Day 4: New Building, New Hero, Old Stuff

The future site of the Inanna Institute for Post-Revivification Research and Advocacy
Day 4 PGR

"So we're really just getting started," Tony said, pointing around himself. The room was the length of the building, and was metal on all sides. "You can see the slats where you can lift up partitions. Those will even deploy a 'homey' layer I refuse to claim simulates drywall even though that's exactly what it does. The paint color's customizable on a room by room basis, of course. Try to avoid patterns. The addressable pigment doesn't care for them."

"Makes sense," Cindy said, looking around. "What about windows?"

"This level doesn't have them. The top two levels do and so do the bottom three. The middle... let's call it maximizing privacy." He led them across the room to where a technology lab and workshop had been set up -- albeit on a temporary basis. Next to that lab was what looked like huge metal gym equipment. It was large and bulky, with rounded box-like modules that gleamed with dark metal.

"I thought you wanted to keep Stark tech out of this building," Gwen murmured. She was fiddling with her smartphone.

"That's the beauty," Tony said. "All that training gear? That's actually on loan from the Avengers. It's retro, honestly -- stuff we'd had in the old mansion's sub-levels. Most of it was designed by the Hanks, with a few concepts borrowed from the Fantastic Four and even more from the X-Men. Honestly, the X-Men were the gold standard in superhuman training equipment back in the day."

"The Hanks?" Cindy asked, peering at the equipment -- gigantic boxy weight training, rings and bars for agility training, automatic drones to test reflexes and combat...

"Hank Pym and Hank McCoy," Gwen said almost absently, tapping on her phone.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked the blonde.

Gwen held up the phone, which showed a multi-colored puzzle.

"Candy Crush. Of course. How foolish of me. I can't wait for you to hit the Farmville stage in your internet development."

"What about the workshop?" Cindy asked. "That stuff looks a little more current."

"Oh, that stuff's mine, but it's just on loan. Peter knows that. He's got the next week or two to use it to build his own tools and gear, and then I'll yank mine. Honestly, even if someone sees it, it'll be easy to pass off as me doing the absolute minimum to be supportive. That's why you've got to start spreading the word about Inanna's goals -- get it into the heroic community's hands." Tony looked off to the side. "You've got a good endowment -- passed through a few dummy corporations and a few side projects. Getting into the heroic community also means setting up a board of trustees for the non-profit. Janet'll probably want in. Sue Richards. Someone from the X-side of things. I'd have said Emma Frost but she went radical -- Warren Worthington if he's currently in the right headspace for it. T'Challa may want to send someone along. Mary Jane's got some contacts -- she can make a couple of calls. Set up a presentation -- somewhere between a TED talk and a tech keynote. C'mon. Let's bug Peter."

Peter Parker was in the workshop, watching monitors and being decidedly un-bugged. They were hooked up to the training cubicle's sensors. Inside the training cubicle, Mary Jane Watson was lifting a deadweight with rounded box 'weights' almost as tall as she was with all her strength. Which didn't seem to be enough as it wasn't budging -- the weight was set magnetically, allowing anything from two tons to 'Class 100.' "That's it," Peter was saying. "You're doing great, MJ!"

"...are you... kidding me?" Mary Jane grunted. She was in lululemon, more or less -- a sport bra tank and leggings, with no socks or shoes. "I'm not doing anything here!"

"That deadweight's designed to help She-Hulk work up a sweat," Peter said, adjusting a couple of controls. "I couldn't budge it either when it's set that high. I'll gear it down in a moment -- right now we're measuring the **** you're applying. By locking it down, we take momentum and other factors out of the equation."

"...oh, well... if that's what we're doing..." Mary Jane grunted, redoubling. "...I felt like I didn't have any limits, for a while there..."

"I know. Which is what makes finding them important. You'll spend a lot of time pushed to the absolute edge of what you're capable of... and sometimes beyond it. That's part of the job. The sooner you have it inside that you can't lift everything the Thing can..."

"I think she's figured that out," Tony said. "So what do we know? Tentatively?"

"Well... MJ -- c'mon out. You should hear this."

Mary Jane strained a bit more, then let go, stepping back. A high pitched background hum that was barely noticeable before seemed to drop in pitch as the system stopped trying to resist the redhead's efforts. With a hop, a push off the top of one of the weights with her fingertips, and a double-somersault Mary Jane landed outside the training cubicle. She pulled a towel off a convenient rack and began wiping down, joining Tony, Gwen, and Cindy as they walked past.

Peter grinned as they walked into the workshop's space. "Well, we can safely confirm you are at peak 'does whatever a spider can' levels," he said. "Which we knew yesterday when we had started training you. And fortunately, the wish seems to have given you a good understanding of how your abilities work, so you could skip ahead a few chapters."

"So, that's essentially what she has?" Tony asked. "Your powers?"

