Disclaimer: X-men and all affiliated characters are owned and copyrighted by Marvel.
Writer's Note: Hello to all you readers! REVIEW! I will sick the Blob on you if you don't! And to Nyltiak (my one and only reviewer to this fic) Thank you so much! Here's the third chapter, as I promised! I tried to make it as long as I possibly could!
Mystique, toad, and Mort all walked up to the brotherhood boarding house. Toad went in, but Mystique stopped Mort outside, slamming the door shut behind Toad.
"Who else knows who you are?" She asked.
"You, me, and the six in there." Mort said, nodding his head at the house. Mystique nodded, then walked away into the house. Mort followed her instinctively. He followed her into the living room, where the four boys and Boom-Boom sat watching TV. They all looked up when Mystique and Mort walked into the doorway. Quicksilver jumped at seeing Mort, but stayed where he was sitting. Mort grinned impishly.
Whatshedoinghere?" Quicksilver asked, acting uninterested. Mort knew that he was nervous though.
"He's staying with us till I figure out what to do with him. He knows too much to let go, but is too valuable to kill." She said, walking off up the stairs and leaving them all in an uncomfortable silence.
"So what do you like doing? How do you spend your spare time?" Boom-Boom asked, getting up and walking over to Mort.
"Avoiding you." He said coldly, leaving and going into the backyard. He was pleasantly surprised to see a tall tree there, with enough foliage to hide in. He quickly jumped up into it just as Boom-Boom came out, quickly followed by Toad. They looked around, and Boom-Boom went in when they couldn't see him. Toad stayed outside, and smirked when she was gone.
"You can come outta the tree now yo." The boy called, looking directly at Mort. Mort smiled and jumped down. He landed right in front of Toad, and was happy to see he was taller than the boy by about two inches.
"Wot?" Mort asked, knowing Toad wanted something.
"How'd you do that yo?" Toad asked, confusing Mort.
"Do wot?" Mort wondered where this was leading.
"How'd you beat Mystique and Pietro?" Toad asked. Mort silently wondered who Pietro was when he figured that it was Quicksilver.
"Practice. I've sparred agains' Mystique for years, and tha' Quicksilver's just overconfident." Mort explained.
Toad nodded, looking like he wanted to say or ask more, but had thought better of it. Mort didn't press the boy when he walked away. Mort had an idea.
"Mystique?" Mort asked, knocking on her bedroom door.
"Come in." She called back. Mort opened the door and saw she was reading a book on her bed. "Did one of them do something?" She asked. Mort shook his head.
"No. I've go' and idea, bu' I wan' t'clear it wiv you first." He said as he looked at her. She put her book down to listen properly and he closed the door behind him.
"What is it?" She asked. She had a genuinely curious look on her face.
"Toad. I saw 'im fight an' it woz pitiful." Mort started, pausing to think how to word the rest right.
"Yes, I know. Your point?" She asked harshly.
"I'd like t'train 'im. I can teach 'im 'ow t'fight. Maybe boost 'is strength an' confidence." Mort finished nervously. Mystique looked like she was thinking about it.
"If you want to train Toad, fine." Mystique said. "Start when you want, he's all yours." Mystique said. She picked her book back up and continued reading. Mort left with a grin on his face. The machine could wait, he rationalized. The kid needed help. And he was going to get it.
Mort grinned as he went back down the stairs.
Mort walked into Toad's bedroom, not bothering to knock. He made no noise, climbing silently up the wall and onto the boys ceiling. Toad was laying on his bed, writing something in a notebook. He was completely unaware that Mort was right above him, able to see exactly what he was writing. They were like that, Mort waiting for the right moment to jump down and scare the boy shirtless. He had warned everyone not to go upstairs for a few hours, or until he gave them the okay.
Toad put his pencil down and closed the notebook. Mort chose this as the 'perfect moment'. He fell down from the ceiling onto the bed. He landed on his feet, and grabbed the boy and pulled him up. He pressed a knife he had found in the kitchen against Toad's neck. The boy shouted for help, but none came. After a few minutes Mort laughed and released the boy, jumping off the bed.
"What the hell was that for, yo!" Toad demanded. Mort couldn't help but smile at the look on Toad's face.
"Lesson One: Never let your guard down. Mystiques given me the go-ahead t'start trainin' yeh." Mort said. The boy looked confused for a minute before going back to angry.
"I don't need training, yo!" Toad said, going to leave. Mort slammed the door shut. He then spun the boy around, pushing him harshly into a wall and throwing the knife at Toad's head. He missed Toad's ear by a fraction of an inch.
"I'd like t'disagree wiv tha'." Mort said calmly. Toad gulped, pushing himself away from the wall. He nodded his head quickly, trying to pull the knife out of the wall, but it was in deep. Mort walked over, and pulled it out with a firm pull. He twirled it in his fingers for a second while Toad examined the hole. Once Toad was done, Mort passed the knife to Toad and walked out.
"We star' tomorrow at dawn." Mort called over his shoulder. He left a shocked-looking Toad standing in the doorway.
"Dawn...?" Mort heard Toad whisper to himself.
Mort walked towards the front door. He was planning on going out and learning the city layout while looking for a place to train. He was halfway out when Scarlet Witch stopped him by touching his shoulder. He spun around, ready to kill whoever it was before he saw it was her. He didn't let his guard down completely, but did a little. He didn't know why but he felt he could trust her.
"Where you going?" She asked. It didn't sound cheerful, but warily curious.
"Jus' goin' t'look around." Mort said, going to open the door when she didn't say anything.
