It looked like a giant blue stag beetle robot with four legs. Not just a stag beetle. Not just a robot. A stag beetle robot centaur with a hand cannon and lots of shining lights. For a mutant whose power just had been activated by the surge of inspiration from staring at the new hero in a FPS video game, Toby really didn't feel all that lame. It had started simple enough. He'd seen the character, and fallen out of his chair. Oof. Ow. That had hurt. He'd overreacted, sure, but it was his butt he'd fallen on, so why did his head hurt too? He soon found out.

As Toby crawled back into his desk chair, he noticed something that had not been there before. Amid the soda cans, the junk food wrappers, and the various electronic doodads and video-game-themed bobbleheads he crowded his desk with was a brand new statue of the epic robot they'd just released, but in miniature. Whoah. That was, like, totally sweet. He picked it up between his index finger and thumb. It swung from a shoulderplate, little centaur legs wheeling in the air. He wondered if it did anything more than that? Well. He squinted his eyes at it, and uttered the phrase that always works so well at zoos filled with dangerous animals. "Do something." Despite all historical evidence to the contrary, it did.

The little centaur bug robot plinked at the palm of his hand with salt grain-sized bullets from its machine cannon. They did not hurt. But it was sure cool! He wondered what else it could do. He set it down, and then, Toby focused on willing it to move.

An hour later, he had figured out the basic gamut of its abilities. It had a mini gun, that awesome machine cannon on its right arm. And if he focused, every so often it could lob a green ball of telekinetic energy that drew things into the sphere. Telekinesis, or it was gravity. But wait, there was more! It could also move around his desk, run, and jump... and grow. So yeah. He decided to do something ridiculous with it. He was going to ride it around Central Park. He got on a bus, went there, and did so, prancing along majestically. He wasn't hurting anyone. It was just a centaur stag beetle psychic construct here, people! And he was just a mutant. Everything was fine, until the cops were called.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, and it was just the right kind of cold to be called crisp. Why, oh why, did she have to be first on the scene for the stupidest call ever? 'Disturbing the peace by riding a big blue bug pony.' What? Amelia parked, and walked down a path in Central Park, heading for the site of the last sighting. As she walked, all she could wonder was this. What in the hell was a blue bug pony?

Rebecca was lingering in the training facility at the Mansion, hoping to keep herself sharp. She was not working through any issues at the moment; in fact, life was really beginning to stabilize. She was feeling successful in both her jobs, she had a supportive group of friends which included the former love of her life, and she was starting to feel closer with her new girlfriend, Nessa. She was not there to take out anger on a heavy bag or run through sadness and tears.

With all the time she took off for the Ragman incident recovery, college, and her trip to England for her Masters, Rebecca was just looking to ensure she was on her A game and in peak physical condition. Her return to the X-Men already led her into one dangerous situation, (which some could debate she played a role in causing,) and she knew well enough to know more trouble would follow soon enough.

Soon might be that day, as it would turn out. Being at the Mansion already allowed Becca to be the first one to receive the alert from their friends over at the New York City Police Department. She had to hear the message three times to really process what exactly she was being called in for as backup. A large blue bug pony, possibly a mutant, possibly a robot. There were crazy situations Rebecca had dealt with since coming to the city: a sewer dwelling tyrant, a living building, reporters. This one sounded like a prime candidate to top the list.

It was nice getting back into her X outfit. Sure, she used it for training exercises, but that was not the same as bringing it out into the real world. When she was young and shy, the skintight nature of her costume was blush-inducing, but a more adult Rebecca had plenty of time to feel comfortable in her own skin. Over the black and green suit, she equipped her chestplate and metal boots, along with new additions to the costume in metal gauntlets replacing the bangles she once wore. The circular shield Cafas had provided her with was magnetically connected to her left gauntlet until she had use for it. The finishing touch, as always, was her green domino mask adhered to her face with spirit gum, and she was out the door to provide backup for one of the good women in blue.

Imagine her surprise when she arrived to Central Park and found a familiar face. ”Ami?” Ami was the one who was at Rebecca’s side when they dealt with the Sewer King, and she was one of the people who walked in on Rebecca and Agnes after the first time they—

Focusing on the task at hand. ”Guid tae see ye. Didne know ye took up th' badge! Sae, caur tae explain tae me whit th' heel we're dealin' wi' thes time?”

