Author's Notes - Once again, thanks for the reviews and comments! I'm glad so many of you liked Todd's foray into the British lexicon. I'll see if I can't work that in some more. Also, I would like to thank Todd_Fan for the inspiration for part of this. If you've read the story In the Bleak Mid-Winter, you'll know just what. Todd_Fan, I dedicate this chapter to you!
"You never called."
Xavier looked over at the young blond man who had walked up to stand beside him. "There was really nothing that I could do about the situation, Mystique. The children are all in good care, are doing well in school and have had legal custody transfered into her name. The state saw your leaving as a sign of abandonment and made their decision based on that." As Xavier turned his attention back to the carefully designed city center where he had been waiting for Ororo to join him for a coffee before returning to the Institute, he heard Mystique hiss.
"You could have stopped that..."
"I will not use my powers to influence decisions like that." Xavier said sternly. "And it wasn't just this most recent incident that they considered, Mystique. I have been keeping my eye on the situation, and it doesn't take much to see that this new guardian has done much to improve their quality of life."
"It's my house." Mystique was clutching at straws.
Xavier shook his head. "It was sold. Too much money owed to too many people. You should have minded your everyday life as well as your 'professional' one."
Mystique's body was almost visibly shaking with anger. "Who?"
"The state. It was deemed to be better for everyone involved if the house remained as a bording house for the children."
"She's not going to get away with this." Mystique growled. Xavier sighed. The situation was becoming far too personal to Mystique for Xavier's comfort. Perhaps it would be best if his attention was forcused more onto the shape-shifter rather than the strangers at the Brotherhood's bording house.
"Just look at that smug bastard. Just swimming along, not a care in the world." Pietro leaned out over the railing of the balcony which overlooked the pool at the local recreation center. Down below Duncan Mathews had spent the better part of the last half hour swimming laps while Pietro had been sending him poison glares all the while. Todd hopped up beside him and looked down.
"Jerk." Todd grumbled as he leaned up on the rail. "What's his deal anyway? Hittin' on Wanda like that? She ain't even his type."
"Riiight. Wanda's type is smelly and mutated."
"Damn straight, yo!"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Todd, will you quit having delusions that you're someday going to be my brother-in-law."
"Now you see, Pietro," Todd leaned his back up against the rail and looked up at Pietro with a grin on his face, "that's just defeatist talk. That's the difference between you and me. You see a glass and say it's half-empty. I see a glass and decide to make chocolate milk."
Pietro gave Todd a confused look. "Todd, that made no sense what so ever."
Todd cocked his head and went over his previous statement in his head. Then he gave Pietro a sheepish look. "Guess not. But what's wrong with the idea of me bein' your bro-in-law? Just think how interesting I'd make family reunions."
"There's a good reason our family doesn't have reunions, Todd. Most of us hate each other."
"Oh good. Then I wouldn't have to buck a trend by skipping. Hey, what do you think the kids would look like?"
"Kids? Dear gawd..." Pietro groaned as he refocused his glaring on Duncan, who was getting out of the pool.
"What kinda name would you give a girl?" Todd's voice edged in on his conciousness.
"Oh, I don't know. Always liked Luna..." Pietro's brain slammed on the breaks, "Todd! Give it up!"
"What? I'm sure we'd name it after you if it was a boy."
"That's it, I'm finding a new spot." Pietro sped off to the other end of the observation balcony. Sitting on some beachers, Pietro glared down at Duncan. It seemed that although 'Maximoff' was a name belonging to only two people in the entirety of Bayville, the jock still hadn't put two and two together and figured out that Wanda was Pietro's sister. And dispite Wanda's continued cold shoulder, it appeared that Duncan had taken it as a personal challenge to get her to agree to go out with him. Pietro wasn't quite sure why. Wanda wasn't exactly the jock girlfriend type. She was essentually a punk/goth who hung out with the boys of the Brotherhood who were essentially social parihahs at school.
"Heh... Looks like Mathews is about to perform a rendition of The Nutcracker." Todd snickered as Duncan dove off the high dive. As Ducnan hit the water, Todd and Pietro's eyes widened in a mixture of humor and horror. "Oh man, I'm gonna be seein' that in my sleep, yo!" Todd shuddered as Duncan swam one way and his trunks in another.
