xp_logs | Endangered Species

Miles and Bobby show Rahne, Nica, and Amara around Manhattan, but their trip is stopped short . . .

There was never a time that Manhattan wasn't a zoo. There was no way that, with a population density literally more than twice that of the rest of New York City, it wasn't just a mob of people at all times. Still, Miles and Bobby were born and bred New Yorkers, albeit not from this borough, so they expertly maneuvered Rahne, Nica, and Amara down the length of the High Line, pointing out various sights of interest, without getting lost or separated.

"See, no, the thing is, the best pizza places in this city are the ones that cost a buck a slice and don't have any seating," Miles argued as the group walked down the stairs to ground level at the corner of 30th and 11th. "If there's more than like four stools at a counter then it's not good pizza. Go in, get your slice, leave, you know?"

"Yeah, exactly," Bobby confirmed. "Listen to the man, he knows his stuff. And if there's, like, a big fancy sign outside, or people that work there are in uniforms?" He shook his head and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "The fuck outta there. That shit's for tourists."

Rahne frowned at Bobby's language but she bit her tongue, not wanting to say something and be looked at for being a stick in the mud. "I like the ones that use all sorts of meat," she said instead, sticking to the whole pizza thing. "Like the wee sausages! Can we find pizza with the wee sausages soon? I ate an hour ago but I'm hungry again."

She was hoping, too, that they wouldn't figure out how excited she was. It wasn't often she went into the city itself but it had been a while since she'd randomly wolfed out, so...

Nica giggled at Rahne's words. 'Wee sausages' sounded adorable in the Scots accent. "Somehow I don't think we'll need to twist the boys' arms for food," she reassured the shorter girl. "Especially for pizza."

Amara had been trailing slightly behind the rest of the group, largely because she kept being distracted by various clothing stores and glancing at what was in the windows. Maybe she could convince someone to bring her back for shopping. Once her father sent through her credit card. She hurried to catch up with the group, just catching the end of Nica's comment about pizza.

"We're getting pizza?"

Miles took out his phone from his pocket and rapidly tapped on the screen. "Google Maps says there's a place a couple blocks down, uh . . ." He spun around slowly in a circle to orient his phone's directionality. "Eastish. That way. Oh, Madison Square Garden is down that way. We can show you that, too."

"Here's an interesting tidbit, ladies," Bobby stated, raising a finger into the air professorially. "Madison Square Garden is neither a square nor a garden." He nodded to back up his assertion. "And no, I didn't used to be a tour guide or nothin', I'm just full of cool info like that."

Rahne laughed. "That's something I won't see on a test," she said, grinning as she bounced slightly on her toes to warm up a bit. "Well, actually, I might! Kyle's a very interesting teacher. I wish I could be taught by him forever but I think at this rate, I'll be going to the regular school next year."

"Hey, that's great!" Nica enthused, always glad for her friends' successes. "Since it means you're getting better at the whole wolfy thing! Well done, hon!"

"Yes, that's wonderful news, Rahne," Amara agreed with a smile. "But I think Bobby needs to work on his idea of 'cool information'." She shot a glass at the teenage boy, the cutting remark softened by the teasing glint in her eye.

The group didn't make it much farther down 30th before Miles's spider-sense blared so loudly that it almost brought him to his knees. Clutching his head, he looked up; three massive objects plummeted to the ground just yards ahead of them like a trio of meteorites. And the danger wasn't just in their descent. The dust cleared to reveal three men in what Miles could only describe as mini Gundams. He didn't need to see their faces to know what they were here to do.

~*~

. . . By the arrival of the mecha-suited Rhino, Beetle, and Vulture! Spider-Man and Generation X to the rescue!

Several cars swerved to the side to avoid the massive metal hulk that had seemingly dropped out of the sky and left a small crater on 30th Street. Drivers fled their vehicles, but the crush of pedestrians and the typical Manhattan traffic impeded their escape.

A limo stopped on a dime at the feet of the colossus, and a pair of black-suited men exited from the rear, pistols drawn. Questionably legal, but given the circumstances (to say nothing of the power and privilege that remained seated in the limo while his bodyguards did their job), not as problematic as whatever the three mechanized men had in mind.

Another such mecha-man swooped in on metallic green wings, a trail of light following his feet as he looped a wide circle in the air, like a firefly writing in the sky. He dove at a suit, a pulse of plasma from his palm knocking a pistol to the ground. "A party and we were not invited," he commented to his companions, accented voice distorted through his suit as he tumbled to a stop. "How so very rude."

"And we're such good party guests." A third man plummeted from the air, a pair of razor-sharp wings folding toward his body as he dropped. An audible crack marked his landing on the other bodyguard, as the full force of a metal-clad man made impact with his spine. "We never do come empty handed."

It was then, full party assembled, that the first and largest of the behemoths moved. It moved slowly, minutely, and the clank and grind of the grey suit's gears was matched by the low, ominous bass of what could only be laughter. The suit's most prominent feature, an obtrusion on the head that was oddly horn-like, shook up and down in unison with the pleased sound.

There was only a few seconds of this before a larger than life voice boomed from the colossus for the entire block to hear: "Stop hiding, Osborn. You've got a mark on your head and we're here to collect."

