Summary; "You have exactly three seconds to tell us where Molly Hayes is," the girl said, threateningly pointing the staff at them. "And if we don't?" "We don't negotiate."
Warnings; Crossover / Swearing / So far, One Shot.
Disclaimer; I don't own anything it this story, characters, places, etc. They belong to Marvel comics.
Hide and Seek
A Runaways/X-Men: Evolution Crossover
Something Wicked This Way Comes
"Molly! Molly, you can come out now!"
Nico Minoru groaned, running a hand through her charcoal hair as the runaways searched every corner of the Hostel, looking for 11-year old Molly Hayes. Nico'd known playing hide and seek in their parents old lair, under the La Brea museum, had been a bad idea. Continuing to search through the bedrooms by herself, she had a hard time shaking the feeling that something was wrong.
Gert Yorkes adjusted her glasses as she and Old Lace continued looking for Molly. Old Lace, her pet deinonychus given to her by her time-traveling parents, was having a hard time picking up the mutant girl's scent. In front of them Chase Stein was holding the flashlight as they searched the darker crooks and crannies of the Hostel.
"Come on, Mol, game's over!" Chase shouted. "This isn't funny, Bruiser!
"Relax, hunny," Gert muttered, grasping his hand. "She just fooling around. Come on," she said, tugging at her boyfriend. "She's not here."
-
"I can't find her anywhere, Nico," Karolina Dean said, a worried expression on her glowing face.
Karolina was an alien who's powers basically ran on solar energy. For most of the time she wore a bracelet that anchored her powers, and hid her true nature, but she had chosen to take it off while looking for Molly. Nico sighed.
"Maybe you could do a locating spell?" Karolina suggested.
"Karolina has a point."
The two girls turned their attention to the boy coming out from one of the cave-like hallways. His name was Victor Mancha, a cyborg and the newest addition to their little group. Not exactly trusted among the runaways, considering that his (alternate) future self not only kills Gert, but pretty much every superhero on Earth. Nico shook her head at the suggestion.
"No. There's no point in wasting something as useful as a locating spell, when we know there's no way she could have left the Hostel," she said firmly. "She's just hiding somewhere."
"Well she's doing an amazing job," Gert announced as she and Chase joined them. "Not even Old Lace can find her."
"What if something's happened to her?" Karolina whispered. "What is someone's kidnapped her?"
"What like the FOH? Or Humanity's Last Stand?" Victor's suggestion was only met by blank stares. "You know, anti-mutant groups?"
"You know what I'm thinkin'?" Chase muttered as he advanced on the other boy. "I'm thinkin' you know exactly what happened to Molly."
Knowing it wouldn't take much more for him to jump Victor, Nico stepped between them, sending a deathly serious glare at the blond. Chase returned the look.
"You forgotten Plan A already, boss?" he asked quietly, so the others couldn't hear.
"Don't," Nico warned, full and well remembering. "Give me your knife," she ordered, sticking her hand out. He hesitated.
"Now, Chase."
He handed it to her, grumbling something under his breath, and stepped back as she raised it to her left wrist. She pressed the blade down, hard, until she drew blood. The knife fell to the floor.
"When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge!"
Nico's face twisted as the Staff emerged from her chest, like a splinter pulled from under your skin. Raising the Staff towards the numerous maps hanging next to the portraits of the old Pride, her stomach turned. She hated this part of her magic, how she had to think of painful memories before she could cast the simplest of spells.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
The runaways could only stare as a glowing, purple dot appeared on the map depicting the US, moving across the country.
--:--
"Leave me ALONE!"
Molly Hayes was in standing in the middle of a deserted LA alleyway late at night, surrounded by a group of teenage mutants. She didn't even know how she had ended up out there. They had been playing hide and seek in the Hostel and then suddenly there had been smoke and a disgusting smell, and then she was out here.
"Please Molly, we just want to help you," one of them said, a red haired girl in her late teens. Molly glared at her.
"Last time you X-people tried to help, you took me away from my friends!" she shouted, her eyes turning a dangerous shade of glowing purple.
