Aww, Gene, that's so cute. And kind of hot.

Now is not an appropriate time to be appreciating Gene's inexplicably attractive haughty posturing, though, because they are definitely about to be kidnapped again.

Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Unfortunately, staging another rescue by Iron Man might be a bit harder to pull off this time around, because Tony is wearing his regular school backpack, not his armor backpack, and unless Rhodey can make a break for it, he's not going to be able to remote-control the suit from the Armory. Sooo...

"Maybe instead of chatting with the supervillains, we should try, um, running?" Tony suggests. "Now?"

If they all scatter, surely Unicorn and Killer Shrike won't be able to nab them all.

Kurt's mind already working double time, if he could get back to his apartment he couldn't get his sabers but he had to be careful...and make sure the others were okay. "I agree vith Tony, ve should run..." He says as he takes a step back as the two get closer to the teens. He looks at Rhodey as he shoves him further away from the group.

Loki looks at the imbeciles in the armor. "who are these idiots? " he thinks to himself as he shifts his stance a bit. He hears the call of retreat as he slowly...reluctantly nods his head. One of the Maggia whispers, "hey isn't that black haired kid with green eyes a potential target." Loki quirks an eyebrow at that, keeping his mouth shut as he looks around the group. Rhodes seems to be nowhere and Pepper surprisingly is silent, though she seems to have a grin on her face. "Perhaps we should split up and run, as Tony suggested?" He mutters, hating that he was agreeing with him, if they were after him well he could test what powers he still possessed.

Gene looks both frustrated and incredulous. The Mandarin does not run from a fight!

...well, it might behoove him to, in this case. It's not running. It's a strategic retreat. Rhodes seems to have vanished - huh, lucky him - but aside from that it looks like they're all on their own.

Gene's been kidnapped enough times to know that all running does in this case is make you tired. The problem is that there are so many of them, and though splitting up would make them harder to catch it'd also make it harder for them to fight back when they were inevitably cornered.

And their would-be kidnappers didn't seem to be taking his threat to heart.

For one second, one idiotic second, he considers just leaping on the Maggia and letting his fists and feet fly, damn the torpedoes. But he has a better idea, if only he can get everyone else to run.

"I'm not running," he mutters under his breath. "I'll hold them off."

If the rest of them make a break for it, maybe he can slip on the rings and wreak some havoc. He'll have to come up with a story as to why he was miraculously unharmed later, of course...

"Don't be an idiot," Tony mutters back at Gene. Rhodey has already made a break for it, but everyone else is still standing around chatting like this is a meeting of the bridge club instead of a kidnapping. Meanwhile, more Maggia thugs are closing in. Time to shake things up.

Under his arm, Tony's got a monstrous hardcover tome they were just assigned in English class (The Grapes of Fury or something), and he yells "think fast!" and hurls it at Unicorn's face (he'd always seemed to be the dumber of the two). "Go, go!" He shoves Pepper in one direction and Gene in another, and takes off in a third. He hopes Kurt and Luke take the cue to scatter, too.

Unicorn turns to the voice, taking the tome to the face with a yelp of surprise. As Pepper is shoved she nods to Tony, “Say cheese!” she says as she takes out her phone and snaps a picture before dashing off. “Regroup at the usual place if possible!” she quickly adds.

Kurt runs quickly one way, easily weaving through obstacles or jumping over things if he didn’t have time. He needed to get to his room or to an abandoned building to take off his image inducer and if he got to his room well… he could grab his cutlasses. He ducked into an alleyway nearby watching a few run by him as he presses against the wall. “their outfits were different, but that was Killer Shrike and Unicorn…so Maggia is the best bet…” Kurt thinks to himself debating his options, if he just vanished they would worry, “if the Tony here is Iron Man he will be fine, but if he isn’t and this is somehow the past if he dies…” he thinks to himself. “I can’t let them know I am a mutant, but I can’t teleport with no care in this place.” he thinks a fist coming to his mouth as he thinks. “I need to find someone to make sure zey escaped…” he mutters as he heads the opposite way he came. He soon comes across a Pepper who seems to be hiding as he gently taps her shoulder. She turns around about to punch him, a half sandwich in her mouth, stopping just in time. She takes the sandwich out of her mouth. “Oh hey it is you! Good almost punched you. Sorry anyway have you seen any others?” she asks as he shakes his head. “Nein, I vas about to go and see if I could.” He explains. “Stay here und keep safe…If someone comes for you run.” He says before heading off at a sprint.

