Okay – here we go with Chapter 20!!!!!!!!!!! Only one more chapter to go, and then it will all be over : ) So, how do you think it's gonna turn out? o.O Definitely expect a lot of the excitement, action, and angst increase in this chappie! Read on, and totally don't forget to review!

Chapter 20

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Pyro was sick of waiting for Crimson. He had been standing by the beach for what felt like five hours, and all he got in return was the same view of the pathetic half-frozen ocean. He rolled his eyes to himself since no one else was around, and he looked at his wrist watch.

It was 9.20 PM. Crimson was most definitely late.

It was well on winter at this time, and even if Pyro HAD dressed for the weather, it was terribly difficult to stand in the snow, waiting for someone he hardly liked. Pyro kept himself occupied by thinking of how much fun it would be if he told Magneto how late Crimson was all the time. It would probably be great if it went the way Pyro was thinking, but he frowned to himself when he realized that Magneto would most likely not care. Crimson was someone very important to Magneto - he was immensely favored in the Brotherhood - and it probably would not make a difference no matter how often he was late.

Especially since they weren't even on a mission.

It was Friday night, and like any teenagers, Pyro and Crimson were itching for a chance to have a night on the town. Of course, this was a lot better than staying at Xavier's - at least Magneto wasn't at all worried if either of the teens decided to use their powers. In fact, he seemed to encourage it.

Which worked fine for Pyro. There was always some one who was stupid enough to mess with him, and he was always delighted beyond measure when someone was. It just gave him another opportunity to demonstrate that mutants were better than humans any day.

But at the moment, he was still standing on the shore, waiting. Waiting for Crimson. Crimson that could beat anyone in a fight. Pyro subconsciously rubbed his ribs when he thought of that - he had not forgotten their last training battle.

Just then, a group of giddy teenage girls ran past him and stood by the ocean, laughing in a tone that seemed far too loud to be normal. He stood watching them for a moment - his eyes narrowing into slants. God, they're annoying, Pyro thought to himself. Just about as annoying as Crimson. He rolled his eyes again. He would never wait this long for him again.

He turned to leave, and ran right smack into someone that had been standing almost directly next to him. Except that no one was there.

" Leaving already?," that was Crimson's voice.

" How long have you been standing there?," Pyro demanded as Crimson allowed himself to be seen. A flash of red spread over Crimson's face and then it was gone.

" That's not important," Crimson explained as he turned on his heel and began to walk away, " Come on, we don't want to waste any more of the night, do we?"

Pyro scowled, but reluctantly followed.

He didn't know why he allowed himself to hang out with Crimson, after all, he was torn between feelings of jealousy and responsibility. Crimson was a part of the Brotherhood, but Pyro couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with hatred when he lost battle after battle against his teammate. Crimson didn't exactly let himself lose. So why did Pyro keep hanging out with him?

Perhaps pure necessity drove him to find companionship with anyone even close to his age. Everyone else in the Brotherhood were older - much, much older - and didn't have time to address the needs that a teenager would be facing. They were busy formulating plans, gathering information - stuff that one would expect a radical mutant group bent on thoughts of human genocide would be doing. They didn't have time to go to the city and hang out with Pyro. Which left him with only one choice.

Crimson.

And even if they both needed each other for friendship, they both still understood the fact that they hated each other.

They had been walking around downtown for ten minutes before Crimson stopped, arms crossed over his chest and smiling at the scene before him.

" See, I told you - perfect," Crimson said once Pyro joined his side.

They were standing before a giant ice skating rink. Crimson smiled as possibilities filled his mind. He stood absolutely still, watching the people in front of them as they skated around and around and around. It never once crossed his mind that it would be entertainment to hurt such people - he just had fun messing with them. Making them see things that weren't there and laughing at them when they couldn't figure it out.

At heart, he was still a prankster.

" Okay, who do I start with first?," Crimson asked, his voice drenched with anticipation, eyeing each of the skaters in turn. As if he were too impatient to wait for Pyro's suggestion, a few people around the rink fell flat on their faces.

