Peter swung out of the reinforced glass window of Starks Tower, the cool evening air rushing to meet him and instantly cooling the sweat on his neck.
His web-line caught the edge of a nearby skyscraper and he launched himself into a high leap over the bright city of Manhattan.
Underneath his mask, he was grinning ear to ear.
Tonight, the excitement wasn’t just from playing with multi-billion-dollar toys.
It was the contract sitting securely in his backpack.
The joint venture was official and even though it will take a week, his weapons is under development.
Stark Industries was officially partnering with Peter’s independent research initiative to synthesize a stable clean energy isotope.
Tony was providing the heavy-duty manufacturing infrastructure and Peter was providing the refined quantum calculations to stabilize the atomic structure.
Most importantly, it meant a massive reliable source of financing.
Peter wouldn’t have to worry about finding new projects on how to fund himself.
He is practically vibrating with the relief since Tony is willing to cooperate with him without trying to find out his real identity.
But as he shot another web-line and pulled himself forward, a sudden grimace replaced his smile.
“Badassium” Peter muttered aloud to himself, his voice muffled by the spandex fabric.
“He actually went through with it.
He really insisted on it”.
During their final review of the patent filings, Tony had leaned over the holographic console, sunglasses sliding down his nose, and declared that the breakthrough needed a name with ‘pizzazz’.
Peter had suggested something logical, like Novium.
Tony had just laughed waved a dismissive hand and typed Badassium into the official global registry database before Peter could grab his arm.
Peter thudded onto the rooftop of a brick apartment building, jogging a few paces to absorb the momentum before stopping at the ledge.
He looked back at the glowing Stark logo in the distance, shaking his head in mild irritation.
It was a god-awful name.
Like in the movie in Ironman 2, the name sounded like something a middle schooler would call their garage band.
Peter can image every time Tony would have to present their findings to an international board of physics experts, or write a peer-reviewed paper or talk to investors, he was going to have to say the word Badassium with a straight face.
Still, as he crouched on the edge of the roof and looked down at the bustling streets below, the irritation faded back into exhilaration.
He had a fully equipped lab backing him, a check on the way, and a partnership with one of the greatest minds on the planet.
If the price of financial stability, fully equipped lab and saving the world with clean energy was enduring Tony Stark’s terrible sense of humor, Peter figured it was a trade-off he could live with.
With a quick salute to the skyline, he dived off the roof plunging back into the neon-lit canyons of the city.
Peter perched on the ornate copper head of a rooftop gargoyle, pull his mask up to reveal his mouth with one hand while using the other to dial Rogue.
The phone rang twice before her smooth southern drawl filled his ear, instantly melting away the lingering annoyance over Tony’s naming conventions.
“Hey, stranger” Rogue said, her voice warm.
“I miss you”.
“Miss you too, Rogue!
I got something exciting to tell you” Peter practically beamed, kicking his legs back and forth over the ledge.
Rogue said, her voice warm.
“You sound like you’re floating.
Tell me, Sugah”.
“I have a partnership with Stark Industries.
All my research will be fully backed.
We have a massive, stable source of financing and access to his entire lab setup.
There’s just…
one tiny, incredibly embarrassing catch …..”.
He was cut off by a sudden, shrill blaring sound on her end of the line the unmistakable screech of the X-Mansion’s emergency alarm.
Peter heard shouting in the background, followed by Logan’s gruff voice barking orders about the Blackbird.
“Peter, hold on” Rogue said, her tone instantly shifting from playful to dead serious.
Logan growled and hurried said “We’ve got a major situation.
Hank just pulled up the feeds.
Magneto and the Brotherhood just staged a massive prison break.
They’ve busted out Juggernaut and a dozen of the most dangerous mutants from the Triskelion maximum-security wing”.
Peter’s stomach dropped.
He thought to himself ‘Juggernaut?
If he’s loose in the city, he’s going to level blocks’.
He pulled his mask back down over his face, his lenses narrowing.
“Where are they heading?”.
“They’re moving through the industrial district toward the bay” Rogue said, the sound of her rustling into her X-men’s suit audible over the line.
