AN: Wassup peeps? Good to write to you. I have to enjoy it small amounts because I'm on a limited time schedule. I have two hours tops to spend at my house doing laundry and other maintenance crap while writing chapters and playing Fallout in my free time. You would think that when your parents take a vacation to Las Vegas that your life would get easier. Mine hasn't. Disclaimer: I don't even have my math homework, much less any of Marvel's property.

Chapter 17

I've Been Up, I've Been Down

"Really? We got left? Man, this blows. I can't believe this!"

"Calm down you guys. I can't blame Scott for wanting to be alone to meet his brother who he thought was dead for years."

The group of X-men all simmered down after this, then turned to return back to their rooms completely bummed. Kurt suddenly got an idea and spoke up to his friends "Why don't we just go to another beach? Hawaii isn't the only place in the world that has one."

The group of teens looked at Kurt as if he were crazy for a moment, which to be honest, wasn't all that farfetched. "Road trip anyone?"

Before another word could be shared between them all, the three X-men who weren't already dressed for the beach took off. Kurt just laughed before porting to the hallway where the guys rooms were at. Instead of going to his door, he went to someone else's instead. Knocking, he called out "Hey Luke, are you in there?"

"If I say no, will you go away fuzz ball?"

Kurt opened the door at the heavily sarcastic joke from his friend laying on the bed with one headphone popped out. "So are you coming, or what? We're driving down to the nearest beach instead of flying. Scott's going to meet his brother with the Professor and Logan, so we got left."

Luke grunted as he thought about the option, not giving it too much thought as he grunted out a "No."

"What? Really? Come on, man it's the beach! Fresh air, clear sunlight, cool water, and hot girls. Why in the world would you not want to go?"

Luke didn't bother to give a real reason. He just gave a flat look and said "I don't want to. I get sunburned too easily."

Kurt could tell that it was a bad reason, but he left well enough alone and simply closed the door when he left the room, going to start up the van and to make sure everyone would have everything they needed for the trip.

Luke just sighed up at the ceiling from his position and looked over at the calendar he had pinned up on the far wall. It seemed time had flown by since he had joined the Institute. So much had happened in such a short time. He made friends, made more enemies. He had grown in his powers more than he thought he would've, in more ways than he could've thought of.

He enjoyed his time here. Everyone was like a makeshift family, all interwoven through their common characteristic. The X-gene. He had done some research on it a while back, when he had first started hiring himself out for jobs. Things were always undefined and unclear back then. No one knew what caused it all. No one knows what caused it now. But he had gone back and looked over what he knew about mysticism after the team's bout with Juggernaut.

It seemed to be even murkier than what he drug up about the X-gene. Not a single source agreed with another on it's effects, purposes, or methods to be done. There were even some who claimed it was fake. But he knew it was true. There was something buried in his subconscious, something right on the very tip of his mental iceberg, that was ready to emerge and explain his current confusion. He knew something about mysticism. But he couldn't remember what he remembered.

He had gone through his contacts of people he could trust to ask such sensitive information. Nothing he had found out jogged his memory. But he could so faintly remember something that it was driving him crazy. Going to the beach wouldn't be any fun as he was right now.

He couldn't ask the Professor for help because the man was gone with Scott. Plus, even if he was here, he would be hesitant to ask in case the man found something that Xavier didn't need to know while pulling up memories. Luke trusted the man with his life, but there were plenty of things that he could list that the man simply didn't need to know, nor would he ever. It would only lead to more problems at the mansion. Especially since the Professor seemed so dogged on unraveling the Network. Luke just knew that Xavier was spending a lot of time talking with some third party behind closed doors.

So he was stumped as to what to do about his memory problem, but he certainly couldn't stand looking at the ceiling anymore. Maybe he could go mess with Terrence or something. A little fight might be just what he needed to stir his memory. And maybe the jerk would know the answer himself and Luke could just beat it out of him. Any plan of action would be better than sitting around any longer.

Luke pushed himself out of his bed and slipped on some shoes, leaving his headphones by his bedside so they wouldn't get broken or extremely tangled in his pocket. He walked down to the kitchen, in hopes of finding Storm to tell her he was going out. He didn't see a soul, but he saw a note on the fridge for Jean telling her that the others had gone to the beach without her.

