By Maikafuiniel
Chapter 5
You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labour.
Warning: Forge torture. No joke. Nothing explicit, but if you have any imagination at all it's pretty gross.
Todd sat back in a lazy fashion an hour later, still trying to make his way through the first chapter of one of the books Magneto had left for him. He wanted to learn this stuff, but it was just so… boring. Seriously, seriously boring.. His mind kept wandering, and eventually he realized that the guys would just be getting to school now- just in time for afternoon classes.
It wasn't like he wanted to be in school, but knowing that he was never going to see the guys again was hard. Worse was knowing that he would see them, and they would think he was just another X-Geek or some stupid human who didn't know what was going on in the world.
A sudden knock on the door brought his attention the a young man standing there waiting for a response from the rooms occupants. It was obvious that he would have come in if he had wanted to, and was just being polite by knocking, so Todd tried to polite in his response. Toad looked up and nodded. "I guess, you know, come on in, yo. So, um, you that Mastermind guy?"
The young man nodded. "My powersss are quite ssstrong. I will have you ready in no time."
Todd stared at him for a moment, confused. The voice of that of an older man, or somebody who had gone through a good amount of hell in his life. But it just didn't fit with the body. Something about this guy was off. "Um, I suppose that's good…" Toad said as he stood up, trying to make sure he was able to block if this guy was going to do anything to him. He faked stretching, but fell backwards in the process. "Whoa!"
The man caught him quickly, and Toad noticed as he came closer that the way he looked… it changed subtly. "What the fuck yo? Get away from me!"
"I admit… I do not look like thisss normally." Mastermind admitted, and Toad found himself realizing that the man was reading his mind at this very moment. "But my powersss are quite ssstrong," he continued, "so I might as well use them to make my life easssier, no?"
Todd looked at him, an odd look on his face as he tried to figure out this new arrival. Besides the lisp, he really did look like a normal person- but if what he was saying was the way it sounded, he probably looked desperately bad in reality. Something about this guy just turned Todd off; he did not want his memories to be messed with. He would dump the "yo" thing on his own, even if it was damned hard to do so.
"Come here," Mastermind said, with an evil hint in his voice, "I doubt either of usss wantsss to get Magneto angry after all…"
"Fuck Magneto," Todd threw out with venom, "Fuck this whole thing- I don't know why I even thought about it, yo!"
With a surprisingly fast leg Mastermind kicked out at him, making Todd slip. He landed with a thump on his bottom, and before he could pull himself up Mastermind put his hands on either side of his head.
And suddenly… things had changed.
Lance stepped out of the car, quickly followed by the rest of the boys. They waited for a moment as Mystique changed into Raven Darkholme, principal, and she followed them. "Alright then boys," she said sagely, "We need the X-Men to notice as soon as possible that he's gone. So either mention it near them right away, or not at all."
"Not at all?" Freddy asked.
"When they figure it out on their own they'll try to think back to when they last saw him. They may even overestimate, and things will be all the better for us- and for him."
All three boys nodded and began to walk away. Freddy was still feeling nostalgic however, as he said, "This is just so weird."
"You've been to school without Toad before Blob," Pietro said with a sneer, "Stop your whining. It's not like it's gonna' change anything for the better."
"I miss him though," was the low reply, "And you're supposed to be his friend 'Tro, so why aren't you acting like it?"
"Like what?" Pietro said with an air of incedous on his voice, "Like I liked him? Like I wanted him around? We're members of the Brotherhood, but Toad and I had something going that be both understood. We worked together, we relaxed together, but we were not friends."
Freddy raised one fist with every intention of punching Pietro out, while Lance tried to jump between the two. It didn't help when Freddy wasn't able to pull his punch back and socked Lance right in the nose. "Dammit!" Lance yelled, cradling his now bleeding nose, "Damn it Blob, you broke my god-damned nose!"
Freddy wasn't listening however, still intent on punching Pietro who was whizzing around him faster the bigger boy could follow, shouting obscenities the entire time..
That was when the X-Men sauntered around the corner as though they didn't have a care in the world.
"Snowboarding." Kurt said steadily, knowing that he had this argument won already, "Nozing beats Snowboarding. …'Less you are in Hawaii, because surfing is pretty cool, ja?"
"It's a rip-off!" Evan nearly shouted, "Skateboarding is the only sport worth playing, and you know it fuzzy! The others shouldn't even be considered!"
