The Stork Has Landed

"Are you sure it's coming?" Pietro gasped.

"Trust me! OW!" Mystique grunted. "It's coming!"

"Oh man she's leaking all over the place!" Todd winced. "We gotta do something! I don't know nothing about birthing no babies!"

"Are you sure the Red Ninjas are behind us?" Lance asked.

"I can sense their thoughts," Jean told him.

"And I can smell 'em," Logan grunted.

"I see one!" Lina pointed. "See that flash of red over there! That's them!"

"Ooooohhh!" Mystique moaned in agony.

"Can't you like…hold it in until we shake these guys?" Lance winced. To this Mystique answered with a scream.

"I think that's a no, Lance!" Rogue said sarcastically.

"Do something!" Mystique shouted. "The baby's coming!"

"We know! We know!" Todd said. He looked out the window. "We've been driving for half an hour now and these guys are still chasing us! Are we near Bayville yet?"

"Just got in the city limits!" Logan said. "We can try to take her to the mansion but I don't think we'll make it!"

"And even if we do, the Red Ninjas will just follow us there," Rogue said. "Do you think the defenses are enough to keep 'em out?"

"To be honest…" Logan sighed. "I wouldn't count on it."

"This is not happening," Kurt looked pale. "This can't be happening!"

"Well it is!" Mystique snapped. "I AM GOING TO KILL ZARTAN FOR THIS!"

"We gotta lose these guys somehow and think of something fast!" Lina shouted. "This isn't exactly the ideal place to have a baby!"

"This isn't an ideal place for a cockroach to have a baby," Logan grumbled. "But what choice do we have?"

"I got an idea!" Todd called out. "Nightcrawler, can you reprogram your holowatch?'

"Ya, why?" Kurt asked.

"We need a decoy!" Todd said. "I got a plan…"

"You have a plan?" Lance looked at him. "Somebody else think of something quick!"

"I'd think of something but I'm kind of distracted here by the agonizing pain!" Mystique snarled. "OWWWWWW!"

"What's wrong with my plans?" Todd snapped.

"You have a few hours?" Wanda snapped at him.

"WELL I DON'T SO DO SOMETHING!" Mystique screamed.

"I don't think we have a choice on this one," Jean said. "Like it or not, Toad may be our only hope."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Logan groaned.

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Meanwhile the Red Ninjas were following at a safe distance and watched what was going on. "They've split up," One ninja said. "Wait, the Wolverine has taken Mystique away from the others. They're taking off on foot while the van is leaving. It's another diversion."

"Forget the others, it's the blue witch we want," The Lead Red Ninja told him. "Follow them!"

They followed the two to an empty warehouse. The ninjas burst inside and cornered them. "Looks like we have a party on our hands…" Logan shot out his claws.

"Die!" The Lead Red Ninja shouted as he threw several shuriken at Mystique. She didn't move and the shuriken…bounced harmlessly off her belly.

"What the…?" The Lead Red Ninja blinked before Mystique punched him hard in the face, knocking him out.

"It's not nice to hit a lady," 'Mystique' twittered. Then 'she' proceeded to clobber any Red Ninja in sight. The ninjas fought back but they were stunned when their weapons broke on contact with the blue woman. Then one of them managed to hit her wrist with his sword.

Which broke the holowatch revealing Fred. "Eek!" Fred gasped then punched the ninja in the face. He grabbed another ninja and threw him against the wall. "I think they figured out I'm not Mystique!"

"Yeah but you certainly had them fooled," Logan said as he knocked another ninja out. Soon the remaining ninjas ran off, leaving several ninjas unconscious. "Especially in the girth department."

"Five, six, seven, eight…" Fred counted the ninjas left behind. "Ten, twelve…Boy they don't make ninjas like they used to huh?"

"I don't believe this," Logan shook his head. "For once the Toad had a good idea."

"Now what do we do?" Fred asked.

"We call Fury and get him to pick up these jokers," Logan picked up his cell phone. "Then we'll regroup with the others and pick up Mystique."

"Fine," Fred lifted one ninja up. "I just hope these guys don't think like Toad."

"The chances of that are pretty slim," Logan grunted.

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"This is my worst nightmare come true!" Mystique howled in agony. "I'm giving birth…IN TOAD'S OLD ROOM!"

There they were, back at the old Brotherhood Boarding House. "Good plan Toad," Lifeline said. "Having Nightcrawler teleport Mystique and me here while Blob and Wolverine distracted the ninjas."

"I figured the old Hood House would be the last place those Ninjas would look," Todd shrugged.

"I just hope those ninjas didn't follow us when we got here," Lance grumbled.

"That's why we picked this room," Cover Girl said. "Gives us the best place to defend ourselves."

"Not to mention the cleanest, which is impossible to believe…" Wanda looked around. "Is that sock moving?"

"Well after Toad…When we thought Toad was dead we cleaned it out and nobody took it," Pietro said. "And if you recall we all kind of left in a hurry after Lance totaled the school."

