X-Men Evolution is the property of Warner Brothers, Marvel and Stan Lee. I'm not making any money off of this, I'm just fangirling.

Wanda came home late from work that night, since she agreed to cover the rest of Hannah's shift. She didn't really want to stay later, but she knew that she would probably need the money for something later. As a result she missed getting to the grocery store before it closed. She'd have to get up early in the morning and go before work. Perfect, she thought bitterly. Tomorrow was supposed to be her day to sleep in. Wanda hated having to be the responsible one in this household.

"I'm home!" Wanda announced to nobody in particular. Setting her keys on the table by the door, Wanda listened for the usual sounds of life within the house. Normally the T.V. would be blaring at its loudest volume and Todd and Pietro would be shouting at each other over what they were going to watch. Fred was usually in the kitchen, clanking pots and pans and generally running into anything he couldn't manoeuvre his girth around. Lance would often hole himself up in his bedroom and play guitar. Any one of these sounds would reassure Wanda that she wasn't coming home to an empty house, and absolutely none of them were being made. It set Wanda on edge.

Wanda slipped her purse off her shoulder and carefully twisted the strap around her right hand, making it into a makeshift mace, as she crept forward in the direction of the living room. She quickly glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was sneaking up behind her. She listened carefully for any misplaced noises. There was nothing heard for a long time until she picked up muffled voices from behind the door leading to the basement. Her eyes narrowed. There wasn't much in the basement aside from disused workout equipment and an old pool table. It didn't make sense for there to be anyone down there.

Careful not to make too much noise, Wanda crept closer to the basement door and carefully laid her hand over the door knob. She was about to twist and pull it open, but the door suddenly swung forward and knocked her off her feet. Wanda crashed to the floor with a shout and sent a shot of blue hex energy in the direction of her assailant. The hex was met with a squeak and the resounding smash of someone going through drywall.

Footsteps thundered up from the basement stairs as three bodies appeared to investigate the chaos. Wanda was in a panic and sent three more hex beams in their direction. Two missed, but the third beam caught hold of a ceiling lamp above their heads. The bulb burst and showered sparks and shards of glass. Wanda shrieked as she felt a pair of hands clamp down on her wrists before she could send another blast.

"Wanda! Calm down! It's just us!" Pietro's voice shouted near her ear. He was the one gripping her wrists, preventing her from making another attack.

Chest heaving from trying to regain her breath, Wanda felt herself melt into the floor with a sudden sense of relief. She couldn't exactly explain why she felt the need to attack blindly without even checking to make sure it was her allies that were lurking in the basement.

There was a groan from the hole in the wall. Todd's legs stuck out at a strange angles. "It's okay, poopsie," he called weakly. "I'm fine. Ouch…"

"Wanda, what the hell is wrong with you?" Lance stormed out from behind Fred (whom he had been using as a meat shield) and glared dangerously at Wanda's paled face. "You could've killed Todd! And look at what you did to the wall! Damn it!"

Pietro loosened his grip on Wanda's wrists, and she wrenched herself free from him. "Sorry," she muttered, not sounding in the least bit apologetic.

"Lay off of her, Alvers." Pietro growled in warning.

"You're not off the hook, Maximoff." Lance snapped back with venom.

Wanda glanced between her brother and her roommate in confusion. It wasn't unusual to see Lance annoyed with Pietro, but it was unusual for him to be this angry. "What's going on?" She demanded of them.

Pietro got to his feet before he helped Wanda to hers. Fred meanwhile pulled Todd out of the wall and helped the smaller mutant dust himself off.

Lance crossed his arms and sneered. "Go ahead and tell her the great news, Pietro. I'm sure she'll be absolutely thrilled."

Wanda turned and stared at her twin. Pietro's jaw was set in a frown, and he was glaring directly back at Lance like he wanted to say all sorts of horrible things about him. Wanda wondered briefly why he wasn't saying them. Pietro never had a problem with insulting people before. "Pietro, what is he talking about? Does this have anything to do with that man from last night?"

All the eyes of the Brotherhood were on her. Todd started to snicker. "You had a dude here last night, Pietro?"

"Shut up, Toad!"

Wanda punched her brother in the arm in his moment of distraction. "Pietro! Answer my question!"

Pietro rubbed his shoulder. "Ow… Yeah, it was Nick Fury."

Wanda only looked at him in confusion. "Nick Fury? Isn't he that old guy with the eye patch? What did you do to piss him off?"

"Nothing!" Pietro threw his hands up defensively as Wanda rounded on him with her fists clenched. "I didn't do anything I swear!"

