Mommy Mystique (cont.)

A few hours later, Pietro revived, and apologized profusely to both Mystique and Rogue. Just to be safe. He wanted to get back on Rogue's good side, so they could maybe go out. Insulting her mother was definitely the wrong way to go.

What to do, what to do?

"I'll tell you what to do!" a little voice said.
He looked down. His Mr. Rabbit puppet was lying there, looking up at him.
What the--?

"No way!"

"Way!" said the puppet. "Put me on and I can take you places you've only dreamed of!"

Pietro wasn't sure how to react. This had to be a dream. Puppets just didn't talk by themselves.

No, they certainly didn't--unless someone had hidden a tiny transmitter inside.

"Were you talking to me?" he asked Mr. Rabbit.

Upstairs, Toad, Lance and Fred crouched around a microphone, snickering.
"Yes!" Toad said, in the puppet voice. (He was very good at voices.) "Do everything I say and you'll have whatever you want!"

"OK . . ."

"I'm taking a nap now. While I'm gone, I want you to . . ."
The others were barely able to contain their laughter as Toad read out a list of what he wanted Pietro to do.

Pietro didn't suspect a thing until he started getting funny looks from people . . . and heard giggles

. . .

He realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to listen to Mr. Rabbit any further.

"You weren't gonna throw me away, were you?" the puppet demanded.

"I just might," Pietro warned him, "unless you tell me what Lance, Fred, and Toad are trying to pull . . ."

"It's not them! They had nothing to do with my plans! No, don't open that door!"
Too late; he opened it.

"I might have known."

Toad looked up. "What?" he said, trying to hide the microphone behind his back.

"You tell me."

"Uh . . ."
"Uh nothing! I caught you red-handed!"

They started to flee, but there was no outrunning the speed demon.

"Not so fast!"

"It was--it was only a joke, see?"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't funny."

"We won't do it again if you won't bring out your puppets again."

"What's wrong with my puppets?" Pietro demanded indignantly.

"Want the itemized list?"

Pietro was taken aback. "You . . . you really don't like the puppets?"
"Well, we did," Toad said, "till they started getting in our faces and stuff."

"Yeah," Fred said, "he never shuts up."

"Love me," Pietro said, "love my puppets."
"Uh," Toad said, "I don't know how to break this to you, but we don't exactly love you either."

Now Pietro was really upset.

Fortunately, at that moment . . . Magneto showed up. "What's going on here?" he demanded.

"These jerks don't like my puppets." Pietro said indignantly.

"Puppets?"

"My Mr. Rabbit puppets."

Magneto frowned. He'd heard much about these "puppet shows"--much that was not good.

"Tell me more."

"More?"

"About the puppet shows, I mean."

Pietro was absolutely panic-stricken. "Well, uh . . ."

"Come on, I haven't got all day!"

Pietro cleared his throat. "OK, well, uh, sometimes I like to put these shows on with Mr. Rabbit . . ."

"Tell him about the big carrot!" Toad gloated.

"The WHAT?"

"Shut up, you little--"
"No, tell me. Big carrot?"

Pietro gulped again.

Fortunately at that moment, he was saved, by Mystique, of all people.

Now that she was in her final trimester, she refused to get out of bed. It was too much trouble.

She yelled for someone to bring her the phone.

"I'll deal with you later." Magneto told Pietro.

"Whew," Pietro said to himself.

He made a hasty exit, but forgot to take his puppet.

Magneto picked it up. "Doesn't look much like a rabbit to me," he said.

Then he noticed the "big carrot".
"Ugh." He dropped the puppet and kicked it into a corner, where it remained for two days until Toad accidentally (or maybe not) sucked it up with the vacuum.

When Pietro looked at the puppet again, it was covered in fluff and nearly falling apart.
A sensible person would have taken this as a sign and given up puppet shows forever.
Pietro, however, had never shown any signs of sensibility. He preserved the fallen puppet in a glass case, bowing before it several times a day.
He still put on the shows, though not X-rated ones anymore.