins in their bodies glowed red. There all kinds of people in there.
Women, men.
The people were in obvious agony, their faces were contorted. Their facial expressions were strained, eyebrows knitted close.
There were scientists working in their lab coats, injecting some kind of transparent fluid. Peter did not need an expert to figure that out, all of this was seriously wrong and of course illegal.
There were three rooms in total.
The first room held those insane monstrosities of nature that they had faced previously, like a bunch of zombies, they were simple gross. The people of the second room seemed to have some sort of individual logical reasoning capabilities like the one he had placed his tracer on, a fully functioning nervous system and their ability to control a herd of those disgusting men. And on the final room, obviously those were the more advanced type. Like a part of some bigger programme and in the centre of the room, there was a small Asian looking woman.
She was frail and looked old. Folds of wrinkled skin hung loose from her fore head, chin, cheek and neck. She was clad in a kimono, with flowery pattern, her hair pulled together in a bun, a chopstick holding the plaits of her silvery tresses. Her eyes partially opened up to reveal a jaundiced eyes, her cornea was barely visible. She looked like some poor lost soul.
She was the key to this operation.
At her side there were two big burly men who walked beside her, matching her small strides with that of their gigantic ones. As she crossed the third room, the scientists who were working immediately left whatever they had been working on and kneeled before her.
Peter and MJ sat on the rusted tainted steel roof that somehow managed to hold the place down together. There was a small opening, a hatch.
"Lets slip by that hatch"
Peter and MJ crawled up quietly by the old warehouse. The hatch directly led them to the first room of the old warehouse, which housed the lunatics. They had to make way to the third room.
The room which held answers. The old lady knew everything that was going on.
As the two of them continued to crawl through that way, once or twice, the infected would suddenly look up and sniff the rotten air.
Peter knew that a few of them probably would have sensed them by their smell. During their previous encounters he knew that they had an acute olfactory receptors that helped them point out hidden enemies and apart from that, they could transfer the smell through their heads like some raw data. So he had to assume that everyone knows about them He looked at them, praying that they would never find them.
Seeing one of them behave rather abnormally the first one, Peter stiffened. One of the infected became alert, the rest began to follow his lead. Three more of them joined him and pretty soon, they were howling for no apparent reason. Looking frantically here and there, like they knew something was wrong.
Right then, one of them looked up and gazed directly at them.
Peter stifled.
Now is the not the time to be stuck up here, banging chests with these weirdoes.
He waited for some time.
Their gazes were as hollowed and empty. They kept staring, the mouth contorted like they knew something was not right.
For some reason no one was able to figure what went wrong.
And as for Peter he himself was puzzled. They were staring at him violently, but they were vacant for some reason.
Peter looked at MJ. He could see her distorted facial featured as though she was focussing violently hard on something. He saw MJ's web stuck to his left wrist. He looked at it. He saw how the miniature small web strands had already started to root from the parent web that and spread throughout his left arm spreading in a webbed fashion encasing his body completely.
The web shimmered as it caught the faint yellow light.
The idea struck him. This level of concentration, it could mean only one thing, she was trying to block both of their presence using her cloaking technique and it looked like it was working. They could somehow pull this through.
Peter was stunned. This is it.
They could slowly slip by with making themselves visible in front of them.
Seeing her concentrate so hard, Peter doubted if he could ever move.
Her eyes were closed, small rivers of sweat had started to develop on her face. She could not loose concentration.
She had to keep this up no matter how hard it was.
Peter reached for her mind.
"MJ, whatever it is keep it up. I will carry you."
She did not ever move her head.
Peter tore the strands that entwined his hands careful that none of them fell.
He crawled up to her and slowly picked her up. Not wanting any change in her concentration.
He found it a bit difficult. The awkward position that she was already in.
Peter picked her up slowly and softly. Made her shift her weight on his shoulder. He urged her, guided her so that she would shift her weight on his back. Her legs crossed like an 'x' over his stomach, he guided her hands around his neck.
She hung behind him like a spider's mate. Her touch made him shiver. Not that she was cold, it was just her touch and something was different about it. Something good.
He was a boy. MJ was a girl. She was attractive in her own way, she was strong outspoken and she always challenged Peter. The complete opposite.
Gwen saw the best in him. She like him. He liked her. That was that.
But this was again something else entirely.
He quietly crawled through the cracked ceiling. Cobwebs hung, the ceiling had a mouldy musty bad smell.
The two of them crawled their way through small a vent that connected the three rooms. They looked like some sort of overgrown mutated arachnids fornicating their way.
Anyway, it looked hilarious.
They reached the next room, it was the same as before, but they were much fewer in number and the looked more vicious. The one with the spider tracer was right there at the corner, with a bloody club in his right wrist. One of them had a baseball bat, the other had an oversized wrench while the other had adjustable spanners.
