-Bus ride to Stark Tower-
As the students of Midtown High rode the bus to Stark Tower Jean Grey contemplated her next course of action within the bustling sounds of chattering students.
Two weeks ago several students were sent to Midtown High under the pretext of an outreach program by Xavier's School for the Gifted. They sent a few students, Jean included, to Midtown.
The real reason, however, just so happens to be sitting next to her. Some two months ago every telepathic mutant in the X-Mansion felt it. A presence that screamed and clawed at their psychic senses with a pressure that inserted itself into their very being. It only lasted a few seconds but it was enough.
When she went to Professor X he told her what it was. It was a mutant, one so powerful its presence was felt by other sensitive mutants over vast distances. A mutant like them but also not like them. Something different, something powerful, something new.
He described it as a being that was just a step above a homo-superior like they were. The theoretical next step to human evolution after mutants like them. A being that defied the laws of reality.
A Homo-Supreme, the first of its kind after the last one Profesor X met vanished.
Professor X traced it to Midtown High before losing it. She was sent with the others to find the source because she was one of the few powerful telepaths around and They had to find it before someone else picked up its trail.
She didn't expect much when she arrived at Midtown High. Finding him was easy, he was the only one among the crowd of students whose thoughts didn't match his expression. The gloomy blank-faced loner/nerd who spent most of his time sleeping in class.
Peter Parker was a walking contradiction, he looked calm most of the time, apathetic, and disinterested in most things. A loner that no one wanted to associate with and outright ignored for various reasons.
He didn't seem to mind them, in fact, he seemed pretty comfortable being alone.
While that was what he was like to observers, his thoughts on the other hand were another matter entirely.
She heard that brilliant minds were wired differently and Peter was top of his class, in the top ten of his grade in the whole school despite his lazy apathetic personality but what was different wasn't close to describing how his mind worked.
Jean perceived Peter's thoughts as white noise sometimes, disconnected and scrambled like a bad phone call over terrible reception, sometimes they were coherent words other times they seemed like a stream of data, random sequences of one's and zero that flowed at an incredibly fast pace, it gave her a headache trying to decipher it yet they were able to form images and sounds in her mind.
She couldn't understand it but her mind could perceive it, which was both strange and intriguing, what type of mind quantifies the world around him in raw binary data that was perceivable only in the human mind and purely comprehensible but not coherently understood?
She couldn't help but wonder something along that line when she first came in contact with him.
That was three days ago, she didn't want to tell the gang until she was sure so when the field trip happened she found a way to pair up with Peter. She had to get into physical contact with Peter to confirm her thoughts so when she found he dozed off by the window she took her chance.
And she was right, it was him, in fact, it both shocked and scared her when she touched him.
What flashes of what she saw in his mind and the sudden loss of her powers. The moment she touched him, she saw something, she wasn't sure what it was or if it even was real or Peter's dream but what she felt caused her to almost shout in surprise.
A total loss of her Powers, total silence, and then a wave of rage that ran through her like a freight train. It was a burning sensation that burst through her mind with a passion beyond her control.
It stopped short as soon as she let go.
She managed to calm herself when Peter asked her a question about about VR.
'Found him' Jean Grey telepathically spoke.
Jean Grey sat by one sleeping Peter Parker as the bus ride went on. He was surprisingly fun to talk to, and incredibly smart with a cynical and sarcastic sense of humor. They had a short but pleasant conversation before Peter dozed off a few minutes back.
It didn't take long for someone to respond to her mental message.
'You did? Finally, wait he? awesome, who is he? What's he like? Is he hot? He's gotta be hot. come on red, spill the beans already. ' a female voice responded.
'Calm down Kat, have your girl talk later, You're not the only one here. Focus on what's important, the faster we do this the faster we can leave, who is it?' Another female voice cut in.
'It's a guy, dammit, I was hoping it'd be a chick, I owe laser gaze like twenty bucks now' a male voice said.
'You know I can hear you right' another male voice said.
'oh shit, hey man,' the previous voice greeted.
'Hey! Don't forget me, iceman, I bet on a girl too, where my twenty at?'
' Twenty!? You bet like five bucks.'
'Yeah but you bet twenty, so I guess you owe me like twenty-five bucks now. I skipped breakfast this morning you know and I'm sooo hungry right now. I need me some PIZZA'.
