10

"Juggernaut went with Magneto, along with two others, not sure who, guy and a girl, teenagers by the look of 'em, or so 'Ro says. She didn't get a good look before the girl took her out. Yeah, telepath."

Wolverine was standing in the cockpit of the Blackbird, headset pressed to his ear as he talked to Xavier. Through the window he could see Berserker, Magma and Beast walking out of the second cell block, Beast carrying and unconscious Sunspot. All three of them were moving slowly, obviously nursing wounds. Outside the maximum security wing, Laura, Gambit and Colossus were helping the others out after Colossus had jumped down from the roof where he landed when Juggernaut threw him. Most of the other X-Men had various cuts and bruises, Rogue loudly demanding an aspirin and something about strangling Wanda. The only three he did not see were Bobby, who was by far the worse injured in the attack, Jean who had begun lifting him gently with telekinesis after she came too, and Kitty, who had immediately gone back to his side after the threat of the Brotherhood was gone and was currently phasing any debris in the way to make it easier to navigate him out.

"No, Laura says Magneto locked Red back up," Logan continued, "apparently Mags didn't want any mutants hurt too badly and he was trying to go to town on Laura. No, she's fine, healing factor kicked into overdrive after he let go. I'm not going to lie Charles, even with Red still here this is pretty bad. The team isn't going to take it well. They dropped the ball pretty bad."

On the horizon, rising over the mountain and sweeping down into the valley was a squadron of Blackhawk helicopters. Logan frowned. "I gotta go Charles, looks like the cavalry finally arrived. I'll see if I can find out who our mystery prisoners are." He put the headset down and walked down the ramp to stand out in the open in front of the plane. As the helicopters made a tight circle around the complex, some landing and soldiers fanning out, Laura walked up to stand next to Logan. "Don't worry kid, they're S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury's not going to break his word this early."

She merely nodded and went back to helping Ray and Amara. Logan stood where he was, watching the lead copter finish its circling and land in front of him. The door opened and Fury walked out after two fully armed soldiers, the blond haired aide behind him. "I land, you're standing there waiting for me, covered in blood, and everything around you is destroyed. Like old times, huh Logan?"

"Yeah, little too much for comfort Nick."

"What the hell happened here? We loose contact with the Vault and I can't get a team scrambled because of a communication problem at HQ."

"Magneto. Sent in some goons and broke out two teens and Juggernaut. The X-Men tried to stop him, his team got lucky."

"He left Omega Red?"

"He was going to take him, near as we can tell, but Red pissed him off somehow and now he's back in his cage. Who were the other two?"

Fury was looking distractedly at the prison, and it took him a minute to answer. "The boy is Calvin Rankin, he was going by the name Mimic before we could ID him. In for petty crimes; we were holding him here because we weren't sure if he could escape a normal cell. He was a kid Xavier turned away, something about not being a mutant."

"Not how I remember it, kid ran away before Xavier could explain everything."

"Anyway, kid's only been here a week. Was going to offer him a job but never got a chance to get out here. The other, the girl, is Cassandra Nova. She claims to be Marko's daughter, but we can't find any record of it. We caught her right about where you're standing, coming here to break out her old man. She's a telepath, pretty powerful as far as we can tell. Both of them and Juggernaut went with Magneto?"

"Yeah."

Fury turned back to Logan, a frown on his face. "I don't think you realize how bad this is."

"Juggernaut's not easy to take down, especially if he's hiding out with Magneto. But we've brought him in before and we'll do it again."

"Juggernaut is the last thing I'm worried about Logan."

Fury's aide had wandered off and was listening to a headset. "General, sir, reports coming in, preliminaries state no other prisoners escaped, and we haven't found any casualties. Green team is currently assisting some of Xavier's people move out one of their injured."

"Take him to the medical chopper, I want him treated."

Logan stepped up to Fury, the top of his head only coming to the man's chin, but he looked up at him with a snarl. "You're not taking one of ours anywhere bub!"

Fury looked down at Logan, his eye studying the short man. "I'll give him back Logan. He got hurt defending one of my bases and I want our medics to look at him." He turned away from the mutant to stare once again at the Vault, watching as his soldiers swept the grounds and weaved in and out of various holes in the building.

