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"I was born in an era where the X-Men were gradually disappearing. My mother was Mystique, and my father was Azazel. Because the X-Men no longer existed, and Magneto and others had also gradually vanished, the situation for mutants was quite dire.
"Mystique was fine; she could transform into anyone and perfectly blend into any place, but I couldn't. My skin ensured that I couldn't be seen in an era where mutants were weak.
"So, until I was fifteen, my mother kept me locked in my room, unable to leave."
"Wait… you're also a transmigrator?"
Kevin was shocked.
Nightcrawler retorted with amusement, "When did I say I wasn't?"
"…"
Well, it seemed he really hadn't said he wasn't.
Skipping this irrelevant topic, Nightcrawler continued:
"Then, when I was fifteen, Raven disappeared… After I ate all the food, I realized Raven hadn't returned, and I knew something had happened.
"To find food, and to find my mother, I put on a cloak and gloves and left home for the first time.
"Raven protected me very well. For those fifteen years, although she kept me locked in my room, she never mistreated me. Besides not letting me see news or newspapers, she allowed me to do almost anything.
"But because I couldn't watch the news, I had no way of knowing what was happening outside until I went out and realized that the situation for mutants had become even worse than in the movie 'Days of Future Past'.
"All mutants were captured by major powers and used as power generators, and those who didn't obey were all confined to concentration camps, enduring inhumane torture.
"When I realized the state of this world, I knew something must have happened to Raven."
Nightcrawler sighed at this point. He hesitated, choosing his words carefully as he continued:
"…I knew that if my mutant identity were discovered, I would be finished, so I investigated cautiously, and thus the progress was very slow. For several years, I couldn't find any trace of Raven.
"Until I met Laura."
"X-23."
"Yes, an artificial human created using Wolverine's genes as a template. The lab she was in was destroyed, and she had been wandering until she met the young X-Men: Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Sunspot, and Blink, and then she found me…"
Nightcrawler leaned back into the sofa, reminiscing:
"Thanks to them, I found news of Raven, but unfortunately, it was bad news. Raven died under human experimentation, leading to the creation of the Sentinels in that world…
"But thankfully, we, the young X-Men, arrived in time and destroyed the first-generation Sentinels and all related data, preventing that world from becoming like 'Days of Future Past'."
"What then?"
"Then? There's not much more to say. After investigation, we learned that most of the previous generation of X-Men were basically dead. Except for Wolverine, most were no longer in the world.
"Later, under Wolverine's leadership, we rebuilt Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and once again operated as the X-Men, while also rescuing mutants persecuted by humans.
"Perhaps because we were the X-Men, or perhaps because we represented justice, anyway, during that period, things went quite smoothly for us.
"Laura and I fell in love and even set a wedding date. After everything was on track, we each became teachers at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters… until that trickster found me."
This was Nightcrawler's experience before coming to the Void.
If it weren't for that trickster, he would probably be married to Laura by now.
Kevin did not inquire about the details of Nightcrawler's story.
Even though Nightcrawler spoke as if it were easy, just considering the conflict between mutants and humans, one could understand that his experience was definitely not easy.
Kevin had no intention of touching on painful memories. Having heard Nightcrawler's general story, Kevin then looked at Spider-Man:
"What about you?"
"There's not much to say about my story. You know, the story every Spider-Man goes through: bitten by a mutated spider, losing a loved one, hearing 'With great power comes great responsibility' from their dying lips…"
Spider-Man seemed reluctant to dwell on this, glossing over that part in one sentence, shrugging:
"Then I fell in love with MJ, was led into the Spider-Verse by that O'Hara guy, and finally found by the Sorcerer Supreme… Simple, right? I don't have as rich an experience as this Nightcrawler guy."
"Then by your logic, perhaps your story has just begun."
"Oh no, I've fought Green Goblin, fought Lizard, and there's Hydro-Man, Sandman, Doctor Octopus… I've fought the Sinister Six all at least once… I don't want any more stories."
Goodness… and you said your experience wasn't as rich as Nightcrawler's.
If your world were a game, wouldn't you be close to beating it?
Kevin looked at Spider-Man strangely, muttering to himself, before finally turning his gaze to Cassie, who was playing a game.
Cassie had stopped playing at some point and was listening to their conversation with her ears perked up. When she saw Kevin looking at her, she immediately pretended not to have been eavesdropping and picked up her game console again.
After a while, she put down her handheld console and looked up at them:
"…Why are you looking at me? I don't have a story to tell you."
"Come on, tell us. We're just sitting around anyway."
Nightcrawler said to Cassie in a coaxing tone, like to a child.
Cassie rolled her eyes, unimpressed by Nightcrawler's tone, then said:
"I think you just want to make fun of me."
