Chapter Twenty-One: Magnetic Attraction Part One.
A spirited group walked, in an animated conversation.
"You know, I'm really glad that the weekend is here."
"I'm really glad there's a three day weekend coming, or at least I would be glad, if I didn't think the teachers were going to pile so much homework on us," Kitty said and she was walking with, Peter, Mary Jane, and Liz in the hallways, on their way back from lunch.
"Well, it's obvious by now that teachers really don't have any concept about something like a social life," Mary Jane said and she could barely keep the amused grin off of her face.
She stole a look from both Liz and Peter who looked equally amused.
"Yeah, they don't, really they don't," Kitty said with a sigh and she could feel a stabbing motion in her head.
Kitty winced and she closed her eyes when she took half of a step forward. She felt a fleeting pain going through her body.
"What's wrong?" Peter asked, he had the ability to pick up that something was wrong with someone. While it was not as sharp as his spider sense, it was something that he could sense.
"Like nothing, it's just that…..well never mind," Kitty said and she struggled to keep her head above the water. She could feel a headache that was coming on.
"You sure look like there's nothing," Liz said and she could see a grimace of pain on Kitty's face.
"Nothing, I just been having these migraine headaches all this time…and they are getting worse, must be school," Kitty said and she shook her head.
Her mother told her that if they got too serious for much longer, she would be taking a trip to the doctor. Kitty wanted to avoid going to the doctor if she could help it.
"I guess we'll see you later," Peter said and the last few weeks had been quiet, ever since the battle with Doctor Octopus.
In fact it was too quiet; Peter was beginning to think that something was going wrong although he couldn't figure out what was going wrong.
"Yeah, I'll see you later," Mary Jane said and she and Liz stole kisses from Peter suddenly.
When the two of them were gone, Peter slowly turned towards Kitty. The grimace on her face was growing and she was concerned about it.
"Are you sure that you're okay?" Peter asked her and Kitty nodded intensely.
"Yeah, fine, completely fine, I just got to deal with it, sure it sucks, but it's just something that I have to deal with," Kitty said and she tried to shake her head with a long sigh. She walked forward, making her way up the steps, with Peter keeping really close to her.
She had this sense that she was being watched by someone although she couldn't shake it off.
'Something's happening around here, not sure what it is though, but I know that I don't like it,' Peter said and his spider sense didn't go off just yet. That being said, there was another sense that indicated that he was going to be dealing with something that was problematic.
Kitty took half of a step forward and shook her head. No sooner did the cobwebs cleared, she slipped through the stairs with a shriek.
Peter stopped, and stared, he couldn't believe what he saw instantly. That caught him off guard and he couldn't catch Kitty if he had forewarning. She literally slipped through the stairs.
He scrambled, she couldn't have gotten far and he could hear her screams from beneath.
'Okay there should be a utility room somewhere where she went,' Peter said.
He tried not to lose his head right now, even though he just saw one of his friends go intangible and slide between a set of stairs.
Adrenaline pumped through Peter's veins and he pushed the door open with little force. The door slipped open.
Suddenly his spider sense went off, and he dodged some falling debris that tried to block his way off. It was only through his immense acrobatic ability that he was able to dodge the attacks.
"Just come quietly, and no one needs to get hurt!"
That wasn't good and Peter could figure out without really thinking about it that Kitty just stepped into it now. Exactly what she stepped into, he didn't know. It was just something really bad.
That being said, he could see a large ugly man, who looked like he was in desperate need of a shower. He had dirty blonde hair when he approached the young girl.
"Just come with me, the boss is very interested in you," he growled.
He advanced on her and Kitty backed into the corner. This man was about three times his size.
"Yeah, get away from me; do you get off on picking up on young girls?" Kitty asked, picking up a section of pipe and swinging it.
The man caught the pipe and laughed in her face. He crushed the pipe and continued to advance on her.
Peter hoped that he wouldn't look up and he decided to try out his new toy. He pressed a button on a watch, causing nano-bots to come out and form a Spider-Man suit around him. He and Gwen have been working on this project for a bit with help from Susan, and he hoped that it would work out well for its maiden voyage.
