"Ugh!" Kitty Pryde muttered as her locker stuck again, for the fifth time. It seemed to have a hex on it. Every time she tried to open it, the lock wouldn't budge. This was the fifth time today and it was really beginning to get her down.
"Need some help?" Lance Alvers seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Yeah, please. This is, like, the fifth time." Kitty moaned to her boyfriend.
Lance placed his right hand on the locker and closed his eyes. Kitty waited for the inevitable shaking of the ground and almost all of the lockers falling open. To her surprise, that didn't happen. With his eyes closed, Lance had a look of extreme concentration on his face. Kitty looked on as only the floor beneath her locker vibrated a little and then the door popped open.
He's really getting control, Kitty thought to herself. This is the first time he hasn't demolished anything.
"There. Now what else can I do for you?" Lance said cheerfully and turned towards Kitty. There were a few beads of sweat on his forehead but besides that he seemed fine. Kitty couldn't tell but it had taken Lance almost all of his self-control to perform that simple action. He had tried and tried and finally it had paid off. He wanted to show Kitty that he wasn't all about destroying stuff. Recently he had gained a lot of control over his powers.
"Um…nothing right now but you can, like, walk me to class," Kitty said as she got her Biology book and slammed the door shut.
Lance took her left hand in his right and they both walked down the hallway, hand in hand. He walked her till the door and then kissed her cheek lightly. It had taken him ages to get till the casual kiss stage. There had been a lot of trouble and most of it was due to those X-geeks. He had a free period so he took his time walking to the field. There was football practice going on and Lance quickly ducked beneath the bleachers before anyone from the team saw him. Those jocks didn't like Lance and Lance didn't like them. He wasn't afraid or anything but he didn't want to get into trouble. That would just give the X-men another reason to convince Kitty to stay away from him. And he didn't want that.
Max was already there, smoking. He was wearing a pair of tattered jeans, Converse sneakers and a green T-shirt. He had long hair that came down to his neck, which he never combed and looked like, never washed too. He took one look at Lance and turned back to watching the cheerleaders practice. Max was one of the few people that Lance hung out with. Besides his Brotherhood mutant pals, he didn't really have a friend. Max wasn't a mutant but he and Lance got along. They usually hung out beneath the bleachers, smoking, talking about stuff or just listening to music. Max had this Sony Walkman with huge headphones and they both took turns listening while the other smoked. This time, Lance picked up the headphones and put them on. He rotated through the songs till he came to one he liked, "Trigger" by In Flames.
He was soon lost in the tunes and didn't hear Todd Tolansky, better known as Toad, appear. Todd grabbed the headphones and put them on. Lance was jerked out his semi-comatose stupor, irritated and angry.
"Toad! Give 'em back or you'll suffer." He said threateningly. Of all the mutants, he couldn't stand Toad. Toad was smelly and irritating. Lance had zero tolerance for him.
Toad ignored him and continued to listen. He didn't hear Max approach and grab the headphones as rudely as he had done before.
"That was rude!" Toad said indignantly, flicking his tongue over his face.
"Get away, Toad. I don't want you stinking up my phones," Max said tiredly. He shared Lance's dislike for Toad but his wasn't as passionate. In truth, he found Toad to be quite amusing. There always was something weird about him. He was always crouching and flicking his extra-long tongue. He had even seen Toad eat a few flies. Toad wasn't just a nickname, it was him.
"Hey Lance, you see that chick over there?" He said suddenly, pointing. Lance came over and followed the direction of his finger.
"Who?" He said. "Kitty?" Max was pointing at a group of the X-men. Kurt Wagner, Kitty, Rogue, Rahne and Bobby were sitting on the bleacher opposite them.
"Which one?"
"I know Kitty shithead. I mean the goth."
"The goth? Oh, that's Rogue? You like her or something?"
It was quite some time before Max replied. He was staring at Rogue. She seemed so apart, so disconnected from it all. The other geeks were laughing and fooling but Rogue only gave a wry smile or two. As he looked on, he couldn't help feeling that she didn't belong there.