"Not quite -- you may have noticed different people manifest the spider-package differently. Take Cindy. She's got at most 60 or 70 percent of my strength, but she's got much faster reflexes, agility, and speed. Her silk sense is off the chart compared to my spider sense, and she's got those claws and self-webbing, but I'm more durable. Stuff like that."

"And MJ?" Tony asked. Next to him, Gwen muttered as she ran out of moves and restarted her level.

"MJ's on the other side of the spectrum." Peter brought up two silhouettes on his display, one with Mary Jane's proportions, the other with Cindy Moon's. Inside both were a network of fiber-like lines extending out of a digital spine which was connected to a brain. Cindy's were dark blue, Mary Jane's were red. "The agility and reflexes, sensitivity to stimulus -- all that? That's a function of the nervous system. Cindy's nervous system's much more enhanced than either MJ's or mine. Even though she's not as strong as I am, she reacts so quickly and can direct her muscular action so precisely that she's faster as well. MJ's nervous system's still amped way up, but maybe a third less than mine, and Cindy blows it out of the water. Her spider-sense will still help her move and react, but without the range or versatility I have, much less Cindy."

"So she's a two-third's Spidey?" Tony looked dubious. "Not a ringing endorsement."

"That's not the whole picture." He tapped a few buttons, and the display changed, showing a mapping of the two womens' musculoskeletal patterns. Mary Jane's was clearly far more filled in than Cindy's. "Mary Jane's got significantly better muscular development than either Cindy or me. Her muscles and bones are denser. Her regenerative rate's higher -- significantly higher, actually. Almost more 'Wolverine-lite' healing factor than my fast recovery. She can take heavier impacts and throw stronger punches. I can lift ten, maybe eleven tons. MJ can lift fifteen to seventeen, depending on how hard she throws herself into it."

"Wait, seriously?" Mary Jane asked. "I'm the brick?"

"The term is 'Thing,' She-Thing," Tony said, half-smiling. "But you're still demure to me."

"I've never been demure a day in my life," Mary Jane snarked back.

"Sharon Ventura's got dibs on 'She-Thing,'" Gwen said, absently, tapping. "Yes! Double candy-bomb swipe!"

"We're not quite done," Peter said. "I mentioned MJ's healing. There's an additional side to it -- which is actually where a good amount of her own nervous system's development went."

"What's that?" Tony asked.

"When MJ touches another person, she can... link their nervous systems briefly, drawing life-energy out of them, the way some types of spider inject their prey with venom and then feed on their liquified innards. Mary Jane doesn't inject people or liquify them, but she can draw energy off them, boosting her own recovery from fatigue or injury. That also saps her opponent, exhausting them or stunning them. The effect's normally momentary, though if Mary Jane were to maintain the link--"

"Not a thing I plan to do," Mary Jane said. "Draining someone to **** sounds pretty horrifying. We're calling it my venom touch."

"As opposed to Drew's venom blasts," Tony said, nodding. "Of course. At least you don't actually secrete poison or bite people." He paused. "You... don't secrete poison or bite people, right?"

"Animals produce venom, not poison," Gwen murmured, still playing her game.

"I don't produce actual venom," Mary Jane said, stretching with inhuman flexibility -- posing, just a touch, clearly expecting Tony to notice, which he very clearly did. "And I only bite if you ask very nicely."

Peter smirked, just a touch.

"...right. Good to know. No pheromones, right? If you get the spider-pheromones like Drew or Moon, the combination would probably kill most kids going through puberty at the time."

"Peter and I only pheromone up around each other," Cindy threw in.

"So not my point."

"Mary Jane hasn't demonstrated enhanced pheromone production," Peter said. "She also hasn't shown spinneret development, so no organic webbing. And she hasn't shown ancillary psionic abilites beyond the venom touch -- no manifested limbs like Anya Corazon or 'vibrations' like Arachne. She does have the intermolecular bonding ability--"

"Meaning wall-crawling."

"Meaning wall-crawling. She's got better precision with it than most, which I think we can thank Ollie for, since that's a learned skill... and if she focuses she can make stronger bonds than most of us."

"But no silk production," Tony said. "Pity. I already figured out a prime market for 'redhead natural silk.' Ah well."

"You're a pig," Mary Jane said. "And on that subject, Peter...?"

"On that subject... trying the bench out this morning, I did some machining." Peter walked over to another part of the workshop, and brought a case over, which he set on a display table. He opened it up.

Inside were two heavy bracelets, each ribbed with silver and gold canister modules, and a belt that was lined with them.

"Sweeeeet," Mary Jane said, smiling as she looked at them. "Can I--"

"Sure. They're not loaded right now, anyhow."

Mary Jane took the bracelets out, then slipped them on. The modules on the left bracelet began to spin. "Whoa--"

"Yeah -- they're controlled by small muscular movements and triggered through targeted adhesion. In effect, you 'stick' to the bracelet trigger and apply microforce to it. You already showed some knowledge of the technique--"

Cindy coughed, flushing.

