X Factor
It had been two weeks since Wei's death, the funeral was fairly large with a good amount of the police force attending it. Chief Bei Fong herself even came, giving a few kind words about him and his final heroic act. The small boy he had saved also attended, thanking the policeman for his sacrifice for him, even if he didn't fully grasp what was happening.
Jason didn't attend, not formally at least. He watched from the rafters as the ceremony went on, watching on the rooftop as they carried the coffin out of the building with a grieving mother walking beside it.
Jason shed few tears himself, but slipped on his mask before they could fall and leapt away from the building. Going off to fulfill the promise he made to Wei as he passed away.
(000)
The door to Jason's apparent opened to Akiko, she had been coming to the small home more and more recently. Mainly because she barely saw Jason outside his home but also to check up on him.
Ever since Wei's death, Jason has been acting differently. He was still the joking nice guy that she loved, but he hadn't once complained about having to be Spider-Man. It wasn't that he didn't like being a superhero, but it was pretty inconvenient for him.
Entering his room, she found the hero working on his something, "Hey handsome, what ya working on?" She asked as she closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. The artist leaned down and planted a small kiss on his scalp, drawing his attention away momentarily.
Jason leaned his head back to look at her before smiling, "Webshooters. But I'm almost done." he said, tiring his attention to his new creations. The ones that Peter had given him where broken beyond repair unfortunately, so he's been hopping around and hitching rides lately.
But he decided to upgrade his webshooters, make his own that where different from Peter's. After a few days of brainstorming he finally had a plan on how to make them.
They where small for one, the others continued to get busted because they where so big and crushable. So he got two old wrist watches and disassembled them, when he got most of the gears out, he put in the artificial spinneret inside the watch and acres it into place. He then made the bands of the watch more comfortable since he's be wearing them all the time.
The hard part was the web fluid. Since they where so small he had to think of something other than canisters to use got storage. So he got the idea of using small capsules to store it in, and made small rings of them to click into place around the spinneret, that way he could carry more spares as well as reuse them.
As for the triggers, he made it out of rubber and had words going through it so that when he pressed down on his palm, it would shoot, as well as be easily hidden.
He also got some watch covers to hide them when he didn't have sleeves to cover them up. So if anyone asked, he was just wearing two watches, hey it was better than the truth.
"Ok, done." he said, clicking the ring into place. Standing up from his desk and walking away from Akiko. "Now for the test run...you may want to step back." he advised his girlfriend. She took his advise and stood by the wall opposite to avoid getting splattered with webbing.
Aiming at the screwdriver on his desk, he pressed down on the trigger, a web shot out of the spinneret with a 'Thwip'. Jason smiled widely at the success, "Well if your done playing with you little toy I'm going to be in the other room ordering takeout." Akiko said, tiring to the door.
Jason fired a webline at her waist, making her turn as well as cause the webline to wrap around her. Tugging on the web Akiko spun on her heels like a top as she was gently pulled to him, giggling as she spun into his arms.
He gave her a devilish grin, "I haven't properly greeted you yet." he stated to the chuckling young woman as he captured her lips with his. Pulling away, the two both smiled before leaning their foreheads together.
After ordering some takeout, the pair sat down to a quiet little dinner. As they ate, Akiko discussed that soon the play that she's been painting for would soon be opening. "I may get a raise, so I could add some note stuff to my apartment like maybe a little art corner or something." she explained excitedly.
Jason smiled at the young woman's excitement, "That's great Aki, I mean I'm not going to do any modeling for you if that's what your thinking but still-" he said jokingly, earning a light smack to his arm.
The two hadn't discussed anything about how she invited him up to her apartment that night. But that was something they both silently agreed that could wait until later, "You may make a decent model." she said.
Jason shivered at the mere thought, "I'm going to be scarred with that mental image for a while. So thanks, thank you for scaring me." he said dryly, causing her to send a smirk his way.
