Chapter 4: Chapter 004 [...Spectacular...]
Chapter 004 [...Spectacular...]
Friday, Sept 5, 2008
I walked on the side of one of the many corporate skyscrapers. Probably freaking someone's boss, and the employee getting demoted for not warning him.
This had become my new normal . It was strange how this felt like down, even though I knew that wasn't the case. I read somewhere that we only recognized where Gravity was due to the Vestibular System. The System was located in our ear cavities where miniscule crystalline stones floated and quite literally sunk in response to gravity.
That was how we understood what down was, which made me wonder what my recent genes had done to them to change my balance and perception of gravity.
That was what happening how it felt and looked on the other hand was a scene straight from Inception where the city lifted up and held itself there like a massive wall that cars drive vertical on. Or how Ichigo from Bleach just stood on the side of skyscrapers as he battled his inner demons. Just going to add in Dr Strange's maddening scene of twisting reality as well.
Stepping onto the building over, I stood horizontally fifty meters in the air, without hesitation. I just couldn't feel the fear.
Regardless, it was a nice way of relaxing while I thought about random boring/serious problems plaguing my life.
I didn't know if this world was any different from my alternate's memories since his life wasn't normal in the least, but apparently I could get my GED after about a year.
I stopped, nearly running into one of the window cleaners. He looked at my feet then to the windows before I looked where I walked had was smudged the glass. Looking back at his pained expression, I sighed, and asked for his wiper which he handed over with a thankful look and I went to work wiping my footsteps off.
They had some restructuring to do after the Gravity Guy (his name was too dumb to bother remembering) destroyed the portion of the city that dealt with GED.
Naturally, that would mean I would be stuck in school for another year, if I was fortunate they would be finished a lot sooner. I didn't want to wait so I found an alternative, homeschooling. While it was a bit of a process, taking at least two weeks after talking with an advisor. It was better than waiting for a year. He decided to set up a meeting in a few days, he wasn't sure how long it would take, but within the month he should be out of schooling. He paused his window wiping and wondered what Harry and Gwen would think about it. It was hard to think about them especially when he had overheard his Aunt talk about paying the bills, with his alternate's memories he knew what it was like living life on the streets. Minus the crazy baddies he had to fight- ah, no wait it was the same.
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After school, I walked with my tutoring club went about as well as expected.
We were seated in some library near the school, and most of my students happened to be the X-Men.
Rogue kept glaring at Jean, Jean was ignoring her, she and Scott understood some of it, Bobby messed around, and Kurt was eager but having trouble like Rogue.
"Jean, why are you here? You understand most of it and you don't have homework."
She glanced at the others, "Uh, just… hanging out with friends, yeah! And I have a phobia of crowds, classrooms included."
Her "phobia" of crowded classrooms was likely her telepathy acting up, "You know you can homeschool right?"
She glanced back, "Yeah but I want to stick with my friends."
Yeah I was sure that was the reason, "Since you're not doing much you can help Kurt out."
Scott was obviously here because of Jean, I didn't even have to ask, he was at least doing his own work.
Bobby because his friends were here.
"Are you actually having trouble?" I asked Bobby.
"More with biology and calculus than the sciences. And English is such a…" he swore several long explictives I wasn't going to repeat for sensitive ears.
"Don't blame you. Screw serial killer Macbeth and his murder spree and read some good stuff." I handed him Skulduggery Pleasant an old childhood favourite I had been rereading recently, "Make an essay instead on if deteurganists like this make books better than singular protagonists."
He looked at me than shrugged and started on the essay.
While Jean helped Kurt, I slid next to Rogue, "So what's troubling you?"
"What isn't?"
This was going to be a process, "Let's go in order which is the easiest…"
Not the worst way of passing the time.
Once we were done, she spoke up, "Are you sure you don't want to join us?"
"I'm sure. Besides I told you guys already I wasn't a Mutant."
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"We're Mutants."
I made it a point to glance at Jean's hair, "Yeah, that I'm aware."
"We- wait you know?"
"Yeah, anyone that doesn't have black hair or eyes has what academics call mutations. And you have white hair atop your brown hair, that's...a bit different."
She opened her mouth then closed it, "That isn't what- That's not what I mean."
Scott steps forward, "We mean people that have gifts unlike anything-"
"Wait time out, are you guys a cult? If this is what that is, I'm going to have to say no."
Scott exclaimed, "What? No! We're not a cult!"
"Are we overthrowing the government? Movies have taught me you need more pamphlets."
