Ack. This is way shorter than I would like but that's just too bad lol. Just a note on my OCs... sorry if they seriously bother anyone. They're really just there for background decoration if u get what I mean. Anyway....
Review Responses- *hands everyone chocolate and cash for making her feel good* :)
Testament1- lol... life took me sweety. You know.. School, social life, church... :) I lost my weekend last time which is when I usually get a lot of writing done.
Scrawler- lol.. Well maybe not the world... but the other X-Men at least :)
Maikafuiniel- *sigh* hehe... thanks, but this chapter is shorter and doesn't really involve everyone... o well. Some are bound to be better than others.
IceBlueRose- Aww thanks :) I like the Logan and Lance thing too... they're fun to write. And yes... all the acolytes are a bit rebellious really :)
KS-Fan- Again I pull a blonde move (no offence to any blondes out there... I am one so I can say it) Yes... I did get the idea for Pietro feeling dumb knocking on Rogue's door from you. I meant to make note of it and forgot (I tend to do that a lot) So I suppose u can consider yourself alluded to :) Yay that u thought Mags was better... he's such a stinkin pain to write. And glad that Todd's mom seemed like an actual person... I didn't want her to just seem like a jerk face with no feelings. More with Lance's career here and more to come. Um... oh, and yay for a long review :)
gyuumajo- Yes yes I know... but like I said, they're just background decoration.
Windwalker- Wow...someone likes my humor... YAY! Lol Id like to see a pic of pietro in his new uniform too *grins and winks at any artists* Anyway, sorry bout the disjointedness with the OCs. I'm working on that. I just don't want to make them major characters. But n e who. I'm glad u felt a little sympathy for Todd's mom... that was my goal :) Todd's lack of emotion to his flashback was the actual reaction.
JKJ- I considered the mutant orphanage thing for Lance too... but then changed my mind. Sure as heck should be one though.
SD- Aww... thanks.
K.C.2007- Yay :) Thanks. Glad pietro and rogue are coming off as well rounded... thats good. Yay.
Kamalakali- lol, yeah poor Pietro. It's ok...we love him anyway.
Yma- Im considering having Pietro throw a fit about his uniform... but so far I can't think of a place to put it lol. O well
Rena Lupin- Here u are... more.
Tahoerollo- I still cant get over the fact someone wrote a spin off of my fic. That makes me smile.
Calamari Rings- Yeah I like Lance having headaches too... I think I just came up with an idea for that while writing this response too... I'm gonna go write myself a note lol.
Skye5- Yeesh... I dunno if I could even read this in one sitting and I wrote it! Lol.
Storm-Pietro- Thanks *grins*
Eboni- Yeah, Evan doesn't strike me as a morning person. I like male bonding too (lol... I have yet to figure out why) so there's bound to be some more of that.
Black Arachne- wow... thanks for saying my effort is appreciated... that makes me smile.
Ok...here ya are...
Chapter 19 Attack in the night
Pietro trudged into the common room and flopped onto the couch with a dramatic gasp.
"He," Pietro pointed at Hank who was in the corner of the room with Jean, a chess game set up between the two of them, "tried *gasp* to kill *pant* me!."
Kurt snickered and looked up from the TV screen. "It vas just veight training."
"Yeah but it was *hard!*" Pietro moaned.
"You're such a whiner yo," Todd said, pausing the X-Box now that both he and Kurt were distracted from it.
Pietro scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Easy for you to say. You had a lot of help from your powers!"
"You're just jealous that the toad has one up on you," Todd said, grinning, "Can't beat the mighty power of these legs!"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Am not! That's just your mutation."
"So?"
"So it isn't fair!"
"How is it not fair? You're faster than everybody!"
"But that's without actually using my mutation! I can turn mine off!"
Lance sighed and slapped a hand over his eyes. "I think I liked it better when you two were too depressed to fight about stupid stuff like this."
Todd grinned. "What? Aren't you glad to have us back?"
Pietro's eyes fluttered over to Jean and then straight ahead. "Shut up Lance," Kurt and Hank may have inside information about the boys' current issues, but Pietro didn't want to remind Jean of them if it could be avoided.
Lance looked at Todd who shrugged and went back to dueling with Kurt. So far the pair of them had been alternating who was the reigning X-Box champion. They only had two more days of summer left, so that meant only two days for a true summer champion to be named.
"Please tell me you guys are doing something more exciting than trying to decide what to wear on the first day back at school," Rahne said, flopping over the arm of the sofa and landing next to Lance.
Lance was busy trying to massage his headache away, without much luck. Hank wasn't sure yet if Lance would slowly build up more strength in his powers, or if he was stuck with headaches every time he used them. Either way, the headache he had now was nothing like his former ones had been, and it hadn't even started until about midway through his 'training,' so Lance wasn't too concerned.
