Chapter 50: A Tangled Web We Weave Part III

Chapter Fifty: A Tangled Web We Weave Part Three:

Spider-Man had opened his eyes, as he had found himself shackled to a wall inside of an empty room in the Mansion. He was face to face with Mystique as he woke.

“Good, you’re awake,” said Mystique calmly. “I would have been disappointed if you had been out when the Mansion went up in smoke. Forty five minutes and the mansion explodes, taking the X-Men with it and you as well but we’ll be long gone by that time.

Spider-Man tried to shake the cobwebs out of his head.

“I bet you think you’re clever thinking you could sneak past us,” said Mystique.

“Well, I do ace most of my classes at school,” retorted Spider-Man weakly.

“I don’t think you have fully grasped the gravity of the situation that you’re in,” said Mystique calmly. “You’ve failed Spider-Man and now myself and the Brotherhood will take the spoils.”

“And what exactly are the spoils?” asked Spider-Man curiously but Mystique just responded by laughing at him.

“You must be more gullible than Rogue was to think I would tell you anything like that,” said Mystique. “She believed that the Brotherhood was out for good and the X-Men were trying to enslave mutants. But sadly, she’ll never learn the truth.”

Spider-Man tried to move his arms.

“Struggle all you want Spider-Man, it’s useless, you’re useless,” said Mystique, as Spider-Man tried to find his way out, as Mystique held up his web shooters and web cartridges as well, before tossing them in the corner, far out of his reach. “And you can forget about using any of your little spider tricks to get out. I made sure that I got all your little toys before you got out.”

“Well, she’s efficient I’ll give her that,” thought Spider-Man. “Forty Five minutes, less by now, I’ve got to get out of here, or there’s going to be a big crater in the ground. The thing is, these chains have no give at all and my spider strength isn’t strong enough to bend them. Still got to summon everything I can. Got to save them, as soon as I can.”

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“What’s taking Spider-Man so long, he should have been here by now?” asked Bobby.

“He might have run into a little problem,” said Jean suddenly.

“What kind of a little problem?” asked Scott.

“A big little problem,” answered Jean trying to remain focused and calm . “He got caught by the Brotherhood apparently.”

“Well, we’re kind of screwed then,” said Kitty dismally.

“There is still time,” said Ororo. “Still hope.”

“Yeah, I’d be a lot more hopeful if I wasn’t about ready to be blown in a billion pieces,” said Kitty and it was a sentiment that was well shared.

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Spider-Man tried to continue to break his way out of the chains.

“I don’t see why you keep doing that, it’s pointless,” said the Scarlet Witch calmly.

“Hasn’t stopped me to trying with anything before?” asked Spider-Man.

“So, Spider-Man…well I expected you to be a bit taller,” managed the Scarlet Witch.

“Oh, that’s funny,” remarked Spider-Man in a dead pan tone of voice.

“Hey, I’m just making small talk, I’m really not with them, well I am with them technically,” said the Scarlet Witch. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Well, considering I’ve got all of the time in the world before I’m blown to bits, feel free to share,” said Spider-Man. “I mean what’s stopping you from just untying me down, if you’re not really with them.”

“Look, Mystique promised me and my brother, you know Pietro,” said Scarlet Witch.

“Yeah, the jerk that ran me across town at hyper speed and threw me in a dumpster,” said Spider-Man softly.

“Yes, that one,” said Scarlet Witch, barely suppressing a small smile. “Anyway, our father, abandoned us, left us, for his crusade and Mystique promised us that she would help us gain revenge on him if we helped her.”

“And you believed her, and people call me naïve,” remarked Spider-Man. “Revenge is a slippery slope, you might think you’ve done good by getting revenge on someone that hurt you, but it never goes away. No matter how hard you knock him around, nothing makes the pain go away.”

“Look, you don’t understand,” said Scarlet Witch. “You don’t have Magneto as your father.”

“Oh, Magneto, well that explains a lot,” said Spider-Man but had to think quickly. “Well, I’m not about to defend Magneto as the patron saint of good parenting or sanity for that matter. This guy isn’t right in the head at all but maybe there might have been a good reason why he abandoned you two.”

“A good reason, nothing can be good enough for what he did!” shouted Scarlet Witch.

“You did have a roof over your head, shelter, didn’t you?” asked Spider-Man. “It’s not like you lived on the streets.”

“Well, no, but that’s not the point,” said Scarlet Witch as she shook her head.

“He might have been trying to protect you,” said Spider-Man. “You might say what kind of father abandons his children but if he did chose to raise you, what kind of father chooses to drag his children along on his crusade against humanity that can get ahead. In all your angst and boo-hooing, did you ever once think of that? So you have Daddy problems, so what? Grow up and get over it.”

“I could rip you to pieces with my powers,” said Scarlet Witch who was angry that Spider-Man was making light of this situation.

“Yeah, you could and you should, but that wouldn’t change the fact that what I’m telling you is true,” said Spider-Man. “Magneto’s done some really awful things, but maybe this time he was right. Or maybe he just didn’t know about you? Didn’t that ever cross your petty mind?”

Scarlet Witch stood in the corner, conflicted and she turned, before she walked off.

“Wow, for a brief second, I thought I was going to be turned into paste,” said Spider-Man. “Still, Magneto as your old man, I would have a few issues too…got to get out of here somehow, X-Men are counting on me, I can’t let them down.”

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“Wanda, I thought that you were supposed to be guarding Spider-Man,” said Quicksilver. “I said I would come for you once they got that thing out of the ground.”

“Look, Pietro, what if our father didn’t know about us or he abandoned us for our own good?” asked Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver had a confused look on his face before he suddenly realized.

“You’ve been talking to the web head, haven’t you?” asked Quicksilver. “Listen, Wanda, you heard what Mystique said, Spider-Man’s a creep that likes to get in your head and mess with it to make you screw up, make mistakes. You’re never to let him talk to you, because when he starts talking, that web slinging twerp won’t shut up. Ever, he hasn’t defeated all those people he did because he was good, he did it because he just wouldn’t shut up. I bet half of them threw themselves in jail, to get away from Spider-Man.”

“He did make a good point,” said Scarlet Witch.

“No, he’s just trying to make you confused so he could find a way out of there, look, you stand here and I’ll go keep an eye on Spider-Man, he won’t get in my head and mess with it,” said Quicksilver, as he zoomed off at the speed of light and a blink of an eye later. “You think you’re smart don’t you?”

“Well, , I don’t mean to brag, but yeah” said Spider-Man.

“My sister might have fallen for your crap, but I’m not about to, web slinger,” said Quicksilver.

“Well, I guess we have the brains of the operation,” said Spider-Man dryly. “I mean, you sure couldn’t be the looks.”

“Yeah, laugh it up now Spider-Man, but you’ll be joining the rest of the X-Men in wherever creeps like you go when they die,” said Quicksilver.

“You couldn’t be too smart though, given you just got suckered into doing guard duty,” said Spider-Man. “Yeah, you’re a sucker and you got snookered into looking after me, because none of the Brotherhood thinks you’re useful. I mean, they’re just using you and I bet they’re laughing behind your back right now. Seriously, Toad and the Blob are laughing behind your back. Not with you, at you, because you’ve been regulated to guard duty, while they get to do all the fun stuff. I mean, do you even know what Mystique is after?”

“Yeah, I’m in on the plan,” said Quicksilver.

“Then what’s she after then, genius?” retorted Spider-Man.

Quicksilver opened his mouth, before he caught himself.

