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I tore up the driveway, running for all I was worth. I shot through the front door, slamming it shut behind me.
"ROGUE!" I yelled, "KURT!"
A few seconds later, Kurt appeared next to me. Rogue walked down the stairs.
"Is somethin' wrong, Leo?" Rogue asked calmly.
"Ja. Vhat's wrong?"
I quickly told them everything Todd had told me, everything I had figured out on my own, why I hadn't gotten to them earlier, the whole story. By the time I was done, both Rogue and Kurt had gone pale.
"Vhat now?" Kurt asked
I sighed. "Now, we really don't have any options. Jean doesn't believe me, I can't get to the others, and the professor, Logan, and Ororo are out of town. The only option I can think of is to suit up and get ready. We may not be able to stop them, but I for one am going down fighting."
Kurt nodded. "Ja."
Rogue grinned. "Ah think we'd better have more than just outfits. We need a plan."
"Right." I gave her a thoughtful look. "How many people have you taken at once?"
"Err… three."
"Three. Got it. Better not go over that, then." I smirked. "Okay, suit up, and then I'll tell you some of my ideas."
After we were ready, I told everyone my plans.
"That outta slow 'em down." Rogue said, smiling. "Good thinkin' 'Pyro'."
Kurt (or rather, Nightcrawler) 'ported outside, to take care of some things we had at our disposal. Rogue was the bait, and for now I was her only protection.
It wasn't exactly a game that we were playing, after all. We had to be ready for someone to try to break the rules. We could only assume what the next step was going to be, and if we were far wrong, we could all be dead.
It was by no means fun.
Thank goodness someone had installed video cameras around the property, leading to the Danger Room. I flicked them on.
"Camera one through twenty. Nightcrawler's on nine. Right there."
"Great. Ah'm ready."
"Good. Oops. Group one is approaching. Avalanche and May… what's his codename, anyway?"
"How should Ah know?"
"Right. I'm turning on the mike, but it's two-way, so…"
"Ah know, Leo, be quiet. Ya told me six times already."
"Sorry." Click.
"…Our time on this one, anyway? I mean, if I had to do anything now I would level the school. Kills a bunch of humans, and take out some of the X-men at the same time."
"Shadow Walker, shut up! We take orders, we don't…"
That was the point when Nightcrawler turned on the outdoor training program.
WHUMP
A second later, a huge, heavy, wood and steel ball went flying into Avalanche's face.
I bit back my laugh. This wasn't over yet.
Avalanche swore madly. "By node! I tink by node es boken!"
WHUMP
May, or rather, Shadow Walker, took the next one in the stomach. He gave out a loud grunt and fell over.
"Dat's et!" shouted Avalanche. "AAARG!"
The gun firing the large balls was broken in the quake that followed. I winced, wondering how I was going to be able to explain the damages to the professor.
I flipped off the mike and glanced at Rogue. "That's two down."
"Ah'm startin' to enjoy this."
Nightcrawler 'ported behind the two of us. "Mission accomplished!" he said, before he burst out laughing. I smirked.
"So far so good," I said. "Now, we just wait for round two."
"Camera six," said Rogue.
"Vow. Not a lot of down time, zen," Kurt noted, chuckling.
"Yeah. And it's a group of three. Good."
Since there was a group of three people, and they were all the students of the Brotherhood, no one was left over, and Mystique would probably not be here. Which was a very good thing.
I fiddled with my watch. "Let's get introduced."
Minutes after this exchange, The Blob, Toad, and Quicksilver showed up at the mansion's front door, to see the three of us calmly standing around, as though nothing was happening. They all stopped in shock.
See, they didn't see Kurt, Rogue, and I, like they would have expected.
No, thanks to a pair of holo-watches, they saw Rogue, Rogue, and Rogue.
Needless to say, they were all quite taken aback.
The three of us flashed look-alike grins (something that had taken Kurt and I about half an hour to learn), then split up, shooting off in different directions. There was a yell of surprise, then the sounds of footsteps after us.
I dodged left as a silver blur shot by me. Close call. But it didn't matter, as we now had a winner.
I took off toward the mansion, dodging and ducking Quicksilver's attempts to make contact with my skin. This was much harder than I would have expected, but then again, that was my fault.
I shot through the mansion, purposely using as many sharp turns and staircases as I could. No sense making things easy for the guy, right? Of course, there was no way I could outrun him, but I had a destination in mind, so it didn't matter.
I finally made the last turn, past the wall that jutted out into the hallway, and toward the heavy door of the fighting section of the Danger Room, which stood open. Quicksilver, not knowing what I had in mind, shot at me, yelling, "Now I've got you, you bi-…"
Remember that wall that jutted out into the hallway? Well, it just so happened that a certain blue, fuzzy teen had teleported behind it. As he heard Quicksilver shout, he promptly stuck his foot out in front of him.
Quicksilver didn't notice until it was too late. He tripped over Nightcrawler's foot, and yelped in surprise as he shot through the air, over my head (I had ducked), and into the Danger Room. I ran up, slammed the door and locked it.
"Nice chase, Quickie!" I shouted into the intercom, as I flipped off my watch. I was answered by loud swearing. I promptly turned on the controls and had some fun. A few seconds later there was a shout of terror, and some loud explosions.