' And you know it's not my fault you're lazy ass slept in.'
'Will the two of you save this another time, Jean please if you could'
'Sorry Kat, Sorry Bobby, meet you guys at when we arrive' Jean said telepathically.
' NOoo! Don't you dare read! I need sustenance, I am dying ove-' the two other voices were abruptly cut off.
' So who is he?' another male voice comes in.
'Peter Parker, the loner Kat's been buzzing about' Jean replied.
'That makes sense, he has been through quite the ordeal from what I've heard. It could be the cause that triggered his mutation.' A female voice replied.
'When do you think we should tell him? I mean we don't have long, if we found him then the brotherhood won't be far behind.' The male voice asked.
'As soon as the opportunity presents itself.' The same female voice replied.
' Alright-'
Peter's hand suddenly shot up and pushed her into her seat, holding her in place. The contact stopped her and nullified her abilities.
Not a second later the bus shook as most students were launched into the seat in front of them.
*Skrrrrrrzzzt*
The bus skidded to a stop violently before the bus driver's shout could be heard. Everyone on the bus was thrown into a confused panic as the teacher got up front to calm everyone down.
A dog ran onto the road with its owner, nothing to worry about the teacher informed the students as he tried to calm the situation. Panicked-out cries and jokes filled the bus as the chatter returned full force.
Jean paid no mind to this. She couldn't focus on anything at all.
The anger was back only it wasn't anger, it was the rage. No, passion? revulsion? or was it fascination? She couldn't tell what it was, she couldn't understand it; it bubbled under her skin like hot molten lava, spread like wildfire from where she felt Peter's hand touching her, an instantaneous, all-consuming force of nature that screamed at her from the darkest depths of her mind, burning, consuming her thoughts as it spread - threatening to force its way out of its confinement.
Images flashed across her mind; an enormous cosmic bird on fire, a spider's shadow looming over a vast multiverse weaving into intricate glowing ethereal strings of webs, a colossal whale consuming entire universes; an endless void where countless eyes surrounding a male form is he hid his face behind a collection of pale glowing hands-the eyes turned to focus on her for an instant and then it faded; she saw herself and Peter above the skies smiling at each other. her form shrouded in a comic golden flame while Peter's burned a dark black and purple- his form shrouded in black miasma as countless bandages flowed around him like tentacled limbs, and dozens of people surrounded them some she knew other's she did not.
They were bleeding as they telekinetically command huge masses of objects, buildings, trains, cars, ships, and entire chunks of the land mass at each other, Peter punched and the skies split, she screamed and the world burned - they were fighting and the world below them was on fire.
'KINDRED?' something asked in a voice that wasn't a voice in her mind but not her mind and all she saw was fire.
'QUERY?' something else responded in an identical fashion and all she saw was an abyss that bled into the flames, consuming them as fast as the flames burned until it each force reached a stalemate.
'KINDRED!~' The other voice that wasn't a voice responded it almost sang, stronger than before in what seemed to be affirmation - it hissed with a burning passion that matched its flames; flames that pulsed with an odd mix of hate, revulsion, rage, and equal parts fascination, attraction, and contentment.
A pale hand stretched from the void reaching for the flame - the male form peeking through his fingers with eyes that weren't eyes; a flaming feather warped into a claw that stretched out of the flames to reach the hand.
Everything convulsed and then burned with beautiful majestic flames that swam around each other. One part was a bright white flame, it was a TRUE flame, burning with life, exuding the energy of infinite worlds from the cosmos, and the other an abyssal black, an abomination, something doesn't - shouldn't work, yet burned with equal intensity.
Each one matches the other in intense harmony and toxicity trying to burn the other away yet of equal power and form but intrinsically drawn to each other.
And then it was gone. She blinked and she was back on the bus with Peter pulling his hand back as quickly as he touched her. Her powers returned to full force, the flames receded into her mind and everything was as it should be again.
" Sorry about that, just reflex I guess." She heard Peter apologize, but she couldn't find the words to reply, trying to calm herself with bated breaths.
Her heart beat a mile a minute as she tried to make sense of what she just saw. What was that? What were those things? What did she just see? What did they mean? She was confused and she couldn't understand what just happened to her.
She took deep calming breaths, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she breathed.
"Hey, you OK?" she heard Peter ask, an expression of concern slipped into his usually blank one.