Once out of sight and alone again he teleports to his room in this city with a BAMF and the smell of burning brimstone. Luckily it was in his radius and he had spent time memorizing how it looks. Once in he takes off his image inducing watch, turning into his true form as he grabs his cutlasses and sheathing them before teleporting to a roof top staying in the shadows as he looks for Unicorn and Killer Shrike hoping to distract them a bit.

Loki watches them run with a cold glance, there were others here he could not test his abilities just yet. He wants to keep them hidden from others for now. He grabs a discarded pole of some sort to use as a weapon. When one of the thugs comes at him he swings it with some skill as it strikes him across the face with a resounding crack. A smirk on his face before he turns and runs. Once out of sight he casts an illusion on himself changing his form into a Maggia thug. If they wanted to fight a God then they shall get it, but on his terms.

Rhodey reaches the lab as he gets into the machine and looks around the city by the computers. He spies something…odd a blue demonic creature near the Maggia. He quickly dials Tony. “Tony! It’s me, hey there is a blue demon looking person on a rooftop. Near where you guys were. Not sure if friend or foe, but knowing our luck…” he explains. “Suit is on the way to you. Think you will need it.” He quickly adds.

Gene stumbles when Tony pushes him, and nearly turns to snarl, but then the Maggia goons are upon him.

You know what's great about Maggia uniforms? They leave every non-face squishy bit vulnerable. Gene strikes out with fists and feet and elbows, and the two goons trying to grab him are down. But there are more of them, and he does something abhorrent.

He analyzes the situation, and runs. Discretion being the better part of valor, and all that.

Luckily, he seems to know this area better than the Maggia, though he knows that will quickly change once he gets outside a three-block radius of the school.

If he can get away from the criminals, he can slip on the rings and become the Mandarin. And then he'll do what he should have done in the first place - obliterate Unicorn, and Killer Shrike, and their Maggia masters.

But he has to shake them off for long enough that they won't immediately connect him with the Mandarin's appearance. Well, the Mandarin is known to be his stepfather, and as much as it pains him to act like Zhang actually gives a shit about him, it might behoove him to pretend as if the Mandarin's a bit incensed that the Maggia is harassing his stepson.

Ugh, nothing about this doesn't suck. He hopes Tony's gotten away okay. It's not like he has anything to protect himself with, anyway.

Tony spends a couple minutes dodging in and out of alleys and doorways to evade his pursuers, Scooby Doo Doors-style. But there are a lot of them. Really, somebody better have called the police by now. Surely the gang problem isn't so bad that nobody will take note of a swarm of Maggia running around in broad daylight.

But speaking of calls: Tony's phone beeps, and he ducks down behind a dumpster to answer it. "Blue demon person?" he repeats in a whisper. "Did Nefaria pick up a new superthug? Shit--" He covers the phone's speaker as he hears one of the Maggia run past the alley. When the coast is clear, he puts it back up to his ear. "Well, unless he's going to join in, he's not really high on my list of concerns right now. I think I can give the Maggia the slip, but keep the armor coming just in case. Gotta go."

Tony hangs up, peeks out from behind the dumpster, then dashes to the mouth of the alley. He pops his head out for a split second to survey the street. Three Maggia, that he can see, but none of him are looking his way. That's as good of an opportunity as he's going to get: he makes a break for it, sprinting across the street towards the next alley.

He's halfway there when he hears a shout raising the alarm. Shit, they've seen him, shit shit shit! He puts on a burst of speed and dives into the alley, and--

Runs headlong into Gene, coming in the other direction.

The collision knocks him flat on his ass and winds him, and by the time he's made it to his feet, there are Maggia with laser rifles blocking both ends of the alley.

Welp.

"Fancy running into you here," he quips at Gene, with a nervous chuckle.

Kurt climbs the side of the wall keeping an eye on things as he sticks to the shadows practically blending into them. He spies Tony and Gene collide into each other with the Maggia pincering them from both sides. "Please be an Iron Man here..." he mutters to himself as he presses himself against the wall as Unicorn and Killer Shrike pass by him. "I can't take them all on like zis...better for me to fight in a building vhere I have more shadows.... and zey have less room to fly." he thinks to himself, hating to hear the click of the rifles.

