Let me start off by saying that this was not done by me, but rather by
Christopher Horton, who is not on the list. I'll forward all comments to
him, or you can email him directly at:
shinji_chanandasuka_chan2015@hotmail.com

Second, while this takes place in the Avenging universe, it's also a
standalone story and you really don't need to have read the previous
Avenging stories to enjoy it.

 ============

The Amazing Spider-Girl: An Avenging Side-Story

By Christopher Horton

Chapter One: Along Came a Spider...

============

Juuban High School was a typical high school. It had its problems, just as
any school in the world does. The building was never quite big enough, they
never got enough money to do what they wanted to do, there was always some
rowdy students, the teachers never got paid enough, etc. Normal enough.

However, Juuban had something that made it unique, or rather, someONE.
Because of what this young person was capable of doing, gave Juuban a sort
of prestige that few schools enjoyed. Within the last couple of years,
applications for Juuban had risen dramatically.

Of course, the person who was responsible of it had no idea at all.

Right now, said person was currently sitting by herself outside during the
lunch break, quietly reading a new book that she had picked up. She nibbled
on a rice cake as she read, trying absorb as much of it as she possibly can.
She moved her hand to turn to the next page...

...and a clump of rice landed squarely in the middle of her book.

She stared at it for a second, then brushed it off and continued to read.

Another clump of rice came flying at her, this time hitting her in the face.
She turned her head, knowing who was the person that was doing this to her.

Makoto Kino, one of the most popular kids in school, leaned against a nearby
tree, a smug look on her face. In her hand, she was holding a lunch box full
of rice. Next to her was Haruka Ten'ou, one of her friends, and the star of
the track team, also smirking.

"How are ya today, wimp?" Makoto asked, stirring up the rice with her
chopsticks. "Enjoy my rice? I made it special, just for you." Haruka then
poured some soy sauce into the rice, while Makoto continued to stir.

She made no reply, save for wiping the rice off her face, and started to
read again.

"Oh...I guess that you didn't get enough, huh?" Makoto stood and walked over
to where she was sitting. "Well, I don't mind sharin', so here ya go!" And
with that, she dumped the contents of the entire box over the girl's head.
It landed with a plop and slowly started to slide down her hair and face.
Haruka started laughing as Makoto walked away

The girl ignored the laughter and stared at a clump of rice that had started
to slide down a strand of her hair. It slid down slowly until it reached the
end of the strand, where it then fell off onto her book. She watched as the
soy sauce started to soak into the page that she was reading. She quickly
brushed the rice away, but it was too late. The soy sauce had left a stain
right where she had been reading before Makoto and Haruka showed up.

Said girls in question watched as the girl closed her book, placed it in her
bookbag, and stood up, the rice falling off her head in a comical fashion.
She started to walk away, soy sauce dripping off her hair, and the girls
started laughing even louder.

The girl turned to glance at them, and started to run. She ran past the gym,
past the principal's building, past the soccer field, and past the back
gate. Only when she was a good distance away from the school did she stop
running.

Only then did Ami Mizuno allow herself to cry.

========

She trudged up the stairs to her apartment, depression weighing down every
step. The soy sauce was starting to get sticky, and her school uniform was
ruined. Most of the rice had dried into clumps in her hair, and she fully
expected to have problems washing them out tonight.

She stopped in front of her apartment door and dug her keys out of her
bookbag, locating them among the clutter inside. She opened the door slowly
and walked in, closing the door behind her. She leaned against the door and
sighed.

She was tired of it.

She was tired of having to watch out for stupid bullies who had nothing
better to do than to pick on her every day.

She was tired of getting the best grade on a test, and having everyone else
stare at her loathingly, like she meant to show them up like that.

She was tired of actually trying to succeed in life, while everyone else
around her just seemed to not care.

She was tired of not having any friends.

Ami slumped to the floor, exhausted both physically and emotionally. She had
ran the entire distance from the school to her apartment complex, crying
freely. She knew that she was going to get into trouble for skipping school
like that. The school would call her mom and tell her about how Ami didn't
show up for the rest of her classes that day. Since she was also skipping
her juku that day, she also expected them to call as well. And that was only
the beginning.

