Author's Notes - Gaaa! Sorry about this chapter taking so long, but real life butted in and muses weren't playing nicely. I promise the next chapter will be a lot sooner in coming.
Freddy couldn't quite place it, but there was a distinctly different smell in the air. Sitting up in bed, he reached over and pulled on his sweatshirt before heading downstairs. There was no doubt about it - there was an unusually strong smell coming from the direction of the den. It wasn't an unpleasent smell, it was familiar, but it seemed out of place inside.
"This is perfect, Mortimer!" Mystique's voice sounded extremely pleased as it rang out from the den.
"It had better be." Mortimer snorted. "I spent long enough looking for it."
Looking in the den, Freddy found the source of the smell - a fur tree planted in the corner of the den next to the fireplace. Mystique stood a few paces away from the tree, tilting her head slightly from the left to the right to satisfy herself that it was placed totally upright. Mortimer had retreated a few steps and flopped down on the chair, pulling his knees up to his chin. A moment later Mystique nodded, finding the tree satisfactory.
"What's goin' on?" Freddy asked as he moved into the den. Man, is it Christmas time already?
As if picking up on his thoughts, Mystique gestured to a brown cardboard box on the floor in front of the couch. "Mortimer and I thought that this place needed a little seasonal dressing up." she smiled. "Mortimer went and found a tree this morning and, believe it or not, there was actually this box of ordiments in the attic." She opened up the box and pulled out one of the decorations.
It was an old ordiment, made from gingerbread, but in wonderful condition. It had been lovingly wrapped in a cloth hankerchief, and whatever preservative had been used on the gingerbread man had done a stupendous job of keeping every detail in place. Mystique flipped the ordiment over. The date on the back read 'Christmas - 1940.' Amazing that it had held up this long. Of course, it had probably belonged to whoever had owned the house before the former Mystique had. If the rest of the house had been as ill-kept as the dining room had... Well, a few boxes up in the attic would hardly surprise her.
Mortimer looked over at Freddy from his seat in the chair. "You kids had knock yourself out with trimmin' that bugger when you get back from classes."
"Hey, thought I smelled Christmas tree in here!" Lance grinned as he joined the three other mutants. "You going to do some decorating while we're at school?"
"We're not touching the tree until the five of you get back." Mystique answered. "But I might drag Mortimer out to get some other things."
"Wonderful." Mortimer groaned.
"Most people would love a white Christmas, Mort." Lance pointed out.
Leaning back over the arm of the chair, Mortimer gave Lance an upside-down glare. "Most people don't go into bloody hibernation when it gets below freezing."
"I'll second that, yo." Todd hopped down from the second floor landing. The small mutant was wrapped up from head to toe. Although the furnace in the bording house had been fixed for a while now, Todd still bundled up as much as was possible. Today he was decked out in a grey turtleneck sweater and had a scarf wrapped around his neck. A pair of slate blue mittens were stuffed in his pockets to be pulled on when he was ready to leave the house. "Hey, where's Wanda and Pietro? We're gonna be late for class."
"Late for class? Moi?" Pietro was down the stairs a second later. "Not likely. Wanda's just about ready. She has to do this interview thing for the school paper today with some speaker who's coming to talk to the drama class. Her teacher wants her to look 'less goth' when she does it." Pietro explained.
"Well it's less painful than what I have to do for mid-terms." Wanda joined the conversation from the stairs. "I actually have to do a fucking report with Mathews."
Todd and Lance scowled at the thought. Freddy didn't look too pleased, either. Pietro, on the other hand, was cracking an evil grin. "Oh, tell me you're going to be doing all of the work over here."
Wanda looked at her brother with a confused look on her face for a moment. "You want me to bring that idiot into this house?"
"Well, sure." Pietro shrugged. "One, it gives me the chance to make sure he doesn't act like a jerk towards you and two, just imagine what he'd go through being in a house filled from top to bottom with mutants!"
"Pietro, you are terrible." Wanda grinned as she made her way to the coat rack to pull on her red trenchcoat.
"Runs in the family, I guess."
"Okay, off with all of you." Mystique started herding the teens towards the door. "You've got one last day of class before winter break, and you know that Kelly will have your hides if you're late."
