"I'm in," Pietro said with the same quiet monotone he managed for every declaration. Man had a hell of a poker face. It just wasn't fair.

"I fold." Lance folded most of the time when Pietro was around. Playing it safe. They'd just beat the tar out of each other later if need be.

"I'm in," Todd said firmly, repressing a smirk. It wasn't like they were playing for real, but for once it felt like he might actually win something, and even if that just meant pulling the pile of pennies and buttons on the table toward him for the next ten minutes, it'd be fun.

Then Freddy walked up behind him. "Whoa, man," he said appreciatively.

"Nevermind, fold," Pietro snapped.

"Dammit, Freddy, when am I gonna get a straight flush again?" he whined, pulling the meager winnings to his side.

"Happens to me all the time," Pietro said smugly. "Happens when you can deal six or eight times a second."

"Which only makes sense if you play cards by yourself," Lance pointed out acidly.

"Shut up."

They'd need to spar a bit before anyone was up to deal again. Todd turned around in his chair. "Girls still upstairs?" he asked Freddy.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go for dinner. You want anything?"

"Nah. See yah." He waved over his shoulder as he heard the front door close and leaned the chair back on two legs, bracing his feet on the table. He'd only come over because Trixie wanted to hang with Lorna, but he was beginning to think he should make a regular thing of it. He wasn't exactly Brotherhood anymore, but he found he'd missed the sounds of Lance and Pietro arguing, the unwashed socks and mildew smell of the house, the jittery lights giving a constant suggestion of a horror movie about to start.

Just plain relaxing. And it helped that Trixie had proven trustworthy, there were no telepaths to worry about, and Kurt wasn't around to draw his attention. Secrets were safe.

Leaned back like this, he could hear the chatter from upstairs. Most of it was that buzzy, high pitched sound that came only from Trixie, but Lorna and Wanda were holding their own, conversationally. Todd still wasn't clear on what girls did when they hung out, especially given such an odd selection of girls, but he imagined it must involve makeup and pillow fights. He tended to believe what the TV told him.

In the process of rocking back and forth on the chair, he managed to find the sweet spot where all of gravity was centered and he could wobble indefinitely on just the two legs. He lifted his heels from the kitchen table and grinned. "Hey, check me out. Quick, 'cus I'm totally gonna fall on my-"

Before they'd even bothered with a disdainful glance, a wave of sound and pressure shot through the room, heat and debris flying after as the explosion rocked the house. Todd fell over at the same time the blast pushed him forward, and he wound up on the floor under the table, protected from the worst of it, though the dust was so thick he could barely see or breathe.

He tried to kick the table off him, but even with his mutation-powered legs, all he could do was shove as hard as he could until he'd made enough of an opening to struggle through.

Half the kitchen was gone, and with it a lot of the back of the house. Trixie was his first thought, but more immediately, Lance was under a lot worse than a table with a lot of ceiling on it. No sign of Pietro. Todd hoped he'd split and not been buried.

Only bruised himself, he jumped most of the room to get to Lance and kicked the half a cabinet that had landed on him so it flew into an intact wall and broke into splinters. At least that seemed to have protected his head, but the fridge was on his legs.

Todd only realized he couldn't hear anything but roaring when Lance clearly tried to tell him... Eh, something. If it wasn't "get the major appliance off me," Todd didn't see how it was a major issue. He tried putting his shoulder into it, but while he couldn't hear it, it was pretty easy to tell Lance objected to that, and it wasn't really helping. It wasn't his most efficient way to apply force.

Only seconds had passed, but no one was going to take just one shot with a small bomb and leave it at that. He didn't have time for this. Todd dropped onto the floor, braced himself precariously with both arms, and kicked as hard as he could. The fridge only bounced up a few inches, but it was enough that he could twist and drag Lance out from under before it fell back.

One of his legs looked really bad. Lots of blood and the foot was pointing a funny direction. But at least he wasn't totally stuck now. Todd finally had a chance to look around. The stairs were largely collapsed, but as he watched, bits of metal from all over the room flew toward the stairwell, everything from forks to wall studs. He had to duck to not be stabbed. The undifferentiated mass formed into three steep, crooked steps and Lorna came down, hurrying with a white-faced Wanda leaning on her shoulder. Each floating step as they passed spun forward to be the next step down, and they got to the kitchen floor okay.

Trixie came barreling along the less crumbled wall of the stairwell, scrambling on all fours. While the other two girls were physically unhurt, there were cuts all along one side of her face and the corresponding arm, and probably burns, too. At least her glasses were in one piece or she'd be scurrying into things. He'd take the time to be really angry later, once everyone was out and alive.

