Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men Evolution nor do I own any of Marvel's characters.
Warning: Only the slightest of angst, but only if you squint.
"Mr. Tolanski."
Todd gave a small grunt and opened his eyes a little. Through the cracks, he saw—
"Agh!" The teen flung himself back in complete terror. "You!"
The woman gave a rough sigh, her head tilted slightly back before straightening it to glare down at him. "Yes, it's me, Tolanski. Now would you get out from under there?"
"Nu-uh!" Todd said with a shake of his head as he moved even further into his hiding place. "I'm safe here!"
"You're living like a homeless person. A boy your age should not be living in a cemented tunnel."
"Wh-why do you even care?" Todd asked shakily, keeping an eye on her as he leaned his back against the hard, curved wall. "Thought I wasn't no good tah ya no more."
"Indeed, you did foul up your mission at the Institute, but that does not mean I'm going to allow you to continue living this way." The woman knelt down so Todd could easily see her in the archway, still in her disguise as principal. "I have a place for you to live; rent-free."
Todd's eyes widened. "R-really? I don' gotta pay?"
"I will take care of all of that. This home will be a place for mutants with nowhere else to turn; much like yourself."
Todd glanced down at the bottom of the tunnel, noticing all the bugs skittering around at his feet, briefly tempted to eat a couple, but forced himself to focus on the situation at hand.
There was a pregnant pause as Todd mused over his situation.
Let's see…live in a horrible, lonely ditch for the next few years or go with the scary lady to a place where I can sleep in a warm bed and maybe get some sort of friends?
…as tempting as the ditch seemed versus the scary lady sounded, Todd glanced back up at the woman and with only the slightest hesitation, he said, "Ya got yerself a resident then, lady."
"This will be your new home, Mr. Tolanski," Mystique stated firmly, dragging the teen in by his arm.
Once he was inside, Todd glanced around the boarding house, amazed by the sheer size of it. It wasn't really fancy or anything, but boy, was it big! He could tell it had at least two floors, maybe even with a basement or attic.
He'd never lived in a place so huge before.
"'S'nice…" he muttered, still staring around.
"Glad you think so," the shape-shifter said thickly as she let him go—or rather, threw him. "Go pick out your room."
"Wait!" Todd struggled up to his feet and saw her back was to him. "Where ya goin'?"
"A little trip," the woman answered as she continued out the door. "I'll be back by tomorrow night. Make sure to get to school tomorrow and don't do anything too idiotic."
Todd frowned to himself as she slammed the door shut.
"Alone…again. Why'd I ever expect anything different?" the teen thought to himself grimly before hopping up the stairs.
The next night, Todd was sitting on the stairs, looking bored as ever. He idly watched a cockroach make its way down the stairs beside him. He allowed it to reach the very bottom before shooting his tongue out and bringing the bug into his mouth, eventually swallowing it before giving a sigh.
Suddenly, much to his relief, the door opened.
"There ya are!" Todd exclaimed as he saw the familiar blue-mutant. "Man, I've been sittin' 'round here half the day, bored outta mah—"
"Quiet, Toad," Mystique snapped coldly and the frog-like mutant shut his mouth in fear of the fierceness in her eyes. "Now, I want you to welcome your new housemate." She stepped aside and gestured to a young man Todd had never seen before. "This is Lance Alvers; codename, Avalanche."
The guy had a dark, edgy look to him, his hands covered by fingerless black gloves and he wore a casual, smooth expression. He looked around Todd's age, but definitely a little older. He very much reminded Todd of those guys who would stand behind the school building and get high or something.
To Todd, he looked kinda cool.
"Hey," the new guy said quietly, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Yo," Todd said in reply, trying to lean into the stairs casually, but ended up bumping his head on the step above. "Oww…"
Mystique rolled her eyes before gesturing to him. "This is Todd Tolanski; codename, Toad."
"Ya can jus' call me Toad, yo," Todd said as he rubbed his head before pulling himself upright and flinging his body over until he was directly in front of the other teen who flinched in obvious surprise before relaxing.
"You can call me Lance," the young man stated. "What can you do? Is that hopping thing—"
"Yeah!" Todd exclaimed, feeling excited that someone this cool-looking was talking to him. "I can do that, I can make dis killer slime, and—" He stuck his tongue out, quickly hitting the very end of it on a spot near the doorway where Mystique was still standing (he ignored her grimace of disgust) before bringing his tongue back into his mouth. "—that."
Lance blinked in shock at the other teen before actually smiling a little. "That's pretty cool."
Todd couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. "Thanks. What can you do?"
Lance's grin broadened before holding out his hands and began to shake them slightly…as did the rest of the house. Todd shrieked a bit in fear at the sudden earthquake as Lance's eyes rolled upward in concentration.
"Stop it, Mr. Alvers!" Mystique ordered.
Immediately, the shaking grew less and less as the rock-tumbler placed his hands down in slight exhaustion and looked back at the shape-shifter. "I wasn't trying to—"
"Silence," the woman stated stiffly. "For as long as you live here, you will do best to keep your powers under control."
Lance looked upset by the order, Todd seeing his hands balling up into fists, but the dark-haired teen managed to keep himself in check and instead glared softly at the ground.
"Now, I need to get back to the school tonight. I trust you will both continue to get settled?"
Todd and Lance found themselves glancing at each other before looking back at Mystique.
"Sure."
"Whatevah."
"Good," Mystique said, narrowing her eyes slightly at the boys before heading out, shutting the door behind her.
Todd and Lance stood in an awkward silence for a few long moments before Todd suggested, "You'd bettah choose one of the good rooms upstairs before somebody else does."
"Yeah," Lance agreed as the two headed up the stairs, side by side. "How many people do you think are gonna be here?"
"I don't know, man," Todd said as he hopped over the last few steps. "Mystique didn't tell me nothin'."
"Yeah…is she…?"
"She's always like that. I'd get used tah it."
A/N: I know, I know, Moon, stop making so many X-Men fanfics, you can't possibly keep track of them all. Yeah, I know. BUT I CAN'T HELP IT! I'm having too much fun! With finals coming up, writing fanfiction snippets once a day has really helped me. I know I have other work to do, but I didn't get much of a break since I had to work on that English presentation (did it today, I think I did good!), so I have some downtime now and definitely tomorrow after classes I will.
So, this is a new series I'm starting and it's basically from the beginning of the Brotherhood's journey from meeting and becoming a team to...whenever. I might just go until Apocalypse, it really depends if I get bored. Most likely, I'll probably just have it until the end of the series.
For this chapter, we have that little cutie, Toad and Lance appearing and meeting each other. I feel like Todd would definitely look up to Lance because the guy has been shown to be a rebel, "raised on the wrong side of the tracks" kind of guy and Todd, especially when he's with his team, becomes much more brave and creates this sort of "wise-guy" attitude. I think it makes him feel bigger or something.
This entire series is going to be from the Brotherhood's perspective of all the events going on all four seasons. I'm not trying to pain them as misunderstood or anything (let's face it, these d-bags go looking for trouble half the time), but I've always found the Brotherhood much more fun and interesting than the X-Men and thought it would be cool to get there point of view on what was happening. As for any of the episodes they are not featured in (like the one with Cyclops and Alex stranded in the ocean or the one with Danielle Moonstar), I'll make up my own storyline for what they were doing during that episode.
For the next chapter, we'll have the goings-on for the episode "Mutant Crush"! Thanks for reading and leave a review if you would like! I'm open to any suggestions!