"School doesn't start for two days yet yo!" Todd commented, amazed.
"Yeah I know. Tell that to Kitty, Jubes, and Amara. Why do you think I'm down here?" Rahne giggled.
"Now guys, za first day of school outfit is very important to girls," Kurt paused and glanced at Rahne, "Vell, some girls. It has to be perfectly planned out complete vith a backup plan in case it simply doesn't look good that morning. Hair styles must be pre-planned because a bad hair day on za first day vould be catastrophic. Nail polish must also match both the planned outfit and the backup outfit. It's all very logical and perfectly natural."
Todd, Rahne, and Pietro all stared at Kurt for a few moments before Lance laughed and rolled his eyes.
"I take it that is a rehearsed response, courtesy of Kitty?"
Kurt glanced up at the couch's occupants. "Of course not!" he said, but nodded his head 'yes' fervently. "Aww Todd!"
"Ha! I'm the X-Box ruler of the summer yo! Don't mess with the Toad."
Rahne arched an eyebrow and glanced at Todd's score. "Why didn't anyone tell me you were having a tournament?"
Todd and Kurt shrugged and exchanged amused glances with one another.
"Sorry Rahne. You uh, you can challenge me yo," Todd tried to hold back his laugh as Kurt surrendered his controller.
Rahne pretended not to notice their amusement as Todd restarted the game. Less than three minutes later, it was all over. Todd's mouth fell open and he slowly turned to face a smiling Rahne.
"Not that I like to gloat, but you guys are *sorry* if this is your champion," she informed Kurt, who looked just as stunned as Todd.
Lance rolled his eyes again and stood up. "I'll leave you weirdos alone. I gotta talk to the proff about some stuff." He left the room and headed toward the professor's study, attempting to mentally broadcast that he was on his way up to see him.
~Hey professor, Can I talk to you for a sec?~
~Lance! Quieter! My word...~
~Jean?~ Lance froze on the stairway and glanced around. She had definitely been in his head.
~Yeah it's me. Proff never actually trained you three on how to do the whole telepathic communication thing did he? I get random screaming and yelling from Pietro all the time, but you're usually pretty good.~
~Uh, sorry Jean. I was trying to get the proff.~
~And you succeeded,~ the professor's voice entered Lance's head and the brunette whirled around again, confused, ~I'm in the study, come on up. And you're still yelling by the way.~
Deciding that this was already strange enough, Lance didn't bother to reply mentally and made his way to the study instead. He took a seat and waited for the professor to look up at him.
"Logan told me about your idea Lance."
"Oh. Did he? Yeah, well, I don't know. It was just kinda a thought. I really don't know how it would work..."
The professor held up a hand and Lance stopped rambling. Xavier smiled at Lance and handed him a stack of papers.
"This," he said, "Is all the information concerning the U.M.P.A., or the Underage Mutant Protection Agency."
Lance's jaw dropped as he stared at the contents in Xavier's hand. All he managed to get out was, "Huh?"
The professor smiled. "I did some research and made a few phone calls. Turns out the organization you envisioned actually exists. It's an underground, and I must admit rather complex, system of homes that are willing to take in mutant children. They're desperate for more help, particularly in the actual 'street work,' as they call it."
Lance continued to stare in amazement at the professor, not quite able to verbalize his thoughts.
"Y-you mean...that... well where the hell were they when I was out on the streets?"
Xavier smiled sadly and shook his head slightly. "Their workers are spread too thin. The actual organization is based on the other side of the state. I don't even know if there is a base in Illinois. In any case, if you're interested, Logan said he would be willing to drive you up there to meet with some of the people in charge. They can probably explain things much better in person."
Lance shook his head and forced himself to close his jaw. It was one thing when this idea of his had been just that, an idea, but now that he actually knew it existed, it was a bit nerve wracking.
"Are you alright?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess so. It's just... I dunno...real."
The professor leaned across the desk and placed a hand on Lance's arm. "Growing up *is* real Lance. This is just information. There isn't anything binding about it. You still have hundreds of options open to you."
Lance nodded and picked up the stack of papers. "I can go up there on my own, Logan doesn't have to come."
"I know that, but it's always better to have someone else with you when you're getting information. Others notice things you may miss and Logan is particularly good at seeking out 'glitches in the system.' Besides, I doubt you want to travel across the state in that jeep of yours."
"Hey! What's wrong with my jeep?" Lance asked, grinning.
Xavier arched an eyebrow at Lance and smiled back.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Gambit crouched just outside the gates of the Xavier institute, waiting on the signal from Pyro.