Pietro shuddered and spun around to exit the balcony. "Come on, Todd. We're gonna head to the locker room."
"Why? Forgot my trunks at home. If I'd known you'd wanted to go swimming..."
"We're not going swimming, Todd." Pietro grabbed Todd's arm and pulled him along. "We're going to set Mathews straight on Wanda."
"But aren't we gonna get in trouble for that?" Todd looked a little worried as they headed down the stairs towards the men's locker room. "I mean, I'm actually enjoying my art class, Pietro."
Rolling his eyes, Pietro pulled Todd into a small booth that was in the small snack area of the recreation center. "Look Todd," Pietro leaned over the table, his eyes darting to the side every so often to make sure that they didn't miss their target, "we're not here to beat him up or anything. All we're going to do is show him that is in his best interest to lay off of Wanda. Besides," Pietro grinned evily, "we're not on school property, so even if we did kick the shit out of him there wouldn't be anything they could do to us."
"But we aren't gonna, right?"
"Nope. I think Wanda would want to be the one to do it if anyone."
"Point taken." "Now come on, Todd. He should be in the locker room by now." Getting up from the booth, Pietro resumed his quick walk towards the locker room while Todd did his best to keep up. It would have been quicker to hop, but Mystique and Mortimer kept insisting that he try and remember to walk while he wasn't doing his training or anywhere but the bording house. Opening the door to the locker room, the two were met by a wall of hot, humid air. Pietro shed his jacket, hanging it on a nearby peg, but the increase in temperature didn't seem to be affecting Todd much as he remained wrapped in his coat and scarf. There were no signs of anyone else in the locker room and Pietro started to wonder if he'd been wrong about Duncan being ready to wrap up his exercise. "Wherethefuckisthatstinkingjerk?" Pietro muttered under his breath as he resisted the urge to search the locker room at top speed. With his luck he'd hit a puddle and the last thing he wanted was to wind up sliding across a locker room floor on his ass.
It was at about that time that a badly out of tune rendition of Wild Thing came from the direction of the showers.
"Oh man, what I wouldn't give for a tape recorder right now." Todd snickered. "What's the plan, Pietro?"
Leaning up against the lockers, Pietro crossed his arms. "We just wait for Mr. Pop-Idol in there to finish and make himself presentable. I, for one, have already seen more of Mathews than I ever cared to today."
"Good point." Todd nodded. "I'm already gonna have to bleach my eyeballs."
"Wouldn't it be easier just to take a bath?"
"Trust me, Pietro, there are some things that just don't smell better with water."
"Ugh..." At about that time the sound of the shower from the next room fell silent and the sound of feet treading through puddles on the floor echoed through the locker room. "Get ready, Todd. Sounds like our boy is about ready." Postitioning themselves carefully behind lockers so that Duncan wouldn't be able to see them as he moved to exit the locker room, Pietro and Todd waited. Eventually they heard a locker slam shut and footsteps approaching their location.
Duncan was reaching to push the door open when he suddenly found himself rushed back into the locker room by what looked like a blur of white. Stumbling backwards, he couldn't see the bench that was right behind him. When bench hit back of knee, Duncan went down, only to be saved from cracking his head on the floor by someone snagging him by the back of the shirt and holding him in that position. He opened his eyes to see a pair of ice blue ones looking down on them accompanied by a sinister smile. "Heya Mathews." Pietro grinned. "Enjoy your swim?" Duncan struggled a bit as he gaped at Pietro. "Oh I wouldn't do that. Wouldn't want Todd to drop you now, would you? At this moment he's the only thing standing between you and a nice cement floor."
Looking up, Duncan gulped as he saw Todd perched on the front of the lockers. Todd grinned down at Duncan. "Yeah, you wouldn't want me to loose my grip here or nothin', would ya? I don't think you'd like hitting the floor too much unless you got some healing factor we don't know about, yo."
With a growl Duncan tried again to sit up, but this time Todd kept enough tension on the back of the jock's shirt to keep him from stitting up. "You stinking freaks! Let go of me! You're going to regret this..."
"I really don't think we will, Mathews." Pietro leaned in closer over Duncan. "And you want to know why? Because you don't have your little jock posse to back you up. And even if you did, it wouldn't make a difference."
