Tangled Web - 1. Chapter 1

Tangled Web

by WrathOfMagneto

Chapter 1

::New Mutant::

*****

I came out to my dad when I was thirteen. I’d known for sure I was gay for about a year, and after an excruciatingly long period of chickening out, I finally confided in him. I should have known I’d have nothing to worry about. He’d known for longer than I did!

God, how embarrassing. Looking back, he’d tried to tell me it was alright a lot of times. Like he’d tell me it was perfectly fine to be different. That there was nothing in the world that would make him think I was weird. Nothing in the world that would make him hate me. After all, he’s seen and experienced so many weird things, nothing could surprise him.

By the way, my name is Ben. Benjamin Stanley Parker. I’m fourteen now. My father’s name is Peter. Peter Parker. Yes, my father is Spider-Man. I’ll pause for a moment to let the shock and awe pass. When I first figured it out, it shocked the hell out of me, too. I remember being about eight years old and seeing a news report about Spider-Man fighting Doctor Octopus in Times Square. I’d never realized it, but his identity was public knowledge after he unmasked himself on TV years ago. So when a video of Spider-Man unmasking himself was played on the screen, and I saw a younger version of my father, I, understandably I think, freaked out.

A few years later, I noticed some weird things happening to my body. And no, it wasn’t just puberty. I was maybe eleven years old and playing Spider-Man. You know, how kids just play around, and I was acting like I was web-slinging. When a strand of web shot out of my wrist, again, I freaked out. But I didn’t tell my father about it.

Ever since I could remember, he’d always talked about how dangerous crime fighting is. How he wanted me to get a good education and get a good job. How he didn’t want to see me hurt, doing the foolish things he does. Hypocritical, I know, but it’s what he wanted. So I didn’t tell him I have powers.

“Benny, it’s time for school!” my dad yelled up the stairs at me. It was about 7:30, and I’d just turned off my alarm. But I hadn’t really slept too well. I’ve been nervous about going back to school. On Friday, a boy at school caught me looking a little too long in the locker room. Damnit, why did I have to be so stupid? He started yelling at me, calling me everything from “fag” to “poofter”, and by the time he was done the whole class knew I’m gay. There wasn’t even a point in denying it.

There was a soft knock on my door. “Benny?” my dad asked cautiously.

“Come in,” I said quietly. He entered.

He must have seen the tear tracks on my cheeks, despite the low light in the room.

“Hey, buddy, what's wrong?” he asked gently.

I sniffled. “Everything.”

I scooted over, and he sat down next to me on the bed. “You wanna talk about it?” he asked.

“Not especially,” I said.

“They found out about you, didn’t they,” he asked.

Shocked, I looked at him with wide eyes. “How’d…?”

“It was just a good guess. And a little of my spider-sense. It tingled slightly when I asked,” he explained.

“Well, I was stupid,” I began. I could sense one of his witty comments coming, so I silenced him with a serious look. “I…uh…got caught looking,” I finished in a whisper.

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.

“Locker room,” I said simply.

“Ah,” he said. “Could you maybe deny it?”

“I didn’t have the chance, and by the time he was done ranting, everyone knew. It doesn’t matter though, its not like anyone would believe me,” I said.

“Do you want to stay home today?” he asked.

“No, I should probably go. I’ll have to face it eventually, and it might as well be now,” I said.

Suddenly the phone started ringing.

“Jump in the shower, then, while I go get the phone,” he said.

Twenty minutes later, I was freshly showered, and dressed in a snug t-shirt with Spider-Man on the front. Makes my dad smile every time I wear it. I brushed my teeth and styled my reddish brown hair with a bit of gel, and made my way downstairs.

As I got to the living room, I could hear my dad still on the phone in the kitchen. That’s really strange. He’s never on the phone for more than twenty minutes. So, I eavesdropped.

“…No, you don't understand, he just isn’t,” I heard him say. There was a pause, I'm guessing while he listened to whoever was on the phone. Who was he talking about?