Deciding to leave his own note, he jotted down that he was going out and left it pinned with a magnet for Miss Ororo to see. Maybe he wouldn't get grounded for it. Luke went to the garage and opened it up, scaring off some tawny cat that was lurking about, probably trying to find some scraps. He tore down the drive and out of the gates, cruising over the small roads of Bayville. After spending a few nights out with Kurt or some of the others, he had learned the roads around the city pretty well. It might as well of been his permanent home now compared to everywhere else he had lived.

When he made it to the Brotherhood household, he had to say he was impressed. It was certainly a much nicer building than before. Compared to their last house, this new one might as well of been the Xavier Institute to them. Luke drove up and parked his bike on the lawn away from the house itself, where it would be safe from harm hopefully. As he walked towards the house, the small garage built onto it came alive with noise. Luke ducked behind a tree and crouched down, staying out of sight as Lance's jeep went rolling down their gravel driveway. It was packed, but Luke couldn't make out who all was in it.

Deciding to ignore the sinking feeling he got over watching his enemies leave in such a hurry, he decided to focus on the house in front of him. There wasn't a single sound coming from the house and it looked like no one was home. He couldn't really tell though. It hardly mattered though, as at least some of the Brotherhood was gone. If push came to shove, he was pretty sure he could run away from a few of them.

Still sneaking forward, Luke stopped dead in his tracks behind some bushes as he heard the sound of a loud engine coming to life. Seconds later, the sound of squalling tires grated at his ears and a large blur went down the drive. Luke watched Terrence's truck leave, kicking up a ton of dust and leaving a trail behind him.

'What could've gotten him in such a hurry to leave? Maybe I should check this out? Not like I could catch up with him now anyways, he's long gone so there goes my chance for an answer.' Luke wondered to himself.

He made it to the front door, but was suddenly unsure of how to proceed. Should he even bother to knock? These guys certainly wouldn't at the mansion. They would just barge in and start breaking stuff. So Luke decided to forgo formality and just let himself in. The door was open anyways, Luke discovered when he tried it. His assumptions were proven true when he stepped inside and looked at the living room. It was deserted.

"How've you been since that party, eh Luke? That was your name right?"

Or he thought he was alone. Looking up to the balcony of the second floor, Luke saw a face he wasn't expecting at the Brotherhood home. Or anywhere. This guy had dropped off of the face of the earth, according to Cerebro. He was dressed in a black suit, complete with a white silk tie and had dark sunglasses covering most of his face.

"Yeah. Long time no see, DJ. That was your name, right?"

The older black man chuckled, leaning heavily on the balcony rails while his voice began to blend together a multitude of sounds. It was absurd how many sounds Luke could recognize in the tenth of a second they were heard, only to be filtered out by the next sound that he thought he knew. It was like trying to catch a song on the radio in the car that was driving the other way on a highway. The sounds stopped when DJ stopped laughing at the bit of humor and he got his focus back.

"So what are you doing here? Last I remember, you were being ferreted out of a lab by some mutant named Magneto. How'd you end up back here?"

DJ drummed his fingers on the railing, almost as if he thought the question was boring. The sound his fingers made was swallowed up and turned into heavy hammer strikes on wood. Luke took this as a bad sign.

"Oh, you know. I got floated off while the old man explained his ideology for mutant kind and all that good stuff. For such an old geezer, he's got a good head on his shoulders and a razor sharp mind inside of that. So he asked me to spread his offer of Sanctuary. He's invited you X-men as well as the Brotherhood here to join him in a safe place for mutants. Away from the world that will hate as the very moment they find out about us…" His voice was something that Luke felt had traces of several other sounds. It was like someone had cut and pasted an audio recording for each word that he was saying randomly. One word would sound like DJ's normal voice, the next would sound like a radio announcer or someone off of TV.

"I'm guessing there's a catch. Xavier never said much about Magneto whenever he came into question back at that lab we were in. So that means Xavier doesn't fully trust the man. And if Xavier doesn't trust him, then he must be a real shady guy, cause Xavier trusts everybody. Plus, I don't think that the Brotherhood would just jump up at the chance to go hide off in some shelter somewhere. You told them something you aren't telling me."

"Well aren't you clever? But what I told them doesn't apply to you. Their invitation is a trial by fire, a challenge that pits them against your team to see if they are worthy to be by Magneto's side. But he's taken an interest in you and you have been invited personally, free of any challenges."