Logan stepped beside him to watch as well, his arms folded across his chest. He glanced sideways at Fury. "You said I didn't realize, so enlighten me."

Fury let out a snort, then a sigh. "You know better than anyone Logan, that there are plenty of dark corners where the government has their pet projects hidden, things so buried even I don't know about them all. And there are plenty of people with their own agendas who are just looking for an excuse to let a few of them out. There were plenty calling for the heads of all mutants after Apocalypse, but I managed to smooth a lot of that over by pointing out it was you guys who got the job done in stopping him. I can probably keep this contained too, since this is a pretty top secret facility. But if Magneto moves to a more public target, I'm not going to be able to stop some of these people, high ranking people I might add, from declaring all out war."

"People aren't going to stand for that. That's genocide!"

"They'll spin it. They'll cover it up, use terms like 'war on genetic terrorism' or something like that. They'll say they're bring in suspected mutants and leaving others alone, but they'll round you all up and lock you away somewhere if they don't put a bullet in your head right away. And people won't care, they're just going to look the other way and silently be glad the mutant problem is over." He turned to look at Logan. "Believe me when I say I'm doing everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen. But if Magneto keeps stirring things up, my hands will be tied. Now I know you, and I know Xavier, so I know you'll be looking to take down Magneto, but that might not be the best things you could do right now."

"You just got done telling me he needs to be stopped, and now you're telling us not to do it?"

Fury waved his hand towards the prison. "You made this place your personal battleground. Imagine if this had been some sort of public place. Mutants waging war with each other is just as good as mutants waging war on humans. Phones would come off the hook and a mess of trouble would be knocking down your door."

"If you think we're just going to sit by and do nothing-"

"I don't expect you will. But I need to be kept in the loop. It's a lot easier for me to get you S.H.I.E.L.D. protection and sanctioning if I know what's going on! I'm on your side in this Logan. I know you aren't all monsters whose powers have gone to their heads. But there are too many people who do. Fighting private wars isn't going to help that opinion. At least if we're working together we have a chance of deflecting some of this. Just pass it on to Xavier. Hopefully he'll understand what I mean."

"I know what you mean Nick, and it's nice to know you're looking out for us. But don't you dare think about using this as an excuse to get us under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control. We work together to stop Magneto, but that's it."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said with a slick grin.

-------------

Morale at the mansion the next few days was low. As it was the weekend and they didn't have class, most of the Institute could be found lounging about the mansion, dour looks on their faces. Even Kurt, who was found lost but uninjured in a small wood thirty miles away from the Vault, was feeling the disappointment of not only losing to the Brotherhood, but losing badly. They found some solace that no one was seriously injured. Bobby had several broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and some internal bleeding that was quickly fixed by S.H.I.E.L.D. surgeons, and Roberto was still weak from Omega Red's death field, but both were recovering. By Monday morning the only two still in the medical ward were Bobby, still sleeping peacefully with the aide of sedatives, and Kitty, who had stayed by his side most of the time. She was eventually pried away by Logan, who told her to go take a shower and get to school.

The majority of the team continued to suffer more from bruised egos then bodies, though many were still taking aspirin for various aches. Scott was taking it worse than anyone. He and Jean were sitting on a bench on campus as they waited for their afternoon class to begin, Jean reading over some notes while lying down with her head resting on his lap as he sat brooding.

"It's my fault," he said suddenly.

"Fifteen," she said in a distracted voice, flipping back a few pages to recheck a figure.

"What?"

She looked up from her notes, leaning her head back to stare up at him, a slight smile on her face. "That's fifteen times now, at least that I've heard out loud, that you've blamed yourself. You need to let it go."

"How can I let it go? It's my responsibility, I'm the leader, and it's my job to get us in, do our job, and get us home safely. Logan warned us not to be overconfident and we rushed in there thinking this was just another time we would wipe the floor with the Brotherhood. And now Juggernaut, his daughter, and Rankin are with Magneto. We had a chance to stop them and I failed."

