Colossus dragged Toad all the way down to the castle's dungeon, ignoring the mutant's protests. He pulled open the thick iron door and tossed Toad into the dank, dark room. Toad made a break for the door but Colossus slammed it in his face and walked off without saying a word. Toad slumped back against the wall glumly.

"Man, why'd I have to get so heroic? I should have just stayed home," he grumbled.

He saw a large beetle dart out from a crack in the wall and scuttle around the floor. "Well, at least I won't have to worry about starving in this place," he said, and shot out his tongue at the bug. He caught it and dragged it into his mouth, but as he bit down into it, it let out a putrid stream of liquid. Toad began to gag and spit the remains of the bug out.

"Gah! Man, what kinda bugs they got in this place anyway? This country stinks!" he complained, and settled back to wait. He had a feeling he was going to be in this room for a long time.

After a while, Toad began to think about Kurt. The last thing he had seen as he was getting dragged off was Kurt getting blasted by Pyro's flames.

"I hope he made it out ok," Toad said. "I'd hate to think of what Magneto's gonna do to his furry hide,"

Just then, he heard a voice at the door. "Toad? Are you in there?" The voice had a thick accent.

Toad jumped up and hopped over to the door. "Kurt, that you? You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," said the voice. "I'm alright. I brought the others back with me. Hang on, we're going to get you out of here,"

"'Bout time, yo," said Toad. "I've had enough of just sittin' around in the dark,"

The door opened to reveal a very bright light. Toad couldn't see much past the door, but he walked out anyway.

"Kurt?" he asked, still not able to see much. "Where are ya?"

"Surprise!" said another voice, definitely not Kurt's. Toad recognized it immediately.

"Pietro. Just what I need right now," he said dejectedly.

"I've been working on my impressions," laughed Pietro. "Whaddya think?"

"Yeah, real funny. Great joke," said Toad. "I guess I'll just go back in my cell now,"

"Ah, hang on just a minute there, Toad," said Pietro. "My father wants you to join him for a bit. He thinks you can help him in some of his research,"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Well, no. Not really,"

"Great," said Toad as Colossus stepped into view. "Oh no, not you again. Hey, really, I can walk this time, you don't have to waah!" he shouted as Colossus picked him up and flung him over his shoulder.

"Pietro, when I get out of here I am going to send a very strong note to the concierge about the way this place treats its guests!" Toad said sarcastically as Colossus carried him upstairs.

X

Kurt had made it back to the car, and he was laying on the back seat, trying to rest. He had tried to contact Xavier but had had no luck. He sighed and felt another twinge of pain in his chest from his cracked ribs. His breaths were very shallow and he was struggling to stay awake. He figured that he probably had a concussion to go along with all of his other injuries. He forced himself to remain conscious, remembering the slim amount of medical training he had received from Logan. He knew that if he fell asleep, he could lapse into a coma.

"I hope they get here soon," he wheezed, and grimaced again at the pain.

X

In the X-Jet, Jean and Scott were trying to trace Kurt's last signal. The interference had made it impossible to pinpoint, and they had been combing over several square miles trying to find him.

"Jean, can you pick up any readings from his mind?" asked Xavier.

Jean concentrated, trying to pick up on Kurt's thoughts. She strained her mind as she searched for him. Finally, she said, "I can't pick anything up, Professor. This interference could be blocking his mental signals, or he could be injured," Or worse, she thought.

Logan growled at the thought of Kurt dying alone in the woods by himself somewhere while they were flying around blindly. "The elf's gotta be out there somewhere," he said.

"Didn't he say he had followed Gambit to a castle?" asked Scott from the pilot's chair.

"Yes, he did," said Xavier. He accessed the geographical atlas on the X- Jet's computer and began searching. After a moment, he got his answer. "Here. Schloss Leischtagg," said Xavier. "It's just a few miles from our location,"

"New course already laid in," said Scott.

"How do you suppose Toad's doin' down there?" Fred asked Lance.

"Ah, knowing him, he's probably running back to the airport by now," Lance replied.

The X-Jet flew on, searching for Kurt.

X

In the car, Kurt heard a loud rush of air overhead. It sounded very much like a jet engine. Looking up, he saw the faint outline of the X-Jet approaching on the horizon. He saw that the plane was going very fast.

"Finally!" he said, ignoring the pain of speaking. Then he had another look and realized they were flying very high. "Oh no!" he said. "They're not even going to see me!"

Suddenly, he remembered the emergency kit in the trunk. He pulled himself up and rolled out of the car. He limped around to the back of the car, opened the trunk, and began to search for the emergency kit. After a moment, he found it, opened the case, and pulled out a flare.

"I hope they see this," he said, and lit it. Leaning against the car for support, he threw it a few feet away from the car and then pulled out another one. He did the same with this one, and repeated the process until there was a small ring of flares lying on the ground. He lit the last one and held it in his hand, waving it over his head.

"C'mon, c'mon!" he pleaded.

X

Kurt's pleas did not go unanswered. Up in the X-Jet, everybody saw the small dots of light that suddenly appeared on the ground.

"That's gotta be him!" said Scott. "I'm setting us down,"

A few moments later the X-Men were on the ground. Scott and Jean ran to meet Kurt at the car and Xavier wheeled closely behind.

