Chapter 8: Chapter Eight

"Well. That was not normal." Tony said, crossing his arms. Octavia snorted, "No shit." She looked at the data scrolling across the screens, "A hundred and thirty degree temperature is usually lethal." She rubbed her forehead, "More importantly, the hell is up with her internals? Your circulatory and musculoskeleton don't just bloody rearrange themselves cause you got bit by a spider. The fuck?"

Tony shrugged, scratching his goatee, "Well. Jasmine did say it was magical..." 

Octavia threw her hands in the air, "No shit! I don't think nanobots are that advanced yet- and I don't know of anything organic that works that quickly outside of maybe some mutant's powers- but those are also magic for all I care." 

Despite himself, Tony chuckled at the frustrated doctor. It's been a few hours since they returned from the... OsCorp meeting. Norman still gave him an unsettled feeling... More importantly, the spider situation. Natasha started burning up halfway to the mansion, and it was another two hours before the heat finally receded. During that time they had her enter a medical room to use the scanning and monitoring features Tony had built a while back to deal with his accidental self poisoning a few years ago. 

Needless to say, the actual data acquired is strange. Seeing the woman's muscles wriggle, detaching and reattaching tendons, bones shift around, with veins and lymph nodes coiling about like some eldritch creature under her skin was... disturbing. However the most notable change...

Tony sighed, "So do you have any idea what the new organs do?" 

Octavia groaned at the question, burrowing her palms into her eyes. "No!" She yelled, throwing her arms up, "I have absolutely no idea without testing. And they're in her arms for fucks sake! People don't just grow new organs in their arms like it's no big deal! And they certainly don't have their bloody bones rearrange themselves to do so!" She sighed, drooping "We'll have to wait for her to wake up. How's she doing at the moment?" Concern laced Octavia's voice. Seeing the usually calm, confident, and amazing beauty be so exhausted, wobbly on her feet, and barely able to pay attention to where she was going as she stumbled forward while being led by Jasmine was disconcerting. 

"Currently?" Tony asked, shrugging. "Not sure. Last I asked Pepper Natasha collapsed into bed after taking her clothes off, not even making it to the shower to wipe her sweat. Jasmine apparently decided to cuddle up next to her, saying something about how she was 'gnawing on mana' subconsciously and seemed to be craving an external source of it. Whatever that means..." 

Both geniuses gave each other knowing looks and sighed, "Magic..."

They both shook their heads. Unfortunately Tony's quest to acquire a bunch of magical knowledge for Jasmine was... having subpar results at best. Whatever magical community in the United States there was was not exactly easy to find, even for a multi-billionaire. That's even if there was one... They probably didn't even use the same channels as 'muggles'- a word Tony took partial offense to when Jasmine told him about it. 

He definitely wasn't going to try contacting the British branch of it, even if he figured out how. What little Jasmine could give him from her earliest memories about the supposed 'order of the phoenix' her biological parents were a part of and the supposed 'white piece of shit'- Jasmine was punished by Pepper for those words- didn't paint an exactly good picture of them. Especially the white bastard that Jasmine refused to say the name of who was apparently in charge.

Not that Tony can blame her, considering what Jasmine said about the man's mutterings and his psychological manipulation of her birth parents to give her to the Dursleys- and that's just what she could find out as a one year old. And with a man like that in charge... Yeah. Neither Tony nor Pepper wanted anything to do with them. Luckily Jasmine's attachment to her birth parents was basically moot at this point. In her own words, 'strangers at best'. Though, Tony didn't believe that for a second. Scars linger, and Jasmine's eidetic memory only makes the problem worse. 

Outside of the known magical community of Britain, Jasmine remembered brief mentions of other communities- such as France and Germany, so it's likely the 'old world' has long established magical communities, but contacting them is still up for debate.

Unfortunately the only 'magical' group Tony has interacted with is the Ten Rings, and they're not exactly willing to give up their knowledge...

He sighed. At least Jasmine's having fun studying magic on her own, creating cantrips and spells here and there. She has a horde of inspiration from various fictions she's read. Tony and Pepper are just worried something irreversible may happen- experimentation can be very dangerous, and throwing magic into the mix... well. There's a reason they forced Jasmine to have Natasha nearby when doing so. 

"We'll have to talk to Jasmine and Natasha when they wake up." Octavia's mutter drew Tony out of his thoughts. The doctor yawned and stretched, glancing at the watch on her wrist. "It's only eight p.m huh? Guess I'll head to bed early as well. I'll be borrowing your guest room, wake me up if anything happens." She said over her shoulder, giving Tony a wave.

