Is the chapter title a double Star Wars reference? Yes, but surprisingly, it came about as a coincidence. Odd. Oh, and excuse the grammar.
Act 3, Chapter 3 (11)- Lucas Strikes Back
The Brotherhood emerged from a cave a quarter of a mile from the Institute, leading to a thick forest outside of the mansion grounds, and away from any other suburban development in Bayville. There was no sign of any SHIELD helijets. Fred stopped to catch his breath, hunching over a bit while Lance and Pietro stopped near him. Wanda remained behind, with Toad jumping over her and clinging to the trunk of a tree.
"Okay, where to from here?" Lance asked.
"We head to the city," Pietro said. "They'll have a harder time if they have to wade through all the civilians." Without saying anything, Wanda began to walk away. "Wanda, where are you going?"
"I'm going my own way. I'm not about to follow any of you," she told him. "I have a better chance without you."
"Are you out of your mind? We need to stick together. We ran from SHIELD for your sake, Wanda-"
"I never asked you to!" she yelled. Pietro had nothing to add. "I wouldn't be running from SHIELD if you hadn't made a deal with them."
"So I suppose you're going to run back to Lucas," Pietro snarked.
"Where I go is none of your business," Wanda snarled. "But I'm going alone." She started to move away. Toad was ready to hop after her, but Lance stopped him, shaking his head.
"We can't force her back into the gang," Pietro told the others. "She'll be fine on her own. Now we just have to worry about our own skins."
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Back at the front lawn of the Xavier Institute, Magneto pulled a fleeing heli-jet out of the sky and threw it down to the ground. As the agents jumped out, he crumpled it, like he had Bishop's jet. That left only one other. As expected, none of the X-Men came out to aid Magneto.
But to his surprise, a single student did.
"What are you doing?!" Magneto yelled. "Get back inside! Now!"
"I know why you're doing this," Ellie told him, running out to the front lawn. "I'm here to help!"
"For your own sake, get back inside right now!" Magneto roared. As his back was turned, Bishop fired a blast from his plastic gun, knocking Magneto onto his back. Immediately, Ellie held out her hand, and nothing happened. Bishop took a moment to stare, wondering what was going on. After a few seconds, a bolt of pink lightning shot out of Ellie's hand, throwing Bishop's weapon from his hand.
"If that's how you want to play," Bishop threatened. He pointed his fist at Ellie and fired again, releasing a small but forceful beam, knocking Ellie back several feet. Magneto pulled some scrap from one of the broken helijets and hurled it at Bishop, who rolled beneath it, then jumped as it swung back around. Bishop aimed his fist at Magneto, but then stopped suddenly, bending over and grabbing his head long enough for Magneto's scrap to strike him in the back. Magneto turned to Ellie, who he saw was concentrating on him, emitting an electrostatic signal that momentarily disrupted Bishop's brain patterns. Magneto was curiously immune to it.
"Your skills are improving quickly," Magneto noted. "But it's time you left. He will use deadly force if he has to." Ellie nodded, and ran before Bishop could recover. She looked at her hands, realizing that she was gaining control over her powers. Once he saw that she was leaving, Magneto turned back to Bishop... just in time to see that two SHIELD agents had pulled a weapon from the downed helijet. They fired a blinding white light at Magneto, and to his shock, he found that his powers had no effect on the weapon. He could feel a tingling, slightly burning sensation where the white light hit him- any movement caused him pain. He motioned towards the helijet, but it refused to respond, either. Magneto felt as if his arms had been severed, but his brain hadn't realized it. Before he could come to the realization that his powers were being nullified, an agent knocked him on the back of the head with the butt of a twisted rifle. Magneto dropped to the ground and two more agents jumped on him, binding his hands behind him.
"You're too late," the weakened Magneto said. "They've already made their escape."
"They won't be out for long," Bishop told him. "As for you, my superiors will decide your fate." Magneto tried to reach out at his bindings, but his magnetic powers had been drained from him. The one remaining helijet was called over to the front lawn and loaded with Magneto. The unconscious agents were also carried in.