Scott sighed, "Listen, Mutants have a thing called the X-Gene, and it grants us abilities."
Jean stepped up, "We think you might have one."
I asked for confirmation, even though it was likely the cerebro, I really hoped they hadn't seen me changing out of the red and blue "And you know this how?"
They exchanged nervous glances, "We have a mutant detection machine, right now, as of the entire world, there's maybe fifty thousand mutants total."
I blinked, "That's...a very small number." That's a lot smaller than I remembered them ever being in the comics. Where it numbered in the million before jumping to 16 million.
"It is. One of us, a guy who goes by the name Wolverine, he can heal really well, was tortured for a long time. To avoid anything like that happening we can offer you protection." Huh, so he was here too. That meant the Weapon X Program was around here somewhere still doing what they did best.
Scott took over, "We can also help you practise any abilities you have that might get out of control."
"Who's this we?"
"He's…" He seemed to hesitate saying all this to a complete stranger, but the dude had come this far, "Xavier, he runs a school not too far from here, he thought it would be a good idea for us to socialize more with kids our own age. We're taught how to control it in this place called the Danger Room by some others who're just like us."
"What can you guys do?" I wondered if they had the same powers I was familiar with, just because I had some odd metaknowledge via dimensional memories did not mean 100% accuracy.
Jean said, "Lasers, ice, telepathy, power absorption, and teleportation. I can do Telepathy and that's how we found out you were likely one of us, I can't read your mind."
That explains a lot, "You were trying to read my mind?" My voice and expression neutral.
"No- I- I wasn't trying to invade them, just, they leak out like air from a balloon and I can read the signals. But you're a complete blank to me and the Professor, there aren't any signals emitting from you almost as if you were a ghost."
"I'm very real. So yeah, this is nice and all, but I haven't exhibited any crazy mutant powers last I checked." I wasn't lying, "I don't think you guys particularly need me joining your crew." I had mutated powers, which was enough of a difference. Really didn't want Aunt May knowing about all this. They weren't wrong, but I felt it was best to go with a wait and see method first, if I needed to there weren't all that far.
They glanced at each other, "Are you sure, nothing at all?" Scott asked.
Bobby pointed out, "Not even Acid Breath?"
"No, my toothbrush wouldn't survive that. Or my bathroom floor."
Scott scrunched his eyebrows, "This is odd…"
Bobby just outright asked, "Are you lying?"
I looked at him, "Even if I was, could you tell?"
"Point." My spider-sense went off like mad, but I kept still even as I watched Bobby move in slow-motion, blasting me with ice. I slammed against the blackboard knocking it loose, cold exploding all over my body, slowing me down.
"Bobby! Why did you do that!"
"Wanted to see if he was lying. Guess not."
"Even if he was, do you think that would've outed his-"
"I got Rogue to do it didn't I."
Rogue spoke, "Yeah, and I nearly killed you for it."
"And now we're friends!"
I shoveled the snow away, clearing it off as my teeth chattered, "Y-you know I could just have anti-telepathy as my power. Quite literally useless in every way."
"Well..."
"And there could be someone else you guys were detecting instead of me, it's not like being unreadable means I have the X-Gene in the first place."
They were glaring a little at Bobby, "Uhm, sorry?" He cringed.
"Yeah, it's no big, it's literally just snow. Regardless, I don't think you need me in your gang because I'm pretty sure I'm mostly human. Not being able to read me doesn't really mean much."
Jean sighed, "He's not wrong, there have been people I haven't been able to read at times in the slightest."
Rogue looked over, "So I guess we just outed ourselves to a human, nice going guys. Judgement Call was a 10/10."
"Yo, it's not like we can't be friends. Bit of a side note, you guys are still human/humanoid, I don't see how having a single gene difference makes you a new species."
Kurt gulped and clicked his watch and revealed his blue self, "Da, you don't mind us being different?" He stood looking like a blue devil, with yellow eyes that covered his pupils, and a long thin forked tail. He rubbed his three pronged fingers nervously.
"Dude, you're literally just blue with two less fingers, its like you lived under a blue sun your entire life. If I don't treat someone who's lost a limb any different why would I make an exception here? As far as I'm concerned you guys are superheroes in training. Seriously, a little jealous of the cool powers."
This was a little out of nowhere, but since I knew the history of what kind of discrimination they went through, it was likely nice to hear at the very least. Needless to say, I was a little shocked Kurt cried and hugged me, but managed to pat him on the back. They rest went over and put a hand on his shoulder.
