Lance sat in the living room, facing the ultimate temptation. So tantalizing, so provocative. Sweet, yummy, even better than a naked and willing Pietro-- cigarettes.

He tore his eyes away from the pack of cigarettes and sipped his coffee. Nevermind that it was 10:00 at night, he had to have coffee. If he didn’t, then he’d probably jump onto the coffee table and raid the pack mercilessly. Besides, it was decaf.

Sweet, sweet decaf coffee. It would take his mind off of the horribly tempting, wonderful---

“John, please put those damn things away,” Lance said in a strained voice.

“Eh?” John looked up from the book he was reading and stared at Lance questioningly. “You mean the fags?”

“Yes, those things. They’re so tempting, so-- you know that Mystique’s gonna make you quit smoking, right?”

“Yeah, like she did with you. That’s why I’m gettin’ as many in as I can before she does,” John answered with a grin.

“Smoking is bad,” Lance forced himself to reply, though he was thinking quite the opposite. The packet remained on the table, and John continued to smoke his cigarette and read his book. Ahh, the sweet smell of smoke. Wait a minute. Second-hand smoke is twice as dangerous as actually smoking, right? Sooo, if I just take a cigarette, then I’ll actually be doing myself a favor instead of dying from second-hand smoke. Yeah...

Lance leaned forward, set his coffee on the table, and took a cigarette. “Got a lighter?” he asked John.

“Sure, mate--”

The front door opened and Pietro practically bounded in happily. Lance fumbled with the cigarette and threw it behind the couch quickly. He smiled innocently at Pietro.

“How’d it go?” he asked, once more grabbing his coffee cup.

“Great! It was so good to finally see my sister again! We talked for hours and-- and-- talked! And then we had dinner! And then we talked more! And now we’re all caught up with the ten years we lost!” he said quickly and excitedly, casually grabbing John’s cigarette and snuffing it in Lance’s coffee in the process. “Don’t think I didn’t see you with that cancer stick, Lance.”

“Hey!” was the response from both Lance and John.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me! The house is gonna smell, you guys are gonna smell, and I’m going to get lung cancer from your smoke! Besides, I thought Mystique made you quit, Lance. And she’s going to make you quit, too, Allerdyce.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Here he goes with the DARE pep-talk.”

“Smoking is so gross! I don’t understand how anyone in their right mind would do it! I mean, how could you possiblyGoAndRuinYourOwnBodiesLikeThat--” Pietro went on and on, though Lance stopped listening, as it was growing harder to understand what the fast-talking sophomore was saying. As he talked, Pietro snatched Lance’s contaminated coffee and took it into the kitchen to dispose of it. He came back out of the kitchen, still ranting about the dangers of “cancer sticks”, and hastily made his way upstairs.

“Erm... that was strange.”

“Tell me about it,” Lance responded.

“Is ‘e always like that?”

“No. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like that.” Lance stood up and started upstairs. “I’m gonna see what that was all about.”

“Take your time,” John replied, picking up another cigarette and going back to his book.

“Lance!”

Pounce!

“Holy-- Pietro, what are you doing?!” came Lance’s startled cry as he tackled from behind. The second he entered Pietro’s room, he was ambushed.

“Let’s have sex.”

“What?!” Are we going to have another repeat of the bathroom incident? “As nice as that sounds-- why?”

“Beeecause,” Pietro started, dragging out the word as he clung to Lance’s back like a child. He lowered his voice and whispered in Lance’s ear in a conspiratorial voice, as if he was just revealing a huge secret: “I had caffeine.”

Uh oh.

“Ca-caffeine? You? With all the energy you have to begin with?” Frightening thought. Lance didn’t really want to believe what he was hearing.

“Yep!” Pietro affirmed, nodding energetically. “Wanda told me that a coke wouldn’t hurt, so I drank one. It’s been years since I’ve had a caffeinated drink, you know. So, I had another. And another. Now I want sex. I’ve got enough energy to go round after round after--”

“Look,” Lance said, swerving around and falling onto the bed, landing on Pietro. “I--”

“Ow. GetOff,”

“Sorry,” Lance murmured, rolling over to prevent further Pietro-squishing. “Anyway, as I was saying... I don’t think we should have sex just because you’re hyper-- er, more-so than usual.”

