Spider-Man Mayhem-Chapter 433: Family Drama

[Third Person Pov]

Johnny glanced around cautiously before speaking, his eyes moving from one teammate to another as if expecting something to suddenly jump out at them. "Can I ask it now? It should be safe to ask it now, right?"

"I honestly won’t tempt it," Rogue replied, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her eyes half-lidded with exhaustion as she looked around at the battlefield.

Gwen had a faint smile beneath her mask as she shrugged slightly. "I’m probably going to regret it, but go ahead Johnny, ask it."

Johnny hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "So... did we do it?" He paused briefly, glancing around at the wreckage scattered across the ground. "Did we win?"

Johnny and everyone else tensed for a moment, their eyes instinctively drifting toward the discarded pile of twisted metal and broken parts that had once been Sentinels, machines created for the sole purpose of hunting them down and exterminating them.

When nothing happened, a sudden wave of relief washed over the group. The tension that had been holding their bodies upright seemed to disappear all at once as exhaustion began seeping deep into their bones.

Iceman dropped down to the ground and sat there, leaning back on his hands as he tried to catch his breath. MJ leaned against Gwen for support, her legs clearly threatening to give out at any moment, while the rest of the group quietly basked in the realization that they had actually survived.

Johnny lifted his hand and pressed the back of it against his forehead dramatically. "Ahh, I suddenly feel so weak," Johnny exclaimed as he tried to lean against Rogue for support.

Rogue calmly took a single step forward with a completely straight face.

"Waaaah!" Johnny cried out as he flopped straight onto the ground behind her. "I meant to do that," he groaned weakly.

Rogue scoffed as she glanced back at him over her shoulder. "Yeah I’m sure. You must have been more tired than you thought," she teased dryly.

Johnny propped himself up slightly, supporting his head with one hand as he looked up at Rogue with a charming grin. "No seriously, I mean only from here do I get such a great angle."

Rogue’s brow twitched at that as she decided the best response was simply to ignore him entirely and walk away.

Johnny turned his head toward Iceman, who was still sitting nearby on the ground. "She totally wants me."

"Keep telling yourself that, man," Bobby snickered.

While the rest of the X-Men were celebrating their victory, Scott suddenly did a double take when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

He walked over toward the unconscious Havoc and knelt down beside him, a look of clear surprise appearing on his face. "Alex?"

Scott reached down and repeatedly slapped his face lightly when he saw that he was still breathing and only unconscious.

"Ughh..." Havoc groaned after a moment.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Scott said, though his expression had hardened noticeably.

"Scott..." Alex muttered as he slowly pushed himself up.

"Do you two know each other?" Felicia asked. The scene had drawn the attention of the others, and several of them were now staring curiously at the two of them.

"Yeah..." Scott answered with a frown, his brows knitting together. "Alex is my little brother."

"WHAAAAAT?!" The majority of the X-Men loudly exclaimed as they all stared at Alex, who was still holding his head in pain.

"Since when did you have a brother?" Jean asked, clearly shocked since this was the first time she had ever heard about it.

"Since the day he was born," Scott answered flatly. "I had my reasons for not mentioning him."

"Talk about a plot twist~," Peter said as he leaned back comfortably against Felicia.

"If I had known he was your brother I would have gone easier on him," Felicia said with an apologetic grin, though there was still a hint of amusement in her voice.

Scott wasn’t paying attention to any of them. His focus was entirely on Alex as he stepped forward and placed a firm hand over his shoulder. "What are you doing here, Alex? Why were you working for someone like Trask?"

Alex clicked his tongue in annoyance and swatted Scott’s hand away. "Tch, it doesn’t matter. Did you do it? Did you manage to save them on time? The other captured mutants, I mean."

"We did. Now answer the question," Scott demanded, his frown deepening.

Alex visibly relaxed at that answer and began pushing himself back up onto his feet, Scott rising along with him while maintaining steady eye contact.

"Didn’t I say that it didn’t matter?" Alex sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It’s all over anyway."

"He was protecting someone. He was coerced," Jean spoke up calmly. Then a knowing smile crossed her face. "A girl, to be more precise."

Alex immediately bared his teeth at her. "Get. Out. Of. My. Head," he warned through gritted teeth. "I will only warn you this once."

"Watch it," Scott said, placing a hand against Alex’s chest with a tired sigh as if trying to keep things from escalating further.

Jean simply raised both of her hands defensively. "I had to make sure you weren’t mind controlled or a threat to us."

Crunch Crunch

Everyone turned toward the sudden sound and found Peter standing there with a bag of popcorn in his hands.

"I am loving this family drama," he said cheerfully between bites, a portal beside him quietly closing shut.

He noticed that everyone’s attention had shifted onto him. "Oh, don’t mind me, I’m not even here," he added casually before turning invisible, leaving behind only a floating bag of popcorn hanging in the air.

A handful of popcorn lifted up on its own and disappeared midair, followed immediately by more loud crunching sounds.

Laughter and quiet chuckles spread through the group at the ridiculous sight. Felicia even leaned forward over where Peter’s shoulders should have been and grabbed a handful for herself.

Scott sighed, though a small, almost imperceptible smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. Something told him Peter had done that intentionally to lighten the mood and stop the tension from boiling over, something he was secretly grateful for.

"We’ll talk about this later," Scott said, slipping back into his role as the leader of the X-Men. "First we clean up and make sure to officially put an end to the Sentinel project and make certain they won’t rise against us again."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

Peter dropped the invisibility and handed the popcorn bag over to Nightcrawler, who happily accepted it and immediately grabbed a large handful. He stuffed it into his mouth with a content expression. "It’s like a reward," he said happily through the chewing.

Peter dusted the salt and butter off his hands. "While you guys handle that, I’ll start providing first aid. You all look like you’re about to collapse."

He wasn’t exaggerating. The majority of the X-Men were injured and covered in their own blood. The battle had been anything but clean, leaving them disheveled with torn suits, dried blood across their skin, and sweat clinging to them after the exhausting fight.

"I’ll help. After all, providing first aid is kind of my specialty," Gwen said as she walked over to stand beside Peter.

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