She would probably not be able to going swimming for a while, due to all the
extra workload she would get from her mom. Her allowance would also be
docked for a while, so no going out for a bite anytime soon.

She leaned her head against the door and sighed. All she wanted to do was to
just make it out of high school and get on with life. She thought about all
the reports she heard about stressed-out students committing suicide, either
because they don't want to burden their families for being a failure in
their minds, or they were unable to continue in their enviroment. She now
could sympathize with the latter.

She drank in the quiet of her apartment. It was so unlike the high school in
that aspect. It was always so noisy there. Noise seemed to perminate
everywhere, the halls, the classrooms, even throughout the school library.

It was the first library that Ami actually hated.

Not here; her apartment was quiet. Not deathly quiet, but just quiet enough
that Ami felt really comfortable. She enjoyed getting home after school and
having the apartment to herself. She would just sit and read a book, curled
up in her favorite chair, until her mother got home from the hospital. She
just sat and passed the time reading, only being interupted occasionally
by...

...the phone ringing. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn't even
noticed it ringing. She quickly ran over to the phone and grabbed it off the
hook before the person could hang up. "Hello, Mizuno residence!"

"Ami-chan! I thought you'd be home right now!"

Ami's eyes widened. "K-Kaoiu-sempai! H-How did you know I was here?"

Ami could have sworn that she heard her smile on the other line. "Word got
around quickly. The great super-nerd, Ami Mizuno, skipping school for the
first time ever!" The sarcasism was extremely evident in her tone. "And I
also heard about what Makoto and Haruka did to you. I figured you would head
on home, first thing." She paused, thinking about what to say next.
"Ami-chan, I-"

"It's not your fault, Kaoiu-sempai!" Ami shouted forcibly, knowing exactly
what she was going to say. Kaoiu-sempai had appointed herself Ami's personal
protector at school, and took it badly whenever something like this
happened. "You can't be there all the time to watch out for me! I truly
appericate what you've done. It's far more than what anyone else at that
school has done for me. Ever," she added with a note of conviction. "You're
really my only friend there, Kaoiu-sempai, and I don't want my only friend
having to worry about me all the time. I can take care of myself." That last
statement was a lie, but reassuring Kaoiu-sempai was more important at the
moment.

There was silence on the other line. Ami waited nervously for a response.
Perhaps she overstepped a line she was unaware of...

Finally, a voice crackled on the other line. "Ami-chan, I've asked you not
to call me 'Kaoiu-sempai.' You're far more intellegent than I am. Just call
me Michiru-chan, please."

Ami smiled. Things were okay. "Alright, Kao- uh...Michiru-san."

There was an audible sigh. "Well, I think that's better, at any rate. Keep
it up."

Ami nodded, even though Michiru couldn't see it. "At any rate, I thank you
for your consideration. I do appericate it."

"You're welcome. But I also have another reason for calling you as well."

Ami nodded again, knowing full well that Michiru wouldn't be able to see it.
"Is it another science question?"

Michiru laughed. "Well, it IS science-related, but not what you think.
Remember that field trip that your class was supposed to go on today?"

Ami's eyes widened. "Oh NO!" She glanced at her watch with horror. "Oh no! I
missed it!" She sunk down to the floor in shock. "I forgot all about it!"
Her eyes threatened to tear up again. "And I really wanted to go on that
tour of your father's labortory, too!"

Michiru Kaoiu came from a rich and powerful family who owned several
companies, most of them in the scientific field. KaoiuTech was the most
significate, and was considered a world leader in chemical biology.
Michiru's father was considered to be one of the foremost experts in
bioengineering in the world, and was one of Ami's living idols. His work had
mainly applied to growing better crops around the world, but now most
third-world countries were finally able to feed almost all of their straving
population.

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I knew that you had
forgotten about it after that...incident, and I wanted to make it up to you
for not being there."