"Bloody hell, Mystique. Why'd you have to go and drag me out here today?" Mortimer growled as two mutants entered yet another department store at Bayville Mall.
Mystique paused a moment to look at the map of the store before answering. "Because this place is going to be flooded with teenagers tomorrow who won't have anything better to do than get in our way."
"I'm pretty sure they stay out of Sears, luv."
"I also wanted to get some suprises for the kids before I have them around all the time." Mystique added.
Mortimer arched an eyebrow under his hood as the two of them got onto the escalator and rode it up to the second floor of the store. Mystique was leaning against the rail of the escalator, with an oddly wistful smile. "Cor, luv. You're really enjoying taking care of these guys, aren't you?"
Mystique looked down the few steps to where Mortimer was looking up at her, his features bearly visible from the depths of his hood. She shrugged slightly. "This is the closest thing I've had to a real family since my mutation manifested. I intend to enjoy the normality as long as we can give it to them." For a moment, Mystique was quiet. "How about you, Mortimer?"
"I've never had a real family, luv." Mortimer gave a rueful chuckle as they got off the escalator and Mystique consulted the map for the second floor of the store. "I've been a pretty obvious a mutant from birth, remember? This is probably the most 'normal' I've ever lived."
"It's nice, isn't it?" Mystique smiled gently. Under his hood Mortimer just smiled a little and nodded as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets. Gently lacing one of her own arms through his, Mystique lead Mortimer towards a section of the store that had been set aside for Christmas decorations. Mortimer walked a little stiffly beside her. He was still getting used to familiar touching in a non-training situation, he wasn't sure if he was ready for close contact in the middle of the city mall! But Mystique had a smile on her face and was examining the Christmas decorations on sale in such a domestic way that almost made it hard for Mortimer to believe that she was an internationaly wanted mutant terrorist.
In an attempt to look casual, Mortimer started people-watching as Mystique looked around. He really didn't have much interest in shopping, Christmas or otherwise. He's probably wind up taking the kids someplace rather than buying them anything for Christmas.
Bugger, she's got me doing it now. Mortimer smiled and shook his head.
"I can't believe I'm doing this."
"Hey, look, this ain't my idea of a good time either, but we might as well get it over with and there ain't no way in hell I'm going over to your place, yo."
Todd huddled down in the front seat of Scott's convertable. It was a soft-top, and therefore freezing inside. At least the Jeep had a hard-top. Todd mentally growled as he crossed his arms and did his best to keep from nodding off. They were almost at the bording house, and there it was heated. Luckily, Todd had managed to call ahead to warn Mystique and Mortimer that the X-Man was coming home with him. Neither adult had been too thrilled with the idea, but then again, neither was Todd.
But fate was not kind.
Todd and Scott were assigned to do a presentation together in art class after the Christmas break. Since they were given a chance to talk about their project during class, they had come to the decision that getting it done as soon as possible was the best thing for the two of them. Todd, of course, refused to go to the Institute to do it. Scott had argued that since they were going to be there for school, not to fight, Todd didn't have anything to worry about. Todd had replied that the last time he had taken Scott up on an offer to visit the Institute, he had wound up getting attacked and got into a fight with Kurt that had resulted in both of them nearly getting killed in the Danger Room.
Not that Scott could deny that fact. Todd had been attacked without provocation then.
At least I got a chance to call the house. Todd thought as he looked out the window. Probably would wind up in some sort of grudge match between Lance and One-Eye if we just showed up. The ride ended shortly after that, the convertable pulling into the driveway of the Brotherhood's house. Todd jumped out and made a dash for the front door, eager to get into the warmth inside. Scott lingered by the car for a moment, just taking in the change in the house since the last time he had seen it.
Lance's Jeep was parked in the front yard, but that was just about the only thing that was the same. All of the windows had glass and what looked like newly painted shutters. The front porch had all the railings repaired and whole house looked like it had been given a great deal of mantenance work recently. Thinking back, Scott remembered that Logan had mentioned something along those lines to the Professor a while ago, but he hadn't paied too much attention to it. He mused for a moment about who had done the repair work; none of the Brotherhood really struck him as the type who was handy with tools. Lance might have a knack for auto mantenance work, but that was hardly the same thing. Scott's thoughts were interupted by Todd. "Yo, Summers? You coming? I'm freezing out here!"
