Sneaky as a Spider

Mutant paradise did sound appealing but Genosha was already close and they had gone through hell and back to keep it. “I don’t believe in slaves, unlike the humans who came before us in Genosha.” There was a bitterness to his tone but Erik had also been proud of all he had achieved through his country. “If humans resist the new mutant rule, they’ll be handled. Those who do not will find their place.” Questions like hers were the exact reasons as to why he had dispatched Emma and The Frost Sisters to examine Vought and what better place to look than the minds of their own heroes and superiors? “Why now?” He asked, his temper quickly rising. “Why are supes only showing themselves now, almost as if something had to go perfectly in a lab?” Honestly, he didn’t understand as to why people were so slow to ask these questions. “But the doctors report for Starlight’s birth didn’t indicate any powers. The lights only showed up after she was in the Neonatal Unit. Don’t you find that curious?”  Naturally, people didn’t have as many telepaths at their disposal as Erik did but curiosity was still something humans lacked. “And what about the majority of people fighting against mutant rights? Would you have me forgive them all?” No matter what her answer Erik already knew what punishment he would inflict on them.

“You’re a very cryptic man- has anyone ever told you that?” Gwen talked to a lot of random new yorkers and they were all very weird. Not often were they mutants nor did they speak of plans of taking over but this had the same weird vibe. “What do you mean by handled?” The blonde questioned, head tilting just a little. There were many possibilities going around her head but none of them were particularly positive. “What about the avengers? What happens to the heroes that aren’t supes?” Considering she was technically a hero, it was a valid question. “I dunno,” her shoulders rose in a little shrug. As curious as she was, she was more concerned with what they were up to now than the circumstances of one's birth. “Honestly no but I am now. How would you even know that information?” She’d been digging into Vought for a while and if Vought’s supes came from a lab she was almost certain those files would be confidential. “Not at all, I just don’t think everyone should be punished for the mistakes of the few. There are some good people still out there.”

“If everyone is equal then there is no order, I rule Genosha currently and that is a taste of what the future could be.” Genosha was self-reliant, they all grew their own crops and used their mutations to help further what their country needs. It was almost a Utopia. Humans would be made to serve, maybe fear the way they had made mutants run and hide. “Really?” Erik questioned. “There have been no reports of supes since Homelander and that literally came out of a press release. Vought creates their heroes mutants are a whole other species. Homo superior and the future of the planet.” Homelander would never be an ally to mutants he was vought through and through and Magneto only wanted the superior species on their side. “He can’t help, he would be a liability for my goal so why not just get rid of the problem?”

“So it’s gonna be like a mutant paradise with you ruling over everyone, sounds pretty cool. Humans are probably gonna become slaves then, yeah? I don’t know what the supes do but I’m guessing something similar- may I request to be like a high-level slave? I have a lot of handy skills.” Gwen could never handle herself with such vigor and confidence as this man seemed to. It was admirable even if she didn’t quite understand everything he was trying to say. “Mutants are a different species and superior, I get that part completely. But like... just because Homelander was the first reported doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t others before him. How about the supes that aren’t part of Vought and just live every day lives? Again, Starlight is an example of someone with powers who joined the seven later.” In all honesty, Gwen hadn’t much thought about the idea that supes were created instead of born. It was easier to take information at face value and disprove it later. She imagined this guy had some issues regarding race relationships and accepting help, she could relate... kind off. Doing her work alone was a choice after all. “Smart. You could do that instead, dude is real shady anyway. Having laser eyes is cool though, I would love to be able to do that.” Gwen had a particular interest in powers. She was fascinated by them. “Who needs him when you’ve got the superior species to back you up, right? Sounds a little unfair to the non-mutants fighting for mutant rights but whatever.”

Protocol dictated that The Deep either had to take care of this problem himself or sound the alarm and wait for Homelander or Maeve but honestly, he couldn’t be doing with that shit anymore. He was tired of it, tired of prooving himself and tired of the lies but what else did he know? Vought was his life and his future, without it he would be fuck all. “You need a pass to get through the front door and I doubt you work here.” Even if she did, The Seven’s floor was out of bounds to all except the members of the group and senior officials. “Strong?” He scoffed. “Physically yeah but that’s all she’s got going for her right now.” Queen Maeve was nothing like the posters or the movies. She was lost in the bottom of a bottle but the fans weren’t allowed to know that. “How about you tell me why you’re here and I’ll give you a glass of Queen Maeve’s favorite drink?” She’d probably be too drunk to notice any had gone and honestly the Deep couldn’t give a fuck if she did.

