Sunspot stood on top of the Xavier Institute roof that had recently been rebuilt. There was still a lot of construction to do, but things were moving along with a steady pace. "All charged up Roberto?" Hank called out, from the ground. Sunspot turned to face the rising sun in the sky on the roof and felt the heat giving him energy. He gave Hank a thumbs up, indicating that he was ready to go. His skin turned pitch black and a red aurora glowed around him as he activated his mutant power. "Alright people! Let's clear out the rest of this debris like only mutants can!" Hank said, turning to the other students who had volunteered to help cleanup the leftover debris from the explosion that had happened weeks ago now. Sunspot started to shoot hot energy beams at anything that was trash, turning it into ash. And the other students were cleaning it up behind him. Ororo even helped by blowing some of the ashes through the air and into the woods using her mutation to manipulate the wind. Hank sighed, "If only the students would show the same diligence when it comes to cleaning their room." He noted. "Anybody who needs a ride to school, I'm taking off now!" Scott said as he ran out of the front doors of the Institute, a few of the other students ran after him. They all started piling up into Scott's car and Hank joined them to see them off, there were only a few of the Xavier students attending school at the moment. Everyone has agreed that taking things slow was the best move, even though mutants were technically allowed in school at Bayville. So only a few of the high school students were attending at the moment, while the others got to enjoy helping with re-building the Institute building. "Remember to call us if you need anything, but from your reports things aren't terrible at school right?" Hank asked. "It would be worse," Kurt said, shrugging his shoulders. "Yea, says the guy who can hide his mutation with a wrist watch." Evan said with bitterness as he got into Scott's car. Just as the students were about to take off another car pulled up in the driveway. A man got out of the car and walked up to Hank, not even blinking at the blue fur as he stuck his hand out for a handshake. "Hello, I'm here to meet with Professor Xavier." The man said holding a few folders in his hands. "I'm sorry, I don't think he has any appointments set up for this morning...what was your name?" Hank asked as Ororo flew through the air to stand beside Hank. Scott stood outside the car, wanting to know who their guest was. "Go on to school Scott, we don't want you to be late now do we?" Hank asked. Scott frowned, but wordlessly did as he was told. As the car drove away Ororo finally remembered the man. "Your Mr,Wade...Marigold's music teacher." Ororo said with a frown. "If you're here looking for her I'm afraid that we are not letting a lot of our students back into the public schools yet due to fear of safety. I'm sure you can understand that sir." Hank said, only feeling slightly guilty for lying to the man. Mr,Wade's friendly smile went away in the blink of an eye. He reached into his bag as he said, "You and I both know that isn't true. You have no idea where the girl is." He pulled out a leather notebook and showed the cover of it to the adults, Ororo gasped when she saw the Hydra symbol. "Now I suggest that you tell The Professor that he has a visitor. One that can help him find number twenty five." Mr,Wade said with a smirk.
- Gambit's Pov-
I stood outside the back entrance of Bayville High school with Number twenty five standing beside me. The girl had on a hoodie that covered her hair and a hat to hide parts of her face in case anyone who knew her walked by. The doors banged open and Lance walked out of them, looking angry. "There's the target." twenty five said as Lance walked down the steps, the teen looked up. It was easy to tell that he recognized us right away by the angry look on his face "Bonjour" I said, my hands shuffling my deck of cards. "Perfect, I was so lookin' for a fight." Lance said with a smirk. "What? That thrashing I gave you last time wasn't enough?" I asked as Lance walked closer to us. "Let's see how well you do without Magneto watching your back!" Lance said. Twenty five waved her hand up and a shield appeared around Lance, trapping him. "Hey! Let me out of here , rugrat!" Lance shouted, the sound muffled from inside the shield. "You round up those jokes you call friends and meet me at your place." I said. "Why should I do anything you say?" Lance asked. "Cause you're out of school now, so you are ready for the real test." I said holding one of my playing cards between two of my fingers, using my mutation to light it on fire. "Forget it, we're sick of being used." Lance said. I made a hand gesture to twenty five, knowing that this conversation was over for the moment. Lance stepped towards us before blowing out the flame in my fingers. He walked off and Twenty five frowned. "What do we do now?" She asked. I was about to answer when two kids ran out of the building looking scared, Rogue following them out. The two boys ran past us, but Rogue stopped when her eyes landed on us. "What are you doing here?" Rogue asked, looking at the child. I put my hand on her shoulder and pulled her back behind me. "We're just passing by cherie." I said. "Wait, Marigold!" Rogue said, before the girl touched my arm. We both turned invisible and we walked off before Rogue could find us. Once we were a few blocks away from the school we turned visible again. "We should report back to Magneto. We need to hurry. Rogue will be looking for us." Twenty five said, pulling out her communication device. I frowned. I knew that Magneto didn't completely trust me, but it was annoying that he had forced twenty five to tag along with me to make sure I didn't betray him or do something he wouldn't approve of. It was like having a baby-sitter that was younger than you. As twenty five gave the boss a mission update I thought back to the girl Rogue, her face looked so sad as she called out to the girl. "Magneto wants us to follow Lance and do whatever it takes to get them to us. Are you ready to move out?" Twenty five asked, snapping me out of my spiraling thoughts. "Whenever you are madam." I said.
