Marvel: The Amazing Spider-Man in the Multiverse

"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.