Excitement was in the air, an enthusiastic clamor of voices, here and there excited shouting. The excitement was intoxicating. He'd never really felt it from the other side before. A cheer flowed through the line as Goku ran up the line with video camera in hand. Cafas joined in, entirely to preserve his cover. Mostly. Somewhat. A mock fight was taking place with ridiculously over-sized weapons a few meters away, morning sunlight casting a warm glow over the whole scene.

He shook his head and shifted in place, squeaking slightly as he did. "Remember when I said Verdigris could reproduce the movie costume no problem? And you reminded me it was made of leather and I said I could handle it? I should have listened." Cafas had to turn his head to actually look at Spider-man beside him, the eyes of his suit being too small for peripheral vision.

My chimichangas are bloody cooking...

"I feel like a steamed dumpling, and the suit is riding up. This guy is meant to fight in this?" He flashed a peace sign at a passing camera, his other arm wrapping Spider-man close to his side. A brief handshake with the camera owner, and thanks for the costume compliments, and Cafas could turn his attention back to his partner. His whinging was almost entirely for her benefit. Like, ninety percent. Maybe eighty. Unfortunately he couldn't tell if she was smiling under the mask.

Pity we have to be here on business...

"How you doing in there? Spandex breathe any better than leather?" It certainly fit forms better. He couldn't even be subtle in his appreciation of the skin tight suit with tiny eye holes. One might think this would stop him appreciating. It did not. Actually, he was having a little trouble actually keeping a lookout.

Mission Cafas, mission...

"It breathes way better!" Spider!Maya spun around with her spandexed arms outstretched. With the aid of her spatial senses, she was able to bob and weave through the tight-packed crowd without actually touching anyone and still complete her spin. It looked a bit like a spidey-sense, she was told. She was also told that it was surprising to hear a woman's voice come out of a skinny boy's body.

She shot the offensive orc with silly string for calling her a boy, ducked a playful return hammer swing, and strode on. Spider-style.

"I kinda like it, actually." Not the spandex, exactly. The... mask? The freedom of movement? The silliness that came with pretending to be someone else? Too bad she couldn't stick to walls. And too bad neither of them had a cape. Her power did capes in the most awesomest of ways. "Don't you like being somebody else?"

She scanned the crowd casually with a little breeze. It wasn't as if evil-doers were easily identifiable unless their body language was suspicious. And it wasn't like she could see with her eyes very well through the mask and the press of bodies.

"We should maybe get a better vantage point, or, at least get away from this mess." What was going on here anyway? Was this... a line? Or something? "Oooh! Are we getting someone's signature?" Maya stretched up on her tippy-toes, as if that would help her see.

Silly dexterous Maya, twirling through gaps Cafas barely fit through. He had to excuse himself to so many people to keep up with her. Not that people stood in his way too much, but it was important to have manners, even when dressed as a psychopathic super... Hero? No that was certainly not the right word.

Villain feels closer to the mark really.

"I'd be in the wrong career if I didn't." He'd have poked his tongue out of it weren't for the mask. The smile was evident in his voice though, and the laughter. He was so glad to see Maya having some fun with the mission. Hopefully it proved to be as simple and fun as it sounded. Go protect event from potential threat. ID suspects though. That was going to be a hell of a challenge. The cosplay scene that allowed the X-men blend in so nicely was working against them big time, in that respect.

"You like the spandex, or the dressing up?" He winked, why did he wink? What a pointless action. The drawbacks of interacting from within a masked costume. "And I'm perfectly happy with my current vantage point." Tiptoeing for vision had distracted him again. It would get easier over the day. Cafas' thigh holstered gun snagged on a passing bag, making Cafas spin or risk breaking the silly plastic prop. "Sorry." But all was forgiven, or not even noticed. Who could tell.

Stupid sticky out bits. Maya doesn't have any of those, lucky...

