A/N: Huge shout out to everyone who messaged me in some way asking for more. Sorry it took so long.

4

"Yeah it's not good!" Bobby yelled. "My arm is made of ice!"

"At least that's somewhat normal for you," Spider-Man pointed out.

"Normal is being able to change back."

"I know, but you could be turning into a lizard so this is at least better than that." Spidey stood from where he had been examining the Recombinator and walked to Bobby, focusing on the arm and area of the chest that was now made of ice. "Does it feel any different than it usually does when you turn to ice?"

"No. It stings a bit where I was shot, but other than that it feels exactly the same, except I can't change it back."

"Full mobility?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting."

"What if you changed fully and tried changing back again?" Kitty offered.

With a shrug, Bobby stood with his arms down but outstretched and fully changed into his ice form for a moment before shifting back into flesh and blood. Again his right arm did not change back with the rest of his body, but now a larger portion of his right torso stayed unchanged.

"It spread, don't activate your powers any more," Spidey said. He brought his hand up to his face, pinching his nose through his mask as he began pacing the rooftop, muttering to himself. "Okay, so it affected him funny because he's either A.) a mutant or B.) was in ice form or C.) because of some other bizarre reason I'll never pin down. But if I could recalibrate the Recombinator with his DNA, that might reverse the process. No that might not work, because it might be compromised, which means..."

Spider-Man continued to pace to roof as Kitty walked to Bobby. She slipped under his unfrozen arm and rested her head on his chest. He squeezed her with his arm, kissing the top of his head. She looked up and smiled. "We'll figure this out."

Spidey had stopped pacing and then walked to them. "All right. We'll need to get back to my lab where I can actually reconfigure the device, can't do anything on this roof. But if I take you there, you can figure out who I am. So I probably should just tell you, it'll make everything easier."

He didn't move to take off his mask, and didn't say anything else. Kitty waited a moment before pulling herself away from Bobby, moving to the other hero. She gave him a quick hug and stepped back. "You don't have to worry about us, we know all about keeping secrets. It's safe with us."

He took a deep breath, at last saying, "My name is Peter Parker. I'm sixteen years old, and I'm still in high school. I'd take off my mask but you never know who's watching. Anyways, if either of you have a cell phone; I can call us a ride."

Kitty reached into her small backpack, which had somehow survived this entire trip and took out a small phone, handing it to Peter. She paused for a moment as a sudden thought entered her mind.

"Wait a minute, Parker? I know that name. You work for the Daily Bugle!"

"Yeah, I work on their website."

"How do you work for a paper that is constantly bashing you? It be like us, I don't know, working for the government," Bobby jumped into the conversation as Peter began dialing the phone.

"Pays the bills, web fluid can get expensive. Come on MJ, pick up." He was pacing again, the phone pressed to his ear through his mask.

"No, you don't just work on the website, that's not how I know you," Kitty said. "You take pictures for them of, um, yourself. I have one on my desktop at home."

"You take pictures of yourself as Spider-Man and a paper who hates you gives you money for them?" Bobby laughed. "That's awesome."

Spidey didn't respond, as whoever he was calling picked up. "MJ? Hey it's me. Yeah, I'm okay. Listen I've got a bit of a problem and – I told you, I'm okay, but, it's hard to explain. Can you borrow your Dad's van and come get us? We're on that old theater in Hell's Kitchen. Yeah, we're, long story. Thanks MJ, I know I owe you." He closed the phone and handed it back to Kitty. "Okay, she'll be here in a few."

"She?" Kitty said, with a raised eyebrow. "Girlfriend?"

"Ex. We've managed to piece together our friendship after a lot of crap, I don't really want to get into it."

"Okay," Kitty said, letting the subject drop.

The three spent the next twenty minutes talking to each other. Kitty telling of their life in the Institute with occasional input from Bobby, while Peter did his best to describe the chaos of trying to balance school, work, heroics and time for the few friends he had.

"Why do you keep doing it then?" Bobby asked. He hadn't said much in the conversation, his thoughts mostly focusing on his arm and his girlfriend's distracted attention.