"So, what's your story?" he asked, flicking a half smoked cigarette into the street, "What's Magneto got on you two?"
Creeper and Toxin glanced at each other and then back at Gambit. The Cajun looked almost bored, not at all the way a man who was about to break through a top of the line security system should look.
"What do you mean?" asked Creeper.
Gambit raised his eyebrows. "Don't tell me you actually buy his lame sales pitch about fighting for our right to be superior."
"Actually, I do," Creeper said, narrowing his eyes.
"We," Toxin corrected.
"How can you speak so negatively about him? After all he's offering us!"
A smile curled on Gambit's lips as he shook his head at the pair of mutants. "You honestly believe he will ensure your safety? He's always willing to make sacrifices you know."
"Shut up," Creeper hissed. "I don't understand why he keeps non believers like you around."
Gambit's smirk became a wide grin. "Non Believers? This is no cult. I don't know what he tells you people at his little recruitment sessions, but this is an army, not an attempt to convert you to some strange religion. You've got all types of soldiers in armies. The kind that feel strongly about what they are fighting for, the kind that fights because they're told to, the kind that fight because they're forced to, and the kind that fight because they don't know what else to do."
Creeper continued to survey Gambit with narrowed eyes while Toxin nervously looked away from the two men.
A small flame appeared, signaling that Pyro and the others were ready with the transport vehicles.
"And now, you two will find out why our beloved leader keeps me around," Gambit announced, and prepared to enter the grounds of the institute.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I can't believe you man. Why didn't you just wake someone up?"
Pietro rolled his eyes twisted around in the desk chair to face Evan. "Because you aren't exactly the easiest person to wake up, Lance doesn't sleep enough anyway now that Hank won't let him use those pills, and I've already had to wake Rogue up more than once so I didn't want to do it again.
"Well what about Todd?"
"Um... I just didn't want to wake him up. I don't like the idea of him seeing me like... you know."
Evan rolled his eyes and sighed. He had been on his way to the kitchen for some milk when he noticed that Pietro was heading out to the basketball courts.
"You just better be glad I came and got you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. It woulda been the first time in weeks though, so give me some credit."
Evan opened his mouth to say something but Logan burst through Evan's door. He inhaled sharply through his nose and glanced around the room.
"Jeez! What the hell are you doing?" Evan demanded, looking as though he were about to have a heart attack.
"Someone's here," Logan snarled.
Evan and Pietro glanced at each other and then back at Logan. Evan spiked out of his forearms, wincing as he did, and stood up.
"Your powers are still on probation bub," Logan said, still surveying Evan's room sharply.
"Well do you think I'm just gonna stand here and get attacked? No way man."
Logan didn't respond, instead he stared intently at the air vent on Evan's ceiling. "Get down," he ordered, and lunged at the vent, ripping it off the ceiling with his claws.
Evan and Pietro immediately got out of the way as the figure of a young woman fell into the room. Logan lunged at her but as soon as he got close she exhaled in his face. A cloud of yellow streamed out of her mouth and Logan's motions slowed just enough for her to avoid his adamantium claws.
Another figure appeared from the small opening in the ceiling wearing some sort of face mask. He reached into his coat and pulled out a syringe. Less than a second later, Logan was on the ground, the empty syringe discarded at his side.
"Shit," Evan said under his breath. In less than five seconds the fiercest person in the mansion was out cold.
Evan began to fire off his spikes at the guy in the mask but all he accomplished was ripping the guy's coat and breaking his mask. His aim was off from lack of practice.
Pietro scowled at the figure, who he now recognized as Gambit. He was about to run circles around him when something came up behind the speedster and clamped a scaley hand over his mouth. Pietro squirmed helplessly as he was forced to the ground and pinned there. He would have bit the hand but he couldn't get his mouth open. The hand was stuck to him he realized.
Pietro glanced up at Evan who was trying to avoid Gambit for all he was worth. The darker boy winced as he drew more spikes from along his wrists.
"Don't bother," Gambit said, taking Evan's moment of concentration to know the boy off his feet. "Toxin, come 'ere."
Gambit pinned Evan down and Toxin walked over to the two of them. She took a deep breath and bent closer to Evan and Gambit.
"Don't be stupid! The twerp ripped my mask off, do you really want me knocked out too?"
Toxin hesitated then leaned centimeters from Evan's face. Thinking there was little else he could do at this point, Evan opened his mouth to scream, hoping to wake up a few others, but the instant his lips parted Toxin swooped down and sealed her mouth over his. She reached up and clamped her fingers over his nose and exhaled into Evan's mouth. The room began to sway and seconds later, Evan was out.
Pietro's eyes widened and he began to kick furiously at the person holding him down. Gambit released Evan and looked over at Pietro as though seeing him for the first time. He walked over to him and raised his arm.