MJ groaned all of a sudden.
She was losing it. The stress was proving to be too much for her. She held on to Peter tightly, wrapped her legs around him trying to find another source of focus.
Peter clutched her hand tightly trying to inspirit her.
But it was of no use.
She was shaking badly. She would break her concentration any second now. Peter quickened his pace. If they could they could at least move to the third room without any detection, it would be worth something at least. Peter almost started to run in across the ceiling, stooped over, trying his best to cross the room without their detection.
Her groaning had started to become more frequent and then snap.
The shield around them untangled on its own, like pulling the small lace on a shoe knot that would completely untangles it.
MJ held on to Peter in the nick of time right, her arms wrapped up around his neck as her legs started to dangle once again into the air.
That was it.
A few faces shot up, looked at them. Their quizzical faces turned and twisted into façades of contempt. They howled violently at the two of them.
They howled menacingly and threw their weapons with astounding accuracy.
Peter pulled MJ closer to him and ran across the walls. She hung on him for dear support.
Peter scaled the walls fast and found another opening that apparently led them to the next room but that was completely grilled up.
"Peter throw me on to that vent"
MJ's thought was strong and clear. It did not hide a single tinge of hesitation like, she was already into it.
Peter did not want to indulge any doubt, he responded to her and threw her to the grill that sealed their opening with tremendous strength.
MJ flew in, her feet gliding in, her red hair like a tangled mess of red wave that was a stark contrast to the pale coloured ceiling.
MJ hit the bolted grill that covered the exit and hit it with all her strength. The grill rattled loud and bent under the extreme force. It loosened the bolts that remained attached to the mouth of the entrance. MJ leaped off the entrance in one giant leap and pulled the loose grill with a web that erupted from the tips of her finger like a giant silk web. The web encased the grill and she pulled it apart fully utilizing the remaining inertia force that she remained in her horizontal jump position.
It was enough to shatter the grill away from its hinges.
"Awesome, MJ."
Peter who was already in mid-air zip lined his way and catch MJ by her hip and pulled her close to him.
Peter, quickly found her wrapped around his neck, her legs wrapped around him, snaked in some very lewd position that seemed like two lovers.
There was no time to be distracted.
Peter could feel the sudden elevation in his heart beat, hammering against his heart like a gong.
The force with which he carried himself forward was enough to propel himself through the vent. He almost flew and reached the next room.
Right at the centre, there was that frail looking old woman, the huge guards flanking the two sides.
These people were way different from the rest of the monsters that he had taken down so far. They looked far fiercer and there was not a single hint of reason in those of theirs. It looked like they were made to fight, be bodyguards and protect someone with their lives.
Peter had to test it.
He knew they had to be strong so he had to go all out. He could not hold back anymore.
"Mary Jane, we have to get them, there is absolutely no way, I am letting all of this go."
"You are right Pete. These experimentation are monstrous." MJ almost belched with contempt.
"You are right. Lets do this."
MJ leaped off Peter's clutches and the two of them fell down, headed straight to the enraged oversized bodyguards of hers.
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Both of them flew through the air with terrifying speed, their springy bodies never faltering to the extremities that they were pushing themselves to.
They were quick they were fast, they were strong but no exactly strong enough to counter the massive strengths of the giants' ridiculous strengths.
The giants had already blocked their view of the frail looking woman and they were looked at the two of them as they flew in through the air.
The two of them sensing the change in atmosphere charged at them. The scientist who were there in the room with them took off along with the frail little woman leaving the two of them.
The two giants came for both MJ and Peter.
Peter dodged the two of those continuous punches and leaped off into the air.
"They are strong, looks like the have been manipulated by the same drug, but they would never catch us with such slow footing. MJ use that to your advantage."
"Oh, you think I have not noticed that." She chuckled a half-hearted one.
She was taking this seriously.
Good.
Now he could focus on his as well.
The strange rumble that he felt was undeniable.
But it was not going to be life threatening, his spider sense remained dormant.
"Peter be ready, those freaks would be all over here in a minute."
Peter already what she was talking about.
The previous room that they had been had been completely alert and by now they had been amassing numbers to crumble the two of them.
Already Peter knew that he was a superior to them, but they were too many of them. MJ is quick and fast but it would be difficult for her if all of them started a chain attack.
It would be handy if he would get some reinforcements.
The invisi-watch.
The watch that Agent Fitz gave him, as a token of the brief tine he shared with the Agent Coulson and his team.
That was the sudden reply, his mind of his whipped up.
"Yes Peter. Use that watch of yours. Lets hope that SHIELD shows up on time."