" Shoes untied," Crimson explained, smirking as the fallen skaters looked at their tightly tied skates in confusion.

Pyro scanned the same ice rink as well, and then pointed someone out, " There, what about that business man looking guy," Pyro laughed. Even though this was childish and not exactly as fun as catching innocent people on fire, it was still good amusement.

Crimson could never see what it was that he could make other people see, which was no problem now. Sometimes, it was just plan funnier watching someone react to things that did not exist. He spotted out the business-man-looking-guy that Pyro had mentioned - he was young, obviously going too far to try to impress the girls, and definitely business-man-looking-guy material. Crimson quickly went through a list of ideas in his head of perfect pranks reserved for just such an occasion before he settled upon one. Crimson smiled, and stretched out with his power.

Just about as suddenly as if someone had pulled his feet out from under him, the man that Crimson was set out to torment had fallen to the ground. He made severely awkward movements that hardly made sense until the young man explained…

" The ice broke!," he cried out, " I'm drowning!"

Nearly everyone around the ice skating rink burst out in laughing – Crimson and Pyro the loudest, of course. The girl that had most obviously been his date shunned away in embarrassment. If it hadn't been for the man's sincere effort into 'saving' himself from the 'hole' in the 'ice,' it could have been a very good joke.

But even jokes can be convincing, and in hardly any time at all, the man's lips had turned blue and he was shivering violently.

" He's having a seizure!," the man's date cried out, resurrecting herself from her embarrassment.

What was once laughter had now broken out into mass concern bordering on hysteria.

" Someone call an ambulance!," another skater called out.

" Whoa," Crimson said, instantly letting go of his powers, his skin flashing red for only a moment before returning to tan, " It's not that cold out."

To emphasize Crimson's point, Pyro took out his lighter, lit a flame and then slammed the Zippo back closed again.

The man blinked wildly for a few moments, and suddenly realized that he wasn't drowning in a hole in the ice (which would have been impossible anyways, and he noticed that he should have realized that).

" I'm okay," the man said to the crowd, " Could you please just… move?" He added, hoping that they would all stop crowding around him. He wasn't exactly expecting attention like this, but everyone around the whole skating rink was silent with concern, everyone except –

Crimson and Pyro were laughing. They were laughing so hard that it took effort for the people around the ice skating rink NOT to turn in their direction to give them a cold stare.

" That was classic!," Crimson proclaimed amidst his laughter.

" Hey!," the man's date shouted at them, " Show some respect!"

" Respect?," Pyro asked slyly, chocking out a laugh, and once again flicking open his lighter to light a flame. Crimson stopped laughing and glared at Pyro – but something inside of him stopped himself from using his powers against him.

Pyro slammed close the lighter again, flicked it open, and lit another flame.

Pyro's momentary seriousness dropped, and he began laughing once again, admiring the flame upon his lighter.

" Can you believe that?," he asked Crimson, " Do they expect us to respect some guy who just thought he was drowning?"

Crimson said nothing in response – this game was slowly turning down a different path.

Pyro shot Crimson a strange look, as if he was hoping to find a shred of encouragement from his fellow mutant, and Crimson purposely stared straight ahead, hoping to avoid giving Pyro any sort of look that would pass as being support. But Crimson did nothing to try to prevent Pyro. He didn't understand why.

Pyro turned back to the man who had thought he was drowning.

Both the man, his date, and all the other people around the skating rink were looking in their direction – Pyro smiled at them.

" Didn't you hear me the first time?," the woman who was the man's date shouted at them. A few moments beforehand, she had been thrust into dire concern over her date – and the next a couple of teenagers were laughing at him. She couldn't help her anger.

" Just leave it alone," the man said as he got back up to his feet, eager for a chance to disappear from the crowd.

" You could have died and these kids just - ," the woman started in defense, and then she stopped.

She fell right to the ground, her lips pursed into a giant 'O' and she blundered about on the ice just as her date did a few moments before.

" The ice! It broke!," the woman explained. There was no sound but the woman's frantic cries and Crimson's laughter.