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Coming out of the trip down memory lane Rogue had finished and had been bugging me about joining.
"We have a Mansion," she proclaims.
"And I have a undestroyed house, it's fine Rogue. We can still hang out, and I'm still helping you guys. I just don't feel like meeting Xavier," I respond.
"Oh come on he's the best. He-"
Before she could go into his accolades I interrupt her, "Used to be friends with the Magnet dude and hasn't dealt with him. Who is clearly evil."
"Xavier just doesn't want to fight and they have different viewpoints is all."
"Magneto literally kills people who disagree with him."
"They generally attack first."
"Upstate New York and Wyoming."
"To be fair they were experimenting on Mutants in Wyoming."
"That I did not know, but doesn't account for every other time and NY."
She conceded, "Yeah Magneto's a douche, just not all the time, I mean. He sort of helps, uh okay yeah he's pretty terrible. I don't know why Xavier hasn't done anything, but that doesn't make him a bad guy."
"Not saying bad, just...look I'll meet him at some point-" at her smug smile, "I said at some point."
She shrugged, "It'll do." Out of the group she was the one that defended Magneto the most, I guessed it had something to do with Mystique which they had mentioned earlier. She and a few others calling themselves the Mutant Revolution lead by Magneto.
I made a mental note to look into power dampener spells.
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I couldn't just have a simple swing over, about twenty crime busts, a drug raid, and messing with the obviously criminal mafia, (no matter what the official statements made by the police say) I landed near the gates of the mansion.
The place was massive and as pretentiously grandiose as I thought it'd be. Multi-story, a massive green front yard with a tree, and a drive in surrounding a ridiculously ornate fountain. Tony really doesn't hold back. I made my way up the path near the driveway, trees on both sides. I was let in once I showed the Avenger's Card.
"Hello sir."
I paused and realized my spider senses' silence caused a lack of caution, "Jarvis?"
"Ah I see my reputation precedes me." I turned to see the most english butler I'd ever seen stood at over six feet tall around 190cm and a shaved head. He looked like a bouncer who'd joined the Navy Seals to teach them how to fight with class.
He was also standing in my blindspot, "Somewhat, my name is Spidey, my dad was Mr. Spidey and mum, Mrs. EightLegs. Nice to meet you."
He shook the outstretched hand, "Likewise, is there anything I can get for you, sir?"
"Yeah, is Thor in?"
"He's acquisitioned the training room for 'testing the magic room's mettle'" I could swear he smiled.
"Gotcha, thanks."
"Anytime, and good day, sir." He then strode off with footsteps silent.
I remembered Jarvis was a balding dude not the british cousin of Butler from Artemis Fowl. If he was anything like Butler, he'd have his favourite gun in his vest called the Sig.
I mentally noted to ask him for some training later.
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Following the sounds of thunder, and large things crashing into the ground. I found Thor wailing on mechanical Frost Giants. They looked like some cross between twenty meter tall Yeti's that were cryogenically frozen and gained Ice Powers. I had no idea how this room functioned or how Iron Man got the room to replicate half of anything in this room.
"Yo Thor!"
"Spider-man! What brings you here friend?" Before he jumped and smashed the nose off one and ripped off the knee of another.
Taking books out of the bag, I held up the spoils of war from Amora, "Do you have anything anything that isn't in Norse because I can't read this no matter what I do." I had tried nearly everything I could think of.
"Room, Hold." Then he flew down towards me, picking them and looking them over, "Truly?"
"Yeah, I thought you said because I had won them or something I could read them."
"Verily…" He flipped through them, "I hadn't been able to read them then, but had seen that it was due to the rights, but if that's not the case. Spider-Man, let this matter lay in mine hands, I will traverse to Asgard to seek the knowledge there." He threw the books into the air and a blast of rainbow latter they were gone.
"In the meantime, would you like to join me in a game of 'destroy the Frost Giant'? It's grand fun. Room, Play!" He laughed before throwing his hammer through a few, wrecking a massive hole in their chests. They fell over with a whump, bouncing once. The floor surprisingly intact.
I looked to the twenty meter tall giants, one's wielding clubs longer than two telephone poles, "Sure, why not."
"Excellent. Room! Raise the level to Jotunheim Level 7!"
"As you wish sir."
The room expanded, and I realized just how massive this place was, as hills and trees rose, alongside simulated terrain. From the walls, furry trolls that looked like a cross between the Yeti and someone's frozen snowman roared in defiance and charged.
I gulped, and thought maybe this might not have been a good idea.
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Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone