Disclaimer: I don't own anything X-men

Chapter 3: Meeting the Brotherhood

She was sweating, pushing herself so hard that she could have collapsed at any moment, but she kept moving, fighting. Her opponent was a full grown man that under normal circumstances would have squashed her flat, but her speed and agility were keeping her ahead of him. Just as he was about to give her a hard blow the scene changed. She was in a laboratory with people all around her and wires and needles all over her. As one of the men bent over a light flashed in her eyes, and the scene changed again. She was in the dormitory, but something's wrong. She could hear screaming coming from the hall and smoke was pouring in under the door. The other children were stirring and getting ready to flee the burning building. As soon as the door opened a back-flash of fire engulfed those by the door. Horrified by what she saw and seeing her opportunity to get out as the flames died down she ran for it. The building was collapsing all around her. She could hear, and even feel, explosions occurring in other parts of the compound. Thinking that she was almost safe as she reached an exit, she wasn't ready for the explosion that blew apart the wall behind her and sent her flying into the wall. The pain she felt was all over and she began to scream.

Panting, Sadie just laid there, the scream dying in her throat as she woke covered in a cold sweat, and slightly disoriented from what she saw. As the images began to fade so did the residual pain they left, and slowly Sadie became more aware of where she was, which wasn't exactly where she had been when she fell asleep. Instead she was now hovering three feet above the bed. She was so startled by this that whatever power that had put her up there in the first place gave out and dropped her back onto her bed.

It took her only a moment after returning to her bed to realize that she wasn't alone in her room, and not a second later she had the bedside gun in her hand and pointed at the chair in front of the window. Seated in the chair was a man she had never seen before wearing a funny looking helmet and a long cape. When she trained the gun on him he gave her a small smirk, and with a flick of his hand her gun went soaring into his.

"My dear, there is no need for you to arm yourself," he said in a calm voice. "I am only here to talk. My name is Magneto, and this…" he continued while gesturing to the doorway "…is one of my Brotherhood, and his name is Pyro." Sadie only glanced briefly at the young man standing by the door playing with a lighter, then returned her gaze back on the older gentleman and remained silent. When Magneto understood that she was not going to continue with the introductions he took it into his own hands.

"That was quite a show you were putting on a little while ago Miss Phillips. I believe I quite underestimated what we would find when we came to see you."

"And why exactly would that be?" Sadie asked, though she had a pretty good idea. In her field of research you hear quite a few references to Magneto and his Brotherhood, and none of them are very good. Magneto's presence in her home, in her room never-the-less, was evidence enough that he would do anything to achieve his goal, and he was quite aware of Sadie's knowledge of who they were, and more importantly why they were there. When he addressed her next his voice became very serious.

"You know precisely why we have come. Now, we can hold this discussion here in your bedroom or, as I believe we all would prefer, downstairs in the kitchen over a cup of coffee, your choice Miss Phillips."

Of course she would rather hold any type of discussion with these people downstairs instead of here in her room with her in only her night things. Especially when she had glanced once more at the punk by the door and saw how intently he was looking at her and knew he would rather they stay up here in the bedroom. Keeping her face neutral she turned back towards Magneto to give her reply.

"Yes, I think downstairs would suit our needs much better, but if I could have a moment to throw on a robe…"

"Of course my dear, we will turn around while you do so," he kindly replied. 'Damn. They won't leave, maybe I can slip away once we're downstairs' Sadie thought to herself as she pulled on blue night robe. "Alright, we can move to the kitchen now," she informed them as she strode determinedly through the bedroom door. She was already moving swiftly down the stairs when Pyro caught up to her and quickly grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" he asked while still holding tight to her and sparking a fireball in the other hand. Sadie only had a moment to stare defiantly into his eyes before Magneto finally joined them and ordered Pyro to release her and lead the way.

If Sadie had been startled to find two of the Brotherhood sitting in her room while she slept, it was nothing to the internal shock she felt when she first entered the kitchen only to see herself already standing at the counter. Resisting temptation to shake her head to see if she was still dreaming she just continued to stare at this other version of her, whom also held her gaze. Finally with a smirk the second Sadie's eyes flashed yellow momentarily before she transformed into the blue, scaly skinned mutant Mystique, once this happened Sadie understood that this was a shape-shifting mutant, and someone to be wary of. As she let her focus move to the rest of the kitchen she saw that Magneto had already seated himself and was waiting for her to join him, but Sadie was going to do no such thing. Instead she began to move about the counter, opening a cupboard here and a drawer there. As she did this she decided to play for time by playing dumb.

"So you say that I should know why a bunch of strange mutants have entered my family's house in the middle of the night? Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I really have no idea what it is that you wish to talk to me about, especially at this hour," Sadie calmly told them as she was trying to form a plan of escape in her mind and casually eying the exits.

"If that is how you want to go about this, then so be it," Magneto replied with a bit of frustration in his tone. "We wish to speak to you about your current research project, one which deals with the examination of the mutant gene. Surely you can't pretend you don't know why my Brotherhood and I would have any interest in your findings, especially when they suit our needs perfectly," and as he said this he held up some of the data sheets that Juggernaut had snagged from her apartment the day before. Of course Sadie knew that they were here because of her research, but until that point she hadn't realized what all they new about her discoveries. If there ever was a time for her to escape it would have to be now.

As swiftly and quickly as she could Sadie grabbed a handful of knives from the drawer in front of her and spun around to release them on Magneto. She knew he could, and would use his powers to stop them, but they were only a temporary distraction as she first dodged then flung Mystique across the room and hitting her target, Pyro. He was just getting ready to fling a fireball at her when mystique collided with him and effectively took him down and out.

Only moments after she first threw the knives, Sadie was bolting through the door into the living room. Just as she reached the front door she chanced a glance over her shoulder towards the kitchen. It was in this same moment that she opened the door and was about to flee her home when suddenly she found herself thrown back and disoriented. She was barely able to look straight at what she ran into, or rather who, because everything was a blur. There filling the entire doorway and then some was Juggernaut. This was the last vision she saw as everything suddenly went black.