Saphirus had been making some real headway when it came to identifying M dealers downtown. He'd been able to catalog many of the areas in which the transactions took place, and recognize many of the small time dealers by name and face. He'd done this all through observations as The Masochist, and some more personal and painful interrogations as The Judge. He was in the guise of the lawful Masochist right now; it was easier to move without fear of being chased by the law. The Judge was a dangerous vigilante to be arrested on sight, The Masochist was an X-man, an honorable member of the NYPD.

The irony of the situation was not lost on him. He nearly let out a chuckle at the thoughts floating about his head, but he reminded himself that he was working right now. He could have fun when he wasn't saving the world from lowlifes like whoever put M on the streets. He would find them. It was only a matter of time.

The spandex clad superhero lowered the binoculars he'd been holding up to his eyes. It was just about time. A dealer had been hanging out with some gang members in the area, negotiating a good price for a rather large package of the little round pill... This particular group always finished off their transactions in a small, dark alleyway just across the street from their hang out. That particular alleyway was on the side of the building he was currently perched atop. It was a perfect place to ambush them. He would have to drop down and incapacitate all of them quick, though... He didn't want them calling out for reinforcements.

It wouldn't be a problem, though. If he could catch this dealer, he might be able to get the location of the supplier off of him. He watched patiently as the men made their way into the alley below and started talking business. The Masochist silently moved down the roof so that he could drop down into the opposite side of the alley. He did so, falling the height of the two story building and landing easily and perfectly silently on his right leg. The tingle of the kinetic energy of the fall graced his finger tips, climbing up into his hand... It was enough to knock all of them out easily... All he had to do was get into the right position... Suddenly his foot caught on something, and he pitched forward, letting out a surprised "Agh!"

As he landed, he accidentally released all of his stored energy into a garbage can, which burst open, showering the dealer and his customers in refuse.

"What the #%@%!" Screamed the dealer as he turned to move from the alley.

The Masochist jumped up to his feet, quickly looking around for what had tripped him. He swore the alley had been empty! Someone was going to have hell to pay.

"@#$% It's an X-man!" The cry from one of the criminals echoed from the alleyway, catching the ear of the large group of gangsters at the hangout... This didn't look good.

It had been a good deal of amount of time since his accident and now the added weeks of being confined to the mansion had grown to a point of pure stir crazy. His actions were unexplainable at times, but he couldn't help it completely. With being stuck in a place that drove him crazy, mainly living with so many freakish mutants in one spot, he couldn't take another look from Ms Taylor. Her eyes, it wasn't always the glare he had grown accustomed to but she had this other look, one that set him at unease. Pushing himself to recover on his own more and reject DocProf could only hopefully push her back to the glares and not this other look.

Leaving the mansion on crutches was hard, so he had to do things a bit differently then normal. He didn't need them fully right now, stuck at that stupid state where he was supposed to use them like a giant walker instead of swinging his body around. Whatever, he knew how his body healed and he certainly didn't need a pig headed doctor telling him how and when to do things. Swinging his body around during the day kept him away from doing things he didn't want to do, but at night a different life took place, one that he had missed.

His fourth night out now, he was starting to get the feel of how things should be. Hanging close to a dumpster, he took the liberty of pealing down to completely nothing. Tucking one crutch behind it, the other sloppily waited on the ground with splatters of black paint. He had every intention of finish spray painting it tonight, that was until he heard voices coming around the corner into the alley. Fumes and secrecy didn't go hand in hand, he'd have to wait it out and hope they'd bugger off quick enough.

Lurking in the shadows, his ears didn't pay much attention to what was being said, just waiting to be alone again. Sinking into a deep shadow, his body lowered itself on the ground till he was laying on his stomach. Letting his skin absorb itself into the surroundings, he soon was invisible to the naked eye as his body blurred into the shadowed ground. Keeping most of his body back behind the side of the dumpster, his eyes searched down the alley to the small crowd preventing his evening of spray painting. With any luck, they would leave in an hour, that seemed to be his breaking point of late.

