The Clean Up Crew

It took 35 minutes before things had settled down. After everyone had cooled off a bit, Roadblock sent the kids to clean up after the previous night's battle. When some of the X-Men started to protest, Roadblock asked if they'd rather plead their case in front of a military tribunal. That shut everyone up.

As if cleaning up the mess wasn't enough to put all of them in a foul mood, the little divisions within the group were not helping the tensions at all. Rogue and Kurt were mad at Xavier. Kurt was angry with Rogue, Scott and Jean for keeping secrets from him. And everybody was angry with Todd. At this point Todd really didn't care and decided just to try and put up with them as much as possible. He channeled his hostility into the cleaning project. So it came as no surprise that he was getting the most work done which several Joes pointed out to the X-Men which made them madder at him than ever.

In a strange way, Todd was enjoying himself. It wasn't often that he had a chance to show up the X-Men, so he decided to make the most of it. He decided to be deliberately cheerful about working. This plan to make the X-Men even more miserable worked extremely well.

"Oh whistle while you work!" Todd sang out as he lifted some debris.

"I'd like to shove that whistle down your throat!" Kurt grumbled.

"Oh come on people now that's not a positive attitude is it?" Todd smirked.

"This is so unfair!" Kitty grumbled lifting a branch.

Scott destroyed some rubble with his eyebeams. "Yeah, once again we're stuck cleaning up the mess the Brotherhood made! That's fair!"

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong but you guys weren't exactly neat when you barged in here as well," Todd pointed out.

"We never would have come here if we'd known it was your slimy hide stuck on this base!" Evan snapped, throwing down his broom.

"You missed a spot," Todd quipped pointing out the huge amount of dust and broken items on the concrete.

Evan popped out some spikes from his arms, intending to start a fight, but Jean stopped him. "Come on, don't let him get to you," She told him. "It's not worth it!"

"Yeah you guys are already in enough trouble," Todd pointed out. He noticed Jean using her telekinesis to move some debris. "Well that's one way of getting work done without breaking a nail."

"Just ignore him," Rogue told Jean.

"I'm trying," She said.

"Now this is what I call the old Toad deluxe!" Todd threw up a heavy beam, then stood on his hands and used his legs to kick it into a nearby large metal trash bin. "Two points! And the crowd goes wild!"

"Will you stop fooling around?" Scott snapped.

"Hey I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation," Todd told him. "Lighten up Summers. Why not have a little fun with it?"

"You don't want to know what I'd think would be fun right about now," Kurt snapped.

"This is so stupid," Bobby snapped. "This wasn't our fault! Why do we have to do this?"

"Yeah I'm with him," Jubilee snapped. "This is too much work!"

"You people are unbelievable!" Todd spat. "You don't hear me complaining and I didn't even make this mess! Don't you have any idea how easy you guys are getting off?"

"Shut up Toad! We don't want to hear anything from you anymore!" Evan snapped.

"Yeah every time you open up your mouth there's trouble!" Rahnee snapped.

"Yeah well at least he's working!" Falcon came over. "You all are just sitting around on your butts jabbering and complaining!"

"Hey Falcon can I work over there?" Todd pointed to a larger area with even more junk scattered all over the place. "I'm a real good worker! I'll bet I can get it done all by myself in no time! Seeing as I'm the only one putting any effort into this job!"

"Fine!" Jean snapped. "Send him away from us! Please!"

"You know something Toad," Falcon said. "You can go practice your moves in the gym. You're done for the day. Since you've done most of the work around here anyway!"

"Okie Dokie," Todd smiled. "Have fun guys," He cackled as he left.

"The rest of you get back to work," Falcon told them. "And no more complaining!"

"Well we know who's the favorite around here," Jean sniffed.

"You're just sore because for once it's not you!" Kurt snapped.

Falcon walked over to where a few other Joes were sitting. "Are you sure that was the right thing to do?" Mainframe asked. "I mean that's gonna make them resent Toad even more."

"They already resent him enough," Falcon snapped. "I mean Toad may have his faults but did you hear those kids?"

"Yeah I thought you had attitude problems," Mercer chuckled. "At least Toad was willing to pull his weight. Those stuck up snobs wanna play hero but they don't want to pay the consequences."

"Yeah look at them," Dial Tone remarked. "Some of them aren't even trying!"

"Not all of them," Falcon said. "Some of the older kids are working hard. This is good for them. A few weeks of training with us will smooth out the rougher edges."

"Well the way these kids are going it will take a few weeks to get this done," Mercer pointed out. "Falcon I think it's time you and I put a fire under their butts, don't you think?"

"I dunno…" Falcon sighed. "These are kids. I don't want to push them too hard too soon."

"Will you watch what you're doing!" Jean shouted.

"Hey I'm trying to move heavy things here!" Rogue snapped. "It's not my fault you're in the way!"

"Oh yeah well stay out of mine!" Jean gave her a telekinetic shove.

"Don't do that to my sister!" Kurt snapped and teleported over, giving her a kick in the behind. Soon all the X-Men were fighting with each other.

"On the other hand…" Falcon said.

Half an hour later the X-Men were staring at a huge pile of dishes that were taller than they were. "Is it just me or is there somebody up there who really wants to get us?"