Sam's parents had been shattered when they arrived and saw their son dead,
but thanks to Xavier's mental powers and the altered autopsy, they believed
that he had died in a accident, unrelated to Glen or anybody else at the
Institute. They had, at Xavier's suggestion, arranged for a private
funeral, which Xavier funded. They had also consented to Glen's attendance
at the ceremony a few days later. Only Xavier, Glen, and Jean had gone
along. At the funeral, they had cried with Glen and consoled him the best
they could, but he still had not said a word since that fateful night.
When they arrived home, Glen walked silently up to his room and closed the door, and turned on his CD player with the disc Sam had given him. He turned the volume all the way up, trying to blot out the images in his head of Sam lying dead on the cold steel table. Soon, the track changed to another Shostakovich song, the 4th Ballet suite. At full volume, the speakers began to vibrate as the piece grew louder and louder in intensity. Kitty could hear it from down the hall in her room and went over to Glen's room. She pounded on the door. "Glen, please, let me in!" she shouted, hoping to be able to console him before the roof began to cave in. Her pleas went unanswered, and she went back to her room to wait out the cascade of sound.
Downstairs, Xavier convened another meeting of the senior residents of the Institute. The rifts that had developed the last time were still apparent, but less pronounced. All of the mutants seemed to have a sense that what had happened was done and they might as well move on. Xavier filled in everybody who didn't already know on the cause of Sam's death, and began to explain about the implants that had been controlling the boy. "The surgical technique used was remarkable. The scars were barely detectable to the naked eye,"
"So these implants let Magneto see what Sam was seeing?" asked Storm.
"Yes," said Xavier. "The military doesn't even have this level of technology. Magneto's the only one who could have designed this,"
Glen lay on his bed as the music stopped. He sat for a few moments in silence, then got up and went over to the table in his room. He looked longingly at the pictures on it; the ones of himself and Sam. He picked one up and held it very close, then set it back on the table, face down. Then he picked up another one. This was the picture he, Kurt, and Kitty had had taken together at the mall. It seemed like it had been a lifetime ago, even though it had actually been less than a week. There was a knock at the door. He looked at the picture of the frame for a few seconds, thinking to himself. "Yes, it's hurting now," he thought, "but they're your friends too, and you can't just keep pushing them away if you want the pain to go away," He clutched the picture frame very tightly, then set it down, walked open to the door, and opened it. Kitty was standing outside.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
"Yeah," said Glen, softly. Kitty walked in and they sat down on Glen's bed together.
"Do you listen to that music a lot?" she asked after a moment.
"Only when I'm really depressed," said Glen. "It helps me get everything out. All the pain, the frustration. But it's not doing much good now,"
"Maybe this is the kind of thing that music can't help," said Kitty.
"Maybe not, but when I was listening to it, I couldn't hear him screaming. I couldn't see him. lying there on that table. For a moment, I could imagine that he was still here with me," Glen looked over at her. "Have you ever seen somebody you really love die?" Kitty shook her head, not saying anything.
"When he. when he died," Glen said, forcing out the words. "I could see everything we had done, and everything we might possibly accomplish together, all bound together in one moment. And then that was suddenly snuffed out. You can't imagine what that's like, knowing that everything you might be able to do will never happen," He suddenly slammed his fist down on the bed in anger. "Why'd I have to get caught up in all of this?" he asked. "Why couldn't I just have a normal life? There's no way having all these powers can be worth all this!"
Kitty took his hand. "Glen, do you believe in fate?"
"I don't really know what I believe in any more," he said.
"Glen, please don't say that," Kitty said. "I know you're wishing none of this had happened; so am I. But you can't just wish this away. You have your powers for a reason. Like it or not, you'll have to accept that you have a purpose, that you are one of the first people that will have to tell people about mutants. It's going to hurt at times, but it IS worth it. You have to find a way to move on from this,"
Glen stood up. "Look, I appreciate you trying to cheer me up," he said. "But I've lost too much. I can't just keep telling myself to keep up the fight, because I don't know what I have left to fight for,"
"You're not talking about leaving?" gasped Kitty.