Oh right, Maya's question. Awkward. "This is, uh... This is the line to the bathroom. Don't worry, this is the longest line you're likely to see all day." The X-man shrugged, starting to get used to the lack of expression. It was probably a useful skill for any super hero movies he might end up doing. "Though now you mention it we probably could get a few autographs. Or merch! Oh man I've never had a schedule loose enough to browse. Wonder if anyone I know will be here. Oh hey look it's Sauron! Wow that's cool." A very spiky suit of armour strode past, notably absent a giant mace. Them's the brakes, if they wanted to get photos with it they'd have to go check out their weapons. Cafas made a note to find him later. He was getting carried away again.

This is way too much fun. Oooh, camera, pose!

"You have a point about the vantage point though. After I adjust here, we should go up to the mezzanine." He gestured to the stairs. It would probably be their best bet.

Career? "Hah! Right!" Maya shot a finger pistol at her sweety-pie. Someday she would remember that he was, like, famous or something.

Uh. Bathroom line? Maya stretched up on tippy-toe again. Huh. The press of bodies was vaguely lumbering toward the toilets. It was just such a disorganized mess with all those sticky-outy bits and all the different people from different fandoms.

Well, since they were here anyway, she may as well... Maya'd have to ask which one was which when they got close. Printed signs and spatial vision were not friends.

"I thought Sauron was the wizard dude." She didn't see a wizard dude. Just a sinister version of Alphonse Elric. Maya entertained a brief fantasy of shooting him with silly string as he passed. She then entertained the idea that she should try to find a way to swing from something up high because, well, duh. Spiderman. Maybe even upside-down!

"Dare I ask what you're adjusting?" More tippy-toes. A little zombie shuffle forward. Man. Bathrooms might just take them all day.

Merchandise sounded lame and she really hoped they didn't run into anyone he knew. The whole point was going unknown.

Hey, actually. Since you're a hero that's all weird in people's faces, you could probably put that to use. Get in character. Mess with anyone who looks sus- Ooooh! Is that Brandon R. R. Samanderson? His books are being made into an HBO series."

Spiderman waved from the bathroom line.

Samanderson didn't notice.

"This is bunk. Let's go do something less lame, more crazy." She grabbed Deadpool's arm and started dragging him as much as she was able.

"I thought Sauron was the wizard dude."

Cafas shook his head, plumbing the depths of his self control not to launch into a full explanation of how she was technically right, but it was not who she meant. How Sauron and Saruman were both of the same race, as was Gandalf. How the Maiar were technically more akin to angels and demons. Those things he did not tell her. instead, it was pushed down inside and he let out but "Nah, that's Saruman. He's the bad guy in the second movie, Sauron is the big bad." Though a lesser bad than Morgoth, a Valar, of the same race but much greater in power, who corrupted Sauron in the first age.

Maybe she'd want to know?

"Dare I ask what you're adjusting?"

Apparently she did dare, because if he said no it was just as much an answer. Honestly, the answer was his socks, which he couldn't actually get to without removing his pants. The curse of skin tight leather. It was becoming quite uncomfortable, and if he didn't fix it he was just asking for a blister. "Nothing interesting, sorry." But by all means keep tip-toeing.

No such luck.

"Hey, actually... Ooooh! Is that Brandon R. R. Samanderson? His books are being made into an HBO series."

"I totally think it is!"

She was waving. Why was she waving? That man had killed more people than Cafas could remember. Quite a few he did remember though. The North remembers. Oh, he didn't wave back. Sad. Maybe Cafas could arrange a meeting. If he did enough accent coaching he might be able to score a role, that would certainly make it easier.

England though... Maybe once the fading is sorted out.

"Uh, from what I've seen online, I should most certainly ask first. It's good manners."

"This is bunk. Let's go do something less lame, more crazy."

Cafas allowed himself to be yanked before Maya incorporealised herself. Off through the crowd to find crazy. He was crazy about her, did that count? No? But his socks! No, it wasn't going to be of any use to protest, because it really was bunk.

"Swing left, I want a photo with the guy with the sign." Which he hoped was subtle enough code to go unnoticed. They should have picked a safe-word... Er, code-word, ahead of time. That was a silly oversight. The sign in question had an all too familiar R symbol on it. Ballsy move after what Ragnarok had done, so possibly an actual one of their crazies.

