Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Gathering

Toad woke up slowly, his mind dragging him unwillingly out of the dreamy world of fluff and up into the cold harsh uncomfortable reality where his back was still on fire.

Less of a fire, certainly, more sort of sore than anything else. Someone had wrapped bandages around it as well, and a brief investigation confirmed that he could even bend it enough to sit up. He was lying on a mattress, his legs twisted up in a sheet, on a cold stone floor in a grey looking room.

Shit, they'd found him after all. He hadn't been dying, he hadn't seen his mother, he'd just had a hallucination and passed out, to be found by someone belonging to the authorities. He was probably in the Institute now, the room certainly looked a bit Institute-y, or at least what Toad, in his own active imagination, thought an Institute would look like.

His jacket had gone, along with the remains of his T-shirt although the mystery bandaging-person had thankfully left him the dignity of his jeans. Shivering slightly in the cold, he pulled himself off the mattress, wincing as the pain in his back flared briefly. He padded over to the door and put his ear too it, there was some sort of conversation going on on the other side:

"Sorry, sorry, I got hel' up. You can't blame Gambit fo' dat."

"Very well." The voice sounded impatient, "Do you understand what you have to do?"

"Yeah, go up North, fin' dis Sabretooth, bring him back here. Simple."

"He may be quite … dangerous." This voice was female, "He's not just a mutant, he, well, you read the printout didn't you?"

"Uh." From the tone of his voice, Toad guessed that the man with the odd accent had most definitely not read whatever printout the woman was referring too. And the content of the conversation confirmed his earlier thoughts; this was clearly a mutant-holding institute, and these people were the ones who found mutants and brought them here. "Don' worry chere, Gambit knows what he's doin'"

"Right." The woman sounded amused, "Well I'm sure you'll be fine then."

Toad moved closer, leaning against the door which, to his complete surprise, fell open infront of him, depositing him in a heap on the floor beyond. He gave a hiss of breath as his back complained about the fall, this was meant to be an institute, didn't people know about locks?

"Woah." Gambit took a smart step backwards as Toad sprawled over the floor, "What is dat?"

"Our lodger, apparently." Magneto said dryly.

Mystique shot him an annoyed look, then glanced down at Toad. "Are you all right?"

She was blue! It was the blue woman he'd seen last night. A wave of utter relief flooded through him as he realised that this wasn't an Institute, he'd been taken in by mutants, they would understand him, they would be like Lance, and everything would be fine. Pulling himself up, he tried to look slightly more presentable, "Yes, uh, Miss. I'm fine. I didn't know the door would do that."

He kept his eyes on her, because the older man was starting to look angry, and the younger was looked at him in a vaguely horrified way, as if he were something strange and unnatural. Also because the younger man had scary eyes, red iris's set in pure black, and the bangs that fell over his face reminded Toad of the fighter lying in the gutter and that thought made him feel sick, even though he hadn't quite sorted out in his head what had happened there. It was all a confused memory of pain and stars and a trickle of blood against the mud.

"Come on." The woman said, and put an arm on his shoulder that forcefully swivelled him away down the corridor. She seemed very strong for a woman, so Toad decided not to argue and go along with it.

"Are you hungry?" She asked, once they were out of earshot of the two men. Toad nodded enthusiastically. "This way."

She took her hand off his shoulder and ushered him into a small room which bore a passing resemblance to a kitchen. Plastic bags littered the table, spilling their contents over chairs and onto the floor. Whoever lived here clearly had more important things on their minds than keeping the kitchen tidy.

"What do you want to eat?" Mystique wrinkled her nose at the mess and picked her way over to the fridge. "I think there's some pizza left."

"Uh, do you have ice-cream?" Toad asked hopefully. After around six months of pigeon consumption he craved something sweet. Chocolate was too sickly, cake stuck in his throat, but ice-cream was always perfect. Smooth and sweet and…

"Eat." The woman dumped a plate in front of him, pulling him out of ice-cream based fantasies and into the real world, which contained two slices of congealing Marguerita. He whipped out his tongue and swallowed them down gratefully.