“Very funny, but I’m not going to fall for that old trick,” said Quicksilver.

“Oh, bravo, too bad I just figured out what Mystique’s after,” said Spider-Man smugly.

“Wait, you couldn’t have figured out that Mystique was after a part of some Doomsday device,” said Quicksilver. “How did you figure it out?”

“Doomsday Device component, thanks Pietro, I owe you one, buddy,” said Spider-Man as Quicksilver just realized that he had been duped and he zipped off to tell Mystique.

“Doomsday Device…no, it couldn’t be…could it?” thought Spider-Man.

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“It’s out,” said Avalanche, as the room was open and there was a rope tied around the component.

“Good, be careful not to scratch that thing,” said Mystique as she stood nervously. There was still enough time to escape free and clear, with the mansion blowing Spider-Man and the X-Men to bits. “Toad, lower it down, gently.”

“Right, boss lady!” shouted Toad from a helicopter, as a harness dropped down but there was a loud round of shouting, which caused Mystique’s concentration to be broken.

“Very, funny, Wanda, trying to trick me into doing guard duty, well I’m not falling for that again.”

“I thought you said Spider-Man wasn’t going to get into your head, Pietro.”

“Hey, he’s smarter than he looks.”

“Well, it will be your head on the line, if Mystique finds out what you did.”

“If I find out what, precisely?” asked Mystique as she stood there. “What happened? Spider-Man hasn’t found a way out, has he?”

“No, but I might have let it slip to him what we were after,” said Quicksilver and for a brief minute, Mystique looked as if she was going to kill Quicksilver but she stopped herself, taking a few calming breaths.

“I blame myself, it was obvious that I put too much pressure on you two, and Spider-Man, despite my warnings, managed to mess with your heads, it’s best that I don’t send you two back, he might trick you into releasing him or something next time,” said Mystique as she turned to Rogue, who sat in the corner, away from everything. “Rogue, watch over our prisoner, make sure he doesn’t try anything that will mess everything up.”

“You want me to do it?” asked Rogue in a disbelieving voice. “Ah don’t know.”

“I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t know you could handle it,” said Mystique calmly.

“Okay, if you want me to,” said Rogue, as she walked off.

“I’ll send Quicksilver to retrieve you once everything is out of here safely,” said Mystique. “Providing he can handle it without bungling it up.”

“Hey, I messed up but it won’t happen again,” said Quicksilver.

“It better not or both of you can kiss any chance of you making your father pay goodbye,” said Mystique crisply.

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“You know, I was under the impression that Spider-Man would rescue us any minute,” said Warren as he stepped impatiently. “Less than twenty minutes before the Room goes up in smoke.”

“Spider-Man does tend to come through, but I do admit, he does have a weakness for the theatrics,” said Hank.

“He better not be fooling around, when our lives are on the line,” said Scott angrily.

“Unless he’s still trapped and can’t get out,” said Kurt.

“He’ll get here, he has to have a plan,” said Kitty before she added as an afterthought. “I hope.”

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Spider-Man slumped after a fresh but futile attempt to free himself.

“You know, I’m getting used to the fact that I’m in fact a few moments away from getting my spider guts splattered all over the wall,” thought Spider-Man. “Just the fact that I failed doing one simple thing is really eating me up. My web shooters, they’re over there, taunting me in the corner. Maybe this is how I’m destined to end. Chained in some unused room in a mansion, that is about ready to explode.”

Rogue walked into the room, as Spider-Man looked up.

“I see, you got guard duty,” said Spider-Man as Rogue stood there silently. “Not much the talkative sort I see.”

Rogue just pulled up a chair, sitting, as she watched Spider-Man, unblinking.

“Well, I guess this is the end, woe is me, I’m damned to a grisly murderous fate and the fact I let down my friends, yeah, that’s going to haunt me for the rest of my afterlife,” said Spider-Man as Rogue remained silent. “Still not speaking, I see. Not going to get into a verbal game of wits with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. What’s the fun in that? Mystique was wrong when she called you gullible.”

“What did you just say?” asked Rogue.

“She speaks!” cried Spider-Man in mock astonishment. “Anyway, Mystique and I, well we had a nice little chat, she threatened bodily harm on me for trying to foil her plans, usual super villain spiel and all that song and dance, called you gullible. In fact, you seem to be a bit mixed up about something.”

Rogue just remained silent.

“Yeah, the thing is that the X-Men are in fact the good guys and the Brotherhood, well, look at those guys, don’t you think something smells?” asked Spider-Man. “I mean, other than Toad, that’s obvious. They have super powered thugs written all over them. Where did Mystique did you out of anyway? What makes you so loyal to someone like her?”

“She helped me, they locked me up in a cell, because ah was too dangerous,” said Rogue.

“Interesting, so Mystique just happened to break you out and you thought she did it out of the kindness of her heart,” said Spider-Man. “Well, I suppose I should cut you a little slack, given that you might have been in there for a long time and it can’t have been too pleasant. You don’t look too dangerous. What do you do anyway that makes people run in terror?”

“When Ah touch people, they pass out and Ah get their memories and their energy,” said Rogue quietly. “It ain’t pleasant either. Ah get headaches when it happens and if Ah hang on for too long…they won’t wake up ever.”

“Uh, well that sucks,” said Spider-Man. “Although no wonder Mystique came after you. I mean, with that power, no one could stop you. Anyone who gets in your way, you could take out and if Mystique controlled the power, then she could do anything she wanted. Include settle an old grudge with the X-Men.”

Rogue remained silent once again.

“Let me break this delicately,” said Spider-Man. “She’s using you. YOU….ARE…A…WEAPON…TO…HER!”

“She helped me!” argued Rogue. “Ah could have been there for the rest of my life it wasn’t for her.”

“Yeah, but if she didn’t need you, she would be,” said Spider-Man. “Rogue, you might think your power is a burden and you might think it’s a problem, I bet you think that Mystique is helping you, but she’s not.”

“Stop it!” yelled Rogue. “Shut up!”

“It doesn’t have to be this way, it’s not too late to put things right, Rogue,” said Spider-Man. “Your power is only bad if you use it that way. You can learn to adapt. With great power there must….”

“No, you’re wrong, ah can’t let with this power,” interrupted Rogue. “Mystique and the Brotherhood, they’ve reached out for me. Without them, there would be nothing.”

“With them, you’re nothing,” said Spider-Man. “If you keep helping them, once Mystique thinks you’re a liability, you’ll be back in that government cell so fast that you’re head will spin and this time, you will be the one not waking up. They will load you with so many drugs that you’ll be lucky to blink and that’s if you’re not shipped off to some lab for dissection.”

“That’s not going to happen,” said Rogue. “Mystique won’t abandon me.”

“She was right, you’re gullible,” said Spider-Man.

“Shut up!” yelled Rogue.

“You can’t shut up the truth,” taunted Spider-Man.

“You better shut up, you don’t know anything,” said Rogue, as her voice shook.

“Why don’t you make me shut up?” asked Spider-Man. “I’m not going to be quiet just because you asked me. Mystique should have warned you about that, it’s a wonder you didn’t listen, you follow everything else…”

Rogue reached forward and grabbed Spider-Man’s mask, pulling it up slightly, before touching him long enough to render him unconscious. Before she could completely let go, she saw flashes of memories.

It took only a moment for everything to flood to her. The fact that Spider-Man was telling the truth to her the entire time.

Rogue could not express words to the anger she was feeling. There was only one thing she could do.

