(Author's Note: Please excuse the upcoming sketchy techno-babble. It's sci fi fiction, so I think a little liberty is called for from time to time. Enjoy!)

Apparently, over the course of the school day, everyone had lost their freaking minds.

Lance was moody and snappish, which meant he tried to shake the house down at the slightest provocation. It probably had something to do with him and Kitty-Cat being "so, like, totally over." Again. Seriously, take the hint, leader-boy. The two of you will never, ever work. Get over it and move on.

Then, Boom Boom had blown up another vending machine in school, which wasn't all that unusual. Except that, after having one's vending machines busted on a regular basis, one starts to take precautions against it happening again. Long story short: Tabitha had been caught on a security camera and was now down at the big house being strip searched for explosives. Knowing her, she was flirting with some police deputy while doing it.

And then there was Toad, who was just acting freaking suspicious. All evening, the frog-boy had been hunkered in his room. Occasionally, he'd emerge to snap something from the kitchen with that tongue of his, then disappear back into his room again. If one listened closely, one might be able to hear the sounds of power tools. Seriously… what the fuck?

And then there was the fact that the furball was nowhere to be found. That was completely out of character, considering that Fuzzbutt was always at the door to greet them when they got home from school, tail wagging like a loyal, needy, socially stunted dog. Now, suddenly, he'd just disappeared. Poof, no more off-color questions and blue clumps of fur in the bathroom sink (seriously… Toad's slime was bad enough!).

And that of course got Fred all flustered and concerned, which—since more subtle emotions confused him—made him angry. Which meant he was now taking out his concern by smashing everything in sight. The Blob had apparently adopted the freak, and now acted like the furball was a beloved dog who had run away, instead of a blue freak-boy who was completely capable of taking care of himself and—oh yeah—teleporting out of any dangerous situation ever. Fred seemed to be under the impression that Fuzzbutt had been kidnapped. With what? An anti-teleportation cage? If anyone ever managed to trap a teleporter… kudos to them; they deserved him.

This all left Pietro as the only sane one left in the whole boarding house, and that was enough to make him want to bang his head against the wall. As fast as possible… which for him was pretty damn fast.

Crash!

"BLOB! That was a PERFECTLY good chair!"

….rumblerumblerumble…

"Where… is… HE?"

"I don't know. Now sit down or you'll be tearing through rubble!"

….rumblerumblerumble…

Sweet Moses, he needed some Advil, or something. Maybe a stiff drink. Or a shotgun to the head. Any of the above would have been just dandy at this point.

Pietro rolled his head on his shoulders and leisurely walked out of the shaking, rumbling house. Once outside, he took a breath to enjoy the nice quiet air, and continued on to begin a relaxing walk through their part of town.

He was not, however, expecting to see a set of familiar figures, heading up the path toward the boarding house. There was a very pristine red sports car parked next to Lance's ratty jeep. Talk about adding insult to injury; these people could afford cars that cost about as much as the entire boarding house.

Pietro leaned casually against the stoop as the X-geeks approached, posing himself so as to seem entirely unconcerned. Whatever these goody-goodies wanted, they'd know that this was Brotherhood turf.

The group of five stopped halfway up the path, taking in Pietro like he was taking in them. Summers was in front (surprise surprise) with Jeanny Grey and Rogue on either side of him. Daniels was glaring murderous daggers at Pietro from behind Summers, with Lance's precious Kitty-Cat bringing up the distant rear. Given her recent argument with Lance, she was probably in 'never want to see him again' mode, and had come along reluctantly. Yawn, get some new tricks, Kitty-Cat.

Finally, Pietro offered a snarky, "I-wouldn't-go-in-there-if-I-were-you. Blob's-having-a-little-temper-tantrum."

As if on cue, a dresser drawer crashed through an upstairs window and landed in the front yard. The X-geeks all flinched, which only made the entire encounter even more enjoyable for the speedster.

"We ain't afraid a' him," said Rogue in that obnoxious southern drawl of hers. Pietro had always hated the sound of her voice, the little traitor.