It was also armored with a few modifications, he had a feeling that he would need all of the help that he could get against this particular menace.
Spider-Man dropped down and kicked him on the back of the head and caused him to crash into a set of garbage cans.
"Back off the girl, now," Spider-Man said and he motioned the man to come forward.
The large man growled with a feral fury dancing through his eyes.
"I'll eat you for breakfast kid….."
Suddenly there was a telekinetic shield that came up and blocked his attack. It caused him to snap onto the ground with a thud.
Peter turned around and saw three figures standing in the background and they came into greater prominence. One of them he knew, and two others he didn't.
X-X-X
Peter recognized Jean when she turned up, her red hair wrapped in a ponytail. The redhead came into greater prominence as she approached them. Her eyes were glowing and the man who she sent flying through the wall had scrambled for cover or at least to fight another day. She was wearing a uniform with a tight black top that showed off her toned stomach, along with a pair of skin tight black pants, and she wore a black jacket with an "X" etched on it.
The two other individuals approached. One was a chocolate skinned beauty with white hair, that had an amazing figure. She gave an aura that was imposing but at the same time alluring. She wore the same uniform as Jean, and she was a couple of inches taller than she was, and looked to be in her early to mid-twenties as opposed to late teens.
The man was wearing a black top and pants, which thankfully wasn't skin tight or showing as much skin as the other two, on the account that he was a guy. Which Peter suspected that the fan girls might be into this sort of thing, but he wasn't. He had dark hair, sideburns, and a bad ass demeanor that showed that you do fuck with this man.
"Do not be alarmed, Kitty," Jean said when she stepped forward to greet the girl.
Spider-Man winced. "Yeah, telling a terrified teenage girl not to be alarmed is going to do a lot of good but…."
"Who are you, what do you want with me…..I didn't do anything, I slipped…..and fell through the stairs," Kitty said and the man snorted.
"Yeah, that was some fall, you managed to go completely through them, without busting them, quite the deal wasn't it?" he asked his two companions, who frowned at them.
"Don't mind Logan, he's just being his usual self," Jean said and she took a step towards Kitty and she watched the two other women, along with this Logan guy. "My name is Jean and this is Ororo, and we're from the Charles Xavier Academy for the Gifted Mutants…"
Kitty flushed and she felt terror go through her body. This couldn't be happening.
"Mutants…..I'm not one of them," Kitty said, and she was terrified.
Mostly because she heard of all of the anti-mutant protests and what they did to people who had bene outted as mutants. She shook her head and was trying to keep calm but she was failing in the most miserable manner possible at doing so.
"Yeah, because you just happened to fall through the stairs accidentally, of course," Logan said and Kitty looked at him and then she saw Spider-Man there, wondering what happened.
"Where is Peter….actually how did you get down here?" Kitty asked.
Kitty normally would be fangirling out something fierce when she saw Spider-Man. She felt nothing, but terror in her mind.
"I just happened to be in the neighborhood, when I heard your scream," Spider-Man said and Kitty nodded, that made a lot of sense. "And Peter's fine."
Kitty nodded, she was just at that much more at ease.
"Well, of course I screamed, because there's something wrong with me and…..well there's something wrong with me," Kitty said and her heart was beating against her chest furiously and it was hard for her to breathe, much less think.
Kitty Pryde was not having a very good day at all. Actually her day quite frankly sucked.
"No, child, there's nothing wrong with you, trust us," Ororo said and she stepped forward, putting a consoling arm around Kitty. To her credit, she didn't move away. Maybe she was too terrorized to move. "I am able to manipulate the elements…"
"That means she can control weather," Logan said and Ororo looked at him. "No need to dress it up that much, can't you see the kid's overwhelmed enough as it is?"
Ororo smiled she could see that just as well. She turned to Jean who gave a full assessment of her powers.
"And I am able to move things with my mind….."
"Oh you mean like telekinesis," Kitty said and Jean nodded with a smile on her face, and Jean demonstrated by moving the debris out of the way with ease like it was nothing.
