An hour later, the remaining members of what was left of the X-Men gathered inside Xavier's headmaster room at the X-Men Academy.
Emma Frost, Storm, and Wolverine were present.
Spider-Man was with them as well.
They sat in front of Wade Wilson, also known as Deadpool, glaring at him as he remained tied to a spinnable chair in the middle of the room.
"Wow, I was just fooling around, and I'm the victim?" Deadpool said, looking around at everyone as if he had somehow been wronged.
"I wanna kill him now," Wolverine said.
They could see him literally, and he meant literally, sharpening his adamantium claws against each other. The metallic scraping sound echoed through the room as Logan glared daggers at Wade.
"Sigh... relax, Logan. You know we can't kill him. Even if you bring someone powerful enough to incinerate him, he's still gonna come back," Storm said with her arms crossed, her expression remaining calm despite the situation.
"Wow, everybody loves me? I'm gonna cry so fucking bad I could just—WAAAAHHH!!!"
Before Deadpool could finish, he suddenly disappeared.
A portal cast by Spider-Man opened directly beneath the chair, causing Wade to fall through it.
Another portal immediately appeared above them.
Deadpool came crashing down from above, only to fall straight into another portal beneath him again.
And again.
And again.
"WOOOOOAAAAHHHH!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!" Deadpool screamed as he continued falling endlessly through the portals in an infinite loop.
Spider-Man calmly watched as Deadpool repeatedly fell from one portal to another. After a few more loops, Spider-Man fired a web at a certain location, stopping the endless cycle.
Deadpool suddenly found himself hanging awkwardly as the portals held him in place.
"Last question," Spider-Man said, his voice suddenly becoming serious.
Everyone in the room turned their attention toward him.
"Where are the rest, Wade?"
Spider-Man stared directly at Deadpool.
"Or you can say goodbye to that one position you need to bang Vanessa."
"Hoooaaahhh..." Deadpool's eyes widened beneath his mask. "You wouldn't... would you?"
Spider-Man slowly tilted his head.
"Try me, bub."
The portal slowly began getting smaller.
"Hah, no worries. I can regenerate. Nothing bad," Deadpool said, though he had clearly thought of a plan.
"True," Spider-Man replied.
Deadpool's confidence immediately dropped.
"But you need the other part for that, right?"
Deadpool froze.
"Since your upper body is here, and your lower half is dangling at the other end in another location... where do you think it leads to?"
"....."
Deadpool slowly looked down.
His eyes widened.
"Oh, hell nooooo!!!!!"
The portal continued getting smaller.
"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I'LL TALK! PLEASE! NOT MY LEGS! ANYTHING BUT MY LEGS AND MY JUNKIE!!!!"
"TALK, ASSHOLE! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Logan yelled, stepping forward as his claws gleamed beneath the room's light.
Deadpool immediately panicked.
"I MADE A DEAL, WOLFY! A LITERAL ONEHUHUHUHU!!!"
Spider-Man stared at him for a moment.
Then, he snapped his fingers.
The portals vanished instantly, leaving Deadpool completely intact and, much to his relief, not sliced in half.
Deadpool remained silent for a moment.
Then he slowly looked down at himself.
"...Oh, thank God."
"What? Oh, you mean this?"
Spider-Man raised a container jar labeled DEADPOOL.
Inside was, well... his you-know-what.
Deadpool immediately froze.
"Pfft! Puhahahaha!!!"
Emma Frost suddenly burst into laughter, covering her mouth as she struggled to control herself.
"Oh, man! Even I can't stop laughing at what he just did!"
Storm shook her head, though a small amused smile appeared on her face.
"Honestly, karma is a bitch, but Spider-Man just made karma his bitch in a very weird way."
"Nooo!!! Gimme back my—off!"
Before Deadpool could finish his sentence, Spider-Man casually raised his hand.
A magical seal suddenly appeared around Deadpool, containing him within its glowing barrier.
"You'll get this back when I get every detail about who you made a deal with."
Spider-Man then turned toward Emma.
"Emma, be a dear and do your magic."
"Hooo...?"
Emma slowly looked toward Peter with an amused expression.