The two went into a nice silence as they finished eating, they retreated to the couch and got into a comfortable position with Akiko and him laying on the arm of the couch with her leaning on his shoulder.
"You see the paper today?" he finally asked.
When Wei died, Otto had disappeared from the public and criminal underground. And since Jason was the only one really able to do something, Tarrlock lead a campaign against him with Wei's death spearheading the entire movement.
To say Jason was a heartbeat away from beating him to a pulp was putting it lightly.
"It's just more bullshit. Don't listen to them, besides the Marvel is backing you up right?" she asked hopefully. Indeed the Daily Marvel was behind Spider-Man one hundred percent, Stan downright didn't believe that Spider-Man would kill someone, let alone a police captain.
"Stan is a godsend. But everyone else? They hate me. I'm back to square one." he said, running a hand down his face.
Akiko clearly saw that Jason was stressing out over this, she couldn't really blame him either, if it were anyone they would be in a similar state. Rolling over, she laid her body against his, making his beath seize up in his throat, "Take tonight off. We can stay in, have some fun...build a pillow fort."
Jason let out a snort, "That sounds nice..." he started, making the young woman's spirits rise, "..but Aki..." he trailed off, not wanting to tell her no.
She let out a sigh, It was worth a shot. she thought to herself as she climbed off him, "Ok, go on and get your spandex butt out there and wail on some bad guys." she said with a shrug.
Jason smiled as he stood from the couch, "I've told you like six times, it's not spandex." he said as he entered his room to change into his costume.
Akiko rolled her eyes, "It's spandex if it makes me stare at your abs..." she mumbled with a bit of pink as the teen swung away outside. Akiko let out a sigh as she tucked her legs together, "God you can't take a hint can you Jason?"
(000)
Jason swung over the city streets, looking down to the people below as he fired another web ahead of him. He had stopped a prude snatcher, a car robbery, and a few Goblins from breaking into a where house for Cabbage Corp.
The hero turned a corner as he listened to his police radio, "Man I've been working so much lately. I mean I'm technically always on the job but I'm actually going out to look for guys to stop." he said aloud to himself.
The hero had taken his promise to Wei very seriously, over the past two weeks he worked harder than he usually did. The teen had been going out more, stopping even more crimes than he usually did, saving more lives.
But that came with a cost. He hadn't seen Pema or them in two weeks, Akiko was seen at times, but hadn't seen any others aside from her and the Daily Marvel staff. Jason didn't like it but he just...he felt like he needed to pick up the slack. He couldn't explain why and when he tried to he couldn't.
"It's not forever. A few more days, I'll keep this up like two more days and then I'll let myself relax." he said to himself as he swung up into the air above buildings before letting go and diving downward.
'Attention all unitis, we have reports of the Terra Triad collapsing a building on 7th and Yoshi, any earthbender please respond.'
The teen fired two weblines on either side of him as he fell into a plaza, stopping his fall before shooting another web in front of him to the side of a building. "Collapsing a building? Really? I may a little out of my league here." he said as he pulled himself overtop a building.
He saw the building as he approached, it was indeed collapsing. Cracks went all over the face of the building as the street rumbled. Spider-Man acted fast, spraying the face of the small building with webbing as people below ran out.
Jason's mind flashed back to the night Wei died. "Stop it." he growled at himself, "That is not going to happen. Not this time." he said as he sprayed webbing on the wall to keep it together. The webbing was stronger than steel when fully dried so it should hold the building together, at least Jason was quite certain of it.
As the last of the people ran out of the building, a large section of the wall slipped through the webbing. "I blame the architect. Very shoddy craftsmanship." Spider-Man said as he leapt down after the large rock as it fell towards the entrance as a covered figure stepped out.
Just lie Wei. Just like his failure.
"No! Not again!" he cried out as he shot a webline to the building on the other side of the street as he sprayed another to the falling wall. "Yes! All I needed was my webshooters and I-OHCRAP!" he yelped as he was unexpectedly stopped in midair. Falling to the ground, Spider-Man looked back to the ruble he had grasped.
