AN: I'm doing this chapter in place of Episode 7 for a platitude of reasons and I'm sure I don't need to spell it out for you guys. This is the long awaited (for me) Brotherhood episode that will be taking place near parallel with the original episode. For reference's sake, that means that this will be taking place while Mystique is being all tricky on the icy mountains with Rouge and Scott. Disclaimer: How many times must I be reminded of this? I do not own Marvel or any of their ideas. I don't even think I own my own ideas anymore…
Chapter 12
Touchdown
"Where are you?" A man was running down the hall silently, crouched down stealthily as he held his silenced pistol at the ready. He made it to the corner of the hall, checked around the corner before making his way down that hallway as well. There was a room with an open door on the side, revealing a clustered room filled with cardboard boxes, but devoid of life. The man proceeded beyond the door and began to fall into a full on sprint. He was close to the fire escape and his getaway. Halfway down the hall, the man heard heavy footsteps and the dreaded sound of a minigun spinning up. Before he could do anything, his body was riddled with bullets and he collapsed into a puddle of blood.
"How'd you do that? There wasn't a single place for you to spawn! You freakin' cheated!" The controller was thrown down as the TV cut off and the gaming system died. Lance got off the couch and shoved Terrence on the shoulder before he walked off, going outside to blow off some steam.
"It's not cheating! It's modding! There's a difference, you sore loser. I thought I told your mom to raise you better. Guess I'll have to dock her pay next time I see her."
Lance stopped mid-stride and turned to see his housemate grinning ear to ear. Angry, Lance felt his temper get the best of him and his powers begin to surge. The room seemed to vibrate and shake for a moment, but it returned to normal a second later. Lance let out a sigh and calmed down. He wasn't gonna mess up the new house Mystique had arranged for them.
"Hey Rocky! Cut it out down there! I can't paint my toenails if the whole house is shaking. You're lucky Mystique ran off to do whatever or she would be chewing your ass right now."
Lance looked up the nearby stairway where the voice had come from. "Shut up! You're rockier than I am without your boyfriend's watch on! And you're supposed to be out here training with the rest of us!"
Crystal walked out of her room and to the staircase, dressed in a tight red shirt and short athletic shorts. She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she looked down at Avalanche. "I will come down there and show you just how rocky I can get when I stab a crystal the size of your ego up your ass. Now go back to your 'training.' The only thing you're training is the couch. Prick."
Avalanche glared up at the annoying blonde starring right back at him. Not having any witty remarks to make, he just diverted to something else. "Why are you here in the first place? I thought you lived with your dad. Did he kick you out or something?"
Amanda snorted at the suggestion, but took note of how Terrence had perked up to the conversation. Even he was interested. "I don't have to tell you boys anything. It doesn't matter. Now that we're not in a pigsty, I'm gonna stay here. Get used to it."
Terrence chuckled at her as she walked back to her room. Turning to his fellow male, he said, "How long you reckon she'll last in a house full of guys before she goes running back to her daddy?"
"Too long. So are you gonna go try and squat that mountain again?"
Lance and Terrence walked out of the backdoor of the new Brotherhood home. It was a two-story home, like the last one, but it actually looked habitable. It was bigger than the last house and had enough rooms for everyone, as well as an extra bathroom. Everything in it was new, too. It made them wonder where Mystique got the money to buy all of it. Even more curiosity raising was the training grounds she had set up for them.
It wasn't anything spectacular. A clearing had been made behind the house with a few things littering it. The clearing was lined with a running track, for when the supposed 'team' was supposed to run 'drills'. Inside the clearing, a few targets were set up. These were for Lance and Crystal. Lance was supposed to try to shake the ground and knock over only one of the targets grouped up. Crystal was the most inexperienced of all the mutants, so she was merely supposed to practice growing her crystals over certain targets, building up the ease at which she could do so.