From a balcony, Professor Xavier watched as Bishop and his men departed. He focused on Magneto and told him, "Magnus, you didn't have to do this. You didn't have to throw everything away."
"No, Charles," Magneto replied telepathically. "I did. It's time I paid for my sins. All of them."
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The Brotherhood, sans Wanda, hid at Bayville High School, entering carefully without tripping any alarms, as they'd done numerous times while working for Mystique. They sat down in the principal's office as Fred opened a bucket of chicken and Pietro and Lance took a leg each, with Toad snagging a wing with his tongue. They hadn't bought the chicken, of course, but Fred asked Toad to snag it from someone's patio table as they ran.
"What are we gonna do?" Toad asked. "We can't run for long, they're gonna find us."
"I think we should split up," Lance suggested. "If they find us all together, we're all screwed."
"Are you crazy?!" Toad jumped onto the desk next to Lance. "Ain't you ever seen any movies, yo? When we split up, that's when they find us! United we stand, man, united we stand!"
"Then you come up with something!"
"Lance is right," Pietro said. "We need to split in half. Two of us go one way, two of us go another."
"Why not split into four?" Fred asked.
"If we have two, then we can cover each other's weaknesses. You wouldn't get very far without one of us helping you out, Blob."
"Too true," Fred sighed. "And Lance would probably make all kinds of noise and just draw attention to himself."
"Me?!" Lance protested. "Pietro would be the one getting all cocky and trying to mess with those agents!"
"What?!" Pietro scoffed. "Please, I don't waste my time playing with wusses. Toad's got it the worst, he can't go five seconds without screwing up!"
"If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have gotten outta th' mansion, or into this school to begin with!" Toad snapped.
"Yeah right, Toad, I move fast enough to get by any alarm."
"But then how would we have gotten in?" Fred pressed.
"Well I'd deactivate the alarm from the inside, or something. You'd probably just punch through a door and waltz right in. You guys don't have the touch for subtlety like I do. Maybe Toad, but only because he's too weak to be obvious about what he does." Pietro dashed out of the way of a pouncing Toad. "You thought I wouldn't see that coming? I- AH!"
"Who's laughing now?" Lance said, holding Pietro in an unexpected headlock. Toad stuck out his tongue from across the room, nearly touching the squirming Pietro's nose. As the two laughed, Fred grabbed Lance by his shirt and held him up. "Hey! What are you doing?"
"Two against one ain't fair!"
"Yeah, but you count for at least four!" Pietro remarked.
"Hey, I was helping you!" Fred threw Lance at Pietro and then picked up the desk. "You're nothing but a traitor, Pietro! You always were!"
"Whoa!" Toad yelled, sitting on top of the desk. "What are you doin', Freddy?"
"Are you idiots done yet?" Wanda asked from the doorway. They all stood still- Pietro standing back up, Lance lying on the ground, and Todd sitting on the desk being held over Fred's head. Fred set the desk down, Lance stood up, and Pietro straightened his outfit. "I figured you guys would hide in here. I'm surprised SHIELD hasn't already found you."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Lance asked. "I thought you said you didn't need us."
"Look, you guys aren't going to get very far without my help." They all hung their heads. She had a point.
"So you were worried about us?" Todd grinned.
"No, I just..." Wanda struggled to find an excuse, and realized that even she didn't know why she'd come looking for them. "We need to get out of here."
"I love you too, babycakes." Toad hugged her, but she pushed him away. "Hehe... oh, shit."
"What?" Todd hopped to the window and looked down at the street. Wanda stood up and followed him. "Oh, shit."
"What?! WHAT?!" Pietro zipped over to them. "Oh, sh-"
"Just tell us what's going on!"Lance yelled.
"They're here!" Pietro yelled back.
"I told you we shouldn't have hid somewhere so close! Okay. Are we splitting up or what?"
"Yeah," Pietro said. "Toad, Lance and Blob are on one team. Wanda and I are on the other."
