By Maikafuiniel
Chapter 9
Well, I wouldn't normally do this… but I have a day off today, and poor Guin out there has chem homework that has her depressed! So, since I have so much time on my hands (Yay for days off!), I have yet another chapter! And to you Guin, goes this one. I would never dedicate two to you, and to nobody else, so this is just kind of… in your honour, like the interlude was for todd fan.
As for our depression qoute of the day: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent, but you'd be a fool to withold that from your superiors! Find more of these qoutes, and other fun stuff, at my web-site!
Magneto sat at his desk, his face impassive as he looked at the thin man in front of him. "What do you think," he asked, a slight twinge of anger in his voice in case his answer was contrary to what the master of magnetism wanted, "Will he be working for us from now on?"
Shadow tilted his head slightly forward before answering. "He flinches if I so much as walk into the room; but I've had to attack him three times already. It's only been about eight hours since he came, but he's starting to show signs of breaking. He says he'll follow… but at hour later have courage back. It will take more time, but I have no doubt he will eventually be under our complete control."
"Eventually?" was the stoic reply, "And if I were to say that wasn't good enough?"
"Sir," Shadow replied, an edge in his voice, "I am the best that there is. If I say he will be under control eventually, I mean it. And if you change people, it will only take longer and be less thorough. The best plan, as I'm sure you realize, is simply to wait."
"I must have those machines done by the time this school year is out!" Magneto spat, "Half the X-Men are in the graduating class, and if they are free to fight against me for so much more of the day, I will surly fall! I simply don't have the fire-power that Xavier has managed to build up!"
"And they will be done," the scientist replied, "But it will take time. I guarantee they will be done-"
"They had better be," Magneto said, standing up quickly, "You do not want to face the consequences of an angry me. I assure you."
Shadow stood carefully, trying to maintain some dignity as he backed towards the door. "Of course sir, but if you want it done quickly I should be getting back to the boy right about now. Where did you find him anyway?"
The question was met with a disbelieving snort. "You think I would simply tell you like that? We run a need-to-know facility here Shadow, as you would do well to learn."
At that moment a knock came from the door, and Shadow took it as the perfect opportunity to run as far away from harm as possible. Sabertooth shot him a deadly look as they brushed each other, but quickly dismissed him.
"Mags," he said, "Checked the kid out, like you ordered."
Magneto sat back down on his seat, trying to compose himself so he didn't look quite as much like the angry dictator he had been just a moment ago. "And what do you have to report?" he asked in a monotone way, "I hope it's good news."
"Some," Sabertooth grunted, "How old is the kid anyway? He's having a hell of a time doing some of the simple stuff, he should have learned to fight by now."
"Only 16, though he does look older. Once he's trained he'll be put into the tenth grade, where he'll be able to watch some of the up and coming X-Men more carefully then we would be able to do from here."
"You trainin' him to be a spy then?" the big cat asked in confusion, "Doesn't look like much. Gotta' admit though, he wouldn't do any good as a fighter. Has a punch my gram could take without a flinch."
"As entertaining as the thought of you having a grandmother is," Magneto said with a snarl, "Do you have any good news to report at all?"
Sabertooth gave a slight shrug, "If he had grown up in a fightin' family, the kid would have been one hell of a scrapper. He has a kick from hell, 'course I didn't say so."
"Of course."
"He just needs to learn to aim. …And to be able to stand up right. Swear to god, three times that kid went tumbling for no reason. Made me want to rip him up just so I wouldn't have to watch again. Embarrassin'."
"So he has potential?"
"I would put him up with some kind of martial arts deal, he ain't gonna' learn much from me at any rate. I fight street style. Down and dirty. He's too…?"
"Wimpy?"
"Not wimpy really… just not the type I think. He needs to learn stances and things, he'll have more power then."
"Your input is, as always Sabertooth, invaluable."
"Yeah, well, don't tell nobody, I have a rep you know."
"But of course; the stupid hulking mass, how could I forget." He stopped, smiled at his long time friend and colleague, and said, "Do you have somewhere you need to be then?"
Sabertooth nodded, angry but uncaring at the same time, leaving Magneto to his own devices.
