Disclaimer: "I shall cut off his head and give it to Church and we shall be bestest of best friends!" "You know I hate you, right?"

(An: I learned that little swear from "French Kiss." The poulet/chicken thing is from "Princess Diaries." ... I wanted Mystique's Revenge... so bad... -sniffle- I'm suprised nobody spotted the quote; I thought it was dead obvious. These next two chapters are going to be more serious, they being the "Big action" spots. Other than a little fanon adding it's the same as the eps. Except I didn't rewrite all of the action; that'd be boring and tedious for everybody... but mostly me, of course. Also, I'd like to thank Toddfan for answering me questions about the Acolytes; I picked Sauron because he's the one I'm most familiar with.)

Everyone in the room except Xavier immediately got what-the-hell looks.

"Work with them?" Kurt cried. "Are you serious?"

"No way!" Kitty agreed, sharing a mutual glare with Lance. She took Kurt's arm and redoubled it.

"This is a joke, right?" Rogue added.

"Vous avez dû ME BADINER!" Remy cried, open-mouthed. (According to Babelfish, "you've gotta be KIDDING me!")
"You will be a stronger team with their help," said Xavier.
"Why would you guys help us, anyway?" Evan asked, giving the Brotherhood a suspicious look. "You don't like us any more than we like you."
"Maybe it's be kind to losers week," Todd suggested.
Shot down like a one-winged duck, Morph thought, wincing.
"From what I've heard, this team could use a new leader," said Lance.
Kitty and Kurt began to snicker as Lance shot them a death glare.

Scott snapped. You could almost hear the little strings breaking in his head. "You want the job, Shakedown?" he demanded. "Fine. I'm done with this."

"Scott!" Jean cried, reaching after him...

She does that a lot...

"Let him go," said Xavier.

The rest of the X-men's eyes snapped to him. The same thought was mirrored on everyone's face: What the HELL was wrong with the Professor?

"But Professor-" Jean began. Xavier cut her off.

"We don't have time. We must train while you resume your efforts on Cerebro. If we find Logan, we find Magneto."

The X-men and the Brotherhood filed out.

"Ah can't believe this," Rogue murmured to Kitty and Kurt. "Ever since Logan went missin', it's like the prof's been posessed."

"He seriously needs a chill pill," Evan agreed.

"For once, Ah agree with you."

A LITTLE LATER THAT DAY...

Morph caught up to Jamie. "Come on," he said, gesturing for him to follow.

"Why?" Jamie asked, clearly confused.

"You don't want to miss the fun, do you?"

Jamie blinked and then rushed to follow.

IN THE HANGAR...

The other X-men were already boarding the jet. "Ok, now shh," Morph whispered. "Stand next to me. You have to be really quiet and really still or this won't work." He stood in front of Jamie, in the back of the line, and slipped into the Velocity, turning black and covering Jamie so he looked like part of the paneling.

"Somethin' about this doesn't feel right," said Rogue, propping her chin on her fist.

Remy pulled his cards from his pocket and started shuffling them. "What? De fact that de prof has gone fou, that Scooter's ditched us, that we're working wit' de Brotherhood-" he paused to pull a WTF? face, which all of the Brotherhood glared at him for, "-or de fact that we have no clue what we're dealin' wit' but we're goin' t' go kick its ass anyway?"

"Ah'm gonna go with with E, all of the above."

The Velocity took off, no one inside noticing Amara's cry of "Wait!"

INSIDE THE MANOR AT LARGE...

Metal panels covered the windows.

"What's going on?" Bobby asked.

Amara dashed out of the front door just before they locked behind her.

Sam tried to copy her by cannonballing, but was a little too slow and slammed into the door. He rubbed his head, scowling.

Amara ran outside and up to Tabby, who was waiting in Lance's jeep. After some more close calls, they drove off to find Scott.

BACK AT THE MANSION...

Sam was still slamming the door. He wobbled around. You could almost hear the little cartoon sound-effects. "I feel like I bumped my head against a steel wall... several times."

"That's because ye did," Rahne offered.

"Thanks," Sam muttered, rubbing his head.

"Smooth move, Cannoball. I told you, we're locked in," said Bobby. "We have to wait for the others to find us.

He could've told me that BEFORE I slammed against the door...

Then, of course, lasers popped out of the walls.

"Or maybe, they'll have to wait for us to find them!" Bobby cried.

SOMEWHERE IN BAYVILLE...

Five metal balls, the one in the center larger than the others, landed in the midst of an abandoned, depecrit courtyard.

Sabretooth stepped from the first, baring his fangs and growling deep in his throat.

From the one next to him stepped a green, lizardish creature. He screeched, unfolding batlike wings.

A column of fire proceeded the next Acolyte, which turned into a skull mimicing the grin of its controller.

The fourth man clenched a fist and covered himself in metal plates.

And from the fifth (and of course biggest) sphere stepped Magneto, billowy cape, bucket, and all.

BACK AT THE INSTITUTE...

"Who's fault is this?" Jubilee demanded.

"Hit the deck!" Bobby yelled, freezing two of the lasers aimed at her. Ray zapped the third. "You ok?"

Jubilee nodded. "This place is getting way too unfriendly. We've gotta get out."

"Believe me, I've tried," Ray muttered.

"We've gotta shut down the main computer," said Bobby. "Assemble the others and meet me in the planning room."