Whatever the explosion had done to his ears was finally easing up, and he could hear muffled sounds, at least. "Hey, Lorna, couldja wrap some of that around Lance's leg so it don't get worse while we get him outta here?"

"What?"

He repeated it, yelling this time. She nodded and a makeshift cast of scrap metal twisted around the injury. While she managed that, Wanda looked up, shaking her head. "Pietro?"

Before Todd could try to answer, another explosion went off, but while it rattled the house and broke the last few things that weren't already shattered, it wasn't right up against the building like the last one. Then came sounds that easily penetrated the damage from the blasts, machine gun fire.

Every one of them had the training or at least the composure to hit the floor, and as she landed, Polaris threw her hands into the air, forming an invisible dome around them that the bullets bounced off, ricocheting through the room and knocking around plenty of crap that the little mistress of magnetism had no control over. Better to have bits of plaster and shards of broken dishes rain down on them than hot lead, but it was still painful.

Todd couldn't get to Trixie and he didn't quite dare leave Lance anyway. The guy was white as a sheet and looked seriously out of it. He still felt like a heel for not reaching his injured little sister.

"Anyone hear sirens?" Lance tried to sit up and fell back.

"I do. Maybe. Could just be my ears." At least Trixie was talking okay. She couldn't be too badly off.

"Where's Pietro?" Wanda wasn't just pale, Todd realized. She looked disoriented and sick.

"Their guns are all smashed," Polaris announced. "But they're already running. Or the ones carrying guns are. There might be more guys with... Ceramic knives?" She looked about an inch from total panic.

Todd was pretty sure he heard sirens now, too. He reminded himself that in this case the police could only be a good thing. It went against years of experience. "So we should get outta here before somethin' else goes up? Y'know, while they don't got snipers."

"Unless, y'know, I missed one." Lorna was shaking.

"Through the backyards, maybe?" Trixie started to stand. Todd grabbed her ankle with his tongue and yanked. It worked as well as it had on Kurt. "Sorry, that was dumb."

"I don't know if it'd help. Anyone from that side can see us well enough to aim at the floor." Lance waved a hand weakly toward the quarter or so of the house that seemed to just be gone.

"The fuzz is here," Todd said, nodding toward the front, where the screaming of emergency vehicles was finally growing clear. His head still felt fuzzy. "They take another shot now, they're totally bugfuck nuts."

"Oh, that'd be news," Lorna said with a small sob.

"At least get into the front of the house. Walls will help." Lance shook his head and scrunched his eyes up. Todd wasn't sure why, since he was fighting crazy pain and blood loss, not a headache, but whatever helped.

"Unless they collapse said walls on us," Trixie said sharply.

"Field leader. Toad, help me up."

Todd obeyed. Kind of. He didn't know which of them was right, but at least he could make sure he was with his sister this time. And he sure as hell wasn't going to help Lance stand when he had a broken leg at the very least.

He crouched down so Lance could grab on around his neck. This wasn't going to be easy. He could carry Wanda no problem, but Lance probably had fifty pounds on her. And if he needed to hurry, it was going to be a bumpy ride. Well, he didn't really have a choice. Wanda wasn't up to it and there was no one else technically over five feet tall (though Lorna was almost as tall as he was with her shoes on). He hoisted his fearless leader into a fireman's carry. Lance, to his credit, only groaned a little and didn't argue that he could walk. In return, Todd didn't let himself drop into a crouch, accepting the weird back strain that was going to come of carrying a heavy guy while standing up like a person with a regular spine.

It was only a few feet to the kitchen door, and then they were in the wreckage of the foyer. The big staircase had totally given out and all the windows were toast. The mess underfoot was godawful. Trixie wasn't wearing shoes and crept along on the walls, moving gingerly in case they fell in. Todd wanted to tell her to get off, but the glass was cutting through the thin soles of his sneakers. There was no way she could walk on the floor.

Absurdly, someone knocked at the door. It was a hard knock, at least, accompanied by a barked, "Police!" It was still ridiculous, but Todd didn't blame the police force of Bayville for not really knowing what to do about a situation this weird.

Before Lance could do his leader thing, Lorna piped up. "Get in here already! There are people hurt!"

"Who says they're actually the police!" Trixie snapped, but the door was already opening. And while Todd respected a healthy paranoia, it seemed unlikely that people who were bombing and shooting would knock. There were, in fact, uniformed cops on the other side. One woman went ahead and stepped into the room, quite fearlessly considering how close it looked to falling apart entirely.