“Oh, please, you’re always complaining about how you never get any,” the speedster said, climbing on top of Lance with a smirk. “You want to pass this up?”

“Yeah, because...” Lance trailed off purposely, giving Pietro a surreptitious grin.

“Because?”

“I already have some plans brewing in this head o’ mine. They’d be a lot less special if we just went ahead and had sex now for no reason. Besides, shouldn’t your first time be your most special?”

“How do you know it’d be my first time?” Pietro asked with a little frown, crossing his arms over his chest indignantly. “And anyway, I heard the first time is the most disappointing,” he added with a little grin.

“Hey! Trust me, I have enough skill to make it the best experience of your life!”

“Do you, now?” he asked with interest, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yes. So, why don’t we work out your energy some other way? I could think of some fun, non-sex--”

“Wanda lives with Magneto, you know. He’s her foster father. Funny, huh? To think that guy actually has a human side apart from the Darth Vadar side. Maybe that’s why I never get into trouble, because I’m Wanda’s brother and he-- or Mystique-- knows it. I think that’s why Mystique was giving me those creepy knowing looks every time I asked about the Scarlet Witchie, you know?

“I really like coke-- the drink, I mean, not the drug. You know what’s really cool? Wanda still remembers a little bit of our native language-- Romany-- and she’s going to teach me and-- mmph!” He was silenced by an abrupt kiss from an impatient Lance.

“You should never, ever have caffeine again,” Lance murmured as he pulled his lips away from Pietro’s.

“And you should never smoke again. You told me that you stopped smoking when you joined up with Mystique! I mean, I know you used to smoke, and I know for a fact you were about to light up when I came in.”

“You know so much,” retorted Lance sarcastically.

“I know all.” He snuggled against Lance and rested his head on the other boy’s chest. “Hey, what were you like before joining the Brotherhood?”

“You wouldn’t be asking if you really knew all.”

“Okay, so I lied. All I know of your past is that your real name’s Dominic, and you smoked because you’re stupid,” he said in a teasing voice.

“Hey, insults get you nowhere, Speedy. You wanna know what my life was like? It was pointless. I mean, it wasn’t bad, it was just pointless. All I did was drink, smoke, vandalize, cheat-- it was fun, but all in all my life was just a bunch of cheap kicks.” Lance decided, for his own safety, to completely omit the many affairs with easy girls from his paraphrased life story.

“Pointless, eh? Kinda like a fruit-fly.”

“Thanks for the analogy,” came Lance’s dry reply. “Why are you interested in knowing, anyway?”

“Because I want to know more about you, Lance Alvers,” Pietro said slowly and deliberately, a hint of humor mixed with the seriousness in his voice. “Not just who you are now, but who you used to be.”

“Why?”

“Because, I-- eh, it doesn’t matter. I’m just curious, that’s all.” He sat up and removed himself from Lance and the bed. “I think I’m gonna go out and work off this extra energy,” he announced as he stretched a bit.

“Okay. Have fun.”

Pietro nodded and headed for the exit, stopping as John stepped into the doorway. “Oh, hey there. Is there a reason you’re about to walk into my room?”

“Thought I’d join you and Lance, since this seems to be the hot-spot of the house right now,” John said in a sardonic voice, shrugging.

“Okay, whatever. I’m on my way out, anyway, so would you kindly move your ass?”

“Oh, sure thing. By the way, your sister-- did she mention me at all?”

“Ahh... no,” Pietro answered, shaking his head. “Not one word. See ya.” He shoved Allerdyce out of his way as politely as possible and promptly left the house.

“Shit!” Lance seethed mere seconds after Pietro’s departure. “I forgot to remind him that he’s not supposed to play with his powers!”

“I’m sure ‘e’ll be okay, pal,” John assured him calmly. He stared at Lance in silence for a moment, then exploded with, “What the hell is goin’ on ‘ere?!”

