Hold on. I hope the length of the first one didn't put anyone off. The chapters get longer, I promise. Now, since I gave quotation from a song in the first one, I might as well give one in this chapter as well. One that fits the chapter:

"Things have never been so swell, I have never failed to fail"

.from 'You know you're right' by Nirvana. I think it fits the end of the chapter. R&R, and let me know. Flames are acceptable. to a certain point.

*-*

Chapter Two: The dike, and what happened there.

They drove in the van, Scott forcing Remy to occupy the seat the next to him, while all Remy wanted to do was make up with Rogue, or hurl his brains out of the back window, whichever would be more beneficial. Scott, however, wanted to discuss strategy.

"Now, Remy, you must understand that you are essential to our negotiating party. Jean is the best negotiator, perhaps that is why they want her out of our team," Remy stared at him. The man was insane. If Remy could see his eyes, he was sure they would have a manic gleam in them. He brought his attention back to what Scott was saying.

"You have to suggest terms that are favourable to the X-men. If you can make them do what you suggest, this will be a great victory for us." The way he said it sounded like 'victory for me' "Now what you can suggest are things like, when we are in school." At this point Remy tuned out. He wondered when Rogue was going to stop being mad at him.

*-*

When the team reached the dike, the Brotherhood was waiting. Scott would have had the team moving out in formation if they had listened to him. The two groups faced each other from opposite sides of the dike, Lance and Scott in the front staring at each other like true leaders. Tabitha and Pietro were behind Lance, Fred behind them, and everyone stood slightly apart from Todd. Kurt and Rogue stood behind Scott, Evan right behind them, and Remy a bit further back, holding his stomach with one hand. Jean stood slightly apart, because she was referee, and not because there was a strange smell emanating from her, as in the case of Todd. Scott called out over the noise of the stream, "What are your terms, Alvers?"

He could not have had them looking more astonished if he had suggested they strip themselves naked, coat themselves with honey and jump into a bears' cave. Lance sounded incredulous. "Terms? You thought we came to discuss terms??" The Brotherhood doubled up in laughter. Todd bounded up next to Lance and snickered. "Us, discussing things? Yo, that was a stupid thought."

Lance stopped laughing and motioned the people behind him to silence. With a small smile on his face he called out "Interesting team Summers. Who was to be your main, ah, negotiator?"

From behind the X-men, Remy stepped forward, standing next to Scott. He flexed his elbow, raising a hand casually, and holding it for a second before bringing it down. The Brotherhood started laughing even harder, Pietro having to hold his stomach and sit down. It took a while for the Brotherhood to stop laughing, while the X-men looked on in stony silence. When everyone had stopped laughing, except Pietro, who was still snickering, Lance called out, "And what special negotiating skills does your star have?"

Scott opened his mouth to reply, but Remy spoke first. "Hey, Alvers, Remy be t'inkin'," he gestured towards Todd, "doesn't Toad look so -kissable right now?"

To Lances' horror, he had his arms around Todd, and their lips were mere inches apart before he managed to push Todd away. The ground began shaking violently. The dike threatened to crumble, and let the water flow into the village. With evident effort Lance mastered his emotions, but for only enough to shout "Brotherhood, get them! The Cajun is mine!"

As the Brotherhood charged, Jean took to the skies. Scott looked up, understanding. The Brotherhood had appointed her referee, and she meant to act like one. He felt angry that someone could be so righteous when it was better for them (and their friends) that they drop their beliefs for a few moments. Snapping his eyes back to the battle, he waited for the Brotherhood to reach them.

*-*

Lance watched the fight. In one place, Fred was being punched by Rogue, while he kept on trying to touch her, and make her absorb his powers. However, they both knew she would end up looking like a beach ball (and let's face it, which woman would do that to herself on purpose?), and she was more concerned about avoiding his arms then actually doing damage. Elsewhere, Toad avoided Summers' optic beams by bouncing and Wagner avoided Tabitha's' bombs by bamfing. Pietro and Evan were more concerned about taunting each other. That left Lebeau for himself. He knew he had to follow Mystique's instructions, but the French idiot was going to pay first.

