"I Tried"

Furor Paxx 34- For the Love of Lost Wheels

"Let's get this straight. We need markers, rulers, tape, and paint. Pietro and Kurt are responsible for that stuff. Lance and Freddy are the painters and Wanda and Kaysin will divide the wall into thirty-two blocks." Scott tapped his pen on his personal planner, sipped some lemonade and nodded in satisfaction. "Make sure its not too high up or too far down because Freddy and Todd have to be able to write on it. You two," Scott looked at Pietro and Kurt. "Hurry back and try not to spend too much. We're on a budget until we either find those tools or replace them. Jaysin, Todd, you two are with me. We need to put locks on the tool shed and while we're at it, we'll put one on the front and back door, too." Everyone bustled off to get started on their assignment while Scott looked on approvingly. He was beginning to wonder why he ever joined the X-Men. The Brotherhood was just as efficient when properly organized and motivated and besides, no one wanted to join the Brotherhood. There weren't any girls to get involved with and that alone simplified life. Sure, the Brotherhood wasn't seeing much action nowadays, either in a positive or negative light, but the escape from girls and the entire load of responsibility made it worthwhile. Not only that, but somewhere amongst the rough looking louts was a killer lemonade maker. Scott glanced in the fridge, noted that the pitcher was almost empty and made a mental note to buy more lemons and sugar.

Scott sighed contentedly and walked to the door, where Todd and Jaysin were waiting for him. He caught the tail end of Todd's question and asked him to repeat it.

"Where'd you park the car?" Todd shuffled onto the porch and stood aside for Scott to walk out. Scott charged out of the door in his usual military fashion but stopped at the steps. His car was gone. Scott frowned and patted his pockets. He reached in one and pulled out his keys. Sure enough, the car key was there.

"Did Lance make a copy of my key?" He asked. Usually Scott and Lance didn't even touch each other's vehicles, but since they were the only drivers in the Brotherhood and Lance's Jeep was less than reliable, they had to share sometimes. Scott scowled and stalked inside the house.

Lance was pulling rollers and paint brushes out of the junk room when Scott found him. "Huh? Why would I make a copy of it? I'd just ask to borrow your key if I needed your car."

Scott believed him. Lance abhorred riding in Scott's car as much as Scott did the Jeep. "When was the last time you borrowed it?"

"Couple of weeks ago. Why?"

Scott watched a small spider skitter across Lance's shoulder. "It's not in the front yard. I was hoping you had moved it or something."

Lance shrugged, oblivious to the spider, which fell off of his shoulder but managed to attach a security line and pull itself back up. "I thought it was there last night. Ask the twins if they saw it this morning."

Scott thanked Lance and turned to walk away. "Hey, Lance," Scott faced Lance again. He brushed the spider off Lance's shoulder and walked off. Lance stared at Scott's back, wondering what the hell had gotten into the man.

The entire Brotherhood of Mutants stood in the very empty yard. There was perfect silence as the two leaders of the Brotherhood first tried to comprehend what was going on and how to deal with it.

Lance was the first to speak. "First of all, we have no wheels." He muttered. He was thinking out loud, but it wasn't helping much. "None. Second of all, we only have one car." He blinked dumbly. "Without wheels."

Scott made a small whimpering noise. "My car."

"We need to call the police. Report this. And..." Lance swallowed hard at the thought of the police. He looked at his housemates. "Screw this, man. We're gonna find the thievin' bastards and rock their world. No one steals from the Brotherhood of Mutants and gets away with it. Are you with me?" There was silence as everyone waited to see how Scott would respond.

Scott roused himself from an almost comatose shock. "Hell yeah. Rocks and stuff. And if there's some blood and bruises to spare, then dammit, we'll give 'em that too." Behind them, the rest of the Brotherhood burst into a round of cheers.

Lance turned back to the Jeep. "Awesome. Now let's get some tires and find those bastards."

"Ah, just a sec." Pietro interrupted. "Remember the calender?"

"To hell with the calendar. This is a flaming car, Tro. Prioritize, man." Lance stared at his stripped car. "Who am I kidding? We can't afford new tires. Or old tires. Anyone owe you any favors, Scott?"

Scott thought about it for a while. "No. Not anyone who's speaking to me anymore. I sort of... you know, turning coat will do that."

"No problem," Lance nodded his understanding. "Anyone else?" There was silence again. "Alright. We'll flip a coin to decide it."

Scott blinked. "Decide what?"

"Whether you or Pietro will have to sleep with someone to get the cash." Lance dug into his pocket for a coin.

"Wh- what? I'm not..." Scott stared at Lance to see if he was joking. The look on his (and Pietro's) face made it clear that he wasn't. "I'm not a whore!"

"Got any better ideas?"

"Why don't you?"

Lance's face dropped into a mask of annoyance. "Scott, look at me."

Scott looked. "Alright, I get your point, but... look, I'm not sleeping some strange girl, and I'm not sleeping with a girl I know."

Pietro shrugged. "Then sleep with a guy. They pay more anyway." Scott's jaw dropped. "I'm just playing, Scott. Don't be so serious. Look, you don't really have to sleep with anyone. Just promise to go out on a date with them. All the girls have been after you since you officially broke up with Jean."

"Am I supposed to ask my girlfriend for money? Do you have any decency?"

"How much do tires cost?" Kaysin asked.

"Hundreds of dollars, Kaysin, hundreds. By the time we get the money, my car will be long gone."

Lance sighed. "Then there's not choice. We have to call the cops."

"What will they do?" Scott demanded. "We're mutants, remember?"

"Or we could call the X-Men for help getting the car back."

Scott thought about that. "What's the station's number?"