She was right. SHIELD had sufficient resources, man power to aid them. With their help, they could have the upper hand.
Well, none of that mattered anyway. The only thing that mattered now is that their showing up on time.
Peter felt for the soft warm metal cusp around his wrists and activated like a homing signal just like the way, he was supposed to.
The tiny beep rang throughout the watch as the homing signal got activated.
Peter had to be ready, the new crowd of insanity had just started.
Peter just hoped that he had not run into a slaughter house.
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Peter bent down and parried the punch. It was like hitting a brick of walls, not that it made much difference to him, but the pain was piercing. Peter took a few steps away from him and leaped a few spaces behind, shaking his right wrists. He was hurt a little.
"Damn, I hate them."
He looked away to see what exactly was MJ up to.
She was dodging, leaping and tried to throw him off guard, trying to freeze them with her stinging punch. It was of no use.
She could only throw them on his stomach, could not reach a level above that and that was a complete bugger.
It was of no use.
"What are looking at, boy? Haven't you learnt never to look away from who you are fighting?"
Peter's spider sense blared and he made a back flip in the nick of time to avoid the deadly punch. There was a crashing sound as his football sized fist connected with the column, that Peter once stood behind.
There was a gaping hole at the point where his fist made contact. Peter eyes bulged.
There was no way, he could face this monster head on.
He had to find a way.
God knows, how he parried the monster's attack but next time, he had to be absolutely sure that he avoided punching him at all.
He had to have a weakness.
.
Think Parker. Think.
And he had to think fast, the rumbling beneath his feet grew stronger every millisecond. They would crash open the door any second by now.
What about his neck, I could inflict serious damage right there?
And anyway, he was way past any available options right now.
For him pressure points were a hoax. He did not have any.
Peter dodges, twisted and turned and ultimately he found the opening he was looking for. The neck was empty like a vulnerable child.
The neck region is a common weakness of every living being. This had to work.
Peter was standing behind the 7 foot giant.
He leaped off and when he was in range, he threw a kick at him so powerful that would shatter any man's femur undoubtedly.
The layers of fat under in his neck hobbled with the extreme pressure that he was inflicted upon.
His roar was defiant. He cried out loud.
That kick on his neck got him pretty good. He was stamping around with one hand trying to soothe the searing pain and the other hand was like a huge pan that he was winging around trying to swat him away. He was not thinking properly and that was probably a huge disadvantage for him.
Peter put some distance between the two of them.
"MJ try to aim for his neck. They seem to be vulnerable there." Peter spoke to MJ using the psychic link that they both shared.
"Humph."
MJ grunted as the giant pushed her around. She was getting more and more tired rather impatient by now but sooner or later she would have stone the giant.
She was trying her best.
She leapt around, her petite figure syncing dangerously in between the small minor small spaces the giant left around.
She screamed with rage as she launched a flurry of blows on the blubber behind the giant's neck.
It looked like she was punching a sandbag.
Her punches were in quick succession that startled the giant.
His eyes were bloodshot and were vacant.
The giant crashed down to the floor, the eye balls completely rolled over, the whites of his eyes peeking out from his eyelids gave a ghastly appearance, to his already oversized body and massive structure.
MJ landed softly beside the stoned giant and was sucking in huge amounts of air.
She looked at Peter and smiled, giving him a thumbs up.
Peter smiled.
She did it.
The oversized man in front of him was still roaring with pain and approached Peter with caution.
He looked really pissed off right now.
He walked and jogged briskly towards him with his arm raised, his fingers mimicking that of a talon's as though he would grab him and tear him apart, if he could ever get his hands on him.
Peter webbed his outstretched hands and leaped above the giant pulling his arms over his head.
He was vicious and fast and there was absolutely no way, the giant could fathom what was going on, his brain already dazed by the fatal blow that Peter had delivered behind the neck.
Peter landed behind the giant and pulled yanked the web that was connected to his arm with all his might.
The giant lost his grip. He slipped.
.
He fell down head first, the loud crash of the huge head with the concrete flooring that followed was somewhat a bit of a relief.
He was gone.
Peter heaved a sigh of relief.
"Peter they are here."
MJ screamed as she rushed towards the bolted entrance.
Peter put on a stance. He was ready.
The door broke and almost flew apart from its hinges.
The crowd of infected poured into the room.
Peter had to be ready for what was about to come.
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This chapter is a short one compared to the the others that I have written so far. And I hope I have been able to satisfy you with MJ's costume. Something sexy and dark. And a real breath taker for Peter.
In my next chapter I would like whip up more action scenes as it would be the end the Steel Serpent and spawn something even bigger on which I would throw hints in the next two chapters. But it would basically have the eternal fight between Steel Serpent and Iron Fist of course with some help from our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman.