The things one doesn't know often times save them. Save them from the crushing and preventative weight of choices, by keeping them from knowing every single negative reaction their action will cause. Save them from the guilt one might feel when learning just where ones clothes came from, their sexy new computer phone, or the living conditions of their food. Save them from having knowledge that, had they known, would have forced their hand and made them react a certain way that future them might actually have regretted. Or not. They say ignorance is bliss, and in this case, the evidence was weighing heavy in the platitude's favor.

Amelia did not know that shortly after breaking up with her boyfriend slash girlfriend, some 7 or so years earlier, the gender shifter had entertained a brief one-night stand with a certain red headed X-men stunningly shortly thereafter. Again, she did not know that her current girlfriend Serena had kissed the same redhead, as recently as a a few months prior (maybe even around the same time as they'd started dating. It was hard to tell with some of these things). The information wasn't available to Amelia about Rebecca's breakup with Agnes, or the red head's new relationship with a woman named Nessa. She didn't know much about Rebecca's past several years, about much of the personal issues she had dealt with, or her growth as a person (which potentially might have been ignored entirely, if Amelia had learned of the first two things she did not know. The first two bullet points. Who knew? Maybe she'd be fine).

Like Jon Snow, she knew nothing. Well. Practically nothing. She did know that the red headed woman had an internet blog type channel thing, on YouTube (or was it viewtube?), where she did her own thing. Maybe the woman had talked about her personal issues on the channel? But if so, Amelia had missed those videos. She'd seen just enough to keep that one tab on her friend. So when Rebecca showed up to respond to a police report about a robot unicorn attack (), dressed in that skintight costume Cold Steel would need to be reprimanded about, in a domino mask, Amelia's first response was simple.

"Hey, Pixel Becky. What's shaking?" The brunette said jovially. "It's been a while." She added, then more soberly, and with a glance towards the center of the park, Amelia said "I haven't seen it up close yet. Some people reported a boy riding a blue beast. Some reported a boy kidnapped by a centaur robot. One guy even said it was a giant beetle with a boy half attached. The further one gets from something, the easier it is for the truth to get distorted. Something tells me we need to chase this thing down and get a firsthand account."

In the distance, about 2/3 of a football field away, a blue blur rushed around, stark against the green hills of the park. People stood, gawking. From a safe distance. There had been no violence, yet. But the word yet held a lot of weight to it. Who was to say what the next five minutes might bring?

((Ooc: I loves me some soap opera grade ic drama!))

Ami was right, it had been a while. When they had both been spending most of their time at the Mansion, they would cross paths on occasion, but Becca’s renowned struggles with keeping touch affected many friendships. After the Ragman incident, she dropped off the social scene so she could recover. By the time she had righted her ship, she was up to her neck in college work, and then she was leaving the country for Grad School. That was how it went with too many of her old friends.

Except Ami. Thinking about it, the two had not talked since well before the Ragman abducted her. Rebecca had actually been avoiding Ami for a while, if she recalled correctly. She had been feeling awkward since—

Gawain. Right. Becca had been keeping her distance from Ami because she found the prospect of being around her uncomfortable given the one-night stand she shared with the other woman’s ex. To the present day, she never asked Gawain if Ami might have known about what happened, and she had no desire to ask Ami outright. It was not that she thought herself in the wrong; at the time, she and Gawain were both single, bitter young adults. That did not change how guilty she would have felt with Ami’s eyes passing judgment on her for her transgression.

It was not as though Becca intended to never talk to Ami! She was waiting for the awkwardness to pass, and fully intended to break the silence when she was ready. Her life ended up so shaken up that year, she never found the chance.

Maybe now, as full-fledged adults, they could make up for lost time? Ami greeted her by her ViewTube handle, which drew a blush to her cheeks that was thankfully covered by her mask. ”Jist glad tae be back. Yoo’re right; it’s been tae long.” She sounded friendly enough, but Becca pushed the thought back for the moment; they were there for a reason, and the robot... beetle… child… was their priority. Ami cast her eyes off in the distance, and Becca followed suit to spot a blue… object? Creature? A blue thing in the distance.

