Author's notes: I'm going to be slowing down some until more people decide to review this story. Many thanks to Agent-Gforhis reviews and discussions about my fic, and also a noteto those of you that are reading. I would like to encourage those of you that do read and dont post reviews to do so.
Brandon woke up as the trip was beginning to come to a close. It had been two hours, and they had already reached their destination. Brandon looked over to the other seat noticing Amara had decided to take the opportunity to rest as well.
"Hey there, it is time to wake up," Brandon spoke softly nudging her gently.
She yawned and nodded her head. Plane trips weren't exactly his thing either; they were long and for the most part uncomfortable. He watched as they got up making their way to the ramp. Brandon followed the Professor down the ramp where not only Paige and Sam but their family was waiting with them.
Sam had apparently been sent ahead by the Professor to prepare for their coming visit. Brandon watched carefully as Tabitha ran up to the young man, this place appeared peaceful at first glance.
"Sam it is so good to see you," Tabby said as she ran towards and hugged Sam.
Brandon stood there watching as who he assumed were the two siblings mother approached. He thought about moving to intercept her, but he figured since they already knew each other it would be fine. He waited as the two started traveling to a house that was about half a mile away.
"So who is this young man, I don't recognize him from the pictures Sam has sent," Mrs. Guthrie asked as she approached Brandon.
"My name is Brandon Ayers; I'm a part time instructor and a student at the institute." Brandon spoke as he offered to shake hands.
"Now if ya don't mind me askin but how does that work exactly?" She asked as Brandon took his hand back after shaking her hand.
"Well I have a lot to learn, but I also have some expertise that I can pass along to the students thus the title." Brandon spoke as they started to walk towards the house.
"What would this expertise be young man?" She asked as Brandon shook his head.
"I'll let the Professor fill you in about my expertise; I should make sure that there isn't anyone else around. Professor, Mrs. Guthrie if you would please excuse me." Brandon said not wanting to think too much about his discharge.
Brandon left them walking around the perimeter of the house, Logan may be confident in smelling out trouble but I want to make sure that there isn't anything wrong. He looked around not noticing anything out of the usual type of equipment you would find on a farm. He was quickly surprised by Amara as she ran straight towards him.
"Hey did you sleep well princess?" Brandon joked as he teased her a little.
"You do know you are going to pay for that later. Are you okay, you seem to be distracted?" Amara said as her faced changed color a little.
"Yeah, I guess a few old habits are hard to break. Scouting the perimeter and securing the area is just standard operating procedures for marines. Where is everyone else?" Brandon asked as he looked around the area.
"They are all inside talking to Mrs. Guthrie, and Logan is around here somewhere." She said as Brandon put his arm around her.
"So how about we go for a walk around the place, I want to hear about your time at the institute," Brandon said as the two walked together holding hands.
"Well it was a lot of fun at first we had some fun being crime fighters called the Sirens. Then I barely escaped the institute's security system when Mystique caused things to go crazy. Later on Apocalypse managed to escape, and then we went after him with Magneto and his team the Acolytes." Amara said as she mentioned things she thought would be of interest.
"Wait a minute you mean the Bayville Sirens I remember seeing an article about them in one of the newspapers a while back. I can't believe you were one of the members, then again it makes sense. People with special powers before the whole sentinel problem, why am I not surprised the girl I like is one," Brandon spoke beginning to laugh as he watched her expression.
Amara smiled sweetly and Brandon just laughed as the two sat there holding hands. Brandon thought about the remainder of her speech and thought it would be wise to find out about the other people she had mentioned.
"Wait who is this Mystique; I haven't been given the official briefing on all of the enemies or allies that we have." Brandon commented as Amara smiled.
"Well she is a shape shifter that impersonates about anyone to get her way. She normally works for Magneto, but she hasn't been seen lately. She is also Kurt and Rogue's mother," Amara stated as Brandon seemed to look on in shock.
"Wait you mean Kurt and Rogue are siblings and their mother is an evil psycho. Damn that certainly makes things more difficult, not to mention she could practically impersonate anyone on this planet." Brandon said clearly irritated by the disadvantage that Mystique could cause.
"Actually Rogue is adopted," Amara added as Brandon looked on.
