Location: Now York City
Date: Friday, January 13th, 1989
Mark POV:
Standing before an irritated, and uneasy Gwen Stacy, he considered his idea.
Mark had been mostly focused on growing stronger and avoiding anything that would draw attention to the school. But in a week or two he would take the early graduation exams and then be free to pursue his own goals.
Furthermore, going to a fictional universe had certainly been unexpected and he may have chosen to come to Marvel a bit impulsively. So he had arrived here without a real plan.
But with the store able to provide powers, he had been thinking he would simply end up as a hero, and had not thought about the process. He did not have a deeper purpose before, beyond wanting to help people, stopping injustice, and seeing happy endings when the many crises come in the future.
After an introspective week however, Mark understood now that he did not want to be just another hero, and also felt like he needed a greater purpose if he was going to choose the hero life.
In the comics, almost anything was possible. Because of that, the heroes go through the ringer many times, even if you ignore the many battles. Mind control, memory alterations, total memory wipes, possessions, illusions, shapeshifter impersonations, kidnappings, clones, reality warping, and that was just what he could think of off the top of his head.
Even knowing all that, Mark was willing to face the hardships of this world, and believed he had found a path worth walking. Because, even though he knew of the dangers and absurd abilities that exist, the other heroes do not, and that had sparked his idea.
'If I can help them avoid all that shitty comics bullshit, even a little, wouldn't that be worth it?' he thought.
He could help them prepare ahead of time for problematic people or abilities before they cause a disaster, and help characters avoid getting screwed over, 'After all, who protects the heroes? Many of them are the most worthy of help, and have nowhere to turn... If I can use my knowledge and powers to help them, isn't that the life I was really looking for here?'
Mark was not sure if being a hero mostly because he was interested in building relationships with Marvel characters was a good thing or not. Either way it was the reality, at least for now, and he would not try to convince himself that he had a more noble motive until it was true.
"What exactly do you mean by, trouble is going to come looking for me? How would anyone even know I exist? I have my own life and I'm not interested in fighting monsters or villains like those heroes in the news." Gwen said a little icily.
"Firstly, I meant exactly what I said. Even if it's just something that happens near by, when trouble comes calling would you stand to the side and do nothing if your powers could save lives?" he replied, considering her in the context of his new purpose. He wanted to know what kind of person she was, and if he wanted to help her.
"I.. well I don't want anyone to know I have powers, but... If somebody was going to die and I could stop it, then yeah. I would help."
"Then you are a hero. Just keep your mask close at hand." Mark said, rather pleased with her response. He quickly went over everything he could remember about Gwen from the comics, but it was not much.
In the main continuity she did not have spider powers for one thing, and he had no idea why things were different here. Primarily she was Peter's girlfriend and she famously died when he tried to save her during a battle against the Green Goblin. Mark also knew her father was a police captain, but that was about it.
There was also an alternate universe or timeline version of her that was a hero who got spider powers instead of Peter. But he knew that was not the version of Gwen he was dealing with now, even if her suit was very similar.
"I am not a hero." she managed after a moment of stunned silence.
But he did not argue, just smirked behind his mask and continued, "Secondly, you can be found any number of ways. It may not be possible to identify you from a distance with current technology, yet, but a blood test would reveal some rather interesting abnormalities. So I would recommend avoiding the hospital in general..."
"On that thought, no blood donations. I do not know what might happen and neither does anyone else. But I do know that someone with enough resources would find a way to make your blood valuable, and someone will eventually try to exploit it."
"Maybe they could reverse engineer your powers and try to create an army of super soldiers. Maybe your blood would just be rejected by the body and cause people to die, or be horribly mutated. You never know." he said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
"That's ridiculous..." she started to say, but her words quickly lost strength, "Ugh, fine I get it, avoid becoming a lab experiment. You seem to know an awful lot about this stuff." she said after a little thought.
Mark just shrugged, "I guess."
She unhappily crossed her arms at his non-answer as he continued, "Beyond technology, there are all kinds of ways someone with metahuman abilities could find you. Have you met any other metahumans so far?"
Gwen paused before saying, "I've never even heard the term metahuman before."
"A metahuman is basically any human with superpowers, regardless of the nature or the origin of those powers. Though, that definition is probably not perfect. So whether it is someone with the X-Gene, got their powers in an accident, or learned magic, you could find someone, either friendly or hostile, just walk into your life one day."
"...Magic is not real." she said, apparently not sure how to respond to everything he said.
"Yes it is." he replied, remembering how Cortana said the same thing, "...Science is not the boundary of what is real. It is simply one way to discover the nature of reality."
With a frustrated sigh, Gwen said, "Look, thanks for the advice, I guess. Now I'm going to be paranoid about... all of that. And no, I haven't met anyone else with powers, but none of that is why I came here. I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to ruin my life. That's it. I want to protect my fa-, err, my family. I want to go to college, and have a life."
"Paranoia is a start, but it is not a good place to stay for long. However, I would be willing to help you become prepared instead."
"I don't need your help."
Mark just shrugged again, "Maybe not, but you might benefit from it."
"Why would you bother?" she asked suspiciously.
"Because there are other threats, like the Purple Man, that could destroy your life if you are unprepared. The normal world you have known is not necessarily going away. But it is going to have to make room for everything that is coming. People like the Fantastic Four are not a one time thing, they are just the beginning, and you are blessed with the power to survive what's coming, or even affect the course of events."
"Survive what's coming? You are talking like you know the future." she said.
"Not exactly. For now, let's just say the trend of rapidly increasing metahuman activity will continue."
"And you're volunteering to help me because you're just a really nice guy?"
"No. Helping you will help me too."
"...And what, exactly, is it you want from me?" Gwen asked.