A yellowish aura emirates around it, below the ruble was the figure he saw earlier, he couldn't see their face because of the blue hoodie they wore, but a yellow glow shined from their hands, holding the rock and mortar in place.
People in the surrounding crowd mumbled in both awe and fear, "What's with the lightshow?"
"I didn't know earthbenders can do that." another one muttered.
"What the hell?! How is he doing that!" one shouted pointing to the figure as he lowered the rubble down onto the street beside him.
"He's a freak!" One in particular shouted, making others join in and start to agree with them.
Spider-Man raised his hands in defense, "Woah woah woah! This is what I get for saving your...oh wait...your not talking about me? Seriously?" he asked in shock. The teen shook his head and looked to the hooded figure, "Hey are you ok? Do you need any-" he started as he reached to put his hand on their shoulder.
"GET AWAY!" she yelled at him, throwing her open palm out at him with a bright glow emanating from the skin. Even though there was nothing there, he felt like he was knocked back with a wall as the assailant.
The young man was sent in through the window of the store behind him, crashing into a few shelves in the process. Rubbing the side of his head, the teen shakily good up as he made his way to the window he went through.
Looking outside, he saw that the crowd had somewhat diminished and the ones that stayed where now lookibg quite scared. "And to top our night off, the girl who kicks my butt gets away. Perfect. Just perfect." he muttered as he shot a web and swung away as the crowd started to disperse.
(000)
Jason was hesitant to tell Akiko what happened, he usually told her everything without a problem. But this time he had no idea whatsoever happened, the girl who did it had gotten away without a trace, and he had no idea what to do next about it.
And there was the fact that he got his butt whooped by a girl.
So it didn't surprise him that when he told her, Akiko was holding her gut while laughing like a maniac. And it certainly looked like that since they where walking down the street towards the playhouse of Akiko's work. "Ok. I get it, it's funny." he said after five minutes of uninterrupted laughter.
The artist slowly regained her composure, standing up straight and walking at a steady pace, "I'm (snort) so sorry. It's just you can take on a room full of Beefy big guys but you get your ass kicked by a skinny little girl." she said as she whipped a year out of her eye.
Jason was deeply regretting this now, "Well I'm sorry. I don't like fighting girls." he stated, causing Aki to start giggling again. "I was rose solely by my mother for sixteen years of my life. So sorry if I don't want to go all pimpslap happy on a girl."
Akiko stopped her giggling and finally regained herself, "Ok ok, fair enough. So what now? She didn't really do anything wrong. She was just defending herself really." she pointed out.
The teen shrugged, "Yeah I know. I was more worried about the crowd, they looked like they where about to go after her before she blasted me away." he said, thinking back to the hateful looks of the people. He shook his head of those thoughts, he was enjoying a walk with his girlfriend, not busting criminals.
"Look let's stop talking about Spidy for a minute. Try to act like a normal couple." he said decisively, wanting not to dwell on his double life.
Akiko smiled as she reached for his hand, "What doesn't make is a normal couple exactly? Other than anything related to superpowers?" she questioned. Jason stayed silent, "Exactly." she said, leaning over to peck his cheek. As she pulled away, she noticed something about the hero, "Hey, did you get taller?" she asked with surprise.
The two stopped in the sidewalk to inspect her claim. Jason looked at how tall she was and found that she was right, he was a little taller than she was. Instead of their eyes meeting each other, his sight was directly at her eyebrows, so he wasn't towering over her. "Hm. Your right." he said, kissing the skin above her nose.
She smiled as they continued on their walk towards the playhouse, "It's so not fair that you get both hight and powers over me." she stated.
"Coming from the girl who can firebend." he countered, making her argument invalid.