With the streets descent into chaos, Miles found himself separated from the others. Terrified people pushed passed him, as if not acknowledging his existence at all, and their screams drowned out his calls to his friends. He wouldn't be able to find them like this. And they would never get out safely if these Gundam weirdos decided to turn their attention on them all instead of . . . Osborn, did the guy say? Norman Osborn? Billionaire pharmaceutical industrialist Norman Osborn? Oh, crap.

Miles turned the disorder to his advantage. No one noticed him disappear from sight and leap over the crowds to reach the dark alley between two nearby buildings. Blending into the shadows, he hastily dropped his bag and stripped off his jacket, shirt, and jeans, revealing his black and red outfit underneath. He'd assumed he and Peter would be patrolling that night, but looks like it would be starting earlier. He quickly checked to make sure his web-shooters were full, and then pulled on his mask and flung himself back into the heart of the pandemonium.

Spider-Man soared over the heads of the crowd and landed with a flourish on the roof of the limo. "Wow, I can't believe it!" he said, trying to assess the situation. Three hostiles, two airborne. This was not going to be easy. "I almost wore that exact same ensemble today. How embarrassing would that've been, right? I mean, I'd never be able to show my face again."

Bobby looked through the throng of people for Miles, having lost sight of him in the initial chaos. He cursed when he couldn't find him and was about to shout out to the others when Spider-Man made his entrance.

"Oh man, some shit's about to go down now!" Things were about to get really interesting, and then he remembered he wasn't there alone. Where were Miles and the others? Bobby looked around once more, trying to find his fellow mutants. "Hey! Everybody!" Which wasn't a very specific shout at all but there was a lot going on after all.

Rahne cried out as she was shoved into a recycling bin by a large man running away from the chaos. She'd been separated almost immediately from her friends when those people had dropped from the sky and even before being knocked over she couldn't get her bearings. With her back pressed into the metal behind her, she realized that while it had made her back hurt, it was actually good she'd found it.

With some effort, Rahne hoisted herself on top of the bin, trying not to gag at the smell ('it says 'recycling',' she thought hysterically, 'why does it smell so terrible?!') and tried to look over the crowd. "Bobby! Nica?" she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth and yelling as loudly as she could. "Anyone?"

"I'm here," Amara replied crisply to Rahne, having ducked out of the way of the crowd and after the Scottish girl when she saw her being shoved. "Are you okay?"

Amara herself was fighting the instinct to go to flame, but doing so in a panicked crowd seemed like a terrible idea. She could keep it together. For now.

"Bobby!" Nica appeared at Bobby's side, having been forced to go intangible and glowy in order to get through the crowd to her friend. Luckily, everyone was so concerned about fleeing the giant robots, they weren't really noticing. She powered down and grabbed his arm. "Rahne and Amara are over there, by that recycling dumspter. Where's Miles?"

"I don't know," he replied, more panicked than he'd intended to sound but he was getting pretty panicked to be honest. "We should probably get outta here but we can't leave without Miles." Bobby looked around again, hoping to see his roommate but failing to find him anywhere.

The mechanical colossus' voice boomed again over the roar of crowd and the shuffling of Gen X. "Norman Osborn, you have betrayed humanity in favor of mutants. Now it is time to pay for it."

That was the end of the grey-suited man's public address, because his next words were not amplified, but instead a private message shared over the comm system of the body armor units. "Swat the bug and stick to plan."

And that was apparently that, because the horned armor didn't even pause to acknowledge Spider-Man before lumbering toward Osborn's parked vehicle. He left dents in the pavement with each heavy, slow step.

"If you insist." In a motion somehow both fluid and robotic, the pair of metal wings on the third man extended. The reflections of city lights glinted off the blades as he stepped over the body he'd used to cushion his fall. He craned his neck, his eyes narrow as he took in Spider-Man. "Eight legs, but no brain. Shame." He took to the sky again, flapping until he hovered above the limo and the would-be hero. Then, with little fanfare, he swooped down, his wings scratching against the vehicle, crushing the metal as he moved toward Miles.

Times like this, the spider sense was both a blessing and a curse. The former because it kept Miles from losing his head, but the latter because if that ringing in his brain didn't stop then he might remove his head himself.

"The spider is just, you know, like a motif or whatever," he said, sliding between Rhino's legs to get in between him and the car. "And seriously, what is this, a trip to the zoo? A bird, a fat unicorn, and I guess like a flying fish maybe?"

"Spider-Man Junior is totally out of his league," muttered Nica to herself. She and Bobby had reached the other two girls and the mutants were using the dumpster as cover against the panicked crowds - and the giant mechanical monsters. "And a lot of people are going to get hurt." She slipped off her coat and squared her shoulders - part of her was terrified, but she couldn't just sit back. "Spider-Man needs help," she told the others. "I'm going to see what I can do against the buzzard."

"Nica's right, we need to help him." It wasn't really Bobby's first choice either, but they couldn't just leave him alone in such an uneven fight. They had some training, after all, and he was pretty sure he could hold his weight, or at least he hoped that he was. "This is what we train for, you guys, we can do this." He was saying those words for the benefit of the others but partly for himself as well.

Rahne reached over and gently tugged on Bobby's sleeve to get his attention. Her eyes were huge. "Are ye bloody nuts?" she blurted before slapping a hand over her mouth, shocked at the curse word. She forced herself to drop her hand. "I've only turned into a wolf on purpose like - three times. And those are terrible people and ..." Rahne's hands flapped in a panic. "They'll hurt people if we don't help but what if we make this worse?!"

