avatarjk137: chapter 5 is here! I'm starting up another big action sequence in this chapter! YAY! I'm also introducing my fic's final OC, who is actually Yellowfur's idea.

Spectrum: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men evolution, or New York City. He does own me and Bio, unfortunately. Yellowfur owns the other OC you'll meet in this chapter. I'm going to go get something to eat. (walks off)

avatarjk137: this Act (yes, I arbitrarily decided to put acts in this fic) takes place in New York City. I'll also be making fun of Shadowcat being a valley girl. On with the fic!

Act II

Chapter 5

New York, New York

"Wow," Kitty mumbled breathlessly. "It's been, like, years since I've been to New York City. The skyline is so weird without the twin towers."

"Yeah, but there's still tons of fun stuff here," Lance said.

"Awesome food, for example," Blob said, causing everybody to snicker except X23 and Pyro. X23 had a woefully malnourished sense of humor, and Pyro had lost what he now realized was his greatest source of joy.

"If you like tall buildings, the Empire State is still a great choice," Pietro said, looking around like an ADD-riddled kid in a candy store.

"Feh, it's not so great. I've been up there," Kurt scoffed dismissively.

"Really?" Toad asked. "When?"

"45 seconds ago."

"Hey," Logan called from just ahead, "the guys who attacked the Institute, their trail splits here."

Pyro's head snapped up. He looked quite stressed, but he also had a creepy kind of eagerness in his eyes. "What about Vic?"

"Sabretooth? His trail ended a little while back. He may have figured out he's being followed; his senses are as good as mine."

"Wait," X23 said, sniffing the air. "His trail goes up that tree, onto that low rooftop."

Logan checked the tree out. "She's right. We should split up. Me and the girl (his way of expressing affection for X23) will follow Sabretooth."

"I'll take the Brotherhood after that blue-haired guy," Pietro suggested. Logan pointed out the general direction he had gone with a shrug,

"Ah'll go find that green-haired creep," Rogue volunteered. Remy, Kurt, Kitty, and Piotr decided to go with her. "Those two won't have the element of surprise this time."

"I've got a hunch that I should go with Logan," Pyro spoke up.

X23 scowled. "You think you can keep up, hotshot?"

Pyro scowled right back. "Magneto trained us enough for a little running 'cross rooftops, shrimp!" With obvious effort, X23 restrained herself from impaling St. John.

"Fine. Whatever." The groups split up, and Wolverine and X23 easily scaled the tree. Surprisingly, Pyro backed up his words, and managed to follow the two up to the 2nd-story roof. Logan found a scrap of clothing that he attributed to Sabretooth's ever-present tattered coat, and they followed the scent up a fire escape. At the top, 7 stories above (Logan was actually worried at this point that Pyro was only slightly winded), they found him. Sabretooth had made himself a garbage-can fire, and in true Sabretooth fashion, was roasting a pigeon over it. As he took a bite of the seared pigeon, he turned to Logan and snickered.

"I was wondering if you had actually lost my scent!" Wolverine and his young clone each popped their claws, ready to pounce. Sabretooth then did something totally unexpected: he ran. He turned and sprinted to the next rooftop, and jumped the gap at a run. With a roar, Logan mimicked the jump, X23 and Pyro close behind.

"Any idea vhere this guy is?" Nightcrawler asked. They had walked a couple blocks after splitting up, but they only knew the general direction he had left in. Everybody just shrugged.

"Who are you freaks looking for?" Everybody looked up. A young, blonde teenage boy was sitting on a streetlight above them, eating a soft pretzel.

"Who're you calling freaks, mon ami? Gambit asked, his red-and-black eyes narrowed.

Rogue glared at Remy, then looked back up to the kid. "We're looking for a green-haired guy, a mutant. Have y'all seen a man with long green hair walk by?"

"What's it to you?" the child asked, wadding up the wrapper for his finished pretzel, and throwing it down onto Rogue's head.

Everybody was fed up at this point. Kurt teleported up to the top of the pole, right in front of the surprised child. "Listen, kid, ve are looking for this guy because he attacked us. Now, are you going to tell us if you saw him, or aren't you?" Everybody was surprised when, a second later, Gambit caught Kurt, as he fell off the pole with a black eye. "That kid punches hard."

"You have no idea," the kid snarled. He jumped off the top of the pole, and fell straight toward Colossus. Mid-fall, he suddenly transformed into an elephant, and landed on Piotr, cracking the ground around him.

"We haven't even seen this Spectrum guy yet," Wanda complained. "How are we supposed to recognize him?"

"I guess long, turquoise hair would stand out in a crowd." Pietro speculated, looking in each store window.

"He could have cut or re-dyed it by now! That wouldn't help!"

"I'll go look for him in this ice cream store," Fred volunteered.

"Blob, get away from there!" Lance admonished. "There's no way he would be in the ice cream store!"

"How would you know?"

"Back to the problem," Wanda fumed. "How do we find him?"

"Yo, I'm a great tracker," Todd bragged.

"Then why haven't you shown us which way to go?"

"Well, I'm not as good a tracker as Wolverine. I can't do it in a crowded, polluted city like this!"

"Then what good are you?!" Wanda screamed at him. Just then, Spectrum walked out of the ice cream store, wearing a new trench coat and holding a double-scoop cone of mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Everybody just stared at him, and he stared back.

Blob broke the silence first. "Ha! He WAS TOO in the ice cream store!"

"So, you guys came to find me?" Spectrum asked, cocking his head as he licked the cone. "I'm flattered, I really am."

"Yo, what did you do to Pyro? He's really freaking messed up!" Toad yelled.

"What are you guys going to do to me to get that information? Are you going to 'bust a cap in my ass', froggie?"

"We'll do whatever it takes!" Lance said, the ground already beginning to quake at his words.

"Oh, yeah?" Spectrum said, this time a little nervousness showing in his voice. "I don't think you can beat me. Chubby, hold this." He carefully tossed the ice cream cone to a slightly confused Fred. Then he took a step back from Avalanche, who looked to have become very pissed off and ready to rumble (no pun intended). Come on, Spectrum thought to himself, I need a power. Any power would be nice. Suddenly, his body burst into flame. "Alright, I'm that Amara chick!" Suddenly the flames went out. "Kinda." He concentrated, and lava flowed out from his sleeves around his hands. Then the lava hardened, giving him a set of red-hot stone claws. "Now I'm ready to fight."

"I don't think so," Pietro burst out impatiently. "You can't touch this!" He dashed forward, kicking Spectrum, who was knocked back about 10 feet by Quicksilver's momentum. "Catch me if you can, copycat!" He rushed down the street, surprising the people who had gathered to watch.

Spectrum stood up calmly. "I most certainly can catch you." He zoomed after Pietro, moving at the same speed.

End of Chapter

Join me next chapter to see what happens next in two fight scenes and a chase scene, all happening at the same time. Did I mention I like reviews?