Chapter Eleven: Exposed.

The screams of the adoring fans were furthest from the mind of the young woman who made her way off of the tour bus into the city of New York. The girl had a black t-shirt that wrapped around her body, a pair of blue jeans that stretched around her legs, and a pair of sunglasses that adorned her eyes when she looked around, with the blazing blue eyes. Her blonde hair tied back when she stepped forward, when she thought about everything. The career she was in lead to everything being topsy turvy in its own way.

Alison Blaire was the famous pop star known as Dazzler, well she had a cult following, her legions of devoted fans. She tried to take time out to answer to all of the questions from her fans, even if she got some perverted propositions from some of them. It came with the territory with being famous and she was beloved by her legions of fans. The beautiful blonde and blue eyed pop star turned her head around before a smile crossed her face.

She smiled when she thought about everything, the last few years made her more famous than ever before, even though she denoted her money to charity. There were people more in need than her and Alison understood that without her fans, she would be an even bigger nobody than she was now. She would not be someone, anyone without any of them and the love and support that they gave her.

Well her number one fan was the one that gave her the inspiration, Peter Parker or Spider-Man as he was more commonly known. He was her muse and inspiration in many ways, in fact her hit single, "webbed your way into my heart" inspired her hottest hitting CD since she began her career as a pop star. The beautiful blonde felt that was a great feeling as her heart pumped a little bit when she turned around.

She saw the announcement that Peter was getting married to his long-time girlfriend Gwen Stacy and she could not be happier than ever before. If anyone deserved any kind of happiness it was Peter and Gwen as well. She did not even consider herself to be an expert of the wall crawler but she followed his adventures. Perhaps she could be considered his most famous fan, although there were rumors that others followed his exploits.

Still Alison could not deny that she had a bit of a crush on the web slinger and wished, oh how she wished that it was her on his arm. She smiled and blinked, that was a dream that was not going to come true by any means. The blonde popstar continued to walk when she wondered what she was going to do here. It had been a while since she came back to New York City so there were many things that she could do.

There was never a lack of excitement in the city that never slept.

And there was also never a lack of danger, as she heard the car doors. Car doors opening right next a closed alleyway was something that put anyone on edge and Alison Blaire was no exception to this rule. The woman turned her head around to see a group of familiar looking goons make their way down the alleyway. They advanced on her, walking towards her.

"Our boss wants you to come with us, Miss Blaire," one of the muscled goons stated and she stood her ground.

Alison knew exactly who these gorillas got their marching orders from but she refused to back down no matter what. She had a reputation to maintain but it was more than that. It was all about pride and not getting knocked down. It was about the self-esteem she promoted, and believing in herself when she watched her would be captors come down the alleyway. There was a moment before she spoke.

"I know what your people want with me, and I won't do it," Alison stated when she backed off. She had powers but they were mostly a showy kind of ability. That allowed her to make a spectacle of her concert and nothing more. "I swear, don't take on step closer or I'll…."

One of the muscled up meatheads grabbed Alison around the wrist and twisted her arm, causing a slight pop when she dropped down to a knee. She struggled against his grip and she tried to pull herself out of the attack.

"Hey, you heard the lady, hands off."

It was everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood web slinger Spider-Man on the case and he swung over to knock out his adversaries, toppling them like nine pins when they dropped to the ground. The web slinger dodged the assaults of his enemies, they tried to stab him.

"What is with you people and knives lately?" Spider-Man asked when he dodged every individual attack from the knives, before he ducked his head and rolled on the ground, before he disarmed his enemies with the web yank. A gun was pulled out, but a swipe of claws broke the weapon in half.

X-23 pulled up, she was looking to get a work out and these goons were the perfect people to take off her recent agressions out on. Perhaps she got a little too aggressive because she slammed her enemy against the dumpster and his back cracked against it. He staggered a little bit and legs spasmed from the impact before X-23 drew back and drilled her enemy with an attack. She would have stabbed her claws through him had she not held herself back. It was very attempting, given what she suspected the nature of the kidnapping to be. Her eyes widened and she turned around to slice the weapons of another one of her attacks.

