Disclaimer: With the exception of the villain, I don't own X-men characters. So here's chapter 2 of Brotherhood Nightmare.

Chapter 2: Enter The Bad Guy

The shadowy figure spied on his test subjects through the monitor. "So far so good," He murmured pleased with himself. "Of course, these Brotherhood characters are merely the beginning. The real fun will not begin until I start with Xavier and Magneto themselves. Not to mention the X-men. But this will do for now."

He watched as the Brotherhood started to wake up. The night had degenerated into a pillow fight with each member hurling accusations as well as insults at each other. "Yes, their dreams are already tearing them apart," He nodded to himself. "Of course, they weren't exactly a well oiled unit to begin with. But they are amusing. In their own way."

He watched as Lance pulled himself up from the tangle of bodies and pillows. "Not another night on the floor!" Lance groaned.

"How did we end up in another pillow fight?" Todd groaned.

"It's too early to remember," Pietro groaned picking himself off the floor.

"All those in favor of just getting something to eat and going back to bed say aye," Lance groaned.

"Uggggghhhhh," Everyone groaned.

"Close enough," Lance waved. He went to the kitchen and plopped down in a chair.

The rest of the Brotherhood followed him. They munched nosily on cold cereal. "What has been going on with us?" Fred asked. "We were practically at each other's throats last night. We were never like this!"

"Yes we were," Todd said. "But I have to admit, all these nightmares are driving us crazy."

"Yeah," Pietro said. "Something is definitely wrong around here, but what?"

"I think it's the lack of heat. All your brains have been frozen," Tabitha said. "There is no mutant mastermind trying to take over your minds. If there were he'd be a pretty pathetic character to do so! Or stupid."

"Look Tabby I know it sounds crazy but it's the only rational explanation," Lance said. "Especially for people like us. Let's face it, we're not normal people we know. Weird stuff does have a habit of happening to us."

"I still say it might be the fault of the X-Geeks," Fred grumbled.

"Freddy they're not even in town!" Tabitha groaned. "And even if Xavier wanted to try to take over your minds, that is a big if, he would have done it long ago as soon as that Mystique lady took off!"

"For once Tabby's right," Lance said. "Xavier can't be behind this. He's too soft. Not his style. He's more subtle about control. Somebody else must be doing this."

"Oh goody," Todd rolled his eyes. "Just what we need. Another mutant that can read our minds and cause us trouble! Lovely!"

"I'm going back to bed," Tabitha said, getting up. "Call me when you guys come back from Fantasy Land.

Back in his lair, the figure smiled to himself and drew his dark cowl over his head. "Hmmm. I have to admit they are smarter than I gave them credit for. If they could figure out that their dreams are being manipulated, then when others' time comes that might make it difficult. I must be more careful. Yes, I think it's time to proceed to the next stage."

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Fred wandered among the many mirrors of the funhouse. Strange, ghastly reflections of himself surrounded him. "I hate this place, " He muttered. "I hate this place! Why did I come to the circus anyway? I hate circuses!"

He looked at the mirror next to him. Inside a skinny Fred danced in front of him making faces. Fred made a look. "Oh wait, this is a dream isn't it?"

The figure in the mirror nodded energetically. "I hate bad dreams," Fred grumbled. "And I suppose at this point you turn into a clown with a chainsaw or something?"

The figure nodded no. Then it morphed into a tall cloaked figure with glowing green eyes. "Well that's good too," Fred remarked. "Hey!" He dodged a rock the figure threw at him. "Oh throwing rocks at me. Yeah that's scary."

The figure threw another rock at Fred's head but it stopped in mid air. Fred looked at it. It was glowing a bright blue. "And what is this supposed to do?" Fred asked.

"You seek answers," The figure spoke. "This will lead you to the path."

"Come again?" Fred asked.

"Look to the path," The figure stood aside and showed Fred a path filled with blue rocks. "At the end of the path of blue rocks you will find what you are seeking."

"Huh?" Fred asked.

"At the end of the Lane of Blue Rocks you will find an empty House of Wares," The figure continued. "It holds the answers you seek."

"I'm sorry are you trying to tell me something?" Fred asked.

"COME TO THE WAREHOUSE AT BLUE ROCK LANE!" The figure screamed. "HOW HARD IS THAT TO FIGURE OUT! SHEESH! I'M TRYING TO BE A SHADOWY FIGURE OF THE NIGHT TORMENTING YOU WITH CLUES HERE! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO, GIVE YOU DIRECTIONS AND DRAW YOU A MAP?"

Fred blinked at him. "Oh for crying out loud," The mysterious figure groaned and put his head in his hands. "I should have went with the frog boy! Okay listen up!" A map of the city appeared. A pointer appeared in the figure's hands. "You are here right? You take the main road for about ten miles, until you get to the light. Take a left and go straight until you come to a fork in the road. There's a sign that says Blue Rock Industrial Park. It's the first abandoned building on the right. You can't miss it! Got it?'

"Oh yeah I got it," Fred nodded happily.

"Good," the figure groaned. "Now wake up the others and come there. Okay. I wanna get this over with. You're not the only mutants I have to torment you know!"

"Okay," Fred nodded. "See you there."