Spidey looked down and away, reliving an obviously painful memory the he knew would inevitably be brought up. "When I first got my powers, I was cocky with them, thought I could make some money. Long story short, I made some bad choices and my uncle ended up dead because of it. And one of the things he used to say to me is always echoing in my head now."

"What's that?" Kitty asked tentatively.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

Bobby just nodded. He might still not like this Parker kid personally, but he could understand the drive he had.

"Plus, I get to run around in tights, something I've always wanted to do in public but was always afraid to."

Kitty just shook her head. "What is it with super powered boys never being serious? All you do is joke around."

"Don't look at me," Bobby tried to look innocent. "I'm pretty serious in a real fight."

"Hey, I was scrawny nerdy guy before the spider bit me, so now I have a chance to speak my mind like I never could before, so don't knock it until you try it," Spidey said.

The blaring of a car horn reached their ears from the back alley of the theater they were sitting on. Peter jumped from his perch and peeked his head over the side of the building. "She's here," he said looking back at the other two teens. "There's a fire escape right over here, meet you on the ground!" He leapt over the edge.

"Showoff," Bobby muttered under his breath as he and Kitty made their way down the metal ladders.

"Oh please," Kitty muttered right back at him.

They found Spider-Man sitting in the open door of a large white van with the words "Watson Pluming" stenciled into a logo on the side. He was talking to a girl sitting in the passenger seat, her face obscured by the frame of the van.

"It's not like I like going into the sewers!" he was telling the girl. He saw the two walking over and waved them on. "There you are, get in. The sooner we get going the better chance we'll have of fixing this."

"Thanks again Peter for—" Kitty began, but she was cut off by the redhead behind the wheel, her face still hidden from the new passengers as she had turned to look forward as they began to climb in.

"I can't believe you told them who you are. What's the point of a secret identity if half the world knows it?"

"Come on MJ, it's not that bad."

"Uh, lets see, me, Gwen, Nick Fury, probably most of the government, Norman Osborn, Daredevil, Johnny, now these two random people."

"They aren't random people MJ, they're X-Men."

With her flame colored hair whipping behind her, MJ snapped her head to look at the two just entering the van. Bobby was stunned. She seemed at first to have the girl next door look. Her hair had the amazing deep color like Jean's, but was sloppier and clearly not doted over like the telepaths. Her skin was pale and smooth, but here and there were tiny acne scars. He couldn't see much of her body due to both the car seat she was looking around and the baggy overalls she wore, but he got the distinct impression this girl could be a heartbreaker if she wanted to be. Her eyes denied that, the vibrant green orbs wide in shock as she looked at the mutants. Bobby wasn't always the best at reading people, but he had the distinct impression this was a girl who lacked some self confidence.

"Hi, I'm Bobby Drake," he extended a hand to the girl when she didn't really say anything. She glanced at the arm and her eyes opened wider. He followed her gaze and realized he had extended his frozen arm. "Oops, let's try that again," he said, giving her his left hand which she shook with a grin, snapping out of her daze.

"Oh my God, you're Iceman."

"The one and only," he said with a smile.

"I'm your biggest fan," she said with a grin. "I downloaded all the videos I could find about your fight with that Juggernaut guy. I'm Mary Jane Watson by the way."

"That was a good fight, and it's a pleasure to meet you," Bobby said, slipping into the passenger seat next to the girl.

Kitty just rolled her eyes and climbed into the back of the van with Peter close behind her. He closed the door and MJ hit the gas. He sat down on the floor next to Kitty, placing the Recombinator across his lap.

"Do you think we'll be able to fix Bobby's powers?" she asked him.

"I hope so. We have to at least try to load this thing with his DNA and just hope it's clean. If it's already been rewritten it could leave him permanently frozen. Any other ideas you can think of for us to try?"

She shook her head. "I have to admit I haven't had too much experimental genetics experience."

"Yeah, me neither. Well, except for what Doc Connors went over with me about my own changes."

She nodded absently, not taking her eyes off of him. He turned his head to look back at her. "What is it? Don't tell me I've got a stain on the eye again, those are so hard to get out."

"Nothing, just wondering if you're going to take it off."

"Oh, yeah, guess I can do that now."

The sound of MJ and Bobby talking in the front of the van hung between them for a moment.