"I don't know," said Glen. "But it's going to be hard for me to stay here and keep working with the X-Men until I sort all of this out,"
Kitty was suddenly angry. How could Glen just walk away from everything they had built over the last couple of months? His boyfriend's death was no reason to completely throw away the family he had become a part of, was it? "You want a reason to stay? Fine, I'll give you a reason to stay. Magneto. That's your reason. He's the one responsible for all of this," She realized as Glen's eyes went wide that she had said way too much.
"Magneto did this?" Glen asked incredulously. He turned to walk out of the room.
"Glen, wait! I thought they told you!" Kitty shouted after him, but Glen was already gone. She sunk back down on Glen's bed. Like, now I've done it, she thought.
Glen walked through the mansion with blood on his mind until he came to the library where Xavier was talking with the senior residents of the Institute. He considered just storming in and demanding to know why he had been kept in the dark, but when he heard the terse conversations going on inside, he decided to wait and listen in.
"Were you able to find out where Magneto was sendin' these signals from?" Wolverine asked gruffly.
"No," said Jean. "The professor and I both tried to track them back to their origin, but we couldn't figure out where they were coming from,"
"Magneto was simply too well shielded against our minds," said Xavier. "We knew that the signals were of his mind, but we couldn't get anything further than that,"
"Do you have any actual data of this?" Scott asked.
"What we have is sketchy at best," said Xavier. "But the residual psychic signature we recovered from the implant matches the data we have on Magneto's brain patterns,"
"Why the sudden concern for evidence?" asked Storm. "Are you proposing some kind of legal action?"
"Yes," said Scott.
"Forget it!" said Wolverine. "In case you forgot, we're mutants. We don't have any rights! If we go into court, they'd probably arrest US, no matter what sort of evidence we bring in,"
"So we just sit back and do nothing?" Scott asked.
"Hell no! We go after him ourselves, and we resolve this OUR way," snarled Wolverine, unsheathing the claws of his right hand.
Glen had heard enough. He pushed open the door and walked into the room. "Wolverine's right," he said. "We can't bring Magneto to justice, but we can bring justice to him!"
Everybody except Logan looked up in shock as Glen walked in.
"Glen," said Xavier. "Violence will not help us resolve this manner,"
"Neither will the courts," said Glen. "There's only one way to deal with this, and I'll do it myself if I have to. Now, why didn't you tell me that Magneto had done this? Didn't you think you could trust me?"
Scott answered before Xavier could. "You're sorta proving that right now," he said, and instantly regretted it as Glen shot him a look that would have frozen anybody faster than Bobby could with his ice powers. "Scott!" Jean hissed at him. "Er, sorry," mumbled Scott. "I meant that you've gone through enough already, and knowing what had happened would have made things even worse for you,"
"You're right," said Glen flatly. "They're worse,"
"Glen, please try and restrain your anger," said Xavier. "I promise you, the moment we find more details about Magneto's whereabouts, we WILL take action. I assure you that Magneto will NOT go unpunished, we just have to find him first, and that is going to take some time,"
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I don't have the luxury of waiting," Glen said, and walked quickly out of the room.
Scott rose to follow Glen, but Wolverine put a hand on his shoulder. "Let me go after him. I can talk some sense into him," he said.
Glen opened the door to the garage and walked inside. He passed the X-Jeep and Scott's vintage Corvette, but stopped alongside Wolverine's motorcycle. He hesitated, considering how Logan would react when he came down to find his bike missing, but cast caution aside. After all, he would need a small vehicle if he wanted to approach the Brotherhood undetected. He grabbed a helmet off the wall and was about to fire up the engine when the lights in the garage flared on. "Goin' out for a ride, bub?"
"I'm going to find Magneto, even if I have to tear the entire Brotherhood apart to get to him,"
"Bad idea, kid," Logan said. "I don't think you'd be able to talk much sense into ol' bucket-head if you actually did find him, and I doubt even more that you're ready to take him on in a fight,"
"Yes I am!" hissed Glen.
"Look kid, I know you think you're a hot shot and everything, but you don't know what Magneto's capable of. You've never even seen him before. And besides, you couldn't even hold your own in the simulator against Red a couple days ago. You go up against Magneto and he'll take you apart,"
"So what the hell am I supposed to do? Just let him get away with murder?"