“No, that has nothing to do with it…” another pause. “Listen, stop accusing me of that. I was an Avenger, for crying out loud. Wolverine is a good friend of mine…” another long pause. I was getting very curious now. I entered the room, and my dad stared blankly at me for a second. He snapped out of it, and said into the phone, “Look, can we just meet you there? After you meet him you’ll know your machine made a mistake,” he listened for a few seconds. “Fine, we’ll be there within the hour.”

Now, it was fairly obvious he was talking about me. He finally hung up, and looked at me.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Rachel Summers,” he said. He didn’t elaborate. I’d heard her name before, but I didn’t know where.

“Ok…what did she want?” I asked.

“She’s one of the administrators for the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning,” he said. My heart started pounding. What did they want with me? They are a mutant school. I’m not a mutant! “She said that you’d been detected as a mutant through Cerebro,” he said.

“Through what?” I squeaked. I was terrified. What if I was a mutant?

“It’s a machine that detects mutants through a psychic user,” he explained, but I just looked at him blankly. “It tells the psychic using it who’s a mutant and who’s not,” he elaborated.

“Are you a mutant?” he asked me.

“No!” I screeched.

“Alright then,” he said. “I’ll call your school, then we’ll go down to Xavier’s and sort this out.”

About an hour later, we pulled up to an elegant gate in front of a huge mansion. The sign on the gate said “Xavier Institute for Higher Learning”.

We walked in, and a man with a red visor over his eyes greeted us in the lobby. He must be Cyclops, I thought to myself.

“Peter! It’s great to see you again!” he said when he saw my father.

“Hello, Scott, how’ve you been?” he asked.

“Busy, with the new semester just starting up. And who do we have here?” he asked as he made eye contact with me. Well, I think it was eye contact. Can’t really tell.

He kneeled down on one knee, so that he was at my eye level. What? he's TALL!…ok…maybe I’m short…sue me.

“This is my son, Benjamin Parker,” my father said.

“Well, Benjamin, I’m Headmaster Scott Summers,” he said, sticking his hand out. I shook it. “May I call you Ben?”

“B-Benny’s fine,” I stuttered. I was nervous! And…he was really cute.

The second I thought that, a woman giggled from behind me. She walked passed me, to stand next to Mr. Summers, ruffling my hair as she went. She was wearing a white dress.

Hands off, sweetie, he’s mine, she said. It took me a second to realize she hadn't actually spoken the words. She’d thought them.

I don't think I could’ve gotten any redder.

“Benny? You alright?” my dad asked.

The woman in white giggled again, and Mr Summers said, “If I know Emma here as well as I think I do, she just embarrassed him in his head.”

My dad laughed.

I was kinda ticked about that. What was going on?

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, My name Is Emma Frost. I’m a telepath. Scott and I run this school,” she explained.

“Well, how about we go to the lounge and discuss things,” Mr. Summers said.

After we all took a seat on one of the expensive looking couches, we began.

“So what’s this about my son being a mutant?” my dad asked.

“Well, for starters, it’s true,” Rachel Summers, who’d met us at the lounge, said. “I was using Cerebro myself, scanning for potential mutants. I detected Benny,” she said. I know I turned white. Mutants were still hated throughout the world. Even more than being gay!

Miss Frost gave me a comforting smile, and I knew she’d been listening in my head again.

“That’s really annoying,” I said to her, in a frustrated tone.

Everyone but Miss Frost and I looked confused for a moment, then when everyone realized what I was talking about, they laughed.

“You’ll get used to that,” Mr. Summers said. I frowned.

It’s an invasion of my personal rights, I thought as loudly as I could. She looked apologetic for a moment, and looked away.

“Anyway, its simply not possible for him to be a mutant,” my dad said. “Neither of his parents were, nor were we carriers of the X-gene. We had ourselves tested for it years ago by Charles Xavier himself. And, there’s the fact that he doesn’t have powers.”

