The Bringing of Maturity
(Note from the author: This story is focused immediately following The Cauldron. It takes place in the time period between the Cauldron and the beginning of the second season)
The burning sun seemed to be in hiding as hundreds of clouds covered most of the glowing orb from view. Shadowed grounds were densely populated around the large city of Bayville, not an unfamiliar sight to residents of the New York area. Most commuters had heard the bulk of weathermen predict rain for later in the afternoon, but few heeded the statement. Rain wasn't uncommon to them, and a little water did little to hamper the minds of most people. To the perky teenagers who were droning forward in Bayville High School, however, the rain was a bad omen of sorts. A rainy day, particularly a Monday, meant bad things would happen in the coming mind. Such superstitions could easily cloud the otherwise intelligent thoughts of many high-schoolers, but a few students enjoyed the thought of incoming rain.
Within one of the dozens of classrooms, a bored teenager flicked a small paper ball around in his hands repeatedly while a harried elder man in front of the classroom scribbled on a chalkboard, lecturing steadily about the subjunctive tense of the French language. The boy sighed. He was a tall young man of eighteen, and his scraggly appearance made him appear much older to most students who knew him. For the majority of teachers, however, the ripped up jeans and the heavy black boots he wore were enough to tell them that he was little more than a hood. Finally tired of his paper, the boy flicked it off the table, taking the opportunity to straighten the black, fingerless gloves he was wearing. He ran them through his dark brown hair and closed his eyes, opening them again immediately after.
How much time do we have in this freaking class? He thought to himself. He shot a quick glance to the clock that had been placed above his goal, the exit door. 3:04, the clock read. The boy grinned and rubbed his hands together. Only three more minutes of unadulterated torture before he was free to go home. He had had a hell of a weekend, so nightmarish that he had actually been looking forward to school. Once the morning bell had rung, however, he found himself aching to get out and just lie down in his bed for a few hours.
The boy laid back in his seat and sighed again. An Asian girl, who was seated in front of him turned around and smiled mischievously. "Geez, Lance," she said in a saccharine, upbeat voice, "You're ready to get out of here, aren't you?"
Lance grunted and leaned forward. "You bet your ass I am, Jasmine. Mr. King is the most fucking horrible French teacher on Earth. I just want to get some sleep..."
The boy stopped short of completing his sentence when he saw his teacher staring straight at him. Damn, Lance thought quickly. King may be a crappy teacher, but he's got a great ear. He straightened in his seat and looked down, waiting for his teacher to begin reprimanding him.
"Mr. Alvers," His teacher began in a craggy voice, "Je vois que mon francais est tres ennuyeux pour toi, non?" He finished with a smile.
Lance began sweating. This is a test, he thought. If I can figure out what the hell he just said, than I'll be off the hook for talking. After a few moments, he began speaking nervously. "Uh...No, I'm not...um...Is 'ennuyeux' bored?" He tried to appear interesting by asking a question.
Mr. King nodded. "Oui."
Lance nodded, relieved. He was fairly sure what to say. "Good. No, I'm not bored with your French at all."
The teacher allowed a small grin to creep across his face. "Excellent, Lance. I didn't think that you'd be able to piece that together. Well done." He turned to face the rest of the class. "And we can finish on that inspirational little note. You'll have the rest of the period...All minute and a half of it...to goof off." He sat down in his desk, and immediately after the classroom of thirty-one students erupted into a flood of talk.
Lance smirked and sat back again. It wasn't often that he was able to get out of trouble by actually knowing stuff related to the class, so when he did, he always felt somewhat proud. The feeling of pride was soon eclipsed by his growing desire to create a chasm right under Mr. King's desk. With that, Lance began toying with the thought of create a nice little earthquake to eliminate all of his teachers. After all, he toyed with his own thoughts, it's not everyone who has the mutant power to create tremors and earthquakes, so why not use it?
Suddenly Lance heard a piercing sound plunge into the classroom via the speaker that was hung on the ceiling of the room. Instinctively taking it as a reminder that class was over, Lance shoved both his French book and his red binder into his binder and stood up. He stuck his arms in the air, causing his black T-shirt to ride up slightly over his stomach. After a moment of relief, Lance hoisted his backpack over his shoulders and hastily exited the room. He knew that if was late getting to the parking lot, than his riding mates would give him shit to no end.
Lance joined the wave of students who were on their way to the parking lot, hoping to avoid half an hour dodging erratic drivers and flipping bastards off. As Lance walked, he spotted several faces of people that he knew, but said nothing to any of them. His mind had reverted to thinking about what had happened the previous weekend, and every time he began thinking about that he let his mind wander.
"Yo, Lance!" Hearing his name interrupted Lance's thoughts. A familiar voice had called him out from behind. Lance stepped onto a nearby field and grass and waited for the inevitable figure to approach him. A second or two passed before a small boy was able to push his way through the masses and get within normal conversation distance with Lance. The boy was deathly pale, and very short. Lance had guessed that he couldn't be taller than 5'7", and the fact that the boy walked with a hunched back made him appear even shorter. He had a terrible odor to him, but people passing by couldn't tell if it was because of him or because of the filthy clothes he wore, consisting mainly of tattered jeans, a dark V-neck sweater and a T-shirt that had been stained so badly that a light brown hue had permanently replaced most of the former white color. Lance, who was used to the stench, waved a bit to him.
"How's it going, Todd." He replied flatly. "How you doing?"
Todd shrugged and straightened his long arms. "Eh, okay, I guess. School sucks, ya know?" He said, dropping backpack on the ground and beginning to rifle through it.
"Yeah, I know." Lance said. "Well, remember, you're just a freshman. You've still got three years after this one's out."
"Fuck off." Todd grinned. "Think I don't know that? Three more years in this shitload. But oh well. It's March now, right?" He pulled a black, circular piece of metal out of the front pocket of his backpack as he spoke.
Lance nodded. "Yeah, it's the third, I think. A couple more months, and we're out of here for the whole damn summer.
"Sick. We doing anything? You know, like, vacations or somethin'?" Todd asked. He slid a pair of headphones over his ears and pressed a button on the metallic CD player. A second later, a burst of grinding guitars and massive bass erupted from the headphones. The sound was so loud that every student from a fifteen foot radius turned to see where it came from.