Brandon just sat there shaking his head, he felt bad for those two. 'At least my family wasn't psychotic and evil' he thought as he came to the last group.
"What about these Acolytes who are they?" Brandon asked as Amara looked at him funny.
"Well you have already met two of them, Sabertooth, Pyro, Mastermind, Quicksilver and Magneto make up that team. He's probably going to heavily recruit any one whose abilities he can use from here on, now that he has lost Colossus and Gambit." Amara spoke as Brandon sat down on the ground.
"Gambit, who would that, be," Brandon asked as he motioned for her to sit beside him.
"He was a member but I heard he helped Piotr's sister escape and made sure that his family was safe back in Russia. Apparently those two are old friends and he was a hired gun of Magneto." Amara said as Brandon leaned his head back looking at the sky.
"So he is a mercenary or something along that lines, well got to say Piotr makes interesting friends. Then again mercenaries don't normally turn against those that are paying them, unless they aren't being paid enough," Brandon replied as he turned his head toward her.
"I suppose so, but he isn't a bad guy any more. Granted he refused to help out during the Apocalypse problem and hasn't been seen since freeing Piotr's sister," Amara commented as he looked on.
Brandon nodded they sure seemed to have a lot of enemies here. 'Hope we have some good allies to go along with this group of enemies. Amazing how things change in such a short time, who your enemiesand allies are once you pick a side to fight on,'Brandon thought.
"Ok enough business, you need to relax," was all Brandon heard before Amara hugged him.
"Hey what's this for, I must have done something right to earn this," Brandon spoke as she hugged him.
"I just wanted to," was all she said as Brandon smiled.
He nodded and held her as she started to cry. Brandon couldn't believe what he was seeing these were tears, she shouldn't be sad he thought.
"Hey what's wrong?" Brandon questioned as he looked into her eyes.
"I'm just happy that's all," Amara stated as Brandon wiped away her tears.
"Happy, shouldn't that be something else then," Brandon said as he looked at the girl.
"Sorry its just I am little worried that you will leave or…" Amara softly spoke as Brandon shook his head at the comment.
"Well no more tears ok I promise I'll be around for a long time, and I don't want any tears unless they are absolutely necessary. Besides I have no plans now or in the immediate future to leave the institute," Brandon replied with a smile on his face.
The two stood there hugging each other as Brandon laughed. 'If those two saw me now, they would be rolling over in laughter. Brandon Ayers actually concerned and going out with a beautiful young lady, Johnson would have laughed his ass off Brandon thought. Fitzgerald would be laughing to if he saw this display.' He noticed Logan was watching in the distance, but that wasn't a problem right now.
Logan smiled Brandon wouldn't do anything stupid, but he was a little concerned about Tabitha. She was a wild one and even thought Sam could be intimidated, she would just ignore him. He sniffed the air again this time picking up a very familiar scent, this could be troubled was all he thought as he growled.
"Odin, Magma get over here now," Logan bellowed as Brandon and Amara looked over at him and began to run towards him.
"What are those things, and who is that flying?" Brandon asked as three metal balls and a person were quickly approaching the house.
"Its Magneto and his Acolytes are here," Amara said a little afraid that they had arrived.
"Makes sense you said he was desperate for new recruits and he could net one here if he got a hold of Paige. Go get the others, Amara, unwelcome company is my specialty," Brandon spoke as he started to run towards the metal spheres.
Logan jumped down and joined Brandon as he moved to intercept them before they could reach the house.
"Alright marine you and I will have to deal with them until Charles and the others can arrive. Be careful marine, Magneto is a tricky one and he has a lot of power." Logan growled as the two had already intercepted them.
"Well now who do we have here, it seems Charles has a new recruit," Magneto spoke as Brandon looked on as the metal spheres opened.
"So you are Magneto, the guy that kidnapped Piotr's sibling and forced him to work for you." Brandon spoke as his anger started to boil.
"Mutants are superior to humans, join me and help crush the weakness that is the human race," Magneto said with a booming voice ignoring Brandon's earlier comments.
"No chance of that happening this century, or the next," Brandon said as Piotr and the others arrived.
"Charles and his dream will never happen, we are meant to rule over the lesser species. That is the way of nature, survival of the fittest," Magneto continued as he ignored Brandon's comment again.
