章 58: C58 Interview

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"Logan stop!" Professor Xavier yelled as he saw Wolverine running at Spider-Mans exposed back, his fists wound back and claws pointed forward.

Before Peter could act as his spider senses were going off, Charles took it upon himself and used telekinesis to toss Logan onto the nearby wall, pinning him there by his arms and legs.

"Grrrr... Ahhhhh!" Logan growled and screamed as he tried to break out of the Professors hold.

As Wolverine strained against Charles' hold, the Professor grabbed his head in pain, unable to hold against Wolverine's strength for long.

"Sigh..." Peter saw this and walked up to Logan. "You keep making me do this."

Peter shook his head as Wolverine growled at him like an angry animal. Pulling back his fist, Peter launched a well-placed punch at the side of Logan's head, causing his body to go limp against the wall.

"Ah, thank you..." Charles breaths out in relief as the pain in his head disappears.

"No problem, want to show me to your office?" Peter says as Wolverine slides down the wall and toppled onto the floor.

"Yes, we can talk privately there." Charles says as he wipes some sweat from his brow.

As he says this, Nightcrawler comes walking down the stairs and sees the odd situation.

"What happened..." Kurt says as Spider-Man appeared in his line of sight. "Oh, I see..."

Shaking his head at his friend's actions, Nightcrawler strolls over and picks Logan up off the floor, carrying him like a prince would in a fairy tale.

"I'll put him in his room." Kurt says as he ascends the stairs. "It was good seeing you again, Spider-Man!"

"Alright, follow along." Charles says as he leads Peter to his office.

Along the way, Peter saw a few children, who were most likely meta-humans that joined the school early. They all nervously peered at the superhero that came to visit, excited to see him but too scared to come forward.

As they entered the Professors office, Charles pulled up behind his desk and motioned for Peter to sit.

"The children you saw are the first of our budding school." Charles says as Peter sat down. "Most of them come from sad beginnings. Parents that didn't understand their child's change, orphans, liberated test subjects. They've all been through a lot and you're actually a big part of their life. They see you as a hero. Someone they aspire to be."

"Well, they do have superpowers, so a good amount of them probably will be like me in the future." Peter says with a shrug.

"True, though that doesn't mean they can't choose normal career paths." Charles clarifies.

"Of course, but they can make that choice when they're old enough." Peter says, agreeing completely.

"Now, what's this I hear about a Spider-Man YouTube video on meta-humans?" The Professor asks curiously. "The children won't stop talking about it."

As soon as Peter tweeted about it, the halls of Xavier's mansion were filled with talks of Spider-Man and his coming video. The older students, who are in their teens, have a smartphone, so they knew instantly and spread the word.

Of course, the word about Spider-Man travels fast, so everyone knew within minutes. Even Professor Xavier.

"I was going to contact you and ask for an interview with you and a few others. You would answer some questions and show off some powers. It wouldn't take too long. We can bang out the entire video in a day." Peter explains as he leans back in his seat.

"Why are you doing this?" Charles asks.

"Maybe you don't understand how the internet and media in general works. With the news articles about meta-humans surfacing, people with bad intentions will start taking advantage. Fear and outrage gets clicks and boosts ratings after all. The faster we get some good publicity out there, the better our chances are to protect meta-humans." Peter explains.

"Our?" Charles asks.

"Yes, the Avengers stick together." Peter smiles under his mask.

"I see." Charles mutters with a smile as well. "Speaking of Avengers, have you come to a decision yet?"

"No, but it's looking favorable for you. Just give us some time." Peter says, not mentioning anything about Magneto's involvement.

He would keep that quiet until their first meeting as councilmen, which Peter is sure will be an interesting encounter to deal with, to say the least.

"Alright, do you want to do this interview today?" Charles asks, totally on board with this.

"Sure, we can film it on my phone." Peter says as he pulls out his ghost phone. "Do you have anyone here that would be interested in this? Three meta-humans is probably the best, so we need two more people."

