-The Brotherhood Boarding House-

"You're a mutant?" Lance asked.

Julio only nodded.

"You can't be a mutant. Why can't Karima sense you?" Lance asked forcefully.

"My clothes, they're made of a special poly-fiber, that protects my x-gene from being detected by practically every type of scanner known to man," Julio stated folding his arms across his chest.

"Back to the double agent thing," Regan stated as she walked to her husband's side, "What exactly have you been trying to do?" she asked with words dripping with skepticism.

"I've hampered all the progresses the Purifiers have ever made against our species," Julio said with a smirk, "Now what do you say, mijo, ever wanted to take down a bigoted church?"

Lance looked from his wife and back to the sitting Raven.

Raven looked up at him, "It's your decision Lance," she stood up, "I've got to accompany Freddy to the hospital, to make sure he didn't inhale any smoke."

Lance nodded, and then watched as Freddy climbed into the back of the ambulance.

"You're in charge Lance," Raven called out before she got on the ambulance as well.

"Whatever, you decide Lance," Regan placed a hand on his shoulder, "We're behind you."

-Meanwhile in a New York alleyway-

Pietro sped into the alley and stopped cold in the middle. He took a quick look around and finally crossed his arms. He waited a few more seconds and began tapping his foot impatiently.

"Security's tight," he said with great impatience.

Laura finally stepped out from the shadows right behind Pietro, "Just follow my lead," she whispered seductively into his ear.

-Several minutes later-

"Vents…"Laura trailed off, "No matter what the situation, I hate vents. I hate crawling around in them, I hate the fact that no matter what time of year it is, they're always cold, and most of all, I hate being the person in the lead. Never know when you're going to catch a nose in the butt," she said the last part more to herself, "We're just lucky you're lithe enough to fit in here."

"Thanks… I think," he whispered, "But, you have to admit no one ever puts security devices in the air vents. If people saw half as many spy movies as Freddy, they'd do something about it."

Laura suddenly stopped, and swiftly caught Pietro's nose with her butt. She rolled her eyes, "I hate vents," she the proceeded to open the vent and leap down to the floor, "Be quiet there's a lot of noise coming from that room, but I can still hear a heart beat, and a low hum," she said getting low to the ground.

"That was too easy," Pietro whispered as he leapt to ground level.

Suddenly the lights kicked on, "Too true Mr. Maximoff. Fortunately, I have seen one too many spy movies," Stark said from across the room, wearing his very fashionable, very deadly Iron Man armor.

Laura's eyes went wide, "Pietro!" she called out, "Do you know who that is?" she turned to look at the speedster, "That's Tony Stark!"

"I don't care if he's the damn tooth fairy!" Pietro exclaimed as sped towards him arms expanding and vibrating, "Where is she?" he questioned as his fist made contact with the armor. His fist hung in the air for a moment, "Oh no," Pietro was then hurled across the room and into the wall.

"You like?" Stark asked, "Repulsar field my latest design."

Laura moved in close but quickly leapt out of the way, when he tried to hit her, "Too slow tin-man."

Stark snorted, "Like I've never heard that one before," his fist made contact with her chest sending her flying into the door.

Pietro, now with a vague idea, leapt to his feet. He sped around the lab throwing drills, computer screen, a magic eight ball, anything he could get his hands on at the Golden Avenger, "What does it take to take you down!" he was now throwing objects at a subsonic speed.

"Usually a blonde, redhead, and a bottle of thirty year old Scotch," Stark said with a smirk, "You have no idea what you kids have gotten yourselves in to," objects kept colliding with his shield, "I never get tired of beating the bad guys."

Pietro stopped dead in his tracks, "Bad guys?" he questioned in complete surprise, "You kidnap my friend and I'm the bad guy?" he began laughing, "We're the good guys."

Unbeknownst to Stark, Laura had been tinkering with the door trying to unlock it in the most quite way possible, "Pietro!" she exclaimed, "I got the door…" she finished her sentence with a pained scream just as the sound of the bullet being fired began to fade.