"No, man. I don't like her or anything. She just looks as if she might be cool."
"I donno 'bout that, dude. She hangs with the rest of those shits. They're probably an influence on her. They almost convinced Kitty not to go out with me. These X…" He had almost said the X-men. That would've brought out some questions but Max wasn't listening. He was still concentrated on Rogue.
"Well, well, what do we have here? The freak convention?" Max and Lance turned to find half the football team crowding in.
"Ulp," Toad gulped and hid behind Lance. Toad was a frequent victim of their attacks. Often times, three or four of them would jump him and throw him into the dumpster, or into the toilet, or rub chalk all over his face and clothes. The list was endless.
"You wouldn't happen to be looking at those cheerleaders, would you?" The quarterback, a big broad-shouldered guy named Whitney advanced.
"C'mon, man. Let's get out of here," Lance said and grabbed Max by the arm. He didn't want to fight. He knew that he could probably beat them easily but he had already gotten two warnings and this one would be his last. He'd be expelled, not to mention Kitty would probably dump him.
"No, man. I'm tired of their shit. I'm not taking it anymore." Max wouldn't budge. Lance pulled with all his strength but Max wouldn't budge one bit. Lance was a pretty strong guy and he was surprised. Max was thin and looked weak. Lance had deduced that smoking had probably sapped him of his strength.
"You're tired of out shit? Oh man, that was so wrong, freak." Whitney and his thugs began to advance on them. Max wouldn't move. He just stayed in one place, showing no emotion.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Lance breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his fellow Brotherhood members, Pietro Maximoff and Freddy Dukes appear. Pietro was talking in his usual motor-mouth style.
"You guys wouldn't be trying to gang up on our friends, would you?" The slower Fred followed Pietro. He was a huge guy, probably weighed close to two hundred pounds.
Whitney and his goons surveyed the new additions. One look at Fred and Whitney seemed to change his mind. He motioned to his cronies and they walked off without a word. Besides giving "you're dead" stares at Max, they did nothing else. Lance had never been more grateful for his friends. Well, maybe he had but at that moment, this seemed like it.
"What the hell man?" He turned angrily towards Max.
"We could've taken them. We could've shown them a thing or two. Then they would've left us alone." Max seemed to be in this far-off place. His eyes seemed to stare off into infinity and his hands were balled into fists.
"Listen man, ow!" Lance had put his hand on Max's shoulder and he had gotten a shock. There seemed to be a powerhouse of current in Max and Lance had just gotten electrocuted. As they looked on, Max's form began to glow with radiance. His skin turned dark red.
"He's a mutant." Toad, who had been surprisingly quiet all this time, said in a whisper.
"Max! Hey, Max. Snap out of it man." Lance shouted. He was afraid to touch him. Pietro sped near him and put his hand on Lance's shoulder. They continued watching and in a few seconds, Max seemed to come back to life. The balls of electricity disappeared and he dropped out of his daze.
"Hey man. I didn't know you were a mutant." Toad said, a little scared.
"Is that what I am? A mutant? Well, glad that's out of the way. I expect all this to be over the school by tomorrow. I'd rather not go through all that again. Well, it was nice hanging out with you Lance. I don't know who you two are but sorry if I caused any problems. Toad, I can honestly say that I won't miss you." Thus said, he hung his head, shoulders slumped and started to walk away. This time Lance didn't hesitate to hold him back.
"We're not gonna tell anyone. This has gotta be ironic. You're thinking a Brotherhood of Mutants would reveal to everyone that you were a mutant? Well, maybe we would, for our own purposes but we're not. You see, we're mutants too. All of us, even Toad. He's actually a Toad. So we're in the same boat." Pietro said. It took a while for Max to grasp the idea but as he understood, comprehension dawned on his face.
"So you're all mutants? How come I never see you guys use your powers?"
"I do. All the time. People just ignore me, usually," Toad quipped from behind Lance. He was back to his cocky self as he jumped about and sat down in front of Max.
