I and Evil Cannot Coexist

"Can you tell me who my dad is now?"

Quicksilver, desperate to know his father's identity, asked eagerly after revealing the limits of his ability.

"Here you go.

Not only does it have your father's name, but also his photo."

Pulling a folded piece of paper from his pocket, Ron kept his promise, handing it over with a smile and a meaningful tone.

"Once you see it, you'll have no trouble figuring out who your father is."

"Great, thanks."

Overjoyed, Quicksilver's body flickered as he used his ability to snatch the paper impatiently, not catching the hidden implication in Ron's words.

"He really is fast."

Emma, standing nearby, let out a soft sigh of surprise.

"I'm starting to believe he can reach twenty times the speed of sound."

From over ten meters away, she hadn't even seen Quicksilver's movement, let alone an afterimage—his body seemed to blur faintly in place, and the paper was already in his hand.

"Don't underestimate him. Even though he's only ten, if he wanted to do something to someone, there might only be two or three people on Earth who could stop him."

In the X-Men universe, most mutants were ordinary humans aside from their abilities. Quicksilver was the only one with super-speed, and almost no one could match his velocity—he was nearly invincible.

"One of them is my boss, right?"

She said with a soft laugh.

Ron smiled but said nothing.

Ability Points: 36,000

Dropping by nearly a hundred thousand, his body briefly warmed up, and he gained Quicksilver's ability.

A nearly limitless genetic carrying capacity—what would be a painful genetic modification for anyone else, even if they survived, was just a slight warmth to him.

He tried activating it.

Buzz!

In the next instant, everything seemed to freeze.

Ron entered a strange perspective.

The blinking icons on the game console paused mid-selection.

A robin outside the window, close to the ground, flew past in slow motion, its wings caught mid-flap, each feather on its raised wing crystal clear.

Inside the room, the steam rising from a hot water cup seemed to stop drifting, holding its shape from a second ago.

The ever-flowing river of time appeared to have hit a pause button, coming to a standstill.

The world was like it had been sealed in a giant amber block—everything frozen solid, except for him.

"Speed so fast it creates an effect like time stopping."

Withdrawing his gaze from Emma, whose smile had frozen into a wax statue, Ron understood in his heart.

He didn't leap up in ecstatic excitement to test his speed after gaining Quicksilver's ability. Instead, he stayed in this state, looking around.

Confirming the speed could wait.

"Suddenly I get why speedsters—like Superman, the Flash—sometimes get ambushed by people far slower than them, even ordinary people."

After a 'while,' realization dawned on him.

A nearly frozen world was unbearably boring.

If a speedster kept their ability on all the time, just having a casual chat with someone would feel like spending months in relative time.

Waking up with a girlfriend in the morning, a simple 'good morning' would take 'half a month' to hear through.

If this perspective stayed on and couldn't be turned off, the speedster would probably go mad from loneliness and misery before long.

"It seems I can half-disable the ability, keeping only the super-speed reflexes."

Ron began familiarizing himself with his new power.

He shut off super-speed, enhanced perception, and everything else, keeping only the lightning-fast reflexes. In emergencies, he could reactivate the ability, allowing him to live a normal life.

He half-disabled the ability and looked at Quicksilver, who had opened the paper.

Time seemed to resume flowing. The bird outside zipped past, and the steam above the cup 'broke free' from its bonds, continuing to drift.

"Dad..."

Quicksilver, his heart pounding with anxiety, didn't immediately unfold the paper at super-speed. Instead, he opened it slowly, more slowly than an ordinary person.

What would Dad look like? Tall and lean, or a bit stocky?

Whoever fathered him couldn't be some slow, fat guy, right?

The folded paper was only opened to its final crease. Seeing what was on it, he couldn't believe his eyes and scanned it twice.

"Huh?"

Quicksilver's eyes went wide, shock and anger flashing across his face as he stared at Ron. He held up the paper, pointing at the face on it, and demanded, "This is my dad?"

"Mm."

Ron nodded.

He felt a strong surge of being deceived. "That's not my dad!"

"No, I'm telling you, he is your dad."

He emphasized the words, slowly nodding in affirmation.

"Don't lie to me. I've seen this thing you gave me a thousand times over."

Quicksilver pointed outside in fury.

"It's all over town. There's an identical one on that telephone pole at the end of the street, just a few dozen meters away."

He spread the paper in his hands with a mix of dread and anticipation, only to see a wanted poster with a familiar face on it.

The wanted poster for Magneto, the world's biggest terrorist.

It was because of that despicable man that mutants had been exposed, forcing him to move away from his old familiar neighborhood with his mother and sister.

"Uh, actually, it's not identical. That is the one from the telephone pole at the end of the street."

Seeing the furious little guy, Emma, standing nearby, carefully pointed and said with a smile.

She had personally watched Ron stop the car on the way here, have someone peel it off, and bring it along.

"??"

Quicksilver's face was full of question marks. He threw down the wanted poster in anger, more convinced than ever of his suspicion. "You'd even lie to a kid? I've never seen an adult like you!"

"If this were a lie, wouldn't it be easy to expose?"

Facing the doubt, Ron unhurriedly spread his hands and said slowly.

The young Quicksilver froze, then snapped back to reality.

That was true. His mother was still alive. One question to her would confirm whether it was true or false.

No one would tell a lie that could be broken with a single question.

"But..."

"Could it be... I..."

"That's right. You are Magneto's son."

Ron nodded, helping him say the words he had been struggling to get out.

He had to admit, he had always thought Magneto was alone in the darkness and pain, hunting his enemies. But when he remembered Quicksilver, he realized he might have been mistaken.

Magneto's life was actually quite comfortable. While chasing his enemies, he never forgot to leave his mark elsewhere. His stern, cold demeanor had given people the wrong impression.

"I... my dad is a terrorist?"

Quicksilver couldn't believe it.

Now that he knew who his father was, there wasn't a shred of joy in him.

"How could my dad be a terrorist?"

His voice grew louder, as if he couldn't accept it.

"Correction: the biggest terrorist in all of human history." Emma said.

Was adding that title supposed to make it sound impressive?

Around ten years old, Quicksilver broke down, his mouth twitching.

"Uh, actually, you know..."

Remembering that Ron had just said he used to be friends with Magneto—implying they were no longer friends, or maybe even enemies now—he swallowed hard and quickly forced a smile.

"I've never met my dad since I was little. I have no feelings for him. He abandoned me and my mom from the start.

I only wanted to know who my dad was so I could get revenge on him.

That's right. Revenge."

Quicksilver's words grew smoother, and finally, with a surge of emotion, he shouted in his childish voice, "I will never share the same sky with evil!"

Righteously declaring that he had nothing to do with the terrorist Magneto, that he had no connection to him whatsoever.

"Boss, this kid is way too mature."

A bit stunned, Emma turned to look at Ron. Even she felt he was overly mature.

"Speedsters can't be measured by ordinary people's time."

Ron smiled.

If Quicksilver wanted to, he could easily learn in a year what would take others decades or centuries. Being more mature than his peers was perfectly normal.