Ami was right; they needed to get closer if they really wanted to figure out what they were dealing with. ”Aye, let’s approach an’ see if we can handle thes withit things getting messy.” She wanted to be optimistic, but experience told her to expect mess. Gesturing with her shield arm, she smiled, ”Leid th’ way, Officer.” She was there to have Ami’s back, but she was the Police Officer, and it was her situation to take the lead on.

He was having so much fun it should be illegal. Which stood to reason that maybe it was. As the realization dawned on him, another realization dawned on him. It was too late.

The boy saw them approaching from a distance, quite a ways, actually, but police uniform blue is pretty easy to identify, and was that an X-man next to the lady? She was dressed like a super hero. Part of her face was obscured.

It always seemed strange to him that in a world with mutants and literal super heroes, people still wrote comic books about superheroes. Like, maybe they wouldn't glorify something that was kind of common place now, and write about pirates instead? He'd read Watchmen. He'd always thought that was an interesting social commentary. In another reality, maybe there were even comics about mutants that didn't exist. There: that was another premise, a many earths theory. Just like the one where he never got this power and never drew the attention of the police.

They were still a ways away now, but he wasn't going to be violent. That was ridiculous. He would just peacefully go and meet them and explain that he is as just new with his power and didn't mean to scare anyone, a new hero just got released and he was so excited to try his powers out, maybe he could join the X-men and become stag beetle centaur man or something? That code name was probably already taken. If his robot was iron enough, he could probably be Iron Man. Or War machine. Or, since it was a big hulking thing, maybe The Hulk. Nobody used those names in this universe. So they were totally free! Toby quite liked the idea. Though wasn't his robot, Orisa, a girl? The video game character that had inspired her was, so she must be. She'd have the be a she Hulk. Maybe he'd go for a bug motif and be her sidekick? He'd always liked spiders. It was kind of strange to be the sidekick of your own creation, but he wasn't embarrassed. You don't see the Gundam pilots claiming they can use a thirty foot sword on their own, do you? No, you do not.

Toby trotted up to the police woman at a calm canter. "Heyyy," he smiled down at the two women. They were pretty ladies. Today was starting to get better again after the momentary worry about police. "What's up?"

Amelia paused. It was just a boy. He seemed fine. "Can we talk with you for a minute? Off the horse? What's your name, kid?"

"Toby," the boy said. "And this is she Hulk. He hopped off she Hulk and beamed at them. Toby patted she Hulks side. "My powers just activated today. I'm sorry--"

Toby never got to say why he was sorry. Without a rider, she Hulk felt naked and scared. She was a mother unit that needed to protect her child. The centaur bug robot thrust her arm forward, the one that didn't have a mini gun on it, and threw down a half-sphere barrier in front of herself and Toby, between them and the women. It seemed more like a quarter sphere. Half was buried in the earth. "Please step behind the barrier!" She Hulk announced in a feminine robotic voice.

Toby spun to stare at her. "What!? She Hulk, no!"

She Hulk did not 'no'. She went full 'yes'! Without pausing to let anyone consider the peaceful action of dropping a defensive barrier, she aimed her gun arm at the women and launched a glowing green orb. It sailed through the shield, aimed above their heads. She Hulk clenched a fist, and the orb detonated in a concentrated well of gravity that pulled Pixel Becky and Amelia up into the swirl of green for a quarter of a second before it vanished, and they dropped back down.

Rebecca was thankful she was meeting Amelia again in a mission-slash-work setting, where they had something important to focus on. Becca had a long, shameful history of putting her foot in her mouth and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and there was plenty she could say to Ami that might be taken poorly.

Luckily, she got to keep her mouth shut as they approached the large robot-like creature Rebecca struggled to define. Yet despite the amalgamation of potential inspirations that went into the being, there was something… familiar about it?

Getting close enough where they could be heard by the boy who she assumed was piloting device, Ami calmly asked the boy to dismount his “horse.” The idea of the child being the captive in this scenario seemed less likely based on how nonchalant he appeared to be despite speaking with a police officer amidst the absurdity of their situation.

The boy, Toby, proudly patted his mount, which he had named She Hulk. Rebecca looked the looming beast over, trying to determine how the boy gleaned a gender from the thing. Most of what she was seeing made little sense: on sight, she assumed it might be comprised of metal, given its robotic appearance. Her other sense, her magnetic sense, ruled out any ferrous metals, since there was no disturbance in the magnetic fields around it for her to manipulate.