The smell of fear rising up from Duncan was almost palatable to the two mutants, even without hightened senses. The jock was sweating, his eyes darting from one mutant to the other and a little more shaking than would normally be expected from a person being supported from behind. "Y... you're full of it, Maximoff." Duncan managed to get out. "I say one thing to Kelly and you are out of school so fast that even your head will be spinning."
"Oh, but I don't think my sister would appreciate that." Pietro's eyes narrowed. "You might know her. She's in your journalism class. Gothy looking, tends to run around in red?"
"W... Wanda? She's your sister?"
"How many Maximoffs do you think are running around in Bayville?" Pietro hissed. "Yes, she's my sister and if you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from her. Your pathetic attempts at flirtation are not appreciated."
"Is that a threat, Maximoff?"
"I'm just the messenger, Mathews. Trust me, Wanda hates your guts as much as Todd and I do." Pietro averted his eyes up to Todd for a moment. "Okay Todd, heft him up."
Todd grinned. "Okay, Pietro. Up ya go, Mathews!" With one smooth motion, Duncan found himself on his feet and stumbled forward a few steps before turning to look at the two mutants with a rather stunned look on his face.
"Becha didn't think Todd here was that strong did ya, Mathews?" Pietro zipped around to Duncan's side. "Trust me, Todd's every bit as dangerous as every other mutant out there. I've seen him put holes in walls, thick ones. I'd hate to see what he could do to you."
The color drained out of Duncan's face as Pietro and Todd headed towards the door.
"I'm glad we had this little talk, Mathews." Pietro smirked. "I guess we'll be seeing you at school on Monday."
When they had left the recreation center, Todd looked over at Pietro. "What the hell was all that stuff about me putting holes in walls? The only holes in walls you've seen me make are the ones from when Wanda Hex Bolts my ass across the room. Man... Hey, you don't think he was serious about going to Kelly, do ya?"
Looking over, Pietro saw the nervous look on Todd's face and gave him what passed as a reassuring smile from Pietro. "Nah. He was talking out his ass."
"I hope you're sure about that, Pietro."
"Oh I am."
Todd looked up at Pietro and noticed a rather self-satisfied smirk plastered across the speedster's face. "Yeah? I know that look, Pietro. You got something planned. What is it? Spill!"
Pietro was silent for a few moments, milking the silence for all it was worth. Finally the smirk broke into a full-fledged grin. "Once again, Quicksilver is fatster than the eye. You might have noticed that Mathews was doing his best to divide his attention between the two of us."
"Yeah? So? He don't trust either of us farther than he can toss Freddy."
"True, but it gave me the opportunity to slip in a little 'insurance' into Mathews' bag."
A confused look crossed over Todd's face. "Insurance? Pietro, if Mathews does something about this, then we're the ones who are gonna be needing the insurance."
"Ah, my dear Todd, you forget that my lovely sister is in the journalism class. As such, she has access to the Audio/Visual department and all their wonderful little techno goodies inside."
"So what? You gonna pull a Mike Wallace on the guy or something?"
"Have, Todd. We have pulled a Mike Wallace on him."
"You wanna run that past me again?"
Pietro started to look almost smug. "About a month ago Mathews and his jock squad dumped you in that trash can and rolled you down the halls after school, remember?"
Todd winced. "How could I not, yo? It took both you and Lance to pull me out, my ears were ringing for the next ten minutes, and I smelled worse than usual."
"Well, thanks to your selfless martyrdom," Pietro paused to gesture theatrically, "Wanda and I were able to get the whole thing on tape. Duncan tries anything, and a copy of that tape - colorful anti-mutant epithets and all - gets sent to both the Bayville Times and the local news. Imagine the headlines!" Pietro grabbed Todd around the shoulder and moved his hand in the air as if visualising the front page of the city's paper. "Bayville High Hotbed for Anti-Mutant Hate Groups!" "I'm so glad my humilliaition wasn't in vain." Todd snorted.
"Aaaanywhoooo..." Pietro continued, "I slipped Mathews a copy of the tape with that same message. If he's got even an iota of common sense, he won't do a damned thing. If he does, he's going to wind up coming off as an anti-mutant bigot. Even with the current lack of popularity of mutants, no one wants to be labled a bigot."
Todd shrugged off Pietro's arm. "He sure didn't seem to mind after that whole sentinel fiasco."