"Listen Glen, I understand you've lost somebody very close to you. And I know what it's like to have a vendetta. But what you're thinking about doing goes beyond crazy. It's suicide! Is that what you really want?"
Glen grimaced, the tears starting to flow freely down his face.
Logan continued. "I know you want to make up for your friend's death. But going after Magneto by yourself isn't gonna do you or Sam any good. Let us help you. We all go together, we can bring Magneto to justice. Otherwise, you wind up dead too, or worse, and Sam's death will be for nothing,"
Glen nodded as the words of truth sank in. "Alright," he sniffed. "We'll do this together," He extended his hand to Logan, who grasped it firmly.
"I'll talk to Charles, see if we can put some kind of plan together for going after Magneto. Meantime, why don't you head back inside?"
"I will, but there's something I have to do first," said Glen, hopping on the bike. "I'll be back in a half-hour. I promise!" With that, he revved up the bike and drove off.
Logan scowled, but let Glen go. "Just don't do anything stupid, kid. And be careful," he muttered, and then went back inside, closing up the garage behind him.
Glen drove through the empty streets of Bayville. The night was silent and there was no other traffic around. After about 10 minutes, he arrived at the cemetery. Dismounting, he climbed over the locked gate and walked past the rows of tombstones until he came to the one he was looking for. A moonbeam shone down across the stone from above, casting its light. The stone read: Samuel J Thomas, beloved son. 1984-2002.
Glen sat down on the ground in front of it. "Hello, Sam," he said, reaching out and touching the stone. Again, he burst out crying. "God, I'm so sorry this happened to you!" he cried. "I never should have gotten you involved in any of this! I'd do anything to have you back!" He wept openly for 5 minutes at the loss of his friend. He had almost never cried this much in his entire life.
Glen didn't notice the woman who had walked up behind him until she made her presence known. "Hello, Glen," she said in a deep voice.
Glen looked up, instantly angered that somebody would disturb him now, of all times. He recognized the woman as Mystique from the briefings he had received from the X-Men about the Brotherhood and its members. His first instinct was to simply attack her, out of vengeance, but a voice inside told him to hold back and listen to what she had to say.
"What do you want?" he said darkly.
"I couldn't help overhearing that last bit of what you said, about how you'd do anything to have your lover back," she said, her voice taking on a cat-like quality.
"Like you can do anything about this," Glen said, waving at Sam's grave with his hand. "Professor Xavier told me that you and Magneto did this! Why should I even be listening to you?"
"Because we can offer you a way to set things right," Mystique said.
"That's impossible!" shouted Glen. "And even if it were, I won't help a bunch of murdering scum like you," Mystique glared at him. "I'm afraid I'll have to insist," she said, and four figures stepped out from behind the cover of nearby trees. Glen could make out the faces of the Brotherhood in the moonlight. "What's wrong Glen? Can't sleep without your little boyfriend?" Lance Alvers said mockingly.
Glen's inner rage suddenly went through the roof. He let out a fierce scream and lashed out, punching Lance across the jaw and sending the mutant reeling. Lance got to his feet and licked at the drops of blood dripping from his split lip. "I'm gonna enjoy this even more than I enjoyed grabbing your boyfriend!" He clenched his fist and the ground began to shake.
Glen jumped sideways as the ground split open underneath him, creating a deep chasm. He had a split second to recover as Fred charged at him. Glen dodged the blow of the massive teenager, but was struck from behind as Toad jumped onto his back and wrapped his hands around Glen's head. Glen staggered around blindly, trying to shake Toad off of him, but the mutant held on too tightly. By now, Glen was beginning to gag, both from Toad's choke-hold as well as his noxious body odor. Seeing a tree in front of him, Glen quickly spun around and jumped backwards, smashing Toad against the tree. Mercifully, the strangle-hold loosened and Glen collapsed to a knee, gasping for breath. As he rose, he was suddenly tripped up as a silver flash zoomed by him. He got up but was knocked down again. Glen looked up to see Pietro laughing at him. Glen shot a stasis bolt at him, but Pietro simply dodged it and ran rings around Glen for extra effect. Glen shot bolt after bolt but couldn't hit the boy. Pietro skidded to a stop as Glen began to tire. "Forget it! I'm just too fast for ya!" he said and took off running again.