Both boys continued their light-heated argument, not noticing that Scott had held up his hand to stop the group. Kurt quickly collided with Scott's hand, and likewise Evan walked right into Jean. "Vhat the-" Kurt asked, "Vhat are those three doing?"
Jean had been pointing with one finger at the trio, her mouth agape at the sight. Lance was covering his face as blood streamed from it, Blob was waving his fists around trying to hit some unknown thing- which was obviously Pietro from the curses that carried even this far away.
"I think," Scott said with a short laugh, "They're trying to kill each other. Good thing too, saves us the work."
The boys in the group laughed at the comment, though the girls hid thinly disguised looks of disgust. Rogue gave a little smile and put one gloved hand on Jean's shoulder. "Don't worry Jean, they do this kind of stuff all the time."
"At home." Jean argued. "What if they start using their powers here? We'll all get kicked out for it!"
The looks on everybody's faces turned to one of slight horror, and they all turned again to see how the fight was progressing. With any luck they would calm down… but it seemed that such an ending was not to be.
"Apologise!" they could hear Freddy yelling, "Or I swear I'll squash you!"
The X-Men snickered at this, though Jean flashed them all a nasty look to quell the humour, and they continued to watch. "No way!" Pietro yelled as Lance continued to stumble around, "It's true and you know it Blob! He was damn near useless, why should I care whether he's gone or not?"
The words barely floated as far as they did, reaching the X-Men. None of them thought a thing about what was actually being said, but Rogue raised one delicate eyebrow. "What do you think they're talking about?"
"Who cares?" Asked Evan, still intent on watching how the show turned out, but Rogue was still curious.
'Was,' she thought to herself, 'Who was useless? Who do they even know?'
Her mind first turned to the aussie, but he had an extremely obvious and useful power. Pietro wouldn't have meant him. Gambit was too powerful to earn the comment as well, and she wasn't even bothering to skim the idea of Piotr being who he was talking about. So who else…
And with a start she realized that Toad wasn't among the people fighting. And then the word 'was' came back to mind, again and again, her eyes widening and her mouth dropping just a little more every time.
"Holy…" she said under her breath, the amazement catching the attention of her half brother.
"Vhat is it Rogue?" the boy said in concern, the fight in front of them forgotten.
"They're talking about Toad," she whispered, not sure whether to be amazed or upset. "Toad… is gone…"
"You're crazy." Forge said simply after hearing Shadow's plan. "You're flippin' nuts."
"Am I?" Shadow laughed, "I don't know… Perhaps I am… but I like to think of it more along the lines of intricate. I believe this plan will work boy, and I believe you will help be to bring it into the world."
"No." Forge refused with a shake of his head, "No way. I'm not doing it. Count me out."
"You act as though you have a choice… believe me when I say you do not."
"And just how do you expect to make me?" Forge blurted out before realizing how stupid he sounded. He was locked in the basement of Magneto's lair, in the secret labs, and almost asking to be tortured.
With a shake of his head he knew though, that no matter his fear he really had no choice. He refused to help this man. No, he was defiantly insane. And there was nothing else he could do but refuse.
It was at that moment that Forge truly began to fear for his life.
The tall man knelled down, looking him directly in the eyes before smiling widely. "Shadows in your eyes," he said quietly, so close to Forge's face that he could feel the breath as he spoke, "I see them…"
Forge looked at him, not knowing what was going to happen now… Until the man lifted one hand over Forges face, blocking out any light... any little bit of the room that he could reach...
The younger boy tried to push his hand away, but found himself locked down by metal cuffs that he hadn't seen come from the table. He wanted to do something, anything, but he knew if he even tried to transform his arms they would be crushed. The cuffs were no doubt made by adamantuim, and he wouldn't be able to break out.
And sudden Shadow began pulling his hand back… for a moment Forge didn't know just what had happened, but something wasn't right… He could feel a tugging on his face, as if he were on some sort of theme park ride, going at high speeds. On his cheeks. But mostly in his eyes.
"Shadows in your eyes…"
And then he began screaming.
This chapter is devoted to bleedingmoon89! You see, a few chapters back bleedingmoon89 said, and I quote, "I want Forge to be in major trouble!". Well, there you have it, the first Forge torture I've ever seen! And it's mine! Mine! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!