"Yeah, we've got a great vacation. We're going to work our asses off to get some money saved up. Sounds fun, right?" Lance grinned slyly.
Todd rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm down for working and that shit. Better than sitting on my ass and sucking flies down."
Lance shook his head. "Damn, dude, how the fuck can you listen to that shit and me at the same time?"
The younger boy shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe toads have good ears."
"Obviously. What is that, anyway?"
"Fugazi. Fucking awesome band, yo. Too bad I'm probably the only damn kid in the school who knows who they are."
"Yeah." Lance nodded, not wanting to say that he'd never heard of them either. "So, you seen Fred or Pietro around? They should have been here by now."
Todd, not listening anymore, turned around and grinned. He looked back at Lance with pale yellow eyes. "Heh, you must be psychic or somethin'."
"Huh?" Lance turned as well, seeing a massive boy lumbering towards them. He was monstrously obese, so much so that his walk resembled more than that of a duck's waddle. A blond mohawk was sported on the boy's head, and his chubby hands were busy stuffing his face from a bag of potato chips he was carrying. Clad in a green T-shirt and overalls that were easily large enough to clothes any two other students, the boy smiled upon reaching the other two.
"S'up, Fred." Todd said, laying his body down on the grassy field and staring at the sky. His view of the clouds was soon obstructed by Fred standing over him, his gargantuan belly nearly taking up Todd's entire vision.
"Hey, Todd." He replied, lifting the bag to his lips. Shoving the rest of the chips directly down his throat, he finished his snack by letting a monstrous burp escape his lips and dropping the bag to the floor. Lance, turning red with embarrassment by what Fred had done, sighed. "Fred, could you not do that? It gets really fucking annoying."
A frown materialized on Fred's face. He nodded eagerly, his several chins bobbing up and down. "Oh,...uh...yeah, sorry, Lance. Just that school was a real bitch today, and I was really hungry after class, so I got this and..."
"Come on, tubby," Todd groaned. "You ain't fooling anyone. Is there anytime when you're not hungry?"
Fred glared at Todd on the ground. The sight caused Todd to become a bit frightened, as he was sure that if Fred did anything like sit on him, it'd surely be the end of him. Instead, however, Fred shook his head. "Hey, just because I happen to enjoy food doesn't mean I can let a little toad like you be mean to me!" He put an extra emphasis on the final words.
"Whatever." Todd shrugged again, and sat up to prevent his headphones from falling off his ears. After readjusting them, he looked at Lance. "Hey, so where's Quickie? He should have been the first one here, you know."
"Yeah, I know." Lance said. "Well, what does he have sixth period? Is it biology?" After seeing Fred nod in affirmation, Lance sighed. "Damn, I thought so. He told me had to make up a test in bio this morning."
Todd glanced at him quizzically. "Why?"
"Remember?" Fred asked. "Pietro ditched school last Friday."
A light-bulb was lit up in Todd's head and he nodded. "Yeah,
that's right. He was going to get high, right?"
Lance grunted. "Yeah, and that bastard didn't ask me if I wanted to come. I totally would have, too. He said it was free."
"Man, I just don't get how you guys can get into doing stuff like that." Fred said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Lance cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
Fred sat down on the grass as well, causing the earth to shake slightly. He struggled for a moment to collect his thoughts. "It's just...like...doing drugs is the same kind of bad stuff that got all of us in foster homes, and stuff. I don't want to do that kind of thing to myself."
"Oh, please." Todd said. "That stuff ain't gonna do nuthin' to ya. It's just having a good time, yo. Nothing big."
"Yeah, Fred." Lance added. "Plus, you really can't complain about it if you've never done it before."
Fred shrugged slowly. "I guess. Still, I'm fine being the only one out of all of us who doesn't do that kind of thing." He opened his backpack and lifted several candy bars from it, beginning to munch on one of them soon after.
After a few minutes of sitting around, the three boys began to notice the number of students remaining on campus beginning to dwindle. Students had managed to dig themselves out of the parking lot with a minimal of fuss, and before long the only kids remaining on campus were those who had special business to attend to. After about five minutes of waiting, Lance began to lose his patience and began pacing around the grass.
"God, I'm starting to think we should just go ahead and leave without Pietro."
Fred looked at him, apparently alarmed that he'd even think such a thing. "Why would you do that, Lance?"
"I'm getting fucking tired of waiting here. Plus, his legs are probably faster than my crappy old Toyota anyway."
"Seriously." Todd stood up and, seeing no one else in the immediate vicinity, leaped onto a chain link fence nearby. He crawled up ten feet or so effortlessly before reaching the top of it. After staring out for a moment, he jumped back down onto the ground. "The parking lot's almost completely empty. If we leave now, we'll be out of here in no time flat.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash passed through the boys several times before it formed the body of another young man. A tall, clean-cut boy who sported sleek white hair, the muscular boy grinned evilly at the other boys. He wore only a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. "Hey, guys," He said in a rapid fire voice. "Did I miss any thought-provoking conversation among you three geniuses?"
"Shut up, Pietro." Lance said disdainfully. "That test took you fucking long enough to finish, man."
"Yeah, I know. Four whole minutes. It was a real killer, but I think I did good on it, considering it'd take most kids an hour to finish the damn thing."
"Geez, Pietro, do you want me to smash your face in that badly?" Fred asked, looking slightly irritated as he clenched his fist.
Pietro smiled as he put his hands in front of him exaggeratedly. "Woah, big guy, calm down. I'm not trying to insult you badasses or anything. Well, leader," He turned to Lance, "We ready to take off now? I'm starving. Plus, I gotta finish the last chapter of A Clockwork Orange. I didn't get a chance to finish during school and it's driving me nuts."
Todd grunted. "You and your lame-ass books. How in the fuck can you possibly read anything for fun? It's like, impossible for me."
The smile on Pietro's face widened. Oh man, he thought, that's just too easy of a set-up. "Well, seeing that I don't have the brain of an amphibian, it's actually pretty easy to do. You should try it some time. Oh, wait, I forgot. Sorry, Toady." Pietro laughed rubbed his hand across Todd's messy brown hair. The freshman was glowering at Pietro, but said nothing.
Fred finished the last of his candy bars and shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't really say nothin' since I've been held back a couple of grades, but I've tried reading and I thought it was too boring and stuff. I'd rather just watch TV."