Shadowcat pulled one of the members of this gang underneath the ground and then caused them to knock out.

"There are a lot of these guys, aren't there?" Shadowcat stated when she knocked them back with a kick sending them flying backwards.

"Yeah, but we X-Men lived for this," Colossus stated when he used his strength to propel the goons to the side. He was surprisingly stealthy for someone who was his size and the metallic shields wrapped around him, where he smashed into him. "Nice try comrades but there's no dice and now….now there's a lot, come on, take your best shot."

"Guys, we got to leave one of these people awake so we can get some answers out of them," Spider-Man stated when she slammed one of the enemies down.

Laura's eyes twisted a little bit, before she nailed her enemy with a glancing blow. "One, noted."

Laura smashed her enemies across the back of the head, smacking him around, before kneeing him in the face and sending him flying down to the ground. She tried to keep her attacks solid and fluid.

When the dust cleared, Spider-Man had one of the men hanging upside down from the side of the building.

"I'm getting an arm cramp so you better talk soon," Spider-Man stated when he dangled his person over the side.

"It was Shaw….Shaw sent us, that's all I know," the man stated when he saw that it was a long way down.

"Thanks," Spider-Man answered before he nailed the man and left him dangling for the police which should be arriving. He swung down and looked down at Alison, in spite himself a smile crossing his face. "Are you alright?"

Her heart beat a little bit.

"Yeah."

Despite her best efforts she could not get Spider-Man out of her head and he haunted her dreams in so many ways.

Alison Blaire was safely back at the Xavier Institute, she could barely hear the words of the X-Men members when they talked about what happened. The fact of the matter was that she did not understand what she was going up against although she had a pretty good idea. One of her less than desirable associates from the past came back to haunt her. It was a moment of weakness, she was younger, far more idealistic and she learned a very valuable lesson.

Some people simply did not take no for an answer.

Shinobi Shaw was a bit older than her, handsome, and he had money, and he seemed to be rather charming. He was the perfect boyfriend, given that her first choice was someone that was out of her reach. Her blue eyes swam with frustration when she turned her head around and heard the X-Men continue to talk. It was not until the leader, Cyclops, made his way to her and tried to talk to her.

"Who was this Shaw going after you?"

Alison took a moment to pause what she was saying, she really hoped that she would not to confront these demons. The blonde pope star decided to collect her thoughts, the eyes of several X-Men were on her, included but not limited to Shadowcat, Cyclops, Phoenix, X-23, Colossus, Iceman, Havok, and Polaris. She drew in her breath and decided that it would be best to be honest. "It was a really stupid decision in the past coming back to haunt me."

"That doesn't really tell us anything," Storm stated as she turned up in the room. "Of course, you don't have to share the information with us if you are unwilling to. It is your choice granted but it would…"

"No, no, I need to share this."

Allison hoped that the X-Men would not think any worse of her when she said the words that she was about to say. She feared that her reputation was going to come unraveled if people knew about this, even if she was connected to a notorious womanizer like Shinobi Shaw. Her eyes closed a little bit when she allowed herself to contain her emotions and then she decided that it would be best for him.

"I went out with this guy."

"That explains a lot," X-23 stated, figuring that it would be something like this.

"Laura."

That statement was given by Kitty and Laura offered a smile towards her, before she motioned for Alison to continue. Alison did in fact continue when she allowed herself a bit of time to collect her thoughts.

"His name was Shinobi Shaw."

"Shaw, he's….he's a bit of a playboy, isn't he?" Phoenix asked.

"It didn't go that far," Alison added, and sure enough it did not but she was sure that the X-Men might be skeptical. If the words got out about her connection to Shaw it was going to be game over for her career. She tried to remain optimistic and hope for the best even though the worst was going to be likely. "I was young and he seemed like the perfect gentleman but he turned into….well he turned into."

"A real bastard."