"So, are you going to do it?" Kitty finally asked.

"It's always weird, okay?"

"You realize I have a name, and a place of employment. I could find baby pictures of you if I really wanted."

"You could?"

She smirked at him.

"Why would you want baby pictures?"

"Just take off the mask Peter."

With a very visible sigh, he reached a webbed hand to the top of his head and gripped the mask. He slowly brought the hand back down, dragging the cloth down with it. It pulled out from where it had been tucked underneath the tight material of the suit, until finally it was off his head.

He glanced back at Kitty with a sheepish smile. He had light brown hair with equally light brown eyes, set on a narrow head. He looked so average that Kitty was almost taken aback. He could have been any guy she passed in the halls at school. Well, she admitted to herself, any cute guy. She wasn't sure what it was about him, maybe the eyes or the way he held his body as he continued to give her the nervous smile, but his face screamed nerd and she found that very endearing. She gave him a grin.

"What?"

"Nothing, just expected you to have eight eyes or something," she joked.

"Yeah, like Jameson would let me work at the Bugle if I was anything but normal looking."

"Well, I think you look good."

"Thanks."

In the front seat, Bobby was being bombarded with questions from MJ, most revolving around his life as an X-Man. "Yeah," he said, "we call it the Danger Room. It's not as bad as they make it out to be, most of the time. It's actually pretty cool because of the holograms. We have a fairly decent Lord of the Rings program we're working on."

"That is so cool. Must be nice," she said wistfully.

"It can get hard, with all the training. Plus you never know when your arm will be stuck as ice. Or when some angry mob or supervillain will be coming for you. I'm just surprised you're so open to it. Most people tend to hate mutants, or at least scared of sitting next to one in a van."

She laughed a bit and rolled her eyes. "My—God I have no idea what he is these days. Peter spends his days crawling on walls and beating down bad guys. I've pretty much accepted just because you have powers you aren't some monster or something. If you just want to live your life or risk it saving other people, you're okay in my book."

"Glad that I'm okay then," he smiles.

"You're more than okay, you're Iceman," she beamed back at him as they pulled up in front of an old two story house in the midst of seemingly endless clones of it. Peter had slipped on a pair of cargo pants and a long sleeve shirt that MJ had left in the back of the van and opened the side door and jumped out. He peered up and down the street, making sure they were alone before opening the passenger door, waving Bobby out.

"Come on, my aunt's not home but no point in giving the neighbors an eyeful." He stuck his head into the open door. "Thanks MJ, I have no idea what I'd do without you."

"I know. Mind if I come over after I bring the van back?"

"Sure, come on by."

"I'll go with you, give the boys a chance to bond," Kitty said. Bobby spun around to give her a dirty look, but she just smirked and with a little wave the van pulled away from the curb. Kitty could see in the side mirror the two boys moving to a basement door on the side of the house.

The girls sat in silence as they drove the two blocks to where Watson family lived. The redhead parked the car in the driveway and they both got out. MJ was walking along the side of the van back towards the street when Kitty phased directly through the side to stand in front of her, hands on her hips and anger in her eyes. Mary Jane gave a screech of surprise at the girl's sudden appearance and jumped back, her hands instinctively coming up in front of her as the numerous of self defense classes she had taken had driven into her head.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you like that," Kitty said, her eyes softening for a moment before returning to their steely gaze at the other girl. "But what exactly do you think you're doing with my boyfriend?"

"Your boyfriend?" MJ asked, straightening back up and returning the look the shorter girl was giving her. "What are you doing with my boyfriend?"

"I'm just talking to him. He's funny, smart, interesting. Besides, I thought you two broke up?"

"We did, I don't know, there was a lot of crap. I don't want to get into it."

Kitty couldn't help but smile. "That's exactly what he said. If it makes you feel any better, he's head over heels for you."

It wasn't the reaction Kitty expected. MJ slumped down against the side of the van, her arms crossing over her chest. "I know, it drives me crazy."

Kitty leaned up against with her right shoulder, facing her. "So if you're both totally crazy for each other, what's stopping you? Why break up?"