"Yeah well if I had a dollar every time a psychopath used that excuse than I would be a billionaire. I heard it while I was in Puerto Colon from that terrorist, and now you. Who do you think you are? What right do you have to judge who is superior or not?" Brandon bellowed at Magneto, not showing any intimidation.
Magneto ignored him as he turned to listen to one of his men that he had brought with him. Brandon watched as one of Magneto's men whispered something to him, something that made the man very unhappy. Brandon watched as Magneto used his powers to create a mammoth metal creature right in front of them.
"You were at NRI, you will tell me what happened and you will tell me now," Magneto spoke his metal creature looming over head.
Brandon wasn't exactly sure what to make of this, how this guy knew about NRI. Was he the one behind Reaper, if so why wasn't he here? Brandon decided on a really short remark trying to figure out what he knew.
"Well let's see, I fought a sociopath and he injured a lot of people and then stole a few things that didn't belong to him," Brandon sarcastically said as he looked at the others.
'We are at a real disadvantage here, Piotr and Logan both have metal based abilities and would not be very effective against Magneto. Not to mention firebug and this mind fellow, retreat is also impossible the Blackbird is made of metal and he would just yank it right back. This is going to be bad' Brandon thought.
"Professor we are going to have to fight our way out of here and quickly, the longer this lasts the worse it is for us," Brandon spoke as he looked over the situation.
Brandon watched as the Professor shook his head and wheeled forward to talk with his old friend.
"Eric there is no need for us to fight; we could start a new age of cooperation. A new beginning for us all," the Professor spoke as Brandon looked on.
Brandon observed the others, Sabertooth was his main concern he was clearly agitated and that made him very worried. Agitated people made mistakes more quickly, but so far he had been relatively peaceful probably due to Magneto's influence.
"I'm sorry Charles, but I will not allow what happened with Apocalypse to occur again. I refuse to be weak to anyone and this growing new threat can't be allowed to continue. This new threat has already made its mark, which your young pupil knows well since he was at NRI for the second attack by that man," Magneto spoke as his metal creature moved forward.
"So Eric what are we going to do about this?" The Professor spoke as Brandon moved in front of the Professor concerned about the metal creature.
'This is not going to end well Brandon thought as he prepared to release a very powerful barrier. Granted I don't know how long it will last with four of them and a metal creature in front of me, maybe enough time to think up a new plan.'
"Charles I believe I will let you have this one, she clearly is not as powerful as I hoped and not worth my time. I am much more interested in your other student here, but I can't afford a two front war at the moment. Granted I could win here, but this new threat requires my undivided attention and I cant afford having you looking over me or seeking me out to rescue someone," Magneto spoke as he allowed his metal creature collapsed and Brandon watched as he motioned his men back into their spheres.
Brandon watched carefully as the four disappeared quickly heading over the horizon. This was a good thing; it would have been a disaster with Logan and Piotr here. Brandon just sat down on the ground as his mind raced. What exactly did he know that they didn't? It just didn't make sense, but right now he should just thank God the man decided to leave peacefully.
"What just happened?" Logan asked as the two looked at each other.
"Who cares, a fight at this time and moment would have been devastating" Brandon said as he looked at Mrs. Guthrie.
"Yes at least this ended peacefully, but it does not bold well if Eric is more concerned with someone else than a new recruit." Professor Xavier spoke as they all looked on.
"Ok marine head back to the jet with Amara, Piotr and Kitty while we finalized things here," Logan growled unhappy about the lack of combat.
Brandon just nodded motioning for them to follow him as they walked slowly to the Blackbird.
'He thought about how lucky they were to get off without having a knock down drag out like last time and how come he didn't try to take Piotr back right now. He may have been successful, but it seems I may have sidetracked him' Brandon thought trying to figure things out in his head.
"Comrade are you ok?" Piotr spoke as Brandon face looked a little confused.
"Yeah just fine, what about the rest of you?" Brandon asked as he began walking up the ramp.
They all nodded as they went up into the Blackbird waiting for the others to return. It was going to be a while; Mrs. Guthrie was apparently very attached to her children. Brandon didn't blame her, but it would probably be for the best. While the kids were gone no one would have a reason to return, and the kids would learn how to control their abilities.
