The Problem With Parents (Or How Mastermind Got His Groove Back)
Chapter 4: The Title Now Makes Sense
A/N- I had wondered how long it would take me to work that in.
Disclaimer- If I owned any aspect of this universe, I would never have to put on pants again. Ever. That's how loaded I would be. I could just sit around my house not wearing pants. All the time.
(*o*o*o)
Remy had a stupid look on his face. He was repeating a mantra to himself of 'Dis isn' hot, dis isn' hot, dis isn' hot', but, well, it... was. Rogue had tackled Bella through the open door and the two women were now fighting in the front yard, all powers forgotten.
That they were fighting over him... yeah, that was even more hot. (Okay, so Bella was fighting for the opportunity to kill him and Rogue was just fighting on principle, but a narcissistic part of his brain was insisting that they were fighting over him and thus the stupid grin.) He wasn't the only one.
"Am I the only one that finds this incredibly hot?" Lance had a similar stupid look on his face.
"No, it is." Gambit sighed. "We should stop dem."
"Do we have to?"
"...yes."
It was several more moments before the two actually followed through. Lance caused a tremor to knock the two women apart, and Remy threw a charged card between them, causing just enough of an explosion to get them away from each other. Then Lance tackled Bella while Remy moved to take care of Rogue.
"Put me down, Cajun!" Remy had his arms around Rogue's waist from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. He was trying to avoid her flailing feet.
A few feet away, Lance had been a bit more enthusiastic, and had Bella pinned to the ground. She looked up at him, giving him her most charming smile.
"We're de same, you and me," she said quietly. "Your girl lef' you f'r anoder man, and my Remy left me for anoder woman."
"Actually, I think he left you for Magneto," Lance said. (Gambit interrupted with a squawked "Dat's not what it sound like!") "Anyway, why do you wanna go marrying someone your dad told you to? Find a guy that likes you for you. Or something."
"Is dat wha' he tol' you?" Bella asked. "We were t'geder long b'fore our fathers foun' out." She turned her head to Rogue, who had finally stopped struggling, and gave her an extremely smug look. "Remy has kissed many women, chere, but he love only me." (1)
Remy had the foresight to tighten his grip on Rogue before she started struggling again, harder then before.
"Put me down, Cajun! Put me down and let me atter!"
"Oh, no! Not till you calm down! Gambit ain't stupid, you not goin' anywhere while you crazy!"
She stopped struggling and hung limply in his arms. "All rahght. Fahne. Ah'll behave."
"Promise?"
"...yes."
He waited a moment longer, and set her down, turning her to face him.
"Don' be angry, Chere. You know Gambit on'y got eyes f'you."
"That a fact?" She darted forward, and her lips touched his for the briefest of moments. The last thought Gambit had before blackness overtook him was 'I really wish she wouldn't do that... or that she would do it more'.
(*o*o*o)
Remy paid no attention to the glares he was receiving from Rogue's 'protectors'. He leaned forward so that he was invading her personal space completely.
"Dat de second time you done dat, Chere," he said. "Gambit t'ink maybe you enjoy it too."
Rogue said nothing. Doc ignored the entire episode and turned to Lance.
"Do you mind picking it up at the point that Gambit fainted?"
(*o*o*o)
Lance was trying to decide whether to tease Rogue now, or wait till after the current crisis had been averted, when she shoved him off of the woman he was still sitting on. She leaned over and yanked the woman to her feet.
"Get outta here, Cajun," she said crossly. "If you're lucky, you can be outta the state by the time Logan finds out you're the one that trashed his bike." Bella looked pointedly at Gambit. Rogue glared harder. "Don' worry about the Swamp Rat. You can probably do better than him anyway. Just get outta here, and we won't have to have a repeat of before."
There was a long silence. Finally, Bella shrugged. "All right. Remy'll come back to me sooner or later. After all, he want a woman he can touch."
