Face contorted still in a smirk of obvious amusement, Kevin Madrox leaned back in his custom made leather chair. Two loud bangs made Jamie start as the man propped his feet up on his desk in a relaxed, calm manner, and a click symbolised that someone had entered the room at the same moment.

  "Kex...the truck's here." A deep, nervous sounding voice informed his father, and Jamie whirled around at the sound of the voice.

  "Mr. Reegan!" He cried in panic, straining to run forward, but a large, strong hand on his shoudler restrained him.

  "Good, Sam. Tell them we'll be right out. We just have to make a few...arrangements." Kevin said huskily, answering to his code name and blowing smoke from his newly lit ciggarette. Jamie tried not to cough.

  "Yes sir." Sam whispered obediantly, casting a guilty glance at the two before exiting the dusty room.

 Jamie's father stood up and walked around the ratty desk and stood in front of his son. After a surveying moment, he walked back behind his desk once again.

 Kevin Madrox used to be good looking...almost movie star material. Then he turned old, wrinkled...alone. His hair was chocolate, with whisps of gray that stood out like chalk on cement. His brown eyes that had once been filled with life and longing had filled themselves now with dissaproval and shame. The tall, protective frame had shrunk down somehow, although he was still looming over any normal person. To Jamie, the man had not changed one single bit since the last and final time he had seen him...only three months before.

 A sharp pain in his wrists kicked Jamie vioently out of his dream world with a "bang!" Looking down to find the source, he saw that his hands had now been tightly secured by a rope...a very scratchy, rough rope.

  "Dad...?" Jamie tried for sympathy as his father took out a hankercheif to gag him. "Dad...?"

 Not to his surprise, Kevin ignored him and stuffed the gag tightly in his mouth.

  "Don't...make...a...sound." He growled a warning, emphasizing each syllable of every word more harshly then before. His eyes wide and frightened, Jamie nodded.

 Kevin pushed him into a rickety wooden chair as he went about buisness around the practically empty room. Examining walls, once in a while kicking a spot on the wall and making a hole that revealed rats and cockeroaches. All the while he chose this time to talk to his son.

  "A strange mutant gene indeed." He muttered almost unheard to Jamie, then raised his voice. "Perfect for what I'm looking for."

 Figiting in the chair he had been placed in, Jamie averted his eyes elsewhere, so his father continued.

  "You couldn't imagine my surprise when I found out you had received the mutant gene from your mother. Why do you think we separated? Nasty beings, mutants are. Horribly un-needed among society. Some people seem to enjoy them, though, and THAT, son, is why you are here."

 Jamie couldn't help but pay attention now, leaning forward with anticipation and disbeleif to his father.

 Not noticing in the slightest, Kevin continued.

  "I was surprised...yes, very surprised indeed...to find the price of mutants growing gradually higher and higher. In the last three months, the price of mutants has grown from twelve hundred to a whopping twenty thousand. I thought to myself, well, don't I, Kevin Madrox, have a cute little mutant running around somewhere?" At this question, Kevin pinched Jamie's left cheek and looked down upon the boy with mock affection before turning back torwards the walls teeming with discusting creatures.

  "Yes, I do. With the money I get from you, Jamie, heck, I could move out of the miniscule Island of Rhode and move to Vegas with a seaside mansion!"

 With one final kick and a dozen high pitched squeaks from the wall he had broken, Jamie's father turned back to his son.

  "I knew you'd understand. Now, we're just going on a little...what do you call it...oh yes. Road trip."

 With that final statement out of his dry, smirking lips, Kevin roughly picked Jamie up from the chair and clasped his large, chapped hand tightly on Jamie's hands, before leading him forward out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*

  "Okayso here'swhat we have todo." Pietro conluded to Tabby and Lance outside the Xavier institute's gates. The two listeners nodded their heads obediantly, Pietro clutching Jamie's worn out Teddy Bear,( dubbed "Jamie Jr." by Todd), close to his rabidly heaving chest.

  "Speedy, Pietro, calm down. You're hypervenalating." Tabby pointed out, thumping the speed demon on his back in nothing but utmost care(otherwise, pretty darn hard).

  "Now...this shouldn't be so hard." Lance continued for the heavil breathing Pietro. "We just...go in there, and...give Professor Xavier the letter. Right? Easy?"

 Tabby, who had been rubbing Pietro's back comfortably, now looked up into Lance's face.