"Where do we meet up?" Todd asked.
"We'll meet up at the outdoor amphitheatre." Pietro looked out the window and saw the agents quickly and safely opening the front door of the school. "They're probably coming in through multiple entrances. Lucky for us, Mystique always had a way out." Pietro pulled up a section of the carpet from the corner of the room to reveal a trapdoor.
"Nothing here," a SHIELD agent said as he scoured the hallway. "Anything in the north wing?"
"Just a bucket of chicken and an open window," Lieutenant Denti, Bishop's right-hand man, said from the principal's office. "They were here. They couldn't have gotten far. Agents, move out."
Several yards away, Wanda and Pietro climbed out of another trapdoor in an alley across from the school. Pietro closed it behind him and pushed a dumpster over it. The others had taken a different route underground. "That should be it for that." Pietro checked outside the alley. Once it was clear, he picked up his sister and dashed for another alley, then set her down again.
"Pietro, I'm curious... the others had managed to find something to waste their time on. What have you been doing all this time?"
"That's... uh..." Pietro looked out the alley, almost hoping SHIELD would show up. "I didn't really do anything."
"Nothing?"
"Well, I ran around. I broke stuff. I stole stuff. One side of the country to the next. I even dashed across both borders a few times to see if I could get away with it."
"That's it?" Wanda asked incredulously.
"Yeah... that's it," Pietro added sheepishly. "I wasted nearly five years of my life. Even that tool Evan figured I'd have done something with myself by now."
"Why didn't you?"
"Come on, Wanda, you know that. I didn't have the patience," Pietro admitted. "Everything took too much time and effort. It was just easier to steal anything I wanted. That's over, though. I was such a nuisance that SHIELD had to stop me. It's only a matter of time before those fascists find me again and lock me away for good." Pietro picked Wanda up again and ran to another alley, close to a docking area behind a set of stores. He motioned for her to lay low as a black helicopter flew overhead. "Did you talk to Magneto?" he asked, changing the subject.
"I did. I'm not so sure he's not evil," Wanda said to him. "But... I don't know. There's something different about him."
"You're not thinking of forgiv-"
"No," Wanda said bluntly. "I'm not forgiving him. I never will. But..."
"We found them!" a SHIELD agent shouted, startling them both. Quickly, they were surrounded by several more. A SHIELD helicopter hovered close to the ground. "We have you outnumbered. Come quietly."
"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice," Pietro said to Wanda. She first raised her hands, but one of the soldiers used a weapon that cast a white light on them. Shielding her eyes with her hands, Wanda was stalled just long enough for the light to take effect, producing a tingling sensation in both twins. Pietro tried to run to Wanda and get her away, but suddenly he was moving at an alarmingly slow rate. In no time, SHIELD soldiers overtook him and handcuffed him, placing shackles on his ankles to keep him from running. Wanda threw her hands at them, but aside from a few small sparks, she couldn't conjure a single spell. The soldiers soon seized her and also tied her hands behind her back, placing them inside a tight box to prevent her fingers from moving around. Once they were secure, they were loaded into the helicopter. The soldier with the light turned his device off and joined the other soldiers.
"Yo," Toad said sarcastically with a metallic echo from the metal muzzle placed over his mouth. He was shackled like Pietro and seated next to Fred, whose handcuffs were larger than the others, fitted the electrical probes that sank into his fatty skin but didn't pierce it, and if pulled too far from each other, the handcuffs were designed to emit a powerful electric charge. Lance had basic handcuffs and a silver bowl-shaped helmet over his head with two holes cut out for his eyes.
"What happened?" Pietro asked. "They got all of us?"
"No running from SHIELD," Fred sighed. Pietro sat down across from Lance and stared at his helmet.
"What is it with you and that dorky bowl fetish?"
"Fuck you. Keeps my powers in check."
"Denti to Commander Bishop," Denti said into his radio. "We have the mutants. We're bringing them in."