Many strange things happened in his life, like his whole body becoming numb because a girl touched him, but what was happening now seemed like a different barrel of monkeys. Something landed rather close to him, a bit to close as his body twitched in reaction to the sudden gush of air. Turning his head quickly, the dreadlocks swished across the ground slapping up into the air. Gut instincts did the only thing he could think of. Sliding back slightly on the ground, he took a hold of the one crutch and gave an upward swing at tight clothed male hovering over his body.

It took him a moment to find out what had hit him, and even then, the conclusions he drew were... strange. The shape was vaguely pipe-like; he could tell this by using his extra sense... There was an arm swinging it, which was off because he hadn't seen a damn thing. Could it have been one of the gangsters?

He didn't know. He didn't like not knowing. Not knowing was dangerous. his first thought was some invisible person; he'd encounterd mutants like that before... could it be... Koga, hunting these criminals as well? No, Koga would have noticed him on the roof and offered assistance. His hand quickly snapped out in order to grab at the arm shaped thing that had swung the dark pipe-like thing at him, which, he swore to god, was starting to look like a crutch.

While he was preoccupied, the dealer and his customers backed out of the alley, stepping around the corner, where the shady M salesman started getting ideas. If he could take out an X-man, he would be famous! He didn't want to do the work himself, though. He had a plan for that, though. His sly eyes drifted to the gangsters near him, and then to the small group crossing the street to see what was going on. He spoke through a wide smile. "It's your lucky day, boys. I'll give you all a free sample of my product, and all ya gotta do is bring me the heads of whoever's in that alley!"

He said it loud enough for everyone in the alley to hear... The gangsters started popping the pills eagerly.

Mr. Spandex was rather dense, and he was starting to wonder if the guy had rocks in between his ears. Though taking a hold of the flying crutch was a direction in the right direction. Rolling over onto his back, he used the momentum to get a bit of distance between him and Spandex man. Feeling the tension in the crutch climbing, he did the best thing he could think of, let go of the crutch. He could always buy new ones if needed, getting back to the mansion would be interesting but he was a big boy and could handle things.

The voices down the alley shifted and he could almost hear the sound of the world ending right there. What was going on down there at the other end? Product? Checking his limbs quickly with his eyes, he was thankful for blending in with the ground but he needed to get out of there fast unless he wanted his head on a platter. Other guy, well if he could fall from the sky and get stuck in a mess like this, he could go find a way out of it. Not Hokee's fault he was causing a scene.

Pulling himself up onto his feet, his eyes searched quickly for how he was going to get through whatever was going to happen. If he could take the pressure, and get enough speed, doing a wall climb and catching the fire escape could get him up and out of the worst of the problem. Problem was if he did that, he'd expose himself and in more then one way. Another option was leaning against the wall and hope he could stay hidden long enough for things to sizzle out or his last option.....dumpster dive.

"Idiot." Clamping his mouth shut, his teeth gnashed together. Squeezing his body between the wall and the dumpster, he started to prepare himself for a quick get away....as quick as he would be able to with his condition. Good thing he didn't tell the normal doctors the 'activities' he did while not in school. He just might cause severe heart conditions in whole offices if that happened. At least behind the dumpster with him he had the second crutch...he only needed one really in the end. Just lasting through this all would be the challenge.

The alley was dark. What ever had attacked him was shadowy. His eyes couldn't make out a damned thing...

His eyes weren't the only thing he saw with, though.

He felt the figure as it rolled away, leaving the crutch in his clenched hand. It was clearly a crutch... What ever it was was a cripple, too? What, or who, ever it was, it's escape behind the dumpster was all to evident to the super hero, even though his eyes strained to see.

Great. Now he didn't only have gang members and M to deal with, he had a mutant as well?

"Idiot." Sounded male. He barely caught the word over the sound of the M doing its work on the men just outside of the alleyway.

