Chapter 37: The City that Never Sleeps/ The Siblings that Never Surrender

Scared to death and scared to look, they shook. 'Cause ain't no such thing as halfway crooks….

The infamous Mob Deep track blasted from the Quinjet above Bronte as he rocketed towards the streets of New York. The lyrics hitting like the thunderous lightning that would eventually fall from the churning midnight clouds.

Scared to death. Fear. He could smell it on the wind as clear as day. He could hear the screams from men and women as their cars were flipped and cut to scraps by the Lupines spilling from the sewers and busting through the walls of corner stores like werewolves from a 90's horror movie.

His stomach twisted.

Laura's words came to his mind once again as he fell. This was a possible mass casualty event— if not already. He didn't need to unleash the entirety of his Mutant arsenal. But some was good. Speed was good. Speed was known to kill after all.

He spun around to face the sky as he fell, popping his claws just as a bolt of lightning smashed into him. It's power supercharged him like a battery. His newly enlarged muscles pulsed beneath his skin. His hair flickered in the dark and his lungs expanded tenfold. He felt like he was inhaling the clouds as they swirled above him. Tornadoes dancing on the stratosphere….

His descent slowed with the cloak of wind wrapping around him until he was flying.

The beat and tempo from the music in the Quinjet made his manipulation of the winds seamless in those moments.

Raze dropped Gabbie and Laura into the streets. Blood splattered on the front sides of bodega's and coffee shops as they ripped through the creatures. Daken traveled alongside Bronte. His claws dug into the side of a commercial skyscraper to slow his fall.

As much as they all switched it into high gear at the sight of Lupines, Bronte could feel Daken was changed differently. He could see it in his reflective cat-like eyes as he watched the—

"Stop freezing ragdoll!" Daken snapped.

The sky boomed as a boost of wind exploded from him and sent him crashing towards the floor. His eyes scanned the chaotic street to get a sight of Raze and the others. They were fine. Many of the civilians were not.

Speaking of. Brontë twisted in the air, heading for the intersection where a six car pileup covered in flames was about to be seven cars as a Lupine headed straight for the front of a Honda Civic.

He could hear a mother inside tell the kids to buckle up.

Bronte blew past the tiger-stripped Lupine and smashed into the front left side of the car. Sometimes being over three hundred pounds was a great thing.

The sounds of the wheels tearing up the bloodied gravel filled his ears as he veered the vehicle past the pile up and charging Lupine by manipulating the winds to push him and the car along.

Once it was out of the way he cleared the streets with a gust of wind and shoved the car a few hundred feet before the screaming mother pressed her feet to the gas again.

He found himself watching one of the girls in the backseat looking back at him before he was pulled back into combat.

"URRRAgghhhhHH—Onte!!" The Lupine got up from all fours and looked down at him from across the street. Like most Lupines it didn't look like any others. They were a lot like finger prints in that way. The one Bronte faced was taller than the others and slimmer. Pretty much the exact opposite of Bronte. Tiger stripes danced along its brown fur. Sabered fangs covered in rot, human blood and frothy saliva spilled from its canine jaws as if it had zombified rabies.

"Y'all don't win this. You know that right? We're not backing down, and none of you can keep up. Not with me. Not with them." Bronte said as he stepped into the street.

The Lupine did the same with a snarl. Alongside them, the other creatures who'd been shoved off the streets with cars and his siblings hopped back into the street as well.

"…..wINniNgRRRRRrrr….nNOT…. OUrrrAHHGHHH gHoaL….oNlY tOo EXhAusSst…." The Lupine growled in a chilling tone.

Brontë was done talking. He could still hear the music.

The fire from the massive car pile up to his left twisted into a cyclone that flew over to his claws, superheating and cloaking them in flame. Flames danced on his braided dreads.

Same as always. Just a different setting- a new backdrop to his gory stop motion images of life.

"Let's run it." He thought.

As if the Lupine was telepathically connected it lunged.

Bronte lunged far before it reached him, slashing at the air. Whips of fire trailed the path of them, flying across the street, igniting every trail of gasoline and blood on the streets until it hit the Lupine, ripping it into three sizzling pieces.

Like the Hydra Gabbie often read about with Raze, another two replaced the fallen Lupine, tackling Bronte into the streets. Another pack of six or more piled onto him, ripping the skin off his arms and gnawing on his flaming claws until their melted gums leaked down his fists like pink slime.

Their screams shrunk as he inhaled, sucking the air from their lungs before letting out an ear splitting roar with an explosion of wind that sent them all flying. A few landed on the lines of fire on the road and ignited while others hit flipped over cars and mailboxes.

Bronte wanted to move in to finish, but the screams. The smells of terror. The dying so close. The sirens in the distance.

