The cage room was completely silent, as most of the occupants had given up on any kind of conversation. Most of the caged mutants were sleeping since there was nothing more they could do. Kyran was still awake and still staring at the same place. Scott was sitting with his back against the cage and a hand clamped in his hair as he tried to think of what to do. Brody was curled up in one corner of his cage watching everyone with wide eyes and Kurt was watching him with sorrow. It was definitely a depressing atmosphere.

The door into the room opened with such force that it banged against the wall loud enough to wake anyone that had been sleeping. Minion entered with a sick grin on his face and he was dragging something behind him. At first no one recognized the bloody, horribly beaten and tortured figure until Kyran finally stirred from his stupor.

"Pietro!"

"My god, what did they do to him?" Evan gasped.

Minion dragged the unconscious Pietro over to one of the cage areas and dumped him there. He stepped back and waited as Desor entered the room with a smirk on his face. He knelt beside Pietro and muttered something no one heard. Instantly Pietro snapped to consciousness and looked at Desor with wide fearful eyes.

"You may have succeed in calling for reinforcements but do you really think that'll do any good. Foolish boy." Desor sneered. "We'll be ready for them, just like we were ready for you."

"Except they know about you." Pietro mumbled.

Desor smirked. "Makes little different." His smirk faded. "In war few suffer worse than traitors."

"I'm not a traitor." Pietro growled through pain. "I was never on your side."

Everyone winced as the sound of a harsh slap echoed through to room, and more blood spurted from Pietro's already bleeding nose. Pietro groaned despite himself and tried to curl away from his aggressor.

Desor stood, kicked Pietro roughly in the ribs, and then with a wave of his hands a cage appeared around Pietro. It was considerably smaller than everyone else's and would seem extremely confining to the speedster. With a smirk back on his face the prince left the room taking a snickering Minion with him.

"Pietro?"

No answer.

"Pietro, are you hurt seriously?" Kyran asked. He's so bloody...he looks like he's dying. Oh god...he might be dying right in front of us.

"I'm-I'm not hurt that bad." Pietro said in a weak voice. "Looks worse than it is."

"What happened?"

"I went up to the Velocity and talked with Wolverine. Told him...what's going on." Pietro paused and took a shaky breath. "I think he's bringing back up." He took another shaky breath. "I was coming back when Desor caught me. He turned that stupid collar on it felt like he'd set my body on fire. I couldn't move. Then he just handed me over to those animals."

There was silence for a moment. "Did...Todd or Adam...?"

"Do anything? No." Pietro said in a voice that was very final. The conversation about what happened was over.

////

Minion smirked at the boy in the cage. The blonde was the youngest mutant in the room and had thus far not said a word to anyone. Minion knew what the boy's powers were and the bored mutant was looking for a good fight. He stared into the fourteen year olds hazel eyes with a look that promised lots of pain.

Behind Minion was Desor, looking extremely bored with the situation. "Just don't kill him Minion. I want them all alive."

"I can cause a lot of pain without killing." Minion replied.

"Leave the kid alone!" Kyran shouted, back to his old self.

"That one would be more of a challenge Minion." Desor suggested, pointing to the shadow wielder.

Minion shook his head. "No, I want to see what this kid is capable of."

"You do realize he's a shapeshifter?"

"All the more fun."

Desor shook his head and handed a device to Minion. "Fine, when you're done with your fun just put him back in the same place and push the black button to recreate his shield."

"Yeah, yeah I got it."

Dom tensed as Desor left the room. The young mutant searched his mind for what he should transform into. His power allowed him to change into any mythical creature, which is where he got his code name of Myth. He was trying to decide what would be his best choice when his cage disappeared. Frantically he changed into the first thing he could thing of.

Minion stepped back in surprise as the young mutant's form bulked out and his skin hardened and changed to a blue color. Dom's face elongated and was clearly becoming lizard-like with rows of razor sharp teeth. His arms and legs lengthened and his size grew rapidly to twice Minion's size. A long powerful tail sprouted from his tailbone and sharp spines erupted from his skin all along his spine. The final change came with two powerful wings that flared out an impressive wingspan.

"Wow." Minion said in awe. He hadn't been expecting Dom to become a dragon.

A deep rumbling growl vibrated the room slightly as Dom fixed burning hazel eyes on the enemy mutant. His tail snapped forward and wrapped around Minion's wrist, lifting the smaller mutant off the ground with ease. Sparks of fire licked at the red skinned mutant as the dragon roared in his face. The cages shook with the power and rage behind the second roar.

"Not bad." Minion admitted.

Dom snarled, opened his jaws and made to bite Minion in half. Minion twisted out of the way and landed a fierce tail whip across the dragon's snout. The grip on Minion's loosened just enough for the gargoyle like mutant to rip his hand free. The gargoyle flipped back as the dragon swiped at him with deadly claws.