-Xavier Institute-
"Your lucky I don't claw right through your neck right now!" Logan growled. As soon as Mr,Wade had walked through the doors of the Professors office Logan recognized him. Ororo and Hank had to hold the man back from attacking him. "You've been spyin on Marigold this whole damn time?!" He asked with anger. "Yes, I infiltrated the school as her music teacher. I've been keeping an eye on her." The man confessed, though he didn't look intimidated at all by Logan. He stood straight and had a blank look on his face as he turned to the Professor. "For Hydra?" The Professor asked calmly, putting on his poker face at the moment. He used his telepathy to try and feel any emotion from Mr,Wade, but wasn't picking up anything. "I will neither confirm or deny that. I am here today to give you information that will help track Number Twenty Five down." The man said, pulling out a few folders from his bag and setting them down on the Professor's desk. "Why are you helping us?" Hank asked. "I nor the people I work for have the...tools or abilities to be able to successfully extract Number Twenty Five from her handler. Think of this as a sort of team effort. We both want the same thing. Let's help each other get it." Logan growled so loudly it almost hurt the Professors ears. "You expect us to work with you? Not a chance bub!" Mr,Wade sighed, as if he were talking to a five year old. "We expect no such thing. We know that if anyone has a chance of capturing Number Twenty Five, it is you and your school of mutants. We have been monitoring your work sense Number Twenty Five joined you." The Professor's heart sank, they were never safe from Hydra, they were under their noses. Watching them the whole time, watching Marigold. They had never hidden her at all. They were just waiting for the right time to attack. He felt sick as he wheeled himself out from behind the desk to be in front of Mr,Wade. "You know that you can't get Marigold yourselves, so you want us to get her...but what happens after that?" He asked. Mr,Wade smirked. "For now we will have a deal. You leave us alone, we leave you alone. But the second that Marigold is with you again. All deals are done. If I may be frank you are underestimating the dangers that girl holds. You know her as a child. But she is a weapon. That's what she has been from the moment she was born." Ororo stepped up. "She is a sweet innocent child!" Mr,Wade looked at Logan, seeing the fading bruising still around his neck. "Innocent? Marigold is sure, but not Number Twenty Five. The sooner you realize that and give her back to my organization the better. But that is a conversation for later. Now we need to focus on getting her back from Magneto." Hank asked a question, "How did Magneto become her handler anyhow?" He asked. "We needed more funding for research and experimentation purposes. Magneto agreed to be a financial partner, as long as he could be the handler of one of the more powerful results from the Winter Soldier Program." Mr,Wade explained. "Everything you need to know are in the folders I left for you, any more questions? Or can I be on my way?" Mr,Wade asked. "I want your ass out of here as soon as possible." Logan said. Mr,Wade nodded, before turning to leave the office. Ororo followed him to escort him out. "That was a very strange meeting." Hank said. "Yes, but we need to count our blessings. Hydra has given us something that can help us find Marigold and get her back. Let's use it." The Professor said, before opening the first folder to do research. "Then once we get her back I'll take down those Hydra scum coming after her myself." Logan said.