She paused for a fraction of a second, knowing how much this night meant to him but the city was in immediate danger.
“Do you want to join us?
We could use the extra webs, cowboy”.
“Are you kidding?
Try keeping me away” Peter said, already launching himself off the gargoyle and firing a web-line into the night sky.
“I’m on my way.
Let’s meet midway near the Queensboro Bridge, I can intercept your flight path from there”.
“See you in five” Rogue replied, hanging up.
Spider-Man swung through the city at breakneck speed, the euphoria of his financial breakthrough perfectly colliding with the adrenaline of an impending mutant showdown.
He was going from a high-tech lab to a warzone but with Rogue by his side, he felt ready to take on whatever Magneto was about to throw at them.
The sleek matte black silhouette of the X-Men’s Blackbird roared through the cloud cover over the East River, its cloaking tech shimmering slightly against the moonlight.
Hanging from a web-line anchored to the topmost steel cable of the Queensboro Bridge, Peter timed the jet’s trajectory perfectly.
Before he could even leap, a flash of green and yellow cut through the night sky.
Rogue rocketed upward, her white-streaked hair flying behind her.
She caught Peter firmly around the waist mid-air saving him the trouble of a difficult web-swing onto a moving stealth jet.
“Nice of you to drop in” Rogue teased, her southern drawl easily cutting through the rushing wind as she flew them straight toward the open cargo ramp of the descending Blackbird.
“I always like to make an entrance,” Peter grinned underneath his mask, holding onto her tightly.
Within seconds, Rogue touched down seamlessly inside the vibrating metal hangar of the jet.
The heavy steel doors hissed shut behind them, sealing out the wind.
Logan stood in the center of the bay chomping on an unlit cigar while Cyclops gave them a sharp nod from the cockpit seat.
There was no time for small talk or celebrating Peter’s financial breakthrough.
The Blackbird was already banking hard toward the industrial docks.
“Listen up” Cyclops’ voice echoed over the PA system.
“Magneto’s forces have turned the shipping yards into a warzone.
The escaped mutants are securing a perimeter and Juggernaut is clearing a path straight toward the city center.
We drop in hot”.
The cargo doors slammed open again, and the smell of ozone, burning metal and heavy smoke instantly filled the cabin.
Down below, the shipping docks were in absolute chaos.
Crushed shipping containers were piled like toys, fires illuminated the dark water and brilliant arcs of purple electromagnetic energy tore through the sky.
“Go time!” Logan growled, his adamantium claws snapping out with a deadly snikt.
Spider-Man and Rogue dived out of the jet side by side, plunging directly into the madness.
The battlefield was a hornets’ nest.
Magneto hovered high above the docks, a god of magnetic fury surrounded by a swirling halo of torn steel beams, ripped train tracks and shattered metal.
Below him, the Brotherhood of Mutants including Blob, Pyro, Sabretooth and Toad were pinning down responding tactical units.
Pyro was throwing massive torrents of flame, while Toad used his agility to ambush officers from the shadows.
But the biggest threat was impossible to miss.
The Juggernaut was a towering juggernaut of destruction, tearing through a massive concrete warehouse with brute force, his heavy boots cracking the foundation of the docks with every single stride.
“And I’ll help clear the sky!” Rogue yelled back, flying straight into a hail of incoming metal debris to draw Magneto’s attention away from the ground forces.
Just as Magneto began warping the metal framework of the pier and Juggernaut stormed forward, Peter’s spider-sense didn’t just warn him of incoming attacks but also buzzed toward the edge of the shipping yard.
A group of night-shift dockworkers were trapped inside a crumbling security booth, pinned down by a hail of shattered rebar and Pyro’s stray fireballs.
“Hold that thought, chrome-dome!” Peter yelled, using his extreme agility to completely bypass Juggernaut’s initial charge.
Peter moved like a blur, twisting his body mid-air to dodge a barrage of flying pipe fragments thrown by Magneto.
He executed a flawless web-zip over a burning forklift, hit the ground running and slid right under a falling steel beam.