"S@#$... Whoever the hell you are, if you don't want to die a quick but painful death, show yourself!" As if to enforce his point, he tossed the crutch to the side, and smacked the corner of the dumpster, using all of the force from his fall into the alley.

The sound of metal being crushed filled the alley as the dumpster spun and fell over, leaving it on its side, and blocking the alley. This would work to deprive the mutant of his cover without hurting him(he knocked the dumpster away, not into Hokee), and block off the alley from the prying eyes of the soon to be temporary mutants.

"Answer me, damnit!"

Hiding behind a dumpster in the city streets was not the ideal place to hang out. The alley was disgusting, something he didn't realize as much unless he was in his current state of lacking clothing. Of course he just had to get himself stuck in a situation like this were he wished his mutant skills made it easily available to morph in the shadows while still clothed. His option for staying hidden soon was swept away as the dumpster started to move on him. Scampering out from behind it the best he could, curses muttered under his breath. So much for staying out of the fight. Was it to much to just ask for some peace and quiet while he used a bit of spray paint?

Taking a hold of one of the spray paint cans, he scattered across the ground the best he could. This guy was crazy, very crazy. With the crashing sound of the dumpster slamming into the wall, his eyes flickered to where he had been. Lucky for him, he didn't turn into a Hokee slamwhich. Trying to avoid a direct hit from the guy, he did what he does the best, spray paint. With a sloppy rise, he was happy that he wasn't visible in the dark shadows. With a quick swing, his finger pushed down letting a stream of black spray paint float up into the air at Mr. Spandex.

It didn't matter what he was spraying at, a face or the torso, either way the fumes should buy him a little bit of time. Though his main concern should be the dude who wanted to step on him like an ant, but there were some rather upset guys getting down the alley itching to get back at the guy who was messing everything up in the alley. People just needed to learn how to stay out of other people's business.

"Twinkle toes why don't you pull that leotard out of your a**." With a toss, he chucked the spray paint bottle at the guy. Like hell he was going to show himself. If he showed himself, he would be showing all of himself. Nope, not his cup of tea. Showing all of himself to another dude was just, well that was just not cool, not when you were in a dark alley at night. Using the crutches right now were not going to help him out much, this was not cool. Push through the pain and deal with it tomorrow.

Saph watched as the dumpster slid to block the alleyway... That would buy him some time to deal with... whoever the hell this punk was. He still couldn't see the guy, but his clumsy movements were easy to pick up. Something was off, though... The movement lines he was feeling seemed... strangely smooth. Oh god, maybe this mutant was more like Koga than he'd thought!

He felt something lash out toward him... An arm holding something! A gun? His right arm shot out to meet where the projectile would hit were a projectile to fly at him, and he got a hand full of something wet in response. "What the?" As the figure moved away he lifted his hand to look at it... spray paint? Okay, this was just getting straaange.

"Twinkle toes why don't you pull that leotard out of your a**."

A faint buzzing was heard... He ignored it for now, swinging a hand to absent mindedly bat the flying spray paint can out of the air as it flew toward him without even looking. He'd felt it coming from a mile away. Spray paint, invisibility... Being naked in a back alley... This kid wasn't a criminal, was he? Not a real one, anyways... He was just some stupid punk! A stupid punk who was in a lot of danger thanks to him.

"I'll ignore the insult, kid... But you gotta get the hell outa here. You're in way over your head."

The buzzing suddenly got much louder, and was clearly emanating from above. The hero looked up to see... Very large bees? No... People on M... Bee people on M... The buzzing grew to a near deafening level as the dropped into the alley, surrounding both the invisible kid, and the Masochist.

They were hideous, mutated monsters, each part bee in their own way. All had wings, though some had insect legs, some had harpoon-like arms, some had buggy compound eyes and mandibles.

One of the bug eyed ones stared right at Hokee. "Ey Bawzzz... Zerezzz one heeeere... I zeee in UVEEEE... I can getzzz himmmmZZ" Crap... The kid was in real danger now. He wasn't the only one, either... the Masochist wasn't exactly prepared to fight a bunch of giant bee people at this moment in time... not while protecting some witless would be tagger.

