Breakfast Time
Todd quickly washed himself and changed into his outfit, minus the headband and jacket. He then proceeded to the cafeteria where the X-Men had already entered. Roadblock, Xavier, Logan, Ororo and Falcon were there too. They were already talking and eating. He took a deep breath before entering. Here goes, Todd thought before entering.
"Yo! Morning everybody!" Todd hopped into the room and onto an empty chair between Kurt and Rahnee. "Wazzup?"
All of the X-men stopped talking and looked at him in awkward silence. "What?" Todd asked. "I cleaned up before I came in? Why are you all looking at me?"
"Sorry," Kitty apologized. "It's all like, so weird you know? Like you're back from the dead."
"Yeah it's kinda hard to believe it's really you," Jubilee said.
Todd shrugged and used his tongue to grab a bottle of ketchup for his eggs. "Oh yeah it's you all right," Evan groaned.
"Todd," Roadblock said sternly. "No tongue at the table! Remember?"
"Sorry," Todd munched on his food. He swallowed and looked at Remy. "So you finally went over to the X-Gee…uh X-Men huh?"
"Yeah," Remy said. "And you've been here all this time?"
"Yup," Todd nodded. "So what's new with you guys back in Bayville? Come on, tell me what happened in school!"
"Before or after Avalanche trashed it?" Bobby groaned.
"Oh man," Todd laughed and slapped the table. "I remember Falcon saying something about that! I can't believe he trashed another one! Man that is just nuts!"
"That's not funny Toad!" Jean snapped.
"Funny!" Todd giggled. "It's hilarious! Whoo…" He then noticed he was getting glares from the X-Men. "Well it's a…you know. A Brotherhood in-joke. You know?"
"People could have been hurt," Scott said with a glare of disapproval.
"Oh well…" Todd folded his fingers and tried to look apologetic. "That's bad. Very bad. Um…so what else happened?"
"Well um…" Kitty spoke up. "Scott and Jean are finally a couple."
"Well it's about time," Todd said. "You two have been making goo goo eyes at each other since day one! So you finally dumped that idiot jock Duncan huh?"
"Yeah," Jean frowned.
"Boy I would have loved to have seen that," Todd shook his head laughing. "What?" He was getting looks again.
"The whole school saw it," Rogue snapped. "Jean got totally humiliated."
"Well then I definitely…" Todd started to say before getting a look from Roadblock. "Really feel bad for you on that. Really. Terrible shame. Okay Blue Boy how about you and your girl huh? Anything new there? When's the wedding?"
"Very funny Toad!" Kurt said. "At least I have a girlfriend!"
"Hey I was just asking," Todd snapped. "Trying to make nice you know? What her parents make her dump you or something?"
"No, we just thought that…" Kurt fumed. "None of your business! Listen Toad, why don't you forget about everyone else's love life until you get one of your own!"
"Oh yeah?" Todd's voice grew louder. "Well for your information Fuzzy, it just so happens that…"
"TODD!" Roadblock shot him a warning look. "That's enough. There are things that are best if left alone. Everyone's entitled to their secrets? Okay?"
Todd got the hint. "Oh…yeah. Um, sorry."
"I realize there are still some issues you students have with Toad," Xavier said. "But please try to get along."
"You know Todd here has made excellent progress in his martial arts training," Roadblock said.
"Yeah," Todd said happily. "I love that stuff! It really works too! And I get to train with real ninjas and everything! Wait until you guys meet the Blind Master! He's really something! Hey I could introduce all of you around when we go to the Pit!"
"What's the Pit?" Jubilee asked.
"It's the main Joe base where I live now," Todd told her. "That's where all of you are gonna be training for a few weeks."
"We are gonna what?" Scott shouted. Several X-men started to protest. Xavier gave Todd an uncomfortable look.
"You didn't tell them yet did you?" Todd gulped.
"No I didn't," Xavier sighed. "I had hoped to tell all of you this after breakfast, but I feel that perhaps you all might benefit from some training with the Joes."
"Are you nuts?" Kurt shouted. "Don't you remember what happened the last time the Joes were watching us?"
"Well this time if something happens our own base will be destroyed," Falcon quipped.
"I don't believe this!" Bobby shouted.
"This stinks!" Rahnee agreed.
"Training with the Toad," Evan grumbled. "A dream come true!"
"Professor you can't be serious!" Jean asked. "This is not how I wanted to spend my vacation!"
"And like we don't get any say in this at all?" Kitty fumed.
"Oh come on Kitty," Todd said. "It ain't that bad. Hey if I could do it so can you guys."