Jubilee rolled her eyes at his "leader voice" but went off to find the other New Recruits anyway.

ABOVE THE COURTYARD...

"I wonder what's going on," Jamie whispered.

"No clue, but I have a feeling we'll find out," Morph replied, just as quietly. "Let's get down there." They streamed out with the other X-men and kept to the back as they were divvied up into teams.

Xavier looked down out of the Velocity and spotted the spheres. "Confirmed. Magneto is here."

"I should be out there with them," Ororo murmured.

"You will be."

Ororo turned on her headset. "Team Two, you'll find some very familiar looking spheres."

"Got it," Jean agreed over the comlink.

"Team Three, what's your status?"

"Nothing yet," Hank said.

Todd slurped up some flies zooming around Kitty's head. "Do you have to do that?" she demanded of him, looking squicked.

"Sorry. Missed lunch."

Lance came out of a warehouse. "Not here, either. This is getting creepy."

Pietro smirked, a "I-know-something-you-don't" kind of look. Wanda frowned at him, her face creased in a suspicious glare.

Kurt pointed to the orbs.

"Confirmed," said Jean. "All orbs are empty."

"Where are these guys?" Rogue demanded.

"They have to know we're here," Evan agreed.

"What now?" Kurt asked. "There's no sign of them."

That was, of course, when the green one appeared, flapping down to them.

"Run!" Jean yelled. They scattered as he landed.

"Over there," said Beast.

"Finally, some action," Lance said, grinning.

"You have no idea," Pietro agreed, the smirk still on his face. He ran off.

"It's a trap!" Wanda yelled.

As they got up to the warehouse, the whole thing started to rearrange itself, revealing Magneto and the Acolytes. They're surrounded by flames.

Remy pulled some cards out of his pocket and charged them, throwing them all at Magneto. Magneto, of course, just floated out of reach, leaving his Acolytes to scramble away.

The battle started in full force, neither side really with an edge. (1)

BACK AT THE INSTITUTE...

"The Institute will self-destruct in one minute," the computer announced, in its usual cheerful voice.

"I can't disable it!" Bobby yelled, frantically pressing buttons.

"Out of the way, I'm gonna fry this turkey," Ray announced, rubbing his hands together. (2)

Then Scott burst in. "No! Do that, and it's all over. And I don't mean in a good way. Who did this?"

"Access denied," chirped the computer.

"Never mind," Scott muttered. "I just got my answer."

"Just get us out of here whatever way you came in!" said Ray.

"There's no time! We only have fifteen seconds!"

"Well, do something!" Bobby cried, throwing his hands in the air.

"Come on," said Scott, turning to leave.

The computer began to count down. "Three... Two... One..."

They all fell down.

BACK AT THE WAREHOUSE...

Rogue turned a corner, taking off her glove. She came face to face with the lizard guy again. She glared at him and both grabbed at each other. Nothing happened, beyond the feeling that somebody was trying to do to her what she usually did to them. The lizard guy screeched and flew off. God, and Ah thought normal drainin' was weird, Rogue thought, shaking herself.

The battle went on, and Pietro finally found who he was looking for: his dad. "They're coming for us. And Wanda's leading the charge."

"She'll have to wait. It's time to move this along."

The entire group of X-men, Brotherhood, and tagalong New Recruits were making for them, and then the ground started to ripple.

"Oh, no," Xavier murmured, still in the Velocity.

The ground apparently gave up and collapsed beneath them.

The X-group came to, and Rogue spotted Morph. He gave her a sideways, nervous grin and Jamie waved, but before she could chew him out, there was the sound of guns being cocked. "Uh-oh..." said Morph.

"Nobody move," said Ororo.

"Who wants to move?" Todd agreed.

"What now?" Evan asked.

"Sounds like... footsteps..." Kurt murmured. A bunch of soldiers stepped out.

Morph blanched as a voice announced, "Operatives, stand down." They backed off.

A large, red, lethal-looking robot came into the pit. Morph's eyes widened and he backed up to the edge of the pit, shaking his head. No, no, this can't be happening... it's just another nightmare... it's gotta be... right?

Pietro peered down into the pit, and then ran back up to his dad. "He released the Sentinel."

"As I knew he would," Magneto agreed. "Now the whole world will know of us." Magneto smirked slightly (which made him look weirdly like his son) and raised a hand, the ground coming back up with it.

The X-group was now on level with the Sentinel. It began to fire and the X-group backed up, Morph farthest to the back and still shaking his head.

A news group picked up the feed as Ororo tried to take out the robot with a lightning bolt. The X-men and the Brotherhood finally decided to completely let up on the rivalry, Jean and Fred working together as Evan took out some of the lasers.

Then the Sentinel shot out some green globs. Fred was frozen in the midst of picking up a car. Evan got froze while shooting a spike. Remy threw a bunch of cards at it, but got frozen too.

Rogue got frozen, and this seemed to snap Morph out of his panic, because he started to help, for once. Kitty phased out of her own glob as Beast got slimed. Morph attempted to break him out, but got zapped himself.

(Ok, so yeah, that's a bit of a copout ending and this chapter in general was... meh, but I wanted to get this out without having to go through the rest of the episode. Next time: we figure out what the hell was up with Morph and catch up with the New Recruits.)

(1) :P This is called "M.A. hates action scenes and we already know what happens, so we're gonna skip it, all right?"

(2) I never knew what episode Ray said that in until now, heheh.