One of the bees dove down toward him, while another one zipped toward Hokee. The hero jumped back to place himself closer to where he'd last felt the invisible kid... He was sure they'de both need all the help they could get...

The guy in spandex was one problem, but once the human bees started to swarm over, Hokee was sure he'd be able to slip away. That wasn't what happened though, not with a bee heading right at him. Staying still, there was the rare hope the bee wouldn't see him, but his luck had run out. Checking his body, he could see he was still blurred into the dark shadows of the alley, yet the bee knew exactly where he was. Scrambling on the ground, the teen tried to avoid the abdominal stinger aimed for him. He needed to find a way out of this situation, and fast.

Mr Spandex was moving towards him, and Hokee knew that this guy was his rare chance of hope now. Diverting to his abandoned boxers, he pulled them on to avoid exposing himself completely to everyone. His skin soon shifted back to his normal intonation. No point in being invisible if the bees could see him. At least this way he could charge himself up again for a great escape. Ducking a bit to avoid charges at him, an awkward attempt of staggering walk trickled into action. Yes his body could take his weight now, but really walking on his own was not the most ideal situation.

With a dive to the ground, the dreadlocks flopped with his belly. Crawling and twisting his body, Hokee managed to get a hold of one of the crutches left on the ground. Swinging it behind him, he managed to make contact with one of the bees chasing after him. It wasn't enough to do more then send it off course. "Buzz off freaks." For some odd reason he had a feeling this was starting to turn into a sick game of street ball. Low to the ground was his best defense for now, at least he had a crutch to use now as a sort of defense. This was quickly turning into a bad evening.

He met his first opponent with a sturdy swing, which hit the charging be man's hard carapace with a CRACK, diverting the bee man, but not causing anything more than superficial damage.... Damn, that hit would have knocked a full grown man out cold, easily. These things were tough.

He felt the kid moving about as well, it didn't seem like he was having any luck; by the time he had a chance to look, the kid had thrown some clothes on, and dropped his cloak. It was probably for the best, as they didn't seem to have any trouble spotting him. The older mutant dove out of the way of a swooping death bee flyby, smacking his right side right into the alleyway wall to come to a stop. What would normally leave someone with a head ache game him strength, though, and he spun, tossing his crowbar through the air unnaturally fast, having put a good bit of energy into it. The flying lever smacked right into a bee as it dove for the dread lock sporting teen.

The living thing became a carcass right then and there, spinning in the air and letting out a woeful buzzing sound as it fell to the ground. This gave the other bees a short moment of pause; long enough for Saph to get to the only ally he had.

He quickly summed up the kids condition; he was injured, but it hadn't happened here. He could tell that from the crutches.

"Damnit, kid, I don't know what your deal is, but you gotta stay close, or these guys will kill you. You understand?" The bees had gotten over their dead comrade quickly; one of them shoved another forward, and they began to swoop in once more. Saph looked to his crowbar, stuck in a bee a few yards away, and turned to a nearby pallet. with a few sharp pulls, he freed two nailed up planks from it. One was tossed to the teenagers feet. "That'll work better than a crutch... Aim for the joints, or any human parts... Their shells are hard as hell."

With that, the killer bee-man-bees went in for the kill.

Mr Spandex was turning into some kung-fu master, minus the whole kung-fu. The way the guy was punching things, it left an impression that he possible experienced one to many bar fights. Still, the guy knew how to swing. Batting away at the bee with a crutch didn't seem to being going as well as he had anticipated. If the crutch was made out of cast iron, then it might have done something worthy to be called practical. "Kill me...naw, I thought they just wanted to tickle me." Sarcasm was something he had plenty of. If the guy was going to state the obvious, well he would say something useless right back at him.