"We know what we're doing," Amara responded to Rahne before anyone else could. "If you don't want to, then stay here. Help get people to safety. But we can't leave Spider-Man to do this by himself."

After a moment to pause and mourn the outfit she was wearing, Amara ignited her fireform, dark hair and pale skin giving way to ribbons of orange and red, flicks of flame dripping from her as she looked to the figures that were attacking.

Nica nodded, tasking in the determination in her friends' faces. "All right. 'Mara, you and Bobby are ground support against Rhino-boy and the metal bug. I'll be in the air. Watch each other's backs and make sure no-one sees who you are. We can't let this get back to the school."

A voice, a very small one, whispered in her mind. That they were crazy but Rahne knew she couldn't live with herself if she left them to go be crazy stupid people and one of them got hurt. "This is insane!" she said but she was already half way around the bin so she could undress. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe she really wanted to prove to someone - them, herself - but for the first time, it was only a few moments before a large wolf came trotting towards them.

Miles narrowly avoided become a spider-pancake under Rhino's massive fist, but he didn't have much elsewhere to go now, as he was backed up against Osborn's car. He quickly assessed the situation. He was outnumbered and, if the craters Rhino was leaving in his wake were any indication, massively outpowered. Osborn was still in the car, and there was no route for its escape. The best option, then, would be to grab the man and haul ass to safety. Maybe a change in scenery could give him the tactical advantage. Or at least get them all the hell away from civilians.

Civilians who appeared to be entering the melee themselves. Double crap. Civilians with powers. Ice and fire and light and a wolf? "Oh, fuck."

"Rahne, stick with Bobby and 'Mara - if I can, I'll try and disable the buzzard enough to ground him." And with that last instruction, Monica focused her powers, becoming a what was basically a girl-shaped light construct. "Gravity is all in my head," she reminded herself, going back to Hank's lessons, and suddenly she was airborne, zooming towards the Vulture.

Well, looks like this was happening, whether Miles liked it or not. He would be sure to register his displeasure later. But now, he had bad guys to fight and friends to keep safe. He sprayed webbing in Rhino's face, the only part of his body not protected by armor, and used the distraction to slip past him and get to the Gen Xers.

"Fancy meeting you guys again," he greeted, forgetting to disguise his voice with his atrocious mock British accent. That would bite him later. "No time for brainstorming. Light Girl, you and Frosty go take Birdy. Watch out for the wings, they're sharp as hell. Fire Girl and Wolfy, you take Flappy Buggy. I'll get Horny." A beat passed. "Let's pretend I didn't say that. You know what I mean."

"LOL," Bobby actually said outloud, because Bobby. "Dude that was hilarious. But yeah, we got this." Seeing that Monica was already well on her way to Vulture, Bobby frowned and started constructing ice slides, yelling out as he got underway. "HEY WAIT FOR ME!"

Rahne's ears laid flat against her skull, a reaction born out of fear and adrenaline but also a little bit because he'd called her Wolfy. That was not dignified! But she didn't have much time to think about anything except for the big bads smashing around her. She dodged cars and people, gathering speed as she tried to keep an eye on Flappy Buggy. How she was going to get to him or what she could do to him, she didn't know but she was at least close now.

She yipped, trying to find Amara in the chaos.

Fire Girl. How patronising. There was a quiet 'hrmph' from Amara as she glanced over at Rahne, her fire form flaring for a moment before she moved to join the other girl.

"Let's see what we can do about this... Flappy Buggy, shall we?"

Monica frowned as the kid in the Spider-Man suit - and didn't his voice sound different this time? Almost familiar? - countered her instructions. But she did as she was told, banking slightly to allow Bobby and his ice slides to catch up. "The wings can't hurt me when I'm like this," she told him, "So I'll get in close, try to blind him. We need him to come down lower so you can ice his wings, so be as annoying as you can." Her grin was incandescent in her glowing face. "I think you can manage that?"

"Who, me? Annoying?" Bobby feigned shock as he kept sliding upward to catch up with Nica. "Why I don't know what you mean, but I guess I can try. First time for everything, right?" He laughed and winked at her, knowing darn well that she probably didn't really have to ask.

Miles spared his friends a final glance before putting them all away mentally so he could give his all against the rhino-shaped mecha. "All right, pendejo. I'll show you what mutants really can do."

~*~

Spider-Man takes the Rhino one on one.

Miles had no idea how he was going to explain this all to Scott when he got home. If he'd been mad when Miles went out superheroing with adults, how would he react to superheroing with other teenagers?

This was a problem for future Miles, assuming he'd even live that long. He was starting to regret going up one-on-one against this Rhino guy. Geez he was huge. Miles dodged one punch from Rhino's massive fist, but Rhino caught him flat-footed with another punch, which sent Miles sprawling.

"Owie."

"Da." The word came from the suit, mechanized and electronic as the man took a step toward the skinny spider creature. Concrete cracking beneath his massive weight, Rhino continued, "Will hurt more. Then won't hurt so much. Is usual." He seemed almost bored as he raised his foot again. "Squish," he said, aiming for the mutant's middle as he stomped downward.