(000)
After dropping Akiko off at the playhouse, Jason swung to the Marvel and got right to work. Stan was adamant on his stand of Spider-Man, even if their sales suffered somewhat. Though many if not most of the people at the newspaper backed him up so no one really complained.
Jason typed about the events of last night, mainly how he kept the building together while people below got out. He was conflicted on writing about the girl, but chances are that someone from the crowd the night before will tell someone about it.
Jason sighed as his phone rang, "Hello, Daily Marvel. How can I help you?" the teen asked to the phone.
'Hey Jason, it's Whitney.' the teen smiled at the sound of a friendly voice.
"Hello Mis. Radio host. What's up with you?" he questioned as he took out his paper from the typewriter and put it in his outgoing box on his desk.
'Spidy is, and you guys are supporting him through everything. And my higher ups are wanting me to...well...how do I put this gently...' she started.
Jason could already tell where this was heading, "Let me guess, they want you to drag out name through the mud?" he guessed.
'Yea, pretty much.' she said with a agitated tone. Jason let out a frustrated breath, 'It's really something that one of the councilmen want to air. But our hands are tied.' she explained.
Jason realized what she was getting at, "But ours aren't." he said.
'Exactly. I can't go into the Marvel or they'd put two and two together. I need you to tell Stan about this.' she said to him.
Jason nodded in agreement, "Yea I'll tell him. Thanks for the heads up Whitney, I owe you." he said gratefully to the phone.
'Well technically everyone there owes me one.' she said cheekily, making Jason roll his eyes at her comment. 'See ya Jason.' she said before hanging up.
Jason stood from his seat and headed to Stan's office. After telling him about what Whitney had told him, Stan wasn't mad at all which surprised him, instead he got a sly grin on his face. "This isn't the first time we've been in hot water Jason." he started as he sat down in his desk.
The hero looked at him unsure, "Stan, we can't just go to war with the council. You know how things are, if they want something they get it." he pointed out.
The older man gave him a look, "Jason I think your forgetting about the entire Sun Riots a few months back. Your the one who got the story and people wanted to hear it." he countered.
It was true, in fact people today where still fighting over it. It just divided people more and more than it should, what they needed to do was learn to move past it, to try and make sure nothing like that happened again. But it was human nature to fight, and noting could stop that.
"Ok yeah but this is different, that was just getting the truth out there." he said. In truth Jason didn't want to have the Marvel closed because of lack of sales or something, it's his fault that they're getting bad press anyway.
Stand have him a sly smirk, "Really? How do you think people will react when they here that someone on the city council wants to badmouth us because they don't agree with what they say?" he asked.
Jason's face slowly morphed to a look of utter surprise at what he was getting. "You devious son of a bitch...can I be your use kick?" he questioned in awe of what was Stan Lee.
The editor smiled before leaning back in his chair, "Meh, sidekicks never work son."
(000)
As Jason swung over the streets of the city, he couldn't help but feel...confident. If what Stan was planning worked, he may get the public back on his side. Plus making Tarrlock look like a biased asshole, which he absolutely was, added to his joy.
Ashe swung through the air, he heard the sound of screeching metal. Looking down, he saw a car that was clearly going nuts through traffic. "I could use a little violence. Wow that sounded a lot more calming in my head." he said as he shot a web ahead of him.
Swinging down into the street, he landed on the back of the car just as it swerved into the wrong lane. "Hey Sunday driver! Slow down!" he yelled into the cab Ashe crawled onto the roof. Peeking inside, his eyes widened under his mask.
It was the same girl from the night before, "Oi! Your the one who smacked me around like rock last night!" he said, pointing a accusing finger at her.
The girl's eyes widened in panic, she'd took a hand off the wheel as the hero's Spider Sense rang out. Jumping back to the back of the car, the front practically exploded, glass and metal busting out onto the street in front of the car.
Spider-Man gulped, "Then again I may be mistaken. I have gotten my butt whopped a lot lately." he called out as he crawled into the right side of the vehicle. Peeking over the shattered window of the passenger's door, he saw the scared look on the girl's face.
