49 Unexpected Rescue

"Coming here was a mistake, now you will die."

"You're right." I nod, wrapping my arm tightly around Rogue, who is standing next to me. She makes a slight sound in reaction but does nothing other than that.

"Which is exactly why I'll be leaving now. See you around, kitty cat." I use the entirety of my leftover mana to cast Chains of Restraint on Sabertooth while at the same time using my free hand that isn't holding onto Rogue to shoot a web at the tallest building in reach and pull us away from here.

With no hope of beating the beast, I decided the best course of action would be to just get the fuck out of here. I had no faith that the chains would hold Sabertooth down for long, but it, at the very least, buys us a few seconds to get away as he breaks free of them.

Not expecting to suddenly take flight, Rogue wraps her arms around my neck tightly enough that I almost thought she was trying to strangle me. "Wait, we're just leaving?!?"

"Of course, we're leaving. There was no hope of winning against him. Did you want to just stay around and wait for our death?"

"Well, no, but… usually we just don't run away from fights without finishing them… now that I think about it, that's pretty stupid, huh." She falls silent for a few seconds, looking down at the scenery as I web sling further away from the school before snapping back to reality. "Talking about dying… you doing okay? You look like you are bleeding pretty badly."

"Oh, this? It's just a scratch. I'll be fine after a good rest."

"So you have regenerative mutant powers as well?" Rogue sounds slightly amazed.

"I already said I don't have any mutant powers."

"What else could they be if not mutant powers? To me, it just sounds like you are in denial. Don't worry, I used to be the same way."

"There are other ways to get powers than just being born with them, you know. The Fantastic Four exist, and I don't think they are mutants."

"Well… the professor has his doubts about tha- BEHIND YOU!"

In almost perfect sync with Rogue's shout, spider-sense warns me of something coming straight for the back of my head. Putting extra effort into pulling myself towards the building my web is currently attached to, I just barely get out of the way of an airborne Sabertooth. Missing us, Sabertooth falls down to the streets below, tearing up the road and wrecking cars as he rolls around until his momentum comes to a halt.

"What the fuck? He still hasn't given up? I guess he didn't like us ditching him like that." I increase the speed of my web-slinging as I watch Sabertooth get up from the ground and run at incredible speeds as he stays almost perfectly below us.

"Can you do something to get rid of him?" Rogue asks.

"No, I can't, as you can see, my hands are full with… your, right now." That and I have no mana, but I keep that to myself since Rogue wouldn't understand. "How about you do that earthquake thing again."

"What? No way! I need my hands free for that, which would mean letting go of you. Have you seen how high up we are?"

"Look, it's fine. I'll hold on to you, so you just worry about getting him off our tail."

"Tsk, fine, but if you drop me, I will come back to haunt you if you drop me." Rogue hesitantly lets go of me, first with one hand, then both hands, before focusing on Sabertooth running on the streets.

In no time, a shallow chasm starts appearing in the pavement, snaking itself around most of the cars and people in the streets. In some places, pipes below the ground break, spraying water up to the surface.

Sabertooth leaps over or sidesteps all obstacles created by Rogue for several minutes while still barely managing to keep up with me before evidently having had enough of being on the low ground.

He jumps at the nearest building, digging his claws deep inside the wall. With a few high leaps upwards, he makes it onto the roof of the building. The chasm created by Rogue's powers follows him all the way, but it hardly disturbs him.

"Watch out, I think he is gonna jump again," Rogue warns me.

"Now's the time to hold on tight. Were taking a dive." I say just before letting go of the web and plummeting toward the earth, in hopes of dodging Sabertooth again if he jumps after us.

To my surprise, though, he never does. Moments before we become paste on the ground, I shoot another web and pull us back into the air, and that's when I hear a loud scream of pain from behind.

Turning my head to look back, I find the reason as to why Sabertooth didn't attack. Another man, equally scruffy in appearance, has climbed the building and currently has his claws stuck inside Sabertooth's leg.

"Logan!" Rogue yells. "That's one of my teachers at the boarding school I go to. He should be able to deal with Sabertooth easily."