"Oh, uh, sorry." Scott muttered, reaching into the backseat and grabbing his backpack before running up to the front steps of the porch. Todd held the door open for him and gave a careless gesture that looked like an indication for Scott to go ahead on in first.
Once he was inside, Scott had to resist the urge to whistle. Rogue had talked about how messy the inside of the bording how was. Things must have certainly turned around since then. The place almost looked like any average house nestled in suburbia - if you ignored the footprints on the walls and ceiling. Oddly enough there appeared to be two different sizes of footprints. Scott puzzled over the fact for a second. As far as he knew, Todd was the only member of the Brotherhood with the ability to climb walls.
Computers were not something that Erik liked to use. The flashing screens gave him a headache, he could never find anything that he needed without help, and there was the fact that if he lost control over his mutant power for even a moment he would erase the hard drive.
He just thanked whatever god there was for Google. Just type it in and let the blasted thing find it for you.
The library's computers were a godsend as far as Erik's computer needs, though. Academic enough to keep away annoying Pyro-esc teens and nice and quiet as well. Leaning back in his chair, he steepled his fingers for a brief moment before beginning his search.
There was no real method behind it seeing as how Erik really had no idea of what it was that he was looking for. Military activity? Not if the government knew what was good for them. Erik's mouth twisted into a smile for a moment. No, the government wouldn't forget their last encounter with Magneto for quite a while. Perhaps it was some sort of anti-mutant group? Erik had heard roumors of such things. Called themselves the Friends of Humanity or some such nonsense. Supressing a snort, the thought was dismissed almost as soon as it had formed. From all reports the Friends of Humanity and all their ilk were no more a threat than those ani-government militia groups that holed themselves up in the middle of nowhere and declaired themselves the Free State of Something-or-Other.
Leaning back in his chair, Erik removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Before now he had always relied on Mystique to gather information like this.
Click on another link.
Now what have we here? Erik replaced his glasses and leaned forward.
A university academic site, science, one dedicated to spacial anomalies.
Promising...
"Man, I didn't think he'd ever leave." Lance growled as he watched Scott's car dissapear around a bend in the road. "Ten bucks says he gives the X-Geeks a full report when he gets to the Xavier place."
Todd shrugged as he collected his books. "No bets here, yo. Wouldn't surprise me if he called ahead."
"I'm guessing there's a little more than just team loyalty that's diggin at you lads." Mortimer commented as he walked into the room with a box in his hands. "Something a little more personal?"
Lance hrumphed. "You mean acting like they're God's gift to mutantkind?"
"I got jumped first time I went over to their place." Todd added, "I was all invited and everything. Wanna know what happened? I got attacked by Storm the minute I set foot on the property! No warning or nothing!"
Placing the box on the ground, Mortimer turned to Todd. "If you ever see Storm coming at you, you bloody well get the hell away from her." Todd and Lance both froze. Mortimer was using a rather dangerous voice, one they hadn't ever heard him use before. "If there are two things that do not mix, it's Toads and Storms."
Lance and Todd looked at each other for a moment and then back at Mortimer. The larger Toad had turned and was rubbing his hands. They weren't bandaged any more, but there was still a residual soreness to them that Mortimer wasn't sure was ever going to go away. "Umm, Mort?" Lance took a step closer to Mortimer. "You okay?"
Mortimer sighed and turned to face the two teens. "A year or so ago is when our Brotherhood first started to really come into conflict with the X-Men. Magneto had this plan and he needed that girl Rogue to make it work."
"That's not good." Todd hopped onto the couch and then over to the fireplace to prod the dying fire back up. "Nothing that involves Rogue ever turns out good."