"How could that be? Absolutely not!"
Nightcrawler said solemnly, with a serious expression.
Kevin and Spider-Man also nodded in unison.
Truly, they really had no curiosity about their female selves; they just genuinely wanted to hear a story.
Cassie glared at them.
Their souls were all the same; who didn't know who? She knew these guys definitely wanted to make fun of her.
But it didn't matter. She had been this way for over ten years and had long since gotten used to her current appearance and identity. Even if they wanted to make fun of her, Cassie wouldn't be emotionally affected.
So, after thinking for a while, Cassie still said:
"There's nothing much to say. I've only been with the Young Avengers for less than three months. If I hadn't secretly taken my grandfather's and mom's Quantum Tunnel Transporter blueprints and researched them to travel to a parallel world with my friend, the Sorcerer Supreme wouldn't have come to find me."
"Hold on, you're only seventeen, and you built a Quantum Tunnel Transporter?!"
Kevin was truly astonished at this.
He didn't remember being that smart. How did changing gender suddenly turn him into a scientific genius?
Cassie smiled smugly at his words and said:
"You don't even look at who my grandfather is—the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym! My mom, Hope, is also a top student, and Iron Man even tutored me.
"With so many geniuses as my teachers, and me building it from blueprints, if I couldn't even build a Quantum Tunnel Transporter like that, I might as well just kill myself and start over!"
As Cassie said this, her tone was clearly disdainful.
It was evident that after so many years of being this way, she had developed another personality not belonging to Kevin.
She was very confident in her scientific abilities, just like Hank Pym and Tony Stark.
"What then? Why did you build the Quantum Tunnel Transporter?"
Kevin expressed understanding, then immediately asked Cassie about the purpose of building the Quantum Tunnel Transporter.
Cassie paused, then stammered:
"I was just curious… because in my world, the Avengers and X-Men exist, but it's not like the comic world, and I don't know the plot, so I planned to use the Quantum Tunnel Transporter to go to a parallel universe to see if I could find the main Marvel Universe from the movies…
"It was originally just me, but who knew Kate insisted on coming with me…"
"Kate?"
Kevin was a little surprised; he hadn't heard that name.
Nightcrawler said:
"The second Hawkeye, a member of the Young Avengers. She and Cassie are good friends."
"I see. So, did you find a parallel world?"
"We found one… but it wasn't the one we were looking for. It was a medieval Marvel. We found it boring, so we looked around and came back, and who knew, as soon as we got back, we ran into that hateful trickster!"
Influenced by Nightcrawler, Cassie also referred to the Sorcerer Supreme as a trickster.
It seemed she truly disliked Wen Yi.
Actually, although Cassie spoke casually, just like Spider-Man, her experience was also not easy at all.
Spider-Man omitted the process of him dealing with Green Goblin, Hydro-Man, Doctor Octopus, and other villains.
Cassie also omitted the process of encountering the villains Yellowjacket and Crossfire in the parallel world.
They were Ant-Man's fated villains, so it was normal for Cassie to encounter them.
Regardless of the process, the final result was that Cassie and the second Hawkeye safely returned to their world, and then were caught red-handed by Sorcerer Supreme Wen Yi.
Originally, Cassie didn't want to help Kevin; she felt this matter had nothing to do with her.
What's important about figuring out the source? She has her own family and friends in this world, and while she doesn't have a lot of money, with her background, intelligence, and her identity, making money is a breeze.
Cassie didn't want to get involved.
Then Sorcerer Supreme Wen Yi tricked her into going to Kamar Taj, using the excuse that she had disrupted the Sacred Timeline.
She said that if she didn't do that, the TVA would come knocking.
Cassie was still too young; her teenage experiences had not only failed to mature her psychological age but had instead regressed it to be similar to her physical age.
Though smart, she was still much inferior to the old Conspirer, Sorcerer Supreme.
It wasn't until Sorcerer Supreme Wen Yi tricked her into the Void that she realized she had been deceived.
From then on, she began to complain and incessantly curse Wen Yi.
"You said you wouldn't trick yourself… I knew it, nothing that comes out of a Sorcerer Supreme's mouth is true. Ancient One was like that, Strange is like that, and that damned Wen Yi is like that too…"
Mentioning this, Cassie started nagging again, her words filled with resentment towards the Supreme Mages.
Nightcrawler smiled helplessly and said to Kevin:
"Girls always hold grudges. It seems even we can't avoid it…"
"Hey! I heard that! You did that on purpose!!"
Nightcrawler's voice wasn't loud, but in this small space, it wasn't quiet either.
Cassie heard him clearly and immediately bared her teeth at Nightcrawler, looking as if she wanted to shrink him and throw him into an ant nest.
