Todd
"So what you're saying is, we go down there in full arms, work our way backwards and then we'll find something that will help us beat this thing."
"I realize you doubt my plan, Todd, but it is the only one we have." Lucifer twirled a board around and casually took down four of Beam's men. "By the way, we are one turn away from the others. Should we finish taking this group out, or proceed to our allies?"
Todd shrugged. "HEY, YOU GUYS ALRIGHT BACK THERE?" He yelled at the top of his lungs, still hacking away at enemies with his makeshift bat.
"YEAH, JUST GOT DONE CLEANING UP. WHERE ARE YOU?"
Todd was just about to yell an answer when Bobby and Hiva rounded the corner. "Cool." The Vulgates washed over what remained of the skatepark's gang and in no time at all, they were standing in a circle, wondering what to do next.
There was a dull pounding on the door. Everyone looked at Lucifer, who shrugged and looked at Todd. Never one to take the spotlight, Todd looked at Scott who spent half a second looking for someone else to pass the ball to before he got a grip on himself. "Alright, guys. Let's open up that door."
Bobby nodded and froze the door. It took the combined efforts of Scott and three Vulgates to crack the door. "I don't get it." Scott glared at the door. "It should shatter like glass. Can you make it any colder, Bobby?"
"Sorry, Scott, but that's as cold as I can make it. You're right though, anything else would have shattered just from the cold, never mind your blasts. There's something weird about the door. That's why it won't break even when every molecule in it is minus 52 degrees."
The pounding on the other side of the door continued. Scott studied the situation. The pounding was systematic, meaning more of the Vulgates were probably outside. His group wasn't having much luck getting through the door either. "What would the professor say?"
"He'd say some bull shit about how you should try your best and work together. He's gone. Let's get over it, Summers." Todd tapped his foot impatiently.
"Alright, so what would Magneto say?"
Todd stared at Scott. "Are you being serious?"
Scott just ignored him. "He'd say I have a lot of potential but no focus." Scott stared thoughtfully at the door. "Focus... that's it. The door is impenetrable, whatever it's made of. But the walls, we'll just make our own doorway. Okay, Bobby, our target is the smiley face." Scott pointed towards the graffiti face on the wall right beside the door.
"Gotcha." Bobby nodded and concentrated on the face. Almost immediately, cracks began spiderwebbing across the wall. Scott sent a short blast towards the middle of the web and smiled as the wall crumbled. Daylight shone through the hole, harsh and unfiltered and more beautiful than anything he had ever seen.
"Let's go see who's come to join the party." Scott inched towards the hole, one hand ready on his visor in case extreme prejudice was required.
A platinum blonde head peered cautiously through the hole. "Oh. You're alive. That's great. Really. Is Todd in there?"
"Who are you?"
"Hmm. It's me, Summers." The human backed up a few steps to let the crowd of mutants and Vulgates out of the skatepark. "Todd. Hey, you're alive. Awesome. Absolutely awesome." The blonde guy bobbed his head once or twice as though to show how ecstatic he was to see them, but his voice was strangely monotone. Scott stared at him, positive that he'd seen the kid someplace before, but not sure where.
"Hey, Slim, where'd ya go?" A gruff voice called from somewhere above. That was one voice Scott recognized.
"Hey yourself, Logan. Where are you?" He scanned the surrounding buildings. All of a sudden there was a tremendous crash inside the skatepark as Logan finally tore his way through the roof.
"Aw, damn. Ya coulda told me you already had it." The mutant complained, though secretly there wasn't a single person he'd rather see. Lorna floated through the hole after him and brought Kitty with her.
"See, I told you you should have just let me phase through." Kitty huffed.
"Yeah, and I told you it was too dangerous. Get off it already." Logan stalked through Scott's hole, pausing to admire the teen's work. He grunted his approval and surveyed the group in front of him. "What'd ya think, Slim? They'll do?"
For a moment, Scott thought Logan was talking to him. Only a moment though, because that was as long as it took the blonde kid to answer.
"It doesn't matter what I think. They'll have to do. Let's get back to the Institute. Night will fall soon and I don't want to get caught out here with these new predators running the town. Logan, get some of the Vulgates to help you cover up this hole. Grab a dumpster or something and push it in front. And see if you can cover the one on the roof too. It would really suck to go through all that trouble and then have a roc settle down in the skatepark."
"A rock?" Scott asked, totally mystified.
"It's a big bird." Kitty said. She stared at Scott for a second before she ran up to him and crushed him in a bear hug. "You know, you and Todd look a lot alike when you're both covered in dirt and dust."
"Oh. Thanks." Scott frowned, clearly not pleased at being told he looked like Todd.
"The Institute..." The blonde guy strolled through the group, limping heavily. "is this way, for those of you who care."
"Who is this guy?" Scott whispered to Kitty.
Evan snapped his fingers. "Are you related to Pietro Maximoff?" he asked the blonde.
The stranger stopped and turned around with a strange look on his face. "What do you mean?"
"Ah, well." Evan was caught off guard. "You just, I dunno, man. You look like him. Only, you know. Different."
"Really." The guy intoned. He turned around and started walking again. Scott saw Kitty and Lorna glance at Logan. The Canadian shook his head and cleared his throat.
"We've been staying in the Institute. Got supplies, food, bandages. That kinda stuff." Logan perked up a little. "And a survivor. Not much meat to him. He'll never dance the same, but he's alive."
It was strange, thought Evan, and he suspected Scott and Kurt were thinking the same thing. Listening to Logan chatter mindlessly with Lorna and Kitty interrupting occasionally was creeping him out more than the strange guy walking ahead of them.
"So who is this survivor?" Scott asked when Logan paused for breath.