"I'll agree with you there." Mortimer nodded, slumping down onto the couch. "Anyway, Magneto had his plan all set up, but of course the X-Men had to come and do their whole little hero-type thing. Never you mind that what we were doing might well have solved the whole mutant/human problem in one swoop. Anyway, naturally we're trying to keep the X-Men from stopping the boss, get into this big old nock-down-drag-out. Mystique is out taking care of Worlverine and I get left with Jean Grey, Cyclops and Storm since Sabertooth's not around to help, bloody git."
"Why you fightin' kids?" Todd asked as he hopped back up onto the couch.
"Probably weren't kids, Todd." Lance laughed. "Think about it, where he's from Toad is an adult. The X-Men probably are too."
"Bingo." Mortimer nodded. "Anyway, Cyclops and Jean Grey, no problem. Then I knock Storm down the shaft to a lift nearby. Figure she's down for the count and start to head off to see if Mystique needs any help. I get about halfway out the room when Storm manages to get herself out of the lift. And you know what she does?" Both boys shook their heads. "She gives me this corny line, bloody hell, what was it? Oh, yeah, get this. She asks me, 'you know what happens to a toad that's struck by lighting? The same thing that happens to everything else.' And then she blows me into the middle of New York Harbor with a bolt of lightning! Let me tell you, if there's one way to have your day ruined, that's it! Long story even shorter, Toads and Sorms do not mix."
Todd looked at Lance and then back at Mortimer. "Okay... No Storm-fightin'. Gotcha."
The three sat there quietly for a while, no one really sure how to break the akward silence. Suddenly, the kitchen door swung open and Mystique and Freddy did it for them.
"Who's up for Christmas Pudding!" Mystique sang as Freddy set the desert down on the coffee table. Looking over at Mortimer's sullen expression, she smiled as she wrapped her arms over his shoulders. "Awwww, is someone brooding over a certain X-Woman?" Mortimer just snorted. "Hey, don't forget I got a nasty introduction to Wolverine's claws that day, but I don't let that get me down. Now," Mystique stood up and looked around the room. "Where are Wanda and Pietro? This tree isn't going to decorate itself."
"Right here!" Pietro skidded into the living room, Wanda with a death grip on him as she rode piggy back. Her face was red and she was breathing hard.
"That is the last time I let you convince me to let you carry me at high speed." Wanda said as she got down and made her way to the couch. "People are not ment to go that fast!"
Pietro smirked. "I am."
Mystique just shook her head as she pulled out the box of ordiments. Placing them near the overstuffed chair, she sat down and opened the box. "Freddy, be a dear and serve up some of that pudding for everyone. I've also got some cider in the kitchen that's warming up if anyone wants it." Leaning over, Mystique pulled out one of the old ordiments and carefully unwraped it, laying the tissue paper to the side so that she could save it for when they cleaned up everything. The first decoration was a small wooden hobby-horse. "Todd, youngest in the house gets first ordiment."
Todd hopped over to Mystique and took the hobby-horse from her. "Heh... Ain't this something. My first Christmas tree, yo!"
"First for quite a few, I would imagine." Mystique murmured as Todd hopped over to the tree. She looked up at Mortimer, who had come around behind her and was leaning on the back of the chair. Without making eye contact, he just nodded.
After a little while a small assembly line was started. Mystique unwrapping ordiments and laying them out on the floor for the teens to place on the tree. Mortimer had gone into the kitchen and brought out the cider for everyone. The tree was decorated fairly quickly this way, and the bording house's residents were about to settle down for some of Freddy's home made gingerbread when suddenly they heard a scream and the sound of someone landing on the cieling. Looking up, they saw Todd shaking as he held the ceiling in a death grip. "Umm, Todd, what are you doing up there?" Lance asked.
"There's a spider down there!" Todd replied, a shiver running down his spine. "Aw man, that was gross!"
The twins looked at each other and then back up at Todd. "Todd don't you think that's a little silly?" Wanda sighed as she leaned back against the couch.
"Especially coming from someone who eats roaches?" Pietro added, folding one arm in his lap as he started nibbling on a gingerbread man.
"You don't underdand." Todd shivered again. "This was a spider! They're all hairy, and gross!"