Ami cut in. "But Michiru-san, you don't have to-"

"Ami-chan, please...let me finish," Michiru stated firmly. "As I said, I
really want to make it up for you, so I want to take you on a personal tour
of the lab with me." Once again, Ami could practically hear her smile. "You
can probably explain to me what's going on."

Ami blushed. "Michiru-san, I'm not really all that-"

"Yes, you are, Ami-chan. You don't give yourself enough credit. You're as
smart as my father, and you're years younger than him. Once you get out of
high school, the entire world is going to be at your hands and feet. You're
special, Ami-chan. Please, PLEASE don't ever put yourself down like that."

Ami had problems responding. No one had ever said ANYTHING like that to her
before. Not even her family.

Fortunately, Michiru continued talking. "So, I'm going to come on over right
now, Ami-chan, so I just wanted to warn you ahead of time. It'll be about
ten minutes, so that should give you time to get ready."

Ami smiled again. "Alright, then." She paused hestitently. "Thank you,
Michiru-san."

Laughter was heard on the other end. "That's alright. See you in a little
bit." And with that she hung up.

Ami hung the phone and sighed. She was fortunate to have a friend like
Michiru Kaoiu. She ran her fingers through her hair as she thought about she
should wear to the-

Uh-oh.

In her rush to get back home, and Michiru's touching phone call, she had
totally forgotten about the mess that was currently her hair. She removed
her soy sauce-covered hand from her hair and stared at it worriedly. It
needed to be cleaned, and cleaned NOW, before it got any worse. And she
definitely needed to take a shower, while she thought of it. Sweat and soy
sauce definitely did not mix.

She sighed. She HATED days like this.

========

Michiru stopped in front in Ami's apartment door and checked her clothes to
make sure she was presentable. Her outfit was very simple, a light yellow
turtleneck sweater, a pair of navy blue slacks, and a comfortable pair of
black walking shoes. It was simple, but sophisicated. At least, on her.

She knocked on the door twice, ready to get going. Ami was really looking
forward to this, and she couldn't wait to show her the laboratory herself.
Of anyone that Michiru knew, student or adult, she was sure that Ami would
appericate the lab her father built more than anyone else.

She was about to knock again when the door swung open. Ami stood there,
purse in hand and a smile on her face. Michiru smiled as well and bowed.
"How are you today, Ami-chan?"

Ami bowed right back. "I'm feeling better now. How about yourself,
Michiru-san?"

Michiru laughed. "Oh, I'm fine now, Ami-chan. Shall we get going?"

Ami nodded. "Please." She stepped out of the doorway and shut the door
behind her.

As they began walking to the elevator, Michiru took a look at what Ami was
wearing. "Ami, what a lovely outfit you have on today!"

Ami blushed. She was wearing a light blue dress shirt, with a blue jewel
brooch inserted in the collar button, a navy blue skirt that went down to
her knees, and a pair of black walking boots that came up past her ankles.
"T-Thank you, Michiru-san," she mumbled, staring down at the floor.

Michiru smiled. Ami was never very good at taking compliments. She was a
very humble person, and that was one of the things that Michiru liked about
Ami. "Blue looks good on you, Ami. Really good." She glanced at Ami, then
glanced again.

There was something on her head, and it didn't really belong there,
especially when compared with the rest of her outfit. "Ami-chan...what ARE
you wearing on your head?"

Ami nervously touched the offending object. "Oh...this? It's nothing,
really..."

"Nothing? It's hideous! Why are you even wearing that, anyway? It doesn't go
at all with the rest of your outfit!"

Ami nervously fingered the beret that she had on her head. She was able to
get most of the soy sauce and all of the rice out of her hair, except for
one little patch up on top of her head. The worn neon yellow beret was the
only thing she could find that she could use to cover it up. "It's not that
bad...is it?"

Michiru nodded. "It looks pretty ugly, actually. Why are you even wearing a
hat in the first place?"

"Uh...it's my lucky hat. I like to wear it when I...uh...go to special
places. It makes me feel...better." Ami mentally cringed. That was, without
a doubt, the lamest and oldest excuse she had ever used in her life. Michiru
was going to see right through it.