"Sorry bout this quickie. You know how the ol' slave driver is."
Pietro didn't have time to wonder if Gambit meant it or not. 'Damnit! Just once can't things be normal!?! Just once!' He braced himself as Gambit's hand connected with his head, knocking him out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kitty winced as she repositioned herself in Kurt's hold. Instinctively, the German loosened his grip around Kitty and tensed up as though he'd just done something wrong.
Kitty giggled softly and rolled her eyes. "You're fine Kurt. It's like, this stupid rib," She gently placed Kurt's arms back around her thin frame and leaned into him.
Kurt grinned and brushed her loose hair away from her face with his tail. Neither one of them was paying much attention to the TV sitting in front of them. The volume was almost too low for them to hear anyway because if Logan woke up he was bound to make them suffer for being up this late, alone. The problem was, Kitty had a hard time sleeping because of her rib. It still hurt too much to lay on her side, and she was almost never comfortable flat on her back.
"Hey Kurt?" Kitty said, stifling a yawn, "Have you talked to Lance much lately?"
"Some. He seems a bit... lost about zis whole career thing."
"So he hasn't said anything to you about what he like, might do?"
Kurt shook his head. "Za proff will help him think of somesing. I don't think he really knows vaht to do vith himself now zat Todd and Pietro are getting better."
"I hardly think Todd and Pietro are better," she replied.
"Ja, but zey are still a lot happier than..." Kurt trailed off and pricked his ears back. He could have sworn he had heard a squeaking noise of some kind.
"Kurt? What is it?"
Kurt shook his head and frowned. "Nothing. I just thought I heard somesing is all."
Behind the couple, Creeper slipped his way out of the small air vent, his scale covered hands and feet clinging to the ceiling. He released one hand from its hold, reached back under the air vent, and Toxin took it. She swung down, never touching the floor, as Creeper gripped his hand firmly around her wrist. She took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled slowly. A yellow mist filled the room, exiting from Toxin's mouth.
"Kurt, like, what *is* that?" Kitty hissed.
Kurt didn't get the chance to answer her. Both mutants' eyes dropped heavily as they slipped out of consciousness.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lance groaned and rolled over. He had finally managed to fall asleep only to be woken up once again by a faint popping noise. It reminded him of a firecracker, but he was much to tired to care at the moment. Whatever it was, he was now awake...again.
If he had opened his eyes, he would have seen Gambit slip through his air vent and hoist himself up to Todd's bed. He injected Todd with some sort of fluid and leapt down.
"Now that's how it should be done; nice and quite," he said aloud.
Lance's eyes snapped open. 'What the...' He jerked up, smacking his head on the bunk above him as he did.
Gambit spun around in surprise and looked at Lance. "Aww hell. There's two of you."
"Wha?" Lance muttered, trying to shake off both the sleep and the thwack to his head at the same time.
Gambit shook his head and before Lance could figure out what was going on, pulled out another syringe.
'What the hell? Aw shit... that's definitely a needle.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Gambit unlocked the front doors and smirked. This had been almost too easy.
"Alright boys, come and get 'em," he said into his com link. "Enjoy yourselves?" He asked the two mutants next to him.
Toxin scowled at him. "I wasn't aware they were children."
"Ah, well, details details, right? You'll find that the boss leaves out loads of information." he turned to face Creeper, "What happened to you?"
Creeper narrowed his eyes at Gambit again and set his jaw. He was nursing a two deep gashes on his forearm. "The brat bit me. She turned into a stupid dog thing and bit me."
"It was a wolf actually," Toxin said with a smirk.
Fred, Colossus, and Pyro entered, ending the discussion. Fred lumbered off towards the stairs but Pyro and Colossus looked at Gambit.
"Careful with the Shadowcat girl. She's still got a bad rib I think. The boy with the long blonde hair seems to be pretty bruised up from last time as well. You'd think that would've healed by now."
The two mutants nodded and headed after Fred. The group split up and began to bring the students and instructors to several vans, locking metal cuffs around each one's wrists and ankles.
St. John looked down at Pietro and Evan, who had been left sprawled out on the floor.
"Part of me thinks I should just leave ya here mate. Don't think I don't want to," he said, picking Pietro up and slinging him over his shoulder. "But it won't do you any good. He'd still find you somehow."
AN: I know there's a lot that needs to be answered about this but I'll get there. Leave any questions with the review box :) Umm... coming soon... Father son issues (aww) very angry teenagers, Wanda finally enters (umm... maybe not next chapter but possibly... definitely within the next two) Fred and brohood confrontation...ummm... and then more stuff. We're getting to the end of the fic tho guys... I cant decide if that makes me extremely happy or a lil sad. Anyway, please review and let me know what ya think. Thanks.