"When are people ever going to forget that one little mistake?" Lance groaned. Everyone looked at him. "Okay two mistakes. I trashed two schools! Well three if you count…"

"Never mind…" Rogue held up her hand.

"I'm amazed this dump is still standing," Pietro looked around.

"Even the swamp would have been better than this…" Mystique moaned.

"Well we couldn't bring you back to the mansion," Lance told her. "That's the first place the Red Ninjas would look!"

"And the hospitals are out for so many reasons," Pietro said. "Bad food, lousy security, those rotten hospital gowns…"

"Not to mention the fact that a lot of them may not admit a mutant patient," Wanda grunted. "I think that sock is moving. At least I hope it's a sock."

"I dunno," Todd scratched his head. "I don't remember having any that color."

"AGGGGHHHHH!" Mystique screamed.

"I think I'll go wait outside…" Lance looked very pale and left in a hurry.

"Yeah I think there's too many people here for this," Pietro zoomed out.

"Lina, Jean I need the two of you here to help me," Lifeline said. "The rest of you can…"

"No! Rogue! Please! Stay here!" Mystique screamed in panic.

"What?" Rogue gasped. "You seriously want me, to stay here with you? Now? No way!"

"Please Rogue! I can't do this alone again…" Mystique whimpered.

"What's wrong with Kurt? Why can't he stay for this?" Rogue asked.

"I think I see the head," Lina said.

"What?" Kurt made the mistake of looking over. He went pale and then fainted. "Oooooohhhh…"

"Ooh! Right on the sock," Todd winced.

"At least he killed it," Wanda said. "I mean it's stopped moving."

"Never mind! I see your point!" Rogue moaned as she put her gloved hand into Mystique's. "I am so going to regret this! Toad get him outta here!"

"Okey dokey," Todd picked Kurt up and they went out with the others.

Not long later Kurt regained consciousness. He found himself on the old Brotherhood couch. "What happened?"

"You passed out," Todd told him as he drew on the wall with an old crayon. "Man I wish our old TV was still here."

"Arcade and Cover Girl are outside scouting the perimeter," Lance told him. "Just in case we get a sneak attack."

"By the way you didn't kill the sock or whatever it was you fell on," Wanda told him as she sat in a chair filing her nails.

"That thing that was moving? I landed on it?" Kurt yelped.

"Yeah it crawled into a hole real fast so we couldn't figure out what it was," Todd said.

"Oh man I think I got some slime on my back…" Kurt winced as he checked himself out. "Wait! The baby? Is it…?"

"Well we heard some crying a few minutes ago," Pietro said. "Course that could have been Mystique."

"Hey…" Rogue walked down with a wrappedbundle in her arms. "Kurt I got someone for you to meet."

"All right!" Todd said cheerfully. "What color is he?"

"Toad! That's not exactly the first question you ask about a baby," Rogue snapped as she handed the baby to Kurt.

"In this case you gotta admit he has a point," Lance told her.

"Hey there little guy," Kurt gulped. "I'm your big brother."

"Let me see him," Todd peered over everyone's shoulders. "Hey he's pink! Well not pink, pink, but regular new baby pink. Which means…"

"He takes after his father," Rogue folded her arms. "For once that's a good thing. No offense Kurt but…"

"None taken," Kurt sighed. "It will be easier for him in the long run if he doesn't look like a mutant."

"Well he's gonna be a shapeshifter so looks aren't gonna matter much anyway," Pietro remarked.

Just then Cover Girl walked in with Storm Shadow and Logan. "Looks like everything went okay after all."

"I told you my plan would work," Todd grinned.

"I guess miracles do happen," Lance smirked. Todd stuck his tongue at him.

"Mystique you have to get back into bed!" Lifeline called out. Mystique ignored him and weakly wobbled downstairs, wearing a bathrobe.

"I'm fine!" Mystique snarled. "I mean this isn't exactly the first baby I've had you know?"

"Mystique you shouldn't be up so soon," Jean came down with her.

"Listen Grey," Mystique sighed. "I'm a shapeshifter. I may not be completely healed but my powers allow me to reset my internal organs back to where they were before I got pregnant."

"I thought you powers were…" Wanda began.

"I couldn't transform most of my body while I was carrying the baby but I could still do some things," Mystique said. "Believe me, they came in handy at the last second when I delivered. That's all I'm going to say."

"Now that you've delivered we can continue to phase two of the plan," Storm Shadow said.

"What do you mean? What plan?" Kurt asked. "Mystique what are you up to now?"

"Storm Shadow and I came up with a plan to save your brother's life," Mystique said.

"It's risky but it just might work," Storm Shadow said. "But we have to do this now while the package is ready."

"Do what now?" Kurt asked. "What package? I don't understand?"

"Kurt…The Red Ninjas…They're not going to stop until your brother is dead," Mystique looked at him. "There's only one way out of this. You're going to have to trust me."