"I need EMTs in here," she snapped into her walkie-talkie. "Anyone hurt besides him?" She pointed at Lance, who was still dangling awkwardly off Todd's aching shoulders.

"Wanda hit her head and she's being kinda loopy. I think the rest of us are just banged up." Trixie surveyed Lorna and Todd for a moment, just to be sure.

"That's two kids down. And hurry. This building isn't secured."

"I'll just, uh, get him outside?" Todd volunteered. Something about this particular cop lady struck him as familiar.

"Fine. Do it. All of you, out!"

Todd checked that the girls were following and moved as fast as he dared out the front door. It looked like every emergency vehicle in Bayville was here, with more doing their best to arrive. Their best wasn't very good, not simply because of crowding, but because there was a big, jagged crater in the middle of the street, reeking of boiling asphalt and smoking horridly. At least they knew where the second explosion had gone off.

And how it wound up there and not on their front porch. It was hazy and they were all still dazed, but Todd could make out that whoever was being loaded into the ambulance in front of the house was skinny and had weird white hair. And wasn't protesting at all. Not good. Freddy was off to the side, his stance that of a kindergartener being interrogated about missing fingerpaint. That the cops might be a little bit on his side for once was apparently beyond him.

A couple of paramedics came to meet him and he gladly handed Lance over. Lorna pulled the makeshift cast off him once he was on a gurney, and one of the EMTs moved away a little, looking at all of them like they were going to start eating kittens. Lance took the opportunity to raise one fist in a wobbly salute. "Not a bad job, Toad."

"Yer too kind, fool." He leaned in a little. "That was totally her, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." The paramedic either recovered himself or was shamed into doing his job by his partner's glare, and Todd had to move back. He walked back to the girls. Lorna and Trixie were helping Wanda sit down.

"Her who?" Trixie demanded.

"Mystique." He shrugged a little too casually, especially under the circumstances.

"How can you tell?" Wanda asked blearily.

"She's kinda got tells once y'know her a long time, Sugarplum," he explained, hoping that glowering at him might make her feel better. It didn't work. Wanda's eyes remained unfocused and her expression mildly confused. "Kinda always sounds like herself when she yells, for one thing."

"Oh. That's good. Where's Pietro?"

Before Todd could decide what to tell her, if anything, Trixie saved him."You, um, never make Mystique sound too nice," she said uncertainly.

"She sure as hell ain't, that's why." And he bore her a little more ill-will now, knowing what had happened to Kurt. "But I guess she likes us, a little, which is nice. An' watches close enough that it took her, like, two minutes to get here, which is creepy."

"Yeah, that's kinda weird." Trixie frowned. "So, um, Wanda should go to the hospital, but for us three-"

"Kid, I know all the mirrors are smashed, but you don't look so great." Up close, he could see that none of her cuts and bumps were threatening by themselves, but he'd seen what a whole bunch of little wounds could do to a person, especially a skinny, little, lightly built person. And besides, she wasn't supposed to be hurt. If she was, it was his job to overreact.

"Oh, look who's talking. You look like death warmed over. But, like, death's microwave is broken."

"That's just leftover from getting' kidnapped."

"Of course! You got blown up three days after you got back from being kidnapped! It'd be silly to get you in to see a doctor. What do we even have those for?"

"Could you both shut up?" Lorna snapped, wincing. She clenched her fists and rose into the air about ten feet, getting attention much more efficiently than yelling could have. "Someone please come and check out my obviously concussed sister, please!" She dropped back to the ground with a thud.

"That's neat," Trixie said chirpily.

"Yeah, if she weren't askin' any leftover freaks to shoot her," Todd said, rubbing his temples. He didn't ever want to have to be the responsible one again.

"Relax. Stopping bullets is no problem."

"Notice how y'didn't catch whatever blew us up?"

"Must have been plastic explosives or something."

"So what if there're plastic bullets?"

"There are no plastic bullets."

"Yes there are," Trixie interrupted. "They're just supposed to be nonlethal. But. Here comes a paramedic, and let's let Wanda have some peace. Hers is not a brain we want scrambled."

Trixie and Todd both retreated, letting Lorna and her sister have some room. He still felt a bit cold over not telling them he'd spotted Pietro being loaded into an ambulance, but... Maybe Lorna had seen. Either way, he wasn't going back to interrupt.

Freddy was a pretty major feature even in this landscape, so Todd made for him. "Hey, what happened?" he asked shortly, once they were close. "Out here, I mean."