Pietro, immediately devising another vicious cut-down, allowed a quick look at Lance, who shook his hand. Pietro decided to quit while he was ahead. "Yeah, most kids think like that, Fred." He said.
Before anyone could reply to that, the boys heard a flickered sound come over the speakers that had been placed on the various buildings of the school. A secretary soon began speaking over the intercom. "May I have your attention, please." She began in a mechanical voice. "If Lance Alvers, Fred Dukes, Pietro Maximoff and Todd Tolensky are still on campus, please report to the front office as soon as possible. I repeat, will Todd Tolensky, Pietro Maximoff, Fred Dukes and Lance Alvers please come to the front office immediately. Thank you."
The intercom clicked off, and the four boys looked at each other. "What the hell do you think that's about?" Todd asked, turning his CD player off.
"Dunno, but I guess we should go." Fred said, climbing to his feet as well.
"Yeah." Lance said, leading the way. In total silence the four boys began their trek across the school to the front office, where much of the school's administration worked. The four didn't speak to each other along the way, each lost in their own thoughts. By the time they reached the office, each of the four had a different theory as to what was awaiting them.
Lance pushed the door open and walked to the front desk, where he saw an ancient woman hastily typing into a computer. "Um, excuse me," Lance said after a few seconds of waiting. "We were
called to come in."
The old woman looked at the four. "Alvers, Dukes, Maximoff, Tolensky?" After Lance nodded in approval, she handed him a small envelope. "This message was just delivered to you a second ago. It just seemed to appear out of nowhere."
Lance investigated the envelope. Nothing was written on it except for the four names of him and his friends. He thanked the clerk and turned to exit the office, with the other three following excitedly behind him.
"Well? What is it?" Fred asked once they were outside and standing under the flagpole of the school. Lance looked around to see if there were any people walking around the front of the school. He didn't see any, though.
"I bet it's from Mystique, right?" Pietro asked.
Lance shook his head. "No, it's not her handwriting. I remember her signing a paper to get me out of class, and the way she wrote my name is nothing like how it's written here."
"Then open it up, shithead!" Todd called out. After shooting him a dirty look, Lance obliged and cut the top of the envelope. Stuffing it into the pocket of his jeans, he unfolded the elegantly embroidered piece of paper.
"Read it out loud." Pietro urged.
Lance nodded. "All right. It's pretty long, so maybe you should sit down here." The words were hardly out of his mouth before Todd leaned up against the flagpole, Pietro began pacing anxiously and Fred began looking for something to eat. Content, Lance began.
"Dear boys," he started, "I am sorry I was unable to deliver this to you sooner, but I have had pressing business to attend to. As you know, this weekend was quite an ordeal for all of us, and left many unanswered questions. I can assure you all, however, that neither Magneto nor Mystique will be returning to Bayville for a very long while. I know both of them very well, and neither of them will want to face me so soon after such a calamity."
"Who the fuck is this?" Todd snarled.
"Shut up, Toad." Lance said before continuing. "In any event, their disappearance means that you four are without any leadership, as well as a legal guardian. As you may or may not know, it was I who brought you to Bayville in the first place to try and train you in my institute. Your individual declining of my offers were perfectly fine at the time, but now that you no longer have Magneto and Mystique clouding your judgment, I hope you all will reconsider my offer."
Pietro rolled his eyes. "He's gotta be kidding if he thinks..."
"Pietro, shut your hole." Lance growled. "I reached out to all of you with the desire of harnessing your power for the good of the world. I would gladly be willing to let our past differences be just that, a thing of the past. If you are interested in joining the X-Men, feel free to talk to any of my students, and they will tell you what to do. Sincerely, Charles Xavier." Lance finished the letter and folded it up. "Well, guys, what do you think?"
Todd growled, eyeing a fly that had begun hovering above him. In an instant he lashed out his massive tongue, had it stick to the fly, and within nanoseconds he was digesting it. "I say we tell Baldy to go fuck himself. I don't want to join up with that group of little bastards, ya know?"
Lance nodded. "Yeah, maybe, but I don't think it'd be such a horrible thing. What do the rest of you think?"
Pietro shrugged. "I'm cool either way. As long as I got a roof on my head and some munchies, I really don't care."
"Well, what good would it do us to join up with them?" Todd asked.
"For one thing, it'd give us a lot less shit to worry about. Remember, my crappy little job bagging groceries ain't going to pay the bills now that Mystique's gone. If we turn down X, you've all gotta get jobs too."
Todd cringed. "Yeah...But it'd still be better than joining up with the X-Bastards."
"He's probably right." Pietro nodded. "Think how much harder it'd be to have fun with X and Logan and all those guys watching our backs."
Lance thought for a moment, then turned to Fred. "What do you think, big dude? You want to join up with them?"
Fred sat down and rubbed his hands across his chin. "Well, I wouldn't mind joining, but it seems to me like we probably wouldn't get along with too many of the other guys in that group. We've fought a lot of them, remember?"
"Yeah!" Todd cried, leaping onto Fred's statement. "We'd have to deal with Summers and Daniels and Wagner and Grey and all them little shits."
Lance narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists in anger. "Summers..." He turned around to face the other three. "All right, guys, the next chance we get, we tell the X-Men to all go to Hell. Everyone cool with that?"
"Definitely." Todd grinned.
Pietro nodded. "Yeah, I'm down."
"I'm fine either way." Fred finished.
"Cool. In that case, let's head on home, then." Lance said, again leading the four boys on a journey through the school. As they headed through the various areas of the school, the mostly stayed quiet, each lost in their own interpretations of what the letter Xavier had written meant. After a few minutes the group was in the parking lot, a gigantic area covered by countless white lines that designated what was an acceptable place to park and what wasn't.
Lance eventually found his car among the few that were still in the lot, a badly aging topless Ford truck that had been painted a dark blue color when it was new around ten years ago. With the paint chipping now, and many of the controls on it broken, it could have easily gone into the junkyard had Lance not snatched it up with the pocket money he had saved from his job. He pulled the driver's door open, not needing the key, and hopped in the front seat. The car drooped a bit or two when Fred lowered his massive bulk into the front passenger's seat, and once Pietro and Todd had gathered in the back seats, Lance turned the key and revved the engine. Expectedly, the car lurched forward and the four, none of which had bothered to use their seat belts, all flew forward in their seats before gaining their composure. Lance peeled out of the lot and headed down the main street of Bayville that would eventually lead them to their home.