Toad had a tower set up for him. It looked more like something off Ninja Warrior, only vertical. There were five stages to it, and all of them would challenge any kind of acrobat. Terrence had tried to get to the top himself and failed miserably on the first part, which required Terrence to flip through a tunnel while in the air. Toad could make it to the second part, a set of hanging bars that were slicked with grease, which pissed Springload off a lot. He hated that sack of slime and he hated being beaten by someone.
Blob was given a wrecked car to bully. He was told to push it around the clearing in laps, and then tie it up on a tree like a punching bag. Mystique said something about callusing his knuckles while turning some of his blob into muscle. Like that would ever happen.
Whenever Quicksilver deigned the world good enough for him to step outside in, he would have to run around the clearing and try to pluck flag markers out of the ground while still going at high speed. Mystique supposed it would increase his hand eye coordination while still moving insanely fast. Terrence reckoned that if Quicksilver learned how to fight while running, he'd be a decent challenge. Plucking those flags would be a start for the twerp.
Terrence himself had taken it on himself to do everything everyone else was doing, partially to challenge himself with things that were not normal for him, and to prove he was better than everyone else on his team. Mystique had set up a giant squat machine for him on the backside of Toad's tower. Weights set on struts about head high, leaving room for Terrence to put his shoulders underneath it. According to the shape shifter, he was supposed to throw the weights up and build up his muscles, then throw them even farther up when they came down. Theoretically, the force of the weight coming down on his shoulders, if it didn't break his back, would add to his muscle tension and give him a boost to throw weights absurdly high. His goal was a bell at the top of the rack, which was level with Toad's tower top.
When he had tried it the first time, he couldn't budge the weight at all. He had to lower it some before it would budge off his shoulders. Once he had breathing room, he had charged up his arms to push up, sending it a few feet up the rack. He dropped in a crouch to help build up his legs, while also charging his arms. As the weights came falling back down, he stood to meet them, rising and catching the weight on his shoulders. The impact knocked Terrence flat on his face. Luckily, the struts caught the weight before they crushed him. He hadn't tried it since.
Aside his failure and inability to figure out how else to complete his training, Terrence was enjoying the new stuff. He had a garage to park his truck in, a room that didn't reek, and a refrigerator that wasn't covered in mold. The X-box in the living room was his own personal touch. He wasn't much of a gamer, but he did enjoy taking a break and cheating his housemates in death matches. He'd beaten everybody at it, even Crystal, who had been adamant about not playing. She was such a hard person to be around. He hated her attitude, but she was part of the team, and more importantly, the only girl on the team. Rouge was never around; no one ever saw her at the house or at school, so she didn't count. Moreover, the X-men had interest in her, so that put her own his 'don't trust' list. She was up there with everyone else he knew.
Terrence looked over to Avalanche, who was still waiting on the older teen to answer on his training. Avalanche hadn't made any noticeable progress on his own training and Terrence was thankful for that. He would never live with himself if he was left behind by the supposed leader of the Brotherhood.
"Nah. I'm gonna go to the gym. Screw Mystique's little weight system. I'm gonna go train the old fashioned way."
"Oh yeah? Well what exactly is that? Cause it looks to me like you're still getting your ass whipped by that same punk X-man." Avalanche challenged, stepping up and poking his finger into Springload's chest.
Terrence growled and slapped the offending appendage away. "The old fashioned way is to go find someone at the gym to spar with and beat the tar out of them like an old oil drum. My powers may not be as fancy as shaking the ground real hard, but they actually get results in fighting. When's the last time you beat an X-man? Oh, wait! You've never done it! So shut up."
Lance must've felt cocky or have been tired of putting up with Springload's attitude and resistance to his obvious leadership. He gestured to the open field behind the new house. "Me and you, right out there. Either you're all talk and you suck or you can back up half of what you say. Let's find out."
Not one to step down, despite the sinking feeling in his stomach, Terrence followed Lance out to the open area. The two stood 10 feet apart from each other and started a stare off. The other Brotherhood members had followed them out there, apparently eavesdropping on the spat between the two. Pietro divided the two groups of onlookers who had wordlessly taken sides. Crystal obliviously stood on Springload's side, unknowing that by standing near him, she was showing favoritism. After seeing him fight in the labs, she did know that she didn't want to be anywhere near Avalanche.