Loki meanwhile ran into two of his...'allies'. "Come on! We got them cornered. Where is your laser rifle?" one asks him. "Oh... I left it in the van." Loki remarks as he rubs the back of his head, "Well lucky for you I got an extra. Now come on we already have the girl...let's get the others." one states as he tosses him the rifle which he easily catches. He follows the briskly contemplating whether to shoot them now or later. A flash of a red shirt catches his and the others attention as they chase after it soon cornering Tony and Gene. "I...could get rid of Stark now...but something tells me that Gene will be a bigger problem than even I can handle right now." he thinks to himself as he raises the rifle to them, it might be best to wait for the chance to kill Stark...more chance to savor it.

The Maggia close in on the two, rifles trained on them. "Come with us and we will let the girl live." one of them remarks darkly. "Hands up and no tricks." he adds as the lasers hum with energy.

Ow. Oh. Jesus.

Stark, he's gonna fucking kill you.

Gene's vision goes black for a moment with the impact, and by the time he gets back to himself, they're both surrounded.

He glares daggers at Tony as he gets to his feet, his hands over his head. Everyone's ruining his plans, all the time. Now if he can just get away...but no chance of that right now. He'll have to bide his time.

"You're not funny," he says to Tony as they're apprehended, his manner surly.

"Uh... yeah. We give up. We surrender," Tony says hurriedly. Crap. They already have Pepper? And his suit isn't here yet. Great. They're stuck in the same situation they were last time. At least the new kids seem to have gotten away okay. Maybe the Maggia didn't think they were important enough to chase.

He's still holding his phone, and as casually and discreetly as he can, he slides it into his pocket - hitting the 'redial' and 'volume mute' buttons as he does so. Now Rhodey should be able to track them and hear what's going on. Once that's done, he raises his hands slowly.

"Don't worry," he murmurs under his breath to Gene. "It'll be just like last time: they'll blow a lot of hot air, and then the police will come shut them down, and we'll all have a great excuse to turn in our homework late." He flashes a grin. "Maybe Iron Man will even show up again."

Kurt watches the scene with a frown. "vas I vrong? Is he not Iron man here?" he thinks to himself, he watches the Maggia lead them to a warehouse like district sticking to the shadows and BAMFing when he needs too, hoping not to be noticed as he follows them inside staying in the shadows of the rafters.

Loki continues to act as one of these pitiful grunts as he follows them into the warehouse, well now he knew where one of their hide outs are...or at least an exchange point. He watches as one shoves Tony and Gene inside...where a waiting Pepper is. Her legs crossed as she looks annoyed. "Tony! Gene! Are you okay? I am sorry. I managed to hit one and Handcuff them...but well they have guns and I don't. Hey is Kurt with you? He went to meet up with you after he found me. Is he okay? Did he get away?" she rapidly asks as a guard near her rubs his head with a groan. It is obvious that Miss. Pepper has been scolding his ears off. Shrike and Unicorn enter Unicorn sniffing the air briefly, as he smells Brimstone and sulfur hearing an odd noise as well. Even Loki looked around, remaining quiet as he waits to see what his next action will be.

Rhodey gets the call in worry. "Tony? Tony! Are you okay?!" he asks as he hears the sounds, but gets no answer. "The suit it on it's way hang on..." he says as he starts to track the call to redirect the suit, worry for his friends etched on his face.

"You know, we keep getting kidnapped, the teachers are going to think we're doing this on purpose," Gene huffs, and stews the whole way to the warehouse.

When Pepper starts barraging them with questions, Gene holds up his hands. "We're fine. Haven't seen Wagner around, I think he ran off."

The scent of brimstone was unusual, but Gene just figured something had gone off in this warehouse. The stock didn't look like it had been inspected recently.

"Not after Roberta gets on their case," Tony says cheerfully. "Kidnapped right outside of the Academy, twice? She'll be out for blood. They'll be falling over themselves to appease her wrath. We'll probably get extra credit in all our classes."