"And also telepathy," Jean said and Kitty tensed up. "But I won't read your mind without your permission and actually I spend more time trying to block out other people's thoughts because I don't have the control. Professor Xavier and I are working on it, and we're almost there."
"Yeah, I can see that would suck to hear everyone's thoughts," Kitty said and the four of them made their way to the jet, with Spider-Man tagging along.
'Don't you have class, Peter,' Jean thought and that caused Spider-Man to stop cold.
'But….how….what…..I thought you said you didn't read people's minds,' Spider-Man said and he was numbstruck and Jean was amused.
'I don't, but it's not that hard to put two and two together, and you should be thankful that some people aren't able to,' Jean thought and she smiled. 'We're going to have to get together some other time, because….you and Gwen, you're both empowered but not quite mutants….it's kind of weird…..but I'm sure that you can tell me that story some other time.'
'Yeah, some other time,' Peter said with a smile and Kitty asked what Logan could do.
'Professor Xavier is already making the excuse for Kitty to be out of class and we're going to have to talk to her mother soon,' Jean said and Spider-Man watched Logan pop his claws in response. 'His healing factor is off of the charts, rumor has it that he once healed himself atom by atom from a nuclear explosion.'
'How is that possible?' Peter asked.
'Mutant powers pretty much flip scientific logic the middle finger fairly often,' Jean thought.
"So, Logan is Wolverine, and Ororo is Storm, what are you….."
Jean sighed at Kitty's question and answered it. "Marvel Girl."
'Marvel Girl?' Peter asked and he frowned. 'What kind of name is Marvel Girl?'
'What kind of name is Spider-Man?' Jean bantered back and Peter sighed.
'Oh touche,' Peter thought and he frowned as much as he enjoyed the banter, he did get back to class. 'Just one more question…..who was that group of….'
'Stop by the Institute, both you and Gwen, and you'll know everything, I swear,' Jean said, and Peter thought that was fair enough.
He would get some answers later today. He just wasn't sure if he would like the answers.
X-X-X
"Charles Xavier is a crusader for the rights of mutants and he wishes to have some kind of ever lasting peace between humans and mutants," Gwen explained.
She gave this information when she and Peter walked their way to the Xavier Institute, both of them exchanging a momentary uncomfortable look with each other.
"And judging by the look on your face, you think that he may be dreaming the impossible dream, don't you?" Peter asked and Gwen shrugged.
"Hey, sometimes you got to shoot big but….you've heard all of that Friends of Humanity propaganda….imagine if someone like the X-Men go public…..that's going to be a headache and mutants are becoming more prominent," Gwen said. "People with powers, some of them larger than life, you can't stay in the shadows forever."
"I can relate," Peter answered her.
"I know," Gwen whispered to him.
At first it was some kind of urban legend that they didn't take really seriously but now it was something more serious.
Peter and Gwen made their way up to the Xavier Institute and there was a sense that something was happening here.
"You just want to check up on Kitty, don't you?" Gwen asked and Peter smiled. "I'm pretty sure that she must be choking for it this bit….but all you need is the right moment."
'I'll get that right moment sooner or later, trust me," Peter said and Gwen smirked, she did trust Peter. That being said, she and Peter knocked on the door and waited to come in.
Jean answered and she smiled.
"So, it appears that we're not the only ones who were keeping secrets," Gwen said and Jean couldn't keep the smile off of her face.
"Well…I wanted to figure out what you two were all about, and Professor Xavier suggested that I keep an eye on you, and you're Spider-Man and the Goblin Queen…..you might actually be useful…..to help out," Jean said and stopped.
That came out not as good as she thought. Jean had that unfortunate knack to tie her tongue together at the worst possible times.
"We'll do whatever we can," Peter said and Jean grinned at him.
"Great, I'm glad….but you're not quite mutants, are you?"
"Wouldn't you have to be born that way to become a mutant?"
"Right, that's the best explanation," Jean mused, running her fingers through her hair and she smiled at it. "People like you two, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk…..you weren't naturally born into your powers…..of course you might have been….."
"That's corrected, Jean, there are theories, but none of them have been proven."