"Laura!" Pietro yelled so fast it came out as a hum. He was by Laura's side in an instant, "Laura?" He held her, his hand on a gunshot wound slightly to the left of her belly button.

"Calm down kid she'll be fine in five second," a voice said standing over the two teens, "Then again, five seconds for you is an eternity."

"I should have known you were behind this," Pietro said never taking his eyes off Laura. He smiled as he finally saw the bullet being pushed out of her abdomen.

"Pietro?"

Pietro looked up to see an all too familiar face, "Karima?"

-A few minutes later at the Brotherhood House-

Todd hopped into the living room and stared at Wanda. He stared at her with great concern in his eyes. He dropped into a crouch and leapt onto the couch, settling next to the sad witch.

"Todd?" she whispered.

"Yeah?" he answered.

She shifted her body to face him, "Do you think…" she paused for a moment, "Am I a burden."

Todd was taken a back, "A burden?" he repeated, "What makes you say that?"

"Why else wouldn't Pietro wait for me?" Wanda sighed out, "Am I just dead weight to him."

Todd simply stared at her, in the Brotherhood household only one thing was more freighting than Angry Wanda, is Sad Wanda.

"Course not yo," Todd said smiling at the young witch, "He's just impatient."

She sighed and threw her head back until she was staring at the ceiling.

Todd snapped his fingers, "Maybe he wanted you to follow him with a spell," she sent a confused look at him, "You know, use your freaky twin mind sharing thing, find him, voodoo us there, and then we can help him."

Wanda shot to her feet and made her way to the stairs, "I knew there was a reason we kept you around," she yelled from the second floor.

Todd flipped onto the coffee table, "Good to know… I think."

-Upstairs-

St. John watched as Wanda flipped through one of her books. Her fingers danced around the few pages she decided to stop at. She slammed the book closed and got to her feet.

'What are you doin' Sheila?' St. John asked hovering next to her.

Wanda smirked, "I'm going to use magic to amplify my telepathic bond with Pietro," she stated as her hands began to crack with scarlet chaos magic.

'This is gonna hurt,' St. John said as a mass of red energy engulfed the room, he quickly closed his eyes, 'Wanda?' he asked desperately, 'You okay?' he finally opened his eyes to see Wanda's eyes glowing scarlet.

-A few minutes later at Stark Enterprises-

Laura sat on a lab table fingering the brand new hole in her uniform. She let out a low growl as she wondered how she would explain this to her father and Xavier. She then groaned in realization, by now they'd all have realized she was gone. She then smiled at Pietro, but she couldn't worry about that now.

Pietro sat on a stool in front of the clone. His elbows rested on his knees, while his hands held up his head. He could feel eyes on his back and neck, he knew how she felt about him, he always knew. Since the very first time he had ever seen her, he could feel the emotion emanating off of her. With Anna currently out of the picture he was free to decide if Laura could be that special someone. But he couldn't decide that now, so he watched his new friend intently.

Karima made her way around each man. She would gently place her hand on each of their foreheads, much to Bastion's discrepancy. As her hand rested on one of their foreheads her eyes began to flash red, and the instant her eyes stopped flashing the man's eyes would ease open. After finishing off the last Sentinel she sat in a corner in utter exhaustion.

Pietro stared at her, "What was she doing?" he asked in confusion.

Stark leaned over to the teen, "She was removing the Sentinel programming from the Prime Sentinels," he said in a calm voice.

Pietro nodded, "Just by touching them?" he asked even more confused than usual.

Stark nodded with a small smile, "All she has to do is touch another machine to begin influencing it with her will," he rubbed his chin, "She is one sophisticated piece of machinery."

Pietro shot out of his seat, "She is not a machine, she is a human being," he said through clenched teeth.

"You're absolutely correct," a third voice echoed through out the room, "When creating my new Omega Sentinel, I must remember to avoid keeping the emotion centers of the brain in tact."

Stark rose to his feet, his face plate sliding down into place, "How did you…"

Bastion smirked at the Golden Avenger, "All of my limbs are capable of independent movement. I will not allow you to corrupt my creations, and allow those mutants to move freely about," he said as his hands began radiating with an intense white heat, "Your first move will be your last."