Spider-Man: Rebirth - Chapter 25

(AN// I’m expanding and altering his stingers a little. Comic book Peter actually has stingers in his forearms, but they only show up once. I’m editing that a little, both in how they are used, and in where they come out from.)

When the whole shebang was done and through with, the Avengers and the X-Men met at the new Avengers HQ to become more familiar, and for those who had already met, catch up. Peter stood off to the side, watching and waiting to be addressed. The last time he’d seen the X-Men was well before Otto had taken over.

It wasn’t long into the meeting when Xavier approached him, away from prying ears. Scott was busy playing leader, so everyone was paying more attention to him. Xavier cleared his throat. “I know your identity, but I will be considerate and call you by your title, Spider-Man. (AN//He’s Professor X, what do you expect?) I have a suspicion that your powers are not all what they seem.”

Peter, expecting his knowledge of his identity, took that in stride. The idea that his powers could be different, however, caught his attention. “How so? Are you saying my spider powers came from more than just a radioactive spider bite?”

Xavier shook his head a little. “A bit more than that. I have a suspicion that the spider bite could have also been a catalyst for a recessive X-gene in your body to become dominant. Or possibly that recessive X-gene trait could be influenced to become one thing or another. What I’m saying is, for whatever reason, cerebro picked you up yesterday. That’s the main reason we’re here in the first place. I don’t know why it chose to detect you only now, maybe your X-Gene was unlocked or something.”

Peter took this in before nodding a bit. “I took a little bit of scientific liberties on myself, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it triggered a latent X-Gene.” He shrugged. “In time I’ll find out what it is. People don’t need to know yet that Spider-Man is a mutant, much less his real identity.” Charles nodded and left it at that.

Peter gave an excuse to the Avengers and the girls for why he would be going with the X-Men, his purpose being fully finding what his mutant gene manifested as, and also what it was like being a mutant. He had basic knowledge, but nothing that could be gained from the personal experience. He chose to forego the webswinging and joined the X-Men aboard their jet. He kept up the suit though.

Several of the X-Men were curious, as they hadn’t seen Spider-Man or the Avengers in many years, and Spidey was the most changed. Wolverine occasionally narrowed his eyes at the hero he respected, suspecting that something was off. Peter ignored Logan though, choosing to stand in a corner and lean against a wall. Toxin subtly ingrained himself into the jet’s functions in case anything went tɨts-up. Charles wheeled himself next to Peter and sat in silence for a moment and a half.

“I can’t read your mind like I used to.” He commented off-handedly, mildly suggesting that Peter had purposely found a way to block him out. Which he had.

Peter chuckled. “A symbiote AI in my suit that communicates with me through my thoughts does that. I have decent fortification. Approved personnel only.” Toxin separated from the suit a bit, still covering Peter’s head, and gave an “ok” hand sign and a thumbs up with another hand before going back in.

Charles rocked back slightly in his wheelchair but recovered quickly. Wolverine in the corner nodded to himself, now understanding what was off about Peter.

Charles and Peter ended the conversation there, while Peter strung up a hammock for himself to lay back in with his legs crossed. While he was chilling, a sudden person charging through the ceiling above him also passed through him and faceplanted on the ground under him. Said event resulted in Peter twisting himself up in his hammock looking downward at Kitty Pryde, who slowly rolled over. One of his stuck hands gave a little wave. “Uh…hi.”

She went very red-faced. “Oh, uh hi, Spider-Man. I-is that a new suit?” She was desperately trying to save face.

Peter laughed. “It’s a couple weeks old. But yeah.” One of his mechanical arms sprouted out and tore enough of the webbing away that he could extricate himself from his tangle. “What happened? Somebody spook you suddenly up there?”

She gulped a little. “I-I uh…I slipped. Yeah, slipped.” She would never admit that Nightcrawler had teleported into her room accidentally and had made her jump 6 feet in the air off of her bed and then fall through it.

Peter shrugged. It really didn’t matter anyway. He offered a hand to help her up while two of his mechanical arms remade his hammock.

“Well, at least you didn’t break your neck, though I can’t say the same for your nose.” As he brought her up, he popped her nose back in place, all one fluid motion. He flung a web at a tissue box sitting on top of a locker and flicked it to him, offering her said tissue box to stop her bleeding nose. She winced and grunted a little in pain when he popped her nose back in, but she nodded her thanks regardless.

A couple minutes later, Scott’s voice came on over the intercom. “We’re coming in for landing at the mansion. Hold onto something.” All Peter did was shoot a web at the wall and hold it. He and Kitty had been doing the small-talk shtick, so she just grabbed onto his web after he shot it. He turned to her. “Good luck getting that unstuck from you.” He joked, but only halfway. Whether it stuck to her or not was his choice. Until they landed, he kept her stuck to it.

They landed successfully, so Peter disengaged the stick ’em powers of his web before they all got off the jet. His room was situated across the hall from Beast’s lab. Very happy with where his room was, Peter did a little decorating, making aesthetically pleasing webs around the room to fit his theme.

Rogue’s room was next door, in an effort to have her closer to the lab as a fix to her current lack of control was being worked on. Kitty’s room was a floor above but directly over his.

Peter decided to go check out the lab, curious to see what technology they had access to.