To Err is Human
By Todd Fan
Disclaimer: "If he gives me the gas and I wake up with my pants unbuttoned, we ain't payin'"
---
Chapter 19 - Darkness and light
----
Roberto groaned as his eyes opened slightly, his mind swimming back into concious thought. What had happened? Oh..wait..his father had done..something...He opened his eyes a little more, being faced with a whole lot of dark. Some dim light shone from a barely glowing lightbulb.
"Oww", he muttered to himself, going to put a hand to his head.
There was a rattle of chains, and Roberto's hand was held back. He blinked dumbly, before turning his aching head over his shoulder, finding his arms and hands were tied behind his back with chains, attaching him to the wall. He frowned, he hadn't any stored solar power left inside of him, and there was no natural sunlight in the room, he didn't have a prayer in breaking those chains.
It was then he caught movement on the other side of the room. As his eyes grew used to the light, he barely made out a figure in a similar predicament as himself, this one obviously female. She watched him carefully before clearing her throat, speaking slowly.
"You. Speak. En-gl-ish?", she tried.
Roberto felt, quite frankly, indignant at that. Of COURSE he spoke English, what gave her the idea that he...oh. It was then he realised he must have been speaking in Portugese in his sleep...again.
"Sim", he said, "I mean, yes. Sorry. My mind was...elsewhere"
"Phew, that's a relief", said the girl, before sighing, "mmm not much light to see you with, is there?"
She cleared her throat.
"Do de doo, do de do bom doo-wop-wop", she sang.
As she did so, light emmitted from her hands, lighting up the room, allowing both teens to see the other's features. Roberto blinked back at the blonde girl in her late teens whom had created the light. He was sure he had seen her face before...but he couldn't place her.
"That's better", she said, her hand emitting some light again, "I can't keep this up for long, need sound for it to work, and I'm kinda tired from trying to break free"
"Oh", said Roberto, blinking at the lights, interesting...pitty it wasn't sunlight, that was something he could USE, "do you know where we are?"
"No", she replied, "I got nabbed by some guy called Shaw right after a gig, he knocked me out, been here ever since, "I'm probably being held for randsom"
"Randsom?", asked Roberto.
"Yeah", said the girl, light flowing over her features, "you gotta recognise me, right?"
Roberto's brow furrowed.
"I am sorry, I am not too good with faces".
The girl sighed.
"The name Alison Blaire ring a bell?", she asked, "Dazzler?. You listen to music at all?"
"Not really", admitted Roberto, "I take it you are famous, then?"
Dazzler sighed.
"I'm trying to be", she said, "as long as I keep the fact I'm a you-know-what a secret...not that keeping secrets will help me now, I tried to use my powers to get away from those thugs...there were witnesses"
She sighed, allowing the lights to dim, bathing them in the darkness again.
"You're a rich-boy, aren't you?", she said, "you have that..way about you. You being held for randsom too?"
"Considering it was my father who did this to me, I doubt it", said Roberto, "and I am not rich, my parents are"
"Same difference", said Dazzler with a shrug, "your dad did this to you? Geez, that's harsh"
"Tell me about it", said Roberto, before looking in her general direction, "do those lights of your's do anything besides....well..light up?"
"I can make them into lazers if I really concentrate", said Dazzler, "I tried to use them to cut my chains, but they don't work. These things have to be made out of adamantium or something"
"Oh...goodie", said Roberto with a sigh, "then it seems like we have to stay put...and wait"
---
BANG
The kitchen door to the Brotherhood house SLAMMED open as Todd stormed in.
"That's it, Baldy's pushed it TOO far now", he said, "I'm gonna...."
He trailed off, the Brotherhood blinking at him. It was then Todd noticed something. They were an extra person up. He blinked at the newcomer, the newcomer blinked back.
"Why. Is. He. Here?", said Todd, arching a brow.
