Spider-Man. The House Of Venom

To avoid any suspicion, Peter and Kitty recharged her oxygen and returned. They finished discharging the final reactor but left the altered one alone. Removing it would alert the visitors someone had been there. Once they were done Charles sent a message to Blink, and the group then headed back to the warehouse.

“Charles, you need to stay,” Peter motioned to the sitting area next to the breakfast table. “We still have the flags. If you two want to spend some time in the pool, there is only us here." Peter paused, "Yeah, with the flag out, nobody but the girls will enter, not even me," Peter said to Blink and Kitty. They looked at each other, grinned, and headed through the bathhouse door. 

“There should be clean suits in the alcoves, if not, we’ve got new ones,” he shouted after them. “oh and plastic glasses if you're drinking.” He ignored the raised eyebrow from Charles. If they were old enough to be X-Men, they were old enough to drink.

“So Peter? What has you so riled? You can hide very well, but Kitty is obviously upset,” Charles asked him, as Peter made a separate pot for tea. With Oror here, he had ordered a teapot and fresh leaves for her. Emma was still a bad influence and there were no tea bags in the warehouse.

“It’s better to do a show than tell,” Peter said as he held out a hand. "You might see something I missed." It was always easier to share information mind to mind. As Charles watched the memories he sank back and rubbed a hand over his forehead.

"I need to take control, Peter," Charles asked apologetically. "Sorry, but it is easier to direct the memory without a lengthy explanation.”

Peter nodded and reluctantly allowed Charles to exert control over his mind. He watched the memory in slow motion, pausing it to examine parts but then froze it at one moment. "You only saw it for a brief instant, but look." Charles pointed over to another door, leading from the hanger.

Peter froze, swore, and turned to Charles. "You need to release me. This just got a lot worse."

“You think they removed us from Avalon to stop us from finding their base?” Charles asked. 

"No, but, yes, but. Just let me make a call." Peter turned and slid out his phone, "Sorry Shuri, we have a Code Gold."

Moments later a sling ring portal opened and Shuri, with two guards, walked through. She frowned when she saw Charles. "Peter, please call Jean. And Mister Xavier. Please call anyone you wish to hear privileged but very sensitive information."

"How sensitive?" Charles asked.

Shuri smiled politely and motioned to her two guards, who banged their spears. "Deadly."

Charles nodded stoically, and took out his own phone, "You still have your ADAAM?" he asked Peter, who nodded, "Erik and Selene will be using it. I take it it's not in here?"

"Next door. I'll get them. Shuri, you know where everything is." Peter walked towards the tunnel, hiding a small grin. He could hear Shuri complain.

"No hello, no kiss, not even a cup of coffee. See how he treats me."

Peter laughed as he headed to the other warehouse. It was fake bluster for fake sympathy, as they both knew official duties came first. He would still make it up to her, Shuri always loved getting her shoulders massaged after a long day.

In the saferoom the ADAAM was stored in, Peter stood outside near the blast-proof door. Once the security system was powered, he switched on power to the ADAAM. As it hummed, a portal appeared and two people walked through. Peter could tell it was Erik and Selene but a camera, one that registered heat patterns, confirmed it.

"An empty room?" Erik scoffed, "And I thought your security would be adequate." He was not about to admit there was no metal in the room and it felt like an inert dead zone that was painful to his powers.

Peter was tempted to show him just what security was in place but thought better of it. Above the room, in a special tank was the most caustic webbing Gwen could make. A simple release flooded the room and even Vibranium melted when exposed to it.

"Yeah yeah, big scary X-Man," Peter mocked him, "We're next door."

"Thank you for greeting us Peter," Selene said while raising an eyebrow at Erik. "Charles said it was important."

"Yup, but not in here. We have better security in the main building."

The pair followed Peter, and he bolted the tunnel door behind him, Flicking a switch, a lock engaged. "Right, we're safe here. The only people in the warehouse are us four and Kitty and uh, Blink?" Peter said as he moved to the kitchen.

"Is it that bad?" Erik asked.

Peter nodded, as he filled the coffee pot and made a fresh batch, filling both coffee pots and the teapot with hot water. “I will leave it to Shuri to explain. But yes."

Shuri nodded, "I am now talking to you as Queen Shuri, Ruler of Wakanda."

"Erik Lensheer. Leader of the Brotherhood of," he coughed, "Mutants."

Peter rolled his eyes but Erik ignored him.

"Charles Xavier, Leader of Avalon, or what's left of it.”

"Selene Gallio. Leader of Genosha." She lifted her cup, "now that is out of the way, how bad."

Peter touched Shuri's hand, and Shuri scowled and then frowned. "Oh. It is a giant mess." She took a breath and let it out. "Augments are the result of genetic tampering thousands of years ago. An alien species targetted Earth, set up two bases, and then used a source of power to create Humanity."

Erik scowled, Selene blinked in surprise, but Charles nodded. "Wakanda and I guess the other was on the moon. The door Peter saw."

"Yes. Peter shared the memory with me and it is what we know as Wakanda architecture. Or in this case, it is a species known as the Kree."

Erik clenched his jaw, "Are you serious? We are not some...some lab experiment. We are the highest."

