Avatar: This chapter ends the big fight scene that's been going on. Pyro comes through in a pinch, as you will see. This chapter also has an angst scene courtesy of Yellowfur. She's so good at that stylized angst stuff.

Bio: avatarjk137 does not own X-Men Evolution. He only owns the storyline within, Spectrum, and myself. Yellowfur owns Hunter (finally, we can call him by name!). Hey avatar, why did you beat me senseless in this chapter?

Avatar: I didn't whomp you that badly!

Chapter 8

Detainees

Bio struggled back to his feet. Gambit's staff had connected squarely with his face, and it hurt. He looked up and saw Gambit charging his staff. "Are you ready for the coup de grace?" Remy asked. Then he swung his staff like a baseball bat. Bio used his vines to grab Nightcrawler, who was trying to get the drop on him. Then he used the furry blue mutant as a human shield for the charged staff attack.

"Owww," Kurt moaned.

Bio then punched Gambit in the face. "I'm ready for it. How about you?" Suddenly, he heard a faint roaring sound and felt warmth on the back of his neck. He turned around and saw a huge Oriental dragon made of fire rushing toward him. "What the f-" The dragon slammed into him, knocking him across the street into a parked SUV and lighting the wooden spikes growing from his body on fire. "OW! OW! What the hell!" He used his vines to pull the cap off of a fire hydrant, and then jumped into the geyser of water. He rolled out of the water, coughing and burnt.

"That's what you get for takin' my crazy, mate!" Pyro turned his attention to Rogue, who had just reverted to human form.

"What the… why did his power stop working?"

The blond kid walked toward her in human form. "I can only hold one animal's form for 20 seconds. I only need 20 seconds." He transformed back into a gorilla and threw Rogue into a nearby second-story window. He turned around and saw Pyro walking toward him. Coils of fire wound up and down the Aussie mutant's arms, and a long cape-like flame spread out behind him.

Pyro's face changed from anger to surprise. "You're that shrimp from the gym! Why'd you call us muties if you're one, too?"

"You jerks were ruining the gym for people who weren't obviously mutants!"

"What's your name, shrimp?"

"I'm Hunter. And don't call me shrimp!" Hunter transformed back into a cheetah and charged Pyro again. Pyro put a wall of fire between them, and Hunter changed into a bat and jumped it, before dropping back down on Pyro as a rhinoceros. Pyro blasted him with a pillar of flame, knocking him back into the still-pouring fire hydrant.

"Hunter's a stupid name."

"How are they doing?" Wolverine asked. After being thrown off of a building and landing headfirst on the concrete, only to find Sabretooth gone when he climbed back up, he was a little irritable. When he heard that Bio and Hunter had been defeated and were now in the basement's brig, he cheered up a little.

"Well," Beast responded, "they're grouchy and they seem to be hiding something."

"Anything I couldn't have guessed?" X23 muttered. While Logan had landed on the alley's cement road, she had fared slightly better by landing in the dumpster. Both of them were still furious that Sabretooth had trounced both of them 2-on-1.

"She really is your clone, Logan. Anyway, Bio says that Spectrum is in charge of the whole operation. The interesting thing is, Hunter says Erik deserves all the credit. Brain scans show they both think they're telling the truth, and Erik volunteered for a brain scan that proves him innocent."

"That is interesting. What details are they giving?"

"Bio says Spectrum's building something or other, and he stole the idea off the Internet. I doubt that. Hunter hadn't even known the two for long, and says Magneto paid him good money to attack anybody who went snooping around for Bio and Spectrum. Neither of them are willing to give information on their past, beyond Bio telling us his name is Damon. I'm not sure if they're able to." Hank sighed.

"I'd bet my motorcycle that Mastermind is involved in this."

"I'm not taking that bet, especially considering our other missing Acolyte is involved. I'd never peg them as working together, though."

"They aren't heading the project, and I'm not sure it's Spectrum either. Do you think it's Mags after all? He's submitting to those brain scans a bit too easily."

"Xavier is trusting him."

"Xavier would trust Apocalypse to catch him as he wheeled off the Golden Gate Bridge."

"Yeah, I can't deny that… hmmm?" A light on Beast's watch was blinking. "The detainees are requesting attention."

"I'll go down there. I'll shut those bubs up, but good."

Pyro sat in the oversized leather couch. He sat alone, though the couch was probably big enough to fit about seven people. Pyro twitched, as he hated sitting still for too long, though he didn't know what else to do. Those two mutants were detained, and the Brotherhood definitely didn't look like they were ready to leave yet.

More twitching. Pyro hated sitting alone. He drummed his fingers quickly and rapidly along the armrest. When he thought about it, he didn't exactly want to sit with other people either.

More twitching. His anger grew as he thought about what he wasn't thinking about. The old Pyro, the normal Pyro would be thinking about how all the lovely furniture in the room looked delightfully flammable, not why there wasn't a television or bookcase in the room.

Twitch. Pyro picked at his cuticles. Questions raced through his head. Why was he so different? Where was original Pyro? Why was he at this place? WHY is that clock in the corner so LOUD?!

All this building up unanswered made Pyro angry. For some reason his mind gave him out of nowhere, he blamed Spectrum for all of this. Spectrum was the one who took his crazy. Pyro would love to murder Spectrum right about then.

Pyro was furious. And the worst part was, for the first time since he could remember, even the thing he once loved most wouldn't calm him down.

"I'm hungry," Hunter whined, rattling his wallet-chain across the bars. Logan grabbed the chain. "I'll get you guys some burgers."

"What?! Do you know what burgers are made out of?!"

"…Cow?"

"Exactly! I've been a bull! I'm not about to eat the animals I've been!"

"Well, they're also having tofu upstairs. I'll bring you guys some of that."

"TOFU!" Bio had been laying quietly on the cot, his eyes closed as if he was trying to sleep. Now he shot up, standing on the cot. He shot vines from his sleeves again, and pulled his body up to the bars so his face was inches from Wolverine's. "I'll have you know I'm pretty much a plant myself! How can you expect me to eat something made out of plants! What do you think those poor soybean plants felt when they were mowed down? I'm not touching anything not made from animals!" This sounded like the most ridiculous policy Logan had ever heard. He growled and pushed Bio off the bars.

"I guess you fools will have to go hungry, then."

"NO!" Hunter protested. "Get us some… fried chicken!"

"Yeah, I'll eat fried chicken."

Logan was seriously considering flooding the room with knockout gas, but then he had a better idea. "I'll get you guys some fried chicken – I know the best place in town – but tomorrow, you have to lead us to where Spectrum is."

"NO." Bio was not yelling, but he was very emphatic about his answer.

"Sure," Hunter responded at the exact same time.

Bio glared at him. "Give us a sec." They huddled in the far end of the cell. Logan caught "What are you thinking?", "We need to eat, tard!", and "Oh-Ohhh, right…" amongst quieter muttering. Bio walked slowly back to the bars. "You got yourself a deal, badger."

Wolverine punched him in the face. "I'll tell Xavier. He'll be glad you decided to help us out."

End of Chapter

That's what Bio gets for calling Wolverine 'Badger' (thanks to 'Things Not To Do At Xavier's' by Amelia Glitter for that one). Next chapter: Our 'heroes' find where Spectrum is hiding. But who is really involved with this scheme? And are Pyro and friends expected?