"You're saying that my friends are being attacked right now by the Brotherhood under this guy's order and you want me to just go to him? You must've been hit on the head too hard when Mystique captured you, because you're insane if you think I'd agree to that. No way. Tell Magnet Man or whatever he calls himself that I refuse."

Luke turned to storm out of his house, thinking of his teammates who were probably being waylaid by the entire Brotherhood when they were down to just Kitty, Rouge, Evan, and Kurt. He needed to get to them fast. Before he could take his first step, a soft voice whispered into his ear "Are you sure about that?"

The hairs on the back of his neck nearly pulled themselves out of his skin when he whipped back around, seeing nobody there but DJ, who had a blank look on his face.

"I dunno know what your deal is, man, but you better cut that crap out before I make you, alright? I'd hate for this to have to get ugly and trash the place when I don't even live here."

"I don't think you're in a position to stop me. The amount of gravity you would have to redact in order to nullify sound would be infinitely more than what you can produce now.(1) And you'll never even get close to that power without Magneto."

"You wanna find out?" Luke growled, before continuing "I could simply wave my hand and snap your neck. I don't need Magneto for a damn thing. So back off and go back to hiding behind a keyboard before you get hurt playing with the real powerhouses."

"I suppose you think that you're one of them, correct? Well if you're so powerful, then tell me what you can do about this?"

In response to the man's question, the large TV in the Brotherhood home living room cut on and began to show a live feed of what looked like a beach. And much to Luke's surprise, his team was shown, being pursued by a jeep full of Brotherhood. Avalanche caused the road to form a wall in front of the X-van, making Kurt swerve off the side of the road down a small road. Crystals grew and shredded the tires, causing the van to roll full force into a waiting Blob that flexed his belly just in time to catch the van. The sudden stop flung all four X-men out onto the sandy beach, but Luke could tell it hurt. Even on sand, that kind of landing was rough.

Kitty and Rouge were the first to recover, the two phasing through the sand and reappearing near the Blob. Rouge let go off Kitty and dived out of the way as Fred charged at her. Broken off from Rouge, Kitty turned to the Brotherhood, only to see a wave of sand rising to meet her. The girl phased through it, coming out the other side spluttering out grains of the nasty stuff and brushing it off her clothes.

Avalanche was waiting on her, having singled her out from the four X-men. "Pretty Kitty doesn't like playing in the sand? Well how about a quick dip?" Lance stuck out his hands as his eyes rolled back in head, creating more tremors that shifted the sands, drawing Kitty towards the ocean. Kitty was unable to escape as the sand beneath her was moving towards the ocean and she was unable to resist being drug into the ocean, even while phased.

The tide was strong and hard to fight in her clothes she wore over her bathing suit. The water tossed her about to and fro, leaving her gasping for what air she could get. Before she knew what was happening, Kitty felt herself pulled back out into the ocean as a large wave formed behind her. Lance had sent another tremor into the water that caused the wave, which crashed down hard on the coast, leaving an exhausted Kitty lying on the beach, thoroughly battered and unable to keep fighting.

While this was happening, Quicksilver was zipping up and down the beach, harassing Kurt wherever he ported to. Kurt couldn't get away from the stinging punches and speedy kicks as they always appeared in his blind spot. Pietro began to circle Kurt in a blur, kicking up a ton of sand that buried Kurt up to his shoulders, leaving him unable to move. The blue elf teleported up and above the sand pile, but didn't think of all the sand that came with him. As he landed, the sand crashed down on to of him, knocking him flat on his face.

In the blink of an eye, Quicksilver was right beside him with a quick kick that knocked that boy out and left a nasty mark. With a chuckle, Quicksilver called out to the live camera that was floating around the beach watching everything "How's that for a trial by fire, eh? I always come out on top!"

Luke would've snorted at the speedsters arrogance if he wasn't so shell-shocked by what was happening to his team. When had the Brotherhood gotten so good? The last two fights were even worse.

Rouge had avoided Fred's first charge, but due to the sands shifting surface, she couldn't push herself out of the way in time as the Blob slammed his meaty hands into the turf and made the entire beach flop. Rouge was flung through the air and into a rocky outcropping, hitting her head hard on the worn costal rocks. She got up though, a small gash on her forehead that bled a little. It was getting in her eye and she couldn't wipe it away fast enough.

