Chapter 7

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I sigh as I walk with Tildi down the hall, my arms folded.

Now what am I supposed to do?

When I got asked to speak with Magneto shortly after I’d gotten up this morning, I hadn’t exactly planned on what to do after the fact.

“Hey, girls. Good morning.”

We stop and turn as Kitty comes towards us in her casual wear.

“Good morning, Kitty,” Tildi smiles, while I just nod in acknowledgement.

“What’s say we spend the day out instead of inside, huh?” Kitty puts her hands on her hips, grinning eagerly.

At once, Tildi’s mood changes. She leans closer to me, her head down.

I glance at her, then Kitty, who sighs, folding her arms.

“Tildi hasn’t left the grounds since we rescued her from the MRD. She… she’s worried she’ll get captured again, what with her family not exactly…”

I nod, before looking to Tildi and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, stay with me and nothing bad will happen. Any MRD asshole who tries?” I hold up my other fist, my claws coming out.

“Though it would be better if we just avoided those kinds of situations altogether,” Kitty says quickly, the strain in her tone making it clear she doesn’t like my implications of violence as my response.

I’m Wolverine’s daughter, Kitty. What do you expect? It’s not like I can take after my mother.

Tildi stares back anxiously at me for several moments, before looking away. “Well… I guess. But, we don’t have any clothes to wear out,” she indicates to me and then herself. “I mean, you’ve got your clothes, but, should you just go out in them when the MRD saw you wearing them?”

“Got ya covered, girls,” Kitty snaps her fingers, pointing. “We meant to tell you the day 23 arrived, Tildi, but, well, with her arrival, things kinda got away from us. We got you some new clothes. And, since you and 23 are about the same size...”

I can’t help scowling. I better not dislike where this is going.

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“See, Tildi. There’s nothing to worry about,” Kitty says encouragingly, turning around as we walk.

Tildi holds tighter to my arm as she glances around at all the people passing us.

We’re in a mall in downtown Neigh York, it reminding me a little of the one from my country in my world I would visit regularly due to passing through to work... whatever my job was, though the one I’m used to was outside.

Tildi is wearing a pink jacket over a black shirt and a white skirt, while I’m wearing a collared white shirt and red skirt with belt, both of us wearing sandals.

Not exactly my first pick for what I’d want to go out wearing, but a change of pace from my usual leather is still a change, I guess.

Kitty had suggested I wear a jacket too, but I wasn’t feeling the cold as much as she and Tildi were, so opted for just the shirt. I liked the cold back home. Heck, last year I wore my summer clothes all throughout winter.

Kitty takes us to a clothing store to try new outfits. Well, for me to try them, anyway. I couldn’t rely on borrowing Tildi’s all the time.

Shame Rarity had yet to finish some new clothes for me before I came to this world.

We spend a few hours, myself choosing what I feel best suits me, despite Tildi and Kitty’s attempts to get me to try some more girly attire.

I’m Wolverine’s daughter, damnit. Girly is not how I’m going to dress.

Hard to be intimidating to your opponent's wearing a frilly pink skirt and shirt, for fuck’s sake.

As we exit the clothing store with my choices, we head for the food court… where we start hearing shouting?

Great. Just what we needed, a Karen losing their shit over their order not being exactly how they ordered it down to the tiniest crumb being out of place.

As we enter the food court, however, it’s not just one Karen, but a whole group of them… but they’re not complaining to any of the food sellers.

They’re standing in front of a large screen overlooking the food court, on it is some random female news presenter I don’t recognize and… Captain America from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: The Avengers? The hell?

“So, your opinion is that Senator Kelly wasn’t wrong to halt his Mutant Registration Program and end Project Sentinel?” the news reporter is asking.

Captain America nods. “Mutants have a right to live in this country just as much as any of us. I honestly don’t see why people see a difference between mutants and humans.”

“Fascist!” one of the males in the group of Karens shouts, tossing a bottle towards the screen… that misses.

Great. It’s a gaggle of drunk Karens, male and female alike. Even better. Suddenly, I’m not so hungry.