Review Responses- *hands everyone chocolate and cash for making her feel good* :)
Testament1- lol... life took me sweety. You know.. School, social life, church... :) I lost my weekend last time which is when I usually get a lot of writing done.
Scrawler- lol.. Well maybe not the world... but the other X-Men at least :)
Maikafuiniel- *sigh* hehe... thanks, but this chapter is shorter and doesn't really involve everyone... o well. Some are bound to be better than others.
IceBlueRose- Aww thanks :) I like the Logan and Lance thing too... they're fun to write. And yes... all the acolytes are a bit rebellious really :)
KS-Fan- Again I pull a blonde move (no offence to any blondes out there... I am one so I can say it) Yes... I did get the idea for Pietro feeling dumb knocking on Rogue's door from you. I meant to make note of it and forgot (I tend to do that a lot) So I suppose u can consider yourself alluded to :) Yay that u thought Mags was better... he's such a stinkin pain to write. And glad that Todd's mom seemed like an actual person... I didn't want her to just seem like a jerk face with no feelings. More with Lance's career here and more to come. Um... oh, and yay for a long review :)
gyuumajo- Yes yes I know... but like I said, they're just background decoration.
Windwalker- Wow...someone likes my humor... YAY! Lol Id like to see a pic of pietro in his new uniform too *grins and winks at any artists* Anyway, sorry bout the disjointedness with the OCs. I'm working on that. I just don't want to make them major characters. But n e who. I'm glad u felt a little sympathy for Todd's mom... that was my goal :) Todd's lack of emotion to his flashback was the actual reaction.
JKJ- I considered the mutant orphanage thing for Lance too... but then changed my mind. Sure as heck should be one though.
SD- Aww... thanks.
K.C.2007- Yay :) Thanks. Glad pietro and rogue are coming off as well rounded... thats good. Yay.
Kamalakali- lol, yeah poor Pietro. It's ok...we love him anyway.
Yma- Im considering having Pietro throw a fit about his uniform... but so far I can't think of a place to put it lol. O well
Rena Lupin- Here u are... more.
Tahoerollo- I still cant get over the fact someone wrote a spin off of my fic. That makes me smile.
Calamari Rings- Yeah I like Lance having headaches too... I think I just came up with an idea for that while writing this response too... I'm gonna go write myself a note lol.
Skye5- Yeesh... I dunno if I could even read this in one sitting and I wrote it! Lol.
Storm-Pietro- Thanks *grins*
Eboni- Yeah, Evan doesn't strike me as a morning person. I like male bonding too (lol... I have yet to figure out why) so there's bound to be some more of that.
Black Arachne- wow... thanks for saying my effort is appreciated... that makes me smile.
Ok...here ya are...
Chapter 19 Attack in the night
Pietro trudged into the common room and flopped onto the couch with a dramatic gasp.
"He," Pietro pointed at Hank who was in the corner of the room with Jean, a chess game set up between the two of them, "tried *gasp* to kill *pant* me!."
Kurt snickered and looked up from the TV screen. "It vas just veight training."
"Yeah but it was *hard!*" Pietro moaned.
"You're such a whiner yo," Todd said, pausing the X-Box now that both he and Kurt were distracted from it.
Pietro scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Easy for you to say. You had a lot of help from your powers!"
"You're just jealous that the toad has one up on you," Todd said, grinning, "Can't beat the mighty power of these legs!"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Am not! That's just your mutation."
"So?"
"So it isn't fair!"
"How is it not fair? You're faster than everybody!"
"But that's without actually using my mutation! I can turn mine off!"
Lance sighed and slapped a hand over his eyes. "I think I liked it better when you two were too depressed to fight about stupid stuff like this."
Todd grinned. "What? Aren't you glad to have us back?"
Pietro's eyes fluttered over to Jean and then straight ahead. "Shut up Lance," Kurt and Hank may have inside information about the boys' current issues, but Pietro didn't want to remind Jean of them if it could be avoided.
Lance looked at Todd who shrugged and went back to dueling with Kurt. So far the pair of them had been alternating who was the reigning X-Box champion. They only had two more days of summer left, so that meant only two days for a true summer champion to be named.
"Please tell me you guys are doing something more exciting than trying to decide what to wear on the first day back at school," Rahne said, flopping over the arm of the sofa and landing next to Lance.
Lance was busy trying to massage his headache away, without much luck. Hank wasn't sure yet if Lance would slowly build up more strength in his powers, or if he was stuck with headaches every time he used them. Either way, the headache he had now was nothing like his former ones had been, and it hadn't even started until about midway through his 'training,' so Lance wasn't too concerned.