Mortimer nodded before shooting his tongue out to snag a cookie out from under Lance's hand. "I know exactly where you're coming from, lad. I tried eating a spider once. Once." Looking at the others, Mortimer shook a finger as he lectured. "Try eating a kiwi fruit without peeling it. And then imagine it still moving. Disgusting things, spiders."
Freddy, meanwhile, had gotten up and found the offending arachnid. Carefully, he scooped the small spider onto a paper plate and carried it into the kitchen. He came back out a moment later as Todd was carefully climbing back down the wall, glancing every which way to make sure there weren't any more to bee seen. "It's okay, Todd. I put the little guy in the pantry. He's not going to bother you any more."
"The pantry? Why didn't you put him outside?!"
Freddy crossed his arms. "It's cold outside, Todd. I don't think a spider would like it very much. Besides, spiders keep other insects out of the food. You guys never make anything from scratch anyway, so he won't be a problem in the pantry."
Todd didn't look too sure. "Well... You just be sure he stays in there. Or else next time we meet, Mister Spider is gonna meet Mister Sneaker."
"So," Mystique interjected, "any thoughts on what to do over winter break?"
"Besides hanging out here?" Pietro asked.
"That was the gist of it." Mystique nodded. I thought you all might enjoy actually getting out of Bayville for a little while."
"Going someplace for New Year's would be fun." Wanda ventured. "And there are a lot of places that have things to do then."
"Like New York City." Lance tossed in.
Mortimer shivered. "Just so long as we'd be staying away from the harbor."
Mystique curled up in her chair. "Well, I'll admit that in all the time I've spent in New York, I've never actually gone to Times Square to see the ball drop. It just might be fun. Is that something everyone would be up for?"
A unanimous 'Aye' came from each of the teens.
"Just so long as we keep away from the bloody harbor." Mortimer repeated. "I've no desire to have a repeat performance of last year."
Mystique nodded and waved her hand carelessly. "Okay, no going near the harbor. Now, my connections in New York aren't going to help me one bit in this dimention. I used to have quite the network going in our own dimention, but I should still be able to work something comfortable out. There's usually some charitable group or another who is willing to foot the bill for some underprivilaged teenagers to experiance the culture and ambiance of New York." "Or failing that," Pietro tossed a wallet over to Mystique, "your predecessor had quite the line of credit."
"It was weird." Scott remarked thoughtfully as he chewed on an apple. "I mean, it was totally ordinary. Not something I normally associate with the Brotherhood."
"You mean to tell me that you spend all afternoon at the Brotherhood's plance, and Pietro didn't make one wisecrack, Blob didn't make one threat, Lance didn't throw one nasty look, Tolenksi didn't do one gross thing, and Wanda didn't flip out at all?" Evan leaned back in his seat, giving Scott a somewhat skeptical look. Still chewing, Scott just nodded with a slight shrugg of his shoulders thrown in for emphasis.
"I for one must say that it's commendable on their part." Hank McCoy commented. "They've gone from virtual drop-outs to being students in good standing."
Kitty crossed her arms. "It's still freaky in a way. I mean, I keep expecting them to go all children of the corn on us."
At the end of the table, Xavier sat with his eyes closed in thought. This Mystique and her companion, whoever he was, had indeed proved to be a positive thing for the Brotherhood. But at the same time, it was Mystique, and if there was one thing that Xavier had learned over the years, it was that you could never trust Mystique absolutely. Not to mention there was the question of the old Mystique. She was still around and possibly posed a threat to the Brotherhood that they either did not know about or may not be taking seriously.
*BAMF!*
A sudden cloud of sulfurous smoke signaled the arrival of Kurt as he teleported into the room with the daily mail. There were a few letters from home for several of the Institute residents, a few pieces of business mail for Xavier, the regular ammount of junk mail, and then there was one letter that was addressed to 'Xavier Institute Residents.'
"This one doesn't have a return address, Professor." Kurt informed Xavier as he handed the green envelope to him.
Xavier looked at the address for a moment, trying to see if he could recognize the handwriting. He thought he knew it from somewhere, but couldn't be sure. Opening up the envelope, he was rather surprised to find that inside was a Christmas card. On the front was a simple picture of a Christmas tree in a snow-covered field. Opening it up, he scanned the message.