Laura Kinney, much like her father, was the best in the world in what she did but what she was not all that good at is being tactful. Still as harsh as her statement appeared to be, it was very accurate and Allison nodded.

"You broke it off and he got clingy," Cyclops responded when he looked at her.

"We might have a problem."

Gwen and Peter popped up right now, with them hanging onto a newspaper. Alison felt a feeling of mortal dread swim around her, and sure enough, the headline on the newspaper was the thing that struck her hard. It was like a vicious slap in the face when she turned around and she read everything that flicked through her. Every damning letter of that headline, it was flashing in front of her face.

"ALLISON BLAIRE MUTANT: USES POWERS TO MAKE BETTER MUSIC."

I….I…I never."

"We know you didn't, " Peter answered before he held the note before her and she looked at it, holding it in her hand. The note was short and to the point but she shook her head a little bit to clear the cobwebs.

"You were warned."

Those particular words taunted her in the back of her mind and Allison Blaire felt frustration like she never felt before. The pop start did not know what to do and knew that despite the lack of truth of these claims, they were likely plastered over every newspaper and on every Internet sights. Some of her fans would stick behind her but she wondered if they would be enough. The blonde pop star turned around and Peter placed a hand on her shoulder. Gwen offered her an equally encouraging smile and she was glad that these two were going to look out for her. The rest of the X-Men seemed a bit miffed.

"The good news is that anti-mutant sentiment is not what it used to be," Peter offered.

"Yeah, but the bad news is that it's still there," Laura stated when she clutched her fists and thought about the Purifiers and what they did. They were a nasty group and she hoped to see the back of them eventually. The dark haired mutant shook her head, when she focused on everything and gave herself a little cough when she crossed her arms. She took a moment to adjust herself. "It won't be that bad, at least we won't…but you're career it's over."

Allison felt dismal she knew that despite everything her career was over.

"Shaw's father, he's the head of something called the Hellfire Club," Allison added, hoping that that would put things in perspective and there were a few nervous looks given. Some members of the team heard whispers about the Hellfire Club.

They were supposed to be some kind of secret society that was obsessed with power and maintaining it at all costs. Spider-Man in particular remembered a little bit that he heard about the Hellfire Club.

Allison meanwhile was down in the dumps after what happened, her music was her own, but she did use her powers for her special effects. The blonde pop star took a moment to reflect upon everything, but she hoped that things would get better. Things would have to get better, but it always did seem rather dismal before everything got better. She crossed her arms and her lip quivered in frustration.

The numbers on the back of this note were strange and in fact she realized what were in them, they were in code. Alison understood the code and understood that her ex-boyfriend wanted a meeting with her. He was entirely possessive and did not want to let anything go, that much was for certain. Still if he wanted to meet her, than she would oblige him with a meeting and she turned around, before she relayed this information to the X-Men, Spider-Man, and Gwen.

She made her plans and so did they.

Not for the first time in a long time was Rhona Burchill finding herself in front of a computer screen to plot a plan she had in mind. The sadistic young woman's face curled into a grimace when she watched everything unfold before her. The woman thought about everything that was at hand and she suspected things would turn out better. Yet, she saw the newest newspaper headline and read it.

Normally she would not care about some little teeny bopper pop star but this scheme had the fingerprints of one particular group all over it. The dirty smudge marks on the paper flickered in her mind and allowed her this moment of clarity. She understood that this particular group's only master was power and she respected that. Her master was driven by the same mold but naturally while the aims of the Hellfire Club were closely intertwined with the master plan of Doom, both sides marched to their own beat. Rhona was in contact with them, it was wise to keep her options open and what better options she could have them dealing with the rich and the famous.

Of course the rich and the famous often turned out to be the young and the useless when their father's had all of the money which their son's inherited, without the savvy that drove them forward in the first place. The woman's eyes flickered when she thought about two particular young men who fit this bill like a glove. They were young men that she had dealings with, in the past.