"He's too big." Luke said. "He moves to slowly against that Minion guy."

Dom growled as he realized the same thing. Thinking quickly he blasted a jet of fire at Minion and then slapped his foe with his tail. As Minion went tumbling away Dom quickly began shifting forms to a smaller hippogriff with blue fur and black feathers. He leapt over to where Minion was getting up and with a snarl he kicked the mutant hard with both back feet, hooves digging into the gargoyle's chest.

Then something unexpected happened. Almost as if air had been let out of him, Minion began deflating. One second he was over seven feet tall and the next he was Brody's size and considerably less muscular. Minion stumbled to his feet and glared hard at Dom, who was watching with fierce hazel eyes that promised no mercy. Minion growled angrily and quickly changed to his bulked up form again. He was done playing with the kid.

"Those hits were free." Minion rumbled.

Dom tensed and prepared for the attack which came quick and heavy. The gargoyle charged him and leaped over the paw swipe he aimed at his enemy. Dom grunted and stumbled back as a heavy punch busted a tooth loose. He didn't have time to recover before Minion lunged again, this time raking sharp claws across the hippogriff's eye. Dom drew back with a roar of pain and swung for his enemy, but Minion was too smart for that.

"Now, comes the fun." The gargoyle growled as he moved to Dom's blind side.

Dom started backing away, desperately trying to keep his aggressor in sight but Minion was quick and nimble. There would be a flash of red and then Minion would be out of sight again. That left the young mutant open to a flurry of attacks from deadly talons. Before Dom even knew what was happening he was bleeding heavily from wounds across his side, back, and chest not mention his eye.

"Leave him alone you asshole! You've done enough damage!" Kyran shouted, banging against his cage.

Minion smirked briefly at Kyran, then to add insult to injury he jumped onto Dom's back. The hippogriff growled and tried to grab him while also trying to buck him off, but Minion dug his talons into Dom's back and held on.

"Yeeehaa, ride 'em cowboy!" Minion yelled tauntingly.

"I'll show you cowboy." Dom snarled.

Before Minion could think to do anything Dom hit the ground and rolled over, crushing the gargoyle against the floor. Minion gasped in pain and struggled to push the heavy weight off, but Dom wasn't budging. So, Minion did the only thing he could think of. He sank his fangs into Dom's back and shook viscously. His tactic worked, Dom rolled off but then turned around and pinned Minion to the floor with one big paw.

"An eye for an eye." Dom growled. He swiped his claws across Minion's eye and listened to the mutant's shriek of pain.

Suddenly Dom was returned to his human form and his ripped clothes were repaired as he floated into the air. Everyone looked to see a smirking Desor standing in the doorway. Dom was place back in his cage, still with all his injuries while Desor escorted Minion out of the room. Just before he left Minion shot Dom a hate filled look that promised revenge. The door snapped shut with a click.

"Dom, are you hurt bad?" Jesse asked, he too had been mostly quiet during their imprisonment.

"Nothing Willy can't heal." Dom replied. He grinned and produced a strangely familiar looking device from his pocket. "Besides, I managed to snag this while I had Minion pinned."

"Is that...?" Kitty trailed off, fearing to even hope for a miracle.

"Oh yeah, it's the device Desor gave to Minion to put me back in my cage." Dom said. "He didn't even think to check Minion for it."

"That's great! Push that red button and let's get the hell out of here." Evan exclaimed.

"No, not yet." Kyran said. "We need to wait for the opportune moment."

"What if the opportune moment never comes?" Scott argued.

"It will." Kyran said. "Be patient. We had to wait years for our opportune moment."

////

Ian shifted nervously under the angry glares of not only the youngest members of his team, but the New Mutants as well. But the most intimidating glare was the one coming from Logan. The young man was doing what he could to keep his eyes off the much older mutant.

"Where have you been?" Logan demanded.

"I had things to do." Ian replied. "I invited young Jamie here to come with me."

"I got to groom horses!" Jamie exclaimed. "There was this really pretty horse named Snowfall and she let me groom her and it was soooo cool!"

Logan shifted his glance down to Jamie. "That's all you did?"

"Yeah, I got to watch Ian ride and helped with things. It was awesome."

"You should have asked to take him with you." Logan growled at the twenty one year old.

Ian rolled his eyes and pushed a hand through his greenish blue hair. "Aw, c'mon mate I didn't take him anywhere shonky. We just went to some horse stables. It's not like I took him to fencing classes with me. Besides, the little ankle biter hardly gets to do anything and I thought it was about time he got included in something."

"Fine." Logan snarled. "There's more important things to deal with anyway. The X-men, Brotherhood, and a good number of the Hellraisers have been captured."

"What? Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Ian exclaimed. "We've got to rescue them."

Logan nodded. "Everyone suit up!"

"Alright, action time!" Bobby exclaimed.