Toad and Blob stood near Lance, who was obviously their pick due to how close they had become due to their similar backgrounds of hoodlums and thugs. Pietro didn't like any of them, so he stood in the middle and would side when the victor as soon as he emerged. The two clashing mutants noticed their crowd and decided to let Pietro start the fight.
"On three. One, two, three! Now go kick his ass!" Springload had sprung forward and closed the gap between him and Avalanche before Quicksilver had finished his last statement. Lance was ready for when he got there, already rolling out of the way and standing up to unleash his seismic blast on his old position.
Terrence had landed hands first and flipped away in a handspring, showing off his acrobatic skills. The ground he had just flipped away from had sprung up in a burst of life. The ground then began to roll forward in a wave, bearing down on the still mutant. Terrence wasn't idle while standing there. He was charging his leg muscles in preparation for his flip over the wave of earth, followed by a landing that he sprung out of in another lunge towards Lance.
Avalanche created another wave large enough to protect himself from Terrence's charge and then crush him beneath it. An audible thump from Terrence's foot burying into the freshly upturned earth told Lance it was time to finish the fight. What stopped him from doing so was Terrence's second foot kicking the earthen wall and sending it straight into Lance's face. Terrence finished freeing himself while Lance furiously scrubbed the grit and dust out of his eyes. The wall collapsed, leaving one big lump of now loosened earth in the clearing. The sight gave Springload a bit of nausea and he forced down old memories.
Growling, Avalanche felt his powers give way and unleash another huge rolling wave of earth, standing 10 feet tall and speeding across the now destroyed lawn, throwing grass and soil everywhere. Terrence just crouched down as he built up his powers in his legs. As the wave neared, Terrence leapt diagonally towards it, barely topping it. He had planned on it and used his already charged arms to push even higher off the wave and into the air. Avalanche looked up to follow his target, but lost sight of him in the bright sun shinning down.
Terrence grinned to himself as he flipped in the air in order to set up what would be a viscous heel drop. This would teach Lance just who was boss around here. It would also give him a terrible concussion. But Lance wasn't stupid, or at least not very. He bailed and dove out of the way from his old spot, knowing that whatever Terrence was about to do would be painful. His dive was awkward due to its urgency, thus he landed face first in the dirt. Terrence, however, landed on the ball of his foot and was able to recover from the missed attack that had left a sizeable footprint in the earth in time to capitalize on the downed Avalanche. He jumped feet first onto Lance's back, eliciting a cry of pain from the ground-shaking mutant. Terrence wasn't done rubbing in his victory and grabbed Lance's arms, pulling them backwards painfully and evoking another shout.
"So you thought I was all talk? Well how do I sound to you now? Huh?"
Lance grit his teeth as he struggled against his restraints, which only added to the pain in his shoulders. "You win, alright! Now get off me, man."
Terrence was not one to just let things go. He had to rub this in and make sure Avalanche learned his lesson. No one in the pitiful crew of misfits could handle him.
Blob and Toad seemed to take Terrence's unrelenting nature and decided to interfere. Toad leapt at Terrence's head, only for the young man to lean back and avoid it, tugging on Lance's arms even harder. Blob came bumbling in, ready to steamroll Terrence out of the way and free his friend. And he would have if not for the sudden appearance of a sturdy crystal wall.
"Let the boys settle this themselves. There's no need for you to get your panties in a knot for Lance's sake." Amanda chided, growing crystals to encase Toad's feet as well, leaving them to watch as Terrence continually tormented their friend.
"I'm still waiting, Rocky. I am not a very patient person. I may just pull these stupid arms off and see how well you can fight after that."
Tears began to stain the grass as Lance bit his lip in pain. He would not give Terrence's the satisfaction of hearing him beg, but his arms felt like they were on fire.
"Alright, man! You're not all talk. You're better than I am, I admit it. Now let me go."