Caught off guard, Lance could only respond the most intelligent answer he could muster at the moment. “Huh?”

“You and that little hyperactive prick! What’s goin’ on between you two?!”

“Ohhh, that...” Lance sat up and shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing.”

“Please. Don’t give me that,” John retorted, rolling his eyes. “I saw ‘im all over you, and I heard bits and pieces of your conversation. You’re tryin’ to tell me that’s nothin’?”

“Um... yes?”

Lance’s answer only received an angry scowl and sigh from his old friend. “What ‘appened to you, Lance? You’ve been a totally different person since I came back. Looks like you managed to clean up your life a bit and go gay in the process.”

“I didn’t ‘go gay’, John!” Lance snapped. “I still like girls.”

“Uh huh. ‘bout as much as the French like the English.”

“Okay, let’s just say-- hypothetically-- that I do like guys-- which isn’t true, because I only like one guy. What would you do?”

“How the hell should I know?! Do you expect me to just suddenly be cool with it?”

“No, I don’t! I don’t know what to expect from you, John, I just don’t want you to freak out and hate me!” Lance stood up and stalked over to his friend. “So, what are you going to do?”

John stared at him, his expression a mixture of anger, shock, and confusion. “I-- I guess I could deal with it. Just give me time and don’t smooch or cuddle around me. I don’t think I could handle seeing you guys doin’ that just yet, especially because I find your taste in boys rather poor.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that your special friend’s a little jerk, and it baffles my mind why you’re with him.” John’s stern expression softened and he grinned. “To each ‘is own, eh?”

“He’s only a jerk to you because-- uh-- I don’t know. He’s mean to you?” Lance asked as this news finally registered with him.

“You, my friend, are the densest person I’ve ever met. He bloody hates me, doofus! Can’t you tell?”

“I never really noticed it before. Are you sure? I think he just needs time to get to know you.”

John leaned forward, nose-to-nose with Lance, and grinned wolfishly. “I think he’s jealous. I think he’s afraid I might come and sweep you away from him.”

“That’s kinda-- okay, makes sense, I guess. Want me to talk to him?”

John pulled back and shook his head. “Nah. I don’t really care what he thinks about me, unless that would affect the opinions of his sis.”

“You like her?”

“She’s cute. We shared a few moments back in Oz,” he answered with a chuckle. “Hey, you don’t think that homosexuality’s got anything to do with genes, do ya? Like, if one twin’s gay, then the other is too?”

“I doubt it. Especially if you shared a ‘moment’ with her.”

“Good,” John said with relief.

“So, you and me, we’re okay?”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m not all that comfortable with it, but I can deal.”

“Thanks, man,” Lance said, smiling with relief. “You know, this doesn’t really change anything. We can still talk about chicks and look at porn and... uh... not smoke.”

“Aww.”

The week rolled by pretty smoothly for most of the Brotherhood. Pietro spent most of his time glued to his sister’s side, while Lance was often busy doing things to catch up on old times with John. Needless to say, Freddy and Todd couldn’t help but feel a little gypped (however, they soon learned never to use that word around Wanda, as she took offense to it).

“Man, why don’t we got anybody?” Todd griped suddenly during study hall. It was the only class he had with Fred and none of the other guys; therefore, it was the only period where he was safe to complain about his teammates.

“Well, we have each other.”

“Dude, that sounded so-- shut up.”

Fred shot him an irked glare and went back to etching swear words on his desk. He wanted to hit Todd, but then that would get him in trouble with Mystique, and he didn’t want to listen to another one of her lectures.

“It’s not fair! Lance has Pietro and John. Pietro has Lance and his sis. John has Lance and Wanda. What do we got? Each other,” Todd complained, his voice mimicking Freddy’s as he spat out the last two words.

“Maybe we need to get ourselves girlfriends,” Fred mumbled.

“Yeah. You got dibs on Jean, I’ll bet. Good luck. The toad boy and the fat guy? No one wants to date us, stupid!”

“I am this close to hitting you, Toad,” Freddy growled, as he was beginning to lose his patience.