Her hood was down now, showing her dirty blonde hair, and her yellow eyes. "Look, how about you just slow down? We can-" lake threw her hand out to the door before he could finish.
He was blasted off the side of the car along with the door, tumbling down the street while the metal door skidded along with him. Rolling onto the door, sparks flew as the metal clashed against the street.
Crunching on the moving metal, Spider-Man shot his webbing at the bumper. The hero was pulled by the web, the door protecting his feet from skidding across the ground as he weaved through oncoming traffic.
As the car turned a corner, another car came around the same corner, hooking the webline on it's front bumper. " Oh-"
The line was yanked along with the other car, "CRRRRRAAAAAAAPPPPPP!" he yelled out as he was pulled off the door and dragged him down the street with his back scratching against the road.
Letting go of the web, the unfortunate hero tumbled across the road and rammed his head into a fire hydrant. Slowly getting up, he rubbed the new bump on his head.
"Learn to drive dumba-no, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Not swearing back alley bad guy." he chastised himself. He shook off his injuries and shot a web at a building and swinging towards the direction of the car.
Swinging over the side of the building, Spider-Man froze when he saw something big, black, and in flight above a empty lot. Crawling down the side of a alleyway. The lot was large, and in the center was six figures plus the girl.
And the girl was unconscious and over the shoulder of one of the larger figures. Jumping down from the wall, the hero landed on a lamp post. "Excuse me, but that girl with blowing uppity powers tried to blast me to bits first. Get in line." he called out to them.
When his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, the teen could swear that he had gone insane.
For one, they all had matching tight outfits. And if that wasn't disturbing enough they all had something different about them from the rest.
One of them was a man with red hair that had a visor covering his eyes.
Another man had what looked like pointed ears on his mask with bare hairy arms, he was also the most angry looking of the group.
Another was a woman with brown hair with a streak of white going through one of the streaks of it. A brown jacket covering her torso and drawing her apart from the others.
The other woman out of them had firery red hair that was as long as her jawline.
The last two...well they where the reason the teen's jaw was dropped.
The one that had the girl over her shoulder was massive and hulking, he had black hair in a buzzcut, but what told him apart was his literal silver skin.
And the other was blue and had a tail.
(AN: I'm so sorry if I totally botched their costumes, I don't read X-men regularly so I went with the 90's TV show costumes in mind)
"Ok...I really must have hit my head hard on that fire hydrant back there." Spider-Man said as he rubbed the sore spot on his head.
The one with the ears on his mask growled, "Damn it we don't have time for this!" he said as he charged towards the post where the wall crankset was perched on.
"Wow. You are much shorter up close." the hero said aloud as he noticed the man's diminutive stature.
"Wolverine stop!" the leader of the group called out to the other teammate. But it was too late, the man already had his sights set.
Jason wasn't worried, worst case scenario he just put his hand down on the guy's head and stop him in place.
At least that was what he thought until he saw the claws. The very sharp. Very deadly looking, claws. From his knuckles.
"Which are coming right for me!" the teen finished his thought aloud as he jumped off the post as the three claws tire through the metal post like butter.
The young hero landed right in front of the other members, he looked up to the big guy with the girl over his shoulder. Rule one of crime fighting, get the civilians out of harm's way first. Jason thought.
Firing a glob of webbing into the big guy's face, he let go of the girl as he tried to get the webbing off his face. Spider-Man caught her with one hand and used the other to swung under the metal one's arm.
"I'm just gonna hold onto her for a while." he called back as he zipped to the side of one of the surrounding buildings and ran up the side of it.
The leader of the group sighed, "Alight everyone, you know the drill. Nightcrawler your up." he said to the blue skinned man with the tail.
The man grinned almost devilishly before disappearing in a puff of smoke. As Spider-Man climbed over the ledge of the building, a poof of smoke appeared in front of him, surrounding Nightcrawler, "Wait friend, just put the girl down and we can talk this out." he said calmly.
