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"Wow," Todd exclaimed in a tone that stopped Pietro and Evan's insult war long enough to see what had caught the younger boy's attention. "That is one hot chick!" Todd clarified, nodding towards a dark haired girl in an artfully torn red outfit.
"Wanda?" Pietro practically squeaked, his voice an octave higher than normal.
The girl turned on them with fire in her eyes. "Hello Pietro," she said, smiling vindictively and the mall went mad.
****** ****** ******
Scott and Jean fought their way upstream as a flood of people fled from the general direction of the mall's food court. After a few moments Lance, Kitty, Kurt and Amanda joined them in the effort.
"If this is Pietro, Evan or some combination of the two, I'm going to kill them," Scott declared.
A moment later the six cleared the last corner and stood frozen by the scene before them. A striking girl stood at the heart of the maelstrom, not calm but clearly in control of the chaos surrounding her: Handrails had pulled free of their mooring and waved about like threatening tentacles, trays and chairs spun in mid-aid along with a number of Spyke's bone darts. Spyke himself, along with Toad, Blob and Quicksilver huddled behind the meager shelter of several upturned tables.
As they watched a potted tree came to life at the girl's gesture and swatted Quicksilver's shield wall away. The silver-haired speed demon leapt to his feet. "Wanda!" he cried in protest.
The girl smirked and several cash registers rose in the air to hurtle themselves at Pietro.
Scott blasted one away, yelling. "Kurt, get Lance and Amanda out of here!"
"You can't just…" Lance began to protest as Kurt's hand clamped on his shoulder. A poof of brimstone later the three of them appeared two miles down the road. Kurt took a quick glance at Lance's infuriated expression and did two more hops in quick succession to leave his passengers in the Mansion's entryway.
When Kurt returned to the mall the others were in a pitched battle, trying to keep the girl distracted from her main target: Quicksilver.
//Everybody// Jean projected. //I just got a message from the Professor, he recognized Wanda from Lance's mind, she's a patient of his. He's coming. He says just keep her contained until he arrives.//
"Contained?" Spyke exclaimed diving under an attack from his own bone darts. "How about keeping her from killing us?"
"Link us!" Cyclops yelled at Jean. //Pietro, seems like she's not going anywhere as long as she's got you for target practice. Everyone else make sure he doesn't get nailed.//
//No-worries-Wanda-won't-really-hurt-me,// Pietro added even as Nightcrawler teleported him across the room moments before a ripped up floor tile brained him.
Quickly the X-Men established a pattern of distraction attacks to keep Wanda's attention split while Quicksilver made a target of himself and Nightcrawler and Shadowkat preformed rescues for anyone who bit off more than they could chew.
"How long is this going to take?" Quicksilver demanded narrowly dodging the grasping limbs of a potted tree.
"Getting tired?" Wanda replied. "I'm not."
Scott's com badge crackled to life. "Pull everyone back," Xavier's voice commanded.
"Professor, but you said…" Scott began.
"Pull back now!"
"Oh-shit!" Quicksilver exclaimed realizing he had been herded into a corner. He glanced around and saw no sign of Nightcrawler while Jean was helping a dazed looking Shadowkat to her feet. "Come-on-Wanda, you-wouldn't-really…" He said looking at the array of projectiles she had primed to launch at him.
With a flick of her wrist Wanda sent a hail of coins to pelt him.
"That hurts Wanda!" Pietro yelled, a stray coin caught him across the forehead, drawing blood. Wanda appeared transfixed by the blood streaming down his face, all around the room objects clattered to the floor becoming inanimate once again.
Scott took advantage of her distraction and blasted her, then time seemed to slow down for him as Pietro darted across the room to intercept the beam aimed at Wanda's back. Knowing he'd be too slow Scott reached up to cut his blast, as he did so Pietro collided head on with the crimson beam of concussive force at top speed.
The sound of ribs cracking echoed across the room freezing everyone in their tracks. Pietro landed at Wanda's feet in a crumpled heap. Wanda's face went pale; slowly she looked up from Pietro to where Scott stood looking horrified.
