Behind the Scenes

"That sick twisted…bastard," Breaker, the Joe operative growled. He had turned on the speaker so that Falcon could hear. "He's even gonna dope his own kids!"

"Yeah this guy could give Cobra Commander a good run for the title of Craziest Nutjob," Falcon grumbled.

"We gotta do something!" Breaker told him.

"What?" Falcon said. "We can't exactly call the Dept. of Social Services on them! If we tried to remove them it would be a disaster, for everyone! Besides do you really think those kids would believe us if we told them?"

"But we just can't let him do that to those kids!" Breaker protested.

"I know," Falcon sighed. "If we could somehow find out exactly what drugs Mystique's giving them then maybe…"

Something crackled on the mike. "And what is this?" Magneto's voice came over the wire. A bit too clearly.

"Uh oh," Breaker gulped.

"Very ingenious Charles," Magneto chuckled as he destroyed the microphone. "I didn't know you had it in you." The sounds of something being destroyed came over and the mike went dead.

"Oh great," Breaker groaned. "There goes our info!"

"Well at least he doesn't know it's us," Falcon sighed. "I just hope he doesn't gloat about it to Xavier. Then they'll both start looking around and that will make all of our lives even more complicated!"

"I just hope the X-Men don't start wondering why there weren't any weapons or cops in the building! We shouldn't have told the police that the X-Men were really a special unit of ours," Breaker grunted.

"We had no choice," Falcon said. "At least that cover story we made up will keep people from overreacting. People just aren't ready to accept that there are some mutants willing to protect them from other mutants. Unfortunately."

"It's a shame," Breaker shook his head. "They did pretty good against them."

"Mostly because of Gambit and Colossus," Falcon said. "I hope those kids are okay."

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The X-Men stared at Peter's body in the medical ward. He was unconscious and bandaged heavily. "He's in a coma," Hank told them. "I don't know when or if he'll wake up."

"This is my fault," Remy said, his arm in a sling. "I shouldn't have talked him into this. I should have listened to destiny."

"No it's not," Rogue put her hand on his good shoulder. "You did the right thing. Peter made his own choice. You didn't force him into anything."

"It still doesn't change how I feel," Remy frowned.

"Well at least we stopped Magneto," Scott sighed. "And no civilians or cops were hurt." He looked at Xavier. "You knew about this didn't you?"

Xavier nodded. "I admit I was skeptical when Remy approached Rogue. But yes, he is the one who told us of Magneto's plans."

"Well that means he's one of us now right?" Kitty asked.

Rouge looked at him. Remy looked into her eyes. "Yes," Remy nodded. "I can't stand by and allow Magneto to terrorize people. He's too dangerous. I only wish I had figured that out sooner."

"Don't worry man," Evan told him. "We'll get him someday."

"This isn't over you know," Remy sighed. "Magneto and the Brotherhood aren't just gonna let what happened in Chicago go."

"Hey how come there weren't any cops or weapons in the building?" Evan asked. "Did you warn someone there?"

"No just you guys," Remy frowned. "That is strange. That building was full of weapons and swarming with cops the other day. Then they all disappear like that."

"Well someone must have tipped them off," Scott said. "Was it you Professor?"

"No," Xavier shook his head. "I…." He closed his eyes suddenly.

"What is it?" Ororo asked.

"I just had a mental message from Magneto," Xavier said. "A very interesting one. Something is going on under our noses. But what I have no clue…"