Several minutes passed with the boys still silent. Lance noticed that Todd had slipped his headphones on again, something he often did to avoid conversation. Pietro was totally absorbed in another of his books, and Fred had somehow managed to stuff even more food into his backpack to eat now. Lance was then the only one forced to pay attention to what was happening on the road, and he made a concentrated effort not to do anything wild. While Mystique had been around, he could pretty much do anything he wanted with the cars they had and she'd foot the bill. With his former boss gone, however, he would have to pay for any damages himself. Pay it with precious money that'd have to go towards buying food, Lance thought quietly.
His cautiousness vanished immediately once he spotted something off in the distance. It was a red sports car a few lengths in front of his own car. Lance, unable to resist the devilish urges inside him, slammed down the gas pedal and sped up ferociously, narrowing missing plowing his truck into a beige-colored SUV. Navigating his way around wildly, he hurried to speed up.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Todd screamed, leaning forward from his back seat. Lance stuck a hand out behind him and swatted at the younger boy.
"Don't worry, Toady. This'll all be worth it." Lance swerved around a motorcycle and finally got his car slowed down. He was a stoplight now, with the red car next to him. Lance turned around to see three familiar faces in it.
Lance honked his horn. "Hey, Scott!"
The driver of the red car turned around, his sunglasses reflecting off the sun. "Lance? What do you want?"
Lance stuck his middle finger out. "You can tell your bald professor to suck my cock! The Brotherhood doesn't work for no one!" He slammed down on the gas again and went straight through the red light. Looking through his rear view mirror, Lance could see Scott conversing with the other two people in his car, an attractive girl their age and a younger boy who resembled an elf.
"Oh, man!" Pietro laughed from the back seat. "Did you see Kurt's face when you gave him the bird, Lance? That was classic!"
Fred chuckled. "Yeah, Jean didn't look too happy either. We really showed them, huh?"
"I'll say," Todd said, easing back into his seat. Lance nodded.
"See, guys, that's why we can't be with the X-Men. They're really just a bunch of stuck-up little pricks. They'd never understand us."
"Geez, that's what I've been telling you all along!" Toad shouted from the backseat. His complaint fell on deaf ears, however, as the other three were eagerly awaiting their return home.
After another five minutes or so of driving, the truck found itself being eased into the driveway of a decrepit house in the back roads of Bayville. A rickety sign had been placed in front of it, but the words on it were unreadable except for two words, written in huge red paint that read 'Boarding House.' Lance parked the truck and stepped out, eager to be done with his driving for the day.
"All right, guys, we're back. Fred, what are you making for dinner?"
The burly boy looked at the sky for a moment. "Well, I could throw together some chicken if we had any. Do we got any?"
Todd shook his head as he exited the car. "Nah, we don't got none. I checked the fridge before we left. All I saw was a jar of mustard and some old bread."
"Damn, not mustard sandwiches again." Pietro groaned. "Joining the X-Men is seeming like a good idea again."
"Shut up, Quickie." Lance muttered. He pulled a leather wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans and began thumbing through it. Finding a few pieces of green paper, he grabbed them and hid his wallet again. "Here, Fred, take these." He shoved the bills in Fred's hands. "There's twenty five smackers right there. Get enough so that we don't die, alright?"
Fred nodded. "Should I go to Grocery Outlet now, then? Cuz I noticed that you were running low on gas, too."
Lance smacked his head. "Fuck, you're right." He gave a pleading look to Pietro and Todd. "Either of you got any cash to spare? If you don't we ain't eating tonight."
Todd chuckled, his pale face looking even whiter against the growing cold. "You guys always make fun of me for stealing, and then you come begging to me like little bitches." He said, pulling several wallets out of his backpack. "I counted them. There's at least fifty between those three."
"Awesome!" Lance said, relieved. He took all the money out of the wallets and put them into his own. By the time he finished, his wallet was bursting, a sight he was happy to see. He placed it into the waiting hands of Fred. "All right, bro, go down to the outlet and get some grub. We'll be waiting."
"Right." Fred got into the front seat of Lance's truck and squeezed around for a bit, trying to get comfortable. Lance tossed him the keys, and finally Fred was pulling out of the driveway and heading down into the main area of town.
Pietro sighed. "Well, now that we're sure that we're going to be eating tonight, how 'bout we head inside? I think Judge Judy's on in a few."
Lance couldn't resist laughing. "Man, you are so pathetic."
"What? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Pietro asked, his eyebrows burrowing in anger as he glared at Lance.
"I mean, you always talk about how smart and how fast and how perfect you are, but you're really just like everyone else. Watching bad TV and shit."
"Hey," Pietro pointed an accusing finger at Lance. "Judge Judy's a hell of a lot better than wrestling and Survivor and all that crap you watch. Now that's trash TV."
"Please." Lance rolled his eyes. "Like you have such better taste than I do."
"Bullshit." Lance snarled. As he felt the anger rising, he felt the urges to control starting earthquakes getting harder. "I swear, Pietro, sometimes you are such a little fuck that I want to tear that stupid smile of yours right off your fucking face."
Pietro moved forward at lightning speed and dealt Lance a hard punch to the stomach. "Well, how about you try it, huh? I'll all open to a fight."
"Hey, guys!" Toad suddenly jumped in between the two. "Knock it off, okay? Please!" He cried. Lance and Pietro glanced down at the freshman, who had a look of pure terror on his face. His eyes had bulged out, and his yellow teeth had twisted his mouth grotesquely. The two juniors couldn't imagine Todd being able to fake such a look of horror, and sighed simultaneously. Lance stuck his hand.
"He's right. Sorry, bro."
Pietro nodded and shook it. "Me too, dude. We both have pretty shitty taste in TV, huh?"
Lance laughed. "Yeah." As he spoke, he felt a tiny droplet of water splash into his hair. He looked up and found the sky to have become a dark gray color. The sun was completely gone now, and it seemed that it wouldn't come back anytime soon.
He motioned towards the front door. "All right, guys, unless you want a shower, let's get inside." He opened the door and headed inside. Pietro and Todd followed. As if on cue, only seconds after the three were inside, a massive rain cloud burst above Bayville, and before long the entire area was doused in the cold water.