Miles rolled several feet to the side to avoid becoming Spider-Pancake, and fired off a pair of weblines to snag Rhino's foot and pull it out from under him. But from his position without any leverage, even his strength couldn't do much more than pull Rhino a couple of inches towards him, and he had to drop the webs and roll again to dodge another foot stomp.

The few inches he moved weren't even enough to unbalance Rhino despite how unwieldy the suit had been when he'd first starting using it. He was well accustomed to people attempting to take advantage of its bulk now. Following as the spider-boy rolled, Rhino reached for anything heavy that he might be able to use as a bat or mallet to follow each stomp. If he had something like that to follow his feet, he might be able to catch the skinny man before he could roll away again.

Miles somersaulted to his feet to put space between them and bumped up against an abandoned motorcycle. A light bulb turned on in his head, and American equivalent to the made-in-Russia model Rhino sported. He picked up the bike by the rear wheel and swung it with all the force he could muster. He followed through with the momentum, spinning in a circle and walloping Rhino a second time when he came around.

The first hit scratched the armor, stalling Rhino where he stood for a moment. The second hit came before he could prepare himself for it, so it forced him to take a step backward. Then he raised the parking meter he'd managed to wrest from the ground and hit the motorcycle with the meter before it could impact him again. They collided, the meter bending while the motorcycle broke mostly in half through sheer force alone. "Good hit," the Russian said, dropping the parking meter and reaching for another.

"Gee, thanks, I'm always looking for supervillain approval. I'll give you a survey to fill out when I'm done beating your ass." Holding either half of the broken motorcycle by the wheel in each hand, Miles charged. The plan was to use one half as a shield to deflect the meter-turned-bludgeon while the other beat him into submission. It was a good plan. Against another enemy, it would have worked. His spider-sense alerted him too late that he was wrong.

Rhino his arms out straight as the little spider boy charged, allowing his fingers to hit first so he could grab one half of the motorcycle in either hand. Swinging his arms wide, he ripped them away from his opponent before tossing them over his shoulders negligently. "Is nothing personal," he said, reaching for the second parking meter again as he took another heavy, concrete-cracking step forward.

"Mentirosa," Miles accused, backing up, eyes darting furtively to find another weapon. "You've got something against Osborn, obvs. And, you know, not that I necessarily like the guy, but he didn't do anything wrong, so . . ."

"Nyet," Rhino replied, plucking the second parking meter and its concrete roots out of the pavement. "They pay me, I squish you."

So just a classic case of murderous mercenaries. Miles sighed. "I don't suppose you'll save me the trouble and just tell me who's paying you?" A glint in the sunlight caught Miles's eye then; coins that fell from the meters Rhino had procured. That gave him an idea.

His image rippled and disappeared as his mutant power bent light around him to camouflage with his surroundings. Light as ever on his feet, he vaulted silently to the pile of coins and grabbed a handful. Flinging them at Rhino even with full strength would maybe only dent the armor, but hopping around out of sight as he did it would be a hell of a nuisance.

Rhino flipped the meter into the air, catching it in the middle. The unexpected impact of multiple, small metal objects threw him off for a moment. One lodged in the joint at his shoulder while the others clinked off relatively harmlessly. Unfortunately, that shoulder happened to be the one that connected to the arm holding the parking meter. The entire thing ground to a screeching halt before Rhino could do more than register that his target had disappeared.

Maybe dance instructor Jennie's luck was rubbing off. Miles marveled at the shot, laughing like a mischievous ghost as he hopped around Rhino's periphery. If only he could make that coin explode like one of Tabitha's time bombs.

He could do something similar, though. Hurling the remaining coins at Rhino's face, he slipped around back, rippling back into sight, and politely tapped the disabled shoulder. "Three, two, one . . ." The joint exploded in a shower of sparks, and even Miles had to back away and shield his eyes to keep himself from getting burned.

Letting loose a string of garbled, Russian curses, Rhino wheeled away from his opponent even as he made a desperate grab for the severed, mechanical arm. His own arm badly burned, particularly at the shoulder, was of lesser importance to him than the one from the suit. The man paying him, familiar from his time as a Krysha and then Boyevik for New York's Pakhan, had made it explicitly clear that loss of any part of the suit was unacceptable and would result in severe punishment.

Rhino managed to snag the arm, which he then wielded as a blunt object all by itself to smash into the little spider boy's side. Retreat was most certainly called for now.

~*~

And Nica and Bobby battle the Vulture.

There was a difference between hovering above the floor in Hank's lab or in the Danger Room during training, and full-on flight, Monica was realising as she sped towards the Vulture. Despite the potential danger, she couldn't help a wide grin appearing on her face as she banked to the left and swooped in front of the bald man with the mechanical wings. "Hey, loser!" she called out. "Don't you know there's kids down there? Buzz off before someone gets hurt!"

The Vulture stopped short and squinted slightly at the infant who now hovered in front of him. "Cute," he said, scorn dripping off the word. "Make sure you're home before curfew." Without much more of a reaction, he resumed flight, adjusting his course slightly so that the lights would glint off the sharp pinions of his metal wings.