"Oh. Okay. Yeah, a lot of people have things like that. Even my dad does,
but he hardly uses it anymore."

*Err...okay,* Ami thought. *It worked. Uh...good!*

The elevator door slowly opened, with a high-pitched noise as the gears
moved into action, and both of them stepped onto it. "Uh...yeah, I've
noticed that as well. A lot of people do have something that they consider
important to them like a luck charm." Ami continued to mentally cringe. She
actually felt like she was losing brain cells by continuing to sound
absolutely moronic.

"It's not a big deal, so don't worry about it." Michiru hit the button for
the first floor and the doors began to slowly creak shut in response. "They
need to get this fixed."

Ami nodded. "Yes, it's become really annoying as of late. Hopefully it'll be
fixed soon." The doors finally allowed themselves to close shut. The
elevator then lurched for a second, then began to slowly descend to their
destination.

========

Some people might call this place Oblivion.

Of course, if this was Oblivion, then how would they know? Nothing exists in
Oblivion.

Not even souls.

The minute ANYTHING enters Oblivion, it would cease to exist instantly. No
warning. No second chance. Just...like that.

So the fact we can actually be within this place and continue to exist is
testament to the fact that this is not Oblivion.

But...what is it then?

Whatever it was, it contained...a presense. Someone, while as mortal as any
of us in our realm, was quite literally, a god in this place. Her will
extended throughout, and she was aware of anything that occured in it.

Well...she WAS aware.

In a date long ago lost in time, she entered into a deep slumber in order to
wait on an event that was preordained to occur in the far, far future. Plus,
it had the added bonus of letting her keep her sanity.

Even she could not spend eternity here without going mad.

She was supposed to awaken to set in motion the survival of the entire
universe that would begin in this century, but something happened. Or
rather, someONE.

Someone who feared what she could do to him.

The catalyst that was supposed to awaken her was prevented by this someone,
and the event never occured. Thinking that now she would never wake again,
he left her to her fate, continuing on with the plan that he had set in
motion.

He was wrong.

Ultimately, even he could not foretell all the side effects that his plan
would cause. How what he had supposedly done to prevent this event, this
catalyst from occuring, was now correcting the timestream back onto its
proper goal. While not THE catalyst, it was sufficent enough to affect her.
This, ironically, would prove something he had said at the beginning of his
quest correct.

Time is not absolute.

And the event, the one thing that he was trying to stop, was starting to
occur in a much different way than expected.

========

The daytime security guards of the KaoiuTech Building were never very busy.
In fact, they would say that they had one of the most boring jobs on the
planet. Which is a good thing, if you're a security guard. Boring means
you're safe, and safe means you're not dead. The guards could all agree on
liking that end of the bargain.

So when the red car came flying out of nowhere and came straight at the two
guards currently working the front door, they were understandibly scared at
of their minds and dove out of the way to take cover. It's what any normal
person would do.

Fortuneately, their dive was not necessary. The car screeched to a halt as
it performed a power slide that stopped it mere inches from the curb and
right into the empty parking spot.

Which was right between two other large vehicles.

The guards stared in shock as the driver calmly pulled off her sunglasses,
revealing a gorgeous pair of eyes, and placed them in her purse. She stepped
out of the car and closed the door behind her. She then walked over to the
passenger side of the car and opened the door. "Well, aren't you going to
get out, Ami-chan?"

Said girl looked extremely pale and shaken as she slowly turned to look at
the other girl. "M-Michiru-san...please...please..." She seemed to be having
troubles speaking.

Michiru leaned closer to her. "Yes, Ami-chan?"

Ami leaned back against her seat and closed her eyes. "Never, EVER drive
like that with me again."

Michiru straightened up, an indiginant look on her face. "Are you implying
that my driving is bad? My driving is as good as it gets!"

Ami opened her eyes and narrowed them at her. "Driving on the other side of
the road through heavy traffic and going sixty is NOT good driving," she
stated matter-of-factly.

"We didn't get hit, now did we? And besides, you know nothing about driving
anyway. When you get your license, then we'll talk." Michiru swept some hair
behind her shoulder and began walking to the building.