  "What if they don't beleive us?" She asked, her voice dripping with worry and fear. The thought had also crossed the rock tumblers mind, obviously, because at this, his brow wrinkled in what could only be the highest level of determination.

  "They're gunna HAVE to." The muttered, than reached out his hand, signalling for Tabby to move Pietro away from the gate. The ground tremered beneath them, and the gate, shaking and making a horrible ruckus, dropped to the ground on top of the spot where Tabby and Pietro had been standing.

  "Uh...thanks Lance." Tabby managed in amazement, helping the fallen Pietro up and dusting him and Jamie Jr. off slowly. For once in his life, Pietro seemed not to care about his appearance, and he moved forward torwards the space where the gate had been with stiff legs. The fair skinned boy was breathing slowly and carefully, his breath coming out in small gusts, then going back in sharply.

  "Common, just holdontome, get your feetoffthrground. I can make it past those security alarms so fast theywon'tknowwhathitthem!"

 Lance and Tabby nodded silently, each holding on to one of Pietro's shoulder's and waiting for his signal.

  "NOW!" Pietro said loudly, as Tabby and Lance both jumped to remove their feet from the ground.

 If this time was any other time, perhaps Lance and Tabby could have enjoyed their experience a tad bit more than they did at the moment. If their distracted minds had not been so detained, the two would have been astounded at the speed they were moving. The wind whooshed past the three mutants like clouds past a plane, only one hundred times faster and oen hundred times more interesting. Sure enough, as they whizzed past the alarm systems Lance and Tabby knew so well, the expensive machines didn't even blink at their presence. In two seconds, Pietro had gotten them safely to the door of the Xavier institute, and now held Jamie's teddy bear ever closer to him, his face flushed, and his breathing labored.

  "Great job, speedy!" Tabby congradulated him, but refrained from giving him the sisterly thump on the back she usually did, on account of his current condition.

  "Well..." Lance sighed, starting up the steps, listening as Tabby and a coughing Pietro followed foot. "Do we uh...knock? Or just go in?"

 Pietro, who was now leaning on Tabby, shook his head, as did the girl.

  "I say we just go in." Tabby suggested, trying to get Pietro to stand strait. "I mean, they DO know us, after all. And I DID live here. Remember? So I should be able to walk right in. I could even show you where Baldie's office is if you like."

 Lance looked to Pietro for support on the decision, but the speed demon had his eyes closed, and said nothing. Shaking his head, he opened the practically always unlocked door for Tabby and Pietro, then walking in himself.

  "Lead the way, Tabby."

 Tabby nodded and Pietro stood up on his own with difficulty.

  "CommonTabby, let's hurry up. Thisplaceiscreepy and HUGE!"

 Nodding again, Tabby waved them to follow her. Moving through a large, red carpeted hallway without being noticed, the three stopped suddenly at the sound of footsteps and humming around the corner.

  "Its Jelly-Bean!" Tabby hissed urgently. "Where do we hide...where do we hide?!"

  "YOU'RE supposed to know that, Tabby!" Lance argued back, as Jean turned the corner, humming "Oh Susanna" and reading a book at the same time. She wouldn't have noticed them, if Pietro, who had again started hypervenalilating in his panic, hadn't chose that time to collapse in an unconsious heap in front of her.

  "Pietro!" Tabby cried, running also in front of Jean and examining the fallen Speedy. "Pietro wake up!"

  Jean cried out in alarm, her book now on the floor, and stared at the three brotherhood members in confusion.

  "Boom-Boom? Avalanche...Quicksilver?!" Jean too, bent down to check the white haired boy's pulse. "What do you want?!"

 Tabby lugged Pietro to a slumped standing position and placed his arm around her shoulder to support his weight, and Lance doing the same.

  "Look, Jeanie." Tabby started softly, surprising the girl. "That's only in uniform. Right now we're just Tabby, Lance, and Pietro. And we need YOUR help."

 The telepath raised an eyebrow at the brotherhood members, but, placing her hand on her chin as though in thought, her look turned to curiosity.

  "Well, okay then...follow me." She turned slowly around, and beckoned them on-ward. After snatching up Jamie Jr. from the ground, Lance, Tabby, and Pietro in between them, followed her.