Glen sighed, the duration of the battle beginning to take its toll on him. Logan was right; despite his improved skills, he still just wasn't in peak physical shape yet. "Gotta find a way to slow him down" Glen thought to himself. He concentrated very hard, and a temporal double began to appear beside him. He pointed towards where Pietro's flight plan was taking him, and the double began moving forward. At the same time, he phased out of time, planning to reappear directly behind Pietro.
In the hyper-blur that was Pietro's fast-paced world, the boy suddenly saw a figure appear in front of him. He skidded to a stop directly in front of a figure he recognized as Glen, which took a combat stance. "So, you want some more, eh?" Pietro asked the image. He suddenly felt somebody tap him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Glen, again. "What the?" he exclaimed, very confused. He looked back and forth between the two Glens several times. As he looked forward again, the real Glen struck him hard across the face. Pietro's last conscious thought for a while would be, "There's TWO of him?!"
"Two down," Glen thought, but before he could revel further in his success, a pair of massive hands seized him from behind as Fred lifted him off the ground. Fred carried him over his head to the hole in the ground that Lance had made, and tossed Glen in. Glen hit the ground with a thud. He slowly got up and tried to climb out, but the hole was too deep.
"Haw haw!" Fred laughed as he watched Glen struggle to jump out of the pit. "Time-travel boy never even saw it coming!"
"Nice one!" said Lance, walking up alongside Fred. "Now let's bury him!" he cackled.
"Wait!" called Mystique, stepping back out of the shadows. "We need him alive, remember?' With that, she pulled out a small sphere and tossed it down into the pit. It landed next to Glen, and a moment later pink smoke began pouring out of it. Glen coughed as he fought to remain conscious but finally succumbed and passed out.
Glen awoke to find himself strapped to a table. Looking around, he could see he was in some kind of large lab. The ceiling was awash with electric- purple energy, the same color as his stasis bolts. Before he could take further stock of his environment, the table began to rotate upwards until he was perpendicular to the floor. Before him, he saw a figure sitting in a chair behind a desk. The figure in the chair turned around to face Glen, the light reflecting of his helmeted head.
"Hello, Glen," he said. "I am Magneto,"
X
When they arrived home, Glen walked silently up to his room and closed the door, and turned on his CD player with the disc Sam had given him. He turned the volume all the way up, trying to blot out the images in his head of Sam lying dead on the cold steel table. Soon, the track changed to another Shostakovich song, the 4th Ballet suite. At full volume, the speakers began to vibrate as the piece grew louder and louder in intensity. Kitty could hear it from down the hall in her room and went over to Glen's room. She pounded on the door. "Glen, please, let me in!" she shouted, hoping to be able to console him before the roof began to cave in. Her pleas went unanswered, and she went back to her room to wait out the cascade of sound.
Downstairs, Xavier convened another meeting of the senior residents of the Institute. The rifts that had developed the last time were still apparent, but less pronounced. All of the mutants seemed to have a sense that what had happened was done and they might as well move on. Xavier filled in everybody who didn't already know on the cause of Sam's death, and began to explain about the implants that had been controlling the boy. "The surgical technique used was remarkable. The scars were barely detectable to the naked eye,"
"So these implants let Magneto see what Sam was seeing?" asked Storm.
"Yes," said Xavier. "The military doesn't even have this level of technology. Magneto's the only one who could have designed this,"
Glen lay on his bed as the music stopped. He sat for a few moments in silence, then got up and went over to the table in his room. He looked longingly at the pictures on it; the ones of himself and Sam. He picked one up and held it very close, then set it back on the table, face down. Then he picked up another one. This was the picture he, Kurt, and Kitty had had taken together at the mall. It seemed like it had been a lifetime ago, even though it had actually been less than a week. There was a knock at the door. He looked at the picture of the frame for a few seconds, thinking to himself. "Yes, it's hurting now," he thought, "but they're your friends too, and you can't just keep pushing them away if you want the pain to go away," He clutched the picture frame very tightly, then set it down, walked open to the door, and opened it. Kitty was standing outside.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
"Yeah," said Glen, softly. Kitty walked in and they sat down on Glen's bed together.
