Bayville High School.
"Ah need your help Peter." Rogue asked. Peter could tell it was something serious, as she was struggling to stand still while asking for his help.
"What happened Rogue?"
"Its...about those yahoos from the cemetery."
"The X-men?"
Rogue nodded. "Apparently that big guy from lunch got it in his twisted head to kidnap the redhead. Scott asked me about it and..."
"It went poorly, I'm guessing?" Peter already knew the answer to his own question, seeing as Rogue didn't reply with a yes or no, but rather continued the explanation.
"Ah told him that even if I knew what he did to her, ah wouldn't have told them."
Peter's reply was a sight of disappointment. He had pegged Rogue, although justifiably defensive, was better than to say something like that.
"Seriously Rogue?"
"Ah know, ah know, it was a terrible thing to say. Ah regret even saying it." Rogue turned from Peter and stared off into the distance. She saw a motorcycle drive by in the distance by someone who appeared to be in some sort of orangeish-brown and black suit.
Peter seemed to notice it as well. "Seems like they found him."
"We need to help them." Rogue blurted out. It caught Peter by surprise, but he couldn't be upset at the fact she actually wanted to help. Whether it was genuine or just so her comments from earlier weren't being hung over her head by either Scott or Peter himself was an entirely different issue.
"All good except A) I don't have a suit I can use and B) I didn't bring my mask today. I can't exactly walk in there, do superhero stuff, and walk out and expect them to not hound me after the fact, especially if they're just holding out to catch us off guard."
"Peter, we spent an entire day with them in the same building. Ah don't trust them any much as you do, but if they truly wanted to start something, this would be an entirely different conversation."
Peter groaned. Rogue was right, if they truly were enemies, they would've made his life hell today. Instead that honor went to Lance and his crew of delinquents.
"So what, I'm supposed to be fine with revealing my identity to them and this redhead's kidnapper?"
"You already have 3 people who know your identity. Actually 4, but ah digress."
"Still not helping the whole "secret identity" issue that I just stated." Peter reemphasized.
"You're seriously not going to budge on this unless your secret identity is safe?"
"It is called a SECRET identity Rogue. And like I said before, I already got that hanging over me with the three stooges."
Rogue sighed. Seeing no alternative, she took her glove off and rested it in the air.
"Touch meh."
"Seriously?"
"If ya don't wanna help, then fine! But Ah need ya power Parker. Ya saw what he was capable of when he got mad!" Peter was taken aback by Rogue's assertiveness. He looked down at her hand, knowing the outcome that would happen when he touched it.
He sighed. "Fine, let's get this over with." Peter laid his hand onto Rogue's, causing Rogue feeling energized by the boost, while Peter was left feeling slightly weaker. The teens shuddered in place for a minute before regaining their composure.
"Jeez...that doesn't feel any less weird." Peter stated. Rogue kept quiet as she put her glove back on. She started to walk towards where the X-Men were grouping up when both her and Peter's Spider-sense started going off. They turned to see Principal Darkhölme approaching them.
"Is there a reason you two are just standing around here after school was dismissed?"
"No, sorry ma'am." Rogue blurted out before walking away quickly, leaving the principal and Peter alone.
"And you Parker. I better not see you trying to influence other students with your bad behavior."
"Me? Bad behavior? Wouldn't dare dream of it, scout's honor." Darkhölme looked unimpressed, causing his sarcastic demeanor to quickly diminish.
"Good. Remember, thin ice." Darkhölme left, leaving Peter by himself. He turned towards the direction Rogue left to, but was unable to see her in immediate view.
"Great." Peter noticed a truck like vehicle heading towards the same abandoned building the person on the motorcycle.
"If I don't help, Rogue's gonna hold this over my head for a while. I might not have a mask, but there's gotta be something to make up for that." Peter paced back and forth, thinking of any and all face covering alternatives. With his focus on that issue, he failed to notice the sign in front of him. He hit the sign and backed up from it, nearly tripping.
The sign itself was of the school mascot, the Bayville Bulls, and a reminder of the next game which was in a week. Peter observed the sign and both a smile and an idea appeared before him.
"That'll definitely work." Peter said to himself as he headed for the gymnasium.
AbandonedFactory.
"Why is it we're always chasing Logan to a mission?" Cyclops asked. Currently he was in his personal car, while Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Spyke were in the X-Van.
"Shouldn't we be asking you that Scott?" Shadowcat asked.
"Codenames only over comms Shadowcat. We can't risk any of our names leaking through a cyber attack."
"Relax Scott, the professor said these comms are safe from such attacks, Ve are free to bicker as long as we want."
Cyclops rolled his eyes at how his younger teammates were acting, but didn't focus on it. Right now his mind was on the more immediate problem, rescuing Jean. Both vehicles were closing in on Wolverine's location. Once they arrived, the 4 mutants regroup to plan a strategy.