Reaching the security booth, he punched through the jammed door, gathered three terrified civilians in his arms and shot a high-tensile web to the top of a distant safe crane.
With a powerful swing, he deposited the workers safely out of harm’s way on a high platform.
“Stay put, guys!
The X-Men have excellent reviews on Yelp, I promise!” Peter called out before diving back down.
Turning his full attention back to the unstoppable giant, Peter fired a web line at a heavy wooden pallet before swinging it in a massive arc to smash it directly over Juggernaut’s helmet.
As the giant roared and swung a massive fist, Peter executed a perfect dodge, sliding through Juggernaut’s massive legs.
While underneath, he delivered rapid kicks towards Juggernaut’s knees, destabilizing his balance.
Springing upward Peter used a web line to launch himself straight at the giant’s chest, executing a rapid acrobatic combo striking the seams of Juggernaut’s armor with a flurry of heavy kicks before utilizing a launch off the giant’s own shoulder to vault safely back into the sky.
“Stay down big guy!” Peter yelled over the explosions, firing a volley of thick web-lines at Juggernaut’s ankles to trip him up.
Peter fired a web-line onto a towering shipping crane, swinging in a massive arc to avoid a flying concrete block thrown by the Juggernaut.
Down on the cracked pavement, Cain Marko roared, his massive armored frame plowing through a row of steel shipping containers as if they were made of cardboard.
Spider-Man knew he couldn’t beat the Juggernaut in a pure test of strength—once that momentum started, it was nearly impossible to stop.
But Peter had the environment, his agility and a desperate will to protect the city.
“Hey, chrome-dome!
He instantly blinded the giant’s visor with a thick pressurized blast of web-fluid.
Juggernaut swatted at his face like a man brushing away a pesky mosquito, swinging a fist that shattered the concrete wall behind him when Peter flipped clear.
Blinded and furious, Juggernaut charged blindly forward, aiming straight for a massive, multi-ton industrial fuel tanker parked at the edge of the dock.
Peter saw the disaster coming.
If Juggernaut hit that tanker, the resulting explosion would level the entire pier and take out half the X-Men.
‘I have to redirect him’ Peter thought, his adrenaline spiking.
‘Now’.
Dropping low, Peter shot two thick web-cables onto Juggernaut’s massive shoulders and anchored his own feet into the reinforced steel frame of a grounded cargo ship’s heavy crane.
He braced his back, gripped the webs, and pulled with everything he had.
Normally, Peter operated in the comfortable 10 to 25 ton lifting range to avoid killing anyone.
But right now, he needed to alter the trajectory of an unstoppable force.
His muscles screamed as he pushed his body past its absolute limits.
His tendons strained as he unlocked his absolute maximum potential, harnessing all 65 tons of his peak strength.
With a roaring gasp, Peter violently yanked the web-lines to the left.
The sheer force of Peter’s 65-ton pull actually managed to alter Juggernaut’s momentum by just a few crucial degrees.
Juggernaut’s boot slipped on the cracked concrete and he missed the fuel tanker by inches, instead crashing face-first into the deep muddy waters of the bay.
The massive splash drenched the pier, buying Peter a few precious moments to breathe as his aching muscles throbbed from the exertion.
Meanwhile, the rest of the X-Men were locked in a brutal clash across the burning docks as Jean and Cyclops coordinated a flawless assault against Pyro and Toad.
Cyclops unleashed a precise, wide-angle optic blast that scattered Toad into the shadows while Jean use her telekinetic power to block Pyro’s torrents of flame and knock the fire-manipulator cold with a telekinetic as she slam Pyro onto the ground.
Wolverine was a whirlwind of claws and fury, tangling directly with the massive immovable Blob.
Logan dodged a heavy slam using his low center of gravity to slice through the steel chains Blob was swinging, forcing the giant mutant backward into a pile of collapsing timber.
Storm commanded the skies above summoning fierce gale-force winds to redirect the flying metal debris that Magneto was hurling at the team, creating a localized hurricane to keep the Master of Magnetism pinned down.