"Do you listen to that music a lot?" she asked after a moment.
"Only when I'm really depressed," said Glen. "It helps me get everything out. All the pain, the frustration. But it's not doing much good now,"
"Maybe this is the kind of thing that music can't help," said Kitty.
"Maybe not, but when I was listening to it, I couldn't hear him screaming. I couldn't see him. lying there on that table. For a moment, I could imagine that he was still here with me," Glen looked over at her. "Have you ever seen somebody you really love die?" Kitty shook her head, not saying anything.
"When he. when he died," Glen said, forcing out the words. "I could see everything we had done, and everything we might possibly accomplish together, all bound together in one moment. And then that was suddenly snuffed out. You can't imagine what that's like, knowing that everything you might be able to do will never happen," He suddenly slammed his fist down on the bed in anger. "Why'd I have to get caught up in all of this?" he asked. "Why couldn't I just have a normal life? There's no way having all these powers can be worth all this!"
Kitty took his hand. "Glen, do you believe in fate?"
"I don't really know what I believe in any more," he said.
"Glen, please don't say that," Kitty said. "I know you're wishing none of this had happened; so am I. But you can't just wish this away. You have your powers for a reason. Like it or not, you'll have to accept that you have a purpose, that you are one of the first people that will have to tell people about mutants. It's going to hurt at times, but it IS worth it. You have to find a way to move on from this,"
Glen stood up. "Look, I appreciate you trying to cheer me up," he said. "But I've lost too much. I can't just keep telling myself to keep up the fight, because I don't know what I have left to fight for,"
"You're not talking about leaving?" gasped Kitty.
"I don't know," said Glen. "But it's going to be hard for me to stay here and keep working with the X-Men until I sort all of this out,"
Kitty was suddenly angry. How could Glen just walk away from everything they had built over the last couple of months? His boyfriend's death was no reason to completely throw away the family he had become a part of, was it? "You want a reason to stay? Fine, I'll give you a reason to stay. Magneto. That's your reason. He's the one responsible for all of this," She realized as Glen's eyes went wide that she had said way too much.
"Magneto did this?" Glen asked incredulously. He turned to walk out of the room.
"Glen, wait! I thought they told you!" Kitty shouted after him, but Glen was already gone. She sunk back down on Glen's bed. Like, now I've done it, she thought.
Glen walked through the mansion with blood on his mind until he came to the library where Xavier was talking with the senior residents of the Institute. He considered just storming in and demanding to know why he had been kept in the dark, but when he heard the terse conversations going on inside, he decided to wait and listen in.
"Were you able to find out where Magneto was sendin' these signals from?" Wolverine asked gruffly.
"No," said Jean. "The professor and I both tried to track them back to their origin, but we couldn't figure out where they were coming from,"
"Magneto was simply too well shielded against our minds," said Xavier. "We knew that the signals were of his mind, but we couldn't get anything further than that,"
"Do you have any actual data of this?" Scott asked.
"What we have is sketchy at best," said Xavier. "But the residual psychic signature we recovered from the implant matches the data we have on Magneto's brain patterns,"
"Why the sudden concern for evidence?" asked Storm. "Are you proposing some kind of legal action?"
"Yes," said Scott.
"Forget it!" said Wolverine. "In case you forgot, we're mutants. We don't have any rights! If we go into court, they'd probably arrest US, no matter what sort of evidence we bring in,"
"So we just sit back and do nothing?" Scott asked.
"Hell no! We go after him ourselves, and we resolve this OUR way," snarled Wolverine, unsheathing the claws of his right hand.
Glen had heard enough. He pushed open the door and walked into the room. "Wolverine's right," he said. "We can't bring Magneto to justice, but we can bring justice to him!"
Everybody except Logan looked up in shock as Glen walked in.
"Glen," said Xavier. "Violence will not help us resolve this manner,"
"Neither will the courts," said Glen. "There's only one way to deal with this, and I'll do it myself if I have to. Now, why didn't you tell me that Magneto had done this? Didn't you think you could trust me?"