"Why don't you tell her about what you and your buddy Nick talked about last night, Pietro?" Lance interjected.

Pietro sighed heavily. "Lets go sit in the living room, c'mon."

With his shoulders slumped, Pietro lead the rest of the Brotherhood into their tattered living room. Fred took his usual spot in the saggy oversized armchair in the corner, and Lance got comfortable leaning against the wall by the door with his arms crossed. Wanda took a corner of the couch. Todd plopped down on the arm next to her. Wanda shifted a bit closer to the center of the couch to avoid touching him.

"Okay," Pietro massaged his brow as he paced back and forth. "Like I told the guys already… Fury showed up here last night after all of you went to bed. He had a job offer-"

Lance interrupted him with a cough that sounded like he was trying to cover up the fact that he said something rather unflattering.

"- for us." Pietro continued, shooting a glare in Lance's direction. "Basically, his deal was we either take it, or he'd make sure our lives got really difficult."

"Somehow I doubt this really involved all of us," Lance said.

"It does involve all of us!" Pietro snapped back. "You have no idea what he's got tucked away in his files. Anyway he wants me to talk you all into following along with this. He didn't give me many details, except that there would be pay involved. It'd be more than what we're making now."

There was a moment of silence among them. Surprisingly it was Fred who spoke up first. "Sounds good to me."

Lance almost choked. "Fred! You don't even know what he wants us to do!"

"So? It's gotta be better than sitting around here all the time. Fury's part of that big secret government organization, right?" Fred got a nod of confirmation from Pietro before he went on, "I'm pretty bored with not doing anything, since Mystique left and all. I mean, I can use my powers a little bit at work, but it's not the same. I get respect from the guys at the junk yard, but that's just because I'm big and they're scared of me. I wanna be The Blob again." To emphasize this, Fred flexed his arm and brought his fist down on the arm of his chair, smashing it clean off.

"That's the spirit, Blobby." A voice chuckled from the doorway. The Brotherhood all turned their attention to its source at once. A new face appeared among them, grinning broadly.

Wanda recognized that shock of ginger hair right away. "YOU!" She jumped to her feet and raised her hands in preparation to attack. Pietro rushed to stop her, before she could cause any more property damage, while Lance advanced on the man in the hallway.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Lance demanded. A tremor rumbled below their feet as Lance fought to keep control of his temper.

"Missed you too, mate," the newcomer smirked, raising his hands in surrender. "The door was open, so I let myself in. Just heard you talking about our pal Nick Fury. Seems I'm in the right place."

Wanda wrestled with Pietro to get free. "You creep! He must have followed me home from work!"

The stranger's blue eyes flashed in Wanda's direction. "Don't flatter y'self, luv. I wanted to avoid another run in. Seems like it wasn't my lucky day."

Wanda snarled.

"It's okay, Wanda. It's just Pyro." Pietro finally let go of Wanda's arms when she calmed down enough to be rationalized with.

"At your service," Pyro gave a mock bow in Pietro's direction. "Well, sort of anyway. I suppose I'm at Fury's service, but seeing as how he conveniently isn't here…"

Todd leapt off the arm of the couch and eyed Pyro with suspicion. He'd first twigged in that Pyro's presence might be a threat when Wanda had her outburst and called him a creep. 'Creep' was usually a term reserved for Todd himself. "Don't worry, cuddle-bumps. I'll get rid of him."

"Cuddle-bumps?" Pyro regarded Wanda with a raised eyebrow.

"Shut it, Todd." Wanda snapped in irritation. "Just tell us why you're here," she turned her annoyed glare to Pyro, "whether Fury sent you or not."

Pyro only shrugged. He slid his knapsack off his shoulder and carefully set it down by his feet. When his hands were free he extracted a folded piece of paper from his pants pocket and shook it in Wanda's and Pietro's general direction. "I don't have much to go on, but according to this Honey-Do list, I'm supposed to move in here effective yesterday. Then I'm supposed to wait around for further instructions - I'm assuming from Quicky over there."

All eyes turned to Pietro again, everyone looking expectant. He sighed and rubbed his temples. "I don't have any instructions from Fury yet. I just know that he wants us to get organized. Don't look at me like that, Wanda. I didn't even know Pyro was going to show up!"

"Sometimes I wonder about what you don't know, Pietro." Wanda, with her arms crossed over her chest, stormed out of the living room, shoving past Pyro as she passed. Todd was about to follow her out before she shot back at them with, "I'm going upstairs to shower. If I see or hear any of you in the next hour, I'll turn your insides out."