She unshackled the unconscious Spider-Man, before she gently dragged him over, propping him in the chair. Expertly, with the knowledge she had gathered from draining Spider-Man’s memories, she loaded his web shooters, before she slipped them on in.

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“Lethal destruction protocols to be activated in one minute and counting,” echoed a voice throughout the Danger Room.

“He’s not coming,” said Bobby in a dismissive, deflated voice.

“No, he’s got to, some daring last minute rescue, he’s got to,” said Kitty.

“Kitty, he’s…I tried to get in touch with him, he’s unconscious, he’s not coming,” said Jean gently.

“Unconscious, but…” stated Kurt suddenly unable to speak

“Well, that’s the end, we’re screwed,” said Bobby, as the group turned to Scott, as if expecting him to pull out some daring last minute plan.

“It’s been an honor working alongside all of you,” said Scott, as he braced himself for the end. Every answer that he could think of would have triggered the lethal protocols in the Danger Room.

“So, we’re done, like this, after everything,” said Bobby.

“I can’t believe it, blown to bits!” yelled Kitty losing her head. There was no reason to keep her composure now, considering she was about ready to die. “All of us, those rotten Brotherhood…I swear I’ll find a way to come back and haunt them and….”

She just collapsed on the ground, in complete shock, unable to formulate a complete sentence.

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Then nothing. With approximately four seconds to go, the Danger Room stopped blinking.

“So, where’s the kaboom?” asked Kurt.

“I don’t think it’s coming,” said Ororo.

“But, I thought you said Spider-Man was knocked unconscious,” said Scott to Jean, who just shrugged, she was utterly baffled.

The room opened and the X-Men froze, when they saw Rogue standing right there, facing off against them.

“You, what are you doing here?” asked Scott

“Look, ah made a terrible mistake….” started Rogue.

“Where’s Spider-Man?” demanded Kitty. “If you done anything to him, I swear…”

“Look he’s perfectly fine, listen to me for a minute…” stated Rogue but a blast from Iceman had interrupted her. She dodged being frozen, as she leapt onto the walls, with precise, quick acrobatics, ducking and dodging all of the X-Men’s assaults.

“She used her little mutant vampire hand sucking thing to drain his powers,” said Kitty.

“Yeah, I think I gathered that,” said Scott, as Rogue somersaulted over the optic blasts. “We can’t get a fix on her…not when she has his spider sense.”

“Not to mention spider strength, spider acrobatics, and spider…climbing the wall action,” added Bobby.

“Look, listen to me, ah know what Mystique is doing and you’ve got to stop her!” shouted Rogue, as she slid underneath the attack. “She lied to me, made me do this, just stop fighting and trust me. Ah can help you.”

“Alright, cease fire,” said Scott “But if you’re lying about this you’ll have to deal with us.”

“We better hurry, she’s going to get that thing out of there before long and leave you guys to die,” said Rogue.

“What thing?” asked Hank curiously. “There’s something inside the Mansion that she wants.”

“Wow, you folks are quick witted,” said Rogue. “Just follow me, ah can explain on the way.”

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Mystique watched as the component was lifted out of the ground. It would have been done sooner, but given what she was forced to work, it took a bit longer than it thought.

“We better hurry,” said Avalanche as he checked over his shoulder. “We’ve got to be close to time.”

“We have enough to escape, I’ll go up first and the rest of you will follow,” said Mystique, but she turned to hide a calculating smirk. She would be going, but the rest of the Brotherhood would go down with the X-Men and Spider-Man, given that she had no further use for them.

A blast of energy shot through the air, connecting with the cord holding up the Doomsday Device component and causing it to fly toward the ground.

“BLOB!” shouted Mystique in a horrified voice, but Blob thankfully had enough of his wits about himself to catch the object. Mystique and the rest of the Brotherhood turned.

“Mystique, we’re haunted by ghosts!” shouted Pryo as he backed off, sending explosive blasts of fire. “Stay away from me, I swear, you don’t want a piece of me.”

“Ghosts, hardly,” said Scott. “The X-Men escaped your trap Mystique and we’re going to put a stop to your little looting.”

“That meddling arachnid,” said Mystique angrily.

“No actually it was me,” said Rogue as she stepped forward, to face Mystique. “I saved the X-Men from being blown to bits, just in time as well. You would have gotten us all killed with your obsession over that thing.”

“Rogue, after all I’ve done for you, you betray me,” said Mystique angry, with a slight, small miniscule hint of hurt.

“Yeah, all those lies really did me a world of good,” said Rogue.

“I don’t have to explain anything to you,” said Mystique as she turned angrily. “Scarlet Witch blast them. Cause all their powers to unload or something, just enough to get us out of here!”

Scarlet Witch turned, but several lines of webbing shot out, wrapping around her hands, binding them together.

“No, I don’t think we’ll have any more improbable accidents today,” said Spider-Man, as Kitty dove forward, grabbing the Scarlet Witch, before phasing her right through a wall into a closet off to the side.

“Take them out!” shouted Mystique as the Brotherhood moved in.

“We beat the X-Men once, we can do it again,” said Quicksilver.

“Yeah, but that’s when we had the advantage, now the ball’s in their court,” said Avalanche but he screwed his eyes up and began to cause tremors to go through the Mansion but Storm quickly neutralized his powers.

Mystique grabbed a pellet and threw it on the floor, covering the hall in a green gas.

“Blob, lift it up, Toad get the copter as low to the ground as possible!” shouted Mystique, as she crouched on top of the Doomsday Device.

The smoke began to clear, as the entire X-Men stood against Pryo, Avalanche, and Quicksilver.

“I don’t feel too good about these odds on second thought,” said Quicksilver. “See you later!”

Quicksilver began to blast out at the speed of light but he was caught on a giant net of webbing on the door. He tried to get out but he was stuck.

“Well, you ran into that one,” said Spider-Man.

The closet burst open and the Scarlet Witch exited it, to face the X-Men, as Avalanche and Pryo were handily taken out and the Blob had been rendered unconscious as well when he had lost his grip and hit the ground hard.

“You can’t beat all of us,” said Jean.

“There’s no point,” said Scarlet Witch, shrugging her shoulders, as she stepped back, before she sent several blasts right at the X-Men, causing the Mansion to rumble. “Oh and you might want to run, because I just turned on your self destruct protocols again. I say you got a minute.”

Scarlet Witch blasted her brother free.

“Get us out of here,” said Scarlet Witch. “Be useful for a change.”

“Well any suggestions,” said Scott as he watched helplessly as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver made a getaway.

“Running would be nice,” said Kurt, but a shield appeared on them, as Jean concentrated, before she telekinetically lifted the entire group out of the Mansion, along with the three unconscious Brotherhood members.

“What about….” started Kitty but she paused, when she saw Spider-Man latch onto the getaway plane, with a line of webbing, as it lifted out of the ground. “Never mind.”

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From the sky, several news helicopters moved in. The tremors through the area and flashing lights had caused great interest, but as they saw the seemingly supernatural activity unfold close, they were in awe.

“We have get this on tape, now get it to a live feed, we’ll scoop the news stations!” said a news anchor excitedly, as the activity from below, was being filmed through the hole in the roof. Every second of the battle between the Brotherhood and the X-Men, every power used, was caught on tape and it would soon be seen all over the world within an hour.

It would be on the Internet by morning.