"School doesn't start for two days yet yo!" Todd commented, amazed.
"Yeah I know. Tell that to Kitty, Jubes, and Amara. Why do you think I'm down here?" Rahne giggled.
"Now guys, za first day of school outfit is very important to girls," Kurt paused and glanced at Rahne, "Vell, some girls. It has to be perfectly planned out complete vith a backup plan in case it simply doesn't look good that morning. Hair styles must be pre-planned because a bad hair day on za first day vould be catastrophic. Nail polish must also match both the planned outfit and the backup outfit. It's all very logical and perfectly natural."
Todd, Rahne, and Pietro all stared at Kurt for a few moments before Lance laughed and rolled his eyes.
"I take it that is a rehearsed response, courtesy of Kitty?"
Kurt glanced up at the couch's occupants. "Of course not!" he said, but nodded his head 'yes' fervently. "Aww Todd!"
"Ha! I'm the X-Box ruler of the summer yo! Don't mess with the Toad."
Rahne arched an eyebrow and glanced at Todd's score. "Why didn't anyone tell me you were having a tournament?"
Todd and Kurt shrugged and exchanged amused glances with one another.
"Sorry Rahne. You uh, you can challenge me yo," Todd tried to hold back his laugh as Kurt surrendered his controller.
Rahne pretended not to notice their amusement as Todd restarted the game. Less than three minutes later, it was all over. Todd's mouth fell open and he slowly turned to face a smiling Rahne.
"Not that I like to gloat, but you guys are *sorry* if this is your champion," she informed Kurt, who looked just as stunned as Todd.
Lance rolled his eyes again and stood up. "I'll leave you weirdos alone. I gotta talk to the proff about some stuff." He left the room and headed toward the professor's study, attempting to mentally broadcast that he was on his way up to see him.
~Hey professor, Can I talk to you for a sec?~
~Lance! Quieter! My word...~
~Jean?~ Lance froze on the stairway and glanced around. She had definitely been in his head.
~Yeah it's me. Proff never actually trained you three on how to do the whole telepathic communication thing did he? I get random screaming and yelling from Pietro all the time, but you're usually pretty good.~
~Uh, sorry Jean. I was trying to get the proff.~
~And you succeeded,~ the professor's voice entered Lance's head and the brunette whirled around again, confused, ~I'm in the study, come on up. And you're still yelling by the way.~
Deciding that this was already strange enough, Lance didn't bother to reply mentally and made his way to the study instead. He took a seat and waited for the professor to look up at him.
"Logan told me about your idea Lance."
"Oh. Did he? Yeah, well, I don't know. It was just kinda a thought. I really don't know how it would work..."
The professor held up a hand and Lance stopped rambling. Xavier smiled at Lance and handed him a stack of papers.
"This," he said, "Is all the information concerning the U.M.P.A., or the Underage Mutant Protection Agency."
Lance's jaw dropped as he stared at the contents in Xavier's hand. All he managed to get out was, "Huh?"
The professor smiled. "I did some research and made a few phone calls. Turns out the organization you envisioned actually exists. It's an underground, and I must admit rather complex, system of homes that are willing to take in mutant children. They're desperate for more help, particularly in the actual 'street work,' as they call it."
Lance continued to stare in amazement at the professor, not quite able to verbalize his thoughts.
"Y-you mean...that... well where the hell were they when I was out on the streets?"
Xavier smiled sadly and shook his head slightly. "Their workers are spread too thin. The actual organization is based on the other side of the state. I don't even know if there is a base in Illinois. In any case, if you're interested, Logan said he would be willing to drive you up there to meet with some of the people in charge. They can probably explain things much better in person."
Lance shook his head and forced himself to close his jaw. It was one thing when this idea of his had been just that, an idea, but now that he actually knew it existed, it was a bit nerve wracking.
"Are you alright?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess so. It's just... I dunno...real."
The professor leaned across the desk and placed a hand on Lance's arm. "Growing up *is* real Lance. This is just information. There isn't anything binding about it. You still have hundreds of options open to you."
Lance nodded and picked up the stack of papers. "I can go up there on my own, Logan doesn't have to come."
"I know that, but it's always better to have someone else with you when you're getting information. Others notice things you may miss and Logan is particularly good at seeking out 'glitches in the system.' Besides, I doubt you want to travel across the state in that jeep of yours."
"Hey! What's wrong with my jeep?" Lance asked, grinning.
Xavier arched an eyebrow at Lance and smiled back.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Gambit crouched just outside the gates of the Xavier institute, waiting on the signal from Pyro.
"So, what's your story?" he asked, flicking a half smoked cigarette into the street, "What's Magneto got on you two?"