“Sorry, sorry. Look, man, we need to go out and recruit our own people to the team! Then we’d have our own friends!”

“How are we going to find them?” asked Fred, his attention finally pried away from the etchings on his desk.

“Ah-- good point.” Todd opened his backpack and leafed through a bunch of papers, finally coming across his unused English notebook. “Okay, I’m gonna think up some plans and write ‘em down. Then, this weekend, we’re gettin’ our own gang.”

“Cool.”

Saturday. The honking of a car horn woke Lance up. He sat up sleepily and rubbed his eyes.

“What the hell...?”

“Huh?” Pietro sluggishly murmured.

“Are we expecting company?”

“Nnnnope.” Pietro rolled over and covered his face with a pillow. “I wanna go back to sleep. Stupid sunlight.”

“Come on,” Lance replied, shoving Pietro gently and taking the pillow, “let’s see who’s outside.”

“Fine... Hey, what am I doing in your bed, anyway. Did we--?”

“Does it feel like we did? You just fell asleep here. Nothing happened.”

“Ah. Okay,” Pietro muttered, sitting up with his eyes not-quite open. “Who the hell’s out there?”

The horn blared again as the person waiting outside grew more impatient. Lance shot a look to the window and shrugged. “I have no idea. Come on.”

Pietro grumbled irritably and got out of bed. Quickly, he cleaned up for the day and changed into some decent clothes. He was already at the door by the time Lance made his way down the stairs, still unshaven and in his boxers.

“I’m sure Mystique would love to see you like that, Lance,” Pietro commented.

“You think she’s out there?”

“Probably. Who else comes to bother us on the weekend?”

The two walked outside, finding Wanda lounging in an olive-green jeep instead of Mystique in her car. Lance eyed the vehicle with envy, the sad demise of his own car once more coming back to haunt him. Pietro merely wondered why she was driving around without a license.

“Hey, Wanda. What are you doing here at this hour?” Pietro finally greeted as Lance continued to stare vengefully at the jeep.

“’This hour’? It’s noon. And I’m delivering a present, dear brother,” she returned with a large smile. “Hey, Lance. Here.” She yanked the keys out of the ignition and tossed them at Lance, who didn’t take much notice and ended up getting hit in the face by the keys.

“Ack!” He fumbled around and quickly retrieved them.

“Sorry!”

“Hey, that ain’t fair! Why does Lance get a new car?” Todd suddenly griped, sauntering out of the house, followed by John and the massive form of Freddy.

“Car? For me? That beautiful thing?” Lance asked, in a daze. He stared straight ahead, a stupid, happy smile planted on his face. “I love you.”

“Hey!” Pietro rapidly slapped Lance upside the head.

“Don’t love me,” Wanda shrugged. “It’s from Magneto. Well, I did have to give him a long, drawn out speech explaining how your having a car would benefit mutantkind... I never had to bullshit so much in my entire life.”

“Why didn’t you ask Magneto to get me a car?!” Todd whined. “Why’d Lance get one?!”

“You can’t even drive yet, stupid!” Pietro snapped.

“But, I can drive,” Fred countered.

“Ditto,” John agreed through a yawn.

“Well, Pietro told me about Lance’s dilemma. He asked me to convince my father to provide you guys with a new form of transportation. I only did it because he asked me to, so if you have any problems, yell at my brother,” explained Wanda, hopping out of the jeep. “Having delivered this gift to you, there’s now no way for me to get home, soooo, Lance, could you do me a favor?” she asked, batting her eyes helplessly at him.

“Man, I can’t resist you Maximoffs,” Lance said, breaking out of his daze. “I can’t wait to take this baby out on a test drive!”

“You probably should get some clothes on, first, Lance,” Pietro pointed out.

“No, no. I’m gonna take you guys somewhere where we don’t have to worry about clothes!”

“A nude beach?” suggested John hopefully.

“Er... no. The next best thing?”

“A regular beach?” John tried, his voice bearing the slightest hint of dejection.

“So... you’re going to swim in your boxers?” asked Pietro dryly, arching an eyebrow.