This is all their plan after all. Probably best if Maya doesn't know who tipped us off though.

"Oh. My. God." His hands came up to his cheeks, a mime's surprise. "The name's Pool, Deadpool. I am a HUGE fan of your work. Are you hiring? Here, let me get a selfie!" He pulled a burner phone out from behind his holster, trying to use it through his gloves. It was frustrating, and he made sure to be frustrated in character. Exaggerated body language. "You know, they could at least draw me in something that works with touchscreens if they insist on not drawing me a proper camera. Hey could you get this for me? Before we waste too many panels on this."

Thank you internet for preparing me for this role

The phone was offered to Spidey, who was Maya, and would have more trouble in all likelihood. Cafas was just trying to draw attention to the phone so he could do a subtle visual check for weapons before making any physical contact.

Nothing obvious.

"Hey, is it all good if I put my arm around you for the photo?" He turned to the Ragnarok member,who seemed amused at least. "Yeah that's fine. Nice costumes,by the way, you make them yourself?"

Cafas put his arm around his new friend-suspect and casually pulled his shirt a bit tighter to show up any concealed weapons in the photo. His other hand busily made the universal sign for "Oh wow, look who I'm in a photo with."

"Mine was made by a very skilled friend. You Spidey?"

The guy with the sign? What did the sign say? "Hi, I'm a terrorist!" or maybe "Pinch me. I'm explosive!" Nah. That'd make it too easy.

"Erm. Yeahsure." She let him go and sort of... lingered. Her attention wandered across the wealth of people and foam weapons. There were real weapons too, at the hips of police officers and in the few patrolling META, she assumed. At least, there was one of the dog models of META bot that kept following a guy with a shield that was taller than he was.

And then she had a phone in her hands. "Oh. Uh." She turned it around, by feel it was easy enough to tell which way had the camera and which side was the touch screen.

Of course... the button was a graphical one.

Maya mashed the screen for a while and prayed.

"Yeah, yeah. That oughtta do it." Assuming her thumb wasn't in the way, anyway. Guh. "Sorry if your photo sucks. I'm used to a higher caliber of camera." You know, one with buttons? Physical buttons and a big lens and, like, newspaper quality worth of megapixels?

There was too much to keep track of and Maya couldn't really begin to guess why Cafas had singled out this guy anyway. A little air pressure and she was pretty sure he was just a dude here to see the sights.

"Psh. I sew my own. I think. Isn't that in my lore?"

> "Peter, you get over here this instant, young man!"

Oh. There was an Aunt who wanted a photo. Maya debated trying to sneak away.

Cafas winced as a META strode past, almost staggering away from the unexpected sensory input. He disguised it as accepting his phone back. The photos, for there were a few, perhaps weren't the clearest. They served the purpose though. Nothing hidden under the shirt but a slight paunch. He pushed the eyes of his costume a bit closer to his eye, trying to get a better view. "Perfect! Here, let's get a selfie for you. Do you mind if I duck face? I'm gonna duck face." Cafas threw up a totally Kawaii peace sign too. Whatever the hell Kawaii meant. He just knew that's what the internet would call it.

Now where is Spidey?

The X-man glanced around, but between the obscured vision, the noise, and the volume of metal floating around in the chaos of the crowd, he was having trouble finding Maya. It was just a bit of an overload to focus through properly now that they were back on the con floor properly. He blinked, but it didn't help. Under different circumstances he might have removed the mask. It was making it hard to breathe anyway.

Pull it in dude, deep breaths, try to ignore unnecessary input.

"Hey dude, you okay?"

He'd clearly been standing still overly long. Was it Ragnarok dude? No he'd moved off. This was someone new. Cafas drew in a breath and focused in on the person. The moving metal around him faded to a background thrum as his brain re-centered on his eyes. He threw up a double thumbs up. "Yeah, thanks. Just catching my breath, suit's a bit stuffy." His eyes found a lanyard, followed it, fell on a con volunteer badge. He flashed a smile, for all the good it did. "Hey, have you seen a Spider-man nearby?"