Pyro looked over at Crimson with a smile. It took a moment for Pyro to reach the conclusion that maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

The woman blinked her eyes madly for a few moments, realized that the ice under her had not broken, and looked up at the two teenagers just as all the other people who were crowded about were doing the same.

The people gasped. They had all seen it – Crimson lived up to his namesake as he let go of his powers over the woman and his skin turned a brilliant red. The color faded much too slow.

" They…," the woman stuttered, not daring to get to her feet, " They're mutants!"

Pyro didn't seem like he wanted to leave any room for doubt – because just after she said that, a blast of fire erupted from his lit lighter and tore across the skating rink. The people only had a few moments to duck – most of them fell face first into the ice.

Pyro began to laugh madly – shooting out another blast of fire just for good measure. He laughed.

" Hey, cut it out!," Crimson shouted at him, elbowing him hard in the chest. Pyro paused from his manic laughing as Crimson pointed something out. Both mutants groaned – Pyro's senseless fire attack had attracted the attention of quite a number of cops.

" Well…," Pyro started, but he didn't say much else – both teens looked at their options, thought about it for a moment, and took off running.

" Great mess you landed us into now," Crimson shouted at Pyro as they ran from the scene – sounds of the pursuing officers close behind them.

" Why don't you be a pal and make them STOP following us," Pyro shouted back sarcastically. Pyro looked over his shoulder at the cops, and suddenly they all turned down a different street – running in a completely different direction. Crimson was looking over his shoulder as well, and he caught Pyro's eyes.

" All in a days work, right?," Crimson asked with a smile.

Pyro merely rolled his eyes, and then both him and Crimson stopped dead in their tracks. Neither teen was looking where he was going – they both had run right into someone. They both looked up and groaned again. It was another cop.

And Crimson's skin was now bright red.

" Hey!," the cop said in a rich New Yorker accent, caught off guard and at a complete lose of saying anything better.

" Yeah," Crimson replied, equally at a lose for words. There was a brief hesitation before he and Pyro decided to take off running again – they turned on their heels and ran right into the same group of cops that they had sent off in the other direction earlier.

They were surrounded.

But not for long.

Before Crimson could have done a logical thing and made their escape a bit more secretive – Pyro shot a blast of fire at the group of policeman that was now in front of them. The police scattered – some falling to the ground, others fleeing from the flame. Crimson reached out with his power and stopped Pyro from using his – but that didn't do anything to the fire that Pyro had already caused, it just prevented him from controlling it. There were actual people on fire – the sight of it made Crimson sick.

These officers had never had to deal with mutants before – their fear of these two teenagers was the best indicator – and they had no idea what to do.

Except for fighting back.

Once the firestorm from Pyro had reached it's end, the officers did the next logical step – stop the mutants. One of the cops pulled out a strange looking gun and shot it at Pyro. It was a taser gun – it's two harpoon like projectiles flung forward and punctured themselves right into Pyro's chest.

He looked down at his chest, and then he fell to his knees.

The scream was nerve-racking – it was all that Pyro could do to placate the pain that had overwhelmed his body. He was helpless to do anything at all about it – he collapsed to the ground, unaware of anything besides his agony.

Crimson had to act swiftly. In a blink of an eye – both teens had vanished. The cop holding the taser gun looked up, turned off the electric current and shouted to his fellow cops, " Where did they go?"

Crimson tore the two projectiles from Pyro's chest and tried to lift him to a stand, but Pyro was beyond himself in recovering from his pain. His whole body lacked the strength to bare it's own weight – Crimson threw one of Pyro's arms over his shoulder and began to walk away. The cops were left behind, still ignorant as to where their suspects had gone.

But Crimson could not hold onto his powers for long.

It was too hard to concentrate, he was angry and terrified and gripped with an inescapable feeling of being pursued. They only got about a block away before he had to let go of his powers.

The group of police officers, who had already begun to search for the two deadly teen mutants, spotted them quickly.

" Stop or I'll shoot!," Crimson heard a cop bellow at him. He didn't stop, he just concentrated on using his power against that one cop. But that didn't stop the rest of them.

