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I'm back gain! Here it comes! Any second now! Now! Are you reading this? Why are you still reading this?! Read the story!

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The door of the Brotherhood house rattled on its hinges as a person outside pounded ferociously on it.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'!" shouted Toad as he hopped towards the door. In the blink of an eye his tongue shot out and wrapped around the grimy brass knob, a second later the door was open.

"Uh…uh, Mystique?" he blathered nervously, "Where'd you come from? I thought you was in Pennsylvania…"

"Well apparently I'm not any more," Mystique growled, "so astute of you to notice," she added, looking down at the boy as if he were a puddle of slime mould.

"Whatja doin' back so soon?" He asked distractedly, shoving a dirty finger in his ear and picking out little bits of scum.

"None of your business," she snapped as she looked past him down the hall, "where are the others."

"Uh, I dunno, probably somewhere around, yo. Like sleepin' er somethin'."

"Well would you please get them?" Mystique asked. Toad seemed to miss the deadly honeyed tone in her voice.

He turned and yelled up the stairs, "Hey, yo! The Boss lady's back and she wants ta talk!!"

Mystique rolled her eyes, "Todd, you idiot, I could have done that myself."

"Oh, but it's so much more pathetic when he does it," sneered a voice from behind her.

Toad craned his neck in an attempt to see the speaker, "Yo Crawler."

Kurt raised his eyebrows in disdain but didn't answer.

"Did you say something?" called a groggy voice from upstairs.

"Yes, I said if you don't get your sorry excuse for an ass down here in five seconds I shall personally have it flayed!" Mystique responded hotly, rapidly losing her patience.

"It's like four in the morning," mumbled Lance as he descended the stairs in a most ungraceful manner. Behind him Fred and Pietro stumbled awkwardly.

"I am aware of that," she said quickly. Behind her Kurt yawned widely, Toad grimaced at the exposure of his sharp fangs. "There is something I need you to do." She paused, checking that the sleepy boys were listening. "At some point this morning a truck will be entering Bayville-"

Pietro scoffed, "Yeah that's never happened before."

She shot him a look filled with daggers, "It has something very valuable onboard. I want you to stop it. We will do the rest," she finished, indicating herself and her son.

"Hey! Look who it is! Bluie!" Pietro exclaimed in a glee that dripped with sarcasm.

Kurt scowled and raised his lip in disgust, his white fangs flashing in the dim light.

"Hey! I thought that's what you two left to do," the speedy boy continued, talking so fast that he was unaware of the trouble he was racing into, "What's the matter? Did your little pet fail his mission-" But he stopped there, gurgling as Kurt's three fingered hand shot out and tightened around his throat. Kurt leaned close into Pietro face, his teeth clenched, about to speak when Mystique separated the two. Pietro gasped for air and gave Kurt a murderous glance. Mystique glared at him.

"Keep your mouth to your to yourself and my matters to me." She turned to Kurt and smiled, "You'd better go rest." Immediately he was gone in a puff of smoke, presumably to the palatial bedroom awaiting him upstairs.

Mystique turned back to the exhausted Brotherhood boys. She smiled again, though much more coldly, "as for you," she laughed to herself before shouting with contempt, "Go back to bed!"

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"Like, I can't wait to get a snack, I totally missed breakfast today," babbled Kitty. "Uh," she groaned exasperatedly, "Like, who drank the last of the milk?" She glared accusingly at the others in the room around her.

"Wasn't us," said Multiple as he and his temporary clones raided the cabinets.

Kitty rolled her eyes, "Now what am I, like, going to have with my cookies?" She grabbed a couple Oreos and stormed out of the room.

"What's with her?" Scott asked as she brushed by him in the doorway.

"Evan drank all the milk again," the young boy replied as his last clone disappeared with a 'pop'.

"She's probably annoyed that school is starting next week," Jean butted in, "No one's looking forward to summer being over".

"Or the homework," pointed out Evan with a thick laugh, edging past Scott and promptly taking a fistful of cookies.

All of the teenagers in the room sighed. Summer was drawing to a close, and no one wanted so see it end.

"Oh, well. At least we'll have something to keep us busy, right?" blurted Jean optimistically.

"Yeah, that'll be great…" mumbled Rogue sarcastically before sulking off to her room. She didn't get very far before she stopped, listening. She turned to the others, meeting their eyes. They had heard it too.

*X-men* the professor stated telepathically, *Quickly. The Brotherhood boys are causing trouble downtown!*

"We're on it!" Scott answered, both to Xavier and the looks of his teammates.

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TTFN, ta ta for now! Perhaps you might even get more later. Like I said, I'm keeping the chapters short for a reason:

1) I want to make the story last as long as possible

2) It's suspense! It keeps you reading!

If I feel like I won't be updating for awhile, I'll try not to end it so annoyingly :)