"Scott," she said, sitting up and turning towards him. "You're not Superman. You don't always win and when we don't it's not your fault. We all were pretty sure of ourselves back there and it fell apart around us. I mean, Pietro took me down, and I'm one of the few people who can stop him in his tracks."

"I'm going to blast his head off for that!" Scott said with clenched teeth.

"Take a number, I get the first shot," she said, poking a finger in his chest. She changed her poking finger to a caress on his cheek. "We all messed up Scott, don't keep blaming yourself. It's not the end of the world that we lost; we'll just get them next time."

He turned his head slightly and kissed her palm as he grabbed her waist and pulled her closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him square on the lips. At some point her broke off and said simply, "Thank you."

She smiled and kissed him again before turning away and laying back down against his lap. "You're welcome, now I need to study for this test." She retrieved her notes and returned to studying. They were quiet for about a minute before she jabbed backwards with her elbow into his thigh.

"Oww! What was that-"

"You're still thinking about it."

-------------

Laura sat in her room reading through a history textbook. It was her third one since coming to the mansion, and like the previous two she was absorbing the information remarkably well. Mr. McCoy had suggested she might have a photographic memory. Whether or not that was true he hadn't yet fully tested, but even if she did have one it did not help her at all when it came to math. While she was excelling at history and science (anatomy in particular, but Hank didn't like to think how most of that knowledge probably came from know where best to attack someone), math seemed to physically hurt her as she tried to figure out algebra. She frowned at the thought of math and its numbers, returning to the account of the Underground Railroad she was reading.

She was discovering that reading was keeping her mind off of most everything. She was never allowed to read anything other than mission reports while in Hydra, and even if this textbook was supposed to be for studying she found it kept her mind of both her time at Hydra and the failed mission. She was satisfied that she had done everything she could have done, but was still moderately angry that she had failed and Magneto had succeeded. She was very angry that he again had tried to recruit her to his cause.

There was a knock on her door, followed by Tabitha and Amara walking into the room. Tabitha had a pair of sunglasses pushed up on her brow that held her blonde locks out of her eyes while Amara had her hair done into several elaborate braids on the side of her head. Both girls were wearing clothes as if they were going out. "Hey Wild Thing, whatcha doing?" Tabby said as sat on the clone's bed, Amara joining her.

"Wild Thing?"

"Yeah," Amara said, "something us New Mutants took to calling you after we watched you fight that ninja. You were awesome, never seen anyone fight like that, even Wolverine."

"I'm pretty sure Ray's crushing on you," Tabitha added, "he keeps humming the song."

"Crush?"

Amara just grinned at her. "Don't worry, we'll get you caught up on all the proper slang while we're at the mall."

"Why would we go to the mall?"

"Why not?" they both asked. They looked at each other and laughed.

"Besides," Amara said, "you need to get some clothes that don't have an X on them."

Laura looked down at the black t-shirt with the red X on her left breast, and the matching gray sweatpants. "Clothes are clothes."

The girls on the bed looked at her with a shocked look on her face, then at each other with shared disbelief. "We should stop by Kitty and Dani's room and get them to come," Amara said, "we're going to need more help."

Tabby stood. "Girl, clothes help make you who you are, help express yourself, help entice tall, metal Russians if I'm reading your looks right. Plus we need to get you some decorations for this room. Even Piotr and Remy have stuff already and they've been here an even shorter time than you have!"

"And the Professor is paying for everything you want to buy," Amara added, "you don't just pass that up!"

"Fine," Laura said, giving up. "I'll go buy new clothes with you if it will get you to leave me alone."

Tabitha grinned and wrapped her arm around her. "Don't worry. Someday you're going to look back on this and laugh at yourself. You'll thank us."

-------------

It was a large, windowless room with high-backed chairs set up auditorium style facing a dais and several display screens. Other than that the room appeared to be plain, but this was not the case. Under the plaster of the walls were six inch thick steel plates, neural disruptors, and a variety of security devices designed to keep out those who were not invited. It was one of two rooms on Avalon with defenses designed this way, the second being Magneto's chambers.