“You wouldn’t know,” Gwen shrugged a little. “I highly doubt you’ve taken the time to learn about half the people who work here.” The blonde didn’t like the Seven or Vought, she never tried to hide that but her distaste for The Depp was something else. She had met Homelander before, Queen Maeve too and while they didn’t live up to their carefully crafted image, they were... interesting. The Deep on the other hand just gave her bad vibes. His place on the seven wasn’t deserved especially after his stunt with Starlight and now his Girlfriend died in a mutant attack? Sounded fake. Probably was fake. Vought would lie to cover their own back after all. It was always a risk coming to Vought but she wanted to see if there was anything more to this story. Running into The Deep himself was unexpected. She seemed to have a habit of running into supes every time she came here; maybe she needed to rethink her strategy. Ghost Spider walked further into the room. “Okay, let's not insult the superior member of the seven.” Out of all the supes, Maeve was definitely the only one she could stand. “How about you tell me why you’re sitting here all sad and gloomy, fish man?” The offer of a drink was intriguing, maybe talking to the asshole himself would be useful. “Also, I wanna know what Queen Maeve’s favourite drink is”

Lexi smiles softly. “Please, just call me Lexi.” She nods in understanding. The gimmicky Christmas stuff wasn’t for everyone, and she could respect that. “I get that. And yeah, if I’m being honest, Starbucks is kinda overrated and overpriced.” She laughs softly. “You play the drums? Do you play a certain genre or just anything and everything?” She pays for the girls drink and orders one for herself as well. She can’t help but laugh again. “Really? Old people I can see, but new couples? Why’s that?” She tilts her head.

“Maybe but they make a nice cup of coffee and I really like the Hickory ham and cheese toastie. Chicken and Pesto one isn’t bad either” Gwen shrugged a little, now she kind of regretted not taking the journey to Starbucks. “I do,” she nodded. “I can play anything and everything but we’re a rock band so mostly rock,” Her weight shifts from one foot to the other, graciously accepting the drink from the lady behind the booth. “I don’t know, it just gives me new couple vibes. I can picture them walking slowly, hand in hand, completely in the way of everyone as they peruse the Christmas decorations on a cold winters evening.”

“The same thing that has happened for centuries, we rule and homo sapiens finally understand that there is no place for them.” Mutants would take their rightful place and rule the world and shape it into what it needed to be and hopefully, his children would be at his side when that happened. “I think supers were created to overtake us and achieve what mutants can’t for the moment.” People like Charles Xavier and his X-Men were the thing blocking Magneto’s Brotherhood but since his episode, Xavier was out and now was the time to strike. “If Homelander came over here I would ensure my team of telepaths destroyed his mind if he is physically powerful. They can make his mind turn to nothing with a snap of their fingers.” Erik was proud of the Frost girls, they were everything his Brotherhood should be, powerful and relentless and loyal to his cause. 

“That’s what mutants are gonna do but I meant you specifically. You’re a mutant right so will you be in charge or is it like a free for all where anyone does anything and you’re all equal?” As a non-mutant, Gwen was very curious about this supposed future. “And since there's no place for anyone else, does that mean we all die or are you gonna lock us all up? I wanna know what my future holds so I can prepare.” Playful words but she admired the dedication to his cause. “I don’t think that’s right,” her head shook. “Supes aren’t created, they’re born with powers and then like they interview to be part of vought- at least that’s what I heard. I don’t believe all that crap about being chosen by God or whatever though, it’s just luck.” She found a lot of heroes were merely lucky; herself included although sometimes she saw it as more of a curse. “Heavy that like,” Gwen comments, “Seems silly though. Hypothetically speaking he’d be on your side so why destroy a potentially powerful ally? If it was me, I’d let him help and then when I was in charge I’d get rid of him.”

Lexi nods. “It’s nice to meet you Gwen.” She looks over at the blonde, “Lexi Sullivan.” She smiles slightly as they walk. “Enjoying yourself tonight?” 