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Lucas angrily threw down the makeshift Cerebro helmet and stood up, slamming his hands against the console. Black Tom and Juggernaut stood behind him, waiting to see if he'd found what he was looking for. Clearly, he hadn't.
"There's no sign of her anywhere," Lucas fumed. "No sign of her, or her brother, or his twit friends, or Magneto!"
"Maybe you're not as powerful as you thought," Juggernaut said derisively.
"Quiet, you. I'm powerful enough. It's this machine. It's incomplete. It's not working the way it should be." Lucas walked away from the console, past his two partners, and back into their makeshift war room. "It's falling apart. It's all falling apart. Wanda's gone, these SHIELD people are onto us, this worthless machine can't even do its sole job- and don't think for a minute that I won't rip your throat out if you say 'I told you so,' Tom!"
"I still think this is a waste of time," Juggernaut told him. "We don't need the machine or the witch."
"I know your solution to \everything, Uncle Cain," Lucas groaned. "But our team isn't complete. Right now it's just you, me, Tom, and his two thugs. All of Tom's lesser minions would be useless to us, the flatscans. We lost Wanda, and we lost Pyro. Xavier has eight X-Men. Leaving Xavier and Magneto aside, that means I need eight on my own team. Right now, I have four. Four!" Lucas growled, bearing his teeth, his eyes practically bursting from their sockets. "It's not enough! I'll have my revenge. I'll have my revenge! Xavier will... will..." Lucas sputtered, and momentarily lost his footing. Clutching his head, he tried to stay on his feet, but feel to his knees. "Xavier will... no... don't do this... he's your father... he's my father... don't..." Lucas slammed his fist against the floor. "I have to! I have to! You'll thank me when I've done it, you'll all thank me! I..."
"I can't..." Lucas's voice had suddenly changed into that of a young American man. "I can't let you... I won't!"
"Shut up," Lucas responded. "Shut up! SHUT UP!" Lucas was silent for a moment, except for his heavy breathing as he clutched his head. He opened one eye, and then the other, and then stood up, exhaling. "That shut you up."
"I think you're overstressed, Lucas," Black Tom suggested.
"No, I'm feeling a little better now," Lucas said calmly.
"Regardless, Wanda was right," Black Tom told him. "I've had enough of your obsession," he said, pointing to Lucas with his cane. "We've had numerous opportunities to simply seize our goals. Even Cain has come up with a more sound plan than yours. I have spent too much time and resources on your little games, and you have yet to deliver the results you promised. I'm going no further until you show me that you haven't let this misguided symmetry go to your head." Lucas's response was to throw Black Tom across the room. Juggernaut stepped forward, but he, too was thrown aside.
"You're right. You're absolutely right," Lucas said. "I realize now that I don't need you, Wanda, or Cerebro. I need..." Lucas didn't finish. He surrounded himself with light and vanished.
"That was a giant waste of time," Juggernaut said.
"Maybe I can sell off some of these Cerebro parts," Black Tom suggested. Though not especially fond of Juggernaut, Black Tom wasn't one to waste an opportunity. "I'll split the profits with you if you help take it apart."
"Not a problem," Juggernaut grinned.
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The Brotherhood was taken to a secure SHIELD base, though they had been riding in a windowless cell of a helijet and had no idea where it was, only that they had been traveling for less than half an hour. The helijet touched down and the SHIELD captain opened the cell, motioning for them to follow him. They exited into a large hangar, easily four times the size of the smaller one where they had met with Bishop, filled with several more helijets and ground crews servicing them. SHIELD guards walked along catwalks above them, meeting with technicians and other agents. Toad seemed especially interested in the aircraft gathered at the hangar, but he had no time to admire any of it as their captors took them past a secure corridor and into a large cell.
"We'll give you your accommodations once Commander Bishop arrives," Denti said to them, carrying his mask and helmet with him. Despite his rank, Denti wasn't much older than the group, his brown hair cut short to military standards.
"So..." Toad said, "What kinda trainin' you need to fly those planes out there?"
