Disclaimer: The X-Men & other characters belong to Marvel Comics & are used without permission.

Note: I'm not gonna apologize this time. Writer's block ain't my fault:) Happens to everybody....right?

'Sides, I was working on Shades of Redd...*laughs nervously* (Pyro = St. John & Colossus = Piotr)

What Happens Now?

by:

kojie

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Chapter Seventeen

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Scott felt her luscious lips, sweet and trembling as they briefly brushed against his. The soft touch of her skin beneath his palms was almost unbearable. Heart pounding, head spinning, he could vaguely remember everything else. Trying hard to breath, he shuddered, and tried to focus on the mission.

Hot sand scratched their feet, somehow penetrating the use of their durable boots and shoes. Beams of radiating sunlight scorched their tired faces, sweat forming inside their gloves.

"How much longer do vee have to walk?" Kurt whined. He could easily teleport from place to place to avoid the heat, but they might catch the enemy's attention, what with all the appearing and disappearing going on. Following him was Rogue who muttered "Grow up, willya?" and Beast who just sighed heavily. His thick fur was at a disadvantage in this kind of weather. A full brown backpack was slung over his shoulder. Remy tagged behind Rogue like a puppy, trying to make any kind of conversation with no such luck.

"Yo, guys," Toad said, as he hopped over to Cyclops," Y'know, I-I been thinkin'."

"Well, that's a surprise," Rogue observed, but Todd ignored her.

"Since the Brotherhood and the X-Men are workin' together now, why don't we call ourselves---ya'll ready for this?" He paused, as he heard a dramatic drumroll in his head. "The X-Brotherhood," he announced proudly, as if it was the coolest thing in the world.

Everybody stared at him for a second. Then they went on walking like nothing happened.

Kurt could no longer stand it, his patience for it all grew thin. As did Scott's patience for Kurt's whining. Kurt was almost as bad as Kitty.

And Jean, Scott added, remembering their little adventure of being left behind a few days earlier.

"Almost there, Kurt," Scott replied wearily as he led the way. They walked for what seemed like an eternity. With every step, Scott was once again tempted to go into his daydream. Silky red hair, sparkling green eyes, beautiful body...

He blinked hard, shaking his head.

Whoa. Don't even go there.

==

The base didn't look enormous. From what she could see, it was just as big as the Xavier's Institute. But she knew better; half of it was probably hidden under the sand and earth.

It seemed quiet all of a sudden, and Jean looked behind her, checking to see if everyone was still there. Kitty and Colossus were at the end of the line, whispering quietly to each other. Right from the start, there seemed to have been a comfortable connection between Mr. Hunk of Metal and little Kitty. Jean wasn't surprised to see that deep inside that hard exterior, Piotr had a heart of gold.

She couldn't help but smile at the quickly formed friendships between everyone, as Bobby and Pyro, also known as John, were playing with their powers. She would've told them to cut it out...but she didn't want to. Right now, they were a team. Maybe there was hope for all of them to be friends after all.

"Hey, babe," Pietro said, breaking Jean's thoughts, "when do we move?"

Jean turned to the pale-faced teenager. His eyes had a certain look of excitement in them, but his face was serious. Most of his usual sarcastic and boastful self seemed to have disappeared somehow.

Jean wondered what it was like to have Magneto as a father.

She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, and stared at the sunny horizon.

"When it rains."

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Lance was frowning. Why couldn't he be in the same team with Kitty? At least, Kurt was in a different team, too. He scratched his head. When's it all going to start? He wanted it to start soon, so they could all just get it over with....

"I'd rather freeze at Scotland rather than burn here in hell," Sean said as he ran his fingers through his unruly hair.

Magneto ignored him, as his eyes searched the desert for the other teams. They were supposed to surround the base with three teams, and so far, the other two hadn't arrived yet. Suddenly, a quick glint to his right made him turn around.

There it was again. It was small and twinkling. He narrowed his eyes, and finally realized what it was.

One of the teams had arrived. And for some inexcusable reason, the other team was late. But he wasn't going to wait for them. They'd catch up sooner or later.

"Alright everyone," Magneto said, not taking his eyes off the team in the distance. "Storm, the signal."

Ororo nodded, and took to the air, her eyes glowing white. Below, Wolverine cracked his knuckles, his claws itching to get out. It was show time.

