A large green tongue shot out at Rogue who, at Bobby's signal, sidestepped and let the tongue fly into a cold metal pole. The toad blanched and pulled at his tongue when it didn't come back.

"Look at this thing," said Bobby. "You could play jump rope with a tongue that long."

Kitty wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ugh! That's disgusting, Bobby."

Todd just made nonsensical noises and yanked at his tongue until it came free and shot back into his mouth like a window blind.

"You'll pay for that," he said, his voice slightly garbled. Bobby spread his arms wide in a challenge, but Todd was knocked to the side by a laser beam from Scott before he could do anything.

"We don't have time for games, Ice Man. We just need to get them out."

"That's not very hospitable," said Tabitha, before nodding to a marble sized orb at Scott's feet. "I might just have taken offense to that statement."

Scott jumped into the air, carried further than normal through the momentum of the blast. Looking up at the roof, it seemed that Tabitha had decided that the Institute needed some skylights and had done the job herself. She tossed a couple more of the glowing orbs and caused some smaller blasts.

"Come on," she said, looking almost bored. "How come no one's fighting me? I'm feeling left out over here." She rolled a bomb into the midst of a circle of X-Men who had surrounded Blob. They all bailed and Fred grinned triumphantly, cut off only by the exploding of the bomb. After the smoke cleared, he stood there, madder than ever, with a blackened face and two basketball sized fists.

Kurt materialized on the ground. "You're one of us, Tabitha. We don't want to hurt you. You're our friend."

Tabitha shook a finger at him. "Uh-uh, fuzzy blue. You're part of the geeks, but I quit. I'm with this bunch now."

"Tabitha..."

"I think she's chosen her side, Kurt," said Logan, baring his claws. "She's just chosen the side that's going to lose."

Tabitha grinned. "Finally, some action!"

Logan charged and Tabitha stepped to the side, narrowly missing an attempt to slash at her with his blades. She ducked as the air whistled above her head, then jumped back, making a small bomb and rolling it along the floor to him before blowing a kiss. However, Logan reacted in a way she hadn't expected, picking up the bomb and tossing it back at her. The blast sent her flying backwards over the railing and crashing to the floor below, where she lay still.

"Seems like they mean business," said Lance. "But then so do we!" He stomped his foot on the ground and flexed his fingers, creating an earthquake on the second floor balcony.

"I don't think so," said Kitty as she brought a lamp down on the back of his skull.

Lance fell unconscious to the floor, leaving only Todd and Fred left to deal with. Both of the remaining Brotherhood members seemed a lot more nervous without their other friends to aid them.

"Eh, we can talk about this, right?" said Todd, lifting his hands out in front of him and backing up until he and the Blob were back to back.

"Wrong, bub," Logan snarled.

Todd whimpered. "You wouldn't hurt a couple of defenseless kids, would ya?"

"We're not defenseless," Fred protested. "We could take a few of 'em out still."

"Shut up, Blob," he whined. "I'm trying to get us out of this jam."

"Now, just wait a second," said Rogue. "Where's Pietro?"

Todd gave a nervous laugh. "Funny story..."

Logan slid his claws back in. "How come I have the distinct feeling I'm not going to find this funny?"

Haddy felt a tingling sensation in her ears and her head felt hot, but she couldn't feel the pain she had felt earlier. Perhaps it was gone, or perhaps she had just grown used to it. Either way, it didn't matter. Only thing important at that moment was getting Pietro away from Cerebro before he destroyed it.

"Get away from the computer, now."

"You want me to get away from the computer?" he said, lifting his hands in the air. "Fine, your call. I'll get away from the computer."

A blur of white and blue, and then Quicksilver stood facing her, bearing a smirk on his face that voiced every one of his notions of superiority.

"So, I asked you a question. What's your power? Do you have magical abilities that help you to convince someone not to do what they want?" He made jazz hands, as if somehow he tied the motion in with 'magical abilities'.

She shook her head. "No."

Pietro frowned. "Well, then, how were you planning on stopping me?"

Haddy bit her lip. She hadn't quite gotten to that part. All she knew was that Pietro was going to destroy the computer.

The boy tilted his head heavenward and ran a hand down his face. "You've got to be kidding me. You really thought that you were going to come in here and tell me, Quicksilver, to not destroy that computer and I'd just agree and prance out of here on my merry way? Please tell me you had more of a plan than that. No? You have got to be kidding me. This is just pathetic."

"You should go," said Haddy, balling her hands up into fists.

"Or what? You've already made it quite clear that you don't have a plan, I've fought you before and I know I'm stronger than you... What do you honestly have against me?"

She glanced behind him. The room Cerebro was in was like the inside of a massive sphere, with a long walkway going down the middle to a circular area where Cerebro was. What did she have against him? she wondered. And then she realized.

"A ledge."

She pressed her hands against his chest and pushed back as hard as she could he stumbled, then grinned, grabbing her hands, spinning her around at high speed and knocking her off the side. She grabbed desperately at the walkway, snagging it with one hand and pulling herself up enough to grab it with the other.

Pietro poised a boot over one hand and she flinched. "That actually wasn't a terrible idea," he said, "Just poorly executed. Is that all you've got? Come on, there's got to be something more. What's your power?"

She didn't answer, focusing instead on trying to climb back onto the platform. Pietro responded by pressing down on her fingers with his boot and she dropped her hand with a gasp.

"I asked you a question," he said, tapping his wrist impatiently as if counting seconds on a watch.

"I don't know," she muttered, managing to grab onto the ledge again.

Pietro dropped to the ground, laying on his stomach and resting his head on his hands. "So, you planned on taking me on while you were effectively powerless. You're obviously not a super genius." He rapped her on the head a couple of times. "And I half-expected it to be hollow."

He stood up and sped down, back to the computer typing vigorously on the keys once more

"Hang around, fish, something tells me this is gonna be one for the books."