A blue furry mutant dressed in a lab club, a white t-shirt and slacks approached them. He had a pair of glasses and a kind demeanor to him, even though one might be shaken off by his unconventional appearance.
"Doctor Henry McCoy at your service," the mutant said.
"So, is your codename the Cookie Monster?" Gwen asked, she couldn't help herself but to his credit, the man chuckled.
"The resemblance is uncanny, but no," Doctor McCoy said and he looked at both of them. "They call me Beast, for obvious reasons."
"Yes, obvious reasons," Peter agreed and he looked towards Gwen with a slight smile on her face.
"I think that you should be introduced to the rest of the team….they're just finishing up a session in the Danger Room….more aptly named now that Logan is monitoring the sessions instead of Scott…"
"Scott Summers, Cyclops….." Jean said and there was something rather distant and foreign about her voice. "He was the leader of the X-Men…"
"Past tense…"
"It's a long story and I don't want to get into it right now," Jean said, turning around and looking out the window.
It had been a year now, and Jean had just got over it. She didn't want to keep bringing it out.
Xavier did take it very hard when it happened but she supposed that given that Scott was one of his first students, that was just as well. It actually put a lot of pressure on him to live up to certain standards and Jean would not envy her worst enemy with that kind of pressure. It happened how it happened.
"Professor Xavier would like to meet you and I have some questions of my own, if you don't mind," Doctor McCoy said and Peter and Gwen turned towards each other, smiling.
"Not at all, lead the way," Gwen said and she was curious to see what this was all about.
X-X-X
"She could have been a useful recruit," Magneto said underneath his breath. The Master of Magnetism stood in the shadows, with one of his chief members of his Brotherhood, the shape shifter known as Mystique.
"I would have been able to grab her, if you had not sent Sabretooth to get the job done," Mystique said and she was amused by what happened to that bastard.
A past team up had led to something that Mystique had dubbed her greatest mistake and it would be a long time before she washed the bile out of her mouth from that one. The result of the aftermath of that one was so disgusting that she didn't even want to think about it.
"Well, the X-Men are recruiting, but they're not ready for what is to come, I hear it each and every day, the humans are trying to find a way to drive us away, and ensure that we do not threaten their place," Magneto said. "We are scapegoats for everything that is wrong for them….."
It was a road that he had gone down previously numerous times and several races have as well. That was something that he was not going to discuss as well.
"What about Spider-Man?"
Magneto looked thoughtful about this entire situation.
"He's a wild card in this entire war, and he is ambiguous as they come, but he could be convinced to come over to his side as already he has had the fans of hostility move towards him," Magneto said and there was no more that needed to be said other than that.
Mystique looked towards Magneto and she nodded. She really didn't see much in Spider-Man but it really wasn't her call to make.
Quicksilver paced back and forth outside of the hallway, he felt like a young child who had been cast out to go into time out and he didn't like this, at all.
"I can't believe this," Quicksilver grumbled when he kept pacing around, not enjoying what he had to deal with.
"You can't believe it?" Scarlet Witch asked and she was waiting. The fact that Spider-Man kept coming up piqued her interest a little bit. "Perhaps you should have seen the signs that your father…"
"Oh sure when he does something that you don't like, he's my father," Pietro said, crossing his arms over his chest with a prominent scowl and Wanda reached forward, casually giving him a pat on the head.
"Yes, he is," Wanda said with a smile on her face and she shook her head when she continued to press on forward from this situation. "As I was saying, your father….fine our father….he's really playing a dangerous game."
"You're not going to question it, are you?"
"No, but his obsession with Xavier it was almost like he was jilted at the school dance by the man or something," Wanda said but she said it lightly enough. "And is this some kind of collection race to pick up all of the mutants? Is there really any kind of point to all of this?"
"Ask our father and you know what kind of response that you're going to get," Pietro said, he wasn't going to even try at this point.
After his past failure, he was in the dog house and that was not the best place in the world for him to be regarding Magneto.
"Oh, I have an idea Pietro," Wanda answered and she barely kept that smile off of her face, shaking her head but her mind went elsewhere.
