"Go to the closed mall on the southern edge of Bayville. The one under reconstruction. Our time has come."
"And that's all he said?" asked Lance, arms folded across his chest. He didn't like this one bit.
He had been quite content to enjoy a day off for once, relaxing on the couch watching TV. Simpsons, to be specific. John simply could not get enough of the animated characters of Matt Groening. He could quote entire episodes, right down to the nit gritty voices and accents. The others at the Brotherhood boarding house tended to just ignore him, let him mutter to himself. Since he roomed in the basement (a necessary choice considering the walls were made of cement) he was rarely a problem to deal with. Just during meals and television time.
As it was, he had joined Lance and Freddy to enjoy the show. Wanda and Todd were out back, talking on the porch. And it had all been quite peaceful... until Pietro had rocketed down the stairs and switched off the tv, then ran to the back door and shouted outside to his sister and her favorite punching bag to get inside.
Then he'd just told them all that Magneto had called on his cell phone, and given them that message.
"Since when does Magneto care about us anymore anyway?" asked Lance. "Last we heard from him was a whole two years ago. Even you two barely get anything more than a card at Chanukah," he went on, indicating the twins. He managed to totally mangle the name of the Jewish holiday, however.
"Look, I know my dad, that was him... and when he wants something, he tends to get it," replied Pietro.
"Like your loyalty?" asked Wanda darkly under her breath. Pietro immediately shut up, put in his place.
"Aw what the hell, I say we go," said Fred, struggling to his feet out of his recliner. His girth had increased considerably over the last two years, partly because of his eating, partly because of his mutation. Now he was the size of a small buick. And twice as ugly, as Toad was wont to quip.
"Yeah, its not like we had a busy schedule to adhere to," said Todd, hopping down off the wall to land next to Wanda.
"But... but... but... Simpsons!" said John, pointing a trembling finger at the television. Lance grunted, glancing over at it.
"It's a re-run."
"Let's roll, team! Hahahaha!"
Lance rolled his eyes, sometimes wishing he had decided to join the X-Men instead of the Brotherhood. But then again, without his leadership the knuckleheads would've fallen apart or killed each other long ago.
So it was the Brotherhood suited up into their new uniforms. A year or so back, seeing the X-Men in their flashy new duds on the television, Quicksilver had taken it upon himself to give the Brotherhood their new look. Having acquired the materials he needed by the usual means (high-speed theft) and crafting them in the same way he'd made his own uniform, so long ago, he'd completely redesigned the Brotherhood uniforms. Except his sister's, of course. That had been her work.
They'd suited up, piled into Avalanche's jeep and were off for the closed mall. Thankfully, it was dark by the time they arrived, and they slid into the parking lot with no trouble (parking across three handicapped spaces in the process, of course). So they piled out, peering up at the great building. The sign hadn't even been completed, and the glass was all dark inside. The western corner was still under construction, and steel bars poked out like the bones of a ribcage.
"Shadowy, hard and overly impressive... definitely Magneto's style," remarked Lance, adjusting the goggles covering his face. A replacement for his long-forgotten helmet. He'd had enough 'fruit bowl' jokes. "Let's head in then... everyone stay close. I really am not enjoying the feel of this place."
"Agreed," stated the Scarlet Witch. She felt a chill run down her spine. "Let's see father and leave this place as soon as possible," she said, zapping off a quick hex-bolt at the doors and having them slam wide open, admitting the Brotherhood into the dark empty food court of the mall.
It was quiet. Deafeningly quiet. Avalanche had seen enough horror movies to know how these sorts of things wound up. It was starting to get on his nerves.
"Helllloooo?! Anyone here, yo?!" asked Toad, 'causing Avalanche to whirl around and smack him soundly on the head.
"Don't you have any sense of subtlety?!" hissed Avalanche through clenched teeth. Nearby, Quicksilver and his sister nodded, their expressions dark. Toad obediently shut his mouth.
Suddenly, the lights lit up. Everything came to life, and the escalators started moving. The mall's system was up and running.
Oh no, not good, thought Avalanche. "Quick, everyone..." he started to say. Too late for that as well. Even as he watches, the doors shut. No, not just shut. Two new steel doors slammed shut over them, sealing them inside. And as they watched, the room quickly sealed, every window, door and the like. Every exit. Every escape.
Quicksilver zipped into action, but too late the trap was sprung, and he slammed ineffectively against one of the doors just as it slammed shut. Grunting, he rushed back to the re-join the others.
"Blob! Make a door!" he shouted.
"Out of my waaaayyy!!" roared the Blob. He charged at the original entrance to the mall, slamming his entire body full force into it. He barely left a dent, and nearly lost his balance as he stumbled backwards. "What the...?"