Lance grabbed Rogue and held her back from attacking the woman again. He breathed a deep sigh of relief when she'd finally gone. He wasn't paid enough to deal with this... actually... he wasn't paid at all!
(*o*o*o)
Doc moved to where Bella Donna was duct-taped to the wall. Ace had been a bit enthusiastic in that instance. On the other hand, the woman had tried to kill many of the assembled. Better safe than sorry, she supposed, before ripping the tape off of her mouth in what looked to be a very painful way.
"I wanna know how you knew where Gambit was," she said. "What were you doing in Bayville?"
Bella smirked. Doc had to give her credit. Not many people could look that smug when duct-taped to a wall by an over-enthusiastic Romy-shipping canine-mutant on a sugar-high.
"Jean-Luc tol' me."
Doc wondered, for just a moment, when this story had become a crossover before she remembered that Jean-Luc was also the name of Gambit's father. She shook the resulting mental image from her head and smiled back, matching Bella's smugness with a smirk of her own.
"Oh? Do tell."
(*o*o*o)
The meeting between the two had been arranged to take place on neutral ground, in the back room in a library deep in the heart of the French Quarter.
...The library was because there was nothing good to steal and no one important to kill. And because it was the only place in the area that none of the guilds had a hand in controlling. Probably for the above mentioned reasons.
"What you want, T'ief?"
"De same t'ing you want, Ripper." Jean-Luc paused for dramatic effect. Bella checked her watch, stared out the window at a bird doing a wierd version of the chicken dance, and waited less than patiently for Jean-Luc to answer. "De return to the bayou of dat traitor, Remy LeBeau."
A slow smile spread across Bella's face. "I'm listenin'."
Jean-Luc told her everything. He told her about the X-Men, about how Remy was using his powers for someone else, and most of all, he told her about the girl, Rogue, the one that Gambit had left the bayou for... the one he had left her for. By the time he'd finished talking, Bella was plotting a great deal of things. Namely, how to destroy the X-Men, how to destroy that girl, and how to get Remy to marry her... and not run off during the bachelor party this time.
(*o*o*o)
"This is getting good." Ace had disappeared with Magneto's helmet for a moment, and returned with it full of popcorn. The mutant in question looked distressed at this misuse of his favorite accessory. Ace ignored him, and stuffed a handful of popcorn in her mouth.
"I'd like to hear more from the Creed situation," Doc said. She turned to Mystique. "What happened when you woke up?"
(*o*o*o)
Mystique came to in a hovel that would put the Brotherhood house to shame. She was tied to a chair, and Graydon was pacing pack and forth, muttering to himself.
"That wasn't a bad move back there," she said casually. "Good to see Victor taught you something."
"Shut up," he said. His voice was laced with a growl. She rolled her eyes.
"Don't bother. It didn't affect me when Victor did it, either, and he had the claws to back it up. You're just a demented little boy with no powers and serious mommy issues."
He glared, then turned away and began pacing again. "You don't know the half of my issues." He picked up a phone in the corner. "Now, I'm going to call Dad, and I'm going to deal with him just like I dealt with you."
"Oh yes," she said as he dialed. "I'm sure this is going to end wonderfully." She settled back to watch. This was going to be fun, and if Sabretooth did turn up, she could probably convince him to untie her before he left.
Sabretooth was apparently taking a long time to answer the phone. Graydon muttered to himself, tapped his foot impatiently, and shifted around, waiting. Finally, finally, Mystique heard, faintly, a growling voice filter through the reciever. It sounded annoyed. Mystique wondered if Graydon realized that this likely wasn't the best time.
"Oh, hello, Father!" Graydon said, mock cheerily. Mystique couldn't make out Sabretooth's reply, but there was a lot of growling in it. She rolled her eyes. What had she ever seen in that man? Oh right, testosterone packed fury and anger issues that eventually exploded in wild animal sex.