It seemed to be the wrong question, because it sent Logan back into another pointless tangent. This time, though, Kitty and Lorna looked sharply at him as though he was holding out important information.
"Enough." The still unnamed guy in the front breathed. "We're here."
The former X-Men looked around for a sign of their old home, but all they saw was a small mountain. "I don't see it, do you?" Bobby nudged Kurt.
"Ich weiss nicht." Kurt mumbled. Bobby followed Kurt's line of sight to the strange blonde guy.
"What's up? Logan trusts him. Even calls him Slim." Bobby laughed under his breath. "Man, I thought Scott was gonna blow a fuse when he realized that Logan was calling that kid Slim. Who do you think he is, huh? A brother, or cousin? I never heard of Pietro having a brother. You? Hey, Kurt?"
"Gossip later, Frosty. Right now you're holding us up." The stranger was holding a trapdoor open and waiting for Bobby and Kurt to hurry up and go inside.
"Right." Bobby climbed down the ladder and followed the narrow path. It ended at a doorway, and once Bobby stepped through with the last of the group at his heels, he realized that the mountain must have been right in front of the mansion's front door.
They were standing in the main hall. At one point, there had been a set of gently spiraling staircases in the hall that led to the second floor, but only one was still standing and even it looked like it was about to fall. The hall that had branched off of the main hall into the kitchen was still intact, but that was pretty much it.
"We've almost cleared the rubble from all of the rooms on the ground and sub levels. They just aren't all accessible from here." The platinum blonde's hair shone silver in the meager light provided through the only unbroken windows in the hall. "Come along, this way. Lorna and Logan will show you where everything is." He nodded to Kitty and the two of them broke away from the main group and went down the hall to the kitchen.
"So who is he again?" Bobby asked. His voice was strangely loud in the dark, empty hall.
"Just call him Slim. He'll tell ya who he is when he's ready." Logan shrugged.
"Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, if you would please allow me to direct you to the conference room, we will begin our tour." Lorna said with mock severity as she gestured towards a hall that was all but invisible in the shadows of the room.
The Vulgates took to conversing amongst themselves almost immediately, pointing out curtains or sometimes furniture. They really did look like tourists, stopping in bunches to stare in awe at pictures on the wall or a broken statute in a niche. Once they even brought the whole group to a standstill while they pored over a suit of armor. Finally, Logan just yanked the sword out of its stand next to the armor and thrust it at the lead Vulgate. They got the point, and moved on, but still managed to slow the tour down significantly. When the tour ended back in the main hall, they found makeshift tables set out and bowls of soup waiting. Kitty was there waiting for them as well, but the stranger, Slim, was no where to be found.
All in all, dinner was pretty cheerful. Between the Vulgates and Bobby's attempts to ease some of the tension, at least half the table was always laughing. Of course, since that half of the table was composed of Vulgates, who were clearly making themselves comfortable, the rest of the mutants and a few of the more important Vulgates were constantly sighing at the spectacle.
Hiva sat with Scott on one side and Glive on the other. Across from them were Lucifer, Logan and Todd. The vibes from the six of them were varying from curious to hostile, as Scott and Todd subconsciously fought for supremacy, even while Todd fought Lucifer for the same reason. Hiva was pointedly ignoring the twelve year old at his elbow and trying to divide his attention between Scott, Lucifer, Todd and Logan. Logan, having identified Hiva as the Vulgate's equivalent of himself, was measuring the Vulgate up and trying to figure out what was up with the little red-haired kid next to him. And Glive, Glive was basking in the tangle of emotions surrounding him.
Everyone stayed in the hall long after the soup had been finished, mostly because no one wanted to be alone in the strange, and yet familiar, place. Torches had been lit and placed in the formerly electric chandelier and in strategic locations around the room, so even after the sun had set there was light.
Around midnight, Kurt excused himself from a group of Vulgates and Bobby, who was too busy laughing at K'vas nec Allin's parody of one of his comrade's tumble over his own feet to answer. He took the hall that led to the sleeping quarters, but suddenly changed his mind. Instead of turning right, towards his room, he went left, in the direction of the conference room. Just beyond the conference room was the room that served as the infirmary, and as Kurt had suspected, several torches were burning inside.
Kurt looked into the room. Slim was sitting in a beat up armchair in the corner, staring contemplatively at someone lying on the only bed in the room. Kurt cleared his throat and entered. Slim didn't look up or even acknowledge Kurt's presence as Kurt pulled up a seat next to him. They sat in silence for a long time watching the labored breaths of the man on the bed.
"How've you been?" Kurt asked softly.
Slim blinked slowly. "Could be worse. I could be Remy or Alex."
"You look different." Kurt peered at Slim. "You sound different too."
Slim didn't take his eyes off the man on the mat. "Yeah well, that happens when your brain moves a million times faster than your battered body will let you go."
"Pietro," Kurt paused and turned to him. "I don't know what happened. And if you don't want to talk about, that's fine too. But... do you think... maybe..."
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Pietro spoke. "Well? Even if I could use my mutant powers, it'd be no good for reading your mind, Kurt."
"I was just wondering if, when this is all over, well, are you guys going to stay with us, or leave and reform the Brotherhood?"
Pietro shook his head. "Don't be naive. Freddy and Father are dead. I'm all but crippled. Lance is crippled. Mystique may be dead for all we know. Todd's the only one of us who'd be in any condition to reform the Brotherhood, and he wouldn't do that. All that's if we get out of this alive, anyway. "
"So you'll stay?"
"Sure. Why not?"
Kurt smiled and hugged Pietro. "Perfect. It will work out. You'll see, Slim."
"If you say so." Pietro shook his head and looked at his friend, his brother lying on the bed. "At least it can't get any worse."