She raised an eyebrow at that but, thankfully, made no comment. She didn't even look disgusted, which renewed his feelings that this was clearly a place of safety, a place where people understood mutants, where there were mutants and they were normal…

He could deal with the two men later. Hopefully with this woman supporting him.

"What's your power then?" Mystique asked, hoping for his sake that it was something useful. Magneto was tolerating him at the moment, but she knew well enough that it would not last. When Magneto had a focus it took over his life and his thoughts, there would be neither the place nor the time to carry extra baggage.

She needed a way to stop Toad becoming extra baggage.

"I'm green." He shrugged. "And I've got the tongue. And I can jump. Quite high."

"Anything, uh," the word useful died on her lips, "Anything else?"

He frowned, and then remembered, "Oh yes, I can spit green goo." He demonstrated.

She managed not to give a shudder, "What is that?"

He shrugged again, then decided to come clean, "If it sets on someone's face it's deadly."

She couldn't stop the look of mingled surprise and relief, nor the fact that she clearly sounded pleased about it, "Ah. I see."

"Uh Miss, what is this place?" He asked.

"This is the Base. And you can call me Mystique."

"The Base?"

"Yes." She didn't seem to blink as much as normal people. "Magneto built it; he was the man you saw earlier. It's a base of operations. Mutant operations."

"Ah."

She decided just to come out with it. "We're fighting for mutant freedom. This is our base. I rescued you but, well, you will have to join us if you want to stay."

Toad stared at her, feeling something rise up within him. Something new, something exciting, something that was part of Lance, part of the man in the gutter, part of him. It was something that smoked behind the sheds, and wore ripped jeans and fought even when it shouldn't, even when winning was loosing and there was no way out.

She smiled as she saw it reflected in his eyes. "It won't be easy, I can teach you how to fight, and give you some help, but Magneto is in charge. You answer to him and he is not always … understanding" Well, it was a better word than merciful, "On the other hand, there will be food, a place to stay, a chance for … revenge." She paused at that word, but he was still looking eagerly at her, "and I will try and get some ice-cream."

He grinned back at her, "You can call me Toad."

He'd spent the night in the bar, because a man built like Sabretooth tends to be allowed to sleep where he wants. The next day he'd stayed in the bar, and that evening, when one of the drinkers had started causing trouble, Victor had simply lifted him up and thrown him outside. No blood, no deaths and he'd nodded at the barman who'd nodded back.

And now he was the unofficial bouncer. It suited him fine, and it suited the barman fine. Two meals and a bottle of whiskey a day, along with a place to sleep. In return any trouble was thrown out, and the bar quickly gained a reputation as somewhere you did not try to steal from.

It was a system, and it worked. For the first time in a while Victor Creed started feeling something akin to contentment. It wasn't ideal maybe, nothing mother Creed would have wanted for her son, nothing anyone would want for a son, but something he could be happy doing. He didn't even have to kill anyone. It wasn't getting him any revenge, which was something he wouldn't mind getting a bit of, especially when his muscles woke up sore, or his mind recovered after yet another nightmare imprinted with Stryker, but he could wait for that.

He was as good as immortal after all; he could wait as long as it took.

The door swung open, with a slight excess of drama, and a figure swept in, jumping slightly when Sabretooth loomed up beside him at the entrance. "Uh, heh. Dis the bar?"

Sabretooth nodded, and resumed his position at the door. The man walked in, generating the odd confused look as he strode up to the bar. It was possibly the boots, or maybe the cloak, or the hairstyle, or the fact that he was wearing glasses inside but he just looked out of place for a dingy small-time bar.

Sabretooth narrowed his eyes. Men trying to look bigger than they were always generated trouble. And the kid was staring at him as well, not obviously, but his eyes were definitely flickering in the direction of the bouncer more often than was necessary.

If there was trouble, it was his business to find out what it was. Sabretooth pushed himself away from the door frame and wondered over to the table, sitting down next to the stranger, who gave him an easy smile.

"You always wear those glasses?" Victor grunted.

The man gave him an uncertain sort of look, then lifted them out the way giving a small shrug. Deep red iris's shone in a black background. "You Victor Creed?"

Sabretooth felt a tightening somewhere in his chest. This was it, they'd found him, and Stryker had sent one of his mutant pets to catch him. He wondered just how much power this man had; more than him? Maybe more than the Wolverine? Whatever was going to happen, he needed to get it out of the bar, no point loosing the only safe place he had.