Have a happy holiday season and a merry 'X-Mas.'
The Brotherhood
Logan looked up from his beer and over at Xavier. "So what is it, Charles?"
"It's from the Brotherhood." Xavier said slowly. "They sent us a Christmas card."
"So what do you think it means?" Logan asked.
Xavier looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he smiled. "Well, I would say that it means that I will just have to add them to my Christmas card list to return the favor."
Todd froze.
He could have sworn he felt a small tremor.
Lance.
Crap.
Todd turned just in time to see a tsunami of snow coming down on him.
"Ha! That'll teach you to pull your snow ninja shit on me!" Lance called triumphantly from the safety of the porch.
Digging himself out of the snow pile, Todd shook the snow out of his hair and pulled his cap back on. "Aw, that's cold, yo!"
Lance crossed his arms over his chest. "Kinda the point of a snowball fight, Todd."
The smaller mutant pulled himself out of the snowdrift and hopped over to the porch. "Man, I can't wait for summer..." he grumbled as he stomped his feet on the porch to get the snow off of them. "Nice and hot."
"Wuss." Lance laughed as he followed Todd into the house.
Mystique met the two boys as they entered the front hall. "Mind if I ask you two to keep it down today? Mortimer's not feeling too well. I think he spent too much time outside yesterday and he's got a rather nasty cold."
Wanda followed Mystique down the stairs carrying a tray with a tea kettle on it. "You think? The poor guy looks like death warmed over. I don't think he could get out of that bed right now if he had to." Scooting past Mystique and the boys, Wanda slipped into the kitchen to clean up the dishes that were on the tray. "Oh," she poked her head out of the kitchen, "and make sure that if you go up to see Mort, don't stand directly in front of him."
"You couldn't have mentioned that before I went to take him a blanket." Pietro grumbled as he came down the stairs.
"Man oh man, Pietro! What happened to you?" Todd exclaimed as he got a look at the speedster.
Pietro's shirt and part of his pants were covered with a translucent green goop that he was doing all he could to avoid touching it. "Mortimer happened!" Pierto grumbled, "Aw crud! This stuff is hardening!"
"Look, I said I was sorry." Mortimer retorted as he leaned over the banister. "Although you might want to hurry and get out of those. It stiffens pretty quickly."
Pietro grimiced. "Yuck! Okay, I call dibs on the shower for the next hour!" Seconds later the door to the bathroom slammed shut and the sound of running water could be heard.
"Mortimer." Mystique turned and looked up at the second floor balcony. "Get your tail back into bed! The last thing I need is for you to be getting yourself sicker than you already are. You're bad enough to be around when you're injured, I don't particuarly want to find out what kind of patient you are when you're sick. So get in your room and start recouperating." Holding his hands up in a signal of mock surrender, Mortimer backed towards his room and closed the door behind him. Returning her gaze to the teens, Mystique dolled out instructions. "I'm going to tell you now, Mortimer hates to be cooped up in bed. I've had to watch him before and you need to keep your eyes on him nearly every moment during the day. Just to make sure that he stays in bed, I'm going to stay up there with him. Todd, I want you to come with me for a minute..."
"You bloody little turncoats! Just you wait until I get my hands on the lot of you!"
"What the hell is that?" Wanda rushed out into the main foyer after hearing the commotion coming from the second floor. "What's wrong with Mortimer?"
"Nothing's wrong with him, sis." Pietro called from the living room. Wanda walked in to see the four boys sitting around the television, all apparently unconcerned with the racket upstairs. "Mystique's up there with him. He's perfectly fine."
"Then why's he screaming bloody murder up there?" Wanda asked, planting her hands on her hips.
Todd looked up at her with a sly grin on his face. "That's easy, yo. Mystique gave us ten bucks each to ignore anything from up there. And I got an extra five for sealing the door shut."
"You mean Mystique paied you all to lock her in that room with Mortimer?" Wanda asked, amazed.
"Yeah." Lance laughed. "Didn't think you'd be so mad about it, though."
"Well of course I'm mad." Wanda huffed. "Where's my ten?"
Pietro smirked and pulled a ten dollar bill out of his pocket. "Right here. Orders are to just let them be until dinner time."