Harry Osborn was the first of these individuals who personified the young and the useless. Osborn pissed away his teenage years on drugs and now he was trying to salvage that measure. The only way Oscorp had not fallen into the ground was through sheer dumb like, the type of luck that defied all logic. Rhona intended to keep Oscorp from falling through the cracks by any means necessary.

The second of the individuals that personified the archetype of the young and useless was Shinobi Shaw. That particular young man thought because he could flash a pretty smile and glittered before all women while flashing his money, he thought he was something. Rhona had dealings through him but only through clenched teeth. His ignorance was something that was only matched by her intelligence.

"Shinobi, pick up," Rhona stated when she looked at the communication.

Shaw's brat, she wondered why she even bothered with him.

"Ah, Rhona, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing for me, but merely a question to beg my indulgence," Rhona stated when her eyes flashed. "Did you or did you not commence with a smear campaign because some girl cut you off before you could get past first base?"

"She's not just any girl," Shinobi answered, this woman did not get it. Then again, the younger Shaw figured that this woman did not get much, given her attitude but he was not fool enough to say anything along those lines.

"Sure, that's what all of the young and useless say," Rhona responded, not bothering with anything that amounted to tact. "I'm going to be blunt with you Shaw, she's friends with Spider-Man, you don't want to get your father and his crew dragged into that mess."

"The web head's a pushover, who has he beaten?" Shinobi asked cockily.

Again, Rhona ignored that question, she did recall his victory over her once and the dark haired woman brushed her from her eyes. She wanted to strangle this silver spooned brat but she restrained herself from doing so. She could not draw attention to herself even though she figured that Spider-Man already figured out she was here. She calculated that being the highest probable outcome.

Maybe, Shinobi Shaw would come in handy and was useful for something, maybe.

"Shinobi, keep your head in the game and out of the clouds, I believe that you might be able to make yourself famous if you take down Spider-Man and the X-Men, I've put coordinates to a warehouse that they will be showing up at any minute now," Rhona stated when she smirked. "I let dear Alison known about your little gambit, I'm sure you have her full attention and once you go to the warehouse, bring your little Hellfire Club goons with you."

Rhona decided to dangle the carrot in front of Shaw's face.

"Your father would be pleased of what you did."

She waited for it all to sink in; he had taken the bait, look line and sinker, just like she assumed that she would. Her eyes flashed with glee when she continued to speak with her final words, a sinister expression flickering across her lips.

"I'll send you the coordinates."

No sooner than she did, Harry Osborn entered, forcing Rhona to shut off everything that she did. It was time to step forward and take control of the other part of her life, the part of her life where she needed to wear a mask.

The warehouse the Hellfire Club lured them to was quiet, a little too quiet for the tastes of Spider-Man. The web slinger stood on edge, hoping that he would not be drawn into some kind of trap. He knew it would be suicide to allow Alison to go in her own. While she proved herself to be competent and held her own against the Enchantress, there was a difference between holding someone's own and actually accomplishing anything.

The X-Men was represented by Shadowcat, X-23, Havok, Polaris, Colossus, Phoenix, and Cyclops, a rather tiny group but also one that would have a variety of skills that allow them to fight these goons in the Hellfire Club. The web slinger stood ready for action, his eyes turning around towards him and the web slinger took a moment look around. His team mates were ready for the battle as well.

The only interesting thing was that there was no Iron Spider standing by them because Gwen's suit took enough of a beating to cause her to sit this one out. It was unfortunate but at the same time, she needed repairs. Peter wondered if Gwen should trade in for a new suit but that was beside the point. She wanted to go with the old girl that brought her to the dance, even if the old girl was broken down.

The Hellfire Club turned up, their fists cracked. Well to be fair it was their goons, nameless and faceless, dressed in black leather with white face masks on. Spider-Man turned towards them, he hoped that this would end well or at least better than he thought it was going to be previously.

Alison gritted her teeth, she wanted to prove something as well. She wanted to prove that no matter what, she was not scared. She could be in serious danger but when one thought about it, that danger was something that led to an adversity that allowed them to fight. The young girl showed no fear in her eyes and she looked at the Hellfire Club goons. It was partially because she knew that her saviors lurked in the shadows but it was also partially because there was no fear.