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“In retrospect, trying to latch onto the back of a flying aircraft with my webbing has to be one of my worst ideas ever,” thought Spider-Man as he went from side to side. “I need an air sick bag…or maybe a crash pad. A parachute would be nice, because if this webbing snaps, then they’ll have to clean up a Spider-Man sized splat. Easy does it Spidey, want to get in but got to be careful. Providing I can get in here…yeah I really need to think these plans through a bit better.”

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Mystique sat in the front seat, with Toad who looked around from side to side.

“No X-Men on our tails,” mumbled Toad. “Could we actually have won this time?”

“Of course we succeeded Toad, if we didn’t, those mutants would be right after us, we’re in the clear from the mansion,” said Mystique but a loud thump had caused Toad to jump out of his seat. “Merely turbulence.”

“Your flight is now reaching its conclusion, please remain in the designated seating area until the plane has come to a complete stop,” said a voice, which caused Toad to turn around and come face to face with Spider-Man. “Thank you for flying your neighborhood Spider-Man airlines!”

“Man, I heard of gremlins on the plan but never spiders,” said Toad.

“Toad, take care of him!” ordered Mystique and Toad obeyed but he leapt right into a back hand from Spider-Man, before he knocked to the ground. Mystique put the plane on auto pilot. “You’re an idiot for trying to follow me.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” commented Spider-Man blandly but Mystique blocked his attack and kicked him right into the side of the air craft. He pulled himself to his feet and dodged her attacks, but he found himself knocked right to the ground.

“Look what you did, it’s all your fault,” said Mystique, as she threw Spider-Man across the length of the plane but the web slinger put the breaks on. “I had everything planned perfection.”

“Yeah, that can be really troubling when mass murder tends to go awry and the corruption of teenage girls,” said Spider-Man dully, as he avoided the attacks from Mystique.

“You ruined everything Spider-Man and now I’m going to make you pay,” said Mystique as Spider-Man narrowly avoided a kick but she pivoted and Spider-Man blocked a shot.

“Yeah, I get that one a lot too,” said Spider-Man but he was thrown down. Mystique grabbed Spider-Man and held him around the head, trying to suffocate the oxygen out of him but he easily powered out of her attack. Spider-Man shot a line of webbing but it merely snared around her wrist and it pulled, causing Spider-Man to get knocked right into a punch

“This is where you get off Spider-Man,” said Mystique as she began to kick Spider-Man right in the ribs several times, before hoisting him up by the throat and shoving him right through the same emergency exit that he had managed to climb his way into.

Spider-Man struggled, hanging on for dear life, as Mystique just walked over and began to stomp his fingers. The web slinger’s grip was broken as he spiraled down to the ground.

Suddenly, he was stopped, held up by some kind of telekinetic force, as he was slowly lowered to the ground.

“Thanks Jean,” thought Spider-Man wearily.

“Don’t mention it,” replied Jean. “Although you could stand to lose a few pounds.”

“Hey!” thought Peter incredulously.

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Mystique pulled herself up. The component that she had stolen was still accounted for.

“Good, still here,” said Mystique as Toad brushed himself off, holding the side of his face where Spider-Man back handed him. A slight beeping sound echoed.

“What’s that?” asked Toad.

“We’re slightly over weight, about one hundred pounds,” said Mystique. “We need to dump something to lighten the load.”

“What do we dump?” asked Toad.

“Something expendable,” said Mystique as she looked at Toad.

“Uh, what are you staring at me like that for?” asked Toad.

“Goodbye, Toad,” said Mystique coldly and the mutant screamed as he was deposited from the plane.

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“The Mansion’s wasted,” said Bobby eyes widened as the entire group looked at the wreckage.

“We can rebuild the mansion,” said Scott patiently, as they looked down at Pryo, Blob, Avalanche, and Toad, all who were in various states of being unconscious. “Everyone got out.”

“Luckily,” said Kurt, as he looked around.

“But Mystique, she got away,” said Rogue. “She got away with everything.”

“It looks like we have company!” shouted Kurt suddenly which caused the entire group to turn around and see a helicopter whirling around as the entire group turned to see someone filming the entire scene and they quickly turned around.

“I fear we might have a problem,” said Ororo. “Who knows what they’ve seen.”

“I imagine they’ve seen way too much,” said Hank as he turned, as Spider-Man leaned across the wreckage, with a far off look in his eyes.

Several more helicopters touched down, as several SHEILD agents exited, following by Nick Fury, who surveyed the situation calmly and a tired but conscious Professor Xavier who stooped in shock when he saw what had transpired.

“Is everyone alright?” asked Xavier.

“Everyone’s fine, just barely,” said Scott.

“That’s where you’re wrong, everything’s not fine, in fact, no one’s fine,” grumbled Fury. “Did Mystique take something from here?”

“Yes she did, it’s….” started Scott but Fury quickly cut him off.

“You let her get away with it,” said Fury who seemed outraged.

“Let her get away with what, Fury?” demanded Spider-Man as he stepped in but Fury just stared down Spider-Man, not blinking.

“Back off, this doesn’t concern you, although I suppose because of your grand standing, you let someone get away with something valuable yet again,” said Fury as he turned to Spider-Man. “You let her get away with a dangerous piece of….”

“It’s a Doomsday Device, Fury, just come out with it,” said Spider-Man. “The question is what does it do?”

“That’s national security, Parker,” muttered Fury, so only Spider-Man could hear him before he stepped back. “It’s none of your business. Any of you. I guess it runs in your blood Spider-Man. You end up doing stupid shit that’s going to end up getting you killed.”

Spider-Man took a step forward, but Kitty and Bobby grabbed him, for fear that Spider-Man would attack Fury.

“At least you have friends that will pull your ass out of the fire,” said Fury. “Listen to me good, Spider-Man and you’ll live a nice life. Don’t go sticking your nose into this situation and try and figure out how those components go together. I would hate to inform your aunt that you got yourself killed because you were a complete idiot. Do you understand me?”

“I understand you, Fury,” said Spider-Man through gritted teeth. “I understand you’re a real piece of work.”

Choosing to ignore that, Fury turned to Rogue suddenly and she paled, fearful that she was going to be taken back.

“She’s your problem Xavier, you wanted to try and help her control her little powers, fine, I’ll give you a chance to prove your way works,” said Fury. “But don’t come crying to me when it all blows up in your face.”

“If you’re correct, Commander Fury, then that’s my mistake,” said Xavier and Fury just grunted.

“Clear out!” ordered Fury to his men as he looked at Spider-Man, along with the assembled X-Men. “Good luck Xavier. You’ll need it.”

“I’m afraid so,” said Xavier as he turned to the group. “Before we arrived here, we saw news choppers circling around the mansion. I have a feeling that tonight’s events are going to be broadcasted around the world and the existence of mutants will no longer be a secret. Everyone will know.”

“Surely you can do something, Professor?” asked Ororo.

“Even if I could, I doubt it would be ethical for me to do so,” said Xavier with a pained smile. “We do have many challenges ahead. Many may see us as friends. Others will see us as threats and monsters that need to be put down. Only in time can we educate them and let them know that we can coexist in harmony.”

Spider-Man turned. He had his own challenges to deal with himself but it appeared that now that the existence of the X-Men was public, instead of some vague urban legend, they had many more challenges.

“I wish I would have knocked the eyepatch off of Fury’s face,” grumbled Spider-Man.

“I’m so not bailing you out of a government facility again,” said Kitty. “He’s trying to rile you up. I think that’s how he gets his joy.”

“No, he knows something, he really knows something and I know it’s about my parents,” said Spider-Man before he turned to the others. “It’s a pleasure but I’ve got to bolt. Unfortunately, there’s a life for me underneath this mask and I have responsibilities to deal with there. I’ll swing by when I can.”

