Chapter 3894: The Nameless Bat (Seventy-Five)

"Hello, Professor X. Sorry for the intrusion." Peter shook hands with Professor X in his wheelchair and said, "I know Captain America already asked a lot of questions yesterday. Sorry to bother you again..."

"It's alright, Peter." Professor X smiled at him and said, "If you were a mutant, you'd definitely be a good role model for all the students. The X-Men will always welcome kind and outstanding people like you."

Peter was a bit embarrassed by the praise, scratched his head, and said: "Actually, there's nothing important I came for today. I just wanted to ask others about the relationship between Cyclops and Phoenix Girl."

"They're just boyfriend and girlfriend. Do you think there's some other relationship?"

"No, I'm just speculating. The change in the relationship between Cyclops and Wolverine is very likely due to a change in the relationship between Cyclops and Phoenix Girl."

Professor X's expression slowly turned serious. He said: "What you say seems to make some sense too. In psychology there's a concept called compensation psychology. When a person cannot get satisfaction in one relationship, they must seek it in another. This often makes both relationships unhealthy. Do you think Scott might have fallen into this predicament?"

Peter breathed a long sigh of relief in his heart. It was great that Professor X could understand. Actually, he had prepared a whole long speech before coming to explain how he deduced it. He didn't expect the man to sum it up with a single psychology term. Knowledge really is power. He really should go to Gotham University and get a master's degree.

"That's what I think, but the facts may not be so, and investigation is still needed. Can you let me meet the other people in the base? Especially those close to the two of them."

"Of course. If Scott really caused such a big mess because of compensation psychology, then it's also my fault for not paying timely attention to his mental health. In any case, I'm very sorry. You go ahead."

Peter nodded at him and didn't reproach this man over fifty any further. Even if it was locking the stable door after the horse was stolen, at least his attitude was correct. Peter had seen too many people who refused to repent and were shameless.

He entered the base and began asking others. But actually there weren't many mutants in the base. Those fairly familiar with Scott's group were probably just Iceman and Shadowcat.

"You mean Jean?" Shadowcat scratched her head and said, "Okay, she was in a bad mood for a while. About a month or two ago. If you want the exact time, I'd have to check the movie ticket stubs."

Peter's heart stirred. He remembered Logan said Scott started becoming abnormal roughly around this time point.

"Back then she asked me to go see a movie. You know, after she got a boyfriend, she rarely hung out with us. At the time I was still very happy. After all, I currently work two jobs and don't have much leisure time. Getting to go see a movie with an old friend was quite interesting."

"But she didn't look too happy. Not the very sad kind, just unenthusiastic. Not even interested in popcorn flavors. We bought a huge pile of snacks and didn't eat them. Didn't watch the movie properly either. I thought it was quite a pity."

"Do you know why she was unenthusiastic?"

"What else could it be? Every time she's unhappy it's because of Scott." Shadowcat sighed and said, "You don't understand. Jean has a bit of a 'fear of gain and loss' personality. She's always felt a bit inferior because of the uncontrollable Phoenix Force in her body. Or you can't call it inferiority exactly, just feels like she's a time bomb, whoever gets close gets unlucky. Yet Scott treats her so well. So she feels she can't leave Scott. So whatever Scott does she gets very nervous. But the more nervous, the easier to lose control, creating a vicious cycle."

"Did she fight with Scott that day?"

"Should be within a week. Jean is affected by Phoenix a lot. When they fight, she feels very angry. But that might not be anger from herself, but Phoenix's anger. Probably takes two or three days before her own frustration surfaces. We're all used to it by now."

"They fight often?"

"Not really, but recently it's been quite frequent. Four or five times a month."

"Why do they fight?"

"We don't know too clearly either, but mostly it's because of life."

"Life?"

"They both work as teachers at the school. But actually teacher pay isn't high. In other cities it'd be fine, but on the newly merged New Earth, after paying rent it's a bit tight. So they probably wanted to find new jobs."

"That's not bad, right?" Peter said, "I found a new job too. Though it doesn't pay much, the hours are flexible."

"Right, who isn't?" Shadowcat said, "Jubilee even went to do delivery."

"Then why did they fight?"

"Scott's proposal to find a new job meant he himself would go look. But when Jean said she also wanted to find an extra job, Scott expressed disagreement. I don't know the specific process, but anyway from Jean's tone, Scott thought she was unstable."

"Oh, God." Peter couldn't help saying, "That's her biggest taboo, right?"

"Yes. Jean doesn't just dislike others saying this, she loathes it. Or rather, mutants all have a bit of that. But the fact is we really aren't that stable. Still, this can't be said by a boyfriend, right?"

"I think I understand their conflict," Peter said, "Jean feels she should also contribute to their family. If working, both work. If earning, both earn. But Scott, from a more realistic angle, doesn't want Jean to leave the school. And Jean feels this is saying she's unstable, so she gets angry."

"More or less." Shadowcat sighed and said, "Still that same line. Mutants all have this problem. Have to prove they can live like normal people. The more unstable the mutant, the more desperately they prove this. Jean is like that."

"So in the end neither compromised?"

