Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: See previous chapters

Chapter Twenty

All things considered, Wanda was settling in nicely as the newest Brotherhood member. She was free of the asylum, and had her twin back, along with a slightly dysfunctional new family. She had the opportunity to fine-tune her still slightly shaky control and the only uncertainty in her life was Toad.

Todd had developed a crush on Wanda the size of Europe, and was jumping to fulfill her every wish. The problem with this was that after spending half her life in an asylum, with little human contact, Wanda was still moving past the 'boys are icky' stage, and wasn't quite sure how to deal with this new development.

Luckily, the newly-codenamed Scarlet Witch had other things to think about. Mystique had managed to acquire a bank statement of Magneto's account and discovered that there was still at least a quarter of a million dollars left. After Rogue and Kurt's recent encounter with Magneto and the 'Rebirth' project, further depletion of Magneto's resources sounded like fun.

Several thousand went to the monthly cost of structural damage, the natural result of a house filled with adolescent mutants, especially after the 'We-Lost-Boom-Boom-and-Wanda's-Homecoming' party had gone a bit out of hand. After that, Rogue and Wanda had decided to indulge their shallow sides and go on a shopping spree.

Considering that Wanda had been eight years old when Magneto dumped her in the Asylum, and was getting tired of borrowing Rogue's clothes, it promised to be big.

Tabitha Smith would willingly admit that she lived for fun, and seldom gave a thought to consequences. Sure, consequences had become a bit more important when Rogue had thrown her out of the Brotherhood House and the others had not only failed to stand up for her, but had been very much in favor of Tabitha's eviction, but that was just one instance. All Boom-Boom needed to get back to normal was a bit of R&R, so she could just hook up with one of the X-Girls after school and go shopping or something.

That was why Tabitha was currently ignoring the fact that she, as the ex-Brotherhood girl, was essentially homeless, and was now cruising down the street with Amara in Jean's "borrowed" car, throwing cherry-bombs at random immobile objects as they headed for the Mall. Amara looked worried about the speed they were going, but Tabitha knew she would probably relax once they really got going.

Stopped at a red light, things really started to pick up. A pair of young men jumped up from where they had been sitting, pulled the driver of the car in front of the two girls out of his seat, and then blew a kiss at Tabitha before zooming off. Well, the boy was kind of cute, in a rugged, bad-boy sort of way, but that was beside the point. Amara sounded surprised as she pointed at the disappearing car. "Did you see that?"

Tabitha's afternoon was rapidly turning out to be much more fun that she had originally anticipated. Switching gears, she tore off after the stolen car, nearly running over the previous owner. "Did I? Hang on!"

Again, Tabitha decided that the X-Men really needed to get out more, as Amara's response to this was a shriek and a plea for her to slow down. This was way too much excitement for Tabitha to pass up, however, and she ignored her friend's worry. "Forget that! This is way more fun than shopping for shoes!"

What followed was a high-speed car chase that would have made any 'live-action' movie proud, if you excluded the carjackers nearly killing a child and her mother while trying to lose the two girls. Luckily, the stolen car was jerked to a painful telekinetic halt by Jean Grey, who promptly joined in, chasing after Tabitha and Amara.

Amara was just remembering why most of the X-Men had avoided Tabitha when she was in one of her 'exuberant' moods. Following the carjackers down a narrow side alley, they crashed into at least three dustbins and narrowly avoided a head on collision with a dumpster. Sternly reminding herself that Princesses did not whimper in sheer terror, Amara yelled to her dubiously-sane friend. "Tabitha, please, slow down! I feel like a pinball!"

Boom-Boom either ignored her, or didn't hear, as the thieves they were chasing began to widen the distance. "They're getting away from us! Amara, quick, melt their tires!"

If stopping the carjackers meant that they could stop this potentially death-defying race, Amara didn't care who saw her. Rubbing her hands together to make a fireball, she aimed at the car. A second to aim as she leaned out the window and the fireball connected, taking out one of the back tires and sending the car skidding wildly out of control.

A second fireball missed the other back tire, but blew out the rear window, providing an opening for two of Tabitha's cherry bombs. Seeing the glowing orbs landing next to them, the carjackers screeched to a halt, threw the doors open and bolted, trying to get as far away from the car as possible.

Their flight was halted by the appearance of Jean Grey, who used several cement blocks to trap them in place, and then floated down off the low wall she was sitting on, folding her arms as she prepared to deliver a lecture. To Amara's relief, Jan was halted in turn by Tabitha's cheer. "That was Awesome! We bagged the baddies and recouped the coupe!"