"Alright here's the deal. We're dealing with someone of extreme strength in both offense and defense. If he tries to hit you, do your best to avoid him. We're not going straight to attacking him, we need to tire him out and keep him at a distance to begin with." Cyclops explained. The rest of the team nodded in both agreement and understanding as they ran towards the building.
The first sight upon entry was Wolverine being crushed by Fred. He could faintly be heard saying "Can't...breathe."
"Jean's my friend! You can't take her!" Fred exclaimed. Cyclops had seen enough and shot a warning beam over Fred to catch his attention. He shot it and sure enough, Fred's attention was now focused on Cyclops and the team.
"We're just giving her a way out." Cyclops adjusted his visor to get another shot ready. "Through you if necessary."
Cyclops fired another beam, this time hitting Fred directly. Fred stumbled back a little bit, but kept the beam at bay with his arm. Cyclops tried increasing the intensity of the beam by adjusting the visor again, yet it had no affect on Fred. He slowly made his way closer.
"All that power just to tickle me." Fred taunted. He then picked up and threw Wolverine at Cyclops, making the pair fly towards the former's bike, knocking both of them out.
Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Spyke were now panicked as the main two leaders of their team were effectively out cold. Spyke tried shooting some of his spikes at Fred and stuck him with some, but Fred simply pulled them out and revealed to them that the spikes didn't even make it deep enough into his skin to stop him.
"You guys are starting to piss me off. Leave me and Jean alone!"
"Yeah, cuz like, you're definitely who she wants to be with right now." Shadowcat remarked, enraging Fred. He grabbed a nearby piece of metal and threw it at Shadowcat's direction. Spyke moved in closer to push her out of the way, but ended up tanking most of the impact of the metal and landing on top of Shadowcat, knocking them out as well.
Nightcrawler was all who was left, and he had the idea of trying to put Fred in a sleeper hold until he calmed down. He teleported onto Fred's back and wrapped his arms and tail around Fred's neck.
"Get. Off. Of. ME!" Fred lashed out and ran towards the brick wall of the factory and turned at the last second, putting a ton of weight and force into Nightcrawler and the wall. Safe to say, Nightcrawler was another knockout casualty.
Fred, satisfied with his knockout streak, turned his attention back to Jean and headed into the room he kept her in. Once he opened the door, he was greeted with a metal locker to the face, which only pushed him back a little bit.
Fred grabbed the locker and pulled it off his face, revealing a large dent where his face was. He looked straight ahead at Jean, the culprit behind the flying locker.
He was furious. "Nobody respects me! And you're the worst! You only pretended to be my friend!" Fred exclaimed. He threw the locker back at Jean, who caught it mid flight telepathically right before it made contact with her face. Opting to still try and reason with Fred (and because she was restrained by metal bars Fred bent around her chest and arms), she lowered the locker back onto the ground.
"I was trying to be your friend Fred. But this...this is insane!" Jean explained. Fred however, didn't want to hear it and simply walked away. Jean figured he was going to leave, but became horrified when he started to walk back with an extremely heavy looking piece of machinery.
"I'll show you!" Fred yelled out. Suddenly he felt the heat of Cyclops laser beam from earlier on his neck, causing him to drop the machine behind him. He turned around and punched it, sending it flying to his attacker. It didn't connect.
And thats when he saw it was Rogue who had shot him.
"Leave her alone, ya yahoo!" Rogue yelled out. Fred simply smirked at the absurdity of how his new enemy looked.
"Why, what you gonna do to me? Make me wear bad makeup?"
Rogue simply smirked as she walked closer to him, intending on siphoning Fred's strength for herself. The sudden adrenaline and confidence rush coming to her made her wonder if she was enjoying this, or if it was because of siphoning Peter's powers earlier.
Without saying a word, Rogue shot another laser beam at Fred, who still wasn't phased by it. He simply raised his arms up to block the beam as he slowly made his way closer to Rogue.
"You really think this is going to hurt me?!" Fred now was dangerously close to Rogue. He prepared himself to swing an arm at her and started it, but was surprised when she ducked under him and touched his arm with an ungloved hand.
Fred immediately started to feel weaker, and Rogue took the opportunity to throw in the insult to a incoming injury.
"My power is your power, and ah can take more than one!" Both of them struggled to gain the upper hand now that they had equal strength, but Fred still had his size and weight to his advantage. With the might and energy he still had, he pushed his gut into Rogue, causing her to break the contact she had with him and fall to the ground.
Fred immediately looked for the nearest item to hit her with and saw another locker. He picked it up and held it over his head, intending to bring it down on her, regardless if she survived the impact or not. He got close to Rogue again and noticed she was messing with her wrist when he got closer. She turned to try and shoot a web at him, but Fred dodged it at the last second. Rogue tried shooting another web, but nothing was coming out.
