Magda Maximoff awoke at one in the morning the following night, exactly twenty-four hours after she'd been gassed. She frowned as she pulled herself out of bed and pulled a thin summer dressing gown on over her pyjamas. She glanced over at the clock/calendar on her bedside table, registering the time before she registered the date, but, when she finally did register the date, a wave of confusion washed over her, had she missed an entire day? No… she couldn't have. Peter must have snuck into her room during the night as messed with her clock out of boredom. She padded over to the door and her foot struck something cold and hard and metal. "Son of a…" she cursed and crouched down to pick it up, whatever the hell it was. This wasn't hers… Shaking her head she walked quietly out of the room towards Peter's door, it must be his. "Peter." she said quietly, knocking on the door, surely he couldn't be asleep already. That kid was practically nocturnal, "Peter are you in there?" she asked knocking once more. Nothing. "Pietro are you in here or not?" she asked in her native tongue, gradually she opened the door. The sight that greeted her made her freeze where she was. The room was in absolute chaos. "Pietro?" she called out frantically, seeing no sign of her son. Hurriedly, she dashed down the stairs, surveying the chaos. Sure his room was usually messy but this looked like someone had driven a bulldozer through it. Or Peter had run himself ragged within the room. Her foot connected with another canister and she picked it up with a frown before glancing at the date on Peter's clock. She had missed an entire day there was no doubt about that anymore. But where was her son? Suddenly, she dropped the two canisters and tore up the stairs towards her daughter's room, "Lorna!" she cried and tore through the hallway to her daughter's room. She flung the door open to find her youngest sitting up groggily on her bed and relief filled her heart. Though it was short lived. Her eyes landed on the canister in Lorna's room, it did nothing but confirm to her that something was very very wrong.
"Mummy?" Lorna asked rubbing her eyes, "What's wrong muma?" she asked seeing the worry on Magda's face.
"Nothing sweetheart." Magda lied, "Just go back to sleep."
"But 'm not sleepy 'nymore muma." Lorna whined looking at her clock. Magda's eyes drifted that way too. They'd lost an entire day from their lives and her only son was missing.
Magda sighed and took her daughter's hand in her's, "Come through sweetheart, I'll fix you up a midnight snack. How does that sound?" she asked.
"Yeah!" Lorna grinned happily and jumped out of bed, practically dragging her mother through to the kitchen.
Magda set about making her daughter some pancakes and, when she was done, popped the plate down in front of Lorna along with a large bottle of maple syrup. "I have to make a few calls sweetheart. Stay here while I do okay."
"Mmhmm" Lorna nodded, mouth too full of pancake to form actual words.
Magda rushed to the telephone table in the hall, making sure to keep her youngest in sight as she pulled a tattered business card out of the drawer and dialled the number with shaking hands.
"Hello?" answered a posh English voice on the other end of the line.
"H-hello there. I'm sorry to bother you but my name is Magda, Magda Maximoff and I can't find my son. Peter told me it would be okay to call you if I needed any help." she stammered, fit to burst with worry for her son.
"Don't worry Mrs Maximoff. I'll be there as soon as possible. Do you think you'll be able to hang on for three more hours?" Charles asked over the phone, determined to make it there in half that time, he could clearly hear the fear and worry in her voice.
"Yes. Yes, I can. Thank you so much."
"Lock your doors and windows and stay near your daughter." Charles advised her, "I'll ready the car. Hang on tight Mrs Maximoff."
"I will. Thank you!" Magda instantly felt better, she glanced over into the kitchen to her daughter and smiled to herself, the little minx had spilled maple syrup all over the table.
"I'll see you soon Mrs Maximoff." Charles assured her and hung up the phone.
"Hank." he called out, wheeling himself out into the foyer, "Hank!"
"Yes Professor?" Hank called out sleepily from the balcony overlooking the entrance hall of the mansion.
"Ready the car. We need to get to get to the Maximoff house urgently."
"On it Professor." Hank nodded and dashed back into his room to quickly change out of his pyjamas.