> "Give Auntie Bae a squeeze!"

Maya ducked through the lady's arms. She was... large. And insistent. The gray perm looked real enough, though.

"You don't know who I am in costume! I could be anybody!" Maya leaned farther back that she should have been able to maintain her balance for, using a bit of air assistance to keep her from falling. She hoped the effect looked cool. Her dodging was getting at least a little attention from the crowd since they cleared a space for Aunt Bae to keep up her attempted snuggle.

> "Come now! I'd know my little nephew anywhere."

"Not cool! You'll blow my secret iden—"

Aunt Bae had grabbed for her.
Aunt Bae had gotten a hold of the front of her.
Aunt Bae stopped with her hands on Spiderman's chest.

"—tity."

Spiderman was no man.

Maya pinwheeled her arms as she lost her balance and fell backward. After what felt like an eternal moment of getting groped in public, the air elemental was finally free to prop herself up on her elbows.

> "I am soooo—"

From her new vantage point on the ground, Maya was able to see through a forest of legs to catch sight of the META dog from earlier.

> "— soooo —"

The shiny metal robodog lunged at a person and Maya scrambled to her feet in a flash.

> "—sorry! Omigosh! I didn't know you were a girl in there!"

"Next time ask before you... hug." Maya covered her chest with her arms and turned to find Cafas!Pool talking to con security. She maybe should have put more between herself and the world besides a bit of spandex. A quick hop and a leap and she had her arms around Cafas!Pool's neck.

"Hey, mister security man. Should you maybe do something about the robot dog?" Maya motioned with her Spiderman masked head back toward a growing commotion. "Ooor do you need some heroic intervention?" Because just about anything sounded better than seeing Aunt Bae again right now.

Cafas was very suddenly being choked. Okay, choked was an exaggeration, there was a slight pressure on his windpipe as someone's arms wrapped around his neck from behind. Thin arms, preternaturally light individual. there really was only one possibility. The voice simply confirmed it. Cafas wrapped his arms under Spider!Maya's thighs so she could sit more comfortably.

"Hey, mister security man. Should you maybe do something about the robot dog?"

Robot dog? Cafas searched through the sea of erratically moving buckles, badges, and jewelry. Somewhere near the edge of his senses he found a large mass of metal. META dog? There was one around, wasn't there? At least one. Cafas desperately wanted to melt it, but that would blow their cover so open.

"Ooor do you need some heroic intervention?"

"I uh, but that's a police robot. What should I do?"

Ah yes, civilians. "I think that's heroic intervention Spidey. Wonder twin powers, activate!" Volunteer security, honestly. What was the point? Cafas turned on his heel. Maya's weight caught him a little of guard in the move, but his boots gripped like a gorilla and kept him safely planted. "Beep beep, I'm a dangerous sociopath with a long history of violence. Or is it Jeep?"

The X-man was perhaps less than gentle with the gathering crowd. He unwound his right arm from Maya's leg to push a gawker out of the way by the shoulder. They posed little resistance. The mass of moving metal ahead was almost certainly a METAdog. There was just so much interference from people's costumes. His eyes confirmed it as the final layers of crowd got the picture and parted.

Oh good, it's a speed one.

The dog bot was standing atop a very frightened kid. Maybe fifteen at the oldest. A replica gun was still clutched in the kid's hand, plastic for sure. The kid was having no luck breathing with the bot on his chest. "Down boy." Cafas gave the bot a firm kick in the side, knocking it over onto the floor.

Don't normally get these dog bots alone.

Metal. Lots of metal. Titanium maybe? Cafas turned to see a knight bot entering the now rapidly dispersing crowd. "You have got to be kidding me." He did not have fond memories of their last scuffle with one of those.

"Wa-" Poor mister security took a single step after them.

"It's okay!" Maya waved with one arm to the volunteer. "We're professionals~!" I think.