"Inches thick," remarked Quicksilver, running a hand along the dent. "Okay, new plan... uhm... Avalanche?"
"I'm thinking!" growled the Brotherhood's real leader. Typical of Quicksilver, whenever things didn't go his way he panicked.
Unfortunately, Avalanche didn't have much time to formulate a plan. One of the walls (a closed McDonalds in the food court) slid up and open. However, on the other side wasn't a cash register and stale burgers. It was lasers. Big ones.
"Think faster!" shouted Quicksilver, as the Brotherhood ducked for cover, sans the Blob who wouldn't have found any at any rate. Toad shot out a glob of goo that stopped one of the energy blasters. Blob ripped the second out with his bare hands, and as the smoke cleared the Brotherhood stood on shaky feet.
"Good work Toad," said Avalanche, giving him a hearty slap on the back.
"Too early for congratulations!" shouted Scarlet Witch, pointing a trembling finger.
The food court was open. Unfortunately, as before, no counters, no cashiers, no frying pans and utensils and covered straws. Lasers, razor disks, cannonballs, and all manner of deadly traps. If they did not know better, certain members of the Brotherhood would've sworn they were in the Danger Room.
On maximum lethal settings.
"Get down!"
"Oh man, this is the best game ever! Those board members really have some good people in graphics. I can almost feel how real this all is."
Weber Torque, better known to many by his computer alias of Arcade, tapping in a few keys. Boom. "Yeah, alright! Oh you are not getting away from me this time. Not like the last players did. They were good, and so're you," he added, noticing one of the other players having disabled his first attack. "But I'm better," he added, tapping another key. Woosh. Oooh, so close. Decapitation for sure next time.
"Man, these upgrades are awesome," he said, light from the computer reflecting off his glasses. "And I love this new map. Abandoned mall complex. Oh yeah, good stuff. I really wish I could get one of those characters too. Maybe after I get them all I can ask how they go about it."
Arcade didn't know any better. He thought he was testing out a computer game for the Legacy's entertainment division. He thought maybe his opponents were just other geeks and geekettes at other computer terminals worldwide. But in reality...
He was trying to kill the Brotherhood.
Another razor-disk went flying towards Avalanche's head, but Scarlet Witch hex-bolted it so its trajectory was off, and in fact it slammed into an identical one heading towards the Blob. Avalanche thrust out a hand and let the earth roll like water, slamming into and knocking down some lasers that'd sprung out of the flooring on the first level of the mall. Quicksilver was quick to zip ahead and finish off any that were left, using a baseball bat he'd picked up from sporting goods. Seems the entire mall hadn't been converted into a death-trap.
Just most of it.
"Any bright ideas?!" shouted the Blob, catching a cannonball meant for his buddy Toad and hurling it back at the cannon it had come from, smashing it to pieces.
"Yeah, keep moving!" shouted Avalanche. Realizing the main door was not a suitable exit, the Brotherhood had taken on the move, searching for another way out.
Of course, the entire mall was a huge death-trap. Nearly every piece of it had been converted into some manner of weaponry, weaponry now all trained on the six young mutants that made up the Brotherhood. However, one section was still under construction. Avalanche was gambling that it was less well defended there, and they could break out.
If they made it that far.
Pyro ducked behind Blob as another cannonball went hurling his way, quickly returning fire with a blast from the flame thrower on his arm. It barely singed the machine. Pyro was decidedly out of his league here. So was Avalanche, since in order to use his powers properly he'd run the risk of having the mall's second floor collapse on the first. Crushing his teammates.
A stray laser blast caught the Scarlet Witch in the leg and she stumbled, quickly losing her balance and falling backwards, clutching her bleeding appendage. Toad was at her side in an instant, picking her up in his arms and leaping them both out of the way of further attacks.
"Thanks," she managed to hiss out painfully.
"No problem," he replied.
Realized they couldn't run much further, Avalanche gave out some new orders. Back into a corner. His teammates safely behind him, the Immovable Blob could then stand in front, keeping them safe from attack. For now at least. It gave them some breathing room while Avalanche tried to come up with a better idea. However, he didn't have a chance. From the second level of the mall, a great metal sphere the size of a boulder started to roll down the converted escalator, heading straight towards them. And with something that size, even if it didn't hurt Blob, it'd knock him back and crush the rest of the Brotherhood. Grimly, the bald teen dug his feet into the ground and braced himself.
However, before it reached them, the great metal sphere shuddered once, then rolled to a stop, inches from Blob's face. And in the almost exact same instant, a great ripple filled the room, and everything stopped. No more lasers, no more razor disks, no more cannonballs.
Quicksilver nervously peeked out from behind Blob's massive body at the metal sphere that had stopped just inches away from crushing them all.
"What happened?"