(Note from the author: This story is focused immediately following The Cauldron. It takes place in the time period between the Cauldron and the beginning of the second season)
The burning sun seemed to be in hiding as hundreds of clouds covered most of the glowing orb from view. Shadowed grounds were densely populated around the large city of Bayville, not an unfamiliar sight to residents of the New York area. Most commuters had heard the bulk of weathermen predict rain for later in the afternoon, but few heeded the statement. Rain wasn't uncommon to them, and a little water did little to hamper the minds of most people. To the perky teenagers who were droning forward in Bayville High School, however, the rain was a bad omen of sorts. A rainy day, particularly a Monday, meant bad things would happen in the coming mind. Such superstitions could easily cloud the otherwise intelligent thoughts of many high-schoolers, but a few students enjoyed the thought of incoming rain.
Within one of the dozens of classrooms, a bored teenager flicked a small paper ball around in his hands repeatedly while a harried elder man in front of the classroom scribbled on a chalkboard, lecturing steadily about the subjunctive tense of the French language. The boy sighed. He was a tall young man of eighteen, and his scraggly appearance made him appear much older to most students who knew him. For the majority of teachers, however, the ripped up jeans and the heavy black boots he wore were enough to tell them that he was little more than a hood. Finally tired of his paper, the boy flicked it off the table, taking the opportunity to straighten the black, fingerless gloves he was wearing. He ran them through his dark brown hair and closed his eyes, opening them again immediately after.
How much time do we have in this freaking class? He thought to himself. He shot a quick glance to the clock that had been placed above his goal, the exit door. 3:04, the clock read. The boy grinned and rubbed his hands together. Only three more minutes of unadulterated torture before he was free to go home. He had had a hell of a weekend, so nightmarish that he had actually been looking forward to school. Once the morning bell had rung, however, he found himself aching to get out and just lie down in his bed for a few hours.
The boy laid back in his seat and sighed again. An Asian girl, who was seated in front of him turned around and smiled mischievously. "Geez, Lance," she said in a saccharine, upbeat voice, "You're ready to get out of here, aren't you?"
Lance grunted and leaned forward. "You bet your ass I am, Jasmine. Mr. King is the most fucking horrible French teacher on Earth. I just want to get some sleep..."
The boy stopped short of completing his sentence when he saw his teacher staring straight at him. Damn, Lance thought quickly. King may be a crappy teacher, but he's got a great ear. He straightened in his seat and looked down, waiting for his teacher to begin reprimanding him.
"Mr. Alvers," His teacher began in a craggy voice, "Je vois que mon francais est tres ennuyeux pour toi, non?" He finished with a smile.
Lance began sweating. This is a test, he thought. If I can figure out what the hell he just said, than I'll be off the hook for talking. After a few moments, he began speaking nervously. "Uh...No, I'm not...um...Is 'ennuyeux' bored?" He tried to appear interesting by asking a question.
Mr. King nodded. "Oui."
Lance nodded, relieved. He was fairly sure what to say. "Good. No, I'm not bored with your French at all."
The teacher allowed a small grin to creep across his face. "Excellent, Lance. I didn't think that you'd be able to piece that together. Well done." He turned to face the rest of the class. "And we can finish on that inspirational little note. You'll have the rest of the period...All minute and a half of it...to goof off." He sat down in his desk, and immediately after the classroom of thirty-one students erupted into a flood of talk.
Lance smirked and sat back again. It wasn't often that he was able to get out of trouble by actually knowing stuff related to the class, so when he did, he always felt somewhat proud. The feeling of pride was soon eclipsed by his growing desire to create a chasm right under Mr. King's desk. With that, Lance began toying with the thought of create a nice little earthquake to eliminate all of his teachers. After all, he toyed with his own thoughts, it's not everyone who has the mutant power to create tremors and earthquakes, so why not use it?
Suddenly Lance heard a piercing sound plunge into the classroom via the speaker that was hung on the ceiling of the room. Instinctively taking it as a reminder that class was over, Lance shoved both his French book and his red binder into his binder and stood up. He stuck his arms in the air, causing his black T-shirt to ride up slightly over his stomach. After a moment of relief, Lance hoisted his backpack over his shoulders and hastily exited the room. He knew that if was late getting to the parking lot, than his riding mates would give him shit to no end.
Lance joined the wave of students who were on their way to the parking lot, hoping to avoid half an hour dodging erratic drivers and flipping bastards off. As Lance walked, he spotted several faces of people that he knew, but said nothing to any of them. His mind had reverted to thinking about what had happened the previous weekend, and every time he began thinking about that he let his mind wander.
"Yo, Lance!" Hearing his name interrupted Lance's thoughts. A familiar voice had called him out from behind. Lance stepped onto a nearby field and grass and waited for the inevitable figure to approach him. A second or two passed before a small boy was able to push his way through the masses and get within normal conversation distance with Lance. The boy was deathly pale, and very short. Lance had guessed that he couldn't be taller than 5'7", and the fact that the boy walked with a hunched back made him appear even shorter. He had a terrible odor to him, but people passing by couldn't tell if it was because of him or because of the filthy clothes he wore, consisting mainly of tattered jeans, a dark V-neck sweater and a T-shirt that had been stained so badly that a light brown hue had permanently replaced most of the former white color. Lance, who was used to the stench, waved a bit to him.
"How's it going, Todd." He replied flatly. "How you doing?"
Todd shrugged and straightened his long arms. "Eh, okay, I guess. School sucks, ya know?" He said, dropping backpack on the ground and beginning to rifle through it.
"Yeah, I know." Lance said. "Well, remember, you're just a freshman. You've still got three years after this one's out."
"Fuck off." Todd grinned. "Think I don't know that? Three more years in this shitload. But oh well. It's March now, right?" He pulled a black, circular piece of metal out of the front pocket of his backpack as he spoke.
Lance nodded. "Yeah, it's the third, I think. A couple more months, and we're out of here for the whole damn summer.
"Sick. We doing anything? You know, like, vacations or somethin'?" Todd asked. He slid a pair of headphones over his ears and pressed a button on the metallic CD player. A second later, a burst of grinding guitars and massive bass erupted from the headphones. The sound was so loud that every student from a fifteen foot radius turned to see where it came from.