(*o*o*o)
Mystique's collective spawn were visibly- and audibly- alarmed by this information. Actually, most of the room looked ready to gag.
Except Sabretooth. He looked smug. And Ace. She looked intrigued. That none of Bubbles' muses have active sex drives seemed to have no bearing on this whatsoever.
Graydon had retreated into his happy place. He was curled up in a ball on the floor, his arms held protectively over his head. "Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts..." He was repeating the mantra to himself in the hopes to drive the images out of his head. It didn't appear to be helping.
"I don't think any of us really needed to know that," Doc said. "I, uh. Think it's time for someone else to talk. Uh." She looked around the room. "Sab's! Your turn."
Sabretooth growled at being called Sab's, but otherwise ignored the jab. He stood, Graydon's leash still in his hand. When he moved to stand in front of the group, he didn't seem to mind that he still hadn't uncurled from his fetal position and was thus being dragged across the floor. A few people winced. He was going to have rug-burns later.
(*o*o*o)
"Well maple syrup and snow's what they export!"
"Get back here, Runt!"
-crash!-
"They treat curling just like it's a real sport!"
"I swear, when I get my hands on you!"
-bang!-
"They think they're silly accent is so cute!"
"Stop singing, you sound like a moose choking on a beaver!"
-wham!-
"Can't understand a think they're talking aboooo-aaaaaaah!" (2)
-fzzt-
"Gotcha."
"Waaaaaah! Sabby! Put me down! Putmedownputmedownputmedown!"
Sabretooth had Pyro tucked under his arm like a football, completely ignoring his struggles and pleas for release. Someone had given the pyromaniac far too much sugar that morning (Sabretooth blamed Gambit. It was usually his fault, anyway. Even when it wasn't his fault, it was. That totally made complete sense) and then everyone else had flown the coop, leaving Sabretooth to babysit. At some point, Sabretooth had decided he'd had enough, and that was why the base was a complete mess. Pyro was hard to catch when he was on a sugar high. Mostly because he had a habit of running into stuff and knocking it over and then setting said stuff on fire.
Sabretooth was trying to decide what to do with Pyro- maul him, or throw him out a window, or into a lake, or tie him to a tree, or some other, crueler punishment?- when he realized the phone had been ringing for the last ten minutes. He sighed. He could let the answering machine get it, but if it was Magneto, he would be cross. And probably try hiring another secretary. That hadn't gone well the first time, none of them wanted a repeat. He answered the phone.
"Hello?" he growled. "What do you want?"
"Oh, hello, Father!" answered the cheery voice on the other end of the line.
Sabretooth snarled. Pyro yelped, and tried to fidget out of Sabretooth's tightening grip.
"Graydon?"
"Graydon? Father?" Pyro stopped struggling. "Blimey! I didn't know you had a kid! Who's the unlucky lady that bore your spawn, eh? Ooh, was it Mystique? I bet it was. I always figured there was more there than you were letting on. S'that why she left ya? Cause ya knocked her up? Ack!"
Sabretooth had set Pyro down and clamped a hand around his throat. Pyro sputtered as his air supply was cut off. "Listen, Runt," he said angrily. "I don't have the patience to deal with two crazy people right now, and I've completely run out of patience to deal with you, period. Now get out of my sight before I chop you up and feed you to the carnivorous moose people that live up in the mountain."
Pyro wheezed a reply, and Sabretooth tossed him to the side. Pyro ran from the room, shouting about how there weren't any carnivorous moose people in the mountains. Sabretooth growled and returned the phone to his ear.
"What do you want, Graydon?"
"What, a guy can't just call up his old man just to say hi?"
"You're the one that ran away. Thought you didn't want anything to do with your 'old man'."
"Well... I didn't. But I've got a little problem and I was wondering if you could help me with it."
Sabretooth snarled. "You've got a lot of nerve, kid."
