"You're too hard, Wei."

Limped behind the brown-haired boy, and in a low voice sent people to the Stark Group plane to Oxford. Tony leaned helplessly against the hatch, snorting as he put an ice pack on his panda eyes as West threw all his luggage onto his seat with his ability.

“……”

probably also feels that he has an unshirkable responsibility for the inappropriate new image of Iron Man. It was rare that West didn't choke Tony, but took a step back and rolled his eyes back at him.

Truth be told, it wasn't West's intention to beat Tony Stark to a third-degree cripple. Speaking of which, he had a grudge against the entire building except for Dr. Banner, but when he turned from the dumpster and rolled up his sleeves to throw it down, ThorSteve Bakinatasha also happened to get up from the couch and looked sleepily at this side-

Then he silently turned _(:з)∠)_.

West felt that he couldn't blame him for bullying the weak and fearing the hard. Although he is a mutant and his body is much better than that of a normal person, he has to fight with these demigods, genetic enhancers, and senior killers...... He'd better go back and teach Tony how to be a man without armor.

“…… You know I drank too much at that time and probably said a few wrong words. But I swear I never taught Jarvis to call you Mommy, it must have been that kid who secretly learned to frame me...... Looks like it's time for me to consider donating it to college......"

Throwing himself into the comfortably comfortable seat, the brown-haired boy pulled out his phone and checked the text messages from Charles. And behind him, President Stark, who arranged the affairs of this flight, still kept thinking that if you ignore him, he will fly straight to Oxford with you.

replied to his adoptive father, "Don't worry". West pinched his eyebrows helplessly, and finally couldn't resist the magic sound, and beckoned to Iron Man: "Come here, Tony." ”

"Huh?" Walked up to West's side and watched as he raised a hand in front of his eyes. Tony, who had just left an indelible shadow on the Avengers Building, reflexively took a step back, looking a little frightened:

"You're not going to want to punch my left eye again, are you?!"

“…… I look like that's holding a grudge?! ”

Almost unable to resist the urge to poke his finger into his eyeball, West rolled his eyes again and pulled Tony by the collar in front of him: "Don't move!! ”

Standing obediently in place, he immediately felt a cold touch on his eyelids. After realizing that it was actually the finger temperature touched by the young man, the playboy who had never touched a leaf in the thousands of flowers was stunned for a second, and then blurted out:

"Don't get me wrong, Wei, although I slept all over the cover of a magazine for a year, I am actually very principled and will never make a move on my friends...... Oh! It hurts!! ”

"You've got nothing but the upper on your mind. Can the bed be a little bit else? Directly slammed the service guide on the small table in Tony's face, and West was so angry that his head went on fire:

"Look in the mirror and talk to me again, NOW!!"

Cover your nose. Probably seeing that his companion was showing signs of turning on the rampage mode again, Stark nodded aggrievedly in two murderous glances, and ran into the bathroom on the plane-

Then the next second, he poked his head out of the door frame in shock.

"What did you find?" With his arms folded on the back of his seat, West raised his chin in a gesture.

"You almost knocked the bridge of my nose crooked."

“…… What else? ”

"The black blue on my eyes is gone." I touched my eyes, and I didn't feel any swelling or stinging pain. Tony walked back to West in surprise, his eyes widening, "How did you do that?" ”

"Time, Tony, just going back a little bit."

Blinking, seemingly satisfied with their results. The young man smiled slightly, then stretched out a hand to his lips and made a 'confidential' gesture:

"Don't tell Charles, he never allowed me to use this."

"Why?" Tony wondered, "It's a very useful and powerful ability, isn't it?" ”

"It's because it's strong, there's a price I can't afford."