  "You've um...lost weight." Jean tried conversation as she walked with the brotherhood members to Professor Xavier's office. Snatching a glance at the two boys with Tabby, she immediately knew her conversation starter was definitely not the right beginning. They were all dangerously skinny...and it scared her.  Professor. Jean called telepathically to Professor Xavier.  Yes, Jean? He answered back, although it was hesitant. That meant he already knew that the brotherhood was here.  You have visitors, I'm bringing them to your office. The brotherhood, Jean? Of course he knew, he was the Professor. He knew everything. Yes. Boom-Boom, Avalanche, and Quicksilver, although Quicksilver is unconsious. I'm going to settle him in the living room with Scott before they come and tell you what they have to say. They're acting differant though...almost normal. Something must have happened.

 At the Professor's silence, she knew he felt the same. She lead them into the large living room, where Scott jumped up almost at once when he saw who entered behind her.

  "Jean...?" He started, but Jean put her hand up to silence him.

  "They're here for a meeting with the Professor. Quicksilver is unconsious, we need you to sit here and watch him until he wakes up."

  "And when he does..." Tabby interrupted Jean. "Give him this."

 With a perfectly strait face, the girl handed Jamie Jr. to Scott as Lance and Jean situated Pietro on the couch.

  "Alright, common, the Professor's office is right around here." Jean guided, leading the two remaining brotherhood members through another doorway out the side. Scott, on the other hand, sat in a chair across from the couch where Pietro lay. Examining the teddy bear Tabby had handed him carefully, his mind clouded over in thought.

 Where have I seen this teddy bear before? It looks so familiar...

******** ********

  "Come in." Professor Xavier allowed as their was a knock on his office door. The door clicked open, revealing Jean, followed by Tabitha and Lance, surprisingly not in uniform as he had thought. Jean stayed, and willed the two forward.

  "I heard you wanted to see me?" He continued, wheeling his wheelchair around the desk so that he was standing in front of the two teens.

  "Uh...well..." Lance tried, but couldn't get the words to move from his used-to-be ready tongue. Tabby immediately took spotlight.

  "Okay, so this is what happened. Jamie is in the brotherhood and we're REALLY good parents but then he wanted to go to the mall so we let him but then we remembered and wanted to bring him home but then he got mad at us and wouldn't talk to us so then he wanted to go to a dance and I told him not to go but he did anyway and then his date to the dance gave us this 'cause she saw it happen!" This all said in one, very long, sentence, Tabby let out a breath and handed Professor Xavier the letter baring his name on the front. Cautiously, the old man took it and opened it, reading it over quickly once and then a second time to make sure he was reading it right.

  "This is...upsetting." Professor Xavier managed meekly, folding up the letter and handing it to Jean, who also read it.

  "We...we wanted to come and ask you to help us." Lance said, finally gaining his courage. "I mean, you are a telepath, so, you could find him...right?"

 The Professor looked thoughtful for a moment, then chose to answer Lance's question in as careful a manner as possible.

  "Please, be calm. I can only trace Multiple once he has used his powers. Until then, we have nothing."

 Tabby sat down hard in a chair near her right, crossing her arms and looking tired.

  "Well...we ain't leavin' 'till we get some...some answers!"

 Although this was supposed to be a threat to the Xavier institute, and drive them to somehow make it so Jamie used his powers sooner than a week from the time they were there,

 Professor Xavier smiled thoughtfully and raised an eyebrow.

  "Is that so? Well then, Jean, please take..."

  "Professor!" Scott interrupted, bursting into the room and practically tripping over Tabby's sprawled legs. "Professor, what's the problem?"

 The Professor gave Scott a small glance, signalling he was explaining telepathically the situation. Soctt remained silent and leaned against the wall in shock.

  "As I was saying, Jean, why don't you take Tabby and Lance to the geust rooms? It seems they've decided to stay."

********** **********

  "Move along! I said MOVE ALONG!" A harsh voice ordered behind Jamie, as he was lead to the back of a small line. His dawdling, or perhaps, his footsteps going slower than the workers of "Carinnan Family Circus" seemed to like, did not go unnoticed. "Move THIS one to the front of the line, Steve. It's a trouble-maker." The harsh voice commanded one of his fellows.

 A large, muscled man grabbed the back of Jamie's shirt roughly, and pushed him forward. The many adults in the line of thirty mutants that Jamie was being lead down shook their heads at him sadly, whispering to each other, while some others, aged fifteen and up to twenty five, would just shade their faces and looked away in shame.