"I kinda like this side of you, Peter."
She stepped closer toward Deadpool and placed a hand against the side of her head.
Deadpool immediately leaned back.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Lady, buy me dinner first!"
Emma ignored him.
She closed her eyes and began using her telepathic powers to enter Deadpool's mind.
The moment she did, her expression changed.
Inside Wade Wilson's mind was nothing but chaos.
Memories appeared one after another, mixed with complete nonsense that made absolutely no sense. His thoughts shifted constantly, jumping from one ridiculous memory to another before suddenly changing again.
Emma's expression slowly twisted with discomfort.
"C-can't say I feel sorry for him. He has cancer and got his powers through illegal experimentation. He thought it was legal," Emma said after pulling herself out of his mind.
"Don't care," Logan replied without hesitation.
"So mean..." Deadpool muttered.
After a few more minutes, Emma finally managed to gather the information they needed.
"Okay, I got it."
She immediately wrapped her arms around herself, visibly disturbed by whatever she had witnessed inside Wade's mind.
"And I need a nice, clean bath with my baby, a bottle of wine from 1870, and a medium-rare steak cooked to perfection."
Spider-Man could tell from Emma's expression that whatever she had seen inside Deadpool's creepy and weird mind was better left unknown.
"Who was it?" Logan asked.
Emma looked toward him.
"Magneto."
"Sigh... who else but the man of metal himself," Storm said.
However, as they continued discussing the situation, Spider-Man thought differently.
Why Magneto?
Why would he develop an enhancer collar for mutants instead of simply creating his own army?
Something about the entire situation didn't sit right with him.
"Something you wish to tell us, Peter?"
Peter looked up when Emma suddenly questioned him.
"Oh, nothing. Just this, actually."
Spider-Man reached into his belongings and pulled out the device that had been attached to Logan's neck.
He handed it to the others.
Storm carefully took the device and began examining it. Her expression became serious as she analyzed its strange design.
"I'll look into this with Beast."
With that, Storm left the room with the device.
The rest of them eventually decided that they should confront Magneto.
Spider-Man stared at them.
In his mind, it was possibly the dumbest idea in the history of all ideas.
What were they going to do?
Knock on his door and come crashing in singing Kumbaya?
"...."
Peter's expression went blank.
Stand corrected.
They actually thought about doing something similar to that.
Spider-Man sighed heavily and rubbed the side of his head.
Eventually, he decided to aid them in their charades.
About a few hours later, Logan and Emma were ready.
Emma had eventually taken her shower and, quite literally, had her wine and steak as she requested. Spider-Man had also spent the time deciding on a plan.
"Okay, we don't have Rogue, Jean, Cable, Cyclops, Gambit, Nightcrawler... Man, so many," Spider-Man said as he mentally counted the members they were missing.
"Although... Jean Grey might be the one we should avoid the most," Logan said.
"Why?" Peter asked.
"She can read minds and uses telekinesis," Logan answered.
Emma gave a light cough, clearly offended.
"You do know I can use telekinesis as well, right?" Emma asked.
Logan merely grunted without a single care.
"If we're done, I'm getting a beer before suiting up."
Logan turned and left the room, leaving Emma and Spider-Man alone.
"You know, you can take off the mask. I already know your face, and so does Storm," Emma said.
"I'm serious, though. We could use someone like you on the X-Men squad," Emma continued.
Spider-Man shook his head.
"I'm more of a solo person."
"Why? The Avengers took on the alien invasion in New York, though we, the X-Men, only did minor help here and there," Emma said.
"Thanks, but still no. I don't wanna be in a team with rules controlling me. You know, don't do this and don't do that. I'm a rule breaker," Spider-Man replied.
"Hooo...?"
Emma slowly smiled.
"Is it because of that young blondie with the big chest?"
"Eh?"
"Hmhmhmhm..." Emma chuckled softly. "You know who I mean."
She leaned closer to Spider-Man's ear and whispered.
"I watched everything when I looked into your mind..."
Spider-Man immediately took a step back and stared at her.
"You can't tell, but I'm literally giving you the creepiest look behind this mask. Stop eavesdropping inside my head, damn it!"