The costumed hero thought that over for a moment before leaping overhead and shooting a web at the man's tail, sticking it to the rooftop, " Sorry but last guy that could teleport tried to melt my face. It's not you, it's me!" he called out as he shot a webline across the street in front of him.
The line was blasted by a red beam of light, burning the webbing. Spider-Man looked over to see the man with the visor with red smoke coming from the eyewear. "Lasers!? Oh come on!" he cried out in exasperation.
The woman with red hair rose from the side of the building, flying. And the others levitating along with her, the woman with brown and white hair threw her hand out, and just like the girl, Jason was knocked back by a invisible force and dropped the girl into the roof.
Nightcrawler managed to free himself from the webbing and teleported beside the girl as Wolverine ran past him, claws drawn. "I'm gonna gut you like a trout bub!"
Spider-Man quickly recover and rolled out of the way as the claws slashed the rooftop. When the wild man looked up, the hero landed a strike on his face, knocking him onto his back.
"Sorry shorty, can't slice what you can't touch." he said with a shrug as Wolverine got back up with a snarl.
Rubbing his jaw, the man charged again, slashing his claws at the teen. Spider-Man ducked, sidestepped and leapt over the slashes, evading each attack effectively as well as countering a few. "Will you stand still!"
Another slash aimed at his chest, the hero leaned far back enough to evade, as well as swinging his foot into the man's jaw. He quickly fallowed up by landing some blows across his face.
The angry little man was at his limit with this, he swung his arms in a X shape, making it almost impossible to doge.
Almost.
The teen back-stepped out of the way before sprinting forward, leaping over Wolverine's head and posing off it. His Spider Sense went off in time for him to dice one of those laser beams from the leader, firing a glob of webbing into the eyewear, "Damnit! Rouge! Colossus! Your up!" he called out as the teen passed him.
Jason slowed his sprint down, Ok silver haird lady has the same power as exploding girl, so listen to your-SPIDER SENSE! the teen thought as his sixth sense rang out in his head so much it almost hurt.
Jumping aside, the ground where he was previously at had a small crater in it. "Man the people down below are seriously gonna complain if we keep this-OOMPF!" he puffed out.
Looking up, he saw that the man called Colossus has gotten him in a bear hug. "Uh, sorry about this. And in advance." he said apologetically.
Before he could ask why, he felt the his neck exposed to the air before someone's skin touching his. Suddenly, he felt very tired, he tried to fight the need to sleep, but once his eyes blinked closed, they did not open.
"Is he out?" Colossus asked his friend.
Rouge shrugged, "I can't tell, letter take his mask off and see if-" she started before the teen started to snore lightly. "Never mind." she said with a small victorious smile.
The leader of the group finally managed to blast the webbing out of his visor, "Phoenix, could you wipe his memory? Make him forget this ever happened?" he asked the redheaded woman.
Phoenix crossed her arms over her chest, "I could, but I soft want to risk scrambling his head." she said, not wanting to accidentally damage the hero's mind.
Wolverine shoved his way past their leader, "Forget his brain! I'm gonna scramble his guts! Drop him Cy, I wanna rematch." he growled out as he cracked his neck for the next round.
The giant looked down to his friend, "Rouge, could you..." he asked.
The woman pressed her fingers down like she saw the teen do, but nothing happened, "Huh? What the heck? I touch him, I should have his powers." she stated with confusion of how she couldn't make webbing.
"Wait did you just try to web me?!" Wolverine asked in a tone that resembled both hurt and peeved at the same time.
"...Maybe."
{X-men. Bring them to the mansion. People are starting to grow curious.}
The six all stopped and listened to the voice. After a few seconds of silence the leader spoke up, "You all heard the professor. Let's get'em out of here." he said, looking to Phoenix.
The woman nodded before closing her eyes in concentration, they all lifted into the air towards the black flying object above them.