Shrugging, West spoke indifferently:

"The first time I used this ability, I used it to guide the secondary mutation of the gene, and as a result, I stopped my time forever at the age of seventeen, and who knows what the next time I use it, what will happen...... Oh no, don't show that expression, the kind of Cheng dù just now won't do anything...... That's why Charles has been forbidding me to use this ability at will. Because this is not a gift of fate to mutants at all, but a curse. ”

"Wei ......" opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say. Tony looked at him with some concern, "I'm sorry. ”

"It's a pity." With his chin resting on his arm and listlessly blowing his hanging bangs upwards, West sighed:

"Otherwise, Charles will be able to stand up...... and to get back his long-lost hair. ”

“……”

With his mouth open stupidly, Stark didn't know for a moment whether he should continue to mourn or laugh.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Because he had already missed the check-in time, and his expression was sluggish, his forehead was completely disastrous as if he had just fought with someone. So when West set foot on Oxford soil, he was indeed prepared to be turned away from one of the world's oldest universities.

Of course, he was just thinking about it, after all, Professor X, who has great powers, would never let this happen.

I met the professor and took his bibliography for this semester from the half-hundred-year-old man. Perhaps he had received an explanation from where he had gotten something in advance, but he did not say anything about the student's belated arrival, except to tell Mr. Sù that Mr. Xavier Jr. regularly submit his studies and papers, and then sent him out of the door without being salty.

In this regard, West, who went to school for the first time in a normal society, was very satisfied. Like all mutants, he wasn't used to being surrounded by normal people all the time, as that meant he had to learn to hide at all times, and to be constantly on the lookout for his ability to stand out from the crowd. Charles apparently took this into account, and the course he chose for him didn't require him to always communicate with others other than to bury himself in his studies. Although Professor X also hopes that he will be able to make new friends here, safety should come first when a strong enemy is watching.

And his friends apparently know that, too. After getting off the plane, West learned that in order to prevent him from squeezing into a dormitory with others, Tony Tuhao Stark had bought him a house in a place like Oxford, not far from his college. The security system is said to have been designed by Stark himself, controlled by Jarvis, and verified by Black Widow and the Winter Soldier. In the end, Steve Rogers also gave a bicycle painted with star stripes in the backyard, the frame is all made of titanium alloy, which is not only strong and durable, but also convenient for commuting to and from school. ―These are Captain America's exact words.

"He may have chosen a gift for you based on his shield." In this regard, Tony once made a special call to West to complain, "The old popsicle probably forgot that you are a mutant." You know, at his age, everyone was so innocent that fatherly love was overflowing...... Oh no, I'm not targeting you at the same time, Wei - after all, you're only age out of the category of mentally handicapped children. ”

“……”

silently broke off his mobile phone. Now, no matter how much he was moved in his heart, he was strangled in his throat by Stark's words.

So, after spending five days on his bike and figuring out his surroundings, West finally started his life in the UK in an orderly manner. Professor X asked him to find a way to contact Magneto to investigate Dr. Yi's matter, and he agreed lightly, but it wasn't that easy to do. After all, he is not a locator like Charles, and he has to accurately find out his other father in the vast sea of people...... He still felt that it would be less difficult to get people after Eric was caught in the terrorist attack.

On the other hand, since that day in front of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, there has been no news from Dr. Yi and his transhumans, but Hydra, whose activity has increased dramatically recently, and even Steve and they have not even relented in kicking a few bases...... At first, West didn't think this was a signal, until late one night, when Tony called him to tell him that he had met a bionic warrior that matched his genetic sequence while cleaning a certain Hydra room, and the boy finally realized that when the X-Men and the Avengers were cooperating, Dr. Yi had also teamed up with Hydra to carry out his ulterior plan.

"You don't care about the American side, we will deal with it with Cap and them. Your only mission is to find your old enemy, defeat him, and destroy him completely. ”

In the face of West's vague concerns, Professor X firmly vetoed his suggestion of 'whether to come back and help'. The key points of the "Tower Project" are all focused on Dr. Yi, and as the source of all his research, West's place in this game is far more important than he himself estimated. In any case, Elizhe couldn't help but take the initiative to show up in front of him, and all he wanted was to hide himself as much as possible. Then, gain insight into Dr. Yi's full plan and wait for an opportunity.