“Nice to meet you too, Lexi Sullivan,” Although she would have prefered it without the dropping of her hot chocolate. She offers a small shrug, as they approached the stand. “I guess. I’m not big on these kinds of markets, I just wanted something hot and the walk to Starbucks didn’t seem worth it. Plus it way cheaper here and I ain't getting paid to practice drums so gotta save the coins where I can.” Gwen was rambling, small talk was easy when you just said whatever came to mind. She just didn’t want to fall into awkward silence before she got her drink. “These places make me think of old people and new couples.”

When the Avengers first came to be Erik had hated them and out of them all the two worst had been Captain America and his sanctimonious speeches and Tony Stark and his own self-importance but somehow they had more respect than mutants. “You’re right and mutant supremacy has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?” It was clear she didn’t mean a word of it but the sentiments were there and Magneto knew his kind time was coming. “What vought has created is nothing short of lab rats praying they were like us.” There were similarities but mutants were superior and there was nothing anyone could say to prove him wrong. 

“Sure,” Gwen hummed, shrugging her shoulders a little. “So, best case scenario what will you do when the mutants take over? And what happens to everyone else?” Mutant supremacy seemed like a long shot if anything supes taking over seemed more likely which was a horrific though. Vought already had too much power and they were plenty sketchy. “You think the supes want to be like mutants? Seems unlikely, most of them are pretty full of themselves and mutants aren’t exactly popular right now.” Mutants were the enemy in the public eye and this guy certainly seemed to fit the ‘they’re all against us’ narrative. “For real though, say Homelander walked over here right now and said he wanted to fight for mutant supremacy, you wouldn’t let him? Dude’s got x-ray vision and like laser eyes, he could be useful.”

starter for @its-ghost-spiderr·

With The Glacier’s death, The Deep hadn’t been the same. Yes, he didn’t care for her in a romantic way but he had tried and as for as the world was concerned he had loved her so Vought wanted to play up the grieving boyfriend but he just needed a day to collect himself. Even that was too much to ask for but he couldn’t deal with the press or the questions right now. Everyone else in Vought was either on a mission or asleep while The Deep had to adopt Maeve’s way of coping and some good whiskey was the way to it. He was halfway through another bottle when he caught a glimpse of a white hood with a bit of pink. “Look I don’t know how you got in here but you have to leave before I call for Queen Maeve or worse The Homelander.” The Deep wasn’t in any state to fight or even stand up by himself and the best thing he could do was threaten them with a more powerful member of the Seven.

Gwen was curious by nature. She had always liked playing detective, even when she was small. It probably came from the fact her father had worked his way up the police force to become captain. And ever since she had gotten bitten, her curiosity had only grown. Now equipped with new skills and a knack for sensing danger, Gwen found snooping around shady areas a more than enjoyable pass time. From seedy bars to giant organizations, if there were secrets to be found you could find her hiding in dark corners or scaling walls. Vought was a huge and frankly rather sketchy place. There was no way a company of that magnitude didn’t have some secrets up its sleeves and she didn’t trust a word they said. Even the little things like Translusants retirement didn’t sit well with her. She was almost certain they were lying about that and about most things. So when she had been scrolling through her twitter feed only to discover The glacier had died by the hands of a fire powered mutant, Gwen just couldn’t help herself. Slipping into her trusty pink and white arachnid themed ‘onesie’, she swing through the streets of new york to investigate. 

Getting past security was easy; she’d been here enough times to know the routine. And lucky for her, the building was particularly quiet. She didn’t question her good luck but she was expecting something to go wrong any minute. It often did. With a heavy sigh, the blonde backtracked a few steps when she heard a voice she assumed was for her. “If it isn’t The Deep, I actually just walked through the front door. My bad, I thought this place was open” Gwen hummed, signalling back over her shoulder.  “You could call one of them but I don’t suppose they’d be too happy about it. My vote’s for Maeve though as much as I’m a homeland fan. Queen Maeve just seems a lot more intimidating plus I got a lot of respect for strong women especially on a team like yours.”

Lexi smiles softly and nods as she starts to walk with the woman. “So, what’s your name?” She looks at her out of the corner of her eye, unsure if the blonde would like to make small talk. She looks around at some of the vendors and displays as they head back to the hot chocolate booth. 

Gwen looked over the various stalls as they walked back. Most stalls sold things she would never buy; pointless and frankly some rather ugly nicknacks. Why were Christmas markets so popular. “Gwendolyne Stacy. Most people call me Gwen though.” The blonde replies, glancing towards the other woman. “What about you?”