Scott answered before Xavier could. "You're sorta proving that right now," he said, and instantly regretted it as Glen shot him a look that would have frozen anybody faster than Bobby could with his ice powers. "Scott!" Jean hissed at him. "Er, sorry," mumbled Scott. "I meant that you've gone through enough already, and knowing what had happened would have made things even worse for you,"
"You're right," said Glen flatly. "They're worse,"
"Glen, please try and restrain your anger," said Xavier. "I promise you, the moment we find more details about Magneto's whereabouts, we WILL take action. I assure you that Magneto will NOT go unpunished, we just have to find him first, and that is going to take some time,"
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I don't have the luxury of waiting," Glen said, and walked quickly out of the room.
Scott rose to follow Glen, but Wolverine put a hand on his shoulder. "Let me go after him. I can talk some sense into him," he said.
Glen opened the door to the garage and walked inside. He passed the X-Jeep and Scott's vintage Corvette, but stopped alongside Wolverine's motorcycle. He hesitated, considering how Logan would react when he came down to find his bike missing, but cast caution aside. After all, he would need a small vehicle if he wanted to approach the Brotherhood undetected. He grabbed a helmet off the wall and was about to fire up the engine when the lights in the garage flared on. "Goin' out for a ride, bub?"
"I'm going to find Magneto, even if I have to tear the entire Brotherhood apart to get to him,"
"Bad idea, kid," Logan said. "I don't think you'd be able to talk much sense into ol' bucket-head if you actually did find him, and I doubt even more that you're ready to take him on in a fight,"
"Yes I am!" hissed Glen.
"Look kid, I know you think you're a hot shot and everything, but you don't know what Magneto's capable of. You've never even seen him before. And besides, you couldn't even hold your own in the simulator against Red a couple days ago. You go up against Magneto and he'll take you apart,"
"So what the hell am I supposed to do? Just let him get away with murder?"
"Listen Glen, I understand you've lost somebody very close to you. And I know what it's like to have a vendetta. But what you're thinking about doing goes beyond crazy. It's suicide! Is that what you really want?"
Glen grimaced, the tears starting to flow freely down his face.
Logan continued. "I know you want to make up for your friend's death. But going after Magneto by yourself isn't gonna do you or Sam any good. Let us help you. We all go together, we can bring Magneto to justice. Otherwise, you wind up dead too, or worse, and Sam's death will be for nothing,"
Glen nodded as the words of truth sank in. "Alright," he sniffed. "We'll do this together," He extended his hand to Logan, who grasped it firmly.
"I'll talk to Charles, see if we can put some kind of plan together for going after Magneto. Meantime, why don't you head back inside?"
"I will, but there's something I have to do first," said Glen, hopping on the bike. "I'll be back in a half-hour. I promise!" With that, he revved up the bike and drove off.
Logan scowled, but let Glen go. "Just don't do anything stupid, kid. And be careful," he muttered, and then went back inside, closing up the garage behind him.
Glen drove through the empty streets of Bayville. The night was silent and there was no other traffic around. After about 10 minutes, he arrived at the cemetery. Dismounting, he climbed over the locked gate and walked past the rows of tombstones until he came to the one he was looking for. A moonbeam shone down across the stone from above, casting its light. The stone read: Samuel J Thomas, beloved son. 1984-2002.
Glen sat down on the ground in front of it. "Hello, Sam," he said, reaching out and touching the stone. Again, he burst out crying. "God, I'm so sorry this happened to you!" he cried. "I never should have gotten you involved in any of this! I'd do anything to have you back!" He wept openly for 5 minutes at the loss of his friend. He had almost never cried this much in his entire life.
Glen didn't notice the woman who had walked up behind him until she made her presence known. "Hello, Glen," she said in a deep voice.
Glen looked up, instantly angered that somebody would disturb him now, of all times. He recognized the woman as Mystique from the briefings he had received from the X-Men about the Brotherhood and its members. His first instinct was to simply attack her, out of vengeance, but a voice inside told him to hold back and listen to what she had to say.
"What do you want?" he said darkly.
"I couldn't help overhearing that last bit of what you said, about how you'd do anything to have your lover back," she said, her voice taking on a cat-like quality.