"Ahem."
Nightcrawler cleared his throat and immediately changed the subject, saying:
"Alright, the story is over. Let's discuss now how to deal with Iron Man if we encounter him."
"There's no need to discuss this. As long as we deal with the magic-isolating dampener in Iron Man's hand, I can take care of all of them by myself."
Kevin said confidently.
In terms of physical fitness and combat ability, he believed Hulk was no match for him.
But the troublesome thing about Hulk was that he became stronger the angrier he got.
The only way Kevin could think of to stop his anger was to use magic to knock his soul out, but the dampener in Tony's hand would create a temporary anti-magic field.
With only his physical and combat abilities left, he would be chased and beaten by the three of them.
So, if Nightcrawler and the other two could find a way to deal with the dampener, Kevin could easily handle not just three, but even ten opponents!
"That confident?"
Cassie eyed Kevin suspiciously but didn't voice her doubts. She turned to the workbench nearby, picking out something, then said:
"Let me see… if you can really take care of the three of them, then I might be able to figure out how to deal with the dampener in Iron Man's hand."
Spider-Man leaned over when he heard this and asked:
"Are you sure? Last time you played a trick on Iron Man, and now his armor has devices specifically installed to counter you. You'll probably be discovered before you even get close."
"Hmph, don't underestimate me! Do you think I've just been playing games all this time?"
"…Haven't you been playing games every day?"
"No!! I occasionally research my suit too, okay!!"
Cassie yelled in dissatisfaction, her hands not stopping as she assembled the parts she had taken from the workbench into a tool.
She put the tool on her hand and shook it at Spider-Man:
"This is my method! A force field isolator! It can destroy the dampener in Iron Man's hand, and then you'll be able to use magic."
Cassie's last sentence was directed at Kevin.
Kevin leaned over to look and found that her workbench had quite a lot of things.
Besides the isolator she was holding, there were many other Strange tools whose functions he couldn't understand.
One of them looked a bit familiar to Kevin. After a closer look, he realized it was the vibrating tool Cassie had used to knock Hydro-Man flying earlier.
Seeing Kevin's gaze linger on the vibration bracelet, Cassie explained:
"This is a device Parker and I made together. One of Parker's opponents is called 'Shocker,' who does evil with arm gauntlets that emit shockwaves. He once captured Shocker and studied his device, which is how we were able to make it here."
It seemed the weakness of the mutant Hydro-Man's body was vibration. Cassie and the others had indeed made the arm gauntlets that could emit shockwaves because of this.
"Then let's divide the work," Nightcrawler interjected. "If we encounter Iron Man, Cassie will be responsible for containment, Parker and I will deal with Hydro-Man, and the remaining Hulk, and any others we might encounter, will all be up to you."
"…?"
Wait a minute?
Kevin felt something was off halfway through. He looked Strange and asked Nightcrawler:
"Iron Man and them… aren't there only three of them?"
"Did I say there were only three of them?"
"Don't tell me there are many 'us' on their side!! Are there that many parallel universes in the Sacred Timeline!!!?"
"Yes, there are," Nightcrawler said with a smile. "The Sacred Timeline is composed entirely of universes where 'Kang' cannot be born, but that doesn't mean there are few universes. There are at least hundreds.
"Except for the main movie universe which might not have us, other universes more or less have one of us. With so many universes, it's not surprising that Iron Man can pull out a dozen helpers, right?"
"First, tell me what variants there are so I can prepare."
Originally, Kevin thought it was only Iron Man and two others, and he believed it would be relatively easy to deal with them.
But now that he heard there were more than just Iron Man, Kevin needed to thoroughly understand the composition of Iron Man's faction.
Otherwise, if he stumbled in a ditch, it wouldn't be fun.
Nightcrawler pondered:
"Besides those we've encountered before, there are also versions of us who have injected super-soldier serum, versions of us who can use magic, and… versions of us who have become cybernetic Renovation humans."
"So many people!? Is this the Kevin Dynasty?!"
Kevin rolled his eyes at this.
Now he could truly form an Avengers team by himself.
"This is just the beginning…"
Parker sighed from the side, adding, "I didn't tell you just now; I was planning to tell you later… but I might as well tell you now. We, the variants that Wen Yi brought together, have already gathered and formed a council.
"And because we are all transmigrators, we call it the [time traveler Council], or, as you might put it, you could also call it… the [Kevin Council]?"
Parker calmly stated a fact that surprised Kevin.
Although he had considered that these variants of himself from the Marvel Universe might gather, he never expected them to actually create a Kevin Council!!
No, wait, if that's the case, then aren't you guys definitely the villains of Avengers 5!?
The big villain is actually myself??
At this moment, Kevin was stunned.
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