Marvel: The Amazing Spider-Man in the Multiverse

"We need a plane to take this kid to Madripoor. In return, you'll have to watch over the mansion for me and make sure the Hellfire Club doesn't take it."

Noticing Nick Fury's concern for Spider-Man, Cyclops, Scott Summers, quickly leveraged this to strike a deal. He and Beast would take Spider-Man to Madripoor for treatment, while S.H.I.E.L.D. would protect the Professor's legacy. No matter what, he couldn't let another ambitious individual seize control of the Professor's inheritance.

Nick Fury didn't intend to refuse the deal but added another condition.

"I need you to take Agent Silk with you."

At the same time, Peter, Gwen, and Cindy all looked at Nick Fury, with Peter outright asking, "Cindy isn't... transferring schools today?"

"Her mission is highly correlated with yours, especially after you demonstrated your ability to traverse the multiverse. So, her actions will be adjusted based on yours." Nick Fury raised an eyebrow, not seeing it as a problem. "Besides, Agent Silk has been specifically trained for your situation. Whether it's to restrain you if your powers go out of control or to monitor your physical condition, she's the best candidate."

Gwen looked in surprise at Cindy, who remained silent, her gaze somewhat unfocused. Gwen found she had no reason to object and had to admit that Silk was indeed better suited to help Peter Parker in this matter.

If only she had been the one bitten at Oscorp that day, Gwen couldn't help but think. At least then she could have helped Peter with this kind of thing.

But Peter Parker was thinking about something entirely different.

"What about New York City? I mean, if I leave, and Cindy stays in New York, then at least New York still has a Spider-Man. But if we both leave, what happens to New York?"

"Whoa~ Do you really think New York City revolves around you, kid?" Nick Fury chuckled at Peter Parker's remark, shaking his head. "You're only going for a week, at most. A week. How bad do you think New York can get? Alright, it's settled. You're leaving immediately."

And so, in a daze, the Spider-Man, unable to control his powers, was led to a Quinjet called in by S.H.I.E.L.D. A total of four people boarded the plane, heading for the independent, neutral city-state of Madripoor in Southeast Asia.

Peter and Gwen exchanged a quick wave goodbye. Happy would take Gwen home. Although he didn't know why, Nick Fury, like Happy, also made a "I'm watching you" gesture, which Peter found a little puzzling. As for Gwen, she could only look up as Peter left.

"So... I heard the X-Men have their own jet. Why aren't we taking that?"

Sitting in the Quinjet, Peter was curious why they weren't taking the X-Men's famous Blackbird jet, and Beast's answer was quite concise.

"Because it's broken."

"Oh, uh... that's a direct answer."

Peter looked at Beast, then at Cyclops, who, seeing the young man's expression, offered a further explanation. "The X-Men disbanded six years ago. No one has maintained it, and most of its parts have malfunctioned."

"So, how did all this happen?"

Peter naturally asked about the downfall of the X-Men in this universe. This was a question he had wanted to understand since he was very young and reborn into this world, but he had never found an answer.

Why did the X-Men in this world fall?

Seeing that Cyclops didn't object, Beast began to recount the history of the X-Men in this world.

Before World War II, mutants were widely considered witches and sorcerers. Additionally, their powers weren't overly strong at the time, so most mutants went into hiding to avoid persecution. During World War II, they were extensively captured by Nazi Germany for human experimentation. After the war, the US military discovered these records and continued human experimentation on mutants, using a large number of mutant soldiers in the Vietnam War.

"Professor and Erik Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, met then. They were good friends at the time. One was a professor of genetic heredity, the other a Jewish survivor of concentration camps. Both were mutants, so they became close. The Professor published many articles on the X-gene, proving the biological existence of mutants and that they weren't aliens; genetically, they still belonged to the human species."

"They constantly agitated domestically, hoping to secure fair treatment for mutants. Until later, they both went to the Vietnamese front. Magneto saw the living conditions and treatment of the mutant soldiers, and what the US military was doing in Vietnam... In short, it reminded him of the concentration camps."

Beast sighed. The US military's management of mutant soldiers at the time was no different from Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews and Soviets in concentration camps. Coupled with the US military's actions in the Vietnam War, this ultimately led to Magneto's ideology becoming radicalized. He directly chose to unleash his powers, freeing those mutant soldiers who had suffered inhumane treatment.

Magneto wanted to lead these mutant soldiers in direct rebellion, while the Professor hoped they would return to the United States to tell the true story of the battlefield, engaging in anti-war and civil rights movements to achieve their demands through legal means.

This was why the Professor and Magneto went their separate ways. Both of their ideologies began to radicalize. Magneto began to believe that mutants were the next stage of human evolution, just as Homo sapiens would eventually replace Neanderthals, they would replace modern Homo sapiens.

And data supported his idea—the powers of new-generation mutants were becoming stronger, and their numbers were constantly increasing.

As for the Professor, he believed that mutants should coexist peacefully with humans, seeing mutants as a minority group who should strive for their rights through legal means.

At this point, Peter Parker couldn't help but ask a very important question.

"Why say mutants are a minority group? I mean, from the existing human racial classifications, mutants don't fit into any of them, do they? They can be white, black, or Asian, and they can intermarry with humans normally. More importantly, mutant abilities don't seem to have anything to do with the evolutionary principle of 'survival of the fittest,' do they? Their abilities seem quite random. Why would those two think mutants are a special group separate from ordinary humans?"

Beast and Cyclops exchanged glances. After all, the kid was right. Mutants, no matter how you looked at it, were "superpowered humans with superpowered genes," and shouldn't be a separate race. There was no reproductive isolation between them, nor did mutant abilities specifically differentiate or change with the environment.