  "Get up there, FREAK!" Another deeper, but equally harsh voice insulted, pushing Jamie forward sharply, but losing his grip. Jamie fell to the ground with a yell, landing hard on his shoulder and two multiples appeared on either side of him. The line gasped, some people backing away, others whispering in awe to anyone who would listen around them at the strange sight.

  "Hey BOYS!" The one called Steve yelled mockingly. "Check out the DOOZY we've got here!"

 The workers who had been doing other things around the man quickly gathered at his words, staring with amused smirks at the obviously terrified Jamie. One of the taller workers yanked Jamie to his feet unsympathetically, while some of the younger mutants in the line beside them watched in horror.

  "So all you gotta do..."The tall one muttered, rubbing his unshaved chin as though thinking. "...is THIS!" Punching Jamie in the arm violently, four more multiples stood beside him, flinching at the pain and the echoing laughter following this action. His multiples absorbed back into him obediantly, obviously knowing that this was trouble, and trouble is one thing that they didn't want. Slowly, Jamie backed away from the group of large, sweaty men, only earning laughs.

  "Hey, look, the little runt's tryin' to ESCAPE!" A rather scrawney, southern man chortled, pointing at Jamie's hurried retreat. Two overweight men noticed what the southerner was saying and marched forward, in no rush, each grabbing one of Jamie's arms.

  "That's it." The man with the deep, harsh voice growled at him, sticking his finger centimeters from Jamie's chest. "This one gets the small cage. No exceptions. Get it out of my sight."

 With the finally escaped tears, and surpressed sobs, Jamie was dragged away into the tent.

******** ********

 "Hey...hey kid...psssst!" A voice that sounded about 24 whispered through the dark, grabbing Jamie's attention. He WAS the only kid here...could the voice be talking to him?

  "Yah, kid, YOU!" The voice whispered again, and Jamie turned his tear stained face to look for the source. His vision, although blurry, could see a shadow in the cage beside him through the black.

  "Um...hi." Jamie mumbled, sniffing. His voice was hoarse from all the crying he had done in the past hour.

  "Eh, me and my bud here's got a bet. We bet about your age. Now, I says, 'that kid, ain't really a kid, see, he's a spy' but my friend says 'no, that kids 14, 15' and so's we decided to ask yas. What's your age, kid?"

 The atmosphere in the room filled with cages was heavy in silence, although there was no slumber to be had. All the occupants of the room sat, listening to every word they were saying.

  "I...I...I..." Jamie tried to manage out the simple two digit number, but although the number kept flashing brightly through his head, the word would not come out. "I wanna go HOME!"

 The words sprang out of Jamie's ready lips before he knew it, and recognised tears ran down his face again. There was the sound of clicking tongues, not only in the cage next to him, but also in scattered cages around the room.

  "Yup, definitely a kid. Here's your earring back, Morty. So kid...why're ya here, if ya wanna be home? Everyone's here fer one reason er another."

 Jamie just shook his head and bundled against the bars of his small cage without comment. He heard the man who was adressing him sigh and turn away to his cage-mate, muttering a phrase about "cryin' shames", before pulling out a guitar and strumming it uselessly. This sparked Jamie's interest. Sniffing, he cleared his throat.

  "W-what can you play?" He asked quietly to the man only feet away from him, but unreachable. The smile of the man was clear, even through the darkness.

  "Anythin', kid, I play anythin'."

 Coughing slightly, Jamie stood up in his cage. The roof of it was only a foot above his head.

  "W-why do they keep us here?"

 The man shrugged and continued strumming his guitar mechanically, letting his hand swing daintily before answering.

  "Because...this is where all the freaks are kept."

  The evesdroppers around the two murmered in agreement, some sighing in dissapointment, but only Jamie could voice what they all were thinking at that moment.

  "Than why do I have to be a...a...a FREAK?!" He spat the last word icily to the all whom he knew were listening. The guitar man, again, hesitated before answering.

  "Because there ain't enough love ta go around."

 Remaining silent, Jamie's confusion was evident.   "There ain't enough love ta go around...and so they exclude the one thing no one will ever love."

 Jamie leaned forward against his bars curiously.

  "What?" He asked, although already knowing the clearly obvious answer.

  "A freak." The guitar man strummed all the cords of his guitar calmly, as though this bothered him none. "They keep us in here, because...no one can ever love a freak."