Miss Frost looked at me for a second, and I felt a little itch in my mind. I knew she was violating my thoughts again, but there was nothing I could really do.

“There are some things Benny hasn’t told you,” she said. I gave her a look that could’ve melted steel.

My dad looked at me. “Benny?” he asked.

“I don't know what she’s talking about,” I said, panicked.

He looked at Miss Frost. She said, “He does have powers.”

My dad’s head snapped toward me so fast I thought it would pop off. “Benny, what are they talking about?”

I was so scared. I didn’t want this! I just want to be normal! My vision blurred as the first tears rolled down my cheeks.

“Oh, Benny…” my father took me into his arms, rubbing my back as I cried into his chest like a little boy. “It’s alright, son.”

After I’d calmed down, I looked around at everyone, shame burning on my cheeks.

“Is there something you’d like to show us?” Miss Frost asked gently. I was still a little miffed about her violating my thoughts like that, but I nodded anyway.

I looked at my dad, and gave him a half smile.

Then I shot a web out of my wrist onto the coffee table, and pulled it closer to us.

“Umm…I have spider-powers,” I told my dad.

The smile on his face lit up the room. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

“I…I know how much you wanted me to live a normal life…how you didn’t want me to follow in your footsteps…I guess I was scared,” I said. He reached over and hugged me again.

“I told you before that I’d always love you, no matter what,” he said. “Now, of course I’ll have to set some ground rules…”

“Don't worry about that, dad,” I said. “I'm not ready for crime fighting.”

“So, he is a mutant?” my dad asked Miss Frost.

“Well, yes, but he is a special case. Because neither parent possessed the mutant X-gene. But, when the irradiated spider bit you, Peter, it mutated your DNA. When Benny was born, you passed on your DNA and it manifested inside Benny as his normal DNA. He doesn’t possess the X-gene, but is still technically a mutant. He’s a very rare case, so there isn’t really a term for it,” she said.

“What powers do you have?” he asked me.

“Just the webs and wall crawling, I think. The Spider-sense sure doesn’t work,” I said, as I rubbed a bruise on my arm. One of the assholes at school slammed me into a locker, and the handle left a bruise.

Dad gave me a look that said I was going to need to explain that later, and I smiled sheepishly at him.

The five of us sat and talked about being a mutant, the dangers of it, and basically life as a mutant in general for a few hours. At around 2:30, we’d just about finished, and it was almost time to head home. Then Miss Frost dropped a bombshell that would change my life forever.

“Well, Benny, we’d like for you to join us here at the Xavier Institute,” she said.

“Well…umm…”I said, like an idiot. My dad recovered from the shock before I did.

“I can’t afford to send him here! I’m an Editor at the Daily Globe, I don't make a fortune!” he said.

“Peter, you should remember that the Xavier Institute is free to all students,” Mr. Summers said. “Everything is paid for through a system of trust funds that Charles Xavier had set up before he died. He wanted this place to live on.”

“I’ll have to think about it,” I said after a moment.

“We hope you decide to join us,” Rachel said.

We left a short while later.

I was so confused as to what to do. I didn’t want to leave my life behind, but this was a great opportunity for me. I mean, where else am I going to get better training for my powers? Sure, my dad knows a lot about being a hero, but he doesn’t know the first thing about being a mutant.

And I’ll be safe there. I won’t have to go back to Midtown High and face everyone. I won’t be out there, either. It sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Except for my dad. He’s my best friend in the world, and I’d be leaving him behind.

“Benny, if I know you as well as I think I do,” my dad started, “You’re worried about leaving me behind.”

How does he do that? I know he’s not telepathic.

“Don't let me stand in the way of this,” he said. “This is such a huge opportunity for you, if you don't do this you’ll regret it forever.”

I looked at my father, with tears in my eyes, and made my decision.

I was going to enroll in the Xavier Institute.