John released a breath he didn't realize he was holding until Wanda was out of sight and earshot. He could feel his heart racing in his chest. She was quite possibly the scariest creature on the planet - next to Sabretooth after one of his binges. Now he was left with the remaining members of the Bayville Brotherhood. He scanned the room, looking at each of the faces of his new roommates. He knew who they all were. He had to study their files while he was still working for Magneto. He didn't know any of them particularly well, with the exception of Pietro. With Quicksilver's regular visits to the Acolyte hide-out, and the time they spent stuck in the Pyramids in Egypt, John got to know Pietro well enough for his liking. The younger mutant was quite full of himself, and definitely overconfident. John found him a little irritating, but wasn't surprised in the least. When your father considered himself a god amongst men, it wouldn't be hard to develop some sort of complex.

"Sooo…" he said to break the uncomfortable silence that followed Wanda's exit, "which of you lads am I bunking with? I'm assuming there isn't much in the way of spare rooms readily available?"

The Brotherhood boys all looked at each other in kind before staring blankly back at John. It was clear none of them wanted to volunteer to be his roomie. He didn't know if he wanted to take this as an insult, or a veiled blessing. To be completely honest with himself, John was dubious about the idea of sharing a room with any of them just the same. He knew that Pietro would be insufferable. Todd was a bit of a kleptomaniac, not to mention obnoxious. Lance seemed broody and unpleasant. Fred probably snored. He was briefly amused at the idea of suggesting he shack up with Wanda, but then thought better of it when he remembered that he was standing within punching distance of her brother.

Lance finally spoke up. "C'mon… My room's upstairs."

"Oh, alrighty then!" John snatched up his rucksack and toddled after Lance before he had a chance to change his mind. He could probably deal with broody unpleasantness. He had lived with Colossus after all.

Lance led him up the stairs and around a corridor. John could hear the sound of running water behind a shut door and correctly guessed that it was the bathroom and, if he wanted to keep his skin intact, he'd avoid it for the time being. Lance turned left at the end of one hallway, and lead John down the rest of the way to a set of three doors. "Here we are," Lance announced with mock enthusiasm. "To our left we have Toad's room. Avoid it at all times, unless you want the stench that doesn't wash out."

John shuddered slightly. "Gotcha."

"The door in the middle is a broom closet. This one's my room." Lance pushed on the door to the right without so much as turning the knob. "The latch is busted." he explained needlessly as the door yielded to his slight nudge. Judging by the state of most of the house John could assume that several things were 'busted.'

The room wasn't huge, but it seemed like it could easily fit another bed in the opposite corner from Lance's decrepit mattress. And, if John could convince Lance to move his laundry mountain, he could squeeze his writing desk in against the window.

Yeah, this could work.

Lance stomped into the room and threw himself onto his mattress with a groan. John took this as permission to come in as well, since Lance wasn't giving him any indication that he wanted to be left alone. John found a folding chair leaning against the wall that he flipped open and plopped into.

Lance sighed again and threw one of his bulky arms over his eyes. He reminded John of a muscle-bound teenaged girl, with his long chestnut hair and his melodramatic body language. John didn't voice this observation, since he got the feeling that Lance would disagree rather forcefully. Besides, John didn't know of many teenaged girls with facial hair.

"Look, I'm still not too sure about what to think of you being here yet." Lance said, sounding a little muffled behind his beefy forearm. "I'm just glad to get out of the same room as Pietro."

"Fair enough," John replied with a nod. "He hasn't changed much in three years, has he."

"Not at all." Lance hoisted himself up and leaned on his elbows, staring at John like he was sizing him up. "He's still the single most annoying person on the planet."

John didn't have a response as he was busy assessing the rest of his new surroundings. The wallpaper was quite faded, but it looked like it once had a pinstripe pattern to it. Whatever light fixtures had been used in this room were now reduced to a bare bulb jutting out of a light socket in the ceiling. Everything seemed quite Spartan. Lance didn't have a lot in the way of possessions either. A pair of guitars, one electric the other acoustic, leaned carefully against the wall by Lance's bed. Next to the guitars was a large rusted toolbox. There were a few magazines scattered around the top of the dresser, along with a single picture frame. The frame was laying facedown. John resisted the urge to investigate for now. He'd take a look at it when Lance fell asleep.

"What do you think Fury wants with us?" Lance asked blankly. John wasn't sure if he was being hypothetical or not… "I mean, I understand approaching the Brotherhood as a whole, but why in the hell would he drag you in here too?"

"Not a clue, mate." John answered. "Maybe SHIELD doesn't like having mutants at loose ends. My best guess is he wants us all to team up in little groups so it's easier to keep track of us."