"I'm not an encyclopedia. If we want you to know something, we'll tell you. Right now, keep quiet." And so, they waited in silence for several minutes. At last, Bishop arrived, flanked by two armed guards, as always.
"You're something, you know that?" Bishop said. "You're really something. We offer you one pardon and three fat paychecks, and you throw it away. Tell me, Quicksilver, was it worth it?" Pietro gave no response, and avoided looking Bishop in the eye.
"What are you going to do with us?" Lance asked defiantly.
"When SHIELD captures you, you lose all rights as human beings," Bishop said bluntly. "The FBI will give you your rights. Even the CIA will give you some rights. But not SHIELD. We don't have to tell you what we're going to do with you, when we're going to do it, or even why. Under normal circumstances, that would be the case... but you've given us an opportunity. Colonel Fury himself has ordered that you be given a choice."
"What kind of choice?" Fred asked.
"Your first choice is what I described to you- we do what we want with you. Chances are, we'll have you locked up without any rights until we think it's time to let you out. If we ever come to that decision. All five of you are mutants. Three of you meet the minimum standards to be placed at Stokes Maximum." Bishop referred to Stokes County Maximum Security Facility, which had come to house dangerous mutants such as Juggernaut and Omega Red, and now operated under SHIELD jurisdiction. "I don't need to tell you what conditions are like there."
"Then what's our second option?" Pietro asked.
"We'll let you go, if you bring down a specific target for us."
"Lucas," Wanda guessed.
"You got it," Bishop told her. "Those are your options. Take down Lucas and walk away, or rot in a cell."
Without waiting for the rest of them, Wanda replied, "We'll do it." The others looked at her in surprise, but if Wanda was willing to fight Lucas, there was no reason for any of them to hold back.
"Wise choice," Bishop announced. "Take them." The armed guards escorted the Brotherhood out of the cell. They went without resistance, but Lance wore a permanent scowl.
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"As you all know," Professor Xavier began, addressing his staff members, including Cyclops, Storm, Jean, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Colossus, Rogue and Shadowcat, "The Brotherhood was briefly housed here, after escaping from SHIELD. Though I disagreed with their staying, Magnus persuaded me with the caveat that he would claim sole responsibility. Within hours, SHIELD was here. Magneto decided to attack them to give the Brotherhood time to escape, and as a result, is now in SHIELD custody himself. We've had no word of his status since then, but given the situation, we must consider the possibility that Magneto might not return to the school."
"At least somethin' good came from all this," Rogue muttered.
"Regardless of your personal opinions of him, this leaves a vacuum in our staff. For the time being, I am putting Scott in charge of the X-Men. Ororo remains in charge of the school. Kurt and Kitty, I am promoting you both to the senior staff."
"Alright!" Nightcrawler said, exchanging a high-five with Kitty.
"Keep in mind, you will have additional responsibilities. But, there's more. Until the matter is cleared up, I am putting the Institute on heightened security. That means imposing a curfew on the students and restricting their activities for the time being."
"Professor, don't you think that's a little harsh?" Cyclops asked. "Why are we punishing the students for Magneto's actions?"
"I wouldn't have considered this, if one of our own students hadn't put her life in danger to help Magneto," Xavier responded. "We can't be sure that SHIELD won't come back to us if they don't find the Brotherhood, and I think our mutual respect will only go so far. If there are no further questions, you are all dismissed." Storm, Cyclops and Jean remained with the Professor, while Kitty, Nightcrawler and Rogue left for the hall.
"I knew we never should've let him join," Rogue said to them. "He's been nothin' but a bad luck charm."
"I have to agree," Nightcrawler added. "But, he's gone. I think we should be counting our blessings."
"He was kinda creepy," Kitty joined in, "But he did his job well. I mean, I'm not sticking up for him or anything, but he wasn't all that bad."
"There she goes again," Rogue said, rolling her eyes. "Always going for the bad boys."
"Hey, I just said I wasn't sticking up for him. I'm just saying, we've had worse people here. Remember when Gambit was here?"