"So, you're here," Allison answered when she looked at them.

"Yes, we are," the goons replied when he looked at them.

"And so are we."

Cyclops led the charge, blasting out of the shadows but he was taken down immediately with an attack, his legs cracked together when he was knocked to the ground. A traquilizer dart nailed him in the back of the neck.

'The Hellfire Club, they knew,' Spider-Man thought.

Polaris manipulated the pieces of metal which wrapped around her adversaries and sent them flying backwards. They cracked against the ground with a solid thud, rolling over and gagging but this was a distraction for another enemy to attack Polaris from behind. She flew to the ground with a solid thud.

"Oh no you don't!" Havok yelled before he held his hands and shot an energy blast from them, but the goons scattered.

Jean closed her eyes, she about had it with them. She drew in her breath and brought up the full force of her Phoenix force powers. The telekinetic attack knocked the Hellfire Club goons back to the ground and smashed them backwards. They flew with a sickening crack, rolling over and they smashed down hard. They rolled over, injured and out of it, with blood spurting out of their ears when they rolled.

"Yeah, you guys, you should have planned this attack out better…give me those!"

Spider-Man used his webbing to disarm the goons of their weapons which left them open for an attack from Shadowcat. She dove through the ground with their heads, putting them through concrete and then bringing them back. She posed with a triumphant smile, before she went intangible and caused two goons to punch themselves silly, knocking the wind out of each other with a loud crack.

"Our team work is still top of the line, isn't it, Spidey?" Shadowcat asked when she bowed.

"Like old times," Spider-Man agreed, when the webbing wrapped around the legs of the goon and trapped him up.

Phoenix closed her eyes and concentrated hard before she sent her enemies flying back with a violent crash. The telekinetic attacks sent them down and Cyclops stepped in with an attack.

"I wonder…"

What Scott wondered was never spoken when a figure dressed in black showed up and began to clap slowly and carefully for the X-Men. It was also a sarcastic clap, with the smug expression on the face of this individual obvious. The smug expression was something that someone would not like better than to slap off of the face of this individual. Yet he stood there and the team wondered what he was going to do.

"You," Alison stated, a surprising amount of hate dripping from her face.

"Alison, Alison, given the special times we shared together, you would think that you would be a bit less crass," he responded before his face contorted into a sinister smile, his black eyes dancing with malicious intentions. "Although, I do wonder what the potential would have been, given that mouth of yours."

"Watch it."

X-23 dove forward before but the young man dodged the attack, going completely intangible and X-23 dove through the attack. He grabbed a double hand full of her midnight black hair and knocked her face first into the ground. He pushed her face into the concrete and rubbed it hard, drawing blood. Laura would not be that hurt because of her healing factor but she was demoralized never the less. She pulled herself up, blood splattering from her lip and mouth before she turned around.

"I've got this little twerp," Phoenix stated and she tried to attack him.

She was propelled back, as were Havok, Cyclops, Polaris, Colossus, and Shadowcat, with this young man staying a few steps ahead of them. There was no mistake about it, he was good and he knew it. The arrogant expression could be backed up by the skills he showed and his face twisted into a knowing smile when he looked at the group.

"Do you really want your friends to get hurt Alison?"

Shinobi Shaw turned and smiled.

"Or do you….do you want them to be disappointed in you like your legions of fans to think that their hero was nothing but a fake?"

"DIE!"

That punctuated sound was because of Dazzler trying to blast her enemy in the face with a prolonged blast of energy but Shinobi went intangible once again. The energy blast blew the windows out but did not harm the young man.

"You don't think you've forgotten about me, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

"Ah yes, Blaire's night in shining armor," Shinobi stated with disdain when he faced the wall crawler, having his full and undivided attention towards him. The two locked eyes for a moment. "Tell me, you wouldn't get any more out of her than I did, would you?"