"Usually it'd be Scott compromising. He is indeed a bit more mature. He might go ask Professor X for help, keep an eye on the area where Jean works. Or maybe help Jean find a job with a better environment. In any case it would definitely be resolved. Didn't expect..."

"Didn't expect it wasn't resolved, and this kind of thing happened instead."

"Indeed quite strange." Shadowcat said, "I have an opinion, don't know if it's right, just listen. Of course if I'm wrong, you also don't..."

"You just say it."

"I always feel Scott not letting Jean work isn't necessarily because she's unstable. If it were instability, there are many solutions, like the ones I mentioned above. And, you don't let Jean work, you make her angry, isn't that more dangerous?"

"Makes sense." Peter nodded and said, "Phoenix has a bad temper, so you can only coax her. As long as she doesn't harm others, naturally let her do whatever. It's just work. As long as you carefully pick the job type and location, it's not that dangerous. Rather, forcing a confrontation on this matter easily leads to Phoenix losing control."

"That's why I say Scott might be acting out of selfishness." Shadowcat touched her chin like a detective and said, "I feel it might be a kind of possessiveness. Precisely, a desire for control. He feels this is good for Jean, so he demands Jean do it."

"But Scott doesn't sound like that kind of person." Peter said with a judgmental tone, "He's been with Jean this long and their relationship is still this good. He absolutely can't be a control freak. Otherwise with Phoenix's temper, could she stand being controlled by someone? Wouldn't she have exploded long ago?"

"Indeed, that's why I say this is my intuition, and a personal opinion, with no way to serve as reliable evidence."

"A psychology expert told me that in the process of Scott's love declining, it gradually turned into possessiveness. Do you think this makes sense?"

Shadowcat thought for a moment and said: "When love declines, it's indeed very easy to turn into possessiveness. When feelings are deep, one can willingly give for the other without seeking return. When feelings gradually fade, one wants equal return. When feelings are almost gone, one wishes to trade an egg for the other's Jin Shan. Human nature is like this."

"But how would Scott's feelings for Jean suddenly fade? Or is it accumulated day by month, only erupting recently?"

Shadowcat shook her head and said: "All my judgments come from Jean's usual venting. I don't know Scott that well. Otherwise you go ask Iceman?"

Peter had no choice but to go find Iceman again. But the other party just shook his head upon hearing his purpose and said: "Scott is the type who completely dislikes venting. He only silently solves problems. It's precisely this point that makes everyone like him. Because he never brings negative emotions to teammates, and is still the team's strong backing."

"Then you guess." Peter was already planning to blindly grope for clues.

"This actually reminds me of another thing." Iceman said somewhat hesitantly, "Once I went into the locker room to change uniform and saw Scott typing and chatting there. At the time I was very shocked. Scott doesn't really like using electronic devices, and his typing speed is terribly slow. Normally he always uses voice-to-text. But that day I discovered his typing speed was especially fast, almost catching up to me. This proves he must have been typing frequently recently."

"Uh... what does this have to do with the case?"

"Jean isn't the type to type-chat either. So who do you say Scott was chatting with?"

Peter opened his mouth. He adjusted his facial expression to look as not-gossipy as possible. Looked left and right, lowered his voice, and said: "You wouldn't be saying... Scott cheated?"

"I'm just saying it casually, don't take it too seriously. After all there's no evidence. But I do feel this point is quite strange. Captain America was a bit too serious when he came asking, I didn't dare tell him. Now I've told you, you can't say I hid clues."

"Don't worry," Peter patted Iceman's shoulder and said, "Between us, who's who."

Half an hour later, Peter stood before Captain America and said: "That's how it is. Next time you interrogate, don't be so aggressive, otherwise people definitely won't tell you the key clues."

Captain America frowned, looked at Peter, and said: "You think this is a key clue?"

"Yes. Think about it. The change in Scott's attitude toward Logan is very likely because of the change in his attitude toward Jean. And the change in his attitude toward Jean might be because of his chat partner. Then as long as we find out this chat partner, won't we understand what madness Scott has fallen into?"

"You're right," Captain America grabbed his shield and said, "Let's go to SHIELD. Have the tech department trace Scott's phone."

An hour later, Peter looked somewhat hesitantly at the tech department head and said: "You mean Scott's chat partner is a top-tier hacker, and even you guys can't catch the other party's tail?"

"Actually, if you hadn't said you had a reliable eyewitness who saw him typing and chatting with someone else, I'd almost think you were just messing with us," the head of the technical department said, shaking his head. "This guy hasn't chatted with anyone online recently. Either your witness made a mistake, or the other party's technology has advanced to a point where we can't trace it."

Peter and Captain America exchanged a glance. In unison, they said: "We really don't want to go find him!"

Half an hour later, the two stood on either side of Iron Man, staring at him. Iron Man glanced left and right at them, then turned to the screen in front of him and said: "You two better not be teaming up to mess with me. His communication records show he hasn't chatted with anyone lately."

"There's definitely something wrong," Peter insisted. "The less we can find, the more suspicious it is. We need to figure out how to install a backdoor program on Scott's phone. No, just software isn't enough—ideally we'd have a device that can monitor radio waves in real time. The more detailed, the better..."

The three stared at each other.

"Magneto!"

?? Greed: Transparent Question

? Peter: Believe