Sounds Fishy to Me or Blackened White Fish
Xander awoke to find himself chained to a wall. "Not again," he groaned.
"Again?" Mystique asked, drawing his attention to her.
Seeing the blue skinned red-head with the solid-yellow eyes, Xander sighed. "Let me guess, last of your kind trying to repopulate your species with unwilling donors."
"And what species am I?" she asked with a sneer.
Xander looked around what appeared to be a high tech laboratory. "No clue," he admitted, examining his shackles. "Giles would be able to identify what type of demon you are, but from the belt of baby skulls I'm just guessing an evil one."
"I'm a mutant," she said.
"And?" Xander asked, confused.
"Homo Superior," she explained, "the next step in human evolution. Not ringing a bell? And these aren't real skulls."
"Other than sounding like some Nazi bullshit about a master race, I got bupkis," Xander said.
"I like him," Magneto decided as he entered the lab.
"What's going on?" Xander asked as he took in Magneto's super hero like outfit.
"You are about to get a bit of an upgrade," Magneto said. "We are going to alter your DNA."
"Not again," Xander groaned for the second time, causing the pair to stop and stare at him.
"What kind of life have you lived?!" Mystique demanded.
"If you didn't know who I am, why did you kidnap me?" Xander asked.
Mystique shrugged. "You looked like a normal flat-scan. I figured you'd be perfect to experiment on."
Xander groaned. "Do I project some kind of field that makes people kidnap me?!"
Mystique and Magneto exchanged glances.
"I'll re-check his blood sample," Mystique said.
The two mutants departed, leaving Xander alone in the lab until another couple of mutants entered.
"So you're the guinea pig?" Toad asked, looking over Xander. "You don't look special to me."
"That's probably the point," Pyro pointed out.
"I have a face that just screams 'kidnap me,'" Xander told them. "I don't suppose one of you could unchain me?"
"Not a chance," Toad said. "Besides, Magneto probably formed the chains around your wrists, so there's no way of removing them short of using super strength, and I only have that in my legs."
Xander examined his chains. "How the hell did he do that?"
"He's the master of magnetism. He can manipulate metal," Pyro said with a smirk.
"Really?" Xander asked curiously.
"Have you been living under a rock?!" Toad exploded, seeing Xander was serious. "Magneto, the world's most wanted mutant, savior of all mutant kind!"
"I grew up in Sunnydale California," Xander said, "the Mayor was a sorcerer who cast a spell on the town to keep things isolated. It kinda worked both ways as it prevented anything strange or unusual from lingering in the minds of the townsfolk for very long."
"Magic?" Pyro asked doubtfully.
"Got a cigarette?" Xander asked with a grin. He was trying to keep things light and friendly in the hopes of gaining enough information to escape before finding out if Stockholm Syndrome swung both ways.
"Sure," Pyro replied, pulling out a pack and offering him one. "Light?"
"Nah, watch this," Xander said. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and concentrated. "Flammare," he incanted as his eyes snapped open, causing the end of his finger to burst into flame. He quickly lit the end of his cigarette with it and shook the flame off. "Cool, huh?"
"How'd you do that?!" Pyro demanded, grabbing Xander's hands and looking them over before checking up his sleeves.
"Magic," Xander said with a grin before blowing a smoke ring.
"Teach me!" Pyro demanded.
"Small fires and illusions are all I can do," Xander admitted. "I can do the very basics of practically anything, but that's it. Lighting a cigarette is about the extent of my offensive ability."
"That's fine," Pyro assured him. "All I want to learn is that right there."
"Seriously?" Xander asked, surprised.
"Oh yeah," Pyro said. "How long does it take to learn?"
"That was a simple candle lighting spell," Xander said. "Maybe… ten minutes? You have to have a talent in magic of course, but this takes barely any or I wouldn't be able to do it. Why are you so excited about it?"
Pyro lit a zippo and gestured, causing the flame to expand into a huge bird of fire before he snapped it shut and the fire dissipated.
"You can do that and you want to learn a candle lighting spell?" Xander asked in surprise.
"He can manipulate flames, not start them," Toad explained. "You seriously don't know what mutants are or who we are, do you?"
"Not a clue who you are and mutant just means a change from the previous generation, I think," Xander replied.
Pyro and Toad quickly remembered their manners and introduced themselves before giving their point of view on human-mutant relations.
Xander groaned. He'd been kidnapped by super villains and worse, he couldn't blame them. Hell, he halfway agreed with them. "There is an old saying: Do no harm, but take no shit."
Toad chuckled. "I like that. I'm making that my new motto."
Several hours later...
Magneto and Mystique paused in the doorway and watched as Xander helped Toad master lighting candles with a simple word and gesture. Meanwhile Pyro was summoning flames and manipulating them effortlessly.
Sabertooth had been watching when he noticed the pair enter. Walking over to them, he grinned. "I take it back, this may be fun after all. Give him some of my DNA."
"Victor's contribution would help ensure our success," Mystique said. "It would also help compensate for his slightly altered DNA."
"He's already a mutant?" Sabertooth asked curiously.
"No, he lacks the x-gene, he simply deviates from the norm by a significant amount," Magneto replied as he watched Pyro handle his flames with a higher degree of skill than he'd previously shown.
"With Victor's sample added to my own, he should be easily adaptable enough to survive the treatment," Mystique said.
"Use Pyro's for the base," Magneto said, as he watched Xander summon a ball of cool blue flame the size of a baseball.
"I'll prepare the serum," Mystique said, waving for Sabertooth to follow her.
"Good news, Mr. Harris," Magneto said, startling the three and causing an explosion of flame that had Toad and Xander slapping at their shirt sleeves to put out the fire.
"Yeah?" Xander asked cautiously.
"Indeed," Magneto said, amused. "Sabertooth has agreed to contribute to the project, greatly increasing the odds of success."
"What were the odds before?" Xander asked.
"Anywhere between a third to three quarters," Magneto admitted. "However, with his help I believe we are almost assured success."
"You lucked out," Toad told him, looking relieved as he found he liked the kid, even if he was human.
"So what are we doing?" Xander asked.
"We are going to give you Pyro's power," Magneto told him.
Xander looked over at Pyro who was holding a sword made of flame and thought of how many vamps he could fry with his abilities. He grinned ferally. "I am so in!"
"You don't have any relatives named Victor or Logan, do you?" Magneto asked curiously.
Typing by: Ordieth