"One more thing, Will. Watch out for the android warriors you've genetically modified...... They're more quirky than you can imagine. ”

- Odd.

To be able to describe this word by Professor X, the event itself is strange enough.

Sitting in the sunlit Radcliffe Roundhouse, I kept flipping through the old books in the library that smelled of dust. West frowned, looked at the beautiful text in the book about St. Andrew, and pressed the corner of his forehead a little irritably.

These days he has been trying to find in the library the origins of the "Tower Project", a profound meaning that may be traced back to the apostolic time of the Bible, in an attempt to get a deeper touch on the minds of his opponents. But at such times, Charles's words not long ago always appeared in his ears out of place, and with the halo of light flying in the sun, he was constantly magnified in his memory until he disturbed all his thoughts.

――If you want to say weird, the weirdest thing is obviously me.

Closing the book of poems and reaching for another one, West thought so faintly. There was a faint sound of flipping books, like a long time ago, when he woke up in that dim, damp underground. The groundwater seeping from the rock pages falls on the forehead, and the whole world is a terrifying tick, with nowhere to hide and no way to escape.

"Thorn-"

Suddenly, a screeching sound of wood dragging on the floor interrupted his memories, pushing him from the pressure of the deep water to the surface. Looking up suddenly, the boy who made the noise was blushing and apologizing to the people around him. His eyes were wet, and his soft black bangs hung down on his forehead, like a frightened deer cub in the forest, and for a moment, even the protruding cheekbones on his cheeks were dyed a thin layer of red.

It doesn't matter if he shrugs his shoulders, West is naturally not a person who is an accountant for such trivial things. Putting all the messy thoughts behind him, he lowered his head again, trying to continue to look for the clues he needed in the annals of history, but suddenly found that the book in his hand didn't seem quite right.

"...... 'The Death of King Arthur'?"

I accidentally read out the title of the book on the cover. West was stunned, remembering that the book seemed to have been accidentally brought down from the top floor when he was looking for the last one, and that he was too lazy to put it back at the time, so he took it together and put it in the list of books to be read.

…… Since I've brought it all, it doesn't seem to be justified if I don't flip it over.

Taking off his glasses on the bridge of his nose, West pinched his eyebrows and casually flipped a few pages as a moment of relaxation. The story of King Arthur is, after all, a glorified legend, not much different from other heroic myths he had heard as a child. So soon, he was so excited that he rolled his eyes and yawned so much that he didn't even remember a few of the characters in the story.

After all, compared to the records in the books, which are both true and false, his life itself is fantasy enough.

Shaking his head, he dusted the epic and beautiful words back in the yellowed pages. He got up with the sunset outside the window, and was about to pack up his things and leave his seat, but suddenly his heart tightened, as if someone had been watching him intently since the beginning, focused, sad, his eyes were like the overwhelming rain of summer, and even the air seemed to float with that suffocating feeling of drowning.

Looking up, he looked at the source of his gaze - it was the dark-haired boy with high cheekbones.

Stunned, convinced that he didn't have any memories of him, West frowned unconsciously. As a pure mutant, he has never stayed in normal society much since he was taken away from the orphanage by Professor X, and has very few friends. And in the short month I came to Oxford, I also tried my best to avoid a lot of unnecessary interpersonal interactions. If he had met this boy somewhere, it was only in the classroom or with the instructor...... Although in fact, he still has no memory of what his teacher looks like, let alone anyone else.

――So, maybe you're mistaken, right?

Dr. Yi and his bionic weapon consumed all his patience to the point where he didn't have the energy to worry about such a trivial matter anymore. Therefore, West only nodded politely at the boy, and then looked away indifferently, and walked out of the reading room without looking back.

And he certainly didn't find out. Leaving behind him, the boy's face suddenly became sad. The clear joy and loss were constantly intertwined with those transparent and pure light gray eyes, until West's back disappeared from view for a long, long time, still looking in the direction he left, and never moved away.