"I heard the first one go off and started to come back, then Quicksilver ran up dragging a guy and told me to hit him until he told us if there were any more," Freddy said with a slow shrug. "Only had to do it once. Then Tro found the bomb, I guess. It was just a box with wires on it, and he ran a little and dropped it and tried to run back. But I guess he's not faster than explosions."

"Didja see how bad he was hurt?"

"Kinda burned, and he hit the pavement pretty hard. He's, y'know, breakable." Freddy looked down the street. The ambulance was long gone, but Todd joined him in looking after it anyway.

"Jerkface ended up savin' us." Todd sighed. If the second bomb had gone off outside, everyone still inside the boarding house could have been done for. "And me and Lance are pretty sure Mystique was here. Nobody's seen Magneto, though, an'... Trix, what're you doin'?"

"Getting those of us who don't have to go to the hospital a way out of this madhouse, and hopefully getting a little help for the ones who do." She held up the little phone she was dialing, making sure he saw the look that clearly said he was an idiot. "Yeah, hi. ...Of course it is. ...Brotherhood boarding house. ...How do you think? ...Okay, two badly hurt, one more going to the hospital just in case, the rest of us mostly in one piece. ...Four. Yeah. ...Kay, bye." She pushed more buttons and shoved the thing back in her pocket. "Wolverine's already on his way, and Jean's gone with the professor to get started... Y'know, doing the stuff he does."

Lorna walked up briskly as Trixie finished her call. "Do we really want to send those three to the hospital alone?" she asked worriedly. So at least she knew where her brother was. "Hospitals don't really have a lot of security."

"I'm pretty sure they can get it when people get sent there after crazy violent attacks, though," Trixie said soothingly. "Besides, none of us is really in any shape to do anything for them."

"Maybe you guys aren't, but I'm totally fine. And Freddy, you hurt?"

"Nah. I'm the Blob, remember?"

"Right. So why don't you and your brother head back, and we'll-"

Before she could get done dictating, there was a screech and a roar as the X-Van took the corner, almost coming up on two wheels. "Oh, Kitty's driving," Trixie said with a nod and a pasted-on smile. Todd thought she was kidding until the van should have smashed into the hood of a squad car and instead cruised comfortably through to pull up in front of it.

The door flew open and Wolverine leaped out. Todd had gotten pretty used to seeing the guy and, while he was obviously really tough, he hadn't been terrified of the man for a while. At the moment, he looked so angry it was bestial, and Todd leaned away a bit despite himself. Claws were popped already, and a cop and an ambulance driver who happened to be in his line of sight recoiled like mice in front of a cat.

"Little late, Mr. Logan," Trixie said fearlessly. "They all split."

"Nah, that guy Pietro had me hit is still out. He's over there." Freddy pointed to a bush. Under close examination, there were shoes poking out from the bottom. "Said to leave him there so we could deal with him."

"Um, no, I think we want the police to do th-" Lorna's response was cut short when Wolverine dived toward the bush with a growl. "Oh, um, huh."

"Yeah, I don't think we wanna get in the way of that," came Kitty's voice, quickly followed sticking her head through the windshield. "The professor said I should just try and get all you guys someplace safe. Wanna get in?"

"I'm getting in. Come on." Trixie grabbed onto Lorna's arm. The taller girl tried to pull back, but Trixie was deliberately stuck on. Lorna was probably strong enough to drag Trixie along, but she gave up after a brief stare-down and allowed herself to be hauled in.

"I'm not sure I'm gonna fit," Freddy observed, cocking his head at the van. He did generally need the top of the car down on Brotherhood excursions.

Kitty looked a little hesitant, but she managed a smile as she stepped out of the van, using the door this time. "Here, uh, I can help you in and out. It's only a quick drive, and we should probably get out of here."

Freddy took up the whole back seat once phased through the door, with the girls in the middle. Todd had no choice but to take shotgun. "So where's everyone else?"

"Um, Jean went with the Professor to City Hall. Storm is up there somewhere." She pointed as she put the car into reverse, nearly smacked into the squad car she'd driven through once already, and made the whole big vehicle jerk as she corrected herself. "I guess we didn't want a whole bunch of people going out before we really knew what was going on."

"How'd he even know? Trix made it sound like you guys were already on the move."

"We're not that far away. We did hear the first explosion. And I guess he checked in on people's minds. So yeah, we're, like, monitoring the situation. ...Kurt's on the home team." She added the observation almost innocently enough to pass muster. Todd didn't have it in him to care, though. He was too tired to think, but whenever he wasn't distracted enough he could swear he heard explosions again.

He was more rattled than he had been coming out of the mutant zoo. That was just a shitty thing that happened to him. The boarding house going? That shook the world to the core.