Huh? Not that I am complaining, but how did he get here? Well, at least this should mean we are safe from Sabertooth's pursuit.

I swing over several more city blocks just to be safe before finding a suitable tall building to land on.

"I think we're safe now," I say, placing Rogue down. Right away, I take out a health potion from my inventory to chug since my health is still dangerously low from the previous fight.

"Right," Rogue says, turning her head away and suddenly avoiding my eyes. "Actually, I have a confession to make."

I open the bottle and drink it while waiting to hear what she wants to say.

"My mutant power is actually that I steal the abilities and memories of those I touch and well… I might have accidentally touched your chest while I was grabbing onto you during our escape."

Hearing her, I almost choke on the potion. "What?"

Sabertooth did tear open my entire costume on the front. Shit. I probably should have thought about this…

"Sorry, Peter, I guess I figured out your secret identity." She scratches the back of her head with a hint of a blush on her face. "I usually don't get close to people like that, but… it just kinda happened in the spur of the moment."

Rather than my secret identity being found out, I had some much more significant concerns. "How many of my memories did you get?"

"Well…" She starts before closing her eyes briefly. "Maybe it's cause I only touched you briefly, but I didn't seem to get much, only a little more than a month's worth… it actually feels strange… almost like there arent any other memories from before then…"

Phew, it seems like she only got memories starting from the day I transmigrated to this world and nothing from the Peter before me. I can pretty confidently say she got nothing from my previous life either since she would be in the middle of an existential crisis right about now after learning that she was a comic book character.

But wait… how did she even get any of my memories? Shouldn't Gamer's Mind protect me from that kind of stuff?

[Gamer's Mind has not detected any mental attacks.]

[Automatically filing this as a bug, please expect a fix in the next system update.]

Thanks, system… a bit late, though. I guess for some reason, Rogue's power was considered different from your run-of-the-mill mind-reading ability.

Now onto my other major concern. "Hey, Anna, could you say 'status' out loud for me?"

"Eh? Status?" She says, tilting her head to the side, looking at me questionably.

"..."

"..."

For several seconds both of us are completely silent.

"Is something supposed to happen?" Rogue finally asks, breaking the silence between us.

"No, nothing, don't worry about it," I wipe some sweat from my forehead. At least the system's existence remains a secret. "Do you want me to drop you off at some bus stop or something? You probably can't wait to get home after all that happened."

Rogue never has to reply as the answer to my question appears on the horizon. A black jet that I remember from the X-men movies flying straight toward us.

"Oh, my ride is here." Rogue laughs briefly before winking. "By the way, I won't reveal your identity as Spiderman to anyone. You did help me out a ton today, after all."

"Thanks," I say simply. Let's just hope the Xavier in this universe isn't the kind of person to go poking around in his students' heads for fun.

The jet reaches us in no time. Turning around and stabilizing on the same height as the roof, the back door opens up to reveal a dark-skinned woman with pure white hair wearing tight leather clothes.

"Storm!" Rogue exclaims happily as she runs up to the woman but makes no physical contact.

"Rogue." Storm smiles, petting Rogue's head, something she is only able to do thanks to wearing gloves. "When Charles said he felt like something was wrong and sent Logan and me to come look for you, I thought he was overreacting, but I'm glad we came."

Hearing Logan's name, Rogue suddenly became alert. "Ah, Logan! He stayed behind fighting Sabertooth, shouldn't we go help him?"

Storm shakes her head. "No need, he already radioed in that Sabertooth ran away. Logan will be here in a moment, then we can all head back to the mansion." She turns to me. "Spiderman, I think you are called. You should come with us too."

"Ah, actually, I-" I am about to make an excuse to go home instead, but an abrupt smell of alcohol fills my nose just as a hand lands on my shoulder, stopping me.

Turning around, a blood-soaked Wolverine is standing uncomfortably close to me. "Look, bub, I stopped drinking beer just to come save you two. The professor has been annoying me by talking about you for days now. The least you could do is meet him, so I'd get some peace, alright? Now get in the plane."

In the end, I didn't really get a choice.