A/N: Fashionably late, but part two! Of...three. I'll explain later. Enjoy!

-MVC-

Before long at all, I found myself retracing all of the steps that I had made. One floor, then another, all of them looking familiar to me as I entered them. We were running, but that wasn't the only reason I had a bit extra spring in my step. A part of me still couldn't believe that I had managed to unite this team together. X-23 was close behind me; to conserve his likely limited webbing, Spider-Man wasn't far behind her. I had fought both of them over the course of the night. Looking at it optimistically, that's a good thing. Because of it, I could personally vouch for their abilities. Looking at it more realistically, it was a waste of ammo, stamina, and time, but I digress.

Without even asking him, I gathered that Spider-Man was a local. He explained a few things about the Daily Bugle without even being prompted. I had to focus on running and avoiding furniture in the dark, but I kept an ear on what he was saying. He explained that we were in the "suite"; at least, that's how he worded it. These VIP rooms, as they were, apparently don't have as many people walking through them daily as I first thought. The only way up here is supposed to be a few elevators and key cards, even though me and the bug found our own ways in. I still didn't trust X-23 to answer too many questions, so I staved off curiosity about how she got in here and saved my opportunities for things more important.

At any rate, Spider-Man's tour at least answered why the cafeteria back there was a dead end.

As we climbed the set of stairs that led to the roof, I lost a bit of focus on the goal. My mind wavered. Wesker. I couldn't believe he was still alive...again. You'd think eating a rocket after falling into a volcano would do someone in. Wesker's the only person that could possibly be an exception to.

I wasn't granted much time alone with my thoughts. Soon I realized that I had gotten on the last step, which was the roof of the building itself. I was again given a rare chance to hear X-23's voice. "Is that it?"

It wasn't a very clear question, but luckily there weren't many things she could have been talking about. While there wasn't a helicopter to be seen, there was one to be heard. The distinct chime of chopper blades was pretty hard to miss. I was a bit surprised it had gotten here so fast, but I wasn't about to complain about it. "Yeah. Doesn't sound that far away. It should be here within a couple minutes."

When all three of us were on the rooftop, I turned around to face the team. It was ironic and frustrating that I was the one that knew the least about what we were getting ourselves into. We had a few minutes to do something about that. "Both of you saw Wesker," I stated, setting myself up for a question. "Was he alone?"

"Hard to say, officer," Spider-man quipped. He leaped; of course it was still dark outside, but I saw him fling himself towards the back of a billboard. I couldn't quite wrap my mind around the fact that he was actually more comfortable stuck to a wall than standing on solid ground. Then again, it was entirely possible he just wanted to show off his talents. "He was the only one I saw, but like I said, he hopped in a helicopter and took off after. Who knows how many goons were in there waiting."

That wasn't helpful, but it was fair enough. From what I understand, Spider-Man saw Wesker for a matter of seconds. Not nearly enough time to learn about things like potential allies.

"No," the last teammate responded softly. I saw her brush some of her long hair behind an ear, but it was too dark to see if that was all she did. "He was not alone."

I was starting to see why Spider-Man wanted her on the team so badly. That harmless stunt she had pulled after we became a unit was a fluke; it was quite obvious X-23 didn't find much amusement in joking around. As far as I was concerned, when she spoke, it was law coming out. "Great," I muttered sarcastically. "Wesker couldn't care less about anyone but himself, but that doesn't mean he won't trick people into helping him anyway. Hope he doesn't have too much backup..."

I said the last sentence for a reason. I wanted X-23 to continue on without using up any of my questions. The bait, however, went completely untouched. I heard the smallest movement from her, as if she had folded her arms or something, and then silence. It would have to wait. I had to be thankful that I was at least given a heads up about trouble.

Within moments, the helicopter got too close to us to have much of a conversation. The noise its blades made was astounding, but nothing I wasn't used to. Rather than dropping all the way down to the roof, our BSAA friends decided for us that we weren't done climbing for the night. While the pilot kept the ride in neutral, a second person hurled a rope ladder down to us.

Despite it being so dark, I signaled for the other two to go on ahead of me. Spider-Man obliged first by hopping from his position on the gigantic advertisement straight to a few steps off the bottom rung. X-23 was soon behind him, then me.

We were given two gifts immediately when we got inside the copter. One was artificial light, something I hadn't had access to since the cafeteria incident. The second was some headsets. It certainly wasn't any less noisy inside of the thing, so these were essential if we didn't want to play charades all night.