The Blob was like a shark in the water. He smelled the blood and came charging once more. Luckily, the shifting sands worked against him this time and he fell, eating grit as he slid. Unluckily, his momentum had built up enough that he slid into the still blinded Rouge and the two crashed into the rocks again.

After a moment to get his bearings straight, Fred wobbled out of the small crater he had made and joined back up with the other victorious Brotherhood guys. They had all gathered around to see Spyke fling shard after shard and spike after spike at Crystal to no avail.

Luke watched the fight a little closer after rubbing at his eyes, making sure he wasn't seeing things. But what he was seeing was true. Evan's attacks were shattering as soon as they hit Crystal. The girl didn't even bother to dodge or protect herself. In the bright costal sunlight, Luke could see Amanda's skin shinning and shimmering as if she were an unburied treasure on the beach. It was pretty cool to look at. But the jarring light reflections became so much stronger that Luke knew something was wrong.

'She's glittering more than normal. But how? And why is that making her break all of Evan's spikes?'

As if answering Luke's unasked question, the brilliantly shinning teen turned to where the camera was floating, looking straight into the lens. "As you can see, brainless over there can't even scratch my crystals. I'm totally more worthy to be part of mutant kind's elite than this idiot is. So can we get this show on the road, or do I need to bash him around a little?"

"Mutant kid's elite? Is that what you lied to these guys and told them? That they would be better than every other mutant when they joined up with Magneto's little club? That's ridiculous!" Luke proclaimed, turning from the screen to DJ, who seemed content to watch the fights with his arms crossed and his face empty of emotion. He'd completely forgotten about Crystal now being able to encase herself in her own crystals as armor.

"Magneto has discovered the means to make them exactly that. They will be fully evolved into mutants beyond those that would affiliate with humans as if they were equals or even those that sell themselves to humans as if humankind will ever be capable of owning us. Magneto will separate those who wish to remain as something better than merely human from the others who would degrade themselves to being only human or even worse, subhuman."

"You guys mean to create a society structured for 'perfect' mutants that are so much better than humans. You don't care about the fact that some mutants aren't completely full of themselves and don't have an ego the size of a planet. What about that low class mutant who can only recharge double AA batteries? Is he beneath you because he understands that his gift doesn't make him king of the world? You think I'm beneath you because I don't flaunt the fact I can manipulate gravity? Well here's something for you and the big guy to chew on. Why don't you prove it?"

DJ didn't even bother to respond. He remained in his position, arms still crossed and his face still blank as copy paper. Instead a harsh, grating voice that sounded like death shouted in Luke's ear "With pleasure!"

Luke whipped his head around to the source of the sound, clutching his ear in pain and not seeing a single thing there. When he turned back to DJ, the man was gone. Nervous at not being able to see his adversary, Luke called out "Is that all you're gonna do, talk to me in a scary voice? Cause it'll take a little more than that to prove your point."

"Oh I'm not done yet. Not even close. I've learned a few tricks that I've been dying to try out."

The voice was like a phantom. It came from everywhere and nowhere at once. It was disorienting and added to Luke's nerves. A gunshot rung out from nowhere, reverberating the entire house as Luke nearly jumped out of his skin. Luke knew it was just DJ messing with his head, but man if it wasn't getting to him. He couldn't just cut off one of his senses at will. But DJ was proving he couldn't trust a single thing he heard. There was too much of a chance it wasn't true and that the man was baiting him.

A sudden creak on the floor behind him made him jump away from the sound, turning in air to see nothing there. Luke landed near a chair, nearly stumbling into in his hasty jump. As he recovered his balance, he heard a faint humming sound before the chair beside him exploded.

It had enough force to knock Luke off his feet and leave his head ringing. Bits of the chairs stuffing began to float down and cover him and the area around him. 'That's gonna suck to clean up.' Luke thought to himself, before focusing on clearing out his head. After a few moments, the room stopped shaking before his eyes and he could hear semi-properly again. He pushed himself up, swaying on his feet and leaning over to clutch his knees.