Pietro narrowed his eyes. "Then-by-all-means-be-my-guest. Who-am-I-to-stop-the-X-men-from-going-wherever-they-want-as-if-they-own-the-entire-world?"

"Wow. Like, bitter much?" Kitty snarked.

Pietro pushed off from the stoop. A moment later, he had zipped around behind the foolish fivesome and whispered in Kitty-Cat's ear: "Not-as-bitter-as-poor-Lancey-poo-after-you-screwed-with-his-head-again."

She yelped and made to swat him, but he zipped back around to stand in front of them, coming to a stop with his arms crossed. It always unnerved people when he did that… he loved that feeling. It was a minor power rush that, let's face it, he was genetically obligated to enjoy.

"So-what-do-you-think-you're-doing-here? Certainly-you're-not-just-wandering-into-the-lion's-den-for-the-sake-of-it."

"No," said 'look-at-me-I'm-responsible' Summers, as if there weren't several months of bad blood between their teams. "If you don't mind, we'd like to talk to the entire Brotherhood."

At that moment, a desk lamp flew through the broken second story window, breaking into several pieces when it hit the drawer already on the ground. Shortly after that, Lance's voice could be heard shouting, "BLOB! KNOCK IT OFF!" followed by the mild trembling of the entire structure.

Pietro gave them all a smirk. "Yeah-that's-not-gonna-happen. If-you'd-like-to-leave-a-message-please-leave-your-name-and-number-after-the-beep. Beeeeeeeep."

Summers put on a show of trying to be the big man, which Pietro thought very annoying. "Then can we just talk to Nightcrawler?"

"That-was-a-pretty-crummy-message. No-name-or-number… how-can-we-ever-get-back-to-you?"

"I mean it, Maximoff."

Pietro was mindful of the fact that Summers's hand was on his glasses, which meant he was aiming those nasty beams of his. Even so, he tried to act nonchalant. "I-don't-think-the-furball-wants-to-talk-to-you. I-know-I-wouldn't."

"If that's so, then let him tell us that."

"Yeah-right." Pietro shook his head disbelievingly. "You-come-here-all-banded-up-like-you're-ready-for-war, then-claim-you're-just-looking-to-'talk'-to-our-newest-least-battle-ready-member? Go-shoot-your-ducks-somewhere-else-X-geeks. We're-not-interested."

Daniels—the eternal thorn in Pietro's side—spoke up. "Then you've already talked to him about his being in school today?"

Not much could stop Pietro in his tracks. He rather prided himself in being unstoppable. But hearing that their most visible member, who everyone else had adopted like some sort of mascot, had been in a very public place, which could very well break up all sorts of plans and get them all killed by a murderous mob… that came very, very close.

Pietro zipped over into Daniels's face and stared at him, narrow-eyed. "What-was-that?"

His childhood rival smiled smugly. "So you didn't know, huh? Yeah, I thought so."

That stung. "Of-course-I-knew," he snapped defensively. "We-keep-close-tabs-on-the-furball."

"So where is he now?" This from the red-head in the cheerleader section. Her expression, however, was flat and serious, not challenging at all. It was like she really wanted to know.

…what the fuck?

"What-is-that-supposed-to-mean?"

"He's not in the boarding house. If he was in the school at one point, he wasn't there when I checked telepathically during final period. In fact, I looked for him throughout Bayville as best I could, not being familiar with his mental signature… but as far as I could tell, he wasn't anywhere. Like he didn't exist. So where is he, Pietro?"

Pietro felt himself going cold, like his muscles were stiffening up. It was not a pleasant sensation.

The furball was… gone? Missing was one thing… but gone?

Was this his fault somehow? No, couldn't be. He'd purposefully ignored the furball, just so no plans would be messed up, or anything.

"Pfft," said Daniels. "Just admit you're in the dark, Pie-Pie."

He saw nothing for a moment but red murder. He hated that nickname. "Get-lost-X-geeks-and-kindly-stay-the-hell-out-of-our-business."