"Yeah yeah," the figure walked into the mist.

Fred opened his eyes with a snap. For a minute he couldn't remember anything. "Oh yeah!" He said. "Hey guys, listen up! I gotta tell you something!"

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"Are you sure this is the place?" Pietro asked as they drove up the road to the abandoned warehouse.

"Uh huh," Fred nodded. He and the others were in their battle uniforms. "That's where the guy said he would be."

"Okay is it just me or does this seem like a trap or something?" Todd asked. "I mean why else would the guy give us directions to the place?"

"Why would he give Blob the directions and not us?" Pietro rolled his eyes. "This guy doesn't seem too bright."

"Well he did say something about testing other mutants so he might be after the X-Geeks," Fred scratched his head. "So he can't be all bad right?"

"Let's just be careful," Lance said getting out of the car. "For all we know this could be a trap. Then again maybe this guy wants to recruit us or something."

"What for?" Pietro snapped. "We work for Magneto remember?"

"Since when?" Lance snapped back. "The guy ditched us. He hasn't been seen in months. Personally I'm more than willing to listen if this guy makes an offer!"

"Yeah maybe he'll set us up in a house like the X-Geeks!" Fred's eyes opened wide.

"Or maybe he wants to make us his pets or something," Todd shook his head. "I still say it smells like a trap!"

"Hey did we forget something?" Fred looked around. "I have this weird feeling that we did."

Back at the Brotherhood House…

"I can't believe they ditched me again!" Tabitha shouted, blowing up some dishes with energy bombs. "Where are those guys?"

Meanwhile the Brotherhood had entered the abandoned building. "There's nobody here," Pietro zipped around the perimeter and the room. "Empty. Not even any boxes."

"Except for that table over there," Fred pointed out. They went over. "Hey look! Presents!" Sure enough, there were five boxes with each Brotherhood's name on it. "Maybe it's Santa!"

"Freddy," Lance groaned. "It's not Santa!"

"How do you know?" Fred asked. "Maybe he couldn't find our house?"

"Our house has a 'Brotherhood Boarding House' sign on the front lawn!" Pietro groaned. "You'd have to be pretty stupid not to figure the connection!"

"You're right," Fred nodded. "Santa's smarter than that."

"I give up," Lance threw up his hands.

"Well we might as well open these," Pietro grabbed his box. "I love surprises!"

"Pietro wait!" Lance shouted. Too late, Pietro opened his box and was immediately shocked with a volt of electricity that knocked him unconscious.

"I told you it was a trap!" Todd shouted. "But did you listen, noooooooo!"

"Grab him and let's get out of here!" Lance shouted. But before he could the other presents opened up on their own and emitted a green gas. The next thing he knew the room was spinning and he blacked out.

Sometime later he opened his eyes. The other members of the Brotherhood were waking up as well. "Everyone okay?" He asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine just as soon as the room stops spinning," Pietro groaned.

"I told you it could be a trap," Todd said. "Nobody ever listens to me!"

"I'm sorry Toad did you say something?" Pietro smirked.

"Ha Ha Speedy," Todd made a face. "Very funny! If you'd been a bit more patient we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Where are we?" Fred looked around the dark room. "I can't see anything out there." Suddenly a glaring light blinded them. "Okay that's a bit too much!"

The light toned down. They found themselves in an empty room swirling with mist. "Okay so the guys got a fog machine," Pietro smirked. "Big deal! Show yourself!"

"Gladly."

Out of the mist a figure in black stepped out. He was cloaked in a dark black cape. All you could see of his face was his green glowing eyes. "Magneto?" Fred asked.

"No." The figure spoke.

"You look like him," Fred said.

The figure sighed and removed his cowl. He appeared to be either in his late twenties or early thirties. His face was pale white with dark black hair streaked with purple. His eyes seemed to be rouged with black makeup in a style similar to Alice Cooper's.

"I am Nightmare," The figure grinned. "Welcome to yours."

"Our what?" Fred asked.

"Your nightmare," Nightmare groaned. "Nightmare is my name. It's one of my powers, manipulating dreams. It's a pun. An ironic joke!"

"Oh nice to meet you," Todd piped up. "I'm Toad and that's Blob and Quicksilver and..."

"I KNOW WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE YOU IDIOT!" Nightmare screamed. "WHO DO THINK HAS BEEN SENDING YOU NIGHTMARES ALL THIS TIME?"

"You?" Lance exclaimed. "Why?"

"You morons are my lab rats," Nightmare explained. "Test subjects in order to prepare me when I go against the real enemy!"

"Yeah well how about testing this?" Lance shouted focusing his powers. Nothing happened.

"Fool," Nightmare snarled. "I control people's dreams. If I don't want you to have any powers, poof! You lose them!"

"Dreams?" Pietro said. "What do you….? Uh oh."

"Uh oh is right," Nightmare smiled an evil smile. "Guess where you are?"

Suddenly the ground erupted beneath them. Giant spires rose out of the ground. They found themselves entangled with cords that held them in place on the spires high above the ground.

"I can't move!" Fred shouted.

"We're trapped!" Todd shouted.

"Trapped is right," Nightmare rose above them, like an angel of darkness. "Now the real fun begins…"