(A/N: As I promised back in Chapter 1, Blue Wolf will be meeting the big leagues and this is the chapter where it all goes down. Also, I'd like to add that this story takes place in the 8-month timeskip in between Secret Wars and All-New All-Different Marvel.)
Key: Narration = "Italics"
Inner Monologue = 'Single Quotation Marks'
CHAPTER 4: BIG TIME SUPERHERO
Blue Wolf sits at the edge of the Stark Industries building with his mask rolled up to his head like a beanie. He gazes at the city with his hands between his legs and his legs rocking back and forth as they hang over the ledge.
"Welcome back to the incredible crazy-fest that is my life now. I guess it comes with the superpowers and the job. Recap time, uhhh where was I? Oh yeah, I was bitten by the genetically engineered wolf, found out I had superpowers, saved a little girl from a fire and decided I should use my gifts for good. No time jump this time so bear with me on this."
Milo and Anne's Apartment
September 12
"Let me get this straight." A confused Michelle states while sitting on Milo's bed. Michelle was wearing a beige crop top with black ripped jeans and socks, her curly hair was tied up in a bun. "You have...wolf powers?"
"Yep." Milo responds bluntly while eating a Papa John's salami pizza, sitting at on a four-wheeled chair with his legs on his desk. Milo was wearing a white t-shirt and blue slim jeans.
"It's pretty awesome seeing him in action actually." Lee states randomly while sewing a poorly made costume together. Lee was wearing his classic beanie, a t-shirt with an Iron Man logo on it and cargo shorts.
"Annnnnnd you're going with the name Blue Wolf?" Michelle asks sceptically, crossing her legs on Milo's bed. No one responds to her question, she scans the room with an annoyed scowl on her face, gripping her jeans tighter due to being ignored. "That's kinda lame."
Milo finishes the pizza he is currently eating and shoves the crust in his mouth whole before rubbing his hands together to clear off the crumbs. He sits back in his four-wheeled chair with his hands behind his head. "I mean, I like the colour blue and I have wolf powers, so why not?"
Michelle nods instead or responding, showing Milo that she understands his reasoning. Silence fills the room once more as each individual person is focusing on their current activity, Lee sewing the Blue Wolf costume, Milo eating his pizza and Michelle's internal debate on asking Milo to the Fall Formal. After a few moments she finally makes up her mind and opens her mask to ask him, before she could utter a word though...
"Done!" Lee shouts out, holding the suit in the air like a battle trophy, which startles Michelle and Milo. Lee raises his shoulder on level with his chin. "It's not the best but...superheroes all gotta start somewhere".
Milo and Lee approach Lee and the Blue Wolf suit, upon seeing the suit, Milo raises his right eyebrow in utter confusion while Michelle's eyes widen in unflattering shock. The suit is comprised of a black wet-suit as the base, with a poorly sewn blue V-shape on the upper torso starting with his shoulders and ending just above his abs, the mask is a blue spandex material with two eye holes cut through it and poorly sewn spandex wolf-shaped ears on the upper left and right side of the mask.
"It's horrible." Michelle states critically while crossing her arms.
Milo stays silent with his right eyebrow still raised. Lee and Michelle both look toward him, waiting for his response and then look to each other in confusion before looking back to Milo again. He smiles which surprises the two.
"It's a start." He says still smirking.
On a rooftop, somewhere in Manhattan
Later on
Milo, in his Blue Wolf costume is standing on the edge of a rooftop. Now he is wearing blue fingerless gloves and blue Nike high tops. Blue Wolf is standing in a heroic posture with his legs are spread, his posture in alignment with the rest of his body and his head looking out to the sky.
"Blue Wolf: Year One begins today!" Blue Wolf shouts before bends his knees and performs a huge leap to another building.
