All three boys were now paralyzed in fear. Each one afraid to even move, considering the slightest movement would bring down a wrath none of them were prepared to face.

"Don't everyone give meh a stupid excuse at once," Anna glared at each boy in the kitchen.

Bobby tried to smile innocently, "Well you see Anna, Pietro here was…"

"Hungry," Sam blurted out.

Bobby snapped his fingers, "Right, and we…"

"Brought him here so he could eat," Sam smiled.

Bobby smiled as well, "Yeah and we were just about to take him back to the med lab, when…"

Anna slapped her forehead, "Mah second in command and the most powerful person on mah squad are complete and utter idiots," she examined the speedster, "Am ah gonna have to drag you kickin' and screamin' or are ya gonna go peacefully?"

Pietro only smirked, "Catch me if you can," he then darted past the table and out of the kitchen.

Anna shook her head, "If ya don't find him, ah'm gonna mail ya to the middle of the Sahara," both boys nodded and took off after the speedster, Anna then stepped out of the back door and flew off.

-A few seconds later-

Pietro darted around corners, hopped over tables, and side stepped other students.

"Hey get back here," Bobby yelled out in hot pursuit of Pietro.

Sam just looked at the frosty teen, "He ain't so fast."

Pietro furrowed his brow and flipped over a table, thoroughly tripping his pursuers.

Sam slammed a fist onto the ground, "Do ya know what desert heat does to my blast-field?"

Bobby snorted, "Your blast-field? What about me? I'm gonna melt!"

Pietro smirked he was home free, the door was wide open and he was pretty sure he could sprint all the way back to the Boarding House, but as we all know any member of the Brotherhood will experience serious difficulties in life, on almost an hourly basis.

He was properly sent to the ground, as he had run straight into Anna's extended arm. His eyes softened and he appeared to be depressed. Anna looked at him with a softness in her eyes "What's wrong? Ah didn't hurt ya did ah?"

Pietro shook his head, "You have no idea what it feels like to be this slow."

-Several minutes later in the med lab-

Depression quickly shifted into anger, Pietro now laid on the gurney a fresh I.V. in his arm. Every time someone tried to get within five feet of him he would quickly yell at him or her until they left him perfectly alone. After all, he was Pietro Maximoff, and Pietro Maximoff did not need help, he just needed his speed back. None of them could truly know what he was going through at all. Not everyone was as afraid to approach him as he would have liked, and he did tolerate the presence of a select few.

He looked around the room and focused on a select few, thinking in order to keep from being heard by certain individuals with super sensitive hearing. He paused on Hank, 'He's a good guy, he'll figure out what's going on and I'll be half way to China in no time…' he smirked, 'Literally.'

Next on the list of acceptable people was Logan, 'No one ever treated the Brotherhood like equals until we moved in. Logan taught us all kinds of things, fishing, the proper way to take care of a hangover, and how to turn a man's skull into a coffee mug. I guess we kind of remind him of himself, a bunch of misunderstood outcasts with bad attitudes.'

He then shifted his attention to Ororo, 'One word, kind.'

He looked to the other side of the room and caught Laura's attention, 'Laura… if Wolverine hadn't interrupted our date then maybe we could have been more. But I guess you'll have to settle for being whatever it is we are right now…' he trailed off.

Finally he looked at Anna, 'Anna the love of my life,' he sighed, 'You're probably the only person that could possibly fathom what I'm going through. You knew what it was like to be faster than the wind, to be on par with a bolt of lightning,' he smiled, 'You're the only one that knows…'

Exhaustion was taking over Pietro's frail body, "You can't keep me here, they'll come looking for me. May Thor have mercy on you because the Brotherhood can't spell mercy," and with that he slipped into unconsciousness.

-A few hours later-

Logan still sat in his chair across from the silver-haired teen, while Hank was busy theorizing why the concoction hadn't worn off yet.

Logan grunted, "Hank, why's the kid taking his power loss so bad?"

Hank looked up at the gruff Canadian, "It seems that every time we think about Pietro, all we take into account is his speed," he paused, "But in reality his true mutation is to be the perfect 'machine' built for that speed," Logan nodded signaling for Hank to continue, "We know about his dense skin and bones, his tendons have the tinsel strength of titanium, and that fatigue is only a seven letter word to him."