Suddenly changing position had made the room start spinning again, so Luke had to wait for the room to stop spinning again. A hand appeared in his line of sight, which was odd, considering he was looking down at the floor. The hand palmed his face and pushed him up to his full height and before he could even respond, pain erupted. He screamed. He screamed harder than he ever had before in his life. He screamed for as long as his lungs would let him

Luke couldn't tell what was happening to him, robbed of any thought process that would normally let him figure things out. It was mind numbing and breathe taking. If he had any air left in his lungs after screaming, he would've lost it. His body hardly knew to breathe in again while still being assaulted in such a way. It was beyond anything Luke had felt before, only comparable to his worst experience shredding muscles, only this was deeper. It was agony.

And then it was over. The hand pushed his face and knocked Luke off his feet once again, sending him to the floor on his back. DJ was a dark tower above him, looking down with almost a pitying look. It was as if DJ saw Luke as some lost sheep that had strayed from the herd and needed it's leg broken to teach it to stay in the herd.

"You've jut experienced what it felt like to have sheer sound shatter your entire face with thousands of hairline fractures. You'll live and recover, in hours maybe, thanks to your healing factor. By then maybe you'll see just what Magneto can do for you. You don't want him as your enemy, Luke. No one does."

Luke was so numbed by the pain ravaging his mind he could hardly make sense of anything that DJ said. He hardly even noticed the crash that the giant metal sphere made as it hovered into the living room. His body didn't even react as Luke was packed into the sphere. His mind took note that suddenly he was moving, but it was almost a third party observation.

All Luke could think about was the pain he was in and the fact the DJ had done that with mere sound waves. Latching onto the thought, Luke began to wonder on how exactly that was even possible. Anything to distract him from his pain.

DJ looked at the new skylight of the Brotherhood home, watching the silver orb vanish into the sky, heading north. DJ turned back to the screen of the TV, watching as all the Brotherhood on the beach stepped into their own orbs, which sealed off and flew away, leaving a defeated group of X-men laying in the burning sand.

The camera floated off, shutting off it's live feed. Now that the screen was blank, DJ could take the time to respect how powerful Magneto really was. The man could send hunks of hollowed metal across the world to carry people at incredible speeds all the while making a video camera watch over the fights for his own personal view.

DJ was about to turn and leave when the TV cut back on again. This time it was showing what DJ assumed to be the Xavier Institute. The front door was wrecked and the foyer was trashed too. Three combatants stood in a three way deadlock, no one moving just yet. DJ watched and shook his head in pity.

"Poor Mystique. She's got no idea what she's gotten herself into for betraying the boss. Her days of spying and meddling with business that isn't hers has gotten into something she can't shape shift out of. This will teach her a lesson if Springload doesn't kill her."

With that, DJ left the house, heading towards his next objective. Magnus sure had him busy these days. And he had to deal with such a stupid rabble. They were barbarians at best. They were even stupider than that green boy who had tried to attack him in order to be part of Magneto's plan. Unfortunately, he couldn't wipe the floor with this guy like he did to Toad, who was knocked out somewhere around here

Insert Line

At the mansion, the three way standoff was reaching it's end. Springload had tensed himself up as much as he dared before springing forward at bizarre speed, almost giving him tunnel vision. That one launch covered the distance between him and Mystique, who had already leapt into the air to avoid him. Springload simply kept going, bouncing forward in a blur until he hit the wall feet first. He seemed to stick to the wall for a moment, the force of his speed earlier keeping him there until he launched off of it, nailing Mystique in the back as she was falling through the air.

The woman took the hit with a fair bit of grace, slipping around Terrence in the air and flipping off of him, letting him get blasted by a lightning bolt from Storm. Storm kept her eyes on her true adversary, sending a gale to Mystique, hoping to throw her into the wall, which it did. Ororo was about to ice over the pinned shape shifter, but was flung into the air via a rising fist in her stomach.

Gasping in pain, Storm caught herself in the air with wind as she felt the bruise form on her stomach. The Brotherhood child was strong and fast, incredibly dangerous up close. She would need to deal with him before it would even be safe to deal with Mystique. But Raven was hardly a woman to sit back and let the two fight it out without trying to take advantage of it. Still, she had to try.

Springload launched into a back flip to avoid more sudden lightning strikes aimed at him. Narrowing his eyes, as he looked for his real target, he could see the shadow of a figure lurking in the hallway beside him. Taking a chance, Springload sprinted down it, pursing after the fleeing figure. He quickly turned to bouncing off the walls sporadically in order to avoid being hit by more of Storm's lightning strikes. A strong burst of wind threw him off balance in the air and he fell into the carpet, tumbling to the end of the hall and narrowly avoiding a vicious kick to where his head would've connected with his head had he not been knocked over by Storm's wind.