"Puhahaha! So cute."
Emma laughed as she walked out of the room, leaving Spider-Man alone.
Behind him, Deadpool remained trapped inside the magical barrier. He couldn't hear anything happening outside the barrier.
"Something on your mind, Peter?"
Spider-Man looked up.
A white substance slowly oozed from the side of his head, taking on a liquid form before Anti-Venom emerged from it.
"Just... missing her a lot," Spider-Man said quietly.
"Heh. Who else would you miss besides Gwen Stacy? In your last life, while you and I were still trying to work things out with our bond, she was the first to step in and help us. Even before she died because of the Goblin."
Anti-Venom paused before continuing.
"You already fixed that when I was still inside you?"
"Yeah."
Spider-Man leaned against the wall.
"Norman Osborn didn't become the Green Goblin because of my meddling. I was able to stop it by becoming one of the biggest buyers of OSCORP and eventually handing the company back to him."
Peter lowered his gaze slightly as memories surfaced in his mind.
"And I also helped him fix the super serum he was trying to make."
Anti-Venom listened quietly.
"Although we already had Captain America. Guess he was just trying to make a better serum," Spider-Man said.
"Call her," Anti-Venom said. "You two have been apart for a few months. Surely just a phone call won't hurt."
"I don't know..." Spider-Man said, hesitating.
"Pussy!"
Venom suddenly oozed out beside them in a liquid form.
"What's wrong with you? You lost the greatest woman who accepted you both as Peter fucking Parker and Spider fucking-Man, and you say, 'I don't know'?"
Venom slapped Spider-Man across the face with one of his tendrils.
"Wake! The fuck! Up!"
Spider-Man flinched as he rubbed the side of his mask.
"Call her and just do it! Just... DO IT!!!"
"Jesus, alright!"
Without further hesitation, Spider-Man pulled out his phone and called Gwen.
Venom watched him for a moment before turning toward Anti-Venom.
"Can you believe it? Even after being given a second chance at life, he still acts like an immature loser," Venom said as he stood beside Anti-Venom.
"What did you expect? You know he still can't get over it. She died in his arms in his past life because she decided not to go to Oxford for him. That eventually led to her death."
Anti-Venom looked toward Peter as he waited for Gwen to answer the call.
"Peter did the right thing, even if it means not seeing her for a few years."
"Yeah, I pity that. I knew Peter before you. After I became one with him, I studied his memories."
Venom's expression became more serious.
"Bro has some of the most traumatizing experiences in his past life."
Venom glanced toward Anti-Venom.
"You think he can win this time? You know, against you-know-who."
"No."
Anti-Venom answered without hesitation.
"To him, Peter is just dust in his view right now. Back then, he was able to hold on before dying together with millions of cloned suns, sacrificing himself to kill Knull."
Anti-Venom's expression remained serious.
"But we've got time. We can teach him the secrets of the symbiosis."
Venom slowly nodded.
"Agree..."
Peter held the phone against his ear as it continued ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
For some reason, every ring made him more nervous.
He had faced aliens, supervillains, monsters, and even death itself.
Yet calling his own girlfriend somehow made him feel more anxious than fighting all of them combined.
Venom and Anti-Venom stood nearby, silently watching him.
Then the call connected.
"Hello?"
Peter froze.
The moment he heard her voice, his body became still beneath the Spider-Man suit.
It had only been a few months.
Yet to him, it felt much longer.
"...Hey."
There was a brief silence on the other side.
"Peter?"
"Yeah."
"Peter!"
Gwen's voice immediately became brighter.
"Finally! You decided to call me!"
Peter couldn't help but smile beneath his mask.
"Sorry."
"Sorry?"
Peter could almost imagine Gwen narrowing her eyes.
"That's all you have to say after disappearing for months?"
"Hey, I didn't disappear. I've just been... busy."
"Busy being Spider-Man?"
"...Maybe."
Gwen sighed.
"Peter."
"What?"
"You know you're allowed to call me, right?"
Peter remained silent for a moment.
"Yeah. I know."
Another brief silence followed.
His voice became softer.
"I just didn't want to disturb you."
Gwen's tone immediately changed.