"Oh, don't be like that. It's really simple. It'll be so much easier if you cooperate. Mommy's cooperating, isn't that right?" He could hear Mystique saying something in the background. He couldn't make it out, but it sounded sardonic. Sabretooth snickered. Kid was in over his head if he thought he could get the upper hand on Mystique. The woman was a handful even when she wasn't angry.
"Listen, kid, I don't know what game you and Mystique are playing, but you should know it's not going to end well for you. Now, I have a pyromaniac to throw in the lake."
He hung up, and wandered off in the direction Pyro had gone.
"Hey Runt! I'm coming for ya!"
Pyro squealed and Sabretooth got the distinct impression that he'd just jumped out of a window. He chuckled sadistically. He always liked a good hunt.
(*o*o*o)
"I wasn't scared," Pyro said. He seemed to feel the need to make sure everyone in the place knew this.
...No one actually believed him. This made Pyro sad.
"This is turning into one big clusterfffff.. aaahh... Mags!" Doc turned to Magneto with a forced smile. "Tell us about when you got back to the Institute."
(*o*o*o)
As soon as Kurt had realized that Gambit and Rogue were no longer behind them, he'd ported away to look for them. So it was that when Magneto pulled into the Institute driveway some two and a half hours after he'd left, it was Lorna and Bobby that he had with him.
Wolverine was sitting on the front steps, waiting for them. He stalked over and did a double-take when he saw who was in the car. He pointed.
"Those aren't the two you left with, Magneto." ...pointed out the obvious, it would seem.
Magneto hovered out of his car and held the door open for the two children. He turned to Wolverine.
"How very astute of you. Where is Charles? I need to speak with him."
"He's not here."
"Where is he?"
"Interviewing a potential student."
"And when will he be back?"
"No idea."
"Then I will go to him. Where has he gone to interview this student?"
Wolverine laughed. "Like I'm really going to tell you that. What's so important that you need to talk to him, anyway?"
"That's hardly any of your concern, now is it?" A silence. "Will you at least allow me to contact him? It really is important."
Wolverine shrugged, and led them into the mansion.
"Just remember this, bub. One wrong move, and you'll regret it."
He held out his claws and waved them under Magneto's nose. Magneto looked at Wolverine, then at his claws, then at the fourth wall, and then at Wolverine again. He put up a hand and gently lowered said claws.
"Yes," he said. "I'm sure that will end wonderfully for you."
Wolverine glared, and led them through the hallway to the Professor's office, grumbling to himself.
The Professor listened quietly while Magneto outlined the situation to him. Once he'd heard the whole story, he steepled his fingers and frowned.
"I don't know why you're telling me this."
"Honestly, Charles. Her powers are the same as mine. Maybe even stronger. There is no one better in the world to teach her how to control them than me. You can't deny it."
"I can understand where you're coming from, Magnus," he said, "but Lorna is not a student here. If you train her, it will have to be her choice." He quirked an eyebrow. "...You will also have to speak to her mother."
Magneto sighed. He pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "This is exactly why I deal in adults and orphans. It is so much easier to recruit someone when I don't have to deal with any pesky parents."
"I'm sure your team would be happy to learn that."
"And if I recruit her, you will not object or try to 'rescue' her? That gets a bit old, you know. Don't think I don't know you've been trying to steal my Acolytes."
Xavier shrugged. "I do not force any of my students to come here or to remain. I simply give the invitation. It is the students who attempt to 'rescue' others." There was a long pause. Magneto gave Xavier an expectant look. "However, I suppose I can insist they do not attempt it."
"Well... I guess that's all I can ask, isn't it?"
"Of course, I don't have any influence over Alex Summers... He'll be the one protesting the loudest. He's rather taken with Lorna."
"...Really? The little mini-Summers? I thought he had a thing for young Jubilation."