“Calling Captain America, of all people, a fascist?” Kitty snorts, her arms folded. “How pathetic.”

I can’t disagree with her. But, racism will do that to an idiot.

“You don’t see any differences between humans and mutants?” the reporter asks as we move to sit down. “Even with the obvious evidence of how different they are to humans like you and I?”

Captain America gives her a firm look. “Ma’am, if you think about it,I’m a mutant. I used to be a regular human, but then, I became the superhuman soldier I am now by my DNA being changed. I don’t see any difference between myself and the mutants.”

“Most would say you’re more a mutate than a mutant, though, Captain Rogers,” the reporter holds a pen to her chin. “Since your DNA was altered artificially, not by some natural evolution.”

“Is there really a difference?” Captain America asks incredulously. “Sure, I wasn’t born with the mutant gene, but I still ended up with a mutation, one way or another.”

“So, humans should work with mutants and not against them, that’s what you’re saying?” the reporter asks, an eyebrow raised. “Even despite groups like the Brotherhood of Mutants and all the destruction and mayhem they bring?”

Captain America gets a serious look on his face. “Ma’am, if we judge every mutant by the actions of a few, what does that say about us? The Brotherhood of Mutants regularly talk about getting back at humans as a whole, but that means they’re looking from the same lenses as those who want to punish all mutants for the actions of those like the Brotherhood.”

“Mutant lover!” a man shouts from the group.

We just shake our heads as Kitty orders our food.

Well, Kitty and I shake our heads. Tildi just scoots closer to me. Guess she feels safer with me. Poor kid.

“The truth is, ma’am, that mutants are free Americans, with rights, just like you or me,” Captain America continues, folding his hands together in front of him. “In the war, I fought alongside mutant and human alike. We didn’t care which side of the species we were on, because we were allies against a common enemy. An enemy who saw other humans as a separate species from themselves, an inferior species, that needed to be wiped out.”

“Captain,” the reporter says in a cautious tone, “you’re not suggesting you see similarities between the Nazis and your own fellow humans against the mutants?”

Captain America scowls. “I hate to say so, ma’am, but, yes, I do. Those going after the mutants, saying they don’t belong, that they’re a plague on humanity, a mistake… it disgusts me that I hear that kind of talk all these years after the war. I never thought I’d hear them from my fellow Americans, about other Americans.”

Hate to say it, but… the man’s got a point. An extremely uncomfortable point.

“Traitor!”

“Mutant lover!”

“Go back to the battlefield and day there!”

A loud smashing sound makes Kitty and I stand, Tildi quickly following suit.

“We’re out of here,” Kitty says and neither of us argue.

We head over to the place Kitty placed our order with and get only half what’s already done.

I cross my fingers as Tildi takes my other hand firmly in hers, gripping it tightly.

Please let us get out without a hassle. Please let us get out without a hassle.

“Hey!”

Fuck.

“Keep walking,” Kitty hisses as we take our food and move towards the exit.

“Hold it right there,” Tildi cries out as she’s pulled away from me.

Turning around, I see a man with short-cut brown hair. He’s wearing jeans and a tank top, the latter of which has a bird like symbol, top half ted, bottom half blue, with FoH in huge white letters on the front.

“You’re mutant lovers, aren’t you?” he demands, glaring at Tildi.

“Hey, she’s just a kid! Let her go!” Kitty demands, passing the food to me, leaving both my arms full.

The guy just scowls at Kitty. “Then you should teach the kid better manners, lady.”

The rest of his group yell and jeer at Kitty as if the guy just said something profoundly wise.

“You’re either Friends of Humanity or you’re the enemy,” he says loudly, Tildi whimpering as his grip on her arm tightens.

I snarl, dropping the bags of food, ready to bring out my claws for a fight.

Suddenly, I hear a sound I wasn’t expecting, before a web line comes from the left of my vision, catching the guy’s wrist.

Before he can respond, he yelps in alarm as he’s yanked back, before colliding and sticking to a… web on the wall.

