It was a normal Saturday morning when Peter was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, shuffling cereal into his mouth at around 6 am when the news report came in.
"For several weeks now havoc has been wreaked in multiple United States cities, leaving disasters of enormous sizes. Buildings have collapsed, water supplies ruined with poison, tornados turning pavement to dust. Already in the early cases of the disasters people reported having seen people with unnatural abilities willingly doing the damage. Now after the 10th attack in 2 weeks the president has released the statement that official reports confirm that the criminals are mutants. Officials are investigating the cases, and certain individuals have been put under surveillance, although there are no serious suspects yet, there are rumors of notorious terrorist Erik Lehnsher, better known as Magneto, is behind the attacks."
Peter sighed and turned off the TV. 'Of course he is your main subject' he muttered under his breath as he shook his head. Peter knew very well that his dad had done horrible things, but it annoyed him how easily people blamed even when there was no evidence for it at all. He refilled his cereal bowl and started shuffling the cereal into his mouth again.
'What is up with you?' Orroro muttered, stifling a yawn, as she walked in.
Peter turned around and saw Orroro standing in her Pajamas, dark bags under her eyes.
'Attacks on villages all over the country, they blame mutants, so guess who is suspect number one?'
Orroro rolled her eyes. 'Magneto.' She stated dryly. 'Because there is no one else in the world who might want to hurt people.' She sighed. 'I guess that from all the known mutants your dad is most attack prone, but it's still not fair...'
Peter jumped up from his chair 'I just want to forget about it, Storm.' He ditched his bowl in the sink. 'I'm gonna go for a run.'
Only a split second after finishing his sentence he zipped out of the room and disappeared.
Later that afternoon Erik marched into the Professor's office.
'Did you know about these attacks, Charles?'
Charles looked up from his paperwork and looked at his friend. 'No, my friend, I'm afraid not. They did their best to hide the attacks from the national news, but the army has apparently known for some time. The news came out yesterday when a local news story was being shot as an attack started.'
Erik sat down with a sigh. 'Is there anything we can do?'
'I am afraid not my friend, all we can do is lay low and hope that the attacks will stop.'
Erik stood up again. 'I think we both know I am not a patient man, Charles...'
Before Charles could say anything else, Erik walked out of the room.
2 Days later another attack took place, and images were shown on national news. Everyone saw how a man created tornados from his hands and tore a town to shreds, they watched as a woman spit acid at objects, completely evaporating them. The news shook everyone in the mansion, but just made Peter angrier. He went up to his father's room, hoping talking to him would help, but when he got there, the room was empty. And although many of his belongings were still there, it was obvious to Peter that he wasn't just taking a stroll around the grounds. No, his dad left... again.
Peter sighed and expected anger to fill him, but mostly he just felt disappointed, and so instead of running around the grounds for an hour or two, he lay down on his bed and stared up the ceiling, blaming himself for his dad leaving.
'Professor...' Hank carefully walked into Charles' office, knowing very well that his friend was stressed and worried about the recent attacks.
'Yes... Hank, what can I do for you?'
Hank sat down across from the professor, in the free seat by his desk. 'Erik left...'
Charles looked up, somewhat surprised. 'He left? When?'
'I don't know... but his room is missing quite some stuff, and no one has seen him all day.'
Another sigh. 'We have always known he is an impulsive man, but I had expected, or rather hoped that his new found relationship with Peter would be motivation for him to stay...'
'I guess not... but Peter is pretty upset about the whole thing, though he won't be likely to admit that to anyone.'
Charles chuckled slightly. 'Like father like son.' He moved his wheelchair away from his desk. 'Come on Hank, let's go see if we can find Erik.'
The 2 of them made their way down to Cerebro, and Charles put connected with the machine.
'Erik...'
'Charles?'
'Erik, what are you doing? Why did you leave?'
'Because I had to.'
'Please tell me you are not going after the mutants responsible for these attacks. You are still a wanted criminal, my friend. If they catch you will go back to prison. Think of Peter, my friend. Think of what it will do to him if you will be in prison again. Erik, think of your son.'
'I'm doing this for him, Charles. Goodbye, my friend.'
'Erik wait!' But it was no use. Erik had blocked Charles out of his mind.
Hank sighed. 'That damn helmet...'
Charles sighed. It was hard for him to accept that he was absolutely powerless in this scenario. His friend didn't want him involved, and he wanted to trust his friend. But he had also seen enough to know that it was difficult to do so. But mostly, he wished to understand his friend, though he was afraid he might never will.
