HOP, Part Deux.
===.X.X.X.X.===
Lightning crackled across the sky and thunder boomed.
"TOOOOOOAAAAAD!" Fred Dukes bellowed. He could clearly be heard over the wind.
"Hey Toad!" Lance Alvers hollered.
"Where-the-hell-are-you, man?" Pietro Maximoff yelled.
"Toad, where are you?" his twin sister Wanda echoed. "God, please don't be hurt," she muttered.
They had been wandering around Bayville's central park for about an hour, now, trudging through the mud and the rain, calling for their friend. None of them would admit it to any of the others, but they were all worried as hell. It just wasn't like Toad to not come home.
"Paging-Todd-Tolensky! Todd-Tolensky-to-lingerie!"
"TOOOOOOAAAAAD!"
"I've got some nice tasty flies for you!" Wanda screamed. The rain was the only response she got. Water was dripping down her bangs and rolling off her stylish trench coat. She growled unhappily.
"This isn't working," Lance pointed out.
He was right. After getting a lead from some terrified Junior at BHS, their sojourn through the park was proving unsuccessful. They were all tired, grumpy, and soaked. The group stopped under a tree, to take shelter for a minute and think.
"There must be some reason he's not answering us," Lance reasoned. "Maybe that asshole lied to us, and he's not here?"
"Or maybe he's back at the house waiting for us!" Fred said.
"Or maybe he's dead," Wanda threw in. "I'm not suggesting that's a good thing!" she added, catching Lance and Fred's dirty looks. "Yeesh."
After about ten seconds of foot tapping, Pietro got bored. "You-guys-keep-looking," he said. "I'm-gonna-go-home-and-see-if-he's-there." Whoosh! He was off like a bottle rocket, a white blur against the dark sky.
Thirty seconds later, he was back. He looked positively peaked, and was utterly speechless. Everybody turned to him, ignoring the rain pelting their heads and shoulders. Pietro, with nothing to say? Lance's antenna went up.
"Pietro, what's going on? Is he there?"
Pietro shook his head.
"Well then what is it?"
Pietro opened his mouth. His first two attempts at speaking were unsuccessful, but the third time, he managed to spit out, "Toad's-been-shot."
"WHAT?!" Wanda shouted, a bit louder than she would have liked. "What the hell do you mean, 'shot'?! By WHO?!"
"I-dunno. Professor-Dweeb-left-a-message. Toad's-at-the-mansion. He-took-two-shots-in-the-gut! They're-workin'-on-him-in-the-infirmary. We-gotta-call-'em-back."
"Fuck calling him!" Lance decided. "Let's just get over there and ring the bell."
"Ring the bell? The Brotherhood don't ring any bells! We just charge in!" Fred argued.
"Shut up, Fred!" Wanda countered. "They've got Toad, and it's their territory. We can't afford any trouble."
"Trouble? Hell,-we-can-barely-afford-the-heating-bill!"
"Can it, Pietro! Let's move out, people. Come on."
===.X.X.X.X.===
The kitchen was unusually crowded, for so late at night. Kurt was sitting at the table, alternating sips of flat ginger ale and tea with honey, and talking with everyone else. The dizziness was gone, which was a relief. Rogue had slipped off to put Jamie to bed. She came in once most of the spots at the table were filled, and grabbed a tea mug from the counter. The professor was sitting at the head of the table, dunking his tea bag up and down in his mug.
Bobby was the first to ask. "So, Kurt, what happened?"
"Vell …"
BING BONG!
"They're here," the professor said, suddenly. "Kitty, please get the door and show them into the kitchen." Kitty immediately complied, dashing off through the nearest wall. "Kurt, can you hold off on the story for a second?"
"Uh, sure. Who's here?" Kurt asked.
"The Brotherhood."
"Vhat?" His voice cracked with nervousness.
Logan snarled. "They better behave themselves."
"They will, don't worry."
Kurt didn't look very convinced of this. His face had just gone a pale shade of blue. Scott put a hand on his shoulder.
"Kurt, it's okay. We all need to know what happened."
Footsteps and voices got closer from beyond the kitchen door. It banged open and in stepped Lance, Fred, Pietro, and Wanda, all wet from the rain and looking angry. Kitty followed them, looking a little unsure. Lance saw Kurt.
"So what the hell happened?" he asked, without preamble.
"Sit down ant you'll find out," Kurt replied, putting up his "macho" shield.
The Brotherhood sat, most of them with wary looks. Fred sat down on the floor so as not to break a chair. Kitty went and dutifully sat down next to Lance. The professor looked at the entire group of gathered mutants. "All right Kurt," he said pleasantly. "Now that we're all here, let's have it."