Smacking one of the bees in the face, he did manage to stall another attack. This gave him enough time to actually get up and onto his feet. It was a good thing he got up, for it wasn't long till a plank was tossed at him. Chunk of wood with nails in it, or blunt crutch. Crutch had a longer range, wood had nails.....the choice to make, it was very important. With the crutch dropping to the ground, Hokee caught the plank of wood avoiding the nails.

"Human parts...what is human about these freaks?" Holding the plank of wood like a bat, he was rallying up the chance to get a good hit on the bee. Avoiding the stinger was one thing, but trying to find a part of the bee that he could hit in his range was a different ball game. As the bee made a dive for him, Hokee ducked then went for a joint. Jamming the board into the joint, he gave a hard yank to free the board out. Giving up, he made a quick grab for the crutch to smack its head. "Hit the joints." Smacking the bee head repeatedly, the buzzing mutant finally crashed to the ground. Hokee didn't stop smacking it though.

Oh great, he was a smart ass. Perfect. Just what he ordered. He was going to get his teeth kicked in by a bunch of bees while dreds here provided cheeky color commentary

Another bee swooped in, he smacked it in the eye with a nail. It let out an agonized screech as it fluttered off to the side, and up into the air once more. He swung at the next one, noticing its abdomen still had pink flesh on it. The monster took the plank with it as it retreated, pulled it from its gut, broke it in half, and tossed it right back at the spandex clad hero. He simply popped his right hand to intercept the two pieces, letting them drop harmlessly to the floor.

Now was his chance! He dove for his crowbar, yanking it violently from the still form of the former gangster. After that, he got back to the teen ager once more. "I count... five more of them. Good job with that one. You can... Stop hitting it now... Kid?" He was still hitting one of the mutated humans who was clearly dead...

Aww crap, he really hoped he wasn't having some sort of crisis; he didn't know how to deal with that stuff, and their enemies were still coming.

This was way better then shoving tokens in Whack-a-mole.....though after a few hits to the head, it didn't have the same rebounding spring to it all. There was a different sensation, one he couldn't explain but he certainly wouldn't complain about it either. If it wasn't satisfying, then there would be no need to keep smashing at it. All the frustrations that encompassed teenage angst flowed from his biceps and crashing into the skull on the ground. There was something therapeutic with breaking things, even if it was another human being.

Holding the crutch up, Hokee had it ready to swing at Saph. "Call me kid again and that could be you." Sure threatening the other guy who was trying to get rid of the bees wasn't smart, but when did that ever matter to himself. He was an adult, or at least close enough to being one that being called kid was a plain insult. Still, there was a bit of truth in the guy's words, he should be focusing on the other bees that were determined to end their lives. To busy shooting his mouth off to notice the assault in action, he was soon knocked over by a a charging bee.

Crashing to the ground, the hit of pavement against his healing pelvis gave him a sharp reminder of his own mortality. Rolling over, it took him longer to get back up off the ground then it did earlier. The squinted eyes pierced about the sky in search for busy bee. Letting out a good Native whoop, his fingers soon wrapped around the crutch again. Taking the crutch from the bottom, he used the top part to snag the stinger of one of the other bees flying in the air above him. Quick yank, and a swift swing, the bee soon swaggered lower to the ground. Dropping the crutch, Hokee jumped up into the air wrapping his arms around the bee's neck.

Wrapping his arms tighter against the mutant's neck, he started to squeeze while locking his arms in place. A combination of added weight and the teen strangling it, the bee's body had difficulties staying in the air. Occasionally his feet would touch the ground before the bee would go up into the air, but with each squeezing pulse he was able to make, the frequency of time on the ground grew in his favor. This was a slow process, but he didn't have the pounding striking ability as the other guy, this was old school dirty fighting now.

Sooner or later he stopped hitting the skull... good. He didn't want to have to deal with someone losing their cool. As if to prove him wrong, the teen lashed out at him.

Saph almost laughed when the kid threatened him. He didn't though, solely because if he took the time to laugh, a large bee-man would impale him. "Sure thing, slick."

Maybe pissing him off would motivate him into helping find them a way out of this mess?