" Come on," Crimson urged Pyro, who had not progressed much further in attempting to walk on his own. Pyro simply continued to stumble, a shaking hand over his chest. He was breathing hard, close to hyperventilating.

Crimson stopped. He could not walk any further, he looked up and realized that they were once again completely surrounded by cops. He groaned – they all had their real guns drawn and were pointing them at him.

" Surrender peacefully now!," an officer shouted at him. Crimson considered it for a moment, but then thought about how disappointed Magneto would be if he gave up without a fight. Crimson's hesitation cost him.

A cop who was standing behind the two mutants reached forward and grabbed Crimson's arm. In hardly a second, the cop had both of his arms pinned behind him. Crimson was forced to drop Pyro – he fell to the ground without hesitation.

Crimson struggled to free himself. He was desperate – his teeth bared in his frustration, kicking out his legs in an attempt to hurt these cops as much as they intended to hurt him.

Then, all the cops fell to the ground.

Rob was concentrating as hard as he could – his adrenaline fueling his powers as he forced all the cops to believe that they could no longer breath. Somehow, he felt like he had done this before.

He knew that it wouldn't last forever. He grabbed Pyro, forced him to his feet, and took off at the best run that he could muster. It seemed impossible that they would ever get out of this one.

**********

" Traffic again," Adrian said, rolling his eyes.

" It's New York City, what do you expect?," Todd replied.

They were (obviously) stuck in traffic, snow blowing down on their windshield, their spirits not exactly the greatest. They had convinced Professor Xavier to let them go out for an afternoon to the city, and now they were definitely late.

" Who knew there would be so much traffic, at," Adrian said, checking his watch and frowning, " 5.30… Oh… Well, that explains a lot."

" We're going to be in so much trouble," Todd predicted, but Adrian knew that they wouldn't be. It was his suggestion that him and Todd go out to the city. Lately, Todd had been overwhelmed by his anger at his brother, and Adrian was hoping that breaking up the routine in Todd's life would help to quench some of that emotion.

For the most part, it had worked. But now they were sitting in traffic, the preoccupation with a day's activities began to wear off, and Todd was once again dwelling on other thoughts.

" Hey, are you okay or am I going to have to call an ambulance?," Adrian asked Todd. It had felt weird that he had become friends with his former best friend's brother – they didn't have the same bond that Adrian and Rob had once shared and Adrian missed that. He missed playing pranks on the other students, he missed scheming on ways to get out of class, he missed the fun that they had. Sure, him and Rob had only been friends for a few months, but it was as if they knew each other for their whole lives.

He never actually said it, but he knew exactly what Todd was going through – that feeling of being abandoned, of being rejected for something so much worse. Adrian understood Todd, because he missed Rob, too.

" Yeah," Todd said, answering Adrian's question, but there wasn't a hint of emotion on his voice. Adrian's concern only reminded him that his brooding was becoming noticeable. Trying to ignore Adrian, Todd took out his phone and looked at the monitor.

He closed the phone and thrust it back into his pocket – Adrian didn't even have to guess what memory had been projected there. There was a strange silence in the Jeep.

That is, until people started to run in the streets, obviously in fear.

Adrian peered forward, through the windshield, up at the skyscrapers and replied, " Come on, guys, how many are you going to knock down?"

Obviously not getting an answer from the intact skyscrapers, he rolled down his window and shouted at the first person who lingered long enough by his Jeep.

" Hey, what's going on?," Adrian shouted.

" Mutants, man!," the passerby screeched, " They're catching people on fire and blowing things up and everything."

The person took off running again, and Adrian put the Jeep in park.

" Well," Adrian trailed off, " The good news is that could only mean one thing."

Todd fumed, " Pyro."

Adrian sighed, " Bad news is it probably means Rob, too."

Todd's eyes narrowed into slits at the mention of his brother. They both got out of the Jeep and fought against the current of frightened New Yorkers. Adrian crossed behind a car to rejoin Todd on the other side of the street.

