Author's note: Holy crap! I know I know I know. I am a horrible person. It has been ages since the last chapter came out. I will say that I have begun to write the next chapter so the wait will be MUCH shorter, I promise. As always: I own nothing. I want nothing (but loads of comments good, bad, or ugly). I make no money off of this. bows to Marvel with the expensive lawyers
Scott looks into Rogue's wild eyes and knows what Rogue says is true. "My God." Scott breathes.
"God damn...that sucks." Alex moans drawing the attention of both X-men. "Did it feel like that when I hit you?"
Rouge breathes a sigh of relief and nods, white strip of hair bobbing with the motion. "Yeah, sugah."
"Sorry bout that." He groans raising himself to a sitting position.
"Wait..Alex?" Scott asks.
Rogue nods. "Magneto found your brother and recruited him."
Scott offers his hand to Alex and helps him to his feet. "So it would seem." He smiles as both men embrace.
"I thought you were dead." Alex says.
Scott chuckles "I thought you weren't a mutant."
"Guess you boys were both wrong." Rogue offers.
"Now, I believe it is time to bring in our guest. He's has been eager to get out of that room since he got here. Toad, if you please." Magneto says as if he were bringing an old friend in from the veranda for dinner. Toad hops off to retrieve the 'guest'. After a moment, he adds "Pyro, go with him. Our guest might want to see a familiar face." Pyro nods before heading toward the just closed door where Toad disappeared.
:So, I don't suppose you're going to tell a bloke what this mutant can do, no: Jono projects.
Mystique snickers as she is typing information into a computer on the large machine. "No I don't think I will." Erik says with a cordial grin.
Jono watches Toad reemerge from the side room with a struggling young man, younger than the Englishman in any event.
"Any trouble?" Mystique asks. The young man stops struggling at the sound of the blue woman's voice.
"He was no trouble at all," Toad says.
Pyro pats the boy heartily on his back. "Its almost as if he was willing." John narrows his eyes. "Eagerness must be a family trait. Something I admired in his sister, I must say." He laughs.
The young man's head whips around, pure hatred reflecting in he eyes. Without prior comment, he spits in Pyro's face. "Traitor." He grinds out.
"Are you all right, liebchen?" Nightcrawler asks as he and Storm walk down the corridor.
"I am fine, Kurt," Storm replies, giving him an uneasy smile. "I get claustrophobic sometimes." She pulls her cape closer around her.
"It's just a little phobia," Kurt says, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"It is... More than that," Ororo begins, uneasily. "When I was growing up, we lived in Cairo. One day, my parents' home was leveled by a crashed Israeli airplane. We were buried under the rubble for a long time. Two days, they said. By the time they had found me, my parents were dead. All I can remember is hearing them call for me, while I was under the debris, and then, they stopped. And I was alone, under all the rubble..."
"But you survived, Sturmgotterin," Kurt says, taking Ororo in his arms. "You're alive. I, for one, am thankful for that."
"I am as well," Storm says. "I think I would feel better if there was a breeze." Her eyes slowly glaze to solid white, and on command a small wind blows through the tunnel.
Magneto stops talking mid-sentence and looks past the occupants of the room. He stares at the thick metal door. For as long as he can remember Erik Lenscherr has been connected to metal; organic, inorganic, it didn't matter. It was as if every metal object was an extension of his entire being. He could make it bend to his will. Even blood, if a person was not anemic, spoke to him. Right now the constant in his life was screaming at him. The basement can be accessed by four tunnels. At nearly the same time the walls all told the same story with different tunnels. The temperature of one of the tunnels dipped quickly and the air shifted in another tunnel.
There were people coming. They were uninvited and needed to be removed.
"Toad, Sabretooth, we have rats in our cellar. Toad, take the east tunnel. Sabretooth, take the north." Both men go out the door, Sabretooth with a sick sneer. This was going to be fun and he was ready for a little fun.
"I'll re-assemble the team." Scott says. He turns to speak into his comlink. "Logan...we need to meet up with Hank's team."
Scott gets a growl in response through his communicator. "I'm a little busy here, bub."
Kitty can hear the sharp in take of air from the darkness and the corresponding rumbling voice reverberating off the walls, "I see you brought me something pretty, runt."
"You'll have to come through me to get her." Wolverine announces drawing his claws with a snikt that makes Bobby wince as he steps in front of Kitty and drops the air temp.
Sabretooth steps into the light with a dangerous grin, "That won't work, kid. I can still smell her. I just can't wait to see what she smells like when I am in her."
Logan launches himself, sinking six sharp claws into Sabretooth's abdomen, only to be grabbed by the neck and thrown against the wall of the tunnel with a sharp crack. Kitty rushes over to him. "I'm a little busy here, bub." She hears him say as he starts to stand.
Bobby throws ice around Sabretooth entombing the feral man in ice with a smirk. With an enraged growl, the ice explodes releasing a cold livid Sabretooth.
Wolverine stands without taking Kitty's offered hand. He shakes his head waiting for his healing factor to stop the ringing in his ears.
Sabretooth picks up Bobby, bringing him close with a sick sneer. "I see Xavier has sent children to fight us. What's goin' on, Runt? Ya the great-grandfather of the group?" Sabretooth grinds out before throwing Bobby to hit Logan squarely in the chest knocking both men to the ground.
Nightcrawler shines his flashlight on the walls of the tunnel. Water is dripping from pipes above, and cables run down the lengths of the walls. One wall has a raised walkway against it. "This tunnel just seems to go on and on," he says, looking over at Storm. Her breathing has quickened. "Breathe easy, liebchen," he says, trying to comfort her. "We'll meet up with the others soon, I'm sure."