What followed this question was thirty-seven minutes of two old men gossiping about the various people in their lives. Topics covered included pretty much every rumoured coupling in the collective teams, true or not (those most popular rumours were Rogue and Gambit, Kitty and Piotr, Storm and Wolverine, Toad and Wanda, Toad and Freddy, Toad and Pietro, Tabby and Pietro, Nick Fury and Callisto, and one alarming rumour about Wolverine and Sabretooth that neither of them tried to think about too hard. The authoress will leave it to the imagination of the readers which rumours are true and which aren't.), whose spawn Mystique would spit out next, and whether or not Mastermind had ever gotten laid, ever (points against him were that he looked like a monkey and that he was also kinda creepy, and points in his favor were that he could trick a woman into thinking he was hot and that there were women out there who really were that desperate).
So we'll skip that and get straight to the part where-
(*o*o*o)
Magneto had lost his audience as soon as Mastermind's love life was brought up. Turns out, the whole lot were just a bunch of gossips, who cared more about whether one of their number had ever done it than piecing together the events of a truly epic week. Doc facepalmed at the inanity of it all.
"Okay... I guess we're not going to get back on track until we've all heard the truth..." She took a deep breath. "Mastermind... have you ever... yerghhh... done the... squelchy?"
"A long story," Mastermind said. "If I might be permitted to tell it?"
"Fine." She threw up her hands in defeat. "But this ain't ffff... ahhhh... this isn't How I Met Your Mother, got it? Keep it short." She jabbed a finger in his direction. "I'm not going to sit through this story for six years if it doesn't have Neil Patrick Harris in it. We clear?"
"But of course." He gave a tiny bow and turned to the audience.
(*o*o*o)
Mastermind had left the base as soon as Pyro started planning his day. Sabretooth could babysit the twerp alone; Mastermind was taking a leaf out of Gambit and Colossus's books and exiting stage left a-s-a-p.
Once he was gone, he had to figure out how to spend the day. The truth was, as hard as it was to believe, he didn't really have much of a social life. Oh, he went out with the other Acolytes sometimes, but usually he had to blackmail, guilt, or hypnotize them into bringing him along, and that got old after a while.
He hadn't had much luck with the ladies of late, either. Or, well... ever. He just couldn't maintain his illusions in the heat of the moment and those ladies he had persuaded to bed with him usually ended up running off as soon as their hunky Sean Connery lookalike turned into just another man. ...Who happened to bear a vague, uncanny resemblance to certain primates that weren't humans.
Women still liked Sean Connery, right?
And this was why that day saw one Jason Wyngarde wandering down the streets of Bayville with his hands stuffed into his pockets, completely dejected, trying to decide whether it would be worth going to a bar if it meant finding a woman desperate enough to do the deed with him.
In the end, carnal desire won out. He entered the first bar he found that was actually open and took a seat at the end of the counter. He didn't really drink, but he could wait out the desperate women and maybe one of them would be drunk enough to find him attractive... or desperate enough. He wasn't picky.
He didn't wait long. A blond woman in a white sundress entered less than ten minutes later. As he watched, she looked around the room, as if expecting someone, before her eyes landed right on him.
...If this had been a cartoon or something, he would have been picking his tongue up off the floor. This woman was a complete fox. Which, of course, begged the question of why she was walking over to him.
"Hello," she said. "I've been waiting for you."
(*o*o*o)
"Wait, what?" Pietro jumped to his feet, completely stunned. "There is no way a babe like the one you just described would be waiting for you. She would have had her pick of men. And, wait, were you saying... are you still a virgin, dude?"
A few people laughed. Ace and Doc exchanged bewildered looks.
"What's wrong with that?"
Mastermind huffed. "Not that it's any of your business, little manchild, but no. I simply meant that it's been a very long time. Now if I may resume my story..."
"Please do," Doc said. "Then maybe we can get back on track."
(*o*o*o)
Mastermind metaphorically picked up his jaw from the floor and stammered out a, "M-me? Y-you've been w-wai-waiting for... m-m-m-me?" The woman nodded. "B-but, why?"