"Don't remind me!" Rogue shouted, crossing her arms. With her point made, Kitty felt no need to elaborate on the details.
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Jason Wyngarde, the criminal called Mastermind, stood in his own apartment in New York, hours before sunrise, over the body of David Haller, a young blond man lying in his chair. Mastermind had no job; however, he made a meager living by using his illusionary powers to his own advantage, conning his way through life. He would've used his powers to live more comfortably, but there was only so much he could do without drawing the attention of the X-Men, the police, or SHIELD. In order to keep a low profile, he kept a low-priced apartment, though he was secretly funneling stolen money into a false bank account, small amounts at a time (depending on one's definition of "small").
And of course, from time to time, he rented out his services to those who needed them.
"This is taking too long," the voice of Lucas said to him.
"Please be patient," Mastermind told him. "There is much to sort through... I see you." Mastermind waved his hands over David's head, his eyes glowing a pale blue. After several minutes, his eyes returned to normal. David sat up, rubbing his head. Mastermind snapped his fingers and David's entire body shifted into the tall, handsome figure of Lucas. He checked his surroundings and took a deep breath.
"Hrm? Ah? That's much better." Lucas adjusted his sleeves. "Agh. Thank you so much. I had started to... relapse. I was almost afraid I wouldn't be able to do this without Xavier." Though nowhere near as powerful as Charles Xavier, Mastermind was able to seal the partially emerging David back into Lucas's inner core. Had David fully emerged, Mastermind would've been nearly useless- in which case, only someone of Xavier's power would've been able to seal him again.
"It's a shame you can't do it yourself," Mastermind said, taking a moment to cough. He couldn't go too long without his cough getting in the way, a permanent reminder of the day the Scarlet Witch injured him in retribution for his actions against her. "There's some cause for concern. I think that David may be getting stronger."
"I know. I can still feel him," Lucas said. "I need to finish my affairs quickly. I can't risk being locked away permanently."
"Now, there's the matter of my payment," Mastermind said, holding out his hand.
"Ah, but my payment will not be material," Lucas told him with a smile. "Your payment will be the satisfaction of knowing that Charles Xavier has been killed."
"As much as I loathe him, I can't do much with his death certificate," Mastermind insisted, coughing again. Lucas sneered and took a wad of bills from his pocket. Mastermind's scowl quickly became a smile, and he happily put the money in his coat. "Since you are going against Xavier, I have something you might find useful." Mastermind opened a hall closet and took out a brown, unlabeled, sealed box. He opened it with a pocketknife and held out the prize: a helmet shaped like Magneto's, made of rough brown iron. It was missing the highlights and the crest, instead simply being cut out into the basic helmet's shape.
"I think I'd look better without it," Lucas smirked.
"It was crafted by Magneto," Mastermind explained. "He had made it for Gambit, so that he could break into the Xavier Institute, for whatever reason... but before he could make use of it, Apocalypse drew Magneto's attention, and this little artifact went forgotten. I held on to it, in case it might be useful."
"So it's one of his special helmets," Lucas realized, looking at the helmet's blank, empty face. "A kingly gift for an ill-made knight. I may have to modify it a little so it matches my outfit, but it's appreciated all the same. Thank you, Mastermind." Lucas left the apartment through the window, holding the helmet at his side, and drifted up into the sky. Once he was gone, Mastermind took the wad of bills, smiling greedily as he started to count them, only to have them vanish. Mastermind wasn't the only one capable of creating illusions.
More disappointed than angry, Mastermind slumped onto his couch, coughing again and taking a bottle of scotch that had been sitting on the table nearby.
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John Allerdyce sat in a steel chair with his hands chained behind him, in a darkened room where the only light was cast solely on him. He had seen this sort of thing on television before and was both excited and nervous about it. He wore an orange prison uniform, and his blue eyes looked into the darkness to see if they could find something- anything.
"Uh... so... when does the fun begin here, exactly?" Pyro asked, still glancing around.