Spider-Man chose not to acknowledge that comment at the moment, when he swung back and forward to launch himself at the enemy. He twisted his wrist and sent a line of webbing towards his enemy.

"You think that you could defeat me with such a pathetic and simplistic attack?"

Spider-Man's face contorted into a smile underneath his mask, he did not want to overplay his hand yet. He aimed his web shooter and fired off, trying to pass through his enemy. Once again, the line of webbing went through him. Another attack and another line of webbing passed through his enemy. That little snot nosed brat thought that he was going to get out of this one but Spider-Man looked at him.

"A fool repeats his mistakes."

"Funnily, you're the only mistake I see, Shinobi," Spider-Man responded when he looked at the young and brash rich kid who looked back at him and tried to go intangible but the webbing shocked him back into a corporeal state. "Whipped this one up in case I ever fought someone who could go intangible that ever wanted to kill me. Guess, the useless pest isn't so useless after all, isn't it?"

Shinobi screamed and thrashed trying to pull himself out of the attack but he was unable to free himself no matter what. He looked at Alison but Jean had enough of him, so she closed her eyes and put him to sleep with one telekinetic attack.

"That's nice, but he won't be put down that easily for long," Spider-Man offered and the group nodded. His goon squad was a lot harder to keep down than that and Alison looked at everything, feeling glad that her hero came through again for her.

Unfortunately, there was another problem and that was her damaged singing career, she doubted she would be able to do a concert after this. There was something about what happened that caused her a great deal of misery and woe. The blonde closed her eyes when she thought about this, her heart thumping against her chest and she hoped that things would end up for the better, but that rarely happened like she planned.

"I'm almost too afraid to check in, but you know what, half of the comments I've been getting to my Twitter have been positive, people still believe in me. And the other half of them….well they're not too fond of me being a mutant and believe everything that was said."

Peter gave Allison a reassuring smile. "You know, a fifty percent success rate is something that I would be head over heels for. It's one of those things….well it's just amazing something like that. Fifty of the people still think you're awesome."

"I hope you get the respect you deserve, Pete," Alison stated when she looked at him. "Don't let them get you down….I know, I should be giving this pep talk to me. But after all of the good things Spider-Man's done, you got to realize one thing…."

"Hater's gonna hate."

A weak smile crossed Alison's face when she looked back at Peter. "Yeah, pretty much, I can't let this get to me, no matter how hard it seems to deal with and it is hard, harder than ever before but….that's a part of life."

Gwen popped up after a little bit, when she stepped forward and walked to Alison, before putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You know, we could learn a lot from each other from bouncing back from adversity," Gwen offered when she looked at the other blonde and Alison nodded. "The challenges of a super hero….well I won't say that they're exactly the same that a pop star has but there are some similarities."

"There are?"

There are times where Iceman tended to put his foot in his mouth a bit too often and this was one of those times. X-23 lightly cuffed him across the back of the head and she turned a little bit, acting like nothing happened out of the ordinary.

"I know what you're saying, kind of," Alison offered.

"So are you reconsidering the offer to join the X-Men?"

Ororo asked this question and Alison pondered it a little bit.

When one door shut was it possible that another window opened. It would really be for the best if she turned this negative into a positive.

"Yes, I'm joining."

Shadowcat smiled. "Welcome to the X-Men, Dazzler."

A group of figures sitting around a table with chess pieces scattered pondered the latest predicament.

"We have a problem," the first voice, a woman said.

"That problem, is Spider-Man," the second voice stated.

"He's much more of a danger to our operations than we thought," the third voice added.

"He compromises our plans," the fourth voice stated.

"He must be annihilated," the fifth voice, another woman stated in a cold and crisp voice.

"He mandates further observation."

The Hellfire Club waited, when the time was right, they would take what was there's. The Blaire girl was not the target, Sebastian Shaw used his sons lust so his men could observe the current guardian of the Phoenix Force up close. Yet, he would be a fool to realize that Spider-Man was not going to be a problem. And he would be a fool not to do anything about it.

To Be Continued in "A Matter of Trust."