****** ****** ******
"He had no right to send me back like I'm some helpless kid!" Lance ranted.
"Avalanche, calm down," Storm ordered. "This behavior only makes Cyclops' case for him. In this temper you are more a danger to yourself than to any opponent."
"I don't fucking care!" Lance exclaimed.
"They're coming," Amanda said.
Lance hurried to the door and stared at the ragged looking bunch coming up the drive. "Where's Pietro?" he demanded glaring accusingly at Scott.
"We couldn't get to him," Jean said.
Lance's voice was icy as he stormed up to Scott, getting right in the other teen's face he said. "You take my team into a fight, you dump me back here and you have the nerve to come back and tell me you left Pietro behind?"
"I'm sorry," Scott said.
"Stop blaming Scott," Jean snapped. "He tried even after the Professor called us back. If I hadn't drug him out he wouldn't have left, but we couldn't get to him. After Pietro got hurt she went crazy!"
"Hurt how?" Lance demanded, not backing down.
"Look Lance, Pietro knew that witch," Evan said as Kitty pulled Lance away from Scott. "He got hurt stopping us from taking her down! We couldn't get to him because she was protecting him!"
"What?" Lanced asked frowning in confusion.
"That's what happened," Todd said, sounding like he didn't believe it himself. "Cyclops was about to take her out and Quickie took the hit for her."
Scott slumped a little. "I never use that much power against Quicksilver. My blasts are concussive; when you combine that with his momentum it's like two cars driving head long into one another. I had no clue he was going to do that."
"Think she was an old girlfriend?" Fred wondered. "That'd explain it."
"I'd date her," Todd said. "I like a girl with fire."
"Wanda is Pietro's twin," Xavier said joining the group. "She is a very powerful mutant and her feelings for her brother are conflicted. Rationally she knows he was only a child and not to blame for their father's actions and yet she associates him with their father. However, I believe seeing Pietro injured clarified her true feelings for him. That was why I ordered you to retreat. I have a mental trace on both Wanda and Pietro. He isn't seriously harmed and this confrontation has done much to calm Wanda's anger. Giving them time to talk could prove extremely beneficial."
****** ****** ******
Pietro sat in the passenger seat of the car, head leaned back, eyes closed, skin as pale as his hair trying not to breathe. Wanda sat beside him eyes fixed on the road, cursing under her breath, using her powers to compensate for her lack of experience behind the wheel.
She turned into a familiar drive, stopped the car then got out and yanked Pietro's door open. When she sought to help him out he gasped in pain and a touch of remorse softened her face for a moment.
"Please don't help," Pietro begged. Gingerly he got to his feet then noticed where they were. "You're living here?" he asked but Wanda was already throwing the front door of the Brotherhood Boarding house open.
"Agnes!" Wanda called demandingly. A moment later an elderly woman appeared at the head of the stairs. "He's injured," Wanda informed her.
Agnes escorted Pietro to the couch, examining him with sharp, piercing eyes then murmured a quick phrase. Pietro cried out in alarm feeling his ribs move under his skin.
"Better now?" Agnes asked.
Tentatively Pietro took a deep breath then smiled," Good as new. Is healing your mutant power?"
"I'm a witch," Agnes replied simply. "Wanda needs to speak with you."
"Oh," Pietro said sounding uncertain as he turned his attention to his twin who was prowling around the perimeter of the room.
Agnes slipped out leaving them alone together.
"I always knew you didn't really want to hurt me," Pietro said tentatively.
Wanda stalked across the room grabbing his jaw she forced him to meet her eyes. "Are you with him or with me?" she demanded staring into the depths of his soul.
"He dumped me… again," Pietro said. "Dad doesn't care about me at all."
"True," Wanda said sounding less than satisfied. "But do * you * care about him?"
"He abandoned me," Pietro reiterated.
Wanda released him slowly, not convinced but giving her brother the benefit of the doubt. "Mystique freed me. She promised me she could find Magneto and I would have my revenge."