Cafas motored on through the crowd, no real problems there. He let one of Maya's legs free and she managed to slip her foot up onto Cafas' shoulder as he leaned forward to get the momentum he needed to shove the META dog off with a hearty kick. Spider!Maya used Cafas as a springboard and did a little slither hop down to check on the kid.

He was at worst a bit under-inflated and bruised, but mostly he was round eyed and scared.

"If- if I'd let go of the gun would he have left?"

"Maybe?" He was on his feet now. That was the important part.

"Omigod, Duncan!" Another teen squirted out from between the onlookers. He checked the kid over far more thoroughly than Ghost had a mind to.

"Go find someone who works here. Let them get a nurse to check your pal over." Maya yanked suddenly on the helping friend's arm to pull him back and out of the way. While she'd been talking to the kid, the META had gotten to its feet. She'd thought the fall might have fixed it. Or broken it better. Maya pulled the boys back again by their elbows as it readjusted its charge. The boys weren't all that much younger than Jude.

Cafas!Pool seemed a little busy. Dodging was something she could do all day, even with two in tow. But it wasn't a winning strategy. The problem was how to disable a bot or smuggle the kids out without making it terribly obvious who was under the suit.

"Is this a show or something?"

"Go find someone who works here!" Maya pulled the boys behind herself and pushed them backwards toward the outer ring of onlookers.

The dog lunged again. Maya jumped and came down with both feet on it's head, but her weight hardly made the thing stutter. So she increased the air pressure around it massively in order to slow it and jumped again, this time higher.

She brought the full force of a focused gust of wind focused at the point on its neck where she'd jumped until it tipped forward and landed on it's shiny metal chin. The front legs splayed out weirdly flat. It tried to keep walking with its functional back legs, but it mostly just scraped its broken front half into the carpet tiles.

The crowd reacted too, though she'd tried to keep it localized. People reached up to their ears. With the sudden pressure change, they'd need to pop their ears to hear again. A few people's capes and costumes ruffled majestically. If anyone knew anything, she'd probably just given herself away.

Cafas found himself sincerely wishing the event had just allowed him to carry his Deadpool katana around. Seriously, a weapon of any kind. Instead, he was facing the prospect of fighting a sever foot tall robot in a fist fight, without the use of his powers. He wasn't terribly happy about it in all honesty.

>"Stop. You are resisting arrest. Put your hands behind your back and get on the ground."

Cafas was not confident who the bot was speaking to. It in fact seemed to be spinning around every which way. Was it addressing the crowd?

>"Drop all weapons and comply, or force will be employed."

It totally was. Cafas could see a few unsure faces in the crowd, quite a lot of fake weapons being nervously glanced at. Behind him he heard Maya yelling at the kid and his friend, felt a few bits and pieces of metal, probably coins, race into the sea of buckles, buttons, coins, and all other sorts of metallic sundry.

>"Do not make any sudden movements. You are under arrest for battery with a deadly weapon, possessing a deadly weapon in public without a permit, resisting arre..."

Cafas' ears popped, hard. It hurt like hell, and the rest of the crowd felt it too. Everyone quite suddenly reached for their ears in pain. Cafas staggered around to see what was going on, only to see Maya perched atop the dogbot's neck. It didn't look like it was getting a signal to its front legs any more. Maya standing triumphant over such a credible threat was...

Incoming.

...Distracting.

He tried to evade too late and took a blow to the arm from a metal baton. His ability to sense the damn thing just wasn't as sharp in amongst a crowd of hastily moving metal, flitting about seemingly at random. He turned to face the robot, cursing himself for ever having turned away. It advanced again, and if it weren't for his metal sense, Cafas never would have avoided the second blow. He couldn't see well enough to be fighting, not in the slightest.

Good thing it's a bot.

It had the reach, it had the strength, it had the height, it had the durability, it had the speed. He'd been armed and able to use his power last time he'd fought one of the bastard things. It made up for being drunk and then some. This time he was unarmed, half blind, and surrounded by civilians also under threat by the same robot.