Jean sent a pointed look at the destroyed and still lightly smoking car. "I'm sure the owner will be very grateful." The trio heard sirens from the distance. "Let's let the police handle it from here."

The first stop on the Brotherhood Girls' shopping trip was a hairdresser's saloon to get Wanda's hair trimmed, and to add a few red highlights, followed by a trip to several shoe shops. After that came numerous clothing stores, a few electronics places, and the bookshop. They rounded things off with a stop at the food court, for a late lunch and to point and laugh at the various dramas that went on at any given time, from teenage not-a-date's to overly energetic three-year-olds.

There was also the occasional adolecent boy to scare off. For some unknown reason, there were always a few boys who just couldn't comprehend that not every girl was going to fall over themselves to get at him. After the sixth Jock slunk off when his milkshake spontaneously blew up in his face when he tried to hit on Wanda, however, they seemed to get the message. Joining Wanda in amusement, Rogue was distracted by a 'Current Affairs' report. "In other news, a pair of notorious car-jackers was apprehended today, thanks to a bunch of good Samaritans."

The camera zoomed in on a car that looked like it had been partially blown up, and a pair of young men being shoved into a police car. Interestingly, one of them was talking loudly, "I swear, one of them made little glowing balls out of nothing, and they exploded when they hit us!"

The other one backed his fellow culprit up. "Yeah! And one of them lifted those huge blocks without touching them! It was like she was moving them with her mind!"

Rogue and Wanda exchanged glances. Wanda sighed, "Maybe they were on something and hallucinated it?"

Rogue shook her head. "Those scorch marks on the ground are too far away to be caused bah some explosion in the car, and Ah've seen enough of them around the Boarding House to recognize Tabitha's handiwork anywhere."

As Tabitha was no longer the Brotherhood's problem to deal with, the news of the car jackers was quickly forgotten, especially after what happened in Wanda's control session the next day.

If anyone had bothered to ask Rogue, she could have easily told them it was a bad idea. As could have Mystique. Or anyone with even a small amount of common sense.

As it stood, however, the Brotherhood boys had somehow decided to interrupt a control session with Agatha, who had returned to help Wanda with her control, just to see how far Wanda had progressed. What they had not counted on, was the fact that Wanda Maximoff was still getting used to her new freedom, and was still slightly jumpy.

While she did a very convincing job of pretending otherwise, Wanda was still a bit skittish when it came to sudden loud noises, such as a door crashing open from two adolescent boys tripping and crashing into it, and another two crashing into them. Wanda had panicked, lost control and hexed the entire room before she could stop herself. Agatha's shield had protected her, but the others suddenly burst into song. 'We Will Rock You' was a lot funnier when it contrasted with Lance's absolutely horrified expression, and Pietro's rendition of 'I'm too sexy' was faintly disturbing.

It was Rogue, however, who finally convinced Wanda to stop laughing about it. 'Hey Mickey' was nowhere near as amusing when the lyrics were: 'So come on and give it to me if you think you can/ Anyway ya trah to touch ya'll end up on the sand/ Ya'll be out lahke a lahght/ And Ah won't give a damn, Mickey!'

The effects of Wanda's hex were quickly reversed.

'That Incident' was the reason that the Brotherhood girls had formed a temporary alliance with Jean, Kitty, Amara, and to a lesser extent Tabitha, and were commiserating about Stupid Boys two days later.

It seemed that Cyclops had started the mess by playing '(Unwanted) Knight in Shining Armor' during a Danger Room session, setting Jean in a bad mood, which was only compounded by Duncan being presumptuous and buying tickets for the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance, where girls were supposed to ask boys.

This had happened the same day that Tabitha and Amara had gone on their little 'Girl Power' trip against the car jackers, with Jean joining in at the last minute.

Last night, New Recruits Iceman, Berserker and Sunspot had played a prank on Kitty, the details of which she refused to disclose, and she had caught them.

When you added 'That Incident' and the fact that Wanda had missed the 'Boys are Evil' Pre-pubescent gender war, the six girls were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Surprisingly enough, it was Jean who eventually came up with the idea to continue Tabitha and Amara's 'Crime-Fighting Spree'. Six capable (not to mention hot) young woman taking down criminals without boys jumping in to try and play hero. And thus the Bayville sirens were born.