Relief was sweet when Springload did finally release the arms and step off of Lance. The mutant rolled over and flexed his arms above him, getting blood circulating back through them. Wiping at his eyes and easing up on his still painful arms, he fixed Springload a glare but remained silence. His two underlings would not, however.
"What'd you go all satanic on him for, you asshole! Who do you think you are nearly tearing off his arms? You guys were fighting, not holding a death match! Just cause you're stronger doesn't mean you can run roughshod over us!" Toad wasn't normally vocal of anything that disagreed with Terrence, but watching the fight must have stirred something up inside him. Maybe it was a bit of courage and not bad gas.
Blob piped in with a "Yeah!" before punching the crystal wall and shattering it into trillions of pieces. Terrence turned to the bigger person and was about to start mouthing off when the group all heard the phone ringing from the house. Pietro, who had been quiet since the start of the match, ran off in a blur and came back with a wireless phone seconds later. Answering it, he heard nothing but the answering machine telling him he had missed a message.
Putting the phone on speaker before someone pestered him about how they couldn't hear, he played the message.
"Mystique, my sources have located another powerful young mutant in Denver, Colorado. He's been unmarked so far, but I see no visions of how long that will last. You need to move quickly and add him to our fold before others get their hands on him. Good luck."
The band of teenage mutants stared at the phone incredulously in silence. "We've been recruited to a fold? Mystique didn't seek us out herself? She planned all of this?"
There was no answer to the questions, just an explanation of the truth. "She was told about all of us. It was never just a coincident that we were asked by her to join. We were all in the perfect circumstance to want a home and a team. That, and the chance to show up those X-losers."
And this was true. Toad was picked after a Friday night when he had been bullied at a football game. Crystal was selected as soon as her powers emerged since she was practically already in Mystique's lap. Terrence was scooped up as while he was fleeing the X-mansion. Lance had been nabbed after failing to get Kitty. Fred had been talked into it after being laughed at during his show. Finally, Quicksilver had showed up after being bailed out of jail.
"So how are we gonna get to Denver?" This was Crystal who asked, looking around, clearly expecting the group to have some sort of game plan for getting them all to the new mutant and possible recruit.
"Why would we even want to? Why would we try to get another loser out here to join the club? This place is pathetic. We were all better off doing our own thing." This was Terrence speaking, thinking of all of the jobs and money he had missed out on staying with Mystique."
"This could be exactly what we need to beat the X-men though. We don't know anything about him or his powers. He could wipe the floor with the X-men. We need all the help we can get." Toad supplied, showing just how he felt about the team's current chances to triumph over their rival mutant team.
"Or he could be a low-class clown. Just another pawn in Mystique's board game." Lance shot out, clearly displeased with how he had been played. He had not signed up to be someone's whipping boy, nor a tool. He would've joined up with a demolition crew in Chicago with other destructive mutants if he would've known that Mystique was some recruiter for a fold.
"Well why don't we just go get some answers from Mystique herself? Where is she?" Fred asked, pounding his fist into his hand. Even he knew he had been tricked to some degree. And someone would need to pay for it.
"Forget Mystique. We don't need her. We can do this without her. Let's go to Denver and get this new guy, then come back and destroy that silly little mansion on the hill. Who cares what she wants. I say we run this gang how we want to. We aren't her little army of henchmen." Pietro looked ready to run to Denver right then and there. Standing around and talking about it wasn't his favorite thing to do. He blamed his impulsive nature for that.
"Well what do we want?" Terrence stressed, standing firm and drilling the question into everyone. Things needed to be answered before they flew halfway around a damn country. They needed a goal, plans for the future, and a means to reach them.
"I don't really know. Right now, I don't think it matters. We all came here wanting to get strong enough to do whatever we wanted. We came here for power. And there is power in numbers. If we stay together and actually work like a team is supposed to, then nobody can boss around. Not the police, the X-men, or even Mystique. We'll get stronger until we can stand on our own." Crystal explained, putting to words the new motives of the Brotherhood.
"And when we all turn on each other when we're mad with this supposed power?" Lance wondered, glancing at Terrence and rubbing his still sore arms.