"Mob mentality." Pietro waved his hand dismissively. "Wouldn't stand up. But this... This was a bunch of bullies at school picking on one of those mutants that everyone says are dangerous and gonna wipe out the human race if we allow them to spawn. But what of that poor little mutant? Did he fight back with those 'super-powers'? No! How much more obvious could it get that your 'average' mutant is less dangerous than your average high school jock?"
"Heh... Well, it was painfully obvious to me." Todd grinned sheepishly. "Hey, wait a minute... That ain't your regular sort of plan."
Pietro looked like a little of the wind had been taken out of his sails. "No, it's not. How'd you guess.
"'Cause yours usually are more along the lines of sonic wedgies or something. Come one, is it one of Mystique's?"
"Wanda's actually." Pietro admitted. "She cleared it with Mystique though."
"Heh... Figures. Mystique's right. Wanda's got a great head for this plannin' stuff." A shiver ran down Todd's back as he wrapped his arms around himself. "Hey, how about we get back to the house, Pietro. It's freezin' out here."
"Bloody hell..!" Mortimer growled as he stormed up from the basement. Small puffs of breath could be seen as he bypassed the stairs in the front hall completely by jumping up to the second floor landing.
Lance poked his head out into the hall as Mystique walked up from the basement with a somewhat tired look on her face. "Hey, you two didn't just have a fight or anything did you?" Lance asked, a slightly worried look on his face.
Mystique shook her head. "No, no. It's just that the furnace just decided to blow. We're going to be without heat until we can get someone out here from the electric company to fix it."
"Mortimer can't? Didn't think there was anything that he couldn't fix."
Walking into the den, Mystique knelt down and pulled a few logs from the large bucket next to the fireplace and positioned them carefully. Then, after sticking in a few wads of newspaper for kindling, she lit a fire with a Zippo (easily swiped from Pyro in a petty, but funny, act by Mortimer before being transported to this dimention). She sat back for a moment before gently prodding the growing fire with a poker before turning to face Lance. "Well, he would normally be able to fix it, but it's just that the cold is starting to get to him and it's making it hard for him to do anything that requires intense concentration or manual dexterity. So, seeing as how the rest of us are in no way qualified to do anything to that furnace, we wait for the repairman to come tomorrow."
Lance looked a little confused. "The cold affects him?"
"Certainly." Mystique nodded. "While Mortimer's not a true amphibian, he does share many of the same characteristics. He doesn't have a lot of body hair and he has almost no body fat so he looses heat exceedingly fast. If he doesn't keep warm, he has a tendency to almost... well, almost hibernate."
It was about that time when Mortimer trudged into the den and saw the fire. He was wrapped from head to toe in his bed's comforter, but it looked as if he cast an appreciative glace Mystique's way when he saw the now-roaring flames. Without saying a word, Mortimer dropped himself into the overstuffed chair that Mystique usually sat in, pulling the comforter closer around him. "Awwww." Mystique cooed as she eased onto the chair's arm and ruffled the hair on top of Motimer's head. "You look positively chilled, dear."
"It's bloody freezing in this house." Mortimer grumbled, pressing himself further into the chair.
"You need some extra body heat." Mystique grinned as she dropped herself into Mortimer's lap. Instead of stiffening like usual, Mortimer's arms darted out from underthe comforter with unusual speed for someone slowed by sluggish blood, and pulled the blue shape-shifter closer. "Finally!" Mystique laughed, "I've been after that sort of reaction for months!"
"If I wasn't so bloody cold..."
"Then you'd really be enjoying that." Lance snickered from the sofa.
Mortimer glared at him. "Aren't you a little young for that?"
"Nah, I go to public high school, remember?"
"Bloody little..."
"Now, now, you just stay warm." Mystique purred as she curled up in Mortimer's lap.
"Ah, home sweet home!" Todd's voice sounded in the entryway. The small mutant hopped into the den with Pietro behind him and shed his jacket and scarf. As soon as they were hung, Todd stopped and noticed the small puffs of breath that were forming in front of him. "Hey... It's cold in here, yo! What gives?"
"Furnace died." Lance answered.
"Bundle up, lad." Mortimer muttered from under Mystique and the comforter. "You'll start feeling it in a bit, I'll wager."
