Why Aren't We Dead?

Everyone cringed as the explosion went off. It took a few minutes for everyone to realize that there was no searing pain or any sensation of being destroyed. Slowly they opened their eyes. "Uh why aren't we dead?" Fred scratched his head. He looked over and saw the answer. "Oh…my…."

Todd was there before them. Standing…no floating in midair. He was covered with a glowing light all around him. There was a halo of light covering all of them. The dome kept the fire and falling debris at bay.

"Please tell me I am having another hallucination," Lance blinked.

"No you are not," Roadblock told him, his mouth wide open.

The fires died away. Todd floated back to the ground. Roadblock caught him in his arms. Todd passed out into unconsciousness. "Take it easy kid," Roadblock brushed Todd's hair away from his forehead. "It's gonna be okay."

"Okay," Lance glared at Roadblock. "What the hell just happened here? Since when can Toad do that?"

"It's a long story," Roadblock groaned.

"Holy cow," Fred looked around. "What happened to the ceiling?" All around them were stars and the night sky.

"It blew off micro brain!" Pietro cried out in pain. "Ow…"

"His leg's pretty bad," Lance checked Pietro over. "What do we do?"

"Yeah," Fred looked down. "How do we get down? Good thing we're not too far up in the atmosphere."

Todd started to make sounds of waking up. "Kid?" Roadblock asked.

"Roadblock?" Todd said weakly. "What happened?"

"What do you…?" Lance started to say. One glare from Roadblock told him to shut up.

"Let me tell him," Roadblock said. He turned to Todd and said gently, "The bomb was a dud. It didn't work."

"It didn't?" Todd blinked.

"No," Roadblock told him. "It didn't."

"Roadblock," Todd whispered. "I didn't cry. Not once. I was real brave."

"I know son," Roadblock kissed his forehead. "I'm proud of you."

"Can I have pancakes when we go home?" Todd asked innocently.

"Sure kid," Roadblock gently mussed his hair. "I promise. Nice and fluffy."

"You'll make enough for my friends right?" Todd asked.

"Of course," Roadblock nodded. "Now get some rest."

"Okay," Todd started to fall back into unconsciousness. "Sooner I go to bed the sooner I can have pancakes."

The others stared at them. "He doesn't know does he?" Lance asked.

"No," Roadblock looked at them. "And none of you are gonna tell him about this! Understand?"

"Why?" Pietro asked. "So he doesn't learn about what experiments you did to him?"

"What did you do to Toad?" Fred snapped.

"We didn't do anything!" Roadblock told him. "Let's just say the kid got himself into something he shouldn't have."

"Well that I can believe," Lance groaned.

"I'll explain later if we survive," Roadblock groaned. "Right now we all got to get all of you out of here alive!"

"YEEEEHAAA!" A familiar voice shouted out. They looked up and saw a Stormwhirl lowering down.

"Wild Bill!" Roadblock cried out. "I'd know that cowboy cry anywhere!"

"Yo Joe!" Wild Bill called out as he managed to land the Stormwhirl on the crater. "Wow. You boys had quite a party here!"

"Call the medics," Roadblock sighed. "We got a few serious injuries here."

"Gotcha!" He called out. "Right now the others got their hands full!" He pointed to the distance. They could see dozens of jets attacking what was left of Asteroid M.

"Its up to them now," Roadblock said. "There's nothing else we can do! It's up to the others to make sure Magneto's through!"