Man, if only someone had told the police this was a terrible idea, like, a thousand times.

He ducked inside the reach of the bot, a blow missing him by a well calculated hair, and drove his fist into the metal stomach of the bot. The metal, weakened suddenly and given a firm shove by Cafas' mutation, crumpled like tissue paper. The plates buckled, bent, and were driven back... Half an inch. Oh right, the non-Newtonian fluid. Cafas was lucky not to break his hand.

Time to push that luck.

Not one to be stunned by pain, Cafas drove a few more hits into the bot, aiming for and finding joints. He took one glancing body blow he'd had no hope of avoiding, but the bot quickly began to seize up. He could hear, vaguely, sounds of protest coming from it. His knuckles felt bruised under his gloves. Cafas danced back out of reach. The Knightbot tried to follow, but one of its knees was heavily damaged, making an awful metallic scraping sound as it tried to bend.

"Hey, when you get to hell, tell Francis Wade says hi." Cafas dashed it, wound up, and launched a roundhouse kick into the bot's chin. The weakened metal around the neck sheered from the pressure, and the entire head twisted around backwards. There were some fizzling sparks, then the bot slumped, teetered, and fell. "Now that's what I'd call a fixer upper." Did he mean the robot, or his very sore foot? Not even Cafas knew.

Volunteer con security man or maybe the kids had finally sent a couple someones that looked useful. As it turns out those someones were making their way through the crowd and shouting toward the robo-chaos. Maya couldn't make out the words over the massive rumble of people sounds, but she could guess by the body language and the wearable weaponry (that wasn't foam) that they were cops. And they'd have questions.

"Ca-" Oh no. She'd started to say his name, but she wasn't supposed to say his name. Also, the whole busting a head around backwards was word-haultingly interesting. A good excuse to recoup her losses. Maya's dog bot lurched forward and toward the nearest weapon again. "-aos. Sheer and utter chaos. Yep. Time to go!"

Spider!Maya hopped forward, caught Cafas!Pool's arm, and pulled him one way. Uh. Actually. She shot a bit of silly string at a naked taser that a man brandished at them. She probably couldn't stop a taser. He was shouting for them to get on the ground. She missed hitting the taser and to her horror hit the taser man's face and open mouth with fake spider webbing.

Yeah. Definitely time to go!

She pulled Cafas in a third direction, ducked under a low drooping banner, and pushed on every door attached to the hallway until one opened.

Quite suddenly, Cafas and Maya were taking seats at the back of a darkened room where a musical of some kind was playing. People seemed to be... singing along. Something about a freeze ray?

"Is this what it's like to be a bad guy?" She tried to breathe the words quieter than a whisper so she wouldn't disturb the odd nerd ritual.

Cafas had never been a fan of Tasers. They'd always had a bad habit of getting one good zap in when used point blank. Fired, they were less of an issue. So to find himself chest to face with the yellow device once more was a little disconcerting. Of course, logically it no longer mattered, he could have melted every bit of metal in it the moment it had gotten within a few meters of him, and it had a snowball's chance in his suit of penetrating the leather. However, he was faced with the loving caress of several thousand volts. It had a funny way of rendering logical thought a sideline, and action a pressing concern. Cafas was ready to fight in an instant.

Maya on the other hand, was far more sensibly considering retreat. It was one of those things the Danger room had never allowed. Not due to programming, that could all be re-written; No, it was simply the size of the space that truly limited the ability to run away. You'd always just find yourself against a wall, sincerely wishing you'd stayed where you were.

Knock gun aside, punch under jaw.

The pressure on his arm stopped him from throwing a punch. The face full of silly string the cop received was enough to remind Cafas of their environment. For a moment, it had just been another training sim, the cop just a hardlight structure. That wasn't the reality though. The reality was Cafas had very nearly punched a police officer in the side of the head with a few dozen witnesses. Hardly the light he's want to represent the X-men in.

Returned to his senses, and under Maya's lead, Cafas ducked the banner and allowed himself to be swiftly escorted into...

A sing along?