*Maybe I'm don't have a license, but I know a bad driver when I see one,*
Ami thought. She watched Michiru walk up to the entrance of the building and
stood next to it, obviously waiting on her. *Maybe I can convince her to let
me drive home when we leave tonight. I may not have a license, but at least
I know which side of the road to drive on.* With that thought in mind, she
unbuckled her seatbelt and joined Michiru at the entrance.

Michiru handed Ami a security badge, which she clipped onto her left breast
pocket. "Now Ami-chan, I've already taken care of security, so you'll be
able to go wherever I'm able to." She then motioned to the door. "Now, I
know you've been looking forward to this for a while now, so...shall we?"

Ami nodded and smiled as they walked into the KaoiuTech building.

========

Time rippled for a moment.

She felt it.

She had felt it. Which meant that it was time.

She slowly could feel herself emerge out of the dark reaches she had been in
during her slumber. She was becoming more and more aware of herself. She
could begin to feel her body again, though she still could not move. She
felt weak...weaker than she thought she would have been...but no matter.
Soon, she would fully awaken, and plans made in times long past would
finally come to light at last.

All she had to do was wait.

========

Ami was happy. Deliriously happy.

Here she was, in the center of one of the world's leaders in biochemistry,
and the absolute leader in Japan. All around her, new inovations in science
were being made almost at a weekly basis. Some of the top scientists in the
world practically lived here as they performed experiments that could
possibly benefit mankind in ways unimagined.

Ami felt like she would just burst with joy.

Michiru smiled as she watched Ami move from lab area to lab area, taking in
as much information as she could possibly could from the scientists there,
then moving on to the next. And Michiru had no doubt that she could retain
it all, too.

There was one man here that she wanted Ami to meet. He had been brought in
from America from one of her father's rival companies, Osborn Industries.
Apparently, he had been unsatsified with the type of work he had to do. As
he put it, Norman Osborn was "far too small-minded for his own good. He
won't get much farther than where he is now." He was one of the smartest men
that she had ever met, possibly smarter than Ami or her father. Which was
saying a lot.

He saw the said men in question, working with one of his self-made devices
on an important project. "Ami-chan, could you come with me for a second?"

Ami looked at her from her vantage point of observing a chemical reaction
along with several other scientists. "Yes, Michiru-san?" she asked as she
walked to where Michiru was standing.

"There's someone I want you to meet. He's a scientist who has just
transfered here only recently, and he's had an illustrious career so far.
His name is-"

"Dr. Otto Octavious!" Ami finished for her, spotting the man as he was
removing his device off his person. Michiru stared at her in shock.

"You KNOW him, Ami-chan?"

Ami smiled and looked at her. "Dr. Octavious is very well-known in the
science field, Michiru-san. He is probably one of the most well-rounded
scientists around, and he has won some prestigous awards. I'm a big fan of
him."

Michiru smiled. "So I take it you want to meet him then?" Ami nodded. "Well,
okay then! Just let me talk to him first, and then you'll get to meet him!"

Ami could hardly wait.

========

Time rippled again.

She mentally frowned; she was much more sensitive to the waves of time now
and this ripple was...different. Much different. TOO different.

She now could move her fingers, albeit only a little bit at a time.
Something was wrong. She was much weaker than she should have been, she knew
this now. It was like she had been asleep much longer than she was supposed
to be in the first place. Something had gone wrong.

Or perhaps, someONE had caused things to go wrong.

At any rate, she was still helpless until the powers that were hers to
control were restored in full.

But until then...she was unable to affect things in the mortal realm. She
hoped she was just overeacting.

========

"It is an honor to meet you, Octavious-sensei." Ami gave a deep bow as she
spoke.

Dr. Otto Octavious returned the bow in kind. "The pleasure is mine,
Mizuno-san." His Japanese was heavily accented, which sounded Austrian, if
Ami were asked. She began to look him over in order to cement him into her
mind, just in case this was the only time she ever met him.

