Peter called Xavier. He told Charles about the mystique encounter. "Interesting. Raven always wanted to belong to something. She has strong abandonment issues. And magneto has always been a charismatic leader. He draws people to him." "Is she bluffing professor?" "No. Raven never makes a move like that unless she is sure. As for magneto's location blob did know but the Wakandan intel is old now. And Raven is using some kind of inhabiting tech to prevent my scanning her mind."

"What do we do?" "You'll have to keep working the leads as they come up. I'll make sure Hank is made aware of these developments and does what he can on his end." "Okay."

Tasha "and?" Peter shook his head. "We're at their mercy for now." Tasha "they'll likely make their demands soon." "Seems like their demands are already made. The same ones they've always been." "True; but this isn't a typical mutant resistance situation either." Good point. "How do you see it going?" Tasha shook her head. "Sadistic I'm sure. Next time Mephisto might allow mutants to die instead."

Wish Thor would hurry up with that Gd hammer.

Peter grew fearful of how many more lives would be lost until he could make things right. He wasn't getting a messiah complex. It seemed evident he was the key to making things right in this hell war. Mephisto had seemed to appoint it that way.

Nakia and sandman joined them. Nakia "they're making a demand." Great. They took out their phones.

It was magneto. "We're here again; people of the earth. The mutant brotherhood has decided renewed war is the only way to save mutant kind from extinction. We struck as we have because it was needed. And there will be more destruction yet. Five bombs have been placed throughout the human cesspool of New York. These are powerful devices that will kill thousands. My hand is now forced. War is here." Peter could hear Mephisto laughing in the back of his mind; or the echoes of such. "I call all mutants everywhere to rise up with me anew. We failed before yes. But not this time. This time we will divide humanity and destroy it. For we are the next stage of human evolution..."

Oh boy. Charles wasn't wrong about magneto's charisma.

"All mutants detained without rights or due process must be released immediately or the first bomb will go off. You have one hour to comply..."

Many superhero critics said they were ineffective because they were too status quo; that they wanted to only protect the elite; masquerading as heroes in the process. The bugle had written its share of smear pieces on Spidey in that regard over the years. But that was a lie. Peter didn't want to keep things the way they were. He was a scientist, degreed or not, and science was all about improving the world. Including replacing old systems with better ones whenever needed.

So long as the new methodology did what it claimed it could do Peter was all for it. If it didn't he opposed it; but not in a close minded way either. No true scientist could ever be close minded either. But he didn't go for fads or trends either just because they were zeitgeist popular or felt good to do.

He only had one methodology and it was the tried and truest method of all: the scientific method.

Facts; not feelings. And facts were stubborn things John Adams had said. That was Peter's promise to the world. Only the scientific method would guide his actions as Peter and Spider-Man.

And applying that method here told him that magneto was wrong; again. And it was his job as both roles to stop him.

Not to keep anybody down or to protect societal elites; but to prevent the worst from happening. And happen it would if magneto's plan was allowed to transpire. Magneto was playing mutant liberator messiah or whatever, but Peter could see the writing on the wall plain: his actions would kill humans but many mutants would die too. Truth.

The small team stood there silent as magneto's latest offensive made them ponder things. There was a definite time crunch. Nakia "I can bring Wakandan resources into it but I don't think shield would approve." "Why not?" Tasha "because they're more advanced than we are. This will anger Washington because Wakanda might glean secrets they wouldn't be able to otherwise. And we don't have time to wait for them to decide." Peter scoffed. "Who cares about any of that if it can save lives on all sides?" He looked at sandman; the latter shrugged. "I just wanna kick some ass."

"You're sure it will work?" Nakia "it will. The brotherhood won't be able to deal with Wakandan tech. But this might make us outlaws..." geez. Sounds like the old west again. But... whatever it takes. Right?

They all looked to Peter. They were all trusting his judgment. He looked at Tasha. "We could be banned from America if this works." Tasha nodded. "We could. Been there done that with Russia." Peter exhaled. "What about the school; and teaching?" She took his hand. "I'll go anywhere with you Peter. You know that." He squeezed her hand back and nodded.

Ticktock Parker. Lives are on the line. "Please help us agent Nakia." "Will do." The other hidden war dogs on us soil deployed advanced drones at her request. Within twenty minutes they had magneto located...

What they did now could cost them more than planned. "Inform shield." They did and moved out to stop magneto.

If there was indeed blowback, or no good deed goes unpunished, aka Parker luck, they'd cross that bridge too. For now it was about making a choice. The only one that could be made.