His answer came in the form of every metallic thing in the room shudder again, violently. They crushed in on them selves, ripped clear out of the walls, and soon the entire mall-death-trap was utterly destroyed. The glass ceiling's metal frame ripped clear out, allowing clear passage as their savior made himself known, floating down to land before them in a flutter of dark purple cape.
Magneto.
"About time you showed up," said Avalanche darkly. "If this was some kinda test then you can forget it. I'm heading home."
"Be silent, Avalanche," stated Magneto, his voice equally dark, and deadly serious. "This was no test of mine. This was a trap to eliminate the Brotherhood as a threat. That call was faked," he added meaningfully, glaring at Quicksilver.
"Wot?! By oo?! Oo would want ta take us out?" asked Pyro, pushing his way past Quicksilver and out from behind the Blob to stand before Magneto.
"They call themselves the Circle," replied Magneto. "I erred when I dealt with them, thinking they would keep their word and protect you all. They have betrayed me, and brought you here to kill you all."
"Then I say we return the favor!" replied Avalanche, smacking a fist into his open palm.
"Agreed. You all come with me," ordered Magneto. "We'll deal with the source of this."
"Todd, stay here with Wanda," said Avalanche as he and the others jogged to catch up with their semi-leader Magneto. Todd nodded eagerly, gently placing Wanda down on the ground now that they were out of danger.
She was still conscious, still aware of everything. Mostly aware of the intense pain in her leg. The energy blast had sliced past her, missing actually, so it'd more grazed than anything else. But it still hurt abysmally.
"Wait here Wanda," said Todd, trying to keep his voice soothing to comfort her. "I'll go break into the CVS we saw a few stores back, maybe they got a first aid kit or something," he added as he hopped off to get her help.
Wanda lay back and sighed deeply, closing her eyes as she waited for Todd to return. Damnit, after this she was going to have to be nicer to him. Then he'd misinterpret her nice gestures to mean that she actually liked him and overstep his bounds, and then she'd have to hex him out a window again. Damnit, why did he have to...
... be so nice to her?
Arcade grunted, tapping in keys, fiddling with the controls on his computer. Damnit, maybe my connection died on me, he thought, smacking the screen lightly to see if anything changed. It didn't. He could still see everything, but nothing worked. None of the traps he'd set went off. And now four of the players, plus that really good one who'd just shown up, had just left the game.
"Damnit, and I was going for high score!" he shouted to no one in particular.
A sudden wrenching sound nearly made the poor computer gamer leap out of his seat in shock, as the door suddenly came off its hinges, ripped clean off by what a giant of a man. Wait a minute... that was player 2! How the hell did... what the hell is going on?!
Arcade tried to get up and turn to face those who'd just broken into his office but a metal bar slammed into him forcefully, pinning him against the wall. What was going on? How... oh no... that must've meant... they were mutants! It wasn't a game!
"I hope you enjoy the irony of being slain by your own weapons, whoever you are," said Magneto, levitating in one of the razor-disks that had nearly killed his Brotherhood. He sent it to spinning with a thought, inches away from Arcade's unprotected neck.
"Wait! No! You gotta believe me, I didn't know I was fighting mutants, I thought it was just a game! Honest!"
"A game?" growled Magneto darkly. "You think to hunt and kill mutants is a game?!"
Avalanche grabbed Magneto, who looked like he was tempted to forgo the disk and kill Arcade with his bare hands.
"Wait, Magneto... I know this guy. He went to Bayville. I think he's telling the truth."
"He tried to kill you all, and you want me to let him live?" asked Magneto, letting his disk continue to hover, spinning like a saw as he regarded what he knew was the Brotherhood's true leader. Avalanche did not back down.
"We think we're better than them, right? That we're superior. Let's show it right now, but showing we don't have to sink to their level. Let's show them mercy."
Magneto growled darkly, and for a long few moments stood their, thinking. Thinking of his own ideals, of what Avalanche had just posed to him. About Charles, and what he would have done. All his life, Eric had tried to do what was right. Others would label him a monster, a madman, a terrorist, or just plain evil. He was fighting for his people. He did not enjoy killing humans, but he felt no remorse about it either. He had seen first hand the evils they could commit, and had felt it. The mark on his arm would never fade, the numbers that had been branded there. But he also knew some humans could be good. His parents, for the brief time he'd known them, had been good. His father had risked his life to try and find Eric after they'd been separated. Magda had been good too, and her presence had soothed his troubled spirit. So it was that Magneto found himself questioning his principles.
Finally, the metal bar holding Arcade and the disk both dropped to the ground harmlessly, giving the red-headed man a chance to breath.
"You have been warned," stated Magneto darkly, turning to depart. "Next time, do not expect me to be so merciful."
And Arcade watched as the mutants grabbed up their comrades from below and departed the death-trap mall. Now that he was out of the office, he could see for himself. It was a trap. He'd been used. Tricked by the company. But why?