"Thanks for helping me out, Freddy." Wanda smiled down at her team mate with a rare smile. "I really appreciate you walking me to the mall. I didn't expect the snow to get so deep so fast." It was a rather odd sight, the two members of the Brotherhood heading towards the Bayville Mall. Most of the roads that were not main streets hadn't yet been plowed and unlike Pietro and Todd who could both move quickly through the snow, Wanda would have spent a good part of the day trudging through the while drifts. Hex Bolts were all well and good, but they just didn't cut it sometimes.
So Freddy had volunteered to give Wanda a lift to the mall.
A lift in the most literal sense of the word.
Wanda was thankfull that Freddy was strong enough that her extra weight didn't really factor in to the energy he had to use to make his way through the snow. She had been a little worried that she'd tire him out, but Freddy had just laughed at that idea. Then he had just picked her up and placed her on his shoulder.
"So what exactly are you shopping for?" Freddy asked in an attempt to make conversation.
"Snow boots, actually." Wanda laughed. "So I won't have to put you through this again. I'm a bit embarassed, actually. Pietro said that they were calling for more snow, but I just didn't think it would get so deep overnight so I put it off a day."
"Ah." Freddy nodded. "That was the first thing Lance and Todd said I should get when winter came around last year. I had my regular boots, but they're not much good at keeping my feet warm when it snows."
"Southern boy?"
Freddy grinned, "Yeah."
"Didn't think you were the type for mall shopping, though."
"Cabin feaver?" Freddy offered with a slight shrug.
Wanda laughed. "Have to admit that I'm with you there. I was going to blast the next person I saw through a wall if you hadn't offered to help me through this snow."
"You think you could? It would have to have been either me or Lance."
"Hmmmm, yeah, the two of you are harder to legitimately toast than Pietro and Todd." Wanda mused. She looked down at the road to see that the concrete slabs of the sidewalk could be seen and the mall's large marquee wasn't too far off in the distance. "You can put me down now, Freddy. Thanks for the ride."
"No problem." Freddy smiled as he put Wanda carefully on the sidewalk. "Mind if I just tag along?" he asked hopefully. Wanda couldn't help but think of him as a big puppy sometimes. It wasn't the crush type of attention like Todd heaped on in massive overdoses, but rather just a joy in being included. While the old Brotherhood had seen Freddy as more or less the dumb muscle of the group, he'd recently gotten a little less socially akward and Wanda found that he was a genuinely pleasant person to be around.
"I don't mind at all. Probably won't be many people there anyway."
"Yeah, this ain't the greatest weather to be out in." Freddy replied as he held the door to the mall open for Wanda. "But on the upside, we probably won't run into any of the X-geeks."
Wanda nodded as she lead the way through the shopping center. The Scarlet Witch didn't have a whole lot against the X-Men personally, but it was something of a, well, a brotherhood deal. You had to watch out for your own and as much as she hated to admit it sometimes, the Brotherhood was her family now.
Well, there was that Rogue girl.
Leaving the Brotherhood and then turning into a prep/goth. It was irksome.
Wandering into Sears, not one of Wanda's regualar haunts, the two teens spent a while looking for the boots before Freddy finally pointed out to Wanda that since they're ment for more utilitarian purposes than regular boots, they might be with the other outdoors merchandse. After finding a pair that fit, the two made their way over to the food court to grab something to eat until they felt warm enough to go back out into the snow.
"Hey, where did Pietro and Todd go earlier?" Freddy finally asked as they were walking back towards the exit of the mall with cups of hot chocolate from one of the kiosks warming their hands.
Wanda's mouth twitched into a smile. "They were going to the rec center to deliver a message to Mathews. I've got a good feeling that we're not going to have to worry about him for a while." Freddy gave her a I-probably-don't-want-to-know look as they walked out into the cold evening air.
The sun was setting and the two teens did their best to get back to the bording house before there wasn't any more light in the sky. They weren't frightened of anything they might run into on the street, but at the same time they didn't want to run themselves straight into a situation where they would have to be... 'assertive.' Sublety was still the callword that the Brotherhood members were bound by. When they reached the edge of the main shopping area, Freddy hoisted Wanda back onto his shoulder and started to wade back through the snow to the bording house.