"Make me!" Bobby retaliated, as nothing better unfortunately came to mind. He continued creating ice slides as he tried to keep up with Nica and the bird dude, and when he changed course Bobby followed suit, swerving to try and cut him off. Once he'd altered his path, he sent out a few snowballs at their target, not meant to hurt him but to get his attention and/or piss him off.

The Vulture didn't notice the first snowball, which crashed against the back of his wings. But as more flew toward him, they came close enough to his skin that he stopped suddenly mid-flight and turned to find their source. "Kids," he practically growled, "stay out of this." He turned toward the ice ramps now, perceiving their creator to be a bigger threat than the light bumblebee in front of him. "This is a man's fight, about dignity, injustice and intellectual property theft." He dove suddenly toward an ice structure left behind Bobby, his wings cleaving through it, sending chunks of ice crashing to the ground. "Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Bobby made another set of slides and lazily looped around, making new ones to try and circle around the Vulture. "More like you're the one who wouldn't want us to get hurt... no, wait, more like we wouldn't want you to get hurt, but you will if you keep it up." He paused for a few seconds before hurling more snowballs at Vulture. "Yeah, no, that's right, that last one."

"Sorry, grandpa, but there's nothing dignified or just about going after unharmed opponents in giant metal monster suits." Nica divebombed Vulture, beams of light flashing from her hands. They were harmless in the sense they didn't cut or burn, but they were blinding, and she was aiming them straight at the Vulture's unprotected eyes.

The Vulture grunted as the light his eyes, wincing for a second before bringing his left wing in front of him. He blinked repeatedly as it whooshed around in front of his face, reflecting the light away from himself and back at the incoming would-be firefly. The swift motion displaced the air around him, redirecting it toward Bobby's ice slides.

"Frosty, close your eyes!" Nica realised that her light beams were in danger of blinding her teammate instead and she banked and flew higher, trying to avoid adding to the issue.

"Got it!" Bobby said, banking off sharply to one side himself in order to avoid any collisions while he was covering his eyes. Once he'd gotten far enough away he peeked back towards the Vulture and made a loop de loop slide to slingshot back towards him, forming an ice lance at the same time. " CHAAAAAAAAARGE!"

Blinking furiously, the Vulture turned to the source of the latest nuisance. "Okay, kid," he grunted as Bobby glided toward him, the word more exasperated than anything else. The Vulture shifted his position, still trying to will the spots out of his eyes, and started flying toward Bobby, meeting his frozen lance head-on.

"Uh," Bobby said, not having expected this turn of events to occur. The ice lance cracked and crumbled as the Vulture smashed into it, and before they could get much closer Bobby quickly iced up a thick shield on his other arm, putting it between himself and his attacker before bracing for impact.

The Vulture turned at the last second so the edges of his wings would crash into the shield, slashing it in half and sending shards of ice below them. He slammed against Bobby, the full weight of his metal armor behind him as he shoved the boy off his ice slide and toward the ground.

"BOBBY!" Forgetting secrecy and codenames and everything else, Nica streaked towards the falling figure, a literal flash of light. But even as she reached his side, she realised in her light form she wouldn't be able to stop his fall. Time to get really creative powers-wise - without hesitating, she switched "off" her light form and became solid again, bracing Bobby's body as they both fell so he could gather his wits and create another iceslide before they both crashed to the pavement. Hopefully.

He was far more upset at himself than he was hurt, and in all his inwardly directed anger - and the momentary stun from the impact - Bobby forgot that he was kinda falling. Before he could react he was caught by Nica, and he readjusted his body so he could shoot out an ice slide beneath the both of them. He carved it out with a sharp, upward curve, launching them both back up into the air thanks to their speed, then he started crafting more and more slides to get back on track.

"Thanks, 'Nica," he said, forgetting codenames himself for the moment.

Recovering from the near-splat experience, her heart pounding furiously, Nica looked to Bobby as he held onto her waist to make sure she didn't fall off the slide. "You sick of this yet?" she asked with a glint in her eye.

"Hell yeah," he said, balling his fists together and transforming his body into its icy form.

"Yeah, me too. Time to show this old buzzard what we've got." She switched back to her light form again, slipping through the iceslide in a dazzle of refracted rainbows before hovering in mid-air at just the right angle. "Dazzler, eat your heart out!" she exclaimed, before aiming her largest and brightest light burst at Bobby's iceform, causing him to light up like a disco ball. His various facets and angles turned the light into a dizzying strobe effect, all aimed straight at the Approaching Vulture.

The Vulture's winged form continued to approach the two mutants, but his flight slowed as he began to again blink furiously. The lights glinted off his wings and reflected off the glass of nearby buildings. He craned his neck, trying to get his bearings as the light hit him from every direction. He tried shifting his wings to block it, but the movement of his metal feathers only added to the pulses of light. Feeling nauseous, he stopped his flying and tried to reorient himself.

Nica took advantage of the Vulture's disorientation, flying up above him and becoming solid again. As she dropped, she aimed her feet for the middle of his back where the wing harness was most vulnerable, hoping to mess up the mechanism. "Frosty, incoming!"

The Vulture, who was still trying to find a spot that would give him a sense of direction, grunted from the impact. Monica's kick sent him toward the ground, and he began to try to maneuver his wings to avoid any impact. But her attack had thrown the mechanics of his suit out of whack, and while he managed to get one wing positioned, the other wouldn't cooperate. In a kind of askew free-fall, he plummeted to the ground.