" Look on the bright side, it would be a good time to start up purse snatching again, huh?," Adrian asked, trying to make a joke of the pandemonium, though it was clear that Todd was not in the mood for jokes.

They continued to fight their way through traffic.

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Crimson was close to a run, Pyro had regained enough of his previous strength to do his best to keep up. Crimson still had a firm grip on Pyro's jacket, as if too accustomed to picking him back up again to let go.

" Come on!," Crimson urged – for they were being pursued.

Pyro was coughing without pause, a hand still over his chest to try to comfort his frantic heart. He felt weary with a nauseous dizziness, his lungs were on fire as his coughing could testify, his legs were ridiculously feeble underneath him, and the only thing that kept him running was Crimson by his side.

Pyro was finally glad that he was in company with Crimson – at least Crimson did not abandon him.

But Crimson was running out of options. He was experiencing a fierce headache – over using his powers were finally taking it's toll on him. He was only hoping to get away, to escape these people that were chasing them – but there were too many of them.

He reached yet another street corner and looked at the steady stream of speeding traffic before him. A look back the way he had come confirmed the fact that they were too closely being followed by the police. Their numbers had steadily increased over the few minutes of the pursuit, enough so that escape was looking meek – no matter which way Crimson turned, he saw cops. Lots of cops.

Crimson bit his lip and tugged at Pyro's jacket – they were going to make a chance at the traffic.

" Are you crazy?!," Pyro managed to spit out, but Crimson was not in the mood to explain. They had to escape – Crimson could not fail now.

Most of the cars wailed to a halt when the two teenagers jumped out into the road, some just continued to roar on by. Both Crimson and Pyro were drenched in ice-cold slush when a semi truck refused to stop for them – spraying them with a tidal wave of snow. The shock of the extreme cold nearly brought Crimson to the ground, but he fought the urge. For Pyro, it was nearly too much. He stared out with wide eyes, and his legs failed him once again. He would have fallen if Crimson was not still holding onto his jacket.

Crimson turned around and noticed that the cops were making their way into the traffic as well, guns drawn, commanding the first few lanes of vehicles to come to a stop.

" Come on!," Crimson demanded, halfway dragging Pyro across yet another lane of traffic. Pyro struggled to his feet, and then he stopped. Crimson stepped into the last lane of traffic, and lost his grip on Pyro's jacket.

He would have turned back around to urge Pyro on further, but something stopped him. Crimson got hit by a car.

The SUV had been going about 40 miles an hour – the driver being too preoccupied with other things to notice the teenager in the lane ahead. Crimson had turned to grab Pyro again, his back was to the SUV – he never saw what hit him.

The first point of impact was the bumper of the vehicle colliding his Crimson's leg – it was fractured immediately. The force that the blow, as well as the SUV's continued forward momentum threw Crimson up onto the car's windshield – he hit the glass with his shoulder first, and then smashed his head into it. He tumbled over the hood and fell to the ground as the car slammed into park.

Crimson hit the ground and rolled six times before coming to a stop. He landed on his side – the initial shock kept him from falling into unconsciousness. Crimson forced himself to sit up, not even coming close to guessing what had just happened.

" Rob!," that was a familiar voice.

Crimson blinked, and held a hand up to his forehead. When he drew it away to examine his hand, it was coated in blood. He blinked again, and realized how heavy his eyelids felt. A blanket was being drawn over his eyes, drawing away the light, and Crimson mustered his strength to fight against it. But he slowly became aware of a pain – the shock was wearing off, and the piercing agony of his tortured body was flooding his awareness.

His eye lids fluttered for a moment, but their weight was becoming unbearable. He realized someone was shaking him.

" Rob!," the voice called out again, but it reverberated through out Crimson's skull – the sound was too far away to help him now. He reached out his blood soaked hand – he was too far gone to call out for help. He needed someone to grab him, to pull him out of this. The world was spinning around him, the light fading from him despite his efforts to keep strong. He was falling. If only someone would grab his hand and pull him out of it.

" Rob, NO!," the voice shouted out one last desperate time, but it was too late.

Crimson lost the strength and at once faded into darkness.

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