Mortimer yawned. Then just for something new, he yawned again. Mystique's
first day was up and he wondered how far she had gone. Had she found Shadowcat?
Had she taken her place? He also wondered if she had been discovered. Would she
get away if caught? How would they treat her?
Mortimer's thoughts now dwelled on his own behalf. He thought about what Magneto had told him earlier, and immediately, his thought began to flow rapidly through his troubled mind. Shaking them away, he paced back and forth anxiously. He couldn't kill an innocent girl! But his worrying soon ceased as he felt Toad trying to take over his body.
'Technically, you can.' Whispered a low and teasing voice in his mind.
"Toad, go away." Mort seemingly threatened to no one.
'You think you can get rid of me that easy? Think again, Love. It won't be long, you know.' The malicious voice whispered to him, 'You can't keep me back for much longer.'
Mort clenched his fists and fought back his rage.
'Yes, that's right. Feed me more of the glorious rage and hate that you possess. You can't win, Mortimer. Let me out.'
Sweat dropped off of Mort's face. He assumed the madness had stopped when:
'FREE ME!'
Mortimer, taken by surprise, fell backwards at the force of the words and clutched his throbbing head in agony. There was nothing that he could do. The murderous part of him begged to be let out, and he couldn't ignore it for much longer.
Sabretooth woke up who knows how much later. His head was hurting and the glare from the metal table hurt his eyes even more now when he looked up from the crook of his arm. He growled in annoyance, shielding his light-sensitive eyes. "God damn table." He murmured. Lazily, he picked himself out of the chair and stumbled over to a door. Which one it was... he wasn't quite sure. All he knew was that his head hurt like a bitch.
Sooner or later, the drunken felinoid found his room. He bumped into the walls on his way and fumbled with the knob. He would spend the rest of the day sleeping indoors. He had a strange inkling that a monstrous hangover was ready to greet him at any moment. And boy was he right!
Think of a normal hangover. Now think of the vomiting, the god-forsaken weariness, and those terrible eye-splitting headaches. A human hangover, Sabretooth would be able to handle with definite ease. Now this was his own version. If a normal human would have consumed as much alcohol as he did, their whole family would be dead. Hell... and their neighbors, too! This particular mutant found himself visiting the bathroom every few minutes. Finally, he just collapsed by the toilet and hasn't moved since.
Meanwhile, Mystique found herself inside of the manor, not quite sure where to go. She looked around the mansion blankly, debating on which direction to go. "Kitty?" A voice to her left almost made her jump as she spun to see whom it was. Ororo Munroe- Storm. The white-haired witch looked at her with concerned eyes. Her accented words lightly rolled off of her tongue as she spoke. "What are you doing? You look lost." Mystique dug in her mind for an excuse, but nothing sounded completely logical. Quickly, she spat something out, "I was supposed to meet Rogue somewhere, but I'm not sure where she went." The shape-shifter internally held her breath and Storm looked her over. A sudden smile came across the woman's face, "I saw them a minute ago, Rogue and Jubilee; they're in the game room, Dear."
Mystique silently cursed the woman. That didn't help! She noticed that Storm's eyebrows furrowed at her, "Kitty, are you all right? Would you like to go to the MedLab?" Mystique shook Kitty's head, "I'm sorry, Storm. It's just... I'm feeling a little lost. Mind walking with me to the game room?" Nice. Mystique thought cruelly. Very nice. Storm complied and led who she thought was Kitty Pryde to the room. Even Better.
As soon as she had entered the room, her acute sense of sight found the other two girls, sitting on a white sofa, giggling. 'Here we go.' Mystique rolled her eyes as she walked toward the girls. Before she got too far, however, she turned about and thanked Storm. She had to stay in character if she wanted this to work!
"Kitty!" Both girls ran to hug Mystique as she neared where they were sitting. Rogue was the first to speak, "Where've you been, sugah? We've been worried about you!" The disguised mutant shrugged her shoulders and smiled cheerily, "I just had something to take care of." All of them laughed. But little did they know that two of their friends had already been killed. "Well, it's nice that you have time to do other things, but in case you didn't remember, we have exams tomorrow!" Rogue chimed in, "Yeah! Are you ready to study?" Horror claimed Mystique. She wasn't planning on going to school. She hadn't been told that there were... exams.
Rogue, noticing the new look on her friend's face, laughed and draped her gloved arm over "Kitty's" shoulder. "You're tellin' me, hunny. These exams won't be easy! But we've still gotta study!" Mystique found herself being led to the nearest table where massive books had been stacked neatly. She had never really gone to school as a child. How was she supposed to survive it as someone else?
Hours later, Mystique's hidden yellow eyes were starting to droop. All three girls yawned and agreed that it was time to go to bed.
As Rogue and Jubilee walked toward their dorm, Mystique made careful note of their exact route. No doubt she'd need to remember this.
Mortimer sat with his feet dangling over the side of the huge cliff. He really needed this, this time alone. He needed to think, and above all, he needed to find answers. Too bad there was no one to give them to him.
He sighed dejectedly and embraced his moment where Toad, Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth were mere memories- things of the past. But he could not hide forever, and soon, he would have to make his choice.