He lands perfectly on the edge of the building and performs a front flip and lands a three-pointer on an air-conditioning unit, causing a visible dent, before leaping from it and front full twisting in mid-air before falling in between two buildings, he stops the fall by digging his claws into a wall and skids down from it. He kicks back to the next wall and ricochets back and forth from it like a bullet, Blue Wolf reaches the end of the two buildings and kicks off of one of the building's wall and attempts to reach the ledge of another building in front of him.
Blue Wolf manages to grab the ledge and desperately attempts to pull himself up, although gravity has other plans for him and begins to drag him to the ground. His claws make a loud screeching sound as he begins to fall which startles the crowd of civilians at street level below, Blue Wolf's claws finally detach from the ledge. Blue Wolf shoots to the street below and lands on his back first, the pained hero instantly arches his back from the floor, grabbing it as he groans in pain.
A man with a hard New York accent approaches Blue Wolf. "You alright, buddy?" He asks while also helping him up.
Blue Wolf rubs his back violently in hopes of numbing the pain he's suffering. "Yeah, I'm fine thanks. Helluva way to find out I have superhuman durability."
Blue Wolf chuckles nervously at his comment, as the crowd continue staring at him in curiosity a security alarm triggers from a nearby convenience store. The loud alarm triggers Blue Wolf's superhuman hearing and it causes him to stagger back momentarily, holding his ears. Being the only one who can hear it at this distance, he leaves the crowd and leaps off into the direction of the alarm to investigate. Blue Wolf lands in a crouch position with his hands placed on the ground to hold him up, a few centimeters outside the robbed convenience store. He then stands up and hears several heartbeats coming from a nearby alleyway.
Instead of examining his options, Blue Wolf leaps onto the wall in front of him and latches onto it with his claws, he crawls to the alleyway instead of just walking there normally to avoid being noticed by the thugs. While still latched on the wall above the thugs, he sees three of them: the first one, the leader presumably is buff and wearing a black ski mask with a leather jacket, a white tank-top underneath it, denim jeans and brown boots. The second thug was the shortest out of all of them, he also wore a ski mask with a grey hoodie, denim jeans and black sneakers. The third and final thug was fat and emitted an odor which greatly bothered Blue Wolf's superhuman smell, he wore a blue t-shirt, brown cargo shorts and sandals.
"Hurry up, Jerry. We gotta get outta here before one of them superpowered dirtbags show up." The short thug says sounding panicked and out of breath.
"Hang on, I'm just counting the score." The leader responds in an aggravated tone and a hard New York accent.
"I say bring 'em on, I've always wanted to throw down with someone like Daredevil." The fat thug adds in.
"Shut up Elliott. You idiot!" The short thug shoots back almost immediately.
Blue Wolf, still latched onto the wall, rolls his eyes under his mask as the thugs argue amongst themselves. 'They're all idiots. Is this what Michelle, Lee and I sound like? Oh, uh...gotta think of something cool to say' Blue Wolf thinks to himself, even sounding nervous in his own head. Blue Wolf jumps off the wall and lands behind the thugs in a three pointer and in perfect silence. 'Could totally be a ninja.' He amusingly thinks to himself, Blue Wolf then stands up and clenches his fists tightly. 'Think of something cool, think of something cool.'
"Is this the Bad Guy Club? If so, can I join?" Blue Wolf calls out to the thugs jokingly. '*sigh* So lame.'
The three thugs jump ever so slightly, clearly trying to hide the fact that they were just startled and retain their masculine façade. They turn around to lay eyes on their would-be nemesis, upon seeing the short and slender Blue Wolf in his poorly made costume they burst out in hysterical laughter. The leader thug covers his mouth as he laughs, the short thug bends over holding both of his knees while laughing and the fat thug holds his gut as he too, howls with laughter.
"Who are you supposed to be, Cat-Man? HAHAHAHA!" The leader asks while still laughing.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh God, I'd rather fight Squirrel Girl!" The short thug shouts out.
Feeling insecure and angry at the same time, he clenches his fists even tighter. "I'm the Blue Wolf."