Magneto frowned slightly as he positioned himself on his chair carefully. 'This damn cape,' he thought to himself, 'I simply can't find a position that's comfortable.'
After a few moment of re-arranging he pulled out several sheets of paper. He hadn't been planning on using these for at least another month… but it would do the boy good to get him some fresh air after surgery. He would be placed in a karate school, and get 'home-educated' as well as possible. Perhaps the X-Men would even see him around town and get used to him before he was placed in Bayville high. And in a month… well, that was when his plan would start taking effect.
Todd was still in the training room trying to attack the bag when Magneto came in, however he didn't hear the door opening and so kept going on his attack. Magneto winced slightly when he bag came back at him and hit him in an unfortunate spot; but almost clapped upon seeing the rest of the one sided fight.
It seemed that just getting up and around more then he had been was helping his balance; all he had needed was to get used to the change in his centre of gravity. He still seemed tipsy, and ready to fall over, his moves weren't smooth, but they were still something that he would expect from one learning to fight for the first time.
He agreed with Sabertooth on what the boy was like during a fight as well. He was well built, yes, but it was all natural. T was nothing he had gained from working out. He was therefore thinner then your average teen, though not strangely so; he was, in fact, thicker then Pietro which was saying something.
He was lean, Magneto decided, and his body did seem to lend him more towards the martial arts then street warfare. "Mortimer," he called out, stopping Toad in his tracks only moments away from yet another kick, "Good job." he applauded, "Better then I expected so soon."
"Rubbish," the younger boy replied, "I used to be a lot stronger, a lot better, and you know it."
"Perhaps," Magneto said with a grin, "But you've gone through quite an extraordinary change. Most of your fighting ability before was based on your mutation-"
"No it wasn't," Toad replied, his face angry, "I had a mutation, sure, but I learned to fight on my own. It's just the way I fought before. Everything I knew has to be adapted now, and it's not easy."
"I never told you it was."
"Yeah… well, whatever." Toad said, a slight creek in his voice, "Anyway, you don't seem like the type to come down just to tell me I'm doing a good job on fighting badly."
"Quite right," Magneto replied, business like, "I've decided I'm going to let you out of here for now. I'm going to sign you up for some outside fighting classes-"
"Why can't I just learn here?"
"Everybody here has a fighting style much more compared to a street gang. Sabertooth feels you're meant for a more stylised form. Kung-Fu. Karate. Kick-Boxing. It's really your choice in the end, I have no particular interest for any one over the other."
"Brill," he said quietly, before asking, "Am I allowed out for anything more then that?"
"But of course. You'll stay in your room, of course, from eleven at night to seven in the morning, and will be home taught here. As you might have noticed from the books, I want you to focus some of your education on mechanics and piloting."
"Why those?"
"Because those are the two area's in which my other followers are lacking, and therefore would make you the most useful to me."
Todd nodded.
"Since Xavier can't read your mind, and otherwise you're completely normal, I see no problem with you leaving the lair during the afternoons. Of course you will be under strict rules, no socializing with the Brotherhood any more then comes natural to any particular passing person. As far as they are allowed to know, you are dead. The only people who know otherwise are you, Mastermind, and myself."
"'kay then," Todd nodded, "What about the X-Geeks?"
"You've never heard of them before," Magneto said with a snarl, "Never call them that name again, it will only recall memories of the Brotherhood, and let them know who you really are. Really were. You've never heard of them more then the news broadcasts would let you hear. Understand."
"Sir yes sir," Todd replied loudly with a snort and a fake salute, "Got it. I'm new in town, living with my uncle and his family who are reclusive, and get home schooled."
"Exactly."
Both stood there for a moment, Todd in amazement that this was the man who was wanted in so many places for terrorist attacks, and Magneto in shock that this was the little stinker he had grown to hate.
Neither was so bad.
"Well?" Magneto asked with a fake cheered smile, much like the one he had always given Pietro as a young child, "I'm sure you've been copped up in the lair quite long enough. Gambit is going out today, I'm sure he'll show you the door."
And with that Todd was gone.