The inventor just shook his head and looked back at the monitors for a moment before sighing. 'Jasmine's instinct is always scarily on point, so this probably isn't going to be a bad thing. Still. How the hell can a spider bite do this?' The spiders from OsCorps silk project had already arrived, the enclosures being placed in their own room at the moment with a ton of security layered over top to make sure none get out or pose issues. Unfortunately neither him nor Octavia were zoologists, with Octavia being the closer of the two with some background in biology and genetics. And with Jasmine saying that magic is involved....

Tony sighed again, clicking a button to temporarily shut down the monitors. 'I should go see how Sidera and Pepper are doing, and join them for bed.' He smiled at the thought of his youngest daughter curling up between him and Pepper. 'Though,' his thoughts briefly flashed back to the spiders once more, 'I wonder what Jasmine wants to do with them?' 

 

>>> Next morning 

Natasha's eyes opened, instantly taking in her surroundings as she woke. She was naked, sticky, sweaty. A smaller form was curled into her side, one of her arms wrapped around it. Natasha shivered at the feeling. The smaller form- Jasmine?- felt like touching a warm plasma ball while standing next to a giant factory fan, causing large waves of air to intermittently pass over her body- except the air was going through her. The feeling was at least comfortable and relaxing, letting the woman's mind relax slightly, going into a slight trance for a minute.

Natasha blinked, a realization snapping her back to the present. Both she and Jasmine were breathing slowly... no? That's not it. Her thoughts were faster. Her eyes landed on the digital clock on her nightstand- Jasmine's prosthetic arm placed next to it- her body unmoving as she slowly counted the seconds. 60... 120... 180... 540... 720... 900... the digital clock changed, a minute passing. Natasha blinked again, feeling the relative slowness of the movement as she carefully took a long, calming breath and looked around. The sunbeams lighting up the room caused dust to briefly be visible in the air, slowly flowing on the light breeze made by the ceiling fan. Thankfully patience is a skill she had long since learned. 'Roughly fifteen times faster... This is going to cause some issues.' 

Her eyes closed as she sent her senses inward. Her ki was... thick and silky, for lack of a better term. Denser than before, and far quicker. Natasha shuddered briefly. There's no hard estimates on her feelings for her own ki, but she would go out on a limb and say that it was over thirty times greater than it was before. 'And ki is a product of one's own physical well being, strength, and constitution. The more fit someone is, the more ki they have. The more in control they are, the more ki they can retain without leaking.' She had a slight leak at the moment, instantly standing out to her senses. 'I'll have to be careful not to hurt Jasmine til I get my body under control.' The leak may not be much compared to the total, but with her current reserves that amount may as well be equivalent to an out of control bull. She'd have to move for a bit to figure where exactly she is lacking in control, but with Jasmine curled up to her side...

'I'll wait for her to wake up and move. Hopefully speaking won't be an issue. I should try meditating.' With another slow breath, Natasha further delved into her mind, letting her own thoughts slip by like water. If nothing else, it would help the exceedingly slow relative time pass. Feelings came and went, the little bundle of warmth sticking to her skin to the side a constant source of invisible but pleasant 'wind'. Gradually Natasha fell into a quiet trance, thoughts no longer bubbling up as she let time pass her by, existing in a state more 'feeling' than thought. Her ki echoed the wind that passed through her, seemingly reaching out in turn- causing the bundle to her side to wiggle and break Natasha from her trance, her enhanced senses snapping to the movement.

Jasmine blinked a couple times as she woke up, struggling to cast off her grogginess as she tilted her head to the side, confusedly glaring at the skin she was laying on as if it owed her answers. Natasha chuckled at the cuteness, realizing her chuckle seemed to be at normal speed compared to her perception. "Rise and shine, Jazzy." The woman purred, happy her voice seemed to be coming out normally as far as she could tell. Her own perception seems to be dragging it out, but internalizing it as normal. She briefly pondered how that was working as she watched Jasmine's eyes blink over the course of a few relative seconds. 'Brains are weird.' She decided, shelving the issue for later.

A few blinks of Jasmine's later, the girl stared at Natasha's face, then looked over the rest of her body with curiosity, "You're stronger?" The girl asked, poking Natasha's abdomen and feeling the sticky skin give. There was an odd feeling underneath to Jasmine's senses, but she couldn't put a pin on it...