It was quite some time later. All of them were sitting in the Brotherhood living room, talking about mutants. Lance was especially clear on how things stood between X-men and the Brotherhood. He told Max all about Professor Xavier and Magneto, the feud that had led to the disappearance of Mystique, her reappearance and subsequently, disappearance again. He gave Max the info on all the mutants, including their powers, codenames and real names. Lance liked Max. He had never even suspected that Max might have been a mutant. It seemed too surreal. But when he considered it, he hadn't really known Max that long. They had just met one day under the bleachers, had shared a smoke and become friends. That was almost three months ago. When he really thought about it, Max had just transferred from another school. There had always been rumors about him, rumors that he had been kicked out of his previous school for having some sort of disease. They had quickly died down but by then, Max had drawn into his solitary shell. People left him alone and it seemed that he enjoyed being alone. Well, he's one of us now, Lance thought to himself. Once and for all and all for once. At least those X-jerks didn't get him.
It turned out that Max had powers that complied with his name. Everything about him was in hyperdrive. His body was faster, stronger and more agile than any normal human being. He wasn't as fast as Pietro but he probably could've outrun Michael Jordan in the 100m dash. He was probably as strong as Blob. All the physical attributes of his body were to the max. Whenever he felt the need to use his powers, his body would turn a deep crimson, not unlike the colour Sunspot turned when he flared up. That was when his body would start to perform like a machine. He could bring on this stage voluntarily but sometimes it happened on the spur of the moment.
There had been quite some talk about Max moving in with the Brotherhood but it seemed like too much of a hassle. Max lived alone in a small apartment near the X-men mansion. His parents were fabulously rich but wanted nothing to do with their freak of a son. They sent him money now and then but that was it. Max liked it that way. He had found early on that parents didn't always love you the way you were.
Max left at around 7, his head swimming with all these new people, their names and their abilities. He had never even dreamed that there would be more people like him. He had always thought that he was a freak of nature, something that was abnormal and a curse. Now he had friends who were like him in so many ways. He had people whom he could talk to, people who actually knew what it was like to be different. He left the Brotherhood house that night, feeling like he belonged somewhere.
It wasn't long after Max left that Wanda came home. She had been out, no one knew where. She hadn't shown up at school. The rest of the mutants had decided that it would be Pietro who would tell Wanda about Max. He was her brother and she wouldn't hurt him that badly, even if she had one of her outbursts. The moment she entered the door, Pietro wasted no time in speeding up to her and talking in his usual non-stop manner. "Hey Wanda! Guess what? Never mind. Don't guess 'cause you won't know. We found a new mutant at school. You know that weird guy Lance hangs out with? Max, yeah, that's him. He's the mutant. He's got some weird power. It's quite cool actually. You should've seen him. It was kinda nice."
Wanda clapped a hand on Pietro's mouth. She put the index finger from her other hand to her lips and made a "be quiet" motion. Her eyes flipped to Lance, Toad and Fred sitting on the couch. All three of them shifted uneasily. Wanda was foul-tempered and extremely powerful. She could curse them just to get a few kicks and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. Wanda was the one ace card the Brotherhood had. She was more powerful any of the X-men. She could manipulate their powers into hurting their own members. Without her, they would lose.
"Max is a mutant?" She asked, her question directed at Lance.
"Um…yeah he is." Lance was the one who was least picked on by Wanda, the most being Toad.
"He on our side?" She asked again.
"I think so. I did a pretty good job of convincing him to join us. He won't go to the X-men. He doesn't belong there. He told me himself."
"That's good. I like him." That was her final comment. She turned and walked up the stairs to her room. All four of them sighed in relief as they heard the door to her room slam shut.
"Well, that went well. Wonder why we were so worried," Toad said.
"Do I have to remind you what she did when she found out Kitty and I were going out? She set my clothes on fire, you idiot. That was when she didn't have a problem with it," Lance snapped at Toad.
"Glad that's over. Now let's watch some TV." Pietro ran up, snatched the remote out of Fred's hands and flipped on the TV. The Brotherhood was content. Even Wanda, lying on her bed and just thinking, was pleased.