Spider-Man swung off into the night.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Today, all of the myths that have been stated about mutants have been proven today. As you can see by this footage, a dangerous mutant civil war between two opposing factions has occurred right in a neighborhood. We must wonder if previous incidents have occurred but have been covered up until now. Many experts theorize that certain mutants have the ability to remove our very memories. It begs the question what would stop these mutants from taking advantage in every way. Opinion is divided but many express fear that we could be overrun by them and we would not be able to stop the mutant menace. There is an outcry for something to be done before our security, our safety, and well being. Stay tuned as more of this story breaks and how those in Washington will aim to protect humanity from the growing mutant menace.”

This message and those similar spread throughout many news networks the country. The newspapers and the Internet were abuzz as well. All waited carefully to see further news would come out across these mutants.

In his office, Norman Osborn watched live feed of the news coming in on his office computer, eyes narrowing with each passing second as the footage continued and all the pieces fit together clear to him now.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“I have it, just like you asked me to,” said Mystique as she stood in front of the component with the figure in the shadows stepping out to reveal Mister Sinister, who looked rather pleased. “My debt is cleared with you, Sinister.”

Sinister just responded with a sadistic laugh.

“You amuse me, Mystique,” said Sinister. “You truly think that this minor act will be worthy enough to release you from my services.”

“You don’t know the trouble I went through to get this thing out of the Mansion,” said Mystique as she took a step forward, but Sabertooth stood in front of Sinister.

“I don’t know and quite frankly, I don’t really care, it doesn’t matter to me,” said Sinister, as he motioned for Sabertooth to haul the component into his lab. “One day, you may work your debt off but you still owe me and I own you, don’t forget it. Now, you’re dismissed. I’ll call upon you when I need you and not a second before.”

Sinister turned to allow Mystique to depart. With that out of the way, Sinister went to his private office and began to activate a video communication link.

“The device will be ready once the final component has been liberated,” said Sinister. “Then the world will tremble before your feet.”

“Excellent,” said the voice, as Sinister saw the unmistakable figure of the infamous Red Skull on the other end “You have done well, Dr. Essex and you will get what’s coming to you once I have succeeded.”


Next Chapter

Chapter 49: A Tangled Web We Weave Part II

Chapter 49: A Tangled Web We Weave Part Two:

In an instant, Spider-Man tried to shake the cobwebs from his head, as he pieced together what happened.

“The X-Men are in trouble, great, just great, of all the nights for that to happen, it would have to be this one!” shouted Spider-Man as he threw his hands into the air, as he saw the Hypno Hustler make a clean getaway.

“Can’t worry about him now,” thought Spider-Man. “The Brotherhood, the X-Men must really be slacking. I mean, Kitty did say that Magneto was missing, whatever that was worth, so they’re just a bunch of mutant thugs without him. Oh well, I’ll figure that out right now.”

Spider-Man swung across the city in an instant.

-

The school was evacuated when they had realized their musical act was in fact a criminal and his henchmen. From what everyone was able to piece together, Spider-Man had managed to defeat the Mercy Killers and had went after their leader. At least that’s what they saw, the effects of the hypnotism took quite some time to wear off.

“Hey, look, Spidey’s going somewhere in a hurry,” remarked Flash Thompson as he and a crowd of onlookers looked at the web head going across the city in a hurry.

Gwen stopped as she watched. She wondered where Peter was going in a hurry. She cringed when she realized that Peter had left his cell phone at home because if he got into some kind of trouble, there would be no way to track him down.

“Hey, where did Pete run off to?” wondered Harry.

“Yeah, wasn’t he right with you?” asked Liz to Gwen.

“Yeah, I guess, no wait, right before he went to the restroom,” said Gwen. “He mentioned that it might take him a while, something didn’t agree with him or something, yeah that’s it.”

“Hopefully Peter didn’t get hurt when he was in the restroom,” remarked Mary Jane as she walked up, saying the last three words as if she was skeptical that Gwen was telling the truth but Harry or Liz did not really pick up on this and nothing else was said on the matter.

“I really hope he didn’t either,” thought Gwen. “Where did he go?”

Gwen paused as she heard more talking from another group.

“Spidey just turned around and stopped chasing that guy, before he went in another direction, I saw it!”

“Why would he do something like that?”

“Why indeed?” muttered Gwen to herself so no one else could hear her.

“Looks like they want us out of the school,” said Mary Jane as she walked around. “What a bummer, calling off prom for something like this.”

“Well, that guy and his goons crashed the place, they don’t want any lawsuits,” argued Harry. “People could be held liable.”

“Maybe someone should look for Peter, in the restroom,” said Mary Jane. “To let him know that everything’s been called off.”

“No, I’m sure if he’s still in there, someone in the school will find him sooner or later,” said Gwen quickly. “If he hasn’t went after Spider-Man that is, to get photos when we weren’t looking.”

That seemed to be a good enough answer, at least for the time being.

It was a bit of a mess as order was restored. Meanwhile Spider-Man had long since swung away from the area.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Commander Fury, someone has thrown SHEILD base off course!” shouted a voice as Fury managed to recover, to find himself locked in the cell that he once kept Rogue. Right beside him was a self conscious Professor Xavier.

“Let me out, so I can deal with it,” grumbled Fury, as he was let out and he moved over, before he pulled back a panel on the wall and began to press a predetermined set of commands. “They did a number on the base, I’m going to have to override it manually and…great Darkholme changed the access codes.”

Fury now had very little time to hack into his own system to override everything. Given the nature of the information he had received just moments before the base’s security was breached, he felt he had very little time period. It was rapidly running out.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“There’s something you should know,” said Rogue suddenly to Mystique. “Bits and pieces that ah grabbed from the telepath’s mind, we should be expecting company.”

“She managed to send out a distress signal then,” said Mystique.

“To someone called Spider-Man, whoever that is,” said Rogue in confusion.

“Ah, not, Spider-Man, anyone but that guy!” moaned Toad hysterically. “He’s fought goblins and octopi and giant lizards and all kinds of strange stuff. And he helped the X-Men knock us around pretty good last time.”

“I fail to see what is so terrifying about a common insect,” remarked Mystique coldly.

“I beg your pardon, boss lady, but spiders are technically arachnids….” Stated Toad but Mystique angrily cut him off.

“Whatever he is, he won’t interfere with our plans, in fact I should be able to deceive him to keep him away long enough,” said Mystique before she turned to the Brotherhood. “Pyro and Avalanche, you know your job, give the signal once you have liberated what we’ve come for. Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, and Blob, stand by in case Spider-Man isn’t fooled and Toad….try not and get in the way.”

The Brotherhood all were made aware of their plans.

“How are you going to fool the web head?” grunted Blob.

“With a friendly face,” said Mystique, as she morphed right into the duplicate image of Charles Xavier, before she unfolded a spare wheelchair from the corner.

XXXXX-XXXXX

The Danger Room began to cackle to life, as the X-Men began to recover.

“Everyone look alive now!” shouted Jean suddenly as the Danger Room began to blink.

“What’s happening?” grumbled Kitty as she gave her head a shake.

“The last thing I remembered,” said Bobby but then he paused, when the room began to hum, issuing smoke, as several weapon systems and traps retracted from the walls and the ceiling above them. “Uh, this is new.”

“She’s activated level one ninety eight,” said Hank in a mixture of awe and horror.

“Not level one ninety eight!” shouted Bobby in absolutely horror when it had clicked in his mind.