Dr. Octavious was a tall man, at least six foot three, if Ami had to hazard
a guess, and he appeared to be well built for a man in his early forties. He
was wearing the standard lab coat that everyone else seemed to wear around
here, along with black slacks and a blue turtleneck sweater. He also wore
his bronwish-black hair slicked back against his head, along with of a pair
of dark green-tinted glasses.

All in all, the exact opposite of what Ami expected him to look like.

Sure, she had seen a couple of photos of him, but they were both profile
shots from the neck up taken about ten years ago, when he had first
established himself as a serious scientist. The only reason she had
recognized him in the first place was that he had aged rather well.

Michiru spoke up as Ami was going through her thoughts. "Ami-chan just
happens to a big fan of your work, Doctor. I'm sure she'd love to watch you
continue the experiment that you were working on."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Well, I was just taking a break at the
moment. As you can tell," he pointed towards the strange device sitting on
the floor beside him, "it can become extremely tiresome to wear at times."

Ami looked down at where the doctor was pointing. She looked at it.

And blinked.

She tried looking at it again.

And she blinked again.

"It looks like a harness with with four rods sticking out of it."

Michiru was confused as well. "Um...Doctor...what is it?"

"Oh, sorry. It's hard to tell what it is when it's in rest mode. Hold on."
He picked it up and opened the lock on the harness, allowing him to him to
put it on around his stomach. After securing it in place, he then locked it
back into place and smiled. "Now watch." He then pressed a button on the
side and held his arms up above his head.

Ami was about to comment when she heard a soft whirling sound coming from
the harness. She noticed that the rods on the side of the harness were
beginning to become longer and were beginning to move about as they emerged
from the harness.

Within a minute, the arms, for lack of a better term, had fully emerged and
were slowly moving about, ready to do whatever they were told to do.

Ami and Michiru watched, mesmorized by the hypnotic movement of the arms as
they moved in front of Dr. Octavious' face.

"And now, we begin," Dr. Octavious said with a smile.

========

She opened her eyes.

Finally. It had taken far too long for her to get to this point. She was
convinced now: someone had came into this place and had tampered with it.
With her. She sat up and groaned: she felt sore all over. And she imagined
that she would feel this way for some time.

She threw the sheet off of herself and attempted to get out of her bed. This
resulted in her falling onto her knees immediately.

"Dammit," she mumbled softly. Far weaker than she thought. She attempted to
climb back into her bed, but she couldn't even manage that. She wiped some
sweat off of her brow: the effort was wearing her out already. She frowned
in frustration. She, of all people was not used to being so...helpless.

Then it hit her. Another ripple.

Even in this state, she could feel how Time moved due to the subtle
tinglings that went up and down her spine. It was a talent that was both
inherited and refined that only she could feel, and it allowed her to tell
what was going on in the mortal realm at this moment.

And what she felt was not good, to say the least.

Time was not only slightly altered, it was extremely damaged. Instead of a
slight change of course that was pratically expected to occur, it was a
total altercation off the scheduled course of history.

This...was not good.

========

Ami stared at the arms floating in front of her. "Doctor...this
is...absolutely incredible! I've never seen anything like this!"

Michiru was also in awe. "Octavious-sensei...I had no idea you had something
like this! When did you build it?"

Octavious smiled again. Ami noticed he liked to smile whenever he talked
about himself. "At Osborn Industries. Its creation was necessary for an
experiment I was performing at the time."

"Amazing. Doctor, I had no idea that you were capable of building something
like this." Ami had never known that Octavious knew enough about robotics to
build such a device. Well, she mused, you learn something new every day.

"Well, with all the advances being made by companies like Kunou Industries
and Mishima Heavy Industries, robotics are becoming rather easy to get into
these days. I have had some experience in robotics myself, so I was able to
take advantage of that fact." He then patted the harness. "And this is the
result."