She reached for the old, rusty bike laying on the ground next the her, and threw it towards the other mutants. With the bike in mid air, spikes flew through the air, pinning the scrap of metal to a wall. There were to many of them for her to beat, and if she didn't think of something quick, her powers would wear her out completely.
"Molly," her head snapped to the woman who was coming closer.
She was a lot older than the other kids, taller and with striking white hair. Molly knew who she was, knew she was one of the 'good guys', but it didn't matter. The first thing she had learned as a runaway, other than that her parents were super-evil mutants, was that she could never trust people like this woman. Never trust a grown-up.
"Back off lady," she hissed. "Or freakin' else!"
"Do you know who I am Molly?" she asked softly. "I'm sure you do. I hear you have quite a love for superheros like the X-Men. Wouldn't you like to be one yourself?"
"No!" Molly shouted and threw the nearest object towards Storm. "The last superhero who tried to help me and my friends kept us separated for weeks!" She staggered slightly, feeling herself grow weaker.
"I don't want to be a superhero, Storm... I...I want my family..."
Storm rushed forward, catching the girl as she fell to the ground.
"Storm?" the woman turned her head to look at the girl talking to her, Kitty Pryde, or Shadowcat. "Is she gonna be alright?" Ororo smiled at her.
"Now that she's with us child, I'm certain of it."
--:--
Had anyone been outside in Bayville Park, at 12 o´clock at night, they would be witness to the heavens falling. Well, ripping apart at least. A large, black hole seemed to open up in the sky and out fell five teenage runaways, and a dinosaur.
"You know, next time you wanna teleport us across the damn country Nico, you could at least make it more comfortable," Chase groaned as he got up, steadying himself against a park bench.
"You call that teleporting?" Victor muttered, rubbing the back of his head, which seemed to have taken quite a blow when the gang made impact with the ground.
"Nope," Nico said as she helped Karolina to her feet. "I've already used a teleporting spell once, and we all know how the Staff of One hates to repeat itself. It was the best substitute I could come up with."
"So," Gert began slowly, looking around the park. "Where the hell are we?" Nico gave her a weak smile.
"We're in Westchester county, New York."
"Wait," Victor interrupted, sending her an incredulous look. "We're in Bayville? Home of the X-Men?" The witch nodded. "Why?"
"Because the last time someone took Molly away, it was the X-geeks," Gert replied, obvious disdain in her voice. Old Lace growled behind her.
"Hey!" They all turned to where the unfamiliar voice was coming from. "Don't nobody call the X-geeks X-geeks 'cept us, yo!" Gert had a dumbstruck expression on her face.
"Man," she muttered. "I hate New York."
--:--
The Brotherhood boys, and girl, had decided to go out for the night. The boys were out so they could play a few pranks, crash a party, something down that alley, without Mystique on their back. Wanda had only tagged along because being stuck in the Boarding House was getting on her nerves. There was absolutely nothing to do there, not that there was usually much action going down anywhere in Bayville for that matter.
Tonight would prove her wrong.
She had decided to go to the park, by herself, but then Toad had found out and decided he would join her so that they could "spend some alone-time". Then Pietro had followed, telling her it wasn't safe in the park at night and that it was his "brotherly duty" to look after her. Like he cared about her safety... He was only following them so he could make fun of Toad's attempts of wooing her. Freddy didn't have anything better to do, and Lance wasn't about to do anything stupid, at least not alone.
And that's how they ended up in Bayville Park some time after midnight. Toad was trying to read her poetry, Lance and Pietro were talking about some guy thing she couldn't care less about and Blob was star gazing. It was he who began rambling about a rift in the sky, making them focus their attention on the black hole that had appeared. It was rather amusing actually, watching the six figures fall to the ground.
It was Lance who suggested they should go check it out. Personally, she didn't think much of it, probably just some mutant who couldn't properly use their powers. Probably Mystiques son, Kurt something. They didn't go to close, just close enough to hear what they were saying and partially make out the figures. Three girls, two boys... and a dinosaur? Well, she'd seen stranger things before.
"Wait," one of the boys said, the shorter of the two. "We're in Bayville? Home of the X-Men? Why?"
