The Rescue Party Plans
It had been three hours since the attack on the base. And still the X-Men were arguing with the Joes. "I told your students needed to be kept in their quarters for their own protection!" Hawk shouted.
"Some protection you provided!" Xavier snapped. "I lost two students because of you!"
"Hey!" Shipwreck snapped. "Listen Baldy, we lost people too! My son and a kid I really have come to care about! Maybe if your kids hadn't wrecked the base the first time they'd still be here!"
"Listen you…" Xavier started to say.
"ENOUGH!" Duke shouted. "Both of you! What's done is done! Blaming each other isn't going to change anything!"
"He's right," Hawk said. "We have to find Magneto and save the kids. That's our top priority now. We can play the blame game later. Right now we have to focus on finding those kids and bringing them home before Magneto does something to them."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Xavier shouted. "We don't even know where Magneto is!"
"I know where he is."
They all turned and saw Lance walking in with three Joes. He was wearing dark green pants and a black T-shirt. "I know where his hideout is," Lance said. "I can take you to him."
"What is he doing here?" Scott snapped.
"Magneto's crazy," Lance snarled. "He's running experiments on any mutant he gets his hands on!"
"Experiments?" Roadblock's face darkened.
"Where is he?" Shipwreck grabbed Lance's shirt. "That maniac has my son!"
"The little guy with the flippers?" Lance asked. "He took him?"
"Him, Rogue, Toad and Gambit," Xavier told him.
"So that's what he meant by getting new recruits from the Joes," Lance said.
"So what are you doing here?" Shipwreck glared at him.
"Ease off Shipwreck," Dusty pried him away from Lance. "The kid tried to warn us."
"Magneto tried to kill me," Lance snapped. "I want revenge. And I want to save the others. He's doing stuff to the Brotherhood."
"Where is he?" Shipwreck asked, not too politely.
"Antarctica," Lance told him. "He's rebuilt Asteroid M."
"Oh this is gonna be fun," Logan growled.
"Well what are we waiting for let's go!" Althea got up.
"You're not going anywhere!" Shipwreck growled at her.
"Yes I am!" She said hotly.
"No you're not!" Shipwreck glared. "In the first place you're injured!"
"But…" Althea protested.
"No buts young lady!" Shipwreck's tone grew extremely stern. "And I am not going to chance losing another one of you! Is that clear?"
She looked at him sadly. "Very clear sir."
"You stay and watch your sisters," Shipwreck softened and put his hand on her shoulder. "That's an order. Understand?"
"Okay," She sighed. "But you'd better come home alive. And not screw this up!"
"Don't worry kid," He smiled. "I won't. That's a promise. We're family. And I told you long ago nobody is gonna break up our family. That includes Toad. Besides, if you think I'm going to lose the only person crazy enough to be my future son in law, you have another think coming!"
"So how do we get there?" Kurt asked. "We can't use the Joe planes. They're made of metal."
"We can use the X-Jet and the X-Copter," Xavier said.
"That's not all," Hawk motioned. "Come with me."
They all followed him to the lower levels. "When we first heard about Magneto some of our research teams started cooking up a few little gadgets," Hawk explained. "Including these."
They entered a huge underground hanger. There were dozens of Jets and choppers there. "These are the newest prototypes in aviation," Hawk told them. "The Skyblazers and the Stormwhirls! All made without an ounce of metal! Just waiting for a test run. And I say this situation calls for it."
"Wow," Bobby looked around. Several X-Men let out impressed whistles.
"You think this is impressive," Hawk smiled. "Just wait until you see some of our other gadgets. Magneto's not gonna know what hit him!"