"Spider-Man," MJ said softly in case anyone heard her. "The Green Goblin kidnapped me to get to Pete, and there was a fight on the Brooklyn Bridge and I almost got killed. He freaked out and we broke up because he's scared for me." She let out a little snort. "Like the Goblin isn't going to come for me again if he ever breaks out of whatever hole Nick Fury is keeping him in just because Peter broke up with me."

"Really, especially when you're still hanging out with each other."

"It took me a while to get to this point, and then you come along and—"

"Don't worry, I've got a man," Kitty smiled at the thought of Bobby. "And for once he's a good one."

"And yet you keep flirting with Peter," MJ accused.

"I wouldn't call it flirting, well not much. It's mostly nice to talk about nerdy science things with someone for once. Bobby's smart but he's no genius. Plus it messes with Bobby and I'll get to tease him about how jealous he gets later on."

MJ laughed. "You're pretty bad."

"I know, but with the number of pranks he's pulled on me and the rest of our friends, he deserves it."

"Sorry if I was paying too much attention to Bobby. Yeah I had kinda a schoolgirl crush on Iceman, but I don't want to be that girl who comes between two people."

"Me neither. And since I had kinda a schoolgirl crush on Spider-Man. I think we're even. And you're definitely getting to Peter, flirting or not. Just give it time."

"Thanks," the redhead sighed, pushing herself off the van. She turned back to Kitty and managed a smile. "I think I just really needed to hear that."

"Anytime," Kitty said. She stood up and joined her new friend. "We should probably get going."

"Yeah, Bobby will be worried; Peter will be too buried in that gun thingie to notice for a while. How did you all meet up anyways?"

The girls walked back to the Parker house, Kitty explaining the long road that went from a quiet date in the city to chasing super villains through sewers and superhero teamups. By the time they reached the house, having taken their time, Kitty was on to explaining how she and Bobby had first gotten together. They didn't bother going to the front door of the house but over to the side and through the door down to the basement. They reached the bottom of the steps and Kitty looked around. It was a typical basement, a lot like her own at her parent's house with boxes and various items stacked up. However, one side of the large room was clearly Peter's personal space. It was one part office, one part lab, one part lounge. There were several desks and tables. One had several computers in half build states, parts strewn about around them. Another had a fully functioning computer, and what looked like stacks of papers and several file folders, obviously work Peter brought home from the Bugle. A third desk had an overhead light and magnifying glass, along with various tools. It was at this desk Peter sat, the Recombinator laid out across the top with cables leading back to the computer.

Bobby sat on one of a few old couches that sat on that side of the basement. He was fiddling with another of Peter's partially complete computers laid out on a coffee table in front of him, a difficult task since he only had one arm he could safely use on the electronic equipment. MJ waved and said hi to Peter as they came in, who gave her a brief glance and smile before sliding back across the floor on his desk chair to check some readouts on the computer monitor. She shrugged and walked over to an old beat up refrigerator that looked as if Peter had repaired it himself.

"Want anything? We have some soda down here," she asked Kitty.

Kitty just smiled at the use of we, and asked for a diet. She sat next to Bobby and kissed his cheek. "How you holding up?"

"I'm all right, helps to be playing around with this, keeps my mind off everything."

"I don't help?" she said with a fake pout. "Thanks a lot."

He kissed her softly on the forehead. "You help the most."

"Hey Kitty, check this out," Peter called over to her, his eyes locked on the computer screen.

"Want me to stay with you?" she asked, giving him a telling look, and he realized then that no matter what he was reading into her and Peter, she was his. He couldn't help but grin.

"No, go help him, hopefully between you two geniuses you can fix my powers."

She gave him a rough but quick kiss on the lips. She pulled back and stood up, taking the Diet Coke MJ had just returned with for her. She gave the redhead mischievous smile. "Do me a favor Bobby," Kitty whispered loud enough for MJ and Bobby to hear, "flirt with MJ for me, she's trying to make Peter jealous."

Bobby gave the redhead a questioning look. She replied with a half smile and shrug, her emerald eyes reflecting the mischief in Kitty's sapphire eyes. He just shook his head and held it with his ice hand, mutter about what head just gotten himself into under his breath. The girls quietly chuckled and Kitty went to go see what Peter had found as Mary Jane took her place next to Bobby on the couch.