'Oh great, a fanboy...'Wanda thought in annoyance. An X-Men fanboy, above all. The girl next to him, dressed head-to-toe in black nodded. Wanda couldn't help but notice the stick she held in her hand.
"Because the last time someone took Molly away, it was the X-geeks," another girl said, a short and round one, with purple hair. Each of the Brotherhood boys seemed to shiver as a low growl came from the dinosaur.
Wanda stepped forward. This was too strange. She was determined to find out who these people were. The rest of the Brotherhood seemed to be thinking something along the same lines.
"Hey!" Toad shouted, hoping forward with the rest of the team right behind him. "Don't nobody call the X-geeks X-geeks 'cept us, yo!"
Wanda groaned. Whoever these people were, the was no way they were going to take them serious now. A dumbstruck expression played on the new arrivals' faces. The purple haired one was theonly one to speak.
"Man," she muttered. "I hate New York."
"Toad's right," Pietro said, and Wanda wanted nothing more than to slap the arrogant smirk off of her brothers face. "This is our turf."
"Oh yeah?" The blond boy asked, coming towards them.
Wanda, who usually hated the way people acted prejudiced against mutants, immediately hated the boy. 'Typical jock,' she thought to herself. The purple haired girl reached out and grabbed his wrist.
"Chase, don't. They're mutants," she said, and there seemed to be some sort of understanding between them.
"You guys have a problem with that?" her brother asked, and began running around them in circles.
As always, Wanda wished her brother would, just this once, stop acting like he was king of the world. Next to her, Lance, Todd and Freddy were obviously enjoying the show. She wasn't.
"Leave them alone Pietro," she hissed at him. "They haven't done anything. Yet."
"Yeah, you heard the goth chick," the jock boy shouted through the whirlwind Quicksilver had created around them. "Back off, before we sick the 'raptor on you!"
"Don't threaten my brother!" Wanda shouted, and throwing a Hex bolt at the boy she sent him flying into a nearby tree.
Pietro ran back to join the Brotherhood, who were all looking forward to giving the newbies a good beating. Two of the girls, the purple haired one and a blond one, rushed to help the boy. As they helped the boy get up, the blond girl ripped something off her wrist and her whole body turned in to a glowing mass of sparkling rainbow colors. Floating, she took her place on the left side of the girl with the staff.
"Anchor!" the raven haired girl shouted, pointing her staff at them as she glared.
It was like a ton of bricks had hit her square in the chest and Wanda stared in horror as the glow surrounding her hands faded. They had done something to her powers. She stared at the Brotherhood boys, realizing that the same thing had happened to them.
"What the hell did you do to us!" she shouted, glaring at the raven haired witch. The girl smiled.
"I 'anchored' your powers," she sent a grin towards the glowing girl. "I got the idea from K's bracelet, which inhibits her from using her powers. Don't worry," she added, "the effect of the spell will only last a few hours."
"Who the hell are you?" Lance spat at them.
"My name's Nico, this is Karolina," the blond girl waved at them."The guy you attacked is Chase, and the other girl is Gert. The dinosaur is her per Old Lace. And this," she gestured to the boy at her right, "is Victor."
"And now it's your turn to answer a couple of questions," Gert said, and the dinosaur growled again.
"What makes you think we're going to answer any of your questions?" Wanda hissed.
"Because right now, we're the only ones with powers here. And if you guys want your powers back, you'll talk."
"You're bluffing," Pietro muttered. "You said the effect would only last a few hours."
"Trust me, I can make it permanent if I want."
"You have exactly three seconds to tell us where Molly Hayes is," the girl, Nico, said, threateningly pointing what she had called the Staff of One at them.
"And if we don't?" Toad questioned. The girl glared at him.
"We don't negotiate."
"We don't even know anyone named Molly," Blob told her. "And you guys said the X-geeks had her, so why are you bothering us?"
"You mean, you're not X-Men?" Karolina asked, a surprised look on her face.
"What, you morons think the X-Men are the only mutants out there?" Pietro asked, tauntingly. "Please. We're the Brotherhood."
And there you have it. Like? Don't like? Questions? Review please, and let me know!