"Seriously Parker?! Ya forgot to refill this?" Rogue thought. She looked up at Fred, who looked ready and a little bit too eager to kill her with this locker.
"Really, that was your plan? You think I'm stupid?"
"Well you are dressed stupid." A voice came from above Rogue and Fred. Fred turned towards the voice, only to be greeted with webs to the face. He stumbled back, but lost his grip on the locker and sent it up in the air. It still was aimed at Rogue on its way down, however she was saved at the last second when she felt herself being pulled by the weight of something on her back.
She looked towards the source of the puller and saw that it was Peter...in a beat up outfit of the school's mascot.
Said mascot outfit looked worn down by default, but somehow Peter either booked it through a forest or hit trees on purpose, as the bull's horns were adorned with tree leaves stuck on them, and both the shirt over the outfit and the outfit itself had multiple weird cuts and tears from who can only assume were branches and sticks.
"Should ah even ask?" Rogue stuck her hand out, wanting Peter to help her up. He obliged as he stuck his hand out and pulled her up.
"Might be better for both of us if you didn't. But at least the secret identity is still a secret." Peter responded
Their attention shifted when they saw Fred ripped the webbing off his face and that his face was now ruby red, the same color when he lost it in the cafeteria.
"Ok, he's mad." Peter turned to Rogue. "How do you want to handle this?
Rogue looked surprised, and suddenly her mind was drawing blank. "You're asking meh about a plan? Ah've never even fought before, much less with powers."
"Well, life and death situations make a great time to start thinking on your feet."
Rogue turned back to Fred, who currently was wearing a smile on his face as he continued to walk towards the teens.
"Ah'll stay on the ground, you keep him distracted in the air." Peter nodded as he shot a web towards the celling and pulled himself up. In quick succession, he broke the line and started shooting more webs at Fred's head, hoping to blind him long enough for Rogue to make a move.
"What the hell are you anyways?!" Fred yelled, struggling to rip off the webs.
Peter landed on one of the celling supports as he responded. "Me? Well last time I checked I was a human. Unless you're talking about my skill, in which case I'm sorry to say but you're gonna need major work before you even manage to perform a front flip."
Peter figured the best way to distract Fred was to piss him off. And judging from Fred's increasing tone shift, it seemed to be the right plan.
"What the hell did you just say?"
"Uhhhh...you're fat?" Peter's senses started going off when he saw Fred grab something. He shot another web and pulled himself out of harms way, harm's way being a metal drum barrel."
"Stop. MOCKING. MEEEE!!!" Fred erupted into rage, and was now attempting to hurl any and all objects at Peter. Rogue knew this was her time to strike.
"I mock. I'm a mocker." Peter quipped, dodging the onslaught of debris thrown his way. He noticed Rogue sneaking up behind Fred and knew it was time to go on the offensive. He shot a web line at Fred's face and held on tightly as he tried to rip it off.
Rogue saw Fred's hands were occupied, leaving him vulnerable. Using the strength she pawned off of him, she grabbed him by the back of his overalls, swung him around one time, and threw him in the air and followed with a laser beam shot. Fred flew backwards into the factory and landed in a metal wreckage pile.
Jean looked in shock and awe at the teamwork the pair of teens in front of her were coordinating. She thought back to what Scott said earlier in the day that she seemed only close with Peter, and while she couldn't confirm it now (and trying to read the mind of the people saving her would've distracted them) she contemplated the idea.
Fred emerged from the pile, staring directly at Rogue and Peter. He laughed manically, which made the two teens slightly uncomfortable.
"Hah! I got too much power, even for the both of you! You can't hurt me! I'M THE BLOB!"
Peter couldn't help but laugh, making Fred upset, and Rogue annoyed.
"Seriously?! That's your A material? Dude, you..." Peter continued to laugh. "You just killed all your build up."
Peter's reward was a slug in the arm, courtesy of Rogue. He piped down the laughing, but could still be slightly heard chuckling for a few seconds until he calmed back down.
"Whatever the hell you are, you're just garbage who wanted a date. Now, tell you what..." Rogue looked back at Peter, who was back in his usual fighting stance.
"We're taking you out!"
Blob ignored the threats and jumped at the pair. Peter immediately jumped into the air and yelled at Rogue.
"Rogue! Go full power with the beams!" Peter landed on Blob's back and pushed himself off him, forcing Blob down towards Rogue with added force.
Rogue followed Peter's lead, blasting Blob with the eye beams the hardest she could manage. Blob, due to the force of Peter's take off and the follow up blast by Rogue, was stuck in the air for a few seconds as a sort of defiant act to gravity, before the force of the beams caught up and shot him out of the air and straight through the roof of the factory.
