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Deadly Choices"Hey-did-ya-miss-me?" Pietro demanded appearing in the room Todd and Fred had been sharing since Lance got out of the infirmary and Pietro had moved next door with him.
"You're okay!" Todd exclaimed.
"Of-course-I'm-okay, didn't-Xavier-tell-you? He's-been-yapping-in-my-head," Pietro replied fidgeting.
"Yeah, well he kinda went nuts so we ain't putting much stock in what he says," Fred said shrugging.
"He-did?" Pietro asked sounding nervous. "Oh-who-cares, where's-Lance? I-want-you-guys-to-meet-someone-she-should-be-here-by-now."
"Xavier kicked him out," Todd said.
Pietro's expression went livid, "She-can't-do-that!" he yelled.
"Wanna bet," Todd said disgustedly. "He got Scott and the doc so mad they both walked. Kitty talked Lance into going to Scotland with Dr. MacTaggart. She thinks this'll blow over. The only reason Freddy and I stayed was we were worried about you."
"Pietro!" A tense, angry voice called from the vicinity of the front door.
The speed demon looked relieved at the interruption. "She's-here," he exclaimed rushing off.
The other two followed more slowly and found several of the X-Men and New Mutants arrayed defensively around the perimeter of the lobby. Pietro stood between them and the dangerous, dark-haired girl from the mall. "Everyone, I'd-like-you-to-meet-my-sister," he said loudly. "She-isn't-mad-at-me-anymore. She-wants-to-join. She's-really-powerful-if-you-hadn't-noticed."
Wanda stared at Pietro's expression suspiciously. Her hand locked around his arm like a talon. "You aren't having second thoughts?" she hissed in his ear.
Pietro laughed nervously and gave her an innocent smile. "You-wanted-to-meet-the-Professor-right? Come-on."
"Hey, Pietro's sister, you got a boyfriend yet?" Todd called hopefully.
"Out of my way toad!" Wanda snarled practically dragging Pietro after her.
"She knows my name," Todd sighed happily.
"Mien friend, you need help," Kurt told him and Freddy nodded his agreement.
****** ****** ******
"I can't find him Professor!" Jean exclaimed. "I don't know what I'm doing. I'm tired just like everyone else. I can't do it."
"Concentrate Jean, this is of the up-most urgency," Xavier encouraged.
"I'm trying… I've got him! I've really got him!"
"Good, where is he?" Xavier demanded.
****** ****** ******
"Charles, I am not comfortable with this," Storm was saying. "I return to find a message from Moira questioning your stability, several of the students injured, Cyclops missing… This hardly seems the opportune time for us to aggressively press Magneto."
"And I am telling you this is essential," Xavier retorted. He sighed. "I admit some of my actions may have seemed hasty or extreme. I suppose this only proves even adults can fall prey to the urge to cram before a critical test. However recent information from Wolverine shows we must move against Magneto and it must be now. Please Storm, I have never led you astray, trust me, this must be done."
Storm sighed looking chastened. "I apologize Charles, of course I trust you."
Across the room Pietro slipped away from Wanda to join Fred and Todd. "Look-guys, this-isn't-really-our-thing, let's-split," he suggested.
Fred glanced over at the diminished and disheartened ranks of X-Men. "I wouldn't feel good about ditching them," he said.
"Guys-this-is-Magneto-we're-talking-about, the-guy-who-bosses-Mystique-and-Sabretooth-around-and-has-Xavier-all-twitchy. Do-you-really-want-to-go-against-him?" Pietro argued. "And-what-happens-if-it-turns-out-he-was-right-about-people?"
Todd caught Wanda's eye and waved, she turned her back on him. "Your sister, my future sweetie seems all for it, yo," he said. " 'Sides, you wanna tell Lance if something bad happens to Kitty?"
Pietro sighed as Wanda joined them and gave up his efforts.
"Jean, Nightcrawler, Toad, Blob you're with me in the helicopter," Beast said. "Spyke, Kitty, Quicksilver, Wanda you'll be with Storm and the Professor on the X-Jet."
****** ****** ******
Lance sat at the airport beside a livid Moira MacTaggart and a stunned Rahne. Minutes after Todd and Freddy's report Moira had appeared at his door to tell him she had reserved tickets for a flight back to Scotland that night and that they were leaving as soon as he was packed.