"The weakest will fall and the victors will walk off with the spoils. Just like always." Terrence grinned sharkishly at this, as if he was already eyeing all the smaller fish stuck in a pond with him.
"Then why try in the first place?" Toad complained, already knowing that he wouldn't last in a situation like that. Especially with someone as viscous as Springload.
"We'll all last longer. If you ran off by yourself now, then there is no way you could do anything but get pushed around. At least you're safe with us. And we don't necessarily have to split up. But the idea was to get strong enough to do whatever we wanted, with or without help." Lance said, calming down his companion.
"So the vote has been settled. We're all for going to get this new guy, right? So how are we getting there exactly?" Crystal asked again. Leave it to the girl to want to go on a vacation instead of solving the team dynamics problem. Weren't they supposed to be the ones who liked fixing problems like that?
"We'll fly. Mystique has money locked up in that safe in the basement. We bust it open, grab enough money for a round trip on the soonest plane and head to Denver. From there, we find the guy and talk him into joining. Anyone got a sale pitch prepared?" Pietro asked sarcastically, before zipping off towards the house in a blur. He popped back into place a second later, dressed in his combat gear and tapping his foot impatiently.
"Well? Come on slowpokes."
He vanished again, leaving a cloud of dust settling in his place. Terrence turned to the crew of misfit mutants and ordered, "Go grab whatever you wear for a mission and pack it in a carry on bag. I think we'll need 'em in Denver. We're only gonna be there for the night at the most, so don't pack anything else." He looked directly at Crystal for that part, who merely rolled her eyes. "Avalanche, go bust open the safe. You're the best suited for opening the tumblers. Try not to bring the house down."
Terrence strode off from the group and headed towards his room to pack up. The others just looked at each other. Crystal was given the cold shoulder while the boys all walked back together, grumbling about Springload trying to run things. Despite being left out, she went to her own room and pulled out her combat gear from the closet. She'd had a friend's mother make this for her and promise not to tell anyone.
It was simple, just a leotard that covered the essentials and to her knees and elbows. It was the same shade of color her crystals, a light pink hue. It had padding on the shoulder, knees, and elbows, which was were the suit stopped. The padding was a darker blue color and the matching fingerless gloves and boots were too. Grabbing a small bag, she folded up her suit and zipped it up, throwing the bag over her shoulder and making her way downstairs to find the guys all there and ready to go.
"What's the hold up, toots? Let's go." Pietro then bolted from the room and to the garage. Everyone else followed and saw him sitting shotgun in Lance's jeep. Lance just scoffed before jumping in the driver's seat and cranking it up. Toad and Blob piled into the backseat, leaving Springload to haul Crystal around in his truck. "Great."
Amanda smiled as she stepped up on the running boards and slid into the passenger seat, buckling up and waiting patiently on her driver. Terrence stepped up into his own truck and sat down in his seat. As Lance pulled out of the garage and rolled down the drive, Springload turned to his unwanted companion of the moment. He didn't trust her to ride in his vehicle.
"Don't you have your own car? Why don't you just drive yourself to the airport?"
Amanda glanced out the window to answer, waiting on the truck to actually get cranked and moving. But it seemed Terrence wasn't going to drive anywhere without an answer.
"My dad decided to keep my car when I left, alright. So now I'm out a car and I don't have any wheels. Now hurry up. Lance is gonna be waiting on us."
Satisfied with his answer, Terrence turned over the engine and drove off, catching up with Lance and following him to the airport in silence. Crystal wouldn't have that though. Not after he had dragged an answer out of her. It was his turn to answer.
"So I need a favor from you. You wouldn't be willing to spot me a few hundred dollars, would you?"
A chuckle erupted from Terrence immediately. "Just because I hit on you when we first met doesn't mean I'm willing to throw stacks at you now. Forget it!"
"Now wait a second. I wasn't even asking about something like that!" Was the girl's indignant cry. "I plan on paying you back. But my current allowance won't let me buy what I want in time. So I need the money real quick and you're the only person I can ask."