Apparently Toby’s powers had just manifested, which drew further questions Becca would have loved to ask if she had the time, but that was not a luxury provided to her.

Their conversation was interrupted by She Hulk, who seemed… panicked? Concerned? Or at least startled enough without her rider to summon a translucent barrier, cutting the girls off from itself and Toby.

Rebecca’s body tensed up. ”Ami, Ah dinnae wanna be pessimistic, bit—“

Her pessimism was warranted, as her thought was cut off by the raising of a gun arm leveled in her direction. For a millisecond, Becca thought about the shield on her arm, and the possibility of raising it to deflect the bullets she might have coming her way. That thought was quickly banished because it was dangerous and stupid: for all she knew, She Hulk had a chain gun, and the likelihood of every bullet centering on her shield was not great. She was not going to put her life in the hands of comic book logic.

Instead, Lodestone made an effort to jump away from the target area of the creature, but her reaction was too late for… a glowing orb of green energy? Not what she was expecting, nor was the orb’s next action. Seemingly imploding in on itself, the superheroine in midjump felt the unsettling sensation of being pulled in an unexpected direction. Instead of following logically forward and downward to land on the ground, her body jerked backward and upward toward the green swirl.

She was not the only one pulled into the vortex, as she felt her back bump into Ami in the center of the gravity well. They were only suspended for a moment before the energy dissipated and they fell to the ground. Lodestone focused her magnetic energy on her boots, chestpiece, and gauntlets, slowing herself down enough to minimize the impact of her thud onto the grass.

Scrambling back to her feet, the elements of this attack were sounding more and more familiar. “Tank-like” appearance, an energy barrier, a gravity bomb attack. All oddly related elements of…

Patch notes. Patch notes Nessa was reading off as she gushed about a new character being added to her favorite game. The realization made Becca groan. Assuming the beast did not kill her, her girlfriend would love hearing about this one tonight. ”Ami, Ah’m nae sure how, but we're definitely fightin' a video gam character.” It was a frustratingly comical concept, but one she could at least take advantage of if she could remember anything Nessa had said that day, like…

”Automatic energy gun!” If she had recalled more accurately, it was a “Fusion Driver,” but that was not important to the situation. What was important was remembering the character had a large gun that shot rapidly an inaccurately for twelve seconds at a time. ”Spread iut!” she shouted, lifting herself off the ground using her boots and gauntlets to get herself up into the air as She Hulk raised her arm, looking to go on the offensive.

The sudden flare of light and the sudden surge upwards followed by the quick trip down had bruised more than just her pride. Her back hurt, where her and Rebecca had collided, and the impact with ground had jarred her. She felt like she might even have a chipped tooth! Unlike Pixel Becky, she didn't have any neat tricks to slow her fall... none that she'd had the foresight to employ, at least. Even her constructs could only have briefly supported her weight. They'd hardly have cushioned the fall.

Amelia had gotten back to her feet and rolled a little to put space between herself and the machine. From where she crouched, Amelia easily heard Rebecca's warnings. Video game character. Automatic Energy Gun. Spread iut.

Amelia grimaced and gave her best Scotty impression. "Ah dinnae think we can handle another hit like that." She said. Maybe Rebecca could share in her pain and groan at the bad accent. Though really, she thought her impression was pretty good. Nothing like the bad British accent Serena HATED. She was not feeling this robot. Not. One. Bit.

She-Hulk did not seem to be feeling these two women. Not one megabit. One of them was airborne, the other crouched on the ground. Safe behind her shield, she and Toby felt secure. Or so she thought, with all the sentience of an imagined artificial intelligence based off an imagined image of a video game character. An image of an image, painted onto a mental construct in the form of one of the many colorful skins you can unlock through gameplay or purchasable loot boxes, with monetized random DLC! For just $4.99, this robot centaur stag beetle could be yours! Or so the psychic construct seemed to say. It opened fire casually, by the way. Tobt really wished it wouldn't. He didn't feel secure at all.