"And in need of a shower." Natasha answered, smiling. "I unfortunately need you to move, I don't know how much stronger I currently am and don't have complete confidence in my control with the sudden change." 

Jasmine blinked and nodded, quickly shuffling backwards out of Natasha's arm and off the side of the large bed, standing to the side with not a cloth on her body. Natasha took a deep breath, looking at the ceiling before slowly moving her arms down to push herself up. The movement caused her to jolt upwards even with its slowness. 'The pressure I'm exerting is definitely higher than before.' She narrowed her eyes, an odd feeling crossing the skin of her palms and fingers as they laid on the mattress. 'Static? Somewhat? It's turning off and on... I can adjust the intensity?' With a small effort she ramped up the static and tried to lift her hand, blinking as the sheet stuck to it as if glued. With another deep breath she turned the static feeling all the way down, and felt the friction of her hand reverse, now unable to gain proper traction on the sheet, slightly repelling. 'Okay, so middle ground.' Her palm lifted off normally and she quickly got used to the feeling while lying still. 'It's on my feet too?' 

Comfortable with the consistency she had the static at, she slowly and carefully started moving to get off the bed, her movements jerky and then smoothing as she got used to the different forces she needed to apply, briefly ripping the bed sheet as she forgot to adjust the static for a moment. 'Thankfully my palm wasn't in direct contact with Jasmine's skin while holding her...' Natasha shook her head at the morbid image, sending her shoulder length red hair flailing with a bit too much force.

A couple minutes later under the careful eyes of Jasmine, Natasha was on her way to the shower in the side of her room. 'Luckily it seems my sense of balance isn't off due to these changes, infact I'd say it's probably improved?' It was hard to say by how much, Natasha's sense of balance was already ridiculously refined. 'It seems all my other senses have improved as well. Luckily it seems I've also gained a resistance to sensory overstimulation...' The sheer amount of things she could smell and hear, not to mention the intensity, was quite extensive now. 'Luckily the mansion has good sound proofing.' 

Jasmine plodded behind Natasha, carefully watching to make sure nothing was wrong with her aunt as the woman slid open the bathroom door and stepped inside, the girl quickly following behind for an early morning shower.

 

>>> Some time later 

Pepper watched Natasha contort herself with mild horror, her bones seemingly bending where they most definitely shouldn't. The woman was flexible before, but now? Pepper shook her head and adjusted Sidera on her lap, who was giggling and clapping at Natasha's demonstration. 

Octavia to the side was muttering and rubbing her forehead, "That's not how this works... that's not how any of this works..." The poor scientist glared at the tablet with Natasha's recent scans on it, "Bones don't bend like that. They don't-!" 

Jasmine amusedly poked Octavia, then pointed at Natasha. 

"Why you!!" The doctor glomped onto the girl, starting a tickle fight. Pepper turned her head away from her daughter and friend's antics, turning back to Natasha who somehow smoothly righted herself from being a pretzel, all while on one leg. 

"Well, I definitely was not able to do that as easily before." Natasha said, smirking at Octavia who had the exhausted laughing Jasmine in her arms. Ignoring the panting bundle of mischief she was carrying, Octavia's focus returned to the somehow sexier redhead. 'How the hell has she become even more of a natural beauty?' Existential questions aside, "Yeah, your body is definitely... I don't want to say inhuman, but the structure of nearly everything outside of some gut organs is quite different." She spoke, glancing over the data on her tablet where it sat beside her to make room for Jasmine, who was still catching her breath. 

"You said your thoughts are accelerated too, right?" Octavia asked, checking the neural scans. They all seemed blurred slightly, much to Octavia's dissatisfaction. 

Natasha nodded, smoothly poking her own forehead. 'Goddess above, how the hell is this woman so.... so... subtly powerfully natural?' Octavia really didn't need a rebirth of her failed crush. Especially since she was currently seeing someone... "Yes. It's about fifteen times faster, going by basic time counting. Though..." Natasha narrowed her eyes, "I think it's also come with psychological changes to adapt my thought processes to the quicker perception."

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Octavia nodded in understanding, shelving how Natasha managed to look good at all times like some sort of cheat. "I'm not too surprised at that. I can't imagine experiencing everything fifteen times faster would go over well for normal human sanity, and I'm barely a psychologist." 