Logan turned back to the teen, "But?"

Hank smiled, "But it just doesn't stop there, it also involves perspective, things that would take us hours upon hours to complete would take him seconds, his mind processes information so fast it makes it seem as if he's impulsive, while in his perspective he's actually thought about it for several hours."

Logan was actually amazed, "Anything else?"

Hank nodded, "One last thing, there is no switch to turn his powers on, he must actually will himself to slow down so he can interact with us. Although I do theorize that he has 'gears' like in a transmission, but first gear is still faster than we could ever hope to comprehend."

-Meanwhile at the Brotherhood House-

Lance sat in front of the television next to the phone. He sat in his armchair and had an icepack on his nose; it wasn't broken, just bruised and horribly sore.

Lance flipped the channel, "And here we have the Jones'."

The reporter put her microphone up to the man, "Oh those kids are good boys, real polite…" his wife began whispering into his ear, "What! The Brotherhood kids? Those kids are freakin' nuts. They blew up my mailbox, I hope they fry!"

Lance glared as they showed footage of another neighbor, "Yeah them boys ain't right in the head. I saw them tryin' to steal cable once and they electrocuted that dog of theirs. But the damn thing just shook it off, it ain't natural."

Lance's eyes became tiny slits of anger as they showed more footage, "Well what people seem to forget about those boys, is that they defeated a planetary threat, known as Apocalypse," Lance smirked and turned off the television.

He leaned his head back; "Mystique should get an Oscar for that one."

Wanda walked down the stairs, a few bandages around her shoulder and chest, "Are you going to school Lance?"

Lance looked up at her, "No me and the boys are calling in sick until we find Pietro."

Wanda nodded, "Well I'm going to school on the off chance he actually shows up."

Lance sighed, "Be careful, we didn't keep track of any of those Marauders, so they could still be around."

Wanda acknowledged him by walking out of the house.

As soon as the door closed the rest of the Brotherhood boys and Regan came down the stairs, they were all heavily bandaged and in some case still bleeding but as we all know the Brotherhood can't spell pain, "What's the plan yo? Walk around town 'til we find him?"

Lance got out of his chair and examined his merry crew, "Basically, but Freddy I need you to go with Wanda, she says she's fine but she might need someone to watch her back," Freddy nodded and grabbed his school bag out of the closet, "Johnny I need you to go downtown, and Todd you're gonna work the old Acolyte base."

Both teens nodded in agreement and took for the door leaving only Lance and Regan, "And where will we search honey?"

Lance reached for the end table and opened up a bottle of pills, he popped one into his mouth and swallowed it dry, "We're gonna search everywhere between here and the Mansion."

-A couple of hours later on the streets of Bayville-

Lance had just started his search for his lost comrade. While walking along the street, he had grabbed an innocent pedestrian and thrown him into a wall, thoroughly embarrassing Regan to no end.

Regan looked over at her husband and noticed that he had pulled out his wallet and flipped it over. "Have you seen this guy?" the man shook his head no and Lance let him go.

Regan peeked an eyebrow in interest, "Lance, you have a picture of Pietro in your wallet?"

Lance studied her face for a moment, "Yeah, why?"

Regan smiled, "No reason, I just think it's sweet," she paused for a moment, "Am I in there?"

Lance gave her The Patented Brotherhood Smile of Innocence, "You will be."

Now to say Regan was pissed would be like saying Wanda is the poster child for anger management, but luckily for Lance his com. Link was going off.

Lance clicked the com. Link on his belt and Freddy's voice came out from it, "Lance! Lance!"

Lance smiled, "It's okay Freddy I can hear you, just calm down."

Freddy's breathing could be heard over the link, "I overheard some X-geeks say they had Pietro locked up in that basement of theirs…" Lance face shifted to extreme anger, and he released a powerful tremor, "Lance? Lance are you there?"

Lance cleared his throat, "I'm here Freddy, stick close to Wanda and call Johnny and Todd home, me and Regan have an errand to run, but when we get back, suit up. We have a brother to save."

"You got it buddy," happiness was evident in Freddy's voice, "We'll be home in a couple of hours."

Lance severed the connection, "Lance? Honey where are we going?"

Lance began walking in the opposite direction, "We're gonna go get some leverage."