Oh! Cafas knew this one. Well, he knew of it. Patrick Harris O'Neal and that one dude from Firefly. It was at every single Con he'd ever been to, or at least it felt like that.

"Is this what it's like to be a bad guy?"

He could have spoiled the moment with reality; Could have told her about the ever present paranoia, the deep self loathing, the way you learned to recognise uniforms and cop cars from the corner of your eye. That was no fun though, and Maya seemed to be having fun. "Exactly like this. Wrecking city property and running from the cops." He smiled, because honestly he was having fun too. The sound of searching from the corridor had Cafas shushing Maya, containing his laughter as he pulled her down the aisle to a pair of open seats. Well, there was stuff on them, but no butts. Light spilled in from behind, a shadow filled the door, stayed for a moment, then darkness returned.

"That was close. I think there's an exit up front there. Or would you like to stay for the singing? I don't think I've ever heard you sing..."

> "Exactly like this."

Her heart hammered and she looked forward as inconspicuously as she could when someone else opened up the door to check inside. Not them. Nope. Totally not the two conspicuously red suits. Maya could taste her own breath echoed back at her. The full facial mask was securing her identity, but it was also getting kind of yucky in there, considering the level of exertion and activity they'd just gone through.

"No wonder they do it." The bad guys that was. Cafas could get his head out of the gutter.

The movie was interesting. It was about bad guys too. Was that how regular people saw heroes? Maya kept her hand on her chest feeling her heart slow as she started to catch her breath. If she wasn't careful, she'd get sucked into the on screen story.

"I'll have to sing for you another time. I don't know this one." She smiled under her mask, only the stretch at her cheeks giving away that anything had happened at all.

"Think there are any credible threats left?" If not, she'd rather stay. Someone glanced back at them from a different row, peeved.

Cafas snaked and arm around Spider!Maya's waist and pulled her even closer in the already kinda squishy chairs. They could afford a few minutes, right? Ten, tops. That's all they needed, a nice ten minute break to watch some silly movie about... What did he just say about the hammer? What a tosser. God he hoped no-one thought of him like that.

"I'll have to sing for you another time. I don't know this one."

He could tell she was smiling. He knew the curve of her face, knew what to look for. It still made his heart flutter when she smiled at him. "I'm holding you to that. Maybe we could do karaoke." Oh man, he hadn't done karaoke since the after-party for the Dusk: Midnight premiere. Where was that one? London? Must have been, they'd been singing from the top of a double decker bus. Where else would they have been doing that? Still, given how many of those they'd been to, he could be forgiven for forgetting one drunken night.

Maybe you forgot that one because of all the others?

"Think there are any credible threats left?"

Cafas shushed the peeved glarer, a finger held against his lips through the leather suit. They did not respond happily. "Probably. That little show might have pushed someone to act faster, too." He sighed, a bad choice that just increased the humidity in his mask. Boy was he glad he'd brushed his teeth. "Now we're down two sets of eyes, too. Stupid buggy things." Not that Cafas wasn't perfectly happy to destroy as many of the bots as he could justify, but they were kind of useful when working properly. They just had a horrible habit of not doing so.

They were singing again. It seemed like a good distraction to leave, but he found himself reluctant to do so. That was probably a good sign that he needed to move right then and there, or risk watching the whole show through. Tearing his eyes from the screen, and his emotions away from the sense of joy in shared experience that permeated the room, the X-man got his feet back under him. "You can stay and watch if you like, I'm gonna go back out. Gonna be up on the mezzanine looking out."

Looking out for what? We don't even know what's going to happen.

It was really the lack of kiss that most bothered Cafas about the situation. He knew they were both more than capable of handling themselves, he knew they would survive being apart for the length of the third act of a movie, he knew it wouldn't be too hard to find each other. Parting without a kiss just felt wrong, somehow. He apologetically crouch walked to the door he'd noted earlier and pushed out into the bright light of the show floor. It took a couple of blinks to adjust to the light.

The X-man set off for the stairs up with only a brief peek over his shoulder to see if Maya had followed.