"That's not the point Toad," Scott said.
"And what is the point?" Todd raised an eyebrow.
"He means why should we trust these people?" Remy snapped. "They're the army for crying out loud!"
"So?" Todd snapped. "Don't tell me you still believe all the crap Magneto told us about humans?"
"These people spied on us behind our backs!" Scott snapped.
"I thought I explained this," Falcon groaned.
"All right that's enough," Xavier said. "I realize we all still have feelings considering our past history with the Joes. But I am now convinced that they really do want to help us. Toad is proof of that."
"That's right!" Todd snapped. "They took me in when everybody else turned their backs on me!"
"Look it's the least we can do," Falcon said. "Besides you did have a couple of weeks of school left anyway. We can help you with that too. I understand how you feel, believe me, but we're not your enemies here. We never were. And Toad's not your enemy anymore either. So can't we just put our pasts behind us and try a fresh start?"
Silence. "Well I guess we could try it," Scott sighed.
"Yeah how hard could it be if Toad could do it," Evan grumbled.
"That's the spirit," Logan said.
"Yeah why don't we all bury the hatchet you know?" Todd said. "Magneto and Cobra are the people we ought to be fighting. Not each other. Look I'm not crazy about you guys but I'm willing to give this a chance."
"Yeah right," Rogue scoffed, folding her arms.
"Look Rogue I didn't mean to make you upset last night," Todd said. "I'm sorry."
"What?" Remy growled. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Rogue said quickly. "Drop it."
"No way!" Kurt snapped. "What did you say to her Toad?"
"Well I told her that Mystique is her mom as well as yours," Todd snapped.
"WHAT?" Kurt shouted.
"Todd," Roadblock groaned. "You're not supposed to tell them that!"
"Wait, you mean it's true?" Kurt gasped. "I don't believe you people knew about this!"
"Well we ain't the only ones," Todd snapped. "Falcon found out that the Professor found out a while back but he didn't say anything either!"
"WHAT?" Kurt and Rogue glared at Xavier.
"I was waiting until you were ready to handle this information," Xavier tried to explain.
"Information?" Rogue snapped. "Mystique is my mother! This is not just some little tidbit you can use for some plan!"
"I guess he was going to tell you guys that the same day he told Blue Boy here that his mom and Magneto did experiments on him when he was a baby," Todd said.
"Toad how could you tell him that?" Scott snapped. "You can't just blurt that out?"
"Wait minute…" Kurt looked at Scott. "You knew about this too didn't you?"
"We figured it out from the time I touched Mystique," Rogue snapped.
"You and the professor knew about this?" Kurt gasped.
"We didn't want you to get hurt," Jean said.
"Hurt?" Kurt snapped. "So this is why I look the way I look? You had the answers to my past all this time and you never told me? You're supposed to be my friends! I had to find out about it from Toad?"
"Hey!" Todd snapped. "Don't put the blame on me! They were supposed to tell you guys in the first place! I didn't mean to blurt out the truth like that!"
"Oh I'll bet you didn't!" Rogue got up and started to leave.
"Rogue where are you going?" Ororo asked.
"Somewhere I can be alone!" She snapped.
"I'll get her," Remy got up and followed her.
"Well Professor?" Kurt snapped. "Do you have anything else to tell me? Or maybe I should just ask Toad here? He seems to know more about my life than I do anyway!"
"Don't say anything more Toad!" Falcon warned. "Especially about Mystique doing experiments on you and the other mutants! Oops."
"What?" Kurt looked pale.
"Yeah you got one real nice mom," Todd snapped. "Gets her kicks torturing kids and fiddling around with their DNA!"
Kurt swore something in German and then teleported out of the room. "Oh great," Logan got up. "Come on Storm let's see if we can find the elf before he gets himself into any trouble."
"I'll go with you," Jean got up and joined them.
"Oh well this is great!" Scott threw down his napkin. "Just great! Toad's not even back in our lives for a day and already he's causing trouble! Some things never change!" He got up. "This is a mistake! I am out of here!"
"Scott wait!" Xavier called out to him.
"You just love it when you cause trouble for us don't you?" Kitty snapped following Scott.
"I lost my appetite," Rahnee sniffed as she left.
"I'm gone too," Evan said. Soon all the remaining X-Men were gone. Leaving Falcon, Roadblock and Toad behind.
"Well that went well," Falcon quipped.
"I guess I kinda put my foot in it huh?" Todd said.
"You think?" Roadblock looked at him. "This is why we never let you in our secret meetings."
"This is gonna be a fun two weeks," Falcon sighed.
