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Chapter 128
🕑 Added 2025-08-06 12:18:34 +0000 UTC"Look," Aidan said, setting down his teacup, "bottom line is this—you join us, you get to live like normal people. Get jobs, fall in love, have kids. Nobody's gonna treat you like freaks." He painted them this picture of the future that sounded... well, almost too good to be true.
Xavier and the others were clearly chewing on it, trying to figure out if this was real or just another pipe dream.
"Actually," Aidan suddenly pointed at this girl who'd been lurking in the corner the whole time—young, quiet, had this white streak through her hair. "She probably hates her powers."
"Me?" The girl looked startled, pointing at herself.
"You're wrapped up like it's winter in July because you can't touch people without hurting them," Aidan said, not unkindly. "A teenage girl who can't hold hands with anyone. That sound like a blessing to you?"
The girl—had to be Rogue—looked down at her gloved hands. You could practically see her thinking about whoever she had a crush on, knowing she'd never be able to get close.
Long pause. Then Xavier broke the silence: "What do you need from us?"
Everyone snapped back to attention, all eyes on Aidan.
"It's win-win," Aidan shrugged. "You help boost our security and rescue ops, you get to live normal lives. I need an answer today, but hey—you don't like it later, you can bail."
Xavier stared at him for what felt like forever, probably doing that mind-reading thing to make sure Aidan wasn't full of crap. Finally, he wheeled forward and stuck out his hand. " looks like we're in business."
"Pleasure." Aidan shook it. Around the room, everyone had different reactions—some excited, some worried, Storm still looking skeptical as hell.
"Alright, since you're on board..." Aidan stood up, pulled out some kind of device, handed it to Xavier. "Company badge. Everyone who joins gets one. Has contact info for Alice—she runs security—and Yinsen handles diplomacy."
Xavier took the thing. It looked like... a cartoon face. Two dots and a line. (●—●)
"Seriously?" Storm muttered. "Looks like something from a toy store."
"Hey, lots of people see that as an angel's token," Jean said, trying not to smile.
Aidan ignored the commentary. "So about two days from now, aliens are gonna invade New York. I need you guys working with our Baymax robots, getting civilians to safe zones under Alice's command. That device'll show you where to go."
Predictably, the room erupted. "Aliens?" "What the hell?" "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I'm serious. Follow the robots, don't go off script." Aidan's tone got harder. "And... pick people who don't look like they'll scare the civilians, okay?"
"Of course," Xavier said, and he actually sounded excited. Guy had found hope for his people—of course he was all in.
After running through more details, Aidan moved on. "That covers you guys. Now we gotta talk about Magneto's crew."
"A lot of those people... humans really hurt them." Xavier's voice got careful. "Don't just write them all off."
"Not planning to." Aidan waved that concern away. "But I need to get Magneto back first. Gonna have to talk to the President."
"They'll never release him. Too dangerous."
"If I spring him, can you talk sense into him?"
Xavier thought about it. "...If Baymax really accepts mutants like you're saying, yeah. I can convince him."
"Then leave the rest to me." Aidan got up, looked at Beast. "McCoy, Congressman Dennis is on your council, right? I need a meeting."
"I'll see if he's available," Hank nodded.
"Hey," Xavier said suddenly, and his whole demeanor had shifted—more relaxed, like a weight had been lifted. "You interested in seeing the school? He actually cracked a smile at that.
"Sure."
Beast went off to make calls while Xavier gave Aidan the tour.
"This is where I teach them control," Xavier said as they walked through a classroom. "How to use their abilities responsibly."
"Just don't teach them that having powers means they can do whatever they want," Aidan said.
"No, no. And I... I owe you an apology for earlier. Reading your mind without permission. Old habits, and I was worried about my students' futures."
"Your method's not bad," Aidan admitted, his tone softening a bit. "Problem is, you don't have enough pull with humans, and even mutants are split on whether to follow you or Magneto. So no matter how hard you try..."
"We'd have lost eventually," Xavier finished. "Lucky for us, Logan knew you."
"Main thing is you're decent people," Aidan said, checking out the computer setup. "Worth helping."
Xavier went quiet for a moment, then: "Hand Island... that really threw me. I didn't think you had that in you."
"When you've got nobody watching your back, you gotta be willing to bite," Aidan said with this helpless shrug.
"Maybe you could work with the military instead?"
"Then your people wouldn't be having this nice conversation right now. Hell, the world wouldn't be as stable as it is." Aidan's voice got harder. "Baymax helps people in war zones, saves lives. Military gets their hands on my tech? Who knows what kind of mess they'd make. This world's got enough mad scientists already."
"Point taken."
"Do you really have no mutant ability ?" Xavier asked. Guy still couldn't wrap his head around a teenager pulling all this off.
"Not a drop of X-gene in me," Aidan said. "Just good at planning ahead."
They kept walking around campus, Xavier making actual conversation instead of trying to peek inside Aidan's head. Progress.
Comments
Book Warm
Tftc
KingSpy25i .
Thank you for the chapter 🙏
