#amanoutoftime

@a-man-outof-time

Clint neatly tripped over a box in the middle of the floor.  He swore as he managed to turn the fall into an easy tumble eventually ending right back up on his feet.   “What the fuck.”  Luckily early enough that there weren’t any kids in the shop to hear his language.   He did try to keep it somewhat clean around them.

Stalking back over to the box he scowled at it.   Seriously where did it come from, he didn’t put it there.   Clint poked the box carefully with his foot.   When nothing happened he looks all around it before carefully picking up the box and bringing it over to the counter.   Ever so gently putting it down giving it a distrustful stare.   

After loosing a staring contest with the box because he blinked first he reached for a box cutter.    With the air of someone trying to defuse a bomb he sliced through the packaging tape.  Using the tip of the cutter to carefully flip open one flap at a time.   Peering in he frowned at the contents.   “You again, I thought i threw you out!  I didn’t order you.”

@a-man-outof-time

School was out for the day and Peter didn’t exactly have to head straight back home.   It was new comics day at the shop and he wanted to swing by and see if anything good came in.   There was this one that he really liked, and was even written by someone local!   Which honestly he thought was really really cool.  Okay so maybe he stopped by the shop as often as he could in hopes of meeting the guy sometime.   He wrote a comic so he probably liked them, right?

The comic shop owner was pretty cool and his dog even cooler.  Clint didn’t seem to mind him checking out the comics as long as he was careful.   Always had good tips as to what was good and what sucked.   (Of course he didn’t put it that way to his Dad who told him he was still too young to use emo teenager words.  Whatever that meant.)  Petting the dog pretty cool too.   Since they didn’t have one at home this was the next best thing.

Walking down the street, and yes he was old enough to do that he was in high school, he made his way to the shop.   Clint didn’t have a bell in his shop, so nothing jingled as he opened the door.  Peter did spot his reflection bounce off a couple of those angle mirrors.   He grinned up at them before making his way to straight to the rack to check out any new comics.   

@a-man-outof-time

For once, the mission the Professor sent him on seemed to be nothing but rumors.   Stealth jobs tended to be a strong point for him.  So when rumors floated around about a facility hidden in New York City that set up some sort of catalog system to experiment on mutants, Logan easily the most logical choice.   He could get in and out of places without leaving a trace better than most.   Even in the city, not his favored environment, he could manage to blend in and find out things.  

So he went, did his part, someone else did another and so far everything seemed just to be rumor.  These kinds of things could be a scare tactic, a distraction, or someone testing the waters.  Most kept things quiet when it happened to be reality.    Logan bet on someone trying to stir things up in the mutant community.   Didn’t take much because of how often the root of the rumor managed to be fact, not fiction.   

This time though, it seemed the rest of the trip would be relaxing.  So disinclined to stay in his hotel room, and nothing left to chase down until tomorrow’s meeting with a potential student’s family, he sought out a bar.   Good beer, maybe some pool, definitely just a place to relax in, that is what the night called for.    Not one of those fancy places that seemed filled with kids dressed in expensive clothes and beers with pretensions names.   Just something far more real.

@a-man-outof-time

Sometimes, things just felt off to him.   When something wrong happened to be going down.  Now most sane people, if they sense trouble they stay far from it.   What did Peter do?    He found a discrete spot to ditch his backpack and outer clothes before swinging his way towards the trouble in his Spider-Man costume.  Okay, maybe some people may have a point about his possible some what less than perfect sanity.

The sensation grew stronger, a warning buzz in the back of his skull until he finally spotted the problem.   A brawl, a large brawl, people basically going berserk, with no clear trigger.   Trying to get a read on the situation, he leaned over the edge of the building he was perched on, try try and figure out the cause.  Heck even the cops where in the mass of fighting people.  So that pointed to something influencing them, but what?

Bruce stared intently at the TV screen and tilted his head as he watched the five year old stuff crumpled paper down her top to create the illusion of fake breasts whilst her mother stood behind her padding out her dress.

Though he was obviously disturbed by what he was seeing, it being horrific and grotesque, he couldn't help but stare. Tony had suggested getting back into watching TV and especially reality TV to help him readjust into the western world.

Bruce, though being not nearly as bad as Steve or Thor, had spent the last ten years on the run and away from things like TV. The last thing he remembered watching was American Idol and that was about the it really. 

Giving a wince as the kid began to cry over the fact that her eyeliner wasn't winged like her older sisters (who was only about 7 years old herself) Bruce shook his head and looked at the list on Tivo that Tony had compiled for him