"TIME TO ICE THIS SUCKA!" Bobby gleefully pushed both hands outward as he coasted on a long slide, blasting out ice onto as much of the Vulture's wings as he could to ensure he wouldn't be airborne again any time soon. He threw a few snowballs as well because Bobby.

The force of the ice blast rotated the Vulture so that his wings were underneath him. He began flapping his arms, trying to reposition himself, but it didn't stop him from crash-landing onto the pavement, with Bobby's ice to break his fall.

Nica, in the meantime, had switched on her powers again to avoid joining the Vulture on the pavement and was hovering above the scene, watching to see if Vulture was finally down. Which gave her the perfect vantage point to see the series of black SUVs coming onto the scene.

"SHIELD's coming!" she called to her teammates, hoping her voice would carry. "Frosty, make sure the buzzard won't be going any where! We've got to motor!"

"Gotcha!" Bobby raised his hands in the air and thrust them down, summoning up several huge icicles that slammed all around the Vulture like a cage, which he then topped off with an ice slab. "Hah, good one, me. I'm awesome." He smirked then took off on a slide, but not before tossing a few more snowballs towards the impromptu ice prison.

~*~

While Rahne and Amara stop the Beetle.

One of the men in the suit - they'd called him Beetle - smelled funny. He reeked of metal, oil and things Rahne had no words for. Even with the smells of the city pressing in, his scent stood out clear as day to her. Which, she guessed, was a plus. She probably could track him throughout the city with ease. Which was a moot point, she thought, creeping under various abandoned cars. He seemed perfectly happy to stay in the area, attacking people.

Amara was close and Rahne felt a moment of frustration that she couldn't talk - her brain jittered away from the memories of when she could in that twisted half form - it made it harder to actually work together. But they knew they had to get him down from flying around. It was just a matter of how.

"We need to ground him, to start with," Amara said to Rahne, eyeing off the man in the suit. "And get him away from the civilians. Do you think you can get his attention, while I concentrate on damaging his wings?"

Getting his attention would probably be easier than she was afraid of, Rahne thought, nodding at Amara. It was chaos for sure but, well, what use was there of being a giant wolf if she couldn't use it to her advantage?

Now out from under the cars, Rahne bunched her muscles and then leapt, landing with a heavy thud on the trunk of a taxi. From there, it was a simple game to leap from car to car, using the stalled traffic to her advantage. She could hear people scream as she ran by, but she ignored them, focused on her target.

When she was right under him, she let out a window shakingly loud howl, hoping she would be unusual enough to catch his eye.

It wasn't every day that a red, small-person–sized wolf roamed the streets of Manhattan. Sure, it also wasn't every day that a man dressed in what was best described as a robotic insect body suit stalked the streets to seek out and murder corrupt captains of industry. But in an engineer's mind, one of those at least made sense. The Beetle's gauntlet-clad fist sparked with electricity, and the interruption caused the lightning bolt to go wild, striking a nearby lamppost instead of the limo carrying the dead man walking, Norman Osborn. The wings on his back fluttered in agitation.

"Go on, shoo, get outta here. Go hump someone else's leg."

Rahne's ears immediately flattened against her head in irritation. That was rude. In response, she leapt forward, hit the trunk of a car and forced herself up and over, scrambling up until she was on top of a bread truck. He was paying semi attention to her but not a lot. He didn't think she was something of interest.

Leaping once more, Rahne lunged for a leg, strong sharp teeth snapping as she flew just under him. She'd missed but she hadn't thought she'd connect. It was, she thought, landing hard enough on top of yet another car to dent it, a challenge.

"The hell?" Beetle spun in midair to watch the beast land forcefully. "What are you?"

"A distraction," Amara muttered, as she moved into position behind the Beetle. The oversized wolf that was Rahne wasn't going to be the only surprise for this asshole. After taking a moment to focus, she sent a blast of fire at his back, her fireform flaring as she concentrated on turning up the heat.

The alarm systems in Beetle's suit blared to warn him of the attack, but he was too slow to avoid it, and the torrent of fire slammed him hard to the ground. "How many of you little freaks are there?" Weapon systems were still online, so he charged his gauntlets again for another lightning strike. "Osborn's only after you for your money, kids. Selling out his people for a few bucks from you. Get outta here."

It was too late for that, Rahne thought, scrabbling until she was back on the ground. She let out a deep growl and circled Beetle. Rahne kept her body low to the ground and kept herself tense, ready to dart in. She was at a disadvantage - she wasn't sure if her teeth or claws would win on his suit but she bared her teeth at him anyway and did a half-lunge when he shifted.

She'd take the chance.

"I don't know who this Osborn is," Amara retorted back, frowning as she realised that... something concerning was happening around his hands. "But we do care about the bystanders that you are likely to hurt in your efforts to get to him."

The ground below Amara's feet cracked and melted, the fire streaming around her shifting, becoming liquid somehow. This was new.

"Fine, kids, it's your funeral. Don't say I didn't warn you." The Beetle's wings fluttered, lifting him a foot into the air. Thunder struck and the air burned when he discharged the lightning bolt at Rahne.