- Brotherhood house-
Lance ran through the front door of his house, finding Toad and Blob in the living room. "We got trouble! Magneto's stooges are heading our way." He warned. "Really who?" Toad asked, a fizzling sound filled the air and a flaming playing card flew in through the front door, landing in the living room in front of all the guys. "Oh, heh, that one." Toad said, before they all screamed and ducked away. The card exploded seconds later. The windows and door blew out from the force of it. Gambit and twenty five flew through two of the broken windows, ready for a fight. "Did you get my calling card?" Gambit asked with a smirk. "We did. Now let us throw out the welcoming mat for ya." Lance said as he and the other quickly recovered from the blow. The ground started to shake as Lance held his hands out. Both Gambit and twenty five jumped into the air, landing on a shield the girl made so they wouldn't be affected by Lance's attack. "Good party trick, but you're on our turf now!" Blob said running to attack them. twenty five formed another shield and threw it at Blob, hitting him directly on the head. Blob fell over, stunned by the hit. Toad went to attack Gambit, but the man grabbed Toad's fist that was aimed at his head and twisted his arm around his back. Toad suddenly was surrounded by flames, "I let go and you will be re-painting this room. So let's talk." Toad laughed nervously, the fear clear in his voice as he said "talking is good." Lance stepped around Blob who was slowly recovering from twenty fives attack and glared at Gambit. "All right. It's your show." He said. "No, it's Magneto's show." Gambit corrected with a grin. Twenty five made a shield to cover Blob so that he would be trapped, Lance was Magneto's main interest anyway, Toad and Blob would be icing on the cake. "Magneto is giving you a chance to prove yourselves. And trust me you do not want to turn the man down." Gambit explained. "Ok, so what does he want us to do?" Blob asked from under the shield. "Piece of cake really, just bust out a captured mutant." Gambit said. "Who's Magneto got in mind?" Lance asked, looking at Toad with worried eyes. "Your old friend Pietro." Toad croaked as Gambit finally released him from his powers, the boy falling to his knees. "Pietro was captured?" Lance asked. "No, arrested. His sister and him made a scene while Wanda was trying to track Magneto down. He got arrested and Wanda got away. He's in a holding facility right now." Twenty five explained. "Give us the details." Lance demanded. "Yes, sir." Gambit said with a smirk.
- Rogue Pov-
"I'm so sorry Professor...she was right there! But then she turned invisible with that goggle wearing freak and I couldn't find them anywhere." Rogue said, explaining how she had seen Marigold at the school, then let her get away. "I do applaud you for taking initiative, but please understand that it is simply impossible for us to deal with every problem that pops up...you can't be skipping school to track down Marigold. Especially when you are by yourself. The girl is not herself right now. She is an assassin who could have really hurt you if you did track her down." The Professor explained. "I know - I should have called for backup, but I just...I wasn't thinking." Rogue said. "Your emotions were running rapidly. This shows that we need to be doing more emotional training with the X-men if anything else. I know you miss her, we all do. But if we are going to get her back. We need to do it right." The Professor said. He could feel the guilt coming from the girl in waves. "We will get her back. No matter what it takes." He assured Rogue. "I know, I just hope we're not too late." Scott walked in moments later. "I just got off the phone with Principal Kelly...Rogue, you got detention this Saturday for skipping sixth period. I'm afraid he isn't cutting you any slack." Rogue frowned. "Talk about pouring salt on an open wound." She muttered. "I'm sorry Rogue. If it helps I would have done the same thing if I saw Marigold...I wonder what they were doing there though?" Scott asked. "I'm not sure, but we need to be more vigilant than ever. Magneto is working on a plan. We need to do whatever we can to stop it." The Professor said.
- Brotherhood house-
Pietro walked around the house, after the Brotherhood broke him out of the hold cell the police were holding him in they brought him back here. His father had put him in charge of the group, preparing them for the big battle. "It's good to have you back brother." Lance said as Blob and Toad fought over the last pizza slice. "Good to be back, you guys are much more entertaining than my dads crew." Pietro said with a smirk. "I bet Gambit wasn't any fun. And Marigold was throwing us around like we were trash." Lance said. "That's not Marigold. That experiment is terrifying. I'm just glad she's on our side."