As Juggernaut began to burst back out of the frothing bay water, shaking the river silt from his helmet and looking angrier than ever, Peter wiped the sweat from his brow under his mask and he braced himself for round two.
With a crack of thunder echoing overhead Rogue rocketed past Storm’s localized hurricane, her eyes locked onto the Master of Magnetism.
Magneto hovered like a god against the flashing lightning, his purple cape billowing as his hands glowed with intense electromagnetic force.
“You’re out of your depth, child!” Magneto bellowed, gesturing sharply.
A dozen jagged steel shipping containers tore free from their stacks, launching through the air like guided missiles straight at her.
Rogue didn’t flinch.
Relying on her formidable speed and near invulnerability, she dodged the first two, dipped beneath a third and shattered a fourth completely with a heavy reinforced punch.
She closed the distance in a blur of green and yellow, swinging a devastating right hook.
Magneto raised his arms just in time, a shimmering translucent magnetic force field flaring to life.
Rogue’s fist collided with the barrier with a resounding BOOM that sent shockwaves through the rain-slicked air.
The shield held but Magneto grimaced from the sheer kinetic impact.
Recognizing her threat, he violently gestured downward.
“If you wish to save this city then sink with it!” Magneto roared.
He extended both hands toward the bay.
The massive, million-ton steel cargo ship Peter had been using as an anchor began to groan.
Grotesque shrieks of twisting metal echoed across the docks as Magneto began to rip the entire vessel completely out of the water.
The bay churned violently as waves crashing over the piers as the colossal hull lifted into the air as it cast a terrifying shadow over the battlefield.
Rogue knew she couldn’t let him throw that ship into Manhattan.
Acting on pure instinct, she dove straight down, putting every ounce of her flight velocity into a diving tackle.
She slammed hard into Magneto’s midsection breaking his concentration.
The magnetic grip snapped and the massive cargo ship crashed back into the bay with a titanic splash, creating a localized tidal wave that drenched the docks but saved the city streets.
As Magneto reeled from the blow, Rogue looked down and saw Spider-Man struggling below.
Juggernaut had just erupted from the water roaring with fury, his eyes locked on Peter.
“Hold on, cowboy!” Rogue yelled, abandoning the aerial duel to dive-bomb straight toward the pier.
Peter, his muscles burning slightly from his recent exertion, braced himself as Juggernaut charged like a freight train.
Just before impact, Rogue slammed down right beside Spider-Man, her boots cracking the pavement.
“Need a lift?” she smiled.
“Perfect timing,” Peter said as he instantly formulating a plan.
“Double-team on three?”.
“Let’s do it” Rogue answered as Juggernaut closed the final twenty feet, Peter shot two thick web-lines directly onto Juggernaut’s helmet visors, completely blinding him again and forcing the giant to swing wildly.
Simultaneously, Rogue flew low, grabbing Juggernaut by the waist from behind.
Using the giant’s own forward momentum against him, she lifted his feet off the ground, effectively turning the unstoppable force into a flying projectile.
With Rogue hoisting him up, Peter grabbed the web-lines, spun in a massive circle and used his strength and momentum to launch Juggernaut straight into the deepest thickest concrete foundation of the reinforced warehouse.
Juggernaut crashed through five structural pillars before the entire roof collapsed on top of him, burying the behemoth under thousands of tons of rubble.
Rogue touched down next to Peter, high-fiving his web-bedecked hand.
“Not bad for a guy who just secured a multi million dollar corporate sponsorship” Rogue winked.
The concrete rubble atop Juggernaut groaned but the giant was temporarily pinned under the weight of the collapsed warehouse.
Seeing the opening, Rogue squeezed Peter’s hand.
“Keep your eyes on the sky, cowboy.
I’m going to help the team clear the ground!” She rocketed off, diving straight into a cluster of escaped villains who were trying to flank Wolverine and Cyclops.
High above, Magneto hovered his face contorted in absolute fury as his plans fell apart.
With a sharp gesture, he gathered a swirling vortex of jagged rebar, torn metal plates and shattered weapon casings aiming them directly at the X-Men below.