She had managed to put it together, whether or not anyone else did, she could debate that all day long. Wanda managed to fit together the pieces about who he was and what his mission was.
He was on their side, at least that's what she thought. Or maybe she could see him presenting an attractive third option for them. They did need as many options, especially considering the fact that Magneto and Charles Xavier were two sides of two horrifying extremes. As much as Wanda loathed to admit it, that was the case.
'I really wish this would have turned out a lot better,' she thought to herself but she honestly knew better than this.
"How was your recruiting with that Parker?" Pietro asked and Wanda paused.
"We had to schedule back our meeting after something came up," Wanda said evasively.
"Really?" Pietro asked, a skeptical tone added to his voice and Wanda sighed.
"Yes, Pietro, really," Wanda said to him and she could tell that her brother was going to have twenty questions.
However, she was saved by the arrival of her father and she was never so glad to see him as long as she lived.
"Here's what we're going to do."
X-X-X
"So, it was that OsCorp formula," Xavier said, he was a bald man who sat in a wheelchair and he peered at Peter and Gwen.
"I had rumors about some of what they were doing there but I could have never imagined that," Hank said and he thought that it was brilliant, but horrifying science.
"Well you don't need to look far to see what it did to Norman Osborn," Jean said and she shuddered at that.
"But he was dosed with a larger, more potent quantity of it, and we're monitoring things on our end," Gwen said, and so far there was nothing the matter, at least nothing that she thought was the matter.
"And Fury likely cleared it up."
Logan's voice sounded gruff and Gwen smiled, it was obvious that he wasn't that big of a fan of Nick Fury. Which earned him a few points in Gwen's book as far as she was concerned. She still hadn't forgiven Fury about the entire kidnapping her boyfriend thing.
"Well, that would be like Fury," Gwen said but she figured that from a certain angle the man would have had a point. The last thing that you needed was that stuff hanging around, ready to be used.
"You know, I know why we're here, and you're going to ask us to be part of this, aren't you?" Spider-Man asked and it was Jean who cut in.
"The choice is naturally yours," Jean replied and she really wondered what kind of battle they were fighting these days. It seemed like they were fighting their fellow mutants more than they were more than trying to get a fair deal for humans and mutants all together.
"So, the choice is mine?" Spider-Man asked, there was something about that which he doubted.
He was more than likely to go along with it if that's what it meant.
"So, how about you, Miss Pryde, have you come to a decision?" Xavier asked and Kitty made her way inside, she figured that she might as well not linger outside, given that they expected her to be inside anyway.
"Um, I don't…..I really don't know," Kitty said and her cheeks went slightly red when she thought about it. "I mean, I really need to think about this, this is a big decision and I still need to tell my mother…"
"I'm certain that she will understand," Xavier said but at that point, there was a loud thumping sound outside.
The thumping sound gave Peter the heads up that something was going down. His spider sense going completely mad made things certain that something was going on, but the web slinger popped up to his feet and stepped forward.
"And we have a security breach," Jean said, there was something casual about her voice that indicated that this wasn't exactly new news.
In fact, the redhead was trying not to act like anything was out of the ordinary even though they had just been breached.
"You act like this has happened before?" Peter asked her and Jean opened her mouth for a moment and then swiftly nodded her head.
"It has," Jean muttered underneath her breath and she could hear the sound smashing sound of something trying to force their way inside.
It was not a pleasant sound to be heard at all and the redhead was on pins and needles trying to deal with it. Another huge crash echoed and Jean leaned in.
"Spider-Man, I wish to speak with you," Magneto said and there was an electro magnetic disturbance.
"This shouldn't be happening, the gates are coming down," Doctor McCoy said and Logan sighed, there was a feel that this had happened before.
"It shouldn't but it has, get ready," Logan grumbled and the X-Men had to assemble for quite the fight.
If this was her first day, then Kitty thought that she picked a hell of a fight to deal with.
To Be Continued On October 8th, 2014.
The first cameos of the X-Men and the Brotherhood. With some interesting choices that were for the best of the narrative convention of the story.
The running gag about the Xavier Institute having the absolutely worst security on the planet lives!