N'Kantu the Living Mummy sat in the chair in mild annoyance.
"Name," the Voice said in a casual tone.
"You know my name," N'Kantu said with a sigh, "N'Kantu."
"Codename," the Voice said with a slight chuckle.
"This is far from funny," N'Kantu said shaking his head, "N'Kantu the Living Mummy."
"Hobbies and interests," the Voice asked in a more serious tone.
"Harvesting the organs of living humans," N'Kantu said with a nod.
"What?" the Voice asked in complete shock.
This time is was N'Kantu's turn to laugh, "I was kidding. You 'modern' humans never cease to entertain me. I also find television fascinating," he said between moments of laughter.
"Yeah, yeah real funny, meet you in the break room for donuts?" the Voice asked regaining its playful tone.
"Meet you there in five," N'Kantu said with a nod.
-Later that night-
Lance laid on his bed, his arms wrapped around Regan in a loving embrace as the young couple slept in complete silence, a silence that was swiftly interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Lance… if that's Pietro wanting to play basketball at three in the morning again, you will never see me naked again," Regan threatened rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Yeah, like you can go two hours without sex," Lance grumbled out as he swung his feet off the bed and got out of bed, "Lance answer the door, Lance I shrank your favorite shirt, Lance I'm bored let's have sex, of course I'm on the pill…" he trailed of as he made his way to the door, "What?" he asked as the door whooshed open to reveal Amara.
"Lance… Have you seen Johnny?" Amara asked on the verge of tears, "He never came back to the room and I… I'm worried about him."
In an instant Regan descended upon her, "Honey… have you tried to look for him?" she asked leading her to the bed.
"It's three in the morning… I thought maybe he was playing basketball with the boys…" Amara replied rubbing the tears from her eyes.
"Oh sweetie…" Regan turned to Lance, "You, gather up the others and look for him," she ordered allowing Amara to lie down on the bed, "I'll keep Amara company."
"Uh… Okay, I'll go look around," Lance said leaving the two women alone in the room.
Regan sat on the edge of the bed allowing Amara to put her head in her lap, "Lance will find him," Regan said stroking the younger girl's hair.
"I hope so," Amara said fighting the tears.
-Several minutes later in the Mess Hall-
The Brotherhood Boys had gathered in the Mess Hall before starting their search for their missing comrade.
"Okay… Johnny's wife is crying on my wife in my room," Lance said rubbing his eyes, "Let's find him so I can go back to sleep."
"Where would Johnny's favorite place on a military base be?" Pietro asked crossing his arms.
"Ammunitions?" Freddy asked in a hopeful tone.
"No, I checked before I came to get you guys," Lance said with a sigh.
"We're over thinking this yo, who saw him last?" Todd asked hopping onto the table.
"I saw Deuce bury him in the backyard after lunch," Pietro said taking a seat at the table.
Freddy cupped his chin and thought, "Last time I saw him… he was hiding from the tooth fairy in freezer," he stated with a snap of his fingers.
Lance pinched the bridge of his nose, "Yeah… and the last time I saw him he was playing in the magic room until N'Kantu kicked him out for burning down N'Kantu," he stated with a hint of agitation.
"Well… last time I saw him, he ran out of his meeting with Samson," Todd said dropping into a crouch.
"Lance, you don't think…" Pietro trailed off fearing the worst.
Lance sighed, "He's the only one that would know," he said signaling the boys to follow him.
"And the Brotherhood is off on a new adventure," Todd said hopping after Lance.
"I just wish more of those adventures didn't involve us looking for each other," Pietro quipped as he sped out of the room.
"Hey! If you guys leave, who's gonna hear my funny comment!?" Freddy exclaimed running after his comrades, "Come on guys! It was hilarious!"
-Several minutes later in Fury's office-
The Brotherhood Boys of Bayville stormed into the office and glared at Fury.
"I was told you lost one of your playmates," Fury said eyeing Lance in particular.
"Where is he Fury?" Lance asked in a low tone.
"And no tricks, we know he's not on base," Pietro added quickly.
"Well…" Fury paused for a moment sifting through some paperwork, "The flight log says that he had stolen an aircraft and was en route for Australia," he said reading through the log.
"Why would he go to Australia alone?" Freddy asked rubbing his bald head.
"Does it have anything to do with why he stormed out of Samson's office yesterday?" Todd asked leaning on the desk.