The ground beneath Rebecca's feet exploded upwards in fountains of dirt as the mental minigun blazed. Cartoon barrel flashes lit the barrel. Amelia drew her sidearm as the robot cut a path across the ground beneath Rebecca's feet. It's aim wasn't great, but spray and pray was a method that eventually hit something. Amelia had no desire to let it hit something Rebecca-shaped.

A crack formed in the barrier face. A second bullet fell from the surface, flattened. The spent bullet hit the grass and bounced once. The first shot had started the crack and the second had helped it spread. The minigun turned away from shredding the parks topsoil to try and position on Amelia, but as it moved, never ceasing its shooting, Amelia dove to the right. She rolled and came up on one knee. Her gun barked once more, but she didn't hit the same spot a third time. It was a wonder Amelia had hit the same spot twice. The shot impacted weakly, reducing the barriers health slightly, but leaving the crack as it was.

The thing about a dropped barrier that separates it from a held shield is that, while with the shield, one is mobile, while with the set barrier, one is locked in place. Big bulky German men in the video game in question were more mobile, even if they didn't have much range outside throwing fire. Like Toby's new mix tape. So the smart thing to do here wasn't to shoot at the shield. "It's to jump over!!" Toby finished the thought out loud, cupping his hands around his mouth to make himself louder. He stopped, as the minigun ran dry and his robot stopped to reload. He rephrased himself, because he had realized he'd started midthought while trying to help them. "You have to jump OVER! Or go AROUND!" Sure they could break it but that took time! And She-Hulk's aim with her minigun had been terrible. She hadn't hit the hot redhead at all. But She-Hulk would only improve. And aim enough bullets at nothing and eventually, you hit something.

The realization hit her. Simple. Good plan. Her gun slipped into its holster as she prepared for a very cool feat.

Amelia rushed the barrier, mind focused, and at the last moment, two blue hands appeared, clenched together to form a foothold that helped her launch into a springing jump. She had not been a cheerleader. One leap into a spinning front flip over the barrier would have been awesome, but it wasn't something she could do. So when the first set of blue ghost hands vanished, a second set appeared a little bit further on. Her other foot landed on that, and in a feat of balance and agility she had gained from police training, X-men training, obstacle courses, and school sports, she leaped from handhold foothold to handhold foothold, and ascended the makeshift stairway over the barrier. It was only a few feet tall, probably a little over an NBA players height, but she found herself humming the last few bars of a familiar song.

Amelia sprang off the last foothold, and landed rolling on the other side of the barrier. She was no longer climbing the stairway to heaven. She was facing the reloading She-Hulk. Amelia drew her gun.

Rebecca was frustrated at her abrupt landing on the ground, but Ami surely took the fall harder than she did without magnetic powers to cheat her way gently to the ground. The X-Man was going to feel more sympathy toward her friend and call out to check in on her status, but that feeling of sympathy drained away quickly as Amelia decided to get cheeky with her.

It was not the first time a friend had imitated Rebecca’s accent, as anyone who had ever heard her could likely guess. Regardless, she had to cringe and roll her eyes, since Americans had a knack for making her sound... well, more ridiculous. ”Funny, officer!” she replied as she zipped through the air, trying to find a way around the enemy’s barrier.

Keeping closer to the ground, Lodestone kept her eye on the target as it leveled a large gun arm at her. This was a situation she would later describe in a mission debrief as “less than ideal.” She pushed the magnetic fields against her armor, and the introduction of new opposite charges lifted her higher just in time to watch as the ground beneath her was torn up by energy bullets. The dirt exploded upward, hitting her on the legs, chest, and in her mouth, (much to her chagrin.) Dirt was annoying, but she would take it to the bullets making contact with her instead of the ground.

As Lodestone tried gaining height and distance to lessen her chance of becoming Scottish Swiss Cheese, she heard gunshots ringing out that were clearly different from the rapid-fire energy weapon. Ami was putting in work to damage the barrier protecting She Hulk, and the machine was not feeling that. Not. One. Bit.

The boy-slash-hostage suggested that they needed to get over or around the barrier which made sense—it seemed pretty routed in the ground after all. There was just one problem, Rebecca realized as she tried to swoop around and flank the robot only to see the gun arm take issue with her again. ”Aye, she disnae want me daein' 'at apparently!”