“Oh, wait, that wouldn’t work. Guess I still have to go inside and change.”

“So, who all is going?” from Wanda. “You’d better take me, I delivered the jeep!”

“Oh, I haven’t thought about that, either.”

“You haven’t thought of much,” Pietro pointed out, grinning at Lance. “We can’t take more than four people.”

“You’re right. Todd, Freddy-- sorry, guys, but you’re out.”

“What?!”

“Man, don’t worry about it,” Todd said assuringly to Freddy. “We got our own plans, remember?”

“Oh. Oh, yeah,” Freddy nodded. “We got our own plans, so we don’t need you losers!”

“That’s nice,” Lance said sarcastically, going inside to change clothes. He was followed shortly by John and Pietro.

“Hey! Don’t forget, we have to stop by my place so I can change, too!” cried Wanda, following the boys inside.

Todd and Fred walked down the street, their minds set on their mission. It was pretty simple, really, as they weren’t able to think of anything particularly complicated.

The gist of it was this: there were some rumors going around the mutant world (or, specifically, Magneto and Mystique) about a group of underground freaky looking mutants. Neither Magneto or Mystique thought of them as anything important yet, so they didn’t bother to do any recruiting. This left their membership open to Todd and Freddy, assuming the “mole people” even existed.

Todd wondered how his two bosses would react when they learned of his amazing recruiting skills. He figured they’d probably appreciate him more and make him a more vital part of the team, instead of cannon fodder. Yup. They’d probably even hold him in higher regard than Lance and Pietro put together.

That would be sweet.

As Todd was left with his fantasies, Freddy thought about the beach and all the fun he could’ve been having. But, noooo, his so-called friends decided to ditch him under the premise that he wouldn’t fit in the jeep with the rest of them. Ha! If only he could prove to them how very wrong they were! He could be a very compact Blob if he wanted to. Yeah... Oh well, they didn’t know what fun they were missing. Scouting the city for a good manhole was much more fun than it sounded!

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Freddy.

“You know, this would be easier if we had that jeep... This walking stuff is just too slow,” Fred suddenly said, breaking the silence.

“Huh?” Todd shook away his thoughts and said, “Yeah, but we don’t got the jeep, so don’t whine-- hey! There’s a good one! And no one’s really around to stop us.”

“I wonder what the others are doing right now...”

“Hey, Earth to Freddy. Help me lift this thing, will ya?”

“Okay,” Freddy shrugged, and easily accomplished the task. “How am I gonna get down there?”

“You’re gonna-- I never really thought about that.” Todd stood at the entrance to the sewers and stared down the hole thoughtfully. “I guess you’re just gonna have to stand watch.”

“Uh, you sure these guys aren’t gonna attack you or nothin’?”

Todd made a dismissive noise and said, “I doubt it. Wish me luck, yo.”

“Um, good luck.”

And with that, Todd Tolensky jumped down into the sewers, in search of the underground, possibly non-existent, mutants while Fred waited.

It was a few hours (and a couple of hotdogs provided by nice vendors) later when Freddy heard a shriek coming from the sewers.

“Todd?” he asked.

“Shiiiiit!”

“Get the intruder!” came another voice from the depths of the sewers.

“Shit, shit, shit!” from Todd.

“Need any help?”

In a flash, Todd had managed to climb out of the sewers and scurried around to hide behind Freddy. “Hurry! Put that thing back on the manhole! Now, man!”

Freddy complied easily and turned to face Todd. “What happened?”

“Turns out they already have a leader,” Todd gasped. “They want nothin’ to do with the Brotherhood. Fuckin’ Morlocks.”

“Huh?”

“That’s what they called themselves. Man, here I thought we’d be doin’ them a favor, you know? I mean, they’re shunned by humanity, kinda like us... I thought they’d be perfect candidates for the Brotherhood.”

“So, they do exist?”

Todd glowered at Freddy and began to walk away. “No, Fred, those were just sewer rats attackin’ me and screaming about intruders.”

“What are we gonna do now? We don’t have our own recruits, so this was all for nothin’!”