"I gave Samson full access to Allerdyce's file," Fury said reclining back into his chair, "He must have told him who was responsible for killing his mother and where they were currently located."
"It just me or was that a little too spot on, yo?" Todd whispered slightly taken aback.
"Definitely," Freddy said with a nod.
"You let him tell Johnny that and you didn't think he'd just go off and burn the place down!?" Lance exclaimed slamming his fists on the desk.
"Guess I thought this new opportunity would settle him down," Fury answered steeping his fingers.
"He doesn't care! Rank, status, money he could care less! He's been screwed over his entire life and you just told him who's responsible for the absolute worst moment in his life! The moment that's responsible for every shitty thing that's ever happened to him!" Lance took several calming breaths, "You know he can't be stopped, he won't be," he said shaking his head, "And there's no way you can reason with him… not when he's feeling this kind of hurt… he'll burn the whole goddamn world down…"
"I've already sent an agent after him," Fury said gathering the papers on his desk into a stack.
"Who?" Lance asked darkly, the rest of the boys leaning in for added intimidation.
"Don't worry, he can hold his own," Fury responded with a smug look on his face.
-The Australian Outback-
St. John laid in the dirt, as he looked through a pair of binoculars at the building of the organization that killed his mother almost twenty years ago. St. John was armed with every flame based weapon he had ever wielded, Gabriel's Sword, his back mounted flamethrowers, the wrist mounted spark mechanism, flame capsules in a pouch on his belt and the hand held flamethrower holstered on his hip.
St. John got to his feet "Hey now! Wait a minute!" St. John exclaimed as he was thrown to the ground. He looked up to see Logan's aggravated face, "Wolvie? Did you come to help me?" he asked with a small smile, "Oih always knew oih was your favorite."
"What do you think you're doing kid?" Logan asked relaxing his posture.
St. John flipped onto his stomach, "Oih'm gonna go in there and burn the whole damn place to ash," he said pointing at the building in question.
"Why?" Logan asked barely above a whisper.
St. John shot to his feet, "Whoihy? You're asking me whoihy!?" St. John exclaimed as his mood swung to full blown rage, "They killed moihy mother! Oih wasn't even out of the womb ten minutes and they set the place ablaze!" by the end of his rant he was breathing heavily.
At that exact moment the building exploded in a giant fiery fashion.
St. John looked on in horror, "Did you do this!?" he exclaimed as he spun around to face Logan, "Did you take moihy revenge from me!?" he grabbed Logan by the front of his uniform.
"No son… I did."
St. John watched as a bird swooped from the air and shifted into a short red haired woman, "You!? Why? Why did you take it from me!?" he exclaimed, grabbing Raven by the shoulders.
"I would never allow my son to dirty his hands with something like this," Raven explained pulling her son into a hug, "Your mother would have never forgiven me. Your mother was a pure soul John… and I can see that same spark in your eyes…" she held St. John close to her body for fear that the truth may break him.
St. John squirmed out of the embrace, "Oih… oih don't have anything now!" tears began rolling down his cheeks, "Moihy mothers gone!" he began sobbing, dropping to his knees in the process, "Oih just wanted moihy mom… oih just wanted to be loved…"
Raven dropped to her knees and pulled him to her body, allowing him to cry into her shoulder.
"Raven…" Logan said softly, "He needs to go back."
"He's my son Logan…" Raven said staring Logan in the eyes, "I'll take him."
-Several hours later in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base-
The esteemed Brotherhood members stood in the hanger awaiting their long lost comrade. After several more moments of waiting St. John's jet finally landed in the hangar.
The Brotherhood made their way to the aircraft but were quickly out maneuvered by several armed SHIELD agents. The hatch opened to reveal St. John's fiery form.
"Oih'm home!" he exclaimed as several guns were shoved into his face, "Oih mean… oih come in peace!" he raised his arms in surrender.
"Hey! Get those guns out of his face before I decide Vermont belongs in the Atlantic Ocean!" Lance exclaimed as he and the rest of the Brotherhood muscled their way through the crowd of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
"They're not after him," Raven said as she got off the plane, her arms held high in surrender.
The SHIELD agents swarmed her and lead her out of the hangar.
"Dad? Dad!" St. John exclaimed as he readied his flamethrowers.
"Its okay son, I'm going to handle this," Raven said with a serene smile.
"Lance, what the hell just happened?" Regan asked in complete shock.
"I think… Mystique just took one for her son…" Lance replied not entirely believing the situation himself.