“Um, what is level one ninety eight?” asked Kurt, as everyone but the original five seemed rather baffled.

“The most dangerous level of the room,” explained Scott as he tried to shake the cobwebs off, but found that he was pretty much immobile. He dug through his pocket and by sheer luck, the Brotherhood had not taken the extra visor that he had kept on him. Carefully, he slipped it on. “One that not even Logan would attempt.”

“Well if something’s too dangerous for even Logan, than that’s really encouraging,” said Kitty sarcastically.

“There has to be a way to shut it down,” suggested Ororo.

“Afraid not,” said Hank as the entire group tried to pull themselves together. “Its very adaptable.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?” asked Kitty. “I mean, we should be able to figure it.”

“I meant the room is adaptable to what we do in this level, more so than normal,” clarified Hank as several orbs of energy began to fire up.

“Fun,” said Kitty dryly.

“You know, it might be a good idea to skip the Q and A until after we survived this!” shouted Jean, as the lasers began to fire all simultaneously, and a shield appeared around the entire group, that quickly was sliced through. The group just managed to barely scatter.

“We need to find a way out of here and fast!” shouted Scott. “Everyone stand clear!”

A full powered optic blast from his eyes had obliterated several of the laser blasters on the wall but when they fell to the ground, they morphed into miniature robotic walkers.

“I see what you meant when you said highly adaptable,” said Kurt grimly, as the walkers began to advance on the group, as they backed off, but spikes began to shoot from the wall. “There’s got to be a way to shut it down.”

“Without outside help you can forget about it,” said Warren as he cycled around the room, directly the laser fire from the walls to blow the spikes to smithereens as it followed them.

“That’s not going to work for long,” said Jean. “And I managed to send a telepathic distress call.”

“So you managed to get in touch with Wolverine,” said Scott. “I never thought I’d say this, but he couldn’t get here soon enough.”

“Not Wolverine unfortunately, I had to lock onto the nearest capable person and I just managed to get the message through, at least I hope I did,” said Jean.

“Who?” asked Scott, as now the floor was shooting electrified cables out from underneath it, to try and ensnare the group.

“Spider-Man,” said Jean. “Providing he got the message. He had some kind of natural barrier towards telepathy that I had to take down before I could get through.”

“It must have been a byproduct of the spider that gave him his extraordinary powers,” said Hank. “Fascinating.”

“Yes, thrilling,” said Warren in a bored voice. “I’ve heard about this Spider-Man, but do you think he can beat the Brotherhood, even when they’ve improved.”

There was no time to really discuss this matter, as the Danger Room continued to assault the X-Men with its brutal level.

“Duh, this is so obvious, I should just phase through the floor and get out through the basement,” said Kitty mentally slapping herself for overlooking such an obvious solution.

“Wait, Kitty, no!” shouted Scott when Kitty tried to sink through the floor but she only got halfway, before some force propelled her upwards, causing her to hit into the ceiling, where cables wrapped around her. Concentrate as she might, she could not get out and she screamed, when several buzz saws and flame throwers popped out of the ceiling.

The other X-Men were fighting their own pratfalls but Ororo summoned heavy winds to blow several traps away. Pointing to the side, she managed to blow out the flame throwers, before she rocked the saws from their foundations.

“I shall have you out of there in a moment,” said Ororo but the floor beneath her had rumbled, causing a panel to erupt upwards with her on it. She was caught off guard and another slid out of focus. A small pit appeared and she fell right into it.

An electric forcefield appeared over the area. It trapped Ororo in the conclosed area. Her loud screams echoed throughout the Danger Room, as she tried to free herself from the enclosed area.

“It’s studying us, almost like science projects,” said Hank as he swung around, disabling as many of the traps as he could manage.

“Yeah, something tells me its going to dissect us before too long,” remarked Bobby, but he managed to freeze several weapons. This tactic only worked for a matter of seconds before they shook loose and began firing with a vengeance.

The forcefield was short circuited and Ororo sprung up, breathing heavily, but she managed to compose herself long enough to compose the team.

“Remind me again, was there a way to beat the Danger Room at this difficulty?” asked Warren.

“No,” said Scott in a resigned voice. Xavier had told him in secrecy that there was unable to be a failsafe to be encoded into this final level because of a computer anomaly. The X-Men continued to fight and pretty soon they would be fatigued, but when normally the program would be shut down, the only way that it would be stopped as if the entire group died or if it was actually was defeated.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Spider-Man swung right into the lawns of the X-Mansion, before he carefully walked forward, looking from side to side anxiously.

“For a place that got attacked by a group of hostile mutants, everything seems a bit quiet,” thought Spider-Man. “Got to be careful, they could be setting a trap for any visitors. Of course, I never saw the Brotherhood as a group who could set their alarm clock. Still got to be careful.”

The door opened and immediately, Spider-Man was tense, but he relaxed ever so slightly, as Professor Xavier wheeled out.

“Spider-Man, this is a surprise,” said Xavier. “What brings you to the mansion tonight?”

“I heard a telepathic distress signal,” said Spider-Man carefully, as he looked at Xavier. “Jean said that the Brotherhood was attacking, thought it sounded important.”

“I’m afraid you must be mistaken, Spider-Man,” said Xavier. “There has been no attack and everyone here has been deep asleep for quite some time. Rest assure that I will investigate this manner. There might be a renegade telepath that is trying to mislead you.”

“If you say so, Professor,” said Spider-Man. “If you find out anything, please contact me. You know where to find me.”

Xavier nodded but there was something rather unsettling about the look on his face and it clicked in the web slinger’s mind.

“You were right Professor, the X-Men weren’t in danger,” continued Spider-Man. “In fact, it appears that our conversation woke them up and they’re behind you.”

“Xavier” leapt from the chair suddenly in surprise. There was no way that they could have escaped the Danger Room in their condition.

A punch right to the jaw brought “Xavier” back to reality.

“Where is Xavier?” demanded Spider-Man but the imposter expertly took Spider-Man’s legs out from underneath him with a legsweep, before slamming him against the wall.

“At the bottom of the ocean if I’m lucky,” said Mystique as she morphed back into her normal form. “Along with Fury and the rest of SHEILD.”

“What…SHEILD?” asked Spider-Man but Mystique threw him right to the ground. Spider-Man picked up the wheelchair and attempted to launch at Mystique, but she used expert agility to dodge it. “Just who are you anyway?”

“Mystique but that won’t matter for long, as you won’t interfere in my plans,” said Mystique as she knocked Spider-Man around but Spider-Man managed to dodge an assault. “Quicksilver, take out the trash.”

A blur shot by and grabbed Spider-Man running him out of the front door, before running several miles up the street, before depositing him in an open dumpster many miles away from the X-Mansion in the blink of an eye.

“Wow, this reminds me of my Freshman year,” thought Spider-Man, as he pulled himself out of the dumpster. “Okay, don’t know what just happened, but I know that I’ve got to get back there.”

Spider-Man once again swung, but suddenly, he returned to an X-Mansion that had been put into complete lock down. Once he took a step forward, the mansion’s defenses began to fire right on him. Spider-Man dodged behind a tree.

“Okay, not going to get in the front door this time,” thought Spider-Man. “I’m going to have to find another way in, somehow.”

Spider-Man shot his webbing, wrapping them around two of the weapons, before spinning them, causing them to blow each other up. Quick as a blink of an eye, he managed to scale up the side of the mansion.