Kurt saw his friends approaching and waved his burnt hand feebly. "Hey, nice of you guys to show up!" he called. "What took you so long?" Then he collapsed to the ground, the pain overcoming him.

"Kurt!" Jean yelled and ran up beside him. "Oh my god, what happened to you?" she asked as she examined his injuries.

"I made like Humpty Dumpty and had a bad fall," said Kurt, gasping for breath.

"We're going get you on the jet," said Scott. "We can treat you there,"

"Kurt, where is Toad?" asked Xavier.

Kurt gestured towards the castle with a three-fingered hand. "He's trapped in there," he said. "Magneto's got him,"

"Oh no!" said Scott. "We've got to go in and rescue him,"

"Wait, Scott," said Xavier. "We must not rush into things so suddenly. Kurt must get treatment and tell us what he knows about the inside of the castle before we can make a rescue attempt. Todd will have to wait for the moment,"

"Alright, Professor. I just hope he's still in one piece," said Scott. He carefully picked Kurt up and carried him back to the plane.

X

Fred and Lance looked up in shock as Scott brought Kurt on board the jet.

"Whoa! What happened to him?" asked Lance.

"He had a run-in with Magneto," said Scott. "Still want a piece of him?"

Lance gritted his teeth. This situation was a lot worse than he had thought.

Scott lay Kurt down on a bench in the back of the jet. "Just hang on," he said. "We'll get you patched up in no time,"

He pulled out a scanner from the jet's small medical bay and began to run it over Kurt's body. It told him how badly hurt Kurt was.

"You're beat up pretty bad," said Scott. "You've got a concussion and a couple of broken ribs. Looks like there may be some internal bleeding too. I'd say you're one lucky little mutant to survive that fall,"

"Believe me, I don't feel so lucky," said Kurt.

Scott pulled out a pair of instruments. "Time to see if these things work as well as they're supposed to," he said and turned them on.

Kurt was half-expecting Scott to cut him open right there and then, but surprisingly, nothing seemed to happen. The instruments emitted soft, gentle beams of light that played over Kurt's chest.

"What's happening?" he asked.

"These are sonic surgical tools," Scott said. "They can heal broken bones without the need for major surgery. Try and lie still,"

Kurt lay still while Scott finished running the instruments over his chest, and then moved onto his ankle. A few moments later, he switched them off. "There, done," he said. "How do you feel?"

Kurt slowly sat up. "Still pretty sore, but I feel like I can breathe normally again,"

"Good," said Scott. "You'll probably feel a little stiff for a few days, but the bones have healed. Now, let's get those burns taken care of,"

Scott pulled out a pair of surgical adhesive strips. He peeled off the backings and used the strips to cover the burns on Kurt's arms. "This should help keep the burns covered while they heal up. The bandages secrete a natural healing agent that'll speed up the skin regrowth. You should be feeling normal again in about a week,"

"Thanks, doc," said Kurt.

"Just don't call me nurse," Scott teased.

Kurt laughed and then stood up as Xavier wheeled up.

"Kurt, what can you tell us about what you saw?" he asked.

"We didn't see very much," said Kurt. "We ran into Wanda and Pietro before we got too far inside. We didn't see any sign of this new mutant either. And Magneto captured Toad while we were trying to escape. I tried to save him, but I couldn't,"

"I understand," said Xavier. "We'll have to rescue him as well,"

"There's one other thing," said Kurt. "Magneto has some kind of security system that blocks some mutant powers. I couldn't teleport when I was in there, but Pyro and Colossus seemed to be able to use their powers just fine,"

"That is very troubling to hear," said Xavier, furrowing his brow. "Not knowing who would be able to use their powers would complicate our rescue situation,"

"I have an idea, Professor," said Kurt. "Let me go back in,"

"Kurt, are you nuts?" Lance asked him incredulously. "You almost got killed in there and you want to go BACK?"

"Hear me out," said Kurt, and he told them about his plan.

X

When he was done, Xavier was convinced that it could work. "Alright, Kurt. I'll make the necessary adjustments," he said.

"Kurt, when you're in there, you'll need to shut down Magneto's security grid. When you do that, you should be able to use your powers again," said Jean.

"When you get that done, teleport back to the roof," said Scott. "That'll let us know it's clear, and we'll send in the cavalry,"

"Hey, don't forget about us," said Lance. "We didn't come all the way around the world for nothing, ya know,"

"Don't worry, Lance," said Xavier. "You'll have your chance to settle your grudge with Magneto before this affair is over," Then he turned to Kurt. "There, it's finished," he said.

"Thank you Professor," said Kurt.

"Here, kid," said Logan. "Take this, too,"

He handed Kurt a small package.

"What is it?" asked Kurt.

"Something I cooked up for a special occasion. I'm sure you'll find a good use for it,"

"Right," said Kurt. The mutants wished him good luck and he made his way out of the plane.

A little while later, Kurt was once again making his way up the walls of the castle, this time by himself. He reached the top undetected and pulled himself up and over the ledge. Looking around, he saw nobody patrolling the roof.

"I hope this works," he said. Bending over, he made a quick adjustment on a piece of machinery he was carrying, and then stood straight up and walked casually into the castle.

X