“Not on my watch, bucket-head!” Spider-Man shot a web-line to a surviving crane and launched himself into the air, intercepting the debris storm.
He fired rapid-fire web-bombs, sticking the flying metal chunks together into a massive harmless ball and anchoring it to a pier pillar.
Magneto turned his cold calculating gaze onto Peter.
Instead of instantly crushing him with metal, the Master of Magnetism floated down stopping a few dozen feet away surrounded by a faint glowing magnetic aura.
“Spider-Man” Magneto’s voice echoed with deep authority over the roaring fires.
“I have watched your exploits.
You possess gifts far beyond ordinary men, yet you squander your potential playing the jester for a society that fears and despises what it does not understand”.
“Yeah!
Well, the jokes keep me warm” Peter retorted, firing two web-lines at Magneto’s forcefield.
He pulled himself forward, throwing a powerful kick that bounced harmlessly off the shimmering barrier.
Magneto didn’t even strike back.
He merely deflected Peter with a wave of his hand, sending a wave of kinetic energy that forced Spider-Man to flip backward and catch himself on a shipping container.
“Think about it, Spider-man” Magneto said.
“Humans treat you like a menace.
Join me.
With you power and mine, we can build a world where the gifted rule without humans controlling mutants ever again”.
Peter scoffed under his mask, his lenses narrowing.
“I’ve seen your version of a better world, Magneto.
It usually involves a lot of broken glass and terrified people.
I think I’ll stick to my method”.
“A tragic waste” Magneto sighed.
The negotiation was over.
Magneto clenched his fists and the very shipping container Peter was standing on violently crumpled inward like an aluminum can.
Peter leapt into the air just in time, firing a web directly at Magneto’s chest to catch him.
Magneto ripped the webbing away with a magnetic pulse and retaliated by hurling a hail of sharp twisted metal spikes.
Peter danced through the air, twisting his body to avoid the razor sharp projectiles
He kept Magneto completely distracted, buying the X-Men the crucial time they needed.
Down on the docks, Rogue’s arrival completely shifted the tide.
She smashed into Blob from behind, sending the heavy mutant skidding across the slick pavement into Cyclops’ path, who instantly pinned him down with a heavy-duty optic blast.
With the Brotherhood fracturing and their aerial leader occupied by a relentless web-slinger, the escaped villains finally began to break formation and retreat.
The sky over the docks erupted into a flashing tapestry of purple electromagnetic energy as Peter’s battle with Magneto reached a fever pitch.
Peter dodged a flying swarm of razor-sharp rebar, vaulted off a falling steel beam and shot a web-line directly onto Magneto’s chest.
Pulling himself forward with explosive speed, Peter shattered the magnetic forcefield with a punch.
The barrier broke with a deafening CRACK.
Peter surged forward, his fist inches away from Magneto’s helmet for a knockout blow that would have ended the mutant threat then and there.
But at the final microsecond, Magneto unleashed a violent omnidirectional magnetic pulse.
The raw kinetic shockwave blasted Peter backward towards the pier pavement.
Peter looked up just in time to see Magneto levitate higher, his face pale from the near-defeat.
“Brotherhood!
Retreat!” Magneto commanded, his voice strained.
He raised his hands enveloping the remaining Brotherhood mutants in a massive magnetic shield, lifting them into the sky and fleeing into the storm clouds before the X-Men could capture them.
But the relief of the villains’ retreat was instantly shattered.
BOOM!
Juggernaut erupted from the rubble roaring with a terrifying primal fury.
The thousands of tons of warehouse debris hadn’t stopped him but they had only made him angrier.
His eyes glowed red with mystical energy behind his heavy metal visor.”You think a few rocks can hold me?!” Juggernaut bellowed, charging straight toward the exhausted heroes.
The X-Men immediately mobilized for a dramatic, coordinated assault to stop the behemoth.
Storm unleashed a massive, concentrated lightning strike directly onto his helmet while Jean also unleashed her power to stop his movement.
Without missing a beat, Juggernaut slam his hands together sending both of them flying away and crashing to the ground.