She Hulk might have disliked Rebecca’s attempts at flanking, but her AI seemed confident enough in her barrier protecting her from the front. The robot did not seem to think it likely that Ami would be creating her own psychic staircase to get over the barrier, and that was best. For the moment, Rebecca’s best service to her ally might unfortunately be as a distraction. ”Oy, Beetleborg, ower haur!” She Hulk obliged, peppering Rebecca’s general area with energy blasts.

Rebecca was not technically a “flyer,” she was a hoverer, and the speeds she could move at were not conducive to dodging literal ****ing bullet fire. Eventually, luck ran out and one of the energy bullets made contact with the airborne woman’s leg. She cursed loudly, but was fortunate enough to find that the spot on her outfit was singed and her leg felt like it was hit with a fast-flying rock, but otherwise she was okay. It was the kind of damage she did not want to take much more of, but a stray bullet would not kill her, very like video game ammunition.

The freed-up time gave Ami the chance to land within the planted barrier in time for She Hulk to find her magazine empty and in need of reloading. Lodestone considered running in to strike the robot while it was vulnerable, but Ami had a gun pointed in the robot’s direction, and her bullets would pose more problems than the construct bullets. ”Hurry!” she shouted, knowing the two-and-a-half second reload was already processing.

Rebecca tanked. Rebecca tanked, hard. As Amelia moved, and aimed, and fired, she didn't notice the woman get hit in the background. If she had, she would have gotten angry. Either way, the distraction did its job. The robot paid attention to the redhead and left Amelia to shoot it without interference. Her shot hit the robot's right flank. It bit off a chunk of psychic flesh that quickly turned to greenish pudding that steamed on the park's grass. In a few minutes, the ectoplasm would vanish into nothingness.

Amelia's second shot dug into a bit of flank a few inches from the first, with similar results. The robot wasn't heavily injured. They were minor. Flesh wounds. It would take a lot more than that to take it down.

The robot shifted targets. Her gun wasn't dry yet, but it was low. If she'd had a moment, she would have reloaded her handgun, but as it was, the woman only had time to dive towards the young boy and scoop him up. He didn't avoid her, protest, or even shout. He merely frowned at his creation.

Why, Toby wondered? Why was this happening how it was?

"I never wanted any of this..." He trailed weakly, as he got carried. A sudden inspiration struck him. "Hey, lady... tell your friend..." He started explaining rapidly, loud enough only she could hear it.

Amelia blinked. It was dumb. A stupid idea. But what else did they have? If she kept pinging it down with her handgun, they'd be here all day. Amelia set the boy down, and turned towards her compatriot, cupping her hands around her mouth so she could shout at the redhead.

"Hey Rebecca!" Amelia shouted. "Take off your gauntlets. Tell it DOOMFIST HAS SURRENDERED!"

Yeah. What a stupid idea. A robot psychic construct built around the backstory of a video game character whose nemesis was an angry African man with a giant metal glove. Rebecca was wearing metal gauntlets, very similar. In video game logic, this made sense. It had not attacked until it saw the woman. Therefore... either this worked, or it didn't and everyone had a bad day.

"If this doesn't work," Toby frowned at the cop lady. "Freaking TAZE me. I don't want anyone getting hurt cuz I can't control the crap that comes out of my head."

If only he could control the crap that came out of his mouth...

Ami did not miss the window of opportunity Rebecca provided, and the police-issue handgun rang out twice. The results were mildly disappointing; yes, She-Hulk looked armored, but that was only because it was based on the appearance of that new video game character. The X-Man was quietly hoping the bullet would tear through the creature, causing a major wound that would “de-spawn” the construct, but it was made of tougher stuff than that. A hunk of the armor was broken off, but their adversary was not slowing down.

Unfortunately, their window was once again closing, and while Ami was able to gather the young boy in an attempt to get him to safety, She-Hulk was preparing her weapon for a new round of fire at her new target. This was more concerning, and she hoped the robot would recognize its creator in the arms of the policewoman. Things were getting messy, and it was getting harder to think of the best fix for the situation.

…except, perhaps, for lore.

Ami shouted advice she clearly obtained from the boy who was both their objective and the cause of their problems. It took a moment for the command to sink in to Rebecca, since it sounded like nonsense. Still, as it did before, Nessa’s voice echoed in her mind, chatting ad nauseum about how the new hero was seen by some as a misdirect. There were hints and Easter Eggs laid out causing a small subsect of fans to assume they were getting an over-powered part of the lore as a new playable character. What they were given ended up being a robotic being designed for the purpose of combatting that threat: The Doomfist.