With that finality, he zipped away from them and into the house, slamming the door pointedly behind him. A moment later, he was in the TV room, where Lance had finally subdued Fred… a process that apparently involved a coffee table and several miles of copper wire.

Pietro stared at the scene, taking in the large form lying placidly on the floor, and the one simmering darkly in the armchair. Then, he shrugged and bypassed the Blob altogether, heading right over to their fearless leader. He stopped wisely out of biting distance.

"You'll-never-guess-who-I-just-left-on-our-doorstep."

Lance's head fell wearily back against the chair. "Not now, Pietro."

"No-seriously. The-X-geeks-are-here-looking-for-the-furball."

"What?" Lance sprang from the chair and went to a front-facing window, peering out of it. Pietro followed leisurely after him. "No shit. Even-"

"So-help-me-if-your-next-sentence-is-about-Kitty-Cat-I'm-putting-you-out-of-your-misery-while-you-sleep-tonight."

Lance sent him a glare. Together, the pair watched the X-geeks argue for a bit, then they turned and headed back to Summers' fancy little car. Only once they were gone did Lance speak again. "Okay, I'll bite. What did they want with Kurt?"

Pietro put on forced nonchalance. "Something-about-him-being-at-school-today."

Lance's face went red. "WHAT?"

Crash.

"Ow!" thump "Ow!" thump "Ow!" thump "Ow!"

Lance, Pietro, and Fred all turned at the distinctive sound of Toad falling down the stairs. The pale boy landed at the bottom of the staircase—visible through the doorway from among a pile of scattered tools—and gave them all a nervous smile. "Oh… he-hey guys. Whassup?"

Lance's eyes caught Pietro's, and they exchanged a look. Oh yeah, that was one guilty Toad.

The pair advanced on the smaller boy, who cowered appropriately.

"You don't happen to know anything about this…" Lance said very deliberately. "Do you, Tolansky?"

"N-no! I mean… about what? I ain't got no idea what yer talkin' about!"

"Uh-huh," said Pietro. "You-didn't-happen-to-be-eavesdropping-did-you-Toad?"

Lance, however, was much more direct. He reached down, picked Toad up by the back of the shirt, and put his face in Toad's face (Pietro could only guess how he withstood Toad's mega-breath). "WHERE'S NIGHTCRAWLER?"

…rumblerumble…

"I-I dunno, yo! I swear!" You could always tell a successfully intimidated Toad by the way he… no wait, Toad was always successfully intimidated. The guy had all the spine of a jellyfish.

"Then what DO you know?"

"I-I… I didn't mean to! I swear to god I'll fix it!" Toad was nearly in tears now, which meant he was really working himself up over this, because Lance wasn't really trying that hard. Lance sent Pietro a 'this is serious' look. Pietro shrugged… yeah, like he cared.

Fred lumbered up (having picked off all the copper wire at some point), extricated the Toad from Lance's grip, carried him bodily into the TV room, and set him down on the couch like a naughty child. Then, he loomed rather ominously over Toad and said a single word: "Talk."

Toad gulped audibly.

And talk he did, spilling out a high-pitched convoluted story about how he'd been eating 'lunch' ("Spare-us-the-details-for-the-love-of-god!") in the parking lot, and had spotted the furball lurking outside the school's back entrance. He told about how they'd been chased and hid in some sort of lab, then promptly gotten it blown up ("Only you two…"). Finally, he squeaked out about how he and Kurt had accidentally set off some sort of device in the lab which made the latter disappear in a freaking pink bubble (Seriously) and then how he'd promptly broken the device and fled. By the end of it, Toad was spilling it out in such a hyper-paced panicked babble that Pietro had to translate for the other two.

Then, Toad mutely picked up the powertools that had dropped down the stairs with him and carried them while leading the other boys up to his room.

Pietro had always been loathe to enter Toad's room (for reasons rather obvious to anyone with the slightest sense of smell), but in this case, he was forced to make an exception. Toad led them in and showed them to the rickety desk, currently illuminated by a flashlight suspended from the ceiling by a string of twine and stuck to the ceiling with slime. The makeshift ceiling lamp waved sickeningly every time Blob moved.

