Chapter Four

I Had A Dream That Tony Killed Me (and it sucked)

Apparently, an angry Tony is a scary Tony. Funny how that had never crossed Ororo's mind before. Also, fighting an angry Tony is even worse than watching someone else fight angry Tony, which is something Ororo had never fully appreciated before, er… now-ish.

The fire swirls around him like a fierce whirlwind and no matter how much the wind and rain flies around him, the fire stays just as strong as ever. In fact, the storm seems to make it stronger. And then, the more she fights, the more tired she gets. Tony seems to sense her exhaustion and slows his fire, but then his eyes lock on hers and glow gold like they do when he's about to make something explode.

Her cape vanishes in a fierce hiss of licking flames, then her hair… then her eyes, and she's screaming now in complete agony, and she's completely blind. Blood gushes from where her left arm used to be and yet, through it all, Ororo finds herself thinking, why is he not getting tired?

Because that's the problem with his abilities. He can only make a couple of things combust with just his eyes before he gets too tired to go on. If he has contact with the thing he combusts, it's not so bad and it saps barely any of his energy… But he should've passed out by now and…

Ororo wakes up screaming. Lightning flashes outside and the whole tower (because the X-Men had crashed in Avengers Tower last night) seems to shake in the midst of the storm. With deep breaths, Ororo fights to calm her racing heart and slow the storm, but she's much too worked up to do much at all.

"Hey." Comes a very masculine voice from the corner of her room. It doesn't do much to help her little panic attack and probably makes it worse because there's a dude in her room, for crying out loud! Then she turns and realizes that Scott's sitting in the corner of her room on a rather plush looking couch. He's got a book in his hands, not that he seems to be reading it, but, whatever.

"Hey," she says, kind of awkwardly.

"Bad dream?"

"Tony killed me."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

In fact, the whole conversation is awkward and short and just all around… yeah, awkward. She's friends with the guy, but mostly he just hangs around Jean. Ororo can understand why Logan and Tony don't like him, but she doesn't understand why they hate him so much.

"This is awkward." Says Scott, like he's reading her mind or something, and she jumps because she'd kind of forgotten he's even there. Oops.

"Hmm," Ororo grunts, agreeing with the guy. Then she frowns. "Why the hell are you in here, anyways?"

Scott flushes bright red, then shrugs as if he wants to pass off the question. Except, then Ororo shoots him a totally exasperated look, and he succumbs. "I was worried," he says. "You were moaning and crying in your sleep. I came in thinking that someone was hurting you, then couldn't bring myself to wake you up and…"

"I was teasing," says Ororo. "C'mon, let's go say good morning."

Scott raises his eyebrows. "Yeah, no." He looks like he's laughing at her, actually. "It's, like, two in the morning."

"Seriously?" Ororo groans. "Oh, whatever. I need hot chocolate. You gonna join me?"

Scott grins, then hops up and leads the way.

The two aren't really sure what to expect when they get to the kitchen, just that they weren't expecting Natasha and Tony to already be there, just chatting. They've got their beer, which is actually a sort of tradition for them now. You know, chatting and sipping on beer, et cetera. It was on a night like this one when Natasha first found out about Tony's mutant status.

"Ah, Tony…" Ororo mutters, her voice trailing off when she spots Natasha who had been playing 'This Little Piggy' on Tony's hand, then stopped abruptly when company arrived.

"It's okay," says Tony, probably guessing why she looks kind of disappointed that Natasha's there too. "She knows."

Ororo looks surprised, but doesn't say anything else on the matter. "And, who else?"

"Her, Rhodey and Pep."

"Ah." Says Scott, nodding slightly. He gets it, because if he were Tony and had to choose three people, that's probably who he would've chosen, too (except instead of Tasha, he would've gone with Bruce).

"Hey." Says Natasha. "You guys want a beer?"

"Yes." Says Scott at the same time as Ororo says; "No, I want a hot chocolate."

Natasha shrugs. "Your choice. You want me to make it for you?"

Ororo blushes. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah." Natasha smiles wryly. "But, can you tell me one thing? What are your, er, abilities?" As she speaks, she gets up and heads to the bar, pulling out an ice-cold beer. Then she heads to the fridge and grunts in annoyance when she can't see any milk.

"I can create storms." Says Ororo. "Hence, my mutant name being; 'Storm'."

"Lasers from my eyes." Says Scott bitterly. "That's why I have to wear this visor. If not, you'd all be dead."

Instead of looking scared, which is what Scott sort of expected, she looks impressed and a little… jealous. She's tough, Black Widow, and though she's all she's got is her guns and 'Ninja Skillz' (as Tony has dubbed them) she's not got any powers. Sucks, but she's apparently good enough for the Avengers.

Natasha looks like she's about to say something, but then Logan walks in, claws out and a hard look on his face. "Where is she?" He snaps, furious.

