Chapter 2

Stranger's Laboratory

I awoke with a splitting headache. As my vision came about, I noticed that in my involuntary slumber, Stranger had relocated us to some place entirely different then that very odd wasteland he had teleported us to previously. I slowly looked around, examining my surroundings.

I was being trapped in a giant cell made of orange energy. The prison reminded me of a birdcage. I found myself becoming very agitated by the fact that Magneto, Master of Magnetism, had found himself stuck in a birdcage! When looking past the cell, it appeared we had been transported to a great abyss of seemingly nothingness. I looked out and saw nothing but a void of dark purple light with sparkles of green and red all around. I can only assume that this space, or perhaps nothingness, went on forever. Where the cell, and myself, were located, was on a translucent white road. I looked down at what I was sitting on, and using my eyes, I followed this road which seemed to go till eternity in every which way.

"You're awake boss!"

I jumped at the voice and appearance from behind of the bumbling Toad hopping over me and standing entirely to close to me for my own good, and his. That mutant filth-ball had some kind of principle that led him to never taking a shower, which a quality that made him repulsive to say the very least.

"Toad!" I spoke loudly, throwing the slimeball into the energy "bars" of the cage, electrocuting him a little. "Have I not told you to NEVER stand that close to me?"

Not only did I feel better, having watched the little weasel fry a bit on the cage, but I now knew that the energy prison was not something I would easily be able to break out of. I looked around trying to discern some way of escaping. Had we been abandoned in this endless void? Stranger claimed he wanted to study us…where was he anyway?

"Stranger!" I yelled out, hoping that the mysterious man could hear me from wherever he was. "Show yourself! With as much trouble as you went through to bring us to these foreign dimensions, I'd hardly say you've left us for dead in this abyss."

After a few seconds of silence, a giant holographic image of Stranger's face magnified in the sky nearby. The man looked down on us as if he was some kind of god. I knew now that if I were to overpower Stranger and find my sweet freedom, it would not be with strength. After our last battle, it was clear to me that this being was far superior to me in raw power. Perhaps, I could outsmart him?

"Welcome to my laboratory." Stranger said, his tone not at all showing concern with whether or not we felt like welcomed guests. "While you're in that cage, I am able to analyze everything I want to know about you two. It is a completely painless process, and when we are complete, you will be released. I understand that your dimension's races are rather rebellious creatures, so breaking out of that prison may seem like an appealing idea. I implore you, PLEASE DON'T TRY TO BREAK OUT! My laboratory is home to many unique creations of my own design, and some beyond that. Some are completely harmless…but others, are better left alone in that abyss. I don't even traverse the artificial dimension I created to store my laboratory without a proper energy containment barrier."

"So you are trying to tell us that if we escape the cell we will die then?" I asked, hardly believing this to be a reality.

"Or worse." Stranger spoke, as his holographic face dissipated.

I stood in silence as Toad babbled on about who knows what for what felt like hours. In this mysterious zone that had no sign of day or night, it was hard to tell how long exactly we were in that cage. We heard many strange noises outside of the cage. Sometimes it would sound as if wind would be whooshing by quickly. Other times, I could have sworn I heard something like a high pitched scream in the distance. The only interesting things that occurred always were sounds, we never saw anything except the energy cage and the endless void.

Until the door suddenly opened. Toad and I exchanged looks of confusion. I know my incompetent henchman was wondering the same questions that I was. What do we do now? Run out? Is it safe? Apparently Toad's security of this situation grew very quickly. The mutant with green hair started to hop up and down laughing victoriously, pointing at the opened door.

"Well, would you look at that?" Toad said with a grin that revealed all of his yellow teeth. "I guess luck is really on our side, Magneto! Let's get out of here before wind blows that door shut!"

"Hold on just a moment…" I said, not as confident that this odd turn of events was as truly in our favor as Toad was hoping. "Something seems off about this…"

"Oh I get it." Toad said, pointing back at me, as if understanding how I think could possibly be something he could do. "You're still hung up on what that guy said about "dangerous things" being outside the cage. Come on! Anyone would say that to keep us in here to be studied. I bet we're the only people in this weird prison and his cage door malfunctioned. Yep, Ole Mr. Stranger is probably in one big hissy up in the sky or wherever he's at trying to figure out how to close that door before we run to our safety… So what are we waiting for? Let's go!

Toad hopped out of the cell first and began walking down the translucent white path looking around at the void, as if he knew where he was going. I sighed considering the pure stupidity of this poor helpless mutant. I almost pitied him. Relaxing a little, began following my minion. If nothing else, by jumping out of the cage without really thinking of possibilities such as this dimension having no oxygen outside of the cage, Toad proved that it was in fact safe.

Or that's at least what I thought…but the next moments happened so fast.

Suddenly purple lights began to flash all around us in the sky. To this day I have no idea what they were, though I suspect there to have been some kind of consciousness within the lights. As they zipped around us, Toad and I began to run faster down the path leading to who knows where. I was able to raise a magnetic field to protect myself from those mischievous lights, but Toad was not as lucky.

The frog like mutant hopped over the quick lavender zaps with his clumsy agility, barely avoiding a direct hit. At one point, Toad hopped and landed at the very edge of the road, and began to lose balance. As he struggled to maintain his equilibrium, several purple lightning bolts came down and struck him relentlessly. From every which way Toad was being struck by mysterious energy that appeared from nowhere, and seemed to be created by nobody. The pathetic excuse for a lifeform cried out in agony. Within seconds of being electrocuted, Toad fell forward and hit the road, face first. His body was full of holes and blood was spilling from every single one of them. I didn't think it was possible, but Toad died in a more embarrassingly tragic way then he had lived.

I looked down at my dead comrade, and then looked at the surging energy that was gathering in a spiral nearby. I knew that this would be the opportune time to run, while I still could.