"So, that's the way it is."

It took ten minutes to briefly state how he discovered that Charles had secretly studied West's genes, and that he had had a long academic discussion with Elizhe. Tony squinted at the figure lying on the couch unconsciously, and was surprised to find that they hadn't seen each other in months, and that he had lost so much weight that his shirt couldn't even wrap around the bulging silhouette of his bones.

Raise your right arm, and together with the broken hair on your forehead, cover your eyes that have sunk into the endless darkness. The brown-haired boy was silent for a long, long time, until Stark couldn't help but think that this guy might have fallen asleep like that, and he finally sighed, and a broken moan or two leaked from his lips. Recite:

“…… Why didn't you sue me sooner? ”

"Is it useful for me to tell you early?"

Snorted from the nose. Tony put down the manuscripts of Charles, copied the soft cushion on the side, and smashed the young man's face with his backhand without hesitation: "There is no evidence, and there is no evidence, with the importance you attach to Professor X, the first thing you will do after knowing it is probably to fly over from London and smash my house...... What can I do but suggest that you look it up yourself? ”

"...... That's right.

The heart said that if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it was estimated that he would indeed tear Stark's nonsense mouth directly. West's eyebrows twitched, and he dragged the cushion that Iron Man had put on his face, threw it far behind the sofa, and accidentally knocked down Dummy in the corner, who was diligently cleaning the floor.

"Anyway, I can't go back now anyway, Tony."

With his right hand fumbled on the low table, he struggled to turn over and sit up. West lowered his eyes, covering the dilapidated hollowness and gloom in his pupils, and shook his head a little self-deprecatingly:

"You also know that I can't control my temper when I'm excited...... The kids at school, I don't think they want to see me and their beloved Professor X play a farce against each other. ”

"Oh come on, those little freaks might be more than happy for you to tear down the school."

Rolling his eyes at the ceiling, realizing that he was once again being crossed to his chest by Tony Stark, who was being used as a babysitter, apparently sneering at the boy's statement:

"Besides, how many times do you have to tell you to remember it? This is the Avengers' Mansion, not a shelter, and you can't come to me every time you get into trouble or have a bad mood - for God's sake, I don't want to be killed by your two fathers who can't find their son. ”

"Please, Mr. Stark. Anyway, you've raised so many people, and it's nothing to raise me again. ”

Finally laughed happily. The boy blinked slyly, even though there was no sparkle in those empty blue eyes, but one could still feel his heartfelt smile. Just as Tony will still do his best for his friends no matter how much he complains, no matter how many people and things West encounters in the future, this will still be a place where he can always stop in the bottom of his heart.

"Thank you, Tony."

“…… Shut up. ”

With a cough, Stark glanced at the boy angrily, but a slight red unconsciously appeared on his cheeks.

……

So, for the next few days, West lived in the Avengers Mansion with his clothes stretched out and his mouth open. Not only is Jarvis accompanied by Jarvis every day to meet his various needs anytime and anywhere, but he can also openly occupy the best room in the building, Iron Man's private real room, nesting on the windowsill day and night, and sleeping with the cat that Bucky picked up.

In this regard, Hawkeye, who had just returned from an Amazon mission, said that the picture was so beautiful that he couldn't bear to look at the distorted expression on Stark's face.

"Sue me, Xavier...... How many people in this world dream of killing you, I'm going to talk to them about it. ”

He slapped the smashing tablet in his hand on West's face, which not only nearly broke the bridge of his nose, but also managed to frighten the Scottish fold ear nestled in his chest and left several bright red scratches on the back of his hand. Tony gritted his teeth and watched as the boy fell off the windowsill, looking around dazedly and wondering what had happened, suddenly regretting why the boy hadn't just fallen off the top terrace of the Avengers on the other side of the windowsill and broke his neck.

"Hey, you have to know I'm half crippled now, Tony. You can't expect too much from a blind person. ”

Probably because of the more or less self-defeating mentality, since losing his sight, West's temper has obviously been much better than before, and he didn't even get angry when he was slapped from his sleep, but sat on the ground on his knees in this position, lazily raised his head, and reached out to Tony to ask for something in his hand:

"So, have you found out?"

