Peter looked up at the ceiling, feeling bored. Domino was on lookout at the moment, while the rest of them had retreated to the upper level catwalks. She had a walkie, and had promised to call them if anything went wrong.
Thus far though, he was getting ready to knock Emma's head off her well-formed shoulders. He knew that, in reality, all they were doing was a favor for a friend. The mission made him feel dirty though, like he was doing something wrong.
Maybe it was the way that Emma talked to them, practically ordered them to do it. She wasn't his boss. He'd never signed up for that when he agreed to be part of the Brotherhood. It might also be how, like Wanda said, they were basically doing a glorified version of security. Peter wasn't Emma's hired gun, and he resented being viewed as such.
He leaned back and absently began picking at his nails. It was getting boring. He should've brought something to do, but he'd never been good at anything that made him sit still. It had been a long time since he'd played a game of pong with himself, but that had been the kind of thing he'd liked to do. That and Space Invaders.
"You're going to take that nail clean off," Wanda muttered.
Peter rolled his eyes.
"Good," he said, "Then maybe something'll happen tonight other than me dying of boredom."
"You're not going to die of boredom," she said, "Stop being such a drama queen."
He grunted.
"Why can't you be like Lance and bring a magazine or something?" she asked.
Peter frowned and looked over. To his surprise, Lance had actually brought a magazine. It looked newsy though, so he figured it wasn't worth stealing. He got his news from the TV. Single-shot cameras never seemed to get his good side.
"Boo-ring," he said.
"You could always just talk to me you know," Wanda said.
"What do you think I'm doing now?"
She snorted and, despite everything, he started chuckling.
"Come on Wanda, you know I'm just kiddin around," he said, "Just a little out of it I guess."
"I know," she said, "You don't sleep enough."
"It's kinda hard ta, with your snoring waking me up from across the hall," he said.
"My snoring? You sound like the barges that pull into New York harbor," said Wanda.
"Yeah, well you sound like-"
"Guys."
Thoroughly irritated, Peter looked over at Lance. The irritation drained away when he saw the expression on Lance's face. Peter silently drew level to him and Lance held out the walkie talkie. There were two bursts of static, followed by a pause, and then a longer one.
It was the signal that someone was there, a signal developed in case they couldn't talk. Peter thought it was based on Morse code, but at the moment he couldn't remember. He motioned for Lance to get down, and he started to look around the room.
Sure enough, he saw movement on the lower levels, just on the outskirts of where the workmen were unloading crates. If he strained his eyes, he could just make out the yellow streaks in their black coats and jumpsuits.
"X-men," he hissed, "Give two bursts back to Dom. She'll know what it means."
Lance did so and Wanda inched closer. Peter quickly began scanning all traces of movement. He could only locate three of them, and it was hard to tell just wheich ones they were in the light. He knew that he had managed to spot Karma: her form was a lot more slender than that of the men.
After a few more seconds, he figured out that Beast was one of them. It was hard to tell if the third one was Cannonball or Havok. They both moved in similar ways, although Peter thought that Havok might be slightly more efficient.
That wasn't much help unless he spent a lot of time figuring it out though. It wasn't like their uniforms were highly individualized. For a guy who claimed to be a pacifist, Xavier sure was into military uniformity.
"They don't know we're here," Wanda murmured, "They wouldn't split up otherwise."
"I can't figure out where the fourth one is," whispered Peter.
Lance nudged him and pointed. Peter followed his finger and saw that someone was coming up the catwalks. Again, Peter wasn't sure who he was. If it was Cannonball then they were in the perfect place to fight him. He didn't have too much direction when he ran, so it was easy to throw him off balance. It would be pretty easy to just move the wrong way and throw him off one of the catwalks.
The only thing was, if that turned out to be Havok, then he'd see them coming from a mile away and be able to blast them. As much as he hated Havok, or Alex as he used to think of him, he was skilled. If it was Havok and they left him alone, he'd be able to provide support for his teammates from above.
Peter glanced back down at the other X-men, and made a decision.
"Scarlet, get Lance on the ground floor," he muttered, "I'll take care of the asshole up there. Beast'll run into Domino in a minute at that rate. Make sure his back is turned to her when he does."
"Got it," Wanda said.
She touched Lance's arm and they took down the catwalk. Peter loved that about working with Wanda. She trusted him to understand what was going on, but she also knew how to react herself. He never worried about her when they went onto the battlefield.
Peter took a deep breath and put his goggles on. The last time he fought Havok still smarted, and he was sure that the guy would've broken his ribs if he'd had the chance. Peter just had to make sure that he never gave him the chance.