Before long both Hank and Charles were fully dressed and in the car on the way to the Maximoff house.
"Remind me again why we're not taking the jet?" Hank asked as he drove.
"Do you want to try to land a plane in the middle of a city?"
"Guess not." Hank nodded with a shrug.
"Exactly. Now, how far away are we Hank?"
"Bout four hours. Three if I really push the pedal down. Two if we break every speed limit there it."
"Two sounds good to me." Charles said with a smile.
"Okay ... but you're dealing with all the tickets we're about to get for this." Hank shook his head as he urged the car to go faster.
"Naturally." Charles chuckled.
After half an hour of speeding down the road in silence Hank piped up again, "So, what exactly happened? Why are we driving back down to the Maximoffs? You didn't exactly explain you just said 'ready the car Hank'" Hank pointed out, imitating the Professor's accent.
"That's a terrible impersonation and you know it." Charles rolled his eyes, "But Peter's mother called. Apparently he's missing."
"Missing?" Hank asked shocked, "How? Since when? How did his mother even have your number?"
"Peter gave it to her." Charles replied, "Told her to call if ever she needed something."
"Awfully thoughtful of the kid." Hank remarked.
"I do believe there's more to that boy than meets the eye."
Hank shrugged, "He is a pretty interesting kid. What do you think happened to him?"
"It will do no good to speculate." the professor shook his head, "It's better to find out the facts and then decide on a plan of action."
"Yeah guess so." Hank nodded and pushed the car on, forcing it to streak down the almost empty Highway, thank god it was two in the morning not two in the afternoon, otherwise they'd have a much harder time of maintaining their speed if they had to weave through traffic jams the entire way there.
"I just hope we're not too late to help." Charles muttered as he gazed out the window at the passing countryside."
Exactly two hours and thirty-seven minutes after Magda had made the phone call the doorbell rang.
"Stay here sweetie." she whispered to her daughter and exited the living room before moving to the peephole in the door.
"It's me Mrs Maximoff." Charles' voice came through the door, "Could you kindly let my friend and I in?"
"Yes, yes of course." Magda said peering through the peephole to see the man who had spoken in a wheelchair at the bottom of the steps and a second man stood in front of the door. She fumbled clumsily with the locks, eventually managing to open the door, "You were here for him before. With the tall one with the sideburns." she said looking at them curiously as she opened the door.
"Yes, that was us." Charles nodded, "Hank. If you could be so kind…" he trailed off nodding to the stairs.
"Scuse me Mrs Maximoff." Hank said turning his back on her to help Charles' chair up the three steps.
"In here please." Magda said leading the pair through to the living room where her eight-year-old daughter sat on a beanbag reading The Borrowers to herself. "This is my daughter Lorna, Peter's half-sister." Magda told them before asking them to please take a seat and if they wanted any tea or coffee.
"Coffee would be wonderful Magda. Thank you." Charles said kindly before wheeling himself over to Lorna, "Hello there." he smiled kindly at her as Hank awkwardly perched on a sofa.
"Hi." Lorna said folding down the corner of her page before looking up.
"That's an excellent book you're reading there."
"Muma says I'm smart because I'm eight and I can read big chapter books in English." Lorna replied proudly.
"Well your mother is right." Charles smiled down at her, "What other languages do you know?" he asked the girl, after all, she had specified 'in English' which indicated to the young professor that she may well know more than just English.
"Romani." Lorna replied, "Muma speaks it to me sometimes. Big brother Pietro, no. Sorry. Peter." she shook her head, correcting herself, "He speaks it to me sometimes."
"Pietro?" Hank asked from the sofa.
"Muma says I'm not supposed to call him that. She says they'll be mean to him if they find out." Lorna explained in a very self-assured voice, "What's your name Mister?"
"Charles," he replied, "Charles Xavier."
"That's a funny name." she remarked, "I'm Lorna."