She took in a deep breath and exhaled before she turned to Peter and replied.
"Yeah, I'm OK, don't worry about it, just a little shocked is all," She told him.
'What are you Peter Parker?' she thought as she gathered herself and glanced at the teen staring at her with confusion and slight concern.
" Are you sure?" Peter asked.
What happened still lingered in her thoughts, she didn't understand. She had to see Professor X about it as soon as they returned to the mansion. Maybe bring it up with Peter when they told him what he really was and that was never easy on anyone.
"Yes Peter I'm sure" she replied in a frustrated manner, Peter took this as his cue to go back to his nap replying with a simple 'If you say so, don't mind me then, wake me when we get there'. She was about to say something before other thoughts filled her mind as her physical links reformed.
'JEAN! JEAN! ANSWER ME! ARE YOU OK? What happened? talk to me Jean?' a male voice mentally shouted worriedly over her thoughts.
'I'm ok, I'm ok, don't worry, it was an accident, Some dog ran in front of the bus' Jean reassured the voice.
' Jean, that wasn't just some accident, you were cut off entirely, that's never happened before. what happened?' a female voice asked.
Jean took a moment to gather her thoughts for the metaphorical bomb she was about to drop, with a reaffirmed sigh she sent a mental reply.
'It was Peter, I think I figured out his mutant power, It's power nullification, Ororo, I think he can somehow cancel out or nullify mutant abilities. As soon as he touched me, I lost my powers.' She said.
'What?! That, that's not possible right?' the same male voice asked in shock.
'That, This is bad. This, changes everything, I need to contact the professor right now if Brother Hood or someone else finds him… this could lead to something bigger than us, Jean as soon you get the chance, tell him, Kat and Bobby will meet you when you get off the bus, Scot and I are on the way. We need to get him out of the city before someone else finds him.' Ororo said with increasing urgency.
Jean turned to glance back at the oblivion teen nodding off beside with a carefree expression. If only he knew how his whole world was about to change, what his existence meant for people like her, for his own kind.
She let out another frustrated sigh.
Now came the hard part.
How to tell him what he was and what that meant for him and his life. She had to think of something soon.
They were getting closer to their destination.
- Chapter End-
Reference images
The Spider
The whale
The bird
So, You know the phoenix force itself is like the mutable manifestation of life and psionic energy given form right, cosmic, immortal, and all that. "It perpetuates the cycle of life, death and rebirth" - from wiki.
And Peter currently has an aspect of death bound to him, you could say he is an aspect of death himself, a direct opposition to the phoenix and his immortality relies on death as a factor, he dies to live, is killed, and is born again in a way, a form of perpetually endless rebirth - his own twisted cycle of life-death-rebirth. Not to mention he is most likely the closest being to physical strength and endless growth given form - brains to brawns kind of thing.
So here's a question, what happens when two equal but varient parts of a magnet meet?
Also, I have now confirmed that Peter has 12 slots only but each slot can have any number of traits. So think of any possible combinations with his current abilities and he might be able to do it.
Slot 7. Abysmal Spider
Source: Web of Life and Destiny
Note: am keeping the Spide-Hive imprint, you guys gave me some really good but morbid ideas soo,
Reason: blame thy self reader.
For those who need a refresher:
Spider-Hive Imprint - The ability to break down one's physical body into a swarm comprised of millions of spiders controlled by a singular hive mind
Slot 8. Skeletons in the Closet (Shy Guy) - you can run but you can't hide.
Source: SCP Universe
Reason: Selfishness - you voted and I feel this would help more and add some more drama here and there
Slot 9. Mob Psychopathy ???
Source: Mob Psycho 100
Reason: blame the phoenix force, should have kept its feathers to itself, never knowing what it would inspire in something that is connected to a library containing pieces of all fiction and nonfiction.
Slot 10. To Spiral or not to Spiral (spiral/anti-spiral)
Source: Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan (if you know you now, it is quite something right, just imagine the possibilities, pun intended)
Reason: Related to his aspect of death and the imagined beaker.
Slots 11 and 12.(Hint: Scp-3812, still thinking on it) To be revealed, open to suggestions - always glad to read through them. I have to say you guys help me out more than you know with the comments, you are practically writing this fic with me.
Thanks for the help and inspiration, my fellow readers.
Add in a review if you feel like it and hand over those stones if you so kindly - fuel my fiction.