Most of the snow in the front yard was either packed down from the snowball fight the previous day or laying in totally random piles from where Lance had created 'snow tsunami' during said fight, so Wanda was able to walk the last bit of the drive. Through the front windows, Wanda and Freddy saw that someone had built a fire in the fireplace. "Everyone, we're back!" Wanda called as they walked into the front hall.
"CLOSE THE BLOODY DOOR!"
"IT'S FUCKING FREAZIN' IN HERE, YO!"
"Someone sounds like they're in a bad mood." Wanda commented as the two hung up their jackets and took off their damp shoes.
"Nah, they're just freezing since the furnace broke." Lance grinned as he came down the stairs with a heavy sweater on. "They've had a dog pile going on in the for the last hour at least."
Freddy headed in to the kitchen to get dinner started. "Guess I'd better make sure dinner's something hot, huh?" he asked as Lance followed him. Grabbing the kettle from the stove, Lance filled it with water and then set it back down on the back burner to boil.
"Probably." Lance nodded in agreemement. "Todd and Mortimer have been grumbling ever since you and Wanda left. Mystique's been enjoying it though." He added the last bit with a slightly amused grin.
Back in the den, Wanda was met by Mystique in the middle of a Toad sandwich. The three were still piled in the chair, Mortimer on the bottom, Mystique in the middle, and Todd curled up on top. The two Toads looked like they were asleep, although if the odd noise sounded Mortimer peered out from half-opened eyes which closed as soon as he determined that everything was alright. It looked like just about every spare blanket in the house had been brought down to add to what looked like a comic visual reversal of the Princess and the Pea. When the shape-shifter heard Wanda enter the room, she looked up at the younger mutant through lazy yellow eyes. A cheshire grin spread across her face as Wanda sat down on the couch opposite the dog pile. "Your shopping trip go alright?" Mystique asked quietly as she lazily ran her fingers through Todd's shaggy hair.
"Got boots that'll keep my feet dry." Wanda nodded. "You look like you've been having a good afternoon."
Brilliant white teeth flashed against dark blue skin as Mystique's smile widened. "Can't complain."
Wanda looked over at the fireplace, to see Pietro sitting and watching the fire as it crackled and popped. She hadn't even realized her brother was in the room. Usually he would have made some noise. Wanda leaned over the arm of the couch and drumed her fingers on the top of his head. "Hey, what you been up to, Pietro?" she asked quietly. Pietro started as she touched him and quickly looked around. Wanda noted with amusement that it wasn't the normal fear reaction of the possibility of being Hex Bolted into the wall, but rather the fact that he had been so absorbed in watching the fire he simply hadn't noticed her at all. It was something to think of that not only had the bording house been quiet enough for him to loose himself in watching something other than a high-speed pursuit cop show, but he had obviously been sitting doing something so stationary for such a long period of time.
Pietro's face turned slightly red, not used at being caught off-guard like that. "Uh, what did you say, Wanda? I didn't quite catch it the first time."
Wanda smiled. "Asked what you've been up to all day while I dragged poor Freddy around the mall."
"Ohhhhh...." Pietro's embarassed expression turned into an impishly mischivious one, "that. Well, Todd and I just paied a visit to your unwelcome suitor."
"So I'm back down to one?" Wanda grinned, casting a quick look over to Todd, who was still huddled up on Mystique's lap. "I think I can handle that one."
"You do?" Mystique lazily asked from the chair. "Good, then you can take him. I'm going to get something to drink since I think Lance is making some hot cider in the kitchen."
Sliding off Mortimer's lap, Mystique picked Todd up, blankets and all, and dumped him rather uncerimonally into Wanda's lap.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Wanda exclaimed as she found herself with a lapfull of Todd.
For a moment Todd's eyes flew open as he hit the couch. He looked up for a moment, somewhat confused. "What happened? It's cold!" he exclaimed. Looking over at Wanda, he grinned. "Alright! Body heat!" he exclaimed gleefully as he snuggled down.
"Now be nice to him, Wanda." Mystique instructed. "He's just cold."
Wanda glared at Mystique, but didn't move to remove Todd from his new spot. "Just don't think I'd do this for you on a regular basis, Todd. I don't like you that much." she growled.
Todd smiled under his blanket. "Too late, Sweetums, this one show of concern is now perminately etched into my male mind. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna hibernate until March."