"That's a lovely name." Charles smiled kindly at her as Magda re-entered the room with a tray bearing three cups of coffee and a mug of hot chocolate.
She set the tray down on the coffee table, handing Lorna her hot chocolate before passing Charles and Hank their mugs and picking up her own one and eventually sitting back down on the sofa.
"I don't think I caught your names…" Magda said nervously.
"My name is Charles Xavier, founder of Xavier's school for gifted youngsters. And this is my colleague, Hank McCoy."
Hank smiled shyly and nodded.
"Now. Could you tell us what happened, I promise we will do all we can to find your son?"
Magda nodded, "Wait here." she said setting her coffee down before hurrying back into the kitchen to collect the three canisters she'd found, after rushing back into the living room she set them down on the coffee table and sat back down on the sofa. "I went to bed on the 19th thinking everything was fine and I woke up at one this morning, the 21st. At first I thought it was Peter just playing a prank and screwing about with the date on my clock but… but then I found one of those on the floor in my room beneath the window. I thought Peter had maybe dropped it when he changed the date on my clock but…"
"But that's not what happened was it." Charles asked, face full of concern.
Magda shook her head, "I went down to his room and…" she shook her head, "His clock read this date as well and I know he wouldn't have changed his own, he's dreadful at keeping track of time as is, he wouldn't purposefully confuse himself. And… and I found another one of these in the room." she said indicating to the canister Hank was now holding in his hand, "And… and his room was a tip. Not the usual teenage boy mess though." she quickly added, "The sort of mess that would happen after a fight or something. I ran up to Lorna's room and saw the date again, and then I saw the third one."
"Can you show us his room?" Charles asked kindly.
Magda nodded, "Follow me." she said standing up, abandoning her mug of coffee on the arm of the sofa, "I'll just be a minute Lorna, stay here 'til I get back okay?"
Lorna nodded and went back to her book, lifting the oversized mug of hot chocolate to her lips.
Madga lead them down the hallway, "It uh… it's downstairs if you remember from your last visit." she told them, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Xavier in such a short space of time. It had only been a year since he was last here with Hank and the other muscular one.
"That won't be an issue." Charles assured her, "Hank will go down, I'll wait at the top."
"O-okay." Magda nodded and pulled Peter's door open.
Hank made his way slowly down the stairs into the destroyed room. A broken arcade game lay on its side in the centre of the room and the piles of boxes that had presumably been stacked by the window had toppled, sweets littering the floor. The windows were wide open but as Hank moved to close them he noticed the smear of a sweaty handprint against the glass. He glanced back towards Charles and the telepath soon entered his mind.
What have you found? Charles asked.
Handprint. And this destruction would not have happened unless the kid was either fighting someone, or he was running around in a panic. The latter looks more likely right now.
What could have gotten him so riled up?
The metal cylinder, I'm pretty sure it was designed to release a gas into the room. Hank explained.
A gas that would knock someone out for twenty-four hours…
Exactly. Hank agreed.
Charles looked up at Magda, a frown creasing his handsome face, "I fear those cylinders you found may have been used to gas your family." he told her. It wouldn't be right to keep this from her, even if it would worry her.
"But… but why?" Madge asked confused, she was certain she'd managed to keep Peter's secret, why would people take him?
"I understand that you may think you kept your son's secret but believe me it's a very hard one to keep. Whoever took him must have known exactly who and what he was." Charles explained.
"How did you…?"
"I'm a mutant too. As is Hank."
"So… what you're a telepath?" Magda asked.
"Precisely." Charles nodded, "And I fear the same as you. I fear your son may have been taken because of his abilities. But I don't think that there was anything you could have done to prevent his identity from being discovered. It was only a matter of time. You can't shield him forever. So you mustn't blame this on yourself."
"Can you help him?" Magda asked desperately.
"I won't make promises I don't know I can keep. But can assure you I will do my upmost to return him to you unharmed."
Hope you enjoy! Once again, sorry for any spelling mistakes that might ensue. My brain usually skims over them when I check back over my work. Stupid brain...