When they get to the warehouse and have established that Kurt is a no-show, he asks under his breath, "What about Luke? Has anybody seen him? Did he get away too?" He hopes so: fewer people to worry about, and fewer people to hide his secret identity from. If the suit ever shows up, that is. He's not going to take his phone out and wave it around like he did last time, so Rhodey had better be tracking them.

But until the cavalry arrives, there's not much for them to do. Little known fact: being kidnapped is boring.

"Phew, what's that smell?" Tony looks up and wrinkles his nose as he gets a sudden whiff of sulfur. "Man, Unicorn, you really need to lay off the Mexican food."

Kurt looks around spying the group and...hearing them talk about him. "Vell at least zey think I am a no show." he thinks to himself as he watches the Maggia carefully. He spies one of the grunts by themself. Well that was easy, he teleports over there with a BAMF over there grabbing them with both hands holding a cutlass to his throat with his tail before BAMF he is back above them, though away from the group. "thiis won't kill you." he promises the grunt, trying his best to hide his accent as he drops him on a couple of crates with a large clatter. "Might break a couple of bones zhough..." he comments as he sticks to the shadow.


Pepper shakes her head, "You mean after he hit one of them with a pole? No...I thought he ran off too. Ohhh I hope they are all right...and don't hate us. I mean this isn't our fault....exactly. Well it isn't mine. I mean I am not the rich kid. I am just Pepper. I mean duh, of course I am Pepper. Who else would I be? Gene? No I don't have the hair or the attitude for that! Or the Pants! Maybe I could be Tony....Or Rhodey!" she says as the the Maggia closest to her groans rubbing his forehead. A clatter interrupts her rant as she looks around, "Does anyone else smell that? And hear that?" she asks them.

Loki frowns, "Are they actually worried about me? ...Why?" he thinks to himself, well that made things complicated a tad. He was not used to his would be victims to actually worry about him. And for him to actually feel something from it. He hears the clatter as he looks around to find the sound seeing a man on a pile of crates, groaning in pain.

Unicorn growls at Tony looking like he is about to hurt him as the clatter happens. Killer Shrike and him nod as they both head off to find the source, passing by the disguised Loki who is acting like a guard. "What the? How in the world?" they say at the sight of a Maggia on a pile of crates. "There is someone else here!" the injured man says. "I-I was on the ground and poof I am up in the rafters before he dropped me!" he explains. "Fan out! If it is that Iron Man again kill him!" Shrike says as Unicorn heads up above.


Rhodey finally finds the right warehouse as he heads the suit towards the window with a large clatter, aiming it at Tonys' signal. "Time for you to do your thing Tony...and next time bring your back pack." he mutters to himself.

Shrike looks up at the rafters thinking he spies something as the suit comes busting through. "Get him!" he calls to the others as he heads up to the rafters. Kurt looks at the suit with a sigh, seems there is an Iron Man in this universe as he watches it carefully. His cutlasses ready in case he needed to fight, seems that Shrike had spied something there, his tail twitching a bit.

Loki spies the chaos Iron Man wrought, "...Wait if..." he starts to say before shaking his head. He uses that chaos to knock the guard, that Pepper had tormented, out with the butt of his rifle firing it on another as he looks at the the group. Just as Iron Man tackled Tony, Unicorn firing at the suit unaware of Lokis' apparent betrayal.

Shrike flies through the rafters, spying nothing as something....Kurt lands on his back knocking him down before hopping off and dashing towards the shadows. "Another meddler?!" Shrike growls.

Okay, well, now Gene's just pissed that Iron Man is here. Not that he minds the armored menace causing some chaos among the Maggia, but he never asked for rescue from that gaudy-looking creation! Rude.

...also, how did Iron Man always know when they'd been kidnapped? Did he tune into the Maggia's transmissions? Or...oh no, no, that would be too ridiculous to be borne. Rhodes couldn't be Iron Man. Nah. Didn't make any sense.

But Gene would have to see if he could see both of them in the same room at any one time. Just in case.

Gene dodges the armor hurtling towards him and Tony, but it didn't look like Tony was so lucky. Got to save the high-value target first, he thinks, somewhat irritably. But all of the chaos meant that he could sneak off.

Argh, but he didn't want to leave Pepper in the lurch. So he opted to get her clear of the area first, and then sneak back in and teach Unicorn and Killer Shrike the lesson they so richly deserved.