“I dunno. Man, if it wasn’t for that stupid one-eyed bitch, I bet they would’ve joined us.”

“Hey, wanna get a pizza?”

“Okay, sure. We got nothin’ else to do.”

“Ow, ow, ow! I think I got a sunburn!”

“Well, stop poking at it, Pietro,” Wanda scolded. “I don’t understand why you refused to put any sunscreen on.”

“It didn’t cross my mind, okay?” he retorted irritably.

“Want me to kiss them and make it all better?” Lance offered, his face bearing a hungry grin.

“That’ll just hurt like a bitch, and then I’ll have to kill you.”

“Where’s John with the food?” Wanda suddenly inquired. “He’s been gone for a while.”

“He probably took off with the jeep,” Pietro laughed, leaning back into Lance’s arms. They were all sitting around the beach, watching the sun set in an extremely sappy display of lack-of-anything-better-to-do. Well, John wasn’t sitting around. He ended up drawing the short straw; therefore, he was sent out to get some food.

“He will die slowly and painfully if he steals Charlene.”

“Charlene?”

“I took the liberty of naming her.”

“Ah...”

“Lines. Are. Hell,” John growled, approaching them with food in hand. “Taco Bell at this hour? Not a smart move.”

“Should’ve just picked a better place like I suggested,” Pietro replied triumphantly.

“Ahh, shaddup,” John answered with good-nature, dropping the bag onto the sand. “Get your grub, kiddies.” Immediately, the three hungry teens leafed through the contents of the bag, grabbing their respective meals and leaving John’s untouched. He took a seat beside Wanda and took the remainder of the food.

It was one of those rare moments of peace for them. None of them were quarreling or worrying about Brotherhood matters and the X-Men. For the time being, they were just four kids hanging around the beach after a long day of beach-activity and acting obnoxious.

It was good to be young.

“Is this real cheese?”

“Just eat the damn chip, Pietro. You’re so picky.”

“I’m not entirely picky. I was just wondering... Hey, what if it got all over you? I wouldn’t mind licking it up,” he purred in an attempt to sound seductive. He then burst out laughing. “Actually, I would. Do you know how gross that would really be?”

“I’d rather not think about getting drowned in Taco Hell nacho cheese. Now eat,” he demanded, forcing the chip in the other boy’s face.

“‘ey, I thought you agreed not to act all-- er, like that in front of me,” John protested.

“If you can throw yourself all over my sister, then I can play with my boyfriend,” Pietro returned, taking the liberty to draw out the word “boyfriend” in order to further annoy Allerdyce.

“Yeah. Besides, this is probably our first time out of the house where we’re able to smooch and cuddle in public and it won’t matter because no one from school’s here. I think,” Lance said.

“Okay, this is a segue, but have those Xavier kids been acting suspicious and weird around you, John? Like trying to subtlely ask questions about involvement in the Brotherhood?” asked Wanda, changing the subject with her question.

“For a day or two, I guess. I just put up a big, clueless front, plus their Cerebellum thingie won’t detect me if I don’t use my powers, right?”

“That’s what Mystique says,” Lance affirmed. “So, they just think you’re one of our non-mutant buddies?”

“I suppose. It’s drivin’ me nuts, not being able to use my powers at all. At least you guys get to use yours a little bit without ‘aving to worry. Anyway, why’d you ask, Wanda?”

“Just wondering. They probably know I’m a mutant if they’ve been using Cerebro, since I’ve been training a lot with Father. It’s just that they went from being nice people to some hostile jerks after finding out that I’m related to the big, bad Quicksilver.”

“Big, bad, and burnt. Ahh, burns. I wish I could burn things... Damn Mysti. Why do I ‘ave to be the secret weapon?! They won’t be surprised at all if I fight with you guys, considering that they know I hang out with you!”

“But they will be-- uh-- Maybe we should bring that point up to her next time,” Lance suggested.

“I think it would add an element of surprise. They can’t prove you’re a mutant, and they have no idea what your powers are even if they did suspect you to be one of us,” Pietro pointed out.