“Maybe those in this world should come to accept their superior species.” Mutants were the inevitable future and humans were just something they would tell stories about but that time would come soon and that day would be momentous. “I’m not being crazy I am just informing the masses of what’s to come.” His mouth flickered into a smile. “If people wanted to help mutants they can’t, we only accept the best of the best and that’s those who have the x-gene. Anything else is a laughing matter.”

“Maybe we should, yeah. They can’t do any worse than the people in charge already.” Her shoulders rose in the most casual of shrugs. This kind of argument was way above her pay grade as a hero. “My apologises, sir. Mutant supremacy isn’t a crazy idea at all.” Gwen offered up a tight-lipped smile. “Wait, I’m confused so only mutants can help other mutants? What if like, one of the supes wanted to help you rule the world? Hypothetically speaking. You wouldn’t want another powerful soldier in your army?”

In New York everyone wanted to be a hero, they all thought themselves above their normal lives but when confronted with the future they all ran scared. Mutants were the future and a reminder that soon the homo sapiens would be a thing of the past, their rightful place within the world. “I’ve never been known to chill especially when the world is hunting the superior species.” Mutants were more than anything this Vought could manufacture and joining with the Sentinel Services only proved his point that they were running scared. Now Magneto was back on American soil to right all the wrongs that had been done and to show them the real fear of mutants. “Take what you can get?” He repeated with a tone of disgust. “The world has mutants, people who have evolved to the point of superiority but that isn’t good enough.”

“I think someone needs to lay off the mutant Koolaid,” Gwen teased, a soft chuckle passing her lips. This guy was straight up bonkers but he spoke in such a way that made him interesting; he was very refined. Now she understood that he was a mutant it made a little more sense but he wasn’t like the others. The likes of Alex who at least seemed nice. She didn’t really agree with the whole mutants were the superior species thing but that was probably because she wasn’t one. Her powers came from a genetically engineered alien spider after all. She held no resentment towards humans. “Mutants are being hunted sure but not everyone is anti-mutant, dude. Maybe show a little respect for the people on your side and work together- people may surprise you. Not all, most are idiots but some. Being all mutant crazy isn’t exactly gonna help your case after all.”

New York… It had been too long and too many memories and betrayals of his kind, the superior kind. The world wanted mutants, they needed to be saved but they had to control the narrative and Magneto had spent too many years being someone else’s puppet. “The world wants to be saved, it needs it. Humans are too fragile, too singular minded to truly control anything.” It was too easy to manipulate the nearby metal, it was as part of Erik as his arm or his eyes. “Now, tell me why you think the world wants these characters in costumes instead of their future?” Mutants were what was next in the world and nothing could stop evolution. 

Gwen had met a lot of strange characters in her lifetime. New York was full of weirdos, she had grown accustomed to the strange scenes on the subway. Then there was the kind she met as Ghost-Spider, the ones that liked to dress up and call themselves things like The Vulture or Rhino. Arguably she fell into that category considering she liked to swing around town and climb walls while in a weird arachnid-themed costume. But this guy was definitely sitting somewhere near the top of her list. The way he spoke of humans suggested he was anything but one of them. He wasn’t a supe either at least not one she knew of. “How am I supposed to know?” Gwen questioned, her brows furrowing. “I’m not big on them either but maybe you should chill down a little. My guess is that at this point, we’ll take what we can get. We’re not immune to propaganda or so the meme goes and Vought has a pretty swell marketing team.”

Guilt surges through Lexi as she watches the drink hit the floor. “I’m so sorry. Can I at least get you a new drink?” She asks quietly as she looks at the blonde in front of her. “It’s the least I can do, aside from not bumping in to people..” She adds with an awkward laugh. Quietly, she scans her eyes over the woman’s coat, making sure she hadn’t gotten any of the what appears to be hot chocolate on her. 

Was this disappointment she felt over a spilt cup of hot chocolate that she never actually got to try? Did it really bother her that much? The blonde looked to the women and let her slight pout morph into a somewhat unamused smile. Her intention was not to be rude, she was just pissed about her drink. She made no attempt to apologise on her part and there was even part of her that was willing to just walk away but when you’re not rolling in cash and someone is offering you something it would be stupid to say no. “That would be... great. Thanks.” Gwen insisted, signalling over her own shoulder. “The stall is back that way.”