"I can show you around Bayville if you want. Places to avoid, places to get into a fight if you want, places you could go for privacy." She said. Mort raised an eyebrow at the last part. She clued in quickly and smiled.
"Quiet places, to think." She explained. Mort smiled. He had planned on going alone, but if she wanted to show him around, at least he wouldn't get lost.
"Sure, why not?" He said, opening the door and moving aside to let her pass. She turned her head away though.
"Pietro!" She shouted. Immediately the white-haired boy appeared at the top of the staircase with a worried look on his face.
"What'dIdothistime!" He demanded.
"I'm going out." She said. "He's coming with." She jabbed her thumb at Mort before turning back to him and pulling him out the door with her. The door slammed with a loud bang, telling everyone who didn't know, that someone had left.
"Lead the way luv." Mort said, waving his hand down the street. They started down towards and intersection. Mort quickly pulled his hood up over his head.
"What's your real name? Calling you 'Toad' just seems wrong." She said, looking at Mort.
"M'name's Mort. Wot's yours?" Mort asked. In his mind if she knew his real name it was only fair he knew hers.
"Wanda." She said simply. She pointed to a large brick building. "Thats the school. We all go there except for Mystique, and now you." She explained. They went on like that for the rest of the day, and well into the evening. They were on their way back to the boarding house when they met up with a group of people that, at first glance, looked like a group of normal teenagers. Mort knew they were more than that though, because he saw that cyclops was with them.
"Well look who we've got here, Mort." Wanda said, looking at the small group of X-Men. There was only five of them, but Mort and Wanda were still outnumbered two to one.
"You and your friend are outnumbered Maximoff. Back off." Cyclops walked to the front of his group. Mort and Wanda laughed at this.
"Do you feel like backing off Mort?" Wanda asked, looking at Mort. Her arms were crossed over her chest and a half-smile was playing it's way across her face.
"Nope. Don' even know 'ow." Mort replied, waiting for one of them to throw the first punch. He knew they would they were the X-men. They always thought the worst. He looked from one tho the other, seeing two more that he recognized, Rogue and Iceman. He could tell from the look Wanda gave him that she wanted this to start, but she got a look that told her he knew what he was doing
"They must be scared of us Mort." Wanda said, taunting the other mutants.
"Yeah, I've always known the X-loons were all bark and no bite." Mort sneered. He could almost hear their tempers rising.
"THAT'S IT!"Iceman exclaimed, shooting some icicles at them. Wide grins spread across Wanda and Mort's faces as they both started fighting. Wanda had caught on quickly, only going at someone once they tried to hit her first.
All in all it was a quick fight. Cyclops lost yet another pair of sunglasses and visor. They had knocked out a kid that could teleport, and Wanda had stolen his watch to reveal that he was covered in blue fur. The other three had backed down quickly once Mort had slimed Iceman's hands.
Wanda and Mort arrived back at the brotherhood boarding house with wide grins on their faces. They walked into the kitchen to get drinks and found Blob eating a sandwich and listening to Avalanche and Quicksilver fighting. Toad backed into the kitchen quietly, obviously trying to stay unnoticed from the two arguing teens.
He spun around and was met with the face of a grinning Mort wearing his newest addition to his collection of Cyclops visors. Toad jumped a foot backwards into the table and got the two arguing teens attention. They peeked in to see what it was, and laughed when they saw Mort taking the visor off.
"How'd you get that, yo?" Toad demanded with a curious look on his face. Mort smiled, and looked at Wanda. She pulled out Cyclops' sunglasses with a laugh.
"I was showing Mort the sights. We met up with some of the X-men and got into a fight." She explained.
"You got into a fight? Why are you so happy then? The X-men always kick our butts." Blob said.
"Coz we didn't ge' our butts kicked." Mort said.
"Yeah, unlike you, we kicked their butts." Wanda said as she put the sunglasses on. Mort smiled and nodded his head.
" 'ere's the kicker- it's all their fault. They threw all the first punches." Mort said. "Even Xavier couldn't say we lied. In the laws eyes, we fought from self defense." This caused the room to fill up with laughter.
Once the laughter died down, everyone demanded that Mort and Wanda walk them through the fight, punch for punch. Mystique and Boom-Boom came down from their rooms to listen. Once the story was over, Mort looked at his watch and saw it was ten to nine. He stretched and stood up. He hadn't gotten a proper nights sleep since he had started building the machine that had stuck him here.
The Machine. Mort's stomach did a back flip at the thought. But he mentally shook his head. There were more important things than getting himself back home.
"Going to bed?" Boom-Boom asked. He yawned and nodded, causing the boys to laugh.
"It's only nine though." Avalanche said, with a sneer on his face.
"Just because you don't go to bed till three AM doesn't mean other do too. And talking about sleeping, Todd shouldn't you be thinking about going to sleep early? From what I hear your gonna be getting up early. " Mystique said, before turning her attention to Mort. "We need to figure out where you're sleeping." She said, leading Mort away. He made a mental note to figure out everyone's first names as he followed her through the house. She stopped and pushed a door open, revealing a room with a single bed.
Todd's room. You'll have to share with him for now. He's the cleanest out of all of them." She said, turning as she heard someone coming up behind them. Mort smiled when he saw it was Wanda.
"Mystique your not seriously putting him with Todd are you?" Wanda had an incredulous look on her face when Mystique nodded her head.
"Nuh-uh. No way am I letting you do that to him. You know as well as I do Todd snores like a freight train. He's staying in my room." Wanda said with an air of finality. She grabbed Mort's arm and pulled him away. Mort just followed, confused as to what was going on.