"Vell, okay," Kurt began. "It vas 9 o'clock, and I vas going home. Toad ran past me, running from a lot of people viss guns. Zey vere from an Anti-Mutant meeting. Zhey looked like zhey vere going to kill him, so I tried to help. I ran and vawned him to get avay."
===.X.X.X.X.===
Kurt was working curtains, spotlight, and moving stuff for Bayville High's upcoming production of "Kiss Me Kate." He'd stayed late with the rest of the crew, to clean up after the dress rehearsal. So he was walking along to the X-Van in the parking lot, whistling, minding his own business, when along came Toad, screaming like a girl and hopping past him at an amazing clip.
Kurt was confused --- until he saw Duncan Matthews and about sixty other guys trailing Toad, yelling and calling him a "Mutie." And then Duncan pulled a gun. Kurt was a bit alarmed. But when all the rest of the guys pulled guns too, he realized this would get really ugly, really fast, if he didn't do something. So he ducked behind a tree, turned off his inducer, and teleported to the top of a nearby church. From his new vantage point he saw Toad hop into the park and stop in a clearing, so he appeared beside him (scaring the crap out of him) and warned him that Duncan and his friends all had guns, and that he should make himself scarce.
Toad told him to shove it.
===.X.X.X.X.===
"He asked me to leave."
===.X.X.X.X.===
Kurt was pissed. "Vhat part of 'zey haff guns' don't you get? Ant speaking of vhich, vhat za hell did you DO?!"
"Nunna ya beeswax, yo."
That was when a twenty flopped out of the pocket of his torn jeans. Kurt noticed that Toad's pants seemed to pooch out everywhere. And then it hit him. All those guys trailing Toad had been in one of those dumb Anti-Mutant meetings in the school gym. Toad had, in his own way, just waged an enormous protest. He had single-handedly cleaned out the wallets of everyone in attendance, most likely thumbed his nose at them … and hopped away.
"Mein Gott! You IDIOT!" Kurt yelled, grabbing him by the collar. "Zey know vhat you are! Zey'll KEEL you!"
"They can't catch me, yo, an' neitha can YOU! Blaff!"
Toad slimed him in the face and hopped away, leaving Kurt cursing and pulling at the gluey crap on him. He managed to get it off, and took off at a run after Toad. That was when he heard footsteps. He ducked into some shadows and listened. It was the crowd.
"Oh, hell."
Kurt dashed away across the wet earth, and teleported up a few feet. He landed in a tree and looked around. And then heard it: a girly scream, followed hard upon by a gunshot. He gritted his teeth and teleported toward the source of the noise, and by luck, landed a few feet from Toad, who was hopping like crazy. He saw Kurt and glared at him, but kept running. Kurt kept pace with him. They both burst into a clearing. The shouting behind them was getting closer, competing quite well with the rain.
"Toad, I can get us out of here! Take mein hand!"
"Dammit, ah said get LOST!"
===.X.X.X.X.===
"Vee both ended up running from the mob togezzer. Vee ran srew za park, and ended up in a clearing."
===.X.X.X.X.===
Kurt and Toad hid behind the nearest tree.
The mob burst through the clearing right after them. Kurt peeked around the tree and took in their opponents. It was frightening how many people there were, but what really scared him was the fact that they were being hunted down by kids they went to school with. He had walked among these people in the halls. He even recognized one of the students from his History class.
He stuck his neck out too far. Someone spotted him.
"God!" someone yelled. "There's two of 'em! And one of 'em looks like Satan! Open fire!!!"
And they did.
"Ah, SCHIESSE!" Kurt yelled, as a bullet ripped through his arm.
===.X.X.X.X.===
"Zey started shooting, and I got shot."
===.X.X.X.X.===
It wasn't like the movies --- it really hurt. His arm didn't feel broken, but it was throbbing and bleeding like crazy. It is a singularly horrifying sensation to have one's own blood dripping down one's skin, anyway. Everything about it is wrong: the ooziness, the unexpected warmth, the fact that is outside, when it should be inside. Kurt dropped to a crouch and ran as best as he could on two legs, because he was using his left hand to clamp his right arm. Toad was ahead of him, nearly a silhouette against the pouring rain, screaming like a girl and yelling, "Aw God, I don't wanna die!"
They ran on through the brush, practically blind from the night and the rain. Scattered noises behind them told Kurt the mob was close.
"We got 'em on the run, now!" came a voice. "Everybody fan out!"