The Master of Magnetism stood on the dais, once again without armor, overlooking those gathered here. In the chairs turned towards him his children, Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver, in the front row, Sage and Bishop to Quicksilver's right and the new boy, Mimic, along with Revanche to Wanda's left. Behind them in one of several specially designed chairs sat Juggernaut, with Cassandra sitting in a chair to his right and to his left sat Sabertooth. Farther down that row, Pyro sat playing with what looked like a small ball with wings, all made of fire. Mastermind sat near him, but kept his distance in fear of being burned. Lastly, Toad, Blob and Avalanche sat off to one side, Blob in a chair similar to Juggernaut's.

"Today, my brothers and sisters," Magneto began, "we enter a new era for Mutantkind, one where the doors of Avalon are fully opened and we begin to bring mutants from around the world here where they can be who they are, learn what limits they are capable of, and grow as one without fear of the outside world, without rejection by those they once called friends and family, without the oppression that humanity would press upon them. Already there are those we have invited to seek refuge here, but today, today my friends, Mutantkind joins together in Brotherhood, united as a people like never before. Today all are welcomed as citizens of Avalon. Today we begin to call our brothers and sisters home.

"And we," he said with open arms to those in the room, "are their stewards, their guardians against humanity, who being a cowardly lot, will continue their attempts to control, if not outright annihilate us because they fear us, our superiority, our right to this world. We here in this room are Mutantkind's shield, and when the time is right, its sword. Like our Brotherhood as a whole, our numbers in this room will grow as more who have to ability to fight join us. We Acolytes of Mutantkind will be those who fight for the members of our Brotherhood whose powers do not help defend themselves, whose powers can help change the world for the better, yet would be snuffed out by the humans in power who seek to destroy us simply for being different.

"Once, long ago, I watched as those I had called my people were ruthlessly murdered simply for being born what they were. I will not allow that to happen again to a people I call my own. I will not have others to gain similar horrific memories. I have asked you to stand with me, and you have agreed. I thank you," he said with a bow of his head towards them, "with all my heart."

He lifted his head and looked at Cassandra. "It is time to find our brethren. If you would take you place in Cerebra, we can begin our mission." He shifted his gaze to the other. "The rest of us will be prepared to begin bringing them back here safely. And we all need to prepare, for soon we have one last confrontation with Charles Xavier."

-------------

Kitty was in her room late that afternoon pacing. Back and forth across the room, ignoring her homework, passing up a chance to go to the mall and decide the fashion future of Laura, pacing back and forth instead. She had gotten back from school an half hour ago and had immediately ventured to the medical wing to see Bobby, but Mr. McCoy had turned her away, telling her to get some rest herself or catch up on her homework. Bobby couldn't have visitors at the moment. She had yelled, until he told her yelling outside the ward would be just as disturbing, and so she stormed away, back to her room, where now she had a perfect pattern of steps laid out in the thick carpet.

She didn't like being away from him. She felt terrible that she had left his side back in the Vault. As she walked from the door side of the room to the window she kept reminding herself that she had done everything she could have and had left to go after Juggernaut and Quicksilver, the two people responsible for his pain. She couldn't have helped stop Bobby's bleeding, she didn't even know about it. He was out cold and didn't feel any pain. As she walked back from the window to the door, she kept thinking that since she never stopped them or even caught up with them again after she left, maybe she should have just stayed, and somehow offered him support. Coupled with the fact that she had been forced from his bedside this morning, and stopped from returning after she came back, Kitty's mind was a tumultuous place at the moment.

She was three steps from reaching the window when a voice broke the silence behind her. "You realize that, at least for you, there are quicker ways to get through the floor then wearing it down, right?" She quickly spun around, and there was Bobby standing in the door way looking perfectly fine a blue Xavier shirt and cargo pants. The only sign of his injury was the sling his hurt right arm rested in. Kitty ran to him, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his the crook of his neck. He put his left arm around her.

She squeezed him close. "You're okay!"

"Sorta, not very crushable right now Kit."

She pulled back like she had burned herself. "Oh jeez, I'm sorry Bobby, I wasn't thinking. You want to sit down? Are you even supposed to be up?"

