17. A ticking time bomb

The front-page picture is of Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar standing in front of the Baxter Building with the frightful four; consisting of the Wizard, Titania, Hydro-Man, and Trapster, at their feet. The headline is what catches the attention.

'Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends'

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

He snatches the paper out of Logan's hand and glares at it in disbelief, "Who the hell- Oh that son of a- Of all the stupid things that come out of his mouth, this has got to be the stupidest!"

'Well, Angelica said she liked it.'

Logan decided to share this moment with the man that made it happen via Facetime his phone.

Bobby glares balefully at the Web-Head as he thrusts the paper in front of the screen, "If you think for a second I'm just going to let this slide, then you are in for a huge disappointment!"

Logan can see him frothing in the mouth. Oh, he can't wait for his reaction when he's told the truth.

'Would you relax, it's not even a real newspaper."

There it is.

His face is frozen in shock with anger. Like a picture of the Hulk except actually funny to look at.

"What?"

He quickly looks at the paper again and sees that the newspaper says 'Avengers Daily'.

He lets out a breath of relief as he collapses on the seat of the cafeteria table next to his girlfriend, who has now calmed down.

He looks to the phone screen and smiles amusingly, "Okay Web-Head, I'll give it to you. That was a good one," he jabs a finger at the phone, "Don't think I won't get you back for that one though."

'Eh, I doubt that you'll have the chance since you'll be on damage control.'

Bobby looks on confused and asks, "What are you talking abo-" he stops and gets a look of shocking realization. He snaps his head back to the newspaper and Logan could guess he's now focusing on the masthead.

The newspaper's name.

"You didn't."

(Flashback End)

***

After retelling the tale of 'Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends', Charles can't control how hard he's laughing and Steve isn't faring much better.

Trying to regain his breath while still chuckling Rogers asks, "Oh god I remember that paper. He made sure all the avengers had a copy," he shakes his head, "heh, what happened next?"

Xavier runs his hand over his face to rid himself of the redness he has, "Bobby tore the paper apart and then began threatening Spider-Man. And of course, Logan decided to add fuel to the fire by telling Bobby that the paper was circulating the entire school and Utopia."

That surprises Captain America, "You're kidding."

Charles smiles happily and shakes his head, "No, as mad as Logan was at Scott, he couldn't help but spread that particular news to all that know Bobby. It was the first time that Scott, Logan, and the others put aside their differences and merely share a laugh. Even at Bobby's expense," his smile turns sad and he lowers his head, "It's strange how Spider-Man never realized how much he helped."

Rogers imitates Xavier's sad smile and responds with, "It's also strange how he never realized his greatest gift wasn't his powers, but his heart."

Charles lifts his head and looks to the Captain to elaborate.

"Most don't seem to realize it but Spider-Man was a close call," he closes his eyes and mentally invites the Telepath to read his mind, which he does so, "Everything that's been done by him and to him, he would have been the biggest villain the world would have ever seen."

Charles would normally assume that the good Captain was exaggerating, but with the mental images Rogers is sharing, Xavier can see why he would say such a thing. He sees how the WWII veteran often looked on to the younger hero and was always amazed by his feats. Defeating villains that outclassed him by a wide margin, saving civilians in impossible situations, and even saving his villains from their demise.

But when said hero's most intimate details were shown to the Avenger, the professor can feel the fear that the Captain felt when thinking of the young man's future.

"It truly amazed me that after everything he's endured, Spider-Man never turned evil. I've heard of individuals turning to villains for a lot less than what he's gone through."

He is now seeing the Captain reading classified files on Spider-Man. He sees one about the alternate reality Wanda created and in it Spider-Man has married a blond woman that was dead long before that incident. Killed by her neck snapping after being thrown off a bridge by his greatest nemesis, the Green Goblin. After he returned, his already strained relationship with another woman became even more so.

More mental images of files, news reports, and even first-hand experiences with the wall-crawler begin to emerge. All showing how much the Avenger's leader admired him.

"But he never gave up, even when life knocked him down, and it hit him hard, he always got back up with a smile on his face and a bad joke out of his mouth." He lets out a breathy laugh at the thought of Spider-Man's bad humor.

Charles stops reading his mind as he waits patiently to ask the Captain a question that he's wanted to ask since the mountain rescue.

Once he sees the patriotic man compose himself he asks, "Steve, do you think we can win this fight."

Rogers shakes his head no as he stands up and grabs his famous shield, "Not alone, not as we are now," he places the shield on his back and stands tall, "The Avengers and X-Men need to fight together on this. It's the only way we can win against Scott and Emma," he looks Xavier dead in the eyes, "United under a common cause."

The world's most powerful telepath lowers his head at the thought of that common cause being the young boy he raised like his own.

"But we're also going to need something else."

Charles gets confused and lifts his head to look at the Captain, "What?"

"A ticking time bomb."

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