Peter regrouped with Rogue underneath the hole in the roof, shocked at the power she just unleashed.
"Uhh, lets hope that we didn't kill him."
"Somehow Parker, Ah doubt he's dead. If that's the case, then Ah definitely doubt he'll try something like this again." Rogue stated. Peter simply nodded in agreement. The pair then turned their attention to Jean, who was in a state of shock and awe.
"How did-"
"Through the power of friendship of course. Now hold still, I really don't want to re-enact last week's fiasco."
A few minutes later.
Both the X-Men and the pair of Rogue and Peter regrouped outside. Peter, still not trusting the group fully, opted to keep the mascot outfit on, regardless of how non-serious he would come across as.
Rogue was helping put Scott's visor back on, as she had grabbed it on her way to fight Fred.
"There you go." Rogue said as she put Scott's visor back on his face. "Ah only took a short term dose of your power. You should be back to normal soon."
Scott took a few seconds to readjust to his sight with the visor back on (as well as try to manage the raging headache he got from being knocked out and have his powers drained) and opened his eyes to see Rogue and the school mascot in front of him.
"Hiya twinkle eyes." Scott nearly groaned hearing that voice again, as he knew it was going to be followed by a series of wisecracks. He then turned his attention to Rogue, who seemed more worried than her masked friend.
"You are like an angel, Kate."
Rogue was caught off guard, and started to blush a little. Something Peter noticed immediately.
"My name's not Kate. And ah'm no angel." Rogue replied, looking a bit remorseful.
"You both helped us. Saved me." Jean said. "Why?"
"Ah...ah don't..." Rogue started panicking until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see it was Peter.
"Because...that's what heroes do." Peter stated. Jean smiled hearing the answer, but everyone else was still skeptical.
"I don't know if I buy that." Cyclops interjected, standing up. "You attacked us."
Peter sighed. "Ok, oh wise one, picture the scenario. I hear chatter on the police radio about a runaway seen near my area. I investigate. I find said runaway. Said runaway tells me that you guys were trying to kill her. So yeah, I'd say I was well within my superhero duties to protect her from you guys."
"He's got a point Cyclops." Wolverine added.
"Seriously Wolverine?"
"He acted with caution, protected someone who couldn't defend themselves from suspicious people he didn't know, and helped one of our own despite what happened before."
Peter was prepared to get berated, not praised. The sudden confirmation of him doing good caught him off guard. "Uhhh, thanks?"
"That being said, I trust you won't tell anyone about us, what happened at the cemetery, or what happened here, right?"
Peter simply nodded.
Wolverine cracked a small smile. "Looks like we have an understanding." He looked towards the sky and saw it was getting close to sunset.
"You two should head back home. I know we haven't earned your trust yet, but if you ever need our help, just ask."
Rogue simply nodded, though it was more out of fear at the thought of what would happen if she said no. Peter nodded with the intention of not relying on them unless it was necessary. Peter and Rogue turned to leave, but before they disembarked back home, Peter turned and yelled out to them.
"Hey Twinkle Eyes." Cyclops turned to him, annoyed.
"You owe me a new suit." Peter, satisfied, turned to leave.
The pair of Rogue and Peter walked away from the factory, and when it seemed they were far enough from the X-men, Peter took off the mascot head and revealed that he was sweating crazy in the outfit.
"Changed your mind about helping meh, did ya?"
"Oh great, you stole the cockiness part of my personality along with my powers, didn't you?" Rogue chuckled a bit as they kept walking.
"Seriously though, thank you Peter."
"Don't mention it. You were right about helping, I just wanted to keep my identity safe."
"Yeah, ah know. Ah'm sorry for blowing up at you about it."
"It's fine. Besides, now you get to play the "I know Spider-Man" Card."
Rogue stopped walking and looked at Peter with a sort of "are you serious?" Look on her face.
"What? Its true."
Meanwhile, from a fair distance away, someone was following the pair. They kept on pace with them since the factory and all the while was taking pictures of the whole ordeal. They were making good pace until his watch started to beep. He stopped it and hid behind a wall as the teens turned around. Once they surveyed and didn't see any source of the noise, they continued.
The man, however, stayed behind the wall. He looked at his watch and sighed at the time.
"Why'd it have to be now?" He had to give up the tailing, less he be the reason another outbreak started in Bayville. He took a shot out of his bag, and stuck the shot into his neck and pushed down on the syringe. The liquid inside made its way into his body.
The man rubbed his neck and rested for a while. He looked past the corner and saw the teens were gone. He opted to look at the photos he had taken of the fight at the factory, and looked back to photos from before. In those photos were of Peter, mid costume change into the mascot.
The man smiled as he got up to head back to his car. He had it in his mind his plans for tomorrow.
"Well Frank, guess it's time to meet Spider-Man."