"We're not playing games here, Allerdyce," Nick Fury said, stepping into the light. Colonel Nick Fury was likely the most famous member of SHIELD- a strange honor for a secretive organization. Tough, gray-haired, and decorated with an eyepatch, his face alone told prisoners that he meant business. Though not in full command of SHIELD, Fury wielded considerable power within the organization, third highest on the command structure, beneath his superiors on SHIELD's commanding council, and to the Director himself. He tossed aside the toothpick he constantly chewed.
"I prefer Pyro, if it's all the same."
"Well, 'Pyro,'" Fury addressed him with a mocking tone, "You've spent quite some time among the inner circles of both Magneto and Lucas, haven't you?"
"You could say that, yes, but... well, I wouldn't exactly call it the inner circle... they're not very open guys, you see..."
"Regardless, you know a lot about their organizations. They way they think."
"That, I do. Ah... you're not going to pry more information out of me, are you?"
"Bishop has already collected anything useful. I'm here for another reason. SHIELD has need of your services."
"And what if I refuse?" Pyro asked suspiciously.
"Have it your way." Fury snapped his fingers and a guard stepped into the light with an high-tech cattle prod of some kind, generating sparks at its tip.
"Ah... tell you what, I'll... uh, I'll take your proposal into consideration," Pyro offered, completely nervous. "Is that copasetic?"
"That's fine. Here's what we need..."
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"You wanted to see me?" Bishop asked, entering the command center at his base, where Nick Fury himself and several other high-ranking SHIELD agents waited. Fury put a fresh toothpick in his mouth and looked at Bishop with his remaining eye. The room was filled with monitors displaying events around the world, tended to by a number of SHIELD technicians.
"Bishop, we have a situation on our hands." The image on the wall-screen depicted Lucas, levitating an undercover SHIELD agent, disguised as a postal worker. "We have a mutant terrorist we need dealt with, and he's come to us this time. Is your new strike force ready?"
"No, but that's never stopped us before."
"Have them ready. He's in transit, and I think I know where he's headed. Stokes Maximum."
"What about Magneto?" Bishop asked.
"He's under control," Fury replied. "We're keeping Magneto in a holding cell at Claremont Base until we can clear some space at Stokes. He'll need a whole section to himself, but the extra cost will be worth it to keep the project safe." Fury slid a file labeled 'POLARIS' into a briefcase.
"I still don't think the team's ready." Bishop asked. "They haven't been properly oriented yet. Can you get Xavier to handle it this time?"
"I've already called Xavier," Fury said. "We can't afford to take any risks on this, we'll need all he help we can get."
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"Listen up," Bishop said to the assembled Brotherhood members in one of the smaller hangars, each now dressed in form-fitting black uniforms with white boots, gloves, belts and chest straps. Somehow, they'd even managed to provide one in the Blob's size. They also wore metal restraint collars, experimental technology designed to neutralize their powers and immobilize them in case they tried going maverick again. The members stood in line, but slouched and rather grouchy looking. "What the hell is wrong with you? I said LISTEN UP!"
The group quickly snapped to attention.
"That's more like it. I hope you're ready to do your duty, because we've tracked Lucas, and we're sending you out immediately."
"Bring it on, we're ready," Lance bragged.
"That's not all," Bishop continued. "We've decided to add another member to your team." Bishop motioned and a door opened, revealing Pyro in a matching SHIELD uniform, along with his flamethrower tank.
"No way!" Fred yelled. "It's bad enough you make us wear spandex, you want us to work with this klutz now?" Wanda looked straight at the ground in disgust and Lance stared at Pyro with the same confusion as if a child were being added to the team. The only member of the team who wasn't somehow showing their disappointment with the idea was Pietro.
"Afraid I'll outshine you, Dukes?" Pyro teased. "With me, you've got an edge."
"With you, we've got a failure on our hands," Lance told him. "C'mon, Commander, do we really need him?"
"Executive order, nothing I can do about it," Bishop explained. "I don't like this either, but I'm sucking it in. You ladies better learn to like Pyro. Let's go, quit standing around!" Bridge led the team to their heli-jet. Pyro walked closely behind him with the rest lagging several feet. This time, armed guards were accompanying them.