Cyclops dialed his visor to maximum output, unleashing a colossal optic blast that illuminated the entire bay.
Rogue and Wolverine dove in simultaneously, Logan slashing at the joints of his armor while Rogue delivered a shockwave-inducing punch to his jaw.
Spider-Man fired a massive web-net reinforced by steel cables to trip the giant.
The combined force of the X-Men’s strongest attacks slammed into Juggernaut all at once.
The pier buckled and smoke filled the air but as the dust cleared, the terrifying reality set in as they failed to stop Juggernaut.
Juggernaut didn’t even slow down as his mystical enchantment powering his momentum shrugged off the combined assault.
With a brutal sweep of his massive arms, he batted Wolverine and Rogue aside, shattered Cyclops’ footing with a ground-pound and tore right through Peter’s reinforced webbing like tissue paper.
After shrugging off their attacks, Juggernaut walk towards the bay.
Peter wasn’t about to let Juggernaut walk away.
While the rest of the X-Men reeled from the devastating counterattack, Spider-Man tapped into a deep reservoir of pure, stubborn willpower.
“Oh no you don’t, big guy!” Peter yelled, launching himself through the smoke.
Before Juggernaut could submerge into the bay, Spider-Man intercepted him, initiating a ferocious one-on-one showdown right at the water’s edge.
Relying on his max-level agility, Peter became a blur of red and blue.
He vaulted off Juggernaut’s massive shoulders, landing heavy, precise blows to the seams of the giant’s armor.
Juggernaut swung wildly, his fists creating sonic booms that shattered the nearby glass but Peter dodged every single strike, using his own max strength to stagger the behemoth with a sharp uppercut to the jaw.
Peter was actively shielding the injured X-Men, putting his own body between them and the giant, absorbing the kinetic shockwaves of Juggernaut’s misses to buy the X-men’s members time to recover.
“You’re annoying, bug!” Juggernaut roared, trying to clap his massive hands around Peter’s head.
Peter slipped beneath Juggernaut’s legs but he knew he couldn’t keep this up forever alone.
Rogue was back on her feet, her eyes blazing with determination.
“I’ve got your back, cowboy!” she shouted, hovering just above the fray.
“Rogue!
The helmet!” Peter called out, executing their flawless teamwork strategy.
Spider-Man shot two high-tensile web-lines straight into the eye-slits of Juggernaut’s visor, pulling back with all his might to blind the giant and force his head upward.
With Juggernaut’s neck exposed and his vision gone, Rogue dove out of the sky like a missile.
She channeled the absolute maximum velocity of her flight, hitting the underside of Juggernaut’s helmet rim with a devastating, earth-shattering uppercut.
The combined force of Peter’s pulling leverage and Rogue’s kinetic impact did the impossible.
With a horrifying sound, the mystical helmet was violently knocked off Juggernaut’s head, clattering away across the concrete.
Exposed and disoriented, Juggernaut blinked in shock.
Before he could react, Rogue landed right in front of him, pulled off her glove and placed her bare hand squarely on his forehead.
Juggernaut gasped as Rogue began to absorb his raw, unstoppable power.
Red cosmic energy swirled around her skin, her eyes glowing with newfound, terrifying strength.
Deprived of his mystical invulnerability and physically drained, Cain Marko’s knees buckled.
Before the towering giant collapsed forward to his knees, Peter delivered a punch with all his might at Juggernaut’s temple.
The blow send Juggernaut flying away and crashing down onto the fractured pier with a definitive thud, completely knocked out.
Rogue exhaled deeply, pulling her glove back on as the stolen energy hummed beneath her skin.
She looked over at Peter, a massive, triumphant grin breaking across her face.
“Finally!” Peter panted, finally letting his shoulders drop as the remaining X-Men gathered around them, “That is a wrapped”.
As the dust finally settled over the shattered shipping yard, the flashing red and blue lights of arriving police cars painted the docks in a quiet glow.
Cyclops stepped forward first, adjusting his ruby-quartz visor before extending a hand.
“Thanks for your help, Spider-Man.