Over the next few days life seemed to quiet down some at the mansion. There had been no attacks in a few days, most students had become less afraid. Peter on the other hand, spend very little time with his friends. He was either sulking in his room, or running around at his full speed. He had even missed most of the X-men training sessions, which were usually the best parts of his day.
He was lying on his bed one morning when the door to his room suddenly opened.
'Doesn't anybody knock?!' Peter yelled as he sat up and saw Isabel standing in the doorway.
'Get up, and get down to the living room. There's another attack going on, and the news has live footage.'
Peter jumped up and ran down to the living room as fast as possible stopping in front of the TV.
"The citizens of this small town were taken by surprise only 15 minutes ago, when three small tornados ripped through the streets. The destruction similar to that of many other towns which have lately become victims of mutant attacks. We have just received word that mutant terrorist Magneto has arrived on the sight of the attacks."
Peter could feel nearly everyone's eyes move to watch him, and rolled his eyes, trying to keep his full attention on the TV.
"If panic had not yet erupted among the people here, it sure is now that he has landed in the town's main street. But, wait a second. It seems that the man known as Magneto is fighting the other mutants, and trying to protect the bystanders."
The surprise in the reporter's voice was obvious, as well as in most of the students' eyes. The fight on TV wasn't pretty. Many buildings got destroyed, and Erik took many punches, as he was mainly focused on protecting the people who were hiding. In the end, he was able to take out most of them. He had only one mutant across from him to fight, but he was exhausted. Peter could see his dad's energy failing, and was already calculating how long it would take for him to get to that small town to help his dad.
'Don't, Peter.'
Peter looked to his side and saw the professor beside him.
'I know you want to help him, but you being there, will only distract him from the man he needs to fight. He needs to do this on his own.'
Peter sighed and watched as the battle unfolded. His dad got knocked to the ground several times, and the bruises and wounds were visible even on the small TV. Finally, Erik lifted a massive steel bar and aimed it at the tornado throwing mutant. The man was thrown against a wall, and his head slumped immediately. It was done.
Erik visibly let out a deep sigh, and left as soon as he could, avoiding any more unwanted attention to himself.
The reporter started to talk again, talking about the surprising actions of Magneto, but no doubt also explaining how he had murdered the other mutants. Making him the bad guy, even when he was trying to the hero. Peter just walked away, and walked back to his room. He suddenly felt as exhausted as his dad had looked. So he lied down on his bed and fell asleep.
Not much than an hour later he was woken up by the professor.
'Wake up Peter... He's back.'
Peter jumped out of his bed. 'Where is he?!'
'The infirmary...'
Peter started running, doing his best not to run into anyone, although he now cared less about that than ever before. He stopped abruptly when he reached the infirmary and saw his dad on a bed, Hank beside him already trying to patch him up.
'Dad!'
Erik looked up and smiled. 'Hi Pietro.'
'Why did you leave...?' Peter asked, the hurt still present in his voice.
Erik sighed. 'Those mutants used to work for Shaw. After Shaw was defeated I worked together with them, but eventually grew tired of their plans and so I left. They swore to make me pay for that. I hadn't heard from them in a long time, and thought they had just disappeared, but then this happened. I realized they would come after me again, and so I left. I left to defeat them once and for all, before they would find out about you, or your sister. I left so that I could protect you.'
'So you didn't leave because you think I'm a total loser, and that you really just wish I wasn't your son. Or maybe because you grew tired of me because we're so different form each other.'
Erik chuckled to himself as his son rambled on in his own speed.
'Peter... I will never grow tired of you. And I promise you, I will never again leave you without an explanation.'
Peter smiled. 'Thanks dude.'
'Alright, Peter, I'm gonna need to fix up your dad, so you gotta leave. It'll probably take a while so you might want to find something else to do.'
Peter smiled slightly. 'Nah, I'll just wait outside.'
Erik smiled as his son walked out of the room, and let out a deep sigh of relief as he knew that for now Peter was safe.
Hey guys.
So I've been quite busy lately and haven't had much time for writing, but it was time for a new part of this story, so I did my best to write a next one.
On a different note, I sometimes have some difficulty coming up with new ideas for stories in this book, so if you have any ideas or requests for chapters/stories/one shots (however you want to call them) let me know in a comment and I will see if I can turn it into a story.
Thanks the support, and I love you all!