There was something about black leather, Rogue decided, that made for an incredible bonding experience. Black leather pants, boots and midriff-bearing, sleeveless tops were the new and unofficial uniform of the Bayville Sirens, an all-girl vigilante group dedicated to stopping crime, ranging from graffiti to drive-by theft to mugging to car-jacking.

Oh, and the occasional mall-crawl, despite differing tastes and people staring at you when you danced in a music store.

Rogue and Wanda were relaxing in the kitchen, introducing Wanda to Hershey's Kisses and poking fun at the news report. They sat bolt upright, however, when a backdrop of six female outlines, looking disturbingly like a certain six mutants, appeared on the screen, under the banner 'Bayville Sirens'.

Rogue let out a particularly inventive curse, drawing a raised eyebrow from Wanda, and then turned their attention back to the TV announcer. "And so, in just a few short days, Bayville's crime rate has been literally cut in half, all due to the mysterious group of female crime fighters referred to as the 'Bayville Sirens'."

The TV screen changed to outside Bayville Police Station, where a group of reporters crowded around the Police Chief. A brunette woman was the first to get a question in. "Chief Rothman, do you have any clues to the identity of the Sirens?"

Chief Rothman looked almost frustrated as he replied to the question. "Not yet. But whoever they may be, we have no choice but to put a stop to their vigilante activities."

Rogue reached out and turned off the TV, exchanging frowns with Wanda. The police were still a long way from catching them, but the Sirens would need to start being a bit more careful. They would have to talk to the X-Men about it at school the next day.

For such supposedly intelligent people, the X-Men could be surprisingly dense at times. Rogue had expected Boom-Boom to completely disregard her warnings about the increased Media attention (the blonde hadn't changed that much), but she had expected Jean to at least listen to her concerns.

Apparently the Brotherhood Girls had shot far off the mark, however, as their fellow Sirens just laughed it off and started walking to class. Rogue and Wanda shared exasperated looks before following them, ire evaporating as they moved down the hall, strong and confident, drawing looks of admiration and/or infatuation from every male student as the crowds parted like the Red Sea.

Wanda shot a smirk at Rogue when several girls passed them. The majority was alternating glares between the six Sirens and the male population, but two at the back were discussing the Bayville Sirens. "Man, those Sirens are awesome."

The shared smirk between the Brotherhood Girls changed to a concerned glance when they heard the second girl's reply. "Yeah! You know some people are even saying that they have special powers."

Up ahead, Scott Summers overheard and slapped a hand to his forehead. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a passing Nightcrawler, whose immediate response was "I didn't do it!"

Trying not to wince in apprehension at what might have prompted such a statement, Scott hushed him. "Kurt, cancel your plans for tonight. We've got a little secret mission to take care of."

Kurt raised a questioning eyebrow at the Team Leaders strange behavior. Further up the hall, Rogue nodded to her own team-mate. None of the Bayville Sirens could even remotely be called fat, but tonight would be the last time that these Sirens sang.

The plan for that night was simple. A quick phone call, and Wanda and Rogue were driving to pick up the X-Girls. Given the nature of their nightly exploits, Rogue had taken to accessing either Wolverine or Sabertooth's enhanced senses when the girls went out. This fact, combined with the overheard conversation between Cyclops and Nightcrawler, a small enhanced probability from Wanda, and the glaringly bright colour of Scott's car, even at night, meant that she easily spotted the two would-be followers.

Waiting for the X-Girls to appear, a whispered conversation caused Rogue to roll her eyes. "Blue Boy to Tracker One, can you read me? The pigeons are leaving the roost/"

"Kurt, I'm right here. Why are you talking like that?"

Kurt jumped down from where he had been balancing on the wall. "Duck! They are coming this way!"

No matter. Even if tonight's cancellation plan didn't work out, Scott would effectively ban the X-Girls from their night time outings. Rogue put it out of mind as the doors of the Institute opened and three figures sprinted across the lawn. Tabitha would be joining them a mile down the road.

Speeding down the Mainstreet, the Sirens' would-be pursuers were spotted by Jean. "Uh, ladies, we have company."

Rogues smirked and speed up as Tabitha gleefully replied to the statement. "Not for long."

Cyclops and Nightcrawler chased them toward the train line, where a freighter was on its way through. Rogue didn't slow down as Wanda called to the back seat, "Kitty, phase us through!"