"Bronte! Find one and help— move from there. Stop getting stunned! This isn't Midtown Highschool and you aren't the same Bronte. Do something." Laura yelled as she fired an entire clip from her desert eagle into the mouth of a Lupine while she held another off with her adamantium claws.

Bronte moved, somewhere his eyes weren't even focused on. His other senses were more prominent.

He found himself at the entrance into an alley where a flipped car blocked the entrance. His claws sunk back into his wrists and allowed him to punch through the trunk and rip it open.

A man screamed and flailed, kicking Bronte in the nose. He didn't move an inch. Too heavy.

"Man….. get the hell out the car." Bronte managed before pulling the frail man out of the trunk.

"Stick to the alley and try not to be scared. They like the smell!"

A group of Lupines spilled into the alleyway behind the running man. They stopped, lifting their scared and grizzled snouts from the ground to look from the man to Bronte.

"You know what you want." Bronte lifted the car upright and yanked it out of the alleyway so they could have more space.

"BrrRrRRon—-"

Eight shots rang out from behind them, barely tickling the Lupines.

"Contact! Contact! Contact! All units be advised we've got contact on the unidentified Mutant terrorists!" A police officer yelled from the other side of the alley.

The officers pulling up tried to say more but a massive blue skinned shape busted into the alley by ripping through the walls of the grocery store to get to the Lupines.

Raze looked like a Nightmare. Not only was he completely nude, but he was over ten feet tall and so muscular he was nearly as wide as the alley. His hair stuck up on his head as a mane of red spikes.

He grabbed and smashed the Lupines into furry pulps. The ones that got to close were eaten. It all happened so fast if Bronte blinked he would've missed it.

Raze turned to face him as his face shifted and bubbled chaotically. He was laughing like he just heard the funniest joke on earth, "HAHAHHAHHahah!! Aye Brontosaur, the fucking feDs jUsT trIeD to smOke a LuPine with a pea shooter!…..HAHAH OH FUCK!! That's so hilarious!"

"Freeze! Do not move!"

"I get why people don't like y'all." Raze sounded truly offended that the cops would try to detain him.

The skin on his back bubbled and stretched until a pair of bat wings exploded from his skin, "Stay out of the way, coppers! This is family business…"

Raze flew away and cannonballed into another pile of Lupines.

Bronte took off just as the police filled the alley. There were more civilians to move and more Lupines to kill.

***

Another twenty minutes of war transpired. Over the police intercoms Bronte could hear swat teams and National Guard units being deployed to Queens from all over New York.

He found that odd since he'd been hearing Sniper fire for the last ten minutes and seeing smoke screens for about the same time.

Either way he used his senses to free up the rest of the civilians and send them to the police blocking the road ways.

After the tenth batch of people they stopped firing at him every time he showed up. Progress.

Since then it had been all combat.

Brontë didn't mind. The guilt subsided, he could give into the rage.

"ARRP!" A Lupine screeched as Bronte shoved his bone claws through its face.

The two hit the ground hard, his leather jacket ripped off his body leaving him in nothing but cargo pants and combat boots.

He got up as the flood of chasing Lupines trampled their dead pack mate.

He ducked and dove into an alleyway, using the winds to catapult him to the top of a fire escape.

The Lupines moved to climb it after him only to be crushed by it as another gust of wind caused it to rip from the brick apartment wall and topple over them. For good measure he called down a blast of lightning.

They didn't move after that.

He stood still, staring for a moment.

He was tired. Not in the physical sense. Mentally though. It had been a long three years, and sometimes it felt like nothing changed for the better. Maybe the sight of the dead police officer and young woman by a dumpster started that thought process. Whatever it was, it hurt. Like a b—

Sounds behind had him spinning around in a flash to lunge at whatever reeked of gunpowder and alcohol behind him.

A gunshot shook the air and blew a hole in his face, turning the view of the world from the left side of his face into blackness. Didn't matter.

He kicked the weapon out of the man's grip, sheathing his claws to lift him by the throat with his left hand.

His neck was as thick as a support beam. He didn't struggle to breathe until Bronte really squeezed. He was big, human, but imposing. There was a hardness to him. Other than his lean toughened muscle and grim stare. Surprisingly, the skull insignia spray painted on his bullet proof vest only took away from that.

Slowly Bronte's vision returned to the left side of his face as his eyeball healed.

The man's face twisted into an expression of confusion. As the area grew silent his expression grew more intense.

"Logan…. You go and get ethnic on me?…. Or did you enjoy our time in Africa more than I thought you did?" His voice sounded like war… if that made sense at all.

"Why can't I be black and just be from New York, man?" Bronte replied, taking mental note of the sounds of footsteps in the distance. He didn't smell guns. If they got too close he'd crush the snipers neck and handle business. But he couldn't take his eyes off the Sniper.