Mystique clicked her tongue at missing the kick, but turned to drive her heel into Terrence's spine. Springload wasn't a slouch at fighting though and knew what Mystique would do before she did it. So he timed her properly and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the heel and lashing out with a charged kick to her over exposed leg. The knee buckled from the blow and put the blue-skinned woman at perfect height for Terrence to deck her in the face. And he would've but he was thrown away from her by another gale of wind.

Ororo descended from her flight down the hall in order to check and see if Mystique was conscious, as the woman had slumped over after Terrence had kicked her. She charged her hand with electricity just to be safe as she approached. Right when she was about to touch the woman, her form shifted into a snake that slithered around her in the blink of an eye, wrapping around the woman in a way that left her unable to move her arms.

Mystique shifted back into her normal form, pinning Ororo even harder than before, to which the white-haired beauty groaned in complaint. "I wonder just how many bones I would have to break for you to admit defeat. You've no desire to be by Magneto's side anyways. I shouldn't even be fighting for my place, with as much as I've done for him."

"You shall not triumph over me so easily, Raven!" Ororo warned before gathering a huge charge of electricity around her form, shocking Mystique off of her. The woman fell to the ground, body writhing and random jolts of electricity leaping off of her. Before the Wind Rider had a chance to admire her work, a large sneaker imprinted onto the side of her head, sending her flying into a wall. The impact on the wall knocked the fight out of the woman as her consciousness faded.

Terrence just scoffed at the woman now slumped over in the floor of her own home before turning to his target. "You. You've gotten yourself into a lot of trouble for being a bad girl lately, haven't you? You've been traveling the world, associating with dangerous people, and trading confidential information for your own gain. You'd be a brilliant double agent. Even I can see that. But you've aligned yourself against the wrong people. I don't appreciate you selling me out to anybody. I've been told that bringing you to Magneto himself might earn me a special spot by his side. And as it stands, there's not much you can do about me cashing in on your worthless hide. So we'll see just how generous Magneto is when it comes to dealing out your sentence, huh? Should be fun to watch."

Terrence picked the still twitching woman off of the floor, hitting her in the throat and causing her to black out. He couldn't kill her. That DJ guy had strictly forbid it. It must've been because Magneto wanted to do it himself. That was fine. As long as the conniving witch got what she deserved. Nobody crossed Terrence Owens and got away with it lightly.

As if on cue from the end of the fighting, a metal orb crashed through the roof, landing with a solid thud on the floor of the foyer. Terrence slung his captive onto his shoulder and carried her to it. The metal slid apart to show it was hollowed. He flung Mystique inside before stepping in himself, watching the orb seal itself back up and take back off into the air.

DJ had made it to the meeting point that had been picked between Magneto and the other. It was a small bar that was open 24 hours a day. There was already a small crowd inside, even though 5'o clock was still a good ways off. Stepping inside to the dimly lit building, he made his way to the back corner and slid into a booth. No waitress would bother to come back to this table, as her boss forbid it. The table was selectively used for meetings such as this by a wide variety of people.

Asides him, the table was currently empty. As always, he could never expect this person to be on time. Why he even tried to be civil and set a time was beyond him. Heathens would never change their ways until they were shown just how blind they really were. He would just have to be that illumination that showed them the way, one way or another. But he need to be quick. He could feel the power from the Gems of Cytorak slipping away, its boosting effect of his mutation fading.

A person slipped silently into the seat opposite of him. As usual, he was dressed in a dark trench coat, gray shirt, and dark jeans. Such a slob. Almost as if he knew his presence annoyed the man across the table, the stranger grinned widely before settling down to business.

"So your boss refuses to come through on his part of our arrangement with the hexe? Does he not realize the value of the Fürsten? We may have been scattered about by the hündin opening her mouth, but we are still strong."

DJ sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This man was completely beyond him. "I've told you repeatedly I don't speak German. It's hard enough listening to your English over that accent. I've also told you that Magnus wants nothing to do with the other rabble you lord over. He is merely offer you the chance to join something bigger than mere pillaging and ravaging like a plague. You have the join something that will shape the world."