"C'mon, he's not that bad," Pietro said to his teammates. "He's a little weird, yeah, but so is Toad."
"Toad's not a sadist," Lance remarked. "And if Toad starts acting up, any one of us can just slap him and get him to cut it out."
"Thanks, Lance, really," Todd muttered.
"With this idiot, we've gotta bring insulated gloves and hope he doesn't make a fire unicorn or some other gay bullshit like that."
"Whining about it isn't going to change anything," Pietro told him. "Like Commander Bishop said, we just have to suck it in."
"Suck up," Lance grunted.
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Inside the helijet, the Brotherhood remained silent. Two pilots at the front would occasionally talk to each other, discussing their flight pattern and reporting back to base. In the passenger hold, two armed and masked SHIELD guards rode with the team to ensure their cooperation. Occasionally, the team would hear snippets of the situation at Stokes Maximum... SHIELD guards trying to maintain order, though clearly panicking. They heard mention of the X-Men, but they also heard loud explosions. The Brotherhood felt it best to ignore what they heard for the time being.
"Guys, look," Pietro said, drawing the team's attention. "I screwed up. I know that. I shouldn't have talked you guys into this. For what it's worth... I'm sorry."
"Pietro just apologized," Fred mentioned idly to Lance. "So, what's that thing people keep saying about snowballs? Oh yeah-"
"I mean it," Pietro sputtered. "I just wanted you guys to know that. In case anything goes wrong."
"A little late for apologies," Lance told him. "We're stuck doing work for SHIELD and now we're not getting out of it until we bring down a maniac whose power rivals Xavier's. There's ten ways this can end and none of them are good."
"Well, okay," Pietro replied, "But we can still do this. We've faced worse. We just have to stick together as a team."
"Lucas isn't going to go easy on you this time," Wanda warned. "If the X-Men are already fighting him, he won't be in a good mood."
"So... are you cool with having to fight him?" Toad asked. "Because... I mean, I heard you two were-"
"Just leave me alone," Wanda said, turning away from him. It was a question she didn't want to answer. With only a few minutes left until they were due to arrive in Stokes County, Wanda wasn't sure she even knew the answer. But as she turned away, lost in thought, the Lance and Pietro seemed focused on the moment.
"Alright, fearless leader," Lance said, humoring Pietro, "What's your plan?"
"I... don't have one," Pietro shrugged. Watching Lance palm his face, Pietro quickly said, "...I would, if I knew more about Lucas. I think... maybe Wanda has something to contribute."
"I don't," she said.
"Great, so you spent five years with him and you have no idea how to fight him," Lance groaned.
"Just shut up," she muttered. Toad, seated next to her, wanted to put his arm around the clearly troubled Wanda. But he knew better. However, he did put a hand on her shoulder. She didn't turn to look at him, and Toad could feel that she didn't entirely want that hand there, but she didn't shrug him off.
"I've got a plan," Pyro announced. "We go out there and kick his ass!"
"Some plan," Fred chuckled.
"I was just trying to raise morale," Pyro defended. "Since you're all being a bunch of mopey gits. What's wrong with all of you, never killed a man before? Bunch of babies. I should probably do the job mys-"
"Shut up!" Wanda screamed, sending a hex blast his way. It was a warning shot and landed several inches from his head, but the metal of the helijet began to bubble and melt slightly at the point of impact. She made her point, though Pyro gave her a fierce, if reluctantly conceding look. The two guards immediately pointed their rifles at her. Wanda was almost prepared to strike at them, but Toad once again put his hand on her shoulder.
"Ain't worth it," he whispered to her. This time she did push his hand off, though she heeded his words. Once they saw that the team had calmed down, the guards stepped away.
"We'll be arriving in Stokes County shortly," the pilot announced over the intercom system.
So, I managed to sneak in another character. Don't dwell too much on Lieutenant Denti.
Next chapter... cameos abound.