The disclaimer telling all of you that I don't own any X-Men Evolution characters is buried somewhere. Time to bump up the plot a little. Not much, just enough to make you think I have a clue of what I'm doing. Even though I don't.
Run Like An Egyptian
"You know when I agreed that our two teams would try and do something together this weekend, this is not what I had in mind!" Pietro folded his arms. He was in uniform and in a darkened tomb lit by the electronic lights the two teams had brought. "I was thinking more along the lines of going to the mall. Going to a ball game. Maybe take in a show…"
"What? Hanging out in a real Egyptian Tomb in Egypt isn't fun for you?" Kurt asked.
"Not when the tomb is said to be one of Apocalypse's hangouts!" Pietro bristled. "I mean why are we really here? Apocalypse is gone! Kaput! We beat him!"
"Yeah but there's a chance he could come back," Scott said. "And when he does we'll be ready for him."
"What are we gonna to Summers? Find his old tax returns and audit him?" Todd quipped.
"We checked the East side of the Tomb, nothing," Lance said as more Brotherhood and X-Men returned from another section. "Just a whole bunch of hieroglyphics telling everyone how great Apocalypse was!"
"Historically it was a boon," Hank said. "Otherwise I agree with Avalanche."
"We must continue to search the entire tomb," Magneto said. "There must be something in here we can use."
"We were lucky Beast's archeologist friend found it," Logan grunted. "We can't be too careful when Apocalypse is concerned. He almost took over the planet once. He ain't gonna get a second chance."
He looked at the group. For the X-men there was Hank, Kitty, Scott, Jean, Kurt and Bobby. For the Brotherhood there was Magneto, Lance, Todd, Pietro, Wanda, Fred and Pyro. "We should try and split up again."
"I would not advise it," Hank said. "There may be a lot of hidden traps. It was just luck that we were able to disarm several already."
"It's called skill," Magneto said. "I sensed the metal traps with my powers and I deactivated them."
"I got skills too Bucket Head!" Logan growled as he shot out his claws, clearly annoyed with Magneto's presence.
"Oh by all means, threaten the Master of Magnetism with metal claws," Magneto said dryly. "See how far that gets you!"
"And they were all worried about us getting along," Lance rolled his eyes.
"Gee I wonder why we're always fighting whenever we get together?" Jean asked sarcastically. "No wonder Rogue didn't want to come."
"Look at the bright side," Kitty said. "At least when we have to write those stupid what I did during the Summer essays we'll have something interesting to write about."
"More interesting than Pyro burning our front lawn and fighting that giant lobster?" Kurt gave her a look.
"At least it's a little more believable," Kitty said.
"Looking for clues on the world's first mutant and how to defeat him if he ever comes back from beyond time and space is believable?" Bobby asked.
"You could always leave that part out," Pyro suggested. "Just say you went on an archeological expedition."
"Technically that's true," Kurt agreed.
"Oh and it will be something to tell Peter when he gets to the Institute," Kitty grinned, almost squealing with excitement.
"As if you haven't been e-mailing him every other hour," Bobby mocked. "Kitty you've practically become his girlfriend overnight!"
"Oh this trip is getting better by the minute," Lance grumbled.
"You would think that for a well hidden tomb there would be some buried treasure around here," Pietro grumbled. "Nothing! Not even a single crown or a gold necklace or something!"
"This isn't about treasure, Quicksilver," Hank said.
"What good is running around an Egyptian tomb if you can't find any treasure?" Todd asked.
"I don't suppose if they did have any treasure it would be some cookies would it?" Fred groaned. "I'm hungry!"
"Blob! You had three bags of chips ten minutes ago!" Kitty protested.
"So? I'm still hungry!" Fred pouted. "I'm a growing boy."
"People usually grow up, not out Blob!" Bobby joked.
"Well there's gotta be some food around here somewhere," Fred looked around.
"Yeah Blob they usually keep well stocked vending machines in pyramids," Pietro groaned.
"Hey this looks like…" Fred found a lever and pressed on it. Suddenly it seemed he turned to stone in a flash.
"BLOB! OH NO! What happened to him?" Everyone screamed.
"Freddy! No! Freddy!" Todd cried out as he leapt on him. "Speak to me man! Speak to me!"
"He's a statue Toad! He can't talk!" Scott snapped.
"Oh buddy! Buddy! What am I gonna do without you? What am I gonna do?" Todd yelled.
"Toad! This is no time for panicking!" Hank said.
"My best friend is a lawn ornament! Of course this is the time for panicking!" Todd yelled.