Pepper worriedly frowned while absently distracting the rambunctious daughter on her lap with a tablet- thank god Tony and Jasmine made a few games for Sidera on it- "Is there any worry of your mental state deteriorating?" She asked.

Natasha shook her head, "I don't think so. It feels completely natural to exist at this relative speed. The only dissonance is caused by comparing my memories of not thinking this quickly." The woman snorted, "I'd even go so far as to say whatever that bite did actually strengthened my mental state on top of adapting it. Even thinking of past trauma no longer hurts as much..." 

Jasmine gave her aunt a worried look, still panting in her godmother's embrace. Pepper and Octavia's eyes flashed briefly. Natasha was not one to mention her past, to do so so casually... 

"Well. That's good in that case." Octavia hesitated for a second, "I do want to mention something related to that briefly." 

The redhead's brilliant white-blue eyes  focused on the doctor who was looking down at her tablet. "Your ovaries... may have regenerated." Natasha blinked, "I don't know if you are fertile at the moment, but I figured you should know." The doctor finished, ignoring the questioning gaze of Jasmine. 

"Oh." Was all Natasha said, blinking a few times before deciding she'd mull over the info later. Pepper sat silently, letting her friend think for a bit, before turning to Octavia and changing the subject, "What about those organs you said were in her arms?" Jasmine perked a bit, interrupting before Octavia could respond "They're magical." 

All the women blinked, turning to Jasmine. The girl just pointed at Natasha's hands, "A good portion of auntie's mana is concentrated near her wrists in both hands, roughly fifty times more than everywhere else."

"... well." Octavia dryly continued, pinching Jasmine's cheek to her protests, "That's more than I would be able to give you. Anything on your side Nat?" 

Natasha clenched and unclenched her hands, "... maybe?" She muttered, "I feel... like I have a few instincts related to this now? But nothing solid." The woman lifted an arm, pointing towards the far wall of the training room; her palm raised slightly so the base of her wrist was exposed. Some muscles she could barely feel shifted and- *THWIP!*

Pepper jumped in surprise, startling Sidera who nearly dropped her tablet and number game, screeching and babbling a bit in protest as Pepper started silently brushing her hair to calm the girl down, absently looking at the long white strand now attaching Natasha's wrist to the far wall where it- the webs?- splattered out for half a foot.

Octavia and Jasmine blinked in shock as well, the doctor leaning forward slightly, crushing Jasmine beneath her breasts as she absently muttured, "My my, Nat, spraying your white sticky stuff everywhere now?" "OCTAVIA!" Pepper snapped her head to her friend, the doctor ignoring her and Jasmine both as she looked at the 'silk' that came from Natasha's wrist. Jasmine struggled a bit and managed to lean out of Octavia's bust, also curiously looking at the silk made by her aunt as her hair absently swayed and flicked. 

"Those webs are temporary." The girl muttered as Natasha gave a slight tug to the silk, causing the wooden far wall to bend slightly. Octavia blinked, not moving her gaze, "How so?" She asked the girl in her lap. "They're magical constructs, I think. They seem to be decaying slowly."

"Yeah. That seems about right..." Natasha muttured, shifting the muscles in her arm again as the strand of silk suddenly detached from her wrist. Jasmine tilted her head, "And now the decay is faster." Both Nat and Octavia nodded at that.

"I think I can make permanent ones too, but at a much slower speed." Natasha added, clenching and unclenching her hand before aiming again, letting another web *Thwip* into the wall, this time cut off nigh instantly letting a bolt of white slam into the wood, splattering out again. "But this alone has several different versions, I think..." She added, thwipping another line, then trying to change the length of the thread while it's attached to the wall, letting it sag as she pulled her arm back and gave it slack.

Everyone- outside of Sidera who was happily playing her simple math game on a tablet- watched in silence as the woman experimented with her webs, Jasmine's eyes sparkling slightly. "This is so cool~!" The girl absently spoke, causing the three women to grin at the girl's excitement. 

Octavia jolted slightly, "Wait. Jasmine, you said several of the spider's gave you the same feeling as the one that bit Nat, right?" Jasmine looked up and nodded, causing the doctor to frown. "Do you think they could also give others the same powers?" Jasmine hesitated, "Maybe?" 

The three women took a breath. "We need to keep this on the down low. We don't want those greedy bastards revisiting the experiment that created the spiders." Octavia stated. Pepper, Natasha and Jasmine nodded at that, Sidera blissfully unaware as she cheered at completing a level, causing Pepper to smile and pat the girl's head. 