"Like you can do anything about this," Glen said, waving at Sam's grave with his hand. "Professor Xavier told me that you and Magneto did this! Why should I even be listening to you?"
"Because we can offer you a way to set things right," Mystique said.
"That's impossible!" shouted Glen. "And even if it were, I won't help a bunch of murdering scum like you," Mystique glared at him. "I'm afraid I'll have to insist," she said, and four figures stepped out from behind the cover of nearby trees. Glen could make out the faces of the Brotherhood in the moonlight. "What's wrong Glen? Can't sleep without your little boyfriend?" Lance Alvers said mockingly.
Glen's inner rage suddenly went through the roof. He let out a fierce scream and lashed out, punching Lance across the jaw and sending the mutant reeling. Lance got to his feet and licked at the drops of blood dripping from his split lip. "I'm gonna enjoy this even more than I enjoyed grabbing your boyfriend!" He clenched his fist and the ground began to shake.
Glen jumped sideways as the ground split open underneath him, creating a deep chasm. He had a split second to recover as Fred charged at him. Glen dodged the blow of the massive teenager, but was struck from behind as Toad jumped onto his back and wrapped his hands around Glen's head. Glen staggered around blindly, trying to shake Toad off of him, but the mutant held on too tightly. By now, Glen was beginning to gag, both from Toad's choke-hold as well as his noxious body odor. Seeing a tree in front of him, Glen quickly spun around and jumped backwards, smashing Toad against the tree. Mercifully, the strangle-hold loosened and Glen collapsed to a knee, gasping for breath. As he rose, he was suddenly tripped up as a silver flash zoomed by him. He got up but was knocked down again. Glen looked up to see Pietro laughing at him. Glen shot a stasis bolt at him, but Pietro simply dodged it and ran rings around Glen for extra effect. Glen shot bolt after bolt but couldn't hit the boy. Pietro skidded to a stop as Glen began to tire. "Forget it! I'm just too fast for ya!" he said and took off running again.
Glen sighed, the duration of the battle beginning to take its toll on him. Logan was right; despite his improved skills, he still just wasn't in peak physical shape yet. "Gotta find a way to slow him down" Glen thought to himself. He concentrated very hard, and a temporal double began to appear beside him. He pointed towards where Pietro's flight plan was taking him, and the double began moving forward. At the same time, he phased out of time, planning to reappear directly behind Pietro.
In the hyper-blur that was Pietro's fast-paced world, the boy suddenly saw a figure appear in front of him. He skidded to a stop directly in front of a figure he recognized as Glen, which took a combat stance. "So, you want some more, eh?" Pietro asked the image. He suddenly felt somebody tap him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Glen, again. "What the?" he exclaimed, very confused. He looked back and forth between the two Glens several times. As he looked forward again, the real Glen struck him hard across the face. Pietro's last conscious thought for a while would be, "There's TWO of him?!"
"Two down," Glen thought, but before he could revel further in his success, a pair of massive hands seized him from behind as Fred lifted him off the ground. Fred carried him over his head to the hole in the ground that Lance had made, and tossed Glen in. Glen hit the ground with a thud. He slowly got up and tried to climb out, but the hole was too deep.
"Haw haw!" Fred laughed as he watched Glen struggle to jump out of the pit. "Time-travel boy never even saw it coming!"
"Nice one!" said Lance, walking up alongside Fred. "Now let's bury him!" he cackled.
"Wait!" called Mystique, stepping back out of the shadows. "We need him alive, remember?' With that, she pulled out a small sphere and tossed it down into the pit. It landed next to Glen, and a moment later pink smoke began pouring out of it. Glen coughed as he fought to remain conscious but finally succumbed and passed out.
Glen awoke to find himself strapped to a table. Looking around, he could see he was in some kind of large lab. The ceiling was awash with electric- purple energy, the same color as his stasis bolts. Before he could take further stock of his environment, the table began to rotate upwards until he was perpendicular to the floor. Before him, he saw a figure sitting in a chair behind a desk. The figure in the chair turned around to face Glen, the light reflecting of his helmeted head.
"Hello, Glen," he said. "I am Magneto,"
X