"Gaah! Todd..! Argh! Once you get warmed back up..!" Wanda sputtered. Mystique just laughted and headed towards the kitchen.
It was at about that time that Motimer sluggishly oppened his eyes. Under his blankets his legs were moving around, and suddenly the realization that there was a lot less weight and a lot less body heat around hit him. "Oy! Where'd me legwarmer go?! Mystique? Where'd you go, woman?"
"I'm just going to the kitchen, Mortimer. I'll be back in a min-urk..!" Mystique was cut off as she was yanked backwards by an incredibly long, green tongue. She landed back in Mortimer's lap with a thump and found herself wrapped in his arms as he pulled her up against his body.
"Like hell." he growled. "You ain't going anywhere until I get enough feeling back in me legs to make it to me bedroom."
Wanda and Pietro looked at each other for a moment. "That was... odd." Pietro said slowly. "Hey Todd, could you do that?"
"Mummum...."
Pietro poked him a few times. "Hey, Todd, you hear me?"
Todd squirmed a little before peeking out from under his blanket. "Can I do what?"
"Yank someone across the room with your tongue." Pietro repeated.
"Sure I could." Todd muttered, not at all happy about being bothered. "I just don't."
"Why not?"
"Because I taste everything I wrap my tongue around. If you think Nightcrawler smells bad when he bamfs, you oughta try tasting it sometime. It's pretty foul. Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep."
Erik Lensherr rubbed his temples in the vain hope that the blinding headache that had been throbbing for the past few hours would go away of its own accord. After hours of listening to Pyro and Sabertooth bickering like children, the mutant known to the world as Magneto had retreated to his office for some solitude.
His office was located deep in the heart of the island hideout. It had been nothing more than a cavern when he first started to work on converting the island into a base of operations. Now the room was covered in small metal plates that gave it more than a passing resemblance to Cerebro. A wonderful plus of course being that the room operated much on the same principle that his helmet did, making it just about the only place on earth that he could go without his helmet and not worry about Charles picking up on his thoughts. On the far side of the room there had been a ledge that hung over a drop off of hundreds of feet. It was now home to Erik's desk and was a retreat that none of the other members of the Brotherhood had ever been able to reach unless Erik granted them access via a bridge made of the squares that lined the walls.
The situation within the Brotherhood was getting to be unbearable. The absence of Mystique and Toad was not only an incredibly fustrating mystery to Erik, but it left him with two companions who had very little in the way of use to him in anything other than a battle situation. Trying to talk to Pyro was worse than trying to convince Charles that modern art was mindless drivil. And talking to Sabertooth about anything other than a mission was impossible.
Of course, it was the mystery of what had happened to Mystique and Toad that had him more concerned. Erik didn't believe that either left of their own accord. Toad and Mystique had prooved themselves to him far too often for him to doubt their loyalty to him and to their cause.
That, of course, only left the possiblity that they were taken against their will. That posed problems as well. There was virtually no way that anyone could get into the base without tripping one of the alarms that Toad had installed as part of his series of improvements to the base. Of course, it was always possible, just not very probable. One of the X-Men might be able to accomplish it, but kidnapping wasn't their style.
Another problem was in the ablility of anyone to actually be able to take Mystique and Toad. Both mutants were formidable fighters. Toad, Erik knew, was an expert kickboxer and Mystique was certainly more than able to take care of herself. If there had been combat, then surely at least Sabertooth would have heard it. That's why that blasted animal was kept around for pete's sake!
But there hadn't been any noise. No sound of an altercation, and no sign of anything amiss when all three of the remaining members had searched for them.
Erik wasn't sure what bothered him more, the fact that his two best agents were missing or the fact that Erik himself had no idea how, why or by whom they had been taken.
With a sigh Erik stood up and gestured with one hand, creating a bridge to cross back into the main area of the lair. The headache was still there. He was going to have to send Pyro into the city to get something for it. As he left his sanctuary, he heard a commotion coming from the common room. No doubt Pyro and Sabertooth were once again at each other's throats. Erik shook his head. One of these days Sabertooth was going to catch that boy without that lighter and Pyro would be shredded to ribbons. At least when Toad had picked fights with Sabertooth it was the knowledge that he would be able to easily escape.
A sudden crash made Erik wince.
He had to find Mystique and Toad. He was going to lose what was left of his sanity if this kept up for much longer.