It was a dumb plan, and Rebecca could not believe she had not thought of it herself. Of course, there was also the possibility that she was preparing herself as a sacrifice, so maybe she had a reason for keeping the thought out of her head. ”Fer th’ loove a—” she muttered before pulling her gauntlets off and shouting at the top of her lungs, ”OY! DOOMFIST ‘AS SURRENDERED!”

Now she could only stand there, clenching her teeth and waiting for the sweet, sweet embrace of an energy minigun.

It was a stupid plan, but by the grace of god, it worked. She-Hulk looked at the woman, looked at the gauntlets, and smiled.

"Your surrender has been accepted!" Her voice was tinny sunshine.

Amelia looked to the boy. "Can she go now?" She was getting tired of this kids LARP. He'd gotten to meet a cop and his crush slash hero. For some reason she couldn't shake, she wondered if his subconscious had been controlling the robot all along. If that was true, he'd have some explaining to do.

Toby blinked. "Huh." He said. "I hadn't even considered just willing her to go away. Let me try and nope. Didn't work." He hadn't even tried for a second. The robot wandered over to him, dismissing her barrier. Things were a lot less heated now.

Amelia walked over to her friend, not taking her eyes off the robot for very long. She kept shooting glances.

"Are you okay," she asked Rebecca. "Robot seems peaceful now. Better than a Meta-bot."

Lodestone stood, gauntletless, in front of a massive robot enemy, seemingly waiting for the sweet embrace of either death or significant injury. Somehow, neither came, and the X-Man watched as the robot, pleased with the outcome, accepted her “surrender” cheerfully.

It was hard not to feel utter disbelief toward the result of their fight. Rebecca would be genuinely interested in the quirks of the boy’s mutation if they had not almost perforated her. She watched her police officer counterpart ask the boy about his robot, which admittedly seemed to have found some semblance of “chill” now that Rebecca was no longer a threat.

Of course, both women were still keeping their eyes on She-Hulk regardless, concerned that something might agitate the summoned creature again and they would be back where they started. ”For now, aye,” she agreed with Ami’s assessment.

Looking at the gauntlets on the ground, Rebecca sighed and asked, ”Can ye pick those up?” She asked, not wanting to trigger a violent reaction by grabbing them herself. She added, loudly enough to ensure the robot heard, ”Tae seal them awa’, ay coorse.” Full metal gauntlets were not something easily replaced, and even at the cost of materials, it would still be inconvenient to ask Cafas to replace the pair.

Still coming down from feeling frazzled and confused, Rebecca jokingly muttered to Ami, ”Th' next time ye need backup tae stain in front ay a minigin, lit me know sae Ah can jist send Mirrur.”

It took a moment before Rebecca remembered why that was a dumb comment. She was so used to giving Mirror grief, she forgot for a moment that they were Ami’s ex. It was a classic example of Rebecca shoving her foot in her mouth. ”Ur, ye know, one ay th' others…” she added uncomfortably, trying to downplay her first remark.

Yeah. She could pick them up.

Here was an interesting question. Could she pick them up? Did the gauntlets count as clothing, or did they count as armor? Were they metal gloves, or something else? Could her power affect them? The only way to see was to try and find out. Amelia briefly focused on filling the gauntlets with her will, or forming a blue fist construct within them. As she focused, she raised her right hand, palm up and out, and pointed it towards the metal gloves. Her brow quirked briefly. She could put the hand in the gauntlet, but it did not lift it or give her any control. So, she just said "Yeah," to Rebecca, and walked over to pick the gauntlets up by hand. Problem solved. The whole attempt had taken about 2 seconds.

Amelia stashed the gauntlets underneath her arms. She'd give them to Rebecca in a minute, once they handled the kid and the park. This part would suck. Rebecca's comment briefly distracted her from the sucky subject.

It took Amelia a moment to process what Rebecca had said, as well as her reaction to having said it. Awkwardness, and backpedaling. Which was weird, because Amelia had not dated Mirror in a long while. It wasn't even a hostile breakup. She might give him trouble if she saw him, but she didn't hate him. So, she laughed. It was an honest laugh.