"He moved in while you were gone", said Lance with a sigh, "apparently, with Colossus moving in with the X-Men, Sabertooth on one of his 'soul journeys' and Gambit kinda...er....missing, Magneto apprently saw no need for an Acoylte of one"
"So he sent me here to live with YOU guys", grinned Pyro happily, "isn't that GREAT?!"
"Just fantastic", said Wanda dryly, crossing her arms
"Yeah, that's ALL we need", said Lance, "another phycopath in the house"
If looks could kill, Wanda just murdered Lance in the most gruesome way possible. He decided to change the subject, quickly.
"So...what are you ranting about Xavier for?", he asked.
"That whole Gina thing that Roguey told us about", he said, "he wouldn't help find her!"
"Maybe she doesn't want to be found", offered Pyro.
Todd blinked at him.
"You're new, you're not involved go...light a candle or something"
"I can't create fire, only manipulate it...duh", said Pyro, rolling his eyes.
"I. Don't. Care", said Todd, "right now, I am tryin' ta figure out what's happened with my cousin and why some physco's controlin' here mind. Go away"
Pyro gave a happy sigh.
"The other Acolytes always told me to go away too", he said, grinning, "you guys make me feel so much at home"
"Well, Sis", said Pietro, "you are offically no longer the most insane person in our house"
"...Oh....gee, thanks, Pietro", said Wanda, before standing up, "sorry about your cousin, Toad, but, quite frankly, I don't care, you can't actually DO anything, so what's the point of having a hissy fit about it"
"Nice ta know ya care, Wanda", muttered Todd, watching her leave the kitchen, before sighing, walking to the door, "I'm goin' ta talk ta Sid"
------
Roberto sighed, in the darkness, it had seemed like hours since he had woken up He and Dazzler had spoken of their own pasts and powers, anything to pass the time. They both looked up as the door creaked open, letting out a tiny shaft of light. Roberto frowned, it was artifical, no good to him. Donald Pierce walked in, followed by his father.
"You have awoken, Roberto", said Emmanuel, smiling softly.
Roberto narrowed his eyes, before turning his head away, refusing to speak to the man. Emmanuel sighed.
"Roberto, you have to understand, this is the only way we could get you to see our reasoning".
"Reasoning in capturing people?", said Dazzler from her corner, "in tying them up in the dark?"
"Shut up, you", snapped Pierce, turning his head as Harry Leland walked inside.
"We have to go, now", he said, "The mutants have found our location"
"How?!", snapped Pierce, "this place is both pysicic-proof and none of the mutants can trigger Cerebro from here"
"I don't know", said Leland, "my guess is, we have a mole in our group. Shaw's already left to a safehouse with his....special subject"
"What do we do with these two?", asked Emmanuel, nodding at Roberto and Dazzler.
"Shaw wants us to leave them", said Leland, frowning, "alot of work gone down the drain, if you ask me, but we can't transport them away in time"
"What happened to the other one?", asked Pierce, "the young magnetic manipulator Frost was supposed to capture"
Leland frowned.
"They HAD captured her, but as they were transfering her, the vehicle she was being carried in was attacked by a small group of mutants", he explained, "Frost said one of them possesed a VERY strong psy ability, he'd managed to block her out completely, so she doesn't know who they are or where they have taken our mutant"
"Well, that's just GREAT", snapped Pierce, "come on, DaCosta, we're moving. Now"
Emmanuel sighed, glancing once more at his son before following after the other two Inner Circle members.
"Well, that's a stroke of luck...right?", said Dazzler.
"Yeah", said Roberto, frowning, watching his father leave, tugging again at his chains.