Remy watched Lance walk over to him. The way Remy felt, he knew he was not going to get the upper hand by fighting. But then again, his empathy worked for only a few seconds, if it worked at all. He tried to look nonchalant. Lance walked over and grabbed him by the collar. Remy tried not to look irritated; this being pulled by his collar was getting annoying. He forced himself to sound reasonable.

"Can't we jus' talk like de civilized people?"

"Sure. How's your mom, Ed?" Lance said through gritted teeth. He lifted up Remy as far as he was able to. "You make me nearly kiss Toad, and you expect me to act civilized?"

"So you won't act civilized, mon provocateur?" Lance shook his head, preparing to throw Remy, preferably down the dike. Remy kicked him between his legs. Lances' face turned a very interesting shade of purple as his hands left the Cajuns throat and went towards things he cared more about. Remy looked at him consideringly. "You can't expec' me t' be civilized, when you aren't." Lance squeaked something that sounded like "Eweeweekwuiui." Remy shrugged and went back to the van. He needed to lie down.

*-*

As soon as he was able to get his mind off more personal things, Lance weighed his options. He could go after Lebeau, but that meant possibly getting his ass (or other parts of his body) kicked, as well as incurring Mystiques' wrath for not getting her work done. He looked around and saw his team-mates looking slightly weary from the fighting. He made his decision. Lebeau would wait, because Lance was the leader, and needed to take care of his team, and not because he was afraid of getting his -unmentionables- kicked. No, he was not afraid of Lebeau, what he was doing was for his team.

He made the earth shake; nodding to the Brotherhood that he was ready. He called out to Scott; "Hey, Summers, we aren't getting anywhere this way. Let's have a one-on-one to see which team can be called winners here. Man to man, no powers allowed. Or do you want to put your team-mates through further pain?" Lance knew that Scott was first and foremost a team man. Added to his belief that as leader he was for some odd reason responsible for anything that happened to his team-mates, including chicken-pox, Lance knew that he was going to accept. Scott hesitated for only a second, then nodded acceptance.

"How about we go at it here?" Lance asked, pointing to the rocky hill as Mystique had told him to, making it sound like a random choice. When Scott nodded again, he initiated the next part of his plan.

"Call Jean, she's refereeing, remember?"

When Jean flew down, she treated it like a professional fight. "Okay gentlemen, let's have a clean match here, we don't want any blood on our hands. Now, to signal our good intentions, let's shake hands."

They ignored her. "Start it already, Jean." Scott said as he glared at Lance, who glared back with equal intensity. She sighed and announced; "The match begins!"

"Triinng triiing triiiiing!" added Todd helpfully. X-men and Brotherhood mutants alike glared at him.

During the actual match, all that Lance concentrated on manoeuvring himself into the proper position and taunting Scott, while evading Scott's attacks and attacking only just enough so that it didn't look like a farce.

When he was near enough, he caught one of Scott's punches across his chest, and went and sprawled across a rock face on the hill. "Zap him!" someone called out; Lance thought it was Evan. Scott lost control long enough to shoot a beam at Lance, but he stopped it short as he realised what he was doing. Lance moved to let the beam hit just past him, slamming into the rock surface, which crumbled and cracked from the wall to the ground, he fell onto the ground, which gave way due to the cracks. As he fell, he thought that so far it was all according to plan. Now came the part he was most concerned about; whether Jean would react quickly enough to bring him out before he splattered.

As he was falling, he kept his eyes on the shaft surrounding him, looking for a particular thing. He spotted it just before the sudden stop in his motion told him Jean had him in her telekinetic bubble. He grabbed it as he went up, shaking the earth a bit to loosen it. He didn't have to worry about the shaft collapsing after he got the item. Sure enough, the shaft did collapse, and he was lifted the last few metres under dirt and rubble.

He came out crying foul. Jean looked over him for signs of visible injury, and finding none, went on to tell him he had indeed won, while looking disappointedly at Scott, who was standing shamefaced. The two groups parted, the Brotherhood catcalling over their victory, the X-men walking back to the van in silence. As the Brotherhood left, Lance smiled. He had won over the X-men, as well as making Scott look like a fool with no self-control (he was particularly proud of that, he had spent the whole morning choosing phrases that would make Scott angry enough to shoot.), as well as getting what Mystique had wanted him to. If you left out what Lebeau had done, it was a fine day to be Lance Alvers.