"Peter Parker, a first year student, meaning he's only 15 years old. His parents' whereabouts are unknown, but he was adopted by Ben Parker and May Parker because May Parker has uterine cancer so she don't have a kids."
"The family is poor, but better off than homeless since they at least have a home. Ben Parker is a small-time journalist—surprisingly, he can still support his family." Beast read the file aloud to everyone.
"...Why do I feel like we're blatantly violating someone's privacy here?" Scott, better known as Cyclops, said with a guilty look.
"At school, he's bullied by the entire student body."
"Wait, the entire school?" Jean Grey asked in surprise.
"Yeah... Even when that little boyfriend of Lee's showed up, everyone's been targeting him with malice."
And this was the typical treatment mutants often faced.
"When did he awaken his powers?"
"Not sure... But he started showing them pretty clearly when he became a game developer."
At that moment, a few people—including someone with a question mark over their head—reacted.
"Huh? What's a game developer?" Jean Grey asked, confused.
"It's the person who makes those arcade cabinets that Pietro always plays."
"Oh..."
At this point, the mutants all assumed Peter made arcade games—except for a few who went out on missions to gather intel, like Kitty.
Well... Mutant society was pretty sad. Neighboring states didn't want anything to do with them, and not a single game title was ever sold in their area.
They had computers... but the U.S. had blocked their IP addresses, so they couldn't do anything online.
Even worse, every single one of them was IP-banned—meaning if they bought a phone and entered their ID, it would block the network entirely.
Other countries did the same, making Xavier's school no different from Cuba under U.S. embargo.
Yes, that meant they'd been completely self-sufficient all this time—whatever they made, they consumed themselves. The fact that they had aircraft meant their economy wasn't bad at all.
But their knowledge of the outside world was extremely limited, and they had no interest in learning the culture of people who looked down on them.
So professions like game development were only known to those who left the school for missions... Well, Professor X knew, of course. (Kitty: What about me?)
"Game development is more diverse than you think—it's not just arcade cabinets," Beast said gently.
"And he's released two games on Steam with pretty positive reviews."
"Steam?"
"Just think of it as a place where you're allowed to publish games. Alright... This next part is important, so listen carefully," Beast said, looking at everyone.
"Go ahead," Colossus said.
"He... seems to know Tony Stark—"
"Tony WHAT?!" The one who rarely spoke suddenly shouted.
It was Rogue.
"Tony, huh..." Their faces scrunched up a bit.
They didn't hate Tony Stark, the playboy billionaire.
Rogue had been saved by him during a mission, which surprised them—outside information rarely reached the school unless necessary, but Tony was so famous even tribal kids had heard of him.
What was he famous for?
Ridiculous arrogance.
So him saving regular civilians made sense—he was fulfilling his duty as an American hero.
But saving a mutant?
Well, until they realized one thing:
That Tony Stark treated everything equally.
That mean he don't give a damn to everyone. Kids, elderly, skin colors or disabled, he just don't care and have no guilt when he killing them.
Arrogance down to the core of the Earth and people call him a HERO? What a joke.
So they didn't hate Tony, but they definitely didn't like the guy one bit.
"He seems to be working at Stark Industries as a non-permanent employee.
Yes—that means he's working as a hero under Tony.
"This is bad... One of our kind is serving that arrogant bastard. Taking him would be like declaring war on the guy."
"War or not, we have to help mutants—that's the rule of our school, right?"
"The problem is..." Beast glanced toward Peter, who was being led in by Logan.
"We need to ask him first."
***
"Uh... Hi everyone. Did you need something from me?" I asked nervously.
"You—" Scott started, but Pool shoved him aside and rushed over to me.
"YOU BASTARD! WHY DID YOU WIN?! MY BET MONEY WAS FINALLY GOING INTO MY POCKET!!"
"Wha—wait, what are you talking about?"
"YOU—UWAH!" Pool didn't finish before Logan kicked him flying.
"Just ignore that idiot. We just have a few questions—you don't have to answer."