Creeper and Toxin glanced at each other and then back at Gambit. The Cajun looked almost bored, not at all the way a man who was about to break through a top of the line security system should look.
"What do you mean?" asked Creeper.
Gambit raised his eyebrows. "Don't tell me you actually buy his lame sales pitch about fighting for our right to be superior."
"Actually, I do," Creeper said, narrowing his eyes.
"We," Toxin corrected.
"How can you speak so negatively about him? After all he's offering us!"
A smile curled on Gambit's lips as he shook his head at the pair of mutants. "You honestly believe he will ensure your safety? He's always willing to make sacrifices you know."
"Shut up," Creeper hissed. "I don't understand why he keeps non believers like you around."
Gambit's smirk became a wide grin. "Non Believers? This is no cult. I don't know what he tells you people at his little recruitment sessions, but this is an army, not an attempt to convert you to some strange religion. You've got all types of soldiers in armies. The kind that feel strongly about what they are fighting for, the kind that fights because they're told to, the kind that fight because they're forced to, and the kind that fight because they don't know what else to do."
Creeper continued to survey Gambit with narrowed eyes while Toxin nervously looked away from the two men.
A small flame appeared, signaling that Pyro and the others were ready with the transport vehicles.
"And now, you two will find out why our beloved leader keeps me around," Gambit announced, and prepared to enter the grounds of the institute.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I can't believe you man. Why didn't you just wake someone up?"
Pietro rolled his eyes twisted around in the desk chair to face Evan. "Because you aren't exactly the easiest person to wake up, Lance doesn't sleep enough anyway now that Hank won't let him use those pills, and I've already had to wake Rogue up more than once so I didn't want to do it again.
"Well what about Todd?"
"Um... I just didn't want to wake him up. I don't like the idea of him seeing me like... you know."
Evan rolled his eyes and sighed. He had been on his way to the kitchen for some milk when he noticed that Pietro was heading out to the basketball courts.
"You just better be glad I came and got you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. It woulda been the first time in weeks though, so give me some credit."
Evan opened his mouth to say something but Logan burst through Evan's door. He inhaled sharply through his nose and glanced around the room.
"Jeez! What the hell are you doing?" Evan demanded, looking as though he were about to have a heart attack.
"Someone's here," Logan snarled.
Evan and Pietro glanced at each other and then back at Logan. Evan spiked out of his forearms, wincing as he did, and stood up.
"Your powers are still on probation bub," Logan said, still surveying Evan's room sharply.
"Well do you think I'm just gonna stand here and get attacked? No way man."
Logan didn't respond, instead he stared intently at the air vent on Evan's ceiling. "Get down," he ordered, and lunged at the vent, ripping it off the ceiling with his claws.
Evan and Pietro immediately got out of the way as the figure of a young woman fell into the room. Logan lunged at her but as soon as he got close she exhaled in his face. A cloud of yellow streamed out of her mouth and Logan's motions slowed just enough for her to avoid his adamantium claws.
Another figure appeared from the small opening in the ceiling wearing some sort of face mask. He reached into his coat and pulled out a syringe. Less than a second later, Logan was on the ground, the empty syringe discarded at his side.
"Shit," Evan said under his breath. In less than five seconds the fiercest person in the mansion was out cold.
Evan began to fire off his spikes at the guy in the mask but all he accomplished was ripping the guy's coat and breaking his mask. His aim was off from lack of practice.
Pietro scowled at the figure, who he now recognized as Gambit. He was about to run circles around him when something came up behind the speedster and clamped a scaley hand over his mouth. Pietro squirmed helplessly as he was forced to the ground and pinned there. He would have bit the hand but he couldn't get his mouth open. The hand was stuck to him he realized.
Pietro glanced up at Evan who was trying to avoid Gambit for all he was worth. The darker boy winced as he drew more spikes from along his wrists.
"Don't bother," Gambit said, taking Evan's moment of concentration to know the boy off his feet. "Toxin, come 'ere."
Gambit pinned Evan down and Toxin walked over to the two of them. She took a deep breath and bent closer to Evan and Gambit.
"Don't be stupid! The twerp ripped my mask off, do you really want me knocked out too?"
Toxin hesitated then leaned centimeters from Evan's face. Thinking there was little else he could do at this point, Evan opened his mouth to scream, hoping to wake up a few others, but the instant his lips parted Toxin swooped down and sealed her mouth over his. She reached up and clamped her fingers over his nose and exhaled into Evan's mouth. The room began to sway and seconds later, Evan was out.
Pietro's eyes widened and he began to kick furiously at the person holding him down. Gambit released Evan and looked over at Pietro as though seeing him for the first time. He walked over to him and raised his arm.
