Chapter 23 - Close Encounters of the X-Men Kind!

(AN//Gonna finally dip into the X-Men stuff, which means hold on tight for Storm, Kitty, and Rogue.)

The next week after the Sokovia events were largely uneventful. While there was a definite line that the public drew at AI, damage was largely kept low thanks to the Avengers and Peter. Wanda and Pietro began training at the new Avengers HQ, proving to be very apt to learning how to do the hero shtick. They both still harbored aggressive feelings toward Parker Industries, but that's exactly why Peter was visiting. As Spider-Man of course.

He showed up right as the twins were sparring together. He stuck his back to the wall and watched, his arms crossed, as they simply fought, but without using their powers. Wanda, inevitably, won thanks to the flexibility that Natasha was teaching her, which Peter knew firsthand. She helped Pietro up and Peter gave a small round of applause. "Great work you two! We'll make Avengers of you yet!" He turned to Pietro. "Try to keep your center of gravity from being too wild. That's very easy to take advantage of if you aren't careful." He then turned to Wanda. "Well done Wanda, but try not to fling yourself around too unpredictably, some opponents might see that as a reason to spray and pray, and innocents could be hurt by that."

Wanda and Pietro nodded, taking the critique pretty well and accepting it. Wanda then spoke up. "I can't read your mind, but I know enough stories of Spider-Man to know I don't need to. But why did you really-" Peter cut her off.

"You can't read my mind because I have a friendly symbiote bonded to my suit as sort of AI, except not quite Artificial." He gestured to the stairwell leading up into the command deck. "Take a seat. There's a story I need to tell and a list of truths that need revealing." They exchanged nervous glances but sat down anyway. Peter cleared his throat. "Not so long ago, Yours Truly took on a rather tyrannical approach to most things. I was almost murderous in most things. My personal life became a maze of corruption and betrayal on my part." He paused. "But at the same time it wasn't my fault." Wanda ċȯċked her head a bit. "You see, my mind was taken over. You may have heard of Dr. Otto Octavius. Brilliant man. Evil man. And he now lives in my Rubix Cube keychain in my office. He took over my mind. I was forced to watch him make a mockery of my life from the backseat." Wanda frowned in pity and Pietro just looked confused. "It was only roughly a month ago that I kicked him out. Understand, the Avengers all know who I am under this mask." Wanda knit her eyebrows.

"Why don't we?" Pietro and Wanda both asked.

Peter sighed. "Because it was something only I could do. And only after I revealed my...displacement." He took a breath. "Wanda, I genuinely fear what you could do to me, so I'm asking that when you see my face and match it with my name, you won't hurt me. You don't have to make that promise, but just remember my story." She gave a small nod and Peter turned around, his suit disappearing in symbio-nanobots. He blew a sigh and slowly turned to face them. Before either could react, an explosion sounded in the distance.

Peter bit off his words and his suit formed again, immediately receiving a message from Tony. "Situation in Times Square, red lasers and hunks of metal are flying everywhere, check it out!" Peter nodded and swung off before latching onto the window pane and turning to the twins. "So? Are you coming or what?" He then swung off quickly.

What greeted him was a giant metal saucer the size of a tire flying at his face. His arms swatted it aside and Peter landed in the middle of the Square, right between what looked like an angry little man in yellow and his ȧssorted...mutants...and a man in a maroon dome and his...also mutants. "Ah nuts, look what I've gotten myself into now." Cap showed up next to him from a skydive without a parachute and Tony touched down beside him. Clint came down via a grappling arrow and Wanda floated down next to Peter. Pietro zoomed in next to Peter on his other side moments later. The twins seemed uneasy at the revelation of Spider-Man's identity, but they pushed that thought aside to focus on the situation at hand. "Hey! Take your arguments to a different sandbox, this one's occupied!" Two of his symbio-metallic arms pointed to either side, accompanied by his hands pointed out at either side, repulsors or webs ready.

What Peter didn't expect was the side with the short yellow man to look at them with hope. It took Peter 9 nanoseconds to realize these were the X-Men. And thusly, the other side were the Brotherhood. Peter very slowly brought his arms, both mechanical and not, to face the Brotherhood. The rest of the Avengers seemed to have eventually hit the same conclusion Peter did. "Mitigate collateral damage!" Steve yelled out, as Tony flew around at a distance to avoid Magneto.

Said domehead was trying to crush Peter's suit, but unluckily for him, since an organic being was infused in it, he couldn't really do anything. Peter grinned and launched a web that wrapped around Magneto's throat, which Peter yanked to take him from the air and to Peter's feet. He was seconds from a crushing punch downwards to end the whole shebang before a charging Sabretooth got in the way. Spider-Sense in overdrive, Peter ducked a slash and blasted Sabretooth point-blank in the ribs with his repulsor blasts from his fingers, and followed it up with a quick headkick that sloshed Sabretooth's brain around a bit. He followed that up with a leg sweep and knee to the gut, as the X-Men and the other Avengers dealt with everyone else. Sabretooth was usually Wolverine's job, so Wolverine just kinda watched Peter go. Sabretooth grunted and dug his claws into Peter's thɨġh, not very deep thanks to the vibranium, and tossed Peter off of him. Peter shot two webs, one to a piece of rubble from a building and one to a thick streetlight. Using the streetlight as a pivot point, Peter slammed Sabretooth in the face with the chunk of rubble and and spun a bit in the air off to the side before catapulting himself into Sabretooth's gut. He webbed him and pulled him back into a jet-assisted hook to the temple that miraculously knocked out the regenerating mutant. Peter turned around to be pushed back by a wave of electromagnetic force. He grinned, throwing a web at Magneto's ċhėst and activating his taser web, shorting out the electromagnetic functions of his powers for a moment, long enough to nail him in the face with a horse kick. Scott Summers, Cyclopse, finished the job with an optical blast to Magneto's side.

Those who were taken down, Magneto, Sabretooth, and a slew of others, were taken into SHIELD custody. Mystique was still at large.