"I have a job proposition for you," she said casually. When his face fell, she leaned over and ran a finger over his shoulder seductively. "And if you do it well, I can make it... ah, quite... worth your while."
She'd had him at 'do it well'. He nodded.
"What is it you need me to do?"
"Shhh..." she pressed a finger to his lips. "Not here. We'll talk later, in private. Will you be there? Here's the address." She pressed a folded piece of paper into his hand. He was hanging on her every word. He nodded. "Good." She leaned over and kissed him deeply, just enough to leave him wanting more. She murmured, "A taste of things to come," in his ear.
By the time he'd snapped out of the resulting stupor, she was gone. He sighed. Had that really happened? Was she real? Or just one of his illusions playing tricks on his mind? No way that could have been real.
But... but the paper with the time and address on it was still in his hand. He clutched it to his chest, a huge grin on his face. She was real! She was real and she was beautiful and she wanted- well, she wanted him to do a job for her, but she'd said she'd make it worth it! And she'd kissed him! That was something, right?
He was so happy he felt like skipping as he left the bar a few minutes later.
But that would be undignified. So he didn't.
(*o*o*o)
"Awww..." Ace clasped her hands together and smiled. "That's kinda cute, actually."
"Don't encourage him," Doc said. She pushed her glasses up her nose. They slipped back down again. "We'll cover that night when we get to that night, mmkay? I don't want anyone getting ahead of the events... since I'm guessing this is somehow tied to everything else. For now, let's go back to the Magneto and Lorna thing. You were going to call her mother?"
(*o*o*o)
Lorna dialed her mother's number and waited patiently for her to answer. Once she had, she squeaked, "Hi mom everything's fine, I met someone with powers like mine and he wants to teach me here you can talk to him," and shoved the phone into Magneto's hand.
Magneto sighed and held the phone to his ear. "Hello, Ms-" He frowned. He didn't actually know Lorna's mother's name. Oh well, never mind. When in doubt, feign superiority. "My name is Magneto. I have powers very similar to your daughter and I am quite certain that I am the one person in the world most qualified to train her in how to control them."
There was a long silence. Magneto wondered if she had actually heard anything he'd said. Finally, a voice squeaked out, "M-Magnus?"
Yet more silence reigned. Magneto gaped. In his mind, he was no longer in the room; he was in the past, walking hand in hand with a young woman through a park, gazing down at her. What a perfect night that had been.
"Sally?"
Sally took a deep breath. "Magnus, I think we need to have a talk."
Magneto looked over at Lorna, did some quick mental calculations. He nodded. "Yes, I think we do."
He shooed Lorna out of the room, promising to explain everything later.
His argument with Sally was rather longwinded. Sally was completely unapologetic about keeping Lorna from him, and Magneto was understandably upset by it. They argued in circles. They repeated themselves. Xavier's long distance bill shot through the roof. In the end, nothing had changed. They were both exhausted and angry. They'd run out of things to say to each other, and were now just silently fuming into the phones.
Lorna tapped on the door. When it opened, seemingly of it's own volition, she peeked in. "Mr. Magneto, is everything okay?"
"Let me tell her, Magnus," Sally said through the phone. "She'll take it better coming from me."
So Magneto handed Lorna the phone, and waited patiently. At first, she just listened. Then she looked angry. It was Lorna's turn to argue with Sally. There was more shouting; more circles. Lorna was on the verge of angry tears. Xavier's long distance bill went up even more. And when Lorna'd finally had enough, she hung up the phone and threw her arms around Magne- around her father- and buried her face in his chest to cry herself out.
Magneto was at a loss. It had been almost fifteen years since anyone had ever come to him for this level of comfort. He patted her head awkwardly. That was right, right?
Right?
Okay, maybe his therapist had been right. He really was a terrible father. He decided to just wait till she'd finished crying.