It seemed to work, because the young man pulled some epic moves, and got onto one of their backs, strangling them mercilessly... Of course, this left him wide open, so it was up to Saph to keep the others from assisting. He did this by jumping about and smacking anythign that got close with his crowbar. "Atta boy! Get 'im!" He cheered the nearly naked tagger on as the M user slowly lost altitude, and then faltered. Before too long it was completely still.

"Only a few more left. After these guys are done, you're helping me catch a dealer... If it weren't for you I wouldn't be in this mess. You owe me." He smacked another stinger as it's wielder charged in. The bee was directed down into the wall next to him, where he smacked it hard on the back of the head. It dropped like a ton of bricks, but was still alive... Good, he would need one of them for questioning if the dealer got away.

It looked like there were only two left.

Riding a freak bee had to be ten times more difficult then riding a bull, not that he ever tried to do that. He came close once, but ended up getting a horn in a place he'd rather not talk about. Life and death situation seemed to give him what was needed to keep his hold on the bee, a death lock of sorts. It also helped that Mr. Spandex pants was jumping about like a goof swatting at any other bee trying to save their comrade. To bad for the bees, they had no fighting chance in the matter.

With the bee carcass on the ground under his body, Hokee staggered off of it. Brushing an arm across his forehead, the beads of sweat were flung to the ground. Looking up, he could tell in a quick moment how things changed in the last few minutes. The amount of human bees trying to kill them had dramatically decreased. They were dropping like flies. Though they were not out of the woods yet, there were just two left to deal with. How positive this was. Shifting his weight, the teen tried to get a footing that provided with the least amount of discomfort as possible.

"Hell no. You're the dip sh** who messed it all up." Swatting an arm into the air, he tried to shoo one of the remaining bees from him. Granted it was more then five times the size of a real bee, he did what seemed natural. Swearing at the guy who watched his back was a rather interesting way of showing appreciation, but highly common amidst teenage population. One thing for certain, he was popping a pain pill as soon as things made it possible for him too, even if it meant climbing into a window and raiding someone's bathroom for it.

Catching his breath for a moment, his eyes peered about trying to figure out how to take down another bee. His legs were getting tired, and he didn't have the brute force to smash through the harden bodies like the other guy. The dude had to be on steroids. Waiting for the right moment, Hokee caught the attention of one of the bees and let it start to chase him in the alley. Pushing through the discomfort, he made it towards one of the fire escapes and jumped up into the air grabbing the metal ladder. Using his full body weight, the ladder and the teen soon dropped down towards the ground. Catching the bee in the center of its body, it was soon stuck between the metal ladder and cold pavement ground. Swinging his body around to the non-stinger side, he propped his body between the ladder and the bee's head. With his knees digging into the bee's neck, it would be only a matter of waiting before life ceased to exist for it.

He had to give it to the kid, he had a way of working with his environment that showed promise. Where he didn't have the means to apply force to the situation, a more clever solution was found... Unfortunately, he had an attitude problem. While Hokee took out his bee, Saph simply wailed on his knee a few times, and sent his crowbar spinning though the air to knock the last bee in the dome hard enough to drop him to the floor. He wouldn't be waking up until way after the police came.

Before he even bothered with collecting his crowbar, he turned to the boy, who was choking the life out of the last bee. He walked right on up to him, and moved to push him into the wall and pin him, an act that would save the bee man's life.

"I came here to capture a drug dealer; to stop him from selling to kids and idiots like this." He motioned toward the very much knocked out bee behind him. "You came here to strip naked and spray paint s&$^. You tell me who got in whose way." He would then let go, and start heading for the alleyway's opening. "Now help me fix this situation, or I'll beat the living crap out of you, and turn you in for vandalism with the rest of these punks."

To be honest, he could go this alone, but the kid had some potential, and it would be wasted on tagging and similar juvenile acts of lashing out at society... Maybe if he got the kid to do something constructive with his life, he could help him out while being helped by him. It was a win win, right? Still, there was always option number two.