"Yeah, we've got a great vacation. We're going to work our asses off to get some money saved up. Sounds fun, right?" Lance grinned slyly.
Todd rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm down for working and that shit. Better than sitting on my ass and sucking flies down."
Lance shook his head. "Damn, dude, how the fuck can you listen to that shit and me at the same time?"
The younger boy shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe toads have good ears."
"Obviously. What is that, anyway?"
"Fugazi. Fucking awesome band, yo. Too bad I'm probably the only damn kid in the school who knows who they are."
"Yeah." Lance nodded, not wanting to say that he'd never heard of them either. "So, you seen Fred or Pietro around? They should have been here by now."
Todd, not listening anymore, turned around and grinned. He looked back at Lance with pale yellow eyes. "Heh, you must be psychic or somethin'."
"Huh?" Lance turned as well, seeing a massive boy lumbering towards them. He was monstrously obese, so much so that his walk resembled more than that of a duck's waddle. A blond mohawk was sported on the boy's head, and his chubby hands were busy stuffing his face from a bag of potato chips he was carrying. Clad in a green T-shirt and overalls that were easily large enough to clothes any two other students, the boy smiled upon reaching the other two.
"S'up, Fred." Todd said, laying his body down on the grassy field and staring at the sky. His view of the clouds was soon obstructed by Fred standing over him, his gargantuan belly nearly taking up Todd's entire vision.
"Hey, Todd." He replied, lifting the bag to his lips. Shoving the rest of the chips directly down his throat, he finished his snack by letting a monstrous burp escape his lips and dropping the bag to the floor. Lance, turning red with embarrassment by what Fred had done, sighed. "Fred, could you not do that? It gets really fucking annoying."
A frown materialized on Fred's face. He nodded eagerly, his several chins bobbing up and down. "Oh,...uh...yeah, sorry, Lance. Just that school was a real bitch today, and I was really hungry after class, so I got this and..."
"Come on, tubby," Todd groaned. "You ain't fooling anyone. Is there anytime when you're not hungry?"
Fred glared at Todd on the ground. The sight caused Todd to become a bit frightened, as he was sure that if Fred did anything like sit on him, it'd surely be the end of him. Instead, however, Fred shook his head. "Hey, just because I happen to enjoy food doesn't mean I can let a little toad like you be mean to me!" He put an extra emphasis on the final words.
"Whatever." Todd shrugged again, and sat up to prevent his headphones from falling off his ears. After readjusting them, he looked at Lance. "Hey, so where's Quickie? He should have been the first one here, you know."
"Yeah, I know." Lance said. "Well, what does he have sixth period? Is it biology?" After seeing Fred nod in affirmation, Lance sighed. "Damn, I thought so. He told me had to make up a test in bio this morning."
Todd glanced at him quizzically. "Why?"
"Remember?" Fred asked. "Pietro ditched school last Friday."
A light-bulb was lit up in Todd's head and he nodded. "Yeah,
that's right. He was going to get high, right?"
Lance grunted. "Yeah, and that bastard didn't ask me if I wanted to come. I totally would have, too. He said it was free."
"Man, I just don't get how you guys can get into doing stuff like that." Fred said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Lance cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
Fred sat down on the grass as well, causing the earth to shake slightly. He struggled for a moment to collect his thoughts. "It's just...like...doing drugs is the same kind of bad stuff that got all of us in foster homes, and stuff. I don't want to do that kind of thing to myself."
"Oh, please." Todd said. "That stuff ain't gonna do nuthin' to ya. It's just having a good time, yo. Nothing big."
"Yeah, Fred." Lance added. "Plus, you really can't complain about it if you've never done it before."
Fred shrugged slowly. "I guess. Still, I'm fine being the only one out of all of us who doesn't do that kind of thing." He opened his backpack and lifted several candy bars from it, beginning to munch on one of them soon after.
After a few minutes of sitting around, the three boys began to notice the number of students remaining on campus beginning to dwindle. Students had managed to dig themselves out of the parking lot with a minimal of fuss, and before long the only kids remaining on campus were those who had special business to attend to. After about five minutes of waiting, Lance began to lose his patience and began pacing around the grass.
"God, I'm starting to think we should just go ahead and leave without Pietro."
Fred looked at him, apparently alarmed that he'd even think such a thing. "Why would you do that, Lance?"
"I'm getting fucking tired of waiting here. Plus, his legs are probably faster than my crappy old Toyota anyway."
"Seriously." Todd stood up and, seeing no one else in the immediate vicinity, leaped onto a chain link fence nearby. He crawled up ten feet or so effortlessly before reaching the top of it. After staring out for a moment, he jumped back down onto the ground. "The parking lot's almost completely empty. If we leave now, we'll be out of here in no time flat.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash passed through the boys several times before it formed the body of another young man. A tall, clean-cut boy who sported sleek white hair, the muscular boy grinned evilly at the other boys. He wore only a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. "Hey, guys," He said in a rapid fire voice. "Did I miss any thought-provoking conversation among you three geniuses?"
"Shut up, Pietro." Lance said disdainfully. "That test took you fucking long enough to finish, man."
"Yeah, I know. Four whole minutes. It was a real killer, but I think I did good on it, considering it'd take most kids an hour to finish the damn thing."
"Geez, Pietro, do you want me to smash your face in that badly?" Fred asked, looking slightly irritated as he clenched his fist.
Pietro smiled as he put his hands in front of him exaggeratedly. "Woah, big guy, calm down. I'm not trying to insult you badasses or anything. Well, leader," He turned to Lance, "We ready to take off now? I'm starving. Plus, I gotta finish the last chapter of A Clockwork Orange. I didn't get a chance to finish during school and it's driving me nuts."
Todd grunted. "You and your lame-ass books. How in the fuck can you possibly read anything for fun? It's like, impossible for me."
The smile on Pietro's face widened. Oh man, he thought, that's just too easy of a set-up. "Well, seeing that I don't have the brain of an amphibian, it's actually pretty easy to do. You should try it some time. Oh, wait, I forgot. Sorry, Toady." Pietro laughed rubbed his hand across Todd's messy brown hair. The freshman was glowering at Pietro, but said nothing.
Fred finished the last of his candy bars and shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't really say nothin' since I've been held back a couple of grades, but I've tried reading and I thought it was too boring and stuff. I'd rather just watch TV."
