Brother's Birds

"Come on guys hurry up, I got something to show you!" Quicksilver called, impatiently tapping his foot.  He stood in front of the door to the brotherhoods house, hand on the knob and ready while around the house the other members took their time coming.  Blob was polishing off a sandwich, Lance was trying to pry himself away from the TV set and Toad was stalking a fly in the hallway. 

"OOOHH!" Quicksilver groaned and dashed off.  He raced around the house, stuffing the sandwich into Blob's mouth, shutting off and unplugging the TV and snatching Toad's tongue mid-flick.  "Let's go!" he yelled and everyone grumbled and complained but came trudging to the door.

"What is it Pietro?" Lance asked, folding his arms across his chest. 

"This better be good." Blob growled.

"Ya man, I stalin." Toad mumbled, struggling to pull his tongue free from Pietro's grip. 

Pietro rolled his eyes and let the tongue go to snap back into Toad's mouth with a disgusting 'Spluch'.  "Oh it is." He smiled and went for the door again, "I just figured a way to make us very rich."

"Rich?" Lance raised an eyebrow.

"You mean rich as in having money, and food, and…stuff." Toad cheered after pulling his tongue back in.

"Well why didn't ya say so before?" Blob grinned, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

Quicksilver only smiled again and Lance held out his hands, "Well?  What's the plan?"

"Glad you asked." Quicksilver pulled open the door to reveal several large crates standing on the lawn.  "Voila, instant cash.  Pretty cool huh?" He dashed out the door and stood proudly before one of the boxes.

"Yeah!" Toad cheered, jumping on top of a crate, "But uh…what's in em?"

"Emu's" Quicksilver answered and the others stared at him.

"E what?" Lance tilted his head.

"Emu's" Quicksilver repeated, "Giant birds man.  They're the wave of the future." He held his hand up and waved it across the sky as if to clear a path, "We'll make a fortune."

"Birds?" Blob shook his head, "What are we gonna do with birds."

"Eat em' ya dope." Toad said as he struggled to lift the top off one of the crates.

"No you idiot." Pietro ran up and shoved him off the top of the crate. "We raise em, you know farm.  Their real easy to take care of and by next year will all be millionaires!"

"Where'd you get these things anyways?"

"The internet."

Lance stood thinking it over and eyeing the four crates, "Easy huh?  Well it can't be to hard…and we really could use the money."

"Course it's easy, I mean how dumb are birds?" Quicksilver pointed out and Lance nodded.

"Alright, well let's see em." Pietro nodded and raced into the house and back out carrying a crowbar.

He shoved the metal under the lid of the first crate and pried it up.  The crate fell apart and straw spilled out on the ground.  He looked at the mess and frowned.

"Well where are they?" Toad asked, picking up a piece of straw and rolling it in his fingers.

"I…I don't know."

Lance growled and pointed to the rest of the crates, "Blob open em'"

Blob nodded and headed for the crates, pulling them apart with his bare hands.  Toad followed behind him, "Nope, Nope…"

"And this one's empty too." Blob turned and held up his hands to Lance.  Lance glared at Quicksilver.

"So…where are they?!" 

Quicksilver held his hands up and shook his head, "I don't know, they were supposed to be in there."  Lance clenched his fist, the ground trembling slightly.  Toad gulped and then turned to Quicksilver, eyes lit dimly with thought.

"Hey man…how much did you get them for?"

"Well…it was a deal.  We were gonna be rich man…"

"How much?" Lance narrowed his eyes at him.

"Real cheap man, as far as Emu's go…"

"How much?" Blob cracked his knuckles.

"The last of what we had, and what I made selling some of your alls stuff." Quicksilver squeaked.

"WHAT?!" The others exclaimed and he sped off as the ground rumbled.

"Look we'll find them," Quicksilver assured his friends as they walked through the woods.  An hour had passed and the speedster had finally been wrangled and after much pleading and negotiations with the others he had wheedled his way out of a beating and convinced them to look for the birds.

The group wandered through the woods, searching in bushed, in trees and under rocks.

"Maybe they flew away." Toad suggested.

"Emu's don't fly." Lance grumbled back to him, watching Blob lift a boulder.

"EMUUU!!" Blob yelled then set the rock down and turned to look elsewhere.

"Maybe they migrated." Toad bounced along, scanning the area and putting his hand to his eyes for effect.

"It's not winter." Lance growled.  Blob pried open a dead log.

"EMUUU!!"

"Maybe the boxes were empty ya know.  How do we tell if they were even in there?"

"Because of all the poop!" Lance yelled while whacking Blob in the back of the head, "How's an Emu gonna get in a log? Or under a rock? Would you guys think?!"

Blob rubbed his head and glared at Lance, "Look Lance, I don't know nothin bout no stupid birds so don't get mad at me."

"Yeah, me neither," Toad piped in, jumping onto Blob's shoulders, "It's all Pietro's fault."

"Yeah, it's his fault." The two pointed at the streak that raced by.  Quicksilver stopped and stared.

"Hey guys, come on." He smiled, "Let's not go there right now.  The point is to find them remember?"

"We better find them soon Pietro." Lance said, turning away from Blob and Toad to face Quicksilver, "Otherwise things are gonna start shaking." The ground trembled lightly for affect and Quicksilver nodded.

"Alright, alright.  Look I found some tracks over here."  He pointed, "We'll get em' back, no sweat."

Lance rolled his eyes and followed in the direction Pietro pointed.