"Then can I go?"
"I said you don't have to answer, not that you can refuse."
Ugh, what am I even supposed to answer?! Did Professor X find a parasite in my brain?!
[Oi! I'm not a parasite!!]
"Alright... Have you ever thought about transferring to our school? We promise we'll protect you."
Huh?
"Don't worry, kid! We'll all treat you like family, so don't be shy!" Scott welcomed me enthusiastically.
...What? Don't tell me they... think I'm a mutant?
This is a misunderstanding!
"Um... Why?" I asked.
"Why? Because you're a mutant. If you stay out there, the government will try to kill you or capture you."
Whoa, just saying it straight like that? Isn't this classified info?
"There seems to be a misunderstanding... I'm not a mutant," I said bluntly.
"I'm not either, but they still call me one!" Pool popped up from nowhere, saying it casually.
"You don't seem sure about yourself. What if you actually are? Most mutants awaken their powers after puberty—that's like 90% of cases," Scott said.
Well, he had a point... if I were a mutant.
"Look, I do have powers... but they're external."
"That's what every awakened mutant says—'I got hit in the head and that's how I got powers,'" Scott replied.
"..."
Alright, explaining this to them seems impossible... I really do seem like a mutant from their perspective.
Fine, whatever. Ever since Gwen showed up and did her bullcrap, I've given up on explaining.
"So you want me to join Xavier's school?"
"Yeah! It's fun!" Kitty said excitedly.
"We'll definitely welcome you!" Rogue patted my shoulder.
"As long as you're a good person," Logan said, not caring much.
"Thanks... but I'll pass."
I refused.
"Why?" Scott asked, confused.
According to Beast, aside from a few friends, no one liked him for no reason—and if the government found out he was a mutant, he'd suffer even more.
"Because I'm happy with my life right now."
"Happy? Is it because of that game programming thing? Or because you work for Stark Industries?"
"...You guys really investigated me. That's a privacy violation," I sighed and looked at everyone.
"You're good people. Maybe at Xavier's I'd be respected more... But I don't care who discriminates against me. I want to do what I want to do—one part because I like it (and the other because of Nya)."
"And... I don't mean to be rude, but... your IPs are all blocked, right? Sorry, but... I'm a city kid. Not having internet access would be... kind of impossible for me."
Yeah, that's the real reason.
If IPs are blocked, how am I supposed to upload games to Steam? Otherwise, if Nya gets bored and decides to chaos the entire planet, it'd be my fault.
I'm an unwilling hero... Even though I haven't become Spider-Man yet. This sucks.
"..."
All the mutants looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
They wanted to convince Peter, but this kid was blunt.
Being IP-blocked really meant they had no internet access—it was understandable why a teenage city boy would refuse.
"Oh, but I could ask Mr. Stark about your situation. Maybe he'll talk to the government and get you internet access?" I offered.
Tony Stark? Him helping?
Remembering his arrogant face when he saved Rogue—and casually insulted her hair like dog fur—it was hard to believe.
"Wait—if you do that, I'll get to play your games, right?!" Kitty looked at me with sparkling eyes.
"Of course! I'd be happy if you supported (give me your money) my games!" I smiled.
"Why does that sound like you just want our money?" Pool said.
"Haha funny joke, Captain Deadpool. Anyway, thanks, but I have to go—my friend's waiting."
As I walked away, all the mutants looked at each other.
"...How do I put it? Every time I look at him, I feel like he's pitiful somehow? Even though his past has no real tragedy," Jean Grey said while scratching her head.
"...The more I look, the more I feel sorry for him. Like he's gonna go through a lot in the future," Storm commented.
"Alright, let's rest up and wait for the next challenge," Scott said to everyone.
With that, everyone moved elsewhere—except Pool.
"Heh, this chapter was all talk. So boring, right, my dear reader?"
"Anyway, I'm out—otherwise Peter's Nyarbabobep will come beat me up out of jealousy! See you next chapter!"