"Pepper! Come on, this way!" he says, grabbing her by the hand and making for the door. "Before this place turns into a bloodbath!"

Party wasn't allowed to really start without him, after all.

Tony smirks as Unicorn stomps towards him. The Two Stooges don't scare him. Especially not Unicorn. Tony took him out last time without even needing armor - the guy's a total moron.

Suddenly, there's a commotion on the other side of the warehouse. The Dumb Duo go off to investigate, and Tony hears some grunt yelling that there's someone else in the warehouse. What the hell? Tony thinks. Who else is here? He doesn't have a lot of time to wonder, though, because that's when the armor arrives.

Way to go, Rhodey! Tony mentally cheers - and then gets tackled by the suit. OOF. Man, there's got to be a better way to do that. He's going to be one big bruise tomorrow. But he'll worry about that tomorrow. Right now, he's got some business to take care of.

"So, who's first in line for some ass-kicking this time?" he says, launching into the air, fully suited up. "Don't worry. There's plenty to go around."

Unsurprisingly, the first volunteer is Unicorn, who wastes no timing firing his stupid headbeam at Tony. "Unicorn, my buddy!" Tony exclaims brightly, returning fire. "I missed you too. How've you been? Still dumb as a rock?"

Pepper nods as she stumbles when Gene pulls, "Geez I swear they should start a loyalty card like, get kidnapped three or more times and you get a yogurt!" she says as she keeps her head low as she is dragged by Gene. "Get them!" one of the grunts says before falling by a blast in the chest by an apparent ally, a few breaking off and head towards them, some staying behind to find the shooter. "Uh-oh..." she mutters. "Keep running...maybe we can beat them out the door?" she says sounding unsure as four creep closer.

Loki watches Gene and Pepper run off towards the door, hearing one yelling to 'get them' he doesn't really know why he shoots him, but he does. Maybe it was to cause more chaos...he likes to think it is that and not him paying them back for actually worrying about him. When a few turn to see what happen he looks to the one on his right who saw what happened, before he can say anything he shoots him too. "He betrayed us!" Loki offers them.

Kurt is busy playing hide and seek with Shrike taunting him from shadow to shadow, "Man you are as sharp as a noodle!" he says with a laugh as he darts around. Shrike firing in the direction of the voice, decimating the crates in his way. Kurt quickly BAMF away as he appears behind. "Neener neener neener!" he calls out with a laugh appearing behind him. Shrike turns around just in time for Kurt to BAMF again sitting on a rafter above and letting Shrike wonder where he went. "Where are you, you blue freak?"

Unicorn gets hit with the blast, he manages to stop himself before crashing into the crates. He growls at Iron Man as he fires again, "Shrike where are you?" he snaps in annoyance as he looks for his partner, a blast of Shrikes trying to find this other meddler seems to head towards Iron Man on the right.

Gene's a little too stressed to laugh at Pepper's quip, but he does have to admit, it's pretty funny. "We get kidnapped again, I'll buy you a yogurt," he says, hustling her along. He wanted to get her out of his hair (his amazing, beautiful hair) before going back in to obliterate Unicorn, Killer Shrike, their Maggia buddies, and that obnoxious Iron Menace (as a bonus).

But what the hell is that BAMF noise? It sounds like some sort of small sonic grenade. Gene turns back to glance behind him and sees...something blue darting around.

Oooookaaaaayyy. Maybe he'd hit his head harder than he thought when Stark had knocked him down. Come to that, he should really go back and rescue Tony once Pepper was out of the way. Just as a boyfriends kind of thing.

Tony's been keeping an eye out for Gene and Pepper: his first priority is making sure they get out safely. He finally spots them making a break for the door, with a handful Maggia on their tail. He fires a wide blast at their pursuers, but he doesn't have a chance to see if he got all of them before a stray shot from Shrike forces him to turn back to his own fight.

"What's the matter, Unicorn? Is your boyfriend cheating on you?" he taunts, dodging and exchanging fire with Unicorn. In all seriousness, though, the mysterious third party is clearly no friend of the Idiot Squad, and Tony is dying to know who they are. He keeps hearing weird poofing noises and seeing flashes of blue, but he can't get a bead on them. It doesn't help that they're all over the place. Super speed? he wonders.