"Hmm, Storm is a bit camera shy and Logan can't be in the same room as you..." Charles thinks out loud.

"Then Kurt and someone else. Kurt will make a good addition. His appearance will shock some but that will help show the physical differences meta-humans can have as well. Anyone else or should we recruit one of the children?" Peter asked.

"I don't know if we should involve the younger children..." Professor Xavier comments with a thoughtful look.

"I saw some teenagers out there. We can ask them." Peter offers.

After a moment of thought, Professor X agreed and they got to work. After getting Kurt's agreement, which was hard as the blue man is self-conscious about his looks, Charles called one of the older students to his office, who agreed instantly to be in the video.

Who wouldn't agree to be in a Spider-Man YouTube video? He would be mad to say no.

Surprisingly, this boy turned out to be a young 13-year-old Scott Summers, otherwise known as Cyclops.

Before he came inside, Charles gave Peter a brief description of Scott and his powers. Scott Summers is a mutant with the ability to fire destructive optic beams.

Meaning he shoots lasers from his eyeballs, which is a pretty inconvenient power for the boy.

He has to wear special glasses made with ruby quartz lenses to keep the laser beams from destroying everything Scott looks at. Otherwise, the boy would have to keep his eyes closed constantly and live as a blind man.

When Charles found Scott, he was an orphan living on the streets and either doesn't remember much of his life or refused to speak about it.

As soon as he walked in the door, Scott dashed straight to Peter and started firing off questions. The boy was obviously a fan, which was flattering for Peter.

Though he didn't really like Cyclops' character in the movies from his past life, Peter wouldn't hold that against the boy. He only wished the character wasn't such an annoying simp.

Calming the boy down from his fanboy state, they started the interviews with him. After setting up his phone with a makeshift stand Peter put together with some web, he started the interview on the couch in the office.

Once the easy questions were out of the way, like his name, age, grade, and powers, Peter got into the interesting stuff.

"How do you feel about having superpowers?" He asks.

"Well..." Scott goes silent for a few moments before answering. "I think my power would be cool if I could control it. Professor X said that I could get it under control with enough time and effort though."

"Professor X?" Peter asked as that's the first time he's heard that nickname out loud. "Do you mean Professor Xavier?"

"A lot of the kids call him that. It's hard for them to say his name. Everyone calls him that now." Scott explains as Charles smiles heartwarmingly from the other side of the room.

"I see, how was your life before you met Professor X?" Peter asked.

Charles didn't look pleased with Peter's question, as this was a big part of their therapy sessions. Though he never told Peter not to ask this, so he couldn't blame him.

"..." Scott tensed up immediately.

He's been avoiding these types of questions for a while now, as it's easier to forget, yet this time was different. Scott's hero, Spider-Man, was asking the questions this time.

"I-I was in an orphanage for a while." Scott starts talking reluctantly. "I don't remember my parents or any time before then. The orphanage was... not the nicest place."

"Was there not enough food or?" Peter asked, not knowing the backstory for Cyclops.

"There were a lot of doctors there." Scott says, shocking everyone in the room as they knew what this meant. "They would stick me with needles and connect these wires to me. I didn't like it there so I left."

"They let you leave?" Peter asked.

"No, I escaped." Scott says with a shake of his head. "They didn't let me leave my room, so I used my eyes to cut a hole in the walls at night."

"What happened after that?" Peter asked.

"I lived in an alley for a while." Scott says as he turns to look toward Professor Xavier. "That's where Professor X found me."

The sad look on Charles' face disappeared as he heard this. He sent a warm smile toward the boy. Charles just wished that he found him sooner.

A/N: 1564 words

[DONT FORGET MY STONES! As king once again. I must assert my dominance. Gone is the crying figure of me huddled in a corner. I now stand proudly T-posed at the top of my Throne of Stone! 🤴]