Disc- I don't own marvel, only my characters, I'm sure by the 23rd disclaimer you know who my characters are.
Sorry for the long wait for this chapter but I've had a lot of homework lately, and friends bugging me for this chapter and all.
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Pietro was running laps around the old, run-down, Brotherhood boarding house, when Rita rode up to the front of the house on Logan's bike. "Where were you? I came by the institute over 5 hours ago and finally had to leave because I got so bored of waiting, plus I don't think Logan liked me being there very much." It was amazing that Pietro stopped long enough to actually say a whole sentence while standing still.
"Well I'm sorry speed demon, but I had a few things to do in town. It took a few hours to get my bracelet latch fixed since your father broke it, then I went out and bought a new dress for the upcoming prom." Rita sighed, knowing that once again Logan couldn't come, he wasn't in high school anymore so she was going with Gordon.
"So, going with me again?" Pietro gave Rita a smug grin as he put an arm around her shoulders.
"No, actually I'm going with Gordon this time, I don't have anyone else to go with and I went with you to the winter formal so it's another guys turn." Rita smiled as the wonderful Amber Sanders, dressed in her cheerleader short skirt and tight sweater.
"Pietro! What are you doing with that tramp?" Amber's voice rang out as Pietro's head turned to see her.
"Oh hi Amber, what are you doing here? Thought you hated mutants?" Pietro an over to Amber and put his arm around her as Rita looked totally pissed.
"See that's the beauty of it, I don't. So Rita how are you doing?" Amber walked away from Pietro and to Rita, hugging her for no reason. "By the way, Magneto wants an answer soon." Amber said as she grabbed Rita's neck and started to strangle her, turning into Mystique.
"Mystique!" Pietro ran to Rita, freeing her of Mystique's grip.
Gasping for breath Rita pulled away from Pietro and jumped on Logan's bike, riding back to the institute as fast as she could.
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Rita stumbled into the front door of the institute, her neck a bright pink from Mystique's hands. Logan looked up from his beer and saw Rita. Standing, Logan walked to Rita and helped her to the kitchen table, putting a glass of water in front of her.
"Who did that to your neck?" Logan sat across from Rita at the table, waiting for her answer.
"It was Mystique, she looked like this girl from school until she started to choke me. Pietro helped me get away." Rita took a drink from the water Logan had given her as Scott walked into the kitchen, and looked at her neck.
"What the hell did you do to her Logan?" Scott looked at Rita's neck as Logan's claws came out.
"I didn't do it, Mystique did." Logan pushed Scott away from Rita as Scott turned around and hit Logan in the chest with his optic beams. No one noticed Rita silently walk out of the room as the two men fought.
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"Why do they always fight over me?" Rita asked herself as she put a few of her clothes into her backpack, leaving Logan a one word note 'sorry' and walked out onto the balcony, looking back into her room. "Sorry Logan but its my turn to leave." Rita's wings spread as she flew through the air, away from the institute.
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"Ok, I'll do it." Rita was looking into the face of Magneto as she finally gave him the answer he hoped to hear.
"Good, I was hoping you would tell me that. You'll come stay with me, Mystique, Pyro, and Colossus. I have a hidden base here in Westchester and that's were the real Brotherhood lives. My son and the other Brotherhood members you've met before aren't good for anything, you saw how they failed when I asked them to get your children. It's sad really, my son has to be trained more if he ever wants to stay with the Alcolytes. That's where you come in my dear, I want you to train with the Brotherhood when your not doing anything for me ok?" Magneto walked with Rita to the old boarding house where the Brotherhood lived.
"What's the X-Geek doing here Magneto?" Lance walked out of front door, holding the keys to his jeep.
"She's the new Alcolyte, and she'll make sure that you four do what your told and actually succeed for once." Magneto put a hand on Rita's back and led her into the house, calling the four boys to the living room.
"Like, what do you want yo?" Toad's long, green tongue grabbed a fly in the air and brought it back to his mouth.
"Rita is the new Alcolyte boys, and your new teammate, you all will answer to her and do whatever she tells you to do, understand? She will be staying with me, Mystique, and the other Alcolytes but will visit you four whenever she needs to." Magneto told them, walking outside with Rita and rising into the air. "Come my dear, its time to go home and find your family like I promised."
Rita followed Magneto to his base at the edge of Westchester, a well fixed up, old, hotel that is no longer in use. Pyro was told to show her around and took her through the upper levels which were just rooms and Magneto's office, but downstairs was a whole different story. Under the hotel was Magneto's laboratory, Mystique was allowed in there but no one else could step foot in there. In the end of the tour Pyro stopped on the fifth level, at one of the old suites, and opened the door to the large room.
"This can be your room, it has its own bathroom attached to it so you wont have to share with Mystique which is better for your health. Magneto will give you your money tomorrow so you can go shopping if you need more clothes or something. Dinner is basically fend for yourself, the fridge is always full of food so you wont have to worry about that. Hope you like staying with us mate, we'll never bore you." And with that, St. John turned and left Rita in her new room.