"How's-she-going-to-do-that? What-are-you-going-to-do?" Pietro asked nervously.
"With something called cerebro and I'm going to kill him," Wanda said coolly.
"Kill-him!" Pietro squawked and Wanda's face darkened. "Isn't-that-a-little-extreme?"
"For what he did to me, no," Wanda stated.
"But-he's-our-dad!"
"Your father perhaps, just remember Pietro, there are only two sides to this, if you're not with me, you're my enemy, understand?"
Pietro swallowed. "I'm with you," he sighed.
****** ****** ******
"Magneto is up to something," Xavier declared. "Only we are going to beat him to the punch, but I need you battle ready!"
"Yo, the prof is loosing it," Todd whispered to Kurt, who nodded in agreement.
They both looked to Scott, his face was beet-red with frustration. "There's no way to win your damn scenarios!" he spat. "You keep changing the rules and throwing more crap at us till we can't cope! We're in the danger room almost every minute of the day and we're so tired people are making mistakes! Three of the New Mutants are really hurt because of this!"
"They were obviously not experienced enough, I'm removing them from the scenarios. Protecting them only distracts the rest of you," Xavier said his gaze picked Lance out, the dark haired boy stood at the back of the group, the only one not in battle gear, arms crossed over his chest, glowering. "And speaking of distractions. I've told Dr. MacTaggart to return to Scotland with you, this is not a hospital."
"What!" Lance exclaimed.
"You have nothing to offer, you'd be a liability to any team you worked with and your presence here creates a lack of focus in the others," Xavier stated coldly. "And you know it."
Lance's face went dead white, without a word he turned and walked out. The rest stared at Xavier with in utter disbelief.
"Lance is self-destructive on a good day," Scott exclaimed. "Do you want him to kill himself?"
Kitty ran out of the room after Lance. Todd and Fred pulled closer together exchanging a glance and waited to see the resolution of Scott's confrontation with the Professor before going after their friend.
****** ****** ******
Pietro sat in his old room, a small communicator, dug out from under a loose floorboard cradled in his hands. He started at it as if looking into the depths of a crystal ball.
Pietro remembered coming home after the Asteroid M disaster. Waiting for Mystique to come back, watching the supply of cash they'd found dwindle and watching their early attempts at cooking go up in flames after Lance declared a moratorium on ordering any take out they'd need to pay for.
He remembered reporting their abysmal situation to his father and waiting for help to come.
Waiting while the Brotherhood pooled their resources to think of ways to get cash. Waiting on the day Lance stormed home from the bank, furious because they wouldn't let him open a checking account and the water, power and assorted other bill-making places wouldn't accept cash.
Still waiting without reply when Tabby blew down the door to Mystique's room and gave them access to Mystique's checkbook. He remembered Lance's expression when he told them the account would cover bare necessities for six months, remembered them burning through the account in only two months because of various emergency expenses, mostly repairing damage to the plumbing.
He'd quit waiting for Magneto to show up the day the five of them had spent working together to seal the worst of the myriad of leaks in the roof and the little silvery communicator had been sitting in it's hidey-hole gathering dust since then.
He remembered the determination in Wanda's voice as she informed him she was going to kill their father and flipped on the communicator. "Dad, Magneto, you out there?" he said sounding defeated.
****** ****** ******
Kitty found Lance haphazardly stuffing clothes in a knapsack. "He's just got a bug up his butt about this Magneto thing," Kitty said desperately. "Mr. Logan or Storm or somebody will talk him out of it, you don't have to go."
"He's right," Lance said not stopping. "I'm useless."
"I don't want you to leave," Kitty cried.
"Well what else am I supposed to do?" Lance demanded. "He threw me out!"
"Go with Dr. MacTaggart," Kitty said. "Just for a little while, just until we can figure out what's wrong with the professor."
Lance hesitated.
"Please," Kitty asked.
He sighed, "One place is as good as another I guess. If it makes you happy, Scotland works for me."
Todd and Freddy ran into the room, "Man you guys left too quick," Todd exclaimed. "You missed all the fire works."