"No, no sitting. Been in a bed too long, I was seeing if you wanted to go for a walk."

"Yeah, let me throw on some shoes." She went to closet while he kept talking.

"And yes, I can be up. Beast told me I was free to go as long as I take it easy. He said you came by earlier to see me. I was actually up then but had just gotten into the shower, so, you know-" his mind started to go a little fuzzy as she bent over with her back to him, digging through a pile of shoes.

She looked over her shoulder with an evil grin. "Too bad Beast was running interference, huh?"

"Well, uh..."

She pulled out a pair of sandals, slipping them on her feet as she went back to the very red Bobby. She gently put a hand on his chest. "Breathe."

He dramatically let out a breath and she laughed a bit. He started to laugh too, but stopped with a very loud wince. "Ow. My right side is going to be one giant bruise for a while."

She hooked her arm through his left and led him out of the room and they headed down the hall. "Want to stop by the kitchen? I could get you some-" she stopped dead in her tracks, turning just as red as he had been moments before. She closed her eyes and grinned.

"Ice?" he finished. "No, I think I have that covered, thanks though."

"Shut up," she said still grinning, and they walked down the atrium stairs to the grounds. "Did you talk to your parents?"

"Yeah, right before the shower. Figured I shouldn't lie about this so I told them everything that happened."

"How did they take it? They were always pretty cool before, letting you stay here after Magneto outted us."

"I've always managed to keep them reassured that I knew what I was getting myself into and that we trained enough that we could handle it. They've always been worried, my mom especially, but now? Saying they're freaking out just doesn't cut it.."

For the second time in the walk she stopped them. "They're not pulling you out of the Institute, are they?"

"No, but they are driving up tomorrow for a very long talk with me and the Professor. I almost regret not being able to sit through a boring science lecture tomorrow."

She frowned. "What if they change their minds?"

He looked down at her with a reassuring smile. "I'm not going anywhere. This is where I want to be. As soon as I'm better I'm healed up I'm putting that uniform back on. It's what I want to do. If they want to try to pull me out of here, I'll, I dunno, freeze the car, claim my powers are out of control and that I need Xavier's help."

She smiled at this and they continued their walk, not saying anything else but just enjoying each other's company. The eventually came to the cliffside and they sat on the edge of the marble gazebo, staring out at the water. The sun was going down behind them and the first stars of the evening were coming out. Kitty leaned her head against his good shoulder. "It's nice out here."

"Beautiful night," he agreed. "So, I'm sorry we didn't get to go to the dance, I was looking forward to it, and I know how much you wanted to go."

"Yeah, I was looking forward to it too. We can just go do something else though."

"You still want to go out with me?"

"Why wouldn't I? I did agree to go to the dance with you, and it's not like I didn't have other guys asking me."

"I know, but-"

"I kinda hate puberty. Your boobs grow a little bit more and suddenly guys are crawling out of every little crack looking to go out with you."

"For the record, that's not why I asked you out."

She slipped her hand into his. "I know, one of the many reasons I said yes. I guess lately I've really seen what a great guy you are. We never really talked before, but when Evan left and you sort of took over, it was nice to get to know you. You really have been there for me, especially when that whole Lance thing blew up in my face."

He squeezed her hand. "I know. You're just this amazing girl Kitty, smart and funny, and one of the nicest persons I've ever met. He's an idiot for ever hurting you."

"Why are we talking about Lance? Talk more about me," she said with a smile.

"You brought him up."

"Ugh."

"I'll make it up to you."

"And how do you plan on doing that."

He turned towards her, slipping his hand out of hers and gently cupped the side of her face. Leaning forward, Bobby brought his lips down to Kitty's. It was a slow kiss to start, taking her a moment to register what was happening before she returned it, wrapping her arms carefully around him. It remained a slow and sensual kiss as each explored soaked up the feeling of the others lips for the first time.

With a slight nip at his lower lip, she pulled away from him, eyes still closed and her face glowing in a smile. "Very, very good answer."

Their lips came together again with increased passion, making their second kiss just as memorable as their first.