The sniper shrugged, "Last time I checked they don't manufacture Bone clawed regenerating Mutants here…. And you don't sound Canadian, dreadhead."

Familiar scents….

"Put him down, hermano." Laura's voice rose past the sounds of sirens as she flipped up onto the rooftop.

"My god there's another one." The sniper coughed as Bronte dropped him.

"Frank." Laura said as she nodded to the man.

"Laura." Frank replied.

"They're all his…. The Wolverine's, I mean. I can smell him on them all." Another voice said, followed by a man flipping up onto the top of the building with them.

Despite wearing a blood red leather uniform, he blended into the night. In the wind his white hand wraps loosened ends fluttered.

It was then that Bronte noticed the horns jutting from his cowl. And the lack of eyes.

"The devil of Hell's Kitchen." Bronte thought for a moment.

"What the hell is going on?" He thought.

"I was hoping you guys could tell us." Daredevil started.

Only silence met him as….. Frank, reloaded his sniper and checked his Bowie knives.

Daredevil sighed and pressed onward, "The appearance of these creatures was a recent development. Now I can't go around declaring people guilty until proven innocent, but I would be an idiot not to think there was a correlation between them and all of you." He sounded surprisingly intelligent for someone known to break every bone in a crime lords body.

Bronte looked at Laura. Laura pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Yea, it's us. We're being hunted at the moment, and they're ripping through everything to find us."

"If Wolverine had four of himself at one time he'd probably rule the world right about now." Frank commented.

"Thanks for the useless comment, puto." Laura shot back, "We dropped in to clear the last wave. We're leaving. Hopefully you won't see them again. Most likely you won't…."

The sounds of ropes sticking to walls grew louder and louder at breakneck speeds until a red and white blur flew past them.

"Leaving so soon?" The red blur yelled as he swung through the alley, only letting go once he'd built up enough momentum to land on the rooftop with everyone else silently.

The white blur behind him landed soon after.

"We just got here….. and we haven't seen the famous Mutant herself in so long." She finished his sentence.

Spider-Man and Ghost-Spider. They looked different. Older. Spider-Man abandoned the bright red and blue flare of his old suit. He wore red and black now, abandoned the web meshing that used to run along the surface of the flat colors. And his lenses were no longer flat cloth, now they held a reflective sheen like a car window. He looked expensive. So did Ghost-Spider although she still wore her black and white colors... with ballet shoes?

"Yea, that's the problem where have you been?" Daredevil grilled them as if Bronte and Laura weren't there.

"Kingpin took advantage of the chaos here and tried moving a shipment of arms into the ports near Brooklyn… probably to go overseas."

"We got hit with a wrecking ball and our earpieces broke." Ghost-Spider added with a nervous laugh.

"Fuck." Frank grunted as he lit a cigarette. "We shoulda switched spots, spidey."

Daredevil pinched the bridge of his nose, "We'll talk later."

Somehow they managed to spawn an awkward silence. Somehow.

Ghost-Spider kept looking at Bronte and Laura. Eventually she spoke.

"So, who's the new guy? Mutant Recruits? Id love to have another woman on the team. Too much testosterone in here anyway."

"No, we were just leaving actually." Laura added, "C'mon hermano."

"See ya later, little wolverine." Frank called after her, whistling as his eyes lowered down her frame.

"Should've broke his neck." Bronte said to her as they walked.

"Next time."

"Word."

Bronte followed after Laura.

"Whatever's chasing you seems dangerous." Daredevil called after them, "I understand you're planning to leave New York, but where does it end? If this could happen in places were people like us aren't located was it worth it?"

"It's better to stay moving." Laura called back.

"For you or for him?" Daredevil called back.

Brontë and Laura froze before continuing onward. Why did he say him instead of them? The thought swirled as the cops came closer.

Brontë felt a hand grab his wrist suddenly. He turned around to find Daredevil staring at him from his seemingly nonexistent eyes. He was unnaturally silent.

"Easy, Lucifer." Bronte growled.

"I could smell you on every civilian I came across. Hundreds.... In less than an hour. Even so, you feel guilty still. I know that feeling….. it's good. I think we can help you." Daredevil explained.

Bronte took a deep breath and removed his hand.

"We good." Bronte explained as he stood at the edge of the building with Laura.

"Where we're going we won't need any extra help. Plus, this place needs y'all. Good people. What were after isn't that."

"And what is it you're after?"

"Revenge."

Bronte jumped off the building with Laura. He flew straight for the thunderclouds above, In his wake Raze flew after him with everyone else wrapped in his stretchy arms.

The defenders of New York watched them fly away in a shared silence.

"Did he look familiar?" Spiderman whispered to Ghost-Spider.

"I was just about to ask you that…"