It was hard to tell if this was the same helicopter that had dropped me off barely an hour ago. Just because it was as cramped and barren as the last one sadly didn't mean much. BSAA rides weren't known for being luxurious. I suppose it's better that they're known for being effective, anyway.

The co-pilot that had thrown the ladder down to us had undone his work by the time I got my headset active and on my head. These were built for short range, making them better for the situation than my regular, more compact headset. As he started making his way back to his comfortable seat, I told him, "We're going south."

A thumbs up, and he was off.

I sat down on one of the two benches that were in the back of the helicopter. They were on opposite sides; while I took one side, I saw X-23 taking the other. She was fiddling with her headset, which was cute in a way. It's too bad she probably wouldn't use it much.

Spider-Man was the only one of the three that didn't want the pleasure that even a hard seat can grant after a night like tonight. After the latch on the door got locked, there was a clean window that showed what I presumed to be a great view of the city. Spider-Man must have thought so, because he seemed pretty intent to stare at it. I noticed he'd already gotten his communication device on over his mask. These devices were never tested in case we ever teamed up with costumed super heroes, so I was curious how well it would work. "Thinking hard, Spider-Man?"

"Only about that ladder," he replied without turning to me. His voice seemed to change a bit more than mine did when going through a headset. I had to wonder if the mask had anything to do with that. "You know how awkward it is to climb a ladder after sticking to so many buildings? ...Well, I guess you wouldn't, but trust me, it is."

I shouldn't have been surprised something like that would be the first thing out of his mouth. He wasn't looking, so I let myself smirk a bit.

I wasn't smirking for long. It was easy to see X-23 didn't care much for our banter. Her hands were covering and rubbing her eyes; as always with women, I couldn't even take a guess at what was going through her mind. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Spider-Man had also taken notice of it. I was willing to admit that he was more daring than I was when he broached about it.

"X-23-isn't there any other name we can call you?"

Her elbows landed on her knees. She'd moved her hands away from her face, but now she was bowing her head. Between the angle I was at and her dangling hair, her expression was just as hard to read as it was before. There was a long pause before she answered, but we both waited patiently. "...Laura."

"Now we're getting somewhere," the costumed adult decided. "There's one question I've been dying to ask you the entire night, Laura. Chris took a blind guess off of a rough description that we're going after some A-list crook. Then you came along and identified him by name. And on top of that, you knew that he's got help? Am I just really out of the loop about this guy, or do you have a confession to make?"

The accusation startled me. Could X-2-Laura be so quiet because she's hiding something? That had never even occurred to me. Spider-Man being so stern also caught me off guard.

I guess he was thinking about more than that ladder after all.

She shifted her head to her left, but still kept looking toward the floor. With Laura, it was hard to tell if she was just gathering her words or actually refusing to answer. Something told me it wasn't the former, and Spider-Man must have thought so too.

"I'm not angry," he stated, probably as a form of apology. "It's just that I've been double-crossed before, and I tend to get suspicious of the quiet types. I want to trust you, especially since you know Wolverine. Before I can do that, I need to hear more of your story."

I'd been terrified before, but I reached the peak of adrenaline a few short seconds after Spider-Man finished talking. That's when Laura's claws extended straight from her skin. It wasn't even two seconds after that when a small stream of blood trickled in between her own fingers.

I gave a sub-conscious prayer that a fight wasn't about to break out. This small and unstable of a helicopter would make for the worst battlefield I'd ever seen. I habitually reached for my gun, but Spider-Man stopped me with a glance and a small wave of his hand. "No spider-sense."

That wasn't even English to me. I had to take the most comfort I could in the fact that he seemed completely unfazed by Laura's unpredicted action.

The headset picked up the feral growl that rumbled in her throat too well. "Wesker lied to me..."

I briefly thought again about her claws. It was possible she didn't have complete control over them; maybe it was an involuntary motion made when she became upset. If that was true, I had to be grateful she was only upset at Wesker.

"He told me that he could help me," Laura went on. She continued avoiding eye contact with either of us, maybe for our own safety. Her fists weren't so lucky. As she clenched them harder and harder, they kept turning all the more red. I could see it clearly even through the blood that leaked around her hands. "I thought he was one of the scientists who-"

She stopped. I noticed three things happen one right after the other; her shoulders jumped sporadically once, she made a congested sniffle, and her right-hand thumb and index finger moved up to her eyes. Those things made sense, especially after Spider-Man finished the hard sentence for her.

"...created you."

