𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

Capture the Mutant

Peter didn't typically watch the news, not all that interested in the weather or the election results in the state, but when he couldn't find anything decent on the television, he flicked it on just for the sake of having something to look at. It started off pretty boring as per usual, the hosts talking about inflation or something equally mind numbing, but when a picture of his dad appeared on the screen, he was suddenly hooked.

It was a photo from seventy-three in Washington D.C., with Magneto front and centre in his red cape and helmet. Text appeared at the bottom of the screen, reading Magneto At Large. Peter frowned and leaned in closer, watching as the report changed to a man in Poland, standing with a microphone outside the house Peter knew all too well. Yellow police tape was stretched around the perimeter of the building, and in the background there was a row of police cars sitting on the road. The reporter didn't say what had happened, simply repeating that Magneto was a threat and anyone with information should speak to the authorities.

Peter didn't know what to think. The few times he had visited Erik with Jennifer, he seemed pretty chill. He didn't shout or swear, didn't get angry, and he hardly used his powers. It was pretty hard to imagine that that same man had tried to end the world twice, and had thrown his girlfriend through the air with a lamppost. And now he was a threat again? A day after Jennifer had returned from his and said everything was great? It didn't make sense.

Then he thought about Jennifer, sitting at the school alone watching the same report, with no one to talk to. Erik was practically her step-father, or father in law - how was she going to deal with him turning dark-side again? Or maybe the news had it wrong, and nothing bad had happened, Erik had just let slip his history to the wrong person. And yet, something in his gut told him otherwise.

Even Jennifer admitted that Erik would do good for a while, but he constantly slipped back into his whole sociopath personality. This time it had lasted longer, and she'd been convinced everything would work out for him, but the truth didn't seem so optimistic.

A bitter feeling grew in his stomach. That was his biological father on the screen, the mass murderer, the terrorist. He'd been warming to the idea of telling Erik that he was his son, after spending many weekends with him, but all of that seemed irrelevant now. It had been a waste of time trying to get to know the guy, because in the span of a week he had went from your regular Joe to the same villain he was a decade ago. Did he really want a father as indecisive as that?

He didn't even notice his mom come down the stairs till she sat beside him on the sofa. Suddenly he felt guilty, for what he wasn't sure, but he did. "What are you thinking about?," she asked him softy.

Peter shrugged, trying to stay as nonchalant about the situation as possible. "How did you meet this guy? Was it like a club for terrorists or something and you just thought you'd pop in?"

"Even the worst people have spots of gold in them. I saw the good in him, the same way Jennifer does. I didn't know who he was, and that man on the screen? He's not your father. Your father is the man you travel halfway around the world to see. He's the guy that you went on day trips with, along with the rest of his family."

"But it's the same guy," Peter pointed out, crossing his arms.

Laura sighed. "That's the problem. He's dangerous Peter, and if you go after him it won't end well, nothing ever does with him. But I can't stop you if that's what you want."

"I don't know. I mean, he's basically Jenny's step-dad. So when he get married he sorta becomes my father in law anyway. But I want him to know. To see me as his own, not just the guy Jenny brings around."

"So are you going to leave?"

"I have to. Jenny will be worried and I can't let her chase him down alone."