Magneto and the Brotherhood are a handful on their own, but dealing with Juggernaut at the same time could have been catastrophic.
Your strength and quick thinking saved this team”.
“Ah, don’t mention it” Peter smiled beneath his mask, shaking his hand.
“Just your friendly neighborhood civic duty.
Besides, I had a great partner” He winked in Rogue’s direction.
Logan strolled up next, lighting his cigar now that the danger had passed.
He gave Peter a heavy approving slap on the shoulder “You fought well, kid.
Broke Magneto’s shield and went toe-to-toe with Marko without blinking”.
Logan continued as he slap, Peter ‘s back again “You’re always welcome to visit the X-Mansion.
Anytime you want a real workout, the Danger Room is open to you”.
Hearing the invitation, Rogue’s eyes lit up.
She stepped closer, sliding her hand into Peter’s hand and looked up at him with a soft pleading expression.
“Please say you’ll come back to Westchester soon” Rogue begged, her southern accent thick and earnest.
“Just stay a few days.
You need a good rest and I want you to meet the rest of my friends” She leaned in slightly, a playful grin tugging at the corner of her lips.
“Plus, I miss hearing you play the piano.
The music room has just been sitting empty, and you owe me a song after a night like this”.
Peter felt his face grow warm under her gaze, his earlier exhaustion completely forgotten.
The thought of a quiet afternoon at the mansion and hanging out with Rogue sounded like paradise.
“Alright, alright, you convinced me” Peter chuckled softly, squeezing her hand back.
“I’ll take the train up to Westchester this weekend”.
Friday evening arrived with the familiar, comforting scent of cupcakes filling the Parker household in Queens.
Peter stood by the front door, zipping up a duffel bag packed with a few changes of clothes, his college textbooks, and his hidden Spider-Man suit.
Uncle Ben sitting at the kitchen table nursing a mug of coffee while Aunt May wiped down the counter.
“Alright, I’m heading out to the X-Mansion in Westchester” Peter announced, hoisting the bag over his shoulder.
“I’ll be back Sunday evening”.
Uncle Ben looked up from his newspaper, raising an eyebrow.
“Westchester, huh?
This ‘school for gifted youngsters’ must have a hell of an endowment.
Are you sure you’re just visiting friends or just visiting Rogue?”.
“Ben, leave the boy alone” Aunt May chided gently, though she had a mischievous glint in her eye.
“Though, Peter, I did look up that mansion on the internet.
It has a hedge maze, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and about thirty bedrooms.
Are you sure is there any adult supervision?”.
“May, please,” Ben chuckled.
“We should trust Peter!
I trust he will be a responsible adult”.
“Thanks for your trust!” Peter weakly replied, smiling at the banter.
“And It’s just a private boarding school.
Her…
‘headmaster’, Professor Xavier is a very respected professor.
And I’m meeting some of Rogue’s friends”.
Uncle Ben leaned forward, tapping his coffee mug.
“Uh-huh.
‘Friends’!
Just remember your manners and you will be fine”.
“”I will, Uncle Ben” Peter laughed nervously.
“I’m more worried about the laundry” Aunt May added, walking over to fix Peter’s collar.
“Peter, if you leave your dirty socks all over a multi-million-dollar estate, I will personally drive up there and embarrass you in front of this girl.
And what about her parents?
Are they going to be there?”.
Peter said, instantly thinking of Logan, which made his stomach do a slight flip.
“No but her father figure there is a short Canadian man who smells like cigars and outdoor survival gear.
So, standard stuff”.
Uncle Ben stared at him for a second.
He stood up, walking over to give Peter a firm pat on the back.
“Have a good time, kiddo.
Don’t break anything expensive”.
“And tell Rogue we say hello!” May called out as Peter opened the front door.
“And Peter?
If they offer to let you stay in the master suite, please say yes!
Enjoy the high life for once!”.
“Will do, Aunt May!
See you Sunday!” Peter waved, stepping out into the cool evening air.
As the door clicked shut behind him, he headed toward the subway station, completely energized and ready for whatever the X-Mansion had in store for him.