==

Water. He needed water. His head was looking down, his mouth and throat were dry, and he was dead thirsty.

Scott stopped abruptly as he noticed a drop of water land on the ground before him, only few inches from the edge of his boot. It was quickly absorbed by the sand...or was it all his imagination?

He raised his head and saw dark clouds forming above the sky, a dark, small figure floating in the air.

Storm.

"Everyone! We're there! We're there!" Scott yelled. "There's the signal, and there's Storm!" he said as he pointed towards the same direction as to where the Weather Witch was flying.

"C'mon, people!" Beast ordered. "We need to get inside while Magneto's crew distracts the Sentinels. No time to get lazy---everybody, hustle!"

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"What the hell??!" a man of higher rank yelled over the shaking soldier. "Are you sure they're mutants?"

"Uh--yes, s-sir!"

"But how the hell did they find us??"

"I--I've got n-no idea, sir!"

"Aargh!" The man grunted angrily, shoving the new recruit to the wall as he headed towards the main control room. There was a huge screen, which showed mutants coming from the desert cliffs, about to attack, powers obviously in action.

"Send those friggin' Sentinels out there NOW!!" He pounded at the controls, but grinned maniacally.

"I wanna see what these robots can really do."

==

"They've started!" Pietro exclaimed, rain pouring everywhere within a hundred yards.

"Yeah, I know," Jean replied. "But we'll have to wait until their full attention is at Magneto and the others."

Pretty soon, the sand below began to open up, revealing a monster hole. Sentinels flew up from it...one, two, three, four...there was too many to count them all.

Bolts of lighting struck the first three as the next two were magnetically thrown against each other. They all fell to the ground, but they were still moving. They stood up, but found themselves staggering backwards as unimaginable tremors shook the ground. Bone spikes flew all around, but not aimlessly; most of them were hitting the robots effectively. Two sets of three claws seemed to be everywhere, slashing and dicing cold metal, causing mini explosions in every part of the robots' bodies.

All this happened while Jean's team crept quickly towards the open hole on the ground. They were inside within a minute, and already exploring the place, eager to end this mission and go home. They went through a series of huge hallways, expecting BIG company anytime now.

Jean started to get slightly worried. "Pietro, do you still remember where we're supposed to go?" she asked.

"Uhm...well...."

"Guess not," Kitty smirked. Bobby chuckled.

"Hey!" Pietro said.

"Hey, yourself. We got no time for this, mate," Pyro remarked.

"Try to remember," Colossus encouraged.

"Sorry," Pietro replied. "No can do, metal boy. I don't remember this place at all. I guess I missed it or somethi--- yowza!"

Two Sentinels had suddenly appeared in front, coming out of nowhere.

"Yowza is right!" Bobby said, his body now made entirely out of ice. One of the Sentinels fired a small red laser, but Jean blocked it in time with her invisible shield. The other robot fired another beam, which Colossus took full on the chest, throwing him against the wall. Kitty ran up to him, kneeling beside him. "A-are you okay, Piotr?"

He answered with a smile. "I'm fine, dear Kitty. It didn't hurt one bit."

But John didn't seem to hear his answer. "Hey, that was my pal!" he yelled, as sea-like waves of hot flames burst from the back of his arms, swallowing the Sentinels.

"My turn!" Ice beams shot out from Iceman's hands as he froze the Sentinels from the feet up. Quicksilver ran quickly around the robots, forming a small whirlwind. The robots toppled with a loud crash, just as Jean formed another bubble to protect her fellow teammates.

Everything was silent for a moment as everybody stared at the broken pieces of frozen hands, heads and who knows what part that lay on the ground. Kitty broke the silence with a small quivering voice.

"Well, that wasn't too hard, w-was it?"

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I was really tempted to put some Jean/Pietro in here.. Er, I tried to include everyone. Hope I didn't forget anyone...there are 18 characters in this adventure mission to my knowledge. Tell me if I did.

Btw, just so you know...when Magneto saw the twinkling thing, it was Bobby playin' wit ice. Hmm...

Does ice twinkle? Maybe I was thinking of diamonds...

Hope you liked this chapter! Um...sorry if Pyro seemed out of character. I know he's a crazy (pyro)maniac;)

Anyway, please review!!