"Nope, we have logs. Where do you think our X-Gene research came from." Peter looked at Shuri who nodded, "There are six stones, called the Infinity Stones. Space, Carol gets her powers from that one. Power, which the Xandarians have. Soul, which was used to create the Cybertronians. Mind, which I had but we hid. Time, which we have no idea where it is, and finally Reality. Where Reed and his group were altered but Doom. The Kree used the Reality Stone to alter primitive humans."

"To what end, nobody grants the power we have to an experiment."

Shuri covered her mouth to hide a small laugh, "Sorry, Peter?"

Peter sighed, "Fine, To make gods. Yeah yeah, Get it over with I can see his head swelling from here." Peter waved his hand at Erik who was scowling.

"Gods? Really?" Charles asked.

"The Stones are the fundamental forces in the universe, more than just energy. They created avatars, the embodiment of their powers. They all, uh, kinda died. The Kree were trying to bring them back."

Erik was now smiling smugly, "I see, yes. Now I understand. Magnetism, my connection to the Power Stone, Charles, embodies the Mind Stone. We are all children of the Gods, made to replace them."

Charles rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Erik behave. We are not Gods or an experiment. If this was done at the earliest step of human evolution, then evolution does not stop. Homo Sapiens are not the same thousands of years later. And neither are we."

Erik stood, "And as always you are the same sentimental fool. We have powers. Regardless of whether we were made or evolved, we have them. They mark us for greatness and now we have proof of that."

Shuri cleared her throat, "And we already know the Xandarians will have issue with it. There was a reason the Kree chose Earth."

Charles sighed and frowned. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, running through what this information meant. "Because genetic alteration of a species is forbidden."

"Exactly. Laws allow alteration of your native species, but to inflict it upon another is abhorrent. To reveal this would mean war with the Kree and our extermination. The Star Gods were killed, and there is a reason they are not back. They are not gods, merely old and powerful. Just as we are not gods, merely more powerful."

Erik scoffed. "You are not an Augment. You have no understanding of what it means."

Shriu stood, and her Dora moved behind her. "You come close to insulting the ruler of Wakanda Mister Lensheer. I am not an Augment, but I am Enhanced, as are my guard. We have ruled Wakanda for thousands of years, eaten its bounty, and we are closer to your Gods than you can ever be. It was my ancestors who freed themselves from their grasp, and allowed you to walk free. Do not overstep."

Erik huffed, and Peter tensed. Erik's gloves squeaked as he bit back on whatever he was about to say, but his hands clenched. "My people must be made aware of this. You have no right to hide this from us."

"And we are sharing right now." Shuri set her cup down, and her guards stepped back. "You knew as soon as we were aware. The origins of your powers are plain in the papers we published. But admitting to alien tampering will bring more hatred upon yourselves."

Erik hated to admit that Shuri was right. It proved they were not entirely human, and that discrimination could be made into law. Erik had enough of those kinds of laws, the ones that sent him to camp, that cost him his mother.

"We must still tell our fellow Augments," but Erik knew he had lost the argument. There would be very few that would actually care where they came from.

"Erik," Charles said softly. "You know this is the right choice. We can make the information freely available, but only if someone looks for it. Hank will be overjoyed to read the research but I doubt Logan will feel the same." He looked over at Shuri, "But I would like it to remain with you. This is a volatile situation, one the Xandarians may take advantage of."

Shuri nodded. "The information can be moved to a secure location. So that the Golden City is not compromised. Only the five of us, and your two young friends know. Which leads me to my next question. What are we going to do with the facility on the moon."

Charles leant back, "I think we need to investigate. Are there any clues as to what they used the moon for?"

Peter looks over at Shuri, who grimaces, "Inhuman experiments with partially successful alterations. They would take the worst ones with extreme powers, and use them for breeding programs."

Peter nodded. "We are also trying to stop another Apocalypse from rising. The ship had basic medical tech on it, what do you think it's like in a facility."

He didn't miss the look that passed between Erik and Charles, "Oh you didn't," he growled. "That's where the ADAAM and the cloning tech came from, You've got Shaws labs." Peter stood and paced, "And you call me impulsive. You saw him, what he could do. He called himself Apocalypse for a good reason."

Charles stood and placed a hand on Peter's shoulder, "And I can say that it is not where the ADAAM came from. We used the cloning technology yes, but nothing else. We did have some... accidents, and have it safely locked away."

Charles was not about to admit they created several imperfect clones, most of which died. There was only one, a female copy of himself, that lived but remained braindead. He just couldn't bring himself to terminate her.

"The ADAAM was created from blueprints in a device we took from Frank Castle. I cannot explain more, but he was in possession of something that did not belong to him. It is safe and secure, and no, we will not be allowing anyone to see it. It is not alien, just," Charles paused, "It was created by an Augment for Augments."

Peter waved a hand, "Yeah, Stark's the same. As long as it's not bad, I don't care. We need to go back to the Moon and make sure the aliens aren't using it to bake bad guys."

"We're not cookies, Peter," Charles said with a sigh. "But I do agree. If there are more of the coning facilities who knows what could be unleashed."

"Right, X-Men who can survive on the Moon, otherwise, this is my show."

Shuri cleared her throat. "I am afraid, my King, that as the ruler of Wakanda, and controller of the Golden City, that it is in fact, my show." Shuri smirked, "Plus, I can survive on the Moon just fine."