Pietro, immediately devising another vicious cut-down, allowed a quick look at Lance, who shook his hand. Pietro decided to quit while he was ahead. "Yeah, most kids think like that, Fred." He said.
Before anyone could reply to that, the boys heard a flickered sound come over the speakers that had been placed on the various buildings of the school. A secretary soon began speaking over the intercom. "May I have your attention, please." She began in a mechanical voice. "If Lance Alvers, Fred Dukes, Pietro Maximoff and Todd Tolensky are still on campus, please report to the front office as soon as possible. I repeat, will Todd Tolensky, Pietro Maximoff, Fred Dukes and Lance Alvers please come to the front office immediately. Thank you."
The intercom clicked off, and the four boys looked at each other. "What the hell do you think that's about?" Todd asked, turning his CD player off.
"Dunno, but I guess we should go." Fred said, climbing to his feet as well.
"Yeah." Lance said, leading the way. In total silence the four boys began their trek across the school to the front office, where much of the school's administration worked. The four didn't speak to each other along the way, each lost in their own thoughts. By the time they reached the office, each of the four had a different theory as to what was awaiting them.
Lance pushed the door open and walked to the front desk, where he saw an ancient woman hastily typing into a computer. "Um, excuse me," Lance said after a few seconds of waiting. "We were
called to come in."
The old woman looked at the four. "Alvers, Dukes, Maximoff, Tolensky?" After Lance nodded in approval, she handed him a small envelope. "This message was just delivered to you a second ago. It just seemed to appear out of nowhere."
Lance investigated the envelope. Nothing was written on it except for the four names of him and his friends. He thanked the clerk and turned to exit the office, with the other three following excitedly behind him.
"Well? What is it?" Fred asked once they were outside and standing under the flagpole of the school. Lance looked around to see if there were any people walking around the front of the school. He didn't see any, though.
"I bet it's from Mystique, right?" Pietro asked.
Lance shook his head. "No, it's not her handwriting. I remember her signing a paper to get me out of class, and the way she wrote my name is nothing like how it's written here."
"Then open it up, shithead!" Todd called out. After shooting him a dirty look, Lance obliged and cut the top of the envelope. Stuffing it into the pocket of his jeans, he unfolded the elegantly embroidered piece of paper.
"Read it out loud." Pietro urged.
Lance nodded. "All right. It's pretty long, so maybe you should sit down here." The words were hardly out of his mouth before Todd leaned up against the flagpole, Pietro began pacing anxiously and Fred began looking for something to eat. Content, Lance began.
"Dear boys," he started, "I am sorry I was unable to deliver this to you sooner, but I have had pressing business to attend to. As you know, this weekend was quite an ordeal for all of us, and left many unanswered questions. I can assure you all, however, that neither Magneto nor Mystique will be returning to Bayville for a very long while. I know both of them very well, and neither of them will want to face me so soon after such a calamity."
"Who the fuck is this?" Todd snarled.
"Shut up, Toad." Lance said before continuing. "In any event, their disappearance means that you four are without any leadership, as well as a legal guardian. As you may or may not know, it was I who brought you to Bayville in the first place to try and train you in my institute. Your individual declining of my offers were perfectly fine at the time, but now that you no longer have Magneto and Mystique clouding your judgment, I hope you all will reconsider my offer."
Pietro rolled his eyes. "He's gotta be kidding if he thinks..."
"Pietro, shut your hole." Lance growled. "I reached out to all of you with the desire of harnessing your power for the good of the world. I would gladly be willing to let our past differences be just that, a thing of the past. If you are interested in joining the X-Men, feel free to talk to any of my students, and they will tell you what to do. Sincerely, Charles Xavier." Lance finished the letter and folded it up. "Well, guys, what do you think?"
Todd growled, eyeing a fly that had begun hovering above him. In an instant he lashed out his massive tongue, had it stick to the fly, and within nanoseconds he was digesting it. "I say we tell Baldy to go fuck himself. I don't want to join up with that group of little bastards, ya know?"
Lance nodded. "Yeah, maybe, but I don't think it'd be such a horrible thing. What do the rest of you think?"
Pietro shrugged. "I'm cool either way. As long as I got a roof on my head and some munchies, I really don't care."
"Well, what good would it do us to join up with them?" Todd asked.
"For one thing, it'd give us a lot less shit to worry about. Remember, my crappy little job bagging groceries ain't going to pay the bills now that Mystique's gone. If we turn down X, you've all gotta get jobs too."
Todd cringed. "Yeah...But it'd still be better than joining up with the X-Bastards."
"He's probably right." Pietro nodded. "Think how much harder it'd be to have fun with X and Logan and all those guys watching our backs."
Lance thought for a moment, then turned to Fred. "What do you think, big dude? You want to join up with them?"
Fred sat down and rubbed his hands across his chin. "Well, I wouldn't mind joining, but it seems to me like we probably wouldn't get along with too many of the other guys in that group. We've fought a lot of them, remember?"
"Yeah!" Todd cried, leaping onto Fred's statement. "We'd have to deal with Summers and Daniels and Wagner and Grey and all them little shits."
Lance narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists in anger. "Summers..." He turned around to face the other three. "All right, guys, the next chance we get, we tell the X-Men to all go to Hell. Everyone cool with that?"
"Definitely." Todd grinned.
Pietro nodded. "Yeah, I'm down."
"I'm fine either way." Fred finished.
"Cool. In that case, let's head on home, then." Lance said, again leading the four boys on a journey through the school. As they headed through the various areas of the school, the mostly stayed quiet, each lost in their own interpretations of what the letter Xavier had written meant. After a few minutes the group was in the parking lot, a gigantic area covered by countless white lines that designated what was an acceptable place to park and what wasn't.
Lance eventually found his car among the few that were still in the lot, a badly aging topless Ford truck that had been painted a dark blue color when it was new around ten years ago. With the paint chipping now, and many of the controls on it broken, it could have easily gone into the junkyard had Lance not snatched it up with the pocket money he had saved from his job. He pulled the driver's door open, not needing the key, and hopped in the front seat. The car drooped a bit or two when Fred lowered his massive bulk into the front passenger's seat, and once Pietro and Todd had gathered in the back seats, Lance turned the key and revved the engine. Expectedly, the car lurched forward and the four, none of which had bothered to use their seat belts, all flew forward in their seats before gaining their composure. Lance peeled out of the lot and headed down the main street of Bayville that would eventually lead them to their home.
