Chapter Eight:
The tremors stopped as the door opened, though the blonde figure on the other side could not step through.
The relief that washed over the faces of Sid and Rebecca Malloy was enhanced by the fact that the room dropped about ten degrees. The X-Men and Brotherhood members could only watch in stunned silence as the young woman spoke raggedly through her tears.
"I...We...came as soon...as we heard..." she said, peeking inside as far as she could.
Rebecca grinned broadly, and did what you are never supposed to do when a vampire is at your front door.
"Hi, Harmony, come on in," she said aloud, ignoring the puzzled glances from her guests.
Harmony Kendall burst into the condo upon the invitation, and ran over to the twins dramatically. She wrapped her arms around Rebecca's shoulders, and began to tear up again as she spoke.
"I saw it...in the paper..." she said, and then took a step back to look at her friend, "I just...can believe...a giant robot...ate your house. It didn't eat that great purse you got from the Coach outlet, did it?"
Rebecca shook her head, still grinning, "No. It's safe and sound. But it was thoughtful of you to ask."
Harmony nodded and then turned on Sid, "Oh...I when I heard you had been shot...oh, Sid, I was so worried!"
Sid almost stumbled backward as the unnaturally strong Harmony jumped to embrace him affectionately. Sid patted her back for reassurance, looking entirely uncomfortable as Harmony hung on a little longer than necessary.
Rebecca was biting her lip to keep from exploding with relieved laughter at her immortal friend's impeccable timing. She turned and noticed for the first time that the others were staring at them in gaping confusion and she shrugged.
As Harmony released Sid from her unyielding grasp, she spotted Pyro standing nearby and wiped her eyes as she smiled at him.
"Hi. I don't know you," she said quickly.
Pyro reached over and picked up an open box of tissues, offering it to the teary vampire. Then he mentally corrected himself...the very beautiful and hot teary vampire.
Harmony looked utterly touched by his polite gesture, "Oh...thank you. But I still don't know you..."
"Harm," Sid said, "These are some friends of ours who are visiting for a day or two. This is St. John Allerdyce...but you can call him Pyro."
"Mutant?" the blonde vampire asked, and all the pyretic young man could do was nodded dumbly, so she continued with a smile, "Cool."
"And Harmony's a nocturnal friend of ours..." Rebecca explained to the others quickly, and then glanced back toward the door, "Who else is with you?"
"Nancy drove," Harmony replied, and then pointed at the door, where yet another young woman stood, whom did not seem to share Harmony's distress.
In fact, she looked simply and utterly pissed. Her name was Nancy Downs, and she was the polar opposite of the weepy vampire in dress and manner. She had a short crop of dark hair, matching her outfit of choice, which was almost entirely black. She had her arms folded angrily over her chest, and she was glaring at Rebecca viciously as she entered the apartment.
"Hey, Nancy," Rebecca greeted her cheerfully, "It's great you guys decided to visit...today...right at this moment..."
Nancy narrowed her eyes, "Do you have any idea how long it takes to drive here from Mexico?"
Rebecca shook her head, and glanced comically at her watch, before shrugging and shaking her head again.
"Five days, Rebecca," Nancy answered for her, "Five days...equaling about a hundred and twenty hours...or seven thousand two hundred minutes...or the four hundred and thirty-two thousand seconds I've been listening to that vampire bitch's whining!"
"I'm not a bitch," Harmony said with a pout, and then grinned triumphantly as an inspired comeback occurred to her, "But you, Nancy, are a witch! Ha!"
The others all glanced at Harmony with more confusion as she laughed aloud to her own humor.
Rebecca looked sympathetically at Nancy, who rolled her eyes before storming across the room.
"Where's the tequila?" Nancy muttered, "I need a drink..."
"You came the whole way here from Mexico and didn't bring back tequila?" Sid asked as the bitter witch shoved past him.
"Be nice to her, Sid," Harmony shot sarcastically, "Or she might turn you into a..."
Before she could finish, Harmony glanced over at Toad with apologetic embarrassment.
"Oh...I...um...I mean, she'll turn you into...some other...thing...that you're...not...right now...Sid," Harmony stammered.
"Anything else would be an improvement," Rebecca added.
Nancy just glared and began to rummage through a hidden mini-bar.
"Am I to assume," Mystique began, sounding bored, "...that these visitors were...also...unexpected?"
The twins glanced at each other, sighed heavily, and then looked over at her and nodded. Mystique pursed her lips and then sat down again in one large chair, leaning her chin against her finger tips gently, in thoughtful repose.
Gambit was still holding one of his playing cards, twirling it between his hands. He glanced over at Toad, and shrugged. He pocketed his made-shift weapon and took a seat next to Mary, who had an amused smile on her face.
As the others claimed comfortably spots around the room, Toad returned to his previous position and crouched near the wall. The room seemed very crowded now, despite its size. He watched each person carefully, unconsciously rubbing the scar on his face.
Whatever might have come from Gambit and Mystique's earlier argument had passed and any lingering tension was mostly destroyed by the sudden twist of absurd fate.
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Sebastian Malloy yawned as he exited the elevator which had brought him up from the basement. It was shortly after sunset, and he wanted to change before heading out into the night.
Sebastian walked down the hall, stepped through the front door and then froze in his tracks.
When he saw the guests...Brotherhood...X-Men...witch...cheerleading vampire...
...he turned around, and headed back to bed.