Easier said than done when it came to Havok, but still, he could give it a go. Peter looked down, saw Wanda and Lance moving into position. Wanda was going for Karma. It was a curious choice, given her hatred of telepaths, but maybe she didn't want to play it safe. He just hoped that Lance didn't go overboard fighting his guy. Peter didn't kow if the stuff inside Emma's crates was volatile and given to explosion in the face of an earthquake.
Wanda was inches away from Karma when Peter turned away. The figure on the catwalks was close, but he hadn't looked down from his vantage point yet. Peter counted to ten in his head, and then he ran forward.
He tacked the man around the waist, felt his own body jerk from the impact. The wall loomed in front of him, but Peter let go and skidded at the last moment. The X-man crashed into the opposite wall, hitting his back with a grunt.
Below him, the room lit up with red. Wanda was working, and he was a big fan of his sister's work. He saw the X-man was still in a crumpled heap on the ground, his face to the floor. Had it really been that easy to take him out?
Peter walked forward, frowning to himself. He stood over him, and nudged him with his toe. Nothing. Maybe he'd cracked his spine on the brick wall or something. Either way, he wasn't Peter's problem anymore.
He turned to go and felt a hand on his foot.
"You fell for that? Jesus."
The grip heated up and Peter kicked out in a panic. It was too late though: he could already feel the blisters breaking on his skin from where Havok had used his powers. He jumped away, swearing, and got hit with a blast to the chest for his trouble.
Peter was sent skidding across the catwalk, but managed to get to his feet. His foot hurt, reminding him of the time he'd been shot in the leg years ago. Even putting weight on it felt painful, and that wasn't good. he needed to be able to run.
Havok, meanwhile, was grinning like the asshole that he was. However, he was wincing. Crashing into the wall had done more damage than he was willing to let on. His grin faltered a bit when his eyes flicked downwards, and Peter grinned in return.
"Looks like we're not the only ones falling for something tonight asshole," he said.
Havok clenched his hands into fists, and he saw that they were beginning to glow. Peter charged. A blast skimmed the top of his arm, and this one burnt. Havok had turned up the heat on his blasts, and he wasn't sure just what he was going to do with that.
He managed to get a punch in on Havok's back before he turned and sent another blast. Havok stumbled and grabbed the rail to keep from falling. So he had been hurt pretty bad. Peter would have to see if he could make him hurt even more.
He expected Havok to look up at him and send another blast his way, but he kept glancing down at the rest of his team. What was up with this guy? No matter? Peter moved forward to charge him again, this time grabbing him by the back of his coat.
Peter received a small burn on his hand for his trouble and pulled it away, swearing. Havok turned away and fired two shots below before swirling around and kicking for Peter's injured foot. It looked like two people could play that game.
He dodged the blow and elbowed Havok beneath the ribs. Havok's palm was shoved into his nose at an angle, and Peter felt blood trickle down his lip. With a snarl he pushed him down to the ground, making sure to put the weight so that it all fell on Havok's back.
To his disappointment, Havok didn't cry out. Either he was made of sterner stuff, which was possible, or Peter hadn't hurt him as badly as he'd thought he had. Too bad really, because he'd thought he almost had him.
There was something that sounded like a scream from the bottom level, and Peter's head whirled around. Was that Wanda's voice? It took him a moment to realize that, no, it wasn't. That meant it was one of the workers or Karma. If it was the first, he didn't care, and if it was the second, good for Wanda.
A blast knocked him backwards. Peter tumbled over his head, disorienting him for a moment. When he got to his feet he saw Havok leaping over the side of the catwalk to the catwalk below. He was running away?
Peter looked over the edge. Havok had made it to the ground level, moving quickly for someone whose back was injured. Karma was on the ground, clutching her ribs and coughing up blood. Cannonball was by her side, blood soaking one of his uniform sleeves. Wanda was standing there, looking pleased, when Havok shot a blast at her.
As soon as he saw the light in Havok's hands, Peter was running. He reached her just before the blast hit and pushed her to the ground. She swore when they hit the ground, but the blast easily went over their heads.
"You good?" Peter asked.
"Besides the idiot on top of me, I think I'm okay," said Wanda, her voice muffled.
He chuckled, but when Peter looked up, the X-men were gone. Lance came hobbling back with Domino, his foot swelling terribly. Sprained or broken? They'd figure out later. It looked like he could kind of walk on it.
Peter got to his feet and held out a hand to help Wanda up. She took it, giving him a rueful smile. He could apologize for the abruptness of his rescue later. Right now they had to figure out a way to chase after the X-men.
His foot tapped against something, and he looked down. Peter picked it up, read the label, and all thoughts of pursuing the X-men vanished.