-----
Wanda sighed boredly, Todd had returned back with Sidney, saying they had gone to the mansion, and learned of Sunspots disaperance. Todd thought it might lead them to Gina, so he and Sid had gone with the X-Men, managing to convince Pietro, Freddy and Lance ot go with them. Actually, Lance had gone to be with Kitty, Pietro had gone to show off and Freddy, well, he was just bored. She glanced up to the ceiling, bored, bored bored. Why hadn't she gone with them? She didn't care for Todd anymore, so why did the fact he was with Sidney again bother her so much? She groaned, running her hand through her hair. She needed to get out more. She frowned at the ceiling, their new housemate hade been VERY quiet for the last hour, and from what she had learned from the now ex-Acolytes, that was a very, VERY bad thing. She shifted off the couch, heading up the stairs, pausing at Pyro's new room, banging on the door.
"Allerdyce, are you setting fires in there?"
There was a shuffling of papers before his Austrailian accented voice spoke from inside.
"Err....no", a chuckle, "no fires here"
Wanda chose not to believe him. She flung some hex energy at the door, causing it to open of it's own accord. Pyro blinked turning his head over his shoulder from where he'd been sitting at his desk.
"Don't you ever knock, Sheila?".
"No", replied Wanda, "and my name is Wan-da".
She walked over to him, peering over his shoulder.
"What'cha got there?".
"I...err....nothing", he said, trying to hide the papers.
Wanda, however, seemed to have reflexes of a cat, snatching a paper from his pile, walking slightly away from it, reading over it.
"Nina and Leo had finally escaped from the last soldier of the undead. They stood, catching their breath, trying to slow the beating of their thudding hearts, before finally..."
She paused, arching a brow at Pyro.
"....Is this a story?"
Pyro gave an embarassed cough.
"Maybe"
Wanda blinked.
"I didn't know you wrote"
Pyro let a sly smirk cross his face.
"There's alot you don't know about me yet", he said.
Wanda arched a brow, before handing the paper back to him with a sigh.
"It's good", she said, "a little...weird...but good"
"It's a gothic romance, it's supposed to be weird", said Pyro with a chuckle [1]
Wanda chuckled.
"You should publish it", she said, "I can think of a few bookstors that would seel it, and quite a few people who would love to read soemthing like that"
Pyro gave a shrug.
"I dunno, I don't cope with rejection well", he replied, giving another of his manic giggles.
Wanda gave him an odd look before shaking her head.
"You are a very strange person", she said, leaving his room, "don't set anything on fire, we haven't fire-proofed the house yet"
"Aye, aye, Miss Maximoff", said Pyro with a wacky salute.
----
Roberto and Dazzler had been sitting the darkness for a while, awaiting the rescue they were starting to doubt was coming.
"Hey...did you feel that?", asked Dazzler, suddenly.
"Feel what?", asked Roberto, before blinking.
The ground shuddered beneath them. The tremors grew in their intestity, before stopping. There was nothing for a few moments,...that was until the wall caved in. Freddy blinked, looking at the hole he left behind, moonlight flooding into the room. Roberto sighed, it wasn't even morning yet? Well...that just sucked.
"Roberto, are you okay?", asked Danielle, running through the hole, kneeling by his, putting a hand on his cheek.
Okay, it wasn't SO bad.
"Sim", he sighed, leaning into her touch, "I am fine, Amor....my...my father, he is one fo them"
Dani sighed.
"I'm sorry, 'berto", she said quietly, stepping out of the way as Scott fired off an optic blast, severing Roberto's chains, moving onto Dazzler.
"Is Gina here?", asked Todd, looking around worriedly.
"Sorry, I have seen no one else but members of the Hellfire Club and Dazzler since I have been here", said Roberto.
"Damnit", muttered Todd, shaking his head, "do you know where they were going?"
"No idea", said Dazzler, rubbing her arms, walking over to them, "they said something about a safehouse, but they dind't say where"
Sidney sighed, putting a hand on Todd's shoulder.
"We'll find her, Todd", she assured him.
"I hope so", he sighed, putting a hand over hers, "I really hope so"
----
[1] - Pyro's writing is, indeed, cannon. He was a gothic romance author in the comics.
Another chapter done and dusted. In the next chapter, you finally get to meet Lucas's team. Oh yes. Do review. Until next time....