In the end, Cyclops saved face for the Professor.

"That's because the Professor and Magneto grew up in the sixties and seventies. That's when they were all about this, racial equality and all that. If they knew what would happen now, I'm sure they wouldn't think that way."

Chapter 76: God Loves, Man Kills

"In short, the two began to drift apart, but for a long time, nothing much seemed to happen until the 1980s when Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants started carrying out terrorist attacks in the United States. At this point, the Professor still didn't want to confront his old friend. He had already founded the academy and was training young mutants to master their abilities. The initial goal was simply to enable everyone to communicate better."

"But as the 1990s progressed, Magneto became more and more extreme. The Professor realized that if Magneto continued unchecked, it would severely damage the reputation of mutants in society. It was then that he selected suitable students to form a team to stop Magneto, and that was the X-Men."

The X-Men's past was recounted by Beast. Initially, five mutants were chosen for combat: Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Iceman (Bobby Drake), Angel (Warren Worthington III), and Beast (Hank McCoy). Later, Wolverine (Logan), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Rogue (Anna Marie), Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), and Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) successively joined. At that time, the X-Men were like a large family, everyone living in harmony.

Their scope of combat also expanded to fighting anti-mutant forces within the United States and organizations attempting to weaponize mutants. They foiled the U.S. government's Sentinel Program and battled the fearsome mutant geneticist, Mister Sinister. They also prevented Magneto's plot to transform all humans into mutants.

Until six years ago.

"A madman named Stryker, a U.S. Army Colonel responsible for researching brainwashing and weaponizing mutants, used his mutant son, Mastermind, to kidnap the Professor, attempting to use Cerebro to kill all mutants..."

Wait, Peter paused, I've heard this story before. Isn't this the plot of X2: X-Men United?

Although the X-Men's roster was slightly different, they had generally experienced a story similar to X2. The subsequent plot was also no different from the movie: Stryker's subordinates invaded the academy, many students were illegally arrested, Magneto escaped from prison, and together with the X-Men, they went to rescue the Professor. Finally, they fought Weapon X at the dam where Wolverine was once experimented on and rescued the Professor.

"Then everything went wrong. Magneto wanted to use Mastermind to control the Professor and kill all humans on Earth. However, at that moment, the dam collapsed, and a torrent of floodwaters surged down. Jean tried to stop it with her telekinetic powers, but her abilities went out of control for some reason." Beast sighed while piloting the plane, and Cyclops, sitting beside him, remained silent.

"She turned into a giant fireball, burning above the dam, and then it exploded. The Professor used his powers to control the blast radius, but Jean disappeared. We don't know where Jean went; we only know she vanished. And the Professor recovered at that moment. He refused the order to retreat, told us to take care of the students, and then quelled the flood with his telekinesis. Even before that, the Professor was already very fatigued..." Beast added with emotion about Charles Xavier's end: "The most powerful mind in the world just overworked himself to death. We found the Professor's body and buried him."

Peter found it all incredibly absurd, especially the Professor's ending. Shouldn't he have a comatose brother to transfer his consciousness to? How did it turn out like this? Controlled by a villain, then controlled by Magneto, then stopping Jean's explosion, then quelling a flood, then dying from exhaustion, unable to even transfer his consciousness?

Unless... Jean Grey's explosion wasn't actually a loss of control of her powers, but a loss of control of the Phoenix Force. If the Professor stopped the Phoenix's explosion, then it's possible he exhausted his life force. But if that were the case, Peter didn't believe the Phoenix was truly gone; it could return at any time, which would be even more troublesome.

"So, how did the X-Men disband?"

"First, Logan left without a word. Then Magneto announced the disbandment of the Brotherhood and established Genosha, a floating metal island in the Atlantic, declaring it a mutant nation. More and more mutants, including students, left. The academy couldn't recruit students, so naturally, it couldn't continue operating, and everyone gradually drifted away."

As Beast spoke, he kept glancing at Cyclops's reaction. He knew that Cyclops was actually the one who most hoped to continue the academy and the X-Men. But as Magneto became more moderate and Genosha attracted more and more mutants, the academy's purpose seemed to vanish. Coupled with the Hellfire Club constantly poaching teachers, the academy eventually fell into complete disrepair.

Logan, for some unknown reason, went to Madripoor. Colossus bought a farm in the West. Rogue reportedly went to Europe. Angel went home to inherit his family business. Iceman stayed home, occasionally calling to ask if the X-Men could reassemble. Ororo returned to Africa after a few years and married the prince of Wakanda, the current king T'Challa. Nightcrawler reportedly moved to Genosha to live.

This was the end of the X-Men: fragmented, no longer existing.

Cyclops, who had been silent, finally spoke.

"If Logan could come back, if I could persuade Logan to return, maybe there's still hope. We could reopen the academy... perhaps without enough students, but at least we could restart the X-Men, if this world needs us."

That last sentence was the reason for Cyclops's long silence.

If the world needed the X-Men.

Scott Summers never hesitated to lead his teammates into the most dangerous battles, fighting for the freedom of their kind and the Professor's ideals. But what if the world no longer needed them?

The worldwide mutant population was roughly twenty million, with sixteen million having moved to Genosha. There, they could learn to control their powers, learn how to survive, and avoid discrimination. It seemed the academy's existence had lost its meaning.

They were once the world's greatest heroes; they once saved the world. But now, they weren't needed. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man—more and more superheroes were appearing in this world, yet only the X-Men, as heroes, had been forgotten. The world no longer needed them.

In the silence, Madripoor arrived.

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