He didn't know but, right now, he didn't want to know.
"They're getting my two weeks notice," he said dimly.
Author's Notes:
And a scene for the Brotherhood, in case you all thought I'd forgotten them. Fat chance. Red Witch long ago got me hooked on the lovable antics of the neglected mutants. A glimpse into their new uniforms as well, as well as explanations for how they came into existence. Arcade setting up death-traps? Not entirely unthinkable, as his comic incarnation was a psychotic master of death-traps. Evo's is just a manipulated and misunderstood geek. And I say that in a good way. Magneto's back, hooray, and he's a good guy again! Double hooray! And Wanda and Todd sharing a semi-tender moment, isn't it sweet?
SperryDee: Oh, well in that case... no it isn't her. I told everyone, it's a frickin' OC!
Pixie Stix Addict: Rahne recognizes a lot of scents because of perfumes and colognes worn around the mansion. Or around school. Her nose is more powerful than Logan's, after all, just not her other senses. And yes, yes we shall have a showdown of the Hydra clones. And as for Prof X, be fair to him. He has faced both Apocalypse and (in the comics at least) the Shadow King. He's met powerful telepaths before who weren't his psychotic son. No, Ilyana is not a sorceress. Like Amanda, I am making her a latent mutant. Lucas isn't a pervert. Just... well, a jerk.
Todd fan: They're just coming out now where you live? Hooray, then you can write about them more and better! Hooray! Huzzah! Whoop-dee-doo! More power to crazy Todd fan and her stories!
Comet-hime: Dramatic, isn't it? I swear I use that gazebo entirely too much, but meh. And yeah, poor Mystique for her messed-up family. Nyx? Is that even a word? I thought those were initials for like New York X23. Don't worry, plenty of fodder for your piccies, as always. You know I love 'em. I'm still waiting for my next issue of Playmutant. I'm done 'reading the articles' of the first one.
ViciousAssassin: Wow, that's a mouthful. Okay, yeah its X25. As for dividing up the X-Men, yeah, you've got a fairly good idea of what's going on. There is a good reason behind everything the Circle does. As for Mystique's crying, ever hear of acting? Or maybe the phrase 'crocodile's tears'? Heh. Mystique always plays on the same side. Her own. You can call Jean Phoenix, but neither she nor the Circle are responsible for the meteors. But they are important later. Well, soon, actually. Very soon. New Recruits get custom uniforms, same as the other X-Men. I'm basing them off of their comic-incarnations, as you'll see later when they show up. The Cauldron… I don't think that was space. If it was, how did Scott and Alex survive such a fall? I think perhaps they were simply over a very dark part of the earth (maybe one of the poles?) As for death, not giving away spoilers. No way sirree. Not gonna tell. But major yeah.
Star-of-chaos: Then let her play cards if she wants to have fun. Not everyone needs to do the vertical tango to enjoy life ('course I speak from the perspective of someone both single and desperate, so what do I know?). And yeah, Mystique can act but only so well. Particular Evo Mystique. She's decidedly more aggressive and direct than any of her previous incarnations.
Risty: Since I already revealed it, yes, its X25. She survived… cue dramatic music. And definently yeah more to Mystique. And Magneto, and most X-Men villains. That's why I love them so much. They're more than just evil villains, they're people.
Rogue14: Working as fast as I can with the situation I'm in (being at home and dealing with class). But yes on to the action, where my talents truly seem to lie in writing.
Crazyspacetracey: Like the Evo show, I take from the comics and try to build or improve upon it for the characters, but I'm glad you're enjoying it. Cute name, by the way.
Nessie6: Kidnap Jean to have Mastermind brainwash her into becoming Black Queen? It was done in the comics, so I did it here. But yeah, the Mystique impersonation was a little twist of mine. After all, Jean missing might've been noticed. Complicated? Hell yeah. But it gets better as things move alone. Prepare for the unexpected!
Princess Myra: You may've noticed that during those two weeks, Mystique was avoiding Scott. She was having troubles all along, just trying to hide them. So being in a spot where she'd "died," being confronted by Scott, and seeing both her kids? It'd be hard for anyone to keep up the act.
Oceanbang: Sister by circumstances of birth of nothing else. Yeah, I expect the mother of all cat-fights from the femme fatales. Glad you liked the portrayal of Mystique and her real human vulnerability. I don't think she's quite as evil as some people make her out to be.
CrypticIdentity: It happens, albeit rarely, when my clues happen to connect with someone. She wasn't the voice in chapter one, that was Magneto. She was voiced later on, as someone referred to as an actress. As for the redheaded -japanese- lady, its X25, clone of Yuriko. You did get it was a clone though, so have a cookie.