An instant before the attack, the smells of the city were suddenly overwhelmed by the heady smell of ozone. It flooded her senses and, considering the bright sky overhead, told her she needed to move. Now. Yelping, she dove out of the way as a lightening bolt whizzed overhead. She landed poorly, hitting the ground with an awkward roll and flailing of four limbs, but at least she hadn't been hit.

Oh no you didn't. Amara narrowed her eyes, watching as Rahne narrowly missed being hit by lightning. This would not stand. Her temper - and fire aura - flared, and the ground beneath her feet seemed to crack and melt even further.

The next blast to be thrown Beetle's way was more than just fire, as the melted ground beneath Amara's feet was absorbed into her fire form, turning to magma.

This time, Beetle's alarms warned him in time and he fluttered out of the way. Mostly. The torrent of flame nicked his leg and he yelped in pain and surprise. He wouldn't be walking well any time soon. Still, he didn't have to walk when he could fly. He moved back and with surprising ease, flung a car at the two young women.

The girls went separate ways and Rahne momentarily lost sight of Amara as she dove under the car, trying to get as flat as possible, convinced she was going to smushed and die here, of all places. Killed by a grown man in a bug suit. That was really not dignified.

She didn't, actually, die or get squished. She regained her feet and, fueled by adrenaline and anger, launched herself at Beetle. Snarling, went low and then up, jaws snapping shut around one of his wrists.

Beetle yelped and waved his arm madly to shake her off but her bite's grip was too tight. The gauntlet let out a few sparks and — maybe anticlimactically, given its earlier pyrotechnic display — went dead. "Freaking mutie freaks!" he squealed, reaching for Rahne's neck with his free hand.

"Oh for Athena's sake," Amara muttered, and stomped her foot. The ground shook at the stamp, cracking slightly. This asshole had not only ruined their outing, now he was trying to kill a friend. This was definitely not okay. She couldn't just blast him again due to Rahne's proximity, but... she brought her foot down again, this time with more purpose. The cracks widened, and the ground underneath Beetle's feet rippled slightly.

Despite Beetle's attempt, and thanks to Amara's intervention, Rahne was still determinedly clinging to his arm. Flailing around, she managed to plant at least her front legs on some part of him which gave her a little more leverage and a little less simply hanging from his hand, gnawing. Growling, she glared at him over his arm and started to chew and yank, determined to rip off at least this part of his battle suit thing.

This mission was a failure. An unmitigated disaster. Struggling to maintain his footing and continuing his vain attempts to rid himself of the beast trying to eat his arm, he looked around at the scene before him. Rhino's arm had fallen off and Vulture was encased in a prison of ice. And worst of all, that traitorous coward Osborn had vanished. If they continued to stick around, the cops or SHIELD would be here to arrest him.

Beetle backhanded Rahne with his free hand, finally dislodging her and sending her crumpling at her friend's feet. Diagnostics indicated that flight systems were still operational, so he fired an errant lightning bolt with his functional gauntlet and sped away to retrieve the other two and get the hell out.

~*~

The battle is won, but Generation X is not happy to learn who their secret ally actually is.

They had done a pretty good job, if Miles could say so himself. He celebrated by humming the Final Fantasy victory fanfare. For all their impressive hardware, these mecha-suited villains were no match for the junior superhero training of Generation X. Maybe Scott wouldn't even ground him for not running away.

They risked arrest if they stuck around, though. Even as Beetle broke Vulture out of his ice prison and the two of them airlifted Rhino away, the blare of emergency sirens and whir of approaching helicopters warned him that it was time to leave. And perhaps more importantly, make sure that his friends vamoosed, too.

"There's an apartment complex three blocks north of here," he informed Nica. "Meet me there on the rooftop. Fire escape's quickest way up for everyone who can't fly." He didn't wait for a reply before firing a webline and swinging in the other direction, a black-suited urban acrobat to divert attention away from the fleeing teenage mutants.

"Sure thing." In her light form, Nica was fast and she was best suited to finding each of her friends to pass the word on. "Spidey's acting as distraction for us, let's get the hell out of here," she told Bobby, as the closest. "I can show you where. Maybe see if you can't give our wolf-girl a ride? 'Mara's too hot for you to handle." She grinned at him before zipping over to where Amara and Rahne were to let them know the plan.

"Pfft, I could totally handle her," Bobby said after Nica left before stealing a glance at Amara and realizing that yeah, no, he probably couldn't. He sighed and waved over at Rahne, hopping on a little ice slide and heading her way. "Hey yo, a little birdie told me that you might be in need of a ride, and this here is the coolest one in town."

Somehow, Rahne managed to make the wolf equivalent of the unimpressed emoji icon - eyes half shut, ears half way down. It looked ridiculous. But she yipped at him and then again, trying to impress on him to stay put for a second. Making sure he would, she turned and disappeared for a few moments, running towards the alley they'd gathered in earlier.

Soon enough, Rahne trotted out from between two cars, her clothes held tightly in her teeth. She sat and looked up at Bobby expectantly.

"Dude that's awesome, I dunno if I've ever told you that before or not." He grinned and then waited for Rahne to make her way over to him, then he carefully made a big enough ice slide for them both to ride before speeding up the process and taking to the skies.

Amara just looked back at Bobby, her fireform obscuring the strange look she was giving him. She wasn't about to power down, largely because it meant she'd be wandering through New York in her underwear. She really needed to stop getting caught out like this.