This causes the three to laugh even harder, annoyed, Blue Wolf spots a trash can to his left. He approaches it frustratingly, digs his claws into it, lifts it and launches it at the fat thug and it hits him clean in the face causing a massive clang sound, this knocks the fat thug out instantly. The two remaining thugs look back in shock at their partner's unconscious body, the two pull out their guns and immediately begin open-firing on Blue Wolf.
Blue Wolf's reflexes partnered with his superhumanly acute senses and speed cause him to react instantaneously, he begins leaping back and forth from both walls, avoiding the bullets and appearing as a blue blur to the two thugs shooting at him. 'Holy shit! I don't know how I'm doing this but I'm doing it!' Blue Wolf thinks to himself while performing this incredible feat. Blue Wolf finally leaps off of the wall and enters close quarters with the two.
"Holy fu-" Before even being able to finish that sentence the short thug is punched square in the face and violently forced backward into a dumpster, while this is happening Blue Wolf high kicks the gun out of the leader's hand. The leader, thinking quickly on his toes, grabs his pocket knife and begins violently slashing at Blue Wolf, although he can only slash at the air as Blue Wolf uses his speed to handspring backwards, narrowly avoiding every attempt of attack. Finally, Blue Wolf performs a back flip and kicks the knife out of the leader's hand, lands in a three pointer, swipes at the leader's leg causing him to fall but before even hitting the ground, Blue Wolf drop kicks the leader and knocks him out.
Blue Wolf manages to do all of this before the leader had even realized his knife had been knocked out of his hand. Blue Wolf proceeds to scan the alleyway and realizes they are all unconscious, he takes a few moments to gather his bearings and process what had transpired.
"Ho my God! I just did that! I kicked their asses like a boss!" Blue Wolf shouts out while jumping up and down and violently raising his arms up and down in a triumphant fashion.
Alchemax
The Next Day
"What do you have for me, Stone?" Liz Allan, CEO of Alchemax, asks Tiberius Stone with a demanding and authoritative tone as she stands in front of her office window with her hands behind her back, overlooking the city. "I have to meet with my son and his father later."
Stone, who is standing behind her at a noticeable distance, looks at his iPad. "A few days ago, a teenage boy, fitting the description of Milo Martin was seen displaying Mutant or Inhuman abilities to save a child from a fire."
"Anything else?" Allan asks bluntly.
"And yesterday there have been various reports of a teenager in a "Bad Wolf Costume" has been patrolling the city saving lives and stopping crimes." Tiberius Stone replies to Allan in a monotoned voice.
"And he's already become a "superhero", how original." Allan says mockingly.
"What do you want me to do now, Ms. Allan?"
"Hire someone to bring him in and then hire Ghost to "borrow" some equipment for us" Allen responds with cold but calculation in her voice.
Heritage High School
Meanwhile
Milo is strolling through the hallways filled with students while listening to his music. He is wearing a blue, short-sleeved open buttoned shirt with a white t-shirt under it, black slim jeans and black vans. He is completely oblivious to his fellow students as he is so deep in thought that he is just mindlessly strolling with no location in mind.
'I really need a better costume, how come superheroes my age like Ms. Marvel and the black Spider-Man have cool suits? Ow! Ow! All this noise is hitting me at once, earphones are not helping. Note to self, get Daredevil or Wolverine to train me.' Milo thinks to himself.
Suddenly he bumps into the beautiful high school senior, Natalie, Milo's crush since freshmen year. It startles them both but the two apologize and nervously chuckle at each other, there is an awkward silence between them after their significant encounter. Milo places his hand on his neck and begins rubbing and Natalie places her hand on her left arm.
"Hey...you're Milo, right?" Natalie asks.
"Uhh y-y-yeah, yeah. " Milo responds with a slight stutter in his words.
"Well, see you around." Natalie smiles at him before adjusting her bag to walk past him.