"No I'm not. You and I both know that Luke was a rich boy before he started taking on jobs. He's just as loaded as Xavier, and he's much sweeter on you than I ever will be."
"How do you know that? More importantly I can't ask him without telling him what I'm buying. You wouldn't care either way."
"True. And I know more about Luke than you or anyone else does. I do my research on the few people I run across that I don't stomp into the dirt."
"So you stalked him because you can't butcher him? You need help."
"You make it sound bad when you say it like that. I like to be informed about what I'm up against. Did you know he was emancipated a few years ago? And he got a special license to drive his motorcycle around the same time?"
"Yeah. So?" Amanda asked, wondering why in the world that would be relevant to anything.
"How many people do you know that can afford to live on their own, buy motorcycles, and bribe whoever he needed to make the first two things possible? Or how many kids are even in that situation in the first place?" Terrence asked, pointing out the curiosities of Luke's independent living.
"More than you'd think. But we're all in weird situations with our parents. It's not as if they know what we do out here. We don't live with them and we keep secrets from them. We don't need them to provide food or shelters for us or anything like that. We're independent too. Even the kids at Xavier's school don't stay in touch with their parents that much."
"True enough. Fine. I obsess a little. So can it and let me drive in peace."
"Are you going to spot me the money?" Amanda reminded, steering the dwindling conversation back to where she wanted it.
"If you shut up and pay me back, then yeah." With that, Terrence cut on the radio just to drown out the blonde girl, who merely smiled and watched things go by from the window. They arrived at the airport minutes later and parked beside Lance. Grabbing their luggage, they made their way inside and to the ticket counter. Pietro took the lead from there and requested the tickets needed on the nearest flight and handed her a credit card, presumably from Mystique's safe.
The woman behind the counter ran the card, but paused and looked at her monitor and clicked away with her mouse. "This card is used by a frequent flyer. Would you prefer to use the customary services like she does?"
Pietro glanced back at the others, who all shrugged. "Sure. Just get us to Denver as quick as possible, all right? It's very important to the person who gave us that card to use."
The receptionist nodded, before clicking a few more times. She then stepped from behind the counter and gestured towards a door behind her. "Please follow me to the hangar while we prep the jet for flight. I apologize for the inconvenience of not having it already ready, but we received no forewarning that it would be needed."
Wordlessly, the Brotherhood followed her through the door that opened up to a jet hangar that was apparently Mystique's. The jet sitting inside of the hangar was huge. "How the hell can Mystique afford all of this? She's supposed to be a principal!"
"Obviously she's in shadier business than we know about. Maybe it's a perk for being in the 'fold'?" Crystal supplied, stating the obvious to the ever-oblivious Toad.
People began to scurry around the hangar, shouting orders about checking instruments and gauges. One person walked over and told the group that the bird would be ready to leave the ground by the time they got onboard and seated. The teens did as asked and boarded the plane via a movable stairway that was pulled aside as soon as everyone was in.
As soon as everyone had grabbed a seat, which there was plenty of, the pilot came on the intercom and stated that they had a runway cleared and were ready for takeoff. The plane then began to drive out of the hangar. Todd looked out the window and began to turn even greener than normal.
"I'm not so sure about this flying business guys. Maybe I should stay home in case Mystique gets back? She'll need to know where her plane is, right?"
The plane began to speed up, tearing down the runway and beginning to skip off the ground. Todd clenched his eyes shut and curled up in a ball in his seat. When the Plane finally left the ground, he let out a wail and complained "I was never supposed to leave the ground like this! Jumping is so much better!"
Crystal just looked over to her more sensible companions and said "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've heard stories about how bad it feels or that you get sick from it, but I feel fine." As soon as she finished saying that, she felt her ears pop and let out a yelp. The other boys just ignored her and tried to slow their heart rates back to normal. All of them had been nerve- no, apprehensive about flying. They were men, they didn't get nervous.
The plane soon settled at its cruising altitude and the pilot came on the intercom and stated such. He also mentioned the ETA for the flight, a mere two hours due to turbulence.