"Hey guys! I can't find any chips in here either," Fred's voice was heard.
"Blob will you forget your stomach for one…" Pietro did a double take. "Blob?"
"Maybe I was wrong?" Scott blinked. "Maybe statues can talk?"
"I don't think so," Jean focused. "He's on the other side of that wall!"
"Freddy! Can you hear us?" Todd asked as he ran to the wall.
"Yeah but I can't find any food," Fred grumbled. "Or a door. Oh wait I know!"
"Blob wait! Don't…" Hank cautioned.
CRASH! SMASH! CRASH!
"That was easy," Fred broke through the wall.
"Never mind," Hank took out a scanner. "Fortunately that was not a load bearing wall. In fact, that wall seemed rather thin. Well relatively compared to most pyramid walls."
"Freddy!" Todd hopped on him, giving him a big hug. "Don't ever do that to me again!"
"Do what?" Fred asked.
"Never mind Blob," Wanda groaned. "And people wonder why there aren't that many girls in the Brotherhood!"
"So what happened?" Bobby asked. "I mean, how do you explain…?" He pointed to the statue of Fred.
"Whoa! I don't know much about art! But I know what I like," Fred admired it.
"The lever must be attached to a device made for transporting people or objects," Magneto said.
"So it's not a turning people into stone device, but a teleportation device?" Todd asked.
"It appears so," Hank checked it out with his instruments. "Highly experimental. The algorithms are slightly off so it leaves behind a solid residue of the person who goes through it."
"In other words…?" Bobby asked.
"It makes stone statues of whoever goes through it," Todd said. "Like Nightcrawler's mom!"
"You know I wondered how Mystique was put together so fast after she was shattered into tiny little pieces," Kitty said.
"I thought it was her enhanced shape shifting," Jean said.
"Jean not even the best shape shifter can pull themselves from a million pieces back like a jigsaw puzzle!" Lance said.
"Hey there's a lot of weird statues in that other room," Fred pointed.
"Let's check it out," Logan and the others walked in. There were several giant statutes of Apocalypse and Egyptian Gods all over the place.
"Be careful," Logan said. "Who knows what kind of…"
CLICK!
Everyone tensed as Pietro stepped on a stone. "Oops!" Pietro gulped as the statues' eyes started to glow.
"Booby traps…" Logan finished.
"Set off by a boob," Wanda glared at Pietro.
"Oh goody! More giant Egyptian robots to attack us," Pyro said as the statues advanced. "Just like last time!"
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Pietro zoomed off.
"So much for sticking together," Jean groaned.
"You know he did this the last time we were in an Egyptian Tomb," Scott groaned.
"Some things never change," Lance groaned.
"And he wonders why I never put him in charge any more?" Magneto sighed. He attempted to use his powers to destroy the machines. "What? They're not made out of metal!"
"How is that possible?" Lance shouted.
"It just is!" Magneto fumed.
"Just hit them with whatever you got!" Scott shouted.
Scott used his optic blasts, Jean used her telekinesis to try and knock down a robot with another robot. Wanda used her hex blasts to make one malfunction. Kitty tried to phase through one of the robots but couldn't so Kurt had to teleport her out of the way. Bobby used his ice blasts and Logan had trouble with his claws tearing at them. Lance used his powers to knock a few back. Magneto found some metal to attack the robots. Pyro tried to burn them but it didn't work.
Fred tried to use his strength but he was knocked backwards. That left Hank, Todd, Kitty, Kurt and Pyro to run around trying not to get squashed. "This trip is not what I call a smashing success!" Hank yelled.
"We're all gonna die! We're all gonna….AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Todd yelled as he fell down a trap door.
"That's one way to escape," Kurt groaned. "Kitty is this exciting enough for you to write in those stupid reports?"
"Shut up and hold my hand!" Kitty grabbed his hand and they phased through a wall.
Pietro zoomed in carrying a large laser gun. "QUICKSILVER TO THE RESCUE!" He crowed as he shot the laser at one of the robots, knocking it back.
"Where did you get that?" Wanda yelled.
"From the X-Jet! What you really didn't think I'd just abandon you did you?" Pietro yelled.
"Who are you trying to kid?" Lance snapped as he used his powers to knock down more robots. Suddenly the walls started to shake. "Uh oh…"
"What do you mean, uh oh?" Jean shouted.
"He means the whole place is going to come down!" Scott shouted. "EVERYBODY RUN!"