"For the record, I do think you're really cute, and everything Kitty has told me about you makes me a little jealous," she said, taking a sip of her soda.

"It's nice to know I'm doing something right," he said, his eyes drifting over to watch Kitty. She was leaning against the back of Peter's chair, reading the screen in front of them. As if sensing his eyes she glanced back, giving Bobby a wink and a shake before bringing her attention back to the task at hand. MJ laughed loudly, and Peter looked back at the both of them, just the thinnest glimmer of contempt for Bobby on his face. But like Kitty he quickly ignored the distraction.

Soon the two teens were debating back and forth in technobabble that neither Bobby nor MJ could understand whenever there was a pause long enough in their far less complicated conversation. "It looks like Peter finally found someone who can keep up with him," MJ said at one point. Bobby couldn't tell if she was amazed or jealous, but imagined it was some of both.

"If you and Pete ever come up and visit some time I'll introduce you to Forge. He puts both of them to shame. His mutant power is technobabble."

"Yikes. I mean, I can find my way around a computer fine, but we're sixteen, I don't think we shouldn't be doing rocket science."

"Couldn't agree with you more," he said as they continued to watch them work.

After another half hour of work, Kitty and Peter stood and turned to Bobby and MJ at the same moment, a bit of apprehension splashed on their faces.

"Okay," Peter started slowly, "we think we've done as much as we can. It was a little easier to do than I thought it would be, but no way to tell if it will work unless we try."

"You think maybe we should call Forge?" Bobby asked, hesitant to show anything less that totally confidence in his girlfriend.

"Do you really trust something he's fixed to work?" Kitty asked.

"Good point."

"The good news is the Recombinator isn't broken in any way," Peter said. "I don't think there would have been anything we could have done then. We just need to figure out how to reprogram it, and I think we've got that. Changing Doc Connors back will be easy to do, I think. Bobby, you're going to be a bit tougher."

"Why's that?" he said with just the slightest flick of his eyes in fear at his still froze right side.

"To reprogram it, we need to give it a DNA sample for it to use as a template when it does the genetic reconstruction, and well..."

"We don't know how much of you DNA is contaminated with whatever changes it did the first time to you," Kitty finished.

"What happens if it is?" he had to ask.

"I don't think anything worse than what's already happened, though there's always the chance you'll change fully into ice. Or you could lose your powers, but I think that's a very slim chance," Peter said, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. He tried for a smile and it did little to reassure Bobby. "Do you want to think about it or...?"

"Let's just get it over with," Bobby sighed. "What do you need from me?"

"A piece of hair should be enough. The Recombinator can scan the DNA and then we can configure it."

They plucked a piece of hair and Peter took it to the workbench. Kitty slipped her arms around Bobby's waist, her head resting on his chest. Despite everything, Bobby felt content for that moment. Thoughts about what may or may not happen in the next five minutes melted away and he was able to savor what he felt for the young woman in his arms, and more importantly what she felt for him. He wasn't sure we're their relationship was going, part of him didn't really care, but he could there was something very real about their relationship. No joke cracking kid in pajamas was going to come between them, no matter how much teasing and hinting he saw. Some other time, some other universe maybe, but not here.

Of course, it wouldn't stop him from giving her hell about it later though.

The thought made him grin like a madman. He kissed the top of her head and pried her arms off of him. He stood in the middle of an open spot in the basement floor, arms outstretched and ready. "Hit me with your best shot. You want me iced or normal?"

"Uh," Peter stuttered as he took the Recombinator from the table and tried to find the best way to hold it steady, as it was never intended to be a handheld device. "I don't know."

"Uniced," Kitty said, standing by MJ, who had stood in anticipation of what was about to happen.

Peter and Bobby both nodded, and Peter took aim.

"You're sure about this, right?" Bobby asked.

"Sure, piece of cake. Just need to ignore the throbbing of my spider-sense as I do this."

"What!" He was about to rush over and throttle the other boy when Peter, his breath held and eyes squeezed shut, pushed the activation button.

A/N Part II: The final chapter should be up within the next few days. And I really mean that this time.