“Yeah. They’ll get a nasty surprise when they have a run-in with Pyro,” John muttered, though he seemed a bit more optimistic. “Can’t wait for my first mission, I can finally wreak some havoc on this miserable place!”

“Hey, Wanda, you know Mags on a personal level. What does he have in mind for our next assignment?” asked Lance.

“I don’t know. He’s rarely ever home, you know. He’s started some really big project, that’s all I know. Calls it ‘Sanctuary’, and ‘preparation’.”

“Preparation for what?”

“I dunno. World domination?” she joked half-heartedly. “I think he knows how the Washington events are going to turn out. He’s probably working on a place for mutants to be safe, you know? Anyway, that’s my guess on the situation.”

“I wonder what part we’ll have in ‘Sanctuary’,” Pietro mused. He shut his eyes and thought for a bit, ignoring the others as they continued to talk. “Hey, John,” he said suddenly, cutting of Lance in the middle of a sentence.

“What?”

“Did you get our drinks?”

A pause.

“Damn it!”

Another Monday morning. Another morning meeting. This time, however, it was just between Magneto and Mystique.

“I’m honored you decided to pop up,” Mystique commented dryly.

“Mystique, what did you call on me for?”

“I just want to know when we’ll be back in action, Magneto. All we’re doing is sitting around and waiting!”

“Don’t concern yourself with my long-term plans. There’s nothing for you and your boys to do just yet. Just lay low for right now.”

“Then what was the point of recruiting Allerdyce and revealing Wanda?!”

“More soldiers for our army, Mystique. As long as Xavier is gaining recruits, we must do the same. When the time is right, we will strike, and the X-Men won’t know what hit them.”

“We could strike right now.”

“And risk losing everything? Humans are becoming aware of mutants, and a battle between the X-Men and our Brotherhood will surely draw some attention. They aren’t ready yet to face the intolerance of man. Once they’ve trained more and we’ve expanded, then they’ll be able to attack.”

“Attack who? The X-Men, or mankind?”

“Whichever one gets in our way.”

“I see...” She tapped her fingers against her desk, absorbing this information. As she did this, the powerful mutant began to take his leave. “Oh, Magneto?”

“What?”

“There’s something that you should probably know about your dear son Pietro.”

“What about him?” A hint of irritation was in his voice.

“I stumbled in on him-- ah, how should I put this?-- ‘pleasuring’ young Avalanche.”

“Pleasuring? What are you--?”

“They’ve been carrying on an affair, Magneto. Your son and Avalanche.”

“His social life doesn’t concern me as long as it doesn’t affect his performance in battle.”

Not quite the reaction she was hoping for. “But-- but-- What he’s doing is--”

“That’s enough, Mystique,” he cut in firmly. Ignoring her, he left the office and started for home. It was then that the information actually sank in and hit him with full force. “Wait a minute... My son... and another boy? My son is gay?!”

A/N: Wasn’t that wonderfully bad? Haha. I feel sick. Anyway, I promise (or attempt to promise) that the next chapter will be better! This one wasn’t very inspired, but I’ll put much more effort into the next chapter, seeing as how it will be the last. Mwahahaaa! Actually, I’m looking forward to writing the sequel. This story has me all humored out, so it’ll be good to return to my *bum bum bummmmm* angsty roots! Or maybe I’ll just keep it as humor. Whatever.

Oh, while I’m rambling, I’m going to ADVERTISE! Today, out of sheer boredom, I created an X-Men: Evolution slash ML! Yay! Erm, so out of morbid curiosity, I’m going to post the link and see how many people will actually join it. ^_^;;

Oh, and to conclude today’s babbling, I’m just going to say that the Morlock thingie was added in for lack of any other idea. The chances of me actually bringing them into the story (in person, anyway) are non-existent. Oh, and the Mystique and Magneto scene was thrown together hastily in my attempt to finally give the guy a response to the affair. I didn’t actually come up with his reaction, though, a friend of mine suggested it. And as for the Asteroid M thing, I’m making it so that at this point in the story, Magneto is still in the process of constructing it. Yay! I love screwing with the Evolution timeline!