An angry look crossed the stranger's face, glaring at the perfectly calm and collected man across the table from him. "I am meister höchste of the Fürsten! And you sit here in your arrogance and tell me that my legion of men are nothing? I should split your head right now out of the sheer insult. Magneto's or not, I will not stand for being disrespected by a messenger boy!"

"You're sitting right now, so you will take it. And if you even look like you're trying to spit, I will kill you. I will shatter your entire skeleton without ever getting louder than the buzz off of these lights." Gesturing up to the light fixture that was buzzing faintly. "And besides, you know as well as I that they either assimilated or picked off your gang of princes already. You'll be next. So unless you want to be some simple knight or rook and someone else's chess game, you have little choice. Magneto does not desire to lord over you, but merely guide you towards your true power. What you do will be up to you, so long as you don't deliberately endanger mutants or mutant kind as a whole."

"They've taken Ivan?" The man had slumped into the seat, defeated. It was a suprise to him. He had never expected it to happen, let alone so quickly. His failsafe had fallen through without him even knowing. His trusted ally, probably dead now, had been compromised. The man would've never yielded to a forced labor term. That was the unspoken consequence of breaking the Network's rules. Those who did dirty work outside of it were either assimilated or killed. And this Magneto had known about it all and was offering protection.

"What does he plan on doing with them? Their numbers are great and their reach seems endless. How could he conquer such a foe?" The tone was sow much softer than before. It was much more suiting to DJ.

"He has his ways. But people like you are needed. Will you join his cause to free mutant kind off all burdens that shackle it? To avenge your allies? To become what you had all set out to be, Princes?"

The stranger lifted his eyes off of the table and locked eyes with DJ, his icy gray eyes shinning in a light that left DJ with doubts in his mind on the man's mental stability. "I will." With that answer, he stuck out a meaty hand that consumed DJ's much smaller hand.

"Then welcome, Hayden."

"Please, call me Nieselregen. Or in your language, Drizzle."

Flying inside a giant metal shell wasn't Luke's ideal way to travel. It was small, cramped, and dark. There was no in flight movie playing. There was hardly any fresh air inside the thing. He had no idea how long he had been flying. He just knew that it was too long for his comfort. He was still thinking about what had just happened.

DJ had used sound to vibrate Luke's skull so hard it broke. Not only that, but it fractured a thousand times. And yet he wasn't dead. The fractures were so small that they hadn't shifted or altered the structure any. That was the only way he was still alive. DJ had enough control, enough restraint, to keep him alive while doing the impossible. That was way beyond making a few hits at a out of control teen party. So had DJ been holding back or had he been enhanced by something?

The Brotherhood had gotten stronger too. If they were in on this mess, then they were bound to be going where he was. By himself, he didn't think he had much of a chance against them. Especially after seeing what they had done to his friends on the beach. Luke could only pray that Magneto wouldn't sic them on him as soon as he arrived at wherever he was going. He would take another round with DJ over that.

Luke groaned to himself, partly in pain and partly at the irony. He got his head busted up by someone who was probably enhanced by mysticism, which he had been looking for answers about. His day had really sucked so far and it didn't look like it would get any better. Damn.

AN: Well, that was kinda good in my opinion. I liked that a lot. There was fighting, new stuff, and a cliffhanger. There are still plenty of questions being asked and I'm still working on some of the answers. Next chapter should be even better, even though I thought this one was good. Hope you liked it. It took longer than I woulda hoped to write, but I enjoyed it. Took me forever to find the name of those Gems Magneto uses next episode.

Did anyone else notice that I had skipped over the entire episode about Kurt's past? I only noticed today. I didn't mean to, but it's probably for the best anyways. Sorry if that mattered to anybody.

(1) I looked up a few things for my physical science class and stumbled onto the fact that gravity affects things that aren't even matter. So yeah. That was totally mind blowing to me. And as excited as I was to discover this fact, I'm disappointed to say it will never happen in this story. The amount of gravity that would need to be altered would be enough to kill Luke in nearly any situation. Sorry for the buzz kill.

Chapter Title came from a Royce da 5'9 song. One of my favorites by him. Anywho, I'm gonna go to bed so I can get some rest before I bomb another AA test tomorrow. It's gonna suck when I fail that class. Thanks for all the reviews and keep 'em coming! Big Willis, out!