Hello again to all my friends. I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.

Ah, I love it, the first day of the month and already 123 hits. I love y'all who love my literature.

Just a little something I'd like to tell you all, if you don't get a shout out in the next chapter that you've reviewed, you'll likely get a PM from me saying thanks and replying to the review, sometimes I just forget to put them in, and other times they come after I've posted the chapter. I like to show the love to my readers.

To Kali3110: It had to be spiders, cause I, like yourself have arachnophobia, so in my eyes, spiders are one of the scariest things in existence.

To Firewhisperer: Bwahahahahahaha! Spiders are scary to me, so it just had to make my skin crawl to make your skin crawl.

To Hamo Hero: Time for epic battles indeed. As for the spiders, see above responses for my reasons.

Chapter 32

Recoil was juggling several small balls, each of them glowing when they reached the highest point, when they reached his hand they would stop their glow and turn black again. He'd gotten good at this, he'd almost lost a hand once though, but he liked playing with his power. He caught them all in his hand then tossed them out the window into the water. They blew up when they hit the water. He paused and glanced out the window, it was strangely overcast. He leaned out the window further.

Something grabbed his ankles, he cried out as he was lifted off his feet and dangled out the window. He ended up looking inside at a large hairy blue thing. "Blink! Blink! They're here, they're on the-" Something black jumped out and put itself inside his mouth. He gagged feeling eight legs clattering inside his mouth.

"Now, you're going to tell us where they're keeping Naomi, or you're going for a swim." Beast said simply, he watched while Recoil tried to eject the shadow spider from his mouth, he made a face, "Can someone make it stop that?"

"Do you know where they're keeping Naomi?" Rael asked, Recoil nodded profusely the spider crawled out and sat on his chin.

"What the hell!" Recoil yelled, "Blink!"

There was a pop of energy, Prism spun and avoided a high kick from Blink. The boy stood with his hands in his pockets. He blew a large pink bubble until it popped then smiled and spoke. "Number twelve Recoil."

Recoil ignored the skittering of the spider across his face and pulled himself forward enough to slam his hands against the window frame, Beast, surprised by his movement couldn't prevent the contact. The frame glowed then became a cloud of splinters. They all stumbled away from the blast while Beast released the boy.

Blink vanished, a short moment later he returned with Recoil. "The one you're looking for is down one floor. Of course everyone's likely heard that you're here now." Blink stated with a wicked smirk. The two of them charged the group, Recoil producing more marbles and Blink flickering from one location to another creating a blurred image of himself.

Nightcrawler intercepted the other teleporter and forcefully brought the boy with him through one of his own teleportations. They fell onto the roof, Blink pulled Nightcrawler into one of his own teleports. Each jump gave only a moment's appearance of how the fight of fists was going, Nightcrawler had the upper hand most of the time.

Recoil tossed the bombs into the group before taking off for the stairs. Rael took off after him once the smoke from the explosions cleared. Beast followed with Logan close behind.

Rael just managed to avoid another set of marbles when a blade of liquid metal came toward him. He brought up a black sword in his hand blocking it, so he thought, when it melded around the black energy and grew toward him. Rael ducked and rolled away from the mutant. "Get that kid! I'll keep this one busy!" Rael said and charged, surprising the mutant, he raised his hands and the quicksilver morphed into a metallic shield. Rael formed the same. At the collision the quicksilver gave enough to let the black energy strike the others hands. The metal began to wrap around to grab at Rael, while Beast and Logan reached the stairs and ran down.

"Fallen, ArchAngel, get in there and help the others." Storm said through the com-link. She sat at a distance, hidden and watching Rune avoid the head of a flaming serpent that had risen from Pyro's hands. She looked up at the sky, her eyes clouded over while the clouds began to darken. There was a single flash of lightning before rain began pouring from the sky, the flames hissed and sizzled from the moisture.

"So, you're not alone!" Pyro called to Rune and shot a second snake around to the other side of Rune.

Rune caught flames in a bubble of a pressure differential, he pulled and extinguished the fire, "You're got your friends inside, why shouldn't I?" He stated then reached out and pushed a wave of gravity around him. The flames wavered and Pyro was pushed back several feet.

From within the building someone screamed. Rune's attention went to the building, Pyro lashed out and struck a long licking burn down Rune's arm. He stumbled away and gritted his teeth, nearly gagging on the scent of burnt flesh. "They're allies, not friends." Pyro said with a chuckle.

Rune looked at the windows again on the second floor another one went from light to completely blacked out. He hoped everyone was alright.

Recharge retreated more as the spiders began crawling up her body, Naomi smiled and brought up a hand from her side. The normal looking skin had all cracked and vanished she twisted her hand slightly. The arachnids fused together into long, thin, black cord like bands. They bound around Recharge's legs bringing her to the floor.

She screamed, her voice was cut short by more bindings around her wrists crawling up around her lips. Naomi leaned down over her. "You really are weak." She whispered. Naomi's shadow pulled up behind her, it looked like vertical static with a human shape, gaps in the shadow moving and shifting around in it and a shifting in colors from a dark gray to a ebony black. "I wonder if I can ransom you, like you were going to ransom me." Her shadow stepped around Naomi and grabbed the cords in one hand and pulled Recharge to her feet, "Let's see shall we?"

Naomi, her shadow and Recharge in tow began searching for the way to the next floor. Each room they tried she'd break the lights in if it wasn't the way out. Recharge continued to struggle against the cords, grabbing at them with her bare hands, nothing happened, she screamed against the bindings, her power wasn't working against the shadows she couldn't reach Naomi no matter her struggles.

She tried to keep breathing calmly. She was nearly at her limit and she knew it. Reckless as this is... she smiled to herself at her thought, I have to get out of here. Naomi paused sensing familiar crash in the next room from the floor above. She opened the door to find Fallen and ArchAngel, in a heap, each groaned and worked to regain their feet.

"Hi boys." Naomi said surprised.

They both looked at her in shock. "Storm we've found her." Fallen began, then leaned to the side to see her captive, "She's got Recharge all tied up." He said surprised.

An explosion above made the boys flinch away, Naomi looked up to see her uncle's hairy back several inches from the hole. She stepped backwards through her shadow and vanished, appearing before Recoil.

The boy stumbled back at her sudden appearance. Logan wrapped an arm around the kid's neck, "That's enough from you bub." He thumped him on the head and Recoil was unconscious. "You just attract trouble."

Naomi shrugged. "Its been a long day, can we go home yet?" She asked.

"Not quite," Beast said, Fallen and ArchAngel joining them once more, "Nightcrawler's still somewhere fighting the other teleporter, Rael's fighting one floor up and Rune's outside engaged with Pyro." He looked her over, "You look different Naomi."

She smiled lightly, "Thanks, confidence feels good."

Fallen cleared his throat, "I say we get what we came for," he said pointedly at Naomi, "get back to the car and wait for the others."