I started snickering. Kurt was laughing so hard, I was afraid he wouldn't be able to breathe. Rogue showed up, and gave both Kurt and I a look.
"Ah guess ya guys caught Quicksilver," she murmured. "Ah had to take out The Blob and Toad, so we've got super strength and good jumpin' for a while."
"Okay," I said, "time to finish off Avalanche and Shadow Walker. Where are those guys?"
Kurt checked the cameras. "Zere. Camera Fifteen."
"First, guys," Rogue said, smirking, "Ah wanna show ya somethin'."
Bewildered, we followed her to the dining room, where she pointed out a window. Kurt and I glanced out… and burst out laughing.
Rogue had taken The Blob… and put him up a tree.
"Ya think it'll keep him busy?" she asked innocently.
"Ja, I zink so!" shouted Kurt happily.
"Okay, okay," I got out, "let's stay focused here."
Both Rogue and Kurt calmed down slightly.
We shot out of the house, and through the yard. Shadow Walker and Avalanche were standing at the gate patiently, waiting, apparently, for the others to open it. I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Why, hello there, May," I snarled.
"Shut up, kitten," he returned. I bristled.
"Ya makin' a social call, or what?" asked Rogue, sounding weary. The other two assumed we didn't know what was going on.
"Yeah," sneered Shadow Walker, "why don't we just let ourselves in?" He let loose a blast of darkness, sending the gate backward. I got ready.
"Now," said Avalanche, sounding cocky, despite the broken nose, "how 'bout we… OOF!"
Nightcrawler gave Avalanche a quick knee into his gut. He quickly followed up with a kick to Avalanche's jaw and a fist to his broken nose.
I was very glad that he hadn't fought me over Kitty.
Shadow Walker was just too easy. While the sudden fight distracted him, Rogue calmly walked up to him and grabbed his face with an uncovered hand. He collapsed.
Nightcrawler knocked Avalanche to the ground easily, unconscious. I snorted. Too easy.
Nightcrawler looked smug. "Vell, zat vasn't hard."
I was starting to feel worried. "Maybe that was too easy."
"Pyro, don't be crazy," Nightcrawler said. "Ve beat them because ve had a plan. Zey veren't expecting zat."
I was still doubtful. "Yeah, maybe."
Nightcrawler nodded. "Good. Ve managed to beat zem, so let's go celebrate."
Rogue chuckled. "Ah'm willin' to go as far as the kitchen, then dining room."
Nightcrawler grinned. "Ja, vell zen, let's go."
A few seconds later, we were sitting in the dining room when a thought occurred to me.
"You know, we didn't really do anything with the Brotherhood, just left them where they fell."
"Excuse me? Ah did somethin'" Rogue pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but we should…" I trailed off as I glanced out the window. "Uh, Rogue? He's not there."
"What're ya talkin' about?" She followed my gaze. "What the…"
I jumped up. "We should really check the Danger Room."
Nightcrawler 'ported to the Danger Room. I glanced at Rogue, and the two of us ran after him.
When we reached it, he was standing over the control panel, studying the controls. Rogue ran right up to him.
"Is Quicksilver still in here?" she asked.
CRACK
Nightcrawler suddenly spun and backhanded Rogue, knocking her backwards into me. I felt the wind get knocked out of me, and Rogue and I fell backwards.
Nightcrawler gave a smug grin, which was very unlike him. I glanced down at Rogue. She was completely out.
Damn.
I placed Rogue down gently and stepped in front of her as "Nightcrawler" quickly changed into his- or rather, her- true self.
Mystique.
We were such idiots. Since Mystique hadn't been with the others, we just assumed she wasn't in this one. And, of course, we assumed they didn't have any real plan.
We were wrong.
"Surprised, Pyro?" she asked sarcastically.
I readied a blast of fire, but she threw open the door to the rooms where we changed, and caught Nightcrawler as he fell out.
"I would be careful, Pyro. If you missed, then your friend here could be hurt quite badly."
Damn her. Damn her damn her damn her damn her.
"I thought he was your son! Why are you doing this?"
Mystique laughed darkly. "I have left that life behind. These children are my enemies, as are you."
She went for Rogue. I tried to place myself between them, but she transformed into the same muscle man she had last time- though this time, he/she was a more manageable seven feet tall- and struck me in the side. I stumbled out of the way.
I spun. "What are you going to do? Touch her yourself? Then I'd kill you while you were out. What's the game plan, Mystique?"
Mystique smiled. "An excellent point," she said, before taking Nightcrawler's hand and thrusting it against Rogue's face, then dropping him to the floor. "Now, I only need one more," she said, turning to me.
Uh oh. I have got to learn to keep my mouth shut.
I stepped backwards, trying desperately to think of a plan. I raised my hand, to give her a blast of fire, but she caught my wrist and dragged me forward.
"Can you imagine the guilt you will feel?" she asked me bluntly. "The death of a friend will be on your hands."
Well, now I could imagine it.
I struggled with her, trying to free my wrist, but she had a very good grip. She caught my other wrist in the other hand, at an angle where I couldn't use fire or my claws to get out.
"Let… me… go," I said dangerously.
But it was too late. She took my hand, and placed it against Rogue's face.