"--so it should be a snap. The cartridges are a new design -- I'm reworking my own webshooters to take advantage -- the web-fluid's more concentrated and the air infusion more refined. These webshooters in particular will give you a lot of different firing modes. The usual nets and lines, sticky versus stretchy, but other options too. We'll go over them in training." He unhooked a single silver tube from the belt, offering it to Mary Jane.

Mary Jane accepted, grinning. She turned her wrist over, the inner cylinder on the bracelet whirring around and a small slot opening. She loaded the cartridge into it, feeling a 'snap' as the slot closed. "Little bit of a kick, there."

"Yeah -- the actual canister's designed to rupture and get pulled into the jacket, which recycles it into a micropowder, leaving the cylinder full without you needing to eject empties."

Mary Jane nodded, then grinned, turning and throwing her right arm out, cocking her hand back and hitting her palm with her middle two fingers, causing a splat as a small open web was snapped onto the wall. "Brutal," she said, happily.

"You don't actually have to do the gesture," Peter said. "It's all controlled by your wrist."

"Of course I have to do the gesture, Peter. You can't websling without throwing the horns. Everyone knows you have to throw the horns!"

"You have to tuck your thumb in to throw the horns," Gwen said, still distracted. "The webslinging gesture is actually American Sign Language for 'I Love You.'"

"Hush. It's more metal to call it throwing the horns."

"Then throw the horns. But I know Spidey's all about shooting his love all over criminals while swinging." Gwen smirked, tapping her phone again.

"Oh God, now I feel dirty," Tony muttered.

"You feel dirty?" Peter asked.

"I don't throw the horns," Cindy piped up.

"You don't web-sling," Mary Jane said. "You web-spin. Whole different thing."

"Yeah, but the song," Tony said. "I know the song. 'Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like flies.' Web slinging and spinning are clearly synonyms."

"Thank you, Tony," Cindy said, grinning.

"The song's not legally binding! Pete doesn't even get royalties for it! You don't get royalties for that song, do you, Tiger?"

"If I got royalties for that song, I'd have been able to quit my photography job back in college," Peter said.

"And therefore I'm right. And the other thing I'm doing?"

"Yeah?" Peter said, grinning.

Mary Jane leapt into the air, throwing her right arm up, hand twisting into the gesture, a web-line tagging the ceiling and letting her hang upside down, legs tucked in close, hands both on the line. "Swinging on a thread. Just take a look overhead. And c'mere. I get to be top in the upside-down kiss for once."

"And now I feel dirtier," Tony said, shaking his head but grinning as he turned away. Behind him, Peter dutifully walked over to kiss Mary Jane. "So," Tony said, cheerfully. "You've got shooters. You need a suit. I have a few ideas. Just spitballing -- depends on your name. But, you know, I don't want you silk-screening a union suit and calling it a costume--"

Mary Jane finished thoroughly kissing Peter, then broke it with a grin. "Costume's taken care of. We worked up a wish, so I can swap clothes on the fly without leaving them in a web-bag on rooftops."

"Well, that's cheating. What about a name?"

Mary Jane flipped, dropping to the floor in a crouch. "Redback!"

Tony arched both his eyebrows. "Deadliest spider known to man. Australian, naturally. Fair."

"The funnel web spider's toxin's a lot more dangerous," Gwen murmured.

"And it's also Australian," Tony said. "But the redback has better publicity -- that ups its Q-rating. I thought some of the other-dimensional spider-women went by 'Redback.' Wasn't there a Jessica Drew from back during that whole fight--"

"If we throw in other universes, then all the names are taken," Mary Jane said. "Nope. I'm the Rambunctious Redback. Friendly and neighborhood pending Twitter verification. Load me up, Tiger -- I wanna go patrol!"

"And we will... after several days of high intensity training, Redback." Peter grinned. "You're nowhere near ready to pull on the tights and fight crime."

"Come on! I was already a martial artist and Ollie gave me the bonus skill package as part of the upgrade!"

"Knowing how to use your powers or throw a punch isn't the same as actually being able to do it in a fight. It's only because of that 'bonus skill package' that we can number your training in days instead of weeks or months. Even then, you won't go out on your own unless Silk or I -- or Felicia or Tony or someone else with experience -- is with you. Congratulations, Redback. You're a newb."

"I could make a boob joke here," Tony said to Cindy, casually, "but I've got too much class."

Mary Jane gestured towards Tony with her right arm, fingers twisting. A web snapped around his midsection and tightened. "Hey, the new settings are nice, Tiger!"

"I know, right?"

Tony looked down, then rolled his eyes. "Spider-Harem. Just... try to keep the bondage and discipline out of the lobby. This is supposedly going to be a class operation."