“No window here, let’s see that window’s covered, so is that one, and that one and that one, and well pretty much all of them,” thought Spider-Man before he made his way up to the top of the mansion, where the metal paneling stopped at a chimney. “And this is the only part that isn’t covered…no, no, I’m not going to try to enter the Mansion this way…this is too ridiculous even for me.”

Spider-Man looked around, but much to his horror he found that there was no other way in.

“I feel like a complete and utter tool for even trying to get in this way,” thought Spider-Man, as he pulled himself to the chimney and tried to push himself inside, but found that it was a tighter fit than he could imagine.”This could take a while.”

XXXXX-XXXXXX

“Great, we’re going to crash into the Atlantic at this rate,” grumbled Fury as he continued to work with headquarters. “One chance, have to work quickly.”

It was all Fury could do to steer headquarters back into position. By now, the intruder and the kidnapped prisoner would have gotten a head start. Still, much to his relief, he had managed to get everything back on course, at least for the most part.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Toad hopped around the house, bouncing from wall to wall, as Blob moved towards the refrigerator.

“I can’t believe you’re thinking of eating at a time like this,” complained Toad.

“Hey, fighting the X-Men makes me hungry,” said Blob.

“Everything makes you hungry,” argued Toad.

“Just trying to get a light snack,” said Blob, as he built a large sandwich that reached the ceiling. “The mustard’s got to be in here somewhere.”

“Man, this sucks, I get my butt kicked for the team, and Mystique just threw me on the bench,” said Toad. “Magneto never did this.”

“No, he just threatened to kill you if you screwed up,” said Blob in between bites. “Seriously, maybe now, the Brotherhood will get respect.”

“Yeah, right,” said Toad sourly, as his tongue snapped up, grabbing a fly but Pryo walked in.

“Blob, Mystique needs your girth to lift something, we believe we’ve found it,” said Pryo. “Avalanche can’t do anything to move what’s there and I can’t melt the floor. We hit something.”

“Out of my way, whatever it is, I’ll take care of it,” grumbled Blob.

“Good, I’ll stick around and entertain Toad,” said Pryo, as he shot a blast of fire right over Toad, who shrieked, as it burst a bookshelf into flames. “Ah the smell of burning literature, isn’t it grand?”

“Yeah,” said Toad. “But watch where you pointed that think, you nearly barbequed me.”

“Relax, I wouldn’t barbeque a teammate,” said Pryo with a grin as he shot small ball of fire into the air, whirling it around the air, in amusement.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Pietro, stop that before you wear a hole through the ground,” said the Scarlet Witch in an irritated tone of voice, as she watched her twin brother pace up and down the hall at the speed of light.

“Sorry can’t help it bored out of my mind can’t believe Mystique has us here on guard duty I mean how long does it take to lift one little thing out of the ground,” said Quicksilver quickly not pausing to take a breath, talking about as fast as he moved.

“Slow down when you’re talking, that drives me up a wall!” shouted the Scarlet Witch, which caused several windows to rattle as she glared at her twin.

“Whoa, calm down,” said Quicksilver more slowly as he stopped watching his sister taking calm breaths, before her powers had ripped a hole right in the middle of the neighborhood.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that we haven’t gotten close to our father,” said Scarlet Witch. “Mystique said that if we helped her, she would help us track him down.”

“She will, trust her Wanda, please,” said Quicksilver.

“I trust Mystique as about as far as I can throw the Blob without my powers,” said Scarlet Witch blandly.

“I don’t trust her either,” admitted Quicksilver. “But, she has to help us. If she betrays us, then what. What are the Brotherhood without our powers? You heard what they were when Magneto was around, before we joined. A bit of a joke.”

Quicksilver just paused.

“Besides, knocking about those X-Men were great, I mean they think they’re so high and mighty because they live in a mansion,” said Quicksilver. “Not to mention I threw Spider-Man out the door on his face in a dumpster. I mean, I think I did great.”

“Yes, with a black eye, you did so well,” said the Scarlet Witch dryly. “How does it feel to be teleported into a wall, by the way?”

“Hey, he got lucky,” protested Quicksilver. “Not all of us can throw hex bolts at people and have their powers conveniently fail.”

“Listen, it took me years to master that and with your feeble little brain, that kind of power will melt it,” said Scarlet Witch. “Plus, running at the speed of light, that’s really easy. Be anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. You can leave when you want and never be late.”

“Please, like my powers are that good,” said Quicksilver. “Everyone is too slow I mean I have to slow down and wait for anyone. It’s a wonder that I’m not insane.”

“Look, I don’t care, I just want to find our father and find out why he abandoned us,” said Scarlet Witch shortly, not wanting to discuss this manner a second further and Quicksilver appeared to have gotten the message.

XXXXX-XXXXX

A loud crashing sound echoed throughout the room that Toad and Pryo were in.

“There’s something in the walls,” said Toad.

“Maybe this place has mice?” suggested Pryo, but the fire wielding mutant stood carefully, as the rumbling echoed through the area of the fireplace.

“I don’t like this, maybe we should call for back up,” said Toad.

“Nah, I think whatever’s in there, we should great it,” said Pryo. “Wouldn’t you think our guest would like a nice warm fire?”

Before Pyro could do the deed, the fireplace burst open, causing bricks and rubble to fly everywhere, before he was kicked right into the face by a very dazed Spider-Man. Pryo landed right on the ground with a thud, as Toad stood, before he hopped into battle and quickly got webbed against the wall.

“You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to get here,” said Spider-Man.

“Well, you’re going to be going out of here soon,” said Pryo, as he shot two large bursts of flame right towards Spider-Man, but Spider-Man dodged it.

“Are you crazy, you’re going to set the entire mansion on fire if you’re not careful!” cried Spider-Man but then he got one good look at Pryo and the crazed look on his face. “Oh, right, stupid question.”

A fire construct moved towards Spider-Man. The web head was nearly run over but his quick thinking, not to mention careful maneuvering, caused the web slinger to dodge them. Swinging around, Pryo was caught right in the face with two kicks but he rebound quickly.

“Stand still, ya wanker!” bellowed Pryo as two more flames went towards Spider-Man.

“Starting to get too hot to handle,” thought Spider-Man. “Got to cool down fire boy here, before he causes some real damage.”

Spider-Man moved around, before he dodged the attacks from Pryo. Two lines of webbing shot out, wrapping around two nails in the wall, before Spider-Man used it to propel him. With a loud crash, Pryo was slammed right into the ground. Quickly, Spider-Man drained the lighter fluid from Pryo’s costume, so he could not make any of his dangerous constructs. The mutant was hurled right into the wall, before he was webbed upside down.

With that, Spider-Man turned his attention to Toad.

“Um, hi, Spidey,” said Toad meekly.

“Where are the X-Men?” demanded Spider-Man.

“Well, they’re around, alright,” said Toad but Spider-Man grabbed him. “Alright, alright, easy, Mystique threw them all in that Danger Room thingy that they have and set it to some super uber setting that will kill them…I don’t know, that’s all I swear, I swear.”

Toad was thrown down to the floor, as Spider-Man made sure the other two mutants were in place, before he scaled up the wall.

“You know, all those times I’ve been to this Mansion and all the times Kitty’s whined about training, I’ve never been clued into where the Danger Room is,” said Spider-Man. “Okay, figure it out Spidey, if you were a giant room with a destructive training program that can be used to kill mutants, where would you be? Yeah…not as easy as it sounds. Boy, if I only found a way.

Spider-Man clung to the wall confused, before once again, the same sensation he felt earlier with his spider sense going off and then being disabled.