Jean offered to give them a lift to the airport only to have Xavier insist that she stay and train on using cerebro. For the duration of the taxi ride Lance had tried to be amused by the fact that the doctor who constantly lectured him about his temper had totally lost hers.
Only it was pretty impossible to find anything funny when Rahne was sharing the backseat of the taxi gingerly supporting a burned arm and looking shell-shocked. Nothing improved when they reached the airport and it was hours until their flight left.
"It just isna like the Professor," Rahne was saying for what had to be the three dozenth time.
"I know dear, but until Charles snaps out of this insanity he has no business managing children. You and too many of your friends were hurt in his pursuit of his obsession. He's forgotten the very things that set him apart from Erik," Moira said. "If I hadna heard it with mine own ears I couldna believe it."
"Oh my God!" a woman's voice cried. "This can't be real!"
Lance, along with the rest of the airport glanced up to see a battle on the TV screen. More and more people were flocking around screens, staring in disbelief. "Turn up the volume!" someone demanded.
On the screen Toad and Nightcrawler scrambled to avoid a tremendous blast of energy.
Jean stood firm, hands pressed to her temples, holding aloft a giant robot with the power of her mind.
Men in black riot gear carted off green, crystalline structures holding Blob, Spyke and Beast like flies trapped in amber.
Police cars swarmed the scene. Storm strode through them like a wrathful goddess the power of the heavens swirling around her. At her gesture lightening pounded the robot, targeting its power generators as gale force winds sent gravel shearing through its joints at over a hundred miles per hour.
A piece of the exploding robot clipped Toad, leaving him in a boneless heap on the ground. One of the black clad soldiers paused in their retreat to toss him in the back of their truck with the other captives.
"Dear lord," Moira murmured. Rahne moved closer to her guardian, staring at the screen as if it showed the end of the world.
Moira looked around for Lance but the tall, dark-haired boy was nowhere to be seen.
****** ****** ******
Long fingered hands in black, fingerless driving gloves loaded a single bullet in a revolver.
Lance shook off the mental image as he charged up the front steps of the Brotherhood Boarding house only to pause in the entryway.
"Yo!" the voice of a memory called. Lance, newly arrived in Bayville, glanced up to see a slight teenager crouched halfway up the wall, one hand wrapped around the stairway's balustrade, which apparently provided all the support he needed to feel right at home. As Lance watched a long, distinctly greenish tongue shot out of the boy's mouth and reeled in a large moth. Noting Lance's expression of fascinated disgusted the boy said, "They're high in protein, wanna try one?"
Lance's expression answered the question for him.
"So what do you do?" the boy asked.
Lance made a fist and a sudden quake knocked the younger boy from his perch.
"Cool, I'm Toad by the way," he said looking up at Lance from the floor.
Lance hesitated a moment then offered Toad a hand up. "Lance Alvers… I mean Avalanche," he introduced himself.
"Todd Tolansky, and strange as it sounds, you'll get used to Mystique-speak really fast."
In the present day Lance hurried up the stairs to his old room and started digging through his closet for his battle gear.
A vision of the revolver chamber spinning randomly and a sharp flick of the wrist locking it in place, the bullet's position a mystery, hung before his mind's eye.
The phantom sounds of Pietro and Tabby fighting over the bathroom filled Lance's ears.
Lance leaned against the doorway to his room, watching the fireworks with a knowing smirk on his face, it was all for nothing, because the water wouldn't even be on till the next morning.
A quiet chuckle escaped Lance's mouth as a series of Tabby's explosions bodily tossed Pietro across the hall clearing the girl's path to the bathroom, she rushed in while he was still disoriented and slammed the door behind her. "You loose, I win!" Tabby declared gloating through the locked door. A moment later her voice was raised again as she began cursing.
Pietro looked at Lance questioningly, then Tabby slammed the door back open, enlarging the hole in the wall that marked the doorknob's height. "There's no fucking water," she declared. "I finally beat Quickie to the bathroom and there's no water!"
"You knew!" Pietro accused glaring at Lance, looking distinctly singed from Tabby's attack. He snatched up a cushion from the couch and swung it at Lance's head.