"I think I can handle that." Wanda smiled as she sat herself down on the edge of the couch. "Mortimer needs a little prodding in the right direction anyway."
"Think they enjoyed this morning?"
Mortimer looked over at Mystique, who was looking out the front window. Outside, the teens were engaged in yet another snowball fight, this one a full-fleged powers fight. Mystique couldn't help but smile a little. When she was their age she hadn't had the freedom or security to use her powers that freely. Her time had been spent hiding.
"Of course they did, luv." Mortimer answered her. "There might not have been a lot under the tree, but I think that this was the first time they've been able to celebrate a proper Christmas in a long time."
"You're probably right." Mystique nodded. "I just..."
"Just want them to have the type of life that you weren't able to." Mortimer finished for her. "I know, Mystique. You're trying to balance a normal life for them with getting them ready for what they'll have to face eventually in the future. And you're doing a good job. They're happy, they're learning, they're going to end up better than either of us did."
"I don't know about you, but I think I ended up pretty well." Mystique laughed, getting up and reaching for a coat that she had tossed over the chair earlier. "Now let's go help them finish up that snowball fight before we herd them back in to start packing for our little get-away to New York."
Toad's workshop, not one of Erik's more frequent stops, but for some reason it seemed to be a logical point to stop on his daily walk of the Brotherhood's base. He hadn't been in the room in months. In fact, he had only been inside once before, shortly after he, Mystique and Pyro had returned to the base after the Alkali Lake incident. It had been neat and in good repair then; now was another story. There was a thick layer of dust covering nearly every surface in the room. From the looks of things, Erik had been the first person to be there since their search for Toad and Mystique.
There was still a sharp sense of loss of his two best agents. There had been a personal attachment to them as well as a professional one. They had been the first two mutants to sign on to his cause after his split with Charles. Toad and Mystique both believed in his vision for the place of mutants in the world, they knew fully the hardships that came with being hated by others. Pyro, for all his posturing looked human, normal. Until the boy decided to flaunt his power he could pass as a human. He had never truely suffered. Sabertooth... Well, that animal never thought about much.
Erik slowly walked through the room, looking at the various projects that Toad had been working on, now abandoned and never to be completed. He supposed that he could have cleared this room out ages ago and put it to some better use than a workshop, but he hadn't had the heart to.
There were footprints on the floor - ones that he hadn't noticed when he was here last. They were obviously old, the only reason they had survived this long was because they were preserved in a pile of now-dry oil. One set was of bare feet, obviously Mystique's. The other, heavy military-style boots, belonged to Toad. Familiar enough since they used to cover the ceiling. Bending down, Erik looked at the tracks. Mystique's tracks led into the room, over to the chair that rested in the room. Toad's moved over to the chair, and then away, but then stopped. He hadn't jumped, the footprints didn't show the characteristic scuff marks that would have indicated that Toad had done anything but walk. It was a hurried walk, but a walk nonetheless.
They just vanished.
Frowning, Erik stood back up. From the placement of the last footsteps Toad looked like he was heading towards the door... Trying to get out of the room for some reason or another.
Erik picked his helmet up from where he had placed it on a nearby table. His fingers drummed against it as he puzzled over this new information.
Toad and Mystique had been here when they had some how inexplicably disapeared. Toad had obviously been trying to get out. He was strong, so it wouldn't have been too much to think that he might have been carrying Mystique. Push come to shove, Toad was the faster of the two when it came to distances.
Nothing was coming. No flashes of inspiration, nothing.
With a sigh, Erik sat down in the chair, ignoring the dust that was kicked up. He might as well take advantage of the silence that the workshop offered. No doubt Pyo and Sabertooth were going to be going at each other again upstairs.
He had only been in the chair for a moment when he suddenly felt every nerve in his body go on end. Looking up, his eyes scanned the room for signs of anything that might be out of place.
There was nothing.
Standing up, Erik turned, straining to see if he had missed anything while being seated.
Still nothing.
Yet at the same time, there was something distinctly not right.
Then there was a flash of white, and the world seemed to fall out from under Erik's feet.