Standing in four inches of old snow, the Brotherhood of Mutants were patiently waiting for the bus. Fred Dukes was standing to the far right, next to crosswalk sign. The big man was dressed in brown coveralls, with a red heavy coat, and wore a blue wool hat with yellow trim. Next to him stood Lance Alvers, clad in his usual jeans, brown jacket and a darker blue hat with red trim. Todd Tolasnki stood next in line, wearing an orange parka with its hood pulled tightly over his face. Rounding out the group stood Pietro Maximoff, who had donned an off-orange jacket and a green winter-cap with earflaps.
"Okay." Yelled Lance, loudly yet without much emphasis. "Great take guys. Well done. Let's cut camera and print that…" Keeping his voice level, Lance quickly strode across the street towards the film equipment.
Fred blinked. "But… We just—"
"Yeah, well, we did enough. End of chapter. Everyone who can get the joke already has. No point in wasting any of their time rehashing tired routines." Lance reached the camera and knelt down beside it, anxiously looking past the side of the screen towards the controls.
"Mhay, mym bmmyh—" Todd angrily pulled the hood of his parka off his face. "I can barely talk in that thing, yo…" Todd wiped his mouth and then hopped into the street after Lance. "Wha' you talking about, Lance? The whole point of doing these it to—"
An SUV bearing a FoH bumper sticker barreled down the street. Todd was a smear on the road before he even registered its presence.
Fred's mouth fell open.
Pietro's eyes became as wide as saucers.
In the rapidly diminishing SUV, several people cheered and tossed empty bottles out the window.
"OH MY GOD!!!" Shrieked Pietro. "They killed Todd!"
Lance raised his arm in a threatening gesture. "You BASTARDS!" Turning back to the others, he continued in a normal voice. "I told you."
Fred fell to his knees beside the remains of his friend. "Oh, Todd… Todd…"
"This can't be happening…" Pietro's hands quivered even more than his voice. "This just can't be happening!"
Lance knelt back down. "Didn't I tell you? End it now before we do any of the routines. But did you listen? Noooo-ooo-ooo…"
Fred began weeping uncontrollably.
"Maybe we can get him to a hospital!" Pietro continued, having completely freaked out. "A hospital can put him back together! Not a normal one… Not a safe one… But there's gotta be some hospital that can put him back together!"
"There," muttered Lance, as he reached past the side of the screen. "Finally. This scene is o—"
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