"You two lovebirds were having such fun," Lance laughed raising an arm to shield him from Pietro's attack while he scrabbled for a weapon of his own. "You guys fight like an old married couple!"
Tabby couldn't let that insult go unanswered and quickly threw herself into the fray.
A few minutes later the noise drew Todd and Fred from in front of the TV. "What are they fighting about, yo?" Todd asked grabbing hold of Fred to steady himself as one of Lance's quakes sent Pietro tumbling to the ground long enough for the dark haired teen to pin him.
"Give up!" Lance ordered a moment before Tabby's cherry bombs sent both of them flying.
"Who cares? Shall we?" Fred replied making a sweeping gesture toward the battle zone.
"Oh but of course," Todd said in a mock upper-class accent and the pair threw themselves gleefully into the fight.
Lance quickly changed into his uniform and started back downstairs, his helmet hanging from his hand. He could almost feel the cold steel barrel of the imaginary gun pressed to his temple.
As he passed by the kitchen door he remembered the smell of tomato sauce.
Lance glanced through the door and saw Freddy stirring something in a pot on the stove, most of the wall was spattered with something red and Lance really hoped it had something to do with cooking and not one of their inner-team squabbles.
"I made dinner," Freddy announced. "It's cheaper than the ready-made stuff."
"Thanks," Lance said smiling a little as he leaned a stack of bills up against the phone where he'd remember to get stamps for them.
"Spaghetti's pretty much all I know how to cook," Freddy said apologetically.
"That's more than I know," Lance replied. "And we'll learn."
"Damn right," Freddy replied grinning.
A finger tightened on the trigger of a metaphorical gun.
Lance paused outside the house turning to look back at the only place he'd thought of as a home in nearly a decade. He saw the five of them sprawled out on the porch, exhausted after some form of insanity or another, watching the stars come out.
"I saw the first star, my wish'll come true," Todd declared as he fought off a yawn.
"Stars don't move, it was an airplane," Pietro said dismissively. The silver-haired teen was lying back on the porch railing; he canted his head to look at Todd upside down.
"It could've been a shooting star," Fred mediated. "Those are really lucky."
"Lance already got his wish," Tabby said grinning. "Kitty was doodling your name all over her notebook in homeroom."
Lance's eyes popped open. "She was?" he asked eagerly.
"He's got it bad," Pietro said shaking his head with mock sadness.
With a hop Todd landed on the arm of Lance's chair and peered in the older boy's ear. "Yep, Kitty on the brain," he announced as Lance shoved him away.
"At least I've got a girlfriend," Lance declared rolling his eyes at their antics.
"Oooh she's a girlfriend now," Fred said. "This is serious."
"Well, kinda, I haven't asked yet, but she likes me!" Lance finished with a dopey grin.
"Haven't asked?" Pietro said. "We'll help."
A touch of panic entered Lance's eyes. "You really don't…"
"What are friends for," Freddy said innocently.
"Not this!" Lance squeaked.
"You should compose a sonnet," Tabby suggested.
"Oh Kitty-Kat fair," Todd began in a syrupy sweet voice. "Oh pretty-Kitty."
"Don't help!" Lance exclaimed.
"Got ya," Pietro laughed.
For a moment Lance just stared, a feeling of relief sweeping over him while the others joined in the merriment. Then Lance shook his head and laughed as well, "Just as long as you are joking, otherwise I'll have to kill you," he said and a comfortable silence fell over the group for a few moments.
Then Pietro sat up with an evil grin, "Oh Pinky are you pondering what I'm pondering?" he asked.
Todd and Tabby glanced up, mischief gleaming I their eyes.
"Whatever you're thinking, stop," Lance commanded. "Kelly will know it's you, because it's always you."
"You haven't even heard my plan yet," Pietro sulked.
"I'm going to regret this," Lance sighed.
Lance blinked away the images of his past. They were his family, they were in trouble, he didn't really believe Moira anyway and even if she were right thirty and eighteen weren't really that different… well actually a dozen years was a hell of a long time if all his friends died now, it really wasn't that hard of a choice at all.
He pulled his helmet into place and secured it feeling more sure of himself than he ever had before in his life. "Don't worry guys, I'm coming," he told the phantoms then turned toward the road.
"Bang," he said to himself smiling a little, content with his choice.
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