Well, whoever or whatever they are, they're a complication and a distraction that Tony doesn't need. He has this under control. He doesn't want somebody else interfering and getting hurt.

"Hey, Blue Meanie - I appreciate the thought, but I really don't need the help. Leave these punks to me." This assertion is somewhat undermined by him immediately taking a Unicorn beam (cornbeam? no, that's stupid. hornbeam? wait, isn't that a kind of wood?) to the chest. But really, that just proves his point. He wouldn't have taken the hit if he hadn't been distracted by the interloper.

Kurt looks at Iron Man just as he gets shot, seems even here Iron Man thought of himself as the leader…then again this one probably hasn’t fought much with another person. “Blue meanie? That is a new one…” he thinks to himself. “it seemed like you needed help, or at least some form of diversion.” He comments as he dodges a blast from a rifle to the right of him, feeling it glance his shoulder before he nods, “As you say, take care.” He comments as he seems to vanish with another BAMF and a puff of purple smoke, appearing briefly to knock some of the Maggia trying to stop Pepper and Genes’ escape with a few quick hits from the butt of the sabers before BAMF he vanishes. He teleports back to his hotel room, putting his blades away and puts on his watch before he runs back to the warehouse distract, just as some police cars seem to race past him.

“Tony! Can you hear me? Police are on their way. Careful not to exert your energy,” Rhodey comments in worry. “Just get out of there as soon as you can!” he says.

Loki dodges the wide arc beam, though he feels it slam into his shoulder. That…actually hurt, more than last time. “Worthless Mortal Confinement!” he thinks to himself, with a frown as he looks at Iron Man a frown under his illusion, He spies a blue demonic creature helping them as he fires a round back at Iron Man, might as well use his illusion as an excuse for this. He hears a siren sound outside as he frowns, time to go. He tries to slip away from the crowd and out the back. No need for him to get anymore involved in this fight…unless provoked.


Pepper let's out a yelp as they are surround. "Stay Back! I have...handcuffs and I can scream really loudly!" she threatens as a BAMF fills the air and something blue and fuzzy seems to...help them a bit, well got rid of the ones in front of them at least. "...Did a blue fuzzy jelly bean help us?" She asks seeming almost surprised speechless....Almost.

Gene snarls, preparing to lash out at the Maggia, when the blue blur seems to aid their escape. Well, that's sure something you don't see every day.

"We can stick around and ask it later," he says brusquely, and turns and punches one of the remaining Maggia goons in the face. He goes down like a sack of potatoes, and Gene can tell he's bloodied at least one of his knuckles; those masks are more than just for show.

"Right now, we need to get out of here, and you need to get to safety." A careful listener may note that Gene had said nothing about getting himself to safety - only Pepper. He has plans, plans for the Maggia and those idiots and Iron Man...but those sirens coming may put paid to those plans, for now.

His homework is going to suffer, but he's going to hunt down Unicorn and Killer Shrike tonight and finish the job like he should have done months ago. Iron Man would have to wait, but the insult to him could not be allowed to stand.

Tony is actually really surprised when the blue guy apparently takes the hint and poofs away. Huh. That usually doesn't work.

He's still curious who that was and what his deal is, but he'd rather figure that out some time when his friends' lives aren't in danger.

"I hear you," Tony says to Rhodey over the suit comm. "Don't worry about it. These guys are no problem. Unicorn and Shrike are a joke." He might as well knock them around while they're here; maybe they'll learn a lesson. "ETA on the cops?" As soon as he asks, he hears sirens in the distance. That was quick.

Shrike seems to have finally figured out that the blue guy is gone, and he joins Unicorn in hassling Tony. That's okay: Tony'd gotten a look at where he'd last seen Pepper and Gene, and all that's there now is a bunch of sprawled-out Maggia. It looks like they made it out. With the police less than a minute away, Tony probably doesn't have to worry about them anymore, and he can turn his full attention to his favorite pair of animal-themed assholes. (He does still worry, of course, and he won't stop worrying until they're all safely back together, but reason tells him that they're fine. Anyway, Gene and Pepper are pretty good at taking care of themselves.)

"So, Unicorn, how come you can't fly like your buddy Shrike?" Tony asks as he exchanges fire with his adversaries. "Did you lose Rock Paper Scissors when you were picking suits?" It's just so funny how riled up they get when he snarks at them.