She followed Bobby's iceslide at least as far as the fire escape, moving up it as quickly as possible. She wasn't quite as inconspicuous as she might have liked, but fire!girl had slightly more dignity than her other choices.

Nica herself wasn't exactly inconspicuous in her light form, but at least she was fast enough to make identification difficult. And luckily for them, Spider-Man was doing a nice job of distracting SHIELD and putting them on the trail of the real bad guys. She landed lightly on the roof, waiting for the others to reach the top, and powered down, suddenly starving hungry. "Next time we do this, I need to pack snacks," she muttered to herself. Then as the others reached the roof, she took in Amara's problem. "And possibly a spare change of clothes." She shrugged off her coat, glad she was taller than the other girl. "You might want this once you power down," she said to Amara with a grin.

"Thank you," Amara replied with a nod, immediately powering down so she could take the jacket and slip it on. It swam on her a little, but Amara just pulled it closed over her chest and folded her arms to keep it in place. This was not exactly the time for public almost-nudity.

A voice called to them from the water tower at the corner of the roof. "If all it takes is supervillains to get girls out of their clothes then I'd've gone bad years ago." The air rippled, revealing Spider-Man seated on the tower as his camouflage wore off. Helpful for escaping the eyes of the authorities, not so much for having a conversation. He stood and leaped off the tower, somersaulting in midair, before coming to a landing on all fours, next to Bobby. "So. That was pretty damn good, wouldn't you say?"

Rahne jumped off the ice slide the moment it was safe to do so and spent a few seconds doing a strange four legged jig. ~cold, cold, cold, cold paws!~ she thought, dropping her clothes in front of her. So it took her a little bit to concentrate on Spider-Man but once she did, Rahne stopped what she was doing and sniffed the air. And then did it again, creeping closer to him.

Abruptly, she sat down in front of him and glared, ears back. Rahne yipped and then growled, snuffling the air. Now that they were standing still and away from the chaos of the street, she was getting a really good whiff of sweat underneath the smells of that webbing stuff and latex. Was that latex? And more importantly was that...?

"All right, fine. I guess it had to come out sooner or later." Spider-Man sighed and stood up. It was time to stop pretending, especially if this was going to be a thing. He reached under his chin to grab his mask from where it was tucked into his collar and pulled it back, revealing his face. "Hey, guys."

"Hey man, did you -" Bobby started, looking at Miles before realizing that holy shit that's Miles. "Wait, what? Miles, are you... what?" He was having a Moment and wasn't quite able to process just what was happening. Why hadn't his roommate, his best friend, told him he was Spider-Man? What the hell? "Seriously?" he croaked, unable to say anything else right then and there.

"Well that explains where you disappeared to." Amara cocked her head to the side, examining Miles.

"And at least he's dropped that terrible English accent he put on last time," added Nica, although her words were lighter than the expression on her face. She'd been fine with ceding leadership to an authentic hero - finding out said hero was one of her classmates stung. "Any reason you didn't just tell us it was you?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Because it's more dramatic this way?" Miles's gaze panned over his friends and he tugged nervously at his collar. "Yeesh, tough crowd. Mira, you guys, secret identities are secret for a reason. You can't just go blabbing about it. And you know, I had to change into this," he added, holding up the mask, "So New York could see that Spider-Man's here."

While the others had been talking, Rahne had snatched up her clothes and had disappeared behind a half wall on the rooftop. Thanks to her powers, she could still hear every word they said while she coaxed her body into changing back to her human form. Despite how hard it generally still was, she managed to do so and quickly threw on her clothes.

So it was a human, and thankfully dressed, Rahne that rejoined the group. "I can't believe I didn't figure it out before," she said, shaking her head. "That one time, aye? But everything smelled so weird and ye smell way too much like latex, it really covers yer scent in a really weird way."

"Yeah you guys, it's strictly on a need to know basis, and you guys weren't important enough to know," Bobby said, still not looking at MIles. "Anyway, whatever, let's get out of here. If that's ok with you, Spider-Man." He may have been just a little bitter, at least for the moment.

Nica gave Bobby a sympathetic look. "We'll need to stop somewhere to grab some clothes for 'Mara," she said, taking charge again. She looked over the edge of the building, where SHIELD agents were swiftly taking charge of the scene. "Bobby can show us somewhere and we can meet up at that pizza place in thirty?"

There had been a small roll of the eyes from Amara at Miles' explanation. And then again at Bobby's comments. How dramatic. How complicated. How all very ridiculous.

"Yes, as much as I appreciate your coat I would prefer to be wearing something underneath it."

Miles mouthed "thank you" to Nica for taking charge even though he suspected his gratitude was neither needed nor wanted. "We should probably get back home soon," he suggested, trying but unable to meet anyone's eyes. "I'll call Scott to let him know we're okay. And I'll take responsibility for getting us involved. So, you know, no detention or anything. I'll, uh, see you guys in a bit?"

"Maybe, I guess it depends on how many more masks you've got," Bobby muttered, still giving the cold shoulder both literally and figuratively. Miles was still right, they should get home, so he just shook his head and headed for the edge of the rooftop. "Let's just get out of here already." He hopped off the edge, sliding himself down while making a large ice pole for anyone who wanted to slide down on it, complete with a fluffy pile of snow to break their fall at the bottom.