"I went with him into his helicopter," she went on. It hardly sounded at all like she was crying. If she really had been created in a laboratory, maybe she couldn't. "We landed on a roof top. He grabbed a half dozen weapons and jumped out. I followed him, then saw that he was dealing with Magneto."

"Magneto?" Spider-Man shouted. I flinched; my ear wasn't ready for that. "How did I not see him?"

I recovered and asked, "Who's Magneto?"

"The master of magnet..." Spider-Man gave a disgruntled huff. "Never mind, I'll tell you later. Then what happened?"

"Everything went red. I attacked in rage, but he stopped me and threw me off the building. When I...healed, I made my way to that building."

Spider-Man rubbed his chin. One usually does that to gesture thinking, but I doubted how useful it really was when a mask was covering the chin up. "...You tell good stories, Laura. You should read to kids in the library when you have some free time." Her claws retracted; that was good, but Spider-Man didn't even notice. He had already turned to face me. "Her tale checks out as far as I'm concerned. Now that I think about it, I might have seen a second person -Laura- get out of Wesker's chopper. I wasn't too sure what happened to them, but I guess being chucked off the building would be a good answer. Wesker apparently wasn't too upset by it. From my point of view, he took Maggie's briefcase and scatted."

"Wesker traded for a briefcase?" Laura inquired.

"Yeah. This Wesker guy either isn't too bright, or doesn't know his contacts very well." Spider-Man again took the time to explain the situation to me. I was glad, too, because I was so lost by this point. All I'd understood so far was that one of my teammates can stick to buildings, and the other can survive being thrown off them. "Magneto can manipulate metal. If whatever was in that briefcase has a gram of anything shiny in it, there's a good chance Magneto can get it back any time he wants."

That description concerned me for a number of reasons. Specifically, forty-two. That was the amount of metal ammunition I had left on me. "So will I have the chance to get better acquainted with this Magneto guy tonight?"

"I doubt it," Spider-Man said, once more tapping his chin. "He was just making a mutual trade with Wesker from the sounds of it. I don't see them teaming up too soon."

The most feminine one here again spoke up. I was starting to get used to her voice, which is something I never thought I'd say. "There were two others in the helicopter with Wesker, including a pilot. I don't know anything about them."

"Redfield."

That was an odd way to respond to Laura. It took me a second to realize that Spider-Man wasn't the one who said it. The two pilots used the same frequency the three of us were on. That meant eavesdropping was inevitable, but I was glad for it. Maybe they understood half of this and could explain it to me later. "What is it?"

"Radar's got a blip," the pilot went on. Both Laura and Spider-Man pressed the headset further into their ears to make sure they missed nothing. "It's a bird, and a suspicious one at that."

"Do birds eat spiders?" the arachnid wondered. "I always fell asleep during science class."

"Copy that," I replied, simultaneously giving Spider-Man the evil eye. "Don't let that thing get out of sight until we figure out if it's Wesker's or not."

Spider-Man started to slowly pace back and forth. "I wouldn't start locking any missiles on yet. Something doesn't seem right. I saw Wesker leave an hour ago. How did we catch up to him in five minutes?"

I don't know what he wants us to believe, but I could say with confidence that Spider-Man is sharper than he wants us to give him credit for. First figuring out how to get X-23 to talk, and then bringing up a perfectly valid point. If only guessing at Spider-Man's identity was my top priority right now. "You're right, it is odd...but maybe not unheard of. He could have found more people to barter with for all we know. Or what if he decided to start looking for X-" I said it. By the time I realized I said it, it was too late. "...Laura?"

We both glanced over at her. Her dead eyes were set off to the side. It honestly looked like she didn't even hear me. Maybe that was me just hoping for the best. It was more likely that she just took the slip of her laboratory name on the chin. Either way, that didn't stop Spider-Man from turning back to me. "Dude. Really? Anyway, I guess there's no way to know until we get closer," he finished.

And that we did. The next few minutes were spent in silence. Every so often, I glanced over at Laura. I couldn't decide if I should apologize or not. Any time I came close, I told myself that she originally wanted to be called X-23. Why should I apologize for calling somebody their own name?

It wasn't very important, and all too soon, became completely obsolete. One of the pilots again ringed in, this time sounding more panicked. "Redfield, they're trying to lock onto us!"

"I'd say that last question just got answered," Spider-Man chimed in.

I couldn't say I was as calm. "What? Shake it off, then!"

The ride wasn't very steady, and it was about to get worse. Evasive maneuvers meant rocking the boat all over the place. It was rough, but not nearly as bad as it would be if we were hit by anything. I clamped my fingers under the bench to help steady myself; Laura just snarled and tried not to bounce all around the place. Amusingly enough, even Spider-Man lost his balance enough to need to put a hand on the side of the copter.