They all managed to get out of the room before the walls collapsed. Fortunately the robots were destroyed behind them. "Is everyone all right?" Hank asked.
"Define 'all right'?" Bobby groaned.
"Except for Toad it looks like we're all here," Scott sighed. "Lucky for us those robots were trapped when the room collapsed."
"And even luckier we didn't get killed and the pyramid didn't crash down on our heads!" Logan glared at Avalanche.
"Hey it got the job done didn't it?" Lance snapped. "Besides you weren't exactly making much of a dent in 'em!"
"Will you guys please stop fighting and focus?" Wanda snapped.
"Yeah we need to try and find Toad," Kitty said.
"Why?" Bobby snickered.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Todd ran as five giant golden lions chased after him. "HELP ME!"
"That answers that question," Lance groaned. "Because odds are, Toad will make things worse!"
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Todd yelled. "OKAY MAYBE I DID DO IT! BUT NOT ON PURPOSE! SAVE ME!"
"CHILL OUT!" Bobby shot out an ice wall behind Todd but the golden lions burst through it. "Okay so that didn't work!"
Suddenly the five lions combined and before anyone knew it, there was a giant golden robot in front of them. "Just when I thought this day could not get any weirder…" Kitty groaned.
"Oh goody, Toad found the origins of Voltron!" Kurt yelled.
"Funny, I always thought Voltron was Japanese," Pyro scratched his head.
"Here we go…" Scott prepared to blast when suddenly the robot stopped in it's tracks. "Again?"
"Gold is a form of metal, remember?" Magneto sighed as he used his powers. "This one I can handle!"
By focusing his powers to the limit he tore apart the metal monstrosity into tiny bits that scattered all over the floor. "All right! I knew there was some treasure around here!" Pietro whooped.
CRASH!
The giant robots from the other room burst through the wall. "And they're back!" Pietro groaned. The mutants tried to fight them off again.
And again Lance had to use his powers. "I've got this!" He knocked some robots back. But that wasn't all he did.
"AVALANCHE YOU FOOL!" Magneto shouted. "YOU ARE GOING TO BRING DOWN THE ENTIRE PYRAMID ON US!"
"I always knew Rogue was the smart one of our group!" Jean groaned. "No wonder she didn't want to come!"
"RUN!" Pietro screamed.
The mutants barely made it out of the pyramid before it was completely destroyed. Everyone glared at Lance as what was left of it sunk into the sand. "What?" Lance asked.
"Well that was a total waste of time!" Pietro fumed after the Brotherhood returned to Magneto's base. "We spend an entire day running around underground getting shot at by ancient Egyptian Sentinels and all we got to show for it are blisters, scorch marks on our uniforms and cobwebs in our hair! I knew this was a stupid idea!"
"I'm with you," Lance grumbled as he threw off his helmet. "A whole lot of aggravation over nothing! We came back empty handed."
"Well not completely empty handed," Todd pulled out a necklace with a large red gem inside. "Here Snookums! I got this for you!" He held it out for Wanda to see. "See it matches your outfit!"
"Toad where did you get this?" Wanda was stunned.
"Remember when we split up and were running around from those giant robots?" Todd asked. "Well I fell down this passage way and I ended up in this chamber and there it was."
"Toad, was this the reason those stupid lion robots were chasing you?" Lance groaned.
"Maybe," Todd gulped.
"Let me see that!" Magneto used his powers to take the necklace and examine it.
"Okay so I stole it! But it's not like I was gonna keep it for myself!" Todd whined.
"You still shouldn't have taken it!" Wanda chastised him.
"Actually Wanda, for once Toad did something right," Magneto smiled. "This is no ordinary gemstone. I sense great power within it."
"So yeah I did good," Todd nodded. "Uh we're not gonna tell the X-Men about this are we?"
"No, we are not," Magneto said. For a brief moment he thought he saw an image of a bird of fire in the gemstone. "Let's just say Toad found us a potential ace in the hole, in case our truce with Xavier and his team dissolves."
"But if it doesn't?" Wanda asked. "What then? I don't know…"
"Hey come on Sis! What Xavier doesn't know won't hurt us," Pietro said.
"Yeah and even if we can use it as a weapon for once we'll totally have an edge over those X-Men!" Lance said. "You think they would tell us about all their secrets? They got files and weapons hidden in that mansion of there's we don't even know about! So what's one little rock they don't know about?"
"Yeah and even if they don't know, so what?" Fred asked. "What harm can one little rock do?"
"What harm indeed?" Magneto grinned as once again the image of a fire bird shone inside the gem.