The X-Girl in question grinned and closed her eyes in concentration, holding onto the side of the car as the train carriages loomed closer. Not slowing down, the car sped across the railroad, emerging from the other side of the train. Letting go, Kitty cheered and exchanged a high five with Amara as the Sirens heard a frustrated honk of a car horn from the other side.

To Rogue's frustration, the only place to change was the restroom of a gas station. Very limited room aside, the fact that they had to pick the lock to get in meant that they also received a very unpleasant surprise when a tollbooth man, who had asked the shop worker for the key, walked in.

Besides, she didn't particularly care for absorbing random people off the street, especially when it meant getting a dose of thoughts from a boy who had just received an eyeful. "Man, we gotta fahnd a better place to change!"

In the back, Tabitha shrugged. "Hey, relax; no one will believe that tollbooth guy."

There were any number of cutting remarks that just begged to be vocalized as a response, including one or two regarding what people thought of Tabitha in regards to physical appearance, but Rogue managed to restrain herself. Luckily, further talking was rendered useless when Amara pointed out a car-jacking up ahead. "Look!"

The Bayville Sirens sped off after the stolen car. Distantly, Wanda could hear the previous owner calling the police. Drat.

The Bayville Sirens chased the stolen car to the warehouse district, at which point the car seemed to vanish. Wanda lifted her sunglasses as she looked around. "Where did he go?"

Kitty shrugged. "This is too weird. He just vanished."

Well, at least one X-Girl had a bit of common sense, if she noticed something wrong with the picture. The Sirens scanned the area as Jean suddenly pointed off to the side. "Maybe not. Look."

The others followed her finger to where a garage was just shutting behind the stolen car. Parking the car a good distance away, just in case, the six of them carefully snuck into the building that the carjacker had disappeared into.

Inside, they hid behind a large pile of tires as they looked around. The area was filled with several cars and even more men working on taking said cars apart. For once, Tabitha kept her voice down as she peered out. "It's a chop shop. They're taking apart the stolen car for parts!"

Jean and Kitty also leaned out for a better view. "Then this must be the base for the car-theft ring."

Rogue winced as a voice rang out from behind them. "Glad you could join the party girls. We've been expecting you."

How could she have missed this? Rogue ran through an impressive mental litany of curses as Wanda sounded almost put out. "Aw, man. It's a trap!"

Shadowcat sounded distinctly unimpressed. "That is so weak."

The ringleader's voice was almost smug as he came into the light, accompanied by several thugs wielding metal bars and chains. "Yeah, you see, you Sirens have been slowing down our business, and the boys are getting a tad irritable about it.

Still in a crouch, Magma somehow managed to draw herself up. "Look, didn't your mother ever teach you not to pick on girls?"

The response to that was as old as time, but that didn't stop the ringleader from saying it anyway. "Yeah, too bad I never listened to her."

Tabitha jumped to her feet, followed by the others. "Well, guess what, Brain-dead? She was right, and here's why!"

The six girls blurred into action. Jean leapt high and angled down to land on one, booted heels first.

A blue light glowed around Wanda's fist as she slammed it into another's stomach, sending him flying across the room.

Rogue spun into a roundhouse kick, sending a third man down with a crack that indicated a broken jaw.

Kitty phased through one, who spun around just in time to receive a knee to the belly, followed by a blow to the small of his back, knocking him down.

Two more ran up behind Jean, who telekinetically shoved them back, then sent a nearby pile of tires flying at them. One was knocked flat, while the other went flying into a barrel of oil, knocking it over and spilling the flammable liquid all over the floor.

Amara backed away from her assailants, giving herself room to move as she made a mocking gesture at them. Seeing no danger in a small teenaged girl (these were obviously two who had not had their butts kicked in a previous encounter) they charged at her, only to be knocked back by a spin-kick that downed both of them in a single move.

Rogue and Wanda stood together, and thus both were grabbed from behind and ganged up on at the same time. Wanda leaned back against the one who was holding her and brought her legs up, kicking one of the thugs that approached her. An elbow to her captor's gut freed her, and a strong punch brought him down, even as a third attacker tripped over his suddenly untied shoelaces and whacked his head on the concrete hard enough to be knocked unconscious.

The thug trying to restrain Rogue had wrapped his arms around her middle, and promptly came into contact with her lethal skin. He dropped like a fallen log, and Rogue shook her head slightly to clear it, and then grabbed a pole, using it as a crude escrima stick to take down the other three, who were operating on a charge-and-overwhelm mentality. Faced with a moderately acrobatic practiced fighter, it didn't work as well as they had hoped. Tossing the pole away, accidentally braining a thug who was trying to sneak up on Kitty, Rogue looked to see how the rest of the Sirens were doing.