Kurt and Toad looked at each other in horror. They turned and ran … and smashed right into a Senior. Kurt fell over on his butt, and the Senior nabbed Toad by collar. Toad panicked and slimed the guy. The boy screamed, dropped Toad, and turned to getting the sticky crap off his face. And then Toad did the strangest thing.
He helped Kurt up.
"Look, I ah, I changed mah mind, yo. Can you get us outta here?"
Kurt glared at him, opened his mouth to say something, and bang! Another shot. It whizzed by Kurt's nose so closely that he felt wind. The mob had caught up with them.
===.X.X.X.X.===
"Zey caught up vith us, and … mein Gott. Everysing happened so fast afta zat."
The table was silent, looking at him, expecting him to finish the tale. He gulped.
===.X.X.X.X.===
Someone shot out of the darkness and grabbed Toad, who was fighting to escape. At the moment, he was struggling to slip out of his shirt, to get away. Kurt was in his uniform. He looked around frantically, but someone grabbed him from behind, right around his throbbing arm. He yelped in pain and lashed out with his tail. There was a frightful clickety-clack noise as someone readied a gun.
"Get outta here, man!" Toad yelled, his eyes bugging out. "Save yehself!"
"Nein!"
BAMF
Kurt was out of his captor's grip and made for Toad, well aware of the guns trained on him. He swung his tail around in a low roundhouse, knocking the guy holding Toad to the ground, and stood up. And then Toad was up, looking towards the bastard with the Glock … He was hopping up in front of Kurt … He was pushing Kurt out of the way …
Bang.
Bang.
And he was down, falling through space like a leaf, a stunned, terrified look in his eyes like Kurt had never seen. It felt like it took him ages to hit the mud.
"Toad!" Kurt screamed.
"GOT HIM!" roared the guy with the gun.
Kurt knelt in the mud and set Toad's head in his lap, heedless of the people around him. His face was dead with shock. Toad was coughing, and spluttering, and crying. Blood was leaking out of his belly, staining his dirty shirt and pants. Kurt smelled something rancid and realized, in shame, that the guy had wet himself.
"Aw God, take yeh damn money! I don't wanna die!" he cried. And he was sincere.
"Shut up," Kurt heard himself say. "You'll bleed out if you don't calm down."
And Toad shut up. Shut up, passed out, lost consciousness … whatever you want to call it. Kurt's thought train slowed to a crawl. They were surrounded. The guns were readied.
"One!" the leader shouted.
"Two!"
===.X.X.X.X.===
"Vee vere surrounded, and zhey vere going to kill us, and he … he jumped in front of me. Vell, maybe it vas more of a hop," Kurt finished quietly. "He got hit twice in za gut. Don't ask me vhy he did it --- it vas probably an accident." Kurt had only a second to ask himself why he was lying. The answer was simple: for some strange reason, he felt that Toad wouldn't have wanted to be called a hero.
The Brotherhood gave him dirty looks. Evan just blinked at him. Logan looked down at the table and scratched his nose.
"I 'ported us out of zere. I know it vas very dangerous to try it viss an injured person, but it vas za only vay to escape."
There was silence at the table for a second as everyone took this in.
"So the mighty Toad miscalculated," Evan said, crossing his arms triumphantly.
"Put-a-sock-in-it,-Prickly."
"Oh, what's up, QuickDick? Can't face it that your boy's a loser?" Evan replied, and stood up to face Pietro.
"I'd-rather-have-Toad-on-my-team-than-you. In-fact,-I'd-rather-have-a-lump-of-cement-on-my-team-than-you!"
"Both of you sit down and shut up!" Logan snapped. "Now!"
Lance wasn't even paying attention to this. He just snorted at Kurt. "You're a moron. Look, we're all Toad's friends, but we also know he ain't got no sense. When you offered to get him out of there, you shoulda just said, 'No argument! We're gone!' But 'ya didn't." ("Lance!" Kitty shrieked.) "Instead, 'ya let it drag on and on, and he got shot. As far as I'm concerned, this is all your fault, Freak Show."
"Oh my God, I did not just hear that!" Kitty murmured.
Kurt stood up in a rage, and faced Lance across the table. He felt his face curl up into a demonic snarl.
"You stupid son-of-a-bitch. You talk about him being your friend, but you didn't even go looking for him until it vas too late!"
"You don't know what you're ---"
"I vas dere vith him! Vhere vere YOU!" Kurt thundered.
It startled the entire kitchen. Everyone was staring. Lance looked a bit stunned. He had no idea Kurt could shout like that. Kurt pushed his chair back so hard that it fell over, and stalked away.
"Kurt, please," the professor called, in an effort to bring him back.
"I've told my tale, Professor. You all heard it. I'm leaving. Gute nacht."
To Be Continued …