Milo contemplates to himself and gathers the confidence to turn around. "Hey, Natalie." He calls out to her softly.
She stops in her tracks and turns around to make eye contact. "Yeah?"
"I ummm... I-I-I was wondering, if you uh...wanted to go to the F-Fall Formal with me?" He asks, barely being able to finish that sentence.
Natalie's face turns from delight to shock. She opens her mouth to formulate speech but falls short, her eyes then shift from Milo's to the lockers on her left. "I—oh, I'm-I'm sorry Milo but...I agreed to go with Danny."
"Danny's the classic High School star football player that everyone loves. He's not a bully though, he's a pretty nice guy actually, if you get to know him."
"Oh, Danny? Cool, cool that's... so cool. He's a... solid guy, I totally get it." Milo responds with confidence masking the disappointment in his heart.
"I'm sorry, Milo" Natalie ends the conversation with pity in her voice. She then kisses him on the cheek before proceeding to leave and blend in with the endless crowd of high school students.
Somewhere in Manhattan
After School
Blue Wolf leaps through the city like a circus acrobat as he patrols it for any criminal activity or for someone in need of aid. While in the middle of performing an aerial somersault across two buildings, his phone starts to ring, before answering Blue Wolf lands on the ledge of the building and takes his phone out of his pocket and answers it.
"Schmello?"
"Dude, where have you been?!" Lee shouts from the other line.
Blue Wolf takes a few moments to reply as he is trying to concentrate on navigating the city. "I'm patrolling."
"You're famous! You're literally blowing up the internet!"
"Already? Cool!" Blue Wolf responds while leaping back and forth between two walls in an alleyway. "Is that all?"
"Nah. That Boomerang guy is causing a ruckus in Midtown." Lee responds monotonal
"I got it."
Blue Wolf hangs up the phone and makes his way to Midtown. A few moments later, Blue Wolf arrives at the location of the disturbance, he watches from afar on a nearby building. He sees Boomerang, holding a money bag and in a stand-off with the N.Y.P.D, he is holding them at bay with his Shatterangs as the police take cover behind a flipped over car.
One of the Shatterangs hit a nearby car which causes it and the car to explode, shrapnel is flying everywhere, shrapnel hits an uncovered cop and he falls to the ground injured, holding his shoulder. Boomerang notices this and pulls out another Shatterang and is about to finish off the injured cop. Blue Wolf leaps off of the building to the injured officer's aid, he leaps over the large crowd gathered around the shoot-out, Blue Wolf manages to save him by lunging himself toward the injured officer and tackling him out of the way. The Shatterang hits a piece of metal which originally came from the car before it was blown up.
"Who are you 'sposed to be?" Boomerang asks in a violent and battle-ready posture.
Blue Wolf stays silent, still standing in front of the injured cop and unsheathes his claws and enters a battle-ready posture with his shoulders hunched, his legs bent and spread out and his arms. Boomerang notices this and begins discreetly pulling out one of his specialized boomerangs, Blue Wolf completely unaware of this.
"That how it's gonna be huh?" Boomerang asks mockingly.
He then launches a boomerang at Blue Wolf which begins emitting a high intensity sonic-wave as it approaches Blue Wolf. The sonic waves cause a deafening blare of sound that hinders Blue Wolf, he drops to his knees at the mercy of the sonic waves, Blue Wolf wails due to the pain and his ears begin to bleed and stain the insides of his mask. The cops can only stand in horror as they watch the young hero in his weakened state, unsure of what to do or how to help.
Boomerang approaches the downed Blue Wolf and bends down to be on eye level with him. "I call 'em my Screamarangs, nice huh?" He says coldly but confidently.
Boomerang pulls out a Razorang and raises it as if he was about to decapitate Blue Wolf. Just before striking, a web-like adhesive line sticks to Boomerang's wrist making a loud gooey sound. Boomerang let's out a grunt through gritted teeth before turning and seeing three legends, Steve Rogers: Captain America, the Invincible Iron Man and the Amazing Spider-Man who had shot the web-line at Boomerang, stopping him from finishing off Blue Wolf and for some reason, was also carrying a high-tech suitcase.