"Like hell they're getting an easy hit on us," the pilot assured. "Redfield, we got one more problem."

"It gets worse?" Spider-Man wondered.

"What is it?" I demanded. I couldn't do very much with intel like that.

"Uh..."

It was hard to say whether he just wanted to sound arrogant, or if he genuinely ran out of time to explain. It didn't matter; what did was a sudden jerk downwards. I had a sinking feeling that wasn't a move made by either of the two up front. We sank, and we kept sinking rather steadily. Something had attached to us. Something really heavy.

Spider-Man reached for the handle to the door leading outside. I didn't even have time to stop him. With an annoyed-sounding, "You've got to be kidding me," he ripped the door open. I was too enthralled by what he was doing to realize that the steel lock was securely in place over the door. He'd broken it with his nearly bare hands by opening it.

Immediately, as expected, air started pouring straight into the helicopter. The wind was blinding and loud, but not loud enough. I heard something over it that sent a chill up my spine.

"Hulk SMASH spinning bird!"

I ran over to the open door, being extremely careful I didn't get sucked out the hatch. I gently leaned over, only to realize just how fast we were falling; at a rate like this, we'd hit the ground in less than ten seconds. Whether that was the worst thing at the present time or not was up for debate. When I looked down, it was pretty hard to miss a very familiar green giant looking straight back up at me. His hands were gripped tightly around the base of the copter. I could have sworn his eyes got a little redder when they met mine.

Spider-Man squatted close to the ground. He screamed as loud as he could. Our headsets were still on, but if he was somehow friends with that monster, any amount of ringing in my ear was worth it. "HULK! You have the wrong helicopter! Go get that one!" he yelled, pointing in the direction of Wesker's helicopter.

Amazingly, the monster heard his command and understood it. His head shifted to the side, exactly where my partner was pointing. The Hulk's voice was as loud as a drum set, so he didn't need a headset for me to hear him. "...Oh. Sorry."

Without a second thought, Hulk let his own fingers slip from the metal bar, causing his massive form to drop back to the earth 150 feet down. Instantly, our helicopter regained control of itself. The pilots quickly put us back into the pursuit of Wesker.

I shook my head, wondering to myself if all that I had just seen really happened. "You're something else, Spider-Man."

"Actually, I prefer 'amazing.' Or even 'spectacular.' 'The Something Else Spider-Man' doesn't sound very catchy. All the same, though, thanks!"

Spider-Man put the door back in place. At least, he tried to. Somewhere in the process of snapping the lock, something else must have broke, because the door didn't go back on right. At least it still blocked out most of the wind, and since it had been sacrificed for a good cause, I decided not to give him any trouble about it.

Next to the helicopter, X-23 was the next one worse for wear. All of the wind had made her hair thrash about in all different directions. Now that it had settled down, about half of her locks ended up covering her face. She blew on a few strands, which worked for a second before they dropped back into place.

I chuckled, but just a little bit.

"Incredible," I heard one of the pilots say through the headset. "We're well within range of the bird. Definitely starting to look like Tricell. But whatever was just attacking us just made a jump from the earth and is now pounding on that thing like a blacksmith. The hell did you tell that thing, Redfield?"

My only wish was that I was able to see what was going on for myself. I'd pay good money to see Wesker get ripped in half by a monster that towers over him, so getting to see it done in the air and for free would be a dream come true. As it was, commentary was satisfactory enough. "Sounds like that doesn't matter right now. Not even Wesker's crazy enough to stay in the air with that thing all over him. One way or another, Wesker's literally going down. You guys should get ready to follow him."

"Gotcha."

I saw Spider-Man tap his foot on the ground three times in an impatient matter. He was probably thinking the same way I was. A part of me knew that he was going to do something about it, though. "Screw this," he stated and walked towards the broken door. "I'm too cheap for pay-per-view. This sounds like greater entertainment than bingo night."

"Wait, Spider-M-"

I sometimes really hate it when I'm right.

The door, again, was effortlessly heaved away from the hatch it was supposed to be covering. Just like before, the back of the helicopter was flooded with an unbalancing rush of wind. Spider-Man didn't even seem to notice and took the smallest of leaps outside. He didn't go far; he stuck almost instantly to the same pole that the Hulk had been grabbing just moments ago.

"...I just fixed my hair..."