(*o*o*o)
"You are a bad father," Doc said. "But you're not the worst father in the world." She jabbed her thumb in Sabretooth's direction and smiled. "That mug goes to him!"
Sabretooth probably would have objected, except he'd gotten bored and fallen asleep ages ago. Doc sighed.
"Mystique, can we get more of the whole Graydon thing?"
(*o*o*o)
Mystique was trying to sweet-talk Graydon into letting her go. It wasn't going well.
"Do you really want to kill me?"
"Yes." He was pacing back and forth, cradling his phone between head and shoulder. He'd been trying to get an answer at the Institute for a few hours now, but the phone line was tied up for some reason, so he was having no luck. "Honestly, a house full of teenagers, and they have only one phone line? How am I supposed to leave a message for my wayward siblings to come here so I can kidnap them if I can't even get anyone to answer the phone?"
"I know," Mystique said sarcastically. "Charles was just completely ignoring your plight when he set up his phone lines, wasn't he? How inconsiderate of him." Graydon shot her a glare. She ignored it. "You know you look just like your father?" She smiled. "My handsome boy."
Graydon snorted. "A lot of words I would use to describe dear old dad, but handsome isn't one of them."
"He is handsome, though. A word to the wise, women like me don't date down."
"He said you seduced him for your own nefarious purposes."
"He never did take rejection well. What else did he tell you about me?"
"That you said you were just going out for milk and never came back."
"I'm guessing he was more upset about not getting his milk than he was about me not coming back?"
"...yes. Finally!" It seemed as though someone had answered the phone. "Yes, may I ask who I'm speaking to? Sam? Okay, I need to get a message to Nightcrawler and Rogue. ...Yes, yes, I can wait... are you ready? Okay, here's the message- If you ever want to see your mother alive again, come to the abandoned theatre tomorrow night at sundown. ...Well I was going to have them come by tonight, but it's almost sundown now, you took so long to answer the phone... Yes, I realize they don't have much incentive to rescue her, but they're going to anyway... Because you freaks always stick together... No, not that abandoned theatre, the other abandoned theatre... yes, the one on Fourth... Thank you, you've been very helpful. When the Mutant Registration Act goes through and all mutants are put in internment camps to keep them under control, I'll see to it that you get put in one of the nicer ones." He hung up. "That went well."
Mystique rolled her eyes. "I don't foresee this ending well for you."
"And why is that?"
"One, because they have mutant powers and you don't, and two, you forgot to tell them to come alone, which means they'll probably be bringing Wolverine with him, and he already doesn't like you for being Sabretooth's son."
"I can take him."
"No, son. No you can't."
"...I can if I set traps!"
He went off to set said traps. Mystique groaned. There was no way this was going to end well.
(*o*o*o)
"It's official," Ace said. "Everybody loves Sam."
"He's like Buzz," Doc agreed. "If this was a murder mystery, he would be the guy who just got drugged instead of killed."
"Uh.." Sam looked confused. "Good?"
"Don't worry 'bout it, love," Doc said cheerily. She frowned. "Did we just wrap up Day 1 of this thing? Huh."
"Can we take a break noooow?" Ace was whining again. Doc shrugged.
"Why not? I feel as though I haven't slept in two years. All right, we'll take a breather. I'ma go lie down for an hour. Those of you who haven't been duct taped to the furniture or walls are free to fill that hour how you wish as well. When I get back we'll get to work on Day 2."
And with that, she turned and exited.
(*o*o*o)
End Day 1.
Next chapter will be a short Interlude, then I'll pick back up on Day 2. Expect longer chapters after this, now that I've (finally) got the story going. Day 2 will see the introduction of two more plot points, Mastermind's date, and an ill-fated rescue attempt. It may be a few days before anything gets posted, though, because I seriously need to get caught up in my classes.
(1)- Still butchering lines from Animated.
(2)- Canadian Idiot, by Weird Al. Chosen because that was the song on my music player when I got to that point.