Lance swore. "I'll call Xavier's. Maybe Logan will help us out. Kurt, standby to beg Rogue for assistance. Kaysin, we'll need you nearby in case we need sound effects. Remember, the tears need to sound real, but don't get too loud or they'll get suspicious. The rest of you..." Lance looked them all up and down. "Well, if push comes to shove, we've got Scott."

"What?"

"Don't play, man. This is your car we're talking about. You can kiss Jean and act like you love her for your car back, right?"

It was Scott's turn to swear. "Fine. For my car."

Inside, Lance cleared his throat and made the call. After two rings, a man picked up the phone. "Hey, Logan?"

"Glad you called. I was just on my way over."

"Really?" Lance glanced at the crowd of mutants huddled beside him and shrugged. "Why?"

Logan growled. "Someone stole the van. Is Lance there? Maybe he knows the punks who did this."

Lance winced as soon as he realized that Logan thought he was Scott. "Lance is here, but he convinced me to call because we had no place else to turn." Lance threw his free hand up as Scott whispered furiously. "Someone stole my car and took the tires right off the Jeep."

"Are you serious?" Logan asked. "Damn. These punks have guts to steal from the Brotherhood and the X-Men. Any idea who it might be?"

"Not at all. The Brotherhood hasn't gotten into trouble for a while. But, y'know, someone did steal about seven hundred dollars of equipment from us earlier."

"Really? What was it?"

Lance sighed. "The stripper, sander and jigsaw. They wrecked my masterpiece too."

"Sorry to hear it." Logan didn't sound at all sorry, but Lance took the man's comment for what it was worth. Logan would have just grunted if he knew he was talking to Lance, but since he didn't know, Lance intended to reap as many compliments as his ego could stand from Logan.

"So where do we go from here? We've gotta stop this, but Sc- Lance and I are stuck here."

Logan didn't seem to notice that Lance had almost given himself away. "I'd offer to pick you up and get tires for the Jeep, but all we have now is the motorcycle." Scott yanked the phone from Lance and hit him on the head.

After growling at Lance, Scott put the phone to his ear. "Logan, aren't we going to call the police and report this? Even if they don't help us, there might be humans whose cars are being stolen and sabotaged as well."

Logan snorted. "Yeah, right. They'll blame it on you and say the case is closed. Lance, put Scott back on."

Scott yanked the phone from his face and stared at it. He cautiously put it back to his ear. "This is Scott."

"Lance, this isn't funny. You act like I can't tell your voice from Scott's." Logan's voice changed from exasperation to full anger. "If one of your people stole our van, Lance, your ass is so-"

Scott shoved the phone at Lance and stormed away.

"Hello?" Lance asked tentatively.

"Scott, what the hell is wrong with Lance?"

Lance looked after Scott. "I'm not sure. He's kind of worked up about people stealing from the Brotherhood. He wants revenge, I guess."

Logan sighed. "Well, I guess I can't blame him for that. Whoever the thief was, they stole the van from our garage, right under my nose. They took the gas and the engine from the Porsche. I'm afraid to drive anything because I have no idea what else they fiddled with."

"Wow. We didn't even check to see if they did anything else to the Jeep."

"Well, I can fix a Jeep. Just hang tight, I'll see if I can't get a set of tires down there. Once we get your Jeep straightened out, we'll find the bastards who sabotaged our wheels." Logan hung up the phone.

Lance put the phone down slowly. He turned to the rest of the mutants. "We need to get out of here, fast. I think something's going on at the Xavier Mansion. It's just a hunch, but I think its a very bad idea for us to hang around here."

Scott poked his head in the room. "What, Scott? Did your buddy Logan tell you to get out quick?"

Lance rolled his eyes. "No, but thanks to you, he's ready to skin me alive. I am so not going to be around when he arrives."

"Sure, fill up the tank while you're out." Todd smirked.

"Funny, Todd and very mature." Lance's voice rose in anger. "Look, I don't care what you punks say, I'm outta here. The man's psychotic on the best of days and he's looking for a scapegoat. If you stay, that's your business." With that, Lance practically ran out of the room.

The rest of the Brotherhood stared after him for all of a second before running after him. If Lance was freaked out enough to abandon the assumed safety of the house, then there was no way they'd be caught there without him.

As it was, they were just in time to see Logan climb off of his motorcycle.

Logan and Lance stared at each other.

Logan sniffed the air cautiously and then shrugged. "New haircut?" He asked, with a strange look on his face.

Lance, shrugged back. "That was fast."

Logan eyed the beat-up jeep. "Yeah well, there wasn't much traffic."

Scott elbowed his way through the gaping crowd of Brotherhood mutants. He charged down the steps of the porch and stopped in front of Logan. "Do you have any idea what's going on? I mean, who aside from one of the X-Men, who would dare steal from the Brotherhood?"

Logan growled in what could have been agreement and then spun around to stare down the long driveway. "Well, well. What's this?"

Scott's red convertible was racing towards the mansion, driven by a man who was looking more and more like Scott by the second. Logan glanced back at Lance, who was rapidly shifting from being completely floored to choking on fear. The convertible slid to a smooth stop in front of the group and Scott stepped out of the car.

"What's going on here?" Scott asked as he jumped from the car, one hand on his visor.

The Brotherhood of Mutants stared from the new Scott to the old one. They were even dressed the same. The old Scott stared at the new one with a gaping mouth. "That's my car. He took my car. And my face..."

Lance took a deep breath. "Is this a nightmare?" The new Scott glared at him.

"I suggest you get lost, I'm in a bad enough mood without shape-shifting punks assuming my position in my own home."

Lance looked at Old Scott, who looked back and shrugged. Lance snorted. "You're the imposter, thief. Get the Hell off our property."

New Scott didn't say a word. He didn't have to, because the low-level energy burst he released hit Lance in the chest so hard, he couldn't have heard anything but the low ringing of blood in his ears.