“Peter, this is Jean, from where you’re at, right, left, right, up the staircase, to the right, second door on the third hallway, and please hurry, we’re losing badly. You need to unplug it from the outside…got to keep from getting killed, bye.”

Spider-Man hung from the ceiling, shaking his head.

“Alright, telepathy is just plain creepy,” thought Spider-Man. “Yes, I’m quite aware you might have heard that thought, but it’s true. I’ll be there as soon as I can, if you can hear this.”

XXXXX-XXXXX

“I really hope he got my directions,” muttered Jean to herself but seconds later, it was obvious he did, when she had got an echo of Spider-Man’s quip, mentally arranging herself.

“I don’t know how much longer we can hold this out,” called Bobby. “I mean, we’ve been knocked around for ages.”

“Just a few more minutes, we’re going to have to hold it off long enough for Spider-Man to get here,” said Scott, as he blasted another trap.

“I’ve got an idea!” shouted Kitty suddenly.

“Great, we’re doomed,” said Kurt which caused Kitty to give him a dirty look.

“No, I’ve got a plan, you said it yourself Kurt, the Danger Room’s just like one big video game,” said Kitty. “And I’ve never lost in a video game.”

“I wasn’t serious!” yelled Kurt suddenly, as he teleported out of the way, but his teleportation had put him in line for two more traps, that he just narrowly avoided. “It was just to…”

“No, I think this is going to work, but first you’ve got to keep these overgrown floor buffers away from me,” said Kitty, as she watched the machines that had just spawned out of the floor.

“It might buy us some time,” agreed Hank. “Until Spider-Man manages to get here and unplug the room.”

The group had little time to argue, as Kitty phased her hands right to the floor but was careful not to go any deeper.

“There’s got to be some kind of cable or something I can use,” muttered Kitty, but a blast of laser fire had caused her concentration to break slightly but she continued to dig through the floor and managed to pull a large thick cable, which caused the lights in the room to flicker. “I’ve got something.”

“Great, whatever you’re doing keep it up, its stopping it,” said Bobby, as he was able to leisurely take out several weapons.

“No, it’s still attacking but they’re much slower,” said Ororo as a lighting bolt took out one of the launchers.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, they’re still plenty of traps,” cautioned Hank. “We could be lured into a false sense of security.”

As if on cue, the Danger Room stopped fighting and appeared to resume to normal.

“Yes, we’ve beat it!” cheered Kitty but the senior members of the team gave her dark looks. “What, the Room stopped firing at us, that’s a good thing?”

Suddenly red lines began shooting around the Danger Room walls and on the ceiling as well.

“Time until Danger Room self destruction, T Minus One Hour. All who remain inside will be irradiated.”

Kitty just shrieked and put her head in her hands, as a few members of the team gave her dirty looks at what she just did.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” shouted Bobby.

“No, touch the walls or the ceiling and the room automatically explodes,” said Scott. “It can only be shut down fro the outside for sure now and it has to be done in one hour.”

“Then, Spidey better get here soon,” muttered Bobby, as the others nodded grimly, as the Room began to flash.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“I’ve just about got it up, it was jammed up pretty time,” grunted Blob, as he pretty much had to tear the entire floor up.

“It’s here,” said Mystique gleefully, as she had saw it was right there, a large metallic structure. “Buried underneath the Mansion, incredible, the last place anyone would think to look, I doubt even Xavier in all of his wisdom would even think. We must extract it carefully. Avalanche, begin to take it that wall but don’t scratch it whatever you do.”

“Right,” said Avalanche as he began to carefully cause the ground beneath him to shake from side to side. The wall began to crack, loosening from the structure and the vibrations caused the entire room to shift.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Spider-Man scaled the sides of the wall, holding his breath, as he passed the hallway where Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch stood. With each passing moment, he was closer to the Danger Room, but the staircase that he needed to ascend to get up there was right behind them.

“Typical luck,” thought Spider-Man but suddenly the walls began to rock. “And this is my luck as well…oh crap!”

Spider-Man landed right in front of the two mutants who were shocked for a moment but they quickly recovered.

“You, I thought I took you half way across town!” shouted Quicksilver in surprise.

“Yeah, well I’ve never been one to take a hint,” said Spider-Man and Quicksilver stepped back, as he began to rush towards Spider-Man.

“This guy’s as quick as my spider sense,” thought Spider-Man but somehow, he just by the narrowed of margins, threw himself out of the way. He nearly cracked his head on the wall in the haste.

“I don’t know how you dodged that, Spider-Man, I’m the quickest person who ever lived,” said Quicksilver.

“Well no wonder you’re with the Brotherhood on a Saturday Night, can’t get a date because of your quickness,” quipped Spider-Man and it took Quicksilver a few seconds for his brain to register that, long enough for Spider-Man to shoot lines of webbing. Quicksilver dodged the webbing, as they wrapped against a wall.

“Quicker than you, come on, that was too easy, that was too simple,” said Quicksilver as he zipped back and forth, taunting Spider-Man. “Too slow too slow come on get me hit me come on you can’t catch me you can’t you can’t”

Quicksilver was caught and webbed right to the floor suddenly.

“What the….” Started Quicksilver but he was stuck right to the floor. The amount of webbing that Spider-Man shot at him the dozens of times he zipped around had built up and created a very powerful adhesive. “Wanda, don’t just stand there, help me.”

“If you insist,” said the Scarlet Witch, who was watching the fight with amusement and a bolt shot right towards Spider-Man.

“Missed,” said Spider-Man as his spider sense registered and he dodged but it hit the wall right behind him, causing a shelf to slide off and once again, he avoided it before it landed on his head. Spider-Man bounced all around. “So, you really think those little techno color lights can really hurt me.”

Scarlet Witch refused to respond. She needed complete concentration when using her powers and speaking was not a luxury she could afford to have.

“This is too easy, I can dodge these little bolts all day,” thought Spider-Man but suddenly, a bolt ricocheted off the wall. He dodged it, as they bounced off the walls. “What the, the walls are slick, I can’t grab onto them.”

Spider-Man lost his balance and got blasted. The pressure of his web shooters built up, exploded and wrapped him into a cocoon of his own webbing.

“That’s what they do, Spider-Man,” said Scarlet Witch as she watched her brother’s struggles. “You seem to be in a sticky situation, Pietro.”

“Very, funny, just get me out of here,” said Quicksilver and a bolt caused the webbing to dissolve.

“Tell Mystique we have a bit of a pest control problem,” said Scarlet Witch, as Quicksilver zipped upstairs.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Well this is bad, trapped in your own webbing, not the first time this happened, Magneto, yeah and now it’s happened again,” thought Spider-Man. “And normally webbing being so strong would be a good thing, but not with me any it. Oh well, it’ll dissolve in an hour. Not like anything life threatening is going to happen in an hour.”

Almost on cue, another telepathic distress call had interrupted Spider-Man’s thoughts.

“Peter, are you on your way here?”

Spider-Man was still caught off guard.

“Well, I was, but I ran into a little complication. I swear, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Just thought you’d like to know the Danger Room is programmed to blow up in less than hour with us inside and the backlash will kill everyone inside the Mansion.”

Spider-Man’s eyes widened, as he tried to break through his own webbing, but he had made it too well. He heard footsteps and he knew it could only be the members of the Brotherhood, perhaps ready to dispose of him when he was caught in his own webbing.

A boot had connected with the back of his head, as he managed to free himself, knocking him completely loopy.

Next Chapter