(000)
Jason help like he just went six rounds with a jacked up Rhino and lost. Very badly. His head felt sore on the inside if that was even possible. And the voices didn't help at all.
"What do we go with him? He can't stay here." a gruff male voice said firmly.
"Your just made because he smacked you around like a punching bag." another man's voice said.
"He did see us." a woman chimed in.
"Yes he did. And he saw you all take a girl with you." a new voice said wisely. "To be fair wouldn't any of you react the same way?" he questioned.
Jason automatically liked him out of all the voices, he sounded wise, like Hiroshi or Tenzin. Opening his eyes, he was overly relived that his mask was still on, but cursed the fact that there was a very bright light shining in his eyes.
The room was fairly large, with many beds circling around a column with draws that stored various medical equipment. Jason's bed was surrounded by those he fought before but they seemed much less hostile.
Slowly rising from his spot, Jason rubbed his eyes through the fabric of his mask, "Can we stop talking? For like five minutes? I think I got slipped something." he mumbled as his eyes readjusted.
Looking around, he saw the people he fought before, only now joining them was a man with a bald head in a wheelchair. "Ah, good to see your alright young man." he said kindly to the teen. "Are you feeling alright?" he asked.
The banged up young adult rubbed his head, "Uhhh, feels like I got hit with a bus. But I've been better." he admitted.
Wolverine snarled at the hero, "That's what you get for getting in the way of grown ups kid." he said bluntly.
"Ignore him, we are sorry for the scrape Spider-Man. But we didn't want anyone to catch us." the man with the visor said to him. "Let me introduce ourselves, I'm Cyclops." he pointed his thumb to the man with ears on his mask, "That's Wolverine."
"And this is Rouge, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Phoenix." he said, pointing to the respective team members. They all gave him friendly waves which Jason groggily retuned.
"Sorry, I just feel like I went twelve rounds with Ben Grimm." he said apologetically.
Rouge nervously rubbed the back of her head, "Sorry 'bout that sugar. When I borrowed your powers I knocked you out cold. Sorry." she apologized.
That got Spider-Man sitting up straight, "Wait you what? Whatta mean-one sec!" he said with worry before jumping to the ceiling and sticking to it. The worried hero let out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank you spider powers." he said with relief before dropping to the ground.
The man in the wheelchair rolled forward in front of the teen, "Rouge's natural talent is the ability to copy another's gifts. Your powers in this instance." he explained to him.
Spider-Man could only nod in semi-understanding, he didn't fully get how someone could preform a feat like that. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Che Xavier. And these are the X-men." he said, gesturing to the group of people.
The teen raised a eye under his mask, "X-men? I'm pretty sure I would have remembered a superhero group as big as this." he said, scratching the side of his head. "So ugh...if you don't mind me asking, how did you all get your powers?" he questioned.
They all looked at one another with confusion before looking back at the hero, "We're mutants Spider-Man." Phoenix said as though it was fairly obvious.
Spider-Man crossed his arms over his chest, "Look for the past year or so I've felt with giant lizards, vampires, ancient mystical being's, and enough wackos to fill a entire prison. I kinda expect anything by now." he explained.
Wolverine rolled his eyes at the teen, "She means your a mutant you dolt." he said with a exasperated sigh.
"Well...actually he's not." Rouge said, getting everyone in the room's attention, "When I Barlow someone's power it's usually easy, them usually being mutants and all. But Spiders? It was different this time around." she explained.
Spider-Man raised both his hands and shook them side to side, "Look look look, I know what a mutation is. It's anomaly with the genetic makeup of a human or animal. And a mutant is someone who has those anomalies, but that doesn't explain how you guys have powers." he pointed out.
Che smiled at the young adult, "That's a very good description young man. Allow me to explain." he said before clearing his throat. The X-men's creator told him of how some people are born with a extra chromosome, and this extra one in turn give their owner's special powers.