"What happened?" Kitty asked.
"You saw Cyke getting into it with Xavier?" Todd began looking impressed. "Well Xavier says 'Discussion closed. Get back to training!' yo."
"And Scott, he gets this look and says we're too tired," Freddy interrupted.
"Hey, who's telling this story?" Todd demanded. "Anyways, Xavier's yelling at Cyke about questioning his authority, really mad, practically got Mystique level vein popping going on and Cyke, he just walks up to the control room and WHAM! Practice canceled."
"Xavier looked like he wished he could get out of that chair and strangle someone, probably Scott!" Freddy explained.
"So now the Doc gets in the act. She's just done patching Jubilee after Cannonball's little collision and it ain't been more than a few hours since Magma singing Wolfsbane and Sunspot's broken wrist, she is not in any mood for attitude from anyone," Todd chimed in.
"She backs Scott, said none of us go back till we've had eight hours down time," Fred elaborated. "And Baldy says she got no say 'cause of her being human. That didn't go over well."
"She's not just going back, she's pulling Rahne out of school and calling everyone else's parents," Todd broke in. "And Cyke walked out on him, said if he wanted to hear that sort of stuff he'd join Magneto. Scott Summers just blew off Professor Charles Xavier! No joking, it was totally unreal!"
"Well we figured you'd be lighting out, so we figured we'd come with," Fred said.
"Look, I'm, well, apparently I'm going to be sitting this all out in Scotland," Lance said sounding resigned. "But if Xavier's off his rocker who's keeping tabs on Quickie and his psycho sister?"
"Damn, when'd we start trusting Baldy?" Todd swore, realizing that they had been taking Xavier's word that Pietro was safe and well. "And you're really going?"
"Yeah," Lance sighed. "It's not like I can help. I'll just get out of the way 'till things settle down."
Todd and Fred exchanged an uncomfortable look. "Well, um, you just get well. We'll take care of Pietro," Fred promised
****** ****** ******
Rogue crouched behind a hedge watching a group of black-clad soldier types run past. "Yah think these guys are what Mags was fussing about?" she asked.
"Could be," Logan said quietly while he scanned the group's uniforms for any form of insignia. "They're pro's but I don't think they're government, so things could be worse."
As they watched the soldiers released several floating robot drones. Wolverine tensed as the things turned their sensors on the surrounding swamps. "Think we've over stayed our welcome darlin'," he said.
Rogue nodded and the pair carefully backed deeper into the overgrowth. One of the drones locked onto their mutant signatures and with a faint whirl of servomotors it started toward them, summoning the rest of the swarm.
A gelatinous green glob shot through the night just missing Rogue. Wolverine turned, with a snarl he pounced on the drone, his claws slicing through it easily. Even as the broken pieces hit the ground five of its brethren appeared in the sky.
"Move it girl!" Wolverine ordered. "Xavier needs to know about this."
Rogue's mouth tightened as she considered disobeying. "Now!" Wolverine growled, lunging after a drone that looked to be bypassing him in favor of targeting Rogue. She turned and fled.
Wolverine brought down a third drone before the remainder rose to a safe altitude and rained their projectiles down on him. Dodging nimbly he fought his way back toward the soldiers. Several more drones converged on him. A low hanging branch gave him the boost he needed to bring one in range of his claws. As he dropped back to the ground he twisted to evade one projectile. Anticipating the move another drone fired and Wolverine found himself completely incased in the green goop, which hardened instantly into a crystalline shell.
Rogue leapt over a root then ducked a moss-hung branch, sticking to the heavy underbrush where the drones' mobility was hindered and the twisting branches shielded her from their projectiles.
One drone dive bombed her path trying to use its momentum to force it's way through the foliage.
Hearing the crackle of breaking branches just behind her, Rogue threw all her strength into a sidekick that caught the drone squarely the instant it broke through her cover. With a weak beep it crashed to the ground and remained still.
Three more drones employed the same tactic. Rogue dodged the first volley only to be brought down a moment later.
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