"At this point, you have to trust my ability to gather information."

Rolling his eyelids, Tony didn't hand over the tablet as he had hoped, but snapped his fingers at the ceiling. But for a moment, Jarvis didn't have any feelings. The colored metal voice sounded in his ears, and he directly read the key parts of the information that had been sorted out to West, saving him the time of groping on the tablet word by word like looking for a needle in a haystack - it was also a touching Stark-like thoughtfulness.

He turned his head and smiled in the direction of Iron Man, and the brown-haired boy nodded slightly in thanks. Immediately focus all your attention on the intelligent AI, listening carefully to every bit of its message.

In fact, the reason why West suddenly returned to New York is not just that he needs the comfort and companionship of his family and friends after losing his sight, as Bond thought...... After all, as a mutant 'hermit', he had encountered worse situations more than once in nearly half a century of solo missions, and even after the unforgettable tragedy twenty years ago, he had never shown any weakness...... Now, the reason why he chose to contact Tony is not only because he doesn't want to face Charles, but also because he needs a reliable source to help him find out what has happened in the past twenty years - or why Adelaide, the girl who should have been buried at the bottom of an Alpine lake, suddenly appeared in front of him.

And Tony apparently didn't let him down-

"In the transhuman who attacked you in SC-T, I found footage in the MI6 library and compared it with the missing person reported missing twenty years ago, and found that she resembled one of the German girls named Adelaide Morris as much as 97%."

The sound is flat, but it has some human ups and downs. Because of West's eyes, Jarvis did not display the material on the screen, but it did not affect the logic and coherence of his narrative in the slightest:

"Adelaide's biological data has not been updated since 20 years ago, and based on the actual records that can be found during this period, it can be preliminarily concluded that she died when she was nine years old, and the cause of death was a massive heart hemorrhage caused by a heavy blow from an external force...... I think Mr. Xavier Jr. knows this best. ”

"That's right." The hands on the knees clenched unconsciously. Weskey nodded, but his expression didn't change, just motioning for the butler AI to continue.

"Two days ago, I cracked the real yàn records encrypted by Dr. Yi from the Hydra network, and focused on searching the real yàn records in recent years. It was discovered that while he was transforming mutants, he was also using guò cell transplantation and fusion to create a superpower for mutations...... And Adelaide is a product of this new technology. ”

"You mean......" The young man's eyes widened at the thought of some possibility, and the young man leaned forward slightly, his tone full of unconcealed eagerness.

"Yes, Mr. Xavier Jr. The 'Adelaide' you see is actually a clone created by Dr. Yi. ”

Jarvis said this without any emotion.

……

"Are you alright?"

Glancing at the boy who hadn't said a word since the beginning, Tony waved his hand and told Jar to go and wait by himself. Although he did know about this news earlier, and he was not surprised by it, it was West's past after all, and he certainly wouldn't have felt or resonated with him as deeply.

"A man who is okay is not going to wilt like me, Mr. Stark."

Half-dead lying on Tony's workbench, his long arms stretched out, and swept down a large piece of metal piled up on the table. West snorted aggrievedly at Iron Man's fire-breathing gaze, and his brown hair, which had not been trimmed for a while, drooped softly at the corners of his forehead, almost obscuring most of his pale and transparent face.

To be honest, it wasn't all too unexpected to hear Jarvis's conclusion about clones. In addition to seeing 'α' half to death when he first saw him, West himself did not suspect the origin of that Adelaide...... However, although the next time he encounters the same situation, he should be able to overcome the psychological barrier and not be deceived by the appearance of the enemy. But with West's attachment to Alai, he has been annoyed and remorseful for twenty years, and whether he can really deal with that face now is still an unsolvable problem that even the parties concerned can't answer.

- Perhaps, it is more likely that I will not kill her again, but just die at her hands.

Resting his arms, West thought faintly. After all, in addition to his personal will, Adelaide's own abilities are enough to make him jealous. Coupled with the loss of vision, and the drastic reduction of spiritual power due to the forced breaking of the spiritual barrier, his strength will be reduced to another level. Not to mention Adelaide or reformers, just let an ordinary Hydra mercenary come, he may have a headache for a long time.