In a sudden swift movement he stood, grabbed the man by the back of the trench coat and in one motion flung him outside the door. Gambit landed headfirst in the snow, swearing and spluttering. Sabretooth strode out after him, grabbing him before he could get up and slamming him back into a tree.

"Alright, who are you." There was some kind of staff under the man's jacket which Sabretooth ripped off, throwing it as far as he could. For some reason the action scattered playing cards into the snow.

"I don' wan' to hurt you." Gambit gasped. Jus', jus' got some people who wan' to talk to youse, aah!"

Sabretooth snarled in his face, twisting the front of the jacket until he half choked. Gambit struggled frantically, this man was strong, far too strong, and he couldn't reach anything to charge up, his hands scrambled at the tree bark, maybe if some of that broke off he could...

"Stryker sent you didn't he?"

"What!"

"Where is he? Anyone else with you?"

"Noone else is, aah! Noone else wit' me, I don' know dis Stryker, stop, aah god, stop hittin' me, dey said you wouldn' mind coming."

"Got that wrong." Sabretooth sneered. The idea of revenge was seeming like a good one, if this man could lead him to Stryker, or even bring Stryker here, any way to get in contact with the man alone would work.

There! A piece of the half frozen bark broke off in his hand, his fingers fumbled but managed to catch it. The distance between him and Sabretooth was small, but it was enough. Trying to keep his actions as hidden as possible he charged up the small piece of wood, filling it with kinetic energy until…

Wham

Sabretooth reeled backwards as the man's hand swung round and something exploded in the side of his head. Quickly, Gambit ducked under his arm, flicked off a playing card in Sabretooth's general direction and made a flying leap towards his Bo-staff. He didn't intend on fighting the larger man, but it would be easier to reason with metal in his hands.

The second explosion half blinded him, causing a crashing wave of pain down the side of his face and landing him in the snow. He shook his head desperately, waiting for the pain to clear and realising as it did that the stranger was now standing in front of him, armed and grinning.

"Now listen, I jus' need to…"

Sabretooth gave a grown and launched himself forward, knocking Gambit sprawling. Desperately he reached for another card, wincing as Sabretooth's craws raked down the side of his arms, before pinning his hands up above his head, "No you don't."

Gambit flinched away as far as possible, aw crap, here we go again. The only advantage he could see was that Sabretooth was using one hand to hold his hands still, meaning he only had one fist to hit him with.

It wasn't that much of a comforting thought though, when he looked at the muscles bulging from Sabretooth's arms and shoulders. He began to wish he'd read that stupid paper Mystique had handed him, there was no way a man got that strong just through working out.

"Alright." Sabretooth snarled at him, "Let's try again. Who sent you."

"Mutants." Gambit swallowed nervously, "Nggk! Really, dere were two of dem, one blue woman, an' she was hot. Real hot. Youse missing out if you don' join for that. Heh, yeah an' this man. Ol' man. Called Magneto."

"Magneto?" Sabretooth paused.

"He's a mutant." Gambit gabbled on desperately, "They're looking for other mutants. Like you. Guys that can fight and help them."

Sabretooth thought for a moment, frowning in concentration. He didn't believe Gambit's story for a minute, the idea of mutants looking for other mutants sounded insane. Mutation wasn't something you paraded after all, it was something you hid.

But whoever wanted him, seemed to want him alive. If they got him to Stryker alive that was fine by him. Wandering in the wilderness was all very well, but it was beginning to pale.

"Alright. Get up." He watched impassively as Gambit struggled to his feet, smirking slightly as he tried to straighten his cloak and regain some of him composure. "You take me to whoever paid you, and if it is Stryker I'll gut you as soon as I've finished with him."

Gambit rolled his eyes, and then took a neat side-step to avoid the swiping claws, "I tol' you, I don' know who this 'Stryker' is. Get dat in your head homme."

A/N: Feedback about how well written or otherwise the fight scene was would be really, really appreciated. Love you forever and give you my firstborn type of appreciated, and do not be afraid of leaving negative comments; I am a big girl and can cope with criticism. :)