“Now, now,” a voice that makes my eyes widen says, a red and blue figure swinging into view and sticking to the wall several metres up. “Can’t girls just eat in peace, these days?”

It’s Spiderman. But, not just any Spiderman. I recognize that voice. It’s Spiderman from Spectacular Spiderman.

There was always the theory a version of that Spiderman existed in the same universe as Wolverine and the X-Men, but I wasn’t expecting to that to be proven like this.

“Don’t get cocky, Webhead!” a voice says from behind me and I’m taken aback as a hand goes over my mouth and I feel a knife pressing into my back.

Glancing back, I see a dude with a bandana on his head with the same symbol as was on that guy now stuck against the wall has on his shirt.

“The Friends of Humanity have something against the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman?” Spiderman says with obviously fake, overdramatic movements. “I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you.”

“One wrong move, wall crawler and this girl gets it!” the guy behind me snarls, pressing the knife harder into my back.

“23!” Tildi looks at me in fright and I catch a glimpse of a glow in her eyes.

I slightly shake my head, silently indicating for her not to use her powers.

It seems to work, if only because it confuses her, the glow fading before anyone else seems to catch it.

“You’re going to hold that girl hostage?” Kitty asks, before smirking as she folds her arms. “Oh, unwise.”

“What’s so unwise, girly?” he snarls, digging the knife deeper, it not seeming to have caught his notice I’m neither struggling to get free or move my back away from the knife like a regular person would in this scenario. “If she’s not a Friend of Humanity, she’s a traitor. And we all know what happens to traitors.”

“She’s saying it’s unwise because of this!” I shout, thrusting my back towards the knife, it pushing through my shirt and into my flesh as the back of my head collides with his face.

It works. The dude had not expected that at all and it throws him off, giving me time to yank free from his now lose grip and whirl around, grabbing his arm and hurling him over my shoulder, slamming him to the ground.

He cries out in pained confusion, before I step on his chest and glare at the guy holding Tildi’s wrist, my claws coming out.

His and all his fellow mutant hater’s eyes widen at the sight of my claws.

“Wanna mess with me? Do ya, punks?!” I snarl at them. “I’m not my dad. I’m far less restrained.”

I feel vindictive glee as the looks of shocked horror in their eyes grow even deeper at the word “dad”.

Yeah, it’s not exactly keeping my cover, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let these punks push us around just because we won’t hate mutants like they do.

“I’d say that I’d advise you all to leave while ya can,” Spiderman shrugs, before firing webs at several of them and tossing them into a pile. “But, I’m not one to let those who’d beat up on little girls go unpunished.”

“Alright, alright! Break it up, all of you!”

We turn as three mall security cops come running over.

They look around at us… and I have the bad feeling we’re being seen in the wrong here: Spiderman has multiple people webbed up and I’m standing over a dude with a bleeding nose, my foot on his chest.

At least I had the forethought to quickly retract my claws.

“Sirs, these ladies are innocent,” one of the food court employees comes over, pointing her fingers to the other people. “These ladies were just leaving as these Friends of Humanity people were getting too rowdy and they attacked them because they thought it meant they were mutant lovers.”

I glance at her. Curious. The way she worded that, without mentioning we’re mutants… makes me wonder.

“So, you’re the ones we were called about,” a female officer says, looking none too pleased at the guy under my foot.

“We had a permit to protest here!” the guy says, before snarling as he points up at me. “They should be arrested for existing and disrupting us.”

“Disrupting you by… choosing to leave quietly?” one of the male officers, a black guy, says, folding his arms. His voice kinda reminds me of Bishop. “Since when is choosing to leave quickly disrupting others?”

“Besides which,” the other male officer says (he sounds like Steve Blum on helium, which is just doing my head in), “you’re permit was to protest, not destroy private property and assault others.”

He points and I notice the large screen from earlier has a hole in one of the lower corners, the image flickering around that spot.

“You three ladies better head off,” the female officer says as her male collegue goes over to the webbed up people and she bends down to put cuffs on the one under my foot. “The MRD were already called as we arrived. One of these guys must’ve snitched to them.”