Several minutes passed with the boys still silent. Lance noticed that Todd had slipped his headphones on again, something he often did to avoid conversation. Pietro was totally absorbed in another of his books, and Fred had somehow managed to stuff even more food into his backpack to eat now. Lance was then the only one forced to pay attention to what was happening on the road, and he made a concentrated effort not to do anything wild. While Mystique had been around, he could pretty much do anything he wanted with the cars they had and she'd foot the bill. With his former boss gone, however, he would have to pay for any damages himself. Pay it with precious money that'd have to go towards buying food, Lance thought quietly.
His cautiousness vanished immediately once he spotted something off in the distance. It was a red sports car a few lengths in front of his own car. Lance, unable to resist the devilish urges inside him, slammed down the gas pedal and sped up ferociously, narrowing missing plowing his truck into a beige-colored SUV. Navigating his way around wildly, he hurried to speed up.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Todd screamed, leaning forward from his back seat. Lance stuck a hand out behind him and swatted at the younger boy.
"Don't worry, Toady. This'll all be worth it." Lance swerved around a motorcycle and finally got his car slowed down. He was a stoplight now, with the red car next to him. Lance turned around to see three familiar faces in it.
Lance honked his horn. "Hey, Scott!"
The driver of the red car turned around, his sunglasses reflecting off the sun. "Lance? What do you want?"
Lance stuck his middle finger out. "You can tell your bald professor to suck my cock! The Brotherhood doesn't work for no one!" He slammed down on the gas again and went straight through the red light. Looking through his rear view mirror, Lance could see Scott conversing with the other two people in his car, an attractive girl their age and a younger boy who resembled an elf.
"Oh, man!" Pietro laughed from the back seat. "Did you see Kurt's face when you gave him the bird, Lance? That was classic!"
Fred chuckled. "Yeah, Jean didn't look too happy either. We really showed them, huh?"
"I'll say," Todd said, easing back into his seat. Lance nodded.
"See, guys, that's why we can't be with the X-Men. They're really just a bunch of stuck-up little pricks. They'd never understand us."
"Geez, that's what I've been telling you all along!" Toad shouted from the backseat. His complaint fell on deaf ears, however, as the other three were eagerly awaiting their return home.
After another five minutes or so of driving, the truck found itself being eased into the driveway of a decrepit house in the back roads of Bayville. A rickety sign had been placed in front of it, but the words on it were unreadable except for two words, written in huge red paint that read 'Boarding House.' Lance parked the truck and stepped out, eager to be done with his driving for the day.
"All right, guys, we're back. Fred, what are you making for dinner?"
The burly boy looked at the sky for a moment. "Well, I could throw together some chicken if we had any. Do we got any?"
Todd shook his head as he exited the car. "Nah, we don't got none. I checked the fridge before we left. All I saw was a jar of mustard and some old bread."
"Damn, not mustard sandwiches again." Pietro groaned. "Joining the X-Men is seeming like a good idea again."
"Shut up, Quickie." Lance muttered. He pulled a leather wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans and began thumbing through it. Finding a few pieces of green paper, he grabbed them and hid his wallet again. "Here, Fred, take these." He shoved the bills in Fred's hands. "There's twenty five smackers right there. Get enough so that we don't die, alright?"
Fred nodded. "Should I go to Grocery Outlet now, then? Cuz I noticed that you were running low on gas, too."
Lance smacked his head. "Fuck, you're right." He gave a pleading look to Pietro and Todd. "Either of you got any cash to spare? If you don't we ain't eating tonight."
Todd chuckled, his pale face looking even whiter against the growing cold. "You guys always make fun of me for stealing, and then you come begging to me like little bitches." He said, pulling several wallets out of his backpack. "I counted them. There's at least fifty between those three."
"Awesome!" Lance said, relieved. He took all the money out of the wallets and put them into his own. By the time he finished, his wallet was bursting, a sight he was happy to see. He placed it into the waiting hands of Fred. "All right, bro, go down to the outlet and get some grub. We'll be waiting."
"Right." Fred got into the front seat of Lance's truck and squeezed around for a bit, trying to get comfortable. Lance tossed him the keys, and finally Fred was pulling out of the driveway and heading down into the main area of town.
Pietro sighed. "Well, now that we're sure that we're going to be eating tonight, how 'bout we head inside? I think Judge Judy's on in a few."
Lance couldn't resist laughing. "Man, you are so pathetic."
"What? What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Pietro asked, his eyebrows burrowing in anger as he glared at Lance.
"I mean, you always talk about how smart and how fast and how perfect you are, but you're really just like everyone else. Watching bad TV and shit."
"Hey," Pietro pointed an accusing finger at Lance. "Judge Judy's a hell of a lot better than wrestling and Survivor and all that crap you watch. Now that's trash TV."
"Please." Lance rolled his eyes. "Like you have such better taste than I do."
"Bullshit." Lance snarled. As he felt the anger rising, he felt the urges to control starting earthquakes getting harder. "I swear, Pietro, sometimes you are such a little fuck that I want to tear that stupid smile of yours right off your fucking face."
Pietro moved forward at lightning speed and dealt Lance a hard punch to the stomach. "Well, how about you try it, huh? I'll all open to a fight."
"Hey, guys!" Toad suddenly jumped in between the two. "Knock it off, okay? Please!" He cried. Lance and Pietro glanced down at the freshman, who had a look of pure terror on his face. His eyes had bulged out, and his yellow teeth had twisted his mouth grotesquely. The two juniors couldn't imagine Todd being able to fake such a look of horror, and sighed simultaneously. Lance stuck his hand.
"He's right. Sorry, bro."
Pietro nodded and shook it. "Me too, dude. We both have pretty shitty taste in TV, huh?"
Lance laughed. "Yeah." As he spoke, he felt a tiny droplet of water splash into his hair. He looked up and found the sky to have become a dark gray color. The sun was completely gone now, and it seemed that it wouldn't come back anytime soon.
He motioned towards the front door. "All right, guys, unless you want a shower, let's get inside." He opened the door and headed inside. Pietro and Todd followed. As if on cue, only seconds after the three were inside, a massive rain cloud burst above Bayville, and before long the entire area was doused in the cold water.