As they talked, the group exited the medical area and went down a long tube with white walls, beaching off from the main path, they entered a elevator and ride it to the top floor with Jason sticking to the ceiling.
"Ok but why hasn't anyone heard of you guys? Like I said a group of people with superpowers always make headlines." the masked hero asked.
Cyclopes smiled, "Well in due in part that we don't want people to know of us. You of all people must know what it's like to get a bad image." he pointed out.
"Ok. Fair point." he said in defeat,
When the elevator doors opened, they found themselves in a elegant looking parlor, waving to one of the doors, Jason was positive his world was tilted sideways.
He was in a school.
"What...where..." he started but couldn't finish as students of all ages passed through the hallways, some looking over in surprise at the costumed heroes.
Che turned his chair to face the teen with a welcoming smile, "We provide a safe place for children with the X gene to learn and live as normally as they can. Officially this is the Xavier school for higher learning. But no one would even begin to expect what goes on here." he said as he rolled down the halls, the rest of the team breaking off from the headmaster and visitor.
Looking around, Jason couldn't help but let the memories of his school life wash over him. "God I'm getting the weirdest school flashbacks right now." he muttered as they traversed the halls.
It honestly looked like a expensive university, like the one in Ba Sing Se or one of the prep ones in the Fire Nation. "Spider-Man I hope you can understand why we're doing this, I imagine you of all people understand what it's like to be both feared and hated." he said as he looked over to him.
The younger hero nodded solemnly, "Yeah, I do. And I know that your putting a lot of faith in me here by telling me this. And I really appreciate that." he said honestly.
Che smiled, "Spider-Man, you may not be a mutant, but you are welcome to come here if you so wish." he offered kindly to the teen.
Jason had to admit that it really did sound tempting, this was a official school, and he could probably get a dream job of his choice if he graduated from here for collage. "I'm sorry, but I can't." he said, "I have responsibilities back home, and I can't abandon those no matter how tough it gets. I just can't." he said with a apologetic tone.
Xavier game him a understanding look, "I respect that Spider-Man. But know, this is a safe place for anyone with powers such as yours." he said kindly.
(000)
After getting a ride back to the city in the blackbird, which Jason believes is one of the coolest things ever, he waved off the X-men as they flew back towards the school. After swinging home, the hero discarded his suit onto his bed and changed into some normal clothes.
When he checked the small mailbox outside his room, he couldn't help but burst out in laughter at the headline.
'Councilman Tarrlock attempts to strong arm the radio!'
'Yesterday the Daily Marvel revived a call from a an person who identify they have asked not to disclose. They told one of our reporters that Councilman Tarrlock was attempting to make the radio station broadcast Anti Spider-Man announcements. This of course is a direct violation of free speech and censorship, the Councilman has yet to comment on this but a deliverance is expected.'
Jason read over the article on the couch, fully pleased that Tarrlock got what was coming to him. "Man, it feels so good for him to be in hot water...in going to put this up on my fridge." he said, riding from the couch to find a pair of scissors.
(000)
Stan Lee loved his job at the newspaper, he's gotten a few calls about their front page story but that came from the Council officials.
Waking into his office, the man was surprised to see a little fruit basket hanging by a webline above his desk with a note inside . Opening up the note, the old man smiled.
'Glad to know a good man has my back. Thanks.'
'Sincerely your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.'
AN: It's over.
Avatar has finally ended, it's been a amazing journey, starting with Aang in the South Pole with Katara and Sokkka and ending with Korra and Asami in the remains of Republic City.
I'm happy though. I'm so happy that after everything, everyone has found peace and happiness.
Thank you Mike and Brian. Thank you for the adventure, thank you for the laughs, thank you for the fun, thank you for this world that we got to explore, but above all.
Thank you, for giving us all some friends that stood by us.
Goodbye Avatar. For now.
P.S. Ive been contemplating putting this to M rated and depending on what happens next this may go under the M category for mature reasons. Just a fair warning.