Tony stares. "Sorry, what?" He's so surprised, he doesn't even call Logan by his nickname. Which is, you know, weird and shit.

"They've got Rogue!" He moans. "I couldn't… ugh! They have her Tony!"

Tony blinks, since he hasn't heard his own name pass Logan's lips for, like, ever and crap, he couldn't remember it sounding like that. His gaze shifts warily to Logan's claws, which he hasn't seen for a few years now which is probably a good thing because, uh, claws = danger = angry Logan = scary Logan = kind-of-not-really-scared-Tony.

"Huh," muses Natasha, not looking scared in the slightest as she pulls the cocoa out of the cupboard, then decides to have another look in the fridge for the milk. "Claws. Pup. I get it." She pulls out a cup with a Black Widow spider on it and the words 'KICK ASS' in red across the back and pours the milk in it.

"Who has Rogue?" Tony demands. He's met Rogue, once or twice during his occasional trips to the school.

"Magneto took Rogue, Tony!"

"No, he didn't." Tony snaps. "He doesn't have Rogue. You were dreaming, Logan." Except, Tony sounds more like he's trying to convince himself than anyone else which doesn't do all that much for Logan's frantic state.

"It wasn't just a dream!" Logan snarls. "He has her!"

When Johnny Storm wakes up, it's because someone's dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on his head. His eyes snap open and he bolts upright, a strangled scream escaping his lips, which is muffled by a gloved hand over his mouth.

"Shut up!" Says the gloved person (or 'Gloves' as Johnny is now dubbing her).

"Mmph!" Says Johnny.

"Shut up!" Gloves snaps again, then frowns and bends right down over him. There's a pale blonde streak in her otherwise brown hair, and she looks young – younger than him, at least. That's probably why Johnny decides not to torch her then and there. "Who are you?" She takes her hand away from his mouth so he can answer.

"Johnny Storm. I…" He frowns. What's the point of asking someone to shut up, only to ask them shit? "Fantastic Four… Human Torch?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Who are you?"

"Rogue. I'm a mutant."

"Ri-ight." Johnny doesn't look like he much believes her, but decides not to say anything else on the matter. "Where are we?" He looks around at his surroundings. It's dark, but when he lights up the tip of one of his fingers he has enough light to be able to gather his bearings. He appears to be in some sort of cell with, not bars, but metal walls all around. There are a few other shapes huddled in one corner, but Johnny's not feeling particularly brave enough right now (that, and he can't be bothered) to go and check it out.

"Don't know." Says Gloves-Rogue. She sounds kind of troubled, and her brow is furrowed adorably across her face. "I just woke up here. Nobody else is responding. I…"

"Nobody else?" Johnny demands. "There are other people here?"

"I figure they're the other three of your little gang." Says Rogue and Johnny perks up.

"They're here?" He asks hopefully.

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" Rogue hisses. "How does that mean we'll be getting out of here?"

"Not only the Fantastic Four…"

"…apparently her…"

"Rogue, Professor!"

"Oi, Nicky! They have Rogue!"

"Logan reckons he saw…"

Professor Xavier holds up a hand. "Hold up!" He demands. "One at a time, please. What did Logan see?"

Logan shifts on his feet. "I, well, it was a dream." He says uncertainly. "Magneto has Rogue. I don't know how but…"

Charles looks slightly miffed. "Great." He mutters. "That means they have another telepath. That's the only way I can think of that they'd be able to put an image like that in your head, Logan." He wheels over to Logan and gestures for him to sit. Then, he places a couple of fingers on his temple and raises his eyebrows in question at Wolverine.

"Go ahead," says Logan, stiffly.

Erik's walking through the large metallic doors of what looks like a sort of cell. The second he gets inside, he looks around and then cocks his head interestedly to one side. Susan, Reed and Ben are still knocked out, but Johnny's in the middle, glowing enough to illuminate the whole cell.

"Hello, Mister Storm." Says Erik, grinning slightly. "Hello Rogue." He adds, spotting the girl who is kneeling at Johnny's side and warming her hands in the flame. Her gloves were discarded at her feet and her hair was a scruffy mess.

"You!" Says Storm, eyes wide in shock. "Magneto!"

"Oh, I've heard of you." Says Johnny with interest. "Um, hi? Nice, er, helmet? Kind of look like a prat wearing it, but, eh."

Erik laughs softly. "I'm glad you like it."

"I don't." Says Johnny. "I said I think you look like a prat. Okay. Can I go now?"

"No."

Charles gasps as he takes his fingers from his temple. He shakes his head as if to clear what he's just seen, like it'll just make it better. It won't, but Charles likes to pretend it will. His eyes meet with everyone else's in turn and then they finally meet with Tony's. He nods slightly at the billionaire, and he swallows but then nods hesitantly in response.

"It's time," says Charles, more to Tony than anyone else. "I think I know where he's keeping them."