"We also should slightly increase the security of those spider's as well." Pepper added, turning to Jasmine "And what do you plan to do with them Jaz?" 

"I wanted to see if I could turn them into familiars. I remember my birth parents had owls, so I know it's possible." Jasmine said, eyes locked to Natasha as the woman went back to testing; creating a line in one direction, then throwing them to connect to the opposite wall making a single strand the length of the room, "The ones giving me a magic feeling especially." Jasmine continued.

Pepper smiled at her daughter's excitement. "We'll have them moved near your room later. For now, why don't you help Natasha with testing her webs?" Jasmine's eyes sparkled and she quickly wiggled out of Octavia's grasp, running over to her aunt and starting to poke the woman's wrists and webs, hair flailing about in excitement to all the woman's amusement. 

Octavia sat back and relaxed, leaning her shoulder into Pepper's as the toddler continued playing her games while Nat and Jasmine continued testing the woman's webs. The doctor's eyes drifted down to the tablet in Sidera's hands. "And to think these devices will soon be in the hands of many children." The doctor murmured, taking a break from the ridiculousness of her friend gaining superpowers. 

Pepper nodded, smiling down at the fuzzy red hair of her daughter. "It'll certainly be a change. Especially with Jasmine's world wide web through the Stark satellite connection." Octavia snorted, "Web this, web that. I'm starting to think the girl may either be fated with spiders or developing a fetish." Pepper elbowed the doctor in the ribs, shooting her a glare. "Watch your mouth around the children."

The blonde merely chuckled, rubbing her side slightly, "Tony's should be in the middle of the expo showing off the products, correct?" 

"Mmm." Pepper nodded, "Just a few more months til release. We've already got the supply lines and factories up and running, and the subcompany for Jasmine's platform is already created under her name, with dozens of servers ready to launch in America and Europe."

Octavia let out a breath, running a hand through her hair as she turned her gaze to the excited girl, who was currently clinging to the bottom of a web line as Natasha walked across the top of it like solid ground. "I've got a feeling there's gonna be alot of changes in the coming years..." The doctor muttered. Pepper merely nodded and hugged Sidera a little tighter.

 

>>> United States, Society of Wizards Head Department, a month later

"Sexist twats." Maeve Shanahan tossed the letter from Britain onto the pile of others on her desk. "Oh~ Oh~ We've abandoned a child of great magical importance by complete accident in the US due to our gross incompetence, please won't you, who are absolutely stupid and moronic, kindly help us find the girl for free, who we'll invetibly manipulate, mock and disdain~!" She snorted again, "Incompetent, racist bastards."

Her assistant gave her an amused look, "What do the oh so superior one's from the old world exactly want this time?" The dark-skinned, steel haired woman asked, wrinkles crinkling in witheld laughter. Maeve groaned, rubbing her forehead and moving her platinum blonde hair to the side, brown eyes inherited from father glaring at the letter. Her honey toned skin caught the light of the sun as she leaned back, glowing golden in the sunset. 

"Oh you know," The irish/indian descended wizardess waved her hand in the air, "Just want us to look as hard as we can for a missing child named Jasmine, with black hair and green eyes, who was apparently abandoned in New York city about two-three years ago and may or may not be missing an arm." Maeve gave her assistant a look.

Zawati raised an eyebrow, "My, that sounds eerily similar to the girl adopted by the famous Stark family that's been all over the news for the past few years." The woman paused to cover her mouth and hold back her laughter, "Haven't you been paying a close eye on the girl for a while now?"

Maeve snorted, "Yes. Yes I have." She rolled her eyes, "And to think, all that was needed to find her was to pay the slightest attention to muggle news! My my, how shockingly difficult." Both women snorted at that.

"You should probably approach the Starks with the offer soon." Zawati noted, causing Maeve to groan and rub her forehead, "Yeah, I really should. I'll try getting a meeting with Pepper Stark next week. Hopefully I don't get way sided by an assistant and have to go personally and rudely intrude." 

"As long as you try the phone first." Zawati shook her head, "Better than those rude fucks over in Europe who will show up unanounced and expect you to lick their feet." 

Maeve snorted again, before leaning forward and tapping her ring-bearing finger on her desk, her papers quickly sorting themselves about in an organized fashion. "It's the end of the day anyway, I'll give them a call first thing tomorrow." 

Zawati nodded. "Hopefully it goes well."