"Bang-"

In his ears, Tony seemed to be busy with his real yàn, and every now and then a crisp metallic sound landed on the table, bringing a slight tremor. The corners of his forehead twitched and hurt from the noise, West raised his eyelids, reached forward with disinterest, and soon touched a gadget with residual warmth, and held it up in front of him.

"What is this?"

His eyes blinked, and then he remembered that he couldn't see. The brown-haired boy was a little curious about the metal that looked like a chip in his palm.

"Secret weapon."

The corners of his eyes twitched, but he had the greatest tolerance for him sneaking away his achievements. Tony took off his goggles and pressed his swollen temples, wondering if he needed an espresso or not:

"You've met those bionic soldiers too, and you should know that they seem to have a strange power that can induce the transient distortion of time......"

"So?" Recalling the battle against three bionic warriors on the outskirts of London, West raised an eyebrow.

So, I tried to analyze their energy structure and developed a gravitational field converter based on it...... Oh, it's the one you have. When the gravitational field is distorted by external energy, bubbles and vortex movements will be generated locally through the energy gathering effect generated by the tip effect of the electrode surface during the electrolysis process, and the dynamic Casimir effect will occur during the formation and collapse of the bubbles, and the zero point energy will be extracted and released in the form of heat energy......"

"Tony, say a word, thank you."

“…… Generate controllable space-time warps...... Well, to put it simply, it can neutralize the attacks of those bionic iron blocks, so that time is kept in a relatively stable state, and it will not be swept into the spatial cracks like you did last time. ”

Iron Man, who once again felt the communication barrier between people, snorted coldly, and rolled his eyes at his companion without hesitation: "Have you ever listened to a class at Oxford, Wei?" ”

"I didn't really go there to study...... Also, I read classical literature, not theoretical physics. ”

I resisted the urge to lift the whole workbench, and said in my heart that I have a specialization in art, and I will let you recite Shakespeare's sonnets, and you can only stare at me dryly. West sneered twice, pinched the converter in his hand, which was not much bigger than a matchbox, and was too lazy to bother with him:

"So, how do you use this thing?"

"Just throw it out."

Pulling the converter out of the boy's hand, he didn't know what he pressed when he heard a regular humming sound in the air. I don't know what I remembered, Tony's eyes suddenly lit up, and he walked out quickly from behind the stage, pulling West up and coming to the open space in the center of the room:

"It just so happens that I haven't been researching this thing for a long time, how about you test it for me before the actual battle? Anyway, the ability parameters of those bionic soldiers are extracted from you, and the ability force field is basically the same. ”

“…… I'm not against it, it's just ......"

I couldn't tell what the expression was on his face, and the corners of West's mouth twitched. Although his eyes were still not empty and focused, for some reason, Tony felt that he could see a very subtle disdain in them:

"Are you sure there won't be any accidents?"

"It's all risky, ma'am."

Impatiently, let go of his hand and let the boy stand still. Mr. Stark, who had been questioned about his professional skills, took two steps back in anger, and with his gadget between his fingers, cut off all of West's attempts to repent.

"You just need to put out a little bit of your ability, and I'll just throw the converter over. If it goes its way, the time regression around us will stop immediately without any ill effects - not to mention that you are now mentally damaged, and there is an eighty percent chance that it will not cause a time riot. ”

“…… So what happens if it doesn't go well? ”

Standing stiffly in the light, trying to turn back time a little bit at Tony's urging, West instinctively froze. But before he could get an answer, a blast of wind came from Tony's direction, leaving a small popping sound in the air.

"Tony!"

My heart skipped a beat. Before he could figure out what this uneasiness was, he suddenly found that the moment it came into contact with the gravitational field around him, the chaos of the originally orderly time had reached an unimaginable level in an instant. As if attracted by something, the overly familiar tearing sensation once again swept every inch of his body, and the dislocation of the increasingly distorted space in front of him made West unable to move for half a step, and could only be swept deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of time.

- Damn, I knew that the 20% of the people who had an accident were probably reserved for me!!

Fall into the familiar gap between time and space again. When the storm that raged through the room stopped, looking at the empty room in front of him, Tony was stunned, and immediately threw himself at the workbench, his face suddenly turning pale.