"Disturb me?"
Peter leaned against the wall.
"You're at Oxford now. You've got your studies, your new life there, and everything else. I didn't want to suddenly call and become a distraction."
"Peter Parker."
Her voice was firm.
"You're my boyfriend, not some random person disturbing me."
Peter chuckled quietly.
"Yeah, I know."
"And besides, Oxford isn't some magical prison where I can't talk to you."
Peter smiled.
"How is it over there?"
Gwen was quiet for a moment before answering.
"It's good."
"Just good?"
"Okay, fine. It's amazing."
Peter could hear the excitement in her voice.
"The campus is beautiful, the professors are terrifyingly smart, and I swear some of the students here talk like they were born holding a dictionary."
Peter laughed.
"I can imagine you fitting right in."
"Excuse me?"
"I mean because you're smart."
"Nice save."
Peter laughed again.
For a few moments, neither of them said anything.
But this time, the silence wasn't awkward.
It felt comfortable.
Familiar.
Peter closed his eyes beneath his mask as he listened to Gwen quietly breathing through the phone.
He missed this.
He missed her.
"So..."
Gwen's voice broke the silence.
"How are you?"
Peter opened his eyes.
"I'm fine."
"Peter."
He immediately knew that tone.
"...What?"
"Don't give me the Spider-Man answer."
Peter sighed.
"What does that even mean?"
"It means whenever something is bothering you, you always say you're fine."
Peter remained silent.
Gwen waited patiently.
After a few seconds, Peter finally spoke.
"I just miss you."
Gwen became quiet.
Peter looked down at the floor.
"More than I thought I would."
On the other side of the phone, Gwen smiled softly.
"I miss you too."
Peter's expression softened.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Gwen let out a small laugh.
"But don't get too emotional on me now, Spider-Boy."
Peter chuckled.
"Spider-Boy?"
"Yes."
"That's terrible."
"I know. That's why I like it."
Peter shook his head.
"You haven't changed."
"Neither have you."
Peter smiled.
For the first time in a while, the weight on his shoulders felt slightly lighter.
Gwen continued speaking.
"You know, Peter... you did the right thing."
Peter's expression slowly changed.
"What do you mean?"
"Sending me off to Oxford by the airport."
Peter became quiet.
Gwen's voice softened.
"I know you didn't want to say it, but I could tell you were worried."
Peter clenched his hand slightly.
"I just..."
He stopped himself.
Gwen waited.
"I want you to have your own life too, Gwen."
Her expression softened on the other side of the call.
"And I want you in mine, Peter."
Peter slowly smiled.
"You do?"
"Idiot."
Peter laughed.
"Right."
"I didn't go to Oxford because I wanted to run away from you."
"I know."
"I went because I wanted to follow my dreams."
"I know."
"And one day, when I come back..."
Peter listened carefully.
"...I expect my boyfriend to take me out on a proper date."
Peter raised an eyebrow beneath his mask.
"A proper date?"
"Yes."
"Like what?"
"Hmm..."
Gwen pretended to think.
"Something romantic."
Peter immediately groaned.
"Oh, no."
"What?"
"You know I'm terrible at romance."
"Then figure it out."
"That's not helpful."
"Peter."
"Fine, fine."
Gwen laughed.
"I'll be waiting."
Peter's expression softened again.
"Okay."
For another moment, they simply stayed on the call.
Neither of them wanting to hang up.
Finally, Gwen spoke.
"I should probably get back to studying."
"Yeah."
"But call me again."
Peter smiled.
"I will."
"Promise?"
Peter looked toward the window.
"I promise."
"Good."
Peter heard her smile through the phone.
"Goodnight, Peter."
"Goodnight, Gwen."
The call ended.
Peter slowly lowered his phone.
For several seconds, he simply stood there quietly.
A small smile remained beneath his mask.
Venom slowly turned toward Anti-Venom.
"...Took him long enough."
Anti-Venom nodded.
"At least he finally did it."
Peter looked toward both of them.
"Shut up."
Venom grinned.
"Yeah, yeah. But you're smiling, pussy."
Peter immediately pointed at him.
"I said shut up."
---
Chapter 33 — End.