In-between things like demonic sorceresses, animated Thanksgiving turkeys, and Atlantis rising from the deep, the X-men still had more mundane duties, occasionally. People did not stop being petty assholes just because there was now a new mutant island kingdom to have diplomatic relations with, or a tear occasionally appeared to spew out people from parallel universes. On any given weekday, next to feeding Mansion kids and paying Mansion bills, the X-team still had good old-fashioned Bad Guy Patrol around New York City. It might have seemed less exciting than the ones listed above, but at the end of the busy day, punching out a few drug lords or weapon smuggles was just the kind of workout a masked vigilante needed.

Or at least that was Mirror's philosophy.

Gawain perched on a fire escape, keeping an eye on the scene unfolding below. He had a good lie of sight at an abandoned industrial site, with some containers and lots of empty structures. It was the kind of place where shady deals would go down like clockwork - in this case, probably some kind of an arms deal between multiple gangs. Gawain was going to watch and see if he could gather information useful for the MRC. He was not gonna jump into the situation unless all hell broke loose. Which was a distinct possibility, really. Some bad guys or good guys always thought these kinds of meetups were just the perfect target for wreaking some havoc...

It was a nice night for a walk. Things had not been very active for him lately. Patrols weren't really turning anything important up besides the standard mugging and such. However, tonight seemed to be extra special as it seems some group of numbskulls think they can trade weapons like pokemon card. Not in his city. Not on his watch. Adjusting his mask, he looked for a prime angle to cause the most amount of havoc. From his little spot on top of a dirt mound, the young man smiled as he knew after all this was over a lot of gang members were going to get wrecked. And then their employer's pockets will wither enough for them to have a crappy week. It would be glorious.

He took a couple of steps back, rubbing his hands together. In his head it was like a boxer hyping himself up before a fight. Because Saturday night is alright for fighting. "No one knows where the macho man is coming from!" Which caused a bit of confusion among the gun runners as this wasn't apart of the festivities. Running towards the top, he leaped off with a helluva battle cry that would make a Viking blush. "OH YEEAAHHHHH!!!!!"

The young man crashed into the ground with a respectable amount of force. He didn't want to set off a box of grenades or something. Though, the landing did crush about 5 boxes of rifles, knocked several gang members from their feet (knocking out a few of them), and one red Voltzwagon Beetle.

The arms deal was going down like clockwork. At least someone down there in the underbelly knew how business was supposed to be done (or at least one of the watched all five seasons of The Cable). Gawain kept a close eye on the thugs, noting small details that would be useful for a later investigation. Maybe this would be an easy n...

>>"OH YEEAAHHHHH!!!!!"

Whut?

Someone crashed the party. Literally. Literally literally. Dude came out of nowhere, sticking a superhero landing and sending everyone flying every which way, it was a damn miracle some of the firearms did not go off.

I hope he's a bad guy, at least he'd embarrass the other team

Gawain picked up his bow and merged into a nearby window, coming out on the other side of the building to get a better angle at the fight. It was pure chaos down there, but the dude seemed to stand alone against the pissed off dealers. Gawain pulled an arrow, ready to step in if he was needed. Just for the sole purpose of getting to yell at the guy later.

This was a dance that he was familiar with, but held back no less enjoyment on his face. As a kid he would imagine himself being able to run in on the bad guys and just kick every butt there was because he had boots the fit and a heart that was full of desire to do good. Now, every thug was trying to take him down once they realized what happened. The usual knives and clubs came out first. Rich hated having to buy new shirts all the time. Only so much you can buy on a dishwasher's salary and rent is getting a little high these days. Granted, some of his money troubles were being taken out on these thugs...but that energy has to go somewhere right? Then a knife slipped by his blocks, seeming to go into his back. He shivers a bit, throwing one of the thugs 10 yards away into a concrete block. He turns to rip his shirt a bit from the blade to reveal to the thug that it was now bent. Fortunately, he was jsut distracted enough to receive a quick slap across the face. A slap that sent him to dreamland.

A few more thugs tried their hands just to get themselves some really big boo boos. Then the warehouse door slowly and methodically opened. A row of men with automatic weapon immediately began to fire on him.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow o!" He said trying to get behind something while being pelted with bullets. "Freaking ranged characters!! Kiss my cod piece!"

The guy was... he was... actually it was really hard to tell what the hell he was doing. He was wreaking havoc, for sure, and the thugs and arms dealers seemed just as confused about the whole thing as Gawain. Looking at his moves, Mirror could tell the guy had some kind of power; he was throwing people around like they were rag dolls, and seemed to be impervious to melee weapons. And he seemed to be enjoying himself way, way too much.