"Doctor, if you don't mind now, could you go on with the experiment now? I'm
anxious to see it, as is Ami-chan, I'm sure." Michiru smiled as she glanced
at Ami again. She was glad to see that Ami was enjoying herself, especially
after what had happened today. Her thoughts briefly flashed to Makoto Kino
and Haruka Ten'ou, and she felt her temper flare. *Just wait until tomorrow,
you two bitches,* she thought. *You're both going to pay for making her cry.
No one messes with any of Michiru Kaoiu's friends like that and gets away
with it.* She glanced briefly at Ami. *Especially her.*

"Very well, but first, let me set things up for it." He motioned towards a
lightly tinted glass box, where two gun-like heads that hung from the
ceiling were placed in. The heads were circular, with a single turret
extending out from each of them. Wires and tubes that extended into the
gunheads ran up and down the metal rods and up into the ceiling, supplying
the guns with electricity. Four round holes, each evenly spaced, lined the
side of the box that was closest to the computer. Dr. Octavious began typing
on a nearby consule, and soon the faint hum of electricity could heard
coming from the guns.

"You may be wondering what this experiment is all about," Dr. Octavious
began in a formal tone of voice, as if he were conducting this experiment in
front of a large crowd of investors and scientists. Which, in fact, he was
planning on. "I have always felt that certain kinds of radiation could be
used in ways to enhance certain biological systems in humans and animals to
make them much more...effective in certain situations." He pressed a button
on the consule, and a small petri dish emerged from the side, which he
quickly picked up and handed it to Ami.

"Inside the petri dish are several white blood cells from an ordinary lab
mouse. Usually, any abnormal amounts of radiation will kill the cells quite
easily. However, I believe that certain kinds of radiation will actually
enhance the capabilties of the white blood cells, as long as they are
exposed properly. This machine," he motioned towards to the gun-like devices
in front of him, "will expose the cells to the proper amount of radiation
necessary to enhance their performance abilities. Once they are injected
back into the mouse's body, they should begin to divide at a rapid pace and
fill the body with nothing but the enhanced cells."

"Excuse me, Doctor, but what will that accomplish? What, exactly will the
enhanced blood cells do once they are back into the body?" Ami asked,
handing the petri dish back to Octavious after Michiru took a quick glance
at the dish.

"Ah, excellent question, Mizuno-san. Ideally, if the body doesn't reject the
new cells, they will begin to repair some of the damage that aging has
caused, among others. Wounds will heal faster, scars will disappear, defects
from birth will begin to repair themselves..."

"Excuse me, Dr. Octavious, but could you please get on with the experiment?
I would like to actually SEE this process, not hear about it," Michiru said,
interupting Octavious' speech. "That is what my father pays you for, is it
not?"

>From the way Octavious' eyebrows were pointing down, Ami could imagine that
his eyes were thin slits right now. She pulled Michiru down by the shoulder
and whispered into her ear. "What are you doing, Michiru-san? Are you trying
to make him mad?"

Michiru smiled and whispered back to her. "Don't worry, Ami-chan. I know
what I'm doing. I just want him to show you what he's doing so we can get
back to letting you look around."

Ami blinked. "Well," she whispered back, "I don't mind staying around him
for a while, really."

"Trust me, Ami-chan. There's much more interesting stuff than what he's
working on right now. You'll like that better, believe me."

Ami seemed hestitant. "Well..."

"Trust me." Michiru winked at her. "Have I ever been wrong before?" Ami
began to open her mouth, but thought better of it. She simply shook her
head. "Good. Now," she said, addressing the Doctor, "Please get on with the
experiment."

"Very well. Here." Two of his mechanical arms held a pair of tinted lab
goggles in front of the two girls as he began punching in commands into the
computer. "Put these on, just to be safe. Looking directly at this
experiment unprotected hasn't had any serious effects on anyone, but we
would rather be safe."

As they pulled the goggles on, Octavious' arms began to insert themselves
through the openings in the glass container, one carefully holding the petri
dish with the white blood cells in it. Once the hands were inside, the two
hands closest to the turrets began to type in commands on the keypad on the
side of each of them. Soon, the barrels began to glow pink with energy as
the other two arms held the petri dish into place right between them,
preparing for the blast of energy that would soon mutate the cells into
something better.

========

She was now able to stand up. Walking was still out of the question, but she
was able to make back onto her bed. She sat at the edge, clutching her
forehead tiredly.