"Believe me, if I wasn't in unbearable pain I would have been fanboying all over the place. Spider-Man, Captain America and Iron Man, my heroes, no my freakin' idols, here to help me? It was insane!"
"You deal with Boomerang, I'll disable the sonic-wave boomerang." Iron Man tells his fellow Avengers in a commanding tone.
"You say it like it'll be hard." Spider-Man shoots back in a cocky tone and with a chuckle.
Spider-Man yanks his web which pulls Boomerang into his and Cap's direction while Iron Man flies over to the Screamarang and uses his armor's augmented strength to snap it in half, Iron Man approaches the still downed Blue Wolf and helps him stand up and recuperate. Spider-Man grabs Boomerang by the scruff of his black suit with his free hand and pulls him close, squinting his black and white eyes into sharp slits.
"Wanna handle this, Cap?" Spider-Man asks in a lighthearted tone.
"I'd be honored, Spider-Man" Cap replies with delight in his voice.
Spider-Man hands the mumbling Boomerang over to Cap. He places him down on his feet, towering over the noticeably shorter Boomerang and adjusts his wrinkled costume. Boomerang chuckles nervously which leads Cap to return a mischievous smirk before socking Boomerang around the jaw, creating a loud cracking sound, Boomerang drops like a ragdoll and falls unconscious. Blue Wolf who is still trying to recover from the ringing in his ears, places his hands over them, as he walks over to Spider-Man and Captain America, guided by Iron Man who has his left hand on the younger hero's back. The three heroes tower over Blue Wolf like Gods.
"Are you alright, son?" Cap asks Blue Wolf.
"Huh?! I can't hear you!" Blue Wolf shouts out, barely unable to hear his own voice let alone Captain America's.
"He's fine. That sonic-wave did a real number on him." Iron Man answers for Blue Wolf.
Blue Wolf rubs his ear through his mask. "Trust me...if I wasn't borderline deaf, I'd be on my knees kissing all of your feet right now."
"Awh, a fan." Spider-Man adds in.
"We've been watching you, kid." Iron Man states.
"Oh yeah? Here to tell me I'm doing a terrible job?" Blue Wolf asks while still rubbing his ear.
"As a matter of fact, we're here to tell you you're doing great and to keep up the good work." Iron Man responds in a congratulatory tone of voice.
"Although you have to work on your collateral damage control." Captain America adds in.
"Oh! And to give you this, courtesy of Parker Industries." Spider-Man says, handing the suitcase to Blue Wolf.
Blue Wolf takes the suitcase slow and gently, staring at the high tech looking suitcase before looking up and making eye contact with Spider-Man through their individual masks. "What's this?"
"It's a new suit made from Unstable Molecules, no offence...you're current one sucks." Spider-Man replies in an apologetic tone.
"W-wow...I don't know what to say...uh...thanks...thank you!" Blue Wolf stutters excitedly.
Spider-Man nods in approval, the three heroes then turn to leave but before leaving, Spider-Man turns his head back. "Good luck out there and happy superhero-ing."
Spider-Man shoots a webline to a nearby building while Iron Man and Cap wrap their arms around each other's shoulders, Spider-Man swings away while Iron Man and Cap fly away in the opposite direction. Blue Wolf watches in awe as he has just met his heroes and has been gifted with an even better suit. Blue Wolf then proceeds to look down at the suitcase and clicks it open revealing his new and improved suit. Completely lost for words, the only thing he could muster was:
"Holy. Shit."
To Be Continued...
(A/N: And that's a wrap for Chapter 4. I really enjoyed writing this, please review and let me know if you enjoyed it too. Or maybe even let me know what I could improve. See you in the next one.)