In the morning, I'm the only one still asleep. Maybe our resilience has something to do with our mutant powers. Maybe I'm not even a mutant with this on.

Blanc bursts in. "Lapse," she hisses, falling against the door as though to keep something out. My heart climbs up my throat.

"Holy cow, Blanc, you scared me!" I shout. She smooshes a finger agaisnt her lips. "Quiet!" she says.

"What?" I whisper.

"My parents," she says, "They invited guests."

"Guests?"

"Magneto."

I look at her, uncomprehending.

"Neato." I say, sarcastic. She doesn't laugh.

"No, Magneto. Like, magnets. He's the head of the brotherhood."

My eyes widen.

"What's he doing here?" I whisper.

"Don't ask me! But everyone is talking to him and stuff and I was just trying not to flip out."

"But, why did your parents invite him?" I ask.

"They think he would be the best to help you out of that chain. Because he manipulates metal. But still, he's..."

I finish getting dressed.

"I don't want to know," I say, opening the door, "I'm sure he's nice."

"To mutants yeah," she mutters, following me, "He's like... mutant Hitler, Lapse."

Downstairs I hear talking down the hall through the dining room. I find our crowd in a sort of lounge room. Douma is standing, wings outstretched. Facing away from me are three unfamiliar heads. When the others look towards Blanc and I, the three stand.

"You must be the poor soul my old friend decided to shackle," says the man in the middle. He wears a strange helmet of red metal. The other two remain seated, smirks on their faces. I glare at each of them individually until they stop staring at my neck with amusement.

Magneto holds up one hand and twitches his wrist. Nothing happens. His ego doesn't deflate. He merely turns from me.

"It's as I thought. He's created something that subdues powers. Another step towards what he considers 'peace.' Another step towards humanity." He paces as he makes his speech, the others in the room watching wide-eyed. He stops behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, child," he says, "we'll get to the bottom of this."

The feel of his voice against my ear makes me shudder.

Blanc takes us all out to see their expansive property. We each ride a pair to a quad from their gleaming lineup and follow Blanc's lead into the forest. It's nice, but I'm glad I'm riding with Blossom so I don't have to concentrate on driving.

Although I didn't think the technology in my collar would be easy to overcome, I didn't expect the outcome I got. I had hoped, somehow, that the Brotherhood would have a quick solution for me.

I pick at the chain and don't notice as we pull up to a pond in the wide hilly countryside.

"We," Blanc says, "Are going to do a sort of impromptu ice swim."

"There's no ice there, Blanc," I say, "It's just a lame cold swim."

"It's not lame!" She says, "It will be fun! I'll go first."

She steps off her quad and kicks her shoes into the brown grass. She steps back twice, then runs and jumps off the riverbank with a splash. All of us who didn't expect her to do it gasp a little bit. It must be cold. She surfaces and glares at us until, one by one, we climb off the quads and take our shoes off.

I decide to jump first, sort of an all at once decision and movement. The water is cold, but not as cold as I thought it would be. It's more like a chilled drink than an 'icy swim.' Everone joins us, Douma the most spectacularly. She dives into the center of the pond from about fifty feet up. Scarlett, too, uses her mutation, a sleek panther swimming laps around us.

"That doesn't count, Scarlett," Blanc insists, "if you have fur you're not experiencing the true cold."

After a lot of teasing and pleading from the rest of us, the panther rolls its eyes (one of the strangest things I've seen in a while) and turns back into Scarlett.

She immediately starts shivering, just like the rest of us.

Climbing out of the water now proves colder than jumping in. Eventually, though, the concept of warm clothing becomes too tantalizing. We mount the 4x4s and follow Blanc's lead back to the house.