“You too, Spidey,” the Bishop sounding cop says, glancing over at the webhead. “Knowing the Daily Bugle, you’ll get blamed anyway, so best get away so ya don’t give them more to work with.”

“Loud and clear,” Spiderman gives him a two-fingered salute, before looking to us and bowing dramatically. “Have a pleasant rest of your day, ladies.”

“Hold it!” I rush forward, grabbing him by the arm.

“Huh?” he glances back in confusion.

I lean closer, whispering. “You should come by Xavier’s school later. We should probably fill you in on things, Peter.”

His suit’s white eyes go wide.

I nod.

Letting him know I know his identity should let him understand I mean him no harm.

Besides, I need more info now. Knowing this world is a strange fusion of Eqeuestria Girls, Wolverine and the X-Men, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: The Avengers AND Spectacular Spiderman, I need to get up to date on current events.

Plus, Peter should be aware Norman Osborne is very much alive.

He stares at me for a moment, before frowning and nods, swinging up and away.

“Aw, man. 23, you’re new shirt,” Kitty says and I turn to realize she’s standing behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder, I see a blood stain where the knife pierced my shirt. No wound, obviously.

I shrug. “Eh. I think it adds character. More me, ya know?”

We walk out, heading back for the mansion, deciding we’d had enough fun for one day.

___________________________________________________________

The door to the office opened and a man walked in.

“What?” an accented voice behind the desk asked, the speaker not turning around.

“Sir, we were tailing one of the X-Men, like you ordered,” the man said, reaching into his pocket, pulling out a photograph and putting it on the desk. “We learned something very interesting.”

The chair turned around and the man in it looked down at the photo of a girl with tanned skin standing over a man, twin metal claws protruding from her knuckles.

The man in the chair chuckled. “Interesting. What secrets have you been hiding, Wolverine?”

Author's Note

This is LONG overdue.

I'd honestly meant to get this out two weeks ago, but with my dad suddenly having to go to hospital, i wasn't exactly in the best headspace to write anything.

Not to mention, due to randomly stumbling on a secondhand copy of a region 1 version of 4kidz Winx Club season 2 volume 1 two weeks ago, my brain tried to get back to writing my WInx Club MLP fic, but my needing to really think the next part through kept the creative juices from flowing while the drive was there.

Ya need both at once to get anything done, after all.

So, instead, while it took 2 more days than planned, I got an update this weekend.

The biggest hurdle with this chapter was that 23 and Tildi needed to be out in public, but, unless it was in Canterlot, I wasn't sure how to naturally have 23 go about.

I also had intended for a mugging of sorts to be what gets Spidey on the scene and 23 itching for a fight, but, the more and more I tried on that premise, the less logical it felt.

Then, as I was listening to the Getting Stronger album by Michelle Creber and Black Gryph0n (Gabriel Brown) to try and get the inspiration juices flowing while going to sleep, one line in one of the songs reminded me so much of mutants fighting back against people like Friends of Humanity, that it finally clicked enough to figure out where I was going with this chapter.

I'd also wanted 23 to learn more about the extent of the world around her, so she'd understand she's in a fusion Yostverse (and its implications therein) without her needing to get too focused on researching. She's voiced by Pinkie Pie after all, not freaking Twilight Sparkle.

And she and Tildi needed new clothes. We never did see Tildi outside the outfit she was wearing when the X-Men rescue her in the show after all, do we? And you can't go out in public in your PJs all the time.

Although... it seems like their little outing has caught the attention of someone they probably don't want watching them.

Whom could it be? Will this lead to problems down the line... or just irritations?

You'll have to wait and see, because this is the last update this fic will be getting this year.

I might try updating the Peni Parker or WITCH fics at least one chapter before year's end, but don't quote me on that.

While we've had some very nice days recently, we're literally on the last day of spring and summer weather is some of the worst for writing inspiration. Hot weather is a real inspiration killer.

So, hope you enjoyed this chapter, again, i'll try updating some other fics before years end, but am unclear how that might go and, til next time, stay safe, stay strong and see you later everybody