"You do that," Amelia shook her head, shaking off her amusement. "Or not. He's a big boy. She can choose her own battles." Like the rumors about some of the things he'd been up to. Strange stuff. But that was something for Mirror to worry about, and not. Her.

Her eyes drifted towards the damaged ground on the park. Yeah. There would be paperwork for this. The issue of the kid and his construct had been resolved, but he wouldn't get off scot-free. He'd still damaged part of Central Park. "You'll have to call your parents, so we can resolve the whole issue of destruction of public property..." Amelia looked at the kid, frowning.

The kid scratched the back of his head. "Um..." His robot's eyes flashed.

All of a sudden, the ground was disturbed. A mole mutant popped up from the disturbed ground. "Oh. Hrm. What? This isn't right." There was a whirlwind of dirt, and grass and leaves. And suddenly, the ground that had been chewed up by minigun fire was back to its original state of being. The mysterious mole mutant had used some form of earth manipulation to fix things. Not for the kid or the police. Just cuz'. It was their territory, under their protection. "Better." The mole said. He screwed up his eyes behind his bottle cap glasses, looked at them all, smiled sunnily, then vanished in a spray of dirt.

"Well, never mind then..." Amelia stared where the mole had been. There was no evidence he had ever been. That resolved the kid's problem. "I guess you're free to go. Unless there's something else? Becky?"

Amelia did everyone a favor and grabbed Lodestone’s gauntlets so she did not risk enraging the video game escapee they had just subdued. She wanted the altercation wrapped up without incident so she could begin the process of resting up and let her body heal after stray bullets that were sure to leave welts.

Rebecca overreacted to her own name dropping of the officer’s ex, but Ami took the thought in stride. It made sense, since it had been years since their breakup. Most people did not get hung up and lose sleep over exes forever. (Rebecca did, of course, but she had to remember she was in the minority.) The only reason the redhead was even tripping over herself was because of her own past with Gawain. It was one of those things she assumed Ami was unaware of, but never quite sure. ”Yup. An’ he ur she isnae shy aboot picking battles,” she joked with a weak chuckle.

It was time for consequences, (for the kid, not Rebecca and her harlot-y ways,) and Rebecca sat back and watched as…

Well.

So it took her a second to process the scene, but a diminutive mutant who looked more mole than man emerged from the ground, and… well, he just fixed all the battle scars in the earth from the recent fight. The whole scene was cleaned up before Rebecca could question anything, and as quickly as he arrived, the bespectacled mole-man vanished.

Ami handled the convenient turn of events in stride, which was more than could be said for Rebecca, who’s mouth was still hanging slightly ajar until she was called on. ”Huh? Oh, nae, Ah’m guid. Jist,” she began, trying to pull a card from her belt, ”here. Know we hae a skale ‘at will accept ye if ye need somewhaur tae feel safe an' adjust tae life as one ay us.” At the end of the day, the young boy was just another confused young mutant coming into his powers, and that was what the Mansion was for, after all.

Rebecca turned to Ami and shook her head. ”Ye know, if missions wi’ ye wrap up thes neatly, yer mah new favorite partner.”

Wasn't shy at all.

Something about Rebecca's reaction struck Amelia as a little off, but no more off than the rest of the day's events. What with video game characters and mole men fixing parks so they looked like they'd never even been touched. The thought was brief, and quickly replaced. Rebecca's jaw hung low. Clearly, she hadn't moved on from the mole man.

The young boy took the card with a sheepish grin, more abashed at talking with an Internet idol of his than at his recent mutation, and resulting scuffle with X-men and police. "Yeah, thanks Becky." He said. "Maybe I will check-," he caught himself well before stumbling and saying you, instead saying "it out." There. He could be tactful, with his great big robot centaur stag beetle steed. The pause hadn't even been remotely noticeable.

Amelia had however noticed the star struck look on the young boy's face. She shooed him off before Rebecca did, to help preserve his pride. He mounted his stalwart steer, and was off!

Amelia smiled at Rebecca's comment. "It definitely went better than Sewer King." She agreed. She had a moment before she had to get back on the job. "So," Amelia began. "How've you been? Been a while."