"It's like I'm an infant again," she muttered, sweat pouring down her body.

She could feel the stirrings of another ripple, and she braced herself
mentally for it. Every time she was hit by one, she felt like crying out in
despair: Never in her experience had she seen time so off course.
In this timeline, most of the major American superheroes didn't exist, and
they were now in Japan, with people who had their own parts to play doing
both.

The it hit her.

She felt the blood drain from her face.

"No..." she whispered.

========

As everyone watched the experiment, they were so enraptured with the glow of
the radiation that they did not notice a tiny little speck slowly descend
down into the glowing light.

As it descended through the light, it suddenly felt...different. And not in
a good way. It quickly crawled back up the line it had made and began to
crawl along back to the small hole that it had discovered while crawling
along the ceiling. But as it made its way back, it slowly began to feel
weaker and weaker. It finally felt like it could not crawl anymore, so it
simply decided to lower itself down on its line and hope that it would find
a more suitable spot where it could rest at.

Ami failed to notice the tiny spider lower itself on her hand.

It tried to crawl again, but it was too weak to move much further. Its
vision began to blur, and it knew it was dying. Instintively, it lashed out
at the nearest living thing that it sensed, which happened to be the hand
that it was standing on. The spider lowered its head and sank its fangs deep
into the flesh before blacking out.

========

"Ow!" Ami instinctively slapped her hand where she had been bitten.

Michiru turned around and pulled up her goggles. "What happened, Ami-chan?"

"Something bit me," Ami responded, also pulling up her goggles and placing
them on her crown. She lifted her hand to see the crushed body of a tiny
spider, a leg still twitching in the air. She brought her hand up to take a
closer look at the spider. "That's odd. This type of spider doesn't usually
bite people."

"How can you be sure, Ami-chan?" Michiru asked, trying to take a closer look
at where the spider bit Ami.

"BecaaaAAAAHHHH!!!!" Ami suddenly felt a jolt of pain shoot throughout her
entire body and she fell to the floor, clutching herself in pain. She dimly
heard Michiru cry out as she felt her body go into violent spasmes, causing
her body to thrash about on the floor. She felt herself start to black out
and as her body began to go limp, she could barely see Michiru yelling for
someone to call for help, tears pouring down her face, and Dr. Octavious,
trying to calm her down. The last thought that went through her mind was
that at least she shouldn't have to go to school tomorrow.

Then her vision went black.

========

She could now walk in her own power now, but that did not concern at the
moment.

What did was the image that she could now see with the help of the staff
that she had called hers for quite some time now. One of the many things it
allowed her to do was to view time in the mortal world at that moment, via a
magic window.

And the image that she saw utterly scared her. A blue-haired girl lying on
the floor, quite possibly dying. A girl that was extremely important to the
future of the world, and beside her was another girl that was just as
important, who could do nothing but cry for the help that she could not
provide for her friend.

And Sailor Pluto, one of the powerful beings in the universe, couldn't do a
damn thing to help them at all.

========

First off, I do not even remotely claim to have any knowledge of scientific
method or fact, save for what little I learned in high school and TV, so
that should tell you something. If you see something that is factually
wrong, please tell me so I can try to fix it (unless, of course, it totally
messes up the story. Can't have that, y'know).

And I imagine how easy it was for anyone to figure out who the "mystery"
woman was the entire time, so if I bored you with it, well, sorry.

As for some of the Sailor Senshi being slightly OOC, remember, they haven't
become Sailor Senshi yet. Makoto, who needed to meet Usagi to become the
Makoto that we all know and love, hasn't met her yet. So I think that she
would have continued on with her thug ways, eventually becoming a bully. And
without Michiru's calming influence, I think Haruka would have followed a
similar route. However, I do think that Haruka and Makoto would still become
friends, even if they aren't the good-natured people that we're used to. But
are they lovers? Hmm...

And as Michiru's driving, well, in the anime, I have never seen Michiru
drive. Usually it's Haruka who's doing the driving. Maybe there's a reason
for that...

And the reasons for why Pluto was so weak will be explained in the next
part. Stay tuned.






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