I took a glance at X-23. If she had told the truth, the wind had made a liar out of her. Her two and a half foot-long hair waged war against gravity, and the result was Laura getting blinded by herself.

With the corner of my eye, I saw Spider-Man had crawled forward a baby step. "Sorry, Laur. But check out this view! Hey, I can see my house from-Whoa."

Curiosity was tough to beat. Besides, the door was already never going back in place, so I might as well take advantage of the situation. I got to the edge of the side and peeked around the corner.

It was dark out, so it was a little hard to see the blood-curling Tricell logo, or anything else about the other helicopter. Sight wasn't needed right now, though. The refreshing sound of complete destruction made up for it. Even over the sound of both birds, the screeching of metal being torn apart could be heard as clear as anything. After the Hulk tore off one specific piece, I saw sparks begin to soar out from Wesker's ride. I had to laugh when I heard Spider-Man remark, "Ooh. That looked valuable."

I was surprised when I felt something soft on my arm. I changed my sight from Wesker's demise for a moment to see the hair that Laura was having such trouble with. She'd come up to the door and stood next to me, also wanting to see what was happening.

The gruesome downfall of my worst enemy had unified my team. I had to smile at that.

It wasn't long at all before things happened just as I predicted them. Wesker's helicopter started on a surely unscheduled descent. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, it looked like he still had enough control of it to prevent a fatal crash. "Don't even let them out of your cross hairs," I reminded my own pilots.

That's when predictability flew out the window. Or the helicopter, as the case may be.

Unknown to me a moment ago, there was a reason the helicopter was losing control. Some figure inside the chopper -it was too dark to make out many details- stood over a hole that the Hulk had created. After just a moment, he shouted something. I could have sworn I heard something like "Skrull," but knew that some parts of that had to be lost to the wind.

When he was done with his incoherent battle cry, he took a flying leap out of the helicopter. My eyes widened as I wondered just how mad this guy was.

As he fell past him, the figure leeched on to the Hulk's back. The green giant tried shaking him off, but the other seemed rather attached.

He began pounding on the Hulk's hands, and I noticed something. The arm that he was reaching forward with was made entirely of stone. I caught myself before asking how that was possible. If I required a logical explanation for half the things that's happened tonight, I think I'd have a tougher time finding them than what it's worth.

The Hulk was inhumanly strong; I could vouch for that with personal experience. But even he couldn't hold on for long while being assaulted constantly by thrashing rock. His hold with one hand slipped, and then the other. Both friend and enemy plummeted to the earth way down below.

"HULK!" Spider-Man shouted. He still had his headset on, so I heard him clearly. Could Spider-Man really have a friend in that thing? I got the impression that the Hulk is one person who doesn't much care for buddies.

I wasn't sure if the bug was still watching the free fall or not. I'd already diverted my attention; when the Hulk dropped, a couple tons of weight was suddenly released from the helicopter. Without a pilot to stabilize it, Wesker's carrier began spinning out of control even worse than before. I could tell where it was headed, and I was glad for it. An empty rooftop. Far away from civilians, and plenty of room to fight.

The roof was lit up by two florescent lights, hidden behind glass covers that were each attached to a pole. I was glad to finally arrive somewhere that wasn't almost pitch black. With the lights' help, I watched as two figures jumped out of the sinking helicopter. Not even a second later, the thing crashed and exploded into flames upon impact. In my eyes, it was a beautiful sight.

One of those figures wore a leather coat. He was crouching on the rooftop, probably trying to get his heart rate under control. I had a confident feeling that the sight wasn't as beautiful in his eyes.

The helicopter brought us close to the roof without touching it. Spider-Man ripped the headset off of his face and shot it into our helicopter, then hopped off. He had some witty remark to say about close to everything; I had to imagine that his cold silence this time meant that his thoughts were on the Hulk's safety.

I motioned for X-23 to follow him, and after she took off her own headset, she did. I stayed behind to make one last call. "You two better get out of here," I radioed to the pilots. "Stay local. We'll call you when we're done."

"Copy that, Redfield. Go kick some ass."

I smirked. Once I discarded the bulkier headset, keeping my other one equipped and handy, I followed after my crew.

-MVC-

A/N: To be frank, I underestimated my ability to make chapters seemingly endless. Hovering somewhere around 15,000 words and still not done yet, I knew I had to divide that up somehow. And so, this one-shot that became a two-shot is now a three-shot. This chapter is much shorter than the ones surrounding it, but if you saw how long it was originally going to be, I think you'd thank me for it. Not enough action in this one, you say? Hang on...