To Be A Hero - Colossus and Angel

1. A Broken Family

"Rise, my mutant brothers and sisters! Rise and stand with me for the greater good of all mutant-kind! And let us go forth together into a better future..."

The film clip was the fuzzy 1970s quality, and was even more fuzzy because Professor McCoy had projected the footage onto a bigger screen, making everything appear even more distorted.  Despite this, you could clearly make out the helmeted, cloaked figure of radical mutant activist Magneto delivering his passionate speech on television when he had crashed the opening of the Sentinal plan and program at the White House in 1973.

Unfortunately, the history of mutants was impossible to study without looking at Magneto's, A.K.A. Erik Lehnsherr's, side of the story. There were always multiple sides to one story, to one history, and you had to look at all of them.  Magneto's was just one of those many.

Magneto, A.K.A. Erik Lehnsherr, and in her case, A.K.A. Dad.

When the clip was finally over Professor McCoy turned off the projector and flicked the lights back on, making everyone groan and cover their eyes.

"Well, that was - enlightening..." Peter scooted up to join his sisters on their way out of the classroom, his high-top sneakers squeaking on the polished linoleum floor.  He popped his gum.  "He's passionate, I'll give him that."

"Yeah, about his 'mutant brothers and sisters'." Wanda deepened her voice to imitate that of their father, spreading her arms wide like he did when levitating, chin raised high in the air.  Kath decided not to tell her sister that she indeed looked like their father when she did that.  And sounded like him.  Unlike Peter, who had rapidly (when did he not do something rapidly?) tried to lose their heavy Eastern-European accent, Wanda had kept hers, as well as Kath and Daniela. Their brother had also started going by the more American-sounding, as he said, 'Peter' instead of his actual name, 'Pietro'. 

"Too bad he's not that passionate about his own family," Wanda continued.  This earned her a nudge from Kath.  "What? It's true."

"He tries," Kath defended.

Peter snorted.  "Yeah, sure, sure he does. Like he tries to abide by the law.  I'm with Wan on this one, sorry Big Sis."

"He does! I believe that. He at least wants to be a good father. That counts for something, Right?" Sometimes she wondered why she defended their father, but settled on because he was exactly that, their father.

The twins exchanged a glance.  Kath always wondered what it would be like to have a twin and have that special twin-connection. Oh, she was a twin, but she was convinced Peter and Wanda had some special twin power that she and Daniela definitely did not share.

"Well then he should try harder." Peter shrugged.  "I mean, why are you defending the guy? It's not like he's been any better to you."

"Because I'm hopeful that he will change."

"That's them, they're his kids."

"He has kids?!"

The Maximoff siblings turned to see a trio of girls from the class gossiping down the hall a ways.

"Yeah."

"But they don't have the same last name as him..."

"That's cause they use their mom's last name.  Would you want to be associated with him, let alone his kids? And see the one with the purple in her hair? She's got the same power as him. I bet he wants her to follow in his footsteps-"

"Hey, if you really want to know, you could just come and ask," Peter called to them, alerting them to the fact that the siblings could clearly hear them as they weren't being so discrete. The girls jumped and blushed.