And then the guns came out.

"Sh*t" Gawain muttered, shifting his position to aim at the men from his vantage point. Superhero brawls were all fine and dandy, but when the machine guns came out, people started to get hurt. The mirrorwalker thought about stepping back for a moment - the guy was faring surprisingly well in a hailstorm of bullets - but then the X-men mentality won out.

The first arrow hit a gunman in the elbow, and the next took another one in the knee before they even started noticing they had a second attacker. With their attention divided, some began to aim at the building - but Gawain had already merged with a reflecting surface, and moved over to a shiny metal container behind the gunmen. The third arrow hit one of them in the ass.

No school like old school.

He peeked out just in time to catch a glance of the booty arrow. "Ha! Classic." He bellowed to himself. It appeared that there was another that was deciding to help out. While there was no real gurantee that it was a true friendly, Rich would be at least agreeable enough to take care of these thugs. Though, his sense of logic wondered if they were the reason this other character broke their hiding spot. And they seemed to be able to teleport. Nice.

Taking a step back, a hook of a punch knocked some of the concrete at the thugs. Smartly, they stopped shooting and moved as to not get crushed by the rolling rubble. Using it as a distraction, he moves up striking a few more down with his fists, before they try and regroup.

"Whomever you are, please feel free to keep shooting!"

The thugs were whittling down, but they likely needed just a little more to turn the tide.

Never fear, the X-men are here!

Gawain noted the cheering from behind the concrete cover, and rolled his eyes. This dude sounded like a very enthusiastic amateur, which was very, very dangerous in the field, even with mutations. What if someone captured him? Without backup, he'd just disappear forever. He clearly needed the backup. Gawain moved into another reflecting surface, shooting another gunman in the leg as the concrete came tumbling down.

>>"Whomever you are, please feel free to keep shooting!"

"Watch the structure!" Gawain yelled back. The last thing they wanted for one of the buildings to come down on top of everyone from an overly enthusiastic punch. The gunmen, between the arrows and the concrete, and no targets in sight, began to back away. Sirens wailed in the far distance.

The voice had an excellent point. He shouldn't be punching anything that could put more people in danger. That would be defeating the purpose of the whole hero thing. Not to mention, Rich would likely never forgive himself if he caused the death of another hero or an innocent bystander. But since there was no building coming down, the young man didn't need to worry about that.

As the sound of sirens came across the air, it became more apparent to the hero and to the thugs that a quick escape would be best. The lights started to reflect the arrival of New York's finest. The sirens only grew louder and more obnoxious.

"It was fun fighting with you, mystery arrow person. Catch ya later!"

Rich was not a very quick guy to begin with, so the earlier the escape began the better. There was plenty of evidence and thugs to be taken down by the police. He wasn't worried about getting caught, this time.

Sometimes the police did show up on time. Gawain was happy to hand the whole thing over to them, now that the thugs were mostly on the run. The arrows would stick, but MRC already knew what X-men ammunition looked like. He doubted they would complain more than it was necessary for legal reasons. The kid, however, was neither MRC nor X-men. He could get into a world of trouble.

>>"It was fun fighting with you, mystery arrow person. Catch ya later!"

Gawain stepped back into the broken glass he'd used to teleport, and appeared from a building window, landing lightly on his feet in the guy's path. Hopefully the bow and the X-uniform made it clear he wasn't the enemy.

"Good job, but I'm not done with you yet. Need a ride?"

Admittedly, he was startled by the sudden arrival. He wasn't immediately attacking, which was nice of them. Spotting the bow and the blue X, he started to put the pieces together. Rich decided against the banter when he remembered that they were supposed to try and escape right now. The young man immediately nodded went towards him.

"Yes, please, and thank you."

Wrecker mentally made sure to be sincere and friendly to the guy trying to haul his slow, heavy ass out of the fire. How did he even manage do get over here? He had to be a teleporter of some sort. Teleporters cheat. But so did anything with a special ability.

Yes, please and thank you. At least the guy was polite. With the sirens approaching, Gawain grabbed him by the arm and unceremoniously dragged him into the reflecting surface of the window, jumping them a few blocks over before they merged back out of the glass panels of a tiny greenhouse on top of an apartment building. It was a good vantage point, and secluded enough to be private.

Gawain let go of the guy, allowing him some time to gather himself after the mirror-hopping. Some people handled it better than others.

"You okay there...? Uh, what do I call you?"