Tabitha was surrounded by the remaining four. Her strategy was simplistic: throw a multitude of cherry bombs at them. It worked, sending the lot of them flying, but it would have gone a lot better if Boom-Boom had stopped there, rather than merely creating more and throwing them all over the place. The smaller cherry bombs did little more than flash and explode, but when they came into contact with oil, things were set on fire. The other five Sirens dodged pieces of flaming debris, and turned to glare at her. Tabitha shrugged carelessly.

Rogue decked one who was trying to get back to his feet as Wanda and Tabitha started tying the unconscious thugs up. Kitty, Amara and Jean were about to help when they spotted the ringleader trying to escape out of a back door. Jean and Amara formed a scoop with their hands, throwing Kitty into the air. Twisting in mid-air, Kitty's feet hit the ringleader in the back, knocking him into the trunk of a car, several tins of oil falling out of an open door with the impact.

Rogue's eyes widened as the oil track hit one of the many small fires, flames racing along the slick. Seconds before the blaze reached the car, a blast of red energy knocked the vehicle away. Seeing Jean's eyes flicker to a balcony on the top floor, Rogue ignored it and picked up a fire hydrant to start putting out the flames before the warehouse burned down around them.

Police cars (by the sound of sirens and screeching tires) surrounded the warehouse just as the last of the flames was extinguished. Seemingly oblivious, Tabitha stood from where she had tied up the last pair of criminals. "Girl Power. Don't you just love it?"

Evidently, not everyone did, as a particularly irate-sounding voice rang out. "All right, fun's over! The building is surrounded, and there's no way out!"

Rogue marveled at Amara's genuine confusion as she put down her fire extinguisher and took a few steps forward. "But – But we're the Good Guys! Or, rather, Girls."

The policewoman was not impressed. "I know exactly who you are." (Tabitha and Kitty preened for a moment.) "You're vigilantes who take the law into your own hands!" (The two girls visibly deflated.) "And you're under arrest."

Tabitha faltered for a moment before her attitude returned. "Oh, yeah? Well, if you know who we are, then you know not to get in our way."

The policewoman looked even less intimidated than before as Tabitha shifted into a battle stance, but was restrained by Jean. "No. We're not going to fight with the police."

The policewoman's smile was sardonic. "Smart girl." Her flashlight moved over the bound criminals. "Looks like you put an end to their little enterprise. Good work. Look, I'll probably lose my job for this, but I'm gonna let you go."

Kitty perked up. "Really? Cool."

Rogue and Wanda exchanged weary glances behind the younger girl's back as the policewoman continued. "But only if you promise to stop what you've been doing, and I mean now! It's either that, or I take you in."

Tabitha scowled, but Jean smiled in relief. "Deal. Thanks."

The policewoman pointed to some nearby stairs. "That leads to a sub basement, which should take you down to the sewers. Now get going!"

It could have been Rogue's imagination, but she thought that the policewoman looked a little too pleased at the idea of the six girls going through the sewers. Jean hid a grimace, but managed a polite response. "You got it. And thanks."

The six of them ran off, with Kitty doubling back for a moment. "By the way, their boss is in the trunk."

They disappeared down the stairs just as the rest of the police force managed to get the garage door open. Calling a negative to her squad leader, the policewoman drifted off to the side, where a glance out the window showed the ex-Bayville Sirens running to a car. Those girls! Tough fighters, good enough to take down a big crime ring and two of them sneaky enough to put a stop to it when things threatened to get out of hand.

She gazed after the retreating Sirens as just as Rogue and Wanda disappeared from sight. She had been shocked when they told her about the Bayville Sirens, but oh, she was proud of them.

Hidden by a cloud of smoke, Mystique resumed her true form, a rueful smirk on her blue lips.

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A/N: This chapter proved tougher to write than I thought. It's up now, though, and reviews, especially constructive criticism, are welcomed. I have a previous, Mystique-based WotWS fic also on this site. It's titled 'Wildchild', but has no real connection to this story. Just in case anyone was confused.

Next Chapter will be the Sadie Hawkins Dance; tell me who you think should go with whom!

In other news, my course finishes in two days! Wish me luck.
Thanks,
Nat.