"Sorry bout this quickie. You know how the ol' slave driver is."
Pietro didn't have time to wonder if Gambit meant it or not. 'Damnit! Just once can't things be normal!?! Just once!' He braced himself as Gambit's hand connected with his head, knocking him out.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kitty winced as she repositioned herself in Kurt's hold. Instinctively, the German loosened his grip around Kitty and tensed up as though he'd just done something wrong.
Kitty giggled softly and rolled her eyes. "You're fine Kurt. It's like, this stupid rib," She gently placed Kurt's arms back around her thin frame and leaned into him.
Kurt grinned and brushed her loose hair away from her face with his tail. Neither one of them was paying much attention to the TV sitting in front of them. The volume was almost too low for them to hear anyway because if Logan woke up he was bound to make them suffer for being up this late, alone. The problem was, Kitty had a hard time sleeping because of her rib. It still hurt too much to lay on her side, and she was almost never comfortable flat on her back.
"Hey Kurt?" Kitty said, stifling a yawn, "Have you talked to Lance much lately?"
"Some. He seems a bit... lost about zis whole career thing."
"So he hasn't said anything to you about what he like, might do?"
Kurt shook his head. "Za proff will help him think of somesing. I don't think he really knows vaht to do vith himself now zat Todd and Pietro are getting better."
"I hardly think Todd and Pietro are better," she replied.
"Ja, but zey are still a lot happier than..." Kurt trailed off and pricked his ears back. He could have sworn he had heard a squeaking noise of some kind.
"Kurt? What is it?"
Kurt shook his head and frowned. "Nothing. I just thought I heard somesing is all."
Behind the couple, Creeper slipped his way out of the small air vent, his scale covered hands and feet clinging to the ceiling. He released one hand from its hold, reached back under the air vent, and Toxin took it. She swung down, never touching the floor, as Creeper gripped his hand firmly around her wrist. She took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled slowly. A yellow mist filled the room, exiting from Toxin's mouth.
"Kurt, like, what *is* that?" Kitty hissed.
Kurt didn't get the chance to answer her. Both mutants' eyes dropped heavily as they slipped out of consciousness.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lance groaned and rolled over. He had finally managed to fall asleep only to be woken up once again by a faint popping noise. It reminded him of a firecracker, but he was much to tired to care at the moment. Whatever it was, he was now awake...again.
If he had opened his eyes, he would have seen Gambit slip through his air vent and hoist himself up to Todd's bed. He injected Todd with some sort of fluid and leapt down.
"Now that's how it should be done; nice and quite," he said aloud.
Lance's eyes snapped open. 'What the...' He jerked up, smacking his head on the bunk above him as he did.
Gambit spun around in surprise and looked at Lance. "Aww hell. There's two of you."
"Wha?" Lance muttered, trying to shake off both the sleep and the thwack to his head at the same time.
Gambit shook his head and before Lance could figure out what was going on, pulled out another syringe.
'What the hell? Aw shit... that's definitely a needle.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Gambit unlocked the front doors and smirked. This had been almost too easy.
"Alright boys, come and get 'em," he said into his com link. "Enjoy yourselves?" He asked the two mutants next to him.
Toxin scowled at him. "I wasn't aware they were children."
"Ah, well, details details, right? You'll find that the boss leaves out loads of information." he turned to face Creeper, "What happened to you?"
Creeper narrowed his eyes at Gambit again and set his jaw. He was nursing a two deep gashes on his forearm. "The brat bit me. She turned into a stupid dog thing and bit me."
"It was a wolf actually," Toxin said with a smirk.
Fred, Colossus, and Pyro entered, ending the discussion. Fred lumbered off towards the stairs but Pyro and Colossus looked at Gambit.
"Careful with the Shadowcat girl. She's still got a bad rib I think. The boy with the long blonde hair seems to be pretty bruised up from last time as well. You'd think that would've healed by now."
The two mutants nodded and headed after Fred. The group split up and began to bring the students and instructors to several vans, locking metal cuffs around each one's wrists and ankles.
St. John looked down at Pietro and Evan, who had been left sprawled out on the floor.
"Part of me thinks I should just leave ya here mate. Don't think I don't want to," he said, picking Pietro up and slinging him over his shoulder. "But it won't do you any good. He'd still find you somehow."
AN: I know there's a lot that needs to be answered about this but I'll get there. Leave any questions with the review box :) Umm... coming soon... Father son issues (aww) very angry teenagers, Wanda finally enters (umm... maybe not next chapter but possibly... definitely within the next two) Fred and brohood confrontation...ummm... and then more stuff. We're getting to the end of the fic tho guys... I cant decide if that makes me extremely happy or a lil sad. Anyway, please review and let me know what ya think. Thanks.