On the desk was what the Brotherhood could only assume to be the device. A large white semi-circle shell sat at one corner. The rest of it was open, revealing a bunch of wires, notches, cards, and what appeared to be some sort of fan. Pietro couldn't make heads or tails of it.

But apparently, Toad could.

"This right here is what does the trick, yo," said Toad, pointing to some sort of coil. "I gotta tighten it to give off the right pulse, but I ain't sure what frequency it was set at."

Lance blinked. "Pulse?"

"Yeh. I think I got it figured out. This shit's like this weird dimensional shifter thing. It ported Fuzzy to a different freq, and now we just gotta find it, and we should be able to get him back! But I checked the doohickey's memory for hints on which wavelength to use… but it's pretty shitty, yo. Like, pre-CPU stuff… real old."

After they stayed silent for a bit too long, Toad turned back toward them quizzically. Pietro was shamelessly staring, open-mouthed and all, and he could only assume the others wore similar expressions, judging by the way Toad cringed.

"What'd I do?"

A beat of silence, long and a little awed.

Lance was the one who broke first. "Where the hell have you been hiding this?"

"Did-you-somehow-cheat-when-figuring-this-thing-out? I-know-you-do-the-ATM-thing-but-this-is-pretty-far-fetched. Maybe-it's-all-some-elaborate-sham."

"Uh… can you repeat that, Todd? S'like you were talkin' another language or somethin'."

Toad scratched at his rat's nest hair nervously. "Eheheh… Yeh, I always just been good wit' technology, y'know? It's nothin' special."

"This is way special," Lance pressed. "In fact, this is hands-down the coolest thing I've ever seen you do."

Toad blinked, startled. "Me? Do somethin' cool?"

"Yeah-I'm-shocked-too," Pietro added helpfully.

Toad shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "It ain't like I can invent or hack or nothin'. And I ain't exactly had lots of practice, except wit' street ATMs and pay phones, and that one abandoned computer store where I lived a while-"

Lance finally slapped a hand over Toad's mouth. "Now's the point where you stop talking and finish fixing the machine."

Toad shook off the hand. "But s'like I said, foo'. I can't fix it. I ain't got the freq."

Lance glared at the offending device for a moment, then his brows furrowed thoughtfully. He took a step closer and pointed. "This the coil?"

"Yeh."

"And if it's been made for a certain frequency, it should resonate really well on that or something, right?"

"Uh… yeh… But how'd you…"

"Tolansky, you may be some sort of secret tech genius… but if there's one thing I know, it's shaking stuff." He tossed a smirked over his shoulder at Pietro. "Hey Quicksilver, how fast do you think you can count?"

Pietro caught on quickly, and returned the grin. "Faster-than-you-can-hope-to-shake-it-Avalanche."

Lance and Pietro clustered around the machine, and Pietro took a deep breath and switched on his super-speed.

A burst of adrenaline coursed through him, and everything around him slowed down. Suddenly, he was king of the world, the speed high better than any drug or other mundane high. He had power over time… he could beat a bullet, hit someone a hundred times before they realized he was there, and maybe even bend the rules of time and space. The laws of physics were his bitch.

He reined himself in before he got too carried away, but still had plenty of time before slow-motion Lance began making the little coil vibrate. It seemed to stretch and bend uncomfortably, like a calm pond disturbed by an elephant running into it. No, obviously not it. Eventually, it vibrated a bit faster, this time bending a different way. But still oddly. No, still not it.

He sat like that for a while, waiting for the coil to do something other than writhe like a tortured snake.

Then, there. Something was different about this one. He counted 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9….17.5.

Reluctantly, he let go of super-speed, feeling his ears pop as he dropped back to normal. "Got-it," he said triumphantly. "17.5 pulses a second."

Lance nodded and turned back to Toad. "Think you can finish it now?"

Toad grinned toothily, "Yeh, no prob."

"Great," Pietro said. "Because-no-offense-Toad, but-I-need-to-get-out-of-this-room-before-I-barf."

Toads bright expression faded. Somehow, that made it all worth it.