Just then, a blinding flash lights the tunnel a blazing white. Toad has arrived, tossing phosphorus grenades to blind the X-Men. He jumps down a few feet in front of the pair, landing with a splash in a puddle of water, and lashes the flashlight out of Nightcrawler's hands with his tongue. Then he bounds across and connects feet first with Storm's stomach. Before she can catch her breath, Toad lets loose a load of mucus from his mouth, which hardens on contact with her face.
Toad looks over at Nightcrawler, who is still struggling to regain his eyesight. "Fancy this bird, do ya?" he says with a sneer. "Hope you enjoy watching her die."
"Leave her alone!" Kurt yells. In a blink, he bamfs behind Toad and sucker-punches him in the back. Toad leaps away, lashing his tongue at the demonlike mutant's head. Kurt's eyesight is returning, however, and he has excellent night vision; he snatches the end of Toad's tongue and yanks, pulling Toad to the ground.
Toad reels his tongue in and leaps at Nightcrawler. Kurt leaps as well, and the two mutants collide in mid-air. Kurt wraps himself around Toad and bamfs away towards the ceiling. He lashes his tail to one of the overhead pipes and drops Toad to the ground.
Storm writhes in agony, trying to break the shell off her face. She can't see, can't breathe. Her claustrophobia kicks into overdrive; she screams, but the shell muffles the sound.
Nightcrawler can hear the muffled screams of his lover in between the bamfs of compressing air and the thuds of landed punches and kicks. Toad is relentless in attack, his feet kicking and tongue lashing at every opportunity. Nightcrawler's repeated teleportations fill the tunnel with sulfuric smoke.
Kurt landed a lucky punch, knocking Toad's infrared goggles from his face.
"Bugger!" Toad yells, his eyes trying to find light in the smoke-filled room. "Where the bloody hell are you?"
"Here!" Kurt punches and teleports.
"And here!" Another punch. "And here!" A kick. "And here!" A tail lash. Kurt teleports faster and keeps hitting Toad…
Until a lucky lash-out hits Kurt in the throat, leaving him collapsed on the floor, struggling to breathe.
"Your loverboy's on the ground strugglin' to breathe, love," Toad says as he walked towards the still struggling Storm. "Just you and me now, yeah? And I've been wanting to thank you for zapping me into the Hudson River."
Storm take in a deep breath as Toad walked closer. If her eyes had been visible, Toad would have seen them turn white as her hair.
With a bolt of electricity, the mucus breaks loose from Storm's face. She rises into the air, carried by a tornado wind she has produced.
"Go away, little Toad," she taunts. Static charges run along the wall and around where Toad stands on the floor, as if it is alive and seeking him out. Suddenly, Toad finds himself thrown aloft by a cyclone. Spinning in the air, he is helpless to act as arcs of electricity strike him and knock him unconscious.
Nightcrawler gets up in time to see Toad light up like the Vegas Strip. He watches the villain drop like a rock to the ground, squirming from the shock.
"I know you didn't kill him," he says, walking over to Storm. "I'm still amazed. Remind me never to get you mad."
"We should go," Storm said, lowering herself to the ground. "And fast. I am tired of this tunnel."
"I've been waiting for you." Sabretooth grins. "I can't wait to be buried deep inside you." He says advancing.
Kitty watches the man advance toward her and remembers the invasion of the mansion. On impulse, she runs head on to the feral man. She launches herself high enough that she phased through his heart.
With a roar, he hits the ground, leaving Kitty to be standing shin deep in his chest, when he fell backwards on her.
"Me first." She says resolutely looking down at an unconscious Sabretooth. She looks up and the men standing. "Ready?" She asks sweetly.
Logan grins evilly. "I'm ready, kid." He says making a mental note to add Kitty to his training roster just as soon as he got back to the mansion.
Scott, Alex and Rogue watch as the rest of the team reassemble before them. Wolverine's claws pop into place at the sight of a bound Rogue being escorted by an unfamiliar blond man. "Who the hell is this?" he growls, approaching cautiously.
"Wolverine, stop," Cyclops orders.
"It's all right, Logan," Rogue says softly, knowing Scott's orders were no good. "He's with us. At least he is now."
"I'm his brother," Alex offers, pointing to Scott.
"More importantly, he's our way in," Rogue said softly. "'Salright, sugah. This…" She held out her bound hands. "...is just for effect."
"Great. Another frickin' Summers boy." Still scowling at the new person in their midst, Logan sheathed his claws. "So what now, Scooter?"
Scott offers Rogue a comlink. "Storm gave me this for you."
She looks at Scott and raises an eyebrow raising her still bound hands behind her back, "A little help, sugah."
Scott smiles and steps up to place the earpiece in for her. "You will be able to hear us but with this one, I'll be able to hear what goes on in the room."
Rogue nods with a small smile and looks to Alex, "We need to get goin', sugah."
"Ready?" Alex asks as they approach a steel door.
Rogue looks up at him and nods mutely. She doesn't trust her voice.
To complete the illusion that he is still in the Brotherhood, Alex holds Rogue close, with a knife to her throat. The door slides open to reveal a large lab filled with machinery.
"About time you got here." Pyro says.
"Shut up, kid." Alex growls at the younger mutant.
"Boys," Mystique's says loudly interrupting the next round of arguments between the two. "Havok, please bring my daughter over to see her friend. I am not sure he can see her properly from where he is."
Alex clutches the back of Rogue's neck and walks her closer to the figure in the center of the room. There, attached to the machine, was a familiar blond haired boy.
Listening on his comlink, Scott's face takes on an expression of horror at the name Rogue gasps: "Sam."
