Chapter 7

Pietro woke to birds twittering and gentle sunrays streaming across his face. He felt around. Something was odd, the sheets were clean and fresh, soft pillows supported his head, the air smelt like roses, he was so comfortable. He was just about to go back to the land of dreams when in a second of realization he was sitting up in bed in a flash.

No wonder I thought my room was odd, it isn't my room! the others! Where are they?

Pietro jumped out of the bed and gave a small groan as his cuts pulled again.

Any chance of them healing without scaring is out the window.

Seeing his shoes and socks next to the bed he hurriedly put them on. A couple of cuts were bleeding again but that didn't stop him, noticing that he was still in his clothes and he looked the same as before they brought him to enemy territory could only be a good sign.

At least they haven't experimented on me or poisoned me, yet.

In a flash he was out the door and speeding down the hallways in search of his fellow Brotherhoods. Checking in each room at hyper speed he literally ran across them in a passageway. They too had been searching for him.

As Pietro helped Lance and Tabitha to their feet after knocking them down from trying to break at 100miles an hour he looked them over, checking for any signs of hurt or ill treatment.

Tabitha was brushing the dust off her clothes and was talking away, no-one was quite sure who to.
The problem with that damn badger is you can't do him any lasting damage, stupid moron thought a locked door would keep us at bay."

Todd looked at Pietro, "You okay, yo?"

Pietro gave a half shrug. " I'm so sorry guys, I didn't know what to do, I…."

"No, you did everything you could Pietro." Said Lance, putting a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," added Tabitha. "Once these geeks get an idea or something in their heads, you can't do much to stop them."

Toad hopped forward, looking around anxiously, "Lets get outta here yo! Next thing they find us, who knows what they'll do!"

"I'm up for that vote," said Lance.

"Let's move out troops!" said Tabitha giving a half salute and marching down the passage.

Quicksilver scratched his head and gave her a friendly nudge.
" I still can't get over how you take serious situations so lightly."

Tabitha nudged him back and winked.
"That's me! As deep as a fish pond!"

They slowly began to move down the passageway and into corridors, doors led to more corridors or empty rooms.

After a few minutes they all knew they were totally and completely lost. No one was going to admit it.

"Maybe we should ask for directions?" ventured Tabitha.

She was given three death glares in return.
"Um, ix-nay on the directions then; man, all men in general have a phobia to it, don't they?"

Finally they came across a door they had not tried.

Pietro looked to the others for confirmation. Toad simply said,
"Go for it bro, what's the worst that could happen?"

Pietro turned the door knob and swung the door open, he turned to and gave Toad the most monstrous glare he could muster. For inside the room, the worst thing that could happen was lounging all over the place on the couches and chairs and all looking in their direction.

A room filled with the X-men teenagers.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. To Pietro, this was agony.

I know they're slow, but this is getting retarded. The enemy is staring at them outside their living room!

Scott was the first one to understand what was going on, he jumped to his feet and pointed a wild finger at them.
"The Brotherhood!"

Thank God! Way to point out the obvious.

"Get them!"

Uh oh.

He looked to his comrades who were still staring at the advancing X-men.

"For cripes sake!" he yelled.

Pietro did what he thought anyone else in his situation would do. He slammed the door shut and locked it. He turned to the others and motioned with his hands in frantic gestures.

The others understood his gestures perfectly; it was internationally known and no matter what race, age, religion or language you were, you understood.

Run like hell.

They ran down the corridors and skidded around a corner on the rugs. Toad slipped but was caught by Pietro and Tabitha as they pushed on. As their feet slammed against the floor, they could still hear the shouts and footsteps of their pursuers.

Tabitha ran in front and took a sharp left. The others followed suit.

She motioned them through two metal sliding doors and they ran in breathlessly and turned as the doors slammed shut behind them. They could hear the puzzled voices of the X-men and their voices fading as they went further down the passage in search of the teens.

The Brotherhood gave each other a high five, their joy was short lived as a computerized voice spoke, catching them by surprise.

-You have breached this restricted area. Please give the X code.-

-You have 10 seconds.-

Toad looked at Tabitha.

"What room is this Tabs?" He dreaded the answer.

"The danger room." She said lightly.

-8 Seconds-

"WHAT! ARE YOU MAD!"

"No, I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it. Anyway there weren't many options left."

"What do we do!"

-3 seconds-

Lance looked around and seemed to grow taller as he spoke with confidence.

"If we look out for each other, and work as a team, we'll be fine."

-2 seconds-

"Divided we are mighty,"

-1 second-

"Together, we are legends!"

-Security Breach Initialized.-

Immediately lasers appeared from the walls and assorted robotic contraptions appeared from panels in the walls and floor. The light dipped to a flickering red.

The room seemed to spin as more machinery appeared. Toad knew how dangerous this place was when he and Kurt had stumbled into it when he first met the blue elf.

Lance remembered his training sessions with the X-men in his three day trial- they had judged him the second he walked in then. The ground gave a rumble at the memory.

Tabitha too remembered the training. If baldy was so into peace then what was he training them for? A war? He had taught them to fight but not why.

Her temper rose hungrily, her fire burning passionately, only fueling her energy that would create and explode her little bombs. She was Boom Boom in more ways then one.

Pietro was the only one not to see the danger room, as he slid more to the left, battle stance posed he spoke but kept his gaze on a laser that was aiming at the small movement he had made.

"What the hell does baldy think he's doing? No wonder the X-men cream us! He should really get help for his inferiority comple-"
He was cut off as they all jumped and scattered as a blast came from one of the machines.

Lance rolled onto his stomach and stretched out his arms and focused his hands. The rock tumbler sent a tremor that knocked several robots over and into each other. Standing up he checked if the others were okay. Everyone seemed fine, but not for long.
"Guys, focus! This may be a good time to use what Magneto taught us!"

As they executed their plan, they began talking.

Toad bounded off the walls, doing flips and using his tongue like a whip, he pulled himself right in front of a robot and sprayed his foul slime and moved onto others as they each short circuited and exploded.
"Why didn't you run? Back at the house, you coulda got away."

Pietro ran at lightning speed, back and forth causing the heat detectors and movement machines to go haywire and burn out.
"I know."

Lance sent out tremors that made the floor crack into two lines, like a V. The robots were stuck in the middle, no left or right but straight forward towards them.
"He's right you know, not that we aren't grateful, but why did you stay?"

They stood almost side by side, unfazed by the approaching weapons.

Tabitha stepped forward and stood, legs apart, in a stance and lifted her arms and in a split second gave birth to 10 spheres of burning energy. Her creations floated in midair in a wide circle, slowly they began to rotate, picking up speed, they went faster and faster and Tabitha pointed them directly into the center of the oncoming mass. They shot forward on command and as they made contact with each target, the explosions got bigger and bigger, hitting ever mark and destroying every piece of machinery in about ten seconds.

Tabitha nor the others counted on being so close to the explosions.

As they turned to try and outrun the oncoming blast she said,
"Yeah, your father would have."

Pietro ran and grabbed Tabitha, Lance and Todd by the scruff of their shirts or arms and sprinted super speed.

The blast sent them sailing at least five feet in the air and crashing out the now open doors onto a heap on the floor, side by side.

Pietro rubbed his head and said in a voice filled with seriousness, his mouth had no lines of mocking, this was a rare minute of truth that hardly anyone ever saw.

"I'm not my father."

A pair of boots appeared in front of them.

"That you ain't Quickie."