"Like what will we be doing for tomorrow's lesson Brandon?" Kitty questioned as Brandon sat in a chair next to Amara.
"Well I think we are going to work on our powers, after seeing Magneto's demonstration I think we are going to need it. Then again I may postpone the lesson until later, today was really draining and I may feel tired after tonight," Brandon answered watching Amara as she yawned.
"Well this is about the same as having monitor duty at the base," Brandon joked attempting to wake everyone up.
Then he looked at the clock it was getting late and he hoped that this little run was over. He was kind of concerned that Alan would just show up while he was gone, but then again he probably knew I left he thought. Alan somehow always knew the specifics of things even when he was no where to be found. He got up taking off his jacket and placed it over Amara as a blanket; she did look cold and was sound asleep by now.
"She looks cold and she is clearly very tired," Brandon spoke softly as Piotr nodded his head.
They were interrupted when Logan, Sam, Tabby, Paige and Professor Xavier entered the plane. Logan quickly made his way to the pilot's seat and started the plane as the others sit down.
"What took so long," Brandon asked as he made sure the ramp closed.
"Our mom was a little worried about both of us going, particuarly after what happened.The Professor had to assure her that we would be safe at the institute," Sam said as his 15 year old sister went to sleep peacefully after sitting in a chair.
Brandon nodded; he was going to get some sleep as he relaxed in his chair. This assignment had ended well for them despite the encounter with Magneto, and the fact was he envied Sam. Sam was going to have family really close by; it was a benefit for both him and his sister. Brandon fell asleep as he thought about all the problems they had experienced today. The plane trip was very quiet with a lot of tired people on board with the exception of Logan.
"Hey marine get up we are back," Logan bellowed waking Brandon up after the trip back.
Brandon got up grabbing his jacket and carefully picked her up making sure that he didn't wake her up. Walking very carefully Brandon made his way up stairs and carried her to the girls' side putting her in her bed and pulling up the blankets.
"Sleep well, I'll see you when you wake up," Brandon whispered softly as Piotr carried in Tabby, and giving Amara a small kiss on the cheek.
Brandon walked out with Piotr and shut the door as the two moved down the hallway and heading to their rooms. The two slowly made their way into the kitchen and pulled out some left over pizza.
"Comrade are you all right, you have been a little more quiet than usual after what happened?" Piotr asked as the two placed their slices in the microwave.
"That thing with Magneto today, something just felt off about it. He was more worried about someone else than us, and that really does concern me," Brandon spoke as he looked at his friend.
"Da, I have never seen him like that before, he didn't even seem to care about me once he noticed you." Piotr said as Brandon nodded his head.
"I know it was like you weren't there and he was only interested in me because of what happened at NRI," Brandon returned unsure of what exactly was going on.
The two sat there quietly eating the food that they had warmed up in the microwave. It was a peaceful time at the mansion, nearly everyone else had gone to sleep.
"Hey Piotr you spent time with Magneto, you got any ideas about what the man is thinking." Brandon asked as he looked over the remainder of the food.
"I'm sorry my friend but I don't know anything. Magneto kept me isolated most of the time so I wouldn't be able to find Illyana," Piotr spoke sad about his loss of contact with his family.
"I'm sorry Piotr I shouldn't have asked that, I meant well but I shouldn't have drug up such bad memories." Brandon answered as he bowed his head slightly.
The two stood there for a moment both bowing there heads at the thoughts that they were having.
"Well let's have some more pizza, and worry about our problems later. We have our problems, but the future that is something we can help decide at least while we are here," Brandon spoke his smile beginning to return.
The two smiled as Brandon got up from his stool waving his hand as he headed to his room for some sleep. Brandon made his way up to the room slowly as he opened the door, cautious of any placed traps that Bobby may have placed. Turning on his laptop Brandon sat at his desk, waiting for his email to come up Brandon smiled when he saw a response.
"Six days from today I will meet you at your new place," Brandon mumbled going over Alan's email.
Well some things don't change no specifics or anything, just like you Alan. Hope you aren't putting yourself at risk over this. Brandon got up turning the light and his laptop off heading towards his bed.
Next Episode: Old Friends Reunited
Five days have passed and Alan is returning with some vital information. The question is can they keep him safe from someone willing to do anything to get the info back.