Lance seemed to consider this for a moment, and the implication made him scowl. "You think SHIELD is in support of Kelly's Registration Act?"

John was a little surprised at this. "That Kelly fellow actually got elected?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah, he's running for Governor of New York in the next race. Once he's elected it's just a quick jump to the White House."

"Doesn't waste much time, does he."

"Nope."

John suddenly started to laugh as a thought struck him. Lance looked at him in confusion. "Heh! Wanda's like Smurfette! That would make Magneto Papa Smurf."

"What does that even-"

"Never mind. No. I don't think Fury's in on the Registration Act. I'm not registered back home in Aus, and he didn't make me sign anything before I took the sleeping-beauty express to Bayville. 'Course that doesn't stand to reason that I wasn't brainwashed or drugged into signing something before, after or during the time I was unconscious. But I don't think Fury would do something like that to an innocent mutant such as myself."

"You're kind of a freak, aren't you."

"We all are, Lance my friend. We all are."

Like clockwork, exactly one hour after Wanda's threat enforced alone time started, Pietro was banging on her bedroom door. "Wanda? C'mon, let me in!"

Wanda's bedroom door was the only one in the house with a functional lock, and she preferred to keep it like that. She'd actually taken the lock from Mystique's old room, since they were now using the space for a rec-room. Presently Wanda was stretched out on her bed and enjoying the mindless bliss of staring at the ceiling and thinking about absolutely nothing at all. She often did this when she was upset.

Pietro's knocking continued, much to Wanda's chagrin. He sounded like a woodpecker. They both knew he could pick the lock in a blink of an eye. At least her brother had enough decency in him to respect her right to choose whether or not she wanted to see him - that and if he picked the lock she'd probably hex his limbs together.

She finally gave in and shot a small amount of energy at the door to alter the probability of it opening on its own. Pietro had been leaning on it slightly, so he staggered into the room. "Ack! Oh finally. Geeze, I thought I was going to die of old age out there."

Wanda sneered and hexed the door shut behind him. "It'd be like having my birthday and Hanukah happen at once."

"Oh c'mon, Wanda. You can't be that mad at me."

Wanda shot him with a look. "You want to bet, brother dear?" She rolled over on her side so she was facing away from him. "Just get whatever you want to say out and then leave me alone. I'm sure you have better things to screw up."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pietro barked.

"I think you know!" She snapped back. Wanda sat up. "It's fine if you want to get yourself mixed up with SHIELD. Have at it. You have my blessing! Why do you have to go and get the rest of us mixed up in this?"

"Wanda-"

She didn't want to hear his excuses. "It's always about you, Pietro! Even growing up, you were always drawing attention to yourself, trying to prove you were better than everyone else. You always assume that we'll just follow along with whatever it is you want to do!" Wanda's head was starting to hurt as she had flashes of memories from her childhood. She fought against the pain. There was the sound of glass cracking as some stray hex energy hit a framed picture on her dresser.

Pietro seemed at a loss as to what to do. He was watching her with a mixture of fear and indignation in his eyes. "It's not like I have much of a choice this time, Wanda!" he countered, carefully putting himself in a position that would allow for a quick escape should his sister lose control. "Besides, you heard what the guys said. Blob said he was all for it, and I didn't exactly hear Toad or Avalanche complaining either."

"Great! Take them along! Leave me out of it!"

"I can't, Wanda. We need the team. You don't know what Fury might do if we don't take his offer."

"So I'm supposed to tag along because some old bag in an eye patch scares you a little? Up yours, Pietro. I'm finally living a normal life. Now you're trying to take it away from me!"

"Normal? Wanda, we can't be normal. We haven't been normal since we were six! Like it or not, you're the Scarlet Witch, and no minimum wage job or make-pretend attempt at playing house is going to change that."

She didn't know what hurt more, the fact that Pietro had said it, or the fact that he was right. Wanda's face screwed up with rage, she shot a beam of energy in his direction and threw him out of her room.

There you have it, chapter 2. I know it's moving a bit slow for now, but it'll pick up in the next few chapters.

As usual, I want to know what you think of the story. Drop me a review, it'll help me stay motivated.

And I want to thank the three of you who reviewed chapter one :) it's not much, but it was enough to make me think this is worth pursuing. I hope you enjoyed the second chapter.

Just as a bit of background trivia, Wanda's been a big help for me in venting some of my real life frustration with work/paying bills/rent. While keeping with the whole awesomeness of mutants with super powers, I'm also trying to convey the more mundane side of growing up and being responsible for yourself/others. I'll try for more action-ey writing later on.

Cheers!