Rita looked around the room, at the bed, the dresser, the table. "Now where do I remember this from?" Rita said with a smile as she put her bad down and unpacked the few clothes she had into the dresser and laid down on the bed. Tears fell from her face onto the bed, knowing herself that there was no way of knowing if she would ever go home to Logan and her kids, and if she did, how long it would take.
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Logan was pissed when he found the note, left on their bed in Rita's handwriting. Logan turned to see Charles come into the room. "She's gone Chuck."
"I know, she left over two hours ago, I've been looking but I can't find her. She has a very developed mind Logan, I taught her how to build mental shields, just in case someone tries to manipulate her one day. But they've become too strong for even me to break through them and find her." Charles wheeled over to Logan and looked at the note that was still in his hand.
"Can't you even tell if she's still in Westchester?" Logan looked to Charles for some kind of hope, but knew the truth when his face never changed emotion.
"No I can't Logan. But I do believe that she is with mutants, though I'm not positive." Charles gave Logan a reassuring smile and wheeled out of the room, leaving Logan alone with his thoughts.
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"Ugh! I wish Charles would stop trying to look into my mind and find me. Having to keep up these mental shields is draining me." Rita talked to herself as Magneto walked into the room, without knocking of course.
"Talking to yourself my dear?" Magneto gave her the wonderful Maximoff smile that always won the hearts of girls everywhere.
"Every heard of knocking? But what do you want?" Rita sat up and looked into the ageing man's face.
"I'm sorry Rita. But I just came to give you this." Magneto raised a folder, the same folder from the other day, and dropped it on the bed next to her, then turned and walked out of her room.
Rita picked up the folder emptied the contents onto her bed. She picked up a stack of $100 bills which must have been the money he promised her, and a packet of papers. Rita looked at the papers and turned them over, looking at the small, computer print:
Jake Carson a.k.a Andrew Cromwell, age 18, is engaged to Roxanne (Roxy) Ransom. Roxy has a one month old son who's father is unknown, Andrew has decided to call the child his own. Lives in Oregon with his fiancée and 'son'.
Henry Boswell a.k.a Joshua Cromwell, age 18, twin brother of Andrew Cromwell. Currently single, works with the thieves' guild in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Remy Lebeau used to live.
Beth Nichols a.k.a Julie Cromwell, age 17, twin sister of Rita Cromwell. Julie has stayed in France with her boyfriend Eric, currently does not work.
Elizabeth James a.k.a Betsy Cromwell, age 45, mother to Rita Cromwell and siblings. Lives in Paris France with her husband.
John Smith a.k.a 'lord' Francis Cromwell, age 51, father to Rita Cromwell and siblings, lives with his wife.
"Wow, Magneto was right, their alive. Unless he just made it all up, I wonder if they care about me or not." Rita thought aloud as she looked for any other bit of information on the papers. There were only a few things and they didn't say much, just about their interests.
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(Back at the Brotherhood house)
Pietro was running around with an armful of dirty laundry. "What are you doing Maximoff?" Lance gave Pietro an odd look; the Brotherhood members never cleaned the house.
"Rita's-gonna-be-giving-us-orders-from-now-on. She'll-be-furious-if-she-sees-this-mess-and-when-she-gets-mad-she-gets-bitchy-and-uses-her-powers-against-you." Pietro said in about one second, Lance was barely even understanding when Rita walked into the door.
"Ever heard of cleaning up this dam place?" her voice rang through the halls. "NOW LINE UP BOYS!" Rita looked around as Pietro dropped the laundry and stood in front of her. The four boys lined up pretty quickly, well except for Fred, he took a little longer because of his size and weight.
"Remember, I'm your new boss for the time being. Stay here while I look around the house, if I find out that any of you move someone's getting their ass burnt, understand?" Rita walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge; it was bare, except for a bottle of water and half a piece of old pizza. Rita sighed and walked upstairs, opening the first door she came to, it was covered in green slim. "This must be toads; I don't even dare go in there."
Rita continued down the hall and came to another door; she opened it and saw a poster of naked girls and a poster-size picture of Kitty in a bikini. "Must be Lance, I'm not even going to ask about the poster of Kitty." Rita came to the next door and opened it, she looked around the room, the room was as messy as any room could get and had an empty pizza box on the floor. "Fred's" Rita opened the last door on that second floor and saw relatively clean room with the picture of Pietro and Rita at Winter Formal from last year, framed and on the dresser. "And of course the speed-demons room." Rita said to herself as she closed the door and went back downstairs to find the four boys still lined up.
"Ok, first thing is you need to fill the fridge, and Fred, no more eating all the food or you're going on a diet. Second of all clean this dump up, and third, everyone but Pietro clean your room. Pietro's about the only one of you boys who has a half-way decent room here. I'll come back tomorrow to make sure everything is to my standards, bye now." Rita walked out of the door and flew back to Magneto's base.
"Did she say diet?" Fred turned to Lance and Pietro, looking scared to death.