"Now I'm not a geography whiz, but I'm pretty sure it takes more than two hours to fly from New York to Denver, even on a good day. What the hell kind of jet is this?" Terrence wondered aloud.
"I dunno and I don't care. Where's that waitress lady with my peanuts?" Fred bellowed, slamming his hands down on his chair's armrests.
"Dude, you know that they serve actual food on flights this fancy, right? Plus, we've only been up in the air for ten minutes. They'll come out in a while. Calm down before you break something and we all plummet to our untimely demise." That was a rousing speech from Pietro that only made Toad quiver more in his chair. Eventually, everyone calmed and settled in for the flight. Between looking out the window and listening to music on their phones, the group waited in silence for the trip to be over. They really didn't have much else to do.
No one ever did bring food out or offer drinks, but the flight was quickly over and the jet made its decent. Toad clung to his chair like a lifeline and whined again, but no one paid him any attention. The tires hitting pavement was startling and the brakes were jerky, but the landing was a successes and that was all the Brotherhood would ask for. Toad sped off the plane, jumping out of it before they had even brought the stairway out. He kissed the ground and made empty promises to never leave it again. The others caught up to him and Blob nudged him with his foot. Toad hopped up and grinned, bouncing around energetically.
"You know, that was kinda fun. We should do that again!"
Lance face palmed, before reaching over and slapping the froggy mutant on the head. The six then left the hangar where the jet had parked and headed out of the airport to the line of taxicabs waiting outside. Looking around, the teens took in the new environment, taking note of the setting sun and thinner air while coming up with a game plan.
"Where do we go know? The recording just said Denver." Fred asked, turning to the smar- more knowledgeable mutants of the group. Terrence supplied "If Mystique was gonna recruit him, then that means he is around our age. So where would a kid with mutant powers go on a night like tonight? The mall?"
"In a city this big, there are at least 3 or 4 malls. So I say we let the cab drivers drive us around to wherever kids normally hang out. Let's let the locals do the work for us." That was a pretty solid suggestion from Lance, which everyone agreed on.
The group split up into two cars, with Blob, Lance, and Amanda in one and Todd, Quicksilver, and Terrence in another. The second cab had been hired to follow the first one, but where it was going, nobody knew.
Lance asked to pay by card, prompting the cab driver to snort, until he caught a glimpse of the card. Plucking it out of the boy's hand, he looked it over before throwing it back and easing out into the road. "I'm guessin' you fellas wanna go to the same spot as usual, eh? We'll have ya there in a jiffy."
The three teen mutants just shared a look before settling back into the cab seat. If Mystique's card was that influential, then what did they care? They just wanted to see where the cab driver was gonna take them, because that would obviously have something to do with Mystique herself. Was it some secret hideout for whatever 'fold' Mystique recruited for? A hide-away home for whenever she was on the run? Some shady spot she picked up information on other mutants? Who knew? Either way, the Brotherhood was going to find out by the end of the night.
AN: And that's a start. I had so much fun writing this I decided to expand a bit and make it to full chapters. I think this chapter throws enough in the air, you know? The fight for leadership, Crystal's home and money situation, the new mutant, the Brotherhood's revelation, and Pietro's lack of further explaining just what the phone recording meant by 'fold'. So by next chapter, I may get around to answering one question partially.
I had to stop and really think about the chapter title this time, but I decided on Touchdown. It's done by T.I. and features Eminem. Sad thing is that this song is the shittiest song Eminem ever put lyrics on, hands down. Oh well. It's about landing in planes, so you guys see the relation to the chapter. Whatever, you don't really care.
Happy 4th of July to all my readers. Some of you may think 'Why should I celebrate America's independence if I'm not American?' Well celebrate 4th of July anyways because that is also a worldwide donation day to my bank account. All you have to do to participate is send me all of your social and credit card info. Just kidding. Don't actually send me anything of that nature, or I'll end up in federal prison. Maybe I shouldn't have said that in case one of you guys is spiteful… BigWi11is out!